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diff --git a/old/11118-8.txt b/old/11118-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3c12730 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11118-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9270 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Atlantic Monthly Volume 7, No. 39, January, +1861, by Various + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Atlantic Monthly Volume 7, No. 39, January, 1861 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: February 16, 2004 [eBook #11118] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY VOLUME 7, NO. 39, +JANUARY, 1861*** + + +E-text prepared by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen, and Project Gutenberg +Distributed Proofreaders + + + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. VII.--JANUARY, 1861.--NO. XXXIX. + + + + + + + +WASHINGTON CITY. + + +Washington is the paradise of paradoxes,--a city of magnificent +distances, but of still more magnificent discrepancies. Anything may be +affirmed of it, everything denied. What it seems to be it is not; and +although it is getting to be what it never was, it must always remain +what it now is. It might be called a city, if it were not alternately +populous and uninhabited; and it would be a wide-spread village, if it +were not a collection of hospitals for decayed or callow politicians. It +is the hybernating-place of fashion, of intelligence, of vice,--a resort +without the attractions of waters either mineral or salt, where there is +no bathing and no springs, but drinking in abundance and gambling in +any quantity. Defenceless, as regards walls, redoubts, moats, or other +fortifications, it is nevertheless the Sevastopol of the Republic, +against which the allied army of Contractors and Claim-Agents +incessantly lay siege. It is a great, little, splendid, mean, +extravagant, poverty-stricken barrack for soldiers of fortune and +votaries of folly. + +Scattered helter-skelter over an immense surface, cut up into scalene +triangles, the oddity of its plan makes Washington a succession of +surprises which never fail to vex and astonish the stranger, be he ever +so highly endowed as to the phrenological bump of locality. Depending +upon the hap-hazard start the ignoramus may chance to make, any +particular house or street is either nearer at hand or farther off than +the ordinary human mind finds it agreeable to believe. The first duty of +the new-comer is to teach his nether extremities to avoid instinctively +the hypothenuse of the street-triangulation, and the last lesson the +resident fails to learn is which of the shortcuts from point to point +is the least lengthy. Beyond a doubt, the corners of the streets were +constructed upon a cold and brutal calculation of the greatest possible +amount of oral sin which disappointed haste and irritated anxiety are +capable of committing; nor is any relief to the tendency to profanity +thus engendered afforded by the inexcusable nomenclature of the streets +and avenues,--a nomenclature in which the resources of the alphabet, the +arithmetic, the names of all the States of the Union, and the Presidents +as well, are exhausted with the most unsystematic profligacy. A man not +gifted with supernatural acuteness, in striving to get from Brown's +Hotel to the General Post-Office, turns a corner and suddenly finds +himself nowhere, simply because he is everywhere,--being at the instant +upon three separate streets and two distinct avenues. And, as a further +consequence of the scalene arrangement of things, it happens that the +stranger in Washington, however civic his birth and education may have +been, is always unconsciously performing those military evolutions +styled marching to the right or left oblique,--acquiring thereby, it is +said, that obliquity of the moral vision--which sooner or later afflicts +every human being who inhabits this strange, lop-sided city-village. + +So queer, indeed, is Washington City in every aspect, that one +newly impressed by its incongruities is compelled to regard Swift's +description of Lilliputia and Sydney Smith's account of Australia as +poor attempts at fun. For, leaving out of view the pigmies of the former +place, whose like we know is never found in Congress, what is there in +that Australian bird with the voice of a jackass to excite the feeblest +interest in the mind of a man who has listened to the debates on Kansas? +or what marvel is an amphibian with the bill of a duck to him who has +gazed aghast at the intricate anatomy of the bill of English? It is true +that the ignorant Antipodes, with a total disregard of all theories of +projectiles, throw their boomerangs behind their backs in order to kill +an animal that stands or runs before their faces, or skim them along +the ground when they would destroy an object flying overhead. And these +feats seem curious. But an accomplished "Constitutional Adviser" can +perform feats far more surprising with a few lumps of coal or a number +of ships-knees, which are but boomerangs of a larger growth. Another has +invented the deadliest of political missiles, (in their recoil,) shaped +like mules and dismantled forts, while a third has demolished the +Treasury with a simple miscalculation. Still more astonishing are the +performances of an eminent functionary who encourages polygamy by +intimidation, purchases redress for national insult by intercepting his +armies and fleets with an apology in the mouth of a Commissioner, and +elevates the Republic in the eyes of mankind by conquering at Ostend +even less than he has lost at the Executive Mansion. + +In truth, the list of Washington anomalies is so extensive and so +various, that no writer with a proper regard for his own reputation or +his readers' credulity would dare enumerate them one by one. Without +material injury to the common understanding, a few may be mentioned; but +respect for public opinion would urge that the enormous whole be summed +up in the comparatively safe and respectful assertion, that the one only +absolutely certain thing in Washington is the absence of everything +that is at all permanent. The following are some of the more obnoxious +astonishments of the place. + +Traversing a rocky prairie inflated with hacks, you arrive late in the +afternoon at a curbed boundary, too fatigued in body and too suffocated +with dust to resent the insult to your common-sense implied in the +announcement that you have merely crossed what is called an Avenue. +Recovered from your fatigue, you ascend the steps of a marble palace, +and enter but to find it garrisoned by shabby regiments armed with +quills and steel pens. The cells they inhabit are gloomy as dungeons, +but furnished like parlors. Their business is to keep everybody's +accounts but their own. They are of all ages, but of a uniformly +dejected aspect. Do not underrate their value. Mr. Bulwer has said, +that, in the hands of men entirely great, the pen is mightier than the +sword. Suffer yourself to be astonished at their numbers, but permit +yourself to withdraw from their vicinity without questioning too closely +their present utility or future destination. No personal affront to the +public or the nineteenth century is intended by the superfluity of their +numbers or the inadequacy of their capacities. Their rapid increase is +attributable not to any incestuous breeding in-and-in among themselves, +but to a violent seduction of the President and the Heads of Department +by importunate Congressmen; and you may rest assured that this criminal +multiplication fills nobody with half so much righteous indignation and +virtuous sorrow as the clerks themselves. Emerging from the palace of +quill-drivers, a new surprise awaits you. The palace is surmounted by +what appear to be gigantic masts and booms, economically, but strongly +rigged, and without any sails. In the distance, you see other palaces +rigged in the same manner. The effect of this spectacle is painful in +the extreme. Standing dry-shod as the Israelites were while crossing the +Red Sea, you nevertheless seem to be in the midst of a small fleet of +unaccountable sloops of the Saurian period. You question whether these +are not the fabulous "Ships of State" so often mentioned in the elegant +oratory of your country. You observe that these ships are anchored in an +ocean of pavement, and your no longer trustworthy eyes search vainly +for their helms. The nearest approach to a rudder is a chimney or an +unfinished pillar; the closest resemblance to a pilot is a hod-carrying +workman clambering up a gangway. Dismissing the nautical hypothesis, +your next effort to relieve your perplexity results in the conjecture +that the prodigious masts and booms may be nothing more than curious +gibbets, the cross-pieces to which, conforming rigidly to the Washington +rule of contrariety, are fastened to the bottom instead of the top of +the upright. Your theory is, that the destinies of the nation are to be +hanged on these monstrous gibbets, and you wonder whether the laws of +gravitation will be complaisant enough to turn upside down for the +accommodation of the hangman, whoever he may be. It is not without +pain that you are forced at last to the commonplace belief that these +remarkable mountings of the Public Buildings are neither masts nor +booms, but simply derricks,--mechanical contrivances for the lifting of +very heavy weights. It is some consolation, however, to be told that +the weakness of these derricks has never been proved by the endeavor +to elevate by means of them the moral character of the inhabitants of +Washington. Content yourself, after a reasonable delay for natural +wonderment, to leave the strange scene. This shipping-like aspect of the +incomplete Departments is only a nice architectural tribute to the fact +that the population of Washington is a floating population. This you +will not be long in finding out. The oldest inhabitants are here to-day +and gone tomorrow, as punctually, if not as poetically, as the Arabs of +Mr. Longfellow. A few remain,--parasitic growths, clinging tenaciously +to the old haunts. Like tartar on the teeth, they are proof against the +hardest rubs of the tooth-brush of Fortune. + +As with the people, so with the houses. Though they retain their +positions, seldom abandoning the ground on which they were originally +built, they change almost hourly their appearance and their +uses,--insomuch that the very solids of the city seem fluid, and even +the stables are mutable,--the horse-house of last week being an office +for the sale of patents, or periodicals, or lottery-tickets, this week, +with every probability of becoming an oyster-cellar, a billiard-saloon, +a cigar-store, a barber's shop, a bar-room, or a faro-bank, next week. +And here is another astonishment. You will observe that the palatial +museums for the temporary preservation of fossil or fungous penmen join +walls, virtually, with habitations whose architecture would reflect +no credit on the most curious hamlet in tide-water Virginia. To your +amazement, you learn that all these houses, thousands in number, are +boarding-houses. Of course, where everybody is a stranger, nobody +keeps house. It would be pardonable to suppose, that, out of so many +boarding-houses, some would be in reality what they are in name. Nothing +can be farther from the fact. These houses contain apartments more or +less cheerless and badly furnished, according to the price (always +exorbitant, however small it may be) demanded for them, and are devoted +exclusively to the storage of empty bottles and demijohns, to large +boxes of vegetable- and flower-seeds, to great piles of books, speeches, +and documents not yet directed to people who will never read them, and +to an abominable odor of boiling cabbages. This odor steals in from +a number of pitch-dark tunnels and shafts, misnamed passages and +staircases, in which there are more books, documents, and speeches, +other boxes of seeds, and a still stronger odor of cabbages. The piles +of books are traps set here for the benefit of the setters of broken +legs and the patchers of skinless shins, and the noisome odors are +propagated for the advantage of gentlemen who treat diseases of the +larynx and lungs. + +It would appear, then, that the so-called boarding-houses are, in point +of fact, private gift-book stores, or rather, commission-houses for the +receiving and forwarding of a profusion of undesirable documents and +vegetations. You may view them also in the light of establishments for +the manufacture and distribution of domestic perfumery, payment for +which is never exacted at the moment of its involuntary purchase, but is +left to be collected by a doctor,--who calls upon you during the winter, +levies on you with a lancet, and distrains upon your viscera with a +compound cathartic pill. + +It is claimed, that, in addition to the victims who pay egregious rents +for boarding-house beds in order that they may have a place to store +their documents and demi-johns, there are other permanent occupants of +these houses. As, for example, Irish chambermaids, who subtract a few +moments from the morning half-hour given to drinking the remnants of +your whiskey, and devote them to cleaning up your room. Also a very +strange being, peculiar to Washington boarding-houses, who is never +visible at any time, and is only heard stumbling up-stairs about four +o'clock in the morning. Also beldames of incalculable antiquity,--a +regular allowance of one to each boarding-house,--who flit noiselessly +and unceasingly about the passages and up and down the stairways, +admonishing you of their presence by a ghostly sniffle, which always +frightens you, and prevents you from running into them and knocking them +down. For these people, it is believed, a table is set in the houses +where the boarders proper flatter their acquaintances that they sleep. +It must be so, for the entire male population is constantly eating in +the oyster-cellars. Indeed, if ocular evidence may be relied on, the +best energies of the metropolis are given to the incessant consumption +of "half a dozen raw," or "four fried and a glass of ale." The bar-rooms +and eating-houses are always full or in the act of becoming full. By a +fatality so unerring that it has ceased to be wonderful, it happens that +you can never enter a Washington restaurant and find it partially empty, +without being instantly followed by a dozen or two of bipeds as hungry +and thirsty as yourself, who crowd up to the bar and destroy half the +comfort you derive from your lunch or your toddy. + +But, although, everybody is forever eating oysters and drinking ale in +myriads of subterranean holes and corners, nobody fails to eat at other +places more surprising and original than any you have yet seen. In all +other cities, people eat at home or at a hotel or an eating-house; in +Washington they eat at bank. But they do not eat money,--at least, not +in the form of bullion, or specie, or notes. These Washington banks, +unlike those of London, Paris, and New York, are open mainly at night +and all night long, are situated invariably in the second story, guarded +as jealously as any seraglio, and admit nobody but strangers,--that is +to say, everybody in Washington. This is singular. Still more singular +is the fact, that the best food, served in the most exquisite manner, +and (with sometimes a slight variation) the choicest wines and cigars, +may be had at these banks free of cost, except to those who choose +voluntarily to remunerate the banker by purchasing a commodity as costly +and almost as worthless as the articles sold at ladies' fairs,--upon +which principle, indeed, the Washington banks are conducted. The +commodity alluded to is in the form of small discs of ivory, called +"chips" or "cheeks" or "shad" or "skad," and the price varies from +twenty-five cents to a hundred dollars per "skad." + +It is expected that every person who opens an account at bank by eating +a supper there shall buy a number of "shad," but not with the view of +taking them home to show to his wife and children. Yet it is not an +uncommon thing for persons of a stingy and ungrateful disposition to +spend most of their time in these benevolent institutions without ever +spending so much as a dollar for "shad," but eating, drinking, and +smoking, and particularly drinking, to the best of their ability. This +reprehensible practice is known familiarly in Washington as "bucking +ag'inst the sideboard," and is thought by some to be the safest mode of +doing business at bank. + +The presiding officer is never called President. He is called +"Dealer,"--perhaps from the circumstance of his dealing in ivory,--and +is not looked up to and worshipped as the influential man of +banking-houses is generally. On. the contrary, he is for the most part +condemned by his best customers, whose heart's desire and prayer are to +break his bank and ruin him utterly. + +Seeing the multitude of boarding-houses, oyster-cellars, and +ivory-banks, you may suppose there are no hotels in Washington. You are +mistaken. There are plenty of hotels, many of them got up on the scale +of magnificent distances that prevails everywhere, and somewhat on the +maritime plan of the Departments. Outwardly, they look like colossal +docks, erected for the benefit of hacks, large fleets of which you will +always find moored under their lee, safe from the monsoon that prevails +on the open sea of the Avenue. Inwardly, they are labyrinths, through +whose gloomy mazes it is impossible to thread your way without the +assistance of an Ariadne's clue in the shape of an Irishman panting +under a trunk. So obscure and involved are the hotel-interiors, that it +would be madness for a stranger to venture in search of his room without +the guidance of some one far more familiar with the devious course of +the narrow clearings through the forest of apartments than the landlord +himself. Now and then a reckless and adventurous proprietor undertakes +to make a day's journey alone through his establishment. He is never +heard of afterwards,--or, if found, is discovered in a remote angle or +loft, in a state of insensibility from bewilderment and starvation. +If it were not for an occasional negro, who, instigated by charitable +motives or love of money, slouches about from room to room with an empty +coal-scuttle as an excuse for his intrusions, a gentleman stopping at a +Washington hotel would be doomed to certain death. In fact, the lives of +all the guests hang upon a thread, or rather, a wire; for, if the bell +should fail to answer, there would be no earthly chance of getting into +daylight again. It is but reasonable to suppose that the wires to many +rooms have been broken in times past, and it is well known in Washington +that these rooms are now tenanted by skeletons of hapless travellers +whose relatives and friends never doubted that they had been kidnapped +or had gone down in the Arctic. + +The differential calculus by which all Washington is computed obtains at +the hotels as elsewhere, with this peculiarity,--that the differences +are infinitely great, instead of infinitely small. While the fronts are +very fine, showy, and youthful as the Lecompton Constitution, the rears +are coarse, common, and old as the Missouri Compromise. The furniture in +the rooms that look upon Pennsylvania Avenue is as fresh as the dogma +of Squatter Sovereignty; that in all other rooms dates back to the +Ordinance of '87. Some of the apartments exhibit a glaring splendor; the +rest show beds, bureaus, and washstands which hard and long usage has +polished to a sort of newness. Specimens of ancient pottery found on +these washstands are now in the British Museum, and are reckoned among +the finest of Layard's collections at Nineveh. + +The dining rooms are admirable examples of magnificent distance. The +room is long, the tables are long, the kitchen is a long way off, and +the waiters a long time going and coming. The meals are long,--so +long that there is literally no end to them; they are eternal. It is +customary to mark certain points in the endless route of appetite with +mile-stones named breakfast, dinner, and supper; but these points have +no more positive existence than the imaginary lines and angles of the +geometrician. Breakfast runs entirely through dinner into supper, and +dinner ends with coffee, the beginning of breakfast. Estimating the +duration of dinner by the speed of an ordinary railroad-train, it is +twenty miles from soup to fish, and fifty from turkey to nuts. But +distance, however magnificent, does not lend enchantment to a meal. The +wonder is that the knives and forks are not made to correspond in length +with the repasts,--in which case the latter would be pitchforks, and the +former John-Brown pikes. + +The people of Washington are as various, mixed, dissimilar, and +contrasted as the edifices they inhabit. Within the like area, which is +by no means a small one, the same number of dignitaries can be found +nowhere else on the face of the globe,--nor so many characters of +doubtful reputation. If the beggars of Dublin, the cripples of +Constantinople, and the lepers of Damascus should assemble in +Baden-Baden during a Congress of Kings, then Baden-Baden would resemble +Washington. Presidents, Senators, Honorables, Judges, Generals, +Commodores, Governors, and the Ex's of all these, congregate here as +thick as pick-pockets at a horse-race or women at a wedding in church. +Add Ambassadors, Plenipotentiaries, Lords, Counts, Barons, Chevaliers, +the great and small fry of the Legations, Captains, Lieutenants, +Claim-Agents, Negroes, Perpetual-Motion-Men, Fire-Eaters, Irishmen, +Plug-Uglies, Hoosiers, Gamblers, Californians, Mexicans, Japanese, +Indians, and Organ-Grinders, together with females to match all +varieties of males, and you have vague notion of the people of +Washington. + +It is an axiom in physics, that a part cannot be greater than the whole; +and it will be recollected, that, after Epistemon had his head sewed on, +he related a tough story about the occupations of the mighty dead, and +swore, that, in the course of his wanderings among the damned, he found +Cicero kindling fires, Hannibal selling egg-shells, and Julius Caesar +cleaning stoves. The story holds good in regard to the mighty personages +in Washington, but the axiom does not. Men whose fame fills the +land, when they are at home or spouting about the country, sink into +insignificance when they get to Washington. The sun is but a small +potato in the midst of the countless systems of the sidereal heavens. +In like manner, the majestic orbs of the political firmament undergo +a cruel lessening of diameter as they approach the Federal City. The +greatest of men ceases to be great in the presence of hundreds of his +peers, and the multitude of the illustrious dwindle into individual +littleness by reason of their superabundance. And when it comes to +occupations, it will hardly be denied that the stranger who beholds a +Senator "coppering on the ace," or a Congressman standing in a bar-room +with a lump of mouldy cheese in one hand and a glass of "pony whiskey" +in the other, or a Judge of the Supreme Court wriggling an ugly woman +through the ridiculous movements of the polka in a hotel-parlor, must +experience sensations quite as confounding as any Epistemon felt in +Kingdom Come. + +In spite of numberless receptions, levees, balls, hops, parties, +dinners, and other reunions, there is, properly speaking, no society in +Washington. Circles are said to exist, but, like that in the vortex of +the whirlpool, they are incessantly changing. Divisions purely arbitrary +may be made in any community. Hence the circles of Washington society +may be represented sciagraphically in the following diagram. + +[Illustration] + +The Circle of the Mudsill includes Negroes, Clerks, Irish Laborers, +Patent and other Agents, Hackmen, Faro-Dealers, Washerwomen, and +Newspaper-Correspondents. In the Hotel Circle, the Newest Strangers, +Harpists, Members of Congress, Concertina-Men, Provincial Judges, +Card-Writers, College-Students, Unprotected Females, "Star" and "States" +Boys, Stool-Pigeons, Contractors, Sellers of Toothpicks, and Beau +Hickman, are found. The Circle of the White House embraces the +President, the Cabinet, the Chiefs of Bureaus, the Embassies, Corcoran +and Riggs, formerly Mr. Forney, and until recently George Sanders and +Isaiah Rynders. The little innermost circle is intended to represent a +select body of residents, intense exclusives, who keep aloof from the +other circles and hold them all in equal contempt. This circle is known +only by report; in all probability it is a myth. It is worthy of remark +that the circles of the White House and the Hotels rise higher and sink +lower than that of the Mudsill, but whether this is a fact or a mere +necessity of the diagram is not known. + +Society, such as it is, in the metropolis, is indulgent to itself. It +intermeddles not, asks no impertinent questions, and transacts +its little affairs in perfect peace and quietude. Vigilant as the +Inquisition in matters political, it is deaf and blind, but not dumb, as +to all others. It dresses as it pleases, drinks as much as it chooses, +eats indiscriminately, sleeps promiscuously, gets up at all hours of +the day, and does as little work as possible. Its only trouble is that +"incomparable grief" to which Panurge was subject, and "which at that +time they called lack of money." In truth, the normal condition of +Washington society is, to use a vernacular term, "busted." It is not an +isolated complaint. Everybody is "busted." No matter what may be the +state of a man's funds when he gets to Washington, no matter how long he +stays or how soon he leaves, to this "busted" complexion must he come at +last. He is in Rome; he must take the consequences. Shall he insult the +whole city with his solvency? Certainly not. He abandons his purse and +his conscience to the madness of the hour, and, in generous emulation of +the prevailing recklessness and immorality, dismisses every scruple and +squanders his last cent. Then, and not till then, does he feel himself +truly a Washington-man, able to look anybody in the face with the serene +pride of an equal, and without the mortification of being accused or +even suspected of having in all the earth a dollar that he can call his +own. + +Where morals are loose, piety is seldom in excess. But there are a +half-dozen of churches in Washington, besides preaching every Sunday +in the House of Representatives. The relative size and cost of the +churches, as compared with the Public Buildings, indicates the true +object of worship in Washington. Strange to say, the theatre is smaller +than the churches. Clerical and dramatic entertainments cannot compete +with the superior attractions of the daily rows in Congress and the +nightly orgies at the faro-banks. Heaven is regarded as another +Chihuahua or Sonora, occupied at present by unfriendly Camanches, but +destined to be annexed some day. In the mean time, a very important +election is to come off in Connecticut or Pennsylvania. That must be +attended to immediately. Such is piety in Washington. + +The list of the unique prodigies of Washington is without limit. But +marvels heaped together cease to be marvellous, and of all places in +the world a museum is the most tiresome. So, amid the whirl and roar +of winter-life in Washington, when one has no time to read, write, or +think, and scarcely time to eat, drink, and sleep, when the days fly by +like hours, and the brain reels under the excitement of the protracted +debauch, life becomes an intolerable bore. Yet the place has an intense +fascination for those who suffer most acutely from the _tedium vitae_ to +which every one is more or less a prey; and men and women who have lived +in Washington are seldom contented elsewhere. The moths return to the +flaming candle until they are consumed. + +In conclusion, it must be admitted that Washington is the Elysium of +oddities, the Limbo of absurdities, an imbroglio of ludicrous anomalies. +Planned on a scale of surpassing grandeur, its architectural execution +is almost contemptible. Blessed with the name of the purest of men, it +has the reputation of Sodom. The seat of the law-making power, it is the +centre of violence and disorder which disturb the peace and harmony +of the whole Republic,--the chosen resort for duelling, clandestine +marriages, and the most stupendous thefts. It is a city without commerce +and without manufactures; or rather, its commerce is illicit, and its +manufacturers are newspaper-correspondents, who weave tissues of fiction +out of the warp of rumor and the web of prevarication. The site of the +United States Treasury, it is the home of everything but affluence. Its +public buildings are splendid, its private dwellings generally squalid. +The houses are low, the rents high; the streets are broad, the crossings +narrow; the hacks are black, the horses white; the squares are +triangles, except that of the Capitol, which is oval; and the water is +so soft that it is hard to drink it, even with the admixture of alcohol. +It has a Monument that will never be finished, a Capitol that is to have +a dome, a Scientific Institute which does nothing but report the rise +and fall of the thermometer, and two pieces of Equestrian Statuary +which it would be a waste of time to criticize. It boasts a streamlet +dignified with the name of the river Tiber, and this streamlet is of the +size and much the appearance of a vein in a dirty man's arm. It has a +canal, but the canal is a mud-puddle during one half the day and an +empty ditch during the other. In spite of the labors of the Smithsonian +Institute, it has no particular weather. It has the climates of all +parts of the habitable globe. It rains, hails, snows, blows, freezes, +and melts in Washington, all in the space of twenty-four hours. After a +fortnight of steady rain, the sun shines out, and in half an hour the +streets are filled with clouds of dust. Property in Washington is +exceedingly sensitive, the people alarmingly callous. The men are +fine-looking, the women homely. The latter have plain faces, but +magnificent busts and graceful figures. The former have an imposing +presence and an empty pocket, a great name and a small conscience. +Notwithstanding all these impediments and disadvantages, Washington +is progressing rapidly. It is fast becoming a large city, but it must +always remain a deserted village in the summer. Its destiny is that of +the Union. It will be the greatest capital the world ever saw, or +it will be "a parched place in the wilderness, a salt land and not +inhabited," and "every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and +wag his head." + + + + +MIDSUMMER AND MAY. + + +[Concluded.] + +Spring at last stole placidly into summer, and Marguerite, who was +always shivering in the house, kept the company in a whirl of out-door +festivals. + +"We have not lived so, Roger," said Mrs. McLean, "since the summer when +you went away. We all follow the caprice of this child as a ship follows +the little compass-needle." + +And she made room for the child beside her in the carriage; for Mr. +Raleigh was about driving them into town,--an exercise which had its +particular charm for Marguerite, not only for the glimpse it afforded of +the gay, bustling inland-city-life, but for opportunities of securing +the reins and of occasioning panics. Lately, however, she had resigned +the latter pleasure, and sat with quiet propriety by Mrs. McLean. +Frequently, also, she took long drives alone or with one of the +children, holding the reins listlessly, and ranging the highway +unobservantly for miles around. + +Mrs. Purcell declared the girl was homesick; Mrs. Heath doubted if +the climate agreed with her: she neither denied nor affirmed their +propositions. + +Mr. Heath came and went from the city where her father was, without +receiving any other notice than she would have bestowed on a peaceful +walking-stick; his attentions to her during his visits were unequivocal; +she accepted them as nonchalantly as from a waiter at table. On the +occasion of his last stay, there had been a somewhat noticeable change +in his demeanor: he wore a trifle of quite novel assurance; his supreme +bearing was not mitigated by the restless sparkle of his eye; and in +addressing her his compliments, he spoke as one having authority. + +Mrs. Laudersdale, so long and so entirely accustomed to the reception +of homage that it cost her no more reflection than an imperial princess +bestows on the taxes that produce her tiara, turned slowly from the +apparent apathy thus induced on her modes of thought, passivity lost in +a gulf of anxious speculation, while she watched the theatre of events +with a glow, like wine in lamplight, that burned behind her dusky eyes +till they had the steady penetration of some wild creature's. She may +have wondered if Mr. Raleigh's former feeling were yet alive; she may +have wondered if Marguerite had found the spell that once she found, +herself; she may have been kept in thrall by ignorance if he had ever +read that old confessing note of hers: whatever she thought or hoped or +dreaded, she said nothing, and did nothing. + +Of all those who concerned themselves in the affair of Marguerite's +health and spirits, Mr. Raleigh was the only one who might have solved +their mystery. Perhaps the thought of wooing the child whose mother +he had once loved was sufficiently repugnant to him to overcome the +tenderness which every one was forced to feel for so beautiful a +creation. I have not said that Marguerite was this, before, because, +until brought into contrast with her mother, her extreme loveliness was +too little positive to be felt; now it was the evanescent shimmer of +pearl to the deep perpetual fire of the carbuncle. Softened, as she +became, from her versatile cheeriness, she moved round like a moonbeam, +and frequently had a bewildered grace, as if she knew not what to make +of herself. Mr. Raleigh, from the moment in which he perceived that she +no longer sought his company, retreated into his own apartments, and was +less seen by the others than ever. + +Returning from the drive on the morning of Mrs. McLean's last recorded +remark, Mr. Raleigh, who had remained to give the horses in charge to a +servant, was about to pass, when the _tableau_ within the drawing-room +caught his attention and altered his course. He entered, and flung his +gloves down on a table, and threw himself on the floor beside Marguerite +and the children. She appeared to be revisited by a ray of her old +sunshine, and had unrolled a giant parcel of candied sweets, which their +mother would have sacrificed on the shrine of jalap and senna, the +purchase of a surreptitious moment, and was now dispensing the brilliant +comestibles with much ill-subdued glee. One mouth, that had bitten off +the head of a checkerberry chanticleer, was convulsed with the +acidulous tickling of sweetened laughter, till the biter was bit and a +metamorphosis into the animal of attack seemed imminent; at the hands of +another a warrior in barley-sugar was experiencing the vernacular for +defeat with reproving haste and gravity; and there was yet another +little omnivorous creature that put out both hands for indiscriminate +snatching, and made a spectacle of himself in a general plaster of +gum-arabic-drop and brandy-smash. + +"Contraband?" said Mr. Raleigh. + +"And sweet as stolen fruit," said Marguerite. "Ursule makes the +richest comfits, but not so innumerable as these. Mamma and I owe our +sweet-tooth and honey-lip to bits of her concoction." + +"Mrs. Purcell," asked Mr. Raleigh, as that lady entered, "is this little +banquet no seduction to you?" + +"What are you doing?" she replied. + +"Drinking honey-dew from acorns." + +"Laudersdale as ever!" ejaculated she, looking over his shoulder. "I +thought you had 'no sympathy with'"---- + +"But I 'like to see other folks take'"---- + +"Their sweets, in this case. No, thank you," she continued, after this +little rehearsal of the past. "What are you poisoning all this brood +for?" + +"Mrs. Laudersdale eats sweetmeats; they don't poison her," remonstrated +Katy. + +"Mrs. Laudersdale, my dear, is exceptional." + +Katy opened her eyes, as if she had been told that the object of her +adoration was Japanese. + +"It is the last grain that completes the transformation, as your +story-books have told; and one day you will see her stand, a statue +of sugar, and melt away in the sun. To be sure, the whole air will be +sweetened, but there will be no Mrs. Laudersdale." + +"For shame, Mrs. Purcell!" cried Marguerite. "You're not sweet-tempered, +or you'd like sweet dainties yourself. Here are nuts swathed in syrup; +you'll have none of them? Here are health and slumber and idle dreams +in a chocolate-drop. Not a chocolate? Here are dates; if you wouldn't +choose the things in themselves, truly you would for their associations? +See, when you take up one, what a picture follows it: the plum that has +swung at the top of a palm and crowded into itself the glow of those +fierce noon-suns; it has been tossed by the sirocco, it has been steeped +in reeking dew; there was always stretched above it the blue intense +tent of a heaven full of light,--always below and around, long level +reaches of hot shining sand; the phantoms of waning desert moons have +hovered over it, swarthy Arab chiefs have encamped under it; it +has threaded the narrow streets of Damascus--that city the most +beautiful--on the backs of gaunt gray dromedaries; it has crossed the +seas,--and all for you, if you take it, this product of desert freedom, +torrid winds, and fervid suns!" + +"I might swallow the date," said Mrs. Purcell, "but Africa would choke +me." + +Mr. Raleigh had remained silent for some time, watching Marguerite as +she talked. It seemed to him that his youth was returning; he forgot his +resolves, his desires, and became aware of nothing in the world but her +voice. Just before she concluded, she grew conscious of his gaze, and +almost at once ceased speaking; her eyes fell a moment to meet it, and +then she would have flashed them aside, but that it was impossible; +lucid lakes of light, they met his own; she was forced to continue it, +to return it, to forget all, as he was forgetting, in that long look. + +"What is this?" said Mrs. Purcell, stooping to pick up a trifle on the +matting. + +"_C'est à moi!_" cried Marguerite, springing up suddenly, and spilling +all the fragments of the feast, to the evident satisfaction of the +lately neglected guests. + +"Yours?" said Mrs. Purcell with coolness, still retaining it. "Why do +you think in French?" + +"Because I choose!" said Marguerite, angrily. "I mean--How do you know +that I do?" + +"Your exclamation, when highly excited or contemptuously indifferent, is +always in that tongue." + +"Which am I now?" + +"Really, you should know best. Here is your bawble"; and Mrs. Purcell +tossed it lightly into her hands, and went out. + +It was a sheath of old morocco. The motion loosened the clasp, and the +contents, an ivory oval and a cushion of faded silk, fell to the floor. +Mr. Raleigh bent and regathered them; there was nothing for Marguerite +but to allow that he should do so. The oval had reversed in falling, so +that he did not see it; but, glancing at her before returning it, he +found her face and neck dyed deeper than the rose. Still reversed, he +was about to relinquish it, when Mrs. McLean passed, and, hearing the +scampering of little feet as they fled with booty, she also entered. + +"Seeing you reminds me, Roger," said she. "What do you suppose has +become of that little miniature I told you of? I was showing it to +Marguerite the other night, and have not seen it since. I must have +mislaid it, and it was particularly valuable, for it was some nameless +thing that Mrs. Heath found among her mother's trinkets, and I begged it +of her, it was such a perfect likeness of you. Can you have seen it?" + +"Yes, I have it," he replied. "And haven't I as good a right to it as +any?" + +He extended his arm for the case which Marguerite held, and so touching +her hand, the touch was more lingering than it needed to be; but he +avoided looking at her, or he would have seen that the late color had +fled till the face was whiter than marble. + +"Your old propensities," said Mrs. McLean. "You always will be a boy. By +the way, what do you think of Mary Purcell's engagement? I thought she +would always be a girl." + +"Ah! McLean was speaking of it to me. Why were they not engaged before?" + +"Because she was not an heiress." + +Mr. Raleigh raised his eyebrows significantly. + +"He could not afford to marry any but an heiress," explained Mrs. +McLean. + +Mr. Raleigh fastened the case and restored it silently. + +"You think that absurd? You would not marry an heiress?" + +Mr. Raleigh did not at once reply. + +"You would not, then, propose to an heiress?" + +"No." + +As this monosyllable fell from his lips, Marguerite's motion placed +her beyond hearing. She took a few swift steps, but paused and leaned +against the wall of the gable for support, and, placing her hand upon +the sun-beat bricks, she felt a warmth in them which there seemed to be +neither in herself nor in the wide summer-air. + +Mrs. Purcell came along, opening her parasol. + +"I am going to the orchard," said she; "cherries are ripe. Hear the +robins and the bells! Do you want to come?" + +"No," said Marguerite. + +"There are bees in the orchard, too,--the very bees, for aught I +know, that Mr. Raleigh used to watch thirteen years ago, or their +great-grand-bees,--they stand in the same place." + +"You knew Mr. Raleigh thirteen years ago?" she asked, glancing up +curiously. + +"Yes." + +"Well?" + +"Very well." + +"How much is very well?" + +"He proposed to me. Smother your anger; he didn't care for me; some one +told him that I cared for him." + +"Did you?" + +"This is what the Inquisition calls applying the question?" asked Mrs. +Purcell. "Nonsense, dear child! he was quite in love with somebody +else." + +"And that was----?" + +"He supposed your mother to be a widow. Well, if you won't come, I shall +go alone and read my 'L'Allegro' under the boughs, with breezes blowing +between the lines. I can show you some little field-mice like unfledged +birds, and a nest that protrudes now and then glittering eyes and cleft +fangs." + +Marguerite was silent; the latter commodity was _de trop_. Mrs. Purcell +adjusted her parasol and passed on. + +Here, then, was the whole affair. Marguerite pressed her hands to her +forehead, as if fearful some of the swarming thoughts should escape; +then she hastened up the slope behind the house, and entered and hid +herself in the woods. Mr. Raleigh had loved her mother. Of course, then, +there was not a shadow of doubt that her mother had loved him. Horrible +thought! and she shook like an aspen, beneath it. For a time it seemed +that she loathed him,--that she despised the woman who had given him +regard. The present moment was a point of dreadful isolation; there was +no past to remember, no future to expect; she herself was alone and +forsaken, the whole world dark, and heaven blank. But that could not be +forever. As she sat with her face buried in her hands, old words, old +looks, flashed on her recollection; she comprehended what long years of +silent suffering the one might have endured, what barren yearning the +other; she saw how her mother's haughty calm might be the crust on a +lava-sea; she felt what desolation must have filled Roger Raleigh's +heart, when he found that she whom he had loved no longer lived, that he +had cherished a lifeless ideal,--for Marguerite knew from his own lips +that he had not met the same woman whom he had left. + +She started up, wondering what had led her upon this train of thought, +why she had pursued it, and what reason she had for the pain it gave +her. A step rustled among the distant last-year's leaves; there in the +shadowy wood, where she did not dream of concealing her thoughts, where +it seemed that all Nature shared her confidence, this step was like +a finger laid on the hidden sore. She paused, a glow rushed over her +frame, and her face grew hot with the convicting flush. Consternation, +bitter condemnation, shame, impetuous resolve, swept over her in one +torrent, and she saw that she had a secret which every one might touch, +and, touching, cause to sting. She hurried onward through the wood, +unconscious how rapidly or how far her heedless course extended. She +sprang across gaps at which she would another time have shuddered; she +clambered over fallen trees, penetrated thickets of tangled brier, and +followed up the shrunken beds of streams, till suddenly the wood grew +thin again, and she emerged upon an open space,--a long lawn, where the +grass grew rank and tall as in deserted graveyards, and on which the +afternoon sunshine lay with most dreary, desolate emphasis. Marguerite +had scarcely comprehended herself before; now, as she looked out on the +utter loneliness of the place, all joyousness, all content, seemed wiped +from the world. She leaned against a tree where the building rose before +her, old and forsaken, washed by rains, beaten by winds. A blind slung +open, loose on a broken hinge; the emptiness of the house looked through +it like a spirit. The woodbine seemed the only living thing about +it,--the woodbine that had swung its clusters, heavy as grapes of +Eshcol, along one wall, and, falling from support, had rioted upon the +ground in masses of close-netted luxuriance. + +Standing and surveying the silent scene of former gayety, a figure +came down the slope, crushing the grass with lingering tread, checked +himself, and, half-reversed, surveyed it with her. Her first impulse was +to approach, her next to retreat; by a resolution of forces she remained +where she was. Mr. Raleigh's position prevented her from seeing the +expression of his face; from his attitude seldom was anything to be +divined. He turned with a motion of the arm, as if he swung off a +burden, and met her eye. He laughed, and drew near. + +"I am tempted to return to that suspicion of mine when I first met you, +Miss Marguerite," said he. "You take shape from solitude and empty air +as easily as a Dryad steps from her tree." + +"There are no Dryads now," said Marguerite, sententiously. + +"Then you confess to being a myth?" + +"I confess to being tired, Mr. Raleigh." + +Mr. Raleigh's manner changed, at her petulance and fatigue, to the old +air of protection, and he gave her his hand. It was pleasant to be the +object of his care, to be with him as at first, to renew their former +relation. She acquiesced, and walked beside him. + +"You have had some weary travel," he said, "and probably not more than +half of it in the path." + +And she feared he would glance at the rents in her frock, forgetting +that they were not sufficiently infrequent facts to be noticeable. + +"He treats me like a child," she thought. "He expects me to tear my +dress! He forgets, that, while thirteen years were making a statue of +her, they were making a woman of me!" And she snatched away her hand. + +"I have the boat below," he said, without paying attention to the +movement. "You took the longest way round, which, you have heard, is the +shortest way home. You have never been on the lake with me." And he was +about to assist her in. + +She stepped back, hesitating. + +"No, no," he said. "It is very well to think of walking back, but it +must end in thinking. You have no impetus now to send you over another +half-dozen miles of wood-faring, no pique to sting, Io." + +And before she could remonstrate, she was lifted in, the oars had +flashed twice, and there was deep water between herself and shore. She +was in reality too much fatigued to be vexed, and she sat silently +watching the spaces through which they glanced, and listening to the +rhythmic dip of the oars. The soft afternoon air, with its melancholy +sweetness and tinge of softer hue, hung round them; the water, brown and +warm, was dimpled with the flight of myriad insects; they wound among +the islands, a path one of them knew of old. From the shelving rocks a +wild convolvulus drooped its twisted bells across them, a sweet-brier +snatched at her hair in passing, a sudden elder-tree shot out its creamy +panicles above, they ripped up drowsy beds of folded lily-blooms. + +Mr. Raleigh, suddenly lifting one oar, gave the boat a sharp curve and +sent it out on the open expanse; it seemed to him that he had no right +thus to live two lives in one. Still he wished to linger, and with now +and then a lazy movement they slipped along. He leaned one arm on the +upright oar, like a river-god, and from the store of boat-songs in his +remembrance sang now and then a strain. Marguerite sat opposite and +rested along the side, content for the moment to glide on as they were, +without a reference to the past in her thought, without a dream of the +future. Peach-bloom fell on the air, warmed all objects into mellow +tint, and reddened deep into sunset. Tinkling cow-bells, where the kine +wound out from pasture, stole faintly over the lake, reflected dyes +suffused it and spread around them sheets of splendid color, outlines +grew ever dimmer on the distant shores, a purple tone absorbed all +brilliance, the shadows fell, and, bright with angry lustre, the planet +Mars hung in the south and struck a spear, redder than rubies, down the +placid mirror. The dew gathered and lay sparkling on the thwarts as they +touched the garden-steps, and they mounted and traversed together the +alleys of odorous dark. They entered at Mr. Raleigh's door and stepped +thence into the main hall, where they could see the broad light from the +drawing-room windows streaming over the lawn beyond. Mrs. Laudersdale +came down the hall to meet them. + +"My dear Rite," she said, "I have been alarmed, and have sent the +servants out for you. You left home in the morning, and you have not +dined. Your father and Mr. Heath have arrived. Tea is just over, and +we are waiting for you to dress and go into town; it is Mrs. Manton's +evening, you recollect." + +"Must I go, mamma?" asked Marguerite, after this statement of facts. +"Then I must have tea first. Mr. Raleigh, I remember my wasted +sweetmeats of the morning with a pang. How long ago that seems!" + +In a moment her face told her regret for the allusion, and she hastened +into the dining-room. + +Mr. Raleigh and Marguerite had a merry tea, and Mrs. Purcell came and +poured it out for them. + +"Quite like the days when we went gypsying," said she, when near its +conclusion. + +"We have just come from the Bawn, Miss Marguerite and I," he replied. + +"You have? I never go near it. Did it break your heart?" + +Mr. Raleigh laughed. + +"Is Mr. Raleigh's heart such a delicate organ?" asked Marguerite. + +"Once, you might have been answered negatively; now, it must be like the +French banner, _percé, troué, criblé,"-- + +"Pray, add the remainder of your quotation," said he,--"_sans peur et +sans reproche_." + +"So that a trifle would reduce it to flinders," said Mrs. Purcell, +without minding his interruption. + +"Would you give it such a character, Miss Rite?" questioned Mr. Raleigh +lightly. + +"I? I don't see that you have any heart at all, Sir." + +"I swallow my tea and my mortification." + +"Do you remember your first repast at the Bawn?" asked Mrs. Purcell. + +"Why not?" + +"And the jelly like molten rubies that I made? It keeps well." And she +moved a glittering dish toward him. + +"All things of that summer keep well," he replied. + +"Except yourself, Mr. Raleigh. The Indian jugglers are practising upon +us, I suspect. You are no more like the same person who played sparkling +comedy and sang passionate tragedy than this bamboo stick is like that +willow wand." + +"I wish I could retort, Miss Helen," he replied. "I beg your pardon!" + +She was silent, and her eye fell and rested on the sheeny damask +beneath. He glanced at her keenly an instant, then handed her his cup, +saying,-- + +"May I trouble you?" + +She looked up again, a smile breaking over the face wanner than +youth, but which the hour's gayety had flushed to a forgetfulness of +intervening years, extended her left hand for the cup, still gazing and +smiling. + +Various resolves had flitted through Marguerite's mind since her +entrance. One, that she would yet make Mr. Raleigh feel her power, +yielded to shame and self-contempt, and she despised herself for a woman +won unwooed. But she was not sure that she was won. Perhaps, after all, +she did not care particularly for Mr. Raleigh. He was much older than +she; he was quite grave, sometimes satirical; she knew nothing about +him; she was slightly afraid of him. On the whole, if she consulted her +taste, she would have preferred a younger hero; she would rather be the +Fornarina for a Raffaello; she had fancied her name sweetening the songs +of Giraud Riquier, the last of the Troubadours; and she did not believe +Beatrice Portinari to be so excellent among women, so different from +other girls, that her name should have soared so far aloft with that +escutcheon of the golden wing on a field azure. "But they say that there +cannot be two epic periods in a nation's literature," thought Marguerite +hurriedly; "so that a man who might have been Homer once will be nothing +but a gentleman now." And at this point, having decided that Mr. Raleigh +was fully worth unlimited love, she added to her resolves a desire for +content with whatever amount of friendly affection he chose to bestow +upon her. And all this, while sifting the sugar over her raspberries. +Nevertheless, she felt, in the midst of her heroic content, a strange +jealousy at hearing the two thus discuss days in which she had no share, +and she watched them furtively, with a sharp, hateful suspicion dawning +in her mind. Now, as Mrs. Purcell's eyes met Mr. Raleigh's, and her hand +was still extended for the cup, Marguerite fastened her glance on its +glittering ring, and said abruptly,-- + +"Mrs. Purcell, have you a husband?" + +Mrs. Purcell started and withdrew her hand, as if it had received a +blow, just as Mr. Raleigh relinquished the cup, so that between them the +bits of pictured porcelain fell and splintered over the equipage. + +"Naughty child!" said Mrs. Purcell. "See now what you've done!" + +"What have I to do with it?" + +"Then you haven't any bad news for me? Has any one heard from the +Colonel? Is he ill?" + +"Pshaw!" said Marguerite, rising and throwing down her napkin. + +She went to the window and looked out. + +"It is time you were gone, little lady," said Mr. Raleigh. + +She approached Mrs. Purcell and passed her hand down her hair. + +"What pretty soft hair you have!" said she. "These braids are like +carved gold-stone. May I dress it with sweet-brier to-night? I brought +home a spray." + +"Rite!" said Mrs. Laudersdale sweetly, at the door; and Rite obeyed the +summons. + +In a half-hour she came slowly down the stairs, untwisting a long string +of her mother's abandoned pearls, great pear-shaped things full of the +pale lustre of gibbous moons. She wore a dress of white samarcand, with +a lavish ornament like threads and purfiles of gold upon the bodice, and +Ursule followed with a cloak. As she entered the drawing-room, the great +bunches of white azalea, which her mother had brought from the swamps, +caught her eye; she threw down the pearls, and broke off rapid dusters +of the queenly flowers, touching the backward-curling hyacinthine +petals, and caressingly passing her finger down the pale purple shadow +of the snowy folds. Directly afterward she hung them in her breezy hair, +from which, by natural tenure, they were not likely to fall, bound them +over her shoulders and in her waist. + +"See! I stand like Summer," she said, "wrapped in perfume; it is +intoxicating." + +Just then two hands touched her, and her father bent his face over her. +She flung her arms round him, careless of their fragile array, kissed +him on both cheeks, laughed, and kissed him again. She did not speak, +for he disliked French, and English sometimes failed her. + +"Here is Mr. Heath," her father said. + +She partly turned, touched that gentleman's hand with the ends of her +fingers, and nodded. Her father whispered a brief sentence in her ear. + +"_Jamais, Monsieur, jamais!_" she exclaimed; then, with a quick gesture +of deprecation, moved again toward him; but Mr. Laudersdale had coldly +passed to make his compliments to Mrs. Heath. + +"You are not in toilet?" said Marguerite, following him, but speaking +with Mr. Raleigh. + +"No,--Mrs. Purcell has been playing for me a little thing I always +liked,--that sweet, tuneful afternoon chiding of the Miller and the +Torrent." + +She glanced at Mrs. Purcell, saw that her dress remained unaltered, and +commenced pulling out the azaleas from her own. + +"I do not want to go," she murmured. "I need not! Mamma and Mrs. McLean +have already gone in the other carriage." + +"Come, Marguerite," said Mr. Laudersdale, approaching her, as Mr. Heath +and his mother disappeared. + +"I am not going," she replied, quickly. + +"Not going? I beg your pardon, my dear, but you are!" and he took her +hand. + +She half endeavored to withdraw it, threw a backward glance over her +shoulder at the remaining pair, and, led by her father, went out. + +Marguerite did her best to forget the vexation, was very affable with +her father, and took no notice of any of Mr. Heath's prolonged remarks. +The drive was at best a tiresome one, and she was already half-asleep +when the carriage stopped. The noise and light, and the little vanities +of the dressing-room, awakened her, and she descended prepared for +conquest. But, after a few moments, it all became weariness, the air +was close, the flowers faded, the music piercing. The toilets did +not attract nor the faces interest her. She danced along absent and +spiritless, when her eye, raised dreamily, fell on an object among the +curtains and lay fascinated there. It was certainly Mr. Raleigh: but so +little likely did that seem, that she again circled the room, with her +eyes bent upon that point, expecting it to vanish. He must have come in +the saddle, unless a coach had returned for him and Mrs. Purcell,--yes, +there was Mrs. Purcell,--and she wore that sweet-brier fresh-blossoming +in the light. With what ease she moved!--it must always have been the +same grace;--how brilliant she was! There,--she was going to dance with +Mr. Raleigh. No? Where, then? Into the music-room! + +The music-room lay beyond an anteroom of flowers and prints, and +was closed against the murmur of the parlors by great glass doors. +Marguerite, from her position, could see Mr. Raleigh seated at the +piano, and Mrs. Purcell standing by his side; now she turned a leaf, now +she stooped, and their hands touched upon the keys. Marguerite slipped +alone through the dancers, and drew nearer. There were others in the +music-room, but they were at a distance from the piano. She entered +the anteroom and sat shadowed among the great fragrant shrubs. A group +already stood there, eating ices and gayly gossiping. Mr. Laudersdale +and Mr. Manton sauntered in, their heads together, and muttering occult +matters of business, whose tally was kept with forefinger on palm. + +"Where is Raleigh?" asked Mr. Manton, looking up. "He can tell us." + +"At his old occupation," answered a gentleman from beside Mrs. +Laudersdale, "flirting with forbidden fruit." + +"An alliterative amusement," said Mrs. Laudersdale. + +"You did not know the original Raleigh?" continued the gentleman. "But +he always took pleasure in female society; yet, singularly enough, +though fastidious in choice, it was only upon the married ladies that he +bestowed his platonisms. I observe the old Adam still clings to him." + +"He probably found more liberty with them," remarked Mrs. Laudersdale, +when no one else replied. + +"Without doubt he took it." + +"I mean, that, where attentions are known to intend nothing, one is not +obliged to measure them, or to calculate upon effects." + +"Of the latter no one can accuse Mr. Raleigh!" said Mr. Laudersdale, +hotly, forgetting himself for once. + +Mrs. Laudersdale lifted her large eyes and laid them on her husband's +face. + +"Excuse me! excuse me!" said the gentleman, with natural misconception. +"I was not aware that he was a friend of yours." And taking a lady on +his arm, he withdrew. + +"Nor is he!" said Mr. Laudersdale, in lowest tones, replying to his +wife's gaze, and for the first time intimating his feeling. "Never, +never, can I repair the ruin he has made me!" + +Mrs. Laudersdale rose and stretched out her arm, blindly. + +"The room is quite dark," she murmured; "the flowers must soil the air. +Will you take me up-stairs?" + +Meanwhile, the unconscious object of their remark was turning over a +pile of pages with one hand, while the other trifled along the gleaming +keys. + +"Here it is," said he, drawing one from the others, and arranging it +before him,--a _gondel-lied_. + +There stole from his fingers the soft, slow sound of lapsing waters, the +rocking on the tide, the long sway of some idle weed. Here a jet of tune +was flung out from a distant bark, here a high octave flashed like a +passing torch through night-shadows, and lofty arching darkness told in +clustering chords. Now the boat fled through melancholy narrow ways of +pillared pomp and stately beauty, now floated off on the wide lagoons +alone with the stars and sea. Into this broke the passion of the gliding +lovers, deep and strong, giving a soul to the whole, and fading away +again, behind its wild beating,--with the silence of lapping ripple and +dipping oar. + +Mrs. Purcell, standing beside the player, laid a careless arm across the +instrument, and bent her face above him like a flower languid with +the sun's rays. Suddenly the former smile suffused it, and, as the +gondel-lied fell into a slow floating accompaniment, she sang with a +swift, impetuous grace, and in a sweet, yet thrilling voice, the Moth +Song. The shrill music and murmur from the parlors burst all at once in +muffled volume upon the melody, and, turning, they both saw Marguerite +standing in the doorway, like an angry wraith, and flitting back again. +Mrs. Purcell laughed, but took up the thread of her song again where it +was broken, and carried it through to the end. Then Mr. Raleigh tossed +the gondel-lied aside, and rising, they continued their stroll. + +"You have more than your share of the good things of life, Raleigh," +said Mr. McLean, as the person addressed poured out wine for Mrs. +Purcell. "Two affairs on hand at once? You drink deep. Light and +sparkling,--thin and tart,--isn't it Solomon who forbids mixed drink?" + +"I was never the worse for claret," replied Mr. Raleigh, bearing away +the glittering glass. + +The party from the Lake had not arrived at an early hour, and it was +quite late when Mr. Raleigh made his way through ranks of tireless +dancers, toward Marguerite. She had been dancing with a spirit that +would have resembled joyousness but for its reckless _abandon_. She +seemed to him then like a flame, as full of wilful sinuous caprice. At +the first he scarcely liked it, but directly the artistic side of his +nature recognized the extreme grace and beauty that flowed through every +curve of movement. Standing now, the corn-silk hair slightly disordered +and still blown about by the fan of some one near her, her eyes +sparkling like stars in the dewdrops of wild wood-violets, warm, yet +weary, and a flush deepening her cheek with color, while the flowers +hung dead around her, she held a glass of wine and watched the bead swim +to the brim. Mr. Raleigh approached unaware, and startled her as he +spoke. + +"It is _au gré du vent_, indeed," he said,--"just the white fluttering +butterfly,--and now that the wings are clasped above this crimson +blossom, I have a chance of capture." And smiling, he gently withdrew +the splendid draught. + +"_Buvez, Monsieur_," she said; "_c'est le vin de la vie!_" + +"Do you know how near daylight it is?" he replied. "Mrs. Laudersdale +fainted in the heat, and your father took her home long ago. The Heaths +went also; and the carriage has just returned for the only ones of us +that are left, you and me." + +"Is it ready now?" + +"Yes." + +"So am I." + +And in a few moments she sat opposite him in the coach, on their way +home. + +"It wouldn't be possible for me to sit on the box and drive?" she asked. + +"I should like it, in this wild starlight, these flying clouds, this +breath of dawn." + +Meeting no response, she sank into silence. No emotion can keep one +awake forever, and, after all her late fatigue, the roll of the easy +vehicle upon the springs soon soothed her into a dreamy state. Through +the efforts at wakefulness, she watched the gleams that fell within from +the carriage-lamps, the strange shadows on the roadside, the boughs +tossing to the wind and flickering all their leaves in the speeding +light; she watched, also, Mr. Raleigh's face, on which, in the fitful +flashes, she detected a look of utter weariness. + +"_Monsieur_," she exclaimed, "_il faut que je vous gêne!_" + +"Immensely," said Mr. Raleigh with a smile; "but, fortunately, for no +great time." + +"We shall be soon at home? Then I must have slept." + +"Very like. What did you dream?" + +"Oh, one must not tell dreams before breakfast, or they come to pass, +you know." + +"No,--I am uninitiated in dream-craft. Mr. Heath"---- + +"_Monsieur_," she cried, with sudden heat, "_il me semble que je +comprends les Laocoons! J'en suis de même!_" + +As she spoke, she fell, struck forward by a sudden shock, the coach was +rocking like a boat, and plunging down unknown gulfs. Mr. Raleigh seized +her, broke through the door, and sprang out. + +"_Qu'avez vous?_" she exclaimed. + +"The old willow is fallen in the wind," he replied. + +"_Quel dommage_ that we did not see it fall!" + +"It has killed one of the horses, I fear," he continued, measuring, as +formerly, her terror by her levity. "Capua! is all right? Are you safe?" + +"Yah, massa!" responded a voice from the depths, as Capua floundered +with the remaining horse in the thicket at the lake-edge below. "Yah, +massa,--nuffin harm Ol' Cap in water; spec he born to die in galluses; +had nuff chance to be in glory, ef 'twasn't. I's done beat wid dis yer +pony, anyhow, Mass'r Raleigh. Seems, ef he was a 'sect to fly in de face +of all creation an' pay no 'tention to his centre o' gravity, he might +walk up dis yer hill!" + +Mr. Raleigh left Marguerite a moment, to relieve Capua's perplexity. +Through the remaining darkness, the sparkle of stars, and wild fling of +shadows in the wind, she could but dimly discern the struggling figures, +and the great creature trampling and snorting below. She remembered +strange tales out of the "Arabian Nights," "Bellerophon and the +Chimaera," "St. George and the Dragon"; she waited, half-expectant, to +see the great talon-stretched wings flap up against the slow edge of +dawn, where Orion lay, a pallid monster, watching the planet that +flashed like some great gem low in a crystalline west, and she stepped +nearer, with a kind of eager and martial spirit, to do battle in turn. + +"Stand aside, Una!" cried Mr. Raleigh, who had worked in a determined +characteristic silence, and the horse's head, sharp ear, and starting +eye were brought to sight, and then his heaving bulk. + +"All right, massa!" cried Capua, after a moment's survey, as he patted +the trembling flanks. "Pretty tough ex'cise dat! Spect Massam Clean be +mighty high,--his best cretur done about killed wid dat tree;--feared he +show dis nigger a stick worf two o' dat!" + +"We had like to have finished our dance on nothing," said Mr. Raleigh +now, looking back on the splintered wheels and panels. "Will you mount? +I can secure you from falling." + +"Oh, no,--I can walk; it is only a little way." + +"Reach home like Cinderella? If you had but one glass slipper, that +might be; but in satin ones it is impossible." And she found herself +seated aloft before quite aware what had happened. + +Pacing along, they talked lightly, with the gayety natural upon +excitement,--Capua once in a while adding a cogent word. As they opened +the door, Mr. Raleigh paused a moment. + +"I am glad," he said, "that my last day with you has been crowned by +such adventures. I leave the Lake at noon." + +She hung, listening, with a backward swerve of figure, and regarding +him in the dim light of the swinging hall-lamp, for the moment +half-petrified. Suddenly she turned and seized his hand in hers,--then +threw it off. + +"_Cher ami_," she murmured hastily, in a piercing whisper, like some +articulate sigh, "_si tu m'aimes, dis moi!_" + +The door closed in the draught, the drawing-room door opened, and Mr. +Laudersdale stepped out, having been awaiting their return. Mr. Raleigh +caught the flash of Marguerite's eye and the crimson of her cheek, as +she sprang forward up the stairs and out of sight. + +The family did not breakfast together the next day, as politeness +chooses to call the first hour after a ball, and Mr. Raleigh was making +some arrangements preliminary to his departure, in his own apartments, +at about the hour of noon. The rooms which he had formerly occupied Mrs. +McLean had always kept closed, in a possibility of his return, and he +had found himself installed in them upon his arrival. The library was +today rather a melancholy room: the great book-cases did not enliven it; +the grand-piano, with its old dark polish, seemed like a coffin, the +sarcophagus of unrisen music; the oak panelling had absorbed a richer +hue with the years than once it wore; the portrait of his mother seemed +farther withdrawn from sight and air; Antinoüs took a tawnier tint in +his long reverie. The Summer, past her height, sent a sad beam, the +signal of decay, through the half-open shutters, and it lay wearily on +the man who sat by the long table, and made more sombre yet the faded +carpet and cumbrous chair. + +There was a tap on the door. Mr. Raleigh rose and opened it, and invited +Mr. Laudersdale in. The latter gentleman complied, took the chair +resigned by the other, but after a few words became quiet. Mr. Raleigh +made one or two attempts at conversation, then, seeing silence to be his +visitor's whim, suffered him to indulge it, and himself continued his +writing. Indeed, the peculiar relations existing between these men made +much conversation difficult. Mr. Laudersdale sat with his eyes upon +the floor for several minutes, and his countenance wrapped in thought. +Rising, with his hands behind him, he walked up and down the long room, +still without speaking. + +"Can I be of service to you, Sir?" asked the other, after observing him. + +"Yes, Mr. Raleigh, I am led to think you can,"--still pacing up and +down, and vouchsafing no further information. + +At last, the monotonous movement ended, Mr. Laudersdale stood at the +window, intercepting the sunshine, and examined some memoranda. + +"Yes, Mr. Raleigh," he resumed, with all his courtly manner, upon close +of the examination, "I am in hopes that you may assist me in a singular +dilemma." + +"I shall be very glad to do so." + +"Thank you. This is the affair. About a year ago, being unable to make +my usual visit to my daughter and her grandmother, I sent there in my +place our head clerk, young Heath, to effect the few transactions, and +also to take a month's recreation,--for we were all overworked and +exhausted by the crisis. The first thing he proceeded to do was to fall +in love with my daughter. Of course he did not mention this occurrence +to me, on his return. When my daughter arrived at New York, I was again +detained, myself, and sent her to this place under his care. He lingered +rather longer than he should have done, knowing the state of things; but +I suspected nothing, for the idea of a clerk's marriage with the heiress +of the great Martinique estate never entered my mind; moreover, I have +regarded her as a child; and I sent him back with various commissions at +several times,--once on business with McLean, once to obtain my wife's +signature to some sacrifice of property, and so on. I really beg your +pardon, Mr. Raleigh; it is painful to another, I am aware, to be thrust +upon family confidences"---- + +"Pray, Sir, proceed," said Mr. Raleigh, wheeling his chair about. + +"But since you are in a manner connected with the affair, yourself"---- + +"You must be aware, Mr. Laudersdale, that my chief desire is the +opportunity you afford me." + +"I believe so. I am happy to afford it. On the occasion of Mr. Heath's +last visit to this place, Marguerite drew attention to a coin whose +history you heard, and the other half of which Mrs. Purcell wore. Mr. +Heath obtained the fragment he possessed through my wife's aunt, Susanne +Le Blanc; Mrs. Purcell obtained hers through her grandmother, Susan +White. Of course, these good people were not slow to put the coin and +the names together; Mr. Heath, moreover, had heard portions of the +history of Susanne Le Blanc, when in Martinique. + +"On resuming his duties in the counting-house, after this little +incident, one day, at the close of business-hours, he demanded from me +the remnants of this history with which he might be unacquainted. When +I paused, he took up the story and finished it with ease, and--and +poetical justice, I may say, Mr. Raleigh. Susanne was the sister of +Mrs. Laudersdale's father, though far younger than he. She met a young +American gentleman, and they became interested in each other. Her +brother designed her for a different fate,--the governor of the island, +indeed, was her suitor,--and forbade their intercourse. There were +rumors of a private marriage; her apartments were searched for any +record, note, or proof, unsuccessfully. If there were such, they had +been left in the gentleman's hands for better concealment. It being +supposed that they continued to meet, M. Le Blanc prevailed upon the +governor to arrest the lover on some trifling pretence and send him out +of the island. Shortly afterward, as he once confessed to his wife, he +caused a circumstantial account of the death and funeral obsequies of +each to reach the other. Immediately he urged the governor's suit again, +and when she continued to resist, he fixed the wedding-day, himself, and +ordered the _trousseau_. Upon this, one evening, she buried the box of +trinkets at the foot of the oleanders, and disappeared the next, and no +trace of her was found. + +"When I reached this point, young Heath turned to me with that +impudently nonchalant drawl of his, saying,-- + +"'And her property, Sir?' + +"'That,' I replied innocently, 'which comprised half the estate, and +which she would have received, on attaining the requisite age, was +inherited by her brother, upon her suicide.' + +"'Apparent suicide, you mean,' said he; and thereupon took up the story, +as I have said, matched date to date and person to person, and informed +me that exactly a fortnight from the day of Mademoiselle Susanne Le +Blanc's disappearance, a young lady took rooms at a hotel in a Southern +city, and advertised for a situation as governess, under the name of +Susan White. She gave no references, spoke English imperfectly, and had +difficulty in obtaining one; finally, however, she was successful, and +after a few years married into the family of her employer, and became +the mother of Mrs. Heath. The likeness of Mrs. Purcell, the grandchild +of Susan White, to Susanne Le Blanc, was so extraordinary, a number of +years ago, that, when Ursule, my daughter's nurse, first saw her, she +fainted with terror. My wife, you are aware, was born long after these +events. This governess never communicated to her husband any more +specific circumstance of her youth than that she had lived in the West +Indies, and had left her family because they had resolved to marry +her,--as she might have done, had she not died shortly after her +daughter's birth. Among her few valuables were found this half-coin of +Heath's, and a miniature, which his mother recently gave your cousin, +but which, on account of its new interest, she has demanded again; for +it is probably that of the ancient lover, and bearing, as it does, a +very striking resemblance to yourself, you have pronounced it to be +undoubtedly that of your uncle, Reuben Raleigh, and wondered how it came +into the possession of Mrs. Heath's mother. Now, as you may be aware, +Reuben Raleigh was the name of Susanne Le Blanc's lover." + +"No,--I was not aware." + +Mr. Laudersdale's countenance, which had been animated in narration, +suddenly fell. + +"I was in hopes," he resumed,--"I thought,--my relation of these +occurrences may have been very confused; but it is as plain as daylight +to me, that Susanne Le Blanc and Susan White are one, and that the +property of the first is due to the heirs of the last." + +"Without doubt, Sir." + +"The same is plain, to the Heaths. I am sure that Marguerite will accept +our decision in the matter,--sure that no daughter of mine would +retain a fraudulent penny; for retain it she could, since there is not +sufficient proof in any court, if we chose to contest; but it will +beggar her." + +"How, Sir? Beggar her to divide her property?" + +"It is a singular division. The interest due on Susanne's moiety swells +it enormously. Add to this, that, after M. Le Blanc's death, Madame Le +Blanc, a much younger person, did not so well understand the management +of affairs, the property depreciated, and many losses were encountered, +and it happens that the sum due Mrs. Heath covers the whole amount that +Marguerite possesses." + +"Now, then, Sir?" exclaimed Mr. Raleigh, interrogatively. + +"Now, then, Mrs. Heath requests my daughter's hand for her son, and +offers to set off to him, at once, such sum as would constitute his half +of her new property upon her decease, and allow him to enter our house +as special partner." + +"Ah!" + +"This does not look so unreasonable. Last night he proposed formally to +Marguerite, who is still ignorant of these affairs, and she refused him. +I have urged her differently,--I can do no more than urge,--and she +remains obdurate. To accumulate misfortunes, we escaped 1857 by a +miracle. We have barely recovered; and now various disasters striking +us,--the loss of the Osprey the first and chief of them,--we are to-day +on the verge of bankruptcy. Nothing but the entrance of this fortune can +save us from ruin." + +"Unfortunate!" said Mr. Raleigh,--"most unfortunate! And can I serve you +at this point?" + +"Not at all, Sir," said Mr. Laudersdale, with sudden erectness. "No,--I +have but one hope. It has seemed to me barely possible that your uncle +may have communicated to you events of his early life,--that you may +have heard, that there may have been papers telling of the real fate of +Susanne Le Blanc." + +"None that I know of," said Mr. Raleigh, after a pause. "My uncle was +a very reserved person. I often imagined that his youth had not been +without its passages, something to account for his unvarying depression. +In one letter, indeed, I asked him for such a narration. He promised to +give it to me shortly,--the next mail, perhaps. The next mail I received +nothing; and after that he made no allusion to the request." + +"Indeed? Indeed? I should say,--pardon me, Mr. Raleigh,--that your +portion of the next mail met with some accident. Your servants could not +explain it?" + +"There is Capua, who was major-domo. We can inquire," said Mr. Raleigh, +with a smile, rising and ringing for that functionary. + +On Capua's appearance, the question was asked, if he had ever secretly +detained letter or paper of any kind. + +"Lors, massa! I alwes knew 'twould come to dis!" he replied. "No, massa, +neber!" shaking his head with repeated emphasis. + +"I thought you might have met with some accident, Capua," said his +master. + +"Axerden be ----, beg massa's parden; but such s'picions poison any +family's peace, and make a feller done forgit hisself." + +"Very well," said Mr. Raleigh, who was made to believe by this vehemence +in what at first had seemed a mere fantasy. "Only remember, that, if you +could assure me that any papers had been destroyed, the assurance would +be of value." + +"'Deed, Mass Roger? Dat alters de case," said Capua, grinning. "Dere's +been a good many papers 'stroyed in dis yer house firs' an' last." + +"Which in particular?" + +"Don' rekerlek, massa, it's so long ago." + +"But make an effort." + +"Well, Massa Raleigh,--'pears to me I _do_ remember suthin',--I do +b'lieve--yes, dis's jist how 'twas. Spect I might as well make a crean +breast ob it. I's alwes had it hangin' roun' my conscious; do'no' but +I's done grad to git rid ob it. Alwes spected massa 'd be 'xcusin' Cap +o' turnin' tief." + +"That is the last accusation I should make against you, Capua." + +"But dar I stan's convicted." + +"Out with it, Capua!" said Mr. Laudersdale, laughing. + +"Lord! Massa Lausdel! how you do scare a chile! Didn' know mass'r was +dar. See, Mass Roger, dis's jist how 'twas. Spec you mind dat time +when all dese yer folks lib'd acrost de lake dat summer, an' massa was +possessed to 'most lib dar too? Well, one day, massa mind Ol' Cap's +runnin' acrost in de rain an' in great state ob excitement to tell him +his house done burnt up?" + +"Yes. What then?" + +"Dat day, massa, de letters had come from Massa Reuben out in Indy, an' +massa's pipe kinder 'tracted Cap's 'tention, an' so he jist set down in +massa's chair an' took a smoke. Bimeby Cap thought,--'Ef massa come an' +ketch him!'--an' put down de pipe an' went to work, and bimeby I smelt +mighty queer smell, massa, 'bout de house, made him tink Ol' Nick was +come hissef for Ol' Cap, an' I come back into dis yer room an' Massa +Reuben's letters from Indy was jist most done burnt up, he cotched 'em +in dese yer ol' brack han's, Mass Roger, an' jist whipt 'em up in dat +high croset." + +And having arrived at this confusion in his personal pronouns, Capua +mounted nimbly on pieces of furniture, thrust his pocket-knife through +a crack of the wainscot, opened the door of a small unseen closet, and, +after groping about and inserting his head as Van Amburgh did in the +lion's mouth, scrambled down again with his hand full of charred and +blackened papers, talking glibly all the while. + +"Ef massa'd jist listen to reason," he said, "'stead o' flyin' into one +ob his tantrums, I might sprain de matter. You see, I knew Mass Roger'd +feel so oncomforble and remorseful to find his ol' uncle's letters done +'stroyed, an 'twas all by axerden, an' couldn' help it noways, massa, +an' been done sorry eber since, an' wished dar warn't no letters dis +side de Atlantic nor torrer, ebery day I woke." + +After which plea, Capua awaited his sentence. + +"That will do,--it's over now, old boy," said Mr. Raleigh, with his +usual smile. + +"Now, massa, you a'n't gwine"---- + +"No, Capua, I'm going to do nothing but look at the papers." + +"But massa's"---- + +"You need not be troubled,--I said, I was not." + +"But, massa,--s'pose I deserve a thrashing?" + +"There's no danger of your getting it, you blameless Ethiop!" + +Upon which pacific assurance, Capua departed. + +The two gentlemen now proceeded to the examination of these fragments. +Of the letters nothing whatever was to be made. From one of them dropped +a little yellow folded paper that fell apart in its creases. Put +together, it formed a sufficiently legible document, and they read the +undoubted marriage-certificate of Susanne Le Blanc and Reuben Raleigh. + +"I am sorry," said Mr. Laudersdale, after a moment. "I am sorry, instead +of a fortune, to give them a bar-sinister." + +"Your daughter is ignorant?--your wife?" + +"Entirely. Will you allow me to invite them in here? They should see +this paper." + +"You do not anticipate any unpleasant effect?" + +"Not the slightest Marguerite has no notion of want or of pride. +Her first and only thought will be--_sa cousine Hélène_." And Mr. +Laudersdale went out. + +Some light feet were to be heard pattering down the stairs, a mingling +of voices, then Mr. Laudersdale passed on, and Marguerite tapped, +entered, and closed the door. + +"My father has told me something I but half understand," said she, with +her hand on the door. "Unless I marry Mr. Heath, I lose my wealth? What +does that signify? Would all the mines of Peru tempt me?" + +Mr. Raleigh remained leaning against the corner of the bookcase. She +advanced and stood at the foot of the table, nearly opposite him. Her +lips were glowing as if the fire of her excitement were fanned by every +breath; her eyes, half hidden by the veiling lids, seemed to throw a +light out beneath them and down her cheek. She wore a mantle of swan's +down closely wrapped round her, for she had complained ceaselessly of +the chilly summer. + +"Mr. Raleigh," she said, "I am poorer than you are, now. I am no longer +an heiress." + +At this moment, the door opened again and Mrs. Laudersdale entered. At +a step she stood in the one sunbeam; at another, the shutters blew +together, and the room was left in semi-darkness, with her figure +gleaming through it, outlined and starred in tremulous evanescent +light. For an instant both Marguerite and Mr. Raleigh seemed to be +half awe-struck by the radiant creature shining out of the dark; +but directly, Marguerite sprang back and stripped away the torrid +nasturtium-vine which her mother had perhaps been winding in her hair +when her husband spoke with her, and whose other end, long and laden +with fragrant flame, still hung in her hand and along her dress. +Laughing, Marguerite in turn wound it about herself, and the flowers, so +lately plucked from the bath of hot air, where they had lain steeping in +sun, flashed through the air a second, and then played all their faint +spirit-like luminosity about their new wearer. She seemed sphered in +beauty, like the Soul of Morning in some painter's fantasy, with all +great stars blossoming out in floral life about her, colorless, yet +brilliant in shape and light. It was too much; Mr. Raleigh opened the +window and let in the daylight again, and a fresh air that lent the +place a gayer life. As he did so, Mr. Laudersdale entered, and with him +Mr. Heath and his mother. Mr. Laudersdale briefly recapitulated the +facts, and added,-- + +"Communicating my doubts to Mr. Raleigh, he has kindly furnished me with +the marriage-certificate of his uncle and Mademoiselle Le Blanc. And as +Mr. Reuben Raleigh was living within thirteen years, you perceive that +your claims are invalidated." + +There was a brief silence while the paper was inspected. + +"I am still of opinion that my grandmother's second marriage was legal," +replied Mr. Heath; "yet I should be loath to drag up her name and +subject ourselves to a possibility of disgrace. So, though the estate is +ours, we can do without it!" + +Meanwhile, Marguerite had approached her father, and was patching +together the important scraps. + +"What has this to do with it?" said she. "You admitted before this +discovery--did you not?--that the property was no longer mine. These +people are Aunt Susanne's heirs still, if not legally, yet justly. I +will not retain a _sous_ of it! My father shall instruct my lawyer, Mrs. +Heath, to make all necessary transfers to yourself. Let us wish you +good-morning!" And she opened the door for them to pass. + +"Marguerite! are you mad?" asked her father, as the door closed. + +"No, father,--but honest,--which is the same thing," she responded, +still standing near it. + +"True," he said, in a low tone like a groan. "But we are ruined." + +"Ruined? Oh, no! You are well and strong. So am I. I can work. I shall +get much embroidery to do, for I can do it perfectly; the nuns taught +me. I have a thousand resources. And there is something my mother can +do; it is her great secret; she has played at it summer after summer. +She has moulded leaves and flowers and twined them round beautiful faces +in clay, long enough; now she shall carve them in stone, and you will be +rich again!" + +Mrs. Laudersdale sat in a low chair while Marguerite spoke, the +nasturtium-vine dinging round her feet like a gorgeous snake, her hands +lying listlessly in her lap, and her attitude that of some queen who has +lost her crown, and is totally bewildered by this strange conduct on the +part of circumstances. All the strength and energy that had been the +deceits of manner were utterly fallen away, and it was plain, that, +whatever the endowment was which Marguerite had mentioned, she could +only play at it. She was but a woman, sheer woman, with the woman's one +capability, and the exercise of that denied her. + +Mr. Laudersdale remained with his eyes fixed on her, and lost, it +seemed, to the presence of others. + +"The disgrace is bitter," he murmured. "I have kept my name so proudly +and so long! But that is little. It is for you I fear. I have stood in +your sunshine and shadowed your life, dear!--At least," he continued, +after a pause, "I can place you beyond the reach of suffering. I must +finish my lonely way." + +Mrs. Laudersdale looked up slowly and met his earnest glance. + +"Must I leave you?" she exclaimed, with a wild terror in her tone. "Do +you mean that I shall go away? Oh, you need not care for me,--you need +never love me,--you may always be cold,--but I must serve you, live with +you, die with you!" And she sprang forward with outstretched arms. + +He caught her before her foot became entangled in the long folds of her +skirt, drew her to himself, and held her. What he murmured was inaudible +to the others; but a tint redder than roses are swam to her cheek, and a +smile broke over her face like a reflection in rippling water. She held +his arm tightly in her hand, and erect and proud, as it were with a new +life, bent toward Roger Raleigh. + +"You see!" said she. "My husband loves me. And I,--it seems at this +moment that I have never loved any other than him!" + +There came a quick step along the matting, the handle of the door turned +in Marguerite's resisting grasp, and Mrs. Purcell's light muslins swept +through. Mr. Raleigh advanced to meet her,--a singular light upon his +face, a strange accent of happiness in his voice. + +"Since you seem to be a part of the affair," she said in a low tone, +while her lip quivered with anger and scorn, "concerning which I have +this moment been informed, pray, take to Mr. Lauderdale my brother's +request to enter the house of Day, Knight, and Company, from this day." + +"Has he made such a request?" asked Mr. Raleigh. + +"He shall make it!" she murmured swiftly, and was gone. + +That night a telegram flashed over the wires, and thenceforth, on the +great financial tide, the ship Day, Knight, and Company lowered its peak +to none. + +The day crept through until evening, deepening into genuine heat, and +Marguerite sat waiting for Mr. Raleigh to come and bid her farewell. +It seemed that his plans were altered, or possibly he was gone, and at +sunset she went out alone. The cardinals that here and there showed +their red caps above the bank, the wild roses that still lined the way, +the grapes that blossomed and reddened and ripened year after year +ungathered, did not once lift her eyes. She sat down, at last, on an old +fallen trunk cushioned with moss, half of it forever wet in the brook +that babbled to the lake, and waited for the day to quench itself in +coolness and darkness. + +"Ah!" said Mr. Raleigh, leaping from the other side of the brook to the +mossy trunk, "is it you? I have been seeking you, and what sprite sends +you to me?" + +"I thought you were going away," she said, abruptly. + +"That is a broken paving-stone," he answered, seating himself beside +her, and throwing his hat on the grass. + +"You asked me, yesterday, if I confessed to being a myth," she said, +after a time. "If I should go back to Martinique, I should become one in +your remembrance,--should I not? You would think of me just as you would +have thought of the Dryad yesterday, if she had stepped from the tree +and stepped back again?" + +"Are you going to Martinique?" he asked, with a total change of face and +manner. + +"I don't know. I am tired of this; and I cannot live on an ice-field. I +had such life at the South! It is 'as if a rose should shut and be a bud +again.' I need my native weather, heat and sea." + +"How can you go to Martinique?" + +"Oh, I forgot!" + +Mr. Raleigh did not reply, and they both sat listening to the faint +night-side noises of the world. + +"You are very quiet," he said at last, ceasing to fling waifs upon the +stream. + +"And you could be very gay, I believe." + +"Yes. I am full of exuberant spirits. Do you know what day it is?" + +"It is my birthday." + +"It is _my_ birthday!" + +"How strange! The Jews would tell you that this sweet first of August +was the birthday of the world. + + "''Tis like the birthday of the world, + When earth was born in bloom,'"-- + +she sang, but paused before her voice should become hoarse in tears. + +"Do you know what you promised me on my birthday? I am going to claim +it." + +"The present. You shall have a cast which I had made from one of +my mother's fancies or bas-reliefs,--she only does the front of +anything,--a group of fleurs-de-lis whose outlines make a child's face, +my face." + +"It is more than any likeness in stone or pencil that I shall ask of +you." + +"What then?" + +"You cannot imagine?" + +"_Monsieur_" she whispered, turning toward him, and blushing in the +twilight, "_est ce que c'est moi?_" + +There came out the low west-wind singing to itself through the leaves, +the drone of a late-carousing honey-bee, the lapping of the water on the +shore, the song of the wood-thrush replete with the sweetness of its +half-melody; and ever and anon the pensive cry of the whippoorwill +fluted across the deepening silence that summoned all these murmurs +into hearing. A rustle like the breeze in the birches passed, and Mrs. +Purcell retarded her rapid step to survey the woods-people who rose out +of the shade and now went on together with her. It seemed as if the +loons and whippoorwills grew wild with sorrow that night, and after a +while Mrs. Purcell ceased her lively soliloquy, and as they walked they +listened. Suddenly Mr. Raleigh turned. Mrs. Purcell was not beside him. +They had been walking on the brook-edge; the path was full of gaps and +cuts. With a fierce shudder and misgiving, he hurriedly retraced his +steps, and searched and called; then, with the same haste, rejoining +Marguerite, gained the house, for lanterns and assistance. Mrs. Purcell +sat at the drawing-room window. + +"_Comment?_" cried Marguerite, breathlessly. + +"Oh, I had no idea of walking in fog up to my chin," said Mrs. Purcell; +"so I took the short cut." + +"You give me credit for the tragic element," she continued, under her +breath, as Mr. Raleigh quietly passed her. "That is old style. To be +sure, I might as well die there as in the swamps of Florida. Purcell is +ordered to Florida. Of course, I am ordered too!" And she whirled him +the letter which she held. + +Other letters had been received with the evening-mail, and one that made +Mr. Raleigh's return in September imperative occasioned some discussion +in the House of Laudersdale. The result that that gentleman secured +one more than he had intended in the spring; and if you ever watch the +shipping-list, the arrival of the Spray-Plough at Calcutta, with Mr. and +Mrs. Raleigh among the passengers, will be seen by you as soon as me. + +Later in the evening of this same eventful day, as Mr. Raleigh and +Marguerite sat together in the moonlight that flooded the great window, +Mrs. Laudersdale passed them and went down the garden to the lake. +She wore some white garment, as in her youth, and there was a dreamy +sweetness in her eye and an unspoken joy about her lips. Mr. Raleigh +could not help thinking it was a singular happiness, this that opened +before her; it seemed to be like a fruit plucked from the stem and left +to mature in the sunshine by itself, late and lingering, never sound at +heart. She floated on, with the light in her dusky eyes and the seldom +rose on her cheek,--floated on from moonbeam to moonbeam,--and the +lovers brought back their glances and gave them to each other. For one, +life opened a labyrinth of warmth and light and joy; for the other, +youth was passed, destiny not to be appeased: if his affection enriched +her, the best he could do was to bestow it; in his love there would yet +be silent reservations. + +"Mr. Raleigh," said Marguerite, "did you ever love my mother?" + +"Once I thought I did." + +"And now?" + +"Whereas I was blind, now I see." + +"Listen! Mrs. Purcell is singing in the drawing-room." + + "Through lonely summers, where the roses blow + Unsought, and shed their tangled sweets, + I sit and hark, or in the starry dark, + Or when the night-rain on the hill-side beats. + + "Alone! But when the eternal summers flow + And refluent drown in song all moan, + Thy soul shall waste for its delight, and haste + Through heaven. And I shall be no more alone!" + +"What a voice she sings with to-night!" said Marguerite. "It is stripped +of all its ornamental disguises,--so slender, yet piercing!" + +"A needle can pain like a sword-blade. There goes the moon in clouds. +Hark! What was that? A cry?" And he started to his feet. + +"No," she said,--"it is only the wild music of the lake, the voices of +shadows calling to shadows." + +"There it is again, but fainter; the wind carries it the other way." + +"It is a desolating wind." + +"And the light on the land is like that of eclipse!" + +He stooped and raised her and folded her in his arms. + +"I have a strange, terrible sense of calamity, _Mignonné!_" he said. +"Let it strike, so it spare you!" + +"Nothing can harm us," she replied, clinging to him. "Even death cannot +come between us!" + +"Marguerite!" said Mr. Laudersdale, entering, "where is your mother?" + +"She went down to the lake, Sir." + +"She cannot possibly have gone out upon it!" + +"Oh, she frequently does; and so do we all." + +"But this high wind has risen since. The flaws"----And he went out +hastily. + +There flashed on Mr. Raleigh's mental sight a vision of the moonlit +lake, one instant. A boat, upon its side, bending its white sail down +the depths; a lifted arm wound in the fatal rope; a woman's form, +hanging by that arm, sustained in the dark transparent tide of death; +the wild wind blowing over, the moonlight glazing all. For that instant +he remained still as stone; the next, he strode away, and dashed down +to the lake-shore. It seemed as if his vision yet continued. They had +already put out in boats; he was too late. He waited in ghastly suspense +till they rowed home with their slow freight. And then his arm supported +the head with its long, uncoiling, heavy hair, and lifted the limbs, +round which the drapery flowed like a pall on sculpture, till another +man took the burden from him and went up to the house with his dead. + + * * * * * + +When Mr. Raleigh entered the house again, it was at break of dawn. Some +one opened the library-door and beckoned him in. Marguerite sprang into +his arms. + +"What if she had died?" said Mrs. Purcell, with her swift satiric +breath, and folding a web of muslin over her arm. "See! I had got out +the shroud. As it is, we drink _skål_ and say grace at breakfast. The +funeral baked-meats shall coldly furnish forth the marriage-feast. You +men are all alike. _Le Roi est mort? Vive la Reine!_" + + * * * * * + + + +PAUL REVERE'S RIDE. + + + Listen, my children, and you shall hear + Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, + On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five: + Hardly a man is now alive + Who remembers that famous day and year. + + He said to his friend,--"If the British march + By land or sea from the town to-night, + Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry-arch + Of the North-Church-tower, as a signal-light,-- + One if by land, and two if by sea; + And I on the opposite shore will be, + Ready to ride and spread the alarm + Through every Middlesex village and farm, + For the country-folk to be up and to arm." + + Then he said good-night, and with muffled oar + Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore, + Just as the moon rose over the bay, + Where swinging wide at her moorings lay + The Somersett, British man-of-war: + A phantom ship, with each mast and spar + Across the moon, like a prison-bar, + And a huge, black hulk, that was magnified + By its own reflection in the tide. + + Meanwhile, his friend, through alley and street + Wanders and watches with eager ears, + Till in the silence around him he hears + The muster of men at the barrack-door, + The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet, + And the measured tread of the grenadiers + Marching down to their boats on the shore. + + Then he climbed to the tower of the church, + Up the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread, + To the belfry-chamber overhead, + And startled the pigeons from their perch + On the sombre rafters, that round him made + Masses and moving shapes of shade,-- + Up the light ladder, slender and tall, + To the highest window in the wall, + Where he paused to listen and look down + A moment on the roofs of the town, + And the moonlight flowing over all. + + Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead + In their night-encampment on the hill, + Wrapped in silence so deep and still, + That he could hear, like a sentinel's tread, + The watchful night-wind, as it went + Creeping along from tent to tent, + And seeming to whisper, "All is well!" + A moment only he feels the spell + Of the place and the hour, the secret dread + Of the lonely belfry and the dead; + For suddenly all his thoughts are bent + On a shadowy something far away, + Where the river widens to meet the bay,-- + A line of black, that bends and floats + On the rising tide, like a bridge of boats. + + Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride, + Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride, + On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere + Now he patted his horse's side, + Now gazed on the landscape far and near, + Then impetuous stamped the earth, + And turned and tightened his saddle-girth; + But mostly he watched with eager search + The belfry-tower of the old North Church, + As it rose above the graves on the hill, + Lonely, and spectral, and sombre, and still. + + And lo! as he looks, on the belfry's height, + A glimmer, and then a gleam of light! + He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns, + But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight + A second lamp in the belfry burns! + + A hurry of hoofs in a village-street, + A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark, + And beneath from the pebbles, in passing, a spark + Struck out by a steed that flies fearless and fleet: + That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light, + The fate of a nation was riding that night; + And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight, + Kindled the land into flame with its heat. + + It was twelve by the village-clock, + When he crossed the bridge into Medford town. + He heard the crowing of the cock, + And the barking of the farmer's dog, + And felt the damp of the river-fog, + That rises when the sun goes down. + + It was one by the village-clock, + When he rode into Lexington. + He saw the gilded weathercock + Swim in the moonlight as he passed, + And the meeting-house windows, blank and bare, + Gaze at him with a spectral glare, + As if they already stood aghast + At the bloody work they would look upon. + + It was two by the village-clock, + When he came to the bridge in Concord town. + He heard the bleating of the flock, + And the twitter of birds among the trees, + And felt the breath of the morning-breeze + Blowing over the meadows brown. + And one was safe and asleep in his bed + Who at the bridge would be first to fall, + Who that day would be lying dead, + Pierced by a British musket-ball. + + You know the rest. In the books you have read + How the British regulars fired and fled,-- + How the farmers gave them ball for ball, + From behind each fence and farmyard-wall, + Chasing the red-coats down the lane, + Then crossing the fields to emerge again + Under the trees at the turn of the road, + And only pausing to fire and load. + + So through the night rode Paul Revere; + And so through the night went his cry of alarm + To every Middlesex village and farm,-- + A cry of defiance, and not of fear,-- + A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door, + And a word that shall echo forevermore! + For, borne on the night-wind of the Past, + Through all our history, to the last, + In the hour of darkness and peril and need, + The people will waken and listen to hear + The hurrying hoof-beat of that steed, + And the midnight-message of Paul Revere. + + + + +A NIGHT UNDER GROUND. + + +My dear Laura Matilda, have you ever worked your way under ground, like +the ghost Hamlet, Senior? On the contrary, you confess, but a dim idea +of that peculiar mode of progression abides in the well-ordered mansion +of your mind? + +Well, I do not wonder at it; you are civilized beyond the common herd; +your mamma, careful of her own comfort and the beauty of her child, +guards both. Your sunny summer-times go by in the shade of sylvan +groves, or amid the whirl of Saratoga or Newport ball-rooms. I accept +your ignorance; it is a pretty blossom in your maiden chaplet. For +myself, I blush for my own familiarity with rough scenes chanced upon in +wayward wanderings. + +Let me tell you of a path among the "untrodden ways." Transport yourself +with me. + +Fancy a low, level, drowsy point of land, stretching out into the +unbroken emerald green of Lake Superior, at the point where a narrow, +yellowish river offers its tribute. The King of Lakes is exclusive; he +disdains to blend his brilliant waters with those of the muddy river; a +wavy line, distinctly and clearly defined, but seeming as if drawn by +a trembling hand, undulates at their junction,--no democratic, +union-seeking boundary, but the arbitrary line of division that +separates the Sultan from the slave, the peer from the peasant. + +Along this shore are scattered various buildings that seem to nod in the +indolent sunshine of the bright, clear, quiet air of midsummer. One of +these, differing from the rest in its more modern construction, is a +spacious hotel that holds itself proudly erect, and from its summit the +gay flag of my country floats flauntingly. + +We must pass this by, and go down a plank-covered walk to reach the +sandy-golden beach where the green waves dash with silent dignity, +in these long calms of July. Before the hotel the river flows also +sleepily; but both shores are vocal with ladies' laughter and +the singing of young girls, the lively chatter of a party of +pleasure-tourists. + +The fine steamer that brought us to this point has gone, + + "Sailing out into the west, + Out into the west, as the sun went down"; + +but no "weeping and wringing of hands" was there; we knew it must "come +back to the town,"--that we are merely transient waifs cast upon this +quiet beach, flitting birds of passage who have alighted in the porticos +of the "Bigelow House," Ontonagon, Michigan. + +A long, low flat-boat, without visible sails, steam-pipes, or oars,--a +narrow river-craft, with a box-like cabin at one end, the whole rude +in its _ensemble_, and uncivilized in its details,--is the object that +meets the gaze of those who would curiously inspect the means by which +the adventurous novelty-seeking portion of our party are to be conveyed +up this Ontonagon river to the great copper-mines that form the +inestimable wealth of that region. For the metallic attraction has +proved magnetic to the fancies of a few. A mine is a mystery; and +mysteries, to the female mind, are delights. + +What is the boat to us but a means? If it seem prosaic, what care we? +Have we escaped the French fashions of _à-la-mode_ watering-places, to +be fastidious amid wigwams and unpeopled shores? + +We all know what it is to embark for a day's travel, but we do not all +understand the charm of being stowed away like freight in a boat such as +the one here faintly sketched; how seats are improvised; how umbrellas +are converted into stationary screens, and awnings grow out of +inspiration; how baskets are hidden carefully among carpet-bags, and +camp-stools, and water-jugs, and stowed-in-shavings ice; how the +long-suffering, patient ladies shelter themselves in the tiny, stifling +cabin, while those of the merry, complexion-careless sort lounge in +the daylight's glare, and one couple, fond of seclusion and sentiment, +discover a good place for both, at the rudder-end. + +There is an oar or two on board, it appears, as we push off in the early +dawn; and these are employed for a mile or so at the mouth of the river; +then the current begins to quicken in a narrower bed, and a group of +sinewy men betake themselves to their poles, lazily at first, until---- + +But you do not know exactly what these implements are? + +They are heavy, wooden, sharp-pointed poles, ten or twelve feet long. On +either side of the boat runs a "walk," arranged as if a ladder were laid +horizontally; but in reality the bars or rungs are firmly fastened to +the walk, to be used as rests for the feet. Here the men, five on a +side, march like a chain-gang, backward and forward; placing one end of +the pole in the bed of the stream, resting the other in the hollow of +the shoulder near the arm-pit, and bracing themselves by their feet +against these bars, they pry the boat along. + +Progression by such means is unavoidably slow; but no steamboat-race +on our Western rivers, blind and reckless, boiler-defying and +life-despising, ever produced more excitement than this same poling. + +Wait till the current runs rapidly, fretting and seething in its angry +haste, when for a moment's delay the boat must lose ground; when the +poles are plunged into the rocky bed like harpoons into the back of an +escaping whale; when the athletic forms of the men are bent forward +until each prostrates himself in the exertion of his full powers; when +not a false step--each step a run--can be hazarded; when that monotonous +unanimity of labor is at its height, in which each boatman becomes +possessed as if by a devil of strife; when their faces lose every gentle +semblance of humanity, and become distorted to a simple expression +of stubborn brute force; when the muscles of their arms are knitted, +rope-like, and every nerve stretched to its utmost;--wait till you have +seen all this, and you will confess that a woman's lazy life can know no +harder toil than that of the mind's sympathetic coexertion,--that is, if +she be excitable or impressible. + +The stream is tortuous, erratic, shallow, and narrow. Sometimes, as we +glide, always noiselessly, beneath the overhanging foliage and tangled +vines along shore, what myriads of gayly winged insects--brilliant +dragon-flies, mammoth gnats, preposterous mosquitoes--swarm about our +heads, disturbed from their gambols by the laughter and songs aboard our +moving craft! + +Only one halt in our journey, and that to dine. Just above this point we +pass the swiftest rapids on the route, where the river widens, and each +side of the bank is beautiful in its wooded picturesqueness, while the +waters rush, in foaming, surging, tumbling confusion, over the rugged +rocks, or dart between them like a merry band of water-sprites chasing +each other in gleesome frolic. + +It seems a desecration of these rapids thus to subdue and triumph over +them. They are as if placed there by Nature as a sportive check to man's +further intrusion; and as the waters come hurrying down, led, as it +were, by some Undine jealous for her realm, their murmurings seem to +say, in playful, yet earnest remonstrance,--"Let our gambols divert +you; we will hasten to you; but approach no nearer! Permit us to guard +the sanctuary of our hidden sources, our beloved and holy solitudes!" + +But vain appeal! Our men pole frantically onward, and so the day passes. +By mid-afternoon their labors cease, and we come to anchor at the bank, +having achieved seventeen miles in nine hours! Let those of us to whom +lightning-express-trains have been slow grumble hereafter at their fifty +miles an hour! + +A country-wagon receives most of the ladies; the majority of their +attendant cavaliers walk; of two horses, the side-saddled one has about +one hundred pounds avoirdupois for his share, and, in spite of the lack +of habit and equestrian "pomp and circumstance" generally, I cannot term +it the most unpleasant three miles I ever travelled. The road is a wild, +rugged ascent up a well-wooded hill-side. There is a tonic vigor in +the atmosphere, which communicates itself irresistibly to one's mental +state; the gladdened lungs inhale it eagerly, as a luxury. When one +walks in this air, one seems to gain wings; to ride is to float at will. + +Presently, at the top, a low village comes in sight; yelping curs start +from wayside cabins; coarse, dull-featured women gape at half-opened +doors or sit idly on rude steps; and the men we chance to meet wear that +cadaverous pallor inseparable from the mere idea of a miner. We do not +regret that the pert dogs have imparted speed to our horses' heels;--a +swift, exhilarating gallop brings us in sight of a large, comfortable +house, perched like a bird-box in the hills; then others are discerned; +and in a few more bounds, we are at the gate. Here, where all visitors +to the Minnesota Mines are received and entertained, we prove +_avant-couriers_ of the slowly advancing wagon-load,--"the largest party +of ladies ever met there," they tell us, as we forewarn our hosts of the +band so boldly invading their copper-bound country. + +Very soon we are rambling over the hills,--those of Nature's rearing, +and others formed by the accumulation of refuse brought up from the +mine. We discover and secure some fine specimens of the metal; sundry +of the knowing ones, after mysterious interviews with rascally-looking +miners, appear with curious bits of pure silver ore mingled with +crystals of quartz and tinted with tiny specks of copper. These, being +the most valuable curiosities of the region, are usually secreted by the +miners for the purpose of private speculation. + +We feel a reverence for this ground, so teeming with metallic +wealth,--and yet a certain timorousness, as we remember that we walk on +a crust, that beneath us are great caves and subterranean galleries. + +This outer shell, this surface-knowledge of what lies below, does not +content me. I have also a brave friend who shares my feeling. We agree, +that, despite the interest of this crust, to know of the fruit beneath +and not taste it is worse than aggravating; we grow reckless in our +thirst for the forbidden knowledge. + +We have entertained a little plot in our headstrong minds all the way, +which we have hardly dared to name before. It is surely not feminine to +look longingly on those ladders made for the descent of hardy miners +only; visitors beneath the surface are rare; only gentlemen interested +in seeing for themselves the richness of these vaunted mines have +essayed the tour; even many of these failing to penetrate farther than +the first level, and bravely owning their faint-heartedness. In spite of +this, we feel our way cautiously. A descent is to be made this night, +when the Captain of the Mine goes his nightly round of inspection; a +gentleman, the head and front of our expedition, whom we shall call the +"Colonel," proposes to accompany him. + +Why may we not form an harmonious quartette? We have nerve; has it not +been tested throughout the somewhat arduous journey of the preceding +weeks? We have presence of mind; we are passable _gymnastes_. + +In fact, viewing _Mon Amie_ and me from our own point of view, than +ourselves never did there exist two mortals more manifestly fashioned +straight from the hand of Nature, and educated by previous physical +culture and mental discipline for the performance of a feat at once +perilous and daring, one unknown to the members of "our set," and which +might have been thought impracticable by all who had known us only in +the gas-light glare of Society, and the circumspection of crinoline's +confining circle. + +Does it matter by what cunning wiles of pretty pleading and downright +demonstrations of the project's reasonableness we succeeded (for we did +succeed) in being allowed to take our fates in our own hands or trust +them to our own sure-footedness? I think not. + + "For when a woman will, she will, you may + depend on't." + +But you should have seen the robing! We are to start at ten, P.M. +Previously we betake ourselves to our chambers, and, entertaining a +vague notion that Fashion's expanse may prove inconvenient, we are +looping up our trailing robes in fantastic folds, when a tap at the +door. + +_Voila!_ a servant with two full suits of new, but coarse, miners' +clothes,--with a modest intimation from our companions of their +advisability,--in fact, their absolute necessity. We pause aghast! Ah! +the renewed shouts of laughter from those merry, but more timorous +damsels, who, from their secure surroundings,--those becoming barriers +adopted at the dictate of Parisian caprice and retained with feminine +pertinacity,--had poked fun at our forlorn limpness! + +This climax of costume is startling, but the laughter rouses our +courage. We stand on the brink of our Rubicon. Shall trousers deter us +from the passage? Shall a coat be synonymous with cowardice? No,--we +rise superior to the occasion; we pant to be free; we in-breathe the +spirit of liberty, as we don our blouses. We loop our long tresses under +such head-coverings as would drive any artist hatter to despair; to us +they prove a weighty argument against hats in general, as we feel their +heavy rims press on our tender brain-roofs. However, when the saucy eyes +of _Mon Amie_ look out sparkling from under her begrimed helmet, the +effect is not bad; on the contrary, the masquerade is piquant. No need +to mention the ribbons that we knot under our wide, square collars for +becomingness, our coquetry "under difficulties," nor the gauntleted +gloves wherewith we protect our hands, nor the daintiness of the little +boots that peep from the loose trousers, which have something Turkish +in their cut. _Mon Amie_, with her rosy blushes, reminds me of a jocund +miller's boy;--as for myself, well, I do not think the Bloomer dress so +very bad, after all! + +A torch-bearing band have stationed themselves at the doors to bid us +god-speed,--to make merry at our droll masquerade,--to quiz our odd +head-gear,--to criticize us from head to foot, in short,--but between +all, to offer words of caution. Then we go out into the starlit, but not +over-bright night,--such a one as is friendly to lovers and to thieves, +friendly to religion and to thought, the beloved of sentimentalists, and +the adored of this particular group of adventurous miners. In Indian +file, lantern-led, we traverse the narrow, beaten path that leads to +one of the openings of the mine. These are covered by a rough-plank +house,--too much like a shed to merit that pretentious term, which +implies something fit to live in; in the centre of this shelter is +an open space, perhaps a yard square, and similar in appearance to a +trap-door in a roof. Here we wait a few moments, while the Captain of +the Mine and the Agent of the Mining Company,--who has joined our party +at the last moment, to afford us the undivided services of the Captain +as guide,--are engaged in some mysterious process of moulding; an odor, +not attar of rose, nor yet Frangipanni, salutes our nostrils; then our +companions approach. Both the Colonel and the Agent are "lit up,"--in +fact, all-luminous with the radiance of tallow "dips"; one of these, +stuck in a lump of soft clay, adheres to the front of each hat, and in +their hands they have others. + +We also are to wear a starry flame on our brows; and, not content with +this, are invested with several short unlighted candles, which are to +dangle gracefully by their wicks from a buttonhole of our becoming +blouses. Thus our costume is complete; and I doubt if Buckingham sported +the diamond tags of Anne of Austria with more satisfaction than do we +our novel and odorous decoration: we dub ourselves the Light Guard on +the instant. + +In the delay before starting, we observe several miners descend through +the black and most suggestive trap-door, each bearing a tin can in his +mouth, as a good dog carries a basket at the bidding of his master. + +The flame of the candle, bright in the density of the pit's darkness, as +its bearer descends step by step with the rapidity which custom has +made easy, becomes in a few seconds like the tiniest glow-worm: one can +follow the spark only; the man disappears within the moment. + +I cannot describe, nor, indeed, convey the least idea of this peculiar +effect. We feel our hearts tremble at the thought that whither that +light has gone we must follow. For the first time I realize that we +are about to go _into_ the earth,--that we shall presently crawl like +insects, burrow like underground vermin, beneath the surface, man's +proper place. But such thoughts are not for long indulgence. + +"Now let us descend!" says the Colonel. + +Grasping the round of the ladder where it rose slightly above the floor, +the Captain, our guide, with that air of assurance which practice +bestows, swings himself from sight. To him succeeds the Colonel. Next +comes my own turn. This is not the first time my feet have tried +ladder-bars; in the country-spent vacations of my school-days, how +many times have I alertly scaled the highest leading to granaries, to +barn-lofts, to bird-houses, to all quasi-inaccessible places, whither my +daring ignorance--reckless, because unconscious of danger--had tempted +me! But mounting a clean, strong, wide ladder, in the full flood of day, +light below, above, around, promising you security by its very fulness +of effulgence, is a far different thing from groping your way, step by +step, down a slimy, muddy frame which hangs in a straight line from the +very start. I shake off a first tremor, draw a full breath, and with +fortitude follow my leader carefully. As I look above, after fairly +getting committed, I can behold _Mon Amie's_ feet, whose arched in-steps +cling round each bar with a pretty dependence that is in the highest +degree appealing. Above her I hear the deep voice of the Agent. + +And so the quintette, in grim harmony of enterprise, go down, down, +down, like so many human buckets, into a bottomless well. + +Alas, and alas! our own arms, with their as yet untried muscles, must be +our only windlass to bring us to the surface again! Down, down, down, +deeper, deeper, deeper! Will this first ladder never end? + +Ah, at last! At the foot, on either side, stand the Captain and the +Colonel, like sentries. We have reached a shelf of rock, and we may +rest. Here we perch ourselves, like sea-birds on a precipice that +overlooks the sea. + +By the light of our flickering candles we behold each other's faces, +and we can talk together. We are but two hundred feet under ground. A +desolate stillness reigns here; no sound reaches us, either of labor or +the steps of passing workmen. A cold stream of water trickles from a +cleft rock behind us; we bathe our foreheads in it, and betake ourselves +to the ladder again. + +From our next resting-place we proceed through a gallery, an exhausted +vein, kept open as a passage from one shaft to another. As we turn a +corner, we seem to plunge into a rocky cavern; our feet tread on +roughly imbedded rocks; the sides of the cave jut out in refuse +boulders,--harsh, dark-colored, ashen; overhead are beams of hard wood, +bracing and strengthening the excavation. We traverse this gallery +hastily. + +Now that we are here, we are conscious of excitement. _Mon Amie_ +manifests hers by her steady, deliberate tones, a sort of exaltation +foreign to her usually vibrating voice, her tremulous cadences; she +seems borne along, despite and above herself. For my own part, as my +lungs inflate themselves with this pure, dry, bracing air, exquisitely +redolent of health, and testifying at once to a total exemption +from noxious exhalations or mephitic vapors, I grow _tête-montée_, +rattle-brained; my laugh echoes through these stony chambers, wild +snatches of song hover on my lips, odd conceits flit through my brain, +I joke, I dash forward with haste; my excitement endows me with a +superfeminine self-possession. + +But now we hear an ominous rattle, a clanking of chains, a rumbling as +of distant thunder; we are approaching a shaft. The shafts in this +mine are not sunk perpendicularly, but are slightly inclined: the huge +buckets, lowered and raised by means of powerful machinery, are but +ancient caldrons, counterparts of those in which the weird witches in +"Macbeth" might have brewed their unholy decoctions, or such as the +dreadful giants that formed the nightmare of my childhood might have +used in preparing those Brobdignagian repasts among the ingredients of +which a plump child held the same rank as a crab in ours. + +The sounds grow nearer; presently our guide disappears; then I behold +the Colonel, in whose steps I follow, faithful as his shadow, crouch +sidewise: we must pass behind this inclined plane, which rests on +roughly hewn rocks, that protrude till it appears impossible that any +living thing, except a lizard, can find a passage. I am sure we must +shrink from the original rotundity with which Nature blessed us. I +feel as the frog in the fable might have felt, if, after successfully +inflating himself to the much-envied dimensions of the ox, he had +suddenly found himself reduced to his proper proportions. Edging +sidewise, accommodating the inequalities of the damp surfaces to the +undulations of our forms, deafened, crazed by the roar of the caldrons +that dash madly from side to side, we fairly _ooze_ through. + +More ladders! This time they are not hung quite perpendicularly, are +shorter, and some lean, a little, which affords rest; others have one +side higher than the other: to these my already aching palms cling with +desperation. So have I seen insects adhere, through sheer force of fear, +to a shaken stem, or a perilous branch beaten by a storm-wind. + +The voices of my companions come to me from above, though I cannot see +the soles of _Mon Amie's_ friendly feet, which at first preserved an +amiable companionship with my own hands; but, looking far upward, I +behold a tiny, star-like spark. When I was a child, I used to think that +fire-flies were the crowns of the fairies, which shone despite their +wearers' invisibility: this idea was recalled to me. + +Hark! booming from unthought-of depths, a roar rolls up in majestic +waves of echoing thunder. At this resonant burst, I tremble,--I think a +prayer. + +"They are blasting below us," cries the Colonel, _de profundis_. + +Then up rushes a volume of thick, white smoke, and we are enveloped as +in shrouds. I have no more fear,--but the odor, ah! that sulphureous, +sickening, deathly odor! Faintness seizes me,--the ladder swims before +my eyes,--I am paralyzed,--Death has me, I think! + +But the very excess of the danger has in it something of reviving power. +I remember, that, just as I left my room,--whose quiet safety never +before appeared so heavenly,--prompted by some instinctive impulse, I +had placed a small vial of ammonia in the breast-pocket of my coat. + +I have wellnigh swooned with ecstasy, as I have inhaled the overcoming +odors of some rare bouquet, love-bestowed and prized beyond gems; my +senses have reeled in the intoxication of those wondrous extracts whose +Oriental, tangible richness of fragrance holds me in a spell almost +mystical in its enthralment; but I dare aver that no blossom's breath, +no pungent perfume distilled by the erudite inspiration of Science, ever +possessed a tithe of the delicious agony of that whiff of unromantic +ammonia, which, powerful as the touch of magic, and thrilling as the +kiss of love, snatched me back to life, arrested my tottering senses, as +they blindly staggered on the very brink of certain death. + +When we reach the next level, and our faces are revealed to each other, +with one voice they exclaim, "How frightfully pale you are!" But I say +nothing. In fact, their familiar features, wearing no longer their +daylight semblance, present an aspect at once grim and grotesque, and +more like the spirits of my friends than their incorporated substances. + +Traversing the wild, rude corridors, we find that the path grows more +perilous, the way more intricate; we have words of warning from our +protectors, who often look back anxiously. They have begun to realize +what they have done in yielding to a woman's odd caprice. + +In this level we are shown the spots from which famous masses of copper +have been removed, and are granted useful, but fleeting statistics +of weight; we are also so fortunate as to discover some chips of the +wonderful block, raised in '54, I think, which weighed five hundred +tons. Then we chance upon chasms, which, seen so dimly, though dreadful +enough in reality, are made a thousand times more so by the terrors of +imagination; we creep along the brinks of these, scarcely daring to look +down; above, the heavy boulders lie heaped in frightful confusion. When +we have crawled past these death-traps and stand in safety once more, +we throw down bits of stone, and seconds elapse before we hear the dull +_thump_ with which each signals its arrival in the depths. Along the +edges of some of these gloomy pits we cannot pick our way; therefore a +plank is thrown across, and, trusting to so slender a bridge, we pass, +one by one. A single false step were enough to dash one to atoms,--so +to be transformed to a bruised and mangled mass, to perform one's own +sepulture, and lie in a grander grave than will ever be hollowed by +mortal hands to hide our useless bodies. + +The deeper one penetrates into these mines, the wilder, more dangerous +the paths. It is as though the upper regions were kept in "company" +order, but lower down we meet with the every-day roughnesses of +veritable miners'-life; we follow their hazardous, but familiar steps; +we behold all the hardships these toiling, burrowing workers undergo, +that the hidden coffers of Earth may yield their tribute of treasure to +Man, its self-appointed, arrogant master. + +Occasionally we meet a passing miner. Grasping his ponderous tools, he +flits by like a phantom; even in the momentary glance, we can perceive +how livid his sunless labor has left him; he is blanched as a ghoul, +and moves as noiselessly, with feather-light step. Each with a motion +salutes the Captain; but they do not heed the little group of strangers +who have braved so many dangers to behold the wonders which to them +are as commonplace as the forge to a blacksmith, or to a carpenter his +work-bench. + +Still farther below us we hear the clink and clatter of real work. Down +we plunge,--another ladder, "long drawn out." Some of its rounds are +wanting; others are loose and worn to a mere splinter. Warned by the +voice below me, I proceed with a trembling caution, tenfold more +exciting to the strained nerves than the wildest bound on a mettled +racer, the fiercest rush that ever tingled through every fibre of the +rider's frame. + +The water has saturated the banks by which our crazy ladder hangs, and +every round is damp and slimy with clayey mud. Alas, for my poor pretty +gantlets! _Mon Amie_ has thrown away hers, as useless. + +Finally the ladder ceases abruptly. My feet in vain seek a +resting-place. There is none. + +A voice says,--that kindly, earnest voice, the symbol of protective +care, and our smoother of all difficulties,--"We have swung ourselves +down by a chain that hangs from the side of the last round. We are too +far below to reach or assist you. Take the chain firmly; it is the only +route, and we cannot return!" + +_Que faire?_ Behold a pleasant predicament for two city-bred ladies, not +"to the manner born," of swinging themselves from the end of a ladder +by means of a rusty iron chain, from which they would alight--where? +Surely, we know not. + +I am very sure I could not reproduce in description, and probably not +by practice, the inevitable monkey-contortions, the unimaginable animal +agility, by which I transfer my weight to the clumsy links of this +almost invisible chain. The size of the staple from which it hangs +dissipates all fears in respect to its strength. Hand over hand, my feet +sliding on the slippery bank, remembering sailors in the shrouds, and +taking time to pity them, at last I reach friendly hands, and stand +breathless on another level. + +How the soft, white, dimpled palms of _Mon Amie_ testify to the hardship +of this episode, as she bathes them in the cooling water! But, because +one's hands are tender, cannot one's nerves be strong, one's will +indomitable? + +Again on the tramp. The cavernous passages are sublime in height, the +chasms fearful in their yawning gulfs. We pick our way daintily, at +intervals pausing to listen to the distant reverberations of exploding +blasts. The atmosphere here, as above, is fairly heavenly in its purity +and invigorating freshness; it girds us with singular strength, +and clothes us as in a garment of enchanted armor that defies all +soul-sinking. + +Creeping behind another shaft, we reach still another chasm, above which +piles of dark rocks lie heaped in such confusion as might result from a +great convulsion. There is a narrow path along its edge, and here the +stones are small; but, as we look up, the mighty masses frown down upon +us with threatening grandeur. Along this path, treading lightly, as +if gifted with wings, the Captain passes; then the Agent (for we had +slightly altered our order of march); _Mon Amie_ follows. She is +half-way past the danger, when an ominous pause,--we are ordered to +stop. + +Down into the chasm rolls a stone, displaced by an unlucky step of our +pioneer. One stone is nothing,--but more follow that had been supported +by this: small ones at first,--but the larger rocks threaten a slide. If +they are not arrested in their course, she is lost! + +What a moment that is! I dare not breathe. _Mon Amie_ stands +statue-like, awaiting the death which she believes is upon her. Not many +words are spoken. I think I feel all that her one glance conveys. +But the brave men beyond her, with instant unanimous action bracing +themselves against the sliding rocks, oppose their feeble force to the +down-sweeping agents of destruction; a moment more, and they would +have been too late. With the step of a frightened antelope _Mon Amie_ +trembles past them. I see her safe, and hasten on. "Step lightly!" says +a voice full of suspense and fear, despite its calmness. + +Step, indeed! As if I rest on those treacherous stones! My feet brush +them no more than the wing of a butterfly grazes the roses among which +it flutters. Step, forsooth! If ever the angels concerned themselves for +this atom in Creation's myriads, they hover round me now, they bear me +up, they teach me how to fly! Deprived now of their human props, how +the angry fragments leap and tumble and chase one another through the +echoing abyss below! These reverberations seem freighted with elfin +voices that jeer the insensate rocks for their baffled scheme of +mischief. + +But they chanted a far different chorus, and the darkness saw another +sight, when, a few moons later, they dashed themselves down in +irresistible array, and bore with them in their desperate plunge the +lifeless bodies of two passing miners, in whose hearts, it may be, dwelt +at the moment only happy thoughts of the homes 'neath the blue skies to +which they were hurrying, the dear familiar sunlit Paradise that would +succeed the endless night of their _Inferno_ of toil. + + "But men must work, and women must weep; + And the sooner 'tis over, the sooner to sleep!" + +Well, we take up our march again presently, and, led by a monotonous +hammering, proceed toward the sound. Some of the miners are at work +here, clearing a mass of ore from the stubborn rock. Their strokes fall +as regularly as those of machinery, and the grim men who wield the +ponderous hammers accompany each blow with a peculiar loud indrawing of +the breath, like the pant of a blacksmith at his anvil. So strong is +this resemblance, that we burst forth all together in the strains of +the "Anvil Chorus"; and the accompaniment is beaten with tenfold more +regularity and effect than on the stage, in the glare of the footlights, +by "Il Trovatore's" gypsy-comrades. I doubt if Verdi's music was ever +so rendered before, amid such surroundings. The compliment may be the +higher, coming from so low a region. + +Beyond this group are a few miners resting from toil. One of these, as +he stands leaning his folded arms on a jutting rock, upon which he has +placed his candle, elicits our spontaneous admiration. His beauty is +Apollo-like,--every chiselled feature perfect in its classic regularity; +his eyes sad, slumberous, and yet deep and glowing, are quite enough +for any susceptible maiden's heart; about a broad expanse of forehead +cluster thick masses of dark brown hair; his shirt, open at the throat, +reveals glimpses of ivory; altogether he is statuesque and beautiful. +Even his hands, strongly knit as they are, have not been rendered coarse +by labor; they bear the same pallid hue as his face, and he looks like +some nobly-born prisoner. "What untoward fate cast him there?" I often +ask myself. He exists in my memory as a veritable Prince Charming, held +captive in those gloomy caves of enchantment that yielded up to me their +unreal realities in that nightmarish experience. I never fancy him on +upper earth living coarsely, even, it may be, talking ungrammatically, +defying Horne Tooke and outraging Murray, among beings of a lower order +of humanity; but he rises like a statue, standing silent and apart. + +Some one throws away a nearly burnt-out candle at this spot. It falls +but a few inches from a can of gunpowder, which is not too securely +closed. As I utter a quick word of warning to the careless one, a miner +starts. "Good Heaven!" I hear him exclaim, as we disappear,--"that was a +woman!" + +When we reach the next shaft, the Captain deposits himself in the +descending bucket, and, irregularly tossing from side to side, goes down +to overlook some work, and leave fresh orders with the miners. We await +his return before again betaking ourselves to the ladders. + +On the next level, we behold scores of men in busy action. I can think +only of ants in an ant-hill: some are laden with ore; others bearing the +refuse rocks and earth, the _débris_ of the mine, to the shafts; others, +again, are preparing blasts,--we do not tarry long with these; others +with picks work steadily at the tough ore. In some places, the copper +freshly broken glitters like gold, and the specks on the rocks, or in +the earth-covered mass, as our candle-light awakens their sparkles, +gleam like the spangles on a dancer's robe or stars in a midnight sky. +All the while we hear the dreadful rattle of the down-sinking caldrons, +or the heavy labor of the freighted ones, as they ascend from level to +level. + +Suddenly our path conducts us past a seated bevy of miners taking their +"crib," as it is termed, from the food-can, which stands at hand,--a +small fire blazing in the midst of them. Weary and sore, we seat +ourselves near them, while our hardier companions talk with the +respectful group. + +They work eight hours at a time, they tell us,--ascending at the +expiration of that period to betake themselves to their homes, which are +mostly in the little village where the yelping curs also reside. They +enjoy unusual health, and pity the upper-world of surface-laborers, +whom they regard with a kind of contempt. Accidents are not frequent, +considering the perils of their occupation. The miners here are +generally Cornish-men, with some Germans. + +I sit silent, thinking of my Prince Charming, with many vague +conjectures. + +At first, these men have paused in their repast in presence of the +strangers; but now, with rude courtesy, noticing our weariness, they +offer a portion to us. Faint and famishing, we by no means disdain it. I +wonder what Mrs. Grundy would say, could her Argus-eyes penetrate to +the spot, where we,--bound to "die of roses in aromatic pain,"--in +miners'-garb, masculine and muddy, sit on stones with earthy delvers, +more than six hundred feet under ground,--where the foot of woman has +never trod before, nor the voice of woman echoed,--and sip, with the +relish of intense thirst, steaming black tea from an old tin cup! + +_Eh, bien!_ for all that, let me do it justice. Never was black tea +less herb-like; never draught of sillery, quaffed from goblet of rare +Bohemian glass, more delicious! And so, with thank-yous that were not +only from the lip, we toil on some distance yet, to the shaft by which +we are to ascend,--one quite remote from that by which we began our +trip. + +Halting at the foot of the ladder, we pour forth the "Star-spangled +Banner" with the full strength of lungs inflated by patriotism, until +the stirring staves ring and resound through those dim caves. The +miners, who hold the superstition, that to whisper bodes ill-luck, must +have imagined we were exorcising evil spirits with an incantation. + +Then begins our weary way upward. We sing "Excelsior" in our hearts, and +forget our aching limbs, for the most laborious portion of the night's +toil is before us. The almost perpendicular ladder is just beside the +powerful pump, which, worked by a steam-engine, exhausts the water from +the mine, and its busy piston, in monotonous measure, keeps time to our +climbing. + +Two rests during the entire distance, which we travel in brave silence. +Indeed, we cannot speak,--the oppressive strain upon the chest is so +great. Step after step, hand over hand, up we go. At last, warmer air +greets us, lights flicker from above; the trap-door is reached; we are +on the surface again; we are out of the depths,--and our hearts whisper +a _Te Deum_ of thanksgiving. + +I think well of the establishment of a chapel, such as exists at the +entrance to the Valenciana mine in Mexico, where each miner spends half +an hour, going to or returning from his labors. Such a union of work and +worship seems a proper adjunct to the profit and the peril. + +There is a faint glimmer of coming dawn far away in the east, as we +go forth into the midsummer-night, and we catch the distant notes of +chanticleer, as he sounds his shrill _réveille_ to the day. + +As my confused brain seeks repose, and my weary limbs sink into the +softness of the never-so-welcome bed, my thoughts fly to distant ones, +to whom I would whisper,--as I do to you who have so patiently burrowed +with me,--"Only love me for the dangers I have passed!" + +But it is in vain that you long for a similar experience, my dear Laura +Matilda. Being the first, we are also the last women to whom these +subterranean passages will yield their mysteries, their windings, and +their wonders. Against all of my own sex the Pandemonian depths of the +Minnesota Mines are henceforth as obstinately barred as ever were the +golden gates of the Mohammedan Paradise. + + + + +A LONELY HOUSE. + + + "Some weighty crime that Heaven could not pardon, + A secret curse, on that old building hung, + And its deserted garden." + +HOOD'S _Haunted House_. + +One autumn evening, not very long ago, I was driving out with my uncle. +I had been spending several weeks at his house, and in that time had +driven with him very often, so that I supposed myself familiar with +nearly all the roads that stretched away from the pleasant village where +he resided; but on this occasion he proposed taking me in an entirely +new direction, over a tract of country I had never before seen. + +For a mile or two after we left home, we bowled rapidly along on a +well-travelled turnpike; then a sudden turn to the right brought us, +with slackened speed, into a quiet country-road. Passing through the +fields that bordered the highway, we came into a wild, romantic region +of hill and dale that fully deserved all that my uncle had said in its +praise. + +Giving ourselves up to the sweet influences of the scene, we trotted our +horses slowly, past dusky bits of forest that made the air fragrant with +the damp smell of the woods, and by occasional shining pools adorned +with floating pond-lilies, and shaded with thick, low bushes of +witch-hazel. The sunlight had that orange glow that comes only on autumn +evenings, the long, slant rays striking across the yellow fields and +lighting up the dark evergreens which dotted the landscape with a tawny +illumination, like dull flames. The locusts hummed drowsily, as if they +were almost asleep, and the frogs in the ponds sent out an occasional +muffled croak. Altogether, it was deliciously calm and deserted; we did +not meet a human being or a habitation for miles, as we wound along +the secluded path, now up and now down, but on the whole gradually +ascending, till we reached the summit of a hill larger and steeper than +the rest. + +Here there stood a lonely house. + +Pausing to allow our horses a moment's rest, my eye was caught by its +deserted and dilapidated appearance. It had evidently been uninhabited +for years. The fence had gone to decay, the gate lay rotting on the +ground, and a forlorn sleigh, looking strangely out of place in contrast +with the summer-flowers that had over-grown it, was drawn up before the +entrance. The grass had obliterated every trace of the path that once +led to the decayed steps, bushes had grown up thickly around the lower +story of the house, and tangled vines, creeping in through the broken +panes of the windows, hung in festoons from the moss-covered sills. +The door had dropped from its hinges, and on one side of the front the +boards had fallen off, so that I could see quite into the interior, +where I noticed, with surprise, some furniture yet remained, though in +great confusion, a broken chair and an overturned table being the most +prominent objects. Outside, the same disorder was manifest in the great +farm-wagon, left standing where it had last been used, and the neglected +out-buildings fast going to decay. About the whole place there was an +aspect of peculiar gloom, and the house itself stood on this bleak hill +looking out over the lonesome landscape with a sort of tragic melancholy +in its black and weather-beaten front. + +Now such a sight as this is very rare in our busy New England, where +everything is turned to advantage, and where the thrifty owner of a +tenement too old for habitation is sure to tear it down and convert the +materials of which it is built to some other use. My curiosity was, +therefore, at once excited regarding this place, and I turned to my +uncle with an inquiry as to its history. + +"It is a very sad one," he answered,--"so sad that it gives a terrible +dreariness to this solitary spot." + +"Then I am sure you will tell me the causes which led to its desertion. +You know how much I like a story." + +My uncle complied with the request, and, as we wended our way home +through the deepening twilight, related a series of strange facts, +which, at the time, took a powerful hold on my imagination, and which I +have since endeavored to group into a continuous narrative. + + * * * * * + +This house, now so forlorn, was once a neat and happy home. It was built +by a young farmer named James Blount, who went into it with his young +wife when he brought her home from the distant State where he had +married her. For several years they seemed very prosperous and happy; +then a heavy affliction came. The healthy young farmer was thrown from +his horse, and carried to his home only to linger a few terrible hours +and expire in great agony. Thus early in its history was the doomed +house overshadowed with the gloom of sudden and violent death. + +Every one was heartily sorry for the widow with her two little boys, +and the people of the country-side did all that they could to cheer +her loneliness and lighten her grief. But, as I have said, she was a +stranger among them, and she seems to have been naturally of a reserved +disposition, preferring solitude in her affliction; for she so repelled +their attentions, that, one by one, even her husband's friends deserted +her. Then, too, her house was three miles from the nearest neighbor, and +this was necessarily a barrier to frequent social intercourse. She very +rarely went into the village, even to church, and thus people came to +know very little of her manner of life; it was only guessed at by those +few acquaintance who, at rare intervals, made their way to the Blount +farm-house. + +Among them it was remarked, that the widow, still quite young, was +unnaturally stern and cold, and that her two sons, who were growing up +in this sad isolation, were strangely like their mother, not only in +appearance, but in manners. Their names were James and John. There was +but little over a year between them, and they were so much alike that +most persons found a difficulty in distinguishing one from the other. +Both had fierce, black eyes, short, crisp, black hair, and swarthy +skins,--quite unlike our freckled-face Yankee boys,--so that the older +villagers declared, with a sigh, that there was not a trace of the +good-hearted father about them; they wholly resembled their strange +mother. The boys themselves did nothing to lessen this disagreeable +impression; they were unusually grave and reserved for their years, +taking no interest in the sports of other children; and after a time, +it became painfully evident to those who watched them that they had no +fondness for each other; on the contrary, that affection which would +naturally have sprung from their nearness in age and their constant +companionship seemed to be entirely wanting, and its place usurped by an +absolute dislike. + +When this was first discovered, it was supposed to account for the +widow's aversion to society. This idea, being once started, made those +idle busybodies there are in every village eager to discover if the +suspicion were correct. Through the men hired to work on the farm, it +was ascertained that the poor mother, with all her sternness and her +iron law, had difficulty in keeping peace between the boys. Twenty times +a day they would fall into angry dispute about some trifle; and so +violent were these altercations, that it was said that she durst not for +a moment have them both out of her sight, lest one should inflict some +deadly injury upon the other. That this was no ill-founded fear was +evinced by a quarrel that took place between them, when John was perhaps +eleven, and James twelve years old. + +It was witnessed by a village lad named Isaac Welles. He was an alert, +active person, who liked to earn a penny or two on his own account, out +of work-hours. With this notable intention, he arose soon after dawn of +a pleasant summer-morning, for the purpose of picking blackberries. +Now he knew that they were very plentiful in a field near the Blount +farmhouse, and, thinking such small theft no robbery, he made his +way thither with all speed, and was soon filling his basket with the +dew-sprinkled fruit. Early as it was, however, he soon discovered that +there was some one up before him. He heard a sound of talking in low, +caressing tones, and, glancing in the direction whence it came, he saw +John Blount sitting under a tree near by, and playing with a little +black squirrel, which appeared to be quite tame. Not caring to be +discovered and warned off, Isaac went on with his work quietly, taking +care to keep where he could see without being seen. + +John was not long left alone in his innocent amusement, for in a few +moments James Blount came running down from the house towards him. As he +approached, John's face darkened; he caught up the squirrel, and made an +endeavor to hide it under his jacket. + +"No, you don't!" said James, as he came up, breathless. "I see you have +got him, plain enough; he sha'n't get away this time,--so you might as +well give him to me." + +"No, I won't!" replied John, sullenly. + +"You won't?" + +"No!" said John, more fiercely, and then burst out, passionately,--"I +don't see why you want to tease me about it; he a'n't your pet; I have +found him and tamed him; he knows me and loves me, and he don't care for +you; besides, you only want him to torment him. No! you sha'n't have +him!" + +"Sha'n't I? we'll see!" And James made a step forward. + +John drew back several paces, at the same time trying to soothe the +squirrel, which was becoming impatient of its confinement. His face +quivered with excitement, as he went on, passionately,-- + +"I know what you want him for: you want him to hurt some way. You wrung +my black kitten's neck, and now you want to kill my squirrel. You are a +bad, wicked boy, and I hate you!" + +With the last words he started to run; but he had not gone far when his +foot struck a stone, and he fell. At this, the squirrel, terrified, +jumped from his arms; but James was close by, and before it could +escape, he had caught it. John was up in an instant, and James, seeing +that he could not avoid him, gave the poor little creature's neck a +sudden twist and flung it gasping at his brother's feet, exclaiming,-- + +"There, now, you may have it!" + +For one moment John stood still, white with rage and grief; then he +uttered a sort of choking howl, and sprang at James,-- + +"You cruel coward!" + +The words were accompanied with a half-articulate curse, as he struck +at him, blindly, fiercely, and they closed in what seemed a deadly +struggle. John, being the younger, had a slight disadvantage in size and +weight, but wrath gave him more than his usual strength; while James +fought desperately, as if for life. After a few moments they rolled on +the ground together. + +It was a fearful sight, those two brothers, boys though they were, +fighting in that mad way. Their faces, so much alike that they seemed +almost reflections of each other, were crimson with anger; their eyes +shot fire; their breath came in sobbing pants; and very soon blood was +drawn on both. After a brief contest, John, with a tremendous effort, +threw James under him. With one hand he pinioned his arms, while the +other was at his throat, where it closed with a deadly gripe. James made +one last effort to save himself; with a violent wrench he succeeded in +fixing his teeth in his brother's arm, but he failed in making him relax +his hold, though they met in the firm flesh. John's brow grew darker, +but he only tightened his clasp closer and closer, muttering,-- + +"So help me, God! I will kill you!" + +His words were near being verified; already the fallen boy's mouth had +unclosed, the red of his face turned to livid purple, and his eyes +stared wildly, when Mrs. Blount, pale, with disordered attire, as if she +had but just risen and dressed hastily, ran, screaming, down the hill. +Seizing John around the waist, she dragged him back, and flung him to +the ground, exclaiming,-- + +"Oh, my sons! my sons! are you not brothers? Will you never be at +peace?" + +At this moment, Isaac arrived, breathless with running, at the spot. +When she saw him, the widow ceased speaking, and made no further +allusion to the quarrel while he remained. However, she gladly accepted +his offered assistance in lifting James, who lay gasping, and wellnigh +dead. As they turned towards the house, John rose, sullenly, and +wrapping a handkerchief round his wounded arm, which was bleeding +profusely, he glanced scowlingly at his brother. + +"He will get over this," he muttered, with an oath; "but, sooner or +later, I swear I will kill him!" + +Without noticing his mother's appealing look, he walked back to the tree +where the dead pet lay. + +The half-strangled boy was carried to his bed, and a few simple remedies +restored him to consciousness. As soon as possible, Mrs. Blount +dismissed Isaac, declining his offers of going for a doctor, with cold +thanks. As he went back to resume his interrupted blackberrying, he saw +John sitting at the foot of the tree. He had dug a hole in which to bury +the poor squirrel; it lay on his knee, a stream of dark gore oozing +through its tiny white teeth. John was vainly endeavoring to wipe this +with the handkerchief already stained with his own blood, while his hot +tears fell fast and heavy. + +As John had said, James recovered from the choking, and the only +apparent results of the fight were that both boys were scarred for life. +John bore on his right wrist the impression of his brother's teeth; and +James's throat was disfigured by two deep, black marks, on each side, +which were quite visible till his beard concealed them. Yet, I doubt +not, that desperate struggle, in that dawning summer-day, laid the +foundation of the inextinguishable hatred that blasted those men's lives +and was to be quenched only in death. + +Several years passed after this, in which very little was known of what +passed at the lonely house. The boys were old enough to perform most of +the work of the farm, so that they no longer hired laborers except at +harvest. Mrs. Blount had herself given her sons all the instruction they +had ever received, and, being a woman of attainments beyond those usual +in her station, she seemed quite competent to the task. Nothing more was +heard of their quarrels; they were always coldly civil to each other, +when in the presence of others, and were regarded by their companions +with respect, though, I imagine, never with any cordial liking. So they +grew up to be grave, taciturn men, still retaining the same strong +resemblance of face and figure, though time had somewhat altered the +features, by fixing a different expression on each, giving to John a +fierce resolution, and to James a lurking distrustfulness of look. These +years made less change in Mrs. Blount than in her sons; she was the same +active, black-eyed woman, only that her sternness and reserve seemed to +increase with her age, and a few silver threads appeared in her raven +hair. + +I have said that it was three miles from the Blount place to the nearest +house. This was at the toll-gate, which was kept by a man named Curtis. +He was a person of progressive tastes, supposed to have aristocratic +inclinations. As he was a well-to-do man, these were evinced in a +Brussels carpet and a piano-forte which figured in his small parlor, and +by his sending his only child, a daughter, to a city boarding-school. +She returned, as might have been expected, with ideas and desires far +beyond the hill-side cottage where she was condemned to vegetate. Now +she was very pretty, with dancing blue eyes and a profusion of golden +curls; she had, too, a most winning manner, hard for any one to resist; +and these personal attractions, added to style of dress that had never +been seen or imagined among the simple country-folk, rendered her a +most important person, so that no "tea-fight" or merry-making was +complete without Nelly Curtis. + +However, it might have been long enough before the recluse young Blounts +would have encountered the gay little belle, had it not been that they +were of necessity obliged to pass through the toll-gate, and sometimes +forced to stop there. From some of her friends Nelly heard what a +secluded life the two brothers led, and how especially averse they +seemed to female society, and, with the appetite for conquest of a true +flirt, she at once determined on adding them to the list of her victims. +It was not long before she had an opportunity for beginning her wiles. + +One fine spring morning, John Blount started on horseback to go to the +village. The sun shone very brightly, the hedge-rows blushed with early +blossoms, and the birds sang a song of rejoicing. It was one of those +clear, soft days when one feels new life and vigor at the thought of the +coming summer. Arrived at the toll-gate, John was surprised at seeing no +one there to open it; he waited a moment, somewhat impatiently, and then +called out,-- + +"Holloa!" + +At this, as if startled at his voice, there appeared in the cottage +door-way a slender, rosy-cheeked maiden, who looked blooming and +graceful enough to be the incarnation of the fresh and beautiful May. + +"Excuse me," she said, with a little curtsy; "I did not see you come +up." + +This, as Nelly informed the friend to whom she related the adventure, +was a fib,--for Mr. Curtis was away, and she had been watching all the +morning, in hopes one of the Blounts would pass; but she considered it a +justifiable stratagem, as likely to secure his attention. + +Meantime John was gazing spellbound at this apparition, which appeared +to him charming beyond anything he had ever imagined. He was so far +carried away, that he was quite speechless and wholly oblivious of the +toll, until she came up to the side of the horse and held out her hand. +Then he colored, and, with awkward apology, gave her the change. + +"Thank you, Sir." + +Nelly smiled sweetly, and was just about to undo the latch of the gate, +when John anticipated her by springing from his horse, and laying his +powerful brown hand over her small white one, saying,-- + +"You can't do anything with this great, heavy gate. Stand aside, and let +me open it." + +Of course the offer was kindly accepted, and Nelly fairly overwhelmed +him with her thanks, being herself somewhat touched by the unusual +civility. John appeared quite overcome with confusion, and, remounting +his horse, he rode off with a gruff "Good day." However, I fancy, that +pleasant voice, and the accidental touch of that little hand, made an +impression that never was effaced. + +Having thus enslaved John, it was not long before a similar opportunity +occurred for captivating James; though it would seem from Nelly's +confessions to her confidante that this was not so easily accomplished +with him as with his brother. The first time she opened the gate for +him, he paid but little more heed to her than he would have to her +father, and she never considered her conquest complete until one day +when Mr. Curtis availed himself of a vacant seat in James's wagon to +get Nelly taken into the village: that ride, she fancied, insured the +wished-for result. Whether this was a correct supposition or not, +certain it is that not many weeks elapsed before both the Blounts were +completely fascinated by the gay coquette. + +For some time the passion of each brother remained a secret to the +other. Accident revealed it. + +One soft summer-evening, John rode down to the village for letters. As +he passed through the toll-gate, he succeeded in making an appointment +with Nelly for a walk on his return. He came back an hour later, and +soon after sunset the two strolled down a shady path into the woods. It +was moonlight, and Nelly was doubtless very charming in the mysterious +radiance,--certainly her companion thought so,--for, when their walk +was over, he induced her to sit with him on a fallen log that lay just +within the shade of the trees, instead of returning to the house. They +had been chatting there perhaps half an hour, when they were interrupted +by the girl the Curtises kept to do "chores." + +"Please, Miss Nelly, there's a gentleman wants to see you." + +"Very well, tell him I will be there in a moment." + +When the girl was gone, Nelly suddenly exclaimed, rather regretfully,-- + +"How stupid of me, not to ask who it was!" + +John's answer is not reported, only that he succeeded in lengthening the +"moment" into a quarter of an hour, and then half an hour; and it might, +perhaps, have lasted the whole evening, had they not, in the midst of a +most interesting conversation, been startled by a rustling in the bushes +behind them. + +"There is some one watching us!" cried John, excitedly, and half rising. + +"Nonsense!" said Nelly; "it is only a cat. Sit down again." + +This invitation was not to be declined. John sat down again, though +still a little restless and uneasy. For some moments all was still. John +had concluded that Nelly's suggestion was a correct one, and they had +begun to chat quite unconcernedly, when they were again interrupted. +This time the sound was that of an approaching footstep, and for an +instant a dark shadow fell across the moonlit path in front of them. +Nelly was now fairly frightened, she uttered a faint shriek, and clung +to John for protection. Doubtless this was a very pleasant appeal to the +young farmer, but just now wrath mastered every other feeling. He was +ever easily angered, and, to be sure, the thought that they were watched +was by no means agreeable. So, with a quick caress, he loosened her +clasp and started to his feet, exclaiming,-- + +"Don't be frightened, dear! I'll punish the rascal!" + +He made a dash in the direction whence the sound had come. In the shade +of the trees stood the intruder quite still, making no attempt to avoid +the furious onset. Mad with rage, John seized him by the collar, and, +striking him repeatedly, and muttering curses, dragged him towards the +bench where Nelly sat trembling. A few staggering steps, and they were +on the path, with the pure, peaceful light of the moon falling full on +the stranger's face. + +"Good God!" cried John, loosening his hold,--"it is my brother!" + +James drew himself up, tossing back his disordered hair, and for a +moment the two men regarded each other with stern, fixed looks, as if +they were preparing for another encounter. By this time, Nelly, who was +completely terrified, had begun to weep convulsively, and her sobs broke +the ominous silence, as she gasped,-- + +"Oh, John, please don't strike him again!" + +At these words, John started, as if stung, and, looking at her with +indignant sadness, said,-- + +"There, you needn't cry, Nelly! I won't hurt him; I will leave him to +you safely." + +Then, overcome by the rush of recollection, he burst out, +passionately,-- + +"Oh, James! James! you have rendered my life miserable by your +treacheries, and now you have robbed me of her! This is no place to +settle our quarrels; but I have sworn it once, and I swear it again now, +some day I will be revenged!" + +He would not stop to hear Nelly's entreating voice; but, full of the one +dreadful thought, that all her anxieties had been for another, while he +was indifferent to her, he mounted his horse, without one backward look, +and galloped fast away. I can fancy there was a wild whirl of emotion +in his passionate heart: deadly hatred, jealousy, and crossed love are +enough to drive any man mad. + +Meantime, James apologized to Nelly for his intrusion, on the ground, +that, becoming tired of waiting, and hearing she had gone out for a +wait, he had started to meet them, but was about to turn back, fearing +to interrupt them, when John's rudeness compelled him to appear. The +excuse was accepted; and James soon occupied the seat recently vacated +by poor John. So well did he avail himself of the circumstances, that he +succeeded in convincing Nelly that his brother was a very ill-tempered +person, whom it would be well for her to avoid. On this, with the true +instinct of a flirt, she endeavored to persuade him that she had never +really cared for John's attentions. James was but too willing to be +convinced of this; and he parted from her, feeling satisfied that his +suit would be successful. + +Knowing well that his life was scarcely safe, if he were for a moment +alone with John, after that night, James constantly exercised such +caution as prevented the possibility of an encounter. He was determined +as soon as possible to leave that neighborhood, always provided that +Nelly would go with him. For some time he considered this as certain. +John carefully avoided her, and no new suitor appeared. + +I fear that pretty Nelly was a thorough coquette; for, having nearly +broken one brother's heart, she very soon tired of the other, for whom +she had never really cared a straw. These two men being the last to fall +into her toils, she began to sigh wearily over her too easily captured +victims, when her fickle fancy was caught by game more worthy so expert +a sportsman. + +It happened that at this time there came to the village a gentleman from +New York, named Brooke, a bachelor of known wealth. He was perhaps forty +years old, and had run through a course of reckless dissipation which +had rendered him thoroughly tired of city ways and city women. On the +very first Sunday after his arrival, as he stood idly lounging at the +church-door, his eye was caught by Nelly's fresh, rosy face. He followed +her into church, and spent the time of service in staring her out of +countenance. It will be readily imagined that she was not slow to +follow up this first impression; and but few days elapsed before their +acquaintance had ripened into intimacy. + +Of course, his unceasing attentions could not fail of attracting notice +and exciting remark; and it was not long before they came to the ears +of the Blounts. John received the news with sullen indifference. It +mattered little to him whom she liked now. James, however, refused to +believe that there could be anything in it, regarding it as a mere +passing caprice. In this view most of the village-people coincided; they +considered it absurd to suppose that there could be anything serious in +Mr. Brooke's devotion. Time would probably have proved the correctness +of this supposition, had it not been, fortunately for Nelly, that she +had a father with more steadiness of mind than her giddy brain was +capable of. Mr. Curtis succeeded in turning the rapid attachment to such +advantage, that in three weeks from the time of their first meeting they +were not only engaged, but actually married. + +It had been Nelly's intention, with the vanity of a true woman, to +postpone the wedding a month longer, and then to have it on such a scale +as would excite the admiration and envy of all her companions; but Mr. +Curtis was too shrewd for this. He durst not put this rapid love to the +test of waiting; and he so worked upon his daughter's fears, that she +consented to a more hasty union. Mr. Brooke, too, showed some aversion +to any public demonstration. Perhaps he was conscious that his friends +would think he was doing a foolish thing, and he was therefore desirous +of having it over before they had time to remonstrate. So, on a fine +bright Sunday, early in September, the drowsy congregation, who were +dozing away the afternoon-service, were aroused by the publication +of the banns of marriage between Henry Brooke and Nelly Curtis. It +occasioned great whispering and tittering. But no one suspected that the +wedding was near at hand; and there were very few lingerers after the +service was over, when Kelly came in at the side-door with her father, +was joined by Mr. Brooke, and actually married then and there. + +The Blount brothers never went to church, but they almost always came +into the village of a Sunday afternoon, and on this memorable day they +were there as usual, but not together. John was earnestly discussing a +new breed of cattle with a neighboring farmer, wholly oblivious of +the false Nelly. James was standing with a group of young men on the +village-green, when Isaac Welles, the whilom blackberry-boy, rushed +up, breathless, to say that he had been detained in the church and had +actually seen Nelly and Mr. Brooke married. + +In the first eager questions that followed this announcement, no one +noticed James, until they were astonished to see him fall heavily to the +ground. He had fainted. They had not mentioned the publication of the +banns to him, and he was wholly unprepared for this utter annihilation +of all his hopes. Welles sprang to his side, and they raised him +quickly. He was a strong man, and before they could bring any +restoratives he had recovered. + +"It is nothing," he said, with a sickly smile. "I think it must have +been a sunstroke. It is confoundedly hot." + +This lame explanation was accepted, and James refused to go into any of +the neighbors' houses, though he consented to seat himself, for a few +moments, on a rustic bench in the shade of the trees. + +Half an hour later, John, having finished his chat, strolled to the +green and approached the group. He looked surprised when he caught +sight of his brother, who of late had so carefully avoided him. His +astonishment increased when James rose, and, advancing a step, said,-- + +"John, Nelly Curtis is married to that Brooke!" + +An angry flush rose to John's brow, and his black eyes flashed +ominously, as he answered, in a hoarse, low voice,-- + +"So much the better, for now she will never be your wife." + +"Neither mine nor yours," said James, maliciously;--then, after a +moment, he added, "She was a worthless thing, and we are well rid of +her." + +At this, a tornado of passion seemed to seize John. He sprang forward, +crying,-- + +"She was not worthless, and I will kill the first man who dares to say +so." + +There was an interval of dead silence; the brothers regarded each other +for a moment, then James shrugged his shoulders contemptuously, and +turned away. John glanced around him defiantly on the astonished crowd, +and, seeing no one there likely to dispute with him, he seemed to have +formed a sudden resolution, for he walked off rapidly after his brother. + +Isaac Welles had stood by, no unobservant witness of this scene. He +noted something in those two men's eyes that recalled the fierce quarrel +of the two boys; and as soon as it was possible for him to get away, +he went off after the Blounts, determined, if possible, to prevent +mischief. + +Meantime John had not met his brother; but, seeing James's horse was +gone, he mounted his own and rode away towards home, determining to +catch James before he could reach there. However, he did not overtake +him. James was too cunning to ride directly to the farm-house, and +John's headlong speed availed only to bring him there in time to find +his mother alone and dangerously ill. + +In a moment all other thoughts were laid aside. The pent-up affection of +John's heart had centred itself on his only parent. She had always been +cold and stern with her sons, yet they loved her with a tender devotion +which reclaimed natures that might otherwise have been wholly bad. + +With all the tenderness of a woman, John assisted his mother to her bed, +and, not daring to leave her, awaited eagerly the coming of the only +other person who could summon aid,--his brother James. + +At last he came,--riding slowly, with bowed head, up the lonely road. +John went out to meet him. James looked up angry and astonished, and +immediately threw himself into a position of defence. John shook his +head. + +"James," he said, "I cannot settle our quarrel now. Mother is very +ill,--perhaps dying." + +James started forward. + +"Where is she? What is the matter?" he cried, eagerly. + +"I do not know," answered John. "I will go for the doctor, now that you +are come. I durst not leave her before. But, James, stop one moment. As +long as she lives, you are safe,--I will not hurt you by word or act; +but when she is gone,--beware!" + +James did not answer, except by a nod, and John, turning, saw Isaac +Welles standing at the gate. He had overheard the conversation and felt +that there was no danger of a quarrel, and he now came eagerly forward +with offers of assistance. They were gratefully accepted; for even the +taciturnity of the brothers seemed to give way before the pressing fear +that beset them. + +There is ever great good-will and kindness in the scattered community of +a village, and, despite the unpopularity of the Blounts, neighbors and +friends soon came to them, ready and willing to aid them by every means +in their power. + +Mrs. Blount's illness proved to be quite as alarming as John had +feared. The physician, from the first, held out very little hope of her +recovery. The strong, healthy woman was stricken, as if in a moment; +it was the first real illness she had ever had, and it made fearful +progress. Yet her naturally iron constitution resisted desperately, so +that, to the astonishment of all who saw her sufferings, she lingered +on, week after week, with wonderful tenacity of life. The summer faded +into autumn, and autumn died into winter, and still she lived, failing +slowly, each day losing strength, growing weaker and weaker, until it +seemed as if she existed only by the force of will. + +Of course it had long ago been found necessary to have some other +dependence than the kindness of neighbors, and a stout Irish girl had +been hired for the kitchen, while Mrs. Clark, a good, responsible woman, +occupied the post of nurse. From these persons, and from Isaac Welles, +the rest of the story is collected. + +During all these months of her illness, the two brothers had been +unfailing in their devotion to their poor suffering mother. Night and +day they never tired, watching by her bedside for hours, and seeming +scarcely to sleep. Of course they were much together, but no words of +harshness ever passed their lips. When out of Mrs. Blount's presence, +they spoke to each other as little as possible; in her presence, there +was a studied civility that might have deceived any one but a mother. +Even she was puzzled. She would lie and watch them with burning, eager +eyes, striving to discover if it was a heartfelt reconciliation or only +a hollow truce. It was the strong feeling she had that only her life +kept them apart, which gave her power to defy death. Perhaps on this +very account his stroke was all the more sudden at last. + +It was a dark, lowering afternoon in December when the summons came. +Mrs. Blount had been lying in a half-doze for more than an hour. Her +sons had taken advantage of this sleep to attend to some necessary +duties. The nurse sat beside the fire, watching the flames flicker on +the dark walls, and idly wondering if the leaden-hued sky portended a +snow-storm. Her musings were broken by the voice of the invalid, very +faint, but quite distinct,-- + +"Nurse! nurse! Call my sons. I am dying!" + +Mrs. Clark ran to the bed. + +"Quick! quick!" cried Mrs. Blount. "Do not stop for me. You cannot help +me now. Call my sons before it is too late!" + +Her tone and action were so imperative that they enforced obedience, and +the nurse ran down-stairs with all speed. She found no one but the hired +girl in the kitchen, who said, in answer to her hurried inquiries, that +both brothers were out, gone to bring in the cattle before the storm. +Mrs. Clark sent her in all haste to recall them, and then returned to +the sick-room. As she entered, the dying woman looked up quickly, her +face clouded with disappointment when she saw that she was alone. The +nurse said all in her power to assure her that her sons would soon be +there, but she could not allay the strange excitement into which their +absence seemed to have thrown her. + +"My strength is failing," she said, sadly; "every moment is precious; +if I die without that promise which they could not refuse to a dying +mother's prayer, God knows what will become of them!" + +Mrs. Clark urged the necessity of quiet, but the sufferer paid no heed +to the caution. She talked on, wildly, and sometimes incoherently, +about the hopes she built upon the reconciliation her death-bed would +effect,--showing, in these few moments of unnatural loquacity, how +deeply she had felt the animosity between her sons, and how great had +been the effort to conquer it. This excitement could not continue long; +her voice soon grew weaker, and at last she ceased speaking, appearing +to sink into a stupor of exhaustion. + +An instant after, the door opened and John ran eagerly to the couch, +closely followed by James. Already the poor widow's eyes were closed; +the livid hue that is so fatally significant overspread her face; her +breath came in quick gasps. + +"Mother! mother!" cried John, flinging himself on his knees beside her, +and seizing the thin, hard hand. + +At that sound, she opened her eyes, but it was too late; she no longer +had the power of utterance. She glanced from one brother to the other +with a piteous, entreating look; her mouth moved convulsively; in the +effort to speak, she sat upright for an instant, ghastly and rigid, and +then fell heavily back. + +All was over; her life of labor was changed for eternal rest; and the +two men, whom only her power had restrained, stood with the last barrier +between them removed, avowed and deadly enemies. + +Yet, for all that, they were sincere mourners for the sole parent they +had ever known, though it seemed, that, jealous even in their grief, +neither cared to have the other see how much he suffered; for, after +the first few moments, when the heart refuses to be satisfied of the +certainty which it knows only too well, they turned away, and each +sought his own room. Afterwards, when all was prepared and the room +decently arranged, they returned, and alternately through the long night +kept their vigil beside the corpse. It is strange, that, in those quiet +hours of communion with the loved dead, no thought of relenting towards +each other ever suggested itself. + +The snow that had been hanging all day in the dark clouds above them +towards evening began to fall. Stilly and continually the tiny flakes +came down, hiding all the ruggedness of earth under a spotless mantle, +even as the white shroud covered the toil-worn frame of the released +sufferer. + +In the morning the news spread rapidly, and neighbors came to the +afflicted house. But the brothers seemed to resent their offers of +assistance as an intrusion, refusing to allow any other watchers, +themselves continuing night and day to watch beside the corpse; and that +awful vigil, instead of softening their hearts, seemed to harden them +into a more deadly hatred. + +The third afternoon, when all the country-side was ghastly in its +winding-sheet of snow, and the clouds hung heavy as a pall over the +stricken earth, the little funeral held its way from the lonely +farm-house to the village-churchyard. As a last tribute of respect to +their mother, the two brothers drove side by side in the same sleigh. +Those who saw them said that it was a sight not to be forgotten,--those +two black figures, with their stern, pale faces, so much alike, yet so +unsympathizing, sitting motionless, not even leaning on each other in +that moment of grief. So they were together, yet apart, during the +ceremony that consigned the wife to the grave where five-and-twenty +years before they had laid the husband. So they were together, yet +apart, when they turned their horse's head towards their home and rode +away silently into the sombre twilight. + +The last person who saw them that night was Mrs. Clark. The brothers +had insisted that both she and the Irish girl should leave early in the +day,--replying to all offers of putting the house in order, that they +preferred to be alone. But on her way home after the funeral, Mrs. Clark +passed the house in a friend's sleigh and stopped a moment for her +bundle, which in the hurry of the morning had been forgotten. To her +surprise, as she approached the door, she saw that there were no lights +visible in any of the windows, although it was already very dark. +Thinking the brothers were in the back part of the house, she pushed +open the door, which yielded to her touch, and was just about to make +her way towards the kitchen, when she heard a sound in the parlor, and +then these words, quite distinctly:-- + +"Are you ready, James?" + +"Yes,--only one word. It is a long account we have to settle, and it +must be final." + +"It shall be. Mine is a heavy score. Years ago I swore to wipe it out, +and now the time has come." + +Mrs. Clark's knock interrupted them. There was an angry exclamation, and +the door was opened. To her intense surprise, no light came from within. +She could not understand how they could settle their accounts in the +darkness; but they gave her no time for reflection; an angry voice, in +answer to her inquiries, bade her go on to the kitchen, and she hastened +off. There she found a single candle burning dimly; by its light she +picked up her bundle, and, leaving the door open to see her way, +returned to the front of the house. Though not a nervous woman, she felt +an undefined fear at the mysterious darkness and silence; and as she +passed the brothers standing in the doorway, she was struck with fresh +terror at the livid pallor of those two stern faces that looked out from +the black shadow. When she was going out, she heard the door of the +parlor bolted within, and she rejoined her friends, right glad to be +away from the sad house. + +So those two men were left alone, locked into the dark room together, in +the horrible companionship of their inextinguishable hatred and their +own bad hearts. It will forever remain unknown what passed between them +through the long hours of that awful night, when the wind howled madly +around the lightless house, and the clouds gathered blacker and thicker, +shrouding it in impenetrable gloom. + +Three days passed before any living creature approached the spot,--three +days of cold unparalleled in the annals of that country,--cold so severe +that it compelled even the hardy farmers to keep as much as possible by +the fireside. On the fourth day, Isaac Welles began to think they had +been quite long enough alone, and he started with a friend to visit the +Blount brothers. Arrived at the farm-house, they saw the sleigh standing +before the door, but no sign of any one stirring. The shutters of the +windows were closed, and no smoke came out of the chimney. They knocked +at the door. No answer. Surprised at the silence, they at length tried +to open it. It was not locked, but some heavy substance barred the way. +With difficulty they forced it open wide enough to go in. + +To this day those men shudder and turn pale, as they recall the awful +scene that awaited them within that house, which was, in fact, a tomb. + +The obstacle which opposed their entrance was the dead body of John +Blount. He lay stretched on the floor,--his face mutilated by cuts and +disfigured with gore, his clothes disordered and bloody, and one hand +nearly severed from the arm by a deep gash at the wrist; yet it was +evident that none of these wounds were mortal. After that terrible +conflict, he had probably crawled to the door and fallen there, faint +with loss of blood; the silent, cruel cold had completed the work of +death. + +Following the blood-track, the two men entered the parlor, with +suspended breath and hearts that almost ceased to beat. There they +found the dead body of James Blount,--his clothes half torn off, in the +violence of the strife that could end only in murder. A long, deep cut +on the throat had terminated that awful struggle, though many other less +dangerous wounds showed how desperate it had been. He lay just as he +fell,--his features still contracted with a look of defiance and +hatred, and in his right hand still clasped a long, sharp knife. He had +succumbed in that mortal conflict, which quenched a lifelong quarrel, +and was to prove fatal alike to victor and vanquished. Thus the vow of +John Blount was fulfilled,--the pent-up hatred of years satisfied in his +brother's murder. + +The room was in the wildest disorder,--chairs thrown down and broken, +tables overturned, and the carpet torn. In one corner they found a +second long, sharp knife. It had been at least a fair fight. + +They laid the two ghastly corpses side by side: they had been chained +together all their lives; they were chained together in death. The two +fratricides are buried in one grave. + +This terrible tragedy blighted the spot where it took place. No one +would ever inhabit that house again. The furniture was removed, except +from the one room which to this day remains unchanged, and the building +left to fall to decay. The superstitious affirm, that, in the long +winter nights, oaths and groans steal out, muffled, on the rising wind, +from the dark shadows of the Lonely House. + + * * * * * + + +BARBARISM AND CIVILIZATION. + + +In the interior of the island of Borneo there has been found a certain +race of wild creatures, of which kindred varieties have been discovered +in the Philippine Islands, in Terra del Fuego, and in Southern Africa. +They walk usually almost erect upon two legs, and in that attitude +measure about four feet in height; they are dark, wrinkled, and hairy; +they construct no habitations, form no families, scarcely associate +together, sleep in trees or in caves, feed on snakes and vermin, on ants +and ants' eggs, on mice, and on each other; they cannot be tamed, nor +forced to any labor; and they are hunted and shot among the trees, like +the great gorillas, of which they are a stunted copy. When they are +captured alive, one finds, with surprise, that their uncouth jabbering +sounds like articulate language; they turn up a human face to gaze upon +their captor; the females show instincts of modesty; and, in fine, these +wretched beings are Men. + +Men, "created in God's image," born immortal and capable of progress, +and so differing from Socrates and Shakspeare only in degree. It is but +a sliding scale from this melancholy debasement up to the most regal +condition of humanity. A traceable line of affinity unites these outcast +children with the renowned historic races of the world: the Assyrian, +the Egyptian, the Ethiopian, the Jew,--the beautiful Greek, the strong +Roman, the keen Arab, the passionate Italian, the stately Spaniard, the +sad Portuguese, the brilliant Frenchman, the frank Northman, the wise +German, the firm Englishman, and that last-born heir of Time, the +American, inventor of many new things, but himself, by his temperament, +the greatest novelty of all,--the American, with his cold, clear eye, +his skin made of ice, and his veins filled with lava. + +Who shall define what makes the essential difference between those +lowest and these loftiest types? Not color; for the most degraded races +seem never to be the blackest, and the builders of the Pyramids were far +darker than the dwellers in the Aleutian Islands. Not unmixed purity of +blood; since the Circassians, the purest type of the supreme Caucasian +race, have given nothing to history but the courage of their men and the +degradation of their women. Not religion; for enlightened nations have +arisen under each great historic faith, while even Christianity has its +Abyssinia and Arkansas. Not climate; for each quarter of the globe has +witnessed both extremes. We can only say that there is an inexplicable +step in progress, which we call civilization; it is the development of +mankind into a sufficient maturity of strength to keep the peace and +organize institutions; it is the arrival of literature and art; it is +the lion and the lamb beginning to lie down together, without having, as +some one has said, the lamb inside of the lion. + +There are innumerable aspects of this great transformation; but there is +one, in special, which has been continually ignored or evaded. In the +midst of our civilization, there is a latent distrust of civilization. +We are never weary of proclaiming the enormous gain it has brought +to manners, to morals, and to intellect; but there is a wide-spread +impression that the benefit is purchased by a corresponding physical +decay. This alarm has had its best statement from Emerson. "Society +never advances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the +other.... What a contrast between the well-clad, reading, writing, +thinking American, with a watch, a pencil, and a bill of exchange in his +pocket, and the naked New-Zealander, whose property is a club, a spear, +a mat, and the undivided twentieth part of a shed to sleep under! But +compare the health of the two men, and you shall see that his aboriginal +strength the white man has lost. If the traveller tell us truly, strike +the savage with a broad-axe, and in a day or two the flesh shall unite +and heal as if you struck the blow into soft pitch; and the same blow +shall send the white man to his grave." + +Were this true, the fact would be fatal. Man is a progressive being, +only on condition that he begin at the beginning. He can afford to wait +centuries for a brain, but he cannot subsist a second without a body. If +civilization sacrifice the physical thus hopelessly to the mental, and +barbarism merely sacrifice the mental to the physical, then barbarism is +unquestionably the better thing, so far as it goes, because it provides +the essential preliminary conditions, and so can afford to wait. +Barbarism is a one-story log-hut, a poor thing, but better than nothing; +while such a civilization would be simply a second story, with a first +story too weak to sustain it, a magnificent sky-parlor, with all heaven +in view from the upper windows, but with the whole family coming down in +a crash presently, through a fatal neglect of the basement. In such a +view, an American Indian or a Kaffir warrior may be a wholesome object, +good for something already, and for much more when he gets a brain +built on. But when one sees a bookworm in his library, an anxious +merchant-prince in his counting-room, tottering feebly about, his thin +underpinning scarcely able to support what he has already crammed +into that heavy brain of his, and he still piling in more,--one feels +disposed to cry out, "Unsafe passing here! Stand from under!" + +Sydney Smith, in his "Moral Philosophy," has also put strongly this case +of physiological despair. "Nothing can be plainer than that a life of +society is unfavorable to all the animal powers of men.... A Choctaw +could run from here to Oxford without stopping. I go in the mail-coach; +and the time the savage has employed in learning to run so fast I have +employed in learning something useful. It would not only be useless in +me to run like a Choctaw, but foolish and disgraceful." But one may well +suppose, that, if the jovial divine had kept himself in training for +this disgraceful lost art of running, his diary might not have recorded +the habit of lying two hours in bed in the morning, "dawdling and +doubting," as he says, or the fact of his having "passed the whole day +in an unpleasant state of body, produced by laziness"; and he might +not have been compelled to invent for himself that amazing rheumatic +armor,--a pair of tin boots, a tin collar, a tin helmet, and a tin +shoulder-of-mutton over each of his natural shoulders, all duly filled +with boiling water, and worn in patience by the sedentary Sydney. + +It is also to be remembered that this statement was made in 1805, +when England and Germany were both waking up to a revival of physical +training,--if we may trust Sir John Sinclair in the one case, and +Salzmann in the other,--such as America is experiencing now. Many years +afterwards, Sydney Smith wrote to his brother, that "a working senator +should lead the life of an athlete." But supposing the fact still true, +that an average red man can run, and an average white man cannot,--who +does not see that it is the debility, not the feat, which is +discreditable? Setting aside the substantial advantages of strength +and activity, there is a melancholy loss of self-respect in buying +cultivation for the brain by resigning the proper vigor of the body. Let +men say what they please, they all demand a life which shall be whole +and sound throughout, and there is a drawback upon all gifts that are +paid for in infirmities. There is no thorough satisfaction in art or +intellect, if we yet feel ashamed before the Indian because we cannot +run, and before the South-Sea Islander because we cannot swim. Give us a +total culture, and a success without any discount of shame. After all, +one feels a certain justice in Warburton's story of the Guinea trader, +in Spence's Anecdotes. Mr. Pope was with Sir Godfrey Kneller one day, +when his nephew, a Guinea trader, came in. "Nephew," said Sir Godfrey, +"you have the honor of seeing the two greatest men in the world." "I +don't know how great you may be," said the Guinea-man, "but I don't like +your looks; I have often bought a man, much better than both of you +together, all muscles and bones, for ten guineas." + +Fortunately for the hopes of man, the alarm is unfounded. The advance +of accurate knowledge dispels it. Civilization is cultivation, whole +cultivation; and even in its present imperfect state, it not only +permits physical training, but promotes it. The traditional glory of +the savage body is yielding before medical statistics: it is becoming +evident that the average barbarian, observed from the cradle to the +grave, does not know enough and is not rich enough to keep his body in +its highest condition, but, on the contrary, is small and sickly and +short-lived and weak, compared with the man of civilization. The great +athletes of the world have been civilized; the long-lived men have been +civilized; the powerful armies have been civilized; and the average of +life, health, size, and strength is highest to-day among those races +where knowledge and wealth and comfort are most widely spread. And yet, +by the common lamentation, one would suppose that all civilization is a +slow suicide of the race, and that refinement and culture are to leave +man at last in a condition like that of the little cherubs on old +tomb-stones, all head and wings. + +It must be owned that the delusion has all the superstitions of history +in its favor, and only the facts against it. If we may trust tradition, +the race has undoubtedly been tapering down from century to century +since the Creation, so that the original Adam must have been more than +twice the size of the Webster statue. However far back we go, admiring +memory looks farther. Homer and Virgil never let their hero throw a +stone without reminding us that modern heroes only live in glass houses, +to have stones thrown at them. Lucretius and Juvenal chant the same +lament. Xenophon, mourning the march of luxury among the Persians, says +that modern effeminacy has reached such a pitch, that men have even +devised coverings for their fingers, called gloves. Herodotus narrates, +that, when Cambyses sent ambassadors to the Macrobians, they asked what +the Persians had to eat and how long they commonly lived. He was told +that they sometimes attained the age of eighty, and that they ate a mass +of crushed grain, which they termed bread. On this, they said that it +was no wonder, if the Persians died young, when they partook of such +rubbish, and that probably they would not survive even so long, but for +the wine they drank; while the Macrobians lived on flesh and milk, and +survived one hundred and twenty years. + +But, unfortunately, there were no Life Insurance Companies among the +Macrobians, and therefore nothing to bring down this formidable average +to a reliable schedule,--such as accurately informs every modern man how +long he may live honestly, without defrauding either his relict or his +insurers. We know, moreover, precisely what Dr. Windship can lift, at +any given date, and what the rest of us cannot; but Homer and Virgil +never weighed the stones which their heroes threw, nor even the words in +which they described the process. It is a matter of certainty that +all great exploits are severely tested by Fairbanks's scales and +stop-watches. It is wonderful how many persons, in the remoter +districts, assure the newspaper-editors of their ability to lift twelve +hundred pounds; and many a young oarsman can prove to you that he has +pulled his mile faster than Ward or Clark, if you will only let him give +his own guess at time and distance. + +It is easy, therefore, to trace the origin of these exaggerations. Those +old navigators, for instance, who saw so many fine things which were +not to be seen, how should they help peopling the barbarous realms with +races of giants? Job Hartop, who three times observed a merman rise +above water to his waist, near the Bermudas,--Harris, who endured such +terrific cold in the Antarctics, that once, perilously blowing his nose +with his fingers, it flew into the fire and was seen no more,--Knyvett, +who, in the same regions, pulled off his frozen stockings, and his toes +with them, but had them replaced by the ship's surgeon,--of course +these men saw giants, and it is only a matter for gratitude that they +vouchsafed us dwarfs also, to keep up some remains of self-respect in +us. In Magellan's Straits, for instance, they saw, on one side, from +three to four thousand pigmies with mouths from ear to ear; while on the +other shore they saw giants whose footsteps were four times as large as +an Englishman's,--which was a strong expression, considering that the +Englishman's footstep had already reached round the globe. + +The only way to test these earlier observations is by later ones. For +instance, in the year 1772, a Dutchman named Roggewein discovered Easter +Island. His expedition had cost the government a good deal, and he +had to bring home his money's worth of discoveries. Accordingly, his +islanders were all giants,--twice as tall, he said, as the tallest of +the Europeans; "they measured, one with another, the height of twelve +feet; so that we could easily,--who will not wonder at it?--without +stooping, have passed between the legs of these sons of Goliath. +According to their height, so is their thickness." Moreover, he "puts +down nothing but the real truth, and upon the nicest inspection," and, +to exhibit this caution, warns us that it would be wrong to rate the +women of those regions as high as the men, they being, as he pityingly +owns, "commonly not above ten or eleven feet." Sweet young creatures +they must have appeared, belle and steeple in one. And it was certainly +a great disappointment to Captain Cook, when, on visiting the same +Island, fifty years later, he could not find man or woman more than six +feet tall. Thus ended the tale of this Flying Dutchman. + +Thus lamentably have the inhabitants of Patagonia been also dwindling, +though, there, if anywhere, still lies the Cape of Bad Hope for the +apostles of human degeneracy. Pigafetta originally estimated them at +twelve feet. In the time of Commodore Byron, they had already grown +downward; yet he said of them that they were "enormous goblins," seven +feet high, every one of them. One of his officers, however, writing an +independent narrative, seemed to think this a needless concession; he +admits, indeed, that the women were not, perhaps, more than seven feet, +or seven and a half, or, it might be, eight, "but the men were, for +the most part, about nine feet high, and very often more." Lieutenant +Cumming, he said, being but six feet two, appeared a mere pigmy among +them. But it seems, that, in after-times, on some one's questioning this +diminutive lieutenant as to the actual size of these enormous goblins, +the veteran frankly confessed, that, "had it been anywhere else but in +Patagonia, he should have called them good sturdy savages and thought no +more on't." + +But, these facts apart, there are certain general truths which look +ominous for the reputation of the _physique_ of savage tribes. + +First, they cannot keep the race alive, they are always tending to +decay. When first encountered by civilization, they usually tell stories +of their own decline in numbers, and after that the downward movement is +accelerated. They are poor, ignorant, improvident, oppressed by others' +violence, or exhausted by their own; war kills them, infanticide and +abortion cut them off before they reach the age of war, pestilences +sweep them away, whole tribes perish by famine and smallpox. Under the +stern climate of the Esquimaux and the soft skies of Tahiti, the same +decline is seen. Parkman estimates that in 1763 the whole number of +Indians east of the Mississippi was but ten thousand, and they were +already mourning their own decay. Travellers seldom visit a savage +country without remarking on the scarcity of aged people and of young +children. Lewis and Clarke, Mackenzie, Alexander Henry, observed this +among Indian tribes never before visited by white men; Dr. Kane remarked +it among the Esquimaux, D'Azara among the Indians of South America, and +many travellers in the South-Sea Islands and even in Africa, though the +black man apparently takes more readily to civilization than any other +race, and then develops a terrible vitality, as American politicians +find to their cost. + +Meanwhile, the hardships which thus decimate the tribe toughen the +survivors, and sometimes give them an apparent advantage over civilized +men. The savages whom one encounters are necessarily the picked men of +the race, and the observer takes no census of the multitudes who have +perished in the process. Civilization keeps alive, in every generation, +multitudes who would otherwise die prematurely. These millions of +invalids do not owe to civilization their diseases, but their lives. It +is painful that your sick friend should live on Cherry Pectoral; but if +he had been born in barbarism, he would neither have had it to drink nor +survived to drink it. + +And again, it is now satisfactorily demonstrated that these picked +survivors of savage life are commonly suffering under the same diseases +with their civilized compeers, and show less vital power to resist them. +In barbarous nations every foreigner is taken for a physician, and the +first demand is for medicines; if not the right medicines, then the +wrong ones; if no medicines are at hand, the written prescription, +administered internally, is sometimes found a desirable restorative. The +earliest missionaries to the South-Sea Islands found ulcers and dropsy +and hump-backs there before them. The English Bishop of New Zealand, +landing on a lone islet where no ship had ever touched, found the +whole population prostrate with influenza. Lewis and Clarke, the first +explorers of the Rocky Mountains, found Indian warriors ill with fever +and dysentery, rheumatism and paralysis, and Indian women in hysterics. +"The tooth-ache," said Roger Williams of the New England tribes, "is the +only paine which will force their stoute hearts to cry"; even the Indian +women, he says, never cry as he has heard "some of their men in this +paine"; but Lewis and Clarke found whole tribes who had abolished this +source of tears in the civilized manner, by having no teeth left. We +complain of our weak eyes as a result of civilized habits, and Tennyson, +in "Locksley Hall," wishes his children bred in some savage land, "not +with blinded eyesight poring over miserable books." But savage life +seems more injurious to the organs of vision than even the type of a +cheap edition; for the most vigorous barbarians--on the prairies, in +Southern archipelagos, on African deserts--suffer more from different +forms of ophthalmia than from any other disease; without knowing the +alphabet, they have worse eyes than if they were professors, and have +not even the melancholy consolation of spectacles. + +Again, the savage cannot, as a general rule, endure transplantation,--he +cannot thrive in the country of the civilized man; whereas the latter, +with time for training, can equal or excel him in strength and endurance +on his own ground. As it is known that the human race generally can +endure a greater variety of climate than the hardiest of the lower +animals, so it is with the man of civilization, when compared with the +barbarian. Kane, when he had once learned how to live in the Esquimaux +country, lived better than the Esquimaux themselves; and he says +expressly, that "their powers of resistance are no greater than those of +well-trained voyagers from other lands." Richardson, Parkyns, Johnstone, +give it as their opinion, that the European, once acclimated, bears +the heat of the African deserts better than the native negro. "These +Christians are devils," say the Arabs; "they can endure both cold and +heat." What are the Bedouins to the Zouaves, who unquestionably would be +as formidable in Lapland as in Algiers? Nay, in the very climates where +the natives are fading away, the civilized foreigner multiplies: thus, +the strong New-Zealanders do not average two children to a family, while +the households of the English colonists are larger than at home,--which +is saying a good deal. + +Most formidable of all is the absence of all recuperative power in +the savage who rejects civilization. No effort of will improves his +condition; he sees his race dying out, and he can only drink and forget +it. But the civilized man has an immense capacity for self-restoration; +he can make mistakes and correct them again, sin and repent, sink and +rise. Instinct can only prevent; science can cure in one generation, and +prevent in the next. It is known that some twenty years ago a thrill +of horror shot through all Anglo-Saxondom at the reported physical +condition of the operatives in English mines and factories. It is not so +generally known, that, by a recent statement of the medical inspector of +factories, there is declared to have been a most astounding renovation +of female health in such establishments throughout all England since +that time,--the simple result of sanitary laws. What science has done +science can do. Everybody knows which symptom of American physical decay +is habitually quoted, as most alarming; one seldom sees a dentist who +does not despair of the republic. Yet this calamity is nothing new; the +elder branch of our race has been through that epidemic, and outlived +it. In the robust days of Queen Bess, the teeth of the court ladies were +habitually so black and decayed, that foreigners used constantly to ask +if Englishwomen ate nothing but sugar. Hentzner, who visited the country +in 1697, speaks of the same calamity as common among the English of all +classes. Two centuries and a half have removed the stigma,--improved +physical habits have put fresh pearls between the lips of all England +now; and there seems no reason why we Americans may not yet be healthy, +in spite of our teeth. + +Thus much for general considerations; let us come now to more specific +tests, beginning with the comparison of size. The armor of the knights +of the Middle Ages is too small for their modern descendants: Hamilton +Smith records that two Englishmen of average dimensions found no suit +large enough to fit them in the great collection of Sir Samuel Meyrick. +The Oriental sabre will not admit the English hand, nor the bracelet of +the Kaffir warrior the English arm. The swords found in Roman tumuli +have handles inconveniently small; and the great mediaeval two-handed +sword is now supposed to have been used only for one or two blows at the +first onset, and then exchanged for a smaller one. The statements given +by Homer, Aristotle, and Vitruvius represent six feet as a high standard +for full-grown men; and the irrefutable evidence of the ancient +doorways, bedsteads, and tombs proves the average size of the race to +have certainly not diminished in modern days. The gigantic bones have +all turned out to be animal remains; even the skeleton twenty-five +feet high and ten feet broad, which one _savant_ wrote a book called +"Gigantosteologia" to prove human, and another, a counter-argument, +called "Gigantomachia," to prove animal,--neither of the philosophers +taking the trouble to draw a single fragment of the fossil. The enormous +savage races have turned out, as has been shown, to be travellers' +tales,--even the Patagonians being brought down to an average of five +feet ten inches, and being, moreover, only a part of a race, the +Abipones, of which the other families are smaller. Indeed, we can all +learn by our own experience how irresistible is the tendency of the +imagination to attribute vast proportions to all hardy and warlike +tribes. Most persons fancy the Scottish Highlanders, for instance, to +have been a race of giants; yet Charles Edward was said to be taller +than any man in his Highland army, and his height was but five feet +nine. We have the same impression in regard to our own Aborigines. Yet, +when first, upon the prairies of Nebraska, I came in sight of a tribe of +genuine, unadulterated Indians, with no possession on earth but a +bow and arrow and a bear-skin,--bare-skin in a double sense, I might +add,--my instinctive exclamation was, "What race of dwarfs is this?" +They were the descendants of the glorious Pawnees of Cooper, the heroes +of every boy's imagination; yet, excepting the three chiefs, who were +noble-looking men of six feet in height, the tallest of the tribe could +not have measured five feet six inches. + +The most careful investigations give the same results in respect to +physical strength. Early travellers among our Indians, as Hearne and +Mackenzie, and early missionaries to the South-Sea Islands, as Ellis, +report athletic contests in which the natives could not equal the +better-fed, better-clothed, better-trained Europeans. When the French +_savans_, Péron, Regnier, Ransonnet, carried their dynamometers to the +islands of the Indian Ocean, they found with surprise that an average +English sailor was forty-two per cent, stronger, and an average +Frenchman thirty per cent, stronger, than the strongest island tribe +they visited. Even in comparing different European races, it is +undeniable that bodily strength goes with the highest civilization. +It is recorded in Robert Stephenson's Life, that, when the English +"navvies" were employed upon the Paris and Boulogne Railway, they used +spades and barrows just twice the size of those employed by their +Continental rivals, and were regularly paid double. Quetelet's +experiments with the dynamometer on university students showed the same +results: first ranked the Englishman, then the Frenchman, then the +Belgian, then the Russian, then the Southern European: for those races +of Southern Europe which once ruled the Eastern and the Western worlds +by physical and mental power have lost in strength as they have paused +in civilization, and the easy victories of our armies in Mexico show us +the result. + +It is impossible to deny that the observations on this subject are yet +very imperfect; and the only thing to be claimed is, that they all point +one way. So far as absolute statistical tables go, the above-named +French observations have till recently stood almost alone, and have been +the main reliance. The just criticism has, however, been made, that the +subjects of these experiments were the inhabitants of New Holland and +Van Diemen's Land, by no means the strongest instances on the side of +barbarism. It is, therefore, fortunate that the French tables have now +been superseded by some more important comparisons, accurately made by +A.S. Thomson, M.D., Surgeon of the Fifty-Eighth Regiment of the British +Army, and printed in the seventeenth volume of the Journal of the London +Statistical Society. + +The observations were made in New Zealand,--Dr. Thomson being stationed +there with his regiment, and being charged with the duty of vaccinating +all natives employed by the government. The islanders thus used for +experiment were to some extent picked men, as none but able-bodied +persons would have been selected for employ, and as they were, moreover, +(he states,) accustomed to lifting burdens, and better-fed than the +majority of their countrymen. The New Zealand race, as a whole, is +certainly a very favorable type of barbarism, having but just emerged +from an utterly savage condition, having been cannibals within one +generation, and being the very identical people among whom were recorded +those wonderful cures of flesh-wounds to which Emerson has referred. +Cook and all other navigators have praised their robust physical aspect, +and they undoubtedly, with the Fijians and the Tongans, stand at the +head of all island races. They are admitted to surpass our American +Indians, as well as the Kaffirs and the Joloffs, probably the finest +African races; and a careful comparison between New-Zealanders and +Anglo-Saxons will, therefore, approach as near to an _experimentum +crucis_ as any single set of observations can. The following tables have +been carefully prepared from those of Dr. Thomson, with the addition +of some scanty facts from other sources,--scanty, because, as Quetelet +indignantly observes, less pains have as yet been taken to measure +accurately the physical powers of man than those of any machine he has +constructed or any animal he has tamed. + + TABLE. + + HEIGHT. _Number measured. Average._ + New-Zealanders................... 147 5 feet 6-3/4 inches. + Students at Edinburgh............ 800 5 " 7-1/10 " + Class of 1860. Cambridge (Mass.). 106 5 " 7-3/5 " + Students at Cambridge (Eng.)..... 80 5 " 8-3/5 " + + WEIGHT. + New-Zealanders................... 146 140 pounds. + Soldiers 58th Regiment........... 1778 142 " + Class of 1860. Cambridge (Mass.). 106 142-1/2 " + Students at Cambridge (Eng.)..... 80 143 " + Men weighed at Boston (U.S.) + Mechanics' Fair, 1860 ......... 4369 146-3/4 " + Englishmen (Dr. Thomson)......... 2648 148 " + Cambridge, Eng. (a newspaper + statement) .................... ---- 151 " + Revolutionary officers at West + Point, August 10th, 1778, + given in "Milledulcia," p. 273.. 11 226 " + + AREA OF CHEST. + New-Zealanders................... 151 35.36 inches. + Soldiers 58th Regiment........... 628 36.71 " + + STRENGTH IN LIFTING. + New-Zealanders................... 31 367 pounds. + Students fit Edinburgh, aged 25.. ---- 416 " + Soldiers 58th Regiment........... 33 422 " + + NOTE. The range of strength among the New-Zealanders was from 250 + pounds to 420 pounds; among the soldiers, from 350 pounds to 504 pounds. + +But it is the test of longevity which exhibits the greatest triumph for +civilization, because here the life-insurance tables furnish ample, +though comparatively recent statistics. Of course, in legendary ages all +lives were of enormous length; and the Hindoos in their sacred books +attribute to their progenitors a career of forty million years or +thereabouts,--what may safely be termed a ripe old age; for if a man +were still unripe after celebrating his forty-millionth birthday, he +might as well give it up. But from the beginning of accurate statistics +we know that the duration of life in any nation is a fair index of +its progress in civilization, Quetelet gives statistics, more or less +reliable, from every nation of Northern Europe, showing a gain of ten to +twenty-five per cent, during the last century. Where the tables are most +carefully prepared, the result is least equivocal. Thus, in Geneva, +where accurate registers have been kept for three hundred years, it +seems that from 1560 to 1600 the average lifetime of the citizens was +twenty-one years and two months; in the next century, twenty-five years +and nine months; in the century following, thirty-two years and nine +months; and in the year 1833, forty years and five months: thus nearly +doubling the average age of man in Geneva, within those three centuries +of social progress. In France, it is estimated, that, in spite of +revolutions and Napoleons, human life has been gaining at the rate +of two months a year for nearly a century. By a manuscript of the +fourteenth century, moreover, it is shown that the rate of mortality +in Paris was then one in sixteen,--one person dying annually to every +sixteen of the inhabitants. It is now one in thirty-two,--a gain of a +hundred per cent, in five hundred years. In England the progress +has been far more rapid. The rate of mortality in 1690 was one in +thirty-three; in 1780 it was one in forty; and it stands now at one in +sixty,--the healthiest condition in Europe,--while in half-barbarous +Russia the rate of mortality is one in twenty-seven. It would be easy to +multiply these statistics to any extent; but they all point one way, and +no medical statistician now pretends to oppose the dictum of Hufeland, +that "a certain degree of culture is physically necessary for man, and +promotes duration of life." + +The simple result is, that the civilized man is physically superior to +the barbarian. There is now no evidence that there exists in any part of +the world a savage race who, taken as a whole, surpass or even equal the +Anglo-Saxon type in average physical condition; as there is also +none among whom the President elect of the United States and the +Commander-in-chief of his armies would not be regarded as remarkably +tall men, and Dr. Windship a remarkably strong one. "It is now well +known," says Prichard, "that all savage races have less muscular power +than civilized men." Johnstone in Northern Africa, and Cumming in +Southern Africa, could find no one to equal them in strength of arm. +At the Sandwich Islands, Ellis records, that, "when a boat manned by +English seamen and a canoe with natives left the shore together, the +canoe would uniformly leave the boat behind, but they would soon relax, +while the seamen, pulling steadily on, would pass them, but, if the +voyage took three hours, would invariably reach the destination first." +Certain races may have been regularly trained by position and necessity +in certain particular arts,--as Sandwich-Islanders in swimming, and our +Indians in running,--and may naturally surpass the average skill of +those who are comparatively out of practice in that speciality; yet it +is remarkable that their greatest feats even in these ways never seem +to surpass those achieved by picked specimens of civilization. The best +Indian runners could only equal Lewis and Clarke's men, and they have +been repeatedly beaten in prize-races within the last few years; while +the most remarkable aquatic feat on record is probably that of Mr. +Atkins of Liverpool, who recently dived to a depth of two hundred and +thirty feet, reappearing above water in one minute and eleven seconds. + +In the wilderness and on the prairies, we find a general impression that +cultivation and refinement must weaken the race. Not at all; they simply +domesticate it. Domestication is not weakness. A strong hand does not +become less muscular under a kid glove; and a man who is a hero in a red +shirt will also be a hero in a white one. Civilization, imperfect as +it is, has already procured for us better food, better air, and better +behavior; it gives us physical training on system; and its mental +training, by refining the nervous organization, makes the same quantity +of muscular power go much farther. The young English ensigns and +lieutenants who at Waterloo (in the words of Wellington) "rushed to meet +death, as if it were a game of cricket," were the fruit of civilization. +They were representatives, indeed, of the aristocracy of their nation; +and here, where the aim of all institutions is to make the whole nation +an aristocracy, we must plan to secure the same splendid physical +superiority on a grander scale. It is in our power, by using even very +moderately for this purpose our magnificent machinery of common schools, +to give to the physical side of civilization an advantage which it has +possessed nowhere else, not even in England or Germany. It is not yet +time to suggest detailed plans on this subject, since the public mind +is not yet fully awake even to the demand. When the time comes, the +necessary provisions can be made easily,--at least, as regards boys; +for the physical training of girls is a far more difficult problem +The organization is more delicate and complicated, the embarrassments +greater, the observations less carefully made, the successes fewer, +the failures far more disastrous. Any intelligent and robust man may +undertake the physical training of fifty boys, however delicate their +organization, with a reasonable hope of rearing nearly all of them, by +easy and obvious methods, into a vigorous maturity; but what wise man +or woman can expect anything like the same proportion of success, at +present, with fifty American girls? + +This is the most momentous health-problem with which we have to deal,-- +to secure the proper physical advantages of civilization for American +women. Without this there can be no lasting progress. The Sandwich +Island proverb says,-- + + "If strong be the frame of the mother, + Her son shall make laws for the people." + +But in this country, it is scarcely an exaggeration to say that +every man grows to maturity surrounded by a circle of invalid female +relatives, that he later finds himself the husband of an invalid wife +and the parent of invalid daughters, and that he comes at last to regard +invalidism, as Michelet coolly declares, the normal condition of that +sex,--as if the Almighty did not know how to create a woman. This, of +course, spreads a gloom over life. When I look at the morning throng of +schoolgirls in summer, hurrying through every street, with fresh, young +faces, and vesture of lilies, duly curled and straw-hatted and booted, +and turned off as patterns of perfection by proud mammas,--it is not sad +to me to think that all this young beauty must one day fade and die, for +there are spheres of life beyond this earth, I know, and the soul is +good to endure through more than one;--the sadness is in the unnatural +nearness of the decay, to foresee the living death of disease that is +waiting close at hand for so many, to know how terrible a proportion of +those fair children are walking unconsciously into a weary, wretched, +powerless, joyless, useless maturity. Among the myriad triumphs of +advancing civilization, there seems but one formidable danger, and that +is here. + +It cannot be doubted, however, that the peril will pass by, with +advancing knowledge. In proportion to our national recklessness of +danger is the promptness with which remedial measures are adopted, when +they at last become indispensable. In the mean time, we must look for +proofs of the physical resources of woman into foreign and even +into savage lands. When an American mother tells me with pride, as +occasionally happens, that her daughter can walk two miles and back +without great fatigue, the very boast seems a tragedy; but when one +reads that Oberea, queen of the Sandwich Islands, lifted Captain Wallis +over a marsh as easily as if he had been a little child, there is a +slight sense of consolation. Brunhilde, in the "Nibelungen," binds her +offending lover with her girdle and slings him up to the wall. Cymburga, +wife of Duke Ernest of Lithuania, could crack nuts between her fingers, +and drive nails into a wall with her thumb;--whether she ever got her +husband under it is not recorded. Let me preserve from oblivion the +renown of my Lady Butterfield, who, about the year 1700, at Wanstead, +in Essex, (England,) thus advertised:--"This is to give notice to my +honored masters and ladies and loving friends, that my Lady Butterfield +gives a challenge to ride a horse, or leap a horse, or run afoot, or +_hollo_, with any woman in England seven years younger, but not a day +older, because I won't undervalue myself, being now 74 years of age." +Nor should be left unrecorded the high-born Scottish damsel whose +tradition still remains at the Castle of Huntingtower, in Scotland, +where two adjacent pinnacles still mark the Maiden's Leap. She sprang +from battlement to battlement, a distance of nine feet and four inches, +and eloped with her lover. Were a young lady to go through one of our +villages in a series of leaps like that, and were she to require her +lovers to follow in her footsteps, it is to be feared that she would die +single. + +Yet the transplanted race which has in two centuries stepped from Delft +Haven to San Francisco has no reason to be ashamed of its physical +achievements, the more especially as it has found time on the way for +one feat of labor and endurance which may be matched without fear +against any historic deed. When civilization took possession of +this continent, it found one vast coating of almost unbroken forest +overspreading it from shore to prairie. To make room for civilization, +that forest must go. What were Indians, however deadly,--what +starvation, however imminent,--what pestilence, however lurking,--to a +solid obstacle like this? No mere courage could cope with it, no mere +subtlety, no mere skill, no Yankee ingenuity, no labor-saving machine +with head for hands; but only firm, unwearying, bodily muscle to every +stroke. Tree by tree, in two centuries, that forest has been felled. +What were the Pyramids to that? There does not exist in history an +athletic feat so astonishing. + +But there yet lingers upon this continent a forest of moral evil more +formidable, a barrier denser and darker, a Dismal Swamp of inhumanity, +a barbarism upon the soil, before which civilization has thus far been +compelled to pause,--happy, if it could even check its spread. Checked +at last, there comes from it a cry as if the light of day had turned to +darkness,--when the truth simply is, that darkness is being mastered and +surrounded by the light of day. Is it a good thing to "extend the area +of freedom" by pillaging some feeble Mexico? and does the phrase become +a bad one only when it means the peaceful progress of constitutional +liberty within our own borders? The phrases which oppression teaches +become the watchwords of freedom at last, and the triumph of +Civilization over Barbarism is the only Manifest Destiny of America. + + + + +WHO WAS CASPAR HAUSER? + + +Recent publications have again attracted our attention to a subject +which about thirty years ago was the cause of great excitement and +innumerable speculations. The very extraordinary advent, life, and death +of Caspar Hauser, the novelty and singularity of all his thoughts and +actions, and his charming innocence and amiability, interested at the +time all Europe in his behalf. Thrown upon the world in a state of utter +helplessness, he was adopted by one of the cities of Germany, and became +not only a universal pet, but a sight which people flocked from all +parts to see. It became a perfect fever, raging throughout Germany, and +extending also to other countries. The papers teemed with accounts and +conjectures. Innumerable essays and even books were written, almost +every one advancing a different theory for the solution of the mystery. +But his death was still more the occasion for their appearance, and for +some time thereafter they literally swarmed from the press. Every one +who had in any way come in contact with him, and a great many who knew +him by reputation only, thought themselves called upon to give their +views, so that in a little while the subject acquired almost a +literature of its own. + +But this excitement gradually disappeared, and with it most of the +literature which it had called forth. There are a few names, however, +which occur frequently in connection with that of Caspar Hauser, to +whose opinions we shall subsequently call attention. They are Feuerbach, +Daumer, Merker, Stanhope, Binder, Meier, and Fuhrmann.[A] Of these, +Binder was his earliest protector; Feuerbach conducted the legal +investigations to which Caspar's mysterious appearance gave rise; Daumer +was for a long time his teacher and host; Stanhope adopted him; Meier +afterwards filled Daumer's place; and Fuhrmann was the clergyman who +attended his death-bed. Merker, though never thrown very closely in +contact with Caspar, was a Prussian Counsellor of Police, and as such +his opinion may perhaps have more than ordinary weight with some. Most +of them published their various opinions during Caspar's life or soon +after his death, and the subject was then allowed to sink to its proper +level and attract no further attention. Within a few years, however, it +has again been brought into prominent light by some new publications. +One of these is an essay written by Feuerbach and published in his works +edited by his son, in which he endeavors to prove that Caspar Hauser was +the son of the Grand Duchess Stephanie of Baden; another is a book by +Daumer, which he devotes entirely to the explosion of all theories that +have ever been advanced; and a third, by Dr. Eschricht, contends +that Caspar was at first an idiot and afterwards an impostor. Before +considering these different theories, let us recall the principal +incidents of his life. These have, indeed, been placed within the +reach of the English reader by the Earl of Stanhope's book and by a +translation of Feuerbach's "Kaspar Hauser. Beispiel eines Verbrechens am +Seelenleben des Menschen,"[B] published in Boston in 1832; but, as the +former has, we believe, obtained little circulation in this country, and +the latter is now probably out of print, a short account of the life of +this singular being may not be deemed amiss. + +[Footnote A: Daumer, in his _Disclosures concerning Caspar Hauser_, +refers to a great many more than these; but it is impossible to follow +his example in so limited a space.] + +[Footnote B: _Caspar Hauser. An Example of a Crime against the Life, of +Man's Soul_.] + +On the 26th of May, 1828, a citizen of Nuremberg, while loitering in +front of his house in the outskirts of the town, saw, tottering towards +him, a lad of sixteen or seventeen years, coarsely and poorly clad. He +held in his hand a letter, which he presented to the citizen; but to +all questions as to who he was, whence he came, and what he wanted, he +replied only in an unintelligible jargon. The letter was addressed to +the captain of a cavalry company then stationed at Nuremberg, to whom +he was taken. It stated substantially, that a boy had been left at the +writer's door on the 7th of October, 1812, that the writer was a poor +laborer with a large family, but that he had nevertheless adopted the +boy, and had reared him in such strict seclusion from the world that not +even his existence was known. The letter said further, that, so far from +being able to answer, the lad could not even comprehend any questions +put to him. It therefore discouraged all attempts to obtain any +information in that way, and ended with the advice, that, according to +his desire, he should be made a dragoon, as his father had been before +him. Inclosed in this letter was a note, professedly by the mother, and +pretending to have been left with him, when, as an infant, Caspar Hauser +was first cast upon the world, but, in reality, as it was afterwards +proved, written by the same person. This note gave the date of his +birth, pleaded the poverty of the mother as an excuse for thus +abandoning her child, and contained the same request as to his joining a +cavalry regiment when he should arrive at the age of seventeen. + +The first impression produced by Caspar's appearance and behavior was, +that he was some idiot or lunatic escaped from confinement; it remained +only to be shown whence he had escaped. In the mean time he was placed +under the protection of the police, who removed him to their guard-room. +There he showed no consciousness of what was going on around him; his +look was a dull, brutish stare; nor did he give any indication of +intelligence, until pen and paper were placed in his hand, when he wrote +clearly and repeatedly, "Kaspar Hauser." Since then he has been known by +that name. + +When it became evident that the first conjectures concerning him were +wrong, strenuous efforts were made by the police to sound the mystery, +but without the slightest success. He himself could give no clue; for he +neither understood what others said nor could make himself understood. +With the exception of some six words, the sounds Caspar uttered were +entirely meaningless. He recognized none of the places where he had +been, no trace could be obtained of him elsewhere, and the most vigilant +search brought nothing to light. The surprise which his first appearance +produced increased as he became better known. It then became more and +more evident that he was neither an idiot nor a lunatic; at the same +time his manners were so peculiar, and his ignorance of civilized life +and his dislike for its customs so great, that all sorts of conjectures +were resorted to in order to explain the mystery. + +It was ascertained that he must have been incarcerated in some dungeon, +entirely shut out from the light of the sun, which gave him great pain. +The structure of his body, the tenderness of his feet, and the great +difficulty and suffering which he experienced in walking, indicated +beyond a doubt that he had been kept in a sitting posture, with his legs +stretched straight out before him. His sustenance had been bread and +water; for he not only evinced great repugnance to any other food, but +the smallest quantity affected his constitution in the most violent +manner. It was also evident that he had never come in contact with human +beings, beyond what was necessary for supplying his immediate wants, +and, strange to say, teaching him to write. + +That these inferences were well-founded was proved by the subsequent +disclosures of Caspar himself, after he had acquired a sufficient +command of language. The account he then gave was as follows. + +"He neither knows who he is nor where his home is. It was only at +Nuremberg that he came into the world. Here he first learned, that, +besides himself and 'the man with whom he had always been,' there +existed other men and other creatures. As long as he can recollect, he +had always lived in a hole, (a small, low apartment, which he sometimes +calls a cage,) where he had always sat upon the ground, with bare feet, +and clothed only with a shirt and a pair of breeches. In his apartment, +he never heard a sound, whether produced by a man, by an animal, or by +anything else. He never saw the heavens, nor did there ever appear a +brightening (daylight) such as at Nuremberg, he never perceived any +difference between day and night, and much less did he ever get a sight +of the beautiful lights in the heavens. Whenever he awoke from sleep, he +found a loaf of bread and a pitcher of water by him. Sometimes his water +had a bad taste; whenever this was the case, he could no longer keep +his eyes open, but was compelled to fall asleep; and when he afterwards +awoke, he found that he had a clean shirt on, and that his nails had +been cut.[C] + +[Footnote C: When he resided with Professor Daumer, a drop of opium in a +glass of water was administered to him. After swallowing a mouthful, he +exclaimed, "That water is nasty; it tastes exactly like the water I was +sometimes obliged to drink in my cage."] + +"He never saw the face of the man who brought him his meat and drink. In +his hole he had two wooden horses and several ribbons. With these horses +he had always amused himself as long as he was awake; and his only +occupation was, to make them run by his side, and to arrange the ribbons +about them in different positions. Thus one day had passed the same as +another; but he had never felt the want of anything, had never been +sick, and--once only excepted--had never felt the sensation of pain. +Upon the whole, he had been much happier there than in the world, where +he was obliged to suffer so much. How long he had continued to live in +this situation he knew not; for he had had no knowledge of time. He +knew not when or how he came there. Nor had he any recollection of ever +having been in a different situation, or in any other than in that +place. The man with whom he had always been never did him any harm. Yet +one day, shortly before he was taken away, when he had been running his +horse too hard, and had made too much noise, the man came and struck +him upon his arm with a stick, or with a piece of wood; this caused the +wound which he brought with him to Nuremberg. + +"Pretty nearly about the same time, the man once came into his prison, +placed a small table over his feet, and spread something white upon it, +which he now knows to have been paper; he then came behind him, so as +not to be seen by him, took hold of his hand, and moved it backwards and +forwards on the paper, with a thing (a lead pencil) which he had stuck +between his fingers. He (Hauser) was then ignorant of what it was; but +he was mightily pleased, when he saw the black figures which began to +appear upon the white paper. When he felt that his hand was free, +and the man was gone from him, he was so much pleased with this new +discovery, that he could never grow tired of drawing these figures +repeatedly upon the paper. This occupation almost made him neglect his +horses, although he did not know what those characters signified. The +man repeated his visits in the same manner several times. + +"Another time the man came, lifted him from the place where he lay, +placed him on his feet, and endeavored to teach him to stand. This he +repeated at several different times. The manner in which he effected +this was the following: he seized him firmly around the breast, from +behind, placed his feet behind Caspar's feet, and lifted these, as in +stepping forward. + +"Finally, the man appeared once again, placed Caspar's hands over his +shoulders, tied them fast, and thus carried him on his back out of the +prison. He was carried up (or down) a hill. He knows not how he felt; +all became night, and he was laid upon his back."--By the expression, +"all became night," he meant that he fainted away. The little which +Caspar was able to relate in regard to his journey is not of any +particular interest, and we omit it here. + +This is all that is known with any certainty of the early life of this +unfortunate being. The conjectures to which it has given rise will be +considered later. Let us first finish his history. + +As was to be expected, Caspar Hauser's faculties developed very +gradually. His mind was in a torpor, and, placed suddenly amid, to +him, most exciting scenes, it was long before he could understand the +simplest phenomena of Nature. The unfolding of his mind was exactly like +that of a child. Feuerbach, in his book on Caspar Hauser, gives the main +features of this gradual development. We can only pick out a few. + +It is remarkable that in the same proportion as he advanced in knowledge +and acquaintance with civilized life, the intensity of all his faculties +diminished. It was so with his memory. He was at first able to exhibit +most surprising feats. As an experiment, thirty, forty, and, on one +occasion, forty-five names of persons were mentioned to him, which he +afterwards repeated with all their titles,--to him, of course, entirely +meaningless. So, too, with his power of sight. At first, he was able to +see in the dark perfectly well, and much better than in the light of the +sun, which was very painful to him. He very frequently amused himself +at others groping in the dark, when he experienced not the slightest +difficulty. On one occasion, in the evening, he read the name on a +door-plate at the distance of one hundred and eighty paces. This +keenness of vision did not, however, retain its entire vigor, but +decreased as he became more accustomed to the sun. For some time after +he made his appearance he had no idea of perspective, but would clutch +like a child at objects far off. Nor had he any conception of the +beauties of Nature, which he afterwards explained by saying that it then +appeared to him like a mass of colors jumbled together. Nothing was +beautiful, unless it was red, except a starry heaven,--and the emotion +which he felt, on first beholding this, was truly touching. Until then, +he had invariably spoken of "the man with whom he had always been" with +feelings of affection; he longed to return to him, and looked upon all +his studies as merely a temporary thing; some day he would go back and +show the man how much he had learned. But when he first looked upon the +heavens, his tone became entirely changed, and he denounced the man +severely for never having shown him such beautiful things. + +All his senses were thus at first wonderfully keen. It was so with his +hearing and smell. The latter was the source of most of his sufferings; +for, being so exceedingly sensitive, even the most scentless things made +him sick. He liked but one smell, that of bread, which had been his only +food for seventeen years. It was a long time, indeed, before he could +take any other food at all, and he only became accustomed to it very +gradually. + +The effect produced upon Caspar Hauser by contact with or proximity to +animals was also very curious. He was able to detect their presence +under singularly unfavorable circumstances. Metals, too, had a very +powerful effect upon him, and possessed for him a strong magnetic power. +But it is impossible to give all the details, however interesting; for +them we must refer to Feuerbach. + +His mind, as has been already said, was at first sunk in almost +impenetrable darkness. He knew of but two divisions of earthly +things,--man and beast, "_bua_" and "_ross_." The former was a word +of his own. The latter, which is the German for _horse_, included +everything not human, whether animate or inanimate. Between these he for +a long time saw no difference. He could not understand why pictures and +statues did not move, and he regarded his toy-horses as living things. +To inanimate things impelled by foreign forces he ascribed volition. + +Religion he, of course, had none. He possessed naturally a very amiable +character, and his thoughts and conduct were as pure as though guided by +the soundest system of morality. But he knew nothing of a God, and one +of the greatest difficulties Daumer had to encounter was instructing +him on this point. His untutored mind could not master the doctrines of +theology, and he was constantly puzzled by questions which he himself +suggested, and which his instructor often found it impossible to answer +satisfactorily. + +Physically he was very weak. The shortest walk would fatigue him. +At first he could scarcely shuffle along at all, on account of the +tenderness of his feet, and because his body had always been kept in +one position. He so far overcame this, however, as to be able to walk a +little, though always with an effort. But on horseback he never became +tired. From the first time that he mounted a horse, he showed a love +for the exercise, and a power of endurance utterly at variance with all +other exhibitions of his strength; and he very soon acquired a degree +of skill which made him an object of envy to all the cavalry-officers +stationed in the neighborhood. So inconsistent and incomprehensible was +everything about Caspar Hauser! + +In October, 1829, while residing in the family of Professor Daumer, an +attempt was made upon his life, which was only so far successful as to +give a very violent shock to his delicate constitution. The perpetrator +of the crime was never discovered. Caspar was afterwards adopted by the +Earl of Stanhope, and by him removed to Anspach. Feuerbach gives a very +interesting description of him, as he appeared at this time. + +"In understanding a man, in knowledge a little child, and in many things +more ignorant than a child, the whole of his language and demeanor shows +often a strangely contrasted mingling of manly and childish behavior. +With a serious countenance and in a tone of great importance, he often +utters things which, coming from any other person of the same age, would +be called stupid or silly, but which, coming from him, always force upon +us a sad, compassionate smile. It is particularly farcical to hear him +speak of the future plans of his life,--of the manner in which, after +having learned a great deal and earned money, he intends to settle +himself with his wife, whom he considers as an indispensable part of +domestic furniture." + +"Mild and gentle, without vicious inclinations, and without passions and +strong emotions, his quiet mind resembles the smooth mirror of a lake +in the stillness of a moonlight night. Incapable of hurting an animal, +compassionate even to the worm, which he is afraid to tread upon, timid +even to cowardice, he will nevertheless act regardless of consequences, +and even without forbearance, according to his own convictions, whenever +it becomes necessary to defend or to execute purposes which he has once +perceived and acknowledged to be right. If he feels himself annoyed in +any manner, he will long bear it patiently, and will try to get out of +the way of the person who is thus troublesome to him, or will endeavor +to effect a change in his conduct by mild expostulations; but, finally, +if he cannot help himself in any other manner, as soon as an opportunity +of doing so offers, he will very quietly slip off the bonds that confine +him,--yet without bearing the least malice against him who may have +injured him. He is obedient, obliging, and yielding; but the man who +accuses him wrongfully, or asserts to be true what he believes to be +untrue, need not expect, that, from mere complaisance, or from other +considerations, he will submit to injustice or to falsehood; he will +always modestly, but firmly, insist upon his right; or perhaps, if the +other seems inclined obstinately to maintain his ground against him, he +will silently leave him." + +But the fate which had been pursuing this unfortunate being, and without +which the tragedy of his life would have been incomplete, overtook him +at last. On the 15th of December, 1833, he was induced by some unknown +person to meet him in a retired spot in the city of Anspach, under the +pretence that he should then have the secret of his parentage revealed +to him. The real object was his murder, and this time it was successful. +Caspar was stabbed to the heart. He still had sufficient strength left +to walk about a thousand paces; and, indeed, the wound was outwardly so +insignificant, that it was at first believed to be a mere scratch. This +strengthened an opinion which was then gradually gaining ground, that +Caspar was an impostor; for it was firmly believed by some that he had +inflicted this wound upon himself, as well as the one received in 1829, +in order to quicken the somewhat languishing interest taken in him. Nor +did they give up this opinion when the wound was found to be fatal. They +then boldly asserted that he had wounded himself more severely than +he had intended. And not content with simply maintaining this absurd +opinion, they taunted him with it on his death-bed, so that he was not +even allowed to die in peace. Nothing was wanting to fill his bitter +cup. How terrible must have been the mental torture to wring from +so resigned a soul the exclamation, "O God! O God! to die thus with +contumely and disgrace!" The German is still more expressive,--_"Ach, +Gott! ach, Gott! so abkratzen müssen mit Schimpf und Schande!"_ + +Such was the life of Caspar Hauser. For nearly seventeen years the +inmate of a dreary prison, shut out from the light, without a single +companion in his misery, drugged when it was necessary to change his +linen, with no food but bread,--for seventeen years did he thus exist, +--his mind a perfect blank. Suddenly cast upon the world, amid strange +beings whom he could not understand and by whom he was not understood, +he long knew scarcely a sensation save that of pain. And when at last +he did become accustomed to civilized life, and the darkness which +enshrouded him disappeared before the rays of light that found entrance +into his intellect, it was only to awake to a knowledge of the utter +misery of his position. He then saw himself a helpless orphan, the +inferior of all with whom he came in contact, and a dependant upon the +charity of others for his support. He awoke to find that he had lost +seventeen years of this beautiful life, seventeen years which he never +could recall,--that he never could take his stand amongst men as their +equal, but would always be regarded as an unhappy being meriting their +pity,--much like that felt for the pains of some suffering brute. Nor +was this all. During the few years that were granted him in our +world, persecuted by some unknown person, against whom he was +helpless,--knowing that his life was aimed at by some one, but unable +to protect himself, and at last falling a victim to the threatened +blow,--and, worst of all, charged on his death-bed with being an +impostor,--such was the life of Caspar Hauser! + +Among the different opinions which have existed in regard to his origin, +the most noticeable are those advanced by Stanhope and Merker, and by +Daumer, Eschricht, and Feuerbach. The Earl of Stanhope's connection +with Caspar Hauser was a rather peculiar one. He made his appearance in +Nuremberg at the time the first attempt was made upon Caspar's life, +but took no particular notice of him, and left without having shown +any interest in him. On a second visit, about seven months later, he +suddenly became passionately attached to Caspar, showed most unusual +marks of fondness for him, and finally adopted him. He then removed him +to Anspach, and remained his protector until his death in December, +1833. The day after his burial, Stanhope appeared in Anspach, and took +particular pains to proclaim then, and subsequently at a judicial +investigation in Munich, and in several tracts, his belief that Caspar +was an impostor. This had already been maintained by Merker, the +Prussian Counsellor of Police. The theory which Stanhope now advanced +was, that Caspar was a journeyman tailor or glover, from some small +village on the Austrian side of the river Salzach. The reasons which he +assigns for his belief in the imposture are all derived from Caspar's +supposed want of integrity and veracity. They impeach the character of +Caspar living, and not of Caspar dead. Why, then, did Stanhope wait for +his death before he proclaimed the imposture? Why did he remain his +protector, and thus make himself a party to the fraud? His conduct is +not easily explained. On the other hand, there is little ground for +Daumer's conclusions. These are given at length in his "Disclosures +concerning Caspar Hauser," published in 1859, a book called forth by +attacks made upon him by Eschricht. Considering Stanhope's conduct, and +his endeavor after Caspar's death to induce Daumer to support his views +as to the imposture, and, upon his indignant refusal, making him twice +the object of a personal attack, Daumer thinks that there is reason to +believe Stanhope personally interested. He thinks that Caspar was the +legitimate heir to some great English estate and title, that he was +removed in order to make way for some one else, and that his murder was +intrusted to some person who had not the courage or the wickedness +to perpetrate it, but removed him first to Hungary and afterwards to +Germany, and supported him in the manner indicated, hoping that he would +not long survive. When, however, he grew up, his support became irksome +and he was cast upon the world. There he attracted so much attention, +that the instigator of the crime, dreading a disclosure, sought his +life again. When this proved unsuccessful, he was removed to Anspach; +Feuerbach, who had shown the greatest determination to sound the +mystery, was removed from the world, and at last the tragedy was made +complete in Caspar's own death. All this points to Stanhope. And yet +Daumer has not taken the trouble to inquire whether it agrees with the +family history. It is possible that he may be right; but his story +carries with it so much the air of improbability, that we cannot give it +credit without further proof. + +In the seventh volume of Hitzig's "Annals of Criminal Jurisprudence," +there is a communication from Lieutenant von Pirch, disclosing Caspar's +acquaintance with certain Hungarian words. A little while before this +announcement was made, a story had gone the rounds of the papers of +Germany, that a governess residing in Pesth had fainted away, when the +account of Caspar Hauser's appearance was related to her. All this +naturally attracted attention to Hungary as the probable place of his +birth; and it is for these reasons, that Feuerbach, Daumer, and others, +suppose that he spent some part of his childhood in that country. After +his death, Stanhope sent Lieutenant Hickel to Hungary to investigate the +matter, but no traces were discovered,--a proof, as Stanhope has it, +that these conclusions were groundless, and, according to Daumer, +another proof of Stanhope's complicity. He believes that the very +superficial search made by the order of Stanhope was intended to lull +suspicion and prevent a more strict search being made. + +To return to the opinion advanced by Merker, and subsequently adopted by +Stanhope,--the thing is simply impossible. In the first place, it would +have been impossible for an impostor to elude discovery. To trace him +would have been the easiest thing in the world. With a vigilant police, +in a thickly settled country, how could a man leave his place of abode, +and travel, were it for ever so short a distance, without being known? +But this is the least consideration. Caspar's whole life, his intellect, +his body, the feats which he accomplished, when submitted to the most +searching tests, were a refutation of the charge. But when it is +added that he wounded himself in order to do away with suspicion, the +accusation becomes so absurd as scarcely to merit refutation. It is +answered by the fact, that it was proved, from the nature of the +wounds, in both cases, that self-infliction was impossible. Nor is it +conceivable that any one should have been able so long to deceive +people who were constantly with him and always on the alert. And it is +remarkable that they who saw most of Caspar, and knew him best, were +most firmly convinced of his integrity,--whilst his traducers were, +almost without an exception, men who had never known him intimately. +Feuerbach, Daumer, Binder, Meier, Fuhrmann, and many others, maintain +his honesty in the strongest terms. + +On the other hand, it is said, that it is equally impossible for a +person to have been kept in any community in the manner in which it is +asserted that he was kept; discovery was inevitable. But it must be +remembered that this instance does not stand alone. If search were made, +many cases of the same kind might be collected. It is by no means so +rare an occurrence for persons to be kept secluded in such a manner as +to conceal their existence from the world. Daumer mentions two similar +cases which happened about the same time. The very year that Caspar +Hauser appeared, the son of a lawyer, named Fleischmann, just deceased, +was discovered in a retired chamber of the house. He was thirty-eight +years old, and had been confined there since his twelfth year. The other +case, also mentioned by Feuerbach, was still more distressing. Dr. Horn +saw, in the infirmary at Salzburg, a girl, twenty-two years of age, who +had been brought up in a pig-sty. One of her legs was quite crooked, +from her having sat with them crossed; she grunted like a hog; and her +actions were "brutishly unseemly in human dress." Daumer also relates a +third case, which was made the subject of a romantic story published in +a Nuremberg paper, but which, he says, lacks confirmation. It was the +discovery, in a secret place, of the grown-up son of a clergyman by his +housekeeper. Whether this be true or not, both Feuerbach and Daumer +believe that many similar instances do exist, which never come to light. +It is not impossible, therefore, that Caspar Hauser was confined in a +cellar to which none but his keeper sought entrance. Who would suspect +the existence of a human being, taught to be perfectly submissive and +quiet and to have no wants, in such a place, when even the existence +of the subterranean, prison itself was probably unknown? The cases +mentioned above were certainly more singular in this respect. + +But Eschricht's opinion is the most peculiar of all. In his "Unverstand +mid schlechte Erziehung," he maintains that Caspar was an idiot until +he was brought to Nuremberg, that his mind was then strengthened and +developed, and that he was then transformed from an idiot into an +impostor. This is still more impossible than Stanhope's theory; for in +this case Daumer, Feuerbach, Hiltel the jailer, Binder the mayor, and +indeed all Caspar's earliest friends, instead of being victims of an +imposture, are made partakers in the fraud. No one acquainted with the +irreproachable character of these men could entertain the idea for a +minute; and when we remember that it was not one, but many, who must +have been parties to it, it becomes doubly impossible. + +We come now to consider the opinion of Feuerbach; and we shall do it the +more carefully, because in it, we feel confident, lies the true solution +of the question. He was at the time President of the Court of Appeal of +the Circle of Rezat. He had risen to this honorable position gradually, +and it was the reward of his distinguished merit alone. His works on +criminal jurisprudence, and the penal code which he drew up for the +kingdom of Bavaria, and which was adopted by other states, had placed +him in the first rank of criminal lawyers. It was he who conducted +the first judicial investigations concerning Caspar Hauser. He was, +therefore, intimately acquainted with all the circumstances of the case, +and had ample opportunity to form a deliberate opinion. How the idea +originated, that Caspar Hauser belonged to the House of Baden, it is +difficult to say. Feuerbach never published it to the world. In his book +on Caspar Hauser he makes no mention of it; but in 1832 he addressed a +paper to Queen Caroline of Bavaria, headed, "Who might Caspar Hauser +be?" in which he endeavors to show that he was the son of the +Grand-Duchess Stephanie. This paper was, we believe, first published +in 1852, in his "Life and Works," by his son.[D] The first part of it +treats of Caspar's rank and position in general, and he comes to the +following conclusions. Caspar was a legitimate child. Had he been +illegitimate, less dangerous and far easier means would have been +resorted to for concealing his existence and suppressing a knowledge +of his parentage. And here we may add, that the supposition has never +prevailed that he was the offspring of a criminal connection, and that +these means were taken for suppressing the mother's disgrace. A note +which Caspar brought with him, when he appeared at Nuremberg, indicated +that such was the case, but it was so evidently a piece of deception +that it never obtained much credit. The second conclusion at which +Feuerbach arrives is, that people were implicated who had command of +great and unusual means,--means which could prompt an attempt at murder +in a crowded city and in the open day, and which could over-bribe all +rewards offered for a disclosure. Third, Caspar was a person on whose +life or death great interests depended, else there would not have been +such care to conceal his existence. Interest, and not revenge or hate, +was the motive. He must have been a person of high rank. To prove this, +Feuerbach refers to dreams of Caspar's. On one occasion, particularly, +he dreamt that he was conducted through a large castle, the appearance +of which he imagined that he recognized, and afterwards minutely +described. This Feuerbach thinks was only the awakening of past +recollections. It would be interesting to know whether any palace +corresponding to the description given exists. In the absence of such +knowledge, this point of Feuerbach's argument appears a rather weak one. +From the above propositions he concludes that Caspar was the legitimate +child of princely parents, who was removed in order to open the +succession to others, in whose way he stood. + +[Footnote D: ANSELM RITTER VON FEUERBACH'S _Leben und Wirken, aus +seinen ausgedruckten Briefen, Tagebüchern, Vorträgen und Denkschriften, +veröffentlicht von seinem Sohne_, LUDWIG FEUERBACH. Leipzig, 1852.] + +The second division of the paper relates to the imprisonment, and +here he takes a ground entirely opposed to the opinions of others. He +believes that he was thus kept as a protection against some greater +evil. His wants were supplied, he was well taken care of, and his keeper +is therefore to be looked upon as his protector. Daumer sees in the +keeper nothing but a hired murderer, whose courage or whose wickedness +failed him. It is certainly difficult to imagine a kind friend immuring +one in a dark subterranean vault, feeding one on bread, excluding light, +fellowship, amusement, thoughts,--never saying a word, but studiously +allowing one's mind to become a dreary waste. It is a friendship to +which most of us would prefer death. We are therefore inclined to +think that Daumer is here in the right. But whatever the nature of his +imprisonment, the principal argument does not lose its force. + +In the third place, Feuerbach speaks of the family to which Caspar must +have belonged. Just about the time of Caspar's birth, the eldest son of +the Grand-Duchess of Baden died an infant. His death was followed in +a few years by that of his only brother, leaving several sisters, who +could not inherit the duchy. By these deaths the old House of the +Zähringer became extinct, and the offspring of a morganatic marriage +became the heirs to the throne. It was, therefore, for their interest +that the other branch should die out. In addition to this, the mother +of the new house was a woman of unbounded ambition and determined +character, and had a bitter hatred for the Grand-Duchess. Without laying +too much stress, then, upon the nearness in date of the elder child's +death and Caspar's birth, as given in the letter, there is reason to +suppose that they were the same person. There was every feeling of +interest to prompt the deed, there was the opportunity of sickness to +accomplish it in, and there was an unscrupulous woman to take advantage +of it. Is it, then, impossible that she, having command of the +house-hold, should have been able to substitute a dead for the living +child? Accept the proposition, and the mystery is solved; reject it, and +we are still groping in the dark. Nevertheless, there are circumstances +which, even then, are incapable of explanation; but it is the most +satisfactory theory, and certainly has less objections than the others. +Feuerbach came to this conclusion early; for his paper addressed to +Queen Caroline of Bavaria was written in 1832, the year before Caspar's +death. Delicacy forbade the open discussion of the question; but, even +at the time, this theory found many supporters. Some even went so far +as to say that Feuerbach's sudden death the same year was owing to the +indefatigable zeal with which he was ferreting out the mystery. + +Of all the different explanations, then, which have been given, that of +Feuerbach seems to be the most satisfactory. At the same time, like the +rest, it is founded on conjecture. Its truth may never be proved. They +whose interest it was to suppress the matter thirty years ago, and who +resorted to such extreme measures in doing so, no doubt took ample +precaution that every trace should be erased. It is barely possible that +some confession or the discovery of some paper may cast light upon the +subject; but the length of time which has elapsed renders it exceedingly +improbable, and the mystery of Caspar Hauser, like the mysteries of the +Iron Mask and Junius, will always remain a fruitful source of conjecture +only. + +It may not be uninteresting to close this sketch with the consideration +of a point of law raised by Feuerbach in connection with the subject. It +will be recollected that he calls his book "Caspar Hauser. An Example +of a Crime against the Life of Man's Soul." The crime committed against +Caspar Hauser was, according to the Bavarian code, twofold. There was +the crime of _illegal imprisonment_, and the crime of _exposure_. And +here Feuerbach advances the doctrine, that it was not only the actual +confinement which amounted to illegal imprisonment, but that "we must +incontestably, and, indeed, principally, regard as such the cruel +withholding from him of the most ordinary gifts which Nature with a +liberal hand extends even to the most indigent,--the depriving him +of all the means of mental development and culture,--the unnatural +detention of a human soul in a state of irrational animality." "An +attempt," he says, "by artificial contrivances, to seclude a man from +Nature and from all intercourse with rational beings, to change +the course of his human destiny, and to withdraw from him all the +nourishment afforded by those spiritual substances which Nature has +appointed for food to the human mind, that it may grow and flourish, +and be instructed and developed and formed,--such an attempt must, even +quite independently of its actual consequences, be considered as, +in itself, a highly criminal invasion of man's most sacred and most +peculiar property,--of the freedom and the destiny of his soul. +...Inasmuch as the whole earlier part of his life was thus taken from +him, he may be said to have been the subject of a partial soul-murder." +This crime, if recognized, would, according to Feuerbach, far outweigh +the mere crime of illegal imprisonment, and the latter would be merged +in it. + +Tittmann, in his "Hand-Book of Penal Law," also speaks of crimes against +the intellect, and particularly mentions the separation of a person from +all human society, if practised upon a child before it has learned to +speak and until the intellect Las become sealed up, as well as the +intentional rearing of a person to ignorance, as reducible to this head. +This was written before Caspar's case had occurred. He says, also, that +they are similar to cases of homicide; because the latter are punished +for destroying the rational being, and not the physical man. Murder and +the destruction of the intellect are, therefore, equally punishable. The +one merits the punishment of death as well as the other. Nor are we to +take the possibility of a cure into consideration, any more than we do +the possibility of extinguishing a fire. But where the law does not +prescribe the punishment of death irrespectively of the possibility of +recovery, the punishment would rarely exceed ten years in the House of +Correction. We must understand Tittmann's remarks, however, to refer +entirely to the law of Saxony,--that being the government under which he +lived, and the only one in whose criminal code this crime is recognized. + +Feuerbach wished to have this murder of the soul inserted in the +criminal code of Bavaria as a punishable crime; but he was unsuccessful, +and the whole doctrine has subsequently been condemned. Mittermaier, in +a note to his edition of Feuerbach's "Text-Book of German Criminal Law," +denies that there is any foundation for the distinction taken by him and +Tittmann. He says, that, in the first place, it has not such an actual +existence as is capable of proof; and, secondly, all crimes under it +can easily be reached by some other law. The last objection does not, +however, seem to be a very serious one. If, as Feuerbach says, the +crime against the soul is more heinous than that against the body, it +certainly deserves the first attention, even if the one is not merged in +the other. The crime being greater, the punishment would be greater; +and the demands of justice would no more be satisfied by the milder +punishment than if a murderer were prosecuted as a nuisance. The fact, +therefore, that the crime is reducible to some different head, is not an +objection. We meet with the most serious difficulty when we consider the +possibility of proof. Taking it for granted that the crime does exist in +the abstract, the only question is, whether it is of such a nature that +it would be expedient for government to take cognizance of it. The soul +being in its nature so far beyond the reach of man, and the difficulty +of ever proving the effect of human actions upon it, would seem to +indicate that it were better to allow a few exceptional cases to pass +unnoticed than to involve the criminal courts in endless and fruitless +inquiry. Upon the ground of expediency only should the crime go +unnoticed, and not because it can be reached in some other way. For +proof that it does exist, we can point to nothing more convincing than +the life of Caspar Hauser itself. No one can doubt that his soul was the +victim of a crime, for which the perpetrator, untouched by human laws, +stands accused before the throne of God. + + * * * * * + + +PAMPENEA. + +AN IDYL. + + + Lying by the summer sea, + I had a dream of Italy. + + Chalky cliffs and miles of sand, + Ragged reefs and salty caves, + And the sparkling emerald waves + Faded; and I seemed to stand, + Myself a languid Florentine, + In the heart of that fair land. + And in a garden cool and green, + Boccaccio's own enchanted place, + I met Pampenea face to face,-- + A maid so lovely that to see + Her smile is to know Italy. + + Her hair was like a coronet + Upon her Grecian forehead set, + Where one gem glistened sunnily, + Like Venice, when first seen at sea. + I saw within her violet eyes + The starlight of Italian skies, + And on her brow and breast and hand + The olive of her native land. + + And knowing how, in other times, + Her lips were ripe with Tuscan rhymes + Of love and wine and dance, I spread + My mantle by an almond-tree: + "And here, beneath the rose," I said, + "I'll hear thy Tuscan melody!" + + I heard a tale that was not told + In those ten dreamy days of old, + When Heaven, for some divine offence, + Smote Florence with the pestilence, + And in that garden's odorous shade + The dames of the Decameron, + With each a happy lover, strayed, + To laugh and sing, at sorest need, + To lie in the lilies, in the sun, + With glint of plume and golden brede. + + And while she whispered in my ear, + The pleasant Arno murmured near, + The dewy, slim chameleons run + Through twenty colors in the sun, + The breezes broke the fountain's glass, + And woke Aeolian melodies, + And shook from out the scented trees + The bleachèd lemon-blossoms on the grass. + + The tale? I have forgot the tale!-- + A Lady all for love forlorn; + A Rosebud, and a Nightingale + That bruised his bosom on a thorn; + A pot of rubies buried deep; + A glen, a corpse, a child asleep; + A Monk, that was no monk at all, + I' the moonlight by a castle-wall;-- + Kaleidoscopic hints, to be + Worked up in farce or tragedy. + + Now while the sweet-eyed Tuscan wove + The gilded thread of her romance, + (Which I have lost by grievous chance,) + The one dear woman that I love, + Beside me in our seaside nook, + Closed a white finger in her book, + Half-vexed that she should read, and weep + For Petrarch, to a man asleep. + And scorning me, so tame and cold, + She rose, and wandered down the shore, + Her wine-dark drapery, fold in fold, + Imprisoned by an ivory hand; + And on a ridge of granite, half in sand, + She stood, and looked at Appledore. + + And waking, I beheld her there + Sea-dreaming in the moted air, + A Siren sweet and debonair, + With wristlets woven of colored weeds, + And oblong lucent amber beads + Of sea-kelp shining in her hair. + And as I mused on dreams, and how + The something in us never sleeps, + But laughs or sings or moans or weeps, + She turned,--and on her breast and brow + I saw the tint that seemed not won + From kisses of New England sun; + I saw on brow and breast and hand + The olive of a sunnier land! + She turned,--and lo! within her eyes + The starlight of Italian skies! + + Most dreams are dark, beyond the range + Of reason; oft we cannot tell + If they be born of heaven or hell; + But to my soul it seems not strange, + That, lying by the summer sea, + With that dark woman watching me, + I slept, and dreamed of Italy! + + + + +THE PROFESSOR'S STORY. + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +THE PERILOUS HOUR. + + +Up to this time Dick Venner had not decided on the particular mode +and the precise period of relieving himself from the unwarrantable +interference which threatened to defeat his plans. The luxury of feeling +that he had his man in his power was its own reward. One who watches +in the dark, outside, while his enemy, in utter unconsciousness, is +illuminating his apartment and himself so that every movement of his +head and every button on his coat can be seen and counted, especially +if he holds a loaded rifle in his hand, experiences a peculiar kind of +pleasure, which he naturally hates to bring to its climax by testing his +skill as a marksman upon the object of his attention. + +Besides, Dick had two sides in his nature, almost as distinct as we +sometimes observe in those persons who are the subjects of the condition +known as _double consciousness_. On his New England side he was cunning +and calculating, always cautious, measuring his distance before he +risked his stroke, as nicely as if he were throwing his lasso. But +he was liable to intercurrent fits of jealousy and rage, such as the +light-hued races are hardly capable of conceiving,--blinding paroxysms +of passion, which for the time overmastered him, and which, if they +found no ready outlet, transformed themselves into the more dangerous +forces that worked through the instrumentality of his cool craftiness. + +He had failed as yet in getting any positive evidence that there was any +relation between Elsie and the schoolmaster other than such as might +exist unsuspected and unblamed between a teacher and his pupil. A book, +or a note, even, did not prove the existence of any sentiment. At one +time he would be devoured by suspicions, at another he would try to +laugh himself out of them. And in the mean while he followed Elsie's +tastes as closely as he could, determined to make some impression upon +her,--to become a habit, a convenience, a necessity,--whatever might aid +him in the attainment of the one end which was now the aim of his life. + +It was to humor one of her tastes already known to the reader, that he +said to her one morning,--"Come, Elsie, take your castanets, and let us +have a dance." + +He had struck the right vein in the girl's fancy, for she was in the +mood for this exercise, and very willingly led the way into one of the +more empty apartments. What there was in this particular kind of dance +which excited her it might not be easy to guess; but those who looked in +with the old Doctor, on a former occasion, and saw her, will remember +that she was strangely carried away by it, and became almost fearful in +the vehemence of her passion. The sound of the castanets seemed to make +her alive all over. Dick knew well enough what the exhibition would +be, and was almost afraid of her at these moments; for it was like +the dancing mania of Eastern devotees, more than the ordinary light +amusement of joyous youth,--a convulsion of the body and the mind, +rather than a series of voluntary modulated motions. + +Elsie rattled out the triple measure of a saraband. Her eyes began to +glitter more brilliantly, and her shape to undulate in freer curves. +Presently she noticed that Dick's look was fixed upon her necklace. His +face betrayed his curiosity; he was intent on solving the question, why +she always wore something about her neck. The chain of mosaics she had +on at that moment displaced itself at every step, and he was peering +with malignant, searching eagerness to see if an unsunned ring of +fairer hue than the rest of the surface, or any less easily explained +peculiarity, were hidden by her ornaments. + +She stopped suddenly, caught the chain of mosaics and settled it hastily +in its place, flung down her castanets, drew herself back, and stood +looking at him, with her head a little on one side, and her eyes +narrowing in the way he had known so long and well. + +"What is the matter, Cousin Elsie? What do you stop for?" he said. + +Elsie did not answer, but kept her eyes on him, full of malicious light. +The jealousy which lay covered up under his surface--thoughts took this +opportunity to break out. + +"You wouldn't act so, if you were dancing with Mr. Langdon,--would you, +Elsie?" he asked. + +It was with some effort that he looked steadily at her to see the effect +of his question. + +Elsie _colored_,--not much, but still perceptibly. Dick could not +remember that he had ever seen her show this mark of emotion before, +in all his experience of her fitful changes of mood. It had a singular +depth of significance, therefore, for him; he knew how hardly her color +came. Blushing means nothing, in some persons; in others, it betrays +a profound inward agitation,--a perturbation of the feelings far more +trying than the passions which with many easily moved persons break +forth in tears. All who have observed much are aware that some men, who +have seen a good deal of life in its less chastened aspects and are +anything but modest, will blush often and easily, while there are +delicate and sensitive women who can turn pale, or go into fits, if +necessary, but are very rarely seen to betray their feelings in their +cheeks, even when their expression shows that their inmost soul is +blushing scarlet. + +Presently she answered, abruptly and scornfully,-- + +"Mr. Langdon is a gentleman, and would not vex me as you do." + +"A gentleman!" Dick answered, with the most insulting accent,--"a +gentleman! Come, Elsie, you've got the Dudley blood in your veins, +and it doesn't do for you to call this poor, sneaking schoolmaster a +gentleman!" + +He stopped short. Elsie's bosom was heaving, the faint flush on her +cheek was becoming a vivid glow. Whether it were shame or wrath, he saw +that he had reached some deep-lying centre of emotion. There was no +longer any doubt in his mind. With another girl these signs of confusion +might mean little or nothing; with her they were decisive and final. +Elsie Venner loved Bernard Langdon. + +The sudden conviction, absolute, overwhelming, which rushed upon him, +had wellnigh led to an explosion of wrath, and perhaps some terrible +scene which might have fulfilled some of Old Sophy's predictions. This, +however, would never do. Dick's face whitened with his thoughts, but he +kept still until he could speak calmly. + +"I've nothing against the young fellow," he said; "only I don't think +there's anything quite good enough to keep the company of people that +have the Dudley blood in them. You a'n't as proud as I am. I can't quite +make up my mind to call a schoolmaster a gentleman, though this one may +be well enough. I've nothing against him, at any rate." + +Elsie made no answer, but glided out of the room and slid away to her +own apartment. She bolted the door and drew her curtains close. Then she +threw herself on the floor, and fell into a dull, slow ache of passion, +without tears, without words, almost without thoughts. So she remained, +perhaps, for a half-hour, at the end of which time it seemed that her +passion had become a sullen purpose. She arose, and, looking cautiously +round, went to the hearth, which was ornamented with curious old Dutch +tiles, with pictures of Scripture subjects. One of these represented +the lifting of the brazen serpent. She took a hair-pin from one of her +braids, and, insinuating its points under the edge of the tile, raised +it from its place. A small leaden box lay under the tile, which she +opened, and, taking from it a little white powder, which she folded in a +scrap of paper, replaced the box and the tile over it. + +Whether Dick had by any means got a knowledge of this proceeding, or +whether he only suspected some unmentionable design on her part, there +is no sufficient means of determining. At any rate, when they met, an +hour or two after these occurrences, he could not help noticing how +easily she seemed to have got over her excitement. She was very pleasant +with him,--too pleasant, Dick thought. It was not Elsie's way to come +out of a fit of anger so easily as that. She had contrived some way of +letting off her spite; that was certain. Dick was pretty cunning, as Old +Sophy had said, and, whether or not he had any means of knowing Elsie's +private intentions, watched her closely, and was on his guard against +accidents. + +For the first time, he took certain precautions with reference to his +diet, such as were quite alien to his common habits. On coming to the +dinner-table, that day, he complained of headache, took but little food, +and refused the cup of coffee which Elsie offered him, saying that it +did not agree with him when he had these attacks. + +Here was a new complication. Obviously enough, he could not live in this +way, suspecting everything but plain bread and water, and hardly feeling +safe in meddling with them. Not only had this school-keeping wretch come +between him and the scheme by which he was to secure his future fortune, +but his image had so infected his cousin's mind that she was ready to +try on him some of those tricks which, as he had heard hinted in the +village, she had once before put in practice upon a person who had +become odious to her. + +Something must be done, and at once, to meet the double necessities of +this case. Every day, while the young girl was in these relations with +the young man, was only making matters worse. They could exchange words +and looks, they could arrange private interviews, they would be stooping +together over the same book, her hair touching his cheek, her breath +mingling with his, all the magnetic attractions drawing them together +with strange, invisible effluences. As her passion for the schoolmaster +increased, her dislike to him, her cousin, would grow with it, and all +his dangers would be multiplied. It was a fearful point he had reached. +He was tempted at one moment to give up all his plans and to disappear +suddenly from the place, leaving with the schoolmaster, who had +come between him and his object, an anonymous token of his personal +sentiments which would be remembered a good while in the history of the +town of Rockland. This was but a momentary thought; the great Dudley +property could not be given up in that way. + +Something must happen at once to break up all this order of things. He +could think of but one Providential event adequate to the emergency,--an +event foreshadowed by various recent circumstances, but hitherto +floating in his mind only as a possibility. Its occurrence would at once +change the course of Elsie's feelings, providing her with something to +think of besides mischief, and remove the accursed obstacle which was +thwarting all his own projects. Every possible motive, then,--his +interest, his jealousy, his longing for revenge, and now his fears for +his own safety,--urged him to regard the happening of a certain casualty +as a matter of simple necessity. This was the self-destruction of Mr. +Bernard Langdon. + +Such an event, though it might be surprising to many people, would not +be incredible, nor without many parallel cases. He was poor, a miserable +fag, under the control of that mean wretch up there at the school, who +looked as if he had sour buttermilk in his veins instead of blood. He +was in love with a girl above his station, rich, and of old family, but +strange in all her ways, and it was conceivable that he should become +suddenly jealous of her. Or she might have frightened him with some +display of her peculiarities which had filled him with a sudden +repugnance in the place of love. Any of these things were credible, and +would make a probable story enough,--so thought Dick over to himself +with the New-England half of his mind. + +Unfortunately, men will not always take themselves out of the way when, +so far as their neighbors are concerned, it would be altogether the most +appropriate and graceful and acceptable service they could render. There +was at this particular moment no special reason for believing that the +schoolmaster meditated any violence to his own person. On the contrary, +there was good evidence that he was taking some care of himself. He was +looking well and in good spirits, and in the habit of amusing himself +and exercising, as if to keep up his standard of health, especially of +taking certain evening-walks, before referred to, at an hour when most +of the Rockland people had "retired," or, in vulgar language, "gone to +bed." + +Dick Venner settled it, however, in his own mind, that Mr. Bernard +Langdon must lay violent hands upon himself. He even went so far as to +determine the precise hour, and the method in which the "rash act," as +it would undoubtedly be called in the next issue of "The Rockland +Weekly Universe," should be committed. Time,--_this evening._ +Method,--asphyxia, by suspension. It was, unquestionably, taking a great +liberty with a man to decide that he should become _felo de se_ without +his own consent. Such, however, was the decision of Mr. Richard Venner +with regard to Mr. Bernard Langdon. + +If everything went right, then, there would be a coroner's inquest +to-morrow upon what remained of that gentleman, found suspended to the +branch of a tree somewhere within a mile of the Apollinean Institute. +The "Weekly Universe" would have a startling paragraph announcing a +"SAD EVENT!!!" which had "thrown the town into an intense state of +excitement. Mr. Barnard Langden, a well known teacher at the Apollinean +Institute, was found, etc., etc. The vital spark was extinct. The +motive to the rash act can only be conjectured, but is supposed to be +disappointed affection. The name of an accomplished young lady of _the +highest respectability_ and great beauty is mentioned in connection with +this melancholy occurrence." + +Dick Venner was at the tea-table that evening, as usual.--No, he would +take green tea, if she pleased,--the same as her father drank. It would +suit his headache better.--Nothing,--he was much obliged to her. He +would help himself,--which he did in a little different way from common, +naturally enough, on account of his headache. He noticed that Elsie +seemed a little nervous while she was rinsing some of the teacups before +their removal. + +"There's something going on in that witch's head;" he said to himself. +"I know her,--she'd be savage now, if she hadn't got some trick in hand. +Let's see how she looks to-morrow!" + +Dick announced that he should go to bed early that evening, on account +of this confounded headache which had been troubling him so much. In +fact, he went up early, and locked his door after him, with as much +noise as he could make. He then changed some part of his dress, so that +it should be dark throughout, slipped off his boots, drew the lasso out +from the bottom of the contents of his trunk, and, carrying that and +his boots in his hand, opened his door softly, locked it after him, and +stole down the back-stairs, so as to get out of the house unnoticed. He +went straight to the stable and saddled the mustang. He took a rope from +the stable with him, mounted his horse, and set forth in the direction +of the Institute. + +Mr. Bernard, as we have seen, had not been very profoundly impressed by +the old Doctor's cautions,--enough, however, to follow out some of his +hints which were not troublesome to attend to. He laughed at the idea of +carrying a loaded pistol about with him; but still it seemed only fair, +as the old Doctor thought so much of the matter, to humor him about it. +As for not going about when and where he liked, for fear he might have +some lurking enemy, that was a thing not to be listened to nor thought +of. There was nothing to be ashamed of or troubled about in any of his +relations with the school-girls. Elsie, no doubt, showed a kind of +attraction towards him, as did perhaps some others; but he had been +perfectly discreet, and no father or brother or lover had any just cause +of quarrel with him. To be sure, that dark young man at the Dudley +mansion-house looked as if he were his enemy, when he had met him; but +certainly there was nothing in their relations to each other, or in his +own to Elsie, that would be like to stir such malice in his mind as +would lead him to play any of his wild Southern tricks at his, Mr. +Bernard's, expense. Yet he had a vague feeling that this young man was +dangerous, and he had been given to understand that one of the risks he +ran was from that quarter. + +On this particular evening, he had a strange, unusual sense of some +impending peril. His recent interview with the Doctor, certain remarks +that had been dropped in his hearing, but above all an unaccountable +impression upon his spirits, all combined to fill his mind with a +foreboding conviction that he was very near some overshadowing danger. +It was as the chill of the ice-mountain towards which the ship is +steering under full sail. He felt a strong impulse to see Helen Darley +and talk with her. She was in the common parlour, and, fortunately, +alone. + +"Helen," he said,--for they were almost like brother and sister now,--"I +have been thinking what you would do, if I should have to leave the +school at short notice, or be taken away suddenly by any accident." + +"Do?" she said, her cheek growing paler than its natural delicate +hue,--"why, I do not know how I could possibly consent to live here, if +you left us. Since you came, my life has been almost easy; before, it +was getting intolerable. You must not talk about going, my dear friend; +you have spoiled me for my place. Who is there here that I can have any +true society with, but you? You would not leave us for another school, +would you?" + +"No, no, my dear Helen," Mr. Bernard said; "if it depends on myself, I +shall stay out my full time, and enjoy your company and friendship. But +everything is uncertain in this world; I have been thinking that I might +be wanted elsewhere, and called when I did not think of it;--it was a +fancy, perhaps,--but I can't keep it out of my mind this evening. If any +of my fancies should come true, Helen, there are two or three messages +I want to leave with you. I have marked a book or two with a cross in +pencil on the fly-leaf;--these are for you. There is a little hymn-book +I should like to have you give to Elsie from me;--it may be a kind of +comfort to the poor girl." + +Helen's eyes glistened as she interrupted him,-- + +"What do you mean? You must not talk so, Mr. Langdon. Why, you never +looked better in your life. Tell me now, you are not in earnest, are +you, but only trying a little sentiment on me?" + +Mr. Bernard smiled, but rather sadly. + +"About half in earnest," he said. "I have had some fancies in my +head,--superstitions, I suppose,--at any rate, it does no harm to tell +you what I should like to have done, if anything should happen,--very +likely nothing ever will. Send the rest of the books home, if you +please, and write a letter to my mother. And, Helen, you will find +one small volume in my desk enveloped and directed, you will see to +whom;--give this with your own hands; it is a keepsake." + +The tears gathered in her eyes; she could not speak at first. +Presently,-- + +"Why, Bernard, my dear friend, my brother, it cannot be that you are in +danger? Tell me what it is, and, if I can share it with you, or counsel +you in any way, it will only be paying back the great debt I owe you. +No, no,--it can't be true,--you are tired and worried, and your spirits +have got depressed. I know what that is;--I was sure, one winter, that +I should die before spring; but I lived to see the dandelions +and buttercups go to seed. Come, tell me it was nothing but your +imagination." + +She felt a tear upon her cheek, but would not turn her face away from +him; it was the tear of a sister. + +"I am really in earnest, Helen," he said. "I don't know that there is +the least reason in the world for these fancies. If they all go off and +nothing comes of them, you may laugh at me, if you like. But if there +should be any occasion, remember my requests. You don't believe in +presentiments, do you?" + +"Oh, don't ask me, I beg you," Helen answered. "I have had a good many +frights for every one real misfortune I have suffered. Sometimes I have +thought I was warned beforehand of coming trouble, just as many people +are of changes in the weather, by some unaccountable feeling,--but not +often, and I don't like to talk about such things. I wouldn't think +about these fancies of yours. I don't believe you have exercised +enough;--don't you think it's confinement in the school has made you +nervous?" + +"Perhaps it has; but it happens that I have thought more of exercise +lately, and have taken walks late in the evening, besides playing my old +gymnastic tricks every day." + +They talked on many subjects, but through all he said Helen perceived a +pervading tone of sadness, and an expression as of a dreamy foreboding +of unknown evil. They parted at the usual hour, and went to their +several rooms. The sadness of Mr. Bernard had sunk into the heart +of Helen, and she mingled many tears with her prayers that evening, +earnestly entreating that he might be comforted in his days of trial and +protected in his hour of danger. + +Mr. Bernard stayed in his room a short time before setting out for his +evening walk. His eye fell upon the Bible his mother had given him when +he left home, and he opened it in the New Testament at a venture. It +happened that the first words he read were these,--"_Lest, coming +suddenly, he find you sleeping_." In the state of mind in which he +was at the moment, the text startled him. It was like a supernatural +warning. He was not going to expose himself to any particular danger +this evening; a walk in a quiet village was as free from risk as Helen +Darley or his own mother could ask; yet he had an unaccountable feeling +of apprehension, without any definite object. At this moment he +remembered the old Doctor's counsel, which he had sometimes neglected, +and, blushing at the feeling which led him to do it, he took the pistol +his suspicious old friend had forced upon him, which he had put away +loaded, and, thrusting it into his pocket, set out upon his walk. + +The moon was shining at intervals, for the night was partially clouded. +There seemed to be nobody stirring, though his attention was unusually +awake, and he could hear the whirr of the bats overhead, and the +pulsating croak of the frogs in the distant pools and marshes. Presently +he detected the sound of hoofs at some distance, and, looking forward, +saw a horseman coming in his direction. The moon was under a cloud at +the moment, and he could only observe that the horse and his rider +looked like a single dark object, and that they were moving along at an +easy pace. Mr. Bernard was really ashamed of himself, when he found his +hand on the butt of his pistol. When the horseman was within a hundred +and fifty yards of him, the moon shone out suddenly and revealed each +of them to the other. The rider paused for a moment, as if carefully +surveying the pedestrian, then suddenly put his horse to the full +gallop, and dashed towards him, rising at the same instant in his +stirrups and swinging something round his head,--what, Mr. Bernard could +not make out. It was a strange manoeuvre,--so strange and threatening in +aspect that the young man forgot his nervousness in an instant, cocked +his pistol, and waited to see what mischief all this meant. He did not +wait long. As the rider came rushing towards him, he made a rapid motion +and something leaped five-and-twenty feet through the air, in Mr. +Bernard's direction. In an instant he felt a ring, as of a rope or +thong, settle upon his shoulders. There was no time to think,--he would +be lost in another second. He raised his pistol and fired,--not at the +rider, but at the horse. His aim was true; the mustang gave one bound +and fell lifeless, shot through the head. The lasso was fastened to his +saddle, and his last bound threw Mr. Bernard violently to the earth, +where he lay motionless, as if stunned. + +In the mean time, Dick Venner, who had been dashed down with his horse, +was trying to extricate himself,--one of his legs being held fast under +the animal, the long spur on his boot having caught in the saddle-cloth. +He found, however, that he could do nothing with his right arm, his +shoulder having been in some way injured in his fall. But his Southern +blood was up, and, as he saw Mr. Bernard move as if he were coming to +his senses, he struggled violently to free himself. + +"I'll have the dog, yet," he said,--"only let me get at him with the +knife!" + +He had just succeeded in extricating his imprisoned leg, and was ready +to spring to his feet, when he was caught firmly by the throat, and, +looking up, saw a clumsy barbed weapon, commonly known as a hay-fork, +within an inch of his breast. + +"Hold on there! What 'n thunder 'r' y' abaout, y' darned Portagee?" said +a voice, with a decided nasal tone in it, but sharp and resolute. + +Dick looked from the weapon to the person who held it, and saw a sturdy, +plain man standing over him, with his teeth clinched, and his aspect +that of one all ready for mischief. + +"Lay still, naow!" said Abel Stebbins, the Doctor's man; "'f y' don't, +I'll stick ye, 'z sure 'z y' 'r' alive! I been aäfter ye f'r a week, 'n' +I got y' naow! I knowed I'd ketch ye at some darned trick or 'nother +'fore I'd done 'ith ye!" + +Dick lay perfectly still, feeling that he was crippled and helpless, +thinking all the time with the Yankee half of his mind what to do about +it. He saw Mr. Bernard lift his head and look around him. He would get +his senses again in a few minutes, very probably, and then he, Mr. +Richard Venner, would be done for. + +"Let me up! let me up!" he cried, in a low, hurried voice,--"I'll give +you a hundred dollars in gold to let me go. The man a'n't hurt,--don't +you see him stirring? He'll come to himself in two minutes. Let me up! +I'll give you a hundred and fifty dollars in gold, now, here on the +spot,--and the watch out of my pocket; take it yourself, with your own +hands!" + +"I'll see y' darned fust! Ketch me lett'n' go!" was Abel's emphatic +answer. "Yeou lay still, 'n' wait t'll that man comes tew." + +He kept the hay-fork ready for action at the slightest sign of +resistance. + +Mr. Bernard, in the mean time, had been getting, first his senses, and +then some Jew of his scattered wits, a little together. + +"What is it?"--he said. "Who 'a hurt? What's happened?" + +"Come along here 'z quick 'z y' ken," Abel answered, "'n' haälp me fix +this fellah. Y' been hurt, y'rself, 'n' the' 's murder come pooty nigh +happenin'." + +Mr. Bernard heard the answer, but presently stared about and asked +again, _"Who's hurt? What's happened?"_ + +"Y' 'r' hurt, y'rself, I tell ye," said Abel; "'n' the''s been a murder, +pooty nigh." + +Mr. Bernard felt something about his neck, and, putting his hands up, +found the loop of the lasso, which he loosened, but did not think to +slip over his head, in the confusion of his perceptions and thoughts. It +was a wonder that it had not choked him, but he had fallen forward so as +to slacken it. + +By this time he was getting some notion of what he was about, and +presently began looking round for his pistol, which had fallen. He +found it lying near him, cocked it mechanically, and walked, somewhat +unsteadily, towards the two men, who were keeping their position as +still as if they were performing in a _tableau._ + +"Quick, naow!" said Abel, who had heard the click of cocking the pistol, +and saw that he held it in his hand, as he came towards him. "Gi' me +that pistil, and yeon fetch that 'ere rope layin' there. I'll have this +here fellah fixed 'n less 'n two minutes." + +Mr. Bernard did as Abel said,--stupidly and mechanically, for he was but +half right as yet. Abel pointed the pistol at Dick's head. + +"Naow hold up y'r hands, yeou fellah," he said, "'n' keep 'em up, while +this man puts the rope raound y'r wrists." + +Dick felt himself helpless, and, rather than have his disabled arm +roughly dealt with, held up his hands. Mr. Bernard did as Abel said; he +was in a purely passive state, and obeyed orders like a child. Abel then +secured the rope in a most thorough and satisfactory complication of +twists and knots. + +"Naow get up, will ye?" he said; and the unfortunate Dick rose to his +feet. + +_"Who's hurt? What's happened?"_ asked poor Mr. Bernard again, his +memory having been completely jarred out of him for the time. + +"Come, look here naow, yeou, don' stan' aäskin' questions over 'n' +over;--'t beats all I ha'n't I tol' y' a dozen times?" + +As Abel spoke, he turned and looked at Mr. Bernard. + +"Hullo! What 'n thunder's that'ere raoun' y'r neck? Ketched ye 'ith a +slippernoose, hey? Wal, if that a'n't the craowner! Hol' on a minute, +Cap'n, 'n' I'll show ye what that 'ere halter's good for." + +Abel slipped the noose over Mr. Bernard's head, and put it round +the neck of the miserable Dick Venner, who made no sign of +resistance,--whether on account of the pain he was in, or from mere +helplessness, or because he was waiting for some unguarded moment to +escape,--since resistance seemed of no use. + +"I'm go'n' to kerry y' home," said Abel; "th' ol' Doctor, he's got a +gre't cur'osity t' see ye. Jes' step along naow,--off that way, will +ye?--'n I'll hol' on t' th' bridle, f' fear y' sh'd run away." + +He took hold of the leather thong, but found that it was fastened at the +other end to the saddle. This was too much for Abel. + +"Wal, naow, yeou _be_ a pooty chap to hev raound! A fellah's neck in a +slippernoose at one eend of a halter, 'n' a boss on th' full spring at +t'other eend!" + +He looked at him from head to foot as a naturalist inspects a new +specimen. His clothes had suffered in his fall, especially on the leg +which had been caught under the horse. + +"Hullo! look o' there, naow! What's that 'ere stickin' aout o' y'r +boot?" + +It was nothing but the handle of an ugly knife, which Abel instantly +relieved him of. + +The party now took up the line of march for old Doctor Kittredge's +house, Abel carrying the pistol and knife, and Mr. Bernard walking in +silence, still half-stunned, holding the hay-fork, which Abel had thrust +into his hand. It was all a dream to him as yet. He remembered the +horseman riding at him, and his firing the pistol; but whether he was +alive, and these walls around him belonged to the village of Rockland, +or whether he had passed the dark river, and was in a suburb of the New +Jerusalem, he could not as yet have told. + +They were in the street where the Doctor's house was situated. + +"I guess I'll fire off one o' these here berrils," said Abel. + +He fired. + +Presently there was a noise of opening windows, and the nocturnal +headdresses of Rockland flowered out of them like so many developments +of the Night-blooming Cereus. White cotton caps and red bandanna +handkerchiefs were the prevailing forms of efflorescence. The main point +was that the village was waked up. The old Doctor always waked easily, +from long habit, and was the first among those who looked out to see +what had happened. + +"Why, Abel!" he called out, "what have you got there? and what's all +this noise about?" + +"We've ketched the Portagee!" Abel answered, as laconically as the hero +of Lake Erie in his famous dispatch. "Go in there, you fellah!" + +The prisoner was marched into the house, and the Doctor, who had +bewitched his clothes upon him in a way that would have been miraculous +in anybody but a physician, was down in presentable form as soon as if +it had been a child in a fit that he was sent for. + +"Richard Venner!" the Doctor exclaimed. "What is the meaning of all +this? Mr. Langdon, has anything happened to you?" + +Mr. Bernard put his hand to his head. + +"My mind is confused," he said. "I've had a fall.--Oh, yes!--wait a +minute and it will all come back to me." + +"Sit down, sit down," the Doctor said. "Abel will tell me about it. +Slight concussion of the brain. Can't remember very well for an hour or +two,--will come right by to-morrow." + +"Been stunded," Abel said. "He can't tell nothin'." + +Abel then proceeded to give a Napoleonic bulletin of the recent combat +of cavalry and infantry and its results,--none slain, one captured. + +The Doctor looked at the prisoner through his spectacles. + +"What's the matter with your shoulder, Venner?" + +Dick answered sullenly, that he didn't know,--fell on it when his horse +came down. The Doctor examined it as carefully as he could through his +clothes. + +"Out of joint. Untie his hands, Abel." + +By this time a small alarm had spread among the neighbors, and there was +a circle around Dick, who glared about on the assembled honest people +like a hawk with a broken wing. + +When the Doctor said, "Untie his hands," the circle widened perceptibly. + +"Isn't it a leetle rash to give him the use of his hands? I see there's +females and children standin' near." + +This was the remark of our old friend, Deacon Soper, who retired from +the front row, as he spoke, behind a respectable-looking, but somewhat +hastily dressed person of the defenceless sex, the female help of a +neighboring household, accompanied by a boy, whose unsmoothed shock of +hair looked like a last-year's crow's-nest. + +But Abel untied his hands, in spite of the Deacon's considerate +remonstrance. + +"Now," said the Doctor, "the first thing is to put the joint back." + +"Stop," said Deacon Soper,--"stop a minute. Don't you think it will be +safer--for the women-folks--jest to wait till mornin', afore you put +that j'int into the socket?" + +Colonel Sprowle, who had been called by a special messenger, spoke up at +this moment. + +"Let the women-folks and the deacons go home, if they're scared, and put +the fellah's j'int in as quick as you like. I'll resk him, j'int in or +out." + +"I want one of you to go straight down to Dudley Venner's with a +message," the Doctor said. "I will have the young man's shoulder in +quick enough." + +"Don't send that message!" said Dick, in a hoarse voice;--"do what you +like with my arm, but don't send that message! Let me go,--I can walk, +and I'll be off from this place. There's nobody hurt but I. Damn the +shoulder!--let me go! You shall never hear of me again!" + +Mr. Bernard came forward. + +"My friends," he said, "_I_ am not injured,--seriously, at least. Nobody +need complain against this man, if I don't. The Doctor will treat him +like a human being, at any rate; and then, if he will go, let him. There +are too many witnesses against him here for him to want to stay." + +The Doctor, in the mean time, without saying a word to all this, had got +a towel round the shoulder and chest and another round the arm, and had +the bone replaced in a very few moments. + +"Abel, put Cassia into the new chaise," he said, quietly. "My friends +and neighbors, leave this young man to me." + +"Colonel Sprowle, you're a justice of the peace," said Deacon Soper, +"and you know what the law says in cases like this. I a'n't so clear +that it won't have to come afore the Grand Jury, whether we will or no." + +"I guess we'll set that j'int to-morrow mornin'," said Colonel +Sprowle,--which made a laugh at the Deacon's expense, and virtually +settled the question. + +"Now trust this young man in my care," said the old Doctor, "and go home +and finish your naps. I knew him when he was a boy, and, I'll answer for +it, he won't trouble you any more. The Dudley blood makes folks proud, I +can tell you, whatever else they are." + +The good people so respected and believed in the Doctor that they left +the prisoner with him. + +Presently, Cassia, the fast Morgan mare, came up to the front-door, +with the wheels of the new, light chaise flashing behind her in the +moonlight. The Doctor drove Dick forty miles at a stretch that night, +out of the limits of the State. + +"Do you want money?" he said, before he left him. + +Dick told him the secret of his golden belt. + +"Where shall I send your trunk after you from your uncle's?" + +Dick gave him a direction to a seaport town to which he himself was +going, to take passage for a port in South America. + +"Good-bye, Richard," said the Doctor. "Try to learn something from +to-night's lesson." + +The Southern impulses in Dick's wild blood overcame him, and he kissed +the old Doctor on both cheeks, crying as only the children of the sun +can cry, after the first hours in the dewy morning of life. So Dick +Venner disappears from this story. An hour after dawn, Cassia pointed +her fine ears homeward, and struck into her square, honest trot, as +if she had not been doing anything more than her duty during her four +hours' stretch of the last night. + +Abel was not in the habit of questioning the Doctor's decisions. + +"It's all right," he said to Mr. Bernard. "The fellah's Squire Venner's +relation, anyhaow. Don't you want to wait here, jest a little while, +till I come back? The' 's a consid'able nice saddle 'n' bridle on a dead +hoss that's layin' daown there in the road, 'n' I guess the' a'n't no +use in lettin' on 'em spile,--so I'll jest step aout 'n' fetch 'em +along. I kind o' calc'late 't won't pay to take the cretur's shoes 'n' +hide off to-night,--'n' the' won't be much iron on that hoss's huffs an +haour after daylight, I'll bate ye a quarter." + +"I'll walk along with you," said Mr. Bernard;--"I feel as if I could get +along well enough now." + +So they set off together. There was a little crowd round the dead +mustang already, principally consisting of neighbors who had adjourned +from the Doctor's house to see the scene of the late adventure. In +addition to these, however, the assembly was honored by the presence of +Mr. Principal Silas Peckham, who had been called from his slumbers by +a message that Master Langdon was shot through the head by a +highway-robber, but had learned a true version of the story by this +time. His voice was at that moment heard above the rest,--sharp, but +thin, like bad cider-vinegar. + +"I take charge of that property, I say. Master Langdon 's actin' under +my orders, and I claim that hoss and all that's on him. Hiram! jest slip +off that saddle and bridle, and carry 'em up to the Institoot, and bring +down a pair of pinchers and a file,--and--stop--fetch a pair of shears, +too; there's hoss-hair enough in that mane and tail to stuff a bolster +with." + +"You let that hoss alone!" spoke up Colonel Sprowle. "When a fellah +goes out huntin' and shoots a squirrel, do you think he's go'n' to +let another fellah pick him up and kerry him off? Not if he's got a +double-berril gun, and t'other berril ha'n't been fired off yet! I +should like to see the mahn that'll take off that seddle 'n' bridle, +excep' the one th't hez a fair right to the whole concern!" + +Hiram was from one of the lean streaks in New Hampshire, and, not being +overfed in Mr. Silas Peckham's kitchen, was somewhat wanting in stamina, +as well as in stomach, for so doubtful an enterprise as undertaking to +carry out his employer's orders in the face of the Colonel's defiance. + +Just then Mr. Bernard and Abel came up together. + +"Here they be," said the Colonel. "Stan' beck, gentlemen!" + +Mr. Bernard, who was pale and still a little confused, but gradually +becoming more like himself, stood and looked in silence for a moment. + +All his thoughts seemed to be clearing themselves in this interval. +He took in the whole series of incidents: his own frightful risk; the +strange, instinctive, nay, Providential impulse which had led him so +suddenly to do the one only thing which could possibly have saved him; +the sudden appearance of the Doctor's man, but for which he might yet +have been lost; and the discomfiture and capture of his dangerous enemy. + +It was all past now, and a feeling of pity rose in Mr. Bernard's heart. + +"He loved that horse, no doubt," he said,--"and no wonder. A beautiful, +wild-looking creature! Take off those things that are on him, Abel, and +have them carried to Mr. Dudley Venner's. If he does not want them, you +may keep them yourself, for all that I have to say. One thing more. I +hope nobody will lift his hand against this noble creature to mutilate +him in any way. After you have taken off the saddle and bridle, Abel, +bury him just as he is. Under that old beech-tree will be a good place. +You'll see to it,--won't you, Abel?" + +Abel nodded assent, and Mr. Bernard returned to the Institute, threw +himself in his clothes on the bed, and slept like one who is heavy with +wine. + +Following Mr. Bernard's wishes, Abel at once took off the high-peaked +saddle and the richly ornamented bridle from the mustang. Then, with +the aid of two of three others, he removed him to the place indicated. +Spades and shovels were soon procured, and before the moon had set, the +wild horse of the Pampas was at rest under the turf at the wayside, in +the far village among the hills of New England. + + * * * * * + + +THE TEST. + + +_Musa loquitur._ + + I hung my verses in the wind; + Time and tide their faults may find. + All were winnowed through and through; + Five lines lasted sound and true; + Five were smelted in a pot + Than the South more fierce and hot. + These the Siroc could not melt, + Fire their fiercer flaming felt, + And their meaning was more white + Than July's meridian light. + Sunshine cannot bleach the snow, + Nor Time unmake what poets know. + Have you eyes to find the five + Which five thousand could survive? + + + + +RECOLLECTIONS OF KEATS. + +_BY AN OLD SCHOOL-FELLOW._ + + +In the village of Enfield, in Middlesex, ten miles on the north road +from London, was my father, John Clarke's school. The house had been +built by a West India merchant, in the latter end of the seventeenth or +beginning of the eighteenth century. It was of the better character of +the domestic architecture of that period,--the whole front being of the +purest red brick, wrought, by means of moulds, into rich designs of +flowers and pomegranates, with heads of cherubim over two niches in +the centre of the building. The elegance of the design and the perfect +finish of the structure were such as to secure its protection, when a +branch railway was brought from the Ware and Cambridge line to Enfield. +The old school-house was converted into the station-house, and the +railway company had the good taste to leave intact one of the few +remaining specimens of the graceful English domestic architecture of +long-gone days. Any of my readers who may happen to have a file of the +London "Illustrated News," may find in No. 360, March 3, 1849, a not +prodigiously enchanting wood-cut of the edifice. + +Here it was that John Keats all but commenced and did complete his +school-education. He was born on the 29th of October, 1795; and I think +he was one of the little fellows who had not wholly emerged from the +child's costume upon being placed under my father's care. It will be +readily conceived difficult to recall from the "dark backward and +abysm" of nearly sixty years the general acts of perhaps the youngest +individual in a corporation of between seventy and eighty youngsters; +and very little more of Keats's child-life can I remember than that he +had a brisk, winning face, and was a favorite with all, particularly +with my mother. + +His maternal grandfather, Jennings, was proprietor of a large +livery-stable, called "The Swan and Hoop," on the pavement in +Moorfields, opposite the entrance into Finsbury Circus. He had two sons +at my father's school. The elder was an officer in Duncan's ship in the +fight off Camperdown. After the battle, the Dutch Admiral, De Winter, +pointing to young Jennings, told Duncan that he had fired several +shots at that young man, and always missed his mark;--no credit to his +steadiness of aim; for Jennings, like his own admiral, was considerably +above the ordinary dimensions of stature. + +Keats's father was the principal servant at the Swan and Hoop +Stables,--a man of so remarkably fine a common-sense and native +respectability, that I perfectly remember the warm terms in which his +demeanor used to be canvassed by my parents after he had been to visit +his boys. He was short of stature and well-knit in person, (John +resembling him both in make and feature,) with brown hair and dark hazel +eyes. He was killed by a fall from his horse, in returning from a visit +to the school. John's two brothers, George, older, and Thomas, younger +than himself, were like the mother,--who was tall, of good figure, with +large, oval face, sombre features, and grave in behavior. The last of +the family was a sister,--Fanny, I think, much younger than all,--of +whom I remember my mother once speaking with much fondness, for her +pretty, simple manners, while she was walking in the garden with her +brothers. She married Mr. Llanos, a Spanish refugee, the author of +"Don Estéban," and "Sandoval, the Free-Mason." He was a man of +liberal principles, attractive manners, and more than ordinary +accomplishments.--This is the amount of my knowledge and recollection of +the family. + +In the early part of his school-life, John gave no extraordinary +indications of intellectual character; but it was remembered of him +afterwards, that there was ever present a determined and steady spirit +in all his undertakings; and, although of a strong and impulsive will, +I never knew it misdirected in his required pursuit of study. He was a +most orderly scholar. The future ramifications of that noble genius were +then closely shut in the seed, and greedily drinking in the moisture +which made it afterwards burst forth so kindly into luxuriance and +beauty. + +My father was in the habit, at each half-year's vacation, of bestowing +prizes upon those pupils who had performed the greatest quantity of +voluntary extra work; and such was Keats's indefatigable energy for the +last two or three successive half-years of his remaining at school, +that, upon each occasion, he took the first prize by a considerable +distance. He was at work before the first school-hour began, and that +was at seven o'clock; almost all the intervening times of recreation +were so devoted; and during the afternoon-holidays, when all were at +play, I have seen him in the school,--almost the only one,--at his Latin +or French translation; and so unconscious and regardless was he of the +consequences of this close and persevering application, that he never +would have taken the necessary exercise, had he not been sometimes +driven out by one of us for the purpose. + +I have said that he was a favorite with all. Not the less beloved was he +for having a highly pugnacious spirit, which, when roused, was one of +the most picturesque exhibitions--off the stage--I ever saw. One of the +transports of that marvellous actor, Edmund Kean--whom, by the way, +he idolized--was its nearest resemblance; and the two were not very +dissimilar in face and figure. I remember, upon one occasion, when an +usher, on account of some impertinent behavior, had boxed his brother +Tom's ears, John rushed up, put himself in the received posture of +offence, and, I believe, struck the usher,--who could have put him into +his pocket. His passions at times were almost ungovernable; his brother +George, being considerably the taller and stronger, used frequently to +hold him down by main force, when he was in "one of his moods" and +was endeavoring to beat him. It was all, however, a wisp-of-straw +conflagration; for he had an intensely tender affection for his +brothers, and proved it upon the most trying occasions. He was not +merely the "favorite of all," like a pet prize-fighter, for his terrier +courage; but his high-mindedness, his utter unconsciousness of a mean +motive, his placability, his generosity, wrought so general a feeling in +his behalf, that I never heard a word of disapproval from any one who +had known him, superior or equal. + +The latter part of the time--perhaps eighteen months--that he remained +at school, he occupied the hours during meals in reading. Thus his +_whole_ time was engrossed. He had a tolerably retentive memory, and the +quantity that he read was surprising. He must in those last months +have exhausted the school--library, which consisted principally of +abridgments of all the voyages and travels of any note; Mayor's +Collection; also his Universal History; Robertson's Histories of +Scotland, America, and Charles the Fifth; all Miss Edgeworth's +productions; together with many other works, equally well calculated for +youth, not necessary to be enumerated. The books, however, that were +his constantly recurrent sources of attraction were Tooke's "Pantheon," +Lemprière's "Classical Dictionary," which he appeared to _learn_, and +Spence's "Polymetis." This was the store whence he acquired his perfect +intimacy with the Greek mythology; here was he "suckled In that creed +outworn"; for his amount of classical attainment extended no farther +than the "Aeneid"; with which epic, indeed, he was so fascinated, that +before leaving school he had _voluntarily_ translated in writing a +considerable portion. And yet I remember that at that early age,--mayhap +under fourteen,--notwithstanding and through all its incidental +attractiveness, he hazarded the opinion to me that there was feebleness +in the structure of the work. He must have gone through all the better +publications in the school-library, for he asked me to lend him some of +my own books; and I think I now see him at supper, (we had all our meals +in the school-room,) sitting back on the form, and holding the folio +volume of Burnet's "History of his own Time" between himself and the +table, eating his meal from beyond it. This work, and Leigh Hunt's +"Examiner" newspaper,--which my father took in, and I used to lend to +Keats,--I make no doubt laid the foundation of his love of civil and +religious liberty. He once told me, smiling, that one of his guardians, +being informed what books I had lent him to read, declared, that, if he +had fifty children, he would not send one of them to my father's school. + +When he left us,--I think at fourteen years of age,--he was apprenticed +to Mr. Thomas Hammond, a medical man, residing in Church Street, +Edmonton, and exactly two miles from Enfield. This arrangement appeared +to give him satisfaction; and I fear that it was the most placid period +of his painful life; for now, with the exception of the duty he had to +perform in the surgery, and which was by no means an onerous one, his +whole leisure hours were employed in indulging his passion for reading +and translating. It was during his apprenticeship that he finished the +latter portion of the "Aeneid." + +The distance between our residences being so short, I encouraged his +inclination to come over, when he could be spared; and in consequence, +I saw him about five or six times a month, commonly on Wednesdays and +Saturdays, those afternoons being my own most leisure times. He rarely +came empty-handed; either he had a book to read, or brought one with him +to be exchanged. When the weather permitted, we always sat in an arbor +at the end of a spacious garden, and, in Boswellian phrase, "we had good +talk." + +I cannot at this time remember what was the spark that fired the train +of his poetical tendencies,--I do not remember what was the first +signalized poetry he read; but he must have given me unmistakable tokens +of his bent of taste; otherwise, at that early stage of his career, I +never could have read to him the "Epithalamion" of Spenser; and this I +perfectly remember having done, and in that (to me) hallowed old arbor, +the scene of many bland and graceful associations,--all the substances +having passed away. He was at that time, I should suppose, fifteen or +sixteen years old; and at that period of life he certainly appreciated +the general beauty of the composition, and felt the more passionate +passages; for his features and exclamations were ecstatic. How often +have I in after-times heard him quote these lines:-- + + "Behold, whiles she before the altar stands, + Hearing the holy priest that to her speaks, + And blesses her with his two happy hands, + How the red roses flush up in her cheeks! + And the pure snow, with goodly vermil stain, + Like crimson dyed in grain, + That even the angels, which continually + About the sacred altar do remain, + Forget their service, and about her fly, + _Oft peeping in her face, that seems more fair, + The more they on it stare;_ + But her sad eyes, still fastened on the ground, + Are governèd with goodly modesty, + That suffers not one look to glance awry, + Which may let in a little thought unsound." + +That night he took away with him the first volume of the "Faery Queen," +and went through it, as I told his biographer, Mr. Monckton Milnes, "as +a young horse would through a spring meadow,--ramping!" Like a true +poet, too,--a poet "born, not manufactured,"--a poet in grain,--he +especially singled out the epithets, for that felicity and power in +which Spenser is so eminent. He hoisted himself up, and looked burly +and dominant, as he said,--"What an image that is,--_'Sea-shouldering +whales'!_" + +It was a treat to see as well as hear him read a pathetic passage. Once, +when reading the "Cymbeline" aloud', I saw his eyes fill with tears, and +for some moments he was unable to proceed, when he came to the departure +of Posthumus, and Imogen's saying she would have watched him + + "till the diminution + Of space had pointed him sharp as my needle; + Nay, followed him till he had _melted from + The smallness of a gnat to air_; and then + Have _turned mine eye and wept_." + +I cannot quite reconcile the time of our separating at this stage of his +career,--which of us first went to London; but it was upon an occasion +when I was walking thither, and, I think, to see Leigh Hunt, who had +just fulfilled his penalty of confinement in Horsemonger-Lane Prison for +the trivial libel upon the Prince Regent, that Keats, who was coming +over to Enfield, met me, and, turning, accompanied me back part of the +way to Edmonton. At the last field-gate, when taking leave, he gave +me the sonnet entitled, "Written on the Day that Mr. Leigh Hunt left +Prison." Unless I am utterly mistaken, this was the first proof I had +received of his having committed himself in verse; and how clearly can I +recall the conscious look with which he hesitatingly offered it! There +are some momentary glances of beloved friends that fade only with life. +I am not in a position to contradict the statement of his biographer, +that "the lines in imitation of Spenser, + + "'Now Morning from her orient charger came, + And her first footsteps touched a verdant hill,' etc., + +"are the earliest known verses of his composition"; from the subject +being the inspiration of his first love--and such a love!--in poetry, it +is most probable; but certainly his first published poem was the sonnet +commencing, + + 'O Solitude! if I must with thee dwell'; + +and that will be found in the "Examiner," some time, as I conjecture, +in 1816,--for I have not the paper to refer to, and, indeed, at this +distance, both of time and removal from the means of verification, I +would not be dogmatical. + +When we both had come to London,--he to enter as a student of St. +Thomas's Hospital,--he was not long in discovering that my abode was +with my brother-in-law, in Little Warner Street, Clerkenwell; and +just at that time I was installed housekeeper, and was solitary. He, +therefore, would come and revive his loved gossip, till, as the author +of the "Urn Burial" says, "we were acting our antipodes,--the huntsmen +were up in America, and they already were past their first sleep in +Persia." At this time he lived in his first lodging upon coming to +London, near to St. Thomas's Hospital. I find his address in a letter +which must have preceded my appointing him to come and lighten my +darkness in Clerkenwell. At the close of the letter, he says,--"Although +the Borough is a beastly place in dirt, turnings, and windings, yet +No. 8, Dean Street, is not difficult to find; and if you would run the +gauntlet over London Bridge, take the first turning to the left, and +then the first to the right, and, moreover, knock at my door, which is +nearly opposite a meeting, you would do me a charity, which, as St. Paul +saith, is the father of all the virtues. At all events, let me hear from +you soon: I say, at all events, not excepting the gout in your fingers." +I have little doubt that this letter (which has no other date than the +day of the week, and no post-mark) preceded our first symposium; and a +memorable night it was in my life's career. + +A copy, and a beautiful one, of the folio edition of Chapman's Homer had +been lent me. It was the property of Mr. Alsager, the gentleman who +for years had contributed no small share of celebrity to the great +reputation of the "Times" newspaper, by the masterly manner in which he +conducted the money-market department of that journal. At the time +when I was first introduced to Mr. Alsager, he was living opposite +Horsemonger-Lane Prison; and upon Mr. Leigh Hunt's being sentenced for +the libel, his first day's dinner was sent over by Mr. Alsager. He was +a man of the most studiously correct demeanor, with a highly cultivated +taste and judgment in the fine arts and music. He succeeded Hazlitt, +(which was no insignificant honor,) and for some time contributed the +critiques upon the theatres, but ended by being the reporter of the +state of the money-market. He had long been accustomed to have the first +trial at his own house of the best-reputed new foreign instrumental +music, which he used to import from Germany. + +Well, then, we were put in possession of the Homer of Chapman, and to +work we went, turning to some of the "famousest" passages, as we had +scrappily known them in Pope's version. There was, for instance, that +perfect scene of the conversation on Troy wall of the old Senators with +Helen, who is pointing out to them the several Greek captains, with that +wonderfully vivid portrait of an orator, in Ulysses, in the Third Book, +beginning at the 237th line,-- + + "But when the prudent Ithacus did to his counsels rise"; + +the helmet and shield of Diomed, in the opening of the Fifth Book; the +prodigious description of Neptune's passage in his chariot to the Achive +ships, in the opening of the Thirteenth Book,-- + + "The woods, and all the great hills near, + trembled beneath the weight + Of his immortal moving feet." + +The last was the whole of the shipwreck of Ulysses in the Fifth Book of +the "Odyssey." I think his expression of delight, during the reading of +those dozen lines, was never surpassed:-- + + "Then forth he came, his both knees faltering, both + His strong hands hanging down, and all with froth + His cheeks and nostrils flowing, voice and breath + Spent to all use, and down he sunk to death. + _The sea had soaked his heart through_; all his veins + His toils had racked t' a laboring woman's pains. + Dead weary was he." + +On an after-occasion I showed him the couplet of Pope's upon the same +passage:-- + + "From mouth and nose the briny torrent ran, + _And lost in lassitude, lay all the man._" + +Chapman supplied us with many an after-feast; but it was in the teeming +wonderment of this, his first introduction, that, when I came down to +breakfast the next morning, I found upon my table a letter with no other +inclosure than his famous sonnet, "On first looking into Chapman's +Homer." We had parted, as I have already said, at day-spring; yet he +contrived that I should receive the poem, from a distance of nearly two +miles, before 10, A.M. In the published copy of this sonnet he made an +alteration in the seventh line:-- + + "Yet did I never breathe its pure serene." + +The original, which he sent me, had the phrase, + + "Yet could I never tell what men could mean"; + +which he said was bald, and too simply wondering. No one could more +earnestly chastise his thoughts than Keats. His favorite among Chapman's +Hymns of Homer was the one to Pan, and which he himself rivalled in the +"Endymion." + +In one of our conversations about this period, I alluded to his position +at St. Thomas's Hospital,--coasting and reconnoitring, as it were, that +I might discover how he got on, and, with the total absorption that +had evidently taken place of every other mood of his mind than that of +imaginative composition, what was his bias for the future, and what his +feeling with regard to the profession that had been _chosen for him_,--a +circumstance I did not know at that time. He made no secret, however, +that he could not sympathize with the science of anatomy, as a main +pursuit in life; for one of the expressions that he used, in describing +his unfitness for its mastery, was perfectly characteristic. He said, in +illustration of his argument,--"The other day, for instance, during the +lecture, there came a sunbeam into the room, and with it a whole troop +of creatures floating in the ray; and I was off with them to Oberon +and Fairy-land." And yet, with all this self-styled unfitness for the +pursuit, I was afterwards informed, that at his subsequent +examination he displayed an amount of acquirement which surprised his +fellow-students, who had scarcely any other association with him than +that of a cheerful, crochety rhymester. + +It was about this period, that, going to call upon Mr. Leigh Hunt, +who then occupied a pretty little cottage in the "Vale of Health," on +Hampstead Heath, I took with me two or three of the poems I had received +from Keats. I did expect that Hunt would speak encouragingly, and indeed +approvingly, of the compositions,--written, too, by a youth under age; +but my partial spirit was not prepared for the unhesitating and prompt +admiration which broke forth before he had read twenty lines of the +first poem. Mr. Horace Smith happened to be there, on the occasion, and +was not less demonstrative in his praise of their merits. The piece +which he read out, I remember, was the sonnet,-- + + "How many bards gild the lapses of time!" + +marking with particular emphasis and approbation the last six lines:-- + + "So the unnumbered sounds that evening store,-- + The songs of birds, the whispering of the leaves, + The voice of waters, the great bell that heaves + With solemn sound, and thousand others more, + _That distance of recognizance bereaves_,-- + Make pleasing music, and not wild uproar." + +Smith repeated, with applause, the line in Italics, saying, "What a +well-condensed expression!" After making numerous and eager inquiries +about him, personally, and with reference to any peculiarities of mind +and manner, the visit ended in my being requested to bring him over +to the Vale of Health. That was a red-letter day in the young poet's +life,--and one which will never fade with me, as long as memory lasts. +The character and expression of Keats's features would unfailingly +arrest even the casual passenger in the street; and now they were +wrought to a tone of animation that I could not but watch with +intense interest, knowing what was in store for him from the bland +encouragement, and Spartan deference in attention, with fascinating +conversational eloquence, that he was to receive and encounter. When we +reached the Heath, I have present the rising and accelerated step, with +the gradual subsidence of all talk, as we drew towards the cottage. The +interview, which stretched into three "morning calls," was the +prelude to many after-scenes and saunterings about Caen Wood and its +neighborhood; for Keats was suddenly made a familiar of the household, +and was always welcomed. + +It was in the library at Hunt's cottage, where an extemporary bed had +been made up for him on the sofa, that he composed the framework and +many lines of the poem on "Sleep and Poetry,"--the last sixty or seventy +being an inventory of the art-garniture of the room. The sonnet, + + "Keen, fitful gusts are whispering here and there," + +he gave me the day after one of our visits, and very shortly after his +installation at the cottage. + + "Give me a golden pen, and let me lean," + +was another, upon being compelled to leave "at an early hour." But the +occasion that recurs to me with the liveliest interest was the evening +when, some observations having been made upon the character, habits, +and pleasant associations of that reverenced denizen of the hearth, +the cheerful little fireside grasshopper, Hunt proposed to Keats the +challenge of writing, then, there, and to time, a sonnet "On the +Grasshopper and the Cricket." No one was present but myself, and they +accordingly set to. I, absent with a book at the end of the sofa, could +not avoid furtive glances, every now and then, at the emulants. I cannot +say how long the trial lasted; I was not proposed umpire, and had no +stop-watch for the occasion: the time, however, was short, for such +a performance; and Keats won, as to time. But the event of the +after-scrutiny was one of many such occurrences which have riveted the +memory of Leigh Hunt in my affectionate regard and admiration, for +unaffected generosity and perfectly unpretentious encouragement: his +sincere look of pleasure at the first line,-- + + "The poetry of earth is never dead"; + +"Such a prosperous opening!" he said; and when he came to the tenth and +eleventh lines,-- + + "On a lone winter evening, _when the frost + Has wrought a silence_"; + +"Ah! that's perfect! bravo, Keats!"--and then he went on in a dilation +upon, the dumbness of all Nature during the season's suspension and +torpidity. With all the kind and gratifying things that were said to +him, Keats protested to me, as we were afterwards walking home, that he +preferred Hunt's treatment of the subject to his own. + +He had left the neighborhood of the Borough, and was now living with his +brothers in apartments on the second floor of a house in the Poultry, +over the passage leading to the Queen's Head Tavern, and opposite one of +the City Companies' Halls,--the Ironmongers', if I mistake not. I have +the associating reminiscence of many happy hours spent in this lodging. +Here was determined upon, in great part written, and sent forth to the +world, the first little, but vigorous, offspring of his brain:-- + + POEMS + BY + JOHN KEATS. + + "What more felicity can fell to creature + Than to enjoy delight with liberty?" + + Fate of the Butterfly,--SPENSER + + LONDON: + PRINTED FOR + C. AND J. OLLIER, 3, WELBECK STREET, + CAVENDISH SQUARE. + 1817. + +Here, on the evening that the last proof-sheet was brought from the +printer, and, as his biographer has recorded, upon being informed, if +he purposed having a Dedication to the book, that it must be sent +forthwith, he went to a side-table, and, in the midst of mixed +conversation (for there were several friends in the room,) he brought to +Charles Ollier, the publisher, the Dedication-Sonnet to Leigh Hunt. If +the original manuscript of that poem--a legitimate sonnet, with +every restriction of rhyme and metre--could now be produced, and the +time--recorded in which it was written, it would be pronounced an +extraordinary performance; added to which, the non-alteration of a +single word in the poem (a circumstance noted at the time) claims for +it, I should suppose, a merit without a parallel. + +"The poem which commences the volume," says Mr. Monckton Milnes, "was +suggested to Keats by a delightful summer's day, as he stood beside the +gate that loads from the battery on Hampstead Heath into a field by Caen +Wood"; and the lovely passage beginning, + + "Linger awhile upon some bending planks," + +and which contains the description of the "swarms of minnows that show +their little heads," Keats told me was the recollection of our having +frequently loitered over the rail of a foot-bridge that spanned a little +brook in the last field upon entering Edmonton. He himself thought the +picture was correct, and liked it; and I do not know who could improve +it. + +Another example of his promptly suggestive imagination, and uncommon +facility in giving it utterance, occurred one day upon his returning +home and finding me asleep upon the sofa, with my volume of Chaucer open +at the "Flower and the Leaf." After expressing his admiration of the +poem, which he had been reading, he gave me the fine testimony of that +opinion, in pointing to the sonnet he had written at the close of it, +which was an extempore effusion, and it has not the alteration of a +single word. It lies before me now, signed, "J.K., Feb., 1817." + +If my memory does not betray me, this charming out-door fancy-scene was +Keats's first introduction to Chaucer. Certain I am that the "Troilus +and Cresseide" was an after-acquaintance; and clearly do I remember his +approbation of the favorite passages that I had marked. I desired him to +retrace the poem, and with his pen confirm and denote those which were +congenial with his own feeling and judgment. These two circumstances, +connected with the literary career of this cherished object of his +friend's esteem and love, have stamped a priceless value upon that +friend's miniature 18mo copy of Chaucer. + +The little first volume of Keats's Muse was launched amid the cheers and +fond anticipations of all his circle. Every one of us expected that it +would create a sensation in the literary world; and we calculated upon, +at least, a succession of reprints. Alas! it might have emerged in +Timbuctoo with stronger chance of fame and favor. It never passed to a +second edition; the first was but a small one, and that was never sold +off. The whole community, as if by compact, determined to know nothing +about it. The word had been passed that its author was a Radical; and in +those blessed days of "Bible-Crown-and-Constitution" supremacy, he might +with better chance of success have been a robber,--there were many +prosperous public ones,--if he had also been an Anti-Jacobin. Keats had +made no demonstration of political opinion; but he had dedicated his +book to Leigh Hunt, a Radical news-writer, and a dubbed partisan of the +French ruler, because he did not call him the "Corsican monster," and +other disgusting names. Verily, "the former times were _not_ better than +these." Men can now write the word "Liberty" without being chalked on +the back and hounded out. + +Poor Keats! he little anticipated, and as little deserved, the cowardly +and scoundrel treatment that was in store for him upon the publication +of his second composition, the "Endymion." It was in the interval of +the two productions that he had moved from the Poultry, and had taken a +lodging in Well Walk, Hampstead,--in the first or second house, on the +right hand, going up to the Heath. I have an impression that he had been +some weeks absent at the sea-side before settling in this domicile; for +the "Endymion" had been begun, and he had made considerable advances in +his plan. He came to me one Sunday, and I walked with him, spending +the whole day in Well Walk. His constant and enviable friend Severn, +I remember, was present on the occasion, by the circumstance of our +exchanging looks upon Keats's reading to us portions of his new work +that had pleased himself. One of these, I think, was the "Hymn to Pan"; +and another, I am sure, was the "Bower of Adonis," because his own +expression of face will never pass from me (if I were a Reynolds or a +Gainsborough, I could now stamp it forever) as he read the description +of the latter, with the descent and ascent of the ear of Venus. The +"Hymn to Pan" occurs early in the First Book:-- + + "O thou, whose mighty palace-roof doth hang + From jagged trunks," etc. + +And the "Bower of Adonis," in the Second Book, commences,-- + + "After a thousand mazes overgone." + +Keats was indebted for his introduction to Mr. Severn to his +school-fellow Edward Holmes, who also had been one of the child-scholars +at Enfield; for he came to us in the frock-dress. They were sworn +companions at school, and remained friends through life. Mr. Holmes +ought to have been an educated musician from his first childhood; for +the passion was in him. I used to amuse myself with the piano-forte +after supper, when all had gone to bed. Upon some sudden occasion, +leaving the parlor, I heard a scuffle on the stairs, and discovered that +my young gentleman had left his bed to hear the music. At other times, +during the day, and in the intervals of school-hours, he would stand +under the window, listening. He at length intrusted to me his heart's +secret, that he should like to learn music. So I taught him his notes; +and he soon knew and could do as much as his tutor. Upon leaving +Enfield, he was apprenticed to the elder Seeley, a bookseller in Fleet +Street; but, hating his occupation, left it, I believe, before he was of +age. He had not lost sight of me; and I introduced him to Mr. Vincent +Novello, who had made himself a friend to me, and who not merely, with +rare profusion of bounty, gave Holmes instruction, but received him into +his house, and made him one of his family. With them he resided some +years. I was also the fortunate means of recommending him to the chief +proprietor of the "Atlas" newspaper; and to that journal, during a long +period, he contributed a series of essays and critiques upon the science +and practice of music, which raised the journal into a reference and an +authority in the art. He wrote for the proprietors of the "Atlas" +that elegant little book of dilettante criticism, "A Ramble among the +Musicians in Germany." He latterly contributed to the "Musical Times" a +whole series of masterly essays and analyses upon the Masses of Haydn, +Mozart, and Beethoven. But the work upon which his reputation will rest +was a "Life of Mozart," which was purchased by Chapman and Hall. + +I have said that Holmes used to listen on the stairs. In after-years, +when Keats was reading to me his "Eve of St. Agnes," (and what a happy +day was that! I had come up to see him from Ramsgate, where I then +lived,) at the passage where Porphyro in Madeleine's chamber is +fearfully listening to the hubbub of the icing and the music in the hall +below, and the verse says,-- + + "The boisterous midnight festive clarion, + The kettle-drum and far-heard clarionet, + Affray his ears, though but in dying tone: + _The hall-door shuts again, and all the noise is gone_,"-- + +"That line," said he, "came into my head when I remembered how I used to +listen, in bed, to your music at school." Interesting would be a record +of the germs and first causes of all the greatest poets' conceptions! +The elder Brunei's first hint for his "shield," in constructing the +tunnel under the Thames, was taken from watching the labor of a +sea-insect, which, having a projecting hood, could bore into the ship's +timber, unmolested by the waves. + +I fancy it was about this time that Keats gave that signal example of +his courage and stamina, in the recorded instance of his pugilistic +contest with a butcher-boy. He told me--and in his characteristic +manner--of their "passage of _arms_." The brute, he said, was tormenting +a kitten, and he interfered, when a threat offered was enough for his +mettle, and they set to. He thought he, should be beaten; for the fellow +was the taller and stronger; but, like an authentic pugilist, my young +poet found that he had planted a blow which "told" upon his antagonist. +In every succeeding round, therefore, (for they fought nearly an hour,) +he never failed of returning to the weak point; and the contest ended +in the hulk being led or carried home. In all my knowledge of my +fellow-beings, I never knew one who so thoroughly combined the sweetness +with the power of gentleness and the irresistible sway of anger as +Keats. His indignation would have made the boldest grave; and those who +have seen him under the influence of tyranny, injustice, and meanness of +soul will never forget the expression of his features,--"the form of his +visage was changed." + +He had a strong sense of humor; yet, so to speak, he was not, in the +strict sense of the term, a humorist. His comic fancy lurked in the +outermost and most unlooked-for images of association,--which, indeed, +maybe said to be the components of humor; nevertheless, I think they +did not extend beyond the _quaint_, in fulfilment and success. But his +perception of humor, with the power of transmitting it by imitation, was +both vivid and irresistibly amusing. He once described to me his having +gone to see a bear-baiting,--the animal, the property of a Mr. Tom +Oliver. The performance not having began, Keats was near to and watched +a young aspirant, who had brought a younger under his wing to witness +the solemnity, and whom he oppressively patronized, instructing him in +the names and qualities of all the magnates present. Now and then, in +his zeal to manifest and impart his knowledge, he would forget himself, +and stray beyond the prescribed bounds, into the ring,--to the lashing +resentment of its comptroller, Mr. William Soames; who, after some hints +of a practical nature, to "keep back," began laying about him with +indiscriminate and unmitigable vivacity,--the Peripatetic signifying to +his pupil,--"My eyes! Bill Soames giv' me sich a licker!"--evidently +grateful, and considering himself complimented, upon being included in +the general dispensation. Keats's entertainment with this minor scene of +low life has often recurred to me. But his subsequent description of the +baiting, with his position, of his legs and arms bent and shortened, +till he looked like Bruin on his hind-legs, dabbing his fore-paws hither +and thither, as the dogs snapped at him, and now and then acting the +gasp of one that had been suddenly caught and hugged, his own capacious +mouth adding force to the personation, was a memorable display. I am +never reminded of this amusing relation, but it is associated with that +forcible picture in Shakspeare, (and what subject can we not associate +with him?) in the "Henry VI":-- + + "as a bear encompassed round with dogs, + Who having _pinched_ a few and _made them cry_, + The rest stand all aloof and bark at him." + +Keats also attended a prize-fight between two of the most skilful and +enduring "light-weights,"--Randal and Turner. It was, I believe, at +that remarkable wager, when, the men being so equally matched and +accomplished, they had been sparring for three-quarters of an hour +before a blow had been struck. In describing the rapidity of Randal's +blows while the other was falling, Keats tapped his fingers on the +window-pane. + +I make no apology for recording these events in his life; they are +characteristics of the natural man,--and prove, moreover, that the +indulgence in such exhibitions did not for one moment blunt the gentler +emotions of his heart, or vulgarize his inborn love of all that was +beautiful and true. His own line was the axiom of his moral existence, +his political creed:--"A thing of beauty is a joy forever"; and I can +fancy no coarser consociation able to win him from this faith. Had he +been born in squalor, he would have emerged a gentleman. Keats was not +an easily swayable man; in differing with those he loved, his firmness +kept equal pace with the sweetness of his persuasion; but with the rough +and the unlovable he kept no terms,--within the conventional precincts, +I mean, of social order. + +From Well Walk he moved to another quarter of the Heath,--Wentworth +Place the name, if I recollect. Here he became a sharing inmate with Mr. +Charles Armitage Brown, a gentleman who had been a Russia merchant, and +had retired to a literary leisure upon an independence. I do not know +how they became acquainted; but Keats never had a more zealous, a +firmer, or more practical friend and adviser than Brown. His robust +eagerness and zeal, with a headstrong determination of will, led him +into an undue prejudice against the brother, George, respecting some +money-transactions with John, which, however, the former redeemed to the +perfect satisfaction of all the friends of the family. After the death +of Keats, Armitage Brown went to reside in Florence, where he remained +some few years; then he settled at Plymouth, and there brought out a +work entitled, "Shakespeare's Autobiographical Poems. Being his Sonnets +clearly developed; with his Character, drawn chiefly from his Works." +It cannot be said that in this work the author has clearly educed his +theory; but, in the face of his failure upon that main point, the book +is interesting, for the heart-whole zeal and homage with which he has +gone into his subject. Brown was no half-measure man; "whatsoever his +hand found to do, he did it with his might." His last stage-scene in +life was passed in New Zealand, whither he emigrated with his son, +having purchased some land,--or, as his own letter stated, having been +thoroughly defrauded in the transaction. Brown accompanied Keats in his +tour in the Hebrides, a worthy event in the poet's career, seeing that +it led to the production of that magnificent sonnet to "Ailsa Rock." As +a passing observation, and to show how the minutest circumstance did not +escape him, he told me, that, when he first came upon the view of Loch +Lomond, the sun was setting; the lake was in shade, and of a deep blue; +and at the farther end was "_a slash across it_, of deep orange." The +description of the traceried window in the "Eve of St. Agnes" gives +proof of the intensity of his feeling for color. + +It was during his abode in Wentworth Place that the savage and vulgar +attacks upon the "Endymion" appeared in the "Quarterly Review," and +in "Blackwood's Magazine." There was, indeed, ruffian, low-lived +work,--especially in the latter publication, which had reached a pitch +of blackguardism, (it used to be called "Blackguard's Magazine,") with +_personal abuse_,--ABUSE,--the only word,--that would damage the sale +of any review at this day. The very reverse of its present management. +There would not now be the _inclination_ for such rascal bush-fighting; +and even then, or indeed at any period of the Magazine's career, the +stalwart and noble mind of John Wilson would never have made itself +editorially responsible for such trash. As to him of the "Quarterly," a +thimble would have been "a mansion, a court," for his whole soul. The +style of the articles directed against the Radical writers, and those +especially whom the party had nicknamed the "Cockney school" of poetry, +may be conceived by its provoking the following observation from Hazlitt +to me:--"To pay those fellows, Sir, _in their own coin_, the way would +be, to begin with Walter Scott, and _have at his clump-foot_." "Verily, +the former times were not better than these." + +To say that these disgusting misrepresentations did not affect the +consciousness and self-respect of Keats would be to underrate the +sensitiveness of his nature. He felt the insult, but more the injustice +of the treatment he had received; he told me so, as we lay awake one +night, when I slept in his brother's bed. They had injured him in the +most wanton manner; but if they, or my Lord Byron, ever for one moment +supposed that he was crushed or even cowed in spirit by the treatment he +had received, never were they more deluded. "Snuffed out by an article," +indeed! He had infinitely more magnanimity, in its fullest sense, +than that very spoiled, self-willed, and mean-souled man,--and I have +authority for the last term. To say nothing of personal and private +transactions, pages 204-207 in the first volume of Mr. Monckton Milnes's +life of our poet will be full authority for my estimate of his Lordship. +"Johnny Keats" had, indeed, "a little body with a mighty heart," and +he showed it in the best way: not by fighting the ruffians,--though +he could have done that,--but by the resolve that he would produce +brain-work which not one of their party could approach; and he did. + +In the year 1820 appeared the "Lamia," "Isabella," "Eve of St. Agnes," +and "Hyperion," etc. But, alas! the insidious disease which carried him +off had made its approach, and he was going to, or had already departed +for, Italy, attended by his constant and self-sacrificing friend, +Severn. Keats's mother died of consumption; and he nursed his younger +brother in the same disease, to the last,--and, by so doing, in all +probability, hastened his own summons. Upon the publication of the last +volume of poems, Charles Lamb wrote one of his own finely appreciative +and cordial critiques in the "Morning Chronicle." This was sent to me in +the country, where I had for some time resided. I had not heard of the +dangerous state of Keats's health,--only that he and Severn were going +to Italy; it was, therefore, an unprepared shock which brought me the +news that he had died in Rome. + +Mr. Monckton Milnes has related the anecdote of Keats's introduction to +Wordsworth, with the latter's appreciation of the "Hymn to Pan," which +its author had been desired to repeat, and the Rydal Mount poet's +snow-capped comment upon it,--"Uhm! a pretty piece of Paganism!" Mr. +Milnes, with his genial and placable nature, has made an amiable defence +for the apparent coldness of Wordsworth's appreciation,--"That it was +probably intended for some slight rebuke to his youthful compeer, +whom he saw absorbed in an order of ideas that to him appeared merely +sensuous, and would have desired that the bright traits of Greek +mythology should be sobered down by a graver faith." Keats, like +Shakspeare, and every other true poet, put his whole soul into what he +imagined, portrayed, or embodied; and hence he appeared the young Greek, +"suckled in that creed outworn." The wonder is, that Mr. Wordsworth +forgot to quote himself. From Keats's description of his Mentor's +manner, as well as behavior, that evening, I cannot but believe it to +have been one of the usual ebullitions of the egoism, not to say of the +uneasiness, known to those who were accustomed to hear the great moral +philosopher discourse upon his own productions and descant upon those +of a contemporary. During this same visit, he was dilating upon some +question in poetry, when, upon Keats's insinuating a confirmatory +suggestion to his argument, Mrs. Wordsworth put her hand upon his arm, +saying,--"Mr. Wordsworth is never interrupted." Again, during the same +interview, some one had said that the next Waverley novel was to be "Rob +Roy"; when Mr. Wordsworth took down his volume of Ballads, and read +to the company "Rob Roy's Grave,"--then, returning it to the shelf, +observed, "I do not know what more Mr. Scott can have to say upon the +subject." When Leigh Hunt had his first interview with Wordsworth, the +latter lectured to him--finely, indeed--upon his own writings; and +repeated the entire sonnet, + + "Great men have been among us,"-- + +which Hunt said he did "in a grand and earnest tone." Some one in a +company quoting the passage from "Henry V.,"-- + + "So work the honey-bees," + +and each "picking out his pet plum" from that perfect piece of natural +history, Wordsworth objected to the line, + + "The singing masons building roofs of gold," + +because, he said, of the unpleasant repetition of the "_ing_" in it! +Where were his ears and judgment on that occasion? But I have more +than once heard it said that Wordsworth had not a genuine love of +Shakspeare,--that, when he could, he always accompanied a "_pro_" with +his "_con_," and, Atticus-like, would "just hint a fault and hesitate +dislike." Truly, indeed, we are all of "a mingled yarn, good and ill +together." + +I can scarcely conceive of anything more unjust than the account +which that ill-ordered being, Haydon, left behind him in his "Diary," +respecting the idolized object of his former intimacy, John Keats. At +his own eager request, after reading the manuscript specimens I had left +with Leigh Hunt, I had introduced their author to him; and for some time +subsequently I had frequent opportunities of seeing them together, and +can testify to the laudations that Haydon trowelled on to the young +poet. Before I left London, however, it had been said that things and +opinions had changed,--and, in short, that Haydon had abjured all +acquaintance with, and had even ignored, such a person as the author of +the sonnet to him, and those "On the Elgin Marbles." I say nothing of +the grounds of their separation; but, knowing the two men, and knowing, +I believe, to the core, the humane principle of the poet, I have such +faith in his steadfastness of friendship, that I am sure he would never +have left behind him an unfavorable _truth_, while nothing could have +induced him to utter a _calumny_ of one who had received pledges of +his former regard and esteem. Haydon's detraction was the more odious +because its object could not contradict the charge, and because it +supplied his old critical antagonists (if any remained) with an +authority for their charge against him of Cockney ostentation and +display. The most mean-spirited and trumpery twaddle in the paragraph +was, that Keats was so far gone in sensual excitement as to put Cayenne +pepper upon his tongue, when taking his claret! Poor fellow! he never +purchased a bottle of claret, within my knowledge of him; and, from +such observation as could not escape me, I am bound to assert that +his domestic expenses never could have occasioned him a regret or a +self-reproof. + +When Shelley left England for Italy, Keats told me that he had received +from him an invitation to become his guest,--and, in short, to make one +of his household. It was upon the purest principle that Keats declined +the noble proffer; for he entertained an exalted opinion of Shelley's +genius, in itself an inducement; he also knew of his deeds of bounty; +and lastly, from their frequent intercourse, he had full faith in the +sincerity of his proposal; for a more crystalline heart than Shelley's +never beat in human bosom. He was incapable of an untruth or of a deceit +in any ill form. Keats told me, that, in declining the invitation, his +sole motive was the consciousness, which would be ever prevalent with +him, of his not being, in its utter extent, a free agent,--even +within such a circle as Shelley's,--himself, nevertheless, the most +unrestricted of beings. Mr. Trelawney, a familiar of the family, has +confirmed the unwavering testimony to Shelley's bounty of nature, where +he says, "Shelley was a being absolutely without selfishness." The +poorest cottagers knew and benefited by the thoroughly _practical_ and +unselfish character of his Christianity, during his residence at Marlow, +when he would visit them, and, having gone through a course of study +in medicine, in order that he might assist them with his advice, would +commonly administer the tonic which such systems usually require,--a +good basin of broth, or pea-soup. And I believe I am infringing on no +private domestic delicacy, when I repeat, that he has been known, upon a +sudden and immediate emergency, to purloin ("_convey_ the wise it call") +a portion of the warmest of Mrs. Shelley's wardrobe, to protect some +poor starving sister. One of the richer residents of Marlow told me that +"_they all_ considered him a madman." I wish he had bitten the whole +squad. + + "No settled senses of the world can match + The 'wisdom' of that madness." + +Shelley's figure was a little above the middle height, slender, and of +delicate construction, which appeared the rather from a lounging or +waving manner in his gait, as though his frame was compounded merely of +muscle and tendon, and that the power of walking was an achievement with +him, and not a natural habit. Yet I should suppose that he was not a +valetudinarian, although that has been said of him, on account of his +spare and vegetable diet: for I have the remembrance of his scampering +and bounding over the gorse-bushes on Hampstead Heath, late one +night,--now close upon us, and now shouting from the height, like a wild +school-boy. He was both an active and an enduring walker,--feats which +do not accompany an ailing and feeble constitution. His face was round, +flat, pale, with small features; mouth beautifully shaped; hair, +bright-brown and wavy; and such a pair of eyes as are rarely seen in +the human or any other head,--intensely blue, with a gentle and lambent +expression, yet wonderfully alert and engrossing: nothing appeared to +escape his knowledge. + +Whatever peculiarity there might have been in Shelley's religious faith, +I have the best authority for believing that it was confined to the +early period of his life. The _practical_ result of its course of +_action_, I am sure, had its source from the "Sermon on the Mount." +There is not one clause in that divine code which his conduct towards +his fellow-mortals did not confirm, and substantiate him to be a +follower of Christ. Yet, when the news arrived in London of the death of +Shelley and Captain Williams by drowning, the "Courier" newspaper--an +evening journal of that day--capped the intelligence with the following +remark:--"He will now know whether there is a hell or not!"--I believe +that there are still one or two public fanatics who would _think_ that +surmise, but not one would dare to utter it in his journal. So much for +the progress of liberality, and the power of opinion. + +At page 100 of the "Life of Keats," Vol. I., Mr. Monckton Milnes has +quoted a literary portrait of him, which he received from a lady who +used to see him at Hazlitt's lectures at the Surrey Institution. The +building was on the south or right-hand side, and close to Blackfriars' +Bridge. I believe that the whole of Hazlitt's lectures, on the British +Poets, the Writers of the Time of Elizabeth, and the Comic Writers, were +delivered in that Institution, during the years 1817 and 1818; shortly +after which time the establishment appears to have been broken up. The +lady's remark upon the character and expression of Keats's features is +both happy and true. She says,--"His countenance lives in my mind as one +of singular beauty and brightness; it had an expression _as if he had +been looking on some glorious sight_." That's excellent.--"His mouth was +full, and less intellectual than his other features." True again. But +when our artist pronounces that "his eyes were large and _blue_" and +that "his hair was _auburn_," I am naturally reminded of the fable of +the "Chameleon":--"They're _brown_, Ma'am,--_brown_, I assure you!" The +fact is, the lady was enchanted--and I cannot wonder at it--with the +whole character of that beaming face; and "blue" and "auburn" being the +favorite tints of the human front divine, in the lords of the creation, +the poet's eyes consequently became "blue," and his hair "auburn." +Colors, however, vary with the prejudice or partiality of the spectator; +and, moreover, people do not agree even upon the most palpable prismatic +tint. A writing-master whom we had at Enfield was an artist of more than +ordinary merit; but he had one dominant defect: he could not distinguish +between true blue and true green. So that, upon one occasion, when he +was exhibiting to us a landscape he had just completed, I hazarded +the critical question, why he painted his trees so _blue_? "Blue!" he +replied,--"what do you call green?"--Reader, alter in your copy of +Monckton Milnes's "Life of Keats," Vol. I., page 103, "eyes" _light +hazel_, "hair" _lightish-brown and wavy_. + +The most perfect, and withal the favorite portrait of him, was the +one by Severn, published in Leigh Hunt's "Lord Byron and his +Contemporaries," and which I remember the artist's sketching in a few +minutes, one evening, when several of Keats's friends were at his +apartments in the Poultry. The portrait prefixed to the "Life," also +by Severn, is a most excellent one-look-and-expression likeness,--an +every-day, and of "the earth, earthy" one;--and the last, which the same +artist painted, and which is now in the possession of Mr. John Hunter, +of Craig Crook, Edinburgh, may be an equally felicitous rendering of one +look and manner; but I do not intimately recognize it. There is another, +and a _curiously unconscious_ likeness of him, in the charming Dulwich +Gallery of Pictures. It is in the portrait of Wouvermans, by Rembrandt. +It is just so much of a resemblance as to remind the friends of the +poet,--though not such a one as the immortal Dutchman would have +made, had the poet been his sitter. It has a plaintive and melancholy +expression, which, I rejoice to say, I do not associate with him. + +There is one of his attitudes, during familiar conversation, which, at +times, (with the whole earnest manner and sweet expression of the man) +presents itself to me, as though I had seen him only last week. The +attitude I speak of was that of cherishing one leg over the knee of the +other, smoothing the instep with the palm of his hand. In this action I +mostly associate him in an eager parley with Leigh Hunt, in his little +cottage in the "Vale of Health." This position, if I mistake not, is in +the last portrait of him at Craig Crook; if not, it is in a reminiscent +one, painted after his death. + +His stature could have been very little more than five feet; but he was, +withal, compactly made and--well-proportioned; and before the hereditary +disorder which carried him off began to show itself, he was active, +athletic, and enduringly strong,--as the fight with the butcher gave +full attestation. + +The critical world,--by which term I mean the censorious portion of +it; for many have no other idea of criticism than, that of censure and +objection,--the critical world have so gloated over the feebler, or, if +they will, the defective side of Keats's genius, and his friends, his +gloryingly partial friends, have so amply justified him, that I feel +inclined to add no more to the category of opinions than to say, that +the only fault in his poetry I could discover was a redundancy of +imagery,--that exuberance, by-the-by, being a quality of the greatest +promise, seeing that it is the constant accompaniment of a young and +teeming genius. But his steady friend, Leigh Hunt, has rendered the +amplest and truest record of his mental accomplishment in the Preface to +the "Foliage," quoted at page 150 of the first volume of the "Life +of Keats"; and his biographer has so zealously, and, I would say, so +amiably, summed up his character and intellectual qualities, that I can +add no more than my assent. + +Keats's whole course of life, to the very last act of it, was one +routine of unselfishness and of consideration for others' feelings. +The approaches of death having come on, he said to his untiring +nurse--friend,--"Severn,--I,--lift me up,--I am dying:--_I shall die +easy; don't be frightened;_--be firm, and thank God it has come." + +There are constant indications through the memoirs, and in the letters +of Keats, of his profound reverence for Shakspeare. His own intensity of +thought and expression visibly strengthened with the study of his idol; +and he knew but little of him till he himself had become an author. A +marginal note by him in a folio copy of the Plays is an example of the +complete absorption his mind had undergone during the process of his +matriculation;--and, through life, however long with any of us, we are +all in progress of matriculation, as we study the "myriad-minded's" +system of philosophy. The note that Keats made was this;--"The genius +of Shakspeare was an _innate universality;_ wherefore he laid the +achievements of human intellect prostrate beneath his indolent and +kingly gaze: _he could do easily men's utmost;_ his plan of tasks to +come was not of this world. If what he proposed to do hereafter would +not in the idea answer the aim, how tremendous must have been his +conception of ultimates!" + + + + +THE EUROPEAN CRISIS. + + +It is not long since we listened to an interesting discussion of this +question:--Which was the more important year to Europe,--1859 or 1860? +The question is one that may be commended to the attention of those +ingenuous young gentlemen, in debating-societies assembled, who have not +yet settled whether Brutus, Cassius, & Co. were right in assassinating +"the mighty Julius," or whether Mary Stuart was a martyred saint or a +martyred sinner, or whether the cold chop to which Cromwell treated +Charles I. on a memorable winter-day was either a just or a politic +mode of touching for the king's evil. It would have the merit of +novelty,--and Americans are as fond of new things in their day of power +as ever were the Athenians in the day of their decline. A yet rarer +merit it would have, in the fact that a great deal could justly be said +on both sides of the question. An umpire would probably decide in favor +of 1859,--because, he might say, had the events of that year been +different, those of 1860 must have undergone a complete change. + +The romantic conquest of Sicily by Garibaldi, and his successes in +Naples, whereby a junior branch of the Bourbon family has been sent +to "enjoy" that exile which has so long been the lot of the senior +branch,--and the destruction of the _Papalini_ by the Italian army of +Victor Emanuel II., which asserted the superiority of the children of +the soil over the bands of foreign ruffians assembled by De Merode and +Lamoricière for the oppression of the Peninsula in the name of the +venerable head of the Church of Rome,--these are events even more +striking than those by which the iron sceptre of Austria was cut through +in the earlier year, because they have been accomplished by Italian +genius and courage, the few foreigners in the army of Garibaldi not +counting for much in the contest. They prove the regeneration of Italy. +But it is evident that nothing of the kind could have been done in 1860, +if 1859 had been as quiet a year for Italy as its immediate predecessor. +Before the leaders and the soldiers of Italy could obtain the +indispensable place whereon to stand, it was imperatively necessary +that the power of Austria should be broken down, through the defeat and +consequent demoralization of her army. For a period of forty-four +years, Austria had had her own way in the Peninsula. From the fall +of Napoleon's Italian dominion, in 1814, to the day when the third +Napoleon's army entered Sardinia, there was, virtually, no other rule in +Italy but that which Austria approved. The events of 1848, which at one +time promised to remove "the barbarians," had for their conclusion the +re-establishment of her ascendency in greater force than ever; and the +last ten years of that ascendency will always be remembered as the +period when its tyrannical character was most fully developed. The hoary +proconsul of the Lorraines, Radetzky, if not personally cruel, was +determined to do for his masters what Castilian lieutenants had done +for the Austro-Burgundian monarchs of Spain and her dependencies, +the fairest portions of Italy being among those dependencies, in the +sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,--to destroy the public spirit of +Italy. Could he have completed a century of life, or had there been no +European nation ready to prevent the success of the Germanic policy +under which Italy was to wither to provincial worthlessness, he might +have been successful. But Austria lost her best man, the only one of +her soldiers who had shown himself capable of upholding her Italian +position, when he had reached to more than ninety years; and it pleased +Providence to raise up a friend to Italy in a quarter to which most men +had ceased to look for anything good. + +Well has it been said, that "it is not the best tools that shape out +the best ends; if so, Martin Luther would not have been selected as the +master-spirit of the Reformation." Napoleon III. may deserve all that is +said against him by men of the extreme right and by men of the extreme +left,--by Catholics and infidels,--by _Whites_, and _Reds_, and +_Blues_,--but it cannot be denied that he gave to the Italians that +assistance without which they never could have obtained even partial +deliverance from the Austrian yoke, and which they could have procured +from no other potentate or power. Bankrupt though she was, Austria's +force was so superior to anything that Italy could present in the shape +of an army, that Sardinia must have been conquered, if she had contended +alone with her enemy; and a war between Austria and Sardinia was +inevitable, and would probably have broken out long before 1859, had the +former country been assured of the neutrality of France. + +There has been a great inkshed, and a large expenditure of oratory, on +the question of the origin of the Italian war of 1859; and, as usual, +much nonsense has been written and said of and concerning the ambition +of France and the encroachments of Sardinia. But that war was brought +about neither by French ambition nor by Sardinian desire for territorial +aggrandizement. That it occurred in 1859 was undoubtedly owing to the +action of France, which country merely chose its own time to drub its +old foe; but the point at issue was, whether Austrian or Sardinian ideas +should predominate in the government of Italy. Austria's purpose never +could be accomplished so long as a constitutional polity existed in +the best, because the best governed and the best organized, of all the +Italian States; and Sardinia's purpose never could be accomplished so +long as Austria was in a condition to dictate to the Italians the manner +in which they should be ruled. A war between the two nations was, as we +have said, inevitable. The only point about which there could be any +dispute was, whether Sardinia would have to fight the battle of Italy +unaided, or be backed by some power beyond the mountains. + +It shows how much men respect a military monarchy, how deferential they +are to the sword, that even those persons who assumed that France must +espouse the Sardinian cause were far from feeling confident that Austria +would be overmatched by an alliance of the two most liberal of the +Catholic nations of Europe. That monarchy is the type of force to all +minds; and though she has seldom won any splendid successes in the field +over the armies of enlightened nations, and has been repeatedly beaten +by Prussia and France, men cling to old ideas, and give her great +advantages at the beginning of every war in which she engages. The +common opinion, in the spring of 1859, was, that Austria would crush +Sardinia before the French could reach the field in force, and that her +soldiers, flushed by successes over the Italians, would hurl their new +foes out of the country, or leave them in its soil. As before, Italy was +to be the grave of the French,--only that their grave was to be dug at +the very beginning of the war, instead of being made, as in other days, +at its close. But it was otherwise ordered. The Austrians lost the +advantage which certainly was theirs at the opening of the contest, +and, that lost, disaster after disaster befell their arms, until the +"crowning mercy" of Solferino freed Italy from their rule, if it did not +entirely banish them from her land. That Solferino was not so great +a victory to the Allies as it was claimed to be at the time, that it +resembled less Austerlitz than Wagram, may be admitted, and yet its +importance remain unquestioned; for its decision gained for Italy the +only thing that it was necessary she should have in order to work out +her own salvation. Henceforth, she was not to tremble at the mere touch +of the hilt of the sword worn by the Viceroy at Milan, but was to have +the chance, at least, of ordering her own destinies. If not thoroughly +free, she was no longer utterly enslaved. + +The peace of Villafranca surprised every one, from the Czar on the +Neva to the gold-gatherers on the Sacramento. Strange as had been the +doings--the world called them tricks--of Napoleon III., no man was +prepared for that; and even now, though seventeen eventful months have +rolled away since the first shock of it was experienced, the summer-day +it was received seems more like one of those days we see in dreams than +like a day of real life. Doubt, laughter, astonishment, and disgust +followed each other through the minds of millions of men. If curses +could kill, the man who had escaped the bombs of Orsini and the bullets +of the Austrians would certainly have died in the month that followed +the interview he had flogged his imperial brother into granting him. In +America,--where we are always doing so much (on paper) for the cause of +freedom, and for the deliverance of "oppressed nationalities" of the +proper degrees and shades of whiteness, in the firm conviction that the +free man is the better customer,--in America the reaction of opinion was +overwhelming; and there were but few persons in the United States who +would not have shouted over news that Henri Cinq was in Paris, and that +the French Empire had a third time made way for the Kingdom of France. +Time has not altogether removed the impression then created; for, if it +has not justified the belief that the French Emperor had abandoned +the Italian cause, it has convinced the world that he lost a noble +opportunity to effect the destruction of Austria. There may be--most +probably there are--facts yet unknown to the public, knowledge of which +would partially justify the conduct of the victor toward the vanquished, +in 1859; but, if we judge from what we know, which is all that any +monarch can demand of the formers of opinion, Napoleon III. was guilty +of a monstrous political and military blunder when he forced a truce +upon Francis Joseph. + +There is no evidence that any European power was about to interfere in +behalf of Austria. Prussia, it is true, had taken a stern attitude, and +showed a disposition to place herself at the head of those German States +which were for beginning a march upon Paris at once, though M. le +Maréchal Duc de Malakoff was ready with two hundred thousand men to +receive them, and Paris itself was not the feeble place it had been in +1814 and 1815. It is altogether likely that Prussia was, as is usual +with her at every European crisis, shamming. She had no interest in the +maintenance of Austria's territorial integrity, and it was rather late +in the day to assume that Berlin was affected by the mortifications of +Vienna. Could the hearts of kings and the counsels of cabinets be known +with that literal exactness which is so desirable in politics, and +yet so unattainable, we should probably find that Prussia's apparent +readiness to lead Germany was owing to her determination that German +armies should be led nowhere to the assistance of Austria. England +had just changed her Ministry, the Derby Cabinet giving way to Lord +Palmerston's, which was recognized on all sides as a great gain to the +cause of Italian independence; and Lord John Russell had written one of +those crusty notes to the Prussian government for which he is so famous, +and which was hardly less Italian in its sentiments than that in which, +written in October last, he upheld the course of Garibaldi and Victor +Emanuel. Russia had evinced no disposition to interfere in behalf of +Austria, and perhaps the news of Magenta and Solferino was as agreeable +to the dwellers in St. Petersburg and Moscow as it was to the citizens +of New York and Boston. She was, indeed, believed to be backing France. +Politically, so far as we can judge, there was no cause or occasion for +the throwing up of the cards by the French, after Solferino. + +Nor were the military reasons for the cessation of warlike operations of +a nature to convince men of their irresistible weightiness. A great +deal was said about the strength of "the Quadrilateral," and of the +impregnability of the position which it formed,--as if there ever had +existed a military position which could not be carried or turned, or out +of which its defenders could not be bought, or forced, or starved! +The strength of the Quadrilateral was as well known to the Emperor +in January as it was in July, and he must have counted its powers of +resistance before he resolved upon war. Victory he had organized, like +Carnot; and victory in Lombardy was sure to take his army to the Mincio. +Verona and Venetia were to be the complement of Milan. Then there was +the story that he frightened the Kaiser into giving his consent to the +truce by proving to him that the fortresses upon which he relied were +not in good defensible condition, his commissaries having placed the +funds in their pockets that should have been devoted to the purchase +of stores,--a story that wears a very probable air, in view of the +discovery subsequently made of the malversations of some of the highest +persons at Vienna, and which had much to do with the suicide of the +Minister of Finance. It is known, too, that the force which Napoleon +III. had assembled in the Adriatic was very strong, and could have been +so used as to have promoted an Hungarian insurrection in a sense not at +all pleasant to the Austrians, to have attacked Dalmatia and Istria, and +to have aided in the deliverance of Venice. That force was largely naval +in its character, and the French navy was burning to distinguish itself +in a war that had been so productive of glory to the sister-service: it +would have had a Magenta and a Palestro of its own, won where the Dorias +and the Pisani had struggled for fame and their countries' ascendency. +Instead of the Quadrilateral being a bar to the French, it would have +been a trap to the Austrians, who would have been taken there after the +manner in which Napoleon I. took their predecessors at Ulm. After the +war was over, it came out that Verona was not even half armed. + +If Napoleon III. was bent upon carrying that imitation of his uncle, of +which he is so fond, to the extent of granting a magnanimous peace to a +crushed foe, he may be said to have caricatured that which he sought +to imitate. The first Napoleon's magnanimity after Austerlitz has been +attributed to the craft of the beaten party,--he allowing the Russians +to escape when they had extricated themselves from the false position in +which their master's folly had caused them to be placed. But the third +Napoleon did allow the Austrians to avoid the consequences of their +defeat, and so disappointed Italy and the world. He _was_ magnanimous, +and most astonishing to the minds of men was his magnanimity. Most +people called it stupidity, and strange stories were told of his +nervous system having been shattered by the sights and sounds of those +slaughter-fields which he had planned and fought and won! + +We live rapidly in this age, when nations are breaking up all around us, +when unions are dissolving, when dynasties disappear before the light +like ghosts at cock-crowing, and when emperors and kings rely upon +universal suffrage, once so terrible a bugbear in their eyes, for the +titles to their crowns. Opinion is rapidly formed, and is as rapidly +dismissed. We may be as much astonished now at the peace of Villafranca +as we were on the day when first it was announced, and while looking +upon it only as a piece of diplomacy intended to put an end to a contest +costly in blood and gold; but we cannot say, as it was common then +to say, that the war which it closed has decided nothing. That war +established the freedom and nationality of Italy, and the peace so much +condemned was the means of demonstrating to the world the existence of +an _Italian People_. How far the French Emperor was self-deceived, and +to what extent he believed in the practicability of the arrangements +made at Villafranca and Zurich, are inscrutable mysteries. _Que +sais-je_? might be the form of his own answer, were any one entitled to +question him concerning his own opinion on his own acts of 1859. But +of the effects of his attack on Austria there can be no doubt. That +Lorraines and Bourbons have ceased to reign in Italy,--that the +Kingdom of Victor Emanuel has increased from six millions of people to +twenty-four millions,--that the same constitutional monarch who ruled at +Turin is now acknowledged in Milan, in Ancona, in Florence, in Naples, +and in Palermo, being King of Lombards, and Tuscans, and Romans, and +Neapolitans, and Sicilians,--and that the Austrians are no longer the +rulers of the Peninsula,--these things are all due to the conduct of the +French Emperor. Had the peace of Europe not been broken by France, the +Austrian power in Italy would have been unbroken at this moment, and +Naples have been still under the dominion of that mad tyrant whose +supreme delight it was to offend the moral sense of the world, and who +found even in the remonstrances of his brother-despots occasion for +increasing the weight of the chains of his victims, and of adding to the +intensity and the exquisiteness of their tortures. + +These solid advantages to Italy, this freedom of hers from domestic +despotism and foreign control, are the fruits of French intervention; +and they could have been obtained in no other way. There was no nation +but France to which Italy could look for aid, and to France she did not +look in vain. Of the motives of her ally it would be idle to speak, as +there is no occasion to go beyond consequences; and those consequences +are just as good as if the French Emperor were as pure-minded and +unselfish as the most perfect of those paladins of romance who went +about redressing one class of wrongs by the creation of another. +What Italy desired, what alone she needed, was freedom from foreign +intervention; and that she got through the interposition of French +armies, and that she could have got from no other human source. This +single fact is an all-sufficient answer to the myriads of sneers that +were called forth by the failure of Napoleon III. to redeem his pledge +to make Italy free from the Alps to the Adriatic. What other potentate +did anything for that country in 1859, or has done anything for it since +that memorable year? Neither prince nor people, leaving Napoleon III. +and the French aside, has so much as lifted a hand to promote the +regeneration of Italy. America has enough to do in the way of attending +to domestic slavery, without concerning herself about the freedom of +foreigners; and she has given the Italians her--sympathies, which are of +as much real worth to her as would be a treatise on the Resolutions of +'98 to a man who should happen to tumble into the Niagara, with the +Falls close upon him. England would have had Italy submit to that +Austrian rule which had been established over her by English influence +in 1814, when even the perverse, pig-headed Francis II. could see sound +objections to it; and all because want of submission on her part would +disturb the equilibrium of Europe, and might tend to the aggrandizement +of France,--two things which she by no means desired to see happen. +Russia, like America, gave Italy her sympathies; but she had a better +excuse than we had for being prudent, as her monarch was engaged in +planning at least the freedom of the serfs. If the Russians desired the +overthrow of the Austrians, it was not because they loved the Italians, +but from hatred of their oppressors; and that hatred had its origin in +the refusal of Austria to join Russia when she was so hard pressed by +France and England, Turkey and Piedmont. Prussia, us we have seen, sided +with Austria; and though it is impossible to believe in her sincerity, +her moral power, so far as it went, was adverse to the Italian cause. +The other European nations were of no account, having no will of their +own, and being influenced only by the action of the members of the +Pentarchy. Save France, Italy had no friend possessed of the disposition +and the ability to afford her that assistance without which she must +soon have become in name, as she was fast becoming in fact, a mere +collection of Austrian provinces. + +We dwell upon those well-known facts because an opinion seems to prevail +that no nation or government shall interfere for the protection of the +weak against the strong, unless it shall be able to show that it is +perfect itself, and that its intentions are of the most unselfish +nature. Peoples are to be delivered from oppression only as the +Israelites were delivered, by the direct and immediate interposition of +Heaven in human affairs; and the delivering agent must be as high-minded +and generous as Moses, who was allowed merely to gaze upon the Promised +Land. Men who thus reason about human action, and the motives of actors +on the great stage of life, must have read history to very little +purpose, and have observed the making of history round about them to no +purpose at all. The instruments of Providence are seldom perfect men, +and the broad light in which they live brings out their faults in full +force. Napoleon III. is not above the average morality of his time; and +if he had been so, probably he never would have become Emperor of the +French. But in this respect differs he much from those men who have +wrought great things for the world, and whom the world is content to +reverence? Robert Bruce, who saved Scotland from the misery that befell +Ireland; Henry IV., who renewed the life of France; Maurice of Saxony, +who prevented the Reformation from proving a stupendous failure; and +William III., without whose aid the Constitutionalists of England must +have gone down before the Stuarts: not one of these men was perfect; +and yet what losses the world would have experienced, if they had never +lived, or had failed in their great labors! It has been claimed for +Gustavus Adolphus that he was the only pure conqueror that ever lived; +but his purity may safely be placed to the account of the balls of +Lützen: he was not left unto temptation. We should extend to Napoleon +III. the same charity that we extend to men who have long been +historical characters, and judge him by his actions and their results, +and not criticise him by the canons of faction. + +Italy was delivered by the war of 1859, and that war was terminated by +the peace of Villafranca. For the moment, it seemed as if there were +to be a restoration of the petty princes who had fled from Tuscany and +Parma and Modena, and that an Italian Confederation had been resolved +upon, in which the noxious influences of Austria and Naples and Papal +Rome should stifle the pure principles upheld by Sardinia. A few months +sufficed to show that these evils existed in apprehension only. The +Italians, by the withdrawal of the French, were thrown upon their own +resources, and by their conduct they dissipated the belief that they +were unequal to the emergency. Had the war been continued, had Venetia +been conquered, and had the last of the Austrians been driven beyond the +Isonzo, Italy would have been the prize of French valor and genius; for +all this must have been done on the instant, and before the Italians, +less the Sardinians, could have taken an effective part in the war. The +most devoted believer in the patriotism and bravery of the Italians must +perforce admit that they had little to do with the war of 1859. Leaving +the Sardinians aside, the Italian element in that contest was scarcely +appreciable. This we say without meaning any reflection on the Italians. +There were many good reasons why they should remain quiet. In common +with the rest of the world, even France herself, the war took them by +surprise, Austria bringing it on weeks, if not months, before Napoleon +III. had meant it to begin. They, too, had seen their country so often +abused by those who had conquered there, that they had some excuse for +waiting the progress of events. The most industrious and studied efforts +had been made to convince them that the object of the ruler of France +was the realization of another Napoleonic idea, namely, the restoration +of that Kingdom of Italy which perished in 1814; and though the rule of +Napoleon I. was the best that Italy had known for three hundred years, +it was hardly worth while to enter upon a doubtful fight for its +restoration. Hence the majority of the people of Italy were not so +active as they might have been; and their coolness is said to have had +much effect on the mind of the victor, who must have thought that the +people he had come to deliver were taking things very easily, and who +could not have felt much flattered, when assured, in the politest +terms, that those people believed him to be a selfish liar. His work, +therefore, was but partially performed. Instead of halting on the shores +of the historical Adriatic, his armies drew up on the banks of the +classic Mincius. Trance had done her part; let Italy do the rest, if +it were to be done. Thus abdicating his original purpose, and probably +feeling much as William III. felt when the English were so slow in +joining him that he talked of returning to his ships, Napoleon III. +gave up his power to dictate the future of Italy. He had no right, +thereafter, to say that the Bourbons should continue to govern in the +Two Sicilies, that the Dukes should be restored to their Duchies, and +that Venetia should be guarantied to Austria. He felt this, as the terms +of the treaties that were made very clearly show; for he was careful to +abstain from pledging himself to anything of a definite character. If +he had perfected his original work, and been possessed of the power to +effect a new settlement of Italy, he would, we presume, have stipulated +for the continuance of the Bourbon power in the southern portion of the +Peninsula and in Sicily; while the much talked-of purpose of creating an +Italian Kingdom or Duchy for Prince Napoleon would probably have been +carried out, and that gentleman have been established on the Arno. To +the Sardinian monarchy would have been assigned the spoils taken from +Austria,--Venice and Lombardy. The change in his political plans was the +consequence of the change in his military plan,--though either change +may be pronounced the cause or the effect, according to the point from +which the observer views the entire series of transactions. Thus the +peace of 1859 may be considered to have been a benefit to Italy, just +as the war it terminated had been. The war freed her from Austrian +dominion; the peace, from its character, and from the circumstances +under which it was made, left her people at liberty to act as they +pleased in the fair field that had been won for their exertions by the +skill and courage of the French and Sardinian armies. + +The destinies of Italy being placed in her own hands, the Italians were +as prompt as politic considerations would allow them to be in promoting +the unification of their country. Central Italy soon became a part of +the constitutional monarchy which had grown up under the shadow of the +Alps. This could not have happened, if Napoleon III. had chosen to veto +the proceedings of the Italians, which had virtually nullified one of +his purposes. That he consented to this large addition to the power of +Sardinia on the condition of receiving Savoy and Nice is by no means +unlikely; and we do not think that Victor Emanuel was either unwise or +wanting in patriotism in parting with those countries for the benefit of +Italy. Taking advantage of the troubles in Sicily, Garibaldi led a +small expedition to that island, which there landed, and began those +operations which had their appropriate termination, in five months, in +the addition of all the territories of the wretched Francis II., except +Gaëta, to the dominions of the Sardinian King. The importance of +Garibaldi's undertaking it is quite impossible to overrate; but of what +account could it have been, if the Austrians had stood to Italy in the +same position that they held at the opening of 1859? Of none at all. +Garibaldi is preeminently a man of sense, and he would never have +thought of moving against Francis II., if Francis Joseph had been at +liberty to assist that scandalous caricature of kings. Or, if he had +been tempted to enter upon the project, he would have been "snuffed +out" as easily as was Murat, when, in 1815, he sought to recover the +Neapolitan throne. If Austrian ships had not prevented him from landing +in Sicily, Austrian troops would have destroyed him in that island. Nay, +it is but reasonable to believe that Bomba's navy and army would have +been amply sufficient to do their master's work. That his men were not +wanting in courage and conduct has been proved by their deeds since the +tyrant left his capital, on the Volturno and around Capua and at Gaëta. +It was not want of bravery that led to their failure in Sicily, but the +belief that their employer's system had failed, and that he and they +were given up to the vengeance of Italy, supposing the Italians to be +strong enough to do justice on them. They took courage when European +circumstances led them to conclude that Austria would be advised, at +the Warsaw Conference, to use her forces for the restoration of the old +order of things in Italy, and receive the support of Russia and Prussia. +To deserve such aid from the North, the Neapolitan army struggled hard, +but in vain. The Absolutist cause was lost in Naples when the sovereigns +met in the Polish capital; and though, forty years earlier, this would +have been held an additional reason for the entrance of the barbarians +into Italy, the successes of the patriots must have had their proper +weight with the Prince Regent of Prussia and the Czar, who are +understood to have been as deaf as adders to the charming of their young +brother from Vienna. What was resolved upon at Warsaw the world has no +positive means of knowing, and but little reliance is to be placed upon +the rumors that have been so abundant; but, as Austria has not +moved against the Italians, and as the instructions to her new +commander-in-chief in Venetia (Von Benedek) are reported to be strong +on the point of non-intervention, we are at liberty to infer that she +accepts all that has been done as accomplished facts, and means to +stand upon the defensive, in the hope of gaining moral support by her +moderation in being outwardly content with less than half the spoil +which was given to her at the expense of Italy, when Europe was +"settled," for the time, four-and-forty years ago. + +The action of the Sardinian government, in sending its soldiers against +the legal banditti whom Lamoricière had sought to drill into the +semblance of an army, which was a direct attack on the Pope, and the +subsequent employment of those soldiers, and of the Sardinian fleet, +against the forces of Francis II., were model pieces of statesmanship, +and worthy of the great man whose name and fame have become indissolubly +associated with the redemption of Italy. The decision thus to act could +not have been taken without the consent of Napoleon III. having first +been had and obtained; and there is probably much truth in the story, +that, when Lamoricière had the coolness to threaten his conquerors with +the vengeance of the Emperor, they told him, half-laughingly, that, they +had planned the campaign with that illustrious personage at Chambéry, +which must have convinced him that the cause of the Keys had nothing to +expect from France beyond the sort of police aid which General Goyon was +affording to it in the name of his master. Lamoricière also expected +help from Austria, and professed to be able to number the few days at +the expiration of which the white-coats would be at Alessandria, which +would have been a diversion in his favor, that, had it been made, must +have saved him from the mortification of surrendering to men whom he +affected to despise, but who brought him and his army under the yoke. +The faith of the commander of the rabble of the Faith in Austrian +assistance was a Viennese inspiration, and was meant to induce him to +resist to the last. Nor was it altogether false; for the Kaiser and +Count Rechberg appear to have believed that they could induce the +governments of Russia and Prussia to support them in a crusade in behalf +of Rome and Naples, which was to rely upon Lutherans and supporters of +the Eastern Church for the salvation of the Western Church and its worst +members. The first interview between Rechberg and Gortschakoff, if we +can believe a despatch from Warsaw, led quickly to a quarrel, which must +have taken place not long after their chiefs, the Kaiser and the Czar, +had been locked in each other's arms at the railway-station. It is but +just to the Austrians to state, that they probably had received from St. +Petersburg some promises of assistance, which Alexander found himself +unable to redeem, so determined was Russian opinion in its expression of +aversion to Austria when its organs began to suspect that the old game +was to be renewed, and that Alexander contemplated doing in 1861 +what Nicholas had done in 1849,--to step between Francis Joseph and +humiliation, perhaps destruction. If it be true that the Czar has +ordered all Russians to leave Italy, that piece of pitiful spite would +show how he hates the Italian cause, and also that it is not in his +power seriously to retard its progress at present. Instead of ordering +Russians from Italy, he would send them to that country in great masses, +could he have his way in directing the foreign policy of his empire. + +The entire success of Victor Emanuel and Garibaldi has brought Italian +matters to a crisis. Carrying out the policy of Cavour, the King and the +Soldier have all but completed the unification of their country, at +the very time when the United States are threatened with disunion. The +Kingdom of Italy exists at this time, virtually, if not in terms, and +contains about twenty-four million people. It comprises the original +territories of Victor Emanuel, _minus_ Savoy and Nice, the Two Sicilies, +Lombardy, almost the whole of the Papal States, and Tuscany, Parma, and +Modena. If we except the fragment of his old possessions yet held by the +Pope, and the Austrian hold on Venetia, all Italy now acknowledges +the rule of Victor Emanuel, who is to meet an _Italian_ Parliament +in January, 1861. No political change of our century has been more +remarkable than this, whether we look to its extent, or have regard to +the agencies by which it has been brought about. Two years ago, there +was more reason to believe that the King of Sardinia would be an exile +than that the Bourbon King of Naples would be on his travels. No man +would have dared to prophesy that the former would be reigning over +seven-eighths of the Italians, while the latter should be reduced to one +town, garrisoned by foreign mercenaries. That these changes should be +wrought by universal suffrage, had it been predicted, would have been +thought too much to be related as a dream. Yet it is the voice of the +Italian People, speaking under a suffrage-system apparently more liberal +than ever has been known in America, which has accomplished all that has +been done since the summer of 1859 in the Peninsula and in Sicily. It +was because Napoleon III. would not place himself in opposition to the +opinion of the people of Central Italy, that the petty monarchs of +that country were not restored to their thrones, and that they became +subjects of Victor Emanuel; and the voting in Sicily and Naples +has confirmed the decision of arms, and made it imperative on the +reactionists to attack the people, should their policy lead them to +seek a reversal of the decrees of 1860. The new monarch of the Italians +expressly bases his title to reign on the will of the people, expressed +through the exercise of the least restricted mode of voting that ever +has been known among men; and the people of Southern Italy never could +have had the opportunity to vote their crown to him, if Garibaldi +had not first freed them from the savage tyranny of Francis II.; and +Garibaldi himself could not have acted for their deliverance, if Italy +had not previously been delivered from the Austrians by France. Thus we +have the French Emperor, designated as a _parvenu_ both in England and +America, and owing his power to his name,--the democrat Garibaldi, whose +power is from his deeds, and whose income is not equal to that of an +Irish laborer in the United States,--the rich and noble Cavour, whose +weekly revenues would suffice to purchase the fee-simple of Garibaldi's +island-farm,--the King of Sardinia, representing a race that was +renowned before the Normans reigned in England,--and the masses of the +Italian people,--all acting together for the redemption of a country +which needs only justice to enable it to assume, as near as modern +circumstances will permit, its old importance in the world's scale. +That there should have been such a concurrence of foreign friendship, +democratic patriotism, royal sagacity, aristocratic talent, and popular +good sense, for Italy's benefit, must help to strengthen the belief that +the Italians are indeed about to become a new _Power_ in Europe, and +in the world, and that their country is no more to be rated as a mere +"geographical expression." + +The Italian crisis is a European crisis; for matters have now reached +a pass in which the foreigner must have something to say of Italy's +future: and it will be well for the general peace, if he shall use only +the words of justice, in giving his decision; for his right to speak +at all in the premises is derived only from an act of usurpation, long +acquiescence in which has clothed it with a certain show of legality. In +all that the Italians have thus far done, since the conclusion of the +with Austria, they have not necessarily been brought into conflict +with any foreign nation, though they may have terribly offended those +legitimate sovereigns who have been accustomed either to give law to +Europe or to see public opinion defer considerably to their will. Not a +single acquisition thus far made by Victor Emmanuel can be said to have +proceeded from any act at which Europe could complain with justice. +Lombardy was given to him by his ally of France, whose prize it was, and +who had an undid dispose of it in a most righteous manner. That Central +Italy was acquired by him was due partly to the cowardice of the old +rulers thereof, and partly to intelligence, activity, and patriotism of +its people. No foreign rights, conventional or otherwise, were assailed +or disregarded, when it passed under the Sardinian sceptre. When go much +of the Pope's temporal possessions were taken from him by the people +themselves, who had become weary of the worst system of misgovernment +known to the west of Bokhara, no doubt many pious Catholics were +shocked; but, if they knew anything of the history of the Papal temporal +rule and power, they could not complain at what was done, on the score +of illegality; and the deeds of Cialdini and Fanti and Persano were +performed against foreigners who had intruded themselves into Italy, and +who were employed to uphold the political supremacy of a few persons at +Rome, while they had no more connection with the religion of the ancient +Church than they had with that of Thibet. The King of the Two Sicilies, +by his tyranny, and by his persistence in the offensive course of his +house, had become an outlaw, as it were, and every _Italian_ at least +was fairly authorized to attack him; and in doing so he could not +be said to assail European order, nor could any European power +send assistance to a monarch who had refused to listen even to the +remonstrances of Austria against his cruelties. The stanchest of +English conservatives, while they said they must regard Garibaldi as +a freebooter, did not hesitate to express the warmest wishes for the +freebooter's success. When the Sardinians marched to Garibaldi's aid, +they did so in the interest of order, which has been promptly restored +to Southern Italy through their energetic course. + +Thus far, that which has been done in Italy has been of a local +character; but nothing more can be done, in the way of completing the +independence and unity of Italy, without bringing the patriots into +conflict with Austria. That power still is supreme in Venetia, which is +one of the best portions of Italy, and which can be held by no foreign +sovereign without endangering the whole Peninsula. Were there no other +reason for seeking to redeem Venetia from Austrian oppression, the +safety of the rest of Italy would demand that that redemption should be +accomplished. Venetia, as she now is, is a place of arms for the chief, +we may say the only, foreign enemy that the Italian Kingdom has or can +have; and that enemy has a deep and a peculiar interest in seeking +occasion to bring about the new kingdom's destruction. If Austria should +succeed in conciliating the Hungarians,--which she might do, if she +were to act justly toward them,--and a change of government were to take +place in France,--and changes in the French government have occurred +so often since 1789 as not to be improbable now,--she would, through +possession of Venetia, be enabled to commence a new Italian war with the +chances of success greatly in her favor. The Italians, therefore, are +compelled to round and complete their work, in getting possession of +Venetia, by that desire for safety and for self-preservation which +actuates all men and all communities. A nobler feeling, too, moves them. +They feel the obligation that exists to extend to the Venetians that +freedom which is now enjoyed by all Italians except the Venetians and +a small portion of the Pope's subjects. They would be recreant to the +dictates of duty, and disregardful of those of honor, were they to leave +Venetia in the hands of Austria. What their feelings on this +momentous subject are may be gathered from Garibaldi's address to his +companions-in-arms, when, having completed his immediate work, he +withdrew from active service for the time, in November last. His words +point as directly to an attack on Venetia as his landing in Sicily +indicated his intention to overthrow Francis II.; and that attack, +according to the Patriot Soldier, is to be made under the lead of the +Patriot King, Victor Emanuel. A million of Italians are called for, that +it may be successfully made; and that number ought to be raised, if so +vast a host shall be found necessary to perfect the independence of +Italy. After what we have seen done by the Italians, we should not +distrust their power to do even more, if no delay should be permitted, +and full advantage be taken of the spirit of enthusiastic patriotism +which now animates them. That Garibaldi means no delay is proved by his +naming next March as the date for the renewal of the mighty crusade in +the course of which already such miracles have been wrought. + +That Italy, as she stands to-day, would be found more than the equal +of Austria, no doubt can be felt by any one who is acquainted with the +condition of the two powers. Italy would enter upon a contest with +Austria under circumstances of peculiar advantage. She would have so +decided a naval superiority, that the Austrian flag would disappear from +the Mediterranean and the Adriatic, and she would be able to operate +powerfully from the sea against Venice. It is a military axiom, that, +wherever there is a sea-side, there is a weak side; and Venetia presents +this to an assailing force in quite a striking manner. Command of +the Adriatic and the neighboring waters would enable the Italians to +threaten many points of the Austrian territory, which would require to +be watched by large collections of soldiers; and aid could be sent to +the Hungarians, should they rise, by the way of Fiume. Italy could +raise a larger army to attack Venetia than Austria could employ for its +defence, with Hungary on the eve of revolution, Bohemia discontented, +Croatia not the loyal land it was in '48, and even the Tyrol no longer +a model of subserviency to the Imperial House. The Italians are at any +time the equals of the Austrians as soldiers, and at this time their +minds are in an exalted state, under the dominion of which they would +be found superior to any men who could be brought against them, if well +led; and among the Imperial commanders there is no man, unless Von +Benedek be an exception, who is to be named with the generals who have +led the way in the work we have seen done since last spring. In a +military sense, and in a moral sense, Italy is the superior of the +beaten, bankrupt monarchy of Austria, and capable of wresting Venetia +from the intrusive race, which holds it as much in defiance of common +sense as of common right. + +But would Italy be permitted to settle her quarrel with her old +oppressor without foreign intervention? We fear that she would not. +Venetia is held by Austria in virtue of the Vienna settlement of Europe, +in the first place, and then under the treaty that followed the war of +1859. Some English statesmen would appear to be of opinion that Venetia +must remain among the possessions of Austria, without reference to the +interests of Italy, the party most concerned in the business. In his +first note to Sir James Hudson, British Minister at Turin, which note +was to be read to Count Cavour, Lord John Russell, Foreign Secretary, +writes more like an Austrian than an Englishman, going even to the +astounding length of declaring that a war to defend her right to Venetia +would be on Austria's part a patriotic war,--such a war, we presume the +Honorable Secretary of State must have meant, as Wallace waged against +Edward I., or that which the first William of Orange carried on against +Philip II.! Lord Palmerston seems inclined to indorse his colleague's +views: for he referred directly to this very note in terms of +approbation, in the speech which he made at the dinner of the +"Worshipful Company of Salters," on the 14th of November. It is true, +that, in a later note from Lord John Russell to Sir James Hudson, +extreme ground in favor of what had been done in Naples by the +Sardinians is taken, and sustained with eminent ability; and in the +speech of Lord Palmerston referred to, the object of the first note was +said to be the prevention of a rash course that "might have blighted all +the best hopes of Italian freedom." We do not for a moment suppose that +the English people would ever allow their government to do anything +to help Austria to maintain possession of Venetia; but the relations +between Austria and England are of old date, and an opinion prevails in +the latter country that the former should be kept strong, in order that +she may be preserved as a counterpoise, on the one side to Russia, and +on the other to France. England has a difficult part to play, and her +course, or rather that of her government, sometimes makes considerable +demand on the charitable construction of the world; but her people are +sound, and for a long series of years their weight has been felt on the +right side of European contests. The Italian cause is popular with all +classes of Englishmen, and their country will never do anything to the +prejudice of that cause. But it may refuse aid at a time when such aid +shall be much needed, and when even France may stand aloof, and refrain +from finishing the business which she commenced. + +There is said to be an opinion growing up in France that Italy may be +made too strong for the good of her friend and ally. A new nation of +twenty-seven million souls--which would be Italy's strength, should Rome +and Venetia be gained for her--might become a potent enemy even to one +of its chief creators; and the taking of Savoy and Nice has caused +ill-feeling between the two countries, in which Garibaldi heartily +shares. Napoleon III. might be depended upon, himself, to support Italy +hereafter against any foreign enemy, but it is by no means clear that +France would support him in such a course; and he must defer to the +opinion of his subjects to a considerable extent, despotic though his +power is supposed to be. It is opinion, in the last resort, that governs +every where,--under an absolute monarchy quite as determinedly as under +a liberal polity like ours or England's. There is a large party in +France, composed of the most incongruous materials, which has the +profoundest interest in misrepresenting the policy of the Imperial +government, and which is full of men of culture and intellect,--men +whose labors, half-performed though they are, must have considerable +effect on the French mind. The first Napoleon had the ground honeycombed +under him by his enemies, who could not be suppressed, nor their labors +be made to cease, even by his stern system of repression. It may be so +with the present Emperor, who knows that one false step might upset his +dynasty as utterly as it was twice over-thrown by the armies of combined +Europe. What was then done by the lions and the eagles might now be done +by the moles. The worms that gnawed through the Dutch dykes did Holland +more damage than she experienced from the armies of Louis XIV. Let the +French mind become possessed with the idea that the Emperor is helping +Italy at the expense of France, and we may see a third Restoration in +that country, or even a third Republic. The elder Bourbons were driven +out because they were as a monument in Paris to Leipzig and Vittoria +and Waterloo, erected by the victors on those fatal fields. The Orléans +dynasty broke down because it had become an article in the belief of +most Frenchmen that it was disgracing France by the corruption of its +domestic policy and the subserviency of its foreign policy. Napoleon +III. could no more sustain himself against the belief that he was using +France for the benefit of Italy than the King of the French could +sustain himself against the conviction that he was abusing the country +he ruled over for the advancement of his family. He has already offended +the Catholic clergy by what he has done for Italy, which they regard as +having been done against their Church; and as they helped to make him, +so they may be able to unmake him. To satisfy grumblers, he took Savoy +and Nice. For some time past, rumor has been busy in attributing to him +the design of demanding the island of Sardinia. If he should ask for +Sardinia, and receive it, might he not ask also for Sicily, the country +of which he offered to become King in 1848, and did not receive one +vote, an incident that may still weigh upon the imperial heart, no man +ever forgetting a contemptuous slight? If he should make these demands, +or either of them, would the other European Powers permit the Italians +to comply with them? These are questions not to be answered hurriedly, +but they closely concern the Italian question, a solution of which must +soon be had, for the world's peace. + +The third act of the drama approaches, and 1861 may be a more important +year to Italy than was either 1859 or 1860. The successful antagonist +of Austria she can be; but could she, without foreign aid, withstand an +alliance that should be formed against her in the name of order, while +her former ally should remain quiet and refuse to take any part in the +war? Austria, it has been intimated, might be induced to sell Venetia to +Italy, and this is possible, though such a settlement of the question in +dispute would be an extraordinary confession of weakness on the part of +the aristocratical military monarchy of the Lorraines, and a proceeding +of which it would be more ashamed than it would be even of a generous +action. + + * * * * * + + +A VISIT TO THE ASYLUM FOR AGED AND DECAYED PUNSTERS. + + +Having just returned from a visit to this admirable Institution in +company with a friend who is one of the Directors, we propose giving a +short account of what we saw and heard. The great success of the Asylum +for Idiots and Feeble-minded Youth, several of the scholars from which +have reached considerable distinction, one of them being connected with +a leading Daily Paper in this city, and others having served in the +State and National Legislatures, was the motive which led to the +foundation of this excellent Charity. Our late distinguished townsman, +Noah Dow, Esquire, as is welt known, bequeathed a large portion of his +fortune to this establishment,--"being thereto moved," as his will +expressed it, "by the desire of _N. Dowing_ some publick Institution +for the benefit of Mankind." Being consulted as to the Rules of the +Institution and the selection of a Superintendent, he replied, that "all +Boards must construct their own Platforms of operation. Let them select +_anyhow_ and he should be pleased." N.E. Howe, Esq., was chosen in +compliance with this delicate suggestion. + +The Charter provides for the support of "One hundred aged and decayed +Gentlemen-Punsters." On inquiry if there was no provision for _females_, +my friend called my attention to this remarkable psychological fact, +namely:-- + +THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A FEMALE PUNSTER. + +This remark struck me forcibly, and on reflection I found that _I never +knew nor heard of one_, though I have once or twice heard a woman make +_a single detached_ pun, as I have known a hen to crow. + +On arriving at the south gate of the Asylum grounds, I was about to +ring, but my friend held my arm and begged me to rap with my stick, +which I did. An old man with a very comical face presently opened the +gate and put out his head. + +"So you prefer _Cane_ to _A bell_, do you?" he said,--and began +chuckling and coughing at a great rate. + +My friend winked at me. + +"You're here still, Old Joe, I see," he said to the old man. + +"Yes, yes,--and it's very odd, considering how often I've _bolted_, +nights." + +He then threw open the double gates for us to ride through. + +"Now," said the old man, as he pulled the gates after us, "you've had a +long journey." + +"Why, how is that, Old Joe?" said my friend. + +"Don't you see?" he answered; "there's the _East hinges_ on one side of +the gate, and there's the West hinges_ on t'other side,--haw! haw! haw!" + +We had no sooner got into the yard than a feeble little gentleman, with +a remarkably bright eye, came up to us, looking very seriously, as if +something had happened. + +"The town has entered a complaint against the Asylum as a gambling +establishment," he said to my friend, the Director. + +"What do you mean?" said my friend. + +"Why, they complain that there's a _lot o' rye_ on the premises," he +answered, pointing to a field of that grain,--and hobbled away, his +shoulders shaking with laughter, as he went. + +On entering the main building, we saw the Rules and Regulations for +the Asylum conspicuously posted up. I made a few extracts which may be +interesting. + + +Sect. I. OF VERBAL EXERCISES. + +5. Each Inmate shall be permitted to make Puns freely from eight in the +morning until ten at night, except during Service in the Chapel and +Grace before Meals. + +6. At ten o'clock the gas will be turned off, and no further Puns, +Conundrums, or other play on words, will be allowed to be uttered, or to +be uttered aloud. + +9. Inmates who have lost their faculties and cannot any longer make Puns +shall be permitted to repeat such as may be selected for them by the +Chaplain out of the work of Mr. _Joseph Miller_. + +10. Violent and unmanageable Punsters, who interrupt others when engaged +in conversation, with Puns or attempts at the same, shall be deprived +of their _Joseph Millers_, and, if necessary, placed in solitary +confinement. + + +Sect. III. OF DEPORTMENT AT MEALS. + +4. No Inmate shall make any Pun, or attempt at the same, until the +Blessing has been asked and the company are decently seated. + +7. Certain Puns having been placed on the _Index Expurgatorius_ of the +Institution, no Inmate shall be allowed to utter them, on pain of being +debarred the perusal of _Punch_ and _Vanity Fair_, and, if repeated, +deprived of his _Joseph Miller_. + +Among these are the following:-- + +Allusions to _Attic salt_, when asked to pass the salt-cellar. + +Remarks on the Inmates being _mustered_, etc., etc. + +Associating baked beans with the _bene_factors of the Institution. + +Saying that beef-eating is _befitting_, etc., etc. + +The following are also prohibited, excepting to such Inmates as may have +lost their faculties and cannot any longer make Puns of their own:-- + +"----your own _hair_ or a wig"; "it will be _long enough_, "etc., etc.; +"little of its age," etc., etc.;--also, playing upon the following +words: _hos_pital; _mayor_; _pun_; _pitied_; _bread_; _sauce_, etc., +etc., etc. See INDEX EXPURGATORIUS, _printed for use of Inmates_. + +The subjoined Conundrum is not allowed:--Why is Hasty Pudding like the +Prince? Because it comes attended by its _sweet_;--nor this variation to +it, _to wit_: Because the _'lasses runs after it_. + +The Superintendent, who went round with us, had been a noted punster in +his time, and well known in the business-world, but lost his customers +by making too free with their names,--as in the famous story he set +afloat in '29 of _four Jerries_ attaching to the names of a noted Judge, +an eminent Lawyer, the Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions, and +the well-known Landlord at Springfield. One of the _four Jerries_, he +added, was of gigantic magnitude. The play on words was brought out +by an accidental remark of Solomons, the well-known Banker. "_Capital +punishment!_" the Jew was overheard saying, with reference to the guilty +parties. He was understood as saying, _A capital pun is meant_, which +led to an investigation and the relief of the greatly excited public +mind. + +The Superintendent showed some of his old tendencies, as he went round +with us. + +"Do you know"--he broke out all at once--"why they don't take steppes in +Tartary for establishing Insane Hospitals?" + +We both confessed ignorance. + +"Because there are _nomad_ people to be found there," he said, with a +dignified smile. + +He proceeded to introduce us to different Inmates. The first was a +middle-aged, scholarly man, who was seated at a table with a Webster's +Dictionary and a sheet of paper before him. + +"Well, what luck to-day, Mr. Mowzer?" said the Superintendent. + +"Three or four only," said Mr. Mowzer. "Will you hear 'em now,--now I'm +here?" + +We all nodded. + +"Don't you see Webster _ers_ in the words cent_er_ and theat_er_? + +"If he spells leather _lether_, and feather _fether_, isn't there danger +that he'll give us a _bad spell of weather_? + +"Besides, Webster is a resurrectionist; he does not allow _u_ to rest +quietly in the _mould_. + +"And again, because Mr. Worcester inserts an illustration in his text, +is that any reason why Mr. Webster's publishers should hitch one on in +their appendix? It's what I call a _Conntect-a-cut_ trick. + +"Why is his way of spelling like the floor of an oven? Because it is +_under bread_. + +"Mowzer!" said the Superintendent,--"that word is on the Index!" + +"I forgot," said Mr. Mowzer;--"please don't deprive me of _Vanity Fair_, +this one time, Sir. + +"These are all, this morning. Good day, Gentlemen. Then to the +Superintendent,--Add you, Sir!" + +The next Inmate was a semi-idiotic-looking old man. He had a heap of +block-letters before him, and, as we came up, he pointed, without saying +a word, to the arrangements he had made with them on the table. They +were evidently anagrams, and had the merit of transposing the letters of +the words employed without addition or subtraction. Here are a few of +them:-- + + TIMES. SMITE! + POST. STOP! + + TRIBUNE. TRUE NIB. + WORLD. DR. OWL. + + ADVERTISER. (RES VERI DAT. + (IS TRUE. READ! + + ALLOPATHY. ALL O' TH' PAY. + HOMEOPATHY. O, THE--! O! O, MY! PAH! + +The mention of several new York papers led to two or three questions. +Thus: Whether the Editor of the Tribune was _H.G. really?_ If the +complexion of his politics were not accounted for by his being an +_eager_ person himself? Whether Wendell _Fillips_ were not a reduced +copy of John _Knocks?_ Whether a New York _Feuilletoniste_ is not the +same thing as a _Fellow down East?_ + +At this time a plausible-looking, bald-headed man joined us, evidently +waiting to take a part in the conversation. + +"Good morning, Mr. Riggles," said the Superintendent. "Anything fresh +this morning? Any Conundrum?" + +"I haven't looked at the cattle," he answered, dryly. + +"Cattle? Why cattle?" + +"Why, to see if there's any _corn under 'em!_" he said; and immediately +asked, "Why is Douglas like the earth?" + +We tried, but couldn't guess. + +"Because he was _flattened out at the polls!_" said Mr. Riggles. + +"A famous politician, formerly," said the Superintendent. "His +grandfather was a _seize-Hessian-ist_ in the Revolutionary War. By the +way, I hear the _freeze-oil_ doctrines don't go down at New Bedford." + +The next Inmate looked as if be might have been a sailor formerly. + +"Ask him what his calling was," said the Superintendent. + +"Followed the sea," he replied to the question put by one of us. "Went +as mate in a fishing-schooner." + +"Why did you give it up?" + +"Because I didn't like working for _two mast-ers_," he replied. + +Presently we came upon a group of elderly persons, gathered about a +venerable gentleman with flowing locks, who was propounding questions to +a row of Inmates. + +"Can any Inmate give me a motto for M. Berger?" he said. + +Nobody responded for two or three minutes. At last one old man, whom I +at once recognized as a Graduate of our University, (Anno 1800,) held up +his hand. + +"Rem a _cue_ tetigit." + +"Go to the head of the Class, Josselyn," said the venerable Patriarch. + +The successful Inmate did as he was told, but in a very rough way, +pushing against two or three of the Class. + +"How is this?" said the Patriarch. + +"You told me to go up _jostlin',_" he replied. + +The old gentlemen who had been shoved about enjoyed the Pun too much to +be angry. + +Presently the Patriarch asked again,-- + +"Why was M. Berger authorized to go to the dances given to the Prince?" + +The Class had to give up this, and he answered it himself:-- + +"Because every one of his carroms was a _tick-it_ to the _ball_." + +"Who collects the money to defray the expenses of the last campaign in +Italy?" asked the Patriarch. + +Here again the Class failed. + +"The war-cloud's rolling _Dun_," he answered. + +"And what is mulled wine made with?" + +Three or four voices exclaimed at once,---- + +"_Sizzle-y_ Madeira!" + +Here a servant entered, and said, "Luncheon-time." The old gentlemen, +who have excellent appetites, dispersed at once, one of them politely +asking us if we would not stop and have a bit of bread and a little mite +of cheese. + +"There is one thing I have forgotten to show you," said the +Superintendent,--"the cell for the confinement of violent and +unmanageable Punsters." + +We were very curious to see it, particularly with reference to the +alleged absence of every object upon which a play of words could +possibly be made. + +The Superintendent led us up some dark stairs to a corridor, then +along a narrow passage, then down a broad flight of steps into another +passage-way, and opened a large door which looked out on the main +entrance. + +"We have not seen the cell for the confinement of 'violent and +unmanageable' Punsters," we both exclaimed. + +"This is the _sell!_" he exclaimed, pointing to the outside prospect. + +My friend, the Director, looked me in the face so good-naturedly that I +had to laugh. + +"We like to humor the Inmates," he said. "It has a bad effect, we +find, on their health and spirits to disappoint them of their little +pleasantries. Some of the jests to which we have listened are not new to +me, though I dare say you may not have heard them often before. The same +thing happens in general society,--with this additional disadvantage, +that there is no punishment provided for 'violent and unmanageable' +Punsters, as in our Institution." + +We made our bow to the Superintendent and walked to the place where our +carriage was waiting for us. On our way, an exceedingly decrepit old man +moved slowly towards us, with a perfectly blank look on his face, but +still appearing as if he wished to speak. + +"Look!" said the Director,--"that is our Centenarian." + +The ancient man crawled towards us, cocked one eye, with which he seemed +to sec a little, up at us, and said,-- + +"Sarvant, young Gentlemen. Why is a--a--a--like a--a--a--? Give it up? +Because it's a--a--a--a--." + +He smiled a pleasant smile, as if it were all plain enough. + +"One hundred and seven last Christmas," said the Director. "He lost his +answers about the age of ninety-eight. Of late years he puts his whole +Conundrums in blank,--but they please him just as well." + +We took our departure, much gratified and instructed by our visit, +hoping to have some future opportunity of inspecting the Records of this +excellent Charity and making extracts for the benefit of our Readers. + + * * * * * + + +THE QUESTION OF THE HOUR. + + +Dean Swift, in a letter to Lord Bolingbroke, says that he does not +"remember to have ever heard or seen one great genius who had long +success in the ministry; and recollecting a great many in my memory and +acquaintance, those who had the smoothest time were, at best, men of +middling degree in understanding." However true this may be in the +main,--and it undoubtedly is true that in ordinary times the speculative +and innovating temper of an original mind is less safe than the patience +of routine and persistence in precedent of a common-place one,--there +are critical occasions to which intellect of the highest quality, +character of the finest fibre, and a judgment that is inspired rather +than confused by new and dangerous combinations of circumstances, are +alone equal. Tactics and an acquaintance with the highest military +authorities were adequate enough till they were confronted with General +Bonaparte and the new order of things. If a great man struggling with +the storms of fate be the sublimest spectacle, a mediocre man in the +same position is surely the most pitiful. Deserted by his presence +of mind, which, indeed, had never been anything but an absence of +danger,--baffled by the inapplicability of his habitual principles of +conduct, (if that may be called a principle, which, like the act of +walking, is merely an unconscious application of the laws of gravity,) +--helpless, irresolute, incapable of conceiving the flower Safety in +the nettle Danger, much more of plucking it thence,--surely here, if +anywhere, is an object of compassion. When such a one is a despot who +has wrought his own destruction by obstinacy in a traditional evil +policy, like Francis II. of Naples, our commiseration is outweighed by +satisfaction that the ruin of the man is the safety of the state. But +when the victim is a so-called statesman, who has malversated the +highest trusts for selfish ends, who has abused constitutional forms +to the destruction of the spirit that gave them life and validity, who +could see nothing nobler in the tenure of high office than the means it +seemed to offer of prolonging it, who knows no art to conjure the spirit +of anarchy he has evoked but the shifts and evasions of a second-rate +attorney, and who has contrived to involve his country in the confusion +of principle and vacillation of judgment which have left him without +a party and without a friend,--for such a man we have no feeling but +contemptuous reprobation. Pan-urge in danger of shipwreck is but a +faint type of Mr. Buchanan in face of the present crisis; and that poor +fellow's craven abjuration of his "_former_ friend," Friar John, is +magnanimity itself, compared with his almost-ex-Excellency's treatment +of the Free States in his last Message to Congress. There are times +when mediocrity is a dangerous quality, and a man may drown himself as +effectually in milk-and-water as in Malmsey. + +The question, whether we are a Government or an Indian Council, we do +not propose to discuss here; whether there be a right of secession +tempered by a right of coercion, like a despotism by assassination, and +whether it be expedient to put the latter in practice, we shall +not consider: for it is not always the part of wisdom to attempt a +settlement of what the progress of events will soon settle for us. Mr. +Buchanan seems to have no opinion, or, if he has one, it is a halting +between two, a bat-like cross of sparrow and mouse that gives timidity +its choice between flight and skulking. Nothing shocks our sense of the +fitness of things more than a fine occasion to which the man is wanting. +Fate gets her hook ready, but the eye is not there to clinch with it, +and so all goes at loose ends. Mr. Buchanan had one more chance offered +him of showing himself a common-place man, and he has done it full +justice. Even if they could have done nothing for the country, a few +manly sentences might have made a pleasing exception in his political +history, and rescued for him the fag-end of a reputation. + +Mr. Buchanan, by his training in a system of politics without a parallel +for intrigue, personality, and partisanship, would have unfitted himself +for taking a statesmanlike view of anything, even if he had ever been +capable of it. His nature has been subdued to what it worked in. We +could not have expected from him a Message around which the spirit, the +intelligence, and the character of the country would have rallied. But +he might have saved himself from the evil fame of being the first of our +Presidents who could never forget himself into a feeling of the +dignity of the place he occupied. He has always seemed to consider the +Presidency as a retaining-fee paid him by the slavery-propagandists, +and his Message to the present Congress looks like the last juiceless +squeeze of the orange which the South is tossing contemptuously away. + +Mr. Buchanan admits as real the assumed wrongs of the South Carolina +revolutionists, and even, if we understand him, allows that they are +great enough to justify revolution. But he advises the secessionists to +pause and try what can be done by negotiation. He sees in the internal +history of the country only a series of injuries inflicted by the +Free upon the Slave States; yet he affirms, that, so far as Federal +legislation is concerned, the rights of the South have never been +assailed, except in the single instance of the Missouri Compromise, +which gave to Slavery the unqualified possession of territory which the +Free States might till then have disputed. Yet that bargain, a losing +one as it was on the part of the Free States, having been annulled, can +hardly be reckoned a present grievance. South Carolina had quite as long +a list of intolerable oppressions to resent in 1832 as now, and not one +of them, as a ground of complaint, could be compared with the refusal +to pay the French-Spoliation claims of Massachusetts. The secession +movement then, as now, had its origin in the ambition of disappointed +politicians. If its present leaders are more numerous, none of them are +so able as Mr. Calhoun; and if it has now any other object than it had +then, it is to win by intimidation advantages that shall more than +compensate for its loss in the elections. + +In 1832, General Jackson bluntly called the South Carolina doctrines +treason, and the country sustained him. That they are not characterized +in the same way now does not prove any difference in the thing, but only +in the times and the men. They are none the less treason because +James Buchanan is less than Andrew Jackson, but they are all the more +dangerous. + +It has been the misfortune of the United States that the conduct of +their public affairs has passed more and more exclusively into the hands +of men who have looked on politics as a game to be played rather than +as a trust to be administered, and whose capital, whether of personal +consideration or of livelihood, has been staked on a turn of the cards. +A general skepticism has thus been induced, exceedingly dangerous +in times like these. The fatal doctrine of rotation in office has +transferred the loyalty of the numberless servants of the Government, +and of those dependent on or influenced by them, from the nation to +a party. For thousands of families every change in the National +Administration is as disastrous as revolution, and the Government has +thus lost that influence which the idea of permanence and stability +would exercise in a crisis like the present. At the present moment, the +whole body of office-holders at the South is changed from a conservative +to a disturbing element by a sense of the insecurity of their tenure. +Their allegiance having always been to the party in power at Washington, +and not to the Government of the Nation, they find it easy to transfer +it to the dominant faction at home. + +The subservience on the question of Slavery, which has hitherto +characterized both the great parties of the country, has strengthened +the hands of the extremists at the South, and has enabled them to get +the control of public opinion there by fostering false notions of +Southern superiority and Northern want of principle. We have done so +much to make them believe in their importance to us, and given them so +little occasion even to suspect our importance to them, that we have +taught them to regard themselves as the natural rulers of the country, +and to look upon the Union as a favor granted to our weakness, whose +withdrawal would be our ruin. Accordingly, they have grown more and more +exacting, till at length the hack politicians of the Free States have +become so imbued with the notion of yielding, and so incapable of +believing in any principle of action higher than temporary expedients +to carry an election, or any object nobler than the mere possession of +office for its own sake, that Mr. Buchanan gravely proposes that the +Republican party should pacify South Carolina by surrendering the very +creed that called it into existence and holds it together, the only +fruit of its victory that made victory worth having. Worse than this, +when the Free States by overwhelming majorities have just expressed +their conviction, that slavery, as he creature of local law, can claim +no legitimate extension beyond the limits of that law, he asks their +consent to denationalize freedom and to nationalize slavery by an +amendment of the Federal Constitution, that shall make the local law of +the Slave States paramount throughout the Union. Mr. Buchanan would stay +the yellow fever by abolishing the quarantine hospital and planting a +good virulent case or two in every village in the land. + +We do not underestimate the gravity of the present crisis, and we agree +that nothing should be done to exasperate it; but if the people of the +Free States have been taught anything by the repeated lessons of bitter +experience, it has been that submission is not the seed of conciliation, +but of contempt and encroachment. The wolf never goes for mutton to the +mastiff. It is quite time that it should be understood that freedom is +also an institution deserving some attention in a Model Republic, that +a decline in stocks is more tolerable and more transient than one in +public spirit, and that material prosperity was never known to abide +long in a country that had lost its political morality. The fault of the +Free States in the eyes of the South is not one that can be atoned for +by any yielding of special points here and there. Their offence is that +they are free, and that their habits and prepossessions are those of +Freedom. Their crime is the census of 1860. Their increase in numbers, +wealth, and power is a standing aggression. It would not be enough to +please the Southern States that we should stop asking them to abolish +slavery,--what they demand of us is nothing less than that we should +abolish the spirit of the age. Our very thoughts are a menace. It is not +the North, but the South, that forever agitates the question of Slavery. +The seeming prosperity of the cotton-growing States is based on a great +mistake and a great wrong; and it is no wonder that they are irritable +and scent accusation in the very air. It is the stars in their courses +that fight against their system, and there are those who propose to make +everything comfortable by Act of Congress. + +It is almost incredible to what a pitch of absurdity the Slave-holding +party have been brought by the weak habit of concession which has been +the vice of the Free States. Senator Green of Missouri, whose own State +is rapidly gravitating toward free institutions, gravely proposes an +armed police along the whole Slave frontier for the arrest of fugitives. +Already the main employment of our navy is in striving to keep Africans +out, and now the whole army is to mount guard to keep them in. This is +but a trifle to the demands that will be made upon us, if we yield now +under the threats of a mob,--for men acting under passion or terror, or +both, are a mob, no matter what their numbers and intelligence. + +A dissolution of the Union would be a terrible thing, but not so +terrible as an acquiescence in the theory that Property is the only +interest that binds men together in society, and that its protection +is the highest object of human government. Nothing could well be more +solemn than the thought of a disruption of our great and prosperous +Republic. Even if peaceful, the derangement consequent upon it would +cause incalculable suffering and disaster. Already the mere threat +of it, assisted by the efforts of interested persons, has caused a +commercial panic. But would it be wisdom in the Free States to put +themselves at the mercy of such a panic whenever the whim took South +Carolina to be discontented? That would be the inevitable result of a +craven spirit now. Let the Republican party be mild and forbearing,--for +the opportunity to be so is the best reward of victory, and taunts and +recriminations belong to boys; but, above all, let them be manly. The +moral taint of once submitting to be bullied is a scrofula that will +never out of the character. + +We do not believe that the danger is so great as it appears. Rumor is +like one of those multiplying-mirrors that make a mob of shadows out +of one real object. The interests of three-fifths of the Slave-holding +States are diametrically opposed to secession; so are those of +five-sixths of the people of the seceding States, if they did but know +it. The difficulties in the way of organizing a new form of government +are great, almost insuperable; the expenses enormous. As the public +burdens grow heavier, the lesson of resistance and rebellion will find +its aptest scholars in the non-slave-owning majority who will be paying +taxes for the support of the very institution that has made and keeps +them poor. Men are not long in arriving at just notions of the value of +what they pay for, especially when it is for other people. Taxes are a +price that people are slowest to pay for a cat in a bag. If matters are +allowed to take their own course for a little longer, the inevitable +reaction is sure to set in. The Hartford Convention gave more uneasiness +to the Government and the country than the present movement in the +South, but the result of it was the ruin of the Federal Party, and not +of the Federal Union. + +Even if the secessionists could accomplish their schemes, who would +be the losers? Not the Free States, certainly, with their variety of +resources and industry. The laws of trade cannot be changed, and the +same causes which have built up their agriculture, commerce, and +manufactures will not cease to be operative. The real wealth +and strength of states, other things being equal, depends upon +homogeneousness of population and variety of occupation, with a common +interest and common habits of thought. The cotton-growing States, with +their single staple, are at the mercy of chance. India, Australia, nay, +Africa herself, may cut the thread of their prosperity. Their population +consists of two hostile races, and their bone and muscle, instead +of being the partners, are the unwilling tools of their capital +and intellect. The logical consequence of this political theory is +despotism, which the necessity of coercing the subject race will make a +military one. Already South Carolina is discussing a standing army. If +history is not a lying gossip, the result of the system of labor will be +Jamaica, and that of the system of polity, Mexico. Instead of a stable +government, they will have a whirligig of _pronunciamientos_, or +stability will be purchased at a cost that will make it intolerable. +They have succeeded in establishing among themselves a fatal unanimity +on the question of Slavery,--fatal because it makes the office of spy +and informer honorable, makes the caprice of a mob the arbiter of +thought, speech, and action, and debases public opinion to a muddy +mixture of fear and prejudice. In peace, the majority of their +population will be always looked on as conspirators; in war, they would +become rebels. + +It is time that the South should learn, if they do not begin to suspect +it already, that the difficulty of the Slavery question is slavery +itself,--nothing more, nothing less. It is time that the North should +learn that it has nothing left to compromise but the rest of its +self-respect. Nothing will satisfy the extremists at the South short of +a reduction of the Free States to a mere police for the protection of an +institution whose danger increases at an equal pace with its wealth. + +It was the deliberate intention of Mr. Calhoun that the compact should +be broken the moment the absolute control of Government passed out of +the hands of the slaveholding clique. He was willing to wait till we +had stolen Texas and paid a hundred millions for Cuba; but if the game +seemed to be up, then secede at once. In a hasty moment, he started his +revolution, when there was a stronger man than he to confront him. South +Carolina was to all appearance as united then as now. But a few months +brought a reaction, and no one was more relieved than Mr. Calhoun that +matters stopped where they did. Whether the stirrers of the present +excitement, which finds vacillation in the Executive and connivance +In the Cabinet, will be wise enough to let it go out in the same way, +remains to be seen; but the greatest danger of disunion, would spring +from a want of self-possession and spirit in the Free States. + + + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_Collection of Rare and Original Documents and Relations concerning the +Discovery and Conquest of America, chiefly from the Spanish Archives_. +Published in the Original, with Translations, Illustrative Notos, Maps, +and Biographical Sketches. By K.G. SQUIER, M.A., F.S.A., etc., etc. New +York: Charles B. Norton. 1860. + +No. I. Carta dirigida al Key de Espana, por el Licenciado Dr. Don DIEGO +GARCIA DE PALACIO, Oydor de la Real Audiencia de Guatemala, Ano 1576. +Being a Description of the Ancient Provinces of Guazacapan, Izalco, +Cuscatlan, and Chiquimula, in the Audiencia of Guatemala: with an +Account of the Languages, Customs, and Religion of their Aboriginal +Inhabitants, and a Description of the Ruins of Copan. Square 8vo. pp. +132. + +This tract is the first number of a series of Rare and Original +Documents, relating to the first settlement of America by the Spaniards, +which Mr. Squier proposes to edit and publish. The undertaking is one of +interest to all students of American history, and deserves a generous +encouragement from them. Its success must depend not on the usual +machinery of bookselling so much as on the ready support of individuals. + +Mr. Squier's proposed collection resembles in its scope the well-known +"Recueil des Documents et Memoires Originaux" of M. Ternaux-Compans. +Familiar, by long residence and longer study, as few men are or ever +have been, with those portions of our continent of which the Spaniards +first took possession, acquainted with their antiquities and former +condition, and a curious investigator of their present state and +prospects, Mr. Squier is peculiarly fitted to select and edit--with +judgment such documents of historical interest as his unrivalled +opportunities have enabled him to collect. + +The Letter of Palacio is now for the first time published in the +original, although it was largely used by Herrera in his "Historia +General." "To me," says Mr. Squier, "the relation has a special +interest. I have been over a great part of the ground that was traversed +by its author, and I am deeply impressed with the accuracy of his +descriptions.... His memoir will always stand as one of the best +illustrations of an interesting country, as it was at the period +immediately succeeding the Conquest." It appears, that, under an order +from the Crown, Palacio was deputed to visit a number of the Provinces +of Guatemala, and to report upon them, especially in respect to the +condition of their native inhabitants. The memoir now published relates +chiefly to the territory comprised in the present Republic of San +Salvador. It shows Palacio to have been an intelligent observer, and a +kindly, well-disposed man,--not free from the superstitions of his time +and race, but less credulous than many of his contemporaries. His +report is full of matter of value to the historical inquirer, and of +entertainment for the general reader. His stories of the manners of the +people, and his accounts of the animals of the district are brief, but +characteristic. But the most interesting part of his narrative is that +which relates to the wonderful ruins of Copan. It is a remarkable fact, +stated by Mr. Squier in his Prefatory Note, that these ruins do not +appear to have been noticed by any of the chroniclers of the country +down to the time of Fuentes, who wrote in 1689, more than one hundred +years after Palacio. It was not, indeed, until 1841, when Stephens +published his account of them, that an accurate description was given +to the world of these most interesting and most puzzling remains of a +forgotten people and an unknown antiquity. Even in Palacio's time, only +vague traditions existed regarding them. His account has a permanent +value from being the earliest known, and as proving that within fifty +years after the Spanish Conquest they presented very nearly the same +appearance as at present. + +Mr. Squier has enriched Talacio's Letter with numerous and important +notes. He claims a lenient judgment of his translation, which is printed +side by side with the original, on account of the obscurities of the +manuscript, and the uncertainty as to the meaning of some of the +writer's expressions. But, allowing for these difficulties, we regret +that Mr. Squier did not bestow a little more pains on this part of his +work. He has fallen into some slight errors, which might easily have +been corrected, and he has, as we think, lost something of the spirit of +the original by too free a version. The book is one which in typographic +beauty would meet the demands of the most exacting bibliographer. We +regret the more that the pages are disfigured with misprints, many of +which are left uncorrected in the long list of _Errata_, while others +occur in the very list itself. + + +1. _Le Panlatinisme, Confédération Gallo-Latine et Celto-Gauloise, +Contre-Testament de Pierre le Grand et Contre-Panslavisme_. Paris: +Passard, Libraire-Éditeur. 1860. 8vo. pp. 260. + +2. _Testament de Pierre le Grand, ou Plan de Domination Européenne +laissé par lui à ses Descendants et Successeurs au Trône de la Russie_. +Édition suivie de Notes et de Pièces Justificatives. Paris: Passard. +1860. 8vo. + +We seem to be living in an age of pamphleteers. More than ever, both in +France and Germany, are pamphlets the order of the day. In Paris +alone, the year 1860 has given birth to hundreds of these writings of +circumstance,--political squibs, visionary remodellings of European +states,--vying with each other for ephemeral celebrity. They fill the +windows of the book-shops, and are spread by scores along the stands +in the numerous galleries which the Parisian population throngs of +evenings. Those issued in the early part of the year have gradually +descended from the rank of new publications, and may be found on +every quay, spread out, for a few _centimes_, side by side with +old weather-beaten books, odd volumes, refuse of libraries, which +book-lovers daily finger through in the hope of finding some pearl, some +rarity, in the worthless mass. + +Thus we have seen the interminable Rhine question discussed in its every +possible phase,--still more that of Italy. Between come the Druses, the +Orient, the Turks. Then Italy again, Garibaldi, Naples, the Pope. + +To state in general terms the tendency of these rockets of literature, +or to arrive at the spirit which seems to pervade them, is not quite so +easy as it would seem. They are written by authors of all party-colors, +within certain impassable limits prescribed by the parental restrictions +of Government. Still it seems to be the old story of soothing; and many +a conclusion--as where England is smoothed down by a few flatteries and +told that her most natural ally is France, or where Germany is heartily +assured that she has nothing to fear, that all the changes proposed are +for the good of the Teutonic race--reminds us very strongly of that +widely known verse in child-literature,-- + + "Will you walk into my parlor," etc. + +We have before us, however, a work which, from its size and from +the labor bestowed upon it, deserves to be ranked above the various +productions that have scarcely called forth more than a passing notice +in the daily press. + +The pamphlet named at the head of this article, and which is but a +complement to the volume, is one of the numerous reconstructions and +rearrangements of European limits made in the quiet of the study. Were +it this alone, it would deserve but little attention. It is more. The +author bases his theories upon other than political reasons, having +labored hard to establish many debatable points of Ethnography in the +interesting notes appended to the work, and which form by far the most +remarkable part of it. So we have the question of Races discussed at +full length. There is certainly some philological legerdemain, as may be +seen from some of the convenient conclusions of the author concerning +the Celts and the Gauls. He is full of such paragraphs as this in his +argumentation:-- + + "It has seemed to us proved, that the names, + Volces, Volsks, Bolgs, Belgs, Belgians, Welsh, + Welchs, Waels, Wuelchs or Walchs, Walls, + Walloons, Valais, Valois, Vlaks, Wallachians, + Galatians, Galtachs, Galls, Gaels or Caels, + Gaelic, Galot, Gallegos, Gaul, and even Ola, + Olatz, and Vallus, were but one and the same + word under different forms." + +The point to be established at all hazards is, that the French, +Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians, Belgians, and even the English and +Greeks, form but one great family, of one hundred and fifteen million +individuals,--the Gallo-Roman. This Neo-Latin world the author would +wish combined in one grand confederation, like the States of America. +Hence his use of the term _Panlatinism_, in opposition to the so much +debated one of _Panslavism_. The merit of the work under consideration +is, that, though decidedly French in all its views, it condenses in +a few paragraphs the present mooted question of race. The idea of +Panslavism, or the uniting of eighty millions of Sclavonians under one +banner, was, in its origin, republican and federal, whatever it may +have become since. Few words have acquired more diametrically opposite +meanings, according as they were uttered by radical or conservative. +Hence the confusion, hence the many strange phrases to be met with in +the periodical press. The author of the present work has sought to throw +some light on this important point. Leaving aside his prophetic fears of +future shocks with American or Asiatic powers as visionary, we can say +for the work that it presents in a clear light the question of races +as referring to European politics. The notes are good, and no research +seems to have been spared by the writer to establish the position he +maintains. + + +1. _Ancient Danish Ballads._ Translated from the Originals, by R.C. +ALEXANDER PRIOR, M.D. London: Williams & Norgate. Leipzig: R. Hartmann. +1860, 3 vols. pp. lx., 400, 468, 500. + +2. _Edinburgh Papers._ By ROBERT CHAMBERS, F.R.S.E., etc., etc. _The +Romantic Scottish Ballads, their Epoch and Authorship._ W. & R. +Chambers: London and Edinburgh. 1859. pp. 40. + +3. _The Romantic Scottish Ballads, and the Lady Wardlaw Heresy._ By +NORVAL CLYNE. Aberdeen: A. Brown & Co. 1859. pp. 49. + +The expectations raised by the title of Dr. Prior's volumes are in a +great measure disappointed by their contents. The book is of value only +because it gives for the first time, in English, the substance of a +large number of Danish ballads, and points out the relations between +them and similar productions in other languages. Of the spirit and life +of these remarkable poems a person hitherto unfamiliar with them would +find but scanty indication in Dr. Prior's versions. He has merely done +them into English in a somewhat mechanical way, and one scarcely gets +a better notion of the more imaginative ones in his bald reproductions +than of the "Iliad" from the analysis of that poem in the "Epistolae +Obscurorum Virorum." It seems to require almost as peculiar powers to +translate an old ballad as to write a new one. + +Dr. Prior complains of Jamieson, that his versions from the Danish are +done in a broad Scotch dialect, almost as unintelligible to ordinary +readers as the language of which they profess to give the meaning. But +if any one compare Jamieson's rendering of "The Buried Mother" with Dr. +Prior's, (Prior, vol. i. p. 368,) he will, we think, see cause to regret +that Jamieson did not do what Dr. Prior has attempted, and that he has +not left us a greater number of translations equally good. Jamieson's +fault was not so much his broad Scotch as his over-fondness for +archaisms, sometimes of mere spelling, which give rise to a needless +obscurity. We think that he was theoretically right; but he should not +have pushed his theory to the extent of puzzling the reader, where his +aim was to give only that air of strangeness which allures the fancy. As +respects ballads dealing with the supernatural, Jamieson's notion of +the duty of a translator was certainly the true one. There is something +almost ludicrous in a ghost talking the ordinary conversational language +of every-day life, which might, to be sure, serve very well for some +of Jung Stilling's spirits in bottle-green hunting-coats with brass +buttons, but hardly for the majesty of buried Denmark. Dr. Prior may +claim that his renderings are more literal; but it is the vice of +literal translation, that the phrases of one language, if exactly +reproduced in another, while they may have the same sense, convey a +wholly different impression to the imagination. It is to such cases that +the Italian proverb, _Tradutiore traditore_, applies. Dryden, citing +approvingly Denham's verses to Fanshawe, + + "They but preserve his ashes, thou his flame, + True to his sense, but truer to his fame," + +says, with his usual pithiness, "Too faithfully is indeed pedantically." + +In Dr. Prior's version of the "The Buried Mother" we find a case +precisely in point. The Stepmother says to the poor Orphans,-- + + "In blind-house shall ye lie all night." + +Jamieson gives it,-- + + "Says, 'Ye sall ligg i' the mirk all night.'" + +Now, the object in all translations of ballad-poetry being to reproduce +simple and downright phrases with equal simplicity and force, to give +us the same effects and not the same words, we vastly prefer Jamieson's +verse to Dr. Prior's, in spite of the affectation of _ligg_ for _lie_. +If _blind-house_ be the equivalent for _dark_ in the original, Dr. +Prior should have told us so in a note, giving us the stronger (because +simpler) English word in the text. He might as well write _hand-shoe_ +for _glove_, in a translation from the German. Elsewhere Jamieson errs +in preferring _groff_ to _great_, and the more that _groff_ means more +properly _coarse_ than _large_. + +The following couplet is also from Dr. Prior's translation of this +ballad:-- + + "They cried one evening till the sound + Their mother heard beneath the ground." + +Jamieson has it,-- + + "'Twas lang i' the night, and the bairnies + grat [cried], + Their mither she under the mools [mould] + heard that." + +Again, Dr. Prior gives us,-- + + "Her eldest daughter then she sped + To fetch Child Dyring out of bed"; + +instead of Jamieson's-- + + "Till her eldest dochter syne [then] said she, + 'Ye bid Child Dyring come here to me.'" + +And, still worse,-- + + "Out from their chest she stretch'd her bones + And rent her way through earth and stones"; + +where Jamieson is not only more literal, but more forcible,-- + + "Wi' her banes sae stark a bowt she gae + Hath riven both wall and marble gray." + +The original is better than either,-- + + "She upward heaved her mighty bones + And rived both wall and gray marble-stones." + +Jamieson had the true instinct of a translator, though his own verses +defy the stanchest reader; and, reasoning by analogy, Dr. Prior's +translations are so bad that he ought to be capable of very good +original poetry. + +However, with all its defects, Dr. Prior's book is of value for the +information it gives. Under the dead ribs of his translations the reader +familiar with old ballads can create a life for himself, and can form +some conception of the spirit and strength of the originals. + +Mr. Chambers's pamphlet is one that we should hardly have expected from +the editor of the best collection of ballads in the language before +that of Professor Child. Directly in the teeth of all probability, he +attributes the bulk of the _romantic_ Scottish ballads to Lady Wardlaw, +who wrote "Hardyknute." This is one of those theories (like that of Lord +Bacon being the author of Shakspeare's plays) which cannot be argued, +but which every one familiar with the subject challenges peremptorily. +Without going very deeply into the matter, Mr. Norval Clyne has put in +a clever plea in arrest of judgment. The truth is, that, in the present +state of our knowledge, "Hardyknute" could not pass muster as an antique +better than "Vortigern," or the poems of "Master Rowley"; and the notion +that Lady Wardlaw could have written "Sir Patrick Spens" will not hold +water better than a sieve, when we consider how hopelessly inferior are +the imitations of old ballads written by Scott, with fifty times her +familiarity with the originals, and a man of genius besides. + + * * * * * + +_Miss Gilbert's Career_. An American Story. By J.G. HOLLAND. New York: +Charles Scribner. + +There is scarcely a more hazardous experiment for any novelist than "a +novel with a purpose." If the moral does not run away with the story, it +is in most cases only because the author's lucky star has made the moral +too feeble, in spite of his efforts, to do that or anything else,--in +other words, because his book has fortunately defeated its own object. +That any clever girl will be kept from the perilous paths of authorship +by the warnings, however strongly inculcated, of any novel whatever, we +are not prepared to assert: we venture to say no one will be deterred by +the history of Miss Fanny Gilbert. If a woman's happiness is to be found +in love, and not in fame, the question nevertheless recurs,--What is she +to do before the love comes? Our author only shows that his heroine's +restless unhappiness was owing to her having to wait for her heart to be +awakened: to prove what he desires to prove, he should demonstrate that +it was owing to her having adopted authorship during the time of her +waiting. During that time, Miss Fanny Gilbert wrote novels, and was +unhappy: would she have been happy, if, in the interval, she had +chronicled small beer? And even admitting that her authorship caused her +unhappiness, we can scarcely believe Dr. Holland prepared to say, after +having allowed his heroine a real talent, as one condition of the +problem, that she ought to have concealed that talent in the decorous +napkin of silence. + +What the moral loses the story gains. Our author has lost nothing of +that genuine love of Nature, of that quick perception of the comic +element in men and things, of that delightful freshness and liveliness, +which threw such a charm about the former writings of Timothy Titcomb. +No story can be pronounced a failure which has vivacity and interest; +and the volume before us adds to vivacity and interest vigorous sketches +of character and scenery, droll conversation and incidents, a frequent +and kindly humor, and, underlying all, a true, earnest purpose, which +claims not only approval for the author, but respect for the man. + +Dr. Holland describes admirably whatever he has himself seen. +Unfortunately, he has not seen his hero or his heroine. About Arthur +Blague there is nothing real or distinctive. There is a life and reality +in many scenes of his experience; but the central figure of the group +stands conventional and inanimate,--the ordinary walking gentleman of +the stage,--the stereo-typed hero of the novel,--hero only by virtue of +his finally marrying the heroine. The one merit of the delineation--that +it is a portrait of a delicate Christian gentleman--is sadly marred by +the vulgar smartness of Arthur's repartees with the scampish New-Yorker. +A victory in such a contest was by no means necessary to vindicate the +hero's superiority; and if he so far forgot himself as to engage at all +in the degrading warfare, a defeat would have been more creditable. His +retorts are undeniably smart; but "smartness" is the attribute of a +"fellow," not of a "gentleman." + +Miss Fanny Gilbert is a warm-hearted, high-spirited girl, clever and +ambitious, and disposed at first to look contemptuously on poor Arthur, +whose humble labors appear in most dingy and sordid colors, when +contrasted with the fair Fanny's gorgeous dreams. She is not a very +fascinating nor a very real heroine; but she is better than most of our +heroines, and some of her experiences are very pleasantly told. + +Arthur's miserly employer is very good, and his shrewd friend Cheek is +capitally drawn. It was a peculiarly happy thought to make Cheek into +a railroad-conductor, and finally into a "gentlemanly and efficient" +superintendent. Nothing else would have suited his character half so +well. The business-like religionists, Moustache and Breastpin, are not +so good as the author meant to have them. The young bookseller is very +well done, and Dr. Gilbert very natural and lifelike. The story of the +Doctor's awakened interest in his daughter's success, and of his journey +to New York, is very well told. We like especially the lesson which +the triumphant authoress, in the full glory of her fame, receives, +on finding that her father sets a higher value on his son's least +achievement than on his daughter's highest success,--that, however a +woman may deserve a man's place, the world will never award it to her. +It would have been more effective, however, if Dr. Holland had not been +quite so anxious that no one should fail to perceive the moral,--if +he had had a little more confidence in his readers. But we can give +unqualified praise to the scene between Miss Gilbert and the little +crippled boy, which is one of the most beautiful and touching pictures +ever yet presented. + +It is a real satisfaction to find a book which one may venture to +criticize fearlessly, knowing that it will bear the test,--especially +at present, when one needs be as chary of trying any book fairly as +Don Quixote was of proving his unlucky helmet. And an additional +satisfaction is caused by the fact, that the book, not only in origin, +but in essence, is American from cover to cover. + + + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS + +RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + + +Guesses at Truth. By Two Brothers. From the Fifth London Edition. +Boston. Ticknor & Fields. 12mo. pp. 555. $1.60. + +Lake House. By Fanny Lewald. Translated from the German by Nathaniel +Greene. Boston. Ticknor & Fields. 16mo. pp. 304. 75 cts. + +New Fairy-Stories for my Grandchildren. By George Keil. 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Dutton & Co. +12mo. pp. 440. $1.25. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY VOLUME 7, NO. 39, +JANUARY, 1861*** + + +******* This file should be named 11118-8.txt or 11118-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/1/1/11118 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: +https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: +https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** diff --git a/old/11118-8.zip b/old/11118-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f935527 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11118-8.zip diff --git a/old/11118.txt b/old/11118.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..94b7ef6 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11118.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9270 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Atlantic Monthly Volume 7, No. 39, January, +1861, by Various + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Atlantic Monthly Volume 7, No. 39, January, 1861 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: February 16, 2004 [eBook #11118] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY VOLUME 7, NO. 39, +JANUARY, 1861*** + + +E-text prepared by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen, and Project Gutenberg +Distributed Proofreaders + + + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. VII.--JANUARY, 1861.--NO. XXXIX. + + + + + + + +WASHINGTON CITY. + + +Washington is the paradise of paradoxes,--a city of magnificent +distances, but of still more magnificent discrepancies. Anything may be +affirmed of it, everything denied. What it seems to be it is not; and +although it is getting to be what it never was, it must always remain +what it now is. It might be called a city, if it were not alternately +populous and uninhabited; and it would be a wide-spread village, if it +were not a collection of hospitals for decayed or callow politicians. It +is the hybernating-place of fashion, of intelligence, of vice,--a resort +without the attractions of waters either mineral or salt, where there is +no bathing and no springs, but drinking in abundance and gambling in +any quantity. Defenceless, as regards walls, redoubts, moats, or other +fortifications, it is nevertheless the Sevastopol of the Republic, +against which the allied army of Contractors and Claim-Agents +incessantly lay siege. It is a great, little, splendid, mean, +extravagant, poverty-stricken barrack for soldiers of fortune and +votaries of folly. + +Scattered helter-skelter over an immense surface, cut up into scalene +triangles, the oddity of its plan makes Washington a succession of +surprises which never fail to vex and astonish the stranger, be he ever +so highly endowed as to the phrenological bump of locality. Depending +upon the hap-hazard start the ignoramus may chance to make, any +particular house or street is either nearer at hand or farther off than +the ordinary human mind finds it agreeable to believe. The first duty of +the new-comer is to teach his nether extremities to avoid instinctively +the hypothenuse of the street-triangulation, and the last lesson the +resident fails to learn is which of the shortcuts from point to point +is the least lengthy. Beyond a doubt, the corners of the streets were +constructed upon a cold and brutal calculation of the greatest possible +amount of oral sin which disappointed haste and irritated anxiety are +capable of committing; nor is any relief to the tendency to profanity +thus engendered afforded by the inexcusable nomenclature of the streets +and avenues,--a nomenclature in which the resources of the alphabet, the +arithmetic, the names of all the States of the Union, and the Presidents +as well, are exhausted with the most unsystematic profligacy. A man not +gifted with supernatural acuteness, in striving to get from Brown's +Hotel to the General Post-Office, turns a corner and suddenly finds +himself nowhere, simply because he is everywhere,--being at the instant +upon three separate streets and two distinct avenues. And, as a further +consequence of the scalene arrangement of things, it happens that the +stranger in Washington, however civic his birth and education may have +been, is always unconsciously performing those military evolutions +styled marching to the right or left oblique,--acquiring thereby, it is +said, that obliquity of the moral vision--which sooner or later afflicts +every human being who inhabits this strange, lop-sided city-village. + +So queer, indeed, is Washington City in every aspect, that one +newly impressed by its incongruities is compelled to regard Swift's +description of Lilliputia and Sydney Smith's account of Australia as +poor attempts at fun. For, leaving out of view the pigmies of the former +place, whose like we know is never found in Congress, what is there in +that Australian bird with the voice of a jackass to excite the feeblest +interest in the mind of a man who has listened to the debates on Kansas? +or what marvel is an amphibian with the bill of a duck to him who has +gazed aghast at the intricate anatomy of the bill of English? It is true +that the ignorant Antipodes, with a total disregard of all theories of +projectiles, throw their boomerangs behind their backs in order to kill +an animal that stands or runs before their faces, or skim them along +the ground when they would destroy an object flying overhead. And these +feats seem curious. But an accomplished "Constitutional Adviser" can +perform feats far more surprising with a few lumps of coal or a number +of ships-knees, which are but boomerangs of a larger growth. Another has +invented the deadliest of political missiles, (in their recoil,) shaped +like mules and dismantled forts, while a third has demolished the +Treasury with a simple miscalculation. Still more astonishing are the +performances of an eminent functionary who encourages polygamy by +intimidation, purchases redress for national insult by intercepting his +armies and fleets with an apology in the mouth of a Commissioner, and +elevates the Republic in the eyes of mankind by conquering at Ostend +even less than he has lost at the Executive Mansion. + +In truth, the list of Washington anomalies is so extensive and so +various, that no writer with a proper regard for his own reputation or +his readers' credulity would dare enumerate them one by one. Without +material injury to the common understanding, a few may be mentioned; but +respect for public opinion would urge that the enormous whole be summed +up in the comparatively safe and respectful assertion, that the one only +absolutely certain thing in Washington is the absence of everything +that is at all permanent. The following are some of the more obnoxious +astonishments of the place. + +Traversing a rocky prairie inflated with hacks, you arrive late in the +afternoon at a curbed boundary, too fatigued in body and too suffocated +with dust to resent the insult to your common-sense implied in the +announcement that you have merely crossed what is called an Avenue. +Recovered from your fatigue, you ascend the steps of a marble palace, +and enter but to find it garrisoned by shabby regiments armed with +quills and steel pens. The cells they inhabit are gloomy as dungeons, +but furnished like parlors. Their business is to keep everybody's +accounts but their own. They are of all ages, but of a uniformly +dejected aspect. Do not underrate their value. Mr. Bulwer has said, +that, in the hands of men entirely great, the pen is mightier than the +sword. Suffer yourself to be astonished at their numbers, but permit +yourself to withdraw from their vicinity without questioning too closely +their present utility or future destination. No personal affront to the +public or the nineteenth century is intended by the superfluity of their +numbers or the inadequacy of their capacities. Their rapid increase is +attributable not to any incestuous breeding in-and-in among themselves, +but to a violent seduction of the President and the Heads of Department +by importunate Congressmen; and you may rest assured that this criminal +multiplication fills nobody with half so much righteous indignation and +virtuous sorrow as the clerks themselves. Emerging from the palace of +quill-drivers, a new surprise awaits you. The palace is surmounted by +what appear to be gigantic masts and booms, economically, but strongly +rigged, and without any sails. In the distance, you see other palaces +rigged in the same manner. The effect of this spectacle is painful in +the extreme. Standing dry-shod as the Israelites were while crossing the +Red Sea, you nevertheless seem to be in the midst of a small fleet of +unaccountable sloops of the Saurian period. You question whether these +are not the fabulous "Ships of State" so often mentioned in the elegant +oratory of your country. You observe that these ships are anchored in an +ocean of pavement, and your no longer trustworthy eyes search vainly +for their helms. The nearest approach to a rudder is a chimney or an +unfinished pillar; the closest resemblance to a pilot is a hod-carrying +workman clambering up a gangway. Dismissing the nautical hypothesis, +your next effort to relieve your perplexity results in the conjecture +that the prodigious masts and booms may be nothing more than curious +gibbets, the cross-pieces to which, conforming rigidly to the Washington +rule of contrariety, are fastened to the bottom instead of the top of +the upright. Your theory is, that the destinies of the nation are to be +hanged on these monstrous gibbets, and you wonder whether the laws of +gravitation will be complaisant enough to turn upside down for the +accommodation of the hangman, whoever he may be. It is not without +pain that you are forced at last to the commonplace belief that these +remarkable mountings of the Public Buildings are neither masts nor +booms, but simply derricks,--mechanical contrivances for the lifting of +very heavy weights. It is some consolation, however, to be told that +the weakness of these derricks has never been proved by the endeavor +to elevate by means of them the moral character of the inhabitants of +Washington. Content yourself, after a reasonable delay for natural +wonderment, to leave the strange scene. This shipping-like aspect of the +incomplete Departments is only a nice architectural tribute to the fact +that the population of Washington is a floating population. This you +will not be long in finding out. The oldest inhabitants are here to-day +and gone tomorrow, as punctually, if not as poetically, as the Arabs of +Mr. Longfellow. A few remain,--parasitic growths, clinging tenaciously +to the old haunts. Like tartar on the teeth, they are proof against the +hardest rubs of the tooth-brush of Fortune. + +As with the people, so with the houses. Though they retain their +positions, seldom abandoning the ground on which they were originally +built, they change almost hourly their appearance and their +uses,--insomuch that the very solids of the city seem fluid, and even +the stables are mutable,--the horse-house of last week being an office +for the sale of patents, or periodicals, or lottery-tickets, this week, +with every probability of becoming an oyster-cellar, a billiard-saloon, +a cigar-store, a barber's shop, a bar-room, or a faro-bank, next week. +And here is another astonishment. You will observe that the palatial +museums for the temporary preservation of fossil or fungous penmen join +walls, virtually, with habitations whose architecture would reflect +no credit on the most curious hamlet in tide-water Virginia. To your +amazement, you learn that all these houses, thousands in number, are +boarding-houses. Of course, where everybody is a stranger, nobody +keeps house. It would be pardonable to suppose, that, out of so many +boarding-houses, some would be in reality what they are in name. Nothing +can be farther from the fact. These houses contain apartments more or +less cheerless and badly furnished, according to the price (always +exorbitant, however small it may be) demanded for them, and are devoted +exclusively to the storage of empty bottles and demijohns, to large +boxes of vegetable- and flower-seeds, to great piles of books, speeches, +and documents not yet directed to people who will never read them, and +to an abominable odor of boiling cabbages. This odor steals in from +a number of pitch-dark tunnels and shafts, misnamed passages and +staircases, in which there are more books, documents, and speeches, +other boxes of seeds, and a still stronger odor of cabbages. The piles +of books are traps set here for the benefit of the setters of broken +legs and the patchers of skinless shins, and the noisome odors are +propagated for the advantage of gentlemen who treat diseases of the +larynx and lungs. + +It would appear, then, that the so-called boarding-houses are, in point +of fact, private gift-book stores, or rather, commission-houses for the +receiving and forwarding of a profusion of undesirable documents and +vegetations. You may view them also in the light of establishments for +the manufacture and distribution of domestic perfumery, payment for +which is never exacted at the moment of its involuntary purchase, but is +left to be collected by a doctor,--who calls upon you during the winter, +levies on you with a lancet, and distrains upon your viscera with a +compound cathartic pill. + +It is claimed, that, in addition to the victims who pay egregious rents +for boarding-house beds in order that they may have a place to store +their documents and demi-johns, there are other permanent occupants of +these houses. As, for example, Irish chambermaids, who subtract a few +moments from the morning half-hour given to drinking the remnants of +your whiskey, and devote them to cleaning up your room. Also a very +strange being, peculiar to Washington boarding-houses, who is never +visible at any time, and is only heard stumbling up-stairs about four +o'clock in the morning. Also beldames of incalculable antiquity,--a +regular allowance of one to each boarding-house,--who flit noiselessly +and unceasingly about the passages and up and down the stairways, +admonishing you of their presence by a ghostly sniffle, which always +frightens you, and prevents you from running into them and knocking them +down. For these people, it is believed, a table is set in the houses +where the boarders proper flatter their acquaintances that they sleep. +It must be so, for the entire male population is constantly eating in +the oyster-cellars. Indeed, if ocular evidence may be relied on, the +best energies of the metropolis are given to the incessant consumption +of "half a dozen raw," or "four fried and a glass of ale." The bar-rooms +and eating-houses are always full or in the act of becoming full. By a +fatality so unerring that it has ceased to be wonderful, it happens that +you can never enter a Washington restaurant and find it partially empty, +without being instantly followed by a dozen or two of bipeds as hungry +and thirsty as yourself, who crowd up to the bar and destroy half the +comfort you derive from your lunch or your toddy. + +But, although, everybody is forever eating oysters and drinking ale in +myriads of subterranean holes and corners, nobody fails to eat at other +places more surprising and original than any you have yet seen. In all +other cities, people eat at home or at a hotel or an eating-house; in +Washington they eat at bank. But they do not eat money,--at least, not +in the form of bullion, or specie, or notes. These Washington banks, +unlike those of London, Paris, and New York, are open mainly at night +and all night long, are situated invariably in the second story, guarded +as jealously as any seraglio, and admit nobody but strangers,--that is +to say, everybody in Washington. This is singular. Still more singular +is the fact, that the best food, served in the most exquisite manner, +and (with sometimes a slight variation) the choicest wines and cigars, +may be had at these banks free of cost, except to those who choose +voluntarily to remunerate the banker by purchasing a commodity as costly +and almost as worthless as the articles sold at ladies' fairs,--upon +which principle, indeed, the Washington banks are conducted. The +commodity alluded to is in the form of small discs of ivory, called +"chips" or "cheeks" or "shad" or "skad," and the price varies from +twenty-five cents to a hundred dollars per "skad." + +It is expected that every person who opens an account at bank by eating +a supper there shall buy a number of "shad," but not with the view of +taking them home to show to his wife and children. Yet it is not an +uncommon thing for persons of a stingy and ungrateful disposition to +spend most of their time in these benevolent institutions without ever +spending so much as a dollar for "shad," but eating, drinking, and +smoking, and particularly drinking, to the best of their ability. This +reprehensible practice is known familiarly in Washington as "bucking +ag'inst the sideboard," and is thought by some to be the safest mode of +doing business at bank. + +The presiding officer is never called President. He is called +"Dealer,"--perhaps from the circumstance of his dealing in ivory,--and +is not looked up to and worshipped as the influential man of +banking-houses is generally. On. the contrary, he is for the most part +condemned by his best customers, whose heart's desire and prayer are to +break his bank and ruin him utterly. + +Seeing the multitude of boarding-houses, oyster-cellars, and +ivory-banks, you may suppose there are no hotels in Washington. You are +mistaken. There are plenty of hotels, many of them got up on the scale +of magnificent distances that prevails everywhere, and somewhat on the +maritime plan of the Departments. Outwardly, they look like colossal +docks, erected for the benefit of hacks, large fleets of which you will +always find moored under their lee, safe from the monsoon that prevails +on the open sea of the Avenue. Inwardly, they are labyrinths, through +whose gloomy mazes it is impossible to thread your way without the +assistance of an Ariadne's clue in the shape of an Irishman panting +under a trunk. So obscure and involved are the hotel-interiors, that it +would be madness for a stranger to venture in search of his room without +the guidance of some one far more familiar with the devious course of +the narrow clearings through the forest of apartments than the landlord +himself. Now and then a reckless and adventurous proprietor undertakes +to make a day's journey alone through his establishment. He is never +heard of afterwards,--or, if found, is discovered in a remote angle or +loft, in a state of insensibility from bewilderment and starvation. +If it were not for an occasional negro, who, instigated by charitable +motives or love of money, slouches about from room to room with an empty +coal-scuttle as an excuse for his intrusions, a gentleman stopping at a +Washington hotel would be doomed to certain death. In fact, the lives of +all the guests hang upon a thread, or rather, a wire; for, if the bell +should fail to answer, there would be no earthly chance of getting into +daylight again. It is but reasonable to suppose that the wires to many +rooms have been broken in times past, and it is well known in Washington +that these rooms are now tenanted by skeletons of hapless travellers +whose relatives and friends never doubted that they had been kidnapped +or had gone down in the Arctic. + +The differential calculus by which all Washington is computed obtains at +the hotels as elsewhere, with this peculiarity,--that the differences +are infinitely great, instead of infinitely small. While the fronts are +very fine, showy, and youthful as the Lecompton Constitution, the rears +are coarse, common, and old as the Missouri Compromise. The furniture in +the rooms that look upon Pennsylvania Avenue is as fresh as the dogma +of Squatter Sovereignty; that in all other rooms dates back to the +Ordinance of '87. Some of the apartments exhibit a glaring splendor; the +rest show beds, bureaus, and washstands which hard and long usage has +polished to a sort of newness. Specimens of ancient pottery found on +these washstands are now in the British Museum, and are reckoned among +the finest of Layard's collections at Nineveh. + +The dining rooms are admirable examples of magnificent distance. The +room is long, the tables are long, the kitchen is a long way off, and +the waiters a long time going and coming. The meals are long,--so +long that there is literally no end to them; they are eternal. It is +customary to mark certain points in the endless route of appetite with +mile-stones named breakfast, dinner, and supper; but these points have +no more positive existence than the imaginary lines and angles of the +geometrician. Breakfast runs entirely through dinner into supper, and +dinner ends with coffee, the beginning of breakfast. Estimating the +duration of dinner by the speed of an ordinary railroad-train, it is +twenty miles from soup to fish, and fifty from turkey to nuts. But +distance, however magnificent, does not lend enchantment to a meal. The +wonder is that the knives and forks are not made to correspond in length +with the repasts,--in which case the latter would be pitchforks, and the +former John-Brown pikes. + +The people of Washington are as various, mixed, dissimilar, and +contrasted as the edifices they inhabit. Within the like area, which is +by no means a small one, the same number of dignitaries can be found +nowhere else on the face of the globe,--nor so many characters of +doubtful reputation. If the beggars of Dublin, the cripples of +Constantinople, and the lepers of Damascus should assemble in +Baden-Baden during a Congress of Kings, then Baden-Baden would resemble +Washington. Presidents, Senators, Honorables, Judges, Generals, +Commodores, Governors, and the Ex's of all these, congregate here as +thick as pick-pockets at a horse-race or women at a wedding in church. +Add Ambassadors, Plenipotentiaries, Lords, Counts, Barons, Chevaliers, +the great and small fry of the Legations, Captains, Lieutenants, +Claim-Agents, Negroes, Perpetual-Motion-Men, Fire-Eaters, Irishmen, +Plug-Uglies, Hoosiers, Gamblers, Californians, Mexicans, Japanese, +Indians, and Organ-Grinders, together with females to match all +varieties of males, and you have vague notion of the people of +Washington. + +It is an axiom in physics, that a part cannot be greater than the whole; +and it will be recollected, that, after Epistemon had his head sewed on, +he related a tough story about the occupations of the mighty dead, and +swore, that, in the course of his wanderings among the damned, he found +Cicero kindling fires, Hannibal selling egg-shells, and Julius Caesar +cleaning stoves. The story holds good in regard to the mighty personages +in Washington, but the axiom does not. Men whose fame fills the +land, when they are at home or spouting about the country, sink into +insignificance when they get to Washington. The sun is but a small +potato in the midst of the countless systems of the sidereal heavens. +In like manner, the majestic orbs of the political firmament undergo +a cruel lessening of diameter as they approach the Federal City. The +greatest of men ceases to be great in the presence of hundreds of his +peers, and the multitude of the illustrious dwindle into individual +littleness by reason of their superabundance. And when it comes to +occupations, it will hardly be denied that the stranger who beholds a +Senator "coppering on the ace," or a Congressman standing in a bar-room +with a lump of mouldy cheese in one hand and a glass of "pony whiskey" +in the other, or a Judge of the Supreme Court wriggling an ugly woman +through the ridiculous movements of the polka in a hotel-parlor, must +experience sensations quite as confounding as any Epistemon felt in +Kingdom Come. + +In spite of numberless receptions, levees, balls, hops, parties, +dinners, and other reunions, there is, properly speaking, no society in +Washington. Circles are said to exist, but, like that in the vortex of +the whirlpool, they are incessantly changing. Divisions purely arbitrary +may be made in any community. Hence the circles of Washington society +may be represented sciagraphically in the following diagram. + +[Illustration] + +The Circle of the Mudsill includes Negroes, Clerks, Irish Laborers, +Patent and other Agents, Hackmen, Faro-Dealers, Washerwomen, and +Newspaper-Correspondents. In the Hotel Circle, the Newest Strangers, +Harpists, Members of Congress, Concertina-Men, Provincial Judges, +Card-Writers, College-Students, Unprotected Females, "Star" and "States" +Boys, Stool-Pigeons, Contractors, Sellers of Toothpicks, and Beau +Hickman, are found. The Circle of the White House embraces the +President, the Cabinet, the Chiefs of Bureaus, the Embassies, Corcoran +and Riggs, formerly Mr. Forney, and until recently George Sanders and +Isaiah Rynders. The little innermost circle is intended to represent a +select body of residents, intense exclusives, who keep aloof from the +other circles and hold them all in equal contempt. This circle is known +only by report; in all probability it is a myth. It is worthy of remark +that the circles of the White House and the Hotels rise higher and sink +lower than that of the Mudsill, but whether this is a fact or a mere +necessity of the diagram is not known. + +Society, such as it is, in the metropolis, is indulgent to itself. It +intermeddles not, asks no impertinent questions, and transacts +its little affairs in perfect peace and quietude. Vigilant as the +Inquisition in matters political, it is deaf and blind, but not dumb, as +to all others. It dresses as it pleases, drinks as much as it chooses, +eats indiscriminately, sleeps promiscuously, gets up at all hours of +the day, and does as little work as possible. Its only trouble is that +"incomparable grief" to which Panurge was subject, and "which at that +time they called lack of money." In truth, the normal condition of +Washington society is, to use a vernacular term, "busted." It is not an +isolated complaint. Everybody is "busted." No matter what may be the +state of a man's funds when he gets to Washington, no matter how long he +stays or how soon he leaves, to this "busted" complexion must he come at +last. He is in Rome; he must take the consequences. Shall he insult the +whole city with his solvency? Certainly not. He abandons his purse and +his conscience to the madness of the hour, and, in generous emulation of +the prevailing recklessness and immorality, dismisses every scruple and +squanders his last cent. Then, and not till then, does he feel himself +truly a Washington-man, able to look anybody in the face with the serene +pride of an equal, and without the mortification of being accused or +even suspected of having in all the earth a dollar that he can call his +own. + +Where morals are loose, piety is seldom in excess. But there are a +half-dozen of churches in Washington, besides preaching every Sunday +in the House of Representatives. The relative size and cost of the +churches, as compared with the Public Buildings, indicates the true +object of worship in Washington. Strange to say, the theatre is smaller +than the churches. Clerical and dramatic entertainments cannot compete +with the superior attractions of the daily rows in Congress and the +nightly orgies at the faro-banks. Heaven is regarded as another +Chihuahua or Sonora, occupied at present by unfriendly Camanches, but +destined to be annexed some day. In the mean time, a very important +election is to come off in Connecticut or Pennsylvania. That must be +attended to immediately. Such is piety in Washington. + +The list of the unique prodigies of Washington is without limit. But +marvels heaped together cease to be marvellous, and of all places in +the world a museum is the most tiresome. So, amid the whirl and roar +of winter-life in Washington, when one has no time to read, write, or +think, and scarcely time to eat, drink, and sleep, when the days fly by +like hours, and the brain reels under the excitement of the protracted +debauch, life becomes an intolerable bore. Yet the place has an intense +fascination for those who suffer most acutely from the _tedium vitae_ to +which every one is more or less a prey; and men and women who have lived +in Washington are seldom contented elsewhere. The moths return to the +flaming candle until they are consumed. + +In conclusion, it must be admitted that Washington is the Elysium of +oddities, the Limbo of absurdities, an imbroglio of ludicrous anomalies. +Planned on a scale of surpassing grandeur, its architectural execution +is almost contemptible. Blessed with the name of the purest of men, it +has the reputation of Sodom. The seat of the law-making power, it is the +centre of violence and disorder which disturb the peace and harmony +of the whole Republic,--the chosen resort for duelling, clandestine +marriages, and the most stupendous thefts. It is a city without commerce +and without manufactures; or rather, its commerce is illicit, and its +manufacturers are newspaper-correspondents, who weave tissues of fiction +out of the warp of rumor and the web of prevarication. The site of the +United States Treasury, it is the home of everything but affluence. Its +public buildings are splendid, its private dwellings generally squalid. +The houses are low, the rents high; the streets are broad, the crossings +narrow; the hacks are black, the horses white; the squares are +triangles, except that of the Capitol, which is oval; and the water is +so soft that it is hard to drink it, even with the admixture of alcohol. +It has a Monument that will never be finished, a Capitol that is to have +a dome, a Scientific Institute which does nothing but report the rise +and fall of the thermometer, and two pieces of Equestrian Statuary +which it would be a waste of time to criticize. It boasts a streamlet +dignified with the name of the river Tiber, and this streamlet is of the +size and much the appearance of a vein in a dirty man's arm. It has a +canal, but the canal is a mud-puddle during one half the day and an +empty ditch during the other. In spite of the labors of the Smithsonian +Institute, it has no particular weather. It has the climates of all +parts of the habitable globe. It rains, hails, snows, blows, freezes, +and melts in Washington, all in the space of twenty-four hours. After a +fortnight of steady rain, the sun shines out, and in half an hour the +streets are filled with clouds of dust. Property in Washington is +exceedingly sensitive, the people alarmingly callous. The men are +fine-looking, the women homely. The latter have plain faces, but +magnificent busts and graceful figures. The former have an imposing +presence and an empty pocket, a great name and a small conscience. +Notwithstanding all these impediments and disadvantages, Washington +is progressing rapidly. It is fast becoming a large city, but it must +always remain a deserted village in the summer. Its destiny is that of +the Union. It will be the greatest capital the world ever saw, or +it will be "a parched place in the wilderness, a salt land and not +inhabited," and "every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and +wag his head." + + + + +MIDSUMMER AND MAY. + + +[Concluded.] + +Spring at last stole placidly into summer, and Marguerite, who was +always shivering in the house, kept the company in a whirl of out-door +festivals. + +"We have not lived so, Roger," said Mrs. McLean, "since the summer when +you went away. We all follow the caprice of this child as a ship follows +the little compass-needle." + +And she made room for the child beside her in the carriage; for Mr. +Raleigh was about driving them into town,--an exercise which had its +particular charm for Marguerite, not only for the glimpse it afforded of +the gay, bustling inland-city-life, but for opportunities of securing +the reins and of occasioning panics. Lately, however, she had resigned +the latter pleasure, and sat with quiet propriety by Mrs. McLean. +Frequently, also, she took long drives alone or with one of the +children, holding the reins listlessly, and ranging the highway +unobservantly for miles around. + +Mrs. Purcell declared the girl was homesick; Mrs. Heath doubted if +the climate agreed with her: she neither denied nor affirmed their +propositions. + +Mr. Heath came and went from the city where her father was, without +receiving any other notice than she would have bestowed on a peaceful +walking-stick; his attentions to her during his visits were unequivocal; +she accepted them as nonchalantly as from a waiter at table. On the +occasion of his last stay, there had been a somewhat noticeable change +in his demeanor: he wore a trifle of quite novel assurance; his supreme +bearing was not mitigated by the restless sparkle of his eye; and in +addressing her his compliments, he spoke as one having authority. + +Mrs. Laudersdale, so long and so entirely accustomed to the reception +of homage that it cost her no more reflection than an imperial princess +bestows on the taxes that produce her tiara, turned slowly from the +apparent apathy thus induced on her modes of thought, passivity lost in +a gulf of anxious speculation, while she watched the theatre of events +with a glow, like wine in lamplight, that burned behind her dusky eyes +till they had the steady penetration of some wild creature's. She may +have wondered if Mr. Raleigh's former feeling were yet alive; she may +have wondered if Marguerite had found the spell that once she found, +herself; she may have been kept in thrall by ignorance if he had ever +read that old confessing note of hers: whatever she thought or hoped or +dreaded, she said nothing, and did nothing. + +Of all those who concerned themselves in the affair of Marguerite's +health and spirits, Mr. Raleigh was the only one who might have solved +their mystery. Perhaps the thought of wooing the child whose mother +he had once loved was sufficiently repugnant to him to overcome the +tenderness which every one was forced to feel for so beautiful a +creation. I have not said that Marguerite was this, before, because, +until brought into contrast with her mother, her extreme loveliness was +too little positive to be felt; now it was the evanescent shimmer of +pearl to the deep perpetual fire of the carbuncle. Softened, as she +became, from her versatile cheeriness, she moved round like a moonbeam, +and frequently had a bewildered grace, as if she knew not what to make +of herself. Mr. Raleigh, from the moment in which he perceived that she +no longer sought his company, retreated into his own apartments, and was +less seen by the others than ever. + +Returning from the drive on the morning of Mrs. McLean's last recorded +remark, Mr. Raleigh, who had remained to give the horses in charge to a +servant, was about to pass, when the _tableau_ within the drawing-room +caught his attention and altered his course. He entered, and flung his +gloves down on a table, and threw himself on the floor beside Marguerite +and the children. She appeared to be revisited by a ray of her old +sunshine, and had unrolled a giant parcel of candied sweets, which their +mother would have sacrificed on the shrine of jalap and senna, the +purchase of a surreptitious moment, and was now dispensing the brilliant +comestibles with much ill-subdued glee. One mouth, that had bitten off +the head of a checkerberry chanticleer, was convulsed with the +acidulous tickling of sweetened laughter, till the biter was bit and a +metamorphosis into the animal of attack seemed imminent; at the hands of +another a warrior in barley-sugar was experiencing the vernacular for +defeat with reproving haste and gravity; and there was yet another +little omnivorous creature that put out both hands for indiscriminate +snatching, and made a spectacle of himself in a general plaster of +gum-arabic-drop and brandy-smash. + +"Contraband?" said Mr. Raleigh. + +"And sweet as stolen fruit," said Marguerite. "Ursule makes the +richest comfits, but not so innumerable as these. Mamma and I owe our +sweet-tooth and honey-lip to bits of her concoction." + +"Mrs. Purcell," asked Mr. Raleigh, as that lady entered, "is this little +banquet no seduction to you?" + +"What are you doing?" she replied. + +"Drinking honey-dew from acorns." + +"Laudersdale as ever!" ejaculated she, looking over his shoulder. "I +thought you had 'no sympathy with'"---- + +"But I 'like to see other folks take'"---- + +"Their sweets, in this case. No, thank you," she continued, after this +little rehearsal of the past. "What are you poisoning all this brood +for?" + +"Mrs. Laudersdale eats sweetmeats; they don't poison her," remonstrated +Katy. + +"Mrs. Laudersdale, my dear, is exceptional." + +Katy opened her eyes, as if she had been told that the object of her +adoration was Japanese. + +"It is the last grain that completes the transformation, as your +story-books have told; and one day you will see her stand, a statue +of sugar, and melt away in the sun. To be sure, the whole air will be +sweetened, but there will be no Mrs. Laudersdale." + +"For shame, Mrs. Purcell!" cried Marguerite. "You're not sweet-tempered, +or you'd like sweet dainties yourself. Here are nuts swathed in syrup; +you'll have none of them? Here are health and slumber and idle dreams +in a chocolate-drop. Not a chocolate? Here are dates; if you wouldn't +choose the things in themselves, truly you would for their associations? +See, when you take up one, what a picture follows it: the plum that has +swung at the top of a palm and crowded into itself the glow of those +fierce noon-suns; it has been tossed by the sirocco, it has been steeped +in reeking dew; there was always stretched above it the blue intense +tent of a heaven full of light,--always below and around, long level +reaches of hot shining sand; the phantoms of waning desert moons have +hovered over it, swarthy Arab chiefs have encamped under it; it +has threaded the narrow streets of Damascus--that city the most +beautiful--on the backs of gaunt gray dromedaries; it has crossed the +seas,--and all for you, if you take it, this product of desert freedom, +torrid winds, and fervid suns!" + +"I might swallow the date," said Mrs. Purcell, "but Africa would choke +me." + +Mr. Raleigh had remained silent for some time, watching Marguerite as +she talked. It seemed to him that his youth was returning; he forgot his +resolves, his desires, and became aware of nothing in the world but her +voice. Just before she concluded, she grew conscious of his gaze, and +almost at once ceased speaking; her eyes fell a moment to meet it, and +then she would have flashed them aside, but that it was impossible; +lucid lakes of light, they met his own; she was forced to continue it, +to return it, to forget all, as he was forgetting, in that long look. + +"What is this?" said Mrs. Purcell, stooping to pick up a trifle on the +matting. + +"_C'est a moi!_" cried Marguerite, springing up suddenly, and spilling +all the fragments of the feast, to the evident satisfaction of the +lately neglected guests. + +"Yours?" said Mrs. Purcell with coolness, still retaining it. "Why do +you think in French?" + +"Because I choose!" said Marguerite, angrily. "I mean--How do you know +that I do?" + +"Your exclamation, when highly excited or contemptuously indifferent, is +always in that tongue." + +"Which am I now?" + +"Really, you should know best. Here is your bawble"; and Mrs. Purcell +tossed it lightly into her hands, and went out. + +It was a sheath of old morocco. The motion loosened the clasp, and the +contents, an ivory oval and a cushion of faded silk, fell to the floor. +Mr. Raleigh bent and regathered them; there was nothing for Marguerite +but to allow that he should do so. The oval had reversed in falling, so +that he did not see it; but, glancing at her before returning it, he +found her face and neck dyed deeper than the rose. Still reversed, he +was about to relinquish it, when Mrs. McLean passed, and, hearing the +scampering of little feet as they fled with booty, she also entered. + +"Seeing you reminds me, Roger," said she. "What do you suppose has +become of that little miniature I told you of? I was showing it to +Marguerite the other night, and have not seen it since. I must have +mislaid it, and it was particularly valuable, for it was some nameless +thing that Mrs. Heath found among her mother's trinkets, and I begged it +of her, it was such a perfect likeness of you. Can you have seen it?" + +"Yes, I have it," he replied. "And haven't I as good a right to it as +any?" + +He extended his arm for the case which Marguerite held, and so touching +her hand, the touch was more lingering than it needed to be; but he +avoided looking at her, or he would have seen that the late color had +fled till the face was whiter than marble. + +"Your old propensities," said Mrs. McLean. "You always will be a boy. By +the way, what do you think of Mary Purcell's engagement? I thought she +would always be a girl." + +"Ah! McLean was speaking of it to me. Why were they not engaged before?" + +"Because she was not an heiress." + +Mr. Raleigh raised his eyebrows significantly. + +"He could not afford to marry any but an heiress," explained Mrs. +McLean. + +Mr. Raleigh fastened the case and restored it silently. + +"You think that absurd? You would not marry an heiress?" + +Mr. Raleigh did not at once reply. + +"You would not, then, propose to an heiress?" + +"No." + +As this monosyllable fell from his lips, Marguerite's motion placed +her beyond hearing. She took a few swift steps, but paused and leaned +against the wall of the gable for support, and, placing her hand upon +the sun-beat bricks, she felt a warmth in them which there seemed to be +neither in herself nor in the wide summer-air. + +Mrs. Purcell came along, opening her parasol. + +"I am going to the orchard," said she; "cherries are ripe. Hear the +robins and the bells! Do you want to come?" + +"No," said Marguerite. + +"There are bees in the orchard, too,--the very bees, for aught I +know, that Mr. Raleigh used to watch thirteen years ago, or their +great-grand-bees,--they stand in the same place." + +"You knew Mr. Raleigh thirteen years ago?" she asked, glancing up +curiously. + +"Yes." + +"Well?" + +"Very well." + +"How much is very well?" + +"He proposed to me. Smother your anger; he didn't care for me; some one +told him that I cared for him." + +"Did you?" + +"This is what the Inquisition calls applying the question?" asked Mrs. +Purcell. "Nonsense, dear child! he was quite in love with somebody +else." + +"And that was----?" + +"He supposed your mother to be a widow. Well, if you won't come, I shall +go alone and read my 'L'Allegro' under the boughs, with breezes blowing +between the lines. I can show you some little field-mice like unfledged +birds, and a nest that protrudes now and then glittering eyes and cleft +fangs." + +Marguerite was silent; the latter commodity was _de trop_. Mrs. Purcell +adjusted her parasol and passed on. + +Here, then, was the whole affair. Marguerite pressed her hands to her +forehead, as if fearful some of the swarming thoughts should escape; +then she hastened up the slope behind the house, and entered and hid +herself in the woods. Mr. Raleigh had loved her mother. Of course, then, +there was not a shadow of doubt that her mother had loved him. Horrible +thought! and she shook like an aspen, beneath it. For a time it seemed +that she loathed him,--that she despised the woman who had given him +regard. The present moment was a point of dreadful isolation; there was +no past to remember, no future to expect; she herself was alone and +forsaken, the whole world dark, and heaven blank. But that could not be +forever. As she sat with her face buried in her hands, old words, old +looks, flashed on her recollection; she comprehended what long years of +silent suffering the one might have endured, what barren yearning the +other; she saw how her mother's haughty calm might be the crust on a +lava-sea; she felt what desolation must have filled Roger Raleigh's +heart, when he found that she whom he had loved no longer lived, that he +had cherished a lifeless ideal,--for Marguerite knew from his own lips +that he had not met the same woman whom he had left. + +She started up, wondering what had led her upon this train of thought, +why she had pursued it, and what reason she had for the pain it gave +her. A step rustled among the distant last-year's leaves; there in the +shadowy wood, where she did not dream of concealing her thoughts, where +it seemed that all Nature shared her confidence, this step was like +a finger laid on the hidden sore. She paused, a glow rushed over her +frame, and her face grew hot with the convicting flush. Consternation, +bitter condemnation, shame, impetuous resolve, swept over her in one +torrent, and she saw that she had a secret which every one might touch, +and, touching, cause to sting. She hurried onward through the wood, +unconscious how rapidly or how far her heedless course extended. She +sprang across gaps at which she would another time have shuddered; she +clambered over fallen trees, penetrated thickets of tangled brier, and +followed up the shrunken beds of streams, till suddenly the wood grew +thin again, and she emerged upon an open space,--a long lawn, where the +grass grew rank and tall as in deserted graveyards, and on which the +afternoon sunshine lay with most dreary, desolate emphasis. Marguerite +had scarcely comprehended herself before; now, as she looked out on the +utter loneliness of the place, all joyousness, all content, seemed wiped +from the world. She leaned against a tree where the building rose before +her, old and forsaken, washed by rains, beaten by winds. A blind slung +open, loose on a broken hinge; the emptiness of the house looked through +it like a spirit. The woodbine seemed the only living thing about +it,--the woodbine that had swung its clusters, heavy as grapes of +Eshcol, along one wall, and, falling from support, had rioted upon the +ground in masses of close-netted luxuriance. + +Standing and surveying the silent scene of former gayety, a figure +came down the slope, crushing the grass with lingering tread, checked +himself, and, half-reversed, surveyed it with her. Her first impulse was +to approach, her next to retreat; by a resolution of forces she remained +where she was. Mr. Raleigh's position prevented her from seeing the +expression of his face; from his attitude seldom was anything to be +divined. He turned with a motion of the arm, as if he swung off a +burden, and met her eye. He laughed, and drew near. + +"I am tempted to return to that suspicion of mine when I first met you, +Miss Marguerite," said he. "You take shape from solitude and empty air +as easily as a Dryad steps from her tree." + +"There are no Dryads now," said Marguerite, sententiously. + +"Then you confess to being a myth?" + +"I confess to being tired, Mr. Raleigh." + +Mr. Raleigh's manner changed, at her petulance and fatigue, to the old +air of protection, and he gave her his hand. It was pleasant to be the +object of his care, to be with him as at first, to renew their former +relation. She acquiesced, and walked beside him. + +"You have had some weary travel," he said, "and probably not more than +half of it in the path." + +And she feared he would glance at the rents in her frock, forgetting +that they were not sufficiently infrequent facts to be noticeable. + +"He treats me like a child," she thought. "He expects me to tear my +dress! He forgets, that, while thirteen years were making a statue of +her, they were making a woman of me!" And she snatched away her hand. + +"I have the boat below," he said, without paying attention to the +movement. "You took the longest way round, which, you have heard, is the +shortest way home. You have never been on the lake with me." And he was +about to assist her in. + +She stepped back, hesitating. + +"No, no," he said. "It is very well to think of walking back, but it +must end in thinking. You have no impetus now to send you over another +half-dozen miles of wood-faring, no pique to sting, Io." + +And before she could remonstrate, she was lifted in, the oars had +flashed twice, and there was deep water between herself and shore. She +was in reality too much fatigued to be vexed, and she sat silently +watching the spaces through which they glanced, and listening to the +rhythmic dip of the oars. The soft afternoon air, with its melancholy +sweetness and tinge of softer hue, hung round them; the water, brown and +warm, was dimpled with the flight of myriad insects; they wound among +the islands, a path one of them knew of old. From the shelving rocks a +wild convolvulus drooped its twisted bells across them, a sweet-brier +snatched at her hair in passing, a sudden elder-tree shot out its creamy +panicles above, they ripped up drowsy beds of folded lily-blooms. + +Mr. Raleigh, suddenly lifting one oar, gave the boat a sharp curve and +sent it out on the open expanse; it seemed to him that he had no right +thus to live two lives in one. Still he wished to linger, and with now +and then a lazy movement they slipped along. He leaned one arm on the +upright oar, like a river-god, and from the store of boat-songs in his +remembrance sang now and then a strain. Marguerite sat opposite and +rested along the side, content for the moment to glide on as they were, +without a reference to the past in her thought, without a dream of the +future. Peach-bloom fell on the air, warmed all objects into mellow +tint, and reddened deep into sunset. Tinkling cow-bells, where the kine +wound out from pasture, stole faintly over the lake, reflected dyes +suffused it and spread around them sheets of splendid color, outlines +grew ever dimmer on the distant shores, a purple tone absorbed all +brilliance, the shadows fell, and, bright with angry lustre, the planet +Mars hung in the south and struck a spear, redder than rubies, down the +placid mirror. The dew gathered and lay sparkling on the thwarts as they +touched the garden-steps, and they mounted and traversed together the +alleys of odorous dark. They entered at Mr. Raleigh's door and stepped +thence into the main hall, where they could see the broad light from the +drawing-room windows streaming over the lawn beyond. Mrs. Laudersdale +came down the hall to meet them. + +"My dear Rite," she said, "I have been alarmed, and have sent the +servants out for you. You left home in the morning, and you have not +dined. Your father and Mr. Heath have arrived. Tea is just over, and +we are waiting for you to dress and go into town; it is Mrs. Manton's +evening, you recollect." + +"Must I go, mamma?" asked Marguerite, after this statement of facts. +"Then I must have tea first. Mr. Raleigh, I remember my wasted +sweetmeats of the morning with a pang. How long ago that seems!" + +In a moment her face told her regret for the allusion, and she hastened +into the dining-room. + +Mr. Raleigh and Marguerite had a merry tea, and Mrs. Purcell came and +poured it out for them. + +"Quite like the days when we went gypsying," said she, when near its +conclusion. + +"We have just come from the Bawn, Miss Marguerite and I," he replied. + +"You have? I never go near it. Did it break your heart?" + +Mr. Raleigh laughed. + +"Is Mr. Raleigh's heart such a delicate organ?" asked Marguerite. + +"Once, you might have been answered negatively; now, it must be like the +French banner, _perce, troue, crible,"-- + +"Pray, add the remainder of your quotation," said he,--"_sans peur et +sans reproche_." + +"So that a trifle would reduce it to flinders," said Mrs. Purcell, +without minding his interruption. + +"Would you give it such a character, Miss Rite?" questioned Mr. Raleigh +lightly. + +"I? I don't see that you have any heart at all, Sir." + +"I swallow my tea and my mortification." + +"Do you remember your first repast at the Bawn?" asked Mrs. Purcell. + +"Why not?" + +"And the jelly like molten rubies that I made? It keeps well." And she +moved a glittering dish toward him. + +"All things of that summer keep well," he replied. + +"Except yourself, Mr. Raleigh. The Indian jugglers are practising upon +us, I suspect. You are no more like the same person who played sparkling +comedy and sang passionate tragedy than this bamboo stick is like that +willow wand." + +"I wish I could retort, Miss Helen," he replied. "I beg your pardon!" + +She was silent, and her eye fell and rested on the sheeny damask +beneath. He glanced at her keenly an instant, then handed her his cup, +saying,-- + +"May I trouble you?" + +She looked up again, a smile breaking over the face wanner than +youth, but which the hour's gayety had flushed to a forgetfulness of +intervening years, extended her left hand for the cup, still gazing and +smiling. + +Various resolves had flitted through Marguerite's mind since her +entrance. One, that she would yet make Mr. Raleigh feel her power, +yielded to shame and self-contempt, and she despised herself for a woman +won unwooed. But she was not sure that she was won. Perhaps, after all, +she did not care particularly for Mr. Raleigh. He was much older than +she; he was quite grave, sometimes satirical; she knew nothing about +him; she was slightly afraid of him. On the whole, if she consulted her +taste, she would have preferred a younger hero; she would rather be the +Fornarina for a Raffaello; she had fancied her name sweetening the songs +of Giraud Riquier, the last of the Troubadours; and she did not believe +Beatrice Portinari to be so excellent among women, so different from +other girls, that her name should have soared so far aloft with that +escutcheon of the golden wing on a field azure. "But they say that there +cannot be two epic periods in a nation's literature," thought Marguerite +hurriedly; "so that a man who might have been Homer once will be nothing +but a gentleman now." And at this point, having decided that Mr. Raleigh +was fully worth unlimited love, she added to her resolves a desire for +content with whatever amount of friendly affection he chose to bestow +upon her. And all this, while sifting the sugar over her raspberries. +Nevertheless, she felt, in the midst of her heroic content, a strange +jealousy at hearing the two thus discuss days in which she had no share, +and she watched them furtively, with a sharp, hateful suspicion dawning +in her mind. Now, as Mrs. Purcell's eyes met Mr. Raleigh's, and her hand +was still extended for the cup, Marguerite fastened her glance on its +glittering ring, and said abruptly,-- + +"Mrs. Purcell, have you a husband?" + +Mrs. Purcell started and withdrew her hand, as if it had received a +blow, just as Mr. Raleigh relinquished the cup, so that between them the +bits of pictured porcelain fell and splintered over the equipage. + +"Naughty child!" said Mrs. Purcell. "See now what you've done!" + +"What have I to do with it?" + +"Then you haven't any bad news for me? Has any one heard from the +Colonel? Is he ill?" + +"Pshaw!" said Marguerite, rising and throwing down her napkin. + +She went to the window and looked out. + +"It is time you were gone, little lady," said Mr. Raleigh. + +She approached Mrs. Purcell and passed her hand down her hair. + +"What pretty soft hair you have!" said she. "These braids are like +carved gold-stone. May I dress it with sweet-brier to-night? I brought +home a spray." + +"Rite!" said Mrs. Laudersdale sweetly, at the door; and Rite obeyed the +summons. + +In a half-hour she came slowly down the stairs, untwisting a long string +of her mother's abandoned pearls, great pear-shaped things full of the +pale lustre of gibbous moons. She wore a dress of white samarcand, with +a lavish ornament like threads and purfiles of gold upon the bodice, and +Ursule followed with a cloak. As she entered the drawing-room, the great +bunches of white azalea, which her mother had brought from the swamps, +caught her eye; she threw down the pearls, and broke off rapid dusters +of the queenly flowers, touching the backward-curling hyacinthine +petals, and caressingly passing her finger down the pale purple shadow +of the snowy folds. Directly afterward she hung them in her breezy hair, +from which, by natural tenure, they were not likely to fall, bound them +over her shoulders and in her waist. + +"See! I stand like Summer," she said, "wrapped in perfume; it is +intoxicating." + +Just then two hands touched her, and her father bent his face over her. +She flung her arms round him, careless of their fragile array, kissed +him on both cheeks, laughed, and kissed him again. She did not speak, +for he disliked French, and English sometimes failed her. + +"Here is Mr. Heath," her father said. + +She partly turned, touched that gentleman's hand with the ends of her +fingers, and nodded. Her father whispered a brief sentence in her ear. + +"_Jamais, Monsieur, jamais!_" she exclaimed; then, with a quick gesture +of deprecation, moved again toward him; but Mr. Laudersdale had coldly +passed to make his compliments to Mrs. Heath. + +"You are not in toilet?" said Marguerite, following him, but speaking +with Mr. Raleigh. + +"No,--Mrs. Purcell has been playing for me a little thing I always +liked,--that sweet, tuneful afternoon chiding of the Miller and the +Torrent." + +She glanced at Mrs. Purcell, saw that her dress remained unaltered, and +commenced pulling out the azaleas from her own. + +"I do not want to go," she murmured. "I need not! Mamma and Mrs. McLean +have already gone in the other carriage." + +"Come, Marguerite," said Mr. Laudersdale, approaching her, as Mr. Heath +and his mother disappeared. + +"I am not going," she replied, quickly. + +"Not going? I beg your pardon, my dear, but you are!" and he took her +hand. + +She half endeavored to withdraw it, threw a backward glance over her +shoulder at the remaining pair, and, led by her father, went out. + +Marguerite did her best to forget the vexation, was very affable with +her father, and took no notice of any of Mr. Heath's prolonged remarks. +The drive was at best a tiresome one, and she was already half-asleep +when the carriage stopped. The noise and light, and the little vanities +of the dressing-room, awakened her, and she descended prepared for +conquest. But, after a few moments, it all became weariness, the air +was close, the flowers faded, the music piercing. The toilets did +not attract nor the faces interest her. She danced along absent and +spiritless, when her eye, raised dreamily, fell on an object among the +curtains and lay fascinated there. It was certainly Mr. Raleigh: but so +little likely did that seem, that she again circled the room, with her +eyes bent upon that point, expecting it to vanish. He must have come in +the saddle, unless a coach had returned for him and Mrs. Purcell,--yes, +there was Mrs. Purcell,--and she wore that sweet-brier fresh-blossoming +in the light. With what ease she moved!--it must always have been the +same grace;--how brilliant she was! There,--she was going to dance with +Mr. Raleigh. No? Where, then? Into the music-room! + +The music-room lay beyond an anteroom of flowers and prints, and +was closed against the murmur of the parlors by great glass doors. +Marguerite, from her position, could see Mr. Raleigh seated at the +piano, and Mrs. Purcell standing by his side; now she turned a leaf, now +she stooped, and their hands touched upon the keys. Marguerite slipped +alone through the dancers, and drew nearer. There were others in the +music-room, but they were at a distance from the piano. She entered +the anteroom and sat shadowed among the great fragrant shrubs. A group +already stood there, eating ices and gayly gossiping. Mr. Laudersdale +and Mr. Manton sauntered in, their heads together, and muttering occult +matters of business, whose tally was kept with forefinger on palm. + +"Where is Raleigh?" asked Mr. Manton, looking up. "He can tell us." + +"At his old occupation," answered a gentleman from beside Mrs. +Laudersdale, "flirting with forbidden fruit." + +"An alliterative amusement," said Mrs. Laudersdale. + +"You did not know the original Raleigh?" continued the gentleman. "But +he always took pleasure in female society; yet, singularly enough, +though fastidious in choice, it was only upon the married ladies that he +bestowed his platonisms. I observe the old Adam still clings to him." + +"He probably found more liberty with them," remarked Mrs. Laudersdale, +when no one else replied. + +"Without doubt he took it." + +"I mean, that, where attentions are known to intend nothing, one is not +obliged to measure them, or to calculate upon effects." + +"Of the latter no one can accuse Mr. Raleigh!" said Mr. Laudersdale, +hotly, forgetting himself for once. + +Mrs. Laudersdale lifted her large eyes and laid them on her husband's +face. + +"Excuse me! excuse me!" said the gentleman, with natural misconception. +"I was not aware that he was a friend of yours." And taking a lady on +his arm, he withdrew. + +"Nor is he!" said Mr. Laudersdale, in lowest tones, replying to his +wife's gaze, and for the first time intimating his feeling. "Never, +never, can I repair the ruin he has made me!" + +Mrs. Laudersdale rose and stretched out her arm, blindly. + +"The room is quite dark," she murmured; "the flowers must soil the air. +Will you take me up-stairs?" + +Meanwhile, the unconscious object of their remark was turning over a +pile of pages with one hand, while the other trifled along the gleaming +keys. + +"Here it is," said he, drawing one from the others, and arranging it +before him,--a _gondel-lied_. + +There stole from his fingers the soft, slow sound of lapsing waters, the +rocking on the tide, the long sway of some idle weed. Here a jet of tune +was flung out from a distant bark, here a high octave flashed like a +passing torch through night-shadows, and lofty arching darkness told in +clustering chords. Now the boat fled through melancholy narrow ways of +pillared pomp and stately beauty, now floated off on the wide lagoons +alone with the stars and sea. Into this broke the passion of the gliding +lovers, deep and strong, giving a soul to the whole, and fading away +again, behind its wild beating,--with the silence of lapping ripple and +dipping oar. + +Mrs. Purcell, standing beside the player, laid a careless arm across the +instrument, and bent her face above him like a flower languid with +the sun's rays. Suddenly the former smile suffused it, and, as the +gondel-lied fell into a slow floating accompaniment, she sang with a +swift, impetuous grace, and in a sweet, yet thrilling voice, the Moth +Song. The shrill music and murmur from the parlors burst all at once in +muffled volume upon the melody, and, turning, they both saw Marguerite +standing in the doorway, like an angry wraith, and flitting back again. +Mrs. Purcell laughed, but took up the thread of her song again where it +was broken, and carried it through to the end. Then Mr. Raleigh tossed +the gondel-lied aside, and rising, they continued their stroll. + +"You have more than your share of the good things of life, Raleigh," +said Mr. McLean, as the person addressed poured out wine for Mrs. +Purcell. "Two affairs on hand at once? You drink deep. Light and +sparkling,--thin and tart,--isn't it Solomon who forbids mixed drink?" + +"I was never the worse for claret," replied Mr. Raleigh, bearing away +the glittering glass. + +The party from the Lake had not arrived at an early hour, and it was +quite late when Mr. Raleigh made his way through ranks of tireless +dancers, toward Marguerite. She had been dancing with a spirit that +would have resembled joyousness but for its reckless _abandon_. She +seemed to him then like a flame, as full of wilful sinuous caprice. At +the first he scarcely liked it, but directly the artistic side of his +nature recognized the extreme grace and beauty that flowed through every +curve of movement. Standing now, the corn-silk hair slightly disordered +and still blown about by the fan of some one near her, her eyes +sparkling like stars in the dewdrops of wild wood-violets, warm, yet +weary, and a flush deepening her cheek with color, while the flowers +hung dead around her, she held a glass of wine and watched the bead swim +to the brim. Mr. Raleigh approached unaware, and startled her as he +spoke. + +"It is _au gre du vent_, indeed," he said,--"just the white fluttering +butterfly,--and now that the wings are clasped above this crimson +blossom, I have a chance of capture." And smiling, he gently withdrew +the splendid draught. + +"_Buvez, Monsieur_," she said; "_c'est le vin de la vie!_" + +"Do you know how near daylight it is?" he replied. "Mrs. Laudersdale +fainted in the heat, and your father took her home long ago. The Heaths +went also; and the carriage has just returned for the only ones of us +that are left, you and me." + +"Is it ready now?" + +"Yes." + +"So am I." + +And in a few moments she sat opposite him in the coach, on their way +home. + +"It wouldn't be possible for me to sit on the box and drive?" she asked. + +"I should like it, in this wild starlight, these flying clouds, this +breath of dawn." + +Meeting no response, she sank into silence. No emotion can keep one +awake forever, and, after all her late fatigue, the roll of the easy +vehicle upon the springs soon soothed her into a dreamy state. Through +the efforts at wakefulness, she watched the gleams that fell within from +the carriage-lamps, the strange shadows on the roadside, the boughs +tossing to the wind and flickering all their leaves in the speeding +light; she watched, also, Mr. Raleigh's face, on which, in the fitful +flashes, she detected a look of utter weariness. + +"_Monsieur_," she exclaimed, "_il faut que je vous gene!_" + +"Immensely," said Mr. Raleigh with a smile; "but, fortunately, for no +great time." + +"We shall be soon at home? Then I must have slept." + +"Very like. What did you dream?" + +"Oh, one must not tell dreams before breakfast, or they come to pass, +you know." + +"No,--I am uninitiated in dream-craft. Mr. Heath"---- + +"_Monsieur_," she cried, with sudden heat, "_il me semble que je +comprends les Laocoons! J'en suis de meme!_" + +As she spoke, she fell, struck forward by a sudden shock, the coach was +rocking like a boat, and plunging down unknown gulfs. Mr. Raleigh seized +her, broke through the door, and sprang out. + +"_Qu'avez vous?_" she exclaimed. + +"The old willow is fallen in the wind," he replied. + +"_Quel dommage_ that we did not see it fall!" + +"It has killed one of the horses, I fear," he continued, measuring, as +formerly, her terror by her levity. "Capua! is all right? Are you safe?" + +"Yah, massa!" responded a voice from the depths, as Capua floundered +with the remaining horse in the thicket at the lake-edge below. "Yah, +massa,--nuffin harm Ol' Cap in water; spec he born to die in galluses; +had nuff chance to be in glory, ef 'twasn't. I's done beat wid dis yer +pony, anyhow, Mass'r Raleigh. Seems, ef he was a 'sect to fly in de face +of all creation an' pay no 'tention to his centre o' gravity, he might +walk up dis yer hill!" + +Mr. Raleigh left Marguerite a moment, to relieve Capua's perplexity. +Through the remaining darkness, the sparkle of stars, and wild fling of +shadows in the wind, she could but dimly discern the struggling figures, +and the great creature trampling and snorting below. She remembered +strange tales out of the "Arabian Nights," "Bellerophon and the +Chimaera," "St. George and the Dragon"; she waited, half-expectant, to +see the great talon-stretched wings flap up against the slow edge of +dawn, where Orion lay, a pallid monster, watching the planet that +flashed like some great gem low in a crystalline west, and she stepped +nearer, with a kind of eager and martial spirit, to do battle in turn. + +"Stand aside, Una!" cried Mr. Raleigh, who had worked in a determined +characteristic silence, and the horse's head, sharp ear, and starting +eye were brought to sight, and then his heaving bulk. + +"All right, massa!" cried Capua, after a moment's survey, as he patted +the trembling flanks. "Pretty tough ex'cise dat! Spect Massam Clean be +mighty high,--his best cretur done about killed wid dat tree;--feared he +show dis nigger a stick worf two o' dat!" + +"We had like to have finished our dance on nothing," said Mr. Raleigh +now, looking back on the splintered wheels and panels. "Will you mount? +I can secure you from falling." + +"Oh, no,--I can walk; it is only a little way." + +"Reach home like Cinderella? If you had but one glass slipper, that +might be; but in satin ones it is impossible." And she found herself +seated aloft before quite aware what had happened. + +Pacing along, they talked lightly, with the gayety natural upon +excitement,--Capua once in a while adding a cogent word. As they opened +the door, Mr. Raleigh paused a moment. + +"I am glad," he said, "that my last day with you has been crowned by +such adventures. I leave the Lake at noon." + +She hung, listening, with a backward swerve of figure, and regarding +him in the dim light of the swinging hall-lamp, for the moment +half-petrified. Suddenly she turned and seized his hand in hers,--then +threw it off. + +"_Cher ami_," she murmured hastily, in a piercing whisper, like some +articulate sigh, "_si tu m'aimes, dis moi!_" + +The door closed in the draught, the drawing-room door opened, and Mr. +Laudersdale stepped out, having been awaiting their return. Mr. Raleigh +caught the flash of Marguerite's eye and the crimson of her cheek, as +she sprang forward up the stairs and out of sight. + +The family did not breakfast together the next day, as politeness +chooses to call the first hour after a ball, and Mr. Raleigh was making +some arrangements preliminary to his departure, in his own apartments, +at about the hour of noon. The rooms which he had formerly occupied Mrs. +McLean had always kept closed, in a possibility of his return, and he +had found himself installed in them upon his arrival. The library was +today rather a melancholy room: the great book-cases did not enliven it; +the grand-piano, with its old dark polish, seemed like a coffin, the +sarcophagus of unrisen music; the oak panelling had absorbed a richer +hue with the years than once it wore; the portrait of his mother seemed +farther withdrawn from sight and air; Antinoues took a tawnier tint in +his long reverie. The Summer, past her height, sent a sad beam, the +signal of decay, through the half-open shutters, and it lay wearily on +the man who sat by the long table, and made more sombre yet the faded +carpet and cumbrous chair. + +There was a tap on the door. Mr. Raleigh rose and opened it, and invited +Mr. Laudersdale in. The latter gentleman complied, took the chair +resigned by the other, but after a few words became quiet. Mr. Raleigh +made one or two attempts at conversation, then, seeing silence to be his +visitor's whim, suffered him to indulge it, and himself continued his +writing. Indeed, the peculiar relations existing between these men made +much conversation difficult. Mr. Laudersdale sat with his eyes upon +the floor for several minutes, and his countenance wrapped in thought. +Rising, with his hands behind him, he walked up and down the long room, +still without speaking. + +"Can I be of service to you, Sir?" asked the other, after observing him. + +"Yes, Mr. Raleigh, I am led to think you can,"--still pacing up and +down, and vouchsafing no further information. + +At last, the monotonous movement ended, Mr. Laudersdale stood at the +window, intercepting the sunshine, and examined some memoranda. + +"Yes, Mr. Raleigh," he resumed, with all his courtly manner, upon close +of the examination, "I am in hopes that you may assist me in a singular +dilemma." + +"I shall be very glad to do so." + +"Thank you. This is the affair. About a year ago, being unable to make +my usual visit to my daughter and her grandmother, I sent there in my +place our head clerk, young Heath, to effect the few transactions, and +also to take a month's recreation,--for we were all overworked and +exhausted by the crisis. The first thing he proceeded to do was to fall +in love with my daughter. Of course he did not mention this occurrence +to me, on his return. When my daughter arrived at New York, I was again +detained, myself, and sent her to this place under his care. He lingered +rather longer than he should have done, knowing the state of things; but +I suspected nothing, for the idea of a clerk's marriage with the heiress +of the great Martinique estate never entered my mind; moreover, I have +regarded her as a child; and I sent him back with various commissions at +several times,--once on business with McLean, once to obtain my wife's +signature to some sacrifice of property, and so on. I really beg your +pardon, Mr. Raleigh; it is painful to another, I am aware, to be thrust +upon family confidences"---- + +"Pray, Sir, proceed," said Mr. Raleigh, wheeling his chair about. + +"But since you are in a manner connected with the affair, yourself"---- + +"You must be aware, Mr. Laudersdale, that my chief desire is the +opportunity you afford me." + +"I believe so. I am happy to afford it. On the occasion of Mr. Heath's +last visit to this place, Marguerite drew attention to a coin whose +history you heard, and the other half of which Mrs. Purcell wore. Mr. +Heath obtained the fragment he possessed through my wife's aunt, Susanne +Le Blanc; Mrs. Purcell obtained hers through her grandmother, Susan +White. Of course, these good people were not slow to put the coin and +the names together; Mr. Heath, moreover, had heard portions of the +history of Susanne Le Blanc, when in Martinique. + +"On resuming his duties in the counting-house, after this little +incident, one day, at the close of business-hours, he demanded from me +the remnants of this history with which he might be unacquainted. When +I paused, he took up the story and finished it with ease, and--and +poetical justice, I may say, Mr. Raleigh. Susanne was the sister of +Mrs. Laudersdale's father, though far younger than he. She met a young +American gentleman, and they became interested in each other. Her +brother designed her for a different fate,--the governor of the island, +indeed, was her suitor,--and forbade their intercourse. There were +rumors of a private marriage; her apartments were searched for any +record, note, or proof, unsuccessfully. If there were such, they had +been left in the gentleman's hands for better concealment. It being +supposed that they continued to meet, M. Le Blanc prevailed upon the +governor to arrest the lover on some trifling pretence and send him out +of the island. Shortly afterward, as he once confessed to his wife, he +caused a circumstantial account of the death and funeral obsequies of +each to reach the other. Immediately he urged the governor's suit again, +and when she continued to resist, he fixed the wedding-day, himself, and +ordered the _trousseau_. Upon this, one evening, she buried the box of +trinkets at the foot of the oleanders, and disappeared the next, and no +trace of her was found. + +"When I reached this point, young Heath turned to me with that +impudently nonchalant drawl of his, saying,-- + +"'And her property, Sir?' + +"'That,' I replied innocently, 'which comprised half the estate, and +which she would have received, on attaining the requisite age, was +inherited by her brother, upon her suicide.' + +"'Apparent suicide, you mean,' said he; and thereupon took up the story, +as I have said, matched date to date and person to person, and informed +me that exactly a fortnight from the day of Mademoiselle Susanne Le +Blanc's disappearance, a young lady took rooms at a hotel in a Southern +city, and advertised for a situation as governess, under the name of +Susan White. She gave no references, spoke English imperfectly, and had +difficulty in obtaining one; finally, however, she was successful, and +after a few years married into the family of her employer, and became +the mother of Mrs. Heath. The likeness of Mrs. Purcell, the grandchild +of Susan White, to Susanne Le Blanc, was so extraordinary, a number of +years ago, that, when Ursule, my daughter's nurse, first saw her, she +fainted with terror. My wife, you are aware, was born long after these +events. This governess never communicated to her husband any more +specific circumstance of her youth than that she had lived in the West +Indies, and had left her family because they had resolved to marry +her,--as she might have done, had she not died shortly after her +daughter's birth. Among her few valuables were found this half-coin of +Heath's, and a miniature, which his mother recently gave your cousin, +but which, on account of its new interest, she has demanded again; for +it is probably that of the ancient lover, and bearing, as it does, a +very striking resemblance to yourself, you have pronounced it to be +undoubtedly that of your uncle, Reuben Raleigh, and wondered how it came +into the possession of Mrs. Heath's mother. Now, as you may be aware, +Reuben Raleigh was the name of Susanne Le Blanc's lover." + +"No,--I was not aware." + +Mr. Laudersdale's countenance, which had been animated in narration, +suddenly fell. + +"I was in hopes," he resumed,--"I thought,--my relation of these +occurrences may have been very confused; but it is as plain as daylight +to me, that Susanne Le Blanc and Susan White are one, and that the +property of the first is due to the heirs of the last." + +"Without doubt, Sir." + +"The same is plain, to the Heaths. I am sure that Marguerite will accept +our decision in the matter,--sure that no daughter of mine would +retain a fraudulent penny; for retain it she could, since there is not +sufficient proof in any court, if we chose to contest; but it will +beggar her." + +"How, Sir? Beggar her to divide her property?" + +"It is a singular division. The interest due on Susanne's moiety swells +it enormously. Add to this, that, after M. Le Blanc's death, Madame Le +Blanc, a much younger person, did not so well understand the management +of affairs, the property depreciated, and many losses were encountered, +and it happens that the sum due Mrs. Heath covers the whole amount that +Marguerite possesses." + +"Now, then, Sir?" exclaimed Mr. Raleigh, interrogatively. + +"Now, then, Mrs. Heath requests my daughter's hand for her son, and +offers to set off to him, at once, such sum as would constitute his half +of her new property upon her decease, and allow him to enter our house +as special partner." + +"Ah!" + +"This does not look so unreasonable. Last night he proposed formally to +Marguerite, who is still ignorant of these affairs, and she refused him. +I have urged her differently,--I can do no more than urge,--and she +remains obdurate. To accumulate misfortunes, we escaped 1857 by a +miracle. We have barely recovered; and now various disasters striking +us,--the loss of the Osprey the first and chief of them,--we are to-day +on the verge of bankruptcy. Nothing but the entrance of this fortune can +save us from ruin." + +"Unfortunate!" said Mr. Raleigh,--"most unfortunate! And can I serve you +at this point?" + +"Not at all, Sir," said Mr. Laudersdale, with sudden erectness. "No,--I +have but one hope. It has seemed to me barely possible that your uncle +may have communicated to you events of his early life,--that you may +have heard, that there may have been papers telling of the real fate of +Susanne Le Blanc." + +"None that I know of," said Mr. Raleigh, after a pause. "My uncle was +a very reserved person. I often imagined that his youth had not been +without its passages, something to account for his unvarying depression. +In one letter, indeed, I asked him for such a narration. He promised to +give it to me shortly,--the next mail, perhaps. The next mail I received +nothing; and after that he made no allusion to the request." + +"Indeed? Indeed? I should say,--pardon me, Mr. Raleigh,--that your +portion of the next mail met with some accident. Your servants could not +explain it?" + +"There is Capua, who was major-domo. We can inquire," said Mr. Raleigh, +with a smile, rising and ringing for that functionary. + +On Capua's appearance, the question was asked, if he had ever secretly +detained letter or paper of any kind. + +"Lors, massa! I alwes knew 'twould come to dis!" he replied. "No, massa, +neber!" shaking his head with repeated emphasis. + +"I thought you might have met with some accident, Capua," said his +master. + +"Axerden be ----, beg massa's parden; but such s'picions poison any +family's peace, and make a feller done forgit hisself." + +"Very well," said Mr. Raleigh, who was made to believe by this vehemence +in what at first had seemed a mere fantasy. "Only remember, that, if you +could assure me that any papers had been destroyed, the assurance would +be of value." + +"'Deed, Mass Roger? Dat alters de case," said Capua, grinning. "Dere's +been a good many papers 'stroyed in dis yer house firs' an' last." + +"Which in particular?" + +"Don' rekerlek, massa, it's so long ago." + +"But make an effort." + +"Well, Massa Raleigh,--'pears to me I _do_ remember suthin',--I do +b'lieve--yes, dis's jist how 'twas. Spect I might as well make a crean +breast ob it. I's alwes had it hangin' roun' my conscious; do'no' but +I's done grad to git rid ob it. Alwes spected massa 'd be 'xcusin' Cap +o' turnin' tief." + +"That is the last accusation I should make against you, Capua." + +"But dar I stan's convicted." + +"Out with it, Capua!" said Mr. Laudersdale, laughing. + +"Lord! Massa Lausdel! how you do scare a chile! Didn' know mass'r was +dar. See, Mass Roger, dis's jist how 'twas. Spec you mind dat time +when all dese yer folks lib'd acrost de lake dat summer, an' massa was +possessed to 'most lib dar too? Well, one day, massa mind Ol' Cap's +runnin' acrost in de rain an' in great state ob excitement to tell him +his house done burnt up?" + +"Yes. What then?" + +"Dat day, massa, de letters had come from Massa Reuben out in Indy, an' +massa's pipe kinder 'tracted Cap's 'tention, an' so he jist set down in +massa's chair an' took a smoke. Bimeby Cap thought,--'Ef massa come an' +ketch him!'--an' put down de pipe an' went to work, and bimeby I smelt +mighty queer smell, massa, 'bout de house, made him tink Ol' Nick was +come hissef for Ol' Cap, an' I come back into dis yer room an' Massa +Reuben's letters from Indy was jist most done burnt up, he cotched 'em +in dese yer ol' brack han's, Mass Roger, an' jist whipt 'em up in dat +high croset." + +And having arrived at this confusion in his personal pronouns, Capua +mounted nimbly on pieces of furniture, thrust his pocket-knife through +a crack of the wainscot, opened the door of a small unseen closet, and, +after groping about and inserting his head as Van Amburgh did in the +lion's mouth, scrambled down again with his hand full of charred and +blackened papers, talking glibly all the while. + +"Ef massa'd jist listen to reason," he said, "'stead o' flyin' into one +ob his tantrums, I might sprain de matter. You see, I knew Mass Roger'd +feel so oncomforble and remorseful to find his ol' uncle's letters done +'stroyed, an 'twas all by axerden, an' couldn' help it noways, massa, +an' been done sorry eber since, an' wished dar warn't no letters dis +side de Atlantic nor torrer, ebery day I woke." + +After which plea, Capua awaited his sentence. + +"That will do,--it's over now, old boy," said Mr. Raleigh, with his +usual smile. + +"Now, massa, you a'n't gwine"---- + +"No, Capua, I'm going to do nothing but look at the papers." + +"But massa's"---- + +"You need not be troubled,--I said, I was not." + +"But, massa,--s'pose I deserve a thrashing?" + +"There's no danger of your getting it, you blameless Ethiop!" + +Upon which pacific assurance, Capua departed. + +The two gentlemen now proceeded to the examination of these fragments. +Of the letters nothing whatever was to be made. From one of them dropped +a little yellow folded paper that fell apart in its creases. Put +together, it formed a sufficiently legible document, and they read the +undoubted marriage-certificate of Susanne Le Blanc and Reuben Raleigh. + +"I am sorry," said Mr. Laudersdale, after a moment. "I am sorry, instead +of a fortune, to give them a bar-sinister." + +"Your daughter is ignorant?--your wife?" + +"Entirely. Will you allow me to invite them in here? They should see +this paper." + +"You do not anticipate any unpleasant effect?" + +"Not the slightest Marguerite has no notion of want or of pride. +Her first and only thought will be--_sa cousine Helene_." And Mr. +Laudersdale went out. + +Some light feet were to be heard pattering down the stairs, a mingling +of voices, then Mr. Laudersdale passed on, and Marguerite tapped, +entered, and closed the door. + +"My father has told me something I but half understand," said she, with +her hand on the door. "Unless I marry Mr. Heath, I lose my wealth? What +does that signify? Would all the mines of Peru tempt me?" + +Mr. Raleigh remained leaning against the corner of the bookcase. She +advanced and stood at the foot of the table, nearly opposite him. Her +lips were glowing as if the fire of her excitement were fanned by every +breath; her eyes, half hidden by the veiling lids, seemed to throw a +light out beneath them and down her cheek. She wore a mantle of swan's +down closely wrapped round her, for she had complained ceaselessly of +the chilly summer. + +"Mr. Raleigh," she said, "I am poorer than you are, now. I am no longer +an heiress." + +At this moment, the door opened again and Mrs. Laudersdale entered. At +a step she stood in the one sunbeam; at another, the shutters blew +together, and the room was left in semi-darkness, with her figure +gleaming through it, outlined and starred in tremulous evanescent +light. For an instant both Marguerite and Mr. Raleigh seemed to be +half awe-struck by the radiant creature shining out of the dark; +but directly, Marguerite sprang back and stripped away the torrid +nasturtium-vine which her mother had perhaps been winding in her hair +when her husband spoke with her, and whose other end, long and laden +with fragrant flame, still hung in her hand and along her dress. +Laughing, Marguerite in turn wound it about herself, and the flowers, so +lately plucked from the bath of hot air, where they had lain steeping in +sun, flashed through the air a second, and then played all their faint +spirit-like luminosity about their new wearer. She seemed sphered in +beauty, like the Soul of Morning in some painter's fantasy, with all +great stars blossoming out in floral life about her, colorless, yet +brilliant in shape and light. It was too much; Mr. Raleigh opened the +window and let in the daylight again, and a fresh air that lent the +place a gayer life. As he did so, Mr. Laudersdale entered, and with him +Mr. Heath and his mother. Mr. Laudersdale briefly recapitulated the +facts, and added,-- + +"Communicating my doubts to Mr. Raleigh, he has kindly furnished me with +the marriage-certificate of his uncle and Mademoiselle Le Blanc. And as +Mr. Reuben Raleigh was living within thirteen years, you perceive that +your claims are invalidated." + +There was a brief silence while the paper was inspected. + +"I am still of opinion that my grandmother's second marriage was legal," +replied Mr. Heath; "yet I should be loath to drag up her name and +subject ourselves to a possibility of disgrace. So, though the estate is +ours, we can do without it!" + +Meanwhile, Marguerite had approached her father, and was patching +together the important scraps. + +"What has this to do with it?" said she. "You admitted before this +discovery--did you not?--that the property was no longer mine. These +people are Aunt Susanne's heirs still, if not legally, yet justly. I +will not retain a _sous_ of it! My father shall instruct my lawyer, Mrs. +Heath, to make all necessary transfers to yourself. Let us wish you +good-morning!" And she opened the door for them to pass. + +"Marguerite! are you mad?" asked her father, as the door closed. + +"No, father,--but honest,--which is the same thing," she responded, +still standing near it. + +"True," he said, in a low tone like a groan. "But we are ruined." + +"Ruined? Oh, no! You are well and strong. So am I. I can work. I shall +get much embroidery to do, for I can do it perfectly; the nuns taught +me. I have a thousand resources. And there is something my mother can +do; it is her great secret; she has played at it summer after summer. +She has moulded leaves and flowers and twined them round beautiful faces +in clay, long enough; now she shall carve them in stone, and you will be +rich again!" + +Mrs. Laudersdale sat in a low chair while Marguerite spoke, the +nasturtium-vine dinging round her feet like a gorgeous snake, her hands +lying listlessly in her lap, and her attitude that of some queen who has +lost her crown, and is totally bewildered by this strange conduct on the +part of circumstances. All the strength and energy that had been the +deceits of manner were utterly fallen away, and it was plain, that, +whatever the endowment was which Marguerite had mentioned, she could +only play at it. She was but a woman, sheer woman, with the woman's one +capability, and the exercise of that denied her. + +Mr. Laudersdale remained with his eyes fixed on her, and lost, it +seemed, to the presence of others. + +"The disgrace is bitter," he murmured. "I have kept my name so proudly +and so long! But that is little. It is for you I fear. I have stood in +your sunshine and shadowed your life, dear!--At least," he continued, +after a pause, "I can place you beyond the reach of suffering. I must +finish my lonely way." + +Mrs. Laudersdale looked up slowly and met his earnest glance. + +"Must I leave you?" she exclaimed, with a wild terror in her tone. "Do +you mean that I shall go away? Oh, you need not care for me,--you need +never love me,--you may always be cold,--but I must serve you, live with +you, die with you!" And she sprang forward with outstretched arms. + +He caught her before her foot became entangled in the long folds of her +skirt, drew her to himself, and held her. What he murmured was inaudible +to the others; but a tint redder than roses are swam to her cheek, and a +smile broke over her face like a reflection in rippling water. She held +his arm tightly in her hand, and erect and proud, as it were with a new +life, bent toward Roger Raleigh. + +"You see!" said she. "My husband loves me. And I,--it seems at this +moment that I have never loved any other than him!" + +There came a quick step along the matting, the handle of the door turned +in Marguerite's resisting grasp, and Mrs. Purcell's light muslins swept +through. Mr. Raleigh advanced to meet her,--a singular light upon his +face, a strange accent of happiness in his voice. + +"Since you seem to be a part of the affair," she said in a low tone, +while her lip quivered with anger and scorn, "concerning which I have +this moment been informed, pray, take to Mr. Lauderdale my brother's +request to enter the house of Day, Knight, and Company, from this day." + +"Has he made such a request?" asked Mr. Raleigh. + +"He shall make it!" she murmured swiftly, and was gone. + +That night a telegram flashed over the wires, and thenceforth, on the +great financial tide, the ship Day, Knight, and Company lowered its peak +to none. + +The day crept through until evening, deepening into genuine heat, and +Marguerite sat waiting for Mr. Raleigh to come and bid her farewell. +It seemed that his plans were altered, or possibly he was gone, and at +sunset she went out alone. The cardinals that here and there showed +their red caps above the bank, the wild roses that still lined the way, +the grapes that blossomed and reddened and ripened year after year +ungathered, did not once lift her eyes. She sat down, at last, on an old +fallen trunk cushioned with moss, half of it forever wet in the brook +that babbled to the lake, and waited for the day to quench itself in +coolness and darkness. + +"Ah!" said Mr. Raleigh, leaping from the other side of the brook to the +mossy trunk, "is it you? I have been seeking you, and what sprite sends +you to me?" + +"I thought you were going away," she said, abruptly. + +"That is a broken paving-stone," he answered, seating himself beside +her, and throwing his hat on the grass. + +"You asked me, yesterday, if I confessed to being a myth," she said, +after a time. "If I should go back to Martinique, I should become one in +your remembrance,--should I not? You would think of me just as you would +have thought of the Dryad yesterday, if she had stepped from the tree +and stepped back again?" + +"Are you going to Martinique?" he asked, with a total change of face and +manner. + +"I don't know. I am tired of this; and I cannot live on an ice-field. I +had such life at the South! It is 'as if a rose should shut and be a bud +again.' I need my native weather, heat and sea." + +"How can you go to Martinique?" + +"Oh, I forgot!" + +Mr. Raleigh did not reply, and they both sat listening to the faint +night-side noises of the world. + +"You are very quiet," he said at last, ceasing to fling waifs upon the +stream. + +"And you could be very gay, I believe." + +"Yes. I am full of exuberant spirits. Do you know what day it is?" + +"It is my birthday." + +"It is _my_ birthday!" + +"How strange! The Jews would tell you that this sweet first of August +was the birthday of the world. + + "''Tis like the birthday of the world, + When earth was born in bloom,'"-- + +she sang, but paused before her voice should become hoarse in tears. + +"Do you know what you promised me on my birthday? I am going to claim +it." + +"The present. You shall have a cast which I had made from one of +my mother's fancies or bas-reliefs,--she only does the front of +anything,--a group of fleurs-de-lis whose outlines make a child's face, +my face." + +"It is more than any likeness in stone or pencil that I shall ask of +you." + +"What then?" + +"You cannot imagine?" + +"_Monsieur_" she whispered, turning toward him, and blushing in the +twilight, "_est ce que c'est moi?_" + +There came out the low west-wind singing to itself through the leaves, +the drone of a late-carousing honey-bee, the lapping of the water on the +shore, the song of the wood-thrush replete with the sweetness of its +half-melody; and ever and anon the pensive cry of the whippoorwill +fluted across the deepening silence that summoned all these murmurs +into hearing. A rustle like the breeze in the birches passed, and Mrs. +Purcell retarded her rapid step to survey the woods-people who rose out +of the shade and now went on together with her. It seemed as if the +loons and whippoorwills grew wild with sorrow that night, and after a +while Mrs. Purcell ceased her lively soliloquy, and as they walked they +listened. Suddenly Mr. Raleigh turned. Mrs. Purcell was not beside him. +They had been walking on the brook-edge; the path was full of gaps and +cuts. With a fierce shudder and misgiving, he hurriedly retraced his +steps, and searched and called; then, with the same haste, rejoining +Marguerite, gained the house, for lanterns and assistance. Mrs. Purcell +sat at the drawing-room window. + +"_Comment?_" cried Marguerite, breathlessly. + +"Oh, I had no idea of walking in fog up to my chin," said Mrs. Purcell; +"so I took the short cut." + +"You give me credit for the tragic element," she continued, under her +breath, as Mr. Raleigh quietly passed her. "That is old style. To be +sure, I might as well die there as in the swamps of Florida. Purcell is +ordered to Florida. Of course, I am ordered too!" And she whirled him +the letter which she held. + +Other letters had been received with the evening-mail, and one that made +Mr. Raleigh's return in September imperative occasioned some discussion +in the House of Laudersdale. The result that that gentleman secured +one more than he had intended in the spring; and if you ever watch the +shipping-list, the arrival of the Spray-Plough at Calcutta, with Mr. and +Mrs. Raleigh among the passengers, will be seen by you as soon as me. + +Later in the evening of this same eventful day, as Mr. Raleigh and +Marguerite sat together in the moonlight that flooded the great window, +Mrs. Laudersdale passed them and went down the garden to the lake. +She wore some white garment, as in her youth, and there was a dreamy +sweetness in her eye and an unspoken joy about her lips. Mr. Raleigh +could not help thinking it was a singular happiness, this that opened +before her; it seemed to be like a fruit plucked from the stem and left +to mature in the sunshine by itself, late and lingering, never sound at +heart. She floated on, with the light in her dusky eyes and the seldom +rose on her cheek,--floated on from moonbeam to moonbeam,--and the +lovers brought back their glances and gave them to each other. For one, +life opened a labyrinth of warmth and light and joy; for the other, +youth was passed, destiny not to be appeased: if his affection enriched +her, the best he could do was to bestow it; in his love there would yet +be silent reservations. + +"Mr. Raleigh," said Marguerite, "did you ever love my mother?" + +"Once I thought I did." + +"And now?" + +"Whereas I was blind, now I see." + +"Listen! Mrs. Purcell is singing in the drawing-room." + + "Through lonely summers, where the roses blow + Unsought, and shed their tangled sweets, + I sit and hark, or in the starry dark, + Or when the night-rain on the hill-side beats. + + "Alone! But when the eternal summers flow + And refluent drown in song all moan, + Thy soul shall waste for its delight, and haste + Through heaven. And I shall be no more alone!" + +"What a voice she sings with to-night!" said Marguerite. "It is stripped +of all its ornamental disguises,--so slender, yet piercing!" + +"A needle can pain like a sword-blade. There goes the moon in clouds. +Hark! What was that? A cry?" And he started to his feet. + +"No," she said,--"it is only the wild music of the lake, the voices of +shadows calling to shadows." + +"There it is again, but fainter; the wind carries it the other way." + +"It is a desolating wind." + +"And the light on the land is like that of eclipse!" + +He stooped and raised her and folded her in his arms. + +"I have a strange, terrible sense of calamity, _Mignonne!_" he said. +"Let it strike, so it spare you!" + +"Nothing can harm us," she replied, clinging to him. "Even death cannot +come between us!" + +"Marguerite!" said Mr. Laudersdale, entering, "where is your mother?" + +"She went down to the lake, Sir." + +"She cannot possibly have gone out upon it!" + +"Oh, she frequently does; and so do we all." + +"But this high wind has risen since. The flaws"----And he went out +hastily. + +There flashed on Mr. Raleigh's mental sight a vision of the moonlit +lake, one instant. A boat, upon its side, bending its white sail down +the depths; a lifted arm wound in the fatal rope; a woman's form, +hanging by that arm, sustained in the dark transparent tide of death; +the wild wind blowing over, the moonlight glazing all. For that instant +he remained still as stone; the next, he strode away, and dashed down +to the lake-shore. It seemed as if his vision yet continued. They had +already put out in boats; he was too late. He waited in ghastly suspense +till they rowed home with their slow freight. And then his arm supported +the head with its long, uncoiling, heavy hair, and lifted the limbs, +round which the drapery flowed like a pall on sculpture, till another +man took the burden from him and went up to the house with his dead. + + * * * * * + +When Mr. Raleigh entered the house again, it was at break of dawn. Some +one opened the library-door and beckoned him in. Marguerite sprang into +his arms. + +"What if she had died?" said Mrs. Purcell, with her swift satiric +breath, and folding a web of muslin over her arm. "See! I had got out +the shroud. As it is, we drink _skal_ and say grace at breakfast. The +funeral baked-meats shall coldly furnish forth the marriage-feast. You +men are all alike. _Le Roi est mort? Vive la Reine!_" + + * * * * * + + + +PAUL REVERE'S RIDE. + + + Listen, my children, and you shall hear + Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, + On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five: + Hardly a man is now alive + Who remembers that famous day and year. + + He said to his friend,--"If the British march + By land or sea from the town to-night, + Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry-arch + Of the North-Church-tower, as a signal-light,-- + One if by land, and two if by sea; + And I on the opposite shore will be, + Ready to ride and spread the alarm + Through every Middlesex village and farm, + For the country-folk to be up and to arm." + + Then he said good-night, and with muffled oar + Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore, + Just as the moon rose over the bay, + Where swinging wide at her moorings lay + The Somersett, British man-of-war: + A phantom ship, with each mast and spar + Across the moon, like a prison-bar, + And a huge, black hulk, that was magnified + By its own reflection in the tide. + + Meanwhile, his friend, through alley and street + Wanders and watches with eager ears, + Till in the silence around him he hears + The muster of men at the barrack-door, + The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet, + And the measured tread of the grenadiers + Marching down to their boats on the shore. + + Then he climbed to the tower of the church, + Up the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread, + To the belfry-chamber overhead, + And startled the pigeons from their perch + On the sombre rafters, that round him made + Masses and moving shapes of shade,-- + Up the light ladder, slender and tall, + To the highest window in the wall, + Where he paused to listen and look down + A moment on the roofs of the town, + And the moonlight flowing over all. + + Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead + In their night-encampment on the hill, + Wrapped in silence so deep and still, + That he could hear, like a sentinel's tread, + The watchful night-wind, as it went + Creeping along from tent to tent, + And seeming to whisper, "All is well!" + A moment only he feels the spell + Of the place and the hour, the secret dread + Of the lonely belfry and the dead; + For suddenly all his thoughts are bent + On a shadowy something far away, + Where the river widens to meet the bay,-- + A line of black, that bends and floats + On the rising tide, like a bridge of boats. + + Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride, + Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride, + On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere + Now he patted his horse's side, + Now gazed on the landscape far and near, + Then impetuous stamped the earth, + And turned and tightened his saddle-girth; + But mostly he watched with eager search + The belfry-tower of the old North Church, + As it rose above the graves on the hill, + Lonely, and spectral, and sombre, and still. + + And lo! as he looks, on the belfry's height, + A glimmer, and then a gleam of light! + He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns, + But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight + A second lamp in the belfry burns! + + A hurry of hoofs in a village-street, + A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark, + And beneath from the pebbles, in passing, a spark + Struck out by a steed that flies fearless and fleet: + That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light, + The fate of a nation was riding that night; + And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight, + Kindled the land into flame with its heat. + + It was twelve by the village-clock, + When he crossed the bridge into Medford town. + He heard the crowing of the cock, + And the barking of the farmer's dog, + And felt the damp of the river-fog, + That rises when the sun goes down. + + It was one by the village-clock, + When he rode into Lexington. + He saw the gilded weathercock + Swim in the moonlight as he passed, + And the meeting-house windows, blank and bare, + Gaze at him with a spectral glare, + As if they already stood aghast + At the bloody work they would look upon. + + It was two by the village-clock, + When he came to the bridge in Concord town. + He heard the bleating of the flock, + And the twitter of birds among the trees, + And felt the breath of the morning-breeze + Blowing over the meadows brown. + And one was safe and asleep in his bed + Who at the bridge would be first to fall, + Who that day would be lying dead, + Pierced by a British musket-ball. + + You know the rest. In the books you have read + How the British regulars fired and fled,-- + How the farmers gave them ball for ball, + From behind each fence and farmyard-wall, + Chasing the red-coats down the lane, + Then crossing the fields to emerge again + Under the trees at the turn of the road, + And only pausing to fire and load. + + So through the night rode Paul Revere; + And so through the night went his cry of alarm + To every Middlesex village and farm,-- + A cry of defiance, and not of fear,-- + A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door, + And a word that shall echo forevermore! + For, borne on the night-wind of the Past, + Through all our history, to the last, + In the hour of darkness and peril and need, + The people will waken and listen to hear + The hurrying hoof-beat of that steed, + And the midnight-message of Paul Revere. + + + + +A NIGHT UNDER GROUND. + + +My dear Laura Matilda, have you ever worked your way under ground, like +the ghost Hamlet, Senior? On the contrary, you confess, but a dim idea +of that peculiar mode of progression abides in the well-ordered mansion +of your mind? + +Well, I do not wonder at it; you are civilized beyond the common herd; +your mamma, careful of her own comfort and the beauty of her child, +guards both. Your sunny summer-times go by in the shade of sylvan +groves, or amid the whirl of Saratoga or Newport ball-rooms. I accept +your ignorance; it is a pretty blossom in your maiden chaplet. For +myself, I blush for my own familiarity with rough scenes chanced upon in +wayward wanderings. + +Let me tell you of a path among the "untrodden ways." Transport yourself +with me. + +Fancy a low, level, drowsy point of land, stretching out into the +unbroken emerald green of Lake Superior, at the point where a narrow, +yellowish river offers its tribute. The King of Lakes is exclusive; he +disdains to blend his brilliant waters with those of the muddy river; a +wavy line, distinctly and clearly defined, but seeming as if drawn by +a trembling hand, undulates at their junction,--no democratic, +union-seeking boundary, but the arbitrary line of division that +separates the Sultan from the slave, the peer from the peasant. + +Along this shore are scattered various buildings that seem to nod in the +indolent sunshine of the bright, clear, quiet air of midsummer. One of +these, differing from the rest in its more modern construction, is a +spacious hotel that holds itself proudly erect, and from its summit the +gay flag of my country floats flauntingly. + +We must pass this by, and go down a plank-covered walk to reach the +sandy-golden beach where the green waves dash with silent dignity, +in these long calms of July. Before the hotel the river flows also +sleepily; but both shores are vocal with ladies' laughter and +the singing of young girls, the lively chatter of a party of +pleasure-tourists. + +The fine steamer that brought us to this point has gone, + + "Sailing out into the west, + Out into the west, as the sun went down"; + +but no "weeping and wringing of hands" was there; we knew it must "come +back to the town,"--that we are merely transient waifs cast upon this +quiet beach, flitting birds of passage who have alighted in the porticos +of the "Bigelow House," Ontonagon, Michigan. + +A long, low flat-boat, without visible sails, steam-pipes, or oars,--a +narrow river-craft, with a box-like cabin at one end, the whole rude +in its _ensemble_, and uncivilized in its details,--is the object that +meets the gaze of those who would curiously inspect the means by which +the adventurous novelty-seeking portion of our party are to be conveyed +up this Ontonagon river to the great copper-mines that form the +inestimable wealth of that region. For the metallic attraction has +proved magnetic to the fancies of a few. A mine is a mystery; and +mysteries, to the female mind, are delights. + +What is the boat to us but a means? If it seem prosaic, what care we? +Have we escaped the French fashions of _a-la-mode_ watering-places, to +be fastidious amid wigwams and unpeopled shores? + +We all know what it is to embark for a day's travel, but we do not all +understand the charm of being stowed away like freight in a boat such as +the one here faintly sketched; how seats are improvised; how umbrellas +are converted into stationary screens, and awnings grow out of +inspiration; how baskets are hidden carefully among carpet-bags, and +camp-stools, and water-jugs, and stowed-in-shavings ice; how the +long-suffering, patient ladies shelter themselves in the tiny, stifling +cabin, while those of the merry, complexion-careless sort lounge in +the daylight's glare, and one couple, fond of seclusion and sentiment, +discover a good place for both, at the rudder-end. + +There is an oar or two on board, it appears, as we push off in the early +dawn; and these are employed for a mile or so at the mouth of the river; +then the current begins to quicken in a narrower bed, and a group of +sinewy men betake themselves to their poles, lazily at first, until---- + +But you do not know exactly what these implements are? + +They are heavy, wooden, sharp-pointed poles, ten or twelve feet long. On +either side of the boat runs a "walk," arranged as if a ladder were laid +horizontally; but in reality the bars or rungs are firmly fastened to +the walk, to be used as rests for the feet. Here the men, five on a +side, march like a chain-gang, backward and forward; placing one end of +the pole in the bed of the stream, resting the other in the hollow of +the shoulder near the arm-pit, and bracing themselves by their feet +against these bars, they pry the boat along. + +Progression by such means is unavoidably slow; but no steamboat-race +on our Western rivers, blind and reckless, boiler-defying and +life-despising, ever produced more excitement than this same poling. + +Wait till the current runs rapidly, fretting and seething in its angry +haste, when for a moment's delay the boat must lose ground; when the +poles are plunged into the rocky bed like harpoons into the back of an +escaping whale; when the athletic forms of the men are bent forward +until each prostrates himself in the exertion of his full powers; when +not a false step--each step a run--can be hazarded; when that monotonous +unanimity of labor is at its height, in which each boatman becomes +possessed as if by a devil of strife; when their faces lose every gentle +semblance of humanity, and become distorted to a simple expression +of stubborn brute force; when the muscles of their arms are knitted, +rope-like, and every nerve stretched to its utmost;--wait till you have +seen all this, and you will confess that a woman's lazy life can know no +harder toil than that of the mind's sympathetic coexertion,--that is, if +she be excitable or impressible. + +The stream is tortuous, erratic, shallow, and narrow. Sometimes, as we +glide, always noiselessly, beneath the overhanging foliage and tangled +vines along shore, what myriads of gayly winged insects--brilliant +dragon-flies, mammoth gnats, preposterous mosquitoes--swarm about our +heads, disturbed from their gambols by the laughter and songs aboard our +moving craft! + +Only one halt in our journey, and that to dine. Just above this point we +pass the swiftest rapids on the route, where the river widens, and each +side of the bank is beautiful in its wooded picturesqueness, while the +waters rush, in foaming, surging, tumbling confusion, over the rugged +rocks, or dart between them like a merry band of water-sprites chasing +each other in gleesome frolic. + +It seems a desecration of these rapids thus to subdue and triumph over +them. They are as if placed there by Nature as a sportive check to man's +further intrusion; and as the waters come hurrying down, led, as it +were, by some Undine jealous for her realm, their murmurings seem to +say, in playful, yet earnest remonstrance,--"Let our gambols divert +you; we will hasten to you; but approach no nearer! Permit us to guard +the sanctuary of our hidden sources, our beloved and holy solitudes!" + +But vain appeal! Our men pole frantically onward, and so the day passes. +By mid-afternoon their labors cease, and we come to anchor at the bank, +having achieved seventeen miles in nine hours! Let those of us to whom +lightning-express-trains have been slow grumble hereafter at their fifty +miles an hour! + +A country-wagon receives most of the ladies; the majority of their +attendant cavaliers walk; of two horses, the side-saddled one has about +one hundred pounds avoirdupois for his share, and, in spite of the lack +of habit and equestrian "pomp and circumstance" generally, I cannot term +it the most unpleasant three miles I ever travelled. The road is a wild, +rugged ascent up a well-wooded hill-side. There is a tonic vigor in +the atmosphere, which communicates itself irresistibly to one's mental +state; the gladdened lungs inhale it eagerly, as a luxury. When one +walks in this air, one seems to gain wings; to ride is to float at will. + +Presently, at the top, a low village comes in sight; yelping curs start +from wayside cabins; coarse, dull-featured women gape at half-opened +doors or sit idly on rude steps; and the men we chance to meet wear that +cadaverous pallor inseparable from the mere idea of a miner. We do not +regret that the pert dogs have imparted speed to our horses' heels;--a +swift, exhilarating gallop brings us in sight of a large, comfortable +house, perched like a bird-box in the hills; then others are discerned; +and in a few more bounds, we are at the gate. Here, where all visitors +to the Minnesota Mines are received and entertained, we prove +_avant-couriers_ of the slowly advancing wagon-load,--"the largest party +of ladies ever met there," they tell us, as we forewarn our hosts of the +band so boldly invading their copper-bound country. + +Very soon we are rambling over the hills,--those of Nature's rearing, +and others formed by the accumulation of refuse brought up from the +mine. We discover and secure some fine specimens of the metal; sundry +of the knowing ones, after mysterious interviews with rascally-looking +miners, appear with curious bits of pure silver ore mingled with +crystals of quartz and tinted with tiny specks of copper. These, being +the most valuable curiosities of the region, are usually secreted by the +miners for the purpose of private speculation. + +We feel a reverence for this ground, so teeming with metallic +wealth,--and yet a certain timorousness, as we remember that we walk on +a crust, that beneath us are great caves and subterranean galleries. + +This outer shell, this surface-knowledge of what lies below, does not +content me. I have also a brave friend who shares my feeling. We agree, +that, despite the interest of this crust, to know of the fruit beneath +and not taste it is worse than aggravating; we grow reckless in our +thirst for the forbidden knowledge. + +We have entertained a little plot in our headstrong minds all the way, +which we have hardly dared to name before. It is surely not feminine to +look longingly on those ladders made for the descent of hardy miners +only; visitors beneath the surface are rare; only gentlemen interested +in seeing for themselves the richness of these vaunted mines have +essayed the tour; even many of these failing to penetrate farther than +the first level, and bravely owning their faint-heartedness. In spite of +this, we feel our way cautiously. A descent is to be made this night, +when the Captain of the Mine goes his nightly round of inspection; a +gentleman, the head and front of our expedition, whom we shall call the +"Colonel," proposes to accompany him. + +Why may we not form an harmonious quartette? We have nerve; has it not +been tested throughout the somewhat arduous journey of the preceding +weeks? We have presence of mind; we are passable _gymnastes_. + +In fact, viewing _Mon Amie_ and me from our own point of view, than +ourselves never did there exist two mortals more manifestly fashioned +straight from the hand of Nature, and educated by previous physical +culture and mental discipline for the performance of a feat at once +perilous and daring, one unknown to the members of "our set," and which +might have been thought impracticable by all who had known us only in +the gas-light glare of Society, and the circumspection of crinoline's +confining circle. + +Does it matter by what cunning wiles of pretty pleading and downright +demonstrations of the project's reasonableness we succeeded (for we did +succeed) in being allowed to take our fates in our own hands or trust +them to our own sure-footedness? I think not. + + "For when a woman will, she will, you may + depend on't." + +But you should have seen the robing! We are to start at ten, P.M. +Previously we betake ourselves to our chambers, and, entertaining a +vague notion that Fashion's expanse may prove inconvenient, we are +looping up our trailing robes in fantastic folds, when a tap at the +door. + +_Voila!_ a servant with two full suits of new, but coarse, miners' +clothes,--with a modest intimation from our companions of their +advisability,--in fact, their absolute necessity. We pause aghast! Ah! +the renewed shouts of laughter from those merry, but more timorous +damsels, who, from their secure surroundings,--those becoming barriers +adopted at the dictate of Parisian caprice and retained with feminine +pertinacity,--had poked fun at our forlorn limpness! + +This climax of costume is startling, but the laughter rouses our +courage. We stand on the brink of our Rubicon. Shall trousers deter us +from the passage? Shall a coat be synonymous with cowardice? No,--we +rise superior to the occasion; we pant to be free; we in-breathe the +spirit of liberty, as we don our blouses. We loop our long tresses under +such head-coverings as would drive any artist hatter to despair; to us +they prove a weighty argument against hats in general, as we feel their +heavy rims press on our tender brain-roofs. However, when the saucy eyes +of _Mon Amie_ look out sparkling from under her begrimed helmet, the +effect is not bad; on the contrary, the masquerade is piquant. No need +to mention the ribbons that we knot under our wide, square collars for +becomingness, our coquetry "under difficulties," nor the gauntleted +gloves wherewith we protect our hands, nor the daintiness of the little +boots that peep from the loose trousers, which have something Turkish +in their cut. _Mon Amie_, with her rosy blushes, reminds me of a jocund +miller's boy;--as for myself, well, I do not think the Bloomer dress so +very bad, after all! + +A torch-bearing band have stationed themselves at the doors to bid us +god-speed,--to make merry at our droll masquerade,--to quiz our odd +head-gear,--to criticize us from head to foot, in short,--but between +all, to offer words of caution. Then we go out into the starlit, but not +over-bright night,--such a one as is friendly to lovers and to thieves, +friendly to religion and to thought, the beloved of sentimentalists, and +the adored of this particular group of adventurous miners. In Indian +file, lantern-led, we traverse the narrow, beaten path that leads to +one of the openings of the mine. These are covered by a rough-plank +house,--too much like a shed to merit that pretentious term, which +implies something fit to live in; in the centre of this shelter is +an open space, perhaps a yard square, and similar in appearance to a +trap-door in a roof. Here we wait a few moments, while the Captain of +the Mine and the Agent of the Mining Company,--who has joined our party +at the last moment, to afford us the undivided services of the Captain +as guide,--are engaged in some mysterious process of moulding; an odor, +not attar of rose, nor yet Frangipanni, salutes our nostrils; then our +companions approach. Both the Colonel and the Agent are "lit up,"--in +fact, all-luminous with the radiance of tallow "dips"; one of these, +stuck in a lump of soft clay, adheres to the front of each hat, and in +their hands they have others. + +We also are to wear a starry flame on our brows; and, not content with +this, are invested with several short unlighted candles, which are to +dangle gracefully by their wicks from a buttonhole of our becoming +blouses. Thus our costume is complete; and I doubt if Buckingham sported +the diamond tags of Anne of Austria with more satisfaction than do we +our novel and odorous decoration: we dub ourselves the Light Guard on +the instant. + +In the delay before starting, we observe several miners descend through +the black and most suggestive trap-door, each bearing a tin can in his +mouth, as a good dog carries a basket at the bidding of his master. + +The flame of the candle, bright in the density of the pit's darkness, as +its bearer descends step by step with the rapidity which custom has +made easy, becomes in a few seconds like the tiniest glow-worm: one can +follow the spark only; the man disappears within the moment. + +I cannot describe, nor, indeed, convey the least idea of this peculiar +effect. We feel our hearts tremble at the thought that whither that +light has gone we must follow. For the first time I realize that we +are about to go _into_ the earth,--that we shall presently crawl like +insects, burrow like underground vermin, beneath the surface, man's +proper place. But such thoughts are not for long indulgence. + +"Now let us descend!" says the Colonel. + +Grasping the round of the ladder where it rose slightly above the floor, +the Captain, our guide, with that air of assurance which practice +bestows, swings himself from sight. To him succeeds the Colonel. Next +comes my own turn. This is not the first time my feet have tried +ladder-bars; in the country-spent vacations of my school-days, how +many times have I alertly scaled the highest leading to granaries, to +barn-lofts, to bird-houses, to all quasi-inaccessible places, whither my +daring ignorance--reckless, because unconscious of danger--had tempted +me! But mounting a clean, strong, wide ladder, in the full flood of day, +light below, above, around, promising you security by its very fulness +of effulgence, is a far different thing from groping your way, step by +step, down a slimy, muddy frame which hangs in a straight line from the +very start. I shake off a first tremor, draw a full breath, and with +fortitude follow my leader carefully. As I look above, after fairly +getting committed, I can behold _Mon Amie's_ feet, whose arched in-steps +cling round each bar with a pretty dependence that is in the highest +degree appealing. Above her I hear the deep voice of the Agent. + +And so the quintette, in grim harmony of enterprise, go down, down, +down, like so many human buckets, into a bottomless well. + +Alas, and alas! our own arms, with their as yet untried muscles, must be +our only windlass to bring us to the surface again! Down, down, down, +deeper, deeper, deeper! Will this first ladder never end? + +Ah, at last! At the foot, on either side, stand the Captain and the +Colonel, like sentries. We have reached a shelf of rock, and we may +rest. Here we perch ourselves, like sea-birds on a precipice that +overlooks the sea. + +By the light of our flickering candles we behold each other's faces, +and we can talk together. We are but two hundred feet under ground. A +desolate stillness reigns here; no sound reaches us, either of labor or +the steps of passing workmen. A cold stream of water trickles from a +cleft rock behind us; we bathe our foreheads in it, and betake ourselves +to the ladder again. + +From our next resting-place we proceed through a gallery, an exhausted +vein, kept open as a passage from one shaft to another. As we turn a +corner, we seem to plunge into a rocky cavern; our feet tread on +roughly imbedded rocks; the sides of the cave jut out in refuse +boulders,--harsh, dark-colored, ashen; overhead are beams of hard wood, +bracing and strengthening the excavation. We traverse this gallery +hastily. + +Now that we are here, we are conscious of excitement. _Mon Amie_ +manifests hers by her steady, deliberate tones, a sort of exaltation +foreign to her usually vibrating voice, her tremulous cadences; she +seems borne along, despite and above herself. For my own part, as my +lungs inflate themselves with this pure, dry, bracing air, exquisitely +redolent of health, and testifying at once to a total exemption +from noxious exhalations or mephitic vapors, I grow _tete-montee_, +rattle-brained; my laugh echoes through these stony chambers, wild +snatches of song hover on my lips, odd conceits flit through my brain, +I joke, I dash forward with haste; my excitement endows me with a +superfeminine self-possession. + +But now we hear an ominous rattle, a clanking of chains, a rumbling as +of distant thunder; we are approaching a shaft. The shafts in this +mine are not sunk perpendicularly, but are slightly inclined: the huge +buckets, lowered and raised by means of powerful machinery, are but +ancient caldrons, counterparts of those in which the weird witches in +"Macbeth" might have brewed their unholy decoctions, or such as the +dreadful giants that formed the nightmare of my childhood might have +used in preparing those Brobdignagian repasts among the ingredients of +which a plump child held the same rank as a crab in ours. + +The sounds grow nearer; presently our guide disappears; then I behold +the Colonel, in whose steps I follow, faithful as his shadow, crouch +sidewise: we must pass behind this inclined plane, which rests on +roughly hewn rocks, that protrude till it appears impossible that any +living thing, except a lizard, can find a passage. I am sure we must +shrink from the original rotundity with which Nature blessed us. I +feel as the frog in the fable might have felt, if, after successfully +inflating himself to the much-envied dimensions of the ox, he had +suddenly found himself reduced to his proper proportions. Edging +sidewise, accommodating the inequalities of the damp surfaces to the +undulations of our forms, deafened, crazed by the roar of the caldrons +that dash madly from side to side, we fairly _ooze_ through. + +More ladders! This time they are not hung quite perpendicularly, are +shorter, and some lean, a little, which affords rest; others have one +side higher than the other: to these my already aching palms cling with +desperation. So have I seen insects adhere, through sheer force of fear, +to a shaken stem, or a perilous branch beaten by a storm-wind. + +The voices of my companions come to me from above, though I cannot see +the soles of _Mon Amie's_ friendly feet, which at first preserved an +amiable companionship with my own hands; but, looking far upward, I +behold a tiny, star-like spark. When I was a child, I used to think that +fire-flies were the crowns of the fairies, which shone despite their +wearers' invisibility: this idea was recalled to me. + +Hark! booming from unthought-of depths, a roar rolls up in majestic +waves of echoing thunder. At this resonant burst, I tremble,--I think a +prayer. + +"They are blasting below us," cries the Colonel, _de profundis_. + +Then up rushes a volume of thick, white smoke, and we are enveloped as +in shrouds. I have no more fear,--but the odor, ah! that sulphureous, +sickening, deathly odor! Faintness seizes me,--the ladder swims before +my eyes,--I am paralyzed,--Death has me, I think! + +But the very excess of the danger has in it something of reviving power. +I remember, that, just as I left my room,--whose quiet safety never +before appeared so heavenly,--prompted by some instinctive impulse, I +had placed a small vial of ammonia in the breast-pocket of my coat. + +I have wellnigh swooned with ecstasy, as I have inhaled the overcoming +odors of some rare bouquet, love-bestowed and prized beyond gems; my +senses have reeled in the intoxication of those wondrous extracts whose +Oriental, tangible richness of fragrance holds me in a spell almost +mystical in its enthralment; but I dare aver that no blossom's breath, +no pungent perfume distilled by the erudite inspiration of Science, ever +possessed a tithe of the delicious agony of that whiff of unromantic +ammonia, which, powerful as the touch of magic, and thrilling as the +kiss of love, snatched me back to life, arrested my tottering senses, as +they blindly staggered on the very brink of certain death. + +When we reach the next level, and our faces are revealed to each other, +with one voice they exclaim, "How frightfully pale you are!" But I say +nothing. In fact, their familiar features, wearing no longer their +daylight semblance, present an aspect at once grim and grotesque, and +more like the spirits of my friends than their incorporated substances. + +Traversing the wild, rude corridors, we find that the path grows more +perilous, the way more intricate; we have words of warning from our +protectors, who often look back anxiously. They have begun to realize +what they have done in yielding to a woman's odd caprice. + +In this level we are shown the spots from which famous masses of copper +have been removed, and are granted useful, but fleeting statistics +of weight; we are also so fortunate as to discover some chips of the +wonderful block, raised in '54, I think, which weighed five hundred +tons. Then we chance upon chasms, which, seen so dimly, though dreadful +enough in reality, are made a thousand times more so by the terrors of +imagination; we creep along the brinks of these, scarcely daring to look +down; above, the heavy boulders lie heaped in frightful confusion. When +we have crawled past these death-traps and stand in safety once more, +we throw down bits of stone, and seconds elapse before we hear the dull +_thump_ with which each signals its arrival in the depths. Along the +edges of some of these gloomy pits we cannot pick our way; therefore a +plank is thrown across, and, trusting to so slender a bridge, we pass, +one by one. A single false step were enough to dash one to atoms,--so +to be transformed to a bruised and mangled mass, to perform one's own +sepulture, and lie in a grander grave than will ever be hollowed by +mortal hands to hide our useless bodies. + +The deeper one penetrates into these mines, the wilder, more dangerous +the paths. It is as though the upper regions were kept in "company" +order, but lower down we meet with the every-day roughnesses of +veritable miners'-life; we follow their hazardous, but familiar steps; +we behold all the hardships these toiling, burrowing workers undergo, +that the hidden coffers of Earth may yield their tribute of treasure to +Man, its self-appointed, arrogant master. + +Occasionally we meet a passing miner. Grasping his ponderous tools, he +flits by like a phantom; even in the momentary glance, we can perceive +how livid his sunless labor has left him; he is blanched as a ghoul, +and moves as noiselessly, with feather-light step. Each with a motion +salutes the Captain; but they do not heed the little group of strangers +who have braved so many dangers to behold the wonders which to them +are as commonplace as the forge to a blacksmith, or to a carpenter his +work-bench. + +Still farther below us we hear the clink and clatter of real work. Down +we plunge,--another ladder, "long drawn out." Some of its rounds are +wanting; others are loose and worn to a mere splinter. Warned by the +voice below me, I proceed with a trembling caution, tenfold more +exciting to the strained nerves than the wildest bound on a mettled +racer, the fiercest rush that ever tingled through every fibre of the +rider's frame. + +The water has saturated the banks by which our crazy ladder hangs, and +every round is damp and slimy with clayey mud. Alas, for my poor pretty +gantlets! _Mon Amie_ has thrown away hers, as useless. + +Finally the ladder ceases abruptly. My feet in vain seek a +resting-place. There is none. + +A voice says,--that kindly, earnest voice, the symbol of protective +care, and our smoother of all difficulties,--"We have swung ourselves +down by a chain that hangs from the side of the last round. We are too +far below to reach or assist you. Take the chain firmly; it is the only +route, and we cannot return!" + +_Que faire?_ Behold a pleasant predicament for two city-bred ladies, not +"to the manner born," of swinging themselves from the end of a ladder +by means of a rusty iron chain, from which they would alight--where? +Surely, we know not. + +I am very sure I could not reproduce in description, and probably not +by practice, the inevitable monkey-contortions, the unimaginable animal +agility, by which I transfer my weight to the clumsy links of this +almost invisible chain. The size of the staple from which it hangs +dissipates all fears in respect to its strength. Hand over hand, my feet +sliding on the slippery bank, remembering sailors in the shrouds, and +taking time to pity them, at last I reach friendly hands, and stand +breathless on another level. + +How the soft, white, dimpled palms of _Mon Amie_ testify to the hardship +of this episode, as she bathes them in the cooling water! But, because +one's hands are tender, cannot one's nerves be strong, one's will +indomitable? + +Again on the tramp. The cavernous passages are sublime in height, the +chasms fearful in their yawning gulfs. We pick our way daintily, at +intervals pausing to listen to the distant reverberations of exploding +blasts. The atmosphere here, as above, is fairly heavenly in its purity +and invigorating freshness; it girds us with singular strength, +and clothes us as in a garment of enchanted armor that defies all +soul-sinking. + +Creeping behind another shaft, we reach still another chasm, above which +piles of dark rocks lie heaped in such confusion as might result from a +great convulsion. There is a narrow path along its edge, and here the +stones are small; but, as we look up, the mighty masses frown down upon +us with threatening grandeur. Along this path, treading lightly, as +if gifted with wings, the Captain passes; then the Agent (for we had +slightly altered our order of march); _Mon Amie_ follows. She is +half-way past the danger, when an ominous pause,--we are ordered to +stop. + +Down into the chasm rolls a stone, displaced by an unlucky step of our +pioneer. One stone is nothing,--but more follow that had been supported +by this: small ones at first,--but the larger rocks threaten a slide. If +they are not arrested in their course, she is lost! + +What a moment that is! I dare not breathe. _Mon Amie_ stands +statue-like, awaiting the death which she believes is upon her. Not many +words are spoken. I think I feel all that her one glance conveys. +But the brave men beyond her, with instant unanimous action bracing +themselves against the sliding rocks, oppose their feeble force to the +down-sweeping agents of destruction; a moment more, and they would +have been too late. With the step of a frightened antelope _Mon Amie_ +trembles past them. I see her safe, and hasten on. "Step lightly!" says +a voice full of suspense and fear, despite its calmness. + +Step, indeed! As if I rest on those treacherous stones! My feet brush +them no more than the wing of a butterfly grazes the roses among which +it flutters. Step, forsooth! If ever the angels concerned themselves for +this atom in Creation's myriads, they hover round me now, they bear me +up, they teach me how to fly! Deprived now of their human props, how +the angry fragments leap and tumble and chase one another through the +echoing abyss below! These reverberations seem freighted with elfin +voices that jeer the insensate rocks for their baffled scheme of +mischief. + +But they chanted a far different chorus, and the darkness saw another +sight, when, a few moons later, they dashed themselves down in +irresistible array, and bore with them in their desperate plunge the +lifeless bodies of two passing miners, in whose hearts, it may be, dwelt +at the moment only happy thoughts of the homes 'neath the blue skies to +which they were hurrying, the dear familiar sunlit Paradise that would +succeed the endless night of their _Inferno_ of toil. + + "But men must work, and women must weep; + And the sooner 'tis over, the sooner to sleep!" + +Well, we take up our march again presently, and, led by a monotonous +hammering, proceed toward the sound. Some of the miners are at work +here, clearing a mass of ore from the stubborn rock. Their strokes fall +as regularly as those of machinery, and the grim men who wield the +ponderous hammers accompany each blow with a peculiar loud indrawing of +the breath, like the pant of a blacksmith at his anvil. So strong is +this resemblance, that we burst forth all together in the strains of +the "Anvil Chorus"; and the accompaniment is beaten with tenfold more +regularity and effect than on the stage, in the glare of the footlights, +by "Il Trovatore's" gypsy-comrades. I doubt if Verdi's music was ever +so rendered before, amid such surroundings. The compliment may be the +higher, coming from so low a region. + +Beyond this group are a few miners resting from toil. One of these, as +he stands leaning his folded arms on a jutting rock, upon which he has +placed his candle, elicits our spontaneous admiration. His beauty is +Apollo-like,--every chiselled feature perfect in its classic regularity; +his eyes sad, slumberous, and yet deep and glowing, are quite enough +for any susceptible maiden's heart; about a broad expanse of forehead +cluster thick masses of dark brown hair; his shirt, open at the throat, +reveals glimpses of ivory; altogether he is statuesque and beautiful. +Even his hands, strongly knit as they are, have not been rendered coarse +by labor; they bear the same pallid hue as his face, and he looks like +some nobly-born prisoner. "What untoward fate cast him there?" I often +ask myself. He exists in my memory as a veritable Prince Charming, held +captive in those gloomy caves of enchantment that yielded up to me their +unreal realities in that nightmarish experience. I never fancy him on +upper earth living coarsely, even, it may be, talking ungrammatically, +defying Horne Tooke and outraging Murray, among beings of a lower order +of humanity; but he rises like a statue, standing silent and apart. + +Some one throws away a nearly burnt-out candle at this spot. It falls +but a few inches from a can of gunpowder, which is not too securely +closed. As I utter a quick word of warning to the careless one, a miner +starts. "Good Heaven!" I hear him exclaim, as we disappear,--"that was a +woman!" + +When we reach the next shaft, the Captain deposits himself in the +descending bucket, and, irregularly tossing from side to side, goes down +to overlook some work, and leave fresh orders with the miners. We await +his return before again betaking ourselves to the ladders. + +On the next level, we behold scores of men in busy action. I can think +only of ants in an ant-hill: some are laden with ore; others bearing the +refuse rocks and earth, the _debris_ of the mine, to the shafts; others, +again, are preparing blasts,--we do not tarry long with these; others +with picks work steadily at the tough ore. In some places, the copper +freshly broken glitters like gold, and the specks on the rocks, or in +the earth-covered mass, as our candle-light awakens their sparkles, +gleam like the spangles on a dancer's robe or stars in a midnight sky. +All the while we hear the dreadful rattle of the down-sinking caldrons, +or the heavy labor of the freighted ones, as they ascend from level to +level. + +Suddenly our path conducts us past a seated bevy of miners taking their +"crib," as it is termed, from the food-can, which stands at hand,--a +small fire blazing in the midst of them. Weary and sore, we seat +ourselves near them, while our hardier companions talk with the +respectful group. + +They work eight hours at a time, they tell us,--ascending at the +expiration of that period to betake themselves to their homes, which are +mostly in the little village where the yelping curs also reside. They +enjoy unusual health, and pity the upper-world of surface-laborers, +whom they regard with a kind of contempt. Accidents are not frequent, +considering the perils of their occupation. The miners here are +generally Cornish-men, with some Germans. + +I sit silent, thinking of my Prince Charming, with many vague +conjectures. + +At first, these men have paused in their repast in presence of the +strangers; but now, with rude courtesy, noticing our weariness, they +offer a portion to us. Faint and famishing, we by no means disdain it. I +wonder what Mrs. Grundy would say, could her Argus-eyes penetrate to +the spot, where we,--bound to "die of roses in aromatic pain,"--in +miners'-garb, masculine and muddy, sit on stones with earthy delvers, +more than six hundred feet under ground,--where the foot of woman has +never trod before, nor the voice of woman echoed,--and sip, with the +relish of intense thirst, steaming black tea from an old tin cup! + +_Eh, bien!_ for all that, let me do it justice. Never was black tea +less herb-like; never draught of sillery, quaffed from goblet of rare +Bohemian glass, more delicious! And so, with thank-yous that were not +only from the lip, we toil on some distance yet, to the shaft by which +we are to ascend,--one quite remote from that by which we began our +trip. + +Halting at the foot of the ladder, we pour forth the "Star-spangled +Banner" with the full strength of lungs inflated by patriotism, until +the stirring staves ring and resound through those dim caves. The +miners, who hold the superstition, that to whisper bodes ill-luck, must +have imagined we were exorcising evil spirits with an incantation. + +Then begins our weary way upward. We sing "Excelsior" in our hearts, and +forget our aching limbs, for the most laborious portion of the night's +toil is before us. The almost perpendicular ladder is just beside the +powerful pump, which, worked by a steam-engine, exhausts the water from +the mine, and its busy piston, in monotonous measure, keeps time to our +climbing. + +Two rests during the entire distance, which we travel in brave silence. +Indeed, we cannot speak,--the oppressive strain upon the chest is so +great. Step after step, hand over hand, up we go. At last, warmer air +greets us, lights flicker from above; the trap-door is reached; we are +on the surface again; we are out of the depths,--and our hearts whisper +a _Te Deum_ of thanksgiving. + +I think well of the establishment of a chapel, such as exists at the +entrance to the Valenciana mine in Mexico, where each miner spends half +an hour, going to or returning from his labors. Such a union of work and +worship seems a proper adjunct to the profit and the peril. + +There is a faint glimmer of coming dawn far away in the east, as we +go forth into the midsummer-night, and we catch the distant notes of +chanticleer, as he sounds his shrill _reveille_ to the day. + +As my confused brain seeks repose, and my weary limbs sink into the +softness of the never-so-welcome bed, my thoughts fly to distant ones, +to whom I would whisper,--as I do to you who have so patiently burrowed +with me,--"Only love me for the dangers I have passed!" + +But it is in vain that you long for a similar experience, my dear Laura +Matilda. Being the first, we are also the last women to whom these +subterranean passages will yield their mysteries, their windings, and +their wonders. Against all of my own sex the Pandemonian depths of the +Minnesota Mines are henceforth as obstinately barred as ever were the +golden gates of the Mohammedan Paradise. + + + + +A LONELY HOUSE. + + + "Some weighty crime that Heaven could not pardon, + A secret curse, on that old building hung, + And its deserted garden." + +HOOD'S _Haunted House_. + +One autumn evening, not very long ago, I was driving out with my uncle. +I had been spending several weeks at his house, and in that time had +driven with him very often, so that I supposed myself familiar with +nearly all the roads that stretched away from the pleasant village where +he resided; but on this occasion he proposed taking me in an entirely +new direction, over a tract of country I had never before seen. + +For a mile or two after we left home, we bowled rapidly along on a +well-travelled turnpike; then a sudden turn to the right brought us, +with slackened speed, into a quiet country-road. Passing through the +fields that bordered the highway, we came into a wild, romantic region +of hill and dale that fully deserved all that my uncle had said in its +praise. + +Giving ourselves up to the sweet influences of the scene, we trotted our +horses slowly, past dusky bits of forest that made the air fragrant with +the damp smell of the woods, and by occasional shining pools adorned +with floating pond-lilies, and shaded with thick, low bushes of +witch-hazel. The sunlight had that orange glow that comes only on autumn +evenings, the long, slant rays striking across the yellow fields and +lighting up the dark evergreens which dotted the landscape with a tawny +illumination, like dull flames. The locusts hummed drowsily, as if they +were almost asleep, and the frogs in the ponds sent out an occasional +muffled croak. Altogether, it was deliciously calm and deserted; we did +not meet a human being or a habitation for miles, as we wound along +the secluded path, now up and now down, but on the whole gradually +ascending, till we reached the summit of a hill larger and steeper than +the rest. + +Here there stood a lonely house. + +Pausing to allow our horses a moment's rest, my eye was caught by its +deserted and dilapidated appearance. It had evidently been uninhabited +for years. The fence had gone to decay, the gate lay rotting on the +ground, and a forlorn sleigh, looking strangely out of place in contrast +with the summer-flowers that had over-grown it, was drawn up before the +entrance. The grass had obliterated every trace of the path that once +led to the decayed steps, bushes had grown up thickly around the lower +story of the house, and tangled vines, creeping in through the broken +panes of the windows, hung in festoons from the moss-covered sills. +The door had dropped from its hinges, and on one side of the front the +boards had fallen off, so that I could see quite into the interior, +where I noticed, with surprise, some furniture yet remained, though in +great confusion, a broken chair and an overturned table being the most +prominent objects. Outside, the same disorder was manifest in the great +farm-wagon, left standing where it had last been used, and the neglected +out-buildings fast going to decay. About the whole place there was an +aspect of peculiar gloom, and the house itself stood on this bleak hill +looking out over the lonesome landscape with a sort of tragic melancholy +in its black and weather-beaten front. + +Now such a sight as this is very rare in our busy New England, where +everything is turned to advantage, and where the thrifty owner of a +tenement too old for habitation is sure to tear it down and convert the +materials of which it is built to some other use. My curiosity was, +therefore, at once excited regarding this place, and I turned to my +uncle with an inquiry as to its history. + +"It is a very sad one," he answered,--"so sad that it gives a terrible +dreariness to this solitary spot." + +"Then I am sure you will tell me the causes which led to its desertion. +You know how much I like a story." + +My uncle complied with the request, and, as we wended our way home +through the deepening twilight, related a series of strange facts, +which, at the time, took a powerful hold on my imagination, and which I +have since endeavored to group into a continuous narrative. + + * * * * * + +This house, now so forlorn, was once a neat and happy home. It was built +by a young farmer named James Blount, who went into it with his young +wife when he brought her home from the distant State where he had +married her. For several years they seemed very prosperous and happy; +then a heavy affliction came. The healthy young farmer was thrown from +his horse, and carried to his home only to linger a few terrible hours +and expire in great agony. Thus early in its history was the doomed +house overshadowed with the gloom of sudden and violent death. + +Every one was heartily sorry for the widow with her two little boys, +and the people of the country-side did all that they could to cheer +her loneliness and lighten her grief. But, as I have said, she was a +stranger among them, and she seems to have been naturally of a reserved +disposition, preferring solitude in her affliction; for she so repelled +their attentions, that, one by one, even her husband's friends deserted +her. Then, too, her house was three miles from the nearest neighbor, and +this was necessarily a barrier to frequent social intercourse. She very +rarely went into the village, even to church, and thus people came to +know very little of her manner of life; it was only guessed at by those +few acquaintance who, at rare intervals, made their way to the Blount +farm-house. + +Among them it was remarked, that the widow, still quite young, was +unnaturally stern and cold, and that her two sons, who were growing up +in this sad isolation, were strangely like their mother, not only in +appearance, but in manners. Their names were James and John. There was +but little over a year between them, and they were so much alike that +most persons found a difficulty in distinguishing one from the other. +Both had fierce, black eyes, short, crisp, black hair, and swarthy +skins,--quite unlike our freckled-face Yankee boys,--so that the older +villagers declared, with a sigh, that there was not a trace of the +good-hearted father about them; they wholly resembled their strange +mother. The boys themselves did nothing to lessen this disagreeable +impression; they were unusually grave and reserved for their years, +taking no interest in the sports of other children; and after a time, +it became painfully evident to those who watched them that they had no +fondness for each other; on the contrary, that affection which would +naturally have sprung from their nearness in age and their constant +companionship seemed to be entirely wanting, and its place usurped by an +absolute dislike. + +When this was first discovered, it was supposed to account for the +widow's aversion to society. This idea, being once started, made those +idle busybodies there are in every village eager to discover if the +suspicion were correct. Through the men hired to work on the farm, it +was ascertained that the poor mother, with all her sternness and her +iron law, had difficulty in keeping peace between the boys. Twenty times +a day they would fall into angry dispute about some trifle; and so +violent were these altercations, that it was said that she durst not for +a moment have them both out of her sight, lest one should inflict some +deadly injury upon the other. That this was no ill-founded fear was +evinced by a quarrel that took place between them, when John was perhaps +eleven, and James twelve years old. + +It was witnessed by a village lad named Isaac Welles. He was an alert, +active person, who liked to earn a penny or two on his own account, out +of work-hours. With this notable intention, he arose soon after dawn of +a pleasant summer-morning, for the purpose of picking blackberries. +Now he knew that they were very plentiful in a field near the Blount +farmhouse, and, thinking such small theft no robbery, he made his +way thither with all speed, and was soon filling his basket with the +dew-sprinkled fruit. Early as it was, however, he soon discovered that +there was some one up before him. He heard a sound of talking in low, +caressing tones, and, glancing in the direction whence it came, he saw +John Blount sitting under a tree near by, and playing with a little +black squirrel, which appeared to be quite tame. Not caring to be +discovered and warned off, Isaac went on with his work quietly, taking +care to keep where he could see without being seen. + +John was not long left alone in his innocent amusement, for in a few +moments James Blount came running down from the house towards him. As he +approached, John's face darkened; he caught up the squirrel, and made an +endeavor to hide it under his jacket. + +"No, you don't!" said James, as he came up, breathless. "I see you have +got him, plain enough; he sha'n't get away this time,--so you might as +well give him to me." + +"No, I won't!" replied John, sullenly. + +"You won't?" + +"No!" said John, more fiercely, and then burst out, passionately,--"I +don't see why you want to tease me about it; he a'n't your pet; I have +found him and tamed him; he knows me and loves me, and he don't care for +you; besides, you only want him to torment him. No! you sha'n't have +him!" + +"Sha'n't I? we'll see!" And James made a step forward. + +John drew back several paces, at the same time trying to soothe the +squirrel, which was becoming impatient of its confinement. His face +quivered with excitement, as he went on, passionately,-- + +"I know what you want him for: you want him to hurt some way. You wrung +my black kitten's neck, and now you want to kill my squirrel. You are a +bad, wicked boy, and I hate you!" + +With the last words he started to run; but he had not gone far when his +foot struck a stone, and he fell. At this, the squirrel, terrified, +jumped from his arms; but James was close by, and before it could +escape, he had caught it. John was up in an instant, and James, seeing +that he could not avoid him, gave the poor little creature's neck a +sudden twist and flung it gasping at his brother's feet, exclaiming,-- + +"There, now, you may have it!" + +For one moment John stood still, white with rage and grief; then he +uttered a sort of choking howl, and sprang at James,-- + +"You cruel coward!" + +The words were accompanied with a half-articulate curse, as he struck +at him, blindly, fiercely, and they closed in what seemed a deadly +struggle. John, being the younger, had a slight disadvantage in size and +weight, but wrath gave him more than his usual strength; while James +fought desperately, as if for life. After a few moments they rolled on +the ground together. + +It was a fearful sight, those two brothers, boys though they were, +fighting in that mad way. Their faces, so much alike that they seemed +almost reflections of each other, were crimson with anger; their eyes +shot fire; their breath came in sobbing pants; and very soon blood was +drawn on both. After a brief contest, John, with a tremendous effort, +threw James under him. With one hand he pinioned his arms, while the +other was at his throat, where it closed with a deadly gripe. James made +one last effort to save himself; with a violent wrench he succeeded in +fixing his teeth in his brother's arm, but he failed in making him relax +his hold, though they met in the firm flesh. John's brow grew darker, +but he only tightened his clasp closer and closer, muttering,-- + +"So help me, God! I will kill you!" + +His words were near being verified; already the fallen boy's mouth had +unclosed, the red of his face turned to livid purple, and his eyes +stared wildly, when Mrs. Blount, pale, with disordered attire, as if she +had but just risen and dressed hastily, ran, screaming, down the hill. +Seizing John around the waist, she dragged him back, and flung him to +the ground, exclaiming,-- + +"Oh, my sons! my sons! are you not brothers? Will you never be at +peace?" + +At this moment, Isaac arrived, breathless with running, at the spot. +When she saw him, the widow ceased speaking, and made no further +allusion to the quarrel while he remained. However, she gladly accepted +his offered assistance in lifting James, who lay gasping, and wellnigh +dead. As they turned towards the house, John rose, sullenly, and +wrapping a handkerchief round his wounded arm, which was bleeding +profusely, he glanced scowlingly at his brother. + +"He will get over this," he muttered, with an oath; "but, sooner or +later, I swear I will kill him!" + +Without noticing his mother's appealing look, he walked back to the tree +where the dead pet lay. + +The half-strangled boy was carried to his bed, and a few simple remedies +restored him to consciousness. As soon as possible, Mrs. Blount +dismissed Isaac, declining his offers of going for a doctor, with cold +thanks. As he went back to resume his interrupted blackberrying, he saw +John sitting at the foot of the tree. He had dug a hole in which to bury +the poor squirrel; it lay on his knee, a stream of dark gore oozing +through its tiny white teeth. John was vainly endeavoring to wipe this +with the handkerchief already stained with his own blood, while his hot +tears fell fast and heavy. + +As John had said, James recovered from the choking, and the only +apparent results of the fight were that both boys were scarred for life. +John bore on his right wrist the impression of his brother's teeth; and +James's throat was disfigured by two deep, black marks, on each side, +which were quite visible till his beard concealed them. Yet, I doubt +not, that desperate struggle, in that dawning summer-day, laid the +foundation of the inextinguishable hatred that blasted those men's lives +and was to be quenched only in death. + +Several years passed after this, in which very little was known of what +passed at the lonely house. The boys were old enough to perform most of +the work of the farm, so that they no longer hired laborers except at +harvest. Mrs. Blount had herself given her sons all the instruction they +had ever received, and, being a woman of attainments beyond those usual +in her station, she seemed quite competent to the task. Nothing more was +heard of their quarrels; they were always coldly civil to each other, +when in the presence of others, and were regarded by their companions +with respect, though, I imagine, never with any cordial liking. So they +grew up to be grave, taciturn men, still retaining the same strong +resemblance of face and figure, though time had somewhat altered the +features, by fixing a different expression on each, giving to John a +fierce resolution, and to James a lurking distrustfulness of look. These +years made less change in Mrs. Blount than in her sons; she was the same +active, black-eyed woman, only that her sternness and reserve seemed to +increase with her age, and a few silver threads appeared in her raven +hair. + +I have said that it was three miles from the Blount place to the nearest +house. This was at the toll-gate, which was kept by a man named Curtis. +He was a person of progressive tastes, supposed to have aristocratic +inclinations. As he was a well-to-do man, these were evinced in a +Brussels carpet and a piano-forte which figured in his small parlor, and +by his sending his only child, a daughter, to a city boarding-school. +She returned, as might have been expected, with ideas and desires far +beyond the hill-side cottage where she was condemned to vegetate. Now +she was very pretty, with dancing blue eyes and a profusion of golden +curls; she had, too, a most winning manner, hard for any one to resist; +and these personal attractions, added to style of dress that had never +been seen or imagined among the simple country-folk, rendered her a +most important person, so that no "tea-fight" or merry-making was +complete without Nelly Curtis. + +However, it might have been long enough before the recluse young Blounts +would have encountered the gay little belle, had it not been that they +were of necessity obliged to pass through the toll-gate, and sometimes +forced to stop there. From some of her friends Nelly heard what a +secluded life the two brothers led, and how especially averse they +seemed to female society, and, with the appetite for conquest of a true +flirt, she at once determined on adding them to the list of her victims. +It was not long before she had an opportunity for beginning her wiles. + +One fine spring morning, John Blount started on horseback to go to the +village. The sun shone very brightly, the hedge-rows blushed with early +blossoms, and the birds sang a song of rejoicing. It was one of those +clear, soft days when one feels new life and vigor at the thought of the +coming summer. Arrived at the toll-gate, John was surprised at seeing no +one there to open it; he waited a moment, somewhat impatiently, and then +called out,-- + +"Holloa!" + +At this, as if startled at his voice, there appeared in the cottage +door-way a slender, rosy-cheeked maiden, who looked blooming and +graceful enough to be the incarnation of the fresh and beautiful May. + +"Excuse me," she said, with a little curtsy; "I did not see you come +up." + +This, as Nelly informed the friend to whom she related the adventure, +was a fib,--for Mr. Curtis was away, and she had been watching all the +morning, in hopes one of the Blounts would pass; but she considered it a +justifiable stratagem, as likely to secure his attention. + +Meantime John was gazing spellbound at this apparition, which appeared +to him charming beyond anything he had ever imagined. He was so far +carried away, that he was quite speechless and wholly oblivious of the +toll, until she came up to the side of the horse and held out her hand. +Then he colored, and, with awkward apology, gave her the change. + +"Thank you, Sir." + +Nelly smiled sweetly, and was just about to undo the latch of the gate, +when John anticipated her by springing from his horse, and laying his +powerful brown hand over her small white one, saying,-- + +"You can't do anything with this great, heavy gate. Stand aside, and let +me open it." + +Of course the offer was kindly accepted, and Nelly fairly overwhelmed +him with her thanks, being herself somewhat touched by the unusual +civility. John appeared quite overcome with confusion, and, remounting +his horse, he rode off with a gruff "Good day." However, I fancy, that +pleasant voice, and the accidental touch of that little hand, made an +impression that never was effaced. + +Having thus enslaved John, it was not long before a similar opportunity +occurred for captivating James; though it would seem from Nelly's +confessions to her confidante that this was not so easily accomplished +with him as with his brother. The first time she opened the gate for +him, he paid but little more heed to her than he would have to her +father, and she never considered her conquest complete until one day +when Mr. Curtis availed himself of a vacant seat in James's wagon to +get Nelly taken into the village: that ride, she fancied, insured the +wished-for result. Whether this was a correct supposition or not, +certain it is that not many weeks elapsed before both the Blounts were +completely fascinated by the gay coquette. + +For some time the passion of each brother remained a secret to the +other. Accident revealed it. + +One soft summer-evening, John rode down to the village for letters. As +he passed through the toll-gate, he succeeded in making an appointment +with Nelly for a walk on his return. He came back an hour later, and +soon after sunset the two strolled down a shady path into the woods. It +was moonlight, and Nelly was doubtless very charming in the mysterious +radiance,--certainly her companion thought so,--for, when their walk +was over, he induced her to sit with him on a fallen log that lay just +within the shade of the trees, instead of returning to the house. They +had been chatting there perhaps half an hour, when they were interrupted +by the girl the Curtises kept to do "chores." + +"Please, Miss Nelly, there's a gentleman wants to see you." + +"Very well, tell him I will be there in a moment." + +When the girl was gone, Nelly suddenly exclaimed, rather regretfully,-- + +"How stupid of me, not to ask who it was!" + +John's answer is not reported, only that he succeeded in lengthening the +"moment" into a quarter of an hour, and then half an hour; and it might, +perhaps, have lasted the whole evening, had they not, in the midst of a +most interesting conversation, been startled by a rustling in the bushes +behind them. + +"There is some one watching us!" cried John, excitedly, and half rising. + +"Nonsense!" said Nelly; "it is only a cat. Sit down again." + +This invitation was not to be declined. John sat down again, though +still a little restless and uneasy. For some moments all was still. John +had concluded that Nelly's suggestion was a correct one, and they had +begun to chat quite unconcernedly, when they were again interrupted. +This time the sound was that of an approaching footstep, and for an +instant a dark shadow fell across the moonlit path in front of them. +Nelly was now fairly frightened, she uttered a faint shriek, and clung +to John for protection. Doubtless this was a very pleasant appeal to the +young farmer, but just now wrath mastered every other feeling. He was +ever easily angered, and, to be sure, the thought that they were watched +was by no means agreeable. So, with a quick caress, he loosened her +clasp and started to his feet, exclaiming,-- + +"Don't be frightened, dear! I'll punish the rascal!" + +He made a dash in the direction whence the sound had come. In the shade +of the trees stood the intruder quite still, making no attempt to avoid +the furious onset. Mad with rage, John seized him by the collar, and, +striking him repeatedly, and muttering curses, dragged him towards the +bench where Nelly sat trembling. A few staggering steps, and they were +on the path, with the pure, peaceful light of the moon falling full on +the stranger's face. + +"Good God!" cried John, loosening his hold,--"it is my brother!" + +James drew himself up, tossing back his disordered hair, and for a +moment the two men regarded each other with stern, fixed looks, as if +they were preparing for another encounter. By this time, Nelly, who was +completely terrified, had begun to weep convulsively, and her sobs broke +the ominous silence, as she gasped,-- + +"Oh, John, please don't strike him again!" + +At these words, John started, as if stung, and, looking at her with +indignant sadness, said,-- + +"There, you needn't cry, Nelly! I won't hurt him; I will leave him to +you safely." + +Then, overcome by the rush of recollection, he burst out, +passionately,-- + +"Oh, James! James! you have rendered my life miserable by your +treacheries, and now you have robbed me of her! This is no place to +settle our quarrels; but I have sworn it once, and I swear it again now, +some day I will be revenged!" + +He would not stop to hear Nelly's entreating voice; but, full of the one +dreadful thought, that all her anxieties had been for another, while he +was indifferent to her, he mounted his horse, without one backward look, +and galloped fast away. I can fancy there was a wild whirl of emotion +in his passionate heart: deadly hatred, jealousy, and crossed love are +enough to drive any man mad. + +Meantime, James apologized to Nelly for his intrusion, on the ground, +that, becoming tired of waiting, and hearing she had gone out for a +wait, he had started to meet them, but was about to turn back, fearing +to interrupt them, when John's rudeness compelled him to appear. The +excuse was accepted; and James soon occupied the seat recently vacated +by poor John. So well did he avail himself of the circumstances, that he +succeeded in convincing Nelly that his brother was a very ill-tempered +person, whom it would be well for her to avoid. On this, with the true +instinct of a flirt, she endeavored to persuade him that she had never +really cared for John's attentions. James was but too willing to be +convinced of this; and he parted from her, feeling satisfied that his +suit would be successful. + +Knowing well that his life was scarcely safe, if he were for a moment +alone with John, after that night, James constantly exercised such +caution as prevented the possibility of an encounter. He was determined +as soon as possible to leave that neighborhood, always provided that +Nelly would go with him. For some time he considered this as certain. +John carefully avoided her, and no new suitor appeared. + +I fear that pretty Nelly was a thorough coquette; for, having nearly +broken one brother's heart, she very soon tired of the other, for whom +she had never really cared a straw. These two men being the last to fall +into her toils, she began to sigh wearily over her too easily captured +victims, when her fickle fancy was caught by game more worthy so expert +a sportsman. + +It happened that at this time there came to the village a gentleman from +New York, named Brooke, a bachelor of known wealth. He was perhaps forty +years old, and had run through a course of reckless dissipation which +had rendered him thoroughly tired of city ways and city women. On the +very first Sunday after his arrival, as he stood idly lounging at the +church-door, his eye was caught by Nelly's fresh, rosy face. He followed +her into church, and spent the time of service in staring her out of +countenance. It will be readily imagined that she was not slow to +follow up this first impression; and but few days elapsed before their +acquaintance had ripened into intimacy. + +Of course, his unceasing attentions could not fail of attracting notice +and exciting remark; and it was not long before they came to the ears +of the Blounts. John received the news with sullen indifference. It +mattered little to him whom she liked now. James, however, refused to +believe that there could be anything in it, regarding it as a mere +passing caprice. In this view most of the village-people coincided; they +considered it absurd to suppose that there could be anything serious in +Mr. Brooke's devotion. Time would probably have proved the correctness +of this supposition, had it not been, fortunately for Nelly, that she +had a father with more steadiness of mind than her giddy brain was +capable of. Mr. Curtis succeeded in turning the rapid attachment to such +advantage, that in three weeks from the time of their first meeting they +were not only engaged, but actually married. + +It had been Nelly's intention, with the vanity of a true woman, to +postpone the wedding a month longer, and then to have it on such a scale +as would excite the admiration and envy of all her companions; but Mr. +Curtis was too shrewd for this. He durst not put this rapid love to the +test of waiting; and he so worked upon his daughter's fears, that she +consented to a more hasty union. Mr. Brooke, too, showed some aversion +to any public demonstration. Perhaps he was conscious that his friends +would think he was doing a foolish thing, and he was therefore desirous +of having it over before they had time to remonstrate. So, on a fine +bright Sunday, early in September, the drowsy congregation, who were +dozing away the afternoon-service, were aroused by the publication +of the banns of marriage between Henry Brooke and Nelly Curtis. It +occasioned great whispering and tittering. But no one suspected that the +wedding was near at hand; and there were very few lingerers after the +service was over, when Kelly came in at the side-door with her father, +was joined by Mr. Brooke, and actually married then and there. + +The Blount brothers never went to church, but they almost always came +into the village of a Sunday afternoon, and on this memorable day they +were there as usual, but not together. John was earnestly discussing a +new breed of cattle with a neighboring farmer, wholly oblivious of +the false Nelly. James was standing with a group of young men on the +village-green, when Isaac Welles, the whilom blackberry-boy, rushed +up, breathless, to say that he had been detained in the church and had +actually seen Nelly and Mr. Brooke married. + +In the first eager questions that followed this announcement, no one +noticed James, until they were astonished to see him fall heavily to the +ground. He had fainted. They had not mentioned the publication of the +banns to him, and he was wholly unprepared for this utter annihilation +of all his hopes. Welles sprang to his side, and they raised him +quickly. He was a strong man, and before they could bring any +restoratives he had recovered. + +"It is nothing," he said, with a sickly smile. "I think it must have +been a sunstroke. It is confoundedly hot." + +This lame explanation was accepted, and James refused to go into any of +the neighbors' houses, though he consented to seat himself, for a few +moments, on a rustic bench in the shade of the trees. + +Half an hour later, John, having finished his chat, strolled to the +green and approached the group. He looked surprised when he caught +sight of his brother, who of late had so carefully avoided him. His +astonishment increased when James rose, and, advancing a step, said,-- + +"John, Nelly Curtis is married to that Brooke!" + +An angry flush rose to John's brow, and his black eyes flashed +ominously, as he answered, in a hoarse, low voice,-- + +"So much the better, for now she will never be your wife." + +"Neither mine nor yours," said James, maliciously;--then, after a +moment, he added, "She was a worthless thing, and we are well rid of +her." + +At this, a tornado of passion seemed to seize John. He sprang forward, +crying,-- + +"She was not worthless, and I will kill the first man who dares to say +so." + +There was an interval of dead silence; the brothers regarded each other +for a moment, then James shrugged his shoulders contemptuously, and +turned away. John glanced around him defiantly on the astonished crowd, +and, seeing no one there likely to dispute with him, he seemed to have +formed a sudden resolution, for he walked off rapidly after his brother. + +Isaac Welles had stood by, no unobservant witness of this scene. He +noted something in those two men's eyes that recalled the fierce quarrel +of the two boys; and as soon as it was possible for him to get away, +he went off after the Blounts, determined, if possible, to prevent +mischief. + +Meantime John had not met his brother; but, seeing James's horse was +gone, he mounted his own and rode away towards home, determining to +catch James before he could reach there. However, he did not overtake +him. James was too cunning to ride directly to the farm-house, and +John's headlong speed availed only to bring him there in time to find +his mother alone and dangerously ill. + +In a moment all other thoughts were laid aside. The pent-up affection of +John's heart had centred itself on his only parent. She had always been +cold and stern with her sons, yet they loved her with a tender devotion +which reclaimed natures that might otherwise have been wholly bad. + +With all the tenderness of a woman, John assisted his mother to her bed, +and, not daring to leave her, awaited eagerly the coming of the only +other person who could summon aid,--his brother James. + +At last he came,--riding slowly, with bowed head, up the lonely road. +John went out to meet him. James looked up angry and astonished, and +immediately threw himself into a position of defence. John shook his +head. + +"James," he said, "I cannot settle our quarrel now. Mother is very +ill,--perhaps dying." + +James started forward. + +"Where is she? What is the matter?" he cried, eagerly. + +"I do not know," answered John. "I will go for the doctor, now that you +are come. I durst not leave her before. But, James, stop one moment. As +long as she lives, you are safe,--I will not hurt you by word or act; +but when she is gone,--beware!" + +James did not answer, except by a nod, and John, turning, saw Isaac +Welles standing at the gate. He had overheard the conversation and felt +that there was no danger of a quarrel, and he now came eagerly forward +with offers of assistance. They were gratefully accepted; for even the +taciturnity of the brothers seemed to give way before the pressing fear +that beset them. + +There is ever great good-will and kindness in the scattered community of +a village, and, despite the unpopularity of the Blounts, neighbors and +friends soon came to them, ready and willing to aid them by every means +in their power. + +Mrs. Blount's illness proved to be quite as alarming as John had +feared. The physician, from the first, held out very little hope of her +recovery. The strong, healthy woman was stricken, as if in a moment; +it was the first real illness she had ever had, and it made fearful +progress. Yet her naturally iron constitution resisted desperately, so +that, to the astonishment of all who saw her sufferings, she lingered +on, week after week, with wonderful tenacity of life. The summer faded +into autumn, and autumn died into winter, and still she lived, failing +slowly, each day losing strength, growing weaker and weaker, until it +seemed as if she existed only by the force of will. + +Of course it had long ago been found necessary to have some other +dependence than the kindness of neighbors, and a stout Irish girl had +been hired for the kitchen, while Mrs. Clark, a good, responsible woman, +occupied the post of nurse. From these persons, and from Isaac Welles, +the rest of the story is collected. + +During all these months of her illness, the two brothers had been +unfailing in their devotion to their poor suffering mother. Night and +day they never tired, watching by her bedside for hours, and seeming +scarcely to sleep. Of course they were much together, but no words of +harshness ever passed their lips. When out of Mrs. Blount's presence, +they spoke to each other as little as possible; in her presence, there +was a studied civility that might have deceived any one but a mother. +Even she was puzzled. She would lie and watch them with burning, eager +eyes, striving to discover if it was a heartfelt reconciliation or only +a hollow truce. It was the strong feeling she had that only her life +kept them apart, which gave her power to defy death. Perhaps on this +very account his stroke was all the more sudden at last. + +It was a dark, lowering afternoon in December when the summons came. +Mrs. Blount had been lying in a half-doze for more than an hour. Her +sons had taken advantage of this sleep to attend to some necessary +duties. The nurse sat beside the fire, watching the flames flicker on +the dark walls, and idly wondering if the leaden-hued sky portended a +snow-storm. Her musings were broken by the voice of the invalid, very +faint, but quite distinct,-- + +"Nurse! nurse! Call my sons. I am dying!" + +Mrs. Clark ran to the bed. + +"Quick! quick!" cried Mrs. Blount. "Do not stop for me. You cannot help +me now. Call my sons before it is too late!" + +Her tone and action were so imperative that they enforced obedience, and +the nurse ran down-stairs with all speed. She found no one but the hired +girl in the kitchen, who said, in answer to her hurried inquiries, that +both brothers were out, gone to bring in the cattle before the storm. +Mrs. Clark sent her in all haste to recall them, and then returned to +the sick-room. As she entered, the dying woman looked up quickly, her +face clouded with disappointment when she saw that she was alone. The +nurse said all in her power to assure her that her sons would soon be +there, but she could not allay the strange excitement into which their +absence seemed to have thrown her. + +"My strength is failing," she said, sadly; "every moment is precious; +if I die without that promise which they could not refuse to a dying +mother's prayer, God knows what will become of them!" + +Mrs. Clark urged the necessity of quiet, but the sufferer paid no heed +to the caution. She talked on, wildly, and sometimes incoherently, +about the hopes she built upon the reconciliation her death-bed would +effect,--showing, in these few moments of unnatural loquacity, how +deeply she had felt the animosity between her sons, and how great had +been the effort to conquer it. This excitement could not continue long; +her voice soon grew weaker, and at last she ceased speaking, appearing +to sink into a stupor of exhaustion. + +An instant after, the door opened and John ran eagerly to the couch, +closely followed by James. Already the poor widow's eyes were closed; +the livid hue that is so fatally significant overspread her face; her +breath came in quick gasps. + +"Mother! mother!" cried John, flinging himself on his knees beside her, +and seizing the thin, hard hand. + +At that sound, she opened her eyes, but it was too late; she no longer +had the power of utterance. She glanced from one brother to the other +with a piteous, entreating look; her mouth moved convulsively; in the +effort to speak, she sat upright for an instant, ghastly and rigid, and +then fell heavily back. + +All was over; her life of labor was changed for eternal rest; and the +two men, whom only her power had restrained, stood with the last barrier +between them removed, avowed and deadly enemies. + +Yet, for all that, they were sincere mourners for the sole parent they +had ever known, though it seemed, that, jealous even in their grief, +neither cared to have the other see how much he suffered; for, after +the first few moments, when the heart refuses to be satisfied of the +certainty which it knows only too well, they turned away, and each +sought his own room. Afterwards, when all was prepared and the room +decently arranged, they returned, and alternately through the long night +kept their vigil beside the corpse. It is strange, that, in those quiet +hours of communion with the loved dead, no thought of relenting towards +each other ever suggested itself. + +The snow that had been hanging all day in the dark clouds above them +towards evening began to fall. Stilly and continually the tiny flakes +came down, hiding all the ruggedness of earth under a spotless mantle, +even as the white shroud covered the toil-worn frame of the released +sufferer. + +In the morning the news spread rapidly, and neighbors came to the +afflicted house. But the brothers seemed to resent their offers of +assistance as an intrusion, refusing to allow any other watchers, +themselves continuing night and day to watch beside the corpse; and that +awful vigil, instead of softening their hearts, seemed to harden them +into a more deadly hatred. + +The third afternoon, when all the country-side was ghastly in its +winding-sheet of snow, and the clouds hung heavy as a pall over the +stricken earth, the little funeral held its way from the lonely +farm-house to the village-churchyard. As a last tribute of respect to +their mother, the two brothers drove side by side in the same sleigh. +Those who saw them said that it was a sight not to be forgotten,--those +two black figures, with their stern, pale faces, so much alike, yet so +unsympathizing, sitting motionless, not even leaning on each other in +that moment of grief. So they were together, yet apart, during the +ceremony that consigned the wife to the grave where five-and-twenty +years before they had laid the husband. So they were together, yet +apart, when they turned their horse's head towards their home and rode +away silently into the sombre twilight. + +The last person who saw them that night was Mrs. Clark. The brothers +had insisted that both she and the Irish girl should leave early in the +day,--replying to all offers of putting the house in order, that they +preferred to be alone. But on her way home after the funeral, Mrs. Clark +passed the house in a friend's sleigh and stopped a moment for her +bundle, which in the hurry of the morning had been forgotten. To her +surprise, as she approached the door, she saw that there were no lights +visible in any of the windows, although it was already very dark. +Thinking the brothers were in the back part of the house, she pushed +open the door, which yielded to her touch, and was just about to make +her way towards the kitchen, when she heard a sound in the parlor, and +then these words, quite distinctly:-- + +"Are you ready, James?" + +"Yes,--only one word. It is a long account we have to settle, and it +must be final." + +"It shall be. Mine is a heavy score. Years ago I swore to wipe it out, +and now the time has come." + +Mrs. Clark's knock interrupted them. There was an angry exclamation, and +the door was opened. To her intense surprise, no light came from within. +She could not understand how they could settle their accounts in the +darkness; but they gave her no time for reflection; an angry voice, in +answer to her inquiries, bade her go on to the kitchen, and she hastened +off. There she found a single candle burning dimly; by its light she +picked up her bundle, and, leaving the door open to see her way, +returned to the front of the house. Though not a nervous woman, she felt +an undefined fear at the mysterious darkness and silence; and as she +passed the brothers standing in the doorway, she was struck with fresh +terror at the livid pallor of those two stern faces that looked out from +the black shadow. When she was going out, she heard the door of the +parlor bolted within, and she rejoined her friends, right glad to be +away from the sad house. + +So those two men were left alone, locked into the dark room together, in +the horrible companionship of their inextinguishable hatred and their +own bad hearts. It will forever remain unknown what passed between them +through the long hours of that awful night, when the wind howled madly +around the lightless house, and the clouds gathered blacker and thicker, +shrouding it in impenetrable gloom. + +Three days passed before any living creature approached the spot,--three +days of cold unparalleled in the annals of that country,--cold so severe +that it compelled even the hardy farmers to keep as much as possible by +the fireside. On the fourth day, Isaac Welles began to think they had +been quite long enough alone, and he started with a friend to visit the +Blount brothers. Arrived at the farm-house, they saw the sleigh standing +before the door, but no sign of any one stirring. The shutters of the +windows were closed, and no smoke came out of the chimney. They knocked +at the door. No answer. Surprised at the silence, they at length tried +to open it. It was not locked, but some heavy substance barred the way. +With difficulty they forced it open wide enough to go in. + +To this day those men shudder and turn pale, as they recall the awful +scene that awaited them within that house, which was, in fact, a tomb. + +The obstacle which opposed their entrance was the dead body of John +Blount. He lay stretched on the floor,--his face mutilated by cuts and +disfigured with gore, his clothes disordered and bloody, and one hand +nearly severed from the arm by a deep gash at the wrist; yet it was +evident that none of these wounds were mortal. After that terrible +conflict, he had probably crawled to the door and fallen there, faint +with loss of blood; the silent, cruel cold had completed the work of +death. + +Following the blood-track, the two men entered the parlor, with +suspended breath and hearts that almost ceased to beat. There they +found the dead body of James Blount,--his clothes half torn off, in the +violence of the strife that could end only in murder. A long, deep cut +on the throat had terminated that awful struggle, though many other less +dangerous wounds showed how desperate it had been. He lay just as he +fell,--his features still contracted with a look of defiance and +hatred, and in his right hand still clasped a long, sharp knife. He had +succumbed in that mortal conflict, which quenched a lifelong quarrel, +and was to prove fatal alike to victor and vanquished. Thus the vow of +John Blount was fulfilled,--the pent-up hatred of years satisfied in his +brother's murder. + +The room was in the wildest disorder,--chairs thrown down and broken, +tables overturned, and the carpet torn. In one corner they found a +second long, sharp knife. It had been at least a fair fight. + +They laid the two ghastly corpses side by side: they had been chained +together all their lives; they were chained together in death. The two +fratricides are buried in one grave. + +This terrible tragedy blighted the spot where it took place. No one +would ever inhabit that house again. The furniture was removed, except +from the one room which to this day remains unchanged, and the building +left to fall to decay. The superstitious affirm, that, in the long +winter nights, oaths and groans steal out, muffled, on the rising wind, +from the dark shadows of the Lonely House. + + * * * * * + + +BARBARISM AND CIVILIZATION. + + +In the interior of the island of Borneo there has been found a certain +race of wild creatures, of which kindred varieties have been discovered +in the Philippine Islands, in Terra del Fuego, and in Southern Africa. +They walk usually almost erect upon two legs, and in that attitude +measure about four feet in height; they are dark, wrinkled, and hairy; +they construct no habitations, form no families, scarcely associate +together, sleep in trees or in caves, feed on snakes and vermin, on ants +and ants' eggs, on mice, and on each other; they cannot be tamed, nor +forced to any labor; and they are hunted and shot among the trees, like +the great gorillas, of which they are a stunted copy. When they are +captured alive, one finds, with surprise, that their uncouth jabbering +sounds like articulate language; they turn up a human face to gaze upon +their captor; the females show instincts of modesty; and, in fine, these +wretched beings are Men. + +Men, "created in God's image," born immortal and capable of progress, +and so differing from Socrates and Shakspeare only in degree. It is but +a sliding scale from this melancholy debasement up to the most regal +condition of humanity. A traceable line of affinity unites these outcast +children with the renowned historic races of the world: the Assyrian, +the Egyptian, the Ethiopian, the Jew,--the beautiful Greek, the strong +Roman, the keen Arab, the passionate Italian, the stately Spaniard, the +sad Portuguese, the brilliant Frenchman, the frank Northman, the wise +German, the firm Englishman, and that last-born heir of Time, the +American, inventor of many new things, but himself, by his temperament, +the greatest novelty of all,--the American, with his cold, clear eye, +his skin made of ice, and his veins filled with lava. + +Who shall define what makes the essential difference between those +lowest and these loftiest types? Not color; for the most degraded races +seem never to be the blackest, and the builders of the Pyramids were far +darker than the dwellers in the Aleutian Islands. Not unmixed purity of +blood; since the Circassians, the purest type of the supreme Caucasian +race, have given nothing to history but the courage of their men and the +degradation of their women. Not religion; for enlightened nations have +arisen under each great historic faith, while even Christianity has its +Abyssinia and Arkansas. Not climate; for each quarter of the globe has +witnessed both extremes. We can only say that there is an inexplicable +step in progress, which we call civilization; it is the development of +mankind into a sufficient maturity of strength to keep the peace and +organize institutions; it is the arrival of literature and art; it is +the lion and the lamb beginning to lie down together, without having, as +some one has said, the lamb inside of the lion. + +There are innumerable aspects of this great transformation; but there is +one, in special, which has been continually ignored or evaded. In the +midst of our civilization, there is a latent distrust of civilization. +We are never weary of proclaiming the enormous gain it has brought +to manners, to morals, and to intellect; but there is a wide-spread +impression that the benefit is purchased by a corresponding physical +decay. This alarm has had its best statement from Emerson. "Society +never advances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the +other.... What a contrast between the well-clad, reading, writing, +thinking American, with a watch, a pencil, and a bill of exchange in his +pocket, and the naked New-Zealander, whose property is a club, a spear, +a mat, and the undivided twentieth part of a shed to sleep under! But +compare the health of the two men, and you shall see that his aboriginal +strength the white man has lost. If the traveller tell us truly, strike +the savage with a broad-axe, and in a day or two the flesh shall unite +and heal as if you struck the blow into soft pitch; and the same blow +shall send the white man to his grave." + +Were this true, the fact would be fatal. Man is a progressive being, +only on condition that he begin at the beginning. He can afford to wait +centuries for a brain, but he cannot subsist a second without a body. If +civilization sacrifice the physical thus hopelessly to the mental, and +barbarism merely sacrifice the mental to the physical, then barbarism is +unquestionably the better thing, so far as it goes, because it provides +the essential preliminary conditions, and so can afford to wait. +Barbarism is a one-story log-hut, a poor thing, but better than nothing; +while such a civilization would be simply a second story, with a first +story too weak to sustain it, a magnificent sky-parlor, with all heaven +in view from the upper windows, but with the whole family coming down in +a crash presently, through a fatal neglect of the basement. In such a +view, an American Indian or a Kaffir warrior may be a wholesome object, +good for something already, and for much more when he gets a brain +built on. But when one sees a bookworm in his library, an anxious +merchant-prince in his counting-room, tottering feebly about, his thin +underpinning scarcely able to support what he has already crammed +into that heavy brain of his, and he still piling in more,--one feels +disposed to cry out, "Unsafe passing here! Stand from under!" + +Sydney Smith, in his "Moral Philosophy," has also put strongly this case +of physiological despair. "Nothing can be plainer than that a life of +society is unfavorable to all the animal powers of men.... A Choctaw +could run from here to Oxford without stopping. I go in the mail-coach; +and the time the savage has employed in learning to run so fast I have +employed in learning something useful. It would not only be useless in +me to run like a Choctaw, but foolish and disgraceful." But one may well +suppose, that, if the jovial divine had kept himself in training for +this disgraceful lost art of running, his diary might not have recorded +the habit of lying two hours in bed in the morning, "dawdling and +doubting," as he says, or the fact of his having "passed the whole day +in an unpleasant state of body, produced by laziness"; and he might +not have been compelled to invent for himself that amazing rheumatic +armor,--a pair of tin boots, a tin collar, a tin helmet, and a tin +shoulder-of-mutton over each of his natural shoulders, all duly filled +with boiling water, and worn in patience by the sedentary Sydney. + +It is also to be remembered that this statement was made in 1805, +when England and Germany were both waking up to a revival of physical +training,--if we may trust Sir John Sinclair in the one case, and +Salzmann in the other,--such as America is experiencing now. Many years +afterwards, Sydney Smith wrote to his brother, that "a working senator +should lead the life of an athlete." But supposing the fact still true, +that an average red man can run, and an average white man cannot,--who +does not see that it is the debility, not the feat, which is +discreditable? Setting aside the substantial advantages of strength +and activity, there is a melancholy loss of self-respect in buying +cultivation for the brain by resigning the proper vigor of the body. Let +men say what they please, they all demand a life which shall be whole +and sound throughout, and there is a drawback upon all gifts that are +paid for in infirmities. There is no thorough satisfaction in art or +intellect, if we yet feel ashamed before the Indian because we cannot +run, and before the South-Sea Islander because we cannot swim. Give us a +total culture, and a success without any discount of shame. After all, +one feels a certain justice in Warburton's story of the Guinea trader, +in Spence's Anecdotes. Mr. Pope was with Sir Godfrey Kneller one day, +when his nephew, a Guinea trader, came in. "Nephew," said Sir Godfrey, +"you have the honor of seeing the two greatest men in the world." "I +don't know how great you may be," said the Guinea-man, "but I don't like +your looks; I have often bought a man, much better than both of you +together, all muscles and bones, for ten guineas." + +Fortunately for the hopes of man, the alarm is unfounded. The advance +of accurate knowledge dispels it. Civilization is cultivation, whole +cultivation; and even in its present imperfect state, it not only +permits physical training, but promotes it. The traditional glory of +the savage body is yielding before medical statistics: it is becoming +evident that the average barbarian, observed from the cradle to the +grave, does not know enough and is not rich enough to keep his body in +its highest condition, but, on the contrary, is small and sickly and +short-lived and weak, compared with the man of civilization. The great +athletes of the world have been civilized; the long-lived men have been +civilized; the powerful armies have been civilized; and the average of +life, health, size, and strength is highest to-day among those races +where knowledge and wealth and comfort are most widely spread. And yet, +by the common lamentation, one would suppose that all civilization is a +slow suicide of the race, and that refinement and culture are to leave +man at last in a condition like that of the little cherubs on old +tomb-stones, all head and wings. + +It must be owned that the delusion has all the superstitions of history +in its favor, and only the facts against it. If we may trust tradition, +the race has undoubtedly been tapering down from century to century +since the Creation, so that the original Adam must have been more than +twice the size of the Webster statue. However far back we go, admiring +memory looks farther. Homer and Virgil never let their hero throw a +stone without reminding us that modern heroes only live in glass houses, +to have stones thrown at them. Lucretius and Juvenal chant the same +lament. Xenophon, mourning the march of luxury among the Persians, says +that modern effeminacy has reached such a pitch, that men have even +devised coverings for their fingers, called gloves. Herodotus narrates, +that, when Cambyses sent ambassadors to the Macrobians, they asked what +the Persians had to eat and how long they commonly lived. He was told +that they sometimes attained the age of eighty, and that they ate a mass +of crushed grain, which they termed bread. On this, they said that it +was no wonder, if the Persians died young, when they partook of such +rubbish, and that probably they would not survive even so long, but for +the wine they drank; while the Macrobians lived on flesh and milk, and +survived one hundred and twenty years. + +But, unfortunately, there were no Life Insurance Companies among the +Macrobians, and therefore nothing to bring down this formidable average +to a reliable schedule,--such as accurately informs every modern man how +long he may live honestly, without defrauding either his relict or his +insurers. We know, moreover, precisely what Dr. Windship can lift, at +any given date, and what the rest of us cannot; but Homer and Virgil +never weighed the stones which their heroes threw, nor even the words in +which they described the process. It is a matter of certainty that +all great exploits are severely tested by Fairbanks's scales and +stop-watches. It is wonderful how many persons, in the remoter +districts, assure the newspaper-editors of their ability to lift twelve +hundred pounds; and many a young oarsman can prove to you that he has +pulled his mile faster than Ward or Clark, if you will only let him give +his own guess at time and distance. + +It is easy, therefore, to trace the origin of these exaggerations. Those +old navigators, for instance, who saw so many fine things which were +not to be seen, how should they help peopling the barbarous realms with +races of giants? Job Hartop, who three times observed a merman rise +above water to his waist, near the Bermudas,--Harris, who endured such +terrific cold in the Antarctics, that once, perilously blowing his nose +with his fingers, it flew into the fire and was seen no more,--Knyvett, +who, in the same regions, pulled off his frozen stockings, and his toes +with them, but had them replaced by the ship's surgeon,--of course +these men saw giants, and it is only a matter for gratitude that they +vouchsafed us dwarfs also, to keep up some remains of self-respect in +us. In Magellan's Straits, for instance, they saw, on one side, from +three to four thousand pigmies with mouths from ear to ear; while on the +other shore they saw giants whose footsteps were four times as large as +an Englishman's,--which was a strong expression, considering that the +Englishman's footstep had already reached round the globe. + +The only way to test these earlier observations is by later ones. For +instance, in the year 1772, a Dutchman named Roggewein discovered Easter +Island. His expedition had cost the government a good deal, and he +had to bring home his money's worth of discoveries. Accordingly, his +islanders were all giants,--twice as tall, he said, as the tallest of +the Europeans; "they measured, one with another, the height of twelve +feet; so that we could easily,--who will not wonder at it?--without +stooping, have passed between the legs of these sons of Goliath. +According to their height, so is their thickness." Moreover, he "puts +down nothing but the real truth, and upon the nicest inspection," and, +to exhibit this caution, warns us that it would be wrong to rate the +women of those regions as high as the men, they being, as he pityingly +owns, "commonly not above ten or eleven feet." Sweet young creatures +they must have appeared, belle and steeple in one. And it was certainly +a great disappointment to Captain Cook, when, on visiting the same +Island, fifty years later, he could not find man or woman more than six +feet tall. Thus ended the tale of this Flying Dutchman. + +Thus lamentably have the inhabitants of Patagonia been also dwindling, +though, there, if anywhere, still lies the Cape of Bad Hope for the +apostles of human degeneracy. Pigafetta originally estimated them at +twelve feet. In the time of Commodore Byron, they had already grown +downward; yet he said of them that they were "enormous goblins," seven +feet high, every one of them. One of his officers, however, writing an +independent narrative, seemed to think this a needless concession; he +admits, indeed, that the women were not, perhaps, more than seven feet, +or seven and a half, or, it might be, eight, "but the men were, for +the most part, about nine feet high, and very often more." Lieutenant +Cumming, he said, being but six feet two, appeared a mere pigmy among +them. But it seems, that, in after-times, on some one's questioning this +diminutive lieutenant as to the actual size of these enormous goblins, +the veteran frankly confessed, that, "had it been anywhere else but in +Patagonia, he should have called them good sturdy savages and thought no +more on't." + +But, these facts apart, there are certain general truths which look +ominous for the reputation of the _physique_ of savage tribes. + +First, they cannot keep the race alive, they are always tending to +decay. When first encountered by civilization, they usually tell stories +of their own decline in numbers, and after that the downward movement is +accelerated. They are poor, ignorant, improvident, oppressed by others' +violence, or exhausted by their own; war kills them, infanticide and +abortion cut them off before they reach the age of war, pestilences +sweep them away, whole tribes perish by famine and smallpox. Under the +stern climate of the Esquimaux and the soft skies of Tahiti, the same +decline is seen. Parkman estimates that in 1763 the whole number of +Indians east of the Mississippi was but ten thousand, and they were +already mourning their own decay. Travellers seldom visit a savage +country without remarking on the scarcity of aged people and of young +children. Lewis and Clarke, Mackenzie, Alexander Henry, observed this +among Indian tribes never before visited by white men; Dr. Kane remarked +it among the Esquimaux, D'Azara among the Indians of South America, and +many travellers in the South-Sea Islands and even in Africa, though the +black man apparently takes more readily to civilization than any other +race, and then develops a terrible vitality, as American politicians +find to their cost. + +Meanwhile, the hardships which thus decimate the tribe toughen the +survivors, and sometimes give them an apparent advantage over civilized +men. The savages whom one encounters are necessarily the picked men of +the race, and the observer takes no census of the multitudes who have +perished in the process. Civilization keeps alive, in every generation, +multitudes who would otherwise die prematurely. These millions of +invalids do not owe to civilization their diseases, but their lives. It +is painful that your sick friend should live on Cherry Pectoral; but if +he had been born in barbarism, he would neither have had it to drink nor +survived to drink it. + +And again, it is now satisfactorily demonstrated that these picked +survivors of savage life are commonly suffering under the same diseases +with their civilized compeers, and show less vital power to resist them. +In barbarous nations every foreigner is taken for a physician, and the +first demand is for medicines; if not the right medicines, then the +wrong ones; if no medicines are at hand, the written prescription, +administered internally, is sometimes found a desirable restorative. The +earliest missionaries to the South-Sea Islands found ulcers and dropsy +and hump-backs there before them. The English Bishop of New Zealand, +landing on a lone islet where no ship had ever touched, found the +whole population prostrate with influenza. Lewis and Clarke, the first +explorers of the Rocky Mountains, found Indian warriors ill with fever +and dysentery, rheumatism and paralysis, and Indian women in hysterics. +"The tooth-ache," said Roger Williams of the New England tribes, "is the +only paine which will force their stoute hearts to cry"; even the Indian +women, he says, never cry as he has heard "some of their men in this +paine"; but Lewis and Clarke found whole tribes who had abolished this +source of tears in the civilized manner, by having no teeth left. We +complain of our weak eyes as a result of civilized habits, and Tennyson, +in "Locksley Hall," wishes his children bred in some savage land, "not +with blinded eyesight poring over miserable books." But savage life +seems more injurious to the organs of vision than even the type of a +cheap edition; for the most vigorous barbarians--on the prairies, in +Southern archipelagos, on African deserts--suffer more from different +forms of ophthalmia than from any other disease; without knowing the +alphabet, they have worse eyes than if they were professors, and have +not even the melancholy consolation of spectacles. + +Again, the savage cannot, as a general rule, endure transplantation,--he +cannot thrive in the country of the civilized man; whereas the latter, +with time for training, can equal or excel him in strength and endurance +on his own ground. As it is known that the human race generally can +endure a greater variety of climate than the hardiest of the lower +animals, so it is with the man of civilization, when compared with the +barbarian. Kane, when he had once learned how to live in the Esquimaux +country, lived better than the Esquimaux themselves; and he says +expressly, that "their powers of resistance are no greater than those of +well-trained voyagers from other lands." Richardson, Parkyns, Johnstone, +give it as their opinion, that the European, once acclimated, bears +the heat of the African deserts better than the native negro. "These +Christians are devils," say the Arabs; "they can endure both cold and +heat." What are the Bedouins to the Zouaves, who unquestionably would be +as formidable in Lapland as in Algiers? Nay, in the very climates where +the natives are fading away, the civilized foreigner multiplies: thus, +the strong New-Zealanders do not average two children to a family, while +the households of the English colonists are larger than at home,--which +is saying a good deal. + +Most formidable of all is the absence of all recuperative power in +the savage who rejects civilization. No effort of will improves his +condition; he sees his race dying out, and he can only drink and forget +it. But the civilized man has an immense capacity for self-restoration; +he can make mistakes and correct them again, sin and repent, sink and +rise. Instinct can only prevent; science can cure in one generation, and +prevent in the next. It is known that some twenty years ago a thrill +of horror shot through all Anglo-Saxondom at the reported physical +condition of the operatives in English mines and factories. It is not so +generally known, that, by a recent statement of the medical inspector of +factories, there is declared to have been a most astounding renovation +of female health in such establishments throughout all England since +that time,--the simple result of sanitary laws. What science has done +science can do. Everybody knows which symptom of American physical decay +is habitually quoted, as most alarming; one seldom sees a dentist who +does not despair of the republic. Yet this calamity is nothing new; the +elder branch of our race has been through that epidemic, and outlived +it. In the robust days of Queen Bess, the teeth of the court ladies were +habitually so black and decayed, that foreigners used constantly to ask +if Englishwomen ate nothing but sugar. Hentzner, who visited the country +in 1697, speaks of the same calamity as common among the English of all +classes. Two centuries and a half have removed the stigma,--improved +physical habits have put fresh pearls between the lips of all England +now; and there seems no reason why we Americans may not yet be healthy, +in spite of our teeth. + +Thus much for general considerations; let us come now to more specific +tests, beginning with the comparison of size. The armor of the knights +of the Middle Ages is too small for their modern descendants: Hamilton +Smith records that two Englishmen of average dimensions found no suit +large enough to fit them in the great collection of Sir Samuel Meyrick. +The Oriental sabre will not admit the English hand, nor the bracelet of +the Kaffir warrior the English arm. The swords found in Roman tumuli +have handles inconveniently small; and the great mediaeval two-handed +sword is now supposed to have been used only for one or two blows at the +first onset, and then exchanged for a smaller one. The statements given +by Homer, Aristotle, and Vitruvius represent six feet as a high standard +for full-grown men; and the irrefutable evidence of the ancient +doorways, bedsteads, and tombs proves the average size of the race to +have certainly not diminished in modern days. The gigantic bones have +all turned out to be animal remains; even the skeleton twenty-five +feet high and ten feet broad, which one _savant_ wrote a book called +"Gigantosteologia" to prove human, and another, a counter-argument, +called "Gigantomachia," to prove animal,--neither of the philosophers +taking the trouble to draw a single fragment of the fossil. The enormous +savage races have turned out, as has been shown, to be travellers' +tales,--even the Patagonians being brought down to an average of five +feet ten inches, and being, moreover, only a part of a race, the +Abipones, of which the other families are smaller. Indeed, we can all +learn by our own experience how irresistible is the tendency of the +imagination to attribute vast proportions to all hardy and warlike +tribes. Most persons fancy the Scottish Highlanders, for instance, to +have been a race of giants; yet Charles Edward was said to be taller +than any man in his Highland army, and his height was but five feet +nine. We have the same impression in regard to our own Aborigines. Yet, +when first, upon the prairies of Nebraska, I came in sight of a tribe of +genuine, unadulterated Indians, with no possession on earth but a +bow and arrow and a bear-skin,--bare-skin in a double sense, I might +add,--my instinctive exclamation was, "What race of dwarfs is this?" +They were the descendants of the glorious Pawnees of Cooper, the heroes +of every boy's imagination; yet, excepting the three chiefs, who were +noble-looking men of six feet in height, the tallest of the tribe could +not have measured five feet six inches. + +The most careful investigations give the same results in respect to +physical strength. Early travellers among our Indians, as Hearne and +Mackenzie, and early missionaries to the South-Sea Islands, as Ellis, +report athletic contests in which the natives could not equal the +better-fed, better-clothed, better-trained Europeans. When the French +_savans_, Peron, Regnier, Ransonnet, carried their dynamometers to the +islands of the Indian Ocean, they found with surprise that an average +English sailor was forty-two per cent, stronger, and an average +Frenchman thirty per cent, stronger, than the strongest island tribe +they visited. Even in comparing different European races, it is +undeniable that bodily strength goes with the highest civilization. +It is recorded in Robert Stephenson's Life, that, when the English +"navvies" were employed upon the Paris and Boulogne Railway, they used +spades and barrows just twice the size of those employed by their +Continental rivals, and were regularly paid double. Quetelet's +experiments with the dynamometer on university students showed the same +results: first ranked the Englishman, then the Frenchman, then the +Belgian, then the Russian, then the Southern European: for those races +of Southern Europe which once ruled the Eastern and the Western worlds +by physical and mental power have lost in strength as they have paused +in civilization, and the easy victories of our armies in Mexico show us +the result. + +It is impossible to deny that the observations on this subject are yet +very imperfect; and the only thing to be claimed is, that they all point +one way. So far as absolute statistical tables go, the above-named +French observations have till recently stood almost alone, and have been +the main reliance. The just criticism has, however, been made, that the +subjects of these experiments were the inhabitants of New Holland and +Van Diemen's Land, by no means the strongest instances on the side of +barbarism. It is, therefore, fortunate that the French tables have now +been superseded by some more important comparisons, accurately made by +A.S. Thomson, M.D., Surgeon of the Fifty-Eighth Regiment of the British +Army, and printed in the seventeenth volume of the Journal of the London +Statistical Society. + +The observations were made in New Zealand,--Dr. Thomson being stationed +there with his regiment, and being charged with the duty of vaccinating +all natives employed by the government. The islanders thus used for +experiment were to some extent picked men, as none but able-bodied +persons would have been selected for employ, and as they were, moreover, +(he states,) accustomed to lifting burdens, and better-fed than the +majority of their countrymen. The New Zealand race, as a whole, is +certainly a very favorable type of barbarism, having but just emerged +from an utterly savage condition, having been cannibals within one +generation, and being the very identical people among whom were recorded +those wonderful cures of flesh-wounds to which Emerson has referred. +Cook and all other navigators have praised their robust physical aspect, +and they undoubtedly, with the Fijians and the Tongans, stand at the +head of all island races. They are admitted to surpass our American +Indians, as well as the Kaffirs and the Joloffs, probably the finest +African races; and a careful comparison between New-Zealanders and +Anglo-Saxons will, therefore, approach as near to an _experimentum +crucis_ as any single set of observations can. The following tables have +been carefully prepared from those of Dr. Thomson, with the addition +of some scanty facts from other sources,--scanty, because, as Quetelet +indignantly observes, less pains have as yet been taken to measure +accurately the physical powers of man than those of any machine he has +constructed or any animal he has tamed. + + TABLE. + + HEIGHT. _Number measured. Average._ + New-Zealanders................... 147 5 feet 6-3/4 inches. + Students at Edinburgh............ 800 5 " 7-1/10 " + Class of 1860. Cambridge (Mass.). 106 5 " 7-3/5 " + Students at Cambridge (Eng.)..... 80 5 " 8-3/5 " + + WEIGHT. + New-Zealanders................... 146 140 pounds. + Soldiers 58th Regiment........... 1778 142 " + Class of 1860. Cambridge (Mass.). 106 142-1/2 " + Students at Cambridge (Eng.)..... 80 143 " + Men weighed at Boston (U.S.) + Mechanics' Fair, 1860 ......... 4369 146-3/4 " + Englishmen (Dr. Thomson)......... 2648 148 " + Cambridge, Eng. (a newspaper + statement) .................... ---- 151 " + Revolutionary officers at West + Point, August 10th, 1778, + given in "Milledulcia," p. 273.. 11 226 " + + AREA OF CHEST. + New-Zealanders................... 151 35.36 inches. + Soldiers 58th Regiment........... 628 36.71 " + + STRENGTH IN LIFTING. + New-Zealanders................... 31 367 pounds. + Students fit Edinburgh, aged 25.. ---- 416 " + Soldiers 58th Regiment........... 33 422 " + + NOTE. The range of strength among the New-Zealanders was from 250 + pounds to 420 pounds; among the soldiers, from 350 pounds to 504 pounds. + +But it is the test of longevity which exhibits the greatest triumph for +civilization, because here the life-insurance tables furnish ample, +though comparatively recent statistics. Of course, in legendary ages all +lives were of enormous length; and the Hindoos in their sacred books +attribute to their progenitors a career of forty million years or +thereabouts,--what may safely be termed a ripe old age; for if a man +were still unripe after celebrating his forty-millionth birthday, he +might as well give it up. But from the beginning of accurate statistics +we know that the duration of life in any nation is a fair index of +its progress in civilization, Quetelet gives statistics, more or less +reliable, from every nation of Northern Europe, showing a gain of ten to +twenty-five per cent, during the last century. Where the tables are most +carefully prepared, the result is least equivocal. Thus, in Geneva, +where accurate registers have been kept for three hundred years, it +seems that from 1560 to 1600 the average lifetime of the citizens was +twenty-one years and two months; in the next century, twenty-five years +and nine months; in the century following, thirty-two years and nine +months; and in the year 1833, forty years and five months: thus nearly +doubling the average age of man in Geneva, within those three centuries +of social progress. In France, it is estimated, that, in spite of +revolutions and Napoleons, human life has been gaining at the rate +of two months a year for nearly a century. By a manuscript of the +fourteenth century, moreover, it is shown that the rate of mortality +in Paris was then one in sixteen,--one person dying annually to every +sixteen of the inhabitants. It is now one in thirty-two,--a gain of a +hundred per cent, in five hundred years. In England the progress +has been far more rapid. The rate of mortality in 1690 was one in +thirty-three; in 1780 it was one in forty; and it stands now at one in +sixty,--the healthiest condition in Europe,--while in half-barbarous +Russia the rate of mortality is one in twenty-seven. It would be easy to +multiply these statistics to any extent; but they all point one way, and +no medical statistician now pretends to oppose the dictum of Hufeland, +that "a certain degree of culture is physically necessary for man, and +promotes duration of life." + +The simple result is, that the civilized man is physically superior to +the barbarian. There is now no evidence that there exists in any part of +the world a savage race who, taken as a whole, surpass or even equal the +Anglo-Saxon type in average physical condition; as there is also +none among whom the President elect of the United States and the +Commander-in-chief of his armies would not be regarded as remarkably +tall men, and Dr. Windship a remarkably strong one. "It is now well +known," says Prichard, "that all savage races have less muscular power +than civilized men." Johnstone in Northern Africa, and Cumming in +Southern Africa, could find no one to equal them in strength of arm. +At the Sandwich Islands, Ellis records, that, "when a boat manned by +English seamen and a canoe with natives left the shore together, the +canoe would uniformly leave the boat behind, but they would soon relax, +while the seamen, pulling steadily on, would pass them, but, if the +voyage took three hours, would invariably reach the destination first." +Certain races may have been regularly trained by position and necessity +in certain particular arts,--as Sandwich-Islanders in swimming, and our +Indians in running,--and may naturally surpass the average skill of +those who are comparatively out of practice in that speciality; yet it +is remarkable that their greatest feats even in these ways never seem +to surpass those achieved by picked specimens of civilization. The best +Indian runners could only equal Lewis and Clarke's men, and they have +been repeatedly beaten in prize-races within the last few years; while +the most remarkable aquatic feat on record is probably that of Mr. +Atkins of Liverpool, who recently dived to a depth of two hundred and +thirty feet, reappearing above water in one minute and eleven seconds. + +In the wilderness and on the prairies, we find a general impression that +cultivation and refinement must weaken the race. Not at all; they simply +domesticate it. Domestication is not weakness. A strong hand does not +become less muscular under a kid glove; and a man who is a hero in a red +shirt will also be a hero in a white one. Civilization, imperfect as +it is, has already procured for us better food, better air, and better +behavior; it gives us physical training on system; and its mental +training, by refining the nervous organization, makes the same quantity +of muscular power go much farther. The young English ensigns and +lieutenants who at Waterloo (in the words of Wellington) "rushed to meet +death, as if it were a game of cricket," were the fruit of civilization. +They were representatives, indeed, of the aristocracy of their nation; +and here, where the aim of all institutions is to make the whole nation +an aristocracy, we must plan to secure the same splendid physical +superiority on a grander scale. It is in our power, by using even very +moderately for this purpose our magnificent machinery of common schools, +to give to the physical side of civilization an advantage which it has +possessed nowhere else, not even in England or Germany. It is not yet +time to suggest detailed plans on this subject, since the public mind +is not yet fully awake even to the demand. When the time comes, the +necessary provisions can be made easily,--at least, as regards boys; +for the physical training of girls is a far more difficult problem +The organization is more delicate and complicated, the embarrassments +greater, the observations less carefully made, the successes fewer, +the failures far more disastrous. Any intelligent and robust man may +undertake the physical training of fifty boys, however delicate their +organization, with a reasonable hope of rearing nearly all of them, by +easy and obvious methods, into a vigorous maturity; but what wise man +or woman can expect anything like the same proportion of success, at +present, with fifty American girls? + +This is the most momentous health-problem with which we have to deal,-- +to secure the proper physical advantages of civilization for American +women. Without this there can be no lasting progress. The Sandwich +Island proverb says,-- + + "If strong be the frame of the mother, + Her son shall make laws for the people." + +But in this country, it is scarcely an exaggeration to say that +every man grows to maturity surrounded by a circle of invalid female +relatives, that he later finds himself the husband of an invalid wife +and the parent of invalid daughters, and that he comes at last to regard +invalidism, as Michelet coolly declares, the normal condition of that +sex,--as if the Almighty did not know how to create a woman. This, of +course, spreads a gloom over life. When I look at the morning throng of +schoolgirls in summer, hurrying through every street, with fresh, young +faces, and vesture of lilies, duly curled and straw-hatted and booted, +and turned off as patterns of perfection by proud mammas,--it is not sad +to me to think that all this young beauty must one day fade and die, for +there are spheres of life beyond this earth, I know, and the soul is +good to endure through more than one;--the sadness is in the unnatural +nearness of the decay, to foresee the living death of disease that is +waiting close at hand for so many, to know how terrible a proportion of +those fair children are walking unconsciously into a weary, wretched, +powerless, joyless, useless maturity. Among the myriad triumphs of +advancing civilization, there seems but one formidable danger, and that +is here. + +It cannot be doubted, however, that the peril will pass by, with +advancing knowledge. In proportion to our national recklessness of +danger is the promptness with which remedial measures are adopted, when +they at last become indispensable. In the mean time, we must look for +proofs of the physical resources of woman into foreign and even +into savage lands. When an American mother tells me with pride, as +occasionally happens, that her daughter can walk two miles and back +without great fatigue, the very boast seems a tragedy; but when one +reads that Oberea, queen of the Sandwich Islands, lifted Captain Wallis +over a marsh as easily as if he had been a little child, there is a +slight sense of consolation. Brunhilde, in the "Nibelungen," binds her +offending lover with her girdle and slings him up to the wall. Cymburga, +wife of Duke Ernest of Lithuania, could crack nuts between her fingers, +and drive nails into a wall with her thumb;--whether she ever got her +husband under it is not recorded. Let me preserve from oblivion the +renown of my Lady Butterfield, who, about the year 1700, at Wanstead, +in Essex, (England,) thus advertised:--"This is to give notice to my +honored masters and ladies and loving friends, that my Lady Butterfield +gives a challenge to ride a horse, or leap a horse, or run afoot, or +_hollo_, with any woman in England seven years younger, but not a day +older, because I won't undervalue myself, being now 74 years of age." +Nor should be left unrecorded the high-born Scottish damsel whose +tradition still remains at the Castle of Huntingtower, in Scotland, +where two adjacent pinnacles still mark the Maiden's Leap. She sprang +from battlement to battlement, a distance of nine feet and four inches, +and eloped with her lover. Were a young lady to go through one of our +villages in a series of leaps like that, and were she to require her +lovers to follow in her footsteps, it is to be feared that she would die +single. + +Yet the transplanted race which has in two centuries stepped from Delft +Haven to San Francisco has no reason to be ashamed of its physical +achievements, the more especially as it has found time on the way for +one feat of labor and endurance which may be matched without fear +against any historic deed. When civilization took possession of +this continent, it found one vast coating of almost unbroken forest +overspreading it from shore to prairie. To make room for civilization, +that forest must go. What were Indians, however deadly,--what +starvation, however imminent,--what pestilence, however lurking,--to a +solid obstacle like this? No mere courage could cope with it, no mere +subtlety, no mere skill, no Yankee ingenuity, no labor-saving machine +with head for hands; but only firm, unwearying, bodily muscle to every +stroke. Tree by tree, in two centuries, that forest has been felled. +What were the Pyramids to that? There does not exist in history an +athletic feat so astonishing. + +But there yet lingers upon this continent a forest of moral evil more +formidable, a barrier denser and darker, a Dismal Swamp of inhumanity, +a barbarism upon the soil, before which civilization has thus far been +compelled to pause,--happy, if it could even check its spread. Checked +at last, there comes from it a cry as if the light of day had turned to +darkness,--when the truth simply is, that darkness is being mastered and +surrounded by the light of day. Is it a good thing to "extend the area +of freedom" by pillaging some feeble Mexico? and does the phrase become +a bad one only when it means the peaceful progress of constitutional +liberty within our own borders? The phrases which oppression teaches +become the watchwords of freedom at last, and the triumph of +Civilization over Barbarism is the only Manifest Destiny of America. + + + + +WHO WAS CASPAR HAUSER? + + +Recent publications have again attracted our attention to a subject +which about thirty years ago was the cause of great excitement and +innumerable speculations. The very extraordinary advent, life, and death +of Caspar Hauser, the novelty and singularity of all his thoughts and +actions, and his charming innocence and amiability, interested at the +time all Europe in his behalf. Thrown upon the world in a state of utter +helplessness, he was adopted by one of the cities of Germany, and became +not only a universal pet, but a sight which people flocked from all +parts to see. It became a perfect fever, raging throughout Germany, and +extending also to other countries. The papers teemed with accounts and +conjectures. Innumerable essays and even books were written, almost +every one advancing a different theory for the solution of the mystery. +But his death was still more the occasion for their appearance, and for +some time thereafter they literally swarmed from the press. Every one +who had in any way come in contact with him, and a great many who knew +him by reputation only, thought themselves called upon to give their +views, so that in a little while the subject acquired almost a +literature of its own. + +But this excitement gradually disappeared, and with it most of the +literature which it had called forth. There are a few names, however, +which occur frequently in connection with that of Caspar Hauser, to +whose opinions we shall subsequently call attention. They are Feuerbach, +Daumer, Merker, Stanhope, Binder, Meier, and Fuhrmann.[A] Of these, +Binder was his earliest protector; Feuerbach conducted the legal +investigations to which Caspar's mysterious appearance gave rise; Daumer +was for a long time his teacher and host; Stanhope adopted him; Meier +afterwards filled Daumer's place; and Fuhrmann was the clergyman who +attended his death-bed. Merker, though never thrown very closely in +contact with Caspar, was a Prussian Counsellor of Police, and as such +his opinion may perhaps have more than ordinary weight with some. Most +of them published their various opinions during Caspar's life or soon +after his death, and the subject was then allowed to sink to its proper +level and attract no further attention. Within a few years, however, it +has again been brought into prominent light by some new publications. +One of these is an essay written by Feuerbach and published in his works +edited by his son, in which he endeavors to prove that Caspar Hauser was +the son of the Grand Duchess Stephanie of Baden; another is a book by +Daumer, which he devotes entirely to the explosion of all theories that +have ever been advanced; and a third, by Dr. Eschricht, contends +that Caspar was at first an idiot and afterwards an impostor. Before +considering these different theories, let us recall the principal +incidents of his life. These have, indeed, been placed within the +reach of the English reader by the Earl of Stanhope's book and by a +translation of Feuerbach's "Kaspar Hauser. Beispiel eines Verbrechens am +Seelenleben des Menschen,"[B] published in Boston in 1832; but, as the +former has, we believe, obtained little circulation in this country, and +the latter is now probably out of print, a short account of the life of +this singular being may not be deemed amiss. + +[Footnote A: Daumer, in his _Disclosures concerning Caspar Hauser_, +refers to a great many more than these; but it is impossible to follow +his example in so limited a space.] + +[Footnote B: _Caspar Hauser. An Example of a Crime against the Life, of +Man's Soul_.] + +On the 26th of May, 1828, a citizen of Nuremberg, while loitering in +front of his house in the outskirts of the town, saw, tottering towards +him, a lad of sixteen or seventeen years, coarsely and poorly clad. He +held in his hand a letter, which he presented to the citizen; but to +all questions as to who he was, whence he came, and what he wanted, he +replied only in an unintelligible jargon. The letter was addressed to +the captain of a cavalry company then stationed at Nuremberg, to whom +he was taken. It stated substantially, that a boy had been left at the +writer's door on the 7th of October, 1812, that the writer was a poor +laborer with a large family, but that he had nevertheless adopted the +boy, and had reared him in such strict seclusion from the world that not +even his existence was known. The letter said further, that, so far from +being able to answer, the lad could not even comprehend any questions +put to him. It therefore discouraged all attempts to obtain any +information in that way, and ended with the advice, that, according to +his desire, he should be made a dragoon, as his father had been before +him. Inclosed in this letter was a note, professedly by the mother, and +pretending to have been left with him, when, as an infant, Caspar Hauser +was first cast upon the world, but, in reality, as it was afterwards +proved, written by the same person. This note gave the date of his +birth, pleaded the poverty of the mother as an excuse for thus +abandoning her child, and contained the same request as to his joining a +cavalry regiment when he should arrive at the age of seventeen. + +The first impression produced by Caspar's appearance and behavior was, +that he was some idiot or lunatic escaped from confinement; it remained +only to be shown whence he had escaped. In the mean time he was placed +under the protection of the police, who removed him to their guard-room. +There he showed no consciousness of what was going on around him; his +look was a dull, brutish stare; nor did he give any indication of +intelligence, until pen and paper were placed in his hand, when he wrote +clearly and repeatedly, "Kaspar Hauser." Since then he has been known by +that name. + +When it became evident that the first conjectures concerning him were +wrong, strenuous efforts were made by the police to sound the mystery, +but without the slightest success. He himself could give no clue; for he +neither understood what others said nor could make himself understood. +With the exception of some six words, the sounds Caspar uttered were +entirely meaningless. He recognized none of the places where he had +been, no trace could be obtained of him elsewhere, and the most vigilant +search brought nothing to light. The surprise which his first appearance +produced increased as he became better known. It then became more and +more evident that he was neither an idiot nor a lunatic; at the same +time his manners were so peculiar, and his ignorance of civilized life +and his dislike for its customs so great, that all sorts of conjectures +were resorted to in order to explain the mystery. + +It was ascertained that he must have been incarcerated in some dungeon, +entirely shut out from the light of the sun, which gave him great pain. +The structure of his body, the tenderness of his feet, and the great +difficulty and suffering which he experienced in walking, indicated +beyond a doubt that he had been kept in a sitting posture, with his legs +stretched straight out before him. His sustenance had been bread and +water; for he not only evinced great repugnance to any other food, but +the smallest quantity affected his constitution in the most violent +manner. It was also evident that he had never come in contact with human +beings, beyond what was necessary for supplying his immediate wants, +and, strange to say, teaching him to write. + +That these inferences were well-founded was proved by the subsequent +disclosures of Caspar himself, after he had acquired a sufficient +command of language. The account he then gave was as follows. + +"He neither knows who he is nor where his home is. It was only at +Nuremberg that he came into the world. Here he first learned, that, +besides himself and 'the man with whom he had always been,' there +existed other men and other creatures. As long as he can recollect, he +had always lived in a hole, (a small, low apartment, which he sometimes +calls a cage,) where he had always sat upon the ground, with bare feet, +and clothed only with a shirt and a pair of breeches. In his apartment, +he never heard a sound, whether produced by a man, by an animal, or by +anything else. He never saw the heavens, nor did there ever appear a +brightening (daylight) such as at Nuremberg, he never perceived any +difference between day and night, and much less did he ever get a sight +of the beautiful lights in the heavens. Whenever he awoke from sleep, he +found a loaf of bread and a pitcher of water by him. Sometimes his water +had a bad taste; whenever this was the case, he could no longer keep +his eyes open, but was compelled to fall asleep; and when he afterwards +awoke, he found that he had a clean shirt on, and that his nails had +been cut.[C] + +[Footnote C: When he resided with Professor Daumer, a drop of opium in a +glass of water was administered to him. After swallowing a mouthful, he +exclaimed, "That water is nasty; it tastes exactly like the water I was +sometimes obliged to drink in my cage."] + +"He never saw the face of the man who brought him his meat and drink. In +his hole he had two wooden horses and several ribbons. With these horses +he had always amused himself as long as he was awake; and his only +occupation was, to make them run by his side, and to arrange the ribbons +about them in different positions. Thus one day had passed the same as +another; but he had never felt the want of anything, had never been +sick, and--once only excepted--had never felt the sensation of pain. +Upon the whole, he had been much happier there than in the world, where +he was obliged to suffer so much. How long he had continued to live in +this situation he knew not; for he had had no knowledge of time. He +knew not when or how he came there. Nor had he any recollection of ever +having been in a different situation, or in any other than in that +place. The man with whom he had always been never did him any harm. Yet +one day, shortly before he was taken away, when he had been running his +horse too hard, and had made too much noise, the man came and struck +him upon his arm with a stick, or with a piece of wood; this caused the +wound which he brought with him to Nuremberg. + +"Pretty nearly about the same time, the man once came into his prison, +placed a small table over his feet, and spread something white upon it, +which he now knows to have been paper; he then came behind him, so as +not to be seen by him, took hold of his hand, and moved it backwards and +forwards on the paper, with a thing (a lead pencil) which he had stuck +between his fingers. He (Hauser) was then ignorant of what it was; but +he was mightily pleased, when he saw the black figures which began to +appear upon the white paper. When he felt that his hand was free, +and the man was gone from him, he was so much pleased with this new +discovery, that he could never grow tired of drawing these figures +repeatedly upon the paper. This occupation almost made him neglect his +horses, although he did not know what those characters signified. The +man repeated his visits in the same manner several times. + +"Another time the man came, lifted him from the place where he lay, +placed him on his feet, and endeavored to teach him to stand. This he +repeated at several different times. The manner in which he effected +this was the following: he seized him firmly around the breast, from +behind, placed his feet behind Caspar's feet, and lifted these, as in +stepping forward. + +"Finally, the man appeared once again, placed Caspar's hands over his +shoulders, tied them fast, and thus carried him on his back out of the +prison. He was carried up (or down) a hill. He knows not how he felt; +all became night, and he was laid upon his back."--By the expression, +"all became night," he meant that he fainted away. The little which +Caspar was able to relate in regard to his journey is not of any +particular interest, and we omit it here. + +This is all that is known with any certainty of the early life of this +unfortunate being. The conjectures to which it has given rise will be +considered later. Let us first finish his history. + +As was to be expected, Caspar Hauser's faculties developed very +gradually. His mind was in a torpor, and, placed suddenly amid, to +him, most exciting scenes, it was long before he could understand the +simplest phenomena of Nature. The unfolding of his mind was exactly like +that of a child. Feuerbach, in his book on Caspar Hauser, gives the main +features of this gradual development. We can only pick out a few. + +It is remarkable that in the same proportion as he advanced in knowledge +and acquaintance with civilized life, the intensity of all his faculties +diminished. It was so with his memory. He was at first able to exhibit +most surprising feats. As an experiment, thirty, forty, and, on one +occasion, forty-five names of persons were mentioned to him, which he +afterwards repeated with all their titles,--to him, of course, entirely +meaningless. So, too, with his power of sight. At first, he was able to +see in the dark perfectly well, and much better than in the light of the +sun, which was very painful to him. He very frequently amused himself +at others groping in the dark, when he experienced not the slightest +difficulty. On one occasion, in the evening, he read the name on a +door-plate at the distance of one hundred and eighty paces. This +keenness of vision did not, however, retain its entire vigor, but +decreased as he became more accustomed to the sun. For some time after +he made his appearance he had no idea of perspective, but would clutch +like a child at objects far off. Nor had he any conception of the +beauties of Nature, which he afterwards explained by saying that it then +appeared to him like a mass of colors jumbled together. Nothing was +beautiful, unless it was red, except a starry heaven,--and the emotion +which he felt, on first beholding this, was truly touching. Until then, +he had invariably spoken of "the man with whom he had always been" with +feelings of affection; he longed to return to him, and looked upon all +his studies as merely a temporary thing; some day he would go back and +show the man how much he had learned. But when he first looked upon the +heavens, his tone became entirely changed, and he denounced the man +severely for never having shown him such beautiful things. + +All his senses were thus at first wonderfully keen. It was so with his +hearing and smell. The latter was the source of most of his sufferings; +for, being so exceedingly sensitive, even the most scentless things made +him sick. He liked but one smell, that of bread, which had been his only +food for seventeen years. It was a long time, indeed, before he could +take any other food at all, and he only became accustomed to it very +gradually. + +The effect produced upon Caspar Hauser by contact with or proximity to +animals was also very curious. He was able to detect their presence +under singularly unfavorable circumstances. Metals, too, had a very +powerful effect upon him, and possessed for him a strong magnetic power. +But it is impossible to give all the details, however interesting; for +them we must refer to Feuerbach. + +His mind, as has been already said, was at first sunk in almost +impenetrable darkness. He knew of but two divisions of earthly +things,--man and beast, "_bua_" and "_ross_." The former was a word +of his own. The latter, which is the German for _horse_, included +everything not human, whether animate or inanimate. Between these he for +a long time saw no difference. He could not understand why pictures and +statues did not move, and he regarded his toy-horses as living things. +To inanimate things impelled by foreign forces he ascribed volition. + +Religion he, of course, had none. He possessed naturally a very amiable +character, and his thoughts and conduct were as pure as though guided by +the soundest system of morality. But he knew nothing of a God, and one +of the greatest difficulties Daumer had to encounter was instructing +him on this point. His untutored mind could not master the doctrines of +theology, and he was constantly puzzled by questions which he himself +suggested, and which his instructor often found it impossible to answer +satisfactorily. + +Physically he was very weak. The shortest walk would fatigue him. +At first he could scarcely shuffle along at all, on account of the +tenderness of his feet, and because his body had always been kept in +one position. He so far overcame this, however, as to be able to walk a +little, though always with an effort. But on horseback he never became +tired. From the first time that he mounted a horse, he showed a love +for the exercise, and a power of endurance utterly at variance with all +other exhibitions of his strength; and he very soon acquired a degree +of skill which made him an object of envy to all the cavalry-officers +stationed in the neighborhood. So inconsistent and incomprehensible was +everything about Caspar Hauser! + +In October, 1829, while residing in the family of Professor Daumer, an +attempt was made upon his life, which was only so far successful as to +give a very violent shock to his delicate constitution. The perpetrator +of the crime was never discovered. Caspar was afterwards adopted by the +Earl of Stanhope, and by him removed to Anspach. Feuerbach gives a very +interesting description of him, as he appeared at this time. + +"In understanding a man, in knowledge a little child, and in many things +more ignorant than a child, the whole of his language and demeanor shows +often a strangely contrasted mingling of manly and childish behavior. +With a serious countenance and in a tone of great importance, he often +utters things which, coming from any other person of the same age, would +be called stupid or silly, but which, coming from him, always force upon +us a sad, compassionate smile. It is particularly farcical to hear him +speak of the future plans of his life,--of the manner in which, after +having learned a great deal and earned money, he intends to settle +himself with his wife, whom he considers as an indispensable part of +domestic furniture." + +"Mild and gentle, without vicious inclinations, and without passions and +strong emotions, his quiet mind resembles the smooth mirror of a lake +in the stillness of a moonlight night. Incapable of hurting an animal, +compassionate even to the worm, which he is afraid to tread upon, timid +even to cowardice, he will nevertheless act regardless of consequences, +and even without forbearance, according to his own convictions, whenever +it becomes necessary to defend or to execute purposes which he has once +perceived and acknowledged to be right. If he feels himself annoyed in +any manner, he will long bear it patiently, and will try to get out of +the way of the person who is thus troublesome to him, or will endeavor +to effect a change in his conduct by mild expostulations; but, finally, +if he cannot help himself in any other manner, as soon as an opportunity +of doing so offers, he will very quietly slip off the bonds that confine +him,--yet without bearing the least malice against him who may have +injured him. He is obedient, obliging, and yielding; but the man who +accuses him wrongfully, or asserts to be true what he believes to be +untrue, need not expect, that, from mere complaisance, or from other +considerations, he will submit to injustice or to falsehood; he will +always modestly, but firmly, insist upon his right; or perhaps, if the +other seems inclined obstinately to maintain his ground against him, he +will silently leave him." + +But the fate which had been pursuing this unfortunate being, and without +which the tragedy of his life would have been incomplete, overtook him +at last. On the 15th of December, 1833, he was induced by some unknown +person to meet him in a retired spot in the city of Anspach, under the +pretence that he should then have the secret of his parentage revealed +to him. The real object was his murder, and this time it was successful. +Caspar was stabbed to the heart. He still had sufficient strength left +to walk about a thousand paces; and, indeed, the wound was outwardly so +insignificant, that it was at first believed to be a mere scratch. This +strengthened an opinion which was then gradually gaining ground, that +Caspar was an impostor; for it was firmly believed by some that he had +inflicted this wound upon himself, as well as the one received in 1829, +in order to quicken the somewhat languishing interest taken in him. Nor +did they give up this opinion when the wound was found to be fatal. They +then boldly asserted that he had wounded himself more severely than +he had intended. And not content with simply maintaining this absurd +opinion, they taunted him with it on his death-bed, so that he was not +even allowed to die in peace. Nothing was wanting to fill his bitter +cup. How terrible must have been the mental torture to wring from +so resigned a soul the exclamation, "O God! O God! to die thus with +contumely and disgrace!" The German is still more expressive,--_"Ach, +Gott! ach, Gott! so abkratzen muessen mit Schimpf und Schande!"_ + +Such was the life of Caspar Hauser. For nearly seventeen years the +inmate of a dreary prison, shut out from the light, without a single +companion in his misery, drugged when it was necessary to change his +linen, with no food but bread,--for seventeen years did he thus exist, +--his mind a perfect blank. Suddenly cast upon the world, amid strange +beings whom he could not understand and by whom he was not understood, +he long knew scarcely a sensation save that of pain. And when at last +he did become accustomed to civilized life, and the darkness which +enshrouded him disappeared before the rays of light that found entrance +into his intellect, it was only to awake to a knowledge of the utter +misery of his position. He then saw himself a helpless orphan, the +inferior of all with whom he came in contact, and a dependant upon the +charity of others for his support. He awoke to find that he had lost +seventeen years of this beautiful life, seventeen years which he never +could recall,--that he never could take his stand amongst men as their +equal, but would always be regarded as an unhappy being meriting their +pity,--much like that felt for the pains of some suffering brute. Nor +was this all. During the few years that were granted him in our +world, persecuted by some unknown person, against whom he was +helpless,--knowing that his life was aimed at by some one, but unable +to protect himself, and at last falling a victim to the threatened +blow,--and, worst of all, charged on his death-bed with being an +impostor,--such was the life of Caspar Hauser! + +Among the different opinions which have existed in regard to his origin, +the most noticeable are those advanced by Stanhope and Merker, and by +Daumer, Eschricht, and Feuerbach. The Earl of Stanhope's connection +with Caspar Hauser was a rather peculiar one. He made his appearance in +Nuremberg at the time the first attempt was made upon Caspar's life, +but took no particular notice of him, and left without having shown +any interest in him. On a second visit, about seven months later, he +suddenly became passionately attached to Caspar, showed most unusual +marks of fondness for him, and finally adopted him. He then removed him +to Anspach, and remained his protector until his death in December, +1833. The day after his burial, Stanhope appeared in Anspach, and took +particular pains to proclaim then, and subsequently at a judicial +investigation in Munich, and in several tracts, his belief that Caspar +was an impostor. This had already been maintained by Merker, the +Prussian Counsellor of Police. The theory which Stanhope now advanced +was, that Caspar was a journeyman tailor or glover, from some small +village on the Austrian side of the river Salzach. The reasons which he +assigns for his belief in the imposture are all derived from Caspar's +supposed want of integrity and veracity. They impeach the character of +Caspar living, and not of Caspar dead. Why, then, did Stanhope wait for +his death before he proclaimed the imposture? Why did he remain his +protector, and thus make himself a party to the fraud? His conduct is +not easily explained. On the other hand, there is little ground for +Daumer's conclusions. These are given at length in his "Disclosures +concerning Caspar Hauser," published in 1859, a book called forth by +attacks made upon him by Eschricht. Considering Stanhope's conduct, and +his endeavor after Caspar's death to induce Daumer to support his views +as to the imposture, and, upon his indignant refusal, making him twice +the object of a personal attack, Daumer thinks that there is reason to +believe Stanhope personally interested. He thinks that Caspar was the +legitimate heir to some great English estate and title, that he was +removed in order to make way for some one else, and that his murder was +intrusted to some person who had not the courage or the wickedness +to perpetrate it, but removed him first to Hungary and afterwards to +Germany, and supported him in the manner indicated, hoping that he would +not long survive. When, however, he grew up, his support became irksome +and he was cast upon the world. There he attracted so much attention, +that the instigator of the crime, dreading a disclosure, sought his +life again. When this proved unsuccessful, he was removed to Anspach; +Feuerbach, who had shown the greatest determination to sound the +mystery, was removed from the world, and at last the tragedy was made +complete in Caspar's own death. All this points to Stanhope. And yet +Daumer has not taken the trouble to inquire whether it agrees with the +family history. It is possible that he may be right; but his story +carries with it so much the air of improbability, that we cannot give it +credit without further proof. + +In the seventh volume of Hitzig's "Annals of Criminal Jurisprudence," +there is a communication from Lieutenant von Pirch, disclosing Caspar's +acquaintance with certain Hungarian words. A little while before this +announcement was made, a story had gone the rounds of the papers of +Germany, that a governess residing in Pesth had fainted away, when the +account of Caspar Hauser's appearance was related to her. All this +naturally attracted attention to Hungary as the probable place of his +birth; and it is for these reasons, that Feuerbach, Daumer, and others, +suppose that he spent some part of his childhood in that country. After +his death, Stanhope sent Lieutenant Hickel to Hungary to investigate the +matter, but no traces were discovered,--a proof, as Stanhope has it, +that these conclusions were groundless, and, according to Daumer, +another proof of Stanhope's complicity. He believes that the very +superficial search made by the order of Stanhope was intended to lull +suspicion and prevent a more strict search being made. + +To return to the opinion advanced by Merker, and subsequently adopted by +Stanhope,--the thing is simply impossible. In the first place, it would +have been impossible for an impostor to elude discovery. To trace him +would have been the easiest thing in the world. With a vigilant police, +in a thickly settled country, how could a man leave his place of abode, +and travel, were it for ever so short a distance, without being known? +But this is the least consideration. Caspar's whole life, his intellect, +his body, the feats which he accomplished, when submitted to the most +searching tests, were a refutation of the charge. But when it is +added that he wounded himself in order to do away with suspicion, the +accusation becomes so absurd as scarcely to merit refutation. It is +answered by the fact, that it was proved, from the nature of the +wounds, in both cases, that self-infliction was impossible. Nor is it +conceivable that any one should have been able so long to deceive +people who were constantly with him and always on the alert. And it is +remarkable that they who saw most of Caspar, and knew him best, were +most firmly convinced of his integrity,--whilst his traducers were, +almost without an exception, men who had never known him intimately. +Feuerbach, Daumer, Binder, Meier, Fuhrmann, and many others, maintain +his honesty in the strongest terms. + +On the other hand, it is said, that it is equally impossible for a +person to have been kept in any community in the manner in which it is +asserted that he was kept; discovery was inevitable. But it must be +remembered that this instance does not stand alone. If search were made, +many cases of the same kind might be collected. It is by no means so +rare an occurrence for persons to be kept secluded in such a manner as +to conceal their existence from the world. Daumer mentions two similar +cases which happened about the same time. The very year that Caspar +Hauser appeared, the son of a lawyer, named Fleischmann, just deceased, +was discovered in a retired chamber of the house. He was thirty-eight +years old, and had been confined there since his twelfth year. The other +case, also mentioned by Feuerbach, was still more distressing. Dr. Horn +saw, in the infirmary at Salzburg, a girl, twenty-two years of age, who +had been brought up in a pig-sty. One of her legs was quite crooked, +from her having sat with them crossed; she grunted like a hog; and her +actions were "brutishly unseemly in human dress." Daumer also relates a +third case, which was made the subject of a romantic story published in +a Nuremberg paper, but which, he says, lacks confirmation. It was the +discovery, in a secret place, of the grown-up son of a clergyman by his +housekeeper. Whether this be true or not, both Feuerbach and Daumer +believe that many similar instances do exist, which never come to light. +It is not impossible, therefore, that Caspar Hauser was confined in a +cellar to which none but his keeper sought entrance. Who would suspect +the existence of a human being, taught to be perfectly submissive and +quiet and to have no wants, in such a place, when even the existence +of the subterranean, prison itself was probably unknown? The cases +mentioned above were certainly more singular in this respect. + +But Eschricht's opinion is the most peculiar of all. In his "Unverstand +mid schlechte Erziehung," he maintains that Caspar was an idiot until +he was brought to Nuremberg, that his mind was then strengthened and +developed, and that he was then transformed from an idiot into an +impostor. This is still more impossible than Stanhope's theory; for in +this case Daumer, Feuerbach, Hiltel the jailer, Binder the mayor, and +indeed all Caspar's earliest friends, instead of being victims of an +imposture, are made partakers in the fraud. No one acquainted with the +irreproachable character of these men could entertain the idea for a +minute; and when we remember that it was not one, but many, who must +have been parties to it, it becomes doubly impossible. + +We come now to consider the opinion of Feuerbach; and we shall do it the +more carefully, because in it, we feel confident, lies the true solution +of the question. He was at the time President of the Court of Appeal of +the Circle of Rezat. He had risen to this honorable position gradually, +and it was the reward of his distinguished merit alone. His works on +criminal jurisprudence, and the penal code which he drew up for the +kingdom of Bavaria, and which was adopted by other states, had placed +him in the first rank of criminal lawyers. It was he who conducted +the first judicial investigations concerning Caspar Hauser. He was, +therefore, intimately acquainted with all the circumstances of the case, +and had ample opportunity to form a deliberate opinion. How the idea +originated, that Caspar Hauser belonged to the House of Baden, it is +difficult to say. Feuerbach never published it to the world. In his book +on Caspar Hauser he makes no mention of it; but in 1832 he addressed a +paper to Queen Caroline of Bavaria, headed, "Who might Caspar Hauser +be?" in which he endeavors to show that he was the son of the +Grand-Duchess Stephanie. This paper was, we believe, first published +in 1852, in his "Life and Works," by his son.[D] The first part of it +treats of Caspar's rank and position in general, and he comes to the +following conclusions. Caspar was a legitimate child. Had he been +illegitimate, less dangerous and far easier means would have been +resorted to for concealing his existence and suppressing a knowledge +of his parentage. And here we may add, that the supposition has never +prevailed that he was the offspring of a criminal connection, and that +these means were taken for suppressing the mother's disgrace. A note +which Caspar brought with him, when he appeared at Nuremberg, indicated +that such was the case, but it was so evidently a piece of deception +that it never obtained much credit. The second conclusion at which +Feuerbach arrives is, that people were implicated who had command of +great and unusual means,--means which could prompt an attempt at murder +in a crowded city and in the open day, and which could over-bribe all +rewards offered for a disclosure. Third, Caspar was a person on whose +life or death great interests depended, else there would not have been +such care to conceal his existence. Interest, and not revenge or hate, +was the motive. He must have been a person of high rank. To prove this, +Feuerbach refers to dreams of Caspar's. On one occasion, particularly, +he dreamt that he was conducted through a large castle, the appearance +of which he imagined that he recognized, and afterwards minutely +described. This Feuerbach thinks was only the awakening of past +recollections. It would be interesting to know whether any palace +corresponding to the description given exists. In the absence of such +knowledge, this point of Feuerbach's argument appears a rather weak one. +From the above propositions he concludes that Caspar was the legitimate +child of princely parents, who was removed in order to open the +succession to others, in whose way he stood. + +[Footnote D: ANSELM RITTER VON FEUERBACH'S _Leben und Wirken, aus +seinen ausgedruckten Briefen, Tagebuechern, Vortraegen und Denkschriften, +veroeffentlicht von seinem Sohne_, LUDWIG FEUERBACH. Leipzig, 1852.] + +The second division of the paper relates to the imprisonment, and +here he takes a ground entirely opposed to the opinions of others. He +believes that he was thus kept as a protection against some greater +evil. His wants were supplied, he was well taken care of, and his keeper +is therefore to be looked upon as his protector. Daumer sees in the +keeper nothing but a hired murderer, whose courage or whose wickedness +failed him. It is certainly difficult to imagine a kind friend immuring +one in a dark subterranean vault, feeding one on bread, excluding light, +fellowship, amusement, thoughts,--never saying a word, but studiously +allowing one's mind to become a dreary waste. It is a friendship to +which most of us would prefer death. We are therefore inclined to +think that Daumer is here in the right. But whatever the nature of his +imprisonment, the principal argument does not lose its force. + +In the third place, Feuerbach speaks of the family to which Caspar must +have belonged. Just about the time of Caspar's birth, the eldest son of +the Grand-Duchess of Baden died an infant. His death was followed in +a few years by that of his only brother, leaving several sisters, who +could not inherit the duchy. By these deaths the old House of the +Zaehringer became extinct, and the offspring of a morganatic marriage +became the heirs to the throne. It was, therefore, for their interest +that the other branch should die out. In addition to this, the mother +of the new house was a woman of unbounded ambition and determined +character, and had a bitter hatred for the Grand-Duchess. Without laying +too much stress, then, upon the nearness in date of the elder child's +death and Caspar's birth, as given in the letter, there is reason to +suppose that they were the same person. There was every feeling of +interest to prompt the deed, there was the opportunity of sickness to +accomplish it in, and there was an unscrupulous woman to take advantage +of it. Is it, then, impossible that she, having command of the +house-hold, should have been able to substitute a dead for the living +child? Accept the proposition, and the mystery is solved; reject it, and +we are still groping in the dark. Nevertheless, there are circumstances +which, even then, are incapable of explanation; but it is the most +satisfactory theory, and certainly has less objections than the others. +Feuerbach came to this conclusion early; for his paper addressed to +Queen Caroline of Bavaria was written in 1832, the year before Caspar's +death. Delicacy forbade the open discussion of the question; but, even +at the time, this theory found many supporters. Some even went so far +as to say that Feuerbach's sudden death the same year was owing to the +indefatigable zeal with which he was ferreting out the mystery. + +Of all the different explanations, then, which have been given, that of +Feuerbach seems to be the most satisfactory. At the same time, like the +rest, it is founded on conjecture. Its truth may never be proved. They +whose interest it was to suppress the matter thirty years ago, and who +resorted to such extreme measures in doing so, no doubt took ample +precaution that every trace should be erased. It is barely possible that +some confession or the discovery of some paper may cast light upon the +subject; but the length of time which has elapsed renders it exceedingly +improbable, and the mystery of Caspar Hauser, like the mysteries of the +Iron Mask and Junius, will always remain a fruitful source of conjecture +only. + +It may not be uninteresting to close this sketch with the consideration +of a point of law raised by Feuerbach in connection with the subject. It +will be recollected that he calls his book "Caspar Hauser. An Example +of a Crime against the Life of Man's Soul." The crime committed against +Caspar Hauser was, according to the Bavarian code, twofold. There was +the crime of _illegal imprisonment_, and the crime of _exposure_. And +here Feuerbach advances the doctrine, that it was not only the actual +confinement which amounted to illegal imprisonment, but that "we must +incontestably, and, indeed, principally, regard as such the cruel +withholding from him of the most ordinary gifts which Nature with a +liberal hand extends even to the most indigent,--the depriving him +of all the means of mental development and culture,--the unnatural +detention of a human soul in a state of irrational animality." "An +attempt," he says, "by artificial contrivances, to seclude a man from +Nature and from all intercourse with rational beings, to change +the course of his human destiny, and to withdraw from him all the +nourishment afforded by those spiritual substances which Nature has +appointed for food to the human mind, that it may grow and flourish, +and be instructed and developed and formed,--such an attempt must, even +quite independently of its actual consequences, be considered as, +in itself, a highly criminal invasion of man's most sacred and most +peculiar property,--of the freedom and the destiny of his soul. +...Inasmuch as the whole earlier part of his life was thus taken from +him, he may be said to have been the subject of a partial soul-murder." +This crime, if recognized, would, according to Feuerbach, far outweigh +the mere crime of illegal imprisonment, and the latter would be merged +in it. + +Tittmann, in his "Hand-Book of Penal Law," also speaks of crimes against +the intellect, and particularly mentions the separation of a person from +all human society, if practised upon a child before it has learned to +speak and until the intellect Las become sealed up, as well as the +intentional rearing of a person to ignorance, as reducible to this head. +This was written before Caspar's case had occurred. He says, also, that +they are similar to cases of homicide; because the latter are punished +for destroying the rational being, and not the physical man. Murder and +the destruction of the intellect are, therefore, equally punishable. The +one merits the punishment of death as well as the other. Nor are we to +take the possibility of a cure into consideration, any more than we do +the possibility of extinguishing a fire. But where the law does not +prescribe the punishment of death irrespectively of the possibility of +recovery, the punishment would rarely exceed ten years in the House of +Correction. We must understand Tittmann's remarks, however, to refer +entirely to the law of Saxony,--that being the government under which he +lived, and the only one in whose criminal code this crime is recognized. + +Feuerbach wished to have this murder of the soul inserted in the +criminal code of Bavaria as a punishable crime; but he was unsuccessful, +and the whole doctrine has subsequently been condemned. Mittermaier, in +a note to his edition of Feuerbach's "Text-Book of German Criminal Law," +denies that there is any foundation for the distinction taken by him and +Tittmann. He says, that, in the first place, it has not such an actual +existence as is capable of proof; and, secondly, all crimes under it +can easily be reached by some other law. The last objection does not, +however, seem to be a very serious one. If, as Feuerbach says, the +crime against the soul is more heinous than that against the body, it +certainly deserves the first attention, even if the one is not merged in +the other. The crime being greater, the punishment would be greater; +and the demands of justice would no more be satisfied by the milder +punishment than if a murderer were prosecuted as a nuisance. The fact, +therefore, that the crime is reducible to some different head, is not an +objection. We meet with the most serious difficulty when we consider the +possibility of proof. Taking it for granted that the crime does exist in +the abstract, the only question is, whether it is of such a nature that +it would be expedient for government to take cognizance of it. The soul +being in its nature so far beyond the reach of man, and the difficulty +of ever proving the effect of human actions upon it, would seem to +indicate that it were better to allow a few exceptional cases to pass +unnoticed than to involve the criminal courts in endless and fruitless +inquiry. Upon the ground of expediency only should the crime go +unnoticed, and not because it can be reached in some other way. For +proof that it does exist, we can point to nothing more convincing than +the life of Caspar Hauser itself. No one can doubt that his soul was the +victim of a crime, for which the perpetrator, untouched by human laws, +stands accused before the throne of God. + + * * * * * + + +PAMPENEA. + +AN IDYL. + + + Lying by the summer sea, + I had a dream of Italy. + + Chalky cliffs and miles of sand, + Ragged reefs and salty caves, + And the sparkling emerald waves + Faded; and I seemed to stand, + Myself a languid Florentine, + In the heart of that fair land. + And in a garden cool and green, + Boccaccio's own enchanted place, + I met Pampenea face to face,-- + A maid so lovely that to see + Her smile is to know Italy. + + Her hair was like a coronet + Upon her Grecian forehead set, + Where one gem glistened sunnily, + Like Venice, when first seen at sea. + I saw within her violet eyes + The starlight of Italian skies, + And on her brow and breast and hand + The olive of her native land. + + And knowing how, in other times, + Her lips were ripe with Tuscan rhymes + Of love and wine and dance, I spread + My mantle by an almond-tree: + "And here, beneath the rose," I said, + "I'll hear thy Tuscan melody!" + + I heard a tale that was not told + In those ten dreamy days of old, + When Heaven, for some divine offence, + Smote Florence with the pestilence, + And in that garden's odorous shade + The dames of the Decameron, + With each a happy lover, strayed, + To laugh and sing, at sorest need, + To lie in the lilies, in the sun, + With glint of plume and golden brede. + + And while she whispered in my ear, + The pleasant Arno murmured near, + The dewy, slim chameleons run + Through twenty colors in the sun, + The breezes broke the fountain's glass, + And woke Aeolian melodies, + And shook from out the scented trees + The bleached lemon-blossoms on the grass. + + The tale? I have forgot the tale!-- + A Lady all for love forlorn; + A Rosebud, and a Nightingale + That bruised his bosom on a thorn; + A pot of rubies buried deep; + A glen, a corpse, a child asleep; + A Monk, that was no monk at all, + I' the moonlight by a castle-wall;-- + Kaleidoscopic hints, to be + Worked up in farce or tragedy. + + Now while the sweet-eyed Tuscan wove + The gilded thread of her romance, + (Which I have lost by grievous chance,) + The one dear woman that I love, + Beside me in our seaside nook, + Closed a white finger in her book, + Half-vexed that she should read, and weep + For Petrarch, to a man asleep. + And scorning me, so tame and cold, + She rose, and wandered down the shore, + Her wine-dark drapery, fold in fold, + Imprisoned by an ivory hand; + And on a ridge of granite, half in sand, + She stood, and looked at Appledore. + + And waking, I beheld her there + Sea-dreaming in the moted air, + A Siren sweet and debonair, + With wristlets woven of colored weeds, + And oblong lucent amber beads + Of sea-kelp shining in her hair. + And as I mused on dreams, and how + The something in us never sleeps, + But laughs or sings or moans or weeps, + She turned,--and on her breast and brow + I saw the tint that seemed not won + From kisses of New England sun; + I saw on brow and breast and hand + The olive of a sunnier land! + She turned,--and lo! within her eyes + The starlight of Italian skies! + + Most dreams are dark, beyond the range + Of reason; oft we cannot tell + If they be born of heaven or hell; + But to my soul it seems not strange, + That, lying by the summer sea, + With that dark woman watching me, + I slept, and dreamed of Italy! + + + + +THE PROFESSOR'S STORY. + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +THE PERILOUS HOUR. + + +Up to this time Dick Venner had not decided on the particular mode +and the precise period of relieving himself from the unwarrantable +interference which threatened to defeat his plans. The luxury of feeling +that he had his man in his power was its own reward. One who watches +in the dark, outside, while his enemy, in utter unconsciousness, is +illuminating his apartment and himself so that every movement of his +head and every button on his coat can be seen and counted, especially +if he holds a loaded rifle in his hand, experiences a peculiar kind of +pleasure, which he naturally hates to bring to its climax by testing his +skill as a marksman upon the object of his attention. + +Besides, Dick had two sides in his nature, almost as distinct as we +sometimes observe in those persons who are the subjects of the condition +known as _double consciousness_. On his New England side he was cunning +and calculating, always cautious, measuring his distance before he +risked his stroke, as nicely as if he were throwing his lasso. But +he was liable to intercurrent fits of jealousy and rage, such as the +light-hued races are hardly capable of conceiving,--blinding paroxysms +of passion, which for the time overmastered him, and which, if they +found no ready outlet, transformed themselves into the more dangerous +forces that worked through the instrumentality of his cool craftiness. + +He had failed as yet in getting any positive evidence that there was any +relation between Elsie and the schoolmaster other than such as might +exist unsuspected and unblamed between a teacher and his pupil. A book, +or a note, even, did not prove the existence of any sentiment. At one +time he would be devoured by suspicions, at another he would try to +laugh himself out of them. And in the mean while he followed Elsie's +tastes as closely as he could, determined to make some impression upon +her,--to become a habit, a convenience, a necessity,--whatever might aid +him in the attainment of the one end which was now the aim of his life. + +It was to humor one of her tastes already known to the reader, that he +said to her one morning,--"Come, Elsie, take your castanets, and let us +have a dance." + +He had struck the right vein in the girl's fancy, for she was in the +mood for this exercise, and very willingly led the way into one of the +more empty apartments. What there was in this particular kind of dance +which excited her it might not be easy to guess; but those who looked in +with the old Doctor, on a former occasion, and saw her, will remember +that she was strangely carried away by it, and became almost fearful in +the vehemence of her passion. The sound of the castanets seemed to make +her alive all over. Dick knew well enough what the exhibition would +be, and was almost afraid of her at these moments; for it was like +the dancing mania of Eastern devotees, more than the ordinary light +amusement of joyous youth,--a convulsion of the body and the mind, +rather than a series of voluntary modulated motions. + +Elsie rattled out the triple measure of a saraband. Her eyes began to +glitter more brilliantly, and her shape to undulate in freer curves. +Presently she noticed that Dick's look was fixed upon her necklace. His +face betrayed his curiosity; he was intent on solving the question, why +she always wore something about her neck. The chain of mosaics she had +on at that moment displaced itself at every step, and he was peering +with malignant, searching eagerness to see if an unsunned ring of +fairer hue than the rest of the surface, or any less easily explained +peculiarity, were hidden by her ornaments. + +She stopped suddenly, caught the chain of mosaics and settled it hastily +in its place, flung down her castanets, drew herself back, and stood +looking at him, with her head a little on one side, and her eyes +narrowing in the way he had known so long and well. + +"What is the matter, Cousin Elsie? What do you stop for?" he said. + +Elsie did not answer, but kept her eyes on him, full of malicious light. +The jealousy which lay covered up under his surface--thoughts took this +opportunity to break out. + +"You wouldn't act so, if you were dancing with Mr. Langdon,--would you, +Elsie?" he asked. + +It was with some effort that he looked steadily at her to see the effect +of his question. + +Elsie _colored_,--not much, but still perceptibly. Dick could not +remember that he had ever seen her show this mark of emotion before, +in all his experience of her fitful changes of mood. It had a singular +depth of significance, therefore, for him; he knew how hardly her color +came. Blushing means nothing, in some persons; in others, it betrays +a profound inward agitation,--a perturbation of the feelings far more +trying than the passions which with many easily moved persons break +forth in tears. All who have observed much are aware that some men, who +have seen a good deal of life in its less chastened aspects and are +anything but modest, will blush often and easily, while there are +delicate and sensitive women who can turn pale, or go into fits, if +necessary, but are very rarely seen to betray their feelings in their +cheeks, even when their expression shows that their inmost soul is +blushing scarlet. + +Presently she answered, abruptly and scornfully,-- + +"Mr. Langdon is a gentleman, and would not vex me as you do." + +"A gentleman!" Dick answered, with the most insulting accent,--"a +gentleman! Come, Elsie, you've got the Dudley blood in your veins, +and it doesn't do for you to call this poor, sneaking schoolmaster a +gentleman!" + +He stopped short. Elsie's bosom was heaving, the faint flush on her +cheek was becoming a vivid glow. Whether it were shame or wrath, he saw +that he had reached some deep-lying centre of emotion. There was no +longer any doubt in his mind. With another girl these signs of confusion +might mean little or nothing; with her they were decisive and final. +Elsie Venner loved Bernard Langdon. + +The sudden conviction, absolute, overwhelming, which rushed upon him, +had wellnigh led to an explosion of wrath, and perhaps some terrible +scene which might have fulfilled some of Old Sophy's predictions. This, +however, would never do. Dick's face whitened with his thoughts, but he +kept still until he could speak calmly. + +"I've nothing against the young fellow," he said; "only I don't think +there's anything quite good enough to keep the company of people that +have the Dudley blood in them. You a'n't as proud as I am. I can't quite +make up my mind to call a schoolmaster a gentleman, though this one may +be well enough. I've nothing against him, at any rate." + +Elsie made no answer, but glided out of the room and slid away to her +own apartment. She bolted the door and drew her curtains close. Then she +threw herself on the floor, and fell into a dull, slow ache of passion, +without tears, without words, almost without thoughts. So she remained, +perhaps, for a half-hour, at the end of which time it seemed that her +passion had become a sullen purpose. She arose, and, looking cautiously +round, went to the hearth, which was ornamented with curious old Dutch +tiles, with pictures of Scripture subjects. One of these represented +the lifting of the brazen serpent. She took a hair-pin from one of her +braids, and, insinuating its points under the edge of the tile, raised +it from its place. A small leaden box lay under the tile, which she +opened, and, taking from it a little white powder, which she folded in a +scrap of paper, replaced the box and the tile over it. + +Whether Dick had by any means got a knowledge of this proceeding, or +whether he only suspected some unmentionable design on her part, there +is no sufficient means of determining. At any rate, when they met, an +hour or two after these occurrences, he could not help noticing how +easily she seemed to have got over her excitement. She was very pleasant +with him,--too pleasant, Dick thought. It was not Elsie's way to come +out of a fit of anger so easily as that. She had contrived some way of +letting off her spite; that was certain. Dick was pretty cunning, as Old +Sophy had said, and, whether or not he had any means of knowing Elsie's +private intentions, watched her closely, and was on his guard against +accidents. + +For the first time, he took certain precautions with reference to his +diet, such as were quite alien to his common habits. On coming to the +dinner-table, that day, he complained of headache, took but little food, +and refused the cup of coffee which Elsie offered him, saying that it +did not agree with him when he had these attacks. + +Here was a new complication. Obviously enough, he could not live in this +way, suspecting everything but plain bread and water, and hardly feeling +safe in meddling with them. Not only had this school-keeping wretch come +between him and the scheme by which he was to secure his future fortune, +but his image had so infected his cousin's mind that she was ready to +try on him some of those tricks which, as he had heard hinted in the +village, she had once before put in practice upon a person who had +become odious to her. + +Something must be done, and at once, to meet the double necessities of +this case. Every day, while the young girl was in these relations with +the young man, was only making matters worse. They could exchange words +and looks, they could arrange private interviews, they would be stooping +together over the same book, her hair touching his cheek, her breath +mingling with his, all the magnetic attractions drawing them together +with strange, invisible effluences. As her passion for the schoolmaster +increased, her dislike to him, her cousin, would grow with it, and all +his dangers would be multiplied. It was a fearful point he had reached. +He was tempted at one moment to give up all his plans and to disappear +suddenly from the place, leaving with the schoolmaster, who had +come between him and his object, an anonymous token of his personal +sentiments which would be remembered a good while in the history of the +town of Rockland. This was but a momentary thought; the great Dudley +property could not be given up in that way. + +Something must happen at once to break up all this order of things. He +could think of but one Providential event adequate to the emergency,--an +event foreshadowed by various recent circumstances, but hitherto +floating in his mind only as a possibility. Its occurrence would at once +change the course of Elsie's feelings, providing her with something to +think of besides mischief, and remove the accursed obstacle which was +thwarting all his own projects. Every possible motive, then,--his +interest, his jealousy, his longing for revenge, and now his fears for +his own safety,--urged him to regard the happening of a certain casualty +as a matter of simple necessity. This was the self-destruction of Mr. +Bernard Langdon. + +Such an event, though it might be surprising to many people, would not +be incredible, nor without many parallel cases. He was poor, a miserable +fag, under the control of that mean wretch up there at the school, who +looked as if he had sour buttermilk in his veins instead of blood. He +was in love with a girl above his station, rich, and of old family, but +strange in all her ways, and it was conceivable that he should become +suddenly jealous of her. Or she might have frightened him with some +display of her peculiarities which had filled him with a sudden +repugnance in the place of love. Any of these things were credible, and +would make a probable story enough,--so thought Dick over to himself +with the New-England half of his mind. + +Unfortunately, men will not always take themselves out of the way when, +so far as their neighbors are concerned, it would be altogether the most +appropriate and graceful and acceptable service they could render. There +was at this particular moment no special reason for believing that the +schoolmaster meditated any violence to his own person. On the contrary, +there was good evidence that he was taking some care of himself. He was +looking well and in good spirits, and in the habit of amusing himself +and exercising, as if to keep up his standard of health, especially of +taking certain evening-walks, before referred to, at an hour when most +of the Rockland people had "retired," or, in vulgar language, "gone to +bed." + +Dick Venner settled it, however, in his own mind, that Mr. Bernard +Langdon must lay violent hands upon himself. He even went so far as to +determine the precise hour, and the method in which the "rash act," as +it would undoubtedly be called in the next issue of "The Rockland +Weekly Universe," should be committed. Time,--_this evening._ +Method,--asphyxia, by suspension. It was, unquestionably, taking a great +liberty with a man to decide that he should become _felo de se_ without +his own consent. Such, however, was the decision of Mr. Richard Venner +with regard to Mr. Bernard Langdon. + +If everything went right, then, there would be a coroner's inquest +to-morrow upon what remained of that gentleman, found suspended to the +branch of a tree somewhere within a mile of the Apollinean Institute. +The "Weekly Universe" would have a startling paragraph announcing a +"SAD EVENT!!!" which had "thrown the town into an intense state of +excitement. Mr. Barnard Langden, a well known teacher at the Apollinean +Institute, was found, etc., etc. The vital spark was extinct. The +motive to the rash act can only be conjectured, but is supposed to be +disappointed affection. The name of an accomplished young lady of _the +highest respectability_ and great beauty is mentioned in connection with +this melancholy occurrence." + +Dick Venner was at the tea-table that evening, as usual.--No, he would +take green tea, if she pleased,--the same as her father drank. It would +suit his headache better.--Nothing,--he was much obliged to her. He +would help himself,--which he did in a little different way from common, +naturally enough, on account of his headache. He noticed that Elsie +seemed a little nervous while she was rinsing some of the teacups before +their removal. + +"There's something going on in that witch's head;" he said to himself. +"I know her,--she'd be savage now, if she hadn't got some trick in hand. +Let's see how she looks to-morrow!" + +Dick announced that he should go to bed early that evening, on account +of this confounded headache which had been troubling him so much. In +fact, he went up early, and locked his door after him, with as much +noise as he could make. He then changed some part of his dress, so that +it should be dark throughout, slipped off his boots, drew the lasso out +from the bottom of the contents of his trunk, and, carrying that and +his boots in his hand, opened his door softly, locked it after him, and +stole down the back-stairs, so as to get out of the house unnoticed. He +went straight to the stable and saddled the mustang. He took a rope from +the stable with him, mounted his horse, and set forth in the direction +of the Institute. + +Mr. Bernard, as we have seen, had not been very profoundly impressed by +the old Doctor's cautions,--enough, however, to follow out some of his +hints which were not troublesome to attend to. He laughed at the idea of +carrying a loaded pistol about with him; but still it seemed only fair, +as the old Doctor thought so much of the matter, to humor him about it. +As for not going about when and where he liked, for fear he might have +some lurking enemy, that was a thing not to be listened to nor thought +of. There was nothing to be ashamed of or troubled about in any of his +relations with the school-girls. Elsie, no doubt, showed a kind of +attraction towards him, as did perhaps some others; but he had been +perfectly discreet, and no father or brother or lover had any just cause +of quarrel with him. To be sure, that dark young man at the Dudley +mansion-house looked as if he were his enemy, when he had met him; but +certainly there was nothing in their relations to each other, or in his +own to Elsie, that would be like to stir such malice in his mind as +would lead him to play any of his wild Southern tricks at his, Mr. +Bernard's, expense. Yet he had a vague feeling that this young man was +dangerous, and he had been given to understand that one of the risks he +ran was from that quarter. + +On this particular evening, he had a strange, unusual sense of some +impending peril. His recent interview with the Doctor, certain remarks +that had been dropped in his hearing, but above all an unaccountable +impression upon his spirits, all combined to fill his mind with a +foreboding conviction that he was very near some overshadowing danger. +It was as the chill of the ice-mountain towards which the ship is +steering under full sail. He felt a strong impulse to see Helen Darley +and talk with her. She was in the common parlour, and, fortunately, +alone. + +"Helen," he said,--for they were almost like brother and sister now,--"I +have been thinking what you would do, if I should have to leave the +school at short notice, or be taken away suddenly by any accident." + +"Do?" she said, her cheek growing paler than its natural delicate +hue,--"why, I do not know how I could possibly consent to live here, if +you left us. Since you came, my life has been almost easy; before, it +was getting intolerable. You must not talk about going, my dear friend; +you have spoiled me for my place. Who is there here that I can have any +true society with, but you? You would not leave us for another school, +would you?" + +"No, no, my dear Helen," Mr. Bernard said; "if it depends on myself, I +shall stay out my full time, and enjoy your company and friendship. But +everything is uncertain in this world; I have been thinking that I might +be wanted elsewhere, and called when I did not think of it;--it was a +fancy, perhaps,--but I can't keep it out of my mind this evening. If any +of my fancies should come true, Helen, there are two or three messages +I want to leave with you. I have marked a book or two with a cross in +pencil on the fly-leaf;--these are for you. There is a little hymn-book +I should like to have you give to Elsie from me;--it may be a kind of +comfort to the poor girl." + +Helen's eyes glistened as she interrupted him,-- + +"What do you mean? You must not talk so, Mr. Langdon. Why, you never +looked better in your life. Tell me now, you are not in earnest, are +you, but only trying a little sentiment on me?" + +Mr. Bernard smiled, but rather sadly. + +"About half in earnest," he said. "I have had some fancies in my +head,--superstitions, I suppose,--at any rate, it does no harm to tell +you what I should like to have done, if anything should happen,--very +likely nothing ever will. Send the rest of the books home, if you +please, and write a letter to my mother. And, Helen, you will find +one small volume in my desk enveloped and directed, you will see to +whom;--give this with your own hands; it is a keepsake." + +The tears gathered in her eyes; she could not speak at first. +Presently,-- + +"Why, Bernard, my dear friend, my brother, it cannot be that you are in +danger? Tell me what it is, and, if I can share it with you, or counsel +you in any way, it will only be paying back the great debt I owe you. +No, no,--it can't be true,--you are tired and worried, and your spirits +have got depressed. I know what that is;--I was sure, one winter, that +I should die before spring; but I lived to see the dandelions +and buttercups go to seed. Come, tell me it was nothing but your +imagination." + +She felt a tear upon her cheek, but would not turn her face away from +him; it was the tear of a sister. + +"I am really in earnest, Helen," he said. "I don't know that there is +the least reason in the world for these fancies. If they all go off and +nothing comes of them, you may laugh at me, if you like. But if there +should be any occasion, remember my requests. You don't believe in +presentiments, do you?" + +"Oh, don't ask me, I beg you," Helen answered. "I have had a good many +frights for every one real misfortune I have suffered. Sometimes I have +thought I was warned beforehand of coming trouble, just as many people +are of changes in the weather, by some unaccountable feeling,--but not +often, and I don't like to talk about such things. I wouldn't think +about these fancies of yours. I don't believe you have exercised +enough;--don't you think it's confinement in the school has made you +nervous?" + +"Perhaps it has; but it happens that I have thought more of exercise +lately, and have taken walks late in the evening, besides playing my old +gymnastic tricks every day." + +They talked on many subjects, but through all he said Helen perceived a +pervading tone of sadness, and an expression as of a dreamy foreboding +of unknown evil. They parted at the usual hour, and went to their +several rooms. The sadness of Mr. Bernard had sunk into the heart +of Helen, and she mingled many tears with her prayers that evening, +earnestly entreating that he might be comforted in his days of trial and +protected in his hour of danger. + +Mr. Bernard stayed in his room a short time before setting out for his +evening walk. His eye fell upon the Bible his mother had given him when +he left home, and he opened it in the New Testament at a venture. It +happened that the first words he read were these,--"_Lest, coming +suddenly, he find you sleeping_." In the state of mind in which he +was at the moment, the text startled him. It was like a supernatural +warning. He was not going to expose himself to any particular danger +this evening; a walk in a quiet village was as free from risk as Helen +Darley or his own mother could ask; yet he had an unaccountable feeling +of apprehension, without any definite object. At this moment he +remembered the old Doctor's counsel, which he had sometimes neglected, +and, blushing at the feeling which led him to do it, he took the pistol +his suspicious old friend had forced upon him, which he had put away +loaded, and, thrusting it into his pocket, set out upon his walk. + +The moon was shining at intervals, for the night was partially clouded. +There seemed to be nobody stirring, though his attention was unusually +awake, and he could hear the whirr of the bats overhead, and the +pulsating croak of the frogs in the distant pools and marshes. Presently +he detected the sound of hoofs at some distance, and, looking forward, +saw a horseman coming in his direction. The moon was under a cloud at +the moment, and he could only observe that the horse and his rider +looked like a single dark object, and that they were moving along at an +easy pace. Mr. Bernard was really ashamed of himself, when he found his +hand on the butt of his pistol. When the horseman was within a hundred +and fifty yards of him, the moon shone out suddenly and revealed each +of them to the other. The rider paused for a moment, as if carefully +surveying the pedestrian, then suddenly put his horse to the full +gallop, and dashed towards him, rising at the same instant in his +stirrups and swinging something round his head,--what, Mr. Bernard could +not make out. It was a strange manoeuvre,--so strange and threatening in +aspect that the young man forgot his nervousness in an instant, cocked +his pistol, and waited to see what mischief all this meant. He did not +wait long. As the rider came rushing towards him, he made a rapid motion +and something leaped five-and-twenty feet through the air, in Mr. +Bernard's direction. In an instant he felt a ring, as of a rope or +thong, settle upon his shoulders. There was no time to think,--he would +be lost in another second. He raised his pistol and fired,--not at the +rider, but at the horse. His aim was true; the mustang gave one bound +and fell lifeless, shot through the head. The lasso was fastened to his +saddle, and his last bound threw Mr. Bernard violently to the earth, +where he lay motionless, as if stunned. + +In the mean time, Dick Venner, who had been dashed down with his horse, +was trying to extricate himself,--one of his legs being held fast under +the animal, the long spur on his boot having caught in the saddle-cloth. +He found, however, that he could do nothing with his right arm, his +shoulder having been in some way injured in his fall. But his Southern +blood was up, and, as he saw Mr. Bernard move as if he were coming to +his senses, he struggled violently to free himself. + +"I'll have the dog, yet," he said,--"only let me get at him with the +knife!" + +He had just succeeded in extricating his imprisoned leg, and was ready +to spring to his feet, when he was caught firmly by the throat, and, +looking up, saw a clumsy barbed weapon, commonly known as a hay-fork, +within an inch of his breast. + +"Hold on there! What 'n thunder 'r' y' abaout, y' darned Portagee?" said +a voice, with a decided nasal tone in it, but sharp and resolute. + +Dick looked from the weapon to the person who held it, and saw a sturdy, +plain man standing over him, with his teeth clinched, and his aspect +that of one all ready for mischief. + +"Lay still, naow!" said Abel Stebbins, the Doctor's man; "'f y' don't, +I'll stick ye, 'z sure 'z y' 'r' alive! I been aaefter ye f'r a week, 'n' +I got y' naow! I knowed I'd ketch ye at some darned trick or 'nother +'fore I'd done 'ith ye!" + +Dick lay perfectly still, feeling that he was crippled and helpless, +thinking all the time with the Yankee half of his mind what to do about +it. He saw Mr. Bernard lift his head and look around him. He would get +his senses again in a few minutes, very probably, and then he, Mr. +Richard Venner, would be done for. + +"Let me up! let me up!" he cried, in a low, hurried voice,--"I'll give +you a hundred dollars in gold to let me go. The man a'n't hurt,--don't +you see him stirring? He'll come to himself in two minutes. Let me up! +I'll give you a hundred and fifty dollars in gold, now, here on the +spot,--and the watch out of my pocket; take it yourself, with your own +hands!" + +"I'll see y' darned fust! Ketch me lett'n' go!" was Abel's emphatic +answer. "Yeou lay still, 'n' wait t'll that man comes tew." + +He kept the hay-fork ready for action at the slightest sign of +resistance. + +Mr. Bernard, in the mean time, had been getting, first his senses, and +then some Jew of his scattered wits, a little together. + +"What is it?"--he said. "Who 'a hurt? What's happened?" + +"Come along here 'z quick 'z y' ken," Abel answered, "'n' haaelp me fix +this fellah. Y' been hurt, y'rself, 'n' the' 's murder come pooty nigh +happenin'." + +Mr. Bernard heard the answer, but presently stared about and asked +again, _"Who's hurt? What's happened?"_ + +"Y' 'r' hurt, y'rself, I tell ye," said Abel; "'n' the''s been a murder, +pooty nigh." + +Mr. Bernard felt something about his neck, and, putting his hands up, +found the loop of the lasso, which he loosened, but did not think to +slip over his head, in the confusion of his perceptions and thoughts. It +was a wonder that it had not choked him, but he had fallen forward so as +to slacken it. + +By this time he was getting some notion of what he was about, and +presently began looking round for his pistol, which had fallen. He +found it lying near him, cocked it mechanically, and walked, somewhat +unsteadily, towards the two men, who were keeping their position as +still as if they were performing in a _tableau._ + +"Quick, naow!" said Abel, who had heard the click of cocking the pistol, +and saw that he held it in his hand, as he came towards him. "Gi' me +that pistil, and yeon fetch that 'ere rope layin' there. I'll have this +here fellah fixed 'n less 'n two minutes." + +Mr. Bernard did as Abel said,--stupidly and mechanically, for he was but +half right as yet. Abel pointed the pistol at Dick's head. + +"Naow hold up y'r hands, yeou fellah," he said, "'n' keep 'em up, while +this man puts the rope raound y'r wrists." + +Dick felt himself helpless, and, rather than have his disabled arm +roughly dealt with, held up his hands. Mr. Bernard did as Abel said; he +was in a purely passive state, and obeyed orders like a child. Abel then +secured the rope in a most thorough and satisfactory complication of +twists and knots. + +"Naow get up, will ye?" he said; and the unfortunate Dick rose to his +feet. + +_"Who's hurt? What's happened?"_ asked poor Mr. Bernard again, his +memory having been completely jarred out of him for the time. + +"Come, look here naow, yeou, don' stan' aaeskin' questions over 'n' +over;--'t beats all I ha'n't I tol' y' a dozen times?" + +As Abel spoke, he turned and looked at Mr. Bernard. + +"Hullo! What 'n thunder's that'ere raoun' y'r neck? Ketched ye 'ith a +slippernoose, hey? Wal, if that a'n't the craowner! Hol' on a minute, +Cap'n, 'n' I'll show ye what that 'ere halter's good for." + +Abel slipped the noose over Mr. Bernard's head, and put it round +the neck of the miserable Dick Venner, who made no sign of +resistance,--whether on account of the pain he was in, or from mere +helplessness, or because he was waiting for some unguarded moment to +escape,--since resistance seemed of no use. + +"I'm go'n' to kerry y' home," said Abel; "th' ol' Doctor, he's got a +gre't cur'osity t' see ye. Jes' step along naow,--off that way, will +ye?--'n I'll hol' on t' th' bridle, f' fear y' sh'd run away." + +He took hold of the leather thong, but found that it was fastened at the +other end to the saddle. This was too much for Abel. + +"Wal, naow, yeou _be_ a pooty chap to hev raound! A fellah's neck in a +slippernoose at one eend of a halter, 'n' a boss on th' full spring at +t'other eend!" + +He looked at him from head to foot as a naturalist inspects a new +specimen. His clothes had suffered in his fall, especially on the leg +which had been caught under the horse. + +"Hullo! look o' there, naow! What's that 'ere stickin' aout o' y'r +boot?" + +It was nothing but the handle of an ugly knife, which Abel instantly +relieved him of. + +The party now took up the line of march for old Doctor Kittredge's +house, Abel carrying the pistol and knife, and Mr. Bernard walking in +silence, still half-stunned, holding the hay-fork, which Abel had thrust +into his hand. It was all a dream to him as yet. He remembered the +horseman riding at him, and his firing the pistol; but whether he was +alive, and these walls around him belonged to the village of Rockland, +or whether he had passed the dark river, and was in a suburb of the New +Jerusalem, he could not as yet have told. + +They were in the street where the Doctor's house was situated. + +"I guess I'll fire off one o' these here berrils," said Abel. + +He fired. + +Presently there was a noise of opening windows, and the nocturnal +headdresses of Rockland flowered out of them like so many developments +of the Night-blooming Cereus. White cotton caps and red bandanna +handkerchiefs were the prevailing forms of efflorescence. The main point +was that the village was waked up. The old Doctor always waked easily, +from long habit, and was the first among those who looked out to see +what had happened. + +"Why, Abel!" he called out, "what have you got there? and what's all +this noise about?" + +"We've ketched the Portagee!" Abel answered, as laconically as the hero +of Lake Erie in his famous dispatch. "Go in there, you fellah!" + +The prisoner was marched into the house, and the Doctor, who had +bewitched his clothes upon him in a way that would have been miraculous +in anybody but a physician, was down in presentable form as soon as if +it had been a child in a fit that he was sent for. + +"Richard Venner!" the Doctor exclaimed. "What is the meaning of all +this? Mr. Langdon, has anything happened to you?" + +Mr. Bernard put his hand to his head. + +"My mind is confused," he said. "I've had a fall.--Oh, yes!--wait a +minute and it will all come back to me." + +"Sit down, sit down," the Doctor said. "Abel will tell me about it. +Slight concussion of the brain. Can't remember very well for an hour or +two,--will come right by to-morrow." + +"Been stunded," Abel said. "He can't tell nothin'." + +Abel then proceeded to give a Napoleonic bulletin of the recent combat +of cavalry and infantry and its results,--none slain, one captured. + +The Doctor looked at the prisoner through his spectacles. + +"What's the matter with your shoulder, Venner?" + +Dick answered sullenly, that he didn't know,--fell on it when his horse +came down. The Doctor examined it as carefully as he could through his +clothes. + +"Out of joint. Untie his hands, Abel." + +By this time a small alarm had spread among the neighbors, and there was +a circle around Dick, who glared about on the assembled honest people +like a hawk with a broken wing. + +When the Doctor said, "Untie his hands," the circle widened perceptibly. + +"Isn't it a leetle rash to give him the use of his hands? I see there's +females and children standin' near." + +This was the remark of our old friend, Deacon Soper, who retired from +the front row, as he spoke, behind a respectable-looking, but somewhat +hastily dressed person of the defenceless sex, the female help of a +neighboring household, accompanied by a boy, whose unsmoothed shock of +hair looked like a last-year's crow's-nest. + +But Abel untied his hands, in spite of the Deacon's considerate +remonstrance. + +"Now," said the Doctor, "the first thing is to put the joint back." + +"Stop," said Deacon Soper,--"stop a minute. Don't you think it will be +safer--for the women-folks--jest to wait till mornin', afore you put +that j'int into the socket?" + +Colonel Sprowle, who had been called by a special messenger, spoke up at +this moment. + +"Let the women-folks and the deacons go home, if they're scared, and put +the fellah's j'int in as quick as you like. I'll resk him, j'int in or +out." + +"I want one of you to go straight down to Dudley Venner's with a +message," the Doctor said. "I will have the young man's shoulder in +quick enough." + +"Don't send that message!" said Dick, in a hoarse voice;--"do what you +like with my arm, but don't send that message! Let me go,--I can walk, +and I'll be off from this place. There's nobody hurt but I. Damn the +shoulder!--let me go! You shall never hear of me again!" + +Mr. Bernard came forward. + +"My friends," he said, "_I_ am not injured,--seriously, at least. Nobody +need complain against this man, if I don't. The Doctor will treat him +like a human being, at any rate; and then, if he will go, let him. There +are too many witnesses against him here for him to want to stay." + +The Doctor, in the mean time, without saying a word to all this, had got +a towel round the shoulder and chest and another round the arm, and had +the bone replaced in a very few moments. + +"Abel, put Cassia into the new chaise," he said, quietly. "My friends +and neighbors, leave this young man to me." + +"Colonel Sprowle, you're a justice of the peace," said Deacon Soper, +"and you know what the law says in cases like this. I a'n't so clear +that it won't have to come afore the Grand Jury, whether we will or no." + +"I guess we'll set that j'int to-morrow mornin'," said Colonel +Sprowle,--which made a laugh at the Deacon's expense, and virtually +settled the question. + +"Now trust this young man in my care," said the old Doctor, "and go home +and finish your naps. I knew him when he was a boy, and, I'll answer for +it, he won't trouble you any more. The Dudley blood makes folks proud, I +can tell you, whatever else they are." + +The good people so respected and believed in the Doctor that they left +the prisoner with him. + +Presently, Cassia, the fast Morgan mare, came up to the front-door, +with the wheels of the new, light chaise flashing behind her in the +moonlight. The Doctor drove Dick forty miles at a stretch that night, +out of the limits of the State. + +"Do you want money?" he said, before he left him. + +Dick told him the secret of his golden belt. + +"Where shall I send your trunk after you from your uncle's?" + +Dick gave him a direction to a seaport town to which he himself was +going, to take passage for a port in South America. + +"Good-bye, Richard," said the Doctor. "Try to learn something from +to-night's lesson." + +The Southern impulses in Dick's wild blood overcame him, and he kissed +the old Doctor on both cheeks, crying as only the children of the sun +can cry, after the first hours in the dewy morning of life. So Dick +Venner disappears from this story. An hour after dawn, Cassia pointed +her fine ears homeward, and struck into her square, honest trot, as +if she had not been doing anything more than her duty during her four +hours' stretch of the last night. + +Abel was not in the habit of questioning the Doctor's decisions. + +"It's all right," he said to Mr. Bernard. "The fellah's Squire Venner's +relation, anyhaow. Don't you want to wait here, jest a little while, +till I come back? The' 's a consid'able nice saddle 'n' bridle on a dead +hoss that's layin' daown there in the road, 'n' I guess the' a'n't no +use in lettin' on 'em spile,--so I'll jest step aout 'n' fetch 'em +along. I kind o' calc'late 't won't pay to take the cretur's shoes 'n' +hide off to-night,--'n' the' won't be much iron on that hoss's huffs an +haour after daylight, I'll bate ye a quarter." + +"I'll walk along with you," said Mr. Bernard;--"I feel as if I could get +along well enough now." + +So they set off together. There was a little crowd round the dead +mustang already, principally consisting of neighbors who had adjourned +from the Doctor's house to see the scene of the late adventure. In +addition to these, however, the assembly was honored by the presence of +Mr. Principal Silas Peckham, who had been called from his slumbers by +a message that Master Langdon was shot through the head by a +highway-robber, but had learned a true version of the story by this +time. His voice was at that moment heard above the rest,--sharp, but +thin, like bad cider-vinegar. + +"I take charge of that property, I say. Master Langdon 's actin' under +my orders, and I claim that hoss and all that's on him. Hiram! jest slip +off that saddle and bridle, and carry 'em up to the Institoot, and bring +down a pair of pinchers and a file,--and--stop--fetch a pair of shears, +too; there's hoss-hair enough in that mane and tail to stuff a bolster +with." + +"You let that hoss alone!" spoke up Colonel Sprowle. "When a fellah +goes out huntin' and shoots a squirrel, do you think he's go'n' to +let another fellah pick him up and kerry him off? Not if he's got a +double-berril gun, and t'other berril ha'n't been fired off yet! I +should like to see the mahn that'll take off that seddle 'n' bridle, +excep' the one th't hez a fair right to the whole concern!" + +Hiram was from one of the lean streaks in New Hampshire, and, not being +overfed in Mr. Silas Peckham's kitchen, was somewhat wanting in stamina, +as well as in stomach, for so doubtful an enterprise as undertaking to +carry out his employer's orders in the face of the Colonel's defiance. + +Just then Mr. Bernard and Abel came up together. + +"Here they be," said the Colonel. "Stan' beck, gentlemen!" + +Mr. Bernard, who was pale and still a little confused, but gradually +becoming more like himself, stood and looked in silence for a moment. + +All his thoughts seemed to be clearing themselves in this interval. +He took in the whole series of incidents: his own frightful risk; the +strange, instinctive, nay, Providential impulse which had led him so +suddenly to do the one only thing which could possibly have saved him; +the sudden appearance of the Doctor's man, but for which he might yet +have been lost; and the discomfiture and capture of his dangerous enemy. + +It was all past now, and a feeling of pity rose in Mr. Bernard's heart. + +"He loved that horse, no doubt," he said,--"and no wonder. A beautiful, +wild-looking creature! Take off those things that are on him, Abel, and +have them carried to Mr. Dudley Venner's. If he does not want them, you +may keep them yourself, for all that I have to say. One thing more. I +hope nobody will lift his hand against this noble creature to mutilate +him in any way. After you have taken off the saddle and bridle, Abel, +bury him just as he is. Under that old beech-tree will be a good place. +You'll see to it,--won't you, Abel?" + +Abel nodded assent, and Mr. Bernard returned to the Institute, threw +himself in his clothes on the bed, and slept like one who is heavy with +wine. + +Following Mr. Bernard's wishes, Abel at once took off the high-peaked +saddle and the richly ornamented bridle from the mustang. Then, with +the aid of two of three others, he removed him to the place indicated. +Spades and shovels were soon procured, and before the moon had set, the +wild horse of the Pampas was at rest under the turf at the wayside, in +the far village among the hills of New England. + + * * * * * + + +THE TEST. + + +_Musa loquitur._ + + I hung my verses in the wind; + Time and tide their faults may find. + All were winnowed through and through; + Five lines lasted sound and true; + Five were smelted in a pot + Than the South more fierce and hot. + These the Siroc could not melt, + Fire their fiercer flaming felt, + And their meaning was more white + Than July's meridian light. + Sunshine cannot bleach the snow, + Nor Time unmake what poets know. + Have you eyes to find the five + Which five thousand could survive? + + + + +RECOLLECTIONS OF KEATS. + +_BY AN OLD SCHOOL-FELLOW._ + + +In the village of Enfield, in Middlesex, ten miles on the north road +from London, was my father, John Clarke's school. The house had been +built by a West India merchant, in the latter end of the seventeenth or +beginning of the eighteenth century. It was of the better character of +the domestic architecture of that period,--the whole front being of the +purest red brick, wrought, by means of moulds, into rich designs of +flowers and pomegranates, with heads of cherubim over two niches in +the centre of the building. The elegance of the design and the perfect +finish of the structure were such as to secure its protection, when a +branch railway was brought from the Ware and Cambridge line to Enfield. +The old school-house was converted into the station-house, and the +railway company had the good taste to leave intact one of the few +remaining specimens of the graceful English domestic architecture of +long-gone days. Any of my readers who may happen to have a file of the +London "Illustrated News," may find in No. 360, March 3, 1849, a not +prodigiously enchanting wood-cut of the edifice. + +Here it was that John Keats all but commenced and did complete his +school-education. He was born on the 29th of October, 1795; and I think +he was one of the little fellows who had not wholly emerged from the +child's costume upon being placed under my father's care. It will be +readily conceived difficult to recall from the "dark backward and +abysm" of nearly sixty years the general acts of perhaps the youngest +individual in a corporation of between seventy and eighty youngsters; +and very little more of Keats's child-life can I remember than that he +had a brisk, winning face, and was a favorite with all, particularly +with my mother. + +His maternal grandfather, Jennings, was proprietor of a large +livery-stable, called "The Swan and Hoop," on the pavement in +Moorfields, opposite the entrance into Finsbury Circus. He had two sons +at my father's school. The elder was an officer in Duncan's ship in the +fight off Camperdown. After the battle, the Dutch Admiral, De Winter, +pointing to young Jennings, told Duncan that he had fired several +shots at that young man, and always missed his mark;--no credit to his +steadiness of aim; for Jennings, like his own admiral, was considerably +above the ordinary dimensions of stature. + +Keats's father was the principal servant at the Swan and Hoop +Stables,--a man of so remarkably fine a common-sense and native +respectability, that I perfectly remember the warm terms in which his +demeanor used to be canvassed by my parents after he had been to visit +his boys. He was short of stature and well-knit in person, (John +resembling him both in make and feature,) with brown hair and dark hazel +eyes. He was killed by a fall from his horse, in returning from a visit +to the school. John's two brothers, George, older, and Thomas, younger +than himself, were like the mother,--who was tall, of good figure, with +large, oval face, sombre features, and grave in behavior. The last of +the family was a sister,--Fanny, I think, much younger than all,--of +whom I remember my mother once speaking with much fondness, for her +pretty, simple manners, while she was walking in the garden with her +brothers. She married Mr. Llanos, a Spanish refugee, the author of +"Don Esteban," and "Sandoval, the Free-Mason." He was a man of +liberal principles, attractive manners, and more than ordinary +accomplishments.--This is the amount of my knowledge and recollection of +the family. + +In the early part of his school-life, John gave no extraordinary +indications of intellectual character; but it was remembered of him +afterwards, that there was ever present a determined and steady spirit +in all his undertakings; and, although of a strong and impulsive will, +I never knew it misdirected in his required pursuit of study. He was a +most orderly scholar. The future ramifications of that noble genius were +then closely shut in the seed, and greedily drinking in the moisture +which made it afterwards burst forth so kindly into luxuriance and +beauty. + +My father was in the habit, at each half-year's vacation, of bestowing +prizes upon those pupils who had performed the greatest quantity of +voluntary extra work; and such was Keats's indefatigable energy for the +last two or three successive half-years of his remaining at school, +that, upon each occasion, he took the first prize by a considerable +distance. He was at work before the first school-hour began, and that +was at seven o'clock; almost all the intervening times of recreation +were so devoted; and during the afternoon-holidays, when all were at +play, I have seen him in the school,--almost the only one,--at his Latin +or French translation; and so unconscious and regardless was he of the +consequences of this close and persevering application, that he never +would have taken the necessary exercise, had he not been sometimes +driven out by one of us for the purpose. + +I have said that he was a favorite with all. Not the less beloved was he +for having a highly pugnacious spirit, which, when roused, was one of +the most picturesque exhibitions--off the stage--I ever saw. One of the +transports of that marvellous actor, Edmund Kean--whom, by the way, +he idolized--was its nearest resemblance; and the two were not very +dissimilar in face and figure. I remember, upon one occasion, when an +usher, on account of some impertinent behavior, had boxed his brother +Tom's ears, John rushed up, put himself in the received posture of +offence, and, I believe, struck the usher,--who could have put him into +his pocket. His passions at times were almost ungovernable; his brother +George, being considerably the taller and stronger, used frequently to +hold him down by main force, when he was in "one of his moods" and +was endeavoring to beat him. It was all, however, a wisp-of-straw +conflagration; for he had an intensely tender affection for his +brothers, and proved it upon the most trying occasions. He was not +merely the "favorite of all," like a pet prize-fighter, for his terrier +courage; but his high-mindedness, his utter unconsciousness of a mean +motive, his placability, his generosity, wrought so general a feeling in +his behalf, that I never heard a word of disapproval from any one who +had known him, superior or equal. + +The latter part of the time--perhaps eighteen months--that he remained +at school, he occupied the hours during meals in reading. Thus his +_whole_ time was engrossed. He had a tolerably retentive memory, and the +quantity that he read was surprising. He must in those last months +have exhausted the school--library, which consisted principally of +abridgments of all the voyages and travels of any note; Mayor's +Collection; also his Universal History; Robertson's Histories of +Scotland, America, and Charles the Fifth; all Miss Edgeworth's +productions; together with many other works, equally well calculated for +youth, not necessary to be enumerated. The books, however, that were +his constantly recurrent sources of attraction were Tooke's "Pantheon," +Lempriere's "Classical Dictionary," which he appeared to _learn_, and +Spence's "Polymetis." This was the store whence he acquired his perfect +intimacy with the Greek mythology; here was he "suckled In that creed +outworn"; for his amount of classical attainment extended no farther +than the "Aeneid"; with which epic, indeed, he was so fascinated, that +before leaving school he had _voluntarily_ translated in writing a +considerable portion. And yet I remember that at that early age,--mayhap +under fourteen,--notwithstanding and through all its incidental +attractiveness, he hazarded the opinion to me that there was feebleness +in the structure of the work. He must have gone through all the better +publications in the school-library, for he asked me to lend him some of +my own books; and I think I now see him at supper, (we had all our meals +in the school-room,) sitting back on the form, and holding the folio +volume of Burnet's "History of his own Time" between himself and the +table, eating his meal from beyond it. This work, and Leigh Hunt's +"Examiner" newspaper,--which my father took in, and I used to lend to +Keats,--I make no doubt laid the foundation of his love of civil and +religious liberty. He once told me, smiling, that one of his guardians, +being informed what books I had lent him to read, declared, that, if he +had fifty children, he would not send one of them to my father's school. + +When he left us,--I think at fourteen years of age,--he was apprenticed +to Mr. Thomas Hammond, a medical man, residing in Church Street, +Edmonton, and exactly two miles from Enfield. This arrangement appeared +to give him satisfaction; and I fear that it was the most placid period +of his painful life; for now, with the exception of the duty he had to +perform in the surgery, and which was by no means an onerous one, his +whole leisure hours were employed in indulging his passion for reading +and translating. It was during his apprenticeship that he finished the +latter portion of the "Aeneid." + +The distance between our residences being so short, I encouraged his +inclination to come over, when he could be spared; and in consequence, +I saw him about five or six times a month, commonly on Wednesdays and +Saturdays, those afternoons being my own most leisure times. He rarely +came empty-handed; either he had a book to read, or brought one with him +to be exchanged. When the weather permitted, we always sat in an arbor +at the end of a spacious garden, and, in Boswellian phrase, "we had good +talk." + +I cannot at this time remember what was the spark that fired the train +of his poetical tendencies,--I do not remember what was the first +signalized poetry he read; but he must have given me unmistakable tokens +of his bent of taste; otherwise, at that early stage of his career, I +never could have read to him the "Epithalamion" of Spenser; and this I +perfectly remember having done, and in that (to me) hallowed old arbor, +the scene of many bland and graceful associations,--all the substances +having passed away. He was at that time, I should suppose, fifteen or +sixteen years old; and at that period of life he certainly appreciated +the general beauty of the composition, and felt the more passionate +passages; for his features and exclamations were ecstatic. How often +have I in after-times heard him quote these lines:-- + + "Behold, whiles she before the altar stands, + Hearing the holy priest that to her speaks, + And blesses her with his two happy hands, + How the red roses flush up in her cheeks! + And the pure snow, with goodly vermil stain, + Like crimson dyed in grain, + That even the angels, which continually + About the sacred altar do remain, + Forget their service, and about her fly, + _Oft peeping in her face, that seems more fair, + The more they on it stare;_ + But her sad eyes, still fastened on the ground, + Are governed with goodly modesty, + That suffers not one look to glance awry, + Which may let in a little thought unsound." + +That night he took away with him the first volume of the "Faery Queen," +and went through it, as I told his biographer, Mr. Monckton Milnes, "as +a young horse would through a spring meadow,--ramping!" Like a true +poet, too,--a poet "born, not manufactured,"--a poet in grain,--he +especially singled out the epithets, for that felicity and power in +which Spenser is so eminent. He hoisted himself up, and looked burly +and dominant, as he said,--"What an image that is,--_'Sea-shouldering +whales'!_" + +It was a treat to see as well as hear him read a pathetic passage. Once, +when reading the "Cymbeline" aloud', I saw his eyes fill with tears, and +for some moments he was unable to proceed, when he came to the departure +of Posthumus, and Imogen's saying she would have watched him + + "till the diminution + Of space had pointed him sharp as my needle; + Nay, followed him till he had _melted from + The smallness of a gnat to air_; and then + Have _turned mine eye and wept_." + +I cannot quite reconcile the time of our separating at this stage of his +career,--which of us first went to London; but it was upon an occasion +when I was walking thither, and, I think, to see Leigh Hunt, who had +just fulfilled his penalty of confinement in Horsemonger-Lane Prison for +the trivial libel upon the Prince Regent, that Keats, who was coming +over to Enfield, met me, and, turning, accompanied me back part of the +way to Edmonton. At the last field-gate, when taking leave, he gave +me the sonnet entitled, "Written on the Day that Mr. Leigh Hunt left +Prison." Unless I am utterly mistaken, this was the first proof I had +received of his having committed himself in verse; and how clearly can I +recall the conscious look with which he hesitatingly offered it! There +are some momentary glances of beloved friends that fade only with life. +I am not in a position to contradict the statement of his biographer, +that "the lines in imitation of Spenser, + + "'Now Morning from her orient charger came, + And her first footsteps touched a verdant hill,' etc., + +"are the earliest known verses of his composition"; from the subject +being the inspiration of his first love--and such a love!--in poetry, it +is most probable; but certainly his first published poem was the sonnet +commencing, + + 'O Solitude! if I must with thee dwell'; + +and that will be found in the "Examiner," some time, as I conjecture, +in 1816,--for I have not the paper to refer to, and, indeed, at this +distance, both of time and removal from the means of verification, I +would not be dogmatical. + +When we both had come to London,--he to enter as a student of St. +Thomas's Hospital,--he was not long in discovering that my abode was +with my brother-in-law, in Little Warner Street, Clerkenwell; and +just at that time I was installed housekeeper, and was solitary. He, +therefore, would come and revive his loved gossip, till, as the author +of the "Urn Burial" says, "we were acting our antipodes,--the huntsmen +were up in America, and they already were past their first sleep in +Persia." At this time he lived in his first lodging upon coming to +London, near to St. Thomas's Hospital. I find his address in a letter +which must have preceded my appointing him to come and lighten my +darkness in Clerkenwell. At the close of the letter, he says,--"Although +the Borough is a beastly place in dirt, turnings, and windings, yet +No. 8, Dean Street, is not difficult to find; and if you would run the +gauntlet over London Bridge, take the first turning to the left, and +then the first to the right, and, moreover, knock at my door, which is +nearly opposite a meeting, you would do me a charity, which, as St. Paul +saith, is the father of all the virtues. At all events, let me hear from +you soon: I say, at all events, not excepting the gout in your fingers." +I have little doubt that this letter (which has no other date than the +day of the week, and no post-mark) preceded our first symposium; and a +memorable night it was in my life's career. + +A copy, and a beautiful one, of the folio edition of Chapman's Homer had +been lent me. It was the property of Mr. Alsager, the gentleman who +for years had contributed no small share of celebrity to the great +reputation of the "Times" newspaper, by the masterly manner in which he +conducted the money-market department of that journal. At the time +when I was first introduced to Mr. Alsager, he was living opposite +Horsemonger-Lane Prison; and upon Mr. Leigh Hunt's being sentenced for +the libel, his first day's dinner was sent over by Mr. Alsager. He was +a man of the most studiously correct demeanor, with a highly cultivated +taste and judgment in the fine arts and music. He succeeded Hazlitt, +(which was no insignificant honor,) and for some time contributed the +critiques upon the theatres, but ended by being the reporter of the +state of the money-market. He had long been accustomed to have the first +trial at his own house of the best-reputed new foreign instrumental +music, which he used to import from Germany. + +Well, then, we were put in possession of the Homer of Chapman, and to +work we went, turning to some of the "famousest" passages, as we had +scrappily known them in Pope's version. There was, for instance, that +perfect scene of the conversation on Troy wall of the old Senators with +Helen, who is pointing out to them the several Greek captains, with that +wonderfully vivid portrait of an orator, in Ulysses, in the Third Book, +beginning at the 237th line,-- + + "But when the prudent Ithacus did to his counsels rise"; + +the helmet and shield of Diomed, in the opening of the Fifth Book; the +prodigious description of Neptune's passage in his chariot to the Achive +ships, in the opening of the Thirteenth Book,-- + + "The woods, and all the great hills near, + trembled beneath the weight + Of his immortal moving feet." + +The last was the whole of the shipwreck of Ulysses in the Fifth Book of +the "Odyssey." I think his expression of delight, during the reading of +those dozen lines, was never surpassed:-- + + "Then forth he came, his both knees faltering, both + His strong hands hanging down, and all with froth + His cheeks and nostrils flowing, voice and breath + Spent to all use, and down he sunk to death. + _The sea had soaked his heart through_; all his veins + His toils had racked t' a laboring woman's pains. + Dead weary was he." + +On an after-occasion I showed him the couplet of Pope's upon the same +passage:-- + + "From mouth and nose the briny torrent ran, + _And lost in lassitude, lay all the man._" + +Chapman supplied us with many an after-feast; but it was in the teeming +wonderment of this, his first introduction, that, when I came down to +breakfast the next morning, I found upon my table a letter with no other +inclosure than his famous sonnet, "On first looking into Chapman's +Homer." We had parted, as I have already said, at day-spring; yet he +contrived that I should receive the poem, from a distance of nearly two +miles, before 10, A.M. In the published copy of this sonnet he made an +alteration in the seventh line:-- + + "Yet did I never breathe its pure serene." + +The original, which he sent me, had the phrase, + + "Yet could I never tell what men could mean"; + +which he said was bald, and too simply wondering. No one could more +earnestly chastise his thoughts than Keats. His favorite among Chapman's +Hymns of Homer was the one to Pan, and which he himself rivalled in the +"Endymion." + +In one of our conversations about this period, I alluded to his position +at St. Thomas's Hospital,--coasting and reconnoitring, as it were, that +I might discover how he got on, and, with the total absorption that +had evidently taken place of every other mood of his mind than that of +imaginative composition, what was his bias for the future, and what his +feeling with regard to the profession that had been _chosen for him_,--a +circumstance I did not know at that time. He made no secret, however, +that he could not sympathize with the science of anatomy, as a main +pursuit in life; for one of the expressions that he used, in describing +his unfitness for its mastery, was perfectly characteristic. He said, in +illustration of his argument,--"The other day, for instance, during the +lecture, there came a sunbeam into the room, and with it a whole troop +of creatures floating in the ray; and I was off with them to Oberon +and Fairy-land." And yet, with all this self-styled unfitness for the +pursuit, I was afterwards informed, that at his subsequent +examination he displayed an amount of acquirement which surprised his +fellow-students, who had scarcely any other association with him than +that of a cheerful, crochety rhymester. + +It was about this period, that, going to call upon Mr. Leigh Hunt, +who then occupied a pretty little cottage in the "Vale of Health," on +Hampstead Heath, I took with me two or three of the poems I had received +from Keats. I did expect that Hunt would speak encouragingly, and indeed +approvingly, of the compositions,--written, too, by a youth under age; +but my partial spirit was not prepared for the unhesitating and prompt +admiration which broke forth before he had read twenty lines of the +first poem. Mr. Horace Smith happened to be there, on the occasion, and +was not less demonstrative in his praise of their merits. The piece +which he read out, I remember, was the sonnet,-- + + "How many bards gild the lapses of time!" + +marking with particular emphasis and approbation the last six lines:-- + + "So the unnumbered sounds that evening store,-- + The songs of birds, the whispering of the leaves, + The voice of waters, the great bell that heaves + With solemn sound, and thousand others more, + _That distance of recognizance bereaves_,-- + Make pleasing music, and not wild uproar." + +Smith repeated, with applause, the line in Italics, saying, "What a +well-condensed expression!" After making numerous and eager inquiries +about him, personally, and with reference to any peculiarities of mind +and manner, the visit ended in my being requested to bring him over +to the Vale of Health. That was a red-letter day in the young poet's +life,--and one which will never fade with me, as long as memory lasts. +The character and expression of Keats's features would unfailingly +arrest even the casual passenger in the street; and now they were +wrought to a tone of animation that I could not but watch with +intense interest, knowing what was in store for him from the bland +encouragement, and Spartan deference in attention, with fascinating +conversational eloquence, that he was to receive and encounter. When we +reached the Heath, I have present the rising and accelerated step, with +the gradual subsidence of all talk, as we drew towards the cottage. The +interview, which stretched into three "morning calls," was the +prelude to many after-scenes and saunterings about Caen Wood and its +neighborhood; for Keats was suddenly made a familiar of the household, +and was always welcomed. + +It was in the library at Hunt's cottage, where an extemporary bed had +been made up for him on the sofa, that he composed the framework and +many lines of the poem on "Sleep and Poetry,"--the last sixty or seventy +being an inventory of the art-garniture of the room. The sonnet, + + "Keen, fitful gusts are whispering here and there," + +he gave me the day after one of our visits, and very shortly after his +installation at the cottage. + + "Give me a golden pen, and let me lean," + +was another, upon being compelled to leave "at an early hour." But the +occasion that recurs to me with the liveliest interest was the evening +when, some observations having been made upon the character, habits, +and pleasant associations of that reverenced denizen of the hearth, +the cheerful little fireside grasshopper, Hunt proposed to Keats the +challenge of writing, then, there, and to time, a sonnet "On the +Grasshopper and the Cricket." No one was present but myself, and they +accordingly set to. I, absent with a book at the end of the sofa, could +not avoid furtive glances, every now and then, at the emulants. I cannot +say how long the trial lasted; I was not proposed umpire, and had no +stop-watch for the occasion: the time, however, was short, for such +a performance; and Keats won, as to time. But the event of the +after-scrutiny was one of many such occurrences which have riveted the +memory of Leigh Hunt in my affectionate regard and admiration, for +unaffected generosity and perfectly unpretentious encouragement: his +sincere look of pleasure at the first line,-- + + "The poetry of earth is never dead"; + +"Such a prosperous opening!" he said; and when he came to the tenth and +eleventh lines,-- + + "On a lone winter evening, _when the frost + Has wrought a silence_"; + +"Ah! that's perfect! bravo, Keats!"--and then he went on in a dilation +upon, the dumbness of all Nature during the season's suspension and +torpidity. With all the kind and gratifying things that were said to +him, Keats protested to me, as we were afterwards walking home, that he +preferred Hunt's treatment of the subject to his own. + +He had left the neighborhood of the Borough, and was now living with his +brothers in apartments on the second floor of a house in the Poultry, +over the passage leading to the Queen's Head Tavern, and opposite one of +the City Companies' Halls,--the Ironmongers', if I mistake not. I have +the associating reminiscence of many happy hours spent in this lodging. +Here was determined upon, in great part written, and sent forth to the +world, the first little, but vigorous, offspring of his brain:-- + + POEMS + BY + JOHN KEATS. + + "What more felicity can fell to creature + Than to enjoy delight with liberty?" + + Fate of the Butterfly,--SPENSER + + LONDON: + PRINTED FOR + C. AND J. OLLIER, 3, WELBECK STREET, + CAVENDISH SQUARE. + 1817. + +Here, on the evening that the last proof-sheet was brought from the +printer, and, as his biographer has recorded, upon being informed, if +he purposed having a Dedication to the book, that it must be sent +forthwith, he went to a side-table, and, in the midst of mixed +conversation (for there were several friends in the room,) he brought to +Charles Ollier, the publisher, the Dedication-Sonnet to Leigh Hunt. If +the original manuscript of that poem--a legitimate sonnet, with +every restriction of rhyme and metre--could now be produced, and the +time--recorded in which it was written, it would be pronounced an +extraordinary performance; added to which, the non-alteration of a +single word in the poem (a circumstance noted at the time) claims for +it, I should suppose, a merit without a parallel. + +"The poem which commences the volume," says Mr. Monckton Milnes, "was +suggested to Keats by a delightful summer's day, as he stood beside the +gate that loads from the battery on Hampstead Heath into a field by Caen +Wood"; and the lovely passage beginning, + + "Linger awhile upon some bending planks," + +and which contains the description of the "swarms of minnows that show +their little heads," Keats told me was the recollection of our having +frequently loitered over the rail of a foot-bridge that spanned a little +brook in the last field upon entering Edmonton. He himself thought the +picture was correct, and liked it; and I do not know who could improve +it. + +Another example of his promptly suggestive imagination, and uncommon +facility in giving it utterance, occurred one day upon his returning +home and finding me asleep upon the sofa, with my volume of Chaucer open +at the "Flower and the Leaf." After expressing his admiration of the +poem, which he had been reading, he gave me the fine testimony of that +opinion, in pointing to the sonnet he had written at the close of it, +which was an extempore effusion, and it has not the alteration of a +single word. It lies before me now, signed, "J.K., Feb., 1817." + +If my memory does not betray me, this charming out-door fancy-scene was +Keats's first introduction to Chaucer. Certain I am that the "Troilus +and Cresseide" was an after-acquaintance; and clearly do I remember his +approbation of the favorite passages that I had marked. I desired him to +retrace the poem, and with his pen confirm and denote those which were +congenial with his own feeling and judgment. These two circumstances, +connected with the literary career of this cherished object of his +friend's esteem and love, have stamped a priceless value upon that +friend's miniature 18mo copy of Chaucer. + +The little first volume of Keats's Muse was launched amid the cheers and +fond anticipations of all his circle. Every one of us expected that it +would create a sensation in the literary world; and we calculated upon, +at least, a succession of reprints. Alas! it might have emerged in +Timbuctoo with stronger chance of fame and favor. It never passed to a +second edition; the first was but a small one, and that was never sold +off. The whole community, as if by compact, determined to know nothing +about it. The word had been passed that its author was a Radical; and in +those blessed days of "Bible-Crown-and-Constitution" supremacy, he might +with better chance of success have been a robber,--there were many +prosperous public ones,--if he had also been an Anti-Jacobin. Keats had +made no demonstration of political opinion; but he had dedicated his +book to Leigh Hunt, a Radical news-writer, and a dubbed partisan of the +French ruler, because he did not call him the "Corsican monster," and +other disgusting names. Verily, "the former times were _not_ better than +these." Men can now write the word "Liberty" without being chalked on +the back and hounded out. + +Poor Keats! he little anticipated, and as little deserved, the cowardly +and scoundrel treatment that was in store for him upon the publication +of his second composition, the "Endymion." It was in the interval of +the two productions that he had moved from the Poultry, and had taken a +lodging in Well Walk, Hampstead,--in the first or second house, on the +right hand, going up to the Heath. I have an impression that he had been +some weeks absent at the sea-side before settling in this domicile; for +the "Endymion" had been begun, and he had made considerable advances in +his plan. He came to me one Sunday, and I walked with him, spending +the whole day in Well Walk. His constant and enviable friend Severn, +I remember, was present on the occasion, by the circumstance of our +exchanging looks upon Keats's reading to us portions of his new work +that had pleased himself. One of these, I think, was the "Hymn to Pan"; +and another, I am sure, was the "Bower of Adonis," because his own +expression of face will never pass from me (if I were a Reynolds or a +Gainsborough, I could now stamp it forever) as he read the description +of the latter, with the descent and ascent of the ear of Venus. The +"Hymn to Pan" occurs early in the First Book:-- + + "O thou, whose mighty palace-roof doth hang + From jagged trunks," etc. + +And the "Bower of Adonis," in the Second Book, commences,-- + + "After a thousand mazes overgone." + +Keats was indebted for his introduction to Mr. Severn to his +school-fellow Edward Holmes, who also had been one of the child-scholars +at Enfield; for he came to us in the frock-dress. They were sworn +companions at school, and remained friends through life. Mr. Holmes +ought to have been an educated musician from his first childhood; for +the passion was in him. I used to amuse myself with the piano-forte +after supper, when all had gone to bed. Upon some sudden occasion, +leaving the parlor, I heard a scuffle on the stairs, and discovered that +my young gentleman had left his bed to hear the music. At other times, +during the day, and in the intervals of school-hours, he would stand +under the window, listening. He at length intrusted to me his heart's +secret, that he should like to learn music. So I taught him his notes; +and he soon knew and could do as much as his tutor. Upon leaving +Enfield, he was apprenticed to the elder Seeley, a bookseller in Fleet +Street; but, hating his occupation, left it, I believe, before he was of +age. He had not lost sight of me; and I introduced him to Mr. Vincent +Novello, who had made himself a friend to me, and who not merely, with +rare profusion of bounty, gave Holmes instruction, but received him into +his house, and made him one of his family. With them he resided some +years. I was also the fortunate means of recommending him to the chief +proprietor of the "Atlas" newspaper; and to that journal, during a long +period, he contributed a series of essays and critiques upon the science +and practice of music, which raised the journal into a reference and an +authority in the art. He wrote for the proprietors of the "Atlas" +that elegant little book of dilettante criticism, "A Ramble among the +Musicians in Germany." He latterly contributed to the "Musical Times" a +whole series of masterly essays and analyses upon the Masses of Haydn, +Mozart, and Beethoven. But the work upon which his reputation will rest +was a "Life of Mozart," which was purchased by Chapman and Hall. + +I have said that Holmes used to listen on the stairs. In after-years, +when Keats was reading to me his "Eve of St. Agnes," (and what a happy +day was that! I had come up to see him from Ramsgate, where I then +lived,) at the passage where Porphyro in Madeleine's chamber is +fearfully listening to the hubbub of the icing and the music in the hall +below, and the verse says,-- + + "The boisterous midnight festive clarion, + The kettle-drum and far-heard clarionet, + Affray his ears, though but in dying tone: + _The hall-door shuts again, and all the noise is gone_,"-- + +"That line," said he, "came into my head when I remembered how I used to +listen, in bed, to your music at school." Interesting would be a record +of the germs and first causes of all the greatest poets' conceptions! +The elder Brunei's first hint for his "shield," in constructing the +tunnel under the Thames, was taken from watching the labor of a +sea-insect, which, having a projecting hood, could bore into the ship's +timber, unmolested by the waves. + +I fancy it was about this time that Keats gave that signal example of +his courage and stamina, in the recorded instance of his pugilistic +contest with a butcher-boy. He told me--and in his characteristic +manner--of their "passage of _arms_." The brute, he said, was tormenting +a kitten, and he interfered, when a threat offered was enough for his +mettle, and they set to. He thought he, should be beaten; for the fellow +was the taller and stronger; but, like an authentic pugilist, my young +poet found that he had planted a blow which "told" upon his antagonist. +In every succeeding round, therefore, (for they fought nearly an hour,) +he never failed of returning to the weak point; and the contest ended +in the hulk being led or carried home. In all my knowledge of my +fellow-beings, I never knew one who so thoroughly combined the sweetness +with the power of gentleness and the irresistible sway of anger as +Keats. His indignation would have made the boldest grave; and those who +have seen him under the influence of tyranny, injustice, and meanness of +soul will never forget the expression of his features,--"the form of his +visage was changed." + +He had a strong sense of humor; yet, so to speak, he was not, in the +strict sense of the term, a humorist. His comic fancy lurked in the +outermost and most unlooked-for images of association,--which, indeed, +maybe said to be the components of humor; nevertheless, I think they +did not extend beyond the _quaint_, in fulfilment and success. But his +perception of humor, with the power of transmitting it by imitation, was +both vivid and irresistibly amusing. He once described to me his having +gone to see a bear-baiting,--the animal, the property of a Mr. Tom +Oliver. The performance not having began, Keats was near to and watched +a young aspirant, who had brought a younger under his wing to witness +the solemnity, and whom he oppressively patronized, instructing him in +the names and qualities of all the magnates present. Now and then, in +his zeal to manifest and impart his knowledge, he would forget himself, +and stray beyond the prescribed bounds, into the ring,--to the lashing +resentment of its comptroller, Mr. William Soames; who, after some hints +of a practical nature, to "keep back," began laying about him with +indiscriminate and unmitigable vivacity,--the Peripatetic signifying to +his pupil,--"My eyes! Bill Soames giv' me sich a licker!"--evidently +grateful, and considering himself complimented, upon being included in +the general dispensation. Keats's entertainment with this minor scene of +low life has often recurred to me. But his subsequent description of the +baiting, with his position, of his legs and arms bent and shortened, +till he looked like Bruin on his hind-legs, dabbing his fore-paws hither +and thither, as the dogs snapped at him, and now and then acting the +gasp of one that had been suddenly caught and hugged, his own capacious +mouth adding force to the personation, was a memorable display. I am +never reminded of this amusing relation, but it is associated with that +forcible picture in Shakspeare, (and what subject can we not associate +with him?) in the "Henry VI":-- + + "as a bear encompassed round with dogs, + Who having _pinched_ a few and _made them cry_, + The rest stand all aloof and bark at him." + +Keats also attended a prize-fight between two of the most skilful and +enduring "light-weights,"--Randal and Turner. It was, I believe, at +that remarkable wager, when, the men being so equally matched and +accomplished, they had been sparring for three-quarters of an hour +before a blow had been struck. In describing the rapidity of Randal's +blows while the other was falling, Keats tapped his fingers on the +window-pane. + +I make no apology for recording these events in his life; they are +characteristics of the natural man,--and prove, moreover, that the +indulgence in such exhibitions did not for one moment blunt the gentler +emotions of his heart, or vulgarize his inborn love of all that was +beautiful and true. His own line was the axiom of his moral existence, +his political creed:--"A thing of beauty is a joy forever"; and I can +fancy no coarser consociation able to win him from this faith. Had he +been born in squalor, he would have emerged a gentleman. Keats was not +an easily swayable man; in differing with those he loved, his firmness +kept equal pace with the sweetness of his persuasion; but with the rough +and the unlovable he kept no terms,--within the conventional precincts, +I mean, of social order. + +From Well Walk he moved to another quarter of the Heath,--Wentworth +Place the name, if I recollect. Here he became a sharing inmate with Mr. +Charles Armitage Brown, a gentleman who had been a Russia merchant, and +had retired to a literary leisure upon an independence. I do not know +how they became acquainted; but Keats never had a more zealous, a +firmer, or more practical friend and adviser than Brown. His robust +eagerness and zeal, with a headstrong determination of will, led him +into an undue prejudice against the brother, George, respecting some +money-transactions with John, which, however, the former redeemed to the +perfect satisfaction of all the friends of the family. After the death +of Keats, Armitage Brown went to reside in Florence, where he remained +some few years; then he settled at Plymouth, and there brought out a +work entitled, "Shakespeare's Autobiographical Poems. Being his Sonnets +clearly developed; with his Character, drawn chiefly from his Works." +It cannot be said that in this work the author has clearly educed his +theory; but, in the face of his failure upon that main point, the book +is interesting, for the heart-whole zeal and homage with which he has +gone into his subject. Brown was no half-measure man; "whatsoever his +hand found to do, he did it with his might." His last stage-scene in +life was passed in New Zealand, whither he emigrated with his son, +having purchased some land,--or, as his own letter stated, having been +thoroughly defrauded in the transaction. Brown accompanied Keats in his +tour in the Hebrides, a worthy event in the poet's career, seeing that +it led to the production of that magnificent sonnet to "Ailsa Rock." As +a passing observation, and to show how the minutest circumstance did not +escape him, he told me, that, when he first came upon the view of Loch +Lomond, the sun was setting; the lake was in shade, and of a deep blue; +and at the farther end was "_a slash across it_, of deep orange." The +description of the traceried window in the "Eve of St. Agnes" gives +proof of the intensity of his feeling for color. + +It was during his abode in Wentworth Place that the savage and vulgar +attacks upon the "Endymion" appeared in the "Quarterly Review," and +in "Blackwood's Magazine." There was, indeed, ruffian, low-lived +work,--especially in the latter publication, which had reached a pitch +of blackguardism, (it used to be called "Blackguard's Magazine,") with +_personal abuse_,--ABUSE,--the only word,--that would damage the sale +of any review at this day. The very reverse of its present management. +There would not now be the _inclination_ for such rascal bush-fighting; +and even then, or indeed at any period of the Magazine's career, the +stalwart and noble mind of John Wilson would never have made itself +editorially responsible for such trash. As to him of the "Quarterly," a +thimble would have been "a mansion, a court," for his whole soul. The +style of the articles directed against the Radical writers, and those +especially whom the party had nicknamed the "Cockney school" of poetry, +may be conceived by its provoking the following observation from Hazlitt +to me:--"To pay those fellows, Sir, _in their own coin_, the way would +be, to begin with Walter Scott, and _have at his clump-foot_." "Verily, +the former times were not better than these." + +To say that these disgusting misrepresentations did not affect the +consciousness and self-respect of Keats would be to underrate the +sensitiveness of his nature. He felt the insult, but more the injustice +of the treatment he had received; he told me so, as we lay awake one +night, when I slept in his brother's bed. They had injured him in the +most wanton manner; but if they, or my Lord Byron, ever for one moment +supposed that he was crushed or even cowed in spirit by the treatment he +had received, never were they more deluded. "Snuffed out by an article," +indeed! He had infinitely more magnanimity, in its fullest sense, +than that very spoiled, self-willed, and mean-souled man,--and I have +authority for the last term. To say nothing of personal and private +transactions, pages 204-207 in the first volume of Mr. Monckton Milnes's +life of our poet will be full authority for my estimate of his Lordship. +"Johnny Keats" had, indeed, "a little body with a mighty heart," and +he showed it in the best way: not by fighting the ruffians,--though +he could have done that,--but by the resolve that he would produce +brain-work which not one of their party could approach; and he did. + +In the year 1820 appeared the "Lamia," "Isabella," "Eve of St. Agnes," +and "Hyperion," etc. But, alas! the insidious disease which carried him +off had made its approach, and he was going to, or had already departed +for, Italy, attended by his constant and self-sacrificing friend, +Severn. Keats's mother died of consumption; and he nursed his younger +brother in the same disease, to the last,--and, by so doing, in all +probability, hastened his own summons. Upon the publication of the last +volume of poems, Charles Lamb wrote one of his own finely appreciative +and cordial critiques in the "Morning Chronicle." This was sent to me in +the country, where I had for some time resided. I had not heard of the +dangerous state of Keats's health,--only that he and Severn were going +to Italy; it was, therefore, an unprepared shock which brought me the +news that he had died in Rome. + +Mr. Monckton Milnes has related the anecdote of Keats's introduction to +Wordsworth, with the latter's appreciation of the "Hymn to Pan," which +its author had been desired to repeat, and the Rydal Mount poet's +snow-capped comment upon it,--"Uhm! a pretty piece of Paganism!" Mr. +Milnes, with his genial and placable nature, has made an amiable defence +for the apparent coldness of Wordsworth's appreciation,--"That it was +probably intended for some slight rebuke to his youthful compeer, +whom he saw absorbed in an order of ideas that to him appeared merely +sensuous, and would have desired that the bright traits of Greek +mythology should be sobered down by a graver faith." Keats, like +Shakspeare, and every other true poet, put his whole soul into what he +imagined, portrayed, or embodied; and hence he appeared the young Greek, +"suckled in that creed outworn." The wonder is, that Mr. Wordsworth +forgot to quote himself. From Keats's description of his Mentor's +manner, as well as behavior, that evening, I cannot but believe it to +have been one of the usual ebullitions of the egoism, not to say of the +uneasiness, known to those who were accustomed to hear the great moral +philosopher discourse upon his own productions and descant upon those +of a contemporary. During this same visit, he was dilating upon some +question in poetry, when, upon Keats's insinuating a confirmatory +suggestion to his argument, Mrs. Wordsworth put her hand upon his arm, +saying,--"Mr. Wordsworth is never interrupted." Again, during the same +interview, some one had said that the next Waverley novel was to be "Rob +Roy"; when Mr. Wordsworth took down his volume of Ballads, and read +to the company "Rob Roy's Grave,"--then, returning it to the shelf, +observed, "I do not know what more Mr. Scott can have to say upon the +subject." When Leigh Hunt had his first interview with Wordsworth, the +latter lectured to him--finely, indeed--upon his own writings; and +repeated the entire sonnet, + + "Great men have been among us,"-- + +which Hunt said he did "in a grand and earnest tone." Some one in a +company quoting the passage from "Henry V.,"-- + + "So work the honey-bees," + +and each "picking out his pet plum" from that perfect piece of natural +history, Wordsworth objected to the line, + + "The singing masons building roofs of gold," + +because, he said, of the unpleasant repetition of the "_ing_" in it! +Where were his ears and judgment on that occasion? But I have more +than once heard it said that Wordsworth had not a genuine love of +Shakspeare,--that, when he could, he always accompanied a "_pro_" with +his "_con_," and, Atticus-like, would "just hint a fault and hesitate +dislike." Truly, indeed, we are all of "a mingled yarn, good and ill +together." + +I can scarcely conceive of anything more unjust than the account +which that ill-ordered being, Haydon, left behind him in his "Diary," +respecting the idolized object of his former intimacy, John Keats. At +his own eager request, after reading the manuscript specimens I had left +with Leigh Hunt, I had introduced their author to him; and for some time +subsequently I had frequent opportunities of seeing them together, and +can testify to the laudations that Haydon trowelled on to the young +poet. Before I left London, however, it had been said that things and +opinions had changed,--and, in short, that Haydon had abjured all +acquaintance with, and had even ignored, such a person as the author of +the sonnet to him, and those "On the Elgin Marbles." I say nothing of +the grounds of their separation; but, knowing the two men, and knowing, +I believe, to the core, the humane principle of the poet, I have such +faith in his steadfastness of friendship, that I am sure he would never +have left behind him an unfavorable _truth_, while nothing could have +induced him to utter a _calumny_ of one who had received pledges of +his former regard and esteem. Haydon's detraction was the more odious +because its object could not contradict the charge, and because it +supplied his old critical antagonists (if any remained) with an +authority for their charge against him of Cockney ostentation and +display. The most mean-spirited and trumpery twaddle in the paragraph +was, that Keats was so far gone in sensual excitement as to put Cayenne +pepper upon his tongue, when taking his claret! Poor fellow! he never +purchased a bottle of claret, within my knowledge of him; and, from +such observation as could not escape me, I am bound to assert that +his domestic expenses never could have occasioned him a regret or a +self-reproof. + +When Shelley left England for Italy, Keats told me that he had received +from him an invitation to become his guest,--and, in short, to make one +of his household. It was upon the purest principle that Keats declined +the noble proffer; for he entertained an exalted opinion of Shelley's +genius, in itself an inducement; he also knew of his deeds of bounty; +and lastly, from their frequent intercourse, he had full faith in the +sincerity of his proposal; for a more crystalline heart than Shelley's +never beat in human bosom. He was incapable of an untruth or of a deceit +in any ill form. Keats told me, that, in declining the invitation, his +sole motive was the consciousness, which would be ever prevalent with +him, of his not being, in its utter extent, a free agent,--even +within such a circle as Shelley's,--himself, nevertheless, the most +unrestricted of beings. Mr. Trelawney, a familiar of the family, has +confirmed the unwavering testimony to Shelley's bounty of nature, where +he says, "Shelley was a being absolutely without selfishness." The +poorest cottagers knew and benefited by the thoroughly _practical_ and +unselfish character of his Christianity, during his residence at Marlow, +when he would visit them, and, having gone through a course of study +in medicine, in order that he might assist them with his advice, would +commonly administer the tonic which such systems usually require,--a +good basin of broth, or pea-soup. And I believe I am infringing on no +private domestic delicacy, when I repeat, that he has been known, upon a +sudden and immediate emergency, to purloin ("_convey_ the wise it call") +a portion of the warmest of Mrs. Shelley's wardrobe, to protect some +poor starving sister. One of the richer residents of Marlow told me that +"_they all_ considered him a madman." I wish he had bitten the whole +squad. + + "No settled senses of the world can match + The 'wisdom' of that madness." + +Shelley's figure was a little above the middle height, slender, and of +delicate construction, which appeared the rather from a lounging or +waving manner in his gait, as though his frame was compounded merely of +muscle and tendon, and that the power of walking was an achievement with +him, and not a natural habit. Yet I should suppose that he was not a +valetudinarian, although that has been said of him, on account of his +spare and vegetable diet: for I have the remembrance of his scampering +and bounding over the gorse-bushes on Hampstead Heath, late one +night,--now close upon us, and now shouting from the height, like a wild +school-boy. He was both an active and an enduring walker,--feats which +do not accompany an ailing and feeble constitution. His face was round, +flat, pale, with small features; mouth beautifully shaped; hair, +bright-brown and wavy; and such a pair of eyes as are rarely seen in +the human or any other head,--intensely blue, with a gentle and lambent +expression, yet wonderfully alert and engrossing: nothing appeared to +escape his knowledge. + +Whatever peculiarity there might have been in Shelley's religious faith, +I have the best authority for believing that it was confined to the +early period of his life. The _practical_ result of its course of +_action_, I am sure, had its source from the "Sermon on the Mount." +There is not one clause in that divine code which his conduct towards +his fellow-mortals did not confirm, and substantiate him to be a +follower of Christ. Yet, when the news arrived in London of the death of +Shelley and Captain Williams by drowning, the "Courier" newspaper--an +evening journal of that day--capped the intelligence with the following +remark:--"He will now know whether there is a hell or not!"--I believe +that there are still one or two public fanatics who would _think_ that +surmise, but not one would dare to utter it in his journal. So much for +the progress of liberality, and the power of opinion. + +At page 100 of the "Life of Keats," Vol. I., Mr. Monckton Milnes has +quoted a literary portrait of him, which he received from a lady who +used to see him at Hazlitt's lectures at the Surrey Institution. The +building was on the south or right-hand side, and close to Blackfriars' +Bridge. I believe that the whole of Hazlitt's lectures, on the British +Poets, the Writers of the Time of Elizabeth, and the Comic Writers, were +delivered in that Institution, during the years 1817 and 1818; shortly +after which time the establishment appears to have been broken up. The +lady's remark upon the character and expression of Keats's features is +both happy and true. She says,--"His countenance lives in my mind as one +of singular beauty and brightness; it had an expression _as if he had +been looking on some glorious sight_." That's excellent.--"His mouth was +full, and less intellectual than his other features." True again. But +when our artist pronounces that "his eyes were large and _blue_" and +that "his hair was _auburn_," I am naturally reminded of the fable of +the "Chameleon":--"They're _brown_, Ma'am,--_brown_, I assure you!" The +fact is, the lady was enchanted--and I cannot wonder at it--with the +whole character of that beaming face; and "blue" and "auburn" being the +favorite tints of the human front divine, in the lords of the creation, +the poet's eyes consequently became "blue," and his hair "auburn." +Colors, however, vary with the prejudice or partiality of the spectator; +and, moreover, people do not agree even upon the most palpable prismatic +tint. A writing-master whom we had at Enfield was an artist of more than +ordinary merit; but he had one dominant defect: he could not distinguish +between true blue and true green. So that, upon one occasion, when he +was exhibiting to us a landscape he had just completed, I hazarded +the critical question, why he painted his trees so _blue_? "Blue!" he +replied,--"what do you call green?"--Reader, alter in your copy of +Monckton Milnes's "Life of Keats," Vol. I., page 103, "eyes" _light +hazel_, "hair" _lightish-brown and wavy_. + +The most perfect, and withal the favorite portrait of him, was the +one by Severn, published in Leigh Hunt's "Lord Byron and his +Contemporaries," and which I remember the artist's sketching in a few +minutes, one evening, when several of Keats's friends were at his +apartments in the Poultry. The portrait prefixed to the "Life," also +by Severn, is a most excellent one-look-and-expression likeness,--an +every-day, and of "the earth, earthy" one;--and the last, which the same +artist painted, and which is now in the possession of Mr. John Hunter, +of Craig Crook, Edinburgh, may be an equally felicitous rendering of one +look and manner; but I do not intimately recognize it. There is another, +and a _curiously unconscious_ likeness of him, in the charming Dulwich +Gallery of Pictures. It is in the portrait of Wouvermans, by Rembrandt. +It is just so much of a resemblance as to remind the friends of the +poet,--though not such a one as the immortal Dutchman would have +made, had the poet been his sitter. It has a plaintive and melancholy +expression, which, I rejoice to say, I do not associate with him. + +There is one of his attitudes, during familiar conversation, which, at +times, (with the whole earnest manner and sweet expression of the man) +presents itself to me, as though I had seen him only last week. The +attitude I speak of was that of cherishing one leg over the knee of the +other, smoothing the instep with the palm of his hand. In this action I +mostly associate him in an eager parley with Leigh Hunt, in his little +cottage in the "Vale of Health." This position, if I mistake not, is in +the last portrait of him at Craig Crook; if not, it is in a reminiscent +one, painted after his death. + +His stature could have been very little more than five feet; but he was, +withal, compactly made and--well-proportioned; and before the hereditary +disorder which carried him off began to show itself, he was active, +athletic, and enduringly strong,--as the fight with the butcher gave +full attestation. + +The critical world,--by which term I mean the censorious portion of +it; for many have no other idea of criticism than, that of censure and +objection,--the critical world have so gloated over the feebler, or, if +they will, the defective side of Keats's genius, and his friends, his +gloryingly partial friends, have so amply justified him, that I feel +inclined to add no more to the category of opinions than to say, that +the only fault in his poetry I could discover was a redundancy of +imagery,--that exuberance, by-the-by, being a quality of the greatest +promise, seeing that it is the constant accompaniment of a young and +teeming genius. But his steady friend, Leigh Hunt, has rendered the +amplest and truest record of his mental accomplishment in the Preface to +the "Foliage," quoted at page 150 of the first volume of the "Life +of Keats"; and his biographer has so zealously, and, I would say, so +amiably, summed up his character and intellectual qualities, that I can +add no more than my assent. + +Keats's whole course of life, to the very last act of it, was one +routine of unselfishness and of consideration for others' feelings. +The approaches of death having come on, he said to his untiring +nurse--friend,--"Severn,--I,--lift me up,--I am dying:--_I shall die +easy; don't be frightened;_--be firm, and thank God it has come." + +There are constant indications through the memoirs, and in the letters +of Keats, of his profound reverence for Shakspeare. His own intensity of +thought and expression visibly strengthened with the study of his idol; +and he knew but little of him till he himself had become an author. A +marginal note by him in a folio copy of the Plays is an example of the +complete absorption his mind had undergone during the process of his +matriculation;--and, through life, however long with any of us, we are +all in progress of matriculation, as we study the "myriad-minded's" +system of philosophy. The note that Keats made was this;--"The genius +of Shakspeare was an _innate universality;_ wherefore he laid the +achievements of human intellect prostrate beneath his indolent and +kingly gaze: _he could do easily men's utmost;_ his plan of tasks to +come was not of this world. If what he proposed to do hereafter would +not in the idea answer the aim, how tremendous must have been his +conception of ultimates!" + + + + +THE EUROPEAN CRISIS. + + +It is not long since we listened to an interesting discussion of this +question:--Which was the more important year to Europe,--1859 or 1860? +The question is one that may be commended to the attention of those +ingenuous young gentlemen, in debating-societies assembled, who have not +yet settled whether Brutus, Cassius, & Co. were right in assassinating +"the mighty Julius," or whether Mary Stuart was a martyred saint or a +martyred sinner, or whether the cold chop to which Cromwell treated +Charles I. on a memorable winter-day was either a just or a politic +mode of touching for the king's evil. It would have the merit of +novelty,--and Americans are as fond of new things in their day of power +as ever were the Athenians in the day of their decline. A yet rarer +merit it would have, in the fact that a great deal could justly be said +on both sides of the question. An umpire would probably decide in favor +of 1859,--because, he might say, had the events of that year been +different, those of 1860 must have undergone a complete change. + +The romantic conquest of Sicily by Garibaldi, and his successes in +Naples, whereby a junior branch of the Bourbon family has been sent +to "enjoy" that exile which has so long been the lot of the senior +branch,--and the destruction of the _Papalini_ by the Italian army of +Victor Emanuel II., which asserted the superiority of the children of +the soil over the bands of foreign ruffians assembled by De Merode and +Lamoriciere for the oppression of the Peninsula in the name of the +venerable head of the Church of Rome,--these are events even more +striking than those by which the iron sceptre of Austria was cut through +in the earlier year, because they have been accomplished by Italian +genius and courage, the few foreigners in the army of Garibaldi not +counting for much in the contest. They prove the regeneration of Italy. +But it is evident that nothing of the kind could have been done in 1860, +if 1859 had been as quiet a year for Italy as its immediate predecessor. +Before the leaders and the soldiers of Italy could obtain the +indispensable place whereon to stand, it was imperatively necessary +that the power of Austria should be broken down, through the defeat and +consequent demoralization of her army. For a period of forty-four +years, Austria had had her own way in the Peninsula. From the fall +of Napoleon's Italian dominion, in 1814, to the day when the third +Napoleon's army entered Sardinia, there was, virtually, no other rule in +Italy but that which Austria approved. The events of 1848, which at one +time promised to remove "the barbarians," had for their conclusion the +re-establishment of her ascendency in greater force than ever; and the +last ten years of that ascendency will always be remembered as the +period when its tyrannical character was most fully developed. The hoary +proconsul of the Lorraines, Radetzky, if not personally cruel, was +determined to do for his masters what Castilian lieutenants had done +for the Austro-Burgundian monarchs of Spain and her dependencies, +the fairest portions of Italy being among those dependencies, in the +sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,--to destroy the public spirit of +Italy. Could he have completed a century of life, or had there been no +European nation ready to prevent the success of the Germanic policy +under which Italy was to wither to provincial worthlessness, he might +have been successful. But Austria lost her best man, the only one of +her soldiers who had shown himself capable of upholding her Italian +position, when he had reached to more than ninety years; and it pleased +Providence to raise up a friend to Italy in a quarter to which most men +had ceased to look for anything good. + +Well has it been said, that "it is not the best tools that shape out +the best ends; if so, Martin Luther would not have been selected as the +master-spirit of the Reformation." Napoleon III. may deserve all that is +said against him by men of the extreme right and by men of the extreme +left,--by Catholics and infidels,--by _Whites_, and _Reds_, and +_Blues_,--but it cannot be denied that he gave to the Italians that +assistance without which they never could have obtained even partial +deliverance from the Austrian yoke, and which they could have procured +from no other potentate or power. Bankrupt though she was, Austria's +force was so superior to anything that Italy could present in the shape +of an army, that Sardinia must have been conquered, if she had contended +alone with her enemy; and a war between Austria and Sardinia was +inevitable, and would probably have broken out long before 1859, had the +former country been assured of the neutrality of France. + +There has been a great inkshed, and a large expenditure of oratory, on +the question of the origin of the Italian war of 1859; and, as usual, +much nonsense has been written and said of and concerning the ambition +of France and the encroachments of Sardinia. But that war was brought +about neither by French ambition nor by Sardinian desire for territorial +aggrandizement. That it occurred in 1859 was undoubtedly owing to the +action of France, which country merely chose its own time to drub its +old foe; but the point at issue was, whether Austrian or Sardinian ideas +should predominate in the government of Italy. Austria's purpose never +could be accomplished so long as a constitutional polity existed in +the best, because the best governed and the best organized, of all the +Italian States; and Sardinia's purpose never could be accomplished so +long as Austria was in a condition to dictate to the Italians the manner +in which they should be ruled. A war between the two nations was, as we +have said, inevitable. The only point about which there could be any +dispute was, whether Sardinia would have to fight the battle of Italy +unaided, or be backed by some power beyond the mountains. + +It shows how much men respect a military monarchy, how deferential they +are to the sword, that even those persons who assumed that France must +espouse the Sardinian cause were far from feeling confident that Austria +would be overmatched by an alliance of the two most liberal of the +Catholic nations of Europe. That monarchy is the type of force to all +minds; and though she has seldom won any splendid successes in the field +over the armies of enlightened nations, and has been repeatedly beaten +by Prussia and France, men cling to old ideas, and give her great +advantages at the beginning of every war in which she engages. The +common opinion, in the spring of 1859, was, that Austria would crush +Sardinia before the French could reach the field in force, and that her +soldiers, flushed by successes over the Italians, would hurl their new +foes out of the country, or leave them in its soil. As before, Italy was +to be the grave of the French,--only that their grave was to be dug at +the very beginning of the war, instead of being made, as in other days, +at its close. But it was otherwise ordered. The Austrians lost the +advantage which certainly was theirs at the opening of the contest, +and, that lost, disaster after disaster befell their arms, until the +"crowning mercy" of Solferino freed Italy from their rule, if it did not +entirely banish them from her land. That Solferino was not so great +a victory to the Allies as it was claimed to be at the time, that it +resembled less Austerlitz than Wagram, may be admitted, and yet its +importance remain unquestioned; for its decision gained for Italy the +only thing that it was necessary she should have in order to work out +her own salvation. Henceforth, she was not to tremble at the mere touch +of the hilt of the sword worn by the Viceroy at Milan, but was to have +the chance, at least, of ordering her own destinies. If not thoroughly +free, she was no longer utterly enslaved. + +The peace of Villafranca surprised every one, from the Czar on the +Neva to the gold-gatherers on the Sacramento. Strange as had been the +doings--the world called them tricks--of Napoleon III., no man was +prepared for that; and even now, though seventeen eventful months have +rolled away since the first shock of it was experienced, the summer-day +it was received seems more like one of those days we see in dreams than +like a day of real life. Doubt, laughter, astonishment, and disgust +followed each other through the minds of millions of men. If curses +could kill, the man who had escaped the bombs of Orsini and the bullets +of the Austrians would certainly have died in the month that followed +the interview he had flogged his imperial brother into granting him. In +America,--where we are always doing so much (on paper) for the cause of +freedom, and for the deliverance of "oppressed nationalities" of the +proper degrees and shades of whiteness, in the firm conviction that the +free man is the better customer,--in America the reaction of opinion was +overwhelming; and there were but few persons in the United States who +would not have shouted over news that Henri Cinq was in Paris, and that +the French Empire had a third time made way for the Kingdom of France. +Time has not altogether removed the impression then created; for, if it +has not justified the belief that the French Emperor had abandoned +the Italian cause, it has convinced the world that he lost a noble +opportunity to effect the destruction of Austria. There may be--most +probably there are--facts yet unknown to the public, knowledge of which +would partially justify the conduct of the victor toward the vanquished, +in 1859; but, if we judge from what we know, which is all that any +monarch can demand of the formers of opinion, Napoleon III. was guilty +of a monstrous political and military blunder when he forced a truce +upon Francis Joseph. + +There is no evidence that any European power was about to interfere in +behalf of Austria. Prussia, it is true, had taken a stern attitude, and +showed a disposition to place herself at the head of those German States +which were for beginning a march upon Paris at once, though M. le +Marechal Duc de Malakoff was ready with two hundred thousand men to +receive them, and Paris itself was not the feeble place it had been in +1814 and 1815. It is altogether likely that Prussia was, as is usual +with her at every European crisis, shamming. She had no interest in the +maintenance of Austria's territorial integrity, and it was rather late +in the day to assume that Berlin was affected by the mortifications of +Vienna. Could the hearts of kings and the counsels of cabinets be known +with that literal exactness which is so desirable in politics, and +yet so unattainable, we should probably find that Prussia's apparent +readiness to lead Germany was owing to her determination that German +armies should be led nowhere to the assistance of Austria. England +had just changed her Ministry, the Derby Cabinet giving way to Lord +Palmerston's, which was recognized on all sides as a great gain to the +cause of Italian independence; and Lord John Russell had written one of +those crusty notes to the Prussian government for which he is so famous, +and which was hardly less Italian in its sentiments than that in which, +written in October last, he upheld the course of Garibaldi and Victor +Emanuel. Russia had evinced no disposition to interfere in behalf of +Austria, and perhaps the news of Magenta and Solferino was as agreeable +to the dwellers in St. Petersburg and Moscow as it was to the citizens +of New York and Boston. She was, indeed, believed to be backing France. +Politically, so far as we can judge, there was no cause or occasion for +the throwing up of the cards by the French, after Solferino. + +Nor were the military reasons for the cessation of warlike operations of +a nature to convince men of their irresistible weightiness. A great +deal was said about the strength of "the Quadrilateral," and of the +impregnability of the position which it formed,--as if there ever had +existed a military position which could not be carried or turned, or out +of which its defenders could not be bought, or forced, or starved! +The strength of the Quadrilateral was as well known to the Emperor +in January as it was in July, and he must have counted its powers of +resistance before he resolved upon war. Victory he had organized, like +Carnot; and victory in Lombardy was sure to take his army to the Mincio. +Verona and Venetia were to be the complement of Milan. Then there was +the story that he frightened the Kaiser into giving his consent to the +truce by proving to him that the fortresses upon which he relied were +not in good defensible condition, his commissaries having placed the +funds in their pockets that should have been devoted to the purchase +of stores,--a story that wears a very probable air, in view of the +discovery subsequently made of the malversations of some of the highest +persons at Vienna, and which had much to do with the suicide of the +Minister of Finance. It is known, too, that the force which Napoleon +III. had assembled in the Adriatic was very strong, and could have been +so used as to have promoted an Hungarian insurrection in a sense not at +all pleasant to the Austrians, to have attacked Dalmatia and Istria, and +to have aided in the deliverance of Venice. That force was largely naval +in its character, and the French navy was burning to distinguish itself +in a war that had been so productive of glory to the sister-service: it +would have had a Magenta and a Palestro of its own, won where the Dorias +and the Pisani had struggled for fame and their countries' ascendency. +Instead of the Quadrilateral being a bar to the French, it would have +been a trap to the Austrians, who would have been taken there after the +manner in which Napoleon I. took their predecessors at Ulm. After the +war was over, it came out that Verona was not even half armed. + +If Napoleon III. was bent upon carrying that imitation of his uncle, of +which he is so fond, to the extent of granting a magnanimous peace to a +crushed foe, he may be said to have caricatured that which he sought +to imitate. The first Napoleon's magnanimity after Austerlitz has been +attributed to the craft of the beaten party,--he allowing the Russians +to escape when they had extricated themselves from the false position in +which their master's folly had caused them to be placed. But the third +Napoleon did allow the Austrians to avoid the consequences of their +defeat, and so disappointed Italy and the world. He _was_ magnanimous, +and most astonishing to the minds of men was his magnanimity. Most +people called it stupidity, and strange stories were told of his +nervous system having been shattered by the sights and sounds of those +slaughter-fields which he had planned and fought and won! + +We live rapidly in this age, when nations are breaking up all around us, +when unions are dissolving, when dynasties disappear before the light +like ghosts at cock-crowing, and when emperors and kings rely upon +universal suffrage, once so terrible a bugbear in their eyes, for the +titles to their crowns. Opinion is rapidly formed, and is as rapidly +dismissed. We may be as much astonished now at the peace of Villafranca +as we were on the day when first it was announced, and while looking +upon it only as a piece of diplomacy intended to put an end to a contest +costly in blood and gold; but we cannot say, as it was common then +to say, that the war which it closed has decided nothing. That war +established the freedom and nationality of Italy, and the peace so much +condemned was the means of demonstrating to the world the existence of +an _Italian People_. How far the French Emperor was self-deceived, and +to what extent he believed in the practicability of the arrangements +made at Villafranca and Zurich, are inscrutable mysteries. _Que +sais-je_? might be the form of his own answer, were any one entitled to +question him concerning his own opinion on his own acts of 1859. But +of the effects of his attack on Austria there can be no doubt. That +Lorraines and Bourbons have ceased to reign in Italy,--that the +Kingdom of Victor Emanuel has increased from six millions of people to +twenty-four millions,--that the same constitutional monarch who ruled at +Turin is now acknowledged in Milan, in Ancona, in Florence, in Naples, +and in Palermo, being King of Lombards, and Tuscans, and Romans, and +Neapolitans, and Sicilians,--and that the Austrians are no longer the +rulers of the Peninsula,--these things are all due to the conduct of the +French Emperor. Had the peace of Europe not been broken by France, the +Austrian power in Italy would have been unbroken at this moment, and +Naples have been still under the dominion of that mad tyrant whose +supreme delight it was to offend the moral sense of the world, and who +found even in the remonstrances of his brother-despots occasion for +increasing the weight of the chains of his victims, and of adding to the +intensity and the exquisiteness of their tortures. + +These solid advantages to Italy, this freedom of hers from domestic +despotism and foreign control, are the fruits of French intervention; +and they could have been obtained in no other way. There was no nation +but France to which Italy could look for aid, and to France she did not +look in vain. Of the motives of her ally it would be idle to speak, as +there is no occasion to go beyond consequences; and those consequences +are just as good as if the French Emperor were as pure-minded and +unselfish as the most perfect of those paladins of romance who went +about redressing one class of wrongs by the creation of another. +What Italy desired, what alone she needed, was freedom from foreign +intervention; and that she got through the interposition of French +armies, and that she could have got from no other human source. This +single fact is an all-sufficient answer to the myriads of sneers that +were called forth by the failure of Napoleon III. to redeem his pledge +to make Italy free from the Alps to the Adriatic. What other potentate +did anything for that country in 1859, or has done anything for it since +that memorable year? Neither prince nor people, leaving Napoleon III. +and the French aside, has so much as lifted a hand to promote the +regeneration of Italy. America has enough to do in the way of attending +to domestic slavery, without concerning herself about the freedom of +foreigners; and she has given the Italians her--sympathies, which are of +as much real worth to her as would be a treatise on the Resolutions of +'98 to a man who should happen to tumble into the Niagara, with the +Falls close upon him. England would have had Italy submit to that +Austrian rule which had been established over her by English influence +in 1814, when even the perverse, pig-headed Francis II. could see sound +objections to it; and all because want of submission on her part would +disturb the equilibrium of Europe, and might tend to the aggrandizement +of France,--two things which she by no means desired to see happen. +Russia, like America, gave Italy her sympathies; but she had a better +excuse than we had for being prudent, as her monarch was engaged in +planning at least the freedom of the serfs. If the Russians desired the +overthrow of the Austrians, it was not because they loved the Italians, +but from hatred of their oppressors; and that hatred had its origin in +the refusal of Austria to join Russia when she was so hard pressed by +France and England, Turkey and Piedmont. Prussia, us we have seen, sided +with Austria; and though it is impossible to believe in her sincerity, +her moral power, so far as it went, was adverse to the Italian cause. +The other European nations were of no account, having no will of their +own, and being influenced only by the action of the members of the +Pentarchy. Save France, Italy had no friend possessed of the disposition +and the ability to afford her that assistance without which she must +soon have become in name, as she was fast becoming in fact, a mere +collection of Austrian provinces. + +We dwell upon those well-known facts because an opinion seems to prevail +that no nation or government shall interfere for the protection of the +weak against the strong, unless it shall be able to show that it is +perfect itself, and that its intentions are of the most unselfish +nature. Peoples are to be delivered from oppression only as the +Israelites were delivered, by the direct and immediate interposition of +Heaven in human affairs; and the delivering agent must be as high-minded +and generous as Moses, who was allowed merely to gaze upon the Promised +Land. Men who thus reason about human action, and the motives of actors +on the great stage of life, must have read history to very little +purpose, and have observed the making of history round about them to no +purpose at all. The instruments of Providence are seldom perfect men, +and the broad light in which they live brings out their faults in full +force. Napoleon III. is not above the average morality of his time; and +if he had been so, probably he never would have become Emperor of the +French. But in this respect differs he much from those men who have +wrought great things for the world, and whom the world is content to +reverence? Robert Bruce, who saved Scotland from the misery that befell +Ireland; Henry IV., who renewed the life of France; Maurice of Saxony, +who prevented the Reformation from proving a stupendous failure; and +William III., without whose aid the Constitutionalists of England must +have gone down before the Stuarts: not one of these men was perfect; +and yet what losses the world would have experienced, if they had never +lived, or had failed in their great labors! It has been claimed for +Gustavus Adolphus that he was the only pure conqueror that ever lived; +but his purity may safely be placed to the account of the balls of +Luetzen: he was not left unto temptation. We should extend to Napoleon +III. the same charity that we extend to men who have long been +historical characters, and judge him by his actions and their results, +and not criticise him by the canons of faction. + +Italy was delivered by the war of 1859, and that war was terminated by +the peace of Villafranca. For the moment, it seemed as if there were +to be a restoration of the petty princes who had fled from Tuscany and +Parma and Modena, and that an Italian Confederation had been resolved +upon, in which the noxious influences of Austria and Naples and Papal +Rome should stifle the pure principles upheld by Sardinia. A few months +sufficed to show that these evils existed in apprehension only. The +Italians, by the withdrawal of the French, were thrown upon their own +resources, and by their conduct they dissipated the belief that they +were unequal to the emergency. Had the war been continued, had Venetia +been conquered, and had the last of the Austrians been driven beyond the +Isonzo, Italy would have been the prize of French valor and genius; for +all this must have been done on the instant, and before the Italians, +less the Sardinians, could have taken an effective part in the war. The +most devoted believer in the patriotism and bravery of the Italians must +perforce admit that they had little to do with the war of 1859. Leaving +the Sardinians aside, the Italian element in that contest was scarcely +appreciable. This we say without meaning any reflection on the Italians. +There were many good reasons why they should remain quiet. In common +with the rest of the world, even France herself, the war took them by +surprise, Austria bringing it on weeks, if not months, before Napoleon +III. had meant it to begin. They, too, had seen their country so often +abused by those who had conquered there, that they had some excuse for +waiting the progress of events. The most industrious and studied efforts +had been made to convince them that the object of the ruler of France +was the realization of another Napoleonic idea, namely, the restoration +of that Kingdom of Italy which perished in 1814; and though the rule of +Napoleon I. was the best that Italy had known for three hundred years, +it was hardly worth while to enter upon a doubtful fight for its +restoration. Hence the majority of the people of Italy were not so +active as they might have been; and their coolness is said to have had +much effect on the mind of the victor, who must have thought that the +people he had come to deliver were taking things very easily, and who +could not have felt much flattered, when assured, in the politest +terms, that those people believed him to be a selfish liar. His work, +therefore, was but partially performed. Instead of halting on the shores +of the historical Adriatic, his armies drew up on the banks of the +classic Mincius. Trance had done her part; let Italy do the rest, if +it were to be done. Thus abdicating his original purpose, and probably +feeling much as William III. felt when the English were so slow in +joining him that he talked of returning to his ships, Napoleon III. +gave up his power to dictate the future of Italy. He had no right, +thereafter, to say that the Bourbons should continue to govern in the +Two Sicilies, that the Dukes should be restored to their Duchies, and +that Venetia should be guarantied to Austria. He felt this, as the terms +of the treaties that were made very clearly show; for he was careful to +abstain from pledging himself to anything of a definite character. If +he had perfected his original work, and been possessed of the power to +effect a new settlement of Italy, he would, we presume, have stipulated +for the continuance of the Bourbon power in the southern portion of the +Peninsula and in Sicily; while the much talked-of purpose of creating an +Italian Kingdom or Duchy for Prince Napoleon would probably have been +carried out, and that gentleman have been established on the Arno. To +the Sardinian monarchy would have been assigned the spoils taken from +Austria,--Venice and Lombardy. The change in his political plans was the +consequence of the change in his military plan,--though either change +may be pronounced the cause or the effect, according to the point from +which the observer views the entire series of transactions. Thus the +peace of 1859 may be considered to have been a benefit to Italy, just +as the war it terminated had been. The war freed her from Austrian +dominion; the peace, from its character, and from the circumstances +under which it was made, left her people at liberty to act as they +pleased in the fair field that had been won for their exertions by the +skill and courage of the French and Sardinian armies. + +The destinies of Italy being placed in her own hands, the Italians were +as prompt as politic considerations would allow them to be in promoting +the unification of their country. Central Italy soon became a part of +the constitutional monarchy which had grown up under the shadow of the +Alps. This could not have happened, if Napoleon III. had chosen to veto +the proceedings of the Italians, which had virtually nullified one of +his purposes. That he consented to this large addition to the power of +Sardinia on the condition of receiving Savoy and Nice is by no means +unlikely; and we do not think that Victor Emanuel was either unwise or +wanting in patriotism in parting with those countries for the benefit of +Italy. Taking advantage of the troubles in Sicily, Garibaldi led a +small expedition to that island, which there landed, and began those +operations which had their appropriate termination, in five months, in +the addition of all the territories of the wretched Francis II., except +Gaeta, to the dominions of the Sardinian King. The importance of +Garibaldi's undertaking it is quite impossible to overrate; but of what +account could it have been, if the Austrians had stood to Italy in the +same position that they held at the opening of 1859? Of none at all. +Garibaldi is preeminently a man of sense, and he would never have +thought of moving against Francis II., if Francis Joseph had been at +liberty to assist that scandalous caricature of kings. Or, if he had +been tempted to enter upon the project, he would have been "snuffed +out" as easily as was Murat, when, in 1815, he sought to recover the +Neapolitan throne. If Austrian ships had not prevented him from landing +in Sicily, Austrian troops would have destroyed him in that island. Nay, +it is but reasonable to believe that Bomba's navy and army would have +been amply sufficient to do their master's work. That his men were not +wanting in courage and conduct has been proved by their deeds since the +tyrant left his capital, on the Volturno and around Capua and at Gaeta. +It was not want of bravery that led to their failure in Sicily, but the +belief that their employer's system had failed, and that he and they +were given up to the vengeance of Italy, supposing the Italians to be +strong enough to do justice on them. They took courage when European +circumstances led them to conclude that Austria would be advised, at +the Warsaw Conference, to use her forces for the restoration of the old +order of things in Italy, and receive the support of Russia and Prussia. +To deserve such aid from the North, the Neapolitan army struggled hard, +but in vain. The Absolutist cause was lost in Naples when the sovereigns +met in the Polish capital; and though, forty years earlier, this would +have been held an additional reason for the entrance of the barbarians +into Italy, the successes of the patriots must have had their proper +weight with the Prince Regent of Prussia and the Czar, who are +understood to have been as deaf as adders to the charming of their young +brother from Vienna. What was resolved upon at Warsaw the world has no +positive means of knowing, and but little reliance is to be placed upon +the rumors that have been so abundant; but, as Austria has not +moved against the Italians, and as the instructions to her new +commander-in-chief in Venetia (Von Benedek) are reported to be strong +on the point of non-intervention, we are at liberty to infer that she +accepts all that has been done as accomplished facts, and means to +stand upon the defensive, in the hope of gaining moral support by her +moderation in being outwardly content with less than half the spoil +which was given to her at the expense of Italy, when Europe was +"settled," for the time, four-and-forty years ago. + +The action of the Sardinian government, in sending its soldiers against +the legal banditti whom Lamoriciere had sought to drill into the +semblance of an army, which was a direct attack on the Pope, and the +subsequent employment of those soldiers, and of the Sardinian fleet, +against the forces of Francis II., were model pieces of statesmanship, +and worthy of the great man whose name and fame have become indissolubly +associated with the redemption of Italy. The decision thus to act could +not have been taken without the consent of Napoleon III. having first +been had and obtained; and there is probably much truth in the story, +that, when Lamoriciere had the coolness to threaten his conquerors with +the vengeance of the Emperor, they told him, half-laughingly, that, they +had planned the campaign with that illustrious personage at Chambery, +which must have convinced him that the cause of the Keys had nothing to +expect from France beyond the sort of police aid which General Goyon was +affording to it in the name of his master. Lamoriciere also expected +help from Austria, and professed to be able to number the few days at +the expiration of which the white-coats would be at Alessandria, which +would have been a diversion in his favor, that, had it been made, must +have saved him from the mortification of surrendering to men whom he +affected to despise, but who brought him and his army under the yoke. +The faith of the commander of the rabble of the Faith in Austrian +assistance was a Viennese inspiration, and was meant to induce him to +resist to the last. Nor was it altogether false; for the Kaiser and +Count Rechberg appear to have believed that they could induce the +governments of Russia and Prussia to support them in a crusade in behalf +of Rome and Naples, which was to rely upon Lutherans and supporters of +the Eastern Church for the salvation of the Western Church and its worst +members. The first interview between Rechberg and Gortschakoff, if we +can believe a despatch from Warsaw, led quickly to a quarrel, which must +have taken place not long after their chiefs, the Kaiser and the Czar, +had been locked in each other's arms at the railway-station. It is but +just to the Austrians to state, that they probably had received from St. +Petersburg some promises of assistance, which Alexander found himself +unable to redeem, so determined was Russian opinion in its expression of +aversion to Austria when its organs began to suspect that the old game +was to be renewed, and that Alexander contemplated doing in 1861 +what Nicholas had done in 1849,--to step between Francis Joseph and +humiliation, perhaps destruction. If it be true that the Czar has +ordered all Russians to leave Italy, that piece of pitiful spite would +show how he hates the Italian cause, and also that it is not in his +power seriously to retard its progress at present. Instead of ordering +Russians from Italy, he would send them to that country in great masses, +could he have his way in directing the foreign policy of his empire. + +The entire success of Victor Emanuel and Garibaldi has brought Italian +matters to a crisis. Carrying out the policy of Cavour, the King and the +Soldier have all but completed the unification of their country, at +the very time when the United States are threatened with disunion. The +Kingdom of Italy exists at this time, virtually, if not in terms, and +contains about twenty-four million people. It comprises the original +territories of Victor Emanuel, _minus_ Savoy and Nice, the Two Sicilies, +Lombardy, almost the whole of the Papal States, and Tuscany, Parma, and +Modena. If we except the fragment of his old possessions yet held by the +Pope, and the Austrian hold on Venetia, all Italy now acknowledges +the rule of Victor Emanuel, who is to meet an _Italian_ Parliament +in January, 1861. No political change of our century has been more +remarkable than this, whether we look to its extent, or have regard to +the agencies by which it has been brought about. Two years ago, there +was more reason to believe that the King of Sardinia would be an exile +than that the Bourbon King of Naples would be on his travels. No man +would have dared to prophesy that the former would be reigning over +seven-eighths of the Italians, while the latter should be reduced to one +town, garrisoned by foreign mercenaries. That these changes should be +wrought by universal suffrage, had it been predicted, would have been +thought too much to be related as a dream. Yet it is the voice of the +Italian People, speaking under a suffrage-system apparently more liberal +than ever has been known in America, which has accomplished all that has +been done since the summer of 1859 in the Peninsula and in Sicily. It +was because Napoleon III. would not place himself in opposition to the +opinion of the people of Central Italy, that the petty monarchs of +that country were not restored to their thrones, and that they became +subjects of Victor Emanuel; and the voting in Sicily and Naples +has confirmed the decision of arms, and made it imperative on the +reactionists to attack the people, should their policy lead them to +seek a reversal of the decrees of 1860. The new monarch of the Italians +expressly bases his title to reign on the will of the people, expressed +through the exercise of the least restricted mode of voting that ever +has been known among men; and the people of Southern Italy never could +have had the opportunity to vote their crown to him, if Garibaldi +had not first freed them from the savage tyranny of Francis II.; and +Garibaldi himself could not have acted for their deliverance, if Italy +had not previously been delivered from the Austrians by France. Thus we +have the French Emperor, designated as a _parvenu_ both in England and +America, and owing his power to his name,--the democrat Garibaldi, whose +power is from his deeds, and whose income is not equal to that of an +Irish laborer in the United States,--the rich and noble Cavour, whose +weekly revenues would suffice to purchase the fee-simple of Garibaldi's +island-farm,--the King of Sardinia, representing a race that was +renowned before the Normans reigned in England,--and the masses of the +Italian people,--all acting together for the redemption of a country +which needs only justice to enable it to assume, as near as modern +circumstances will permit, its old importance in the world's scale. +That there should have been such a concurrence of foreign friendship, +democratic patriotism, royal sagacity, aristocratic talent, and popular +good sense, for Italy's benefit, must help to strengthen the belief that +the Italians are indeed about to become a new _Power_ in Europe, and +in the world, and that their country is no more to be rated as a mere +"geographical expression." + +The Italian crisis is a European crisis; for matters have now reached +a pass in which the foreigner must have something to say of Italy's +future: and it will be well for the general peace, if he shall use only +the words of justice, in giving his decision; for his right to speak +at all in the premises is derived only from an act of usurpation, long +acquiescence in which has clothed it with a certain show of legality. In +all that the Italians have thus far done, since the conclusion of the +with Austria, they have not necessarily been brought into conflict +with any foreign nation, though they may have terribly offended those +legitimate sovereigns who have been accustomed either to give law to +Europe or to see public opinion defer considerably to their will. Not a +single acquisition thus far made by Victor Emmanuel can be said to have +proceeded from any act at which Europe could complain with justice. +Lombardy was given to him by his ally of France, whose prize it was, and +who had an undid dispose of it in a most righteous manner. That Central +Italy was acquired by him was due partly to the cowardice of the old +rulers thereof, and partly to intelligence, activity, and patriotism of +its people. No foreign rights, conventional or otherwise, were assailed +or disregarded, when it passed under the Sardinian sceptre. When go much +of the Pope's temporal possessions were taken from him by the people +themselves, who had become weary of the worst system of misgovernment +known to the west of Bokhara, no doubt many pious Catholics were +shocked; but, if they knew anything of the history of the Papal temporal +rule and power, they could not complain at what was done, on the score +of illegality; and the deeds of Cialdini and Fanti and Persano were +performed against foreigners who had intruded themselves into Italy, and +who were employed to uphold the political supremacy of a few persons at +Rome, while they had no more connection with the religion of the ancient +Church than they had with that of Thibet. The King of the Two Sicilies, +by his tyranny, and by his persistence in the offensive course of his +house, had become an outlaw, as it were, and every _Italian_ at least +was fairly authorized to attack him; and in doing so he could not +be said to assail European order, nor could any European power +send assistance to a monarch who had refused to listen even to the +remonstrances of Austria against his cruelties. The stanchest of +English conservatives, while they said they must regard Garibaldi as +a freebooter, did not hesitate to express the warmest wishes for the +freebooter's success. When the Sardinians marched to Garibaldi's aid, +they did so in the interest of order, which has been promptly restored +to Southern Italy through their energetic course. + +Thus far, that which has been done in Italy has been of a local +character; but nothing more can be done, in the way of completing the +independence and unity of Italy, without bringing the patriots into +conflict with Austria. That power still is supreme in Venetia, which is +one of the best portions of Italy, and which can be held by no foreign +sovereign without endangering the whole Peninsula. Were there no other +reason for seeking to redeem Venetia from Austrian oppression, the +safety of the rest of Italy would demand that that redemption should be +accomplished. Venetia, as she now is, is a place of arms for the chief, +we may say the only, foreign enemy that the Italian Kingdom has or can +have; and that enemy has a deep and a peculiar interest in seeking +occasion to bring about the new kingdom's destruction. If Austria should +succeed in conciliating the Hungarians,--which she might do, if she +were to act justly toward them,--and a change of government were to take +place in France,--and changes in the French government have occurred +so often since 1789 as not to be improbable now,--she would, through +possession of Venetia, be enabled to commence a new Italian war with the +chances of success greatly in her favor. The Italians, therefore, are +compelled to round and complete their work, in getting possession of +Venetia, by that desire for safety and for self-preservation which +actuates all men and all communities. A nobler feeling, too, moves them. +They feel the obligation that exists to extend to the Venetians that +freedom which is now enjoyed by all Italians except the Venetians and +a small portion of the Pope's subjects. They would be recreant to the +dictates of duty, and disregardful of those of honor, were they to leave +Venetia in the hands of Austria. What their feelings on this +momentous subject are may be gathered from Garibaldi's address to his +companions-in-arms, when, having completed his immediate work, he +withdrew from active service for the time, in November last. His words +point as directly to an attack on Venetia as his landing in Sicily +indicated his intention to overthrow Francis II.; and that attack, +according to the Patriot Soldier, is to be made under the lead of the +Patriot King, Victor Emanuel. A million of Italians are called for, that +it may be successfully made; and that number ought to be raised, if so +vast a host shall be found necessary to perfect the independence of +Italy. After what we have seen done by the Italians, we should not +distrust their power to do even more, if no delay should be permitted, +and full advantage be taken of the spirit of enthusiastic patriotism +which now animates them. That Garibaldi means no delay is proved by his +naming next March as the date for the renewal of the mighty crusade in +the course of which already such miracles have been wrought. + +That Italy, as she stands to-day, would be found more than the equal +of Austria, no doubt can be felt by any one who is acquainted with the +condition of the two powers. Italy would enter upon a contest with +Austria under circumstances of peculiar advantage. She would have so +decided a naval superiority, that the Austrian flag would disappear from +the Mediterranean and the Adriatic, and she would be able to operate +powerfully from the sea against Venice. It is a military axiom, that, +wherever there is a sea-side, there is a weak side; and Venetia presents +this to an assailing force in quite a striking manner. Command of +the Adriatic and the neighboring waters would enable the Italians to +threaten many points of the Austrian territory, which would require to +be watched by large collections of soldiers; and aid could be sent to +the Hungarians, should they rise, by the way of Fiume. Italy could +raise a larger army to attack Venetia than Austria could employ for its +defence, with Hungary on the eve of revolution, Bohemia discontented, +Croatia not the loyal land it was in '48, and even the Tyrol no longer +a model of subserviency to the Imperial House. The Italians are at any +time the equals of the Austrians as soldiers, and at this time their +minds are in an exalted state, under the dominion of which they would +be found superior to any men who could be brought against them, if well +led; and among the Imperial commanders there is no man, unless Von +Benedek be an exception, who is to be named with the generals who have +led the way in the work we have seen done since last spring. In a +military sense, and in a moral sense, Italy is the superior of the +beaten, bankrupt monarchy of Austria, and capable of wresting Venetia +from the intrusive race, which holds it as much in defiance of common +sense as of common right. + +But would Italy be permitted to settle her quarrel with her old +oppressor without foreign intervention? We fear that she would not. +Venetia is held by Austria in virtue of the Vienna settlement of Europe, +in the first place, and then under the treaty that followed the war of +1859. Some English statesmen would appear to be of opinion that Venetia +must remain among the possessions of Austria, without reference to the +interests of Italy, the party most concerned in the business. In his +first note to Sir James Hudson, British Minister at Turin, which note +was to be read to Count Cavour, Lord John Russell, Foreign Secretary, +writes more like an Austrian than an Englishman, going even to the +astounding length of declaring that a war to defend her right to Venetia +would be on Austria's part a patriotic war,--such a war, we presume the +Honorable Secretary of State must have meant, as Wallace waged against +Edward I., or that which the first William of Orange carried on against +Philip II.! Lord Palmerston seems inclined to indorse his colleague's +views: for he referred directly to this very note in terms of +approbation, in the speech which he made at the dinner of the +"Worshipful Company of Salters," on the 14th of November. It is true, +that, in a later note from Lord John Russell to Sir James Hudson, +extreme ground in favor of what had been done in Naples by the +Sardinians is taken, and sustained with eminent ability; and in the +speech of Lord Palmerston referred to, the object of the first note was +said to be the prevention of a rash course that "might have blighted all +the best hopes of Italian freedom." We do not for a moment suppose that +the English people would ever allow their government to do anything +to help Austria to maintain possession of Venetia; but the relations +between Austria and England are of old date, and an opinion prevails in +the latter country that the former should be kept strong, in order that +she may be preserved as a counterpoise, on the one side to Russia, and +on the other to France. England has a difficult part to play, and her +course, or rather that of her government, sometimes makes considerable +demand on the charitable construction of the world; but her people are +sound, and for a long series of years their weight has been felt on the +right side of European contests. The Italian cause is popular with all +classes of Englishmen, and their country will never do anything to the +prejudice of that cause. But it may refuse aid at a time when such aid +shall be much needed, and when even France may stand aloof, and refrain +from finishing the business which she commenced. + +There is said to be an opinion growing up in France that Italy may be +made too strong for the good of her friend and ally. A new nation of +twenty-seven million souls--which would be Italy's strength, should Rome +and Venetia be gained for her--might become a potent enemy even to one +of its chief creators; and the taking of Savoy and Nice has caused +ill-feeling between the two countries, in which Garibaldi heartily +shares. Napoleon III. might be depended upon, himself, to support Italy +hereafter against any foreign enemy, but it is by no means clear that +France would support him in such a course; and he must defer to the +opinion of his subjects to a considerable extent, despotic though his +power is supposed to be. It is opinion, in the last resort, that governs +every where,--under an absolute monarchy quite as determinedly as under +a liberal polity like ours or England's. There is a large party in +France, composed of the most incongruous materials, which has the +profoundest interest in misrepresenting the policy of the Imperial +government, and which is full of men of culture and intellect,--men +whose labors, half-performed though they are, must have considerable +effect on the French mind. The first Napoleon had the ground honeycombed +under him by his enemies, who could not be suppressed, nor their labors +be made to cease, even by his stern system of repression. It may be so +with the present Emperor, who knows that one false step might upset his +dynasty as utterly as it was twice over-thrown by the armies of combined +Europe. What was then done by the lions and the eagles might now be done +by the moles. The worms that gnawed through the Dutch dykes did Holland +more damage than she experienced from the armies of Louis XIV. Let the +French mind become possessed with the idea that the Emperor is helping +Italy at the expense of France, and we may see a third Restoration in +that country, or even a third Republic. The elder Bourbons were driven +out because they were as a monument in Paris to Leipzig and Vittoria +and Waterloo, erected by the victors on those fatal fields. The Orleans +dynasty broke down because it had become an article in the belief of +most Frenchmen that it was disgracing France by the corruption of its +domestic policy and the subserviency of its foreign policy. Napoleon +III. could no more sustain himself against the belief that he was using +France for the benefit of Italy than the King of the French could +sustain himself against the conviction that he was abusing the country +he ruled over for the advancement of his family. He has already offended +the Catholic clergy by what he has done for Italy, which they regard as +having been done against their Church; and as they helped to make him, +so they may be able to unmake him. To satisfy grumblers, he took Savoy +and Nice. For some time past, rumor has been busy in attributing to him +the design of demanding the island of Sardinia. If he should ask for +Sardinia, and receive it, might he not ask also for Sicily, the country +of which he offered to become King in 1848, and did not receive one +vote, an incident that may still weigh upon the imperial heart, no man +ever forgetting a contemptuous slight? If he should make these demands, +or either of them, would the other European Powers permit the Italians +to comply with them? These are questions not to be answered hurriedly, +but they closely concern the Italian question, a solution of which must +soon be had, for the world's peace. + +The third act of the drama approaches, and 1861 may be a more important +year to Italy than was either 1859 or 1860. The successful antagonist +of Austria she can be; but could she, without foreign aid, withstand an +alliance that should be formed against her in the name of order, while +her former ally should remain quiet and refuse to take any part in the +war? Austria, it has been intimated, might be induced to sell Venetia to +Italy, and this is possible, though such a settlement of the question in +dispute would be an extraordinary confession of weakness on the part of +the aristocratical military monarchy of the Lorraines, and a proceeding +of which it would be more ashamed than it would be even of a generous +action. + + * * * * * + + +A VISIT TO THE ASYLUM FOR AGED AND DECAYED PUNSTERS. + + +Having just returned from a visit to this admirable Institution in +company with a friend who is one of the Directors, we propose giving a +short account of what we saw and heard. The great success of the Asylum +for Idiots and Feeble-minded Youth, several of the scholars from which +have reached considerable distinction, one of them being connected with +a leading Daily Paper in this city, and others having served in the +State and National Legislatures, was the motive which led to the +foundation of this excellent Charity. Our late distinguished townsman, +Noah Dow, Esquire, as is welt known, bequeathed a large portion of his +fortune to this establishment,--"being thereto moved," as his will +expressed it, "by the desire of _N. Dowing_ some publick Institution +for the benefit of Mankind." Being consulted as to the Rules of the +Institution and the selection of a Superintendent, he replied, that "all +Boards must construct their own Platforms of operation. Let them select +_anyhow_ and he should be pleased." N.E. Howe, Esq., was chosen in +compliance with this delicate suggestion. + +The Charter provides for the support of "One hundred aged and decayed +Gentlemen-Punsters." On inquiry if there was no provision for _females_, +my friend called my attention to this remarkable psychological fact, +namely:-- + +THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A FEMALE PUNSTER. + +This remark struck me forcibly, and on reflection I found that _I never +knew nor heard of one_, though I have once or twice heard a woman make +_a single detached_ pun, as I have known a hen to crow. + +On arriving at the south gate of the Asylum grounds, I was about to +ring, but my friend held my arm and begged me to rap with my stick, +which I did. An old man with a very comical face presently opened the +gate and put out his head. + +"So you prefer _Cane_ to _A bell_, do you?" he said,--and began +chuckling and coughing at a great rate. + +My friend winked at me. + +"You're here still, Old Joe, I see," he said to the old man. + +"Yes, yes,--and it's very odd, considering how often I've _bolted_, +nights." + +He then threw open the double gates for us to ride through. + +"Now," said the old man, as he pulled the gates after us, "you've had a +long journey." + +"Why, how is that, Old Joe?" said my friend. + +"Don't you see?" he answered; "there's the _East hinges_ on one side of +the gate, and there's the West hinges_ on t'other side,--haw! haw! haw!" + +We had no sooner got into the yard than a feeble little gentleman, with +a remarkably bright eye, came up to us, looking very seriously, as if +something had happened. + +"The town has entered a complaint against the Asylum as a gambling +establishment," he said to my friend, the Director. + +"What do you mean?" said my friend. + +"Why, they complain that there's a _lot o' rye_ on the premises," he +answered, pointing to a field of that grain,--and hobbled away, his +shoulders shaking with laughter, as he went. + +On entering the main building, we saw the Rules and Regulations for +the Asylum conspicuously posted up. I made a few extracts which may be +interesting. + + +Sect. I. OF VERBAL EXERCISES. + +5. Each Inmate shall be permitted to make Puns freely from eight in the +morning until ten at night, except during Service in the Chapel and +Grace before Meals. + +6. At ten o'clock the gas will be turned off, and no further Puns, +Conundrums, or other play on words, will be allowed to be uttered, or to +be uttered aloud. + +9. Inmates who have lost their faculties and cannot any longer make Puns +shall be permitted to repeat such as may be selected for them by the +Chaplain out of the work of Mr. _Joseph Miller_. + +10. Violent and unmanageable Punsters, who interrupt others when engaged +in conversation, with Puns or attempts at the same, shall be deprived +of their _Joseph Millers_, and, if necessary, placed in solitary +confinement. + + +Sect. III. OF DEPORTMENT AT MEALS. + +4. No Inmate shall make any Pun, or attempt at the same, until the +Blessing has been asked and the company are decently seated. + +7. Certain Puns having been placed on the _Index Expurgatorius_ of the +Institution, no Inmate shall be allowed to utter them, on pain of being +debarred the perusal of _Punch_ and _Vanity Fair_, and, if repeated, +deprived of his _Joseph Miller_. + +Among these are the following:-- + +Allusions to _Attic salt_, when asked to pass the salt-cellar. + +Remarks on the Inmates being _mustered_, etc., etc. + +Associating baked beans with the _bene_factors of the Institution. + +Saying that beef-eating is _befitting_, etc., etc. + +The following are also prohibited, excepting to such Inmates as may have +lost their faculties and cannot any longer make Puns of their own:-- + +"----your own _hair_ or a wig"; "it will be _long enough_, "etc., etc.; +"little of its age," etc., etc.;--also, playing upon the following +words: _hos_pital; _mayor_; _pun_; _pitied_; _bread_; _sauce_, etc., +etc., etc. See INDEX EXPURGATORIUS, _printed for use of Inmates_. + +The subjoined Conundrum is not allowed:--Why is Hasty Pudding like the +Prince? Because it comes attended by its _sweet_;--nor this variation to +it, _to wit_: Because the _'lasses runs after it_. + +The Superintendent, who went round with us, had been a noted punster in +his time, and well known in the business-world, but lost his customers +by making too free with their names,--as in the famous story he set +afloat in '29 of _four Jerries_ attaching to the names of a noted Judge, +an eminent Lawyer, the Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions, and +the well-known Landlord at Springfield. One of the _four Jerries_, he +added, was of gigantic magnitude. The play on words was brought out +by an accidental remark of Solomons, the well-known Banker. "_Capital +punishment!_" the Jew was overheard saying, with reference to the guilty +parties. He was understood as saying, _A capital pun is meant_, which +led to an investigation and the relief of the greatly excited public +mind. + +The Superintendent showed some of his old tendencies, as he went round +with us. + +"Do you know"--he broke out all at once--"why they don't take steppes in +Tartary for establishing Insane Hospitals?" + +We both confessed ignorance. + +"Because there are _nomad_ people to be found there," he said, with a +dignified smile. + +He proceeded to introduce us to different Inmates. The first was a +middle-aged, scholarly man, who was seated at a table with a Webster's +Dictionary and a sheet of paper before him. + +"Well, what luck to-day, Mr. Mowzer?" said the Superintendent. + +"Three or four only," said Mr. Mowzer. "Will you hear 'em now,--now I'm +here?" + +We all nodded. + +"Don't you see Webster _ers_ in the words cent_er_ and theat_er_? + +"If he spells leather _lether_, and feather _fether_, isn't there danger +that he'll give us a _bad spell of weather_? + +"Besides, Webster is a resurrectionist; he does not allow _u_ to rest +quietly in the _mould_. + +"And again, because Mr. Worcester inserts an illustration in his text, +is that any reason why Mr. Webster's publishers should hitch one on in +their appendix? It's what I call a _Conntect-a-cut_ trick. + +"Why is his way of spelling like the floor of an oven? Because it is +_under bread_. + +"Mowzer!" said the Superintendent,--"that word is on the Index!" + +"I forgot," said Mr. Mowzer;--"please don't deprive me of _Vanity Fair_, +this one time, Sir. + +"These are all, this morning. Good day, Gentlemen. Then to the +Superintendent,--Add you, Sir!" + +The next Inmate was a semi-idiotic-looking old man. He had a heap of +block-letters before him, and, as we came up, he pointed, without saying +a word, to the arrangements he had made with them on the table. They +were evidently anagrams, and had the merit of transposing the letters of +the words employed without addition or subtraction. Here are a few of +them:-- + + TIMES. SMITE! + POST. STOP! + + TRIBUNE. TRUE NIB. + WORLD. DR. OWL. + + ADVERTISER. (RES VERI DAT. + (IS TRUE. READ! + + ALLOPATHY. ALL O' TH' PAY. + HOMEOPATHY. O, THE--! O! O, MY! PAH! + +The mention of several new York papers led to two or three questions. +Thus: Whether the Editor of the Tribune was _H.G. really?_ If the +complexion of his politics were not accounted for by his being an +_eager_ person himself? Whether Wendell _Fillips_ were not a reduced +copy of John _Knocks?_ Whether a New York _Feuilletoniste_ is not the +same thing as a _Fellow down East?_ + +At this time a plausible-looking, bald-headed man joined us, evidently +waiting to take a part in the conversation. + +"Good morning, Mr. Riggles," said the Superintendent. "Anything fresh +this morning? Any Conundrum?" + +"I haven't looked at the cattle," he answered, dryly. + +"Cattle? Why cattle?" + +"Why, to see if there's any _corn under 'em!_" he said; and immediately +asked, "Why is Douglas like the earth?" + +We tried, but couldn't guess. + +"Because he was _flattened out at the polls!_" said Mr. Riggles. + +"A famous politician, formerly," said the Superintendent. "His +grandfather was a _seize-Hessian-ist_ in the Revolutionary War. By the +way, I hear the _freeze-oil_ doctrines don't go down at New Bedford." + +The next Inmate looked as if be might have been a sailor formerly. + +"Ask him what his calling was," said the Superintendent. + +"Followed the sea," he replied to the question put by one of us. "Went +as mate in a fishing-schooner." + +"Why did you give it up?" + +"Because I didn't like working for _two mast-ers_," he replied. + +Presently we came upon a group of elderly persons, gathered about a +venerable gentleman with flowing locks, who was propounding questions to +a row of Inmates. + +"Can any Inmate give me a motto for M. Berger?" he said. + +Nobody responded for two or three minutes. At last one old man, whom I +at once recognized as a Graduate of our University, (Anno 1800,) held up +his hand. + +"Rem a _cue_ tetigit." + +"Go to the head of the Class, Josselyn," said the venerable Patriarch. + +The successful Inmate did as he was told, but in a very rough way, +pushing against two or three of the Class. + +"How is this?" said the Patriarch. + +"You told me to go up _jostlin',_" he replied. + +The old gentlemen who had been shoved about enjoyed the Pun too much to +be angry. + +Presently the Patriarch asked again,-- + +"Why was M. Berger authorized to go to the dances given to the Prince?" + +The Class had to give up this, and he answered it himself:-- + +"Because every one of his carroms was a _tick-it_ to the _ball_." + +"Who collects the money to defray the expenses of the last campaign in +Italy?" asked the Patriarch. + +Here again the Class failed. + +"The war-cloud's rolling _Dun_," he answered. + +"And what is mulled wine made with?" + +Three or four voices exclaimed at once,---- + +"_Sizzle-y_ Madeira!" + +Here a servant entered, and said, "Luncheon-time." The old gentlemen, +who have excellent appetites, dispersed at once, one of them politely +asking us if we would not stop and have a bit of bread and a little mite +of cheese. + +"There is one thing I have forgotten to show you," said the +Superintendent,--"the cell for the confinement of violent and +unmanageable Punsters." + +We were very curious to see it, particularly with reference to the +alleged absence of every object upon which a play of words could +possibly be made. + +The Superintendent led us up some dark stairs to a corridor, then +along a narrow passage, then down a broad flight of steps into another +passage-way, and opened a large door which looked out on the main +entrance. + +"We have not seen the cell for the confinement of 'violent and +unmanageable' Punsters," we both exclaimed. + +"This is the _sell!_" he exclaimed, pointing to the outside prospect. + +My friend, the Director, looked me in the face so good-naturedly that I +had to laugh. + +"We like to humor the Inmates," he said. "It has a bad effect, we +find, on their health and spirits to disappoint them of their little +pleasantries. Some of the jests to which we have listened are not new to +me, though I dare say you may not have heard them often before. The same +thing happens in general society,--with this additional disadvantage, +that there is no punishment provided for 'violent and unmanageable' +Punsters, as in our Institution." + +We made our bow to the Superintendent and walked to the place where our +carriage was waiting for us. On our way, an exceedingly decrepit old man +moved slowly towards us, with a perfectly blank look on his face, but +still appearing as if he wished to speak. + +"Look!" said the Director,--"that is our Centenarian." + +The ancient man crawled towards us, cocked one eye, with which he seemed +to sec a little, up at us, and said,-- + +"Sarvant, young Gentlemen. Why is a--a--a--like a--a--a--? Give it up? +Because it's a--a--a--a--." + +He smiled a pleasant smile, as if it were all plain enough. + +"One hundred and seven last Christmas," said the Director. "He lost his +answers about the age of ninety-eight. Of late years he puts his whole +Conundrums in blank,--but they please him just as well." + +We took our departure, much gratified and instructed by our visit, +hoping to have some future opportunity of inspecting the Records of this +excellent Charity and making extracts for the benefit of our Readers. + + * * * * * + + +THE QUESTION OF THE HOUR. + + +Dean Swift, in a letter to Lord Bolingbroke, says that he does not +"remember to have ever heard or seen one great genius who had long +success in the ministry; and recollecting a great many in my memory and +acquaintance, those who had the smoothest time were, at best, men of +middling degree in understanding." However true this may be in the +main,--and it undoubtedly is true that in ordinary times the speculative +and innovating temper of an original mind is less safe than the patience +of routine and persistence in precedent of a common-place one,--there +are critical occasions to which intellect of the highest quality, +character of the finest fibre, and a judgment that is inspired rather +than confused by new and dangerous combinations of circumstances, are +alone equal. Tactics and an acquaintance with the highest military +authorities were adequate enough till they were confronted with General +Bonaparte and the new order of things. If a great man struggling with +the storms of fate be the sublimest spectacle, a mediocre man in the +same position is surely the most pitiful. Deserted by his presence +of mind, which, indeed, had never been anything but an absence of +danger,--baffled by the inapplicability of his habitual principles of +conduct, (if that may be called a principle, which, like the act of +walking, is merely an unconscious application of the laws of gravity,) +--helpless, irresolute, incapable of conceiving the flower Safety in +the nettle Danger, much more of plucking it thence,--surely here, if +anywhere, is an object of compassion. When such a one is a despot who +has wrought his own destruction by obstinacy in a traditional evil +policy, like Francis II. of Naples, our commiseration is outweighed by +satisfaction that the ruin of the man is the safety of the state. But +when the victim is a so-called statesman, who has malversated the +highest trusts for selfish ends, who has abused constitutional forms +to the destruction of the spirit that gave them life and validity, who +could see nothing nobler in the tenure of high office than the means it +seemed to offer of prolonging it, who knows no art to conjure the spirit +of anarchy he has evoked but the shifts and evasions of a second-rate +attorney, and who has contrived to involve his country in the confusion +of principle and vacillation of judgment which have left him without +a party and without a friend,--for such a man we have no feeling but +contemptuous reprobation. Pan-urge in danger of shipwreck is but a +faint type of Mr. Buchanan in face of the present crisis; and that poor +fellow's craven abjuration of his "_former_ friend," Friar John, is +magnanimity itself, compared with his almost-ex-Excellency's treatment +of the Free States in his last Message to Congress. There are times +when mediocrity is a dangerous quality, and a man may drown himself as +effectually in milk-and-water as in Malmsey. + +The question, whether we are a Government or an Indian Council, we do +not propose to discuss here; whether there be a right of secession +tempered by a right of coercion, like a despotism by assassination, and +whether it be expedient to put the latter in practice, we shall +not consider: for it is not always the part of wisdom to attempt a +settlement of what the progress of events will soon settle for us. Mr. +Buchanan seems to have no opinion, or, if he has one, it is a halting +between two, a bat-like cross of sparrow and mouse that gives timidity +its choice between flight and skulking. Nothing shocks our sense of the +fitness of things more than a fine occasion to which the man is wanting. +Fate gets her hook ready, but the eye is not there to clinch with it, +and so all goes at loose ends. Mr. Buchanan had one more chance offered +him of showing himself a common-place man, and he has done it full +justice. Even if they could have done nothing for the country, a few +manly sentences might have made a pleasing exception in his political +history, and rescued for him the fag-end of a reputation. + +Mr. Buchanan, by his training in a system of politics without a parallel +for intrigue, personality, and partisanship, would have unfitted himself +for taking a statesmanlike view of anything, even if he had ever been +capable of it. His nature has been subdued to what it worked in. We +could not have expected from him a Message around which the spirit, the +intelligence, and the character of the country would have rallied. But +he might have saved himself from the evil fame of being the first of our +Presidents who could never forget himself into a feeling of the +dignity of the place he occupied. He has always seemed to consider the +Presidency as a retaining-fee paid him by the slavery-propagandists, +and his Message to the present Congress looks like the last juiceless +squeeze of the orange which the South is tossing contemptuously away. + +Mr. Buchanan admits as real the assumed wrongs of the South Carolina +revolutionists, and even, if we understand him, allows that they are +great enough to justify revolution. But he advises the secessionists to +pause and try what can be done by negotiation. He sees in the internal +history of the country only a series of injuries inflicted by the +Free upon the Slave States; yet he affirms, that, so far as Federal +legislation is concerned, the rights of the South have never been +assailed, except in the single instance of the Missouri Compromise, +which gave to Slavery the unqualified possession of territory which the +Free States might till then have disputed. Yet that bargain, a losing +one as it was on the part of the Free States, having been annulled, can +hardly be reckoned a present grievance. South Carolina had quite as long +a list of intolerable oppressions to resent in 1832 as now, and not one +of them, as a ground of complaint, could be compared with the refusal +to pay the French-Spoliation claims of Massachusetts. The secession +movement then, as now, had its origin in the ambition of disappointed +politicians. If its present leaders are more numerous, none of them are +so able as Mr. Calhoun; and if it has now any other object than it had +then, it is to win by intimidation advantages that shall more than +compensate for its loss in the elections. + +In 1832, General Jackson bluntly called the South Carolina doctrines +treason, and the country sustained him. That they are not characterized +in the same way now does not prove any difference in the thing, but only +in the times and the men. They are none the less treason because +James Buchanan is less than Andrew Jackson, but they are all the more +dangerous. + +It has been the misfortune of the United States that the conduct of +their public affairs has passed more and more exclusively into the hands +of men who have looked on politics as a game to be played rather than +as a trust to be administered, and whose capital, whether of personal +consideration or of livelihood, has been staked on a turn of the cards. +A general skepticism has thus been induced, exceedingly dangerous +in times like these. The fatal doctrine of rotation in office has +transferred the loyalty of the numberless servants of the Government, +and of those dependent on or influenced by them, from the nation to +a party. For thousands of families every change in the National +Administration is as disastrous as revolution, and the Government has +thus lost that influence which the idea of permanence and stability +would exercise in a crisis like the present. At the present moment, the +whole body of office-holders at the South is changed from a conservative +to a disturbing element by a sense of the insecurity of their tenure. +Their allegiance having always been to the party in power at Washington, +and not to the Government of the Nation, they find it easy to transfer +it to the dominant faction at home. + +The subservience on the question of Slavery, which has hitherto +characterized both the great parties of the country, has strengthened +the hands of the extremists at the South, and has enabled them to get +the control of public opinion there by fostering false notions of +Southern superiority and Northern want of principle. We have done so +much to make them believe in their importance to us, and given them so +little occasion even to suspect our importance to them, that we have +taught them to regard themselves as the natural rulers of the country, +and to look upon the Union as a favor granted to our weakness, whose +withdrawal would be our ruin. Accordingly, they have grown more and more +exacting, till at length the hack politicians of the Free States have +become so imbued with the notion of yielding, and so incapable of +believing in any principle of action higher than temporary expedients +to carry an election, or any object nobler than the mere possession of +office for its own sake, that Mr. Buchanan gravely proposes that the +Republican party should pacify South Carolina by surrendering the very +creed that called it into existence and holds it together, the only +fruit of its victory that made victory worth having. Worse than this, +when the Free States by overwhelming majorities have just expressed +their conviction, that slavery, as he creature of local law, can claim +no legitimate extension beyond the limits of that law, he asks their +consent to denationalize freedom and to nationalize slavery by an +amendment of the Federal Constitution, that shall make the local law of +the Slave States paramount throughout the Union. Mr. Buchanan would stay +the yellow fever by abolishing the quarantine hospital and planting a +good virulent case or two in every village in the land. + +We do not underestimate the gravity of the present crisis, and we agree +that nothing should be done to exasperate it; but if the people of the +Free States have been taught anything by the repeated lessons of bitter +experience, it has been that submission is not the seed of conciliation, +but of contempt and encroachment. The wolf never goes for mutton to the +mastiff. It is quite time that it should be understood that freedom is +also an institution deserving some attention in a Model Republic, that +a decline in stocks is more tolerable and more transient than one in +public spirit, and that material prosperity was never known to abide +long in a country that had lost its political morality. The fault of the +Free States in the eyes of the South is not one that can be atoned for +by any yielding of special points here and there. Their offence is that +they are free, and that their habits and prepossessions are those of +Freedom. Their crime is the census of 1860. Their increase in numbers, +wealth, and power is a standing aggression. It would not be enough to +please the Southern States that we should stop asking them to abolish +slavery,--what they demand of us is nothing less than that we should +abolish the spirit of the age. Our very thoughts are a menace. It is not +the North, but the South, that forever agitates the question of Slavery. +The seeming prosperity of the cotton-growing States is based on a great +mistake and a great wrong; and it is no wonder that they are irritable +and scent accusation in the very air. It is the stars in their courses +that fight against their system, and there are those who propose to make +everything comfortable by Act of Congress. + +It is almost incredible to what a pitch of absurdity the Slave-holding +party have been brought by the weak habit of concession which has been +the vice of the Free States. Senator Green of Missouri, whose own State +is rapidly gravitating toward free institutions, gravely proposes an +armed police along the whole Slave frontier for the arrest of fugitives. +Already the main employment of our navy is in striving to keep Africans +out, and now the whole army is to mount guard to keep them in. This is +but a trifle to the demands that will be made upon us, if we yield now +under the threats of a mob,--for men acting under passion or terror, or +both, are a mob, no matter what their numbers and intelligence. + +A dissolution of the Union would be a terrible thing, but not so +terrible as an acquiescence in the theory that Property is the only +interest that binds men together in society, and that its protection +is the highest object of human government. Nothing could well be more +solemn than the thought of a disruption of our great and prosperous +Republic. Even if peaceful, the derangement consequent upon it would +cause incalculable suffering and disaster. Already the mere threat +of it, assisted by the efforts of interested persons, has caused a +commercial panic. But would it be wisdom in the Free States to put +themselves at the mercy of such a panic whenever the whim took South +Carolina to be discontented? That would be the inevitable result of a +craven spirit now. Let the Republican party be mild and forbearing,--for +the opportunity to be so is the best reward of victory, and taunts and +recriminations belong to boys; but, above all, let them be manly. The +moral taint of once submitting to be bullied is a scrofula that will +never out of the character. + +We do not believe that the danger is so great as it appears. Rumor is +like one of those multiplying-mirrors that make a mob of shadows out +of one real object. The interests of three-fifths of the Slave-holding +States are diametrically opposed to secession; so are those of +five-sixths of the people of the seceding States, if they did but know +it. The difficulties in the way of organizing a new form of government +are great, almost insuperable; the expenses enormous. As the public +burdens grow heavier, the lesson of resistance and rebellion will find +its aptest scholars in the non-slave-owning majority who will be paying +taxes for the support of the very institution that has made and keeps +them poor. Men are not long in arriving at just notions of the value of +what they pay for, especially when it is for other people. Taxes are a +price that people are slowest to pay for a cat in a bag. If matters are +allowed to take their own course for a little longer, the inevitable +reaction is sure to set in. The Hartford Convention gave more uneasiness +to the Government and the country than the present movement in the +South, but the result of it was the ruin of the Federal Party, and not +of the Federal Union. + +Even if the secessionists could accomplish their schemes, who would +be the losers? Not the Free States, certainly, with their variety of +resources and industry. The laws of trade cannot be changed, and the +same causes which have built up their agriculture, commerce, and +manufactures will not cease to be operative. The real wealth +and strength of states, other things being equal, depends upon +homogeneousness of population and variety of occupation, with a common +interest and common habits of thought. The cotton-growing States, with +their single staple, are at the mercy of chance. India, Australia, nay, +Africa herself, may cut the thread of their prosperity. Their population +consists of two hostile races, and their bone and muscle, instead +of being the partners, are the unwilling tools of their capital +and intellect. The logical consequence of this political theory is +despotism, which the necessity of coercing the subject race will make a +military one. Already South Carolina is discussing a standing army. If +history is not a lying gossip, the result of the system of labor will be +Jamaica, and that of the system of polity, Mexico. Instead of a stable +government, they will have a whirligig of _pronunciamientos_, or +stability will be purchased at a cost that will make it intolerable. +They have succeeded in establishing among themselves a fatal unanimity +on the question of Slavery,--fatal because it makes the office of spy +and informer honorable, makes the caprice of a mob the arbiter of +thought, speech, and action, and debases public opinion to a muddy +mixture of fear and prejudice. In peace, the majority of their +population will be always looked on as conspirators; in war, they would +become rebels. + +It is time that the South should learn, if they do not begin to suspect +it already, that the difficulty of the Slavery question is slavery +itself,--nothing more, nothing less. It is time that the North should +learn that it has nothing left to compromise but the rest of its +self-respect. Nothing will satisfy the extremists at the South short of +a reduction of the Free States to a mere police for the protection of an +institution whose danger increases at an equal pace with its wealth. + +It was the deliberate intention of Mr. Calhoun that the compact should +be broken the moment the absolute control of Government passed out of +the hands of the slaveholding clique. He was willing to wait till we +had stolen Texas and paid a hundred millions for Cuba; but if the game +seemed to be up, then secede at once. In a hasty moment, he started his +revolution, when there was a stronger man than he to confront him. South +Carolina was to all appearance as united then as now. But a few months +brought a reaction, and no one was more relieved than Mr. Calhoun that +matters stopped where they did. Whether the stirrers of the present +excitement, which finds vacillation in the Executive and connivance +In the Cabinet, will be wise enough to let it go out in the same way, +remains to be seen; but the greatest danger of disunion, would spring +from a want of self-possession and spirit in the Free States. + + + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_Collection of Rare and Original Documents and Relations concerning the +Discovery and Conquest of America, chiefly from the Spanish Archives_. +Published in the Original, with Translations, Illustrative Notos, Maps, +and Biographical Sketches. By K.G. SQUIER, M.A., F.S.A., etc., etc. New +York: Charles B. Norton. 1860. + +No. I. Carta dirigida al Key de Espana, por el Licenciado Dr. Don DIEGO +GARCIA DE PALACIO, Oydor de la Real Audiencia de Guatemala, Ano 1576. +Being a Description of the Ancient Provinces of Guazacapan, Izalco, +Cuscatlan, and Chiquimula, in the Audiencia of Guatemala: with an +Account of the Languages, Customs, and Religion of their Aboriginal +Inhabitants, and a Description of the Ruins of Copan. Square 8vo. pp. +132. + +This tract is the first number of a series of Rare and Original +Documents, relating to the first settlement of America by the Spaniards, +which Mr. Squier proposes to edit and publish. The undertaking is one of +interest to all students of American history, and deserves a generous +encouragement from them. Its success must depend not on the usual +machinery of bookselling so much as on the ready support of individuals. + +Mr. Squier's proposed collection resembles in its scope the well-known +"Recueil des Documents et Memoires Originaux" of M. Ternaux-Compans. +Familiar, by long residence and longer study, as few men are or ever +have been, with those portions of our continent of which the Spaniards +first took possession, acquainted with their antiquities and former +condition, and a curious investigator of their present state and +prospects, Mr. Squier is peculiarly fitted to select and edit--with +judgment such documents of historical interest as his unrivalled +opportunities have enabled him to collect. + +The Letter of Palacio is now for the first time published in the +original, although it was largely used by Herrera in his "Historia +General." "To me," says Mr. Squier, "the relation has a special +interest. I have been over a great part of the ground that was traversed +by its author, and I am deeply impressed with the accuracy of his +descriptions.... His memoir will always stand as one of the best +illustrations of an interesting country, as it was at the period +immediately succeeding the Conquest." It appears, that, under an order +from the Crown, Palacio was deputed to visit a number of the Provinces +of Guatemala, and to report upon them, especially in respect to the +condition of their native inhabitants. The memoir now published relates +chiefly to the territory comprised in the present Republic of San +Salvador. It shows Palacio to have been an intelligent observer, and a +kindly, well-disposed man,--not free from the superstitions of his time +and race, but less credulous than many of his contemporaries. His +report is full of matter of value to the historical inquirer, and of +entertainment for the general reader. His stories of the manners of the +people, and his accounts of the animals of the district are brief, but +characteristic. But the most interesting part of his narrative is that +which relates to the wonderful ruins of Copan. It is a remarkable fact, +stated by Mr. Squier in his Prefatory Note, that these ruins do not +appear to have been noticed by any of the chroniclers of the country +down to the time of Fuentes, who wrote in 1689, more than one hundred +years after Palacio. It was not, indeed, until 1841, when Stephens +published his account of them, that an accurate description was given +to the world of these most interesting and most puzzling remains of a +forgotten people and an unknown antiquity. Even in Palacio's time, only +vague traditions existed regarding them. His account has a permanent +value from being the earliest known, and as proving that within fifty +years after the Spanish Conquest they presented very nearly the same +appearance as at present. + +Mr. Squier has enriched Talacio's Letter with numerous and important +notes. He claims a lenient judgment of his translation, which is printed +side by side with the original, on account of the obscurities of the +manuscript, and the uncertainty as to the meaning of some of the +writer's expressions. But, allowing for these difficulties, we regret +that Mr. Squier did not bestow a little more pains on this part of his +work. He has fallen into some slight errors, which might easily have +been corrected, and he has, as we think, lost something of the spirit of +the original by too free a version. The book is one which in typographic +beauty would meet the demands of the most exacting bibliographer. We +regret the more that the pages are disfigured with misprints, many of +which are left uncorrected in the long list of _Errata_, while others +occur in the very list itself. + + +1. _Le Panlatinisme, Confederation Gallo-Latine et Celto-Gauloise, +Contre-Testament de Pierre le Grand et Contre-Panslavisme_. Paris: +Passard, Libraire-Editeur. 1860. 8vo. pp. 260. + +2. _Testament de Pierre le Grand, ou Plan de Domination Europeenne +laisse par lui a ses Descendants et Successeurs au Trone de la Russie_. +Edition suivie de Notes et de Pieces Justificatives. Paris: Passard. +1860. 8vo. + +We seem to be living in an age of pamphleteers. More than ever, both in +France and Germany, are pamphlets the order of the day. In Paris +alone, the year 1860 has given birth to hundreds of these writings of +circumstance,--political squibs, visionary remodellings of European +states,--vying with each other for ephemeral celebrity. They fill the +windows of the book-shops, and are spread by scores along the stands +in the numerous galleries which the Parisian population throngs of +evenings. Those issued in the early part of the year have gradually +descended from the rank of new publications, and may be found on +every quay, spread out, for a few _centimes_, side by side with +old weather-beaten books, odd volumes, refuse of libraries, which +book-lovers daily finger through in the hope of finding some pearl, some +rarity, in the worthless mass. + +Thus we have seen the interminable Rhine question discussed in its every +possible phase,--still more that of Italy. Between come the Druses, the +Orient, the Turks. Then Italy again, Garibaldi, Naples, the Pope. + +To state in general terms the tendency of these rockets of literature, +or to arrive at the spirit which seems to pervade them, is not quite so +easy as it would seem. They are written by authors of all party-colors, +within certain impassable limits prescribed by the parental restrictions +of Government. Still it seems to be the old story of soothing; and many +a conclusion--as where England is smoothed down by a few flatteries and +told that her most natural ally is France, or where Germany is heartily +assured that she has nothing to fear, that all the changes proposed are +for the good of the Teutonic race--reminds us very strongly of that +widely known verse in child-literature,-- + + "Will you walk into my parlor," etc. + +We have before us, however, a work which, from its size and from +the labor bestowed upon it, deserves to be ranked above the various +productions that have scarcely called forth more than a passing notice +in the daily press. + +The pamphlet named at the head of this article, and which is but a +complement to the volume, is one of the numerous reconstructions and +rearrangements of European limits made in the quiet of the study. Were +it this alone, it would deserve but little attention. It is more. The +author bases his theories upon other than political reasons, having +labored hard to establish many debatable points of Ethnography in the +interesting notes appended to the work, and which form by far the most +remarkable part of it. So we have the question of Races discussed at +full length. There is certainly some philological legerdemain, as may be +seen from some of the convenient conclusions of the author concerning +the Celts and the Gauls. He is full of such paragraphs as this in his +argumentation:-- + + "It has seemed to us proved, that the names, + Volces, Volsks, Bolgs, Belgs, Belgians, Welsh, + Welchs, Waels, Wuelchs or Walchs, Walls, + Walloons, Valais, Valois, Vlaks, Wallachians, + Galatians, Galtachs, Galls, Gaels or Caels, + Gaelic, Galot, Gallegos, Gaul, and even Ola, + Olatz, and Vallus, were but one and the same + word under different forms." + +The point to be established at all hazards is, that the French, +Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians, Belgians, and even the English and +Greeks, form but one great family, of one hundred and fifteen million +individuals,--the Gallo-Roman. This Neo-Latin world the author would +wish combined in one grand confederation, like the States of America. +Hence his use of the term _Panlatinism_, in opposition to the so much +debated one of _Panslavism_. The merit of the work under consideration +is, that, though decidedly French in all its views, it condenses in +a few paragraphs the present mooted question of race. The idea of +Panslavism, or the uniting of eighty millions of Sclavonians under one +banner, was, in its origin, republican and federal, whatever it may +have become since. Few words have acquired more diametrically opposite +meanings, according as they were uttered by radical or conservative. +Hence the confusion, hence the many strange phrases to be met with in +the periodical press. The author of the present work has sought to throw +some light on this important point. Leaving aside his prophetic fears of +future shocks with American or Asiatic powers as visionary, we can say +for the work that it presents in a clear light the question of races +as referring to European politics. The notes are good, and no research +seems to have been spared by the writer to establish the position he +maintains. + + +1. _Ancient Danish Ballads._ Translated from the Originals, by R.C. +ALEXANDER PRIOR, M.D. London: Williams & Norgate. Leipzig: R. Hartmann. +1860, 3 vols. pp. lx., 400, 468, 500. + +2. _Edinburgh Papers._ By ROBERT CHAMBERS, F.R.S.E., etc., etc. _The +Romantic Scottish Ballads, their Epoch and Authorship._ W. & R. +Chambers: London and Edinburgh. 1859. pp. 40. + +3. _The Romantic Scottish Ballads, and the Lady Wardlaw Heresy._ By +NORVAL CLYNE. Aberdeen: A. Brown & Co. 1859. pp. 49. + +The expectations raised by the title of Dr. Prior's volumes are in a +great measure disappointed by their contents. The book is of value only +because it gives for the first time, in English, the substance of a +large number of Danish ballads, and points out the relations between +them and similar productions in other languages. Of the spirit and life +of these remarkable poems a person hitherto unfamiliar with them would +find but scanty indication in Dr. Prior's versions. He has merely done +them into English in a somewhat mechanical way, and one scarcely gets +a better notion of the more imaginative ones in his bald reproductions +than of the "Iliad" from the analysis of that poem in the "Epistolae +Obscurorum Virorum." It seems to require almost as peculiar powers to +translate an old ballad as to write a new one. + +Dr. Prior complains of Jamieson, that his versions from the Danish are +done in a broad Scotch dialect, almost as unintelligible to ordinary +readers as the language of which they profess to give the meaning. But +if any one compare Jamieson's rendering of "The Buried Mother" with Dr. +Prior's, (Prior, vol. i. p. 368,) he will, we think, see cause to regret +that Jamieson did not do what Dr. Prior has attempted, and that he has +not left us a greater number of translations equally good. Jamieson's +fault was not so much his broad Scotch as his over-fondness for +archaisms, sometimes of mere spelling, which give rise to a needless +obscurity. We think that he was theoretically right; but he should not +have pushed his theory to the extent of puzzling the reader, where his +aim was to give only that air of strangeness which allures the fancy. As +respects ballads dealing with the supernatural, Jamieson's notion of +the duty of a translator was certainly the true one. There is something +almost ludicrous in a ghost talking the ordinary conversational language +of every-day life, which might, to be sure, serve very well for some +of Jung Stilling's spirits in bottle-green hunting-coats with brass +buttons, but hardly for the majesty of buried Denmark. Dr. Prior may +claim that his renderings are more literal; but it is the vice of +literal translation, that the phrases of one language, if exactly +reproduced in another, while they may have the same sense, convey a +wholly different impression to the imagination. It is to such cases that +the Italian proverb, _Tradutiore traditore_, applies. Dryden, citing +approvingly Denham's verses to Fanshawe, + + "They but preserve his ashes, thou his flame, + True to his sense, but truer to his fame," + +says, with his usual pithiness, "Too faithfully is indeed pedantically." + +In Dr. Prior's version of the "The Buried Mother" we find a case +precisely in point. The Stepmother says to the poor Orphans,-- + + "In blind-house shall ye lie all night." + +Jamieson gives it,-- + + "Says, 'Ye sall ligg i' the mirk all night.'" + +Now, the object in all translations of ballad-poetry being to reproduce +simple and downright phrases with equal simplicity and force, to give +us the same effects and not the same words, we vastly prefer Jamieson's +verse to Dr. Prior's, in spite of the affectation of _ligg_ for _lie_. +If _blind-house_ be the equivalent for _dark_ in the original, Dr. +Prior should have told us so in a note, giving us the stronger (because +simpler) English word in the text. He might as well write _hand-shoe_ +for _glove_, in a translation from the German. Elsewhere Jamieson errs +in preferring _groff_ to _great_, and the more that _groff_ means more +properly _coarse_ than _large_. + +The following couplet is also from Dr. Prior's translation of this +ballad:-- + + "They cried one evening till the sound + Their mother heard beneath the ground." + +Jamieson has it,-- + + "'Twas lang i' the night, and the bairnies + grat [cried], + Their mither she under the mools [mould] + heard that." + +Again, Dr. Prior gives us,-- + + "Her eldest daughter then she sped + To fetch Child Dyring out of bed"; + +instead of Jamieson's-- + + "Till her eldest dochter syne [then] said she, + 'Ye bid Child Dyring come here to me.'" + +And, still worse,-- + + "Out from their chest she stretch'd her bones + And rent her way through earth and stones"; + +where Jamieson is not only more literal, but more forcible,-- + + "Wi' her banes sae stark a bowt she gae + Hath riven both wall and marble gray." + +The original is better than either,-- + + "She upward heaved her mighty bones + And rived both wall and gray marble-stones." + +Jamieson had the true instinct of a translator, though his own verses +defy the stanchest reader; and, reasoning by analogy, Dr. Prior's +translations are so bad that he ought to be capable of very good +original poetry. + +However, with all its defects, Dr. Prior's book is of value for the +information it gives. Under the dead ribs of his translations the reader +familiar with old ballads can create a life for himself, and can form +some conception of the spirit and strength of the originals. + +Mr. Chambers's pamphlet is one that we should hardly have expected from +the editor of the best collection of ballads in the language before +that of Professor Child. Directly in the teeth of all probability, he +attributes the bulk of the _romantic_ Scottish ballads to Lady Wardlaw, +who wrote "Hardyknute." This is one of those theories (like that of Lord +Bacon being the author of Shakspeare's plays) which cannot be argued, +but which every one familiar with the subject challenges peremptorily. +Without going very deeply into the matter, Mr. Norval Clyne has put in +a clever plea in arrest of judgment. The truth is, that, in the present +state of our knowledge, "Hardyknute" could not pass muster as an antique +better than "Vortigern," or the poems of "Master Rowley"; and the notion +that Lady Wardlaw could have written "Sir Patrick Spens" will not hold +water better than a sieve, when we consider how hopelessly inferior are +the imitations of old ballads written by Scott, with fifty times her +familiarity with the originals, and a man of genius besides. + + * * * * * + +_Miss Gilbert's Career_. An American Story. By J.G. HOLLAND. New York: +Charles Scribner. + +There is scarcely a more hazardous experiment for any novelist than "a +novel with a purpose." If the moral does not run away with the story, it +is in most cases only because the author's lucky star has made the moral +too feeble, in spite of his efforts, to do that or anything else,--in +other words, because his book has fortunately defeated its own object. +That any clever girl will be kept from the perilous paths of authorship +by the warnings, however strongly inculcated, of any novel whatever, we +are not prepared to assert: we venture to say no one will be deterred by +the history of Miss Fanny Gilbert. If a woman's happiness is to be found +in love, and not in fame, the question nevertheless recurs,--What is she +to do before the love comes? Our author only shows that his heroine's +restless unhappiness was owing to her having to wait for her heart to be +awakened: to prove what he desires to prove, he should demonstrate that +it was owing to her having adopted authorship during the time of her +waiting. During that time, Miss Fanny Gilbert wrote novels, and was +unhappy: would she have been happy, if, in the interval, she had +chronicled small beer? And even admitting that her authorship caused her +unhappiness, we can scarcely believe Dr. Holland prepared to say, after +having allowed his heroine a real talent, as one condition of the +problem, that she ought to have concealed that talent in the decorous +napkin of silence. + +What the moral loses the story gains. Our author has lost nothing of +that genuine love of Nature, of that quick perception of the comic +element in men and things, of that delightful freshness and liveliness, +which threw such a charm about the former writings of Timothy Titcomb. +No story can be pronounced a failure which has vivacity and interest; +and the volume before us adds to vivacity and interest vigorous sketches +of character and scenery, droll conversation and incidents, a frequent +and kindly humor, and, underlying all, a true, earnest purpose, which +claims not only approval for the author, but respect for the man. + +Dr. Holland describes admirably whatever he has himself seen. +Unfortunately, he has not seen his hero or his heroine. About Arthur +Blague there is nothing real or distinctive. There is a life and reality +in many scenes of his experience; but the central figure of the group +stands conventional and inanimate,--the ordinary walking gentleman of +the stage,--the stereo-typed hero of the novel,--hero only by virtue of +his finally marrying the heroine. The one merit of the delineation--that +it is a portrait of a delicate Christian gentleman--is sadly marred by +the vulgar smartness of Arthur's repartees with the scampish New-Yorker. +A victory in such a contest was by no means necessary to vindicate the +hero's superiority; and if he so far forgot himself as to engage at all +in the degrading warfare, a defeat would have been more creditable. His +retorts are undeniably smart; but "smartness" is the attribute of a +"fellow," not of a "gentleman." + +Miss Fanny Gilbert is a warm-hearted, high-spirited girl, clever and +ambitious, and disposed at first to look contemptuously on poor Arthur, +whose humble labors appear in most dingy and sordid colors, when +contrasted with the fair Fanny's gorgeous dreams. She is not a very +fascinating nor a very real heroine; but she is better than most of our +heroines, and some of her experiences are very pleasantly told. + +Arthur's miserly employer is very good, and his shrewd friend Cheek is +capitally drawn. It was a peculiarly happy thought to make Cheek into +a railroad-conductor, and finally into a "gentlemanly and efficient" +superintendent. Nothing else would have suited his character half so +well. The business-like religionists, Moustache and Breastpin, are not +so good as the author meant to have them. The young bookseller is very +well done, and Dr. Gilbert very natural and lifelike. The story of the +Doctor's awakened interest in his daughter's success, and of his journey +to New York, is very well told. We like especially the lesson which +the triumphant authoress, in the full glory of her fame, receives, +on finding that her father sets a higher value on his son's least +achievement than on his daughter's highest success,--that, however a +woman may deserve a man's place, the world will never award it to her. +It would have been more effective, however, if Dr. Holland had not been +quite so anxious that no one should fail to perceive the moral,--if +he had had a little more confidence in his readers. But we can give +unqualified praise to the scene between Miss Gilbert and the little +crippled boy, which is one of the most beautiful and touching pictures +ever yet presented. + +It is a real satisfaction to find a book which one may venture to +criticize fearlessly, knowing that it will bear the test,--especially +at present, when one needs be as chary of trying any book fairly as +Don Quixote was of proving his unlucky helmet. And an additional +satisfaction is caused by the fact, that the book, not only in origin, +but in essence, is American from cover to cover. + + + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS + +RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + + +Guesses at Truth. By Two Brothers. From the Fifth London Edition. +Boston. Ticknor & Fields. 12mo. pp. 555. $1.60. + +Lake House. By Fanny Lewald. Translated from the German by Nathaniel +Greene. Boston. Ticknor & Fields. 16mo. pp. 304. 75 cts. + +New Fairy-Stories for my Grandchildren. By George Keil. 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