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diff --git a/10471-0.txt b/10471-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3ed0155 --- /dev/null +++ b/10471-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12188 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10471 *** + +THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS, VOL. I + +FICTION + +JOINT EDITORS +ARTHUR MEE +Editor and Founder of the Book of Knowledge + +J. A. HAMMERTON +Editor of Harmsworth's Universal Encyclopaedia + +MCMX + + + + + +Table of Contents + +ABOUT, EDMOND + King of the Mountains + +AINSWORTH, HARRISON + Tower of London + +ANDERSEN, HANS + Improvisatore + +APULEIUS + The Golden Ass + +ARABIAN NIGHTS + +AUCASSIN AND NICOLETTE + +AUERBACH, BERTHOLD + On the Height + +AUSTEN, JANE + Sense and Sensibility + Pride and Prejudice + Northanger Abbey + Mansfield Park + Emma + Persuasion + +BALZAC, HONORÉ DE + Eugénie Grandet + Old Goriot + Magic Skin + Quest of the Absolute + +BECKFORD, WILLIAM + History of the Caliph Vathek + +BEHN, APHRA + Oroonoko + +BERGERAC, CYRANO DE + Voyage to the Moon + +BJÖRNSON, BJÖRNSTJERNE + Arne + In God's Way + +BLACK, WILLIAM + Daughter of Heth + +BLACKMORE, R.D. + Lorna Doone + +BOCCACCIO + Decameron + +A Complete Index of THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS will be found at the end +of Volume XX. + + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +An enterprise such as THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS is to be judged from +two different standpoints. It may be judged with respect to its specific +achievement--the material of which it consists; or it may be judged with +regard to its general utility in the scheme of literature to which it +belongs. + +In an age which is sometimes ironically called "remarkable" for its +commercialism, nothing has been more truly remarkable than the +advancement in learning as well as in material progress; and of all the +instruments that have contributed to this end, none has been more +effective, perhaps, than the practical popularisation of literature. + +In THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS an attempt has been made to effect a +_compendium_ of the world's best literature in a form that shall be at +once _accessible_ to every one and still _faithful_ to its originals; +or, in other words, it has been sought to allow the original author to +tell his own story over again in his own language, but in the shortest +possible space. + +Such a method differs entirely from all those in which an author is +represented, either by one or more _extracts_ from his work, or else by +a formal summary or criticism of it in a language not his own. And, +since the style and language of an original is what often constitutes +the wings upon which alone its thought will fly, to have access to its +thought without its form is too often to possess a skeleton without the +spirit which alone could animate it. + +Notwithstanding this, however, we are aware that even THE WORLD'S +GREATEST BOOKS will not escape the criticism of a small class of people +who will profess to object to this, as to any kind of interference with +an author's original--in reply to which it can only be said that such +objections are seldom, if ever, made in the true interests of learning, +or in a genuine spirit of inquiry, and too often only proceed from a +knowledge of books or love of them which goes no deeper than their +title-page. + +For better than all books are the truths which books contain, and to +condense those truths into a form that makes them available is not only +to invest them with new powers and an enlarged range of usefulness, but +is also not necessarily to interfere with any of those essential +qualities that make up the exquisite literary flavor of a fine original. + +The selections in THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS have been collected, and +are alphabetically arranged, in ten different divisions,--namely, +Fiction, Lives and Letters, History, Religion, Philosophy, Economics, +Science, Poetry and Drama, Travel and Adventure and Miscellaneous +Literature. + +An important additional feature of the work is _the brief, yet highly +critical biographical and bibliographical note_ which accompanies every +author and every selection throughout the twenty volumes. To this must +be also added the not less important _Introductories_, and other +explanations written by experts, which often accompany the selections in +the text--cardinal examples of which will be found in particular in the +section of Religion of this work, in the articles dealing with such +subjects as the Book of the Dead, Brahmanism, Confucianism, the Koran, +Talmud, etc. + +With respect to the selections themselves, it may be added that, even +where they are derived from foreign originals, they have often been +prepared from those originals rather than from any existing translations +of them, as in the fine translation of Catullus by Professor Wight Duff, +or the condensations from Euripides, Corneille, Kant, Tacitus, and very +many more. In other cases, again, the selections have been _specially +prepared for_ THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS _by their authors_ or their +agents, such as the two selections by Major Martin Hume in History, by +Dr. Bramwell and Sir Francis Galton in Science, by Mr. Robert Hichens in +Fiction, etc. From this, and still more from the list of authors itself, +it will be found, we hope, that besides a completely modern aim, a +distinctly proper proportion of modern literature has found a place in +the work, and that the best of French, German, Scandinavian, Russian, +and other authors take rank in it with American and English, as do the +best of the ancients with the best among the moderns. + +As the aim of THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS has been directed first of all +towards those forms of literature which were in the most need of +condensation to make them readily available, it will not be expected +that the Poetry section of the work will contain the shorter kind of +poems. Moreover, even if the shortness of such poems and their general +accessibility in present-day anthologies did not render their inclusion +here a work of supererogation, it was felt that their place could be far +better filled in a work like the present by the world's best _dramatic_ +literature,--as has been done. This does not apply, however, to +translations from the shorter poems of ancient classical literature, +which, however short they may be, cannot be said to be already generally +available for everyday reading. + +Throughout, the claims of literature proper, or of fine writing, have +been intimately considered in conjunction with the claims of pure +learning, or of information, with the result, it is hoped, that to the +authority of the world's best thinkers is added the picturesqueness of +their fine writing. Plato, Spencer, Newton; Darwin, Haeckel, Virchow; +Æschylus, Shelley, Ibsen; Burton, Mandeville, Loti; or Brandes, Matthew +Arnold, and Demosthenes--from old and from modern times they yield up +their pearls. + +The notion of finality, or of an utter inclusiveness, for such a work as +THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS may be readily disclaimed. To set it up even +would seem ridiculous to any one acquainted with the enormous range of +the subject. Not so ridiculous, however, may seem the claim to have +established a standard and a form of achievement new in the annals of +literary production; and one, moreover, _whose importance as an +educative factor,_ no less than as a test of the special needs of the +era wherein we are living, may be as valid in its own way and in its own +time as some of those other contributions which have helped along the +revival of learning and of letters, from that first awakening of the +Renascence humanists down to our own day. + + * * * * * + + + + +EDMOND ABOUT + +The King of the Mountains + + Edmond About was the son of a grocer at Dieuze, in Lorraine, + France, where he was born Feb. 14, 1828. Even in childhood he + displayed the vivacity of mind and the irreverent spirit which + were to make him the most entertaining anti-clerical writer of + his period. His tales have the qualities of the best writing + of the eighteenth century, enhanced by the modern interest of + his own century. "The King of the Mountains" is the best-known + of his novels, as it is also the best. In 1854 About was + working as a poor archaeologist at the French School at + Athens, where he noticed there was a curious understanding + between the brigands and the police of modern Hellas. + Brigandage was becoming a safe and almost a respectable Greek + industry. "Why not make it quite respectable and regular?" + said About. "Why does not some brigand chief, with a good + connection, convert his business into a properly registered + joint-stock company?" So he produced, in 1856, one of the most + delightful of satirical novels, "The King of the Mountains." + Edmond About died on January 17, 1885, shortly after his + election to the French Academy. + + +_I.--The Brigand and His Business_ + + +I am no coward; still, I have some regard for my life. It is a present I +received from my parents, and I wish to preserve it as long as possible +in remembrance of them. So, on my arrival at Athens, in April, 1856, I +refrained from going into the country. + +Had the director of the Hamburg Botanical Gardens said to me when I left +Germany: "My dear Hermann Schultz, I want you to go to Greece and draw +up a report on the remarkable system of brigandage obtaining in that +land," I might bravely have begun by going for a ride outside Athens, as +my American friends, John Harris and William Lobster, did. But I had +merely been sent, at a salary of £10 a month, to collect the rarer +specimens of the flora of Greece. I therefore began by studying the +native plants in the royal gardens; and put off the work of searching +for new species and varieties. + +John Harris and William Lobster, who lodged with me at the shop of the +pastry cook, Christodulos, in Hermes Street, were persons of a more +adventurous temperament. Borrowing the only two horses that Christodulos +possessed, they rode out into the country. But they had scarcely gone a +mile when they were stopped by a band of brigands, and urgently invited +to pay a visit to the King of the Mountains. The Americans refused to +go, as the King of the Mountains had an unkindly way of holding his +visitors to large ransoms, and killing them if the money were not +quickly paid. But the brigands--there were fourteen of them--insisted, +and got out ropes and began to bind their captives. Neither Harris nor +Lobster was made of the kind of wood of which faggots are composed. They +drew their revolvers, and used them with astonishing effect. They lost +the horses, but got safely back to Athens. + +"I suppose I mustn't grumble over two horses," said Christodulos. "I +served under Hadgi Stavros, the King of the Mountains, in the War of +Independence, and earned enough money to set up in business." + +Then, over a bottle of Santorin wine, Christodulos related the story of +the great brigand chief. Hadgi Stavros was by far the most popular +leader among the insurgent Greeks. His hatred of the Turks did not blind +him to such a point that he passed through a Greek village without +plundering it. A vigorous impartiality enabled him to advance his fame +by increasing his wealth. Lord Byron dedicated an ode to him, and +sympathisers with the Greek cause throughout Europe sent him subsidies. +The result was that when Greece was at last liberated from the Turks, +Hadgi Stavros returned to his old trade with a large capital, and a +genius for organisation which enabled him to revolutionise the business +of brigandage. He entered into arrangements with army officers and +politicians, and saw to it that his allies were entrusted with the +government of his free, enlightened and progressive country. + +"But the pity of it is," continued our honest host, "that poor Hadgi +Stavros is growing very old and has no son to succeed him. For the sake +of his only daughter, he is investing all his wealth in foreign stocks +and shares, instead of using it to extend his business." + +"I say, I should be glad of an introduction to Miss Stavros," said John +Harris. "I wouldn't mind throwing up my job as captain of the _Fancy_, +now lying at the Piraeus, in order to marry the richest heiress in +Greece. Do you think it is worth getting captured for the sake of +meeting her?" + +As Christodulos was about to reply, the shop-bell rang, and a young lady +entered. Like nine out of ten Athenian girls, she had plain features. +Her teeth were white and even, and her hair was beautiful; but that was +all. Happily, in this world of ours, the ugliest little goose generally +finds some honest gander to admire her. Dimitri, the son of the pastry +cook, ran forward with a cry of delight, exclaiming, "It's Photini!" + +"Gentlemen, let us talk of something else," whispered Christodulos. "We +must not alarm this charming girl with tales about brigands." + +He then introduced Photini to us. She was, it appeared, the daughter of +one of his old companions-in-arms, Colonel John. Colonel John was +apparently a man of means, for Photini was very fashionably dressed, and +she was being educated at the best boarding-school in Athens. Her father +had asked his old friend to allow Photini to come and chat with us, and +improve her knowledge of French and German. The girl, however, was too +timid to enter into conversation, and, to judge by the direction of her +glances, it was not French or German that she would have liked to speak +if she could, but English. + +John Harris, I admit, is a very good-looking man; but the way Photini +began to devour him with her eyes, astonished me. I was sitting next to +her at table; but she did not utter a word till the end of the meal. +Then she asked if he were married. + +"No, he isn't," I replied, adding with a touch of malice, "I think he +would be glad of an introduction to you." + +For something had occurred which made me suspect that she was the +richest heiress in Greece. During the meal, Dimitri came running in with +a newspaper, and looking far from happy. + +"Hadgi Stavros has been defeated," he cried. "The troops have burnt his +camp and broken up his army, and pursued him to the marshes of +Marathon." + +"It's a lie!" shouted Christodulos, his face red with anger. "The King +of the Mountains could take Athens if he wanted to, and cut the throat +of every man in it." + +This, I thought, was strange language from an honest pastry cook, who +was also a lieutenant in the militia. I was still more surprised when I +turned to Photini, and saw that her face was wet with tears. + +"You see, my dear Harris," I said, when he and Lobster and I were +talking the matter over in my bedroom, "you have soon got the +introduction you wanted." + +"That ugly little over-dressed thing!" exclaimed Harris. "I wouldn't +marry her to save my life." + +"Well, at all events," I said, "I shall be able to begin my botanical +researches to-morrow, now that her excellent father has retired to his +mountains." + + +_II.--The King of the Mountains Company, Limited_ + + +The next morning, I strapped on my collecting-case, and explored Mount +Parnassus. There I came upon Dimitri and two ladies. + +"The old woman is Mrs. Simons, English, very rich," said Dimitri to me. +"The pretty girl is her daughter. I'm their guide. I chose this +excursion in the hope of meeting you. But whatever is the matter with +the women?" + +They shrieked, and stared, horror-stricken, at a clump of bushes. I +looked in the same direction, and perceived half a dozen gun-barrels +gleaming among the leaves. Then eight ruffians appeared; and I saw that +the only difference between devils and brigands is that devils are less +black than is said, and brigands much dirtier than is supposed. They +took all our money and jewelery, and then allowed Dimitri to depart--I +guessed why--and led the two ladies and myself down the hill, and up a +winding path on to a high plateau, where Hadgi Stavros and his band were +now encamped. + +The King of the Mountains was sitting, cross-legged, on a square carpet +beneath a pine-tree, a little way from his noisy, crowded camp. Four +secretaries were writing on their knees to his dictation. He was +undoubtedly a man of majestic appearance. He had a fine figure--tall, +supple, and marvelously preserved--and calm, noble features. The only +indications of old age were his long white hair and long white +moustaches. His dress was very simple--a jacket of black cloth, immense +blue cotton trousers, large boots of Russian leather, and a loose red +cap. A jeweled belt was the only costly thing he wore. + +He raised his head at our approach. + +"You are very welcome," he said with great gravity. "Please sit down +while I finish dictating my letters." + +His servant brought us refreshments, consisting of coffee, Turkish +delight, and preserved fruit. Having put us at our ease, the king went +on with his correspondence. + +"This," he said, "is to Messrs. Barley and Co., 31 Cavendish Square, +London." + +"Excuse me, sire," said his secretary, bending over and whispering in +his ear. + +"What does it matter?" said the king in a haughty tone. "I've done +nothing wrong. Let all the world come and listen if they want to. Now, +take this down." + +And he dictated the following letter: + + "GENTLEMEN,--I observe by your note of April 5 that I now + have £22,750 on current account. Please invest half of this + sum in 3 per cent. Consols and half in bearer bonds before the + coupons are detached. I shall be obliged if you will sell my + shares in the Bank of England, and put the proceeds in London + omnibuses. That will be a safe investment and, I think, a + profitable one. Your obedient servant, + + "HADGI STAVROS. + + "P. S. Oblige me by sending a hundred guineas to Messrs. Ralli + Brothers as my subscription towards the Hellenic School at + Liverpool." + +Mrs. Simons, who, like her daughter, did not speak Greek, leaned towards +me. + +"Mr. Schultz, is he dictating the terms of our ransom?" she asked. + +"No, madam," I replied. "He is writing to his bankers." + +Mrs. Simons turned to the box of Turkish delight. I found more pleasure +in listening to the king's business correspondence. It was +extraordinarily interesting. + +The next letter was addressed to George Micrommati, Secretary of the +King of the Mountains Co., Ltd., the Courts of Justice, Athens. + +"I am sorry to say," Hadgi Stavros dictated, "that the company's +operations have been much restricted owing to the bad harvest and to the +occupation of a part of our beloved land by foreign troops. + +"Our gross receipts from May 1, 1855, to April 30, 1856, amount only to: + + fr. + 261,482 + "While our expenses come to 135,482 + ---------- + "Leaving fr. 126,000 + Which I propose to divide as follows: + One-third of the profits payable to me as managing + director 40,000 + Amount added to reserve fund at Bank of Athens 6,000 + Amount available for dividend 80,000 + ---------- + "Total fr. 126,000 + +"This comes to about 70 per cent, on our present capital of 120,000 +francs. It is, I know, the lowest dividend we have paid since the +company was formed fourteen years ago. But the shareholders must +consider the difficulties we have had to struggle against. Our business +is so closely connected with the interests of the country that it can +only flourish in times of general prosperity. From those who have +nothing we can take nothing, or very little. The tourist season, +however, has opened very favourably, and the affairs of the company +will, I think, soon improve. I will send you a detailed statement in the +course of a few days. I am too busy now." + +The king read over the letters, and affixed his seal to them. Then, with +royal courtesy, instead of having us brought before him on the carpet, +he came and sat down by our side. Mrs. Simons at once began to talk at +him in English. I offered to act as interpreter with a view to +protecting her from herself. The king, however, thanked me coldly, and +called to one of his brigands who knew English. + +As I had foreseen, Mrs. Simons spoke very largely about her great wealth +and her high position. The result was that the king fixed her ransom and +that of Mary Ann at £4,000. I was determined that he should not +over-estimate my resources. + +"It's no good putting a ransom on me," I exclaimed. "My father is a poor +German innkeeper who has been ruined by the railway. I've been forced to +leave home and come to Greece, where I earn a beggarly £10 a month." + +"If that is so," said the king, very kindly, "you can return to Athens +at once, or stay here for a few days." + +"I shall be happy to stay," I replied, "if you will return the +collecting-case your men took from me. I want to go botanising." + +"What! You are a man of science!" cried the king joyfully. "Ah, how I +admire knowledge! Who sent you here to collect our plants? Some famous +university, I'll be bound." + +"I'm collecting on behalf of the Hamburg Botanical Gardens," I answered. + +"And do you think, my dear friend," said the king, "that a great +institution like the Hamburg Botanical Gardens would let a man of your +worth perish rather than pay his ransom of £600? Happy young man! You +now see the value of a sound, scientific education. Had you been an +utter ignoramus as I am, I wouldn't have asked the ransom of a penny." + +The king listened neither to my objections nor to the cries of Mrs. +Simons. He rose up and departed; and one of his secretaries led us to a +plot of green sward, where a meal had been laid for us. + +"The king has ordered everything to be done to make your sojourn as +pleasant as possible," he said. "He is sorry that his men were so +ill-mannered as to rob persons of your importance. Everything they took +will be returned to you. You have thirty days in which to pay your +ransom. Write to your friends without delay, as the king never grants an +extension of time." + +"But if I can't get the money?" I asked. + +"You will be killed," said the secretary. + +I did not know what to do. I knew nobody with £100, much less £600. Then +I thought of John Harris. + +"Tell Christodulos," I wrote, "that Hadgi Stavros won't let me go. If he +will not intercede for me, I leave myself, dear friend, in your hands. I +know you are a man of courage and imagination. You will find a way to +get me out of this fix." + +All the same, I had very little hope; and Hadgi Stavros came up and +found me looking very gloomy. + +"Courage, my boy," he said. + +"You know I can't raise £600," I exclaimed. "It's simply murder." + +"You're a young fool," said the King of the Mountains. "Were I in your +place, my ransom would be paid in two days. Don't you understand? Here +you have an opportunity of winning a charming wife and an immense +fortune." + +Mary Ann was sitting with her mother outside one of the caves in the +rocky enclosure, which were to serve as bedrooms. Close at hand was a +stream, which ran through a hole in the rocks, and went tumbling down +the precipitous side of the plateau. I saw that the stretch of green +sward between the rocks had been a lake. This suggested to me a way of +escape. + +"Suppose," I said to Mary Ann, "that I closed up the hole in the rocks +with turf, and let the water run into this hollow ground, do you think +we would be able to climb down by the empty river bed?" + +She got on the rocks and gazed over the precipice. "I could do it if you +would help me." + +"But I couldn't," said Mrs. Simons, very snappishly. "The whole thing's +utterly ridiculous. I've written to the British Ambassador, and we shall +be rescued by the royal troops in two days at the latest." + +I then told her of the "King of the Mountains Co., Ltd." + +"No doubt," I said, "many of the gallant officers IN the Greek Army have +shares in it." + + +_III.--A Way of Escape_ + + +And so it proved. Two days afterwards the king was explaining to me his +scheme for transforming brigandage into a peaceful orderly system of +taxation, when four shots were fired in the distance. + +"Get out the Aegean wine," he said. "Pericles is coming with some +troops." + +Sixty soldiers came marching into the camp. Captain Pericles, whose +figure I had often admired at Athens, ran up to Hadgi Stavros, and +kissed him. + +"Good news, my dear godfather! The paymaster-general is sending £1,000 +to Argos this morning by the path near the Scironian Rocks," said the +captain. + +"Splendid, my boy!" said the king. "I'll go with all my men at once. +Guard the camp, and write out the report of our battle. Defeat me if you +like, but leave ten of your best troops dead on the field. I am in need +of recruits. Look after the three prisoners. They're worth £4,600." + +As Hadgi Stavros marched out at the head of his men, they sang a song +composed by their king when he knew Lord Byron: + + Down the winding valleys a hillsman went his way; + His eyes were black and flaming, his gun was clean and bright + He cried unto the vultures: "Oh, follow me to-day, + And you shall have my foeman to feed upon to-night!" + +When Mrs. Simons saw that the brigands had gone, and the troops had +arrived, she was wild with excitement. I told her of the real state of +affairs; but she wouldn't believe me, and gave Pericles her money and +jewels when asked for them. In the evening the king returned with his +men, and the troops departed. Mrs. Simons then broke down. + +"If you were an Englishman, you would rescue us, and marry my daughter," +she exclaimed. "I suppose I must write to Barley & Co., and get Edward +to send our ransom." + +"Barley & Co. of Cavendish Square?" + +"Yes," said Mary Ann. "Didn't you know my mother and my uncle were +bankers?" + +"Then I have found a way of escape," I exclaimed. "Hadgi Stavros banks +with your firm. Do you remember the letter he was dictating when we +arrived? That was to Barley & Co. about an investment." + +"I see. I must explain the position at once to him," said Mrs. Simons. + +"And he will want half a million or more ransom," I said. "No! Write at +once to your agents in Athens to send you £4,600. Pay Hadgi Stavros; +make him give you a receipt. Enclose this in the next letter from +Messrs. Barley & Co., with the note--'Item. £4,600 personally remitted +by our partner, Mrs. Simons, as per enclosed receipt.'" + +I raised my head, and saw the sweet brown eyes of Mary Ann looking at +me, radiant with joy. I then went to Hadgi Stavros, and explained that +the £4,600 would be paid into his account at the Bank of Athens on the +production of his receipt for that amount. He refused at first to give a +receipt. He had never done such a thing. Then I took him on his weak +side, and said that perhaps it was more prudent not to give one. If ever +he were captured it might be used against him. This touched him. + +"I will not give one receipt," he cried. "I will give two--one for Mrs. +and Miss Simons, one for Hermann Schultz." + +Alas! from my point of view the result was deplorable. The ransom of the +two ladies was paid, and they were set free. But as Messrs. Barley & Co. +could not recover any money on a receipt given to me, their agent +refused to pay my ransom. + +"It doesn't matter," said Mrs. Simons, as she and Mary Ann departed. +"You can escape by the way down the cascade. Your first plan was +impossible with two women, but now you are alone, it is admirable. Come +and see us as soon as you get away." + +That night I made friends with the ruffian set to watch over me, and I +plied him with wine until he fell on the grass and was unable to rise. I +then dammed the stream, and climbed down its empty bed. It was difficult +work, as the rocks were wet and the night was very dark. I was covered +with bruises when I reached a platform of rock about ten feet from the +bottom of the precipice. Just as I was about to jump down, a white form +appeared below, and a savage growl came from it. I had forgotten the +pack of fierce dogs, which, as the King of the Mountains had told me, +were the best of all his sentries. Happily, I carried my collecting +case, and in it was a packet of arsenic which I used for stuffing birds. +I put some of the powder on a piece of bread, and threw the poisoned +food to the dog; but arsenic takes a long time to act. In about half an +hour's time the creature began to howl in a frightful manner, and it did +not expire until daybreak. It also succeeded in arousing the camp, and I +was recaptured and brought before the king. + +"I don't mind your trying to escape," he said, with a terrible look; +"but in your wild prank you have, drowned the man I set to watch over +you. Were I to give way to my feelings I would have you killed. But I +will be merciful. You will merely be bastinadoed to prevent you from +wandering out of bounds until your ransom is paid." + +I received twenty strokes on my feet. At the third I began to bleed. At +the fourth I began to howl. At the tenth I was insensible to pain. When +I came to I was in such an agony that I would have given my soul to kill +Hadgi Stavros. I tried to, but failed. But I would hurt him, though I +knew I should die for it. So, with a torrent of invectives, I explained +how I tricked him over the ransom of Mrs. Simons and her daughter. + +"She's a partner in Barley's Bank, you fool, you ass!" I shrieked. "She +will get back all the £4,000 on your receipt." + +Hadgi Stavros turned pale and trembled. + +"No," he said, very slowly; "I will not kill you. You have not suffered +enough. Four thousand pounds! It is a fortune. You have stolen my +daughter's fortune. What can I do to you? Find me, you brutes," he +cried, turning to his men, "a torture of £4,000." + +Then he left me in their hands. + +"Treat him gently," he said. "I don't want him to get so exhausted that +he dies before I begin to play with him." + +As a beginning, they stripped me to the waist, and their cook put me +close to a great fierce fire, where some lambs were being fried. The red +cinders fell about me, and the heat was unsupportable. I dragged myself +away on my hands--I could not use my feet--but the ruffian kicked me +back. Then he left me for a moment to get some salt and pepper. I +remembered that I had put the arsenic in my trousers pocket. With a +supreme effort I rose up and scattered the powder over the meat. + +"What are you doing?" said the cook. "Trying to cast a spell on our +food?" + +He had only seen, from a distance, the motion of my hand. I was avenged! + +Suddenly I heard a cry: "The king! Where is the king?" And Dimitri, the +son of Christodulos, came running up. + +"Good God!" he said when he saw me. "The poor girl!" + +The cook was so astonished that he forgot me for a minute; and I managed +to crawl away and lay on the cold grass. Then Hadgi Stavros appeared. +With a cry of anguish he took me gently in his arms, and carried me to +the cave among the rocks. + +"Poor boy!" he said. "How you have suffered! But you will soon be well. +I once had sixty strokes of the bastinado, and two days afterwards I was +dancing the Romaika. It was this ointment that cured me." + +"But what has happened?" I murmured. + +"Read that!" he cried, throwing me a letter. "What a pirate! What an +assassin! If I only had you and your friend, one in each hand! Oh, he +won't do it! Will he?" + +The letter was from John Harris. It ran: + + "Hadgi Stavros,--Photini is now on my ship, the _Fancy_, + which carries four guns. She remains a hostage as long as + Hermann Schultz remains a prisoner. As you treat my friend, so + I will treat your daughter. She shall pay hair for hair, tooth + for tooth, head for head. Answer at once, or I will come and + see you.--JOHN HARRIS." + +"I know Photini," I said to the king, "and I swear that she will not be +harmed. But I must return to Athens at once. Get four of your men to +carry me down the mountains in a litter." + +The king rose up, and then groaned and staggered. I remembered the +arsenic. He must have eaten some of the meat. I tickled the inside of +his throat, and he brought up most of the poison. Soon afterwards the +other brigands came up to the enclosure, screaming with pain, and wanted +to murder me. I had cast a spell over their meat, and it was torturing +them, they cried. I must be killed at once, and then the spell would be +removed. The king commanded them to withdraw. They resisted. He drew his +saber, and cut down two of the ringleaders. The rest seized their guns +and began to shoot. There were about sixty of them, all suffering, more +or less, from the effects of arsenic poisoning. We were only twelve in +number, but our men had the steadier aim; and the king fought like a +hero, though his hands and feet were swelling painfully. + +The fact was that he had eaten some time before his men, and I could not +therefore get the poison completely out of his system. But it was the +arsenic that saved his life. He had at last to come and lie down beside +me. We heard the sound of rapid firing in the distance; and suddenly two +men entered our enclosure, with revolvers in each hand, and shot down +our defenders with an extraordinary quickness of aim. They were Harris +and Lobster. + +"Hermann, where are you?" Harris yelled at last, with all his strength, +as he turned and found nothing more to shoot at. + +"Here," I replied. "The men you've just killed have been fighting for +me. There has been civil war in the camp." + +"Well, we've stamped it out!" said Harris. "What's the matter with the +old scoundrel lying beside you?" + +"It's Hadgi Stavros," I said. "He and his men have been eating some +arsenic I had in my collecting case." + +My friends managed to carry me down the mountain, and at the first +village we came to they got a carriage and took me to Athens. The +ointment used by Hadgi Stavros was, as he had said, marvelous; and in +two days I could walk as well as ever. I at once called on Mrs. and Miss +Simons. + +"They departed yesterday for Trieste," said the servant, "on their way +to London." + +As I was returning to Hermes Street I met Hadgi Stavros and Photini. + +"How is it that the King of the Mountains is found walking in the +streets of Athens?" I said. + +"What can I do in the mountains now?" he replied. "All my men are +killed, wounded or fled. I might get others. But look at my swollen +hands. How can I use a sword? No; let some one younger now take my +place. But I defy him to equal me in fame or fortune. And I have not +done yet. Before six months are gone, you will see Hadgi Stavros, Prime +Minister of Greece. Oh, there are more ways of making money than one!" + +And that was the last I saw of the King of the Mountains. On the advice +of Harris, I at once returned to Hamburg, lest some of the remaining +brigands found me out, and take vengeance for the spell I had cast on +their meat. But some day I hope to go to London, and call at 31, +Cavendish Square. + + * * * * * + + + + +HARRISON AINSWORTH + +Tower of London + + William Harrison Ainsworth, born at Manchester, England, Feb. + 4, 1805, was a popular rather than a great writer. A + solicitor's son, he was himself trained in the law, but some + adventures in journalism led him finally to the literary life, + his first success as a writer of romance being scored with + "Rookwood" in 1834. "Tower of London" was the fourth work of + the novelist, and, according to Ainsworth himself, it was + written chiefly with the aim of interesting his + fellow-countrymen in the historical associations of the Tower. + From the popularity of the romance it is reasonable to suppose + that it fulfilled its author's hopes in this respect, though + it must be confessed its history leaves a good deal to be + desired. Here is not the place to discuss the rights and + wrongs of Ainsworth's bold liberties in respect to the + historical personages he introduces; but there is no doubt + that the romance is told with vigour and dramatic movement, + and it is an excellent example of the novelist's spirited + style of narrative, though, judged on purely literary merits, + like his other works, the "Tower of London" will not bear + comparison with the masterpieces of Sir Walter Scott in the + field of historical romance. Ainsworth died at Reigate on + January 3, 1882. + + +_I.--Prisoners in the Tower_ + + +Edward VI. was dead, poisoned, it was rumoured, by the Duke of +Northumberland, Grandmaster of the Realm. For three days had an attempt +been made to keep his death secret, so that the proud and ambitious duke +might seize the persons of the Princess Mary and the Princess Elizabeth. +But the former, warned in time, had escaped the snare; and the Duke of +Northumberland, finding further dissimulation useless, boldly proclaimed +his daughter-in-law, Lady Jane Grey, queen. + +On July 10, 1553, Queen Jane, the wisest and most beautiful woman in the +kingdom, though only sixteen years of age, was conducted in state to the +Tower, where it was the custom for the monarchs of England to spend the +first few days of their reign. + +But the crowds who watched her departure from Durham House, in the +Strand, were silent and sullen. Her youthful beauty and grace might win +an involuntary cry of admiration, but the heart of the people was not +hers. They recognised that she was but the tool of her father-in-law, +whom, because of his overweening ambition, they hated. + +All the pride and pomp of silken banners and cloth of gold could not +mask the gloomy presage of the young queen's reign. The very heavens +thundered; and owing to the press of boats that surrounded the +procession, many small craft were overturned and their occupants thrown +into the water. And if further signs of portending evil were wanted, +they could be discerned in the uneasy whisperings of those lords of the +Privy Council who were present, or in the sinister face of the Spaniard, +Simon Renard, ambassador to the Emperor Charles V. + +"This farce will not last long," he said to De Noailles, the French +ambassador. "The Privy Council are the duke's secret enemies, and +through them I shall strike the scepter from Jane's grasp and place it +in the hand of Mary." + +Elsewhere in the procession, Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, uttered +in a low voice to Ridley, Bishop of London, his fears for the future; +while certain lords of the Privy Council, who had planned the +assassination of the Duke of Northumberland, and were aware that their +plot had been discovered, approached the portals of the Tower in fear +and trembling. + +But there was one man at least who did not share the general depression +and uneasiness. Cuthbert Cholmondeley, esquire to Lord Guildford Dudley, +husband of Queen Jane, found much to interest him in the scene. The +reception of her Majesty by Og, Gog, and Magog had already driven away +the sense of portending evil from his mind when he caught sight of a +girl's face in the crowd. It was only for a moment that he had sight of +it; but it left such a deep impression on his mind that for the rest of +the day he burned with impatience to discover who the girl might be. + +Much had to happen before he could satisfy his curiosity. Once in the +Tower, plots against Queen Jane and the Duke of Northumberland began to +thicken. At a meeting of the Privy Council the duke compelled the lords, +under threat of imprisonment, to sign a proclamation declaring Princess +Mary illegitimate. Renard lost no time in turning to his own advantage +the bad impression created by these tactics. + +"Do you consent to Northumberland's assassination?" he whispered to +Pembroke. + +"I do," replied the Earl of Pembroke. "But who will strike the blow?" + +"I will find the man." + +This sinister fragment of conversation fell upon the ears of Cuthbert. +He at once sent a warning missive to his master, telling him of the plot +against the duke's life. Then, this duty performed, he set out to try +and find the girl whose face had so impressed him. From the giant +warders he learnt that she was the adopted daughter of Dame Potentia +Trusbut, wife of Peter, the pantler of the Tower. A mystery surrounded +her birth. Her mother had been imprisoned in the Tower by Henry VIII., +and in her dungeon had given birth to Cicely--such was the name of the +girl. + +Magog, seeing Cuthbert's interest, good-naturedly carried him off with +him to the pantler's quarters. Here a gargantuan feast was in progress, +to which the three giants did full justice, devouring whole joints and +pasties and quaffing vast flagons of wine, to the great delight of the +pantler and his wife. But Cuthbert had no eyes except for Cicely. He was +not content until he was by her side and was able to hear her voice. The +attraction between them was mutual, and it was not long before they were +whispering the first words of love into one another's ears. + +While all was merriment, Renard and Pembroke made their appearance +unobserved. They had intercepted Cuthbert's letter, and were anxious to +satisfy themselves as to the identity of the rash youth who had dared to +cross their path. + +"Though we have intercepted his missive to Lord Dudley," whispered +Renard, "he may yet betray us. He must not return to the palace." + +"He shall never return, my lords," said a tall, dark man, advancing +towards them, "if you will entrust his detention to me." + +"Who are you?" demanded Renard, eyeing him suspiciously. + +"Lawrence Nightgall, the chief gaoler." + +"What is your motive for this offer?" + +"Look there!" returned Nightgall. "I love that damsel. He has supplanted +me, but he shall not profit by his good fortune." + +"You are the very man I want!" cried Renard, rubbing his hands +gleefully. "Lead me where we can speak more freely." + +The three withdrew unobserved. Half an hour later Cuthbert dragged +himself unwillingly from Cicely's side and passed into the open air. As +he did so he received a blow on the back of his head which stretched him +unconscious on the ground. + +When he came to his senses he found himself bound by a chain in a gloomy +dungeon, a ghastly, dreadful place, but a few feet in height. His first +instinct was to try to loosen his bonds, but after vainly lacerating his +hands he sank down exhausted. + +Terrible recollections flashed upon his mind of the pitiless sufferings +he had heard that the miserable wretches immured in these dungeons +endured before death. + +For a time these mental tortures were acute; but at last nature asserted +herself, and he sank exhausted into sleep. He was awakened by a cry, and +perceived the tall, skeleton figure of a woman standing by him. She +placed a thin and bony hand upon his shoulder. He shrank back as far as +his chain would permit, horror-stricken. The figure pursued him, +shrieking, "My child! My child! You have taken my child!" + +Suddenly she stopped and stood erect. A distant footstep was heard. + +"He comes! He comes!" she cried, and with a loud shriek dashed from the +dungeon and disappeared. + +In another second Nightgall stood before him. The gaoler made no attempt +to disguise the motives which prompted him to imprison the young +esquire. No threats that Cuthbert could use had the least effect on him. +He quailed before the charge that Cuthbert made at random--that he had +murdered the child of the unfortunate wretch who had disappeared at his +coming, but on the question of his release he was obdurate. If Cuthbert +would agree to give up Cicely he should be released; otherwise he should +meet with a secret death at the hands of Mauger, the executioner. + +At this juncture, Cicely, who had been directed by the dwarf, Xit, +appeared. To save the man she loved she boldly declared that she would +wed Nightgall, provided that he would conduct his prisoner outside the +walls of the Tower. + +"Bring me back some token that you have done so, and I am yours," she +said. + +Nightgall consented, and agreed to withdraw while Cuthbert and Cicely +arranged privately what the token should be. + +Hurriedly Cuthbert gave her a ring to send to Lord Dudley, who, he knew, +would at once effect his release. Then, accompanied by Nightgall, Cicely +withdrew from the gloomy dungeon. + +Unable to deliver the ring herself to Lord Dudley, Cicely entrusted that +task to Xit. But the vanity of the dwarf prevented the execution of the +plan. As he was exhibiting the ring to Og, Nightgall suddenly +approached, and snatched it from him, and, without taking any notice of +the little man's threats, made his way to Cicely. When he displayed the +ring as the token that her lover had been set free, Cicely, shrieking +"Lost! Lost!" fell senseless on the floor. + + +_II.--The Twelfth Day Queen_ + + +While Renard's intrigues were maturing, and the Duke of Northumberland +had left the Tower on a campaign against the Princess Mary, Cuthbert +Cholmondeley was kept languishing in his terrible dungeon. + +At long intervals Nightgall visited him, and once the wretched prisoner, +whom the gaoler called Alexia, came to him, entreating his help against +Nightgall. + +At last Cuthbert decided upon a daring plan of escape. After several +days' imprisonment he feigned to be dead. Nightgall, seeing him +stretched on the ground, apparently lifeless, chuckled with delight, +and, releasing the chain that bound his leg, bent over him with the +intention of carrying his body into the burial vault near the moat. But +a suspicion crossed his mind, and he drew his dagger, determined to make +sure that his prisoner had passed away. As he did so, the young esquire +sprang to his feet, and wrested the poniard from his grasp. In another +second Nightgall was lying chained to the floor, where his prisoner had +been a moment before. + +Despite the gaoler's threats, Cuthbert set out, determined to liberate +Alexia and made good his own escape. He wandered through the terrible +torture chambers, released an old man confined in a cell called Little +Ease, a cell so low and so contrived that the wretched inmate could not +stand, walk, sit, or lie at full length within, and then, unable to +discover the whereabouts of the ill-fated Alexia, returned to the +gaoler, and, possessing himself of his keys and cloak, started forth +once more. After wandering for a long time, chance at last brought him +to a secret door, which led into St. John's Chapel in the White Tower. + +While these events were in progress Cicely, despairing of her lover's +safety, sought an audience of Queen Jane, and poured out her story. +Moved by compassion, the queen gave directions for a search to be made, +and, delighted by the grace and charm of Cicely, appointed her one of +her attendants. Lord Guildford Dudley, procuring the assistance of +Magog, burst open the door leading to the subterranean dungeons beneath +the Devilin Tower, and eventually discovered Nightgall, who made a full +confession of his crime as the price of his release. + +Cholmondeley's arrival in St. John's Chapel was opportune. Renard, with +Pembroke by his side, had just demanded the resignation of the crown by +Queen Jane, and the queen, helpless but courageous, had ordered Lord +Pembroke to arrest the Spaniard. Pembroke had refused to move, and at +this juncture Cholmondeley stepped forward, and, advancing towards the +ambassador, said, "M. Simon Renard, you are the queen's prisoner." + +The Spaniard drew his sword, and, with the assistance of the Earl of +Pembroke, kept Cuthbert at bay until they were both able to slip through +the secret door. + +Next day, Queen Jane was forced by the Privy Council to resign her +crown, and that same night, accompanied by Cuthbert and Cicely, she +escaped by a secret passage from the Tower, and, taking a boat, made her +way to Sion House. Here, the following day, she and her husband were +arrested, and learnt the news that the Duke of Northumberland was in +captivity, and that Queen Mary had ascended the throne. Once more Lady +Jane was led back to the Tower, and as she entered by the Traitors' Gate +she saw Renard standing hard by, with a smile of bitter mockery in his +face. + +"So," he said, "Epiphany is over. The Twelfth Day Queen has played her +part." + + +_III.--The Price of Pardon_ + + +Simon Renard's influence was now for the time supreme. At his +instigation the Duke of Northumberland was tricked into a confession of +the Roman Catholic faith on the scaffold, and then executed. Ambitious +that Mary should marry Philip of Spain, he contrived by intrigue to kill +her affection for Courtenay, the young Earl of Devon, and succeeded so +successfully that Courtenay was placed under arrest, and the Princess +Elizabeth, with whom the earl had fallen in love, became the victim of +her sister's jealousy. Cuthbert, though not confined in a cell, was kept +prisoner in the Tower, and occupied quarters in the pantler's house. +Cicely had disappeared, and nothing had been heard of her since the +arrest of Lady Jane Grey at Sion House. + +Consumed with anxiety for the safety of the girl he loved, the esquire +began to suspect that she had been kidnapped by Nightgall. He determined +to find her at all cost, and getting Xit to steal the gaoler's keys, he +once more made his way to the subterranean dungeons. + +Cell after cell he searched, but nowhere could he find a trace of his +beloved Cicely. All that he discovered was the dead body of Alexia. He +made haste to return to his quarters, and had almost reached them when +Nightgall appeared, and at once placed him under arrest for stealing his +keys. + +His enemy was now at his mercy, and Nightgall, after burying the body of +Alexia, sought out Cicely, whom be had kept for several weeks a close +prisoner in the Salt Tower. He told her that he was about to remove her +to another prison in the Tower leading to the Iron Gate. + +"I will never go thither of my own accord," replied Cicely, shrinking +terrified from him. "Release me, villain; I will die sooner than become +your bride." + +"We shall see that," growled the gaoler, seizing hold of her. "You shall +never be set free unless you consent to be mine." + +He carried her, shrieking and struggling in his arms, out of the room, +and dragged her by main force down the secret staircase. She continued +her screams, until her head, striking against the stones, she was +stunned by the blow and became insensible. Nightgall raised her, and +carried her quickly to the dark cell he had already prepared. Here she +would have languished for months without seeing anybody save Nightgall, +except for a curious chain of circumstances. + +Renard's plan of marrying Mary to Philip of Spain, to which end he had +had Courtenay and the Princess Elizabeth imprisoned in the Tower, was +bitterly opposed by De Noailles. The French ambassador determined to +prevent the Spaniard's plans, and, by means of Xit, sent a communication +to the princess just as she was leaving her prison for Ashbridge. +Further, the little mannikin managed to creep, by way of the chimney, +into the chamber where Courtenay was confined, and arrange a plan by +which the Earl was able to escape. His share in these events, however, +was discovered, and, much to his amazement, he was arrested and taken to +the torture chamber. Though none of the instruments were small enough to +inflict much pain upon him, he was so terrified that he answered every +question that Renard asked him, giving those answers that he thought the +Spaniard would approve. The examination over he was placed in a cell. +Here he was visited by Nightgall, from whose girdle he managed to cut, +unobserved, the bunch of keys. + +Unlocking his own door, he hurried out into the labyrinth of passages +and cells, and in his wanderings in search of an exit lighted upon the +cell in which Cicely was confined. He was not able to effect her escape, +for as they were setting out Nightgall appeared, and put an end to their +hopes. + +Cuthbert had meanwhile been released, together with Lady Jane and her +husband. For a time they lived together quietly in Sion House, but De +Noailles' plan to prevent the Spanish marriage at all costs dragged them +once more into the whirlpool. + +Under the leadership of Sir Thomas Wyatt, an insurrection took place, +having for its nominal object the prevention of Mary's marriage with +Philip of Spain; but it was joined by all the forces opposed to the +crown. Courtenay shared in it because he hoped to wed Elizabeth, who +would be made Queen on the deposition of Mary. Lord Guildford Dudley +joined in it in the anticipation that his wife might once more mount the +throne. + +At first Wyatt carried everything before him. Mary was actually besieged +in the Tower, which it was attempted to carry by force. Supported by +Cuthbert, Lord Guildford led the assault, shouting, "Long live Queen +Jane! Down with Renard and the See of Rome!" The attack had almost +succeeded, when Dudley was struck from behind by Renard and taken +prisoner. + +Cuthbert only escaped by forcing himself through an aperture, and +dropping into the moat, from where he managed to swim ashore. He made +his way at once to Lady Jane, and related to her how the insurrection +had collapsed, and how her husband had been taken prisoner. For her own +safety Jane had no thought. She at once determined to seek out the +queen, and beseech her to spare her husband. + +Accompanied by Cuthbert, she presented herself at the Tower, and, +obtaining an audience with Mary, flung herself at her feet. + +"I am come to submit myself to your highness's mercy," she said, as soon +as she could find utterance. + +"Mercy?" exclaimed Mary scornfully. "You shall receive justice, but no +mercy." + +"I do not sue for myself," rejoined Jane, "but for my husband. I have +come to offer myself for him. If your highness has any pity for me, +extend it to him, and heap his faults on my head." + +Queen Mary was deeply moved. Had not Gardiner intervened, she would +undoubtedly have granted the request; but Gardiner suggested that the +price of the pardon should be the public reconciliation of Lady Jane and +her husband with the Church of Rome. + +"I cannot," said Jane. "I will die for him, but I cannot destroy my soul +alive." + + +_IV.--The Torture Chamber and the Block_ + + +After a week's imprisonment, Cuthbert was closely questioned, and his +answers being deemed unsatisfactory, he was ordered to be examined under +torture. With fiendish delight Nightgall took him to the horrible +chamber. There, the first thing that he saw was the tortured, mangled +figure of Lord Dudley, covered from head to foot by a blood-coloured +cloth. + +"You here?" cried the ghastly, distorted figure. "Where is Jane? Has she +fled? Has she escaped?" + +"She has surrendered herself," replied Cholmondeley, "in the hope of +obtaining your pardon." + +"False hope! Delusive expectation!" exclaimed Dudley, in tones of +anguish, as he was carried from the room. "She will share my fate. Oh +God! I am her destroyer!" + +Cholmondeley, as soon as his master had been borne away, was seized by +the torturers and placed on the rack. He determined that not a sound +should escape him, and though his whole frame seemed rent asunder, he +bravely kept his resolve. + +"Go on," cried Nightgall, as the torturers paused. "Turn the roller +again." + +Even as he spoke Cholmondeley fainted, and, finding that no answers +could be extracted from him, he was taken back to his cell and flung +upon a heap of straw. As he lay there, Nightgall, with diabolical +cruelty, brought Cicely to his side, and bade her look on his nerveless +arms and crippled limbs, and mockingly offered to set him free if Cicely +would marry him of her own free will. When at Cuthbert's instigation she +refused, he forced her away, shrieking for help. + +Cuthbert sank once more into insensibility. He came to his senses again +to find that men were chafing his limbs and bathing his temples, and +that Renard was in his cell. At the Spaniard's order he was given a cup +of wine, and the rest having withdrawn, Renard questioned him further. + +While this examination was going on the cell door opened softly, and a +masked figure appeared. It was Nightgall, who, bribed by De Noailles, +had come to assassinate Renard. He flung himself on his intended victim, +and was about to dispatch him with his poniard, when Cuthbert, summoning +up all his strength, intervened. + +Finding that he had two men to deal with instead of one, the gaoler +sprang to his feet, and rushed from the dungeon. Renard followed him, +furious with rage, and Cuthbert at once took advantage of the +opportunity to escape. + +After some search he discovered the whereabouts of Cicely, and together +the lovers, happy once more at being united, if only for a short time, +succeeded in finding their way out of the dungeons. As soon as they +emerged into the open air they were arrested by the warders, and taken +to the guard-room in the White Tower, where Cicely received a warm +welcome from the three giants. There was no time to relate their +adventures before Renard appeared, walking before a litter upon which +was borne the mangled body of Nightgall, who, in his attempt to escape +the Spaniard's sword, had been forced to jump from an embrasure of the +White Tower. + +The wretch was dying; but with his last breath he attempted to make some +amends for all the evil he had done in his life. Bidding Cicely come to +his side, he told her that she was the daughter of Alexia, whose real +name was Lady Mountjoy, and he gave her papers, proving her right to the +estates of her father, Sir Alberic Mountjoy, who had incurred the +vengeance of Henry VIII. + +Renard, grateful to Cholmondeley for saving his life, secured his +pardon. + +Cicely also returned to the side of Lady Jane Grey, and watched the +splendid fortitude and unswerving courage with which her unfortunate +mistress prepared for the scaffold. The day before her death her wish +that Cicely and Cuthbert should be united was granted, and they were +married in her presence by Master John Bradford, Prebendary of St. +Paul's. + +At last Monday, the twelfth of February, 1544, dawned, and Lady Jane +Grey was led out to the scaffold. On the way she passed the headless +corpse of Lord Guildford, being borne to the grave. Cicely accompanied +the beautiful girl to the last. It was her hands that helped her to +remove her attire and that tied the handkerchief over those eyes which +were never to look on the world again. + +Blindfolded, Jane groped for the block, crying, "What shall I do? Where +is it?" + +She was guided to the place, and, laying her head on the block, cried, +"Lord--into Thy hands I commend my spirit!" + +The axe then fell, and one of the fairest and wisest heads that ever sat +on human shoulders fell also. + + * * * * * + + + +HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN + +The Improvisatore + + Hans Christian Andersen was born at Odense, in Denmark, on + April 2, 1805, the son of a poor bootmaker. His life was full + of exciting incidents; his early years in particular + constitute a record of hard struggle, poverty and lack of + recognition. When nine he tried his hand at tragedy and + comedy, and was sent, after his father's death in 1819, to + Copenhagen, where he engaged in various occupations with + little success, until his talents attracted the attention of a + few influential personages, who provided him with the means + for continuing his studies. He won considerable reputation + with some early poems, and was quite well known to the public + before he entered the university in 1828. He next published a + satirical story, and after a journey in Italy, his famous + novel, "The Improvisatore," which gave him an opportunity for + a brilliant series of word-pictures describing the life and + character of the parts of Italy he had visited. Apart from his + world-famous fairy tales, by which he set no great store, + being ambitious of fame as a novelist, he wrote several + successful plays, epic poems and novels. His fairy tales have + been translated practically into every language. Hans Andersen + died at the age of seventy, in Copenhagen, on August 4, 1875. + + +_I.--A Boyhood in Rome_ + +My earliest recollections take me back to my tender youth, when I lived +with my widowed mother in a little garret in a Roman square. She +supported us by sewing and by the rent of a larger room, sublet to a +young painter. On the house opposite there was an image of the Virgin, +before which, when the evening bells rang, I and the neighbours' +children used to kneel and sing in honour of the Mother of God and the +Child Jesus. Once an English family stopped to listen; and the gentleman +gave me a silver coin, "because of my fine voice," as my mother told me. + +My mother's confessor, Fra Martino, always showed great kindness to me; +and I spent many hours with him at the convent. It was through him that +I became chorister in the Capuchin church, and was allowed to carry the +great censer. + +Before I was nine, I was chosen as one of the boys and girls who were to +preach between Christmas and the New Year in the church of Ara Croeli, +before the image of Jesus. I had no fear, and it seemed decided that I, +of all children, gave most delight; but after me came a little girl of +exquisitely delicate form, bright countenance, and so melodious a voice +that even my mother, with all her pride of me, awarded her the palm, and +declared that she was just like an angel. But I had often to repeat my +speech at home, and then made up a new one describing the festival in +the church, which was considered just as good. + +One moonlit evening, on returning with my mother from a visit in +Trastevere, we found a crowd in the Piazza di Trevi, listening to a man +singing to a guitar--not songs like those which I had so often heard, +but about things around him, of what we saw and heard, and we ourselves +were in the song. My mother told me he was an improvisatore; and +Federigo, our artist lodger, told me I should also improvise, for I was +really a poet. And I tried it forthwith--singing about the foodshop over +the way, with its attractively set out window and the haggling +customers. I gained much applause; and from this time forth I turned +everything into song. + +My first visit to the country ended in a sad event, which was to shape +the whole course of my life. It was in June, and my mother and her +friend Mariuccia took me to see the famous flower fête at Genzano. We +stayed the night at an inn, and in the morning joined the dense holiday +crowd that moved over the carpet of flowers on the pavement of the main +street. Suddenly there was a piercing cry--a pair of unmanageable horses +rushed through. I was thrown down, and all was blackness. When I awoke, +Mother of God, I lay with my head on Mariuccia's lap, beside the +lifeless form of my mother, crushed by the carriage wheel! The occupant +of the carriage, a gentleman of the Borghese family, had escaped with a +shaking, and sent a servant in rich livery with a purse containing +twenty scudi for the motherless child. + +Mariuccia took me back to Rome; it was decided that her parents, who +kept flocks in the Campagna--honest people to whom my twenty scudi would +be wealth--should take charge of me. Thus, in the dreary Campagna, with +honest Benedetto and kindly Domenica, I spent the summer and the early +autumn in the ancient tomb which they had transformed into a hut. The +first week it rained incessantly; then, with the sun, came the +insufferable heat, increasing in intensity from day to day, from week to +week. Even the buffaloes lay like dead masses upon the burnt-up grass, +unless, excited to madness by the poison-stings of myriads of flies, +that covered them as if they were carrion, they rushed in mad career to +the Tiber to roll themselves in the yellow water. + +One day, towards sunset, I was just opening the door to leave the hut, +when a man darted in so suddenly that I was thrown down. With lightning +speed he shut the door, and in a distressed tone uttered the name of the +Madonna, when a violent blow shattered the door, and the whole opening +was filled with the head of a fierce buffalo, whose body was tightly +squeezed into the doorway. The stranger seized a gun from the wall, took +aim, and shot the beast. The danger over, he lifted me from the ground, +and said: "Blessed be Madonna! You have saved my life." He inquired +about me. I was made to show him my abominable sketches upon bits of +paper and to sing to him, and caused him astonishment at my improvising +about the Madonna and himself and the buffalo. He finally asked Domenica +to bring me next morning to see him at the Borghese Palace. He was the +powerful prince himself, who had unwittingly been the cause of my poor +mother's death! + + +_II.--In the School of Life_ + + +The prince, his daughter Francesca, and her fiance Fabiani, overwhelmed +me with kindness. The visit had to be frequently repeated; and I became +quite accustomed to the splendours of the palazzo. Finally, Eccellenza +decided to have me educated in the Jesuits' school; and I had to bid +farewell to good Domenica and to enter upon my school life. New +occupations engrossed me; new acquaintances presented themselves; the +dramatic portion of my life began to unfold itself. Here years compress +themselves together. + +I became particularly attached to one of my school-fellows, Bernardo, a +gay, almost dissolute son of a Roman senator. When he suddenly left +school to join the Papal Guard the whole world seemed to me empty and +deserted. One day I saw him pass my window on a prancing horse. I rushed +out, but ran across the porter's wife of the Borghese Palace, who +informed me that the young Eccellenza and her husband had just arrived. +Would I not come to give them welcome? To the palace I went, was +graciously received by Fabiani and Francesca, who brought me their +little daughter Flaminia, the "little abbess," as she was called, having +been destined from her birth for the life of a nun. The child had +wonderfully bright eyes, and came towards me as though we were old +acquaintances, laughing and chattering, and showing me her toys. + +On my way back, early in the evening, as luck would have it, I almost +ran into the arms of Bernardo. He was delighted to see me, told me of +his merry life and adventures, and wanted to drag me into an artists' +tavern to drink a bottle of wine. That was impossible for me, a Jesuits' +pupil. I refused. As we walked on we met a crowd hustling an old Jew. A +thick-set brute of a fellow wanted to force him to jump over a long +stick, and everybody shouted, "Leap, Jew!" Bernardo sprang forth, +snatched the stick out of the fellow's hand, brandished his sword, and +cried in a strong, manly voice, "Leap yourself, or I shall cleave your +head!" He made him jump, and jump again, and struck him lightly with the +flat of his sword. The crowd veered round at once, laughed and +applauded, the old Jew meanwhile making his escape. "Come," said I, when +we were out of the crowd, "come! Let them say what they may, I will +drink a bottle of wine with you. May we always be friends!" + +I met Bernardo again some time after at the Vatican. His joy equalled +mine, and he immediately plunged into confidences. One day, when +straying into the Ghetto, he had encountered the old Jew of our +adventure, bowing and scraping, and requesting the honour of receiving, +him in his house. They entered; wine was brought to him by a dark Jewish +maiden, of such beauty as to set his whole blood on fire. Since then he +had vainly tried to see her. He visited the Jew's house on all sorts of +pretexts, but his charmer remained invisible. He now made the amazing +proposition that I should take up the study of Hebrew with the old Jew, +and thus help him in this affair. I explained the utter impossibility of +aiding him in a project of this nature. He was obviously offended; and +when we parted he returned my warmth with chilly politeness. + +We met but rarely after this meeting; Bernardo was always jovial and +friendly, though not confidential, until, on the occasion of a dance at +the Borghese Palace, when I asked him about the handsome Jewish maiden, +he laughed. "I have found," he said, "another and tamer little golden +bird. The other has flown out of the Ghetto--nay, even out of Rome!" + +My patron's family left Rome; and I had to throw myself into the study +for the examination that was to bring me the title of an abbé. With the +advent of the carnival I had assumed the black dress and the short silk +coat of an abbate, and had become a new and happier person. For the +first time I took part in the jollities of the carnival, and at the end +of the first day again came across Bernardo, who insisted upon taking me +to the opera to hear a new prima donna who had turned everybody's heart +at Naples. Rumour had not belied her. Her appearance was greeted with +rapturous applause. Bernardo seized my arm; he had recognised in her his +Jewish maiden, just as I was about to exclaim, "It is she!"--the lovely +child who had preached that Christmas at Ara Coeli. There were endless +calls for "Annunciata" when the curtain fell; flowers and garlands were +thrown at her feet, and among them a little poem which I had written +under the inspiration of her exquisite voice. With a crowd of +enthusiasts, we hurried to the stage-door, took the horses from her +carriage, and conducted her in triumph to her apartments. + +Bernardo, who, bolder than I, had called on Annunciata, brought me to +her the next day. She was friendly, brilliant in her conversation, and +appeared deeply impressed with my improvisation on "Immortality"--the +immortality first of eternal Rome, and then of the fair singer's art--to +which I was pressed when Bernardo let out the secret of my gift. + +"You have given me the sincerest pleasure," she said, and looked +confidingly into my eyes. I ventured to kiss her hand. After that I saw +her every day during the gay carnival, and was more and more captivated +by her charm. + +Annunciata left Rome on Ash Wednesday, and with her the brightness +seemed to have gone completely out of my life, my only pleasure being +the recollection of those happy days of the carnival. + + +_III.--Love and Adventure in Rome_ + + +I saw Annunciata again when Rome had begun to fill with Easter visitors, +and had the happiness of dining with her the same day. She told me that, +although born in Spain, she had been, as a child, in Rome; that it was +she who preached that day at Ara Coeli, "an orphan, who would have +perished of hunger had not a despised Jew given it shelter and food +until it could flutter forth over the wild, restless sea." Next day I +showed her over the Borghese gallery; and on the day before Easter we +drove out to see the procession which initiated the Easter festival, and +in the evening to Monte Mario to see the illuminations of St. Peter's-- +an unforgettable sight! + +As I went into the little inn to fetch some refreshment I found myself +in the narrow passage face to face with Bernardo, pale, and with glowing +eyes. He wildly seized my hand, and said: "I am not an assassin, +Antonio; but fight with me you shall, or I shall become your murderer!" + +I tried to calm him, but he forced a pistol into my hand. "She loves +you," he whispered; "and you, in your vanity, will parade it before all +the Roman people--before me!" He threw himself upon me. I thrust him +back. I heard a report; my hand trembled. Bernardo lay before me in his +blood. The people of the house rushed in, and with them Annunciata. I +wanted to fling myself, in despair, upon Bernardo's body; but Annunciata +lay on her knees beside him, trying to staunch the blood. "Save +yourself!" she cried. But I, overcome by anguish, exclaimed: "I am +innocent; the pistol went off by accident. Yes, Annunciata, we loved +you. I would die for you, like he! Which of us was the dearer to you? +Tell me whether you love me, and then I will escape." She bowed her head +down to the dead. I heard her weeping, and saw her press her lips to +Bernardo's brow. Then I heard voices shout "Fly, fly!" and, as by +invisible hands, I was torn out of the house. + +Like a madman I rushed through bushes and underwood until I reached the +Tiber. Among the ruins of a tomb I came across three men sitting around +a fire, to whom I explained that I wanted a boat to cross the river. +They agreed to take me across; but I had better give them my money to +keep for safety. I realised that I had fallen into the hands of robbers, +gave them all I had, was tied on to a horse, and taken across the river, +riding all night, until at dawn we reached a wild part of the mountains. +They wanted to keep me for ransom, and dispatched one of their number to +Rome to find out all he could about me. The man returned; and with a +thankful heart I heard that Bernardo was only wounded and on the way to +recovery. + +My rough hosts having found out my gift, I was asked to sing to them; +and once more my power of improvisation stood me in good stead. When I +had finished, a wrinkled old woman, who seemed to be held in great +reverence by the robbers, came towards me. "Thou hast sung thy ransom!" +she exclaimed. "The sound of music is stronger than gold!" Yet I was +detained six days, during which there were mysterious comings and +goings. The old witch herself, who had made me write on a piece of paper +the words "I travel to Naples" and my name, disappeared for a day, and +came back with a letter, which she commanded me not to read then. +Finally, in the midst of night, she led me out of the robbers' den and +took me across a rocky path to a dumb peasant with an ass, which I was +made to mount. She kissed my forehead and departed. When daylight broke +I opened the letter, which contained a passport in my name, an order for +five hundred scudi on a Naples bank, and the words "Bernardo is out of +danger, but do not return to Rome for some months." + +When I joined the high-road, I took carriage for Naples. Among my +travelling companions was a portly, handsome, Neapolitan lady, with whom +I became very friendly, and who invited me to her house. She was the +wife of a Professor Maretti, and her name was Santa. The professor +himself was a little half-famished looking man, full of learning, by the +show of which he was in the habit of boring everybody who came near him. +Santa made up for this by her liveliness and her warm interest in my +affairs. Amid music and laughter I spent many happy hours in her house, +made friends, and was encouraged to make my début as an improvisatore. I +had written to Eccellenza a true account of the reason of my departure, +and informed him of my future intentions; but his reply, which arrived +after long delay, was a stunning blow to me. He was exceedingly annoyed, +washed his hands of me, and wished me not on any account to connect his +name with my public life. + + +_IV.--On the Road to Fame_ + + +The bitterness of my misery was brought home to me with new force when I +saw Bernardo at a gambling saloon in the company of a handsome woman of +doubtful reputation. That Annunciata should have preferred this fickle +man to me! My debut at San Carlo aroused great enthusiasm, and Santa, +whom I saw next day in her snug heavily curtained room, seemed radiant +with happiness at my success. She made me sit on a soft silken sofa, +stroked my head, and spoke of my future. I kissed her hand, and looked +into her dark eyes with a purity of soul and thought. She was greatly +excited. I saw her bosom heave violently; she loosened a scarf to +breathe more freely. "You are deserving of love," said she. "Soul and +beauty are deserving of any woman's love!" She drew me towards her; her +lips were like fire that flowed into my very soul! + +Eternal Mother of God! The holy image, at that moment, fell down from +the wall. It was no mere accident. "No, no!" I exclaimed, starting up. +"Antonio," cried she, "kill me! kill me! but do not leave me!" But I +rushed out of the house, determined never to set eyes upon Santa again. +The sea air would cool me. I took a boat to Torre del Annunciata; and +happiness gradually returned to me as I realised what danger I had +escaped by the grace of the Virgin. + +I joined the crowd watching the fiery stream of lava slowly descending +towards the sea, when I heard somebody calling my name. It was Fabiani, +who insisted on taking me at once to see Francesca. The welcome was +hearty. There were no recriminations, although I resented for a while +the tone of benevolent patronage adopted by my benefactors. I learnt +that Bernardo had entered the King of Naples' service, and that +Annunciata was shortly expected. An expedition was arranged to Pæstum +and Capri; and Fabiani insisted upon my joining the party. He also +undertook to write to his father-in-law on my behalf.... + +At Pæstum we found the abundance and luxuriance of Sicilian landscape; +its Grecian temples and its poverty. We were surrounded by crowds of +half-naked beggars. One young girl there was, a little away from the +others, scarcely more than eleven years old, but lovely as the goddess +of beauty. Modesty, soul, and a deep expression of suffering were +expressed in her countenance. She was blind! I gave her a scudo. Her +cheeks burned. She kissed my hand; and the touch seemed to go through my +blood. The guide told us afterwards that her name was Lara, and that she +generally sat in the Temple of Neptune. + +The ruined temple made a mighty impression upon us; I was requested to +improvise in these romantic surroundings. Deeply moved by my thoughts of +the blind girl, I sang of the glories of Nature and art, and of the poor +maiden from whom all this magnificence was concealed. When we left the +temple, I lagged behind, and, looking around, I saw Lara on her knees, +her hands clasped together. She had heard my song! It smote me to the +soul. I saw her pressing my scudo to her lips and smile; I grew quite +warm at the sight of it, and pressed a hot kiss upon her forehead. With +a thrilling cry she sprang up like a terrified deer, and was gone. I +felt as if I had committed a sin, and sadly joined my party. + +Amalfi, Capri--I drank the intoxicating beauty of it all. Then I was +prevailed upon to return to Rome with Fabiani and Francesca. We spent a +day at Naples, where I found two letters waiting for me. The first was a +brief note to this effect: "A faithful heart, which intends honourably +and kindly towards you, expects you this evening." It gave an address, +but no name--merely "Your old friend." The second was from the same +hand, and read: "Come, Antonio! The terror of the last unfortunate +moment of our parting is now well over. Come quickly! Delay not a moment +in coming!" The letters were obviously from Santa. + +My mind was made up not to see her again. We left for Rome.... + +The Palazzo Borghese was now my home. Eccellenza received me with the +greatest kindness, but all the family continued to use the old teaching +tone and depreciating mode of treatment. Thus six years went by; but +somehow my protectors did not realise that I was no longer a boy, and my +dependence gave them the right to make them let me feel the bitterness +of my position. Even my talent as poet and improvisatore was by no means +taken seriously at the palace. + +Happiness was brought into my life once more by Flaminia, "the little +abbess," who came home to have her last glimpse of the world before +taking the veil. She had grown tall and pale of complexion, with an +expression of wonderful gentleness in her features. She recalled our +early friendship, when she used to sit on my knee and make me draw +pictures for her and tell her stories. From her, at any rate, I suffered +no humiliation, and from day to day our friendship grew closer. I told +her about Bernardo and Annunciata, and about Lara, who became +inexpressibly dear to her. I also endeavoured to make her reconsider her +decision to take the veil and immure herself for life; but her whole +education and inclination tended towards that goal. At last the day +itself came--a day of great solemnity and state. Flaminia was dead and +buried--and Elizabeth the nun, the bride of Heaven, arose from the bier! + + +_V.--The Sorrowful Wayfarer_ + + +In my sadness of heart I thought of my childhood and old Domenica, whom +I had not seen for many months. I went out to the Campagna. Domenica had +died six months back! When I returned I was seized by a violent fever, +from which I recovered but slowly. It was six months after Flaminia had +taken the veil that the doctor allowed me to go out. + +My first walk was to the grey convent where she now passed her +monotonous days. Every evening I returned, and often I stood gazing at +her prison and thinking of Flaminia as I used to know her. One evening +Fabiani found me thus, and made me follow him home. He spoke to me with +unusual solemnity in his voice, but with great kindness. I was ill. +Travelling, change of scene, would do me good. I was to move about for a +year, and then return to show what the world had made of me. + +I went to Venice. Dreary, sad and quiet seemed to me the Queen of the +Adriatic. In the gently swaying gondola I thought with bitterness of +Annunciata. I felt a grudge even against innocent, pious Flaminia, who +preferred the convent to my strong, brotherly love. Then my thoughts +floated between Lara, the image of beauty, and Santa, the daughter of +sin. + +One day I took a boat to the Lido to breathe the fresh air of the sea. +On the beach I came across Poggio, a young Venetian nobleman with whom I +had made friends; and as a storm hung threatening in the sky I decided +to accept his invitation for dinner. We watched the fury of the storm +from the window, and then joined a crowd of women and children anxiously +watching a fishing boat out at sea. Before our very eyes the boat was +swallowed by the waves, and with aching hearts we witnessed the prayers, +shrieks, and despair of the anxious watchers whose husbands and fathers +perished thus within their sight. + +Next evening there was a reception at my banker's. The storm became a +topic of conversation; and Poggio related the death of the fishermen, +trying to enlist sympathy for the poor survivors. But nobody seemed to +understand his intention. Then I was asked to improvise. I was quickly +determined. "I know of an emotion," I exclaimed, "which awakens supreme +happiness in everybody, and I have the power of exciting it in every +heart. But this art cannot be given, it must be purchased. He who gives +most will be most deeply initiated." Money and jewels were quickly +forthcoming; and I began to sing of the proud sea and the bold mariners +and fishermen. I described what I had seen; and my art succeeded where +Poggio's words had failed. A tumult of applause arose. A young lady sank +at my feet, seized my hand, and with her beautiful, tear-filled eyes +gave me a look of intense gratitude, which agitated me in strange +fashion. Then she withdrew as if in horror at what she had done. + +Poggio afterwards told me that she was the queen of beauty in Venice, +the podestà's niece, adored by everybody, but known by few, since the +podestà's house was most exclusive, and received but few guests. He +accounted me the luckiest of mortals when he heard that I had received +an invitation from the podestà, and would have a chance of improving my +acquaintance with Maria, his beautiful niece. I was received as if I had +been a beloved relative. Something in Maria's expression recalled to me +the blind beggar-girl Lara; but Maria had eyes with a singularly dark +glance of fire. I became a daily visitor at the podestà's house, and +spent many happy hours in Maria's company. Her intellect and charm of +character captivated me as much as her beauty. + + +_VI.--A Marriage in Venice_ + + +One evening I strayed into a wretched little theatre, where one of +Mercadante's operas was being performed. How can I describe my feelings +when in one of the singers--a slight, ordinary figure, with a thin, +sharp countenance and deeply sunken eyes, in a poor dress, and with a +poorer voice, but still with surprising grace of manner--I recognised +Annunciata? With aching heart I left the theatre, and ascertained +Annunciata's address. She lived in a miserable garret. She turned +deathly pale when she recognised me, and implored me to leave her. "I +come as a friend, as a brother," I said. "You have been ill, +Annunciata!" Then she told me of her illness, four years back, which +robbed her of her youth, her voice, her money, her friends. She implored +me, with a pitiful voice, to leave her. I could not speak. I pressed her +hand to my lips, stammered, "I come--I come again!" and left her. + +Next day I called again, and found Annunciata had left, no one knew +whither. + +It was a month later that Maria handed me a letter, which had been given +to her for me by a dying person who had sent for her. The letter was +from Annunciata, who was no more. It told me of her happiness at having +seen me once more--told me that she had always loved me; that her pain +at having to part from me had made her conceal her face on what she then +believed to be Bernardo's dead body; told me that it was she who had +sent me those two letters in Naples, who had believed my love was dead, +since I left for Rome without sending her a reply. It told me of her +illness, her years of poverty, and her undying love. And then she wished +me happiness with, as she had been told, the most beautiful and the +noblest maid in Venice for my bride! ... + +In travel I sought forgetfulness and consolation. I went to Padua, +Verona, Milan; but heaviness did not leave my heart. Then came an +irrepressible longing to be back in Venice, to see Maria--a foreboding +of some new misfortune. I hastened back to Venice. The podestà received +me kindly; but when I inquired after Maria, he seemed to me to become +grave, as he told me she had gone to Padua on a short visit. During +supper I fell into a swoon, followed by a violent fever in which I had +visions of Maria dead, laid out before an altar. Then it was Lara I saw +on the bier, and I loudly called her by name. Then everything became +bright; a hand passed softly over my head. I awoke, and found Maria and +her aunt by my bedside. + +"Lara, Maria, hear me!" I cried. "It is no dream. You have heard my +voice at Pæstum. You know it again! I feel it. I love you; I have always +loved you!" + +"I have loved you, too," she said, kneeling by my side and seizing my +hand. "I have loved you from the day when the sun burnt your kiss into +my forehead--loved you with the intuition of the blind!" + +I then learnt that Maria--my Lara--had been cured of her blindness by a +great specialist in Naples, the podestà's brother, who, touched by her +beauty and purity, had her educated, and adopted her as his own child. +On his death his sister took her to Venice, where she found a new home +in the podestà's palace. + + * * * * * + + + + +APULEIUS + +The Golden Ass + + Apuleius was born about 125 A.D., at Madaura, in Africa. + After studying at Athens, he practised as an advocate at Rome, + and then wandered about Northern Africa, lecturing on + philosophy and rhetoric. At Tripoli he was charged with having + won by witchcraft the love of a rich widow who had left him + her wealth. But he was acquitted after delivering an + interesting defence, included among his extant works. He then + settled in Carthage, where he died at an advanced age. Poor + Apuleius! His good fame was darkened by the success of an + amusing romance, "The Golden Ass," which he wrote, by way of + recreation, at Rome. He related the story of the adventures + which befell a young Greek nobleman who, by an extreme + curiosity in regard to witchcraft, got changed into a donkey. + It was an age of wild superstition and foolish credulity; and + his readers confused the author of "The Golden Ass" with the + hero of it. Apuleius was credited with a series of impossible + exploits, which he had not even invented. For his work is + merely a Latin adaptation of a lost Greek romance by Lucius of + Patras. But Apuleius deserves our gratitude for preserving a + unique specimen of the lighter literature of the ancient + Greeks, together with the beautiful folk-tale of Cupid and + Psyche. + + +_I.--Lucius Sets Out on His Wonderful Adventures_ + + +I set out from Corinth in a fever of excitement and expectation, riding +my horse so hard that it fell lame; so I had to do the remainder of the +journey on foot. My heart was filled with joy and terror as I entered +the town of Hypata. + +"Here I am, at last," I cried, "in Thessaly! Thessaly, the land of magic +and witchcraft, famous through the world for its marvels and +enchantments!" + +Carried away by my desire after strange and mystic knowledge, I gazed +around with wonder and disquietude. Nothing in this marvellous city, I +thought to myself, is really what it seems to be. The stones I stumbled +over appeared to be living creatures petrified by magic. I fancied that +the trees in the gardens and the birds that sang in their branches were +men that had been transformed by Thessalian witches. The very statues +seemed as if they were about to walk; every wall had ears; and I looked +up into the blue, cloudless sky, expecting to hear oracles. + +Entering the market place, I passed close to a noble lady who was +walking with a crowd of servants in her train. + +"By Hercules!" she cried. "It's Lucius!" I hung back, confused and +blushing, and Byrrhena, for it was she, said to one of her companions: + +"It's Salvia's boy! Isn't he the image of his modest, beautiful mother? +Young, tall and fair, with just her bright, grey-blue eyes, and her +alert glance. A Plutarch every bit of him! Lucius, don't you remember +your kinswoman, Byrrhena? Why, I brought you up with my own hands!" + +I remembered Byrrhena very well, and loved her. But I did not want to +meet her just then. However, I went with her to her house, a beautiful +building of fine marble, containing some exquisite statuary. + +"You will stay here, my dear Lucius, won't you?" she said. + +I then told her that I had come to Hypata to see Milo and his wife +Pamphila. My friend Demeas of Corinth had given me a letter of +introduction. + +"Don't you know that Pamphila is a witch?" she cried. "Do not go near +her, my child, or she will practise her wicked arts on you. It is just +handsome young men like you that she enchants and destroys." + +Far from being terrified by Byrrhena's warning, I was delighted with it. +I longed to become an apprentice to a witch as powerful as Pamphila. +With a hasty excuse I left the house and set out to find Milo. Neither +he nor Pamphila was in when I called. But their maid who opened the +door, was such a pretty wench that I did not regret their absence. +Fotis, as she was called, was a graceful, sprightly little thing, with +the loveliest hair I ever saw. I liked the way it fell in soft puffs on +her neck, and rested on her neat linen tunic. + +It was a case of love at first sight with both of us. But before I began +to ask her about Pamphila, Milo returned. He welcomed me very warmly, +and put the best room in his house at my disposal, and desired me to +stay to dinner. But in spite of my ardent curiosity, I was, I must +confess, rather afraid of meeting his wife. So I said that my kinswoman +Byrrhena had already engaged me to dine with her. + +On arriving at Byrrhena's mansion I was surprised to find that a +splendid banquet had been prepared, and that all the best people in +Hypata were present. We reclined on couches of ivory, covered with +golden drapery, and a throng of lovely girls served us with exquisite +dishes; while pretty curly-headed boys brought the wine round in goblets +of gold and amber. + +When the lights were brought in, the talk became freer and gayer; +everybody was bent on laughing and making his neighbours laugh. + +"We are, you see, preparing for the great festival to-morrow," Byrrhena +said to me. "Hypata is the only city that keeps the feast of the god of +laughter. You must come, and invent some pleasantry to propitiate the +merriest of all deities." + +"By Hercules!" I replied. "If the laughing god will only lend me +inspiration to-night, I will do my best to entertain the townspeople +to-morrow." + + +_II.--The Feast of the God of Laughter_ + + +It was the jolliest banquet I was ever at. Even in Corinth we did not do +the thing so well. It was not until I got into the open air, and set out +for Milo's house, that I knew how much wine I had taken. But though I +was rather unsteady on my feet, I retained my presence of mind. I +reached the house, and suddenly three great burly fellows sprang up, and +battered furiously at the door. They were clearly robbers of the most +desperate type, and I drew my sword, and, as they came at me one by one, +I plunged it swiftly into their bodies. Fotis was aroused, and opened +the door, and I entered, utterly worn out by the struggle, and went at +once to bed and to sleep. + +Early in the morning I was awakened by a great clamour. A throng of +people burst into my bedroom, and two lictors arrested me, and dragged +me to the forum. But as they took me through the streets and squares, +everybody turned out to see me, and the crowd grew so great that the +forum was not large enough to hold the people, and I was led to the +theatre. + +There the lictors pushed me down through the proscenium, as though I +were a victim for sacrifice, and put me in the centre of the orchestra. + +"Citizens," said the prefect of the watch, "as I was going on my rounds +late last night, I saw this ferocious young foreigner, sword in hand, +slashing and stabbing three inoffensive creatures. When I arrived they +were lying dead upon the ground. Their murderer, overwhelmed by his +terrible crime, fled into a house, and hid there, hoping, no doubt, to +escape in the morning. Men of Hypata, you do not allow your own +fellow-townsmen to commit murder with impunity. Shall, then, this +savage, brutal alien avoid the consequences of his fearful crime?" + +For some time I could not reply. The suddenness of the whole thing +terrified me, and it was with a voice broken with sobs that I at last +managed to make my defence. + +"They were robbers," I cried, "robbers of the most desperate and vilest +character! I caught them breaking into the house of my friend Milo, your +esteemed fellowtownsman, oh, citizens of Hypata! There were three of +them--three great, rough, burly rascals, each more than a match for a +mere boy like myself. Yet I managed to kill them; and I think I deserve +praise at your hands, and not censure, for my public-spirited action." + +Here I stopped, for I saw that all the vast multitude of people was +laughing at me. And what grieved me most was to see my kinswoman +Byrrhena and my host Milo among my mockers. The senior magistrate +ordered the wheel and other instruments of torture to be brought forth. + +"I cannot believe a mere boy like this could have slain three great +strong men single-handed," he said. "He must have had accomplices, and +we must torture him until he reveals the names of his partners in this +most dastardly crime. But, first of all, let him look upon the bodies of +the men he has foully murdered. Perhaps that will melt his hard, savage +nature." + +The lictors then led me to the bier, and forced me to uncover the +bodies. Ye gods! The corpses were merely three inflated wine-skins, and +I observed that they were cut in the very spots in which I thought I had +wounded the robbers. I had, indeed, invented a pleasantry for the +festival of the god of laughter! The townspeople laughed with the +inextinguishable laughter of the Olympian deities. They climbed up to +the roof to get a good look at me; they swarmed up the pillars; they +clung to the statues; they hung from the windows at the risk of their +lives; all shouting at me in wild jollity. + +"Sir Lucius," the magistrate then said to me, "we are not ignorant of +your dignity and your rank. The noble family to which you belong is +famous throughout Greece. So do not take this pleasantry in honour of +the joyful god of laughter as an insult. In return for your excellent +services at this great festival, the city of Hypata has decreed that +your statue shall be cast in bronze and erected in a place of honour." + +By this time I had recovered somewhat of my good humour. But knowing how +mercilessly I should be teased at the banquet Byrrhena wished to give in +celebration of my exploits, I went quickly home with Milo, and after +supping with him, retired at a very early hour to my bed-chamber. + + +_III.--Lucius Becomes an Ass_ + + +In the middle of the night I heard a knock at my door. I opened it, and +in came pretty Fotis, looking a picture of misery. + +"I can't sleep without telling you everything," she said. "I was the +cause of all the trouble that befell you to-day. As my mistress was +coming from the baths yesterday, she saw a handsome young gentleman +having his hair cut by a barber. Seized with a wild passion for him, she +ordered me to get some of his hair. But the barber saw me and drove me +away. I knew I should get a cruel whipping if I returned empty-handed. +Close by was a man shaving some wine-bags of goat-skin; the hair was +soft and yellow like the young gentleman's, so I took some of it to +Pamphila. You know my mistress is a terrible witch, so you can guess +what happened. She rose up in the night, and burnt the hair in her magic +cauldron. As it burnt, the wine-bags from which it was taken felt the +compulsion of the spell. They became like human beings. Rushing out into +the street, they hurled themselves against the door of our house, as +Pamphila expected the young gentleman would do. You came up--just a +little intoxicated, eh?--and committed the horrible crime of +bag-slaughter." + +"Now, don't make fun of me, Fotis," I said. "This is a serious matter, +this witchcraft. What is Pamphila doing to-night? I have come here to +learn magic, and I am very anxious to see her practising her strange +arts." + +"Come, then, and look," said Fotis. + +We crept to the room where Pamphila was, and peeped through a chink in +the door. The witch undressed herself, and then took some boxes of +ointment out of a casket, and opened one box and smeared herself with +the stuff it contained. In the twinkling of an eye, feathers sprouted +out of her skin, and she changed into an owl, and flew out of the +window. + +"She has gone after that handsome young gentleman," said Fotis. "I have +to wait here all night until she returns, and then give her a lotion of +aniseed and laurel-leaves to restore her to her proper shape." + +"Why, my dear Fotis," I exclaimed, in intense admiration, "you know as +much about witchcraft as your mistress! Come, practise on me! Get me +some of that ointment and change me into a bird. Oh, how I should like +to fly!" + +After some hesitation she entered the room, and took a box out of the +casket. I stripped myself and smeared the ointment over my body. But +never a feather appeared! Every hair on me changed into a bristle; my +hands turned into hoofed forefeet; a tail grew out of my backbone; my +face lengthened; and I found, to my horror, that I had become an ass. + +"Oh, ye gods," said Fotis, "I've taken the wrong box! But no great +harm's done, dear Lucius. I know the antidote. I'll get you some roses +to crunch, and you will be restored to your proper shape." + +Fotis, however, dared not go at once into the garden, lest Pamphila +should suddenly return and find me. So she told me to go and wait in the +stable until daybreak, and then she would gather some roses for me. But +when I got into the stable I wished I had waited outside. My own horse +and an ass belonging to Milo conceived a strange dislike to me. They +fell upon me with great fury, and bit me and kicked me, and made such a +clamour that the groom came to see whatever was the matter. He found me +standing on my hind legs trying to reach the garland of roses which he +had placed on the shrine of the goddess Epona in the middle of the +stable. + +"What a sacrilegious brute!" he cried, falling upon me savagely. +"Attacking the shrine of the divinity who guards over horses! I'll lame +you, that I will!" + +As he was belabouring me with a great cudgel, a band of fierce men armed +with swords and carrying lighted torches appeared. At the sight of them +the groom fled in terror. + +"Help! Help! Robbers!" I heard Milo and Fotis cry. + +But before the groom was able to fetch the watch, the robbers forced +their way into the house, and broke open Milo's strongbox. Then they +loaded me and the horse and the ass with the stolen wealth, and drove us +out into the mountains. Unused to the heavy burden laid on me, I went +rather slowly. This enraged the robbers, and they beat me until I was +well-nigh dead. But at last I saw a sight which filled me with the +wildest joy. We passed a noble country house, surrounded by a garden of +sweet-smelling roses. I rushed open-mouthed upon the flowers. But just +as I strained my curling lips towards them, I stopped. If I changed +myself into a man the robbers would kill me, either as a wizard, or out +of fear that I would inform against them! So I left the roses untouched, +and in the evening we came to the cave in the mountains where the +robbers dwelt, and there, to my delight, I was relieved of my grievous +load. + +Soon afterwards another band of robbers arrived, carrying a young and +lovely maid arrayed as a bride. Her beautiful features were pale, and +wet with tears, and she tore her hair and her garments. "Take this +girl," said the robbers to the old woman who waited upon them, "and +comfort her. Tell her she's in no danger. Her people are rich, and will +soon ransom her." + +Charite, for such was the name of the beautiful bride, fell weeping into +one of the old women's arms. + +"They tore me away from Tlepolemus," she said, "when he was about to +enter my bridal chamber. Our house was decked with laurel, and the +bridal-song was being sung, when a band of swordsmen entered with drawn +swords, and carried me off. Now I shall never see my bridegroom again." + +"Yes, you will, dearie," said the old woman. "But don't let us talk +about it now. After all, you are not in so evil a plight as Psyche was +when she lost her husband, Cupid. Now, listen, while I tell you that +marvellous tale." + +And here is the tale of Cupid and Psyche as the old woman related it to +Charite: + + +_IV.--The Marvellous Story of Cupid and Psyche_ + + +"There was once a king of a certain city who had three daughters. All of +them were very beautiful, but Psyche, the youngest, was lovelier even +than Venus. The people worshipped her as she walked the streets, and +strewed her path with flowers. Strangers from all parts of the world +thronged to see her and to adore her. The temples of Venus were +deserted, and no garlands were laid at her shrines. Thereupon, the +goddess of love and beauty grew angry. She tossed her head with a cry of +rage, and called to her son, Cupid, and showed him Psyche walking the +streets of the city. + +"'Avenge me!' she said. 'Fill this maiden with burning love for the +ugliest, wretchedest creature that lives on earth.' + +"The king was thereupon commanded by an oracle to array his daughter in +bridal robes, and set her upon a high mountain, so that she might be +wedded to a horrible monster. All the city was filled with grief and +lamentation when Psyche was led out to her doom, and placed upon the +lonely peak. Then a mighty wind arose, and carried the maiden to an +enchanted palace, where she was waited on by unseen spirits who played +sweet music for her delight, and fed her with delicious food. But in the +darkness of night someone came to her couch and wooed her tenderly, and +she fell in love with him and became his wife. And he said: 'Psyche, you +may do what you will in the palace I have built for you. But one thing +you must not do--you must not attempt to see my face.' + +"Her husband was very sweet and kind, but he came only in the night +time; and in the daytime Psyche felt very lonesome. So she begged her +husband to let her sisters come and stay with her, and her husband had +them brought on a mighty wind. When they saw how delightfully Psyche +lived in the enchanted palace they grew jealous of her strange +happiness. + +"'Yes, this is a very pleasant place,' they exclaimed, 'but you know +what the oracle said, Psyche. You are married to a monster! That is the +reason why he will not let you see his face.' + +"In the night, when they had departed, Psyche lighted a lamp and looked +at her bedfellow. Oh, joy! It was Cupid, the radiant young god of love, +reposing in his beauty. In her excitement Psyche let a drop of burning +oil fall from the lamp upon his right shoulder. The god leaped up and +spread out his wings, and flew away, saying: + +"'Instead of marrying you to a monster, in obedience to my mother's +commands, I wedded you myself. And this is how you serve me! Farewell, +Psyche! Farewell!' + +"But Psyche set out to follow him, and after a long and toilsome journey +she reached the court of Venus, where Cupid was now imprisoned. Venus +seized her and beat her, and then set her on dangerous tasks, and tried +to bring about her death. But Psyche was so lovely and gentle that every +living creature wished to help her and save her. Then Venus, fearing +that Cupid would escape and rescue his wife, said: + +"'Psyche, take this casket to Proserpine, in the Kingdom of the Dead, +and ask her to fill it with beauty.' + +"Psyche was in despair. No mortal had ever returned from the Kingdom of +the Dead. She climbed a high tower, and prepared to throw herself down, +and die. But the very stones took pity upon her. + +"'Go to Tænarus,' they said, 'and there you will find a way to the +Underworld. Take two copper coins in your mouth, and two honey-cakes in +your hands.' + +"Psyche travelled to Tænarus, near Lacedæmon, and there she found a hole +leading to the Underworld. A ghostly ferryman rowed her over the River +of Death, and took one of her copper coins. Then a monstrous dog with +three heads sprang out, but Psyche fed him with one of her honey-cakes, +and entered the hall of Proserpine, the queen of the dead. Proserpine +filled the casket, and by means of the last honey-cake and the last +copper coin, Psyche returned to the green, bright earth. + +"But, alas! she was over-curious, and opened the casket to see the +divine beauty it contained. A deadly vapour came out and overpowered +her, and she fell to the ground. But Cupid, who had now escaped from his +prison, found her lying on the grass, and wiped the vapour from her +face. Taking her in his arms, he spread out his wings, and carried her +to Olympus; and there they live together in unending bliss, with their +little child, whose name is Joy." + + +_V.--The Further Strange Adventures of the Ass_ + + +While the old woman was entertaining the beautiful captive with this +charming tale, a tall, fierce young man in ragged clothes stalked boldly +in among the robbers. + +"Long life to you, brave comrades!" he said. "Don't judge me by these +rags, my boys. They're a disguise. Have you heard of Hæmus, the famous +Thracian brigand? If so, you've heard of me. My band has been cut up, +but I'm bringing what men I still have to you. Shall we join forces?" + +The robbers had just lost their own captain, so they received Hæmus with +great joy, and made him their leader. Soon afterwards ten of his men +came in, loaded with swollen wine-bags. + +"Here's enough wine," he said, "to last us a fortnight if we use it +temperately. Let us celebrate this glorious day by finishing it at one +sitting!" + +The robbers at once fell furiously to drinking, and their new captain +forced Charite to come and sit beside him. After a little wooing, she +began to cling to him, and return his kisses. + +"Oh, what a frail, fickle, faithless race are women!" I said to myself. +"Scarcely two hours ago she was crying her eyes out for her bridegroom; +now here she is, fondling a wretched assassin." + +What an ass I was! It was some time before I noticed that the new +captain did not drink himself, and that the men he brought with him were +only pretending to drink, while forcing the wine on the other robbers, +who soon became too drunk to drink, and rolled over in a deep sleep. + +"Up, boys, and disarm and bind these ruffians!" said the new captain, +who was none other than Tlepolemus, the bridegroom of the fair Charite. +And leaving his servants to perform this task, he put Charite on my +back, and led me to his native town. All the inhabitants poured out into +the street to see us pass, and they loudly acclaimed Tlepolemus for his +valour and ingenuity in rescuing his lovely bride, and capturing the +robbers. + +Charite did not forget me in the scenes of rejoicing. She patted my head +and kissed my rough face, and bade the groom of the stud feed me well, +and let me have the run of the fields. + +"Now I shall at last be able to get a mouthful of roses," I thought, +"and recover my human shape." + +But, alas! the groom was an avaricious, disobedient slave, and he at +once sold me to a troupe of those infamous beggarly priests of Cybele, +who cart the Syrian goddess about the public squares to the sound of +cymbals and rattles. + +The next morning my new owners smeared their faces with rouge, and +painted their eyes with black grease; then they dressed themselves in +white tunics, and set their wretched goddess on my back, and marched +out, leaping and brandishing great swords and axes. On coming to the +mansion of a wealthy man, they raised a wild din, and whirled about, and +cut themselves and scourged themselves until they were covered with +blood. The master of the mansion was so impressed with this savage and +degrading spectacle that he gave the priests a good sum of money, and +invited them into his house. They took the goddess with them, and I +scampered out into the fields searching for some roses. + +But I was quickly brought back by the cook. His master had given him a +fat haunch from an enormous stag to roast for the priests' dinner, and a +dog had run off with it. In order to avoid being whipped for his +carelessness, the slave resolved to let the priests dine off a haunch of +their own ass. He locked the door of the kitchen, so that I could not +escape, and then took a long knife and came to kill me. But I had no +mind to perish in this way; and I dashed upstairs into the room where +the master was busy worshipping the goddess in the company of the +priests, and knocked the table over, and the goddess and many of the +worshippers. + +"Kill the wretched thing," said the master. "It has gone mad." + +But the priests did not care to lose their salable property, and they +locked me in their bedroom, and sold me to the first man they met the +next morning. It was a poor gardener who needed an ass to cart his stuff +to market. But as the gardener was taking me home a soldier came +tramping along the road. He, too, wanted an ass to carry his heavy kit. +So he struck the gardener down with his sword and seized me by right of +conquest; then, loading me with his armour and shield and baggage, he +took me to the town to which he was travelling. There he was ordered by +his tribune to take some letters to Rome, so he disposed of me for a +small sum to two confectioners. + +By this time I had grown very feeble and thin. Though I was changed into +an ass, L could not relish hay and grass and food of that sort, and I +derived scarcely any nourishment from it. I still had human tastes, as +well as human thoughts and feelings. Happily, I was very well off with +my new masters. Every evening, they brought home the remains of the +banquets they had served--bits of chicken, pork, fish and meat, and +various cakes; and these they put in their room while they went for a +bath before dinner. I used then to creep in and take all the best bits, +and when my two masters returned they began to reproach each other with +having filched the choicest pieces. In the meantime, I grew plump and +glossy and broad-backed, and as my masters observed I ate no hay, they +spied on me one evening. + +They forgot their quarrel when they saw their ass picking out the best +bits with the taste of an epicure: and, bursting open the door, they +cried: "Let us try him with wine!" Naturally, I drank it very readily. + +"We have got a treasure here," they said. They soon found that I was +intelligent, and understood human language. And after training me they +took me to Corinth, and exhibited me there, and made a great deal of +money. In a short time I became famous throughout Greece as the "Golden +Ass," and I was bought by the town for use in the public show. Nobody +thought that any watch need be kept over an animal as thoroughly +civilised as I was; and one evening I succeeded in escaping, and fled to +a lonely spot on the seashore. + + +_VI.--The Miracle of Isis and the Fate of Lucius_ + + +As I nestled down on the soft sand, the full-orbed moon rose above the +eastern waves, and shone with a glorious radiance. My heart opened to +the mysteries of the sacred night, and I sprang up, and bathed seven +times in the cleansing water of the sea. Then, with tears upon my +cheeks, I prayed to Isis, the mighty saviour goddess: + +"O Queen of Heaven, who dost enlighten the world with thy lovely beams +as thou goest on thy lonely way, hear me now and help me, in my peril +and misery and misfortune! Restore me, O mighty goddess, to my rightful +shape, and let Lucius return to the bosom of his family." + +Sleep fell swiftly upon my eyes, and in my sleep the goddess visited me. +She rose up, a vision of light, from the waters. On her head was a crown +of radiant flowers, shaped like the moon, and serpents coiled about her +temples, and her divine body was arrayed in a robe of shining darkness +embroidered with innumerable stars. + +"See, Lucius," she said, with a voice that breathed a great sweetness +over me, "Isis appears in answer to your prayer. Cease now to weep and +mourn, for I am come in pity of your lot to show favour to you. +To-morrow my priest will descend to the seashore to celebrate my +festival, and in his left hand he will carry a crown of roses. Go forth +without fear, and take the crown of roses, and then put off the shape of +a beast, and put on the form of a man. Serve me well all the days of +your life, and when you go down to the grave you shall see me as a light +amid the darkness--as a queen in the palace of hell. By my favour you +shall be lifted up into the fields of Paradise, and there you shall +worship and adore me for all eternity." + +The saviour goddess then vanished, and I awoke, and the dawn was in the +sky, and the waves of the sea were dancing in the golden light. A long +procession was winding down from the city to the shore to the sound of +flutes and pipes. + +First came a great multitude of people carrying lamps and torches and +tapers in honour of the constellations of heaven; then a choir of +sweet-voiced boys and girls in snowy garments; and next a train of men +and women luminous in robes of pure white linen; these were the +initiates; and they were followed by the prelates of the sacred +mysteries; and behind them all walked the high priest, bearing in his +right hand the mystic rattle of Isis, and in his left hand the crown of +roses. By divine intervention, the crowd parted and made a way for me; +and when I came to the priest he held out the roses, and I ate them, and +was changed into a man. The people raised their hands to heaven, +wonder-stricken by the miracle, and the fame of it went out over all the +world. The priest initiated me into the mysteries of Isis and Osiris, +and I shaved my head, and entered the College of Pastors, and became a +servant of the high gods. + + * * * * * + + + + +The Arabian Nights + +Or, The Thousand and One Nights + + + There is as much doubt about the history of "The Thousand and + One Nights" as that which veils the origin of the Homeric + poems. It is said that a certain Caliph Shahryar, having been + deceived by his wife, slew her, and afterwards married a wife + only for one day, slaying her on the morning after. When this + slaughter of women had continued some time he became wedded to + one Shahrazad, daughter of his Vizir, who, by telling the + Commander of the Faithful exciting stories and leaving them + unfinished every dawn, so provoked the Caliph's curiosity that + he kept her alive, and at last grew so fond of her that he had + no thought of putting her to death. As for the authorship of + the stories, they are certainly not the work of one mind, and + have probably grown with the ages into their present form. The + editions published for Christian countries do not represent + the true character of these legends, which are often + exceedingly sensual. The European versions of this + extraordinary entertainment began in 1704 with the work of one + Antoine Galland, Professor of Arabic at the College of France, + a Frenchman who, according to Sir Richard Burton, possessed + "in a high degree that art of telling a tale which is far more + captivating than culture or scholarship." Sir R. Burton (see + Vol. XIX) summed up what may be definitely believed of the + Nights in the following conclusion: The framework of the book + is purely Persian perfunctorily Arabised, the archetype being + the Hazar Afsanah. The oldest tales may date from the reign of + Al-Mansur, in the eighth century; others belong to the tenth + century; and the latest may be ascribed to the sixteenth. The + work assumed its present form in the thirteenth century. The + author is unknown, "for the best reason; there never was one." + + +_I.--The Seven Voyages of Sindbad the Sailor_ + + +When the father of Sindbad was taken to Almighty Allah, much wealth came +to the possession of his son; but soon did it dwindle in boon +companionship, for the city of Baghdad is sweet to the youthful. Then +did Sindbad bethink him how he might restore his fortune, saying to +himself: "Three things are better than other three; the day of death is +better than the day of birth, a live dog is better than a dead lion, and +the grave is better than want"; and gathering merchandise together, he +took ship and sailed away to foreign countries. + +Now it came to pass that the captain of this ship sighted a strange +island, whereon were grass and trees, very pleasant to the eyes. So they +anchored, and many went ashore. When these had gathered fruits, they +made a fire, and were about to warm themselves, when the captain cried +out from the ship: "Ho there! passengers, run for your lives and hasten +back to the ship and leave your gear and save yourselves from +destruction. Allah preserve you! For this island whereon ye stand is no +true island, but a great fish stationary a-middlemost of the sea, +whereon the sand hath settled and trees have sprung up of old time, so +that it is become like unto an island; but when ye lighted fires on it, +it felt the heat and moved; and in a moment it will sink with you into +the depths of the sea and ye will be drowned." + +When the fish moved, the captain did not wait for his passengers, but +sailed away, and Sindbad, seizing a tub, floated helpless in the great +waters. But by the mercy of Allah he was thrown upon a true island, +where a beautiful mare lay upon the ground, who cried at his approach. +Then a man started up at the mare's cry, and seeing Sindbad, bore him to +an underground chamber, where he regaled the waif with plenteous food. +To him did this man explain how he was a groom of King Mirjan, and that +he brought the king's mares to pasture on the island, hiding underground +while the stallions of the sea came up out of the waves unto the mares. +Presently Sindbad saw this strange sight, and witnessed how the groom +drove the stallions back to the waves when they would have dragged the +mares with them. After that he was carried before King Mirjan, who +entreated him kindly, and when he had amassed wealth, returned by ship +to Bussorah, and so to Baghdad. + +But becoming possessed with the thought of travelling about the ways of +men, he set out on a second voyage. And it came to pass that he landed +with others on a lovely island, and lay down to sleep, after he had +eaten many delicious fruits. Awaking, he found the ship gone. Then, +praying to Almighty Allah, like a man distracted, he roamed about the +island, presently climbing a tree to see what he could see. And he saw a +great dome afar, and journeyed to it. + +There was no entrance to this white dome, and as he went round about it, +the sun became suddenly darkened, so that he looked towards it in fear, +and lo! a bird in the heavens whose wings blackened all light. Then did +Sindbad know that the dome was an egg, and that the bird was the bird +roc, which feeds its young upon elephants. Sore afraid, he hid himself, +and the bird settled upon the egg, and brooded upon it. Then Sindbad +unwound his turban, and, tying one end to the leg of the great bird and +the other about his own middle, waited for the dawn. + +When the dawn was come, the bird flew into the heavens, unaware of the +weight at its foot, and Sindbad was borne across great seas and far +countries. When at last the bird settled on land, Sindbad unfastened his +turban, and was free. + +But the place was filled with frightful serpents, and strewn with +diamonds. Sindbad saw a dead sheep on the ground, with diamonds sticking +to its carcase, and he knew that this was a device of merchants, for +eagles come and carry away these carcases to places beyond the reach of +the serpents, and merchants take the diamonds sticking to the flesh. So +he hid himself under the carcase, and an eagle bore him with it to +inhabited lands, and he was delivered. + +Again it came to him to travel, and on this his third voyage the ship +was driven to the mountain of Zughb, inhabited by hairy apes. These apes +seized all the goods and gear, breaking the ship, but spared the men. +Then they perceived a great house and entered it, but nobody was there. +At nightfall, however, a frightful giant entered, and began to feel the +men one by one, till he found the fattest, and him the giant roasted +over a fire and ate like a chicken. This happened many days, till +Sindbad encouraged his friends, and they heated two iron spits in the +fire, and while the giant slept put out his eyes. While they ran to the +shore, where they had built a raft, the giant, bellowing with rage, +returned with two ghuls, and pelted the raft with rocks, killing some, +but the rest escaped. However, three only were alive when they reached +land. + +The shore on which these three landed was occupied by an immense +serpent, like a dragon, who instantly ate one of the three, while +Sindbad and the other climbed up a tree. Next day the serpent glided up +the tree, and ate the second. Then Sindbad descended, and with planks +bound himself all round so that he was a man surrounded by a fence. Thus +did he abide safe from the serpent till a ship saved him. + +Now on his fourth voyage Sindbad's ship was wrecked, and he fell among +hairy men, cannibals, who fattened all that they caught like cattle, and +consumed them. He being thin and wasted by all his misfortunes, escaped +death, and saw all his comrades fattened and roasted, till they went +mad, with cries of anguish. It chanced that the shepherd, who tended +these men in the folds, took pity on Sindbad and showed him the road out +of danger, which taking, he arrived, after divers adventures and +difficulties, at the country of a great king. In this country all were +horsemen, but the saddle was unknown, so Sindbad made first the king, +and afterwards the vizir, both saddle and stirrups, which so delighted +them that he was advanced to great fortune and honour. + +Then was he married to a maiden most beautiful and chaste, so lovely to +behold that she ravished the senses, and he lived like one in a dream. +But it came to pass that she died, and when they buried her they took +Sindbad and shut him in the Place of the Dead with her, giving him a +little food and water till he should die. Such was the custom, that +husband and wife should accompany the dead wife or husband in the Place +of the Dead--a mighty cave strewn with dead bodies, dark as night, and +littered with jewels. + +While Sindbad bewailed his lot in this place the doors opened, a dead +body of a man was brought in, and with it his live wife, to whom food +was given. Then Sindbad killed this fair lady with the bone of a leg, +took her food and jewels, and thus did he serve all the live people +thrust into the cavern. One day he heard a strange sound far up the +cavern, and perceived in the distance a wild beast. Then he knew that +there must be some entrance at that far end, and journeying thither, +found a hole in the mountain which led to the sea. On the shore Sindbad +piled all his jewels, returning every day to the cavern to gather more, +till a ship came and bore him away. + +His fifth voyage was interrupted by rocs, whose egg the sailors had +smashed open to see the interior of what they took to be a dome. These +birds flew over the ship with rocks in their claws, and let them fall on +to the ship, so that it was wrecked. + +Sindbad reached shore on a plank, and wandering on this island perceived +an old man, very sad, seated by a river. The old man signalled to +Sindbad that he should carry him on his back to a certain point, and +this Sindbad very willingly bent himself to do. But once upon his back, +the legs over the shoulders and wound round about his flanks, the old +man refused to get off, and drove Sindbad hither and thither with most +cruel blows. At last Sindbad took a gourd, hollowed it out, filled it +with grape juice, stopped the mouth, and set it in the sun. Then did he +drink of this wine and get merry and forget his misery, dancing with the +old man on his neck. So the old man asked for the gourd, and drank of +it, and fell sleepy, and dropped from Sindbad's neck, and Sindbad slew +him. + +After that, Sindbad amassed treasure by pelting apes with pebbles, who +threw back at him cocoanuts, which he sold for money. + +On his sixth voyage Sindbad was wrecked on the most frightful mountain +which no ship could pass. The sight of all the useless wealth strewn +upon this terrible place of wreck and death drove all the other +passengers mad, so that they died. But Sindbad, finding a stream, built +a raft, and drifted with it, till, almost dead, he arrived among Indians +and Abyssinians. Here he was well treated, grew rich, and returned in +prosperity to Baghdad. + +But once again did he travel, and this time his vessel encountered in +the middle seas three vast fish-like islands, which lashed out and +destroyed the ship, eating most, but Sindbad escaped. When he reached +land he found himself well cared for among kind people, and he grew rich +in an old man's house, who married him to his only daughter. One day +after the old man's death, and when he was as rich as any in that land, +lo! all the men grew into the likeness of birds, and Sindbad begged one +of them to take him on his back on the mysterious flight to which they +were now bent. After persuasion the man-bird agreed, and Sindbad was +carried up into the firmament till he could hear the angels glorifying +God in the heavenly dome. Carried away by ecstasy, he shouted praise of +Allah into the holy place, and instantly the bird fell to the ground, +for they were evil and incapable of praising God. But Sindbad returned +to his wife, and she told him how evil were those people, and that her +father was not of them, and induced him to carry her to his own land. So +he sold all his possessions, took ship, and came to Baghdad, where he +lived in great splendour and honour, and this was the seventh and last +voyage of Sindbad the Sailor. + + +_II.--The Tale of the Three Apples_ + + +The Caliph Haroun al-Raschid, walking by night in the city, found a +fisherman lamenting that he had caught nothing for his wife and +children. "Cast again," said the caliph, "and I will give thee a hundred +gold pieces for whatsoever cometh up." So the man cast his net, and +there came up a box, wherein was found a young damsel foully murdered. +Now, to this murder confessed two men, a youth and an old man; and this +was the story of the youth. + +His wife fell ill, and had a longing for apples, so that he made the +journey to Bussorah, and bought three apples from the caliph's gardener. +But his wife would not eat them. One day, as he sat in his shop, passed +a slave, bearing one of the apples. The husband asked how he came by it, +whereat replied the slave that his mistress gave it him, saying that her +wittol of a husband had journeyed to Bussorah for it. Then in rage the +young man returned and slew his wife. Presently his little son came +home, saying that he was afraid of his mother; and when the father +questioned him, replied the child that he had taken one of his mother's +three apples to play with, and that a slave had stolen it. Then did the +husband know his wife to be innocent, and he told her father all, and +they both mourned for her, and both offered themselves to the +executioner--the one that he was guilty, the other to save his son-in- +law whose guilt was innocence. + +From this story followed that of Noureddin and his son Bedreddin Hassan, +whose marriage to the Lady of Beauty was brought about by a genie, in +spite of great difficulties. And it was after hearing this tale that +Haroun al-Raschid declared to his vizir: "It behoves that these stories +be written in letters of liquid gold." + + +_III.--Hassan, the Rope-Maker_ + + +Two men, so it chanced, disputing whether wealth could give happiness, +came before the shop of a poor rope-maker. Said one of the men: "I will +give this fellow two hundred pieces of gold, and see what he does with +it." Hassan, amazed by this gift, put the gold in his turban, except ten +pieces, and went forth to buy hemp for his trade and meat for his +children. + +As he journeyed, a famished vulture made a pounce at the meat, and +Hassan's turban fell off, with which the vulture, balked of the meat, +flew away, far out of sight. + +When the two men returned they found Hassan very unhappy, and the same +who had given before gave him another two hundred pieces, which Hassan +hid carefully, all but ten pieces, in a pot of bran. While he was out +buying hemp, his wife exchanged the pot of bran for some scouring sand +with a sandman in the street. Hassan was maddened when he came home, and +beat his wife, and tore her hair, and howled like an evil spirit. When +his friends returned they were amazed by his tale, but the one who had +as yet given nothing now gave Hassan a lump of lead picked up in the +street, saying: "Good luck shall come of homely lead, where gold profits +nothing." + +Hassan thought but little of the lead, and when a fisherman sent among +his neighbours that night for a piece of lead wherewith to mend his +nets, very willingly did Hassan part with this gift, the fisherman +promising him the first fish he should catch. + +When Hassan's wife cut open this fish to cook it, she found within it a +large piece of glass, crystal clear, which she threw to the children for +a plaything. A Jewess who entered the shop saw this piece of glass, +picked it up, and offered a few pieces of money for it. Hassan's wife +dared not do anything now without her husband's leave, and Hassan, being +summoned, refused all the offers of the Jewess, perceiving that the +piece of glass was surely a precious diamond. At last the Jewess offered +a hundred thousand pieces of gold, and, as this was wealth beyond +wealth, Hassan very willingly agreed to the barter. + + +_IV.--Prince Ahmed and the Fairy_ + + +Once upon a time there was a sultan who had three sons, and all these +young men loved their cousin, the fatherless and motherless Nouronnihar, +who lived at their father's court. + +To decide which should marry the princess the sultan bade them go forth, +each a separate way, and, after a time, determined to end their travels +by assembling at a certain place. "He of you who brings back from his +travels the greatest of rarities," said the sultan, "he shall marry the +princess, my niece." To Almighty Allah was confided the rest. + +The eldest of the princes, Houssain by name, consorted with merchants in +his travels, but saw nothing strange or wonderful till he encountered a +man crying a piece of carpet for forty pieces of gold. "Such is the +magic of this carpet," protested the man, "that he who sits himself upon +it is instantly transported to whatsoever place he desires to visit, be +it over wide seas or tall mountains." The prince bought this carpet, +amused himself with it for some time, and then flew joyfully to the +place of assembly. + +Hither came the second prince, Ali, who brought from Persia an ivory +tube, down which, if any man looked, he beheld the sight that most he +desired to see; and the third prince, the young Ahmed, who had bought +for thirty-five pieces of gold a magic apple, the smell of which would +restore a soul almost passed through the gate of death. + +The three princes, desiring to see their beloved princess, looked down +Ali's ivory tube, and, lo! the tragic sight that met their gaze--for the +princess lay at the point of death. + +Swiftly did they seat themselves upon Houssain's magic carpet, and in a +moment of time found themselves beside the princess, whom Ahmed +instantly restored to life and beauty and health by his magic apple. + +As it seemed impossible to decide which of these rare things was the +rarest, the sultan commanded that each prince should shoot an arrow, and +he whose arrow flew farthest should become the husband of Nouronnihar. + +Houssain drew the first bow; then Ali, whose arrow sped much farther, +and then Ahmed, whose arrow was not to be found. + +Houssain, in despair, gave up his right of succession to the throne, +and, with a blighted heart, went out into the wilderness to become a +holy man. Ali was married to the princess, and Ahmed went forth into the +world to seek his lost arrow. + +After long wandering, Ahmed found his arrow among desolate rocks, too +far for any man to have shot with the bow; and, while he looked about +him, amazed and dumfounded, he beheld an iron door in the rocks, which +yielded to his touch and led into a very sumptuous palace. There +advanced towards him a lady of surpassing loveliness, who announced that +she was a genie, that she knew well who he was, and had sent the carpet, +the tube, and the apple, and had guided his arrow to her door. +Furthermore, she confessed to the prince great love for him, and offered +him all that she possessed, leading him to a vast and magnificent +chamber, where a marriage-feast was prepared for them. + +Prince Ahmed was happy for some while, and then he thought of his +father, grieving for him, and at last obtained leave from the beautiful +genie to go on a visit to his home. At first his father was glad to see +him, but afterwards jealousy of his son and the son's secret place of +dwelling, and suspicion that a son so rich and powerful might have +designs on his throne, led his father to lay hard and cruel burdens on +Prince Ahmed. + +However, all that he commanded Ahmed performed by help of the genie, +even things the most impossible. He brought a tent which would cover the +sultan's army, and yet, folded up, lay in the hollow of a man's hand. +This and many other wonderful things did Ahmed perform, till the sultan +asked for a man one foot and a half in height, with a beard thirty feet +long, who could carry a bar of iron weighing five hundredweight. + +Such a man the genie found, and the sultan, beholding him, turned away +in disgust; whereat the dwarf flew at him in a rage, and with his iron +bar smote him to death. + +Thus, too, did the little man treat all the wicked courtiers and +sorcerers who had incensed the sultan against his son. And Ahmed and the +genie became sultan and sultana of all that world, while Ali and +Nouronnihar reigned over a great province bestowed upon them by Prince +Ahmed. + +As for Houssain, he forsook not the life of a holy man living in the +wilderness. + + +_V.--The Hunchback_ + + +There lived long ago a poor tailor with a pretty wife to whom he was +tenderly attached. One day there came to his door a hunchback, who +played upon a musical instrument and sang to it so amusingly that the +tailor straightway carried him to his wife. So delighted by the +hunchback's singing was the tailor's wife that she cooked a dish of fish +and the three sat down to be merry. But in the midst of the feast a bone +stuck in the hunchback's throat, and before a man could stare he was +dead. Afraid that they should be accused of murder, the tailor conspired +with his wife what they should do. "I have it," said he, and getting a +piece of money he sallied forth at dark with the hunchback's body and +arrived before the house of a doctor. + +Here knocked he on the door, and giving the maid a piece of money, bade +her hasten the doctor to his need. So soon as the maid's back was +turned, he placed the hunchback on the top stair and fled. Now the +doctor, coming quickly, struck against the corpse so that it fell to the +bottom of the stairs. "Woe is me, for I have killed a patient!" said he, +and fearing to be accused of murder, carried the body in to his wife. + +Now they had a neighbour who was absent from home, and going to his room +they placed the corpse against the fireplace. This man, returning and +crying out: "So it is not the rats who plunder my larder!" began to +belabour the hunchback, till the body rolled over and lay still. Then in +great fear of his deed, this Mussulman carried the corpse into the +street, and placed it upright against a shop. + +Came by a Christian merchant at dawn of day, and running against the +hunchback tumbled him over; then thinking himself attacked he struck the +body, and at that moment the watch came by and haled the merchant before +the sultan. + +Now the hunchback was a favourite of the sultan, and he ordered the +Christian merchant to be executed. + +To the scaffold, just when death was to be done, came the Mussulman, and +confessed that he was the murderer. So the executioner released the +Christian, and was about to hang the other, when the doctor came and +confessed to being the murderer. So the doctor took the place of the +Mussulman, when the tailor and his wife hastened to the scene, and +confessed that they were guilty. + +Now, when this story came to the ears of the sultan, he said: "Great is +Allah, whose will must be done!" and he released all of them, and +commanded this story of the hunchback to be written in a book. + + +_VI.--Aladdin, or the Wonderful Lamp_ + + +There was in the old time a bad and idle boy who lived with his mother, +a poor widow, and gave her much unrest. And there came to him one day a +wicked magician, who called himself the boy's uncle, and made rich +presents to the mother, and one day he led Aladdin out to make him a +merchant. Now, the magician knew by his magic of a vast hoard of wealth, +together with a wonderful lamp, which lay in the earth buried in +Aladdin's name. And he sent the boy to fetch the lamp, giving him a +magic ring, and waited on the earth for his return. But Aladdin, his +pockets full of jewels, refused to give up the lamp till his false uncle +helped him to the surface of the earth, and in rage the magician caused +the stone to fall upon the cave, and left Aladdin to die. + +But as he wept, wringing his hands, the genie of the magic ring +appeared, and by his aid Aladdin was restored to his mother. There, with +the genie of the lamp to wait upon him, he lived, till, seeing the +sultan's daughter pass on her way to the bath, he conceived violent love +for her, and sent his mother to the sultan with all his wonderful +jewels, asking the princess in marriage. The sultan, astonished by the +gift of jewels, set Aladdin to perform prodigies of wonder, but all +these he accomplished by aid of the genie, so that at last the sultan +was obliged to give him the princess in marriage. And Aladdin caused a +great pavilion to rise near the sultan's palace, and this was one of the +wonders of the world, and there he abode in honour and fame. + +Then the wicked magician, knowing by magic the glory of Aladdin, came +disguised, crying "New Lamps for Old!" and one of the maids in the +pavilion gave him the wonderful lamp, and received a new one from the +coppersmith. The magician transplanted the pavilion to Africa, and +Aladdin, coming home, found the sultan enraged against him and his +palace vanished. But by means of the genie of the ring he discovered the +whereabouts of his pavilion, and going thither, slew the magician, +possessed himself anew of the lamp, and restored his pavilion to its +former site. + +But the magician's wicked brother, plotting revenge, obtained access to +the princess in disguise of a holy woman he had foully murdered, and he +would have certainly slain Aladdin but for a warning of the genie, by +which Aladdin was enabled to kill the magician. After that Aladdin lived +in glory and peace, and ascended in due course to the throne, and +reigned with honour and mercy. + + +_VII.--Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves_ + + +Now, the father of Ali Baba left both his sons poor; but Kasim married a +rich wife, and so he lived plenteously, while his poor brother, Ali +Baba, worked in the wood. It came to pass that Ali Baba one day saw in +the wood a company of forty robbers, the captain of whom cried, "Open, +Sesame!" to a great rock, and lo! it opened, and the men disappeared. +When they were gone out again, Ali Baba came from his hiding, and, +addressing the rock in the same way, found that it obeyed him. Then went +he in and took much of the treasure, which he drove home on his mule. +Now, when his wife sent to the brother Kasim for scales, wherewith she +might weigh all this treasure, the sister-in-law being suspicious that +one so poor should have need of scales, smeared the bottom of the pan +with wax and grease, and discovered on the return a gold piece. This she +showed to Kasim, who made Ali Baba confess the tale. Then Kasim went to +the cave, entered, loaded much treasure, and was about to depart, when +he found he had forgotten the magic words whereby he entered. There was +he found by the forty thieves, who slew and quartered him. Ali Baba +found the quarters, took them home, got a blind tailor to sew them +together, and gave his brother burial. + +Now, the robbers discovered Ali Baba's house, and they hid themselves in +oil-jars hung on the backs of mules, and the captain drove them. Thus +came they to Ali Baba's house, and the captain craved lodging for +himself and his beasts. Surely would Ali Baba have been captured, +tortured, and put to death but for his maid, the faithful and astute +Morgiana, who discovered men in the jars, and, boiling cans of oil, +poured it upon them one by one, and so delivered her master. But the +captain had escaped, and Ali Baba still went in great fear of his life. +But when he returned, disguised so that he might have puzzled the +wisest, Morgiana recognised the enemy of her master; and she was dancing +before him and filling his eyes with pleasure; and when it came for her +to take the tambourine and go round for largess, she strengthened her +heart and, quick as the blinding lightning, plunged a dagger into his +vitals. Thus did the faithful Morgiana save her master, and he married +her to his nephew, the son of Kasim, and they lived long in great joy +and blessing. + + +_VIII.--The Fisherman and the Genie_ + + +There was once a poor fisherman who every day cast his net four times +into the sea. On a day he went forth, and casting in his net, drew up +with great labour a dead jackass; casting again, an earthen pitcher full +of sand; casting a third time vexatiously, potsherds and shattered +glass; and at the last a jar of yellow copper, leaden-capped, and +stamped with the seal-ring of Solomon, the son of David. His rage was +silenced at sight of the sacred seal, and, removing the cap, smoke +issued, which, taking vast shape, became a terrible genie frightful to +see. + +Said the genie: "By what manner of death wilt thou die, for I have +sworn, by Allah, to slay the man who freed me!" He moreover explained +how Solomon had placed him in the jar for heresy, and how he had lain +all those years at the bottom of the sea. For a hundred years, he said, +he swore that he would make rich for ever and ever the man who freed +him; for the next hundred, that for such an one he would open the hoards +of the earth; then, that he would perfectly fulfil such an one's three +wishes; finally, in his rage, that he would kill the man who freed him. + +Now, the fisherman, having pleaded in vain, said that he did not believe +the tale, seeing that so huge a genie could never have got into so small +a jar. Whereat the genie made smoke of himself, and re-entered the vase. +Instantly then did the fisherman stopper it, nor would he let the genie +free till that wicked one had promised to spare his life and do him +service. Grudgingly and wrathfully did the genie issue forth, but being +now under oath to Allah, he spared the fisherman and did him service. + +He took him to a lake in the black mountains, bade him throw in his net, +and bear the catch to the sultan. Now, by the fisherman's catching of +four fish all of a different hue, the sultan discovered that this lake +in the mountains was once a populous and mighty city, whereof the prince +and all the inhabitants had been bewitched in ancient time. When the +city was restored and all those many people called back to life, the +sultan enriched the fisherman, who lived afterwards in wealth. + + +_IX.--The Enchanted Horse_ + + +In olden times there came to the Court of Persia a stranger from Ind, +riding a horse made of wood, which, said he, could fly whithersoever its +rider wished. When the sultan had seen the horse fly to a mountain and +back, he asked the Hindu its price, and said the man: "Thy daughter's +hand." Now the prince, standing by, was enraged at this insolence, but +his father said: "Have no fear that I should do this thing. Howsoever, +lest another king become possessed of the horse, I will bargain for it." +But the impetuous prince, doubting the truth of the horse's power, +jumped upon its back, turned the peg which he had observed the Hindu to +turn, and instantly was borne far away. + +The king, enraged that the Hindu could not bring back his son, had the +man cast into prison, albeit the Hindu protested that soon the prince +must discover the secret of stopping the horse by means of a second peg, +and therefore would soon return. + +Now the prince did not discover this secret till he was far away, and it +was night. He came to earth near a palace, and going in, found there an +exquisite lady sleeping, and knew by her dress that she was of a rank +equal with his own. Then he pleaded to her for succour, and she +constrained him to stay, and for many weeks he abode as a guest. After +that time he said, "Come to my father's court, that we may be married!" +And early one dawn he bore her to Persia on the back of the enchanted +horse. + +So glad was the king at his son's return that he released the Hindu. + +Now the Hindu, hearing what had happened, determined on revenge. He +found where the horse was placed, and going to the palace where the +foreign princess was housed, sent for her in the sultan's name, and she +came to him. Then he seated her upon the horse, and mounting up in full +view of the sultan and his royal son, flew far away with his lovely +captive. + +It was the Hindu's desire to marry this princess, but when they were +come to earth, she withstood him, and cried for help and succour. To her +came the sultan of that place, and slew the Hindu, and would have +married her, but she was faithful to her lover and feigned madness. + +Then the sultan offered rewards to any who should cure her of this +frightful madness, and many physicians came and failed. Now, her lover, +distracted at sight of seeing her in mid-air with the Hindu, had turned +Holy Man, roaming the earth without hope like one who is doomed. + +It happened that he came to the palace where the princess lay in her +feigned madness, and hearing the tale of her, and of the enchanted +horse, with new hope and a great joy in his heart, he went in, disguised +as a physician, and in secret made himself known. + +Then he stood before the sultan of that land, and said: "From the +enchanted horse hath she contracted this madness, and by the enchanted +horse shall she lose it." And he gave orders to dress her in glorious +array, to crown her with jewels and gold, and to lead her forth to the +palace square. + +A vast concourse assembled there, and the prince set his beloved lady on +the horse, and pretending incantations, leapt suddenly upon its back, +turned the peg, and as the enchanted steed flew towards Persia, over his +shoulder cried the glad prince: "When next, O sultan, thou wouldst marry +a princess who implores thy protection, ask first for her consent." + + * * * * * + + + + +AUCASSIN AND NICOLETTE + +Song-Story of the Twelfth Century + + If "Old Antif" of Hainault was, as the best authorities now + incline to think, the author of "Aucassin and Nicolette," + Belgium may claim to have produced the finest poet of the ages + of chivalry. He was probably a contemporary of the English + minstrel king, Richard the Lion-hearted. But nothing is known + of him save what can be gathered from the exquisite story of + love which he composed in his old age. Perhaps he, too, was, + in his younger days, a Crusader as well as a minstrel, and + fought in the Holy Land against the Saracens. His "song-story" + is certainly Arabian both in form and substance. Even his + hero, Aucassin, the young Christian lord of Beaucaire, bears + an Arabian name--Alcazin. There is nothing in Mohammedan + literature equal to "Aucassin and Nicolette." It can be + compared only with Shakespeare's "As You Like It." The old, + sorrowful, tender-hearted minstrel knight, who wandered from + castle to castle in Hainault and Picardy seven hundred years + ago, is one of the master-singers of the world. + + +_I.--Lovers Young and Fair_ + + + Listen to a tale of love, + Which an old grey captive wove. + Great delight and solace he + Found in his captivity, + As he told what toils beset + Aucassin and Nicolette; + And the dolour undergone, + And the deeds of prowess done + By a lad of noble race, + For a lady fair of face. + Though a man be old and blind, + Sick in body and in mind, + If he hearken he shall be + Filled with joy and jollity, + So delectable and sweet + Is the tale I now repeat. + +Now, a war broke out between Count Bougars of Valence and Count Garin of +Beaucaire; and Count Bougars besieged Beaucaire with a hundred knights +and ten thousand men. Then Count Garin, who was old and feeble, said to +his fair young son, Aucassin: + +"Now, son, go and defend our land and people." + +"I tell you," said Aucassin, "I will never draw sword unless I have my +sweet love Nicolette to wife." + +"And I tell you," said his father, "that I would liefer lose life and +land than see you wedded to her. What! A Saracen girl, bought by one of +my captains! A slave! A heathen! A witch! God! I will burn her in a +fire, and you with her." + +"Stay!" said Aucassin. "I will make an agreement. I will fight Count +Bougars, if you will let me speak to Nicolette after the battle." + +"I agree," said his father. And he said this because Count Bougars was +well night master of Beaucaire. + +Aucassin went out to battle in great joy. But his father went in great +anger to the captain that had bought Nicolette from the Saracens, and +said: + +"If I lay hands on that heathen girl, I will burn her in a fire, and you +also, unless you have a care." + +And the captain who had adopted Nicolette as his daughter was afraid +both for himself and for his godchild. And he hid her in the tower that +stood in the garden of his house. + + In the tower that Nicolette + Prisoned is, may no man get. + Pleasant is her room to see, + Carved and painted wondrously. + But no pleasure can she find + In the paintings, to her mind. + Look! For she is standing there + By the window, with her hair + Yellow like autumnal wheat + When the sunshine falls on it. + Blue-grey eyes she has, and brows + Whiter than the winter snows; + And her face is like a flower, + As she gazes from the tower: + As she gazes far below + Where the garden roses blow, + And the thrush and blackbird sing + In the pleasant time of spring. + "Woe is me!" she cries, "that I + In a prison cell must lie; + Parted by a cruel spite + From my young and lovely knight. + By the eyes of God, I swear + Prisonment I will not bear! + Here for long I shall not stay: + Love will quickly find a way." + +In the meantime, Aucassin mounted a great war-horse, and rode out to +battle. Still dreaming of Nicolette, he let the reins fall, and his +horse carried him among his foes. They took him prisoner, and sent word +to Count Bougars to come and see them hang the heir of Beaucaire. + +"Ha!" said Aucassin, waking out of his dream. "Ha, my God! My Saviour! +If they hang me, I shall never see my sweet love Nicolette again!" + +Striking out in a great passion, he made a havoc about him, like a boar +that turns at bay on the hounds in a forest. Ten knights he struck down, +and seven he wounded. Then, spying Count Bougars, that had come to see +him hanged, he lashed at his helm, and stunned him, and took him +prisoner to Beaucaire. + +"Father," he said, "here is Count Bougars. The war is ended. Now let me +see Nicolette." + +"I will not," said his father. "That is my last word in this matter. So +help me, God." + +"Count Bougars," said Aucassin, "you are my prisoner. I will have a +pledge from you; give me your hand." Count Bougars gave his hand. +"Pledge me," said Aucassin, "that if I set you free, you will do my +father all the hurt and damage and shame you can; for he is a liar." + +"In God's name," said Count Bougars, "put me to ransom and take all my +wealth; but do not mock me!" + +"Are you my prisoner?" said Aucassin. + +"Yes," said Count Bougars. + +"Then, so help me, God," said Aucassin, "I will now send your head from +your shoulders unless I have that pledge!" + +Thereupon Count Bougars pledged him, and Aucassin set him free. Then +Aucassin went to the captain that was godfather to Nicolette. "What have +you done with my sweet lady?" he asked. + +"You will never again see Nicolette, my fair lord," said the captain. +"What would you gain if you took the Saracen maid to bed? Your soul +would go to hell. You would never win to heaven!" + +"And what of that?" said Aucassin. "Who is it that win to heaven? Old +priests, and cripples that grovel and pray at altars, and tattered +beggars that die of cold and hunger. These only go to heaven, and I do +not want their company. So I will go to hell. For there go all good +scholars and the brave knights that died in wars, and sweet ladies that +had many lovers, and harpers, and minstrels, and great kings. Give me +but my Nicolette, and gladly I will keep them company." + + +_II.--Love's Song in a Dungeon_ + + +Aucassin returned very sorrowfully to the castle, and there his father +put him into a dungeon. + + Aucassin is cast and bound + In a dungeon underground; + Never does the sunlight fall + Shining on his prison wall; + Only one faint ray of it + Glimmers down a narrow slit. + But does Aucassin forget + His sweet lady, Nicolette? + Listen! He is singing there, + And his song is all of her: + "Though for love of thee I die + In this dungeon where I lie, + Wonder of the world, I will + Worship thee and praise thee still! + By the beauty of thy face, + By the joy of thy embrace, + By the rapture of thy kiss, + And thy body's sweetnesses, + Miracle of loveliness, + Comfort me in my distress! + Surely, 'twas but yesterday, + That the pilgrim came this way-- + Weak and poor and travel-worn-- + Who in Limousin was born. + With the falling sickness, he + Stricken was full grievously. + He had prayed to many a saint + For the cure of his complaint; + But no healing did he get + Till he saw my Nicolette. + Even as he lay down to die, + Nicolette came walking by. + On her shining limbs he gazed, + As her kirtle she upraised. + And he rose from off the ground, + Healed and joyful, whole and sound. + Miracle of loveliness, + Comfort me in my distress!" + +As Aucassin was singing in his dungeon, Nicolette was devising how to +get out of her tower. It was now summer time, in the month of May, when +the day is warm, long and clear, and the night still and serene. +Nicolette lay on her bed, and the moonlight streamed through the window, +and the nightingale sang in the garden below; and she thought of +Aucassin, her lover, whom she loved, and of Count Garin, who hated her. + +"I will stay here no longer," said Nicolette, "or the count will find me +and kill me." + +The old woman that was set to watch over her was asleep. Nicolette put +on her fine silken kirtle, and took the bedclothes and knotted them +together, and made a rope. This she fastened to the bar of her window, +and so got down from the tower. Then she lifted up her kirtle with both +hands, because the dew was lying deep on the grass, and went away down +the garden. + +Her locks were yellow and curled; her eyes blue-grey and laughing; her +lips were redder than the cherry or rose in summertime; her teeth white +and small; so slim was her waist that you could have clipped her in your +two hands; and so firm were her breasts that they rose against her +bodice as if they were two apples. The daisies that bent above her +instep, and broke beneath her light tread, looked black against her +feet; so white the maiden was. + +She came to the postern gate, and unbarred it, and went out through the +streets of Beaucaire, keeping always in the shadows, for the moon was +shining. And so she got to the dungeon where her lover, Aucassin, lay. +She thrust her head through the chink, and there she heard Aucassin +grieving for her whom he loved so much. + +"Ah, Aucassin!" she said. "Never will you have joy of me. Your father +hates me to death, and I must cross the sea, and go to some strange +land." + +"If you were to go away," said Aucassin, "you would kill me. The first +man that saw you would take you to his bed. And, then, do you think I +would wait till I found a knife? No! I would dash my head to pieces +against a wall or a rock." + +"Ah!" she said. "I love you more than you love me." + +"Nay, my sweet lady," said he. "Woman cannot love man as much as man +loves woman. Woman only loves with her eyes; man loves with his heart." + +Aucassin and Nicolette were thus debating, when the soldiers of the +count came marching down the street. Their swords were drawn, and they +were seeking for Nicolette to slay her. + +"God, it were a great pity to kill so fair a maid!" said the warden of +the dungeon. "My young lord Aucassin would die of it, and that would be +a great loss to Beaucaire. Would that I could warn Nicolette!" + +And with that, he struck up a merry tune, but the words he sang to it +were not merry. + + Lady with the yellow hair, + Lovely, sweet and debonair, + Now take heed. + Death comes on thee unaware. + Turn thee now; oh, turn and flee; + Death is coming suddenly. + And the swords + Flash that seek to murder thee. + +"May God reward you for your fair words!" said Nicolette. + +Wrapping herself in her mantle, she hid in the shadows until the +soldiers went by. Then she said farewell to Aucassin, and climbed up the +castle-wall where it had been broken in the siege. But steep and deep +was the moat, and Nicolette's fair hands and feet were bleeding when she +got out. But she did not feel any pain, because of the great fear that +was on her lest she should fall into the hands of the count's men. + +Within two bow-shots from Beaucaire was a great forest; and here +Nicolette slept in a thicket, until the herd-boys came in the morning, +and pastured their cattle close to her resting-place. They sat down by a +fountain, and spread out a cloak, and put their bread on it. Their +shouting aroused Nicolette, and she came to them. + +"God bless you, sweet boys!" said she. + +"God bless you, lady!" said one that had a readier tongue than the +others. + +"Do you know Aucassin, the brave young son of Count Garin?" she said. + +"Yes, lady," they said. "We know him very well." + +"Then tell him, in the name of God," said she, "that there is a beast in +this forest that he must come and hunt. If he can take it, he will not +sell a limb of it for a hundred marks of gold. Nay, not for any money." + +"I tell him that?" said the boy that had a readier tongue than the +others. "Curse me if I do! There's no beast in this forest--stag, boar, +wolf or lion--with a limb worth more than two or three pence. You speak +of some enchantment, and you are a fairy woman. We do not want your +company. Go away." + +"Sweet boys," said Nicolette, "you must do as I tell you. For the beast +has a medicine that will cure Aucassin of all his pain. Ah! I have five +pieces of money in my purse. Take them, and tell him. He must come and +hunt within three days, and if he does not, he will never be cured." + +"Faith," said the boy, after consulting with his fellows, "we shall tell +him if he comes, but we will not search after him!" + + +_III.--Aucassin Goes in Quest of Nicolette_ + + +Nicolette took leave of the herd-boys, and went into the forest down a +green way that led to a place where seven paths met. Close at hand was a +deep thicket, and there Nicolette built a lodge of green boughs, and +covered it with oak-leaves and lily-flowers, and made it sweet and +pleasant, both inside and out. And she stayed in this lodge to see what +Aucassin would do. + +In the meantime, the cry went through all the country that Nicolette was +lost. Some said that she had gone away; others that Count Garin had put +her to death. If any man had joy in the news, that man was not Aucassin. +His father let him out of prison, and summoned all the knights and +ladies of the land to a great feast that he made to comfort his young +son. But when the revelry was at its height, there was Aucassin leaning +despondently from a gallery, sorrowful and utterly downcast. And an old +knight saw him, and came to him. + +"Aucassin," he said, "there was a time when I, too, was sick with the +sickness that you have. If you will trust me, I will give you some good +counsel." + +"Gramercy," answered Aucassin. "Good counsel is indeed a precious +thing." + +"Mount your horse and ride into the forest," said the old knight. "You +will see the flowers and the sweet herbs, and hear the birds singing. +And, perchance, you may also hear a word that will take away your +sickness." + +"Gramercy," said Aucassin. "That is what I will do." + +He stole out of the hall, and went to the stable, and bridled and +saddled his horse, and rode swiftly out into the forest. By the fountain +he found the herd-boys. They had spread a cloak out on the grass, and +were eating their bread and making merry. + + Jolly herd-boys, every one: + Martin, Emery, and John, + Aubrey, Oliver, and Matt + By the fountain-side they sat. + "Here," said John, "comes Aucassin, + Son of our good Count Garin. + Faith, he is a handsome boy! + Let us wish him luck and joy." + "And the girl with yellow hair + Wandering in the forest there," + Aubrey said. "She gave us more + Gold than we have seen before. + Say, what shall we go and buy?" + "Cakes!" said greedy Emery. + "Flutes and bagpipes!" Johnny said. + "No," cried Martin; "knives instead! + Knives and swords! Then we can go + Out to war and fight the foe." + +"Sweet boys," said Aucassin, as he rode up to them, "sing again the song +that you were singing just now, I pray you." + +"We will not," said Aubrey, who had a readier tongue than the others. + +"Do you not know me, then?" said Aucassin. + +"Yes," said Aubrey. "You are our young lord, Aucassin. But we are not +your men, but the count's." + +"Sweet boys, sing it again, I pray you," said Aucassin. + +"God's heart!" cried Aubrey. "Why should I sing for you, if I do not +want to? There is no man in this country--save Count Garin--that dare +drive my cattle from his fields and corn-lands, if I put them there. He +would lose his eyes for it, no matter how rich he were. So, now, why +should I sing for you, if I do not want to?" + +"In the name of God," said Aucassin, "take these ten sous, and sing it!" + +"Sir, I will take your money," said Aubrey, "but I will not sing you +anything. Still, if you like, I will tell you something." + +"By God," said Aucassin, "something is better than nothing!" + +"Sir," said Aubrey, then, "we were eating our bread by this fountain, +between prime and tierce, and a maid came by--the loveliest thing in all +the world. She lighted up the forest with her beauty; so we thought she +was a fairy woman. But she gave us some money; and we promised that if +you came by we would tell you to go hunting in the forest. In there is a +beast of marvellous value. If you took it you would not sell one of its +limbs for many marks of gold, for it has a medicine that will cure your +sickness. Now I have told you all." + +"And you have told me enough, sweet boy," said Aucassin. "Farewell! God +give me good hunting!" + +And, as he spurred his horse into the forest, Aucassin sang right +joyously: + + Track of boar and slot of deer, + Neither do I follow here. + Nicolette I hotly chase + Down the winding, woodland ways-- + Thy white body, thy blue eyes, + Thy sweet smiles and low replies + God in heaven give me grace, + Once to meet thee face to face; + Once to meet as we have met, + Nicolette--oh, Nicolette! + +_IV.--Love in the Forest_ + + +Furiously did his horse bear him on through the thorns and briars that +tore his clothes and scratched his body, so that you could have followed +the track of his blood on the grass. But neither hurt nor pain did he +feel, for he thought only of Nicolette. All day he sought for her in the +forest, and when evening drew on, he began to weep because he had not +found her. Night fell, but still he rode on; and he came at last to the +place where the seven roads met, and there he saw the lodge of green +boughs and lily-flowers which Nicolette had made. + +"Ah, heaven," said Aucassin, "here Nicolette has been, and she has made +this lodge with her own fair hands! For the sweetness of it, and for +love of her, I will sleep here to-night." + +As he sat in the lodge, Aucassin saw the evening star shining through a +gap in the boughs, and he sang: + + Star of eve! Oh, star of love, + Gleaming in the sky above! + Nicolette, the bright of brow, + Dwells with thee in heaven now. + God has set her in the skies + To delight my longing eyes; + And her clear and yellow hair + Shines upon the darkness there. + Oh! my lady, would that I + Swiftly up to thee could fly. + Meet thee, greet thee, kiss thee, fold thee + To my aching heart, and hold thee. + Here, without thee, nothing worth + Can I find upon the earth. + +When Nicolette heard Aucassin singing, she came into the bower, and +threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. Aucassin then set his +sweet love upon his horse, and mounted behind her; and with all haste +they rode out from the forest and came to the seashore. + +There Aucassin saw a ship sailing upon the sea, and he beckoned to it; +and the sailors took him and Nicolette on board, and they sailed to the +land of Torelore. And the King of Torelore welcomed them courteously; +and for two whole years they lived in great delight in his beautiful +castle by the sea. But one night the castle was suddenly stormed by the +Saracens; and Aucassin was bound hand and foot and thrown into a ship, +and Nicolette into another. + +The ship that carried Aucassin was wrecked in a great storm, and it +drifted over the sea to Beaucaire. The people that ran to break up the +wreck found their young lord, and made great joy over his return. For +his father was dead, and he was now Count Aucassin. The people led him +to the castle, and did homage to him, and he held all his lands in +peace. But little delight had Aucassin in his wealth and power and +kingdom. + + Though he lived in joy and ease, + And his kingdom was at peace, + Aucassin did so regret + His sweet lady, Nicolette, + That he would have liefer died + In the battle by her side. + "Ah, my Nicolette," he said, + "Are you living, are you dead? + All my kingdom I would give + For the news that still you live. + For the joy of finding you + Would I search the whole world through, + Did I think you living yet, + Nicolette--my Nicolette!" + + +_V.--Nicolette's Love Song_ + + +In the meantime, the Saracens took Nicolette to their great city of +Carthage; and because she was lovely and seemed of noble birth, they led +her to their king. And when Nicolette saw the King of Carthage, she knew +him again; and he, also, knew her. For she was his daughter who had been +carried off in her young days by the Christians. Her father held a great +feast in honour of Nicolette, and would have married her to a mighty +king of Paynim. But Nicolette had no mind to marry anyone but Aucassin, +and she devised how she might get news of her lover. One night she +smeared her face with a brown ointment, and dressed herself in +minstrel's clothes, and took a viol, and stole out of her father's +palace to the seashore. There she found a ship that was bound for +Provence, and she sailed in it to Beaucaire. She took her viol, and went +playing through the town, and came to the castle. Aucassin was sitting +on the castle steps with his proud barons and brave knights around him, +gazing sorrowfully at the sweet flowers, and listening to the singing of +the birds. + +"Shall I sing you a new song, sire?" said Nicolette. + +"Yes, fair friend," said Aucassin; "if it be a merry one, for I am very +sad." + +"If you like it," said Nicolette, "you will find it merry enough." + +She drew the bow across her viol, and made sweet music, and then she +sung: + + Once a lover met a maid + Wandering in a forest glade, + Where she had a pretty house + Framed with flowers and leafy boughs. + Maid and lover merrily + Sailed away across the sea, + To a castle by the strand + Of a strange and pleasant land. + There they lived in great delight + Till the Saracens by night + Stormed the keep, and took the maid, + With the captives of their raid. + Back to Carthage they returned, + And the maiden sadly mourned. + But they did not make of her + Paramour or prisoner. + For the King of Carthage said, + When he saw the fair young maid: + "Daughter!" and the maid replied: + "Father!" And they laughed and cried. + For she had been stolen when + She was young by Christian men. + And the captain of Beaucaire + Bought her as a slave-girl there. + Once her lover loved her well + Now, alas! he cannot tell + Who she is. Does he forget-- + Aucassin--his Nicolette? + +Aucassin leaped down the castle steps, and took his lady in his arms. +Then she went to the house of her godfather, the captain of the town, +and washed all the brownness from her face, and clad herself in robes of +rich silk. And, early on the morrow, Count Aucassin wedded her, and made +her Lady of Beaucaire; and they had great joy of one another. And here +my song-story ends. I know no more. + + * * * * * + + + + +BERTHOLD AUERBACH + +On the Height + + Berthold Auerbach, a German poet and author of Jewish + descent, was born at Nordstetten, in Würtemberg, on February + 28, 1812. On the completion of his studies at the universities + of Tübingen, Munich and Heidelberg he immediately devoted + himself to literature. His first publication dealt with + "Judaism and Recent Literature," and was to be followed by a + series of novels taken from Jewish history. Of this intended + series he actually published, with considerable success, + "Spinoza" and "Poet and Merchant." But real fame and + popularity came to him when he began to occupy himself with + the life of the general people which forms the subject of his + best-known works. In these later books, of which "On the + Height" is perhaps the most characteristic and certainly the + most famous, he revealed an unrivalled insight into the soul + of the Southern German country folk, and especially of the + peasants of the Black Forest and the Bavarian Alps. His + descriptions are remarkable for their fresh realism, graceful + style and humour. In addition to these qualities, his last + books are marked by great subtlety of psychological analysis. + "On the Height" was first published at Stuttgart in 1861, and + has been translated into several languages. Auerbach died at + Cannes on February 8, 1882, when all Germany was preparing to + celebrate his 70th birthday. + + +_I.--A Peasant Nurse in a Royal Palace_ + + +Walpurga was as in a dream. It had all happened so quickly! Only a +fortnight ago, on the walk home from Sunday Mass at the village church, +her Hanseï had to make a hay bed for her on a stone-heap by the +roadside. She had thought she could not get back to the cottage in time, +but she recovered after a while and bravely walked home. Her mother was +with her in the hour of suffering, as she had been with her through all +the joys and sorrows of her simple life. Then came the supreme joy of +the awakening, with a new life by her side, a baby-girl groping +helplessly for the mother's breast. Then--was it only yesterday?--when +she was waiting for the return of the christening party, a carriage +drove up with the village doctor and an elegant stranger. There was much +beating about the bush, and then it came out like a thunderbolt. The +stranger was a great doctor from the capital, entrusted with the mission +to find in the mountains an honest, comely peasant woman, and married +she must be, to act as wet-nurse for the expected crown prince or +princess. + +Then Hanseï came home with the merry party--there was much storming and +angry refusal; but finally the practical sense of the peasant folk +prevailed. It was, after all, only for a year, and it would mean comfort +and wealth, instead of hunger and grinding poverty. And scarcely had +their consent been wrung from them, when shouting and cheering announced +the great event of the crown prince's birth. Then came that strange, +long drive over hill and dale, through the dark night; and now, in the +Royal Palace, she tried to collect herself, to grasp the meaning of all +that splendour, the unintelligible ceremonious talk and bearing of those +about her. She was to be taken at once to see the queen and her precious +charge. + +Walpurga was full of happiness when she left the queen's bedroom. +Touched by the comely young peasant-woman's naive and familiar +kindliness, the queen, who seemed to her beautiful as an angel, had +kissed her, and, on noticing a tear, had said: "Don't cry, Walpuga! You +are a mother, too, like myself!" The little prince took to his nurse +without much trouble, and she soon became accustomed to her new life, +although her thoughts often dwelt longingly on her native mountains, her +own child and mother and husband. How they would miss her! She knew her +Hanseï was a good man at heart, but not particularly shrewd, and easily +gulled or led astray. + +Meanwhile, her high spirits, her artless bluntness, the quaint +superstitions of the mountain child, gained her the goodwill and +approval of the king and queen, of Dr. Gunther, the court physician, of +the whole royal household, and, above all, of the lady-in-waiting, +Countess Irma Wildenort. + + +_II.--The Love Affairs of a King_ + + +Countess Irma's letters to Emmy, her only convent friend, contained +little of idle gossip and of things that had happened. They had no +continuity. They were introspective, and took the form of a diary taken +up at odd moments and left again to be continued, sometimes the +following day, sometimes after a week. They revealed intellectual +development far in advance of her years, and clear perception of +character. + +"The queen lives in an exclusive world of sentiment and would like to +raise everybody to her exalted mood--liana-like, in the morning-glow and +evening-glow of sentiment, never in white daylight. She is most gracious +towards me, but we feel it instinctively--there is something in her and +in me that does not harmonise.... + +"Here all of them think me boundlessly naïve, because I have the courage +to think for myself.... + +"The king loves reserve, but also gay freeness. The queen is too +serious--eternal organ sound; but you cannot dance to an organ, and we +are young and love to dance. + +"A peasant woman from the mountains is nurse to the crown prince. I was +with her at the king's request. I stood by the cot when the king +arrived. He said to me gently: 'It is true, an angel stands by the +child's cradle.' He laid his hand upon mine, which rested on the rail of +the cot. The king went. And just imagine what occurred. The nurse, a +fresh, merry person with blue eyes, buxom and massive, a perfect peasant +beauty, to whom I showed friendliness, so as to cheer her up and save +her from feeling homesick, the nurse tells me in bald words: 'You are an +adulteress! You have exchanged loving glances with the king!' + +"Emmy! How you were right in telling me that I idealise the people, and +that they are as corrupt as the great world, and, moreover, without the +curb of culture. + +"No! she is a good, intelligent woman. She begged my pardon for her +impertinence; I remain friendly towards her. Yes, I will." + +Irma's devotion to her king had something of hero-worship. And the king, +who loved his wife sincerely, but was, and wanted to be, of a heroic +nature, and who was averse to all that savoured of self-torment and +sentimentality, was attracted by Countess Irma's intellectual freedom +and _esprit_. He felt in her a kindred spirit. Her company was +stimulating; it could not affect the even tenour of his conjugal love. +But the queen, in her sentimental exultation, sought ever for new +"documents" to demonstrate the depth of her affection. And now she +wanted to give the supreme proof by renouncing her Lutheran faith to +enter into a yet closer union with her Catholic husband. To the king +this sacrifice seemed not only sentimentally weak, but politically +unwise. He received the confidence coldly, and begged her to reconsider +the matter. He sent Dr. Gunther, who, in spite of his democratic +tendencies, was held in high esteem by the king, and had great influence +over the queen, to exercise his persuasive powers--with no result. + +Where wisdom and experience had failed, the voice of Nature, speaking +out of Walpurga's childish chatter, succeeded. Walpurga told the queen +of her father--how one day on the lake, on hearing the choral singing of +the peasants, he had said: "Now I know how the Almighty feels up there +in Heaven! All the Churches, ours, and the Lutheran, and the Jewish, and +the Turkish, they are all voices in the song. Each sings as he knows, +and yet it sounds well together up there." The queen was radiant next +day, when she informed her spouse that she had the courage of her own +inconsistency and that she had resolved to do his will. The sacrifice +was received with coolness. Was it that her noble act was construed as +further evidence of weakness? + +The king had left town for some distant watering-place, and had +requested Irma to write to him at times. Knowing her love of flowers, he +had given orders for a fresh bouquet to be placed every day in her room, +and, perhaps to conceal the favour, in the rooms of two other ladies of +the court. Irma considered both the thought and the expedient unworthy +of her hero, and resolved not to write to him. She spent much of her +time at the studio of a professor of the academy, who not only modelled +a bust of her for a figure of Victory to be placed on the new arsenal, +but gave her instruction in his art. In spite of this new occupation, +she found herself in a state of feverish excitement, which became almost +unbearable when the queen showed her a passage in a letter just received +from the king. "Please make Countess Irma send me regular reports about +our son. Remember me to the dear fourth leaf of our clover-leaf." + +She was indignant at this unworthy attempt at forcing her to write. Was +Walpurga right after all? Were lovers' glances to be exchanged over the +child's cradle? She longed for solitude and peace. On the way to her +room she had to stop to think where she was. A gallop might cool her +feverish head. She ordered her horse to be saddled, but had scarcely +changed into her riding-habit when a letter was handed to her, which was +unsealed with trembling fingers. It was a simply worded invitation from +her father, who wished to see her again after her long absence at court. +Here was salvation, balm for her aching heart! She gave a few orders, +then hurried to the queen's apartments to obtain leave of absence; and, +accompanied by her maid, sped to her paternal home the same evening as +fast as the horses would carry her. + +The days passed quickly at the manor house, where Irma, for the first +time, gained an insight into the noble mind and firm character of her +father. In his many soothing talks Count Eberhard told her of his +regrets at having been forced by circumstances--her mother's death +before Irma had reached the age of three, and his inability to give her +a proper education in his mountain retreat--to send her first to her +aunt, then to the convent, and thus neglecting his duties as father. A +word from him would have decided her to remain under his roof, but the +old philosopher held that each intelligent being must work out its own +destiny, and would not influence her decision. His slighting remarks +about the monarchic system, about the impossibility of the king, with +all his noble intentions, being able to see the world as it is, since +everybody approaches him in pleasing costume, struck the final jarring +note and destroyed the complete understanding between father and +daughter. A half jocular joint letter from the king and his _entourage_, +in which the signatories expressed in exaggerated terms their longing +for her presence at court, decided her to return. + +The carriage having been sent to the valley in advance, Count Eberhard +walked down with Irma, until they came to the apple-tree which he had +planted on the day of his daughter's birth. He stopped, and picked up a +fallen apple. "Let us part here," he said. "Take this fruit from your +native soil. The apple has left the tree because it has ripened; because +the tree cannot give any more to it. So man leaves home and family. But +man is more than the fruit of a tree. Come, my child, I hold your dear +head; don't weep--or weep! May you never weep for yourself, and only for +others! Remain faithful to yourself! I would give you all my thoughts; +remember but the one: Yield only to such pleasures as will be pleasure +in recollection. Take this kiss. You kiss passionately. May you never +give a kiss that does not leave your soul as pure and full as it is now. +Farewell!" + + +_III.--Walpurga Returns Home_ + + +Twelve months had passed since Walpurga's arrival at court. Her trunks +were now packed; she had given a last kiss to the boy prince; and now +she asked her Hanseï, who had brought a carriage from the village to +take her home, to wait in the corridor while she took leave from +Countess Irma. She found Irma still in her bed, very pale, with her hair +in loose strains on the pillow. + +"I wanted to give you a souvenir," said Irma, "but I think money will be +best for you. Look on the table, and take it all. I don't want any of +it. Take it, and don't be afraid; it is real money, won honestly at the +tables. I always win, always!... Take your kerchief and wrap it up." The +room was so dusky that Walpurga looked around in superstitious fear. The +money might be evil; she quickly made the sign of the Cross over it, and +put it into her ample pocket. "And now, farewell," said Irma. "Be happy. +You are happier than any of us. If ever I don't know where to go, I +shall come to you. You'll have me, won't you? Now go--go! I must sleep. +And don't forget me, Walpurga. Don't thank me, don't speak!" + +"Oh, please let me speak, just one word! We both can't know which of us +will die, and then it would be too late. I don't know what's the matter +with you. You are not well, and you may get worse. You often have cold +hands and hot cheeks. I wronged you that day, soon after I arrived. I'll +never think bad of you again, no one shall say evil of you; but, please, +get away from the castle! Go home, to----" + +"Enough," exclaimed Irma, thrusting forth her hands as though Walpurga's +words were stones thrown at her. "Farewell; and don't forget me." She +held out her hand for Walpurga to kiss; it was hot and feverish. +Walpurga went. The parrot in the ante-room screamed: "Good-bye, Irma." +Walpurga was frightened, and ran away as though she were chased. + +Walpurga's homecoming was not pleasure unalloyed. She did not miss the +luxuries to which she had become accustomed. She rather relished the +hard, manual labour, to which she applied herself with full energy. But +her baby was a stranger to her, cried when she wished to take her up, +and became only gradually accustomed to her. Her faculties had been +sharpened, too; she felt a certain shyness in her husband, noticed his +weaknesses, and was deeply hurt when, on the second evening after her +return, he went to the inn, "so that people should not say he was under +her thumb." Then, Hanseï, coaxed by the shrewd innkeeper, had set his +heart upon acquiring the inn, now that they had "wealth," and upon thus +becoming the most important man in the village. But with much tact and +cleverness Walpurga made him give up the plan, thereby arousing the +innkeeper's hostility, which became rampant when the reunited couple did +not appear at a kind of fete which he gave, ostensibly in their honour, +but really to benefit by the proceeds. By this slight the esteem and +admiration of the whole village were turned to ill-will and spite. + +Hanseï and Walpurga were almost boycotted; but their isolation made them +draw closer together, work harder, and enjoy to the fullest the harmony +of their domestic life. Moreover, the freehold farmer, Grubersepp, who +was a personage in the district, and had never before deigned to take +much notice of Hanseï, now called at the cottage and offered his advice +on many questions. When on a Sunday the village doctor and the priest +were seen to visit the cottage, opinion began to veer around once more +in the good people's favour. + +It was Walpurga's old uncle Peter, a poor pitch-burner, who was known in +the district as the "pitch-mannikin," who brought the first news that +the freehold farm, where Walpurga's mother had in her young days served +as a maid, was for sale at a very low price for ready money. It was six +hours from the lake, in the mountains--splendid soil, fine forest, +everything perfect. Hanseï decided to have a look at it, and Grubersepp +went with him to value it. The uncle's description was found to be +highly coloured; but after some bargaining the purchase was effected, +and soon the news was bruited about the village that Hanseï had paid "in +clinking golden coin." + +The whole village, with a brass band, was assembled on the shore when +Hanseï and Walpurga, with their family and worldly possessions, embarked +to cross the lake on the first stage of their "flitting." All vexations +were forgotten in the hearty send-off, and as the boat glided across the +silent lake it was followed by music, cheering, jodling, and the booming +of mortars. + +They approached the opposite shore and Hanseï pointed out the figure of +Uncle Peter waiting for them with the cart and the furniture, when +Walpurga suddenly ceased rowing, and gave a startled cry. + +"Heavens! What's that? I could swear, when I was singing I thought if +only my good Countess Irma could see us here together, how happy she +would be. And just now it seemed to me as though----" + +"Come on, let's land," said Hanseï. + +On the shore a figure in a fluttering garment was running up and down. +It suddenly collapsed when the wind carried a full sound of music across +the lake. Then it rose again, and vanished in the reeds. + +"Have you seen nothing?" asked Walpurga. + +"Rather! If it were not broad daylight, and if it were not superstition, +I should think it was the mermaid, herself." + +The boat at last touched the shore. Walpurga was the first to jump out. +She hurried to the reed-bank, away from her people, and there, behind +the willows, the apparition fell on her neck and broke down. + + +_IV.--The Countess Irma's Atonement_ + + +Dr. Gunther received the first telegraphic news of his friend, Count +Eberhard, having lost the power of speech through a stroke of paralysis. +He was to break the news to Irma. For some time she had felt, through +the physician's reserve and sympathetic kindness, that he could read her +secret. And now she realised that sudden knowledge of her disgrace alone +could have struck down her father, whose vigorous constitution had +always kept illness at arm's length. + +They arrived at the manor house before midnight, and were shown into the +sufferer's room. Count Eberhard's eyelids moved quickly when he +recognised Dr. Gunther's voice, and he tried to extend his hand towards +his friend, but it fell heavily on the coverlet. Dr. Gunther seized it +and held it in a firm grasp. Irma knelt down before the bed, and her +father's trembling hand felt over her face, and was wetted by her tears. +Then he quickly withdrew it, as though he had touched a poisonous +animal; he turned away his face and pressed his forehead against the +wall. Now he turned round again, and with a gentle movement indicated +that he wished her to leave the room. + +She was with him again next day. He tried painfully to say something to +her, to make her understand by signs--she could not understand. He bit +upon his lips and tried to sit up. His face was changed--it assumed a +strange colour, a strange expression. Irma saw with a shudder what was +happening. She knelt down and laid her cheek upon his hand. He withdrew +the hand. With supreme effort he wrote a word, a short word, with his +finger upon her forhead. She saw, she heard, she read it--in the air, on +her forehead, on her brain, in her soul--she gave a scream, and fell +senseless to the ground. Dr. Gunther entered quickly, stepped over Irma, +closed his friend's eyes, and all was silence. + +For many hours Irma was in her room, shut in with her despair, her +remorse. No one could gain admission. She thought furiously, she raved, +and then fell into a troubled sleep. When she awake her resolution was +made. She asked for light and writing material, and wrote: "My queen,-- +With death I atone for my guilt. Forgive and forget! IRMA." On the +envelope she wrote: "To be handed to the queen herself by Dr. Gunther." +Then she took another sheet, and wrote: + +"My friend,--For the last time I speak to you. We have gone +astray--terribly. The atonement is mine. You belong to her and to the +people. Your atonement is in life; mine in death. Be calm, be one with +the law that ties you to her and to the people. You have denied both and +I have aided you. Be true again to yourself! This is my dying word, and +I die willingly, if you but listen. Listen to this voice, and do not +forget it! But forget her who speaks to you. I will not be remembered." + +She sealed the letters, left them in her writing-case, and asked for her +horse to be saddled. She rode out, followed by a groom, whom, some +distance from home, she sent back on some pretext. When he was out of +sight, she galloped off at full speed, dismounted, struck her horse with +the whip to make it run away, and lost herself in the wood in the +direction of the lake. + + +_V.--A Court Scandal_ + + +Irma's torn boots were found on a rock by the lake, her hat floating on +the waters. Although her body could not be recovered, there was no doubt +that the countess had committed suicide. Her father's death must have +bereft her of reason. + +When the news was first brought to the king he trembled violently, and +had to seize the back of a chair for support. Then he requested to be +left alone, and with dim eyes he read Irma's farewell message. On the +impulse of the moment, he wanted to send the queen the last words of his +friend; he wanted to write under them, to pour out his whole heart, his +whole repentance. He decided not to act hastily. Even the heaviest task +must be fulfilled without loss of dignity. A chase had been arranged for +the morning. The hunting-party were waiting in the courtyard. With an +effort he pulled himself together, descended with firm step, and entered +his carriage, returning smilingly the salutations of his guests. + +The queen was scarcely less shaken by the terrible news, which was +gently broken to her by Dr. Gunther. Her heart was filled with profound +pity for the unfortunate child, and she gave vent to her grief in sobs +and touching lamentations. Dr. Gunther tried to comfort her. "She is not +gone without farewell. She has left this letter for your majesty--surely +a letter that will bring balm in this terrible hour. Even to the last +she proved her loving nature." + +The queen seized the letter, read it, and turned deathly pale, then +burning red. When she found words, she exclaimed: "And she has kissed my +child, and he has kissed his child! They talk of the sublime, and their +words do not cut their tongues! Everything is soiled! And he dared say +to me: A prince has no private actions. His doings and his neglects set +the example! Fie! Everything is soiled, everything filthy! Everything!" + +She became unconscious. Dr. Gunther sprinkled her forehead with +eau-de-cologne, and had her taken to bed. He sat by the bedside for some +time, until she opened her eyes, thanked him, and expressed her desire +to sleep. He spoke some soothing words, and retired, leaving +instructions with the lady of the bed-chamber in the ante-room. + +Some days passed before the king sought his wife's forgiveness. The +interview was brief and decisive. The king spoke nobly, manly and +sincerely; the queen was bitter, sharp and irreconcilable. Her duty as a +queen demanded that the rift should not appear in public; her injured +pride as a woman refused to admit more. He demanded to know whether her +friend and adviser, Dr. Gunther, knew of her decision. She replied he +was too noble to let thoughts of anger or revenge enter his great heart. + +"This great being can be made small!" + +"You will not rob me of my only friend?" + +"Your only friend? I do not know this title. To my knowledge there is no +such office at court. Be what you will! Be alone and seek for support in +yourself." + +He stripped the wedding-ring from his hand, placed it on the table, and +moved towards the door. He hesitated a moment--will she call him back? +She looked after him--will he turn around? The moment passed. The door +closed. + +In the evening a court was held, and the queen appeared, pale, but +smiling, on her husband's arm. They spoke confidentially, and nobody +noticed the missing ring. + +Next day the journals announced that the king's physician had tendered +his resignation. + +And court gossip had it that Walpurga had bought a farm with the gold +she had earned as intermediary between the king and the unfortunate +Countess Wildenort. + + +_VI.--Forgiving and Forgiven_ + + +Irma had passed four years at Hanseï's mountain farm. Her secret had +been well kept. Even Hanseï, who had promised his wife never to ask any +questions about their permanent guest, was in complete ignorance about +her identity. Irma, who, after having tried her hand at various domestic +occupations, had taken up wood-carving with considerable success, +enabling her to discharge at least the material part of her debt of +gratitude, was generally held to be a half-witted relation of +Walpurga's. + +Her despair and remorse had gradually given way to resigned sadness. +Self-communion had to make up for lack of intellectual intercourse, and +sharpened her perception. In her diary she entered the profound thoughts +suggested to her active intelligence by her observation of events in +themselves insignificant, and analysed with cool aloofness the working +of her mind. She never entertained the thought of finding a refuge in +the convent--her atonement was to be wrought, not by compulsion, but by +free will. And so the weeks passed, and the months, and the years. + +They had all helped in the building of a wooden cowherd's hut on the +height of the mountain, a few hours' climb from the farm. Now Irma felt +the need for more complete solitude, away even from her simple friends. +Up there, on the height, she would find peace and complete her +atonement. And so it was decided to let her have her way, and to let her +stay in the hut, with Peter and his daughter. + +The first two days and nights a cloud lingered around them, forming a +veil of dense fog; but on the third day Irma was awakened by the sun and +stepped out to see the awakening of nature. The grandeur, the immensity +of it all, the pure-scented air, the voices of the birds, filled her +heart with gladness. A sunray struck her forehead--the forehead was +pure, she felt it. + +Irma now gave up her wood-carving; she had to be urged to eat, and only +took her food to please the kind old "pitch-mannikin." Immovably she +would lie for hours in her favorite meadow, and think and breathe the +pure air. Her life was slowly ebbing from her. A sudden vision of the +king with his companions of the chase galloping past her in pursuit of a +stag gave her the final shock. She cowered on the ground. She bit into +the moss, scraped the earth with her hands--she feared to scream aloud. +She staggered back to the hut, shaken by fever, and threw herself upon +her bed. Then she asked Peter for some paper. She had heard that Dr. +Gunther was living with his family at the summer resort at the foot of +the mountain. She wrote with shaking hand: "Eberhard's daughter calls +Dr. Gunther," and sent Peter to speed down with the message. + +In the little town all was excitement and commotion owing to the sojourn +of the royal court. Dr. Gunther, now in favour again, was with the king +when the message arrived. He read the note and was left speechless with +amazement. Then he collected his wits, and hurried with Peter to the +dying penitent's bedside. Irma was sleeping, and he sat by her side +until she awoke. She saw Gunther--pleasure illumined her face, and she +held out both hands towards him. He took them, and she pressed her +feverish lips upon his hands. + +Walpurga, to whom the news of Irma's impending end had been brought, +took a quick resolution. She hurried to the little town to seek her +queen. The matter was not easy, for suspicion rested heavily upon her; +but her determination removed all obstacles, and the queen, profoundly +moved by Walpurga's jerky explanation and passionate appeal, and stirred +to the very depths of her soul by Irma's heroism, demanded to be led at +once to her. She was followed in a short while by the king, to whom the +whole incident had been reported. + +Gunther sat for hours by Irma's bedside, listening to her heavy +breathing. The door flew open and the queen appeared. + +"At last, you have come!" breathed Irma, raising herself and kneeling in +her bed. Then, with a heart-breaking voice, she exclaimed: "Forgive, +forgive!" + +"Forgive me, Irma, my sister!" sobbed the queen, and took her in her +arms and kissed her. A smile spread over Irma's face; then with a cry of +pain she fell back dead. + +When the king arrived he found his wife kneeling before the bed. He +quietly knelt down by her side. The queen arose, placed her hand upon +his head. "Kurt," she said, "forgive me, as I have forgiven you." Then +she spread a white kerchief over the dead, and they left the hut. They +walked hand in hand through the wood, until they reached the road, where +carriages were waiting. + +During the night the "pitch-mannikin" dug a grave on the spot where Irma +had loved to lie in the sun. She was buried there early next morning. +Hanseï and Peter and Dr. Gunther carried the corpse, and Walpurga with +her child formed the procession. + + * * * * * + + + + +JANE AUSTEN + +Sense and Sensibility + + Jane Austen, daughter of the rector of Steventon, in North + Hampshire, England, was born there on December 16, 1775, and + received her education from her father, a former Fellow of St. + John's College, Oxford. Her life was spent in the country or + in country towns, chiefly at the village of Chawton, near + Winchester. She died, unmarried, at Winchester on July 18, + 1817, and was buried in the cathedral. The novels of Jane + Austen may be divided into two groups. The first three--"Sense + and Sensibility," "Pride and Prejudice," and "Northanger + Abbey"--were all written, in first draft, at any rate, between + 1792 and 1798. These are the novels composed during the + author's residence at Steventon, which she left in 1801. There + succeeded an interval of practically fourteen years + (1798-1812), during which time the novelist let her mind lie + absolutely fallow. As a natural consequence of the + comparatively secluded life which Jane Austen led, the society + with which she deals in her novels is a rather restricted one. + It is the world of the country gentleman and of the upper + professional class. From a very early age Jane Austen had a + taste for writing tales, and the first draft of "Sense and + Sensibility "--then called "Elinor and Marianne"--was composed + as early as 1792. The book was recast under its present title + between 1797 and 1798, and again revised prior to its + publication in 1811. In addition to the six novels on which + her fame is based--all of which were issued anonymously--Jane + Austen has to her credit some agreeable "Letters," a fragment + of a story called "The Watsons," and a sort of novelette which + bears the name of "Lady Susan." + + +_I.--The Dashwoods of Norland Park_ + + +Mr. Henry Dashwood, of Norland Park, Sussex, died leaving his widow and +his three daughters, Elinor, Marianne and Margaret, to the generosity of +Mr. John Dashwood, his son by his first wife and the heir to his estate. +Mr. John, who, apart from the family inheritance, had received one +fortune from his mother and another with his wife, was at first disposed +to increase the portions of his sisters by giving them a thousand pounds +apiece; but under the persuasion of his wife he finally resolved that it +would be absolutely unnecessary, if not highly indecorous, to do more +for his father's widow and children than such kind of neighbourly acts +as looking out for a comfortable small house for them, helping them to +remove their things, and sending them presents of fish and game whenever +they were in season. + +Taking account of this resolve, as expressed in Mr. John Dashwood's +frequent talk of the increasing expenses of housekeeping, and of the +perpetual demands made upon his purse, and exasperated, too, by the +manifest disapprobation with which Mrs. John Dashwood looked upon the +growing attachment between her own brother, Edward Ferrars, and Elinor, +Mrs. Henry Dashwood and her daughters left their old home with some +abruptness and went to live in Devonshire, where their old friend, Sir +John Middleton, of Barton Park, had provided them with a cottage close +to his own place. + +Elinor, the eldest of the daughters, possessed a strength of +understanding and coolness of judgment which qualified her, though only +nineteen, to be the counsellor of her mother, and enabled her frequently +to counteract, to the advantage of them all, that eagerness of mind in +Mrs. Dashwood which must generally have led to imprudence. She had an +excellent heart. Her disposition was affectionate, and her feelings were +strong; but she knew how to govern them. It was a knowledge which her +mother had yet to learn, and which one of her sisters had resolved never +to be taught. Marianne's abilities were, in many respects, quite equal +to Elinor's. She was sensible and clever, but eager in everything; her +sorrows, her joys could have no moderation. She was generous, amiable, +interesting; she was everything but prudent. The resemblance between her +and her mother was strikingly great, and her excess of sensibility, +which Elinor saw with concern, was by Mrs. Dashwood valued and +cherished. + +Margaret, the other sister, was good-humoured; but she had already +imbibed a good deal of Marianne's romance, without having much of her +sense, and, at thirteen, she did not bid fair to equal her sisters at a +more advanced period of life. + +But whatever the virtues or failings of the Dashwood ladies, their +society was very welcome at Barton Park. Sir John Middleton was a +good-looking man about forty, thoroughly good-humoured in manner and +countenance, friendly and kind-hearted in disposition, who delighted in +collecting about him more young people than his house would hold. + +Lady Middleton was a handsome woman of six-and-twenty, well-bred, and +graceful in address, but deficient in frankness, warmth, or anything to +say for herself. She piqued herself upon the elegance of her table +appointments and of all her domestic arrangements; and this kind of +vanity it was that constituted her greatest enjoyment in any of their +parties. Sir John was a sportsman; Lady Middleton a mother. He hunted +and shot, and she humoured her children; and these were their only +resources. Continual engagements at home and abroad, however, supplied +all the deficiencies of nature and education--supported the good spirits +of Sir John, and gave exercise to the good-breeding of his wife. + +Mrs. Jennings, Lady Middleton's mother, who formed one of the party on +the first occasion of the Dashwoods dining at Barton Park, was a +good-humoured, fat, elderly woman, who talked a good deal, and seemed +very happy, and rather vulgar. She was full of jokes and laughter, and +before dinner was over had said many witty things on the subject of +lovers and husbands, hoped they had not left their hearts behind them in +Sussex, and pretended to see them blush whether they did or not. In +fact, this lady was a born match-maker; and she at once proceeded, by +hints here and raillery there, to promote a match between Marianne, aged +seventeen, and Colonel Brandon, a grave but sensible bachelor on the +wrong side of thirty-five. Marianne, however, scorned and laughed at the +idea, being reasonable enough to allow that a man of five-and-thirty +might well have outlived all acuteness of feeling and every exquisite +power of enjoyment; and having met with an accident which led to her +being carried home by a handsome and vivacious young gentleman called +Willoughby, who had a seat called Combe Magna in Somersetshire, she +rapidly developed a liking for his society, and as quickly discovered +that in regard to music, to dancing, and to books, their tastes were +strikingly alike. + +"Well, Marianne," said Elinor, after his first visit, "for one morning I +think you have done pretty well. You have already ascertained Mr. +Willoughby's opinion in almost every matter of importance. You know what +to think of Cowper and Scott; you are aware of his estimating their +beauties as he ought; and you have received every assurance of his +admiring Pope no more than is proper. But how is your acquaintance to be +long supported under such extraordinary dispatch of every subject for +discourse? You will soon have exhausted each favourite topic. Another +meeting will suffice to explain his sentiments on picturesque beauty and +second marriages, and then you can have nothing further to ask." + +To this Marianne replied, "Is this fair? Is this just? Are my ideas so +scanty? But I see what you mean. I have been too much at my ease--too +happy, too frank. I have erred against every commonplace notion of +decorum. I have been open and sincere where I ought to have been +reserved, spiritless, dull and deceitful. Had I talked only of the +weather and the roads, and had I spoken only once in ten minutes, this +reproach would have been spared." + +From which it will be gathered that Marianne began now to perceive that +that desperation which had seized her at sixteen-and-a-half of ever +seeing a man who could satisfy her ideas of perfection had been somewhat +rash and quite unjustifiable. + + +_II.--Marianne Dashwood in Love_ + + +Willoughby's society soon became Marianne's most exquisite enjoyment. +The mutual attachment was obvious--amusingly obvious. They read, they +talked, they sang, they danced, they drove together, and they even +agreed in depreciating Colonel Brandon as "the kind of man whom +everybody spoke well of and nobody cared about; whom all were delighted +to see, and nobody remembered to talk to." Then, after cutting off a +lock of Marianne's hair, after offering her a horse, and after showing +her over the house which would eventually be his on the death of Mrs. +Smith, the elderly relative on whom he was partially dependent, the +young lover suddenly took leave of the family, having said not a word to +Mrs. Dashwood of an engagement, and having offered no other explanation +of his hasty departure than the flimsy pretext of being sent by his +relative on business to London. + +Willoughby left for London a few days after Colonel Brandon had also +been unexpectedly summoned to the same place, and he expressed no hope +of any rapid return into Devonshire. On such an occasion Marianne would +have thought herself very inexcusable had she not given way to all her +feelings; and for some days she courted misery and indulged in tears, in +solitude, and in sleeplessness. But she was soon set a better example by +Elinor, who did her utmost to remain cheerful under the depression of +heart caused by a visit paid to the family about this same time by +Edward Ferrars. He was obviously uneasy, low-spirited and reserved, said +he had already been a fortnight in Devonshire stopping with some friends +at Plymouth, and, after a week's stay with the Dashwoods, left them, in +spite of their wishes and his own, and without any restraint on his +time. But Elinor and Marianne were not long allowed leisure to be +miserable. Sir John's and Mrs. Jennings' active zeal in the cause of +society soon procured them some other new acquaintance to see and +observe. One of these couples was Lady Middleton's brother-in-law and +younger sister, Mr. and Mrs. Palmer. It was impossible for anyone to be +more thoroughly good-natured or more determined to be happy than Mrs. +Palmer. The studied indifference, insolence, and discontent of her +husband gave her no pain, and when he scolded or abused her, she was +highly diverted. "Mr. Palmer is so droll," she used to say in a whisper +to Elinor; "he is always out of humour." One day, at dinner, his wife +said to him, with her usual laugh, "My love, you contradict everybody. +Do you know that you are quite rude?" To which he replied, "I did not +know I contradicted anybody in calling your mother ill-bred." But the +good-natured old lady was in no wise affronted, "Ay; you may abuse me as +much as you please," she said. "You have taken Charlotte off my hands, +and cannot give her back again. So there I have the whip-hand of you." + +The other couple of new friends whom Sir John's reluctance to keep even +a third cousin to himself provided for them were the Misses Steele. In a +morning's excursion to Exeter Sir John and Mrs. Jennings had met with +two young ladies whom Mrs. Jennings had the satisfaction of discovering +to be her relations; and this was enough for Sir John to invite them +directly to the Park as soon as their engagements at Exeter were over. +The result was that Elinor and Marianne were almost forced into an +intercourse with two young women, who, however civil they might be, were +obviously underbred. Miss Steele was a plain girl about thirty, whose +whole conversation was of beaux; while Miss Lucy Steele, a pretty girl +of twenty-three, was, despite her native cleverness, probably common and +illiterate. + +Marianne, however, who had never much toleration for anything like +impertinence, vulgarity, inferiority of parts, or even difference of +taste from herself, soon checked every endeavour at intimacy on their +side by the coldness of her behaviour towards them; but Elinor, from +politeness, submitted to the attentions of both, but especially to those +of Lucy, who missed no opportunity of engaging her in conversation, or +of striving to improve their acquaintance by an easy and frank +communication of her sentiments, until one day, as they were walking +together from the Park to the cottage, she asked Elinor if she were +personally acquainted with Mrs. John Dashwood's mother, Mrs. Ferrars, +and, in explanation of her question, proceeded to confound her by +confessing that she knew Mr. Edward Ferrars, who had been at one time +under the care of her uncle, Mr. Pratt, at Longstaple, near Plymouth, +and that she had been engaged to him for the last four years. + +Distressed by this news, which she was quite aware that Lucy had +confided to her merely from jealousy and suspicion, indignant at +Edward's duplicity, though convinced of his genuine attachment to +herself, Elinor resolved not to give pain to her mother and sister by +telling them of the engagement. Indeed, her attention was soon withdrawn +from her own to her sister's love affairs by an invitation which Mrs. +Jennings gave the two girls to spend a few weeks with her in town at her +house near Portman Square, an invitation which was accepted by Marianne +in the hope of seeing Willoughby, and by Elinor with the intention of +looking after Marianne. Mrs. Jennings' party was three days on the road, +and arrived in Berkeley Street at three o'clock in the afternoon, in +time to allow Marianne to write a brief note to Willoughby. But he +failed to appear that evening; and when a loud knock at the door +resulted in Colonel Brandon being admitted instead, she found the shock +of disappointment too great to be borne with calmness, and left the +room. + +As it happened, a full week elapsed before she discovered, by finding +his card on the table, that her lover had arrived in town. Even then she +could not see him. He failed to call the next morning, and though +invited to dine on the following day with the Middletons in Conduit +Street, he neglected to put in an appearance. Which strange conduct +moved Marianne to send another note to him; and Elinor to write to her +mother, entreating her to demand from Marianne an account of her real +situation with respect to him. + +A meeting between Marianne Dashwood and John Willoughby at last took +place at a fashionable party, where the latter greeted the two sisters +with great coldness and reluctance; and a third letter from Marianne, +now frantic with grief, elicited a reply from him in which he announced +his engagement to another lady, "reproached himself for not having been +more guarded in his professions of esteem for Marianne, and returned, +with great regret, the lock of her hair which she had so obligingly +bestowed on him." + +A day or two later Colonel Brandon called on Elinor to give her certain +information about Willoughby. He told her that his sudden departure from +Devonshire to London, which had surprised his friends so much, had been +due to an affecting letter he had received from his ward, Miss Williams, +the natural daughter of a beloved sister-in-law. Willoughby had met this +lady--a pretty girl of sixteen--at Bath, and, after a guilty intimacy, +had abandoned her. Colonel Brandon had gone to her rescue and to fight a +bloodless duel with her betrayer. + + +_III.--Matrimonial Intrigues_ + + +One day Elinor and Marianne were at Gray's, in Sackville Street, +carrying on a negotiation for the exchange of a few old-fashioned jewels +belonging to their mother, when they came upon their half-brother, Mr. +John Dashwood. He paid a visit to Mrs. Jennings the next day, and came +with a pretence of an apology for his wife not coming, too. To his +sisters his manners, though calm, were perfectly kind; to Mrs. Jennings +most attentively civil; and on Colonel Brandon coming in soon after +himself, he eyed him with a curiosity that seemed to say that he only +wanted to know him to be rich to be equally civil to _him_. After +staying with them half an hour, he asked Elinor to walk with him to +Conduit Street, and to introduce him to Sir John and Lady Middleton; and +as soon as they were out of the house he began to make inquiries about +Colonel Brandon. Which inquiries having elicited the satisfactory +information that the gentleman had a good property at Delaford Park, in +Dorsetshire, Mr. Dashwood--indifferent to his sister's disclaimers +--proceeded to congratulate her on the prospect of a very respectable +establishment in life, to insist that the objections to a prior +attachment on her side were not insurmountable, and to inform her +that the object of that attachment--Mr. Edward Ferrars--was likely to be +married to Miss Morton, a peer's daughter, with thirty thousand pounds +of her own. + +Mrs. John Dashwood had so much confidence in her husband's judgment that +she waited the very next day on both Mrs. Jennings and her daughter. She +found the former by no means unworthy her notice, and the latter one of +the most charming women in the world. The attraction was mutual, for +Lady Middleton was equally pleased with Mrs. Dashwood. + +There was a kind of cold-hearted selfishness on both sides, which +mutually attracted them; and they sympathised with each other in an +insipid propriety of demeanour and a general want of understanding. +Indeed, the Dashwoods were so prodigiously delighted with the Middletons +that, though not much in the habit of giving anything, they determined +to give them a dinner; and soon after their acquaintance began, invited +them to dine at Harley Street, where they had taken a very good house +for three months. Mrs. Jennings and the Misses Dashwood were invited +likewise, and so were Colonel Brandon, as a friend of the young ladies, +and the Misses Steele, as belonging to the Middleton party in Conduit +Street. They were to meet Mrs. Ferrars. + +Mrs. Ferrars turned out to be a little, thin woman, upright even to +formality in her figure, and serious even to sourness in her aspect. Her +complexion was sallow, and her features small, without beauty, and +naturally without expression; but a lucky contraction of the brow had +rescued her countenance from the disgrace of insipidity by giving it the +strong characters of pride and ill-nature. She was not a woman of many +words; for, unlike people in general, she proportioned them to the +number of her ideas; of the few syllables which did escape her, not one +fell to the share of Miss Dashwood, whom she eyed with the spirited +determination of disliking her at all events; whereas towards the Misses +Steele--particularly towards Lucy--both mother and daughter were +ostentatiously gracious. On this occasion Marianne created something of +a scene by openly resenting this treatment of her sister; while Mr. +Dashwood, seeking to interest Colonel Brandon in Elinor, showed him a +pretty pair of screens which she had painted for his wife, and informed +him that "a few months ago Marianne _was_ remarkably handsome, quite as +handsome as Elinor." + +The next morning Lucy called on Elinor to exult in Mrs. Ferrars' +flattering treatment of her; her joy, however, was somewhat diminished +by the unexpected appearance of Edward Ferrars in Berkeley Street, for +though both Elinor and Lucy were able to keep up their respective poses +towards him, Marianne confused all three by an open demonstration of her +sisterly affection for him. But an invitation from Mrs. John Dashwood to +the Misses Steele to spend some days in Harley Street soon restored +Lucy's equanimity, and almost made Elinor believe that her rival was a +real favourite. + +At any rate this was the view taken by foolish Nancy Steele. + +"Lord!" thought she to herself, "they are all so fond of Lucy, to be +sure they will make no difficulty about it." And so away she went and +told Mrs. Dashwood all about Lucy's engagement to Edward Ferrars; the +result of which was that the married lady fell into hysterics, while the +Misses Steele were hastily bundled out of the house. + +Elinor, on hearing this news from Mrs. Jennings, soon saw the necessity +of preparing Marianne for its discussion. She lost no time, therefore, +in making her acquainted with the real truth, and in endeavouring to +bring her to hear it talked of by others, without betraying that she +felt any uneasiness for her sister or any resentment towards Edward. At +first Marianne wept in grief and amazement; then she began to ascribe +Elinor's long reticence about the engagement to lack of real depth of +feeling; and it was not till the latter had done a deal of protesting +that the younger girl was able to give her sister due credit for +self-sacrifice and generosity. So when Mr. John Dashwood came round to +his sisters to tell them how Edward had refused to break off his +engagement, and how Mrs. Ferrars, on hearing of this, had resolved to +cut him off with a shilling, and to do all in her power to prevent his +advancing in any profession, and had settled on his brother Robert an +estate of a thousand pounds which she had intended to bestow on him, +Marianne let her indignation burst forth only when her brother had +quitted the room. A few days later, Elinor met Nancy Steele in +Kensington Gardens, who gave her a certain information, which +subsequently turned out to have been derived from listening at the +keyhole. This was to the effect that Edward, out of consideration for +Lucy, who would be marrying a man with no prospects and with no means +save two thousand pounds, had offered to give her up; but that Lucy had +protested her affection for him, was determined not to give him up, and +was building hopes on his taking orders and getting a living. +Fortunately, the much desired living came far sooner than Lucy could +have expected, for Colonel Brandon, with characteristic kindness, +offered the presentation of the rectory of Delaford to Edward through +Elinor. + + +_IV--A Happy Ending to Love's Troubles_ + + +Anxious though the Misses Dashwood were to get back to Barton, they +could not refuse an invitation from the Palmers to spend a few days with +them. But, thanks to the romantic folly of Marianne--who, because she +fancied she could see Combe Magna, Willoughby's place, from Cleveland, +must needs take two evening walks in the grounds just where the grass +was the longest and the wettest--the house-party enjoyed not the +pleasantest of times. Marianne had to take to bed, and became so +feverish and delirious that Colonel Brandon volunteered to fetch Mrs. +Dashwood himself. + +The next evening Elinor, who was acting as her sister's most devoted +nurse, and was hourly expecting her mother's arrival, was astounded by a +visit from Willoughby, who, having met Sir John Middleton in the lobby +of Drury Lane Theatre the previous night, and thus heard of Marianne's +serious illness, had set forth post-haste to make inquiries, and was now +delighted to find her out of danger. Attempting an exculpation of +himself, he confessed that at first meeting Marianne he had tried to +engage her regard without a thought of returning it; that afterwards he +grew sincerely fond of her, but put off from day to day paying her his +formal addresses and that just at the moment when he was going to make a +regular proposal to her, Mrs. Smith's discovery of his liaison with Miss +Williams, and his refusal to right matters by marrying the young lady, +dismissed him from his relative's house and favour, prevented him from +declaring his love to Marianne, and, in the embarrassed state of his +finances, seemed to render marriage with a wealthy woman his only chance +of salvation. He repudiated the charge of having deserted Miss Williams, +declaring that he did not know the straits to which she had been +reduced. He also alluded to the violence of her passion, and the +weakness of her understanding, as some excuses for the apparent +heartlessness of his own conduct. + +He then went on to explain his treatment of Marianne's letters; how he +had already--previous to the arrival of the Dashwoods in town--become +engaged to Miss Sophia Grey; how, with his head and heart full of +Marianne, he was forced to play the happy lover to Sophia; and how +Sophia, in her jealousy, had opened Marianne's third letter and dictated +the reply. + +"What do you think of my wife's style of letter-writing? Delicate, +tender, fully feminine, was it not?" said he. + +"You are very wrong, Mr. Willoughby," said Elinor. "You ought not to +speak in this way either of Mrs. Willoughby or my sister. You have made +your own choice. It was not forced on you. Your wife has a claim to your +politeness--to your respect, at least." She must be attached to you, or +she would not have married you." + +"Do not talk to me of my wife," said he, with a heavy sigh. "She does +not deserve your compassion. She knew I had no regard for her when we +married. And now, do you pity me, Miss Dashwood? Have I explained away +any part of my guilt?" + +"Yes. You have certainly removed something--a little," said Elinor. "You +have proved yourself, on the whole, less faulty than I had believed +you." + +When Mrs. Dashwood arrived at Cleveland, Elinor at once gave her the +joyful news of Marianne's material improvement in health and, after an +affectionate but nearly silent interview had taken place between mother +and sick child, the former proceeded to express to Elinor her admiration +for Colonel Brandon's disposition and manners, and her expectation that +he and Marianne would make a match of it. The Colonel, it seemed, had +told Mrs. Dashwood on the way of his affection for her daughter. + +Marianne, however, at first seemed to have other plans. When the family +got back to Barton Cottage, she announced that she had determined to +enter on a course of serious study, and to devote six hours a day to +improving herself by reading. But with such a confederacy against her as +that formed by her mother and Elinor--with a knowledge so intimate of +Colonel Brandon's goodness--what could she do? + +As for Elinor, her self-control was at last rewarded, thanks to a +strange _volte-face_ on the part of Lucy Steele who, finding that +_Robert_ Ferrars had the money, married him and jilted his brother. The +way was thus cleared to Elinor's union with Edward, whose mother was +induced to give the young couple her consent, and a marriage portion of +£10,000. + + * * * * * + + + + +Pride and Prejudice + + This, Jane Austen's best-known novel, was written between 1796 + and 1797, and was called "First Impressions." Revised in 1811, + it was published two years later by the same Mr. Egerton, of + the Military Library, Whitehall, who had brought out "Sense + and Sensibility." Like its predecessor, and like "Northanger + Abbey," it was written at Steventon Rectory, and it is + generally regarded not only as its author's most popular but + as her most representative achievement. Wickham, the + all-conquering young lady-killer of the story, is a favourite + character of the novelist He figures as Willoughby in "Sense + and Sensibility," as Crawford in "Mansfield Park," as + Churchill in "Emma," and--to a certain extent--as Wentworth in + "Persuasion." Another characteristic feature of "Pride and + Prejudice" is Wickham's unprepared attachment to Lydia Bennet, + resembling as it does Robert Ferrars' startling engagement to + Lucy Steele in "Sense and Sensibility," Frank Churchill's + secret understanding with Jane Fairfax in "Emma," and Captain + Benwick's sudden and unexpected union with Louisa Musgrove in + "Persuasion." + + +_I.--A Society Ball at Longbourn_ + + +All Longbourn was agape with excitement when it became known that +Netherfield Park, the great place of the neighbourhood, was let to a +rich and handsome young bachelor called Bingley, and that Mr. Bingley +and his party were to attend the forthcoming ball at the Assembly Rooms. + +Nowhere did the news create more interest and rouse greater hopes than +in the household of the Bennets, the chief inhabitants of Longbourn; for +Mr. Bennet--who was so odd a mixture of quick parts, sarcastic humour, +reserve and caprice, that the experience of three-and-twenty years had +been insufficient to make his wife understand his character--was the +father of five unmarried daughters; while Mrs. Bennet--a still handsome +woman, of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain +temper--made the business of her life getting her daughters married, and +its solace visiting and news. + +The evening fixed for the ball came round at last; and when the +Netherfield party entered the Assembly Rooms it was found to consist of +five persons altogether--Mr. Bingley, his two sisters, the husband of +the elder, and another young man. + +Mr. Bingley was good-looking and gentleman-like; he had a pleasant +countenance, and easy, unaffected manners. His sisters were fine women, +with an air of decided fashion. His brother-in-law, Mr. Hurst, merely +looked the gentleman; but his friend, Mr. Darcy, soon drew the attention +of the room by his fine, tall person, handsome features, noble mien, and +the report, which was in general circulation within five minutes after +his entrance, of his having ten thousand a year. He was looked at with +great admiration for about half the evening, till his manners gave a +disgust which turned the tide of his popularity; for he was found to be +proud, to be above his company, and above being pleased. + +Mr. Bingley had soon made himself acquainted with all the principal +people in the room. He was lively and unreserved, danced every dance, +was angry that the ball closed so early, and talked of giving one +himself at Netherfield. What a contrast between him and his friend! Mr. +Darcy danced only once with Mrs. Hurst, and once with Miss Bingley, and +declined being introduced to any other lady. + +It so happened that Elizabeth, the second eldest of the Bennet girls, +had been obliged, by the scarcity of gentlemen, to sit down for two +dances; and during part of that time Mr. Darcy had been standing near +enough for her to overhear a conversation between him and Mr. Bingley, +who came from the dance for a few minutes. + +"Come, Darcy," said he, "I must have you dance. I hate to see you +standing about by yourself in this stupid manner. You had much better +dance." + +"I certainly shall not. You know how I detest it, unless I am +particularly acquainted with my partner" At such an assembly as this it +would be insupportable. Your sisters are engaged, and there is not +another woman in the room whom it would not be a punishment to me to +stand up with." + +"I would not be so fastidious as you are," cried Bingley, "for a +kingdom! Upon my honour, I never met with so many pleasant girls in my +life as I have this evening, and there are several of them, you see, +uncommonly pretty." + +"_You_ are dancing with the only handsome girl in the room," said Mr. +Darcy, looking at the eldest Miss Bennet. + +"Oh, she is the most beautiful creature I ever beheld! But there is one +of her sisters sitting down just behind you who is very pretty, and I +dare say very agreeable. Do let me ask my partner to introduce you." + +"Which do you mean?" And turning round, he looked for a moment at +Elizabeth, till, catching her eye, he withdrew his own, and coldly said: +"She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt _me_; and I am in no +humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted +by other men; You had better return to your partner and enjoy her +smiles, for you are wasting your time with me." + +Mr. Bingley followed his advice. Mr. Darcy walked off; and Elizabeth +remained, with no very cordial feelings towards him. She told the story, +however, with great spirit among her friends, for she had a lively, +playful disposition, which delighted in anything ridiculous. + + +_II--The Bennet Girls and their Lovers_ + + +Despite its rather unpromising commencement the course of a few days +placed the acquaintance of the Bennets with the Bingleys on a footing +approaching friendship; and soon matters began to stand somewhat as +follow. It was obvious that Charles Bingley and Jane Bennet were +mutually attracted, and this despite the latter's outward composure, +which, like her amiability of manner and charity of view, was apt to +mislead the superficial observer. On the other hand, while the Bingley +ladies expressed themselves as willing to know the two elder Miss +Bennets and pronounced Jane "a sweet girl," they found the other females +of the family impossible. Mrs. Bennet was intolerably stupid and +tedious; Mary, who, being the only plain member of her family, piqued +herself on the extent of her reading and the solidity of her +reflections, was a platitudinous moralist; while Lydia and Kitty were +loud, silly, giggling girls, who spent all their time in running after +men. As for Mr. Darcy, the indifference he at first felt to Elizabeth +Bennet was gradually converted into a sort of guarded interest. +Originally he had scarcely allowed her to be pretty, but now he admired +the beautiful expression of her dark eyes. To this discovery succeeded +some others equally mortifying. Though he had detected more than one +failure of perfect symmetry in her form, he was forced to acknowledge +her figure to be light and pleasing; and in spite of his asserting that +her manners were not those of the fashionable world, he was caught by +their easy playfulness. He began to wish to know more of her, and, as a +step towards conversing with her himself, attended to her conversation +with others, while, since both he and she were of a satirical turn, they +soon began to exchange little rallying, challenging speeches, so that +Caroline Bingley, who was openly angling for Darcy herself, said to him +one night: "How long has Miss Elizabeth Bennet been such a favourite? +And pray when am I to wish you joy?" To which remarks he merely replied: +"That is exactly the question which I expected you to ask. A lady's +imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love +to matrimony, in a moment. I knew you would be wishing me joy." + +Meantime, the friendship subsisting between the two families was +advanced by a visit of some days paid by the two Bennet sisters to the +Bingleys, at whose house Jane, thanks to her mother's scheming, was laid +up with a bad cold. On this occasion Jane was coddled and made much of +by her dear friends Caroline and Mrs. Hurst; but Elizabeth was now +reckoned too attractive by one sister, and condemned as too +sharp-tongued by both. + +"Eliza Bennet," said Miss Bingley, when the door was closed on her, "is +one of those young ladies who seek to recommend themselves to the other +sex by undervaluing their own; and with many men, I dare say, it +succeeds. But in my opinion it is a very mean art." + +"Undoubtedly," replied Darcy, to whom this remark was chiefly addressed, +"there is meanness in _all_ the arts which ladies sometimes condescend +to employ for captivation. Whatever bears affinity to cunning is +despicable." + +Miss Bingley was not so entirely satisfied with this reply as to +continue the subject. + +Nevertheless, Darcy's growing attachment to Eliza was little dreamt of +by that young lady. Indeed, her prejudice against him was strengthened +by her pleasant intercourse with a handsome and agreeable young man +called Wickham, an officer of the militia regiment quartered at Meryton, +the nearest town to Longbourn. He told her how he was the son of a +trusted steward of Darcy's father, and had been left by the old +gentleman to his heir's liberality and care, and how Darcy had +absolutely disregarded his father's wishes, and had treated his protégé +in cruel and unfeeling fashion. + +On the top of this disclosure, and just at it seemed certain that +Bingley was on the point of proposing to Jane, the whole Netherfield +party suddenly abandoned Hertfordshire and returned to town, partly, as +Elizabeth could not help thinking, in consequence of the behaviour of +her family at a ball given at Netherfield Park, where it appeared to her +that, had they made an agreement to expose themselves as much as they +could during the evening, they could not have played their parts with +more spirit or finer success. + + +_III.--Elizabeth Rejects the Rector_ + + +About this time the Rev. Mr. Collins, heir-presumptive to Longbourn, +came on a visit to the Bennets. He was a tall, heavy-looking young man +of five-and-twenty. His air was grave and stately, and his manners were +very formal. He was a strange mixture of pomposity, servility, and +self-importance, a creature most abjectly, yet most amusingly, devoid of +anything like tact, taste, or humour. + +Being ready to make the Bennet girls every possible amends for the +unwilling injury he must eventually do them, he thought first of all of +offering himself to Jane; but hearing that her affections were +pre-engaged, he had only to change from Jane to Elizabeth. It was soon +done--done while Mrs. Bennet was stirring the fire. His proposal he made +to the younger lady in a long, set speech, in which he explained, first +of all, his general reasons for marrying, and then his reasons for +directing his matrimonial views to Longbourn, finally assuring her that +on the subject of the small portion she would bring him no ungenerous +reproach should ever pass his lips when they were married. + +It was absolutely necessary to interrupt him then, so Elizabeth told him +he was too hasty, thanked him for his proposals, and declined them. + +"I am not now to learn," replied Mr. Collins, with a formal wave of the +hand, "that it is usual with young ladies to reject the addresses of the +man whom they secretly mean to accept, when he first applies for their +favour; and that sometimes the refusal is repeated a second, or even a +third, time. I am, therefore, by no means discouraged by what you have +said, and shall hope to lead you to the altar ere long." + +"Upon my word, sir," cried Elizabeth, "your hope is rather an +extraordinary one after my declaration! I do assure you that I am not +one of those young ladies (if such young ladies there are) who are so +daring as to risk their happiness on the chance of being asked a second +time. I am perfectly serious in my refusal. You could not make _me_ +happy; and I am convinced that I am the last woman in the world who +would make _you_ so. Nay; were your friend, Lady Catherine, to know me, +I am persuaded she would find me in every respect ill qualified for the +situation." + +"Were it certain that Lady Catherine would think so----" said Mr. +Collins, very gravely. "But I cannot imagine that her ladyship would at +all disapprove of you. And you may be certain that when I have the +honour of seeing her again, I shall speak in the highest terms of your +modesty, economy, and other amiable qualifications." + +Twice more was Mr. Collins refused, and even then he would not take "No" +for an answer. + +"You must give me leave to flatter myself, my dear cousin," said he, +"that your refusals of my addresses are merely words, of course. My +reasons for believing it are chiefly these. It does not appear to me +that my hand is unworthy your acceptance, or that the establishment I +can offer would be any other than highly desirable. My situation in +life, my connections with the family of De Bourgh, and my relationship +to your own, are circumstances highly in my favour; and you should take +it into further consideration that, in spite of your manifold +attractions, it is by no means certain that another offer of marriage +may ever be made to you. Your portion is unhappily so small that it +will, in all likelihood, undo the effects of your loveliness and amiable +qualifications. As I must, therefore, conclude that you are not serious +in your rejection of me, I shall choose to attribute it to your wish of +increasing my love by suspense, according to the usual practice of +elegant females." + +"I do assure you, sir," said Elizabeth, "that I have no pretensions +whatever to that kind of elegance which consists in tormenting a +respectable man. I would rather be paid the compliment of being believed +sincere. I thank you again and again for the honour you have done me in +your proposals, but to accept them is absolutely impossible. My feelings +in every respect forbid it. Can I speak plainer? Do not consider me now +as an elegant female intending to plague you, but as a rational creature +speaking the truth from her heart." + +"You are uniformly charming," said he, with an air of awkward gallantry; +"and I am persuaded that, when sanctioned by the express authority of +both your excellent parents, my proposals will be acceptable." + + +_IV.--Darcy Loves and Loses_ + + +Rejected by Elizabeth, to the great satisfaction of her father and to +the great indignation of her mother, the rector of Hunsford lost no time +in betaking himself to Elizabeth's dearest friend, Charlotte Lucas, who, +being a girl with unromantic, not to say prosaic, views of marriage, +readily accepted and married him, thereby moving to further disgust and +anger poor Mrs. Bennet, who was already wondering and repining at Mr. +Bingley's returning no more into Hertfordshire. Jane suffered in +silence, and despite Elizabeth's efforts to point out the duplicity of +Caroline Bingley, was inclined to believe the protestations that the +latter made in her letters from London of Bingley's growing attachment +to Darcy's sister Georgiana. + +Mr. Bennet treated the matter in his customary ironical way. + +"So, Lizzy," said he, one day, "your sister is crossed in love, I find. +I congratulate her. Next to being married, a girl likes to be crossed in +love a little now and then. It is something to think of, and gives her a +sort of distinction among her companions. When is your turn to come? You +will hardly bear to be long outdone by Jane. Now is your time. Here are +officers enough at Meryton to disappoint all the young ladies in the +country. Let Wickham be your man. He is a pleasant fellow, and would +jilt you creditably." + +"Thank you, sir, but a less agreeable man would satisfy me. We must not +all expect Jane's good fortune." + +"True," said Mr. Bennet; "but it is a comfort to think that, whatever of +that kind may befall you, you have a mother who will always make the +most of it." + +As it turned out, Wickham, though he had not arrived at an intimacy +which enabled him to _jilt_ Elizabeth, yet most certainly transferred +his attentions very shortly from her to a Miss King, who, by the death +of her grandfather, had come into £10,000. Elizabeth, however, was quite +heartwhole; and she and her former admirer parted on friendly terms when +she left Longbourn to pay her promised visit to Mr. and Mrs. Collins at +Hunsford. + +There she found Charlotte, managing her home and her husband with +considerable discretion: and, as the rectory adjoined Rosings Park, the +seat of Lady Catherine de Bourgh, the patroness of the living, she was +introduced to that lady, in whom she could discover nothing but an +insolent aristocratic woman, who dictated to everyone about her, meddled +in everybody's business, aimed at marrying her sickly daughter to Darcy, +and was, needless to say, slavishly adored by Mr. Collins. + +In the third week of her visit Mr. Darcy and his cousin, Colonel +Fitzwilliam, came down to see their aunt, and thus--to Elizabeth's +indifference--an acquaintance was renewed which Darcy soon seemed to +show a real desire to take up again. He sought her society at Rosings +Park, he called familiarly at the rectory, he waylaid her in her +favourite walk; and all the time, in all his intercourse with her, he +revealed such a mixture of interest and constraint as demonstrated only +too clearly that some internal struggle was going on within him. + +Mrs. Collins began to hope for her friend; but Elizabeth, who had +received from Colonel Fitzwilliam ample confirmation of her suspicion +that it was Darcy who had persuaded Bingley to give up Jane, was now +only more incensed against the man who had broken her sister's peace of +mind. + +On the very evening of the day on which she had extracted this piece of +information from his cousin, Darcy, knowing her to be alone, called at +the rectory, and, after a silence of several minutes, came towards her +in an agitated manner. + +"In vain have I struggled," he said. "It will not do. My feelings will +not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire +and love you." + +Elizabeth's astonishment was beyond expression. She stared, coloured, +doubted, and was silent. This he considered sufficient encouragement; +and the avowal of all that he felt, and had long felt, for her +immediately followed. He spoke well; but there were feelings besides +those of the heart to be detailed. His sense of her inferiority, of +marriage with her being a degradation, of the family obstacles which +judgment had always opposed to inclination, were dwelt on with a warmth +which seemed due to the consequence he was wounding, but was very +unlikely to recommend his suit. In truth, it was already lost, for +though Elizabeth could not be insensible to the compliment of such a +man's affection, her intentions did not vary for an instant. Accusing +him of having ruined, perhaps for ever, the happiness of her sister +Jane, and of having blighted the career of his former friend Wickham, +she reproached him with the uncivil style of his declaration, and gave +him her answer in the words: + +"You could not have made me the offer of your hand in any possible way +that would have tempted me to accept it." + +Soon after, Darcy took his leave; but the next day he accosted Elizabeth +in the park, and handed her a letter, which he begged her to read. She +read it, and had the mortification to discover not only that Darcy made +some scathing but perfectly justifiable comments on the objectionable +members of her family, but that he was able to clear himself of both the +charges she had brought against him. He maintained that in separating +Bingley from Jane he had not the slightest notion that he was doing the +latter any injury, since he never credited her with any strong +attachment to his friend; and he assured Elizabeth that, though Wickham +had always been an idle and dissipated person, he had more than +fulfilled his father's intentions to him, and that Wickham had repaid +him for his generosity by trying to elope with his young sister +Georgiana, a girl of fifteen. + +When Elizabeth returned to Longbourn, she found it a relief to tell Jane +of Darcy's proposal, and of his revelation of Wickham's real character; +but she thought it best to suppress every particular of the letter in +which Jane herself was concerned. + + +_V.--An Elopement_ + + +Some two months later Elizabeth went on a tour in Derbyshire with her +maternal uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner. The latter had lived for +some years at a town called Lambton, and wished to revisit her old +friends there; and as Pemberley--Mr. Darcy's seat--was only five miles +off, and was a show-place, the Gardiners determined to see it, though +their niece was reluctant to accompany them until she had learned that +its owner was not at home. As they were being shown over the place, +Elizabeth could not help reflecting that she might have been mistress of +it, and she listened with surprise as the old housekeeper told them that +she should never meet with a better master, that she had never had a +cross word from him in her life, that as a child he was always the +sweetest-tempered, most generous-hearted boy in the world, and that +there was not one of his tenants or servants but would testify to his +excellent qualities as a landlord and a master. + +As they were walking across the lawn the owner of Pemberley himself +suddenly came forward from the road, and as if to justify the praises of +his housekeeper, and to show that he had taken to heart Elizabeth's +former complaints of his behaviour, proceeded to treat the Gardiner +party with the greatest civility, and even cordiality. He introduced his +sister to them, asked them to dinner, invited Mr. Gardiner to fish at +Pemberley as often as he chose, and, in answer to a spiteful remark of +Miss Bingley's to the effect that he had thought Elizabeth pretty at one +time, made the crushing reply: + +"Yes, but that was only when I first knew her; for it is many months +since I have considered her as one of the handsomest women of my +acquaintance." + +But just when Elizabeth's growing esteem and gratitude might have +deepened into affection for Darcy, circumstances were communicated to +her in a letter from Jane which seemed to render it in the highest +degree improbable that so proud and fastidious a man as he would ever +make any further advances. Lydia, who had got herself invited by some +friends to Brighton in order to be near the militia regiment which had +been transferred there from Meryton, had eloped with Wickham, and the +pair, instead of going to Scotland to be married, appeared--though their +whereabouts could not yet be discovered--to be living together in London +unmarried. + +Darcy seemed to be staggered when he heard the news, and instantly +acquiesced in the immediate return of the Gardiner party to Longbourn. +They found on their arrival that Mr. Bennet was searching for his +daughter in London, where Mr. Gardiner agreed to go to consult with him. + +"Oh, my dear brother," said Mrs. Bennet, on hearing this, "that is +exactly what I could most wish for! And now do, when you get to town, +find them out wherever they may be; and if they are not married already, +_make_ them marry. And as for wedding clothes, do not let them wait for +that; but tell Lydia she shall have as much money as she chooses to buy +them after they are married. And, above all things, keep Mr. Bennet from +fighting. Tell him what a dreadful state I am in--that I am frightened +out of my wits, and have such tremblings, such flutterings all over me; +such spasms in my side, and pains in my head, and such beatings at my +heart that I can get no rest by day nor by night. And tell my dear Lydia +not to give any directions about her clothes till she has seen me, for +she does not know which are the best warehouses. Oh, brother, how kind +you are! I know you will contrive it all." + +Mr. Collins improved the occasion by writing a letter of condolence, in +which he assured the distressed father that the death of Lydia would +have been a blessing in comparison with her elopement. But, +unfortunately, much of this instruction was wasted, the distress of the +Bennets proving less irremediable than their cousin had anticipated or +their neighbours feared--for, thanks, as it seemed, to the +investigations and to the generosity of Mr. Gardiner, the eloping couple +were discovered, and it was made worth Wickham's while to marry Lydia. +Longbourn society bore the good news with decent philosophy, though, to +be sure, it would have been more for the advantage of conversation had +Miss Lydia Bennet come upon the town. + + +_VI.--Three Bennet Weddings_ + + +After arrangements had been made for Wickham's entering the regulars and +joining a regiment at Newcastle, his marriage with Lydia took place, and +the young couple were received at Longbourn. Their assurance was quite +reassuring. + +"Well, mamma," said Lydia, "and what do you think of my husband? Is not +he a charming man? I am sure my sisters must all envy me. I only hope +they may have half my good luck. They must all go to Brighton. That is +the place to get husbands. What a pity it is, mamma, we did not all go!" + +"Very true. And if I had my will we should. But, my dear Lydia, I don't +at all like your going such a way off. Must it be so?" + +"Oh, Lord, yes! There is nothing in that. I shall like it of all things. +You and papa and my sisters must come down and see us. We shall be at +Newcastle all the winter; and I dare say there will be some balls, and I +will take care to get good partners for them all." + +"I should like it beyond anything!" said her mother. + +"And then, when you go away, you may leave one or two of my sisters +behind you; and I dare say I shall get husbands for them before the +winter is over." + +"I thank you for my share of the favour," said Elizabeth; "but I do not +particularly like your way of getting husbands!" + +Indeed, from some remark which Lydia let slip about Darcy being at the +wedding, Elizabeth soon began to think that it was only due to outside +efforts that Mrs. Wickham had succeeded in getting _her own_ husband. + +An application for information which she made to her Aunt Gardiner +confirmed this suspicion. Darcy, it seems, had hurried up to London +immediately on hearing of the elopement; and he it was who, thanks to +his knowledge of Wickham's previous history, found out where Lydia and +he were lodging, and by dint of paying his debts to the tune of a +thousand pounds, buying his commission, and settling another thousand +pounds on Lydia, persuaded him to make her an honest woman. That is to +say, thought Elizabeth, Darcy had met, frequently met, reasoned with, +persuaded, and finally bribed the man whom he always most wished to +avoid, and whose very name it was punishment to him to pronounce. +Meantime, Bingley, accompanied by Darcy, made his reappearance at +Netherfield Park and at the Bennets'; and Elizabeth had the +mortification of seeing her mother welcome the former with the greatest +effusiveness, and treat the latter coldly and almost resentfully. "Any +friend of Mr. Bingley's will always be welcome here, to be sure; but +else I must say that I hate the very sight of him," said Mrs. Bennet, as +she watched the two men approaching the house to pay their first visit. + +Despite, however, rather than by reason of, this surfeit of amiability +on the part of the mother, the lovers quickly came to an understanding, +and this, strangely enough, in the absence of Darcy, who had gone up to +town. It was in Darcy's absence, also, that Lady Catherine de Bourgh +came over to Longbourn, and helped to bring about what she most ardently +wished to prevent by making an unsuccessful demand on Elizabeth that she +should promise not to accept Darcy for a husband, and by then reporting +to him that Elizabeth had refused to give such a promise. The natural +result followed. Elizabeth mustered up courage one day to thank Darcy +for all he had done for Lydia; and this subject soon led _him_ to affirm +that in that matter he had thought only of Elizabeth, and to renew--and +to renew successfully--his former proposals of marriage. When Mrs. +Bennet first heard the great news she sat quite still, and unable to +utter a syllable; and at first even Jane and her father were almost +incredulous of the engagement, because they had seen practically nothing +of the courtship. But in the end they were all convinced, and Mr. +Bennet's decisive comment was: "I admire all my three sons-in-law +highly. Wickham, perhaps, is my favourite; but I think I shall like +_your_ husband quite as well as Jane's. If any young men come for Mary +or Kitty, send them in, for I am quite at leisure." + + * * * * * + + + + +Northanger Abbey + + "Northanger Abbey" was written in 1798, revised for the press + in 1803, and sold in the same year for £10 to a Bath + bookseller, who held it in such light esteem that, after + allowing it to remain for many years on his shelves, he was + content to sell it back to the novelist's brother, Henry + Austen, for the exact sum which he had paid for it at the + beginning, not knowing that the writer was already the author + of four popular novels. This story--which is, of course, a + skit on the "terror" novel of Mrs. Radcliffe's school--was not + published till after its author's death, when, in 1818, it was + bound up with her last book, "Persuasion." + + +_I.--A Heroine in the Making_ + + +No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy could have +supposed her born to be a heroine. Her situation in life, the character +of her father and mother, her own person and disposition, were all +equally against her. Her father was a clergyman, without being neglected +or poor, and a very respectable man, though his name was Richard, and he +had never been handsome. He had a considerable independence, besides two +good livings, and he was not in the least addicted to locking up his +daughters. Her mother was a woman of useful plain sense, with a good +temper, and, what is more remarkable, with a good constitution. She had +three sons before Catherine was born; and, instead of dying in bringing +the latter into the world, as anybody might expect, she still lived +on--lived to have six children more--to see them growing up around her, +and to enjoy excellent health herself. Catherine, for many years of her +life, was as plain as any member of her family. She had a thin, awkward +figure, a sallow skin without colour, dark, lank hair, and strong +features. So much for her person; and not less propitious for heroism +seemed her mind. She was fond of all boys' sports, and greatly preferred +cricket not merely to dolls, but to the more heroic enjoyments of +infancy--nursing a dormouse, feeding a canary-bird, or watering a +rosebush. Indeed, she had no taste for a garden; and if she gathered +flowers at all, it was chiefly for the pleasure of mischief--at least, +so it was conjectured from her habit of always preferring those which +she was strictly forbidden to take. + +Such were her propensities; her abilities were quite as extraordinary. +She never could learn or understand anything before she was taught, and +sometimes not even then, for she was often inattentive, and occasionally +stupid. Her mother wished her to learn music; and Catherine was sure she +should like it, for she was very fond of tinkling the keys of the old +forlorn spinet; so at eight years old she began. She learnt a year, and +could not bear it; and Mrs. Morland, who did not insist on her daughters +being accomplished in spite of incapacity or distaste, allowed her to +leave off. The day which dismissed the music-master was one of the +happiest of Catherine's life. Her taste for drawing was not superior; +though, whenever she could obtain the outside of a letter from her +mother, or seize upon any other odd piece of paper, she did what she +could in that way by drawing houses and trees, hens and chickens, all +very much like one another. Writing and accounts she was taught by her +father; French by her mother. Her proficiency in either was not +remarkable, and she shirked her lessons in both whenever she could. + +What a strange, unaccountable character! For with all these symptoms of +profligacy at ten years old, she had neither a bad heart nor a bad +temper, was seldom stubborn, scarcely ever quarrelsome, and very kind to +the little ones, with few interruptions of tyranny. She was noisy and +wild, hated confinement and cleanliness, and loved nothing so well in +the world as rolling down the green slope at the back of the house. + +Such was Catherine Morland at ten. At fifteen, appearances were mending: +she began to curl her hair and long for balls, her complexion improved, +her features were softened by plumpness and colour, her eyes gained more +animation, and her figure more consequence. Her love of dirt gave way to +an inclination for finery; she grew clean and she grew smart; and she +had now the pleasure of sometimes hearing her father and mother remark +on her personal improvement. From fifteen, indeed, to seventeen, she was +in training for a heroine; she read all such works as heroines must read +to supply their memories with those quotations which are so serviceable +and so soothing in the vicissitudes of their eventful lives. + +So far her improvement was sufficient; and in many other points she came +on exceedingly well, for though she could not write sonnets, she brought +herself to read them; and though there seemed no chance of her throwing +a whole party into raptures by a prelude on the pianoforte of her own +composition, she could listen to other people's performances with very +little fatigue. + +Her greatest deficiency was in the pencil. She had no notion of drawing, +not enough even to attempt a sketch of her lover's profile, that she +might be detected in the design. There she fell miserably short of the +true heroic height. At present she did not know her own poverty, for she +had no lover to portray. There was not one lord in the neighbourhood; +no, not even a baronet! There was not one family among their +acquaintance who had reared and supported a boy accidentally found at +their door; no, not one young man whose origin was unknown. Her father +had no ward, and the squire of the parish no children. But when a young +lady is to be a heroine, the perverseness of forty surrounding families +cannot prevent her. Something must and will happen to throw a hero in +her way. + +Mr. Allen, who owned the chief of the property about Fullerton, the +village in Wiltshire where the Morland family lived, was ordered to Bath +for the benefit of a gouty constitution; and his lady, a good-humoured +woman, fond of Miss Morland, and probably aware that if adventures will +not befall a young lady in her own village she must seek them abroad, +invited her to go with them. Mr. and Mrs. Morland were all compliance, +and Catherine all happiness. + + +_II.--In the Gay City of Bath_ + + +When the hour for departure drew nigh, the maternal anxiety of Mrs. +Morland will be naturally supposed to have been most severe. But she +knew so little of lords and baronets that she entertained no notion of +their general mischievousness, and was wholly unsuspicious of danger to +her daughter from their machinations. Her cautions were confined to +advising her to wrap up well when she came from the rooms at night, and +to try to keep some account of the money she spent. + +Sally, or rather Sarah, must, from situation, be at this time the +intimate friend and confidante of her sister. It is remarkable, however, +that she neither insisted on Catherine's writing by every post, nor +exacted her promise of transmitting the character of every new +acquaintance nor a detail of every interesting conversation that Bath +might produce. Everything, indeed, relative to this important journey +was done on the part of the Morlands with a strange degree of moderation +and composure. Catherine's father, instead of giving her an unlimited +order on his banker, or even putting a hundred pounds bankbill into her +hands, gave her only ten guineas, and promised her more when she wanted +it. The journey was performed with suitable quietness and uneventful +safety. They arrived at Bath, and were soon settled in comfortable +lodgings in Pulteney Street. + +Mrs. Allen had not beauty, genius, accomplishment, or manner. The air of +a gentlewoman, a great deal of quiet, inactive good temper, and a +trifling turn of mind, were all that could account for her being the +choice of a sensible, intelligent man like Mr. Allen. In one respect she +was admirably fitted to introduce a young lady into public, being as +fond of going everywhere and seeing everything herself as any young lady +could be. Dress was her passion; and our heroine's entrée into life +could not take place till after three or four days had been spent in +providing her chaperon with a dress of the newest fashion. Catherine, +too, made some purchases herself; and when all those matters were +arranged, the important evening came which was to usher her into the +upper rooms. But nothing happened that evening. Mrs. Allen knew nobody +there, and so Catherine was unable to dance. + +A day or two later, when they made their appearance in the lower rooms, +fortune was more favourable to our heroine. The master of the ceremonies +introduced to her a very gentleman-like young man as a partner. His name +was Tilney. He was a clergyman, seemed to be about four or five and +twenty, was rather tall, had a pleasing countenance, a very intelligent +and lively eye, and, if not quite handsome, was very near it. His +address was good, he talked with fluency and spirit, and there was an +archness and pleasantry in his manner which interested, though it was +hardly understood by, her. Catherine felt herself in high luck; and they +parted, on the lady's side at least, with a strong inclination for +continuing the acquaintance. + +But when Catherine hastened to the pump-room the next day, there was no +Mr. Tilney to be seen. Instead, Mrs. Allen had the good fortune to meet +an acquaintance at last in the person of a Mrs. Thorpe, a former +schoolfellow whom she had seen only once since their respective +marriages. Their joy on this meeting was very great, as well it might +be, since they had been contented to know nothing of each other for the +last fifteen years. Mrs. Thorpe had one great advantage as a talker over +Mrs. Allen, in a family of children; and when she had expatiated on the +talents of her sons and the beauty of her daughters, Mrs. Allen had no +similar information to give, no similar triumphs to press on the +unwilling and unbelieving ear of her friend. She was forced to sit and +to appear to listen to all these maternal effusions, and to be +introduced, along with Catherine, to the three Miss Thorpes, who proved +to be sisters of a young man who was at the same college as Catherine's +brother James. James, indeed, had actually spent the last week of the +Christmas vacation with the family near London. + +The progress of the friendship thus entered into by Catherine and +Isabella, the eldest of the Miss Thorpes, was quick as its beginning was +warm; and they passed so rapidly through every gradation of increasing +tenderness that there was shortly no fresh proof of it to be given to +their friends and themselves. They called each other by their Christian +name, were always arm in arm when they walked, pinned up each other's +train for the dance, and were not to be divided in the set; and if a +rainy morning deprived them of other enjoyments, they were still +resolute in meeting in defiance of wet and dirt, and shut themselves up +to read novels together. One day, after they had been talking of +"Udolpho," of other "horrid" books and of their favourite complexion in +a man, they met Catherine's brother James and Isabella's brother John in +a gig. On introduction, the latter proved to be a smart young man of +middle height, who, with a plain face and ungraceful form, seemed +fearful of being too handsome unless he wore the dress of a groom, and +too much like a gentleman unless he were easy where he ought to be +civil, and impudent where he might be allowed to be easy. James, of +course, was attached to Isabella. "She has so much good sense," he said, +"and is so thoroughly unaffected and amiable." + +At the dance at the upper rooms which took place on the evening of the +same day, Mr. Tilney made his reappearance, and introduced his sister to +Catherine. Miss Tilney had a good figure, a pretty face, and a very +agreeable countenance. Her air, though it had not all the decided +pretension, the resolute stylishness, of Miss Thorpe's, had more real +elegance; and her manners showed better sense and better breeding. She +seemed capable of being young and attractive at a ball, without wanting +to fix the attention of every man near her. + + +_III.--Catherine Morland Among Her Friends_ + + +Unfixed as Catherine's general notions were of a what a man ought to be, +she could not entirely repress a doubt of Mr. John Thorpe's being +altogether completely agreeable. A tattler and a swaggerer, having +elicited, as he thought, from Catherine that she was the destined +heiress of Mr. Allen, he twice endeavoured to detach her, by a glaring +lie, from keeping engagements with the Tilneys; and when he did succeed +in persuading her to go with him in his gig, she found that the whole of +his talk ended with himself and his own concerns. He told her of horses +which he had bought for a trifle and sold for incredible sums; of racing +matches in which his judgment had infallibly foretold the winner; of +shooting-parties in which he had killed more birds (though without +having one good shot) than all his companions together; and described to +her some famous days spent with the foxhounds, in which his foresight +and skill in directing the dogs had repaired the mistakes of the most +experienced huntsman, and in which the boldness of his riding, though it +had never endangered his own life for a single moment, had been +constantly leading others into difficulties which, he calmly concluded, +had broken the necks of more than one person. + +All this rather wearied Catherine; and not even his relating to her that +Mr. Tilney's father, General Tilney--whom he was talking to one night at +the theatre--had declared her the finest girl in Bath could reconcile +her to the idea that Mr. John Thorpe had the faculty of giving universal +pleasure. It was a visit which she paid to Miss Tilney to apologise for +not keeping an engagement which Mr. John had caused her to break that +first introduced her to the general. A handsome, stately, well-bred man, +with a temper that made him a martinet to his own children, he received +her with a politeness, and even a deference, that delighted and +surprised her. But whereas Catherine's simplicity of character made her +growing attachment to Mr. Tilney obvious to that gentleman and to his +sister, it was not so clear that he reciprocated her feelings. Generally +he amused himself by talking down to her or making fun of her in a +good-natured way. One day they were speaking of Mrs. Radcliffe's works, +and more particularly of the "Mysteries of Udolpho." + +"I have read all of Mrs. Radcliffe's works," said he, "and most of them +with great pleasure." + +"I am very glad to hear it, indeed," replied Catherine, "and now I shall +never be ashamed of liking 'Udolpho' myself. But I really thought that +young men despised novels amazingly." + +"It is _amazingly_; it may well suggest _amazement_ if they do, for they +read nearly as many as women," was Mr. Tilney's answer. "I myself have +read hundreds and hundreds. Do not imagine that you can cope with me in +a knowledge of Julias and Louisas. Consider how many years I have had +the start of you. I had entered on my studies at Oxford while you were +probably a good little girl working your sampler at home!" + +"Not very good, I am afraid. But now, really, do you not think 'Udolpho' +the nicest book in the world?" + +"The nicest; by which I suppose you mean the neatest. That must depend +on the binding," said he. + +"I am sure," cried Catherine hastily, "I did not mean to say anything +wrong; but it is a nice book, and why should I not call it so?" + +"Very true," said Henry, "and this is a very nice day; and we are taking +a very nice walk; and you are two very nice young ladies. Oh, it is a +very nice word indeed--it does for everything! Originally perhaps, it +was applied only to express neatness, propriety, delicacy, or +refinement; people were nice in their dress, in their sentiments, or in +their choice. But now every commendation on every subject is comprised +in that one word." + +Meanwhile, Catherine was required to interest herself in her friend's +love affairs. Isabella surprised her one day with the news that she was +engaged to her brother James; and, obviously under the impression that +her lover was the heir of a wealthy man, seemed to wonder whether his +parents would acquiesce in the engagement. But despite her affection for +James, she danced with Mr. Tilney's elder brother, Captain Tilney, at a +ball which was given while her betrothed was absent on the necessary +visit to his parents; and when letters were received from him, +announcing their consent to the match and the agreement of Mr. Morland +to resign a living of four hundred pounds to his son and to bequeath to +him by will an estate of the same value, Isabella looked grave first at +the smallness of the income, and then at the fact that it would be +nearly three years before James would be old enough to take it. + +Meantime, she continued to flirt rather openly with Captain Tilney, much +to James' uneasiness and to his sister's distress. But Catherine was to +some extent reassured as to the captain's conduct by his brother Henry, +and she was so overjoyed by receiving an invitation from General Tilney +to pay a visit to Northanger Abbey, his beautiful country seat, that a +parting interview with Isabella and James, at which he was in excellent +spirits and she most engagingly placid, left her blissfully convinced +that the behaviour of the lovers was a model of judicious affection. + + +_IV.--Romance at Northanger Abbey_ + + +The Tilney party set out for the Abbey in great state, the ladies in the +general's chaise and four, with postilions and numerous outriders, and +the general and Henry in the latter's curricle. But at the first stage +the general proposed that Catherine should take his place in the +curricle that she might "see as much of the country as possible;" and, +for the rest of the journey she was tête-à-tête with Henry, who amused +himself by rallying her upon the sliding panels, ghastly tapestry, +funereal beds, vaulted chambers, and kindred uncanny apparatus which, +judging from her favourite kind of fiction, she must be expecting to +find at the Abbey. + +As a matter of fact, Northanger, though it comprised some parts of the +old Abbey, turned out to be a building thoroughly modernized and +improved. Notwithstanding, Catherine could not restrain her imagination +from running riot just a little. A large cedar chest, curiously inlaid +and provided with silver handles, first attracted her attention. But +this was soon found to contain merely a white cotton counterpane. A high +old-fashioned ebony cabinet, which she noticed in her bedroom just +before stepping into bed, struck her as offering more promise of +romantic interest. Even this, after a most thrilling search, in the +midst of which her candle went out, yielded nothing better than an +inventory of linen. + +Still, Catherine's passion for romance was not easily to be +disappointed. Hearing from Eleanor Tilney that her mother's fatal +illness had been sudden and short, and had taken place in her absence +from home, Catherine's blood ran cold with the horrid suggestions that +naturally sprang from these words. Could it be possible? Could Henry's +father----? And yet how many were the examples to justify even the +blackest suspicions? And when she saw him in the evening, while she +worked with her friend, slowly pacing the drawing-room for an hour +together in silent thoughtfulness, with downcast eye and contracted +brow, she felt secure from all possibility of wronging him. It was +indeed the air and attitude of a Montoni! What could more plainly speak +the gloomy workings of a mind not wholly dead to every sense of +humanity, in its fearful review of past scenes of guilt? + +Full, then, of the idea that the general had ill-treated his wife, ready +even to believe that she might still be living and a prisoner, our +heroine set out one day to explore a certain set of rooms into which the +general, in showing her over the house, had not taken her. But she was +caught in the act by Henry Tilney, who revealed, with customary +openness, what had been in her mind, and received only a very gentle +rebuke. + +Most grievously was she humbled. Her folly, which now seemed even +criminal, was all exposed to him; and he must surely despise her for +ever. But he did nothing of the kind. His astonishing generosity and +nobleness of conduct were such that the only difference he made in his +behaviour to her was to pay her somewhat more attention than usual. + +But the anxieties of common life began soon to succeed to the alarms of +romance. Catherine's desire of hearing from Isabella grew every day +greater. For nine successive mornings she wondered over the repetition +of disappointment; and then, on the tenth, she got a letter--not from +Isabella, but from James, announcing the breaking off of the engagement +by mutual consent. At first she was much upset by the news, and burst +into tears. But in the end she saw it in a more philosophic light, so +that before long Henry was able to rally her on her former bosom +friendship with Miss Thorpe without offending her. And when a day or two +later a letter arrived from Isabella containing the amazing sentences, +"I am quite uneasy about your dear brother, not having heard from him +since he went to Oxford, and am fearful of some misunderstanding. Your +kind offices will set all right: he is the only man I ever did or could +love, and I trust you will convince him of it----" Catherine resolved: +"No; whatever would happen, James should never hear Isabella's name +mentioned by her again." + +Soon afterwards, a bolt fell from the blue. General Tilney, who had paid +Catherine the most embarrassing attentions, suddenly and unexpectedly +returned from town, where he had gone for a day or two on business, and +packed Catherine off home immediately, with hardly an apology, and at +scarcely a moment's notice. He had met young Thorpe in town, it seemed; +and John had this time under-estimated the wealth and consequence of the +Morlands as much as he had over-stated them before when he talked to the +general in the theatre at Bath. + +The rudeness of the general, however, proved not so very great a +disaster to Catherine. The interest and liking which Henry had first +felt for her had gradually grown into a warmer feeling, and, roused to a +sense of this by his father's tyrannical behaviour, he presented himself +to Catherine at Fullerton, proposed to her, and was accepted. It was not +long before the general gave his consent. Getting at last to a right +understanding of Mr. Morland's circumstances--which, he found, would +allow Catherine to have three thousand pounds--and delighted by the +recent marriage of his daughter Eleanor to a viscount, he agreed to the +union; and so Henry and Catherine were married within a twelvemonth from +the first day of their meeting. + + * * * * * + + + + +Mansfield Park + + And then, between 1812 and 1814. "Mansfield Park" was written + at Chawton Cottage, and published in July of the latter year + by the Mr. Egerton who had given to the world its two + predecessors. When the novel reached a second edition, its + publication was taken over by John Murray, who was also + responsible for bringing out its successor, "Emma." As bearing + on the introduction of naval officers into the story, in this + novel and in "Persuasion," it must be remembered that Jane + Austen's two youngest brothers, Francis and Charles, both + served in the Navy during the French wars, and both rose to + the rank of admiral; Jane herself lived at Southampton from + 1805 to 1809, and was, therefore, in a position to visit + Portsmouth, and to see the sailor's life ashore. + + +_I.--Sir Thomas Bertram's Family Connections_ + + +Miss Maria Ward, of Huntingdon, with only seven thousand pounds, had the +good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram, of Mansfield Park, in the +county of Northampton, and to be thereby raised to the rank of a +baronet's lady, with all the comforts and consequences of a handsome +house and large income. She had two sisters to be benefited by her +elevation; and such of their acquaintances as thought Miss Ward and Miss +Frances quite as handsome as Miss Maria did not scruple to predict their +marrying with almost equal advantage. But there certainly are not so +many men of large fortune in the world as there are pretty women to +deserve them. Miss Ward, at the end of half a dozen years, found herself +obliged to be attached to the Rev. Mr. Norris, a friend of her +brother-in-law's, with scarcely any private fortune; and Miss Frances +fared yet worse. + +Miss Ward's match, indeed, when it came to the point, was not +contemptible, Sir Thomas being happily able to give his friend, in the +living of Mansfield, an income of very little less than a thousand a +year. But Miss Frances married, in the common phrase, to disoblige her +family, and by fixing on a lieutenant of marines, named Price, without +education, fortune, or connections, did it very thoroughly. To escape +remonstrance, she never wrote to her family on the subject till actually +married. + +Lady Bertram, who was a woman of very tranquil feelings, and a temper +remarkably easy and indolent, would have contented herself with merely +giving up her sister, and thinking no more of the matter; but Mrs. +Norris had a spirit of activity which could not be satisfied till she +had written a long and angry letter to Fanny. Mrs. Price, in her turn, +was injured and angry; and an answer, which comprehended both sisters in +its bitterness, and bestowed such very disrespectful reflections on the +pride of Sir Thomas, as Mrs. Norris could not possibly keep to herself, +put an end to all intercourse between them for a considerable period. + +By the end of eleven years, however, Mrs. Price could no longer afford +to cherish pride or resentment, or to lose one connection that might +possibly assist her. A very small income, a large and still increasing +family, a husband disabled for active service, but not the less equal to +company and good liquor, made her eager to regain the friends she had so +carelessly sacrificed; and she addressed Lady Bertram a letter which +spoke so much contrition and despondence as could not but dispose them +all to a reconciliation. The letter re-established peace and kindness. +Sir Thomas sent friendly advice and professions, Lady Bertram dispatched +money and baby-linen for the expected child, and Mrs. Norris wrote the +letters. + +Within a twelvemonth a more important advantage to Mrs. Price resulted +from her letter. Mrs. Norris, who was often observing to the others that +she seemed to be wanting to do more for her poor sister, proposed that +the latter should be entirely relieved from the charge and expense of +her eldest daughter, Fanny, a girl of ten; and Sir Thomas, after +debating the question, assented. The division of gratifying sensations +in the consideration of so benevolent a scheme ought not, in strict +justice, to have been equal; for, while Sir Thomas was fully resolved to +be the real and consistent patron of the selected child, Mrs. Norris had +not the least intention of being at any expense whatever in her +maintenance. As far as walking, talking and contriving reached, she was +thoroughly benevolent, and nobody knows better how to dictate liberality +to others; but her love of money was equal to her love of directing, and +she knew quite as well how to save her own as to spend that of her +friends. + +Fanny Price proved to be small for her age, with no glow of complexion +or any other striking beauty; exceedingly timid and shy, and shrinking +from notice; but her air, though awkward, was not vulgar, her voice was +sweet, and when she spoke her countenance was pretty. Sir Thomas and +Lady Bertram received her very kindly; and Sir Thomas, seeing how much +she needed encouragement, tried to be all that was conciliating. But he +had to work against a most untoward gravity of deportment; and Lady +Bertram, without taking half so much trouble, by the mere aid of a +good-humoured smile, became immediately the less awful character of the +two. + +The young people were all at home, and sustained their share in the +introduction very well, with much good humour and little embarrassment. +They were a remarkably fine family; the sons, Tom and Edmund, boys of +seventeen and sixteen, very well looking; the daughters, Maria, aged +thirteen, and Julia, twelve, decidedly handsome. + +But it took a long time to reconcile Fanny to the novelty of Mansfield +Park, and to the separation from everybody she had been used to. Nobody +meant to be unkind, but nobody put himself out of the way to secure her +comfort. She was disheartened by Lady Bertram's silence, awed by Sir +Thomas's grave looks, and quite overcome by Mrs. Norris's admonitions. +Her elder cousins mortified her by reflections on her size, and abashed +her by noticing her shyness; Miss Lee, the governess, wondered at her +ignorance; and the maidservants sneered at her clothes. It was not till +Edmund found her crying one morning on the attic stairs, and comforted +her, that things began to mend for her. He was ever afterwards her true +friend, and next to her dear brother William, first in her affections; +and from that day she grew more comfortable. + + +_II.--Cupid at Mansfield Park_ + + +The first event of any importance in the family's affairs was the death +of Mr. Norris, which happened when Fanny was about fifteen, and +necessarily introduced alterations and novelties. Mrs. Norris, on +quitting the parsonage, removed first to the Park, and then arranged to +take a small dwelling in the village belonging to Sir Thomas and called +the White House. The living had been destined for Edmund, and in +ordinary circumstances would have been duly given to some friend to hold +till he were old enough to take orders. But Tom's extravagances had been +so great as to render a different disposal of the next presentation +necessary, and so the reversion was sold to a Dr. Grant, a hearty man of +forty-five, fond of good eating, married to a wife about fifteen years +his junior, and unprovided with children. + +The Grants had scarcely been settled in Mansfield a year, when, for the +better settlement of his property in the West Indies, Sir Thomas had +found it expedient to go to Antigua, and he took his elder son with him, +in the hope of detaching him from some bad connections at home. Neither +person was missed. + +Lady Bertram did not at all like to have her husband leave her; but she +was not disturbed by any alarm for his safety or solicitude for his +comfort, being one of those persons who think nothing can be dangerous +or difficult or fatiguing to anybody but themselves. Before very long +she found that Edmund could quite sufficiently supply his father's +place. On this occasion the Miss Bertrams, who were now fully +established among the belles of the neighbourhood, were much to be +pitied, not for their sorrow, but for their want of it. Their father was +no object of love to them; he had never seemed the friend of their +pleasures, and his absence was unhappily most welcome. + +Fanny's relief, and her consciousness of it, were quite equal to her +cousins'; but a more tender nature suggested that her feelings were +ungrateful, and she really grieved because she could not grieve. + +Meantime, taking advantage of her sister's indolence, Mrs. Norris acted +as chaperon to Maria and Julia in their public engagements, and very +thoroughly relished the means this afforded her of mixing in society +without having horses to hire. + +Fanny had no share in the festivities of the season; but she enjoyed +being avowedly useful as her aunt's companion, and talked to Lady +Bertram, listened to her and read to her with never a thought of envying +her cousins their gaieties. About this time Maria, who was now in her +twenty-first year, got engaged to a rich but heavy country gentleman +called Rushworth, merely because he had an income larger than her +father's and could give her a house in town; while Tom returned safely +from the West Indies, bringing an excellent account of his father's +health, but telling the family that Sir Thomas would be detained in +Antigua for several months longer. + +Such was the state of affairs in the month of July; and Fanny had just +reached her eighteenth year when the society of the village received an +addition in the brother and sister of Mrs. Grant, a Mr. and Miss +Crawford, the children of her mother by a second marriage. They were +young people of fortune, the son having a good estate in Norfolk, the +daughter twenty thousand pounds. They had been brought up by their +father's brother and his wife, Admiral and Mrs. Crawford; and it was +Mrs. Crawford's death, and the consequent installation of the admiral's +mistress in the house, that had forced them to find another home. Mary +Crawford was remarkably pretty; Henry, though not handsome, had air and +countenance; the manners of both were lively and pleasant; and Mrs. +Grant gave them credit for everything else. + +The young people were pleased with each other from the first. Miss +Crawford was most allowably a sweet, pretty girl, while the Miss +Bertrams were the finest young women in the country. Mr. Crawford was +the most agreeable young man Julia and Maria had ever known. Before he +had been at Mansfield a week the former lady was quite ready to be +fallen in love with; while as for the latter she did not want to see or +to understand. "There could be no harm in her liking an agreeable +man--everybody knew her situation--Mr. Crawford must take care of +himself." + +A young woman, pretty, lively, witty, playing on a harp as elegant as +herself, was enough to catch any man's heart. Without studying the +business, however, or knowing what he was about, Edmund was beginning, +at the end of a week of such intercourse, to be a good deal in love with +Mary Crawford; and, to the credit of the lady, it may be added that, +without his being a man of the world or an elder brother, without any of +the arts of flattery or the gaieties of small-talk, he began to be +agreeable to her. He taught her to ride on a horse which he had given to +Fanny; he was always going round to see her at the parsonage; and, +although he disapproved of the flippancy with which she talked of her +relations, of religion, and of his future profession of clergyman, he +was never weary of discussing her and of confessing his admiration of +her to Fanny. + +Harry Crawford was not so constant as his sister. On an expedition to +Sotherton Court (Mr. Rushworth's place) he flirted with Julia on the way +down, and with Maria when Sotherton was reached, leaving poor Mr. +Rushworth no resource but to declare to Fanny his surprise at anyone +calling so undersized a man as his rival handsome. + +Some rehearsals of a play called "Lovers' Vows," in which Harry left +Maria happy and expectant and Julia furious by assigning the parts of +the lovers to the elder sister and to himself, made Mr. Rushworth even +jealous. But this theatrical scheme, to which even Edmund had been +forced to lend a reluctant co-operation--merely with a view of +preventing outside actors being introduced--happily came to nothing, +thanks to the unexpected arrival of Sir Thomas. + + +_III.--Fanny in Society_ + + +Maria was now expecting the man she loved to declare himself; but +instead of making such a declaration of attachment, Harry Crawford left +the neighbourhood almost immediately on the plea of having to meet his +uncle at Bath. Maria, wounded and indignant, resolved that, though he +had destroyed her happiness, he should not know that he had done so. So +when her father, having, in an evening spent at Sotherton, discovered +what a very inferior young man Mr. Rushworth was, and having noticed +Maria's complete indifference to him, offered to give up the connection +if she felt herself unhappy in the prospect of it, she merely thanked +him, and said she had not the smallest desire of breaking through her +engagement, and was not sensible of any change of opinion or inclination +since her forming it. In a few weeks' time she was married to Mr. +Rushworth; and after a day or two spent at Sotherton, the wedded pair +went off to Brighton, where they were joined by Julia Bertram. + +Meantime, Fanny, as the only young lady left at the Park, became of +importance. Sir Thomas decided that she was pretty; Miss Crawford +cultivated her society; and Mrs. Grant asked her to dinner. This +last-mentioned attention disturbed Lady Bertram. + +"So strange!" she said. "For Mrs. Grant never used to ask her." + +"But it is very natural," observed Edmund, "that Mrs. Grant should wish +to procure so agreeable a visitor for her sister." + +"Nothing can be more natural," said Sir Thomas, after a short +deliberation; "nor, were there no sister in the case, could anything, in +my opinion, be more natural. Mrs. Grant's showing civility to Miss +Price, to Lady Bertram's niece, could never want explanation. The only +surprise I can feel is that this should be the first time of its being +paid. Fanny was right in giving only a conditional answer. She appears +to feel as she ought. But, as I conclude that she wishes to go, since +all young people like to be together, I can see no reason why she should +be denied this indulgence." + +"Upon my word, Fanny," said Mrs. Norris, "you are in high luck to meet +with such attention and indulgence. You ought to be very much obliged to +Mrs. Grant for thinking of you, and to your aunt for letting you go, and +you ought to look upon it as something extraordinary; for I hope you are +aware that there is no real occasion for your going into company in this +sort of way, or ever dining out at all; and it is what you must not +depend upon ever being repeated. Nor must you be fancying that the +invitation is meant as a compliment to you; the compliment is intended +to your uncle and aunt and me. Mrs. Grant thinks it a civility due to +_us_ to take a little notice of you, or else it would never have come +into her head, and you may be certain that if your cousin Julia had been +at home you would not have been asked." + +Mrs. Norris fetched breath, and went on. + +"I think it right to give you a hint, Fanny, now that you are going into +company without any of us; and I do beseech and entreat you not to be +putting yourself forward, and talking and giving your opinion as if you +were one of your cousins--as if you were dear Mrs. Rushworth or Julia. +That will never do, believe me. Remember, wherever you are, you must be +the lowest and last; and though Miss Crawford is in a manner at home at +the Parsonage, you are not to be taking place of her. And as to coming +away at night, you are to stay just as long as Edmund chooses." + +"Yes, ma'am. I should not think of anything else." + +"And if it should rain--which I think likely, for I never saw it more +threatening for a wet evening in my life--you must manage as well as you +can, and not be expecting the carriage to be sent for you." + +"Walk!" said Sir Thomas, in a tone of unanswerable dignity, and, coming +further into the room: "My niece walk to an engagement at this time of +the year! Fanny, will twenty minutes after four suit you?" + +A few weeks later Fanny was made happy by a visit from her brother +William, now, through Sir Thomas's influence, a midshipman; and soon the +former intercourse between the families at the Park and at the Parsonage +was revived, Sir Thomas perceiving, in a careless way, that Mr. +Crawford, who was back again at Mansfield, was somewhat distinguishing +his niece. + +Harry, indeed, was beginning to be rather piqued by Fanny's +indifference. + +"I do not quite know what to make of Miss Fanny," he said to his sister. +"Is she solemn? Is she queer? Is she prudish? I can hardly get her to +speak. I never was so long in company with a girl in my life, trying to +entertain her, and succeeded so ill! Never met with a girl who looked so +grave on me." + +"Foolish fellow!" said Mary. "And so this is her attraction after all! +This it is--her not caring for you--which gives her such a soft skin and +makes her so much taller, and produces all these charms and graces! I do +desire that you will not be making her really unhappy. A little love, +perhaps, may animate and do her good; but I will not have you plunge her +deep, for she is as good a little creature as ever lived, and has a +great deal of feeling." + +"It can be but for a fortnight," said Harry, "and if a fortnight can +kill her she must have a constitution which nothing could save! No, I +will not do her any harm. I only want her to look kindly on me, to give +me smiles as well as blushes, to keep a chair for me by herself wherever +we are, and be all animation when I take it and talk to her; to think as +I think, to be interested in all my possessions and pleasures, try to +keep me longer at Mansfield, and feel when I go away that she shall +never be happy again. I want nothing more." + +"Moderation itself!" replied Mary. "I can have no scruples now. Well, +you will have opportunities enough of endeavouring to recommend +yourself, for we are a great deal together." + +Harry was unable to make any impression on Fanny; and though he fell +deeply in love with her, got her brother William made lieutenant, and, +after a ball given in her honour by Sir Thomas, proposed to her, he was +unable to win her favour. She was in love with Edmund; and Edmund was +torn between love for Mary, despair of winning her, and disapproval of +her principles. + + +_IV.--Wedding Bells at Mansfield_ + + +Mr. William Price, second lieutenant of H.M.S. Thrush, having obtained a +ten days' leave of absence, again went down to see his sister; and Sir +Thomas, as a kind of medicinal project on his niece's understanding, +just to enable her to contrast with her father's shabby dwelling an +abode of wealth and plenty like Mansfield Park, arranged that she should +accompany her brother back to Portsmouth, and spend a little time with +her own family. Within four days from their arrival William had to sail; +and Fanny could not conceal it from herself that the home he had left +her in was, in almost every respect, the very reverse of what she could +have wished. It was the abode of noise, disorder and impropriety. Nobody +was in his right place; nothing was done as it ought to be. She could +not respect her parents as she had hoped. Her father was more negligent +of his family, worse in his habits, coarser in his manners, than she had +been prepared for. He did not want abilities; but he had no curiosity, +and no information beyond his profession. He read only the newspaper and +the Navy List. He talked only of the dockyard, the harbour, Spithead, +and the Motherbank. He swore and he drank; he was dirty and gross. + +She had never been able to recall anything approaching to tenderness in +his former treatment of herself. There had remained only a general +impression of roughness, and now he scarcely ever noticed her but to +make her the object of a coarse joke. + +Her disappointment in her mother was greater. There she had hoped much, +and found almost nothing. She discovered, indeed, that her mother was a +partial, ill-judging parent, a dawdle, a slattern, who neither taught +nor restrained her children, whose house was the scene of mismanagement +and discomfort from beginning to end, and who had no talent, no +conversation, no affection towards herself; no curiosity to know her +better, no desire of her friendship, and no inclination for her company +that could lessen her sense of such knowledge. + +At the end of the fourth week of her visit Harry Crawford came to see +Fanny, made himself very agreeable to her and her family, and then went +back to town to see his sister, and to meet such friends as Edmund +Bertram and the Rushworths. Fanny heard from Mary of Maria's fine house +in Wimpole Street, of the splendours of the first party, and of the +attentions paid to Julia by that would-be amateur actor, the Honourable +John Yates; while from Edmund she gathered that his hopes of securing +Mary were weaker than those he had cherished when he had left Mansfield, +and that he was more satisfied with all that he saw and heard of Harry +Crawford. + +"I cannot give her up, Fanny," Edmund wrote of Mary. "She is the only +woman in the world whom I could ever think of as a wife." Mary, on her +part, hearing of a serious illness which had prostrated Tom Bertram, +could not forbear saying to the same correspondent: "Poor young man! If +he is to die, there will be two poor young men less in the world. I put +it to your conscience whether 'Sir' Edmund would not do more good with +all the Bertram property than any other possible 'sir.'" She also told +Fanny that Mrs. Rushworth, in the absence of her husband on a visit to +his mother at Bath, had been spending the Easter with some friends at +Twickenham, and that her brother Harry had also been passing a few days +at Richmond. + +The interval of a few days afforded a commentary on this last piece of +news. It turned out that Mrs. Rushworth, having succumbed once more to +the protestations of Harry Crawford, had left her house in Wimpole +Street to live with him, and that her sister Julia had eloped to +Scotland to be married to Mr. Yates. On the occurrence of this +distressing news, Fanny was summoned back to Mansfield Park, and was +escorted down there by Edmund, who described to her his final interview +with Mary. It seemed that Mary's distress at her brother's folly was so +much more keenly expressed than any sorrow for his sin that Edmund's +conscience left him no alternative but to make an end of their +acquaintance. + +Indeed, before many weeks had passed, he ceased to care about Miss +Crawford, and became as anxious to marry Fanny as Fanny herself could +desire; and before many months had gone, the cousins were united. Nor +was this the only happy event that occurred at Mansfield. Harry Crawford +and Mrs. Rushworth having quarrelled and parted, and Sir Thomas having +refused to allow his elder daughter to come home, Mrs. Norris cast off +the dust of Mansfield from her feet, and went to live with her niece in +an establishment arranged for them in another county. While as for Tom, +he gradually regained his health, without regaining the thoughtlessness +and selfishness of his previous habits, and was, in fact, improved +forever by his illness. + + * * * * * + + + + +Emma + + "Emma," one of the author's later novels, had been finished, + when, in the autumn of 1815, Jane Austen came to London to + nurse her brother Henry, who was a clergyman, at his house in + Hans Place, in Chelsea. He was being attended by one of the + Prince Regent's physicians, who seems to have learned in this + way the secret of the authorship of "Mansfield Park" and its + predecessors. The result was that the Prince, who is said to + have been a great admirer of these then anonymous novels, was + graciously pleased to notify Miss Austen, through his + chaplain, Mr. Clarke, that if she had any new novel in hand, + she was at liberty to dedicate it to his Royal Highness. + "Emma" was accordingly dedicated to the Prince. It was + reviewed, along with its author's other novels, in the + "Quarterly," and the anonymous reviewer, who took no notice of + "Mansfield Park," turns out to have been none other than Sir + Walter Scott. In his Diary for March 14, 1826, Sir Walter + further praised Miss Austen's exquisite touch and her gift for + true description and sentiment. + + +_I.--The Social Amenities of Highbury_ + + +Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and +happy disposition, was the younger of the two daughters of a most +affectionate and indulgent father, and had, in consequence of her +sister's marriage, been mistress of his house from a very early period. +Her mother had died too long ago for her to have more than an indistinct +remembrance of her caresses, and her place had been supplied by Miss +Taylor, who for sixteen years had been in Mr. Woodhouse's family, less +as governess than friend, very fond of both daughters, but particularly +of Emma. For years the two ladies had been living together, mutely +attached, Emma doing just what she liked, highly esteeming Miss Taylor's +judgment, but chiefly directed by her own. + +The real evils, indeed, of Emma's situation were the power of having +rather too much her own way, and a disposition to think a little too +well of herself. The danger, however, was at present unperceived, and +did not by any means rank as a misfortune with her. + +Sorrow came--a gentle sorrow. Miss Taylor married. It was Miss Taylor's +loss which first brought grief. It was on the wedding-day of this +beloved friend, with the wedding over and the bride-people gone, that +Emma first sat in mournful thought of any continuance. The event had +every promise of happiness for her friend. Mr. Weston was a man of +unexceptionable character, easy fortune, suitable age, and pleasant +manners; and there was some satisfaction in considering with what +self-denying, generous friendship she had always wished and promoted the +match. But it was a black morning's work for her. The want of Miss +Taylor would be felt every hour of every day. She had been a friend and +companion such as few possessed: intelligent, well-informed, useful, +gentle; knowing all the ways of the family, interested in all its +concerns, and peculiarly interested in herself, in every pleasure, every +scheme of hers--one to whom she could speak every thought, and who had +such an affection for her as could never find fault. + +How was Emma to bear the change? She was now in great danger of +suffering from intellectual solitude. She dearly loved her father, but +he was no companion for her. He could not meet her in conversation, +rational or playful. The evil of the actual disparity in their ages (as +Mr. Woodhouse had not married early) was much increased by his +constitution and habits; for, having been a valetudinarian all his life, +without activity of mind or body, he was a much older man in ways than +in years; and though everywhere beloved for the friendliness of his +heart and his amiable temper, his talents could not have recommended him +at any time. + +Emma's sister, though comparatively but little removed by matrimony, +being settled in London, only sixteen miles off, was much beyond her +daily reach; and it was quite three months before Christmas, that would +bring the next visit from Isabella, her husband, and children. + +Highbury, the large and populous village to which her house, Hartfield, +really belonged, afforded her no equals. The Woodhouses were first in +consequence there. All looked up to them; but there was not one of her +acquaintances among them who could be accepted in lieu of Miss Taylor +for even half a day. It was a melancholy change; and Emma could not but +sigh over it, and wish for impossible things, till her father awoke from +his usual after-dinner sleep, and made it necessary to be cheerful. His +spirits required support. He was a nervous man, easily depressed; fond +of everybody he was used to, and hating to part with them; hating change +of every kind. Matrimony, as the origin of change, was always +disagreeable to him; and he was not yet reconciled to his own daughter +marrying, nor could ever speak of her but with compassion, though it had +been entirely a match of affection, when he was now obliged to part with +Miss Taylor, too. + +He was pitying "poor Miss Taylor," and magnifying the half-mile's +distance that separated Hartfield from Mr. Weston's place, Randalls, +when a visitor walked in. This was Mr. George Knightley, the elder +brother of Isabella's husband, and the owner of Donwell Abbey, the large +estate of the district. He was a sensible man, about seven or eight and +thirty, a very old and intimate friend of the family, and a frequent and +always welcome visitor. He had returned to a late dinner after some +days' absence in London, and had walked up to Hartfield to say that all +was well with their relatives in Brunswick Square. They talked of the +wedding. Emma congratulated herself on having made the match. Mr. +Knightley demurred to this, remarking: "A straightforward, open-hearted +man, like Weston, and a rational, unaffected woman, like Miss Taylor, +may be safely left to manage their own concerns." And when Emma, in +reply to entreaties from her father to make no more matches, answered, +"Only one more, papa; only for Mr. Elton--you like Mr. Elton, papa; I +must look about for a wife for him"--her old friend gave her the +salutary advice: "Invite him to dinner, Emma, and help him to the best +of the fish and the chicken; but leave him to choose his own wife. +Depend upon it, a man of six or seven and twenty can take care of +himself." + + +_II.--Emma as a Matchmaker_ + + +Emma lost no time in developing her schemes for the happiness of Mr. +Elton. Through Mrs. Goddard, the mistress of the local boarding-school +for girls, she struck up an acquaintance, which she contrived rapidly to +develop into intimacy, with a Miss Harriet Smith--a plump, fair-haired, +blue-eyed little beauty of seventeen, whose prettiness, docility, +good-temper and simplicity might be allowed to balance her lack of +intelligence and information. + +Harriet was the natural daughter of somebody. Somebody had placed her +several years back at Mrs. Goddard's school, and somebody had lately +raised her from the condition of scholar to that of parlour-boarder. +This was all that was generally known of her history. She had no visible +friends but what had been acquired at Highbury, and was now just +returned from a long visit in the country to some young ladies--the +Misses Martin--who had been at school there with her. + +The first step which Emma took in the education of Harriet was to cool +her interest in the Martins. She pointed out that Mr. Robert Martin, who +held a large farm from Mr. Knightley in Donwell parish, was too young to +marry at twenty-four, that he had, besides, an awkward look, an abrupt +manner, and an uncouth voice; and that, moreover, he was quite plain- +looking and wholly ungenteel; whereas Mr. Elton, who was good-humoured, +cheerful, obliging and gentle, was a pattern of good manners and good +looks, and seemed to be taking quite an interest in Harriet. So indeed +it appeared. Mr. Elton seemed delighted with being in the society of +Emma and Harriet. He praised Harriet as a beautiful girl, congratulated +Emma on the improvement she had wrought in her, contributed a charade to +Harriet's riddle-book, and took a most animated interest in a portrait +which Emma began to paint of her. + +But Mr. Knightley was not so complacent. "I think Harriet," he said to +Mrs. Weston, "the very worst sort of a companion that Emma could +possibly have. She knows nothing herself, and looks upon Emma as knowing +everything. Her ignorance is hourly flattery. How can Emma imagine she +has anything to learn herself while Harriet is presenting such a +delightful inferiority? And as for Harriet, Hartfield will only put her +out of conceit with all the other places she belongs to. She will grow +just refined enough to be uncomfortable with those among whom birth and +circumstances have placed her." + +This was in the early stages of the intimacy. Later in the day, when he +learned that Emma had taken so decided a hand in the affairs of Harriet +as to persuade her to decline a formal offer of marriage from Mr. +Martin, he told her plainly: + +"I have always thought it a very foolish intimacy, though I have kept my +thoughts to myself; but now I perceive that it will be a very +unfortunate one for Harriet. You will puff her up with such ideas of her +own beauty, and what she has claim to, that, in a little while, nobody +within her reach will be good enough for her. Robert Martin has no great +loss if he can but think so; and I hope it will not be long before he +does. Your views for Harriet are best known to yourself; but, as you +make no secret of your love of match-making, I shall just hint to you as +a friend that, if Elton is the man, I think it will be all labour in +vain." + +Emma laughed and disclaimed. "Depend upon it," he continued, "Elton will +not do. Elton is a very good sort of a man, and a very respectable vicar +of Highbury, but not at all likely to make an imprudent match. He is as +well acquainted with his own claims as you can be with Harriet's; and I +am convinced that he does not mean to throw himself away." + +But despite this warning from Mr. George Knightley, despite a hint +dropped by Mr. John Knightley, when he and his wife and children came to +stop with the Woodhouses for Christmas--a hint to the effect that his +sister-in-law would do well to consider whether Mr. Elton was not in +love with _her_--Emma continued quite as ardent in her new friendship +and in her hopes. + +As to herself, she told Harriet that she was not going to be married at +present, and had very little intention of ever marrying at all; though +when Harriet reminded her of Miss Bates, who was the daughter of a +former vicar of Highbury and lived in a very small way with her mother, +a very old lady almost past everything but tea and quadrille, she +confessed that if she thought she would ever be like Miss Bates, "so +silly, so satisfied, so smiling, so prosing, so undistinguishing, so +unfastidious, and so garrulous," she would marry to-morrow. + +But Mr. Elton was unaware of Emma having thought of making such a +self-denying ordinance; and so one night when the Woodhouses and the +Knightleys were returning home from a party at Randalls he took +advantage of his being alone in a carriage with her to propose to her, +seeming never to doubt his being accepted. When he learned, however, for +whom his hand had been destined, he became very indignant and +contemptuous. + +"Never, madam!" cried he. "Never, I assure you! _I_ think seriously of +Miss Smith! Miss Smith is a very good sort of girl; and I should be +happy to see her respectably settled. I wish her extremely well; and, no +doubt, there are men who might not object to--Everybody has their level; +but as for myself, I am not, I think, quite so much at a loss. I need +not so totally despair of an equal alliance as to be addressing myself +to Miss Smith! No, madam; my visits to Hatfield have been for yourself +only." + +Needless to say, Emma refused him, and they parted on terms of mutually +deep mortification. Fortunately, the task of enlightening Harriet as to +the state of Mr. Elton's feelings proved less troublesome than Emma had +expected it to be. Harriet's tears fell abundantly, but otherwise she +bore the intelligence very meekly and well. + + +_III.--Emma's Schemes in a Tangle_ + + +As if to make up for the absence of Mr. Elton, who went to spend a few +weeks in Bath, in an endeavour to cure his wounded affections. Highbury +society was shortly enlarged by the arrival of two such welcome +additions as Miss Jane Fairfax and Mr. Frank Churchill. + +Miss Fairfax, who was the orphan daughter of Lieutenant Fairfax, and +Miss Janes Bates had for many years been living with her father's +brother-officer, Colonel Campbell, and his wife and daughter. A +beautiful girl of nineteen, with only a few hundred pounds of her own, +and no monetary expectations from her adoptive father, she had received +such an education as qualified her to become a governess; and though as +long as Colonel and Mrs. Campbell lived their home might always be hers, +she had all along resolved to start earning her own living at one-and- +twenty. Her friend, Miss Campbell, had recently married a rich and +agreeable young man called Dixon; and though the Dixons had urgently +invited her to join Colonel and Mrs. Campbell in a visit to them in +Ireland, Jane preferred to spend three months' holiday with her aunt and +grandmother at Highbury, with some vague intention of starting her +scholastic career at the end of this period. Emma did not like Jane +Fairfax, partly because Jane's aunt was always boring people by talking +of her; partly, perhaps, because--as Mr. Knightley once told her--she +saw in her the really accomplished young woman which she wanted to be +thought herself. At any rate, she still found her as reserved as ever. +Jane had been a little acquainted with Mr. Frank Churchill at Weymouth, +but she either could not, or would not, tell Emma anything about him. + +That gentleman, however, soon presented himself in person. He was the +son of Mr. Weston by his first wife. At the age of three he had been +adopted by his maternal uncle, Mr. Churchill; and so avowedly had he +been brought up as their heir by Mr. and Mrs. Churchill--who had no +children of their own--that on his coming of age he had assumed the name +of Churchill. For some months he had been promising to pay a visit to +his father and stepmother to compliment them on their marriage; but on +the pretext of his not being able to leave Enscombe, his uncle's place, +it had been repeatedly postponed. + +Emma was inclined to make allowances for him as a young man dependent on +the caprices of relations. But Mr. Knightley condemned his conduct +roundly. "He cannot want money, he cannot want leisure," he said. "We +know, on the contrary, that he has so much of both that he is glad to +get rid of them at the idlest haunts in the kingdom." Notwithstanding, +when he did arrive, Frank Churchill carried all before him by reason of +his good looks, sprightliness, and amiability. Emma and he soon became +great friends. He favoured an idea of hers, that Jane's refusal to go to +the Dixons' in Ireland was due either to Mr. Dixon's attachment to her, +or to her attachment to Mr. Dixon. When a Broadwood pianoforte arrived +for Jane--which was generally taken to be a gift from Colonel +Campbell--he agreed with her in thinking that this was another +occurrence for which Mr. Dixon's love was responsible; and he was busily +engaged in planning out the details of a projected ball at the Crown Inn +when a letter from Mr. Churchill urging his instant departure compelled +him to make a hurried return to Enscombe. + +Meanwhile, while Emma was entertaining no doubt of her being in love +with Frank, and only wondering how deep her feeling was, while she was +content to think that Frank was very much in love with her, and was +concluding every imaginary declaration on his side with a refusal of his +proposals, Mr. Elton returned to Highbury with his bride. Miss Augusta +Hawkins--to give Mrs. Elton her maiden name--was the younger of the two +daughters of a Bristol tradesman, and was credited with having ten +thousand pounds of her own. A self-important, presuming, familiar, +ignorant, and ill-bred woman, with a little beauty and a little +accomplishment, who was always expatiating on the charms of Mr. +Suckling's--her brother-in-law's--place, Maple Grove, she soon excited +disgust in Emma, who offended her by the scanty encouragement with which +she received her proposals of intimacy, and was herself offended by the +great fancy which Mrs. Elton took to Jane Fairfax. Long before Emma had +forfeited her confidence, she was not satisfied with expressing a +natural and reasonable admiration of Jane, but, without solicitation, or +plea, or privilege, she must be wanting to assist and befriend her. The +ill-feeling thus aroused found significant expression on the occasion of +the long-talked-of ball at the Crown, which Mr. Weston was able to give +one evening in May, thanks to the settlement of the Churchills at +Richmond, and the consequent reappearance of Frank Churchill at +Highbury. Indeed, Emma met with two annoyances on that famous evening. +Mr. Weston had entreated her to come early, before any other person +came, for the purpose of taking her opinion as to the propriety and +comfort of the rooms; and when she got there, she found that quite half +the company had come, by particular desire, to help Mr. Weston's +judgment. She felt that to be the favourite and intimate of a man who +had so many intimates was not the first distinction in the scale of +vanity. + +The other vexing circumstance was due to the conduct of Mr. Elton, who, +asked by Mrs. Weston to dance with Harriet Smith, declined on the ground +that he was an old married man, and that his dancing days were over. +Fortunately, Mr. Knightley, who has recently disappointed Mrs. Weston, +and pleased Emma by disclaiming any idea of being attached to Jane +Fairfax, was able in some measure to redeem the situation by leading +Harriet to the set himself. Emma had no opportunity of speaking to him +till after supper; and then he said to her: "They aimed at wounding more +than Harriet. Emma, why is it that they are your enemies?" He looked +with smiling penetration, and, on receiving no answer, added: "_She_ +ought not to be angry with you, I suspect, whatever he may be. To that +surmise you say nothing, of course; but confess, Emma, that you did want +him to marry Harriet." "I did," replied Emma, "and they cannot forgive +me." + +A day or two afterwards, Harriet figured as the heroine of another +little scene. She was rescued by Frank Churchill from an encounter with +some gipsies; and after telling Emma, in a very serious tone, a few days +later, that she should never marry, confessed that she had come to this +resolution because the person she might prefer to marry was one so +greatly her superior in situation. + + +_IV.--Love Finds its Own Way_ + + +His own attentions, his father's hints, his stepmother's guarded +silence, all seemed to declare that Emma was Frank Churchill's object. +But while so many were devoting him to Emma, and Emma herself was making +him over to Harriet, Mr. Knightley began to suspect him of some +inclination to trifle with Jane Fairfax. When Mr. Knightley mentioned +these suspicions to Emma, she declared them sheer imagination, and said +that she could _answer_ for there being no attachment on the side of the +gentleman; while he himself, as if to ridicule the whole idea, flirted +outrageously with Emma on an excursion to Box Hill at which Jane was +present, and even asked the former lady to choose a wife for him. The +next day Emma, calling on Miss Bates, learned that Jane, who, was at +present too unwell to see her, had just accepted a post as governess, +obtained for her by Mrs. Elton, and that Frank Churchill had been +summoned to return immediately to Richmond in consequence of Mrs. +Churchill's state of health. On the following day an express arrived at +Randalls to announce the death of Mrs. Churchill. + +Emma, seeing in this latter event a circumstance favourable to the union +of Frank and Harriet (for Mr. Churchill, independent of his wife, was +feared by nobody), now only wished for some proof of the former's +attachment to her friend. She could, however, for the moment do nothing +for Harriet, whereas she could show some attention to Jane, whose +prospects were closing, while Harriet's were opening. But here she +proved to be mistaken; all her endeavours were to no purpose. The +invalid refused everything that was offered, no matter what its +character; and Emma had to console herself with the thought that her +intentions were good, and would have satisfied even so strict an +investigator of motives as Mr. Knightley. + +One morning, about ten days after Mrs. Churchill's death, Emma was +called downstairs to Mr. Weston, who asked her to come to Randalls as +Mrs. Weston wanted to see her alone. Relieved to find that the matter +was not one of illness, either there or at Brunswick Square, Emma +resolved to wait patiently till she could see her old friend. But what +was her surprise, on Mr. Weston leaving them together, when his wife +revealed the fact that Frank and Jane had been secretly engaged since +October of the previous year! It was almost greater than Mrs. Weston's +relief when she learned, to her joy, that Emma now cared nothing at all +for Frank, and so had been in no wise injured by this clandestine +understanding, the divulgence of which was due, it seemed, to the fact +that, immediately on hearing of Jane's agreement to take up the post of +governess, Frank had gone to his uncle, told him of the engagement, and +with little difficulty obtained his consent to it. + +It was with a heavy heart that Emma went home to give Harriet the news +that must blast her hopes of happiness once more. But, again, a surprise +was in store for her. Harriet had already been told by Mr. Weston, and +seemed to bear her misfortune quite stoically, the reason being that the +person of "superior situation" whom she despaired of securing was not +Mr. Frank Churchill, but Mr. George Knightley. + +Emma was not prepared for this development. It darted through her, with +the speed of an arrow, that Mr. Knightley must marry no one but herself! +Which desirable consummation was brought about at their next interview; +for, after trying to console her for the abominable conduct of Frank +Churchill, under the mistaken impression that that young gentleman had +succeeded in engaging her affections, Mr. Knightley proposed marriage to +her, and was accepted. As for Harriet, she was invited, at Emma's +suggestion, to spend a fortnight with Mr. and Mrs. John Knightley in +Brunswick Square, and there, meeting Mr. Robert Martin, through Mr. +George Knightley's contrivance, was easily persuaded to become his wife. + +About this same time, too, Mrs. Weston's husband and friends were all +made happy by knowing her to be the mother of a little girl; while Emma +and Mrs. Weston were enabled to take a more lenient view of Frank +Churchill's conduct, thanks to a long letter which he wrote to the +latter lady in which he apologised for his equivocal conduct to Emma, +and expressed his regret that those attentions should have caused such +poignant distress to the lady whom he was shortly to make his wife. The +much discussed pianoforte had been his gift. + + * * * * * + + + + +Persuasion + + Jane Austen began her last book soon after she had finished + "Emma," and completed it in August, 1816. "Persuasion" is + connected with "Northanger Abbey" not only by the fact that + the two books were originally bound up in one volume and + published together two years later, and are still so issued, + but in the circumstance that in both stories the scene is laid + partly in Bath, a health resort with which Jane Austen was + well acquainted, as having been her place of residence from + the year 1801 till 1805. + + +_I.--The Vain Baronet of Kellynch Hall_ + + +Sir Walter Elliot, of Kellynch Hall, in Somersetshire, was a man who, +for his own amusement, never took up any book but the Baronetage. There +he found occupation for an idle hour, and consolation in a distressed +one; there his faculties were roused into admiration and respect by +contemplating the limited remnant of the earliest patents; there any +unwelcome sensations derived from domestic affairs changed naturally +into pity and contempt as he turned over the almost endless creations of +the last century; and there, if every other leaf was powerless, he could +read his own history with an interest which never failed. This was the +page at which the favourite volume always opened: + + "ELLIOT OF KELLYNCH HALL." + + "Walter Elliot, born March 1, 1760, married July 15, 1784, + Elizabeth, daughter of James Stevenson, Esq., of South Park, + in the county of Gloucester; by which lady (who died 1800) he + has issue, Elizabeth, born June 1, 1785; Anne, born August 9, + 1787; a still-born son, November 5, 1789; Mary, born November + 20, 1791." + + +Precisely thus had the paragraph originally stood from the printer's +hands. But Sir Walter had improved it by adding, for the information of +himself and his family, these words, after the date of Mary's birth: +"Married, December 16, 1810, Charles, son and heir of Charles Musgrove, +Esq., of Uppercross, in the county of Somerset," and by inserting most +accurately the day of the month on which he had lost his wife. + +Then followed the history and rise of the ancient and respectable family +in the usual terms; how it had been first settled in Cheshire; how +mentioned in Dugdale, serving the office of High Sheriff, representing a +borough in three successive parliaments, exertions of loyalty, and +dignity of baronet, in the first year of Charles II., with all the Marys +and Elizabeths they had married; forming altogether two handsome +duodecimo pages, and concluding with the arms and motto: "Principal +seat, Kellynch Hall, in the county of Somerset," and Sir Walter's +handwriting again in the finale: "Heir-presumptive, William Walter +Elliot, Esq., great-grandson of the second Sir Walter." + +Vanity was the beginning and end of Sir Walter Elliot's +character--vanity of person and of situation. He had been remarkably +handsome in his youth, and, at fifty-four, was still a very fine man. +Few women could think more of their personal appearance than he did, nor +could the valet of any new-made lord be more delighted with the place he +held in society. He considered the blessing of beauty as inferior only +to the blessing of a baronetcy; and the Sir Walter Elliot, who united +these gifts, was the constant object of his warmest respect and +devotion. + +His good looks and his rank had a fair claim on his attachment, since to +them he must have owed a wife of very superior character to anything +deserved by his own. Lady Elliot had been an excellent woman, sensible +and amiable, whose judgment and conduct, if they might be pardoned the +youthful infatuation which made her Lady Elliot, had never required +indulgence afterwards. Three girls, however--the two eldest sixteen and +fourteen--were an awful legacy for a mother to bequeath, an awful charge +rather to confide, to the authority of a conceited, silly father. +Fortunately, Lady Elliot had one very intimate friend, Lady Russell, a +sensible, deserving woman, who had been brought, by strong attachment to +herself, to settle close by her in the village of Kellynch; and on her +kindness Lady Elliot mainly relied for the best help and maintenance of +the good principles and instruction which she had been anxiously giving +her daughters. + +Elizabeth had succeeded at sixteen to all that was possible of her +mother's rights and consequence; and being very handsome, and very like +himself, her influence had always been great, and they had gone on +together most happily. His two other children were of very inferior +value. Mary had acquired a little artificial importance by becoming Mrs. +Charles Musgrove; but Anne, with an elegance of mind and sweetness of +character which must have placed her high with any people of real +understanding, was nobody with either father or sister. To Lady Russell, +indeed, she was a most dear and highly valued god-daughter, favourite +and friend. Lady Russell loved them all; but it was only in Anne that +she could fancy the mother to revive again. + +It sometimes happens that a woman is handsomer at twenty-nine than she +was ten years before; and, generally speaking, it is a time of life at +which scarcely any charm is lost. It was so with Elizabeth, still the +same handsome Miss Elliot that she had begun to be thirteen years ago; +and Sir Walter might be excused, therefore, in forgetting her age, or, +at least, be deemed only half a fool for thinking himself and Elizabeth +as blooming as ever, amid the wreck of the good looks of everybody else. + +Elizabeth did not quite equal her father in personal contentment. She +had the consciousness of being nine-and-twenty to give her some regrets +and some apprehensions. Moreover, she had been disappointed by the +heir-presumptive, the very William Walter Elliot, Esq., whose rights had +been so generously supported by her father. Soon after Lady Elliot's +death, Sir Walter had sought Mr. Elliot's society, and had introduced +him to Elizabeth, who was quite ready to marry him. But despite the +assiduity of the baronet, the younger man let the acquaintance drop, and +married a rich woman of inferior birth, for whom, at the present time +(the summer of 1814), Elizabeth was wearing black ribbons. + +Anne, too, had had her disappointment. Eight years ago, before she had +lost her bloom, when, in fact, she had been an extremely pretty girl, +with gentleness, modesty, taste and feeling added, she had fallen in +love with Captain Wentworth, a young naval officer who had distinguished +himself in the action off Domingo; but her father and Lady Russell had +frowned upon the match, and, persuaded chiefly by the arguments of the +latter that it would be prejudicial to the professional interests of her +lover, who had still his fortune to make, she had rather weakly +submitted to have the engagement broken off. But though he had angrily +cast her out of his heart, she still loved him, having in the meantime +rejected Charles Musgrove, who subsequently consoled himself by marrying +her sister Mary. So that when her father's embarrassed affairs compelled +him to let Kellynch Hall to Admiral Croft, an eminent seaman who had +fought at Trafalgar, and had happened to marry a sister of Captain +Wentworth, she could not help thinking, with a gentle sigh, as she +walked along her favourite grove: "A few months more, and he, perhaps, +may be walking here." + + +_II.--Anne Elliot and her Old Lover_ + + +Sir Walter and Elizabeth went to Bath, and settled themselves in a good +house in Camden Place, while it was arranged that Anne should divide her +time between Uppercross Cottage--where Mr. and Mrs. Charles Musgrove +lived--and Kellynch Lodge, and come on from the latter house to Bath +when Lady Russell was prepared to take her. Sir Walter had included in +his party a Mrs. Clay, a young widow, with whom, despite the fact that +she had freckles and a projecting tooth, and was the daughter of Mr. +Shepherd, the family solicitor, Elizabeth had recently struck up a great +friendship. Anne had tried to warn her sister against this attractive +and seemingly designing young woman, but her advice had not been taken +in good part; and she had to content herself with hoping that, though +her suspicion had been resented, it might yet be remembered. + +At Uppercross she found things very little altered. The + +Musgroves saw too much of one another. The two families were so +continually meeting, so much in the habit of running in and out of each +other's houses at all hours, that their various members inevitably found +much to complain of in one another's conduct. These complaints were +brought to Anne, who was treated with such confidence by all parties +that if she had not been a very discreet young lady she might have +considerably increased the difficulties of the situation. Mary she found +as selfish, as querulous, as ready to think herself ailing, as lacking +in sense and understanding, as unable to manage her children as ever. + +Charles Musgrove was civil and agreeable; in sense and temper he was +undoubtedly superior to his wife, though neither his powers nor his +conversation were remarkable. He did nothing with much zeal but sport; +and his time was otherwise trifled away without benefit from books or +anything else. He had, however, excellent spirits, which never seemed +much affected by his wife's occasional moroseness; and he bore with her +unreasonableness sometimes to Anne's admiration. As for the Miss +Musgroves, Henrietta and Louisa, young ladies of nineteen and twenty, +they were living to be fashionable, happy and merry. Their dress had +every advantage, their faces were pretty, their spirits good, their +manners unembarrassed and pleasant; they were of consequence at home, +and favourites abroad. + +The Crofts took possession of Kellynch Hall with true naval alertness, +and, naturally enough, intercourse was soon established between them and +the Musgroves. Soon it was known that the admiral's brother-in-law, +Captain Wentworth, had come to stop with them; and one day he made the +inevitable call at the Cottage on his way to shoot with Charles. It was +soon over. Anne's eyes half met his; a bow, a courtesy passed. He talked +to Mary, said all that was right, said something to the Miss Musgroves, +enough to mark an easy footing. Charles showed himself at the window, +all was ready, their visitor had bowed and was gone; the Miss Musgroves +were gone, too, suddenly resolving to walk to the end of the village +with the sportsmen. + +She had seen him; they had met. They had been once more in the same +room. Now, how were his sentiments to be read? On one question she was +soon spared all suspense; for, after the Miss Musgroves had returned and +finished their visit at the Cottage, she had this spontaneous +information from Mary: "Captain Wentworth is not very gallant by you, +Anne, though he was so attentive to me. Henrietta asked him what he +thought of you. 'You were so altered he should not have known you +again,' he said." + +Doubtless it was so; and she could take no revenge, for he was not +altered, or not for the worse. No; the years which had destroyed her +bloom had only given him a more glowing, manly, open look, in no respect +lessening his personal advantages. + +"Altered beyond his knowledge." Frederick Wentworth had used such words, +or something like them, but without an idea that they would be carried +round to her. He had thought her wretchedly altered, and, in the first +moment of appeal, had spoken as he felt. He had not forgiven Anne +Elliot. She had used him ill--deserted and disappointed him; and worse, +in doing so had shown weakness and timidity. He had been most warmly +attached to her, and had never seen a woman since whom he thought her +equal. It was now his object to marry. He was rich, and, being turned on +shore, intended to settle as soon as he could be tempted. "Yes, here I +am, Sophia," he said to his sister, "quite ready to make a foolish +match. Anybody between fifteen and thirty may have me for the asking. A +little beauty, and a few smiles, and a few compliments to the navy, and +I am a lost man." + +It looked, indeed, as if he would soon be lost, either to Louisa or to +Henrietta. It was soon Uppercross with him almost every day. The +Musgroves could hardly be more ready to invite than he to come; and as +for Henrietta and Louisa, they both seemed so entirely occupied by him +that nothing but the continued appearance of the most perfect goodwill +between themselves could have made it credible that they were not +decided rivals. Indeed, Mr. Charles Hayter, a young curate with some +expectations, who was a cousin of the Musgroves, began to get uneasy. +Previous to Captain Wentworth's introduction, there had been a +considerable appearance of attachment between Henrietta and himself; but +now he seemed to be very much forgotten. + + +_III.--Love-making at Lyme Regis_ + + +At this interesting juncture the scene of action was changed from +Uppercross to Lyme Regis, owing to Captain Wentworth's receipt of a +letter from his old friend Captain Harville, announcing his being +settled at this latter place. Captain Wentworth, after a visit to Lyme +Regis, gave so interesting an account of the adjacent country that the +young people were all wild to see it. Accordingly, it was agreed to stay +the night there, and not to be expected back till the next day's dinner. + +They found Captain Harville a tall, dark man, with a sensible, +benevolent countenance: a little lame, but unaffected, warm and +obliging. Mrs. Harville, a degree less polished than her husband, seemed +to have the same good feelings and cordiality; while Captain Benwick, +who was the youngest of the three naval officers and a comparatively +little man, had a pleasing face and a melancholic air, just as he ought +to have. He had been engaged to Captain Harville's sister, and was now +mourning her loss. They had been a year or two waiting for fortune and +promotion. Fortune came, his prize-money as lieutenant being great; +promotion, too, came at last; but Fanny Harville did not live to know +it. She had died the preceding summer while he was at sea; and the +friendship between him and the Harvilles having been augmented by the +event which closed all their views of alliance, he was now living with +them entirely. A man of retiring manners and of sedentary pursuits, with +a decided taste for reading, he was drawn a good deal to Anne Elliot +during this excursion, and talked to her of poetry, of Scott and Byron, +of "Marmion" and "The Lady of the Lake," of "The Giaour" and "The Bride +of Abydos." He repeated with such feeling the various lines of Byron +which imaged a broken heart, or a mind destroyed by wretchedness, and +looked so entirely as if he meant to be understood, that Anne ventured +to recommend to him a larger allowance of prose in his daily study. + +Another interesting person whom the Uppercross party met at Lyme was Mr. +Elliot. He did not recognise Anne and her friends, or did they till he +had left the town find out who he was; but he was obviously struck with +Anne, and gazed at her with a degree of earnest admiration which she +could not be insensible of. She was looking remarkably well, her very +regular, very pretty features having the bloom and freshness of youth +restored by the fine wind which had been blowing on her complexion, and +by the animation of eye which it had also produced. + +It was evident that the gentleman admired her exceedingly. Captain +Wentworth looked round at her, in a way which showed his noticing of it. +He gave her a momentary glance, a glance of brightness, which seemed to +say: "That man is struck with you; and even I, at this moment, see +something like Anne Elliot again." + +But the folly of Louisa Musgrove, and the consequences that attended it, +soon obliterated from Anne's memory all such recollections as these. +Louisa, who was walking with Captain Wentworth, persuaded him to jump +her down the steps on the Lower Cob. Contrary to his advice, she ran up +the steps to be jumped down again; and, being too precipitate by a +second, fell on the pavement and was taken up senseless. Fortunately, no +bones were broken, the only injury was to the head; and Captain and Mrs. +Harville insisting on her being taken to their house, she recovered +health so steadily that before Anne and Lady Russell left Kellynch Lodge +for Bath there was talk of the possibility of her being able to be +removed to Uppercross. + +When the accident occurred, Captain Wentworth's attitude was very much +that of the lover. "Oh, God! that I had not given way at the fatal +moment!" he cried. "Had I but done as I ought! But so eager and so +resolute; dear, sweet Louisa!" + +Anne feared there could not be a doubt as to what would follow the +recovery; but she was amused to hear Charles Musgrove tell how much +Captain Benwick admired herself--"elegance, sweetness, beauty!" Oh, +there was no end to Miss Elliot's charms! + +Another surprise awaited her at Bath, where she found her father and +sister Elizabeth happy in the submission and society of the +heir-presumptive. He had explained away all the appearance of neglect on +his own side as originating in misapprehension. He had never had an idea +of throwing himself off; he had feared that he was thrown off, and +delicacy had kept him silent. These explanations having been made, Sir +Walter took him by the hand, affirming that "Mr. Elliot was better to +look at than most men, and that he had no objection to being seen with +him anywhere." + +The gentleman called one evening, soon after Anne's arrival in the town; +and his little start of surprise on being introduced to her showed that +he was not more astonished than delighted at meeting, in the character +of Sir Walter's daughter, the young lady who had so strongly struck his +fancy at Lyme. He stopped an hour, and his tone, his expressions, his +choice of subject, all showed the operation of a sensible, discerning +mind. + +Still, Anne could not understand what his object was in seeking this +reconciliation. Even the engagement of Louisa Musgrove to Captain +Benwick, which was announced to her by Mary about a month later, seemed +more susceptible of explanation--had not the young couple been thrown +together for weeks?--than this determination of Mr. Elliot to become +friends with relations from whom he could derive no possible advantage. + + +_IV.--Love Triumphant_ + + +Following close on the news of Louisa's engagement came the arrival at +Bath of Admiral and Mrs. Croft. He had come for the cure of his gout; +and he was soon followed by Captain Wentworth, who, for the first time +since their second meeting, deliberately sought Anne out at a concert +which she and her people were attending. The most significant part of +their conversation was his comment on Louisa's engagement to Captain +Benwick. He frankly confessed he could not understand it as far as it +concerned Benwick. + +"A man like him, in his situation, with a heart pierced, wounded, almost +broken! Fanny Harville was a very superior person, and his attachment to +her was indeed attachment. A man does not recover from such a devotion +of the heart to such a woman. He ought not; he does not." + +But the captain was prevented from saying much more by the assiduous +attention which Mr. Elliot paid to her at this concert. + +"Very long," said he, "has the name of Anne Elliot possessed a charm +over my fancy; and, if I dared, I would breathe my wishes that the name +might never change." + +Such language might almost be taken to be a proposal; but Anne was too +much interested in watching Captain Wentworth to pay much attention to +it. + +She had still in mind the words which her sometime lover had spoken at +the concert, when a visit she had paid to an invalid friend, an old +schoolfellow of hers called Mrs. Smith, gave her complete enlightenment +as to the character and present objects of Mr. Elliot. Mrs. Smith, who +was a widow, and whose husband had been a bosom friend of Mr. Elliot's, +described him as "a man without heart or conscience, a designing, wary, +cold-blooded being, who thinks only of himself; who for his own interest +or ease would be guilty of any cruelty, or any treachery that could be +perpetrated without risk of damaging his general character." She told +how he had encouraged her husband, to whom he was under great +obligations, to indulge in the most ruinous expense, and then, on his +death, caused her endless difficulties and distress by refusing to act +as his executor. She also informed Anne that he had married his first +wife, whom he treated badly, entirely on account of her fortune, and +that, though among the present reasons for continuing the acquaintance +with his relations was a genuine attachment to herself, his original +intention in seeking a reconciliation with Sir Walter had been to secure +for himself the reversion of the baronetcy by preventing the holder of +the title from falling into the snares of Mrs. Clay. + +The next day a party of the Musgroves appeared at Camden Place. Mrs. +Musgrove, senior, had some old friends at Bath whom she wanted to see; +Mrs. Charles Musgrove could not bear to be left behind in any excursion +which her husband was taking; Henrietta, who had arrived at an +understanding with Mr. Charles Hayter, had come to buy wedding clothes +for herself and Louisa; and Captain Harville had come on business. It +was on a visit to the Musgroves, who were stopping at the White Hart +Hotel, that Anne had a momentous conversation with the last-named +person. The captain had been reverting to the topic of his friend +Benwick's engagement, and Anne had been saying that women did not forget +as readily as men. + +"No, no," said Harville, "it is not man's nature to forget. I will not +allow it to be more man's nature than woman's to be inconstant and to +forget those they do love or have loved. I believe the reverse. I +believe in a true analogy between our bodily frames and our mental; and +that as our bodily frames are stronger than yours, so are our feelings." + +"Your feelings may be the stronger," replied Anne, "but the same spirit +of analogy will authorise me to assert that ours are the more tender. +Man is more robust than woman, but he is not longer lived; which exactly +explains my view of the nature of their attachment." + +Captain Wentworth, who was sitting down at a writing-table in another +part of the room, engaged in correspondence, seemed very much interested +in this conversation; and a few minutes later he placed before Anne, +with eyes of glowing entreaty, a letter addressed to "Miss A. E." + +"I offer myself to you again," he wrote, "with a heart even more your +own than when you almost broke it eight years and a half ago. Dare not +say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier +death; I have loved none but you." + +To such a declaration there could be but one answer; and soon Frederick +Wentworth and Anne Elliot were exchanging again those feelings and those +promises which once before had seemed to secure everything, but which +had been followed by so many years of division and estrangement. + +This time there was no opposition to the engagement. Captain Wentworth's +wealth, personal appearance, and well-sounding name enabled Sir Walter +to prepare his pen, with a very good grace, for the insertion of the +marriage in the volume of honour. + +As for Mr. Elliot, the news of his cousin Anne's engagement burst on him +with unexpected suddenness. He soon quitted Bath; and on Mrs. Clay's +leaving it shortly afterwards and being next heard of as established +under his protection in London, it was evident how double a game he had +been playing, and how determined he was to save himself at all events +from being cut out by one artful woman at least. + + * * * * * + + + + +HONORÉ DE BALZAC + +Eugénie Grandet + + Honoré de Balzac was born May 20, 1799, at Tours, in France, + and died at Paris, Aug. 18, 1850. His early life was filled + with hard work and oppressed by poverty. He attained success + by the publication of "Les Derniers Chouans" in 1829, and he + soon established his fame as the leader of realistic fiction. + In spite of frequent coarseness, he stands for all time as a + great writer by reason of his powers of character analysis. + "Eugénie Grandet" is, justly, one of the most famous of + Balzac's novels. As a study of avarice, in the character of + old Grandet, it is superb, and the picture of manners in the + country town of Saumur is painted as only a supreme artist + like Balzac could paint it. The pathos of Eugénie's wasted + life, the long suffering of Mme. Grandet, the craft and + cunning of the Des Grassins and the Cruchots, the fidelity of + Nanon, and the frank egotism of Charles Grandet--all these + things combine to make the book a masterpiece of French + fiction. "Eugénie Grandet" was written in the full vigour of + Balzac's genius in 1833, and was published in the first volume + of "Scenes of Provincial Life" in 1834, and finally included + in the "Human Comedy" in 1843. + + +_I.--The Rich Miser of Saumur_ + + +The town of Saumur is old-fashioned and in every way "provincial." Its +houses are dark within, its shops, undecorated, recall the workshops of +the Middle Ages. Its inhabitants gossip freely, according to the fashion +of country towns, and the arrival of a stranger in the town is an +important item of news. The trade of Saumur depends upon the vineyards +of the district. The prosperity of landowners, vinegrowers, coopers, and +innkeepers rises or falls according to whether the season is good or bad +for the grapes. + +A certain house in Saumur, larger and more sombre than most, and once +the residence of nobility, belonged to M. Grandet. + +This M. Grandet was a master cooper in 1789, a good man of business with +a remarkable head for accounts. He prospered in the Revolution, bought +the confiscated Church lands at a low price, married the daughter of a +wealthy timber merchant, was made mayor under the consulate, became +Monsieur Grandet when the empire was established, and every year grew +wealthier and more miserly. + +In 1817 M. Grandet was 68, his wife 47, and their only child, Eugénie, +was 21. + +A careful, cunning, silent man was M. Grandet, who loved his gold and to +get the better in a bargain beyond all else. He cultivated 100 acres of +vineyard, had thirteen little farms, an old abbey, and 127 acres of +grazing land, and owned the house he lived in. The town estimated old +Grandet's income to be five or six million francs, but only two people +were in a position to guess with any chance of probability, and these +were M. Cruchot the notary, and M. des Grassins the banker, and they +disclosed no secrets. + +Both M. Cruchot and M. des Grassins were men of considerable importance +in Saumur, and enjoyed the right of entry to M. Grandet's house--a +privilege extended to only a very few of their neighbours. + +There was rivalry between these two families of the Cruchots and Des +Grassins, rivalry for the hand of Grandet's daughter, Eugénie. Cruchot's +nephew was a rising lawyer, already, at the age of thirty-three, a +president of the court of first instance, and Cruchot's brother was an +abbé of Tours. The hopes of the Cruchots were centred on the successful +marriage of the nephew (who called himself Cruchot de Bonfons, after an +estate he had bought) with Grandet's heiress. + +Mme. des Grassins was equally hopeful and indefatigable on behalf of her +son Adolphe. + +The whole town knew of the struggle between these two families, and +watched it with interest. Would Mlle. Grandet marry M. Adolphe des +Grassins or M. le Président? There were others who declared the old +cooper was rich enough to marry his daughter to a peer in France. + +With all his wealth and the fortune his wife brought him, M. Grandet +lived as meanly and cheaply as he could. His house was cold and dreary, +and his table was supplied with poultry, eggs, butter and corn by his +tenants. M. Grandet never paid visits or invited people to dinner. + +One servant, Nanon, a big, strong woman of five feet eight inches, did +all the work of the house, the cooking and washing, the baking and +cleaning, and watched over her master's interests with an absolute +fidelity. The strength of Nanon appealed to M. Grandet when he was on +the lookout for a housekeeper before his marriage, and the girl, out of +work and wretched, had never lost her gratitude for having been taken +into his service. For twenty-eight years Nanon had worked early and late +for the Grandets, and on a yearly wage of seventy livres had accumulated +more money than any other servant in Saumur. She was one of the family, +spending her evenings in the sitting-room of her employers, where a +single candle was all that was allowed for illumination. M. Grandet also +decided that no fire must be lit in the sitting-room from April 1 to +October 31, and every morning he went into the kitchen and doled out the +bread, sugar, and other provisions for the day to Nanon, and candles to +his daughter. + +As for Mme. Grandet, her gentleness and meekness could not stand up +against her husband's force of character. She had brought more than +300,000 francs to her husband, and yet had no money save an occasional +six francs for pocket-money, and the only certain source of income was +four or five louis which Grandet made the Belgian merchants, who bought +his wine, pay over and above the stipulated price. Often enough he would +borrow some of this money even. Mme. Grandet was too gentle to revolt, +but her pride forbade her ever asking a sou from her husband. With her +daughter she attended to the household linen, and found compensation for +the unhappiness of her lot in the consolations of religion, and also in +the company of Eugénie. It never occurred to M. Grandet that his wife +suffered, or had reason to suffer. He was making money; every year his +riches increased. He paid for sittings in church, and gave his daughter +five francs a month for a dress allowance. That his wife hardly ever +left the house except occasionally to go to church, that her dress was +invariably the same, and that she never asked him for anything, never +troubled M. Grandet. Avarice was his consuming passion, and it was +satisfactory to him that no one attempted to cross him. + +Twice a year, on her birthday, and on the day of her patron saint, +Eugénie received some rare gold coin from her father, and then he would +take pleasure in looking at her store--for these coins were not to be +spent. Old M. Grandet liked to think that his daughter was learning to +appreciate gold, and that in giving her these precious coins he was not +parting with his money, but only putting it in another box. + + +_II.--Eugénie's Springtime of Love_ + + +On Eugénie's twenty-third birthday, November, 1819, the three +Cruchots--the notary, the abbé, and the magistrate--and the three Des +Grassins--M. des Grassins, Mme. des Grassins, and their son Adolphe-- +hastened to pay their respects to the heiress as soon as dinner was +over. Mr. Grandet, in honour of the occasion, lit a second candle in the +sitting-room. "It is Eugénie's birthday, and we must have an +illumination," he remarked. The Cruchots all brought handsome bouquets +of flowers for Eugénie, but their gifts were eclipsed by a showy workbox +fitted with trumpery gilded silver fittings, which Mme. des Grassins +presented, and which filled Eugénie with delight. "Adolphe brought it +from Paris," whispered Mme. des Grassins in the girl's ear. Old Grandet +quite understood that both families were in pursuit of his daughter for +the sake of her fortune, and made up his mind that neither of them +should have her. + +They all sat down to play lotto at half-past eight, except old Grandet, +who never played any game. Just as Mme. Grandet had won a pool of +sixteen sous, a heavy knock at the front door startled everybody in the +room. Nanon took up one of the candles and went to the door, followed by +Grandet. Presently they returned with a young man, good-looking, and +fashionably dressed. This was Charles Grandet, the son of the old +cooper's brother, a merchant in Paris. The young man brought a good many +trunks, and while Nanon saw to the bestowal of his luggage, all the +lotto players looked at the visitor. Old Grandet took the only remaining +candle from the table to read a long letter which his nephew had +brought. Charles had set off from Paris at his father's bidding to pay a +visit to his uncle at Saumur. He was a dandy, and his appearance was in +striking contrast to the attire of the Cruchots and the Des Grassins. +Moreover, he already had had a love affair with a great lady whom he +called Annette, and he was a good shot. Altogether, Charles Grandet was +a vain and selfish youth, conscious of his superiority over the +unfashionable provincials of Saumur, but determined at all costs to +enjoy himself as best he could. + +As for Eugénie, it seemed to her that she had never seen such a perfect +gentleman as this cousin from Paris, and, at the risk of incurring her +father's wrath, succeeded in persuading Nanon to do what she could to +make things comfortable for their guest in the cold and dreary house. + +Nanon was milking the cow when Eugénie preferred her kindly and +considerate request, and the faithful serving-maid at once obligingly +promised to save a little cream from her master's supply of milk. The +Cruchots and Des Grassins retired discomfited before the presence of +Charles Grandet. The young Parisian, brought up in luxury by his father, +could not understand why he should have been sent to this outlandish +place, and he was the more mystified by his uncle telling him they would +talk over "important business" on the morrow. Then, indeed, in plain and +brutal words he learnt the contents of the fatal letter he had brought +from his father. It was twenty-three years since old Grandet had seen +his brother in Paris, but this brother had become a rich man, too; of +that old Grandet was aware. And now Victor-Ange-Guillaume Grandet wrote +to him from Paris, saying: "By the time that this letter is in your +hands, I shall cease to exist. The failure of my stockbroker and my +notary has ruined me, and while I owe nearly four million francs, my +assets are only a quarter of my debts. I cannot survive the disgrace of +bankruptcy. I know you cannot satisfy my creditors, but you can be a +father to my unhappy child, Charles, who is now alone in the world. Lay +everything before him, and tell him that in my work he can restore the +fortune he has lost. My failure is due neither to dishonesty nor to +carelessness, but to causes beyond my control." + +Old Grandet told his nephew plainly that his father was dead, and even +showed him a paragraph already in the papers referring to the ruin and +suicide of the unhappy man--so quickly is such news spread abroad. + +For the moment, his penniless state was nothing to the young man; the +loss of his father was the only grief. + +Old Grandet let him alone, and in a day or two Charles gathered up +strength to face the situation. + +Mme. Grandet and Eugénie were full of tender sympathy for the unhappy +young man, and this sympathy in Eugénie's case ripened into love. One +day, when Eugénie passed her cousin's chamber, the door stood ajar; she +thrust it open, and saw that Charles had fallen asleep in his chair. She +entered and found out from a letter her cousin had written to Annette, +which she read as it lay on the table, that he was in want of money--for +old Grandet was resolved to do nothing for his nephew beyond paying his +passage to Nantes. The next night she brought him all her store of gold +coins, worth six thousand francs. Her confidence and devoted affection +touched Charles deeply. He accepted the money, and in return gave into +her keeping a small leather box containing portraits of his father and +mother, richly set in gold. Eugénie promised to guard this box until he +returned. + +For it was decided that Charles Grandet must go to the Indies to seek +his fortune. He sold his jewels and finery, and paid his personal debts +in Paris, and waited on at Saumur till the ship should be ready to sail +for Nantes. + +And in those few weeks came the springtime of love for Eugénie. + +Old Grandet was too busy to trouble about his nephew, who was so shortly +to be got rid of, and both Nanon and Mme. Grandet liked and pities the +young man. + +Charles Grandet, on his side, was conscious that his Parisian friends +would not have shown him a like kindness, and the purity and truth of +Eugénie's love were something he had not hitherto experienced. + +The cousins would snatch a few moments together in the early morning, +and once, only a few days before his departure, they met in the long, +dark passage at the foot of the staircase. "Dear cousin, I cannot expect +to return for many years," Charles said sadly. "We must not consider +ourselves bound in any way." + +"You love me?" was all Eugénie asked. And on his reply, she added: "Then +I will wait for you, Charles." + +Presently his arms were round her waist. Eugénie made no resistance, +and, pressed to his heart, received her lover's kiss. + +"Dear Eugénie, a cousin is better than a brother; he can marry you," +said Charles. + +Thus the lovers vowed themselves to each other. Then came the terrible +hour of parting, and Charles Grandet sailed from Nantes for the Indies; +and the old house at Saumur suddenly seemed to Eugénie to have become +very empty and bare indeed. + + +_III.--M. Grandet's Discovery_ + + +Grandet, on the advice of M. Cruchot, the notary, saved the honour of +his dead brother. There was no act of bankruptcy. M. Cruchot, to gain +favour with old Grandet, proposed to go to Paris to look after the dead +man's affairs, but suggested the payment of expenses. It was M. des +Grassins, however, who went to Paris, for he undertook to make no +charge; and the banker not only attended to Guillaume Grandet's +creditors, but stayed on in Paris--having been made a deputy--and fell +in love with an actress. Adolphe joined his father, and achieved an +equally unpleasant reputation. + +The property of Guillaume Grandet realised enough money to pay the +creditors a dividend of 47 per cent. They agreed that they would +deposit, upon certain conditions, their bills with an accredited notary, +and each one said to himself that Grandet of Saumur would pay. + +Grandet of Saumur, however, did not pay. Endless delays were +forthcoming, and Des Grassins was always holding out promises that were +not fulfilled. + +As years went by some of the creditors gave up all hope of payment, +others died; till at the end of five years the deficit stood at +1,200,000 francs. + +In the meantime, a terrible blow had fallen on Mine. Grandet. On January +1, 1820, old Grandet, according to his wont, presented his daughter with +a gold coin, and asked to see her store of gold pieces. + +All Eugénie would tell him was that her money was gone. In vain the old +man stormed. Eugénie kept on saying: "I am of age; the money was mine." + +Grandet raved at his wife, who, weary and ill, gave him no satisfaction. +In fact, Mine. Grandet's character had become stronger through her +daughter's trouble, and she refused to support her husband's angry +demands. + +Then old Grandet ordered Eugénie to retire to her own apartment. "Do you +hear what I say? Go!" he shouted. + +Soon all the town knew that Eugénie was a prisoner in her own room, +seeing no one but her mother and old Nanon; and public opinion, knowing +nothing of the cause of the quarrel, blamed the old cooper. For six +months this state of things lasted, and Mine. Grandet's illness became +steadily worse. M. Cruchot, the notary, warned old Grandet that, in the +event of his wife's death, he would have to give an account to Eugénie +of her mother's share in the joint estate; and that Eugénie could then, +if she chose, demand her mother's fortune, to which she would be +entitled. + +This seriously alarmed the avaricious old cooper, and he made up his +mind to a reconciliation, for his wife assured him she would never get +better while Eugénie was treated so badly. Eugénie and her mother were +talking of Charles, from whom no letter had come, and getting what +pleasure they could from looking at the portraits of his parents, when +old Grandet burst into the room. Catching sight of the gold fittings, he +snatched up the dressing-case, and would have wrenched off the precious +metal. "Father, father," Eugénie called out, "this case is not yours; it +is not mine, it is a sacred trust! It belongs to my unhappy cousin. Do +not pull it to pieces!" + +Old Grandet took no notice. + +"Oh, have pity; you are killing me!" said the mother. + +Eugénie caught up a knife, and her cry brought Nanon on the scene. + +"Father, if you cut away a single piece of gold, I shall stab myself. +You are killing my mother, and you will kill me, too." + +Old Grandet for once was frightened. He tried to make it up with his +wife, he kissed Eugénie, and even promised that Eugénie should marry her +cousin if she wanted to. + +Mme. Grandet lingered till October, and then died. "There is no +happiness to be had except in heaven; some day you will understand +that," she said to her daughter just before she passed away. + +M. Cruchot was called in after Mine. Grandet's death, and in his +presence Eugénie agreed to sign a deed renouncing her claim to her +mother's fortune while her father lived. She signed it without making +any objection, to old Grandet's great relief, and he promised to allow +her 100 francs a month. But the old man himself was failing. Bit by bit +he relinquished his many activities, but lived on till seven years had +passed. Then he died, his eyes kindling at the end at the sight of the +priest's sacred vessels of silver. His brother's creditors were still +unpaid. Eugénie was informed by M. Cruchot that her property amounted to +17,000,000 francs. "Where can my cousin be?" she asked herself. "If only +we knew where the young gentleman was, I would set off myself and find +him," Nanon said to her. The poor heiress was very lonely. The faithful +Nanon, now fifty-nine, married Antoine Cornoiller, the bailiff of the +estates, and these two, who had known one another for years, lived in +the house. + +The Cruchots still hoped to marry M. le Président to Eugénie, and every +birthday the magistrate brought a handsome bouquet. But the heart of +Eugénie remained steadfast to her cousin. + +"Ah, Nanon," she would say, "why has he never written to me once all +these years?" + +Mme. des Grassins, unwilling to see the triumph of her old rivals, the +Cruchots, went about saying that the heiress of the Grandet millions +would marry a peer of France rather than a magistrate. Eugénie, however, +thought neither of the peer nor of the magistrate. She gave away +enormous sums in charity, and lived on quietly in the dreary old house. +Her wealth brought her no comfort, her only treasures were the two +portraits left in her charge. Yet she went on loving, and believed +herself loved in return. + + +_IV.--The Honour of the Grandets_ + + +Charles Grandet, in the course of eight years, met with considerable +success in his trading ventures. He saw very quickly that the way to +make money in the tropics, as in Europe, was to go in for buying and +selling men, and so he plunged into the slave trade of Africa, and under +the name of Carl Shepherd was known in the East Indies, in the United +States, and on the African coasts. His plan was to get rich as speedily +as possible, and then return to Paris and live respected. For a +time--that is, on his first voyage--the thought of Eugénie gave him +infinite pleasure; but soon all recollection of Saumur was blotted out, +and his cousin became merely a person to whom he owed 6,000 francs. + +In 1827, Charles returned to Bordeaux with 1,900,000 francs in gold +dust. On board the ship he became very intimate with the d'Aubrions, an +old aristocratic but impoverished family. Mme. d'Aubrion was anxious to +secure Charles Grandet for her only daughter, and they all travelled to +Paris together. Mme. d'Aubrion pointed out to Grandet that her influence +would get him a court appointment, with title of Comte d'Aubrion; and +Annette, with whom Grandet took counsel, approved the alliance. + +Des Grassins, hearing of the wanderer's return, called, and, anxious to +get some remuneration for all the trouble he had taken, explained that +300,000 francs were still owing to his father's creditors. But Charles +Grandet answered coolly that he had nothing to do with his father's +debts. + +Des Grassins, however, wrote to his wife that he would yet make the dead +Guillaume Grandet a bankrupt, and that would stop the marriage, and Mme. +des Grassins showed the letter to Eugénie. + +Eugénie had already heard from her cousin. Charles Grandet sent a cheque +for 8,000 francs, asked for the return of his dressing-case, and +casually mentioned that he was going to make a brilliant marriage with +Mlle. d'Aubrion, for whom he admitted he had not the slightest +affection. + +This was the shipwreck of all Eugénie's hopes--the utter and complete +ruin. + +"My mother was right," she said, weeping. "To suffer, and then die--that +is our lot!" + +That same evening when M. Cruchot de Bonfons, the magistrate, called on +Eugénie, she promised to marry him on condition that he claimed none of +the rights of marriage over her, and that he would immediately go and +settle all her uncle's creditors in full. + +M. de Bonfons, only too thankful to win the heiress of the Grandet +millions on any terms, agreed, and set off at once for Paris with a +cheque for 1,500,000 francs. He carried a letter from Eugénie to Charles +Grandet, a letter that contained no word of reproach, but announced the +full discharge of his father's debts. + +Charles was astonished to hear from M. de Bonfons of his forthcoming +marriage with Eugénie, and he was dumfounded when the president told him +that Mlle. Grandet possessed 17,000,000 francs. + +Mme. d'Aubrion interrupted the interview; her husband's objection to +Grandet's marriage with his daughter was removed with the payment of the +long-standing creditors and the restoration of the family honour of the +Grandets. + +M. de Bonfons, who now dropped the name of Cruchot, married Eugénie, and +shortly afterwards was made Councillor to the Court Royal at Angers. His +loyalty to the government was rewarded with further office. M. de +Bonfons became deputy of Saumur; and then, dreaming of higher honours, +perhaps a peerage, he died. + +M. de Bonfons always respected his wife's request that they should live +apart; with remarkable cunning he had drafted the marriage contract, in +which, "In case there was no issue of the marriage, husband and wife +bequeathed to each other all their property, without exception or +reservation." Death disappointed his schemes. Mme. de Bonfons was left a +widow three years after marriage, with an income of 800,000 livres. + +She is a beautiful woman still, but pale and sorrowful. In spite of her +income she lives on in the old house, and cold and sunless it bears a +likeness to her own life. Spending little on herself, Mme. de Bonfons +gives away large sums in succouring the unfortunate; but she is very +lonely--without husband, children, or kindred. She dwells in the world, +but is not of it. + + * * * * * + + +Old Goriot + + "Old Goriot," or, to give it its French title, "Le Père + Goriot," is one of the series of novels to which Balzac gave + the title of "The Comedy of Human Life." It is a comedy, + mingled with lurid tragic touches, of society in the French + capital in the early decades of the nineteenth century. The + leading character in this story is, of course, Old Goriot, and + the passion which dominates him is that of paternity. In the + picture which Balzac draws of Parisian life, from the sordid + boarding-house to the luxurious mansions of the gilded + aristocracy in the days of the Bourbon Restoration, the author + exhibits that tendency to over-description for which he was + criticised by his contemporaries, and to dwell too much on + petty details. It may be urged, however, that it is the + cumulative effect of these minute touches that is necessary + for the true realisation of character. + + +_I.--In a Paris Boarding-House_ + + +Madame Vauquer, née Conflans, is an elderly lady who for forty years +past has kept a Parisian middle-class boarding-house, situated in the +Rue Neuve Sainte-Geneviève, between the Latin Quarter and the Faubourg +Saint Marcel. This pension, known under the name of the Maison Vauquer, +receives men as well as women--young men and old; but hitherto scandal +has never attacked the moral principles on which the respectable +establishment has been conducted. Moreover, for more than thirty years, +no young woman has been seen in the house; and if any young man ever +lived there, it was because his family were able to make him only a very +slender allowance. Nevertheless, in 1819, the date at which this drama +begins, a poor young girl was found there. + +The Maison Vauquer is of three stories, with attic chambers, and a tiny +garden at the back. The ground floor consists of a parlour lighted by +two windows looking upon the street. Nothing could be more depressing +than this chamber, which is used as the sitting-room. It is furnished +with chairs, the seats of which are covered with strips of alternate +dull and shining horsehair stuff, while in the centre is a round table +with a marble top. The room exhales a smell for which there is no name, +in any language, except that of _odour de pension_. And yet, if you +compare it with the dining-room which adjoins, you will find the +sitting-room as elegant and as perfumed as a lady's boudoir. There +misery reigns without a redeeming touch of poesie--poverty, penetrating, +concentrated, rasping. This room appears at its best when at seven in +the morning Madame Vauquer, preceded by her cat, enters it from her +sleeping chamber. She wears a tulle cap, under which hangs awry a front +of false hair; her gaping slippers flop as she walks across the room. +Her features are oldish and flabby; from their midst springs a nose like +the beak of a parrot. Her small fat hands, her person plump as a church +rat, her bust too full and tremulous, are all in harmony with the room. +About fifty years of age, Madame Vauquer looks as most women do who say +that they have had misfortunes. + +At the date when this story opens there were seven boarders in the +house. The first floor contained the two best suites of rooms. Madame +Vauquer occupied the small, and the other was let to Madame Couture, the +widow of a paymaster in the army of the French Republic. She had with +her a very young girl, named Victorine Taillefer. On the second floor, +one apartment was tenanted by an old gentleman named Poiret; the other +by a man of about forty years of age, who wore a black wig, dyed his +whiskers, gave out that he was a retired merchant, and called himself +Monsieur Vautrin. The third story was divided into four single rooms, of +which one was occupied by an old maid named Mademoiselle Michonneau, and +another by an aged manufacturer of vermicelli, who allowed himself to be +called "Old Goriot." The two remaining rooms were allotted to a medical +student known as Bianchon, and to a law student named Eugène de +Rastignac. Above the third story were a loft where linen was dried, and +two attic rooms, in one of which slept the man of all work, Christophe, +and in the other the fat cook, Sylvie. + +The desolate aspect of the interior of the establishment repeated itself +in the shabby attire of the boarders. Mademoiselle Michonneau protected +her weak eyes with a shabby green silk shade mounted on brass wire, +which would have scared the Angel of Pity. Although the play of passions +had ravished her features, she retained certain traces of a fine +complexion, which suggested that the figure conserved some fragments of +beauty. Poiret was a human automaton, who had earned a pension by +mechanical labour as a government functionary. + +Mademoiselle Victorine Taillefer was of a sickly paleness, like a girl +in feeble health; but her grey-black eyes expressed the sweetness and +resignation of a Christian. Her dress, simple and cheap, betrayed her +youthful form. Happy, she might have been beautiful, for happiness +imparts a poetic charm to women, as dress is the artifice of it. If love +had ever given sparkle to her eyes, Victorine would have been able to +hold her own with the fairest of her compeers. Her father believed he +had reason to doubt his paternity, though she loved him with passionate +tenderness; and after making her a yearly allowance of six hundred +francs, he disinherited her in favour of his only son, who was to be the +sole successor to his millions. Madame Couture was a distant relation of +Victorine's mother, who had died in her arms, and she had brought up the +orphan as her own daughter in a strictly pious fashion, taking her with +rigid regularity to mass and confession. + +Eugène de Rastignac, the eldest son of a poor baron of Angoulême, was a +characteristic son of the South. His complexion was clear, hair black, +eyes blue. His figure, manner, and habitual poses proved that he was a +scion of a noble family, and that his early education had been based on +aristocratic traditions. The connecting link between these two +individuals and the other boarders was Vautrin--the man of forty, with +the dyed whiskers. He was one of that sort of men who are familiarly +described as "jolly good fellows." His face, furrowed with premature +wrinkles, showed signs of hardness which belied his insinuating address. +He was invariably obliging, with a breezy cheerfulness, though at times +there was a steely expression in the eyes which inspired his +fellow-boarders with a sense of fear. He knew or guessed the affairs of +everybody in the house, but no one could divine his real business or his +most inmost thoughts. + + +_II.--The Beginnings of the Tragedy_ + + +Such a household ought to offer, and did present in miniature, the +elements of a complete society. Among the inmates there was, as in the +world at large, one poor discouraged creature--a butt on whom mocking +pleasantries were rained. This patient sufferer was the old vermicelli +maker, Goriot. Six years before, he had come to live at the Maison +Vauquer, having, so he said, retired from business. He dressed +handsomely, wore a gold watch, with thick gold chain and seals, +flourished a gold snuff-box, and, when Madame Vauquer insinuated that he +was a gallant, he smiled with the complacency of vanity tickled. Among +the china and silver articles with which he decorated his sitting-room +were a dish and porringer, on the cover of which were figures +representing two doves billing and cooing. + +"That," said Goriot, "is the present which my wife made to me on the +first anniversary of our wedding-day. Poor dear, she bought it with the +little savings she hoarded before our marriage. Look you, madame, I +would rather scratch the ground with my nails for a living than part +with that porringer. God be praised, however, I shall be able to drink +my coffee out of this dish every morning during the rest of my days. I +cannot complain. I have on the shelf, as the saying is, plenty of baked +bread for a long time to come." + +At the close of his first year Goriot began to practise little +economies; at the end of the second he removed his rooms to the second +floor, and did without a fire all the winter. This although, as Madame +Vauquer's prying eyes had seen, Goriot's name appeared in the list of +state funds for a sum representing an income of from eight to ten +thousand francs. Henceforth she denounced him to the other paying-guests +as an unprincipled old libertine, who lavished his enormous income from +the funds on unknown youthful charmers. The boarders agreed; and when +two young ladies in the most fashionable and costly attire visited him +in succession in a semi-stealthy manner, their suspicions, as they +believed, were confirmed. On one occasion, Sylvie followed Old Goriot +and his beautiful visitor to a side street, and saw that there was a +splendid carriage waiting and that she got into it. When challenged upon +the point, the old man meekly declared that they were his daughters, +though he never disclosed that their occasional visits were paid only to +wheedle money from him. + +The years passed, and with the gentleness of a broken spirit, beaten +down to the docility of misery, Goriot curtailed his personal expenses, +and again removed his lodgings; this time to the third floor. His dress +turned shabbier; with each ascending grade his diamonds, gold snuff-box, +and jewels disappeared. He grew thinner in person; his face, which had +once the beaming roundness of a well-to-do middle-class gentleman, +became furrowed with wrinkles. Lines appeared in his forehead, his jaws +grew gaunt and sharp; and at the end of the fourth year he bore no +longer the likeness of his former self. He was now a wan, worn-out +septuagenarian--stupid, vacillating. + +Eugène de Rastignac had ambitions, not only to win distinction as a +lawyer, but also to play a part in the aristocratic society of Paris. He +observed the influence which women exert upon society; and at his +suggestion his aunt, Madame de Marcillac, who lived with his father in +the old family château near Angoulême, and who had been at court in the +days before the French Revolution, wrote to one of her great relatives, +the Viscomtesse de Beauséant, one of the queens of Parisian society, +asking her to give kindly recognition to her nephew. On the strength of +that letter Eugène was invited to a ball at the mansion of the +viscomtesse in the Faubourg Saint-Germain. The viscomtesse became +interested in him, especially as she was suffering from the desertion of +the Marquis d'Ajuda-Pinto, a Portuguese nobleman who had been long her +lover, and stood sponsor for him in society. At the Faubourg, Eugène met +the Duchesse de Langeais, from whom he learned the history of Old +Goriot. + +"During the Revolution," said the duchesse, "Goriot was a flour and +vermicelli merchant, and, being president of his section, was behind the +scenes. When a great scarcity of food was at hand he made his fortune by +selling his goods for ten times what they cost him. He had but one +passion; he loved his daughters, and by endowing each of them with a dot +of eight hundred thousand francs, he married the eldest, Anastasie, to +the Count de Restaud, and the youngest, Delphine, to the Baron de +Nucingen, a rich German financier. During the Empire, his daughters +sometimes asked their father to visit them; but after the Restoration +the old man became an annoyance to his sons-in-law. He saw that his +daughters were ashamed of him; he made the sacrifice which only a father +can, and banished himself from their homes. There is," continued the +duchesse, "something in these Goriot sisters even more shocking than +their neglect of their father, for whose death they wish. I mean their +rivalry to each other. Restaud is of ancient family; his wife has been +adopted by his relatives and presented at court. But the rich sister, +the beautiful Madame Delphine de Nucingen, is dying with envy, the +victim of jealousy. She is a hundred leagues lower in society than her +sister. They renounce each other as they both renounced their father. +Madame de Nucingen would lap up all the mud between the Rue Saint-Lazare +and the Rue de Crenelle to gain admission to my salon." What the +duchesse did not reveal was that Anastasie had a lover, Count Maxime de +Trailles, a gambler and a duellist. To pay the gambling losses of this +unscrupulous lover, to the extent of two hundred thousand francs, the +Countess de Restaud induced Old Goriot to sell out of the funds nearly +all that remained of his great fortune, and give the proceeds to her. + +Returning to his lodgings from a ball in the Faubourg Saint-Germain, +Eugène saw a light in Goriot's room; and, without being noticed, watched +the old man laboriously twisting two pieces of silver plate--his +precious dish and porringer--into one lump. + +"He must be mad," thought the student. + +"The poor child!" groaned Goriot. + +The next morning Goriot visited a silversmith, and the Countess de +Restaud received the money to redeem a note of hand which she had given +to a moneylender on behalf of her lover. + +"Old Goriot is sublime," muttered Eugène when he heard of the +transaction. + +Delphine de Nucingen also had an admirer, Count de Marsay, through whose +influence she expected to be introduced into the exclusive aristocratic +society to which even the great wealth of her husband and his German +patent of nobility could not secure an entry. Apart from her social +aspirations, Delphine was personally extravagant; and as the baron was +miserly and only gave her a very scanty allowance, she visited the +gambling dens of the Palais Royale to try and raise the money which she +could no longer coax from her old father. + + +_III.--A Temptation and a Murder_ + + +To be young, to thirst after a position in the world of fashion, to +hunger for the smiles of beautiful women, to obtain an entry into the +salons of the Faubourg, meant to Rastignac large expenditure. He wrote +home asking for a loan of twelve hundred francs, which, he said, he must +have at all costs. The Viscomtesse de Beauséant had taken him under her +protection, and he was in a situation to make an immediate fortune. He +must go into society, but had not a penny even to buy gloves. The loan +would be returned tenfold. + +The mother sold her jewels, the aunt her old laces, his sisters +sacrificed their economies, and the twelve hundred francs were sent to +Eugène. With this sum he launched into the gay life of a man of fashion, +dressed extravagantly, and gambled recklessly. One day Vautrin arrived +in high spirits, surprising Eugène conversing with Victorine. This was +Vautrin's opportunity, for which he had been preparing. When Victorine +retired, Vautrin pointed out how impossible it was to maintain a +position in society as a law student, and if Eugène wished to get on +quickly he must either be rich, or make believe to be so. + +"In view of all the circumstances, therefore, I make a proposition to +you," said Vautrin to Eugène, "which I think no man in your position +should refuse. I wish to become a great planter in the Southern States +of America, and need two hundred thousand francs. If I get you a dot of +a million, will you give me two hundred thousand francs? Is twenty per +cent, commission on such a transaction too much? You will secure the +affection of a little wife. A few weeks after marriage you will seem +distracted. Some night, between kisses, you can own a debt of two +hundred thousand francs, and ask your darling to pay it. The farce is +acted every day by young men of good family, and no amorous young wife +will refuse the money to the man she adores. Moreover, you will not lose +the money; you will easily get it back by judicious speculation!" + +"But where can I find such a girl?" said Eugène. + +"She is here, close at hand." + +"Mademoiselle Victorine?" + +"Precisely!" + +"But how can that be?" + +"She loves you; already she thinks herself the little Baroness de +Rastignac." + +"She has not a penny!" cried Eugène in amazement. + +"Ah, now we are coming to the point," said Vautrin. + +Thereupon, Vautrin insinuated that if papa Taillefer lost his son +through the interposition of a wise Providence, he would take back his +pretty and amiable daughter, who would inherit his millions. To this end +he, Vautrin, frankly volunteered to play the part of destiny. He had a +friend, a colonel in the army of the Loire, who would pick a quarrel +with Frederic, the young blackguard son who had never sent a five-franc +piece to his poor sister, and then "to the shades"--making a pass as if +with a sword. + +"Silence, monsieur! I will hear no more." + +"As you please, my beautiful boy! I thought you were stronger." + +A few days after this scene, Mademoiselle Michonneau and Poiret were +sitting on a bench in the Jardin des Plantes, when they were accosted by +the chief of the detective force. He told them that the minister of +police believed that a man calling himself Vautrin, who lived with them +in the Maison Vauquer, was an escaped convict from Toulon galleys, +Jacques Collin, but known by the nickname of Trompe-la-Mort, and one of +the most dangerous criminals in all France. In order to obtain certainty +as to the identity of Vautrin with Collin he offered a bribe of three +thousand francs if mademoiselle would administer a potion in his coffee +or wine, which would affect him as if he were stricken with apoplexy. +During his insensibility they could easily discover whether Vautrin had +the convict's brand on his shoulder. The pair accepted the bribe, and +the plot succeeded. Vautrin was identified as Collin and arrested, just +as a messenger came to announce that Frederic Taillefer had been killed +in a duel, and Victorine was carried off with Madame Couture to her +father's home, the sole heir to his millions. When he was being pinioned +to be conveyed back to the galleys, Collin looked upon his late fellow +boarders with fierce scorn. "Are you any better than we convicts are?" +said he. "We have less infamy branded on our shoulders than you have in +your hearts--you flabby members of a gangrened society. There is some +virtue here," exclaimed he, striking his breast. "I have never betrayed +anyone. As for you, you old female Judas," turning to Mademoiselle +Michonneau, "look at these people. They regard me with terror, but their +hearts turn with disgust even to glance at you. Pick up your ill-gotten +gains and begone." As Jacques Collin disappeared from the Maison +Vauquer, and from our story, Sylvie, the fat cook, exclaimed: "Well, he +was a man all the same!" + +Although the way was now clear for Rastignac to marry the enormously +wealthy Victorine, he paid court instead to Delphine, the Baroness de +Nucingen, and dined with her every night. Old Goriot was informed of the +intrigue by the baroness's maid. He did not resent but rather encouraged +the liaison, and spent his last ten thousand francs in furnishing a +suite of apartments for the young couple, on condition that he was to be +allowed to occupy an adjoining room, and see his daughter every day. + + +_IV.--Old Goriot's Death-Bed_ + + +The Viscomtesse de Beauséant was broken-hearted when the marriage of her +lover was accomplished, but to maintain a brave spirit in the face of +society she gave a farewell ball before retiring to her country estate. +Among those invited was the Countess de Restaud, who ordered a rich +costume for the occasion, which, however, she was unable to pay for. Her +husband, the count, insisted on her appearing at the ball and wearing +the family diamonds, which she had pawned to discharge her lover's +gambling debts, and which had been redeemed to save the family honour. +Anastasie sent her maid to Old Goriot, who rose from a sick-bed, sold +his last forks and spoons for six hundred francs, pledged his annuity +for four hundred francs, and so raised a thousand, which enabled +Anastasie to obtain the gown and shine at the ball. Through Rastignac's +influence, Delphine, Baroness de Nucingen, received from the viscomtesse +a ticket for the dance, and insisted on going, as Rastignac declared +"even over the dead body of her father," to challenge her sister's +social precedence at the supreme society function. The ball was the most +brilliant of the Parisian season. Both Goriot's daughters satisfied +their selfish ambitions and gave never a thought to their old parent in +the wretched Maison Vauquer. + +For Old Goriot was sick unto death. His garret was bare; the walls +dripped with moisture; the floor was damp; the bed was comfortless, and +the few faggots which made the handful of fire had been bought only by +the money got from pawning Eugène's watch. Christophe, the man servant, +was sent by Rastignac to tell the daughters of their father's condition. + +"Tell them that I am not very well," said Old Goriot; "that I should +like to see them, to kiss them before I die." + +By and by, when the messenger had gone, the old man said: "I don't want +to die. To die, my good Eugène, is--not to see them there, where I am +going. How lonely I shall be! Hell, to a father, is to be without his +children. Tell me, if I go to heaven, can I come back in spirit and +hover near them? You saw them at the ball; they did not know that I was +ill, did they?" + +On the return of the messenger, Old Goriot was told that both his +daughters refused to come and see him. Delphine was too tired and +sleepy; Anastasie was discussing with her husband the future disposition +of her marriage portion. Then alternately Goriot blamed his daughters +and pardoned their unfilial and selfish behaviour. + +"My daughters were my vice--my mistresses. Oh, they will come! Come, my +darlings! A kiss, a last kiss, the viaticum of your father! I am justly +punished; my children were good, and I have spoiled them; on my head be +their sins. I alone am guilty; but guilty through love." Eugène tried to +soothe the old man by saying that he would go himself to fetch his +daughters; but Goriot kept muttering in his semi-delirium. "Here, Nasie! +here Delphine, come to your father who has been so good to you, and who +is dying! Are they coming? No? Am I to die like a dog? This is my +reward; forsaken, abandoned! They are wicked; they are criminal. I hate +them. I will rise from my coffin to curse them. Oh, this is horrible! +Ah, it is my sons-in-law who keep them away from me!" + +"My good Old Goriot," said Eugène, "be calm." + +"Not to see them--it is the agony of death!" + +"You shall see them." + +"Ah! my angels!" + +And with these feeble words, Old Goriot sank back on the pillow and +breathed his last. + +Anastasie did come to the death-chamber, but too late. "I could not +escape soon enough," she said to Rastignac. The student smiled sadly, +and Madame de Restaud took her father's hand and kissed it, saying, +"Forgive me, my father." + +Goriot had a pauper's funeral. The aristocratic sons-in-law refused to +pay the expenses of the burial. These were scraped together with +difficulty by Eugène de Rastignac, the law student, and Bianchon, the +medical student, who had nursed him with loving tenderness to the last. +At the graveside in Père Lachaise, Eugène and Christophe were the only +mourners; Bianchon's duties detained him at the hospital. When the body +of Old Goriot was lowered into the earth, the clergy recited a short +prayer--all that could be given for the student's money. The pall of +night was falling; the mist struck a chill on Eugène's nerves, and when +he took a last glance at the shell containing all that was mortal of his +old friend, he buried the last tear of his young manhood--a tear drawn +by a sacred emotion from a pure heart. + +Eugène wandered to the most elevated part of the cemetery, whence he +surveyed that portion of the city between the Place Vendome and the dome +of the Invalides, where lives that world of fashion which he had +hungered to penetrate. With bitterness he muttered: "Now there is +relentless war between us." And as the first act of defiance which he +had sworn against society, Rastignac went to dine with Madame Nucingen! + + * * * * * + + + + +The Magic Skin + + In no other work is the special quality of Balzac's genius + displayed so completely as in "La Peau de Chagrin," which we + render as "The Magic Skin." Published in 1831, it is the + earliest in date of his veritable masterpieces, and the finest + in conception. There is no novel more soberly true to life + than this strange fairy tale. His hero, the Marquis de + Valentin, is a young aristocrat of the Byronic type. He + rejects the simple joys and stern realities of human + existence; he wants more than life can give. He gets what he + wants. He obtains a magic skin which enables him to fulfil his + every wish. But in so doing he uses up his vital powers. Such + is the idea which makes this fantastic story a profound + philosophical study. + + +_I.--The Seal of Solomon_ + + +On a dull morning towards the end of October, 1830, a tall, pale, and +rather handsome young man came to the Pont Royal, and leaned over the +bridge, and gazed with wild and yet resolute eyes at the swirling waters +below. Just as he was preparing to leap down, a ragged old woman passed +by. + +"Wretched weather for drowning oneself, isn't it?" she said, with a +grin. "How cold and dirty the Seine looks!" + +The young man turned and smiled at her in the delirium of his courage. +Then, suddenly he shuddered. On a shed by the Tuileries he saw, written +in large letters: "Help for the drowned." He foresaw the whole thing. A +boat would put off to the rescue. If the rowers did not smash his skull +in with their oars as he came to the surface, he would be taken to the +shed and revived. If he were dead, a crowd would collect, newspaper men +would come; his body would be recognised; and the Press would publish +the news of the suicide of Raphael de Valentin. No! He would wait till +nightfall, and then in a decent, private manner bequeath an +unrecognizable corpse to a world that had disregarded his genius. + +With the air of a wealthy man of leisure sauntering about the streets to +kill time, the young marquis strolled down the Quai Voltaire, and +followed the line of shops, looking listlessly at every window. But as +he thought of the fate awaiting him at nightfall, men and houses swam in +a mist before his eyes. To recover himself he entered a curiosity shop. +"If you care to go through our galleries," said the red-haired shop-boy, +"you will find something worth looking at." + +Raphael climbed up a dark staircase lined with mummies, Indian idols, +stuffed crocodiles, and goggle-eyed monsters. They all seemed to grin at +him as he passed. Haunted by these strange shapes belonging to the +borderland between life and death, he walked in a kind of dream through +a series of long, dimly lighted galleries, in which was piled, in mad +confusion, the work of every age and every clime. Here was a lovely +statue by Michael Angelo, from which dangled the scalp of a Red Indian. +There, cold and impassive, was the lord of the ancient world, the +Emperor Augustus, with a modern air-pump sticking in his eye. The walls +were hung with priceless pictures, which were half-hidden by grimacing +skeletons, rude wooden idols with horrible features, tall suits of +gleaming armour, and figures of Egyptian deities, with the bodies of men +and heads of animals. The place was a kitchen of all the arts and +religions and interests of mankind. + +This extraordinary confusion was rendered still more bizarre by the dim +cross-lights that played upon everything. Raphael's eyes grew weary with +gazing, and his mind was oppressed by the spectacle of the ruined +splendours of thousands of years of human life. A fever born of hunger +and exhaustion possessed him. The pictures appeared to light up, the +statues seemed to move. Everything danced and swayed around him. Then a +horrible Chinese monster advanced upon him with menacing eyes from the +other side of the room, and he swooned away in terror. + +When he came to, his eyes were dazzled by a flood or radiance streaming +from a circle of crimson light. Before him, holding a bright red lamp, +was a frail, white-haired, extraordinary man, clad in a long robe of +black velvet. His body was wasted by extreme old age. His skin was like +wrinkled parchment, and his lips were so thin and colourless that it was +hardly possible to discern on his ivory-white face the line made by his +mouth. But his eyes were marvellous. They were calm, clear and +searching, and they glowed with the light and freshness of youth. + +"So you have been looking over my collection," the old man said. "Do you +wish to buy anything?" + +"Buy?" said Raphael, with a strange smile. "I am utterly penniless. I +have been examining your treasures just to while away the time till I +could drown myself quietly and secretly at night. You will not grudge +this last pleasure to a poet and man of learning, will you?" + +"Penniless?" said the old man. "But you do not want to die because you +are penniless! A young, handsome, intellectual lad like you could pick +up a living somehow. What is it? Some woman, eh? Now let me help----" + +"I want no help or advice or consolation," said Raphael furiously. + +"And I will give you none," said the old man. "But as you are resolved +to die, will you do something for me. I want to get rid of this." + +He held the lamp up the wall, and showed Raphael a piece of very old +shagreen, about the size of a fox's skin. + +"Ah!" said Raphael. "A wild ass's skin engraved with Sanscrit +characters. Why, here's the mark that some of the Eastern races call the +Seal of Solomon!" + +"You are truly a man of learning," said the strange old merchant, his +breath coming in quick pants through his nostrils. "No doubt you can +read the inscription." + +"I should translate it thus," said Raphael, fixing his eyes upon the +skin. + + POSSESSING ME THOU POSSESSEST EVERYTHING. YET I + POSSESS THEE. SO GOD HAS WILLED IT. WISH, AND + THY WISHES SHALL BE ACCOMPLISHED. BUT MEASURE + THE WISHES ACCORDING TO THY LIFE. HERE + IT IS. I SHALL SHRINK WITH EACH WISH, AND + SO SHALL THY LIFE, WILT THOU TAKE ME? + TAKE ME! GOD WILL HEAR THEE. AMEN. + +"Is it a joke or a mystery?" + +"I do not know," said the old man. "I have offered the magic skin to +many men. They laughed at it; but none would take it. I am like them. I +doubt its power, but will not put it to the test." + +"What!" said Raphael. "You have never formed a wish all the time you had +it?" + +"No!" said the old man. "I have discovered the great secret of human +life. Look! I am a hundred and two years old. Do you know why men die? +Because they use up the energy of life by wishing to do things and doing +them. I am content to know things. My days have been spent wandering +quietly over all the earth in the calm acquisition of knowledge. All +desire, all lust after power are dead within me. So this skin, which I +picked up in India, has never shrunk an inch since it came into my +possession." + +"You have never lived!" cried Raphael, turning from the old man, and +seizing the skin. "Yes, I will take you. Now for a test. I am starving. +Set before me a splendid banquet. Let me have as guests all the wildest, +gayest, wittiest minds of young France. And women? Oh, the prettiest, +wickedest women of the town! Wine, wit and women!" + +A roar of laughter came from the old man. It resounded in the ears of +Raphael like the laughter of a fiend from hell. + +"Do you think my floors are going to open, and tables, waiters, and +guests pop up before your eyes?" he said. "No! Your first wish is mean +and vulgar; but it will be fulfilled in a natural manner. You wanted to +die, eh? Your suicide is only postponed." + +Raphael put the skin in his pocket, and abruptly left, saying, "You have +never lived. I wish you knew what love was." + +He heard the old man groan strangely, but without listening to his +reproaches he rushed out of the shop, and in the street ran full tilt up +against three young men. + +"Brute! Ass! Idiot! Why, it's Raphael!" they cried. "You must come. Talk +about a Roman orgy I We've been all over Paris looking, for you. A +gorgeous feed. And all the girls from the Opera! The ancient Romans +aren't in it." + +"One at a time," said Raphael. "Now, Emile, just tell me what are you +all shouting about?" + +"Do you know Taillefer, the wealthy banker?" said Emile. "He is founding +a newspaper. All the talent of young France is to be enlisted. You're +invited to the inaugural festival to-night at the Rue Joubert. The +ballot girls of the Opera are coming. Oh, Taillefer's doing the thing in +style!" + +Arm linked in arm, the four friends made their way to Taillefer's +mansion, and there, in a large room brilliantly set out, they were +welcomed by all the younger men of note in Paris. For some time Raphael +felt ill at ease. He was surprised by the natural manner in which his +wish had suddenly been accomplished. He took the magic skin out of his +pocket, and looked at it. Magic? What man could believe nowadays in +magic? But, nevertheless, he marvelled at the accidents of human life. + + +_II--A Fight Against Fate_ + + +Although the banquet which he had desired was now set before him, +Raphael was still very moody. Deaf to the loud, wild merriment of his +companions, he thought sadly of the misfortune which had driven him that +morning to the brink of the grave. Many noblemen find it difficult to +exist in Paris on an income of several thousand pounds. The young +Marquis de Valentin had lived there very happily on £12 a year. In 1826, +his father, who had lost his wealth and lands in the Revolution, had +died, leaving him £40. Taking a garret in the Rue des Cordiers, he had +set about earning his living with his pen, and for three years he had +laboured at a great work on "The Theory of the Will." He never went into +society, but found a pleasant distraction from his studies in educating +the daughter of his landlady. + +Pauline Gaudin was a charming and beautiful child; her father, a baron +of the empire, and an officer in the Grand Army, had been taken prisoner +by the Russians in 1812, and never heard of since. Raphael was moved by +the grace and innocence of the lovely human flower, that grew from a bud +into an opening blossom under his care. But as he was too poor to marry +her, he never made love to her. + +Then, in January, 1830, he met the Countess Foedora, a brilliant, +wealthy woman of society, widowed at the age of thirty, and eager to +shine and astonish and captivate. For her sake, Raphael had put aside +his scholarly studies and engaged in money-making hack-work. But after +keeping him dangling about her for some months, she had cast him off, +and in his misery he had resolved to end his life. Now he had got the +magic skin. What if it were true what the strange old man had said? +Should he wish to win the heart of Foedora? No! She was a woman without +a heart. He would have nothing to do with women. Still, this skin! + +"Measure it! Measure it!" he cried, flinging it down on the table. + +"Measure what?" said Emile. "Has Taillefer's wine got into your head +already?" + +Raphael told them of the curiosity shop. + +"That can be easily tested," said Emile, taking the skin and drawing its +outline on a napkin. "Now wish, and see if it shrinks." + +"I wish for six million pounds!" said Raphael. + +"Hurrah!" said Emile. "And while you're about it make us all +millionaires." + +Taillefer's notary, Cardot, who had been gazing at Raphael during the +dinner, walked across the room to him. + +"My dear marquis," he said, "I've been looking for you all the evening. +Wasn't your mother a Miss O'Flaharty?" + +"Yes, she was," said Raphael--"Barbara O'Flaharty." + +"Well, you are the sole heir of Major O'Flaharty, who died last August +at Calcutta, leaving a fortune of six millions." + +"An incalculable fortune," said Emile. Raphael spread out the skin upon +the napkin. He shuddered violently on seeing a slight margin between the +pencil-line on the napkin and the edge of the skin. + +"What's the matter?" said the notary. "He has got a fortune very +cheaply." + +"Hold him up," said some one. "The joy will kill him." + +A ghostly whiteness spread over the face of the happy heir. He had seen +Death! He stared at the shrunken skin and the merciless outline on the +napkin, and a feeling of horror came over him. The whole world was his; +he could have all things. But at what a cost! + +"Do you wish for some asparagus, sir?" said, a waiter. + +"_I wish for nothing!_" shrieked Raphael. And he fled from the banquet. + +"So," he said, when he was at last alone, "in this enlightened age, when +science has stripped the very stars of their secrets, here am I +frightened out of my senses by an old piece of wild ass's skin. +To-morrow I will have it examined by Planchette, and put an end to this +mad fancy." + +Planchette, the celebrated professor of mechanics, treated the thing as +a joke. + +"Come with me to Spieghalter," he said. "He has just built a new kind of +hydraulic press which I designed." + +Arrived there, Planchette asked Spieghalter to stretch the magic skin. +"Our friend," he said, "doubts if we can do it." + +"You see this crank?" said Spieghalter to Raphael, pointing to the new +press. "Seven turns to it, and a solid steel bar would break into +thousands of pieces." + +"The very thing I want," said Raphael. + +Planchette put the skin between the metal plates, and, proud of his new +invention, he energetically twisted the crank. + +"Lie flat all of you!" shouted Spieghalter. "We're dead men." + +There was an explosion, and a jet of water spurted out with terrific +force. Falling on a furnace it twisted up the mass of iron as if it had +been paper. The hydraulic chamber of the press had given way. + +"The skin is untouched," said Planchette. "There was a flaw in the +press." + +"No, no!" said Spieghalter. "My press was as sound as a bell. The +devil's in your skin, sir. Take it away!" + +Spieghalter seized the talisman, and flung it on an anvil, and furiously +belaboured it with a heavy sledgehammer. He then pitched it in a +furnace, and ordered his workmen to blow the coal into a fierce white +heat. At the end of ten minutes he drew it out with a pair of tongs +uninjured. With a cry of horror the workmen fled from the foundry. + +"I now believe in the devil," said Spieghalter. + +"And I believe in God," said Planchette. + +Raphael departed in a hard, bitter rage. He was resolved to fight like a +man against his strange fate. He would follow the example of the former +owner of the magic skin, and give himself up to study and meditation, +and live his life in the tranquil acquisition of knowledge, undisturbed +by passion and desire, and lust for power, and dominion and glory. On +receiving his vast inheritance, he bought a mansion in the Rue de +Varenne, and engaged a crowd of intelligent, quiet servants to wait upon +him. + +But his first care had been to seek out his foster-father, Jonathan, the +old and devoted servitor of his family. To him he confided his dreadful +secret. + +"You must stand between the world and me, Jonathan," he said. "Treat me +as a baby. Never ask me for orders. See that the servants feed me, and +tend me, and care for me in absolute silence. Above all things, never +let anyone pester me. Never let me form a wish of any kind." + +For some months, the eccentric Marquis de Valentin was the talk of +Paris. He lived in monastic silence and seclusion, and Jonathan never +permitted any of his friends to enter the mansion. But one morning his +old tutor, Porriquet, called, and Jonathan thought he might cheer his +young master. He could not ask Raphael: "Do you wish to see M. +Porriquet?" But after some thought he found a way of putting the +question: "M. Porriquet is here, my lord. Do you think he ought to +enter?" + +Raphael nodded. Porriquet was alarmed at the appearance of his pupil. He +looked like a plant bleached by darkness. The fact was, Raphael had +surrendered every right in life in order to live. He had despoiled his +soul of all the romance that lies in a wish. The better to struggle with +the cruel power that he had challenged, he had stifled his imagination. +He did not allow himself even the pleasures of fancy, lest they should +awaken some desire. He had become an automaton. + +Porriquet, unfortunately, was now an irritating old proser. He had +failed in life and wanted to air all his grievances. At the end of five +minutes' talk Raphael was about to wish that he would depart, when he +caught sight of the magic skin hanging in a frame, with a red line drawn +around it. Suppressing, with a shudder, his secret desire, he patiently +bore with the old man's prolixity. Porriquet wanted very much to ask him +for money, but did not like to do so, and after complaining for quite an +hour or more about things in general, he rose to depart. + +"Perhaps," he said, as he turned to leave the room, "I shall hear of a +headmastership of a good school." + +"The very thing for you!" said Raphael. "I _wish_ you could get it." + +Then, with a sudden cry, he looked at the frame. There was a thin white +edge between the skin and the red line. + +"Go, you fool!" he shouted. "I have made you a headmaster. Why didn't +you ask me for an annuity of a thousand pounds instead of using up ten +years of my life on a silly wish? I could have won Foedora at the price! +Conquered a kingdom!" + +His lips were covered with froth, and there was a savage light in his +eyes. Porriquet fled in terror. Then Raphael fell back in a chair, and +wept. + +"Oh, my precious life!" he sobbed. "No more kindly thoughts! No more +friendship!" + + +_III.--The Agony of Death_ + + +Raphael's condition had by now become so critical that a trip to Savoy +was advised, and a few weeks later he was at Aix. One day, moving among +the crowd of pleasure-seekers and invalids, a number of young men +deliberately picked a quarrel with him, with the result that from one of +them he received a challenge to fight a duel. Raphael did his utmost to +persuade the other to apologise, even going to the extent of informing +him of the terrible powers he possessed. Failing in his object, the +fatal morning came round, and the unfortunate individual was shot +through the heart. Not heeding the fallen man, Raphael hurriedly glanced +at the skin to see what another man's life had cost him. The talisman +had shrunk to the size of a small oak-leaf. + +Seeing that his master was given over to a gloomy despair that verged +upon madness, Jonathan resolved to distract his mind at all costs, and +knowing that he was passionately fond of music, he engaged a box for him +at the Opera. But Raphael was afraid above all things, of falling in +love. Under the illimitable desire of passion the magic skin would +shrivel up in an hour. So he used a strange, distorting opera-glass +which made the loveliest face seem hideous. + +With this he sat in his box, he surveyed the scene around him. Who was +that old man over there, sitting beside a dancing-girl that Raphael had +seen at Taillefer's? The owner of the curiosity shop! He had at last +fallen in love, as Raphael had jestingly desired. No doubt the magic +skin had shrunk under that wish before Raphael had measured it. A +beautiful woman entered the theatre with a peer of France at her side. A +murmur of admiration arose as she took her seat. She smiled at Raphael. +In spite of the distorted image on his opera-glass, Raphael knew her. It +was the Countess Foedora! In a single glance of intolerable scorn the +man she had played false avenged himself. He did not waste an ill-wish +on her. He merely took the glasses from his eyes, and answered her smile +with a look of cold contempt. Everybody observed the sudden pallor of +the countess; it was a public rejection. + +"Raphael!" + +The marquis turned at the sound of a beloved voice. Pauline was sitting +in the box next to his. How beautiful she had grown! How maidenly she +was still! Putting down his opera-glasses, Raphael talked to her of old +times. + +"You must come and see me to-morrow," said Pauline. "I have your great +work on 'The Theory of the Will.' Don't you remember leaving it in the +garret?" + +"I was mad and blind then," said Raphael. "But I am cured at last." + +"I wish Pauline to love me!" he kept repeating to himself all the way +home. "I wish Pauline to love me!" + +With a strange mixture of wild anguish and fierce joy, he looked at the +magic skin to see what this vehement wish had cost him. Nothing! Not a +sign of shrinkage could be discerned. The fact was that even the +greatest talisman could not realise a desire which had long since been +fulfilled. Pauline had loved Raphael from the time when they first met; +while he had been priding himself on living on twelve pounds a year, she +had been painting screens up to two or three o'clock every night, in +order to buy him food and firing. + +"Oh, my simple-minded darling," she said to him the next day, sitting on +his lap and twining her arms about his neck, "you will never know what a +pleasure it was for me to pay my handsome tutor for all his kindness. +And wasn't I cunning? You never found me out." + +"But I've found out now," said Raphael, "and I am going to punish you +severely. Instead of marrying you in three months' time, as you suggest, +I shall marry you at the end of this week." + +Raphael was now the happiest man in Paris. Seeing that the magic skin +had not shrunk with his last wish, he thought that the spell over his +life was removed. And that morning he had thrown the talisman down a +disused well in the garden. + +At the end of the week, Pauline was sitting at breakfast with Raphael in +the conservatory overlooking the garden. She was wearing a light +dressing-gown; her long hair was all dishevelled, and her little, white, +blue-veined feet peeped out of their velvet slippers. She gave a little +cry of dismay, when the gardener appeared. + +"I've just found this strange thing at the bottom of one of the wells," +he said. + +He gave Raphael the magic skin. It was now scarcely as large as a rose +leaf. + +"Leave me, Pauline! Leave me at once!" cried Raphael. "If you remain I +shall die before your eyes." + +"Die?" she said. "Die? You cannot. I love you--I love you!" + +"Yes, die!" he exclaimed, showing her the little bit of skin. "Look, +dearest. This is a talisman which represents the length of my life, and +accomplishes my wishes. You see how little is left." + +Pauline thought he had suddenly grown mad. She bent over him, and took +up the magic skin. As Raphael saw her, beautiful with love and terror, +he lost all control over his desires. To possess her again, and die on +her breast! + +"Come to me Pauline!" he said. + +She felt the skin tickling her hand as it rapidly shrivelled up. She +rushed into the bedroom, and closed the door. + +"Pauline! Pauline!" cried the dying man, stumbling after her. "I love +you! I want you! I wish to die for you!" + +With extraordinary strength--the last outburst of life--he tore the door +off the hinges, and saw Pauline in agony on a sofa. She had stabbed +herself. + +"If I die, he will live!" she was crying. + +Raphael staggered across the room, and fell into the arms of beautiful +Pauline, dead. + + * * * * * + + + + +The Quest of the Absolute + + "La Recherche de l'Absolu" was published in 1834, with a + touching dedication to Madame Josephine Delannoy: "Madame, may + it please God that this, my book, may live when I am dead, + that the gratitude which is due from me to you, and which + equals, I trust, your motherlike generosity to me, may hope to + endure beyond the limits set to human love." The novel became + a part of the "Human Comedy" in 1845. The struggle of + Balthazar Claes in his quest for the Absolute, his disregard + of all else save his work, and the heroic devotion of + Josephine and Marguerite, are characteristic features of + Balzac's art; the sordidness of life and the mad passion for + the unattainable are admirably relieved, as in "Eugénie + Grandet" and "Old Goriot," by a certain nobility and purity of + motive. The novel is generally acknowledged one of Balzac's + masterpieces, both in vigour of portraiture and minuteness of + detail. Perhaps no one was ever better fitted to depict the + ruin wrought by a fixed idea than Balzac himself, who wasted + much of his laborious life in struggling to discover a short + cut to wealth. + + +_I.--Claes, the Alchemist_ + + +In Douai, situated in the Rue de Paris, there is a house which stands +out from all the rest in the city by reason of its purely Flemish +character. In all its details, this tall and handsome house expresses +the manners of the domesticated people of the Low Countries. The name of +the house for some two centuries has been Maison Claes, after the great +family of craftsmen who occupied it. These Van Claes had amassed +fortunes, played a part in politics, and had suffered many vicissitudes +in the course of history without losing their place in the mighty +bourgeois world of commerce. They were substantial people, princes of +trade. + +At the end of the eighteenth century the representative of this ancient +and affluent family was Balthazar Claes, a tall and handsome young man, +who after some years' residence in Paris, where he saw the fashionable +world and made acquaintance with many of the great savants, including +Lavoisier the chemist, returned to his home in Douai, and set himself to +find a wife. + +It was on a visit to a relation in Ghent that he heard gossip concerning +a young lady living in Brussels, which made him curious to see so +interesting a person. Rumour had two tales to tell of this Mlle. +Josephine Temninck. She was beautiful, but she was deformed. Could +deformity be triumphed over by beauty of face? A relative of Claes +thought that it could, and maintained this opinion against the opposite +camp. This relative spoke of Mlle. Temninck's character, telling how the +sweet girl had surrendered her share of the family estate that her +younger brother might make a great marriage, and how she had quite +resigned herself, even on the threshold of her life, to the idea of +spinsterhood and narrow means. + +Claes sought out this noble soul. He found her inexpressibly beautiful, +and the malformation of one of her shoulders appeared as nothing in his +eyes. He lost his heart to Josephine, and made passionate love to her. +Distracted by such adoration, the beautiful cripple was now lifted to +dizzy heights of joy and now plunged into abysmal depths of despair. She +had deemed herself irreparably plain; in the eyes of a charming young +man, she found herself beautiful. But, could such love endure through +life? To be loved was delicious, but to be deceived after so surprising +a release from solitude would be terrible. + +Conscious of her deformity, intimidated by the future, she became in the +purity of her soul a coquette. She dissimulated her feelings, became +exacting, and hid from her lover the passion of joy which was consuming +her; indeed, she only revealed her true self after marriage had shown +her the steadfast nobility of her husband's character, when she could no +longer doubt of his affection. He loved her with fidelity and ardour. +She realised all his ideals, and no consideration of duty entered into +their passionate affection. She was Spanish, and had the secret of charm +in her variety of attraction; ill-educated though she was, like most +daughters of Spanish noblemen, she was engaging and bewildering in the +force of her own nature and the religion of her absorbing love. In +society she was dull; for her husband alone she was enchanting. No +couple could have been happier. + +They had four children, two boys and two girls; the eldest a girl named +Marguerite. + +Fourteen years after their marriage, in the year 1809, a change appeared +in Balthazar, but so gradually that Mme. Claes did not at first question +it. He became thoughtful, reflective, silent, preoccupied. When +Josephine Claes noticed this change, it was too late for her to ask +questions; she waited for Balthazar to speak. She began to fear. +Balthazar, whose whole heaven had lain in the happiness of the family +life, who had loved to play with his children, to attend to his tulips, +to sun himself in the dark eyes of Josephine, seemed now to forget the +existence of them all. He was indifferent to everything. + +People who questioned her were put off with the brave story that +Balthazar had a great work in hand, which would bring fame one day to +his native town. Josephine's hazard was founded on truth. Workmen had +been engaged for some time in the garret of the house, and there Claes +spent the greater part of his time. But the poor lady was to learn the +full truth from the neighbours she had attempted to hoodwink. They asked +her if she meant to see herself and her children ruined, adding that her +husband was spending a fortune on scientific instruments, machinery, +books, and materials in a search for the Philosopher's Stone. + +Humiliated that the neighbours should know more than she did, and +terrified by the prospect in front of her, Josephine at last spoke to +her husband. + +"My dear," he said, "you would not understand what I am about. I am +studying chemistry, and I am perfectly happy." + +Things went from bad to worse. Claes became more taciturn and more +invisible to his family. He was slovenly in dress and untidy in his +habits. Only his servant Lemulquinier, or Mulquinier, as he was often +called, was allowed to enter the attic and share his master's secrets. +Mme. Claes had a rival. It was science. + +One day she went to the garret, but Claes repulsed her with wrath and +roughness. + +"My experiment is absolutely spoilt," he cried vehemently. "In another +minute I might have resolved nitrogen." + + +_II.--The Riddle of Existence_ + + +Josephine consulted Claes's notary, M. Pierquin, a young man and a +relative of the family. He looked into matters, and found that Claes +owed a hundred thousand francs to a firm of chemists in Paris. He warned +Josephine that ruin was certain if this state of things continued. +Hitherto she had loved husband more than children; now the mother was +roused in her, and for her children's sakes she determined to act. She +had sold her diamonds to provide for the housekeeping, since for six +months Claes had given her nothing; she had sent away the governess; she +had economised in a hundred directions. Now she must act against her +husband. But her children came between her and her true life, since her +true life was Balthazar's. She loved him with a sublime passion which +could sacrifice everything except her children. + +One Sunday, after vespers, in 1812, she sent for her husband, and +awaited him at a window of one of the lower rooms, which looked on the +garden. Tears were in her eyes. As she sat there, suddenly over her head +sounded the footsteps of Claes, making her start. No one could have +heard that slow and dragging step unmoved. One wondered if it were a +living thing. + +He entered the apartment, thin, round-shouldered, with disordered long +hair, his cravat awry, his clothes stained and torn. + +"Are you so absorbed in your work, Balthazar?" said Josephine. "It is +thirty-three Sundays since you have been either to vespers or mass." + +"Vespers?" he questioned, vaguely. Then added: "Ah, the children have +been to church," and walked to the window and looked at the tulips. As +he stood there, he said to himself: "But yes, why shouldn't they combine +in a given time?" + +His poor wife asked herself in despair, "Is he going mad?" Then, rousing +herself, she called him by his name. Without paying heed to her he +coughed and went to one of the spittoons beside the wainscot. + +"Monsieur, I speak to you!" + +"What of that?" he demanded, turning swiftly. She became deadly white. + +"Forgive me, dear," she whispered, and cried: "Ah, this is killing me!" + +Tears in her eyes roused Claes out of his reverie. He took her into his +arms, pushed open a door, and sprang lightly up the staircase. Finding +the door of her apartment locked, he laid her gently in an armchair. + +"Thank you, dear," she murmured. "I have not been so near your heart for +a long time." + +Her loveliness postponed disaster. Enamoured by her beauty, rescued to +humanity, Claes returned for a brief interval to the family life, and +was adorable to his wife, charming to his children. When they were alone +together, Josephine questioned him as to his secret work, telling him +that she had begun to study chemistry in order that she might share his +life. Touched by this devotion, Claes declared his secret. A Polish +officer had come to their house in 1809, and had discussed chemistry +with Claes. The result of the conversations had set Claes to search for +the single element out of which all things are perhaps composed. The +Polish officer had confided certain secrets to him, saying: "You are a +disciple of Lavoisier; you are wealthy, you are free; I will give you my +idea. The Primitive Element must be common to oxygen, hydrogen, +nitrogen, and carbon. Force must be the common principle of positive and +negative electricity. Demonstrate these two hypotheses, and you will +hold in your hands the First Cause, the solution of the great riddle of +existence." + +As Claes rattled away, Josephine suddenly exclaimed, against her will: +"So it was this man, who spent but one night with us, that stole your +love from me and your children! Did he make the Sign of the Cross? Did +you observe him closely? He was Satan! Only the devil could have stolen +you from me. Ever since his visit you have ceased to be father and +husband." + +"Do you rebuke me," Balthazar asked, "for being superior to common men?" + +And he poured out a tale of his achievements. In the height of his +passion for her Josephine had never seen his face so shining with +enthusiasm as it was now. Tears came into her eyes. + +"I have combined chlorine and nitrogen," he rhapsodised; "I have +analysed endless substances. I have analysed tears! Tears are nothing +more than phosphate of lime, chloride of sodium, mucus, and water." + +He ran on till she cried upon him to stop. + +"You horrify me," she said, "with your blasphemies. What my love is----" + +"Spiritualised matter, given off," replied Claes; "the secret, no doubt, +of the Absolute. If I am the first to find it out! Think of it! I will +make metals and diamonds. What Nature does I will do." + +"You trespass on God!" Josephine exclaimed impatiently. "You deny God! +Ah, God has a force which you will never exercise!" + +"What is that?" he demanded. + +"Motion. Analysis is one thing, creation is another," she said. Her +pleadings were successful. Balthazar abandoned his researches, and the +family removed to the country. He was awakened by his wife's love to the +knowledge that he had brought his fortune to the verge of ruin. He +promised to abandon his experiments. As some amends, he threw himself +into preparations for a great ball at the Maison Claes in honour of his +wedding day. The festivity was saddened by the news of disaster to the +Grand Army at Beresina. One of the letters that arrived that day was +from the Polish officer, dying of his wounds, who sent Claes, as a +legacy, some of his ideas for discovering the Absolute. No one danced; +the fête was gloomy; only Marguerite shone like a lovely flower on the +anxious company. When the guests departed, Balthazar showed Josephine +the letter from the Pole. She did everything a woman could do to +distract his thoughts. She made the home life enchanting. She +entertained. She introduced the movement of the world into the great +house. In vain. Her husband's _ennui_ was terrible to behold. "I release +you from your promise," she said to him one day. + +Balthazar returned with Lemulquinier to the attic, and the experiments +began anew. He was quite happy again. + +A year passed; the Absolute was undiscovered. Once more ruin haunted the +state room of the Maison Claes. Josephine's confessor, the Abbé de +Solis, who had sold her jewels, now suggested selling some of the +Flemish pictures. Josephine explained the situation to her husband. + +"What do you think?" he cried. "I am within an ace of finding the +Absolute. I have only to discover--" + +Josephine broke down. She left her husband, and retired downstairs to +her children. The servants were summoned. Madame Claes looked like +death. Everybody was alarmed. Lemulquinier was told to go for the +priest. He said he had monsieur's orders to see to in the laboratory. + + +_III.--The Passing of Josephine_ + + +It was the beginning of the end for Josephine. As she lay dying, she saw +judgment in the eyes of Marguerite--judgment on Balthazar. Her last days +were sorrowed by the thought that the children would condemn their +father. Balthazar came sometimes to sit with her, but he appeared to be +unaware of her situation. He was charming to the younger children, but +he was dead to the true condition of his wife. + +One thing gave her peace. The Abbé de Solis brought his nephew to the +house, and this young man, Emmanuel, who was good and noble, evidently +created a favourable impression on Marguerite. The dying mother watched +the progress of this love story with affectionate satisfaction. It was +all she had to light her way to the grave. Pierquin told her that +Balthazar had ordered him to raise three hundred thousand francs on his +estate. She saw that ruin could not be averted; she lay at death's door, +deserted by the husband she still worshipped, thinking of the children +she had sacrificed. The noble character of Marguerite cheered her last +hours. In that child, she would live on and be a providence to the +family. + +One day she wrote a letter, addressed and sealed it, and showed it to +Marguerite. It was addressed: "To my daughter, Marguerite." She placed +it under her pillow, said she would rest, and presently fell into a deep +slumber. When she awoke, all her children were kneeling round her in +prayer, and with them was Emmanuel. + +"The hour has come, dear children," she said gently, "when we must say +farewell. You are all here"--she looked about her--"and he..." +Marguerite sent Emmanuel for her father, and Balthazar's answer to the +summons was, "I am coming." + +When Emmanuel returned, Madame Claes sent him for his uncle the priest, +bidding him take the two boys with him; then she turned to her +daughters. "God is taking me," she said. "What will become of you? When +I am gone, Marguerite, if you are ever in need of food, read this letter +which I have addressed to you. Love your father, but shield your sister +and your brothers. It may be your duty to withstand him. He will want +money; he will ask you for it. Do not forget your duty to your father, +but remember your duty to your sister and brothers. Your father would +not injure his children of set purpose. He is noble, he is good. He is +full of love for you. He is a great man working at a great task. Fill my +place. Do not cause him grief by reproaches; never judge him; be, +between him and those in your charge, a gentle mediator." + +One of the servants had to go and bang on the laboratory door for Claes. +"Madame is dying!" cried the indignant old body. "They are waiting for +you to administer the last sacrament." + +"I'll be there in a minute," answered Claes. When he entered the room, +the Abbé de Solis and the children were kneeling round the mother's bed. +His wife's face flushed at his entrance. With a loving smile, she asked: +"Were you on the point of resolving nitrogen?" + +"I have done it!" he answered, with triumph; "nitrogen is made up of +oxygen and------" He stopped, checked by a murmur, which roused him from +his dream. "What did they say?" he asked. "Are you really worse? What +has happened?" + +"This has happened," said the Abbé; "your wife is dying, and you have +killed her." + +Priest and children withdrew. + +"What does he mean?" asked Claes. + +"Dearest," she answered, "your love was my life; I could not live +without it." + +He took her hand, and kissed it. + +"When have I not loved you?" he asked. + +She refused to utter a reproach. For her children's sake she told the +narrative of his six years' search for the Absolute, which had destroyed +her life and swallowed up two million francs, making him see the horror +of their desolation. "Have pity, have pity," she cried, "on our +children!" + +Claes shouted for Lemulquinier, and bade him go instantly to the +laboratory and smash everything. "I abandon science for ever!" he cried. + +"Too late!" sighed the dying woman; then she cried, "Marguerite!" + +The child came from the doorway, horrified by the stricken face of her +mother. Once again the loved name was repeated, "Marguerite!" loudly, as +though to fix in her mind the charge laid upon her soul. It was the last +word uttered by Josephine. As the soul passed, Balthazar, from the foot +of the bed, looked up to the pillows where Marguerite was sitting, and +their eyes met. The father trembled. + +In the sorrow of bereavement Marguerite discovered that she possessed +two friends--Pierquin the notary, and Emmanuel de Solis. Pierquin +thought it would be a suitable thing to save the wreckage of the estate +and marry the beautiful Marguerite, whose family was doubly noble. +Emmanuel offered to prepare Marguerite's brothers for college, with a +tact and a charm which declared a fine nature. Pierquin was a man of +business turned lover. Emmanuel was a lover turned by misfortune into a +man of action. + + +_IV.--The Hour of Darkness_ + + +For some considerable time Balthazar avoided experimental chemistry, and +confined himself to theoretical speculations. He took long walks on the +ramparts; was gloomy, restless, and preoccupied at home. Marguerite +endeavoured to distract his thoughts. One day the old servant, Martha, +said to her: "All is over with us; master is on the road to hell again!" +And she pointed to clouds of smoke issuing from the laboratory chimney. +Marguerite lived as carefully as a nun; all expenses were cut down. She +denied herself ordinary comforts to prepare for the crash. Thanks to +Emmanuel, the boys were now advancing in their studies, and their future +was at least unclouded. But Balthazar had developed the gambler's +recklessness. He sold a forest; he mortgaged his house and silver; he +had no more food than a nigger who sells his wife for a glass of brandy +in the morning, and weeps over his loss at night. Once Marguerite spoke +to her father. She acknowledged that he was master, that his children +would obey him at all costs; but he must know that they scarcely had +bread in the house. + +"Bread!" he cried; "no bread in the house of a Claes! Where is all our +property, then?" + +She told him how he had sold everything. + +"Then, how do we live?" + +She held up her needle. + +Time went on, and fresh debts hammered at the door of the Maison Claes. +At last Marguerite was obliged to face her father, and charge him with +madness. + +"Madness!" he cried, firing up and springing to his feet. There was +something so majestic and commanding in his attitude that made +Marguerite tremble at his feet. "Your mother would never have used that +word; she always attached due importance to my scientific researches." + +She could not bear his reproaches, and fled from him. She felt that the +time had come, for they were now on the verge of beggary, to break the +seal of her mother's letter. That letter expressed the most divine love, +praying that God would permit her spirit to be with Marguerite while she +read the words of this last message; and it told her that the Abbé +Solis, if living, or his nephew, held for her a sum of a hundred and +seventy thousand francs, and on this sum she must live, and leave her +father if he refused to abandon his researches. "I could never have said +these words," Josephine had written; "not even on the brink of the +grave." And she entreated her child to be reverent in withstanding her +father, and if resistance was inevitable to resist him on her knees. The +abbé was dead, but Emmanuel held the money. In their discussions about +the management of this sum, the two young people drew closer together. +The poor father, brought to ruin, confessed his madness, and uttered the +terrible despair of a beaten scientist. To comfort him, Marguerite said +that his debts would be paid with her money. His face lit up. "You have +money! Give it to me; I will make you rich." Once more the madness +returned. + +Emmanuel came with three thousand ducats in his pockets. They were +hiding them in the hollow column of a pedestal, when, looking up, +Marguerite saw her father observing them. "I heard gold," he said, +advancing. To save her, Emmanuel lied. He sinned against his conscience +for her sake. The money, he said belonged to him, and he had lent it to +Marguerite. When he was gone, Claes said: "I must have that money." + +"If you take it," answered Marguerite, "you will be a thief." + +He knelt to her; she would not relent. He caressed her; she called God +to look down upon them if he stole the money. He rose, bade her a +sorrowful farewell, and left the room. Something warned her; she hurried +after him, to find him with a pistol at his head. "Take all I possess," +she cried. Embracing her, he promised that if he failed this time he +would deliver himself into her hands. + +Time passed and the Absolute was not discovered. A wealthy cousin of +Claes, M. Conyncks, came to Douai in his travelling carriage, and soon +after he and Marguerite journeyed to Paris. When she returned, it was to +announce that, through M. Conynck's influence, Balthazar had been +appointed receiver of taxes in Brittany, and must set out at once to +take up the appointment. + +"You drive me out of my own house!" he exclaimed, with anger. At first +he refused to go, furious and indignant; but she persisted, and he had +to surrender. He went with Lemulquinier to his laboratory for the last +time. The two old men were very sad as they released the gases and +evaporated acids. + +"Ah, look," said Claes, pausing before a capsule connected with the +wires of a battery; "if only we could watch out the end of this +experiment! Carbon and sulphur. Crystallisation should take place; the +carbon might certainly result in a crystal ..." + +While Claes was in exile, fortune came to the family. The son Gabriel, +assisted by M. Conyncks, had made a large sum of money as the engineer +of a canal. Emmanuel de Solis had given Marguerite the fortune he +inherited from ancestors in Spain. Pierquin, who had turned his +attention to Marguerite's younger sister, had proved himself kind to the +family. Once again the Maison Claes was in prosperity, with pictures on +its walls, and with handsome furniture in its state apartments. + +When Conyncks and Marguerite went to fetch the father, they found him +old and broken. The child was greatly touched by his appearance, and +questioned him alone. She discovered that instead of saving money, he +was heavily in debt, and that he had been seeking the Absolute as +industriously in Brittany as in the attic of the Maison Claes. + +On his return, the old man brightened and became glad. The ancient home +gave him joy. He embraced his children, looked around the happy house of +his fathers, and exclaimed: "Ah, Josephine, if only you were here to +admire our Marguerite!" The marriages of Marguerite and Felicie, the +younger sister, were hurried forward. During the reading of the +contracts Lemulquinier suddenly burst into the room, crying: "Monsieur! +Monsieur!" + +Claes whispered to his daughter that the servant had lent him all his +savings--20,000 francs--and had doubtless come to claim them on learning +that the master was once more a rich man. But Lemulquinier cried: +"Monsieur! Monsieur!" + +"Well?" demanded Claes. + +In the trembling hand of the old servant lay a diamond. Claes rushed +towards him. + +"I went to the laboratory," began the servant--Claes looked up at him +quickly, as though to say: "You were the first to go there!"--"and I +found in the capsule we left behind us this diamond! The battery has +done it without our help!" + +"Forgive me!" cried Claes, turning to his children and his guests. "This +will drive me mad! Cursed exile! God has worked in my laboratory, and I +was not there to see! A miracle has taken place! I might have seen it--I +have missed it for ever!" Suddenly he checked, and advancing to +Marguerite, presented her with the diamond. "My angel," he said gently, +"this belongs to you." Then, to the notary: "Let us proceed." + + +_V.--Discovery of the Absolute_ + + +Happiness reigned in the Maison Claes, Balthazar conducted a few but +inexpensive experiments, and surrendered himself more and more to the +happiness of home life. It was as if the devil had been exorcised. The +death of relatives presently carried Emmanuel and Marguerite to Spain, +and their return was delayed by the birth of a child. When they did +arrive in Flanders, one morning towards the end of September, they found +the house in the Rue de Paris shut up, and a ring at the bell brought no +one to open the door. A shopkeeper near at hand said that M. Claes had +left the house with Lemulquinier about an hour ago. Emmanuel went in +search of them, while a locksmith opened the door of the Maison Claes. +The house was as if the Absolute in the form of fire had passed through +all its rooms. Pictures, furniture, carpets, hangings, carvings--all +were swept clean away. Marguerite wept as she looked about her, and +forgave her father. She went downstairs to await his coming. How he must +have suffered in this bare house! Fear filled her heart. Had his reason +failed him? Should she see him enter--a tottering and enfeebled old man, +broken by the sufferings which he had borne so proudly for science? As +she waited, the past rose before her eyes--the long past of struggle +against their enemy, the Absolute; the long past, when she was a child, +and her mother had been now so joyous and now so sorrowful. + +But she did not realise the calamity of her father's tragedy--a tragedy +at once sublime and miserable. To the people of Douai he was not a +scientific genius wrestling with Nature for her hidden mysteries, but a +wicked old spendthrift, greedy like a miser for the Philosopher's Stone. +Everybody in Douai, from the aristocracy to the bourgeoisie to the +people, knew all about old Claes, "the alchemist." His home was called +the "Devil's House." People pointed at him, shouted after him in the +street. Lemulquinier said that these were murmurs of applause for +genius. + +It happened that on this morning of Marguerite's return, Balthazar and +Lemulquinier sat down on a bench in the Place Saint-Jacques to rest in +the sun. Some children passing to school saw the two old men, talked +about them, laughed together, and presently approached. One of them, who +carried a basket, and was eating a piece of bread and butter, said to +Lemulquinier: "Is it true you make diamonds and pearls?" + +Lemulquinier patted the urchin's cheek. + +"Yes, little fellow, it is true," he said. "Stick to your books, get +knowledge, and perhaps we will give you some." + +They began to crowd round, and became more daring. + +"You should show respect to a great man," said Lemulquinier. At this the +children laughed aloud, and began to shout: "Sorcerers! Old sorcerers!" +Lemulquinier sprang up with his stick raised, and the children, beating +a retreat, gathered up mud and stones. A workman, seeing Lemulquinier +making for the children with a stick, came to their rescue with the +dangerous cry: "Down with sorcerers!" + +Thus emboldened, the children made a savage attack upon the two old men +with a shower of stones. At this moment Emmanuel came upon the scene. He +was too late. Claes had been suddenly jerked from the ideal world in +which he theorised and toiled into the real world of men. The shock was +too much for him; he sank into the arms of Lemulquinier, paralysed. + +He lived in this condition for some time, expressing all his affection +and gratitude to Marguerite by pressing her hand with his cold fingers. +She refurnished the house, and surrounded him with comforts. His +children were affectionate to him. They came and sat by his bedside, and +took their meals in his room. His great happiness was listening to +Emmanuel's reading of the newspapers. + +One night he became very much worse, and the doctor was summoned in +haste. The stricken man made violent efforts to speak. His lips +trembled, but no sound issued. His eyes were on fire with the thoughts +he could not utter. His face was haggard with agony. Drops of +perspiration oozed out of his forehead. His hands twitched convulsively +in the despair of his mind. + +On the following morning his children saluted him with deepest and most +lingering love, knowing that the last hour was at hand. His face did not +light; he made none of his usual responses to their tender affection. +Pierquin signalled to Emmanuel, and he broke the wrapper of the +newspaper, and was about to read aloud in order to distract Claes, when +his eyes were arrested by the heading: + + DISCOVERY OF THE ABSOLUTE + +In a low voice he read the intelligence to his wife. It narrated that a +famous mathematician in Poland had made terms for selling the secret of +the Absolute, which he had discovered. As Emmanuel ceased to read, +Marguerite asked for the paper; but Claes had heard the almost whispered +words. + +Of a sudden the dying man lifted himself up on his elbows. To his +frightened family his glance was like the flash of lightning. The fringe +of hair above his forehead stood up; every line in his countenance +quivered with excitement, a thrill of passion moved across his face and +made it sublime. + +He lifted a hand, which was clenched with excitement, and uttering the +cry of Archimedes--"Eureka!"--fell back with the heaviness of a dead +body, and expired with an agonised groan. His eyes, till the doctor +closed them, expressed a frenzied despair. It was his agony that he +could not bequeath to science the solution of the great riddle which was +only revealed to him as the veil was rent asunder by the hand of Death. + + * * * * * + + + + +WILLIAM BECKFORD + +History of the Caliph Vathek + + William Beckford, son of the famous Lord Mayor, was born at + Fonthill, Wiltshire, England, Sept. 29, 1759, and received his + education at first from a private tutor, and then at Geneva. + On coming of age, he inherited a million sterling and an + annual income of £100,000, and three years later he married + the fourth Earl of Aboyne's daughter, Lady Margaret Gordon, + who died in May, 1786. In 1787 Beckford's romance, the + "History of the Caliph Vathek," appeared in its original + French, an English translation of the work having been + published "anonymously and surreptitiously" in 1784. "Vathek" + was written by Beckford in 1781 or 1782 at a single sitting of + three days and two nights. Beckford was a great traveller and + a great connoisseur and collector both of pictures and of + books; and, apart from "Vathek" and some volumes of travels, + he is best known for having secluded himself for twenty years + in the magnificent residence which he built in Fonthill. He + died on May 2, 1844. + + +_I.--Vathek and the Magic Sabres_ + + +Vathek, ninth caliph of the race of the Abassides, was the son of +Motassem, and the grandson of Haroun al Raschid. From an early accession +to the throne, and the talents he possessed to adorn it, his subjects +were induced to expect that his reign would be long and happy. His +figure was pleasing and majestic; but when he was angry one of his eyes +became so terrible that no person could bear it, and the wretch upon +whom it was fixed instantly fell backward, and sometimes expired. For +fear, however, of depopulating his dominions and making his palace +desolate, he but rarely gave way to his anger. + +Being much addicted to the pleasures of the table, he sought by his +affability to procure agreeable companions; and he succeeded the better +as his generosity was unbounded, and his indulgences were unrestrained; +for he was by no means scrupulous, nor did he think, with the caliph +Omar Ben Abdalaziz, that it was necessary to make a hell of this world +to enjoy paradise in the next. He surpassed in magnificence all his +predecessors. The palace of Alkoremmi, which his father, Motassem, had +erected on the hill of Pied Horses, and which commanded the whole city +of Samarah was, in his idea, far too scanty. He added, therefore, five +wings, or rather other palaces, which he destined for the particular +gratification of each of his senses. + +But the unquiet and impetuous disposition of the caliph would not allow +him to rest there; he had studied so much for amusement in the lifetime +of his father as to acquire a great deal of knowledge, though not a +sufficiency to satisfy himself--for he wished to know everything, even +sciences that did not exist. He was fond of engaging in disputes with +the learned and with the orthodox, but liked them not to push their +opposition with warmth; he stopped with presents the mouths of those +whose mouths could be stopped, while others, whom his liberality was +unable to subdue, he sent to prison to cool their blood, a remedy that +often succeeded. + +The great prophet Mohammed, whose vicars the caliphs are, beheld with +indignation from his abode in the seventh heaven the irreligious conduct +of such a vice-regent. + +"Let us leave him to himself," said he to the genii, who are always +ready to receive his commands. "Let us see to what lengths his folly and +impiety will carry him. If he run into excess we shall know how to +chastise him. Assist him, therefore, to complete the tower which, in +imitation of Nimrod, he hath begun, not, like that great warrior, to +escape being drowned, but from the insolent curiosity of penetrating the +secrets of heaven; he will not divine the fate that awaits him." + +The genii obeyed, and when the workmen had raised their structures a +cubit in the daytime, two cubits more were added in the night. Vathek +fancied that even invisible matter showed a forwardness to subserve his +designs, and his pride arrived at its height when, having ascended for +the first time the eleven thousand stairs of his tower, he cast his eyes +below and beheld men not larger than pismires, mountains than shells, +and cities than beehives. He now passed most of his nights on the summit +of his tower, till he became an adept in the mysteries of astrology, and +imagined that the planets had disclosed to him the most marvellous +adventures which were to be accomplished by an extraordinary personage +from a country altogether unknown. + +Prompted by motives of curiosity, he had always been courteous to +strangers, but from this instant he redoubled his attention, and ordered +it to be announced by sound of trumpet through all the streets of +Samarah that no one of his subjects, on pain of displeasure, should +either lodge or detain a traveller, but forthwith bring him to the +palace. + +Not long after this there arrived in the city a hideous man who to +Vathek's view displayed slippers which enabled the feet to walk, knives +that cut without a motion of the hand, and sabres which dealt the blow +at the person they were wished to strike, the whole enriched with gems +that were hitherto unknown. The sabres, whose blades emitted a dazzling +radiance, fixed more than all the caliph's attention, who promised +himself to decipher at his leisure the uncouth characters engraven on +their sides. Without, therefore, demanding their price, he ordered all +the coined gold to be brought from his treasury, and commanded the +merchant to take what he pleased. The stranger complied with modesty and +silence; but, having maintained an obstinate silence on all the points +on which the caliph questioned him, he was committed to prison, from +which he was found the next day to have vanished, leaving his keepers +dead. + +Vathek was at first enraged, but having been comforted by his mother, +the Princess Carathis, who was a Greek and an adept in all the sciences +and systems of her country, he issued, at her suggestion, a proclamation +promising the liberality for which he was renowned to whoever should +decipher the characters on the sabres, and eventually had the +gratification of meeting with an old man, who read them as follows: "We +were made where everything good is made; we are the least of the wonders +of a place where all is wonderful, and deserving the sight of the first +potentate on earth." Unfortunately, however, when the old man was +ordered the next morning to re-read the inscription, he was then found +to interpret it as denouncing: "Woe to the rash mortal who seeks to know +that of which he should remain ignorant." "And woe to thee!" cried the +caliph, in a burst of indignation, and telling him to take his reward +and begone. + + +_II.--The Caliph's Strange Adventures_ + + +It was not long before Vathek discovered abundant reason for regretting +his precipitation. He plainly perceived that the characters on the +sabres changed every day; and the anxiety caused by his failure to +decipher them, or to read anything from the stars, brought on a fever, +which deprived him of his appetite, and tormented him with an absolutely +insatiable thirst. From this distress he was at length delivered by a +meeting with the stranger, who cured him by giving him to drink of a +phial of red and yellow mixture. But when this insolent person, at a +banquet given in his honour, burst into shouts of laughter on being +asked to declare of what drugs the salutary liquor had been compounded, +and from what place the sabres had come, Vathek kicked him from the +steps, and, repeating the blow, persisted with such assiduity as incited +all present to follow his example. The stranger collected into a ball, +rolled out of the palace, followed by Vathek, the court, and the whole +city, and, after passing through all the public places, rolled onwards +to the Plain of Catoul, traversed the valley at the foot of the mountain +of the Four Fountains, and bounded into the chasm formed there by the +continual fall of the waters. + +Vathek would have followed the perfidious giaour had not an invisible +agency arrested his progress and that of the multitude; and he was so +much struck by the whole circumstance that he ordered his tents to be +pitched on the very edge of the precipice. After keeping several vigils +there, he was accosted one night by the voice of the giaour, who amid +the darkness caused by a total eclipse of the moon and the stars, +offered to bring him to the palace of subterranean fire, where he should +behold the treasures which the stars had promised him, and the talismans +that control the world, if he would abjure Mohammed, adore the +terrestrial influences, and satiate the stranger's thirst with the blood +of fifty of the most beautiful Samarahite boys. + +The unhappy caliph lavished his promises in the utmost profusion, and by +arranging for the celebration near the chasm of some juvenile sports, +which were not concluded till twilight, was able to make the direful +libation. As the boys came up one by one to receive their prizes, he +pushed them into the gulf, the dreadful device being executed with so +much dexterity that the boy who was approaching him remained unconscious +of the fate of his forerunner. + +The popular tumult roused by this atrocity having been appeased by the +princess, who possessed the most consummate skill in the art of +persuasion, there was offered on the tower a burnt sacrifice to the +infernal deities, the main ingredients of which were mummies, +rhinoceros' horns, oil of the most venomous serpents, various aromatic +woods, and one hundred and forty of the caliph's most faithful subjects. +These preliminaries having been settled, a parchment was discovered, in +which Vathek was thanked for his burnt offering, and told to set forth +with a magnificent retinue for Istakar, where he would receive the +diadem of Gian Ben Gian, the talismans of Soliman, and the treasures of +the pre-Adamite sultans. But he was warned not to enter any dwelling on +his route. + +Vathek and the cavalcade set out, and for three days all went well. But +on the fourth a storm burst upon them, the frightful roar of wild beasts +resounded at a distance, and they soon perceived in the forest glaring +eyes that could only belong to devils or tigers. Fire destroyed their +provisions, and they would have starved had not two dwarfs, who dwelt as +hermits on the top of some rocks, received divine intimation of their +plight and revealed it to their emir, Fakreddin. The dwarfs were +entertained, caressed, and seated with great ceremony on little cushions +of state. But they clambered up the sides of the caliph's seat, and, +placing themselves each on one of his shoulders, began to whisper +prayers in his ears; and his patience was almost exhausted when the +acclamations of the troops announced the approach of Fakreddin. He +hastened to their assistance, but being punctiliously religious and +likewise a great dealer in compliments, he made an harangue five times +more prolix and insipid than his harbingers had already delivered. + +At length, however, all got in motion, and they descended from the +heights to the valley by the large steps which the emir had cut in the +rocks, and reached a building of hewn stone overspread by palm-trees and +crowned with nine domes. Beneath one of these domes the caliph was +entertained with excellent sherbet, with sweetbreads stewed in milk of +almonds, and other delicacies of which he was amazingly fond. + +But, unfortunately, the sight of the emir's young daughter tempted the +prophet's vice-regent to violate the rites of hospitality. Vathek fell +violently in love with Nouronihar, who was sprightly as an antelope and +full of wanton gaiety; and though she was contracted to her cousin and +dearly beloved companion Gulchenrouz, he demanded her hand from +Fakreddin, who, rather than force his daughter to break her affiances, +presented his sabre to Vathek. "Strike your unhappy host," he said. "He +has lived long enough if he sees the prophet's vice-regent violate the +rites of hospitality." Nouronihar fell down in a swoon, and of this +swoon the emir took advantage to carry out a scheme which should deliver +him from his difficulties. He gave out that both the children had died +from the effect of the caliph's glances, and, having administered to +them a narcotic powder that would give them the appearance of death for +three days, had them conveyed away to the shores of a desolate lake, +where, attended by the dwarfs, they were put upon a meagre diet and told +that they were in the other world, expiating the little faults of which +their love was the cause. + +But Nouronihar, remembering a dream in which she was told that she was +destined to be the caliph's wife, and thereby to possess the carbuncle +of Giamsched, and the treasures of the pre-Adamite sultans, indulged +doubts on the mode of her being, and scarcely could believe that she was +dead. She rose one morning while all were asleep, and having wandered +some distance from the lake, discovered that she knew the district. + +This fact, and a meeting with Vathek, convinced her that she was alive, +and, submitting to the caliph's embraces, she consented to become his +bride, and to go with him to the subterranean palace. + + +_III.--The Palace of Subterranean Fire_ + + +When Princess Carathis heard of the dissolute conduct of her son she +sent for Morakanabad. + +"Let me expire in flames," she cried. + +Having said this, she whirled herself round in a magical way, striking +poor Morakanabad in such a way as caused him to recoil. Then she ordered +her great camel, Aboufaki, to be brought, and, attended by her two +hideous and one-eyed negresses, Nerkes and Cafour, set out to surprise +the lovers. She burst in upon them, foaming with indignation, and said +to Vathek: "Free thyself from the arms of this paltry doxy; drown her in +the water before me, and instantly follow my guidance." But Vathek +replied civilly, but decisively, that he was taking Nouronihar with him; +and the princess, having heard her declare that she would follow him +beyond the Kaf in the land of the Afrits, was appeased, and pronounced +Nouronihar a girl of both courage and science. + +With a view, however, of preventing any further trouble arising from +Gulchenrouz, of whose affection for his cousin Vathek had informed her, +she sought to capture the boy, intending to sacrifice him to the giaour. +But as he was fleeing from her he fell into the arms of a genius, the +same good old genius who, happening on the cruel giaour at the instant +of his growling in the horrible chasm, had rescued the fifty little +victims which the impiety of Vathek had devoted to his maw. The genius +placed Gulchenrouz in a nest higher than the clouds, and there kept him +ever young. + +Nor was this the only hope of the princess's that was doomed to be +frustrated. She learnt from her astrolabes and instruments of magic that +Motavakel, availing himself of the disgust which was now inveterate +against his brother, had incited commotions among the populace, made +himself master of the palace, and actually invested the great tower. So +she reluctantly abandoned the idea of accompanying Vathek to Istakar, +and returned to Samarah; while he, attended by Nouronihar, resumed his +march and quickly reached the valley of Rocnabad. Here the poor Santons, +filled with holy energy, having bustled to light up wax torches in their +oratories and to expand the Koran on their ebony desks, went forth to +meet the caliph with baskets of honeycomb, dates, and melons. Vathek +gave them but a surly reception. "Fancy not," said he, "that you can +detain me; your presents I condescend to accept, but beg you will let me +be quiet, for I am not overfond of resisting temptation. Yet, as it is +not decent for personages so reverend to return on foot, and as you have +not the appearance of expert riders, my eunuchs shall tie you on your +asses, with the precaution that your backs be not turned towards me, for +they understand etiquette." + +Even this outrage could not persuade Vathek's good genius to desert him, +and he made one final effort to save the caliph from the fate awaiting +him. Disguised as a shepherd, and pouring forth from his flute such +melodies as softened even the heart of Vathek, he confronted him in his +path, and warned him so solemnly against pursuing his journey that when +night fell almost every one of his attendants had deserted him. But +Vathek, in his obduracy, went on, and at length arrived at the mountain +which contains the vast ruins of Istakar and the entrance to the realm +of Eblis. + +Nouronihar and he, having ascended the steps of a vast staircase of +black marble, reached the terrace, which was flagged with squares of +marble and resembled a smooth expanse of water. There, by the moonlight, +they read an inscription which proclaimed that, despite the fact that +Vathek had violated the conditions of the parchment, he and Nouronihar +would be allowed to enter the palace of subterranean fire. + +Scarcely had these words been read when the mountain trembled, and the +rock yawned and disclosed within it a staircase of polished marble, down +which they descended. At the bottom they found their way impeded by a +huge portal of ebony, which, opening at the giaour's command, revealed +to them a place which, though roofed with a vaulted ceiling, was so +spacious and lofty that at first they took it for an immeasurable plain. +In the midst of this immense hall a vast multitude was incessantly +passing, who severally kept their right hands on their hearts, without +once regarding anything about them. They had all the livid paleness of +death; their eyes, deep-sunk in their sockets, resembled those +phosphoric meteors that glimmer by night in places of interment. Some +stalked slowly along, absorbed in profound reverie; some, shrieking with +agony, ran furiously about like tigers wounded with poisonous arrows; +whilst others, grinding their teeth in rage, foamed along, more frantic +than the wildest maniacs. They all avoided each other, and, though +surrounded by a multitude that no one could number, each wandered at +random, unheedful of the rest, as if alone on a desert no foot had +trodden. + +Vathek and Nouronihar, frozen with terror at a sight so baleful, +demanded of the giaour what these appearances might mean, and why these +ambulating spectres never withdrew their hands from their hearts. + +"Perplex not yourselves," replied he, bluntly, "with so much at once; +you will soon be acquainted with all. Let us haste and present you to +Eblis." + +They continued their way through the multitude, and after some time +entered a vast tabernacle carpeted with the skins of leopards and filled +with an infinity of elders with streaming beards and Afrits in complete +armour, all of whom had prostrated themselves before the ascent of a +lofty eminence, on the top of which, upon a globe of fire, sat the +formidable Eblis. He received Vathek's and Nouronihar's homage, and +invited them to enjoy whatever the palace afforded--the treasures of the +pre-Adamite sultans and their bickering sabres and those talismans which +compel the Dives to open the subterranean expanses of the mountain of +Kaf. + +The giaour then conducted them to a hall of great extent, covered with a +lofty dome, round which appeared fifty portals of bronze, secured with +as many fastenings of iron. A funereal gloom prevailed over the whole +scene. Here, upon two beds of incorruptible cedar, lay recumbent the +fleshless forms of pre-Adamite kings, who had been monarchs of the whole +earth; they still possessed enough of life to be conscious of their +deplorable condition; their eyes retained a melancholy motion; they +regarded each other with looks of the deepest dejection, each holding +his right hand motionless on his heart. Soliman Ben Daoud, the most +eminent of them, told Vathek the story of his great state, of his +worship of fire and the hosts of the sky, and of heaven's vengeance upon +him. "I am in torments, ineffable torments!" said he. "An unrelenting +fire preys upon my heart." Having uttered this exclamation, Soliman +raised his hands towards heaven in token of supplication, and the caliph +discerned through his bosom, which was as transparent as crystal, his +heart enveloped in flames. At a sight so full of horror, Nouronihar fell +back like one petrified into the arms of Vathek, who cried out with a +convulsive sob: "O Mohammed! remains there no more mercy?" + +"None, none!" replied the malicious Dive. "Know, miserable prince, thou +art now in the abode of vengeance and despair! A few days are allotted +thee as respite, and then thy heart also shall be kindled like those of +the other worshippers of Eblis." + +This, indeed, was the dreadful fate of Vathek and Nouronihar, a fate +indeed to which the Princess Carathis was also most righteously +condemned; for Vathek, knowing that the principles by which his mother +had perverted his youth had been the cause of his perdition, summoned +her to the palace of subterranean fire and enrolled her among the +votaries of Eblis. Carathis entered the dome of Soliman, and she too +marched in triumph through the vapour of perfumes. + + * * * * * + + + + +APHRA BEHN + + +Oroonoko: the Royal Slave + + In her introduction to "Oroonoko," Mrs. Aphra Behn states + that her strange and romantic tale is founded on facts, of + many of which she was an eye-witness. This is true. She was + born at Wye, England, July 10, 1640, the daughter, it is said, + of a barber. As a child, she went out to Dutch Guiana, then an + English colony named after the Surinam River, returning to + England about 1658. After the death of her husband, in 1666, + she was dispatched as a spy to Antwerp by Charles II., and it + was she who first warned that monarch of the Dutch + Government's intention to send a fleet up the Thames. She died + on April 16, 1689, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. It was + while in Dutch Guiana that she met Oroonoko, in the + circumstances described in the story. No doubt she has + idealised her hero somewhat, but she does not seem to have + exaggerated the extraordinary adventures of the young African + chief. In the licentious age of the Restoration, when she had + become famous--or, rather, notorious--as a writer of unseemly + plays, she astonished the town, and achieved real fame by + relating the story of Oroonoko's life. There are few plots of + either plays or novels so striking as that of "Oroonoko." It + is the first of those romances of the outlands, which, from + the days of Defoe to the days of Mr. Rudyard Kipling, have + been one of the glories of English literature. + + +_I.--The Stolen Bride_ + + +I do not pretend to entertain the reader with a feigned hero, whose +adventures I can manage according to my fancy. Of many of the events +here set down, I was an eye-witness, and what I did not see myself, I +learnt from the mouth of Oroonoko. When I made his acquaintance I was +living in that part of our South American colony called Surinam, which +we lately ceded to the Dutch--a great mistake, I think, for the land was +fertile, and the natives were friendly, and many Englishmen had set up +sugar plantations, which they worked by means of negroes. Most of these +slaves came from that part of Africa known as Coromantien. The +Coromantiens, being very warlike, were continually fighting other +nations, and they always had many captives ready to be sold as slaves to +our planters. + +The king of Coromantien was a hundred years of age. All his sons had +fallen in battle, and only one of them had left behind him an heir. +Oroonoko, as the young prince was called, was a very intelligent and +handsome negro, and as his grandfather engaged a Frenchman of wit and +learning to teach him, he received an education better than that of many +European princes. This I can speak of from my own knowledge, as I have +often conversed with him. He had a great admiration for the ancient +Romans; and in everything but the colour of his skin he reminded me of +those heroes of antiquity. + +His nose was finely curved, and his lips, too, were well shaped, instead +of being thick as those of most Africans are. As the king of +Coromantien, by reason of his great age, was unable to bear arms, he +entrusted his chief headman with the duty of training Oroonoko in the +arts of war. For two years, the young prince was away fighting with a +powerful inland nation; the chief headman was killed in a fierce battle, +and Oroonoko succeeded him in the command of the army. He was then only +seventeen years of age, but he quickly brought the long war to a +successful conclusion, and returned home with a multitude of captives. +The greater part of these he gave to his grandfather, and the rest he +took to Imoinda, the daughter and only child of the chief headman, as +trophies of her father's victories. + +Imoinda was a marvellously beautiful girl; her features, like those of +Oroonoko, were regular and noble, and more European than African. It was +a case of love at first sight on both sides, and the young prince +presented the lovely maiden with a hundred and fifty slaves, and +returned home in a fever of passion. It was necessary for him to obtain +his grandfather's consent to his marriage, but for some days he was so +perplexed by the flood of strange, new feelings surging in his young +heart that he remained silent and moody. + +His followers, however, were loud in their praises of Imoinda. They +extolled her ravishing charms even in the presence of the old king, so +that nothing else was talked of but Imoinda. Oroonoko's love rapidly +became too strong for him to control, and one night he went secretly to +the house of his beloved, and wooed her with such fervency of soul that +even she was astonished by it. It was the savage custom of his country +for a king to have a hundred wives, as his grandfather had; but Oroonoko +was an enlightened and chivalrous man. + +"Never, Imoinda," he cried, "shall you have a rival. You are the only +woman I shall love, the only woman I shall marry. Come, my darling, and +let us try and raise our people up by our example." + +Imoinda was naturally overjoyed to become the wife of so noble and +cultivated a prince, and she waited the next morning in a state of +delicious excitement for Oroonoko to return and claim her as his bride. +But, to her dismay and horror, four headmen with their servants came at +daybreak to her house with a royal veil. This is a rudely embroidered +cloth which the king of Coromantien sends to any lady whom he has a mind +to make his wife. After she is covered with it, the maid is secured for +the king's otan, or harem, and it is death to disobey the royal summons. + +Trembling and almost fainting, Imoinda was compelled to suffer herself +to be covered and led away to the old king. His imagination had been +excited by the wild way in which the followers of his grandson had +praised the beauty of the maiden, and, carried away by unnatural +jealousy, he had resolved, in a fit of madness, to possess her at all +costs. In spite of all he had heard, he was amazed by her loveliness. +Rising up from his throne, he came towards her with outstretched arms. + +"I am already married," she cried, bursting into tears and throwing +herself at his feet. "Do not dishonour me! Let me return to my own +house." + +"Who has dared to marry the daughter of my chief headman without my +consent?" said the old king, his eyes rolling in anger. "Whoever he is, +he shall die at once." + +Imoinda began to fear for Oroonoko, and tried to undo the effect of her +words. + +"He--he is not exactly my husband yet," she stammered. "But, oh, I love +him! I love him! And I have promised to marry him." + +"That's nothing," said the king, his eyes now lighting up with pleasure. +"You must be my wife." + +In the afternoon, Oroonoko, who had gone in search of Imoinda, returned. +Having heard that she had received the royal veil, he came in so violent +a rage that his men had great trouble to save him from killing himself. + +"What can I do?" he cried desperately. "Even if I slew my grandfather, I +could not now make Imoinda my wife." + + +_II.--A White Man's Treachery_ + + +By the custom of the country, it would have been so great a crime to +marry a woman whom Us grandfather had taken that Oroonoko's people would +probably have risen up against him. But one of his men pointed out that, +as Imoinda was his lawful wife by solemn contract, he was really the +injured man, and might, if he would, take her back--the breach of the +law being on his grandfather's side. Thereupon, the young prince +resolved to recover her, and in the night he entered the otan, or royal +harem, by a secret passage, and made his way to the apartment of +Imoinda. Had he found the old king there, he no doubt would have killed +him; but, happily, the lovely maid was alone, and quietly sleeping in +her bed. He softly awakened her, and she trembled with joy and fear at +his boldness. But they had not been long together when a sudden noise +was heard and a band of armed men with spears burst into the room. + +"Back!" shouted the young prince, lifting up his battle-axe. "Back, all +of you! Do you not know Oroonoko?" + +"Yes," said one of the men. "The king has sent us to take you, dead or +alive." + +But when Oroonoko attacked them, they allowed him to fight his way out +of the otan, but tore the maid from his arms and took her to the king. +The old man was blind with rage, and, seizing a spear, he staggered to +his feet, determined to kill her by his own hand. But Imoinda was in no +mood to die. She knew that her lover had fled to his camp, and intended +to return at the head of a large army and rescue her by main force. If +she could only calm the anger of the old king for a few days, all would +be well. So, with the guile of a woman, she flung herself at the king's +feet, protesting in a flood of tears, that Oroonoko had broken into her +room and taken her by force. + +"Very well," said the old king, with a cruel look in his eyes, "I will +forgive you. Having received the royal veil, you cannot marry my +grandson. On the other hand, since he has entered your room, you cannot +remain any longer in the otan. You must be sent out of the country." + +And early the next morning some of his servants were commanded to dress +her so that she could not be recognised, and then she was carried down +to the shore and sold to the captain of a slave ship. + +The king did not dare to tell his grandson that he had sold Imoinda as a +slave, for the Coromantiens justly reckon slavery as something worse +than death; so he sent a messenger to say that she was dead. At first, +Oroonoko was minded to attack his grandfather, but better feelings +prevailed; and he led his army against a hostile nation, resolved to +perish on the battlefield. So desperate was his courage that he defeated +his far more numerous foes, and took a great multitude of them captives. +Many of these he sold to the captain of a slave-ship, then lying off +Coromantien. When the bargain was concluded, the captain invited the +prince and all his attendants to a banquet on board his ship, and so +plied them with wine that, being unaccustomed to drink of this sort, +they were overcome by it. + +When Oroonoko recovered his senses, he found himself chained up in a +dark room, and all his men were groaning in fetters around him. The +cunning slave-dealer had got out of paying for his cargo of slaves, and +increased their number by carrying off the young prince and his +companions. This was how I came to meet Oroonoko. The unscrupulous +slave-dealer brought him to Surinam, and sold him and seventeen of his +followers to our overseer, a young Cornishman named Trefry. + +Trefry, a man of great wit and fine learning, was attracted by the noble +bearing of Oroonoko, and treated him more as a friend than as a servant. +And when, to his great astonishment, he found that the young prince was +his equal in scholarship, and could converse with him in English, +French, and Spanish, he asked him how it was he had become a slave. +Oroonoko then related the story of the slave-dealer's treachery, and +Trefry was so moved by it that he promised to find the means to free him +from slavery and enable him to return to Coromantien. + +When Oroonoko arrived at our plantation, all our negroes left off work +and came to see him. When they saw that he was really the great prince +of Coromantien, who had conquered them in battle and sold them into +slavery, they cast themselves at his feet, crying out in their own +language: "Live, O king! Long live, O king!" They kissed his feet and +paid him divine homage--for such is the nature of this people, that +instead of bearing him any grudge for selling them into captivity, they +were filled with awe and veneration for him. + +Mr. Trefry was glad to find Oroonoko's statement of his royal rank +confirmed by the adoration of all the slaves. + +"There's one girl," he said, "who did not come to greet you. I am sure +you will be delighted to find you have so beautiful a subject. If it is +possible for anyone to console you for the loss of Imoinda, she will do +so. To tell the truth, I've been in love with her myself, but I found +that I could not win her." + +"I do not want to see her," said Oroonoko. "If I go back to Coromantien, +I will not take any woman with me. I vowed to Imoinda that I would never +have any wife but her, and, though she is dead, I shall keep my vow." + +The next morning Trefry took Oroonoko for a walk, and by design brought +him to the house of the beautiful slave. + +"Clemene," he said, "did you not hear that one of the princes of your +people arrived in Surinam yesterday? However you may fly from all white +men, you surely ought to pay some respect to him." + +Oroonoko started when a girl came out, with her head bowed down as if +she had resolved never to raise her eyes again to the face of a man. + +"Imoinda! Imoinda!" Oroonoko cried after a moment's silence. "Imoinda!" + +It was she. She looked up at the sound of his voice, and then tottered +and fell down in a swoon, and Oroonoko caught her in his arms. By +degrees she came to herself; and it is needless to tell with what +transport, what ecstasies of joy, the lovers beheld each other. Mr. +Trefry was infinitely pleased by this happy conclusion of the prince's +misadventures; and, leaving the lovers to themselves, he came to Parham +House, and gave me an account of all that had happened. In the +afternoon, to the great joy of all the negroes, Oroonoko and Imoinda +were married. I was invited to the wedding, and I assured Oroonoko that +he and his wife would be set free as soon as the lord-governor of the +colony returned to Surinam. + + +_III.--The Taint of Slavery_ + + +Unhappily, the lord-governor was delayed for some months in the islands, +and Oroonoko became impatient. After the trick played upon him by the +captain of the slave-ship, he had become exceedingly suspicious of the +honesty and good faith of white men. He was afraid that the overseer +would keep him and his wife until their child was born, and make a slave +of it. At last, he grew so moody and sullen that many persons feared +that he would incite the negroes to a mutiny. In order to soothe the +prince, I invited him and Imoinda to stay at my house, where I +entertained them to the best of my ability. + +"Surely," I said to him, "you do not suspect that we will break our word +with you? Only wait patiently, my friend, till the lord-governor +arrives, and you will be permitted to return to your own kingdom." + +"You do not understand," Oroonoko replied. "I am angry with myself for +remaining so long a slave. What! Do you white people think that I, the +king of Coromantien, can be treated like the captives that I have taken +in war and sold to you? Had it not been for Imoinda, I would long since +have been free or dead." + +Unfortunately, both for me and Oroonoko, my father, who had been +appointed lieutenant-general of the West Indies and Guiana, died at sea +on his way to Surinam, and the new lord-governor was long in arriving. +In the meantime, a child was born to Imoinda, and all the negroes, to +the number of 300, came together to celebrate the event. Oroonoko, +beside himself with anger, because his child had been born into slavery, +made a harangue to the assembled multitude. + +"Why should we be slaves to these white men?" he cried. "Have they +conquered us nobly in battle? Are we become their captives by the chance +of war? No! We have been bought and sold, like monkeys or cattle, to a +set of cowards and rogues who have been driven out of their own country +by reason of their villainy! Shall we let vile creatures such as these +flog us and bruise us as they please?" + +"No, no!" shouted the negroes. "Be our king, Oroonoko, and make us a +free nation!" + +Thereupon he commanded them to seize what arms they could, and tie up +everything they wanted in their hammocks, and sling these over their +shoulders, and march out, with their wives and children. The next +morning, when the overseers went to call their slaves up to work, they +found they had fled. By noon, 600 militiamen set out in search of the +fugitives. The negroes were forced to travel slowly by reason of their +women and children; and at the end of two days the militiamen, led by +the new lord-governor, caught them up and surrounded them. In the battle +that ensued, several Englishmen were killed and a great many wounded; +but as they outnumbered the negroes, and were much better armed, they +defeated them. Even then Oroonoko would not surrender. But the +lord-governor parleyed with him, and promised that he would give him and +his wife and child a free passage to Coromantien in the first ship that +touched on the coast. + +On this, Oroonoko surrendered. But, to his horror and surprise, he was +taken back to Surinam, and tied to a stake at the whipping-place, and +lashed until the very flesh was torn from his bones. His captors then +bound him in chains, and cast him into a prison. From this, however, he +was at last rescued by Mr. Trefry. But the shame and the torture had +unhinged his fine mind. He led Imoinda and his child into a forest, and +asked his wife whether she would prefer to remain the slave of the white +devils, or die at once by his hand. Imoinda begged him rather to kill +her, and Oroonoko did so. But, instead of putting an end to himself, the +prince determined to die fighting. He turned back from the forest, +fiercely resolved to search out the lord-governor, and slay him; but, +falling into the hands of the militiamen, he was killed in a very +horrible manner. + +I can only say that this negro was the noblest and gentlest man I ever +met. It needs more genius than I possess to praise him as he deserves; +yet I hope the reputation of my pen is considerable enough to make his +name survive to all ages, with that of the beautiful, brave, and +constant Imoinda. + + * * * * * + + + + +CYRANO DE BERGERAC + +A Voyage to the Moon + + Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac has recently acquired a new lease + of fame as the hero of Edmond Rostand's romantic comedy. + Probably he is better known in France as a fighter than as a + wit and a poet. Born about 1620, he entered the Regiment of + the Guards in his nineteenth year, and quickly became renowned + for his bravery. He was an indefatigable duellist; when he was + about twenty years old, he found a hundred men assembled to + insult one of his friends, and he attacked them, killed two, + mortally wounded seven, and dispersed all the rest. He died at + Paris in 1655, struck by a huge beam falling into the street. + As an author he was strangely underrated by his + fellow-countrymen. Molière was the only man who really + appreciated him. For some centuries his works have been more + esteemed in England than in France. Many English writers, from + Dean Swift to Samuel Butler, the author of "Erewhon," have + been inspired by his "Voyage to the Moon," the English + equivalent of the original title being, "Comic History of the + States and Empires of the Moon and the Sun." This entertaining + satire is as fresh as it was on the day it was written: flying + machines and gramophones, for instance, are curiously modern. + His inimitable inventiveness makes him the most delightful of + French writers between Montaigne and Molière. + + +_I.--Arrival on the Moon_ + + +After many experiments I constructed a flying machine, and, sitting on +top of it, I boldly launched myself in the air from the crest of a +mountain. I had scarcely risen more than half a mile when something went +wrong with my machine, and it shot back to the earth. But, to my +astonishment and joy, instead of descending with it, I continued to rise +through the calm, moonlight air. For three-quarters of an hour I mounted +higher and higher. Then suddenly all the weight of my body seemed to +fall upon my head. I was no longer rising quietly from the Earth, but +tumbling headlong on to the Moon. At last I crashed through a tree, and, +breaking my fall among its leafy, yielding boughs, I landed gently on +the grass below. + +I found myself in the midst of a wild and beautiful forest, so full of +the sweet music of singing-birds that it seemed as if every leaf on +every tree had the tongue and figure of a nightingale. The ground was +covered with unknown, lovely flowers, with a magical scent. As soon as I +smelt it I became twenty years younger. My thin grey hairs changed into +thick, brown, wavy tresses; my wrinkled face grew fresh and rosy; and my +blood flowed through my veins with the speed and vigour of youth. + +I was surprised to find no trace of human habitation in the forest. But +in wandering about I came upon two strong, great animals, about twelve +cubits long. One of them came towards me, and the other fled into the +forest. But it quickly returned with seven hundred other beasts. As they +approached me, I perceived that they were creatures with a human shape, +who, however, went on all-fours like some gigantic kind of monkey. They +shouted with admiration when they saw me; and one of them took me up by +the neck and flung me on his back, and galloped with me into a great +town. + +When I saw the splendid buildings of the city I recognised my mistake. +The four-footed creatures were really enormous men. Seeing that I went +on two legs, they would not believe that I was a man like themselves. +They thought I was an animal without any reasoning power, and they +resolved to send me to their queen, who was fond of collecting strange +and curious monsters. + +All this, of course, I did not understand at the time. It took me some +months to learn their language. These men of the Moon have two dialects; +one for the nobility, the other for the common people. The language of +the nobility is a kind of music; it is certainly a very pleasant means +of expression. They are able to communicate their thoughts by lutes and +other musical instruments quite as well as by the voice. + +When twenty or thirty of them meet together to discuss some matter, they +carry on the debate by the most harmonious concert it is possible to +imagine. + +The common people, however, talk by agitating different parts of their +bodies. Certain movements constitute an entire speech. By shaking a +finger, a hand, or an arm, for instance, they can say more than we can +in a thousand words. Other motions, such as a wrinkle on the forehead, a +shiver along a muscle, serve to design words. As they use all their body +in speaking in this fashion, they have to go naked in order to make +themselves clearly understood. When they are engaged in an exciting +conversation they seem to be creatures shaken by some wild fever. + +Instead of sending me at once to the Queen of the Moon, the man who had +captured me earned a considerable amount of money by taking me every +afternoon to the houses of the rich people. There I was compelled to +jump and make grimaces, and stand in ridiculous attitudes in order to +amuse the crowds of guests who had been invited to see the antics of the +new animal. + +But one day, as my master was pulling the rope around my neck to make me +rise up and divert the company, a man came and asked me in Greek who I +was. Full of joy at meeting someone with whom I could talk, I related to +him the story of my voyage from the Earth. + +"I cannot understand," I said, "how it was I rose up to the Moon when my +machine broke down and fell to the Earth." + +"That is easily explained," he said. "You had got within the circle of +lunar influence, in which the Moon exerts a sort of sucking action on +the fat of the body. The same thing often happens to me. Like you, I am +a stranger on the Moon. I was born on the Sun, but, being of a roving +disposition, I like to explore one planet after another. I have +travelled a good deal in Europe, and conversed with several persons +whose names you no doubt know. I remember that I was once famous in +ancient Greece as the Demon of Socrates." + +"Then you are a spirit?" I exclaimed. + +"A kind of spirit," he replied. "I was one of the large company of the +Men of the Sun who used to inhabit the Earth under the names of oracles, +nymphs, woodland elves, and fairies. But we abandoned our world in the +reign of the Emperor Augustus; your people then became so gross and +stupid that we could no longer delight in their society. Since then I +have stayed on the Moon. I find its inhabitants more enlightened than +the inhabitants of the Earth." + +"I don't!" I exclaimed. "Look how they treat me, as if I were a wild +beast! I am sure that if one of their men of science voyaged to the +Earth, he would be better received than I am here." + +"I doubt it," said the Man of the Sun. "Your men of science would have +him killed, stuffed, and put in a glass case in a museum." + + +_II.--The Garb of Shame_ + + +At this point our conversation was broken off by my keeper. He saw that +the company was tired of my talk, which seemed to them mere grunting. So +he pulled my rope, and made me dance and caper until the spectators +ached with laughter. + +Happily, the next morning the Man of the Sun opened my cage and put me +on his back and carried me away. + +"I have spoken to the King of the Moon," he said; "and he has commanded +that you should be taken to his court and examined by his learned +doctors." + +As my companion went on four feet, he was able to travel as fast as a +racehorse, and we soon arrived at another town, where we put up at an +inn for dinner. I followed him into a magnificently furnished hall, and +a servant asked me what I would begin with. + +"Some soup," I replied. + +I had scarcely pronounced the words when I smelt a very succulent broth. +I rose up to look for the source of this agreeable smell; but my +companion stopped me. + +"What do you want to walk away for?" said he. "Stay and finish your +soup." + +"But where is the soup?" I said. + +"Ah," he replied. "This is the first meal you have had on the Moon. You +see, the people here only live on the smell of food. The fine, lunar art +of cookery consists in collecting the exhalations that come from cooked +meat, and bottling them up. Then, at meal-time, the various jars are +uncorked, one after the other, until the appetites of the diners are +satisfied." + +"It is, no doubt, an exquisite way of eating," I said; "but I am afraid +I shall starve on it." + +"Oh, no, you will not," said he. "You will soon find that a man can +nourish himself as well by his nose as by his mouth." + +And so it was. After smelling for a quarter of an hour a variety of +rich, appetising vapours, I rose up quite satisfied. + +In the afternoon I was taken to the palace of the king, and examined by +the greatest men of science on the Moon. In spite of all that my friend +had said on my behalf, I was adjudged to be a mere animal, and again +shut up in a cage. The king, queen, and courtiers spent a considerable +time every day watching me, and with the help of the Man of the Sun I +soon learned to speak a little of their, music-language. This caused a +great deal of surprise. Several persons began to think that I was really +a man who had been dwarfed and weakened from want of nourishment. + +But the learned doctors again examined me, and decided that, as I did +not walk on four legs, I must be a new kind of featherless parrot. +Thereupon I was given a pole to perch on, instead of a nice warm bed to +lie in; and every day the queen's fowler used to come and whistle tunes +for me to learn. In the meantime, however, I improved my knowledge of +the language, and at last I spoke so well and intelligibly that all the +courtiers said that the learned doctors had been mistaken. One of the +queen's maids of honour not only thought that I was a man, but fell in +love with me. She often used to steal to my cage, and listen to my +stories of the customs and amusements of our world. She was so +interested that she begged me to take her with me if ever I found a way +of returning to the Earth. + +In my examination by the learned doctors I had stated that their world +was but a Moon, and that the Moon from which I had come was really a +world. It was this which had made them angry against me. But my friend, +the Man of the Sun, at last prevailed upon the king to let me out of the +cage on my retracting my wicked heresy. I was clad in splendid robes, +and placed on a magnificent chariot to which four great noblemen were +harnessed, and led to the centre of the city, where I had to make the +following statement: + +"People, I declare to you that this Moon is not a Moon but a world; and +that the world I come from is not a world but a Moon. For this is what +the Royal Council believe that you ought to believe." + +The Man of the Sun then helped me to descend from the chariot, and took +me quickly into a house, and stripped me of my gorgeous robes. "Why do +you do that?" I asked. "This is the most splendid dress I have ever seen +on the Moon." + +"It is a garb of shame," said my companion. "You have this day undergone +the lowest degradation that can be imposed on a man. You committed an +awful crime in saying that the Moon was not a Moon. It is a great wonder +you were not condemned to die of old age." + +"Die of old age?" I said. + +"Yes," replied my companion. "Usually, when a Man of the Moon comes to +that time of life in which he feels that he is losing his strength of +mind and body, he invites all his friends to a banquet. After explaining +what little hope he has of adding anything to the fine actions of his +life, he asks for permission to depart. If he has led a bad life, he is +ordered to live; but if he has been a good man, his dearest friend +kisses him, and plunges a dagger in his heart." + +As he was talking, the son of the man in whose house we were staying +entered the room. My companion quickly rose on his four feet, and made +the young man a profound bow. I asked him why he did this. He told me +that on the Moon parents obey their children, and old men are compelled +to show to young men the greatest respect. + +"They are of opinion," said my companion, "that a strong and active +young man is more capable of governing a family than a dull, infirm +sexagenarian. I know that on your Earth old men are supposed to be wise +and prudent. But, as a matter of fact, their wisdom and prudence +consists merely of a timid frame of mind and a disinclination to take +any risks." + +The father then entered the room, and his son said to him in an angry +voice: + +"Why have you not got our house ready to sail away? You know the walls +of the city have gone some hours ago. Bring me at once your image!" + +The man brought a great wooden image of himself, and his son whipped it +furiously for a quarter of an hour. + +"And now," said the young man at last, "go and hoist the sails at once!" + + +_III.--Marvels of the Moon_ + + +There are two kinds of towns on the Moon: travelling towns and sedentary +towns. In the travelling towns, each house is built of very light wood, +and placed on a platform, beneath the four corners of which great wheels +are fixed. When the time arrives for a voyage to the seaside or the +forest, for a change of air, the townspeople hoist vast sails on the +roofs of their dwellings, and sail away altogether towards the new site. + +In the sedentary towns, on the other hand, the houses are made with +great strong screws running from the cellars to the roofs, which enable +them to be raised or lowered at discretion. The depth of the cellar is +equal to the height of every house; in winter, the whole structure is +lowered below the surface of the ground; in spring, it is lifted up +again by means of the screw. + +As, owing to the father's neglect, the house in which we were staying +could not set sail until the next day, my companion and I accepted an +invitation to stay the night there. Our host then sent for a doctor, who +prescribed what foods I should smell, and what kind of bed I should lie +in. + +"But I am not sick!" I said to the Man of the Sun. + +"If you were," he replied, "the doctor would not have been sent for. On +the Moon, doctors are not paid to cure men, but to keep them in good +health. They are officers of the state, and, once a day, they call at +every house, and instruct the inmates how to preserve their natural +vigour." + +"I wish," I. said, "you could get him to order me a dozen roasted larks +instead of the mere smell of them. I should like to taste some solid +food just for a change." + +He spoke to the doctor, and at a sign from him, our host took a gun and +led me into his garden. + +"Are those the kind of birds you mean?" he said, pointing to a great +swarm of larks singing high up in the sky. + +I replied that they were, and he shot at them, and thirty larks tumbled +over at our feet, not merely dead, but plucked, seasoned, and roasted. + +"You see," said my host, "we mix with our gunpowder and shot a certain +composition which cooks as well as kills." + +I picked up one of the birds and ate it. In sober truth, I have never +tasted on Earth anything so deliciously roasted. + +When I had finished my repast, I was conducted to a little room, the +floor of which was strewn with fine orange blossoms about three feet +deep. The Men of the Moon always sleep on these thick, soft heaps of +fragrant flowers, which are chosen for them every day by their doctors. +Four servants came and undressed me, and gently rubbed my limbs and my +body, and in a few moments I was fast asleep. + +Early next morning I was awakened by the Man of the Sun, who said to me: + +"I know you are anxious to return to your Earth and relate the story of +all the strange and wonderful things you have seen on the Moon. If you +care to while away an hour or two over this book, I will prepare for +your return voyage." + +The book which he put into my hand was an extraordinary object. It was a +kind of machine, full of delicate springs, and it looked like a new kind +of clock. In order to read it, you had to use, not your eyes, but your +ears. For on touching one of the springs, it began to speak like a man. +It was a history of the Sun, and I was still listening to it when my +companion arrived. + +"I am now ready," he said. "On what part of the Earth would you like to +land?" + +"In Italy," I replied. "That will save me the cost and trouble of +travelling to Rome--a city I have always longed to see." + +Taking me in his arms, the Man of the Sun rose swiftly up from the Moon +and carried me across the intervening space, and dropped me rather +roughly on a hill near Rome. When I turned to expostulate with him, I +found that he had disappeared. + + * * * * * + + + + +BJÖRNSTJERNE BJÖRNSON + +Arne + + Björnstjerne Björnson, one of the greatest Scandinavian + writers, was born at Kvikne, in the wild region of the Dovre + Mountains, Norway, Dec. 8, 1832. His father was the village + pastor. Six years later the family removed to Naesset, on the + west coast of Norway. From the grammar school at Molde young + Björnson went to the University of Christiania, and it was + then that he began to write verses and newspaper articles. At + Upsala, in 1856, he understood that he had a definite call to + literature, and at Copenhagen the following year he wrote his + first masterpiece "Synnove Solbakken." This was followed, in + 1858, by "Arne," a story which not only brought him into the + front rank of contemporary writers, but also marked a new era + in Norwegian literature. From that time there has been a + succession of novels, short stories, and plays (Björnson on + two occasions has been the director of a theatre) from his + pen. A drama, "The King," produced in 1877, had an after + effect of immense political importance. It was undoubtedly an + attack on the ruler of Norway and Sweden, and every Norwegian + who wished his country to become an independent nation + welcomed Björnson as the leader of this new movement--with + what success there is now no need to relate, since it has + become a matter of history. Björnson died April 25, 1910. + + +_I.--The Little Song-Maker_ + + +It was up at Kampen that Arne was born. His mother was Margit, the only +child at the little farm among the crags. When she was eighteen, she +stopped too long at a dance one evening; her friends had gone off +without her, so Margit thought the way home would be just as long +whether she waited till the end of the dance or not. + +Thus it came about that Margit remained sitting there till Nils +Skrædder, the fiddler, suddenly laid aside his instrument, as was his +wont when he had had more than enough to drink, left the dancers to hum +their own tune, took hold of the prettiest girl he could find, and, +letting his feet keep as good time to the dance as music to a song, +jerked off with the heel of his boot the hat of the tallest man in the +room. "Ho!" laughed he. + +As Margit walked home that night, the moon was making wondrous sport +over the snow. When she got to the loft where she slept, she could not +help looking out at it again. + +Next time there was a dance in the parish, Margit was present. She did +not care much to dance that evening, but sat listening to the music. But +when the playing ceased the fiddler rose and went straight across to +Margit Kampen. She was scarcely aware of anything, but that she was +dancing with Nils Skrædder! + +Before long the weather grew warmer, and there was no more dancing that +spring. + +One Sunday, when the summer was getting on, Margit went to church with +her mother. When they were at home again her mother threw both her arms +around her. "Hide nothing from me, my child!" she cried. + +Winter came again, but Margit danced no more. Nils Skrædder went on +playing, drank more than formerly, and wound up each party by dancing +with the prettiest girl there. It was said for certain that he could +have whichever he wished of the farmers' daughters, and that Birgit, the +daughter of Böen, was sick for love of him. + +Just about this time a child of the cotter's daughter at Kampen was +brought to be christened. It was given the name of Arne, and its father +was said to be Nils Skrædder. + +The evening of that day saw Nils at a great wedding party. He would not +play, but drank all he could, and was dancing the whole time. But when +he asked Birgit Böen for a dance, she refused him. He turned and took +hold of the first good-looking girl near. She, too, held back, and +answered a request he whispered in her ear with the words: "The dance +might go further than I should like." + +At that Nils drew back, and danced the "Halling" alone. Then he went +into the barn, laid himself down, and wept. + +Margit sat at home with her little boy. She heard about Nils going from +dance to dance, and it was not very long before Arne learnt that Nils +Skrædder was his father, and the kind of man he was. + +It was when Arne was about six years old that two Americans, visiting +the place when a bridal party was going on, were so much struck by the +way Nils danced the "Halling" that they proposed to take him as their +servant, at whatever wages he wanted. They would call for him on their +way back in about a week's time. Nils was the hero of the evening. + +The dance was resumed. Nils looked round at the girls, and went over to +Birgit Böen. He held out his hand, and she put out hers. Then, turning +away with a laugh, he put his arm around the girl next to her, and +danced off with boisterous glee. + +Birgit coloured, and a tall, quiet-looking man took her hand, and danced +away. Nils noticed it, and presently danced so hard against them that +both Birgit and her partner fell to the ground. + +The quiet-looking man got up, went straight to Nils, took him by the +arm, and knocked him down with a blow over the eyes. Nils fell heavily, +tried to rise, and found that he couldn't--his back was badly hurt. + +Meantime, at Kampen, no sooner had the grandmother succeeded in paying +off the last instalment of debt on the farm than she was stricken with +mortal sickness and died. + +A fortnight after the funeral six men brought in a litter, and on the +litter lay Nils with his black hair and pale face. + +In the springtime, a year after he had been brought to Kampen, Nils and +Margit were married. The fiddler's health was ruined, but he was able to +help in the fields, and look after things. Then, one Sunday afternoon, +when Nils and Arne were out together they saw a wedding procession, +fourteen carriages in all. Nils stood for a long time motionless after +the bride and bridegroom had passed, and for the rest of the day he was +sullen and angry. He went out before supper, and returned at midnight, +drunk. + +From that day Nils was constantly going into town and coming home drunk. +He reproached Margit for his wretched life; he cursed her, he struck +her, and beat her. Then would come fits of wild remorse. + +As Arne grew up, Nils took him to dances, and the boy learnt to sing all +sorts of songs. His mother taught him to read, and when he was fifteen +he longed to travel and to write songs. + +At home, things got worse. As Nils grew feebler he became more drunken +and violent, and often Arne would stay at home to amuse him in order +that Margit might have an hour's peace. Arne began to loathe his father; +but he kept this feeling to himself, as he did his love for his mother. + +His one friend was Kristen, the eldest son of a sea-captain. With +Kristen, Arne could talk of books and travel. But there came a day when +Kristen went away to be a sailor, and Arne was left alone. + +Life was very heavy for him. He made up songs and put his grief into +them. But for his mother, Arne would have left Kampen--he stood between +her and Nils. + +One night, about this time, Nils came back late from a wedding-feast. +Margit had gone to bed, and Arne was reading. The boy helped his father +upstairs, and Nils began quoting texts from the Bible and cursing his +own downfall, shedding drunken tears. Presently he made his way to the +bed, and put his fingers on Margit's throat. + +In vain the boy and his mother called on Nils to desist; the drunkard +took no notice. Arne rushed to a corner of the room and picked up an +axe; at the same moment Nils fell down, and, after a piercing shriek, +lay quite still. + +All that night they watched by the dead. A feeling of relief came upon +them both. + +"He fell of himself," Arne said simply, for at first his mother was +terrified by the sight of the axe. + +"Remember, Arne, it's for your sake I've borne it all," Margit said, +weeping. "You must never leave me." + +"Never, never," he answered fervently. + + +_II.--The Call of the Mountains_ + + +Arne grew up reserved and shy; he went on tending the cattle and making +songs. He was now in his twentieth year. The pastor lent him books to +read, the only thing he cared for. + +Many a time he would have liked to read aloud to his mother, but he +could not bring himself to do it. One of the songs he made at this time +began: + + The parish is all restless, but there's peace in grove and wood. + No beadle here impounds you, to suit his crabbed mood; + No strife profanes our little church, tho' there it rages high, + But then we have no little church, and that, perhaps, is why! + +The folks round about got to hear of his songs, and would have been glad +to talk to him; but Arne was shy of people and disliked them, chiefly +because he thought they disliked him. + +He gave up tending the cattle, and stayed at home, looking after the +farm. He was near his mother all day now, and she would give him dainty +meals. In his heart was a song with the refrain "Over the mountains +high!" Somehow, Arne could never finish this song. + +There was a field labourer named Upland Knut, at whose side Arne often +worked. This man had neither parents nor friends, and when Arne said to +him, "Have you no one at all, then, to love you?" he answered, "Ah, no! +I have no one." + +Arne thought of his own mother, and his heart was full of love to her. +What if he were to lose her because he had not sufficiently prized her, +he thought; and he rushed home, to find his mother sleeping gently like +a child. + +Mother and son were much together in those days, and once they agreed to +go to a wedding at a neighbouring farm. + +For the first time in his life Arne drank too much, and all next day he +lay in the barn. He was full of self-reproach, and it seemed to him that +cowardice was his besetting sin. + +Cowardice had been his failing as a boy. It had prevented him taking his +mother's part against his father, from leaving home, from mixing with +people. Cowardice had made him drunk, and, but for his fear and +timidity, his verses would be better. + +After searching everywhere for him, Margit eventually found him in the +barn. He tried to soothe her, and vowed that he would join his life more +closely to his mother's in future. What moved him was that his loving, +patient mother said that she had done a grievous wrong against him, and +implored his forgiveness. + +"Of course, I forgive you," he said. + +"God bless you, my dear, dear Arne." + +From that day, Arne was not only happier at home, but he began to look +at other people more kindly, more with his mother's gentle eyes. But he +still went about alone, and a strange longing often possessed his soul. + +One summer evening Arne had gone out to sit by the Black Lake, a piece +of water very dark and deep. He sat behind some bushes and looked out +over the water, and at the hills opposite, and at the homesteads in the +valley. + +Presently he heard voices close beside him. A young girl, he made out, +was grumbling because she had got to leave the parsonage, where she had +been staying with Mathilde, the parson's daughter, and it was her father +who was taking her home. A third voice, sharp and strident, was heard. + +"Hurry up, now, Baard; push off the boat, or we sha'n't be home +to-night." + +The rattle of cart-wheels followed, and Baard fetched a box out of the +cart, and carried it down to the boat. + +Then Mathilde, the parson's daughter, came running up calling, "Eli! +Eli!" + +The two girls wept in each other's arms. + +"You must take this," said Mathilde, giving her friend a bird-cage. +"Mother wants you to. Yes, you must take Narrifas, and then you'll often +think of me." + +"Eli! Come, come, Eli!" came the summons from the boat. + +A moment after, and Arne saw the boat out in the water, Eli standing up +in the stern, holding the bird-cage and waving her hand to Mathilde. His +eyes followed the boat, and he watched it draw near to the land. He +could see the three forms mirrored in the water, and continued gazing +until they had left the boat and gone indoors at the biggest house on +the opposite side of the lake. + +Mathilde had sat for some time by the landing stage, but she had left +now, and Arne was alone when Eli came out again for a last look across +the water. Arne could see her image in the lake. "Perhaps she sees me +now," he thought. Then, when the sun had set, he got up and went home, +feeling that all things were at peace. + +Arne's fancies for some time now were of dreams of love and fair +maidens. Old ballads and romances mirrored them for him, as the water +had mirrored the young girl. + +A two-fold longing--the yearning to have someone to love, and a desire +to do something great--sprang up together in his soul, and melted into +one. Again he began to work at the song, "Over the mountains high," +altering it, and thinking each time, "One day it will carry me off." But +he never forgot his mother in his thoughts of travel, and decided that +he would send for her as soon as he had got a footing abroad. + +There was in the parish a merry old fellow of the name of Ejnar Aasen. +He was well off, and, in spite of a lameness that made him use a crutch, +was fond of organising parties of children to go nutting. All the young +people called him "godfather." + +Aasen liked Arne, and invited him to join in the next nutting party, and +though Arne blushed, and made excuses, he decided to go. He found +himself the only young man among many girls. They were not the maidens +of whom he had made songs, nor yet was he afraid of them. They were more +full of life than anything he had seen, and they could make merry over +anything. All of them laughed at Arne, as they caught at the branches, +because he was serious, so that he could not help laughing himself. + +After a while they all sat on a large knoll, old Aasen in the middle, +and told stories. And then they were anxious to tell their dreams, but +this could be done only to one person, and Arne was trusted to hear the +dreams. The last of the girls to tell her dreams was called Eli, and she +was the girl he had seen in the boat. + +Arne had to say which was the best dream, and as he said he wanted time +to think, they left him sitting on the knoll and trooped off with +godfather. Arne sat for some time, and the old yearnings to travel came +back, and drove him to his song, "Over the mountains high." Now, at +last, he had got the words; and taking paper out of his pocket, he wrote +the song through to the end. When he had finished he rose, and left the +paper on the knoll; and later, when he found he had forgotten it, he +went back. But the paper was gone. + +One of the girls, who had returned to seek him, had found--not Arne, but +his song. + + +_III.--Love's Awakening_ + + +Whenever Arne mentioned his friend Kristen, and wondered why he never +heard from him, his mother left the room, and seemed unhappy for days +afterwards. He noticed, too, that she would get specially nice meals for +him at such times. + +He had never been so gentle since his father's death as he was that +winter. On Sundays he would read a sermon to his mother, and go to +church with her; but she knew this was only to win her consent to his +going abroad in the spring. Upland Knut, who had always been alone, now +came to live at Kampen. Arne had become very skilful with axe and saw, +and that winter he was often busy at the parsonage as well as Kampen. + +One day a messenger came from Böen to ask him if he would go over there +for some carpentry work. He answered "Yes," without thinking about the +matter. As soon as the man had gone, his mother told him that it was +Baard Böen who had injured his father; but Arne decided to go all the +same. + +It was a fine homestead, and Baard and Arne soon became on friendly +terms. He had many talks, too, with Eli, and at times would sing his own +songs to her, and afterwards feel ashamed. + +Then Eli fell ill, and Birgit blamed Baard because Mathilde had gone +away from the parsonage on a visit to town without bidding good-bye to +Eli. It seemed to Baard that whatever he did was wrong. + +"You either keep silent too much, or you talk too much," said his wife. + +During Eli's illness Baard would often sit and talk with Arne, and one +day he told him how he had been driven to attack Nils, and then how he +had courted and won Birgit. + +"She was very melancholy at first," said Baard, "and I had nothing to +say; and then she got into bustling, domineering ways, and I had nothing +to say to that. But one day of real happiness I've not had the twenty +years we've been married." + +When Eli was getting better, her mother came down one evening and asked +Arne, in her daughter's name, to go up and sing to her. Eli had heard +him singing. Arne was confused, but gave in and went upstairs. + +The room was in darkness, and he had not seen Eli since the day she had +fallen ill, and he had helped to carry her to her room. Arne sat down in +a chair at the foot of the bed. When people talk in the dark they are +generally more truthful than when they see one another's faces. + +Eli made Arne sing to her, first a hymn, and then a song of his own. For +some time there was silence between them, and then Eli said, "I wonder, +Arne, that you, who have so much that is beautiful within, should want +to go away. You must not go away." + +"There are times when I seem not to want to so much," he answered. + +Presently Arne could hear her weeping, and he felt that he must +move--either forward or back. + +"Eli!" + +"Yes." Both voices were at a whisper. + +"Give me your hand." + +She made no answer. He listened, quickly, closely, stretched out his own +hand, and grasped a warm little hand that lay bare. + +There was a step on the stairs; they let go of one another, and Birgit +entered with a light. "You've been sitting too long in the dark," she +said, putting the candle on the table. But neither Eli nor Arne could +bear the light; she turned to the pillow, and he shaded his face with +his hands. + +"Ah, yes; it's a bit dazzling at first," said the mother, "but the +feeling soon passes away." + +Next day Arne heard that Eli was better and going to come down for a +time after dinner. He at once put his tools together, and bade farewell +to the farm. And when Eli came downstairs he was gone. + + +_IV.--After Many Years_ + + +It was springtime when Margit went up to the parsonage. There was +something heavy on her heart. Letters had come from Kristen for Arne, +and she had been afraid to give them to her son lest he should go away +and join his friend. Kristen had even sent money, and this Margit had +given to Arne, pretending it had been left him by his grandmother. All +this Margit poured out to the old pastor, and also her fears that Arne +would go travelling. + +"Ah!" he said, smiling, "if only there was some little lassie who could +get hold of him. Eli Böen, eh? And if he could manage so that they could +meet sometimes at the parsonage." + +Margit looked up anxiously. + +"Well, we'll see what we can do," he went on; "for, to tell you the +truth, my wife and daughter have long been of the same mind." + +Then came the summer, and one day, when the heavens were clear, Arne +walked out and threw himself down on the grass. He meant to go to the +parsonage and borrow a newspaper. He had not been to Böen since that +night in the sick-room, and now he glanced towards the house, and then +turned away his eyes. Presently he heard someone singing his song, the +song he had lost the very day he made it. + + Fain would I know what the world may be + Over the mountains high. + Mine eyes can nought but the white snow see, + And up the steep sides the dark fir-tree, + That climbs as if yearning to know. + Say, tree, dost thou venture to go? + +There were eight verses, and Arne stood listening till the last word had +died away. He must see who it was, and presently above him he caught +sight of Eli. + +The sunlight was falling straight on her, and it seemed to Arne, as he +looked at her, that he had never seen or dreamt of anything more +beautiful in his life. He watched her get up, without letting himself be +seen, and presently she was gone. Arne no longer wanted to go to the +parsonage, but he went and sat where she had sat, and his breast was +full of gentle feelings. + +Eli often went to the parsonage, and one Sunday evening Margit found her +there, and persuaded the girl to walk back to Kampen with her. Eli +entered the house only when she heard that Arne was not at home. It was +the first time she had visited the homestead. Margit took her all over +the house, and showed her Arne's room, and opened a little chest full of +silk kerchiefs and ribbons. + +"He bought something each time he's been to the town," Margit remarked. + +Eli would have given anything to go away, but she dared not speak. + +In a special compartment in the chest she had seen a buckle, a pair of +gold rings, and a hymn-book bound with silver clasps, and wrought on the +clasps was: + +"Eli Baardsdatter Böen." + +The mother put back the things, closed the box, and clasped the girl to +her heart; for Eli was weeping. + +When they were downstairs again, they heard a man's step in the passage, +and Arne entered, and saw Eli. + +"You here?" he said, and blushed a fiery red. Then he put his arms +around her, and she leant her head on his breast. He whispered something +in her ear, and for a long while they stood in silence, her arms around +his neck. + +As they walked home together in the fair summer evening, they could +utter but few words in their strange, new Happiness. Nature interpreted +their hearts to one another, and on his way back from that first +summer-night's walk, Arne made many new songs. + +It was harvest time when the marriage of Eli with Arne was celebrated. +The Black Water was full of boats taking people to Böen. + +All the doors were open at the house. Eli was in her room with Mathilde +and the pastor's wife. Arne was downstairs looking out from the window. + +Presently Baard and Birgit, both dressed, for church, met on the stairs, +and went up together to a garret where they were alone. Baard had +something to say, but it was hard to say it. + +"Birgit," he began, "you've been thinking, as I've been, I daresay. _He_ +stood between us two, I know, and it's gone on a long time. To-day a son +of his has come into our house, and to him we've given our only +daughter.... Birgit, can't we, too, join our hearts to-day?" + +His voice trembled, but no answer came. + +They heard Eli outside, calling gently: "Aren't you coming, mother?" + +"Yes, I'm coming now, dear!" said Birgit, in a choking voice. She walked +across the room to Baard, took his hand in hers, and broke into violent +sobs. The two hands clung tight and it was hand in hand they opened the +door and went downstairs. And when the bridal train streamed down to the +landing stage, and Arne gave his hand to Eli, Baard, against all custom, +took Birgit's hand in his own and followed them calmly, happily, +smilingly. + +In the boat his eyes rested on the bridal pair and on his wife. "Ah!" he +said to himself, "no one would have thought such a thing possible twenty +years ago." + + * * * * * + + + + +In God's Way + + "In God's Way" belongs to the second group of Björnson's + novels, of which the first group is represented by early + peasant tales like "Arne." In this later category the stories + are of a more or less didactic nature. Although "In God's Way" + lacks something of the freshness and beauty that distinguished + "Arne," it is, nevertheless a powerful and vivid picture of + Norwegian religious life; and it is, of all Björnson's books, + the one by which he is most widely known outside his native + country. In this story Björnson has been influenced by the + social dramas of his compatriot, Ibsen; but it may be + questioned whether he has not brought to his task a higher + inspiration and a stronger faith in humanity than the famous + dramatist possessed. Published in 1889, the main theme of "In + God's Way" was undoubtedly suggested by the religious + excitement which then prevailed in Norway. + + +_I.--A Strange Home-coming_ + + +Pastor Tuft was walking up and down his study, composing his Sunday +sermon. He was a handsome man, with a long, fair face, and dreamy eyes; +his wife, Josephine, in the days when she thought she was in love with +him, used to call him Melanchthon--that was not many years ago, and he +still resembled in appearance the poet of the Reformation. But his +features had now lost their fine serenity, and he was glad when his +bitter and troubled thoughts on the doctrine of justification--a subject +he had chosen for its bearing on his brother-in-law's conduct--were +interrupted by his wife. Josephine burst into his study in a state of +fierce excitement. + +"They will be here in a moment," she said. "The steamer has arrived. Oh, +that woman, that woman! She has ruined my brother's life!" + +"If he wanted to settle again in Norway with her," said the pastor, +"couldn't he have chosen some spot where the story of their misconduct +was not known? But to come to the very town! Everybody will remember!" + +"Yes," said Josephine; "it is only six years since Edward ran off to +America with Sören Kule's wife. Surely, he will not expect you, a +minister, to receive the woman, especially as Kule is still living." + +While she was talking, Tuft stared out of the window. A tall man in +light clothes was coming to the house--a tall man, with a clear-cut, +sunburnt face, and a lean, curved nose that gave him the air of a bird +of prey. By his side was a lady with sweet, delicate features, dressed +in a tartan travelling costume. There was a knock at the door. Josephine +went down very slowly, and opened it. "Edward!" + +There was a glow in her eyes as she welcomed her brother, and his eyes +also lighted up. He was about to cross the threshold, when he noticed +that she completely disregarded his companion. In the meantime, Tuft had +come to the door; he, too, made no advances. There was always something +of the keen, wild look of an eagle about Edward Kallem; it became still +more striking as he glared at his sister and brother-in-law. + +"Are you waiting," he said, "for me to introduce my wife? Well, here she +is--Ragni Kallem." + +So the pair had married in America! If Tuft and Josephine had not been +so eager to impute every sort of misconduct to runaways, they would have +foreseen this natural event. Tuft tried to find something to say, but +failed, and glanced at Josephine. But she did not look as if she were +willing to help him. + +For the fact that Edward and Ragni were now married increased rather +than diminished Josephine's bitterness. Although she would not admit it +to herself, her religious objections were a mere pretence. She was +jealous, jealous with the strange jealousy of a sister who wanted to be +all in all to her brilliant brother, and hated that another woman should +be more to him than she was. All her life had been centred on him. She +had married Ole Tuft, a poor peasant's son, because he was the bosom +friend of Edward. Her marriage, she thought, would connect them still +more closely. She wanted to live by his side, watching him rise into +fame as the greatest doctor in Norway. For young Kallem's masters had +predicted that he would prove to be a man of genius. + +Possessing considerable wealth, he had taken up the study of medicine, +not as a means of livelihood, but as a matter of love and duty. Then, +six years ago, he had run off with old Sören Kule's young wife, and +Josephine's dream had come to an end, leaving her life little more than +a dull, empty round of routine housework. + +This was why she now gazed with hard, cold eyes at Ragni. Edward Kallem +saw her look of wild hatred, and, taking his weeping wife gently by the +arm, he turned away, and led her from the house into the road. + +Josephine went upstairs, and gazed from the study window at the +retreating figures. Her husband followed her, with a curious look in his +eyes. Neither of them spoke. In their hearts was raging a storm of +passion wilder than the anger which possessed Kallem, and the sorrow +which bowed down Ragni. + +Josephine left the room without looking-at her husband. He gazed after +her still with the same curious look in his eyes. Then, pulling himself +together, he went on writing his sermon. "What makes God so merciful to +sinners?" he wrote. "His infinite love? Yes, justification is certainly +an act of mercy, but it is also an act of judgment. The claims of the +law must be first fulfilled. A sinner must believe in order to be +saved." + +The point in this was that Edward Kallem was a freethinker. There could +be no forgiveness for him. At the bottom of his heart, Tuft was glad +that there had been no reconciliation. Ever since he had married the +wealthy and beautiful sister of his bosom friend, he had been jealous of +Josephine's passionate attachment to her brother. Her brother had +remained her hero, and the peasant she had married and enriched was +little more than her servant. + +While, with these bitter thoughts in his head, Tuft was composing his +sermon Josephine was writing a dastardly letter. It was to Sören Kule. +Edward and Ragni had returned, married. There was an empty house near +the one they had bought. Would Sören Kule come and live in it? So the +letter ran. The next day, Sunday, Josephine went to church in a very +Christianlike frame of mind. She felt she had done her duty, and avenged +herself in doing it. + + +_II.--The Poison of Tongues_ + + +At first things did not go as Josephine expected. With the exception of +his sister and brother-in-law, everybody welcomed Edward Kallem and his +wife back to his native town. At the house of Pastor Meek, the oldest +and most influential of the clergy, Ragni was introduced to a middle- +aged lady, who startled her by saying: + +"I am Sören Kule's sister. I want to tell you that, in your position, I +should have acted just as you did." + +This, indeed, was the general verdict. No one who knew Sören Kule blamed +Ragni. An old rake, blind and half-paralysed as the immediate result of +ill-living, he had worried his first wife, Ragni's sister, into the +grave, and then taken advantage of the young girl's innocence to marry +her. The man was a mass of corruption, and his second marriage was one +of those strangely cruel crimes which go unpunished in the present state +of society. Kallem, who was then lodging in the same house as Kule, was +maddened by it. Being a doctor, he foresaw clearly the fate of the pure, +lovely, girlish victim of Kule's brutal passion, and in rescuing her +from it he had displayed, in the opinion of his friends, the chivalry of +soul of a modern knight-errant. + +Pastor Meek was a liberal-minded and courageous old man; he showed his +sympathy with the Kallems, and his trust in them, in a practical manner. + +"My grandson, Karl," he said to Kallem, "is at school here. I wish you +would let him come, now and then, to your house. He is only nineteen +years old, but he promises to be a first-rate composer. Your wife plays +the piano beautifully. They ought to get on well together." + +Kallem was so pleased with this mark of approval that he went the next +morning to the young musician's lodgings, and invited him to come and +live with him. Karl Meek was a lanky, awkward hobbledehoy, with a +tousled head of hair and long red hands, which were always covered with +chilblains. Ragni asked him to play a simple duet, but he made so many +mistakes in playing that she got up from the piano. He was upset, and +ran away from the house. Kallem spent an afternoon looking for him, and +brought him back with his hair cut, his nails trimmed, and his clothes +brushed. + +"Can't you see?" said Kallem to his wife. "The lad's shy and afraid of +you. Do, my dear, make him feel quite at home." + +Ragni was a sweet and gentle woman, and though she did not like Karl +much at first, she took him in hand, and, little by little, obtained a +great influence over the wild creature. As his fine poetic nature +gradually revealed itself, she began to mother him. They were often seen +walking out together, and as soon as the snow was firm, they used to go +and meet Kallem, and drive home with him, each standing on one of the +runners of his sledge. One afternoon, after they had been skating +together on the frozen bay, they were returning, without Kallem, when a +carriage barred their way. At the sound of Ragni's voice, the man inside +said: + +"There she goes! Who is it with her? Another man? Ah, I thought that's +what would happen!" + +Ragni shuddered. It was Sören Kule. The paralysed old rake turned his +blind face upon her, as though he could see her, and had caught her +doing wrong. The carriage stopped by the next house to the Kallems. +Before Kule could get out, Ragni had run indoors. Shortly afterwards her +husband arrived. She saw that he, too, had met Kule, and he saw that she +had gone into the bedroom to hide herself. She buried her head in his +arms; it seemed to her that the air was now full of evil spirits. + +And so it was. Edward Kallem did not know it, as he was now too busy to +go out anywhere. He was spending a great deal of his wealth in fitting +out a private hospital for the study and treatment of the diseases that +he specialised in. But Karl Meek soon became aware of malign influences +working around him, and around the two persons for whom he would +willingly, nay, happily, have laid down his life. He met an old friend +in the street, who said to him: + +"How do you stand in regard to Mrs. Kallem?" + +Karl did not take in his meaning, and began to praise Ragni +enthusiastically. + +"Yes, I know all about that," his friend interrupted. "But, to make a +clean breast of it, are you her lover?" + +"How dare you, how dare you!" cried Karl. + +His friend quietly said that he only wanted to warn Karl; the report had +certainly got about. + +"You've been a great deal together, you know," said his friend; "that +has given the scandal-mongers something to go on." + +Both Edward and Ragni saw that something had happened to Karl when he +returned. He was in a black mood; he did not speak; his blue eyes were, +by turns, strangely savage and strangely sorrowful. He had to go home at +once, he said. He could not tell them now what the matter was, but he +would write to them, as soon as he could pluck up the courage to do so. +He packed his luggage, and Kallem went to see him off. + +A few days afterwards, Ragni received a letter from Karl. He was going +to Berlin, he said, to take up the study of music seriously. And then, +for four pages, he talked about his prospects. But there was another +page, a loose one, on which was written in red ink: "Read this when you +are alone." + +"I have decided, Ragni," Karl wrote, "that it would be wisest to tell +you why I left so suddenly. Someone has started a dreadful slander +against us. If I do not now tell you, you will hear it from the lips of +some enemy. Ah, God! that I should have brought this upon you! Love you? +Of course I love you. How could I help doing so, after all your kindness +to me? And as for Edward, I worship the ground he treads on. He is the +noblest man I have ever met. But do not show him this letter. Spare him +the evil news as long as possible. Now that I have gone away, it may all +blow over." + +Kallem did not get home from the hospital that night until eight +o'clock. When he came home his wife was lying in bed with a headache. +She did not get up the next morning. She was in bed several days. When +at last she got up, her husband noticed that she had grown very thin; +her face had a tired, delicate expression; there were dark rings around +her sweet eyes, and she was troubled with a cough. + + +_III.--The Fell Work of Slander_ + + +Ragni now did not stir outside her own door. She longed for fresh air, +but she would not go out into the town for fear of the cruel, curious +eyes of the scandal-mongers. Sören Kule haunted her. His house +overlooked her garden, and she got the strange fancy into her head that +he was always sitting at the window blindly listening for her. So she +never even went for a walk in the park-like grounds which Kallem had +purchased wholly for her pleasure. + +The poison of scandal had done its work. Her husband, unfortunately, +never suspected that she was really ill; he had a deep longing for a +child of his marriage, and, misled by too eager a hope, he +misinterpreted the strange alteration in his wife's health. + +But one evening, when she coughed, some blood came up. Kallem saw it, +and the hideous truth came upon him in a blinding flash. It was the +terrible disease which he had spent the greater part of his fortune in +fighting against. Tuberculosis! But how was it that it had come so +suddenly, and ravaged her dear, sweet, tender body so furiously? She was +in a galloping consumption, and the end was not far off ... a few +weeks ... a few days, perhaps. + +"Darling," he said, coming to her bedside one day, "isn't there some +secret you would like to confide in me--some secret that has been +hurting and distressing you? Tell me, dearest, for I shall have no peace +until I know it." + +"I will tell you," she said. "I have just been thinking about it. You +will find some papers in my writing-table--they are all for you. Read +them, dear, when----" she broke off abruptly--"by and by. You will +understand that it was for your sake I kept it secret." + +He went downstairs, and in the writing-table he found Karl's letter. +Horror, indignation, and helplessness overcame him. Why had he not known +of this in time? He would have gone to every soul in the town, and told +them that they lied. + +"Ay," he said, "I will tell them so yet. They have murdered +her--cowardly murdered her! Ah, God, I have spent my life and my fortune +in my endeavours to benefit them, and there's not one of them--not +one--honest enough to tell me to defend my wife's good name!" + +What drove him almost to madness was that there was none he could go to +and take by the throat, exclaiming: "You have done this! You are +answerable to me for this!" Still, there was one who stood apart from +the others--Josephine. Josephine had not invented the slander; that was +not her way. But she would believe what was invented when it concerned +anyone she disliked. And how she disliked Ragni! Yes, it was Josephine +and her hypocrite of a husband who had laid his darling open to this +sort of attack. Very well! Everything else was gone--his joy of life, +his interest in science, and his love of mankind. But he still had +something to live for--vengeance! + +As he was sitting one evening by the bedside of his wife the door +opened, and Karl Meek came into the room. "Is she dead?" said the boy. +Ragni heard the question. She looked up, and tried to smile. Her eyes +rested for a moment on Karl, and then remained on her husband. A moment +after she was dead. + +Josephine was surprised to hear that Karl Meek was the only person whom +her brother allowed to follow the coffin of his dead wife. Did that mean +that Edward did not suspect him? Or, more likely, that he had forgiven +him? Ah, if one could be as good as that! + +"God's way with sinners," said Tuft, "may seem cruel, but it is really +kind and merciful. The death of that woman will work for Edward's good: +Of course, he feels it keenly now, but he will get over it. It is a +blessing in disguise." + +As soon as Tuft uttered these words he felt the sheer brutality of them. +By a strange irony of fate, his own child had fallen ill about the time +that Ragni took to her bed, and the minister and his wife were now +talking over the couch of their suffering little boy. Something was +wrong with his chest, and Josephine would have liked to call in her +clever brother in place of the ordinary family doctor, but she would not +humble herself to beg his help. Perhaps it was the shock of her +husband's words that aroused her, but that night the springs of her +nature were strangely opened. She came downstairs in her nightdress to +Tuft's bed, and awoke him. Her eyes were fixed in a blank stare. + +"I can't sleep, Ole," she whispered. "I want to warn you. That woman-- +Edward's wife--is trying to take away our boy. We have been too hard on +her--too hard. Now she will make us pay for it." + +"You are not yourself, Josephine," said Tuft, rising up, and dressing +himself hastily. "I will fetch the doctor." + +"No, no!" she cried. "Ask Edward to come." + +Tuft did not dare do this himself, but he got his doctor to approach +Kallem, who made an appointment to examine the child early next morning. +Josephine shrieked when she saw him. Under the stress of mental +suffering, the flesh on his face had wasted to the bone; he was the +image of death. Without speaking to either of the parents he went to the +child, tapped its chest lightly here and there, and then said something +to the doctor and went out. + +"He has gone to get his instruments," the doctor whispered. "The case is +extremely serious. An operation must be performed at once." + +Josephine did not speak, neither did Tuft. They had been watching +Kallem's face as he bent over their boy, and in it they seemed to read +the sentence of death. They had called him in too late. + +They were mistaken. Edward Kallem came hurrying back with a staff of +trained assistants. Tuft and Josephine were locked outside their child's +room. An hour afterwards the door was opened. The boy's life was saved. +This they learnt from their own doctor, but Kallem himself departed +without even speaking to them. + + +_IV.--The Reconciliation_ + + +That night, over the body of the sleeping child, Ole Tuft at last dealt +sternly and truly with himself. Three times, in the course of the day, +had he gone to Kallem's house to thank him for saving his boy's life. +But Kallem had refused to see him. At the third refusal Tuft understood. +If ever he entered his brother-in-law's house he would enter it a +changed man. He was now vowing that he would begin this new life by +uniting Edward and Josephine. It was his jealousy, he admitted to +himself, which had been the root of all the mischief. + +Edward had been his hero, too, in his younger days, and it was this +common worship of a nobler and more gifted nature which had brought him +and Josephine together. Why had he not let it remain the base of their +intercourse? Their marriage would then have been a happy one, and his +own life would have been filled with larger thoughts and more generous +feelings. + +While Pastor Tuft was meditating, his wife was acting. She too, had been +refused admittance to her brother's house. So she was writing to him. +For whatever wrong they might have done, she said, they wished to make +amends. They had been intolerant, she allowed, and they were sorry for +it. But surely they were worthy to be accused? Would he not, then, tell +them plainly what they had done to make him so angry? + +Some days afterwards, Josephine received a large envelope addressed to +her by her brother. But she was surprised, on opening it, to find that +it was full of papers in two strange handwritings. They were letters to +Kallem, from Ragni and Karl Meek. Josephine trembled as she looked at +them. She began by chance with Meek's letters. Ragni innocent? Good God! +was she innocent? Yes! Now she understood why Edward had driven away on +the day of the funeral with only Karl Meek by his side; but she could +not understand how he had survived it. + +The servant knocked at her bedroom door, saying that supper was ready. + +"No, no!" she managed to exclaim, as she writhed in shame and sorrow. +She must go at once to her brother if she had to go to him on her knees. +But no! Here were Ragni's letters. She felt as if her brother were +standing over her, and forcing her to read them. Some of them were early +love-letters. There had been no misconduct. Her chivalrous brother and +the sweet, gentle woman whom he had rescued from a horrible fate had +lived apart from one another in America until the day of their marriage. + +Josephine slipped from the chair down upon her knees, weeping and +sobbing. "Forgive me! Forgive me!" she whispered, pressing Ragni's +letters in her hands. + +Then she forced herself to silence, so that no one might discover her +crouching there in the shame of her crime. She had murdered her +brother's wife--not by words, but by her silence! Yes, she was a +murderess! Well, let Edward deal with her as he thought fit! + +She ran wildly out of the house into the dark, rainy street, past her +husband's church, past the white wall of Sören Kule's dwelling. Her +brother was standing in the open door, surrounded by trunks and boxes. +Was he thinking of going away? Tears streamed down her face. + +"Edward!" + +She could get no further. He drew himself upright, his face white and +stern. + +"You shall never enter here!" he said, with a break in his voice. + +He bent down to do up a trunk. When he got up she was gone. With a +fierce look in his eyes, he continued his preparations. He meant to +catch the first train the next morning, and get at once far away from +his native town. What he would then do he did not know, except that he +would never return. When everything was ready, he locked the front door +and went to bed. But he could not sleep. Twice in the night the +door-bell rang, but he would not open the door. It rang a third time, +and kept on ringing; and at last he got out of bed. It was Ole Tuft. His +face was ghastly. + +"Where is my wife, Edward Kallem? What have you done with my wife?" he +moaned. + +"Ragni's grave," said Kallem. "She is there, I think." + +And then he slammed the door to. Just as dawn was breaking, the bell +rang again. Kallem went into the hall, and saw that two pieces of paper +had been thrust through the letter-box. On one, Tuft had written: "She +is not there, Edward; she was not there. I found this note on my +writing-table among the letters you sent her. Oh, Edward, it was not +like you to send her away!" On the other piece of paper Josephine had +written: "Read these, Ole, and you will understand all. For my life's +sake, I am now going to my brother!" + +"For my life's sake!" Kallem shivered as he read it, and all his old +love for his sister came back to him. Had he killed her? She had wronged +Ragni, true; but it was merely out of jealousy. Jealousy because he had +made Ragni all in all to him, and left her out of his life. He could +have brought his wife and sister together, but he had not tried to do +it. Ah, he, too, was guilty! All her life long Josephine had looked up +to him and worshipped him. Then he had come back from America, and cast +her off, for one who was not worthy of him, so it seemed to her. And in +his fierce pride he had refused to reveal to her the fine character of +his wife. + +He rushed out of the door, resolved to find what had become of her. She +was sitting on the steps of the house. As she saw him, she crouched down +like a wounded bird, which cannot get away, yet must not be seen. He +took her up into his arms, and carried her indoors. + +"Let me stay, Edward--let me stay!" she said. + +He bent over her and kissed her. + +"God's ways! God's ways!" said Ole Tuft, as he and Edward and Josephine +walked slowly towards his house through the empty streets in the early +morning. + +"But I still cannot share your faith," Kallem said. + +"It matters not," said the minister. "There where good people walk, are +God's ways." + + * * * * * + + + + +WILLIAM BLACK + + + +A Daughter of Heth + + William Black, born in Glasgow, Scotland, Nov. 13, 1841, was + educated with a view to being a landscape painter, a training + that clearly influenced his literary life. He became a painter + of scenery in words. At the age of twenty-three he went to + London, after some experience in Glasgow journalism, and + joined the staff of the "Morning Star," and, later, the "Daily + News," of which journal he became assistant-editor. His first + novel appeared in 1868, but it was not until the publication + of "A Daughter of Heth," in 1871, that Black secured the + attention of the reading public. "The Strange Adventures of a + Phaeton" followed, and in 1873 "A Princess of Thule" attained + great popularity. Retiring from journalism the next year he + devoted himself entirely to fiction. A score of novels + followed, the last in 1898, just before his death on December + 10 of that year. No novelist has lavished more tender care on + the portrayal of his heroines, or worked up more delicately a + scenic background for plaintive sentiment. + + +_I.--In Strange Surroundings_ + + +"Noo, Wattie," said the Whaup, "ye maun say a sweer before ye get up. +I'm no jokin', and unless ye be quick ye'll be in the water." + +Wattie Cassilis, the "best boy" of the Airlie Manse, paragon of +scholars, and exemplar to his four brothers, was depending from a small +bridge over the burn, his head downward and a short distance from the +water, his feet being held close to the parapet by the muscular arms of +his eldest brother, Tammas Cassilis, commonly known as the Whaup. + +"Wattie," repeated the Whaup, "say a sweer, or into the burn ye'll gang +as sure as daith!" and he dipped Wattie a few inches, so that the +ripples touched his head. Wattie set up a fearful howl. + +"Now, will ye say it?" + +"_Deevil!_" cried Wattie. "Let me up; I hae said a sweer!" + +The other brothers raised a demoniac shout of triumph over his apostacy. + +"Ye maun say a worse sweer, Wattie. Deevil is no bad enough." + +"I'll droon first!" whimpered Wattie, "and then ye'll get your paiks, +I'm thinking." + +Down went Wattie's head into the burn again, and this time he was raised +with his mouth sputtering out the contents it had received. + +"I'll say what ye like! _D--n;_ is that bad enough?" + +With another unholy shout of derision Wattie was raised and set on the +bridge. + +"Noo," said the Whaup, standing over him, "let me tell you this, my man. +The next time ye gang to my faither, and tell a story about any one o' +us, or the next time you say a word against the French lassie, as ye ca' +her, do ye ken what I'll do? I'll take ye back to my faither by the lug, +and I'll tell him ye were sweerin' like a trooper down by the burn, and +every one o' us will testify against you, and then, I'm thinking, it +will be your turn to consider paiks." + +Catherine Cassilis, "the French lassie," had arrived at the Manse a few +weeks before, and she had sore need of a champion. + +Andrew Bogue, the ancient henchman of the Rev. Gavin Cassilis, minister +of Airlie, who met her at the station, disapproved of her from the first +as a foreign jade dressed so that all the men turned and looked at her +as if she had been a snare of Satan. Then, had not young Lord Earlshope, +after introducing himself, taken a seat in the trap and talked with her +in her own language as if he had known her for years? + +"They jabbered away in their foreign lingo," said Andrew that evening to +his wife Leezibeth, the housekeeper "and I'm thinking it was siccan a +language was talked in Sodom and Gomorrah. And he was a' smiles, and she +was a' smiles, and they seemed to think nae shame o' themselves goin' +through a decent countryside!" + +The Whaup himself had said, on the night of Coquette's arrival, "Oh, +she's an actress, and I hate actresses!" But before many days had +passed, he completely changed that hasty view. The big, sturdy, +long-legged lad succumbed to the charms of his parentless cousin--the +daughter of the minister's brother, who had settled in France and taken +to himself a French wife--and he became her defender against those +inhabitants of the Manse and the parish--from his brother Wattie to the +pragmatic schoolmaster--whose prejudices she unintentionally outraged. + +Even the minister was grieved when Coquette, as her father had called +her, made a casual remark about the "last time she had gone to the +mass." + +"I am deeply pained," said the minister gravely. "I knew not that my +brother had been a pervert from the communion of our church." + +"Papa was not a Catholic," said Coquette. "Mamma and I were. But it +matters nothing. I will go to your church--it is the same to me. I only +try to be kind to the people around me--that is all." + +"She has got the best part of all religions if she does her best for the +people about her," said the Whaup. + +"Thomas," remonstrated the minister severely, "you are not competent to +judge of these things." + +Coquette's second error was to play the piano on a Sabbath morning. She +was stopped in this hideous offence by the housekeeper, Leezibeth. + +"Is the Manse to be turned topsalteery, and made a byword a' because o' +a foreign hussy?" asked Leezibeth. + +"Look here," said the Whaup, trying to comfort his weeping cousin, "you +can depend on me. When you get into trouble, send for me, and if any man +or woman in Airlie says a word to you, by jingo I'll punch their head!" + +The discovery of a crucifix over the head of the maiden's bed filled +full the cup of Leezibeth's wrath and indignation. + +"I thought the Cross was a symbol of all religions," said Coquette +humbly. "If it annoys you, I will take it down. My mother gave it to +me--I cannot put it away altogether." + +"You shall not part with it," said the Whaup. "Let me see the man or +woman who will touch that crucifix, though it had on it the woman o' +Babylon herself!" + +But the Whaup himself was troubled by the acquaintance of Coquette with +Lord Earlshope, which, from a casual meeting, developed with startling +rapidity. + +His lordship's reputation in the parish was far from good. He never +attended the kirk; was seen walking about with his dogs and smoking on +the Sabbath; and even, it was said, read novels on that holy day. His +appearance in church on the first Sunday after Coquette's arrival in +Airlie was not difficult to explain, and it was followed by interchanges +of visits between the Manse and Earlshope House. + +Soon the young lord and Coquette began to meet when she was taking her +early walk, a form of "carrying on" which outraged the sentiments of the +parish, and caused the Whaup to announce his intention of "giving her +up" and going to sea. + +The alienation of the Whaup made Coquette very miserable, and when her +uncle discovered her walking alone with Lord Earlshope, she tearfully +requested to be allowed to go back to France. + +"I am suspected," she sobbed, in her foreign English; "I do hear they +talk of me as dangerous. Is it wrong for me to speak to Lord Earlshope +when I do see him kind to me? Since I left France I did meet no one so +courteous as he has been. He does not think me wicked because I have a +crucifix my mother gave me, and he does not suspect me." + +Her second conquest--for the Whaup, on seeing her dejection, had +relented and returned to his allegiance--was Leezibeth, and it was by +music she was won. Coquette was playing and singing "The Flowers o' the +Forest," when Leezibeth crept in, and said shamefacedly: + +"Will ye sing that again, miss? Maybe ye'll no ken that me and Andrew +had a boy--a bit laddie that dee'd when he was but seven years auld--and +he used to sing the 'Flowers o' the Forest' afore a' the ither songs, +and ye sing it that fine it makes a body amaist like to greet." + +And from that day Leezibeth was the slave of Coquette; but, for the most +part, the thoughts of her neighbours were no kinder to the gay and +spontaneous "daughter of Heth" from the sunny South than were the grey +and dreary skies of Scotland. + + +_II.--The Lovers of Coquette_ + + +When Sir Peter and Lady Drum returned to Castle Cawmil, their home in +the neighbourhood of Airlie, Lady Drum, whose joy it was to doctor her +friends, prescribed at once a cruise for the drooping Coquette. And Lord +Earlshope lent his yacht, and accompanied the party as a visitor. The +minister, looking back anxiously at his parish, Coquette, and the Whaup, +joined the party from the Manse. + +On Coquette the cruise worked wonders. She recovered her spirits, and +her cheeks flushed with happiness. + +"You're a pretty invalid," said the Whaup to Coquette as they went +ashore for a scramble. "Give me your hand if you want climbing, and I'll +give you enough of it." + +"No," said Coquette, "I will not be pulled by a big, rough boy; but when +you are gentle like Lord Earlshope, I like you." Then, lest Tom should +be hurt, she added: "You are a very good boy, Tom, and somebody will get +very fond of you some day." + +From that moment the Whaup grew more serious, and ceased his boyish +tricks. + +"I think your cousin is very fond of you," said the good-natured Lady +Drum to Coquette. "Don't you think that some day or other he will ask +you to marry him?" + +"It may be," replied Coquette dubiously. "I do not know, because my +uncle has not spoken to me of any such thing; but he may think it a good +marriage, and arrange it." A French view of marriage that greatly +astonished Lady Drum. + +The new sense of responsibility that had come to the Whaup determined +him to return at once to Glasgow, and resume his studies. When Coquette +heard this she became sad and wistful. + +"I hope," she said, "I shall be always the same to you, if you come back +in one year--two years--ten years." + +And the Whaup thought that, if she would only wait two years he would +work to such purpose as to be able to ask her to marry him. + +Before the cruise was ended, Lord Earlshope, who had the lonely man's +habit of playing spectator to his own emotions, informed Coquette, in an +impersonal way, that he had fallen in love with her. + +"You are not responsible," said he, shrugging his shoulders and speaking +without bitterness. "All I ask is that you give me the benefit of your +sympathy. I have been flying my kite too near the thunder-cloud. And +what business had a man of my age with a kite?" + +"I am very sorry," she said softly. + +After this confession Coquette tried to avoid him as much as possible; +but one evening while she was sitting alone on deck, watching the sunset +on wild Loch Scavaig, he came to her and told her he was going away. He +held out his hand, but she made no response. What was it he heard in the +stillness of the night? Moved by a great fear he knelt down, and looked +into her drooping face. She was sobbing bitterly. Then there broke on +him a revelation more terrible than his own sorrow. + +"Why are you distressed? It is nothing to you--my going away? It cannot +be anything to you surely?" + +"It is very much," she said, with a calmness of despair that startled +him. "I cannot bear it." + +"What have I done! What have I done!" he exclaimed. "Coquette, Coquette, +tell me you do not mean this! You do not understand my position. What +you say would be to any other man a joy unspeakable--the beginning of a +new life to him; but to me----" And he turned away with a shudder. + +It was she who was the comforter in the presence of an impossible love. +Taking his hand gently, she said in a quiet voice: "I do not know what +you mean; but you must not accuse yourself for me. I have made a +confession--it was right to do that for you were going away. Now you +will go away knowing I am still your friend, that I shall think of you +sometimes: though I shall pray never to see you any more until we are +old people, and may meet and laugh at the old stupid folly." + +"It shall not end thus!" he cried. "Let the past be past, Coquette, and +the future ours. Let us seek a new country for ourselves. Let me take +you away, and make for you a new world. Why should we two be for ever +miserable? Coquette----" + +"I am afraid of you now," she said, drawing back in fear. "What are you? +Ah, I do see another face!" And, staggering, she fell insensible on the +deck as the minister approached. + +That night Lord Earlshope left the yacht, and this was his parting +message, written on a slip of paper: "I was mad last night. I do not +know what I said. Forgive me, for I cannot forgive myself." + +A winter's illness followed the strain of these emotional scenes, but +with the spring Coquette resumed her morning moorland walks, and drank +in new life from the warm, sweet breezes. One morning, she came face to +face with Lord Earlshope. With only a second's pause she stepped forward +and offered him her hand. + +"Have you really forgiven me?" he asked. + +"That is all over," she said, "and forgotten. It does no good to bring +it back." + +"How very good you are! I have wandered all over Europe, feeling as +though I had the brand of Cain on my forehead." + +"That is nonsense," said Coquette. "Your talk of Cain, your going away, +your fears--I do not understand it at all." + +"No," said he. "Nor would you ever understand without a series of +explanations I have not the courage to make." + +"I do not understand," she replied; "why all this secrecy--all this +mystery?" + +"And I cannot tell you now," he said. + +"I wish not to have any more whys," she said impatiently. "Explanations, +they never do good between friends. I am satisfied if you come to the +Manse and become as you were once. That is sufficient." + +She tried hard to keep the conversation on the level of friendship; but +when at last she turned to leave him, ere she knew, his arms were around +her, and kisses were being showered on her forehead and on her lips. + +"Let me go--let me go!" she pleaded piteously. "Oh, what have we done?" + +"We have sealed our fate," said he, with a haggard look. "I have fought +against this for many a day; but now, Coquette, won't you look up and +give me one kiss before we part?" + +But her downcast face was pale and deathlike, and finally she said: "I +cannot speak to you now. To-morrow, or next day--perhaps we shall meet." + +The next day she met him again, and told him she was going to Glasgow +with Lady Drum to see her cousin, the Whaup. + +"I wonder," said Earlshope, "if he hopes to win your love, and is +working there with the intention of coming back and asking you to be his +wife." + +"And if that will make him happy," she said slowly and with absent eyes, +"I will do that if he demands it." + +"You will marry him, and make him fancy that you love him?" + +"No, I should tell him everything. I should tell him he deserves to +marry a woman who has never loved anyone but himself, and yet that I +will be his wife if his marrying me will alone make him happy." + +"But, Coquette--don't you see it cannot end here?" he said almost +desperately. "You do not know the chains in which I am bound; and I dare +not tell you." + +"No; I do not wish to know. It is enough for me to be beside you now, +and if it should all prove bad and sorrowful, I shall remember that once +I walked with you here, and we had no thought of ill, and were for a +little while happy." + +Talk of Glasgow being a sombre, grey city! To the Whaup it seemed that +the empty pavements were made of gold; that the fronts of the houses +were shining with a happy light; and the air full of a delicious +tingling. For did not the great city hold in it Coquette? And as he sped +his boots clattered "Coquette! Coquette! Coquette!" And presently he was +taking her out for a walk, and cunningly drawing near to a trysting +well. + +"Coquette," he said suddenly, "do you know that lovers used to meet +here, and join their hands over the well, and swear they would marry +each other some day? Coquette, if you would only give me your hand now! +I will wait any time--I have waited already, Coquette." + +"Oh, do not say any more. I will do anything for you, but not that--not +that." And then, a moment afterwards, she added: "Or see; I will promise +to marry you, if you like, after many, many years--only not now--not +within a few years." + +"What is the matter, Coquette? Does it grieve you to think of what I +ask?" + +"No, no!" she said, hurriedly, "it is right of you to ask it--and I--I +must say Yes. My uncle does expect it, does he not? And you yourself, +Tom, you have been very good to me, and if only this will make you happy +I will be your wife, but not until after many years." + +"If you only knew how proud and happy you have made me!" exclaimed Tom, +gaily. "I call upon the leaves of the trees, and all the drops in the +river, and all the light in the air to bear witness that I have won +Coquette for my wife." + +"Ah, you foolish boy!" she said sadly. "You have given me a dangerous +name. But no matter; if it pleases you to-day to think I shall be your +wife, I am glad." + + +_III.--The Opening of the Gates_ + + +Coquette, who loved the sunshine as a drunkard loves drink, was seated +in the park in Glasgow, reading a book under her sunshade, when Lord +Earlshope walked up to the place where she sat. + +"Ah, it is you! I do wish much to see you for a few moments," she said. +"First, I must tell you I have promised to my cousin to be his wife. I +did tell you I should do that; now it is done, and he is glad. And so, +as I am to be his wife, I do not think it is right I should see you any +more." + +"Coquette," he said, "have you resolved to make your life miserable? +What have you done?" + +"I have done what I ought to do. My cousin is very good; he is very fond +of me; he will break his heart if I do not marry him. And I do like him +very well, too. Perhaps in some years it will be a pleasure to me to be +his wife." + +"Coquette," he interrupted, "you do not blame me for being unable to +help you. I am going to tell you why I cannot. Many a time have I +determined to cell you." + +"Ah, I know," she said. "You will tell me something you have done. I do +not wish to hear it. I have often seen you about to tell me a secret, +and sometimes I have wondered, too, and wished to know; but then I did +think there was enough trouble in the world without adding to it." + +Someone came along the road, came as if to sit on the seat with them--a +woman with a coarse, red face and unsteady black eyes, full of +mischievous amusement. + +Lord Earlshope rose and faced the stranger. + +"You had better go home," he said to her. "I give you fair warning, you +had better go home." + +"Why," said the woman, with a loud laugh. "You have not said as much to +me for six years back! My dear," she added, looking at Coquette, "I am +sorry to have disturbed you; but do you know who I am? I am Lady +Earlshope!" + +"Coquette," said Earlshope, "that is my wife." + +When the woman had walked away, laughing and kissing her hand in tipsy +fashion, Coquette came a step nearer, and held out her hand. + +"I know it all now," she said, "and am very sorry for you. I do now know +the reason of many things, and I cannot be angry when we are going away +from each other. Good-bye. I will hear of you sometimes through Lady +Drum." + +"Good-bye, Coquette," he said, "and God bless you for your gentleness, +and your sweetness, and your forgiveness." + +It was to Lady Drum that Coquette made her confession that day. + +"I do love him better than everything in the world--and I cannot help +it. And now he is gone, and I shall never see him again, and I would +like to see him only once to say I am sorry for him." + +Coquette returned to Airlie, and tried to find peace in homely duties in +the village. As time went on the Whaup pressed for the marriage day to +be named, but he could not awake in her hopes for the future. Then, one +dull morning in March, as she walked by herself over the Moor, Lord +Earlshope was by her side, saying: "Coquette, have you forgotten +nothing, as I have forgotten nothing?" And she was saying: "I love you, +dearest, more than ever." + +"Listen, Coquette, listen!" he said. "A ship passes here in the morning +for America; I have taken two berths in it for you and me; to-morrow we +shall be sailing away to a new world, and leaving all these troubles +behind. You remember that woman--nothing has been heard of her for two +years. I have sought her everywhere. She must be dead. And so we shall +be married when we get there. The yacht will be waiting off Saltcoats +to-night; you must go down by yourself, and the gig shall come for you, +and we shall intercept the ship." + +A little while thereafter Coquette was on her way back to the Manse +alone. She had promised to go down to Saltcoats that night, and had +sealed her sin with a kiss. + +It was a wild, strange night that she stole out of the house, leaving +behind her all the sweet consciousness of rectitude and the purity and +innocence which had enabled her to meet trials with a courageous +heart--leaving behind the crown of womanhood, the treasure of a +stainless name. Every moment the storm grew in intensity, till the +rain-clouds were blown upon the land in hissing torrents. At last, just +as she saw before her the lights of Saltcoats, she sank down by the +roadside with a faint cry of "Uncle! Uncle!" + +When she came to herself, in a neighbour's house, a letter was given her +from Lord Earlshope, saying that he could not exact from her the +sacrifice he had proposed, and incur for both the penalty of remorse and +misery; so he would leave for America alone. + +Even as she was reading the letter, the report reached Saltcoats that +the yacht had gone down in the storm, and Lord Earlshope was beyond the +reach of accusation and defence. + +She married the Whaup, but was never again the old Coquette, and though +Tom tried hopefully to charm her back to cheerfulness, she faded month +by month. It was not till the end was drawing near that she was told of +the death of Lord Earlshope, and her last journey was to Saltcoats to +see the wild waste of waters that were his grave. + +There came a night when she beckoned her husband to her and asked him in +a scarcely audible voice: "Tom, am I going to die?" And when in answer +he could only look at her sad eyes, she said: "I am not sorry. It will +be better for you and everyone; and you will not blame me because I +could not make your life more happy for you--it was all a misfortune, my +coming to this country." + +"Coquette, Coquette," he said, beside himself with grief, "if you are +going to die, I will go with you, too--see, I will hold your hand, and +when the gates are open, I will not let you go--I will go with you, +Coquette." + +Scarce half an hour afterwards the gates opened, and she silently passed +through, while a low cry broke from his lips: "So near--so near! And I +cannot go with her, too!" + + * * * * * + + + + +R. D. BLACKMORE + + +Lorna Doone + + Richard Doddridge Blackmore, one of the most famous English + novelists of the last generation, was born on June 9, 1825, at + Longworth, Berkshire, of which parish his father was vicar. + Like John Ridd, the hero of "Lorna Doone," he was educated at + Blundell's School, Tiverton. An early marriage with a + beautiful Portuguese girl, and a long illness, forced him to + live for some years in hard and narrow circumstances. Happily, + in 1860, he came, unexpectedly, into a considerable fortune. + Settling down at Teddington, he divided his life between the + delights of gardening and the pleasures of literature; + cultivating his vines, peaches, nectarines, pears, and + strawberries, and writing, first, sensational stories, and + then historical romances. In 1869, with his third attempt in + fiction, "Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor," he suddenly + became famous as a novelist, and acted as the pioneer of the + new romantic movement in fiction which R. L. Stevenson and + other brilliant writers afterwards carried on. Lorna Doone is + the most famous of his heroines, but in "Cradock Nowell," a + fine tale of the New Forest, in "Alice Lorraine," a story of + the South Downs, and in "The Maid of Sker," he has depicted + womanly types equal in charm to Lorna. He died at Teddington + on January 20, 1900. + + +_I.--An Adventure in Glen Doone_ + + +Two miles below our farm at Oare, the Bagworthy water runs into the +Lynn, but though I fished nearly every stream in our part of Exmoor in +my boyhood, it was a long time before I dared go those two miles. For +the water flowed out of Glen Doone, where the Doones had settled, and I +had good reason to be afraid of this wild band of outlaws. It was an +unhappy day for everybody on Exmoor when Sir Ensor Doone was outlawed by +good King Charles, and came with his tall sons and wild retainers to the +Bagworthy water. + +This befell in 1640. At first, the newcomers were fairly quiet, and what +little sheep-stealing they did was overlooked. But in the troublous +times of the Great Rebellion they grew bolder and fiercer; they attacked +men and burnt farms and carried off women, and all Exmoor stood in fear +and terror of them. None of the Doones was under six feet, and there +were forty and more of them, and they were all true marksmen. The worst +thing they did was to murder my father, John Ridd, in the year 1673, +when I was twelve years of age. + +That was why I was afraid to fish the Bagworthy water. But I spent a +good deal of time in learning to shoot straight with my father's gun; I +sent pretty well all the lead gutter round our little church into our +best barn door, a thing which has often repented me since, especially as +churchwarden. When, however, I was turned fourteen years old, and put +into small clothes, and worsted hosen knitted by my dear mother, I set +out with a loach-fork to explore the Bagworthy water. It was St. +Valentine's day, 1676, as I well remember. After wading along Lynn +stream, I turned into the still more icy-cold current of Bagworthy +water, where I speared an abundance of loaches. I was stopped at last by +a great black whirlpool, into which a slide of water came thundering a +hundred yards down a cliff. My bare legs were weak and numbed with cold, +and twilight was falling in the wild, narrow glen. So I was inclined to +turn back. But then I said to myself: "John Ridd, the place is making a +coward of thee." + +With that, I girt up my breeches anew, and slung the fish tighter round +my neck, and began to climb up through the water-slide. The green wave +came down on me and my feet gave way, but I held with my loach-fork to a +rock, and got my footing. How I got up, I cannot remember, but I fainted +on reaching the top of the cliff. + +When I came to, a little girl was kneeling by me, and rubbing my +forehead tenderly with a dock-leaf. + +"Oh, I am glad!" she said. "Now you will try to be better, won't you?" + +I had never heard so sweet a sound as came from her red lips; neither +had I ever seen anything so beautiful as the large, dark eyes intent +upon me, in pity and wonder. Her long black hair fell on the grass, and +among it--like an early star--was the first primrose of the year. And +since that day, I think of her whenever I see an early primrose. + +"How you are looking at me!" I said. "I have never seen anyone like you +before. My name is John Ridd. What is your name?" + +"My name is Lorna Doone," she replied, in a low voice, and hanging her +head. + +Young and harmless as she was, her name made guilt of her. Yet I could +not help looking at her tenderly. And when she began to cry, what did I +do but kiss her. This made her angry, but we soon became friends again, +and fell to talking about ourselves. Suddenly a shout rang through the +valley, and Lorna trembled, and put her cheek close to mine. + +"Oh, they will find us together and kill us," she said. + +"Come with me," I whispered. "I can carry you down the waterfall." + +"No, no!" she cried, as I took her up. "You see that hole in the rock +there? There is a way out from the top of it." + +I hid myself just in time, and a dozen tall, fierce-looking men found +Lorna seemingly lying asleep on the grass. One of them took her tenderly +in his arms and carried her away. I then waited until it was full dark, +and crept to the hole that Lorna had pointed out. + +The fright I had taken that night satisfied me for a long time +thereafter; not that I did not think of Lorna and wish very often to see +her. But I was only a boy, and inclined, therefore, to despise young +girls. Besides, our farm of five hundred acres was the largest in Oare, +and I had to work very hard on it. But the work did me good; I grew four +inches longer every year, and two inches wider, until there was no man +of my size to be seen elsewhere upon Exmoor, and I also won the belt of +the championship for wrestling in the West Counties. + + +_II.--John Ridd Goes A-Wooing_ + + +Seven years went by before I climbed up Glen Doone again. The occasion +was a strange one. My uncle, Ben Huckaback, was robbed by the Doones on +his way to our farm, and he was mighty vexed with their doings. This +time the outlaws met their match, for Uncle Ben was one of the richest +men in the West Counties, and, moreover, he was well acquainted with the +most powerful and terrible man in England. I mean the famous Lord Chief +Justice Jeffreys. + +"I am going to London, my boy," he said to me, "to get these scoundrel +Doones shot or hanged. I want you, while I am gone, to go to the place +where they live, and see how the troops I shall bring can best attack +them." + +This put other thoughts in my head. I waited till St. Valentine's day, +and then I dressed myself in my best clothes, and went up the Bagworthy +water. The stream, which once had taken my knees, now came only to my +ankles, and with no great difficulty I climbed to the top of the cliff. +Here I beheld the loveliest sight, one glimpse of which was enough to +make me kneel in the coldest water. Lorna was coming singing towards me! +I could not see what her face was, my heart so awoke and trembled; only +that her hair was flowing from a wreath of white violets. She turned to +fly, frightened, perhaps, at my great size; but I fell on the grass, as +I had fallen seven years agone that day, and just said: "Lorna Doone!" + +"Master Ridd, are you mad," she said. "The patrol will be here +presently." + +She led me, with many timid glances, to the hole in the rock which she +had shown me before; by the right of this was a crevice, hung with green +ivy, which opened into a mossy cave about twenty feet across. + +"We shall be safe from interruption here," said Lorna, "for I begged Sir +Ensor that this place might be looked on as my bower." + +I had much ado, however, to get through the crevice, and, instead of +being proud of my size, as it seemed to me she ought to be, Lorna +laughed at me. Thereupon it went hard with me not to kiss her, only it +smote me that this would be a low advantage of her trust and +helplessness. She seemed to know what I would be at, and she liked me +for my forbearance, because she was not in love with me yet. As we sat +in her bower, she talked about her dear self, and her talk was sad. + +"Ah, Master Ridd," she said, "you have a mother who loves you, and +sisters, and a quiet home. You do not know what loneliness is. I get so +full of anger at the violence and wickedness around me that I dare not +give way to speech. It is scarcely a twelvemonth since my cousin, Lord +Alan Brandir, came from London and tried to rescue me. Carver Doone +killed him before my eyes. Ah, you know Carver!" + +Ay, I did. It was he who slew my father. I would not tell Lorna this, +but in my slow way I began, to look forward to meeting Carver Doone, not +for my father's sake--I had forgiven that--but for Lorna's. I boded some +harm to her, and before I left I arranged that if she were ever in need +of help she should hang a black mantle on a stone that I could see from +a neighbouring hill. + +When I got home, I found a king's messenger waiting for me, and, to the +alarm of my dear mother and my sisters, I was taken to London to be +examined by Chief Justice Jeffreys touching the Doone. He was a +fierce-looking man, with a bull-head, but he used me kindly--maybe for +Uncle Ben's sake--and I got back to Exmoor, none the worse for my +journey to the great city of London. But I lost all delight in my +homecoming when I went to the hill overlooking Glen Doone, and saw that +the stone was covered with a mantle. Off I set to climb the cliff above +the Bagworthy water, and there I found Lorna in a sad state of mind. + +"Oh, John," she said, "Carver Doone is trying to force me to marry him. +Where have you been? Tis two months since I gave the signal." + +Thereupon I told her of my travels to London, and when she learnt that +my seeming negligence of her was nothing but my wretched absence far +away, the tears fell from her eyes, and she came and sat so close beside +me that I trembled like a folded sheep at the bleating of her lamb. + +"Dearest darling of my life!" I whispered through her clouds of hair, "I +love you more than heart can hold in silence! I have waited long and +long, and, though I am so far below you, I can wait no longer!" + +"You have been very faithful, John," she murmured to the fern and moss. +"You are the bravest and the kindest and the simplest of all men, and I +like you very much." + +"That will not do for me!" I said. "I will not have liking! I must have +your heart of hearts, even as you have mine, Lorna!" + +She glanced up shyly through her fluttering lashes. Then she opened wide +upon me all the glorious depth and softness of her eyes, and flung both +arms around my neck. + +"Darling," she cried, "you have won it all! I shall never be my own +again. I am yours for ever and ever!" + +I am sure I know not what I did or said thereafter, being overcome with +transport by her words and her eyes. + +"Hush!" said Lorna suddenly, drawing me away from the entrance to her +bower. "Here is Carver Doone!" + +A great man was coming leisurely down the valley, and the light was +still good enough for me to descry his features through the ivy screen. +Though I am not a good judge of men's faces, there was something in his +which gave me a feeling of horror. Not that it was an ugly face; nay, +rather; it seemed a handsome one, full of strength and vigour and +resolution; but there was a cruel hankering in his steel-blue eyes. Yet, +he did not daunt me. Here, I saw, was a man of strength yet for me to +encounter, such as I had never met, but would be glad to meet, having +found no man of late who needed not my mercy at wrestling or +singlestick. My heart was hot against him. And, though he carried a +carbine, I would have been at him, maybe ere he could use it, but for +the presence of Lorna. So I crouched down until Carver Doone departed, +and then, because she feared for my safety, I returned home. + + +_III.--Love Amid the Snows_ + + +I found the king's messenger waiting again for me. He was a small, but +keen-witted man called Jeremy Stickler, and I liked his company. He now +came upon a graver business than conducting me to London. He held a +royal commission to raise the train-bands of Somerset and Devon, and he +brought a few troops with him, and made our farm his headquarters. He +had been sent in hot haste by Chief Justice Jeffreys to destroy the +Doones who were likely now to pay dearly for robbing my Uncle Ben. I was +not, however, as pleased with the arrival of Jeremy Stickler as he +expected, for I bethought myself how Lorna would fare in the wild +fighting. + +The next evening, I went to her bower to tell her of the matter, but she +was not there. Then the snow began to fall, and still I clambered up the +cliff, and waited at the end of the valley every hour of the day and far +into the night. But no light footstep came to meet me, and no sweet +voice was in the air. At last I resolved upon a desperate and difficult +enterprise, for I was well-nigh mad with anxiety. I would go to Lorna's +house, and find out at all costs what had befallen her. But though I +knew fairly well where her house was in Doone village, I was perplexed +how to get there. I could not even get to her bower; for in the night a +great snow-storm broke over the country--the worst since 1625. Our farm +was drifted up, and in some places the snow was thirty and fifty feet +deep. Travel of any sort seemed impossible. But my elder sister, Lizzie, +whom I looked down on because she was always reading books instead of +helping my mother as Annie did, came to my help. She had a wonderful lot +of book learning--much more than I ever got, though father had sent me +to the famous grammar school at Tiverton founded by Master Blundell. She +now showed me how to make some strange contrivances called snowshoes, +which men use in very cold countries. Having learnt how to glide about +in them, I set off to find Lorna. + +By good fortune, when I got to Glen Doone, where the waterfall had +frozen into rough steps, easy to climb, the snow came on again, thick +enough to blind a man who had not spent his time among it as I had for +days and days. The weather drove all the Doones indoors, and I found +Lorna's house almost drifted up like our farm, but got at last to the +door and knocked. I was not sure but that the answer might not be the +mouth of a carbine; but Gwenny Carfax, a little Cornish maid attached to +my Lorna, opened it, and said when she saw me: + +"Master Ridd! I wish you was good to eat. Us be shut in here and +starving." + +The look of wolfish hunger in her eyes frightened me, and I strode in +and found Lorna fainting for want of food. Happily, I had a good loaf of +bread and a large mince pie, which I had brought in case I had to bide +out all night. When Lorna and her maid had eaten these, I heard the tale +of their sufferings. Sir Ensor Doone was dead, and Carver Doone was now +the leader; and he was trying to starve Lorna into agreeing to marry +him. + +"If I warrant to bring you safe and sound to our farm, Lorna, will you +come with me?" I said. + +"To be sure I will, dear," said my darling. "I must either starve or go +with you, John." + +Our plans were soon made. I went home with the utmost speed, and got out +our light pony-sled and dragged it to the top of the waterfall near my +darling's bower. It was well I returned quickly. When I entered Lorna's +house I saw, by the moonlight flowing in, a sight which drove me beyond +sense. Lorna was crouching behind a chair in utter terror, and a drunken +Doone was trying to draw the chair away. I bore him out of the house as +lightly as I would a baby, but I squeezed his throat a little more than +I would an infant's; then I pitched him into a snow-drift, and he did +not move. + +It was no time to linger. I ran with Lorna in my arms to the sled, and +Gwenny followed. Then, with my staff from rock to rock, I broke the +sled's too rapid way down the frozen waterfall, and brought my darling +safely out of Glen Doone by the selfsame path which first led me up to +her. In an hour's time she was under my roof, and my dear mother and my +sisters were tending her and Gwenny, for they both were utterly worn out +by their cruel privations. + + +_IV.--A Night of Fire and Blood_ + + +It gave me no little pleasure to think how mad Carver Doone must be with +me for robbing him of the lovely bride whom he was trying to starve into +marriage. However, I was not pleased with the prospect of the +consequences; but set all hands to work to prepare for the attack on the +farm which I saw would follow when the paths were practicable. By the +time the rain fell and cleared the snow away, I had everything ready. +The outlaws waited till the moon was risen, as it was dangerous to cross +the flooded valley in the darkness, and then they rode into our farmyard +as coolly as if they had been invited. Jeremy Stickler and his troopers +were waiting in the shadow of the house, and I stood with a club and a +gun in the mow-yard, for I knew the Doones would begin by firing our +ricks. + +"Two of you go"--it was the deep voice of Carver Doone--"and make us a +light to cut their throats by." + +As he spoke I set my gun against his breast. Yet--will you believe +me?--I could not pull the trigger. Would to God I had done so! But I had +never taken human life. I dropped my carbine, and grasped my club, which +seemed a more straightforward implement. With this I struck down the +first man that put a torch to the rick, and broke the collar-bone of the +second. Then a blaze of light came from the house, and two of the Doones +fell under the fire of the troopers, and the rest hung back. They were +not used to this kind of reception from farmers; they thought it neither +kind nor courteous. Unable any longer to contain myself, I came across +the yard. But no one shot at me; and I went up to Carver Doone and took +him by the beard, and said: "Do you call yourself a man?" + +He was so astonished that he could not speak. He saw he had met his +equal, or perhaps his master. He held a pistol at me; but I was too +quick for him, and I laid him flat upon his back. + +"Now, Carver Doone, take warning," I said to him. "You have shown +yourself a fool by your contempt of me. I may not be your match in +craft; but I am in manhood. Lay low there in your native muck." + +Seeing him down, the others broke and ran, but one had a shot at me. And +while I was feeling my wound--which was nothing much--Carver arose and +strode away with a train of curses. + +But he had his revenge in a short time. Jeremy Stickler brought up two +train-bands to storm Glen Doone, and they were beaten off with +considerable loss. Then I took the matter up, just when the Doones were +emboldened by their victory to commit fresh crimes; or rather, the +leadership was thrust upon me. Carver Doone and one of his men entered +the house of Kit Badcock, one of my neighbours, and killed his baby and +carried off his wife. Kit wandered about half crazy, and the people came +flocking about me, and asked me to lead them against the Doones. I +resolved on a night-assault, and divided the men into two parties. The +Doone-gate was, I knew, impregnable, and it was there that the train- +bands had failed. I pretended to attack it, but led my best fighters up +the waterfall. The earliest notice the Doones had of our presence was +the blazing of the logwood house where lived that villain Carver. + +By the time they came from Doone-gate all the village was burning, and +as soon as they got into easy distance we shot them down in the light of +the flaming houses. I did not fire. I cared to meet none but Carver, and +he did not appear. He was the only Doone that escaped. Every man I had +with me had some wrong to avenge; some had lost their wives, others +their daughters; the more fortunate had had all their sheep and cattle +carried off, and every man avenged his wrong. I was vexed at the escape +of Carver. It was no light thing to have a man of such power and +resource and desperation left at large and furious. When he saw all the +houses in the valley flaming with a handsome blaze, and throwing a fine +light around, such as he had often revelled in when he was the attacker, +he turned his great black horse, and spurred it through Doone-gate, and +he passed into the darkness before the yeomen I had posted there could +bring him down. + + +_V.--The Duel at Wizard's Slough_ + + +The only thing which pleased me was that Lorna was taken to London +before I led the assault on Glen Doone. Jeremy Stickler, a man with much +knowledge of the law, discovered that she was a great heiress, and that +her true title was Lady Lorna Dugal. She was related to the Doones, and +they had carried her off when a little child, and on her all the +ambition of Sir Ensor Doone had turned. The marriage he designed between +her and Carver would have brought the outlaws the wealth necessary to +retrieve their fortunes and recover their position in the world. This +strange news explained many things in their conduct towards Lorna, but +it made me feel rather sad. For it seemed to me that there was too great +a difference between John Ridd, the yeoman farmer, and Lady Lorna, the +heiress of the Earl of Lome. Besides, she was now a ward of chancery, +under the care of the great Lord Jeffreys, and I much doubted if he +would consent to our marriage, even if she still remembered me amid the +courtly splendour in which she moved. Judge then of my joy when Lorna +returned in the spring to our farm, as glad as a bird to get back to its +nest. + +"Oh, I love it all," she said. "The scent of the gorse on the moors +drove me wild, and the primroses under the hedges. I am sure I was meant +to be a farmer's wife." + +This, with a tender, playful look at me. Then she told the good news. +Lord Jeffreys had, for a certain round sum, given his ward permission to +marry me. There was a great to-do throughout the country about our +wedding on Whit-Monday. People came from more than thirty miles around, +upon excuse of seeing Lorna's beauty and my stature; but in good truth +out of curiosity and a love of meddling. + +It is impossible for any, who have not loved as I have, to conceive my +joy and pride when, after the ring and all was done, and the parson had +blessed us, she turned and gazed on me. Her eyes were so full of faith +and devotion that I was amazed, thoroughly as I knew them. But when I +stooped to kiss her, as the bridegroom is allowed to do, a shot rang +through the church. My darling fell across my knees, and her blood +flowed out on the altarsteps. She sighed a long sigh to my breast, and +grew cold. I laid her in my mother's arms, and went forth for my +revenge. + +The men fell back before me. Who showed me the course, I cannot tell. I +only know that I leaped upon a horse and took it. Weapon of no sort had +I. Unarmed, and wondering at my strange attire, I rode out to discover +this: whether in this world there be or be not a God of justice. Putting +my horse at a furious speed, I came upon Black Burrow Down, and there, a +furlong before me, rode a man on a great black horse. I knew that man +was Carver Doone, bearing his child, little Ensie, before him. I knew he +was strong. I knew he was armed with gun, pistol, and sword. +Nevertheless, I had no more doubt of killing him than a cook has of +spitting a headless fowl. + +I came up with him at Wizard's Slough. A bullet struck me somewhere, but +I took no heed of that. With an oak stick I felled his horse. Carver +Doone lay on the ground, stunned. Leaping from my steed, I waited, and +bared my arms as if in the ring for wrestling. Then the boy ran towards +me, clasped my leg, and looked up at me. + +"Ensie, dear," I said, "run and try to find a bunch of bluebells for the +pretty lady." + +Presently Carver Doone gathered together his mighty limbs, and I closed +with him. He caught me round the waist with such a grip as had never +been laid upon me. I heard a rib go where the bullet had broken it. But +God was with me that day. I grasped Carver Doone's arm, and tore the +muscle out of it; then I had him by the throat, and I left him sinking, +joint by joint, into the black bog. + +I returned to the farm in a dream, and only the thought of Lorna's +death, like a heavy knell, was tolling in the belfry of my brain. Into +the old farmhouse I tottered, like a weakling child, with mother helping +me along, yet fearing, except by stealth, to look at me. + +"I have killed him," was all I said, "even as he killed Lorna." + +"Lorna is still living, John," said my mother, very softly. + +"Is there any chance for her?" I cried, awaking out of my dream. "For +me, I mean; for me?" + +Well, my darling is sitting by me now as I write, and I am now Sir John +Ridd, if you please. Year by year, Lorna's beauty grows, with the growth +of goodness, kindness, and true happiness--above all, with loving. For +change, she makes a joke of this, and plays with it, and laughs at it. +Then, when my slow nature marvels, back she comes to the earnest thing. +If I wish to pay her out--as may happen once or twice, when we become +too galdsome--I bring her to sadness, and to me for the cure of it, by +the two words, "Lorna Doone." + + * * * * * + + + + +GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO + +The Decameron Or Ten Days' Entertainment + + Giovanni Boccaccio, the father of Italian prose literature, + was born in 1313, probably at Certaldo, a small town about + twenty miles from Florence, where he was brought up. In 1341 + he fell in love with the daughter of King Robert of Naples, + and the lady, whom he made famous under the name of Fiammetta, + seems to have loved him in return. It was for her amusement, + and for the amusement of the Queen of Naples, that he composed + many of the stories in "The Decameron." He returned to + Florence in 1350, after the great plague, which he has + described in so vivid a manner in the opening chapter of his + great work, had abated; and three years afterwards he + published "The Decameron," the title being derived from the + Greek words signifying "ten days." This collection of a + hundred stories is certainly one of the world's great books. + Many English writers of the first order have gone to it for + inspiration. Boccaccio's friend, Petrarch, was so delighted + with the tale of Griselda, with which the work concludes, that + he learnt it off by heart. Chaucer developed it into the + finest of all his stories. Dryden, Keats, and Tennyson have + also been inspired by Boccaccio; while Lessing has made the + Italian story-teller's allegory of "The Three Rings" the + jeweled point on which turns his masterly play. "Nathan the + Wise" (see Vol. XVII). Boccaccio, after filling many high + posts at Florence, retired to Certaldo, where he died on + December 21, 1375. + + +_The Seven Beautiful Maidens_ + + +In the year of our Lord 1348 a terrible plague broke out in Florence, +which, from being the finest city in Italy, became the most desolate. It +was a strange malady that no drugs could cure; and it was communicated, +not merely by conversing with those strickened by the pestilence, but +even by touching their clothes, or anything they had worn. As soon as +the purple spots, which were the sign of the disease, appeared on the +body, death was certain to ensue within three days. + +So great were the terror and disorder and distress, that all laws, human +and divine, were disregarded. Everybody in Florence did just as he +pleased. The wilder sort broke into the houses of rich persons, and gave +themselves over to riotous living, exclaiming that, since it was +impossible to avoid dying from the plague, they would at least die +merrily. Others shut themselves up from the rest of the world, and lived +on spare diet, and many thousands fled from their houses into the open +country, leaving behind them all their goods and wealth, and all their +relatives and friends. Brother fled from brother, wife from husband, +and, what was more cruel, even parents forsook their own children. It +was perilous to walk the streets, for they were strewn with the bodies +of plague-strickened wretches, and I have seen with my own eyes the very +dogs perish that touched their rags. + +Between March and July a hundred thousand persons died in Florence, +though, before the calamity, the city was not supposed to have contained +so many inhabitants. But I am weary of recounting out late miseries, +and, passing by everything that I can well omit, I shall only observe +that, when the city was almost depopulated, seven beautiful young +ladies, in deep mourning, met one Tuesday evening in Saint Mary's +Church, where indeed they composed the whole of the congregation. They +were all related to each other, either by the ties of birth, or by the +more generous bonds of friendship. Pampinea, the eldest, was +twenty-eight years of age; Fiammetta was a little younger; Filomena, +Emilia, Lauretta, and Neifile were still more youthful; and Elisa was +only eighteen years old. + +After the service was over, they got into a corner of the church, and +began to devise what they should do, for they were now alone in the +world. + +"I would advise," said Pampinea, "that we should leave Florence, for the +city is now dangerous to live in, not merely by reason of the plague, +but because of the lawless men that prowl about the streets and break +into our houses. Let us retire together into the country, where the air +is pleasanter, and the green hills and the waving corn-fields afford a +much more agreeable prospect than these desolate walls." + +"I doubt," said Filomena, "if we could do this unless we got some man to +help us." + +"But how can we?" exclaimed Elisa. "Nearly all the men of our circle are +dead, and the rest have gone away." + +While they were talking, three handsome young cavaliers--Pamfilo, +Filostrato, and Dioneo--came into the church, looking for their +sweethearts, who by chance were Neifile, Pampinea, and Filomena. + +"See," said Pampinea with a smile, "fortune is on our side. She has +thrown in our way three worthy gentlemen, who, I am sure, will come with +us if we care to invite them." + +She then acquainted the cavaliers with her design, and begged them to +help her to carry it out. At first they took it all for a jest; but when +they found that the ladies were in earnest, they made arrangements to +accompany them. So the next morning, at the break of day, the ladies and +their maids, and the cavaliers and their men-servants, set out from +Florence, and after travelling for two miles they came to the appointed +place. It was a little wooded hill, remote from the highway, on the top +of which was a stately palace with a beautiful court, and fine +galleries, and splendid rooms adorned with excellent paintings. And +around it were fair green meadows, a delightful garden, fountains of +water, and pleasant trees. + +Finding that everything in the palace had been set in order for their +reception, the ladies and their cavaliers took a walk in the garden, and +diverted themselves by singing love-songs, and weaving garlands of +flowers. At three o'clock, dinner was laid in the banqueting hall, and +when this was over, Dioneo took a lute and Fiammetta a viol, and played +a merry air, while the rest of the company danced to the music. When the +dance was ended, they began to sing, and so continued dancing and +singing until nightfall. The cavaliers then retired to their chambers, +and the ladies to theirs, after arranging that Pampinea should be the +queen of their company for the following day, and direct all their +feasts and amusements. + +The next morning Queen Pampinea called them all up at nine o'clock, +saying it was unwholesome to sleep in the daytime, and led them into a +meadow of deep grass shadowed by tall trees. + +"As the sun is high and hot," she continued, "and nothing is to be heard +but the chirping of grasshoppers among the olives, it would be folly to +think of walking. So let us sit down in a circle and tell stories. By +the time the tales have gone round, the heat of the sun will have +abated, and we can then divert ourselves as best we like. Now, Pamfilo," +she said, turning to the cavalier on her right hand, "pray begin." + + +_Cymon and Iphigenia: A Tale of Love_ + + +Of all the stories that have come into my mind, said Pamfilo, there is +one which I am sure you will all like, for it shows how strange and +wonderful is the power of love. Some time ago, there lived in the island +of Cyprus a man of great rank and wealth, called Aristippus, who was +very unhappy because his son Cymon, though very tall and handsome, was +feeble in intellect. Finding that the most skilful teacher could not +beat the least spark of knowledge into the head of his son, Aristippus +made Cymon live out of his sight, among the slaves in his country-house. + +There Cymon used to drudge like one of the slaves, whom, indeed, he +resembled in the harshness of his voice and the uncouthness of his +manners. But one day as he was tramping round the farm, with his staff +upon his shoulder, he came upon a beautiful maiden sleeping in the deep +grass of a meadow, with two women and a manservant slumbering at her +feet. Cymon had never seen the face of a woman before, and, leaning upon +his staff, he gazed in blank wonder at the lovely girl, and strange +thoughts and feelings began to work within him. After watching her for a +long time, he saw her eyes slowly open, and there was a sweetness about +them that filled him with joy. + +"Why are you looking at me like that?" she said. "Please go away. You +frighten me!" + +"I will not go away," he answered; "I cannot!" + +And though she was afraid of him, he would not leave her until he had +led her to her own house. He then went to his father and said he wanted +to live like a gentleman, and not like a slave. His father was surprised +to find that his voice had grown soft and musical, and his manners +winning and courteous. So he dressed him in clothes suitable to his high +station, and let him go to school. Four years after he had fallen in +love, Cymon became the most accomplished young gentleman in Cyprus. He +then went to the father of Iphigenia, for such was her name, and asked +for her in marriage. But her father replied that she was already +promised to Pasimondas, a young nobleman of Rhodes, and that their +nuptials were about to be celebrated. + +"O Iphigenia," said Cymon to himself, on hearing the unhappy news, "it +is now time for me to show you how I love you! Love for you has made a +man of me, and marriage with you would make me as happy and as glorious +as a god! Have you I will, or else I will die!" + +He at once prevailed upon some young noblemen, who were his friends, to +help him in fitting out a ship of war. With this he waylaid the vessel +in which Iphigenia embarked for Rhodes. Throwing a grappling iron upon +this ship, Cymon drew it close to his own. Then, without waiting for +anyone to second him, he jumped among his enemies, and drove them like +sheep before him, till they threw down their arms. + +"I have not come to plunder you," said Cymon, "but to win the noble +maiden, Iphigenia, whom I love more than aught else in the world. Resign +her to me, and I will do you no harm!" + +Iphigenia came to him all in tears. + +"Do not weep, my sweet lady," he said to her tenderly. "I am your Cymon, +and my long and constant love is worth more than all Pasimondas's +promises." + +She smiled at him through her tears, and he led her on board his ship, +and sailed away to Crete, where he and his friends had relations and +acquaintances. But in the night a violent tempest arose, and blotted out +all the stars of heaven, and whirled the ship about, and drove it into a +little bay upon the island of Rhodes, a bow-shot from the place where +the Rhodian ship had just arrived. + +Before they could put out to sea again, Pasimondas came with an armed +host and took Cymon a prisoner, and led him to the chief magistrate of +the Rhodians for that year, Lysimachus, who sentenced him and his +friends to perpetual imprisonment, on the charge of piracy and +abduction. + +While Cymon was languishing in prison, with no hope of ever obtaining +his liberty, Pasimondas prepared for his nuptials with Iphigenia. Now +Pasimondas had a younger brother called Hormisdas, who wanted to marry a +beautiful lady, Cassandra, with whom the chief magistrate Lysimachus was +also in love. Pasimondas thought it would save a good deal of trouble +and expense if he and his brother were to marry at the same time. So he +arranged that this should be done. Thereupon Lysimachus was greatly +angered. After a long debate with himself, honour gave way to love, and +he resolved at all hazards to carry off Cassandra. + +But whom should he get as companions in this wild enterprise? He at once +thought of Cymon and his friends, and he fetched them out of prison and +armed them, and concealed them in his house. On the wedding-day he +divided them into three parties. One went down to the shore and secured +a ship; one watched at the gate of Pasimondas's house; and the third +party, headed by Cymon and Lysimachus, rushed with drawn swords into the +bridal chamber and killed the two bridegrooms, and bore the tearful but +by no means unwilling brides to the ship, and sailed joyfully away for +Crete. + +There they espoused their ladies, amidst the congratulations of their +relatives and friends; and though, by reason of their actions, a great +quarrel ensued between the two islands of Cyprus and Rhodes, everything +was at last amicably adjusted. Cymon then returned with Iphigenia to +Cyprus, and Lysimachus carried Cassandra back to Rhodes, and all of them +lived very happily to the end of their days. + + +_Gisippus and Titus: A Tale of Friendship_ + + +As Pamfilo has told us so excellent a tale about the force of love, said +Filomena, I will now relate a story showing the great power of +friendship. + +At the time when Octavius Cæsar, who afterwards became the Emperor +Augustus, was governing Rome as a triumvir, a young Roman gentleman, +Titus Quintius Fulvus, went to Athens to study philosophy. There he +became acquainted with a noble young Athenian named Gisippus, and a +brotherly affection sprang up between them, and for three years they +studied together and lived under the same roof. + +In the meantime, Gisippus fell in love with a young and beautiful +Athenian maiden named Sophronia, and a marriage was arranged between +them. Some days before the marriage, Gisippus took his friend with him +on a visit to his lady. It was the first time that Titus had seen +Sophronia, and as he looked upon her beauty he grew as much enamoured as +ever a man in the world was with a woman. So great was his passion that +he could neither eat nor sleep, and he grew so sick that at last he was +unable to rise from his bed. Gisippus was extremely grieved at his +illness, and knowing that it must have been caused by some secret malady +of the mind, he pressed him to reveal the cause of his grief. At length +Titus, unable to restrain himself any longer, said, with his face +streaming with tears: + +"O Gisippus, I am unworthy of the name of friend! I have fallen in love +with Sophronia, and it is killing me. How base I am! But pardon me, my +dear friend, for I feel that I shall soon be punished for my disloyalty +by death!" + +Gisippus stood for some time in suspense by the bed side of Titus, +divided between the claims of love and the claims of friendship. But at +last he resolved to save his friend's life at the cost of his own +happiness. Some days afterwards, Sophronia was brought to his house for +the bridal ceremony to be consummated. Going softly into the bridal +chamber where the bride was lying, he put out the candles, and then went +silently to Titus, and told him that he might be the bridegroom. Titus +was so overcome with shame that he refused to go; but Gisippus so +passionately entreated him, that at last he consented. Going into the +dark bridal chamber, he softly asked Sophronia if she would be his wife. +She, thinking it was Gisippus, replied, "Yes." Then, taking a ring of +value, and putting it upon her finger, Titus said: "And I will be your +husband." + +In the morning, Sophronia discovered the trick that had been put upon +her. Stealing out of the house, she went to her father and mother, and +told them that Gisippus had deceived her, and married her to Titus. +Great was the resentment against Gisippus throughout Athens, for +Sophronia came of a very ancient and noble family. + +But seeing that what had been done could not be undone, the parents of +the bride at last allowed Titus to lead her to Rome, where the scandal +would not be known. But when Titus was gone, they resolved to take +vengeance upon Gisippus. A powerful party was formed against him, who +succeeded in getting him stripped of all his possessions, driven from +Athens, and condemned to perpetual exile. + +Friendless and beggared, Gisippus slowly travelled on foot to Rome, +intending to ask Titus to help him. He found that his friend was now a +rich and powerful man, enjoying the favour of the young Prince Octavius, +and living in a splendid palace. Gisippus did not dare to enter it, as +his clothes were now worn to rags, so he stood humbly by the gate like a +beggar, hoping that his friend would recognise him and speak to him. But +Titus came out in a hurry, and never even stopped to look at him; and +Gisippus, thinking that he was now despised, went away confounded with +grief and despair. + +Wandering at random about the streets, he came at nightfall to a cavern +where thieves were wont to gather, and laid down on the hard ground and +wept himself to sleep. While he was sleeping, two thieves entered with +their booty and began to quarrel about it, whereupon one killed the +other and fled. In the morning some watchmen found Gisippus sleeping +beside the dead body, and arrested him. + +"Yes, I killed him," said Gisippus, who was now resolved to die, and +thought that this would be a better way than taking his own life. +Thereupon, the judge sentenced him to be crucified, which was the usual +manner of death in these cases. By a strange chance, however, Titus came +into the hall to defend a poor client. He instantly recognised Gisippus, +and, wondering greatly at the sad change of his fortune, he determined +at all costs to save him. But the case had gone so far that there was +only one way of doing this. And Titus took it. Stepping resolutely up to +the judge, he greatly astonished everyone by exclaiming: + +"Recall thy sentence. This person is innocent; I killed the man!" + +Gisippus turned round in astonishment, and seeing Titus, he concluded +that he was trying to save him for friendship's sake. But he was +determined that he would not accept the sacrifice. + +"Do not believe him, sir. I was the murderer. Let the punishment fall on +me," he said to the judge. + +The judge was amazed to see two men contending for the torture of +crucifixion with as much eagerness as if it had been the highest honour +in the world; and suddenly a notorious thief, who had been standing in +the court, came forward and made this surprising declaration: + +"This strange debate has so moved me that I will confess everything," he +said. "You cannot believe, sir, that either of these men committed the +murder. What should a man of the rank and wealth of Titus have to do in +a thieves' cavern? He was never there. But this poor, ragged stranger +was sleeping in a corner when I and my fellow entered. Thieves, you +know, sometimes fall out, especially over their booty. This was what +happened last night; and, to put an end to the quarrel, I used a knife." + +The appearance of a third self-accuser so perplexed the judge that he +put the case before Octavius Cæsar, and Cæsar called the three men up +before him. Thereupon Titus and Gisippus related to him at length the +strange story of their friendship, and he set the two friends at +liberty, and even pardoned the thief for their sakes. + +Titus then took Gisippus to his house and forced him to accept a half of +his great wealth, and married him to his sister Fulvia, a very charming +and lovely young noblewoman. + +For the rest of their lives Titus and Sophronia, and Gisippus and +Fulvia, lived very happily together in the same palace in Rome, and +every day added something to their contentment and felicity. + + +_The Three Rings: A Tale of Ingenuity_ + + +It was now Neifile's turn to tell a story, and she said that as there +had been much controversy at Florence during the plague concerning +religion, this had put her in mind of the tale of Melchizedeck. + +This man was a very rich Jew, who lived at Alexandria in the reign of +great Sultan Saladin. Saladin, being much impoverished by his wars, had +a mind to rob Melchizedeck. In order to get a pretext for plundering the +Jew, he sent for him. + +"I hear that thou art very wise in religious matters," said Saladin, +"and I wish to know which religion thou judgest to be the true one--the +Jewish, the Mohammedan, or the Christian?" + +The Jew saw that Saladin wanted to trap him. If he said that the Jewish +or the Christian faith was the true one, he would be condemned as an +infidel. If, on the other hand, he agreed that the Mohammedan religion +was preferable to the others, the sultan would say that a wealthy +believer ought to contribute largely to the expenses of the state. After +considering how best to avoid the snare, the wise Jew replied: + +"Some time ago, your majesty, there was a man who had a ring of great +beauty and value. And he declared in his will that the son to whom this +ring was bequeathed should be the head of the family, and that his +descendants should rule over the descendants of the other sons. For many +generations his wishes were carried out; but at last the ring came into +the possession of a man who had three sons, all virtuous and dutiful to +their father, and equally beloved by him. + +"Being at a loss which son to prefer above the others, the good man got +a skilful craftsman to make two rings, which were so like the first that +he himself scarcely knew the true one. On his deathbed he gave one of +these rings privately to each of his sons. Each of them afterwards laid +claim to the government of the family, and produced the ring which his +father had given him. But the rings were so much alike that it was +impossible to tell which was the true one, and even to this day no one +has been able to decide upon the matter. Thus has it happened, sire, in +regard to the three laws of faith derived from God--Jew, Mohammedan, and +Christian. Each believes that he is the true heir of the Almighty; but +it is just as uncertain which has received the true law as it is which +has received the true ring." + +Saladin was mightily pleased at the ingenious way in which Melchizedeck +escaped from the snare that had been spread for him. Instead of taking +by force the money that he wanted from the Jew, he desired him to +advance it on loan. This Melchizedeck did, and Saladin soon afterwards +repaid the money and gave him presents, besides maintaining him nobly at +court and making him his life-long friend. + +For some days the ladies and cavaliers entertained one another with +dancing and singing and story-telling. And then, as the plague had +abated in Florence, they returned to the city. But before they went +Dioneo told them a very strange and moving tale. + + +_Griselda: A Tale of Wifely Patience_ + + +Men, said Dioneo, are wont to charge women with fickleness and +inconstancy; but there comes into my mind a story of a woman's constancy +and a man's cruelty which, I think you will agree, is worth the telling. +Gualtieri, the young Marquis of Saluzzo, was a man who did not believe +that any woman could be true and constant all her life. And for this +reason he would not marry, but spent his whole time in hawking and +hunting. His subjects, however, did not want him to die without an heir, +and leave them without a lord, and they were always pressing him to +marry. They went so far at last as to offer to provide a lady for him. +This made him very angry. + +"If I want a wife, my friends," he said, "I will choose one myself. And, +look you, whatever her birth and upbringing are, pay her the respect due +to her as my lady, or you shall know to your cost how grievous it is to +me to have taken a wife when I did not want one." + +A few days afterwards he was riding through a village, not far from his +palace, when he saw a comely shepherd girl carrying water from a well to +her father's house. + +"What is your name?" said the young marquis. + +"Griselda," said the shepherd girl. + +"Well, Griselda," said the Marquis of Saluzzo, "I am looking for a wife. +If I marry you, will you study to please me and carry out all my +demands, whatever they are, without a murmur or a sullen look?" + +"Yes, my lord," said Griselda. + +Thereupon, the marquis sent his servants to fetch some rich and costly +robes, and, leading Griselda out by the hand, he clothed her in gorgeous +apparel, and set a coronet upon her head, and putting her on a palfrey, +he led her to his palace. And there he celebrated his nuptials with as +much pomp and grandeur as if he had been marrying the daughter of the +King of France. + +Griselda proved to be a good wife. She was so sweet-natured, and so +gentle and kind in her manners, that her husband thought himself the +happiest man in the world; and her subjects honoured her and loved her +very dearly. In a very short time, her winning behaviour and her good +works were the common subject of talk throughout the country, and great +were the rejoicings when a daughter was born to her. + +Unfortunately, her husband got a strange fancy into his head. He +imagined she was good and gentle merely because everything went well +with her; and, with great harshness, he resolved to try her patience by +suffering. So he told her that the people were greatly displeased with +her by reason of her mean parentage, and murmured because she had given +birth to a daughter. + +"My lord," said Griselda, "I know I am meaner than the meanest of my +subjects, and that I am unworthy of the dignity to which you have +advanced me. Deal with me, I pray, as you think best for your honour and +happiness, and waste no thought upon me." + +Soon afterwards one of his servants came to Griselda, and said: "Madam, +I must either lose my own life, or obey my lord's commands. He has +ordered me to take your daughter, and--" + +He would not say anything more, and Griselda thought that he had orders +to kill the child. Taking it out of the cradle, she kissed it, and +tenderly laid it in the servant's arms. The marquis sent the little girl +to one of his relatives at Bologna, to be brought up and educated. Some +years afterwards Griselda gave birth to a boy. The marquis, naturally +enough, was mightily pleased to have an heir; but he took also this +child away from his wife. + +"I am not able to live any longer with my people," he said. "They say +they will not have a grandson of a poor shepherd as their future lord. I +must dispose of this child as I did the other." + +"My lord," replied Griselda, "study your own ease and happiness without +the least care for me. Nothing is pleasing to me that is not pleasing to +you." + +The next day the marquis sent for his son in the same way as he had sent +for his daughter, and had him brought up with her at Bologna. His people +thought that the children had been put to death, and blamed him for his +cruelty, and showed great pity for his wife. But Griselda would not +allow them to attack her husband, but found excuses for him. + +In spite of this, the marquis did not yet believe in the constancy and +fidelity of his wife, and about sixteen years after their marriage he +resolved to put her to a test. + +"Woman," he said, "I am going to take another wife. I shall send you +back to your father's cottage in the same state as I brought you from +it, and choose a young lady of my own rank in life." + +With the utmost difficulty Griselda kept back her tears, and humbly +consented to be divorced. The marquis stripped her of her fine raiment, +and sent her back to her father's hut dressed in a smock. Her husband +then gave it out that he was about to espouse the daughter of the Count +of Panago; and, sending for Griselda, he said: + +"I am about to bring home my new bride, but I have no woman with me to +set out the rooms and order the ceremony. As you are well acquainted +with the government of my palace, I wish you to act as mistress for a +day or two. Get everything in order, and invite what ladies you will to +the festival. When the marriage is over, you must return to your +father's hut." + +These words pierced like daggers to the heart of Griselda. She was +unable to part with her love for her husband as easily as she had parted +with her high rank and great fortune. + +"My lord," said Griselda, "I swore that I would be obedient to you, and +I am ready to fulfil all your commands." + +She went into the palace in her coarse attire and worked with the +servants, sweeping the rooms and cleaning the furniture. After this was +done, she invited all the ladies in the country to come to the festival. +And on the day appointed for the marriage she received them, still clad +in her coarse attire, but with smiling and gentle looks. At dinner-time +the marquis arrived with his new lady--who was indeed a very beautiful +girl. After presenting her to all the guests, many of whom congratulated +him on making so good an exchange, he said, with a smile, to Griselda: + +"What do you think of my bride?" + +"My lord," she replied, "I like her extremely well. If she is as wise as +she is fair, you may be the happiest man in the world with her. But I +very humbly beg that you will not take with this lady the same heart- +breaking measures you took with your last wife, because she is young and +tenderly educated, while the other was from a child used to hardship. + +"Pardon me! Pardon me! Pardon me!" said the marquis. "I know I have +tried you harshly, Griselda. But I did not believe in the goodness and +constancy of woman, and I would not believe in them until you proved me +in the wrong. Let me restore, in one sweet minute, all the happiness +that I have spent years in taking away from you. This young lady, my +dear Griselda, is your daughter and mine! And look! Here is our son +waiting behind her." + +He led Griselda, weeping for joy, to her children. Then all the ladies +in the hall rose up from the tables, and taking Griselda into a chamber, +they clothed her in fine and noble raiment, and stayed with her many +days, feasting and rejoicing. And the marquis sent for Griselda's +father, the poor shepherd, and gave him a suite of rooms in the palace, +where he lived in great happiness with his daughter and his +grandchildren and his noble son-in-law. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10471 *** |