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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/11745-0.txt b/11745-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fab66a1 --- /dev/null +++ b/11745-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10681 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11745 *** + +BLACKWOOD'S +EDINBURGH MAGAZINE + + * * * * * + +No. CCCXXX. APRIL, 1843. VOL. LIII. + + * * * * * + +CONTENTS + + + THE PRACTISE OF AGRICULTURE, + POEMS AND BALLADS OF SCHILLER.--NO. VII., + THE LAST OF THE SHEPHERDS, + THE FOUNDING OF THE BELL. BY CHARLES MACKAY, + AMMALAT BEK. A TRUE TALE OF THE CAUCASUS FROM THE + RUSSIAN OF MARLINSKY.--CHAPTER III., + OCCUPATION OF ADEN, + SONNET, + CALEB STUKLEY. PART XIII., + IMAGINARY CONVERSATION, BETWEEN MR. WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR + AND THE EDITOR OF BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, + THE BURIAL MARCH OF DUNDEE, + LORD ELLENBOROUGH AND THE WHIGS, + + + * * * * * + +EDINBURGH: +WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET; +AND 22, PALL-MALL, LONDON. + +_To whom Communications (post-paid) may be addressed_. + +SOLD ALSO BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. + + * * * * * + +PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND HUGHES, EDINBURGH. + +BLACKWOOD'S +EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. + + * * * * * + +No. CCCXXX. APRIL, 1843. VOL. LIII. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE + +Skilful practice is applied science. This fact is illustrated in +every chapter of the excellent and comprehensive work now before us +[1]. + +In a previous article, (see the number for June 1842,) we +illustrated at some length the connexion which now exists, and which +hereafter must become more intimate, between practical agriculture +and modern science. We showed by what secret and silent steps the +progress and gradual diffusion of modern scientific discoveries had +imperceptibly led to great improvements in the agriculture of the +present century--by what other more open and manifest applications +of science it had directly, and in the eyes of all, been +advanced--to what useful practical discussions the promulgation of +scientific opinions had given rise--and to what better practice such +discussions had eventually led. Above all, we earnestly solicited +the attention of the friends of agriculture to what science seemed +not only capable of doing, but anxious also to effect, for the +further advance of this important art--what new lessons to give, new +suggestions to offer, and new means of fertility to place in the +hands of, the skilful experimental farmer. + +It is but a comparatively short time since that article was written, +and yet the spread of sound opinion, of correct and enlightened views, +and of a just appreciation, as well of the aids which science is +capable of giving to agriculture, as of the expediency of availing +ourselves of all these aids, which within that period has taken +place among practical men, has really surprised us. Nor have we been +less delighted by the zeal with which the pursuit of scientific +knowledge, in its relations to agriculture, has been entered upon in +every part of the empire--by the progress which has been made in the +acquisition of this knowledge--and by the numerous applications +already visible of the important principles and suggestions embodied +in the works then before us, (JOHNSTON's _Lectures and Elements of +Agricultural Chemistry and Geology_.) But on this important topic we +do not at present dwell. We may have occasion to return to the +subject in a future number, and in the mean time we refer our +readers to the remarks contained in our previous article. + +The truly scientific man--among those, we mean, who devote themselves +to such studies as are susceptible of important applications to the +affairs and pursuits of daily life--the truly scientific man does +not despise the _practice_ of any art, in which he sees the +principles he investigates embodied and made useful in promoting the +welfare of his fellow-men. He does not even undervalue it--he rather +upholds and magnifies its importance, as the agent or means by which +his greatest and best discoveries can be made to subserve their +greatest and most beneficent end. In him this may possibly arise +from no unusual liberality of mind; it may spring from a selfish +desire to see the principles he has established or made his own +carried out to their legitimate extent, and their value established +and acknowledged--_for it is the application of a principle that +imparts to it its highest value_. + +[Footnote 1: THE BOOK OF THE FARM. By Henry Stephens.] + +Science is to practical skill in the arts of life as the soul is to +the body. They are united as faith and works are in concerns of +higher moment. As both, though separately good, must yet be united +in the finished Christian, so the perfection of husbandry implies +the union of all the lights of existing theoretical knowledge with +all the skill of the most improved agricultural practice. + +Though such is the belief of those scientific men who are able and +willing to do the most for practical agriculture, who see most +clearly what _can_ be done for it, and the true line along +which agricultural improvement may now most hopefully direct +her course--yet with this opinion the greater part of practical +men are still far from sympathizing. Some voices even--becoming +every day more feeble, however, and recurring at more distant +intervals--continue to be raised against the utility and the +applications of science; as if practice with _stationary_ knowledge +were omnipotent in developing the resources of nature; as if a man, +in a rugged and partially explored country, could have too much +light to guide his steps. + +In the history of maritime intercourse there was a time when the +timid seaman crept from port to port, feeling his cautious and wary +way from headland to headland, and daring no distant voyage where +seas, and winds, and rocks, unknown to him, increased the dangers of +his uncertain life. Then a bolder race sprung up--tall ships danced +proudly upon the waves, and many brave hearts manned and guided them; +yet still they rarely ventured from sight of land. Men became +bewildered still, perplexed, and full of fear, when sea and sky +alone presented themselves. But a third period arose--and in the same +circumstances, men not more brave appeared collected, fearless, and +full of hope. Faith in a trembling needle gave confidence to the +most timorous, and neither the rough Atlantic nor the wide Pacific +could deter the bold adventurer, or the curious investigator of +nature. + +And yet it was not till this comparatively advanced stage of the +nautical art--when man had obtained a faithful guide in his most +devious and trackless wanderings--when he was apparently set free +from the unsteady dominion of the seas and of the fickle winds--and +amid his labyrinthine course could ever and at once turn his face +towards his happy and expectant home;--it was not till this period +that science began to lend her most useful and most extensive aids, +and that her value in the advancement of the sailor's art began to +be justly appreciated. The astronomer forthwith taught him more +accurately to observe the heavens, and compiled laborious tables for +his daily use. Geography and hydrography obtained higher estimation, +and harbour-engineering and ship-building were elevated into more +important separate arts, chiefly from their applications to his use. +Nautical schools and nautical surveys, and lighthouse boards, with +all their attendant scientific researches, and magnetic observations, +and voyages of discovery all sprung up--at once the causes and the +consequences of the advancement of his art towards perfection; and +latest, though yet far from being the last, all the new knowledge +that belongs to steam-navigation has been incorporated in the vast +body of nautical science. _The further an art advances, the more +necessary does science become to it_. + +Thus it is with agriculture. It cannot be denied that the tillage of +the soil, with almost every other branch of husbandry, has made +large strides among us--that we have more productive and better +cultivated provinces, and more skilful farmers, than are to be found +in any other part of the world in which equal disadvantages of +climate prevail. Any one will readily satisfy himself of this, who, +with an agricultural eye, shall visit the other parts of Europe to +which the same northern sky is common with ourselves. And it is +because we have reached this pitch of improvement--at which many +think we ought to be content to stop--because we have dismissed our +frail and diminutive boats, and sail now in majestic and decorated +ships, provided with such abundant stores that we need not, night by +night, to seek the harbour for new supplies--that we begin to feel +the want of some directing principle--to look about for some +favouring star to guide our wanderings upon the deep. To the +tremblirg needle of science we must now turn to point our way. +Feeble and uncertain it may itself appear--wavering as it directs +us--and therefore by many may be depreciated and despised--yet it +will surely lead us right if we have faith in its indications. Let +the practical man then build his ships skilfully and well after the +best models, and of the soundest oak--let their timbers be Kyanized, +their cables of iron, their cordage and sails of the most approved +make and material--let their sailors be true men and fearless, and +let stores be providently laid in for the voyage; but let not the +trembling needle of science be forgotten; for though the distant +harbour he would gain be well known to him--without the aid of the +needle he may never be able to reach it. + +In thus rigging out his ship--in other words, in fitting up his farm +and doing all for it, and upon it, which experience and skilful +practice can suggest--he cannot have a better guide than the book +now before us. + +THE BOOK OF THE FARM is not a mere didactic treatise on practical +agriculture, of which we already possess several of deserved +reputation; nor yet a laborious compilation, systematically arranged, +of every thing which, in the opinion of the author, it should +interest the farmer to know. Of such Cyclopædias, that of Loudon +will not soon find a rival. But, as its name implies, The _Book of +the Farm_ contains a detail of all the operations, the more minute +as well as the greater, which the husbandman will be called upon to +undertake upon his farm--in the exact order in point of time in +which they will successively demand his attention. Beginning at the +close of the agricultural year, when the crops are reaped and housed, +and the long winter invites to new and peculiar, and, as they may be +called, preparatory labours, the reader is taught what work in each +succeeding month and season should be undertaken--why at that season +for what purpose it is to be done-in what way it can best be +performed--how at the least cost of money and the smallest waste of +time--and _how the master may at all times ascertain if his work has +been efficiently performed_. + +We confess that we have been much struck with the wide range of +_practical_ subjects on which the author gives, in such a way a to +show that he is himself familiar with them, the most minute +directions for the guidance at once of the master farmer himself, +and for the direction of those who are under his orders. We have +satisfied ourselves that by carefully _examining_ the contents of +this one book, we should be prepared not merely to pass an +examination, but actually to undertake the office of public examiner +in any or all of the several crafts and mysteries of the farm-builder, +the weather-seer, the hedge-planter, the ditcher, the drainer, the +ploughman, the cattle-feeder, the stock-buyer, the drover, the +pig-killer, the fat cattle seller, the butcher, the miller, and the +grieve or general overseer of the farm. We know not what other +gentle crafts the still unpublished parts of the work may hereafter +teach us; but so faithfully and so minutely, in general so clearly, +and with so much apparent enjoyment, does the author enter into the +details of all the above lines of life, that we have been deceived +(we suppose) into the persuasion that Mr. Stephens must, in his +lifetime, have "played many parts"--that he has himself, as occasion +offered, or as work fell in his way, engaged in every one of these +as well as of the other varied occupations it falls in his way to +describe. + +How, otherwise, for instance, should he so well understand the +duties and habits, and sympathize with the privations and simple +enjoyments of the humble and way-worn drover?-- + +"A drover of sheep should always be provided with a dog, as the +numbers and nimbleness of sheep render it impossible for one man to +guide a capricious flock along a road subject to many casualties; +not a young dog, who is apt to work and bark a great deal more than +necessary, much to the annoyance of the sheep--but a knowing +cautious tyke. The drover should have a walking stick, a useful +instrument at times in turning a sheep disposed to break off from +the rest. A shepherd's plaid he will find to afford comfortable +protection to his body from cold and wet, while the mode in which it +is worn leaves his limbs free for motion. He should carry provision +with him, such as bread, meat, cheese or butter, that he may take +luncheon or dinner quietly beside his flock, while resting in a +sequestered part of the road; and he may slake his thirst in the +first brook or spring he finds, or purchase a bottle of ale at a +roadside ale-house. Though exposed all day to the air, and even +though he feel cold, he should avoid drinking spirits, which only +produce temporary warmth, and for a long time after induce chilliess +and languor. Much rather let him reserve the allowance of spirits he +gives himself until the evening, when he can _enjoy it in warm toddy +beside a comfortable fire_, before retiring to rest for the night." +--Vol. ii. p. 89. + + +Then how knowingly he treats of the fat upon the sheep:-- + + +"The formation of fat in a sheep commences in the inside, the +_net_ of fat which envelopes the intestines being first formed. +After that, fat is seen on the outside, and first upon the end of +the rump at the tail head, which continues to move on along the back, +on both sides of the spine to the bend of the ribs, to the neck. Then +it is deposited between the muscles, parallel with the cellular +tissue. Meanwhile it is covering the lower round of the ribs, +descending to the flanks until the two sides meet under the belly, +from whence it proceeds to the brisket or breast in front and the +shaw behind, filling up the inside of the arm-pits and thighs. The +spaces around the fibres of the muscles are the last to receive a +deposition of fat, but after this has begun, every other part +simultaneously receives its due share, the back and kidneys +receiving the most--so much so that the former literally becomes +_nicked_, as it is termed; that is, the fat is felt through the +skin to be divided into two portions. When all this has been +accomplished, the sheep is said to be _fat_ or _ripe_."--Vol. ii. p. +93. + + +But the enjoyment of tracing the accumulating fat is not enough for +our author--as soon as his sheep is ripe, he forthwith proceeds to +slaughter it; and though he describes every part of this process +accurately, and with true professional relish, coolly telling us, +that "the _operation_ is unattended with cruelty;" yet we must be +content to refer our readers to the passage (vol. ii. p. 96) as an +illustration of his skill in this interesting branch of farm-surgery. +He is really an amiable sheep-operator, our author--what placid +benevolence and hatred of quackery appear in his instructions-- +"Learn to slaughter _gently_, dress the carcass neatly and cleanly, +in as plain a manner as possible, and without _flourishes_."--p. 167. + +But whisky-toddy and fat mutton are not the only things our author +relishes. He must have been a farm-servant, living in a bothy, at +least as long as he drove on the road or practised surgery in the +slaughter-house. After describing the farm-servant's wages and mode +of living, he thus expands upon the subject of Scottish brose:-- + +"The oatmeal is usually cooked in one way, as _brose_. A pot of +water is put on the fire to boil--a task which the men (in the bothy) +take in turns; a handful or two of oatmeal is taken out of the small +chest with which each man provides himself, and put into a wooden +bowl, which also is the ploughman's property; and, on a hollow being +made in the meal, and sprinkled with salt, the boiling-water is +poured over the meal, and the mixture receiving a little stirring +with a horn-spoon, and the allowance of milk poured over it, the +brose is ready to be eaten; and, as every man makes his own brose, +and knows his own appetite, he makes just as much as he can consume." [2] + +[Footnote 2: "The fare is simple, and is as simply made, but it must be +wholesome, and capable of supplying the loss of substance occasioned +by hard labour; for I believe that no class of men can endure more +bodily fatigue for ten hours every day, than those ploughmen of +Scotland who subsist on this brose three times a-day."--Vol. ii. p. +384.] + +But if the _life_ of the ploughman is familiar to our author, the +_work_ he has to do, and the mode of doing it well, and the reason +why it should be done one way here, and another way there, are no +less so. The uninitiated have no idea of the complicated patterns +which the ploughman works, according to the nature of the soil and +the season of the year in which he labours. He may be "gathering +up--crown-and-furrow ploughing--casting, or yoking, or coupling +ridges--casting ridges with gore furrows--cleaving down ridges with +or without gore furrows--ploughing two-out-and-two-in--ploughing in +breaks--cross-furrowing--angle-ploughing, ribbing, and drilling--or +he may be preparing the land by feering or striking the ridges."-- +(Vol. i. p. 464.) All these methods of turning up the land are +described and illustrated by wood-cuts, and we are sure quite as +effectually done upon paper as if the author had been explaining +them upon his own farm, guiding one of his own best ploughs, and +strengthened by a basin of good brose made from his own meal-chest. + +But the practical skill of Mr. Stephens is not confined to the lower +walks of the agricultural life. The ploughman sometimes qualifies +himself to become a steward, that he may rid himself of the drudgery +of working horses. He has then new duties to perform, which are thus +generally described. + +"The duty of the _steward_ or _grieve_, as he is called in some +parts of Scotland, and _bailiff_ in England, consists in receiving +general instructions from his master, the farmer, which he sees +executed by the people under his charge. He exercises a direct +control over the ploughmen and field-workers.... It is his duty to +enforce the commands of his master, and to check every deviation +from rectitude he may observe in the servants against his interests. +It is not generally understood that he has control over the shepherd, +the hedger, or the cattleman, who are stewards, in one sense, over +their respective departments of labour.... He should always deliver +the daily allowance of corn to the horses. _He should be the first +person out of bed in the morning, and the last in it at night_. On +most farms, he sows the seed in spring, superintends the +field-workers in summer, tends the harvest-field and builds the +stacks in autumn, and thrashes the corn with the mill, and cleans it +with the winnowing-machine in winter. He keeps an account of the +workpeople's time, and of the quantity of grain thrashed, consumed +on the farm, and delivered to purchasers."--Vol. i. p. 221. + + +The practical man who reads the above detail of the steward's duties, +will see at once that it must have been written by "one of themselves;" +and, by its correctness, will be able to judge of the full faith +which may be placed in the numerous other details upon every branch +of practical farming with which the work now before us is so full. + +We have brought prominently forward the above extracts in relation to +the _minutiae_ of the farmer's life--to the detailed practical +knowledge which is so valuable to him, as being those upon which it +appeared to us that a writer who was capable of getting up a book at +all, much more such a book as this professes to be, in reference to +the higher branches of the farmers' art, was most likely to fail. +But these parts of the work are written not only knowingly and well, +but with an evident relish for the subject. Let us turn, therefore, +to the more intellectual part of the book, and see how far this part +of the task has been satisfactorily accomplished. + +_The Book of the Farm_ is mainly intended as a manual for the +master-farmer, accompanying him every where, and at every season of +the year, counselling, guiding, and directing him in all his +operations. But it has a higher and more useful aim than merely to +remind the practical agriculturist of what he already knows. It is +fitted, without other aid, to teach the beginner nearly every thing +which it is necessary for him to know in order to take his place +among the most intelligent practical men; and to teach it precisely +at the time, and in the order, in which it is most easy, most useful, +and most interesting for him to learn it. + +The beginner is supposed by Mr. Stephens to have undergone a previous +course of instruction under a practical man, and to enter upon a +farm of his own in the beginning of winter. This farm is a more or +less naked and unimproved piece of land, without a farm-stead or +farm-house, with few hedge-rows, and wholly undrained. On entering +the farm, also, he has servants to engage, stock to buy, and +implements to select. In all these difflculties, _The Book of the +Farm_ comes to his aid. The most useful, approved, and economical +form of a farm-steading is pointed out. The structure of barns, +stables, cow-houses, piggeries, _liquid-manure tanks_, poultry-yards, +and every other appendage of the farm-house, and, finally, the most +fitting construction of the farm-house itself, according to the size +and situation of the farm, are discussed, described, and explained. +Plans and estimates of every expense are added, and woodcuts +illustrative of every less known suggestion. These are not only +sufficient to guide the intelligent young farmer in all the +preliminary arrangements for his future comfort and success, but will, +we are sure, supply hints to many older heads for the reconstruction +or improvement of farm-steadings, heretofore deemed convenient and +complete. The following chapter aids him in the choice of his +servants, and describes distinctly the duties and province of each. + +And now, having concluded his domestic arrangements, [3] he must +learn to know something of the weather which prevails in the +district in which he has settled, before he can properly plan out or +direct the execution of the various labours which are to be +undertaken upon his farm during the winter. A chapter of some length, +therefore, is devoted to the "weather in winter," in which the +principles by which the weather is regulated in the different parts +of our islands, and the methods of foreseeing or predicting changes, +are described and illustrated _as far as they are known_. This is the +first of those chapters of _The Book of the Farm_ which illustrates +in a way not to be mistaken, the truth announced at the head of this +article, that _skilful practice is applied science_. + +[Footnote 3: Hesiod considered one other appendage to the homestead +indispensable, to which Mr. Stephens does not allude, perhaps from +feeling himself incompetent to advise.] + +To some it may appear at first sight that our author has indulged in +too much detail upon this subject; but he is not a true practical +farmer who says so. The weather has always been a most interesting +subject to the agriculturist--he is every day, in nearly all his +movements, dependant upon it. A week of rain, or of extraordinary +drought, or of nipping frost, may disappoint his most sanguine and +best founded expectations. His daily comfort, his yearly profit, and +the general welfare of his family, all depend upon the weather, or +upon his _skill in foreseeing its changes_, and availing himself of +every moment which is favourable to his purposes. Hence, with +agricultural writers, from the most early times, the varied +appearances of the clouds, the nature of the winds, and the changing +aspects of the sun and moon, and their several significations, have +formed a favourite subject of description and discussion. Thus of +the sun Virgil says-- + + "Sol quoque, et exoriens et quum se condet in undas, + Signa dabit; solem certissima signa sequuntir. + Et quae mane refert, et quae surgentibus astris." + +And then he gives the following _prognostics_, as unerring guides to +the Latian farmer:-- + + "Ille ubi nascentem maculis variaverit ortum, + Conditus in nubem, medioque refugerit orbe; + Suspecti tibi sint imbres.... + Caeruleus pluviam denuntiat, igneus Euros. + At si quum referetque diem condit que relatum + Lucidus orbis erit: frustra terrebere nimbis + Et claro silvas cernes aquilone moveri." + +Mr. Stephens recognises similar solar indications in the following +rhymes:-- + + "If the sun in red should set, + The next day surely will be wet; + If the sun should set in grey, + The next will be a rainy day." + +And again-- + + "An evening red, or a morning grey, + Doth betoken a bonnie day; + In an evening grey and a morning red, + Put on your hat, or ye'll weet your head." + +In his next edition we recommend to Mr. Stephens's notice the Border +version of the latter:-- + + "An evening red and a morning grey, + Send the shepherd on his way; + An evening grey and a morning red + Send the shepherd wet to bed." + +The most learned meteorologists of the present day believe the moon +to influence the weather--the practical farmer is sure of it--and we +have known the result of the hay crop, in adjoining farms, to be +strikingly different, when upon the one the supposed influence of +the time of change was taken into account and acted upon, while in +the other it was neglected. Mr. Stephens gives as true proverbs-- + + * * * * * + + "In the wane of the moon, + A cloudy morning bodes a fair afternoon." + +And + + "New moon's mist + Never dies of thirst." + +But Virgil is more specific-- + + "Ipsa dies alios alio dedit ordine Luna + Felices operum; quintam fuge.... + Septuma post decumam felix et ponere vitem, + Et prensos domitare boves." + +And in these warnings he only imitates Hesiod-- + + [Greek: Pempias de hexaleasthai, hepei chalepai te chai ainai.] + +And + + [Greek: Maenos de isamenou trischaidecha taen haleasthai, + Spezmatos azxasthai phuta de henthzepsasthai arisa.] + +But the vague prognostics of old times are not sufficient for the +guidance of the skilful and provident farmer of our day. The +barometer, the thermometer, and even the hygrometer, should be his +companions and guides, or occasional counsellors. To the description +and useful indications of these instruments, therefore, a sufficient +space is devoted in the book before us. We do not know any other +source from which the practical farmer can draw so much +meteorological matter specially adapted to his own walk of life, as +from this chapter upon the weather. + +All this our young farmer is not supposed to sit down and master +before he proceeds with the proper business of his new farm; it will +be a subject of study with him in many future months, and winters too. +But after a most judicious recommendation, to observe and _record_ +whatever occurs either new or interesting in his field of +labour--without which record he will not be able to contribute, as +he may hereafter do, to the extension of agricultural knowledge--he +is taught next, in an able chapter "upon soils and sub-soils," +to study the nature of his farm more thoroughly; to ascertain +its natural capabilities--the improvements of which it is +susceptible--the simplest, most efficacious, and most economical +means by which this improvement may be effected--and the kind of +implements which it will be most prudent in him to purchase for +tilling the kind of land of which his farm consists, or for bringing +it into a more fertile condition. This chapter also draws largely, +especially upon geological and chemical science, and affords another +illustration of what, I trust, Mr. Stephens's book will more and +more impress upon our working farmers, that _skilful practice is +applied science_. We have not room for any extracts, but when we +mention that in the chemical part of it the author has been assisted +by Dr. Madden, readers of the _Quarterly Journal of Agriculture_ +will be able to form an estimate of the way in which this chapter +has been got up. + +Having now satisfied himself of the nature of his farm as to soil +and capabilities, he sees that new enclosures and shelter will be +necessary--that some fields must be subdivided, others laid out +anew--that old hedge-rows must be rooted out or straightened, and +new ones planted in their room. Of what all this may be made to +accomplish for his farm, and of how the work itself may be done, +even to the minutest details, the chapters on "enclosures and shelter," +and on "planting of farm hedges," will fully inform him. The +benefits of shelter on our elevated lands, are not half understood. +Thousands upon thousands of acres are lying in comparative barrenness, +which, by adequate shelter, might be converted into productive fields. +The increase of mean temperature which results from skilful +enclosures, is estimated at 5° to 8° Fahrenheit; while in regard to +the increased money value, Mr. Thomas Bishop gives the following +testimony:-- + +"Previous to the division of the common moor of Methven in Perthshire, +in 1793, the venerable Lord Lynedoch and Lord Methven had each +secured their lower slopes of land adjoining the moor with belts of +plantation. The year following I entered Lord Methven's service, and +in 1798 planted about sixty acres of the higher moor ground, valued +at 2s. per acre, for shelter to eighty or ninety acres set apart for +cultivation, and let in three divisions to six individuals. The +progress made in improving the land was very slow for the first +fifteen years, but thereafter went on rapidly, being aided by the +_shelter derived from_ the growth of the plantations; and the +whole has now become fair land, bearing annually crops of oats, +barley, peas, potatoes, and turnips. In spring 1838, exactly forty +years from the time of putting down the plantation, I sold four +acres of larch and fir (average growth) standing therein, for L.220, +which, with the value of reserved trees and average amount per acre +of thinnings sold previously, gave a return of L.67 per acre."--Vol. +i, p. 367. + + +We are satisfied that in localities with which we are ourselves +acquainted, there are tens of thousand of acres which, by the simple +protection of sheltering plantations, would soon be made to exhibit +an equal improvement with either the moor of Methven, or the lands +upon Shotley Fell, which are also referred to in the work before us. +At a time when such strenuous endeavours are making to introduce and +extend a more efficient drainage among our clay lands, the more +simple amelioration of our cold uplands by judicious plantations, +ought neither to be lost sight of, nor by those who address +themselves to the landlords and cultivators, be passed by without +especial and frequent notice. + +Did space permit, we could have wished to extract a paragraph or two +upon the mode of planting hedges, and forming ditches, for the +purpose of proving to our readers that Mr. Stephens is as complete a +_hedger_ and _ditcher_, as we have seen him to be cunning as a +drover and a cattle surgeon. But we must refer the reader to the +passages in pp. 376 and 379. Even in the planting of thorn hedges he +will find that science is not unavailing, for both mathematics and +botany are made by Mr. Stephens to yield their several contributions +to the chapters we are now considering. + +But the fields being divided and the hedges planted, or while those +operations are going on, a portion of the land must be subjected to +the plough. Next in order, therefore, follows a chapter upon this +important instrument, in which the merits and uses of the several +best known--especially of the Scotch swing-ploughs--are explained +and discussed. Here our young farmer is taught which variety of +plough he ought to select for his land, _why_ it is to be preferred, +and _how_ it is to be used, and its movable parts (plough-irons) +_tempered_ and adjusted, according to the effect which the workman +is desirous of producing. We are quite sure that the writer of such +parts of this chapter as refer to the practical use of the plough, +must himself have handled it for many a day in the field. + +The part of this chapter, again, which relates to the theoretical +construction--to the history of the successive improvements, and to +the discussion of the relative merits of the numerous varieties of +ploughs which have lately been recommended to notice--is drawn up by +Mr. James Slight, curator of the museum of the Highland Society, a +gentleman whose authority on such subjects stands deservedly high. +To this monograph, as we may call it, upon the plough, we may again +refer as another illustration of the union between agriculture and +science. Mechanism perfects the construction of instruments, +chemistry explains the effects which they are the means of producing +in the soil--says also to the mechanic, if you could make them act +in such and such a way, these effects would be more constantly and +more fully brought about, and returns them to the workshop for +further improvement. Thus each branch of knowledge aids the other, +and suggests to it means of still further benefitting practical +agriculture. + +One of the most interesting, and not the least important, of those +practical discussions which have arisen since the establishment of +the Royal Agricultural Society of England, has been in regard to the +relative merits and lightness of draught of the Scottish +swing-ploughs, and of certain of the wheel-ploughs made and +extensively used, especially in the southern counties. It is admitted, +we believe, on all hands, that a less skilful workman will execute +as presentable a piece of work with a wheel-plough, as a more +skilful ploughman with a Scotch swing-plough. This is insisted upon +by one party as a great advantage, while the other attaches no +weight to it at all, saying, that they find no difficulty in getting +good ploughmen to work with the swing-plough, and therefore it would +be no advantage to them to change. Still this greater facility in +using it is a true economical advantage, nevertheless; since that +which is difficult to acquire will always be purchased at a dearer +rate; and in an improving district, it is some gain, that it is +neither necessary to import very skilful ploughmen, nor to wait till +they are produced at home. + +But it is also conceded, we believe, that the swing-plough, in +skilful hands, is more easily or quickly managed than a wheel-plough; +that it _turns more readily_, and when doing the same kind of work, +will go over the ground quicker, and consequently do more work in a +day. Theoretically, this seems undeniable, though it does not appear +to be as yet clearly established in what precise proportion this +theoretical acceleration ought to increase the extent of ground gone +over by a diligent ploughman in the ten hours of his daily labour. +It is said that, with the wheel-plough, three-fourths of an acre is +an average day's work, while with a swing-plough, an acre is the +ordinary and easy work of an active man on soil of average tenacity. +The _pace_, however, must depend considerably both upon the horses +and their driver; and to whatever extent such a difference may +really exist--and opinions differ upon the subject--it is clearly an +argument in favour of the swing-plough. + +But a third and equally important element in the discussion, is the +relative draught of the swing and wheel-ploughs. This element has +been lately brought more prominently forward, in consequence of some +interesting experiments, made first, we believe, by Mr. Pusey, and +since repeated by others, as to the relative draught of different +ploughs in the same circumstances, as measured by the dynamometer. +This, as well as the other parts of this question, is taken up, and +ably discussed, by Mr. Slight; and he has, we think, satisfactorily +shown, that no wheel-plough (or plough with a foot) can be lighter +in draught, _merely because it is wheeled_--that, on the contrary, +its draught must be in some small degree increased, other things +being equal, (vol. i. p. 463.) This, we think, is probable, on other +grounds besides those stated by Mr. Slight; yet there appears +satisfactory reason for believing, that some of the wheel-ploughs +which have been made the subject of experiment, have actually been +lighter in draught, when doing the same work, than any of the +swing-ploughs that have been opposed to them. But this does not show +that, in _principle_, the swing-plough is not superior to the +wheel-plough--it only shows that, in _construction_, it is still +capable of great emendations, and that, in this respect, some of the +wheel-ploughs have got the start of it. But the Scotch makers, who +first so greatly improved the plough, are capable still of competing +with their southern rivals; and from their conjoined exertions, +future ploughmen are destined to receive still further aid. + +When the ploughs are brought home, and while the winter ploughing is +going on, an opportunity presents itself for laying out, and probably, +as the weather permits, of cutting a portion of the intended drains. +Upon this important subject, Mr. Stephens treats with more even than +his usual skill. How true is the following passage:-- + +"Land, however, though it does not contain such a superabundance of +water as to obstruct arable culture, may nevertheless, by its +inherent wetness, prevent or retard the luxuriant growth of useful +plants, as much as decidedly wet land. The truth is, that deficiency +of crops on apparently dry land is frequently attributed to +unskilful husbandry, when it really arises from the baleful +influence of _concealed_ stagnant water; and the want of skill is +shown, not so much in the management of the arable culture of the +land, as in neglecting to remove the true cause of the deficiency of +the crop, namely, the concealed stagnant water. Indeed, my opinion is, +and its conviction has been forced upon me by long and extensive +observation of the state of the soil over a large part of the +country--that this is the _true cause of most of the bad farming to +be seen_, and that _not one farm_ is to be found throughout the +kingdom that _would not be much the better for draining_." +--Vol. i. p. 483. + +Draining is now truly regarded as a great national work, involving +considerations of the highest moment, and bearing upon some of the +most vital questions of our national policy. It is a subject, +therefore, the practical discussion of which is of the greatest +importance, especially in reference to the mode in which it can be +most _efficiently_ and most _cheaply_ done. Into these points, +Mr. Stephens enters minutely, and the course he prescribes is, we +think, full of judgment. He explains the Elkington mode of draining, +and he gives due praise to the more recent improvements of Mr. Smith +of Deanston. + + +Every one knows how difficult it is to persuade our practical men to +adopt any new method; but even after you have satisfied them that the +adoption of it will really do good to their farms, it is almost as +difficult to persuade them, that a partial adoption of the method, +or some alteration of it--as they fancy some _improvement_ of +it--will not best suit their land, or the circumstances in which +they are placed. Thus, one thinks, that a drain in each alternate +furrow is enough for his soil--that his drains need not be above +twelve(!) or eighteen inches deep--or that on his clay, the use of +soles is a needless expense. On all these points, the book before us +gives confident opinions, with which we entirely coincide. + +In regard to the depth of drains, it is shown, that in order that +they may _draw_, they should never be shallower than thirty inches, +and should always leave a depth of eighteen inches clear of the +draining materials, in order that the subsoil and trench plough may +have full freedom of action, without risk of injury to the drain; +while of the use of soles he says-- + +"I am a strenuous advocate for drainsoles _in all cases_; and even +when they may really prove of little use, I would rather use too many, +than too few precautions in draining; because, even in the most +favourable circumstances, we cannot tell what change may take place +beyond our view, in the interior of a drain, which we are never again +permitted, and which _we have no desire to see_." + +This passage expresses the true principle of safety, by which, in +the outlay of large sums of money for improvements, the landowner, +and the holder of an improving lease, ought to be actuated. Though +great losses have already been incurred by shallow drains, and by +the rejection of soles, the practice, especially in the more +backward districts, still goes on, and thousands of pounds are still +expended upon the principles of a false economy, in repetition of +the same faulty practice. We know of drainings now going on to a +great extent, which will never permit the use of the subsoil plough; +and of the neglect of soles, upon soils generally of clay, but here +and there with patches of sand, into which the tiles must inevitably +sink. When a person drains his own land, of course reason is the +only constraint by which he can be withheld from doing as he likes +with his own; or where a yearly tenant drains part of his farm at +his own expense, the risk is exclusively his, and his landlord, who +perhaps refuses to give any effectual aid, can have no right to +dictate as to the mode in which the draining is to be performed; but +when the landlord contributes either directly or indirectly to the +expense, he, or his agent--if he has one who is skilful +enough--should insist upon every thing being done according to the +most improved, which, in reality, are also ultimately the most +economical principles. + +While the draining thus proceeds on the best and most economical +principles, the ploughing is supposed to be still in progress. +Indeed the arrangements for the two operations, the selection and +purchase of the implements for both, may go on simultaneously. The +plough, indeed, is sometimes used as a draining implement for making +a deep furrow, in which, with more or less emendation from the spade, +the tiles or other draining materials may subsequently be laid. But +in this case, the draught is excessive, and many horses must often +be yoked into the same plough, in order to drag it through the ground. +Here, therefore, the young farmer must learn a new art--the art of +harnessing and yoking his horses, in such a way as to obtain the +greatest possible effect, at the least expense, or with the smallest +waste of animal strength. This is a very important subject for +consideration, and it is one which the author who is best acquainted +with the practice, and with the state of knowledge regarding it, +over a great part of our island, will feel himself most imperatively +called upon to treat of in detail. This is done, accordingly, in the +chapter upon the "Yoking and Harnessing of the Plough," in which, by +the able assistance of Mr. Slight, the principles upon which these +processes should be conducted, as well as the simplest, strongest, +and most economical methods, in actual practice among the most +skilful farmers, are illustrated and explained. + +To this follows a chapter upon "Ploughing stubble and lea ground," +in which, with the aid of his two coadjutors, the practical and +scientific questions involved in the general process of ploughing +such land, are discussed with equal skill and judgment. We have been +particularly pleased with the remarks of Mr. Slight upon +ploughing-matches, (Vol. i. p. 651,) in reference especially to the +general disregard among judges, of the nature of the _underground_ +work, on which so much of the good effects of ploughing in reality +depends. They will, we doubt not, have their due weight, at future +ploughing-matches, among those--and we hope they will be many--into +whose hands the work before us may come. + +Second in importance to draining only, are the subjects of "subsoil +and trench ploughing," operations which are also to be performed at +this season of the year--and a chapter upon which concludes the +first volume of Mr. Stephens's work. Those who are acquainted with +the writings of Mr. Smith of Deanston, and with the operations of +the Marquis of Tweeddale at Yester, will duly estimate the importance, +not merely to the young farmer himself, but to the nation at large, +of proper instruction in regard to these two important operations--in +the mode of economically conducting them--in the principles upon +which their beneficial action depends--and in the circumstances by +which the practical man ought to be regulated in putting the one or +the other, or the one _rather_ than the other, in operation upon his +own land. Our limits do not permit us to discuss the relative merits +of subsoil and trench ploughing, which by some writers have unwisely +been pitted against each other--as if they were in reality methods +of improving the land, either of which a man may equally adopt in +any soil and under all circumstances. But they, in reality, agree +universally only in this one thing--_that neither process will +produce a permanently good effect unless the land be previously +thorough-drained_. But being drained, the farmer must then exercise +a sound discretion, and Mr. Stephens's book will aid his judgment +much in determining which of the two subsequent methods he ought to +adopt. The safer plan for the young farmer would be to try one or +two acres in each way, and in his after procedure upon the same kind +of land to be regulated by the result of this trial. Mr. Stephens +expresses a decided opinion in favour of trench-ploughing in the +following passages:-- + +"I have no hesitation in expressing my preference of trench to +subsoil ploughing: and I cannot see a single instance, with the sole +exception of turning up a very bad subsoil in large quantity, in +which there is any advantage attending subsoil, that cannot be +enjoyed by trench ploughing: and for this single drawback of a very +bad subsoil, trenching has the advantage of being performed in +perfect safety, where subsoil ploughing could not be, without +previous drainage. + +"But whilst giving a preference to trench ploughing over subsoil, I +am of opinion that it should not be generally attempted under any +circumstances, however favourable, without previous thorough-draining, +any more than subsoil ploughing; but when so drained, there is no +mode of management, in my opinion, that will render land so soon +amenable to the means of putting it in a high degree of fertility as +trench ploughing."--Vol. i. p. 664. + + +We confess that, in the first of the above passages, Mr. Stephens +appears to us to assume something of the tone of a partizan, which +has always the effect of lessening the weight of an author's opinion +with the intelligent reader who is in search of the truth only. What +is advanced as the main advantage of trench-ploughing in the first +passage--that it can be safely done without previous draining, is in +the second wholly discarded by the advice, _never to trench-plough +without previous draining_. At the same time it is confessed, that +in the case of a bad subsoil, trench-ploughing may do much harm. +Every practical man in fact knows that bringing up the subsoil in +any quantity, he would in some districts render his fields in a great +measure unproductive for years to come. On the other hand, we believe +that the use of the subsoil-plough can never do harm upon drained +land. We speak, of course, of soils upon which it is already +conceded that either the one method or the other ought to be adopted. +The utmost evil that can follow in any such case from the use of the +subsoil-plough, is that the expense will be thrown away--the land +cannot be rendered more unfruitful by it. Subsoiling, therefore, is +the _safer_ practice. + +But in reality, there ought, as we have already stated, to be no +opposition between the two methods. Each has its own special uses +for which it can be best employed, and the skill of the farmer must +be exercised in determining whether the circumstances in which he is +placed are such as to call specially for the one or for the other +instrument. If the subsoil be a rich black mould, or a continuation +of the same alluvial or other fertile soil which forms the surface--it +may be turned up at once by the trench-plough without hesitation. Or, +if the subsoil be more or less full of lime, which has sunk from above, +trenching may with equal safety be adopted. But, if the subsoil be +more or less ferruginous--if it be of that yellow unproductive clay +which in some cases extends over nearly whole counties--or of that +hard, blue, stony till which requires the aid of the mattock to +work out of the drains--or if it consist of a hard and stony, +more or less impervious bed--in all these cases the use of the +subsoil-plough is clearly indicated. In short, the young farmer can +scarcely have a safer rule than this--to subsoil his land first, +_whenever there is a doubt of the soundness of the subsoil_, or a +fear that by bringing it to the surface, the fertility of the upper +soil will be diminished. It is no reply to this safer practice to +say that even Mr. Smith recommends turning up the subsoil afterwards, +and that we have therefore a double expense to incur. For it is known, +that after a time any subsoil so treated may be turned up with safety, +and consequently there is no risk of loss by delaying this deeper +ploughing for a few years; and in regard to the question of expense, +it appears that the cost of both draining and subsoiling are +generally repayed by the first two or three crops which succeed each +improvement. What more, then, can be required? The expense is +repaid--the land is, to a certain extent, permanently improved--no +risk of loss has been incurred, and there still remains to the +improving farmer--improving his own circumstances, as well as the +quality of his land, by his prudent and skilful measures--there +still remains the deeper ploughing, by which he can gradually bring +new soil to the surface, as he sees it mellow, and become wholesome, +under the joint influences which the drain and the subsoil-plough +have brought to bear upon it. + +There can, therefore, it is clear, be no universal rule for the use +of the two valuable instruments in question, as each has its own +defined sphere of action. This, we think, is the common-sense view +of the case. But if any one insists upon having a universal rule +which shall save him from thinking or observing for himself in all +cases, then we should say--_in all cases subsoil, because it is the +safer_. + +With this subject the first volume of _The Book of the Farm_ is +brought to a close; but winter still continues, and in other +winter-work of scarcely less importance the young farmer has still +to be instructed. We have hitherto said nothing of the more expensive +and beautiful embellishments of the book, because the most +interesting of them are portraits of celebrated short-horns, working +horses, sheep, and pigs--a subject of which the author begins to +treat only at the commencement of the second volume. The feeding of +stock is one of those parts of the winter's labours, in improving +husbandry, upon which not only the immediate profit of the farmer, +but the ultimate fertility of his land, in a great measure depends. +The choice of his stock, and the best mode of treating and tending +them, therefore, are subjects of the greatest consequence to the +young farmer. In the choice of his stock he will be aided at once by +the clear descriptions, and by the portraits so beautifully executed +by Landseer and Sheriff, by which the letterpress is accompanied. In +the subsequent treatment of them, and in the mode by which they may +be most profitably, most quickly, or most economically fed _in the +winter season_, he will be fully instructed in the succeeding +chapters of the book. + +Turnips and other roots are the principal food of cattle in the +winter: a preliminary chapter, therefore, is devoted to the +"drawing and storing of turnips and other roots." Had we our article +to begin again, we could devote several pages, agreeably to ourselves, +and not without interest, we believe, or without instruction, to our +reader, in discussing a few of those points connected with the +feeding of cattle, upon which, though the means of information are +within their reach, practical men have hitherto permitted themselves +to remain wholly ignorant. Of these points Mr. Stephens adverts to +several, and suggests the advantage of additional experiments; but +the whole subject requires revision, and, under the guidance of +persons able to direct, who are acquainted with all that is yet known, +or has as yet been done either in our own or in foreign countries, +experiments will hereafter, no doubt, be made, by which many new +truths, both theoretically and practically valuable, are sure to be +elucidated. + +We may advert, as an illustration, to the feeding properties of the +turnip. It is usual to reckon the value of a crop of turnips by the +number of tons per acre which it is found to yield when so many +square yards of the produce are weighed. But this may be very +fallacious in many ways. If they are white turnips, for instance, +nine tons of small will contain as much nourishment as ten tons of +large--or twenty-seven tons an acre of small turnips will feed as +many sheep as thirty tons per acre of large turnips. Or if the crop +be Swedes, the reverse will be the case, twenty-seven tons of large +will feed as much stock as thirty tons of small.--(Vol. ii., p. 20.) +Mr. Stephens points out other fallacies also, to which we cannot +advert. One, however, he has passed over, of equal, we believe of +greater, consequence than any other--we allude to the variable +quantity of water which the turnip grown on different soils in +different seasons is found to contain. + +It is obvious, that in so far as the roots of the turnip, the carrot, +and the potatoe, consist of water, they can serve the purposes of +drink only--they cannot feed the animals to which they are given. Now, +the quantity of water in the turnip is so great, that 100 _tons +sometimes contain only nine tons of dry feeding matter_--more than +nine-tenths of their weight consisting of water. But again, their +constitution is so variable, that 100 _tons sometimes contain more +than twenty tons of dry food_--or less than four-fifths of their +weight of water. It is possible, therefore, that one acre of turnips, +on which only twenty tons are growing, may feed as many sheep as +another on which forty tons are produced. What, therefore, can be +more uncertain than the feeding value of an acre of turnips as +estimated by the weight? How much in the dark are buyers and sellers +of this root? What wonder is there, that different writers should +estimate so very differently the weight of turnips which ought to be +given for the purpose of sustaining the condition, or of increasing +the weight, of the several varieties of stock? Other roots exhibit +similar differences; and even the potatoe, while it sometimes +contains thirty tons of food in every hundred of raw roots, at others, +contains no more than twenty--the same weight, namely, which exists +at times in the turnip. [4] + +[Footnote 4: For our authority on this subject, we refer to +Johnston's _Suggestion for Experiments in Practical Agriculture_, No. +111. pp. 62 and 64, of which we have been favoured with an early +copy by the author.] + +This latter fact, shows the very slippery ground on which the +assertion rests, that has lately astonished the weak minds of our +Southern cattle-feeding brethren, from the mouth of one of their +talented but hasty lecturers--that the potatoe contains two or three +times the weight of nourishment which exists in the turnip. It is +true that _some_ varieties of potatoes contain three times as much +as _some_ varieties of turnip--but, on the other hand, some turnips +contain as much nourishment as an equal weight of potatoes. But no +man can tell, by bare inspection, as yet, to which class of turnips, +the more or less watery, his own may belong--whether that which is +apparently the most prolific may not in reality be the least +so--whether that mode of manuring his land which gives him the +greatest weight of raw roots may not give him the smallest weight of +real substantial food for his stock. What a wide field, therefore, +for experiment? To what useful results might they not be expected to +lead? If any of our readers wish to undertake such experiments, or to +learn how they are to be performed, we refer them to the pamphlet +mentioned in the note. + +In connexion with the chapter "on the feeding of sheep," we could +have wished to advert to the advantages of shelter, in producing the +largest weight of meat from a given weight of turnips, or other +food--as illustrated by the experiments of Mr. Childers, Lord Western, +and others; but we must refer our readers to the passage itself, +(vol. ii. p. 51,) as we must also to the no less important +comparative view of the advantages of feeding cattle in close byres +and in open hammels, (vol. ii. p. 129,) and to the interesting +details regarding the use of raw and steamed food, contained in the +chapter upon the feeding of cattle, (vol. ii. p. 120 to 148.) + +But our author is so cunning in the qualities of mutton--which, as +we have already seen, he can "kill so gently," performing the +operation without pain--that we think our readers will enjoy the +following passage:-- + +"The gigot is the handsomest and most valuable part of the carcass, +and on that account fetches the highest price. It is either a +roasting or a boiling piece. Of black-faced mutton it makes a fine +roast, and the piece of fat in it called the _pope's eye_, is +considered a delicate _morceau_ by epicures. A gigot of Leicester, +Cheviot, or Southdown mutton makes a beautiful 'boiled leg of mutton,' +which is prized the more the fatter it is, as this part of the +carcass is never overloaded with fat. The loin is almost always +roasted, the flap of the flank being skewered up, and it is a juicy +piece. For a small family, the black-faced mutton is preferable; for +a large, the Southdown and Cheviot. Many consider this piece of +Leicester mutton roasted as too rich, and when warm, this is +probably the case; but a cold roast loin is an excellent summer dish. +The back-ribs are divided into two, and used for very different +purposes. The fore-part, the neck, is boiled and makes sweet +barley-broth, and the meat, when well boiled, or rather the whole +pottage simmered for a considerable time _beside_ the fire, eats +tenderly. The back-ribs make an excellent roast; indeed, there is +not a sweeter or more varied one in the carcass, having both ribs +and shoulder. The shoulder-blade eats best cold, and the ribs warm. +The ribs make excellent chops. The Leicester and Southdowns afford +the best mutton-chops. The breast is mostly a roasting-piece, +consisting of rib and shoulder, and is particularly good when cold. +When the piece is large, as of Southdown or Cheviot, the gristly +part of the ribs may be divided from the true ribs, and helped +separately. The breast is an excellent piece in black-faced mutton, +and suitable to small families, the shoulder being eaten cold, while +the ribs and brisket are sweet and juicy when warm. This piece also +boils well; or, when corned for eight days, and served with onion +sauce, with mashed turnip in it, there are few more savoury dishes +at a farmer's table. The shoulder is separated before being dressed, +and makes an excellent roast for family use, and may be eaten warm or +cold, or corned and dressed as the breast mentioned above. The +shoulder is best from a large carcass of Southdown, Cheviot, or +Leicester, the black-faced being too thin for the purpose; and it was +probably because English mutton is usually large that the practice +of removing it originated. The neckpiece is partly laid bare by the +removal of the shoulder, the fore-part being fitted for boiling and +making into broth, and the best end for roasting or broiling into +chops. On this account this is a good family piece, and in such +request among the tradesmen of London that they prefer it to any part +of the hind-quarter."--(Vol. ii. p. 98.) + +Nor is he less skilful in the humble food and cooking of the +farm-labourer; indeed, he seems never satisfied until he fairly +exhausts all the useful matter contained in every subject upon which +he touches. He not only breeds, and feeds, and kills, and cooks, but +he does the latter with such relish, that we have several times +fancied that we could actually see him eating his own mutton, beef, +and pork. And, whether he luxuriates over a roast of the back-ribs +of mutton, "so sweet and so varied," or complains that "the +hotel-keepers have a trick of seasoning brown-soup, or rather +beef-tea, with a few joints of tail, and passing it off for genuine +ox-tail soup,"--(vol. ii. p. 169,) or describes the "_famous fat +brose_, for which Scotland has long been celebrated," as formed by +skimming off the fat when boiling the hough, pouring it upon oatmeal, +and seasoning with pepper and salt; or indulges in the humbler +brose of the ploughman in his bothy, he evidently enjoys every thing +set before him so much, that we are sure he must lay on the fat +kindly. We should not wonder if he is himself already _nicked_; and +we cannot more warmly testify our good wishes, than by expressing a +hope, that, when he is fully _ripe_, the grim surgeon will operate +upon him _without pain_, and kill him _gently_. + +One of Mr. Stephens's humbler dishes is the following:-- + +"The only time Scotch farm-servants indulge in butcher-meat is when +a sheep _falls_, as it is termed; that is, when it is killed before +being affected with an unwholesome disease, and the mutton is sold +at a reduced price. Shred down the suet small, removing any flesh or +cellular membrane adhering to it; then mix amongst it intimately 1/2 +oz. of salt and a tea-spoonful of pepper to every pound of suet; put +the mixture into an earthen jar, and tie up tightly with bladder. +One table spoonful of seasoned suet will, at any time, make good +barley-broth or potato-soup for two persons. The lean of the mutton +may be shred down small, and seasoned in a similar manner, and used +when required; or it may be corned with salt, and used as a joint." +--Vol. ii. p. 105. + + +How much of the natural habits and manners of a country, and of the +circumstances and inner life of the various classes of its +inhabitants, is to be learned from a study of their cookery! + +Reader, what a mystery hangs over the _handling_ of a fat beast! A +feeder approaches a well filled short-horn--he touches it here--he +pinches it there--he declares it to have many good _points_ about it; +but pronounces the existence of defects, where the uninitiated see +only beauties. The points of a fat ox, how mysterious they are, how +difficult to make out! The five points of Arminianism, our old vicar +used to say, were nothing to them. But here, too, Mr. Stephens is at +home. Listen to his simple explanation of the whole: + +"The first point usually _handled_ is the end of the rump at the +tail-head, although any fat here is very obvious, and sometimes +attains to an enormous size, amounting even to deformity. The +hook-bone gets a touch, and when well covered, is right.... To the +hand, or rather to the points of the fingers of the right hand, when +laid upon the ribs, the flesh should feel soft and thick and the +form be round when all is right, but if the ribs are flat the flesh +will feel hard and thin from want of fat. The skin, too, on a rounded +rib, will feel soft and mobile, the hair deep and mossy, both +indicative of a kindly disposition to lay on flesh. The hand then +grasps the flank, and finds it thick, when the existence of internal +tallow is indicated.... The palm of the hand laid along the line of +the back will point out any objectionable hard piece on it, but if +all is soft and pleasant, then the shoulder-top is good. A +hollowness behind the shoulder is a very common occurrence; but when +it is filled up with a layer of fat, the flesh of all the +fore-quarter is thereby rendered very much more valuable. You would +scarcely believe that such a difference could exist in the flesh +between a lean and a fat shoulder. A high narrow shoulder is +frequently attended with a ridged back-bone, and lowset narrow hooks, +a form which gets the appropriate name of _razor-back_, with which +will always be found a deficiency of flesh in all the upper part of +the animal, where the best flesh always is. If the shoulder-point is +covered, and feels soft like the point of the hook-bone, it is good, +and indicates a well filled neck-vein, which runs from that point to +the side of the head. The shoulder-point, however, is often bare and +prominent. When the neck-vein is so firmly filled up as not to +permit the points of the fingers inside of the shoulder-point, this +indicates a well tallowed animal; as also does the filling up +between the brisket and inside of the fore legs, as well as a full, +projecting, well covered brisket in front. When the flesh comes down +heavy upon the thighs, making a sort of double thigh, it is called +_lyary_, and indicates a tendency of the flesh to grow on the +lower instead of the upper part of the body. These are all the +_points_ that require _touching when the hand is used_; and in a +high-conditioned ox, they may be gone over very rapidly."--Vol. ii. p. +165. + + +The treatment of horses follows that of cattle, and this chapter is +fitted to be of extensive use among our practical farmers. There are +few subjects to which the attention of our small farmers requires +more to be drawn than to the treatment of their horses--few in which +want of skill causes a more general and _constant_ waste. The +economy of _prepared_ food is ably treated of, and we select the +following passage as containing at once sound theoretical and +important practical truths: + +"It appears at first sight somewhat surprising that the idea of +preparing food for farm-horses should only have been recently acted +on; but I have no doubt that the practice of the turf and of the road, +of maintaining horses on large quantities of oats and dry ryegrass +hay, has had a powerful influence in retaining it on farms. But now +that a more natural treatment has been adopted by the owners of +horses on fast work, farmers, having now the example of post-horses +standing their work well on prepared food, should easily be +persuaded that, on slow work, the same sort of food should have even +a more salutary effect on their horses. How prevalent was the notion, +at one time, that horses could not be expected to do work at all, +unless there was _hard meat_ in them! 'This is a very silly and +erroneous idea, if we inquire into it,' as Professor Dick truly +observes, 'for whatever may be the consistency of the food when +taken into the stomach, it must, before the body can possibly derive +any substantial support or benefit from it, be converted into +_chyme_--a pultacious mass; and this, as it passes onward from the +stomach into the intestinal canal, is rendered still more fluid by +the admixture of the secretions from the stomach, the liver, and the +pancreas, when it becomes of a milky appearance, and is called +_chyle_. It is then taken into the system by the lacteals, and in +this _fluid_, this _soft_ state--_and in this state only_--mixes +with the blood, and passes through the circulating vessels for the +nourishment of the system.' Actuated by these rational principles, +Mr. John Croall, a large coach-proprietor in Edinburgh, now supports +his coach horses on 8 lb. of chopped hay and 16 lb. of bruised oats; +so does Mr. Isaac Scott, a postmaster, who gives 10 lb. or 12 lb. of +chopped hay and 16 lb. of bruised oats, to large horses: and to +carry the principle still further into practice, Captain Cheyne +found his post-horses work well on the following mixture, the +proportions of which are given for each horse every day; and this +constitutes the second of the formulæ alluded to above." + + In the day, + 8 lb. of bruised oats. + 3 lb. of bruised beans. + 4 lb. of chopped straw. + ------ + 15 lb. + + At night + 22 lb. of steamed potatoes. + 1-1/2 lb. of fine barley dust. + 2 lb. of chopped straw. + 2 oz. of salt. + ---------- + 25-1/2 lb. + +"Estimating the barley-dust at 10d. per stone; chopped straw, 6d. +per stone, potatoes, steamed, at 7s. 6d. per cwt.; and the oats and +beans at ordinary prices, the cost of supper was 6d., and for daily +food, 1s. with cooking, in all 1s. 6d. a horse each day."--Vol. ii. p. +194. + + +The reader will also peruse with interest the following paragraph, +illustrative at once of the habits of the horse, and of our author's +familiarity with the race:-- + +"The horse is an intelligent animal, and seems to delight in the +society of man. It is remarked by those who have much to do with +blood-horses, that, when at liberty, and seeing two or more people +standing conversing together, they will approach, and seem, as it +were, to wish to listen to the conversation. The farm-horse will +not do this; but he is quite obedient to call, and distinguishes +his name readily from that of his companion, and will not stir +when desired to stand until _his own name_ is pronounced. He +distinguishes the various sorts of work he is put to, and will apply +his strength and skill in the best way to effect his purpose, +whether in the thrashing-mill, the cart, or the plough. He soon +acquires a perfect sense of his work. I have seen a horse walk very +steadily towards a feering pole, and halt when his head had reached +it. He seems also to have a sense of time. I have heard another +neigh almost daily about ten minutes before the time of loosening in +the evening, whether in summer or winter. He is capable of +distinguishing the tones of the voice, whether spoken in anger or +otherwise; and can even distinguish between musical notes. There was +a work-horse of my own, when even at his corn, would desist eating, +and listen attentively, with pricked and moving ears and steady eyes, +the instant he heard the note of low G sounded, and would continue +to listen as long as it was sustained; and another, that was +similarly affected by a particular high note. The recognition of the +sound of the bugle by a trooper, and the excitement occasioned in +the hunter when the pack give tongue, are familiar instances of the +extraordinary effects of particular sounds on horses."--Vol. ii. p. +216. + + +We recollect in our younger days, when we used to drive home from +Penrith market, our friend would say, "come, let us give the horse a +song--he will go home so briskly with us." And it really was so, or +seemed so at least, be the principle what it may. + +Pigs and poultry succeed to cattle and horses, and the author is +equally at home in regard to the management of these as of the more +valued varieties of stock--as learned in their various breeds, and +as skilful in the methods of fattening, killing, and cutting up. How +much truth is contained in the following remarks, and how easily and +usefully might the evil be amended:-- + + +"Of all the animals reared on a farm, there are none so much +neglected by the farmer, both in regard to the selection of their +kind, and their qualifications to fatten, as all the sorts of +domesticated fowls found in the farm-yard. Indeed, the very +supposition that _he_ would devote any of _his_ time to the +consideration of poultry, is regarded as a positive affront on his +manhood. Women, in his estimation, may be fit enough for such a +charge, and doubtless they would do it well, provided they were not +begrudged every particle of food bestowed upon those useful creatures. +The consequence is what might be expected in the circumstances, that +go to most farm-steads, and the surprise will be to meet a single +fowl of any description in _good_ condition, that is to say, in such +condition that it may be killed at the instant in a fit state for +the table, which it might be if it had been treated as a fattening +animal from its birth."--Vol. ii. p. 246. + + +The methods of fattening them are afterwards described; and for a +mode _of securing a new-laid egg to breakfast every winter morning_, +a luxury which our author "enjoyed for as many years as he lived in +the country," we refer the reader to page 256 of the second volume. + +Besides the feeding of stock, one other in-door labour demands the +attention of the farmer, when the severity of winter weather has put +a stop to the ploughing and the draining of his land. His grain +crops are to be thrashed out, and sent to the market or the mill. In +this part of his work Mr. Stephens has again availed himself of the +valuable assistance of Mr. Slight, who, in upwards of 100 pages of +closely printed matter, has figured and described nearly all the +more useful instruments employed in the preparation of the food of +cattle, and in separating the grain of the corn crops. The thrashing +machine, so valuable an addition to the working establishment of a +modern farm-steading, is minutely explained--the varieties in its +construction illustrated by wood-cuts--and the respective merits of +the different forms of the machine examined and discussed. With the +following, among his other conclusions, we cordially concur. + +"I cannot view these two machines without feeling impressed with a +conviction that both countries would soon feel the advantage of an +amalgamation between the two forms of the machine. The drum of the +Scotch thrashing-machine would most certainly be improved by a +transfusion from the principles of the English machine; and the +latter might be equally improved by the adoption of the +manufacturing-like arrangements and general economy of the Scotch +system of thrashing. That such interchange will ere long take place, +I am thoroughly convinced; and as I am alike satisfied that the +advantages would be mutual, it is to be hoped that these views will +not stand alone. It has not been lost sight of, that each machine +may be said to be suited to the system to which it belongs, and that +here, where the corn is cut by the sickle, the machine is adapted to +that; while the same may be said of the other, where cutting by the +scythe is so much practised. Notwithstanding all this, there appears +to be good properties in both that either seems to stand in need of." +--Vol. ii. p. 329. + + +Other scientific, especially chemical information, connected with +the different varieties of grain, and the kind and quantity of food +they respectively yield, is incorporated in the chapters upon +"wheat, flour, and oat and bean meal," to which we can only advert, +as further illustrations of the intimate manner in which science and +skilful or enlightened practice are invariably, necessarily, and +every where interwoven. + + * * * * * + +And now the dreary months of winter are ended--and the labours of +the farmer take a new direction. + + "Salvitur acris hiems gratâ vice veris et Favoni," + + * * * * * + + "Ac neque jam stabulis gaudet pecus, aut arator igni." + +But we cannot follow Mr. Stephens through the cheerful labours of the +coming year. Our task is so far ended, and from the way in which the +whole of the long weeks of winter are described, the reader must +judge of Mr. Stephens's ability to lead him safely and surely +through the rest of the year. + +A closing observation or two, however, we beg to offer. We look upon +a good book on agriculture as something more than a lucky speculation +for the publisher, or a profitable occupation of his time for the +author. _It is a gain to the community at large,--a new instrument +of national wealth_. The first honour or praise in reference to +every such instrument, is, no doubt, due to the maker or +inventor--but he who brings is into general use, merits also no +little approbation. Such is our case with respect to the book before +us. We shall be glad to learn that our analysis of it contributes to +a wider circulation among the practical farmers of the empire, of +the manifold information which the book contains, not so much for +the sake of the author, as with a view to the common good of the +country at large. It is to the more general diffusion of sound +agricultural literature among our farmers, that we look for that more +rapid development of the resources of our varied soils which the +times so imperatively demand. To gain this end no legitimate means +ought to be passed by, and we have detained our readers so long upon +the book before us, in the hope that they may be induced to lend us +_their_ aid also in attaining so desirable an object. + +We do not consider _The Book of the Farm_ a perfect work: the author +indulges now and then in loose and careless writing; and this +incorrectness has more frequently struck us in the later portions of +the work, no doubt from the greater haste of composition. He sets +out by slighting the aids of science to agriculture; and yet, in an +early part of his book, tells the young farmer that he "must become +acquainted with the agency of _electricity_ before he can understand +the variations of the weather," and ends by making his book, as we +have said, a running commentary upon the truth we have already +several times repeated, that SKILFUL PRACTICE IS APPLIED SCIENCE. + +These, and no doubt other faults the book has--as what book is +without them?--but as a practical manual for those who wish to be +good farmers, it is the best book we know. It contains more of the +practical applications of modern science, and adverts to more of +those interesting questions from which past improvements have sprung, +and from the discussion of which future ameliorations are likely to +flow, than any other of the newer works which have come under our eye. +Where so many excellences exist, we are not ill-natured enough to +magnify a few defects. + +The excellence of Scottish agriculture may be said by some to give +rise to the excellent agricultural books which Scotland, time after +time, has produced. But it may with equal truth be said, that the +existence of good books, and their diffusion among a reading +population, are the sources of the agricultural distinction possessed +by the northern parts of the island. It is beyond our power, as +individuals, to convert the entire agricultural population of our +islands into a reading body, but we can avail ourselves of the +tendency wherever it exists; and by writing, or diffusing, or aiding +to diffuse, good books, we can supply ready instruction to such as +_now_ wish for it, and can put it in the way of those in whom +other men, by other means, are labouring to awaken the dormant +desire for knowledge. Reader, do _you_ wish to improve agriculture? +--then buy you a good book, and place it in the hands of your tenant +or your neighbouring farmer; if he be a reading man, he will thank +you, and his children may live to bless you; if he be not a reader, +you may have the gratification of wakening a dormant spirit; and +though you may appear to be casting your bread upon the waters, yet +you shall find it again after many days. + + * * * * * + + + + +POEMS AND BALLADS OF SCHILLER. + +No. VII. + +(The two following poems, "The Ideal," and, "The Ideal and Life," +are essentially distinct in their mode of treatment. The first is +simple and tender, and expresses feelings in which all can sympathize. +As a recent and able critic, in the Foreign Quarterly Review, has +observed, this poem, "still little known, contains a regret for the +period of youthful faith," and may take its place among the most +charming and pathetic of all those numberless effusions of genius in +which individual feeling is but the echo of the universal heart. But +the poem on "The Ideal and Life" is highly mystical and obscure;-- +"it is a specimen," says the critic we have just quoted, "of those +poems which were the immediate results of Schiller's metaphysical +studies. Here the subject is purely supersensual, and does not +descend to the earth at all. The very tendency of the poem is to +recommend a life not in the actual world, but in the world of +appearances [5]--that is, in the aesthetical world." + +It requires considerable concentration of mind to follow its +meaning through the cloud of its dark and gigantic images. Schiller +desired his friend Humboldt to read it in perfect stillness, 'and +put away from him all that was profane.' Humboldt, of course, +admired it prodigiously; and it is unquestionably full of thought +expressed with the power of the highest genius. But, on the other +hand, its philosophy, even for a Poet or Idealist, is more than +disputable, and it incurs the very worst fault which a Poet can +commit, viz. obscurity of idea as well as expression. When the Poet +sets himself up for the teacher, he must not forget that the +teacher's duty is to be clear; and the higher the mystery he would +expound, the more pains he should bestow on the simplicity of the +elucidation. For the true Poet does not address philosophical +coteries, but an eternal and universal public. Happily this fault is +rare in Schiller, and more happily still, his great mind did not +long remain a groper amidst the 'Realm of Shadow.' The true Ideal is +quite as liable to be lost amidst the maze of metaphysics, as in the +actual thoroughfares of work-day life. A plunge into Kant may do +more harm to a Poet than a walk through Fleet Street. Goethe, than +whom no man had ever more studied the elements of the diviner art, +was right as an artist in his dislike to the over-cultivation of the +aesthetical. The domain of the Ideal is the heart, and through the +heart it operates on the soul. It grows feebler and dimmer in +proportion as it seeks to rise above human emotion.... Longinus does +not err, when he asserts that Passion (often erroneously translated +Pathos) is the best part of the Sublime.) + +[Footnote 5: Rather, according to Aesthetical Philosophy, is the +_actual_ world to be called the _world of appearances_, and the +Ideal the world of substance.] + + + + +TO THE IDEAL. + + Then wilt thou, with thy fancies holy-- + Wilt thou, faithless, fly from me? + With thy joy, thy melancholy, + Wilt thou thus relentless flee? + O Golden Time, O Human May, + Can nothing, Fleet One, thee restrain? + Must thy sweet river glide away + Into the eternal Ocean-Main? + + The suns serene are lost and vanish'd + That wont the path of youth to gild, + And all the fair Ideals banish'd + From that wild heart they whilome fill'd. + Gone the divine and sweet believing + In dreams which Heaven itself unfurl'd! + What godlike shapes have years bereaving + Swept from this real work-day world! + + As once, with tearful passion fired, + The Cyprian Sculptor clasp'd the stone, + Till the cold cheeks, delight-inspired, + Blush'd--to sweet life the marble grown; + So Youth's desire for Nature!--round + The Statue, so my arms I wreathed, + Till warmth and life in mine it found + And breath that poets breathe--it breathed. + + With my own burning thoughts it burn'd;-- + Its silence stirr'd to speech divine;-- + Its lips my glowing kiss return'd;-- + Its heart in beating answer'd mine! + How fair was then the flower--the tree!-- + How silver-sweet the fountain's fall! + The soulless had a soul to me! + My life its own life lent to all! + + The Universe of Things seem'd swelling + The panting heart to burst its bound, + And wandering Fancy found a dwelling + In every shape--thought--deed, and sound. + Germ'd in the mystic buds, reposing, + A whole creation slumber'd mute, + Alas, when from the buds unclosing, + How scant and blighted sprung the fruit! + + How happy in his dreaming error, + His own gay valour for his wing, + Of not one care as yet in terror, + Did Youth upon his journey spring; + Till floods of balm, through air's dominion, + Bore upward to the faintest star-- + For never aught to that bright pinion + Could dwell too high, or spread too far. + + Though laden with delight, how lightly + The wanderer heavenward still could soar, + And aye the ways of life how brightly + The airy Pageant danced before!-- + Love, showering gifts (life's sweetest) down, + Fortune, with golden garlands gay, + And Fame, with starbeams for a crown, + And Truth, whose dwelling is the Day. + + Ah! midway soon, lost evermore, + Afar the blithe companions stray; + In vain their faithless steps explore, + As, one by one, they glide away. + Fleet Fortune was the first escaper-- + The thirst for wisdom linger'd yet; + But doubts with many a gloomy vapour + The sun-shape of the Truth beset! + + The holy crown which Fame was wreathing, + Behold! the mean man's temples wore! + And but for one short spring-day breathing, + Bloom'd Love--the Beautiful--no more! + And ever stiller yet, and ever + The barren path more lonely lay, + Till waning Hope could scarcely quiver + Along the darkly widening way. + + Who, loving, linger'd yet to guide me, + When all her boon companions fled? + Who stands consoling still beside me, + And follows to the House of Dread? + _Thine_, Friendship! _thine_, the hand so tender-- + Thine the balm dropping on the wound-- + Thy task--the load more light to render, + O, earliest sought and soonest found! + + And _thou_, so pleased with her uniting + To charm the soul-storm into peace, + Sweet _Toil_![6] in toil itself delighting, + That more it labor'd, less could cease: + Though but by grains, thou aid'st the pile + The vast Eternity uprears-- + At least thou strik'st from Time, the while, + Life's debt--the minutes, days, and years![7] + +[Footnote 6: That is to say--the Poet's occupation--The Ideal.] + +[Footnote 7: Though the Ideal images of youth forsake us--the Ideal +still remains to the Poet.--Nay, it is his task and his companion; +unlike the worldly fantasies of fortune--fame, and love--the +fantasies the Ideal creates are imperishable. While, as the +occupation of his life, it pays off the debt of time; as the exalter +of life, it contributes to the building of eternity.] + + * * * * * + + + +THE IDEAL AND THE ACTUAL LIFE. + +The _first title_ of this Poem was "The Realm of Shadow." Perhaps in +the whole range of German poetry there exists no poem which presents +greater difficulties to the English translator. The chief object of +the present inadequate version has been to render the sense +intelligible as well as the words. The attempt stands in need of all +the indulgence which the German scholar will readily allow that a +much abler translator might reasonably require. + + 1 + + For ever fair, for ever calm and bright, + Life flies on plumage, zephyr-light, + For those who on the Olympian hill rejoice-- + Moons wane, and races wither to the tomb, + And 'mid the universal ruin, bloom + The rosy days of Gods-- + With Man, the choice, + Timid and anxious, hesitates between + The sense's pleasure and the soul's content; + While on celestial brows, aloft and sheen, + The beams of both are blent. + + 2 + + Seek'st thou on earth the life of Gods to share, + Safe in the Realm of Death?--beware + To pluck the fruits that glitter to thine eye; + Content thyself with gazing on their glow-- + Short are the joys Possession can bestow, + And in Possession sweet Desire will die. + 'Twas not the ninefold chain of waves that bound + Thy daughter, Ceres, to the Stygian river-- + She pluck'd the fruit of the unholy ground, + And so--was Hell's for ever! + + 3 + + The weavers of the web--the Fates--but sway + The matter and the things of clay; + Safe from each change that Time to matter gives, + Nature's blest playmate, free at will to stray + With Gods a god, amidst the fields of Day, + The FORM, the ARCHETYPE,[8] serenely lives. + Would'st thou soar heavenward on its joyous wing? + Cast from thee, Earth, the bitter and the real, + High from this cramp'd and dungeon being, spring + Into the Realm of the Ideal! + + [Footnote 8: "Die Gestalt"--Form, the Platonic Archetype.] + + 4 + + Here, bathed, Perfection, in thy purest ray, + Free from the clogs and taints of clay, + Hovers divine the Archetypal Man! + Like those dim phantom ghosts of life that gleam + And wander voiceless by the Stygian stream, + While yet they stand in fields Elysian, + Ere to the flesh the Immortal ones descend-- + If doubtful ever in the Actual life, + Each contest--here a victory crowns the end + Of every nobler strife. + + 5 + + Not from the strife itself to set thee free, + But more to nerve--doth Victory + Wave her rich garland from the Ideal clime. + Whate'er thy wish, the Earth has no repose-- + Life still must drag thee onward as it flows, + Whirling thee down the dancing surge of Time. + But when the courage sinks beneath the dull + Sense of its narrow limits--on the soul, + Bright from the hill-tops of the Beautiful, + Bursts the attainèd goal! + + 6 + + If worth thy while the glory and the strife + Which fire the lists of Actual Life-- + The ardent rush to fortune or to fame, + In the hot field where Strength and Valour are, + And rolls the whirling, thunder of the car, + And the world, breathless, eyes the glorious game-- + Then dare and strive--the prize can but belong + To him whose valour o'er his tribe prevails; + In life the victory only crowns the strong-- + He who is feeble fails. + + 7 + + But as some stream, when from its source it gushes, + O'er rocks in storm and tumult rushes, + And smooths its after course to bright repose, + So, through the Shadow-Land of Beauty glides + The Life Ideal--on sweet silver tides + Glassing the day and night star as it flows-- + Here, contest is the interchange of Love, + Here, rule is but the empire of the Grace; + Gone every foe, Peace folds her wings above + The holy, haunted place. + + 8 + + When through dead stone to breathe a soul of light, + With the dull matter to unite + The kindling genius, some great sculptor glows; + Behold him straining every nerve intent-- + Behold how, o'er the subject element, + The stately THOUGHT its march laborious goes. + For never, save to Toil untiring, spoke + The unwilling Truth from her mysterious well-- + The statute only to the chisel's stroke + Wakes from its marble cell. + + 9 + + But onward to the Sphere of Beauty--go + Onward, O Child of Art! and, lo, + Out of the matter which thy pains control + The Statue springs!--not as with labour wrung + From the hard block, but as from Nothing sprung-- + Airy and light--the offspring of the soul! + The pangs, the cares, the weary toils it cost + Leave not a trace when once the work is done-- + The artist's human frailty merged and lost + In art's great victory won! + + 10 + + If human Sin confronts the rigid law + Of perfect Truth and Virtue,[9] awe + Seizes and saddens thee to see how far + Beyond thy reach, Perfection;--if we test + By the Ideal of the Good, the best, + How mean our efforts and our actions are! + This space between the Ideal of man's soul + And man's achievement, who hath ever past? + An ocean spreads between us and that goal, + Where anchor ne'er was cast! + + 11 + + But fly the boundary of the Senses--live + the Ideal life free Thought can give; + And, lo, the gulf shall vanish, and the chill + Of the soul's impotent despair be gone! + And with divinity thou sharest the throne, + Let but divinity become thy will! + Scorn not the Law--permit its iron band + The sense (it cannot chain the soul) to thrall. + Let man no more the will of Jove withstand, + And Jove the bolt lets fall! + + 12 + + If, in the woes of Actual Human Life-- + If thou could'st see the serpent strife + Which the Greek Art has made divine in stone-- + Could'st see the writhing limbs, the livid cheek, + Note every pang, and hearken every shriek + Of some despairing lost Laocoon, + The human nature would thyself subdue + To share the human woe before thine eye-- + Thy cheek would pale, and all thy soul be true + To Man's great Sympathy. + + 13 + + But in the Ideal realm, aloof and far, + Where the calm Art's pure dwellers are, + Lo, the Laocoon writhes, but does not groan. + Here, no sharp grief the high emotion knows-- + Here, suffering's self is made divine, and shows + The brave resolve of the firm soul alone: + Here, lovely as the rainbow on the dew + Of the spent thunder-cloud, to Art is given, + Gleaming through Grief's dark veil, the peaceful blue + Of the sweet Moral Heaven. + +[Footnote 9: The Law, i.e. the Kantian ideal of Truth and Virtue. +This stanza and the next embody, perhaps with some exaggeration, the +Kantian doctrine of morality.] + + 14 + + So, in the glorious parable, behold + How, bow'd to mortal bonds, of old + Life's dreary path divine Alcides trode: + The hydra and the lion were his prey, + And to restore the friend he loved to day, + He went undaunted to the black-brow'd God; + And all the torments and the labours sore + Wroth Juno sent--meek majestic One, + With patient spirit and unquailing, bore, + Until the course was run-- + + 15 + + Until the God cast down his garb of clay, + And rent in hallowing flame away + The mortal part from the divine--to soar + To the empyreal air! Behold him spring + Blithe in the pride of the unwonted wing, + And the dull matter that confined before + Sinks downward, downward, downward as a dream! + Olympian hymns receive the escaping soul, + And smiling Hebe, from the ambrosial stream, + Fills for a God the bowl! + + * * * * * + + +THE FAVOUR OF THE MOMENT. + + + And so we find ourselves once more + A ring, though varying yet serene, + The wreaths of song we wove of yore + Again we'll weave as fresh and green. + But who the God to whom we bring + The earliest tribute song can treasure? + Him, first of all the Gods, we sing + Whose blessing to ourselves is--pleasure! + For boots it on the votive shrine + That Ceres life itself bestows + Or liberal Bacchus gives the wine + That through the glass in purple glows-- + If still there come not from the heaven + The spark that sets the hearth on flame; + If to the soul no fire is given, + And the sad heart remain the same? + Sudden as from the clouds must fall, + As from the lap of God, our bliss-- + And still the mightiest lord of all, + Monarch of Time, the MOMENT is! + Since endless Nature first began + Whate'er of might the mind hath wrought-- + Whate'er of Godlike comes from Man + Springs from one lightning-flash of thought! + For years the marble block awaits + The breath of life, beneath the soil-- + A happy thought the work creates, + A moment's glance rewards the toil. + As suns that weave from out their blaze + The various colours round them given; + As Iris, on her arch of rays, + Hovers, and vanishes from heaven; + So fair, so fleeting every prize-- + A lightning flash that shines and fades-- + The Moment's brightness gilds the skies + And round the brightness close the shades. + + + + +EXPECTATION AND FULFILMENT. + + + O'er ocean with a thousand masts sails on the young man bold-- + One boat, hard-rescued from the deep, draws into port the old! + + * * * * * + + +TO THE PROSELYTE--MAKER. + + + "A little Earth from out the Earth, and I + The Earth will move"--so said the sage divine; + Out of myself one little moment try + Myself to take;--succeed, and I am thine. + + + * * * * * + +VALUE AND WORTH. + + + If thou _hast_ something, bring thy goods, a fair return be + thine!-- + If thou _art_ something--bring thy soul, and interchange with mine. + + + * * * * * + + +THE FORTUNE-FAVOURED. [10] + +[Footnote 10: The first verses in the original of this poem are placed +as a motto on Goethe's statue at Weimar.] + + + Ah! happy He, upon whose birth each god + Looks down in love, whose earliest sleep the bright + Idalia cradles, whose young lips the rod + Of eloquent Hermes kindles--to whose eyes, + Scarce waken'd yet, Apollo steals in light, + While on imperial brows Jove sets the seal of might. + Godlike the lot ordain'd for him to share, + He wins the garland ere be runs the race; + He learns life's wisdom ere he knows life's care, + And, without labour vanquish'd, smiles the Grace. + Great is the man, I grant, whose strength of mind, + Self-shapes its objects and subdues the Fates-- + Virtue subdues the Fates, but cannot bind + The fickle Happiness, whose smile awaits + Those who scarce seek it; nor can courage earn + What the Grace showers not from her own free urn! + + From aught _unworthy_, the determined will + Can guard the watchful spirit--there it ends. + The all that's _glorious_ from the heaven descends; + As some sweet mistress loves us, freely still + Come the spontaneous gifts of heaven!--Above + Favour rules Jove, as it below rules Love! + The Immortals have their bias!--Kindly they + See the bright locks of youth enamour'd play, + And where the glad one goes, shed gladness round the way. + It is not they who boast the best to see, + Whose eyes the holy apparitions bless; + The stately light of their divinity + Hath oft but shone the brightest on the blind;-- + And their choice spirit found its calm recess + In the pure childhood of a simple mind. + Unask'd they come--delighted to delude + The expectation of our baffled Pride; + No law can call their free steps to our side. + Him whom He loves, the Sire of men and gods, + (Selected from the marvelling multitude,) + Bears on his eagle to his bright abodes; + And showers, with partial hand and lavish, down + The minstrel's laurel or the monarch's crown. + + Before the fortune-favour'd son of earth, + Apollo walks--and, with his jocund mirth, + The heart-enthralling Smiler of the skies. + For him grey Neptune smooths the pliant wave-- + Harmless the waters for the ship that bore + The Caesar and his fortunes to the shore! + Charm'd, at his feet the crouching lion lies, + To him his back the murmuring dolphin gave; + His soul is born a sovereign o'er the strife-- + The lord of all the Beautful of Life; + Where'er his presence in its calm has trod, + It charms--it sways as some diviner god. + + Scorn not the Fortune-favour'd, that to him + The light-won victory by the gods is given, + Or that, as Paris, from the strife severe, + The Venus draws her darling,--Whom the heaven + So prospers, love so watches, I revere! + And not the man upon whose eyes, with dim + And baleful night, sits Fate. The Dorian lord, + August Achilles, was not less divine + That Vulcan wrought for him the shield and sword-- + That round the mortal hover'd all the hosts + Of all Olympus--that his wrath to grace, + The best and bravest of the Grecian race + Fell by the Trojan steel, what time the ghosts + Of souls untimely slain fled to the Stygian coasts. + + Scorn not the Beautiful--if it be fair, + And yet seem useless in thy human sight. + As scentless lilies in the loving air, + Be _they_ delighted--_thou_ in them delight. + If without use they shine, yet still the glow + May thine own eyes enamour. Oh rejoice + That heaven the gifts of Song showers down below-- + That what the muse hath taught him, the sweet voice + Of the glad minstrel teaches thee!--the soul + Which the god breathes in him, he can bestow + In turn upon the listener--if his breast + The blessing feel, thy heart is in that blessing blest. + + The busy mart let Justice still control, + Weighing the guerdon to the toil!--What then? + A god alone claims joy--all joy is his, + Flushing with unsought light the cheeks of men. + Where is no miracle, why there no bliss! + Grow, change, and ripen all that mortal be, + Shapen'd from form to form, by toiling time; + The Blissful and the Beautiful are born + Full grown, and ripen'd from Eternity-- + No gradual changes to their glorious prime, + No childhood dwarfs them, and no age has worn.-- + Like Heaven's, each earthly Venus on the sight + Comes, a dark birth, from out an endless sea; + Like the first Pallas, in maturest might, + Arm'd, from the Thunderer's brow, leaps forth each Thought of Light. + + + * * * * * + +We have now, with few exceptions, translated all the principal poems +comprised in the third, or maturest period of Schiller's life. We +here pass back to the poems of his youth. The contrast in tone, +thought, and spirit, between the compositions of the first and the +third period, in the great poet's intellectual career, is +sufficiently striking. In the former, there is little of that +majestic repose of strength so visible in the latter; but there is +infinitely more fire and action--more of that lavish and exuberant +energy which characterized the earlier tales of Lord Byron, and +redeemed, in that wonderful master of animated and nervous style, a +certain poverty of conception by a vigour and _gusto_ of execution, +which no English poet, perhaps, has ever surpassed. In his poems +lies the life, and beats the heart, of Schiller. They conduct us +through the various stages of his spiritual education, and indicate +each step in the progress. In this division, _effort_ is no less +discernible than power--both in language and thought there is a +struggle at something not yet achieved, and not, perhaps, even yet +definite and distinct to the poet himself. Here may be traced, +though softened by the charm of genius, (which softens all things,) +the splendid errors that belong to a passionate youth, and that give +such distorted grandeur to the giant melodrama of "The Robbers." But +here are to be traced also, and in far clearer characters, the man's +strong heart, essentially human in its sympathies--the thoughtful +and earnest intellect, not yet equally developed with the fancy, but +giving ample promise of all it was destined to receive. In these +earlier poems, extravagance is sufficiently noticeable--yet never +the sickly eccentricities of diseased weakness, but the exuberant +overflowings of a young Titan's strength. There is a distinction, +which our critics do not always notice, between the _extravagance_ +of a great genius, and the _affectation_ of a pretty poet. + + + + +FIRST PERIOD + + +HECTOR AND ANCROMACHE. [11] + +[Footnote 11: This and the following poem are, with some alterations, +introduced in the play of "The Robbers."] + + ANDROMACHE. + + Will Hector leave me for the fatal plain, + Where, fierce with vengeance for Patroclus slain, + Stalks Peleus' ruthless son? + Who, when thou glidest amid the dark abodes, + To hurl the spear and to revere the Gods, + Shall teach shine Orphan One? + + HECTOR. + + Woman and wife belovèd--cease thy tears; + My soul is nerved--the war-clang in my ears! + Be mine in life to stand + Troy's bulwark, fighting for our hearths--to go, + In death, exulting to the streams below, + Slain for my fatherland! + + ANDROMACHE. + + No more I hear thy martial footsteps fall-- + Thine arms shall hang, dull trophies, on the wall-- + Fallen the stem of Troy! + Thou go'st where slow Cocytus wanders--where + Love sinks in Lethe, and the sunless air + Is dark to light and joy! + + HECTOR. + + Sinew and thought--yea, all I feel and think + May in the silent sloth of Lethe sink, + But my love not! + Hark, the wild swarm is at the walls!--I hear! + Gird on my sword--beloved one, dry the tear-- + Lethe for love is not! + + +AMALIA. + + Fair as an angel from his blessed hall-- + Of every fairest youth the fairest he! + Heaven-mild his look, as maybeams when they fall, + Or shine reflected from a clear blue sea! + His kisses--feelings rife with paradise! + Ev'n as two flames, one on the other driven-- + Ev'n as two harp-tones their melodious sighs + Blend in some music that seems born of heaven; + So rush'd, mix'd, melted--life with life united! + Lips, cheeks burn'd, trembled--soul to soul was won! + And earth and heaven seem'd chaos, as delighted + Earth--heaven were blent round the belovèd one! + Now, he is gone! vainly and wearily + Groans the full heart, the yearning sorrow flows-- + Gone! and all zest of life, in one long sigh, + Goes with him where he goes. + + + * * * * * + + + + +TO LAURA. + +THE MYSTERY OF REMINISCENCE. [12] + +[Footnote 12: This most exquisite love-poem is founded on the Platonic +notion, that souls were united in a pre-existent state, that love is +the yearning of the spirit to reunite with the spirit with which it +formerly made one--and which it discovers on earth. The idea has +often been made subservient to poetry, but never with so earnest and +elaborate a beauty.] + + Who, and what gave to me the wish to woo thee-- + Still, lip to lip, to cling for aye unto thee? + Who made thy glances to my soul the link-- + Who bade me burn thy very breath to drink-- + My life in thine to sink? + As from the conquerors unresisted glaive, + Flies, without strife subdued, the ready slave-- + So, when to life's unguarded fort, I see + Thy gaze draw near and near triumphantly-- + Yields not my soul to thee? + Why from its lord doth thus my soul depart?-- + Is it because its native home thou art? + Or were they brothers in the days of yore, + Twin-bound both souls, and in the links they bore + Sigh to be bound once more? + Were once our beings blent and intertwining, + And therefore still my heart for thine is pining? + Knew we the light of some extinguished sun-- + The joys remote of some bright realm undone, + Where once our souls were ONE? + Yes, it _is_ so!--And thou wert bound to me + In the long-vanish'd Eld eternally! + In the dark troubled tablets which enroll + The Past--my Muse beheld this blessed scroll-- + "One with thy love my soul!" + Oh yes, I learn'd in awe, when gazing there, + How once one bright inseparate life we were, + + How once, one glorious essence as a God, + Unmeasured space our chainless footsteps trode-- + All Nature our abode! + Round us, in waters of delight, for ever + Voluptuous flow'd the heavenly Nectar river; + We were the master of the seal of things, + And where the sunshine bathed Truth's mountain-springs + Quiver'd our glancing wings. + Weep for the godlike life we lost afar-- + Weep!--thou and I its scatter'd fragments are; + And still the unconquer'd yearning we retain-- + Sigh to restore the rapture and the reign, + And grow divine again. + And therefore came to me the wish to woo thee-- + Still, lip to lip, to cling for aye unto thee; + _This_ made thy glances to my soul the link-- + _This_ made me burn thy very breath to drink-- + My life in thine to sink: + And therefore, as before the conqueror's glaive, + Flies, without strife subdued, the ready slave, + So, when to life's unguarded fort, I see + Thy gaze draw near and near triumphantly-- + Yieldeth my soul to thee! + Therefore my soul doth from its lord depart, + _Because_, beloved, its native home thou art; + Because the twins recall the links they bore, + And soul with soul, in the sweet kiss of yore, + Meets and unites once more. + Thou too--Ah, there thy gaze upon me dwells, + And thy young blush the tender answer tells; + Yes! with the dear relation still we thrill, + Both lives--tho' exiles from the homeward hill-- + _One_ life--all glowing still! + + * * * * * + + + + +TO LAURA. + +(Rapture.) + + + Laura--above this world methinks I fly, + And feel the glow of some May-lighted sky, + When thy looks beam on mine! + And my soul drinks a more ethereal air, + When mine own shape I see reflected there, + In those blue eyes of thine! + A lyre-sound from the Paradise afar, + A harp-note trembling from some gracious star, + Seems the wild ear to fill; + And my muse feels the Golden Shepherd-hours, + When from thy lips the silver music pours + Slow, as against its will. + I see the young Loves flutter on the wing-- + Move the charm'd trees, as when the Thracian's string + Wild life to forests gave; + Swifter the globe's swift circle seems to fly, + When in the whirling dance thou glidest by, + Light as a happy wave. + Thy looks, when there love sheds the loving smile, + Could from the senseless marble life beguile-- + Lend rocks a pulse divine; + Into a dream my very being dies, + I can but read--for ever read--thine eyes-- + Laura, sweet Laura, mine![13] + + +[Footnote 13: We confess we cannot admire the sagacity of those who +have contended that Schiller's passion for Laura was purely Platonic.] + + * * * * * + + +TO LAURA PLAYING. + + + When o'er the chords thy fingers steal, + A soulless statue now I feel, + And now a soul set free! + Sweet Sovereign! ruling over death and life-- + Seizes the heart, in a voluptuous strife + As with a thousand strings--the SORCERY![14] + +[Footnote 14: "The Sorcery."--In the original, Schiller has an +allusion of very questionable taste, and one which is very obscure +to the general reader, to a conjurer of the name of Philadelphia who +exhibited before Frederick the Great.] + + Then the vassal airs that woo thee, + Hush their low breath hearkening to thee. + In delight and in devotion, + Pausing from her whirling motion, + Nature, in enchanted calm, + Silently drinks the floating balm. + Sorceress, _her_ heart with thy tone + Chaining--as thine eyes my own! + + O'er the transport-tumult driven, + Doth the music gliding swim; + From the strings, as from their heaven, + Burst the new-born Seraphim. + As when from Chaos' giant arms set free, + 'Mid the Creation-storm, exultingly + Sprang sparkling thro' the dark the Orbs of Light-- + So streams the rich tone in melodious might. + + Soft-gliding now, as when o'er pebbles glancing, + The silver wave goes dancing; + Now with majestic swell, and strong, + As thunder peals in organ-tones along; + And now with stormy gush, + As down the rock, in foam, the whirling torrents rush. + To a whisper now + Melts it amorously, + Like the breeze through the bough + Of the aspen tree; + Heavily now, and with a mournful breath, + Like midnight's wind along those wastes of death, + Where Awe the wail of ghosts lamenting hears, + And slow Cocytus trails the stream whose waves are tears. + + Speak, maiden, speak!--Oh, art thou one of those + Spirits more lofty than our region knows? + Should we in _thine_ the mother-language seek + Souls in Elysium speak? + + + +FLOWERS. + + Children of Suns restored to youth, + In purfled fields ye dwell, + Rear'd to delight and joy--in sooth + Kind Nature loves ye well! + Broider'd with light the robes ye wear, + And liberal Flora decks ye fair + In gorgeous-colour'd pride. + Yet woe--Spring's harmless infants--woe! + Mourn, for ye wither while ye glow-- + Mourn for the _soul_ denied! + + The sky-lark and the nightbird sing + To you their hymns of love; + And Sylphs that wanton on the wing, + Embrace your blooms above. + Woven for Love's soft pillow were + The chalice crowns ye flushing bear, + By the Idalian Queen. + Yet weep, soft children of the Spring, + The _feelings_ love alone can bring + To you denied have been! + + But _me_ in vain my Fanny's [15] eyes + Her mother hath forbidden; + For in the buds I gather, lies + Love's symbol-language hidden. + Mute heralds of voluptuous pain, + I touch ye--_life_--_speech_--_heart_--ye gain, + And _soul_ denied before. + And silently your leaves enclose, + The mightiest God in arch repose, + Soft-cradled in the core. + + +[Footnote 15: Literally "Nanny."] + + * * * * * + + +THE BATTLE. + + + Heavy and solemn, + A cloudy column, + Thro' the green plain they marching came! + Measureless spread, like a table dread, + For the wild grim dice of the iron game. + The looks are bent on the shaking ground, + And the heart beats loud with a knelling sound; + Swift by the breasts that must bear the brunt, + Gallops the Major along the front-- + "Halt!" + And fetter'd they stand at the stark command, + And the warriors, silent, halt! + + Proud in the blush of morning glowing, + What on the hill-top shines in flowing? + "See you the Foeman's banners waving?" + "We see the Foeman's banners waving!" + Now, God be with you, woman and child, + Lustily hark to the music wild-- + The mighty trump and the mellow fife, + Nerving the limbs to a stouter life; + Thrilling they sound with their glorious tone, + Thrilling they go, through the marrow and bone. + _Brothers, God grant when this life is o'er, + In the life to come that we meet once more_! + See the smoke how the lightning is cleaving asunder! + Hark the guns, peal on peal, how they boom in their thunder! + From host to host, with kindling sound, + The shouting signal circles round, + Ay, shout it forth to life or death-- + Freer already breathes the breath! + The war is waging, slaughter raging, + And heavy through the reeking pall, + The iron Death-dice fall! + Nearer they close--foes upon foes + "Ready!"--From square to square it goes, + Down on the knee they sank, + And the fire comes sharp from the foremost rank. + Many a man to the earth it sent, + Many a gap by the balls is rent-- + O'er the corpse before springs the hinder-man, + That the line may not fail to the fearless van. + To the right, to the left, and around and around, + Death whirls in its dance on the bloody ground. + The sun goes down on the burning fight, + And over the host falls the brooding Night. + _Brothers, God grant when this life is o'er, + In the life to come that we meet once more_! + The dead men lie bathed in the weltering blood, + And the living are blent in the slippery flood, + And the feet, as they reeling and sliding go, + Stumble still on the corpses that sleep below. + "What, Francis!" "Give Charlotte my last farewell." + Wilder the slaughter roars, fierce and fell. + "I'll give----Look, comrades, beware--beware + How the bullets behind us are whirring there---- + I'll give thy Charlotte thy last farewell, + Sleep soft! where death's seeds are the thickest sown, + Goes the heart which thy silent heart leaves alone." + Hitherward--thitherward reels the fight, + Darker and darker comes down the night-- + _Brothers, God grant when this life is o'er, + In the life to come that we meet once more_! + + Hark to the hoofs that galloping go! + The Adjutants flying,-- + The horsemen press hard on the panting foe, + Their thunder booms in dying-- + Victory! + The terror has seized on the dastards all, + And their colours fall. + Victory! + Closed is the brunt of the glorious fight. + And the day, like a conqueror, bursts on the night. + Trumpet and fife swelling choral along, + The triumph already sweeps marching in song. + _Live--brothers--live!--and when this life is o'er, + In the life to come may we meet once more_! + + + * * * * * + + + + +THE LAST OF THE SHEPHERDS. + + +CHAPTER I. + +I wish I had lived in France in 1672! It was the age of romances in +twenty volumes, and flowing periwigs, and high-heeled shoes, and +hoops, and elegance, and wit, and rouge, and literary suppers, and +gallantry, and devotion. What names are those of La Calprenède, and +D'Urfé, and De Scuderi, to be the idols and tutelary deities of a +circulating library!--and Sevigné, to conduct the fashionable +correspondence of the _Morning Post_!--and Racine, to contribute to +the unacted drama!--and ladies skipping up the steepest parts of +Parnassus, with petticoats well tucked up, to show the beauty of +their ankles, and their hands filled with artificial flowers--almost +as good as natural--to show the simplicity of their tastes! I wish I +had lived in France in 1672; for in that year Madame Deshoulieres, +who had already been voted the tenth muse by all the freeholders of +Pieria, and whose pastorals were lisped by all the fashionable +shepherdesses in Paris, left the flowery banks of the Seine to +rejoin her husband. Monsieur Deshoulieres was in Guyenne; Madame +Deshoulieres went into Dauphiné. Matrimony seems to be rather hurtful +to geographical studies, but Madame Deshoulieres was a poetess; and +in spite of the thirty-eight summers that shaded the lustre of her +cheek, she was beautiful, and was still in the glow of youth by her +grace and her talent, and--her heart. Wherever she moved she left +crowds of Corydons and Alexises; but, luckily for M. Deshoulieres, +their whole conversation was about sheep. + +The two Mesdemoiselles Deshoulieres, Madeleine and Bribri, were +beautiful girls of seventeen or eighteen, brought up in all the +innocent pastoralism of their mother. They believed in all the +poetical descriptions they read in her eclogues. They expected to +see shepherds playing on their pipes, and shepherdesses dancing, and +naiads reclining on the shady banks of clear-running rivers. They +were delighted to get out of the prosaic atmosphere of Paris, and +all the three were overjoyed when they sprang from their carriage, +one evening in May, at the chateau of Madame d'Urtis on the banks of +the Lignon. Though there were occasional showers at that season, the +mornings were splendid; and accordingly the travellers were up +almost by daylight, to tread the grass still trembling 'neath the +steps of Astrea--to see the fountain, that mirror where the +shepherdesses wove wild-flowers into their hair--and to explore the +wood, still vocal with the complaints of Celadon. In one of their +first excursions, Madeleine Deshoulieres, impatient to see some of +the scenes so gracefully described by her mother, asked if they were +really not to encounter a single shepherd on the banks of the Lignon? +Madame Deshoulieres perceived, at no great distance, a herdsman and +cow-girl playing at chuckfarthing; and, after a pause, replied-- + + + "Behold upon the verdant grass so sweet, + The shepherdess is at her shepherd's feet! + Her arms are bare, her foot is small and white, + The very oxen wonder at the sight; + Her locks half bound, half floating in the air, + And gown as light as those that satyrs wear." + + +While these lines were given in Madame Deshoulieres' inimitable +recitative, the party had come close to the rustic pair. "People may +well say," muttered Madeleine, "that the pictures of Nature are +always best at a distance. Can it be possible that this is a +shepherdess--a shepherdess of Lignon?" The shepherdess was in +reality a poor little peasant girl, unkempt, unshorn, with hands of +prodigious size, a miraculous squint, and a mouth which probably had +a beginning, but of which it was impossible to say where it might +end. The shepherd was worthy of his companion; and yet there was +something in the extravagant stupidity of his fat and florid +countenance that was interesting to a Parisian eye. Madame +Deshoulieres, who was too much occupied with the verses of the great +D'Urfé to attend to what was before her, continued her description-- + + + "The birds all round her praises ever sing, + And 'neath her steps the flowers incessant spring." + + +"Your occupation here is delightful, isn't it?" said Madeleine to the +peasant girl. + +"No, 'tain't, miss--that it ain't. I gets nothink for all I does, +and when I goes hoam at night I gets a good licking to the bargain." + +"And you?" enquired Madeleine, turning to the herdsman, who was +slinking off. + +"I'm a little b-b-b-etter off nor hur," said the man, stuttering, +"for I gets board and lodging--dasht if I doesn't--but I gets bread +like a stone, and s-s-sleeps below a hedge--dasht if I doesn't." + +"But where are your sheep, shepherd?" said Bribri. + +"Hain't a got none," stuttered the man again, "dasht if I has." + +"What!" exclaimed Madeleine in despair, "am I not to see the lovely +lambkins bleating and skipping in the meadows on the banks of the +Lignon, O Celadon?" + +But Madame Deshoulieres was too much of a poetess to hear or see what +was going on. She thought of nothing but the loves of Astrea, and +heard nothing but the imaginary songs of contending Damons. + +On their return to the chateau, Madeleine and Bribri complained that +they had seen neither flock nor shepherdess. + +"And are you anxious to see them?" enquired Madame D'Urtis, with a +smile. + +"Oh, very," exclaimed Bribri; "we expected to live like +shepherdesses when we came here. I have brought every thing a rustic +wants." + +"And so have I," continued Madeleine; "I have brought twenty yards +of rose-coloured ribands, and twenty yards of blue, to ornament my +crook and the handsomest of my ewes." + +"Well then," said the Duchess d'Urtis, good-naturedly, "there are a +dozen of sheep feeding at the end of the park. Take the key of the +gate, and drive them into the meadows beyond." + +Madeleine and Bribri were wild with joy, while their mother was +labouring in search of a rhyme, and did not attend to the real +eclogue which was about to be commenced. They scarcely took time to +breakfast.--"They dressed themselves coquettishly"--so Madame +Deshoulieres wrote to Mascaron--"they cut with their own hands a +crook a-piece in the park--they beautified them with ribands. +Madeleine was for the blue ribands, Bribri for the rose colour. Oh, +the gentle shepherdesses! they spent a whole hour in finding a name +they liked. At last, Madeleine fixed on Amaranthe, Bribri on Daphnè. +I have just seen them gliding among the trees that overshadow the +lovely stream.--Poor shepherdesses! be on your guard against the +wolves." + +At noon that very day Madeleine and Bribri, or rather Amaranthe and +Daphnè, in grey silk petticoats and satin bodies, with their +beautiful hair in a state of most careful disorder, and with their +crooks in hand, conducted the twelve sheep out of the park into the +meadows. The flock, which seemed to be very hungry, were rather +troublesome and disobedient. The shepherdesses did all they could to +keep them in the proper path. It was a delicious mixture of bleatings, +and laughter, and baaings, and pastoral songs. The happy girls +inhaled the soul of nature, as their poetical mamma expressed it. +They ran--they threw themselves on the blooming grass--they looked +at themselves in the limpid waters of the Lignon--they gathered +lapfulls of primroses. The flock made the best use of their time; +and every now and then a sheep of more observation than the rest, +perceiving they were guarded by such extraordinary shepherdesses, +took half an hour's diversion among the fresh-springing corn. + +"That's one of yours," said Amaranthe. + +"No; 'tis yours," replied Daphnè; but, by way of having no +difficulties in future, they resolved to divide the flock, and +ornament one-half with blue collars, and the other with rose-colour. +And they gave a name also to each of the members of their flock, +such as Meliboeus, and Jeannot, and Robin, and Blanchette. Twelve +more poetical sheep were never fed on grass before. When the sun +began to sink, the shepherdesses brought back their flocks. Madame +Deshoulieres cried with joy. "Oh, my dear girls!" she said, kissing +their fair foreheads; "it is you that have composed an eclogue, and +not I." + +"Nothing is wanting to the picture," said the Duchess, seating +herself under the willows of the watering-place, and admiring the +graceful girls. + +"I think we want a dog," said Daphnè. + +"No; we are rather in want of a wolf," whispered the beautiful +Amaranthe--and blushed. + + +CHAPTER II. + +Not far from the Chateau d'Urtis, the old manor-house of Langevy +raised its pointed turrets above the surrounding woods. There, in +complete isolation from the world, lived Monsieur de Langevy, his +old mother, and his young son. M. de Langevy had struggled against +the storms and misfortunes of human life; he now reposed in the +bosom of solitude, with many a regret over his wife and his +youth--his valiant sword and his adventures. His son, Hector Henri de +Langevy, had studied under the Jesuits at Lyons till he was eighteen. +Accustomed to the indulgent tenderness of his grandmother, he had +returned, about two years before, determined to live in his quiet +home without troubling himself about the military glories that had +inspired his father. M. de Langevy, though he disapproved of the +youth's choice, did not interfere with it, except that he insisted +on his sometimes following the chase, as the next best occupation to +actual war. The chase had few charms for Hector. It perhaps might +have had more, if he had not been forced to arm himself with an +enormous fowling-piece that had belonged to one of his ancestors, +the very sight of which alarmed him a mighty deal more than the game. +He was so prodigious a sportsman, that, after six months' practice, +he was startled as much as ever by the whirr of a partridge. But +don't imagine, on this account, that Hector's time was utterly wasted. +He mused and dreamed, and fancied it would be so pleasant to be in +love; for he was at that golden age--the only golden age the world +has ever seen--when the heart passes from vision to vision (as the +bee from flower to flower)--and wanders, in its dreams of hope, from +earth to heaven, from sunshine to shade--from warbling groves to +sighing maidens. But alas! the heart of Hector searched in vain for +sighing maidens in the woods of Langevy. In the chateau, there was +no one but an old housekeeper, who had probably not sighed for thirty +years, and a chubby scullion-maid--all unworthy of a soul that +dreamed romances on the banks of the Lignon. He counted greatly on a +cousin from Paris, who had promised them a visit in the spring. In +the meantime, he paced up and down with a gun on his shoulder, +pretending to be a sportsman--happy in his hopes, happy in the clear +sunshine, happy because he knew no better--as happens to a great +many other people in the gay days of their youth, in this most +unjustly condemned and vilipended world. And now you will probably +guess what occurred one day he was walking in his usual dreamy state +of abstraction, and as nearly as possible tumbled head foremost into +the Lignon. By dint of marching straight on, without minding either +hedge or ditch, he found himself, when he awakened from his reverie, +with his right foot raised, in the very act of stepping off the bank +into the water. He stood stock-still, in that somewhat unpicturesque +attitude--his mouth wide open, his eyes strained, and his cheek +glowing with all the colours of the rainbow. He had caught a glimpse +of our two enchanting shepherdesses on the other side of the stream, +who were watching his movements by stealth. He blushed far redder +than he had ever done before, and hesitated whether he should +retreat or advance. To retreat, he felt, would look rather awkward: +at the same time, he thought it would be too great a price to pay +for his honour to jump into the river. And, besides, even if he got +over to the other side, would he have courage to speak to them? +Altogether, I think he acted more wisely, though less chivalrously, +than some might have done in his place. He laid down his gun, and +seated himself on the bank, and looked at the sheep as they fed on +the opposite side. At twenty years of age, love travels at an amazing +pace; and Hector felt that he was already over head and ears with +one of the fair shepherdesses. He did not stop to examine which of +them it was; it was of no consequence--sufficient for him that he +knew he was in love--gone--captivated. If he had been twenty years +older, he would perhaps have admired them both: it would have been +less romantic, but decidedly more wise. + +It is not to be denied that Amaranthe and Daphnè blushed a little, +too, at this sort of half meeting with Hector. They hung down their +heads in the most captivating manner, and continued silent for some +time. But at last Amaranthe, more lively than her sister, +recommenced her chatter. "Look, Bribri," she said--"Daphnè I mean--he +is one of the silvan deities, or perhaps Narcissus looking at himself +in the water." + +"Rather say, looking at you," replied Daphnè, with a blush. + +"'Tis Pan hiding himself in the oziers till you are metamorphosed +into a flute, dear Daphnè." + +"Not so, fair sister," replied Daphnè; "'tis Endymion in pursuit of +the shepherdess Amaranthe." + +"At his present pace, the pursuit will last some time. If he weren't +quite so rustic, he would be a captivating shepherd, with his long +brown ringlets. He has not moved for an hour. What if he has taken +root like a hamadryad?" + +"Poor fellow!" said Daphnè, in the simplest tone in the world; +"he looks very dull all by himself." + +"He must come over to us--that's very plain. We will give him a crook +and a bouquet of flowers." + +"Oh, just the thing!" exclaimed the innocent Daphnè. "We need a +shepherd: and yet, no, no"--she added, for she was a little jealous +of her sister--"'tis a lucky thing there is river between us." + +"I hope he will find a bridge _per passa lou riou d'amor_." + +Now, just at that moment Hector's mind was set on passing the river +of Love. In casting his eyes all round in search of a passage, he +perceived an old willow half thrown across the stream. With a little +courage and activity, it was a graceful and poetical bridge. Hector +resolved to try it. He rose and went right onward towards the tree; +but, when he arrived, he couldn't help reflecting that, at that +season, the river was immensely deep. He disdained the danger--sprang +lightly up the trunk, and flung himself along one of the branches, +dropping, happily without any accident, on the meadow of the Chateau +d'Urtis. Little more was left for him to do; and that little he did. +He went towards the fair shepherdesses. He tried to overcome his +timidity--he overwhelmed the first sheep of the flock with his +insidious caresses--and then, finding himself within a few feet of +Amaranthe--he bowed, and smiled, and said, "Mademoiselle." + +He was suddenly interrupted by a clear and silvery voice. + +"There are no Mesdemoiselles here--there are only two shepherdesses, +Amaranthe and Daphnè." + +Hector had prepared a complimentary speech for a young lady attending +a flock of sheep--but he hadn't a word to say to a shepherdess. + +He bowed again, and there was a pause. + +"Fair Amaranthe," he said--"and fair Daphnè, will you permit a mortal +to tread these flowery plains?" + +Amaranthe received the speech with a smile, in which a little +raillery was mingled. "You speak like a true shepherd," she said. + +But Daphnè was more good-natured, and more touched with the +politeness of the sportsman. She cast her eyes on the ground and +blushed. + +"Oh--if you wish to pass through these meadows," she said--"we shall +be"-- + +"We were going to do the honours of our reception room," continued +Amaranthe, "and offer you a seat on the grass." + +"'Tis too much happiness to throw myself at your feet," replied +Hector, casting himself on one knee. + +But he had not looked where he knelt, and he broke Daphnè's crook. + +"Oh, my poor crook!" she said--and sighed. + +"What have I done?" cried Hector. "I am distressed at my stupidity--I +will cut you another from the ash grove below. But you loved this +crook," he added--"the gift, perhaps, of some shepherd--some shepherd? +--no, some prince; for you yourselves are princesses--or fairies." + +"We are nothing but simple shepherdesses," said Amaranthe. + +"You are nothing but beautiful young ladies from the capital," said +Hector, "on a visit at the Chateau d'Urtis. Heaven be praised--for in +my walks I shall at least catch glimpses of you at a distance, if I +dare not come near. I shall see you glinting among the trees like +enchantresses of old." + +"Yes, we are Parisians, as you have guessed--but retired for ever +from the world and its deceitful joys." + +Amaranthe had uttered the last words in a declamatory tone; you +might have thought them a quotation from her mamma. + +"You complain rather early, methinks," replied Hector, with a smile; +"have you indeed much fault to find with the world?" + +"That is our secret, fair sportsman," answered Amaranthe; "but it +seems you also live retired--an eremite forlorn." + +"I? fair Amaranthe? I have done nothing but dream of the delights of +a shepherd's life--though I confess I had given up all hopes of +seeing a good-looking shepherdess--but now I shall go back more +happily than ever to my day-dreams. Ah! why can't I help you to +guard your flock?" + +The two young girls did not know what to say to this proposition. +Daphnè at last replied-- + +"Our flock is very small--and quite ill enough attended to as it is." + +"What joy for me to become Daphnis--to sing to you, and gather roses, +and twine them in your hair!" + +"Let us say no more," interrupted Amaranthe, a little disquieted at +the sudden ardour of Daphnis; "the sun is going down: we must return +to the park. Adieu," she added, rising to go away. + +"Adieu, Daphnis!" murmured the tender Daphnè, confused and blushing. + +Hector did not dare to follow them. He stood for a quarter of an +hour with his eyes fixed first on them, and then on the door of the +park. His heart beat violently, his whole soul pursued the steps of +the shepherdesses. + +"'Adieu, Daphnis,' the lovely Daphnè said to me. I hear her sweet +voice still! How beautiful she is! how beautiful they are, +both--Amaranthe is more graceful, but Daphnè is more winning--bright +eyes--white hands! sweet smiles! and the delicious dress, so simple, +yet so captivating! the white corset that I could not venture to +look at--the gown of silk that couldn't hide the points of the +charming little feet. 'Tis witchery--enchantment--Venus and Diana--I +shall inevitably go mad. Ah, cousin! you ought to have come long ago, +and all this might never have occurred." + +The sun had sunk behind a bed of clouds--the nightingale began its +song, and the fresh green leaves rustled beneath the mild breath of +the evening breeze. The bee hummed joyously on its homeward way, +loaded with the sweets of the spring flowers. Down in the valley, +the voice of the hinds driving their herds to rest, increased the +rustic concert; the river rippled on beneath the mysterious shade of +old fantastic trees, and the air was filled with soft noises, and +rich perfumes, and the voice of birds. There was no room in Hector's +heart for all these natural enjoyments. "To-morrow," he said, +kissing the broken crook--"I will come back again to-morrow." + + +CHAPTER III. + +Early in the following morning, Hector wandered along the banks of +the Lignon, with a fresh-cut crook in his hand. He looked to the +door of the Park d'Urtis, expecting every moment to see the glorious +apparitions of the day before. And at stroke of noon, a lamb rushing +through the gate, careered along the meadow, and the eleven others +ran gayly after it, amidst a peal of musical laughter from Amaranthe. +Daphnè did not laugh. + +The moment she crossed the threshold, she glanced stealthily +towards the river. "I thought so," she murmured; "Daphnis has come +back." And Daphnis, in a transport of joy, was hurrying to the +shepherdesses, when he was suddenly interrupted by Madame +Deshoulieres and the Duchess d'Urtis. When the sisters had returned, +on the evening before, Amaranthe, to Daphnè's great discomfiture, +had told word for word all that had occurred; how that a young +sportsman had joined them, and how they had talked and laughed; and +Madame d'Urtis had no doubt, from the description, that it was Hector +de Langevy. Amaranthe having added to the story, that she felt certain, +in spite of Daphnè's declarations to the contrary, that he would meet +them again, the seniors had determined to watch the result. Hector +would fain have made his escape; two ladies he might have faced, but +four!--and two of them above thirty years of age! 'Twas too much; but +his retreat was instantly cut off. He stood at bay, blushed with +all his might, but saluted the ladies as manfully as if he had been +a page. He received three most gracious curtsies in return--only +three; for Daphnè wished to pass on without taking any notice--which +he considered a very favourable omen. He did not know how to begin a +conversation; and besides, he began to get confused; and his blushing +increased to a most alarming extent--and--in short--he held out his +crook to Daphnè. As that young shepherdess had no crook of her own, +and did not know how to refuse the one he offered, she took it, +though her hand trenbled a little, and looked at Madame Deshoulieres. + +"I broke your crook yesterday, fair Daphnè," said Hector, "but it is +not lost. I shall make a relic of it--more precious than--than--", +but the bones of the particular saint he was about to name stuck in +his throat and he was silent. + +"Monsieur de Langevy," said Madam d'Urtis kindly, "since you make +such a point of aiding these shepherdesses in guarding the flock, I +hope in an hour you will accompany them to the castle to lunch." + +"I'll go with them wherever you allow me, madam," said Hector. +(I wonder if the impudent fellow thought he had the permission of +the young ones already.) + +"Let that be settled then," said the Duchess. "I shall go and have +the butter cooled, and the curds made--a simple lunch, as befits the +guests." + +"The fare of shepherds!" said Madame Deshoulieres, and immediately +set out in search of a rhyme. + +Daphnè had walked slowly on, pressing the crook involuntarily to her +heart, and arrived at the river side, impelled by a desire for +solitude, without knowing why. There are some mysterious influences +to which damsels of seventeen seem particularly subject. A lamb--the +gentlest of the flock, which had become accustomed to her +caresses--had followed her like a dog. She passed her small hand +lightly over the snowy neck of the favourite, and looked round to +see what the party she had left were doing. She was astonished to +see her mother and Hector conversing, as if they had been acquainted +for ages, while Madame d'Urtis and Amaranthe were running a race +towards the park. She sat down on the grassy bank, exactly opposite +the oziers where she had seen Hector the preceding day. When she +felt she was quite alone, she ventured to look at the crook. It was +a branch of ash of good size, ornamented with a rustic bouquet and a +bunch of ribands, not very skilfully tied. Daphnè was just going to +improve the knot, when she saw a billet hid in the flowers. What +should she do?--read it? That were dangerous; her confessor did not +allow such venialities--her mamma would be enraged--some people are +so fond of monopolies--and besides, she might be discovered. 'Twould +be better, then, _not_ to read it--a much simpler proceeding; for +couldn't she nearly guess what was in it? And what did she care what +was in it? Not to read it was evidently the safer mode; and +accordingly she--read it through and through, and blushed and smiled, +and read it through and through again. It was none of your +commonplace prosaic epistles--'twas all poetry, all fire; her mamma +would have been enchanted if the verses had only been addressed to +her. Here they are:-- + + + "My sweetest hour, my happiest day, + Was in the happy month of May! + The happy dreams that round me lay + On that delicious morn of May!" + + "I saw thee! loved thee! If my love + A tribute unrejected be, + The happiest day of May shall prove + The happiest of my life to me!" + + +It is quite evident that if such an open declaration had been made +in plain prose, Daphnè would have been angry; but in verse, 'twas +nothing but a poetical license. Instead, therefore, of tearing it in +pieces, and throwing it into the water, she folded it carefully +up, and placed it in the pretty corset of white satin, which seems +the natural escritoire of a shepherdess in her teens. Scarcely had +she closed the drawer, and double locked it, when she saw at her +side--Hector and Madame Deshoulieres. + +"My poor child," said the poetess, "how thoughtful you seem on +Lignon's flowery side--forgetful of your sheep--" + + 'That o'er the meadows negligently stray!' + +Monsieur de Langevy, as you have given her a crook, methinks you +ought to aid her in her duties in watching the flock. As for myself, +I must be off to finish a letter to my bishop. + + 'From Lignon's famous banks + What can I find to say? + The breezes freshly springing, + Make me--and nature--gay. + When Celadon would weep; + His lost Astrea fair, + To Lignon he would creep, + But oh! this joyous air + Would force to skip and leap + A dragon in despair!'--&c. &c. + +Madame Deshoulieres had no prudish notions, you will perceive, about +a flirtation--provided it was carried on with the airs and graces of +the Hotel Rambouillet. She merely, therefore, interposed a word here +and there, to show that she was present. Daphne, who scarcely said a +word to Hector, took good care to answer every time her mamma spoke +to her. To be sure, it detracts a little from this filial merit, +that she did not know what she said. But if all parties were pleased, +I don't see what possible right anybody else has to find fault. + +The shepherdess Daphnè, or rather Bribri Deshoulieres, as we have +seen, was beautiful, and simple, and tender--beautiful from the +admirable sweetness of her expression--simple, as young girls are +simple: that is to say, with a small spice of mischief to relieve +the insipidity--and tender, with a smile that seems to open the +heart as well as the lips. What struck people in her expression at +first, was a shade of sadness over her features--a fatal presentiment, +as it were, that added infinitely to her charm. Her sister was more +beautiful, perhaps--had richer roses on her cheek, and more of what +is called _manner_ altogether--but if Amaranthe pleased the eyes, +Daphnè captivated the heart; and as the eyes are evidently +subordinate to the heart, Daphne carried the day. Hector accordingly, +on the first burst of his admiration, had _seen_ nothing but +Amaranthe; but when he had left the sisters, it was astonishing how +exclusively he _thought_ of Daphnè. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +The castle clock sounded the hour of luncheon. Hector offered his arm +to Madame Deshoulieres; Daphnè called her flock. They entered the +park, and were joined by the Duchess d'Urtis and Amaranthe. The +collation was magnificent. First course, an omelette au jambon, entrèe +cakes, and fresh butter; second course, a superb cream cheese. +Dessert, a trifle and preserves. All these interesting details are +embalmed in the poetic correspondence of Madame Deshoulieres, in +which every dish was duly chronicled for the edification of her +friends. + +At nightfall--for Hector lingered as long as he could--the young +shepherd quitted the party with great regret; but there was no time +to lose, for he had two leagues to go, and there was no moon, and +the roads were still broken into immense ruts by the equinoctial +rains. On the following day, Hector returned to the Chateau d'Urtis +through the meadow. When he arrived near the willow that served for +his bridge across the river, he was surprised to see neither +shepherdess nor flock in the field. He tripped across the tree, +lamenting the bad omen; but scarcely had he reached the other side +when he saw some sheep straggling here and there. He rushed towards +them, amazed at not seeing either Amaranthe or Daphnè; and what was +his enchantment when, on advancing a little further, he perceived +his adored shepherdess by the margin of the Lignon, which at that +point formed a pretty little cascade. The tender Daphnè had thrown +her beautiful arm round one of the young willows in flower, and, +trusting to its support, leaned gracefully over the waterfall, in +the shadow of its odoriferous leaves. She had allowed her soul to +wander in one of those delicious reveries, of which the +thread--broken and renewed a thousand times--is the work of the joy +which hopes, and the sadness which fears. She was not aware of +Hector's approach. When she saw him, she started, as if waking from +a dream. + +"You are all alone," said Hector, drawing near. + +She hurriedly told him that her sister would soon join her. The two +lovers kept silence for some time, looking timidly at each other, +not venturing to speak, as if they feared the sound of their own +voices in the solitude. + +"There seems a sadness," said Hector at length, but his voice +trembled as he spoke--"there seems a sadness on your brow?" + +"'Tis true," replied Daphnè. "Mamma has heard from Monsieur +Deshoulieres. He is going to pass through Avignon soon, and we are +going away to see him on his passage." + +"Going away!" cried Hector, turning pale. + +"Yes! and I felt myself so happy," said Daphnè, mournfully, +"in these meadows with my sheep, that I loved so well." + +When Daphnè spoke of her sheep, she looked at Hector. + +"But why should you go? Madame Deshoulieres could return for you here" +-- + +"And take me away when I had been longer here--my grief would only +be greater. No--I must go now or stay always." + +On hearing these words Hector fell on one knee, seized her hand and +kissed it, and, looking up with eyes overflowing with love, said-- + +"Yes--always! always!--you know that I love you, Daphnè--I wish to +tell you how I will adore you all my life long." + +Daphnè yielded to her heart--and let him kiss her hand without +resistance. + +"But alas!" she said, "I can't be always guarding a flock. What will +the poor shepherdess do?" + +"Am I not your shepherd? your Daphnis?" cried Hector, as if +inspired--"trust to me, Daphnè--to my heart--to my soul! This hand +shall never be separated from yours: we shall live the same life--in +the sane sunshine--in the same shadow--in the same hovel--in the +same palace; but with you, dearest Daphnè, the humblest hut would be +a palace. Listen, my dearest Daphnè: at a short distance from here +there is a cottage--the Cottage of the Vines--that belongs to the +sister of my nurse, where we can live in love and happiness--no eye +to watch and no tongue to wound us." + +"Never! never!" said Daphnè. + +She snatched her hands from those of her lover, retreated a few paces, +and began to cry. Hector went up to her; he spoke of his +affection--he besought her with tears in his eyes--he was so +eloquent and so sincere, that poor Daphnè was unable to resist, for +any length of time, those bewildering shocks of first love to which +the wisest of us yield: she said, all pale and trembling-- + +"Well--yes--I trust myself to you--and heaven. I am not to blame--is +it my fault that I love you so?" + +A tender embrace followed these words. Evening was now come; the sun, +sinking behind the clouds on the horizon, cast but a feeble light; +the little herdsman was driving home his oxen and his flock of +turkeys, whose gabbling disturbed the solemnity of the closing day. +The flock belonging to the castle turned naturally towards the +watering-place. + +"Look at my poor sheep," said Daphnè, throwing back the curls which +by some means had fallen over her forehead--"look at my poor sheep: +they are pointing out the road I ought to go." + +"On the contrary," replied Hector, "the ungrateful wretches are going +off very contentedly without you." + +"But I am terrified," rejoined Daphnè: "how can I leave my mother in +this way? She will die of grief!" + +"She will write a poem on it; and that will be all." + +"I will write to her that I was unable to resist my inclination for +a monastic life, and that I have gone, without giving her notice, to +the nunnery of St. Marie that we were speaking of last night." + +So said the pure and candid Bribri, hitting in a moment on the +ingenious device; so true it is, that at the bottom of all +hearts--even the most amiable--there is some small spark of mischief +ready to explode when we least expect it. + +"Yes--dearest," cried Hector, delighted at the thought, "you will +write to her you have gone into the convent; she will go on to +Avignon; we shall remain together beneath these cloudless skies, in +this lovely country, happy as the birds, and free as the winds of +the hill!" + +Daphnè thought she heard some brilliant quotation from her mother, +and perhaps was, on that account, the more easily led by Hector. +After walking half an hour, with many a glance by the way, and many +a smile, they arrived in front of the Cottage of the Vines--the good +old woman was hoeing peas in her garden--she had left her house to +the protection of an old grey cat, that was sleeping in the doorway. +Daphnè was enraptured with the cottage. It was beautifully retired, +and was approached by a little grass walk bordered by elder-trees; +and all was closed in by a pretty orchard, in which luxuriant vines +clambered up the fine old pear-trees, and formed in festoons between +the branching elms. The Lignon formed a graceful curve and nearly +encircled the paddock. + +"At all events," said Daphnè, "if I am wretched here, my tears will +fall into the stream I love." + +"But you will have no time to weep," replied Hector, pressing her +hand, "all our days will be happy here! Look at that window half +hidden in vine-leaves; 'tis there you will inhale the fragrance of +the garden every morning when you awake; look at that pretty bower +with the honeysuckle screen, 'tis there we will sit every evening, +and talk over the joys of the day. Our life will be bright and +beautiful as a sunbeam among roses!" + +They had gone inside the cottage. It had certainly no great +resemblance to a palace; but under these worn rafters--within these +simple walls--by the side of that rustic chimney--poverty itself +would be delightful, in its tidiness and simplicity, if shared with +one you loved. Daphnè was a little disconcerted at first by the +rough uneven floor, and by the smell of the evening meal--the +toasted cheese, and the little oven where the loaf was baking; but, +thanks to love--the enchanter, who has the power of transforming to +what shape he likes, and can shed his magic splendours over any +thing--Daphnè found the cottage charming, and she was pleased with +the floor, and the toasted cheese, and the oven! The good old woman, +on coming in from the garden, was astonished at the sight of Hector +and Daphnè. + +"What a pretty sister you have, Monsieur Hector!" she said. + +"Listen to me, Babet--since your daughter married, nobody has used +the little room up stairs. This young lady will occupy it for a few +days; but you must keep it a secret from all the world--you +understand." + +"Don't be afraid, Master Hector--I am delighted to have so pretty a +tenant for my daughter's room. The bed is rather small, but it is +white and clean, and the sheets are fresh bleached. They smell of +the daisies yet. You will sup with me, my fair young lady?" +continued Babet, turning to Daphnè; "my dishes are only pewter, but +there is such a flavour in my simple fare--my vegetables and +fruits--I can't account for it, except it be the blessing of heaven." + +Babet spread a tablecloth like snow, and laid some dishes of fruit +upon the table. Hector took a tender farewell of Daphnè, and kissed +her hand at least a dozen times. At last he tore himself away, with +a promise that he would be with her at daybreak next morning. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +Daphnè hardly slept all night in her chamber. She was disturbed by +many thoughts, and became alarmed at the step she had taken. At +earliest dawn she threw open her window. The first sun-rays, +reflected on a thousand dewdrops on the trees; the chirping of the +birds, which already began their matin song; the joyous voice of the +cock, which crowed in a most satisfactory and majestic manner in the +paddock of her hostess; all these sights and sounds, to which she +was so little accustomed, restored her serenity of mind once more. +She dwelt more on the attractions of her love--so adventurous, so +romantic. Love's ways, like those of wickedness, are strewed at +first with roses, and Daphnè was only at the entrance of the path. + + +While she was repelling from her heart the miserable fancies that had +crowded on her at night, she all of a sudden perceived Hector by the +whitethorn hedge. + +"Welcome! welcome!" she cried, "you come to me with the sun." + +"How lovely you are this morning!" said Hector to her, with a look +of admiration which there needed no physiognomist to discover was +profoundly real. She looked at herself when he spoke, and perceived +she was but half dressed. She threw herself on the foot of her bed. + +"What am I to do?" she thought, "I can't always wear a silk petticoat +and a corset of white satin?" + +She dressed herself notwithstanding, as last night, trusting to fate +for the morrow. Hector had brought her writing materials, and she +composed a tender adieu to her mamma. + +"Admirably done!" cried Hector; "I have a peasant here who will carry +it to Madame Deshoulieres--as for me, I shall go as usual to the +Park d'Urtis at noon. When they see me they will have no suspicion. +Your mamma goes away this evening, so that after to-day we shall +have nothing to fear." + +The lovers breakfasted in the spirits which only youth and love can +furnish. Daphnè had herself gone to the fountain with the broken +pitcher of the cottage. "You perceive, Hector," she said, on seating +herself at the table, "that I have all the qualifications of a +peasant girl." + +"And all the gracefulness of a duchess," added the youth. + +At one o'clock Hector had found his way to the meadow. Nobody was +there. He opened the gate of the park, and before he had gone far was +met by Madame Deshoulieres. + +"My daughter!" she cried in an agitated voice; "You have not seen my +daughter?" + +"I was in hopes of seeing her here," replied Hector, with a start of +well-acted surprise. + +"She is gone off," resumed the mother; "gone off, like a silly +creature, to some convent, disguised as a shepherdess--the foolish, +senseless girl!--and I am obliged to depart this very day, so that +it is impossible to follow her." + +Hector continued to enact astonishment--he even offered his services +to reclaim the fugitive--and, in short, exhibited such sorrow and +disappointment, that the habitual quickness of Madame Deshoulieres +was deceived. The Duchess, Amaranthe, and the mamma all thanked him +for his sympathy; and he at last took his leave, with no doubt in +his mind, that he was a consummate actor, and qualified for any plot +whatever. + +He went back to Daphnè, who had sunk into despondency once more, and +consoled her by painting a brilliant picture of their future +happiness. But on the following day he came later than before--he +seemed dull and listless--and embraced his shepherdess with evident +constraint. Things like these never escape the observations of +shepherdesses, gentle or simple. + +"Do you know, Hector, that you are not by any means too gallant?--A +shepherd of proper sentiments would waken his sweetheart every +morning with the sound of his pipe. He would gather flowers for her +before the dew was gone, and fill her basket with fruits. He would +carve her initials on the bark of the tree beneath the window, as +her name is written on his heart. But you! you come at nearly +noon--and leave me to attend to myself. 'Twas I, you inattentive +Daphnis, who gathered all these fruits and flowers. Don't you see +how the room is improved? Hyacinths in the window, roses on the +mantelpiece, and violets every where--ah! what a time you were in +coming!" + +They went out into the garden, where the good old Babet was at +breakfast, with her cat and the bees. + +"Come hither," continued Daphnè, "look at this little corner so +beautifully worked--'tis my own garden--I have raked and weeded it +all. There is not much planted in it yet, but what a charming place +it is for vines!--and the hedge, how sweet and flourishing! But what +is the matter with you, Hector? You seem absent--sad." + +"Oh! nothing, Daphnè, nothing indeed--I only love you more and more +every hour; that's all." + +"Well, that isn't a thing to be sad about"--said Daphnè, with a smile +that would have dispelled any grief less deeply settled than that of +her young companion. He parted from Daphnè soon; without letting her +into the cause of his disquiet. But as there is no reason why the +secret should be kept any longer, let us tell what was going on at +the Chateau de Langevy. + + +His cousin Clotilde had arrived the evening before, with an old aunt, +to remain for the whole spring! Monsieur de Langevy, who was not +addicted to circumlocution in his mode of talk, told his son +point-blank, that his cousin was a pretty girl, and what was more, a +considerable heiress--so that it was his duty--his, Hector de +Langevy--the owner of a great name and a very small fortune, to +marry the said cousin--or if not, he must stand the consequences. +Hector, at the first intimation, had revolted indignantly against +the inhuman proposal, and made many inaudible vows of undying +constancy to his innocent and trusting Daphne; but by degrees, there +is no denying that--without thinking of the fortune--he found +various attractions in his cousin. She was beautiful, graceful, +winning. She took his arm quite unceremoniously. She had the most +captivating small-talk in the world. In short, if it had not been +for Daphnè, he would have been in love with her at once. As he was +obliged, of course, to escort his cousin in her walks--or break with +her altogether--he did not go for two whole days to the Cottage of +the Vines. On the third day Clotilde begged him to take her to the +banks of the Lignon, and as the request was made in presence of his +father, he dared not refuse. He contented himself--by way of a +relief to his conscience--with breathing a sigh to Daphnè. The +straightest road from the Château de Langevy to the Lignon, led past +the Cottage of the Vines--but Hector had no wish to go the +straightest road. He took a detour of nearly two miles, and led her +almost to the Park D'Urtis. While Clotilde amused herself by +gathering the blossoms, and turning aside the pendent boughs of +the willows that hung over the celebrated stream. Hector looked +over the scene of his first meeting with the shepherdesses, and +sighed--perhaps without knowing exactly wherefore. He was suddenly +startled by a scream--Clotilde, in stretching too far forward, had +missed her footing, and fallen upon the bank; she was within an inch +of rolling into the river. Hector rushed to her, raised her gently up, +and begging her to lean her head upon his shoulder, assisted her up +the bank. "She's like a naiad surprised by a shepherd"--he +thought--and it is not improbable that at that moment he pressed his +lips pretty close to the pale cheek that rested almost in his breast. +When he lifted up his head, he perceived, half hidden among the +willows, on the other side of the river--Daphnè! She had wandered to +see once more the cradle of her love, to tread the meadow where, two +days only before--could it be only two days?--she had been so happy. +What did she see? What did she hear? As her only reply to the kiss +to which she had so unfortunately been a witness, she broke her +crook in an excess of indignation. But it was too much to bear. She +fell upon the bank, and uttered a plaintive cry. At that cry--at +sight of his poor Daphnè fainting upon the grass, he rushed like a +madman across the stream, buoyant with love and despair. He ran to +his insensate shepherdess, regardless of the exclamations of the +fair Clotilde, and raised her in his trembling arms. + +"Daphnè, Daphnè," he cried, "open your eyes. I love nobody but +you--nobody but you." + +He embraced her tenderly; he wept--and spoke to her as if she heard: +Daphnè opened her eyes for a moment with a look of misery--and shut +them again--and shuddered. + +"No, no!" she said--"'tis over! You are no longer Daphnis, and I +Daphnè no more--leave me, leave me alone--to die!" + +"My life! my love! my darling Daphnè! I love you--I swear it to you +from my heart. I do not desert you: you are the only one I care for!" + +In the meantime Clotilde had approached the touching scene. + +"'Pon my word, sir! very well"--she said--"am I to return to the +Chateau by myself?" + +"Go, sir, go!" said Daphnè, pushing him away, "You are waited for, +you are called." + +"But, Daphnè--but, fair cousin"-- + +"I won't listen to you--my daydream is past--speak of it no more," +said Daphnè. + +"Do you know, cousin," said Clotilde, with a malicious sneer, +"that this rural surprise is quite enchanting! I am greatly obliged +to you for getting it up for my amusement. You did not prepare me +for so exquisite a scene; I conclude it is from the last chapter of +the Astrea." + +"Ah! cousin," said Hector, "I will overtake you in a moment--I will +tell you all, and then I don't think you'll laugh at us." + +"Excuse me, sir," cried Daphnè, in a tone of disdainful anger-- +"let that history be for ever a secret. I do not wish people to +laugh at the weakness of my heart. Farewell, sir, let every thing be +forgotten--buried!" + +Large tears rolled down the poor girl's cheek. + +"No, Daphnè, no!--I never will leave you. I declare it before heaven +and earth, I will conduct my cousin to the Chateau, and in an hour I +will be with you to dry your tears, and to ask pardon of you on my +knees. Moreover, I am not to blame, I call my cousin to witness. Is +it not true, Clotilde, that I don't love you?" + +"'Pon my word, cousin, you have certainly _told_ me you loved me; +but as men generally say the contrary of what is the fact, I am +willing to believe you don't. But I beg you'll not incommode +yourself on my account; I can find my way to the Chateau perfectly +well alone." + +She walked away, hiding her chagrin under the most easy and careless +air in the world. + +"I must run after her," said Hector, "or she will tell every thing +to my father. Adieu Daphnè; in two hours I shall be at the Cottage +of the Vines, and more in love than ever." + +"Adieu, then," murmured Daphnè in a dying voice; "adieu," she +repeated on seeing him retire; "adieu!--as for me, in two hours, I +shall _not_ be at the Cottage of Vines." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +She returned to the cottage of old Babet. On seeing the little +chamber she had taken so much pains to ornament with flowers and +blossoms, she sank her head upon her bosom. "Poor roses!" she +murmured--"little I thought when I gathered you, that my heart would +be the first to wither!" + +The poor old woman came in to her. "What! crying?" she said-- +"do people weep at eighteen?" + +Daphnè threw herself into Babet's arms, and sobbed. + +"He has deceived me--left me for his cousin. I must go. You will +tell him that he has behaved cruelly, that I am----but no!--tell him +that I forgive him." + +Daphnè loved Hector with all her heart, and with all her soul. There +never was an affection so blind, or a girl so innocent. Before +leaving Paris, she had had various visions of what might happen in +the country--how she might meet some graceful cavalier beside the +wall of some romantic castle, who would fling himself on his knees +before her, like a hero of romance. And this dream, so cherished in +Paris, was nearly realized on the banks of the Lignon. Hector was +exactly the sort of youth she had fancied, and the interest became +greater from their enacting the parts of shepherdess and shepherd. +She had been strengthened in this, her first love, by the former +illusions of her imagination; and without one thought of evil, she +had lost her common sense, and had followed her lover instead of +attending to her mamma. Oh, young damsels, who are fond of pastorals, +and can dream of young cavaliers and ancient castles!--who hear, on +one side, the soft whisperings of a lover, and on the other, the +sensible remarks of your mother!--need I tell you which of the two +to choose? If you are still in doubt, read to the end of this story, +and you will hesitate no longer. + +Hector rejoined his cousin, but during their walk home, neither of +them ventured to allude to the incident in the meadow. Hector +augured well from the silence of Clotilde--he hoped she would not +speak of his secret at the chateau. Vain hope! the moment she found +an opportunity, it all came out! That evening, M. de Langevy saw her +more pensive than usual, and asked her the cause. + +"Oh, nothing," she said, and sighed. + +The uncle persisted in trying to find it out. + +"What is the matter, my dear Clotilde?" he said. "Has your +pilgrimage to the banks of the Lignon disappointed you?" + +"Yes, uncle." + +"Has my son---but where is Hector?" + +"He has gone on the pilgrimage again." + +"What the devil is he doing there?" "He has his reasons, of course," +said Clotilde. + +"Indeed!--Do you know what they are?" enquired the father. + +"Not the least in the world--only--" + +"Only what? I hate these only's--out with it all!" + +"My dear uncle, I've told you I know nothing about it--only I have +seen his shepherdess." + +"His shepherdess? You're laughing, Clotilde. Do you believe in +shepherdesses at this time of day?" + +"Yes, uncle--for I tell you I saw his shepherdess fall down in a +faint on the side of the Lignon." + +"The deuce you did? A shepherdess!--Hector in love with a shepherdess!" + +"Yes, uncle; but a very pretty one, I assure you, in silk petticoat +and corset of white satin." + +The father was petrified. "What is the meaning of all this? It must +be a very curious story. Bring me my fowling-piece and game-bag. Do +you think, my dear Clotilde, that infernal boy has returned to his +shepherdess?" + +"Yes, uncle." + +"Well--has the shepherdess any sheep?" + +"No, uncle." + +"The devil! that looks more serious. You went past the withy bed?" + +"Yes, uncle; but I fancy the gentle shepherdess is nearer the village." + +"Very good," grumbled the old Baron, with a tone of voice that made +it difficult to believe he saw much good in it. "Silk petticoats and +satin corsets! I wonder where the rascal finds money for such +fineries for his shepherdess." + +He went straight on to the Cottage of the Vines, in hopes that Babet +would know something of Hector's proceedings. He found the old woman +in her porch, resting from the labours of the day. + +"How do you do, Babet?" said the old Baron, softening his voice like +any sucking dove. "Anything new going on?" + +"Nothing new, your honour," replied Babet, attempting to rise. + +"Sit still," said the Baron, putting his hand kindly on the old +lady's shoulder; "here's a seat for me on this basket of rushes." At +this moment M. de Langevy heard the upstairs casement closed. +"Oho!" he thought, "I've hit upon it at once--this is the cage where +these turtles bill and coo. Have you seen my son this week, Babet?" +he said aloud. + +"Oh, I see him often, your honour; he often comes sporting into my +paddock." + +"Sporting in your preserves, Babet--a pretty sort of game." + +"Oh, very good game, your honour; this very day he sent me a +beautiful hare. I did not know what to do with it; but at last I put +it on the spit." + +"The hare wasn't all for you, perhaps. But, listen to me, Babet--I +know the whole business--my son is in love with some shepherdess or +other--and I don't think she is far from here." + +"I don't understand you, sir," said the old lady--a true _confidante_, +though seventy years of age. + +"You understand me so perfectly," said the Baron, "that you are +evidently ashamed of your behaviour. But do not be uneasy, there is +no great harm in it--a mere childish frolic--only tell me where the +girl is?" + +"Ah, your honour," cried Babet, who saw there was no use for further +pretence--"she's an angel--she is--a perfect angel!" + +"Where does the angel come from, Babet?" enquired the Baron, +"she has not come fresh from heaven, has she?" + +"I know nothing more about her, your honour; but I pray morning and +night that you may have no one else for a daughter." + +"We shall see--the two lovers are above, are not they?" + +"Why should I conceal it? Yes, your honour, you may go up stairs at +once. An innocent love like theirs never bolts the door." + +When the Baron was half-way up the stair, he stopped short, on +seeing the two lovers sitting close to each other, the one weeping, +and the other trying to console her. There was such an air of +infantine candour about them both, and both seemed so miserable, +that the hard heart of sixty-three was nearly touched. + +"Very well!"--he said, and walked into the room. Daphnè uttered a +scream of terror, and her tears redoubled. + +"There is nothing to cry about," said M. de Langevy; "but as for you, +young man, you must let me into the secret, if you please." + +"I have nothing to tell you," said Hector, in a determined tone. + +Daphnè, who had leant for support on his shoulder, fell senseless on +her chair. + +"Father," said Hector, bending over her, "you perceive that this is +no place for you." + +"Nor for you, either," said the old man in a rage. "What do you mean +by such folly? Go home this instant, sir, or you shall never enter +my door again." + +But Hector made no reply. His whole attention was bestowed on Daphnè. + +"I ask you again, sir," said the father, still more angry at his +son's neglect. "Think well on what you do." + +"I _have_ thought, sir," replied Hector, raising the head of the +still senseless Daphnè. "You may shut your door for ever." + +"None of your impudence, jackanapes. Will you come home with me now, +or stay here?" + +"If I go with you, sir," said Hector, "it will be to show my respect +to you as my father, but I must tell you that I love Mademoiselle +Deshoulieres, and no one else. We are engaged, and only death shall +part us." + +"Deshoulieres--Deshoulieres," said the Baron, "I've heard that name +before. I knew a Colonel Deshoulieres in the campaigns of Flanders; +a gallant fellow, with a beautiful wife, a number of wounds, many +medals, but not a _sou_. Are you coming, sir?" + +Daphnè motioned him to go, and Hector followed his father in silence. +He was not without hopes of gaining his permission to love his poor +Daphnè as much as he chose. M. de Langevy bowed to her as he went +out of the room; and wishing Babet a good appetite as he passed the +kitchen door, commenced a sermon for the edification of poor Hector, +which lasted all the way. The only attention Hector paid to it was +to turn round at every pause, and take a look at the little casement +window. + +When Daphnè saw him disappear among the woods at the side of the road, +she sighed; and while the tears rolled down her cheek, she said, +"Adieu, adieu! I shall never see him more!" + +She looked sadly round the little apartment--now so desolate; she +gathered one of the roses that clustered round the window, and +scattered the leaves one by one, and watched them as they were +wafted away by the breeze. + +"Even so will I do with my love," said the poetical shepherdess; +"I will scatter it on the winds of death." + +"Adieu," she said, embracing poor old Babet; "I am going back to the +place I left so sillily. If you see Hector again, tell him I loved +him; but that he must forget me, as I forget the world, and myself." + +As she said these words, she grew pale and staggered, but she +recovered by an effort, and walked away on the path that led to the +Chateau d'Urtis. When she came to the meadow, she saw at her feet +the crook she had broken in the morning. She lifted it, and took it +with her as the only memorial of Hector. The sun was sinking slowly, +and Daphnè knelt down and said a prayer, pressing the crook to her +bosom--poor Daphnè! + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +She did not find her mother at the chateau: Madame d'Urtis was +overjoyed to see her. + +"Well, my lost sheep," she said, "you have come back again to the +fold." + +"Yes," said Daphnè, sadly; "I am come back never to stray again. See, +here is my broken crook, and Daphnis will never come to cut me +another." + +She told every thing to Madame d'Urtis. The Duchess did not know +whether to laugh or scold; so she got over the difficulty by +alternately doing both. + +In the Chateau de Langevy, Hector continued firm in the presence of +his father, and even of his cousin. He told them every thing exactly +as it occurred; and spoke so enthusiastically and so sincerely, that +the old Baron was somewhat softened. Clotilde herself was touched, +and pled in Hector's behalf. But the old Baron was firm, and his +only answer was, "In eight days he will forget all about her. I am +astonished, Clotilde, to see you reason so absurdly." + +"Oh, my dear uncle!" said Clotilde, "I believe that those who reason +the worst on such a subject are the most reasonable." + +"I tell you again, in a week he will have changed his divinity--you +know that very well; or I don't see the use of your having such +beautiful eyes." + +"Be sure of this, uncle," replied Clotilde, in a more serious voice, +"Hector will never love me, and besides," she added, relapsing into +gaiety once more, "I don't like to succeed to another; I agree with +Mademoiselle de Scuderi, that, in love, those queens are the +happiest who create kingdoms for themselves in undiscovered lands." + +"You read romances, Clotilde, so I shall argue with you no longer +about the phantom you call love." + +Hector took his father on the weak side. + +"If I marry Mademioiselle Deshoulieres," he said, "I shall march +forward in the glorious career of arms; you have opened the way for +me, and I cannot fail of success under the instruction of the brave +Deshoulieres, whom Louvois honours with his friendship." + +M. de Langevy put an end to the conversation by saying he would +consider--which seemed already a great step gained in favour of the +lovers. + +On the next day's dawn, Hector was at the Cottage of the Vines. + +"Alas, alas!" said the old woman, throwing open the window, +"the dear young lady is gone!" + +"Gone!--you let her go!--but I will find her." + +Hector ran to the Chateau d'Urtis. When he entered the park, he felt +he was too late, for he saw a carriage hurrying down the opposite +avenue. He rang the bell, and was shown in to the Duchess. + +"'Tis you, Monsieur de Langevy," she said, sadly; "you come to see +Mademoiselle Deshoulieres. Think of her no more, for all is at an end +between you. On this earth you will meet no more, for in an hour she +will have left the world. She is gone, with her maid, to the Convent +of Val Chrétien." + +"Gone!" cried Hector, nearly fainting. + +"She has left a farewell for you in this letter." Hector took the +letter which the Duchess held to him, and grew deadly pale as he +read these lines:-- + +"Farewell, then! 'Tis no longer Daphnè who writes to you, but a +broken-hearted girl, who is to devote her life to praying for the +unhappy. I retire from the world with resignation. I make no +complaint: my two days' dream of happiness is gone. It was a +delicious eclogue--pure, sincere, and tender; but it is past--Adieu!" + +Hector kissed the letter, and turned to the Duchess. "Have you a +horse, madam?" he said. + +"What would you do with it?" + +"I would overtake Mademoiselle Deshoulieres." + +"You might overtake her, but you couldn't turn her." + +"For mercy's sake, madam, a horse! Take pity on my misery." + +The Duchess ordered a horse to be saddled, for she had opposed +Daphnè's design. "Go," she said, "and Heaven guide you both!" + +He started at full gallop: he overtook the carriage in half an hour. + +"Daphnè, you must go no further!" he said, holding out his hand to +the melancholy girl. + +"'Tis you!" cried Daphnè, with a look of surprise and joy--soon +succeeded by deeper grief than ever. + +"Yes, 'tis I! I," continued the youth, "who love you as my Daphnè, +my wife, for my father has listened at last to reason, and agrees to +all." + +"But I also have listened to reason, and you know where I am going. +Leave me: you are rich--I am poor: you love me to-day--who can say if +you will love me to-morrow? We began a delightful dream, let us not +spoil it by a bad ending. Let our dream continue unbroken in its +freshness and romance. Our crooks are both broken; they have killed +two of our sheep; they have cut down the willows in the meadow. You +perceive that our bright day is over. The lady I saw yesterday +should be your wife. Marry her, then; and if ever, in your hours of +happiness, you wander on the banks of the Lignon, my shade will +appear to you. But _then_ it shall be with a smile!" + + +"Daphnè! Daphnè! I love you! I will never leave you! I will live or +die with you!" + + * * * * * + +It was fifty years after that day, that one evening, during a +brilliant supper in the Rue St. Dominique, Gentil Bernard, who was +the life of the company, announced the death of an original, who had +ordered a broken stick to be buried along with him. + +"He is Monsieur de Langevy," said Fontenelle. "He was forced against +his inclination to marry the dashing Clotilde de Langevy, who eloped +so shamefully with one of the Mousquetaires. M. de Langevy had been +desperately attached to Bribri Deshoulieres, and this broken stick +was a crook they had cut during their courtship on the banks of the +Lignon. The Last Shepherd is dead, gentlemen--we must go to his +funeral." + +"And what became of Bribri Deshoulieres?" asked a lady of the party. + +"I have been told she died very young in a convent in the south," +replied Fontenelle; "and the odd thing is, that, when they were +burying her, they found a crook attached to her horse-hair tunic." + + * * * * * + + + +THE FOUNDING OF THE BELL. + +WRITTEN FOR MUSIC. + +BY CHARLES MACKAY. + + + Hark! how the furnace pants and roars! + Hark! how the molten metal pours, + As, bursting from its iron doors, + It glitters in the sun! + Now through the ready mould it flows, + Seething and hissing as it goes, + And filling every crevice up + As the red vintage fills the cup: + _Hurra! the work is done_! + + Unswathe him now. Take off each stay + That binds him to his couch of clay, + And let him struggle into day; + Let chain and pulley run, + With yielding crank and steady rope, + Until he rise from rim to cope, + In rounded beauty, ribb'd in strength, + Without a flaw in all his length: + _Hurra! the work is done_! + + The clapper on his giant side + Shall ring no peal for blushing bride, + For birth, or death, or new-year-tide, + Or festival begun! + A nation's joy alone shall be + The signal for his revelry; + And for a nation's woes alone + His melancholy tongue shall moan: + _Hurra! the work is done_! + + Borne on the gale, deep-toned and clear, + His long loud summons shall we hear, + When statesmen to their country dear + Their mortal race have run; + When mighty monarchs yield their breath, + And patriots sleep the sleep of death, + Then shall he raise his voice of gloom, + And peal a requiem o'er their tomb: + _Hurra! the work is done_! + + Should foemen lift their haughty hand, + And dare invade us where we stand, + Fast by the altars of our land + We'll gather every one; + And he shall ring the loud alarm, + To call the multitudes to arm, + From distant field and forest brown, + And teeming alleys of the town: + _Hurra! the work is done_! + + And as the solemn boom they hear, + Old men shall grasp the idle spear, + Laid by to rust for many a year, + And to the struggle run; + Young men shall leave their toils or books, + Or turn to swords their pruninghooks; + And maids have sweetest smiles for those + Who battle with their country's foes: + _Hurra! the work is done_! + + And when the cannon's iron throat + Shall bear the news to dells remote, + And trumpet-blast resound the note, + That victory is won; + While down the wind the banner drops, + And bonfires blaze on mountain-tops, + His sides shall glow with fierce delight, + And ring glad peals from morn to night; + _Hurra! the work is done_! + + But of such themes forbear to tell. + May never War awake this bell + To sound the tocsin or the knell! + Hush'd be the alarum gun! + Sheath'd be the sword! and may his voice + Call up the nations to rejoice + That War his tatter'd flag has furl'd, + And vanish'd from a wiser world! + _Hurra! the work is done_! + + Still may he ring when struggles cease, + Still may he ring for joy's increase, + For progress in the arts of peace, + And friendly trophies won! + When rival nations join their hands, + When plenty crowns the happy lands, + When knowledge gives new blessings birth, + And freedom reigns o'er all the earth! + _Hurra! the work is done_! + + * * * * * + + + + +AMMALÁT BEK. + + + A TRUE TALE OF THE CAUCASUS. + FROM THE RUSSIAN OF MARLÍNSKI. + + +CHAPTER III. + +It was daybreak when Ammalát came to himself. Slowly, one by one, +his thoughts reassembled in his mind, and flitted to and fro as in a +mist, in consequence of his extreme weakness. He felt no pain at all +in his body, and his sensations were even agreeable; life seemed to +have lost its bitterness, and death its terror: in this condition he +would have listened with equal indifference to the announcement of +his recovery, or of his inevitable death. He had no wish to utter a +word, or to stir a finger. This half sleep, however, did not +continue long. At midday, after the visit of the physician, when the +attendants had gone to perform the rites of noon-tide prayer, when +their sleepy voices were still, and nought but the cry of the mullah +resounded from afar, Ammalát listened to a soft and cautious step +upon the carpets of the chamber. He raised his heavy eyelids, and +between their lashes appeared, approaching his bed, a fair, +black-eyed girl, dressed in an orange-coloured sarótchka, an +arkhaloúkh of cloth of gold with two rows of enamelled buttons, +and her long hair falling upon her shoulders. Gently she fanned +his face, and so pityingly looked at his wound that all his nerves +thrilled. Then she softly poured some medicine into a cup, and--he +could see no more--his eyelids sank like lead--he only caught with +his ear the rustling of her silken dress, like the sound of a parting +angel's wings, and all was still again. Whenever his weak senses strove +to discover the meaning of this fair apparition, it was so mingled with +the uncertain dreams of fever, that his first thought--his first +word--when he awoke, was, "'Tis a dream!" But it was no dream. This +beautiful girl was the daughter of the Sultan Akhmet Khan, and +sixteen years old. Among all the mountaineers, in general, the +unmarried women enjoy a great freedom of intercourse with the other +sex, without regard to the law of Mahomet. The favourite daughter of +the Khan was even more independent than usual. By her side alone he +forgot his cares and disappointments; by her side alone his eye met +a smile, and his heart a gleam of gayety. When the elders of Avár +discussed in a circle the affairs of their mountain politics, or +gave their judgment on right or wrong; when, surrounded by his +household, he related stories of past forays, or planned fresh +expeditions, she would fly to him like a swallow, bringing hope and +spring into his soul. Fortunate was the culprit during whose trial +the Khána came to her father! The lifted dagger was arrested in the +air; and not seldom would the Khan, when looking upon her, defer +projects of danger and blood, lest he should be parted from his +darling daughter. Every thing was permitted, every thing was +accessible, to her. To refuse her any thing never entered into the +mind of the Khan; and suspicion of any thing unworthy her sex and +rank, was as far from his thoughts as from his daughter's heart. But +who among those who surrounded the Khan, could have inspired her +with tender feelings? To bend her thoughts--to lower her sentiments +to any man inferior to her in birth, would have been an unheard-of +disgrace in the daughter of the humblest retainer; how much more, +then, in the child of a khan, imbued from her very cradle with the +pride of ancestry!--this pride, like a sheet of ice, separating her +heart from the society of those she saw. As yet no guest of her +father had ever been of equal birth to hers; at least, her heart had +never asked the question. It is probable, that her age--of careless, +passionless youth--was the cause of this; perhaps the hour of love +had already struck, and the heart of the inexperienced girl was +fluttering in her bosom. She was hurrying to clasp her father in her +embrace, when she had beheld a handsome youth falling like a corpse +at her feet. Her first feeling was terror; but when her father +related how and wherefore Ammalát was his guest, when the village +doctor declared that his wound was not dangerous, a tender sympathy +for the stranger filled her whole being. All night there flitted +before her the blood-stained guest, and she met the morning-beam, for +the first time, less rosy than itself. For the first time she had +recourse to artifice: in order to look on the stranger, she entered +his room as though to salute her father, and afterwards she slipped in +there at mid-day. An unaccountable, resistless curiosity impelled her +to gaze on Ammalát. Never, in her childhood, had she so eagerly longed +for a plaything; never, at her present age, had she so vehemently wished +for a new dress or a glittering ornament, as she desired to meet the eye +of the guest; and when at length, in the evening, she encountered his +languid, yet expressive gaze, she could not remove her look from the +black eyes of Ammalát, which were intently fixed on her. They seemed +to say--"Hide not thyself; star of my soul!" as they drank health +and consolation from her glances. She knew not what was passing +within her; she could not distinguish whether she was on the earth, +or floating in the air; changing colours flitted on her face. At +length she ventured, in a trembling voice, to ask him about his +health. One must be a Tartar--who accounts it a sin and an offence +to speak a word to a strange woman, who never sees any thing female +but the veil and the eye-brows--to conceive how deeply agitated was +the ardent Bek, by the looks and words of the beautiful girl +addressed so tenderly to him. A soft flame ran through his heart, +notwithstanding his weakness. + +"Oh, I am very well, now," he answered, endeavouring to rise; +"so well, that I am ready to die, Seltanetta." + +"Allah sakhla-sün!" (God protect you!) she replied. "Live, live long! +Would you not regret life?" + +"At a sweet moment sweet is death, Seltanetta! But if I live a +hundred years, a more delightful moment than this can never be found!" + +Seltanetta did not understand the words of the stranger; but she +understood his look--she understood the expression of his voice. She +blushed yet more deeply; and, making a sign with her hand that he +should repose, disappeared from the chamber. + +Among the mountaineers there are many very skilful surgeons, chiefly +in cases of wounds and fractures; but Ammalát, more than by herb or +plaster, was cured by the presence of the charming mountain-maid. +With the agreeable hope of seeing her in his dreams, he fell asleep, +and awoke with joy, knowing that he should meet her in reality. His +strength rapidly returned, and with his strength grew his attachment +to Seltanetta. + +Ammalát was married; but, as it often happens in the East, only from +motives of interest. He had never seen his bride before his marriage, +and afterwards found no attraction in her which could awake his +sleeping heart. In course of time, his wife became blind; and this +circumstance loosened still more a tie founded on Asiatic customs +rather than affection. Family disagreements with his father-in-law +and uncle, the Shamkhál, still further separated the young couple, +and they were seldom together. Was it strange, under the +circumstances, that a young man, ardent by nature, self-willed by +nature, should be inspired with a new love? To be with her was his +highest happiness--to await her arrival his most delightful +occupation. He ever felt a tremor when he heard her voice: each +accent, like a ray of the sun, penetrated his soul. This feeling +resembled pain, but a pain so delicious, that he would have prolonged +it for ages. Little by little the acquaintance between the young +people grew into friendship--they were almost continually together. +The Khan frequently departed to the interior of Avár for business of +government or military arrangements, leaving his guest to the care +of his wife, a quiet, silent woman. He was not blind to the +inclination of Ammalát for his daughter, and in secret rejoiced at it; +it flattered his ambition, and forwarded his military views; a +connexion with a Bek possessing the right to the Shamkhalát would +place in his hands a thousand means of injuring the Russians. The +Khánsha, occupied in her household affairs, not infrequently left Ammalát +for hours together in her apartments--as he was a relation; and +Seltanetta, with two or three of her personal attendants, seated on +cushions, and engaged in needlework, would not remark how the hours +flew by, conversing with the guest, and listening to his talk. +Sometimes Ammalát would sit long, long, reclining at the feet of his +Seltanetta, without uttering a word, and gazing at her dark, +absorbing eyes; or enjoying the mountain prospect from her window, +which opened towards the north, on the rugged banks and windings of +the roaring Ouzén, over which hung the castle of the Khan. By the +side of this being, innocent as a child, Ammalát forgot the desires +which she as yet knew not; and, dissolving in a joy, strange, +incomprehensible to himself, he thought not of the past nor of the +future; he thought of nothing--he could only feel; and indolently, +without taking the cup from his lips, he drained his draught of bliss, +drop by drop. + +Thus passed a year. + +The Avarétzes are a free people, neither acknowledging nor suffering +any power above them. Every Avarétz calls himself an Ouzdén; and if +he possesses a yezéer, (prisoner, slave,) he considers himself a +great man. Poor, and consequently brave to extravagance, excellent +marksmen with the rifle, they fight well on foot; they ride on +horseback only in their plundering expeditions, and even then but a +few of them. Their horses are small, but singularly strong; their +language is divided into a multitude of dialects, but is essentially +Lezghin for the Avártzi themselves are of the Lezghin stock. They +retain traces of the Christian faith, for it is not 120 years that +they have worshipped Mahomet, and even now they are but cool Moslems; +they drink brandy, they drink boozá, [16] and occasionally wine made +of grapes, but most ordinarily a sort of boiled wine, called among +them djápa. The truth of an Avarétz's word has passed into a proverb +among the mountains. At home, they are peaceful, hospitable, and +benevolent; they do not conceal their wives and daughters; for their +guest they are ready to die, and to revenge to the end of the +generation. Revenge, among them, is sacred; plundering, glory; and +they are often forced by necessity to brigandize. + +[Footnote 16: A species of drink used by the Tartars, produced by +fermenting oats.] + +Passing over the summit of Atála and Tkhezeróuk, across the crests of +Tourpi-Táou, in Kakhétia, beyond the river Alazán, they find +employment at a very low price; occasionally remaining two or three +days together without work, and then, at an agreement among +themselves, they rush like famished wolves, by night, into the +neighbouring villages, and, if they succeed, drive away the cattle, +carry off the women, make prisoners, and will often perish in an +unequal combat. Their invasions into the Russian limits ceased from +the time when Azlan Khan retained possession of the defiles which +lead into his territories from Avár. But the village of Khounzákh, +or Avár, at the eastern extremity of the Avár country, has ever +remained the heritage of the khans, and their command there is law. +Besides, though he has the right to order his noúkers to cut to +pieces with their kinjáls [17] any inhabitant of Khounzákh, nay, +any passer-by, the Khan cannot lay any tax or impost upon the people, +and must content himself with the revenues arising from his flocks, +and the fields cultivated by his karaváshes (slaves,) or yezéers +(prisoners.) + +[Footnote 17: Dagger or poniard. These weapons are of various forms, +and generally much more formidable than would be suggested to an +European by the name dagger. The kinjál is used with wonderful force +and dexterity by the mountaineers, whose national weapon it may be +said to be; it is sometimes employed even as a missile. It is worn +suspended in a slanting direction in the girdle, not on the side, +but in front of the body.] + +Without, however, taking any direct imposts, the khans do not +abstain from exacting dues, sanctified rather by force than custom. +For the Khan to take from their home a young man or a girl--to +command a waggon with oxen or buffaloes to transport his goods--to +force labourers to work in his fields, or to go as messengers, &c., +is an affair of every day. The inhabitants of Khounzákh are not more +wealthy than the rest of their countrymen; their houses are clean, +and, for the most part, have two stories, the men are well made, the +women handsome, chiefly because the greater number of them are +Georgian prisoners. In Avár, they study the Arabic language, and the +style of their educated men is in consequence very flowery. The Harám +of the Khan is always crowded with guests and petitioners, who, +after the Asiatic manner, dare not present themselves without a +present--be it but a dozen of eggs. The Khan's noúkers, on the +number and bravery of whom he depends for his power, fill from +morning to night his courts and chambers, always with loaded pistols +in their belt, and daggers at their waist. The favourite Ouzdéns and +guests, Tchetchenétzes or Tartars, generally present themselves every +morning to salute the Khan, whence they depart in a crowd to the +Khánsha, sometimes passing the whole day in banqueting in separate +chambers, regaling even during the Khan's absence. One day there +came into the company an Ouzdén of Avár, who related the news that +an immense tiger had been seen not far off, and that two of their +best shots had fallen victims to its fierceness. "This has so +frightened our hunters," he said, "that nobody likes to attempt the +adventure a third time." + +"I will try my luck," cried Ammalát, burning with impatience to show +his prowess before the mountaineers. "Only put me on the trail of the +beast!" A broad-shouldered Avarétz measured with his eye our bold +Bek from head to foot, and said with a smile: "A tiger is not like a +boar of Daghestán, Ammalát! His trail sometimes leads to death!" + +"Do you think," answered he haughtily, "that on that slippery path +my head would turn, or my hand tremble? I invite you not to help me: +I invite you but to witness my combat with the tiger. I hope you will +then allow, that if the heart of an Avarétz is firm as the granite +of his mountains, the heart of a Daghestánetz is tenpered like his +famous _boulát_. [18] Do you consent?" + +[Footnote 18: A species of highly tempered steel, manufactured, and +much prized, by the Tartars.] + +The Avarétz was caught. To have refused would have been shameful: +so, clearing up his face, he stretched out his hand to Ammalát. +"I will willingly go with you," he replied. "Let us not delay--let +us swear in the mosque, and go to the fight together! Allah will +judge whether we are to bring back his skin for a housing, or +whether he is to devour us." + +It is not in accordance with Asiatic manners, much less with Asiatic +customs, to bid farewell to the women when departing for a long or +even an unlimited period. This privilege belongs only to relations, +and it is but rarely that it is granted to a guest. Ammalát, +therefore, glanced with a sigh at the window of Seltanetta, and went +with lingering steps to the mosque. There, already awaited him the +elders of the village, and a crowd of curious idlers. By an ancient +custom of Avár, the hunters were obliged to swear upon the Koran, +that they would not desert one another, either in the combat with +the beast or in the chase; that they would not quit each other when +wounded; if fate willed that the animal should attack them, that +they would defend each other to the last, and die side by side, +careless of life; and that in any case they would not return without +the animal's skin; that he who betrayed this oath, should be hurled +from the rocks, as a coward and traitor. The moollah armed them, the +companions embraced, and they set out on their journey amid the +acclamations of the whole crowd. "Both, or neither!" they cried +after them. "We will slay him, or die!" answered the hunters. + +A day had passed. A second had sunk below the snowy summits. The old +men had wearied their eyes in gazing from their roofs along the road. +The boys had gone far on the hills that crested the village, to meet +the hunters--but no tidings of them. Throughout all Khounzákh, at +every fireside, either from interest or idleness, they were talking +of this; but above all, Seltanetta was sad. At every voice in the +courtyard, at every sound on the staircase, all her blood flew to +her face, and her heart beat with anxiety. She would start up, and +run to the window or the door; and then, disappointed for the +twentieth time, with downcast eyes would return slowly to her +needlework, which, for the first time, appeared tiresome and endless. +At last, succeeding doubt, fear laid its icy hand upon the maiden's +heart. She demanded of her father, her brothers, the guests, whether +the wounds given by a tiger were dangerous?--was this animal far +from the villages? And ever and anon, having counted the moments, +she would wring her hands, and cry, "They have perished!" and +silently bowed her head on her agitated breast, while large tears +flowed down her fair face. + +On the third day, it was clear that the fears of all were not idle. +The Ouzdén, Ammalát's companion to the chase, crawled with difficulty, +alone, into Khounzákh. His coat was torn by the claws of some wild +beast; he himself was as pale as death from exhaustion, hunger, and +fatigue. Young and old surrounded him with eager curiosity; and +having refreshed himself with a cup of milk and a piece of _tchourek_, +[19] he related as follows:--"On the same day that we left this place, +we found the track of the tiger. We discovered him asleep among the +thick hazels--may Allah keep me from them!" + +[Footnote 19: "Tchourek," a kind of bread.] + +Drawing lots, it fell to my chance to fire: I crept gently up, and +aiming well, I fired--but for my sorrow, the beast was sleeping with +his face covered by his paw; and the ball, piercing the paw, hit him +in the neck. Aroused by the report and by the pain, the tiger gave a +roar, and with a couple of bounds, dashed at me before I had time to +draw my dagger: with one leap, he hurled me on the ground, trode on +me with his hind feet, and I only know that at this moment there +resounded a cry, and the shot of Ammalát, and afterwards a deafening +and tremendous roar. Crushed by the weight, I lost sense and memory, +and how long I lay in this fainting fit, I know not. + +"When I opened my eyes all was still around me, a small rain was +falling from a thick mist ... was it evening or morning? My gun, +covered with rust, lay beside me, Ammalát's not far off, broken in +two; here and there the stones were stained with blood ... but whose? +The tiger's or Ammalát's? How can I tell? Broken twigs lay around ... +the brute must have broken them in his mad boundings. I called on my +comrade as loudly as I could. No answer. I sat down, and shouted +again ... but in vain. Neither animal nor bird passed by. Many times +did I endeavour to find traces of Ammalát, either to discover him +alive, or to die upon his corpse--that I might avenge on the beast +the death of the brave man; but I had no strength. I wept bitterly: +why have I perished both in life and honour! I determined to await +the hour of death in the wilderness; but hunger conquered me. Alas! +thought I, let me carry to Khounzákh the news that Ammalát has +perished; let me at least die among my own people! Behold me, then; +I have crept hither like a serpent. Brethren, my head is before you: +judge me as Allah inclines your hearts. Sentence me to life; I will +live, remembering your justice: condemn me to death; your will be +done! I will die innocent, Allah is my witness: I did what I could!" + +A murmur arose among the people, as they listened to the new comer. +Some excused, others condemned, though all regretted him. "Every one +must take care of himself," said some of the accusers: "who can say +that he did not fly? He has no wound, and, therefore, no proof ... +but that he has abandoned his comrade is most certain." "Not only +abandoned, but perhaps betrayed him," said others--"they talked not +as friends together!" The Khan's noúkers went further: they +suspected that the Ouzdén had killed Ammalát out of jealousy: +"he looked too lovingly on the Khan's daughter, but the Khan's +daughter found one far his superior in Ammalát." + +Sultan Akhmet Khan, learning what the people were assembling about in +the street, rode up to the crowd. "Coward!" he cried with mingled +anger and contempt to the Ouzdén: "you are a disgrace to the name of +Avarétz. Now every Tartar may say, that we let wild beasts devour our +guests, and that we know not how to defend them! At least we know how +to avenge him: you have sworn upon the Koran, after the ancient +usage of Avár, never to abandon your comrade in distress, and if he +fall, not to return home without the skin of the beast ... thou hast +broken thine oath ... but we will not break our law: perish! Three +days shall be allowed thee to prepare thy soul; but then--if Ammalát +be not found, thou shalt be cast from the rock. You shall answer for +his head with your own!" he added, turning to his noúkers, pulling +his cap over his eyes and directing his horse towards his home. +Thirty mountaineers rushed in different directions from Khounzákh, +to search for at least the remains of the Bek of Bouináki. Among the +mountaineers it is considered a sacred duty to bury with honour +their kinsmen and comrades, and they will sometimes, like the heroes +of Homer, rush into the thickest of the battle to drag from the +hands of the Russians the body of a companion, and will fall in +dozens round the corpse rather than abandon it. + +The unfortunate Ouzdén was conducted to the stable of the Khan; a +place frequently used as a prison. The people, discussing what had +happened, separated sadly, but without complaining, for the sentence +of the Khan was in accordance with their customs. + +The melancholy news soon reached Seltanetta, and though they tried to +soften it, it struck terribly a maiden who loved so deeply. +Nevertheless, contrary to their expectation, she appeared tranquil; +she neither wept nor complained, but she smiled no more, and uttered +not a word. Her mother spoke to her; she heard her not. A spark from +her father's pipe burned her dress; she saw it not. The cold wind +blew upon her bosom; she felt it not. All her feelings seemed to +retire into her heart to torture her; but that heart was hidden from +the view, and nothing was reflected in her proud features. The +Khan's daughter was struggling with the girl: it was easy to see +which would yield first. + +But this secret struggle seemed to choke Seltanetta: she longed to +fly from the sight of man, and give the reins to her sorrow. +"O heaven!" she thought; "having lost him, may I not weep for him? +All gaze on me, to mock me and watch my every tear, to make sport +for their malignant tongues. The sorrows of others amuse them, Sekina," +she added, to her maid; "let us go and walk on the bank of the Ouzén." + +At the distance of three _agátcha_ [20] from Khounzákh, towards the +west, are the ruins of an ancient Christian monastery, a lonely +monument of the forgotten faith of the aborigines. + +[Footnote 20: "Agátcha," seven versts, a measure for riding--for the +pedestrian, the agátcha is four versts.] + +The hand of time, as if in veneration, has not touched the church +itself, and even the fanaticism of the people has spared the +sanctuary of their ancestors. It stood entire amid the ruined cells +and falling wall. The dome, with its high pointed roof of stone, was +already darkened by the breath of ages: ivy covered with its tendrils +the narrow windows, and trees were growing in the crevices of the +stones. Within, soft moss spread its verdant carpet, and in the +sultriness a moist freshness breathed there, nourished by a fountain, +which, having pierced the wall, fell tinkling behind the stone altar, +and, dividing into silver ever-murmuring threads of pure water, +filtered among the pavement stones, and crept meandering away. A +solitary ray slanting through the window, flitted over the trembling +verdure, and smiled on the gloomy wall, like a child on its +grandame's knee. Thither Seltanetta directed her steps: there she +rested from the looks which so tormented her: all around was so still, +so soft, so happy; and all augmented but the more her sadness: the +light trembling on the wall, the twittering of the swallows, the +murmur of the fountain, melted into tears the load that weighed upon +her breast, and her sorrow dissolved into lamentation: Sekina went +to pluck the pears which grew in abundance round the church; and +Seltanetta could freely yield to nature. + +But sudden, raising her head, she uttered an exclamation of surprise! +before her stood a well-made Avarétz, stained with blood and mire. +"Does not your heart, do not your eyes, O Seltanetta, recognize your +favourite?" No, but with a second glance she knew Ammalát; and +forgetting all but her joy, she threw herself on his neck, embraced +it with her arms, and long, long, gazed fixedly on the much-loved +face; and the fire of confidence, the fire of ecstasy, glimmered +through the still falling tears. Could then the impassioned Ammalát +contain his rapture? He clung like a bee to the rosy lips of +Seltanetta; he had heard enough for his happiness; he was now at the +summit of bliss; the lovers had not yet said a word of their love, +but they already understood each other. "And dost thou then, angel," +added Ammalát, when Seltanetta, ashamed of the kiss, withdrew from +his embrace: "dost thou love me?" + +"Allah protect me!" replied the innocent girl, lowering her eyelashes, +but not her eyes: "Love! that is a terrible word. Last year, going +into the street, I saw them pelting a girl with stones: terrified I +rushed hone, but nowhere could I hide myself: the bloody image of +the sinner was everywhere before me, and her groan yet rings +unceasingly in my ears. When I asked why they had so inhumanly put +to death that unhappy creature, they answered, that she loved a +certain youth!" + +"No, dearest, it was not because she loved one, but that she loved +not one alone--because she betrayed some one, it may be, that they +killed her." + +"What means '_betrayed_,' Ammalát? I understand it not." + +"Oh, God grant that you may never learn what it is to betray; that +you may never forget me for another!" + +"Ah, Ammalát, within these four days I have learned how bitter to me +was separation! For a long time I have not seen my brothers Noutsál +and Soúrkha, and I meet them with pleasure; but without them I do not +grieve: without you I wish not to live!" + +"For thee I am ready to die, my morning-star: to thee I give my +soul--not only life, my beloved!" + +The sound of footsteps interrupted the lovers' talk: it was +Seltanetta's attendant. All three went to congratulate the Khan, who +was consoled, and unaffectedly delighted. + +Ammalát related in a few words how the affair had occurred. +"Hardly had I remarked that my comrade had fallen when I fired at +the beast, flying, with a ball which broke his jaw. The monster with +a terrific roar began to whirl round, to leap, to roll, sometimes +darting towards me, and then again, tormented by the agony, bounding +aside. At this moment, striking him with the butt of my gun on the +skull, I broke it. I pursued him a long time as soon as he betook +himself to flight, following him by his bloody track: the day began +to fail, and when I plunged my dagger into the throat of the fallen +tiger, dark night had fallen upon the earth. Would I or not, I was +compelled to pass the night with the rocks for a bed-chamber, and the +wolves and jackals for companions. The morning was dark and rainy; +the clouds around my head poured their waters on me like a river. At +ten paces before my face nothing could be seen. Without a view of the +sun, ignorant of the country, in vain I wandered round and round: +weariness and hunger overwhelmed me. A partridge which I shot with my +pistol restored my strength for a while; but I could not find my way +out of my rocky grave. In the evening the only sounds I could hear +were the murmur of water falling from a cliff, or the whistling of +the eagles' wings as they flew through the clouds; but at night the +audacious jackals raised, three paces off, their lamentable song. +This morning the sun rose brightly, and I myself arose more cheerful, +and directed my steps towards the east. I shortly afterwards heard a +cry and a shot: it was your messengers. Overcome by heat, I went to +drink the pure water of the fountain by the old mosque, and there I +met Seltanetta. Thanks be to you, and glory to God!" + +"Glory to God, and honour to you!" exclaimed the Sultan, embracing +him. "But your courage has nearly cost us your life, and even that +of your comrade. If you had delayed a day, he would have been obliged +to dance the Sézghinka in the air. You have returned just in time. +Djemboulá't, a famous cavalier of Little Kabárda, has sent to invite +you to a foray against the Russians. I would willingly buy +beforehand your glory; as much as you won in your last battle. The +time is short; tomorrow's sun must see you ready." + +This news was by no means unwelcome to Ammalát: he decided instantly; +answering, that he would go with pleasure. He felt sure that a +distinguished reputation as a cavalier would ensure him future +success. + +But Seltanetta turned pale--bowing her head like a flower, when she +heard of this new and more cruel separation. Her look, as it dwelt +upon Ammalát, showed painful apprehension--the pain of prophetic +sorrow. + +"Allah!" she mournfully exclaimed: "more forays, more slaughter. +When will blood cease to be shed in the mountains?" + +"When the mountain torrents run milk, and the sugar-canes wave on the +snowy peaks!" said the Khan. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +Wildly beautiful is the resounding Térek in the mountains of Dariál. +There, like a genie, borrowing his strength from heaven, he wrestles +with Nature. There bright and shining as steel, cutting through the +overshadowing cliff, he gleams among the rocks. There, blackening +with rage, he bellows and bounds like a wild beast, among the +imprisoning cliffs: he bursts, overthrows, and rolls afar their +broken fragments. On a stormy night, when the belated traveller, +enveloped in his furry boúrka, gazing fearfully around him, travels +along the bank which hangs over the torrent of Térek, all is terror +such as only a vivid imagination can conceive. With slow steps he +winds along, the rain-torrents stream around his feet, and tumble +upon his head from the rocks which frown above and threaten his +destruction. Suddenly the lightning flashes before his eyes--with +horror he beholds but a black cloud above him, below a yawning gulf, +beside him crags, and before him the roaring Térek. At one moment he +sees its wild and troubled waves raging like infernal spirits chased +by the archangel's brand. After them, with a shout as of laughter, +roll the huge stones. In another moment, the blinding flash is gone, +and he is plunged once more in the dark ocean of night: then bursts +the thunder-crash, jarring the foundations of the rocks, as though a +thousand mountains were dashed against each other, so deafeningly do +the echoes repeat the bellow of the heavens. Then a long-protracted +growl, as of massive oaks plucked up by their roots, or the crash of +bursting rocks, or the yell of the Titans as they were hurled +headlong into the abyss; it mingles with the war of the blast, and +the blast swells to a hurricane, and the rain pours down in torrents. +And again the lightning blinds him, and again the thunder, answering +from afar to the splinter-crash, deafens him. The terrified steed +rears, starts backward--the rider utters a short prayer. + +But after this how softly smiles the morning--morn, in whose light +Térek glides, and ripples, and murmurs! The clouds, like a torn veil +whirling on the breeze, appear and vanish fitfully among the icy +peaks. The sunbeams discover jagged profiles of the summits on the +opposing mountain wall. The rocks glitter freshly from the rain. The +mountain-torrents leap through the morning mist; and the mists +themselves creep winding through the cliffs, even as the smoke from a +cottage chimney, then twine themselves like a turban round some +ancient tower, while Térek ripples on among the stones, curling as a +tired hound who seeks a resting-place. + +In the Caucasus, it must be confessed, there are no waters in which +the mountains can worthily reflect themselves--those giants of +creation. There are no gentle rivers, no vast lakes; but Térek +receives in his stream the tribute of a thousand streamlets. Beneath +the further Caucasus, where the mountains melt into the plain, he +seems to flow calmly and gently, he wanders on in huge curves, +depositing the pebbles he has brought down from the hills. Further on, +bending to the north-west, the stream is still strong, but less noisy, +as though wearied with its fierce strugglings. At length, embraced +by the narrow gorge of Cape M. áloi (Little Kabárdi,) the river, +like a good Moslem, bending religiously to the east, and peacefully +spreading over the hated shore, gliding sometimes over beds of stone, +sometimes over banks of clay, falls, by Kizlár, into the basin of +the Caspian. There alone does it deign to bear boats upon its waters, +and, like a labourer, turn the huge wheels of floating mills. On its +right bank, among hillocks and thickets, are scattered the villages +(aoúle) of the Kabardínetzes, a tribe which we confound under one +name with the Tcherkéss, (Circassians,) who dwell beyond the Koubán, +and with the Tchetchenétzes much lower by the sea. These villages on +the bank are peaceful only in name, for in reality they are the +haunts of brigands, who acknowledge the Russian government only as +far as it suits their interest, capturing, as Russian subjects, from +the mountaineers, the plunder they seize in the Russian frontier. +Enjoying free passage on all sides, they inform those of the same +religion and the same way of thinking, of the movement of our troops, +and the condition of our fortresses; conceal them among themselves +when they are assembling for an incursion, buy their plunder at their +return, furnish them with Russian salt and powder, and not rarely +take themselves a part, secret or open, in their forays. It is +exceedingly irritating to see, even in full view of these +mountaineers, nations hostile to us boldly swim over the Térek, two, +three, or five men at a time, and in broad day set to work to rob; +it being useless to pursue them, as their dress has nothing to +distinguish them from the friendly tribes. On the opposite bank, +though apparently quite peaceable, and employing this as their excuse, +they fall, when in force, upon travellers, carry off cattle and men +when off their guard, slaughter them without mercy, or sell them +into slavery at a distance. To say the truth, their natural position, +between two powerful neighbours, of necessity compels them to have +recourse to these stratagems. Knowing that the Russians will not +pass to the other side of the river to protect them from the revenge +of the mountaineers, who melt away like snow at the approach of a +strong force, they easily and habitually, as well as from inevitable +circumstances, ally themselves to people of their own blood, while +they affect to pay deference to the Russians, whom they fear. + +Indeed, there exists among them certain persons really devoted to the +Russians, but the greater number will betray even their own +countrymen for a bribe. In general, the morality of these peaceful +allies of ours is completely corrupted; they have lost the courage +of an independent people, and have acquired all the vices of +half-civilization. Among them an oath is a jest; treachery, their +glory; even hospitality, a trade. Each of them is ready to engage +himself to the Russians in the morning, as a kounák (friend), and at +night to guide a brigand to rob his new friend. + +The left bank of the Térek is covered with flourishing stanítzas [21] +of the Kazáks of the Line, the descendants of the famous Zaporójetzes. +Among them is here and there a Christian village. These Kazáks are +distinguished from the mountaineers only by their unshaven heads: their +tools, dress, harness, manners--all are of the mountains. They like the +almost ceaseless war with the mountaineers; it is not a battle, but a +trial of arms, in which each party desires to gain glory by his +superiority in strength, valour, and address. Two Kazáks would not +fear to encounter four mountain horsemen, and with equal numbers +they are invariably victors. Lastly, they speak the Tartar language; +they are connected with the mountaineers by friendship and alliance, +their women being mutually carried off into captivity; but in the +field they are inflexible enemies. As it is not forbidden to make +incursions on the mountain side of the Térek, the brigands +frequently betake themselves thither by swimming the river, for the +chase of various kinds of game. The mountain brigands, in their turn, +frequently swim over the Térek at night, or cross it on bourdoúchs, +(skins blown up,) hide themselves in the reeds, or under a +projection of the bank, thence gliding through the thickets to the +road, to carry off an unsuspecting traveller, or to seize a woman, +as she is raking the hay. It sometimes happens that they will pass a +day or two in the vineyards by the village, awaiting a favourable +opportunity to fall upon it unexpectedly; and hence the Kazák of the +Line never stirs over his threshold without his dagger, nor goes +into the field without his gun at his back: he ploughs and sows +completely armed. + +[Footnote 21: Villages of Kazáks.] + +For some time past, the mountaineers had fallen in considerable +numbers only on Christian villages, for in the stanítzas the +resistance had cost them very dear. For the plundering of houses; +they approached boldly yet cunningly the Russian frontier, and on +such occasions they frequently escaped a battle. The bravest Ouzdéns +desire to meet with these affairs that they may acquire fame, which +they value even more than plunder. + +In the autumn of the year 1819, the Kabardínetzes and Tchetchenétzes, +encouraged by the absence of the commander-in-chief, assembled to the +number of 1500 men to make an attack upon one of the villages beyond +the Térek, to seize it, carry off prisoners, and take the droves of +horses. The leader of the Kabardínetzes was the Prince (Kniázek) +Djenboulát. Ammalát Bek, who had arrived with a letter from Sultan +Akhmet Khan, was received with delight. They did not, indeed, assign +him the command of any division; but this arose from the +circumstance that with them there is no order of battle or gradation +of command; an active horse and individual courage secures the most +distinguished place in action. At first they deliberate how best to +begin the attack--how to repel the enemy; but afterwards they pay no +attention to plan or order, and chance decides the affair. Having +sent messengers to summon the neighbouring Ouzdéns, Djemboulát fixed +on a place of assembling; and immediately, on a signal agreed on, +from every height spread the cry, "Gharái, gharái!" (alarm,) and in +one hour the Tchetchenétzes and Kabardínetzes were assembling from +all sides. To avoid treason, no one but the leader knew where the +night-camp was to be, from which they where to cross the river. They +were divided into small bands, and were to go by almost invisible +paths to the peaceful village, where they were to conceal themselves +till night. By twilight, all the divisions were already mustered. As +they arrived, they were received by their countrymen with frank +embraces; but Djemboulát, not trusting to this, guarded the village +with sentinels, and proclaimed to the inhabitants, that whoever +attempted to desert to the Russians should be cut in pieces. The +greater part of the Ouzdéns took up their quarters in the sáklas of +their kounáks or relations; but Djemboulát and Ammalát, with the +best of the cavaliers, slept in the open air round a fire, when they +had refreshed their jaded horses. Djemboulát, wrapped in his boúrka, +was considering, with folded arms, the plan of the expedition; but +the thoughts of Ammalát were far from the battle-field: they were +flying, eagle-winged, to the mountains of Avar, and bitterly, +bitterly did he feel his separation. The sound of an instrument, the +mountain balaláika, (kanous,) accompanying a slow air, recalled him +from his reverie, and a Kabardínetz sung an ancient song. + + + "On Kazbék the clouds are meeting, + like the mountain eagle-flock; + up to them, along the rock, + Dash the wild Ouzdéns retreating; + Onward faster, faster fleeting, + Routed by the Russian brood. + Foameth all their track with blood." + + "Fast behind the regiments yelling, + Lance and bayonet raging hot, + And the seed of death their shot. + On the mail the sabre dwelling + Gallop, steed! for far thy dwelling-- + See! they fall--but distant still + Is the forest of the hill!" + + "Russian shot our hearts is rending, + Falls the Mullah on his knee, + To the Lord of Light bows he, + To the Prophet he is bending: + Like a shaft his prayer ascending, + Upward flies to Allah's throne-- + Il-Alláh! O save thine own!" + + "Ah, despair!--What crash like thunder! + Lo! a sign from heaven above! + Lo! the forest seems to move + Crashes, murmurs, bursts asunder! + Lower, nearer, wonder! wonder! + Safe once more the Moslem bold + In their forest mountain-hold!" + + +"So it was in old times," said Djemboulát, with a smile, "when our +old men trusted more to prayer, and God oftener listened to them; but +now, my friends, there is a better hope--your valour! _Our_ omens are +in the scabbards of our shoóshkas, (sabres,) and we must show that we +are not ashamed of them. Harkye, Ammalát," he continued, twisting his +mustache, "I will not conceal from you that the affair may be warm. I +have just heard that Colonel K---- has collected his division; but +where he is, or how many troops he has, nobody knows." + +"The more Russians there are the better," replied Ammalát, quietly; +"the fewer mistakes will be made." + +"And the heavier will be the plunder." + +"I care not for that. I seek revenge and glory." + +"Glory is a good bird, when she lays a golden egg; but he that +returns with his toróks (straps behind the saddle) empty, is ashamed +to appear before his wife. Winter is near, and we must provide our +households at the expense of the Russians, that we may feast our +friends and allies. Choose your station, Ammalát Bek. Do you prefer +to advance in front to carry off the flocks, or will you remain with +me in the rear? I and the Abréks will march at a foot's pace to +restrain the pursuers." + +"That is what I also intend. I will be where the greatest peril is. +But what are the Abréks, Djemboulát?" + +"It is not easy to explain. You sometimes see several of our boldest +cavaliers take an oath, binding them for two or three years, or as +long as they like, never to mingle in games or gayeties, never to +spare their lives in battle, to give no quarter, never to pardon the +least offence in a brother or a friend, to seize the goods of others +without fear or scruple--in a word, to be the foes of all mankind, +strangers in their family, men whom any person may slay if he can; +in the village they are dangerous neighbours, and in meeting them +you must keep your hand on the trigger; but in war one can trust them." +[22] + +"For what motive, or reason, can the Ouzdens make such an engagement?" + +"Some simply to show their courage, others from poverty, a third +class from some misfortune. See, for instance, yonder tall Kabardínetz; +he has sworn to be an Abrék for five years, since his mistress +died of the small-pox. Since that year it would be as well to make +acquaintance with a tiger as with him. He has already been wounded +three times for blood-vengeance; but he cares not for that." + +"Strange custom! How will he return from the life of an Abrék to a +peaceable existence?" + +"What is there strange in this? The past glides from him as water +from the wild-duck. His neighbours will be delighted when he has +finished his term of brigandage. And he, after putting off Abrétchestva +(Abrékism) as a serpent sheds his skin, will become gentle +as a lamb. Among us, none but the avenger of blood remembers +yesterday. But the night is darkening. The mists are spreading over +Térek. It is time for the work." + +Djemboulát whistled, and his whistle was repeated to all the +outposts of the camp. In a moment the whole band was assembled. +Several Ouzdéns joined from the neighbouring friendly villages. +After a short discussion as to the passage of the river, the band +moved in silence to the bank. Ammalát Bek could not but admire the +stillness, not only of the riders, but of their horses; not one of +them neighed or snorted, and they seemed to place their feet on the +ground with caution. They marched like a voiceless cloud, and soon +they reached the bank of Térek, which, making a winding at this spot, +formed a promontory, and from it to the opposite shore, extended a +pebbly shoal. The water over this bank was shallow and fordable; +nevertheless, a part of the detachment left the shore higher up, in +order to swim past the Kazáks, and, diverting their attention from +the principal passage, to cover the fording party. Those who had +confidence in their horses, leaped unhesitatingly from the bank, +while others tied to each fore-foot of their steeds a pair of small +skins, inflated with air like bladders; the current bore them on, +and each landed wherever he found a convenient spot. The +impenetrable veil of mist concealed all these movements. It must be +remarked, that along the whole line of the river is a chain of mayáks +(watch-towers) and a cordon of sentinels: on all the hills and +elevated spots are placed look-outs. On passing before them in the +daytime, may be seen on each hillock a pole, surmounted with a small +barrel. This is filled with pitch and straw, and is ready to be +lighted on the first alarm. To this pole is generally tied a Kazák's +horse, and by his side a sentinel. In the night, these sentinels are +doubled; but in spite of the precautions, the Tcherkéss, concealed +by the fog, and clothed in their boúrka, sometimes pass through the +line in small bodies, as water glides through a sieve. The same +thing happened on this occasion: perfectly acquainted with the +country, the Beláds, (guides) peaceable Tcherkéss, led each party, +and in profound silence avoided the hillocks. + +[Footnote 22: This is exactly the Berserkir of the ancient Northmen. +Examples of this frantic courage are not rare among the Asiatics.] + +In two places only had the brigands, to break through the line of +watch-fires which might have betrayed them, resolved to kill the +sentinels. Against one picket, Djemboulát proceeded himself, and he +ordered another Bek to creep up the bank, pass round to the rear of +the picket, count a hundred, and then to strike fire with a flint +and steel several times. It was said and done. Just lifting his head +above the edge of the bank, Djemboulát saw a Kazák slumbering with +the match in his hand, and holding his horse by the bridle. As soon +as the clicking struck his ear, the sentinel started, and turned an +anxious look on the river. Fearing that the sentinel did not remark +him, Djemboulát threw up his cap, and again crouched down behind the +bank. "Accursed duck!" said the Donétz; "for this night is a carnival. +They squatter away like the witches of Kíeff." At this moment, the +sparks appeared on the opposite side, and drew his attention: "'Tis +the wolves," thought he: "sometimes their eyes glitter brightly!" But +the sparks reappearing, he was stupefied, remembering stories that +the Tchetchenétzes sometimes use this kind of signal to regulate the +movements of their march. This moment of suspense and irresolution was +the moment of his destruction; a dagger [23], directed by a strong arm, +whistled through the air, and the Kazák, transfixed, fell without a +groan to the earth. His comrade was sabred in his sleep, and the pole +with the tub was torn down, and was thrown into the river. All then +rapidly assembled at the given signal, and dashed in a moment on the +village which they had determined to attack. The blow was successfully, +that is, quite unexpectedly, struck. Such of the peasants as had time +to arm, were killed after a desperate resistance: the others hid +themselves or fled. Besides the plunder, a number of men and women +was the reward of their boldness. The Kabardínetzes broke into the +houses, carrying off all that was most valuable, indeed every thing +that came to hand: but they did not set fire to the houses, nor did +they tread down the corn, nor break the vines: "Why touch the gift +of God, and the labour of man?" said they; and this rule of a +mountain robber, who shrinks at no crime, is a virtue which the most +civilized nations might envy. In an hour, all was over for the +inhabitants, but not for the brigands. The alarm spread along the +line, and the mayáks soon began to glimmer through the fog like the +stars of morning, while the call to arms resounded in every direction. +In this interval, a party of the more experienced among the brigands +had gone round the troop of horses which was grazing far in the +steppe. The herdsman was seized, and with cries, and firing their +guns, they charged at the horses from the land side. The animals +started, threw mane and tail into the air, and dashed headlong on +the track of a Tcherkéss mounted on a superb steed, who had remained +on the bank of the river to guide the frightened herd. Like a +skilful pilot, well acquainted, even in a fog, with all the dangers +of the desert sea, the Tcherkéss flew on before the horses, wound +his way among the posts, and at last, having chosen a spot where the +bank was most precipitous, leaped headlong into the Térek. The whole +herd followed him: nothing could be seen but the foam that flew into +the air. Daybreak appeared; the fog began to separate, and +discovered a picture at once magnificent and terrible. The principal +band of forayers dragged the prisoners after it--some were at the +stirrup, others behind the saddle, with their arms tied at their +backs. Tears, and groans, and cries of despair were stifled by the +threats and frantic cries of joy of the victors. Loaded with plunder, +impeded by the flocks and horned cattle, they advanced slowly +towards the Térek. The princes and best cavaliers, in mail-coats and +casques glittering like water, galloped around the dense mass, as +lightning flashes round a livid cloud. In the distance, were +galloping up from every point the Kazáks of the Line; they ambushed +behind the shrubs and straggling oak-trees, and soon began an irregular +fire with the brigands who were sent against them. + +[Footnote 23: The Tartars and Circassians possess extraordinary +dexterity in the use of their national weapon--the kinjál, or poniard. +These are sometimes of great size and weight, and when thrown by a +skilful hand, will fly a considerable distance, and with the most +singular accuracy of aim.] + +In the meantime, the foremost had driven across the river a portion +of the flocks, when a cloud of dust, and the tramp of cavalry, +announced the approaching storm. About six hundred mountaineers, +commanded by Djemboulát and Ammalát, turned their horses to repulse +the attack, and give time to the rest to escape by the river. +Without order, but with wild cries and shouts, they dashed forward +to meet the Kazáks; but not a single gun was taken from its belt, +not a single sháshka glimmered in the air: a Tcherkéss waits till +the last moment before he seizes his weapons. And thus, having +galloped to the distance of twenty paces, they levelled their +guns, fired at full speed, threw their fire-arms over their backs, +[24] and drew their sháshkas; but the Kazáks of the Line having +replied with a volley, began to fly, and the mountaineers, heated by +the chase, fell into a stratagem which they often employ themselves. +The Kazáks had led them up to the chasseurs of the brave forty-third +regiment, who were concealed at the edge of the forest. Suddenly, as +if the little squares had started out of the earth, the bayonets +were leveled, and the fire poured on them, taking them in flank. It +was in vain that the mountaineers, dismounting from their horses, +essayed to occupy the underwood, and attack the Russians from the +rear; the artillery came up, and decided the affair. The experienced +Colonel Kortsaréff, the dread of the Tchetchenétz, the man whose +bravery they feared, and whose honesty and disinterestedness they +respected, directed the movements of the troops, and success could +not be doubtful. The cannon dispersed the crowds of brigands, and +their grape flew after the flying. The defeat was terrible; two +guns, dashing at a gallop to the promontory, not far from which the +Tcherkéss were throwing themselves into the river, enfiladed the stream; +with a rushing sound, the shot flew over the foaming waves, and at +each fire some of the horses might be seen to turn over with their +feet in the air, drowning their riders. It was sad to see how the +wounded clutched at the tails and bridles of the horses of their +companions, sinking them without saving themselves--how the +exhausted struggled against the scarped bank, endeavouring to +clamber up, fell back, and were borne away and engulfed by the +furious current. The corpses of the slain were whirled away, mingled +with the dying and streaks of blood curled and writhed like serpents +on the foam. The smoke floated far along the Térek, far in the +distance, and the snowy peaks of Caucasus, crowned with mist, +bounded the field of battle. Djemboulát and Ammalát Bek fought +desperately--twenty times did they rush to the attack, twenty times +were they repulsed; wearied, but not conquered, with a hundred +brigands they swam the river, dismounted, attached their horses to +each other by the bridle, and began a warm fire from the other side +of the river, to cover their surviving comrades. Intent upon this, +they remarked, too late, that the Kazáks were passing the river above +them; with a shout of joy, the Russians leaped upon the bank, and +surrounded them in a moment. Their fate was inevitable. "Well, +Djemboulát," said the Bek to the Kabardínetz, "our lot is finished. +Do you what you will; but for me, I will not render myself a +prisoner alive. 'Tis better to die by a ball than by a shameful cord!" +"Do you think," answered Djemboulát, "that my arms were made for a +chain! Allah keep me from such a blot: the Russians may take my body, +but not my soul. Never, never! Brethren, comrades!" he cried to the +others; "fortune has betrayed us, but the steel will not. Let us +sell our lives dearly to the Giaour. The victor is not he who keeps +the field, but he who has the glory; and the glory is his who +prefers death to slavery!" "Let us die, let us die; but let us die +gloriously," cried all, piercing with their daggers the sides of +their horses, that the enemy might not take them, and then piling +up the dead bodies of their steeds, they lay down behind the +heap, preparing to meet the attack with lead and steel. Well aware of +the obstinate resistance they were about to encounter, the Kazáks +stopped, and made ready for the charge. The shot from the opposite +bank sometimes fell in the midst of the brave mountaineers, +sometimes a grenade exploded, covering them with earth and fragments; +but they showed no confusion, they started not, nor blenched; and, +after the custom of their country, began to sing, with a melancholy, +yet threatening voice, the death-song, replying alternately stanza +for stanza. + +[Footnote 24: The oriental nations carry their guns at their backs, +supported by a strap passing across the breast.] + + + +DEATH-SONG. + + CHORUS. + + "Fame to us, death to you, + Alla-ha, Alla-hu!!" + + SEMICHORUS. + + "Weep, O ye maidens, on mountain and valley, + Lift the dirge for the sons of the brave; + We have fired our last bullet, have made our last rally, + And Caucasus gives us a grave. + Here the soft pipe no more shall invite us to slumber + --The thunder _our_ lullaby sings; + Our eyes not the maiden's dark tresses shall cumber, + _Them_ the raven shall shade with his wings! + Forget, O my children, your father's stern duty-- + No more shall he bring ye the Muscovite booty!" + + SECOND SEMICHORUS. + + "Weep not, O ye maidens; your sisters in splendour, + The Houris, they bend from the sky, + They fix on the brave their sun-glance deep and tender, + And to Paradise bear him on high! + In your feast-cup, my brethren, forget not our story; + The death of the Free is the noblest of glory!" + + FIRST SEMICHORUS. + + "Roar, winter torrent, and sullenly dash! + But where is the brave one--the swift lightning-flash? + Soft star of my soul, my mother, + Sleep, the fire let ashes smother; + Gaze no more, shine eyes are weary, + Sit not by the threshold stone; + Gaze not through the night-fog dreary, + Eat thine evening meal alone, + Seek him not, O mother, weeping, + By the cliff and by the ford: + On a bed of dust he's sleeping-- + Broken is both heart and sword!" + + SECOND SEMICHORUS. + + "Mother, weep not! with thy love burning: + This heart of mine beats full and free, + And to lion-blood is turning + That soft milks I drew from thee; + And our liberty from danger + Thy brave son has guarded well; + Battling with the Christian stranger, + Call'd by Azrael, he fell; + From my blood fresh odours breathing + Fadeless flowers shall drink the dew; + To my children fame bequeathing, + Brethren, and revenge to you!" + + CHORUS. + + "Pray, my brethren, ere we part; + Clutch the steel with hate and wrath! + Break it in the Russian's heart-- + O'er corpses lies the brave man's path! + Fame to us, death to you, + Alla-ha, Alla-hu!" + +Struck by a certain involuntary awe, the Chasseurs and Kazáks +listened in silence to the stern sounds of this song; but at last a +loud _hurrah_ [25] resounded from both sides. The Teherkéss, with a +shout, fired their guns for the last time, and breaking them against +the stones, they threw themselves, dagger in hand, upon the Russians. +The Abréks, in order that their line might not be broken, bound +themselves to each other with their girdles, and hurled themselves +into the mêlée. Quarter was neither asked nor given: all fell before +the bayonets of the Russians. "Forward! follow me, Ammalát Bek," +cried Djemboulat, with fury, rushing into the combat which was to be +his last--"Forward! for us death is liberty." But Anmalát heard not +his call; a blow from a musket on the back of the head stretched him +on the earth, already sown with corpses, and covered with blood. + +[Footnote 25: "Hurrah" means _strike_ in the Tartar language.] + + + + +CHAPTER. V. + + +LETTER FROM COLONEL VERHOFFSKY TO HIS BETROTHED. + + _From Derbénd to Smolénsk. October_, 1819. + +Two months--how easy to say it!--two centuries have past, dearest +Maria, while your letter was _creeping_ to me. Twice has the moon +made her journey round the earth. You cannot imagine, dearest, how +dreary is this idle objectless life to me; with nothing to employ +me--not even correspondence. I go out, I meet the _Kazák_ [26] +with a secret trembling of heart: with what joy, with what exstacy +do I kiss the lines traced by a pure hand, inspired by a pure +heart--yours, my Maria! With a greedy rapture my eyes devour the +letter: then I am happy--I am wild with joy. But hardly have I +reclosed it when unquiet thoughts again begin to haunt me. "All this +is well," I think; "but all this is past, and I desire to know the +present. Is she well? Does she love me yet? Oh! will the happy time +come soon--soon--when neither time nor distance can divide us? When +the expression of our love will be no longer chilled by the cold +medium of the post!" Pardon, pardon, dearest, these black thoughts +of absence. When heart is--with heart, the lover trusts in all; in +separation he doubts all. You command--for such to me is your +wish--that I should describe my life to you, day by day, hour by hour. +Oh, what sad and tiresome annals mine would be, were I to obey you! +You know well, traitress, that I live not without you. My +existence--'tis but the trace of a shadow on the desert sand. My duty +alone, which wearies at least, if it cannot amuse me, helps me to +get rid of the time. Thrown in a climate ruinous to health, in +society which stifles the soul, I cannot find among my companions a +single person who can sympathise with me. Nor do I find among the +Asiatics any who can understand my thoughts. All that surrounds me +is either so savage or so limited, that it excites sadness and +discontent. Sooner will you obtain fire by striking ice on stone, +than interest from such an existence. But your wish to me is sacred; +and I will present you, in brief, with my last week. It was more +varied than usual. + +[Footnote 26: The Kazáks are employed in the Russian army +frequently as couriers.] + +I have told you in one of my letters, if I remember, that we are +returning from the campaign of Akoúsh, with the commander-in-chief. +We have done our work; Shah Ali Khan has fled into Persia; we have +burned a number of villages, hay, and corn; and we have eaten the +sheep of the rebels, when we were hungry. When the snow had driven +the insurgents from their mountain-fastnesses, they yielded and +presented hostages. We then marched to the Fort of Boúrnaya, [27] +and from this station our detachment was ordered into winter +quarters. Of this division my regiment forms a part, and our +head-quarters are at Derbénd. + +[Footnote 27: Stormy.] + +The other day, the general, who was about to depart on another +campaign on the Line, came to take leave of us, and thus there +was a larger company than usual to meet our adored commander. +Alexéi Petróvitch came from his tent, to join us at tea. Who +is not acquainted with his face, from the portraits? But they +cannot be said to know Yermóloff at all, who judge of him only by +a lifeless image. Never was there a face gifted with such nobility +of expression as his! Gazing on those features, chiselled in the +noble outline of the antique, you are involuntarily carried back to +the times of Roman grandeur. The poet was in the right, when he said +of him:-- + + "On the Koubán--fly, Tartar fleet! + The avenger's falchion gleameth; + His breath--the grapeshot's iron sleet, + His voice--the thunder seemeth! + Around his forehead stern and pale + The fates of war are playing.... + He looks--and victory doth quail, + That gesture proud obeying!" + + +You should witness his coolness in the hour of battle--you should +admire him at a conference: at one time overwhelming the Teberkéss +with the flowing orientalisms of the Asiatic, at another +embarrassing their artifices with a single remark. In vain do they +conceal their thoughts in the most secret folds of their hearts; his +eye follows them, disentangles and unrolls them like worms, and +guesses twenty years beforehand their deeds and their intentions. +Then, again, to see him talking frankly and like a friend with his +brave soldiers, or passing with dignity round the circle of the +tchinóbniks [28] sent from the capital into Georgia. It is curious to +observe how all those whose conscience is not pure, tremble, blush, +turn pale, when he fixes on them his slow and penetrating glance; you +seem to see the roubles of past bribes gliding before the eyes of the +guilty man, and his villanies come rushing on his memory. You see the +pictures of arrest, trial, judgment, sentence, and punishment, his +imagination paints, anticipating the future. No man knows so well +how to distinguish merit by a single glance, a single smile--to +reward gallantry with a word, coming _from_, and going _to_, the +heart. God grant us many years to serve with such a commander! + +[Footnote 28: Literally, a person possessing rank, used here to +signify an _employé_ of Government in a civil capacity--all of whom +possess some definite precedence or class (tchin) in the state. ] + +But if it be thus interesting to observe him on duty, how delightful +to associate with him in society--a society to which every one +distinguished for rank, bravery, or intellect, has free access: +_here_ rank is forgotten, formality is banished; every one talks +and acts as he pleases, simply because those only who think and act +as they _ought_, form the society. Alexéi Petróvitch jokes with all +like a comrade, and at the same time teaches like a father. As usual, +during tea, one of his adjutants read aloud; it was the account of +Napoleon's Campaign in Italy--that poem of the Art of War, as the +commander-in-chief called it. The company, of course, expressed +their wonder, their admiration, their different opinions and +criticisms. The remarks of Alexéi Petróvitch were lucid, and of +admirable truth. + +Then began our gymnastic sports, leaping, running, leaping over the +fire, and trials of strength of various kinds. The evening and the +view were both magnificent: the camp was pitched on the side of Tarki; +over it hangs the fortress of Boúrnaya, behind which the sun was +sinking. Sheltered by a cliff was the house of the Shamkhál, then +the town on a steep declivity, surrounded by the camp, and to the +east the immeasurable steppe of the Caspian sea. Tartar Beks, +Circassian Princes, Kazáks from the various rivers of gigantic Russia, +hostages from different mountains, mingled with the officers. +Uniforms, tchoukhás, coats of chain-mail, were picturesquely mingled; +singing and music rang through the camp, and the soldiers, with +their caps jauntily cocked on one side, were walking in crowds at a +distance. The scene was delightful; it charmed by its picturesque +variety and the force and freshness of military life. Captain Bekóvitch +was boasting that he could strike off the head of a buffalo with one +blow of a kinjál; [29] and two of those clumsy animals were immediately +brought. + +[Footnote 29: It is absurd to observe the incredulity +of Europeans as to the possibility of cutting off a head with the +kinjál: it is necessary to live only one week in the East to be quite +convinced of the possibility of the feat. In a practiced hand the +kinjál is a substitute for the hatchet, the bayonet, and the sabre.] + +Bets were laid; all were disputing and doubting. The Captain, with a +smile, seized with his left hand a huge dagger, and in an instant an +immense head fell at the feet of the astonished spectators, whose +surprise was instantly succeeded by a desire to do the same: they +hacked and hewed, but all in vain. Many of the strongest men among +the Russians and Asiatics made unsuccessful attempts to perform the +feat, but to do this strength alone was not sufficient. "You are +children--children!" cried the commander-in-chief: and he rose from +table, calling for his sword--a blade which never struck twice, as he +told us. An immense heavy sabre was brought him, and Alexéi Petróvitch, +though confident in his strength, yet, like Ulysses in the Odyssey, +anointing the bow which no one else could bend, first felt the edge, +waved the weapon thrice in the air, and at length addressed himself +to the feat. The betters had hardly time to strike hands when the +buffalo's head bounded at their feet on the earth. So swift and sure +was the blow, that the trunk stood for some instants on its legs, +and then gently, softly, sank down. A cry of astonishment arose from +all: Alexéi Petróvitch quietly looked whether his sabre was notched--for +the weapon had cost him many thousands [of roubles], and presented +it as a keepsake to Captain Bekóvitch. + +We were still whispering among ourselves when there appeared before +the commander-in-chief an officer of the Kazáks of the Line, with a +message from Colonel Kortsáreff, who was stationed on the frontier. +When he had received the report, the countenance of Alexéi Petróvitch +brightenened--"Kortsáreff has gloriously trounced the mountaineers!" +said he. "These rascals have made a plundering expedition beyond the +Térek; they have passed far within the Line, and have plundered a +village--but they have lost not only the cattle they had taken, but +fallen a sacrifice to their own fool-hardiness." Having minutely +questioned Yesoúal respecting the details of the affair, he ordered +the prisoners whom they had taken, wounded or recovering, to be +brought before him. Five were led into the presence of the +commander-in-chief. + +A cloud passed over his countenance as he beheld them; his brow +contracted, his eyes sparkled. "Villains!" said he to the Ouzdéns; +"you have thrice sworn not to plunder; and thrice have you broken +your oath. What is it that you seek? Lands? Flocks? Means to defend +the one or the other? But no! you are willing to accept presents +from the Russians as allies, and at the same time to guide the +Tcherkéss to plunder our villages, and to plunder along with them. +Hang them!" said he sternly; "hang them up by their own thievish arkáus +(girdles)! Let them draw lots: the fourth shall be spared--let him +go and tell his countrymen that I am coming to teach them to keep +faith, and keep the peace, as I will have it." + +The Ouzdéns were conducted away. + +There remained one Tartar bek, whom we had not remarked. This was a +young man of twenty-five, of unusual beauty, graceful as the +Belvidere Apollo. He bowed slightly to the commander-in chief as he +approached him, raised his cap, and again resumed his proud +indifferent expression; unshaken resignation to his fate was written +on his features. + +The commander-in-chief fixed his stern eye upon his face, but the +young man neither changed countenance nor quivered an eyelash. + +"Ammalát Bek," said Alexéi Petróvitch, after a pause, "do you +remember that you are a Russian subject? that the Russian laws are +above you?" + +"It would have been impossible to forget that," replied the Bek: +"if I had found in those laws a protection for my rights, I should +not now stand before you a prisoner." + +"Ungrateful boy!" cried the commander-in-chief; "your father--you +yourself, have been the enemy of the Russians. Had it been during the +Persian domination of your race, not even the ashes would have +remained; but our Emperor was generous, and instead of punishing you +he gave you lands. And how did you repay his kindness? By secret +plot and open revolt! This is not all: you received and sheltered in +your house a sworn foe to Russia; you permitted him, before your eyes, +traitorously to slaughter a Russian officer. In spite of all this, +had you brought me a submissive head, I would have pardoned you, on +account of your youth and the customs of your nation. But you fled +to the mountains, and with Suleiman Akhmet Khan you committed +violence within the Russian bounds; you were beaten, and again you +make an incursion with Djemboulát. You cannot but know what fate +awaits you." + +"I do," coldly answered Ammalát Bek: "I shall be shot." + +"No! a bullet is too honourable a death for a brigand," cried the +angry general: "a cart with the shafts turned up--a cord round your +neck--that is the fitting reward." + +"It is all one how a man dies," replied Ammalát, "provided he dies +speedily. I ask one favour: do not let me be tormented with a trial: +that is thrice death." + +"Thou deservest a hundred deaths, audacious! but I promise you. Be it +so: to-morrow thou shalt die. Assemble a court-martial," continued +the commander-in-chief, turning to his staff: "the fact is clear, +the proof is before your eyes, and let all be finished at one sitting, +before my departure." + +He waved his hand, and the condemned prisoner was removed. + +The fate of this fine young man touched us all. Every body was +whispering about him; every body pitying him; the more, that +there appeared no means of saving him. Every one knew well the +necessity of punishing this double treason, and the inflexibility +of Alexéi Petróvitch in matters of this publicity: and, therefore, +no one dared to intercede for the unfortunate culprit. The +commander-in-chief was unusually thoughtful for the remainder of the +evening, and the party separated early. I determined to speak a word +for him--"Perhaps," I thought, "I may obtain some commutation of the +sentence." I opened one of the curtains of the tent, and advanced +softly into the presence of Alexéi Petróvitch. He was sitting alone, +resting both arms on a table; before him lay a despatch for the +Emperor, half finished, and which he was writing without any previous +copy. Alexéi Petróvitch knew me as an officer of the suite, and we +had been acquainted since the battle of Kulm. At that time he had +been very kind to me, and therefore my visit was not surprising to +him. "I see--I see, Evstáfii Ivánovitch, you have a design upon my +heart! In general you come in as if you were marching up to a battery, +but now you hardly walk on tip-toe. This is not for nothing. I am +sure you are come with a request about Ammalát." + +"You have guessed it," said I to Alexéi Petróvitch, not knowing how +to begin. + +"Sit down, then, and let us talk it over," he replied. Then, after a +silence of a couple of minutes, he continued, kindly, "I know that a +report goes about respecting me, that I treat the lives of men as a +plaything--their blood as water. The most cruel tyrants have hidden +their bloodthirstiness under a mask of benevolence. They feared a +reputation for cruelty, though they feared not to commit deeds of +cruelty; but I--I have intentionally clothed myself with this sort +of character, and purposely dressed my name in terror. I desire, and +it is my duty to desire, that my name should protect our frontier +more effectually than lines and fortresses--that a single word of +mine should be, to the Asiatics, more certain, more inevitable, than +death. The European may be reasoned with: he is influenced by +conscience, touched by kindness, attached by pardon, won by +benefits; but to the Asiatic all this is an infallible proof of +weakness; and to him I--even from motives of philanthropy--have +shown myself unmitigably severe. A single execution preserves a +hundred Russians from destruction, and deters a thousand Mussulmans +from treason. Evstáfii Ivánovitch, many will not believe my words, +because each conceals the cruelty of his nature, and his secret +revengefulness, under excuses of necessity--each says, with a +pretence of feeling, 'Really I wish from my heart to pardon, +but be judges yourselves--can I? What, after this, are laws--what +is the general welfare?' All this I never say; in my eyes no tear +is seen when I sign a sentence of death: but my heart bleeds." + +Alexéi Petróvitch was touched; he walked agitatedly several times up +and down the tent; then seated himself, and continued--"Never, in +spite of all this, never has it been so difficult to me to punish as +this day. He who, like me, has lived much among the Asiatics, ceases +to trust in Lavater, and places no more confidence in a handsome +face than in a letter of recommendation; but the look, the expression, +the demeanour of this Ammalát, have produced on me an unusual +impression. I am sorry for him." + +"A generous heart," said I, "is a better oracle than reason." + +"The heart of a conscientious man, my dear friend, ought to be under +the command of reason. I certainly _can_ pardon Ammalát, but I +_ought_ to punish him. Daghestán is still filled with the enemies +of Russia, notwithstanding their assurances of submission; even +Tarki is ready to revolt at the first movement in the mountains: we +must rivet their chains by punishment, and show the Tartars that no +birth can screen the guilty--that all are equal in the sight of the +Russian law. If I pardon Ammalát, all his relations will begin to +boast that Yermóloff is afraid of the Shamkhál." I remarked, that +indulgence shown to so extensive a clan would have a good effect on +the country--in particular the Shamkhál. + +"The Shamkhal is an Asiatic," interrupted Alexéi Petróvitch; +"he would be delighted that this heir to the Shamkhalát should be +sent to the Elysian fields. Besides, I care very little to guess or +gratify the wishes of his kinsmen." + +I saw that the commander-in-chief began to waver, and I urged him +more pressingly. "Let me serve for three years," said I; "do not +give me leave of absence this year--only have mercy on this young man. +He is young, and Russia may find in him a faithful servant. +Generosity is never thrown away." + +Alexéi Petróvitch shook his head. + +"I have made many ungrateful," said he, "already; but be it so. I +pardon him, and not by halves--that is not my way. I thank you for +having helped me to be merciful, not to say weak. Only remember my +words: You wish to take him to yourself--do not trust him; do not +warm a serpent in your bosom." + +I was so delighted with my success, that, hastily quitting the +commander-in-chief, I ran to the tent in which Ammalát Bek was +confined. Three sentinels were guarding him; a lantern was burning +in the midst. I entered; the prisoner was lying wrapped up in his +boúrka, and tears were sparkling on his face. He did not hear my +entrance, so profoundly was he buried in thought. To whom is it +pleasant to part with life? I was rejoiced that I brought comfort to +him at so melancholy a moment. + +"Ammalát," said I, "Allah is great, and the Sardár is merciful; he +has granted you your life!" + +The delighted prisoner started up, and endeavoured to reply, but the +breath was stifled in his breast. Immediately, however, a shade of +gloom covered his features. "Life!" he exclaimed; "I understand this +generosity! To consign a man to a breathless dungeon, without light +or air--to send him to eternal winter, to a night never illumined by +a star--to bury him alive in the bowels of the earth--to take from +him not only the power to act, not only the means of life, but even +the privilege of telling his kinsmen of his sad lot--to deny him not +only the right to complain, but even the power of murmuring his +sorrow to the wind. And this you call life! this unceasing torment +you boast of as rare generosity! Tell the General that I want +not--that I scorn--such a life." + +"You are mistaken, Ammalát," I cried; "you are fully pardoned: remain +what you were, the master of your actions and possessions. There is +your sword. The commander-in-chief is sure that in future you will +unsheathe it only for the Russians. I offer you one condition; come +and live with me till the report of your actions has died away. You +shall be to be as a friend, as a brother." + +This struck the Asiatic. Tears shone in his eyes. "The Russians have +conquered me," he said: "pardon me, colonel, that I thought ill of +all of you. From henceforth I am a faithful servant of the Russian +Tsar--a faithful friend to the Russians, soul and sword. My sword, +my sword!" he cried, gazing fixedly on his costly blade; "let these +tears wash from thee the Russian blood and the Tartar _naphtha_! [30] +When and how can I reward you, with my service, for liberty and life?" + +[Footnote 30: The Tartars, to preserve their weapons, and to produce a +black colour on them, smoke the metal, and then rub it with naphtha.] + +I am sure, my dear Maria, that you will keep me, for this, one +of your sweetest kisses. Ever, ever, when feeling or acting +generously, I console myself with the thought, "My Maria will +praise me for this!" But when is this to happen, my darling? +Fate is but a stepmother to us. Your mourning is prolonged, and +the commander-in-chief has decidedly refused me leave of absence; +nor am I much displeased, annoying as it is: my regiment is in +a bad state of discipline--indeed, as bad as can be imagined; +besides, I am charged with the construction of new barracks and +the colonization of a married company. If I were absent for a month, +every thing would go wrong. If I remain, what a sacrifice of my heart! + +Here we have been at Derbénd three days. Ammalát lives with me: he +is silent, sad, and savage; but his fear is interesting, nevertheless. +He speaks Russian very well, and I have commenced teaching him to read +and write. His intelligence is unusually great. In time, I hope to +make him a most charming Tartar. (_The conclusion of the letter has +no reference to our story_.) + +Fragment of another letter from Colonel Verhóffsky to his _fiancée_, +written six months after the preceding. + +From Derbénd to Smolénsk. + +Your favourite Ammalát, my dearest Maria, will soon be quite +Russianized. The Tartar Beks, in general, think the first step of +civilization consists in the use of the unlawful wine and pork. I, +on the contrary, have begun by re-educating the mind of Ammalát. I +show him, I prove to him, what is bad in the customs of his nation, +and what is good in those of ours; I explain to him universal and +eternal truths. I read with him, I accustom him to write, and I +remark with pleasure that he takes the deepest interest in +composition. I may say, indeed, that he is passionately fond of it; +for with him every wish, every desire, every caprice, is a +passion--an ardent and impatient passion. It is difficult for a +European to imagine, and still more difficult to understand, the +inflammability of the unruly, or rather unbridled, passions of an +Asiatic, with whom the will alone has been, since childhood, the +only limit to his desires. Our passions are like domestic animals; or, +if they are wild beasts, they are tamed, and taught to dance upon +the rope of the "conveniences," with a ring through their nostrils +and their claws cut: in the East they are free as the lion and the +tiger. + +It is curious to observe, on the countenance of Ammalát, the blush +with which his features are covered at the least contradiction; the +fire with which he is filled at any dispute; but as soon as he finds +that he is in the wrong, he turns pale, and seems ready to weep. +"I am in the wrong," says he; "pardon me: takhsirumdam ghitch, +(blot out my fault;) forget that I am wrong, and that you have +pardoned me." He has a good heart, but a heart always ready to be +set on fire, either by a ray of the sun or by a spark of hell. +Nature has gifted him with all that is necessary to render him a man, +as well in his moral as physical constitution; but national +prejudices, and the want of education, have done all that is +possible to disfigure and to corrupt these natural qualities. His +mind is a mixture of all sorts of inconsistencies, of the most +absurd ideas, and of the soundest thoughts: sometimes he seizes +instantly abstract propositions when they are presented to him in a +simple form, and again he will obstinately oppose the plainest and +most evident truths: because the former are quite new to him, and +the latter are obscured by previous prejudices and impressions. I +begin to fancy that it is easier to build a new edifice than to +reconstruct an old one. + +But how happens it that Ammalát is melancholy and absent? He makes +great progress in every thing that does not require an attentive and +continuous reflection, and a gradual development; but when the +matter involves remote consequences, his mind resembles a short +fire-arm, which sends its charge quickly, direct, and strongly, but +not to any distance. Is this a defect of his mind? or is it that his +attention is entirely occupied with something else? ... For a man of +twenty-three, however, it is easy to imagine the cause. Sometimes he +appears to be listening attentively to what I am telling him; but +when I ask for his answer, he seems all abroad. Sometimes I find the +tears flowing from his eyes: I address him--he neither hears nor +sees me. Last night he was restless in his sleep, and I heard the +word "seltanét--seltanét," (power, power,) frequently escape him. Is +it possible that the love of power can so torment a young heart? No, +no! another passion agitates, troubles the soul of Ammalát. Is it +for me to doubt of the symptoms of love's divine disease? He is in +love--he is passionately in love; but with whom? Oh, I will know! +Friendship is as curious as a woman. + + + + +OCCUPATION OF ADEN. + +"It is only by a naval power," says Gibbon, "that the reduction of +Yemen can be successfully attempted"--a remark, by the way, which +more than one of the ancients had made before him. All the +comparatively fertile districts in the south of Arabia, in fact, are +even more completely insulated by the deserts and barren mountains of +the interior on one side, than by the sea on the other--inasmuch as +easier access would be gained by an invader, even by the dangerous +and difficult navigation of the Red Sea, than by a march through a +region where the means of subsistence do not exist, and where the +Bedoweens, by choking or concealing the wells, might in a moment cut +off even the scanty supply of water which the country affords. This +mode of passive resistance was well understood and practised by them +as early as the time of Ælius Gallus, the first Roman general who +conceived the hope of rifling the virgin treasures popularly +believed to be buried in the inaccessible hoards of the princes of +Arabia, whose realms were long looked upon--perhaps on the principle +of _omne ignotum pro magnifico_--as a sort of indefinite and +mysterious El Dorado. [31] + +[Footnote 31: "Intactis opulentior thesauris Arabum." +--_Horat. Od_. iii. 24. Pliny (_Hist. Nat_. vi. 32) more soberly +endeavours to prove the enormous accumulation of wealth which must +have taken place in Arabia, from the constant influx of the precious +metals for the purchase of their spices and other commodities, while +they bought none of the productions of other countries in return.] + +These golden dreams speedily vanished as the country became more +extensively known: and though the Arab tribes of the desert between +Syria and the Euphrates acknowledged a nominal subjection to Rome, +the intercourse of the Imperial City with Yemen, or Arabia Felix, +was confined to the trade which was carried on over the Red Sea from +Egypt, and which became the channel through which not only the +spices of Arabia, but the rich products of India, and even the slaves +[32] and ivory of Eastern Africa, were supplied to the markets of +Italy. At the present day, almost the whole of the south coast of +Arabia fronting the Indian Ocean, nearly from the head of the Persian +Gulf to the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, as well as the eastern coast of +Africa, from Cape Guardafui to the entrance of the Mozambique Channel +a seaboard approaching 4000 miles in length--is more or less subject +to the Sultan of Muscat, [33] a prince whose power is almost wholly +maritime, and whose dominions nowhere extend more than thirty or forty +miles inland: while our own recent acquisition of Aden, a detached point +with which our communication can be maintained only by restraining +the command of the sea, has for the first time given an European +power (excepting the Turks, whose possessions in Arabia always +depended on Egypt) a _locus standi_ on the shores of Yemen. + +[Footnote 32: This part of Africa is noticed by Arrian as famous for +the excellent quality of the slaves brought from [Greek: ta doulicha +chreissota],and it still retains its pre-eminence. The tribes in +this quarter are far superior both in personal appearance and +intellect to the negroes of Guinea.] + +[Footnote 33: We have seen it somewhere stated that the Sultan has +also attempted, by means of his navy, to exercise authority on the +shores of Beloochistan; which would bring him into contact with our +own outposts at Soumeeani, &c., near the mouth of the Indus.] + +The process by which we obtained this footing in Arabia was strictly +in accordance with the maxims of policy adopted by the then rulers +of British India, and which they were at the same time engaged in +carrying out, on a far more extended scale, in Affghanistan. In both +cases--perhaps from a benevolent anxiety to accommodate our +diplomacy to the primitive ideas of those with whom we had to deal-- + + "the good old rule + Sufficeth them, the simple plan + That they should take who have the power, + And they should keep who can"-- + +was assumed as the basis of our proceedings: and though the brilliant +success which for a time attended our philanthropic exertions in the +cause of good order and civilization beyond the Indus, so completely +threw into the shade the minor glories of Aden, that this latter +achievement attracted scarcely any public attention at the time of +its occurrence, its merits are quite sufficient to entitle it to a +more detailed notice than it has hitherto received in the pages of +Maga. Nor can a more opportune juncture be found than the present, +when the late events in Cabul have apparently had a marvellous +effect in opening the eyes of our statesmen, both in India and +England, to the moral and political delinquency of the system we +have so long pursued--of taking the previous owner's consent for +granted, whenever it suited our views to possess ourselves of a +fortress, island, or tract of territory, belonging to any nation not +sufficiently civilized to have had representatives at the Congress +of Vienna. Whether our repentance is to be carried the length of +universal restitution, remains to be seen; if so, it is to be hoped +that the circumstances of the capture of Aden will be duly borne in +mind. But before we proceed to detail the steps by which the British +colours came to be hoisted at this remote angle of Arabia, it will +be well to give some account of the place itself and its previous +history; since we suspect that the majority of newspaper politicians, +unless the intelligence of its capture chanced to catch their eye in +the columns of the _Times_, are to this day ignorant that such a +fortress is numbered among the possessions of the British crown. + +The harbour of Aden, then, lies on the south coast of Yemen, as +nearly as possible in 12º 45' N. latitude, and 45º 10' E. longitude; +somewhat more than 100 miles east of Cape Bab-el-Mandeb, at the +entrance of the Red Sea; and about 150 miles by sea, or 120 by land, +from Mokha, [34] the nearest port within the Straits. The town was built +on the eastern side of a high rocky peninsula, about four miles in +length from E. to W., by two miles and a half N. and S.--which was +probably, at no very remote period, an island, but is now joined to +the mainland by a long low sandy isthmus, [35] on each side of which, +to the east and west, a harbour is formed between the peninsula and +the mainland. The East Bay, immediately opposite the town, though +of comparatively small extent, is protected by the rocky islet of +Seerah, rising seaward to the height of from 400 to 600 feet, and +affords excellent anchorage at all times, except during the north-east +monsoon: but the Western or Black Bay, completely landlocked and +sheltered in great part of its extent by the high ground of its +peninsula, (which rises to an elevation of nearly 1800 feet,) runs up +inland a distance of seven miles from the headland of Jibel-Hassan, +(which protects its mouth on the west,) to the junction of the isthmus +with the main, and presents at all times a secure and magnificent +harbour, four miles wide at the entrance, and perfectly free from +rocks, shoals, and all impediments to ingress or egress. Such are the +natural advantages of Aden: and "whoever"--says Wellsted--"might have +been the founder, the site was happily selected, and well calculated +by its imposing appearance not only to display the splendour of its +edifices, but also, uniting strength with ornament, to sustain the +character which it subsequently bore, as the port and bulwark of +Arabia Felix." + +[Footnote 35: This isthmus is said by Lieutenant Wellsted to be "about +200 yards in breadth:" perhaps a misprint for 1200, as a writer in the +_United Service Journal_, May 1840, calls it 1350 yards; and, +according to the plan in the papers laid before Parliament, it would +appear to be rather more than half a mile at the narrowest part, where +it is crossed by the Turkish wall.] + +From the almost impregnable strength of its situation, and the +excellence of its harbour, which affords almost the only secure +shelter for shipping near the junction of the Red Sea and the Indian +Ocean, Aden has been, both in ancient and modern times, a place of +note and importance as a central point for the commerce carried on +with the East by way of Egypt. It was known to the ancients as the +Arabian emporium, and Abulfeda, in the fourteenth century, describes +it, in his Geography, as "a city on the sea-shore, within the +district of Abiyan; with a safe and capacious port, much frequented +by ships from India and China, and by merchants and men of +wealth, not only from those countries, but from Abyssinia, the +Hedjaz, &c.;" adding, however, "that it is dry and burnt up by the +sun, and so totally destitute of pasture and water, that one of the +gates is named Bab-el-Sakiyyin, or _Gate of the Water-carriers_, +for fresh water must be brought from a distance." In somewhat +later times, when the Portuguese began to effect settlements on the +coasts of Guzerat and Malabar, and to attack the Mohammedan commerce +in the Indian Seas, the port of Aden (when, with the rest of Yemen, +then paid a nominal allegiance to the Egyptian monarchy) became the +principal rendezvous for the armaments equipped by the Circassian +Sultans of Cairo in the Red Sea, in aid of their Moslem brethren, +then oppressed by those whom the Sheikh Zein-ed-deen emphatically +denounces as "a race of unclean Frank interlopers--may the curse of +Allah rest upon them and all infidels!" It was, in consequence, more +than once attacked by the famous Alboquerque, (who, in 1513, lost +2000 men before it,) and his successor Lope Soarez, but the +Portuguese never succeeded in occupying it; and the Mamluke empire +was overthrown, in 1517, by the arms of the Ottoman Sultan, Selim I. +The new masters of Egypt, however, speedily adopted the policy of +the rulers whom they had supplanted; and not contented with the +limited _suzerainté_ over the Arab chiefs of Yemen, exercised by the +Circassian monarchs, determined on bringing that country under the +direct control of the Porte, as a _point d'appui_ for the operations +to be undertaken in the Indian Ocean. With this view, the eunuch, +Soliman-Pasha, who was sent in command of a formidible squadron from +Suez, in 1538, to attempt the recapture of Dui, [36] in Guzerat, from +the Portuguese, received instructions to make himself in the first place +master of Aden, to the possession of which the Turks might reasonable +lay claim as a dependency of their newly-acquired realm of Egypt; the +seizure, however, was effected by means of base treachery. The prince, +Sheikh-Amer, of the race of the Beni-Teher, was summoned on board +the admiral's galley, and accepted the invitation without suspicion; +but he was instantly placed in confinement, and shortly afterwards +publicly hanged at the yard-arm; while the Pasha, landing his troops, +took possession of Aden in the name of Soliman the Magnificent. It +was not, however, till 1568, that the final reduction of Yemen was +accomplished, when Aden and other towns, which had fallen into the +hands of an Arab chief named Moutaher, were recaptured by a powerful +army sent from Egypt; the whole province was formally divided into +sandjaks or districts, and the seat of the beglerbeg, or supreme +pasha, fixed at Sana. + +[Footnote 36: The warfare of the Ottomans in India is a curious +episode in their history, which has attracted but little notice from +European writers. The Soliman-Pasha above mentioned (called by +the Indian historians Soliman-Khan _Roomi_, or the Turk, and by the +Portuguese Solimanus Peloponnesiacus) bore a distinguished part +in those affairs; but this expedition against Diu was the last in +which he was engaged. The kingdom of Guzerat was, at that time, in +great confusion after the death of its king, Bahadur Shah, who had +been treacherously killed in an affray with the Portuguese in 1536; +and it would appear probable that the Turks, if they had succeeded +against Diu, meditated taking possession of the country.] + +The domination of the Turks in Yemen did not continue much more than +sixty years after this latter epoch; the constant revolts of the +Arab tribes, and the feuds of the Turkish military chiefs, whose +distance from the seat of government placed them beyond the control +of the Porte, combined in rendering it an unprofitable possession. +The Indian trade, moreover, was permanently diverted to the route by +the Cape; and any political schemes which the Porte might at one time +have entertained in regard to India, had been extinguished by the +reunion, under the Mogul sway, of the various shattered sovereignties +of Hindostan. In 1633, [37] the Turkish troops were finally withdrawn +from the province, which then fell under the rule of the still existing +dynasty of the Imams of Sana, who claim descent from Mohammed. But the +ruins even now remaining of the fortifications and publick works +constructed in Aden by the Ottomans during their tenure of the place, +are on a scale which not only proves how fully they were aware of the +importance of the position, but gives a high idea of the energy with +which their resources were administered during the palmy days of their +power, when such vast labour and outlay were expended on the security +of an isolated stronghold at the furthest extremity of their empire. +The defences of the town, even in their present state, are the most +striking evidence now existing of the science and skill of the Turkish +engineers in former times; and, when they were entire, Aden must have +been another Gibraltar. "The lines taken for the works," says a late +observer, "evince great judgment, a good flanking fire being every +where obtained; no one place which could possibly admit of being +fortified has been omitted, and we could not do better than tread in +the steps of our predecessors. The profile is tremendous." A supply +of water (of which the peninsula had been wholly destitute) was +secured, not only by constructing numerous tanks within the walls, +and by boring numerous wells through the solid rock to a depth of +upwards of 200 feet, [38] but by carrying an aqueduct into the +town from a spring eight miles in the country, the reservoir at the +end of which was defended by a redoubt mounted with artillery. The +outposts were not less carefully strengthened than the body of the +place--a rampart with bastions (called, in the reports of the +garrison, _the Turkish Wall_) was carried along some high ground on +the isthmus from sea to sea, to guard against an attack on the land +side--the lofty rocky islet of Seerah, immediately off the town, was +covered with watchtowers and batteries--and several of those +enormous guns, with the effect of which the English became +practically acquainted at the passage of the Dardanelles in 1807, +were mounted on the summit of the precipices, to command the seaward +approach; and, when Lieutenant Wellsted was at Aden, those huge +pieces of ordnance was lying neglected on the beach; and he asked +Sultan Mahassan why he did not cut them up for the sake of the metal, +which is said to contain a considerable intermixture of silver; +"but he replied, with more feeling than could have been anticipated, +that he was unwilling to deprive Aden of the only remaining sign of +its former greatness and strength." Several of them have been sent +to England since the capture of the place, measuring from fifteen to +eighteen and a half feet in length; they are covered with ornaments +and inscriptions, stating them to have been cast in the reign of +"Soliman the son of Selim-Khan," (Soliman the Magnificent.) + +[Footnote 37: Captain Haines, in the "Report upon Aden," appended to the +Parliamentary papers published on the subject, erroneously places this +even in 1730, the year in or about which, according to Niebuhr, the +Sheikh of Aden made himself independent of Sana.] + +[Footnote 38: "No part of the coast of Arabia is celebrated for the +goodness of its water, with the single exception of Aden. The wells +there are 300 in number, cut mostly though the rock, ... and the tanks +were found in good order, coated inside and out with excellant chunam, +(stucco,) and merely requiring cleaning out to be again serviceable."] + +At the time of its evacuation by the Turks, Aden is said, +notwithstanding the decay of its Indian trade, to have contained from +20,000 to 30,000 inhabitants; and the lofty minarets which, a few +years since, still towered above the ruins of the mosques to which +they had formerly been attached, as well as the extensive +burying-grounds, in which the turbaned headstones peculiar to the +Turks are even yet conspicuous, bear testimony, not less than the +extent and magnitude of the ruinous fortifications, to the +population and splendour of the town under the Ottomans.--(See +WELLSTED'S _Arabia_, vol. ii, chap. 19.) From the time, however, of +its return into the hands of its former owners, its decline was rapid. +Niebuhr, who visited it in the latter part of the last century, says, +that it had but little trade, as its Sheikh [39] (who had long since +shaken off his dependence on the Iman of Sana) was not on good terms +with his neighbors; and, though Sir Home Popham concluded a commercial +treaty with the uncle and predecessor of the present Sultan Mahassan, +no steps appear to have been taken in consequence of this arrangement. + +[Footnote 39: The town would appear to have passed into the hands of +another tribe since Niebuhr's time, as he gives the Sheikh the surname +of _El-Foddeli_ (Futhali,) the present chief being of the Abdalli +tribe.] + +In 1835, according to Wellsted, the inhabitants of this once +flourishing emporium did not exceed 800, the only industrious class +among whom were the Jews, who numbered from 250 to 300. The +remainder were "the descendants of Arabs, Sumaulis," (a tribe of the +African coast,) "and the offspring of slaves," who dwelt in wretched +huts, or rather tents, on the ruins of the former city. "Not more +than twenty families are now engaged in mercantile pursuits, the +rest gaining a miserable existence either by supplying the Hadj +boats with wood and water, or by fishing." The chief, Sultan Mahassan, +did not even reside in Aden, but in a town called Lahedj, about +eighteen miles distant, where he kept the treasures which his uncle, +who was a brave and politic ruler, had succeeded in amassing. He +reputation for wealth, however, and the inadequacy of his means for +defending it, drew on him the hostility of the more warlike tribes +in the vicinity; and in 1836 Aden was sacked by the Futhalis, +who not only carried off booty to the value of 30,000 dollars, +(principally the property of the Banians and the Sumauli merchants in +the port,) but compelled the Sultan to agree to an annual payment of +360 dollars; while two other tribes, the Yaffaees and the Houshibees, +took the opportunity to exhort from him a tribute of half that amount. +There can be no doubt but that, if the Arabs had been left to +themselves, this state of things would have ended in all the +contending parties being speedily swallowed up in the dominions of +Mohammed Ali, Pasha of Egypt; who, under pretence of re-asserting +the ancient rights of the Porte to the sovereignty of Yemen, had +already occupied Mokha and Taaz, and was waging war with the tribes +in the neighbouring coffee country, whom he had exasperated by the +treacherous murder of Sheikh Hussein, one of their chiefs, who, +having been inveigled by the Egyptian commander into a personal +conference, was shot dead, like the Mamlukes at Cairo, in the tent of +audience. Aden, in the natural course of things, would have been the +next step; but an unforeseen intervention deprived him of his prey. + +Since the establishment of the overland communication with India +through Egypt, and the steam navigation of the Red Sea, the want had +been sensibly felt of an intermediate station between Suez and Bombay, +which might serve both as a coal depot, and, in case of necessity, +as a harbour of shelter. The position of Aden, almost exactly halfway, +would naturally have pointed it out as the sought-for haven, even +had its harbour been less admirably adapted than it is, from its +facility of entrance and depth of water close to the shore, for +steamers to run straight in, receive their fuel and water from the +quay, and proceed on their voyage without loss of time; while the +roadstead of Mokha, [40] the only other station which could possibly be +made available for the purpose, is at all times open and insecure, +and in certain points of the wind, particularly when it blows from +the south through the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, communication with +the shore is absolutely impracticable. It was clear, therefore, that +the proposed depot, if carried into effect at all, must be fixed at +Aden; and there can be little doubt that its occupation was contemplated +by the Indian government from the time of the visit of the surveying +ships to the Red Sea. A pretext was now all that was sought for, and +this was not long wanted. It was reported to the Bombay Administration +in October 1836, by Captain Haines, (then in command of the Palinurus +at Makullah) that great insecurity to navigation prevailed on both the +African and Indian shores, at the entrance of the Red Sea; and one +particular instance was adduced, in which the crew of a Muscat vessel, +wrecked on the coast near Aden, were subjected to such inordinate +extortion by Sultan Mahassan, that "the master, in anger or despair, +burned his vessel. The Bombay government could only give general +instructions, that in case of any outrage being offered to a vessel +under British colours, redress should be peremptorily demanded. But +long before these instructions were issued, and, indeed, before the +intelligence which elicited them had reached Bombay, a case, such as +they had supposed, had really occurred."--(_Corresponderce relating to +Aden_, printed in May 1839, by order of the House of Commons, +No. 49, p. 38.) + +[Footnote 40: "A vessel will lie" (at Mokha) "with a whole chain on end, +topgallant masts struck, and yards braced by, without being able to +communicate with the shore; while at the same time in Aden harbour she +will lie within a few yards of the shore, in perfectly smooth water, +with the bight of her chain cable scarcely taught."--CAPTAIN HAINES'S +_Report_.] + +An Indian ship called the Derya-Dowlut, (Fortune of the Sea,) the +property of a lady of the family of the Nawab of Madras, but sailing +under British colours, was wrecked on the coast near Aden, February +20, 1837, when on her voyage from Calcutta to Jiddah, with a cargo +valued at two lacs of rupees, (L.20,000.) It would appear, from the +depositions of the survivors, that the loss of the ship was +intentional on the part of the supercargo and _nakhoda_, (or +sailing-master,) the latter of whom, however, was drowned, with +several of the crew, in attempting to get on shore in the boat. The +passengers--who had been denied help both by the officers who had +deserted them, and by the Arabs who crowded down to the beach--with +difficulty reached the land, when they were stripped, plundered, and +ill-treated by the Bedoweens, but at last escaped without any +personal injury, and made their way in miserable plight to Aden, +where they were relieved and clothed by a Sheikh, the hereditary +guardian of the tomb of Sheikh Idris, the guardian saint of the town. +The stranded ship, meanwhile, after being cleared of as much of her +cargo and stores as could be saved, was burned by direction of the +supercargo, who shortly afterwards took his departure to Jiddah, +carrying with him one-third of the rescued property, and leaving the +remainder as a waif to the Sultan of Aden. After he was gone, the +Sultan made an offer to the agent [41] of the ship to restore the +goods which had fallen to his share on a payment of ten per cent for +salvage; but this was declined, on the ground that after such a length +of time "the things on board must have been almost all lost; that he +did not require them, nor had he money to pay for them." The Sultan, +however, still refused to allow him to leave Aden till he had given +him written acquittance of all claims on account of the ship; a document +was accordingly signed, as he says, under compulsion, to the effect that +he made no claim against the Sultan, but with a full reservation of his +claim for redress from the supercargo, who had wrecked the ship and +embezzled the goods saved from her. The agent and several of the crew, +after undergoing great hardships, at last reached Mokha, and laid their +complaint before the commanders of the Company's cruisers Coote and +Palinurus. The latter vessel, under the command of Captain Haines, +immediately repaired to Aden to demand redress for the injuries thus +inflicted on English subjects, while a formal report of the case was made +to the Government at Bombay. The Sultan at first attempted to deny that +he possessed any of the goods in question, and afterwards alleged +that they had been given to him voluntarily by the supercargo; but +finding all his subterfuges unavailing, he at length gave up +merchandize and stores to the amount of nearly 8000 dollars, besides +a bond at a year's date for 4191 dollars more, in satisfaction for +the goods which had been previously sold or made away with, as well +as for the insults offered to the passengers. + +[Footnote 41: This person, Syud Nooradeen, had been captain of the +vessel at the outset of the voyage; but had been deposed from the +responsible command by an order purporting to come from the merchant +who had freighted the ship, but which is now said to have been forged +by the supercargo.] + +Here, in ordinary cases, the matter might have rested; for though +the conduct of this Arab chief would certainly have been +indefensible in a civilized country, the worst charge that can be +considered as fairly proved against him is that of being a receiver +of stolen goods, as the price of his connivance at the appropriation +of the rest by the supercargo--since with the wreck of the ship, +whether premeditated or not, he had certainly nothing to do--and the +outrages committed by the wild Bedoweens on the beach can scarcely be +laid to his charge. A far more atrocious insult to the British flag in +1826, when a brig from the Mauritius had been piratically seized at +Berbera, (a port on the African coast, just outside the Straits of +Bab-el-Mandeb,) and part of her crew murdered, had been expiated by +the submission of the offenders, and the repayment of the value of the +plunder by yearly instalments, (see WELLSTED'S _Arabia_, vol. ii. +chap. 18;)--whereas, in the present case, restitution, however reluctant, +had been prompt and complete. But so eager were the authorities in India +to possess themselves of the place on any terms, that even while the +above-mentioned negotiation was pending, a minute was drawn up +(Sept. 28) by the Governor of Bombay, and transmitted to the +Governor-general at Calcutta, in which, after stating that "the +establishment of a monthly communication by steam with the Red Sea, +and the formation of a flotilla of armed steamers, renders it +_absolutely necessary_ that we should have a station of our own on +the coast of Arabia, as we already have on the Persian Gulf" +--alluding to the seizure of the island of Karrack--and noticing +"the insult which has been offered to the British flag by the Sultan +of Aden," requests permission "to take possession of Cape Aden." [42] +The Governor-general, however, in his reply, (Oct. 16,) appears scarcely +of opinion that so strong a measure is warranted by the provocation, +and suggests "that satisfaction should, in the first instance, be +demanded of the Sultan. If it be granted, some _amicable arrangement_ +may be made with him for the occupation of this port as a depot for +coals, and harbour for shelter. If it be refused, then further measures +may be considered." [43] + +[Footnote 42: Correspondence, No. 16.] + +[Footnote 43: Ibid. No. 19.] + +But notwithstanding the qualified terms of the Governor-general's +reply, it appears to have been regarded by the Bombay government as +equivalent to a full permission [44] for the prosecution of the +object on which they had fixed their views: for by the despatch +of Captain Haines from Aden, (dated Jan. 20, 1838,) we find that no +sooner had he "completed the first duty on which he was sent," +(the recovery of the cargo of the Derya-Dowlet,) than he addressed a +letter (Jan. 11) to the Sultan, to the effect that "he was empowered +by Government to form a treaty with the Sultan for the purchase of +Aden, with the land and points surrounding it," &c. &c.--that he felt +assured that the Sultan "would, in his wisdom, readily foresee the +advantages which would accrue to his country from having such an +intimate connecting link with the British"--and enclosing a rough +draft of the terms on which it was proposed that the transfer should +be effected. The Sultan appears to have been considerably _taken +aback_ at this unexpected proposition, which, it should be observed, +was not put forward as part of the atonement required for the affair +of the Derya-Dowlut--as for this, (in the words of Captain Haines,) +"satisfaction has been given by you, and our friendship is as before." +A lengthened correspondence ensued, at the rate of a letter or two +daily, till the end of January--in which the Sultan, with all the +tortuous tact of an Asiatic, endeavoured, without expressly pledging +himself on the main point, to stipulate in the first instance for +assistance, in the shape of artillery and ammunition, against the +hostile tribes in the neighbourhood, and other advantages for +himself and his family, particularly for the retention of their +jurisdiction over the _Arab_ residents in Aden: and he at last +quitted Aden for Lahedj, without absolutely concluding any thing, +but having authorized a merchant of the former place, named +Reshid-Ebn-Abdallah, to act as his agent. + +[Footnote 44: "The Government of India did not, indeed, in express +words authorize us to negotiate with the Sultan for a cession to us +of the post and harbour: but they desired us to obtain the occupation +of the port as a coal depot, and that of the harbour as a place of +shelter. These words far exceed the mere establishment of a coal depot +under the auspices of the Sultan, and in fact, could not in any +practical sense, or to any beneficial purpose, be fulfilled, except +by our obtaining the occupation of that port and harbour as a matter +not of sufferance but of right."--_Minute by the Governor of Bombay_, +No. 49.] + +Still every thing appeared in a fair way for adjustment; the +principal difficulty remaining to be settled being the annual sum to +be paid as an equivalent for the port-dues of Aden. The Sultan's +commissioner at first rated this source of revenue at the exorbitant +sum of 50,000 dollars!--but it was at last agreed that it should be +commuted for a yearly stipend of 8708, a mode of payment preferred +by the Sultan to the receipt of a gross sum, lest the rapacity of +his neighbours should be excited against him by so sudden an +accession of wealth: while the amount thus fixed was believed even +to exceed the actual amount of the customs. The Sultan meanwhile, +though evading the formal execution of the deed of transfer, +constantly wrote from Lahedj that the English were at liberty to +begin building in Aden as soon as they pleased--adding on more than +one occasion--"if the Turks or any other people should come and take +away the whole country by strength from me, the blame will not rest +on my shoulders." + +On the 27th, however, Sultan Hamed, the eldest son and heir-apparent +of Sultan Mahassan, arrived at Aden from Lahedj, accompanied by a +_synd_ or descendant of the prophet, named Hussein, who was +represented as having come as a witness to the transaction; and +Captain Haines was invited on shore to meet them. While he was +preparing, however, to repair to the place of meeting, he received a +private intimation through the merchant already mentioned, +Reshid-Ebn-Abdallih, to the effect that the Arab chiefs had +determined on seizing his person at the interview, in order to +possess themselves of the papers connected with the proposed +transfer of Aden, (to which Sultan Hamed had from the first been +strongly opposed,) and in particular of the bond for 4191 dollars +which had been given in satisfaction for the balance of the goods in +the Derya-Dowlut. How far this imputed treachery was really meditated, +there can be, of course, no means of precisely ascertaining; and the +minute of the governor of Bombay (_Correspondence_, No. 49,) seems +to consider it doubtful; [45] but Captain Haines acted as if fully +convinced of the correctness of the intelligence which he had +received; and after reproaching Sultan Hamed with his intended +perfidy, returned first to Mokha, and afterwards (in February) to +Bombay, carrying with him the letter in which the old Sultan was +alleged to have given his consent to the cession, but leaving the +recovered goods at Aden in charge of a Banyan--a tolerably strong +proof, by the way, that the Sultan, notwithstanding the bad faith +laid to his charge, was not considered likely to appropriate them +afresh. + +[Footnote 45: "I am not, however, disposed to treat the matter as +one of much importance. We have no knowledge of it but from report, +and all concerned in it will solemnly deny the truth of the +information."] + +The unsuccessful issue of this mission pretty clearly proved, that +notwithstanding the dread of the British power entertained by the +Abdalli chiefs, their reluctance to part with their town would not +be easily overcome by peaceable means: while the Governor-general +(then busily engaged at Simla in forwarding the preparations for the +ill-fated invasion of Affghanistan) still declined, in despite of a +renewed application from Bombay to give any special sanction to +ulterior measures--"a question on which"--in the words of the +despatch--"her Majesty's Government is rather called upon to +pronounce judgment, than the supreme government of India." The +authorities at Bombay, however, were not to be thus diverted from +the attainment of their favourite object; and in a despatch of +September 7, 1838, to the Secret Committee, (_Corresp_. No. 59,) +they announce that, "on reconsideration, they have resolved to adopt +immediate measures for attempting to obtain peaceable possession of +Aden, without waiting for the previous instructions of the +Governor-general of India:" but "as the steamer Berenice will leave +Bombay on the 8th inst.," (_the next day_,) "we have not time to +enter into a detail of the reasons which have induced us to come to +the above resolution." A notification similar to the above had been +forwarded two days previously to Lord Auckland at Simla; and a +laconic reply was received (Oct. 4) from Sir William Macnaghten, +simply to the effect that "his lordship was glad to find that, at +the present crisis of our affairs, the governor (of Bombay) in +council has resolved to resort to no other than peaceful means +for the attainment of the object in view." + +In the latter part of October, accordingly, Captain Haines once more +reached Aden in the Coote, with a small party of Bombay sepoys on +board as his escort; but the aspect of affairs was by no means +favourable. The old Sultan Mahassan, worn out with age and +infirmities, had resigned the management of affairs almost entirely +to his fiery son Hamed, who, encouraged not only by his success in +baffling the former attempt, but by the smallness of the force which +had accompanied the British commissioner, [46] openly set him at +defiance, declaring that he himself, and not his father, was now the +Sultan of the Bedoweens: that his father was but an imbecile old man; +and that any promise which might have been extorted from him could +not be regarded as of any avail: and, in short, that the place +should not be given up upon any terms. In pursuance of this +denunciation, all supplies, even of wood and water, were refused to +the ship; the Banyan in charge of the Derya-Dowlut's cargo was +prohibited from giving up the goods to the English; and though the +interchange of letters was kept up as briskly as before, the +resolution of Sultan Hamed was not to be shaken by this torrent of +diplomacy: and he constantly adhered to his first expressed +position--"I wish much to be friends, and that amity was between us, +but you must not speak or write about the land of Aden again." The +English agent, however, persisted in speaking of the transfer as +already legally concluded, and out of the power of Hamed to +repudiate or annul: while, in order to give greater stringency to +his remonstrances, he gave orders for the detention of the +date-boats and other vessels which arrived off Aden, hoping to +starve the Sultan into submission, by thus at once stopping his +provisions, and cutting off his receipt of port dues. The blockade +does not seem to have been very effectual: and an overture from the +Futhali chief to aid with his tribe in an attack on the Abdallis, was +of course declined by Captain Haines. + +[Footnote 46: "Their first exclamation was, 'Are the English so poor +that they can only afford to send one vessel? and is she only come to +talk? Why did they not send her before? Had they sent their men and +vessels, we would have given up; but until they do, they shall never +have the place.'"--CAPTAIN HAINES'S _Despatch_, Nov. 6, (No. 61.)] + +The apparently interminable cross fire of protocols [47] (in which both +Captain Haines and his employers appear to have luxuriated to a degree +which would have gladdened the heart of Lord Palmerston himself) was now, +however, on the point of being brought to a close. On the 20th of +November, one of the Coote's boats, while engaged in overhauling an +Arab vessel near the shore, was fired at by the Bedoweens on the beach, +and hostilities were carried on during several days, but with little +damage on either side. In most cases, it would have been considered +that blockading a port, and intercepting its supplies of provisions +constituted a sufficiently legitimate ground of warfare to justify +these reprisals: but Captain Haines, it appears, thought otherwise, +as he stigmatizes it as "a shameful and cowardly attack," and +becomes urgent with the Bombay government for a reinforcement which +might enable him to assume offensive operations with effect. Her +Majesty's ships Volage, 28, and Cruiser, 16 gun-brig, which had been +employed in some operations about the mouth of the Indus, were +accordingly ordered on this service, and sailed from Bombay December +29, accompanied by two transports conveying about 800 troops--Europeans, +sepoys, and artillerymen--under the command-in-chief of Major Baillie, +24th Bombay native infantry. The Abdalli chiefs, on the other hand, +made an effort to induce the Sultan of the Futhalis, (with whom they +held a conference during the first days of 1839, at the tomb of +Sheikh Othman near Aden, on the occasion of the payment of the annual +tribute above referred to,) to make common cause with them against +the intruders who were endeavouring to establish themselves in the +country; but the negotiation wholly failed, and the two parties +separated on not very amicable terms. + +[Footnote 47: It is worthy of remark, that in a note of December 1st, +(_Corresp_. No. 81,) from the Governor of Bombay to the Sultan, +the ill treatment of the passengers of the Derya-Dowlut is again +advanced as the ground of offence, as an atonement for which the +cession of Aden is indispensable; though for this, ample satisfaction +had been admitted long since to have been given.] + +It appears that the determination of the Abdallis to hold out had +been materially strengthened by the intelligence which they received +from India, (where many Arabs from this part of Yemen and the +neighbouring country of Hadramout are serving as mercenaries to the +native princes,) of the manifold distractions which beset the +Anglo-Indian government, and the armaments in course of equipment for +Affghanistan, Scinde, the Persian Gulf, &c., and which confirmed +them in the belief that no more troops could be spared from Bombay +for an attack on Aden. The stoppage of provisions by sea, however, +and the threatened hostilities of the Futhalis, caused severe +distress among the inhabitants of the town; and dissensions arose +among the chiefs themselves, as to the proportions in which (in the +event of an amicable settlement) the annual payment of 8700 dollars +should be divided among them--it being determined that Sultan +Mahassan should not have it all. An attempt was now made by the +_synds_ to effect a reconciliation; but though abundance of notes +were once more interchanged, [48] and the old Sultan came down +from Lahedj to offer his mediation, all demands for the main +object, the cession of the place, were rejected or evaded. The +negotiation consequently came to nothing, and hostilities were +resumed with more energy than before, the artillery of Aden being +directed (as was reported) by an European Turk; till, on the 16th of +January, the flotilla from Bombay, under the command of Captain Smith, +R.N., anchored in Western Bay. + +[Footnote 48: In this correspondence, the phrase of--"If you will +land and enter the town, I will be upon your head," is more than once +addressed by Sultan Hamed to Captain Haines and seems to have been +understood as a menace; but we have been informed that it rather +implies, "I will be answerable for your safety--your head shall be +in my charge."] + +A peremptory requisition was now sent on shore for the immediate +surrender of the town; but the answer of the Sultan was still evasive, +and, as the troops had only a few days' water on board, an immediate +landing was decided upon. On the morning of the 19th, accordingly, +the Coote, Cruiser, Volage, and the Company's armed schooner Mahi, +weighed and stood in shore, opening a heavy fire on the island of +Seerah and the batteries on the mainland, to cover the disembarkation. +The Arabs at first stood to their guns with great determination, but +their artillery was, of course, speedily silenced or dismounted by +the superior weight and rapidity of the English fire; and though the +troops were galled while in the boats by matchlocks from the shore, +both the town and the island of Seerah were carried by storm without +much difficulty. The loss of the assailants was no more than fifteen +killed and wounded--that of the Arabs more than ten times that number, +including a nephew of the Sultan and a chief of the Houshibee tribe, +who fought gallantly, and received a mortal wound; considerable +bloodshed was also occasioned by the desperate resistance made by the +prisoners taken on Seerah in the attempt to disarm them, during which +the greater part of them cut their way through their captors and got +clear off. Most of the inhabitants fled into the interior during the +assault, but speedily returned on hearing of the discipline and good +order preserved by the conquerors; and the old Sultan, on being +informed of the capture of the place, sent an apologetic letter +(Jan. 21) to Captain Haines, in which he threw all the blame on his +son Hamed, and expressed an earnest wish for a reconciliation. +Little difficulty was now experienced in conducting the negotiations, +and during the first days of February articles of pacification were +signed both with the Abdallis and the other tribes in the +neighbourhood. To secure the good-will of the Futhali chief, the +annual payment which he had received from Aden of 360 dollars, was +still guaranteed to him, as were the 8700 dollars per annum to the +Sultan of Lahedj, whose bond for 4191 dollars was further remitted +as a token of good-will. + +Such were the circumstances under which Aden became part of the +colonial empire of Great Britain--and the details of which we have +taken, almost entirely, from the official accounts published by +order of Government. In whatever point of view we consider the +transaction, we think it can scarcely be denied that it reflects +little credit on the national character for even-handed justice and +fair dealing. Even if the tact and _savoir faire_, which Captain +Haines must be admitted to have displayed in an eminent degree in +the execution of his instructions, had succeeded in intimidating the +Arabs into surrendering the place without resistance, such a +proceeding would have amounted to nothing more or less than the +appropriation of the territory of a tribe not strong enough to defend +themselves, simply because it was situated conveniently for the +purposes of our own navigation: and the open force by which the +scheme was ultimately carried into effect, imparts to this act of +usurpation a character of violence still more to be regretted. The +originally-alleged provocation, the affair of the Derya-Dowlut, is +not for a moment tenable as warranting such extreme measures:--since +not only was the participation of the parties on whom the whole +responsibility was thrown, at all events extremely venial; but +satisfaction had been given, and had been admitted to have been given, +before the subject of the cession of the place was broached:--and +the Sultan constantly denied that his alleged consent to the transfer, +on which the subsequent hostilities were grounded, had ever been +intended to be so construed. It is evident, moreover, that the Arabs +would gladly have yielded to any amicable arrangement short of the +absolute cession of the town, which they regarded as disgraceful: +--the erection of a factory, which might have been fortified so as +to give us the virtual command of the place and the harbour, would +probably have met with no opposition:--and even if Aden had fallen, +as it seemed on the point of doing, into the hands of the Pasha of +Egypt, there can be little doubt that the Viceroy would have shown +himself equally ready to facilitate our intercourse with India, in +his Arabian as in his Egyptian harbours. At all events, it is +evident that the desired object of obtaining a station and coal +depot for the Indian steamers, might easily have been secured in +various ways, without running even the risk of bringing on the +British name the imputation of unnecessary violence and oppression. + +Aden, however, was now, whether for right or wrong, under the British +flag; but the hostile dispositions of the Arabs, notwithstanding the +treaties entered into, were still far from subdued; and the cupidity +of these semi-barbarous tribes was still further excited by the +lavish expenditure of the new garrison, and by the exaggerated +reports of vast treasures said to be brought from India for the +repairs of the works. Among the advantages anticipated by Captain +Haines in his official report from the possession of the town, +especial stress is laid on its vicinity to the coffee and gum +districts, and the certainty, that when it was under the settled +rule of British law, the traffic in these rich products, as well as +in the gold-dust, ivory, and frankincense of the African coast, +would once more centre in its long-neglected harbour. But it was +speedily found that the insecurity of communication with the +interior opposed a serious obstacle to the realization of these +prospects--the European residents and the troops were confined +within the Turkish wall--and though the extreme heat of the climate +(which during summer averaged 90° of Fahrenheit in the shade within +a stone house) did not prove so injurious as had been expected to +European constitutions, it was found, singularly enough, to exercise +a most pernicious influence on the sepoys, who sickened and died in +alarming numbers. Aden at this period is compared, in a letter +quoted in the _Asiatic Journal_, to "the crater of Etna enlarged, +and covered with gravestones and the remains of stone huts;" +provisions were scarce, and vegetables scarcely procurable. By +degrees, however, some symptoms of reviving trade appeared and by the +end of 1839 the population had increased to 1500 souls. + +The smouldering rancour with which the Arabs had all along regarded +the Frank intruders upon their soil, had by this time broken out +into open hostility; and, after some minor acts of violence, an +attack was made on the night of November 9th on the Turkish wall +across the isthmus, (which had been additionally strengthened by +redoubts and some guns,) by a body of 4000 men, collected from the +Abdallis, the Futhalis, and the other tribes in the neighbourhood. +The assailants were of course repulsed, but not without a severe +conflict, in which the Arabs engaged the defenders hand to hand +with the most determined valour--so highly had their hopes of +plunder been stimulated by the rumours of English wealth. This +daring attempt (which the Pasha of Egypt was by some suspected +to have had some share in instigating) at once placed the occupants +of Aden in a state of open warfare with all their Arab neighbours; +and the subsidies hitherto paid to the Futhali chief and the old +Sultan of Lahedj were consequently stopped--while L.100,000 were +voted by the Bombay government for repairing the fortifications, +and engineers were sent from India to put the place in an efficient +state of defence. These regular ramparts, however, even when +completed, can never be relied on as a security against the guerilla +attacks of these daring marauders, who can wade through the sea at +low water round the flanks of the Turkish wall, and scramble over +precipices to get in the rear of the outposts--and accordingly, +during 1840, the garrison had to withstand two more desperate +attempts (May 20, and July 4,) to surprise the place, both of which +were beaten off after some hard fighting, though in one instance the +attacking party succeeded in carrying off a considerable amount of +plunder from the encampment near the Turkish wall. Since that period, +it has been found necessary gradually to raise the strength of the +garrison from 800 to 4000 men, one-fourth of whom are always European +soldiers--and though no attack in force has lately been made by the +Arabs, the necessity of being constantly on the alert against their +covert approaches, renders the duties of the garrison harassing to +the last degree. Though a considerable trade now exists with the +African coast, scarcely any commercial intercourse has yet been +established with the interior of Arabia, (notwithstanding the +friendly dispositions evinced by the Iman of Sana,) the road being +barred by the hostile tribes--and a further impediment to +improvement is found in the dissensions of the civil and military +authorities of the place itself, who, pent up in a narrow space +under a broiling sun, seem to employ their energies in endless +squabbles with each other. Whatever may be the ultimate fate of this +colony, it must be allowed, to quote the candid admission of a +writer in the _United Service Journal_, that "at present we are not +occupying a very proud position in Arabia"--though considering the +means by which we obtained our footing in that peninsula, our +position is perhaps as good as we deserve. + + * * * * * + + + + +SONNET + + BY THE AUTHOR OP THE LIFE OF BURKE, OF GOLDSMITH, &C., + + ON VIEWING MY MOTHER'S PICTURE. + + How warms the heart when dwelling on that face, + Those lips that mine a thousand times have prest, + The swelling source that nurture gav'st her race, + Where found my infant head its downiest rest! + How in those features aim to trace my own, + Cast in a softer mould my being see; + Recall the voice that sooth'd my helpless moan, + The thoughts that sprang for scarcely aught save me; + That shaped and formed me; gave me to the day, + Bade in her breast absorbing love arise; + O'er me a ceaseless tender care display, + For weak all else to thee maternal ties! + This debt of love but One may claim; no other + Such self-devotion boasts, save thee, my Mother! + + * * * * * + + + + +CALEB STUKELY. + + PART XIII. + + THE FUGITIVE. + +The tongue has nothing to say when the soul hath spoken all! What +need of words in the passionate and early intercourse of love! There +is no oral language that can satisfy or meet the requisitions of the +stricken heart. Speech, the worldling and the false--oftener the +dark veil than the bright mirror of man's thoughts--is banished from +the spot consecrated to purity, unselfishness, and truth. The lovely +and beloved Ellen learnt, before a syllable escaped my lips, the +secret which those lips would never have disclosed. Her innocent and +conscious cheek acknowledged instantly her quick perception, and +with maiden modesty she turned aside--not angrily, but timorous as a +bird, upon whose leafy covert the heavy fowler's foot has trod too +harshly and too suddenly. I thought of nothing then but the pain I +had inflicted, and was sensible of no feeling but that of shame and +sorrow for my fault. We walked on in silence. Our road brought us to +the point in the village at which I had met Miss Fairman and her +father, when, for the first time, we became companions in our +evening walk. We retraced the path which then we took, and the +hallowed spot grew lovelier as we followed it. I could not choose +but tell how deeply and indelibly the scene of beauty had become +imprinted on my heart. + +"To you, Miss Fairman," I began, "and to others who were born and +nurtured in this valley, this is a common sight. To me it is a land +of enchantment, and the impression that it brings must affect my +future being. I am sure, whatever may be my lot, that I shall be a +happier man for what I now behold." + +"It is well," said my companion, "that you did not make the +acquaintance of our hills during the bleak winter, when their charms +were hidden in the snow, and they had nothing better to offer their +worshipper than rain and sleet and nipping winds. They would have +lost your praise then." + +"Do you think so? Imprisoned as I have been, and kept a stranger to +the noblest works of Providence, my enjoyment is excessive, and I +dare scarcely trust myself to feel it as I would. I could gaze on +yonder sweet hillock, with its wild-flowers and its own blue patch +of sky, until I wept." + +"Yes, this is a lovely scene in truth!" exclaimed Miss Fairman +pensively. + +"Do you remember, Miss Fairman, our first spring walk? For an hour +we went on, and that little green clump, as it appears from here, +was not for a moment out of my sight. My eyes were riveted upon it, +and I watched the clouds shifting across it, changing its hue, now +darkening, now lighting it up, until it became fixed in my +remembrance, never to depart from it. We have many fair visions +around us, but that is to me the fairest. It is connected with our +evening walk. Neither can be forgotten whilst I live." + +It was well that we reached the parsonage gate before another word +was spoken. In spite of the firmest of resolutions, the smallest +self-indulgence brought me to the very verge of transgression. + +In the evening I sat alone, and began a letter to the minister. I +wrote a few lines expressive of my gratitude and deep sense of +obligation. They did not read well, and I destroyed them. I +recommenced. I reproached myself for presumption and temerity, and +confessed that I had taken advantage of his confidence by attempting +to gain the affections of his only child. I regretted the fault, and +desired to be dismissed. The terms which I employed, on reperusal, +looked too harsh, and did not certainly do justice to the motives by +which throughout I had been actuated; for, however violent had been +my passion, _principle_ had still protected and restrained me. I had +not coldly and _deliberately_ betrayed myself. The second writing, +not more satisfactory than the first, was, in its turn, expunged. I +attempted a third epistle, and failed. Then I put down the pen and +considered. I pondered until I concluded that I had ever been too +hasty and too violent. Miss Fairman would certainly take no notice +of what had happened, and if I were guarded--silent--and determined +for the future, all would still be well. It was madness to indulge a +passion which could only lead to my expulsion from the parsonage, and +end in misery. Had I found it so easy to obtain a home and quiet, +that both were to be so recklessly and shamefully abandoned? Surely +it was time to dwell soberly and seriously upon the affairs of life. +I had numbered years and undergone trial sufficient to be acquainted +with true policy and the line of duty. Both bade me instantly reject +the new solicitation, and pursue, with singleness of purpose, the +occupation which fortune had mercifully vouchsafed to me. All this +was specious and most just, and sounded well to the understanding +that was not less able to look temperately and calmly upon the +argument in consequence of the previous overflow of feeling. Reason +is never so plausible and prevailing as when it takes the place of +gratified passion. Never are we so firmly resolved upon good, as in +the moment that follows instantly the doing of evil. Never is +conscience louder in her complaints than when she rises from a +temporary overthrow. I had discovered every thing to Miss Fairman. I +had fatally committed myself. There was no doubt of this; and +nothing was left for present consolation but sapient resolutions for +the future. Virtuous and fixed they looked in my silent chamber and +in the silent hour of night. Morning had yet to dawn, and they had +yet to contend with the thousand incitements which our desires are +ever setting up to battle with our better judgment. I did not write +to Mr. Fairman, but I rose from my seat much comforted, and softened +my midnight pillow with the best intentions. + +Fancy might have suggested to me, on the following morning, that the +eyes of Miss Fairnan had been visited but little by sleep, and that +her face was far more pallid than usual, if her parent had not +remarked, with much anxiety, when she took her place amongst us, +that she was looking most weary and unwell. Like the sudden +emanation that crimsons all the east, the beautiful and earliest +blush of morning, came the driven blood into the maiden's cheek, +telling of discovery and shame. Nothing she said in answer, but +diligently pursued her occupation. I could perceive that the fair +hand trembled, and that the gentle bosom was disquieted. _I_ could +tell why downwards bent the head, and with what new emotions the +artless spirit had become acquainted. Instantly I saw the mischief +which my rashness had occasioned, and felt how deeply had fallen the +first accents of love into the poor heart of the secluded one. What +had I done by the short, indistinct, most inconsiderate avowal, and +how was it possible now to avert its consequences? Every tender and +uneasy glance that Mr. Fairman cast upon his cherished daughter, +passed like a sting to me, and roused the bitterest self-reproach. I +could have calmed his groundless fears, had I been bold enough to +risk his righteous indignation. The frankness and cordiality which +had ever marked my intercourse with Miss Fairman, were from this +hour suspended. Could it be otherwise with one so innocent, so +truthful, and so meek! Anger she had none, but apprehension and +conceptions strange, such as disturb the awakened soul of woman, ere +the storm of passion comes to overcharge it. + +I slunk from the apartment and the first meal of the day, like a man +guilty of a heinous fault. I pleaded illness, and did not rejoin my +friends. I knew not what to do, and I passed a day in long and +feverish doubt. Evening arrived. My pupils were dismissed, and once +more I sat in my own silent room lost in anxious meditation. Suddenly +an unusual knock at the door roused me, and brought me to my feet. I +requested the visitor to enter, and Mr. Fairman himself walked slowly +in. He was pale and care-worn and he looked, as I imagined, sternly +upon me. "All is known!" was my first thought, and my throat swelled +with agitation. I presented a chair to the incumbent; and when he +sat down and turned his wan face upon me, I felt that my own cheek +was no less blanched than his. I awaited his rebuke in breathless +suspense. + +"You are indeed ill, Stukely," commenced Mr. Fairman, gazing +earnestly. "I was not aware of this, or I would have seen you before. +You have overworked yourself with the boys. You shall be relieved +to-morrow. I will take charge of them myself. You should not have +persevered when you found your strength unequal to the task. A +little repose will, I trust, restore you." + +With every animating syllable, the affrighted blood returned again, +and I gained confidence. His tones assured me that he was still in +ignorance. A load was taken from me. + +"I shall be better in the morning, sir," I answered. "Do not think +seriously of the slightest indisposition. I am better now." + +"I am rejoiced to hear it," answered the incumbent. "I am full of +alarm and wretchedness to-day. Did you observe my daughter this +morning, Stukely?" + +"Yes, sir," I faltered. + +"You did at breakfast, but you have not seen her since. I wish you +had. I am sick at heart." + +"Is she unwell, sir?" + +"Do you know what consumption is? Have you ever watched its fearful +progress?" + +"Never." + +"I thought you might have done so. It is a fearful disease, and +leaves hardly a family untouched. Did she not look ill?--you can +tell me that, at least." + +"Not quite so well, perhaps, as I have seen her, sir; but I should +hope"-- + +"Eh--what, not very ill, then? Well, that is strange, for I was +frightened by her. What can it be? I wish that Mayhew had called in. +Every ailment fills me with terror. I always think of her dear mother. +Three months before her death, she sat with me, as we do here +together, well and strong, and thanking Providence for health and +strength. She withered, as it might be from that hour, and, as I +tell you, three short months of havoc brought her to the grave." + +"Was she young, sir?" + +"A few years older than my child--but that is nothing. Did you say +you did not think her looks this morning indicated any symptoms? +Oh--no! I recollect. You never saw the malady at work. Well, +certainly she does not cough as her poor mother did. Did it look +like languor, think you?" + +"The loss of rest might"-- + +"Yes, it might, and perhaps it is nothing worse. I know Mayhew +thinks lightly of these temporary shadows; but I do not believe he +has ever seen her so thoroughly feeble and depressed as she appears +to-day. She is very pale, but I was glad to find her face free from +all flush whatever. That is comforting. Let us hope the best. How do +the boys advance? What opinion have you formed of the lad Charlton?" + +"He is a dull, good-hearted boy, sir. Willing to learn, with little +ability to help him on. Most difficult of treatment. His tears lie +near the surface. At times it seems that the simplest terms are +beyond his understanding, and then the gentlest reproof opens the +flood-gate, and submerges his faculties for the day." + +"Be tender and cautious, Stukely, with that child. He is a sapling +that will not bear the rough wind. Let him learn what he will--rest +assured, it is all he can. His eagerness to learn will never fall +short of your's to teach. He must be kindly encouraged, not frowned +upon in his reverses; for who fights so hard against them, or +deplores them more deeply than himself? Poor, weak child, he is his +own chastiser." + +"I will take care, sir." + +"Have you seen this coming on, Stukely?" + +"With Charlton, sir?" + +"No. Miss Fairman's indisposition. For many weeks she has certainly +improved in health. I have remarked it, and I was taken by surprise +this morning. I should be easier had Mayhew seen her." + +"Let me fetch him in the morning, sir. His presence will relieve you. +I will start early--and bring him with me." + +"Well, if you are better, but certainly not otherwise. I confess I +should be pleased to talk with him. But do not rise too early. Get +your breakfast first. I will take the boys until you come back." + +This had been the object of the anxious father's visit. As soon as I +had undertaken to meet his wish, he became more tranquil. My mission +was to be kept a secret. The reason why a servant had not been +employed, was the fear of causing alarm in the beloved patient. +Before Mr. Fairman left me, I was more than half persuaded that I +myself had mistaken the cause of his daughter's suffering; so +agreeable is it, even against conviction, to discharge ourselves of +blame. + +The residence of Dr. Mayhew was about four miles distant from our +village. It was a fine brick house, as old as the oaks which stood +before it, conferring upon a few acres of grass land the right to be +regarded as a park. The interior of the house was as substantial as +the outside; both were as solid as the good doctor himself. He was a +man of independent property, a member of the University of Oxford, +and a great stickler for old observances. He received a fee from +every man who was able to pay him for his services; and the poor +might always receive at his door, at the cost of application only, +medical advice and physic, and a few commodities much more +acceptable than either. He kept a good establishment, in the most +interesting portion of which dwelt three decaying creatures, the +youngest fourscore years of age and more. They were an entail from +his grandfather, and had faithfully served that ancestor for many +years as coachman, housekeeper, and butler. The father of Dr. Mayhew +had availed himself of their integrity and experience until Time +robbed them of the latter, and rendered the former a useless ornament; +and dying, he bequeathed them, with the house and lands, to their +present friend and patron. There they sat in their own hall, royal +servants every one, hanging to life by one small thread, which when +it breaks for one must break for all. They had little interest in +the present world, to which the daily visit of the doctor, and that +alone, connected them. He never failed to pay it. Unconscious of all +else, they never failed to look for it. + +The village clock struck eleven as I walked up the avenue that +conducted to the house. The day was intensely hot, and at that early +hour the fierce fire of the sun had rendered the atmosphere sweltry +and oppressive. I knocked many times before I could obtain admittance, +and, at last, the door was opened by a ragged urchin about twelve +years of age, looking more like the son of a thief or a gypsy than a +juvenile member of the decent household. + +"Is Dr. Mayhew at home?" I asked. + +"Oh, I don't know!" he answered surlily; "you had better come and see;" +and therewith he turned upon his heel, and tramped heavily down the +kitchen stairs. For a few seconds I remained where I was. At length, +hearing no voices in the house, and finding that no one was likely +to come to me, I followed him. At the bottom of the stairs was a +long passage leading to the offices. It was very dark, or it was +rendered so to me who had just left the glare of noonday. At the end +of it, however, a small lamp glimmered, and under its feeble help I +advanced. Arriving at its extremity, I was stopped by the hum of many +voices that proceeded from a chamber on the right. Here I knocked +immediately. The voice of Dr. Mayhew desired me to enter. The door +was opened the moment afterwards, and then I beheld the doctor +himself and every servant of the house assembled in a crowd. The +little boy who had given me admission was in the group; and in the +very centre of all, sitting upright in a chair, was the strangest +apparition of a man that I have ever gazed upon, before or since. The +object that attracted, and at the same time repelled, my notice, was +a creature whose age no living man could possibly determine. He was +at least six feet high, with raven hair, and a complexion sallow as +the sear leaf. Look at his figure, then mark the absence of a single +wrinkle, and you judge him for a youth. Observe again: look at the +emaciated face; note the jet-black eye, deeply-sunken, and void of +all fire and life; the crushed, the vacant, and forlorn expression; +the aquiline nose, prominent as an eagle's, from which the parchment +skin is drawn as rigidly as though it were a dead man's skin, +bloodless and inert. The wear and tear, the buffeting and misery of +seventy years are there. Seventy!--yea, twice seventy years of mortal +agony and suffering could hardly leave a deeper impress. He is +strangely clad. He is in rags. The remnants of fine clothes are +dropping from his shrunken body. His hand is white and small. Upon +the largest finger he wears a ring--once, no doubt, before his hand +had shrivelled up--the property and ornament of the smallest. It is +a sparkling diamond, and it glistens as his own black eye should, if +it be true that he is old only in mental misery and pain. There is +no sign of thought or feeling in his look. His eye falls on no one, +but seems to pass beyond the lookers-on, and to rest on space. The +company are far more agitated. A few minutes before my arrival the +strange object had been found, with the boy whom I had first seen, +wandering in the garden. He was apprehended for a thief, brought +into the house, and not until Dr. Mayhew had been summoned, had it +been suspected that the poor creature was an idiot. Commiseration +then took the place of anger quickly, and all was anxiety and desire +to know whence he had come, who he might be, and what his business +was. He could not speak for himself, and the answers of the boy had +been unsatisfactory and vague. When I entered the room, the doctor +gave me a slight recognition, and proceeded at once to a further +examination of the stripling. + +"Where did you pick him up, Sir?" enquired the Doctor. + +"Mother sent me out a-begging with him," answered the gypsy boy. + +"Who is your mother?" + +"Mabel." + +"Mabel what?" + +"Mabel nothing." + +"Where does she live, then?" + +"She doesn't live nowhere. She's a tramper." + +"Where is she now?" + +"How can I tell? We shall pick up somewhere. Let me go, and take +Silly Billy with me. I shall get such a licking if I don't." + +"Is his name Billy?" + +"No, Silly Billy, all then chaps as is fools are called Silly Billy. +You know that, don't you? Oh, I say, do let's go now, there's good +fellows!" + +"Wait a moment, boy--not so fast. How long have you been acquainted +with this unfortunate?" + +"What, Silly Billy? Oh, we ain't very old friends! I only see'd him +yesterday. He came up quite unawares to our camp whilst we were +grubbing. He seemed very hungry, so mother gave him summut, and made +him up a bed--and she means to have him. So she sent me out this +morning a-begging with him, and told me she'd break every gallows +bone I'd got, if I did not bring him back safe. I say, now I have +told all, let us go--there's a good gentleman! I'm quite glad he is +going to live with us. It's so lucky to have a Silly Billy." + +"How is it, you young rascal, you didn't tell me all this before? +What do you mean by it? + +"Why, it isn't no business of your'n. Let us go, will you?" + +"Strange," said Doctor Mayhew, turning to his butler--"Strange, that +they should leave that ring upon his finger--valuable as it looks." + +"Oh, you try it on, that's all! Catch mother leaving that there, if +she could get it off. She tried hard enough, I can tell you and I +thought he'd just have bitten her hand off. Wasn't he savage neither, +oh cry! She won't try at it again in a hurry. She says it serves her +right, for no luck comes of robbing a Silly Billy." + +The servants, who betrayed a few minutes before great anxiety and +apprehension, were perfectly overcome by this humorous sally, and +burst, with on accord, into the loudest laughter. The generally +jocose doctor, however, looked particularly serious, and kept his +eye upon the poor idiot with an expression of deep pity. "Will he +not speak?" he asked, still marking his unhappy countenance bereft of +every sign of sensibility. + +"He won't say not nuffin," said the boy, in a tone which he hoped +would settle the business; "You have no right to keep us. Let us go." + +"Leave me with these persons," said the Doctor, turning to the +servants. "We will see if the tongue of this wretched be really tied. +Go, all of you." + +In an instant the room was left to Doctor Mayhew and myself--the +idiot and his keeper. + +"What is your name, my man?" enquired the physician in a soothing +tone. "Do not be frightened. Nobody will hurt you here. We are all +your very good friends. Tell me now, what is your name?" + +The questioner took the poor fellow at the same time by the hand, and +pressed it kindly. The latter then looked round the room with a +vacant stare, and sighed profoundly. + +"Tell me your name," continued the Doctor, encouraged by the movement. +The lips of the afflicted man unclosed. His brick-red tongue +attempted to moisten them. Fixing his expressionless eyes upon the +doctor, he answered, in a hollow voice, "_Belton_." + +"Well, I never!" exclaimed the boy. "Them Silly Billies is the +deceitfulest chaps as is. He made out to mother that he couldn't +speak a word." + +"Take care what you are about, boy," said Doctor Mayhew sternly. +"I tell you that I suspect you." Turning to the idiot, he proceeded. +"And where do you come from?" + +The lips opened again, and the same hollow voice again answered, +"_Belton_." + +"Yes, I understand--that is your name--but whither do you wish to go?" + +"_Belton_," said the man. + +"Strange!" ejaculated the Doctor. "How old are you?" + +"_Belton_," repeated the simple creature, more earnestly than ever. + +"I am puzzled," exclaimed Mr. Mayhew, releasing the hand of the idiot, +and standing for a few seconds in suspense. "However," he continued, +"upon one thing I am resolved. The man shall be left here, and in my +care. I will be responsible for his safety until something is done +for him. We shall certainly get intelligence. He has escaped from an +asylum--I have not the slightest doubt of it--and we shall be able, +after a few days, to restore him. As for you, sir," he added, +addressing the young gypsy, "make the best of your way to your mother, +and be thankful that you have come so well off--fly." + +The boy began to remonstrate, upon which the doctor began to talk of +the cage and the horsepond. The former then evinced his good sense +by listening to reason, and by selecting, as many a wiser man has +done before him--the smaller of two necessary evils. He departed, +not expressing himself in the most elegant terms that might have +been applied to a leave-taking. + +The benevolent physician soon made arrangements for the comfort of +his charge. He was immediately placed in a bath, supplied with food, +and dressed in decent clothing. He submitted at once to his treatment, +and permitted his attendant to do what he would with him, taking, +all the while, especial care to feel the diamond ring safe and +secure under the palm of his own hand. A room was given to him and +Robin, the gardener's son, who was forthwith installed his guardian, +with strict directions not to leave the patient for an instant by +himself. When Dr. Mayhew had seen every thing that could be done +properly executed, he turned cheerfully to me, and bade me follow +him to his library. + +"His clothes have been good," muttered the doctor to himself, as he +sat down. "Diamond ring! He is a gentleman, or has been one. Curious +business! Well, we shall have him advertised all round the country +in a day or two. Meanwhile here he is, and will be safe. That +trouble is over. Now, Stukely, what brings you so early? Any thing +wrong at home? Fairman in the dumps again; fidgety and restless, eh?" + +I told my errand. + +"Ah, I thought so! There's nothing the matter there, sir. She is +well enough now, and will continue so, if her father doesn't +frighten her into sickness, which he may do. I tell you what, I must +get little puss a husband, and take her from him. That will save her. +I have my eye upon a handsome fellow--Hollo, sir, what's the matter +with you! Just look at your face in that glass. It is as red as fire." + +"The weather, sir, is"-- + +"Oh, is it? You mean to say, then, that you are acquainted with the +influences of the weather. That is just the thing, for you can help +me to a few facts for the little treatise on climate which I have +got now in hand. Well, go on, my friend. You were saying that the +weather is--is what?" + +"It is very hot, sir," I answered, dreadfully annoyed. + +"Well, so it is; that's very true but not original. I have heard the +same remark at least six times this morning. I say, Master Stukely, +you haven't been casting sheep's-eyes in that sweet quarter, have you? +Haven't, perhaps, been giving the young lady instruction as well as +the boys--eh?" + +"I do not understand, sir," I struggled to say with coolness. + +"Oh, very well!" answered Dr. Mayhew dryly. "That's very unfortunate +too, for," continued he, taking out his watch, "I haven't time to +explain myself just now. I have an appointment four miles away in +half an hour's time. I am late as it is. Williams will get you some +lunch. Tell Fairman I shall see him before night. Make yourself +perfectly at home, and don't hurry. But excuse me; this affair has +made me quite behindhand." + +The Doctor took a few papers and a book from the table, and before I +had time to reply, vanished, much to my relief and satisfaction. My +journey homeward was not a happy one. I felt alarm and agitation, +and the beautiful scenery failed to remove or temper them. My +heart's dear secret had been once more discovered. Rumour could not +omit to convey it speedily to the minister himself. In two +directions the flame had now power to advance and spread; and if the +old villager remained faithful, what reason had I to hope that +Dr. Mayhew would not immediately expose me--yes, must not regard it +as his business and duty so to do? Yet one thing was certain. The +secret, such as it had become, might, for all practical purposes, be +known to the whole world, for unquestionably the shallowest observer +was at present able to detect it. The old woman in the village, aged +and ignorant as she was, had been skilful enough to discover it when +I spoke. The doctor had gathered it from my looks even before I +uttered a syllable. What was to hinder the incumbent from reading +the tale on my forehead the moment that I again stood in his presence? + +Reaching the parsonage, I proceeded at once to the drawing-room, +where I expected to see the minister. No one was in the room, but a +chair was drawn to the table, and the implements of drawing were +before it. Could I not guess who had been the recent tenant of that +happy chair--who had been busy there? Forgetful of every thing but +her, I stood for a time in silent adoration of the absent one; then +I ventured to approach and gaze upon her handiwork. I shook with joy, +with ravishment, and ecstasy, when I beheld it. What was not made +known to me in that one hasty look! What golden dreams did not engage, +what blissful triumph did not elevate, what passionate delight did +not overflow my aching heart! Oh, it was true--and the blessed +intelligence came to me with a power and a reality that no language +could contain--SHE LOVED ME! she, the beloved, the good, the innocent, +and pure! Before me was the scene--the dearest to me in +life--through which we had so recently walked together, and upon +which she knew I doated, for the sake of her whose presence had +given it light and hallowed it. Why had she brought it on the paper? +Why this particular scene, and that fair hillock, but for the sake +of him who worshipped them--but that the mysterious and communicable +fire had touched her soul, and melted it? I trembled with my +happiness. There was a spot upon the paper--a tear--one sacred drop +from the immaculate fount. Why had it been shed? In joy or pain--for +whom--and wherefore? The paper was still moist--the tear still warm. +Happiest and most unfortunate of my race, I pressed it to my lips, +and kissed it passionately. + +Miss Fairman entered at that moment. + +She looked pale and ill. This was not a season for consideration. +Before I could speak, I saw her tottering, and about to fall. I +rushed to her and held her in my arms. She strove for recovery, and +set herself at liberty; but she wept aloud as she did so, and +covered her face with her hands. I fell upon my knees, and implored +her to forgive me. + +"I have been rash and cruel, Miss Fairman, but extend to me your +pardon, and I will go for ever, and disturb your peace no more. Do +not despise me, or believe that I have deliberately interfered with +your happiness, and destroyed my own for ever. Do not hate me when I +shall see you no more." + +"Leave me, Mr. Stukely, I entreat," sobbed Miss Fairman, weeping amain. +Her hand fell. I was inflamed with passion, and I became indifferent +to the claims of duty, which were drowned in the louder clamours of +love. I seized that hand and held it firm. It needed not, for the +lady sought not to withdraw it. + +"I am not indifferent to you, dearest Miss Fairman," I exclaimed; +"you do not hate me--you do not despise me--I am sure you do not. +That drawing has revealed to me all that I wish or care to know. I +would rather die this moment possessed of that knowledge, than live +a monarch without it." + +"Leave me, leave me, I implore you," faltered Miss Fairman. + +"Yes, dearest lady, I must--I shall leave you. I can stay no longer +here. Life is valueless now. I have permitted a raging fire to +consume me. I have indulged, madly and fearfully indulged, in error. +I have struggled against the temptation. Heaven has willed that I +should not escape it. I have learnt that you love me--come what may, +I am content." + +"If you regard me, Mr. Stukely, pity me, and go, now. I beg, I +entreat you to leave me." + +I raised the quivering hand, and kissed it ardently. I resigned it, +and departed. + +My whole youth was a succession of inconsiderate yieldings to passion, +and of hasty visitings of remorse. It is not a matter of surprise +that I hated myself for every word that I had spoken as soon as I +was again master of my conduct. It was my nature to fall into error +against conviction and my cool reason, and to experience speedily the +reaction that succeeds the commission of exorbitant crimes. In +proportion to the facility with which I erred, was the extravagance +and exaggeration with which I viewed my faults. During the +predominance of a passion, death, surrounded by its terrors, would +not have frighted me or driven me back--would not have received my +passing notice; whilst it lasted it prevailed. So, afterwards, when +all was calm and over, a crushing sense of wrong and guilt magnified +the smallest offence, until it grew into a bugbear to scare me night +and day. Leaving Miss Fairman, I rushed into the garden, preparatory +to running away from the parsonage altogether. This, in the height +of remorseful excitement, presented itself to my mind forcibly as +the necessary and only available step to adopt; but this soon came +to be regarded as open to numerous and powerful objections. + +It seemed impossible that the incumbent could be kept any longer in +ignorance of the affair; and it was better--oh! how much better--for +comfort and peace of mind that he should not be. In a few hours +Dr. Mayhew would arrive, and his shrewd eye would immediately +penetrate to the very seat of his patient's disquietude. The +discovery would be communicated to her father--and what would he +think of me?--what would become of me? I grew as agitated as though +the doctor were at that moment seated with the minister--and +revealing to his astounded listener the history of my deceit and +black ingratitude. The feeling was not to be borne; and in order to +cast it off, I determined myself to be the messenger of the tale, +and to stand the brunt of his first surprise and indignation. With +the earliest conception of the idea, I ran to put it into execution. +Nor did I stop until I reached the door of his study, when the +difficulty of introducing at once so delicate a business, and the +importance of a little quiet preparation, suggested themselves, +and made me hesitate. It was however, but for a moment for +self-possession. I would argue with myself no longer. The few hours +that intervened before the arrival of the doctor were my own and if +I permitted them to pass away, my opportunity was gone for ever, and +every claim upon the kindness and forgiveness of my patron lost. I +would confess my affection, and offer him the only reparation in my +power--to quit his roof, and carry the passion with me for my +punishment and torment. + +Mr. Fairman was alone. The pupils were playing on the lawn upon +which the window of the study opened. There they ran, and leaped, and +shouted, all feeling and enjoyment, without an atom of the leaden +care of life to press upon the light elastic soul; and there stood I, +young enough to be a playmate brother, separated from them and their +hearts' joyousness by the deep broad line which, once traversed, may +never be recovered, ground to the earth by suffering, trial, and +disappointment; darkness and discouragement without; misery and +self-upbraiding robbing me of peace within. My eyes caught but a +glimpse of the laughing boys before they settled on the minister, +and summoned me to my ungracious task--and it was a glimpse of a +bright and beautiful world, with which I had nothing in common, of +which I had known something, it might be ages since--but whose glory +had departed even from the memory. + +"Is he here?" enquired the incumbent. + +"Doctor Mahew could not accompany me, sir," I answered, "but he will +shortly come." + +"Thank you, Stukely, thank you. I have good news for you. I can +afford you time to recruit and be yourself again. The lads return +home on Monday next; you shall have a month's holiday, and you shall +spend it as you will--with us, or elsewhere. If your health will be +improved by travelling, I shall be happy to provide you with the +means. I cannot afford to lose your services. You must not get ill." + +"You are very kind, sir," I replied--"kinder than I deserve." + +"That is a matter of opinion, Stukely. I do not think so. You have +served me faithfully and well. I consult my own interest in rewarding +you and taking care of yours." + +"Yes, sir--but"-- + +"Well, never mind now. We will not argue on whose side the obligation +lies. It is perhaps well that we should both of us think as we do. It +is likely that we shall both perform our duty more strictly if we +strike the balance against ourselves. Go and refresh yourself. You +look tired and worn. Get a glass of wine, and cheer up. Have you +seen Miss Fairman?" + +"It is concerning her, sir," I answered, trembling in every joint, +"that I desire particularly to speak to you." + +"Good heaven!" exclaimed the incumbent, starting from his chair, +"what do you mean? What is the matter? What has happened? Why do you +tremble, Stukely, and look so ghastly pale? What has happened since +the morning? What ails her? Go on. Speak. Tell me at once. My poor +child--what of her?" + +"Calm yourself, I implore you, sir. Miss Fairman is quite well. +Nothing has happened. Do not distress yourself. I have done very +wrong to speak so indiscreetly. Pardon me, sir. I should have known +better. She is well." + +Mr. Fairman paced the room in perturbation, and held his hand upon +his heart to allay its heavy throbs. + +"This is very wrong," he said--"very impious. I have thought of +nothing else this day--and this is the consequence. I have dwelt +upon the probability of calamity, until I have persuaded myself of +its actual presence--looked for woe, until I have created it. This +is not the patience and resignation which I teach; for shame, for +shame!--go to thy closet, worm--repent and pray." + +Mr. Fairman resumed his seat, and hid his face for a time in his +hands. At length he spoke again. + +"Proceed, Stukely. I am calm now. The thoughts and fears in which it +was most sinfull to indulge, and which accumulated in this most +anxious breast, are dissipated. What would you say? I can listen as I +ought." + +"I am glad, sir, that the boys revisit their homes on Monday, and +that a month, at least, will elapse before their return to you. In +that interval, you will have an opportunity of providing them with a +teacher worthier your regard and confidence; and, if I leave you at +once, you will not be put to inconvenience." + +"I do not understand you." + +"I must resign my office, sir," I said with trepidation. + +"Resign? Wherefore? What have I said or done?" + +"Let me beg your attention, sir, whilst I attempt to explain my +motives, and to do justice to myself and you. I mentioned the name +of Miss Fairman." + +"You did. Ha! Go on, sir." + +"You cannot blame me, Mr. Fairman, if I tell you that, in common +with every one whose happiness it is to be acquainted with that lady, +I have not been insensible to the qualities which render her so +worthy of your love, so deserving the esteem"--I stopped. + +"I am listening, sir--proceed." + +"I know not how to tell you, sir, in what language to express the +growth of an attachment which has taken root in this poor heart, +increased and strengthened against every effort which I have made to +crush it." + +"Sir!" uttered the incumbent in great amazement. + +"Do not be angry, Mr. Fairman, until you have heard all. I confess +that I have been imprudent and rash, that I have foolishly permitted +a passion to take possession of my heart, instead of manfully +resisting its inroads; but if I have been weak, do not believe that +I have been wicked." + +"Speak plainly, Stukely. What am I to understand by this?" + +"That I have dared, sir, to indulge a fond, a hopeless love, +inspired by the gentlest and most innocent of her sex--that I have +striven, and striven, to forget and flee from it--that I have +failed--that I come to confess the fault, to ask your pardon, and +depart." + +"Tell me one thing," asked the incumbent quickly. "Have you +communicated your sentiments to Miss Fairman?" + +"I have, sir." + +"Is her illness connected with that declaration?--You do not answer. +Stukely, I am deceived in you. I mistrust and doubt you. You have +_murdered_ my poor child." + +"Mr. Fairman, do not, I entreat"-- + +"Heaven have mercy upon me for my wild uncrucified temper. I will +use no harsh terms. I retract that expression, young man. I am sorry +that I used it. Let me know what more you have to say." + +The tears came to my eyes, and blinded them. I did not answer. + +"Be seated, Stukely," continued the minister, in a kinder tone; +"compose yourself. I am to blame for using such a term. Forgive me +for it--I did not mean all that it conveyed. But you know how +fragile and how delicate a plant is that. You should have thought of +her and me before you gratified a passion as wild as it is idle. Now, +tell me every thing. Conceal and disguise nothing. I will listen to +your calmly, and I will be indulgent. The past is not to be recalled. +Aid me in the future, if you are generous and just." + +I related all that had passed between Miss Fairman and myself--all +that had taken place in my own turbulent soul--the battlings of the +will and judgment, the determination to overcome temptation, and the +sudden and violent yielding to it. Faithful to his command, I +concealed nothing, and, at the close of all, I signified my readiness, +my wish, and my intention to depart. + +"Forgive me, sir, at parting," said I, "and you shall hear no more of +the disturber of your peace." + +"I do not wish that, Stukely. I am indebted to you for the candour +with which you have spoken, and the proper view which you take of +your position. I wish to hear of you, and to serve you--and I will +do it. I agree with you, that you must leave us now--yes, and at once; +and, as you say, without another interview. But I will not turn you +into the world, lad, without some provision for the present, and +good hopes for the future. I owe you much. Yes--very much. When I +consider how differently you might behave, how very seriously you +might interfere with my happiness"--as Mr. Fairman spoke, he opened +the drawer of a table, and drew a checque-book from it--"I feel that +you ought not to be a loser by your honesty. I do not offer you this +as a reward for that honesty--far from it--I would only indemnify +you--and this is my duty." + +Mr. Fairman placed a draft for a hundred pounds in my hand. + +"Pardon me, sir," said I, replacing it on his table. "I can take no +money. Millions could not _indemnify_ me for all that I resign. +Judge charitably, and think kindly of me, sir--and I am paid. Honour +is priceless." + +"Well, but when you get to London?"-- + +"I am not altogether friendless. My salary is yet untouched, and will +supply my wants until I find employment." + +"Which you shall not be long without, believe me, Stukely, if I have +power to get it you--and I think I have. You will tell me where I may +address my letters. I will not desert you. You shall not repent this." + +"I do not, sir; and I believe I never shall. I propose to leave the +parsonage to-night, sir." + +"No, to-morrow, we must have some talk. You need not see her. I +could not let you go to-night. You shall depart to-morrow, and I rely +upon your good sense and honourable feelings to avoid another meeting. +It could only increase the mischief that has already taken place, and +answer no good purpose. You must be aware of this." + +"I am, sir. You shall have no reason to complain." + +"I am sure of it, Stukely. You had better see about your preparations. +John will help you in any way you wish. Make use of him. There must +be many little things to do. There can be no impropriety, Stukely, +in your accepting the whole of your year's salary. You are entitled +to that. I am sorry to lose you--very--but there's no help for it. I +will come to your room this evening, and have some further +conversation. Leave me now." The incumbent was evidently much excited. +Love for his child, and apprehension for her safety, were feelings +that were, perhaps, too prominent and apparent in the good and +faithful minister of heaven; they betrayed him at times into a +self-forgetfulness, and a warmth of expression, of which he repented +heartily as soon as they occurred. Originally of a violent and +wayward disposition, it had cost the continual exercise and the +prayers of a life, to acquire evenness of temper and gentleness of +deportment, neither of which, in truth, was easily, if ever disturbed, +if not by the amiable infirmity above alluded to. He was the best of +men; but to the best, immunity from the natural weakness of +mortality is not to be vouchsafed. + +Mr. Fairman was the last person whom I saw that night. He remained +with me until I retired to rest. He was the first person whom I saw +on the following morning. I do not believe that he did not rely upon +the word which I had pledged to him. I did not suppose that he +suspected my resolution, but I an convinced that he was most +restless and unhappy, from the moment that I revealed my passion to +him, until that which saw me safely deposited at the foot of the hill, +on my way to the village. So long as I remained in his house, he +could only see danger for his daughter; and with my disappearance he +counted upon her recovery and peace. + +The incumbent was himself my companion from the parsonage. The +servant had already carried my trunk to the inn. At the bottom of +the hill, Mr. Fairman stopped and extended his hand. + +"Fare-you-well, Stukely," said he, with emotion. "Once more, I am +obliged to you. I will never forget your conduct; you shall hear +from me." + +Since the conversation of the preceding day, the incumbent had not +mentioned the name of his daughter. I had not spoken of her. I felt +it impossible to _part_ without a word. + +"What did Doctor Mayhew say?" I asked. + +"She is a little better, and will be soon quite well, we trust." + +"That is good news. Is she composed?" + +"Yes--she is better." + +"One question more, sir. Does she know of my departure?" + +"She does not--but she will, of course." + +"Do not speak unkindly of me to her, sir. I should be sorry if she +thought ill"-- + +"She will respect you, Stukely, for the part which you have acted. +She must do so. You will respect yourself." + +I had nothing more to say, I returned his warm pressure, and bade +him farewell. + +"God bless you, lad, and prosper you! We may meet again in a happier +season; but if we do not, receive a father's thanks and gratitude. +You have behaved nobly. I feel it--believe me." + +Manly and generous tears rushed to the eyes of my venerable friend, +and he could not speak. Once more he grasped my hand fervently, and +in the saddest silence that I have ever known we separated. + +There was gloom around my heart, which the bright sun in heaven, that +gladdened all the land, could not penetrate or disperse; but it gave +way before a touch of true affection, which came to me as a last +memorial of the beloved scene on which I lingered. + +I had hardly parted from the minister, before I perceived walking +before me, at the distance of a few yards, the youngest of the lads +who had been my pupils. At the request of the minister, I had +neither taken leave of them nor informed any one of my departure. +The lad whom I now saw was a fine spirited boy, who had strongly +attached himself to me, and shown great aptitude, as well as deep +desire, for knowledge. He knew very little when I came to him, but +great pains had enabled him to advance rapidly. The interest which +he manifested, called forth in me a corresponding disposition to +assist him; and the grateful boy, altogether overlooking his own +exertions, had over and over again expressed himself in the warmest +terms of thankfulness for my instruction, to which he insisted he +owed all that he had acquired. He was in his eleventh year, and his +heart was as kind and generous as his intellect was vigorous and +clear. I came up to him, and found him plucking the wild-flowers +from the grass as he wandered slowly along. I looked at him as I +passed, and found him weeping. + +"Alfred!" I exclaimed, "What do you here so early?" + +The boy burst into a fresh flow of tears, and threw himself +passionately into my arms. He sobbed piteously, and at length said-- + +"Do not go, sir--do not leave me! You have been so kind to me. Pray, +stop." + +"What is the matter Alfred?" + +"John has told me you are going, sir. He has just taken your box down. +Oh, Mr. Stukely, stay for my sake! I won't give you so much trouble +as I used to do. I'll learn my lessons better--but don't go, pray, +sir." + +"You will have another teacher, Alfred, who will become as good a +friend as I am. I cannot stay. Return to the parsonage--there's a +dear boy." + +"Oh, if you must go, let me walk with you a little, sir! Let me take +your hand. I shall be back in time for breakfast--pray, don't refuse +me that, sir?" + +I complied with his request. He grasped my palm in both his hands, +and held it there, as though he would not part with it again. He +gave me the flowers which he had gathered, and begged me to keep +them for his sake. He repeated every kind thing which I had done for +him, not one of which he would forget, and all the names and dates +which he had got by heart, to please his tutor. He told me that it +would make him wretched, "to get up to-morrow, and remember that I +was gone;" and that he loved me better than any body, for no one had +been so indulgent, and had taken such pains to make him a good boy. +Before we reached the village, his volubility had changed the tears +to smiles. As we reached it, John appeared on his return homeward. I +gave the boy into his charge, and the cloud lowered again, and the +shower fell heavier than ever. I turned at the point at which the +hills became shut out, and there stood the boy fastened to the spot +at which I had left him. + +At the door of the inn, I was surprised to find my luggage in the +custody of Dr. Mayhew's gardener. As soon as he perceived me, he +advanced a few steps with the box, and placed note in my hand. It +was addressed to me at the parsonage, and politely requested me to +wait upon the physician at my earliest convenience. No mention was +made of the object of my visit, or of the doctor's knowledge of my +altered state. The document was as short as it might be, and as +courteous. Having read it, I turned to the gardener, or to where he +had stood a moment before, with the view of questioning that +gentleman; but to my great astonishment, I perceived him about a +hundred yards before me, walking as fast as his load permitted him +towards his master's residence. I called loudly after him, but my +voice only acted as a spur, and increased his pace. My natural +impulse was to follow him, and I obeyed it. + +Dr. Mayhew received me with a very cunning smile and a facetious +observation. + +"Well, Master Stukely, this hot weather has been playing the deuce +with us all. Only think of little puss being attacked with your +complaint, the very day you were here suffering so much from it, and +my getting a touch myself." + +I smiled. + +"Yes, sir, it is very easy to laugh at the troubles of other men, +but I can tell you this is a very disagreeable epidemic. Severe +times these for maids and bachelors. I shall settle in life now, +sooner than I intended. I have fallen in love with puss my self." + +I did not smile. + +"To be sure, I am old enough to be her father, but so much the better +for her. No man should marry till fifty. Your young fellows of twenty +don't know their own mind--don't understand what love means--all +blaze and flash, blue fire and sky-rocket--out in a minute. Eh, what +do you say, Stukely?" + +"Are you aware, sir, that I have left the parsonage?" + +"To be sure I am; and a pretty kettle of fish you have made of it. +Instead of treating love as a quiet and respectable undertaking, as +I mean to treat it--instead of simmering your love down to a +gentlemanly respect and esteem, as I mean to simmer it--and waiting +patiently for the natural consequences of things, as I mean to +wait--you must, like a boy as you are, have it all out in a minute, +set the whole house by the ears, and throw yourself out of it +without rhyme or reason, or profit to any body. Now, sit down, and +tell me what you mean to do with yourself?" + +"I intend to go to London, sir." + +"Does your father live there?" + +"I have no father, sir." + +"Well--your mother?" + +"She is dead, too. I have one friend there--I shall go to him until +I find occupation." + +"You naughty boy! How I should like to whip you! What right had you +to give away so good a chance as you have had? You have committed a +sin, sir--yes, you may look--you have, and a very grievous one. I +speak as I think. You have been flying in the face of Providence, and +doing worse than hiding the talent which was bestowed upon you for +improvement. Do you think I should have behaved so at your age? Do +you think any man in the last generation out of a madhouse would have +done it? Here's your march of education!" + +I bowed to Doctor Mayhew, and wished him good-morning. + +"No, thank you, sir," answered the physician, "if I didn't mean to +say a little more to you, I shouldn't have spoken so much already. We +must talk these matters over quietly. You may as well stay a few +days with your friend in the country as run off directly to the +gentleman in London. Besides, now I have made my mind up so suddenly +to get married, I don't know soon I may be called upon to undergo +the operation--I beg the lady's pardon--the awful ceremony. I shall +want a bride's-man, and you wouldn't make a bad one by any means." + +The physician rang the bell, and Williams the butler--a personage in +black, short and stout, and exceedingly well fed, as his sleek face +showed--entered the apartment. + +"Will you see, Williams, that Mr. Stukely's portmanteau is taken to +his room--bed quite aired--sheets all right, eh?" + +"Both baked, sir," replied Williams with a deferential but expressive +smile, which became his face remarkably well. + +"Then let us have lunch, Williams, and a bottle of _the_ sherry?" + +A look accompanied the request, which was not lost upon the butler. +He made a profound obeisance, and retired. At lunch the doctor +continued his theme, and represented my conduct as most blameable +and improper. He insisted that I ought to be severely punished, and +made to feel that a boy is not to indulge every foolish feeling that +rises, just as he thinks proper, but, like an inconsistent judge, he +concluded the whole of a very powerful and angry summing up, by +pronouncing upon me the verdict of an acquittal--inasmuch as he told +me to make myself as comfortable as I could in his house, and to +enjoy myself thoroughly in it for the next fortnight to come, at the +very least. It may have been that, in considering my faults as those +of the degenerate age in which I lived--which age, however, be it +known, lived afterwards to recover its character, and to be held up +as a model of propriety and virtue to the succeeding generation--the +merciful doctor was willing to merge my chastisement in that which +he bestowed daily upon the unfortunate object of his contempt and +pity, or possibly he desired to inflict no punishment at all, but +simply to perform a duty incumbent upon his years and station. Be +this as it may, certain it is that with the luncheon ended all +upbraiding and rebuke, and commenced an unreservedness of +intercourse--the basis of a generous friendship, which increased and +strengthened day by day, and ended only with the noble-hearted +doctor's life--nor then in its effects upon my character and fortune. + +It was on the night of the day on which I had arrived, that Doctor +Mayhew and I were sitting in his _sanctum_; composedly and happily as +men sit whom care has given over for a moment to the profound and +stilly influences of the home and hearth. One topic of conversation +had given place easily to another, and there seemed at length little +to be said on any subject whatever, when the case of the idiot, +which my own troubles had temporarily dismissed from my mind, +suddenly occurred to me, and afforded us motive for the prolongation +of a discourse, which neither seemed desirous to bring to a close. + +"What have you done with the poor fellow?" I enquired. + +"Nothing," replied the physician. "We have fed him well, and his food +has done him good. He is a hundred per cent better than when he came; +but he is still surly and tongue-tied. He says nothing. He is not +known in the neighbourhood. I have directed hand-bills to be +circulated, and placards to be posted in the villages. If he is not +owned within a week, he must be given to the parish-officers. I +can't help thinking that he is a runaway lunatic, and a gentleman by +birth. Did you notice his delicate white hand, that diamond ring, and +the picture they found tied round his neck?" + +"What picture, sir?" + +"Did I not tell you of it? The portrait of a lovely female--an old +attachment, I suppose, that turned his brain, although I fancy +sometimes that it is his mother or sister, for there is certainly a +resemblance to himself in it. The picture is set in gold. When Robin +first discovered it, the agony of the stricken wretch was most +deplorable. He was afraid that the man would remove it, and he +screamed and implored like a true maniac. When he found that he +might keep it, he evinced the maddest pleasure, and beckoned his +keeper to notice and admire it. He pointed to the eyes, and then +groaned and wept himself; until Robin was frightened out of his wits, +and was on the point of throwing up his office altogether." + +"Do you think the man may recover his reason?" + +"I have no hope of it. It is a case of confirmed fatuity I believe. +If you like to see him again, you shall accompany me to-morrow when +I visit him. What a strange life is this, Stukely! What a strange +history may be that of this poor fellow whom Providence has cast at +our door! Well, poor wretch, we'll do the best we can for him. If we +cannot reach his mind, we may improve his body, and he will be then +perhaps quite as happy as the wisest of us." + +The clock struck twelve as Doctor Mayhew spoke. It startled and +surprised us both. In a few minutes we separated and retired to our +several beds. + +When I saw the idiot on the following day, I could perceive a marked +improvement in his appearance. The deadly pallor of his countenance +had departed; and although no healthy colour had taken its place, +the living blood seemed again in motion, restoring expression to +those wan and withered features. His coal-black eye had recovered +the faintest power of speculation, and the presence of a stranger +was now sufficient to call it into action. He was clean and properly +attired, and he sat--apart from his keeper--conscious of existence. +There was good ground, in the absence of all positive proof, for the +supposition of the doctor. A common observer would have pronounced +him well-born at a glance. Smitten as he was, and unhinged by his sad +affliction, there remained still sufficient of the external forms to +conduct to such an inference. Gracefulness still hovered about the +human ruin, discernible in the most aimless of imbecility's weak +movements, and the limbs were not those of one accustomed to the +drudgery of life. A melancholy creature truly did he look, as I gazed +upon him for a second time. He had carried his chair to a corner of +the room, and there he sat, his face half-hidden, resting upon his +breast, his knee drawn up and pressed tightly by his clasped +hands--those very hands, small and marble-white, forming a ghastful +contrast to the raven hair that fell thickly on his back. He had not +spoken since he rose. Indeed, since his first appearance, he had said +nothing but the unintelligible word which he had uttered four times +in my presence, and which Dr. Mayhew now believed to be the name of +the lady whose portrait he wore. That he could speak was certain, +and his silence was therefore the effect of obstinacy or of absolute +weakness of intellect, which forbade the smallest mental effort. I +approached him, and addressed him in accents of kindness. He raised +his head slowly, and looked piteously upon me, but in a moment again +he resumed his original position. + +For the space of a week I visited the afflicted man dally, remaining +with him perhaps a couple of hours at each interview. No clue had +been discovered to his history, and the worthy physician had fixed +upon one day after another as that upon which he would relieve +himself of his trust; but the day arrived only to find him unwilling +to keep his word. The poor object himself had improved rapidly in +personal appearance, and, as far as could be ascertained from his +gestures and indistinct expressions, was sensible of his protector's +charity, and thankful for it. He now attempted to give to his keeper +the feeble aid he could afford him; he partook of his food with less +avidity, he seemed aware of what was taking place around him. On one +occasion I brought his dinner to him, and sat by whilst it was served +to him. He stared at me as though he had immediate perception of +something unusual. It was on the same day that, whilst trifling with +a piece of broken glass, he cut his hand. I closed the wound with an +adhesive plaster, and bound it up. It was the remembrance of this +act that gained for me the affection of the creature, in whom all +actions seemed dried up and dead. When, on the day that succeeded to +this incident, Robin, as was his custom, placed before the idiot his +substantial meal, the latter turned away from it offended, and would +not taste it. I was sent for. The eyes of the imbecile glistened +when I entered the apartment, and he beckoned me to him. I sat at +his side, as I had done on the day before, and he then, with a smile +of triumph, took his food on his knees, and soon devoured it. When +he had finished, and Robin had retired with the tray and implements, +the poor fellow made me draw my chair still nearer to his own. He +placed his hand upon my knee in great delight, patted it, and then +the wound which I had dressed. There was perfect folly in the mode +in which he fondled this, and yet a reasonableness which the heart +could not fail to detect and contemplate with emotion. First, he +gently stroked it, then placed his head upon it in utmost tenderness, +then hugged it in his arm and rocked it as a child, then kissed it +often with short quick kisses that could scarce be heard; courting +my observation with every change of action, making it apparent how +much he loved, what care he could bestow, upon the hand which had +won the notice and regard of his new friend and benefactor. This over, +he pointed to his breast, dallied for a time, and then drew from it +the picture which he so jealously carried there. He pressed it +between his hands, sighed heavily from his care-crazed heart, and +strove to tell his meaning in words which would not flow, in which +he knew not how to breathe the bubble-thought that danced about his +brain. Closer than ever he approached me, and, with an air which he +intended for one of confidence and great regard, he invited me to +look upon his treasure. I did so, and, to my astonishment and +terror--gazed upon the portrait of the unhappy EMMA HARRINGTON. +Gracious God! what thoughts came rushing into my mind! It was +impossible to err. I, who had passionately dwelt upon those +lineaments in all the fondness of a devoted love, until the form +became my heart's companion by day and night--I, who had watched the +teardrops falling from those eyes, in which the limner had not +failed to fix the natural sorrow that was a part of them--watched +and hung upon them in distress and agony--I, surely I, could not +mistake the faithful likeness. Who, then, was _he_ that wore it? Who +was this, now standing at my side, to turn to whom again became +immediately--sickness--horror! Who could it be but him, the miserable +parricide--the outcast--the unhappy brother--the desperately wicked +son! There was no other in the world to whom the departed penitent +could be dear; and he--oh, was it difficult to suppose that merciful +Heaven, merciful to the guiltiest, had placed between his conscience +and his horrible offence a cloud that made all dim--had rendered his +understanding powerless to comprehend a crime which reason must have +punished and aggravated endlessly My judgment was prostrated by what +I learned so suddenly and fearfully. The discovery had been +miraculous. What should I do? How proceed? How had the youth got here? +What had been his history since his flight? Whither was he wandering? +Did he know the fate of his poor sister? How had he lived? These +questions, and others, crowded into my mind one after another, and I +trembled with the violent rapidity of thought. The figure of the +unhappy girl presented itself--her words vibrated on my ears--her +last dying accents; and I felt that to me was consigned the wretched +object of her solicitude and love--that to me Providence had +directed the miserable man; yes, if only that he who had shared in +the family guilt, might behold and profit by the living witness of +the household wreck. Half forgetful of the presence of the brother, +and remembering nothing well but _her_ and her most pitiable tale, +oppressed by a hundred recollections, I pronounced her name. + +"Poor, poor, much-tried Emma!" I ejaculated, gazing still upon her +image. The idiot leaped from my side at the word, and clapped his +hands, and laughed and shrieked. He ran to me again, and seized my +palm, and pressed it to his lips. His excitement was unbounded. He +could only point to the picture, endeavour to repeat the word which +I had spoken, and direct his finger to my lips beseechingly, as +though he _prayed_ to hear the sound again. Alarmed already at what +I had done, and dreading the consequences of a disclosure, because +ignorant of the effect it would produce upon the idiot, I checked +myself immediately, and spake no more. Robin returned. I contrived +to subdue by degrees the sudden ebullition, and having succeeded, I +restored the criminal to his keeper, and departed. + +It was however, necessary that I should act in some way, possessed of +the information which had so strangely come to me. I desired to be +alone to collect myself, and to determine quietly. I retired to my +bedroom, endeavoured to think composedly, and to mark out the line +of duty. It was a fruitless undertaking. My mind would rest on +nothing but the tragedy in which this miserable creature held so sad +a part, and his unlooked-for resuscitation here--here, under the +roof which sheltered his sister's paramour. Whether to keep the +secret hidden in my bosom, or to communicate it to the physician, +was my duty, I could not settle now. It had been a parting injunction +of my friend Thompson to sleep upon all matters of difficulty, and +to avoid rashness above all things. Alas! I had not profited by his +counsel, nor, in my own case, recurred to it, even for a moment; but +it was different now. The fate, perhaps the life, of another was +involved in my decision; and not to act upon the good advice, not to +be temperate and cautious, would be sinful in the extreme. What, had +she been alive, would the sister have required--entreated at my hands? +And now, if the freed spirit of the injured one looked down upon the +world, what would it expect from him to whom had been committed the +forlorn and stricken wanderer? What if not justice, charity, and +mercy? "And he shall have it!" I exclaimed. "I will act on his behalf. +I will be cool and calm. I will do nothing until tomorrow, when the +excitement of this hour shall have passed away, and reason resumed +its proper influence and rule." + +I rose, contented with my conclusion, and walked to the window, which +overlooked the pleasure-garden of the house. Robin and his patient +were there; the former sitting on a garden chair, and reposing +comfortably after his meal, heedless of the doings of his charge. +The latter stood immediately below the window, gazing upwards, with +the portrait as before pressed between his marble hands. He perceived +me, and screamed in triumph and delight. The keeper started up; I +vanished instantly. He surely could not have known the situation of +my room--could not have waited there and watched for my appearance. +It was impossible. Yes, I said so, and I attempted to console myself +with the assurance; but my blood curdled with a new conviction that +arose and clung to me, and would not be cast off--the certainty that, +by the utterance of one word, I had, for good or ill, linked to my +future destiny the reasonless and wretched being, who stood and +shrieked beneath the casement long after I was gone. + +I joined my friend, the doctor, as usual in the evening, and learnt +from him the news of the day. He had visited his patient at the +parsonage, and he spoke favourably of her case. Although she had +been told of my absence, she was still not aware that I had quitted +the house for ever. Her father thought she was less unquiet, and +believed that in a few days all would be forgotten, and she would be +herself again. Doctor Mayhew assured me that nothing could be kinder +than the manner in which the incumbent spoke of me, and that it was +impossible for any man to feel a favour more deeply than he appeared +to appreciate the consideration which I had shown for him. The +doctor had been silent as to my actual presence in the vicinity, +which, he believed, to have mentioned, would have been to fill the +anxious father's heart with alarms and fears, which, groundless as +they were, might be productive of no little mischief. I acquiesced +in the propriety of his silence, and thanked him for his prudence. +Whilst my friend was speaking, I heard a quick and heavy footstep +on the stairs, which, causing me to start upon the instant, and +hurling sickness to my heart, clearly told, had doubt existed, +how strongly apprehension had fixed itself upon me, and how +certainly and inextricably I had become connected with the object +of my dark and irresistible conceptions. I had no longer an ear for +Doctor Mayhew, but the sense followed the footstep until it reached +the topmost stair--passed along the passage--and stopped--suddenly +at our door. Almost before it stopped, the door was knocked at +violently--quickly--loudly. Before an answer could be given, the +door itself was opened, and Robin rushed in--scared. + +"What is the matter?" I exclaimed, jumping up, and dreading to hear +him tell what I felt must come--another tale of horror--another +crime--what less than _self-destruction_? + +"He's gone, sir--he's gone!" roared the fellow, white as death, and +shaking like an aspen. + +"Gone--how--who?" enquired the doctor. + +"The madman, sir," answered Robin, opening his mouth, and raising +his eyebrows, to exhibit his own praiseworthy astonishment at the +fact. + +"Go on, man," said the doctor. "What have you to say further? How +did it happen? Quick!" + +"I don't know, sir. I eat something for dinner as disagreed. I have +been as sleepy as an owl ever since. We was together in his room, +and I just sot down for a minute to think what it could be as I +_had_ eaten, when I dozed off directly--and when I opened my eyes +again, not quite a minute arterwards, I couldn't find him +nowheres--and nobody can't neither, and we've been searching the +house for the last half hour." + +"Foolish fellow--how long was this ago?" + +"About an hour, sir." + +The doctor said not another word, but taking a candle from the table, +quitted the room, and hurried down stairs. I followed him, and Robin, +almost frightened out of his wits, trod upon my heel and rubbed +against my coat, in his eagerness not to be left behind me. The +establishment was, as it is said, at sixes and sevens. All was +disorder and confusion, and hustling into the most remote corner of +the common room. Mr. Williams especially was very much unsettled. He +stood in the rear of every body else, and looked deathly white. It +was he who ejaculated something upon the sudden entrance of his +master, and was the cause of all the other ejaculations which +followed quickly from every member of the household. Doctor Mayhew +commanded order, and was not long in bringing it about. The house +was searched immediately Wherever it was supposed that the idiot +might hide himself, diligent enquiry was made; cupboards, holes, +corners, and cellars. It was in vain. He certainly had escaped. The +gardens and paddocks, and fields adjacent were scoured, and with like +success. There was no doubt of it--the idiot was gone--who could tell +whither? After two hours' unprofitable labour, Doctor Mayhew was +again in his library, very much disturbed in mind, and reproaching +himself bitterly for his procrastination. "Had I acted," said he, +"upon my first determination, this would never have happened, and my +part in the business would have been faithfully performed. As it is, +if any mischief should come to that man, I shall never cease to +blame myself, and to be considered the immediate cause of it." I made +no reply. I _could_ say nothing. His escape occurring so soon after +my identification of the unfortunate creature, had bewildered and +confounded me. I could not guess at the motive of his flight, nor +conceive a purpose to which it was likely the roused maniac would +aspire; but I was satisfied--yes, too satisfied, for to think of it +was to chill and freeze the heart's warm blood--that the revelation +of the day and his removal were in close connexion. Alas, I dared +not speak, although my fears distracted me whilst I continued dumb! +Arrangements were at last made for watching both within and without +the house during the night--messengers were dispatched to the +contiguous villages, and all that could be done for the recovery of +the runaway was attempted. It was already past twelve o'clock when +Dr. Mayhew insisted upon my retiring to rest. I did not oppose his +wish. He was ill at ease, and angry with himself. Maintaining the +silence which I had kept during the evening, I gave him my hand, and +took my leave. + +I thought I should have dropped dead in the room when, lost in a deep +reverie, I opened my chamber-door, and discovered, sitting at the +table, the very man himself. _There the idiot sat_, portrait in hand, +encountering me with a look of unutterable sorrowfulness. He must +have hid himself amongst the folds of the curtains, for this room, +as well as the rest, was looked into, and its cupboards investigated. +I recoiled with sudden terror, and retreated, but the wretch clasped +his hands in agony, and implored me in gestures which could not be +mistaken, to remain. I recovered, gained confidence, and forbore. + +"What do you desire with me?" I asked quickly. "Can you speak? Do you +understand me?" The unhappy man dropped on his knees, and took my +hand--cried like a beaten child--sobbed and groaned. He raised the +likeness of his sister to my eyes, and then I saw the fire sparkling +in his own lustrous orb, and the supplication bursting from it, that +was not to be resisted. He pointed to his mouth, compelled an +inarticulate sound, and looked at me again, to assure me that he had +spoken all his faculties permitted him. He waited for any answer. + +Melted with pity for the bruised soul before me, I could no longer +deny him the gratification he besought. + +"Emma!" I ejaculated; "Emma Harrington!" + +He wept aloud, and kissed my hand, and put my arm upon his breast, +and caressed it with his own weak head. I permitted the affectionate +creature to display his childish gratitude, and then, taking him by +the wrist, I withdrew him from the room. An infant could not have +been more docile with its nurse. In another moment he was again in +custody. + +It was in vain that I strove to fall asleep, and to forget the +circumstances of the day--in vain that I endeavored to carry out the +resolution which I had taken to my pillow. Gladly would I have +expelled all thought of the idiot from my mind, and risen on the +morrow, prepared by rest and sweet suspension of mental labour for +profitable deliberation. Sound as was the advice of my friend, and +anxious as I was to follow it, obedience rested not with me, and was +impossible. Should I make known the history of the man? Should I +discover his crime? This was the question that haunted my repose, +and knocked at my ears until my labouring brain ached in its +confusion. What might be the effect of a disclosure upon the future +existence of the desolate creature, should he ever recover his reason? +Must he not suffer the extreme penalty of the law? It was dreadful +to think that his life should be forfeited through, and only through, +my agency. There were reasons again equally weighty, why I should +not conceal the facts which were in my possession. How I should have +determined at length, I know not, if an argument--founded on +selfishness had not stepped in and turned the balance in favour of +the idiot. Alas, how easy is it to decide when self-interest +interposes with its intelligence and aid! Neither Mr. Fairman nor +Doctor Mayhew knew of my connexion with the unfortunate Emma +Harrington. To expose the brother would be to commit myself. I was +not yet prepared to acknowledge to the father of Miss Fairman, or to +his friend, the relation that I had borne to that poor girl. And why +not? If to divulge the secret were an act of justice, why should I +hesitate to do it on account of the incumbent, with whom I had +broken off all intercourse for ever? Ah, did I in truth believe that +our separation had been final? Or did I harbour, perhaps against +reason and conviction, a hope, a thought of future reconciliation, a +shadowy yet not weak belief that all might yet end happily, and that +fortune still might favour love! With such faint hope, and such +belief, I must have bribed myself to silence, for I left my couch +resolved to keep my secret close. Doctor Mayhew was deep in the +contemplation of a map when I joined him at the breakfast-table. He +did not take his eyes from it when I entered the apartment, and he +continued his investigations some time after I had taken my seat. He +raised his head at last, and looked hard at me, apparently without +perceiving me, and then he resumed his occupation without having +spoken a syllable: after a further study of five or ten minutes, he +shook his head, and pressed his lips, and frowned, and stroked his +chin, as though he was just arriving at the borders of a notable and +great discovery. "It will be strange indeed!" he muttered to himself. +"How can we find it out?" + +I did not break the thread of cogitation. + +"Well," continued Doctor Maybew, "he must leave this house, at +all events. I will run the risk of losing him no longer. I will +write this morning to the overseer. Yet I _should_ like to +know--really--it may be, after all, the case. Stukely, lad, look here. +What county is this?" he continued, placing his finger on the map. + +Somerset was written in the corner of it, and accordingly I answered. + +"Very well," replied the doctor. "Now, look here. Read this. What do +these letters spell?" + +He pointed to some small characters, which formed evidently the name +of a village that stood upon the banks of a river of some magnitude. +I spelt them as he desired, and pronounced, certainly to my own +surprise, the word--"_Belton_." + +"Just so. Well, what do you say to that? I think I have hit it. +That's the fellow's home. I never thought of that before, and I +shouldn't now, if I hadn't had occasion for the road-book. It was +the first thing that caught my eye. Now--how can we find it out?" + +"It is difficult!" said I. + +"It is likely enough, you see. What should bring him so far westward, +if he hadn't some object? He was either wandering from or to his home, +depend upon it, when the gypsies found him. If Belton be his home, +his frequent repetition of the word was natural enough. Eh, don't +you see it?" + +"Certainly," said I. + +"Very well; then, what's to be done?" + +"I cannot tell," I answered. + +The doctor rung the bell. + +"Is Robin up yet?" he asked, when Williams came in to answer it. + +"He is, sir." + +"And the man?" + +"Both, sir. They have just done breakfast." + +"Very well, Williams, you may go. Now, follow me, Stukely," continued +the physician, the moment that the butler had departed. "I'll do it +now. I am a physiognomist, and I'll tell you in the twinkling of an +eye if we are right, You mark him well, and so will I." The doctor +seized his map and road book, and before I could speak was out of +the room. When I overtook him, he had already reached the idiot, and +dismissed Robin. + +My friend commenced his operations by placing the map and book upon +the table, and closely scanning the countenance of his patient, in +order to detect and fix the smallest alteration of expression in the +coming examination. He might have spared himself the trouble. The +idiot had no eye for him. When I appeared he ran to me, and +manifested the most extravagant delight. He grasped my hand, and +drew me to his chair, and there detained me. He did not introduce +his treasure, but I could not fail to perceive that he intended to +repeat the scene of the previous day, as soon as we were again alone. +I did not wish to afford him opportunity, and I gladly complied with +the physician's request when he called upon me to interrogate the +idiot, in the terms he should employ. He had already himself applied +to the youth, but neither for himself nor his questions could he +obtain the slightest notice. The eye, the heart, and, such as it was, +the mind of the idiot, were upon his sister's friend. + +"Ask him, Stukely," began the doctor, "if he has ever been in +Somerset?" + +I did so, and, in truth, the word roused from their long slumber, or +we believed they did, recollections that argued well for the +physician's theory. The idiot raised his brow, and smiled. + +The doctor referred to his map, and said, whispering as before, +"Mention the river Parret." + +I could not doubt that the name had been familiar to the unhappy man. +He strove to speak, and could not, but he nodded his head +affirmatively and quickly, and the expression of his features +corroborated the strong testimony. + +"Now--_Belton_?" added the doctor. + +I repeated the word, and then the agony of supplication which I had +witnessed once before, was re-enacted, and the shrill and incoherent +cries burst from his afflicted breast. + +"I am satisfied!" exclaimed the doctor, shutting his book. "He shall +leave my house for Belton this very afternoon." + +And so he did, In an hour, arrangements were in progress for his +departure, and I was his guardian and companion. Robin, as soon as +Dr. Mayhew's intention was known, refused to have any thing more to +say, either inside the house or out of it, to the _devil incarnate_, +as he was pleased to call the miserable man. If his place depended +upon his taking charge of him, he was ready to resign it. There was +not another man whom the physician seemed disposed to trust, and in +his difficulty he glanced at me. I understood his meaning. He +proceeded to express his surprise and pleasure at finding an +attachment so strong towards me on the part of the idiot. "It was +remarkable," he said--"very! And what a pity it was that he hadn't +cultivated the same regard for somebody else. A short journey +_then_, to Somerset, would have been the easiest thing in the world. +Nothing but to pop into the coach, to go to an inn on arriving in +Belton, and to make enquiries, which, no doubt, would be +satisfactorily answered in less than no time. Yes, really, it was a +hundred pities!" + +The doctor looked at me again, and then I had already determined to +meet the request he was not bold to ask. I believed, equally with the +physician, from the conduct and expressions of young Harrington, that +the riddle of his present condition waited for explanation in the +village, whose name seemed like a load upon his heart, and +constituted the whole of his discourse since he had arrived amongst +us. It was there he yearned to be. It was necessary only to mention +the word to throw him into an agitation, which it took hours entirely +to dissipate. Yes, for a reason well known to him and hidden from us +all, his object, his only object as it appeared, was to be removed, +and to be conducted thither. I had but one reason for rejecting the +otherwise well sustained hypothesis of my friend. During my whole +intercourse with Emma, I had never heard her speak of Somerset or +Belton, and in her narrative no allusion was made either to the +shire or village. In what way, then, could it be so intimately +connected with her brother--whence was the origin of the hold which +this one word had taken of his shattered brain? I could not guess. +But, on the other hand, it was true that I was ignorant of his +history subsequently to the fearful death of his most sinful father. +How could I tell what new events had arisen, what fresh relations +might have sprung up, to attach and bind him to one particular spot +of ground? Urged by curiosity to discover all that yet remained to +know of his career, and more by a natural and strong desire to serve +the youth--not to desert him in the hour of his extremity--I resolved, +with the first hint of the doctor, to become myself the fellow +traveller of his _protégé_. I told him so, and the doctor shook me by +the hand, and thanked me heartily. + +That very evening we were on our road, for our preparations were not +extensive. My instructions were to carry him direct to Belton, to +ascertain, if possible, from his movements the extent of his +acquaintance with the village, and to present him at all places of +resort, in the hope of having him identified. Two days were granted +for our stay. If he should be unknown, we were then to return, and +Doctor Mayhew would at once resign him to the parish. These were his +words at parting. We had no opposition in the idiot. His happiness +was perfect whilst I remained with him. He followed me eagerly +whithersoever I went, and was willing to be led, so long as I +continued guide. I took my seat in the coach, and he placed himself +at my side, trembling with joyousness, and laughing convulsively. +Once seated, he grasped my hand as usual, and did not, through the +livelong night, relinquish it altogether. A hundred affectionate +indications escaped him, and in the hour of darkness and of quiet, +it would have been easy to suppose that an innocent child was +nestling near me, _homeward bound_, and, in the fulness of its +expectant bliss, lavish of its young heartfelt endearments. Yes, it +would have been, but for other thoughts, blacker than the night +itself--how much more fearful!--which rendered every sign of +fondness a hollow, cold, and dismal mockery. Innocence! Alas, poor +parricide! + +In the morning the sun streamed into the coach, of which we were the +only inside passengers. Dancing and playing came the light, now here, +now there, skipping along the seat, and settling nowhere--cheerful +visitant, and to the idiot something more, for he gazed upon it, and +followed its fairy motion, lost in wonder and delight. He looked +from the coach-window, and beheld the far-spreading fields of beauty +with an eye awakened from long lethargy and inaction. He could not +gaze enough. And the voice of nature made giddy the sense of hearing +that drank intoxication from the notes of birds, the gurgling of a +brook, the rustling of a thousand leaves. His feeble powers, taken by +surprise, were vanquished by the summer's loveliness. Once, when our +coach stopped, a peasant girl approached us with a nosegay, which +she entreated me to buy. My fellow-traveller was impatient to obtain +it. I gave it to him, and, for an hour, all was neglected for the toy. +He touched the flowers one by one, viewed them attentively and +lovingly, as we do children whom we have known, and watched, and +loved from infancy--now caressing this, now smiling upon that. What +recollections did they summon in the mind of the destitute and +almost mindless creature? What pictures rose there?--pictures that +may never be excluded from the soul of man, however dim may burn the +intellectual light. His had been no happy boyhood, yet, in the +wilderness of his existence, there must have been vouchsafed to him +in mercy the few green spots that serve to attach to earth the most +afflicted and forlorn of her sad children. How natural for the +glimpses to revisit the broken heart, thus employed, thus roused and +animated by the light of heaven, rendering all things beautiful and +glad! + +As we approached the village, my companion ceased to regard his +many-coloured friends with the same exclusive attention and unmixed +delight. His spirits sank--his joy fled. Clouds gathered across his +brow; he withdrew his hand from mine, and he sat for an hour, +brooding. He held the neglected nosegay before him, and plucked the +pretty leaves one by one--not conscious, I am sure, of what he did. +In a short time, every flower was destroyed, and lay in its +fragments before him. Then, as if stung by remorse for the cruel act, +or shaken by the heavy thoughts that pressed upon his brain, he +covered his pallid face, and groaned bitterly. What were those +thoughts? How connected with the resting-place towards which we were +hastening rapidly? My own anxiety became intense. + +The village of Belton, situated near the mouth, and at the broadest +part of the river Parret, consisted of one long narrow street, and a +few houses scattered here and there on the small eminences which +sheltered it. The adjacent country was of the same character as that +which we had quitted--less luxuriant, perhaps, but still rich and +striking. We arrived at mid-day. I determined to alight at the inn +at which the coach put up, and to make my first enquiries there. +From the moment that we rattled along the stones that formed the +entrance to the village, an unfavourable alteration took place in my +companion. He grew excited and impatient; and his lips quivered, and +his eyes sparkled, as I had never seen them before. I was satisfied +that we had reached the object of his long desire, and that in a few +minutes the mysterious relation in which he stood to the place would +be ascertained. "He MUST be known," I continued to repeat to myself; +"the first eye that falls on him, will recognize him instantly." We +reached the inn; we alighted. The landlord and the ostler came to +the coach door, and received us with extreme civility, and the +former assisted the idiot in his eager endeavour to reach the +ground--I watched the action, expecting him to start, to speak, to +claim acquaintance--and having completed the polite intention, he +stood smiling and scraping. I looked at him, then at the idiot, and +saw at once that they were strangers. A dozen idlers stood about the +door. I waited for a recognition: none came. + +Seated in the parlour of the inn, I asked to see the landlady. The +sight of the idiot caused as little emotion in her, as it had +produced in her husband. I ordered dinner for him. Whilst it was +preparing, I engaged the landlord in conversation at the door. I did +not wish to speak before young Harrington. I dared not leave him. I +enquired, first, if the face of the idiot were familiar to him. I +received for answer, that the man had never seen him in his life +before, nor had his wife. + +"Do you know the name of Harrington?" said I. + +"No--never heard on it," was the reply. + +"Fitzjones, perhaps?" + +"Many Joneses hereabouts, sir," said the landlord, "but none of that +there Christian name." + +The excitement of the idiot did not abate. He would not touch his +food nor sit quietly, but he walked swiftly up and down the room, +breathing heavily, and trembling with increasing agitation. He urged +me in his own peculiar way to leave the house and walk abroad. He +pointed to the road and strove to speak. The attempt was fruitless, +and he paced the room again, wringing his hands and sighing +sorrowfully. At length I yielded to his request, and we were again +in the village, I following whithersoever he led me. He ran through +the street, like a madman as he was, bringing upon him the eyes of +every one, and outstripping me speedily. He stopped for a moment to +collect himself--looked round as though he had lost his way, and +knew not whither to proceed; then bounded off again, the hunted deer +not quicker in his flight, and instantly was out of sight. Without +the smallest hope of seeing him again, I pursued the fugitive, and, +as well as I could guess it, continued in his track. For half a mile +I traced his steps, and then I lost them. His last footmark was at +the closed gate of a good-sized dwelling house. The roof and highest +windows only of the habitation were to be discerned from the path, +and these denoted the residence of a wealthy man. He could have no +business here--no object. "He must have passed," thought I, +"upon the other side." I was about to cross the road, when I +perceived, at the distance of a few yards, a man labouring in a field. +I accosted him, and asked if he had seen the idiot. + +No--he had not. He was sure that nobody had passed by him for hours. +He must have seen the man if he had come that way. + +"Whose house is that?" I asked, not knowing _why_ I asked the +question. + +"What? that?" said he, pointing to the gate. "Oh, that's Squire +_Temple's_." + +The name dropped like a knife upon my heart. I could not speak. I +must have fallen to the earth, if the man, seeing me grow pale as +death, had not started to his feet, and intercepted me. I trembled +with a hundred apprehensions. My throat was dry with fright, and I +thought I should have choked. What follows was like a hideous dream. +The gate was opened suddenly. JAMES TEMPLE issued from it, and +passed me like an arrow. He was appalled and terrorstricken. Behind +him--within six feet--almost upon him, yelling fearfully, was the +brother of the girl he had betrayed and ruined--his friend and +schoolfellow, the miserable Frederick Harrington. I could perceive +that he held aloft, high over his head, the portrait of his sister. +It was all I saw and could distinguish. Both shot by me. I called to +the labourer to follow; and fast as my feet could carry me, I went on. +Temple fell. Harrington was down with him. I reached the spot. The +hand of the idiot was on the chest of the seducer, and the picture +was thrust in agony before his shuddering eyes. There was a +struggle--the idiot was cast away--and Temple was once more dashing +onward. "On, on!--after him!" shrieked the idiot. They reached the +river's edge. "What now--what now?" I exclaimed, beholding them from +afar, bewildered and amazed. The water does not restrain the scared +spirit of the pursued. He rushes on, leaps in, and trusts to the +swift current. So also the pursuer, who, with one long, loud +exclamation of triumph, still with his treasure in his grasp, +springs vehemently forward, and sinks, once and for ever. And the +betrayer beats his way onward, aimless and exhausted, but still he +nears the shore. Shall he reach it? Never! + + * * * * * + + + + +IMAGINARY CONVERSATION, BETWEEN MR. WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR AND THE + EDITOR OF BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE. + +To Christopher North, Esq. + +SIR,--Mr. Walter Savage Landor has become a contributor to _Blackwood's +Magazine_! I stared at the announcement, and it will presently be +seen why. There is nothing extraordinary in the apparition of another +and another of this garrulous sexagenarian's "Imaginary Conversations." +They come like shadows, so depart. + + "The thing, we know, is neither new nor rare, + But wonder how the devil it got there." + +Many of your readers, ignorant or forgetful, may have asked, +"Who is Mr. Landor? We have never heard of any remarkable person of +that name, or bearing a similar one, except the two brothers Lander, +the explorers of the Niger." Mr. Walter Savage would answer, +"Not to know me argues yourself unknown." He was very angry with +Lord Byron for designating him as _a_ Mr. Landor. He thought it +should have been _the_. You ought to have forewarned such readers +that _the_ Mr. Landor, now _your_ Walter Savage, is the learned +author of an epic poem called _Gebir_, composed originally in +Egyptian hieroglyphics, then translated by him into Latin, and +thence done into English blank verse by the same hand. It is a work +of rare occurrence even in the English character, and is said to be +deeply abstruse. Some extracts from it have been buried in, or have +helped to bury, critical reviews. A copy of the Anglo-Gebir is, +however, extant in the British Museum, and is said to have so +puzzled the few philologists who have examined it, that they have +declared none but a sphinx, and that an Egyptian one, could unriddle +it. I would suggest that some Maga of the gypsies should be called +in to interpret. Our vagrant fortune-tellers are reputed to be of +Egyptian origin, and to hold converse among themselves in a very +strange and curious oriental tongue called _Gibberish_, which word, +no doubt, is a derivative from Gebir. Of the existence of the +mysterious epic, the public were made aware many years ago by the +first publication of Mr. Leigh Hunt's _Feast of the Poets_, where it +was mentioned in a note as a thing containing one good passage about +a shell, while in the text the author of _Gebir_ was called a gander, +and Mr. Southey rallied by Apollo for his simplicity in proposing +that the company should drink the gabbler's health. That pleasantry +has disappeared from Mr. Hunt's poem, though Mr. Landor has by no +means left off gabbling. Mr. Hunt is a kindly-natured man as well as +a wit, and no doubt perceived that he had been more prophetic than +he intended--Mr. Landor having, in addition to verses uncounted +unless on his own fingers, favoured the world with five thick octavo +volumes of dialogues. From the four first I have culled a few +specimens; the fifth I have not read. It is rumoured that a sixth is +in the press, with a dedication in the _issimo_ style, to Lord John +Russell, Mr. Landor's lantern having at last enabled him to detect +one honest man in the Imperial Parliament. Lord John, it seems, in +the House of Commons lately quoted something from him about a +Chinese mandarin's opinion of the English; and Mr. Landor is so +delighted that he intends to take the Russells under his protection +for ever, and not only them, but every thing within the range of +their interests. Not a cast horse, attached to a Woburn sand-cart, +shall henceforth crawl towards Bedford and Tavistock Squares, but +the grateful Walter shall swear he is a Bucephalus. You, Mr. North, +have placed the cart before the horse, in allowing Mr. Landor's +dialogue between Porson and Southey precedence of the following +between Mr. Landor and yourself. + +You may object that it is a feigned colloquy, in which an +unauthorized use is made of your name. True; but all Mr. Landor's +colloquies are likewise feigned; and none is more fictitious than +one that has appeared in your pages, wherein Southey's name is used +in a manner not only unauthorized, but at which he would have +sickened. + +You and I must differ more widely in our notions of fair play than I +hope and believe we do, if you refuse to one whose purpose is +neither unjust nor ungenerous, as much license in your columns as +you have accorded to Mr. Landor, when it was his whim, without the +smallest provocation, to throw obloquy on the venerated author of +the _Excursion_. + + + I am, Sir, your faithful servant, + EDWARD QUILLINAN. + + * * * * * + +_Landor_.--Good-morning, Mr. North, I hope you are well. + +_North_.--I thank you, sir.--Be seated. + +_Landor_.--I have called to enquire whether you have considered my +proposal, and are willing to accept my aid. + +_North_.--I am almost afraid to trust you, sir. You treat the +Muses like nine-pins. Neither gods nor men find favour in your sight. +If Homer and Virgil crossed your path, you would throw stones at them. + +_Landor_.--The poems attributed to Homer, were probably, in part at +least, translations. He is a better poet than Hesiod, who has, indeed, +but little merit![49] Virgil has no originality. His epic poem is a +mere echo of the Iliad, softened down in tone for the polite ears of +Augustus and his courtiers. Virgil is inferior to Tasso. Tasso's +characters are more vivid and distinct than Virgil's, and greatly +more interesting. Virgil wants genius. Mezentius is the most +heroical and pious of all the characters in the Aeneid. The Aeneid, I +affirm, is the most misshapen of epics, an epic of episodes.[50] There +are a few good passages in it. I must repeat one for the sake of +proposing an improvement. + + "Quinetiam _hyberno_ moliris sidere classem, + Et mediis properas aquilonibus ire per altum ... + Crudelis! quod si non arva aliena domosque + Ignotas peteres, et Troja antiqua maneret, + Troja per _undosum_ peteretur classibus aequor?" + +If _hybernum_ were substituted for _undosum_, how incomparably more +beautiful would the sentence be for this energetic repetition? [51] + +_North_.--I admire your modesty, Mr. Landor, in quoting Virgil +only to improve him; but your alteration is not an improvement. Dido, +having just complained of her lover for putting out to sea under a +wintry star, would have uttered but a graceless iteration had she in +the same breath added--if Troy yet stood, must even Troy be sought +through a wintry sea? _Undosum_ is the right epithet; it paints to +the eye the danger of the voyage, and adds force to her complaint. + +_Landor_. Pshaw! You Scotchmen are no scholars. Let me proceed. +Virgil has no nature. And, by the way, his translator Dryden, too, +is greatly overrated. + +_North_..--Glorious John? + +_Landor_.--Glorious fiddlestick! It is insufferable that a rhymer +should be called glorious, whose only claim to notice is a clever +drinking song. + +_North_.--A drinking song? + +_Landor_. Yes, the thing termed an Ode for St. Cecilia's Day. + +_North_.--Hegh, sir, indeed! Well, let us go on with the Ancients, +and dispatch them first. To revert to the Greeks, from whom Virgil's +imitation of the Iliad drew us aside, favour me with your opinion of +Plato. + +[Footnote 48: See Mr. Landor's "Imaginary Conversations."--Vol. i. p. +44, and ii. p. 322, note.] + +[Footnote 50: Vol. i p. 269, 270.] + +[Footnote 51: Vol. i. p. 300.] + +_Landor_.--Plato is disingenuous and malicious. I fancy I have +detected him in more than one dark passage, a dagger in his hand and +a bitter sneer on his countenance.[52] He stole (from the Eyptian +priests and other sources) every idea his voluminous books convey. +[53] Plato was a thief. + +_North_.--"Taffy was a Welshman, Taffy was a thief." + +_Landor_.--Do you mean to insinuate that my dialogues are stolen +from Plato's? + +_North_.--Certainly not, Mr. Landor; there is not the remotest +resemblance between them. Lucian and Christopher North are your +models. What do you think of Aristotle? + +_Landor_.--In Plato we find only arbours and grottoes, with moss +and shell work all misplaced. Aristotle has built a solider edifice, +but has built it across the road. We must throw it down again. +[54] + +_North_.--So much for philosophy. What have you to say to Xenophon +as an historian? + +_Landor_.--He is not inelegant, but he is unimpassioned and +affected; [55] and he has not even preserved the coarse features of +nations and of ages in his Cyropaedia.[56] + +_North_.--The dunce! But what of the Anabasis? + +_Landor_.--You may set Xenophon down as a writer of graceful +mediocrity.[57] + +_North_.--Herodotus? + +_Landor_.--If I blame Herodotus, whom can I commend? His view of +history was nevertheless like that of the Asiatics, and there can be +little to instruct and please us in the actions and speeches of +barbarians.[58] + +_North_.--Which of the Greek tragedians do you patronise? + +_Landor_.--Aeschylus is not altogether unworthy of his reputation; +he is sometimes grand, but oftener flighty and obscure.[59] + +_North_.--What say you of Sophocles? + +_Landor_.--He is not so good as his master, though the Athenians +thought otherwise. He is, however, occasionally sublime. + +_North_.--What of Euripides? [60] + +_Landor_.--He came further down into common life than Sophocles, +and he further down than Aeschylus: one would have expected the +reverse. Euripides has but little dramatic power. His dialogue is +sometimes dull and heavy; the construction of his fable infirm and +inartificial, and if in the chorus he assumes another form, and +becomes a more elevated poet, he is still at a loss to make it serve +the interests of the piece. He appears to have written principally +for the purpose of inculcating political and moral axioms. The dogmas, +like _valets de place_, serve any master, and run to any quarter. +Even when new, they are nevertheless miserably flat and idle. + +_North_.--Aristophanes ridiculed him. + +_Landor_.--Yes, Aristophanes had, however, but little true wit. [61] + +_North_.--That was lucky for Euripides. + +_Landor_.-A more skilful archer would have pierced him through +bone and marrow, and saved him from the dogs of Archelaus. + +_North_.--That story is probably an allegory, signifying that +Euripides was after all worried out of life by the curs of criticism +in his old age. + +_Landor_.--As our Keats was in his youth, eh, Mr. North? A worse +fate than that of Aeschylus, who had his skull cracked by a tortoise +dropt by an eagle that mistook his bald head for a stone. + +_North_.--Another fable of his inventive countrymen. He died of +brain-fever, followed by paralysis, the effect of drunkenness. He +was a jolly old toper: I am sorry for him. You just now said that +Aristophanes wanted wit. What foolish fellows then the Athenians +must have been, in the very meridian of their literature, to be so +delighted with what they mistook for wit as to decree him a crown +of olive! He has been styled the Prince of Old Comedy too. How do you +like Menander? + +[Footnote 52: Vol. ii. p. 298.] + +[Footnote 53: Vol. iii p. 514.] + +[Footnote 54: Vol. iv. p 80.] + +[Footnote 55: Vol. i. p. 233.] + +[Footnote 56: Vol. ii. p. 331.] + +[Footnote 57: Vol. iii. p. 35.] + +[Footnote 58: Vol. ii. p. 332.] + +[Footnote 59: Vol. i. pp. 299, 298, 297.] + +[Footnote 60: Vol. i. p. 298.] + +[Footnote 61: Vol. ii. p. 12.] + +_Landor_.--We have not much of him, unless in Terence. [62] The +characters on which Menander raised his glory were trivial and +contemptible. + +[Footnote 62: Vol. ii. p. 5. At p. 6th, Mr. Landor produces some verses +of his own "in the manner of Menander," fathers them on Andrew Marvel, +and makes Milton praise them!] + +_North_.--Now that you have demolished the Greeks, let us go back +to Rome, and have another touch at the Latins. From Menander to +Terence is an easy jump. How do you esteem Terence? + +_Landor_.--Every one knows that he is rather an expert translator +from the Greek than an original writer. There is more pith in Plautus. + +_North_.--You like Plautus, then, and endure Terence? + +_Landor_.--I tolerate both as men of some talents; but comedy is, +at the best, only a low style of literature; and the production of +such trifling stuff is work for the minor geniuses. I have never +composed a comedy. + +_North_.--I see: farewell to the sock, then. Is Horace worth his +salt? + +_Landor_.--There must be some salt in Horace, or he would not have +kept so well. [63] He was a shrewd observer and an easy versifier; but, +like all the pusillanimous, he was malignant. + +[Footnote 63: Vol. ii. p. 249.] + +_North_.--Seneca? + +_Landor_.--He was, like our own Bacon, hard-hearted and +hypocritical, [64] as to his literary merits, Caligula, the excellent +emperor and critic, (who made sundry efforts to extirpate the writings +of Homer and Virgil,) [65] spoke justly and admirably when he compared the +sentences of Seneca to lime without sand. + +[Footnote 64: Vol. iv. p. 31.] + +[Footnote 65: Vol. i. p. 274.] + + +_North_.--Perhaps, after all, you prefer the moderns? + +_Landor_.--I have not said that. + +_North_.--You think well of Spenser? + +_Landor_.--As I do of opium: he sends me to bed [66]. + +[Footnote 66: + Thee, gentle Spenser fondly led, + But me he mostly sent to bed.--LANDOR. ] + +_North_.--You concede the greatness of Milton? + +_Landor_.--Yes, when he is great; but his Satan is often a thing +to be thrown out of the way among the rods and fools' caps of the +nursery [67]. + +[Footnote 67: Vol. i. p. 301.] + +He has sometimes written very contemptibly; his lines on Hobbes, +the carrier, for example, and his versions of Psalms. [68] Milton was +never so great a regicide as when he smote King David. + +[Footnote 68: Blackwood.] + +_North_.--You like, at least, his hatred of kings? + +_Landor_.--That is somewhat after my own heart, I own; but he does +not go far enough in his hatred of them. + +_North_.--You do? + +_Landor_.--I despise and abominate them. How many of them, do you +think, could name their real fathers? [69] + +[Footnote 69: Vol. i. p. 61.] + +_North_.--But, surely, Charles was a martyr? + +_Landor_.--If so, what were those who sold [70] him? + +[Footnote 70: Vol. iv. p. 283.] + +Ha, ha, ha! You a Scotchman, too! However, Charles was not a martyr. +He was justly punished. To a consistent republican, the diadem +should designate the victim: all who wear it, all who offer it, all +who bow to it, should perish. Rewards should be offered for the +heads of those monsters, as for the wolves, the kites, and the vipers. +A true republican can hold no milder doctrine of polity, than that +all nations, all cities, all communities, should enter into one +great hunt, like that of the ancient Scythians at the approach of +winter, and should follow up the kingly power unrelentingly to its +perdition. [71] True republicans can see no reason why they should +not send an executioner to release a king from the prison-house of +his crimes, [72] with his family to attend him. + +[Footnote 71: Vol. iv. 507.] + +[Footnote 72: Vol. i. p. 73.] + +In my Dialogues, I have put such sentiments into the mouth of +Diogenes, that cynic of sterling stamp, and of Aeschines, that +incorruptible orator, as suitable to the maxims of their government. [73] +To my readers, I leave the application of them to nearer interests. + +[Footnote 73: Mr. Landor, with whom the Cynic is a singular favourite, +says, p. 461, vol. iii., that Diogenes was not expelled from Sinope +for having counterfeited money; that he only marked false men. +Aeschines was accused of having been bribed by Philip of Macedon.] + +_North_.--But you would not yourself, in your individual character, +and in deliberate earnestness, apply them to modern times and +monarchies? + +_Landor_.--Why not? Look at my Dialogue with De Lille. [74] What +have I said of Louis the Fourteenth, the great exemplar of kingship, +and of the treatment that he ought to have received from the English? +Deprived of all he had acquired by his treachery and violence, +unless the nation that brought him upon his knees had permitted two +traitors, Harley and St. John, to second the views of a weak woman, +and to obstruct those of policy and of England, he had been carted +to condign punishment in the _Place de Grêve_ or at Tyburn. _Such +examples are much wanted, and, as they can rarely be given, should +never be omitted_.[75] + +[Footnote 74: Vol. i.] + +[Footnote 75: Vol. i. p. 281.--Landor.] + +_North_.--The Sans-culottes and Poissardes of the last French +revolution but three, would have raised you by acclamation to the +dignity of Decollator of the royal family of France for that brave +sentiment. But you were not at Paris, I suppose, during the reign of +the guillotine, Mr. Landor? + +_Landor_.--I was not, Mr. North. But as to the king whose plethory +was cured by that sharp remedy, he, Louis the Sixteenth, was only +dragged to a fate which, if he had not experienced it, he would be +acknowledged to have deserved. [76] + +[Footnote 76: Vol. ii. p. 267. This truculent sentiment the Dialogist +imputes to a Spanish liberal. He cannot fairly complain that it is here +restored to its owner. It is exactly in accordance with the sentence +quoted above in italics--a judgment pronounced by Mr. Landor in person. +--Vol. i. p. 281. It also conforms to his philosophy of regicide, as +expounded in various parts of his writings. In his preface to the first +volume of his Imaginary Conversations, he claims exemption, though +somewhat sarcastically, from responsibility for the notions expressed +by his interlocutors. An author, in a style which has all the freedom of +the dramatic form, without its restraints, should especially abstain +from making his work the vehicle of crotchets, prejudices, and +passions peculiar to himself, or unworthy of the characters speaking. +"This form of composition," Mr. Landor says, "among other advantages, +is recommended by the protection it gives from the hostility all +novelty (unless it be vicious) excites." Prudent consideration, but +indiscreet parenthesis.] + +_North_.--I believe one Englishman, a martyr to liberty, has said +something like that before. + +_Landor_.--Who, pray? + +_North_.--The butcher Ings. + +_Landor_.--Ah, I was not aware of it! Ings was a fine fellow. + +_North_.--Your republic will never do here, Mr. Landor. + +_Landor_.--I shall believe that a king is better than a republic +when I find that a single tooth in a head is better than a set. [77] + +[Footnote 77: Vol. ii. p. 31.] + +_North_.--It would be as good logic in a monarchy-man to say, +"I shall believe that a republic is better than a king when I am +convinced that six noses on a face would be better than one." + +_Landor_.--In this age of the march of intellect, when a pillar of +fire is guiding us out of the wilderness of error, you Tories lag +behind, and are lost in darkness, Mr. North. Only the first person +in the kingdom should be unenlightened and void, as only the first +page in a book should be a blank one. It is when it is torn out that +we come at once to the letters. [78] + +[Footnote 78: Vol. iv. p. 405.] + +_North_.--Well, now that you have torn out the first page of the +Court Guide, we come to the Peers, I suppose. + +_Landor_.--The peerage is the park-paling of despotism, arranged +to keep in creatures tame and wild for luxury and diversion, and to +keep out the people. Kings are to peerages what poles are to +rope-dancers, enabling then to play their tricks with greater +confidence and security above the heads of the people. The wisest +and the most independent of the English Parliaments declared the +thing useless. [79] Peers are usually persons of pride without dignity, +of lofty pretensions with low propensities. They invariably bear +towards one another a constrained familiarity or frigid courtesy, +while to their huntsmen and their prickers, their chaplains and +their cooks, (or indeed any other man's,) they display unequivocal +signs of ingenuous cordiality. + +[Footnote 79: Vol. iv. p. 400.] + +How many do you imagine of our nobility are not bastards or sons of +bastards? [80] + +[Footnote 80: Vol. iv. p. 273.] + +_North_.--You have now settled the Peers. The Baronets come next in +order. + +_Landor_.--Baronets are prouder than any thing we see on this side +of the Dardanelles, excepting the proctors of universities, and the +vergers of cathedrals; and their pride is kept in eternal agitation, +both from what is above them and what is below. Gentlemen of any +standing (like Walter Savage Landor, of Warwick Castle, and Lantony +Abbey in Wales,) are apt to investigate their claims a little too +minutely, and nobility has neither bench nor joint-stool for them in +the vestibule. During the whole course of your life, have you ever +seen one among this, our King James's breed of curs, that either did +not curl himself up and lie snug and warm in the lowest company, [81] +or slaver and whimper in fretful quest of the highest. + +[Footnote 81: Vol. iv. p. 400.] + +_North_.--But you allow the English people to be a great people. + +_Landor_.--I allow them to be a nation of great fools. [82] +In England, if you write dwarf on the back of a giant, he will go +for a dwarf. + +[Footnote 82: Vol. iii. p. 135.] + +_North_.--I perceive; some wag has been chalking your back in that +fashion. Why don't you label your breast with the word giant? +Perhaps you would then pass for one. + +_Landor_.--I have so labelled it, but in vain. + +_North_.--Yet we have seen some great men, besides yourself, +Mr. Landor, in our own day. Some great military commanders, for +example; and, as a particular instance, Wellington. + +_Landor_.--It cannot be dissembled that all the victories of the +English, in the last fifty years, have been gained by the high +courage and steady discipline of the soldier, [83] and the most +remarkable where the prudence and skill of the commander were +altogether wanting. + +[Footnote 83: Vol. ii. p 214.] + +_North_.--Ay, that was a terrible mistake at Waterloo. Yet you +will allow Wellington to have been something of a general, if not in +India, at least in Spain. + +_Landor_.--Suppose him, or any distinguished general of the English, +to have been placed where Murillo was placed in America, Mina in +Spain; then inform me what would have been your hopes? [84] +The illustrious Mina, [85] of all the generals who have appeared in our +age, has displayed the greatest genius, and the greatest constancy. +That exalted personage, the admiration of Europe, accomplished the +most arduous and memorable work that any one mortal ever brought to +its termination. + +[Footnote 84: Vol. ii. p. 214.] + +[Footnote 85: Vol. ii. p. 3. Ded. "to Mina."--Wilson.] + +_North_.--We have had some distinguished statesmen at the helm in +our time, Mr. Landor. + +_Landor_.--Not one. + +_North_.--Mr. Pitt. + +_Landor_.--Your pilot that weathered the storm. Ha, ha! He was the +most insidious republican that England ever produced. + +_North_.--You should like him if he was a Republican. + +_Landor_.--But he was a debaser of the people as well as of the +peerage. By the most wasteful prodigality both in finance and war, +he was enabled to distribute more wealth among his friends and +partisans than has been squandered by the uncontrolled profusion of +French monarchs from the first Louis to the last. [86] Yet he was +more short-sighted than the meanest insect that can see an inch +before it. You should have added those equally enlightened and +prudent leaders of our Parliament, Lord Castlereagh and his +successors. Pitt, indeed! whose requisites for a successful minister +were three--to speak like an honest man, to act like a scoundrel, +and to be indifferent which he is called. But you have forgotten my +dialogue between him and that wretched fellow Canning. [87] +I have there given Pitt his quietus. As to Castlereagh and Canning, +I have crushed them to powder, spit upon them, kneaded them into +dough again; and pulverized them once more. Canning is the man who +deserted his party, supplanted his patrons, and abandoned every +principle he protested he would uphold. [88] Castlereagh is the +statesman who was found richer one day, by a million of zecchins, +than he was the day before, and this from having signed a treaty! +The only life he ever personally aimed at was the vilest in existence, +and none complains that he succeeded in his attempt. [89] I forgot: +he aimed at another so like it, (you remember his duel with Canning,) +that it is a pity it did not form a part of it. + +[Footnote 86: Vol. ii. p. 240, 241, 242.] + +[Footnote 87: Vol. iii. p. 66.] + +[Footnote 88: Vol. iii. p. 134.] + +[Footnote 89: Vol. iii. p. 172, and that there should be no mistake as +to the person indicated, Lord Castlereagh is again accused by name +at p. 187. The same charge occurs also in the dialogue between +Aristotle and Calisthenes! p 334, 335, 336; where Prince Metternich, +(Metanyctius,) the briber, is himself represented as a traitor to +his country. Aristotle is the teller of this cock-and-bull story!] + +_North_.--Horrible! most horrible! + +_Landor_.--Hear Epicurus and Leontion and Ternissa discuss the +merits of Castlereagh and Canning. + +_North_.--Epicurus! What, the philosopher who flourished some +centuries before the Christian era? + +_Landor_.--The same. He flourishes still for my purposes. + +_North_.--And who are Leontion and Ternissa? + +_Landor_.--Two of his female pupils. + +_North_.--Oh, two of his misses! And how come they and their master, +who lived above 2000 years before the birth of Canning and +Castlereagh, to know any thing about them? + +_Landor_.--I do not stand at trifles of congruity. Canning is the +very man who has taken especial care that no strong box among us +shall be without a chink at the bottom; the very man who asked and +received a gratuity (you remember the Lisbon job) [90] from the colleague +he had betrayed, belied, and thrown a stone at, for having proved +him in the great market-place a betrayer and a liar. Epicurus describes +Canning as a fugitive slave, a writer of epigrams on walls, and of songs +on the grease of platters, who attempted to cut the throat of a fellow +in the same household, [91] who was soon afterward more successful in doing +it himself. + +[Footnote 90: Vol. iv. p. 194.] + +[Footnote 91: Vol. iv. p. 194.] + +_North_.--Horrible, most horrible mockery! But even that is not new. +It is but Byron's brutal scoff repeated--"Carotid-artery-cutting +Castlereagh." + +_Landor_.--You Tories affect to be so squeamish. Epicurus goes on +to show Canning's ignorance of English. + +_North_.--Epicurus! Why not William Cobbett? + +_Landor_.--The Athenian philosopher introduces the trial of George +the Fourth's wife, and describes her as a drunken old woman, the +companion of soldiers and sailors, and lower and viler men. One +whose eyes, as much as can be seen of them, are streaky fat floating +in semi-liquid rheum. + +_North_.--And this is the language of Epicurus to his female pupils! +He was ever such a beast. + +_Landor_.--You are delicate. He goes on to allude to Canning's +having called her the _pride, the life, the ornament of society_, +(you know he did so call her in the House of Commons, according to +the newspaper reports; it is true he was speaking of what she had +been many years previously; before her departure from England.) [92] +Epicurus says triumphantly that the words, if used at all, should +have been placed thus--_the ornament, pride, and life_; for hardly a +Boeotian bullock-driver would have wedged in _life_ between _pride_ +and _ornament_. + +[Footnote 92: Vol. iv. p. 194, 195.--Pericles and Sophocles also +prattle about Queen Caroline! vol. 2, p. 106, 107.--In another place +the judgment and style of Johnson being under sentence, the Doctor's +judgment is "alike in all things," that is, "unsound and incorrect;" +and as to style, "a sentence of Johnson is like a pair of breeches, +an article of dress, divided into two parts, equal in length, breadth, +and substance, with a protuberance before and behind." The _contour_ +of Mr. Landor's figure can hardly be so graceful as that of the +Pythian Apollo, if his dress-breeches are made in this fashion, and +"his Florentine tailor never fails to fit him."--See vol. i. p. 296, +and p. 185, note.] + +_North_.--What dignified and important criticism! and how +appropriate from the lips of Epicurus! But why were you, Mr. Landor, +so rancorous against that miserable Queen Caroline? You have half +choked Sir Robert Wilson, one of her champions, and the marshal of +her coffin's royal progress through London, with a reeking panegyric +in your dedication to him [93] of a volume of your Talks. + +[Footnote 93: Vol. iii.] + +_Landor_.--I mistook Wilson for an uncompromising Radical. As to +his and Canning's nobled Queen, I confess I owed her a grudge for +disrespect to me at Como long before. + +_North_.--How? Were you personally acquainted with her? + +_Landor_.--Not at all: She was not aware that there was such a man +as Walter Savage Landor upon earth, or she would have taken care +that I should not be stopt by her porter at the lodge-gate, when I +took a fancy to pry into the beauties of her pleasure-ground. + +_North_.--Then her disrespect to you was not only by deputy, but +even without her cognisance? + +_Landor_.--Just so. + +_North_.--And that was the offence for which you assailed her with +such a violent invective after her death? + +_Landor_.--Oh no! it might possibly have sharpened it a little; +but I felt it my duty, as a censor of morals, to mark my reprobation +of her having grown fat and wrinkled in her old age. It was +necessary for me to correct the flattering picture drawn of her by +that caitiff Canning. You know the contempt of Demosthenes for +Canning. + +_North_.--Demosthenes, too! + +_Landor_.--Yes, in my dialogue between him and Eubulides, he +delineates Canning as a clumsy and vulgar man. + +_North_.--Every one knows that he was a man of remarkably fine +person and pleasing manners. + +_Landor_.--Never mind that--A vulgar and clumsy man, a +market-place demagogue, lifted on a honey-barrel by grocers and +slave-merchants, with a dense crowd around him, who listen in +rapture because his jargon is unintelligible. [94] Demosthenes, you +know, was a Liverpool electioneering agent, so he knew all about +Canning and his tricks, and his abstraction of L.14,000 sterling +from the public treasury to defray the expenses of his shameful +flight to Lesbos, that is Lisbon.[95] + +[Footnote 94: Vol. i. p. 245.] + +[Footnote 95: Vol. i. p. 247. This charge against Canning is +repeated at Vol. iii. p. 186, 187, and again at Vol. iv. p. 193.] + +_North_.--Has England produced no honest men of eminence, +Mr. Landor? + +_Landor_.--Very few; I can, however, name two--Archbishop Boulter +and Philip Savage. [96] I am not certain that I should ever have thought +of recording their merits, if their connexion with my own family had +not often reminded me of them; we do not always bear in mind very +retentively what is due to others, unless there is something at home +to stimulate the recollection. Boulter, Primate of Ireland, saved +that kingdom from pestilence and famine in 1729 by supplying the +poor with bread, medicines, attendance, and every possible comfort +and accommodation. Again, in 1740 and 1741, no fewer than 250,000 +persons were fed, twice a-day, principally at his expense. Boulter +was certainly the most disinterested, the most humane, the most +beneficent, and after this it is little to say, the most enlightened +and learned man that ever guided the counsels of a kingdom.[97] +Mr. Philip Savage, Chancellor of the Exchequer, married his wife's +sister, of his own name, but very distantly related. This minister +was so irreproachable, that even Swift could find no fault with him. +[97] He kept a groom in livery, and two saddle-horses. + +[Footnote 96: Also Vol. iii. p. 92.] + +[Footnote 97: Vol. iii. p. 91, 92, note.] + +_North_.--Is it possible? And these great men were of your family, +Mr. Landor! + +_Landor_.--I have told you so, sir--Philip was one of my Savage +ancestors, [98] and he and Boulter married sisters, who were also Savages. + +[Footnote 98: Vol. iii. p. 92, note.] + +_North_.--You have lived a good while in Italy? You like the +Italians, I believe? + +_Landor_.--I despise and abominate the Italians; and I have taken +some pains to show it in various ways. During my long residence at +Florence I was the only Englishman there, I believe, who never went +to court, leaving it to my hatter, who was a very honest man, and my +breeches-maker, who never failed to fit me. [99] The Italians were +always--far exceeding all other nations--parsimonious and avaricious, +the Tuscans beyond all other Italians, the Florentines beyond all other +Tuscans. [100] + +[Footnote 99: Vol. i. p. 185.] + +[Footnote 100: Vol. i. p. 219.] + +_North_.--But even Saul was softened by music: surely that of +Italy must have sometimes soothed you? + +_Landor_.--_Opera_ was, among the Romans, _labour_, as _operae +pretium_, &c. It now signifies the most contemptible of performances, +the vilest office of the feet and tongue. [101] + +[Footnote 101: Vol. i. p. 212.] + +_North_.--But the sculptors, the painters, the architects of Italy? +You smile disdainfully, Mr. Landor! + +_Landor_.--I do; their sculpture and painting have been employed +on most ignoble objects--on scourgers and hangmen, on beggarly +enthusiasts and base impostors. Look at the two masterpieces of the +pencil; the Transfiguration of Raphael, and the St. Jerome of +Correggio; [102] can any thing be more incongruous, any thing more +contrary to truth and history? + +[Footnote 102: Vol. i. p. 109, note.] + +_North_.--There have been able Italian writers both in verse and +prose? + +_Landor_.--In verse not many, in prose hardly any. + +_North_.--Boccaccio? + +_Landor_.--He is entertaining. + +_North_.--Machiavelli? + +_Landor_.--A coarse comedian. [103] + +[Footnote 103: Vol. ii. p. 252.] + +_North_.--You honour Ariosto? + +_Landor_.--I do not. Ariosto is a plagiary, the most so of all +poets. [104] Ariosto is negligent; his plan inartificial, defective, bad. + +[Footnote 104: Vol. i. p. 290.] + +_North_.--You protect Tasso? + +_Landor_.--I do, especially against his French detractors. + +_North_.--But you esteem the French? + +_Landor_.--I despise and abominate the French. + +_North_.--And their literature! + +_Landor_.--And their literature. As to their poets, bad as Ariosto +is, divide the Orlando into three parts, and take the worst of them, +and although it may contain a large portion of extremely vile poetry, +it will contain more of good than the whole French language. [105] + +[Footnote 105: Vol. i. p. 290.] + +_North_.--Is Boileau so very contemptible? + +_Landor_.--Beneath contempt. He is a grub. [106] + +[Footnote 106: See Mr. Landor's Polite Conversation with De Lille, +Vol. i. and Note at the end, p. 309, 310.] + +_North_.--Racine? + +_Landor_.--Diffuse, feeble, and, like Boileau, meanly thievish. +The most admired verse of Racine is stolen, [107] so is almost every other +that is of any value. + +[Footnote 107: Vol. i. p. 293, 294.] + +_North_.--But Voltaire, Mr. Landor? + +_Landor_.--Voltaire, sir, was a man of abilities, and author of +many passable epigrams, besides those which are contained in his +tragedies and heroics, [108] though, like Parisian lackeys, they are +usually the smartest when out of place. I tell you I detest and +abominate every thing French. [109] + +[Footnote 108: Vol. i. p. 254.] + +[Footnote 109: We, however, find Mr. Landor giving the French credit +for their proceedings in one remarkable instance, and it is so +seldom that we catch him in good-humour with any thing, that we will +not miss an opportunity of exhibiting him in an amiable light. This +champion of the liberties of the world, who has cracked his lungs in +endeavouring, on the shores of Italy, to echo the lament of Byron +over Greece, and who denounced the powers of Europe for suffering +the Duke d'Angoulême to assist his cousin Ferdinand in retaking the +Trocadero, yet approves of French proceedings in Spain on a previous +occasion. Admiring reader! you shall hear Sir Oracle himself again:-- +"The laws and institutions introduced by the French into Spain were +excellent, and the _king_" (Joseph Bonaparte!) "was liberal, affable, +sensible, and humane." Poor Trelawney, the friend of Byron, is made +to talk thus! Both Trelawney and Odysseus the noble Greek, to whom +he addresses himself, were more likely to participate in the +"indignation of a high-minded Spaniard," so vividly expressed by a +high-minded Englishman in the following sonnet:-- + + "We can endure that he should waste our lands, + Despoil our temples, and, by sword and flame, + Return us to the dust from which we came; + Such food a tyrant's appetite demands: + And we can brook the thought, that by his hands + Spain may be overpower'd, and he possess, + For his delight, a solemn wilderness, + Where all the brave lie dead. But, when of bands + That he will break for us he dares to speak, + Of benefits, and of a future day + When our enlighten'd minds shall bless his sway-- + Then the strain'd heart of fortitude proves weak; + Our groans, our blushes, our pale cheeks declare + That he has power to inflict what we lack strength to bear."] + +_North_.--Well, Mr. Landor, we have rambled over much ground; we +have journeyed from Dan to Beersheba, and found all barren. Let us +return home. + +_Landor_.--Before we do so, let me observe, that among several +noted Italians whom you have not glanced at, there is one whom I +revere--Alfieri. He was the greatest man of his time in Europe, +though not acknowleged or known to be so; [110] and he well knew his +station as a writer and as a man. Had he found in the world five equal +to himself, he would have walked out of it not to be jostled. [111] + +[Footnote 110: Vol. ii. p. 241.] + +[Footnote 111: Vol. ii. p. 258.] + +_North_.--He would have been sillier, then, than the flatulent +frog in the fable. Yet Alfieri's was, indeed, no ordinary mind, and +he would have been a greater poet than he was, had he been a better +man. I admire his Bruto Primo as much as you do, and I am glad to +hear you give your suffrage so heartily in favour of any one. + +_Landor_.--Sir, I admire the man as much as I do the poet. It is +not every one who can measure his height; I can. + +_North_.--Pop! there you go! you have got out of the bottle again, +and are swelling and vapouring up to the clouds. Do lower yourself +to my humble stature, (I am six feet four in my slippers.) Alfieri +reminds me of Byron. What of him? + +_Landor_.--A sweeper of the Haram. [112] A sweeper of the Haram is +equally in false costume whether assuming the wreath of Musaeus or +wearing the bonnet of a captain of Suliotes. _I_ ought to have been +chosen a leader of the Greeks. I would have led them against the +turbaned Turk to victory, armed not with muskets or swords but with +bows and arrows, and mailed not in steel cuirasses or chain armour +but in cork caps and cork shirts. Nothing is so cool to the head as +cork, and by the use of cork armour the soldier who cannot swim has +all the advantage of him who can. At the head of my swimming archers +I would have astonished the admirers of Leander and Byron in the +Dardanelles, and I would have proved myself a Duck worth two of the +gallant English admiral who tried in vain to force that passage. The +Sultan should have beheld us in Stamboul, and we would have +fluttered his dovecote within the Capi--- + +[Footnote 112: Vol. i. p. 301.--Vol. ii. p. 222, 223.] + +_North_.--I will not tempt you further. Let us proceed to business. +To what am I indebted for the honour of this visit, Mr. Landor? + +_Landor_.--I sent you the manuscript of a new Imaginary +Conversation between Porsou and Southey. + +_North_.--A sort of abnegation of your former one. For what +purpose did you send it to me? + +_Landor_.--For your perusal. Have you read it? + +_North_.--I have, and I do not find it altogether new. + +_Landor_.--How? + +_North_.--I have seen some part of it in print before. + +_Landor_.--Where? + +_North_.--In a production of your own. + +_Landor_.--Impossible! + +_North_.--In a rhymed lampoon printed in London in 1836. It is +called "A Satire on Satirists, and Admonition to Detractors." Do you +know such a thing? + +_Landor_.--(_Aside_. Unlucky! some good-natured friend has sent +him that suppressed pamphlet.) Yes, Mr. North; a poetical manifesto +of mine with that title was printed but not published. + +_North_.--No, only privately distributed among friends. It +contained some reflections on Wordsworth. + +_Landor_.--It did. + +_North_.--Why did you suppress it? + +_Landor_.--Because I was ashamed of it. Byron and others had +anticipated me. I had produced nothing either new or true to damage +Wordsworth. + +_North_.--Yet you have now, in this article that you offer me, +reproduced the same stale gibes. + +_Landor_.--But I have kept them in salt for six years: they will +now have more flavour. I have added some spice, too. + +_North_.--Which you found wrapt up in old leaves of the _Edinburgh +Review_. + +_Landor_.--Not the whole of it; a part was given to me by +acquaintances of the poet. + +_North_.--Eavesdroppers about Rydal Mount and Trinity Lodge. It was +hardly worth your acceptance. + +_Landor_.--Then you refuse my article. + +_North_.--It is a rare article, Mr. Landor--a brave caricature of +many persons and things; but, before I consent to frame it in ebony, +we must come to some understanding about other parts of the +suppressed pamphlet. Here it is. I find that in this atrabilarious +effusion you have treated ourselves very scurvily. At page 9 I see, + + "Sooner shall Tuscan Vallambrosa lack wood, + Than Britain, Grub street, Billingsgate, and _Blackwood_." + +Then there is a note at page 10: "Who can account for the eulogies of +_Blackwood_ on Sotheby's Homer as compared with Pope's and Cowper's? +Eulogy is not reported to be the side he _lies_ upon, in general." +On the same page, and the next, you say of Us, high Churchmen and +high Tories, + + "Beneath the battlements of Holyrood + There never squatted a more sordid brood + Than that which now, across the clotted perch, + Crookens the claw and screams for Court and Church." + +Then again at page 12, + + "Look behind you, look! + There issues from the Treasury, dull and dry as + The leaves in winter, Gifford and Matthias. + Brighter and braver Peter Pindar started, + And ranged around him all the lighter-hearted, + When Peter Pindar sank into decline, + Up from his hole sprang Peter Porcupine" + +All which is nothing to Us, but what does it lead to? + + "Him W ... son follow'd"-- + +Why those dots, Mr. Landor? + + "Him W ... son follow'd, of congenial quill, + As near the dirt and no less prone to ill. + Walcot, of English heart, had English pen, + Buffoon he might be, but for hire was none; + Nor plumed and mounted in Professor's chair + Offer'd to grin for wages at a fair." + +The rest is too foul-mouthed for repetition. You are a man of nasty +ideas, Mr. Landor. You append a note, in which, without any +authority but common rumour, you exhibit the learned Professor as an +important contributor to Blackwood, especially in those graces of +delicate wit so attractive to his subcribers. You declare, too, that +we fight under cover, and only for spite and pay; that honester and +wiser satirists were brave, that-- + + "Their courteous soldiership, outshining ours, + Mounted the engine and took aim from towers;" + +But that + + "From putrid ditches we more safely fight, + And push our zig-zag parallels by night." + +Again, at page 19-- + + "The Gentleman's, the Lady's we have seen, + Now blusters forth the Blackguard's Magazine; + And (Heaven from joint-stock companies protect us!) + Dustman and nightman issue their prospectus." + +_Landor (who has sate listening, with a broad grin, while Mr. North +was getting rather red in the face_.)--Really, Mr. North, +considering that you have followed the trade of a currier for the +last thirty years, you are remarkably sensitive to any little +experiment on your own skin. Put what has my unpublished satire to +do with our present affair? + +_North_.--The answer to that question I will borrow from the +satire itself, as you choose to term your scurrilous lampoon. Our +present affair, then, is to consider whether Walter Savage Landor, +Imaginary Conversation writer, in rushlight emulation of the +wax-candles that illumine our Noctes, shall be raised, as he aspires, +to the dignity of Fellow of the _Blackwood_ Society. In the +note at page 13 of the said lampoon, you state that "Lord Byron +declared that no gentleman could write in _Blackwood_;" and +you ask, "Has this assertion been ever disproved by experiment?" Now, +Mr. Landor, as you have thus adopted and often re-echoed Lord Byron's +opinion, that _no gentleman could write in Blackwood_, and yet wish +to enrol yourself among our writers, what is the inference? + +_Landor_. That I confess myself no gentleman, _you_ would infer. +_I_ make no such confession. I would disprove Byron's assertion, +by making the experiment. + +_North_. You do us too much honour. Yet reflect, Mr. Landor. After +the character you have given us, would you verily seek to be of our +fraternity? You who have denounced us so grandiloquently--you who +claim credit for lofty and disinterested principles of action? +Recollect that you have represented us as the worthy men who have +turned into ridicule Lamb, Keats, Hazlitt, Coleridge--(diverse +metals curiously graduated!)--all in short, who, recently dead, are +now dividing among them the admiration of their country. Whatever +could lessen their estimation; whatever could injure their fortune; +whatever could make their poverty more bitter; whatever could tend +to cast down their aspirations after fame; whatever had a tendency +to drive them to the grave which now has opened to them, was +incessantly brought into action against them by _us_ zealots for +religion and laws. A more deliberate, a more torturing murder, never +was committed, than the murder of Keats. The chief perpetrator of +his murder knew beforehand that he could not be hanged for it. These +are your words, Mr. Landor. + +_Landor_.--I do not deny them. + +_North_.--And in regard to the taste of the common public for +Blackwood's Cordials, you have said that, to those who are +habituated to the gin-shop, the dram is sustenance, and they feel +themselves both uncomfortable and empty without the hot excitement. +_Blackwood's_ is really a gin-palace. _Landor_.--All this I have +both said and printed, and the last sentence you have just read from +my satire is preceded by one that you have not read. An exposure of +the impudence and falsehood of _Blackwood's Magazine_ is not likely +to injure its character, _or diminish the number of its subscribers_; +and in this sentence you have the secret of my desire to become a +contributor to _Blackwood_. I want a popular vehicle to convey my +censures to the world, especially on Wordsworth. I do not pretend to +have any love for you and your brotherhood, Mr. North. But I dislike +you less than I do Wordsworth; and I frankly own to you, that the +fame of that man is a perpetual blister to my self-love. + +_North_.--Your habitual contemplation of his merits has confused +you into a notion that they are your own, and you think him an +usurper of the laurel crown that is yours by the divine right of +genius. What an unhappy monomania! Still, your application for +redress to us is unaccountable. You should know that we Black +Foresters, lawless as you may suppose us, are Wordsworth's liegemen. +He is our intellectual Chief. We call him the General! We are ever +busy in promoting his fame. + +_Landor_.--You are always blowing hot and cold on it, and have +done so for years past. One month you place him among the stars, the +next as low as the daisies. + +_North_.--And rightly too; for both are the better for his presence. + +_Landor_.--But you alternately worship and insult him, as some +people do their wooden idols. + +_North_.--If you must learn the truth, then, he has been to us, in +one sense, nothing better than an unfeeling wooden idol. Some of us +have been provoked by his indifference to our powers of annoyance, +and his ingratitude in not repaying eulogy in kind. We have among +ourselves a gander or two, (no offence, Mr. Landor,) that, +forgetting they are webfooted, pretend to a perch on the tall +bay-tree of Apollo, and, though heavy of wing, are angry with +Wordsworth for not encouraging their awkward flights. They, like you, +accuse him of jealousy, forsooth! That is the reason that they are +now gabbling at his knees, now hissing at his heels. Moreover, our +caprices are not unuseful to our interests. We alternately pique and +soothe readers by them, and so keep our customers. As day is +partitioned between light and darkness, so has the public taste as +to Wordsworth been divided between his reverers and the followers of +the Jeffrey heresy. After a lengthened winter, Wordsworth's glory is +now in the long summer days; all good judgments that lay torpid have +been awakened, and the light prevails against the darkness. But as +bats and owls, the haters of light, are ever most restless in the +season when nights are shortest, so are purblind egotists most +uneasy when their dusky range is contracted by the near approach and +sustained ascendancy of genius. We now put up a screen for the +weak-sighted, now withdraw it from stronger eyes; thus we plague and +please all parties. + +_Landor_.--Except Wordsworth, whose eyelids are too tender to +endure his own lustre reflected and doubled on the focus of your +burnished brass. He dreads the fate of Milton, "blasted with excess +of light." + +_North_. Thank you, sir; that is an ingenious way of accounting for +Wordsworth's neglect of our luminous pages. Yet it rather sounds +like irony, coming from Mr. Walter Savage Landor to the editor of +"The (Not Gentleman's) Magazine." + +_Landor_.--Pshaw! still harping on my Satire. + +_North_.--In that Satire you have charged Wordsworth with having +talked of Southey's poetry as not worth five shillings a ream. So +long as you refrained from _publishing_ this invidious imputation, +even those few among Wordsworth's friends who knew that you had +_printed_ it, (Southey himself among the number,) might think it +discreet to leave the calumny unregarded. But I observe that you +have renewed it, in a somewhat aggravated form, in the Article that +you now wish me to publish. You here allege that Wordsworth +represented Southey as an author, _all_ whose poetry was not worth +five shillings. You and I both know that Wordsworth would not deign +to notice such an accusation. Through good and evil report, the +brave man persevered in his ascent to the mountain-top, without ever +even turning round to look upon the rabble that was hooting him from +its base; and he is not likely now to heed such a charge as this. +But his friends may now ask, on what authority it is published? Was +it to you, Mr. Walter Landor, whom Southey (in his strange affection +for the name of Wat) had honoured with so much kindness--to you +whose "matin chirpings" he had so generously encouraged, (as he did +John Jones's "mellower song,")--was it to you that Wordsworth +delivered so injurious a judgment on the works of your patron? If so, +what was your reply? [113] + +[Footnote 113: + "I lagg'd; he (Southey) call'd me; urgent to prolong + My matin chirpings into mellower song."--LANDON. ] + +_Landor_.--Whether it was expressed to myself or not, is of little +consequence; it has been studiously repeated, and even printed by +others as well as by me. + +_North_.--By whom? + +_Landor_.--That, too, is of no importance to the fact. + +_North_.--I am thoroughly convinced that it is no fact, and that +Wordsworth never uttered any thing like such an opinion in the sense +that you report it. He and Southey have been constant neighbours and +intimate friends for forty years; there has never been the slightest +interruption to their friendship. Every one that knows Wordsworth is +aware of his frank and fearless openness in conversation. He has +been beset for the last half century, not only by genuine admirers, +but by the curious and idle of all ranks and of many nations, +and sometimes by envious and designing listeners, who have +misrepresented and distorted his casual expressions. Instances of +negligent and infelicitous composition are numerous in Southey, as +in most voluminous authors. Suppose some particular passage of this +kind to have been under discussion, and Mr. Wordsworth to have +exclaimed, "I would not give five shillings a ream for such poetry +as that." Southey himself would only smile, (he had probably heard +Wordsworth express himself to the same effect a hundred times); but +some insidious hearer catches at the phrase, and reports it as +Wordsworth's sweeping denunciation of all the poetry that his friend +has ever written, in defiance of all the evidence to the contrary to +be met with, not only in Wordsworth's every-day conversation, but in +his published works. There is no man for whose genius Mr. Wordsworth +has more steadily or consistently testified his admiration than for +Southey's; there is none for whom, and for whose character, he has +evinced more affection and respect. You and I, who have both read +his works, and walked and talked with the Old Man of the Mountain, +know that perfectly well. You have perhaps been under his roof, at +Rydal Mount? I have; and over his dining-room fireplace I observed, +as hundreds of his visitors must have done, five portraits--Chaucer's, +Bacon's, Spenser's, Shakspeare's, and Milton's, in one line. On the +same line is a bust on the right of these, and a portrait on the left; +and there are no other ornaments on that wall of the apartment. That +bust and that portrait are both of Southey, the man whom you pretend +he has so undervalued! By the bye, no one has been more ardent in +praise of Wordsworth than yourself. + +_Landor_.--You allude to the first dialogue between Southey and +Porson, in Vol. i. of my _Imaginary Conversations_. + +_North_.--Not to that only, though in that dialogue there are +sentiments much at variance with those which you would now give out +as Porson's. For example, remember what Porson there says of the +_Laodamia_. + +_Landor_.--The most fervid expression in commendation of it is +printed as Porson's improperly, as the whole context shows. It +should have been Southey's. + +_North_.--So, I perceive, you say in this new dialogue; and such a +mode of attempting to turn your back on yourself, to borrow a phrase +from your friend Lord Castlereagh's rhetoric, will be pronounced, +even by those who do not care a bawbee about the debate, as not only +ludicrous, but pitiably shabby. Keep your seat, Mr. Landor, and keep +your temper for once in your life. Let us examine into this +pretended mistake in your former dialogue about _Laodamia_. Well, as +you are up, do me the favour, sir, to mount the ladder, and take +down from yon top shelf the first volume of your _Conversations_. Up +in the corner, on the left hand, next the ceiling. You see I have +given you a high place. + +_Landor_.--Here is the book, Mr. North; it is covered with dust +and cobwebs. + +_North_.--The fate of classics, Mr. Landor. They are above the +reach of the housemaid, except when she brings the Turk's Head to +bear upon them. Now, let us turn to the list of _errata_ in this +first volume. We are directed to turn to page 52, line 4, and for +_sugar-bakers_, read _sugar-bakers' wives_. I turn to the page, +and find the error corrected by yourself; as are all the press +errors in these volumes, which were presented by you to a friend. I +bought the whole set for an old song at a sale. You see that the +omitted word _wives_ is carefully supplied by yourself, in your own +handwriting, Mr. Landor. On the same page, only five lines below +this correction, is the identical passage that you would now +transfer from Porson to Southey. Why did you not affix Porson's name +to the passage then, when you were so vigilantly perfecting the very +page? Why does no such correction appear even in the printed list of +_errata_? Let us read the passage. "A current of rich and bright +thoughts runs throughout the poem. [114] Pindar himself would not, on that +subject, have braced one into more nerve and freshness, nor +Euripides have inspired into it more tenderness and passion." + +[Footnote 114: Vol. i. p. 52.] + +_Landor_.--Mr. North, I repeat that that sentence should have been +printed as Southey's, not Porson's. + +_North_.--Yet it is quite consistent with a preceding sentence +which you can by no ingenuity of after-thought withdraw from Porson; +for the whole context forbids the possibility of its transition. +What does Porson there testify of the _Laodamia_? That it is +"_a composition such as Sophocles might have exulted to own_!"--and +a part of one of its stanzas "_might have been heard with shouts of +rapture in the Elysium the poet describes_." [115] + +[Footnote 115: Vol. i. p. 51. Few persons will think that Mr. Landor's +drift, which is obvious enough, could be favoured if these passages +could be _all_ shuffled over to Mr. Southey. It would be unwise and +inconsistent in Mr. Landor of all men to intimate that Southey's +judgment in poetry was inferior to Porson's; for Southey has been so +singular as to laud some of Mr. Landor's, and Mr. Landor has been so +grateful as to proclaim Southey the sole critic of modern times who +has shown "a delicate perception in poetry." It is rash, too, in him +to insinuate that Southey's opinion could be influenced by his +friendship; for he, the most amiable of men, was nevertheless a +friend of Mr. Lander also. But the only object of this argument is +to show how mal-adroitly Mr. Landor plays at thimblerig. He lets us +see him shift the pea. As for the praise and censure contained in +his dialogues, we have no doubt that any one concerned willingly +makes him a present of both. It is but returning bad money to +Diogenes. It is all Mr. Landor's; and, lest there should be any +doubt about the matter, he has taken care to tell us that he has not +inserted in his dialogues a single sentence written by, or recorded +of, the persons who are supposed to hold them.--See Vol. i. p. 96, +end of note.] + +These expressions are at least as fervid as those which you would +reclaim from Porson, now that, like a pettifogging practitioner, you +want to retain him as counsel against the most illustrious of +Southey's friends--the individual of whom in this same dialogue you +cause Southey to ask, "What man ever existed who spent a more retired, +a more inoffensive, a more virtuous life, than Wordsworth, or who +has adorned it with nobler studies?"--and what does Porson answer? +"I believe so; I have always heard it; and _those who attack +him with virulence or with levity are men of no morality and no +reflection_." [116] Thus you print Wordsworth's praise in rubric, +and fix it on the walls, and then knock your head against them. You +must have a hard skull, Mr. Landor. + +[Footnote 116: Vol. i. p. 40.] + +_Landor_.--Be civil, Mr. North, or I will brain you. + +_North_.--Pooh, pooh, man! all your Welsh puddles, which you call +pools, wouldn't hold my brains. To return to your proffered article, +there is one very ingenious illustration in it. "Diamonds sparkle +the most brilliantly on heads stricken by the palsy." + +_Landor_.--Yes; I flatter myself that I have there struck out a +new and beautiful, though somewhat melancholy thought. + +_North_.--New! My good man, it isn't yours; you have purloined +those diamonds. + +_Landor_.--From whom? + +_North_.--From the very poet you would disparage--Wordsworth. + + "Diamonds dart their brightest lustre + From the palsy-shaken head." + +Those lines have been in print above twenty years. + +_Landor_.--An untoward coincidence of idea between us. + +_North_.--Both original, no doubt; only, as Puff says in the +_Critic_, one of you thought of it the first, that's all. But how +busy would Wordsworth be, and how we should laugh at him for his +pains, if he were to set about reclaiming the thousands of ideas +that have been pilfered from him, and have been made the staple of +volumes of poems, sermons, and philosophical treatises without end! +He makes no stir about such larcenies. And what a coil have you made +about that eternal sea-shell, which you say he stole from you, and +which, we know, is the true and trivial cause of your hostility +towards him! + +_Landor_.--Surely I am an ill-used man, Mr. North. My poetry, if +not worth five shillings, nor thanks, nor acknowledgment, was yet +worth borrowing and putting on. I, the author of _Gebir_, Mr. North, +--do you mark me? + +_North_.--Yes; the author of Gebir and Gebirus; think of that, St. +Crispin and Crispanus! + + "Sing me the fates of Gebir, and the Nymph + Who challenged Tamar to a wrestling match, + And on the issue pledged her precious shell. + Above her knees she drew the robe succinct; + Above her breast, and just below her arms. + 'She, rushing at him, closed, and floor'd him flat. + And carried off the prize, a bleating sheep; + The sheep she carried easy as a cloak, + And left the loser blubbering from his fall, + And for his vanish'd mutton. Nymph divine! + I cannot wait describing how she came; + My glance first lighted on her nimble feet; + Her feet resembled those long shells explored + By him who, to befriend his steed's dim sight, + Would blow the pungent powder in his eye.'" [117] + +Is that receipt for horse eye-powder to be found in White's Farriery, +Mr. Landor? + +[Footnote 117: The lines within inverted commas, are Mr. Landor's, +without alteration.] + +_Landor_.--Perhaps not, Mr. North. Will you cease your fooling, +and allow me to proceed? "I," the author of _Gebir_, "never lamented +when I believed it lost." The MS. was mislaid at my grandmother's, +and lay undiscovered for four years. "I saw it neglected; and never +complained. Southey and Forster have since given it a place whence +men of lower stature are in vain on tiptoe to take it down. It would +have been honester and more decorous if the writer of certain verses +had mentioned from what bar he took his wine." [118] Now keep your ears +open, Mr. North; I will read my verses first, and then Wordsworth's. +Here they are. I always carry a copy of them both in my pocket. Listen! + +[Footnote 118: Mr. Landor's printed complaint, _verbatim_, from his +"Satire on Satirists."] + +_North_.--List, oh list! I am all attention, Mr. Landor. + +_Landor_ (reads.)-- + + "But I have sinuous shells of pearly hue + Within, and they that lustre have imbibed + In the sun's palace-porch, where, when unyoked, + His chariot-wheel stands midway in the wave." + + "Shake one, and it awakens--then apply + Its polish'd lip to your attentive ear, + And it remembers its august abodes, + And murmurs as the ocean murmurs there." + +These are lines for you, sir! They are mine. What do you think of +them? + +_North_.--I think very well of them; they remind one of +Coleridge's "Eolian Harp." They are very pretty lines, Mr. Landor. I +have written some worse myself. + +_Landor_--So has Wordsworth. Attend to the echo in the _Excursion_. + + "I have seen + A curious child, who dwelt upon a tract + Of inland ground, applying to his ear + The convolutions of a smooth-lipp'd shell, + To which, in silence hush'd, his very soul + Listen'd intensely, and his countenance soon + Brighten'd with joy; for, murmuring from within, + Were heard sonorous cadences, whereby, + To his belief, the monitor express'd + Mysterious union with its native sea." + +_North_.--There is certainly much resemblance between the two +passages; and, so far as you have recited Wordsworth's, his is not +superior to yours; which very likely, too, suggested it; though that +is by no means a sure deduction, for the thought itself is as common +as the sea-shell you describe, and, in all probability, at least as +old as the Deluge. + +_Landor_.--"_It is but justice to add, that this passage has been +the most admired of any in Mr. Wordsworth's great poem_." [119] + +[Footnote 119: From Mr. Landor, _verbatim_.] + +_North_.--Hout, tout, man! The author of the _Excursion_ could +afford to spare you a thousand finer passages, and he would seem +none the poorer. As to the imputed plagiarism, Wordsworth would no +doubt have avowed it had he been conscious that it was one, and that +you could attach so much importance to the honour of having reminded +him of a secret in conchology, known to every old nurse in the +country, as well as to every boy or girl that ever found a shell on +the shore, or was tall enough to reach one off a cottage parlour +mantelpiece; but which he could apply to a sublime and reverent +purpose, never dreamed of by them or you. It is in the application +of the familiar image, that we recognise the master-hand of the +poet. He does not stop when he has described the toy, and the +effect of air within it. The lute in Hamlet's hands is not more +philosophically dealt with. There is a pearl within Wordsworth's +shell, which is not to be found in your's, Mr. Landor. He goes on:-- + + "Even such a shell the universe itself + Is to the ear of Faith; and there are times, + I doubt not, when to you it cloth impart + Authentic tidings of invisible things-- + Of ebb and flow, and ever-during power, + And central peace subsisting at the heart + Of endless agitation." + +These are the lines of a poet, who not only stoops to pick up a +shell now and then, as he saunters along the sea-shore, but who is +accustomed to climb to the promontory above, and to look upon the +ocean of things:-- + + "From those imaginative heights that yield + Far-stretching views into eternity." + +Do not look so fierce again, Mr. Landor. You who are so censorious of +self-complacency in others, and indeed of all other people's faults, +real or imagined, should endure to have your vanity rebuked. + +_Landor_.--I have no vanity. I am too proud to be vain. + +_North_.--Proud of what? + +_Landor_.--Of something beyond the comprehension of a Scotchman, +Mr. North--proud of my genius. + +_North_.--Are you so very great a genius, Mr. Landor? + +_Landor_.--I am. _Almighty Homer is twice far above Troy and her +towers, Olympus and Jupiter. First, when Priam bends before Achilles, +and a second time, when the shade of Agamemnon speaks among the dead. +That awful spectre, called up by genius in after-time, shook the +Athenian stage. That scene was ever before me; father and daughter +were ever in my sight; I felt their looks, their words, and again I +gave them form and utterance; and, with proud humility, I say it_-- + + "I am tragedian in this scene alone. + Station the Greek and Briton side by side + And if derision be deserved--deride." + +_Surely there can be no fairer method of overturning an offensive +reputation, from which the scaffolding is not yet taken down, than +by placing against it the best passages, and most nearly parallel, +in the subject, from Æschylus and Sophocles. To this labour the +whole body of the Scotch critics and poets are invited, and, moreover, +to add the ornaments of translation_. [120] + +[Footnote 120: This strange rhapsody is verily Mr. Landor's. It is +extracted from his "Satire on the Satirists."] + +_North_.--So you are not only a match for Æschylus and Sophocles, +but on a par with "almighty Homer when he is far above Olympus and +Jove." Oh! ho! ho! As you have long since recorded that modest +opinion of yourself in print, and not been lodged in Bedlam for it, +I will not now take upon myself to send for a straight-waistcoat. + +_Landor_.--Is this the treatment I receive fron the Editor of +_Blackwood's Magazine_, in return for my condescension in offering +him my assistance? Give me back my manuscript, sir. I was indeed a +fool to come hither. I see how it is. You Scotchmen are all alike. +We consider no part of God's creation so cringing, so insatiable, so +ungrateful as the Scotch: nevertheless, we see them hang together by +the claws, like bats; and they bite and scratch you to the bone if +you attempt to put an Englishman in the midst of them. [121] But you +shall answer for this usage, Mr. North: you shall suffer for it. +These two fingers have more power than all your malice, sir, even if +you had the two Houses of Parliament to back you. A pen! You shall +live for it. [122] + +[Footnote 121: Imaginary Conversations, vol. iv, p. 283.] + +[Footnote 122: Ibid. vol. i. p. 126.] + +_North_.--Fair and softly, Mr. Landor; I have not rejected your +article yet. I am going to be generous. Notwithstanding all your +abuse of Blackwood and his countrymen, I consent to exhibit you to +the world as a Contributor to _Blackwood's Magazine_, and, in the +teeth of all your recorded admiration of Wordsworth, I will allow +you to prove yourself towards him a more formidable critic than +Wakley, and a candidate for immortality with Lauder. Do you rue? + +_Landor_.--Not at all. I have past the Rubicon. + +_North_.--Is that a pun? It is worthy of Plato. Mr. Landor, you +have been a friend of Wordsworth. But, as _he_ says-- + + "What is friendship? Do not trust her, + Nor the vows which she has made; + Diamonds dart their brightest lustre + From the palsy-shaken head." + +_Landor_.--I have never professed friendship for him. + +_North_.--You have professed something more, then. Let me read a +short poem to you, or at least a portion of it. It is an "Ode to +Wordsworth." + + + "O WORDSWORTH! + That other men should work for me + In the rich mines of poesy, + Pleases me better than the toil + Of smoothing, under harden'd hand, + With attic emery and oil, + The shining point for wisdom's wand, + Like those THOU temperest 'mid the rills + Descending from thy native hills. + He who would build his fame up high, + The rule and plummet must apply, + Nor say--I'll do what I have plann'd, + Before he try if loam or sand + Be still remaining in the place + Delved for each polish'd pillar's base. + _With skilful eye and fit device_ + THOU _raisest every edifice_: + Whether in shelter'd vale it stand, + Or overlook the Dardan strand, + Amid those cypresses that mourn + Laodamia's love forlorn." + +Four of the brightest intellects that ever adorned any age or country. +are then named, and a fifth who, though not equal to the least of +them, is not unworthy of their company; and what follows? + + "I wish them every joy above + That highly blessèd spirits prove, + Save one, and that too shall be theirs, + But after many rolling years, + WHEN 'MID THEIR LIGHT THY LIGHT APPEARS." + +Here are Chaucer, Shakspeare, Milton, Spenser, Dryden too, all in +bliss above, yet not to be perfectly blest till the arrival of +Wordsworth among them! Who wrote that, Mr. Landor? [123] + +[Footnote 123: Whom Mr. L., who is the most capricious as well as the +most arrogant of censors, sometimes takes into favour.] + +_Landor_.--I did, Mr. North. + +_North_.--Sir, I accept your article. It shall be published in +_Blackwood's Magazine_. Good-morning, sir. + +_Landor_.--Good-day, sir. Let me request your particular attention +to the correction of the press. (_Landor retires_.) + +_North_.--He is gone! Incomparable Savage! I cannot more +effectually retaliate upon him for all his invectives against us +than by admitting his gossiping trash into the Magazine. No part of +the dialogue will be mistaken for Southey's; nor even for Porson's +inspirations from the brandy-bottle. + +All the honour due to the author will be exclusively Mr. Walter +Savage Landor's; and, as it is certainly "not worth five shillings," +no one will think it "worth borrowing or putting on." + + * * * * * + + + + +THE BURIAL MARCH OF DUNDEE. + + Sound the fife, and raise the slogan--let the pibroch shake the air + With its wild triumphal music, worthy of the freight we bear; + Let the ancient hills of Scotland hear once more the battle song + Swell within their glens and valleys as the clansmen march along. + Never, from the field of combat, never from the deadly fray, + Was a nobler trophy carried than we bring with us to-day: + Never, since the valiant Douglas in his dauntless bosom bore + Good King Robert's heart--the priceless--to our dear Redeemer's shore! + Lo! we bring with us the hero--Lo! we bring the conquering Graeme, + Crown'd as best beseems a victor from the altar of his fame; + Fresh and bleeding from the battle whence his spirit took its flight + Midst the crashing charge of squadrons, and the thunder of the fight! + Strike, I say, the notes of triumph, as we march o'er moor and lea, + Is there any here will venture to bewail our dead Dundee? + Let the widows of the traitors weep until their eyes are dim; + Wail ye may indeed for Scotland--let none dare to mourn for him! + See, above his glorious body lies the royal banner's fold-- + See, his valiant blood is mingled with its crimson and its gold-- + See how calm he looks and stately, like a warrior on his shield, + Waiting till the flush of morning breaks upon the battle field. + See--O never more, my comrades! shall we see that falcon eye + Kindle with its inward lightning, as the hour of fight drew nigh; + Never shall we hear the voice that, clearer than the trumpet's call, + Bade us strike for King and Country, bade us win the field or fall! + On the heights of Killiecrankie yester-morn our army lay: + Slowly rose the mist in columns from the river's broken way, + Hoarsely roar'd the swollen torrent, and the pass was wrapp'd in gloom + When the clansmen rose together from their lair among the broom. + Then we belted on our tartans, and our bonnets down we drew, + And we felt our broadswords' edges, and we proved them to be true, + And we pray'd the prayer of soldiers, and we cried the gathering cry, + And we clasp'd the hands of kinsmen, and we swore to do or die! + Then our leader rode before us on his war-horse black as night-- + Well the Cameronian rebels knew that charger in the fight!-- + And a cry of exultation from the bearded warriors rose, + For we loved the house of Claver'se, and we thought of good Montrose. + But he raised his hand for silence--"Soldiers, I have sworn a vow; + Ere the evening star shall glisten on Schehallion's lofty brow, + Either we shall rest in triumph, or another of the Graemes + Shall have died in battle harness for his country and King James! + Think upon the Royal Martyr--think of what his race endure-- + Think on him whom butchers murder'd on the field of Magus Muir;-- + By his sacred blood I charge ye--by the ruin'd hearth and shrine-- + By the blighted hopes of Scotland--by your injuries and mine-- + Strike this day as if the anvil lay beneath your blows the while, + Be they Covenanting traitors, or the brood of false Argyle! + Strike! and drive the trembling rebels backwards o'er the stormy Forth; + Let them tell their pale Convention how they fared within the North. + Let them tell that Highland honour is not to be bought nor sold, + That we scorn their Prince's anger, as we loathe his foreign gold. + Strike! and when the fight is over, if ye look in vain for me, + Where the dead are lying thickest, search for him who was Dundee!" + + Loudly then the hills re-echo'd with our answer to his call, + But a deeper echo sounded in the bosoms of us all. + For the lands of wide Breadalbane, not a man who heard him speak + Would that day have left the battle. Burning eye and flushing cheek + Told the clansmen's fierce emotion, and they harder drew their breath, + For their souls were strong within them, stronger than the grasp of + death. + Soon we heard a challenge-trumpet sounding in the pass below, + And the distant tramp of horses, and the voices of the foe; + Down we crouch'd amid the bracken, till the Lowland ranks drew near, + Panting like the hounds in summer when they scent the stately deer. + From the dark defile emerging, next we saw the squadrons come, + Leslie's foot and Leven's troopers marching to the tuck of drum; + Through the scatter'd wood of birches, o'er the broken ground and heath, + Wound the long battalion slowly till they gain'd the field beneath, + Then we bounded from our covert.--Judge how look'd the Saxons then, + When they saw the rugged mountain start to life with armed men! + Like a tempest down the ridges swept the hurricane of steel, + Rose the slogan of Macdonald--flash'd the broadsword of Lochiel! + Vainly sped the withering volley 'mongst the foremost of our band, + On we pour'd until we met them, foot to foot, and hand to hand. + Horse and man went down like drift-wood, when the floods are black at + Yule, + And their carcasses are whirling in the Garry's deepest pool. + Horse and man went down before us--living foe there tarried none + On the field of Killiecrankie, when that stubborn fight was done! + + And the evening star was shining on Schehallion's distant head, + When we wiped our bloody broadswords and return'd to count the dead. + There we found him, gash'd and gory, stretch'd upon the cumber'd plain, + As he told us where to seek him, in the thickest of the slain. + And a smile was on his visage, for within his dying ear + Peal'd the joyful note of triumph and the clansmen's clamorous cheer; + So, amidst the battle's thunder, shot, and steel, and scorching flame, + In the glory of his manhood pass'd the spirit of the Graeme! + + Open wide the vaults of Athol, where the bones of heroes rest-- + Open wide the hallow'd portals to receive another guest! + Last of Scots, and last of freemen--last of all that dauntless race, + Who would rather die unsullied than outlive the land's disgrace! + O thou lion-hearted warrior! reck not of the after-time, + Honour may be deem'd dishonour, loyalty be called a crime. + Sleep in peace with kindred ashes of the noble and the true, + Hands that never fail'd their country, hearts that never baseness knew. + Sleep, and till the latest trumpet wakes the dead from earth and sea, + Scotland shall not boast a braver chieftain than our own Dundee! + + W.E.A. + + * * * * * + + + + +LORD ELLENBOROUGH AND THE WHIGS. + + +The period of a single year but just elapsed has exhibited in the +neighbourhood of the Indus events of the most memorable and +momentous kind. Disasters the most disgraceful have been +endured--victories the most brilliant have been achieved. The policy +and the fortunes of a mighty empire under one governor, have been +wholly reversed under another. Safety and security have been +substituted for danger and dismay--a strong and dignified peace for +a weak and aggressive war. These changes have been coincident with a +great revolution in domestic politics. Under Whig auspices those +evils had arisen which their successors have now redressed. Under +the administration of Whigs, that flood of calamity was opened up +which has been arrested without their aid; but which could not have +continued its threatened course without the most perilous +consequences to the country, and the heaviest burden of responsibility +on the authors of the mischief. + +In such circumstances it might have been expected--if manly courage +or common decency were to be looked for in such a quarter--that on +these Eastern questions the Whig party should this session have +followed one or other of two courses: either that they should have +taken a bold line of opposition, and vindicated their own Indian +policy, while they attacked that of their successors: or that they +should have preserved a prudent silence on subjects where they could +say nothing in their own praise, and have only lifted up their voice +to join the general acclamations of the country for successes in +which, though not achieved by themselves, they had the best reason +to rejoice, as shielding them from the ignominy and punishment which, +in an opposite event, would have been poured out by public +indignation on the heads of the original wrongdoers. + +A strong or an honest party would have chosen one or other of these +lines. But the Whigs are neither strong nor honest; and they have +accordingly, in the late Indian discussions in Parlament, pursued a +course of policy in which it is difficult to say whether feebleness +or fraud be the more conspicuous. They have not ventured to +vindicate their own conduct in invading the Affghan country: they +have not dared to dispute the wisdom of their successors in retiring +from it, when the object of a just retribution was accomplished. But +while driven from these points--while forced to acknowledge the +ability and judgment with which the present Governor-General has +applied the forces of the empire to retrieve our honour and +reputation in the East--while unable to point to a single practical +measure as either improperly taken, or improperly omitted by him, +the Whigs could not refrain, on some pretext or other, from marring +the general joy by the discordant hissings of an impotent envy. +Experiencing in an unparalleled degree both the indulgence of a +generous nation, who are willing to forget the past in the enjoyment +of the present, and the forbearance of high-minded opponents, who +could easily have triumphed in the exposure of their disastrous +blunders, the Whigs have made a characteristic return, by +rancorously assailing the man whom the public views as its benefactor, +with captious criticisms on the terms of a proclamation, or +hypocritical objections to the transmission of a trophy. With that +cunning which the faction have often shown in the use of apparent +opportunities, they gained the reluctant concurrence of a few upright +men, of whose peculiar scruples they contrived to avail themselves, +but with an ignorance of the true English character, for which they +are equally distinguished, they overshot the mark, and stand +convicted of a design to make a verbal misconstruction the pretence +for persecuting an absent man, and to convert honest prejudices into +an unconscious instrument of oppression. They have thus earned a +large allowance of general contempt, and they have nowhere, perhaps, +excited a stronger feeling of disgust than in the minds of those who +thought themselves compelled, by a rigid conscience, to give a +seeming concurrence to their proceedings. + +In judging of the conduct and position of Lord Ellenborough, it were +gross ingratitude and injustice to forget the nature of the +calamities with which India was assailed and threatened at the +commencement of his goverment. In the second week of March 1842, the +overland mail from the East conveyed intelligence to our shores which +struck the nation to the very heart, and spread one universal +feeling of grief and dismay, approaching for a time as near to a +feeling of despondency as English breasts can be taught to know. Let +us describe the effect in the words of an impartial observer writing +at the time:-- + +"No such disastrous news has for many years reached this country as +that which has arrived from India. 'The progress of our arms' was +carried merrily on, till our flag was set beside that of our puppet, +Shah Soojah, in Cabul; but there the progress has abruptly +terminated in the total engulfing of 'our arms.' Yes, Sir William +Macnaghten had just written home to declare our supremacy established, +when all Cabul rose beneath his feet. Sir Alex. Burnes was the first +swallowed in the earthquake of arms; next Sir William himself, +governor of Bombay, and representative of the power of England in +North-Western India, was destroyed, and his mutilated remains were +made the object of ignominious ribaldry; and at length, if very +general rumour is to be believed, the English army of occupation has +been literally expunged. Corunna, Walcheren, all the reverses that +have chequered our military career, baffle the memory to find a +parallel to the utter defeat which, in the eyes of the barbarians of +the Indian frontier, has crushed our power."--_Spectator_, p. 242. + +These were the feelings that possessed this country, and which wrung, +even from the Whigs, with every wish to palliate them, an +acknowledgment of the heavy disasters which had befallen us. Pressed +with the weight of these convictions, Mr. Macaulay, in a debate on +the Income-tax, in April 1842, after _cannily_ disclaiming any +responsibility for the Affghan invasion, as having been effected +before he joined the Government, was driven to deplore these +military reverses as the greatest disaster that had ever befallen us: +and added, somewhat incongruously:-- + +"He did not anticipate, if we acted with vigour, the least danger to +our empire; though it must always be remembered that a great +Mahometan success could not but fall like a spark upon tinder, and +act on the freemasonry of Islamism from Morocco to Coromandel." + +What, then, must have been the feeling in India, in the very focus of +this calamitous visitation? Lord Auckland's despatches, now made +public, will tell us what _he_ felt. That he contemplated from the +first the total and instant evacuation of Affghanistan, without +attempting a blow for the vindication of our honour, or the release +of the prisoners, is past all dispute, from documents under his own +hand. Whether he is to be blamed for this resolution, or for the +state of matters which rendered it necessary, is not here the +question. But the fact is remarkable, as throwing further light on +the effrontery of the Whigs. Lord Palmerston, in last August, +twitted the Ministry with Lord Ellenborough's supposed intention to +retire from beyond the Indus, and congratulated the country on the +frustration of that intention, as having saved us "from the eternal +disgrace." He was answered by the Prime Minister at the time in +terms that might have been a warning, and that are now no longer a +mystery. + +"The noble lord presumed much on my forbearance, in what he said with +respect to the Affghan war: and I will not be betrayed by any +language of his to forget what I owe to the public service in +replying to him. It is easy to say, why don't you move troops to +Candahar; and why don't you move troops somewhere else? The noble +lord finds no difficulty in this; but does he recollect that 26,000 +camels, carrying the baggage of the troops in Affghanistan, were +sacrificed before they reached it? The noble lord says, 'Who +contemplated the abandonment of Affghanistan?' _I could tell the +noble lord_. Beware, I say; let the noble lord beware of +indiscriminate reflections upon those in office." + +It is now known "_who_ contemplated the abandonment of Affghanistan," +without a struggle to punish the perfidy of the Affghans, to avenge +the insults to our honour, or to redress the wrongs of our countrymen. +Lord Auckland resolved on this course, without even an aspiration +after any thing better than a safe retreat. Nor is such a resolution +to be wondered at when the state of our military preparations is +considered. A letter from Sir Jasper Nicolls, of 24th January 1842, +to the statements in which we see no contradiction in the _Blue Book_, +exhibits at once the condition of our resources, and the feelings of +the head of the Indian army. + +"After I had dispatched my letter to your Lordship in Council, I +received the note, of which I transmit a copy herewith, from the +Adjutant-General, and I had a second discussion with Mr. Clerk on the +subject of holding our ground at Jellalabad against any Affghan +power or force, in view to retrieving our position at Cabul, by +advancing upon it, at the fit season, simultaneously from Candahar +to Jellalabad. Having thus regained our position, and the influence +which such proof of power must give, not only in Affghanistan but +amongst all the neighbouring states, we should withdraw with dignity +and undiminished honour. Admitting the undeniable force of this +argument, I am greatly inclined to doubt that we have at present +either army or funds sufficient to renew this contest. Money may, +perhaps, be attainable, but soldiers are not, without leaving India +bare. Shortly before I left Calcutta, there were at least 33,000 men +in our pay in Affghanistan and Scinde, including Shah Soojah's troops, +but not the rabble attached to his person. How insufficient that +number has been to awe the barbarous and at first disunited tribes +of Affghanistan and Scinde, our numerous conflicts, our late reverses, +and our heavy losses fully prove. I admit that a blind confidence in +persons around the late envoy--a total want of forethought and +foresight on his part--unaccountable indecision at first, +followed by cessions which, day by day, rendered our force more +helpless--inactivity, perhaps, on some occasions--have led to these +reverses; but we must not overlook the effects of climate, the +difficulty of communication, the distance from our frontier, and the +fanatical zeal of our opponents. No doubt your lordship can cause an +army to force its way to Cabul, if you think our name and +predominance in India cannot otherwise be supported; but our means +are utterly insufficient to insure our dominion over that country. +If this be granted, the questions for your lordship's decision +are--whether we shall retake Cabul, to assert our paramount power; +and whether, if we subsequently retire, our subjects and neighbours +will not attribute our withdrawal even then, to conscious inability +to hold the country." + +In the same spirit the Commander-in-chief, in the beginning of +February transmitted to General Pollock, with the acquiescence of +lord Auckland, to whom he communicated his letter, the following +explanation of the views of Government:-- + +"You may deem it perfectly certain that Government will not do more +than detach this brigade, and this in view to support Major-General +Sale, either at Jellalabad for a few weeks, or to aid his retreat; +very probably also to strengthen the Sikhs at Peshawar for some time. +It is not intended to collect a force for the reconquest of Cabul. +You will convey the preceding paragraph, if you safely can, to the +Major-General." + +Such being the desponding views of the authorities stationed on the +spot, what must have been the anxiety of the new Governor-General on +his arrival in India, when this scene of disaster suddenly opened +upon him with a succession of still further calamities in its train? +We cannot better describe his position than in the words of Sir +Robert Peel, in his speech on the Whig motion for censure-- + +"The moment he set foot in Madras, what intelligence met him!--the +day he arrived at Benares, what a succession of events took place, +calculated to disturb the firmest mind, and to infuse apprehensions +into the breast of the boldest man! It has been said the cry in +England was, 'What next?' That was a question which Lord +Ellenborough had to put to himself for four or five days after his +arrival. He lands at Madras on the 15th of February, presuming at +the time that his predecessor had secured the admirable position so +frequently spoken of in Affghanistan. He lands at Madras, after a +four months' voyage, in necessary ignorance of all that had occurred +in that interval of time, and to his astonishment he hears of the +insurrection at Cabul. He receives tidings that Sir William +Macnaghten and Sir Alexander Burnes, the envoy and representative of +the British Government, had been murdered; that the city was in a +state of insurrection, and that doubts were entertained as to the +security of the British army. What next? He arrives at Calcutta, and +there hears of the orders of his predecessor to hasten the +evacuation of Affghanistan, for the noble reason of inflicting as +little discredit as possible upon the British powers. He repairs to +Benares, and there he hears the tremendous news that not only you +had lost power in Affghanistan, but that you had so depressed the +spirits and shaken the confidence of the native army, that General +Pollock gives this melancholy account in a letter to Captain M'Gregor: +--'It must no doubt appear to you and Sale most extraordinary, that, +with the force I have here, I do not at once move on; God knows it +has been my anxious wish to do so, but I have been helpless. I came +on ahead to Peshawar to arrange for an advance, but was saluted with +a report of 1900 sick, and a bad feeling among the Sepoys. I visited +the hospitals, and endeavoured to encourage by talking to them, but +they had no heart. On the 1st instant the feeling on the part of the +Sepoys broke out, and I had the mortification of knowing that the +Hindoos of four out of five native corps refused to advance. I +immediately took measures to sift the evil, and gradually reaction +has taken place, in the belief that I will wait for the +reinforcements. This has caused me the utmost anxiety on your account; +your situation is never out of my thoughts; but having told you what +I have, you and Sale will at once see that necessity has kept me here. +I verily believe, if I were to attempt to move on now without the +reinforcement, that the four regiments implicated would, as far as +the Hindoos are concerned, stand fast. The case, therefore, now +stands thus--whether I am to attempt, with my present materials, to +advance, and risk the appearance of disaffection or cowardice, which +in such a case could not again be got over, or wait the arrival of a +reinforcement, which will make all sure--this is the real state of +the case. If I attempted now, I might risk you altogether; but if +you can hold out, the reinforcements would make your relief as +certain as any earthly thing can be.' What next? On the 17th of April, +Lord Ellenborough hears of the failure of General England to force +the Kojuck Pass. On the 19th of April he hears that Ghuznee has +fallen. And what next? This was a question which, I repeat, Lord +Ellenborough had from day to day to put to himself. But what next? +Lord Ellenborough had to contemplate the retirement of the British +force from Afghanistan. This was due to the safety of the British +army, after the proof that the king you had set upon the throne had +no root in the affections of the people, and that the army in +possession of Affghanistan was separated from supplies by a distance +of 600 miles. Finding this state of things, Lord Ellenborough +thought he had no alternative but to bring the troops within the +borders of British protection. For that difficult operation your +policy, and not that of Lord Ellenborough, is responsible. Those who +involved the country in an expedition of this kind, ought justly to +be responsible for its retirement." + +It is needless to detail the difficulties in which the armies of +General Pollock and General Nott were then placed. Despondency and +desertion prevailed among the native troops, so as to render any +advance in the utmost degree hazardous, even if they had been +capable of moving. But of the means even of retrograde motion they +were utterly destitute. The explanations given in Parliament on the +vote of thanks to the army and the Governor-General, establish +beyond a doubt the absence of all means of carriage till the +indefatigable exertions of Lord Ellenborough supplied them with +every thing that was needed. The Whigs affect to disparage these +arrangements as belonging to the vulgar department of a +Commissary-General; and we may therefore infer that Lord +Ellenborough's predecessor would have deemed such a task beneath his +dignity, and left it to some delegate, who might have performed or +neglected his duty, as accident might direct. Had that been the case, +the chances are at least equal, that Lord Auckland would have been +as well and as successfully served in this branch of military +administration as he had already been in the occupation of Cabul, +and that further failures and reverses would have hung the tenure of +our Indian empire on the cast of a die. + +The evacuation of Affghanistan at the earliest possible period, was +dictated both by the proceedings of Lord Auckland, by the condition +of India, and by the peaceful policy of a Conservative Government. +But the mode in which it should be accomplished, and the +demonstrations of British power which should attend it, were +necessarily questions depending entirely "upon military +considerations;" and for several months it seemed impossible that +our armies could be put in a state of moral and physical strength, +such as could justify the risk of any forward or devious movement of +importance. The indefatigable zeal and admirable arrangements, +however, of the Governor-General, his personal presence near the +scene of exertion, the concentration of a large and imposing force +on the Sutlej, giving courage and security to the troops in the field, +and the undaunted spirit of British officers, succeeded at last in +giving, an altered and more encouraging complexion to the aspect of +our affairs. In one of the first statements of his views, Lord +Ellenborough had significantly said, (15th March 1842:)-- + +"We are fully sensible of the advantages which would be derived from +the re-occupation of Cabul, the scene of our great disaster and of +so much crime, even for week--of the means which it might afford of +recovering the prisoners, of the gratification which it would give +to the army, and of the effect which it would have upon our enemies. +Our withdrawal might then be made to rest upon an official +declaration of the grounds upon which we retired, as solemn as that +which accompanied our advance; and we should retire as a conquering, +and not as a defeated, power." + +But it was only in July that the Governor-General was in a condition +to suggest the practical accomplishment of this desirable object, +incidentally to our retirement from a country which we should never +have entered. On the 4th July is dated the admirable despatch to +General Nott, which, in the opinion of the Duke of Wellington, was +all that could have been wished for, and which we cannot help +transferring to our columns:-- + +"You will have learnt from Mr. Maddock's letters of the 13th May and +1st of June, that it was not expected that your movement towards +the Indus could be made till October, regard being had to the health +and efficiency of your army. You appear to have been able to give a +sufficient equipment to the force you recently despatched to +Kelat-i-Ghilzie, under Colonel Wymer; and since his return, you will +have received, as I infer from a private letter addressed by Major +Outram to Captain Durand, my private secretary, a further supply of +3000 camels. + +"I have now, therefore, reason to suppose, _for the first time_, +that you have the means of moving a very large proportion of your +army, with ample equipment for any service. + +"There has been no deficiency of provisions at Candahar at any time; +and, immediately after the harvest, you will have an abundant supply. + +"Nothing has occurred to induce me to change my first opinion, that +the measure, commanded by considerations of political and military +prudence, is to bring back the armies now in Affghanistan at the +earliest period at which their retirement can be effected, +consistently with the health and efficiency of the troops, into +positions wherein they may have easy and certain communication with +India; and to this extent, the instructions you have received remain +unaltered. _But the improved position of your army, with sufficient +means of carriage for as large a force as it is necessary to move in +Affghanistan, induced me now to leave to your option the line by +which you shall withdraw your troops from that country_. + +"I must desire, however, that, in forming your decision upon this +most important question, you will attend to the following +considerations:-- + +"In the direction of Quetta and Sukkur, there is no enemy to oppose +you; at each place occupied by detachments, you will find provisions: +and probably, as you descend the passes, you will have increased +means of carriage. The operation is one admitting of no doubt as to +its success. + +"If you determine upon moving upon Ghuznee, Cabul, and Jellalabad, +you will require, for the transport of provisions, a much larger +amount of carriage, and you will be practically without +communications from the time of your leaving Candahar. Dependent +entirely upon the courage of your army, and upon your own ability in +direction it, I should not have any doubt as to the success of the +operations; but whether you will be able to obtain provisions for +your troops during the whole march, and forage for your animals, may +be a matter of reasonable doubt. Yet upon this your success will turn. + +"You must remember that it was not the superior courage of the +Affghans, but want, and the inclemency of the season, which led to +the destruction of the army at Cabul; and you must feel, as I do, +that the loss of another army, from whatever cause it might arise, +might be fatal to our government in India. + +"I do not undervalue the account which our government in India would +receive from the successful execution by your army of a march +through Ghuznee and Cabul, over the scenes of our late disasters. I +know all the effect with it would have upon the minds of our soldiers, +of our allies, of our enemies in Asia, and of our countrymen, and of +all foreign nations in Europe. It is an object of just ambition, +which no one more than myself would rejoice to see effected; but I +see that failure in the attempt is certain and irretrievable ruin; +and I would endeavour to inspire you with the necessary caution, +and make you feel that, great as are the objects to be obtained by +success, the risk is great also. + +"If you determine upon moving by Ghuznee, and entirely give up your +communication by Quetta, I should suggest that you should take with +you only the most efficient troops and men you have, securing the +retreat of the remainder upon Killa, Abdoola, and Quetta. + +"You will in such case, consider it to be entirely a question to be +decided by yourself, according to circumstances, whether you shall +destroy or not the fortifications of Candahar; but, before you set +out upon your adventurous march, do not fail to make the retirement +of the force you leave behind you perfectly secure, and give such +instructions as you deem necessary for the ultimate retirement of the +troops in Scinde, upon Sukkur. + +"You will recollect that what you will have to make is a successful +march; that that march must not be delayed by any hazardous +operations against Ghuznee or Cabul; that you should carefully +calculate the time required to enable you to reach Jellalabad in the +first week in October, so as to form the rearguard of Major-General +Pollock's army. If you should be enabled by _coup-de-main_ to get +possession of Ghuznee and Cabul, you will act as you see fit, +_and leave decisive proofs of the power of the British army, +without impeaching its humanity_. You will bring away from the tomb +of Mahmood of Ghuznee, his club, which hangs over it; and you will +bring away the gates of his tomb, which are the gates of the Temple +of Somnauth. _These will be the just trophies of your successful +march_. + +"You will not fail to disguise your intention of moving, and to +acquaint Major-General Pollock with your plans as soon as you have +formed them. _A copy of this letter will be forwarded to +Major-General Pollock to-day; and he will be instructed, by a +forward movement, to facilitate your advance_; but he will probably +not deem it necessary to move any troops actually to Cabul, where +your force will be amply sufficient to beat any thing the Affghans +can oppose to it. The operations, however, of the two armies must be +combined upon their approach, so as to effect, with the least +possible loss, the occupation of Cabul, and keep open the +communications between Cabul and Peshawar. + +"One apprehension upon my mind is, that, in the event of your +deciding upon moving on Jellalabad, by Ghuznee and Cabul, the +accumulation of so great a force as that of your army, combined with +Major-General Pollock's, in the narrow valley of the Cabul river, +may produce material difficulties in the matter of provisions and +forage; but every effort will be made from India to diminish that +difficulty, should you adopt that line of retirement. + +"This letter remains absolutely secret. I have, &c. + +"ELLENBOROUGH." + +A paltry attempt was made in Parliament by Lord John Russell to +represent this despatch as intended to defraud General Nott of his +military trophies in the event of success, and to relieve the +Governor-General of responsibility in the event of failure. No such +base construction can be put upon it. Lord Ellenborough was doing his +own duty as a civil minister, and leaving General Nott to do _his_ +as a military commander. A military responsibility lay on General +Nott, from which no ruler could relieve him; but the military glory +was his also, if he felt himself justified in choosing the path of +honour that was opened to him. Who grudges the triumphs that General +Nott and his companions-in-arms have achieved? Not certainly Lord +Ellenborough or his friends. Let the distinctions which have been +heaped on the Indian army and its leaders answer that question. But +is their military merit a reason for denying to the man, under whose +administration these victories were won, the high honour of having +done all which a civil governor could do, to direct and assist the +armies of his country? Let each receive the praise of his own merits, +and we doubt not that military men, wherever, at least, they have +experienced the reverse, will be the first to appreciate and commend, +in Lord Ellenborough's administration, that active sympathy and +assistance which are so essential to military efficiency and success. + +It is said that the despatch of the 4th of July is qualified by +heavy cautions. And should it not have been so? In addressing a +British officer with a field of exertion before him, so glorious in +a military, so hazardous in a political view, it is surely not the +spur, but the curb, that a civilian was called on to apply. The +courage of such a commander required nothing to fan the flame: The +danger, if any, was rather that he would rashly seize the +opportunity afforded him, than that he would timidly resign it; and +if he was not prepared to adopt the bolder course, in the face of +all the hazards which attended it, it was best that the enterprize +should not be undertaken at all. + +But Lord Ellenborough knew his man. In appointing General Nott, in +March, to the command of all the troops, and entrusting him with the +control of all the agents in Lower Affghanistan, the Governor and +Council had desired him "to rely upon our constant support, and upon +our placing the most favourable interpretation upon all the measures +he may deem it necessary to adopt in the execution of our orders." +And in now giving him the option of retiring by Cabul, Lord +Ellenborough was assured that the General needed no other +encouragement to avail himself of it, than the feeling that all +counter-considerations had been stated and duly weighed. Every +preparation was immediately made to support General Nott in his +adventurous enterprize; and Lord Ellenborough writes to General +Pollock:-- + +"I am in hopes that Major-General Nott will to-day be in possession +of my letter of the 4th instant, and that you will, very soon after +you receive this letter, be made acquainted with the Major-General's +intentions. _My expectation is_, that Major-General Nott will feel +himself sufficiently strong, and be sufficiently provided with +carriage, to march upon Ghuznee and Cabul." + +The result was such as had been looked for. The combined operation +of the two armies placed the Affghans at our mercy, and terminated, +by the ample vindication of our honour, and the restoration of our +imprisoned friends, our inauspicious connexion with these barbarians, +who had retaliated so cruelly the aggression we had made upon them. + +It may be safely conjectured, that if these final triumphs had been +achieved under the direction of Lord Auckland, even though merely +retrieving the errors of his former policy, we should never have +heard an end of the eulogiums pronounced upon him. Lord John Russell +would have crowed and clapped his wings in the "moment of victory." +Lord Palmerston would have blustered more brazenly than ever. +Mr. Macaulay would have aired the whole stores of his panegyrical +vocabulary; and Sir John Hobhouse would not have gone abroad. + +But, under whatever Government achieved, these results would have +filled the minds of patriotic men with unmingled gratitude to all +who had contributed to their accomplishment. India had been in danger, +and was safe. The British arms had been stained by defeat, and were +again glancing brightly in the light of victory. Our countrymen and +countrywomen had been almost hopeless captives, and were now +restored to freedom and their friends. In such a scene and season of +rejoicing, we might have thought that none but a Whig of the very +oldest school of all, could have entertained any feelings but those +of generous sympathy and unrepining satisfaction. But limits cannot +easily be put to human perverseness. The party whose policy had +caused the evils from which we and they have been delivered, felt +nothing but intense hatred to him who had been most prominent in +that deliverance; and, heedless of the good that he had done, they +fastened on what seemed to their malignant and microscopic vision +some specks that chequered his otherwise unblemished administration +of affairs. + +The idea of discussing in Parliament, as we have lately witnessed, +the literary style of a Government state paper at a crisis so +momentous, implies a levity that would be hateful if it were not +ludicrous. But there is something peculiarly laughable in the +pedantry of such criticism. When other men are thinking of what has +been done, the reviewers and poetasters of the Whig Opposition can +think only of what has been said. The facts that are before them +have no value in their eyes; they see nothing but the phraseology. +From men who had themselves done nothing but what was mischievous, +this is perhaps natural. They are content, possibly, if they have +never said a foolish thing, to have never done a wise one; though we +are doubtful if a taunt about simplicity of composition, either +comes well from the noble leader of the Whigs, or his friends, when +we remember some of their old achievements in addressing their +supporters. But in the peculiar position of the Whigs, with ignominy +and impeachment suspended over their heads for their Affghan errors, +we think that such a course is as becoming as if a condemned +criminal were to carp at the literary composition of his own reprieve. + +The tactics of the Whigs in their move against Lord Ellenborough, had +all the craft of conscious weakness. First, they postponed their +motion from time to time, till they were rescued by their opponents +from Mr. Roebuck's assault upon them. Then they arranged their +attack for the same night in both Houses of Parliament, lest +explanations in any high quarter in the one might damage a future +discussion in the other; and lastly, though thus acting by +simultaneous and concerted movements in both, they framed their +motions differently in each place; and in the Commons, where they had +some dream of better success, confined themselves to the religious +question under the letter on the Somnauth gates, omitting the Simla +proclamation of the 1st October, which they knew neither +Conservative nor Radical would join them to condemn. + +With regard to the Somnauth gates, a pettier piece of hypercriticism, +and a more palpable exhibition of hypocrisy, were never witnessed on +a public question. Two things on this point are as plain as day. + +1. That in retiring from the Affghan country, we were called upon to +do so as much as possible in the light of triumphant victors, +bearing every mark of military prowess and superiority that could +readily be assumed, and inflicting as heavy a blow, and as severe a +discouragement on our perfidious enemies, as humanity would permit. + +2. That, the Affghan trophies of Mahmoud's success were treasured up +by his nation as an assurance of continued ascendancy over their +Hindoo neighbours; and that, in particular, the redelivery to India +of these very gates of Somnauth, were, in negotiations of recent date, +demanded by Runjeet Singh as an inestimable boon, and deprecated by +Shah Soojah as a degrading humiliation. + +Keeping in view these undeniable circumstances, it is clear that the +seizure of these Somnauth gates was appropriately ordered as a +palpable and permanent demonstration of conquest, and one eminently +calculated to encourage the Indian army, and to depress their enemies. + +That these gates were connected with the religion of the country, is +of no relevancy in this matter. Every thing relating to Hindoo +grandeur is more or less interwoven with religion; but we must take +things as they are. We are the rulers of Hindostan; where the vast +preponderance of our subjects and soldiers are Hindoos. We wish them +to be Christians, but they are not so yet; and, until they become +Christianized, we cannot hope or wish that they should forget the +only faith which they have to raise them above the earth they tread. +Their religion is corrupted to the core; but in its primitive type, +after which its worshippers will sometimes even yet aspire, it is +not destitute of a high spirituality that would seek to assimilate +and unite men's souls to the Great Being, whom they reverence as the +maker, maintainer, and changer of the universe. Hindooism is more +fantastic, and less pleasingly endeared to us, than the paganism of +Greece, but it is scarcely more lax or licentious; yet if Fortune, +in its caprices, had ordained our Indian subjects to be heathen +Greeks, with a Whig Governor-General bringing them back in triumph +to their homes, Lord Palmerston, who now, in a mingled rant of +mythology, and methodism, talks of "Dii and Jupiter hostis," would +himself have penned a paragraph about the restored temple of Mars or +Venus, and would have held up the scruples of Sir Robert Inglis and +Mr. Plumptre to classical ridicule. + +But it is plain that here no religious triumph was, or could have +been, contemplated by Lord Ellenborough. On this point we need no +other evidence than that of Joseph Hume, who, combining the +properties of Balaam and his ass, often brays out a blessing when he +intends a curse. He tells us that-- + +A Hindoo of high caste, now in this country, the Vakeel of the Rajah +of Sattara, had written to him a letter, in which he stated-- +"It appears to me that the restoration of the gates of Somnauth +could have no reference either to the support or degradation of any +religious faith. To restore the gates to their original purpose is +impracticable by the tenets of the Hindoo religion. Their doctrine is, +that any thing, when in contact with a dead body, or any thing +belonging to it, whether tomb or garment, is utterly contaminated and +unfit for religious purposes. In my opinion, therefore, the +proclamation must have been intended to gratify the feelings of the +Hindoo portion of our army, by removing a stain which the western +portion of India had long felt oppressive. In fact, he believed that +the Governor-General, by this means, conciliated the feelings of the +Hindoo soldiery in their return from those scenes of death and +disaster in which they had behaved so well, and where thousands of +their fellow-countrymen had fallen. I hope that this intention of +Lord Ellenborough to conciliate the princes of India will extend to +my unfortunate master.' This letter was from (we believe) Rumgoo +Baffagee, Vakeel of the Rajah of Sattara, and he thought it was so +important, that he had sent for the Vakeel, whom he found a most +intelligent man; and from his conversation he (Mr. Hume) was +satisfied that, so far from being applied to the Hindoo population +exclusively, it was utterly impossible that the gates could be used +for the religious purposes to which the Governor-General seemed to +have destined them. He had satisfied him (Mr. Hume) that the object +of the proclamation was merely to bring back to Western India those +gates, the absence of which in Afghanistan had long been felt as an +opprobrium. He hoped therefore, that those religious sects who had +most unnecessarily take the alarm on this score, would be appeased. +So far from the proclamation being an exclusive one, no single +sentence was there in it which could be read after the address to +'_all_ the princes and chiefs, and people of India,' as applicable +to any one." + +But it is said that such a trophy may give offence to Mahommedans; +and Mr. Mangles tells us, that the Mohommedan population sympathize +strongly with the Affghans, and revere the memory of Mahmoud. If +that be the case, it would have been difficult to bring any trophy +home, or to imprint any mark of the superiority of our arms, without +displeasing this sect. But, in that view, who are the parties +responsible for thus placing our essential interests, and the safety +of India generally, in contrast with the feelings of Mohommedan +subjects? Those certainly who, regardless of all justice, made a +wanton aggression on a Mahommedan power. Those certainly who, +regardless of all prudence, gave occasion to the Affghan massacre +and captivity of British and Indian soldiers; and, by a great +Mahommedan success, kindled a spark which was ready to set the +freemasonry of Islamism on fire "from Morocco to Coromandel." If we +have been placed in a false position, as regards our Mahommedan +subjects, we have to blame the Whigs, whose wanton and unwise +measures created this collision of interests, and not Lord +Ellenborough, who has adopted measures the most natural and the most +humane, to reestablish the ascendancy and the reputation of English +and Indian power. + +The proclamation of Simla needs no vindication. It has satisfied +every one but the Whigs, who can never forget and never forgive it. +It is poor pretence to say, that it denounces in an indecorous +manner the errors of the previous governor. It does no such thing. +It speaks, indeed, of errors, but only conscious culpability would +have taken the allusion to itself. There were errors, and grievous +ones. The Whigs themselves must say that; and they have not been +slow to shift to the shoulders of military officers the results that +most people think they should bear themselves. The proclamation of +Lord Ellenborough seems to us to have been framed with a punctilious +desire to reconcile in the eyes of India his own policy with that +which had been avowed by his predecessor, and to ascribe the change +of plans to a change of circumstances, and not of principles. We +speak here of the avowed policy of his predecessor; for Lord Auckland, +at least, pretended that he had no aggressive or hostile views +against the Affghans, and no desire for a permanent occupation of +their country. The real designs of the Whig Government are a +different thing; and with these, as avowed by Lord Palmerston in +Parliament, the intentions of Lord Ellenborough were wholly +irreconcilable. + +Let us listen here to one who knows the subject. The Duke of +Wellington tells us the errors that Lord Ellenborough alludes to as +occasioning our military disasters, and he shows us where those +errors lay:-- + +"There is not a word in this proclamation that is not strictly +true. But I do not blame the noble lord opposite, the late +Governor-General of India; yet I cannot help looking _at the enormous +errors_ which have been committed from the commencement of these +transactions in which these disasters originated, down to the last +retreat from Cabul--I say, looking at all this, I still must blame, +not the late Governor-General, but the gentlemen who acted under him. +In the first place, I attribute the error to the gentleman who fell +a victim to his own want of judgment. The army unfortunately was +partly English and partly Hindoo--not Affghans, but Hindoos. What +was the consequence? To maintain the whole system of the government, +including the collection of the revenue, devolved upon that army. +All the details of the government were carried on through the agency +of that English and Hindoo army, and eventually it became necessary +to support that army with some troops in the service of the Company. +Now, the gentleman who was responsible for this ought to have known +that there was one rule, the violation of which any one acquainted +with the government of India knew nothing could justify, and that was, +the employment of the Company's European troops in the collection of +the revenue. That rule is invariably laid down, and is invariably +observed. That, as your lordships must plainly see, is one of the +errors that has been committed. There is another point to which I +wish to call your attention; it is this, that the country never had +been occupied by an army as it ought to have been occupied. With the +north no practicable communication was maintained--no practicable +communications were kept up between Shikarpore, Candahar, and Ghuznee. +The passes were held only through the agency of banditti. I do not +blame the noble lord, but I blame the gentleman to whom the army was +entrusted. He seemed never to have looked at what had been done by +former commanders in similar circumstances. Any officer who has the +command of an army ought to feel it to be his first duty to keep up +a communication with his own country. If such communication had been +maintained, those disasters never would have befallen us--they could +not have happened. This was one of the errors committed; but I do +not say that the noble lord opposite is answerable for that error. +Not only was no communication kept up with the north, but none was +kept up with the south. Neither the Kojuck nor the Bolan pass was +kept open. Can that, my lords, be called a military communication? +Could such a state of things exist? Why, was not this another +error--a gross error? The noble lord opposite (Lord Auckland) had no +more to do with this than I have. Sir W. Macnaghten, the gentleman +who perished, could not have been ignorant of what was done in other +places. He must have read the history of the Spanish war, and he +must have recollected how the French conducted themselves in a +similar situation; how they fortified the passes, and secured their +communications. But he was not an officer; the gentleman at the head +of the army in Affghanistan was not an officer--that was another +error." + +That such errors existed is undeniable. Lord Auckland says there +were errors:-- + +"With regard to the errors of the campaign, he conceived they rested +with the military commanders, not with Sir W. Macnaghten; and if +errors had been committed by Sir William, they must be shared +between him and the more direct military commanders." + +Lord John Russell said,-- + +"I have heard causes given, and upon very high authority, for these +disasters; I have heard it stated that very great errors were +committed--that those errors consisted partly in not keeping up a +communication by the straightest road between Cabul and Peshawar. +This may be just; these may be errors, but they are errors not +necessary or in any way connected with the policy of entering into +Affghanistan. I may mention another circumstance--that the +expedition into Affghanistan was undertaken under Lord Keane, who was +shortly after succeeded by Sir W. Cotton; he came home, and was +succeeded by General Elphinstone, who, from the time of assuming the +command, never appears to have been in the state of vigorous health +necessary for such a position. Are not these circumstances to be +taken into account? If my Lord Auckland had had at his disposal any +of those illustrious men who had honoured the British army in later +days--if such a man as Lord Keane had remained in Cabul--my +persuasion is, you would never have heard of such a disaster as that +which took place at Cabul." + +We shall leave the Whigs to settle the question with their +subordinates, as to the precise degree of blame which each of the +parties shall bear. But there is seldom blame with the servants +without blame in the master; and it is one of Lord Ellenborough's +just titles to our praise, that he has been ably served by the +officers whom he so ably supported. + +If our Affghan disasters were imputable to gross errors in detail, +was it not right to denounce the cause? It would have been a +melancholy thing if we had been thus betrayed and circumvented +without errors in our own servants. If British troops had been thus +cut off, notwithstanding the use of every prudent precaution, the +disasters would then have gone far to put in question the +invincibility of our military power. It was necessary to declare, +that by individual and special mal-arrangement, this unparalleled +disaster had arisen; so that none of our enemies should thence +derive a hope to crush us again, until at least the incompetent +officials of a confiding Whig Government should give them another +such opportunity. + +The proclamation of Simla had another purpose--that of announcing +the future policy of the Government, and repudiating those designs of +aggression and aggrandizement which there was too good ground for +imputing to us, and which could not fail to inspire distrust and +suspicion in the minds even of friendly neighbours. On this point +nothing can be added to the admirable exposition of Lord Fitzgerald +in the late debate:-- + +"But there were other circumstances which compelled the +Governor-General of India; he meant, which made it his duty to +proclaim the motives of the policy of the Government; and why? +--because a different policy had been proclaimed by his predecessor; +and when it became necessary to withdraw from Affghanistan, it was +necessary to show that this was not a retreat. We were compelled to +show that we were not shrinking from setting up a king, because we +could not sustain him there. He said it was the duty of the +Governor-General to make that known to the Indian public. He would +not attempt to shelter Lord Ellenborough in this respect, by +saying--'it was prudent,' or, 'it did no harm:'--he maintained it +was his duty. What had been the language of the late Ministers of the +Crown, in the last session of Parliament? And these debates, as the +noble Earl had well said, 'went forth to India;' the discussions in +that House went forth to the Indian public. He found one Minister of +the Crown saying--'He should like to see the Minister, or the +Governor of India, who would dare to withdraw from the position we +occupied in Affghanistan.' (Hear, hear.) He found another noble lord, +in another place, stating, 'they took credit for the whole of that +measure, and he trusted that at no time would that position in +Affghanistan be abandoned.' These were views of public policy which +went forth to India, and it was not inconvenient nor unjust that +those who administered the government of India on different +principles should proclaim their views. The noble earl opposite, +knew that at that period it was not intended altogether to confine +the operations of the army to the westward of the Indus. It was very +well to say, that it was unwise and impolitic, and calculated to +destroy the unanimity which was so essential to the Government of +India, to issue public information as to the reasons for the +withdrawal of an army, although its advance was heralded by a +declaration on all these points, because the withdrawal of an army +was supposed to terminate the operations; but in the eyes of India +and Asia, if the declaration of the noble earl, dated from Simla on +the same day of the same month of a preceding year, had remained as +a record of British policy after that declaration had been followed +by a campaign, brilliant at its commencement, but as delusive as +brilliant, and terminated by a most awful tragedy, and by the +greatest disaster that ever befell the British forces--was it +unbecoming in a Governor-General to state, that the views and policy +of the Government of India had changed, and that the Government no +longer wished to interfere in the policy of Affghanistan, its motives +for so doing having passed away on finding that the king, +represented to be so popular, was unpopular? But there was another +circumstance which called for Lord Ellenborough's declaration, namely, +the necessity of allaying the apprehensions and fears of other states; +and it was Lord Ellenborough's duty to do this. Had the Sikhs no +apprehensions with respect to our intentions on Lahore? The most +serious apprehensions had been stated by the Durbar of Lahore to our +political agent there, Mr. Clark, and had been represented by him to +the Government of India.--Other states also had entertained +apprehensions of the intentions and motives of the Indian Government, +and he had yet to learn that it was a fault in a Governor-General to +allay these apprehensions of native states, even if no precedent +could be found for such a proceeding. After the policy of the Indian +Government which had been proclaimed, it became Lord Ellenborough's +duty to take the step he had done." + +This, however, is the true _gravamen_ of the quarrel of the Whigs +with Lord Ellenborough. He has thrown overboard their aggressive +policy--that policy which Lord Auckland, indeed, had not in words +avowed in India, but which his friends at home had openly declared +and gloried in. It was necessary for Lord Ellenborough, by a frank +declaration of his intentions, to exclude the prevalent +suspicion--nay, the universal belief--of those projects of +encroachment which the Whig Government had countenanced. This was +the unkindest cut of all. + + "Ill-weaved ambition! how much art + thou shrunk!" + +It was hard that their Affghan laurels--the only wreaths of victory +that the Whigs had ever won--should have already withered on their +brow. It was hard that their disasters should have been retrieved +under the sway of a political opponent. But it was intolerable that +the plans of conquest which they had fondly cherished, and tried to +press upon the country, should be virtually denounced amid the +universal approbation of all good men at home and abroad; that the +solitary achievement of their administration in military affairs, +should be recorded in the page of history, only to be condemned as +an act of injustice, inexcusably undertaken, and incompetently +executed: and relinquished by their successors in the very hour of +triumph, with a wise self-denial which no one will suspect that a +Whig could have ever practised. + +The cloven foot has here too plainly been revealed. It is not this +phrase or that procession in particular that has displeased the Whigs. +It is the abandonment of a policy which they dared not proclaim in +India, and which they could not justify in England. They are always +hankering after it still. Mr. Vernon Smith: "Considered it most +absurd for any Governor General to declare publicly that our Indian +empire had reached the limits which nature had assigned to it. Why, +what were the limits which nature had assigned to our Indian empire? +In early days, the Mahratta ditch was said to be its natural limit; +and why was the Sutlej or the Indus to be more the boundary of our +empire than the Himalayas?" + +Even Lord John Russell, who _now_ acknowledges the wisdom of +surrendering Affghanistan, declares, in almost so many words, that +his party have shrunk from a general vote of censure because they +could not properly put it, and have chosen this Act as "not the worst," +but the most convenient to attack. What the other errors of Lord +Ellenborough are, or whether there are any, except the exploded +story of the incivility to Mr. Amos, is nowhere definitely, +discoverable in their discussions, and is not likely for some time +to assume a greater degree of consistency than vague Whig calumnies +and general Whig dissatisfaction. Let them come to something definite, +and see how they will fare. If, as their old friend Lord Brougham +said, "revelling in defeat, and intoxicated with failure," they know +not when they have had enough--if they desire a contest on some other +issue--let them name their day and abide the result. + +In conclusion, we would only observe, what a contrast the conduct of +the Whig party towards Lord Ellenborough exhibits to that of their +opponents towards Lord Auckland! The ex Governor-General is not +absent, but here to defend himself; and every one sees how much room +there is for assailing his measures. Their calamitous result would +of itself go far to support the charge of imprudence, or something +worse. But not a word has been said against him that could be avoided; +and even those statements that necessarily reflect upon his +discretion, have been extorted from the Conservative party, in reply +to the attacks which Lord Auckland's friends have made upon his +successor. The English people admire fair play as much as they +appreciate the value of practical benefits. They see the false +pretences on which an absent man has now been assailed by +disappointed opponents; they feel the generosity that has saved his +rival from retaliation. They know the state of Indian affairs when +Lord Ellenborough assumed his office, and they can estimate the +position into which they have now been brought under his vigorous +management. They agree with him in the pacific principles which he +has avowed, and look forward to a continued career of useful services, +in which the resources of that great empire will be more than ever +developed under his control, and the power of the British name +perpetuated by a wise, an upright, and a fearless Administration. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - April +1843, by Various + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11745 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fcd81cc --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #11745 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11745) diff --git a/old/11745-8.txt b/old/11745-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..55858d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11745-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11100 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - April 1843, 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: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - April 1843 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: March 28, 2004 [EBook #11745] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S APRIL 1843 *** + + + + +Produced by The Internet Library of Early Journals (scanned images) + + + + + +BLACKWOOD'S +EDINBURGH MAGAZINE + + * * * * * + +No. CCCXXX. APRIL, 1843. VOL. LIII. + + * * * * * + +CONTENTS + + + THE PRACTISE OF AGRICULTURE, + POEMS AND BALLADS OF SCHILLER.--NO. VII., + THE LAST OF THE SHEPHERDS, + THE FOUNDING OF THE BELL. BY CHARLES MACKAY, + AMMALAT BEK. A TRUE TALE OF THE CAUCASUS FROM THE + RUSSIAN OF MARLINSKY.--CHAPTER III., + OCCUPATION OF ADEN, + SONNET, + CALEB STUKLEY. PART XIII., + IMAGINARY CONVERSATION, BETWEEN MR. WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR + AND THE EDITOR OF BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, + THE BURIAL MARCH OF DUNDEE, + LORD ELLENBOROUGH AND THE WHIGS, + + + * * * * * + +EDINBURGH: +WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET; +AND 22, PALL-MALL, LONDON. + +_To whom Communications (post-paid) may be addressed_. + +SOLD ALSO BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. + + * * * * * + +PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND HUGHES, EDINBURGH. + +BLACKWOOD'S +EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. + + * * * * * + +No. CCCXXX. APRIL, 1843. VOL. LIII. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE + +Skilful practice is applied science. This fact is illustrated in +every chapter of the excellent and comprehensive work now before us +[1]. + +In a previous article, (see the number for June 1842,) we +illustrated at some length the connexion which now exists, and which +hereafter must become more intimate, between practical agriculture +and modern science. We showed by what secret and silent steps the +progress and gradual diffusion of modern scientific discoveries had +imperceptibly led to great improvements in the agriculture of the +present century--by what other more open and manifest applications +of science it had directly, and in the eyes of all, been +advanced--to what useful practical discussions the promulgation of +scientific opinions had given rise--and to what better practice such +discussions had eventually led. Above all, we earnestly solicited +the attention of the friends of agriculture to what science seemed +not only capable of doing, but anxious also to effect, for the +further advance of this important art--what new lessons to give, new +suggestions to offer, and new means of fertility to place in the +hands of, the skilful experimental farmer. + +It is but a comparatively short time since that article was written, +and yet the spread of sound opinion, of correct and enlightened views, +and of a just appreciation, as well of the aids which science is +capable of giving to agriculture, as of the expediency of availing +ourselves of all these aids, which within that period has taken +place among practical men, has really surprised us. Nor have we been +less delighted by the zeal with which the pursuit of scientific +knowledge, in its relations to agriculture, has been entered upon in +every part of the empire--by the progress which has been made in the +acquisition of this knowledge--and by the numerous applications +already visible of the important principles and suggestions embodied +in the works then before us, (JOHNSTON's _Lectures and Elements of +Agricultural Chemistry and Geology_.) But on this important topic we +do not at present dwell. We may have occasion to return to the +subject in a future number, and in the mean time we refer our +readers to the remarks contained in our previous article. + +The truly scientific man--among those, we mean, who devote themselves +to such studies as are susceptible of important applications to the +affairs and pursuits of daily life--the truly scientific man does +not despise the _practice_ of any art, in which he sees the +principles he investigates embodied and made useful in promoting the +welfare of his fellow-men. He does not even undervalue it--he rather +upholds and magnifies its importance, as the agent or means by which +his greatest and best discoveries can be made to subserve their +greatest and most beneficent end. In him this may possibly arise +from no unusual liberality of mind; it may spring from a selfish +desire to see the principles he has established or made his own +carried out to their legitimate extent, and their value established +and acknowledged--_for it is the application of a principle that +imparts to it its highest value_. + +[Footnote 1: THE BOOK OF THE FARM. By Henry Stephens.] + +Science is to practical skill in the arts of life as the soul is to +the body. They are united as faith and works are in concerns of +higher moment. As both, though separately good, must yet be united +in the finished Christian, so the perfection of husbandry implies +the union of all the lights of existing theoretical knowledge with +all the skill of the most improved agricultural practice. + +Though such is the belief of those scientific men who are able and +willing to do the most for practical agriculture, who see most +clearly what _can_ be done for it, and the true line along +which agricultural improvement may now most hopefully direct +her course--yet with this opinion the greater part of practical +men are still far from sympathizing. Some voices even--becoming +every day more feeble, however, and recurring at more distant +intervals--continue to be raised against the utility and the +applications of science; as if practice with _stationary_ knowledge +were omnipotent in developing the resources of nature; as if a man, +in a rugged and partially explored country, could have too much +light to guide his steps. + +In the history of maritime intercourse there was a time when the +timid seaman crept from port to port, feeling his cautious and wary +way from headland to headland, and daring no distant voyage where +seas, and winds, and rocks, unknown to him, increased the dangers of +his uncertain life. Then a bolder race sprung up--tall ships danced +proudly upon the waves, and many brave hearts manned and guided them; +yet still they rarely ventured from sight of land. Men became +bewildered still, perplexed, and full of fear, when sea and sky +alone presented themselves. But a third period arose--and in the same +circumstances, men not more brave appeared collected, fearless, and +full of hope. Faith in a trembling needle gave confidence to the +most timorous, and neither the rough Atlantic nor the wide Pacific +could deter the bold adventurer, or the curious investigator of +nature. + +And yet it was not till this comparatively advanced stage of the +nautical art--when man had obtained a faithful guide in his most +devious and trackless wanderings--when he was apparently set free +from the unsteady dominion of the seas and of the fickle winds--and +amid his labyrinthine course could ever and at once turn his face +towards his happy and expectant home;--it was not till this period +that science began to lend her most useful and most extensive aids, +and that her value in the advancement of the sailor's art began to +be justly appreciated. The astronomer forthwith taught him more +accurately to observe the heavens, and compiled laborious tables for +his daily use. Geography and hydrography obtained higher estimation, +and harbour-engineering and ship-building were elevated into more +important separate arts, chiefly from their applications to his use. +Nautical schools and nautical surveys, and lighthouse boards, with +all their attendant scientific researches, and magnetic observations, +and voyages of discovery all sprung up--at once the causes and the +consequences of the advancement of his art towards perfection; and +latest, though yet far from being the last, all the new knowledge +that belongs to steam-navigation has been incorporated in the vast +body of nautical science. _The further an art advances, the more +necessary does science become to it_. + +Thus it is with agriculture. It cannot be denied that the tillage of +the soil, with almost every other branch of husbandry, has made +large strides among us--that we have more productive and better +cultivated provinces, and more skilful farmers, than are to be found +in any other part of the world in which equal disadvantages of +climate prevail. Any one will readily satisfy himself of this, who, +with an agricultural eye, shall visit the other parts of Europe to +which the same northern sky is common with ourselves. And it is +because we have reached this pitch of improvement--at which many +think we ought to be content to stop--because we have dismissed our +frail and diminutive boats, and sail now in majestic and decorated +ships, provided with such abundant stores that we need not, night by +night, to seek the harbour for new supplies--that we begin to feel +the want of some directing principle--to look about for some +favouring star to guide our wanderings upon the deep. To the +tremblirg needle of science we must now turn to point our way. +Feeble and uncertain it may itself appear--wavering as it directs +us--and therefore by many may be depreciated and despised--yet it +will surely lead us right if we have faith in its indications. Let +the practical man then build his ships skilfully and well after the +best models, and of the soundest oak--let their timbers be Kyanized, +their cables of iron, their cordage and sails of the most approved +make and material--let their sailors be true men and fearless, and +let stores be providently laid in for the voyage; but let not the +trembling needle of science be forgotten; for though the distant +harbour he would gain be well known to him--without the aid of the +needle he may never be able to reach it. + +In thus rigging out his ship--in other words, in fitting up his farm +and doing all for it, and upon it, which experience and skilful +practice can suggest--he cannot have a better guide than the book +now before us. + +THE BOOK OF THE FARM is not a mere didactic treatise on practical +agriculture, of which we already possess several of deserved +reputation; nor yet a laborious compilation, systematically arranged, +of every thing which, in the opinion of the author, it should +interest the farmer to know. Of such Cyclopdias, that of Loudon +will not soon find a rival. But, as its name implies, The _Book of +the Farm_ contains a detail of all the operations, the more minute +as well as the greater, which the husbandman will be called upon to +undertake upon his farm--in the exact order in point of time in +which they will successively demand his attention. Beginning at the +close of the agricultural year, when the crops are reaped and housed, +and the long winter invites to new and peculiar, and, as they may be +called, preparatory labours, the reader is taught what work in each +succeeding month and season should be undertaken--why at that season +for what purpose it is to be done-in what way it can best be +performed--how at the least cost of money and the smallest waste of +time--and _how the master may at all times ascertain if his work has +been efficiently performed_. + +We confess that we have been much struck with the wide range of +_practical_ subjects on which the author gives, in such a way a to +show that he is himself familiar with them, the most minute +directions for the guidance at once of the master farmer himself, +and for the direction of those who are under his orders. We have +satisfied ourselves that by carefully _examining_ the contents of +this one book, we should be prepared not merely to pass an +examination, but actually to undertake the office of public examiner +in any or all of the several crafts and mysteries of the farm-builder, +the weather-seer, the hedge-planter, the ditcher, the drainer, the +ploughman, the cattle-feeder, the stock-buyer, the drover, the +pig-killer, the fat cattle seller, the butcher, the miller, and the +grieve or general overseer of the farm. We know not what other +gentle crafts the still unpublished parts of the work may hereafter +teach us; but so faithfully and so minutely, in general so clearly, +and with so much apparent enjoyment, does the author enter into the +details of all the above lines of life, that we have been deceived +(we suppose) into the persuasion that Mr. Stephens must, in his +lifetime, have "played many parts"--that he has himself, as occasion +offered, or as work fell in his way, engaged in every one of these +as well as of the other varied occupations it falls in his way to +describe. + +How, otherwise, for instance, should he so well understand the +duties and habits, and sympathize with the privations and simple +enjoyments of the humble and way-worn drover?-- + +"A drover of sheep should always be provided with a dog, as the +numbers and nimbleness of sheep render it impossible for one man to +guide a capricious flock along a road subject to many casualties; +not a young dog, who is apt to work and bark a great deal more than +necessary, much to the annoyance of the sheep--but a knowing +cautious tyke. The drover should have a walking stick, a useful +instrument at times in turning a sheep disposed to break off from +the rest. A shepherd's plaid he will find to afford comfortable +protection to his body from cold and wet, while the mode in which it +is worn leaves his limbs free for motion. He should carry provision +with him, such as bread, meat, cheese or butter, that he may take +luncheon or dinner quietly beside his flock, while resting in a +sequestered part of the road; and he may slake his thirst in the +first brook or spring he finds, or purchase a bottle of ale at a +roadside ale-house. Though exposed all day to the air, and even +though he feel cold, he should avoid drinking spirits, which only +produce temporary warmth, and for a long time after induce chilliess +and languor. Much rather let him reserve the allowance of spirits he +gives himself until the evening, when he can _enjoy it in warm toddy +beside a comfortable fire_, before retiring to rest for the night." +--Vol. ii. p. 89. + + +Then how knowingly he treats of the fat upon the sheep:-- + + +"The formation of fat in a sheep commences in the inside, the +_net_ of fat which envelopes the intestines being first formed. +After that, fat is seen on the outside, and first upon the end of +the rump at the tail head, which continues to move on along the back, +on both sides of the spine to the bend of the ribs, to the neck. Then +it is deposited between the muscles, parallel with the cellular +tissue. Meanwhile it is covering the lower round of the ribs, +descending to the flanks until the two sides meet under the belly, +from whence it proceeds to the brisket or breast in front and the +shaw behind, filling up the inside of the arm-pits and thighs. The +spaces around the fibres of the muscles are the last to receive a +deposition of fat, but after this has begun, every other part +simultaneously receives its due share, the back and kidneys +receiving the most--so much so that the former literally becomes +_nicked_, as it is termed; that is, the fat is felt through the +skin to be divided into two portions. When all this has been +accomplished, the sheep is said to be _fat_ or _ripe_."--Vol. ii. p. +93. + + +But the enjoyment of tracing the accumulating fat is not enough for +our author--as soon as his sheep is ripe, he forthwith proceeds to +slaughter it; and though he describes every part of this process +accurately, and with true professional relish, coolly telling us, +that "the _operation_ is unattended with cruelty;" yet we must be +content to refer our readers to the passage (vol. ii. p. 96) as an +illustration of his skill in this interesting branch of farm-surgery. +He is really an amiable sheep-operator, our author--what placid +benevolence and hatred of quackery appear in his instructions-- +"Learn to slaughter _gently_, dress the carcass neatly and cleanly, +in as plain a manner as possible, and without _flourishes_."--p. 167. + +But whisky-toddy and fat mutton are not the only things our author +relishes. He must have been a farm-servant, living in a bothy, at +least as long as he drove on the road or practised surgery in the +slaughter-house. After describing the farm-servant's wages and mode +of living, he thus expands upon the subject of Scottish brose:-- + +"The oatmeal is usually cooked in one way, as _brose_. A pot of +water is put on the fire to boil--a task which the men (in the bothy) +take in turns; a handful or two of oatmeal is taken out of the small +chest with which each man provides himself, and put into a wooden +bowl, which also is the ploughman's property; and, on a hollow being +made in the meal, and sprinkled with salt, the boiling-water is +poured over the meal, and the mixture receiving a little stirring +with a horn-spoon, and the allowance of milk poured over it, the +brose is ready to be eaten; and, as every man makes his own brose, +and knows his own appetite, he makes just as much as he can consume." [2] + +[Footnote 2: "The fare is simple, and is as simply made, but it must be +wholesome, and capable of supplying the loss of substance occasioned +by hard labour; for I believe that no class of men can endure more +bodily fatigue for ten hours every day, than those ploughmen of +Scotland who subsist on this brose three times a-day."--Vol. ii. p. +384.] + +But if the _life_ of the ploughman is familiar to our author, the +_work_ he has to do, and the mode of doing it well, and the reason +why it should be done one way here, and another way there, are no +less so. The uninitiated have no idea of the complicated patterns +which the ploughman works, according to the nature of the soil and +the season of the year in which he labours. He may be "gathering +up--crown-and-furrow ploughing--casting, or yoking, or coupling +ridges--casting ridges with gore furrows--cleaving down ridges with +or without gore furrows--ploughing two-out-and-two-in--ploughing in +breaks--cross-furrowing--angle-ploughing, ribbing, and drilling--or +he may be preparing the land by feering or striking the ridges."-- +(Vol. i. p. 464.) All these methods of turning up the land are +described and illustrated by wood-cuts, and we are sure quite as +effectually done upon paper as if the author had been explaining +them upon his own farm, guiding one of his own best ploughs, and +strengthened by a basin of good brose made from his own meal-chest. + +But the practical skill of Mr. Stephens is not confined to the lower +walks of the agricultural life. The ploughman sometimes qualifies +himself to become a steward, that he may rid himself of the drudgery +of working horses. He has then new duties to perform, which are thus +generally described. + +"The duty of the _steward_ or _grieve_, as he is called in some +parts of Scotland, and _bailiff_ in England, consists in receiving +general instructions from his master, the farmer, which he sees +executed by the people under his charge. He exercises a direct +control over the ploughmen and field-workers.... It is his duty to +enforce the commands of his master, and to check every deviation +from rectitude he may observe in the servants against his interests. +It is not generally understood that he has control over the shepherd, +the hedger, or the cattleman, who are stewards, in one sense, over +their respective departments of labour.... He should always deliver +the daily allowance of corn to the horses. _He should be the first +person out of bed in the morning, and the last in it at night_. On +most farms, he sows the seed in spring, superintends the +field-workers in summer, tends the harvest-field and builds the +stacks in autumn, and thrashes the corn with the mill, and cleans it +with the winnowing-machine in winter. He keeps an account of the +workpeople's time, and of the quantity of grain thrashed, consumed +on the farm, and delivered to purchasers."--Vol. i. p. 221. + + +The practical man who reads the above detail of the steward's duties, +will see at once that it must have been written by "one of themselves;" +and, by its correctness, will be able to judge of the full faith +which may be placed in the numerous other details upon every branch +of practical farming with which the work now before us is so full. + +We have brought prominently forward the above extracts in relation to +the _minutiae_ of the farmer's life--to the detailed practical +knowledge which is so valuable to him, as being those upon which it +appeared to us that a writer who was capable of getting up a book at +all, much more such a book as this professes to be, in reference to +the higher branches of the farmers' art, was most likely to fail. +But these parts of the work are written not only knowingly and well, +but with an evident relish for the subject. Let us turn, therefore, +to the more intellectual part of the book, and see how far this part +of the task has been satisfactorily accomplished. + +_The Book of the Farm_ is mainly intended as a manual for the +master-farmer, accompanying him every where, and at every season of +the year, counselling, guiding, and directing him in all his +operations. But it has a higher and more useful aim than merely to +remind the practical agriculturist of what he already knows. It is +fitted, without other aid, to teach the beginner nearly every thing +which it is necessary for him to know in order to take his place +among the most intelligent practical men; and to teach it precisely +at the time, and in the order, in which it is most easy, most useful, +and most interesting for him to learn it. + +The beginner is supposed by Mr. Stephens to have undergone a previous +course of instruction under a practical man, and to enter upon a +farm of his own in the beginning of winter. This farm is a more or +less naked and unimproved piece of land, without a farm-stead or +farm-house, with few hedge-rows, and wholly undrained. On entering +the farm, also, he has servants to engage, stock to buy, and +implements to select. In all these difflculties, _The Book of the +Farm_ comes to his aid. The most useful, approved, and economical +form of a farm-steading is pointed out. The structure of barns, +stables, cow-houses, piggeries, _liquid-manure tanks_, poultry-yards, +and every other appendage of the farm-house, and, finally, the most +fitting construction of the farm-house itself, according to the size +and situation of the farm, are discussed, described, and explained. +Plans and estimates of every expense are added, and woodcuts +illustrative of every less known suggestion. These are not only +sufficient to guide the intelligent young farmer in all the +preliminary arrangements for his future comfort and success, but will, +we are sure, supply hints to many older heads for the reconstruction +or improvement of farm-steadings, heretofore deemed convenient and +complete. The following chapter aids him in the choice of his +servants, and describes distinctly the duties and province of each. + +And now, having concluded his domestic arrangements, [3] he must +learn to know something of the weather which prevails in the +district in which he has settled, before he can properly plan out or +direct the execution of the various labours which are to be +undertaken upon his farm during the winter. A chapter of some length, +therefore, is devoted to the "weather in winter," in which the +principles by which the weather is regulated in the different parts +of our islands, and the methods of foreseeing or predicting changes, +are described and illustrated _as far as they are known_. This is the +first of those chapters of _The Book of the Farm_ which illustrates +in a way not to be mistaken, the truth announced at the head of this +article, that _skilful practice is applied science_. + +[Footnote 3: Hesiod considered one other appendage to the homestead +indispensable, to which Mr. Stephens does not allude, perhaps from +feeling himself incompetent to advise.] + +To some it may appear at first sight that our author has indulged in +too much detail upon this subject; but he is not a true practical +farmer who says so. The weather has always been a most interesting +subject to the agriculturist--he is every day, in nearly all his +movements, dependant upon it. A week of rain, or of extraordinary +drought, or of nipping frost, may disappoint his most sanguine and +best founded expectations. His daily comfort, his yearly profit, and +the general welfare of his family, all depend upon the weather, or +upon his _skill in foreseeing its changes_, and availing himself of +every moment which is favourable to his purposes. Hence, with +agricultural writers, from the most early times, the varied +appearances of the clouds, the nature of the winds, and the changing +aspects of the sun and moon, and their several significations, have +formed a favourite subject of description and discussion. Thus of +the sun Virgil says-- + + "Sol quoque, et exoriens et quum se condet in undas, + Signa dabit; solem certissima signa sequuntir. + Et quae mane refert, et quae surgentibus astris." + +And then he gives the following _prognostics_, as unerring guides to +the Latian farmer:-- + + "Ille ubi nascentem maculis variaverit ortum, + Conditus in nubem, medioque refugerit orbe; + Suspecti tibi sint imbres.... + Caeruleus pluviam denuntiat, igneus Euros. + At si quum referetque diem condit que relatum + Lucidus orbis erit: frustra terrebere nimbis + Et claro silvas cernes aquilone moveri." + +Mr. Stephens recognises similar solar indications in the following +rhymes:-- + + "If the sun in red should set, + The next day surely will be wet; + If the sun should set in grey, + The next will be a rainy day." + +And again-- + + "An evening red, or a morning grey, + Doth betoken a bonnie day; + In an evening grey and a morning red, + Put on your hat, or ye'll weet your head." + +In his next edition we recommend to Mr. Stephens's notice the Border +version of the latter:-- + + "An evening red and a morning grey, + Send the shepherd on his way; + An evening grey and a morning red + Send the shepherd wet to bed." + +The most learned meteorologists of the present day believe the moon +to influence the weather--the practical farmer is sure of it--and we +have known the result of the hay crop, in adjoining farms, to be +strikingly different, when upon the one the supposed influence of +the time of change was taken into account and acted upon, while in +the other it was neglected. Mr. Stephens gives as true proverbs-- + + * * * * * + + "In the wane of the moon, + A cloudy morning bodes a fair afternoon." + +And + + "New moon's mist + Never dies of thirst." + +But Virgil is more specific-- + + "Ipsa dies alios alio dedit ordine Luna + Felices operum; quintam fuge.... + Septuma post decumam felix et ponere vitem, + Et prensos domitare boves." + +And in these warnings he only imitates Hesiod-- + + [Greek: Pempias de hexaleasthai, hepei chalepai te chai ainai.] + +And + + [Greek: Maenos de isamenou trischaidecha taen haleasthai, + Spezmatos azxasthai phuta de henthzepsasthai arisa.] + +But the vague prognostics of old times are not sufficient for the +guidance of the skilful and provident farmer of our day. The +barometer, the thermometer, and even the hygrometer, should be his +companions and guides, or occasional counsellors. To the description +and useful indications of these instruments, therefore, a sufficient +space is devoted in the book before us. We do not know any other +source from which the practical farmer can draw so much +meteorological matter specially adapted to his own walk of life, as +from this chapter upon the weather. + +All this our young farmer is not supposed to sit down and master +before he proceeds with the proper business of his new farm; it will +be a subject of study with him in many future months, and winters too. +But after a most judicious recommendation, to observe and _record_ +whatever occurs either new or interesting in his field of +labour--without which record he will not be able to contribute, as +he may hereafter do, to the extension of agricultural knowledge--he +is taught next, in an able chapter "upon soils and sub-soils," +to study the nature of his farm more thoroughly; to ascertain +its natural capabilities--the improvements of which it is +susceptible--the simplest, most efficacious, and most economical +means by which this improvement may be effected--and the kind of +implements which it will be most prudent in him to purchase for +tilling the kind of land of which his farm consists, or for bringing +it into a more fertile condition. This chapter also draws largely, +especially upon geological and chemical science, and affords another +illustration of what, I trust, Mr. Stephens's book will more and +more impress upon our working farmers, that _skilful practice is +applied science_. We have not room for any extracts, but when we +mention that in the chemical part of it the author has been assisted +by Dr. Madden, readers of the _Quarterly Journal of Agriculture_ +will be able to form an estimate of the way in which this chapter +has been got up. + +Having now satisfied himself of the nature of his farm as to soil +and capabilities, he sees that new enclosures and shelter will be +necessary--that some fields must be subdivided, others laid out +anew--that old hedge-rows must be rooted out or straightened, and +new ones planted in their room. Of what all this may be made to +accomplish for his farm, and of how the work itself may be done, +even to the minutest details, the chapters on "enclosures and shelter," +and on "planting of farm hedges," will fully inform him. The +benefits of shelter on our elevated lands, are not half understood. +Thousands upon thousands of acres are lying in comparative barrenness, +which, by adequate shelter, might be converted into productive fields. +The increase of mean temperature which results from skilful +enclosures, is estimated at 5 to 8 Fahrenheit; while in regard to +the increased money value, Mr. Thomas Bishop gives the following +testimony:-- + +"Previous to the division of the common moor of Methven in Perthshire, +in 1793, the venerable Lord Lynedoch and Lord Methven had each +secured their lower slopes of land adjoining the moor with belts of +plantation. The year following I entered Lord Methven's service, and +in 1798 planted about sixty acres of the higher moor ground, valued +at 2s. per acre, for shelter to eighty or ninety acres set apart for +cultivation, and let in three divisions to six individuals. The +progress made in improving the land was very slow for the first +fifteen years, but thereafter went on rapidly, being aided by the +_shelter derived from_ the growth of the plantations; and the +whole has now become fair land, bearing annually crops of oats, +barley, peas, potatoes, and turnips. In spring 1838, exactly forty +years from the time of putting down the plantation, I sold four +acres of larch and fir (average growth) standing therein, for L.220, +which, with the value of reserved trees and average amount per acre +of thinnings sold previously, gave a return of L.67 per acre."--Vol. +i, p. 367. + + +We are satisfied that in localities with which we are ourselves +acquainted, there are tens of thousand of acres which, by the simple +protection of sheltering plantations, would soon be made to exhibit +an equal improvement with either the moor of Methven, or the lands +upon Shotley Fell, which are also referred to in the work before us. +At a time when such strenuous endeavours are making to introduce and +extend a more efficient drainage among our clay lands, the more +simple amelioration of our cold uplands by judicious plantations, +ought neither to be lost sight of, nor by those who address +themselves to the landlords and cultivators, be passed by without +especial and frequent notice. + +Did space permit, we could have wished to extract a paragraph or two +upon the mode of planting hedges, and forming ditches, for the +purpose of proving to our readers that Mr. Stephens is as complete a +_hedger_ and _ditcher_, as we have seen him to be cunning as a +drover and a cattle surgeon. But we must refer the reader to the +passages in pp. 376 and 379. Even in the planting of thorn hedges he +will find that science is not unavailing, for both mathematics and +botany are made by Mr. Stephens to yield their several contributions +to the chapters we are now considering. + +But the fields being divided and the hedges planted, or while those +operations are going on, a portion of the land must be subjected to +the plough. Next in order, therefore, follows a chapter upon this +important instrument, in which the merits and uses of the several +best known--especially of the Scotch swing-ploughs--are explained +and discussed. Here our young farmer is taught which variety of +plough he ought to select for his land, _why_ it is to be preferred, +and _how_ it is to be used, and its movable parts (plough-irons) +_tempered_ and adjusted, according to the effect which the workman +is desirous of producing. We are quite sure that the writer of such +parts of this chapter as refer to the practical use of the plough, +must himself have handled it for many a day in the field. + +The part of this chapter, again, which relates to the theoretical +construction--to the history of the successive improvements, and to +the discussion of the relative merits of the numerous varieties of +ploughs which have lately been recommended to notice--is drawn up by +Mr. James Slight, curator of the museum of the Highland Society, a +gentleman whose authority on such subjects stands deservedly high. +To this monograph, as we may call it, upon the plough, we may again +refer as another illustration of the union between agriculture and +science. Mechanism perfects the construction of instruments, +chemistry explains the effects which they are the means of producing +in the soil--says also to the mechanic, if you could make them act +in such and such a way, these effects would be more constantly and +more fully brought about, and returns them to the workshop for +further improvement. Thus each branch of knowledge aids the other, +and suggests to it means of still further benefitting practical +agriculture. + +One of the most interesting, and not the least important, of those +practical discussions which have arisen since the establishment of +the Royal Agricultural Society of England, has been in regard to the +relative merits and lightness of draught of the Scottish +swing-ploughs, and of certain of the wheel-ploughs made and +extensively used, especially in the southern counties. It is admitted, +we believe, on all hands, that a less skilful workman will execute +as presentable a piece of work with a wheel-plough, as a more +skilful ploughman with a Scotch swing-plough. This is insisted upon +by one party as a great advantage, while the other attaches no +weight to it at all, saying, that they find no difficulty in getting +good ploughmen to work with the swing-plough, and therefore it would +be no advantage to them to change. Still this greater facility in +using it is a true economical advantage, nevertheless; since that +which is difficult to acquire will always be purchased at a dearer +rate; and in an improving district, it is some gain, that it is +neither necessary to import very skilful ploughmen, nor to wait till +they are produced at home. + +But it is also conceded, we believe, that the swing-plough, in +skilful hands, is more easily or quickly managed than a wheel-plough; +that it _turns more readily_, and when doing the same kind of work, +will go over the ground quicker, and consequently do more work in a +day. Theoretically, this seems undeniable, though it does not appear +to be as yet clearly established in what precise proportion this +theoretical acceleration ought to increase the extent of ground gone +over by a diligent ploughman in the ten hours of his daily labour. +It is said that, with the wheel-plough, three-fourths of an acre is +an average day's work, while with a swing-plough, an acre is the +ordinary and easy work of an active man on soil of average tenacity. +The _pace_, however, must depend considerably both upon the horses +and their driver; and to whatever extent such a difference may +really exist--and opinions differ upon the subject--it is clearly an +argument in favour of the swing-plough. + +But a third and equally important element in the discussion, is the +relative draught of the swing and wheel-ploughs. This element has +been lately brought more prominently forward, in consequence of some +interesting experiments, made first, we believe, by Mr. Pusey, and +since repeated by others, as to the relative draught of different +ploughs in the same circumstances, as measured by the dynamometer. +This, as well as the other parts of this question, is taken up, and +ably discussed, by Mr. Slight; and he has, we think, satisfactorily +shown, that no wheel-plough (or plough with a foot) can be lighter +in draught, _merely because it is wheeled_--that, on the contrary, +its draught must be in some small degree increased, other things +being equal, (vol. i. p. 463.) This, we think, is probable, on other +grounds besides those stated by Mr. Slight; yet there appears +satisfactory reason for believing, that some of the wheel-ploughs +which have been made the subject of experiment, have actually been +lighter in draught, when doing the same work, than any of the +swing-ploughs that have been opposed to them. But this does not show +that, in _principle_, the swing-plough is not superior to the +wheel-plough--it only shows that, in _construction_, it is still +capable of great emendations, and that, in this respect, some of the +wheel-ploughs have got the start of it. But the Scotch makers, who +first so greatly improved the plough, are capable still of competing +with their southern rivals; and from their conjoined exertions, +future ploughmen are destined to receive still further aid. + +When the ploughs are brought home, and while the winter ploughing is +going on, an opportunity presents itself for laying out, and probably, +as the weather permits, of cutting a portion of the intended drains. +Upon this important subject, Mr. Stephens treats with more even than +his usual skill. How true is the following passage:-- + +"Land, however, though it does not contain such a superabundance of +water as to obstruct arable culture, may nevertheless, by its +inherent wetness, prevent or retard the luxuriant growth of useful +plants, as much as decidedly wet land. The truth is, that deficiency +of crops on apparently dry land is frequently attributed to +unskilful husbandry, when it really arises from the baleful +influence of _concealed_ stagnant water; and the want of skill is +shown, not so much in the management of the arable culture of the +land, as in neglecting to remove the true cause of the deficiency of +the crop, namely, the concealed stagnant water. Indeed, my opinion is, +and its conviction has been forced upon me by long and extensive +observation of the state of the soil over a large part of the +country--that this is the _true cause of most of the bad farming to +be seen_, and that _not one farm_ is to be found throughout the +kingdom that _would not be much the better for draining_." +--Vol. i. p. 483. + +Draining is now truly regarded as a great national work, involving +considerations of the highest moment, and bearing upon some of the +most vital questions of our national policy. It is a subject, +therefore, the practical discussion of which is of the greatest +importance, especially in reference to the mode in which it can be +most _efficiently_ and most _cheaply_ done. Into these points, +Mr. Stephens enters minutely, and the course he prescribes is, we +think, full of judgment. He explains the Elkington mode of draining, +and he gives due praise to the more recent improvements of Mr. Smith +of Deanston. + + +Every one knows how difficult it is to persuade our practical men to +adopt any new method; but even after you have satisfied them that the +adoption of it will really do good to their farms, it is almost as +difficult to persuade them, that a partial adoption of the method, +or some alteration of it--as they fancy some _improvement_ of +it--will not best suit their land, or the circumstances in which +they are placed. Thus, one thinks, that a drain in each alternate +furrow is enough for his soil--that his drains need not be above +twelve(!) or eighteen inches deep--or that on his clay, the use of +soles is a needless expense. On all these points, the book before us +gives confident opinions, with which we entirely coincide. + +In regard to the depth of drains, it is shown, that in order that +they may _draw_, they should never be shallower than thirty inches, +and should always leave a depth of eighteen inches clear of the +draining materials, in order that the subsoil and trench plough may +have full freedom of action, without risk of injury to the drain; +while of the use of soles he says-- + +"I am a strenuous advocate for drainsoles _in all cases_; and even +when they may really prove of little use, I would rather use too many, +than too few precautions in draining; because, even in the most +favourable circumstances, we cannot tell what change may take place +beyond our view, in the interior of a drain, which we are never again +permitted, and which _we have no desire to see_." + +This passage expresses the true principle of safety, by which, in +the outlay of large sums of money for improvements, the landowner, +and the holder of an improving lease, ought to be actuated. Though +great losses have already been incurred by shallow drains, and by +the rejection of soles, the practice, especially in the more +backward districts, still goes on, and thousands of pounds are still +expended upon the principles of a false economy, in repetition of +the same faulty practice. We know of drainings now going on to a +great extent, which will never permit the use of the subsoil plough; +and of the neglect of soles, upon soils generally of clay, but here +and there with patches of sand, into which the tiles must inevitably +sink. When a person drains his own land, of course reason is the +only constraint by which he can be withheld from doing as he likes +with his own; or where a yearly tenant drains part of his farm at +his own expense, the risk is exclusively his, and his landlord, who +perhaps refuses to give any effectual aid, can have no right to +dictate as to the mode in which the draining is to be performed; but +when the landlord contributes either directly or indirectly to the +expense, he, or his agent--if he has one who is skilful +enough--should insist upon every thing being done according to the +most improved, which, in reality, are also ultimately the most +economical principles. + +While the draining thus proceeds on the best and most economical +principles, the ploughing is supposed to be still in progress. +Indeed the arrangements for the two operations, the selection and +purchase of the implements for both, may go on simultaneously. The +plough, indeed, is sometimes used as a draining implement for making +a deep furrow, in which, with more or less emendation from the spade, +the tiles or other draining materials may subsequently be laid. But +in this case, the draught is excessive, and many horses must often +be yoked into the same plough, in order to drag it through the ground. +Here, therefore, the young farmer must learn a new art--the art of +harnessing and yoking his horses, in such a way as to obtain the +greatest possible effect, at the least expense, or with the smallest +waste of animal strength. This is a very important subject for +consideration, and it is one which the author who is best acquainted +with the practice, and with the state of knowledge regarding it, +over a great part of our island, will feel himself most imperatively +called upon to treat of in detail. This is done, accordingly, in the +chapter upon the "Yoking and Harnessing of the Plough," in which, by +the able assistance of Mr. Slight, the principles upon which these +processes should be conducted, as well as the simplest, strongest, +and most economical methods, in actual practice among the most +skilful farmers, are illustrated and explained. + +To this follows a chapter upon "Ploughing stubble and lea ground," +in which, with the aid of his two coadjutors, the practical and +scientific questions involved in the general process of ploughing +such land, are discussed with equal skill and judgment. We have been +particularly pleased with the remarks of Mr. Slight upon +ploughing-matches, (Vol. i. p. 651,) in reference especially to the +general disregard among judges, of the nature of the _underground_ +work, on which so much of the good effects of ploughing in reality +depends. They will, we doubt not, have their due weight, at future +ploughing-matches, among those--and we hope they will be many--into +whose hands the work before us may come. + +Second in importance to draining only, are the subjects of "subsoil +and trench ploughing," operations which are also to be performed at +this season of the year--and a chapter upon which concludes the +first volume of Mr. Stephens's work. Those who are acquainted with +the writings of Mr. Smith of Deanston, and with the operations of +the Marquis of Tweeddale at Yester, will duly estimate the importance, +not merely to the young farmer himself, but to the nation at large, +of proper instruction in regard to these two important operations--in +the mode of economically conducting them--in the principles upon +which their beneficial action depends--and in the circumstances by +which the practical man ought to be regulated in putting the one or +the other, or the one _rather_ than the other, in operation upon his +own land. Our limits do not permit us to discuss the relative merits +of subsoil and trench ploughing, which by some writers have unwisely +been pitted against each other--as if they were in reality methods +of improving the land, either of which a man may equally adopt in +any soil and under all circumstances. But they, in reality, agree +universally only in this one thing--_that neither process will +produce a permanently good effect unless the land be previously +thorough-drained_. But being drained, the farmer must then exercise +a sound discretion, and Mr. Stephens's book will aid his judgment +much in determining which of the two subsequent methods he ought to +adopt. The safer plan for the young farmer would be to try one or +two acres in each way, and in his after procedure upon the same kind +of land to be regulated by the result of this trial. Mr. Stephens +expresses a decided opinion in favour of trench-ploughing in the +following passages:-- + +"I have no hesitation in expressing my preference of trench to +subsoil ploughing: and I cannot see a single instance, with the sole +exception of turning up a very bad subsoil in large quantity, in +which there is any advantage attending subsoil, that cannot be +enjoyed by trench ploughing: and for this single drawback of a very +bad subsoil, trenching has the advantage of being performed in +perfect safety, where subsoil ploughing could not be, without +previous drainage. + +"But whilst giving a preference to trench ploughing over subsoil, I +am of opinion that it should not be generally attempted under any +circumstances, however favourable, without previous thorough-draining, +any more than subsoil ploughing; but when so drained, there is no +mode of management, in my opinion, that will render land so soon +amenable to the means of putting it in a high degree of fertility as +trench ploughing."--Vol. i. p. 664. + + +We confess that, in the first of the above passages, Mr. Stephens +appears to us to assume something of the tone of a partizan, which +has always the effect of lessening the weight of an author's opinion +with the intelligent reader who is in search of the truth only. What +is advanced as the main advantage of trench-ploughing in the first +passage--that it can be safely done without previous draining, is in +the second wholly discarded by the advice, _never to trench-plough +without previous draining_. At the same time it is confessed, that +in the case of a bad subsoil, trench-ploughing may do much harm. +Every practical man in fact knows that bringing up the subsoil in +any quantity, he would in some districts render his fields in a great +measure unproductive for years to come. On the other hand, we believe +that the use of the subsoil-plough can never do harm upon drained +land. We speak, of course, of soils upon which it is already +conceded that either the one method or the other ought to be adopted. +The utmost evil that can follow in any such case from the use of the +subsoil-plough, is that the expense will be thrown away--the land +cannot be rendered more unfruitful by it. Subsoiling, therefore, is +the _safer_ practice. + +But in reality, there ought, as we have already stated, to be no +opposition between the two methods. Each has its own special uses +for which it can be best employed, and the skill of the farmer must +be exercised in determining whether the circumstances in which he is +placed are such as to call specially for the one or for the other +instrument. If the subsoil be a rich black mould, or a continuation +of the same alluvial or other fertile soil which forms the surface--it +may be turned up at once by the trench-plough without hesitation. Or, +if the subsoil be more or less full of lime, which has sunk from above, +trenching may with equal safety be adopted. But, if the subsoil be +more or less ferruginous--if it be of that yellow unproductive clay +which in some cases extends over nearly whole counties--or of that +hard, blue, stony till which requires the aid of the mattock to +work out of the drains--or if it consist of a hard and stony, +more or less impervious bed--in all these cases the use of the +subsoil-plough is clearly indicated. In short, the young farmer can +scarcely have a safer rule than this--to subsoil his land first, +_whenever there is a doubt of the soundness of the subsoil_, or a +fear that by bringing it to the surface, the fertility of the upper +soil will be diminished. It is no reply to this safer practice to +say that even Mr. Smith recommends turning up the subsoil afterwards, +and that we have therefore a double expense to incur. For it is known, +that after a time any subsoil so treated may be turned up with safety, +and consequently there is no risk of loss by delaying this deeper +ploughing for a few years; and in regard to the question of expense, +it appears that the cost of both draining and subsoiling are +generally repayed by the first two or three crops which succeed each +improvement. What more, then, can be required? The expense is +repaid--the land is, to a certain extent, permanently improved--no +risk of loss has been incurred, and there still remains to the +improving farmer--improving his own circumstances, as well as the +quality of his land, by his prudent and skilful measures--there +still remains the deeper ploughing, by which he can gradually bring +new soil to the surface, as he sees it mellow, and become wholesome, +under the joint influences which the drain and the subsoil-plough +have brought to bear upon it. + +There can, therefore, it is clear, be no universal rule for the use +of the two valuable instruments in question, as each has its own +defined sphere of action. This, we think, is the common-sense view +of the case. But if any one insists upon having a universal rule +which shall save him from thinking or observing for himself in all +cases, then we should say--_in all cases subsoil, because it is the +safer_. + +With this subject the first volume of _The Book of the Farm_ is +brought to a close; but winter still continues, and in other +winter-work of scarcely less importance the young farmer has still +to be instructed. We have hitherto said nothing of the more expensive +and beautiful embellishments of the book, because the most +interesting of them are portraits of celebrated short-horns, working +horses, sheep, and pigs--a subject of which the author begins to +treat only at the commencement of the second volume. The feeding of +stock is one of those parts of the winter's labours, in improving +husbandry, upon which not only the immediate profit of the farmer, +but the ultimate fertility of his land, in a great measure depends. +The choice of his stock, and the best mode of treating and tending +them, therefore, are subjects of the greatest consequence to the +young farmer. In the choice of his stock he will be aided at once by +the clear descriptions, and by the portraits so beautifully executed +by Landseer and Sheriff, by which the letterpress is accompanied. In +the subsequent treatment of them, and in the mode by which they may +be most profitably, most quickly, or most economically fed _in the +winter season_, he will be fully instructed in the succeeding +chapters of the book. + +Turnips and other roots are the principal food of cattle in the +winter: a preliminary chapter, therefore, is devoted to the +"drawing and storing of turnips and other roots." Had we our article +to begin again, we could devote several pages, agreeably to ourselves, +and not without interest, we believe, or without instruction, to our +reader, in discussing a few of those points connected with the +feeding of cattle, upon which, though the means of information are +within their reach, practical men have hitherto permitted themselves +to remain wholly ignorant. Of these points Mr. Stephens adverts to +several, and suggests the advantage of additional experiments; but +the whole subject requires revision, and, under the guidance of +persons able to direct, who are acquainted with all that is yet known, +or has as yet been done either in our own or in foreign countries, +experiments will hereafter, no doubt, be made, by which many new +truths, both theoretically and practically valuable, are sure to be +elucidated. + +We may advert, as an illustration, to the feeding properties of the +turnip. It is usual to reckon the value of a crop of turnips by the +number of tons per acre which it is found to yield when so many +square yards of the produce are weighed. But this may be very +fallacious in many ways. If they are white turnips, for instance, +nine tons of small will contain as much nourishment as ten tons of +large--or twenty-seven tons an acre of small turnips will feed as +many sheep as thirty tons per acre of large turnips. Or if the crop +be Swedes, the reverse will be the case, twenty-seven tons of large +will feed as much stock as thirty tons of small.--(Vol. ii., p. 20.) +Mr. Stephens points out other fallacies also, to which we cannot +advert. One, however, he has passed over, of equal, we believe of +greater, consequence than any other--we allude to the variable +quantity of water which the turnip grown on different soils in +different seasons is found to contain. + +It is obvious, that in so far as the roots of the turnip, the carrot, +and the potatoe, consist of water, they can serve the purposes of +drink only--they cannot feed the animals to which they are given. Now, +the quantity of water in the turnip is so great, that 100 _tons +sometimes contain only nine tons of dry feeding matter_--more than +nine-tenths of their weight consisting of water. But again, their +constitution is so variable, that 100 _tons sometimes contain more +than twenty tons of dry food_--or less than four-fifths of their +weight of water. It is possible, therefore, that one acre of turnips, +on which only twenty tons are growing, may feed as many sheep as +another on which forty tons are produced. What, therefore, can be +more uncertain than the feeding value of an acre of turnips as +estimated by the weight? How much in the dark are buyers and sellers +of this root? What wonder is there, that different writers should +estimate so very differently the weight of turnips which ought to be +given for the purpose of sustaining the condition, or of increasing +the weight, of the several varieties of stock? Other roots exhibit +similar differences; and even the potatoe, while it sometimes +contains thirty tons of food in every hundred of raw roots, at others, +contains no more than twenty--the same weight, namely, which exists +at times in the turnip. [4] + +[Footnote 4: For our authority on this subject, we refer to +Johnston's _Suggestion for Experiments in Practical Agriculture_, No. +111. pp. 62 and 64, of which we have been favoured with an early +copy by the author.] + +This latter fact, shows the very slippery ground on which the +assertion rests, that has lately astonished the weak minds of our +Southern cattle-feeding brethren, from the mouth of one of their +talented but hasty lecturers--that the potatoe contains two or three +times the weight of nourishment which exists in the turnip. It is +true that _some_ varieties of potatoes contain three times as much +as _some_ varieties of turnip--but, on the other hand, some turnips +contain as much nourishment as an equal weight of potatoes. But no +man can tell, by bare inspection, as yet, to which class of turnips, +the more or less watery, his own may belong--whether that which is +apparently the most prolific may not in reality be the least +so--whether that mode of manuring his land which gives him the +greatest weight of raw roots may not give him the smallest weight of +real substantial food for his stock. What a wide field, therefore, +for experiment? To what useful results might they not be expected to +lead? If any of our readers wish to undertake such experiments, or to +learn how they are to be performed, we refer them to the pamphlet +mentioned in the note. + +In connexion with the chapter "on the feeding of sheep," we could +have wished to advert to the advantages of shelter, in producing the +largest weight of meat from a given weight of turnips, or other +food--as illustrated by the experiments of Mr. Childers, Lord Western, +and others; but we must refer our readers to the passage itself, +(vol. ii. p. 51,) as we must also to the no less important +comparative view of the advantages of feeding cattle in close byres +and in open hammels, (vol. ii. p. 129,) and to the interesting +details regarding the use of raw and steamed food, contained in the +chapter upon the feeding of cattle, (vol. ii. p. 120 to 148.) + +But our author is so cunning in the qualities of mutton--which, as +we have already seen, he can "kill so gently," performing the +operation without pain--that we think our readers will enjoy the +following passage:-- + +"The gigot is the handsomest and most valuable part of the carcass, +and on that account fetches the highest price. It is either a +roasting or a boiling piece. Of black-faced mutton it makes a fine +roast, and the piece of fat in it called the _pope's eye_, is +considered a delicate _morceau_ by epicures. A gigot of Leicester, +Cheviot, or Southdown mutton makes a beautiful 'boiled leg of mutton,' +which is prized the more the fatter it is, as this part of the +carcass is never overloaded with fat. The loin is almost always +roasted, the flap of the flank being skewered up, and it is a juicy +piece. For a small family, the black-faced mutton is preferable; for +a large, the Southdown and Cheviot. Many consider this piece of +Leicester mutton roasted as too rich, and when warm, this is +probably the case; but a cold roast loin is an excellent summer dish. +The back-ribs are divided into two, and used for very different +purposes. The fore-part, the neck, is boiled and makes sweet +barley-broth, and the meat, when well boiled, or rather the whole +pottage simmered for a considerable time _beside_ the fire, eats +tenderly. The back-ribs make an excellent roast; indeed, there is +not a sweeter or more varied one in the carcass, having both ribs +and shoulder. The shoulder-blade eats best cold, and the ribs warm. +The ribs make excellent chops. The Leicester and Southdowns afford +the best mutton-chops. The breast is mostly a roasting-piece, +consisting of rib and shoulder, and is particularly good when cold. +When the piece is large, as of Southdown or Cheviot, the gristly +part of the ribs may be divided from the true ribs, and helped +separately. The breast is an excellent piece in black-faced mutton, +and suitable to small families, the shoulder being eaten cold, while +the ribs and brisket are sweet and juicy when warm. This piece also +boils well; or, when corned for eight days, and served with onion +sauce, with mashed turnip in it, there are few more savoury dishes +at a farmer's table. The shoulder is separated before being dressed, +and makes an excellent roast for family use, and may be eaten warm or +cold, or corned and dressed as the breast mentioned above. The +shoulder is best from a large carcass of Southdown, Cheviot, or +Leicester, the black-faced being too thin for the purpose; and it was +probably because English mutton is usually large that the practice +of removing it originated. The neckpiece is partly laid bare by the +removal of the shoulder, the fore-part being fitted for boiling and +making into broth, and the best end for roasting or broiling into +chops. On this account this is a good family piece, and in such +request among the tradesmen of London that they prefer it to any part +of the hind-quarter."--(Vol. ii. p. 98.) + +Nor is he less skilful in the humble food and cooking of the +farm-labourer; indeed, he seems never satisfied until he fairly +exhausts all the useful matter contained in every subject upon which +he touches. He not only breeds, and feeds, and kills, and cooks, but +he does the latter with such relish, that we have several times +fancied that we could actually see him eating his own mutton, beef, +and pork. And, whether he luxuriates over a roast of the back-ribs +of mutton, "so sweet and so varied," or complains that "the +hotel-keepers have a trick of seasoning brown-soup, or rather +beef-tea, with a few joints of tail, and passing it off for genuine +ox-tail soup,"--(vol. ii. p. 169,) or describes the "_famous fat +brose_, for which Scotland has long been celebrated," as formed by +skimming off the fat when boiling the hough, pouring it upon oatmeal, +and seasoning with pepper and salt; or indulges in the humbler +brose of the ploughman in his bothy, he evidently enjoys every thing +set before him so much, that we are sure he must lay on the fat +kindly. We should not wonder if he is himself already _nicked_; and +we cannot more warmly testify our good wishes, than by expressing a +hope, that, when he is fully _ripe_, the grim surgeon will operate +upon him _without pain_, and kill him _gently_. + +One of Mr. Stephens's humbler dishes is the following:-- + +"The only time Scotch farm-servants indulge in butcher-meat is when +a sheep _falls_, as it is termed; that is, when it is killed before +being affected with an unwholesome disease, and the mutton is sold +at a reduced price. Shred down the suet small, removing any flesh or +cellular membrane adhering to it; then mix amongst it intimately 1/2 +oz. of salt and a tea-spoonful of pepper to every pound of suet; put +the mixture into an earthen jar, and tie up tightly with bladder. +One table spoonful of seasoned suet will, at any time, make good +barley-broth or potato-soup for two persons. The lean of the mutton +may be shred down small, and seasoned in a similar manner, and used +when required; or it may be corned with salt, and used as a joint." +--Vol. ii. p. 105. + + +How much of the natural habits and manners of a country, and of the +circumstances and inner life of the various classes of its +inhabitants, is to be learned from a study of their cookery! + +Reader, what a mystery hangs over the _handling_ of a fat beast! A +feeder approaches a well filled short-horn--he touches it here--he +pinches it there--he declares it to have many good _points_ about it; +but pronounces the existence of defects, where the uninitiated see +only beauties. The points of a fat ox, how mysterious they are, how +difficult to make out! The five points of Arminianism, our old vicar +used to say, were nothing to them. But here, too, Mr. Stephens is at +home. Listen to his simple explanation of the whole: + +"The first point usually _handled_ is the end of the rump at the +tail-head, although any fat here is very obvious, and sometimes +attains to an enormous size, amounting even to deformity. The +hook-bone gets a touch, and when well covered, is right.... To the +hand, or rather to the points of the fingers of the right hand, when +laid upon the ribs, the flesh should feel soft and thick and the +form be round when all is right, but if the ribs are flat the flesh +will feel hard and thin from want of fat. The skin, too, on a rounded +rib, will feel soft and mobile, the hair deep and mossy, both +indicative of a kindly disposition to lay on flesh. The hand then +grasps the flank, and finds it thick, when the existence of internal +tallow is indicated.... The palm of the hand laid along the line of +the back will point out any objectionable hard piece on it, but if +all is soft and pleasant, then the shoulder-top is good. A +hollowness behind the shoulder is a very common occurrence; but when +it is filled up with a layer of fat, the flesh of all the +fore-quarter is thereby rendered very much more valuable. You would +scarcely believe that such a difference could exist in the flesh +between a lean and a fat shoulder. A high narrow shoulder is +frequently attended with a ridged back-bone, and lowset narrow hooks, +a form which gets the appropriate name of _razor-back_, with which +will always be found a deficiency of flesh in all the upper part of +the animal, where the best flesh always is. If the shoulder-point is +covered, and feels soft like the point of the hook-bone, it is good, +and indicates a well filled neck-vein, which runs from that point to +the side of the head. The shoulder-point, however, is often bare and +prominent. When the neck-vein is so firmly filled up as not to +permit the points of the fingers inside of the shoulder-point, this +indicates a well tallowed animal; as also does the filling up +between the brisket and inside of the fore legs, as well as a full, +projecting, well covered brisket in front. When the flesh comes down +heavy upon the thighs, making a sort of double thigh, it is called +_lyary_, and indicates a tendency of the flesh to grow on the +lower instead of the upper part of the body. These are all the +_points_ that require _touching when the hand is used_; and in a +high-conditioned ox, they may be gone over very rapidly."--Vol. ii. p. +165. + + +The treatment of horses follows that of cattle, and this chapter is +fitted to be of extensive use among our practical farmers. There are +few subjects to which the attention of our small farmers requires +more to be drawn than to the treatment of their horses--few in which +want of skill causes a more general and _constant_ waste. The +economy of _prepared_ food is ably treated of, and we select the +following passage as containing at once sound theoretical and +important practical truths: + +"It appears at first sight somewhat surprising that the idea of +preparing food for farm-horses should only have been recently acted +on; but I have no doubt that the practice of the turf and of the road, +of maintaining horses on large quantities of oats and dry ryegrass +hay, has had a powerful influence in retaining it on farms. But now +that a more natural treatment has been adopted by the owners of +horses on fast work, farmers, having now the example of post-horses +standing their work well on prepared food, should easily be +persuaded that, on slow work, the same sort of food should have even +a more salutary effect on their horses. How prevalent was the notion, +at one time, that horses could not be expected to do work at all, +unless there was _hard meat_ in them! 'This is a very silly and +erroneous idea, if we inquire into it,' as Professor Dick truly +observes, 'for whatever may be the consistency of the food when +taken into the stomach, it must, before the body can possibly derive +any substantial support or benefit from it, be converted into +_chyme_--a pultacious mass; and this, as it passes onward from the +stomach into the intestinal canal, is rendered still more fluid by +the admixture of the secretions from the stomach, the liver, and the +pancreas, when it becomes of a milky appearance, and is called +_chyle_. It is then taken into the system by the lacteals, and in +this _fluid_, this _soft_ state--_and in this state only_--mixes +with the blood, and passes through the circulating vessels for the +nourishment of the system.' Actuated by these rational principles, +Mr. John Croall, a large coach-proprietor in Edinburgh, now supports +his coach horses on 8 lb. of chopped hay and 16 lb. of bruised oats; +so does Mr. Isaac Scott, a postmaster, who gives 10 lb. or 12 lb. of +chopped hay and 16 lb. of bruised oats, to large horses: and to +carry the principle still further into practice, Captain Cheyne +found his post-horses work well on the following mixture, the +proportions of which are given for each horse every day; and this +constitutes the second of the formul alluded to above." + + In the day, + 8 lb. of bruised oats. + 3 lb. of bruised beans. + 4 lb. of chopped straw. + ------ + 15 lb. + + At night + 22 lb. of steamed potatoes. + 1-1/2 lb. of fine barley dust. + 2 lb. of chopped straw. + 2 oz. of salt. + ---------- + 25-1/2 lb. + +"Estimating the barley-dust at 10d. per stone; chopped straw, 6d. +per stone, potatoes, steamed, at 7s. 6d. per cwt.; and the oats and +beans at ordinary prices, the cost of supper was 6d., and for daily +food, 1s. with cooking, in all 1s. 6d. a horse each day."--Vol. ii. p. +194. + + +The reader will also peruse with interest the following paragraph, +illustrative at once of the habits of the horse, and of our author's +familiarity with the race:-- + +"The horse is an intelligent animal, and seems to delight in the +society of man. It is remarked by those who have much to do with +blood-horses, that, when at liberty, and seeing two or more people +standing conversing together, they will approach, and seem, as it +were, to wish to listen to the conversation. The farm-horse will +not do this; but he is quite obedient to call, and distinguishes +his name readily from that of his companion, and will not stir +when desired to stand until _his own name_ is pronounced. He +distinguishes the various sorts of work he is put to, and will apply +his strength and skill in the best way to effect his purpose, +whether in the thrashing-mill, the cart, or the plough. He soon +acquires a perfect sense of his work. I have seen a horse walk very +steadily towards a feering pole, and halt when his head had reached +it. He seems also to have a sense of time. I have heard another +neigh almost daily about ten minutes before the time of loosening in +the evening, whether in summer or winter. He is capable of +distinguishing the tones of the voice, whether spoken in anger or +otherwise; and can even distinguish between musical notes. There was +a work-horse of my own, when even at his corn, would desist eating, +and listen attentively, with pricked and moving ears and steady eyes, +the instant he heard the note of low G sounded, and would continue +to listen as long as it was sustained; and another, that was +similarly affected by a particular high note. The recognition of the +sound of the bugle by a trooper, and the excitement occasioned in +the hunter when the pack give tongue, are familiar instances of the +extraordinary effects of particular sounds on horses."--Vol. ii. p. +216. + + +We recollect in our younger days, when we used to drive home from +Penrith market, our friend would say, "come, let us give the horse a +song--he will go home so briskly with us." And it really was so, or +seemed so at least, be the principle what it may. + +Pigs and poultry succeed to cattle and horses, and the author is +equally at home in regard to the management of these as of the more +valued varieties of stock--as learned in their various breeds, and +as skilful in the methods of fattening, killing, and cutting up. How +much truth is contained in the following remarks, and how easily and +usefully might the evil be amended:-- + + +"Of all the animals reared on a farm, there are none so much +neglected by the farmer, both in regard to the selection of their +kind, and their qualifications to fatten, as all the sorts of +domesticated fowls found in the farm-yard. Indeed, the very +supposition that _he_ would devote any of _his_ time to the +consideration of poultry, is regarded as a positive affront on his +manhood. Women, in his estimation, may be fit enough for such a +charge, and doubtless they would do it well, provided they were not +begrudged every particle of food bestowed upon those useful creatures. +The consequence is what might be expected in the circumstances, that +go to most farm-steads, and the surprise will be to meet a single +fowl of any description in _good_ condition, that is to say, in such +condition that it may be killed at the instant in a fit state for +the table, which it might be if it had been treated as a fattening +animal from its birth."--Vol. ii. p. 246. + + +The methods of fattening them are afterwards described; and for a +mode _of securing a new-laid egg to breakfast every winter morning_, +a luxury which our author "enjoyed for as many years as he lived in +the country," we refer the reader to page 256 of the second volume. + +Besides the feeding of stock, one other in-door labour demands the +attention of the farmer, when the severity of winter weather has put +a stop to the ploughing and the draining of his land. His grain +crops are to be thrashed out, and sent to the market or the mill. In +this part of his work Mr. Stephens has again availed himself of the +valuable assistance of Mr. Slight, who, in upwards of 100 pages of +closely printed matter, has figured and described nearly all the +more useful instruments employed in the preparation of the food of +cattle, and in separating the grain of the corn crops. The thrashing +machine, so valuable an addition to the working establishment of a +modern farm-steading, is minutely explained--the varieties in its +construction illustrated by wood-cuts--and the respective merits of +the different forms of the machine examined and discussed. With the +following, among his other conclusions, we cordially concur. + +"I cannot view these two machines without feeling impressed with a +conviction that both countries would soon feel the advantage of an +amalgamation between the two forms of the machine. The drum of the +Scotch thrashing-machine would most certainly be improved by a +transfusion from the principles of the English machine; and the +latter might be equally improved by the adoption of the +manufacturing-like arrangements and general economy of the Scotch +system of thrashing. That such interchange will ere long take place, +I am thoroughly convinced; and as I am alike satisfied that the +advantages would be mutual, it is to be hoped that these views will +not stand alone. It has not been lost sight of, that each machine +may be said to be suited to the system to which it belongs, and that +here, where the corn is cut by the sickle, the machine is adapted to +that; while the same may be said of the other, where cutting by the +scythe is so much practised. Notwithstanding all this, there appears +to be good properties in both that either seems to stand in need of." +--Vol. ii. p. 329. + + +Other scientific, especially chemical information, connected with +the different varieties of grain, and the kind and quantity of food +they respectively yield, is incorporated in the chapters upon +"wheat, flour, and oat and bean meal," to which we can only advert, +as further illustrations of the intimate manner in which science and +skilful or enlightened practice are invariably, necessarily, and +every where interwoven. + + * * * * * + +And now the dreary months of winter are ended--and the labours of +the farmer take a new direction. + + "Salvitur acris hiems grat vice veris et Favoni," + + * * * * * + + "Ac neque jam stabulis gaudet pecus, aut arator igni." + +But we cannot follow Mr. Stephens through the cheerful labours of the +coming year. Our task is so far ended, and from the way in which the +whole of the long weeks of winter are described, the reader must +judge of Mr. Stephens's ability to lead him safely and surely +through the rest of the year. + +A closing observation or two, however, we beg to offer. We look upon +a good book on agriculture as something more than a lucky speculation +for the publisher, or a profitable occupation of his time for the +author. _It is a gain to the community at large,--a new instrument +of national wealth_. The first honour or praise in reference to +every such instrument, is, no doubt, due to the maker or +inventor--but he who brings is into general use, merits also no +little approbation. Such is our case with respect to the book before +us. We shall be glad to learn that our analysis of it contributes to +a wider circulation among the practical farmers of the empire, of +the manifold information which the book contains, not so much for +the sake of the author, as with a view to the common good of the +country at large. It is to the more general diffusion of sound +agricultural literature among our farmers, that we look for that more +rapid development of the resources of our varied soils which the +times so imperatively demand. To gain this end no legitimate means +ought to be passed by, and we have detained our readers so long upon +the book before us, in the hope that they may be induced to lend us +_their_ aid also in attaining so desirable an object. + +We do not consider _The Book of the Farm_ a perfect work: the author +indulges now and then in loose and careless writing; and this +incorrectness has more frequently struck us in the later portions of +the work, no doubt from the greater haste of composition. He sets +out by slighting the aids of science to agriculture; and yet, in an +early part of his book, tells the young farmer that he "must become +acquainted with the agency of _electricity_ before he can understand +the variations of the weather," and ends by making his book, as we +have said, a running commentary upon the truth we have already +several times repeated, that SKILFUL PRACTICE IS APPLIED SCIENCE. + +These, and no doubt other faults the book has--as what book is +without them?--but as a practical manual for those who wish to be +good farmers, it is the best book we know. It contains more of the +practical applications of modern science, and adverts to more of +those interesting questions from which past improvements have sprung, +and from the discussion of which future ameliorations are likely to +flow, than any other of the newer works which have come under our eye. +Where so many excellences exist, we are not ill-natured enough to +magnify a few defects. + +The excellence of Scottish agriculture may be said by some to give +rise to the excellent agricultural books which Scotland, time after +time, has produced. But it may with equal truth be said, that the +existence of good books, and their diffusion among a reading +population, are the sources of the agricultural distinction possessed +by the northern parts of the island. It is beyond our power, as +individuals, to convert the entire agricultural population of our +islands into a reading body, but we can avail ourselves of the +tendency wherever it exists; and by writing, or diffusing, or aiding +to diffuse, good books, we can supply ready instruction to such as +_now_ wish for it, and can put it in the way of those in whom +other men, by other means, are labouring to awaken the dormant +desire for knowledge. Reader, do _you_ wish to improve agriculture? +--then buy you a good book, and place it in the hands of your tenant +or your neighbouring farmer; if he be a reading man, he will thank +you, and his children may live to bless you; if he be not a reader, +you may have the gratification of wakening a dormant spirit; and +though you may appear to be casting your bread upon the waters, yet +you shall find it again after many days. + + * * * * * + + + + +POEMS AND BALLADS OF SCHILLER. + +No. VII. + +(The two following poems, "The Ideal," and, "The Ideal and Life," +are essentially distinct in their mode of treatment. The first is +simple and tender, and expresses feelings in which all can sympathize. +As a recent and able critic, in the Foreign Quarterly Review, has +observed, this poem, "still little known, contains a regret for the +period of youthful faith," and may take its place among the most +charming and pathetic of all those numberless effusions of genius in +which individual feeling is but the echo of the universal heart. But +the poem on "The Ideal and Life" is highly mystical and obscure;-- +"it is a specimen," says the critic we have just quoted, "of those +poems which were the immediate results of Schiller's metaphysical +studies. Here the subject is purely supersensual, and does not +descend to the earth at all. The very tendency of the poem is to +recommend a life not in the actual world, but in the world of +appearances [5]--that is, in the aesthetical world." + +It requires considerable concentration of mind to follow its +meaning through the cloud of its dark and gigantic images. Schiller +desired his friend Humboldt to read it in perfect stillness, 'and +put away from him all that was profane.' Humboldt, of course, +admired it prodigiously; and it is unquestionably full of thought +expressed with the power of the highest genius. But, on the other +hand, its philosophy, even for a Poet or Idealist, is more than +disputable, and it incurs the very worst fault which a Poet can +commit, viz. obscurity of idea as well as expression. When the Poet +sets himself up for the teacher, he must not forget that the +teacher's duty is to be clear; and the higher the mystery he would +expound, the more pains he should bestow on the simplicity of the +elucidation. For the true Poet does not address philosophical +coteries, but an eternal and universal public. Happily this fault is +rare in Schiller, and more happily still, his great mind did not +long remain a groper amidst the 'Realm of Shadow.' The true Ideal is +quite as liable to be lost amidst the maze of metaphysics, as in the +actual thoroughfares of work-day life. A plunge into Kant may do +more harm to a Poet than a walk through Fleet Street. Goethe, than +whom no man had ever more studied the elements of the diviner art, +was right as an artist in his dislike to the over-cultivation of the +aesthetical. The domain of the Ideal is the heart, and through the +heart it operates on the soul. It grows feebler and dimmer in +proportion as it seeks to rise above human emotion.... Longinus does +not err, when he asserts that Passion (often erroneously translated +Pathos) is the best part of the Sublime.) + +[Footnote 5: Rather, according to Aesthetical Philosophy, is the +_actual_ world to be called the _world of appearances_, and the +Ideal the world of substance.] + + + + +TO THE IDEAL. + + Then wilt thou, with thy fancies holy-- + Wilt thou, faithless, fly from me? + With thy joy, thy melancholy, + Wilt thou thus relentless flee? + O Golden Time, O Human May, + Can nothing, Fleet One, thee restrain? + Must thy sweet river glide away + Into the eternal Ocean-Main? + + The suns serene are lost and vanish'd + That wont the path of youth to gild, + And all the fair Ideals banish'd + From that wild heart they whilome fill'd. + Gone the divine and sweet believing + In dreams which Heaven itself unfurl'd! + What godlike shapes have years bereaving + Swept from this real work-day world! + + As once, with tearful passion fired, + The Cyprian Sculptor clasp'd the stone, + Till the cold cheeks, delight-inspired, + Blush'd--to sweet life the marble grown; + So Youth's desire for Nature!--round + The Statue, so my arms I wreathed, + Till warmth and life in mine it found + And breath that poets breathe--it breathed. + + With my own burning thoughts it burn'd;-- + Its silence stirr'd to speech divine;-- + Its lips my glowing kiss return'd;-- + Its heart in beating answer'd mine! + How fair was then the flower--the tree!-- + How silver-sweet the fountain's fall! + The soulless had a soul to me! + My life its own life lent to all! + + The Universe of Things seem'd swelling + The panting heart to burst its bound, + And wandering Fancy found a dwelling + In every shape--thought--deed, and sound. + Germ'd in the mystic buds, reposing, + A whole creation slumber'd mute, + Alas, when from the buds unclosing, + How scant and blighted sprung the fruit! + + How happy in his dreaming error, + His own gay valour for his wing, + Of not one care as yet in terror, + Did Youth upon his journey spring; + Till floods of balm, through air's dominion, + Bore upward to the faintest star-- + For never aught to that bright pinion + Could dwell too high, or spread too far. + + Though laden with delight, how lightly + The wanderer heavenward still could soar, + And aye the ways of life how brightly + The airy Pageant danced before!-- + Love, showering gifts (life's sweetest) down, + Fortune, with golden garlands gay, + And Fame, with starbeams for a crown, + And Truth, whose dwelling is the Day. + + Ah! midway soon, lost evermore, + Afar the blithe companions stray; + In vain their faithless steps explore, + As, one by one, they glide away. + Fleet Fortune was the first escaper-- + The thirst for wisdom linger'd yet; + But doubts with many a gloomy vapour + The sun-shape of the Truth beset! + + The holy crown which Fame was wreathing, + Behold! the mean man's temples wore! + And but for one short spring-day breathing, + Bloom'd Love--the Beautiful--no more! + And ever stiller yet, and ever + The barren path more lonely lay, + Till waning Hope could scarcely quiver + Along the darkly widening way. + + Who, loving, linger'd yet to guide me, + When all her boon companions fled? + Who stands consoling still beside me, + And follows to the House of Dread? + _Thine_, Friendship! _thine_, the hand so tender-- + Thine the balm dropping on the wound-- + Thy task--the load more light to render, + O, earliest sought and soonest found! + + And _thou_, so pleased with her uniting + To charm the soul-storm into peace, + Sweet _Toil_![6] in toil itself delighting, + That more it labor'd, less could cease: + Though but by grains, thou aid'st the pile + The vast Eternity uprears-- + At least thou strik'st from Time, the while, + Life's debt--the minutes, days, and years![7] + +[Footnote 6: That is to say--the Poet's occupation--The Ideal.] + +[Footnote 7: Though the Ideal images of youth forsake us--the Ideal +still remains to the Poet.--Nay, it is his task and his companion; +unlike the worldly fantasies of fortune--fame, and love--the +fantasies the Ideal creates are imperishable. While, as the +occupation of his life, it pays off the debt of time; as the exalter +of life, it contributes to the building of eternity.] + + * * * * * + + + +THE IDEAL AND THE ACTUAL LIFE. + +The _first title_ of this Poem was "The Realm of Shadow." Perhaps in +the whole range of German poetry there exists no poem which presents +greater difficulties to the English translator. The chief object of +the present inadequate version has been to render the sense +intelligible as well as the words. The attempt stands in need of all +the indulgence which the German scholar will readily allow that a +much abler translator might reasonably require. + + 1 + + For ever fair, for ever calm and bright, + Life flies on plumage, zephyr-light, + For those who on the Olympian hill rejoice-- + Moons wane, and races wither to the tomb, + And 'mid the universal ruin, bloom + The rosy days of Gods-- + With Man, the choice, + Timid and anxious, hesitates between + The sense's pleasure and the soul's content; + While on celestial brows, aloft and sheen, + The beams of both are blent. + + 2 + + Seek'st thou on earth the life of Gods to share, + Safe in the Realm of Death?--beware + To pluck the fruits that glitter to thine eye; + Content thyself with gazing on their glow-- + Short are the joys Possession can bestow, + And in Possession sweet Desire will die. + 'Twas not the ninefold chain of waves that bound + Thy daughter, Ceres, to the Stygian river-- + She pluck'd the fruit of the unholy ground, + And so--was Hell's for ever! + + 3 + + The weavers of the web--the Fates--but sway + The matter and the things of clay; + Safe from each change that Time to matter gives, + Nature's blest playmate, free at will to stray + With Gods a god, amidst the fields of Day, + The FORM, the ARCHETYPE,[8] serenely lives. + Would'st thou soar heavenward on its joyous wing? + Cast from thee, Earth, the bitter and the real, + High from this cramp'd and dungeon being, spring + Into the Realm of the Ideal! + + [Footnote 8: "Die Gestalt"--Form, the Platonic Archetype.] + + 4 + + Here, bathed, Perfection, in thy purest ray, + Free from the clogs and taints of clay, + Hovers divine the Archetypal Man! + Like those dim phantom ghosts of life that gleam + And wander voiceless by the Stygian stream, + While yet they stand in fields Elysian, + Ere to the flesh the Immortal ones descend-- + If doubtful ever in the Actual life, + Each contest--here a victory crowns the end + Of every nobler strife. + + 5 + + Not from the strife itself to set thee free, + But more to nerve--doth Victory + Wave her rich garland from the Ideal clime. + Whate'er thy wish, the Earth has no repose-- + Life still must drag thee onward as it flows, + Whirling thee down the dancing surge of Time. + But when the courage sinks beneath the dull + Sense of its narrow limits--on the soul, + Bright from the hill-tops of the Beautiful, + Bursts the attaind goal! + + 6 + + If worth thy while the glory and the strife + Which fire the lists of Actual Life-- + The ardent rush to fortune or to fame, + In the hot field where Strength and Valour are, + And rolls the whirling, thunder of the car, + And the world, breathless, eyes the glorious game-- + Then dare and strive--the prize can but belong + To him whose valour o'er his tribe prevails; + In life the victory only crowns the strong-- + He who is feeble fails. + + 7 + + But as some stream, when from its source it gushes, + O'er rocks in storm and tumult rushes, + And smooths its after course to bright repose, + So, through the Shadow-Land of Beauty glides + The Life Ideal--on sweet silver tides + Glassing the day and night star as it flows-- + Here, contest is the interchange of Love, + Here, rule is but the empire of the Grace; + Gone every foe, Peace folds her wings above + The holy, haunted place. + + 8 + + When through dead stone to breathe a soul of light, + With the dull matter to unite + The kindling genius, some great sculptor glows; + Behold him straining every nerve intent-- + Behold how, o'er the subject element, + The stately THOUGHT its march laborious goes. + For never, save to Toil untiring, spoke + The unwilling Truth from her mysterious well-- + The statute only to the chisel's stroke + Wakes from its marble cell. + + 9 + + But onward to the Sphere of Beauty--go + Onward, O Child of Art! and, lo, + Out of the matter which thy pains control + The Statue springs!--not as with labour wrung + From the hard block, but as from Nothing sprung-- + Airy and light--the offspring of the soul! + The pangs, the cares, the weary toils it cost + Leave not a trace when once the work is done-- + The artist's human frailty merged and lost + In art's great victory won! + + 10 + + If human Sin confronts the rigid law + Of perfect Truth and Virtue,[9] awe + Seizes and saddens thee to see how far + Beyond thy reach, Perfection;--if we test + By the Ideal of the Good, the best, + How mean our efforts and our actions are! + This space between the Ideal of man's soul + And man's achievement, who hath ever past? + An ocean spreads between us and that goal, + Where anchor ne'er was cast! + + 11 + + But fly the boundary of the Senses--live + the Ideal life free Thought can give; + And, lo, the gulf shall vanish, and the chill + Of the soul's impotent despair be gone! + And with divinity thou sharest the throne, + Let but divinity become thy will! + Scorn not the Law--permit its iron band + The sense (it cannot chain the soul) to thrall. + Let man no more the will of Jove withstand, + And Jove the bolt lets fall! + + 12 + + If, in the woes of Actual Human Life-- + If thou could'st see the serpent strife + Which the Greek Art has made divine in stone-- + Could'st see the writhing limbs, the livid cheek, + Note every pang, and hearken every shriek + Of some despairing lost Laocoon, + The human nature would thyself subdue + To share the human woe before thine eye-- + Thy cheek would pale, and all thy soul be true + To Man's great Sympathy. + + 13 + + But in the Ideal realm, aloof and far, + Where the calm Art's pure dwellers are, + Lo, the Laocoon writhes, but does not groan. + Here, no sharp grief the high emotion knows-- + Here, suffering's self is made divine, and shows + The brave resolve of the firm soul alone: + Here, lovely as the rainbow on the dew + Of the spent thunder-cloud, to Art is given, + Gleaming through Grief's dark veil, the peaceful blue + Of the sweet Moral Heaven. + +[Footnote 9: The Law, i.e. the Kantian ideal of Truth and Virtue. +This stanza and the next embody, perhaps with some exaggeration, the +Kantian doctrine of morality.] + + 14 + + So, in the glorious parable, behold + How, bow'd to mortal bonds, of old + Life's dreary path divine Alcides trode: + The hydra and the lion were his prey, + And to restore the friend he loved to day, + He went undaunted to the black-brow'd God; + And all the torments and the labours sore + Wroth Juno sent--meek majestic One, + With patient spirit and unquailing, bore, + Until the course was run-- + + 15 + + Until the God cast down his garb of clay, + And rent in hallowing flame away + The mortal part from the divine--to soar + To the empyreal air! Behold him spring + Blithe in the pride of the unwonted wing, + And the dull matter that confined before + Sinks downward, downward, downward as a dream! + Olympian hymns receive the escaping soul, + And smiling Hebe, from the ambrosial stream, + Fills for a God the bowl! + + * * * * * + + +THE FAVOUR OF THE MOMENT. + + + And so we find ourselves once more + A ring, though varying yet serene, + The wreaths of song we wove of yore + Again we'll weave as fresh and green. + But who the God to whom we bring + The earliest tribute song can treasure? + Him, first of all the Gods, we sing + Whose blessing to ourselves is--pleasure! + For boots it on the votive shrine + That Ceres life itself bestows + Or liberal Bacchus gives the wine + That through the glass in purple glows-- + If still there come not from the heaven + The spark that sets the hearth on flame; + If to the soul no fire is given, + And the sad heart remain the same? + Sudden as from the clouds must fall, + As from the lap of God, our bliss-- + And still the mightiest lord of all, + Monarch of Time, the MOMENT is! + Since endless Nature first began + Whate'er of might the mind hath wrought-- + Whate'er of Godlike comes from Man + Springs from one lightning-flash of thought! + For years the marble block awaits + The breath of life, beneath the soil-- + A happy thought the work creates, + A moment's glance rewards the toil. + As suns that weave from out their blaze + The various colours round them given; + As Iris, on her arch of rays, + Hovers, and vanishes from heaven; + So fair, so fleeting every prize-- + A lightning flash that shines and fades-- + The Moment's brightness gilds the skies + And round the brightness close the shades. + + + + +EXPECTATION AND FULFILMENT. + + + O'er ocean with a thousand masts sails on the young man bold-- + One boat, hard-rescued from the deep, draws into port the old! + + * * * * * + + +TO THE PROSELYTE--MAKER. + + + "A little Earth from out the Earth, and I + The Earth will move"--so said the sage divine; + Out of myself one little moment try + Myself to take;--succeed, and I am thine. + + + * * * * * + +VALUE AND WORTH. + + + If thou _hast_ something, bring thy goods, a fair return be + thine!-- + If thou _art_ something--bring thy soul, and interchange with mine. + + + * * * * * + + +THE FORTUNE-FAVOURED. [10] + +[Footnote 10: The first verses in the original of this poem are placed +as a motto on Goethe's statue at Weimar.] + + + Ah! happy He, upon whose birth each god + Looks down in love, whose earliest sleep the bright + Idalia cradles, whose young lips the rod + Of eloquent Hermes kindles--to whose eyes, + Scarce waken'd yet, Apollo steals in light, + While on imperial brows Jove sets the seal of might. + Godlike the lot ordain'd for him to share, + He wins the garland ere be runs the race; + He learns life's wisdom ere he knows life's care, + And, without labour vanquish'd, smiles the Grace. + Great is the man, I grant, whose strength of mind, + Self-shapes its objects and subdues the Fates-- + Virtue subdues the Fates, but cannot bind + The fickle Happiness, whose smile awaits + Those who scarce seek it; nor can courage earn + What the Grace showers not from her own free urn! + + From aught _unworthy_, the determined will + Can guard the watchful spirit--there it ends. + The all that's _glorious_ from the heaven descends; + As some sweet mistress loves us, freely still + Come the spontaneous gifts of heaven!--Above + Favour rules Jove, as it below rules Love! + The Immortals have their bias!--Kindly they + See the bright locks of youth enamour'd play, + And where the glad one goes, shed gladness round the way. + It is not they who boast the best to see, + Whose eyes the holy apparitions bless; + The stately light of their divinity + Hath oft but shone the brightest on the blind;-- + And their choice spirit found its calm recess + In the pure childhood of a simple mind. + Unask'd they come--delighted to delude + The expectation of our baffled Pride; + No law can call their free steps to our side. + Him whom He loves, the Sire of men and gods, + (Selected from the marvelling multitude,) + Bears on his eagle to his bright abodes; + And showers, with partial hand and lavish, down + The minstrel's laurel or the monarch's crown. + + Before the fortune-favour'd son of earth, + Apollo walks--and, with his jocund mirth, + The heart-enthralling Smiler of the skies. + For him grey Neptune smooths the pliant wave-- + Harmless the waters for the ship that bore + The Caesar and his fortunes to the shore! + Charm'd, at his feet the crouching lion lies, + To him his back the murmuring dolphin gave; + His soul is born a sovereign o'er the strife-- + The lord of all the Beautful of Life; + Where'er his presence in its calm has trod, + It charms--it sways as some diviner god. + + Scorn not the Fortune-favour'd, that to him + The light-won victory by the gods is given, + Or that, as Paris, from the strife severe, + The Venus draws her darling,--Whom the heaven + So prospers, love so watches, I revere! + And not the man upon whose eyes, with dim + And baleful night, sits Fate. The Dorian lord, + August Achilles, was not less divine + That Vulcan wrought for him the shield and sword-- + That round the mortal hover'd all the hosts + Of all Olympus--that his wrath to grace, + The best and bravest of the Grecian race + Fell by the Trojan steel, what time the ghosts + Of souls untimely slain fled to the Stygian coasts. + + Scorn not the Beautiful--if it be fair, + And yet seem useless in thy human sight. + As scentless lilies in the loving air, + Be _they_ delighted--_thou_ in them delight. + If without use they shine, yet still the glow + May thine own eyes enamour. Oh rejoice + That heaven the gifts of Song showers down below-- + That what the muse hath taught him, the sweet voice + Of the glad minstrel teaches thee!--the soul + Which the god breathes in him, he can bestow + In turn upon the listener--if his breast + The blessing feel, thy heart is in that blessing blest. + + The busy mart let Justice still control, + Weighing the guerdon to the toil!--What then? + A god alone claims joy--all joy is his, + Flushing with unsought light the cheeks of men. + Where is no miracle, why there no bliss! + Grow, change, and ripen all that mortal be, + Shapen'd from form to form, by toiling time; + The Blissful and the Beautiful are born + Full grown, and ripen'd from Eternity-- + No gradual changes to their glorious prime, + No childhood dwarfs them, and no age has worn.-- + Like Heaven's, each earthly Venus on the sight + Comes, a dark birth, from out an endless sea; + Like the first Pallas, in maturest might, + Arm'd, from the Thunderer's brow, leaps forth each Thought of Light. + + + * * * * * + +We have now, with few exceptions, translated all the principal poems +comprised in the third, or maturest period of Schiller's life. We +here pass back to the poems of his youth. The contrast in tone, +thought, and spirit, between the compositions of the first and the +third period, in the great poet's intellectual career, is +sufficiently striking. In the former, there is little of that +majestic repose of strength so visible in the latter; but there is +infinitely more fire and action--more of that lavish and exuberant +energy which characterized the earlier tales of Lord Byron, and +redeemed, in that wonderful master of animated and nervous style, a +certain poverty of conception by a vigour and _gusto_ of execution, +which no English poet, perhaps, has ever surpassed. In his poems +lies the life, and beats the heart, of Schiller. They conduct us +through the various stages of his spiritual education, and indicate +each step in the progress. In this division, _effort_ is no less +discernible than power--both in language and thought there is a +struggle at something not yet achieved, and not, perhaps, even yet +definite and distinct to the poet himself. Here may be traced, +though softened by the charm of genius, (which softens all things,) +the splendid errors that belong to a passionate youth, and that give +such distorted grandeur to the giant melodrama of "The Robbers." But +here are to be traced also, and in far clearer characters, the man's +strong heart, essentially human in its sympathies--the thoughtful +and earnest intellect, not yet equally developed with the fancy, but +giving ample promise of all it was destined to receive. In these +earlier poems, extravagance is sufficiently noticeable--yet never +the sickly eccentricities of diseased weakness, but the exuberant +overflowings of a young Titan's strength. There is a distinction, +which our critics do not always notice, between the _extravagance_ +of a great genius, and the _affectation_ of a pretty poet. + + + + +FIRST PERIOD + + +HECTOR AND ANCROMACHE. [11] + +[Footnote 11: This and the following poem are, with some alterations, +introduced in the play of "The Robbers."] + + ANDROMACHE. + + Will Hector leave me for the fatal plain, + Where, fierce with vengeance for Patroclus slain, + Stalks Peleus' ruthless son? + Who, when thou glidest amid the dark abodes, + To hurl the spear and to revere the Gods, + Shall teach shine Orphan One? + + HECTOR. + + Woman and wife belovd--cease thy tears; + My soul is nerved--the war-clang in my ears! + Be mine in life to stand + Troy's bulwark, fighting for our hearths--to go, + In death, exulting to the streams below, + Slain for my fatherland! + + ANDROMACHE. + + No more I hear thy martial footsteps fall-- + Thine arms shall hang, dull trophies, on the wall-- + Fallen the stem of Troy! + Thou go'st where slow Cocytus wanders--where + Love sinks in Lethe, and the sunless air + Is dark to light and joy! + + HECTOR. + + Sinew and thought--yea, all I feel and think + May in the silent sloth of Lethe sink, + But my love not! + Hark, the wild swarm is at the walls!--I hear! + Gird on my sword--beloved one, dry the tear-- + Lethe for love is not! + + +AMALIA. + + Fair as an angel from his blessed hall-- + Of every fairest youth the fairest he! + Heaven-mild his look, as maybeams when they fall, + Or shine reflected from a clear blue sea! + His kisses--feelings rife with paradise! + Ev'n as two flames, one on the other driven-- + Ev'n as two harp-tones their melodious sighs + Blend in some music that seems born of heaven; + So rush'd, mix'd, melted--life with life united! + Lips, cheeks burn'd, trembled--soul to soul was won! + And earth and heaven seem'd chaos, as delighted + Earth--heaven were blent round the belovd one! + Now, he is gone! vainly and wearily + Groans the full heart, the yearning sorrow flows-- + Gone! and all zest of life, in one long sigh, + Goes with him where he goes. + + + * * * * * + + + + +TO LAURA. + +THE MYSTERY OF REMINISCENCE. [12] + +[Footnote 12: This most exquisite love-poem is founded on the Platonic +notion, that souls were united in a pre-existent state, that love is +the yearning of the spirit to reunite with the spirit with which it +formerly made one--and which it discovers on earth. The idea has +often been made subservient to poetry, but never with so earnest and +elaborate a beauty.] + + Who, and what gave to me the wish to woo thee-- + Still, lip to lip, to cling for aye unto thee? + Who made thy glances to my soul the link-- + Who bade me burn thy very breath to drink-- + My life in thine to sink? + As from the conquerors unresisted glaive, + Flies, without strife subdued, the ready slave-- + So, when to life's unguarded fort, I see + Thy gaze draw near and near triumphantly-- + Yields not my soul to thee? + Why from its lord doth thus my soul depart?-- + Is it because its native home thou art? + Or were they brothers in the days of yore, + Twin-bound both souls, and in the links they bore + Sigh to be bound once more? + Were once our beings blent and intertwining, + And therefore still my heart for thine is pining? + Knew we the light of some extinguished sun-- + The joys remote of some bright realm undone, + Where once our souls were ONE? + Yes, it _is_ so!--And thou wert bound to me + In the long-vanish'd Eld eternally! + In the dark troubled tablets which enroll + The Past--my Muse beheld this blessed scroll-- + "One with thy love my soul!" + Oh yes, I learn'd in awe, when gazing there, + How once one bright inseparate life we were, + + How once, one glorious essence as a God, + Unmeasured space our chainless footsteps trode-- + All Nature our abode! + Round us, in waters of delight, for ever + Voluptuous flow'd the heavenly Nectar river; + We were the master of the seal of things, + And where the sunshine bathed Truth's mountain-springs + Quiver'd our glancing wings. + Weep for the godlike life we lost afar-- + Weep!--thou and I its scatter'd fragments are; + And still the unconquer'd yearning we retain-- + Sigh to restore the rapture and the reign, + And grow divine again. + And therefore came to me the wish to woo thee-- + Still, lip to lip, to cling for aye unto thee; + _This_ made thy glances to my soul the link-- + _This_ made me burn thy very breath to drink-- + My life in thine to sink: + And therefore, as before the conqueror's glaive, + Flies, without strife subdued, the ready slave, + So, when to life's unguarded fort, I see + Thy gaze draw near and near triumphantly-- + Yieldeth my soul to thee! + Therefore my soul doth from its lord depart, + _Because_, beloved, its native home thou art; + Because the twins recall the links they bore, + And soul with soul, in the sweet kiss of yore, + Meets and unites once more. + Thou too--Ah, there thy gaze upon me dwells, + And thy young blush the tender answer tells; + Yes! with the dear relation still we thrill, + Both lives--tho' exiles from the homeward hill-- + _One_ life--all glowing still! + + * * * * * + + + + +TO LAURA. + +(Rapture.) + + + Laura--above this world methinks I fly, + And feel the glow of some May-lighted sky, + When thy looks beam on mine! + And my soul drinks a more ethereal air, + When mine own shape I see reflected there, + In those blue eyes of thine! + A lyre-sound from the Paradise afar, + A harp-note trembling from some gracious star, + Seems the wild ear to fill; + And my muse feels the Golden Shepherd-hours, + When from thy lips the silver music pours + Slow, as against its will. + I see the young Loves flutter on the wing-- + Move the charm'd trees, as when the Thracian's string + Wild life to forests gave; + Swifter the globe's swift circle seems to fly, + When in the whirling dance thou glidest by, + Light as a happy wave. + Thy looks, when there love sheds the loving smile, + Could from the senseless marble life beguile-- + Lend rocks a pulse divine; + Into a dream my very being dies, + I can but read--for ever read--thine eyes-- + Laura, sweet Laura, mine![13] + + +[Footnote 13: We confess we cannot admire the sagacity of those who +have contended that Schiller's passion for Laura was purely Platonic.] + + * * * * * + + +TO LAURA PLAYING. + + + When o'er the chords thy fingers steal, + A soulless statue now I feel, + And now a soul set free! + Sweet Sovereign! ruling over death and life-- + Seizes the heart, in a voluptuous strife + As with a thousand strings--the SORCERY![14] + +[Footnote 14: "The Sorcery."--In the original, Schiller has an +allusion of very questionable taste, and one which is very obscure +to the general reader, to a conjurer of the name of Philadelphia who +exhibited before Frederick the Great.] + + Then the vassal airs that woo thee, + Hush their low breath hearkening to thee. + In delight and in devotion, + Pausing from her whirling motion, + Nature, in enchanted calm, + Silently drinks the floating balm. + Sorceress, _her_ heart with thy tone + Chaining--as thine eyes my own! + + O'er the transport-tumult driven, + Doth the music gliding swim; + From the strings, as from their heaven, + Burst the new-born Seraphim. + As when from Chaos' giant arms set free, + 'Mid the Creation-storm, exultingly + Sprang sparkling thro' the dark the Orbs of Light-- + So streams the rich tone in melodious might. + + Soft-gliding now, as when o'er pebbles glancing, + The silver wave goes dancing; + Now with majestic swell, and strong, + As thunder peals in organ-tones along; + And now with stormy gush, + As down the rock, in foam, the whirling torrents rush. + To a whisper now + Melts it amorously, + Like the breeze through the bough + Of the aspen tree; + Heavily now, and with a mournful breath, + Like midnight's wind along those wastes of death, + Where Awe the wail of ghosts lamenting hears, + And slow Cocytus trails the stream whose waves are tears. + + Speak, maiden, speak!--Oh, art thou one of those + Spirits more lofty than our region knows? + Should we in _thine_ the mother-language seek + Souls in Elysium speak? + + + +FLOWERS. + + Children of Suns restored to youth, + In purfled fields ye dwell, + Rear'd to delight and joy--in sooth + Kind Nature loves ye well! + Broider'd with light the robes ye wear, + And liberal Flora decks ye fair + In gorgeous-colour'd pride. + Yet woe--Spring's harmless infants--woe! + Mourn, for ye wither while ye glow-- + Mourn for the _soul_ denied! + + The sky-lark and the nightbird sing + To you their hymns of love; + And Sylphs that wanton on the wing, + Embrace your blooms above. + Woven for Love's soft pillow were + The chalice crowns ye flushing bear, + By the Idalian Queen. + Yet weep, soft children of the Spring, + The _feelings_ love alone can bring + To you denied have been! + + But _me_ in vain my Fanny's [15] eyes + Her mother hath forbidden; + For in the buds I gather, lies + Love's symbol-language hidden. + Mute heralds of voluptuous pain, + I touch ye--_life_--_speech_--_heart_--ye gain, + And _soul_ denied before. + And silently your leaves enclose, + The mightiest God in arch repose, + Soft-cradled in the core. + + +[Footnote 15: Literally "Nanny."] + + * * * * * + + +THE BATTLE. + + + Heavy and solemn, + A cloudy column, + Thro' the green plain they marching came! + Measureless spread, like a table dread, + For the wild grim dice of the iron game. + The looks are bent on the shaking ground, + And the heart beats loud with a knelling sound; + Swift by the breasts that must bear the brunt, + Gallops the Major along the front-- + "Halt!" + And fetter'd they stand at the stark command, + And the warriors, silent, halt! + + Proud in the blush of morning glowing, + What on the hill-top shines in flowing? + "See you the Foeman's banners waving?" + "We see the Foeman's banners waving!" + Now, God be with you, woman and child, + Lustily hark to the music wild-- + The mighty trump and the mellow fife, + Nerving the limbs to a stouter life; + Thrilling they sound with their glorious tone, + Thrilling they go, through the marrow and bone. + _Brothers, God grant when this life is o'er, + In the life to come that we meet once more_! + See the smoke how the lightning is cleaving asunder! + Hark the guns, peal on peal, how they boom in their thunder! + From host to host, with kindling sound, + The shouting signal circles round, + Ay, shout it forth to life or death-- + Freer already breathes the breath! + The war is waging, slaughter raging, + And heavy through the reeking pall, + The iron Death-dice fall! + Nearer they close--foes upon foes + "Ready!"--From square to square it goes, + Down on the knee they sank, + And the fire comes sharp from the foremost rank. + Many a man to the earth it sent, + Many a gap by the balls is rent-- + O'er the corpse before springs the hinder-man, + That the line may not fail to the fearless van. + To the right, to the left, and around and around, + Death whirls in its dance on the bloody ground. + The sun goes down on the burning fight, + And over the host falls the brooding Night. + _Brothers, God grant when this life is o'er, + In the life to come that we meet once more_! + The dead men lie bathed in the weltering blood, + And the living are blent in the slippery flood, + And the feet, as they reeling and sliding go, + Stumble still on the corpses that sleep below. + "What, Francis!" "Give Charlotte my last farewell." + Wilder the slaughter roars, fierce and fell. + "I'll give----Look, comrades, beware--beware + How the bullets behind us are whirring there---- + I'll give thy Charlotte thy last farewell, + Sleep soft! where death's seeds are the thickest sown, + Goes the heart which thy silent heart leaves alone." + Hitherward--thitherward reels the fight, + Darker and darker comes down the night-- + _Brothers, God grant when this life is o'er, + In the life to come that we meet once more_! + + Hark to the hoofs that galloping go! + The Adjutants flying,-- + The horsemen press hard on the panting foe, + Their thunder booms in dying-- + Victory! + The terror has seized on the dastards all, + And their colours fall. + Victory! + Closed is the brunt of the glorious fight. + And the day, like a conqueror, bursts on the night. + Trumpet and fife swelling choral along, + The triumph already sweeps marching in song. + _Live--brothers--live!--and when this life is o'er, + In the life to come may we meet once more_! + + + * * * * * + + + + +THE LAST OF THE SHEPHERDS. + + +CHAPTER I. + +I wish I had lived in France in 1672! It was the age of romances in +twenty volumes, and flowing periwigs, and high-heeled shoes, and +hoops, and elegance, and wit, and rouge, and literary suppers, and +gallantry, and devotion. What names are those of La Calprende, and +D'Urf, and De Scuderi, to be the idols and tutelary deities of a +circulating library!--and Sevign, to conduct the fashionable +correspondence of the _Morning Post_!--and Racine, to contribute to +the unacted drama!--and ladies skipping up the steepest parts of +Parnassus, with petticoats well tucked up, to show the beauty of +their ankles, and their hands filled with artificial flowers--almost +as good as natural--to show the simplicity of their tastes! I wish I +had lived in France in 1672; for in that year Madame Deshoulieres, +who had already been voted the tenth muse by all the freeholders of +Pieria, and whose pastorals were lisped by all the fashionable +shepherdesses in Paris, left the flowery banks of the Seine to +rejoin her husband. Monsieur Deshoulieres was in Guyenne; Madame +Deshoulieres went into Dauphin. Matrimony seems to be rather hurtful +to geographical studies, but Madame Deshoulieres was a poetess; and +in spite of the thirty-eight summers that shaded the lustre of her +cheek, she was beautiful, and was still in the glow of youth by her +grace and her talent, and--her heart. Wherever she moved she left +crowds of Corydons and Alexises; but, luckily for M. Deshoulieres, +their whole conversation was about sheep. + +The two Mesdemoiselles Deshoulieres, Madeleine and Bribri, were +beautiful girls of seventeen or eighteen, brought up in all the +innocent pastoralism of their mother. They believed in all the +poetical descriptions they read in her eclogues. They expected to +see shepherds playing on their pipes, and shepherdesses dancing, and +naiads reclining on the shady banks of clear-running rivers. They +were delighted to get out of the prosaic atmosphere of Paris, and +all the three were overjoyed when they sprang from their carriage, +one evening in May, at the chateau of Madame d'Urtis on the banks of +the Lignon. Though there were occasional showers at that season, the +mornings were splendid; and accordingly the travellers were up +almost by daylight, to tread the grass still trembling 'neath the +steps of Astrea--to see the fountain, that mirror where the +shepherdesses wove wild-flowers into their hair--and to explore the +wood, still vocal with the complaints of Celadon. In one of their +first excursions, Madeleine Deshoulieres, impatient to see some of +the scenes so gracefully described by her mother, asked if they were +really not to encounter a single shepherd on the banks of the Lignon? +Madame Deshoulieres perceived, at no great distance, a herdsman and +cow-girl playing at chuckfarthing; and, after a pause, replied-- + + + "Behold upon the verdant grass so sweet, + The shepherdess is at her shepherd's feet! + Her arms are bare, her foot is small and white, + The very oxen wonder at the sight; + Her locks half bound, half floating in the air, + And gown as light as those that satyrs wear." + + +While these lines were given in Madame Deshoulieres' inimitable +recitative, the party had come close to the rustic pair. "People may +well say," muttered Madeleine, "that the pictures of Nature are +always best at a distance. Can it be possible that this is a +shepherdess--a shepherdess of Lignon?" The shepherdess was in +reality a poor little peasant girl, unkempt, unshorn, with hands of +prodigious size, a miraculous squint, and a mouth which probably had +a beginning, but of which it was impossible to say where it might +end. The shepherd was worthy of his companion; and yet there was +something in the extravagant stupidity of his fat and florid +countenance that was interesting to a Parisian eye. Madame +Deshoulieres, who was too much occupied with the verses of the great +D'Urf to attend to what was before her, continued her description-- + + + "The birds all round her praises ever sing, + And 'neath her steps the flowers incessant spring." + + +"Your occupation here is delightful, isn't it?" said Madeleine to the +peasant girl. + +"No, 'tain't, miss--that it ain't. I gets nothink for all I does, +and when I goes hoam at night I gets a good licking to the bargain." + +"And you?" enquired Madeleine, turning to the herdsman, who was +slinking off. + +"I'm a little b-b-b-etter off nor hur," said the man, stuttering, +"for I gets board and lodging--dasht if I doesn't--but I gets bread +like a stone, and s-s-sleeps below a hedge--dasht if I doesn't." + +"But where are your sheep, shepherd?" said Bribri. + +"Hain't a got none," stuttered the man again, "dasht if I has." + +"What!" exclaimed Madeleine in despair, "am I not to see the lovely +lambkins bleating and skipping in the meadows on the banks of the +Lignon, O Celadon?" + +But Madame Deshoulieres was too much of a poetess to hear or see what +was going on. She thought of nothing but the loves of Astrea, and +heard nothing but the imaginary songs of contending Damons. + +On their return to the chateau, Madeleine and Bribri complained that +they had seen neither flock nor shepherdess. + +"And are you anxious to see them?" enquired Madame D'Urtis, with a +smile. + +"Oh, very," exclaimed Bribri; "we expected to live like +shepherdesses when we came here. I have brought every thing a rustic +wants." + +"And so have I," continued Madeleine; "I have brought twenty yards +of rose-coloured ribands, and twenty yards of blue, to ornament my +crook and the handsomest of my ewes." + +"Well then," said the Duchess d'Urtis, good-naturedly, "there are a +dozen of sheep feeding at the end of the park. Take the key of the +gate, and drive them into the meadows beyond." + +Madeleine and Bribri were wild with joy, while their mother was +labouring in search of a rhyme, and did not attend to the real +eclogue which was about to be commenced. They scarcely took time to +breakfast.--"They dressed themselves coquettishly"--so Madame +Deshoulieres wrote to Mascaron--"they cut with their own hands a +crook a-piece in the park--they beautified them with ribands. +Madeleine was for the blue ribands, Bribri for the rose colour. Oh, +the gentle shepherdesses! they spent a whole hour in finding a name +they liked. At last, Madeleine fixed on Amaranthe, Bribri on Daphn. +I have just seen them gliding among the trees that overshadow the +lovely stream.--Poor shepherdesses! be on your guard against the +wolves." + +At noon that very day Madeleine and Bribri, or rather Amaranthe and +Daphn, in grey silk petticoats and satin bodies, with their +beautiful hair in a state of most careful disorder, and with their +crooks in hand, conducted the twelve sheep out of the park into the +meadows. The flock, which seemed to be very hungry, were rather +troublesome and disobedient. The shepherdesses did all they could to +keep them in the proper path. It was a delicious mixture of bleatings, +and laughter, and baaings, and pastoral songs. The happy girls +inhaled the soul of nature, as their poetical mamma expressed it. +They ran--they threw themselves on the blooming grass--they looked +at themselves in the limpid waters of the Lignon--they gathered +lapfulls of primroses. The flock made the best use of their time; +and every now and then a sheep of more observation than the rest, +perceiving they were guarded by such extraordinary shepherdesses, +took half an hour's diversion among the fresh-springing corn. + +"That's one of yours," said Amaranthe. + +"No; 'tis yours," replied Daphn; but, by way of having no +difficulties in future, they resolved to divide the flock, and +ornament one-half with blue collars, and the other with rose-colour. +And they gave a name also to each of the members of their flock, +such as Meliboeus, and Jeannot, and Robin, and Blanchette. Twelve +more poetical sheep were never fed on grass before. When the sun +began to sink, the shepherdesses brought back their flocks. Madame +Deshoulieres cried with joy. "Oh, my dear girls!" she said, kissing +their fair foreheads; "it is you that have composed an eclogue, and +not I." + +"Nothing is wanting to the picture," said the Duchess, seating +herself under the willows of the watering-place, and admiring the +graceful girls. + +"I think we want a dog," said Daphn. + +"No; we are rather in want of a wolf," whispered the beautiful +Amaranthe--and blushed. + + +CHAPTER II. + +Not far from the Chateau d'Urtis, the old manor-house of Langevy +raised its pointed turrets above the surrounding woods. There, in +complete isolation from the world, lived Monsieur de Langevy, his +old mother, and his young son. M. de Langevy had struggled against +the storms and misfortunes of human life; he now reposed in the +bosom of solitude, with many a regret over his wife and his +youth--his valiant sword and his adventures. His son, Hector Henri de +Langevy, had studied under the Jesuits at Lyons till he was eighteen. +Accustomed to the indulgent tenderness of his grandmother, he had +returned, about two years before, determined to live in his quiet +home without troubling himself about the military glories that had +inspired his father. M. de Langevy, though he disapproved of the +youth's choice, did not interfere with it, except that he insisted +on his sometimes following the chase, as the next best occupation to +actual war. The chase had few charms for Hector. It perhaps might +have had more, if he had not been forced to arm himself with an +enormous fowling-piece that had belonged to one of his ancestors, +the very sight of which alarmed him a mighty deal more than the game. +He was so prodigious a sportsman, that, after six months' practice, +he was startled as much as ever by the whirr of a partridge. But +don't imagine, on this account, that Hector's time was utterly wasted. +He mused and dreamed, and fancied it would be so pleasant to be in +love; for he was at that golden age--the only golden age the world +has ever seen--when the heart passes from vision to vision (as the +bee from flower to flower)--and wanders, in its dreams of hope, from +earth to heaven, from sunshine to shade--from warbling groves to +sighing maidens. But alas! the heart of Hector searched in vain for +sighing maidens in the woods of Langevy. In the chateau, there was +no one but an old housekeeper, who had probably not sighed for thirty +years, and a chubby scullion-maid--all unworthy of a soul that +dreamed romances on the banks of the Lignon. He counted greatly on a +cousin from Paris, who had promised them a visit in the spring. In +the meantime, he paced up and down with a gun on his shoulder, +pretending to be a sportsman--happy in his hopes, happy in the clear +sunshine, happy because he knew no better--as happens to a great +many other people in the gay days of their youth, in this most +unjustly condemned and vilipended world. And now you will probably +guess what occurred one day he was walking in his usual dreamy state +of abstraction, and as nearly as possible tumbled head foremost into +the Lignon. By dint of marching straight on, without minding either +hedge or ditch, he found himself, when he awakened from his reverie, +with his right foot raised, in the very act of stepping off the bank +into the water. He stood stock-still, in that somewhat unpicturesque +attitude--his mouth wide open, his eyes strained, and his cheek +glowing with all the colours of the rainbow. He had caught a glimpse +of our two enchanting shepherdesses on the other side of the stream, +who were watching his movements by stealth. He blushed far redder +than he had ever done before, and hesitated whether he should +retreat or advance. To retreat, he felt, would look rather awkward: +at the same time, he thought it would be too great a price to pay +for his honour to jump into the river. And, besides, even if he got +over to the other side, would he have courage to speak to them? +Altogether, I think he acted more wisely, though less chivalrously, +than some might have done in his place. He laid down his gun, and +seated himself on the bank, and looked at the sheep as they fed on +the opposite side. At twenty years of age, love travels at an amazing +pace; and Hector felt that he was already over head and ears with +one of the fair shepherdesses. He did not stop to examine which of +them it was; it was of no consequence--sufficient for him that he +knew he was in love--gone--captivated. If he had been twenty years +older, he would perhaps have admired them both: it would have been +less romantic, but decidedly more wise. + +It is not to be denied that Amaranthe and Daphn blushed a little, +too, at this sort of half meeting with Hector. They hung down their +heads in the most captivating manner, and continued silent for some +time. But at last Amaranthe, more lively than her sister, +recommenced her chatter. "Look, Bribri," she said--"Daphn I mean--he +is one of the silvan deities, or perhaps Narcissus looking at himself +in the water." + +"Rather say, looking at you," replied Daphn, with a blush. + +"'Tis Pan hiding himself in the oziers till you are metamorphosed +into a flute, dear Daphn." + +"Not so, fair sister," replied Daphn; "'tis Endymion in pursuit of +the shepherdess Amaranthe." + +"At his present pace, the pursuit will last some time. If he weren't +quite so rustic, he would be a captivating shepherd, with his long +brown ringlets. He has not moved for an hour. What if he has taken +root like a hamadryad?" + +"Poor fellow!" said Daphn, in the simplest tone in the world; +"he looks very dull all by himself." + +"He must come over to us--that's very plain. We will give him a crook +and a bouquet of flowers." + +"Oh, just the thing!" exclaimed the innocent Daphn. "We need a +shepherd: and yet, no, no"--she added, for she was a little jealous +of her sister--"'tis a lucky thing there is river between us." + +"I hope he will find a bridge _per passa lou riou d'amor_." + +Now, just at that moment Hector's mind was set on passing the river +of Love. In casting his eyes all round in search of a passage, he +perceived an old willow half thrown across the stream. With a little +courage and activity, it was a graceful and poetical bridge. Hector +resolved to try it. He rose and went right onward towards the tree; +but, when he arrived, he couldn't help reflecting that, at that +season, the river was immensely deep. He disdained the danger--sprang +lightly up the trunk, and flung himself along one of the branches, +dropping, happily without any accident, on the meadow of the Chateau +d'Urtis. Little more was left for him to do; and that little he did. +He went towards the fair shepherdesses. He tried to overcome his +timidity--he overwhelmed the first sheep of the flock with his +insidious caresses--and then, finding himself within a few feet of +Amaranthe--he bowed, and smiled, and said, "Mademoiselle." + +He was suddenly interrupted by a clear and silvery voice. + +"There are no Mesdemoiselles here--there are only two shepherdesses, +Amaranthe and Daphn." + +Hector had prepared a complimentary speech for a young lady attending +a flock of sheep--but he hadn't a word to say to a shepherdess. + +He bowed again, and there was a pause. + +"Fair Amaranthe," he said--"and fair Daphn, will you permit a mortal +to tread these flowery plains?" + +Amaranthe received the speech with a smile, in which a little +raillery was mingled. "You speak like a true shepherd," she said. + +But Daphn was more good-natured, and more touched with the +politeness of the sportsman. She cast her eyes on the ground and +blushed. + +"Oh--if you wish to pass through these meadows," she said--"we shall +be"-- + +"We were going to do the honours of our reception room," continued +Amaranthe, "and offer you a seat on the grass." + +"'Tis too much happiness to throw myself at your feet," replied +Hector, casting himself on one knee. + +But he had not looked where he knelt, and he broke Daphn's crook. + +"Oh, my poor crook!" she said--and sighed. + +"What have I done?" cried Hector. "I am distressed at my stupidity--I +will cut you another from the ash grove below. But you loved this +crook," he added--"the gift, perhaps, of some shepherd--some shepherd? +--no, some prince; for you yourselves are princesses--or fairies." + +"We are nothing but simple shepherdesses," said Amaranthe. + +"You are nothing but beautiful young ladies from the capital," said +Hector, "on a visit at the Chateau d'Urtis. Heaven be praised--for in +my walks I shall at least catch glimpses of you at a distance, if I +dare not come near. I shall see you glinting among the trees like +enchantresses of old." + +"Yes, we are Parisians, as you have guessed--but retired for ever +from the world and its deceitful joys." + +Amaranthe had uttered the last words in a declamatory tone; you +might have thought them a quotation from her mamma. + +"You complain rather early, methinks," replied Hector, with a smile; +"have you indeed much fault to find with the world?" + +"That is our secret, fair sportsman," answered Amaranthe; "but it +seems you also live retired--an eremite forlorn." + +"I? fair Amaranthe? I have done nothing but dream of the delights of +a shepherd's life--though I confess I had given up all hopes of +seeing a good-looking shepherdess--but now I shall go back more +happily than ever to my day-dreams. Ah! why can't I help you to +guard your flock?" + +The two young girls did not know what to say to this proposition. +Daphn at last replied-- + +"Our flock is very small--and quite ill enough attended to as it is." + +"What joy for me to become Daphnis--to sing to you, and gather roses, +and twine them in your hair!" + +"Let us say no more," interrupted Amaranthe, a little disquieted at +the sudden ardour of Daphnis; "the sun is going down: we must return +to the park. Adieu," she added, rising to go away. + +"Adieu, Daphnis!" murmured the tender Daphn, confused and blushing. + +Hector did not dare to follow them. He stood for a quarter of an +hour with his eyes fixed first on them, and then on the door of the +park. His heart beat violently, his whole soul pursued the steps of +the shepherdesses. + +"'Adieu, Daphnis,' the lovely Daphn said to me. I hear her sweet +voice still! How beautiful she is! how beautiful they are, +both--Amaranthe is more graceful, but Daphn is more winning--bright +eyes--white hands! sweet smiles! and the delicious dress, so simple, +yet so captivating! the white corset that I could not venture to +look at--the gown of silk that couldn't hide the points of the +charming little feet. 'Tis witchery--enchantment--Venus and Diana--I +shall inevitably go mad. Ah, cousin! you ought to have come long ago, +and all this might never have occurred." + +The sun had sunk behind a bed of clouds--the nightingale began its +song, and the fresh green leaves rustled beneath the mild breath of +the evening breeze. The bee hummed joyously on its homeward way, +loaded with the sweets of the spring flowers. Down in the valley, +the voice of the hinds driving their herds to rest, increased the +rustic concert; the river rippled on beneath the mysterious shade of +old fantastic trees, and the air was filled with soft noises, and +rich perfumes, and the voice of birds. There was no room in Hector's +heart for all these natural enjoyments. "To-morrow," he said, +kissing the broken crook--"I will come back again to-morrow." + + +CHAPTER III. + +Early in the following morning, Hector wandered along the banks of +the Lignon, with a fresh-cut crook in his hand. He looked to the +door of the Park d'Urtis, expecting every moment to see the glorious +apparitions of the day before. And at stroke of noon, a lamb rushing +through the gate, careered along the meadow, and the eleven others +ran gayly after it, amidst a peal of musical laughter from Amaranthe. +Daphn did not laugh. + +The moment she crossed the threshold, she glanced stealthily +towards the river. "I thought so," she murmured; "Daphnis has come +back." And Daphnis, in a transport of joy, was hurrying to the +shepherdesses, when he was suddenly interrupted by Madame +Deshoulieres and the Duchess d'Urtis. When the sisters had returned, +on the evening before, Amaranthe, to Daphn's great discomfiture, +had told word for word all that had occurred; how that a young +sportsman had joined them, and how they had talked and laughed; and +Madame d'Urtis had no doubt, from the description, that it was Hector +de Langevy. Amaranthe having added to the story, that she felt certain, +in spite of Daphn's declarations to the contrary, that he would meet +them again, the seniors had determined to watch the result. Hector +would fain have made his escape; two ladies he might have faced, but +four!--and two of them above thirty years of age! 'Twas too much; but +his retreat was instantly cut off. He stood at bay, blushed with +all his might, but saluted the ladies as manfully as if he had been +a page. He received three most gracious curtsies in return--only +three; for Daphn wished to pass on without taking any notice--which +he considered a very favourable omen. He did not know how to begin a +conversation; and besides, he began to get confused; and his blushing +increased to a most alarming extent--and--in short--he held out his +crook to Daphn. As that young shepherdess had no crook of her own, +and did not know how to refuse the one he offered, she took it, +though her hand trenbled a little, and looked at Madame Deshoulieres. + +"I broke your crook yesterday, fair Daphn," said Hector, "but it is +not lost. I shall make a relic of it--more precious than--than--", +but the bones of the particular saint he was about to name stuck in +his throat and he was silent. + +"Monsieur de Langevy," said Madam d'Urtis kindly, "since you make +such a point of aiding these shepherdesses in guarding the flock, I +hope in an hour you will accompany them to the castle to lunch." + +"I'll go with them wherever you allow me, madam," said Hector. +(I wonder if the impudent fellow thought he had the permission of +the young ones already.) + +"Let that be settled then," said the Duchess. "I shall go and have +the butter cooled, and the curds made--a simple lunch, as befits the +guests." + +"The fare of shepherds!" said Madame Deshoulieres, and immediately +set out in search of a rhyme. + +Daphn had walked slowly on, pressing the crook involuntarily to her +heart, and arrived at the river side, impelled by a desire for +solitude, without knowing why. There are some mysterious influences +to which damsels of seventeen seem particularly subject. A lamb--the +gentlest of the flock, which had become accustomed to her +caresses--had followed her like a dog. She passed her small hand +lightly over the snowy neck of the favourite, and looked round to +see what the party she had left were doing. She was astonished to +see her mother and Hector conversing, as if they had been acquainted +for ages, while Madame d'Urtis and Amaranthe were running a race +towards the park. She sat down on the grassy bank, exactly opposite +the oziers where she had seen Hector the preceding day. When she +felt she was quite alone, she ventured to look at the crook. It was +a branch of ash of good size, ornamented with a rustic bouquet and a +bunch of ribands, not very skilfully tied. Daphn was just going to +improve the knot, when she saw a billet hid in the flowers. What +should she do?--read it? That were dangerous; her confessor did not +allow such venialities--her mamma would be enraged--some people are +so fond of monopolies--and besides, she might be discovered. 'Twould +be better, then, _not_ to read it--a much simpler proceeding; for +couldn't she nearly guess what was in it? And what did she care what +was in it? Not to read it was evidently the safer mode; and +accordingly she--read it through and through, and blushed and smiled, +and read it through and through again. It was none of your +commonplace prosaic epistles--'twas all poetry, all fire; her mamma +would have been enchanted if the verses had only been addressed to +her. Here they are:-- + + + "My sweetest hour, my happiest day, + Was in the happy month of May! + The happy dreams that round me lay + On that delicious morn of May!" + + "I saw thee! loved thee! If my love + A tribute unrejected be, + The happiest day of May shall prove + The happiest of my life to me!" + + +It is quite evident that if such an open declaration had been made +in plain prose, Daphn would have been angry; but in verse, 'twas +nothing but a poetical license. Instead, therefore, of tearing it in +pieces, and throwing it into the water, she folded it carefully +up, and placed it in the pretty corset of white satin, which seems +the natural escritoire of a shepherdess in her teens. Scarcely had +she closed the drawer, and double locked it, when she saw at her +side--Hector and Madame Deshoulieres. + +"My poor child," said the poetess, "how thoughtful you seem on +Lignon's flowery side--forgetful of your sheep--" + + 'That o'er the meadows negligently stray!' + +Monsieur de Langevy, as you have given her a crook, methinks you +ought to aid her in her duties in watching the flock. As for myself, +I must be off to finish a letter to my bishop. + + 'From Lignon's famous banks + What can I find to say? + The breezes freshly springing, + Make me--and nature--gay. + When Celadon would weep; + His lost Astrea fair, + To Lignon he would creep, + But oh! this joyous air + Would force to skip and leap + A dragon in despair!'--&c. &c. + +Madame Deshoulieres had no prudish notions, you will perceive, about +a flirtation--provided it was carried on with the airs and graces of +the Hotel Rambouillet. She merely, therefore, interposed a word here +and there, to show that she was present. Daphne, who scarcely said a +word to Hector, took good care to answer every time her mamma spoke +to her. To be sure, it detracts a little from this filial merit, +that she did not know what she said. But if all parties were pleased, +I don't see what possible right anybody else has to find fault. + +The shepherdess Daphn, or rather Bribri Deshoulieres, as we have +seen, was beautiful, and simple, and tender--beautiful from the +admirable sweetness of her expression--simple, as young girls are +simple: that is to say, with a small spice of mischief to relieve +the insipidity--and tender, with a smile that seems to open the +heart as well as the lips. What struck people in her expression at +first, was a shade of sadness over her features--a fatal presentiment, +as it were, that added infinitely to her charm. Her sister was more +beautiful, perhaps--had richer roses on her cheek, and more of what +is called _manner_ altogether--but if Amaranthe pleased the eyes, +Daphn captivated the heart; and as the eyes are evidently +subordinate to the heart, Daphne carried the day. Hector accordingly, +on the first burst of his admiration, had _seen_ nothing but +Amaranthe; but when he had left the sisters, it was astonishing how +exclusively he _thought_ of Daphn. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +The castle clock sounded the hour of luncheon. Hector offered his arm +to Madame Deshoulieres; Daphn called her flock. They entered the +park, and were joined by the Duchess d'Urtis and Amaranthe. The +collation was magnificent. First course, an omelette au jambon, entre +cakes, and fresh butter; second course, a superb cream cheese. +Dessert, a trifle and preserves. All these interesting details are +embalmed in the poetic correspondence of Madame Deshoulieres, in +which every dish was duly chronicled for the edification of her +friends. + +At nightfall--for Hector lingered as long as he could--the young +shepherd quitted the party with great regret; but there was no time +to lose, for he had two leagues to go, and there was no moon, and +the roads were still broken into immense ruts by the equinoctial +rains. On the following day, Hector returned to the Chateau d'Urtis +through the meadow. When he arrived near the willow that served for +his bridge across the river, he was surprised to see neither +shepherdess nor flock in the field. He tripped across the tree, +lamenting the bad omen; but scarcely had he reached the other side +when he saw some sheep straggling here and there. He rushed towards +them, amazed at not seeing either Amaranthe or Daphn; and what was +his enchantment when, on advancing a little further, he perceived +his adored shepherdess by the margin of the Lignon, which at that +point formed a pretty little cascade. The tender Daphn had thrown +her beautiful arm round one of the young willows in flower, and, +trusting to its support, leaned gracefully over the waterfall, in +the shadow of its odoriferous leaves. She had allowed her soul to +wander in one of those delicious reveries, of which the +thread--broken and renewed a thousand times--is the work of the joy +which hopes, and the sadness which fears. She was not aware of +Hector's approach. When she saw him, she started, as if waking from +a dream. + +"You are all alone," said Hector, drawing near. + +She hurriedly told him that her sister would soon join her. The two +lovers kept silence for some time, looking timidly at each other, +not venturing to speak, as if they feared the sound of their own +voices in the solitude. + +"There seems a sadness," said Hector at length, but his voice +trembled as he spoke--"there seems a sadness on your brow?" + +"'Tis true," replied Daphn. "Mamma has heard from Monsieur +Deshoulieres. He is going to pass through Avignon soon, and we are +going away to see him on his passage." + +"Going away!" cried Hector, turning pale. + +"Yes! and I felt myself so happy," said Daphn, mournfully, +"in these meadows with my sheep, that I loved so well." + +When Daphn spoke of her sheep, she looked at Hector. + +"But why should you go? Madame Deshoulieres could return for you here" +-- + +"And take me away when I had been longer here--my grief would only +be greater. No--I must go now or stay always." + +On hearing these words Hector fell on one knee, seized her hand and +kissed it, and, looking up with eyes overflowing with love, said-- + +"Yes--always! always!--you know that I love you, Daphn--I wish to +tell you how I will adore you all my life long." + +Daphn yielded to her heart--and let him kiss her hand without +resistance. + +"But alas!" she said, "I can't be always guarding a flock. What will +the poor shepherdess do?" + +"Am I not your shepherd? your Daphnis?" cried Hector, as if +inspired--"trust to me, Daphn--to my heart--to my soul! This hand +shall never be separated from yours: we shall live the same life--in +the sane sunshine--in the same shadow--in the same hovel--in the +same palace; but with you, dearest Daphn, the humblest hut would be +a palace. Listen, my dearest Daphn: at a short distance from here +there is a cottage--the Cottage of the Vines--that belongs to the +sister of my nurse, where we can live in love and happiness--no eye +to watch and no tongue to wound us." + +"Never! never!" said Daphn. + +She snatched her hands from those of her lover, retreated a few paces, +and began to cry. Hector went up to her; he spoke of his +affection--he besought her with tears in his eyes--he was so +eloquent and so sincere, that poor Daphn was unable to resist, for +any length of time, those bewildering shocks of first love to which +the wisest of us yield: she said, all pale and trembling-- + +"Well--yes--I trust myself to you--and heaven. I am not to blame--is +it my fault that I love you so?" + +A tender embrace followed these words. Evening was now come; the sun, +sinking behind the clouds on the horizon, cast but a feeble light; +the little herdsman was driving home his oxen and his flock of +turkeys, whose gabbling disturbed the solemnity of the closing day. +The flock belonging to the castle turned naturally towards the +watering-place. + +"Look at my poor sheep," said Daphn, throwing back the curls which +by some means had fallen over her forehead--"look at my poor sheep: +they are pointing out the road I ought to go." + +"On the contrary," replied Hector, "the ungrateful wretches are going +off very contentedly without you." + +"But I am terrified," rejoined Daphn: "how can I leave my mother in +this way? She will die of grief!" + +"She will write a poem on it; and that will be all." + +"I will write to her that I was unable to resist my inclination for +a monastic life, and that I have gone, without giving her notice, to +the nunnery of St. Marie that we were speaking of last night." + +So said the pure and candid Bribri, hitting in a moment on the +ingenious device; so true it is, that at the bottom of all +hearts--even the most amiable--there is some small spark of mischief +ready to explode when we least expect it. + +"Yes--dearest," cried Hector, delighted at the thought, "you will +write to her you have gone into the convent; she will go on to +Avignon; we shall remain together beneath these cloudless skies, in +this lovely country, happy as the birds, and free as the winds of +the hill!" + +Daphn thought she heard some brilliant quotation from her mother, +and perhaps was, on that account, the more easily led by Hector. +After walking half an hour, with many a glance by the way, and many +a smile, they arrived in front of the Cottage of the Vines--the good +old woman was hoeing peas in her garden--she had left her house to +the protection of an old grey cat, that was sleeping in the doorway. +Daphn was enraptured with the cottage. It was beautifully retired, +and was approached by a little grass walk bordered by elder-trees; +and all was closed in by a pretty orchard, in which luxuriant vines +clambered up the fine old pear-trees, and formed in festoons between +the branching elms. The Lignon formed a graceful curve and nearly +encircled the paddock. + +"At all events," said Daphn, "if I am wretched here, my tears will +fall into the stream I love." + +"But you will have no time to weep," replied Hector, pressing her +hand, "all our days will be happy here! Look at that window half +hidden in vine-leaves; 'tis there you will inhale the fragrance of +the garden every morning when you awake; look at that pretty bower +with the honeysuckle screen, 'tis there we will sit every evening, +and talk over the joys of the day. Our life will be bright and +beautiful as a sunbeam among roses!" + +They had gone inside the cottage. It had certainly no great +resemblance to a palace; but under these worn rafters--within these +simple walls--by the side of that rustic chimney--poverty itself +would be delightful, in its tidiness and simplicity, if shared with +one you loved. Daphn was a little disconcerted at first by the +rough uneven floor, and by the smell of the evening meal--the +toasted cheese, and the little oven where the loaf was baking; but, +thanks to love--the enchanter, who has the power of transforming to +what shape he likes, and can shed his magic splendours over any +thing--Daphn found the cottage charming, and she was pleased with +the floor, and the toasted cheese, and the oven! The good old woman, +on coming in from the garden, was astonished at the sight of Hector +and Daphn. + +"What a pretty sister you have, Monsieur Hector!" she said. + +"Listen to me, Babet--since your daughter married, nobody has used +the little room up stairs. This young lady will occupy it for a few +days; but you must keep it a secret from all the world--you +understand." + +"Don't be afraid, Master Hector--I am delighted to have so pretty a +tenant for my daughter's room. The bed is rather small, but it is +white and clean, and the sheets are fresh bleached. They smell of +the daisies yet. You will sup with me, my fair young lady?" +continued Babet, turning to Daphn; "my dishes are only pewter, but +there is such a flavour in my simple fare--my vegetables and +fruits--I can't account for it, except it be the blessing of heaven." + +Babet spread a tablecloth like snow, and laid some dishes of fruit +upon the table. Hector took a tender farewell of Daphn, and kissed +her hand at least a dozen times. At last he tore himself away, with +a promise that he would be with her at daybreak next morning. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +Daphn hardly slept all night in her chamber. She was disturbed by +many thoughts, and became alarmed at the step she had taken. At +earliest dawn she threw open her window. The first sun-rays, +reflected on a thousand dewdrops on the trees; the chirping of the +birds, which already began their matin song; the joyous voice of the +cock, which crowed in a most satisfactory and majestic manner in the +paddock of her hostess; all these sights and sounds, to which she +was so little accustomed, restored her serenity of mind once more. +She dwelt more on the attractions of her love--so adventurous, so +romantic. Love's ways, like those of wickedness, are strewed at +first with roses, and Daphn was only at the entrance of the path. + + +While she was repelling from her heart the miserable fancies that had +crowded on her at night, she all of a sudden perceived Hector by the +whitethorn hedge. + +"Welcome! welcome!" she cried, "you come to me with the sun." + +"How lovely you are this morning!" said Hector to her, with a look +of admiration which there needed no physiognomist to discover was +profoundly real. She looked at herself when he spoke, and perceived +she was but half dressed. She threw herself on the foot of her bed. + +"What am I to do?" she thought, "I can't always wear a silk petticoat +and a corset of white satin?" + +She dressed herself notwithstanding, as last night, trusting to fate +for the morrow. Hector had brought her writing materials, and she +composed a tender adieu to her mamma. + +"Admirably done!" cried Hector; "I have a peasant here who will carry +it to Madame Deshoulieres--as for me, I shall go as usual to the +Park d'Urtis at noon. When they see me they will have no suspicion. +Your mamma goes away this evening, so that after to-day we shall +have nothing to fear." + +The lovers breakfasted in the spirits which only youth and love can +furnish. Daphn had herself gone to the fountain with the broken +pitcher of the cottage. "You perceive, Hector," she said, on seating +herself at the table, "that I have all the qualifications of a +peasant girl." + +"And all the gracefulness of a duchess," added the youth. + +At one o'clock Hector had found his way to the meadow. Nobody was +there. He opened the gate of the park, and before he had gone far was +met by Madame Deshoulieres. + +"My daughter!" she cried in an agitated voice; "You have not seen my +daughter?" + +"I was in hopes of seeing her here," replied Hector, with a start of +well-acted surprise. + +"She is gone off," resumed the mother; "gone off, like a silly +creature, to some convent, disguised as a shepherdess--the foolish, +senseless girl!--and I am obliged to depart this very day, so that +it is impossible to follow her." + +Hector continued to enact astonishment--he even offered his services +to reclaim the fugitive--and, in short, exhibited such sorrow and +disappointment, that the habitual quickness of Madame Deshoulieres +was deceived. The Duchess, Amaranthe, and the mamma all thanked him +for his sympathy; and he at last took his leave, with no doubt in +his mind, that he was a consummate actor, and qualified for any plot +whatever. + +He went back to Daphn, who had sunk into despondency once more, and +consoled her by painting a brilliant picture of their future +happiness. But on the following day he came later than before--he +seemed dull and listless--and embraced his shepherdess with evident +constraint. Things like these never escape the observations of +shepherdesses, gentle or simple. + +"Do you know, Hector, that you are not by any means too gallant?--A +shepherd of proper sentiments would waken his sweetheart every +morning with the sound of his pipe. He would gather flowers for her +before the dew was gone, and fill her basket with fruits. He would +carve her initials on the bark of the tree beneath the window, as +her name is written on his heart. But you! you come at nearly +noon--and leave me to attend to myself. 'Twas I, you inattentive +Daphnis, who gathered all these fruits and flowers. Don't you see +how the room is improved? Hyacinths in the window, roses on the +mantelpiece, and violets every where--ah! what a time you were in +coming!" + +They went out into the garden, where the good old Babet was at +breakfast, with her cat and the bees. + +"Come hither," continued Daphn, "look at this little corner so +beautifully worked--'tis my own garden--I have raked and weeded it +all. There is not much planted in it yet, but what a charming place +it is for vines!--and the hedge, how sweet and flourishing! But what +is the matter with you, Hector? You seem absent--sad." + +"Oh! nothing, Daphn, nothing indeed--I only love you more and more +every hour; that's all." + +"Well, that isn't a thing to be sad about"--said Daphn, with a smile +that would have dispelled any grief less deeply settled than that of +her young companion. He parted from Daphn soon; without letting her +into the cause of his disquiet. But as there is no reason why the +secret should be kept any longer, let us tell what was going on at +the Chateau de Langevy. + + +His cousin Clotilde had arrived the evening before, with an old aunt, +to remain for the whole spring! Monsieur de Langevy, who was not +addicted to circumlocution in his mode of talk, told his son +point-blank, that his cousin was a pretty girl, and what was more, a +considerable heiress--so that it was his duty--his, Hector de +Langevy--the owner of a great name and a very small fortune, to +marry the said cousin--or if not, he must stand the consequences. +Hector, at the first intimation, had revolted indignantly against +the inhuman proposal, and made many inaudible vows of undying +constancy to his innocent and trusting Daphne; but by degrees, there +is no denying that--without thinking of the fortune--he found +various attractions in his cousin. She was beautiful, graceful, +winning. She took his arm quite unceremoniously. She had the most +captivating small-talk in the world. In short, if it had not been +for Daphn, he would have been in love with her at once. As he was +obliged, of course, to escort his cousin in her walks--or break with +her altogether--he did not go for two whole days to the Cottage of +the Vines. On the third day Clotilde begged him to take her to the +banks of the Lignon, and as the request was made in presence of his +father, he dared not refuse. He contented himself--by way of a +relief to his conscience--with breathing a sigh to Daphn. The +straightest road from the Chteau de Langevy to the Lignon, led past +the Cottage of the Vines--but Hector had no wish to go the +straightest road. He took a detour of nearly two miles, and led her +almost to the Park D'Urtis. While Clotilde amused herself by +gathering the blossoms, and turning aside the pendent boughs of +the willows that hung over the celebrated stream. Hector looked +over the scene of his first meeting with the shepherdesses, and +sighed--perhaps without knowing exactly wherefore. He was suddenly +startled by a scream--Clotilde, in stretching too far forward, had +missed her footing, and fallen upon the bank; she was within an inch +of rolling into the river. Hector rushed to her, raised her gently up, +and begging her to lean her head upon his shoulder, assisted her up +the bank. "She's like a naiad surprised by a shepherd"--he +thought--and it is not improbable that at that moment he pressed his +lips pretty close to the pale cheek that rested almost in his breast. +When he lifted up his head, he perceived, half hidden among the +willows, on the other side of the river--Daphn! She had wandered to +see once more the cradle of her love, to tread the meadow where, two +days only before--could it be only two days?--she had been so happy. +What did she see? What did she hear? As her only reply to the kiss +to which she had so unfortunately been a witness, she broke her +crook in an excess of indignation. But it was too much to bear. She +fell upon the bank, and uttered a plaintive cry. At that cry--at +sight of his poor Daphn fainting upon the grass, he rushed like a +madman across the stream, buoyant with love and despair. He ran to +his insensate shepherdess, regardless of the exclamations of the +fair Clotilde, and raised her in his trembling arms. + +"Daphn, Daphn," he cried, "open your eyes. I love nobody but +you--nobody but you." + +He embraced her tenderly; he wept--and spoke to her as if she heard: +Daphn opened her eyes for a moment with a look of misery--and shut +them again--and shuddered. + +"No, no!" she said--"'tis over! You are no longer Daphnis, and I +Daphn no more--leave me, leave me alone--to die!" + +"My life! my love! my darling Daphn! I love you--I swear it to you +from my heart. I do not desert you: you are the only one I care for!" + +In the meantime Clotilde had approached the touching scene. + +"'Pon my word, sir! very well"--she said--"am I to return to the +Chateau by myself?" + +"Go, sir, go!" said Daphn, pushing him away, "You are waited for, +you are called." + +"But, Daphn--but, fair cousin"-- + +"I won't listen to you--my daydream is past--speak of it no more," +said Daphn. + +"Do you know, cousin," said Clotilde, with a malicious sneer, +"that this rural surprise is quite enchanting! I am greatly obliged +to you for getting it up for my amusement. You did not prepare me +for so exquisite a scene; I conclude it is from the last chapter of +the Astrea." + +"Ah! cousin," said Hector, "I will overtake you in a moment--I will +tell you all, and then I don't think you'll laugh at us." + +"Excuse me, sir," cried Daphn, in a tone of disdainful anger-- +"let that history be for ever a secret. I do not wish people to +laugh at the weakness of my heart. Farewell, sir, let every thing be +forgotten--buried!" + +Large tears rolled down the poor girl's cheek. + +"No, Daphn, no!--I never will leave you. I declare it before heaven +and earth, I will conduct my cousin to the Chateau, and in an hour I +will be with you to dry your tears, and to ask pardon of you on my +knees. Moreover, I am not to blame, I call my cousin to witness. Is +it not true, Clotilde, that I don't love you?" + +"'Pon my word, cousin, you have certainly _told_ me you loved me; +but as men generally say the contrary of what is the fact, I am +willing to believe you don't. But I beg you'll not incommode +yourself on my account; I can find my way to the Chateau perfectly +well alone." + +She walked away, hiding her chagrin under the most easy and careless +air in the world. + +"I must run after her," said Hector, "or she will tell every thing +to my father. Adieu Daphn; in two hours I shall be at the Cottage +of the Vines, and more in love than ever." + +"Adieu, then," murmured Daphn in a dying voice; "adieu," she +repeated on seeing him retire; "adieu!--as for me, in two hours, I +shall _not_ be at the Cottage of Vines." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +She returned to the cottage of old Babet. On seeing the little +chamber she had taken so much pains to ornament with flowers and +blossoms, she sank her head upon her bosom. "Poor roses!" she +murmured--"little I thought when I gathered you, that my heart would +be the first to wither!" + +The poor old woman came in to her. "What! crying?" she said-- +"do people weep at eighteen?" + +Daphn threw herself into Babet's arms, and sobbed. + +"He has deceived me--left me for his cousin. I must go. You will +tell him that he has behaved cruelly, that I am----but no!--tell him +that I forgive him." + +Daphn loved Hector with all her heart, and with all her soul. There +never was an affection so blind, or a girl so innocent. Before +leaving Paris, she had had various visions of what might happen in +the country--how she might meet some graceful cavalier beside the +wall of some romantic castle, who would fling himself on his knees +before her, like a hero of romance. And this dream, so cherished in +Paris, was nearly realized on the banks of the Lignon. Hector was +exactly the sort of youth she had fancied, and the interest became +greater from their enacting the parts of shepherdess and shepherd. +She had been strengthened in this, her first love, by the former +illusions of her imagination; and without one thought of evil, she +had lost her common sense, and had followed her lover instead of +attending to her mamma. Oh, young damsels, who are fond of pastorals, +and can dream of young cavaliers and ancient castles!--who hear, on +one side, the soft whisperings of a lover, and on the other, the +sensible remarks of your mother!--need I tell you which of the two +to choose? If you are still in doubt, read to the end of this story, +and you will hesitate no longer. + +Hector rejoined his cousin, but during their walk home, neither of +them ventured to allude to the incident in the meadow. Hector +augured well from the silence of Clotilde--he hoped she would not +speak of his secret at the chateau. Vain hope! the moment she found +an opportunity, it all came out! That evening, M. de Langevy saw her +more pensive than usual, and asked her the cause. + +"Oh, nothing," she said, and sighed. + +The uncle persisted in trying to find it out. + +"What is the matter, my dear Clotilde?" he said. "Has your +pilgrimage to the banks of the Lignon disappointed you?" + +"Yes, uncle." + +"Has my son---but where is Hector?" + +"He has gone on the pilgrimage again." + +"What the devil is he doing there?" "He has his reasons, of course," +said Clotilde. + +"Indeed!--Do you know what they are?" enquired the father. + +"Not the least in the world--only--" + +"Only what? I hate these only's--out with it all!" + +"My dear uncle, I've told you I know nothing about it--only I have +seen his shepherdess." + +"His shepherdess? You're laughing, Clotilde. Do you believe in +shepherdesses at this time of day?" + +"Yes, uncle--for I tell you I saw his shepherdess fall down in a +faint on the side of the Lignon." + +"The deuce you did? A shepherdess!--Hector in love with a shepherdess!" + +"Yes, uncle; but a very pretty one, I assure you, in silk petticoat +and corset of white satin." + +The father was petrified. "What is the meaning of all this? It must +be a very curious story. Bring me my fowling-piece and game-bag. Do +you think, my dear Clotilde, that infernal boy has returned to his +shepherdess?" + +"Yes, uncle." + +"Well--has the shepherdess any sheep?" + +"No, uncle." + +"The devil! that looks more serious. You went past the withy bed?" + +"Yes, uncle; but I fancy the gentle shepherdess is nearer the village." + +"Very good," grumbled the old Baron, with a tone of voice that made +it difficult to believe he saw much good in it. "Silk petticoats and +satin corsets! I wonder where the rascal finds money for such +fineries for his shepherdess." + +He went straight on to the Cottage of the Vines, in hopes that Babet +would know something of Hector's proceedings. He found the old woman +in her porch, resting from the labours of the day. + +"How do you do, Babet?" said the old Baron, softening his voice like +any sucking dove. "Anything new going on?" + +"Nothing new, your honour," replied Babet, attempting to rise. + +"Sit still," said the Baron, putting his hand kindly on the old +lady's shoulder; "here's a seat for me on this basket of rushes." At +this moment M. de Langevy heard the upstairs casement closed. +"Oho!" he thought, "I've hit upon it at once--this is the cage where +these turtles bill and coo. Have you seen my son this week, Babet?" +he said aloud. + +"Oh, I see him often, your honour; he often comes sporting into my +paddock." + +"Sporting in your preserves, Babet--a pretty sort of game." + +"Oh, very good game, your honour; this very day he sent me a +beautiful hare. I did not know what to do with it; but at last I put +it on the spit." + +"The hare wasn't all for you, perhaps. But, listen to me, Babet--I +know the whole business--my son is in love with some shepherdess or +other--and I don't think she is far from here." + +"I don't understand you, sir," said the old lady--a true _confidante_, +though seventy years of age. + +"You understand me so perfectly," said the Baron, "that you are +evidently ashamed of your behaviour. But do not be uneasy, there is +no great harm in it--a mere childish frolic--only tell me where the +girl is?" + +"Ah, your honour," cried Babet, who saw there was no use for further +pretence--"she's an angel--she is--a perfect angel!" + +"Where does the angel come from, Babet?" enquired the Baron, +"she has not come fresh from heaven, has she?" + +"I know nothing more about her, your honour; but I pray morning and +night that you may have no one else for a daughter." + +"We shall see--the two lovers are above, are not they?" + +"Why should I conceal it? Yes, your honour, you may go up stairs at +once. An innocent love like theirs never bolts the door." + +When the Baron was half-way up the stair, he stopped short, on +seeing the two lovers sitting close to each other, the one weeping, +and the other trying to console her. There was such an air of +infantine candour about them both, and both seemed so miserable, +that the hard heart of sixty-three was nearly touched. + +"Very well!"--he said, and walked into the room. Daphn uttered a +scream of terror, and her tears redoubled. + +"There is nothing to cry about," said M. de Langevy; "but as for you, +young man, you must let me into the secret, if you please." + +"I have nothing to tell you," said Hector, in a determined tone. + +Daphn, who had leant for support on his shoulder, fell senseless on +her chair. + +"Father," said Hector, bending over her, "you perceive that this is +no place for you." + +"Nor for you, either," said the old man in a rage. "What do you mean +by such folly? Go home this instant, sir, or you shall never enter +my door again." + +But Hector made no reply. His whole attention was bestowed on Daphn. + +"I ask you again, sir," said the father, still more angry at his +son's neglect. "Think well on what you do." + +"I _have_ thought, sir," replied Hector, raising the head of the +still senseless Daphn. "You may shut your door for ever." + +"None of your impudence, jackanapes. Will you come home with me now, +or stay here?" + +"If I go with you, sir," said Hector, "it will be to show my respect +to you as my father, but I must tell you that I love Mademoiselle +Deshoulieres, and no one else. We are engaged, and only death shall +part us." + +"Deshoulieres--Deshoulieres," said the Baron, "I've heard that name +before. I knew a Colonel Deshoulieres in the campaigns of Flanders; +a gallant fellow, with a beautiful wife, a number of wounds, many +medals, but not a _sou_. Are you coming, sir?" + +Daphn motioned him to go, and Hector followed his father in silence. +He was not without hopes of gaining his permission to love his poor +Daphn as much as he chose. M. de Langevy bowed to her as he went +out of the room; and wishing Babet a good appetite as he passed the +kitchen door, commenced a sermon for the edification of poor Hector, +which lasted all the way. The only attention Hector paid to it was +to turn round at every pause, and take a look at the little casement +window. + +When Daphn saw him disappear among the woods at the side of the road, +she sighed; and while the tears rolled down her cheek, she said, +"Adieu, adieu! I shall never see him more!" + +She looked sadly round the little apartment--now so desolate; she +gathered one of the roses that clustered round the window, and +scattered the leaves one by one, and watched them as they were +wafted away by the breeze. + +"Even so will I do with my love," said the poetical shepherdess; +"I will scatter it on the winds of death." + +"Adieu," she said, embracing poor old Babet; "I am going back to the +place I left so sillily. If you see Hector again, tell him I loved +him; but that he must forget me, as I forget the world, and myself." + +As she said these words, she grew pale and staggered, but she +recovered by an effort, and walked away on the path that led to the +Chateau d'Urtis. When she came to the meadow, she saw at her feet +the crook she had broken in the morning. She lifted it, and took it +with her as the only memorial of Hector. The sun was sinking slowly, +and Daphn knelt down and said a prayer, pressing the crook to her +bosom--poor Daphn! + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +She did not find her mother at the chateau: Madame d'Urtis was +overjoyed to see her. + +"Well, my lost sheep," she said, "you have come back again to the +fold." + +"Yes," said Daphn, sadly; "I am come back never to stray again. See, +here is my broken crook, and Daphnis will never come to cut me +another." + +She told every thing to Madame d'Urtis. The Duchess did not know +whether to laugh or scold; so she got over the difficulty by +alternately doing both. + +In the Chateau de Langevy, Hector continued firm in the presence of +his father, and even of his cousin. He told them every thing exactly +as it occurred; and spoke so enthusiastically and so sincerely, that +the old Baron was somewhat softened. Clotilde herself was touched, +and pled in Hector's behalf. But the old Baron was firm, and his +only answer was, "In eight days he will forget all about her. I am +astonished, Clotilde, to see you reason so absurdly." + +"Oh, my dear uncle!" said Clotilde, "I believe that those who reason +the worst on such a subject are the most reasonable." + +"I tell you again, in a week he will have changed his divinity--you +know that very well; or I don't see the use of your having such +beautiful eyes." + +"Be sure of this, uncle," replied Clotilde, in a more serious voice, +"Hector will never love me, and besides," she added, relapsing into +gaiety once more, "I don't like to succeed to another; I agree with +Mademoiselle de Scuderi, that, in love, those queens are the +happiest who create kingdoms for themselves in undiscovered lands." + +"You read romances, Clotilde, so I shall argue with you no longer +about the phantom you call love." + +Hector took his father on the weak side. + +"If I marry Mademioiselle Deshoulieres," he said, "I shall march +forward in the glorious career of arms; you have opened the way for +me, and I cannot fail of success under the instruction of the brave +Deshoulieres, whom Louvois honours with his friendship." + +M. de Langevy put an end to the conversation by saying he would +consider--which seemed already a great step gained in favour of the +lovers. + +On the next day's dawn, Hector was at the Cottage of the Vines. + +"Alas, alas!" said the old woman, throwing open the window, +"the dear young lady is gone!" + +"Gone!--you let her go!--but I will find her." + +Hector ran to the Chateau d'Urtis. When he entered the park, he felt +he was too late, for he saw a carriage hurrying down the opposite +avenue. He rang the bell, and was shown in to the Duchess. + +"'Tis you, Monsieur de Langevy," she said, sadly; "you come to see +Mademoiselle Deshoulieres. Think of her no more, for all is at an end +between you. On this earth you will meet no more, for in an hour she +will have left the world. She is gone, with her maid, to the Convent +of Val Chrtien." + +"Gone!" cried Hector, nearly fainting. + +"She has left a farewell for you in this letter." Hector took the +letter which the Duchess held to him, and grew deadly pale as he +read these lines:-- + +"Farewell, then! 'Tis no longer Daphn who writes to you, but a +broken-hearted girl, who is to devote her life to praying for the +unhappy. I retire from the world with resignation. I make no +complaint: my two days' dream of happiness is gone. It was a +delicious eclogue--pure, sincere, and tender; but it is past--Adieu!" + +Hector kissed the letter, and turned to the Duchess. "Have you a +horse, madam?" he said. + +"What would you do with it?" + +"I would overtake Mademoiselle Deshoulieres." + +"You might overtake her, but you couldn't turn her." + +"For mercy's sake, madam, a horse! Take pity on my misery." + +The Duchess ordered a horse to be saddled, for she had opposed +Daphn's design. "Go," she said, "and Heaven guide you both!" + +He started at full gallop: he overtook the carriage in half an hour. + +"Daphn, you must go no further!" he said, holding out his hand to +the melancholy girl. + +"'Tis you!" cried Daphn, with a look of surprise and joy--soon +succeeded by deeper grief than ever. + +"Yes, 'tis I! I," continued the youth, "who love you as my Daphn, +my wife, for my father has listened at last to reason, and agrees to +all." + +"But I also have listened to reason, and you know where I am going. +Leave me: you are rich--I am poor: you love me to-day--who can say if +you will love me to-morrow? We began a delightful dream, let us not +spoil it by a bad ending. Let our dream continue unbroken in its +freshness and romance. Our crooks are both broken; they have killed +two of our sheep; they have cut down the willows in the meadow. You +perceive that our bright day is over. The lady I saw yesterday +should be your wife. Marry her, then; and if ever, in your hours of +happiness, you wander on the banks of the Lignon, my shade will +appear to you. But _then_ it shall be with a smile!" + + +"Daphn! Daphn! I love you! I will never leave you! I will live or +die with you!" + + * * * * * + +It was fifty years after that day, that one evening, during a +brilliant supper in the Rue St. Dominique, Gentil Bernard, who was +the life of the company, announced the death of an original, who had +ordered a broken stick to be buried along with him. + +"He is Monsieur de Langevy," said Fontenelle. "He was forced against +his inclination to marry the dashing Clotilde de Langevy, who eloped +so shamefully with one of the Mousquetaires. M. de Langevy had been +desperately attached to Bribri Deshoulieres, and this broken stick +was a crook they had cut during their courtship on the banks of the +Lignon. The Last Shepherd is dead, gentlemen--we must go to his +funeral." + +"And what became of Bribri Deshoulieres?" asked a lady of the party. + +"I have been told she died very young in a convent in the south," +replied Fontenelle; "and the odd thing is, that, when they were +burying her, they found a crook attached to her horse-hair tunic." + + * * * * * + + + +THE FOUNDING OF THE BELL. + +WRITTEN FOR MUSIC. + +BY CHARLES MACKAY. + + + Hark! how the furnace pants and roars! + Hark! how the molten metal pours, + As, bursting from its iron doors, + It glitters in the sun! + Now through the ready mould it flows, + Seething and hissing as it goes, + And filling every crevice up + As the red vintage fills the cup: + _Hurra! the work is done_! + + Unswathe him now. Take off each stay + That binds him to his couch of clay, + And let him struggle into day; + Let chain and pulley run, + With yielding crank and steady rope, + Until he rise from rim to cope, + In rounded beauty, ribb'd in strength, + Without a flaw in all his length: + _Hurra! the work is done_! + + The clapper on his giant side + Shall ring no peal for blushing bride, + For birth, or death, or new-year-tide, + Or festival begun! + A nation's joy alone shall be + The signal for his revelry; + And for a nation's woes alone + His melancholy tongue shall moan: + _Hurra! the work is done_! + + Borne on the gale, deep-toned and clear, + His long loud summons shall we hear, + When statesmen to their country dear + Their mortal race have run; + When mighty monarchs yield their breath, + And patriots sleep the sleep of death, + Then shall he raise his voice of gloom, + And peal a requiem o'er their tomb: + _Hurra! the work is done_! + + Should foemen lift their haughty hand, + And dare invade us where we stand, + Fast by the altars of our land + We'll gather every one; + And he shall ring the loud alarm, + To call the multitudes to arm, + From distant field and forest brown, + And teeming alleys of the town: + _Hurra! the work is done_! + + And as the solemn boom they hear, + Old men shall grasp the idle spear, + Laid by to rust for many a year, + And to the struggle run; + Young men shall leave their toils or books, + Or turn to swords their pruninghooks; + And maids have sweetest smiles for those + Who battle with their country's foes: + _Hurra! the work is done_! + + And when the cannon's iron throat + Shall bear the news to dells remote, + And trumpet-blast resound the note, + That victory is won; + While down the wind the banner drops, + And bonfires blaze on mountain-tops, + His sides shall glow with fierce delight, + And ring glad peals from morn to night; + _Hurra! the work is done_! + + But of such themes forbear to tell. + May never War awake this bell + To sound the tocsin or the knell! + Hush'd be the alarum gun! + Sheath'd be the sword! and may his voice + Call up the nations to rejoice + That War his tatter'd flag has furl'd, + And vanish'd from a wiser world! + _Hurra! the work is done_! + + Still may he ring when struggles cease, + Still may he ring for joy's increase, + For progress in the arts of peace, + And friendly trophies won! + When rival nations join their hands, + When plenty crowns the happy lands, + When knowledge gives new blessings birth, + And freedom reigns o'er all the earth! + _Hurra! the work is done_! + + * * * * * + + + + +AMMALT BEK. + + + A TRUE TALE OF THE CAUCASUS. + FROM THE RUSSIAN OF MARLNSKI. + + +CHAPTER III. + +It was daybreak when Ammalt came to himself. Slowly, one by one, +his thoughts reassembled in his mind, and flitted to and fro as in a +mist, in consequence of his extreme weakness. He felt no pain at all +in his body, and his sensations were even agreeable; life seemed to +have lost its bitterness, and death its terror: in this condition he +would have listened with equal indifference to the announcement of +his recovery, or of his inevitable death. He had no wish to utter a +word, or to stir a finger. This half sleep, however, did not +continue long. At midday, after the visit of the physician, when the +attendants had gone to perform the rites of noon-tide prayer, when +their sleepy voices were still, and nought but the cry of the mullah +resounded from afar, Ammalt listened to a soft and cautious step +upon the carpets of the chamber. He raised his heavy eyelids, and +between their lashes appeared, approaching his bed, a fair, +black-eyed girl, dressed in an orange-coloured sartchka, an +arkhalokh of cloth of gold with two rows of enamelled buttons, +and her long hair falling upon her shoulders. Gently she fanned +his face, and so pityingly looked at his wound that all his nerves +thrilled. Then she softly poured some medicine into a cup, and--he +could see no more--his eyelids sank like lead--he only caught with +his ear the rustling of her silken dress, like the sound of a parting +angel's wings, and all was still again. Whenever his weak senses strove +to discover the meaning of this fair apparition, it was so mingled with +the uncertain dreams of fever, that his first thought--his first +word--when he awoke, was, "'Tis a dream!" But it was no dream. This +beautiful girl was the daughter of the Sultan Akhmet Khan, and +sixteen years old. Among all the mountaineers, in general, the +unmarried women enjoy a great freedom of intercourse with the other +sex, without regard to the law of Mahomet. The favourite daughter of +the Khan was even more independent than usual. By her side alone he +forgot his cares and disappointments; by her side alone his eye met +a smile, and his heart a gleam of gayety. When the elders of Avr +discussed in a circle the affairs of their mountain politics, or +gave their judgment on right or wrong; when, surrounded by his +household, he related stories of past forays, or planned fresh +expeditions, she would fly to him like a swallow, bringing hope and +spring into his soul. Fortunate was the culprit during whose trial +the Khna came to her father! The lifted dagger was arrested in the +air; and not seldom would the Khan, when looking upon her, defer +projects of danger and blood, lest he should be parted from his +darling daughter. Every thing was permitted, every thing was +accessible, to her. To refuse her any thing never entered into the +mind of the Khan; and suspicion of any thing unworthy her sex and +rank, was as far from his thoughts as from his daughter's heart. But +who among those who surrounded the Khan, could have inspired her +with tender feelings? To bend her thoughts--to lower her sentiments +to any man inferior to her in birth, would have been an unheard-of +disgrace in the daughter of the humblest retainer; how much more, +then, in the child of a khan, imbued from her very cradle with the +pride of ancestry!--this pride, like a sheet of ice, separating her +heart from the society of those she saw. As yet no guest of her +father had ever been of equal birth to hers; at least, her heart had +never asked the question. It is probable, that her age--of careless, +passionless youth--was the cause of this; perhaps the hour of love +had already struck, and the heart of the inexperienced girl was +fluttering in her bosom. She was hurrying to clasp her father in her +embrace, when she had beheld a handsome youth falling like a corpse +at her feet. Her first feeling was terror; but when her father +related how and wherefore Ammalt was his guest, when the village +doctor declared that his wound was not dangerous, a tender sympathy +for the stranger filled her whole being. All night there flitted +before her the blood-stained guest, and she met the morning-beam, for +the first time, less rosy than itself. For the first time she had +recourse to artifice: in order to look on the stranger, she entered +his room as though to salute her father, and afterwards she slipped in +there at mid-day. An unaccountable, resistless curiosity impelled her +to gaze on Ammalt. Never, in her childhood, had she so eagerly longed +for a plaything; never, at her present age, had she so vehemently wished +for a new dress or a glittering ornament, as she desired to meet the eye +of the guest; and when at length, in the evening, she encountered his +languid, yet expressive gaze, she could not remove her look from the +black eyes of Ammalt, which were intently fixed on her. They seemed +to say--"Hide not thyself; star of my soul!" as they drank health +and consolation from her glances. She knew not what was passing +within her; she could not distinguish whether she was on the earth, +or floating in the air; changing colours flitted on her face. At +length she ventured, in a trembling voice, to ask him about his +health. One must be a Tartar--who accounts it a sin and an offence +to speak a word to a strange woman, who never sees any thing female +but the veil and the eye-brows--to conceive how deeply agitated was +the ardent Bek, by the looks and words of the beautiful girl +addressed so tenderly to him. A soft flame ran through his heart, +notwithstanding his weakness. + +"Oh, I am very well, now," he answered, endeavouring to rise; +"so well, that I am ready to die, Seltanetta." + +"Allah sakhla-sn!" (God protect you!) she replied. "Live, live long! +Would you not regret life?" + +"At a sweet moment sweet is death, Seltanetta! But if I live a +hundred years, a more delightful moment than this can never be found!" + +Seltanetta did not understand the words of the stranger; but she +understood his look--she understood the expression of his voice. She +blushed yet more deeply; and, making a sign with her hand that he +should repose, disappeared from the chamber. + +Among the mountaineers there are many very skilful surgeons, chiefly +in cases of wounds and fractures; but Ammalt, more than by herb or +plaster, was cured by the presence of the charming mountain-maid. +With the agreeable hope of seeing her in his dreams, he fell asleep, +and awoke with joy, knowing that he should meet her in reality. His +strength rapidly returned, and with his strength grew his attachment +to Seltanetta. + +Ammalt was married; but, as it often happens in the East, only from +motives of interest. He had never seen his bride before his marriage, +and afterwards found no attraction in her which could awake his +sleeping heart. In course of time, his wife became blind; and this +circumstance loosened still more a tie founded on Asiatic customs +rather than affection. Family disagreements with his father-in-law +and uncle, the Shamkhl, still further separated the young couple, +and they were seldom together. Was it strange, under the +circumstances, that a young man, ardent by nature, self-willed by +nature, should be inspired with a new love? To be with her was his +highest happiness--to await her arrival his most delightful +occupation. He ever felt a tremor when he heard her voice: each +accent, like a ray of the sun, penetrated his soul. This feeling +resembled pain, but a pain so delicious, that he would have prolonged +it for ages. Little by little the acquaintance between the young +people grew into friendship--they were almost continually together. +The Khan frequently departed to the interior of Avr for business of +government or military arrangements, leaving his guest to the care +of his wife, a quiet, silent woman. He was not blind to the +inclination of Ammalt for his daughter, and in secret rejoiced at it; +it flattered his ambition, and forwarded his military views; a +connexion with a Bek possessing the right to the Shamkhalt would +place in his hands a thousand means of injuring the Russians. The +Khnsha, occupied in her household affairs, not infrequently left Ammalt +for hours together in her apartments--as he was a relation; and +Seltanetta, with two or three of her personal attendants, seated on +cushions, and engaged in needlework, would not remark how the hours +flew by, conversing with the guest, and listening to his talk. +Sometimes Ammalt would sit long, long, reclining at the feet of his +Seltanetta, without uttering a word, and gazing at her dark, +absorbing eyes; or enjoying the mountain prospect from her window, +which opened towards the north, on the rugged banks and windings of +the roaring Ouzn, over which hung the castle of the Khan. By the +side of this being, innocent as a child, Ammalt forgot the desires +which she as yet knew not; and, dissolving in a joy, strange, +incomprehensible to himself, he thought not of the past nor of the +future; he thought of nothing--he could only feel; and indolently, +without taking the cup from his lips, he drained his draught of bliss, +drop by drop. + +Thus passed a year. + +The Avartzes are a free people, neither acknowledging nor suffering +any power above them. Every Avartz calls himself an Ouzdn; and if +he possesses a yezer, (prisoner, slave,) he considers himself a +great man. Poor, and consequently brave to extravagance, excellent +marksmen with the rifle, they fight well on foot; they ride on +horseback only in their plundering expeditions, and even then but a +few of them. Their horses are small, but singularly strong; their +language is divided into a multitude of dialects, but is essentially +Lezghin for the Avrtzi themselves are of the Lezghin stock. They +retain traces of the Christian faith, for it is not 120 years that +they have worshipped Mahomet, and even now they are but cool Moslems; +they drink brandy, they drink booz, [16] and occasionally wine made +of grapes, but most ordinarily a sort of boiled wine, called among +them djpa. The truth of an Avartz's word has passed into a proverb +among the mountains. At home, they are peaceful, hospitable, and +benevolent; they do not conceal their wives and daughters; for their +guest they are ready to die, and to revenge to the end of the +generation. Revenge, among them, is sacred; plundering, glory; and +they are often forced by necessity to brigandize. + +[Footnote 16: A species of drink used by the Tartars, produced by +fermenting oats.] + +Passing over the summit of Atla and Tkhezeruk, across the crests of +Tourpi-Tou, in Kakhtia, beyond the river Alazn, they find +employment at a very low price; occasionally remaining two or three +days together without work, and then, at an agreement among +themselves, they rush like famished wolves, by night, into the +neighbouring villages, and, if they succeed, drive away the cattle, +carry off the women, make prisoners, and will often perish in an +unequal combat. Their invasions into the Russian limits ceased from +the time when Azlan Khan retained possession of the defiles which +lead into his territories from Avr. But the village of Khounzkh, +or Avr, at the eastern extremity of the Avr country, has ever +remained the heritage of the khans, and their command there is law. +Besides, though he has the right to order his nokers to cut to +pieces with their kinjls [17] any inhabitant of Khounzkh, nay, +any passer-by, the Khan cannot lay any tax or impost upon the people, +and must content himself with the revenues arising from his flocks, +and the fields cultivated by his karavshes (slaves,) or yezers +(prisoners.) + +[Footnote 17: Dagger or poniard. These weapons are of various forms, +and generally much more formidable than would be suggested to an +European by the name dagger. The kinjl is used with wonderful force +and dexterity by the mountaineers, whose national weapon it may be +said to be; it is sometimes employed even as a missile. It is worn +suspended in a slanting direction in the girdle, not on the side, +but in front of the body.] + +Without, however, taking any direct imposts, the khans do not +abstain from exacting dues, sanctified rather by force than custom. +For the Khan to take from their home a young man or a girl--to +command a waggon with oxen or buffaloes to transport his goods--to +force labourers to work in his fields, or to go as messengers, &c., +is an affair of every day. The inhabitants of Khounzkh are not more +wealthy than the rest of their countrymen; their houses are clean, +and, for the most part, have two stories, the men are well made, the +women handsome, chiefly because the greater number of them are +Georgian prisoners. In Avr, they study the Arabic language, and the +style of their educated men is in consequence very flowery. The Harm +of the Khan is always crowded with guests and petitioners, who, +after the Asiatic manner, dare not present themselves without a +present--be it but a dozen of eggs. The Khan's nokers, on the +number and bravery of whom he depends for his power, fill from +morning to night his courts and chambers, always with loaded pistols +in their belt, and daggers at their waist. The favourite Ouzdns and +guests, Tchetchentzes or Tartars, generally present themselves every +morning to salute the Khan, whence they depart in a crowd to the +Khnsha, sometimes passing the whole day in banqueting in separate +chambers, regaling even during the Khan's absence. One day there +came into the company an Ouzdn of Avr, who related the news that +an immense tiger had been seen not far off, and that two of their +best shots had fallen victims to its fierceness. "This has so +frightened our hunters," he said, "that nobody likes to attempt the +adventure a third time." + +"I will try my luck," cried Ammalt, burning with impatience to show +his prowess before the mountaineers. "Only put me on the trail of the +beast!" A broad-shouldered Avartz measured with his eye our bold +Bek from head to foot, and said with a smile: "A tiger is not like a +boar of Daghestn, Ammalt! His trail sometimes leads to death!" + +"Do you think," answered he haughtily, "that on that slippery path +my head would turn, or my hand tremble? I invite you not to help me: +I invite you but to witness my combat with the tiger. I hope you will +then allow, that if the heart of an Avartz is firm as the granite +of his mountains, the heart of a Daghestnetz is tenpered like his +famous _boult_. [18] Do you consent?" + +[Footnote 18: A species of highly tempered steel, manufactured, and +much prized, by the Tartars.] + +The Avartz was caught. To have refused would have been shameful: +so, clearing up his face, he stretched out his hand to Ammalt. +"I will willingly go with you," he replied. "Let us not delay--let +us swear in the mosque, and go to the fight together! Allah will +judge whether we are to bring back his skin for a housing, or +whether he is to devour us." + +It is not in accordance with Asiatic manners, much less with Asiatic +customs, to bid farewell to the women when departing for a long or +even an unlimited period. This privilege belongs only to relations, +and it is but rarely that it is granted to a guest. Ammalt, +therefore, glanced with a sigh at the window of Seltanetta, and went +with lingering steps to the mosque. There, already awaited him the +elders of the village, and a crowd of curious idlers. By an ancient +custom of Avr, the hunters were obliged to swear upon the Koran, +that they would not desert one another, either in the combat with +the beast or in the chase; that they would not quit each other when +wounded; if fate willed that the animal should attack them, that +they would defend each other to the last, and die side by side, +careless of life; and that in any case they would not return without +the animal's skin; that he who betrayed this oath, should be hurled +from the rocks, as a coward and traitor. The moollah armed them, the +companions embraced, and they set out on their journey amid the +acclamations of the whole crowd. "Both, or neither!" they cried +after them. "We will slay him, or die!" answered the hunters. + +A day had passed. A second had sunk below the snowy summits. The old +men had wearied their eyes in gazing from their roofs along the road. +The boys had gone far on the hills that crested the village, to meet +the hunters--but no tidings of them. Throughout all Khounzkh, at +every fireside, either from interest or idleness, they were talking +of this; but above all, Seltanetta was sad. At every voice in the +courtyard, at every sound on the staircase, all her blood flew to +her face, and her heart beat with anxiety. She would start up, and +run to the window or the door; and then, disappointed for the +twentieth time, with downcast eyes would return slowly to her +needlework, which, for the first time, appeared tiresome and endless. +At last, succeeding doubt, fear laid its icy hand upon the maiden's +heart. She demanded of her father, her brothers, the guests, whether +the wounds given by a tiger were dangerous?--was this animal far +from the villages? And ever and anon, having counted the moments, +she would wring her hands, and cry, "They have perished!" and +silently bowed her head on her agitated breast, while large tears +flowed down her fair face. + +On the third day, it was clear that the fears of all were not idle. +The Ouzdn, Ammalt's companion to the chase, crawled with difficulty, +alone, into Khounzkh. His coat was torn by the claws of some wild +beast; he himself was as pale as death from exhaustion, hunger, and +fatigue. Young and old surrounded him with eager curiosity; and +having refreshed himself with a cup of milk and a piece of _tchourek_, +[19] he related as follows:--"On the same day that we left this place, +we found the track of the tiger. We discovered him asleep among the +thick hazels--may Allah keep me from them!" + +[Footnote 19: "Tchourek," a kind of bread.] + +Drawing lots, it fell to my chance to fire: I crept gently up, and +aiming well, I fired--but for my sorrow, the beast was sleeping with +his face covered by his paw; and the ball, piercing the paw, hit him +in the neck. Aroused by the report and by the pain, the tiger gave a +roar, and with a couple of bounds, dashed at me before I had time to +draw my dagger: with one leap, he hurled me on the ground, trode on +me with his hind feet, and I only know that at this moment there +resounded a cry, and the shot of Ammalt, and afterwards a deafening +and tremendous roar. Crushed by the weight, I lost sense and memory, +and how long I lay in this fainting fit, I know not. + +"When I opened my eyes all was still around me, a small rain was +falling from a thick mist ... was it evening or morning? My gun, +covered with rust, lay beside me, Ammalt's not far off, broken in +two; here and there the stones were stained with blood ... but whose? +The tiger's or Ammalt's? How can I tell? Broken twigs lay around ... +the brute must have broken them in his mad boundings. I called on my +comrade as loudly as I could. No answer. I sat down, and shouted +again ... but in vain. Neither animal nor bird passed by. Many times +did I endeavour to find traces of Ammalt, either to discover him +alive, or to die upon his corpse--that I might avenge on the beast +the death of the brave man; but I had no strength. I wept bitterly: +why have I perished both in life and honour! I determined to await +the hour of death in the wilderness; but hunger conquered me. Alas! +thought I, let me carry to Khounzkh the news that Ammalt has +perished; let me at least die among my own people! Behold me, then; +I have crept hither like a serpent. Brethren, my head is before you: +judge me as Allah inclines your hearts. Sentence me to life; I will +live, remembering your justice: condemn me to death; your will be +done! I will die innocent, Allah is my witness: I did what I could!" + +A murmur arose among the people, as they listened to the new comer. +Some excused, others condemned, though all regretted him. "Every one +must take care of himself," said some of the accusers: "who can say +that he did not fly? He has no wound, and, therefore, no proof ... +but that he has abandoned his comrade is most certain." "Not only +abandoned, but perhaps betrayed him," said others--"they talked not +as friends together!" The Khan's nokers went further: they +suspected that the Ouzdn had killed Ammalt out of jealousy: +"he looked too lovingly on the Khan's daughter, but the Khan's +daughter found one far his superior in Ammalt." + +Sultan Akhmet Khan, learning what the people were assembling about in +the street, rode up to the crowd. "Coward!" he cried with mingled +anger and contempt to the Ouzdn: "you are a disgrace to the name of +Avartz. Now every Tartar may say, that we let wild beasts devour our +guests, and that we know not how to defend them! At least we know how +to avenge him: you have sworn upon the Koran, after the ancient +usage of Avr, never to abandon your comrade in distress, and if he +fall, not to return home without the skin of the beast ... thou hast +broken thine oath ... but we will not break our law: perish! Three +days shall be allowed thee to prepare thy soul; but then--if Ammalt +be not found, thou shalt be cast from the rock. You shall answer for +his head with your own!" he added, turning to his nokers, pulling +his cap over his eyes and directing his horse towards his home. +Thirty mountaineers rushed in different directions from Khounzkh, +to search for at least the remains of the Bek of Bouinki. Among the +mountaineers it is considered a sacred duty to bury with honour +their kinsmen and comrades, and they will sometimes, like the heroes +of Homer, rush into the thickest of the battle to drag from the +hands of the Russians the body of a companion, and will fall in +dozens round the corpse rather than abandon it. + +The unfortunate Ouzdn was conducted to the stable of the Khan; a +place frequently used as a prison. The people, discussing what had +happened, separated sadly, but without complaining, for the sentence +of the Khan was in accordance with their customs. + +The melancholy news soon reached Seltanetta, and though they tried to +soften it, it struck terribly a maiden who loved so deeply. +Nevertheless, contrary to their expectation, she appeared tranquil; +she neither wept nor complained, but she smiled no more, and uttered +not a word. Her mother spoke to her; she heard her not. A spark from +her father's pipe burned her dress; she saw it not. The cold wind +blew upon her bosom; she felt it not. All her feelings seemed to +retire into her heart to torture her; but that heart was hidden from +the view, and nothing was reflected in her proud features. The +Khan's daughter was struggling with the girl: it was easy to see +which would yield first. + +But this secret struggle seemed to choke Seltanetta: she longed to +fly from the sight of man, and give the reins to her sorrow. +"O heaven!" she thought; "having lost him, may I not weep for him? +All gaze on me, to mock me and watch my every tear, to make sport +for their malignant tongues. The sorrows of others amuse them, Sekina," +she added, to her maid; "let us go and walk on the bank of the Ouzn." + +At the distance of three _agtcha_ [20] from Khounzkh, towards the +west, are the ruins of an ancient Christian monastery, a lonely +monument of the forgotten faith of the aborigines. + +[Footnote 20: "Agtcha," seven versts, a measure for riding--for the +pedestrian, the agtcha is four versts.] + +The hand of time, as if in veneration, has not touched the church +itself, and even the fanaticism of the people has spared the +sanctuary of their ancestors. It stood entire amid the ruined cells +and falling wall. The dome, with its high pointed roof of stone, was +already darkened by the breath of ages: ivy covered with its tendrils +the narrow windows, and trees were growing in the crevices of the +stones. Within, soft moss spread its verdant carpet, and in the +sultriness a moist freshness breathed there, nourished by a fountain, +which, having pierced the wall, fell tinkling behind the stone altar, +and, dividing into silver ever-murmuring threads of pure water, +filtered among the pavement stones, and crept meandering away. A +solitary ray slanting through the window, flitted over the trembling +verdure, and smiled on the gloomy wall, like a child on its +grandame's knee. Thither Seltanetta directed her steps: there she +rested from the looks which so tormented her: all around was so still, +so soft, so happy; and all augmented but the more her sadness: the +light trembling on the wall, the twittering of the swallows, the +murmur of the fountain, melted into tears the load that weighed upon +her breast, and her sorrow dissolved into lamentation: Sekina went +to pluck the pears which grew in abundance round the church; and +Seltanetta could freely yield to nature. + +But sudden, raising her head, she uttered an exclamation of surprise! +before her stood a well-made Avartz, stained with blood and mire. +"Does not your heart, do not your eyes, O Seltanetta, recognize your +favourite?" No, but with a second glance she knew Ammalt; and +forgetting all but her joy, she threw herself on his neck, embraced +it with her arms, and long, long, gazed fixedly on the much-loved +face; and the fire of confidence, the fire of ecstasy, glimmered +through the still falling tears. Could then the impassioned Ammalt +contain his rapture? He clung like a bee to the rosy lips of +Seltanetta; he had heard enough for his happiness; he was now at the +summit of bliss; the lovers had not yet said a word of their love, +but they already understood each other. "And dost thou then, angel," +added Ammalt, when Seltanetta, ashamed of the kiss, withdrew from +his embrace: "dost thou love me?" + +"Allah protect me!" replied the innocent girl, lowering her eyelashes, +but not her eyes: "Love! that is a terrible word. Last year, going +into the street, I saw them pelting a girl with stones: terrified I +rushed hone, but nowhere could I hide myself: the bloody image of +the sinner was everywhere before me, and her groan yet rings +unceasingly in my ears. When I asked why they had so inhumanly put +to death that unhappy creature, they answered, that she loved a +certain youth!" + +"No, dearest, it was not because she loved one, but that she loved +not one alone--because she betrayed some one, it may be, that they +killed her." + +"What means '_betrayed_,' Ammalt? I understand it not." + +"Oh, God grant that you may never learn what it is to betray; that +you may never forget me for another!" + +"Ah, Ammalt, within these four days I have learned how bitter to me +was separation! For a long time I have not seen my brothers Noutsl +and Sorkha, and I meet them with pleasure; but without them I do not +grieve: without you I wish not to live!" + +"For thee I am ready to die, my morning-star: to thee I give my +soul--not only life, my beloved!" + +The sound of footsteps interrupted the lovers' talk: it was +Seltanetta's attendant. All three went to congratulate the Khan, who +was consoled, and unaffectedly delighted. + +Ammalt related in a few words how the affair had occurred. +"Hardly had I remarked that my comrade had fallen when I fired at +the beast, flying, with a ball which broke his jaw. The monster with +a terrific roar began to whirl round, to leap, to roll, sometimes +darting towards me, and then again, tormented by the agony, bounding +aside. At this moment, striking him with the butt of my gun on the +skull, I broke it. I pursued him a long time as soon as he betook +himself to flight, following him by his bloody track: the day began +to fail, and when I plunged my dagger into the throat of the fallen +tiger, dark night had fallen upon the earth. Would I or not, I was +compelled to pass the night with the rocks for a bed-chamber, and the +wolves and jackals for companions. The morning was dark and rainy; +the clouds around my head poured their waters on me like a river. At +ten paces before my face nothing could be seen. Without a view of the +sun, ignorant of the country, in vain I wandered round and round: +weariness and hunger overwhelmed me. A partridge which I shot with my +pistol restored my strength for a while; but I could not find my way +out of my rocky grave. In the evening the only sounds I could hear +were the murmur of water falling from a cliff, or the whistling of +the eagles' wings as they flew through the clouds; but at night the +audacious jackals raised, three paces off, their lamentable song. +This morning the sun rose brightly, and I myself arose more cheerful, +and directed my steps towards the east. I shortly afterwards heard a +cry and a shot: it was your messengers. Overcome by heat, I went to +drink the pure water of the fountain by the old mosque, and there I +met Seltanetta. Thanks be to you, and glory to God!" + +"Glory to God, and honour to you!" exclaimed the Sultan, embracing +him. "But your courage has nearly cost us your life, and even that +of your comrade. If you had delayed a day, he would have been obliged +to dance the Szghinka in the air. You have returned just in time. +Djemboul't, a famous cavalier of Little Kabrda, has sent to invite +you to a foray against the Russians. I would willingly buy +beforehand your glory; as much as you won in your last battle. The +time is short; tomorrow's sun must see you ready." + +This news was by no means unwelcome to Ammalt: he decided instantly; +answering, that he would go with pleasure. He felt sure that a +distinguished reputation as a cavalier would ensure him future +success. + +But Seltanetta turned pale--bowing her head like a flower, when she +heard of this new and more cruel separation. Her look, as it dwelt +upon Ammalt, showed painful apprehension--the pain of prophetic +sorrow. + +"Allah!" she mournfully exclaimed: "more forays, more slaughter. +When will blood cease to be shed in the mountains?" + +"When the mountain torrents run milk, and the sugar-canes wave on the +snowy peaks!" said the Khan. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +Wildly beautiful is the resounding Trek in the mountains of Daril. +There, like a genie, borrowing his strength from heaven, he wrestles +with Nature. There bright and shining as steel, cutting through the +overshadowing cliff, he gleams among the rocks. There, blackening +with rage, he bellows and bounds like a wild beast, among the +imprisoning cliffs: he bursts, overthrows, and rolls afar their +broken fragments. On a stormy night, when the belated traveller, +enveloped in his furry borka, gazing fearfully around him, travels +along the bank which hangs over the torrent of Trek, all is terror +such as only a vivid imagination can conceive. With slow steps he +winds along, the rain-torrents stream around his feet, and tumble +upon his head from the rocks which frown above and threaten his +destruction. Suddenly the lightning flashes before his eyes--with +horror he beholds but a black cloud above him, below a yawning gulf, +beside him crags, and before him the roaring Trek. At one moment he +sees its wild and troubled waves raging like infernal spirits chased +by the archangel's brand. After them, with a shout as of laughter, +roll the huge stones. In another moment, the blinding flash is gone, +and he is plunged once more in the dark ocean of night: then bursts +the thunder-crash, jarring the foundations of the rocks, as though a +thousand mountains were dashed against each other, so deafeningly do +the echoes repeat the bellow of the heavens. Then a long-protracted +growl, as of massive oaks plucked up by their roots, or the crash of +bursting rocks, or the yell of the Titans as they were hurled +headlong into the abyss; it mingles with the war of the blast, and +the blast swells to a hurricane, and the rain pours down in torrents. +And again the lightning blinds him, and again the thunder, answering +from afar to the splinter-crash, deafens him. The terrified steed +rears, starts backward--the rider utters a short prayer. + +But after this how softly smiles the morning--morn, in whose light +Trek glides, and ripples, and murmurs! The clouds, like a torn veil +whirling on the breeze, appear and vanish fitfully among the icy +peaks. The sunbeams discover jagged profiles of the summits on the +opposing mountain wall. The rocks glitter freshly from the rain. The +mountain-torrents leap through the morning mist; and the mists +themselves creep winding through the cliffs, even as the smoke from a +cottage chimney, then twine themselves like a turban round some +ancient tower, while Trek ripples on among the stones, curling as a +tired hound who seeks a resting-place. + +In the Caucasus, it must be confessed, there are no waters in which +the mountains can worthily reflect themselves--those giants of +creation. There are no gentle rivers, no vast lakes; but Trek +receives in his stream the tribute of a thousand streamlets. Beneath +the further Caucasus, where the mountains melt into the plain, he +seems to flow calmly and gently, he wanders on in huge curves, +depositing the pebbles he has brought down from the hills. Further on, +bending to the north-west, the stream is still strong, but less noisy, +as though wearied with its fierce strugglings. At length, embraced +by the narrow gorge of Cape M. loi (Little Kabrdi,) the river, +like a good Moslem, bending religiously to the east, and peacefully +spreading over the hated shore, gliding sometimes over beds of stone, +sometimes over banks of clay, falls, by Kizlr, into the basin of +the Caspian. There alone does it deign to bear boats upon its waters, +and, like a labourer, turn the huge wheels of floating mills. On its +right bank, among hillocks and thickets, are scattered the villages +(aole) of the Kabardnetzes, a tribe which we confound under one +name with the Tcherkss, (Circassians,) who dwell beyond the Koubn, +and with the Tchetchentzes much lower by the sea. These villages on +the bank are peaceful only in name, for in reality they are the +haunts of brigands, who acknowledge the Russian government only as +far as it suits their interest, capturing, as Russian subjects, from +the mountaineers, the plunder they seize in the Russian frontier. +Enjoying free passage on all sides, they inform those of the same +religion and the same way of thinking, of the movement of our troops, +and the condition of our fortresses; conceal them among themselves +when they are assembling for an incursion, buy their plunder at their +return, furnish them with Russian salt and powder, and not rarely +take themselves a part, secret or open, in their forays. It is +exceedingly irritating to see, even in full view of these +mountaineers, nations hostile to us boldly swim over the Trek, two, +three, or five men at a time, and in broad day set to work to rob; +it being useless to pursue them, as their dress has nothing to +distinguish them from the friendly tribes. On the opposite bank, +though apparently quite peaceable, and employing this as their excuse, +they fall, when in force, upon travellers, carry off cattle and men +when off their guard, slaughter them without mercy, or sell them +into slavery at a distance. To say the truth, their natural position, +between two powerful neighbours, of necessity compels them to have +recourse to these stratagems. Knowing that the Russians will not +pass to the other side of the river to protect them from the revenge +of the mountaineers, who melt away like snow at the approach of a +strong force, they easily and habitually, as well as from inevitable +circumstances, ally themselves to people of their own blood, while +they affect to pay deference to the Russians, whom they fear. + +Indeed, there exists among them certain persons really devoted to the +Russians, but the greater number will betray even their own +countrymen for a bribe. In general, the morality of these peaceful +allies of ours is completely corrupted; they have lost the courage +of an independent people, and have acquired all the vices of +half-civilization. Among them an oath is a jest; treachery, their +glory; even hospitality, a trade. Each of them is ready to engage +himself to the Russians in the morning, as a kounk (friend), and at +night to guide a brigand to rob his new friend. + +The left bank of the Trek is covered with flourishing stantzas [21] +of the Kazks of the Line, the descendants of the famous Zaporjetzes. +Among them is here and there a Christian village. These Kazks are +distinguished from the mountaineers only by their unshaven heads: their +tools, dress, harness, manners--all are of the mountains. They like the +almost ceaseless war with the mountaineers; it is not a battle, but a +trial of arms, in which each party desires to gain glory by his +superiority in strength, valour, and address. Two Kazks would not +fear to encounter four mountain horsemen, and with equal numbers +they are invariably victors. Lastly, they speak the Tartar language; +they are connected with the mountaineers by friendship and alliance, +their women being mutually carried off into captivity; but in the +field they are inflexible enemies. As it is not forbidden to make +incursions on the mountain side of the Trek, the brigands +frequently betake themselves thither by swimming the river, for the +chase of various kinds of game. The mountain brigands, in their turn, +frequently swim over the Trek at night, or cross it on bourdochs, +(skins blown up,) hide themselves in the reeds, or under a +projection of the bank, thence gliding through the thickets to the +road, to carry off an unsuspecting traveller, or to seize a woman, +as she is raking the hay. It sometimes happens that they will pass a +day or two in the vineyards by the village, awaiting a favourable +opportunity to fall upon it unexpectedly; and hence the Kazk of the +Line never stirs over his threshold without his dagger, nor goes +into the field without his gun at his back: he ploughs and sows +completely armed. + +[Footnote 21: Villages of Kazks.] + +For some time past, the mountaineers had fallen in considerable +numbers only on Christian villages, for in the stantzas the +resistance had cost them very dear. For the plundering of houses; +they approached boldly yet cunningly the Russian frontier, and on +such occasions they frequently escaped a battle. The bravest Ouzdns +desire to meet with these affairs that they may acquire fame, which +they value even more than plunder. + +In the autumn of the year 1819, the Kabardnetzes and Tchetchentzes, +encouraged by the absence of the commander-in-chief, assembled to the +number of 1500 men to make an attack upon one of the villages beyond +the Trek, to seize it, carry off prisoners, and take the droves of +horses. The leader of the Kabardnetzes was the Prince (Knizek) +Djenboult. Ammalt Bek, who had arrived with a letter from Sultan +Akhmet Khan, was received with delight. They did not, indeed, assign +him the command of any division; but this arose from the +circumstance that with them there is no order of battle or gradation +of command; an active horse and individual courage secures the most +distinguished place in action. At first they deliberate how best to +begin the attack--how to repel the enemy; but afterwards they pay no +attention to plan or order, and chance decides the affair. Having +sent messengers to summon the neighbouring Ouzdns, Djemboult fixed +on a place of assembling; and immediately, on a signal agreed on, +from every height spread the cry, "Ghari, ghari!" (alarm,) and in +one hour the Tchetchentzes and Kabardnetzes were assembling from +all sides. To avoid treason, no one but the leader knew where the +night-camp was to be, from which they where to cross the river. They +were divided into small bands, and were to go by almost invisible +paths to the peaceful village, where they were to conceal themselves +till night. By twilight, all the divisions were already mustered. As +they arrived, they were received by their countrymen with frank +embraces; but Djemboult, not trusting to this, guarded the village +with sentinels, and proclaimed to the inhabitants, that whoever +attempted to desert to the Russians should be cut in pieces. The +greater part of the Ouzdns took up their quarters in the sklas of +their kounks or relations; but Djemboult and Ammalt, with the +best of the cavaliers, slept in the open air round a fire, when they +had refreshed their jaded horses. Djemboult, wrapped in his borka, +was considering, with folded arms, the plan of the expedition; but +the thoughts of Ammalt were far from the battle-field: they were +flying, eagle-winged, to the mountains of Avar, and bitterly, +bitterly did he feel his separation. The sound of an instrument, the +mountain balalika, (kanous,) accompanying a slow air, recalled him +from his reverie, and a Kabardnetz sung an ancient song. + + + "On Kazbk the clouds are meeting, + like the mountain eagle-flock; + up to them, along the rock, + Dash the wild Ouzdns retreating; + Onward faster, faster fleeting, + Routed by the Russian brood. + Foameth all their track with blood." + + "Fast behind the regiments yelling, + Lance and bayonet raging hot, + And the seed of death their shot. + On the mail the sabre dwelling + Gallop, steed! for far thy dwelling-- + See! they fall--but distant still + Is the forest of the hill!" + + "Russian shot our hearts is rending, + Falls the Mullah on his knee, + To the Lord of Light bows he, + To the Prophet he is bending: + Like a shaft his prayer ascending, + Upward flies to Allah's throne-- + Il-Allh! O save thine own!" + + "Ah, despair!--What crash like thunder! + Lo! a sign from heaven above! + Lo! the forest seems to move + Crashes, murmurs, bursts asunder! + Lower, nearer, wonder! wonder! + Safe once more the Moslem bold + In their forest mountain-hold!" + + +"So it was in old times," said Djemboult, with a smile, "when our +old men trusted more to prayer, and God oftener listened to them; but +now, my friends, there is a better hope--your valour! _Our_ omens are +in the scabbards of our shoshkas, (sabres,) and we must show that we +are not ashamed of them. Harkye, Ammalt," he continued, twisting his +mustache, "I will not conceal from you that the affair may be warm. I +have just heard that Colonel K---- has collected his division; but +where he is, or how many troops he has, nobody knows." + +"The more Russians there are the better," replied Ammalt, quietly; +"the fewer mistakes will be made." + +"And the heavier will be the plunder." + +"I care not for that. I seek revenge and glory." + +"Glory is a good bird, when she lays a golden egg; but he that +returns with his torks (straps behind the saddle) empty, is ashamed +to appear before his wife. Winter is near, and we must provide our +households at the expense of the Russians, that we may feast our +friends and allies. Choose your station, Ammalt Bek. Do you prefer +to advance in front to carry off the flocks, or will you remain with +me in the rear? I and the Abrks will march at a foot's pace to +restrain the pursuers." + +"That is what I also intend. I will be where the greatest peril is. +But what are the Abrks, Djemboult?" + +"It is not easy to explain. You sometimes see several of our boldest +cavaliers take an oath, binding them for two or three years, or as +long as they like, never to mingle in games or gayeties, never to +spare their lives in battle, to give no quarter, never to pardon the +least offence in a brother or a friend, to seize the goods of others +without fear or scruple--in a word, to be the foes of all mankind, +strangers in their family, men whom any person may slay if he can; +in the village they are dangerous neighbours, and in meeting them +you must keep your hand on the trigger; but in war one can trust them." +[22] + +"For what motive, or reason, can the Ouzdens make such an engagement?" + +"Some simply to show their courage, others from poverty, a third +class from some misfortune. See, for instance, yonder tall Kabardnetz; +he has sworn to be an Abrk for five years, since his mistress +died of the small-pox. Since that year it would be as well to make +acquaintance with a tiger as with him. He has already been wounded +three times for blood-vengeance; but he cares not for that." + +"Strange custom! How will he return from the life of an Abrk to a +peaceable existence?" + +"What is there strange in this? The past glides from him as water +from the wild-duck. His neighbours will be delighted when he has +finished his term of brigandage. And he, after putting off Abrtchestva +(Abrkism) as a serpent sheds his skin, will become gentle +as a lamb. Among us, none but the avenger of blood remembers +yesterday. But the night is darkening. The mists are spreading over +Trek. It is time for the work." + +Djemboult whistled, and his whistle was repeated to all the +outposts of the camp. In a moment the whole band was assembled. +Several Ouzdns joined from the neighbouring friendly villages. +After a short discussion as to the passage of the river, the band +moved in silence to the bank. Ammalt Bek could not but admire the +stillness, not only of the riders, but of their horses; not one of +them neighed or snorted, and they seemed to place their feet on the +ground with caution. They marched like a voiceless cloud, and soon +they reached the bank of Trek, which, making a winding at this spot, +formed a promontory, and from it to the opposite shore, extended a +pebbly shoal. The water over this bank was shallow and fordable; +nevertheless, a part of the detachment left the shore higher up, in +order to swim past the Kazks, and, diverting their attention from +the principal passage, to cover the fording party. Those who had +confidence in their horses, leaped unhesitatingly from the bank, +while others tied to each fore-foot of their steeds a pair of small +skins, inflated with air like bladders; the current bore them on, +and each landed wherever he found a convenient spot. The +impenetrable veil of mist concealed all these movements. It must be +remarked, that along the whole line of the river is a chain of mayks +(watch-towers) and a cordon of sentinels: on all the hills and +elevated spots are placed look-outs. On passing before them in the +daytime, may be seen on each hillock a pole, surmounted with a small +barrel. This is filled with pitch and straw, and is ready to be +lighted on the first alarm. To this pole is generally tied a Kazk's +horse, and by his side a sentinel. In the night, these sentinels are +doubled; but in spite of the precautions, the Tcherkss, concealed +by the fog, and clothed in their borka, sometimes pass through the +line in small bodies, as water glides through a sieve. The same +thing happened on this occasion: perfectly acquainted with the +country, the Belds, (guides) peaceable Tcherkss, led each party, +and in profound silence avoided the hillocks. + +[Footnote 22: This is exactly the Berserkir of the ancient Northmen. +Examples of this frantic courage are not rare among the Asiatics.] + +In two places only had the brigands, to break through the line of +watch-fires which might have betrayed them, resolved to kill the +sentinels. Against one picket, Djemboult proceeded himself, and he +ordered another Bek to creep up the bank, pass round to the rear of +the picket, count a hundred, and then to strike fire with a flint +and steel several times. It was said and done. Just lifting his head +above the edge of the bank, Djemboult saw a Kazk slumbering with +the match in his hand, and holding his horse by the bridle. As soon +as the clicking struck his ear, the sentinel started, and turned an +anxious look on the river. Fearing that the sentinel did not remark +him, Djemboult threw up his cap, and again crouched down behind the +bank. "Accursed duck!" said the Dontz; "for this night is a carnival. +They squatter away like the witches of Keff." At this moment, the +sparks appeared on the opposite side, and drew his attention: "'Tis +the wolves," thought he: "sometimes their eyes glitter brightly!" But +the sparks reappearing, he was stupefied, remembering stories that +the Tchetchentzes sometimes use this kind of signal to regulate the +movements of their march. This moment of suspense and irresolution was +the moment of his destruction; a dagger [23], directed by a strong arm, +whistled through the air, and the Kazk, transfixed, fell without a +groan to the earth. His comrade was sabred in his sleep, and the pole +with the tub was torn down, and was thrown into the river. All then +rapidly assembled at the given signal, and dashed in a moment on the +village which they had determined to attack. The blow was successfully, +that is, quite unexpectedly, struck. Such of the peasants as had time +to arm, were killed after a desperate resistance: the others hid +themselves or fled. Besides the plunder, a number of men and women +was the reward of their boldness. The Kabardnetzes broke into the +houses, carrying off all that was most valuable, indeed every thing +that came to hand: but they did not set fire to the houses, nor did +they tread down the corn, nor break the vines: "Why touch the gift +of God, and the labour of man?" said they; and this rule of a +mountain robber, who shrinks at no crime, is a virtue which the most +civilized nations might envy. In an hour, all was over for the +inhabitants, but not for the brigands. The alarm spread along the +line, and the mayks soon began to glimmer through the fog like the +stars of morning, while the call to arms resounded in every direction. +In this interval, a party of the more experienced among the brigands +had gone round the troop of horses which was grazing far in the +steppe. The herdsman was seized, and with cries, and firing their +guns, they charged at the horses from the land side. The animals +started, threw mane and tail into the air, and dashed headlong on +the track of a Tcherkss mounted on a superb steed, who had remained +on the bank of the river to guide the frightened herd. Like a +skilful pilot, well acquainted, even in a fog, with all the dangers +of the desert sea, the Tcherkss flew on before the horses, wound +his way among the posts, and at last, having chosen a spot where the +bank was most precipitous, leaped headlong into the Trek. The whole +herd followed him: nothing could be seen but the foam that flew into +the air. Daybreak appeared; the fog began to separate, and +discovered a picture at once magnificent and terrible. The principal +band of forayers dragged the prisoners after it--some were at the +stirrup, others behind the saddle, with their arms tied at their +backs. Tears, and groans, and cries of despair were stifled by the +threats and frantic cries of joy of the victors. Loaded with plunder, +impeded by the flocks and horned cattle, they advanced slowly +towards the Trek. The princes and best cavaliers, in mail-coats and +casques glittering like water, galloped around the dense mass, as +lightning flashes round a livid cloud. In the distance, were +galloping up from every point the Kazks of the Line; they ambushed +behind the shrubs and straggling oak-trees, and soon began an irregular +fire with the brigands who were sent against them. + +[Footnote 23: The Tartars and Circassians possess extraordinary +dexterity in the use of their national weapon--the kinjl, or poniard. +These are sometimes of great size and weight, and when thrown by a +skilful hand, will fly a considerable distance, and with the most +singular accuracy of aim.] + +In the meantime, the foremost had driven across the river a portion +of the flocks, when a cloud of dust, and the tramp of cavalry, +announced the approaching storm. About six hundred mountaineers, +commanded by Djemboult and Ammalt, turned their horses to repulse +the attack, and give time to the rest to escape by the river. +Without order, but with wild cries and shouts, they dashed forward +to meet the Kazks; but not a single gun was taken from its belt, +not a single shshka glimmered in the air: a Tcherkss waits till +the last moment before he seizes his weapons. And thus, having +galloped to the distance of twenty paces, they levelled their +guns, fired at full speed, threw their fire-arms over their backs, +[24] and drew their shshkas; but the Kazks of the Line having +replied with a volley, began to fly, and the mountaineers, heated by +the chase, fell into a stratagem which they often employ themselves. +The Kazks had led them up to the chasseurs of the brave forty-third +regiment, who were concealed at the edge of the forest. Suddenly, as +if the little squares had started out of the earth, the bayonets +were leveled, and the fire poured on them, taking them in flank. It +was in vain that the mountaineers, dismounting from their horses, +essayed to occupy the underwood, and attack the Russians from the +rear; the artillery came up, and decided the affair. The experienced +Colonel Kortsarff, the dread of the Tchetchentz, the man whose +bravery they feared, and whose honesty and disinterestedness they +respected, directed the movements of the troops, and success could +not be doubtful. The cannon dispersed the crowds of brigands, and +their grape flew after the flying. The defeat was terrible; two +guns, dashing at a gallop to the promontory, not far from which the +Tcherkss were throwing themselves into the river, enfiladed the stream; +with a rushing sound, the shot flew over the foaming waves, and at +each fire some of the horses might be seen to turn over with their +feet in the air, drowning their riders. It was sad to see how the +wounded clutched at the tails and bridles of the horses of their +companions, sinking them without saving themselves--how the +exhausted struggled against the scarped bank, endeavouring to +clamber up, fell back, and were borne away and engulfed by the +furious current. The corpses of the slain were whirled away, mingled +with the dying and streaks of blood curled and writhed like serpents +on the foam. The smoke floated far along the Trek, far in the +distance, and the snowy peaks of Caucasus, crowned with mist, +bounded the field of battle. Djemboult and Ammalt Bek fought +desperately--twenty times did they rush to the attack, twenty times +were they repulsed; wearied, but not conquered, with a hundred +brigands they swam the river, dismounted, attached their horses to +each other by the bridle, and began a warm fire from the other side +of the river, to cover their surviving comrades. Intent upon this, +they remarked, too late, that the Kazks were passing the river above +them; with a shout of joy, the Russians leaped upon the bank, and +surrounded them in a moment. Their fate was inevitable. "Well, +Djemboult," said the Bek to the Kabardnetz, "our lot is finished. +Do you what you will; but for me, I will not render myself a +prisoner alive. 'Tis better to die by a ball than by a shameful cord!" +"Do you think," answered Djemboult, "that my arms were made for a +chain! Allah keep me from such a blot: the Russians may take my body, +but not my soul. Never, never! Brethren, comrades!" he cried to the +others; "fortune has betrayed us, but the steel will not. Let us +sell our lives dearly to the Giaour. The victor is not he who keeps +the field, but he who has the glory; and the glory is his who +prefers death to slavery!" "Let us die, let us die; but let us die +gloriously," cried all, piercing with their daggers the sides of +their horses, that the enemy might not take them, and then piling +up the dead bodies of their steeds, they lay down behind the +heap, preparing to meet the attack with lead and steel. Well aware of +the obstinate resistance they were about to encounter, the Kazks +stopped, and made ready for the charge. The shot from the opposite +bank sometimes fell in the midst of the brave mountaineers, +sometimes a grenade exploded, covering them with earth and fragments; +but they showed no confusion, they started not, nor blenched; and, +after the custom of their country, began to sing, with a melancholy, +yet threatening voice, the death-song, replying alternately stanza +for stanza. + +[Footnote 24: The oriental nations carry their guns at their backs, +supported by a strap passing across the breast.] + + + +DEATH-SONG. + + CHORUS. + + "Fame to us, death to you, + Alla-ha, Alla-hu!!" + + SEMICHORUS. + + "Weep, O ye maidens, on mountain and valley, + Lift the dirge for the sons of the brave; + We have fired our last bullet, have made our last rally, + And Caucasus gives us a grave. + Here the soft pipe no more shall invite us to slumber + --The thunder _our_ lullaby sings; + Our eyes not the maiden's dark tresses shall cumber, + _Them_ the raven shall shade with his wings! + Forget, O my children, your father's stern duty-- + No more shall he bring ye the Muscovite booty!" + + SECOND SEMICHORUS. + + "Weep not, O ye maidens; your sisters in splendour, + The Houris, they bend from the sky, + They fix on the brave their sun-glance deep and tender, + And to Paradise bear him on high! + In your feast-cup, my brethren, forget not our story; + The death of the Free is the noblest of glory!" + + FIRST SEMICHORUS. + + "Roar, winter torrent, and sullenly dash! + But where is the brave one--the swift lightning-flash? + Soft star of my soul, my mother, + Sleep, the fire let ashes smother; + Gaze no more, shine eyes are weary, + Sit not by the threshold stone; + Gaze not through the night-fog dreary, + Eat thine evening meal alone, + Seek him not, O mother, weeping, + By the cliff and by the ford: + On a bed of dust he's sleeping-- + Broken is both heart and sword!" + + SECOND SEMICHORUS. + + "Mother, weep not! with thy love burning: + This heart of mine beats full and free, + And to lion-blood is turning + That soft milks I drew from thee; + And our liberty from danger + Thy brave son has guarded well; + Battling with the Christian stranger, + Call'd by Azrael, he fell; + From my blood fresh odours breathing + Fadeless flowers shall drink the dew; + To my children fame bequeathing, + Brethren, and revenge to you!" + + CHORUS. + + "Pray, my brethren, ere we part; + Clutch the steel with hate and wrath! + Break it in the Russian's heart-- + O'er corpses lies the brave man's path! + Fame to us, death to you, + Alla-ha, Alla-hu!" + +Struck by a certain involuntary awe, the Chasseurs and Kazks +listened in silence to the stern sounds of this song; but at last a +loud _hurrah_ [25] resounded from both sides. The Teherkss, with a +shout, fired their guns for the last time, and breaking them against +the stones, they threw themselves, dagger in hand, upon the Russians. +The Abrks, in order that their line might not be broken, bound +themselves to each other with their girdles, and hurled themselves +into the mle. Quarter was neither asked nor given: all fell before +the bayonets of the Russians. "Forward! follow me, Ammalt Bek," +cried Djemboulat, with fury, rushing into the combat which was to be +his last--"Forward! for us death is liberty." But Anmalt heard not +his call; a blow from a musket on the back of the head stretched him +on the earth, already sown with corpses, and covered with blood. + +[Footnote 25: "Hurrah" means _strike_ in the Tartar language.] + + + + +CHAPTER. V. + + +LETTER FROM COLONEL VERHOFFSKY TO HIS BETROTHED. + + _From Derbnd to Smolnsk. October_, 1819. + +Two months--how easy to say it!--two centuries have past, dearest +Maria, while your letter was _creeping_ to me. Twice has the moon +made her journey round the earth. You cannot imagine, dearest, how +dreary is this idle objectless life to me; with nothing to employ +me--not even correspondence. I go out, I meet the _Kazk_ [26] +with a secret trembling of heart: with what joy, with what exstacy +do I kiss the lines traced by a pure hand, inspired by a pure +heart--yours, my Maria! With a greedy rapture my eyes devour the +letter: then I am happy--I am wild with joy. But hardly have I +reclosed it when unquiet thoughts again begin to haunt me. "All this +is well," I think; "but all this is past, and I desire to know the +present. Is she well? Does she love me yet? Oh! will the happy time +come soon--soon--when neither time nor distance can divide us? When +the expression of our love will be no longer chilled by the cold +medium of the post!" Pardon, pardon, dearest, these black thoughts +of absence. When heart is--with heart, the lover trusts in all; in +separation he doubts all. You command--for such to me is your +wish--that I should describe my life to you, day by day, hour by hour. +Oh, what sad and tiresome annals mine would be, were I to obey you! +You know well, traitress, that I live not without you. My +existence--'tis but the trace of a shadow on the desert sand. My duty +alone, which wearies at least, if it cannot amuse me, helps me to +get rid of the time. Thrown in a climate ruinous to health, in +society which stifles the soul, I cannot find among my companions a +single person who can sympathise with me. Nor do I find among the +Asiatics any who can understand my thoughts. All that surrounds me +is either so savage or so limited, that it excites sadness and +discontent. Sooner will you obtain fire by striking ice on stone, +than interest from such an existence. But your wish to me is sacred; +and I will present you, in brief, with my last week. It was more +varied than usual. + +[Footnote 26: The Kazks are employed in the Russian army +frequently as couriers.] + +I have told you in one of my letters, if I remember, that we are +returning from the campaign of Akosh, with the commander-in-chief. +We have done our work; Shah Ali Khan has fled into Persia; we have +burned a number of villages, hay, and corn; and we have eaten the +sheep of the rebels, when we were hungry. When the snow had driven +the insurgents from their mountain-fastnesses, they yielded and +presented hostages. We then marched to the Fort of Bornaya, [27] +and from this station our detachment was ordered into winter +quarters. Of this division my regiment forms a part, and our +head-quarters are at Derbnd. + +[Footnote 27: Stormy.] + +The other day, the general, who was about to depart on another +campaign on the Line, came to take leave of us, and thus there +was a larger company than usual to meet our adored commander. +Alexi Petrvitch came from his tent, to join us at tea. Who +is not acquainted with his face, from the portraits? But they +cannot be said to know Yermloff at all, who judge of him only by +a lifeless image. Never was there a face gifted with such nobility +of expression as his! Gazing on those features, chiselled in the +noble outline of the antique, you are involuntarily carried back to +the times of Roman grandeur. The poet was in the right, when he said +of him:-- + + "On the Koubn--fly, Tartar fleet! + The avenger's falchion gleameth; + His breath--the grapeshot's iron sleet, + His voice--the thunder seemeth! + Around his forehead stern and pale + The fates of war are playing.... + He looks--and victory doth quail, + That gesture proud obeying!" + + +You should witness his coolness in the hour of battle--you should +admire him at a conference: at one time overwhelming the Teberkss +with the flowing orientalisms of the Asiatic, at another +embarrassing their artifices with a single remark. In vain do they +conceal their thoughts in the most secret folds of their hearts; his +eye follows them, disentangles and unrolls them like worms, and +guesses twenty years beforehand their deeds and their intentions. +Then, again, to see him talking frankly and like a friend with his +brave soldiers, or passing with dignity round the circle of the +tchinbniks [28] sent from the capital into Georgia. It is curious to +observe how all those whose conscience is not pure, tremble, blush, +turn pale, when he fixes on them his slow and penetrating glance; you +seem to see the roubles of past bribes gliding before the eyes of the +guilty man, and his villanies come rushing on his memory. You see the +pictures of arrest, trial, judgment, sentence, and punishment, his +imagination paints, anticipating the future. No man knows so well +how to distinguish merit by a single glance, a single smile--to +reward gallantry with a word, coming _from_, and going _to_, the +heart. God grant us many years to serve with such a commander! + +[Footnote 28: Literally, a person possessing rank, used here to +signify an _employ_ of Government in a civil capacity--all of whom +possess some definite precedence or class (tchin) in the state. ] + +But if it be thus interesting to observe him on duty, how delightful +to associate with him in society--a society to which every one +distinguished for rank, bravery, or intellect, has free access: +_here_ rank is forgotten, formality is banished; every one talks +and acts as he pleases, simply because those only who think and act +as they _ought_, form the society. Alexi Petrvitch jokes with all +like a comrade, and at the same time teaches like a father. As usual, +during tea, one of his adjutants read aloud; it was the account of +Napoleon's Campaign in Italy--that poem of the Art of War, as the +commander-in-chief called it. The company, of course, expressed +their wonder, their admiration, their different opinions and +criticisms. The remarks of Alexi Petrvitch were lucid, and of +admirable truth. + +Then began our gymnastic sports, leaping, running, leaping over the +fire, and trials of strength of various kinds. The evening and the +view were both magnificent: the camp was pitched on the side of Tarki; +over it hangs the fortress of Bornaya, behind which the sun was +sinking. Sheltered by a cliff was the house of the Shamkhl, then +the town on a steep declivity, surrounded by the camp, and to the +east the immeasurable steppe of the Caspian sea. Tartar Beks, +Circassian Princes, Kazks from the various rivers of gigantic Russia, +hostages from different mountains, mingled with the officers. +Uniforms, tchoukhs, coats of chain-mail, were picturesquely mingled; +singing and music rang through the camp, and the soldiers, with +their caps jauntily cocked on one side, were walking in crowds at a +distance. The scene was delightful; it charmed by its picturesque +variety and the force and freshness of military life. Captain Bekvitch +was boasting that he could strike off the head of a buffalo with one +blow of a kinjl; [29] and two of those clumsy animals were immediately +brought. + +[Footnote 29: It is absurd to observe the incredulity +of Europeans as to the possibility of cutting off a head with the +kinjl: it is necessary to live only one week in the East to be quite +convinced of the possibility of the feat. In a practiced hand the +kinjl is a substitute for the hatchet, the bayonet, and the sabre.] + +Bets were laid; all were disputing and doubting. The Captain, with a +smile, seized with his left hand a huge dagger, and in an instant an +immense head fell at the feet of the astonished spectators, whose +surprise was instantly succeeded by a desire to do the same: they +hacked and hewed, but all in vain. Many of the strongest men among +the Russians and Asiatics made unsuccessful attempts to perform the +feat, but to do this strength alone was not sufficient. "You are +children--children!" cried the commander-in-chief: and he rose from +table, calling for his sword--a blade which never struck twice, as he +told us. An immense heavy sabre was brought him, and Alexi Petrvitch, +though confident in his strength, yet, like Ulysses in the Odyssey, +anointing the bow which no one else could bend, first felt the edge, +waved the weapon thrice in the air, and at length addressed himself +to the feat. The betters had hardly time to strike hands when the +buffalo's head bounded at their feet on the earth. So swift and sure +was the blow, that the trunk stood for some instants on its legs, +and then gently, softly, sank down. A cry of astonishment arose from +all: Alexi Petrvitch quietly looked whether his sabre was notched--for +the weapon had cost him many thousands [of roubles], and presented +it as a keepsake to Captain Bekvitch. + +We were still whispering among ourselves when there appeared before +the commander-in-chief an officer of the Kazks of the Line, with a +message from Colonel Kortsreff, who was stationed on the frontier. +When he had received the report, the countenance of Alexi Petrvitch +brightenened--"Kortsreff has gloriously trounced the mountaineers!" +said he. "These rascals have made a plundering expedition beyond the +Trek; they have passed far within the Line, and have plundered a +village--but they have lost not only the cattle they had taken, but +fallen a sacrifice to their own fool-hardiness." Having minutely +questioned Yesoal respecting the details of the affair, he ordered +the prisoners whom they had taken, wounded or recovering, to be +brought before him. Five were led into the presence of the +commander-in-chief. + +A cloud passed over his countenance as he beheld them; his brow +contracted, his eyes sparkled. "Villains!" said he to the Ouzdns; +"you have thrice sworn not to plunder; and thrice have you broken +your oath. What is it that you seek? Lands? Flocks? Means to defend +the one or the other? But no! you are willing to accept presents +from the Russians as allies, and at the same time to guide the +Tcherkss to plunder our villages, and to plunder along with them. +Hang them!" said he sternly; "hang them up by their own thievish arkus +(girdles)! Let them draw lots: the fourth shall be spared--let him +go and tell his countrymen that I am coming to teach them to keep +faith, and keep the peace, as I will have it." + +The Ouzdns were conducted away. + +There remained one Tartar bek, whom we had not remarked. This was a +young man of twenty-five, of unusual beauty, graceful as the +Belvidere Apollo. He bowed slightly to the commander-in chief as he +approached him, raised his cap, and again resumed his proud +indifferent expression; unshaken resignation to his fate was written +on his features. + +The commander-in-chief fixed his stern eye upon his face, but the +young man neither changed countenance nor quivered an eyelash. + +"Ammalt Bek," said Alexi Petrvitch, after a pause, "do you +remember that you are a Russian subject? that the Russian laws are +above you?" + +"It would have been impossible to forget that," replied the Bek: +"if I had found in those laws a protection for my rights, I should +not now stand before you a prisoner." + +"Ungrateful boy!" cried the commander-in-chief; "your father--you +yourself, have been the enemy of the Russians. Had it been during the +Persian domination of your race, not even the ashes would have +remained; but our Emperor was generous, and instead of punishing you +he gave you lands. And how did you repay his kindness? By secret +plot and open revolt! This is not all: you received and sheltered in +your house a sworn foe to Russia; you permitted him, before your eyes, +traitorously to slaughter a Russian officer. In spite of all this, +had you brought me a submissive head, I would have pardoned you, on +account of your youth and the customs of your nation. But you fled +to the mountains, and with Suleiman Akhmet Khan you committed +violence within the Russian bounds; you were beaten, and again you +make an incursion with Djemboult. You cannot but know what fate +awaits you." + +"I do," coldly answered Ammalt Bek: "I shall be shot." + +"No! a bullet is too honourable a death for a brigand," cried the +angry general: "a cart with the shafts turned up--a cord round your +neck--that is the fitting reward." + +"It is all one how a man dies," replied Ammalt, "provided he dies +speedily. I ask one favour: do not let me be tormented with a trial: +that is thrice death." + +"Thou deservest a hundred deaths, audacious! but I promise you. Be it +so: to-morrow thou shalt die. Assemble a court-martial," continued +the commander-in-chief, turning to his staff: "the fact is clear, +the proof is before your eyes, and let all be finished at one sitting, +before my departure." + +He waved his hand, and the condemned prisoner was removed. + +The fate of this fine young man touched us all. Every body was +whispering about him; every body pitying him; the more, that +there appeared no means of saving him. Every one knew well the +necessity of punishing this double treason, and the inflexibility +of Alexi Petrvitch in matters of this publicity: and, therefore, +no one dared to intercede for the unfortunate culprit. The +commander-in-chief was unusually thoughtful for the remainder of the +evening, and the party separated early. I determined to speak a word +for him--"Perhaps," I thought, "I may obtain some commutation of the +sentence." I opened one of the curtains of the tent, and advanced +softly into the presence of Alexi Petrvitch. He was sitting alone, +resting both arms on a table; before him lay a despatch for the +Emperor, half finished, and which he was writing without any previous +copy. Alexi Petrvitch knew me as an officer of the suite, and we +had been acquainted since the battle of Kulm. At that time he had +been very kind to me, and therefore my visit was not surprising to +him. "I see--I see, Evstfii Ivnovitch, you have a design upon my +heart! In general you come in as if you were marching up to a battery, +but now you hardly walk on tip-toe. This is not for nothing. I am +sure you are come with a request about Ammalt." + +"You have guessed it," said I to Alexi Petrvitch, not knowing how +to begin. + +"Sit down, then, and let us talk it over," he replied. Then, after a +silence of a couple of minutes, he continued, kindly, "I know that a +report goes about respecting me, that I treat the lives of men as a +plaything--their blood as water. The most cruel tyrants have hidden +their bloodthirstiness under a mask of benevolence. They feared a +reputation for cruelty, though they feared not to commit deeds of +cruelty; but I--I have intentionally clothed myself with this sort +of character, and purposely dressed my name in terror. I desire, and +it is my duty to desire, that my name should protect our frontier +more effectually than lines and fortresses--that a single word of +mine should be, to the Asiatics, more certain, more inevitable, than +death. The European may be reasoned with: he is influenced by +conscience, touched by kindness, attached by pardon, won by +benefits; but to the Asiatic all this is an infallible proof of +weakness; and to him I--even from motives of philanthropy--have +shown myself unmitigably severe. A single execution preserves a +hundred Russians from destruction, and deters a thousand Mussulmans +from treason. Evstfii Ivnovitch, many will not believe my words, +because each conceals the cruelty of his nature, and his secret +revengefulness, under excuses of necessity--each says, with a +pretence of feeling, 'Really I wish from my heart to pardon, +but be judges yourselves--can I? What, after this, are laws--what +is the general welfare?' All this I never say; in my eyes no tear +is seen when I sign a sentence of death: but my heart bleeds." + +Alexi Petrvitch was touched; he walked agitatedly several times up +and down the tent; then seated himself, and continued--"Never, in +spite of all this, never has it been so difficult to me to punish as +this day. He who, like me, has lived much among the Asiatics, ceases +to trust in Lavater, and places no more confidence in a handsome +face than in a letter of recommendation; but the look, the expression, +the demeanour of this Ammalt, have produced on me an unusual +impression. I am sorry for him." + +"A generous heart," said I, "is a better oracle than reason." + +"The heart of a conscientious man, my dear friend, ought to be under +the command of reason. I certainly _can_ pardon Ammalt, but I +_ought_ to punish him. Daghestn is still filled with the enemies +of Russia, notwithstanding their assurances of submission; even +Tarki is ready to revolt at the first movement in the mountains: we +must rivet their chains by punishment, and show the Tartars that no +birth can screen the guilty--that all are equal in the sight of the +Russian law. If I pardon Ammalt, all his relations will begin to +boast that Yermloff is afraid of the Shamkhl." I remarked, that +indulgence shown to so extensive a clan would have a good effect on +the country--in particular the Shamkhl. + +"The Shamkhal is an Asiatic," interrupted Alexi Petrvitch; +"he would be delighted that this heir to the Shamkhalt should be +sent to the Elysian fields. Besides, I care very little to guess or +gratify the wishes of his kinsmen." + +I saw that the commander-in-chief began to waver, and I urged him +more pressingly. "Let me serve for three years," said I; "do not +give me leave of absence this year--only have mercy on this young man. +He is young, and Russia may find in him a faithful servant. +Generosity is never thrown away." + +Alexi Petrvitch shook his head. + +"I have made many ungrateful," said he, "already; but be it so. I +pardon him, and not by halves--that is not my way. I thank you for +having helped me to be merciful, not to say weak. Only remember my +words: You wish to take him to yourself--do not trust him; do not +warm a serpent in your bosom." + +I was so delighted with my success, that, hastily quitting the +commander-in-chief, I ran to the tent in which Ammalt Bek was +confined. Three sentinels were guarding him; a lantern was burning +in the midst. I entered; the prisoner was lying wrapped up in his +borka, and tears were sparkling on his face. He did not hear my +entrance, so profoundly was he buried in thought. To whom is it +pleasant to part with life? I was rejoiced that I brought comfort to +him at so melancholy a moment. + +"Ammalt," said I, "Allah is great, and the Sardr is merciful; he +has granted you your life!" + +The delighted prisoner started up, and endeavoured to reply, but the +breath was stifled in his breast. Immediately, however, a shade of +gloom covered his features. "Life!" he exclaimed; "I understand this +generosity! To consign a man to a breathless dungeon, without light +or air--to send him to eternal winter, to a night never illumined by +a star--to bury him alive in the bowels of the earth--to take from +him not only the power to act, not only the means of life, but even +the privilege of telling his kinsmen of his sad lot--to deny him not +only the right to complain, but even the power of murmuring his +sorrow to the wind. And this you call life! this unceasing torment +you boast of as rare generosity! Tell the General that I want +not--that I scorn--such a life." + +"You are mistaken, Ammalt," I cried; "you are fully pardoned: remain +what you were, the master of your actions and possessions. There is +your sword. The commander-in-chief is sure that in future you will +unsheathe it only for the Russians. I offer you one condition; come +and live with me till the report of your actions has died away. You +shall be to be as a friend, as a brother." + +This struck the Asiatic. Tears shone in his eyes. "The Russians have +conquered me," he said: "pardon me, colonel, that I thought ill of +all of you. From henceforth I am a faithful servant of the Russian +Tsar--a faithful friend to the Russians, soul and sword. My sword, +my sword!" he cried, gazing fixedly on his costly blade; "let these +tears wash from thee the Russian blood and the Tartar _naphtha_! [30] +When and how can I reward you, with my service, for liberty and life?" + +[Footnote 30: The Tartars, to preserve their weapons, and to produce a +black colour on them, smoke the metal, and then rub it with naphtha.] + +I am sure, my dear Maria, that you will keep me, for this, one +of your sweetest kisses. Ever, ever, when feeling or acting +generously, I console myself with the thought, "My Maria will +praise me for this!" But when is this to happen, my darling? +Fate is but a stepmother to us. Your mourning is prolonged, and +the commander-in-chief has decidedly refused me leave of absence; +nor am I much displeased, annoying as it is: my regiment is in +a bad state of discipline--indeed, as bad as can be imagined; +besides, I am charged with the construction of new barracks and +the colonization of a married company. If I were absent for a month, +every thing would go wrong. If I remain, what a sacrifice of my heart! + +Here we have been at Derbnd three days. Ammalt lives with me: he +is silent, sad, and savage; but his fear is interesting, nevertheless. +He speaks Russian very well, and I have commenced teaching him to read +and write. His intelligence is unusually great. In time, I hope to +make him a most charming Tartar. (_The conclusion of the letter has +no reference to our story_.) + +Fragment of another letter from Colonel Verhffsky to his _fiance_, +written six months after the preceding. + +From Derbnd to Smolnsk. + +Your favourite Ammalt, my dearest Maria, will soon be quite +Russianized. The Tartar Beks, in general, think the first step of +civilization consists in the use of the unlawful wine and pork. I, +on the contrary, have begun by re-educating the mind of Ammalt. I +show him, I prove to him, what is bad in the customs of his nation, +and what is good in those of ours; I explain to him universal and +eternal truths. I read with him, I accustom him to write, and I +remark with pleasure that he takes the deepest interest in +composition. I may say, indeed, that he is passionately fond of it; +for with him every wish, every desire, every caprice, is a +passion--an ardent and impatient passion. It is difficult for a +European to imagine, and still more difficult to understand, the +inflammability of the unruly, or rather unbridled, passions of an +Asiatic, with whom the will alone has been, since childhood, the +only limit to his desires. Our passions are like domestic animals; or, +if they are wild beasts, they are tamed, and taught to dance upon +the rope of the "conveniences," with a ring through their nostrils +and their claws cut: in the East they are free as the lion and the +tiger. + +It is curious to observe, on the countenance of Ammalt, the blush +with which his features are covered at the least contradiction; the +fire with which he is filled at any dispute; but as soon as he finds +that he is in the wrong, he turns pale, and seems ready to weep. +"I am in the wrong," says he; "pardon me: takhsirumdam ghitch, +(blot out my fault;) forget that I am wrong, and that you have +pardoned me." He has a good heart, but a heart always ready to be +set on fire, either by a ray of the sun or by a spark of hell. +Nature has gifted him with all that is necessary to render him a man, +as well in his moral as physical constitution; but national +prejudices, and the want of education, have done all that is +possible to disfigure and to corrupt these natural qualities. His +mind is a mixture of all sorts of inconsistencies, of the most +absurd ideas, and of the soundest thoughts: sometimes he seizes +instantly abstract propositions when they are presented to him in a +simple form, and again he will obstinately oppose the plainest and +most evident truths: because the former are quite new to him, and +the latter are obscured by previous prejudices and impressions. I +begin to fancy that it is easier to build a new edifice than to +reconstruct an old one. + +But how happens it that Ammalt is melancholy and absent? He makes +great progress in every thing that does not require an attentive and +continuous reflection, and a gradual development; but when the +matter involves remote consequences, his mind resembles a short +fire-arm, which sends its charge quickly, direct, and strongly, but +not to any distance. Is this a defect of his mind? or is it that his +attention is entirely occupied with something else? ... For a man of +twenty-three, however, it is easy to imagine the cause. Sometimes he +appears to be listening attentively to what I am telling him; but +when I ask for his answer, he seems all abroad. Sometimes I find the +tears flowing from his eyes: I address him--he neither hears nor +sees me. Last night he was restless in his sleep, and I heard the +word "seltant--seltant," (power, power,) frequently escape him. Is +it possible that the love of power can so torment a young heart? No, +no! another passion agitates, troubles the soul of Ammalt. Is it +for me to doubt of the symptoms of love's divine disease? He is in +love--he is passionately in love; but with whom? Oh, I will know! +Friendship is as curious as a woman. + + + + +OCCUPATION OF ADEN. + +"It is only by a naval power," says Gibbon, "that the reduction of +Yemen can be successfully attempted"--a remark, by the way, which +more than one of the ancients had made before him. All the +comparatively fertile districts in the south of Arabia, in fact, are +even more completely insulated by the deserts and barren mountains of +the interior on one side, than by the sea on the other--inasmuch as +easier access would be gained by an invader, even by the dangerous +and difficult navigation of the Red Sea, than by a march through a +region where the means of subsistence do not exist, and where the +Bedoweens, by choking or concealing the wells, might in a moment cut +off even the scanty supply of water which the country affords. This +mode of passive resistance was well understood and practised by them +as early as the time of lius Gallus, the first Roman general who +conceived the hope of rifling the virgin treasures popularly +believed to be buried in the inaccessible hoards of the princes of +Arabia, whose realms were long looked upon--perhaps on the principle +of _omne ignotum pro magnifico_--as a sort of indefinite and +mysterious El Dorado. [31] + +[Footnote 31: "Intactis opulentior thesauris Arabum." +--_Horat. Od_. iii. 24. Pliny (_Hist. Nat_. vi. 32) more soberly +endeavours to prove the enormous accumulation of wealth which must +have taken place in Arabia, from the constant influx of the precious +metals for the purchase of their spices and other commodities, while +they bought none of the productions of other countries in return.] + +These golden dreams speedily vanished as the country became more +extensively known: and though the Arab tribes of the desert between +Syria and the Euphrates acknowledged a nominal subjection to Rome, +the intercourse of the Imperial City with Yemen, or Arabia Felix, +was confined to the trade which was carried on over the Red Sea from +Egypt, and which became the channel through which not only the +spices of Arabia, but the rich products of India, and even the slaves +[32] and ivory of Eastern Africa, were supplied to the markets of +Italy. At the present day, almost the whole of the south coast of +Arabia fronting the Indian Ocean, nearly from the head of the Persian +Gulf to the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, as well as the eastern coast of +Africa, from Cape Guardafui to the entrance of the Mozambique Channel +a seaboard approaching 4000 miles in length--is more or less subject +to the Sultan of Muscat, [33] a prince whose power is almost wholly +maritime, and whose dominions nowhere extend more than thirty or forty +miles inland: while our own recent acquisition of Aden, a detached point +with which our communication can be maintained only by restraining +the command of the sea, has for the first time given an European +power (excepting the Turks, whose possessions in Arabia always +depended on Egypt) a _locus standi_ on the shores of Yemen. + +[Footnote 32: This part of Africa is noticed by Arrian as famous for +the excellent quality of the slaves brought from [Greek: ta doulicha +chreissota],and it still retains its pre-eminence. The tribes in +this quarter are far superior both in personal appearance and +intellect to the negroes of Guinea.] + +[Footnote 33: We have seen it somewhere stated that the Sultan has +also attempted, by means of his navy, to exercise authority on the +shores of Beloochistan; which would bring him into contact with our +own outposts at Soumeeani, &c., near the mouth of the Indus.] + +The process by which we obtained this footing in Arabia was strictly +in accordance with the maxims of policy adopted by the then rulers +of British India, and which they were at the same time engaged in +carrying out, on a far more extended scale, in Affghanistan. In both +cases--perhaps from a benevolent anxiety to accommodate our +diplomacy to the primitive ideas of those with whom we had to deal-- + + "the good old rule + Sufficeth them, the simple plan + That they should take who have the power, + And they should keep who can"-- + +was assumed as the basis of our proceedings: and though the brilliant +success which for a time attended our philanthropic exertions in the +cause of good order and civilization beyond the Indus, so completely +threw into the shade the minor glories of Aden, that this latter +achievement attracted scarcely any public attention at the time of +its occurrence, its merits are quite sufficient to entitle it to a +more detailed notice than it has hitherto received in the pages of +Maga. Nor can a more opportune juncture be found than the present, +when the late events in Cabul have apparently had a marvellous +effect in opening the eyes of our statesmen, both in India and +England, to the moral and political delinquency of the system we +have so long pursued--of taking the previous owner's consent for +granted, whenever it suited our views to possess ourselves of a +fortress, island, or tract of territory, belonging to any nation not +sufficiently civilized to have had representatives at the Congress +of Vienna. Whether our repentance is to be carried the length of +universal restitution, remains to be seen; if so, it is to be hoped +that the circumstances of the capture of Aden will be duly borne in +mind. But before we proceed to detail the steps by which the British +colours came to be hoisted at this remote angle of Arabia, it will +be well to give some account of the place itself and its previous +history; since we suspect that the majority of newspaper politicians, +unless the intelligence of its capture chanced to catch their eye in +the columns of the _Times_, are to this day ignorant that such a +fortress is numbered among the possessions of the British crown. + +The harbour of Aden, then, lies on the south coast of Yemen, as +nearly as possible in 12 45' N. latitude, and 45 10' E. longitude; +somewhat more than 100 miles east of Cape Bab-el-Mandeb, at the +entrance of the Red Sea; and about 150 miles by sea, or 120 by land, +from Mokha, [34] the nearest port within the Straits. The town was built +on the eastern side of a high rocky peninsula, about four miles in +length from E. to W., by two miles and a half N. and S.--which was +probably, at no very remote period, an island, but is now joined to +the mainland by a long low sandy isthmus, [35] on each side of which, +to the east and west, a harbour is formed between the peninsula and +the mainland. The East Bay, immediately opposite the town, though +of comparatively small extent, is protected by the rocky islet of +Seerah, rising seaward to the height of from 400 to 600 feet, and +affords excellent anchorage at all times, except during the north-east +monsoon: but the Western or Black Bay, completely landlocked and +sheltered in great part of its extent by the high ground of its +peninsula, (which rises to an elevation of nearly 1800 feet,) runs up +inland a distance of seven miles from the headland of Jibel-Hassan, +(which protects its mouth on the west,) to the junction of the isthmus +with the main, and presents at all times a secure and magnificent +harbour, four miles wide at the entrance, and perfectly free from +rocks, shoals, and all impediments to ingress or egress. Such are the +natural advantages of Aden: and "whoever"--says Wellsted--"might have +been the founder, the site was happily selected, and well calculated +by its imposing appearance not only to display the splendour of its +edifices, but also, uniting strength with ornament, to sustain the +character which it subsequently bore, as the port and bulwark of +Arabia Felix." + +[Footnote 35: This isthmus is said by Lieutenant Wellsted to be "about +200 yards in breadth:" perhaps a misprint for 1200, as a writer in the +_United Service Journal_, May 1840, calls it 1350 yards; and, +according to the plan in the papers laid before Parliament, it would +appear to be rather more than half a mile at the narrowest part, where +it is crossed by the Turkish wall.] + +From the almost impregnable strength of its situation, and the +excellence of its harbour, which affords almost the only secure +shelter for shipping near the junction of the Red Sea and the Indian +Ocean, Aden has been, both in ancient and modern times, a place of +note and importance as a central point for the commerce carried on +with the East by way of Egypt. It was known to the ancients as the +Arabian emporium, and Abulfeda, in the fourteenth century, describes +it, in his Geography, as "a city on the sea-shore, within the +district of Abiyan; with a safe and capacious port, much frequented +by ships from India and China, and by merchants and men of +wealth, not only from those countries, but from Abyssinia, the +Hedjaz, &c.;" adding, however, "that it is dry and burnt up by the +sun, and so totally destitute of pasture and water, that one of the +gates is named Bab-el-Sakiyyin, or _Gate of the Water-carriers_, +for fresh water must be brought from a distance." In somewhat +later times, when the Portuguese began to effect settlements on the +coasts of Guzerat and Malabar, and to attack the Mohammedan commerce +in the Indian Seas, the port of Aden (when, with the rest of Yemen, +then paid a nominal allegiance to the Egyptian monarchy) became the +principal rendezvous for the armaments equipped by the Circassian +Sultans of Cairo in the Red Sea, in aid of their Moslem brethren, +then oppressed by those whom the Sheikh Zein-ed-deen emphatically +denounces as "a race of unclean Frank interlopers--may the curse of +Allah rest upon them and all infidels!" It was, in consequence, more +than once attacked by the famous Alboquerque, (who, in 1513, lost +2000 men before it,) and his successor Lope Soarez, but the +Portuguese never succeeded in occupying it; and the Mamluke empire +was overthrown, in 1517, by the arms of the Ottoman Sultan, Selim I. +The new masters of Egypt, however, speedily adopted the policy of +the rulers whom they had supplanted; and not contented with the +limited _suzeraint_ over the Arab chiefs of Yemen, exercised by the +Circassian monarchs, determined on bringing that country under the +direct control of the Porte, as a _point d'appui_ for the operations +to be undertaken in the Indian Ocean. With this view, the eunuch, +Soliman-Pasha, who was sent in command of a formidible squadron from +Suez, in 1538, to attempt the recapture of Dui, [36] in Guzerat, from +the Portuguese, received instructions to make himself in the first place +master of Aden, to the possession of which the Turks might reasonable +lay claim as a dependency of their newly-acquired realm of Egypt; the +seizure, however, was effected by means of base treachery. The prince, +Sheikh-Amer, of the race of the Beni-Teher, was summoned on board +the admiral's galley, and accepted the invitation without suspicion; +but he was instantly placed in confinement, and shortly afterwards +publicly hanged at the yard-arm; while the Pasha, landing his troops, +took possession of Aden in the name of Soliman the Magnificent. It +was not, however, till 1568, that the final reduction of Yemen was +accomplished, when Aden and other towns, which had fallen into the +hands of an Arab chief named Moutaher, were recaptured by a powerful +army sent from Egypt; the whole province was formally divided into +sandjaks or districts, and the seat of the beglerbeg, or supreme +pasha, fixed at Sana. + +[Footnote 36: The warfare of the Ottomans in India is a curious +episode in their history, which has attracted but little notice from +European writers. The Soliman-Pasha above mentioned (called by +the Indian historians Soliman-Khan _Roomi_, or the Turk, and by the +Portuguese Solimanus Peloponnesiacus) bore a distinguished part +in those affairs; but this expedition against Diu was the last in +which he was engaged. The kingdom of Guzerat was, at that time, in +great confusion after the death of its king, Bahadur Shah, who had +been treacherously killed in an affray with the Portuguese in 1536; +and it would appear probable that the Turks, if they had succeeded +against Diu, meditated taking possession of the country.] + +The domination of the Turks in Yemen did not continue much more than +sixty years after this latter epoch; the constant revolts of the +Arab tribes, and the feuds of the Turkish military chiefs, whose +distance from the seat of government placed them beyond the control +of the Porte, combined in rendering it an unprofitable possession. +The Indian trade, moreover, was permanently diverted to the route by +the Cape; and any political schemes which the Porte might at one time +have entertained in regard to India, had been extinguished by the +reunion, under the Mogul sway, of the various shattered sovereignties +of Hindostan. In 1633, [37] the Turkish troops were finally withdrawn +from the province, which then fell under the rule of the still existing +dynasty of the Imams of Sana, who claim descent from Mohammed. But the +ruins even now remaining of the fortifications and publick works +constructed in Aden by the Ottomans during their tenure of the place, +are on a scale which not only proves how fully they were aware of the +importance of the position, but gives a high idea of the energy with +which their resources were administered during the palmy days of their +power, when such vast labour and outlay were expended on the security +of an isolated stronghold at the furthest extremity of their empire. +The defences of the town, even in their present state, are the most +striking evidence now existing of the science and skill of the Turkish +engineers in former times; and, when they were entire, Aden must have +been another Gibraltar. "The lines taken for the works," says a late +observer, "evince great judgment, a good flanking fire being every +where obtained; no one place which could possibly admit of being +fortified has been omitted, and we could not do better than tread in +the steps of our predecessors. The profile is tremendous." A supply +of water (of which the peninsula had been wholly destitute) was +secured, not only by constructing numerous tanks within the walls, +and by boring numerous wells through the solid rock to a depth of +upwards of 200 feet, [38] but by carrying an aqueduct into the +town from a spring eight miles in the country, the reservoir at the +end of which was defended by a redoubt mounted with artillery. The +outposts were not less carefully strengthened than the body of the +place--a rampart with bastions (called, in the reports of the +garrison, _the Turkish Wall_) was carried along some high ground on +the isthmus from sea to sea, to guard against an attack on the land +side--the lofty rocky islet of Seerah, immediately off the town, was +covered with watchtowers and batteries--and several of those +enormous guns, with the effect of which the English became +practically acquainted at the passage of the Dardanelles in 1807, +were mounted on the summit of the precipices, to command the seaward +approach; and, when Lieutenant Wellsted was at Aden, those huge +pieces of ordnance was lying neglected on the beach; and he asked +Sultan Mahassan why he did not cut them up for the sake of the metal, +which is said to contain a considerable intermixture of silver; +"but he replied, with more feeling than could have been anticipated, +that he was unwilling to deprive Aden of the only remaining sign of +its former greatness and strength." Several of them have been sent +to England since the capture of the place, measuring from fifteen to +eighteen and a half feet in length; they are covered with ornaments +and inscriptions, stating them to have been cast in the reign of +"Soliman the son of Selim-Khan," (Soliman the Magnificent.) + +[Footnote 37: Captain Haines, in the "Report upon Aden," appended to the +Parliamentary papers published on the subject, erroneously places this +even in 1730, the year in or about which, according to Niebuhr, the +Sheikh of Aden made himself independent of Sana.] + +[Footnote 38: "No part of the coast of Arabia is celebrated for the +goodness of its water, with the single exception of Aden. The wells +there are 300 in number, cut mostly though the rock, ... and the tanks +were found in good order, coated inside and out with excellant chunam, +(stucco,) and merely requiring cleaning out to be again serviceable."] + +At the time of its evacuation by the Turks, Aden is said, +notwithstanding the decay of its Indian trade, to have contained from +20,000 to 30,000 inhabitants; and the lofty minarets which, a few +years since, still towered above the ruins of the mosques to which +they had formerly been attached, as well as the extensive +burying-grounds, in which the turbaned headstones peculiar to the +Turks are even yet conspicuous, bear testimony, not less than the +extent and magnitude of the ruinous fortifications, to the +population and splendour of the town under the Ottomans.--(See +WELLSTED'S _Arabia_, vol. ii, chap. 19.) From the time, however, of +its return into the hands of its former owners, its decline was rapid. +Niebuhr, who visited it in the latter part of the last century, says, +that it had but little trade, as its Sheikh [39] (who had long since +shaken off his dependence on the Iman of Sana) was not on good terms +with his neighbors; and, though Sir Home Popham concluded a commercial +treaty with the uncle and predecessor of the present Sultan Mahassan, +no steps appear to have been taken in consequence of this arrangement. + +[Footnote 39: The town would appear to have passed into the hands of +another tribe since Niebuhr's time, as he gives the Sheikh the surname +of _El-Foddeli_ (Futhali,) the present chief being of the Abdalli +tribe.] + +In 1835, according to Wellsted, the inhabitants of this once +flourishing emporium did not exceed 800, the only industrious class +among whom were the Jews, who numbered from 250 to 300. The +remainder were "the descendants of Arabs, Sumaulis," (a tribe of the +African coast,) "and the offspring of slaves," who dwelt in wretched +huts, or rather tents, on the ruins of the former city. "Not more +than twenty families are now engaged in mercantile pursuits, the +rest gaining a miserable existence either by supplying the Hadj +boats with wood and water, or by fishing." The chief, Sultan Mahassan, +did not even reside in Aden, but in a town called Lahedj, about +eighteen miles distant, where he kept the treasures which his uncle, +who was a brave and politic ruler, had succeeded in amassing. He +reputation for wealth, however, and the inadequacy of his means for +defending it, drew on him the hostility of the more warlike tribes +in the vicinity; and in 1836 Aden was sacked by the Futhalis, +who not only carried off booty to the value of 30,000 dollars, +(principally the property of the Banians and the Sumauli merchants in +the port,) but compelled the Sultan to agree to an annual payment of +360 dollars; while two other tribes, the Yaffaees and the Houshibees, +took the opportunity to exhort from him a tribute of half that amount. +There can be no doubt but that, if the Arabs had been left to +themselves, this state of things would have ended in all the +contending parties being speedily swallowed up in the dominions of +Mohammed Ali, Pasha of Egypt; who, under pretence of re-asserting +the ancient rights of the Porte to the sovereignty of Yemen, had +already occupied Mokha and Taaz, and was waging war with the tribes +in the neighbouring coffee country, whom he had exasperated by the +treacherous murder of Sheikh Hussein, one of their chiefs, who, +having been inveigled by the Egyptian commander into a personal +conference, was shot dead, like the Mamlukes at Cairo, in the tent of +audience. Aden, in the natural course of things, would have been the +next step; but an unforeseen intervention deprived him of his prey. + +Since the establishment of the overland communication with India +through Egypt, and the steam navigation of the Red Sea, the want had +been sensibly felt of an intermediate station between Suez and Bombay, +which might serve both as a coal depot, and, in case of necessity, +as a harbour of shelter. The position of Aden, almost exactly halfway, +would naturally have pointed it out as the sought-for haven, even +had its harbour been less admirably adapted than it is, from its +facility of entrance and depth of water close to the shore, for +steamers to run straight in, receive their fuel and water from the +quay, and proceed on their voyage without loss of time; while the +roadstead of Mokha, [40] the only other station which could possibly be +made available for the purpose, is at all times open and insecure, +and in certain points of the wind, particularly when it blows from +the south through the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, communication with +the shore is absolutely impracticable. It was clear, therefore, that +the proposed depot, if carried into effect at all, must be fixed at +Aden; and there can be little doubt that its occupation was contemplated +by the Indian government from the time of the visit of the surveying +ships to the Red Sea. A pretext was now all that was sought for, and +this was not long wanted. It was reported to the Bombay Administration +in October 1836, by Captain Haines, (then in command of the Palinurus +at Makullah) that great insecurity to navigation prevailed on both the +African and Indian shores, at the entrance of the Red Sea; and one +particular instance was adduced, in which the crew of a Muscat vessel, +wrecked on the coast near Aden, were subjected to such inordinate +extortion by Sultan Mahassan, that "the master, in anger or despair, +burned his vessel. The Bombay government could only give general +instructions, that in case of any outrage being offered to a vessel +under British colours, redress should be peremptorily demanded. But +long before these instructions were issued, and, indeed, before the +intelligence which elicited them had reached Bombay, a case, such as +they had supposed, had really occurred."--(_Corresponderce relating to +Aden_, printed in May 1839, by order of the House of Commons, +No. 49, p. 38.) + +[Footnote 40: "A vessel will lie" (at Mokha) "with a whole chain on end, +topgallant masts struck, and yards braced by, without being able to +communicate with the shore; while at the same time in Aden harbour she +will lie within a few yards of the shore, in perfectly smooth water, +with the bight of her chain cable scarcely taught."--CAPTAIN HAINES'S +_Report_.] + +An Indian ship called the Derya-Dowlut, (Fortune of the Sea,) the +property of a lady of the family of the Nawab of Madras, but sailing +under British colours, was wrecked on the coast near Aden, February +20, 1837, when on her voyage from Calcutta to Jiddah, with a cargo +valued at two lacs of rupees, (L.20,000.) It would appear, from the +depositions of the survivors, that the loss of the ship was +intentional on the part of the supercargo and _nakhoda_, (or +sailing-master,) the latter of whom, however, was drowned, with +several of the crew, in attempting to get on shore in the boat. The +passengers--who had been denied help both by the officers who had +deserted them, and by the Arabs who crowded down to the beach--with +difficulty reached the land, when they were stripped, plundered, and +ill-treated by the Bedoweens, but at last escaped without any +personal injury, and made their way in miserable plight to Aden, +where they were relieved and clothed by a Sheikh, the hereditary +guardian of the tomb of Sheikh Idris, the guardian saint of the town. +The stranded ship, meanwhile, after being cleared of as much of her +cargo and stores as could be saved, was burned by direction of the +supercargo, who shortly afterwards took his departure to Jiddah, +carrying with him one-third of the rescued property, and leaving the +remainder as a waif to the Sultan of Aden. After he was gone, the +Sultan made an offer to the agent [41] of the ship to restore the +goods which had fallen to his share on a payment of ten per cent for +salvage; but this was declined, on the ground that after such a length +of time "the things on board must have been almost all lost; that he +did not require them, nor had he money to pay for them." The Sultan, +however, still refused to allow him to leave Aden till he had given +him written acquittance of all claims on account of the ship; a document +was accordingly signed, as he says, under compulsion, to the effect that +he made no claim against the Sultan, but with a full reservation of his +claim for redress from the supercargo, who had wrecked the ship and +embezzled the goods saved from her. The agent and several of the crew, +after undergoing great hardships, at last reached Mokha, and laid their +complaint before the commanders of the Company's cruisers Coote and +Palinurus. The latter vessel, under the command of Captain Haines, +immediately repaired to Aden to demand redress for the injuries thus +inflicted on English subjects, while a formal report of the case was made +to the Government at Bombay. The Sultan at first attempted to deny that +he possessed any of the goods in question, and afterwards alleged +that they had been given to him voluntarily by the supercargo; but +finding all his subterfuges unavailing, he at length gave up +merchandize and stores to the amount of nearly 8000 dollars, besides +a bond at a year's date for 4191 dollars more, in satisfaction for +the goods which had been previously sold or made away with, as well +as for the insults offered to the passengers. + +[Footnote 41: This person, Syud Nooradeen, had been captain of the +vessel at the outset of the voyage; but had been deposed from the +responsible command by an order purporting to come from the merchant +who had freighted the ship, but which is now said to have been forged +by the supercargo.] + +Here, in ordinary cases, the matter might have rested; for though +the conduct of this Arab chief would certainly have been +indefensible in a civilized country, the worst charge that can be +considered as fairly proved against him is that of being a receiver +of stolen goods, as the price of his connivance at the appropriation +of the rest by the supercargo--since with the wreck of the ship, +whether premeditated or not, he had certainly nothing to do--and the +outrages committed by the wild Bedoweens on the beach can scarcely be +laid to his charge. A far more atrocious insult to the British flag in +1826, when a brig from the Mauritius had been piratically seized at +Berbera, (a port on the African coast, just outside the Straits of +Bab-el-Mandeb,) and part of her crew murdered, had been expiated by +the submission of the offenders, and the repayment of the value of the +plunder by yearly instalments, (see WELLSTED'S _Arabia_, vol. ii. +chap. 18;)--whereas, in the present case, restitution, however reluctant, +had been prompt and complete. But so eager were the authorities in India +to possess themselves of the place on any terms, that even while the +above-mentioned negotiation was pending, a minute was drawn up +(Sept. 28) by the Governor of Bombay, and transmitted to the +Governor-general at Calcutta, in which, after stating that "the +establishment of a monthly communication by steam with the Red Sea, +and the formation of a flotilla of armed steamers, renders it +_absolutely necessary_ that we should have a station of our own on +the coast of Arabia, as we already have on the Persian Gulf" +--alluding to the seizure of the island of Karrack--and noticing +"the insult which has been offered to the British flag by the Sultan +of Aden," requests permission "to take possession of Cape Aden." [42] +The Governor-general, however, in his reply, (Oct. 16,) appears scarcely +of opinion that so strong a measure is warranted by the provocation, +and suggests "that satisfaction should, in the first instance, be +demanded of the Sultan. If it be granted, some _amicable arrangement_ +may be made with him for the occupation of this port as a depot for +coals, and harbour for shelter. If it be refused, then further measures +may be considered." [43] + +[Footnote 42: Correspondence, No. 16.] + +[Footnote 43: Ibid. No. 19.] + +But notwithstanding the qualified terms of the Governor-general's +reply, it appears to have been regarded by the Bombay government as +equivalent to a full permission [44] for the prosecution of the +object on which they had fixed their views: for by the despatch +of Captain Haines from Aden, (dated Jan. 20, 1838,) we find that no +sooner had he "completed the first duty on which he was sent," +(the recovery of the cargo of the Derya-Dowlet,) than he addressed a +letter (Jan. 11) to the Sultan, to the effect that "he was empowered +by Government to form a treaty with the Sultan for the purchase of +Aden, with the land and points surrounding it," &c. &c.--that he felt +assured that the Sultan "would, in his wisdom, readily foresee the +advantages which would accrue to his country from having such an +intimate connecting link with the British"--and enclosing a rough +draft of the terms on which it was proposed that the transfer should +be effected. The Sultan appears to have been considerably _taken +aback_ at this unexpected proposition, which, it should be observed, +was not put forward as part of the atonement required for the affair +of the Derya-Dowlut--as for this, (in the words of Captain Haines,) +"satisfaction has been given by you, and our friendship is as before." +A lengthened correspondence ensued, at the rate of a letter or two +daily, till the end of January--in which the Sultan, with all the +tortuous tact of an Asiatic, endeavoured, without expressly pledging +himself on the main point, to stipulate in the first instance for +assistance, in the shape of artillery and ammunition, against the +hostile tribes in the neighbourhood, and other advantages for +himself and his family, particularly for the retention of their +jurisdiction over the _Arab_ residents in Aden: and he at last +quitted Aden for Lahedj, without absolutely concluding any thing, +but having authorized a merchant of the former place, named +Reshid-Ebn-Abdallah, to act as his agent. + +[Footnote 44: "The Government of India did not, indeed, in express +words authorize us to negotiate with the Sultan for a cession to us +of the post and harbour: but they desired us to obtain the occupation +of the port as a coal depot, and that of the harbour as a place of +shelter. These words far exceed the mere establishment of a coal depot +under the auspices of the Sultan, and in fact, could not in any +practical sense, or to any beneficial purpose, be fulfilled, except +by our obtaining the occupation of that port and harbour as a matter +not of sufferance but of right."--_Minute by the Governor of Bombay_, +No. 49.] + +Still every thing appeared in a fair way for adjustment; the +principal difficulty remaining to be settled being the annual sum to +be paid as an equivalent for the port-dues of Aden. The Sultan's +commissioner at first rated this source of revenue at the exorbitant +sum of 50,000 dollars!--but it was at last agreed that it should be +commuted for a yearly stipend of 8708, a mode of payment preferred +by the Sultan to the receipt of a gross sum, lest the rapacity of +his neighbours should be excited against him by so sudden an +accession of wealth: while the amount thus fixed was believed even +to exceed the actual amount of the customs. The Sultan meanwhile, +though evading the formal execution of the deed of transfer, +constantly wrote from Lahedj that the English were at liberty to +begin building in Aden as soon as they pleased--adding on more than +one occasion--"if the Turks or any other people should come and take +away the whole country by strength from me, the blame will not rest +on my shoulders." + +On the 27th, however, Sultan Hamed, the eldest son and heir-apparent +of Sultan Mahassan, arrived at Aden from Lahedj, accompanied by a +_synd_ or descendant of the prophet, named Hussein, who was +represented as having come as a witness to the transaction; and +Captain Haines was invited on shore to meet them. While he was +preparing, however, to repair to the place of meeting, he received a +private intimation through the merchant already mentioned, +Reshid-Ebn-Abdallih, to the effect that the Arab chiefs had +determined on seizing his person at the interview, in order to +possess themselves of the papers connected with the proposed +transfer of Aden, (to which Sultan Hamed had from the first been +strongly opposed,) and in particular of the bond for 4191 dollars +which had been given in satisfaction for the balance of the goods in +the Derya-Dowlut. How far this imputed treachery was really meditated, +there can be, of course, no means of precisely ascertaining; and the +minute of the governor of Bombay (_Correspondence_, No. 49,) seems +to consider it doubtful; [45] but Captain Haines acted as if fully +convinced of the correctness of the intelligence which he had +received; and after reproaching Sultan Hamed with his intended +perfidy, returned first to Mokha, and afterwards (in February) to +Bombay, carrying with him the letter in which the old Sultan was +alleged to have given his consent to the cession, but leaving the +recovered goods at Aden in charge of a Banyan--a tolerably strong +proof, by the way, that the Sultan, notwithstanding the bad faith +laid to his charge, was not considered likely to appropriate them +afresh. + +[Footnote 45: "I am not, however, disposed to treat the matter as +one of much importance. We have no knowledge of it but from report, +and all concerned in it will solemnly deny the truth of the +information."] + +The unsuccessful issue of this mission pretty clearly proved, that +notwithstanding the dread of the British power entertained by the +Abdalli chiefs, their reluctance to part with their town would not +be easily overcome by peaceable means: while the Governor-general +(then busily engaged at Simla in forwarding the preparations for the +ill-fated invasion of Affghanistan) still declined, in despite of a +renewed application from Bombay to give any special sanction to +ulterior measures--"a question on which"--in the words of the +despatch--"her Majesty's Government is rather called upon to +pronounce judgment, than the supreme government of India." The +authorities at Bombay, however, were not to be thus diverted from +the attainment of their favourite object; and in a despatch of +September 7, 1838, to the Secret Committee, (_Corresp_. No. 59,) +they announce that, "on reconsideration, they have resolved to adopt +immediate measures for attempting to obtain peaceable possession of +Aden, without waiting for the previous instructions of the +Governor-general of India:" but "as the steamer Berenice will leave +Bombay on the 8th inst.," (_the next day_,) "we have not time to +enter into a detail of the reasons which have induced us to come to +the above resolution." A notification similar to the above had been +forwarded two days previously to Lord Auckland at Simla; and a +laconic reply was received (Oct. 4) from Sir William Macnaghten, +simply to the effect that "his lordship was glad to find that, at +the present crisis of our affairs, the governor (of Bombay) in +council has resolved to resort to no other than peaceful means +for the attainment of the object in view." + +In the latter part of October, accordingly, Captain Haines once more +reached Aden in the Coote, with a small party of Bombay sepoys on +board as his escort; but the aspect of affairs was by no means +favourable. The old Sultan Mahassan, worn out with age and +infirmities, had resigned the management of affairs almost entirely +to his fiery son Hamed, who, encouraged not only by his success in +baffling the former attempt, but by the smallness of the force which +had accompanied the British commissioner, [46] openly set him at +defiance, declaring that he himself, and not his father, was now the +Sultan of the Bedoweens: that his father was but an imbecile old man; +and that any promise which might have been extorted from him could +not be regarded as of any avail: and, in short, that the place +should not be given up upon any terms. In pursuance of this +denunciation, all supplies, even of wood and water, were refused to +the ship; the Banyan in charge of the Derya-Dowlut's cargo was +prohibited from giving up the goods to the English; and though the +interchange of letters was kept up as briskly as before, the +resolution of Sultan Hamed was not to be shaken by this torrent of +diplomacy: and he constantly adhered to his first expressed +position--"I wish much to be friends, and that amity was between us, +but you must not speak or write about the land of Aden again." The +English agent, however, persisted in speaking of the transfer as +already legally concluded, and out of the power of Hamed to +repudiate or annul: while, in order to give greater stringency to +his remonstrances, he gave orders for the detention of the +date-boats and other vessels which arrived off Aden, hoping to +starve the Sultan into submission, by thus at once stopping his +provisions, and cutting off his receipt of port dues. The blockade +does not seem to have been very effectual: and an overture from the +Futhali chief to aid with his tribe in an attack on the Abdallis, was +of course declined by Captain Haines. + +[Footnote 46: "Their first exclamation was, 'Are the English so poor +that they can only afford to send one vessel? and is she only come to +talk? Why did they not send her before? Had they sent their men and +vessels, we would have given up; but until they do, they shall never +have the place.'"--CAPTAIN HAINES'S _Despatch_, Nov. 6, (No. 61.)] + +The apparently interminable cross fire of protocols [47] (in which both +Captain Haines and his employers appear to have luxuriated to a degree +which would have gladdened the heart of Lord Palmerston himself) was now, +however, on the point of being brought to a close. On the 20th of +November, one of the Coote's boats, while engaged in overhauling an +Arab vessel near the shore, was fired at by the Bedoweens on the beach, +and hostilities were carried on during several days, but with little +damage on either side. In most cases, it would have been considered +that blockading a port, and intercepting its supplies of provisions +constituted a sufficiently legitimate ground of warfare to justify +these reprisals: but Captain Haines, it appears, thought otherwise, +as he stigmatizes it as "a shameful and cowardly attack," and +becomes urgent with the Bombay government for a reinforcement which +might enable him to assume offensive operations with effect. Her +Majesty's ships Volage, 28, and Cruiser, 16 gun-brig, which had been +employed in some operations about the mouth of the Indus, were +accordingly ordered on this service, and sailed from Bombay December +29, accompanied by two transports conveying about 800 troops--Europeans, +sepoys, and artillerymen--under the command-in-chief of Major Baillie, +24th Bombay native infantry. The Abdalli chiefs, on the other hand, +made an effort to induce the Sultan of the Futhalis, (with whom they +held a conference during the first days of 1839, at the tomb of +Sheikh Othman near Aden, on the occasion of the payment of the annual +tribute above referred to,) to make common cause with them against +the intruders who were endeavouring to establish themselves in the +country; but the negotiation wholly failed, and the two parties +separated on not very amicable terms. + +[Footnote 47: It is worthy of remark, that in a note of December 1st, +(_Corresp_. No. 81,) from the Governor of Bombay to the Sultan, +the ill treatment of the passengers of the Derya-Dowlut is again +advanced as the ground of offence, as an atonement for which the +cession of Aden is indispensable; though for this, ample satisfaction +had been admitted long since to have been given.] + +It appears that the determination of the Abdallis to hold out had +been materially strengthened by the intelligence which they received +from India, (where many Arabs from this part of Yemen and the +neighbouring country of Hadramout are serving as mercenaries to the +native princes,) of the manifold distractions which beset the +Anglo-Indian government, and the armaments in course of equipment for +Affghanistan, Scinde, the Persian Gulf, &c., and which confirmed +them in the belief that no more troops could be spared from Bombay +for an attack on Aden. The stoppage of provisions by sea, however, +and the threatened hostilities of the Futhalis, caused severe +distress among the inhabitants of the town; and dissensions arose +among the chiefs themselves, as to the proportions in which (in the +event of an amicable settlement) the annual payment of 8700 dollars +should be divided among them--it being determined that Sultan +Mahassan should not have it all. An attempt was now made by the +_synds_ to effect a reconciliation; but though abundance of notes +were once more interchanged, [48] and the old Sultan came down +from Lahedj to offer his mediation, all demands for the main +object, the cession of the place, were rejected or evaded. The +negotiation consequently came to nothing, and hostilities were +resumed with more energy than before, the artillery of Aden being +directed (as was reported) by an European Turk; till, on the 16th of +January, the flotilla from Bombay, under the command of Captain Smith, +R.N., anchored in Western Bay. + +[Footnote 48: In this correspondence, the phrase of--"If you will +land and enter the town, I will be upon your head," is more than once +addressed by Sultan Hamed to Captain Haines and seems to have been +understood as a menace; but we have been informed that it rather +implies, "I will be answerable for your safety--your head shall be +in my charge."] + +A peremptory requisition was now sent on shore for the immediate +surrender of the town; but the answer of the Sultan was still evasive, +and, as the troops had only a few days' water on board, an immediate +landing was decided upon. On the morning of the 19th, accordingly, +the Coote, Cruiser, Volage, and the Company's armed schooner Mahi, +weighed and stood in shore, opening a heavy fire on the island of +Seerah and the batteries on the mainland, to cover the disembarkation. +The Arabs at first stood to their guns with great determination, but +their artillery was, of course, speedily silenced or dismounted by +the superior weight and rapidity of the English fire; and though the +troops were galled while in the boats by matchlocks from the shore, +both the town and the island of Seerah were carried by storm without +much difficulty. The loss of the assailants was no more than fifteen +killed and wounded--that of the Arabs more than ten times that number, +including a nephew of the Sultan and a chief of the Houshibee tribe, +who fought gallantly, and received a mortal wound; considerable +bloodshed was also occasioned by the desperate resistance made by the +prisoners taken on Seerah in the attempt to disarm them, during which +the greater part of them cut their way through their captors and got +clear off. Most of the inhabitants fled into the interior during the +assault, but speedily returned on hearing of the discipline and good +order preserved by the conquerors; and the old Sultan, on being +informed of the capture of the place, sent an apologetic letter +(Jan. 21) to Captain Haines, in which he threw all the blame on his +son Hamed, and expressed an earnest wish for a reconciliation. +Little difficulty was now experienced in conducting the negotiations, +and during the first days of February articles of pacification were +signed both with the Abdallis and the other tribes in the +neighbourhood. To secure the good-will of the Futhali chief, the +annual payment which he had received from Aden of 360 dollars, was +still guaranteed to him, as were the 8700 dollars per annum to the +Sultan of Lahedj, whose bond for 4191 dollars was further remitted +as a token of good-will. + +Such were the circumstances under which Aden became part of the +colonial empire of Great Britain--and the details of which we have +taken, almost entirely, from the official accounts published by +order of Government. In whatever point of view we consider the +transaction, we think it can scarcely be denied that it reflects +little credit on the national character for even-handed justice and +fair dealing. Even if the tact and _savoir faire_, which Captain +Haines must be admitted to have displayed in an eminent degree in +the execution of his instructions, had succeeded in intimidating the +Arabs into surrendering the place without resistance, such a +proceeding would have amounted to nothing more or less than the +appropriation of the territory of a tribe not strong enough to defend +themselves, simply because it was situated conveniently for the +purposes of our own navigation: and the open force by which the +scheme was ultimately carried into effect, imparts to this act of +usurpation a character of violence still more to be regretted. The +originally-alleged provocation, the affair of the Derya-Dowlut, is +not for a moment tenable as warranting such extreme measures:--since +not only was the participation of the parties on whom the whole +responsibility was thrown, at all events extremely venial; but +satisfaction had been given, and had been admitted to have been given, +before the subject of the cession of the place was broached:--and +the Sultan constantly denied that his alleged consent to the transfer, +on which the subsequent hostilities were grounded, had ever been +intended to be so construed. It is evident, moreover, that the Arabs +would gladly have yielded to any amicable arrangement short of the +absolute cession of the town, which they regarded as disgraceful: +--the erection of a factory, which might have been fortified so as +to give us the virtual command of the place and the harbour, would +probably have met with no opposition:--and even if Aden had fallen, +as it seemed on the point of doing, into the hands of the Pasha of +Egypt, there can be little doubt that the Viceroy would have shown +himself equally ready to facilitate our intercourse with India, in +his Arabian as in his Egyptian harbours. At all events, it is +evident that the desired object of obtaining a station and coal +depot for the Indian steamers, might easily have been secured in +various ways, without running even the risk of bringing on the +British name the imputation of unnecessary violence and oppression. + +Aden, however, was now, whether for right or wrong, under the British +flag; but the hostile dispositions of the Arabs, notwithstanding the +treaties entered into, were still far from subdued; and the cupidity +of these semi-barbarous tribes was still further excited by the +lavish expenditure of the new garrison, and by the exaggerated +reports of vast treasures said to be brought from India for the +repairs of the works. Among the advantages anticipated by Captain +Haines in his official report from the possession of the town, +especial stress is laid on its vicinity to the coffee and gum +districts, and the certainty, that when it was under the settled +rule of British law, the traffic in these rich products, as well as +in the gold-dust, ivory, and frankincense of the African coast, +would once more centre in its long-neglected harbour. But it was +speedily found that the insecurity of communication with the +interior opposed a serious obstacle to the realization of these +prospects--the European residents and the troops were confined +within the Turkish wall--and though the extreme heat of the climate +(which during summer averaged 90 of Fahrenheit in the shade within +a stone house) did not prove so injurious as had been expected to +European constitutions, it was found, singularly enough, to exercise +a most pernicious influence on the sepoys, who sickened and died in +alarming numbers. Aden at this period is compared, in a letter +quoted in the _Asiatic Journal_, to "the crater of Etna enlarged, +and covered with gravestones and the remains of stone huts;" +provisions were scarce, and vegetables scarcely procurable. By +degrees, however, some symptoms of reviving trade appeared and by the +end of 1839 the population had increased to 1500 souls. + +The smouldering rancour with which the Arabs had all along regarded +the Frank intruders upon their soil, had by this time broken out +into open hostility; and, after some minor acts of violence, an +attack was made on the night of November 9th on the Turkish wall +across the isthmus, (which had been additionally strengthened by +redoubts and some guns,) by a body of 4000 men, collected from the +Abdallis, the Futhalis, and the other tribes in the neighbourhood. +The assailants were of course repulsed, but not without a severe +conflict, in which the Arabs engaged the defenders hand to hand +with the most determined valour--so highly had their hopes of +plunder been stimulated by the rumours of English wealth. This +daring attempt (which the Pasha of Egypt was by some suspected +to have had some share in instigating) at once placed the occupants +of Aden in a state of open warfare with all their Arab neighbours; +and the subsidies hitherto paid to the Futhali chief and the old +Sultan of Lahedj were consequently stopped--while L.100,000 were +voted by the Bombay government for repairing the fortifications, +and engineers were sent from India to put the place in an efficient +state of defence. These regular ramparts, however, even when +completed, can never be relied on as a security against the guerilla +attacks of these daring marauders, who can wade through the sea at +low water round the flanks of the Turkish wall, and scramble over +precipices to get in the rear of the outposts--and accordingly, +during 1840, the garrison had to withstand two more desperate +attempts (May 20, and July 4,) to surprise the place, both of which +were beaten off after some hard fighting, though in one instance the +attacking party succeeded in carrying off a considerable amount of +plunder from the encampment near the Turkish wall. Since that period, +it has been found necessary gradually to raise the strength of the +garrison from 800 to 4000 men, one-fourth of whom are always European +soldiers--and though no attack in force has lately been made by the +Arabs, the necessity of being constantly on the alert against their +covert approaches, renders the duties of the garrison harassing to +the last degree. Though a considerable trade now exists with the +African coast, scarcely any commercial intercourse has yet been +established with the interior of Arabia, (notwithstanding the +friendly dispositions evinced by the Iman of Sana,) the road being +barred by the hostile tribes--and a further impediment to +improvement is found in the dissensions of the civil and military +authorities of the place itself, who, pent up in a narrow space +under a broiling sun, seem to employ their energies in endless +squabbles with each other. Whatever may be the ultimate fate of this +colony, it must be allowed, to quote the candid admission of a +writer in the _United Service Journal_, that "at present we are not +occupying a very proud position in Arabia"--though considering the +means by which we obtained our footing in that peninsula, our +position is perhaps as good as we deserve. + + * * * * * + + + + +SONNET + + BY THE AUTHOR OP THE LIFE OF BURKE, OF GOLDSMITH, &C., + + ON VIEWING MY MOTHER'S PICTURE. + + How warms the heart when dwelling on that face, + Those lips that mine a thousand times have prest, + The swelling source that nurture gav'st her race, + Where found my infant head its downiest rest! + How in those features aim to trace my own, + Cast in a softer mould my being see; + Recall the voice that sooth'd my helpless moan, + The thoughts that sprang for scarcely aught save me; + That shaped and formed me; gave me to the day, + Bade in her breast absorbing love arise; + O'er me a ceaseless tender care display, + For weak all else to thee maternal ties! + This debt of love but One may claim; no other + Such self-devotion boasts, save thee, my Mother! + + * * * * * + + + + +CALEB STUKELY. + + PART XIII. + + THE FUGITIVE. + +The tongue has nothing to say when the soul hath spoken all! What +need of words in the passionate and early intercourse of love! There +is no oral language that can satisfy or meet the requisitions of the +stricken heart. Speech, the worldling and the false--oftener the +dark veil than the bright mirror of man's thoughts--is banished from +the spot consecrated to purity, unselfishness, and truth. The lovely +and beloved Ellen learnt, before a syllable escaped my lips, the +secret which those lips would never have disclosed. Her innocent and +conscious cheek acknowledged instantly her quick perception, and +with maiden modesty she turned aside--not angrily, but timorous as a +bird, upon whose leafy covert the heavy fowler's foot has trod too +harshly and too suddenly. I thought of nothing then but the pain I +had inflicted, and was sensible of no feeling but that of shame and +sorrow for my fault. We walked on in silence. Our road brought us to +the point in the village at which I had met Miss Fairman and her +father, when, for the first time, we became companions in our +evening walk. We retraced the path which then we took, and the +hallowed spot grew lovelier as we followed it. I could not choose +but tell how deeply and indelibly the scene of beauty had become +imprinted on my heart. + +"To you, Miss Fairman," I began, "and to others who were born and +nurtured in this valley, this is a common sight. To me it is a land +of enchantment, and the impression that it brings must affect my +future being. I am sure, whatever may be my lot, that I shall be a +happier man for what I now behold." + +"It is well," said my companion, "that you did not make the +acquaintance of our hills during the bleak winter, when their charms +were hidden in the snow, and they had nothing better to offer their +worshipper than rain and sleet and nipping winds. They would have +lost your praise then." + +"Do you think so? Imprisoned as I have been, and kept a stranger to +the noblest works of Providence, my enjoyment is excessive, and I +dare scarcely trust myself to feel it as I would. I could gaze on +yonder sweet hillock, with its wild-flowers and its own blue patch +of sky, until I wept." + +"Yes, this is a lovely scene in truth!" exclaimed Miss Fairman +pensively. + +"Do you remember, Miss Fairman, our first spring walk? For an hour +we went on, and that little green clump, as it appears from here, +was not for a moment out of my sight. My eyes were riveted upon it, +and I watched the clouds shifting across it, changing its hue, now +darkening, now lighting it up, until it became fixed in my +remembrance, never to depart from it. We have many fair visions +around us, but that is to me the fairest. It is connected with our +evening walk. Neither can be forgotten whilst I live." + +It was well that we reached the parsonage gate before another word +was spoken. In spite of the firmest of resolutions, the smallest +self-indulgence brought me to the very verge of transgression. + +In the evening I sat alone, and began a letter to the minister. I +wrote a few lines expressive of my gratitude and deep sense of +obligation. They did not read well, and I destroyed them. I +recommenced. I reproached myself for presumption and temerity, and +confessed that I had taken advantage of his confidence by attempting +to gain the affections of his only child. I regretted the fault, and +desired to be dismissed. The terms which I employed, on reperusal, +looked too harsh, and did not certainly do justice to the motives by +which throughout I had been actuated; for, however violent had been +my passion, _principle_ had still protected and restrained me. I had +not coldly and _deliberately_ betrayed myself. The second writing, +not more satisfactory than the first, was, in its turn, expunged. I +attempted a third epistle, and failed. Then I put down the pen and +considered. I pondered until I concluded that I had ever been too +hasty and too violent. Miss Fairman would certainly take no notice +of what had happened, and if I were guarded--silent--and determined +for the future, all would still be well. It was madness to indulge a +passion which could only lead to my expulsion from the parsonage, and +end in misery. Had I found it so easy to obtain a home and quiet, +that both were to be so recklessly and shamefully abandoned? Surely +it was time to dwell soberly and seriously upon the affairs of life. +I had numbered years and undergone trial sufficient to be acquainted +with true policy and the line of duty. Both bade me instantly reject +the new solicitation, and pursue, with singleness of purpose, the +occupation which fortune had mercifully vouchsafed to me. All this +was specious and most just, and sounded well to the understanding +that was not less able to look temperately and calmly upon the +argument in consequence of the previous overflow of feeling. Reason +is never so plausible and prevailing as when it takes the place of +gratified passion. Never are we so firmly resolved upon good, as in +the moment that follows instantly the doing of evil. Never is +conscience louder in her complaints than when she rises from a +temporary overthrow. I had discovered every thing to Miss Fairman. I +had fatally committed myself. There was no doubt of this; and +nothing was left for present consolation but sapient resolutions for +the future. Virtuous and fixed they looked in my silent chamber and +in the silent hour of night. Morning had yet to dawn, and they had +yet to contend with the thousand incitements which our desires are +ever setting up to battle with our better judgment. I did not write +to Mr. Fairman, but I rose from my seat much comforted, and softened +my midnight pillow with the best intentions. + +Fancy might have suggested to me, on the following morning, that the +eyes of Miss Fairnan had been visited but little by sleep, and that +her face was far more pallid than usual, if her parent had not +remarked, with much anxiety, when she took her place amongst us, +that she was looking most weary and unwell. Like the sudden +emanation that crimsons all the east, the beautiful and earliest +blush of morning, came the driven blood into the maiden's cheek, +telling of discovery and shame. Nothing she said in answer, but +diligently pursued her occupation. I could perceive that the fair +hand trembled, and that the gentle bosom was disquieted. _I_ could +tell why downwards bent the head, and with what new emotions the +artless spirit had become acquainted. Instantly I saw the mischief +which my rashness had occasioned, and felt how deeply had fallen the +first accents of love into the poor heart of the secluded one. What +had I done by the short, indistinct, most inconsiderate avowal, and +how was it possible now to avert its consequences? Every tender and +uneasy glance that Mr. Fairman cast upon his cherished daughter, +passed like a sting to me, and roused the bitterest self-reproach. I +could have calmed his groundless fears, had I been bold enough to +risk his righteous indignation. The frankness and cordiality which +had ever marked my intercourse with Miss Fairman, were from this +hour suspended. Could it be otherwise with one so innocent, so +truthful, and so meek! Anger she had none, but apprehension and +conceptions strange, such as disturb the awakened soul of woman, ere +the storm of passion comes to overcharge it. + +I slunk from the apartment and the first meal of the day, like a man +guilty of a heinous fault. I pleaded illness, and did not rejoin my +friends. I knew not what to do, and I passed a day in long and +feverish doubt. Evening arrived. My pupils were dismissed, and once +more I sat in my own silent room lost in anxious meditation. Suddenly +an unusual knock at the door roused me, and brought me to my feet. I +requested the visitor to enter, and Mr. Fairman himself walked slowly +in. He was pale and care-worn and he looked, as I imagined, sternly +upon me. "All is known!" was my first thought, and my throat swelled +with agitation. I presented a chair to the incumbent; and when he +sat down and turned his wan face upon me, I felt that my own cheek +was no less blanched than his. I awaited his rebuke in breathless +suspense. + +"You are indeed ill, Stukely," commenced Mr. Fairman, gazing +earnestly. "I was not aware of this, or I would have seen you before. +You have overworked yourself with the boys. You shall be relieved +to-morrow. I will take charge of them myself. You should not have +persevered when you found your strength unequal to the task. A +little repose will, I trust, restore you." + +With every animating syllable, the affrighted blood returned again, +and I gained confidence. His tones assured me that he was still in +ignorance. A load was taken from me. + +"I shall be better in the morning, sir," I answered. "Do not think +seriously of the slightest indisposition. I am better now." + +"I am rejoiced to hear it," answered the incumbent. "I am full of +alarm and wretchedness to-day. Did you observe my daughter this +morning, Stukely?" + +"Yes, sir," I faltered. + +"You did at breakfast, but you have not seen her since. I wish you +had. I am sick at heart." + +"Is she unwell, sir?" + +"Do you know what consumption is? Have you ever watched its fearful +progress?" + +"Never." + +"I thought you might have done so. It is a fearful disease, and +leaves hardly a family untouched. Did she not look ill?--you can +tell me that, at least." + +"Not quite so well, perhaps, as I have seen her, sir; but I should +hope"-- + +"Eh--what, not very ill, then? Well, that is strange, for I was +frightened by her. What can it be? I wish that Mayhew had called in. +Every ailment fills me with terror. I always think of her dear mother. +Three months before her death, she sat with me, as we do here +together, well and strong, and thanking Providence for health and +strength. She withered, as it might be from that hour, and, as I +tell you, three short months of havoc brought her to the grave." + +"Was she young, sir?" + +"A few years older than my child--but that is nothing. Did you say +you did not think her looks this morning indicated any symptoms? +Oh--no! I recollect. You never saw the malady at work. Well, +certainly she does not cough as her poor mother did. Did it look +like languor, think you?" + +"The loss of rest might"-- + +"Yes, it might, and perhaps it is nothing worse. I know Mayhew +thinks lightly of these temporary shadows; but I do not believe he +has ever seen her so thoroughly feeble and depressed as she appears +to-day. She is very pale, but I was glad to find her face free from +all flush whatever. That is comforting. Let us hope the best. How do +the boys advance? What opinion have you formed of the lad Charlton?" + +"He is a dull, good-hearted boy, sir. Willing to learn, with little +ability to help him on. Most difficult of treatment. His tears lie +near the surface. At times it seems that the simplest terms are +beyond his understanding, and then the gentlest reproof opens the +flood-gate, and submerges his faculties for the day." + +"Be tender and cautious, Stukely, with that child. He is a sapling +that will not bear the rough wind. Let him learn what he will--rest +assured, it is all he can. His eagerness to learn will never fall +short of your's to teach. He must be kindly encouraged, not frowned +upon in his reverses; for who fights so hard against them, or +deplores them more deeply than himself? Poor, weak child, he is his +own chastiser." + +"I will take care, sir." + +"Have you seen this coming on, Stukely?" + +"With Charlton, sir?" + +"No. Miss Fairman's indisposition. For many weeks she has certainly +improved in health. I have remarked it, and I was taken by surprise +this morning. I should be easier had Mayhew seen her." + +"Let me fetch him in the morning, sir. His presence will relieve you. +I will start early--and bring him with me." + +"Well, if you are better, but certainly not otherwise. I confess I +should be pleased to talk with him. But do not rise too early. Get +your breakfast first. I will take the boys until you come back." + +This had been the object of the anxious father's visit. As soon as I +had undertaken to meet his wish, he became more tranquil. My mission +was to be kept a secret. The reason why a servant had not been +employed, was the fear of causing alarm in the beloved patient. +Before Mr. Fairman left me, I was more than half persuaded that I +myself had mistaken the cause of his daughter's suffering; so +agreeable is it, even against conviction, to discharge ourselves of +blame. + +The residence of Dr. Mayhew was about four miles distant from our +village. It was a fine brick house, as old as the oaks which stood +before it, conferring upon a few acres of grass land the right to be +regarded as a park. The interior of the house was as substantial as +the outside; both were as solid as the good doctor himself. He was a +man of independent property, a member of the University of Oxford, +and a great stickler for old observances. He received a fee from +every man who was able to pay him for his services; and the poor +might always receive at his door, at the cost of application only, +medical advice and physic, and a few commodities much more +acceptable than either. He kept a good establishment, in the most +interesting portion of which dwelt three decaying creatures, the +youngest fourscore years of age and more. They were an entail from +his grandfather, and had faithfully served that ancestor for many +years as coachman, housekeeper, and butler. The father of Dr. Mayhew +had availed himself of their integrity and experience until Time +robbed them of the latter, and rendered the former a useless ornament; +and dying, he bequeathed them, with the house and lands, to their +present friend and patron. There they sat in their own hall, royal +servants every one, hanging to life by one small thread, which when +it breaks for one must break for all. They had little interest in +the present world, to which the daily visit of the doctor, and that +alone, connected them. He never failed to pay it. Unconscious of all +else, they never failed to look for it. + +The village clock struck eleven as I walked up the avenue that +conducted to the house. The day was intensely hot, and at that early +hour the fierce fire of the sun had rendered the atmosphere sweltry +and oppressive. I knocked many times before I could obtain admittance, +and, at last, the door was opened by a ragged urchin about twelve +years of age, looking more like the son of a thief or a gypsy than a +juvenile member of the decent household. + +"Is Dr. Mayhew at home?" I asked. + +"Oh, I don't know!" he answered surlily; "you had better come and see;" +and therewith he turned upon his heel, and tramped heavily down the +kitchen stairs. For a few seconds I remained where I was. At length, +hearing no voices in the house, and finding that no one was likely +to come to me, I followed him. At the bottom of the stairs was a +long passage leading to the offices. It was very dark, or it was +rendered so to me who had just left the glare of noonday. At the end +of it, however, a small lamp glimmered, and under its feeble help I +advanced. Arriving at its extremity, I was stopped by the hum of many +voices that proceeded from a chamber on the right. Here I knocked +immediately. The voice of Dr. Mayhew desired me to enter. The door +was opened the moment afterwards, and then I beheld the doctor +himself and every servant of the house assembled in a crowd. The +little boy who had given me admission was in the group; and in the +very centre of all, sitting upright in a chair, was the strangest +apparition of a man that I have ever gazed upon, before or since. The +object that attracted, and at the same time repelled, my notice, was +a creature whose age no living man could possibly determine. He was +at least six feet high, with raven hair, and a complexion sallow as +the sear leaf. Look at his figure, then mark the absence of a single +wrinkle, and you judge him for a youth. Observe again: look at the +emaciated face; note the jet-black eye, deeply-sunken, and void of +all fire and life; the crushed, the vacant, and forlorn expression; +the aquiline nose, prominent as an eagle's, from which the parchment +skin is drawn as rigidly as though it were a dead man's skin, +bloodless and inert. The wear and tear, the buffeting and misery of +seventy years are there. Seventy!--yea, twice seventy years of mortal +agony and suffering could hardly leave a deeper impress. He is +strangely clad. He is in rags. The remnants of fine clothes are +dropping from his shrunken body. His hand is white and small. Upon +the largest finger he wears a ring--once, no doubt, before his hand +had shrivelled up--the property and ornament of the smallest. It is +a sparkling diamond, and it glistens as his own black eye should, if +it be true that he is old only in mental misery and pain. There is +no sign of thought or feeling in his look. His eye falls on no one, +but seems to pass beyond the lookers-on, and to rest on space. The +company are far more agitated. A few minutes before my arrival the +strange object had been found, with the boy whom I had first seen, +wandering in the garden. He was apprehended for a thief, brought +into the house, and not until Dr. Mayhew had been summoned, had it +been suspected that the poor creature was an idiot. Commiseration +then took the place of anger quickly, and all was anxiety and desire +to know whence he had come, who he might be, and what his business +was. He could not speak for himself, and the answers of the boy had +been unsatisfactory and vague. When I entered the room, the doctor +gave me a slight recognition, and proceeded at once to a further +examination of the stripling. + +"Where did you pick him up, Sir?" enquired the Doctor. + +"Mother sent me out a-begging with him," answered the gypsy boy. + +"Who is your mother?" + +"Mabel." + +"Mabel what?" + +"Mabel nothing." + +"Where does she live, then?" + +"She doesn't live nowhere. She's a tramper." + +"Where is she now?" + +"How can I tell? We shall pick up somewhere. Let me go, and take +Silly Billy with me. I shall get such a licking if I don't." + +"Is his name Billy?" + +"No, Silly Billy, all then chaps as is fools are called Silly Billy. +You know that, don't you? Oh, I say, do let's go now, there's good +fellows!" + +"Wait a moment, boy--not so fast. How long have you been acquainted +with this unfortunate?" + +"What, Silly Billy? Oh, we ain't very old friends! I only see'd him +yesterday. He came up quite unawares to our camp whilst we were +grubbing. He seemed very hungry, so mother gave him summut, and made +him up a bed--and she means to have him. So she sent me out this +morning a-begging with him, and told me she'd break every gallows +bone I'd got, if I did not bring him back safe. I say, now I have +told all, let us go--there's a good gentleman! I'm quite glad he is +going to live with us. It's so lucky to have a Silly Billy." + +"How is it, you young rascal, you didn't tell me all this before? +What do you mean by it? + +"Why, it isn't no business of your'n. Let us go, will you?" + +"Strange," said Doctor Mayhew, turning to his butler--"Strange, that +they should leave that ring upon his finger--valuable as it looks." + +"Oh, you try it on, that's all! Catch mother leaving that there, if +she could get it off. She tried hard enough, I can tell you and I +thought he'd just have bitten her hand off. Wasn't he savage neither, +oh cry! She won't try at it again in a hurry. She says it serves her +right, for no luck comes of robbing a Silly Billy." + +The servants, who betrayed a few minutes before great anxiety and +apprehension, were perfectly overcome by this humorous sally, and +burst, with on accord, into the loudest laughter. The generally +jocose doctor, however, looked particularly serious, and kept his +eye upon the poor idiot with an expression of deep pity. "Will he +not speak?" he asked, still marking his unhappy countenance bereft of +every sign of sensibility. + +"He won't say not nuffin," said the boy, in a tone which he hoped +would settle the business; "You have no right to keep us. Let us go." + +"Leave me with these persons," said the Doctor, turning to the +servants. "We will see if the tongue of this wretched be really tied. +Go, all of you." + +In an instant the room was left to Doctor Mayhew and myself--the +idiot and his keeper. + +"What is your name, my man?" enquired the physician in a soothing +tone. "Do not be frightened. Nobody will hurt you here. We are all +your very good friends. Tell me now, what is your name?" + +The questioner took the poor fellow at the same time by the hand, and +pressed it kindly. The latter then looked round the room with a +vacant stare, and sighed profoundly. + +"Tell me your name," continued the Doctor, encouraged by the movement. +The lips of the afflicted man unclosed. His brick-red tongue +attempted to moisten them. Fixing his expressionless eyes upon the +doctor, he answered, in a hollow voice, "_Belton_." + +"Well, I never!" exclaimed the boy. "Them Silly Billies is the +deceitfulest chaps as is. He made out to mother that he couldn't +speak a word." + +"Take care what you are about, boy," said Doctor Mayhew sternly. +"I tell you that I suspect you." Turning to the idiot, he proceeded. +"And where do you come from?" + +The lips opened again, and the same hollow voice again answered, +"_Belton_." + +"Yes, I understand--that is your name--but whither do you wish to go?" + +"_Belton_," said the man. + +"Strange!" ejaculated the Doctor. "How old are you?" + +"_Belton_," repeated the simple creature, more earnestly than ever. + +"I am puzzled," exclaimed Mr. Mayhew, releasing the hand of the idiot, +and standing for a few seconds in suspense. "However," he continued, +"upon one thing I am resolved. The man shall be left here, and in my +care. I will be responsible for his safety until something is done +for him. We shall certainly get intelligence. He has escaped from an +asylum--I have not the slightest doubt of it--and we shall be able, +after a few days, to restore him. As for you, sir," he added, +addressing the young gypsy, "make the best of your way to your mother, +and be thankful that you have come so well off--fly." + +The boy began to remonstrate, upon which the doctor began to talk of +the cage and the horsepond. The former then evinced his good sense +by listening to reason, and by selecting, as many a wiser man has +done before him--the smaller of two necessary evils. He departed, +not expressing himself in the most elegant terms that might have +been applied to a leave-taking. + +The benevolent physician soon made arrangements for the comfort of +his charge. He was immediately placed in a bath, supplied with food, +and dressed in decent clothing. He submitted at once to his treatment, +and permitted his attendant to do what he would with him, taking, +all the while, especial care to feel the diamond ring safe and +secure under the palm of his own hand. A room was given to him and +Robin, the gardener's son, who was forthwith installed his guardian, +with strict directions not to leave the patient for an instant by +himself. When Dr. Mayhew had seen every thing that could be done +properly executed, he turned cheerfully to me, and bade me follow +him to his library. + +"His clothes have been good," muttered the doctor to himself, as he +sat down. "Diamond ring! He is a gentleman, or has been one. Curious +business! Well, we shall have him advertised all round the country +in a day or two. Meanwhile here he is, and will be safe. That +trouble is over. Now, Stukely, what brings you so early? Any thing +wrong at home? Fairman in the dumps again; fidgety and restless, eh?" + +I told my errand. + +"Ah, I thought so! There's nothing the matter there, sir. She is +well enough now, and will continue so, if her father doesn't +frighten her into sickness, which he may do. I tell you what, I must +get little puss a husband, and take her from him. That will save her. +I have my eye upon a handsome fellow--Hollo, sir, what's the matter +with you! Just look at your face in that glass. It is as red as fire." + +"The weather, sir, is"-- + +"Oh, is it? You mean to say, then, that you are acquainted with the +influences of the weather. That is just the thing, for you can help +me to a few facts for the little treatise on climate which I have +got now in hand. Well, go on, my friend. You were saying that the +weather is--is what?" + +"It is very hot, sir," I answered, dreadfully annoyed. + +"Well, so it is; that's very true but not original. I have heard the +same remark at least six times this morning. I say, Master Stukely, +you haven't been casting sheep's-eyes in that sweet quarter, have you? +Haven't, perhaps, been giving the young lady instruction as well as +the boys--eh?" + +"I do not understand, sir," I struggled to say with coolness. + +"Oh, very well!" answered Dr. Mayhew dryly. "That's very unfortunate +too, for," continued he, taking out his watch, "I haven't time to +explain myself just now. I have an appointment four miles away in +half an hour's time. I am late as it is. Williams will get you some +lunch. Tell Fairman I shall see him before night. Make yourself +perfectly at home, and don't hurry. But excuse me; this affair has +made me quite behindhand." + +The Doctor took a few papers and a book from the table, and before I +had time to reply, vanished, much to my relief and satisfaction. My +journey homeward was not a happy one. I felt alarm and agitation, +and the beautiful scenery failed to remove or temper them. My +heart's dear secret had been once more discovered. Rumour could not +omit to convey it speedily to the minister himself. In two +directions the flame had now power to advance and spread; and if the +old villager remained faithful, what reason had I to hope that +Dr. Mayhew would not immediately expose me--yes, must not regard it +as his business and duty so to do? Yet one thing was certain. The +secret, such as it had become, might, for all practical purposes, be +known to the whole world, for unquestionably the shallowest observer +was at present able to detect it. The old woman in the village, aged +and ignorant as she was, had been skilful enough to discover it when +I spoke. The doctor had gathered it from my looks even before I +uttered a syllable. What was to hinder the incumbent from reading +the tale on my forehead the moment that I again stood in his presence? + +Reaching the parsonage, I proceeded at once to the drawing-room, +where I expected to see the minister. No one was in the room, but a +chair was drawn to the table, and the implements of drawing were +before it. Could I not guess who had been the recent tenant of that +happy chair--who had been busy there? Forgetful of every thing but +her, I stood for a time in silent adoration of the absent one; then +I ventured to approach and gaze upon her handiwork. I shook with joy, +with ravishment, and ecstasy, when I beheld it. What was not made +known to me in that one hasty look! What golden dreams did not engage, +what blissful triumph did not elevate, what passionate delight did +not overflow my aching heart! Oh, it was true--and the blessed +intelligence came to me with a power and a reality that no language +could contain--SHE LOVED ME! she, the beloved, the good, the innocent, +and pure! Before me was the scene--the dearest to me in +life--through which we had so recently walked together, and upon +which she knew I doated, for the sake of her whose presence had +given it light and hallowed it. Why had she brought it on the paper? +Why this particular scene, and that fair hillock, but for the sake +of him who worshipped them--but that the mysterious and communicable +fire had touched her soul, and melted it? I trembled with my +happiness. There was a spot upon the paper--a tear--one sacred drop +from the immaculate fount. Why had it been shed? In joy or pain--for +whom--and wherefore? The paper was still moist--the tear still warm. +Happiest and most unfortunate of my race, I pressed it to my lips, +and kissed it passionately. + +Miss Fairman entered at that moment. + +She looked pale and ill. This was not a season for consideration. +Before I could speak, I saw her tottering, and about to fall. I +rushed to her and held her in my arms. She strove for recovery, and +set herself at liberty; but she wept aloud as she did so, and +covered her face with her hands. I fell upon my knees, and implored +her to forgive me. + +"I have been rash and cruel, Miss Fairman, but extend to me your +pardon, and I will go for ever, and disturb your peace no more. Do +not despise me, or believe that I have deliberately interfered with +your happiness, and destroyed my own for ever. Do not hate me when I +shall see you no more." + +"Leave me, Mr. Stukely, I entreat," sobbed Miss Fairman, weeping amain. +Her hand fell. I was inflamed with passion, and I became indifferent +to the claims of duty, which were drowned in the louder clamours of +love. I seized that hand and held it firm. It needed not, for the +lady sought not to withdraw it. + +"I am not indifferent to you, dearest Miss Fairman," I exclaimed; +"you do not hate me--you do not despise me--I am sure you do not. +That drawing has revealed to me all that I wish or care to know. I +would rather die this moment possessed of that knowledge, than live +a monarch without it." + +"Leave me, leave me, I implore you," faltered Miss Fairman. + +"Yes, dearest lady, I must--I shall leave you. I can stay no longer +here. Life is valueless now. I have permitted a raging fire to +consume me. I have indulged, madly and fearfully indulged, in error. +I have struggled against the temptation. Heaven has willed that I +should not escape it. I have learnt that you love me--come what may, +I am content." + +"If you regard me, Mr. Stukely, pity me, and go, now. I beg, I +entreat you to leave me." + +I raised the quivering hand, and kissed it ardently. I resigned it, +and departed. + +My whole youth was a succession of inconsiderate yieldings to passion, +and of hasty visitings of remorse. It is not a matter of surprise +that I hated myself for every word that I had spoken as soon as I +was again master of my conduct. It was my nature to fall into error +against conviction and my cool reason, and to experience speedily the +reaction that succeeds the commission of exorbitant crimes. In +proportion to the facility with which I erred, was the extravagance +and exaggeration with which I viewed my faults. During the +predominance of a passion, death, surrounded by its terrors, would +not have frighted me or driven me back--would not have received my +passing notice; whilst it lasted it prevailed. So, afterwards, when +all was calm and over, a crushing sense of wrong and guilt magnified +the smallest offence, until it grew into a bugbear to scare me night +and day. Leaving Miss Fairman, I rushed into the garden, preparatory +to running away from the parsonage altogether. This, in the height +of remorseful excitement, presented itself to my mind forcibly as +the necessary and only available step to adopt; but this soon came +to be regarded as open to numerous and powerful objections. + +It seemed impossible that the incumbent could be kept any longer in +ignorance of the affair; and it was better--oh! how much better--for +comfort and peace of mind that he should not be. In a few hours +Dr. Mayhew would arrive, and his shrewd eye would immediately +penetrate to the very seat of his patient's disquietude. The +discovery would be communicated to her father--and what would he +think of me?--what would become of me? I grew as agitated as though +the doctor were at that moment seated with the minister--and +revealing to his astounded listener the history of my deceit and +black ingratitude. The feeling was not to be borne; and in order to +cast it off, I determined myself to be the messenger of the tale, +and to stand the brunt of his first surprise and indignation. With +the earliest conception of the idea, I ran to put it into execution. +Nor did I stop until I reached the door of his study, when the +difficulty of introducing at once so delicate a business, and the +importance of a little quiet preparation, suggested themselves, +and made me hesitate. It was however, but for a moment for +self-possession. I would argue with myself no longer. The few hours +that intervened before the arrival of the doctor were my own and if +I permitted them to pass away, my opportunity was gone for ever, and +every claim upon the kindness and forgiveness of my patron lost. I +would confess my affection, and offer him the only reparation in my +power--to quit his roof, and carry the passion with me for my +punishment and torment. + +Mr. Fairman was alone. The pupils were playing on the lawn upon +which the window of the study opened. There they ran, and leaped, and +shouted, all feeling and enjoyment, without an atom of the leaden +care of life to press upon the light elastic soul; and there stood I, +young enough to be a playmate brother, separated from them and their +hearts' joyousness by the deep broad line which, once traversed, may +never be recovered, ground to the earth by suffering, trial, and +disappointment; darkness and discouragement without; misery and +self-upbraiding robbing me of peace within. My eyes caught but a +glimpse of the laughing boys before they settled on the minister, +and summoned me to my ungracious task--and it was a glimpse of a +bright and beautiful world, with which I had nothing in common, of +which I had known something, it might be ages since--but whose glory +had departed even from the memory. + +"Is he here?" enquired the incumbent. + +"Doctor Mahew could not accompany me, sir," I answered, "but he will +shortly come." + +"Thank you, Stukely, thank you. I have good news for you. I can +afford you time to recruit and be yourself again. The lads return +home on Monday next; you shall have a month's holiday, and you shall +spend it as you will--with us, or elsewhere. If your health will be +improved by travelling, I shall be happy to provide you with the +means. I cannot afford to lose your services. You must not get ill." + +"You are very kind, sir," I replied--"kinder than I deserve." + +"That is a matter of opinion, Stukely. I do not think so. You have +served me faithfully and well. I consult my own interest in rewarding +you and taking care of yours." + +"Yes, sir--but"-- + +"Well, never mind now. We will not argue on whose side the obligation +lies. It is perhaps well that we should both of us think as we do. It +is likely that we shall both perform our duty more strictly if we +strike the balance against ourselves. Go and refresh yourself. You +look tired and worn. Get a glass of wine, and cheer up. Have you +seen Miss Fairman?" + +"It is concerning her, sir," I answered, trembling in every joint, +"that I desire particularly to speak to you." + +"Good heaven!" exclaimed the incumbent, starting from his chair, +"what do you mean? What is the matter? What has happened? Why do you +tremble, Stukely, and look so ghastly pale? What has happened since +the morning? What ails her? Go on. Speak. Tell me at once. My poor +child--what of her?" + +"Calm yourself, I implore you, sir. Miss Fairman is quite well. +Nothing has happened. Do not distress yourself. I have done very +wrong to speak so indiscreetly. Pardon me, sir. I should have known +better. She is well." + +Mr. Fairman paced the room in perturbation, and held his hand upon +his heart to allay its heavy throbs. + +"This is very wrong," he said--"very impious. I have thought of +nothing else this day--and this is the consequence. I have dwelt +upon the probability of calamity, until I have persuaded myself of +its actual presence--looked for woe, until I have created it. This +is not the patience and resignation which I teach; for shame, for +shame!--go to thy closet, worm--repent and pray." + +Mr. Fairman resumed his seat, and hid his face for a time in his +hands. At length he spoke again. + +"Proceed, Stukely. I am calm now. The thoughts and fears in which it +was most sinfull to indulge, and which accumulated in this most +anxious breast, are dissipated. What would you say? I can listen as I +ought." + +"I am glad, sir, that the boys revisit their homes on Monday, and +that a month, at least, will elapse before their return to you. In +that interval, you will have an opportunity of providing them with a +teacher worthier your regard and confidence; and, if I leave you at +once, you will not be put to inconvenience." + +"I do not understand you." + +"I must resign my office, sir," I said with trepidation. + +"Resign? Wherefore? What have I said or done?" + +"Let me beg your attention, sir, whilst I attempt to explain my +motives, and to do justice to myself and you. I mentioned the name +of Miss Fairman." + +"You did. Ha! Go on, sir." + +"You cannot blame me, Mr. Fairman, if I tell you that, in common +with every one whose happiness it is to be acquainted with that lady, +I have not been insensible to the qualities which render her so +worthy of your love, so deserving the esteem"--I stopped. + +"I am listening, sir--proceed." + +"I know not how to tell you, sir, in what language to express the +growth of an attachment which has taken root in this poor heart, +increased and strengthened against every effort which I have made to +crush it." + +"Sir!" uttered the incumbent in great amazement. + +"Do not be angry, Mr. Fairman, until you have heard all. I confess +that I have been imprudent and rash, that I have foolishly permitted +a passion to take possession of my heart, instead of manfully +resisting its inroads; but if I have been weak, do not believe that +I have been wicked." + +"Speak plainly, Stukely. What am I to understand by this?" + +"That I have dared, sir, to indulge a fond, a hopeless love, +inspired by the gentlest and most innocent of her sex--that I have +striven, and striven, to forget and flee from it--that I have +failed--that I come to confess the fault, to ask your pardon, and +depart." + +"Tell me one thing," asked the incumbent quickly. "Have you +communicated your sentiments to Miss Fairman?" + +"I have, sir." + +"Is her illness connected with that declaration?--You do not answer. +Stukely, I am deceived in you. I mistrust and doubt you. You have +_murdered_ my poor child." + +"Mr. Fairman, do not, I entreat"-- + +"Heaven have mercy upon me for my wild uncrucified temper. I will +use no harsh terms. I retract that expression, young man. I am sorry +that I used it. Let me know what more you have to say." + +The tears came to my eyes, and blinded them. I did not answer. + +"Be seated, Stukely," continued the minister, in a kinder tone; +"compose yourself. I am to blame for using such a term. Forgive me +for it--I did not mean all that it conveyed. But you know how +fragile and how delicate a plant is that. You should have thought of +her and me before you gratified a passion as wild as it is idle. Now, +tell me every thing. Conceal and disguise nothing. I will listen to +your calmly, and I will be indulgent. The past is not to be recalled. +Aid me in the future, if you are generous and just." + +I related all that had passed between Miss Fairman and myself--all +that had taken place in my own turbulent soul--the battlings of the +will and judgment, the determination to overcome temptation, and the +sudden and violent yielding to it. Faithful to his command, I +concealed nothing, and, at the close of all, I signified my readiness, +my wish, and my intention to depart. + +"Forgive me, sir, at parting," said I, "and you shall hear no more of +the disturber of your peace." + +"I do not wish that, Stukely. I am indebted to you for the candour +with which you have spoken, and the proper view which you take of +your position. I wish to hear of you, and to serve you--and I will +do it. I agree with you, that you must leave us now--yes, and at once; +and, as you say, without another interview. But I will not turn you +into the world, lad, without some provision for the present, and +good hopes for the future. I owe you much. Yes--very much. When I +consider how differently you might behave, how very seriously you +might interfere with my happiness"--as Mr. Fairman spoke, he opened +the drawer of a table, and drew a checque-book from it--"I feel that +you ought not to be a loser by your honesty. I do not offer you this +as a reward for that honesty--far from it--I would only indemnify +you--and this is my duty." + +Mr. Fairman placed a draft for a hundred pounds in my hand. + +"Pardon me, sir," said I, replacing it on his table. "I can take no +money. Millions could not _indemnify_ me for all that I resign. +Judge charitably, and think kindly of me, sir--and I am paid. Honour +is priceless." + +"Well, but when you get to London?"-- + +"I am not altogether friendless. My salary is yet untouched, and will +supply my wants until I find employment." + +"Which you shall not be long without, believe me, Stukely, if I have +power to get it you--and I think I have. You will tell me where I may +address my letters. I will not desert you. You shall not repent this." + +"I do not, sir; and I believe I never shall. I propose to leave the +parsonage to-night, sir." + +"No, to-morrow, we must have some talk. You need not see her. I +could not let you go to-night. You shall depart to-morrow, and I rely +upon your good sense and honourable feelings to avoid another meeting. +It could only increase the mischief that has already taken place, and +answer no good purpose. You must be aware of this." + +"I am, sir. You shall have no reason to complain." + +"I am sure of it, Stukely. You had better see about your preparations. +John will help you in any way you wish. Make use of him. There must +be many little things to do. There can be no impropriety, Stukely, +in your accepting the whole of your year's salary. You are entitled +to that. I am sorry to lose you--very--but there's no help for it. I +will come to your room this evening, and have some further +conversation. Leave me now." The incumbent was evidently much excited. +Love for his child, and apprehension for her safety, were feelings +that were, perhaps, too prominent and apparent in the good and +faithful minister of heaven; they betrayed him at times into a +self-forgetfulness, and a warmth of expression, of which he repented +heartily as soon as they occurred. Originally of a violent and +wayward disposition, it had cost the continual exercise and the +prayers of a life, to acquire evenness of temper and gentleness of +deportment, neither of which, in truth, was easily, if ever disturbed, +if not by the amiable infirmity above alluded to. He was the best of +men; but to the best, immunity from the natural weakness of +mortality is not to be vouchsafed. + +Mr. Fairman was the last person whom I saw that night. He remained +with me until I retired to rest. He was the first person whom I saw +on the following morning. I do not believe that he did not rely upon +the word which I had pledged to him. I did not suppose that he +suspected my resolution, but I an convinced that he was most +restless and unhappy, from the moment that I revealed my passion to +him, until that which saw me safely deposited at the foot of the hill, +on my way to the village. So long as I remained in his house, he +could only see danger for his daughter; and with my disappearance he +counted upon her recovery and peace. + +The incumbent was himself my companion from the parsonage. The +servant had already carried my trunk to the inn. At the bottom of +the hill, Mr. Fairman stopped and extended his hand. + +"Fare-you-well, Stukely," said he, with emotion. "Once more, I am +obliged to you. I will never forget your conduct; you shall hear +from me." + +Since the conversation of the preceding day, the incumbent had not +mentioned the name of his daughter. I had not spoken of her. I felt +it impossible to _part_ without a word. + +"What did Doctor Mayhew say?" I asked. + +"She is a little better, and will be soon quite well, we trust." + +"That is good news. Is she composed?" + +"Yes--she is better." + +"One question more, sir. Does she know of my departure?" + +"She does not--but she will, of course." + +"Do not speak unkindly of me to her, sir. I should be sorry if she +thought ill"-- + +"She will respect you, Stukely, for the part which you have acted. +She must do so. You will respect yourself." + +I had nothing more to say, I returned his warm pressure, and bade +him farewell. + +"God bless you, lad, and prosper you! We may meet again in a happier +season; but if we do not, receive a father's thanks and gratitude. +You have behaved nobly. I feel it--believe me." + +Manly and generous tears rushed to the eyes of my venerable friend, +and he could not speak. Once more he grasped my hand fervently, and +in the saddest silence that I have ever known we separated. + +There was gloom around my heart, which the bright sun in heaven, that +gladdened all the land, could not penetrate or disperse; but it gave +way before a touch of true affection, which came to me as a last +memorial of the beloved scene on which I lingered. + +I had hardly parted from the minister, before I perceived walking +before me, at the distance of a few yards, the youngest of the lads +who had been my pupils. At the request of the minister, I had +neither taken leave of them nor informed any one of my departure. +The lad whom I now saw was a fine spirited boy, who had strongly +attached himself to me, and shown great aptitude, as well as deep +desire, for knowledge. He knew very little when I came to him, but +great pains had enabled him to advance rapidly. The interest which +he manifested, called forth in me a corresponding disposition to +assist him; and the grateful boy, altogether overlooking his own +exertions, had over and over again expressed himself in the warmest +terms of thankfulness for my instruction, to which he insisted he +owed all that he had acquired. He was in his eleventh year, and his +heart was as kind and generous as his intellect was vigorous and +clear. I came up to him, and found him plucking the wild-flowers +from the grass as he wandered slowly along. I looked at him as I +passed, and found him weeping. + +"Alfred!" I exclaimed, "What do you here so early?" + +The boy burst into a fresh flow of tears, and threw himself +passionately into my arms. He sobbed piteously, and at length said-- + +"Do not go, sir--do not leave me! You have been so kind to me. Pray, +stop." + +"What is the matter Alfred?" + +"John has told me you are going, sir. He has just taken your box down. +Oh, Mr. Stukely, stay for my sake! I won't give you so much trouble +as I used to do. I'll learn my lessons better--but don't go, pray, +sir." + +"You will have another teacher, Alfred, who will become as good a +friend as I am. I cannot stay. Return to the parsonage--there's a +dear boy." + +"Oh, if you must go, let me walk with you a little, sir! Let me take +your hand. I shall be back in time for breakfast--pray, don't refuse +me that, sir?" + +I complied with his request. He grasped my palm in both his hands, +and held it there, as though he would not part with it again. He +gave me the flowers which he had gathered, and begged me to keep +them for his sake. He repeated every kind thing which I had done for +him, not one of which he would forget, and all the names and dates +which he had got by heart, to please his tutor. He told me that it +would make him wretched, "to get up to-morrow, and remember that I +was gone;" and that he loved me better than any body, for no one had +been so indulgent, and had taken such pains to make him a good boy. +Before we reached the village, his volubility had changed the tears +to smiles. As we reached it, John appeared on his return homeward. I +gave the boy into his charge, and the cloud lowered again, and the +shower fell heavier than ever. I turned at the point at which the +hills became shut out, and there stood the boy fastened to the spot +at which I had left him. + +At the door of the inn, I was surprised to find my luggage in the +custody of Dr. Mayhew's gardener. As soon as he perceived me, he +advanced a few steps with the box, and placed note in my hand. It +was addressed to me at the parsonage, and politely requested me to +wait upon the physician at my earliest convenience. No mention was +made of the object of my visit, or of the doctor's knowledge of my +altered state. The document was as short as it might be, and as +courteous. Having read it, I turned to the gardener, or to where he +had stood a moment before, with the view of questioning that +gentleman; but to my great astonishment, I perceived him about a +hundred yards before me, walking as fast as his load permitted him +towards his master's residence. I called loudly after him, but my +voice only acted as a spur, and increased his pace. My natural +impulse was to follow him, and I obeyed it. + +Dr. Mayhew received me with a very cunning smile and a facetious +observation. + +"Well, Master Stukely, this hot weather has been playing the deuce +with us all. Only think of little puss being attacked with your +complaint, the very day you were here suffering so much from it, and +my getting a touch myself." + +I smiled. + +"Yes, sir, it is very easy to laugh at the troubles of other men, +but I can tell you this is a very disagreeable epidemic. Severe +times these for maids and bachelors. I shall settle in life now, +sooner than I intended. I have fallen in love with puss my self." + +I did not smile. + +"To be sure, I am old enough to be her father, but so much the better +for her. No man should marry till fifty. Your young fellows of twenty +don't know their own mind--don't understand what love means--all +blaze and flash, blue fire and sky-rocket--out in a minute. Eh, what +do you say, Stukely?" + +"Are you aware, sir, that I have left the parsonage?" + +"To be sure I am; and a pretty kettle of fish you have made of it. +Instead of treating love as a quiet and respectable undertaking, as +I mean to treat it--instead of simmering your love down to a +gentlemanly respect and esteem, as I mean to simmer it--and waiting +patiently for the natural consequences of things, as I mean to +wait--you must, like a boy as you are, have it all out in a minute, +set the whole house by the ears, and throw yourself out of it +without rhyme or reason, or profit to any body. Now, sit down, and +tell me what you mean to do with yourself?" + +"I intend to go to London, sir." + +"Does your father live there?" + +"I have no father, sir." + +"Well--your mother?" + +"She is dead, too. I have one friend there--I shall go to him until +I find occupation." + +"You naughty boy! How I should like to whip you! What right had you +to give away so good a chance as you have had? You have committed a +sin, sir--yes, you may look--you have, and a very grievous one. I +speak as I think. You have been flying in the face of Providence, and +doing worse than hiding the talent which was bestowed upon you for +improvement. Do you think I should have behaved so at your age? Do +you think any man in the last generation out of a madhouse would have +done it? Here's your march of education!" + +I bowed to Doctor Mayhew, and wished him good-morning. + +"No, thank you, sir," answered the physician, "if I didn't mean to +say a little more to you, I shouldn't have spoken so much already. We +must talk these matters over quietly. You may as well stay a few +days with your friend in the country as run off directly to the +gentleman in London. Besides, now I have made my mind up so suddenly +to get married, I don't know soon I may be called upon to undergo +the operation--I beg the lady's pardon--the awful ceremony. I shall +want a bride's-man, and you wouldn't make a bad one by any means." + +The physician rang the bell, and Williams the butler--a personage in +black, short and stout, and exceedingly well fed, as his sleek face +showed--entered the apartment. + +"Will you see, Williams, that Mr. Stukely's portmanteau is taken to +his room--bed quite aired--sheets all right, eh?" + +"Both baked, sir," replied Williams with a deferential but expressive +smile, which became his face remarkably well. + +"Then let us have lunch, Williams, and a bottle of _the_ sherry?" + +A look accompanied the request, which was not lost upon the butler. +He made a profound obeisance, and retired. At lunch the doctor +continued his theme, and represented my conduct as most blameable +and improper. He insisted that I ought to be severely punished, and +made to feel that a boy is not to indulge every foolish feeling that +rises, just as he thinks proper, but, like an inconsistent judge, he +concluded the whole of a very powerful and angry summing up, by +pronouncing upon me the verdict of an acquittal--inasmuch as he told +me to make myself as comfortable as I could in his house, and to +enjoy myself thoroughly in it for the next fortnight to come, at the +very least. It may have been that, in considering my faults as those +of the degenerate age in which I lived--which age, however, be it +known, lived afterwards to recover its character, and to be held up +as a model of propriety and virtue to the succeeding generation--the +merciful doctor was willing to merge my chastisement in that which +he bestowed daily upon the unfortunate object of his contempt and +pity, or possibly he desired to inflict no punishment at all, but +simply to perform a duty incumbent upon his years and station. Be +this as it may, certain it is that with the luncheon ended all +upbraiding and rebuke, and commenced an unreservedness of +intercourse--the basis of a generous friendship, which increased and +strengthened day by day, and ended only with the noble-hearted +doctor's life--nor then in its effects upon my character and fortune. + +It was on the night of the day on which I had arrived, that Doctor +Mayhew and I were sitting in his _sanctum_; composedly and happily as +men sit whom care has given over for a moment to the profound and +stilly influences of the home and hearth. One topic of conversation +had given place easily to another, and there seemed at length little +to be said on any subject whatever, when the case of the idiot, +which my own troubles had temporarily dismissed from my mind, +suddenly occurred to me, and afforded us motive for the prolongation +of a discourse, which neither seemed desirous to bring to a close. + +"What have you done with the poor fellow?" I enquired. + +"Nothing," replied the physician. "We have fed him well, and his food +has done him good. He is a hundred per cent better than when he came; +but he is still surly and tongue-tied. He says nothing. He is not +known in the neighbourhood. I have directed hand-bills to be +circulated, and placards to be posted in the villages. If he is not +owned within a week, he must be given to the parish-officers. I +can't help thinking that he is a runaway lunatic, and a gentleman by +birth. Did you notice his delicate white hand, that diamond ring, and +the picture they found tied round his neck?" + +"What picture, sir?" + +"Did I not tell you of it? The portrait of a lovely female--an old +attachment, I suppose, that turned his brain, although I fancy +sometimes that it is his mother or sister, for there is certainly a +resemblance to himself in it. The picture is set in gold. When Robin +first discovered it, the agony of the stricken wretch was most +deplorable. He was afraid that the man would remove it, and he +screamed and implored like a true maniac. When he found that he +might keep it, he evinced the maddest pleasure, and beckoned his +keeper to notice and admire it. He pointed to the eyes, and then +groaned and wept himself; until Robin was frightened out of his wits, +and was on the point of throwing up his office altogether." + +"Do you think the man may recover his reason?" + +"I have no hope of it. It is a case of confirmed fatuity I believe. +If you like to see him again, you shall accompany me to-morrow when +I visit him. What a strange life is this, Stukely! What a strange +history may be that of this poor fellow whom Providence has cast at +our door! Well, poor wretch, we'll do the best we can for him. If we +cannot reach his mind, we may improve his body, and he will be then +perhaps quite as happy as the wisest of us." + +The clock struck twelve as Doctor Mayhew spoke. It startled and +surprised us both. In a few minutes we separated and retired to our +several beds. + +When I saw the idiot on the following day, I could perceive a marked +improvement in his appearance. The deadly pallor of his countenance +had departed; and although no healthy colour had taken its place, +the living blood seemed again in motion, restoring expression to +those wan and withered features. His coal-black eye had recovered +the faintest power of speculation, and the presence of a stranger +was now sufficient to call it into action. He was clean and properly +attired, and he sat--apart from his keeper--conscious of existence. +There was good ground, in the absence of all positive proof, for the +supposition of the doctor. A common observer would have pronounced +him well-born at a glance. Smitten as he was, and unhinged by his sad +affliction, there remained still sufficient of the external forms to +conduct to such an inference. Gracefulness still hovered about the +human ruin, discernible in the most aimless of imbecility's weak +movements, and the limbs were not those of one accustomed to the +drudgery of life. A melancholy creature truly did he look, as I gazed +upon him for a second time. He had carried his chair to a corner of +the room, and there he sat, his face half-hidden, resting upon his +breast, his knee drawn up and pressed tightly by his clasped +hands--those very hands, small and marble-white, forming a ghastful +contrast to the raven hair that fell thickly on his back. He had not +spoken since he rose. Indeed, since his first appearance, he had said +nothing but the unintelligible word which he had uttered four times +in my presence, and which Dr. Mayhew now believed to be the name of +the lady whose portrait he wore. That he could speak was certain, +and his silence was therefore the effect of obstinacy or of absolute +weakness of intellect, which forbade the smallest mental effort. I +approached him, and addressed him in accents of kindness. He raised +his head slowly, and looked piteously upon me, but in a moment again +he resumed his original position. + +For the space of a week I visited the afflicted man dally, remaining +with him perhaps a couple of hours at each interview. No clue had +been discovered to his history, and the worthy physician had fixed +upon one day after another as that upon which he would relieve +himself of his trust; but the day arrived only to find him unwilling +to keep his word. The poor object himself had improved rapidly in +personal appearance, and, as far as could be ascertained from his +gestures and indistinct expressions, was sensible of his protector's +charity, and thankful for it. He now attempted to give to his keeper +the feeble aid he could afford him; he partook of his food with less +avidity, he seemed aware of what was taking place around him. On one +occasion I brought his dinner to him, and sat by whilst it was served +to him. He stared at me as though he had immediate perception of +something unusual. It was on the same day that, whilst trifling with +a piece of broken glass, he cut his hand. I closed the wound with an +adhesive plaster, and bound it up. It was the remembrance of this +act that gained for me the affection of the creature, in whom all +actions seemed dried up and dead. When, on the day that succeeded to +this incident, Robin, as was his custom, placed before the idiot his +substantial meal, the latter turned away from it offended, and would +not taste it. I was sent for. The eyes of the imbecile glistened +when I entered the apartment, and he beckoned me to him. I sat at +his side, as I had done on the day before, and he then, with a smile +of triumph, took his food on his knees, and soon devoured it. When +he had finished, and Robin had retired with the tray and implements, +the poor fellow made me draw my chair still nearer to his own. He +placed his hand upon my knee in great delight, patted it, and then +the wound which I had dressed. There was perfect folly in the mode +in which he fondled this, and yet a reasonableness which the heart +could not fail to detect and contemplate with emotion. First, he +gently stroked it, then placed his head upon it in utmost tenderness, +then hugged it in his arm and rocked it as a child, then kissed it +often with short quick kisses that could scarce be heard; courting +my observation with every change of action, making it apparent how +much he loved, what care he could bestow, upon the hand which had +won the notice and regard of his new friend and benefactor. This over, +he pointed to his breast, dallied for a time, and then drew from it +the picture which he so jealously carried there. He pressed it +between his hands, sighed heavily from his care-crazed heart, and +strove to tell his meaning in words which would not flow, in which +he knew not how to breathe the bubble-thought that danced about his +brain. Closer than ever he approached me, and, with an air which he +intended for one of confidence and great regard, he invited me to +look upon his treasure. I did so, and, to my astonishment and +terror--gazed upon the portrait of the unhappy EMMA HARRINGTON. +Gracious God! what thoughts came rushing into my mind! It was +impossible to err. I, who had passionately dwelt upon those +lineaments in all the fondness of a devoted love, until the form +became my heart's companion by day and night--I, who had watched the +teardrops falling from those eyes, in which the limner had not +failed to fix the natural sorrow that was a part of them--watched +and hung upon them in distress and agony--I, surely I, could not +mistake the faithful likeness. Who, then, was _he_ that wore it? Who +was this, now standing at my side, to turn to whom again became +immediately--sickness--horror! Who could it be but him, the miserable +parricide--the outcast--the unhappy brother--the desperately wicked +son! There was no other in the world to whom the departed penitent +could be dear; and he--oh, was it difficult to suppose that merciful +Heaven, merciful to the guiltiest, had placed between his conscience +and his horrible offence a cloud that made all dim--had rendered his +understanding powerless to comprehend a crime which reason must have +punished and aggravated endlessly My judgment was prostrated by what +I learned so suddenly and fearfully. The discovery had been +miraculous. What should I do? How proceed? How had the youth got here? +What had been his history since his flight? Whither was he wandering? +Did he know the fate of his poor sister? How had he lived? These +questions, and others, crowded into my mind one after another, and I +trembled with the violent rapidity of thought. The figure of the +unhappy girl presented itself--her words vibrated on my ears--her +last dying accents; and I felt that to me was consigned the wretched +object of her solicitude and love--that to me Providence had +directed the miserable man; yes, if only that he who had shared in +the family guilt, might behold and profit by the living witness of +the household wreck. Half forgetful of the presence of the brother, +and remembering nothing well but _her_ and her most pitiable tale, +oppressed by a hundred recollections, I pronounced her name. + +"Poor, poor, much-tried Emma!" I ejaculated, gazing still upon her +image. The idiot leaped from my side at the word, and clapped his +hands, and laughed and shrieked. He ran to me again, and seized my +palm, and pressed it to his lips. His excitement was unbounded. He +could only point to the picture, endeavour to repeat the word which +I had spoken, and direct his finger to my lips beseechingly, as +though he _prayed_ to hear the sound again. Alarmed already at what +I had done, and dreading the consequences of a disclosure, because +ignorant of the effect it would produce upon the idiot, I checked +myself immediately, and spake no more. Robin returned. I contrived +to subdue by degrees the sudden ebullition, and having succeeded, I +restored the criminal to his keeper, and departed. + +It was however, necessary that I should act in some way, possessed of +the information which had so strangely come to me. I desired to be +alone to collect myself, and to determine quietly. I retired to my +bedroom, endeavoured to think composedly, and to mark out the line +of duty. It was a fruitless undertaking. My mind would rest on +nothing but the tragedy in which this miserable creature held so sad +a part, and his unlooked-for resuscitation here--here, under the +roof which sheltered his sister's paramour. Whether to keep the +secret hidden in my bosom, or to communicate it to the physician, +was my duty, I could not settle now. It had been a parting injunction +of my friend Thompson to sleep upon all matters of difficulty, and +to avoid rashness above all things. Alas! I had not profited by his +counsel, nor, in my own case, recurred to it, even for a moment; but +it was different now. The fate, perhaps the life, of another was +involved in my decision; and not to act upon the good advice, not to +be temperate and cautious, would be sinful in the extreme. What, had +she been alive, would the sister have required--entreated at my hands? +And now, if the freed spirit of the injured one looked down upon the +world, what would it expect from him to whom had been committed the +forlorn and stricken wanderer? What if not justice, charity, and +mercy? "And he shall have it!" I exclaimed. "I will act on his behalf. +I will be cool and calm. I will do nothing until tomorrow, when the +excitement of this hour shall have passed away, and reason resumed +its proper influence and rule." + +I rose, contented with my conclusion, and walked to the window, which +overlooked the pleasure-garden of the house. Robin and his patient +were there; the former sitting on a garden chair, and reposing +comfortably after his meal, heedless of the doings of his charge. +The latter stood immediately below the window, gazing upwards, with +the portrait as before pressed between his marble hands. He perceived +me, and screamed in triumph and delight. The keeper started up; I +vanished instantly. He surely could not have known the situation of +my room--could not have waited there and watched for my appearance. +It was impossible. Yes, I said so, and I attempted to console myself +with the assurance; but my blood curdled with a new conviction that +arose and clung to me, and would not be cast off--the certainty that, +by the utterance of one word, I had, for good or ill, linked to my +future destiny the reasonless and wretched being, who stood and +shrieked beneath the casement long after I was gone. + +I joined my friend, the doctor, as usual in the evening, and learnt +from him the news of the day. He had visited his patient at the +parsonage, and he spoke favourably of her case. Although she had +been told of my absence, she was still not aware that I had quitted +the house for ever. Her father thought she was less unquiet, and +believed that in a few days all would be forgotten, and she would be +herself again. Doctor Mayhew assured me that nothing could be kinder +than the manner in which the incumbent spoke of me, and that it was +impossible for any man to feel a favour more deeply than he appeared +to appreciate the consideration which I had shown for him. The +doctor had been silent as to my actual presence in the vicinity, +which, he believed, to have mentioned, would have been to fill the +anxious father's heart with alarms and fears, which, groundless as +they were, might be productive of no little mischief. I acquiesced +in the propriety of his silence, and thanked him for his prudence. +Whilst my friend was speaking, I heard a quick and heavy footstep +on the stairs, which, causing me to start upon the instant, and +hurling sickness to my heart, clearly told, had doubt existed, +how strongly apprehension had fixed itself upon me, and how +certainly and inextricably I had become connected with the object +of my dark and irresistible conceptions. I had no longer an ear for +Doctor Mayhew, but the sense followed the footstep until it reached +the topmost stair--passed along the passage--and stopped--suddenly +at our door. Almost before it stopped, the door was knocked at +violently--quickly--loudly. Before an answer could be given, the +door itself was opened, and Robin rushed in--scared. + +"What is the matter?" I exclaimed, jumping up, and dreading to hear +him tell what I felt must come--another tale of horror--another +crime--what less than _self-destruction_? + +"He's gone, sir--he's gone!" roared the fellow, white as death, and +shaking like an aspen. + +"Gone--how--who?" enquired the doctor. + +"The madman, sir," answered Robin, opening his mouth, and raising +his eyebrows, to exhibit his own praiseworthy astonishment at the +fact. + +"Go on, man," said the doctor. "What have you to say further? How +did it happen? Quick!" + +"I don't know, sir. I eat something for dinner as disagreed. I have +been as sleepy as an owl ever since. We was together in his room, +and I just sot down for a minute to think what it could be as I +_had_ eaten, when I dozed off directly--and when I opened my eyes +again, not quite a minute arterwards, I couldn't find him +nowheres--and nobody can't neither, and we've been searching the +house for the last half hour." + +"Foolish fellow--how long was this ago?" + +"About an hour, sir." + +The doctor said not another word, but taking a candle from the table, +quitted the room, and hurried down stairs. I followed him, and Robin, +almost frightened out of his wits, trod upon my heel and rubbed +against my coat, in his eagerness not to be left behind me. The +establishment was, as it is said, at sixes and sevens. All was +disorder and confusion, and hustling into the most remote corner of +the common room. Mr. Williams especially was very much unsettled. He +stood in the rear of every body else, and looked deathly white. It +was he who ejaculated something upon the sudden entrance of his +master, and was the cause of all the other ejaculations which +followed quickly from every member of the household. Doctor Mayhew +commanded order, and was not long in bringing it about. The house +was searched immediately Wherever it was supposed that the idiot +might hide himself, diligent enquiry was made; cupboards, holes, +corners, and cellars. It was in vain. He certainly had escaped. The +gardens and paddocks, and fields adjacent were scoured, and with like +success. There was no doubt of it--the idiot was gone--who could tell +whither? After two hours' unprofitable labour, Doctor Mayhew was +again in his library, very much disturbed in mind, and reproaching +himself bitterly for his procrastination. "Had I acted," said he, +"upon my first determination, this would never have happened, and my +part in the business would have been faithfully performed. As it is, +if any mischief should come to that man, I shall never cease to +blame myself, and to be considered the immediate cause of it." I made +no reply. I _could_ say nothing. His escape occurring so soon after +my identification of the unfortunate creature, had bewildered and +confounded me. I could not guess at the motive of his flight, nor +conceive a purpose to which it was likely the roused maniac would +aspire; but I was satisfied--yes, too satisfied, for to think of it +was to chill and freeze the heart's warm blood--that the revelation +of the day and his removal were in close connexion. Alas, I dared +not speak, although my fears distracted me whilst I continued dumb! +Arrangements were at last made for watching both within and without +the house during the night--messengers were dispatched to the +contiguous villages, and all that could be done for the recovery of +the runaway was attempted. It was already past twelve o'clock when +Dr. Mayhew insisted upon my retiring to rest. I did not oppose his +wish. He was ill at ease, and angry with himself. Maintaining the +silence which I had kept during the evening, I gave him my hand, and +took my leave. + +I thought I should have dropped dead in the room when, lost in a deep +reverie, I opened my chamber-door, and discovered, sitting at the +table, the very man himself. _There the idiot sat_, portrait in hand, +encountering me with a look of unutterable sorrowfulness. He must +have hid himself amongst the folds of the curtains, for this room, +as well as the rest, was looked into, and its cupboards investigated. +I recoiled with sudden terror, and retreated, but the wretch clasped +his hands in agony, and implored me in gestures which could not be +mistaken, to remain. I recovered, gained confidence, and forbore. + +"What do you desire with me?" I asked quickly. "Can you speak? Do you +understand me?" The unhappy man dropped on his knees, and took my +hand--cried like a beaten child--sobbed and groaned. He raised the +likeness of his sister to my eyes, and then I saw the fire sparkling +in his own lustrous orb, and the supplication bursting from it, that +was not to be resisted. He pointed to his mouth, compelled an +inarticulate sound, and looked at me again, to assure me that he had +spoken all his faculties permitted him. He waited for any answer. + +Melted with pity for the bruised soul before me, I could no longer +deny him the gratification he besought. + +"Emma!" I ejaculated; "Emma Harrington!" + +He wept aloud, and kissed my hand, and put my arm upon his breast, +and caressed it with his own weak head. I permitted the affectionate +creature to display his childish gratitude, and then, taking him by +the wrist, I withdrew him from the room. An infant could not have +been more docile with its nurse. In another moment he was again in +custody. + +It was in vain that I strove to fall asleep, and to forget the +circumstances of the day--in vain that I endeavored to carry out the +resolution which I had taken to my pillow. Gladly would I have +expelled all thought of the idiot from my mind, and risen on the +morrow, prepared by rest and sweet suspension of mental labour for +profitable deliberation. Sound as was the advice of my friend, and +anxious as I was to follow it, obedience rested not with me, and was +impossible. Should I make known the history of the man? Should I +discover his crime? This was the question that haunted my repose, +and knocked at my ears until my labouring brain ached in its +confusion. What might be the effect of a disclosure upon the future +existence of the desolate creature, should he ever recover his reason? +Must he not suffer the extreme penalty of the law? It was dreadful +to think that his life should be forfeited through, and only through, +my agency. There were reasons again equally weighty, why I should +not conceal the facts which were in my possession. How I should have +determined at length, I know not, if an argument--founded on +selfishness had not stepped in and turned the balance in favour of +the idiot. Alas, how easy is it to decide when self-interest +interposes with its intelligence and aid! Neither Mr. Fairman nor +Doctor Mayhew knew of my connexion with the unfortunate Emma +Harrington. To expose the brother would be to commit myself. I was +not yet prepared to acknowledge to the father of Miss Fairman, or to +his friend, the relation that I had borne to that poor girl. And why +not? If to divulge the secret were an act of justice, why should I +hesitate to do it on account of the incumbent, with whom I had +broken off all intercourse for ever? Ah, did I in truth believe that +our separation had been final? Or did I harbour, perhaps against +reason and conviction, a hope, a thought of future reconciliation, a +shadowy yet not weak belief that all might yet end happily, and that +fortune still might favour love! With such faint hope, and such +belief, I must have bribed myself to silence, for I left my couch +resolved to keep my secret close. Doctor Mayhew was deep in the +contemplation of a map when I joined him at the breakfast-table. He +did not take his eyes from it when I entered the apartment, and he +continued his investigations some time after I had taken my seat. He +raised his head at last, and looked hard at me, apparently without +perceiving me, and then he resumed his occupation without having +spoken a syllable: after a further study of five or ten minutes, he +shook his head, and pressed his lips, and frowned, and stroked his +chin, as though he was just arriving at the borders of a notable and +great discovery. "It will be strange indeed!" he muttered to himself. +"How can we find it out?" + +I did not break the thread of cogitation. + +"Well," continued Doctor Maybew, "he must leave this house, at +all events. I will run the risk of losing him no longer. I will +write this morning to the overseer. Yet I _should_ like to +know--really--it may be, after all, the case. Stukely, lad, look here. +What county is this?" he continued, placing his finger on the map. + +Somerset was written in the corner of it, and accordingly I answered. + +"Very well," replied the doctor. "Now, look here. Read this. What do +these letters spell?" + +He pointed to some small characters, which formed evidently the name +of a village that stood upon the banks of a river of some magnitude. +I spelt them as he desired, and pronounced, certainly to my own +surprise, the word--"_Belton_." + +"Just so. Well, what do you say to that? I think I have hit it. +That's the fellow's home. I never thought of that before, and I +shouldn't now, if I hadn't had occasion for the road-book. It was +the first thing that caught my eye. Now--how can we find it out?" + +"It is difficult!" said I. + +"It is likely enough, you see. What should bring him so far westward, +if he hadn't some object? He was either wandering from or to his home, +depend upon it, when the gypsies found him. If Belton be his home, +his frequent repetition of the word was natural enough. Eh, don't +you see it?" + +"Certainly," said I. + +"Very well; then, what's to be done?" + +"I cannot tell," I answered. + +The doctor rung the bell. + +"Is Robin up yet?" he asked, when Williams came in to answer it. + +"He is, sir." + +"And the man?" + +"Both, sir. They have just done breakfast." + +"Very well, Williams, you may go. Now, follow me, Stukely," continued +the physician, the moment that the butler had departed. "I'll do it +now. I am a physiognomist, and I'll tell you in the twinkling of an +eye if we are right, You mark him well, and so will I." The doctor +seized his map and road book, and before I could speak was out of +the room. When I overtook him, he had already reached the idiot, and +dismissed Robin. + +My friend commenced his operations by placing the map and book upon +the table, and closely scanning the countenance of his patient, in +order to detect and fix the smallest alteration of expression in the +coming examination. He might have spared himself the trouble. The +idiot had no eye for him. When I appeared he ran to me, and +manifested the most extravagant delight. He grasped my hand, and +drew me to his chair, and there detained me. He did not introduce +his treasure, but I could not fail to perceive that he intended to +repeat the scene of the previous day, as soon as we were again alone. +I did not wish to afford him opportunity, and I gladly complied with +the physician's request when he called upon me to interrogate the +idiot, in the terms he should employ. He had already himself applied +to the youth, but neither for himself nor his questions could he +obtain the slightest notice. The eye, the heart, and, such as it was, +the mind of the idiot, were upon his sister's friend. + +"Ask him, Stukely," began the doctor, "if he has ever been in +Somerset?" + +I did so, and, in truth, the word roused from their long slumber, or +we believed they did, recollections that argued well for the +physician's theory. The idiot raised his brow, and smiled. + +The doctor referred to his map, and said, whispering as before, +"Mention the river Parret." + +I could not doubt that the name had been familiar to the unhappy man. +He strove to speak, and could not, but he nodded his head +affirmatively and quickly, and the expression of his features +corroborated the strong testimony. + +"Now--_Belton_?" added the doctor. + +I repeated the word, and then the agony of supplication which I had +witnessed once before, was re-enacted, and the shrill and incoherent +cries burst from his afflicted breast. + +"I am satisfied!" exclaimed the doctor, shutting his book. "He shall +leave my house for Belton this very afternoon." + +And so he did, In an hour, arrangements were in progress for his +departure, and I was his guardian and companion. Robin, as soon as +Dr. Mayhew's intention was known, refused to have any thing more to +say, either inside the house or out of it, to the _devil incarnate_, +as he was pleased to call the miserable man. If his place depended +upon his taking charge of him, he was ready to resign it. There was +not another man whom the physician seemed disposed to trust, and in +his difficulty he glanced at me. I understood his meaning. He +proceeded to express his surprise and pleasure at finding an +attachment so strong towards me on the part of the idiot. "It was +remarkable," he said--"very! And what a pity it was that he hadn't +cultivated the same regard for somebody else. A short journey +_then_, to Somerset, would have been the easiest thing in the world. +Nothing but to pop into the coach, to go to an inn on arriving in +Belton, and to make enquiries, which, no doubt, would be +satisfactorily answered in less than no time. Yes, really, it was a +hundred pities!" + +The doctor looked at me again, and then I had already determined to +meet the request he was not bold to ask. I believed, equally with the +physician, from the conduct and expressions of young Harrington, that +the riddle of his present condition waited for explanation in the +village, whose name seemed like a load upon his heart, and +constituted the whole of his discourse since he had arrived amongst +us. It was there he yearned to be. It was necessary only to mention +the word to throw him into an agitation, which it took hours entirely +to dissipate. Yes, for a reason well known to him and hidden from us +all, his object, his only object as it appeared, was to be removed, +and to be conducted thither. I had but one reason for rejecting the +otherwise well sustained hypothesis of my friend. During my whole +intercourse with Emma, I had never heard her speak of Somerset or +Belton, and in her narrative no allusion was made either to the +shire or village. In what way, then, could it be so intimately +connected with her brother--whence was the origin of the hold which +this one word had taken of his shattered brain? I could not guess. +But, on the other hand, it was true that I was ignorant of his +history subsequently to the fearful death of his most sinful father. +How could I tell what new events had arisen, what fresh relations +might have sprung up, to attach and bind him to one particular spot +of ground? Urged by curiosity to discover all that yet remained to +know of his career, and more by a natural and strong desire to serve +the youth--not to desert him in the hour of his extremity--I resolved, +with the first hint of the doctor, to become myself the fellow +traveller of his _protg_. I told him so, and the doctor shook me by +the hand, and thanked me heartily. + +That very evening we were on our road, for our preparations were not +extensive. My instructions were to carry him direct to Belton, to +ascertain, if possible, from his movements the extent of his +acquaintance with the village, and to present him at all places of +resort, in the hope of having him identified. Two days were granted +for our stay. If he should be unknown, we were then to return, and +Doctor Mayhew would at once resign him to the parish. These were his +words at parting. We had no opposition in the idiot. His happiness +was perfect whilst I remained with him. He followed me eagerly +whithersoever I went, and was willing to be led, so long as I +continued guide. I took my seat in the coach, and he placed himself +at my side, trembling with joyousness, and laughing convulsively. +Once seated, he grasped my hand as usual, and did not, through the +livelong night, relinquish it altogether. A hundred affectionate +indications escaped him, and in the hour of darkness and of quiet, +it would have been easy to suppose that an innocent child was +nestling near me, _homeward bound_, and, in the fulness of its +expectant bliss, lavish of its young heartfelt endearments. Yes, it +would have been, but for other thoughts, blacker than the night +itself--how much more fearful!--which rendered every sign of +fondness a hollow, cold, and dismal mockery. Innocence! Alas, poor +parricide! + +In the morning the sun streamed into the coach, of which we were the +only inside passengers. Dancing and playing came the light, now here, +now there, skipping along the seat, and settling nowhere--cheerful +visitant, and to the idiot something more, for he gazed upon it, and +followed its fairy motion, lost in wonder and delight. He looked +from the coach-window, and beheld the far-spreading fields of beauty +with an eye awakened from long lethargy and inaction. He could not +gaze enough. And the voice of nature made giddy the sense of hearing +that drank intoxication from the notes of birds, the gurgling of a +brook, the rustling of a thousand leaves. His feeble powers, taken by +surprise, were vanquished by the summer's loveliness. Once, when our +coach stopped, a peasant girl approached us with a nosegay, which +she entreated me to buy. My fellow-traveller was impatient to obtain +it. I gave it to him, and, for an hour, all was neglected for the toy. +He touched the flowers one by one, viewed them attentively and +lovingly, as we do children whom we have known, and watched, and +loved from infancy--now caressing this, now smiling upon that. What +recollections did they summon in the mind of the destitute and +almost mindless creature? What pictures rose there?--pictures that +may never be excluded from the soul of man, however dim may burn the +intellectual light. His had been no happy boyhood, yet, in the +wilderness of his existence, there must have been vouchsafed to him +in mercy the few green spots that serve to attach to earth the most +afflicted and forlorn of her sad children. How natural for the +glimpses to revisit the broken heart, thus employed, thus roused and +animated by the light of heaven, rendering all things beautiful and +glad! + +As we approached the village, my companion ceased to regard his +many-coloured friends with the same exclusive attention and unmixed +delight. His spirits sank--his joy fled. Clouds gathered across his +brow; he withdrew his hand from mine, and he sat for an hour, +brooding. He held the neglected nosegay before him, and plucked the +pretty leaves one by one--not conscious, I am sure, of what he did. +In a short time, every flower was destroyed, and lay in its +fragments before him. Then, as if stung by remorse for the cruel act, +or shaken by the heavy thoughts that pressed upon his brain, he +covered his pallid face, and groaned bitterly. What were those +thoughts? How connected with the resting-place towards which we were +hastening rapidly? My own anxiety became intense. + +The village of Belton, situated near the mouth, and at the broadest +part of the river Parret, consisted of one long narrow street, and a +few houses scattered here and there on the small eminences which +sheltered it. The adjacent country was of the same character as that +which we had quitted--less luxuriant, perhaps, but still rich and +striking. We arrived at mid-day. I determined to alight at the inn +at which the coach put up, and to make my first enquiries there. +From the moment that we rattled along the stones that formed the +entrance to the village, an unfavourable alteration took place in my +companion. He grew excited and impatient; and his lips quivered, and +his eyes sparkled, as I had never seen them before. I was satisfied +that we had reached the object of his long desire, and that in a few +minutes the mysterious relation in which he stood to the place would +be ascertained. "He MUST be known," I continued to repeat to myself; +"the first eye that falls on him, will recognize him instantly." We +reached the inn; we alighted. The landlord and the ostler came to +the coach door, and received us with extreme civility, and the +former assisted the idiot in his eager endeavour to reach the +ground--I watched the action, expecting him to start, to speak, to +claim acquaintance--and having completed the polite intention, he +stood smiling and scraping. I looked at him, then at the idiot, and +saw at once that they were strangers. A dozen idlers stood about the +door. I waited for a recognition: none came. + +Seated in the parlour of the inn, I asked to see the landlady. The +sight of the idiot caused as little emotion in her, as it had +produced in her husband. I ordered dinner for him. Whilst it was +preparing, I engaged the landlord in conversation at the door. I did +not wish to speak before young Harrington. I dared not leave him. I +enquired, first, if the face of the idiot were familiar to him. I +received for answer, that the man had never seen him in his life +before, nor had his wife. + +"Do you know the name of Harrington?" said I. + +"No--never heard on it," was the reply. + +"Fitzjones, perhaps?" + +"Many Joneses hereabouts, sir," said the landlord, "but none of that +there Christian name." + +The excitement of the idiot did not abate. He would not touch his +food nor sit quietly, but he walked swiftly up and down the room, +breathing heavily, and trembling with increasing agitation. He urged +me in his own peculiar way to leave the house and walk abroad. He +pointed to the road and strove to speak. The attempt was fruitless, +and he paced the room again, wringing his hands and sighing +sorrowfully. At length I yielded to his request, and we were again +in the village, I following whithersoever he led me. He ran through +the street, like a madman as he was, bringing upon him the eyes of +every one, and outstripping me speedily. He stopped for a moment to +collect himself--looked round as though he had lost his way, and +knew not whither to proceed; then bounded off again, the hunted deer +not quicker in his flight, and instantly was out of sight. Without +the smallest hope of seeing him again, I pursued the fugitive, and, +as well as I could guess it, continued in his track. For half a mile +I traced his steps, and then I lost them. His last footmark was at +the closed gate of a good-sized dwelling house. The roof and highest +windows only of the habitation were to be discerned from the path, +and these denoted the residence of a wealthy man. He could have no +business here--no object. "He must have passed," thought I, +"upon the other side." I was about to cross the road, when I +perceived, at the distance of a few yards, a man labouring in a field. +I accosted him, and asked if he had seen the idiot. + +No--he had not. He was sure that nobody had passed by him for hours. +He must have seen the man if he had come that way. + +"Whose house is that?" I asked, not knowing _why_ I asked the +question. + +"What? that?" said he, pointing to the gate. "Oh, that's Squire +_Temple's_." + +The name dropped like a knife upon my heart. I could not speak. I +must have fallen to the earth, if the man, seeing me grow pale as +death, had not started to his feet, and intercepted me. I trembled +with a hundred apprehensions. My throat was dry with fright, and I +thought I should have choked. What follows was like a hideous dream. +The gate was opened suddenly. JAMES TEMPLE issued from it, and +passed me like an arrow. He was appalled and terrorstricken. Behind +him--within six feet--almost upon him, yelling fearfully, was the +brother of the girl he had betrayed and ruined--his friend and +schoolfellow, the miserable Frederick Harrington. I could perceive +that he held aloft, high over his head, the portrait of his sister. +It was all I saw and could distinguish. Both shot by me. I called to +the labourer to follow; and fast as my feet could carry me, I went on. +Temple fell. Harrington was down with him. I reached the spot. The +hand of the idiot was on the chest of the seducer, and the picture +was thrust in agony before his shuddering eyes. There was a +struggle--the idiot was cast away--and Temple was once more dashing +onward. "On, on!--after him!" shrieked the idiot. They reached the +river's edge. "What now--what now?" I exclaimed, beholding them from +afar, bewildered and amazed. The water does not restrain the scared +spirit of the pursued. He rushes on, leaps in, and trusts to the +swift current. So also the pursuer, who, with one long, loud +exclamation of triumph, still with his treasure in his grasp, +springs vehemently forward, and sinks, once and for ever. And the +betrayer beats his way onward, aimless and exhausted, but still he +nears the shore. Shall he reach it? Never! + + * * * * * + + + + +IMAGINARY CONVERSATION, BETWEEN MR. WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR AND THE + EDITOR OF BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE. + +To Christopher North, Esq. + +SIR,--Mr. Walter Savage Landor has become a contributor to _Blackwood's +Magazine_! I stared at the announcement, and it will presently be +seen why. There is nothing extraordinary in the apparition of another +and another of this garrulous sexagenarian's "Imaginary Conversations." +They come like shadows, so depart. + + "The thing, we know, is neither new nor rare, + But wonder how the devil it got there." + +Many of your readers, ignorant or forgetful, may have asked, +"Who is Mr. Landor? We have never heard of any remarkable person of +that name, or bearing a similar one, except the two brothers Lander, +the explorers of the Niger." Mr. Walter Savage would answer, +"Not to know me argues yourself unknown." He was very angry with +Lord Byron for designating him as _a_ Mr. Landor. He thought it +should have been _the_. You ought to have forewarned such readers +that _the_ Mr. Landor, now _your_ Walter Savage, is the learned +author of an epic poem called _Gebir_, composed originally in +Egyptian hieroglyphics, then translated by him into Latin, and +thence done into English blank verse by the same hand. It is a work +of rare occurrence even in the English character, and is said to be +deeply abstruse. Some extracts from it have been buried in, or have +helped to bury, critical reviews. A copy of the Anglo-Gebir is, +however, extant in the British Museum, and is said to have so +puzzled the few philologists who have examined it, that they have +declared none but a sphinx, and that an Egyptian one, could unriddle +it. I would suggest that some Maga of the gypsies should be called +in to interpret. Our vagrant fortune-tellers are reputed to be of +Egyptian origin, and to hold converse among themselves in a very +strange and curious oriental tongue called _Gibberish_, which word, +no doubt, is a derivative from Gebir. Of the existence of the +mysterious epic, the public were made aware many years ago by the +first publication of Mr. Leigh Hunt's _Feast of the Poets_, where it +was mentioned in a note as a thing containing one good passage about +a shell, while in the text the author of _Gebir_ was called a gander, +and Mr. Southey rallied by Apollo for his simplicity in proposing +that the company should drink the gabbler's health. That pleasantry +has disappeared from Mr. Hunt's poem, though Mr. Landor has by no +means left off gabbling. Mr. Hunt is a kindly-natured man as well as +a wit, and no doubt perceived that he had been more prophetic than +he intended--Mr. Landor having, in addition to verses uncounted +unless on his own fingers, favoured the world with five thick octavo +volumes of dialogues. From the four first I have culled a few +specimens; the fifth I have not read. It is rumoured that a sixth is +in the press, with a dedication in the _issimo_ style, to Lord John +Russell, Mr. Landor's lantern having at last enabled him to detect +one honest man in the Imperial Parliament. Lord John, it seems, in +the House of Commons lately quoted something from him about a +Chinese mandarin's opinion of the English; and Mr. Landor is so +delighted that he intends to take the Russells under his protection +for ever, and not only them, but every thing within the range of +their interests. Not a cast horse, attached to a Woburn sand-cart, +shall henceforth crawl towards Bedford and Tavistock Squares, but +the grateful Walter shall swear he is a Bucephalus. You, Mr. North, +have placed the cart before the horse, in allowing Mr. Landor's +dialogue between Porson and Southey precedence of the following +between Mr. Landor and yourself. + +You may object that it is a feigned colloquy, in which an +unauthorized use is made of your name. True; but all Mr. Landor's +colloquies are likewise feigned; and none is more fictitious than +one that has appeared in your pages, wherein Southey's name is used +in a manner not only unauthorized, but at which he would have +sickened. + +You and I must differ more widely in our notions of fair play than I +hope and believe we do, if you refuse to one whose purpose is +neither unjust nor ungenerous, as much license in your columns as +you have accorded to Mr. Landor, when it was his whim, without the +smallest provocation, to throw obloquy on the venerated author of +the _Excursion_. + + + I am, Sir, your faithful servant, + EDWARD QUILLINAN. + + * * * * * + +_Landor_.--Good-morning, Mr. North, I hope you are well. + +_North_.--I thank you, sir.--Be seated. + +_Landor_.--I have called to enquire whether you have considered my +proposal, and are willing to accept my aid. + +_North_.--I am almost afraid to trust you, sir. You treat the +Muses like nine-pins. Neither gods nor men find favour in your sight. +If Homer and Virgil crossed your path, you would throw stones at them. + +_Landor_.--The poems attributed to Homer, were probably, in part at +least, translations. He is a better poet than Hesiod, who has, indeed, +but little merit![49] Virgil has no originality. His epic poem is a +mere echo of the Iliad, softened down in tone for the polite ears of +Augustus and his courtiers. Virgil is inferior to Tasso. Tasso's +characters are more vivid and distinct than Virgil's, and greatly +more interesting. Virgil wants genius. Mezentius is the most +heroical and pious of all the characters in the Aeneid. The Aeneid, I +affirm, is the most misshapen of epics, an epic of episodes.[50] There +are a few good passages in it. I must repeat one for the sake of +proposing an improvement. + + "Quinetiam _hyberno_ moliris sidere classem, + Et mediis properas aquilonibus ire per altum ... + Crudelis! quod si non arva aliena domosque + Ignotas peteres, et Troja antiqua maneret, + Troja per _undosum_ peteretur classibus aequor?" + +If _hybernum_ were substituted for _undosum_, how incomparably more +beautiful would the sentence be for this energetic repetition? [51] + +_North_.--I admire your modesty, Mr. Landor, in quoting Virgil +only to improve him; but your alteration is not an improvement. Dido, +having just complained of her lover for putting out to sea under a +wintry star, would have uttered but a graceless iteration had she in +the same breath added--if Troy yet stood, must even Troy be sought +through a wintry sea? _Undosum_ is the right epithet; it paints to +the eye the danger of the voyage, and adds force to her complaint. + +_Landor_. Pshaw! You Scotchmen are no scholars. Let me proceed. +Virgil has no nature. And, by the way, his translator Dryden, too, +is greatly overrated. + +_North_..--Glorious John? + +_Landor_.--Glorious fiddlestick! It is insufferable that a rhymer +should be called glorious, whose only claim to notice is a clever +drinking song. + +_North_.--A drinking song? + +_Landor_. Yes, the thing termed an Ode for St. Cecilia's Day. + +_North_.--Hegh, sir, indeed! Well, let us go on with the Ancients, +and dispatch them first. To revert to the Greeks, from whom Virgil's +imitation of the Iliad drew us aside, favour me with your opinion of +Plato. + +[Footnote 48: See Mr. Landor's "Imaginary Conversations."--Vol. i. p. +44, and ii. p. 322, note.] + +[Footnote 50: Vol. i p. 269, 270.] + +[Footnote 51: Vol. i. p. 300.] + +_Landor_.--Plato is disingenuous and malicious. I fancy I have +detected him in more than one dark passage, a dagger in his hand and +a bitter sneer on his countenance.[52] He stole (from the Eyptian +priests and other sources) every idea his voluminous books convey. +[53] Plato was a thief. + +_North_.--"Taffy was a Welshman, Taffy was a thief." + +_Landor_.--Do you mean to insinuate that my dialogues are stolen +from Plato's? + +_North_.--Certainly not, Mr. Landor; there is not the remotest +resemblance between them. Lucian and Christopher North are your +models. What do you think of Aristotle? + +_Landor_.--In Plato we find only arbours and grottoes, with moss +and shell work all misplaced. Aristotle has built a solider edifice, +but has built it across the road. We must throw it down again. +[54] + +_North_.--So much for philosophy. What have you to say to Xenophon +as an historian? + +_Landor_.--He is not inelegant, but he is unimpassioned and +affected; [55] and he has not even preserved the coarse features of +nations and of ages in his Cyropaedia.[56] + +_North_.--The dunce! But what of the Anabasis? + +_Landor_.--You may set Xenophon down as a writer of graceful +mediocrity.[57] + +_North_.--Herodotus? + +_Landor_.--If I blame Herodotus, whom can I commend? His view of +history was nevertheless like that of the Asiatics, and there can be +little to instruct and please us in the actions and speeches of +barbarians.[58] + +_North_.--Which of the Greek tragedians do you patronise? + +_Landor_.--Aeschylus is not altogether unworthy of his reputation; +he is sometimes grand, but oftener flighty and obscure.[59] + +_North_.--What say you of Sophocles? + +_Landor_.--He is not so good as his master, though the Athenians +thought otherwise. He is, however, occasionally sublime. + +_North_.--What of Euripides? [60] + +_Landor_.--He came further down into common life than Sophocles, +and he further down than Aeschylus: one would have expected the +reverse. Euripides has but little dramatic power. His dialogue is +sometimes dull and heavy; the construction of his fable infirm and +inartificial, and if in the chorus he assumes another form, and +becomes a more elevated poet, he is still at a loss to make it serve +the interests of the piece. He appears to have written principally +for the purpose of inculcating political and moral axioms. The dogmas, +like _valets de place_, serve any master, and run to any quarter. +Even when new, they are nevertheless miserably flat and idle. + +_North_.--Aristophanes ridiculed him. + +_Landor_.--Yes, Aristophanes had, however, but little true wit. [61] + +_North_.--That was lucky for Euripides. + +_Landor_.-A more skilful archer would have pierced him through +bone and marrow, and saved him from the dogs of Archelaus. + +_North_.--That story is probably an allegory, signifying that +Euripides was after all worried out of life by the curs of criticism +in his old age. + +_Landor_.--As our Keats was in his youth, eh, Mr. North? A worse +fate than that of Aeschylus, who had his skull cracked by a tortoise +dropt by an eagle that mistook his bald head for a stone. + +_North_.--Another fable of his inventive countrymen. He died of +brain-fever, followed by paralysis, the effect of drunkenness. He +was a jolly old toper: I am sorry for him. You just now said that +Aristophanes wanted wit. What foolish fellows then the Athenians +must have been, in the very meridian of their literature, to be so +delighted with what they mistook for wit as to decree him a crown +of olive! He has been styled the Prince of Old Comedy too. How do you +like Menander? + +[Footnote 52: Vol. ii. p. 298.] + +[Footnote 53: Vol. iii p. 514.] + +[Footnote 54: Vol. iv. p 80.] + +[Footnote 55: Vol. i. p. 233.] + +[Footnote 56: Vol. ii. p. 331.] + +[Footnote 57: Vol. iii. p. 35.] + +[Footnote 58: Vol. ii. p. 332.] + +[Footnote 59: Vol. i. pp. 299, 298, 297.] + +[Footnote 60: Vol. i. p. 298.] + +[Footnote 61: Vol. ii. p. 12.] + +_Landor_.--We have not much of him, unless in Terence. [62] The +characters on which Menander raised his glory were trivial and +contemptible. + +[Footnote 62: Vol. ii. p. 5. At p. 6th, Mr. Landor produces some verses +of his own "in the manner of Menander," fathers them on Andrew Marvel, +and makes Milton praise them!] + +_North_.--Now that you have demolished the Greeks, let us go back +to Rome, and have another touch at the Latins. From Menander to +Terence is an easy jump. How do you esteem Terence? + +_Landor_.--Every one knows that he is rather an expert translator +from the Greek than an original writer. There is more pith in Plautus. + +_North_.--You like Plautus, then, and endure Terence? + +_Landor_.--I tolerate both as men of some talents; but comedy is, +at the best, only a low style of literature; and the production of +such trifling stuff is work for the minor geniuses. I have never +composed a comedy. + +_North_.--I see: farewell to the sock, then. Is Horace worth his +salt? + +_Landor_.--There must be some salt in Horace, or he would not have +kept so well. [63] He was a shrewd observer and an easy versifier; but, +like all the pusillanimous, he was malignant. + +[Footnote 63: Vol. ii. p. 249.] + +_North_.--Seneca? + +_Landor_.--He was, like our own Bacon, hard-hearted and +hypocritical, [64] as to his literary merits, Caligula, the excellent +emperor and critic, (who made sundry efforts to extirpate the writings +of Homer and Virgil,) [65] spoke justly and admirably when he compared the +sentences of Seneca to lime without sand. + +[Footnote 64: Vol. iv. p. 31.] + +[Footnote 65: Vol. i. p. 274.] + + +_North_.--Perhaps, after all, you prefer the moderns? + +_Landor_.--I have not said that. + +_North_.--You think well of Spenser? + +_Landor_.--As I do of opium: he sends me to bed [66]. + +[Footnote 66: + Thee, gentle Spenser fondly led, + But me he mostly sent to bed.--LANDOR. ] + +_North_.--You concede the greatness of Milton? + +_Landor_.--Yes, when he is great; but his Satan is often a thing +to be thrown out of the way among the rods and fools' caps of the +nursery [67]. + +[Footnote 67: Vol. i. p. 301.] + +He has sometimes written very contemptibly; his lines on Hobbes, +the carrier, for example, and his versions of Psalms. [68] Milton was +never so great a regicide as when he smote King David. + +[Footnote 68: Blackwood.] + +_North_.--You like, at least, his hatred of kings? + +_Landor_.--That is somewhat after my own heart, I own; but he does +not go far enough in his hatred of them. + +_North_.--You do? + +_Landor_.--I despise and abominate them. How many of them, do you +think, could name their real fathers? [69] + +[Footnote 69: Vol. i. p. 61.] + +_North_.--But, surely, Charles was a martyr? + +_Landor_.--If so, what were those who sold [70] him? + +[Footnote 70: Vol. iv. p. 283.] + +Ha, ha, ha! You a Scotchman, too! However, Charles was not a martyr. +He was justly punished. To a consistent republican, the diadem +should designate the victim: all who wear it, all who offer it, all +who bow to it, should perish. Rewards should be offered for the +heads of those monsters, as for the wolves, the kites, and the vipers. +A true republican can hold no milder doctrine of polity, than that +all nations, all cities, all communities, should enter into one +great hunt, like that of the ancient Scythians at the approach of +winter, and should follow up the kingly power unrelentingly to its +perdition. [71] True republicans can see no reason why they should +not send an executioner to release a king from the prison-house of +his crimes, [72] with his family to attend him. + +[Footnote 71: Vol. iv. 507.] + +[Footnote 72: Vol. i. p. 73.] + +In my Dialogues, I have put such sentiments into the mouth of +Diogenes, that cynic of sterling stamp, and of Aeschines, that +incorruptible orator, as suitable to the maxims of their government. [73] +To my readers, I leave the application of them to nearer interests. + +[Footnote 73: Mr. Landor, with whom the Cynic is a singular favourite, +says, p. 461, vol. iii., that Diogenes was not expelled from Sinope +for having counterfeited money; that he only marked false men. +Aeschines was accused of having been bribed by Philip of Macedon.] + +_North_.--But you would not yourself, in your individual character, +and in deliberate earnestness, apply them to modern times and +monarchies? + +_Landor_.--Why not? Look at my Dialogue with De Lille. [74] What +have I said of Louis the Fourteenth, the great exemplar of kingship, +and of the treatment that he ought to have received from the English? +Deprived of all he had acquired by his treachery and violence, +unless the nation that brought him upon his knees had permitted two +traitors, Harley and St. John, to second the views of a weak woman, +and to obstruct those of policy and of England, he had been carted +to condign punishment in the _Place de Grve_ or at Tyburn. _Such +examples are much wanted, and, as they can rarely be given, should +never be omitted_.[75] + +[Footnote 74: Vol. i.] + +[Footnote 75: Vol. i. p. 281.--Landor.] + +_North_.--The Sans-culottes and Poissardes of the last French +revolution but three, would have raised you by acclamation to the +dignity of Decollator of the royal family of France for that brave +sentiment. But you were not at Paris, I suppose, during the reign of +the guillotine, Mr. Landor? + +_Landor_.--I was not, Mr. North. But as to the king whose plethory +was cured by that sharp remedy, he, Louis the Sixteenth, was only +dragged to a fate which, if he had not experienced it, he would be +acknowledged to have deserved. [76] + +[Footnote 76: Vol. ii. p. 267. This truculent sentiment the Dialogist +imputes to a Spanish liberal. He cannot fairly complain that it is here +restored to its owner. It is exactly in accordance with the sentence +quoted above in italics--a judgment pronounced by Mr. Landor in person. +--Vol. i. p. 281. It also conforms to his philosophy of regicide, as +expounded in various parts of his writings. In his preface to the first +volume of his Imaginary Conversations, he claims exemption, though +somewhat sarcastically, from responsibility for the notions expressed +by his interlocutors. An author, in a style which has all the freedom of +the dramatic form, without its restraints, should especially abstain +from making his work the vehicle of crotchets, prejudices, and +passions peculiar to himself, or unworthy of the characters speaking. +"This form of composition," Mr. Landor says, "among other advantages, +is recommended by the protection it gives from the hostility all +novelty (unless it be vicious) excites." Prudent consideration, but +indiscreet parenthesis.] + +_North_.--I believe one Englishman, a martyr to liberty, has said +something like that before. + +_Landor_.--Who, pray? + +_North_.--The butcher Ings. + +_Landor_.--Ah, I was not aware of it! Ings was a fine fellow. + +_North_.--Your republic will never do here, Mr. Landor. + +_Landor_.--I shall believe that a king is better than a republic +when I find that a single tooth in a head is better than a set. [77] + +[Footnote 77: Vol. ii. p. 31.] + +_North_.--It would be as good logic in a monarchy-man to say, +"I shall believe that a republic is better than a king when I am +convinced that six noses on a face would be better than one." + +_Landor_.--In this age of the march of intellect, when a pillar of +fire is guiding us out of the wilderness of error, you Tories lag +behind, and are lost in darkness, Mr. North. Only the first person +in the kingdom should be unenlightened and void, as only the first +page in a book should be a blank one. It is when it is torn out that +we come at once to the letters. [78] + +[Footnote 78: Vol. iv. p. 405.] + +_North_.--Well, now that you have torn out the first page of the +Court Guide, we come to the Peers, I suppose. + +_Landor_.--The peerage is the park-paling of despotism, arranged +to keep in creatures tame and wild for luxury and diversion, and to +keep out the people. Kings are to peerages what poles are to +rope-dancers, enabling then to play their tricks with greater +confidence and security above the heads of the people. The wisest +and the most independent of the English Parliaments declared the +thing useless. [79] Peers are usually persons of pride without dignity, +of lofty pretensions with low propensities. They invariably bear +towards one another a constrained familiarity or frigid courtesy, +while to their huntsmen and their prickers, their chaplains and +their cooks, (or indeed any other man's,) they display unequivocal +signs of ingenuous cordiality. + +[Footnote 79: Vol. iv. p. 400.] + +How many do you imagine of our nobility are not bastards or sons of +bastards? [80] + +[Footnote 80: Vol. iv. p. 273.] + +_North_.--You have now settled the Peers. The Baronets come next in +order. + +_Landor_.--Baronets are prouder than any thing we see on this side +of the Dardanelles, excepting the proctors of universities, and the +vergers of cathedrals; and their pride is kept in eternal agitation, +both from what is above them and what is below. Gentlemen of any +standing (like Walter Savage Landor, of Warwick Castle, and Lantony +Abbey in Wales,) are apt to investigate their claims a little too +minutely, and nobility has neither bench nor joint-stool for them in +the vestibule. During the whole course of your life, have you ever +seen one among this, our King James's breed of curs, that either did +not curl himself up and lie snug and warm in the lowest company, [81] +or slaver and whimper in fretful quest of the highest. + +[Footnote 81: Vol. iv. p. 400.] + +_North_.--But you allow the English people to be a great people. + +_Landor_.--I allow them to be a nation of great fools. [82] +In England, if you write dwarf on the back of a giant, he will go +for a dwarf. + +[Footnote 82: Vol. iii. p. 135.] + +_North_.--I perceive; some wag has been chalking your back in that +fashion. Why don't you label your breast with the word giant? +Perhaps you would then pass for one. + +_Landor_.--I have so labelled it, but in vain. + +_North_.--Yet we have seen some great men, besides yourself, +Mr. Landor, in our own day. Some great military commanders, for +example; and, as a particular instance, Wellington. + +_Landor_.--It cannot be dissembled that all the victories of the +English, in the last fifty years, have been gained by the high +courage and steady discipline of the soldier, [83] and the most +remarkable where the prudence and skill of the commander were +altogether wanting. + +[Footnote 83: Vol. ii. p 214.] + +_North_.--Ay, that was a terrible mistake at Waterloo. Yet you +will allow Wellington to have been something of a general, if not in +India, at least in Spain. + +_Landor_.--Suppose him, or any distinguished general of the English, +to have been placed where Murillo was placed in America, Mina in +Spain; then inform me what would have been your hopes? [84] +The illustrious Mina, [85] of all the generals who have appeared in our +age, has displayed the greatest genius, and the greatest constancy. +That exalted personage, the admiration of Europe, accomplished the +most arduous and memorable work that any one mortal ever brought to +its termination. + +[Footnote 84: Vol. ii. p. 214.] + +[Footnote 85: Vol. ii. p. 3. Ded. "to Mina."--Wilson.] + +_North_.--We have had some distinguished statesmen at the helm in +our time, Mr. Landor. + +_Landor_.--Not one. + +_North_.--Mr. Pitt. + +_Landor_.--Your pilot that weathered the storm. Ha, ha! He was the +most insidious republican that England ever produced. + +_North_.--You should like him if he was a Republican. + +_Landor_.--But he was a debaser of the people as well as of the +peerage. By the most wasteful prodigality both in finance and war, +he was enabled to distribute more wealth among his friends and +partisans than has been squandered by the uncontrolled profusion of +French monarchs from the first Louis to the last. [86] Yet he was +more short-sighted than the meanest insect that can see an inch +before it. You should have added those equally enlightened and +prudent leaders of our Parliament, Lord Castlereagh and his +successors. Pitt, indeed! whose requisites for a successful minister +were three--to speak like an honest man, to act like a scoundrel, +and to be indifferent which he is called. But you have forgotten my +dialogue between him and that wretched fellow Canning. [87] +I have there given Pitt his quietus. As to Castlereagh and Canning, +I have crushed them to powder, spit upon them, kneaded them into +dough again; and pulverized them once more. Canning is the man who +deserted his party, supplanted his patrons, and abandoned every +principle he protested he would uphold. [88] Castlereagh is the +statesman who was found richer one day, by a million of zecchins, +than he was the day before, and this from having signed a treaty! +The only life he ever personally aimed at was the vilest in existence, +and none complains that he succeeded in his attempt. [89] I forgot: +he aimed at another so like it, (you remember his duel with Canning,) +that it is a pity it did not form a part of it. + +[Footnote 86: Vol. ii. p. 240, 241, 242.] + +[Footnote 87: Vol. iii. p. 66.] + +[Footnote 88: Vol. iii. p. 134.] + +[Footnote 89: Vol. iii. p. 172, and that there should be no mistake as +to the person indicated, Lord Castlereagh is again accused by name +at p. 187. The same charge occurs also in the dialogue between +Aristotle and Calisthenes! p 334, 335, 336; where Prince Metternich, +(Metanyctius,) the briber, is himself represented as a traitor to +his country. Aristotle is the teller of this cock-and-bull story!] + +_North_.--Horrible! most horrible! + +_Landor_.--Hear Epicurus and Leontion and Ternissa discuss the +merits of Castlereagh and Canning. + +_North_.--Epicurus! What, the philosopher who flourished some +centuries before the Christian era? + +_Landor_.--The same. He flourishes still for my purposes. + +_North_.--And who are Leontion and Ternissa? + +_Landor_.--Two of his female pupils. + +_North_.--Oh, two of his misses! And how come they and their master, +who lived above 2000 years before the birth of Canning and +Castlereagh, to know any thing about them? + +_Landor_.--I do not stand at trifles of congruity. Canning is the +very man who has taken especial care that no strong box among us +shall be without a chink at the bottom; the very man who asked and +received a gratuity (you remember the Lisbon job) [90] from the colleague +he had betrayed, belied, and thrown a stone at, for having proved +him in the great market-place a betrayer and a liar. Epicurus describes +Canning as a fugitive slave, a writer of epigrams on walls, and of songs +on the grease of platters, who attempted to cut the throat of a fellow +in the same household, [91] who was soon afterward more successful in doing +it himself. + +[Footnote 90: Vol. iv. p. 194.] + +[Footnote 91: Vol. iv. p. 194.] + +_North_.--Horrible, most horrible mockery! But even that is not new. +It is but Byron's brutal scoff repeated--"Carotid-artery-cutting +Castlereagh." + +_Landor_.--You Tories affect to be so squeamish. Epicurus goes on +to show Canning's ignorance of English. + +_North_.--Epicurus! Why not William Cobbett? + +_Landor_.--The Athenian philosopher introduces the trial of George +the Fourth's wife, and describes her as a drunken old woman, the +companion of soldiers and sailors, and lower and viler men. One +whose eyes, as much as can be seen of them, are streaky fat floating +in semi-liquid rheum. + +_North_.--And this is the language of Epicurus to his female pupils! +He was ever such a beast. + +_Landor_.--You are delicate. He goes on to allude to Canning's +having called her the _pride, the life, the ornament of society_, +(you know he did so call her in the House of Commons, according to +the newspaper reports; it is true he was speaking of what she had +been many years previously; before her departure from England.) [92] +Epicurus says triumphantly that the words, if used at all, should +have been placed thus--_the ornament, pride, and life_; for hardly a +Boeotian bullock-driver would have wedged in _life_ between _pride_ +and _ornament_. + +[Footnote 92: Vol. iv. p. 194, 195.--Pericles and Sophocles also +prattle about Queen Caroline! vol. 2, p. 106, 107.--In another place +the judgment and style of Johnson being under sentence, the Doctor's +judgment is "alike in all things," that is, "unsound and incorrect;" +and as to style, "a sentence of Johnson is like a pair of breeches, +an article of dress, divided into two parts, equal in length, breadth, +and substance, with a protuberance before and behind." The _contour_ +of Mr. Landor's figure can hardly be so graceful as that of the +Pythian Apollo, if his dress-breeches are made in this fashion, and +"his Florentine tailor never fails to fit him."--See vol. i. p. 296, +and p. 185, note.] + +_North_.--What dignified and important criticism! and how +appropriate from the lips of Epicurus! But why were you, Mr. Landor, +so rancorous against that miserable Queen Caroline? You have half +choked Sir Robert Wilson, one of her champions, and the marshal of +her coffin's royal progress through London, with a reeking panegyric +in your dedication to him [93] of a volume of your Talks. + +[Footnote 93: Vol. iii.] + +_Landor_.--I mistook Wilson for an uncompromising Radical. As to +his and Canning's nobled Queen, I confess I owed her a grudge for +disrespect to me at Como long before. + +_North_.--How? Were you personally acquainted with her? + +_Landor_.--Not at all: She was not aware that there was such a man +as Walter Savage Landor upon earth, or she would have taken care +that I should not be stopt by her porter at the lodge-gate, when I +took a fancy to pry into the beauties of her pleasure-ground. + +_North_.--Then her disrespect to you was not only by deputy, but +even without her cognisance? + +_Landor_.--Just so. + +_North_.--And that was the offence for which you assailed her with +such a violent invective after her death? + +_Landor_.--Oh no! it might possibly have sharpened it a little; +but I felt it my duty, as a censor of morals, to mark my reprobation +of her having grown fat and wrinkled in her old age. It was +necessary for me to correct the flattering picture drawn of her by +that caitiff Canning. You know the contempt of Demosthenes for +Canning. + +_North_.--Demosthenes, too! + +_Landor_.--Yes, in my dialogue between him and Eubulides, he +delineates Canning as a clumsy and vulgar man. + +_North_.--Every one knows that he was a man of remarkably fine +person and pleasing manners. + +_Landor_.--Never mind that--A vulgar and clumsy man, a +market-place demagogue, lifted on a honey-barrel by grocers and +slave-merchants, with a dense crowd around him, who listen in +rapture because his jargon is unintelligible. [94] Demosthenes, you +know, was a Liverpool electioneering agent, so he knew all about +Canning and his tricks, and his abstraction of L.14,000 sterling +from the public treasury to defray the expenses of his shameful +flight to Lesbos, that is Lisbon.[95] + +[Footnote 94: Vol. i. p. 245.] + +[Footnote 95: Vol. i. p. 247. This charge against Canning is +repeated at Vol. iii. p. 186, 187, and again at Vol. iv. p. 193.] + +_North_.--Has England produced no honest men of eminence, +Mr. Landor? + +_Landor_.--Very few; I can, however, name two--Archbishop Boulter +and Philip Savage. [96] I am not certain that I should ever have thought +of recording their merits, if their connexion with my own family had +not often reminded me of them; we do not always bear in mind very +retentively what is due to others, unless there is something at home +to stimulate the recollection. Boulter, Primate of Ireland, saved +that kingdom from pestilence and famine in 1729 by supplying the +poor with bread, medicines, attendance, and every possible comfort +and accommodation. Again, in 1740 and 1741, no fewer than 250,000 +persons were fed, twice a-day, principally at his expense. Boulter +was certainly the most disinterested, the most humane, the most +beneficent, and after this it is little to say, the most enlightened +and learned man that ever guided the counsels of a kingdom.[97] +Mr. Philip Savage, Chancellor of the Exchequer, married his wife's +sister, of his own name, but very distantly related. This minister +was so irreproachable, that even Swift could find no fault with him. +[97] He kept a groom in livery, and two saddle-horses. + +[Footnote 96: Also Vol. iii. p. 92.] + +[Footnote 97: Vol. iii. p. 91, 92, note.] + +_North_.--Is it possible? And these great men were of your family, +Mr. Landor! + +_Landor_.--I have told you so, sir--Philip was one of my Savage +ancestors, [98] and he and Boulter married sisters, who were also Savages. + +[Footnote 98: Vol. iii. p. 92, note.] + +_North_.--You have lived a good while in Italy? You like the +Italians, I believe? + +_Landor_.--I despise and abominate the Italians; and I have taken +some pains to show it in various ways. During my long residence at +Florence I was the only Englishman there, I believe, who never went +to court, leaving it to my hatter, who was a very honest man, and my +breeches-maker, who never failed to fit me. [99] The Italians were +always--far exceeding all other nations--parsimonious and avaricious, +the Tuscans beyond all other Italians, the Florentines beyond all other +Tuscans. [100] + +[Footnote 99: Vol. i. p. 185.] + +[Footnote 100: Vol. i. p. 219.] + +_North_.--But even Saul was softened by music: surely that of +Italy must have sometimes soothed you? + +_Landor_.--_Opera_ was, among the Romans, _labour_, as _operae +pretium_, &c. It now signifies the most contemptible of performances, +the vilest office of the feet and tongue. [101] + +[Footnote 101: Vol. i. p. 212.] + +_North_.--But the sculptors, the painters, the architects of Italy? +You smile disdainfully, Mr. Landor! + +_Landor_.--I do; their sculpture and painting have been employed +on most ignoble objects--on scourgers and hangmen, on beggarly +enthusiasts and base impostors. Look at the two masterpieces of the +pencil; the Transfiguration of Raphael, and the St. Jerome of +Correggio; [102] can any thing be more incongruous, any thing more +contrary to truth and history? + +[Footnote 102: Vol. i. p. 109, note.] + +_North_.--There have been able Italian writers both in verse and +prose? + +_Landor_.--In verse not many, in prose hardly any. + +_North_.--Boccaccio? + +_Landor_.--He is entertaining. + +_North_.--Machiavelli? + +_Landor_.--A coarse comedian. [103] + +[Footnote 103: Vol. ii. p. 252.] + +_North_.--You honour Ariosto? + +_Landor_.--I do not. Ariosto is a plagiary, the most so of all +poets. [104] Ariosto is negligent; his plan inartificial, defective, bad. + +[Footnote 104: Vol. i. p. 290.] + +_North_.--You protect Tasso? + +_Landor_.--I do, especially against his French detractors. + +_North_.--But you esteem the French? + +_Landor_.--I despise and abominate the French. + +_North_.--And their literature! + +_Landor_.--And their literature. As to their poets, bad as Ariosto +is, divide the Orlando into three parts, and take the worst of them, +and although it may contain a large portion of extremely vile poetry, +it will contain more of good than the whole French language. [105] + +[Footnote 105: Vol. i. p. 290.] + +_North_.--Is Boileau so very contemptible? + +_Landor_.--Beneath contempt. He is a grub. [106] + +[Footnote 106: See Mr. Landor's Polite Conversation with De Lille, +Vol. i. and Note at the end, p. 309, 310.] + +_North_.--Racine? + +_Landor_.--Diffuse, feeble, and, like Boileau, meanly thievish. +The most admired verse of Racine is stolen, [107] so is almost every other +that is of any value. + +[Footnote 107: Vol. i. p. 293, 294.] + +_North_.--But Voltaire, Mr. Landor? + +_Landor_.--Voltaire, sir, was a man of abilities, and author of +many passable epigrams, besides those which are contained in his +tragedies and heroics, [108] though, like Parisian lackeys, they are +usually the smartest when out of place. I tell you I detest and +abominate every thing French. [109] + +[Footnote 108: Vol. i. p. 254.] + +[Footnote 109: We, however, find Mr. Landor giving the French credit +for their proceedings in one remarkable instance, and it is so +seldom that we catch him in good-humour with any thing, that we will +not miss an opportunity of exhibiting him in an amiable light. This +champion of the liberties of the world, who has cracked his lungs in +endeavouring, on the shores of Italy, to echo the lament of Byron +over Greece, and who denounced the powers of Europe for suffering +the Duke d'Angoulme to assist his cousin Ferdinand in retaking the +Trocadero, yet approves of French proceedings in Spain on a previous +occasion. Admiring reader! you shall hear Sir Oracle himself again:-- +"The laws and institutions introduced by the French into Spain were +excellent, and the _king_" (Joseph Bonaparte!) "was liberal, affable, +sensible, and humane." Poor Trelawney, the friend of Byron, is made +to talk thus! Both Trelawney and Odysseus the noble Greek, to whom +he addresses himself, were more likely to participate in the +"indignation of a high-minded Spaniard," so vividly expressed by a +high-minded Englishman in the following sonnet:-- + + "We can endure that he should waste our lands, + Despoil our temples, and, by sword and flame, + Return us to the dust from which we came; + Such food a tyrant's appetite demands: + And we can brook the thought, that by his hands + Spain may be overpower'd, and he possess, + For his delight, a solemn wilderness, + Where all the brave lie dead. But, when of bands + That he will break for us he dares to speak, + Of benefits, and of a future day + When our enlighten'd minds shall bless his sway-- + Then the strain'd heart of fortitude proves weak; + Our groans, our blushes, our pale cheeks declare + That he has power to inflict what we lack strength to bear."] + +_North_.--Well, Mr. Landor, we have rambled over much ground; we +have journeyed from Dan to Beersheba, and found all barren. Let us +return home. + +_Landor_.--Before we do so, let me observe, that among several +noted Italians whom you have not glanced at, there is one whom I +revere--Alfieri. He was the greatest man of his time in Europe, +though not acknowleged or known to be so; [110] and he well knew his +station as a writer and as a man. Had he found in the world five equal +to himself, he would have walked out of it not to be jostled. [111] + +[Footnote 110: Vol. ii. p. 241.] + +[Footnote 111: Vol. ii. p. 258.] + +_North_.--He would have been sillier, then, than the flatulent +frog in the fable. Yet Alfieri's was, indeed, no ordinary mind, and +he would have been a greater poet than he was, had he been a better +man. I admire his Bruto Primo as much as you do, and I am glad to +hear you give your suffrage so heartily in favour of any one. + +_Landor_.--Sir, I admire the man as much as I do the poet. It is +not every one who can measure his height; I can. + +_North_.--Pop! there you go! you have got out of the bottle again, +and are swelling and vapouring up to the clouds. Do lower yourself +to my humble stature, (I am six feet four in my slippers.) Alfieri +reminds me of Byron. What of him? + +_Landor_.--A sweeper of the Haram. [112] A sweeper of the Haram is +equally in false costume whether assuming the wreath of Musaeus or +wearing the bonnet of a captain of Suliotes. _I_ ought to have been +chosen a leader of the Greeks. I would have led them against the +turbaned Turk to victory, armed not with muskets or swords but with +bows and arrows, and mailed not in steel cuirasses or chain armour +but in cork caps and cork shirts. Nothing is so cool to the head as +cork, and by the use of cork armour the soldier who cannot swim has +all the advantage of him who can. At the head of my swimming archers +I would have astonished the admirers of Leander and Byron in the +Dardanelles, and I would have proved myself a Duck worth two of the +gallant English admiral who tried in vain to force that passage. The +Sultan should have beheld us in Stamboul, and we would have +fluttered his dovecote within the Capi--- + +[Footnote 112: Vol. i. p. 301.--Vol. ii. p. 222, 223.] + +_North_.--I will not tempt you further. Let us proceed to business. +To what am I indebted for the honour of this visit, Mr. Landor? + +_Landor_.--I sent you the manuscript of a new Imaginary +Conversation between Porsou and Southey. + +_North_.--A sort of abnegation of your former one. For what +purpose did you send it to me? + +_Landor_.--For your perusal. Have you read it? + +_North_.--I have, and I do not find it altogether new. + +_Landor_.--How? + +_North_.--I have seen some part of it in print before. + +_Landor_.--Where? + +_North_.--In a production of your own. + +_Landor_.--Impossible! + +_North_.--In a rhymed lampoon printed in London in 1836. It is +called "A Satire on Satirists, and Admonition to Detractors." Do you +know such a thing? + +_Landor_.--(_Aside_. Unlucky! some good-natured friend has sent +him that suppressed pamphlet.) Yes, Mr. North; a poetical manifesto +of mine with that title was printed but not published. + +_North_.--No, only privately distributed among friends. It +contained some reflections on Wordsworth. + +_Landor_.--It did. + +_North_.--Why did you suppress it? + +_Landor_.--Because I was ashamed of it. Byron and others had +anticipated me. I had produced nothing either new or true to damage +Wordsworth. + +_North_.--Yet you have now, in this article that you offer me, +reproduced the same stale gibes. + +_Landor_.--But I have kept them in salt for six years: they will +now have more flavour. I have added some spice, too. + +_North_.--Which you found wrapt up in old leaves of the _Edinburgh +Review_. + +_Landor_.--Not the whole of it; a part was given to me by +acquaintances of the poet. + +_North_.--Eavesdroppers about Rydal Mount and Trinity Lodge. It was +hardly worth your acceptance. + +_Landor_.--Then you refuse my article. + +_North_.--It is a rare article, Mr. Landor--a brave caricature of +many persons and things; but, before I consent to frame it in ebony, +we must come to some understanding about other parts of the +suppressed pamphlet. Here it is. I find that in this atrabilarious +effusion you have treated ourselves very scurvily. At page 9 I see, + + "Sooner shall Tuscan Vallambrosa lack wood, + Than Britain, Grub street, Billingsgate, and _Blackwood_." + +Then there is a note at page 10: "Who can account for the eulogies of +_Blackwood_ on Sotheby's Homer as compared with Pope's and Cowper's? +Eulogy is not reported to be the side he _lies_ upon, in general." +On the same page, and the next, you say of Us, high Churchmen and +high Tories, + + "Beneath the battlements of Holyrood + There never squatted a more sordid brood + Than that which now, across the clotted perch, + Crookens the claw and screams for Court and Church." + +Then again at page 12, + + "Look behind you, look! + There issues from the Treasury, dull and dry as + The leaves in winter, Gifford and Matthias. + Brighter and braver Peter Pindar started, + And ranged around him all the lighter-hearted, + When Peter Pindar sank into decline, + Up from his hole sprang Peter Porcupine" + +All which is nothing to Us, but what does it lead to? + + "Him W ... son follow'd"-- + +Why those dots, Mr. Landor? + + "Him W ... son follow'd, of congenial quill, + As near the dirt and no less prone to ill. + Walcot, of English heart, had English pen, + Buffoon he might be, but for hire was none; + Nor plumed and mounted in Professor's chair + Offer'd to grin for wages at a fair." + +The rest is too foul-mouthed for repetition. You are a man of nasty +ideas, Mr. Landor. You append a note, in which, without any +authority but common rumour, you exhibit the learned Professor as an +important contributor to Blackwood, especially in those graces of +delicate wit so attractive to his subcribers. You declare, too, that +we fight under cover, and only for spite and pay; that honester and +wiser satirists were brave, that-- + + "Their courteous soldiership, outshining ours, + Mounted the engine and took aim from towers;" + +But that + + "From putrid ditches we more safely fight, + And push our zig-zag parallels by night." + +Again, at page 19-- + + "The Gentleman's, the Lady's we have seen, + Now blusters forth the Blackguard's Magazine; + And (Heaven from joint-stock companies protect us!) + Dustman and nightman issue their prospectus." + +_Landor (who has sate listening, with a broad grin, while Mr. North +was getting rather red in the face_.)--Really, Mr. North, +considering that you have followed the trade of a currier for the +last thirty years, you are remarkably sensitive to any little +experiment on your own skin. Put what has my unpublished satire to +do with our present affair? + +_North_.--The answer to that question I will borrow from the +satire itself, as you choose to term your scurrilous lampoon. Our +present affair, then, is to consider whether Walter Savage Landor, +Imaginary Conversation writer, in rushlight emulation of the +wax-candles that illumine our Noctes, shall be raised, as he aspires, +to the dignity of Fellow of the _Blackwood_ Society. In the +note at page 13 of the said lampoon, you state that "Lord Byron +declared that no gentleman could write in _Blackwood_;" and +you ask, "Has this assertion been ever disproved by experiment?" Now, +Mr. Landor, as you have thus adopted and often re-echoed Lord Byron's +opinion, that _no gentleman could write in Blackwood_, and yet wish +to enrol yourself among our writers, what is the inference? + +_Landor_. That I confess myself no gentleman, _you_ would infer. +_I_ make no such confession. I would disprove Byron's assertion, +by making the experiment. + +_North_. You do us too much honour. Yet reflect, Mr. Landor. After +the character you have given us, would you verily seek to be of our +fraternity? You who have denounced us so grandiloquently--you who +claim credit for lofty and disinterested principles of action? +Recollect that you have represented us as the worthy men who have +turned into ridicule Lamb, Keats, Hazlitt, Coleridge--(diverse +metals curiously graduated!)--all in short, who, recently dead, are +now dividing among them the admiration of their country. Whatever +could lessen their estimation; whatever could injure their fortune; +whatever could make their poverty more bitter; whatever could tend +to cast down their aspirations after fame; whatever had a tendency +to drive them to the grave which now has opened to them, was +incessantly brought into action against them by _us_ zealots for +religion and laws. A more deliberate, a more torturing murder, never +was committed, than the murder of Keats. The chief perpetrator of +his murder knew beforehand that he could not be hanged for it. These +are your words, Mr. Landor. + +_Landor_.--I do not deny them. + +_North_.--And in regard to the taste of the common public for +Blackwood's Cordials, you have said that, to those who are +habituated to the gin-shop, the dram is sustenance, and they feel +themselves both uncomfortable and empty without the hot excitement. +_Blackwood's_ is really a gin-palace. _Landor_.--All this I have +both said and printed, and the last sentence you have just read from +my satire is preceded by one that you have not read. An exposure of +the impudence and falsehood of _Blackwood's Magazine_ is not likely +to injure its character, _or diminish the number of its subscribers_; +and in this sentence you have the secret of my desire to become a +contributor to _Blackwood_. I want a popular vehicle to convey my +censures to the world, especially on Wordsworth. I do not pretend to +have any love for you and your brotherhood, Mr. North. But I dislike +you less than I do Wordsworth; and I frankly own to you, that the +fame of that man is a perpetual blister to my self-love. + +_North_.--Your habitual contemplation of his merits has confused +you into a notion that they are your own, and you think him an +usurper of the laurel crown that is yours by the divine right of +genius. What an unhappy monomania! Still, your application for +redress to us is unaccountable. You should know that we Black +Foresters, lawless as you may suppose us, are Wordsworth's liegemen. +He is our intellectual Chief. We call him the General! We are ever +busy in promoting his fame. + +_Landor_.--You are always blowing hot and cold on it, and have +done so for years past. One month you place him among the stars, the +next as low as the daisies. + +_North_.--And rightly too; for both are the better for his presence. + +_Landor_.--But you alternately worship and insult him, as some +people do their wooden idols. + +_North_.--If you must learn the truth, then, he has been to us, in +one sense, nothing better than an unfeeling wooden idol. Some of us +have been provoked by his indifference to our powers of annoyance, +and his ingratitude in not repaying eulogy in kind. We have among +ourselves a gander or two, (no offence, Mr. Landor,) that, +forgetting they are webfooted, pretend to a perch on the tall +bay-tree of Apollo, and, though heavy of wing, are angry with +Wordsworth for not encouraging their awkward flights. They, like you, +accuse him of jealousy, forsooth! That is the reason that they are +now gabbling at his knees, now hissing at his heels. Moreover, our +caprices are not unuseful to our interests. We alternately pique and +soothe readers by them, and so keep our customers. As day is +partitioned between light and darkness, so has the public taste as +to Wordsworth been divided between his reverers and the followers of +the Jeffrey heresy. After a lengthened winter, Wordsworth's glory is +now in the long summer days; all good judgments that lay torpid have +been awakened, and the light prevails against the darkness. But as +bats and owls, the haters of light, are ever most restless in the +season when nights are shortest, so are purblind egotists most +uneasy when their dusky range is contracted by the near approach and +sustained ascendancy of genius. We now put up a screen for the +weak-sighted, now withdraw it from stronger eyes; thus we plague and +please all parties. + +_Landor_.--Except Wordsworth, whose eyelids are too tender to +endure his own lustre reflected and doubled on the focus of your +burnished brass. He dreads the fate of Milton, "blasted with excess +of light." + +_North_. Thank you, sir; that is an ingenious way of accounting for +Wordsworth's neglect of our luminous pages. Yet it rather sounds +like irony, coming from Mr. Walter Savage Landor to the editor of +"The (Not Gentleman's) Magazine." + +_Landor_.--Pshaw! still harping on my Satire. + +_North_.--In that Satire you have charged Wordsworth with having +talked of Southey's poetry as not worth five shillings a ream. So +long as you refrained from _publishing_ this invidious imputation, +even those few among Wordsworth's friends who knew that you had +_printed_ it, (Southey himself among the number,) might think it +discreet to leave the calumny unregarded. But I observe that you +have renewed it, in a somewhat aggravated form, in the Article that +you now wish me to publish. You here allege that Wordsworth +represented Southey as an author, _all_ whose poetry was not worth +five shillings. You and I both know that Wordsworth would not deign +to notice such an accusation. Through good and evil report, the +brave man persevered in his ascent to the mountain-top, without ever +even turning round to look upon the rabble that was hooting him from +its base; and he is not likely now to heed such a charge as this. +But his friends may now ask, on what authority it is published? Was +it to you, Mr. Walter Landor, whom Southey (in his strange affection +for the name of Wat) had honoured with so much kindness--to you +whose "matin chirpings" he had so generously encouraged, (as he did +John Jones's "mellower song,")--was it to you that Wordsworth +delivered so injurious a judgment on the works of your patron? If so, +what was your reply? [113] + +[Footnote 113: + "I lagg'd; he (Southey) call'd me; urgent to prolong + My matin chirpings into mellower song."--LANDON. ] + +_Landor_.--Whether it was expressed to myself or not, is of little +consequence; it has been studiously repeated, and even printed by +others as well as by me. + +_North_.--By whom? + +_Landor_.--That, too, is of no importance to the fact. + +_North_.--I am thoroughly convinced that it is no fact, and that +Wordsworth never uttered any thing like such an opinion in the sense +that you report it. He and Southey have been constant neighbours and +intimate friends for forty years; there has never been the slightest +interruption to their friendship. Every one that knows Wordsworth is +aware of his frank and fearless openness in conversation. He has +been beset for the last half century, not only by genuine admirers, +but by the curious and idle of all ranks and of many nations, +and sometimes by envious and designing listeners, who have +misrepresented and distorted his casual expressions. Instances of +negligent and infelicitous composition are numerous in Southey, as +in most voluminous authors. Suppose some particular passage of this +kind to have been under discussion, and Mr. Wordsworth to have +exclaimed, "I would not give five shillings a ream for such poetry +as that." Southey himself would only smile, (he had probably heard +Wordsworth express himself to the same effect a hundred times); but +some insidious hearer catches at the phrase, and reports it as +Wordsworth's sweeping denunciation of all the poetry that his friend +has ever written, in defiance of all the evidence to the contrary to +be met with, not only in Wordsworth's every-day conversation, but in +his published works. There is no man for whose genius Mr. Wordsworth +has more steadily or consistently testified his admiration than for +Southey's; there is none for whom, and for whose character, he has +evinced more affection and respect. You and I, who have both read +his works, and walked and talked with the Old Man of the Mountain, +know that perfectly well. You have perhaps been under his roof, at +Rydal Mount? I have; and over his dining-room fireplace I observed, +as hundreds of his visitors must have done, five portraits--Chaucer's, +Bacon's, Spenser's, Shakspeare's, and Milton's, in one line. On the +same line is a bust on the right of these, and a portrait on the left; +and there are no other ornaments on that wall of the apartment. That +bust and that portrait are both of Southey, the man whom you pretend +he has so undervalued! By the bye, no one has been more ardent in +praise of Wordsworth than yourself. + +_Landor_.--You allude to the first dialogue between Southey and +Porson, in Vol. i. of my _Imaginary Conversations_. + +_North_.--Not to that only, though in that dialogue there are +sentiments much at variance with those which you would now give out +as Porson's. For example, remember what Porson there says of the +_Laodamia_. + +_Landor_.--The most fervid expression in commendation of it is +printed as Porson's improperly, as the whole context shows. It +should have been Southey's. + +_North_.--So, I perceive, you say in this new dialogue; and such a +mode of attempting to turn your back on yourself, to borrow a phrase +from your friend Lord Castlereagh's rhetoric, will be pronounced, +even by those who do not care a bawbee about the debate, as not only +ludicrous, but pitiably shabby. Keep your seat, Mr. Landor, and keep +your temper for once in your life. Let us examine into this +pretended mistake in your former dialogue about _Laodamia_. Well, as +you are up, do me the favour, sir, to mount the ladder, and take +down from yon top shelf the first volume of your _Conversations_. Up +in the corner, on the left hand, next the ceiling. You see I have +given you a high place. + +_Landor_.--Here is the book, Mr. North; it is covered with dust +and cobwebs. + +_North_.--The fate of classics, Mr. Landor. They are above the +reach of the housemaid, except when she brings the Turk's Head to +bear upon them. Now, let us turn to the list of _errata_ in this +first volume. We are directed to turn to page 52, line 4, and for +_sugar-bakers_, read _sugar-bakers' wives_. I turn to the page, +and find the error corrected by yourself; as are all the press +errors in these volumes, which were presented by you to a friend. I +bought the whole set for an old song at a sale. You see that the +omitted word _wives_ is carefully supplied by yourself, in your own +handwriting, Mr. Landor. On the same page, only five lines below +this correction, is the identical passage that you would now +transfer from Porson to Southey. Why did you not affix Porson's name +to the passage then, when you were so vigilantly perfecting the very +page? Why does no such correction appear even in the printed list of +_errata_? Let us read the passage. "A current of rich and bright +thoughts runs throughout the poem. [114] Pindar himself would not, on that +subject, have braced one into more nerve and freshness, nor +Euripides have inspired into it more tenderness and passion." + +[Footnote 114: Vol. i. p. 52.] + +_Landor_.--Mr. North, I repeat that that sentence should have been +printed as Southey's, not Porson's. + +_North_.--Yet it is quite consistent with a preceding sentence +which you can by no ingenuity of after-thought withdraw from Porson; +for the whole context forbids the possibility of its transition. +What does Porson there testify of the _Laodamia_? That it is +"_a composition such as Sophocles might have exulted to own_!"--and +a part of one of its stanzas "_might have been heard with shouts of +rapture in the Elysium the poet describes_." [115] + +[Footnote 115: Vol. i. p. 51. Few persons will think that Mr. Landor's +drift, which is obvious enough, could be favoured if these passages +could be _all_ shuffled over to Mr. Southey. It would be unwise and +inconsistent in Mr. Landor of all men to intimate that Southey's +judgment in poetry was inferior to Porson's; for Southey has been so +singular as to laud some of Mr. Landor's, and Mr. Landor has been so +grateful as to proclaim Southey the sole critic of modern times who +has shown "a delicate perception in poetry." It is rash, too, in him +to insinuate that Southey's opinion could be influenced by his +friendship; for he, the most amiable of men, was nevertheless a +friend of Mr. Lander also. But the only object of this argument is +to show how mal-adroitly Mr. Landor plays at thimblerig. He lets us +see him shift the pea. As for the praise and censure contained in +his dialogues, we have no doubt that any one concerned willingly +makes him a present of both. It is but returning bad money to +Diogenes. It is all Mr. Landor's; and, lest there should be any +doubt about the matter, he has taken care to tell us that he has not +inserted in his dialogues a single sentence written by, or recorded +of, the persons who are supposed to hold them.--See Vol. i. p. 96, +end of note.] + +These expressions are at least as fervid as those which you would +reclaim from Porson, now that, like a pettifogging practitioner, you +want to retain him as counsel against the most illustrious of +Southey's friends--the individual of whom in this same dialogue you +cause Southey to ask, "What man ever existed who spent a more retired, +a more inoffensive, a more virtuous life, than Wordsworth, or who +has adorned it with nobler studies?"--and what does Porson answer? +"I believe so; I have always heard it; and _those who attack +him with virulence or with levity are men of no morality and no +reflection_." [116] Thus you print Wordsworth's praise in rubric, +and fix it on the walls, and then knock your head against them. You +must have a hard skull, Mr. Landor. + +[Footnote 116: Vol. i. p. 40.] + +_Landor_.--Be civil, Mr. North, or I will brain you. + +_North_.--Pooh, pooh, man! all your Welsh puddles, which you call +pools, wouldn't hold my brains. To return to your proffered article, +there is one very ingenious illustration in it. "Diamonds sparkle +the most brilliantly on heads stricken by the palsy." + +_Landor_.--Yes; I flatter myself that I have there struck out a +new and beautiful, though somewhat melancholy thought. + +_North_.--New! My good man, it isn't yours; you have purloined +those diamonds. + +_Landor_.--From whom? + +_North_.--From the very poet you would disparage--Wordsworth. + + "Diamonds dart their brightest lustre + From the palsy-shaken head." + +Those lines have been in print above twenty years. + +_Landor_.--An untoward coincidence of idea between us. + +_North_.--Both original, no doubt; only, as Puff says in the +_Critic_, one of you thought of it the first, that's all. But how +busy would Wordsworth be, and how we should laugh at him for his +pains, if he were to set about reclaiming the thousands of ideas +that have been pilfered from him, and have been made the staple of +volumes of poems, sermons, and philosophical treatises without end! +He makes no stir about such larcenies. And what a coil have you made +about that eternal sea-shell, which you say he stole from you, and +which, we know, is the true and trivial cause of your hostility +towards him! + +_Landor_.--Surely I am an ill-used man, Mr. North. My poetry, if +not worth five shillings, nor thanks, nor acknowledgment, was yet +worth borrowing and putting on. I, the author of _Gebir_, Mr. North, +--do you mark me? + +_North_.--Yes; the author of Gebir and Gebirus; think of that, St. +Crispin and Crispanus! + + "Sing me the fates of Gebir, and the Nymph + Who challenged Tamar to a wrestling match, + And on the issue pledged her precious shell. + Above her knees she drew the robe succinct; + Above her breast, and just below her arms. + 'She, rushing at him, closed, and floor'd him flat. + And carried off the prize, a bleating sheep; + The sheep she carried easy as a cloak, + And left the loser blubbering from his fall, + And for his vanish'd mutton. Nymph divine! + I cannot wait describing how she came; + My glance first lighted on her nimble feet; + Her feet resembled those long shells explored + By him who, to befriend his steed's dim sight, + Would blow the pungent powder in his eye.'" [117] + +Is that receipt for horse eye-powder to be found in White's Farriery, +Mr. Landor? + +[Footnote 117: The lines within inverted commas, are Mr. Landor's, +without alteration.] + +_Landor_.--Perhaps not, Mr. North. Will you cease your fooling, +and allow me to proceed? "I," the author of _Gebir_, "never lamented +when I believed it lost." The MS. was mislaid at my grandmother's, +and lay undiscovered for four years. "I saw it neglected; and never +complained. Southey and Forster have since given it a place whence +men of lower stature are in vain on tiptoe to take it down. It would +have been honester and more decorous if the writer of certain verses +had mentioned from what bar he took his wine." [118] Now keep your ears +open, Mr. North; I will read my verses first, and then Wordsworth's. +Here they are. I always carry a copy of them both in my pocket. Listen! + +[Footnote 118: Mr. Landor's printed complaint, _verbatim_, from his +"Satire on Satirists."] + +_North_.--List, oh list! I am all attention, Mr. Landor. + +_Landor_ (reads.)-- + + "But I have sinuous shells of pearly hue + Within, and they that lustre have imbibed + In the sun's palace-porch, where, when unyoked, + His chariot-wheel stands midway in the wave." + + "Shake one, and it awakens--then apply + Its polish'd lip to your attentive ear, + And it remembers its august abodes, + And murmurs as the ocean murmurs there." + +These are lines for you, sir! They are mine. What do you think of +them? + +_North_.--I think very well of them; they remind one of +Coleridge's "Eolian Harp." They are very pretty lines, Mr. Landor. I +have written some worse myself. + +_Landor_--So has Wordsworth. Attend to the echo in the _Excursion_. + + "I have seen + A curious child, who dwelt upon a tract + Of inland ground, applying to his ear + The convolutions of a smooth-lipp'd shell, + To which, in silence hush'd, his very soul + Listen'd intensely, and his countenance soon + Brighten'd with joy; for, murmuring from within, + Were heard sonorous cadences, whereby, + To his belief, the monitor express'd + Mysterious union with its native sea." + +_North_.--There is certainly much resemblance between the two +passages; and, so far as you have recited Wordsworth's, his is not +superior to yours; which very likely, too, suggested it; though that +is by no means a sure deduction, for the thought itself is as common +as the sea-shell you describe, and, in all probability, at least as +old as the Deluge. + +_Landor_.--"_It is but justice to add, that this passage has been +the most admired of any in Mr. Wordsworth's great poem_." [119] + +[Footnote 119: From Mr. Landor, _verbatim_.] + +_North_.--Hout, tout, man! The author of the _Excursion_ could +afford to spare you a thousand finer passages, and he would seem +none the poorer. As to the imputed plagiarism, Wordsworth would no +doubt have avowed it had he been conscious that it was one, and that +you could attach so much importance to the honour of having reminded +him of a secret in conchology, known to every old nurse in the +country, as well as to every boy or girl that ever found a shell on +the shore, or was tall enough to reach one off a cottage parlour +mantelpiece; but which he could apply to a sublime and reverent +purpose, never dreamed of by them or you. It is in the application +of the familiar image, that we recognise the master-hand of the +poet. He does not stop when he has described the toy, and the +effect of air within it. The lute in Hamlet's hands is not more +philosophically dealt with. There is a pearl within Wordsworth's +shell, which is not to be found in your's, Mr. Landor. He goes on:-- + + "Even such a shell the universe itself + Is to the ear of Faith; and there are times, + I doubt not, when to you it cloth impart + Authentic tidings of invisible things-- + Of ebb and flow, and ever-during power, + And central peace subsisting at the heart + Of endless agitation." + +These are the lines of a poet, who not only stoops to pick up a +shell now and then, as he saunters along the sea-shore, but who is +accustomed to climb to the promontory above, and to look upon the +ocean of things:-- + + "From those imaginative heights that yield + Far-stretching views into eternity." + +Do not look so fierce again, Mr. Landor. You who are so censorious of +self-complacency in others, and indeed of all other people's faults, +real or imagined, should endure to have your vanity rebuked. + +_Landor_.--I have no vanity. I am too proud to be vain. + +_North_.--Proud of what? + +_Landor_.--Of something beyond the comprehension of a Scotchman, +Mr. North--proud of my genius. + +_North_.--Are you so very great a genius, Mr. Landor? + +_Landor_.--I am. _Almighty Homer is twice far above Troy and her +towers, Olympus and Jupiter. First, when Priam bends before Achilles, +and a second time, when the shade of Agamemnon speaks among the dead. +That awful spectre, called up by genius in after-time, shook the +Athenian stage. That scene was ever before me; father and daughter +were ever in my sight; I felt their looks, their words, and again I +gave them form and utterance; and, with proud humility, I say it_-- + + "I am tragedian in this scene alone. + Station the Greek and Briton side by side + And if derision be deserved--deride." + +_Surely there can be no fairer method of overturning an offensive +reputation, from which the scaffolding is not yet taken down, than +by placing against it the best passages, and most nearly parallel, +in the subject, from schylus and Sophocles. To this labour the +whole body of the Scotch critics and poets are invited, and, moreover, +to add the ornaments of translation_. [120] + +[Footnote 120: This strange rhapsody is verily Mr. Landor's. It is +extracted from his "Satire on the Satirists."] + +_North_.--So you are not only a match for schylus and Sophocles, +but on a par with "almighty Homer when he is far above Olympus and +Jove." Oh! ho! ho! As you have long since recorded that modest +opinion of yourself in print, and not been lodged in Bedlam for it, +I will not now take upon myself to send for a straight-waistcoat. + +_Landor_.--Is this the treatment I receive fron the Editor of +_Blackwood's Magazine_, in return for my condescension in offering +him my assistance? Give me back my manuscript, sir. I was indeed a +fool to come hither. I see how it is. You Scotchmen are all alike. +We consider no part of God's creation so cringing, so insatiable, so +ungrateful as the Scotch: nevertheless, we see them hang together by +the claws, like bats; and they bite and scratch you to the bone if +you attempt to put an Englishman in the midst of them. [121] But you +shall answer for this usage, Mr. North: you shall suffer for it. +These two fingers have more power than all your malice, sir, even if +you had the two Houses of Parliament to back you. A pen! You shall +live for it. [122] + +[Footnote 121: Imaginary Conversations, vol. iv, p. 283.] + +[Footnote 122: Ibid. vol. i. p. 126.] + +_North_.--Fair and softly, Mr. Landor; I have not rejected your +article yet. I am going to be generous. Notwithstanding all your +abuse of Blackwood and his countrymen, I consent to exhibit you to +the world as a Contributor to _Blackwood's Magazine_, and, in the +teeth of all your recorded admiration of Wordsworth, I will allow +you to prove yourself towards him a more formidable critic than +Wakley, and a candidate for immortality with Lauder. Do you rue? + +_Landor_.--Not at all. I have past the Rubicon. + +_North_.--Is that a pun? It is worthy of Plato. Mr. Landor, you +have been a friend of Wordsworth. But, as _he_ says-- + + "What is friendship? Do not trust her, + Nor the vows which she has made; + Diamonds dart their brightest lustre + From the palsy-shaken head." + +_Landor_.--I have never professed friendship for him. + +_North_.--You have professed something more, then. Let me read a +short poem to you, or at least a portion of it. It is an "Ode to +Wordsworth." + + + "O WORDSWORTH! + That other men should work for me + In the rich mines of poesy, + Pleases me better than the toil + Of smoothing, under harden'd hand, + With attic emery and oil, + The shining point for wisdom's wand, + Like those THOU temperest 'mid the rills + Descending from thy native hills. + He who would build his fame up high, + The rule and plummet must apply, + Nor say--I'll do what I have plann'd, + Before he try if loam or sand + Be still remaining in the place + Delved for each polish'd pillar's base. + _With skilful eye and fit device_ + THOU _raisest every edifice_: + Whether in shelter'd vale it stand, + Or overlook the Dardan strand, + Amid those cypresses that mourn + Laodamia's love forlorn." + +Four of the brightest intellects that ever adorned any age or country. +are then named, and a fifth who, though not equal to the least of +them, is not unworthy of their company; and what follows? + + "I wish them every joy above + That highly blessd spirits prove, + Save one, and that too shall be theirs, + But after many rolling years, + WHEN 'MID THEIR LIGHT THY LIGHT APPEARS." + +Here are Chaucer, Shakspeare, Milton, Spenser, Dryden too, all in +bliss above, yet not to be perfectly blest till the arrival of +Wordsworth among them! Who wrote that, Mr. Landor? [123] + +[Footnote 123: Whom Mr. L., who is the most capricious as well as the +most arrogant of censors, sometimes takes into favour.] + +_Landor_.--I did, Mr. North. + +_North_.--Sir, I accept your article. It shall be published in +_Blackwood's Magazine_. Good-morning, sir. + +_Landor_.--Good-day, sir. Let me request your particular attention +to the correction of the press. (_Landor retires_.) + +_North_.--He is gone! Incomparable Savage! I cannot more +effectually retaliate upon him for all his invectives against us +than by admitting his gossiping trash into the Magazine. No part of +the dialogue will be mistaken for Southey's; nor even for Porson's +inspirations from the brandy-bottle. + +All the honour due to the author will be exclusively Mr. Walter +Savage Landor's; and, as it is certainly "not worth five shillings," +no one will think it "worth borrowing or putting on." + + * * * * * + + + + +THE BURIAL MARCH OF DUNDEE. + + Sound the fife, and raise the slogan--let the pibroch shake the air + With its wild triumphal music, worthy of the freight we bear; + Let the ancient hills of Scotland hear once more the battle song + Swell within their glens and valleys as the clansmen march along. + Never, from the field of combat, never from the deadly fray, + Was a nobler trophy carried than we bring with us to-day: + Never, since the valiant Douglas in his dauntless bosom bore + Good King Robert's heart--the priceless--to our dear Redeemer's shore! + Lo! we bring with us the hero--Lo! we bring the conquering Graeme, + Crown'd as best beseems a victor from the altar of his fame; + Fresh and bleeding from the battle whence his spirit took its flight + Midst the crashing charge of squadrons, and the thunder of the fight! + Strike, I say, the notes of triumph, as we march o'er moor and lea, + Is there any here will venture to bewail our dead Dundee? + Let the widows of the traitors weep until their eyes are dim; + Wail ye may indeed for Scotland--let none dare to mourn for him! + See, above his glorious body lies the royal banner's fold-- + See, his valiant blood is mingled with its crimson and its gold-- + See how calm he looks and stately, like a warrior on his shield, + Waiting till the flush of morning breaks upon the battle field. + See--O never more, my comrades! shall we see that falcon eye + Kindle with its inward lightning, as the hour of fight drew nigh; + Never shall we hear the voice that, clearer than the trumpet's call, + Bade us strike for King and Country, bade us win the field or fall! + On the heights of Killiecrankie yester-morn our army lay: + Slowly rose the mist in columns from the river's broken way, + Hoarsely roar'd the swollen torrent, and the pass was wrapp'd in gloom + When the clansmen rose together from their lair among the broom. + Then we belted on our tartans, and our bonnets down we drew, + And we felt our broadswords' edges, and we proved them to be true, + And we pray'd the prayer of soldiers, and we cried the gathering cry, + And we clasp'd the hands of kinsmen, and we swore to do or die! + Then our leader rode before us on his war-horse black as night-- + Well the Cameronian rebels knew that charger in the fight!-- + And a cry of exultation from the bearded warriors rose, + For we loved the house of Claver'se, and we thought of good Montrose. + But he raised his hand for silence--"Soldiers, I have sworn a vow; + Ere the evening star shall glisten on Schehallion's lofty brow, + Either we shall rest in triumph, or another of the Graemes + Shall have died in battle harness for his country and King James! + Think upon the Royal Martyr--think of what his race endure-- + Think on him whom butchers murder'd on the field of Magus Muir;-- + By his sacred blood I charge ye--by the ruin'd hearth and shrine-- + By the blighted hopes of Scotland--by your injuries and mine-- + Strike this day as if the anvil lay beneath your blows the while, + Be they Covenanting traitors, or the brood of false Argyle! + Strike! and drive the trembling rebels backwards o'er the stormy Forth; + Let them tell their pale Convention how they fared within the North. + Let them tell that Highland honour is not to be bought nor sold, + That we scorn their Prince's anger, as we loathe his foreign gold. + Strike! and when the fight is over, if ye look in vain for me, + Where the dead are lying thickest, search for him who was Dundee!" + + Loudly then the hills re-echo'd with our answer to his call, + But a deeper echo sounded in the bosoms of us all. + For the lands of wide Breadalbane, not a man who heard him speak + Would that day have left the battle. Burning eye and flushing cheek + Told the clansmen's fierce emotion, and they harder drew their breath, + For their souls were strong within them, stronger than the grasp of + death. + Soon we heard a challenge-trumpet sounding in the pass below, + And the distant tramp of horses, and the voices of the foe; + Down we crouch'd amid the bracken, till the Lowland ranks drew near, + Panting like the hounds in summer when they scent the stately deer. + From the dark defile emerging, next we saw the squadrons come, + Leslie's foot and Leven's troopers marching to the tuck of drum; + Through the scatter'd wood of birches, o'er the broken ground and heath, + Wound the long battalion slowly till they gain'd the field beneath, + Then we bounded from our covert.--Judge how look'd the Saxons then, + When they saw the rugged mountain start to life with armed men! + Like a tempest down the ridges swept the hurricane of steel, + Rose the slogan of Macdonald--flash'd the broadsword of Lochiel! + Vainly sped the withering volley 'mongst the foremost of our band, + On we pour'd until we met them, foot to foot, and hand to hand. + Horse and man went down like drift-wood, when the floods are black at + Yule, + And their carcasses are whirling in the Garry's deepest pool. + Horse and man went down before us--living foe there tarried none + On the field of Killiecrankie, when that stubborn fight was done! + + And the evening star was shining on Schehallion's distant head, + When we wiped our bloody broadswords and return'd to count the dead. + There we found him, gash'd and gory, stretch'd upon the cumber'd plain, + As he told us where to seek him, in the thickest of the slain. + And a smile was on his visage, for within his dying ear + Peal'd the joyful note of triumph and the clansmen's clamorous cheer; + So, amidst the battle's thunder, shot, and steel, and scorching flame, + In the glory of his manhood pass'd the spirit of the Graeme! + + Open wide the vaults of Athol, where the bones of heroes rest-- + Open wide the hallow'd portals to receive another guest! + Last of Scots, and last of freemen--last of all that dauntless race, + Who would rather die unsullied than outlive the land's disgrace! + O thou lion-hearted warrior! reck not of the after-time, + Honour may be deem'd dishonour, loyalty be called a crime. + Sleep in peace with kindred ashes of the noble and the true, + Hands that never fail'd their country, hearts that never baseness knew. + Sleep, and till the latest trumpet wakes the dead from earth and sea, + Scotland shall not boast a braver chieftain than our own Dundee! + + W.E.A. + + * * * * * + + + + +LORD ELLENBOROUGH AND THE WHIGS. + + +The period of a single year but just elapsed has exhibited in the +neighbourhood of the Indus events of the most memorable and +momentous kind. Disasters the most disgraceful have been +endured--victories the most brilliant have been achieved. The policy +and the fortunes of a mighty empire under one governor, have been +wholly reversed under another. Safety and security have been +substituted for danger and dismay--a strong and dignified peace for +a weak and aggressive war. These changes have been coincident with a +great revolution in domestic politics. Under Whig auspices those +evils had arisen which their successors have now redressed. Under +the administration of Whigs, that flood of calamity was opened up +which has been arrested without their aid; but which could not have +continued its threatened course without the most perilous +consequences to the country, and the heaviest burden of responsibility +on the authors of the mischief. + +In such circumstances it might have been expected--if manly courage +or common decency were to be looked for in such a quarter--that on +these Eastern questions the Whig party should this session have +followed one or other of two courses: either that they should have +taken a bold line of opposition, and vindicated their own Indian +policy, while they attacked that of their successors: or that they +should have preserved a prudent silence on subjects where they could +say nothing in their own praise, and have only lifted up their voice +to join the general acclamations of the country for successes in +which, though not achieved by themselves, they had the best reason +to rejoice, as shielding them from the ignominy and punishment which, +in an opposite event, would have been poured out by public +indignation on the heads of the original wrongdoers. + +A strong or an honest party would have chosen one or other of these +lines. But the Whigs are neither strong nor honest; and they have +accordingly, in the late Indian discussions in Parlament, pursued a +course of policy in which it is difficult to say whether feebleness +or fraud be the more conspicuous. They have not ventured to +vindicate their own conduct in invading the Affghan country: they +have not dared to dispute the wisdom of their successors in retiring +from it, when the object of a just retribution was accomplished. But +while driven from these points--while forced to acknowledge the +ability and judgment with which the present Governor-General has +applied the forces of the empire to retrieve our honour and +reputation in the East--while unable to point to a single practical +measure as either improperly taken, or improperly omitted by him, +the Whigs could not refrain, on some pretext or other, from marring +the general joy by the discordant hissings of an impotent envy. +Experiencing in an unparalleled degree both the indulgence of a +generous nation, who are willing to forget the past in the enjoyment +of the present, and the forbearance of high-minded opponents, who +could easily have triumphed in the exposure of their disastrous +blunders, the Whigs have made a characteristic return, by +rancorously assailing the man whom the public views as its benefactor, +with captious criticisms on the terms of a proclamation, or +hypocritical objections to the transmission of a trophy. With that +cunning which the faction have often shown in the use of apparent +opportunities, they gained the reluctant concurrence of a few upright +men, of whose peculiar scruples they contrived to avail themselves, +but with an ignorance of the true English character, for which they +are equally distinguished, they overshot the mark, and stand +convicted of a design to make a verbal misconstruction the pretence +for persecuting an absent man, and to convert honest prejudices into +an unconscious instrument of oppression. They have thus earned a +large allowance of general contempt, and they have nowhere, perhaps, +excited a stronger feeling of disgust than in the minds of those who +thought themselves compelled, by a rigid conscience, to give a +seeming concurrence to their proceedings. + +In judging of the conduct and position of Lord Ellenborough, it were +gross ingratitude and injustice to forget the nature of the +calamities with which India was assailed and threatened at the +commencement of his goverment. In the second week of March 1842, the +overland mail from the East conveyed intelligence to our shores which +struck the nation to the very heart, and spread one universal +feeling of grief and dismay, approaching for a time as near to a +feeling of despondency as English breasts can be taught to know. Let +us describe the effect in the words of an impartial observer writing +at the time:-- + +"No such disastrous news has for many years reached this country as +that which has arrived from India. 'The progress of our arms' was +carried merrily on, till our flag was set beside that of our puppet, +Shah Soojah, in Cabul; but there the progress has abruptly +terminated in the total engulfing of 'our arms.' Yes, Sir William +Macnaghten had just written home to declare our supremacy established, +when all Cabul rose beneath his feet. Sir Alex. Burnes was the first +swallowed in the earthquake of arms; next Sir William himself, +governor of Bombay, and representative of the power of England in +North-Western India, was destroyed, and his mutilated remains were +made the object of ignominious ribaldry; and at length, if very +general rumour is to be believed, the English army of occupation has +been literally expunged. Corunna, Walcheren, all the reverses that +have chequered our military career, baffle the memory to find a +parallel to the utter defeat which, in the eyes of the barbarians of +the Indian frontier, has crushed our power."--_Spectator_, p. 242. + +These were the feelings that possessed this country, and which wrung, +even from the Whigs, with every wish to palliate them, an +acknowledgment of the heavy disasters which had befallen us. Pressed +with the weight of these convictions, Mr. Macaulay, in a debate on +the Income-tax, in April 1842, after _cannily_ disclaiming any +responsibility for the Affghan invasion, as having been effected +before he joined the Government, was driven to deplore these +military reverses as the greatest disaster that had ever befallen us: +and added, somewhat incongruously:-- + +"He did not anticipate, if we acted with vigour, the least danger to +our empire; though it must always be remembered that a great +Mahometan success could not but fall like a spark upon tinder, and +act on the freemasonry of Islamism from Morocco to Coromandel." + +What, then, must have been the feeling in India, in the very focus of +this calamitous visitation? Lord Auckland's despatches, now made +public, will tell us what _he_ felt. That he contemplated from the +first the total and instant evacuation of Affghanistan, without +attempting a blow for the vindication of our honour, or the release +of the prisoners, is past all dispute, from documents under his own +hand. Whether he is to be blamed for this resolution, or for the +state of matters which rendered it necessary, is not here the +question. But the fact is remarkable, as throwing further light on +the effrontery of the Whigs. Lord Palmerston, in last August, +twitted the Ministry with Lord Ellenborough's supposed intention to +retire from beyond the Indus, and congratulated the country on the +frustration of that intention, as having saved us "from the eternal +disgrace." He was answered by the Prime Minister at the time in +terms that might have been a warning, and that are now no longer a +mystery. + +"The noble lord presumed much on my forbearance, in what he said with +respect to the Affghan war: and I will not be betrayed by any +language of his to forget what I owe to the public service in +replying to him. It is easy to say, why don't you move troops to +Candahar; and why don't you move troops somewhere else? The noble +lord finds no difficulty in this; but does he recollect that 26,000 +camels, carrying the baggage of the troops in Affghanistan, were +sacrificed before they reached it? The noble lord says, 'Who +contemplated the abandonment of Affghanistan?' _I could tell the +noble lord_. Beware, I say; let the noble lord beware of +indiscriminate reflections upon those in office." + +It is now known "_who_ contemplated the abandonment of Affghanistan," +without a struggle to punish the perfidy of the Affghans, to avenge +the insults to our honour, or to redress the wrongs of our countrymen. +Lord Auckland resolved on this course, without even an aspiration +after any thing better than a safe retreat. Nor is such a resolution +to be wondered at when the state of our military preparations is +considered. A letter from Sir Jasper Nicolls, of 24th January 1842, +to the statements in which we see no contradiction in the _Blue Book_, +exhibits at once the condition of our resources, and the feelings of +the head of the Indian army. + +"After I had dispatched my letter to your Lordship in Council, I +received the note, of which I transmit a copy herewith, from the +Adjutant-General, and I had a second discussion with Mr. Clerk on the +subject of holding our ground at Jellalabad against any Affghan +power or force, in view to retrieving our position at Cabul, by +advancing upon it, at the fit season, simultaneously from Candahar +to Jellalabad. Having thus regained our position, and the influence +which such proof of power must give, not only in Affghanistan but +amongst all the neighbouring states, we should withdraw with dignity +and undiminished honour. Admitting the undeniable force of this +argument, I am greatly inclined to doubt that we have at present +either army or funds sufficient to renew this contest. Money may, +perhaps, be attainable, but soldiers are not, without leaving India +bare. Shortly before I left Calcutta, there were at least 33,000 men +in our pay in Affghanistan and Scinde, including Shah Soojah's troops, +but not the rabble attached to his person. How insufficient that +number has been to awe the barbarous and at first disunited tribes +of Affghanistan and Scinde, our numerous conflicts, our late reverses, +and our heavy losses fully prove. I admit that a blind confidence in +persons around the late envoy--a total want of forethought and +foresight on his part--unaccountable indecision at first, +followed by cessions which, day by day, rendered our force more +helpless--inactivity, perhaps, on some occasions--have led to these +reverses; but we must not overlook the effects of climate, the +difficulty of communication, the distance from our frontier, and the +fanatical zeal of our opponents. No doubt your lordship can cause an +army to force its way to Cabul, if you think our name and +predominance in India cannot otherwise be supported; but our means +are utterly insufficient to insure our dominion over that country. +If this be granted, the questions for your lordship's decision +are--whether we shall retake Cabul, to assert our paramount power; +and whether, if we subsequently retire, our subjects and neighbours +will not attribute our withdrawal even then, to conscious inability +to hold the country." + +In the same spirit the Commander-in-chief, in the beginning of +February transmitted to General Pollock, with the acquiescence of +lord Auckland, to whom he communicated his letter, the following +explanation of the views of Government:-- + +"You may deem it perfectly certain that Government will not do more +than detach this brigade, and this in view to support Major-General +Sale, either at Jellalabad for a few weeks, or to aid his retreat; +very probably also to strengthen the Sikhs at Peshawar for some time. +It is not intended to collect a force for the reconquest of Cabul. +You will convey the preceding paragraph, if you safely can, to the +Major-General." + +Such being the desponding views of the authorities stationed on the +spot, what must have been the anxiety of the new Governor-General on +his arrival in India, when this scene of disaster suddenly opened +upon him with a succession of still further calamities in its train? +We cannot better describe his position than in the words of Sir +Robert Peel, in his speech on the Whig motion for censure-- + +"The moment he set foot in Madras, what intelligence met him!--the +day he arrived at Benares, what a succession of events took place, +calculated to disturb the firmest mind, and to infuse apprehensions +into the breast of the boldest man! It has been said the cry in +England was, 'What next?' That was a question which Lord +Ellenborough had to put to himself for four or five days after his +arrival. He lands at Madras on the 15th of February, presuming at +the time that his predecessor had secured the admirable position so +frequently spoken of in Affghanistan. He lands at Madras, after a +four months' voyage, in necessary ignorance of all that had occurred +in that interval of time, and to his astonishment he hears of the +insurrection at Cabul. He receives tidings that Sir William +Macnaghten and Sir Alexander Burnes, the envoy and representative of +the British Government, had been murdered; that the city was in a +state of insurrection, and that doubts were entertained as to the +security of the British army. What next? He arrives at Calcutta, and +there hears of the orders of his predecessor to hasten the +evacuation of Affghanistan, for the noble reason of inflicting as +little discredit as possible upon the British powers. He repairs to +Benares, and there he hears the tremendous news that not only you +had lost power in Affghanistan, but that you had so depressed the +spirits and shaken the confidence of the native army, that General +Pollock gives this melancholy account in a letter to Captain M'Gregor: +--'It must no doubt appear to you and Sale most extraordinary, that, +with the force I have here, I do not at once move on; God knows it +has been my anxious wish to do so, but I have been helpless. I came +on ahead to Peshawar to arrange for an advance, but was saluted with +a report of 1900 sick, and a bad feeling among the Sepoys. I visited +the hospitals, and endeavoured to encourage by talking to them, but +they had no heart. On the 1st instant the feeling on the part of the +Sepoys broke out, and I had the mortification of knowing that the +Hindoos of four out of five native corps refused to advance. I +immediately took measures to sift the evil, and gradually reaction +has taken place, in the belief that I will wait for the +reinforcements. This has caused me the utmost anxiety on your account; +your situation is never out of my thoughts; but having told you what +I have, you and Sale will at once see that necessity has kept me here. +I verily believe, if I were to attempt to move on now without the +reinforcement, that the four regiments implicated would, as far as +the Hindoos are concerned, stand fast. The case, therefore, now +stands thus--whether I am to attempt, with my present materials, to +advance, and risk the appearance of disaffection or cowardice, which +in such a case could not again be got over, or wait the arrival of a +reinforcement, which will make all sure--this is the real state of +the case. If I attempted now, I might risk you altogether; but if +you can hold out, the reinforcements would make your relief as +certain as any earthly thing can be.' What next? On the 17th of April, +Lord Ellenborough hears of the failure of General England to force +the Kojuck Pass. On the 19th of April he hears that Ghuznee has +fallen. And what next? This was a question which, I repeat, Lord +Ellenborough had from day to day to put to himself. But what next? +Lord Ellenborough had to contemplate the retirement of the British +force from Afghanistan. This was due to the safety of the British +army, after the proof that the king you had set upon the throne had +no root in the affections of the people, and that the army in +possession of Affghanistan was separated from supplies by a distance +of 600 miles. Finding this state of things, Lord Ellenborough +thought he had no alternative but to bring the troops within the +borders of British protection. For that difficult operation your +policy, and not that of Lord Ellenborough, is responsible. Those who +involved the country in an expedition of this kind, ought justly to +be responsible for its retirement." + +It is needless to detail the difficulties in which the armies of +General Pollock and General Nott were then placed. Despondency and +desertion prevailed among the native troops, so as to render any +advance in the utmost degree hazardous, even if they had been +capable of moving. But of the means even of retrograde motion they +were utterly destitute. The explanations given in Parliament on the +vote of thanks to the army and the Governor-General, establish +beyond a doubt the absence of all means of carriage till the +indefatigable exertions of Lord Ellenborough supplied them with +every thing that was needed. The Whigs affect to disparage these +arrangements as belonging to the vulgar department of a +Commissary-General; and we may therefore infer that Lord +Ellenborough's predecessor would have deemed such a task beneath his +dignity, and left it to some delegate, who might have performed or +neglected his duty, as accident might direct. Had that been the case, +the chances are at least equal, that Lord Auckland would have been +as well and as successfully served in this branch of military +administration as he had already been in the occupation of Cabul, +and that further failures and reverses would have hung the tenure of +our Indian empire on the cast of a die. + +The evacuation of Affghanistan at the earliest possible period, was +dictated both by the proceedings of Lord Auckland, by the condition +of India, and by the peaceful policy of a Conservative Government. +But the mode in which it should be accomplished, and the +demonstrations of British power which should attend it, were +necessarily questions depending entirely "upon military +considerations;" and for several months it seemed impossible that +our armies could be put in a state of moral and physical strength, +such as could justify the risk of any forward or devious movement of +importance. The indefatigable zeal and admirable arrangements, +however, of the Governor-General, his personal presence near the +scene of exertion, the concentration of a large and imposing force +on the Sutlej, giving courage and security to the troops in the field, +and the undaunted spirit of British officers, succeeded at last in +giving, an altered and more encouraging complexion to the aspect of +our affairs. In one of the first statements of his views, Lord +Ellenborough had significantly said, (15th March 1842:)-- + +"We are fully sensible of the advantages which would be derived from +the re-occupation of Cabul, the scene of our great disaster and of +so much crime, even for week--of the means which it might afford of +recovering the prisoners, of the gratification which it would give +to the army, and of the effect which it would have upon our enemies. +Our withdrawal might then be made to rest upon an official +declaration of the grounds upon which we retired, as solemn as that +which accompanied our advance; and we should retire as a conquering, +and not as a defeated, power." + +But it was only in July that the Governor-General was in a condition +to suggest the practical accomplishment of this desirable object, +incidentally to our retirement from a country which we should never +have entered. On the 4th July is dated the admirable despatch to +General Nott, which, in the opinion of the Duke of Wellington, was +all that could have been wished for, and which we cannot help +transferring to our columns:-- + +"You will have learnt from Mr. Maddock's letters of the 13th May and +1st of June, that it was not expected that your movement towards +the Indus could be made till October, regard being had to the health +and efficiency of your army. You appear to have been able to give a +sufficient equipment to the force you recently despatched to +Kelat-i-Ghilzie, under Colonel Wymer; and since his return, you will +have received, as I infer from a private letter addressed by Major +Outram to Captain Durand, my private secretary, a further supply of +3000 camels. + +"I have now, therefore, reason to suppose, _for the first time_, +that you have the means of moving a very large proportion of your +army, with ample equipment for any service. + +"There has been no deficiency of provisions at Candahar at any time; +and, immediately after the harvest, you will have an abundant supply. + +"Nothing has occurred to induce me to change my first opinion, that +the measure, commanded by considerations of political and military +prudence, is to bring back the armies now in Affghanistan at the +earliest period at which their retirement can be effected, +consistently with the health and efficiency of the troops, into +positions wherein they may have easy and certain communication with +India; and to this extent, the instructions you have received remain +unaltered. _But the improved position of your army, with sufficient +means of carriage for as large a force as it is necessary to move in +Affghanistan, induced me now to leave to your option the line by +which you shall withdraw your troops from that country_. + +"I must desire, however, that, in forming your decision upon this +most important question, you will attend to the following +considerations:-- + +"In the direction of Quetta and Sukkur, there is no enemy to oppose +you; at each place occupied by detachments, you will find provisions: +and probably, as you descend the passes, you will have increased +means of carriage. The operation is one admitting of no doubt as to +its success. + +"If you determine upon moving upon Ghuznee, Cabul, and Jellalabad, +you will require, for the transport of provisions, a much larger +amount of carriage, and you will be practically without +communications from the time of your leaving Candahar. Dependent +entirely upon the courage of your army, and upon your own ability in +direction it, I should not have any doubt as to the success of the +operations; but whether you will be able to obtain provisions for +your troops during the whole march, and forage for your animals, may +be a matter of reasonable doubt. Yet upon this your success will turn. + +"You must remember that it was not the superior courage of the +Affghans, but want, and the inclemency of the season, which led to +the destruction of the army at Cabul; and you must feel, as I do, +that the loss of another army, from whatever cause it might arise, +might be fatal to our government in India. + +"I do not undervalue the account which our government in India would +receive from the successful execution by your army of a march +through Ghuznee and Cabul, over the scenes of our late disasters. I +know all the effect with it would have upon the minds of our soldiers, +of our allies, of our enemies in Asia, and of our countrymen, and of +all foreign nations in Europe. It is an object of just ambition, +which no one more than myself would rejoice to see effected; but I +see that failure in the attempt is certain and irretrievable ruin; +and I would endeavour to inspire you with the necessary caution, +and make you feel that, great as are the objects to be obtained by +success, the risk is great also. + +"If you determine upon moving by Ghuznee, and entirely give up your +communication by Quetta, I should suggest that you should take with +you only the most efficient troops and men you have, securing the +retreat of the remainder upon Killa, Abdoola, and Quetta. + +"You will in such case, consider it to be entirely a question to be +decided by yourself, according to circumstances, whether you shall +destroy or not the fortifications of Candahar; but, before you set +out upon your adventurous march, do not fail to make the retirement +of the force you leave behind you perfectly secure, and give such +instructions as you deem necessary for the ultimate retirement of the +troops in Scinde, upon Sukkur. + +"You will recollect that what you will have to make is a successful +march; that that march must not be delayed by any hazardous +operations against Ghuznee or Cabul; that you should carefully +calculate the time required to enable you to reach Jellalabad in the +first week in October, so as to form the rearguard of Major-General +Pollock's army. If you should be enabled by _coup-de-main_ to get +possession of Ghuznee and Cabul, you will act as you see fit, +_and leave decisive proofs of the power of the British army, +without impeaching its humanity_. You will bring away from the tomb +of Mahmood of Ghuznee, his club, which hangs over it; and you will +bring away the gates of his tomb, which are the gates of the Temple +of Somnauth. _These will be the just trophies of your successful +march_. + +"You will not fail to disguise your intention of moving, and to +acquaint Major-General Pollock with your plans as soon as you have +formed them. _A copy of this letter will be forwarded to +Major-General Pollock to-day; and he will be instructed, by a +forward movement, to facilitate your advance_; but he will probably +not deem it necessary to move any troops actually to Cabul, where +your force will be amply sufficient to beat any thing the Affghans +can oppose to it. The operations, however, of the two armies must be +combined upon their approach, so as to effect, with the least +possible loss, the occupation of Cabul, and keep open the +communications between Cabul and Peshawar. + +"One apprehension upon my mind is, that, in the event of your +deciding upon moving on Jellalabad, by Ghuznee and Cabul, the +accumulation of so great a force as that of your army, combined with +Major-General Pollock's, in the narrow valley of the Cabul river, +may produce material difficulties in the matter of provisions and +forage; but every effort will be made from India to diminish that +difficulty, should you adopt that line of retirement. + +"This letter remains absolutely secret. I have, &c. + +"ELLENBOROUGH." + +A paltry attempt was made in Parliament by Lord John Russell to +represent this despatch as intended to defraud General Nott of his +military trophies in the event of success, and to relieve the +Governor-General of responsibility in the event of failure. No such +base construction can be put upon it. Lord Ellenborough was doing his +own duty as a civil minister, and leaving General Nott to do _his_ +as a military commander. A military responsibility lay on General +Nott, from which no ruler could relieve him; but the military glory +was his also, if he felt himself justified in choosing the path of +honour that was opened to him. Who grudges the triumphs that General +Nott and his companions-in-arms have achieved? Not certainly Lord +Ellenborough or his friends. Let the distinctions which have been +heaped on the Indian army and its leaders answer that question. But +is their military merit a reason for denying to the man, under whose +administration these victories were won, the high honour of having +done all which a civil governor could do, to direct and assist the +armies of his country? Let each receive the praise of his own merits, +and we doubt not that military men, wherever, at least, they have +experienced the reverse, will be the first to appreciate and commend, +in Lord Ellenborough's administration, that active sympathy and +assistance which are so essential to military efficiency and success. + +It is said that the despatch of the 4th of July is qualified by +heavy cautions. And should it not have been so? In addressing a +British officer with a field of exertion before him, so glorious in +a military, so hazardous in a political view, it is surely not the +spur, but the curb, that a civilian was called on to apply. The +courage of such a commander required nothing to fan the flame: The +danger, if any, was rather that he would rashly seize the +opportunity afforded him, than that he would timidly resign it; and +if he was not prepared to adopt the bolder course, in the face of +all the hazards which attended it, it was best that the enterprize +should not be undertaken at all. + +But Lord Ellenborough knew his man. In appointing General Nott, in +March, to the command of all the troops, and entrusting him with the +control of all the agents in Lower Affghanistan, the Governor and +Council had desired him "to rely upon our constant support, and upon +our placing the most favourable interpretation upon all the measures +he may deem it necessary to adopt in the execution of our orders." +And in now giving him the option of retiring by Cabul, Lord +Ellenborough was assured that the General needed no other +encouragement to avail himself of it, than the feeling that all +counter-considerations had been stated and duly weighed. Every +preparation was immediately made to support General Nott in his +adventurous enterprize; and Lord Ellenborough writes to General +Pollock:-- + +"I am in hopes that Major-General Nott will to-day be in possession +of my letter of the 4th instant, and that you will, very soon after +you receive this letter, be made acquainted with the Major-General's +intentions. _My expectation is_, that Major-General Nott will feel +himself sufficiently strong, and be sufficiently provided with +carriage, to march upon Ghuznee and Cabul." + +The result was such as had been looked for. The combined operation +of the two armies placed the Affghans at our mercy, and terminated, +by the ample vindication of our honour, and the restoration of our +imprisoned friends, our inauspicious connexion with these barbarians, +who had retaliated so cruelly the aggression we had made upon them. + +It may be safely conjectured, that if these final triumphs had been +achieved under the direction of Lord Auckland, even though merely +retrieving the errors of his former policy, we should never have +heard an end of the eulogiums pronounced upon him. Lord John Russell +would have crowed and clapped his wings in the "moment of victory." +Lord Palmerston would have blustered more brazenly than ever. +Mr. Macaulay would have aired the whole stores of his panegyrical +vocabulary; and Sir John Hobhouse would not have gone abroad. + +But, under whatever Government achieved, these results would have +filled the minds of patriotic men with unmingled gratitude to all +who had contributed to their accomplishment. India had been in danger, +and was safe. The British arms had been stained by defeat, and were +again glancing brightly in the light of victory. Our countrymen and +countrywomen had been almost hopeless captives, and were now +restored to freedom and their friends. In such a scene and season of +rejoicing, we might have thought that none but a Whig of the very +oldest school of all, could have entertained any feelings but those +of generous sympathy and unrepining satisfaction. But limits cannot +easily be put to human perverseness. The party whose policy had +caused the evils from which we and they have been delivered, felt +nothing but intense hatred to him who had been most prominent in +that deliverance; and, heedless of the good that he had done, they +fastened on what seemed to their malignant and microscopic vision +some specks that chequered his otherwise unblemished administration +of affairs. + +The idea of discussing in Parliament, as we have lately witnessed, +the literary style of a Government state paper at a crisis so +momentous, implies a levity that would be hateful if it were not +ludicrous. But there is something peculiarly laughable in the +pedantry of such criticism. When other men are thinking of what has +been done, the reviewers and poetasters of the Whig Opposition can +think only of what has been said. The facts that are before them +have no value in their eyes; they see nothing but the phraseology. +From men who had themselves done nothing but what was mischievous, +this is perhaps natural. They are content, possibly, if they have +never said a foolish thing, to have never done a wise one; though we +are doubtful if a taunt about simplicity of composition, either +comes well from the noble leader of the Whigs, or his friends, when +we remember some of their old achievements in addressing their +supporters. But in the peculiar position of the Whigs, with ignominy +and impeachment suspended over their heads for their Affghan errors, +we think that such a course is as becoming as if a condemned +criminal were to carp at the literary composition of his own reprieve. + +The tactics of the Whigs in their move against Lord Ellenborough, had +all the craft of conscious weakness. First, they postponed their +motion from time to time, till they were rescued by their opponents +from Mr. Roebuck's assault upon them. Then they arranged their +attack for the same night in both Houses of Parliament, lest +explanations in any high quarter in the one might damage a future +discussion in the other; and lastly, though thus acting by +simultaneous and concerted movements in both, they framed their +motions differently in each place; and in the Commons, where they had +some dream of better success, confined themselves to the religious +question under the letter on the Somnauth gates, omitting the Simla +proclamation of the 1st October, which they knew neither +Conservative nor Radical would join them to condemn. + +With regard to the Somnauth gates, a pettier piece of hypercriticism, +and a more palpable exhibition of hypocrisy, were never witnessed on +a public question. Two things on this point are as plain as day. + +1. That in retiring from the Affghan country, we were called upon to +do so as much as possible in the light of triumphant victors, +bearing every mark of military prowess and superiority that could +readily be assumed, and inflicting as heavy a blow, and as severe a +discouragement on our perfidious enemies, as humanity would permit. + +2. That, the Affghan trophies of Mahmoud's success were treasured up +by his nation as an assurance of continued ascendancy over their +Hindoo neighbours; and that, in particular, the redelivery to India +of these very gates of Somnauth, were, in negotiations of recent date, +demanded by Runjeet Singh as an inestimable boon, and deprecated by +Shah Soojah as a degrading humiliation. + +Keeping in view these undeniable circumstances, it is clear that the +seizure of these Somnauth gates was appropriately ordered as a +palpable and permanent demonstration of conquest, and one eminently +calculated to encourage the Indian army, and to depress their enemies. + +That these gates were connected with the religion of the country, is +of no relevancy in this matter. Every thing relating to Hindoo +grandeur is more or less interwoven with religion; but we must take +things as they are. We are the rulers of Hindostan; where the vast +preponderance of our subjects and soldiers are Hindoos. We wish them +to be Christians, but they are not so yet; and, until they become +Christianized, we cannot hope or wish that they should forget the +only faith which they have to raise them above the earth they tread. +Their religion is corrupted to the core; but in its primitive type, +after which its worshippers will sometimes even yet aspire, it is +not destitute of a high spirituality that would seek to assimilate +and unite men's souls to the Great Being, whom they reverence as the +maker, maintainer, and changer of the universe. Hindooism is more +fantastic, and less pleasingly endeared to us, than the paganism of +Greece, but it is scarcely more lax or licentious; yet if Fortune, +in its caprices, had ordained our Indian subjects to be heathen +Greeks, with a Whig Governor-General bringing them back in triumph +to their homes, Lord Palmerston, who now, in a mingled rant of +mythology, and methodism, talks of "Dii and Jupiter hostis," would +himself have penned a paragraph about the restored temple of Mars or +Venus, and would have held up the scruples of Sir Robert Inglis and +Mr. Plumptre to classical ridicule. + +But it is plain that here no religious triumph was, or could have +been, contemplated by Lord Ellenborough. On this point we need no +other evidence than that of Joseph Hume, who, combining the +properties of Balaam and his ass, often brays out a blessing when he +intends a curse. He tells us that-- + +A Hindoo of high caste, now in this country, the Vakeel of the Rajah +of Sattara, had written to him a letter, in which he stated-- +"It appears to me that the restoration of the gates of Somnauth +could have no reference either to the support or degradation of any +religious faith. To restore the gates to their original purpose is +impracticable by the tenets of the Hindoo religion. Their doctrine is, +that any thing, when in contact with a dead body, or any thing +belonging to it, whether tomb or garment, is utterly contaminated and +unfit for religious purposes. In my opinion, therefore, the +proclamation must have been intended to gratify the feelings of the +Hindoo portion of our army, by removing a stain which the western +portion of India had long felt oppressive. In fact, he believed that +the Governor-General, by this means, conciliated the feelings of the +Hindoo soldiery in their return from those scenes of death and +disaster in which they had behaved so well, and where thousands of +their fellow-countrymen had fallen. I hope that this intention of +Lord Ellenborough to conciliate the princes of India will extend to +my unfortunate master.' This letter was from (we believe) Rumgoo +Baffagee, Vakeel of the Rajah of Sattara, and he thought it was so +important, that he had sent for the Vakeel, whom he found a most +intelligent man; and from his conversation he (Mr. Hume) was +satisfied that, so far from being applied to the Hindoo population +exclusively, it was utterly impossible that the gates could be used +for the religious purposes to which the Governor-General seemed to +have destined them. He had satisfied him (Mr. Hume) that the object +of the proclamation was merely to bring back to Western India those +gates, the absence of which in Afghanistan had long been felt as an +opprobrium. He hoped therefore, that those religious sects who had +most unnecessarily take the alarm on this score, would be appeased. +So far from the proclamation being an exclusive one, no single +sentence was there in it which could be read after the address to +'_all_ the princes and chiefs, and people of India,' as applicable +to any one." + +But it is said that such a trophy may give offence to Mahommedans; +and Mr. Mangles tells us, that the Mohommedan population sympathize +strongly with the Affghans, and revere the memory of Mahmoud. If +that be the case, it would have been difficult to bring any trophy +home, or to imprint any mark of the superiority of our arms, without +displeasing this sect. But, in that view, who are the parties +responsible for thus placing our essential interests, and the safety +of India generally, in contrast with the feelings of Mohommedan +subjects? Those certainly who, regardless of all justice, made a +wanton aggression on a Mahommedan power. Those certainly who, +regardless of all prudence, gave occasion to the Affghan massacre +and captivity of British and Indian soldiers; and, by a great +Mahommedan success, kindled a spark which was ready to set the +freemasonry of Islamism on fire "from Morocco to Coromandel." If we +have been placed in a false position, as regards our Mahommedan +subjects, we have to blame the Whigs, whose wanton and unwise +measures created this collision of interests, and not Lord +Ellenborough, who has adopted measures the most natural and the most +humane, to reestablish the ascendancy and the reputation of English +and Indian power. + +The proclamation of Simla needs no vindication. It has satisfied +every one but the Whigs, who can never forget and never forgive it. +It is poor pretence to say, that it denounces in an indecorous +manner the errors of the previous governor. It does no such thing. +It speaks, indeed, of errors, but only conscious culpability would +have taken the allusion to itself. There were errors, and grievous +ones. The Whigs themselves must say that; and they have not been +slow to shift to the shoulders of military officers the results that +most people think they should bear themselves. The proclamation of +Lord Ellenborough seems to us to have been framed with a punctilious +desire to reconcile in the eyes of India his own policy with that +which had been avowed by his predecessor, and to ascribe the change +of plans to a change of circumstances, and not of principles. We +speak here of the avowed policy of his predecessor; for Lord Auckland, +at least, pretended that he had no aggressive or hostile views +against the Affghans, and no desire for a permanent occupation of +their country. The real designs of the Whig Government are a +different thing; and with these, as avowed by Lord Palmerston in +Parliament, the intentions of Lord Ellenborough were wholly +irreconcilable. + +Let us listen here to one who knows the subject. The Duke of +Wellington tells us the errors that Lord Ellenborough alludes to as +occasioning our military disasters, and he shows us where those +errors lay:-- + +"There is not a word in this proclamation that is not strictly +true. But I do not blame the noble lord opposite, the late +Governor-General of India; yet I cannot help looking _at the enormous +errors_ which have been committed from the commencement of these +transactions in which these disasters originated, down to the last +retreat from Cabul--I say, looking at all this, I still must blame, +not the late Governor-General, but the gentlemen who acted under him. +In the first place, I attribute the error to the gentleman who fell +a victim to his own want of judgment. The army unfortunately was +partly English and partly Hindoo--not Affghans, but Hindoos. What +was the consequence? To maintain the whole system of the government, +including the collection of the revenue, devolved upon that army. +All the details of the government were carried on through the agency +of that English and Hindoo army, and eventually it became necessary +to support that army with some troops in the service of the Company. +Now, the gentleman who was responsible for this ought to have known +that there was one rule, the violation of which any one acquainted +with the government of India knew nothing could justify, and that was, +the employment of the Company's European troops in the collection of +the revenue. That rule is invariably laid down, and is invariably +observed. That, as your lordships must plainly see, is one of the +errors that has been committed. There is another point to which I +wish to call your attention; it is this, that the country never had +been occupied by an army as it ought to have been occupied. With the +north no practicable communication was maintained--no practicable +communications were kept up between Shikarpore, Candahar, and Ghuznee. +The passes were held only through the agency of banditti. I do not +blame the noble lord, but I blame the gentleman to whom the army was +entrusted. He seemed never to have looked at what had been done by +former commanders in similar circumstances. Any officer who has the +command of an army ought to feel it to be his first duty to keep up +a communication with his own country. If such communication had been +maintained, those disasters never would have befallen us--they could +not have happened. This was one of the errors committed; but I do +not say that the noble lord opposite is answerable for that error. +Not only was no communication kept up with the north, but none was +kept up with the south. Neither the Kojuck nor the Bolan pass was +kept open. Can that, my lords, be called a military communication? +Could such a state of things exist? Why, was not this another +error--a gross error? The noble lord opposite (Lord Auckland) had no +more to do with this than I have. Sir W. Macnaghten, the gentleman +who perished, could not have been ignorant of what was done in other +places. He must have read the history of the Spanish war, and he +must have recollected how the French conducted themselves in a +similar situation; how they fortified the passes, and secured their +communications. But he was not an officer; the gentleman at the head +of the army in Affghanistan was not an officer--that was another +error." + +That such errors existed is undeniable. Lord Auckland says there +were errors:-- + +"With regard to the errors of the campaign, he conceived they rested +with the military commanders, not with Sir W. Macnaghten; and if +errors had been committed by Sir William, they must be shared +between him and the more direct military commanders." + +Lord John Russell said,-- + +"I have heard causes given, and upon very high authority, for these +disasters; I have heard it stated that very great errors were +committed--that those errors consisted partly in not keeping up a +communication by the straightest road between Cabul and Peshawar. +This may be just; these may be errors, but they are errors not +necessary or in any way connected with the policy of entering into +Affghanistan. I may mention another circumstance--that the +expedition into Affghanistan was undertaken under Lord Keane, who was +shortly after succeeded by Sir W. Cotton; he came home, and was +succeeded by General Elphinstone, who, from the time of assuming the +command, never appears to have been in the state of vigorous health +necessary for such a position. Are not these circumstances to be +taken into account? If my Lord Auckland had had at his disposal any +of those illustrious men who had honoured the British army in later +days--if such a man as Lord Keane had remained in Cabul--my +persuasion is, you would never have heard of such a disaster as that +which took place at Cabul." + +We shall leave the Whigs to settle the question with their +subordinates, as to the precise degree of blame which each of the +parties shall bear. But there is seldom blame with the servants +without blame in the master; and it is one of Lord Ellenborough's +just titles to our praise, that he has been ably served by the +officers whom he so ably supported. + +If our Affghan disasters were imputable to gross errors in detail, +was it not right to denounce the cause? It would have been a +melancholy thing if we had been thus betrayed and circumvented +without errors in our own servants. If British troops had been thus +cut off, notwithstanding the use of every prudent precaution, the +disasters would then have gone far to put in question the +invincibility of our military power. It was necessary to declare, +that by individual and special mal-arrangement, this unparalleled +disaster had arisen; so that none of our enemies should thence +derive a hope to crush us again, until at least the incompetent +officials of a confiding Whig Government should give them another +such opportunity. + +The proclamation of Simla had another purpose--that of announcing +the future policy of the Government, and repudiating those designs of +aggression and aggrandizement which there was too good ground for +imputing to us, and which could not fail to inspire distrust and +suspicion in the minds even of friendly neighbours. On this point +nothing can be added to the admirable exposition of Lord Fitzgerald +in the late debate:-- + +"But there were other circumstances which compelled the +Governor-General of India; he meant, which made it his duty to +proclaim the motives of the policy of the Government; and why? +--because a different policy had been proclaimed by his predecessor; +and when it became necessary to withdraw from Affghanistan, it was +necessary to show that this was not a retreat. We were compelled to +show that we were not shrinking from setting up a king, because we +could not sustain him there. He said it was the duty of the +Governor-General to make that known to the Indian public. He would +not attempt to shelter Lord Ellenborough in this respect, by +saying--'it was prudent,' or, 'it did no harm:'--he maintained it +was his duty. What had been the language of the late Ministers of the +Crown, in the last session of Parliament? And these debates, as the +noble Earl had well said, 'went forth to India;' the discussions in +that House went forth to the Indian public. He found one Minister of +the Crown saying--'He should like to see the Minister, or the +Governor of India, who would dare to withdraw from the position we +occupied in Affghanistan.' (Hear, hear.) He found another noble lord, +in another place, stating, 'they took credit for the whole of that +measure, and he trusted that at no time would that position in +Affghanistan be abandoned.' These were views of public policy which +went forth to India, and it was not inconvenient nor unjust that +those who administered the government of India on different +principles should proclaim their views. The noble earl opposite, +knew that at that period it was not intended altogether to confine +the operations of the army to the westward of the Indus. It was very +well to say, that it was unwise and impolitic, and calculated to +destroy the unanimity which was so essential to the Government of +India, to issue public information as to the reasons for the +withdrawal of an army, although its advance was heralded by a +declaration on all these points, because the withdrawal of an army +was supposed to terminate the operations; but in the eyes of India +and Asia, if the declaration of the noble earl, dated from Simla on +the same day of the same month of a preceding year, had remained as +a record of British policy after that declaration had been followed +by a campaign, brilliant at its commencement, but as delusive as +brilliant, and terminated by a most awful tragedy, and by the +greatest disaster that ever befell the British forces--was it +unbecoming in a Governor-General to state, that the views and policy +of the Government of India had changed, and that the Government no +longer wished to interfere in the policy of Affghanistan, its motives +for so doing having passed away on finding that the king, +represented to be so popular, was unpopular? But there was another +circumstance which called for Lord Ellenborough's declaration, namely, +the necessity of allaying the apprehensions and fears of other states; +and it was Lord Ellenborough's duty to do this. Had the Sikhs no +apprehensions with respect to our intentions on Lahore? The most +serious apprehensions had been stated by the Durbar of Lahore to our +political agent there, Mr. Clark, and had been represented by him to +the Government of India.--Other states also had entertained +apprehensions of the intentions and motives of the Indian Government, +and he had yet to learn that it was a fault in a Governor-General to +allay these apprehensions of native states, even if no precedent +could be found for such a proceeding. After the policy of the Indian +Government which had been proclaimed, it became Lord Ellenborough's +duty to take the step he had done." + +This, however, is the true _gravamen_ of the quarrel of the Whigs +with Lord Ellenborough. He has thrown overboard their aggressive +policy--that policy which Lord Auckland, indeed, had not in words +avowed in India, but which his friends at home had openly declared +and gloried in. It was necessary for Lord Ellenborough, by a frank +declaration of his intentions, to exclude the prevalent +suspicion--nay, the universal belief--of those projects of +encroachment which the Whig Government had countenanced. This was +the unkindest cut of all. + + "Ill-weaved ambition! how much art + thou shrunk!" + +It was hard that their Affghan laurels--the only wreaths of victory +that the Whigs had ever won--should have already withered on their +brow. It was hard that their disasters should have been retrieved +under the sway of a political opponent. But it was intolerable that +the plans of conquest which they had fondly cherished, and tried to +press upon the country, should be virtually denounced amid the +universal approbation of all good men at home and abroad; that the +solitary achievement of their administration in military affairs, +should be recorded in the page of history, only to be condemned as +an act of injustice, inexcusably undertaken, and incompetently +executed: and relinquished by their successors in the very hour of +triumph, with a wise self-denial which no one will suspect that a +Whig could have ever practised. + +The cloven foot has here too plainly been revealed. It is not this +phrase or that procession in particular that has displeased the Whigs. +It is the abandonment of a policy which they dared not proclaim in +India, and which they could not justify in England. They are always +hankering after it still. Mr. Vernon Smith: "Considered it most +absurd for any Governor General to declare publicly that our Indian +empire had reached the limits which nature had assigned to it. Why, +what were the limits which nature had assigned to our Indian empire? +In early days, the Mahratta ditch was said to be its natural limit; +and why was the Sutlej or the Indus to be more the boundary of our +empire than the Himalayas?" + +Even Lord John Russell, who _now_ acknowledges the wisdom of +surrendering Affghanistan, declares, in almost so many words, that +his party have shrunk from a general vote of censure because they +could not properly put it, and have chosen this Act as "not the worst," +but the most convenient to attack. What the other errors of Lord +Ellenborough are, or whether there are any, except the exploded +story of the incivility to Mr. Amos, is nowhere definitely, +discoverable in their discussions, and is not likely for some time +to assume a greater degree of consistency than vague Whig calumnies +and general Whig dissatisfaction. Let them come to something definite, +and see how they will fare. If, as their old friend Lord Brougham +said, "revelling in defeat, and intoxicated with failure," they know +not when they have had enough--if they desire a contest on some other +issue--let them name their day and abide the result. + +In conclusion, we would only observe, what a contrast the conduct of +the Whig party towards Lord Ellenborough exhibits to that of their +opponents towards Lord Auckland! The ex Governor-General is not +absent, but here to defend himself; and every one sees how much room +there is for assailing his measures. Their calamitous result would +of itself go far to support the charge of imprudence, or something +worse. But not a word has been said against him that could be avoided; +and even those statements that necessarily reflect upon his +discretion, have been extorted from the Conservative party, in reply +to the attacks which Lord Auckland's friends have made upon his +successor. The English people admire fair play as much as they +appreciate the value of practical benefits. They see the false +pretences on which an absent man has now been assailed by +disappointed opponents; they feel the generosity that has saved his +rival from retaliation. They know the state of Indian affairs when +Lord Ellenborough assumed his office, and they can estimate the +position into which they have now been brought under his vigorous +management. They agree with him in the pacific principles which he +has avowed, and look forward to a continued career of useful services, +in which the resources of that great empire will be more than ever +developed under his control, and the power of the British name +perpetuated by a wise, an upright, and a fearless Administration. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - April +1843, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S APRIL 1843 *** + +***** This file should be named 11745-8.txt or 11745-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/7/4/11745/ + +Produced by The Internet Library of Early Journals (scanned images) + +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. 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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: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - April 1843 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: March 28, 2004 [EBook #11745] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S APRIL 1843 *** + + + + +Produced by The Internet Library of Early Journals (scanned images) + + + + + +BLACKWOOD'S +EDINBURGH MAGAZINE + + * * * * * + +No. CCCXXX. APRIL, 1843. VOL. LIII. + + * * * * * + +CONTENTS + + + THE PRACTISE OF AGRICULTURE, + POEMS AND BALLADS OF SCHILLER.--NO. VII., + THE LAST OF THE SHEPHERDS, + THE FOUNDING OF THE BELL. BY CHARLES MACKAY, + AMMALAT BEK. A TRUE TALE OF THE CAUCASUS FROM THE + RUSSIAN OF MARLINSKY.--CHAPTER III., + OCCUPATION OF ADEN, + SONNET, + CALEB STUKLEY. PART XIII., + IMAGINARY CONVERSATION, BETWEEN MR. WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR + AND THE EDITOR OF BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, + THE BURIAL MARCH OF DUNDEE, + LORD ELLENBOROUGH AND THE WHIGS, + + + * * * * * + +EDINBURGH: +WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET; +AND 22, PALL-MALL, LONDON. + +_To whom Communications (post-paid) may be addressed_. + +SOLD ALSO BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. + + * * * * * + +PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND HUGHES, EDINBURGH. + +BLACKWOOD'S +EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. + + * * * * * + +No. CCCXXX. APRIL, 1843. VOL. LIII. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE + +Skilful practice is applied science. This fact is illustrated in +every chapter of the excellent and comprehensive work now before us +[1]. + +In a previous article, (see the number for June 1842,) we +illustrated at some length the connexion which now exists, and which +hereafter must become more intimate, between practical agriculture +and modern science. We showed by what secret and silent steps the +progress and gradual diffusion of modern scientific discoveries had +imperceptibly led to great improvements in the agriculture of the +present century--by what other more open and manifest applications +of science it had directly, and in the eyes of all, been +advanced--to what useful practical discussions the promulgation of +scientific opinions had given rise--and to what better practice such +discussions had eventually led. Above all, we earnestly solicited +the attention of the friends of agriculture to what science seemed +not only capable of doing, but anxious also to effect, for the +further advance of this important art--what new lessons to give, new +suggestions to offer, and new means of fertility to place in the +hands of, the skilful experimental farmer. + +It is but a comparatively short time since that article was written, +and yet the spread of sound opinion, of correct and enlightened views, +and of a just appreciation, as well of the aids which science is +capable of giving to agriculture, as of the expediency of availing +ourselves of all these aids, which within that period has taken +place among practical men, has really surprised us. Nor have we been +less delighted by the zeal with which the pursuit of scientific +knowledge, in its relations to agriculture, has been entered upon in +every part of the empire--by the progress which has been made in the +acquisition of this knowledge--and by the numerous applications +already visible of the important principles and suggestions embodied +in the works then before us, (JOHNSTON's _Lectures and Elements of +Agricultural Chemistry and Geology_.) But on this important topic we +do not at present dwell. We may have occasion to return to the +subject in a future number, and in the mean time we refer our +readers to the remarks contained in our previous article. + +The truly scientific man--among those, we mean, who devote themselves +to such studies as are susceptible of important applications to the +affairs and pursuits of daily life--the truly scientific man does +not despise the _practice_ of any art, in which he sees the +principles he investigates embodied and made useful in promoting the +welfare of his fellow-men. He does not even undervalue it--he rather +upholds and magnifies its importance, as the agent or means by which +his greatest and best discoveries can be made to subserve their +greatest and most beneficent end. In him this may possibly arise +from no unusual liberality of mind; it may spring from a selfish +desire to see the principles he has established or made his own +carried out to their legitimate extent, and their value established +and acknowledged--_for it is the application of a principle that +imparts to it its highest value_. + +[Footnote 1: THE BOOK OF THE FARM. By Henry Stephens.] + +Science is to practical skill in the arts of life as the soul is to +the body. They are united as faith and works are in concerns of +higher moment. As both, though separately good, must yet be united +in the finished Christian, so the perfection of husbandry implies +the union of all the lights of existing theoretical knowledge with +all the skill of the most improved agricultural practice. + +Though such is the belief of those scientific men who are able and +willing to do the most for practical agriculture, who see most +clearly what _can_ be done for it, and the true line along +which agricultural improvement may now most hopefully direct +her course--yet with this opinion the greater part of practical +men are still far from sympathizing. Some voices even--becoming +every day more feeble, however, and recurring at more distant +intervals--continue to be raised against the utility and the +applications of science; as if practice with _stationary_ knowledge +were omnipotent in developing the resources of nature; as if a man, +in a rugged and partially explored country, could have too much +light to guide his steps. + +In the history of maritime intercourse there was a time when the +timid seaman crept from port to port, feeling his cautious and wary +way from headland to headland, and daring no distant voyage where +seas, and winds, and rocks, unknown to him, increased the dangers of +his uncertain life. Then a bolder race sprung up--tall ships danced +proudly upon the waves, and many brave hearts manned and guided them; +yet still they rarely ventured from sight of land. Men became +bewildered still, perplexed, and full of fear, when sea and sky +alone presented themselves. But a third period arose--and in the same +circumstances, men not more brave appeared collected, fearless, and +full of hope. Faith in a trembling needle gave confidence to the +most timorous, and neither the rough Atlantic nor the wide Pacific +could deter the bold adventurer, or the curious investigator of +nature. + +And yet it was not till this comparatively advanced stage of the +nautical art--when man had obtained a faithful guide in his most +devious and trackless wanderings--when he was apparently set free +from the unsteady dominion of the seas and of the fickle winds--and +amid his labyrinthine course could ever and at once turn his face +towards his happy and expectant home;--it was not till this period +that science began to lend her most useful and most extensive aids, +and that her value in the advancement of the sailor's art began to +be justly appreciated. The astronomer forthwith taught him more +accurately to observe the heavens, and compiled laborious tables for +his daily use. Geography and hydrography obtained higher estimation, +and harbour-engineering and ship-building were elevated into more +important separate arts, chiefly from their applications to his use. +Nautical schools and nautical surveys, and lighthouse boards, with +all their attendant scientific researches, and magnetic observations, +and voyages of discovery all sprung up--at once the causes and the +consequences of the advancement of his art towards perfection; and +latest, though yet far from being the last, all the new knowledge +that belongs to steam-navigation has been incorporated in the vast +body of nautical science. _The further an art advances, the more +necessary does science become to it_. + +Thus it is with agriculture. It cannot be denied that the tillage of +the soil, with almost every other branch of husbandry, has made +large strides among us--that we have more productive and better +cultivated provinces, and more skilful farmers, than are to be found +in any other part of the world in which equal disadvantages of +climate prevail. Any one will readily satisfy himself of this, who, +with an agricultural eye, shall visit the other parts of Europe to +which the same northern sky is common with ourselves. And it is +because we have reached this pitch of improvement--at which many +think we ought to be content to stop--because we have dismissed our +frail and diminutive boats, and sail now in majestic and decorated +ships, provided with such abundant stores that we need not, night by +night, to seek the harbour for new supplies--that we begin to feel +the want of some directing principle--to look about for some +favouring star to guide our wanderings upon the deep. To the +tremblirg needle of science we must now turn to point our way. +Feeble and uncertain it may itself appear--wavering as it directs +us--and therefore by many may be depreciated and despised--yet it +will surely lead us right if we have faith in its indications. Let +the practical man then build his ships skilfully and well after the +best models, and of the soundest oak--let their timbers be Kyanized, +their cables of iron, their cordage and sails of the most approved +make and material--let their sailors be true men and fearless, and +let stores be providently laid in for the voyage; but let not the +trembling needle of science be forgotten; for though the distant +harbour he would gain be well known to him--without the aid of the +needle he may never be able to reach it. + +In thus rigging out his ship--in other words, in fitting up his farm +and doing all for it, and upon it, which experience and skilful +practice can suggest--he cannot have a better guide than the book +now before us. + +THE BOOK OF THE FARM is not a mere didactic treatise on practical +agriculture, of which we already possess several of deserved +reputation; nor yet a laborious compilation, systematically arranged, +of every thing which, in the opinion of the author, it should +interest the farmer to know. Of such Cyclopaedias, that of Loudon +will not soon find a rival. But, as its name implies, The _Book of +the Farm_ contains a detail of all the operations, the more minute +as well as the greater, which the husbandman will be called upon to +undertake upon his farm--in the exact order in point of time in +which they will successively demand his attention. Beginning at the +close of the agricultural year, when the crops are reaped and housed, +and the long winter invites to new and peculiar, and, as they may be +called, preparatory labours, the reader is taught what work in each +succeeding month and season should be undertaken--why at that season +for what purpose it is to be done-in what way it can best be +performed--how at the least cost of money and the smallest waste of +time--and _how the master may at all times ascertain if his work has +been efficiently performed_. + +We confess that we have been much struck with the wide range of +_practical_ subjects on which the author gives, in such a way a to +show that he is himself familiar with them, the most minute +directions for the guidance at once of the master farmer himself, +and for the direction of those who are under his orders. We have +satisfied ourselves that by carefully _examining_ the contents of +this one book, we should be prepared not merely to pass an +examination, but actually to undertake the office of public examiner +in any or all of the several crafts and mysteries of the farm-builder, +the weather-seer, the hedge-planter, the ditcher, the drainer, the +ploughman, the cattle-feeder, the stock-buyer, the drover, the +pig-killer, the fat cattle seller, the butcher, the miller, and the +grieve or general overseer of the farm. We know not what other +gentle crafts the still unpublished parts of the work may hereafter +teach us; but so faithfully and so minutely, in general so clearly, +and with so much apparent enjoyment, does the author enter into the +details of all the above lines of life, that we have been deceived +(we suppose) into the persuasion that Mr. Stephens must, in his +lifetime, have "played many parts"--that he has himself, as occasion +offered, or as work fell in his way, engaged in every one of these +as well as of the other varied occupations it falls in his way to +describe. + +How, otherwise, for instance, should he so well understand the +duties and habits, and sympathize with the privations and simple +enjoyments of the humble and way-worn drover?-- + +"A drover of sheep should always be provided with a dog, as the +numbers and nimbleness of sheep render it impossible for one man to +guide a capricious flock along a road subject to many casualties; +not a young dog, who is apt to work and bark a great deal more than +necessary, much to the annoyance of the sheep--but a knowing +cautious tyke. The drover should have a walking stick, a useful +instrument at times in turning a sheep disposed to break off from +the rest. A shepherd's plaid he will find to afford comfortable +protection to his body from cold and wet, while the mode in which it +is worn leaves his limbs free for motion. He should carry provision +with him, such as bread, meat, cheese or butter, that he may take +luncheon or dinner quietly beside his flock, while resting in a +sequestered part of the road; and he may slake his thirst in the +first brook or spring he finds, or purchase a bottle of ale at a +roadside ale-house. Though exposed all day to the air, and even +though he feel cold, he should avoid drinking spirits, which only +produce temporary warmth, and for a long time after induce chilliess +and languor. Much rather let him reserve the allowance of spirits he +gives himself until the evening, when he can _enjoy it in warm toddy +beside a comfortable fire_, before retiring to rest for the night." +--Vol. ii. p. 89. + + +Then how knowingly he treats of the fat upon the sheep:-- + + +"The formation of fat in a sheep commences in the inside, the +_net_ of fat which envelopes the intestines being first formed. +After that, fat is seen on the outside, and first upon the end of +the rump at the tail head, which continues to move on along the back, +on both sides of the spine to the bend of the ribs, to the neck. Then +it is deposited between the muscles, parallel with the cellular +tissue. Meanwhile it is covering the lower round of the ribs, +descending to the flanks until the two sides meet under the belly, +from whence it proceeds to the brisket or breast in front and the +shaw behind, filling up the inside of the arm-pits and thighs. The +spaces around the fibres of the muscles are the last to receive a +deposition of fat, but after this has begun, every other part +simultaneously receives its due share, the back and kidneys +receiving the most--so much so that the former literally becomes +_nicked_, as it is termed; that is, the fat is felt through the +skin to be divided into two portions. When all this has been +accomplished, the sheep is said to be _fat_ or _ripe_."--Vol. ii. p. +93. + + +But the enjoyment of tracing the accumulating fat is not enough for +our author--as soon as his sheep is ripe, he forthwith proceeds to +slaughter it; and though he describes every part of this process +accurately, and with true professional relish, coolly telling us, +that "the _operation_ is unattended with cruelty;" yet we must be +content to refer our readers to the passage (vol. ii. p. 96) as an +illustration of his skill in this interesting branch of farm-surgery. +He is really an amiable sheep-operator, our author--what placid +benevolence and hatred of quackery appear in his instructions-- +"Learn to slaughter _gently_, dress the carcass neatly and cleanly, +in as plain a manner as possible, and without _flourishes_."--p. 167. + +But whisky-toddy and fat mutton are not the only things our author +relishes. He must have been a farm-servant, living in a bothy, at +least as long as he drove on the road or practised surgery in the +slaughter-house. After describing the farm-servant's wages and mode +of living, he thus expands upon the subject of Scottish brose:-- + +"The oatmeal is usually cooked in one way, as _brose_. A pot of +water is put on the fire to boil--a task which the men (in the bothy) +take in turns; a handful or two of oatmeal is taken out of the small +chest with which each man provides himself, and put into a wooden +bowl, which also is the ploughman's property; and, on a hollow being +made in the meal, and sprinkled with salt, the boiling-water is +poured over the meal, and the mixture receiving a little stirring +with a horn-spoon, and the allowance of milk poured over it, the +brose is ready to be eaten; and, as every man makes his own brose, +and knows his own appetite, he makes just as much as he can consume." [2] + +[Footnote 2: "The fare is simple, and is as simply made, but it must be +wholesome, and capable of supplying the loss of substance occasioned +by hard labour; for I believe that no class of men can endure more +bodily fatigue for ten hours every day, than those ploughmen of +Scotland who subsist on this brose three times a-day."--Vol. ii. p. +384.] + +But if the _life_ of the ploughman is familiar to our author, the +_work_ he has to do, and the mode of doing it well, and the reason +why it should be done one way here, and another way there, are no +less so. The uninitiated have no idea of the complicated patterns +which the ploughman works, according to the nature of the soil and +the season of the year in which he labours. He may be "gathering +up--crown-and-furrow ploughing--casting, or yoking, or coupling +ridges--casting ridges with gore furrows--cleaving down ridges with +or without gore furrows--ploughing two-out-and-two-in--ploughing in +breaks--cross-furrowing--angle-ploughing, ribbing, and drilling--or +he may be preparing the land by feering or striking the ridges."-- +(Vol. i. p. 464.) All these methods of turning up the land are +described and illustrated by wood-cuts, and we are sure quite as +effectually done upon paper as if the author had been explaining +them upon his own farm, guiding one of his own best ploughs, and +strengthened by a basin of good brose made from his own meal-chest. + +But the practical skill of Mr. Stephens is not confined to the lower +walks of the agricultural life. The ploughman sometimes qualifies +himself to become a steward, that he may rid himself of the drudgery +of working horses. He has then new duties to perform, which are thus +generally described. + +"The duty of the _steward_ or _grieve_, as he is called in some +parts of Scotland, and _bailiff_ in England, consists in receiving +general instructions from his master, the farmer, which he sees +executed by the people under his charge. He exercises a direct +control over the ploughmen and field-workers.... It is his duty to +enforce the commands of his master, and to check every deviation +from rectitude he may observe in the servants against his interests. +It is not generally understood that he has control over the shepherd, +the hedger, or the cattleman, who are stewards, in one sense, over +their respective departments of labour.... He should always deliver +the daily allowance of corn to the horses. _He should be the first +person out of bed in the morning, and the last in it at night_. On +most farms, he sows the seed in spring, superintends the +field-workers in summer, tends the harvest-field and builds the +stacks in autumn, and thrashes the corn with the mill, and cleans it +with the winnowing-machine in winter. He keeps an account of the +workpeople's time, and of the quantity of grain thrashed, consumed +on the farm, and delivered to purchasers."--Vol. i. p. 221. + + +The practical man who reads the above detail of the steward's duties, +will see at once that it must have been written by "one of themselves;" +and, by its correctness, will be able to judge of the full faith +which may be placed in the numerous other details upon every branch +of practical farming with which the work now before us is so full. + +We have brought prominently forward the above extracts in relation to +the _minutiae_ of the farmer's life--to the detailed practical +knowledge which is so valuable to him, as being those upon which it +appeared to us that a writer who was capable of getting up a book at +all, much more such a book as this professes to be, in reference to +the higher branches of the farmers' art, was most likely to fail. +But these parts of the work are written not only knowingly and well, +but with an evident relish for the subject. Let us turn, therefore, +to the more intellectual part of the book, and see how far this part +of the task has been satisfactorily accomplished. + +_The Book of the Farm_ is mainly intended as a manual for the +master-farmer, accompanying him every where, and at every season of +the year, counselling, guiding, and directing him in all his +operations. But it has a higher and more useful aim than merely to +remind the practical agriculturist of what he already knows. It is +fitted, without other aid, to teach the beginner nearly every thing +which it is necessary for him to know in order to take his place +among the most intelligent practical men; and to teach it precisely +at the time, and in the order, in which it is most easy, most useful, +and most interesting for him to learn it. + +The beginner is supposed by Mr. Stephens to have undergone a previous +course of instruction under a practical man, and to enter upon a +farm of his own in the beginning of winter. This farm is a more or +less naked and unimproved piece of land, without a farm-stead or +farm-house, with few hedge-rows, and wholly undrained. On entering +the farm, also, he has servants to engage, stock to buy, and +implements to select. In all these difflculties, _The Book of the +Farm_ comes to his aid. The most useful, approved, and economical +form of a farm-steading is pointed out. The structure of barns, +stables, cow-houses, piggeries, _liquid-manure tanks_, poultry-yards, +and every other appendage of the farm-house, and, finally, the most +fitting construction of the farm-house itself, according to the size +and situation of the farm, are discussed, described, and explained. +Plans and estimates of every expense are added, and woodcuts +illustrative of every less known suggestion. These are not only +sufficient to guide the intelligent young farmer in all the +preliminary arrangements for his future comfort and success, but will, +we are sure, supply hints to many older heads for the reconstruction +or improvement of farm-steadings, heretofore deemed convenient and +complete. The following chapter aids him in the choice of his +servants, and describes distinctly the duties and province of each. + +And now, having concluded his domestic arrangements, [3] he must +learn to know something of the weather which prevails in the +district in which he has settled, before he can properly plan out or +direct the execution of the various labours which are to be +undertaken upon his farm during the winter. A chapter of some length, +therefore, is devoted to the "weather in winter," in which the +principles by which the weather is regulated in the different parts +of our islands, and the methods of foreseeing or predicting changes, +are described and illustrated _as far as they are known_. This is the +first of those chapters of _The Book of the Farm_ which illustrates +in a way not to be mistaken, the truth announced at the head of this +article, that _skilful practice is applied science_. + +[Footnote 3: Hesiod considered one other appendage to the homestead +indispensable, to which Mr. Stephens does not allude, perhaps from +feeling himself incompetent to advise.] + +To some it may appear at first sight that our author has indulged in +too much detail upon this subject; but he is not a true practical +farmer who says so. The weather has always been a most interesting +subject to the agriculturist--he is every day, in nearly all his +movements, dependant upon it. A week of rain, or of extraordinary +drought, or of nipping frost, may disappoint his most sanguine and +best founded expectations. His daily comfort, his yearly profit, and +the general welfare of his family, all depend upon the weather, or +upon his _skill in foreseeing its changes_, and availing himself of +every moment which is favourable to his purposes. Hence, with +agricultural writers, from the most early times, the varied +appearances of the clouds, the nature of the winds, and the changing +aspects of the sun and moon, and their several significations, have +formed a favourite subject of description and discussion. Thus of +the sun Virgil says-- + + "Sol quoque, et exoriens et quum se condet in undas, + Signa dabit; solem certissima signa sequuntir. + Et quae mane refert, et quae surgentibus astris." + +And then he gives the following _prognostics_, as unerring guides to +the Latian farmer:-- + + "Ille ubi nascentem maculis variaverit ortum, + Conditus in nubem, medioque refugerit orbe; + Suspecti tibi sint imbres.... + Caeruleus pluviam denuntiat, igneus Euros. + At si quum referetque diem condit que relatum + Lucidus orbis erit: frustra terrebere nimbis + Et claro silvas cernes aquilone moveri." + +Mr. Stephens recognises similar solar indications in the following +rhymes:-- + + "If the sun in red should set, + The next day surely will be wet; + If the sun should set in grey, + The next will be a rainy day." + +And again-- + + "An evening red, or a morning grey, + Doth betoken a bonnie day; + In an evening grey and a morning red, + Put on your hat, or ye'll weet your head." + +In his next edition we recommend to Mr. Stephens's notice the Border +version of the latter:-- + + "An evening red and a morning grey, + Send the shepherd on his way; + An evening grey and a morning red + Send the shepherd wet to bed." + +The most learned meteorologists of the present day believe the moon +to influence the weather--the practical farmer is sure of it--and we +have known the result of the hay crop, in adjoining farms, to be +strikingly different, when upon the one the supposed influence of +the time of change was taken into account and acted upon, while in +the other it was neglected. Mr. Stephens gives as true proverbs-- + + * * * * * + + "In the wane of the moon, + A cloudy morning bodes a fair afternoon." + +And + + "New moon's mist + Never dies of thirst." + +But Virgil is more specific-- + + "Ipsa dies alios alio dedit ordine Luna + Felices operum; quintam fuge.... + Septuma post decumam felix et ponere vitem, + Et prensos domitare boves." + +And in these warnings he only imitates Hesiod-- + + [Greek: Pempias de hexaleasthai, hepei chalepai te chai ainai.] + +And + + [Greek: Maenos de isamenou trischaidecha taen haleasthai, + Spezmatos azxasthai phuta de henthzepsasthai arisa.] + +But the vague prognostics of old times are not sufficient for the +guidance of the skilful and provident farmer of our day. The +barometer, the thermometer, and even the hygrometer, should be his +companions and guides, or occasional counsellors. To the description +and useful indications of these instruments, therefore, a sufficient +space is devoted in the book before us. We do not know any other +source from which the practical farmer can draw so much +meteorological matter specially adapted to his own walk of life, as +from this chapter upon the weather. + +All this our young farmer is not supposed to sit down and master +before he proceeds with the proper business of his new farm; it will +be a subject of study with him in many future months, and winters too. +But after a most judicious recommendation, to observe and _record_ +whatever occurs either new or interesting in his field of +labour--without which record he will not be able to contribute, as +he may hereafter do, to the extension of agricultural knowledge--he +is taught next, in an able chapter "upon soils and sub-soils," +to study the nature of his farm more thoroughly; to ascertain +its natural capabilities--the improvements of which it is +susceptible--the simplest, most efficacious, and most economical +means by which this improvement may be effected--and the kind of +implements which it will be most prudent in him to purchase for +tilling the kind of land of which his farm consists, or for bringing +it into a more fertile condition. This chapter also draws largely, +especially upon geological and chemical science, and affords another +illustration of what, I trust, Mr. Stephens's book will more and +more impress upon our working farmers, that _skilful practice is +applied science_. We have not room for any extracts, but when we +mention that in the chemical part of it the author has been assisted +by Dr. Madden, readers of the _Quarterly Journal of Agriculture_ +will be able to form an estimate of the way in which this chapter +has been got up. + +Having now satisfied himself of the nature of his farm as to soil +and capabilities, he sees that new enclosures and shelter will be +necessary--that some fields must be subdivided, others laid out +anew--that old hedge-rows must be rooted out or straightened, and +new ones planted in their room. Of what all this may be made to +accomplish for his farm, and of how the work itself may be done, +even to the minutest details, the chapters on "enclosures and shelter," +and on "planting of farm hedges," will fully inform him. The +benefits of shelter on our elevated lands, are not half understood. +Thousands upon thousands of acres are lying in comparative barrenness, +which, by adequate shelter, might be converted into productive fields. +The increase of mean temperature which results from skilful +enclosures, is estimated at 5 deg. to 8 deg. Fahrenheit; while in regard to +the increased money value, Mr. Thomas Bishop gives the following +testimony:-- + +"Previous to the division of the common moor of Methven in Perthshire, +in 1793, the venerable Lord Lynedoch and Lord Methven had each +secured their lower slopes of land adjoining the moor with belts of +plantation. The year following I entered Lord Methven's service, and +in 1798 planted about sixty acres of the higher moor ground, valued +at 2s. per acre, for shelter to eighty or ninety acres set apart for +cultivation, and let in three divisions to six individuals. The +progress made in improving the land was very slow for the first +fifteen years, but thereafter went on rapidly, being aided by the +_shelter derived from_ the growth of the plantations; and the +whole has now become fair land, bearing annually crops of oats, +barley, peas, potatoes, and turnips. In spring 1838, exactly forty +years from the time of putting down the plantation, I sold four +acres of larch and fir (average growth) standing therein, for L.220, +which, with the value of reserved trees and average amount per acre +of thinnings sold previously, gave a return of L.67 per acre."--Vol. +i, p. 367. + + +We are satisfied that in localities with which we are ourselves +acquainted, there are tens of thousand of acres which, by the simple +protection of sheltering plantations, would soon be made to exhibit +an equal improvement with either the moor of Methven, or the lands +upon Shotley Fell, which are also referred to in the work before us. +At a time when such strenuous endeavours are making to introduce and +extend a more efficient drainage among our clay lands, the more +simple amelioration of our cold uplands by judicious plantations, +ought neither to be lost sight of, nor by those who address +themselves to the landlords and cultivators, be passed by without +especial and frequent notice. + +Did space permit, we could have wished to extract a paragraph or two +upon the mode of planting hedges, and forming ditches, for the +purpose of proving to our readers that Mr. Stephens is as complete a +_hedger_ and _ditcher_, as we have seen him to be cunning as a +drover and a cattle surgeon. But we must refer the reader to the +passages in pp. 376 and 379. Even in the planting of thorn hedges he +will find that science is not unavailing, for both mathematics and +botany are made by Mr. Stephens to yield their several contributions +to the chapters we are now considering. + +But the fields being divided and the hedges planted, or while those +operations are going on, a portion of the land must be subjected to +the plough. Next in order, therefore, follows a chapter upon this +important instrument, in which the merits and uses of the several +best known--especially of the Scotch swing-ploughs--are explained +and discussed. Here our young farmer is taught which variety of +plough he ought to select for his land, _why_ it is to be preferred, +and _how_ it is to be used, and its movable parts (plough-irons) +_tempered_ and adjusted, according to the effect which the workman +is desirous of producing. We are quite sure that the writer of such +parts of this chapter as refer to the practical use of the plough, +must himself have handled it for many a day in the field. + +The part of this chapter, again, which relates to the theoretical +construction--to the history of the successive improvements, and to +the discussion of the relative merits of the numerous varieties of +ploughs which have lately been recommended to notice--is drawn up by +Mr. James Slight, curator of the museum of the Highland Society, a +gentleman whose authority on such subjects stands deservedly high. +To this monograph, as we may call it, upon the plough, we may again +refer as another illustration of the union between agriculture and +science. Mechanism perfects the construction of instruments, +chemistry explains the effects which they are the means of producing +in the soil--says also to the mechanic, if you could make them act +in such and such a way, these effects would be more constantly and +more fully brought about, and returns them to the workshop for +further improvement. Thus each branch of knowledge aids the other, +and suggests to it means of still further benefitting practical +agriculture. + +One of the most interesting, and not the least important, of those +practical discussions which have arisen since the establishment of +the Royal Agricultural Society of England, has been in regard to the +relative merits and lightness of draught of the Scottish +swing-ploughs, and of certain of the wheel-ploughs made and +extensively used, especially in the southern counties. It is admitted, +we believe, on all hands, that a less skilful workman will execute +as presentable a piece of work with a wheel-plough, as a more +skilful ploughman with a Scotch swing-plough. This is insisted upon +by one party as a great advantage, while the other attaches no +weight to it at all, saying, that they find no difficulty in getting +good ploughmen to work with the swing-plough, and therefore it would +be no advantage to them to change. Still this greater facility in +using it is a true economical advantage, nevertheless; since that +which is difficult to acquire will always be purchased at a dearer +rate; and in an improving district, it is some gain, that it is +neither necessary to import very skilful ploughmen, nor to wait till +they are produced at home. + +But it is also conceded, we believe, that the swing-plough, in +skilful hands, is more easily or quickly managed than a wheel-plough; +that it _turns more readily_, and when doing the same kind of work, +will go over the ground quicker, and consequently do more work in a +day. Theoretically, this seems undeniable, though it does not appear +to be as yet clearly established in what precise proportion this +theoretical acceleration ought to increase the extent of ground gone +over by a diligent ploughman in the ten hours of his daily labour. +It is said that, with the wheel-plough, three-fourths of an acre is +an average day's work, while with a swing-plough, an acre is the +ordinary and easy work of an active man on soil of average tenacity. +The _pace_, however, must depend considerably both upon the horses +and their driver; and to whatever extent such a difference may +really exist--and opinions differ upon the subject--it is clearly an +argument in favour of the swing-plough. + +But a third and equally important element in the discussion, is the +relative draught of the swing and wheel-ploughs. This element has +been lately brought more prominently forward, in consequence of some +interesting experiments, made first, we believe, by Mr. Pusey, and +since repeated by others, as to the relative draught of different +ploughs in the same circumstances, as measured by the dynamometer. +This, as well as the other parts of this question, is taken up, and +ably discussed, by Mr. Slight; and he has, we think, satisfactorily +shown, that no wheel-plough (or plough with a foot) can be lighter +in draught, _merely because it is wheeled_--that, on the contrary, +its draught must be in some small degree increased, other things +being equal, (vol. i. p. 463.) This, we think, is probable, on other +grounds besides those stated by Mr. Slight; yet there appears +satisfactory reason for believing, that some of the wheel-ploughs +which have been made the subject of experiment, have actually been +lighter in draught, when doing the same work, than any of the +swing-ploughs that have been opposed to them. But this does not show +that, in _principle_, the swing-plough is not superior to the +wheel-plough--it only shows that, in _construction_, it is still +capable of great emendations, and that, in this respect, some of the +wheel-ploughs have got the start of it. But the Scotch makers, who +first so greatly improved the plough, are capable still of competing +with their southern rivals; and from their conjoined exertions, +future ploughmen are destined to receive still further aid. + +When the ploughs are brought home, and while the winter ploughing is +going on, an opportunity presents itself for laying out, and probably, +as the weather permits, of cutting a portion of the intended drains. +Upon this important subject, Mr. Stephens treats with more even than +his usual skill. How true is the following passage:-- + +"Land, however, though it does not contain such a superabundance of +water as to obstruct arable culture, may nevertheless, by its +inherent wetness, prevent or retard the luxuriant growth of useful +plants, as much as decidedly wet land. The truth is, that deficiency +of crops on apparently dry land is frequently attributed to +unskilful husbandry, when it really arises from the baleful +influence of _concealed_ stagnant water; and the want of skill is +shown, not so much in the management of the arable culture of the +land, as in neglecting to remove the true cause of the deficiency of +the crop, namely, the concealed stagnant water. Indeed, my opinion is, +and its conviction has been forced upon me by long and extensive +observation of the state of the soil over a large part of the +country--that this is the _true cause of most of the bad farming to +be seen_, and that _not one farm_ is to be found throughout the +kingdom that _would not be much the better for draining_." +--Vol. i. p. 483. + +Draining is now truly regarded as a great national work, involving +considerations of the highest moment, and bearing upon some of the +most vital questions of our national policy. It is a subject, +therefore, the practical discussion of which is of the greatest +importance, especially in reference to the mode in which it can be +most _efficiently_ and most _cheaply_ done. Into these points, +Mr. Stephens enters minutely, and the course he prescribes is, we +think, full of judgment. He explains the Elkington mode of draining, +and he gives due praise to the more recent improvements of Mr. Smith +of Deanston. + + +Every one knows how difficult it is to persuade our practical men to +adopt any new method; but even after you have satisfied them that the +adoption of it will really do good to their farms, it is almost as +difficult to persuade them, that a partial adoption of the method, +or some alteration of it--as they fancy some _improvement_ of +it--will not best suit their land, or the circumstances in which +they are placed. Thus, one thinks, that a drain in each alternate +furrow is enough for his soil--that his drains need not be above +twelve(!) or eighteen inches deep--or that on his clay, the use of +soles is a needless expense. On all these points, the book before us +gives confident opinions, with which we entirely coincide. + +In regard to the depth of drains, it is shown, that in order that +they may _draw_, they should never be shallower than thirty inches, +and should always leave a depth of eighteen inches clear of the +draining materials, in order that the subsoil and trench plough may +have full freedom of action, without risk of injury to the drain; +while of the use of soles he says-- + +"I am a strenuous advocate for drainsoles _in all cases_; and even +when they may really prove of little use, I would rather use too many, +than too few precautions in draining; because, even in the most +favourable circumstances, we cannot tell what change may take place +beyond our view, in the interior of a drain, which we are never again +permitted, and which _we have no desire to see_." + +This passage expresses the true principle of safety, by which, in +the outlay of large sums of money for improvements, the landowner, +and the holder of an improving lease, ought to be actuated. Though +great losses have already been incurred by shallow drains, and by +the rejection of soles, the practice, especially in the more +backward districts, still goes on, and thousands of pounds are still +expended upon the principles of a false economy, in repetition of +the same faulty practice. We know of drainings now going on to a +great extent, which will never permit the use of the subsoil plough; +and of the neglect of soles, upon soils generally of clay, but here +and there with patches of sand, into which the tiles must inevitably +sink. When a person drains his own land, of course reason is the +only constraint by which he can be withheld from doing as he likes +with his own; or where a yearly tenant drains part of his farm at +his own expense, the risk is exclusively his, and his landlord, who +perhaps refuses to give any effectual aid, can have no right to +dictate as to the mode in which the draining is to be performed; but +when the landlord contributes either directly or indirectly to the +expense, he, or his agent--if he has one who is skilful +enough--should insist upon every thing being done according to the +most improved, which, in reality, are also ultimately the most +economical principles. + +While the draining thus proceeds on the best and most economical +principles, the ploughing is supposed to be still in progress. +Indeed the arrangements for the two operations, the selection and +purchase of the implements for both, may go on simultaneously. The +plough, indeed, is sometimes used as a draining implement for making +a deep furrow, in which, with more or less emendation from the spade, +the tiles or other draining materials may subsequently be laid. But +in this case, the draught is excessive, and many horses must often +be yoked into the same plough, in order to drag it through the ground. +Here, therefore, the young farmer must learn a new art--the art of +harnessing and yoking his horses, in such a way as to obtain the +greatest possible effect, at the least expense, or with the smallest +waste of animal strength. This is a very important subject for +consideration, and it is one which the author who is best acquainted +with the practice, and with the state of knowledge regarding it, +over a great part of our island, will feel himself most imperatively +called upon to treat of in detail. This is done, accordingly, in the +chapter upon the "Yoking and Harnessing of the Plough," in which, by +the able assistance of Mr. Slight, the principles upon which these +processes should be conducted, as well as the simplest, strongest, +and most economical methods, in actual practice among the most +skilful farmers, are illustrated and explained. + +To this follows a chapter upon "Ploughing stubble and lea ground," +in which, with the aid of his two coadjutors, the practical and +scientific questions involved in the general process of ploughing +such land, are discussed with equal skill and judgment. We have been +particularly pleased with the remarks of Mr. Slight upon +ploughing-matches, (Vol. i. p. 651,) in reference especially to the +general disregard among judges, of the nature of the _underground_ +work, on which so much of the good effects of ploughing in reality +depends. They will, we doubt not, have their due weight, at future +ploughing-matches, among those--and we hope they will be many--into +whose hands the work before us may come. + +Second in importance to draining only, are the subjects of "subsoil +and trench ploughing," operations which are also to be performed at +this season of the year--and a chapter upon which concludes the +first volume of Mr. Stephens's work. Those who are acquainted with +the writings of Mr. Smith of Deanston, and with the operations of +the Marquis of Tweeddale at Yester, will duly estimate the importance, +not merely to the young farmer himself, but to the nation at large, +of proper instruction in regard to these two important operations--in +the mode of economically conducting them--in the principles upon +which their beneficial action depends--and in the circumstances by +which the practical man ought to be regulated in putting the one or +the other, or the one _rather_ than the other, in operation upon his +own land. Our limits do not permit us to discuss the relative merits +of subsoil and trench ploughing, which by some writers have unwisely +been pitted against each other--as if they were in reality methods +of improving the land, either of which a man may equally adopt in +any soil and under all circumstances. But they, in reality, agree +universally only in this one thing--_that neither process will +produce a permanently good effect unless the land be previously +thorough-drained_. But being drained, the farmer must then exercise +a sound discretion, and Mr. Stephens's book will aid his judgment +much in determining which of the two subsequent methods he ought to +adopt. The safer plan for the young farmer would be to try one or +two acres in each way, and in his after procedure upon the same kind +of land to be regulated by the result of this trial. Mr. Stephens +expresses a decided opinion in favour of trench-ploughing in the +following passages:-- + +"I have no hesitation in expressing my preference of trench to +subsoil ploughing: and I cannot see a single instance, with the sole +exception of turning up a very bad subsoil in large quantity, in +which there is any advantage attending subsoil, that cannot be +enjoyed by trench ploughing: and for this single drawback of a very +bad subsoil, trenching has the advantage of being performed in +perfect safety, where subsoil ploughing could not be, without +previous drainage. + +"But whilst giving a preference to trench ploughing over subsoil, I +am of opinion that it should not be generally attempted under any +circumstances, however favourable, without previous thorough-draining, +any more than subsoil ploughing; but when so drained, there is no +mode of management, in my opinion, that will render land so soon +amenable to the means of putting it in a high degree of fertility as +trench ploughing."--Vol. i. p. 664. + + +We confess that, in the first of the above passages, Mr. Stephens +appears to us to assume something of the tone of a partizan, which +has always the effect of lessening the weight of an author's opinion +with the intelligent reader who is in search of the truth only. What +is advanced as the main advantage of trench-ploughing in the first +passage--that it can be safely done without previous draining, is in +the second wholly discarded by the advice, _never to trench-plough +without previous draining_. At the same time it is confessed, that +in the case of a bad subsoil, trench-ploughing may do much harm. +Every practical man in fact knows that bringing up the subsoil in +any quantity, he would in some districts render his fields in a great +measure unproductive for years to come. On the other hand, we believe +that the use of the subsoil-plough can never do harm upon drained +land. We speak, of course, of soils upon which it is already +conceded that either the one method or the other ought to be adopted. +The utmost evil that can follow in any such case from the use of the +subsoil-plough, is that the expense will be thrown away--the land +cannot be rendered more unfruitful by it. Subsoiling, therefore, is +the _safer_ practice. + +But in reality, there ought, as we have already stated, to be no +opposition between the two methods. Each has its own special uses +for which it can be best employed, and the skill of the farmer must +be exercised in determining whether the circumstances in which he is +placed are such as to call specially for the one or for the other +instrument. If the subsoil be a rich black mould, or a continuation +of the same alluvial or other fertile soil which forms the surface--it +may be turned up at once by the trench-plough without hesitation. Or, +if the subsoil be more or less full of lime, which has sunk from above, +trenching may with equal safety be adopted. But, if the subsoil be +more or less ferruginous--if it be of that yellow unproductive clay +which in some cases extends over nearly whole counties--or of that +hard, blue, stony till which requires the aid of the mattock to +work out of the drains--or if it consist of a hard and stony, +more or less impervious bed--in all these cases the use of the +subsoil-plough is clearly indicated. In short, the young farmer can +scarcely have a safer rule than this--to subsoil his land first, +_whenever there is a doubt of the soundness of the subsoil_, or a +fear that by bringing it to the surface, the fertility of the upper +soil will be diminished. It is no reply to this safer practice to +say that even Mr. Smith recommends turning up the subsoil afterwards, +and that we have therefore a double expense to incur. For it is known, +that after a time any subsoil so treated may be turned up with safety, +and consequently there is no risk of loss by delaying this deeper +ploughing for a few years; and in regard to the question of expense, +it appears that the cost of both draining and subsoiling are +generally repayed by the first two or three crops which succeed each +improvement. What more, then, can be required? The expense is +repaid--the land is, to a certain extent, permanently improved--no +risk of loss has been incurred, and there still remains to the +improving farmer--improving his own circumstances, as well as the +quality of his land, by his prudent and skilful measures--there +still remains the deeper ploughing, by which he can gradually bring +new soil to the surface, as he sees it mellow, and become wholesome, +under the joint influences which the drain and the subsoil-plough +have brought to bear upon it. + +There can, therefore, it is clear, be no universal rule for the use +of the two valuable instruments in question, as each has its own +defined sphere of action. This, we think, is the common-sense view +of the case. But if any one insists upon having a universal rule +which shall save him from thinking or observing for himself in all +cases, then we should say--_in all cases subsoil, because it is the +safer_. + +With this subject the first volume of _The Book of the Farm_ is +brought to a close; but winter still continues, and in other +winter-work of scarcely less importance the young farmer has still +to be instructed. We have hitherto said nothing of the more expensive +and beautiful embellishments of the book, because the most +interesting of them are portraits of celebrated short-horns, working +horses, sheep, and pigs--a subject of which the author begins to +treat only at the commencement of the second volume. The feeding of +stock is one of those parts of the winter's labours, in improving +husbandry, upon which not only the immediate profit of the farmer, +but the ultimate fertility of his land, in a great measure depends. +The choice of his stock, and the best mode of treating and tending +them, therefore, are subjects of the greatest consequence to the +young farmer. In the choice of his stock he will be aided at once by +the clear descriptions, and by the portraits so beautifully executed +by Landseer and Sheriff, by which the letterpress is accompanied. In +the subsequent treatment of them, and in the mode by which they may +be most profitably, most quickly, or most economically fed _in the +winter season_, he will be fully instructed in the succeeding +chapters of the book. + +Turnips and other roots are the principal food of cattle in the +winter: a preliminary chapter, therefore, is devoted to the +"drawing and storing of turnips and other roots." Had we our article +to begin again, we could devote several pages, agreeably to ourselves, +and not without interest, we believe, or without instruction, to our +reader, in discussing a few of those points connected with the +feeding of cattle, upon which, though the means of information are +within their reach, practical men have hitherto permitted themselves +to remain wholly ignorant. Of these points Mr. Stephens adverts to +several, and suggests the advantage of additional experiments; but +the whole subject requires revision, and, under the guidance of +persons able to direct, who are acquainted with all that is yet known, +or has as yet been done either in our own or in foreign countries, +experiments will hereafter, no doubt, be made, by which many new +truths, both theoretically and practically valuable, are sure to be +elucidated. + +We may advert, as an illustration, to the feeding properties of the +turnip. It is usual to reckon the value of a crop of turnips by the +number of tons per acre which it is found to yield when so many +square yards of the produce are weighed. But this may be very +fallacious in many ways. If they are white turnips, for instance, +nine tons of small will contain as much nourishment as ten tons of +large--or twenty-seven tons an acre of small turnips will feed as +many sheep as thirty tons per acre of large turnips. Or if the crop +be Swedes, the reverse will be the case, twenty-seven tons of large +will feed as much stock as thirty tons of small.--(Vol. ii., p. 20.) +Mr. Stephens points out other fallacies also, to which we cannot +advert. One, however, he has passed over, of equal, we believe of +greater, consequence than any other--we allude to the variable +quantity of water which the turnip grown on different soils in +different seasons is found to contain. + +It is obvious, that in so far as the roots of the turnip, the carrot, +and the potatoe, consist of water, they can serve the purposes of +drink only--they cannot feed the animals to which they are given. Now, +the quantity of water in the turnip is so great, that 100 _tons +sometimes contain only nine tons of dry feeding matter_--more than +nine-tenths of their weight consisting of water. But again, their +constitution is so variable, that 100 _tons sometimes contain more +than twenty tons of dry food_--or less than four-fifths of their +weight of water. It is possible, therefore, that one acre of turnips, +on which only twenty tons are growing, may feed as many sheep as +another on which forty tons are produced. What, therefore, can be +more uncertain than the feeding value of an acre of turnips as +estimated by the weight? How much in the dark are buyers and sellers +of this root? What wonder is there, that different writers should +estimate so very differently the weight of turnips which ought to be +given for the purpose of sustaining the condition, or of increasing +the weight, of the several varieties of stock? Other roots exhibit +similar differences; and even the potatoe, while it sometimes +contains thirty tons of food in every hundred of raw roots, at others, +contains no more than twenty--the same weight, namely, which exists +at times in the turnip. [4] + +[Footnote 4: For our authority on this subject, we refer to +Johnston's _Suggestion for Experiments in Practical Agriculture_, No. +111. pp. 62 and 64, of which we have been favoured with an early +copy by the author.] + +This latter fact, shows the very slippery ground on which the +assertion rests, that has lately astonished the weak minds of our +Southern cattle-feeding brethren, from the mouth of one of their +talented but hasty lecturers--that the potatoe contains two or three +times the weight of nourishment which exists in the turnip. It is +true that _some_ varieties of potatoes contain three times as much +as _some_ varieties of turnip--but, on the other hand, some turnips +contain as much nourishment as an equal weight of potatoes. But no +man can tell, by bare inspection, as yet, to which class of turnips, +the more or less watery, his own may belong--whether that which is +apparently the most prolific may not in reality be the least +so--whether that mode of manuring his land which gives him the +greatest weight of raw roots may not give him the smallest weight of +real substantial food for his stock. What a wide field, therefore, +for experiment? To what useful results might they not be expected to +lead? If any of our readers wish to undertake such experiments, or to +learn how they are to be performed, we refer them to the pamphlet +mentioned in the note. + +In connexion with the chapter "on the feeding of sheep," we could +have wished to advert to the advantages of shelter, in producing the +largest weight of meat from a given weight of turnips, or other +food--as illustrated by the experiments of Mr. Childers, Lord Western, +and others; but we must refer our readers to the passage itself, +(vol. ii. p. 51,) as we must also to the no less important +comparative view of the advantages of feeding cattle in close byres +and in open hammels, (vol. ii. p. 129,) and to the interesting +details regarding the use of raw and steamed food, contained in the +chapter upon the feeding of cattle, (vol. ii. p. 120 to 148.) + +But our author is so cunning in the qualities of mutton--which, as +we have already seen, he can "kill so gently," performing the +operation without pain--that we think our readers will enjoy the +following passage:-- + +"The gigot is the handsomest and most valuable part of the carcass, +and on that account fetches the highest price. It is either a +roasting or a boiling piece. Of black-faced mutton it makes a fine +roast, and the piece of fat in it called the _pope's eye_, is +considered a delicate _morceau_ by epicures. A gigot of Leicester, +Cheviot, or Southdown mutton makes a beautiful 'boiled leg of mutton,' +which is prized the more the fatter it is, as this part of the +carcass is never overloaded with fat. The loin is almost always +roasted, the flap of the flank being skewered up, and it is a juicy +piece. For a small family, the black-faced mutton is preferable; for +a large, the Southdown and Cheviot. Many consider this piece of +Leicester mutton roasted as too rich, and when warm, this is +probably the case; but a cold roast loin is an excellent summer dish. +The back-ribs are divided into two, and used for very different +purposes. The fore-part, the neck, is boiled and makes sweet +barley-broth, and the meat, when well boiled, or rather the whole +pottage simmered for a considerable time _beside_ the fire, eats +tenderly. The back-ribs make an excellent roast; indeed, there is +not a sweeter or more varied one in the carcass, having both ribs +and shoulder. The shoulder-blade eats best cold, and the ribs warm. +The ribs make excellent chops. The Leicester and Southdowns afford +the best mutton-chops. The breast is mostly a roasting-piece, +consisting of rib and shoulder, and is particularly good when cold. +When the piece is large, as of Southdown or Cheviot, the gristly +part of the ribs may be divided from the true ribs, and helped +separately. The breast is an excellent piece in black-faced mutton, +and suitable to small families, the shoulder being eaten cold, while +the ribs and brisket are sweet and juicy when warm. This piece also +boils well; or, when corned for eight days, and served with onion +sauce, with mashed turnip in it, there are few more savoury dishes +at a farmer's table. The shoulder is separated before being dressed, +and makes an excellent roast for family use, and may be eaten warm or +cold, or corned and dressed as the breast mentioned above. The +shoulder is best from a large carcass of Southdown, Cheviot, or +Leicester, the black-faced being too thin for the purpose; and it was +probably because English mutton is usually large that the practice +of removing it originated. The neckpiece is partly laid bare by the +removal of the shoulder, the fore-part being fitted for boiling and +making into broth, and the best end for roasting or broiling into +chops. On this account this is a good family piece, and in such +request among the tradesmen of London that they prefer it to any part +of the hind-quarter."--(Vol. ii. p. 98.) + +Nor is he less skilful in the humble food and cooking of the +farm-labourer; indeed, he seems never satisfied until he fairly +exhausts all the useful matter contained in every subject upon which +he touches. He not only breeds, and feeds, and kills, and cooks, but +he does the latter with such relish, that we have several times +fancied that we could actually see him eating his own mutton, beef, +and pork. And, whether he luxuriates over a roast of the back-ribs +of mutton, "so sweet and so varied," or complains that "the +hotel-keepers have a trick of seasoning brown-soup, or rather +beef-tea, with a few joints of tail, and passing it off for genuine +ox-tail soup,"--(vol. ii. p. 169,) or describes the "_famous fat +brose_, for which Scotland has long been celebrated," as formed by +skimming off the fat when boiling the hough, pouring it upon oatmeal, +and seasoning with pepper and salt; or indulges in the humbler +brose of the ploughman in his bothy, he evidently enjoys every thing +set before him so much, that we are sure he must lay on the fat +kindly. We should not wonder if he is himself already _nicked_; and +we cannot more warmly testify our good wishes, than by expressing a +hope, that, when he is fully _ripe_, the grim surgeon will operate +upon him _without pain_, and kill him _gently_. + +One of Mr. Stephens's humbler dishes is the following:-- + +"The only time Scotch farm-servants indulge in butcher-meat is when +a sheep _falls_, as it is termed; that is, when it is killed before +being affected with an unwholesome disease, and the mutton is sold +at a reduced price. Shred down the suet small, removing any flesh or +cellular membrane adhering to it; then mix amongst it intimately 1/2 +oz. of salt and a tea-spoonful of pepper to every pound of suet; put +the mixture into an earthen jar, and tie up tightly with bladder. +One table spoonful of seasoned suet will, at any time, make good +barley-broth or potato-soup for two persons. The lean of the mutton +may be shred down small, and seasoned in a similar manner, and used +when required; or it may be corned with salt, and used as a joint." +--Vol. ii. p. 105. + + +How much of the natural habits and manners of a country, and of the +circumstances and inner life of the various classes of its +inhabitants, is to be learned from a study of their cookery! + +Reader, what a mystery hangs over the _handling_ of a fat beast! A +feeder approaches a well filled short-horn--he touches it here--he +pinches it there--he declares it to have many good _points_ about it; +but pronounces the existence of defects, where the uninitiated see +only beauties. The points of a fat ox, how mysterious they are, how +difficult to make out! The five points of Arminianism, our old vicar +used to say, were nothing to them. But here, too, Mr. Stephens is at +home. Listen to his simple explanation of the whole: + +"The first point usually _handled_ is the end of the rump at the +tail-head, although any fat here is very obvious, and sometimes +attains to an enormous size, amounting even to deformity. The +hook-bone gets a touch, and when well covered, is right.... To the +hand, or rather to the points of the fingers of the right hand, when +laid upon the ribs, the flesh should feel soft and thick and the +form be round when all is right, but if the ribs are flat the flesh +will feel hard and thin from want of fat. The skin, too, on a rounded +rib, will feel soft and mobile, the hair deep and mossy, both +indicative of a kindly disposition to lay on flesh. The hand then +grasps the flank, and finds it thick, when the existence of internal +tallow is indicated.... The palm of the hand laid along the line of +the back will point out any objectionable hard piece on it, but if +all is soft and pleasant, then the shoulder-top is good. A +hollowness behind the shoulder is a very common occurrence; but when +it is filled up with a layer of fat, the flesh of all the +fore-quarter is thereby rendered very much more valuable. You would +scarcely believe that such a difference could exist in the flesh +between a lean and a fat shoulder. A high narrow shoulder is +frequently attended with a ridged back-bone, and lowset narrow hooks, +a form which gets the appropriate name of _razor-back_, with which +will always be found a deficiency of flesh in all the upper part of +the animal, where the best flesh always is. If the shoulder-point is +covered, and feels soft like the point of the hook-bone, it is good, +and indicates a well filled neck-vein, which runs from that point to +the side of the head. The shoulder-point, however, is often bare and +prominent. When the neck-vein is so firmly filled up as not to +permit the points of the fingers inside of the shoulder-point, this +indicates a well tallowed animal; as also does the filling up +between the brisket and inside of the fore legs, as well as a full, +projecting, well covered brisket in front. When the flesh comes down +heavy upon the thighs, making a sort of double thigh, it is called +_lyary_, and indicates a tendency of the flesh to grow on the +lower instead of the upper part of the body. These are all the +_points_ that require _touching when the hand is used_; and in a +high-conditioned ox, they may be gone over very rapidly."--Vol. ii. p. +165. + + +The treatment of horses follows that of cattle, and this chapter is +fitted to be of extensive use among our practical farmers. There are +few subjects to which the attention of our small farmers requires +more to be drawn than to the treatment of their horses--few in which +want of skill causes a more general and _constant_ waste. The +economy of _prepared_ food is ably treated of, and we select the +following passage as containing at once sound theoretical and +important practical truths: + +"It appears at first sight somewhat surprising that the idea of +preparing food for farm-horses should only have been recently acted +on; but I have no doubt that the practice of the turf and of the road, +of maintaining horses on large quantities of oats and dry ryegrass +hay, has had a powerful influence in retaining it on farms. But now +that a more natural treatment has been adopted by the owners of +horses on fast work, farmers, having now the example of post-horses +standing their work well on prepared food, should easily be +persuaded that, on slow work, the same sort of food should have even +a more salutary effect on their horses. How prevalent was the notion, +at one time, that horses could not be expected to do work at all, +unless there was _hard meat_ in them! 'This is a very silly and +erroneous idea, if we inquire into it,' as Professor Dick truly +observes, 'for whatever may be the consistency of the food when +taken into the stomach, it must, before the body can possibly derive +any substantial support or benefit from it, be converted into +_chyme_--a pultacious mass; and this, as it passes onward from the +stomach into the intestinal canal, is rendered still more fluid by +the admixture of the secretions from the stomach, the liver, and the +pancreas, when it becomes of a milky appearance, and is called +_chyle_. It is then taken into the system by the lacteals, and in +this _fluid_, this _soft_ state--_and in this state only_--mixes +with the blood, and passes through the circulating vessels for the +nourishment of the system.' Actuated by these rational principles, +Mr. John Croall, a large coach-proprietor in Edinburgh, now supports +his coach horses on 8 lb. of chopped hay and 16 lb. of bruised oats; +so does Mr. Isaac Scott, a postmaster, who gives 10 lb. or 12 lb. of +chopped hay and 16 lb. of bruised oats, to large horses: and to +carry the principle still further into practice, Captain Cheyne +found his post-horses work well on the following mixture, the +proportions of which are given for each horse every day; and this +constitutes the second of the formulae alluded to above." + + In the day, + 8 lb. of bruised oats. + 3 lb. of bruised beans. + 4 lb. of chopped straw. + ------ + 15 lb. + + At night + 22 lb. of steamed potatoes. + 1-1/2 lb. of fine barley dust. + 2 lb. of chopped straw. + 2 oz. of salt. + ---------- + 25-1/2 lb. + +"Estimating the barley-dust at 10d. per stone; chopped straw, 6d. +per stone, potatoes, steamed, at 7s. 6d. per cwt.; and the oats and +beans at ordinary prices, the cost of supper was 6d., and for daily +food, 1s. with cooking, in all 1s. 6d. a horse each day."--Vol. ii. p. +194. + + +The reader will also peruse with interest the following paragraph, +illustrative at once of the habits of the horse, and of our author's +familiarity with the race:-- + +"The horse is an intelligent animal, and seems to delight in the +society of man. It is remarked by those who have much to do with +blood-horses, that, when at liberty, and seeing two or more people +standing conversing together, they will approach, and seem, as it +were, to wish to listen to the conversation. The farm-horse will +not do this; but he is quite obedient to call, and distinguishes +his name readily from that of his companion, and will not stir +when desired to stand until _his own name_ is pronounced. He +distinguishes the various sorts of work he is put to, and will apply +his strength and skill in the best way to effect his purpose, +whether in the thrashing-mill, the cart, or the plough. He soon +acquires a perfect sense of his work. I have seen a horse walk very +steadily towards a feering pole, and halt when his head had reached +it. He seems also to have a sense of time. I have heard another +neigh almost daily about ten minutes before the time of loosening in +the evening, whether in summer or winter. He is capable of +distinguishing the tones of the voice, whether spoken in anger or +otherwise; and can even distinguish between musical notes. There was +a work-horse of my own, when even at his corn, would desist eating, +and listen attentively, with pricked and moving ears and steady eyes, +the instant he heard the note of low G sounded, and would continue +to listen as long as it was sustained; and another, that was +similarly affected by a particular high note. The recognition of the +sound of the bugle by a trooper, and the excitement occasioned in +the hunter when the pack give tongue, are familiar instances of the +extraordinary effects of particular sounds on horses."--Vol. ii. p. +216. + + +We recollect in our younger days, when we used to drive home from +Penrith market, our friend would say, "come, let us give the horse a +song--he will go home so briskly with us." And it really was so, or +seemed so at least, be the principle what it may. + +Pigs and poultry succeed to cattle and horses, and the author is +equally at home in regard to the management of these as of the more +valued varieties of stock--as learned in their various breeds, and +as skilful in the methods of fattening, killing, and cutting up. How +much truth is contained in the following remarks, and how easily and +usefully might the evil be amended:-- + + +"Of all the animals reared on a farm, there are none so much +neglected by the farmer, both in regard to the selection of their +kind, and their qualifications to fatten, as all the sorts of +domesticated fowls found in the farm-yard. Indeed, the very +supposition that _he_ would devote any of _his_ time to the +consideration of poultry, is regarded as a positive affront on his +manhood. Women, in his estimation, may be fit enough for such a +charge, and doubtless they would do it well, provided they were not +begrudged every particle of food bestowed upon those useful creatures. +The consequence is what might be expected in the circumstances, that +go to most farm-steads, and the surprise will be to meet a single +fowl of any description in _good_ condition, that is to say, in such +condition that it may be killed at the instant in a fit state for +the table, which it might be if it had been treated as a fattening +animal from its birth."--Vol. ii. p. 246. + + +The methods of fattening them are afterwards described; and for a +mode _of securing a new-laid egg to breakfast every winter morning_, +a luxury which our author "enjoyed for as many years as he lived in +the country," we refer the reader to page 256 of the second volume. + +Besides the feeding of stock, one other in-door labour demands the +attention of the farmer, when the severity of winter weather has put +a stop to the ploughing and the draining of his land. His grain +crops are to be thrashed out, and sent to the market or the mill. In +this part of his work Mr. Stephens has again availed himself of the +valuable assistance of Mr. Slight, who, in upwards of 100 pages of +closely printed matter, has figured and described nearly all the +more useful instruments employed in the preparation of the food of +cattle, and in separating the grain of the corn crops. The thrashing +machine, so valuable an addition to the working establishment of a +modern farm-steading, is minutely explained--the varieties in its +construction illustrated by wood-cuts--and the respective merits of +the different forms of the machine examined and discussed. With the +following, among his other conclusions, we cordially concur. + +"I cannot view these two machines without feeling impressed with a +conviction that both countries would soon feel the advantage of an +amalgamation between the two forms of the machine. The drum of the +Scotch thrashing-machine would most certainly be improved by a +transfusion from the principles of the English machine; and the +latter might be equally improved by the adoption of the +manufacturing-like arrangements and general economy of the Scotch +system of thrashing. That such interchange will ere long take place, +I am thoroughly convinced; and as I am alike satisfied that the +advantages would be mutual, it is to be hoped that these views will +not stand alone. It has not been lost sight of, that each machine +may be said to be suited to the system to which it belongs, and that +here, where the corn is cut by the sickle, the machine is adapted to +that; while the same may be said of the other, where cutting by the +scythe is so much practised. Notwithstanding all this, there appears +to be good properties in both that either seems to stand in need of." +--Vol. ii. p. 329. + + +Other scientific, especially chemical information, connected with +the different varieties of grain, and the kind and quantity of food +they respectively yield, is incorporated in the chapters upon +"wheat, flour, and oat and bean meal," to which we can only advert, +as further illustrations of the intimate manner in which science and +skilful or enlightened practice are invariably, necessarily, and +every where interwoven. + + * * * * * + +And now the dreary months of winter are ended--and the labours of +the farmer take a new direction. + + "Salvitur acris hiems grata vice veris et Favoni," + + * * * * * + + "Ac neque jam stabulis gaudet pecus, aut arator igni." + +But we cannot follow Mr. Stephens through the cheerful labours of the +coming year. Our task is so far ended, and from the way in which the +whole of the long weeks of winter are described, the reader must +judge of Mr. Stephens's ability to lead him safely and surely +through the rest of the year. + +A closing observation or two, however, we beg to offer. We look upon +a good book on agriculture as something more than a lucky speculation +for the publisher, or a profitable occupation of his time for the +author. _It is a gain to the community at large,--a new instrument +of national wealth_. The first honour or praise in reference to +every such instrument, is, no doubt, due to the maker or +inventor--but he who brings is into general use, merits also no +little approbation. Such is our case with respect to the book before +us. We shall be glad to learn that our analysis of it contributes to +a wider circulation among the practical farmers of the empire, of +the manifold information which the book contains, not so much for +the sake of the author, as with a view to the common good of the +country at large. It is to the more general diffusion of sound +agricultural literature among our farmers, that we look for that more +rapid development of the resources of our varied soils which the +times so imperatively demand. To gain this end no legitimate means +ought to be passed by, and we have detained our readers so long upon +the book before us, in the hope that they may be induced to lend us +_their_ aid also in attaining so desirable an object. + +We do not consider _The Book of the Farm_ a perfect work: the author +indulges now and then in loose and careless writing; and this +incorrectness has more frequently struck us in the later portions of +the work, no doubt from the greater haste of composition. He sets +out by slighting the aids of science to agriculture; and yet, in an +early part of his book, tells the young farmer that he "must become +acquainted with the agency of _electricity_ before he can understand +the variations of the weather," and ends by making his book, as we +have said, a running commentary upon the truth we have already +several times repeated, that SKILFUL PRACTICE IS APPLIED SCIENCE. + +These, and no doubt other faults the book has--as what book is +without them?--but as a practical manual for those who wish to be +good farmers, it is the best book we know. It contains more of the +practical applications of modern science, and adverts to more of +those interesting questions from which past improvements have sprung, +and from the discussion of which future ameliorations are likely to +flow, than any other of the newer works which have come under our eye. +Where so many excellences exist, we are not ill-natured enough to +magnify a few defects. + +The excellence of Scottish agriculture may be said by some to give +rise to the excellent agricultural books which Scotland, time after +time, has produced. But it may with equal truth be said, that the +existence of good books, and their diffusion among a reading +population, are the sources of the agricultural distinction possessed +by the northern parts of the island. It is beyond our power, as +individuals, to convert the entire agricultural population of our +islands into a reading body, but we can avail ourselves of the +tendency wherever it exists; and by writing, or diffusing, or aiding +to diffuse, good books, we can supply ready instruction to such as +_now_ wish for it, and can put it in the way of those in whom +other men, by other means, are labouring to awaken the dormant +desire for knowledge. Reader, do _you_ wish to improve agriculture? +--then buy you a good book, and place it in the hands of your tenant +or your neighbouring farmer; if he be a reading man, he will thank +you, and his children may live to bless you; if he be not a reader, +you may have the gratification of wakening a dormant spirit; and +though you may appear to be casting your bread upon the waters, yet +you shall find it again after many days. + + * * * * * + + + + +POEMS AND BALLADS OF SCHILLER. + +No. VII. + +(The two following poems, "The Ideal," and, "The Ideal and Life," +are essentially distinct in their mode of treatment. The first is +simple and tender, and expresses feelings in which all can sympathize. +As a recent and able critic, in the Foreign Quarterly Review, has +observed, this poem, "still little known, contains a regret for the +period of youthful faith," and may take its place among the most +charming and pathetic of all those numberless effusions of genius in +which individual feeling is but the echo of the universal heart. But +the poem on "The Ideal and Life" is highly mystical and obscure;-- +"it is a specimen," says the critic we have just quoted, "of those +poems which were the immediate results of Schiller's metaphysical +studies. Here the subject is purely supersensual, and does not +descend to the earth at all. The very tendency of the poem is to +recommend a life not in the actual world, but in the world of +appearances [5]--that is, in the aesthetical world." + +It requires considerable concentration of mind to follow its +meaning through the cloud of its dark and gigantic images. Schiller +desired his friend Humboldt to read it in perfect stillness, 'and +put away from him all that was profane.' Humboldt, of course, +admired it prodigiously; and it is unquestionably full of thought +expressed with the power of the highest genius. But, on the other +hand, its philosophy, even for a Poet or Idealist, is more than +disputable, and it incurs the very worst fault which a Poet can +commit, viz. obscurity of idea as well as expression. When the Poet +sets himself up for the teacher, he must not forget that the +teacher's duty is to be clear; and the higher the mystery he would +expound, the more pains he should bestow on the simplicity of the +elucidation. For the true Poet does not address philosophical +coteries, but an eternal and universal public. Happily this fault is +rare in Schiller, and more happily still, his great mind did not +long remain a groper amidst the 'Realm of Shadow.' The true Ideal is +quite as liable to be lost amidst the maze of metaphysics, as in the +actual thoroughfares of work-day life. A plunge into Kant may do +more harm to a Poet than a walk through Fleet Street. Goethe, than +whom no man had ever more studied the elements of the diviner art, +was right as an artist in his dislike to the over-cultivation of the +aesthetical. The domain of the Ideal is the heart, and through the +heart it operates on the soul. It grows feebler and dimmer in +proportion as it seeks to rise above human emotion.... Longinus does +not err, when he asserts that Passion (often erroneously translated +Pathos) is the best part of the Sublime.) + +[Footnote 5: Rather, according to Aesthetical Philosophy, is the +_actual_ world to be called the _world of appearances_, and the +Ideal the world of substance.] + + + + +TO THE IDEAL. + + Then wilt thou, with thy fancies holy-- + Wilt thou, faithless, fly from me? + With thy joy, thy melancholy, + Wilt thou thus relentless flee? + O Golden Time, O Human May, + Can nothing, Fleet One, thee restrain? + Must thy sweet river glide away + Into the eternal Ocean-Main? + + The suns serene are lost and vanish'd + That wont the path of youth to gild, + And all the fair Ideals banish'd + From that wild heart they whilome fill'd. + Gone the divine and sweet believing + In dreams which Heaven itself unfurl'd! + What godlike shapes have years bereaving + Swept from this real work-day world! + + As once, with tearful passion fired, + The Cyprian Sculptor clasp'd the stone, + Till the cold cheeks, delight-inspired, + Blush'd--to sweet life the marble grown; + So Youth's desire for Nature!--round + The Statue, so my arms I wreathed, + Till warmth and life in mine it found + And breath that poets breathe--it breathed. + + With my own burning thoughts it burn'd;-- + Its silence stirr'd to speech divine;-- + Its lips my glowing kiss return'd;-- + Its heart in beating answer'd mine! + How fair was then the flower--the tree!-- + How silver-sweet the fountain's fall! + The soulless had a soul to me! + My life its own life lent to all! + + The Universe of Things seem'd swelling + The panting heart to burst its bound, + And wandering Fancy found a dwelling + In every shape--thought--deed, and sound. + Germ'd in the mystic buds, reposing, + A whole creation slumber'd mute, + Alas, when from the buds unclosing, + How scant and blighted sprung the fruit! + + How happy in his dreaming error, + His own gay valour for his wing, + Of not one care as yet in terror, + Did Youth upon his journey spring; + Till floods of balm, through air's dominion, + Bore upward to the faintest star-- + For never aught to that bright pinion + Could dwell too high, or spread too far. + + Though laden with delight, how lightly + The wanderer heavenward still could soar, + And aye the ways of life how brightly + The airy Pageant danced before!-- + Love, showering gifts (life's sweetest) down, + Fortune, with golden garlands gay, + And Fame, with starbeams for a crown, + And Truth, whose dwelling is the Day. + + Ah! midway soon, lost evermore, + Afar the blithe companions stray; + In vain their faithless steps explore, + As, one by one, they glide away. + Fleet Fortune was the first escaper-- + The thirst for wisdom linger'd yet; + But doubts with many a gloomy vapour + The sun-shape of the Truth beset! + + The holy crown which Fame was wreathing, + Behold! the mean man's temples wore! + And but for one short spring-day breathing, + Bloom'd Love--the Beautiful--no more! + And ever stiller yet, and ever + The barren path more lonely lay, + Till waning Hope could scarcely quiver + Along the darkly widening way. + + Who, loving, linger'd yet to guide me, + When all her boon companions fled? + Who stands consoling still beside me, + And follows to the House of Dread? + _Thine_, Friendship! _thine_, the hand so tender-- + Thine the balm dropping on the wound-- + Thy task--the load more light to render, + O, earliest sought and soonest found! + + And _thou_, so pleased with her uniting + To charm the soul-storm into peace, + Sweet _Toil_![6] in toil itself delighting, + That more it labor'd, less could cease: + Though but by grains, thou aid'st the pile + The vast Eternity uprears-- + At least thou strik'st from Time, the while, + Life's debt--the minutes, days, and years![7] + +[Footnote 6: That is to say--the Poet's occupation--The Ideal.] + +[Footnote 7: Though the Ideal images of youth forsake us--the Ideal +still remains to the Poet.--Nay, it is his task and his companion; +unlike the worldly fantasies of fortune--fame, and love--the +fantasies the Ideal creates are imperishable. While, as the +occupation of his life, it pays off the debt of time; as the exalter +of life, it contributes to the building of eternity.] + + * * * * * + + + +THE IDEAL AND THE ACTUAL LIFE. + +The _first title_ of this Poem was "The Realm of Shadow." Perhaps in +the whole range of German poetry there exists no poem which presents +greater difficulties to the English translator. The chief object of +the present inadequate version has been to render the sense +intelligible as well as the words. The attempt stands in need of all +the indulgence which the German scholar will readily allow that a +much abler translator might reasonably require. + + 1 + + For ever fair, for ever calm and bright, + Life flies on plumage, zephyr-light, + For those who on the Olympian hill rejoice-- + Moons wane, and races wither to the tomb, + And 'mid the universal ruin, bloom + The rosy days of Gods-- + With Man, the choice, + Timid and anxious, hesitates between + The sense's pleasure and the soul's content; + While on celestial brows, aloft and sheen, + The beams of both are blent. + + 2 + + Seek'st thou on earth the life of Gods to share, + Safe in the Realm of Death?--beware + To pluck the fruits that glitter to thine eye; + Content thyself with gazing on their glow-- + Short are the joys Possession can bestow, + And in Possession sweet Desire will die. + 'Twas not the ninefold chain of waves that bound + Thy daughter, Ceres, to the Stygian river-- + She pluck'd the fruit of the unholy ground, + And so--was Hell's for ever! + + 3 + + The weavers of the web--the Fates--but sway + The matter and the things of clay; + Safe from each change that Time to matter gives, + Nature's blest playmate, free at will to stray + With Gods a god, amidst the fields of Day, + The FORM, the ARCHETYPE,[8] serenely lives. + Would'st thou soar heavenward on its joyous wing? + Cast from thee, Earth, the bitter and the real, + High from this cramp'd and dungeon being, spring + Into the Realm of the Ideal! + + [Footnote 8: "Die Gestalt"--Form, the Platonic Archetype.] + + 4 + + Here, bathed, Perfection, in thy purest ray, + Free from the clogs and taints of clay, + Hovers divine the Archetypal Man! + Like those dim phantom ghosts of life that gleam + And wander voiceless by the Stygian stream, + While yet they stand in fields Elysian, + Ere to the flesh the Immortal ones descend-- + If doubtful ever in the Actual life, + Each contest--here a victory crowns the end + Of every nobler strife. + + 5 + + Not from the strife itself to set thee free, + But more to nerve--doth Victory + Wave her rich garland from the Ideal clime. + Whate'er thy wish, the Earth has no repose-- + Life still must drag thee onward as it flows, + Whirling thee down the dancing surge of Time. + But when the courage sinks beneath the dull + Sense of its narrow limits--on the soul, + Bright from the hill-tops of the Beautiful, + Bursts the attained goal! + + 6 + + If worth thy while the glory and the strife + Which fire the lists of Actual Life-- + The ardent rush to fortune or to fame, + In the hot field where Strength and Valour are, + And rolls the whirling, thunder of the car, + And the world, breathless, eyes the glorious game-- + Then dare and strive--the prize can but belong + To him whose valour o'er his tribe prevails; + In life the victory only crowns the strong-- + He who is feeble fails. + + 7 + + But as some stream, when from its source it gushes, + O'er rocks in storm and tumult rushes, + And smooths its after course to bright repose, + So, through the Shadow-Land of Beauty glides + The Life Ideal--on sweet silver tides + Glassing the day and night star as it flows-- + Here, contest is the interchange of Love, + Here, rule is but the empire of the Grace; + Gone every foe, Peace folds her wings above + The holy, haunted place. + + 8 + + When through dead stone to breathe a soul of light, + With the dull matter to unite + The kindling genius, some great sculptor glows; + Behold him straining every nerve intent-- + Behold how, o'er the subject element, + The stately THOUGHT its march laborious goes. + For never, save to Toil untiring, spoke + The unwilling Truth from her mysterious well-- + The statute only to the chisel's stroke + Wakes from its marble cell. + + 9 + + But onward to the Sphere of Beauty--go + Onward, O Child of Art! and, lo, + Out of the matter which thy pains control + The Statue springs!--not as with labour wrung + From the hard block, but as from Nothing sprung-- + Airy and light--the offspring of the soul! + The pangs, the cares, the weary toils it cost + Leave not a trace when once the work is done-- + The artist's human frailty merged and lost + In art's great victory won! + + 10 + + If human Sin confronts the rigid law + Of perfect Truth and Virtue,[9] awe + Seizes and saddens thee to see how far + Beyond thy reach, Perfection;--if we test + By the Ideal of the Good, the best, + How mean our efforts and our actions are! + This space between the Ideal of man's soul + And man's achievement, who hath ever past? + An ocean spreads between us and that goal, + Where anchor ne'er was cast! + + 11 + + But fly the boundary of the Senses--live + the Ideal life free Thought can give; + And, lo, the gulf shall vanish, and the chill + Of the soul's impotent despair be gone! + And with divinity thou sharest the throne, + Let but divinity become thy will! + Scorn not the Law--permit its iron band + The sense (it cannot chain the soul) to thrall. + Let man no more the will of Jove withstand, + And Jove the bolt lets fall! + + 12 + + If, in the woes of Actual Human Life-- + If thou could'st see the serpent strife + Which the Greek Art has made divine in stone-- + Could'st see the writhing limbs, the livid cheek, + Note every pang, and hearken every shriek + Of some despairing lost Laocoon, + The human nature would thyself subdue + To share the human woe before thine eye-- + Thy cheek would pale, and all thy soul be true + To Man's great Sympathy. + + 13 + + But in the Ideal realm, aloof and far, + Where the calm Art's pure dwellers are, + Lo, the Laocoon writhes, but does not groan. + Here, no sharp grief the high emotion knows-- + Here, suffering's self is made divine, and shows + The brave resolve of the firm soul alone: + Here, lovely as the rainbow on the dew + Of the spent thunder-cloud, to Art is given, + Gleaming through Grief's dark veil, the peaceful blue + Of the sweet Moral Heaven. + +[Footnote 9: The Law, i.e. the Kantian ideal of Truth and Virtue. +This stanza and the next embody, perhaps with some exaggeration, the +Kantian doctrine of morality.] + + 14 + + So, in the glorious parable, behold + How, bow'd to mortal bonds, of old + Life's dreary path divine Alcides trode: + The hydra and the lion were his prey, + And to restore the friend he loved to day, + He went undaunted to the black-brow'd God; + And all the torments and the labours sore + Wroth Juno sent--meek majestic One, + With patient spirit and unquailing, bore, + Until the course was run-- + + 15 + + Until the God cast down his garb of clay, + And rent in hallowing flame away + The mortal part from the divine--to soar + To the empyreal air! Behold him spring + Blithe in the pride of the unwonted wing, + And the dull matter that confined before + Sinks downward, downward, downward as a dream! + Olympian hymns receive the escaping soul, + And smiling Hebe, from the ambrosial stream, + Fills for a God the bowl! + + * * * * * + + +THE FAVOUR OF THE MOMENT. + + + And so we find ourselves once more + A ring, though varying yet serene, + The wreaths of song we wove of yore + Again we'll weave as fresh and green. + But who the God to whom we bring + The earliest tribute song can treasure? + Him, first of all the Gods, we sing + Whose blessing to ourselves is--pleasure! + For boots it on the votive shrine + That Ceres life itself bestows + Or liberal Bacchus gives the wine + That through the glass in purple glows-- + If still there come not from the heaven + The spark that sets the hearth on flame; + If to the soul no fire is given, + And the sad heart remain the same? + Sudden as from the clouds must fall, + As from the lap of God, our bliss-- + And still the mightiest lord of all, + Monarch of Time, the MOMENT is! + Since endless Nature first began + Whate'er of might the mind hath wrought-- + Whate'er of Godlike comes from Man + Springs from one lightning-flash of thought! + For years the marble block awaits + The breath of life, beneath the soil-- + A happy thought the work creates, + A moment's glance rewards the toil. + As suns that weave from out their blaze + The various colours round them given; + As Iris, on her arch of rays, + Hovers, and vanishes from heaven; + So fair, so fleeting every prize-- + A lightning flash that shines and fades-- + The Moment's brightness gilds the skies + And round the brightness close the shades. + + + + +EXPECTATION AND FULFILMENT. + + + O'er ocean with a thousand masts sails on the young man bold-- + One boat, hard-rescued from the deep, draws into port the old! + + * * * * * + + +TO THE PROSELYTE--MAKER. + + + "A little Earth from out the Earth, and I + The Earth will move"--so said the sage divine; + Out of myself one little moment try + Myself to take;--succeed, and I am thine. + + + * * * * * + +VALUE AND WORTH. + + + If thou _hast_ something, bring thy goods, a fair return be + thine!-- + If thou _art_ something--bring thy soul, and interchange with mine. + + + * * * * * + + +THE FORTUNE-FAVOURED. [10] + +[Footnote 10: The first verses in the original of this poem are placed +as a motto on Goethe's statue at Weimar.] + + + Ah! happy He, upon whose birth each god + Looks down in love, whose earliest sleep the bright + Idalia cradles, whose young lips the rod + Of eloquent Hermes kindles--to whose eyes, + Scarce waken'd yet, Apollo steals in light, + While on imperial brows Jove sets the seal of might. + Godlike the lot ordain'd for him to share, + He wins the garland ere be runs the race; + He learns life's wisdom ere he knows life's care, + And, without labour vanquish'd, smiles the Grace. + Great is the man, I grant, whose strength of mind, + Self-shapes its objects and subdues the Fates-- + Virtue subdues the Fates, but cannot bind + The fickle Happiness, whose smile awaits + Those who scarce seek it; nor can courage earn + What the Grace showers not from her own free urn! + + From aught _unworthy_, the determined will + Can guard the watchful spirit--there it ends. + The all that's _glorious_ from the heaven descends; + As some sweet mistress loves us, freely still + Come the spontaneous gifts of heaven!--Above + Favour rules Jove, as it below rules Love! + The Immortals have their bias!--Kindly they + See the bright locks of youth enamour'd play, + And where the glad one goes, shed gladness round the way. + It is not they who boast the best to see, + Whose eyes the holy apparitions bless; + The stately light of their divinity + Hath oft but shone the brightest on the blind;-- + And their choice spirit found its calm recess + In the pure childhood of a simple mind. + Unask'd they come--delighted to delude + The expectation of our baffled Pride; + No law can call their free steps to our side. + Him whom He loves, the Sire of men and gods, + (Selected from the marvelling multitude,) + Bears on his eagle to his bright abodes; + And showers, with partial hand and lavish, down + The minstrel's laurel or the monarch's crown. + + Before the fortune-favour'd son of earth, + Apollo walks--and, with his jocund mirth, + The heart-enthralling Smiler of the skies. + For him grey Neptune smooths the pliant wave-- + Harmless the waters for the ship that bore + The Caesar and his fortunes to the shore! + Charm'd, at his feet the crouching lion lies, + To him his back the murmuring dolphin gave; + His soul is born a sovereign o'er the strife-- + The lord of all the Beautful of Life; + Where'er his presence in its calm has trod, + It charms--it sways as some diviner god. + + Scorn not the Fortune-favour'd, that to him + The light-won victory by the gods is given, + Or that, as Paris, from the strife severe, + The Venus draws her darling,--Whom the heaven + So prospers, love so watches, I revere! + And not the man upon whose eyes, with dim + And baleful night, sits Fate. The Dorian lord, + August Achilles, was not less divine + That Vulcan wrought for him the shield and sword-- + That round the mortal hover'd all the hosts + Of all Olympus--that his wrath to grace, + The best and bravest of the Grecian race + Fell by the Trojan steel, what time the ghosts + Of souls untimely slain fled to the Stygian coasts. + + Scorn not the Beautiful--if it be fair, + And yet seem useless in thy human sight. + As scentless lilies in the loving air, + Be _they_ delighted--_thou_ in them delight. + If without use they shine, yet still the glow + May thine own eyes enamour. Oh rejoice + That heaven the gifts of Song showers down below-- + That what the muse hath taught him, the sweet voice + Of the glad minstrel teaches thee!--the soul + Which the god breathes in him, he can bestow + In turn upon the listener--if his breast + The blessing feel, thy heart is in that blessing blest. + + The busy mart let Justice still control, + Weighing the guerdon to the toil!--What then? + A god alone claims joy--all joy is his, + Flushing with unsought light the cheeks of men. + Where is no miracle, why there no bliss! + Grow, change, and ripen all that mortal be, + Shapen'd from form to form, by toiling time; + The Blissful and the Beautiful are born + Full grown, and ripen'd from Eternity-- + No gradual changes to their glorious prime, + No childhood dwarfs them, and no age has worn.-- + Like Heaven's, each earthly Venus on the sight + Comes, a dark birth, from out an endless sea; + Like the first Pallas, in maturest might, + Arm'd, from the Thunderer's brow, leaps forth each Thought of Light. + + + * * * * * + +We have now, with few exceptions, translated all the principal poems +comprised in the third, or maturest period of Schiller's life. We +here pass back to the poems of his youth. The contrast in tone, +thought, and spirit, between the compositions of the first and the +third period, in the great poet's intellectual career, is +sufficiently striking. In the former, there is little of that +majestic repose of strength so visible in the latter; but there is +infinitely more fire and action--more of that lavish and exuberant +energy which characterized the earlier tales of Lord Byron, and +redeemed, in that wonderful master of animated and nervous style, a +certain poverty of conception by a vigour and _gusto_ of execution, +which no English poet, perhaps, has ever surpassed. In his poems +lies the life, and beats the heart, of Schiller. They conduct us +through the various stages of his spiritual education, and indicate +each step in the progress. In this division, _effort_ is no less +discernible than power--both in language and thought there is a +struggle at something not yet achieved, and not, perhaps, even yet +definite and distinct to the poet himself. Here may be traced, +though softened by the charm of genius, (which softens all things,) +the splendid errors that belong to a passionate youth, and that give +such distorted grandeur to the giant melodrama of "The Robbers." But +here are to be traced also, and in far clearer characters, the man's +strong heart, essentially human in its sympathies--the thoughtful +and earnest intellect, not yet equally developed with the fancy, but +giving ample promise of all it was destined to receive. In these +earlier poems, extravagance is sufficiently noticeable--yet never +the sickly eccentricities of diseased weakness, but the exuberant +overflowings of a young Titan's strength. There is a distinction, +which our critics do not always notice, between the _extravagance_ +of a great genius, and the _affectation_ of a pretty poet. + + + + +FIRST PERIOD + + +HECTOR AND ANCROMACHE. [11] + +[Footnote 11: This and the following poem are, with some alterations, +introduced in the play of "The Robbers."] + + ANDROMACHE. + + Will Hector leave me for the fatal plain, + Where, fierce with vengeance for Patroclus slain, + Stalks Peleus' ruthless son? + Who, when thou glidest amid the dark abodes, + To hurl the spear and to revere the Gods, + Shall teach shine Orphan One? + + HECTOR. + + Woman and wife beloved--cease thy tears; + My soul is nerved--the war-clang in my ears! + Be mine in life to stand + Troy's bulwark, fighting for our hearths--to go, + In death, exulting to the streams below, + Slain for my fatherland! + + ANDROMACHE. + + No more I hear thy martial footsteps fall-- + Thine arms shall hang, dull trophies, on the wall-- + Fallen the stem of Troy! + Thou go'st where slow Cocytus wanders--where + Love sinks in Lethe, and the sunless air + Is dark to light and joy! + + HECTOR. + + Sinew and thought--yea, all I feel and think + May in the silent sloth of Lethe sink, + But my love not! + Hark, the wild swarm is at the walls!--I hear! + Gird on my sword--beloved one, dry the tear-- + Lethe for love is not! + + +AMALIA. + + Fair as an angel from his blessed hall-- + Of every fairest youth the fairest he! + Heaven-mild his look, as maybeams when they fall, + Or shine reflected from a clear blue sea! + His kisses--feelings rife with paradise! + Ev'n as two flames, one on the other driven-- + Ev'n as two harp-tones their melodious sighs + Blend in some music that seems born of heaven; + So rush'd, mix'd, melted--life with life united! + Lips, cheeks burn'd, trembled--soul to soul was won! + And earth and heaven seem'd chaos, as delighted + Earth--heaven were blent round the beloved one! + Now, he is gone! vainly and wearily + Groans the full heart, the yearning sorrow flows-- + Gone! and all zest of life, in one long sigh, + Goes with him where he goes. + + + * * * * * + + + + +TO LAURA. + +THE MYSTERY OF REMINISCENCE. [12] + +[Footnote 12: This most exquisite love-poem is founded on the Platonic +notion, that souls were united in a pre-existent state, that love is +the yearning of the spirit to reunite with the spirit with which it +formerly made one--and which it discovers on earth. The idea has +often been made subservient to poetry, but never with so earnest and +elaborate a beauty.] + + Who, and what gave to me the wish to woo thee-- + Still, lip to lip, to cling for aye unto thee? + Who made thy glances to my soul the link-- + Who bade me burn thy very breath to drink-- + My life in thine to sink? + As from the conquerors unresisted glaive, + Flies, without strife subdued, the ready slave-- + So, when to life's unguarded fort, I see + Thy gaze draw near and near triumphantly-- + Yields not my soul to thee? + Why from its lord doth thus my soul depart?-- + Is it because its native home thou art? + Or were they brothers in the days of yore, + Twin-bound both souls, and in the links they bore + Sigh to be bound once more? + Were once our beings blent and intertwining, + And therefore still my heart for thine is pining? + Knew we the light of some extinguished sun-- + The joys remote of some bright realm undone, + Where once our souls were ONE? + Yes, it _is_ so!--And thou wert bound to me + In the long-vanish'd Eld eternally! + In the dark troubled tablets which enroll + The Past--my Muse beheld this blessed scroll-- + "One with thy love my soul!" + Oh yes, I learn'd in awe, when gazing there, + How once one bright inseparate life we were, + + How once, one glorious essence as a God, + Unmeasured space our chainless footsteps trode-- + All Nature our abode! + Round us, in waters of delight, for ever + Voluptuous flow'd the heavenly Nectar river; + We were the master of the seal of things, + And where the sunshine bathed Truth's mountain-springs + Quiver'd our glancing wings. + Weep for the godlike life we lost afar-- + Weep!--thou and I its scatter'd fragments are; + And still the unconquer'd yearning we retain-- + Sigh to restore the rapture and the reign, + And grow divine again. + And therefore came to me the wish to woo thee-- + Still, lip to lip, to cling for aye unto thee; + _This_ made thy glances to my soul the link-- + _This_ made me burn thy very breath to drink-- + My life in thine to sink: + And therefore, as before the conqueror's glaive, + Flies, without strife subdued, the ready slave, + So, when to life's unguarded fort, I see + Thy gaze draw near and near triumphantly-- + Yieldeth my soul to thee! + Therefore my soul doth from its lord depart, + _Because_, beloved, its native home thou art; + Because the twins recall the links they bore, + And soul with soul, in the sweet kiss of yore, + Meets and unites once more. + Thou too--Ah, there thy gaze upon me dwells, + And thy young blush the tender answer tells; + Yes! with the dear relation still we thrill, + Both lives--tho' exiles from the homeward hill-- + _One_ life--all glowing still! + + * * * * * + + + + +TO LAURA. + +(Rapture.) + + + Laura--above this world methinks I fly, + And feel the glow of some May-lighted sky, + When thy looks beam on mine! + And my soul drinks a more ethereal air, + When mine own shape I see reflected there, + In those blue eyes of thine! + A lyre-sound from the Paradise afar, + A harp-note trembling from some gracious star, + Seems the wild ear to fill; + And my muse feels the Golden Shepherd-hours, + When from thy lips the silver music pours + Slow, as against its will. + I see the young Loves flutter on the wing-- + Move the charm'd trees, as when the Thracian's string + Wild life to forests gave; + Swifter the globe's swift circle seems to fly, + When in the whirling dance thou glidest by, + Light as a happy wave. + Thy looks, when there love sheds the loving smile, + Could from the senseless marble life beguile-- + Lend rocks a pulse divine; + Into a dream my very being dies, + I can but read--for ever read--thine eyes-- + Laura, sweet Laura, mine![13] + + +[Footnote 13: We confess we cannot admire the sagacity of those who +have contended that Schiller's passion for Laura was purely Platonic.] + + * * * * * + + +TO LAURA PLAYING. + + + When o'er the chords thy fingers steal, + A soulless statue now I feel, + And now a soul set free! + Sweet Sovereign! ruling over death and life-- + Seizes the heart, in a voluptuous strife + As with a thousand strings--the SORCERY![14] + +[Footnote 14: "The Sorcery."--In the original, Schiller has an +allusion of very questionable taste, and one which is very obscure +to the general reader, to a conjurer of the name of Philadelphia who +exhibited before Frederick the Great.] + + Then the vassal airs that woo thee, + Hush their low breath hearkening to thee. + In delight and in devotion, + Pausing from her whirling motion, + Nature, in enchanted calm, + Silently drinks the floating balm. + Sorceress, _her_ heart with thy tone + Chaining--as thine eyes my own! + + O'er the transport-tumult driven, + Doth the music gliding swim; + From the strings, as from their heaven, + Burst the new-born Seraphim. + As when from Chaos' giant arms set free, + 'Mid the Creation-storm, exultingly + Sprang sparkling thro' the dark the Orbs of Light-- + So streams the rich tone in melodious might. + + Soft-gliding now, as when o'er pebbles glancing, + The silver wave goes dancing; + Now with majestic swell, and strong, + As thunder peals in organ-tones along; + And now with stormy gush, + As down the rock, in foam, the whirling torrents rush. + To a whisper now + Melts it amorously, + Like the breeze through the bough + Of the aspen tree; + Heavily now, and with a mournful breath, + Like midnight's wind along those wastes of death, + Where Awe the wail of ghosts lamenting hears, + And slow Cocytus trails the stream whose waves are tears. + + Speak, maiden, speak!--Oh, art thou one of those + Spirits more lofty than our region knows? + Should we in _thine_ the mother-language seek + Souls in Elysium speak? + + + +FLOWERS. + + Children of Suns restored to youth, + In purfled fields ye dwell, + Rear'd to delight and joy--in sooth + Kind Nature loves ye well! + Broider'd with light the robes ye wear, + And liberal Flora decks ye fair + In gorgeous-colour'd pride. + Yet woe--Spring's harmless infants--woe! + Mourn, for ye wither while ye glow-- + Mourn for the _soul_ denied! + + The sky-lark and the nightbird sing + To you their hymns of love; + And Sylphs that wanton on the wing, + Embrace your blooms above. + Woven for Love's soft pillow were + The chalice crowns ye flushing bear, + By the Idalian Queen. + Yet weep, soft children of the Spring, + The _feelings_ love alone can bring + To you denied have been! + + But _me_ in vain my Fanny's [15] eyes + Her mother hath forbidden; + For in the buds I gather, lies + Love's symbol-language hidden. + Mute heralds of voluptuous pain, + I touch ye--_life_--_speech_--_heart_--ye gain, + And _soul_ denied before. + And silently your leaves enclose, + The mightiest God in arch repose, + Soft-cradled in the core. + + +[Footnote 15: Literally "Nanny."] + + * * * * * + + +THE BATTLE. + + + Heavy and solemn, + A cloudy column, + Thro' the green plain they marching came! + Measureless spread, like a table dread, + For the wild grim dice of the iron game. + The looks are bent on the shaking ground, + And the heart beats loud with a knelling sound; + Swift by the breasts that must bear the brunt, + Gallops the Major along the front-- + "Halt!" + And fetter'd they stand at the stark command, + And the warriors, silent, halt! + + Proud in the blush of morning glowing, + What on the hill-top shines in flowing? + "See you the Foeman's banners waving?" + "We see the Foeman's banners waving!" + Now, God be with you, woman and child, + Lustily hark to the music wild-- + The mighty trump and the mellow fife, + Nerving the limbs to a stouter life; + Thrilling they sound with their glorious tone, + Thrilling they go, through the marrow and bone. + _Brothers, God grant when this life is o'er, + In the life to come that we meet once more_! + See the smoke how the lightning is cleaving asunder! + Hark the guns, peal on peal, how they boom in their thunder! + From host to host, with kindling sound, + The shouting signal circles round, + Ay, shout it forth to life or death-- + Freer already breathes the breath! + The war is waging, slaughter raging, + And heavy through the reeking pall, + The iron Death-dice fall! + Nearer they close--foes upon foes + "Ready!"--From square to square it goes, + Down on the knee they sank, + And the fire comes sharp from the foremost rank. + Many a man to the earth it sent, + Many a gap by the balls is rent-- + O'er the corpse before springs the hinder-man, + That the line may not fail to the fearless van. + To the right, to the left, and around and around, + Death whirls in its dance on the bloody ground. + The sun goes down on the burning fight, + And over the host falls the brooding Night. + _Brothers, God grant when this life is o'er, + In the life to come that we meet once more_! + The dead men lie bathed in the weltering blood, + And the living are blent in the slippery flood, + And the feet, as they reeling and sliding go, + Stumble still on the corpses that sleep below. + "What, Francis!" "Give Charlotte my last farewell." + Wilder the slaughter roars, fierce and fell. + "I'll give----Look, comrades, beware--beware + How the bullets behind us are whirring there---- + I'll give thy Charlotte thy last farewell, + Sleep soft! where death's seeds are the thickest sown, + Goes the heart which thy silent heart leaves alone." + Hitherward--thitherward reels the fight, + Darker and darker comes down the night-- + _Brothers, God grant when this life is o'er, + In the life to come that we meet once more_! + + Hark to the hoofs that galloping go! + The Adjutants flying,-- + The horsemen press hard on the panting foe, + Their thunder booms in dying-- + Victory! + The terror has seized on the dastards all, + And their colours fall. + Victory! + Closed is the brunt of the glorious fight. + And the day, like a conqueror, bursts on the night. + Trumpet and fife swelling choral along, + The triumph already sweeps marching in song. + _Live--brothers--live!--and when this life is o'er, + In the life to come may we meet once more_! + + + * * * * * + + + + +THE LAST OF THE SHEPHERDS. + + +CHAPTER I. + +I wish I had lived in France in 1672! It was the age of romances in +twenty volumes, and flowing periwigs, and high-heeled shoes, and +hoops, and elegance, and wit, and rouge, and literary suppers, and +gallantry, and devotion. What names are those of La Calprenede, and +D'Urfe, and De Scuderi, to be the idols and tutelary deities of a +circulating library!--and Sevigne, to conduct the fashionable +correspondence of the _Morning Post_!--and Racine, to contribute to +the unacted drama!--and ladies skipping up the steepest parts of +Parnassus, with petticoats well tucked up, to show the beauty of +their ankles, and their hands filled with artificial flowers--almost +as good as natural--to show the simplicity of their tastes! I wish I +had lived in France in 1672; for in that year Madame Deshoulieres, +who had already been voted the tenth muse by all the freeholders of +Pieria, and whose pastorals were lisped by all the fashionable +shepherdesses in Paris, left the flowery banks of the Seine to +rejoin her husband. Monsieur Deshoulieres was in Guyenne; Madame +Deshoulieres went into Dauphine. Matrimony seems to be rather hurtful +to geographical studies, but Madame Deshoulieres was a poetess; and +in spite of the thirty-eight summers that shaded the lustre of her +cheek, she was beautiful, and was still in the glow of youth by her +grace and her talent, and--her heart. Wherever she moved she left +crowds of Corydons and Alexises; but, luckily for M. Deshoulieres, +their whole conversation was about sheep. + +The two Mesdemoiselles Deshoulieres, Madeleine and Bribri, were +beautiful girls of seventeen or eighteen, brought up in all the +innocent pastoralism of their mother. They believed in all the +poetical descriptions they read in her eclogues. They expected to +see shepherds playing on their pipes, and shepherdesses dancing, and +naiads reclining on the shady banks of clear-running rivers. They +were delighted to get out of the prosaic atmosphere of Paris, and +all the three were overjoyed when they sprang from their carriage, +one evening in May, at the chateau of Madame d'Urtis on the banks of +the Lignon. Though there were occasional showers at that season, the +mornings were splendid; and accordingly the travellers were up +almost by daylight, to tread the grass still trembling 'neath the +steps of Astrea--to see the fountain, that mirror where the +shepherdesses wove wild-flowers into their hair--and to explore the +wood, still vocal with the complaints of Celadon. In one of their +first excursions, Madeleine Deshoulieres, impatient to see some of +the scenes so gracefully described by her mother, asked if they were +really not to encounter a single shepherd on the banks of the Lignon? +Madame Deshoulieres perceived, at no great distance, a herdsman and +cow-girl playing at chuckfarthing; and, after a pause, replied-- + + + "Behold upon the verdant grass so sweet, + The shepherdess is at her shepherd's feet! + Her arms are bare, her foot is small and white, + The very oxen wonder at the sight; + Her locks half bound, half floating in the air, + And gown as light as those that satyrs wear." + + +While these lines were given in Madame Deshoulieres' inimitable +recitative, the party had come close to the rustic pair. "People may +well say," muttered Madeleine, "that the pictures of Nature are +always best at a distance. Can it be possible that this is a +shepherdess--a shepherdess of Lignon?" The shepherdess was in +reality a poor little peasant girl, unkempt, unshorn, with hands of +prodigious size, a miraculous squint, and a mouth which probably had +a beginning, but of which it was impossible to say where it might +end. The shepherd was worthy of his companion; and yet there was +something in the extravagant stupidity of his fat and florid +countenance that was interesting to a Parisian eye. Madame +Deshoulieres, who was too much occupied with the verses of the great +D'Urfe to attend to what was before her, continued her description-- + + + "The birds all round her praises ever sing, + And 'neath her steps the flowers incessant spring." + + +"Your occupation here is delightful, isn't it?" said Madeleine to the +peasant girl. + +"No, 'tain't, miss--that it ain't. I gets nothink for all I does, +and when I goes hoam at night I gets a good licking to the bargain." + +"And you?" enquired Madeleine, turning to the herdsman, who was +slinking off. + +"I'm a little b-b-b-etter off nor hur," said the man, stuttering, +"for I gets board and lodging--dasht if I doesn't--but I gets bread +like a stone, and s-s-sleeps below a hedge--dasht if I doesn't." + +"But where are your sheep, shepherd?" said Bribri. + +"Hain't a got none," stuttered the man again, "dasht if I has." + +"What!" exclaimed Madeleine in despair, "am I not to see the lovely +lambkins bleating and skipping in the meadows on the banks of the +Lignon, O Celadon?" + +But Madame Deshoulieres was too much of a poetess to hear or see what +was going on. She thought of nothing but the loves of Astrea, and +heard nothing but the imaginary songs of contending Damons. + +On their return to the chateau, Madeleine and Bribri complained that +they had seen neither flock nor shepherdess. + +"And are you anxious to see them?" enquired Madame D'Urtis, with a +smile. + +"Oh, very," exclaimed Bribri; "we expected to live like +shepherdesses when we came here. I have brought every thing a rustic +wants." + +"And so have I," continued Madeleine; "I have brought twenty yards +of rose-coloured ribands, and twenty yards of blue, to ornament my +crook and the handsomest of my ewes." + +"Well then," said the Duchess d'Urtis, good-naturedly, "there are a +dozen of sheep feeding at the end of the park. Take the key of the +gate, and drive them into the meadows beyond." + +Madeleine and Bribri were wild with joy, while their mother was +labouring in search of a rhyme, and did not attend to the real +eclogue which was about to be commenced. They scarcely took time to +breakfast.--"They dressed themselves coquettishly"--so Madame +Deshoulieres wrote to Mascaron--"they cut with their own hands a +crook a-piece in the park--they beautified them with ribands. +Madeleine was for the blue ribands, Bribri for the rose colour. Oh, +the gentle shepherdesses! they spent a whole hour in finding a name +they liked. At last, Madeleine fixed on Amaranthe, Bribri on Daphne. +I have just seen them gliding among the trees that overshadow the +lovely stream.--Poor shepherdesses! be on your guard against the +wolves." + +At noon that very day Madeleine and Bribri, or rather Amaranthe and +Daphne, in grey silk petticoats and satin bodies, with their +beautiful hair in a state of most careful disorder, and with their +crooks in hand, conducted the twelve sheep out of the park into the +meadows. The flock, which seemed to be very hungry, were rather +troublesome and disobedient. The shepherdesses did all they could to +keep them in the proper path. It was a delicious mixture of bleatings, +and laughter, and baaings, and pastoral songs. The happy girls +inhaled the soul of nature, as their poetical mamma expressed it. +They ran--they threw themselves on the blooming grass--they looked +at themselves in the limpid waters of the Lignon--they gathered +lapfulls of primroses. The flock made the best use of their time; +and every now and then a sheep of more observation than the rest, +perceiving they were guarded by such extraordinary shepherdesses, +took half an hour's diversion among the fresh-springing corn. + +"That's one of yours," said Amaranthe. + +"No; 'tis yours," replied Daphne; but, by way of having no +difficulties in future, they resolved to divide the flock, and +ornament one-half with blue collars, and the other with rose-colour. +And they gave a name also to each of the members of their flock, +such as Meliboeus, and Jeannot, and Robin, and Blanchette. Twelve +more poetical sheep were never fed on grass before. When the sun +began to sink, the shepherdesses brought back their flocks. Madame +Deshoulieres cried with joy. "Oh, my dear girls!" she said, kissing +their fair foreheads; "it is you that have composed an eclogue, and +not I." + +"Nothing is wanting to the picture," said the Duchess, seating +herself under the willows of the watering-place, and admiring the +graceful girls. + +"I think we want a dog," said Daphne. + +"No; we are rather in want of a wolf," whispered the beautiful +Amaranthe--and blushed. + + +CHAPTER II. + +Not far from the Chateau d'Urtis, the old manor-house of Langevy +raised its pointed turrets above the surrounding woods. There, in +complete isolation from the world, lived Monsieur de Langevy, his +old mother, and his young son. M. de Langevy had struggled against +the storms and misfortunes of human life; he now reposed in the +bosom of solitude, with many a regret over his wife and his +youth--his valiant sword and his adventures. His son, Hector Henri de +Langevy, had studied under the Jesuits at Lyons till he was eighteen. +Accustomed to the indulgent tenderness of his grandmother, he had +returned, about two years before, determined to live in his quiet +home without troubling himself about the military glories that had +inspired his father. M. de Langevy, though he disapproved of the +youth's choice, did not interfere with it, except that he insisted +on his sometimes following the chase, as the next best occupation to +actual war. The chase had few charms for Hector. It perhaps might +have had more, if he had not been forced to arm himself with an +enormous fowling-piece that had belonged to one of his ancestors, +the very sight of which alarmed him a mighty deal more than the game. +He was so prodigious a sportsman, that, after six months' practice, +he was startled as much as ever by the whirr of a partridge. But +don't imagine, on this account, that Hector's time was utterly wasted. +He mused and dreamed, and fancied it would be so pleasant to be in +love; for he was at that golden age--the only golden age the world +has ever seen--when the heart passes from vision to vision (as the +bee from flower to flower)--and wanders, in its dreams of hope, from +earth to heaven, from sunshine to shade--from warbling groves to +sighing maidens. But alas! the heart of Hector searched in vain for +sighing maidens in the woods of Langevy. In the chateau, there was +no one but an old housekeeper, who had probably not sighed for thirty +years, and a chubby scullion-maid--all unworthy of a soul that +dreamed romances on the banks of the Lignon. He counted greatly on a +cousin from Paris, who had promised them a visit in the spring. In +the meantime, he paced up and down with a gun on his shoulder, +pretending to be a sportsman--happy in his hopes, happy in the clear +sunshine, happy because he knew no better--as happens to a great +many other people in the gay days of their youth, in this most +unjustly condemned and vilipended world. And now you will probably +guess what occurred one day he was walking in his usual dreamy state +of abstraction, and as nearly as possible tumbled head foremost into +the Lignon. By dint of marching straight on, without minding either +hedge or ditch, he found himself, when he awakened from his reverie, +with his right foot raised, in the very act of stepping off the bank +into the water. He stood stock-still, in that somewhat unpicturesque +attitude--his mouth wide open, his eyes strained, and his cheek +glowing with all the colours of the rainbow. He had caught a glimpse +of our two enchanting shepherdesses on the other side of the stream, +who were watching his movements by stealth. He blushed far redder +than he had ever done before, and hesitated whether he should +retreat or advance. To retreat, he felt, would look rather awkward: +at the same time, he thought it would be too great a price to pay +for his honour to jump into the river. And, besides, even if he got +over to the other side, would he have courage to speak to them? +Altogether, I think he acted more wisely, though less chivalrously, +than some might have done in his place. He laid down his gun, and +seated himself on the bank, and looked at the sheep as they fed on +the opposite side. At twenty years of age, love travels at an amazing +pace; and Hector felt that he was already over head and ears with +one of the fair shepherdesses. He did not stop to examine which of +them it was; it was of no consequence--sufficient for him that he +knew he was in love--gone--captivated. If he had been twenty years +older, he would perhaps have admired them both: it would have been +less romantic, but decidedly more wise. + +It is not to be denied that Amaranthe and Daphne blushed a little, +too, at this sort of half meeting with Hector. They hung down their +heads in the most captivating manner, and continued silent for some +time. But at last Amaranthe, more lively than her sister, +recommenced her chatter. "Look, Bribri," she said--"Daphne I mean--he +is one of the silvan deities, or perhaps Narcissus looking at himself +in the water." + +"Rather say, looking at you," replied Daphne, with a blush. + +"'Tis Pan hiding himself in the oziers till you are metamorphosed +into a flute, dear Daphne." + +"Not so, fair sister," replied Daphne; "'tis Endymion in pursuit of +the shepherdess Amaranthe." + +"At his present pace, the pursuit will last some time. If he weren't +quite so rustic, he would be a captivating shepherd, with his long +brown ringlets. He has not moved for an hour. What if he has taken +root like a hamadryad?" + +"Poor fellow!" said Daphne, in the simplest tone in the world; +"he looks very dull all by himself." + +"He must come over to us--that's very plain. We will give him a crook +and a bouquet of flowers." + +"Oh, just the thing!" exclaimed the innocent Daphne. "We need a +shepherd: and yet, no, no"--she added, for she was a little jealous +of her sister--"'tis a lucky thing there is river between us." + +"I hope he will find a bridge _per passa lou riou d'amor_." + +Now, just at that moment Hector's mind was set on passing the river +of Love. In casting his eyes all round in search of a passage, he +perceived an old willow half thrown across the stream. With a little +courage and activity, it was a graceful and poetical bridge. Hector +resolved to try it. He rose and went right onward towards the tree; +but, when he arrived, he couldn't help reflecting that, at that +season, the river was immensely deep. He disdained the danger--sprang +lightly up the trunk, and flung himself along one of the branches, +dropping, happily without any accident, on the meadow of the Chateau +d'Urtis. Little more was left for him to do; and that little he did. +He went towards the fair shepherdesses. He tried to overcome his +timidity--he overwhelmed the first sheep of the flock with his +insidious caresses--and then, finding himself within a few feet of +Amaranthe--he bowed, and smiled, and said, "Mademoiselle." + +He was suddenly interrupted by a clear and silvery voice. + +"There are no Mesdemoiselles here--there are only two shepherdesses, +Amaranthe and Daphne." + +Hector had prepared a complimentary speech for a young lady attending +a flock of sheep--but he hadn't a word to say to a shepherdess. + +He bowed again, and there was a pause. + +"Fair Amaranthe," he said--"and fair Daphne, will you permit a mortal +to tread these flowery plains?" + +Amaranthe received the speech with a smile, in which a little +raillery was mingled. "You speak like a true shepherd," she said. + +But Daphne was more good-natured, and more touched with the +politeness of the sportsman. She cast her eyes on the ground and +blushed. + +"Oh--if you wish to pass through these meadows," she said--"we shall +be"-- + +"We were going to do the honours of our reception room," continued +Amaranthe, "and offer you a seat on the grass." + +"'Tis too much happiness to throw myself at your feet," replied +Hector, casting himself on one knee. + +But he had not looked where he knelt, and he broke Daphne's crook. + +"Oh, my poor crook!" she said--and sighed. + +"What have I done?" cried Hector. "I am distressed at my stupidity--I +will cut you another from the ash grove below. But you loved this +crook," he added--"the gift, perhaps, of some shepherd--some shepherd? +--no, some prince; for you yourselves are princesses--or fairies." + +"We are nothing but simple shepherdesses," said Amaranthe. + +"You are nothing but beautiful young ladies from the capital," said +Hector, "on a visit at the Chateau d'Urtis. Heaven be praised--for in +my walks I shall at least catch glimpses of you at a distance, if I +dare not come near. I shall see you glinting among the trees like +enchantresses of old." + +"Yes, we are Parisians, as you have guessed--but retired for ever +from the world and its deceitful joys." + +Amaranthe had uttered the last words in a declamatory tone; you +might have thought them a quotation from her mamma. + +"You complain rather early, methinks," replied Hector, with a smile; +"have you indeed much fault to find with the world?" + +"That is our secret, fair sportsman," answered Amaranthe; "but it +seems you also live retired--an eremite forlorn." + +"I? fair Amaranthe? I have done nothing but dream of the delights of +a shepherd's life--though I confess I had given up all hopes of +seeing a good-looking shepherdess--but now I shall go back more +happily than ever to my day-dreams. Ah! why can't I help you to +guard your flock?" + +The two young girls did not know what to say to this proposition. +Daphne at last replied-- + +"Our flock is very small--and quite ill enough attended to as it is." + +"What joy for me to become Daphnis--to sing to you, and gather roses, +and twine them in your hair!" + +"Let us say no more," interrupted Amaranthe, a little disquieted at +the sudden ardour of Daphnis; "the sun is going down: we must return +to the park. Adieu," she added, rising to go away. + +"Adieu, Daphnis!" murmured the tender Daphne, confused and blushing. + +Hector did not dare to follow them. He stood for a quarter of an +hour with his eyes fixed first on them, and then on the door of the +park. His heart beat violently, his whole soul pursued the steps of +the shepherdesses. + +"'Adieu, Daphnis,' the lovely Daphne said to me. I hear her sweet +voice still! How beautiful she is! how beautiful they are, +both--Amaranthe is more graceful, but Daphne is more winning--bright +eyes--white hands! sweet smiles! and the delicious dress, so simple, +yet so captivating! the white corset that I could not venture to +look at--the gown of silk that couldn't hide the points of the +charming little feet. 'Tis witchery--enchantment--Venus and Diana--I +shall inevitably go mad. Ah, cousin! you ought to have come long ago, +and all this might never have occurred." + +The sun had sunk behind a bed of clouds--the nightingale began its +song, and the fresh green leaves rustled beneath the mild breath of +the evening breeze. The bee hummed joyously on its homeward way, +loaded with the sweets of the spring flowers. Down in the valley, +the voice of the hinds driving their herds to rest, increased the +rustic concert; the river rippled on beneath the mysterious shade of +old fantastic trees, and the air was filled with soft noises, and +rich perfumes, and the voice of birds. There was no room in Hector's +heart for all these natural enjoyments. "To-morrow," he said, +kissing the broken crook--"I will come back again to-morrow." + + +CHAPTER III. + +Early in the following morning, Hector wandered along the banks of +the Lignon, with a fresh-cut crook in his hand. He looked to the +door of the Park d'Urtis, expecting every moment to see the glorious +apparitions of the day before. And at stroke of noon, a lamb rushing +through the gate, careered along the meadow, and the eleven others +ran gayly after it, amidst a peal of musical laughter from Amaranthe. +Daphne did not laugh. + +The moment she crossed the threshold, she glanced stealthily +towards the river. "I thought so," she murmured; "Daphnis has come +back." And Daphnis, in a transport of joy, was hurrying to the +shepherdesses, when he was suddenly interrupted by Madame +Deshoulieres and the Duchess d'Urtis. When the sisters had returned, +on the evening before, Amaranthe, to Daphne's great discomfiture, +had told word for word all that had occurred; how that a young +sportsman had joined them, and how they had talked and laughed; and +Madame d'Urtis had no doubt, from the description, that it was Hector +de Langevy. Amaranthe having added to the story, that she felt certain, +in spite of Daphne's declarations to the contrary, that he would meet +them again, the seniors had determined to watch the result. Hector +would fain have made his escape; two ladies he might have faced, but +four!--and two of them above thirty years of age! 'Twas too much; but +his retreat was instantly cut off. He stood at bay, blushed with +all his might, but saluted the ladies as manfully as if he had been +a page. He received three most gracious curtsies in return--only +three; for Daphne wished to pass on without taking any notice--which +he considered a very favourable omen. He did not know how to begin a +conversation; and besides, he began to get confused; and his blushing +increased to a most alarming extent--and--in short--he held out his +crook to Daphne. As that young shepherdess had no crook of her own, +and did not know how to refuse the one he offered, she took it, +though her hand trenbled a little, and looked at Madame Deshoulieres. + +"I broke your crook yesterday, fair Daphne," said Hector, "but it is +not lost. I shall make a relic of it--more precious than--than--", +but the bones of the particular saint he was about to name stuck in +his throat and he was silent. + +"Monsieur de Langevy," said Madam d'Urtis kindly, "since you make +such a point of aiding these shepherdesses in guarding the flock, I +hope in an hour you will accompany them to the castle to lunch." + +"I'll go with them wherever you allow me, madam," said Hector. +(I wonder if the impudent fellow thought he had the permission of +the young ones already.) + +"Let that be settled then," said the Duchess. "I shall go and have +the butter cooled, and the curds made--a simple lunch, as befits the +guests." + +"The fare of shepherds!" said Madame Deshoulieres, and immediately +set out in search of a rhyme. + +Daphne had walked slowly on, pressing the crook involuntarily to her +heart, and arrived at the river side, impelled by a desire for +solitude, without knowing why. There are some mysterious influences +to which damsels of seventeen seem particularly subject. A lamb--the +gentlest of the flock, which had become accustomed to her +caresses--had followed her like a dog. She passed her small hand +lightly over the snowy neck of the favourite, and looked round to +see what the party she had left were doing. She was astonished to +see her mother and Hector conversing, as if they had been acquainted +for ages, while Madame d'Urtis and Amaranthe were running a race +towards the park. She sat down on the grassy bank, exactly opposite +the oziers where she had seen Hector the preceding day. When she +felt she was quite alone, she ventured to look at the crook. It was +a branch of ash of good size, ornamented with a rustic bouquet and a +bunch of ribands, not very skilfully tied. Daphne was just going to +improve the knot, when she saw a billet hid in the flowers. What +should she do?--read it? That were dangerous; her confessor did not +allow such venialities--her mamma would be enraged--some people are +so fond of monopolies--and besides, she might be discovered. 'Twould +be better, then, _not_ to read it--a much simpler proceeding; for +couldn't she nearly guess what was in it? And what did she care what +was in it? Not to read it was evidently the safer mode; and +accordingly she--read it through and through, and blushed and smiled, +and read it through and through again. It was none of your +commonplace prosaic epistles--'twas all poetry, all fire; her mamma +would have been enchanted if the verses had only been addressed to +her. Here they are:-- + + + "My sweetest hour, my happiest day, + Was in the happy month of May! + The happy dreams that round me lay + On that delicious morn of May!" + + "I saw thee! loved thee! If my love + A tribute unrejected be, + The happiest day of May shall prove + The happiest of my life to me!" + + +It is quite evident that if such an open declaration had been made +in plain prose, Daphne would have been angry; but in verse, 'twas +nothing but a poetical license. Instead, therefore, of tearing it in +pieces, and throwing it into the water, she folded it carefully +up, and placed it in the pretty corset of white satin, which seems +the natural escritoire of a shepherdess in her teens. Scarcely had +she closed the drawer, and double locked it, when she saw at her +side--Hector and Madame Deshoulieres. + +"My poor child," said the poetess, "how thoughtful you seem on +Lignon's flowery side--forgetful of your sheep--" + + 'That o'er the meadows negligently stray!' + +Monsieur de Langevy, as you have given her a crook, methinks you +ought to aid her in her duties in watching the flock. As for myself, +I must be off to finish a letter to my bishop. + + 'From Lignon's famous banks + What can I find to say? + The breezes freshly springing, + Make me--and nature--gay. + When Celadon would weep; + His lost Astrea fair, + To Lignon he would creep, + But oh! this joyous air + Would force to skip and leap + A dragon in despair!'--&c. &c. + +Madame Deshoulieres had no prudish notions, you will perceive, about +a flirtation--provided it was carried on with the airs and graces of +the Hotel Rambouillet. She merely, therefore, interposed a word here +and there, to show that she was present. Daphne, who scarcely said a +word to Hector, took good care to answer every time her mamma spoke +to her. To be sure, it detracts a little from this filial merit, +that she did not know what she said. But if all parties were pleased, +I don't see what possible right anybody else has to find fault. + +The shepherdess Daphne, or rather Bribri Deshoulieres, as we have +seen, was beautiful, and simple, and tender--beautiful from the +admirable sweetness of her expression--simple, as young girls are +simple: that is to say, with a small spice of mischief to relieve +the insipidity--and tender, with a smile that seems to open the +heart as well as the lips. What struck people in her expression at +first, was a shade of sadness over her features--a fatal presentiment, +as it were, that added infinitely to her charm. Her sister was more +beautiful, perhaps--had richer roses on her cheek, and more of what +is called _manner_ altogether--but if Amaranthe pleased the eyes, +Daphne captivated the heart; and as the eyes are evidently +subordinate to the heart, Daphne carried the day. Hector accordingly, +on the first burst of his admiration, had _seen_ nothing but +Amaranthe; but when he had left the sisters, it was astonishing how +exclusively he _thought_ of Daphne. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +The castle clock sounded the hour of luncheon. Hector offered his arm +to Madame Deshoulieres; Daphne called her flock. They entered the +park, and were joined by the Duchess d'Urtis and Amaranthe. The +collation was magnificent. First course, an omelette au jambon, entree +cakes, and fresh butter; second course, a superb cream cheese. +Dessert, a trifle and preserves. All these interesting details are +embalmed in the poetic correspondence of Madame Deshoulieres, in +which every dish was duly chronicled for the edification of her +friends. + +At nightfall--for Hector lingered as long as he could--the young +shepherd quitted the party with great regret; but there was no time +to lose, for he had two leagues to go, and there was no moon, and +the roads were still broken into immense ruts by the equinoctial +rains. On the following day, Hector returned to the Chateau d'Urtis +through the meadow. When he arrived near the willow that served for +his bridge across the river, he was surprised to see neither +shepherdess nor flock in the field. He tripped across the tree, +lamenting the bad omen; but scarcely had he reached the other side +when he saw some sheep straggling here and there. He rushed towards +them, amazed at not seeing either Amaranthe or Daphne; and what was +his enchantment when, on advancing a little further, he perceived +his adored shepherdess by the margin of the Lignon, which at that +point formed a pretty little cascade. The tender Daphne had thrown +her beautiful arm round one of the young willows in flower, and, +trusting to its support, leaned gracefully over the waterfall, in +the shadow of its odoriferous leaves. She had allowed her soul to +wander in one of those delicious reveries, of which the +thread--broken and renewed a thousand times--is the work of the joy +which hopes, and the sadness which fears. She was not aware of +Hector's approach. When she saw him, she started, as if waking from +a dream. + +"You are all alone," said Hector, drawing near. + +She hurriedly told him that her sister would soon join her. The two +lovers kept silence for some time, looking timidly at each other, +not venturing to speak, as if they feared the sound of their own +voices in the solitude. + +"There seems a sadness," said Hector at length, but his voice +trembled as he spoke--"there seems a sadness on your brow?" + +"'Tis true," replied Daphne. "Mamma has heard from Monsieur +Deshoulieres. He is going to pass through Avignon soon, and we are +going away to see him on his passage." + +"Going away!" cried Hector, turning pale. + +"Yes! and I felt myself so happy," said Daphne, mournfully, +"in these meadows with my sheep, that I loved so well." + +When Daphne spoke of her sheep, she looked at Hector. + +"But why should you go? Madame Deshoulieres could return for you here" +-- + +"And take me away when I had been longer here--my grief would only +be greater. No--I must go now or stay always." + +On hearing these words Hector fell on one knee, seized her hand and +kissed it, and, looking up with eyes overflowing with love, said-- + +"Yes--always! always!--you know that I love you, Daphne--I wish to +tell you how I will adore you all my life long." + +Daphne yielded to her heart--and let him kiss her hand without +resistance. + +"But alas!" she said, "I can't be always guarding a flock. What will +the poor shepherdess do?" + +"Am I not your shepherd? your Daphnis?" cried Hector, as if +inspired--"trust to me, Daphne--to my heart--to my soul! This hand +shall never be separated from yours: we shall live the same life--in +the sane sunshine--in the same shadow--in the same hovel--in the +same palace; but with you, dearest Daphne, the humblest hut would be +a palace. Listen, my dearest Daphne: at a short distance from here +there is a cottage--the Cottage of the Vines--that belongs to the +sister of my nurse, where we can live in love and happiness--no eye +to watch and no tongue to wound us." + +"Never! never!" said Daphne. + +She snatched her hands from those of her lover, retreated a few paces, +and began to cry. Hector went up to her; he spoke of his +affection--he besought her with tears in his eyes--he was so +eloquent and so sincere, that poor Daphne was unable to resist, for +any length of time, those bewildering shocks of first love to which +the wisest of us yield: she said, all pale and trembling-- + +"Well--yes--I trust myself to you--and heaven. I am not to blame--is +it my fault that I love you so?" + +A tender embrace followed these words. Evening was now come; the sun, +sinking behind the clouds on the horizon, cast but a feeble light; +the little herdsman was driving home his oxen and his flock of +turkeys, whose gabbling disturbed the solemnity of the closing day. +The flock belonging to the castle turned naturally towards the +watering-place. + +"Look at my poor sheep," said Daphne, throwing back the curls which +by some means had fallen over her forehead--"look at my poor sheep: +they are pointing out the road I ought to go." + +"On the contrary," replied Hector, "the ungrateful wretches are going +off very contentedly without you." + +"But I am terrified," rejoined Daphne: "how can I leave my mother in +this way? She will die of grief!" + +"She will write a poem on it; and that will be all." + +"I will write to her that I was unable to resist my inclination for +a monastic life, and that I have gone, without giving her notice, to +the nunnery of St. Marie that we were speaking of last night." + +So said the pure and candid Bribri, hitting in a moment on the +ingenious device; so true it is, that at the bottom of all +hearts--even the most amiable--there is some small spark of mischief +ready to explode when we least expect it. + +"Yes--dearest," cried Hector, delighted at the thought, "you will +write to her you have gone into the convent; she will go on to +Avignon; we shall remain together beneath these cloudless skies, in +this lovely country, happy as the birds, and free as the winds of +the hill!" + +Daphne thought she heard some brilliant quotation from her mother, +and perhaps was, on that account, the more easily led by Hector. +After walking half an hour, with many a glance by the way, and many +a smile, they arrived in front of the Cottage of the Vines--the good +old woman was hoeing peas in her garden--she had left her house to +the protection of an old grey cat, that was sleeping in the doorway. +Daphne was enraptured with the cottage. It was beautifully retired, +and was approached by a little grass walk bordered by elder-trees; +and all was closed in by a pretty orchard, in which luxuriant vines +clambered up the fine old pear-trees, and formed in festoons between +the branching elms. The Lignon formed a graceful curve and nearly +encircled the paddock. + +"At all events," said Daphne, "if I am wretched here, my tears will +fall into the stream I love." + +"But you will have no time to weep," replied Hector, pressing her +hand, "all our days will be happy here! Look at that window half +hidden in vine-leaves; 'tis there you will inhale the fragrance of +the garden every morning when you awake; look at that pretty bower +with the honeysuckle screen, 'tis there we will sit every evening, +and talk over the joys of the day. Our life will be bright and +beautiful as a sunbeam among roses!" + +They had gone inside the cottage. It had certainly no great +resemblance to a palace; but under these worn rafters--within these +simple walls--by the side of that rustic chimney--poverty itself +would be delightful, in its tidiness and simplicity, if shared with +one you loved. Daphne was a little disconcerted at first by the +rough uneven floor, and by the smell of the evening meal--the +toasted cheese, and the little oven where the loaf was baking; but, +thanks to love--the enchanter, who has the power of transforming to +what shape he likes, and can shed his magic splendours over any +thing--Daphne found the cottage charming, and she was pleased with +the floor, and the toasted cheese, and the oven! The good old woman, +on coming in from the garden, was astonished at the sight of Hector +and Daphne. + +"What a pretty sister you have, Monsieur Hector!" she said. + +"Listen to me, Babet--since your daughter married, nobody has used +the little room up stairs. This young lady will occupy it for a few +days; but you must keep it a secret from all the world--you +understand." + +"Don't be afraid, Master Hector--I am delighted to have so pretty a +tenant for my daughter's room. The bed is rather small, but it is +white and clean, and the sheets are fresh bleached. They smell of +the daisies yet. You will sup with me, my fair young lady?" +continued Babet, turning to Daphne; "my dishes are only pewter, but +there is such a flavour in my simple fare--my vegetables and +fruits--I can't account for it, except it be the blessing of heaven." + +Babet spread a tablecloth like snow, and laid some dishes of fruit +upon the table. Hector took a tender farewell of Daphne, and kissed +her hand at least a dozen times. At last he tore himself away, with +a promise that he would be with her at daybreak next morning. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +Daphne hardly slept all night in her chamber. She was disturbed by +many thoughts, and became alarmed at the step she had taken. At +earliest dawn she threw open her window. The first sun-rays, +reflected on a thousand dewdrops on the trees; the chirping of the +birds, which already began their matin song; the joyous voice of the +cock, which crowed in a most satisfactory and majestic manner in the +paddock of her hostess; all these sights and sounds, to which she +was so little accustomed, restored her serenity of mind once more. +She dwelt more on the attractions of her love--so adventurous, so +romantic. Love's ways, like those of wickedness, are strewed at +first with roses, and Daphne was only at the entrance of the path. + + +While she was repelling from her heart the miserable fancies that had +crowded on her at night, she all of a sudden perceived Hector by the +whitethorn hedge. + +"Welcome! welcome!" she cried, "you come to me with the sun." + +"How lovely you are this morning!" said Hector to her, with a look +of admiration which there needed no physiognomist to discover was +profoundly real. She looked at herself when he spoke, and perceived +she was but half dressed. She threw herself on the foot of her bed. + +"What am I to do?" she thought, "I can't always wear a silk petticoat +and a corset of white satin?" + +She dressed herself notwithstanding, as last night, trusting to fate +for the morrow. Hector had brought her writing materials, and she +composed a tender adieu to her mamma. + +"Admirably done!" cried Hector; "I have a peasant here who will carry +it to Madame Deshoulieres--as for me, I shall go as usual to the +Park d'Urtis at noon. When they see me they will have no suspicion. +Your mamma goes away this evening, so that after to-day we shall +have nothing to fear." + +The lovers breakfasted in the spirits which only youth and love can +furnish. Daphne had herself gone to the fountain with the broken +pitcher of the cottage. "You perceive, Hector," she said, on seating +herself at the table, "that I have all the qualifications of a +peasant girl." + +"And all the gracefulness of a duchess," added the youth. + +At one o'clock Hector had found his way to the meadow. Nobody was +there. He opened the gate of the park, and before he had gone far was +met by Madame Deshoulieres. + +"My daughter!" she cried in an agitated voice; "You have not seen my +daughter?" + +"I was in hopes of seeing her here," replied Hector, with a start of +well-acted surprise. + +"She is gone off," resumed the mother; "gone off, like a silly +creature, to some convent, disguised as a shepherdess--the foolish, +senseless girl!--and I am obliged to depart this very day, so that +it is impossible to follow her." + +Hector continued to enact astonishment--he even offered his services +to reclaim the fugitive--and, in short, exhibited such sorrow and +disappointment, that the habitual quickness of Madame Deshoulieres +was deceived. The Duchess, Amaranthe, and the mamma all thanked him +for his sympathy; and he at last took his leave, with no doubt in +his mind, that he was a consummate actor, and qualified for any plot +whatever. + +He went back to Daphne, who had sunk into despondency once more, and +consoled her by painting a brilliant picture of their future +happiness. But on the following day he came later than before--he +seemed dull and listless--and embraced his shepherdess with evident +constraint. Things like these never escape the observations of +shepherdesses, gentle or simple. + +"Do you know, Hector, that you are not by any means too gallant?--A +shepherd of proper sentiments would waken his sweetheart every +morning with the sound of his pipe. He would gather flowers for her +before the dew was gone, and fill her basket with fruits. He would +carve her initials on the bark of the tree beneath the window, as +her name is written on his heart. But you! you come at nearly +noon--and leave me to attend to myself. 'Twas I, you inattentive +Daphnis, who gathered all these fruits and flowers. Don't you see +how the room is improved? Hyacinths in the window, roses on the +mantelpiece, and violets every where--ah! what a time you were in +coming!" + +They went out into the garden, where the good old Babet was at +breakfast, with her cat and the bees. + +"Come hither," continued Daphne, "look at this little corner so +beautifully worked--'tis my own garden--I have raked and weeded it +all. There is not much planted in it yet, but what a charming place +it is for vines!--and the hedge, how sweet and flourishing! But what +is the matter with you, Hector? You seem absent--sad." + +"Oh! nothing, Daphne, nothing indeed--I only love you more and more +every hour; that's all." + +"Well, that isn't a thing to be sad about"--said Daphne, with a smile +that would have dispelled any grief less deeply settled than that of +her young companion. He parted from Daphne soon; without letting her +into the cause of his disquiet. But as there is no reason why the +secret should be kept any longer, let us tell what was going on at +the Chateau de Langevy. + + +His cousin Clotilde had arrived the evening before, with an old aunt, +to remain for the whole spring! Monsieur de Langevy, who was not +addicted to circumlocution in his mode of talk, told his son +point-blank, that his cousin was a pretty girl, and what was more, a +considerable heiress--so that it was his duty--his, Hector de +Langevy--the owner of a great name and a very small fortune, to +marry the said cousin--or if not, he must stand the consequences. +Hector, at the first intimation, had revolted indignantly against +the inhuman proposal, and made many inaudible vows of undying +constancy to his innocent and trusting Daphne; but by degrees, there +is no denying that--without thinking of the fortune--he found +various attractions in his cousin. She was beautiful, graceful, +winning. She took his arm quite unceremoniously. She had the most +captivating small-talk in the world. In short, if it had not been +for Daphne, he would have been in love with her at once. As he was +obliged, of course, to escort his cousin in her walks--or break with +her altogether--he did not go for two whole days to the Cottage of +the Vines. On the third day Clotilde begged him to take her to the +banks of the Lignon, and as the request was made in presence of his +father, he dared not refuse. He contented himself--by way of a +relief to his conscience--with breathing a sigh to Daphne. The +straightest road from the Chateau de Langevy to the Lignon, led past +the Cottage of the Vines--but Hector had no wish to go the +straightest road. He took a detour of nearly two miles, and led her +almost to the Park D'Urtis. While Clotilde amused herself by +gathering the blossoms, and turning aside the pendent boughs of +the willows that hung over the celebrated stream. Hector looked +over the scene of his first meeting with the shepherdesses, and +sighed--perhaps without knowing exactly wherefore. He was suddenly +startled by a scream--Clotilde, in stretching too far forward, had +missed her footing, and fallen upon the bank; she was within an inch +of rolling into the river. Hector rushed to her, raised her gently up, +and begging her to lean her head upon his shoulder, assisted her up +the bank. "She's like a naiad surprised by a shepherd"--he +thought--and it is not improbable that at that moment he pressed his +lips pretty close to the pale cheek that rested almost in his breast. +When he lifted up his head, he perceived, half hidden among the +willows, on the other side of the river--Daphne! She had wandered to +see once more the cradle of her love, to tread the meadow where, two +days only before--could it be only two days?--she had been so happy. +What did she see? What did she hear? As her only reply to the kiss +to which she had so unfortunately been a witness, she broke her +crook in an excess of indignation. But it was too much to bear. She +fell upon the bank, and uttered a plaintive cry. At that cry--at +sight of his poor Daphne fainting upon the grass, he rushed like a +madman across the stream, buoyant with love and despair. He ran to +his insensate shepherdess, regardless of the exclamations of the +fair Clotilde, and raised her in his trembling arms. + +"Daphne, Daphne," he cried, "open your eyes. I love nobody but +you--nobody but you." + +He embraced her tenderly; he wept--and spoke to her as if she heard: +Daphne opened her eyes for a moment with a look of misery--and shut +them again--and shuddered. + +"No, no!" she said--"'tis over! You are no longer Daphnis, and I +Daphne no more--leave me, leave me alone--to die!" + +"My life! my love! my darling Daphne! I love you--I swear it to you +from my heart. I do not desert you: you are the only one I care for!" + +In the meantime Clotilde had approached the touching scene. + +"'Pon my word, sir! very well"--she said--"am I to return to the +Chateau by myself?" + +"Go, sir, go!" said Daphne, pushing him away, "You are waited for, +you are called." + +"But, Daphne--but, fair cousin"-- + +"I won't listen to you--my daydream is past--speak of it no more," +said Daphne. + +"Do you know, cousin," said Clotilde, with a malicious sneer, +"that this rural surprise is quite enchanting! I am greatly obliged +to you for getting it up for my amusement. You did not prepare me +for so exquisite a scene; I conclude it is from the last chapter of +the Astrea." + +"Ah! cousin," said Hector, "I will overtake you in a moment--I will +tell you all, and then I don't think you'll laugh at us." + +"Excuse me, sir," cried Daphne, in a tone of disdainful anger-- +"let that history be for ever a secret. I do not wish people to +laugh at the weakness of my heart. Farewell, sir, let every thing be +forgotten--buried!" + +Large tears rolled down the poor girl's cheek. + +"No, Daphne, no!--I never will leave you. I declare it before heaven +and earth, I will conduct my cousin to the Chateau, and in an hour I +will be with you to dry your tears, and to ask pardon of you on my +knees. Moreover, I am not to blame, I call my cousin to witness. Is +it not true, Clotilde, that I don't love you?" + +"'Pon my word, cousin, you have certainly _told_ me you loved me; +but as men generally say the contrary of what is the fact, I am +willing to believe you don't. But I beg you'll not incommode +yourself on my account; I can find my way to the Chateau perfectly +well alone." + +She walked away, hiding her chagrin under the most easy and careless +air in the world. + +"I must run after her," said Hector, "or she will tell every thing +to my father. Adieu Daphne; in two hours I shall be at the Cottage +of the Vines, and more in love than ever." + +"Adieu, then," murmured Daphne in a dying voice; "adieu," she +repeated on seeing him retire; "adieu!--as for me, in two hours, I +shall _not_ be at the Cottage of Vines." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +She returned to the cottage of old Babet. On seeing the little +chamber she had taken so much pains to ornament with flowers and +blossoms, she sank her head upon her bosom. "Poor roses!" she +murmured--"little I thought when I gathered you, that my heart would +be the first to wither!" + +The poor old woman came in to her. "What! crying?" she said-- +"do people weep at eighteen?" + +Daphne threw herself into Babet's arms, and sobbed. + +"He has deceived me--left me for his cousin. I must go. You will +tell him that he has behaved cruelly, that I am----but no!--tell him +that I forgive him." + +Daphne loved Hector with all her heart, and with all her soul. There +never was an affection so blind, or a girl so innocent. Before +leaving Paris, she had had various visions of what might happen in +the country--how she might meet some graceful cavalier beside the +wall of some romantic castle, who would fling himself on his knees +before her, like a hero of romance. And this dream, so cherished in +Paris, was nearly realized on the banks of the Lignon. Hector was +exactly the sort of youth she had fancied, and the interest became +greater from their enacting the parts of shepherdess and shepherd. +She had been strengthened in this, her first love, by the former +illusions of her imagination; and without one thought of evil, she +had lost her common sense, and had followed her lover instead of +attending to her mamma. Oh, young damsels, who are fond of pastorals, +and can dream of young cavaliers and ancient castles!--who hear, on +one side, the soft whisperings of a lover, and on the other, the +sensible remarks of your mother!--need I tell you which of the two +to choose? If you are still in doubt, read to the end of this story, +and you will hesitate no longer. + +Hector rejoined his cousin, but during their walk home, neither of +them ventured to allude to the incident in the meadow. Hector +augured well from the silence of Clotilde--he hoped she would not +speak of his secret at the chateau. Vain hope! the moment she found +an opportunity, it all came out! That evening, M. de Langevy saw her +more pensive than usual, and asked her the cause. + +"Oh, nothing," she said, and sighed. + +The uncle persisted in trying to find it out. + +"What is the matter, my dear Clotilde?" he said. "Has your +pilgrimage to the banks of the Lignon disappointed you?" + +"Yes, uncle." + +"Has my son---but where is Hector?" + +"He has gone on the pilgrimage again." + +"What the devil is he doing there?" "He has his reasons, of course," +said Clotilde. + +"Indeed!--Do you know what they are?" enquired the father. + +"Not the least in the world--only--" + +"Only what? I hate these only's--out with it all!" + +"My dear uncle, I've told you I know nothing about it--only I have +seen his shepherdess." + +"His shepherdess? You're laughing, Clotilde. Do you believe in +shepherdesses at this time of day?" + +"Yes, uncle--for I tell you I saw his shepherdess fall down in a +faint on the side of the Lignon." + +"The deuce you did? A shepherdess!--Hector in love with a shepherdess!" + +"Yes, uncle; but a very pretty one, I assure you, in silk petticoat +and corset of white satin." + +The father was petrified. "What is the meaning of all this? It must +be a very curious story. Bring me my fowling-piece and game-bag. Do +you think, my dear Clotilde, that infernal boy has returned to his +shepherdess?" + +"Yes, uncle." + +"Well--has the shepherdess any sheep?" + +"No, uncle." + +"The devil! that looks more serious. You went past the withy bed?" + +"Yes, uncle; but I fancy the gentle shepherdess is nearer the village." + +"Very good," grumbled the old Baron, with a tone of voice that made +it difficult to believe he saw much good in it. "Silk petticoats and +satin corsets! I wonder where the rascal finds money for such +fineries for his shepherdess." + +He went straight on to the Cottage of the Vines, in hopes that Babet +would know something of Hector's proceedings. He found the old woman +in her porch, resting from the labours of the day. + +"How do you do, Babet?" said the old Baron, softening his voice like +any sucking dove. "Anything new going on?" + +"Nothing new, your honour," replied Babet, attempting to rise. + +"Sit still," said the Baron, putting his hand kindly on the old +lady's shoulder; "here's a seat for me on this basket of rushes." At +this moment M. de Langevy heard the upstairs casement closed. +"Oho!" he thought, "I've hit upon it at once--this is the cage where +these turtles bill and coo. Have you seen my son this week, Babet?" +he said aloud. + +"Oh, I see him often, your honour; he often comes sporting into my +paddock." + +"Sporting in your preserves, Babet--a pretty sort of game." + +"Oh, very good game, your honour; this very day he sent me a +beautiful hare. I did not know what to do with it; but at last I put +it on the spit." + +"The hare wasn't all for you, perhaps. But, listen to me, Babet--I +know the whole business--my son is in love with some shepherdess or +other--and I don't think she is far from here." + +"I don't understand you, sir," said the old lady--a true _confidante_, +though seventy years of age. + +"You understand me so perfectly," said the Baron, "that you are +evidently ashamed of your behaviour. But do not be uneasy, there is +no great harm in it--a mere childish frolic--only tell me where the +girl is?" + +"Ah, your honour," cried Babet, who saw there was no use for further +pretence--"she's an angel--she is--a perfect angel!" + +"Where does the angel come from, Babet?" enquired the Baron, +"she has not come fresh from heaven, has she?" + +"I know nothing more about her, your honour; but I pray morning and +night that you may have no one else for a daughter." + +"We shall see--the two lovers are above, are not they?" + +"Why should I conceal it? Yes, your honour, you may go up stairs at +once. An innocent love like theirs never bolts the door." + +When the Baron was half-way up the stair, he stopped short, on +seeing the two lovers sitting close to each other, the one weeping, +and the other trying to console her. There was such an air of +infantine candour about them both, and both seemed so miserable, +that the hard heart of sixty-three was nearly touched. + +"Very well!"--he said, and walked into the room. Daphne uttered a +scream of terror, and her tears redoubled. + +"There is nothing to cry about," said M. de Langevy; "but as for you, +young man, you must let me into the secret, if you please." + +"I have nothing to tell you," said Hector, in a determined tone. + +Daphne, who had leant for support on his shoulder, fell senseless on +her chair. + +"Father," said Hector, bending over her, "you perceive that this is +no place for you." + +"Nor for you, either," said the old man in a rage. "What do you mean +by such folly? Go home this instant, sir, or you shall never enter +my door again." + +But Hector made no reply. His whole attention was bestowed on Daphne. + +"I ask you again, sir," said the father, still more angry at his +son's neglect. "Think well on what you do." + +"I _have_ thought, sir," replied Hector, raising the head of the +still senseless Daphne. "You may shut your door for ever." + +"None of your impudence, jackanapes. Will you come home with me now, +or stay here?" + +"If I go with you, sir," said Hector, "it will be to show my respect +to you as my father, but I must tell you that I love Mademoiselle +Deshoulieres, and no one else. We are engaged, and only death shall +part us." + +"Deshoulieres--Deshoulieres," said the Baron, "I've heard that name +before. I knew a Colonel Deshoulieres in the campaigns of Flanders; +a gallant fellow, with a beautiful wife, a number of wounds, many +medals, but not a _sou_. Are you coming, sir?" + +Daphne motioned him to go, and Hector followed his father in silence. +He was not without hopes of gaining his permission to love his poor +Daphne as much as he chose. M. de Langevy bowed to her as he went +out of the room; and wishing Babet a good appetite as he passed the +kitchen door, commenced a sermon for the edification of poor Hector, +which lasted all the way. The only attention Hector paid to it was +to turn round at every pause, and take a look at the little casement +window. + +When Daphne saw him disappear among the woods at the side of the road, +she sighed; and while the tears rolled down her cheek, she said, +"Adieu, adieu! I shall never see him more!" + +She looked sadly round the little apartment--now so desolate; she +gathered one of the roses that clustered round the window, and +scattered the leaves one by one, and watched them as they were +wafted away by the breeze. + +"Even so will I do with my love," said the poetical shepherdess; +"I will scatter it on the winds of death." + +"Adieu," she said, embracing poor old Babet; "I am going back to the +place I left so sillily. If you see Hector again, tell him I loved +him; but that he must forget me, as I forget the world, and myself." + +As she said these words, she grew pale and staggered, but she +recovered by an effort, and walked away on the path that led to the +Chateau d'Urtis. When she came to the meadow, she saw at her feet +the crook she had broken in the morning. She lifted it, and took it +with her as the only memorial of Hector. The sun was sinking slowly, +and Daphne knelt down and said a prayer, pressing the crook to her +bosom--poor Daphne! + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +She did not find her mother at the chateau: Madame d'Urtis was +overjoyed to see her. + +"Well, my lost sheep," she said, "you have come back again to the +fold." + +"Yes," said Daphne, sadly; "I am come back never to stray again. See, +here is my broken crook, and Daphnis will never come to cut me +another." + +She told every thing to Madame d'Urtis. The Duchess did not know +whether to laugh or scold; so she got over the difficulty by +alternately doing both. + +In the Chateau de Langevy, Hector continued firm in the presence of +his father, and even of his cousin. He told them every thing exactly +as it occurred; and spoke so enthusiastically and so sincerely, that +the old Baron was somewhat softened. Clotilde herself was touched, +and pled in Hector's behalf. But the old Baron was firm, and his +only answer was, "In eight days he will forget all about her. I am +astonished, Clotilde, to see you reason so absurdly." + +"Oh, my dear uncle!" said Clotilde, "I believe that those who reason +the worst on such a subject are the most reasonable." + +"I tell you again, in a week he will have changed his divinity--you +know that very well; or I don't see the use of your having such +beautiful eyes." + +"Be sure of this, uncle," replied Clotilde, in a more serious voice, +"Hector will never love me, and besides," she added, relapsing into +gaiety once more, "I don't like to succeed to another; I agree with +Mademoiselle de Scuderi, that, in love, those queens are the +happiest who create kingdoms for themselves in undiscovered lands." + +"You read romances, Clotilde, so I shall argue with you no longer +about the phantom you call love." + +Hector took his father on the weak side. + +"If I marry Mademioiselle Deshoulieres," he said, "I shall march +forward in the glorious career of arms; you have opened the way for +me, and I cannot fail of success under the instruction of the brave +Deshoulieres, whom Louvois honours with his friendship." + +M. de Langevy put an end to the conversation by saying he would +consider--which seemed already a great step gained in favour of the +lovers. + +On the next day's dawn, Hector was at the Cottage of the Vines. + +"Alas, alas!" said the old woman, throwing open the window, +"the dear young lady is gone!" + +"Gone!--you let her go!--but I will find her." + +Hector ran to the Chateau d'Urtis. When he entered the park, he felt +he was too late, for he saw a carriage hurrying down the opposite +avenue. He rang the bell, and was shown in to the Duchess. + +"'Tis you, Monsieur de Langevy," she said, sadly; "you come to see +Mademoiselle Deshoulieres. Think of her no more, for all is at an end +between you. On this earth you will meet no more, for in an hour she +will have left the world. She is gone, with her maid, to the Convent +of Val Chretien." + +"Gone!" cried Hector, nearly fainting. + +"She has left a farewell for you in this letter." Hector took the +letter which the Duchess held to him, and grew deadly pale as he +read these lines:-- + +"Farewell, then! 'Tis no longer Daphne who writes to you, but a +broken-hearted girl, who is to devote her life to praying for the +unhappy. I retire from the world with resignation. I make no +complaint: my two days' dream of happiness is gone. It was a +delicious eclogue--pure, sincere, and tender; but it is past--Adieu!" + +Hector kissed the letter, and turned to the Duchess. "Have you a +horse, madam?" he said. + +"What would you do with it?" + +"I would overtake Mademoiselle Deshoulieres." + +"You might overtake her, but you couldn't turn her." + +"For mercy's sake, madam, a horse! Take pity on my misery." + +The Duchess ordered a horse to be saddled, for she had opposed +Daphne's design. "Go," she said, "and Heaven guide you both!" + +He started at full gallop: he overtook the carriage in half an hour. + +"Daphne, you must go no further!" he said, holding out his hand to +the melancholy girl. + +"'Tis you!" cried Daphne, with a look of surprise and joy--soon +succeeded by deeper grief than ever. + +"Yes, 'tis I! I," continued the youth, "who love you as my Daphne, +my wife, for my father has listened at last to reason, and agrees to +all." + +"But I also have listened to reason, and you know where I am going. +Leave me: you are rich--I am poor: you love me to-day--who can say if +you will love me to-morrow? We began a delightful dream, let us not +spoil it by a bad ending. Let our dream continue unbroken in its +freshness and romance. Our crooks are both broken; they have killed +two of our sheep; they have cut down the willows in the meadow. You +perceive that our bright day is over. The lady I saw yesterday +should be your wife. Marry her, then; and if ever, in your hours of +happiness, you wander on the banks of the Lignon, my shade will +appear to you. But _then_ it shall be with a smile!" + + +"Daphne! Daphne! I love you! I will never leave you! I will live or +die with you!" + + * * * * * + +It was fifty years after that day, that one evening, during a +brilliant supper in the Rue St. Dominique, Gentil Bernard, who was +the life of the company, announced the death of an original, who had +ordered a broken stick to be buried along with him. + +"He is Monsieur de Langevy," said Fontenelle. "He was forced against +his inclination to marry the dashing Clotilde de Langevy, who eloped +so shamefully with one of the Mousquetaires. M. de Langevy had been +desperately attached to Bribri Deshoulieres, and this broken stick +was a crook they had cut during their courtship on the banks of the +Lignon. The Last Shepherd is dead, gentlemen--we must go to his +funeral." + +"And what became of Bribri Deshoulieres?" asked a lady of the party. + +"I have been told she died very young in a convent in the south," +replied Fontenelle; "and the odd thing is, that, when they were +burying her, they found a crook attached to her horse-hair tunic." + + * * * * * + + + +THE FOUNDING OF THE BELL. + +WRITTEN FOR MUSIC. + +BY CHARLES MACKAY. + + + Hark! how the furnace pants and roars! + Hark! how the molten metal pours, + As, bursting from its iron doors, + It glitters in the sun! + Now through the ready mould it flows, + Seething and hissing as it goes, + And filling every crevice up + As the red vintage fills the cup: + _Hurra! the work is done_! + + Unswathe him now. Take off each stay + That binds him to his couch of clay, + And let him struggle into day; + Let chain and pulley run, + With yielding crank and steady rope, + Until he rise from rim to cope, + In rounded beauty, ribb'd in strength, + Without a flaw in all his length: + _Hurra! the work is done_! + + The clapper on his giant side + Shall ring no peal for blushing bride, + For birth, or death, or new-year-tide, + Or festival begun! + A nation's joy alone shall be + The signal for his revelry; + And for a nation's woes alone + His melancholy tongue shall moan: + _Hurra! the work is done_! + + Borne on the gale, deep-toned and clear, + His long loud summons shall we hear, + When statesmen to their country dear + Their mortal race have run; + When mighty monarchs yield their breath, + And patriots sleep the sleep of death, + Then shall he raise his voice of gloom, + And peal a requiem o'er their tomb: + _Hurra! the work is done_! + + Should foemen lift their haughty hand, + And dare invade us where we stand, + Fast by the altars of our land + We'll gather every one; + And he shall ring the loud alarm, + To call the multitudes to arm, + From distant field and forest brown, + And teeming alleys of the town: + _Hurra! the work is done_! + + And as the solemn boom they hear, + Old men shall grasp the idle spear, + Laid by to rust for many a year, + And to the struggle run; + Young men shall leave their toils or books, + Or turn to swords their pruninghooks; + And maids have sweetest smiles for those + Who battle with their country's foes: + _Hurra! the work is done_! + + And when the cannon's iron throat + Shall bear the news to dells remote, + And trumpet-blast resound the note, + That victory is won; + While down the wind the banner drops, + And bonfires blaze on mountain-tops, + His sides shall glow with fierce delight, + And ring glad peals from morn to night; + _Hurra! the work is done_! + + But of such themes forbear to tell. + May never War awake this bell + To sound the tocsin or the knell! + Hush'd be the alarum gun! + Sheath'd be the sword! and may his voice + Call up the nations to rejoice + That War his tatter'd flag has furl'd, + And vanish'd from a wiser world! + _Hurra! the work is done_! + + Still may he ring when struggles cease, + Still may he ring for joy's increase, + For progress in the arts of peace, + And friendly trophies won! + When rival nations join their hands, + When plenty crowns the happy lands, + When knowledge gives new blessings birth, + And freedom reigns o'er all the earth! + _Hurra! the work is done_! + + * * * * * + + + + +AMMALAT BEK. + + + A TRUE TALE OF THE CAUCASUS. + FROM THE RUSSIAN OF MARLINSKI. + + +CHAPTER III. + +It was daybreak when Ammalat came to himself. Slowly, one by one, +his thoughts reassembled in his mind, and flitted to and fro as in a +mist, in consequence of his extreme weakness. He felt no pain at all +in his body, and his sensations were even agreeable; life seemed to +have lost its bitterness, and death its terror: in this condition he +would have listened with equal indifference to the announcement of +his recovery, or of his inevitable death. He had no wish to utter a +word, or to stir a finger. This half sleep, however, did not +continue long. At midday, after the visit of the physician, when the +attendants had gone to perform the rites of noon-tide prayer, when +their sleepy voices were still, and nought but the cry of the mullah +resounded from afar, Ammalat listened to a soft and cautious step +upon the carpets of the chamber. He raised his heavy eyelids, and +between their lashes appeared, approaching his bed, a fair, +black-eyed girl, dressed in an orange-coloured sarotchka, an +arkhaloukh of cloth of gold with two rows of enamelled buttons, +and her long hair falling upon her shoulders. Gently she fanned +his face, and so pityingly looked at his wound that all his nerves +thrilled. Then she softly poured some medicine into a cup, and--he +could see no more--his eyelids sank like lead--he only caught with +his ear the rustling of her silken dress, like the sound of a parting +angel's wings, and all was still again. Whenever his weak senses strove +to discover the meaning of this fair apparition, it was so mingled with +the uncertain dreams of fever, that his first thought--his first +word--when he awoke, was, "'Tis a dream!" But it was no dream. This +beautiful girl was the daughter of the Sultan Akhmet Khan, and +sixteen years old. Among all the mountaineers, in general, the +unmarried women enjoy a great freedom of intercourse with the other +sex, without regard to the law of Mahomet. The favourite daughter of +the Khan was even more independent than usual. By her side alone he +forgot his cares and disappointments; by her side alone his eye met +a smile, and his heart a gleam of gayety. When the elders of Avar +discussed in a circle the affairs of their mountain politics, or +gave their judgment on right or wrong; when, surrounded by his +household, he related stories of past forays, or planned fresh +expeditions, she would fly to him like a swallow, bringing hope and +spring into his soul. Fortunate was the culprit during whose trial +the Khana came to her father! The lifted dagger was arrested in the +air; and not seldom would the Khan, when looking upon her, defer +projects of danger and blood, lest he should be parted from his +darling daughter. Every thing was permitted, every thing was +accessible, to her. To refuse her any thing never entered into the +mind of the Khan; and suspicion of any thing unworthy her sex and +rank, was as far from his thoughts as from his daughter's heart. But +who among those who surrounded the Khan, could have inspired her +with tender feelings? To bend her thoughts--to lower her sentiments +to any man inferior to her in birth, would have been an unheard-of +disgrace in the daughter of the humblest retainer; how much more, +then, in the child of a khan, imbued from her very cradle with the +pride of ancestry!--this pride, like a sheet of ice, separating her +heart from the society of those she saw. As yet no guest of her +father had ever been of equal birth to hers; at least, her heart had +never asked the question. It is probable, that her age--of careless, +passionless youth--was the cause of this; perhaps the hour of love +had already struck, and the heart of the inexperienced girl was +fluttering in her bosom. She was hurrying to clasp her father in her +embrace, when she had beheld a handsome youth falling like a corpse +at her feet. Her first feeling was terror; but when her father +related how and wherefore Ammalat was his guest, when the village +doctor declared that his wound was not dangerous, a tender sympathy +for the stranger filled her whole being. All night there flitted +before her the blood-stained guest, and she met the morning-beam, for +the first time, less rosy than itself. For the first time she had +recourse to artifice: in order to look on the stranger, she entered +his room as though to salute her father, and afterwards she slipped in +there at mid-day. An unaccountable, resistless curiosity impelled her +to gaze on Ammalat. Never, in her childhood, had she so eagerly longed +for a plaything; never, at her present age, had she so vehemently wished +for a new dress or a glittering ornament, as she desired to meet the eye +of the guest; and when at length, in the evening, she encountered his +languid, yet expressive gaze, she could not remove her look from the +black eyes of Ammalat, which were intently fixed on her. They seemed +to say--"Hide not thyself; star of my soul!" as they drank health +and consolation from her glances. She knew not what was passing +within her; she could not distinguish whether she was on the earth, +or floating in the air; changing colours flitted on her face. At +length she ventured, in a trembling voice, to ask him about his +health. One must be a Tartar--who accounts it a sin and an offence +to speak a word to a strange woman, who never sees any thing female +but the veil and the eye-brows--to conceive how deeply agitated was +the ardent Bek, by the looks and words of the beautiful girl +addressed so tenderly to him. A soft flame ran through his heart, +notwithstanding his weakness. + +"Oh, I am very well, now," he answered, endeavouring to rise; +"so well, that I am ready to die, Seltanetta." + +"Allah sakhla-suen!" (God protect you!) she replied. "Live, live long! +Would you not regret life?" + +"At a sweet moment sweet is death, Seltanetta! But if I live a +hundred years, a more delightful moment than this can never be found!" + +Seltanetta did not understand the words of the stranger; but she +understood his look--she understood the expression of his voice. She +blushed yet more deeply; and, making a sign with her hand that he +should repose, disappeared from the chamber. + +Among the mountaineers there are many very skilful surgeons, chiefly +in cases of wounds and fractures; but Ammalat, more than by herb or +plaster, was cured by the presence of the charming mountain-maid. +With the agreeable hope of seeing her in his dreams, he fell asleep, +and awoke with joy, knowing that he should meet her in reality. His +strength rapidly returned, and with his strength grew his attachment +to Seltanetta. + +Ammalat was married; but, as it often happens in the East, only from +motives of interest. He had never seen his bride before his marriage, +and afterwards found no attraction in her which could awake his +sleeping heart. In course of time, his wife became blind; and this +circumstance loosened still more a tie founded on Asiatic customs +rather than affection. Family disagreements with his father-in-law +and uncle, the Shamkhal, still further separated the young couple, +and they were seldom together. Was it strange, under the +circumstances, that a young man, ardent by nature, self-willed by +nature, should be inspired with a new love? To be with her was his +highest happiness--to await her arrival his most delightful +occupation. He ever felt a tremor when he heard her voice: each +accent, like a ray of the sun, penetrated his soul. This feeling +resembled pain, but a pain so delicious, that he would have prolonged +it for ages. Little by little the acquaintance between the young +people grew into friendship--they were almost continually together. +The Khan frequently departed to the interior of Avar for business of +government or military arrangements, leaving his guest to the care +of his wife, a quiet, silent woman. He was not blind to the +inclination of Ammalat for his daughter, and in secret rejoiced at it; +it flattered his ambition, and forwarded his military views; a +connexion with a Bek possessing the right to the Shamkhalat would +place in his hands a thousand means of injuring the Russians. The +Khansha, occupied in her household affairs, not infrequently left Ammalat +for hours together in her apartments--as he was a relation; and +Seltanetta, with two or three of her personal attendants, seated on +cushions, and engaged in needlework, would not remark how the hours +flew by, conversing with the guest, and listening to his talk. +Sometimes Ammalat would sit long, long, reclining at the feet of his +Seltanetta, without uttering a word, and gazing at her dark, +absorbing eyes; or enjoying the mountain prospect from her window, +which opened towards the north, on the rugged banks and windings of +the roaring Ouzen, over which hung the castle of the Khan. By the +side of this being, innocent as a child, Ammalat forgot the desires +which she as yet knew not; and, dissolving in a joy, strange, +incomprehensible to himself, he thought not of the past nor of the +future; he thought of nothing--he could only feel; and indolently, +without taking the cup from his lips, he drained his draught of bliss, +drop by drop. + +Thus passed a year. + +The Avaretzes are a free people, neither acknowledging nor suffering +any power above them. Every Avaretz calls himself an Ouzden; and if +he possesses a yezeer, (prisoner, slave,) he considers himself a +great man. Poor, and consequently brave to extravagance, excellent +marksmen with the rifle, they fight well on foot; they ride on +horseback only in their plundering expeditions, and even then but a +few of them. Their horses are small, but singularly strong; their +language is divided into a multitude of dialects, but is essentially +Lezghin for the Avartzi themselves are of the Lezghin stock. They +retain traces of the Christian faith, for it is not 120 years that +they have worshipped Mahomet, and even now they are but cool Moslems; +they drink brandy, they drink booza, [16] and occasionally wine made +of grapes, but most ordinarily a sort of boiled wine, called among +them djapa. The truth of an Avaretz's word has passed into a proverb +among the mountains. At home, they are peaceful, hospitable, and +benevolent; they do not conceal their wives and daughters; for their +guest they are ready to die, and to revenge to the end of the +generation. Revenge, among them, is sacred; plundering, glory; and +they are often forced by necessity to brigandize. + +[Footnote 16: A species of drink used by the Tartars, produced by +fermenting oats.] + +Passing over the summit of Atala and Tkhezerouk, across the crests of +Tourpi-Taou, in Kakhetia, beyond the river Alazan, they find +employment at a very low price; occasionally remaining two or three +days together without work, and then, at an agreement among +themselves, they rush like famished wolves, by night, into the +neighbouring villages, and, if they succeed, drive away the cattle, +carry off the women, make prisoners, and will often perish in an +unequal combat. Their invasions into the Russian limits ceased from +the time when Azlan Khan retained possession of the defiles which +lead into his territories from Avar. But the village of Khounzakh, +or Avar, at the eastern extremity of the Avar country, has ever +remained the heritage of the khans, and their command there is law. +Besides, though he has the right to order his noukers to cut to +pieces with their kinjals [17] any inhabitant of Khounzakh, nay, +any passer-by, the Khan cannot lay any tax or impost upon the people, +and must content himself with the revenues arising from his flocks, +and the fields cultivated by his karavashes (slaves,) or yezeers +(prisoners.) + +[Footnote 17: Dagger or poniard. These weapons are of various forms, +and generally much more formidable than would be suggested to an +European by the name dagger. The kinjal is used with wonderful force +and dexterity by the mountaineers, whose national weapon it may be +said to be; it is sometimes employed even as a missile. It is worn +suspended in a slanting direction in the girdle, not on the side, +but in front of the body.] + +Without, however, taking any direct imposts, the khans do not +abstain from exacting dues, sanctified rather by force than custom. +For the Khan to take from their home a young man or a girl--to +command a waggon with oxen or buffaloes to transport his goods--to +force labourers to work in his fields, or to go as messengers, &c., +is an affair of every day. The inhabitants of Khounzakh are not more +wealthy than the rest of their countrymen; their houses are clean, +and, for the most part, have two stories, the men are well made, the +women handsome, chiefly because the greater number of them are +Georgian prisoners. In Avar, they study the Arabic language, and the +style of their educated men is in consequence very flowery. The Haram +of the Khan is always crowded with guests and petitioners, who, +after the Asiatic manner, dare not present themselves without a +present--be it but a dozen of eggs. The Khan's noukers, on the +number and bravery of whom he depends for his power, fill from +morning to night his courts and chambers, always with loaded pistols +in their belt, and daggers at their waist. The favourite Ouzdens and +guests, Tchetchenetzes or Tartars, generally present themselves every +morning to salute the Khan, whence they depart in a crowd to the +Khansha, sometimes passing the whole day in banqueting in separate +chambers, regaling even during the Khan's absence. One day there +came into the company an Ouzden of Avar, who related the news that +an immense tiger had been seen not far off, and that two of their +best shots had fallen victims to its fierceness. "This has so +frightened our hunters," he said, "that nobody likes to attempt the +adventure a third time." + +"I will try my luck," cried Ammalat, burning with impatience to show +his prowess before the mountaineers. "Only put me on the trail of the +beast!" A broad-shouldered Avaretz measured with his eye our bold +Bek from head to foot, and said with a smile: "A tiger is not like a +boar of Daghestan, Ammalat! His trail sometimes leads to death!" + +"Do you think," answered he haughtily, "that on that slippery path +my head would turn, or my hand tremble? I invite you not to help me: +I invite you but to witness my combat with the tiger. I hope you will +then allow, that if the heart of an Avaretz is firm as the granite +of his mountains, the heart of a Daghestanetz is tenpered like his +famous _boulat_. [18] Do you consent?" + +[Footnote 18: A species of highly tempered steel, manufactured, and +much prized, by the Tartars.] + +The Avaretz was caught. To have refused would have been shameful: +so, clearing up his face, he stretched out his hand to Ammalat. +"I will willingly go with you," he replied. "Let us not delay--let +us swear in the mosque, and go to the fight together! Allah will +judge whether we are to bring back his skin for a housing, or +whether he is to devour us." + +It is not in accordance with Asiatic manners, much less with Asiatic +customs, to bid farewell to the women when departing for a long or +even an unlimited period. This privilege belongs only to relations, +and it is but rarely that it is granted to a guest. Ammalat, +therefore, glanced with a sigh at the window of Seltanetta, and went +with lingering steps to the mosque. There, already awaited him the +elders of the village, and a crowd of curious idlers. By an ancient +custom of Avar, the hunters were obliged to swear upon the Koran, +that they would not desert one another, either in the combat with +the beast or in the chase; that they would not quit each other when +wounded; if fate willed that the animal should attack them, that +they would defend each other to the last, and die side by side, +careless of life; and that in any case they would not return without +the animal's skin; that he who betrayed this oath, should be hurled +from the rocks, as a coward and traitor. The moollah armed them, the +companions embraced, and they set out on their journey amid the +acclamations of the whole crowd. "Both, or neither!" they cried +after them. "We will slay him, or die!" answered the hunters. + +A day had passed. A second had sunk below the snowy summits. The old +men had wearied their eyes in gazing from their roofs along the road. +The boys had gone far on the hills that crested the village, to meet +the hunters--but no tidings of them. Throughout all Khounzakh, at +every fireside, either from interest or idleness, they were talking +of this; but above all, Seltanetta was sad. At every voice in the +courtyard, at every sound on the staircase, all her blood flew to +her face, and her heart beat with anxiety. She would start up, and +run to the window or the door; and then, disappointed for the +twentieth time, with downcast eyes would return slowly to her +needlework, which, for the first time, appeared tiresome and endless. +At last, succeeding doubt, fear laid its icy hand upon the maiden's +heart. She demanded of her father, her brothers, the guests, whether +the wounds given by a tiger were dangerous?--was this animal far +from the villages? And ever and anon, having counted the moments, +she would wring her hands, and cry, "They have perished!" and +silently bowed her head on her agitated breast, while large tears +flowed down her fair face. + +On the third day, it was clear that the fears of all were not idle. +The Ouzden, Ammalat's companion to the chase, crawled with difficulty, +alone, into Khounzakh. His coat was torn by the claws of some wild +beast; he himself was as pale as death from exhaustion, hunger, and +fatigue. Young and old surrounded him with eager curiosity; and +having refreshed himself with a cup of milk and a piece of _tchourek_, +[19] he related as follows:--"On the same day that we left this place, +we found the track of the tiger. We discovered him asleep among the +thick hazels--may Allah keep me from them!" + +[Footnote 19: "Tchourek," a kind of bread.] + +Drawing lots, it fell to my chance to fire: I crept gently up, and +aiming well, I fired--but for my sorrow, the beast was sleeping with +his face covered by his paw; and the ball, piercing the paw, hit him +in the neck. Aroused by the report and by the pain, the tiger gave a +roar, and with a couple of bounds, dashed at me before I had time to +draw my dagger: with one leap, he hurled me on the ground, trode on +me with his hind feet, and I only know that at this moment there +resounded a cry, and the shot of Ammalat, and afterwards a deafening +and tremendous roar. Crushed by the weight, I lost sense and memory, +and how long I lay in this fainting fit, I know not. + +"When I opened my eyes all was still around me, a small rain was +falling from a thick mist ... was it evening or morning? My gun, +covered with rust, lay beside me, Ammalat's not far off, broken in +two; here and there the stones were stained with blood ... but whose? +The tiger's or Ammalat's? How can I tell? Broken twigs lay around ... +the brute must have broken them in his mad boundings. I called on my +comrade as loudly as I could. No answer. I sat down, and shouted +again ... but in vain. Neither animal nor bird passed by. Many times +did I endeavour to find traces of Ammalat, either to discover him +alive, or to die upon his corpse--that I might avenge on the beast +the death of the brave man; but I had no strength. I wept bitterly: +why have I perished both in life and honour! I determined to await +the hour of death in the wilderness; but hunger conquered me. Alas! +thought I, let me carry to Khounzakh the news that Ammalat has +perished; let me at least die among my own people! Behold me, then; +I have crept hither like a serpent. Brethren, my head is before you: +judge me as Allah inclines your hearts. Sentence me to life; I will +live, remembering your justice: condemn me to death; your will be +done! I will die innocent, Allah is my witness: I did what I could!" + +A murmur arose among the people, as they listened to the new comer. +Some excused, others condemned, though all regretted him. "Every one +must take care of himself," said some of the accusers: "who can say +that he did not fly? He has no wound, and, therefore, no proof ... +but that he has abandoned his comrade is most certain." "Not only +abandoned, but perhaps betrayed him," said others--"they talked not +as friends together!" The Khan's noukers went further: they +suspected that the Ouzden had killed Ammalat out of jealousy: +"he looked too lovingly on the Khan's daughter, but the Khan's +daughter found one far his superior in Ammalat." + +Sultan Akhmet Khan, learning what the people were assembling about in +the street, rode up to the crowd. "Coward!" he cried with mingled +anger and contempt to the Ouzden: "you are a disgrace to the name of +Avaretz. Now every Tartar may say, that we let wild beasts devour our +guests, and that we know not how to defend them! At least we know how +to avenge him: you have sworn upon the Koran, after the ancient +usage of Avar, never to abandon your comrade in distress, and if he +fall, not to return home without the skin of the beast ... thou hast +broken thine oath ... but we will not break our law: perish! Three +days shall be allowed thee to prepare thy soul; but then--if Ammalat +be not found, thou shalt be cast from the rock. You shall answer for +his head with your own!" he added, turning to his noukers, pulling +his cap over his eyes and directing his horse towards his home. +Thirty mountaineers rushed in different directions from Khounzakh, +to search for at least the remains of the Bek of Bouinaki. Among the +mountaineers it is considered a sacred duty to bury with honour +their kinsmen and comrades, and they will sometimes, like the heroes +of Homer, rush into the thickest of the battle to drag from the +hands of the Russians the body of a companion, and will fall in +dozens round the corpse rather than abandon it. + +The unfortunate Ouzden was conducted to the stable of the Khan; a +place frequently used as a prison. The people, discussing what had +happened, separated sadly, but without complaining, for the sentence +of the Khan was in accordance with their customs. + +The melancholy news soon reached Seltanetta, and though they tried to +soften it, it struck terribly a maiden who loved so deeply. +Nevertheless, contrary to their expectation, she appeared tranquil; +she neither wept nor complained, but she smiled no more, and uttered +not a word. Her mother spoke to her; she heard her not. A spark from +her father's pipe burned her dress; she saw it not. The cold wind +blew upon her bosom; she felt it not. All her feelings seemed to +retire into her heart to torture her; but that heart was hidden from +the view, and nothing was reflected in her proud features. The +Khan's daughter was struggling with the girl: it was easy to see +which would yield first. + +But this secret struggle seemed to choke Seltanetta: she longed to +fly from the sight of man, and give the reins to her sorrow. +"O heaven!" she thought; "having lost him, may I not weep for him? +All gaze on me, to mock me and watch my every tear, to make sport +for their malignant tongues. The sorrows of others amuse them, Sekina," +she added, to her maid; "let us go and walk on the bank of the Ouzen." + +At the distance of three _agatcha_ [20] from Khounzakh, towards the +west, are the ruins of an ancient Christian monastery, a lonely +monument of the forgotten faith of the aborigines. + +[Footnote 20: "Agatcha," seven versts, a measure for riding--for the +pedestrian, the agatcha is four versts.] + +The hand of time, as if in veneration, has not touched the church +itself, and even the fanaticism of the people has spared the +sanctuary of their ancestors. It stood entire amid the ruined cells +and falling wall. The dome, with its high pointed roof of stone, was +already darkened by the breath of ages: ivy covered with its tendrils +the narrow windows, and trees were growing in the crevices of the +stones. Within, soft moss spread its verdant carpet, and in the +sultriness a moist freshness breathed there, nourished by a fountain, +which, having pierced the wall, fell tinkling behind the stone altar, +and, dividing into silver ever-murmuring threads of pure water, +filtered among the pavement stones, and crept meandering away. A +solitary ray slanting through the window, flitted over the trembling +verdure, and smiled on the gloomy wall, like a child on its +grandame's knee. Thither Seltanetta directed her steps: there she +rested from the looks which so tormented her: all around was so still, +so soft, so happy; and all augmented but the more her sadness: the +light trembling on the wall, the twittering of the swallows, the +murmur of the fountain, melted into tears the load that weighed upon +her breast, and her sorrow dissolved into lamentation: Sekina went +to pluck the pears which grew in abundance round the church; and +Seltanetta could freely yield to nature. + +But sudden, raising her head, she uttered an exclamation of surprise! +before her stood a well-made Avaretz, stained with blood and mire. +"Does not your heart, do not your eyes, O Seltanetta, recognize your +favourite?" No, but with a second glance she knew Ammalat; and +forgetting all but her joy, she threw herself on his neck, embraced +it with her arms, and long, long, gazed fixedly on the much-loved +face; and the fire of confidence, the fire of ecstasy, glimmered +through the still falling tears. Could then the impassioned Ammalat +contain his rapture? He clung like a bee to the rosy lips of +Seltanetta; he had heard enough for his happiness; he was now at the +summit of bliss; the lovers had not yet said a word of their love, +but they already understood each other. "And dost thou then, angel," +added Ammalat, when Seltanetta, ashamed of the kiss, withdrew from +his embrace: "dost thou love me?" + +"Allah protect me!" replied the innocent girl, lowering her eyelashes, +but not her eyes: "Love! that is a terrible word. Last year, going +into the street, I saw them pelting a girl with stones: terrified I +rushed hone, but nowhere could I hide myself: the bloody image of +the sinner was everywhere before me, and her groan yet rings +unceasingly in my ears. When I asked why they had so inhumanly put +to death that unhappy creature, they answered, that she loved a +certain youth!" + +"No, dearest, it was not because she loved one, but that she loved +not one alone--because she betrayed some one, it may be, that they +killed her." + +"What means '_betrayed_,' Ammalat? I understand it not." + +"Oh, God grant that you may never learn what it is to betray; that +you may never forget me for another!" + +"Ah, Ammalat, within these four days I have learned how bitter to me +was separation! For a long time I have not seen my brothers Noutsal +and Sourkha, and I meet them with pleasure; but without them I do not +grieve: without you I wish not to live!" + +"For thee I am ready to die, my morning-star: to thee I give my +soul--not only life, my beloved!" + +The sound of footsteps interrupted the lovers' talk: it was +Seltanetta's attendant. All three went to congratulate the Khan, who +was consoled, and unaffectedly delighted. + +Ammalat related in a few words how the affair had occurred. +"Hardly had I remarked that my comrade had fallen when I fired at +the beast, flying, with a ball which broke his jaw. The monster with +a terrific roar began to whirl round, to leap, to roll, sometimes +darting towards me, and then again, tormented by the agony, bounding +aside. At this moment, striking him with the butt of my gun on the +skull, I broke it. I pursued him a long time as soon as he betook +himself to flight, following him by his bloody track: the day began +to fail, and when I plunged my dagger into the throat of the fallen +tiger, dark night had fallen upon the earth. Would I or not, I was +compelled to pass the night with the rocks for a bed-chamber, and the +wolves and jackals for companions. The morning was dark and rainy; +the clouds around my head poured their waters on me like a river. At +ten paces before my face nothing could be seen. Without a view of the +sun, ignorant of the country, in vain I wandered round and round: +weariness and hunger overwhelmed me. A partridge which I shot with my +pistol restored my strength for a while; but I could not find my way +out of my rocky grave. In the evening the only sounds I could hear +were the murmur of water falling from a cliff, or the whistling of +the eagles' wings as they flew through the clouds; but at night the +audacious jackals raised, three paces off, their lamentable song. +This morning the sun rose brightly, and I myself arose more cheerful, +and directed my steps towards the east. I shortly afterwards heard a +cry and a shot: it was your messengers. Overcome by heat, I went to +drink the pure water of the fountain by the old mosque, and there I +met Seltanetta. Thanks be to you, and glory to God!" + +"Glory to God, and honour to you!" exclaimed the Sultan, embracing +him. "But your courage has nearly cost us your life, and even that +of your comrade. If you had delayed a day, he would have been obliged +to dance the Sezghinka in the air. You have returned just in time. +Djemboula't, a famous cavalier of Little Kabarda, has sent to invite +you to a foray against the Russians. I would willingly buy +beforehand your glory; as much as you won in your last battle. The +time is short; tomorrow's sun must see you ready." + +This news was by no means unwelcome to Ammalat: he decided instantly; +answering, that he would go with pleasure. He felt sure that a +distinguished reputation as a cavalier would ensure him future +success. + +But Seltanetta turned pale--bowing her head like a flower, when she +heard of this new and more cruel separation. Her look, as it dwelt +upon Ammalat, showed painful apprehension--the pain of prophetic +sorrow. + +"Allah!" she mournfully exclaimed: "more forays, more slaughter. +When will blood cease to be shed in the mountains?" + +"When the mountain torrents run milk, and the sugar-canes wave on the +snowy peaks!" said the Khan. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +Wildly beautiful is the resounding Terek in the mountains of Darial. +There, like a genie, borrowing his strength from heaven, he wrestles +with Nature. There bright and shining as steel, cutting through the +overshadowing cliff, he gleams among the rocks. There, blackening +with rage, he bellows and bounds like a wild beast, among the +imprisoning cliffs: he bursts, overthrows, and rolls afar their +broken fragments. On a stormy night, when the belated traveller, +enveloped in his furry bourka, gazing fearfully around him, travels +along the bank which hangs over the torrent of Terek, all is terror +such as only a vivid imagination can conceive. With slow steps he +winds along, the rain-torrents stream around his feet, and tumble +upon his head from the rocks which frown above and threaten his +destruction. Suddenly the lightning flashes before his eyes--with +horror he beholds but a black cloud above him, below a yawning gulf, +beside him crags, and before him the roaring Terek. At one moment he +sees its wild and troubled waves raging like infernal spirits chased +by the archangel's brand. After them, with a shout as of laughter, +roll the huge stones. In another moment, the blinding flash is gone, +and he is plunged once more in the dark ocean of night: then bursts +the thunder-crash, jarring the foundations of the rocks, as though a +thousand mountains were dashed against each other, so deafeningly do +the echoes repeat the bellow of the heavens. Then a long-protracted +growl, as of massive oaks plucked up by their roots, or the crash of +bursting rocks, or the yell of the Titans as they were hurled +headlong into the abyss; it mingles with the war of the blast, and +the blast swells to a hurricane, and the rain pours down in torrents. +And again the lightning blinds him, and again the thunder, answering +from afar to the splinter-crash, deafens him. The terrified steed +rears, starts backward--the rider utters a short prayer. + +But after this how softly smiles the morning--morn, in whose light +Terek glides, and ripples, and murmurs! The clouds, like a torn veil +whirling on the breeze, appear and vanish fitfully among the icy +peaks. The sunbeams discover jagged profiles of the summits on the +opposing mountain wall. The rocks glitter freshly from the rain. The +mountain-torrents leap through the morning mist; and the mists +themselves creep winding through the cliffs, even as the smoke from a +cottage chimney, then twine themselves like a turban round some +ancient tower, while Terek ripples on among the stones, curling as a +tired hound who seeks a resting-place. + +In the Caucasus, it must be confessed, there are no waters in which +the mountains can worthily reflect themselves--those giants of +creation. There are no gentle rivers, no vast lakes; but Terek +receives in his stream the tribute of a thousand streamlets. Beneath +the further Caucasus, where the mountains melt into the plain, he +seems to flow calmly and gently, he wanders on in huge curves, +depositing the pebbles he has brought down from the hills. Further on, +bending to the north-west, the stream is still strong, but less noisy, +as though wearied with its fierce strugglings. At length, embraced +by the narrow gorge of Cape M. aloi (Little Kabardi,) the river, +like a good Moslem, bending religiously to the east, and peacefully +spreading over the hated shore, gliding sometimes over beds of stone, +sometimes over banks of clay, falls, by Kizlar, into the basin of +the Caspian. There alone does it deign to bear boats upon its waters, +and, like a labourer, turn the huge wheels of floating mills. On its +right bank, among hillocks and thickets, are scattered the villages +(aoule) of the Kabardinetzes, a tribe which we confound under one +name with the Tcherkess, (Circassians,) who dwell beyond the Kouban, +and with the Tchetchenetzes much lower by the sea. These villages on +the bank are peaceful only in name, for in reality they are the +haunts of brigands, who acknowledge the Russian government only as +far as it suits their interest, capturing, as Russian subjects, from +the mountaineers, the plunder they seize in the Russian frontier. +Enjoying free passage on all sides, they inform those of the same +religion and the same way of thinking, of the movement of our troops, +and the condition of our fortresses; conceal them among themselves +when they are assembling for an incursion, buy their plunder at their +return, furnish them with Russian salt and powder, and not rarely +take themselves a part, secret or open, in their forays. It is +exceedingly irritating to see, even in full view of these +mountaineers, nations hostile to us boldly swim over the Terek, two, +three, or five men at a time, and in broad day set to work to rob; +it being useless to pursue them, as their dress has nothing to +distinguish them from the friendly tribes. On the opposite bank, +though apparently quite peaceable, and employing this as their excuse, +they fall, when in force, upon travellers, carry off cattle and men +when off their guard, slaughter them without mercy, or sell them +into slavery at a distance. To say the truth, their natural position, +between two powerful neighbours, of necessity compels them to have +recourse to these stratagems. Knowing that the Russians will not +pass to the other side of the river to protect them from the revenge +of the mountaineers, who melt away like snow at the approach of a +strong force, they easily and habitually, as well as from inevitable +circumstances, ally themselves to people of their own blood, while +they affect to pay deference to the Russians, whom they fear. + +Indeed, there exists among them certain persons really devoted to the +Russians, but the greater number will betray even their own +countrymen for a bribe. In general, the morality of these peaceful +allies of ours is completely corrupted; they have lost the courage +of an independent people, and have acquired all the vices of +half-civilization. Among them an oath is a jest; treachery, their +glory; even hospitality, a trade. Each of them is ready to engage +himself to the Russians in the morning, as a kounak (friend), and at +night to guide a brigand to rob his new friend. + +The left bank of the Terek is covered with flourishing stanitzas [21] +of the Kazaks of the Line, the descendants of the famous Zaporojetzes. +Among them is here and there a Christian village. These Kazaks are +distinguished from the mountaineers only by their unshaven heads: their +tools, dress, harness, manners--all are of the mountains. They like the +almost ceaseless war with the mountaineers; it is not a battle, but a +trial of arms, in which each party desires to gain glory by his +superiority in strength, valour, and address. Two Kazaks would not +fear to encounter four mountain horsemen, and with equal numbers +they are invariably victors. Lastly, they speak the Tartar language; +they are connected with the mountaineers by friendship and alliance, +their women being mutually carried off into captivity; but in the +field they are inflexible enemies. As it is not forbidden to make +incursions on the mountain side of the Terek, the brigands +frequently betake themselves thither by swimming the river, for the +chase of various kinds of game. The mountain brigands, in their turn, +frequently swim over the Terek at night, or cross it on bourdouchs, +(skins blown up,) hide themselves in the reeds, or under a +projection of the bank, thence gliding through the thickets to the +road, to carry off an unsuspecting traveller, or to seize a woman, +as she is raking the hay. It sometimes happens that they will pass a +day or two in the vineyards by the village, awaiting a favourable +opportunity to fall upon it unexpectedly; and hence the Kazak of the +Line never stirs over his threshold without his dagger, nor goes +into the field without his gun at his back: he ploughs and sows +completely armed. + +[Footnote 21: Villages of Kazaks.] + +For some time past, the mountaineers had fallen in considerable +numbers only on Christian villages, for in the stanitzas the +resistance had cost them very dear. For the plundering of houses; +they approached boldly yet cunningly the Russian frontier, and on +such occasions they frequently escaped a battle. The bravest Ouzdens +desire to meet with these affairs that they may acquire fame, which +they value even more than plunder. + +In the autumn of the year 1819, the Kabardinetzes and Tchetchenetzes, +encouraged by the absence of the commander-in-chief, assembled to the +number of 1500 men to make an attack upon one of the villages beyond +the Terek, to seize it, carry off prisoners, and take the droves of +horses. The leader of the Kabardinetzes was the Prince (Kniazek) +Djenboulat. Ammalat Bek, who had arrived with a letter from Sultan +Akhmet Khan, was received with delight. They did not, indeed, assign +him the command of any division; but this arose from the +circumstance that with them there is no order of battle or gradation +of command; an active horse and individual courage secures the most +distinguished place in action. At first they deliberate how best to +begin the attack--how to repel the enemy; but afterwards they pay no +attention to plan or order, and chance decides the affair. Having +sent messengers to summon the neighbouring Ouzdens, Djemboulat fixed +on a place of assembling; and immediately, on a signal agreed on, +from every height spread the cry, "Gharai, gharai!" (alarm,) and in +one hour the Tchetchenetzes and Kabardinetzes were assembling from +all sides. To avoid treason, no one but the leader knew where the +night-camp was to be, from which they where to cross the river. They +were divided into small bands, and were to go by almost invisible +paths to the peaceful village, where they were to conceal themselves +till night. By twilight, all the divisions were already mustered. As +they arrived, they were received by their countrymen with frank +embraces; but Djemboulat, not trusting to this, guarded the village +with sentinels, and proclaimed to the inhabitants, that whoever +attempted to desert to the Russians should be cut in pieces. The +greater part of the Ouzdens took up their quarters in the saklas of +their kounaks or relations; but Djemboulat and Ammalat, with the +best of the cavaliers, slept in the open air round a fire, when they +had refreshed their jaded horses. Djemboulat, wrapped in his bourka, +was considering, with folded arms, the plan of the expedition; but +the thoughts of Ammalat were far from the battle-field: they were +flying, eagle-winged, to the mountains of Avar, and bitterly, +bitterly did he feel his separation. The sound of an instrument, the +mountain balalaika, (kanous,) accompanying a slow air, recalled him +from his reverie, and a Kabardinetz sung an ancient song. + + + "On Kazbek the clouds are meeting, + like the mountain eagle-flock; + up to them, along the rock, + Dash the wild Ouzdens retreating; + Onward faster, faster fleeting, + Routed by the Russian brood. + Foameth all their track with blood." + + "Fast behind the regiments yelling, + Lance and bayonet raging hot, + And the seed of death their shot. + On the mail the sabre dwelling + Gallop, steed! for far thy dwelling-- + See! they fall--but distant still + Is the forest of the hill!" + + "Russian shot our hearts is rending, + Falls the Mullah on his knee, + To the Lord of Light bows he, + To the Prophet he is bending: + Like a shaft his prayer ascending, + Upward flies to Allah's throne-- + Il-Allah! O save thine own!" + + "Ah, despair!--What crash like thunder! + Lo! a sign from heaven above! + Lo! the forest seems to move + Crashes, murmurs, bursts asunder! + Lower, nearer, wonder! wonder! + Safe once more the Moslem bold + In their forest mountain-hold!" + + +"So it was in old times," said Djemboulat, with a smile, "when our +old men trusted more to prayer, and God oftener listened to them; but +now, my friends, there is a better hope--your valour! _Our_ omens are +in the scabbards of our shooshkas, (sabres,) and we must show that we +are not ashamed of them. Harkye, Ammalat," he continued, twisting his +mustache, "I will not conceal from you that the affair may be warm. I +have just heard that Colonel K---- has collected his division; but +where he is, or how many troops he has, nobody knows." + +"The more Russians there are the better," replied Ammalat, quietly; +"the fewer mistakes will be made." + +"And the heavier will be the plunder." + +"I care not for that. I seek revenge and glory." + +"Glory is a good bird, when she lays a golden egg; but he that +returns with his toroks (straps behind the saddle) empty, is ashamed +to appear before his wife. Winter is near, and we must provide our +households at the expense of the Russians, that we may feast our +friends and allies. Choose your station, Ammalat Bek. Do you prefer +to advance in front to carry off the flocks, or will you remain with +me in the rear? I and the Abreks will march at a foot's pace to +restrain the pursuers." + +"That is what I also intend. I will be where the greatest peril is. +But what are the Abreks, Djemboulat?" + +"It is not easy to explain. You sometimes see several of our boldest +cavaliers take an oath, binding them for two or three years, or as +long as they like, never to mingle in games or gayeties, never to +spare their lives in battle, to give no quarter, never to pardon the +least offence in a brother or a friend, to seize the goods of others +without fear or scruple--in a word, to be the foes of all mankind, +strangers in their family, men whom any person may slay if he can; +in the village they are dangerous neighbours, and in meeting them +you must keep your hand on the trigger; but in war one can trust them." +[22] + +"For what motive, or reason, can the Ouzdens make such an engagement?" + +"Some simply to show their courage, others from poverty, a third +class from some misfortune. See, for instance, yonder tall Kabardinetz; +he has sworn to be an Abrek for five years, since his mistress +died of the small-pox. Since that year it would be as well to make +acquaintance with a tiger as with him. He has already been wounded +three times for blood-vengeance; but he cares not for that." + +"Strange custom! How will he return from the life of an Abrek to a +peaceable existence?" + +"What is there strange in this? The past glides from him as water +from the wild-duck. His neighbours will be delighted when he has +finished his term of brigandage. And he, after putting off Abretchestva +(Abrekism) as a serpent sheds his skin, will become gentle +as a lamb. Among us, none but the avenger of blood remembers +yesterday. But the night is darkening. The mists are spreading over +Terek. It is time for the work." + +Djemboulat whistled, and his whistle was repeated to all the +outposts of the camp. In a moment the whole band was assembled. +Several Ouzdens joined from the neighbouring friendly villages. +After a short discussion as to the passage of the river, the band +moved in silence to the bank. Ammalat Bek could not but admire the +stillness, not only of the riders, but of their horses; not one of +them neighed or snorted, and they seemed to place their feet on the +ground with caution. They marched like a voiceless cloud, and soon +they reached the bank of Terek, which, making a winding at this spot, +formed a promontory, and from it to the opposite shore, extended a +pebbly shoal. The water over this bank was shallow and fordable; +nevertheless, a part of the detachment left the shore higher up, in +order to swim past the Kazaks, and, diverting their attention from +the principal passage, to cover the fording party. Those who had +confidence in their horses, leaped unhesitatingly from the bank, +while others tied to each fore-foot of their steeds a pair of small +skins, inflated with air like bladders; the current bore them on, +and each landed wherever he found a convenient spot. The +impenetrable veil of mist concealed all these movements. It must be +remarked, that along the whole line of the river is a chain of mayaks +(watch-towers) and a cordon of sentinels: on all the hills and +elevated spots are placed look-outs. On passing before them in the +daytime, may be seen on each hillock a pole, surmounted with a small +barrel. This is filled with pitch and straw, and is ready to be +lighted on the first alarm. To this pole is generally tied a Kazak's +horse, and by his side a sentinel. In the night, these sentinels are +doubled; but in spite of the precautions, the Tcherkess, concealed +by the fog, and clothed in their bourka, sometimes pass through the +line in small bodies, as water glides through a sieve. The same +thing happened on this occasion: perfectly acquainted with the +country, the Belads, (guides) peaceable Tcherkess, led each party, +and in profound silence avoided the hillocks. + +[Footnote 22: This is exactly the Berserkir of the ancient Northmen. +Examples of this frantic courage are not rare among the Asiatics.] + +In two places only had the brigands, to break through the line of +watch-fires which might have betrayed them, resolved to kill the +sentinels. Against one picket, Djemboulat proceeded himself, and he +ordered another Bek to creep up the bank, pass round to the rear of +the picket, count a hundred, and then to strike fire with a flint +and steel several times. It was said and done. Just lifting his head +above the edge of the bank, Djemboulat saw a Kazak slumbering with +the match in his hand, and holding his horse by the bridle. As soon +as the clicking struck his ear, the sentinel started, and turned an +anxious look on the river. Fearing that the sentinel did not remark +him, Djemboulat threw up his cap, and again crouched down behind the +bank. "Accursed duck!" said the Donetz; "for this night is a carnival. +They squatter away like the witches of Kieff." At this moment, the +sparks appeared on the opposite side, and drew his attention: "'Tis +the wolves," thought he: "sometimes their eyes glitter brightly!" But +the sparks reappearing, he was stupefied, remembering stories that +the Tchetchenetzes sometimes use this kind of signal to regulate the +movements of their march. This moment of suspense and irresolution was +the moment of his destruction; a dagger [23], directed by a strong arm, +whistled through the air, and the Kazak, transfixed, fell without a +groan to the earth. His comrade was sabred in his sleep, and the pole +with the tub was torn down, and was thrown into the river. All then +rapidly assembled at the given signal, and dashed in a moment on the +village which they had determined to attack. The blow was successfully, +that is, quite unexpectedly, struck. Such of the peasants as had time +to arm, were killed after a desperate resistance: the others hid +themselves or fled. Besides the plunder, a number of men and women +was the reward of their boldness. The Kabardinetzes broke into the +houses, carrying off all that was most valuable, indeed every thing +that came to hand: but they did not set fire to the houses, nor did +they tread down the corn, nor break the vines: "Why touch the gift +of God, and the labour of man?" said they; and this rule of a +mountain robber, who shrinks at no crime, is a virtue which the most +civilized nations might envy. In an hour, all was over for the +inhabitants, but not for the brigands. The alarm spread along the +line, and the mayaks soon began to glimmer through the fog like the +stars of morning, while the call to arms resounded in every direction. +In this interval, a party of the more experienced among the brigands +had gone round the troop of horses which was grazing far in the +steppe. The herdsman was seized, and with cries, and firing their +guns, they charged at the horses from the land side. The animals +started, threw mane and tail into the air, and dashed headlong on +the track of a Tcherkess mounted on a superb steed, who had remained +on the bank of the river to guide the frightened herd. Like a +skilful pilot, well acquainted, even in a fog, with all the dangers +of the desert sea, the Tcherkess flew on before the horses, wound +his way among the posts, and at last, having chosen a spot where the +bank was most precipitous, leaped headlong into the Terek. The whole +herd followed him: nothing could be seen but the foam that flew into +the air. Daybreak appeared; the fog began to separate, and +discovered a picture at once magnificent and terrible. The principal +band of forayers dragged the prisoners after it--some were at the +stirrup, others behind the saddle, with their arms tied at their +backs. Tears, and groans, and cries of despair were stifled by the +threats and frantic cries of joy of the victors. Loaded with plunder, +impeded by the flocks and horned cattle, they advanced slowly +towards the Terek. The princes and best cavaliers, in mail-coats and +casques glittering like water, galloped around the dense mass, as +lightning flashes round a livid cloud. In the distance, were +galloping up from every point the Kazaks of the Line; they ambushed +behind the shrubs and straggling oak-trees, and soon began an irregular +fire with the brigands who were sent against them. + +[Footnote 23: The Tartars and Circassians possess extraordinary +dexterity in the use of their national weapon--the kinjal, or poniard. +These are sometimes of great size and weight, and when thrown by a +skilful hand, will fly a considerable distance, and with the most +singular accuracy of aim.] + +In the meantime, the foremost had driven across the river a portion +of the flocks, when a cloud of dust, and the tramp of cavalry, +announced the approaching storm. About six hundred mountaineers, +commanded by Djemboulat and Ammalat, turned their horses to repulse +the attack, and give time to the rest to escape by the river. +Without order, but with wild cries and shouts, they dashed forward +to meet the Kazaks; but not a single gun was taken from its belt, +not a single shashka glimmered in the air: a Tcherkess waits till +the last moment before he seizes his weapons. And thus, having +galloped to the distance of twenty paces, they levelled their +guns, fired at full speed, threw their fire-arms over their backs, +[24] and drew their shashkas; but the Kazaks of the Line having +replied with a volley, began to fly, and the mountaineers, heated by +the chase, fell into a stratagem which they often employ themselves. +The Kazaks had led them up to the chasseurs of the brave forty-third +regiment, who were concealed at the edge of the forest. Suddenly, as +if the little squares had started out of the earth, the bayonets +were leveled, and the fire poured on them, taking them in flank. It +was in vain that the mountaineers, dismounting from their horses, +essayed to occupy the underwood, and attack the Russians from the +rear; the artillery came up, and decided the affair. The experienced +Colonel Kortsareff, the dread of the Tchetchenetz, the man whose +bravery they feared, and whose honesty and disinterestedness they +respected, directed the movements of the troops, and success could +not be doubtful. The cannon dispersed the crowds of brigands, and +their grape flew after the flying. The defeat was terrible; two +guns, dashing at a gallop to the promontory, not far from which the +Tcherkess were throwing themselves into the river, enfiladed the stream; +with a rushing sound, the shot flew over the foaming waves, and at +each fire some of the horses might be seen to turn over with their +feet in the air, drowning their riders. It was sad to see how the +wounded clutched at the tails and bridles of the horses of their +companions, sinking them without saving themselves--how the +exhausted struggled against the scarped bank, endeavouring to +clamber up, fell back, and were borne away and engulfed by the +furious current. The corpses of the slain were whirled away, mingled +with the dying and streaks of blood curled and writhed like serpents +on the foam. The smoke floated far along the Terek, far in the +distance, and the snowy peaks of Caucasus, crowned with mist, +bounded the field of battle. Djemboulat and Ammalat Bek fought +desperately--twenty times did they rush to the attack, twenty times +were they repulsed; wearied, but not conquered, with a hundred +brigands they swam the river, dismounted, attached their horses to +each other by the bridle, and began a warm fire from the other side +of the river, to cover their surviving comrades. Intent upon this, +they remarked, too late, that the Kazaks were passing the river above +them; with a shout of joy, the Russians leaped upon the bank, and +surrounded them in a moment. Their fate was inevitable. "Well, +Djemboulat," said the Bek to the Kabardinetz, "our lot is finished. +Do you what you will; but for me, I will not render myself a +prisoner alive. 'Tis better to die by a ball than by a shameful cord!" +"Do you think," answered Djemboulat, "that my arms were made for a +chain! Allah keep me from such a blot: the Russians may take my body, +but not my soul. Never, never! Brethren, comrades!" he cried to the +others; "fortune has betrayed us, but the steel will not. Let us +sell our lives dearly to the Giaour. The victor is not he who keeps +the field, but he who has the glory; and the glory is his who +prefers death to slavery!" "Let us die, let us die; but let us die +gloriously," cried all, piercing with their daggers the sides of +their horses, that the enemy might not take them, and then piling +up the dead bodies of their steeds, they lay down behind the +heap, preparing to meet the attack with lead and steel. Well aware of +the obstinate resistance they were about to encounter, the Kazaks +stopped, and made ready for the charge. The shot from the opposite +bank sometimes fell in the midst of the brave mountaineers, +sometimes a grenade exploded, covering them with earth and fragments; +but they showed no confusion, they started not, nor blenched; and, +after the custom of their country, began to sing, with a melancholy, +yet threatening voice, the death-song, replying alternately stanza +for stanza. + +[Footnote 24: The oriental nations carry their guns at their backs, +supported by a strap passing across the breast.] + + + +DEATH-SONG. + + CHORUS. + + "Fame to us, death to you, + Alla-ha, Alla-hu!!" + + SEMICHORUS. + + "Weep, O ye maidens, on mountain and valley, + Lift the dirge for the sons of the brave; + We have fired our last bullet, have made our last rally, + And Caucasus gives us a grave. + Here the soft pipe no more shall invite us to slumber + --The thunder _our_ lullaby sings; + Our eyes not the maiden's dark tresses shall cumber, + _Them_ the raven shall shade with his wings! + Forget, O my children, your father's stern duty-- + No more shall he bring ye the Muscovite booty!" + + SECOND SEMICHORUS. + + "Weep not, O ye maidens; your sisters in splendour, + The Houris, they bend from the sky, + They fix on the brave their sun-glance deep and tender, + And to Paradise bear him on high! + In your feast-cup, my brethren, forget not our story; + The death of the Free is the noblest of glory!" + + FIRST SEMICHORUS. + + "Roar, winter torrent, and sullenly dash! + But where is the brave one--the swift lightning-flash? + Soft star of my soul, my mother, + Sleep, the fire let ashes smother; + Gaze no more, shine eyes are weary, + Sit not by the threshold stone; + Gaze not through the night-fog dreary, + Eat thine evening meal alone, + Seek him not, O mother, weeping, + By the cliff and by the ford: + On a bed of dust he's sleeping-- + Broken is both heart and sword!" + + SECOND SEMICHORUS. + + "Mother, weep not! with thy love burning: + This heart of mine beats full and free, + And to lion-blood is turning + That soft milks I drew from thee; + And our liberty from danger + Thy brave son has guarded well; + Battling with the Christian stranger, + Call'd by Azrael, he fell; + From my blood fresh odours breathing + Fadeless flowers shall drink the dew; + To my children fame bequeathing, + Brethren, and revenge to you!" + + CHORUS. + + "Pray, my brethren, ere we part; + Clutch the steel with hate and wrath! + Break it in the Russian's heart-- + O'er corpses lies the brave man's path! + Fame to us, death to you, + Alla-ha, Alla-hu!" + +Struck by a certain involuntary awe, the Chasseurs and Kazaks +listened in silence to the stern sounds of this song; but at last a +loud _hurrah_ [25] resounded from both sides. The Teherkess, with a +shout, fired their guns for the last time, and breaking them against +the stones, they threw themselves, dagger in hand, upon the Russians. +The Abreks, in order that their line might not be broken, bound +themselves to each other with their girdles, and hurled themselves +into the melee. Quarter was neither asked nor given: all fell before +the bayonets of the Russians. "Forward! follow me, Ammalat Bek," +cried Djemboulat, with fury, rushing into the combat which was to be +his last--"Forward! for us death is liberty." But Anmalat heard not +his call; a blow from a musket on the back of the head stretched him +on the earth, already sown with corpses, and covered with blood. + +[Footnote 25: "Hurrah" means _strike_ in the Tartar language.] + + + + +CHAPTER. V. + + +LETTER FROM COLONEL VERHOFFSKY TO HIS BETROTHED. + + _From Derbend to Smolensk. October_, 1819. + +Two months--how easy to say it!--two centuries have past, dearest +Maria, while your letter was _creeping_ to me. Twice has the moon +made her journey round the earth. You cannot imagine, dearest, how +dreary is this idle objectless life to me; with nothing to employ +me--not even correspondence. I go out, I meet the _Kazak_ [26] +with a secret trembling of heart: with what joy, with what exstacy +do I kiss the lines traced by a pure hand, inspired by a pure +heart--yours, my Maria! With a greedy rapture my eyes devour the +letter: then I am happy--I am wild with joy. But hardly have I +reclosed it when unquiet thoughts again begin to haunt me. "All this +is well," I think; "but all this is past, and I desire to know the +present. Is she well? Does she love me yet? Oh! will the happy time +come soon--soon--when neither time nor distance can divide us? When +the expression of our love will be no longer chilled by the cold +medium of the post!" Pardon, pardon, dearest, these black thoughts +of absence. When heart is--with heart, the lover trusts in all; in +separation he doubts all. You command--for such to me is your +wish--that I should describe my life to you, day by day, hour by hour. +Oh, what sad and tiresome annals mine would be, were I to obey you! +You know well, traitress, that I live not without you. My +existence--'tis but the trace of a shadow on the desert sand. My duty +alone, which wearies at least, if it cannot amuse me, helps me to +get rid of the time. Thrown in a climate ruinous to health, in +society which stifles the soul, I cannot find among my companions a +single person who can sympathise with me. Nor do I find among the +Asiatics any who can understand my thoughts. All that surrounds me +is either so savage or so limited, that it excites sadness and +discontent. Sooner will you obtain fire by striking ice on stone, +than interest from such an existence. But your wish to me is sacred; +and I will present you, in brief, with my last week. It was more +varied than usual. + +[Footnote 26: The Kazaks are employed in the Russian army +frequently as couriers.] + +I have told you in one of my letters, if I remember, that we are +returning from the campaign of Akoush, with the commander-in-chief. +We have done our work; Shah Ali Khan has fled into Persia; we have +burned a number of villages, hay, and corn; and we have eaten the +sheep of the rebels, when we were hungry. When the snow had driven +the insurgents from their mountain-fastnesses, they yielded and +presented hostages. We then marched to the Fort of Bournaya, [27] +and from this station our detachment was ordered into winter +quarters. Of this division my regiment forms a part, and our +head-quarters are at Derbend. + +[Footnote 27: Stormy.] + +The other day, the general, who was about to depart on another +campaign on the Line, came to take leave of us, and thus there +was a larger company than usual to meet our adored commander. +Alexei Petrovitch came from his tent, to join us at tea. Who +is not acquainted with his face, from the portraits? But they +cannot be said to know Yermoloff at all, who judge of him only by +a lifeless image. Never was there a face gifted with such nobility +of expression as his! Gazing on those features, chiselled in the +noble outline of the antique, you are involuntarily carried back to +the times of Roman grandeur. The poet was in the right, when he said +of him:-- + + "On the Kouban--fly, Tartar fleet! + The avenger's falchion gleameth; + His breath--the grapeshot's iron sleet, + His voice--the thunder seemeth! + Around his forehead stern and pale + The fates of war are playing.... + He looks--and victory doth quail, + That gesture proud obeying!" + + +You should witness his coolness in the hour of battle--you should +admire him at a conference: at one time overwhelming the Teberkess +with the flowing orientalisms of the Asiatic, at another +embarrassing their artifices with a single remark. In vain do they +conceal their thoughts in the most secret folds of their hearts; his +eye follows them, disentangles and unrolls them like worms, and +guesses twenty years beforehand their deeds and their intentions. +Then, again, to see him talking frankly and like a friend with his +brave soldiers, or passing with dignity round the circle of the +tchinobniks [28] sent from the capital into Georgia. It is curious to +observe how all those whose conscience is not pure, tremble, blush, +turn pale, when he fixes on them his slow and penetrating glance; you +seem to see the roubles of past bribes gliding before the eyes of the +guilty man, and his villanies come rushing on his memory. You see the +pictures of arrest, trial, judgment, sentence, and punishment, his +imagination paints, anticipating the future. No man knows so well +how to distinguish merit by a single glance, a single smile--to +reward gallantry with a word, coming _from_, and going _to_, the +heart. God grant us many years to serve with such a commander! + +[Footnote 28: Literally, a person possessing rank, used here to +signify an _employe_ of Government in a civil capacity--all of whom +possess some definite precedence or class (tchin) in the state. ] + +But if it be thus interesting to observe him on duty, how delightful +to associate with him in society--a society to which every one +distinguished for rank, bravery, or intellect, has free access: +_here_ rank is forgotten, formality is banished; every one talks +and acts as he pleases, simply because those only who think and act +as they _ought_, form the society. Alexei Petrovitch jokes with all +like a comrade, and at the same time teaches like a father. As usual, +during tea, one of his adjutants read aloud; it was the account of +Napoleon's Campaign in Italy--that poem of the Art of War, as the +commander-in-chief called it. The company, of course, expressed +their wonder, their admiration, their different opinions and +criticisms. The remarks of Alexei Petrovitch were lucid, and of +admirable truth. + +Then began our gymnastic sports, leaping, running, leaping over the +fire, and trials of strength of various kinds. The evening and the +view were both magnificent: the camp was pitched on the side of Tarki; +over it hangs the fortress of Bournaya, behind which the sun was +sinking. Sheltered by a cliff was the house of the Shamkhal, then +the town on a steep declivity, surrounded by the camp, and to the +east the immeasurable steppe of the Caspian sea. Tartar Beks, +Circassian Princes, Kazaks from the various rivers of gigantic Russia, +hostages from different mountains, mingled with the officers. +Uniforms, tchoukhas, coats of chain-mail, were picturesquely mingled; +singing and music rang through the camp, and the soldiers, with +their caps jauntily cocked on one side, were walking in crowds at a +distance. The scene was delightful; it charmed by its picturesque +variety and the force and freshness of military life. Captain Bekovitch +was boasting that he could strike off the head of a buffalo with one +blow of a kinjal; [29] and two of those clumsy animals were immediately +brought. + +[Footnote 29: It is absurd to observe the incredulity +of Europeans as to the possibility of cutting off a head with the +kinjal: it is necessary to live only one week in the East to be quite +convinced of the possibility of the feat. In a practiced hand the +kinjal is a substitute for the hatchet, the bayonet, and the sabre.] + +Bets were laid; all were disputing and doubting. The Captain, with a +smile, seized with his left hand a huge dagger, and in an instant an +immense head fell at the feet of the astonished spectators, whose +surprise was instantly succeeded by a desire to do the same: they +hacked and hewed, but all in vain. Many of the strongest men among +the Russians and Asiatics made unsuccessful attempts to perform the +feat, but to do this strength alone was not sufficient. "You are +children--children!" cried the commander-in-chief: and he rose from +table, calling for his sword--a blade which never struck twice, as he +told us. An immense heavy sabre was brought him, and Alexei Petrovitch, +though confident in his strength, yet, like Ulysses in the Odyssey, +anointing the bow which no one else could bend, first felt the edge, +waved the weapon thrice in the air, and at length addressed himself +to the feat. The betters had hardly time to strike hands when the +buffalo's head bounded at their feet on the earth. So swift and sure +was the blow, that the trunk stood for some instants on its legs, +and then gently, softly, sank down. A cry of astonishment arose from +all: Alexei Petrovitch quietly looked whether his sabre was notched--for +the weapon had cost him many thousands [of roubles], and presented +it as a keepsake to Captain Bekovitch. + +We were still whispering among ourselves when there appeared before +the commander-in-chief an officer of the Kazaks of the Line, with a +message from Colonel Kortsareff, who was stationed on the frontier. +When he had received the report, the countenance of Alexei Petrovitch +brightenened--"Kortsareff has gloriously trounced the mountaineers!" +said he. "These rascals have made a plundering expedition beyond the +Terek; they have passed far within the Line, and have plundered a +village--but they have lost not only the cattle they had taken, but +fallen a sacrifice to their own fool-hardiness." Having minutely +questioned Yesoual respecting the details of the affair, he ordered +the prisoners whom they had taken, wounded or recovering, to be +brought before him. Five were led into the presence of the +commander-in-chief. + +A cloud passed over his countenance as he beheld them; his brow +contracted, his eyes sparkled. "Villains!" said he to the Ouzdens; +"you have thrice sworn not to plunder; and thrice have you broken +your oath. What is it that you seek? Lands? Flocks? Means to defend +the one or the other? But no! you are willing to accept presents +from the Russians as allies, and at the same time to guide the +Tcherkess to plunder our villages, and to plunder along with them. +Hang them!" said he sternly; "hang them up by their own thievish arkaus +(girdles)! Let them draw lots: the fourth shall be spared--let him +go and tell his countrymen that I am coming to teach them to keep +faith, and keep the peace, as I will have it." + +The Ouzdens were conducted away. + +There remained one Tartar bek, whom we had not remarked. This was a +young man of twenty-five, of unusual beauty, graceful as the +Belvidere Apollo. He bowed slightly to the commander-in chief as he +approached him, raised his cap, and again resumed his proud +indifferent expression; unshaken resignation to his fate was written +on his features. + +The commander-in-chief fixed his stern eye upon his face, but the +young man neither changed countenance nor quivered an eyelash. + +"Ammalat Bek," said Alexei Petrovitch, after a pause, "do you +remember that you are a Russian subject? that the Russian laws are +above you?" + +"It would have been impossible to forget that," replied the Bek: +"if I had found in those laws a protection for my rights, I should +not now stand before you a prisoner." + +"Ungrateful boy!" cried the commander-in-chief; "your father--you +yourself, have been the enemy of the Russians. Had it been during the +Persian domination of your race, not even the ashes would have +remained; but our Emperor was generous, and instead of punishing you +he gave you lands. And how did you repay his kindness? By secret +plot and open revolt! This is not all: you received and sheltered in +your house a sworn foe to Russia; you permitted him, before your eyes, +traitorously to slaughter a Russian officer. In spite of all this, +had you brought me a submissive head, I would have pardoned you, on +account of your youth and the customs of your nation. But you fled +to the mountains, and with Suleiman Akhmet Khan you committed +violence within the Russian bounds; you were beaten, and again you +make an incursion with Djemboulat. You cannot but know what fate +awaits you." + +"I do," coldly answered Ammalat Bek: "I shall be shot." + +"No! a bullet is too honourable a death for a brigand," cried the +angry general: "a cart with the shafts turned up--a cord round your +neck--that is the fitting reward." + +"It is all one how a man dies," replied Ammalat, "provided he dies +speedily. I ask one favour: do not let me be tormented with a trial: +that is thrice death." + +"Thou deservest a hundred deaths, audacious! but I promise you. Be it +so: to-morrow thou shalt die. Assemble a court-martial," continued +the commander-in-chief, turning to his staff: "the fact is clear, +the proof is before your eyes, and let all be finished at one sitting, +before my departure." + +He waved his hand, and the condemned prisoner was removed. + +The fate of this fine young man touched us all. Every body was +whispering about him; every body pitying him; the more, that +there appeared no means of saving him. Every one knew well the +necessity of punishing this double treason, and the inflexibility +of Alexei Petrovitch in matters of this publicity: and, therefore, +no one dared to intercede for the unfortunate culprit. The +commander-in-chief was unusually thoughtful for the remainder of the +evening, and the party separated early. I determined to speak a word +for him--"Perhaps," I thought, "I may obtain some commutation of the +sentence." I opened one of the curtains of the tent, and advanced +softly into the presence of Alexei Petrovitch. He was sitting alone, +resting both arms on a table; before him lay a despatch for the +Emperor, half finished, and which he was writing without any previous +copy. Alexei Petrovitch knew me as an officer of the suite, and we +had been acquainted since the battle of Kulm. At that time he had +been very kind to me, and therefore my visit was not surprising to +him. "I see--I see, Evstafii Ivanovitch, you have a design upon my +heart! In general you come in as if you were marching up to a battery, +but now you hardly walk on tip-toe. This is not for nothing. I am +sure you are come with a request about Ammalat." + +"You have guessed it," said I to Alexei Petrovitch, not knowing how +to begin. + +"Sit down, then, and let us talk it over," he replied. Then, after a +silence of a couple of minutes, he continued, kindly, "I know that a +report goes about respecting me, that I treat the lives of men as a +plaything--their blood as water. The most cruel tyrants have hidden +their bloodthirstiness under a mask of benevolence. They feared a +reputation for cruelty, though they feared not to commit deeds of +cruelty; but I--I have intentionally clothed myself with this sort +of character, and purposely dressed my name in terror. I desire, and +it is my duty to desire, that my name should protect our frontier +more effectually than lines and fortresses--that a single word of +mine should be, to the Asiatics, more certain, more inevitable, than +death. The European may be reasoned with: he is influenced by +conscience, touched by kindness, attached by pardon, won by +benefits; but to the Asiatic all this is an infallible proof of +weakness; and to him I--even from motives of philanthropy--have +shown myself unmitigably severe. A single execution preserves a +hundred Russians from destruction, and deters a thousand Mussulmans +from treason. Evstafii Ivanovitch, many will not believe my words, +because each conceals the cruelty of his nature, and his secret +revengefulness, under excuses of necessity--each says, with a +pretence of feeling, 'Really I wish from my heart to pardon, +but be judges yourselves--can I? What, after this, are laws--what +is the general welfare?' All this I never say; in my eyes no tear +is seen when I sign a sentence of death: but my heart bleeds." + +Alexei Petrovitch was touched; he walked agitatedly several times up +and down the tent; then seated himself, and continued--"Never, in +spite of all this, never has it been so difficult to me to punish as +this day. He who, like me, has lived much among the Asiatics, ceases +to trust in Lavater, and places no more confidence in a handsome +face than in a letter of recommendation; but the look, the expression, +the demeanour of this Ammalat, have produced on me an unusual +impression. I am sorry for him." + +"A generous heart," said I, "is a better oracle than reason." + +"The heart of a conscientious man, my dear friend, ought to be under +the command of reason. I certainly _can_ pardon Ammalat, but I +_ought_ to punish him. Daghestan is still filled with the enemies +of Russia, notwithstanding their assurances of submission; even +Tarki is ready to revolt at the first movement in the mountains: we +must rivet their chains by punishment, and show the Tartars that no +birth can screen the guilty--that all are equal in the sight of the +Russian law. If I pardon Ammalat, all his relations will begin to +boast that Yermoloff is afraid of the Shamkhal." I remarked, that +indulgence shown to so extensive a clan would have a good effect on +the country--in particular the Shamkhal. + +"The Shamkhal is an Asiatic," interrupted Alexei Petrovitch; +"he would be delighted that this heir to the Shamkhalat should be +sent to the Elysian fields. Besides, I care very little to guess or +gratify the wishes of his kinsmen." + +I saw that the commander-in-chief began to waver, and I urged him +more pressingly. "Let me serve for three years," said I; "do not +give me leave of absence this year--only have mercy on this young man. +He is young, and Russia may find in him a faithful servant. +Generosity is never thrown away." + +Alexei Petrovitch shook his head. + +"I have made many ungrateful," said he, "already; but be it so. I +pardon him, and not by halves--that is not my way. I thank you for +having helped me to be merciful, not to say weak. Only remember my +words: You wish to take him to yourself--do not trust him; do not +warm a serpent in your bosom." + +I was so delighted with my success, that, hastily quitting the +commander-in-chief, I ran to the tent in which Ammalat Bek was +confined. Three sentinels were guarding him; a lantern was burning +in the midst. I entered; the prisoner was lying wrapped up in his +bourka, and tears were sparkling on his face. He did not hear my +entrance, so profoundly was he buried in thought. To whom is it +pleasant to part with life? I was rejoiced that I brought comfort to +him at so melancholy a moment. + +"Ammalat," said I, "Allah is great, and the Sardar is merciful; he +has granted you your life!" + +The delighted prisoner started up, and endeavoured to reply, but the +breath was stifled in his breast. Immediately, however, a shade of +gloom covered his features. "Life!" he exclaimed; "I understand this +generosity! To consign a man to a breathless dungeon, without light +or air--to send him to eternal winter, to a night never illumined by +a star--to bury him alive in the bowels of the earth--to take from +him not only the power to act, not only the means of life, but even +the privilege of telling his kinsmen of his sad lot--to deny him not +only the right to complain, but even the power of murmuring his +sorrow to the wind. And this you call life! this unceasing torment +you boast of as rare generosity! Tell the General that I want +not--that I scorn--such a life." + +"You are mistaken, Ammalat," I cried; "you are fully pardoned: remain +what you were, the master of your actions and possessions. There is +your sword. The commander-in-chief is sure that in future you will +unsheathe it only for the Russians. I offer you one condition; come +and live with me till the report of your actions has died away. You +shall be to be as a friend, as a brother." + +This struck the Asiatic. Tears shone in his eyes. "The Russians have +conquered me," he said: "pardon me, colonel, that I thought ill of +all of you. From henceforth I am a faithful servant of the Russian +Tsar--a faithful friend to the Russians, soul and sword. My sword, +my sword!" he cried, gazing fixedly on his costly blade; "let these +tears wash from thee the Russian blood and the Tartar _naphtha_! [30] +When and how can I reward you, with my service, for liberty and life?" + +[Footnote 30: The Tartars, to preserve their weapons, and to produce a +black colour on them, smoke the metal, and then rub it with naphtha.] + +I am sure, my dear Maria, that you will keep me, for this, one +of your sweetest kisses. Ever, ever, when feeling or acting +generously, I console myself with the thought, "My Maria will +praise me for this!" But when is this to happen, my darling? +Fate is but a stepmother to us. Your mourning is prolonged, and +the commander-in-chief has decidedly refused me leave of absence; +nor am I much displeased, annoying as it is: my regiment is in +a bad state of discipline--indeed, as bad as can be imagined; +besides, I am charged with the construction of new barracks and +the colonization of a married company. If I were absent for a month, +every thing would go wrong. If I remain, what a sacrifice of my heart! + +Here we have been at Derbend three days. Ammalat lives with me: he +is silent, sad, and savage; but his fear is interesting, nevertheless. +He speaks Russian very well, and I have commenced teaching him to read +and write. His intelligence is unusually great. In time, I hope to +make him a most charming Tartar. (_The conclusion of the letter has +no reference to our story_.) + +Fragment of another letter from Colonel Verhoffsky to his _fiancee_, +written six months after the preceding. + +From Derbend to Smolensk. + +Your favourite Ammalat, my dearest Maria, will soon be quite +Russianized. The Tartar Beks, in general, think the first step of +civilization consists in the use of the unlawful wine and pork. I, +on the contrary, have begun by re-educating the mind of Ammalat. I +show him, I prove to him, what is bad in the customs of his nation, +and what is good in those of ours; I explain to him universal and +eternal truths. I read with him, I accustom him to write, and I +remark with pleasure that he takes the deepest interest in +composition. I may say, indeed, that he is passionately fond of it; +for with him every wish, every desire, every caprice, is a +passion--an ardent and impatient passion. It is difficult for a +European to imagine, and still more difficult to understand, the +inflammability of the unruly, or rather unbridled, passions of an +Asiatic, with whom the will alone has been, since childhood, the +only limit to his desires. Our passions are like domestic animals; or, +if they are wild beasts, they are tamed, and taught to dance upon +the rope of the "conveniences," with a ring through their nostrils +and their claws cut: in the East they are free as the lion and the +tiger. + +It is curious to observe, on the countenance of Ammalat, the blush +with which his features are covered at the least contradiction; the +fire with which he is filled at any dispute; but as soon as he finds +that he is in the wrong, he turns pale, and seems ready to weep. +"I am in the wrong," says he; "pardon me: takhsirumdam ghitch, +(blot out my fault;) forget that I am wrong, and that you have +pardoned me." He has a good heart, but a heart always ready to be +set on fire, either by a ray of the sun or by a spark of hell. +Nature has gifted him with all that is necessary to render him a man, +as well in his moral as physical constitution; but national +prejudices, and the want of education, have done all that is +possible to disfigure and to corrupt these natural qualities. His +mind is a mixture of all sorts of inconsistencies, of the most +absurd ideas, and of the soundest thoughts: sometimes he seizes +instantly abstract propositions when they are presented to him in a +simple form, and again he will obstinately oppose the plainest and +most evident truths: because the former are quite new to him, and +the latter are obscured by previous prejudices and impressions. I +begin to fancy that it is easier to build a new edifice than to +reconstruct an old one. + +But how happens it that Ammalat is melancholy and absent? He makes +great progress in every thing that does not require an attentive and +continuous reflection, and a gradual development; but when the +matter involves remote consequences, his mind resembles a short +fire-arm, which sends its charge quickly, direct, and strongly, but +not to any distance. Is this a defect of his mind? or is it that his +attention is entirely occupied with something else? ... For a man of +twenty-three, however, it is easy to imagine the cause. Sometimes he +appears to be listening attentively to what I am telling him; but +when I ask for his answer, he seems all abroad. Sometimes I find the +tears flowing from his eyes: I address him--he neither hears nor +sees me. Last night he was restless in his sleep, and I heard the +word "seltanet--seltanet," (power, power,) frequently escape him. Is +it possible that the love of power can so torment a young heart? No, +no! another passion agitates, troubles the soul of Ammalat. Is it +for me to doubt of the symptoms of love's divine disease? He is in +love--he is passionately in love; but with whom? Oh, I will know! +Friendship is as curious as a woman. + + + + +OCCUPATION OF ADEN. + +"It is only by a naval power," says Gibbon, "that the reduction of +Yemen can be successfully attempted"--a remark, by the way, which +more than one of the ancients had made before him. All the +comparatively fertile districts in the south of Arabia, in fact, are +even more completely insulated by the deserts and barren mountains of +the interior on one side, than by the sea on the other--inasmuch as +easier access would be gained by an invader, even by the dangerous +and difficult navigation of the Red Sea, than by a march through a +region where the means of subsistence do not exist, and where the +Bedoweens, by choking or concealing the wells, might in a moment cut +off even the scanty supply of water which the country affords. This +mode of passive resistance was well understood and practised by them +as early as the time of AElius Gallus, the first Roman general who +conceived the hope of rifling the virgin treasures popularly +believed to be buried in the inaccessible hoards of the princes of +Arabia, whose realms were long looked upon--perhaps on the principle +of _omne ignotum pro magnifico_--as a sort of indefinite and +mysterious El Dorado. [31] + +[Footnote 31: "Intactis opulentior thesauris Arabum." +--_Horat. Od_. iii. 24. Pliny (_Hist. Nat_. vi. 32) more soberly +endeavours to prove the enormous accumulation of wealth which must +have taken place in Arabia, from the constant influx of the precious +metals for the purchase of their spices and other commodities, while +they bought none of the productions of other countries in return.] + +These golden dreams speedily vanished as the country became more +extensively known: and though the Arab tribes of the desert between +Syria and the Euphrates acknowledged a nominal subjection to Rome, +the intercourse of the Imperial City with Yemen, or Arabia Felix, +was confined to the trade which was carried on over the Red Sea from +Egypt, and which became the channel through which not only the +spices of Arabia, but the rich products of India, and even the slaves +[32] and ivory of Eastern Africa, were supplied to the markets of +Italy. At the present day, almost the whole of the south coast of +Arabia fronting the Indian Ocean, nearly from the head of the Persian +Gulf to the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, as well as the eastern coast of +Africa, from Cape Guardafui to the entrance of the Mozambique Channel +a seaboard approaching 4000 miles in length--is more or less subject +to the Sultan of Muscat, [33] a prince whose power is almost wholly +maritime, and whose dominions nowhere extend more than thirty or forty +miles inland: while our own recent acquisition of Aden, a detached point +with which our communication can be maintained only by restraining +the command of the sea, has for the first time given an European +power (excepting the Turks, whose possessions in Arabia always +depended on Egypt) a _locus standi_ on the shores of Yemen. + +[Footnote 32: This part of Africa is noticed by Arrian as famous for +the excellent quality of the slaves brought from [Greek: ta doulicha +chreissota],and it still retains its pre-eminence. The tribes in +this quarter are far superior both in personal appearance and +intellect to the negroes of Guinea.] + +[Footnote 33: We have seen it somewhere stated that the Sultan has +also attempted, by means of his navy, to exercise authority on the +shores of Beloochistan; which would bring him into contact with our +own outposts at Soumeeani, &c., near the mouth of the Indus.] + +The process by which we obtained this footing in Arabia was strictly +in accordance with the maxims of policy adopted by the then rulers +of British India, and which they were at the same time engaged in +carrying out, on a far more extended scale, in Affghanistan. In both +cases--perhaps from a benevolent anxiety to accommodate our +diplomacy to the primitive ideas of those with whom we had to deal-- + + "the good old rule + Sufficeth them, the simple plan + That they should take who have the power, + And they should keep who can"-- + +was assumed as the basis of our proceedings: and though the brilliant +success which for a time attended our philanthropic exertions in the +cause of good order and civilization beyond the Indus, so completely +threw into the shade the minor glories of Aden, that this latter +achievement attracted scarcely any public attention at the time of +its occurrence, its merits are quite sufficient to entitle it to a +more detailed notice than it has hitherto received in the pages of +Maga. Nor can a more opportune juncture be found than the present, +when the late events in Cabul have apparently had a marvellous +effect in opening the eyes of our statesmen, both in India and +England, to the moral and political delinquency of the system we +have so long pursued--of taking the previous owner's consent for +granted, whenever it suited our views to possess ourselves of a +fortress, island, or tract of territory, belonging to any nation not +sufficiently civilized to have had representatives at the Congress +of Vienna. Whether our repentance is to be carried the length of +universal restitution, remains to be seen; if so, it is to be hoped +that the circumstances of the capture of Aden will be duly borne in +mind. But before we proceed to detail the steps by which the British +colours came to be hoisted at this remote angle of Arabia, it will +be well to give some account of the place itself and its previous +history; since we suspect that the majority of newspaper politicians, +unless the intelligence of its capture chanced to catch their eye in +the columns of the _Times_, are to this day ignorant that such a +fortress is numbered among the possessions of the British crown. + +The harbour of Aden, then, lies on the south coast of Yemen, as +nearly as possible in 12 45' N. latitude, and 45 10' E. longitude; +somewhat more than 100 miles east of Cape Bab-el-Mandeb, at the +entrance of the Red Sea; and about 150 miles by sea, or 120 by land, +from Mokha, [34] the nearest port within the Straits. The town was built +on the eastern side of a high rocky peninsula, about four miles in +length from E. to W., by two miles and a half N. and S.--which was +probably, at no very remote period, an island, but is now joined to +the mainland by a long low sandy isthmus, [35] on each side of which, +to the east and west, a harbour is formed between the peninsula and +the mainland. The East Bay, immediately opposite the town, though +of comparatively small extent, is protected by the rocky islet of +Seerah, rising seaward to the height of from 400 to 600 feet, and +affords excellent anchorage at all times, except during the north-east +monsoon: but the Western or Black Bay, completely landlocked and +sheltered in great part of its extent by the high ground of its +peninsula, (which rises to an elevation of nearly 1800 feet,) runs up +inland a distance of seven miles from the headland of Jibel-Hassan, +(which protects its mouth on the west,) to the junction of the isthmus +with the main, and presents at all times a secure and magnificent +harbour, four miles wide at the entrance, and perfectly free from +rocks, shoals, and all impediments to ingress or egress. Such are the +natural advantages of Aden: and "whoever"--says Wellsted--"might have +been the founder, the site was happily selected, and well calculated +by its imposing appearance not only to display the splendour of its +edifices, but also, uniting strength with ornament, to sustain the +character which it subsequently bore, as the port and bulwark of +Arabia Felix." + +[Footnote 35: This isthmus is said by Lieutenant Wellsted to be "about +200 yards in breadth:" perhaps a misprint for 1200, as a writer in the +_United Service Journal_, May 1840, calls it 1350 yards; and, +according to the plan in the papers laid before Parliament, it would +appear to be rather more than half a mile at the narrowest part, where +it is crossed by the Turkish wall.] + +From the almost impregnable strength of its situation, and the +excellence of its harbour, which affords almost the only secure +shelter for shipping near the junction of the Red Sea and the Indian +Ocean, Aden has been, both in ancient and modern times, a place of +note and importance as a central point for the commerce carried on +with the East by way of Egypt. It was known to the ancients as the +Arabian emporium, and Abulfeda, in the fourteenth century, describes +it, in his Geography, as "a city on the sea-shore, within the +district of Abiyan; with a safe and capacious port, much frequented +by ships from India and China, and by merchants and men of +wealth, not only from those countries, but from Abyssinia, the +Hedjaz, &c.;" adding, however, "that it is dry and burnt up by the +sun, and so totally destitute of pasture and water, that one of the +gates is named Bab-el-Sakiyyin, or _Gate of the Water-carriers_, +for fresh water must be brought from a distance." In somewhat +later times, when the Portuguese began to effect settlements on the +coasts of Guzerat and Malabar, and to attack the Mohammedan commerce +in the Indian Seas, the port of Aden (when, with the rest of Yemen, +then paid a nominal allegiance to the Egyptian monarchy) became the +principal rendezvous for the armaments equipped by the Circassian +Sultans of Cairo in the Red Sea, in aid of their Moslem brethren, +then oppressed by those whom the Sheikh Zein-ed-deen emphatically +denounces as "a race of unclean Frank interlopers--may the curse of +Allah rest upon them and all infidels!" It was, in consequence, more +than once attacked by the famous Alboquerque, (who, in 1513, lost +2000 men before it,) and his successor Lope Soarez, but the +Portuguese never succeeded in occupying it; and the Mamluke empire +was overthrown, in 1517, by the arms of the Ottoman Sultan, Selim I. +The new masters of Egypt, however, speedily adopted the policy of +the rulers whom they had supplanted; and not contented with the +limited _suzerainte_ over the Arab chiefs of Yemen, exercised by the +Circassian monarchs, determined on bringing that country under the +direct control of the Porte, as a _point d'appui_ for the operations +to be undertaken in the Indian Ocean. With this view, the eunuch, +Soliman-Pasha, who was sent in command of a formidible squadron from +Suez, in 1538, to attempt the recapture of Dui, [36] in Guzerat, from +the Portuguese, received instructions to make himself in the first place +master of Aden, to the possession of which the Turks might reasonable +lay claim as a dependency of their newly-acquired realm of Egypt; the +seizure, however, was effected by means of base treachery. The prince, +Sheikh-Amer, of the race of the Beni-Teher, was summoned on board +the admiral's galley, and accepted the invitation without suspicion; +but he was instantly placed in confinement, and shortly afterwards +publicly hanged at the yard-arm; while the Pasha, landing his troops, +took possession of Aden in the name of Soliman the Magnificent. It +was not, however, till 1568, that the final reduction of Yemen was +accomplished, when Aden and other towns, which had fallen into the +hands of an Arab chief named Moutaher, were recaptured by a powerful +army sent from Egypt; the whole province was formally divided into +sandjaks or districts, and the seat of the beglerbeg, or supreme +pasha, fixed at Sana. + +[Footnote 36: The warfare of the Ottomans in India is a curious +episode in their history, which has attracted but little notice from +European writers. The Soliman-Pasha above mentioned (called by +the Indian historians Soliman-Khan _Roomi_, or the Turk, and by the +Portuguese Solimanus Peloponnesiacus) bore a distinguished part +in those affairs; but this expedition against Diu was the last in +which he was engaged. The kingdom of Guzerat was, at that time, in +great confusion after the death of its king, Bahadur Shah, who had +been treacherously killed in an affray with the Portuguese in 1536; +and it would appear probable that the Turks, if they had succeeded +against Diu, meditated taking possession of the country.] + +The domination of the Turks in Yemen did not continue much more than +sixty years after this latter epoch; the constant revolts of the +Arab tribes, and the feuds of the Turkish military chiefs, whose +distance from the seat of government placed them beyond the control +of the Porte, combined in rendering it an unprofitable possession. +The Indian trade, moreover, was permanently diverted to the route by +the Cape; and any political schemes which the Porte might at one time +have entertained in regard to India, had been extinguished by the +reunion, under the Mogul sway, of the various shattered sovereignties +of Hindostan. In 1633, [37] the Turkish troops were finally withdrawn +from the province, which then fell under the rule of the still existing +dynasty of the Imams of Sana, who claim descent from Mohammed. But the +ruins even now remaining of the fortifications and publick works +constructed in Aden by the Ottomans during their tenure of the place, +are on a scale which not only proves how fully they were aware of the +importance of the position, but gives a high idea of the energy with +which their resources were administered during the palmy days of their +power, when such vast labour and outlay were expended on the security +of an isolated stronghold at the furthest extremity of their empire. +The defences of the town, even in their present state, are the most +striking evidence now existing of the science and skill of the Turkish +engineers in former times; and, when they were entire, Aden must have +been another Gibraltar. "The lines taken for the works," says a late +observer, "evince great judgment, a good flanking fire being every +where obtained; no one place which could possibly admit of being +fortified has been omitted, and we could not do better than tread in +the steps of our predecessors. The profile is tremendous." A supply +of water (of which the peninsula had been wholly destitute) was +secured, not only by constructing numerous tanks within the walls, +and by boring numerous wells through the solid rock to a depth of +upwards of 200 feet, [38] but by carrying an aqueduct into the +town from a spring eight miles in the country, the reservoir at the +end of which was defended by a redoubt mounted with artillery. The +outposts were not less carefully strengthened than the body of the +place--a rampart with bastions (called, in the reports of the +garrison, _the Turkish Wall_) was carried along some high ground on +the isthmus from sea to sea, to guard against an attack on the land +side--the lofty rocky islet of Seerah, immediately off the town, was +covered with watchtowers and batteries--and several of those +enormous guns, with the effect of which the English became +practically acquainted at the passage of the Dardanelles in 1807, +were mounted on the summit of the precipices, to command the seaward +approach; and, when Lieutenant Wellsted was at Aden, those huge +pieces of ordnance was lying neglected on the beach; and he asked +Sultan Mahassan why he did not cut them up for the sake of the metal, +which is said to contain a considerable intermixture of silver; +"but he replied, with more feeling than could have been anticipated, +that he was unwilling to deprive Aden of the only remaining sign of +its former greatness and strength." Several of them have been sent +to England since the capture of the place, measuring from fifteen to +eighteen and a half feet in length; they are covered with ornaments +and inscriptions, stating them to have been cast in the reign of +"Soliman the son of Selim-Khan," (Soliman the Magnificent.) + +[Footnote 37: Captain Haines, in the "Report upon Aden," appended to the +Parliamentary papers published on the subject, erroneously places this +even in 1730, the year in or about which, according to Niebuhr, the +Sheikh of Aden made himself independent of Sana.] + +[Footnote 38: "No part of the coast of Arabia is celebrated for the +goodness of its water, with the single exception of Aden. The wells +there are 300 in number, cut mostly though the rock, ... and the tanks +were found in good order, coated inside and out with excellant chunam, +(stucco,) and merely requiring cleaning out to be again serviceable."] + +At the time of its evacuation by the Turks, Aden is said, +notwithstanding the decay of its Indian trade, to have contained from +20,000 to 30,000 inhabitants; and the lofty minarets which, a few +years since, still towered above the ruins of the mosques to which +they had formerly been attached, as well as the extensive +burying-grounds, in which the turbaned headstones peculiar to the +Turks are even yet conspicuous, bear testimony, not less than the +extent and magnitude of the ruinous fortifications, to the +population and splendour of the town under the Ottomans.--(See +WELLSTED'S _Arabia_, vol. ii, chap. 19.) From the time, however, of +its return into the hands of its former owners, its decline was rapid. +Niebuhr, who visited it in the latter part of the last century, says, +that it had but little trade, as its Sheikh [39] (who had long since +shaken off his dependence on the Iman of Sana) was not on good terms +with his neighbors; and, though Sir Home Popham concluded a commercial +treaty with the uncle and predecessor of the present Sultan Mahassan, +no steps appear to have been taken in consequence of this arrangement. + +[Footnote 39: The town would appear to have passed into the hands of +another tribe since Niebuhr's time, as he gives the Sheikh the surname +of _El-Foddeli_ (Futhali,) the present chief being of the Abdalli +tribe.] + +In 1835, according to Wellsted, the inhabitants of this once +flourishing emporium did not exceed 800, the only industrious class +among whom were the Jews, who numbered from 250 to 300. The +remainder were "the descendants of Arabs, Sumaulis," (a tribe of the +African coast,) "and the offspring of slaves," who dwelt in wretched +huts, or rather tents, on the ruins of the former city. "Not more +than twenty families are now engaged in mercantile pursuits, the +rest gaining a miserable existence either by supplying the Hadj +boats with wood and water, or by fishing." The chief, Sultan Mahassan, +did not even reside in Aden, but in a town called Lahedj, about +eighteen miles distant, where he kept the treasures which his uncle, +who was a brave and politic ruler, had succeeded in amassing. He +reputation for wealth, however, and the inadequacy of his means for +defending it, drew on him the hostility of the more warlike tribes +in the vicinity; and in 1836 Aden was sacked by the Futhalis, +who not only carried off booty to the value of 30,000 dollars, +(principally the property of the Banians and the Sumauli merchants in +the port,) but compelled the Sultan to agree to an annual payment of +360 dollars; while two other tribes, the Yaffaees and the Houshibees, +took the opportunity to exhort from him a tribute of half that amount. +There can be no doubt but that, if the Arabs had been left to +themselves, this state of things would have ended in all the +contending parties being speedily swallowed up in the dominions of +Mohammed Ali, Pasha of Egypt; who, under pretence of re-asserting +the ancient rights of the Porte to the sovereignty of Yemen, had +already occupied Mokha and Taaz, and was waging war with the tribes +in the neighbouring coffee country, whom he had exasperated by the +treacherous murder of Sheikh Hussein, one of their chiefs, who, +having been inveigled by the Egyptian commander into a personal +conference, was shot dead, like the Mamlukes at Cairo, in the tent of +audience. Aden, in the natural course of things, would have been the +next step; but an unforeseen intervention deprived him of his prey. + +Since the establishment of the overland communication with India +through Egypt, and the steam navigation of the Red Sea, the want had +been sensibly felt of an intermediate station between Suez and Bombay, +which might serve both as a coal depot, and, in case of necessity, +as a harbour of shelter. The position of Aden, almost exactly halfway, +would naturally have pointed it out as the sought-for haven, even +had its harbour been less admirably adapted than it is, from its +facility of entrance and depth of water close to the shore, for +steamers to run straight in, receive their fuel and water from the +quay, and proceed on their voyage without loss of time; while the +roadstead of Mokha, [40] the only other station which could possibly be +made available for the purpose, is at all times open and insecure, +and in certain points of the wind, particularly when it blows from +the south through the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, communication with +the shore is absolutely impracticable. It was clear, therefore, that +the proposed depot, if carried into effect at all, must be fixed at +Aden; and there can be little doubt that its occupation was contemplated +by the Indian government from the time of the visit of the surveying +ships to the Red Sea. A pretext was now all that was sought for, and +this was not long wanted. It was reported to the Bombay Administration +in October 1836, by Captain Haines, (then in command of the Palinurus +at Makullah) that great insecurity to navigation prevailed on both the +African and Indian shores, at the entrance of the Red Sea; and one +particular instance was adduced, in which the crew of a Muscat vessel, +wrecked on the coast near Aden, were subjected to such inordinate +extortion by Sultan Mahassan, that "the master, in anger or despair, +burned his vessel. The Bombay government could only give general +instructions, that in case of any outrage being offered to a vessel +under British colours, redress should be peremptorily demanded. But +long before these instructions were issued, and, indeed, before the +intelligence which elicited them had reached Bombay, a case, such as +they had supposed, had really occurred."--(_Corresponderce relating to +Aden_, printed in May 1839, by order of the House of Commons, +No. 49, p. 38.) + +[Footnote 40: "A vessel will lie" (at Mokha) "with a whole chain on end, +topgallant masts struck, and yards braced by, without being able to +communicate with the shore; while at the same time in Aden harbour she +will lie within a few yards of the shore, in perfectly smooth water, +with the bight of her chain cable scarcely taught."--CAPTAIN HAINES'S +_Report_.] + +An Indian ship called the Derya-Dowlut, (Fortune of the Sea,) the +property of a lady of the family of the Nawab of Madras, but sailing +under British colours, was wrecked on the coast near Aden, February +20, 1837, when on her voyage from Calcutta to Jiddah, with a cargo +valued at two lacs of rupees, (L.20,000.) It would appear, from the +depositions of the survivors, that the loss of the ship was +intentional on the part of the supercargo and _nakhoda_, (or +sailing-master,) the latter of whom, however, was drowned, with +several of the crew, in attempting to get on shore in the boat. The +passengers--who had been denied help both by the officers who had +deserted them, and by the Arabs who crowded down to the beach--with +difficulty reached the land, when they were stripped, plundered, and +ill-treated by the Bedoweens, but at last escaped without any +personal injury, and made their way in miserable plight to Aden, +where they were relieved and clothed by a Sheikh, the hereditary +guardian of the tomb of Sheikh Idris, the guardian saint of the town. +The stranded ship, meanwhile, after being cleared of as much of her +cargo and stores as could be saved, was burned by direction of the +supercargo, who shortly afterwards took his departure to Jiddah, +carrying with him one-third of the rescued property, and leaving the +remainder as a waif to the Sultan of Aden. After he was gone, the +Sultan made an offer to the agent [41] of the ship to restore the +goods which had fallen to his share on a payment of ten per cent for +salvage; but this was declined, on the ground that after such a length +of time "the things on board must have been almost all lost; that he +did not require them, nor had he money to pay for them." The Sultan, +however, still refused to allow him to leave Aden till he had given +him written acquittance of all claims on account of the ship; a document +was accordingly signed, as he says, under compulsion, to the effect that +he made no claim against the Sultan, but with a full reservation of his +claim for redress from the supercargo, who had wrecked the ship and +embezzled the goods saved from her. The agent and several of the crew, +after undergoing great hardships, at last reached Mokha, and laid their +complaint before the commanders of the Company's cruisers Coote and +Palinurus. The latter vessel, under the command of Captain Haines, +immediately repaired to Aden to demand redress for the injuries thus +inflicted on English subjects, while a formal report of the case was made +to the Government at Bombay. The Sultan at first attempted to deny that +he possessed any of the goods in question, and afterwards alleged +that they had been given to him voluntarily by the supercargo; but +finding all his subterfuges unavailing, he at length gave up +merchandize and stores to the amount of nearly 8000 dollars, besides +a bond at a year's date for 4191 dollars more, in satisfaction for +the goods which had been previously sold or made away with, as well +as for the insults offered to the passengers. + +[Footnote 41: This person, Syud Nooradeen, had been captain of the +vessel at the outset of the voyage; but had been deposed from the +responsible command by an order purporting to come from the merchant +who had freighted the ship, but which is now said to have been forged +by the supercargo.] + +Here, in ordinary cases, the matter might have rested; for though +the conduct of this Arab chief would certainly have been +indefensible in a civilized country, the worst charge that can be +considered as fairly proved against him is that of being a receiver +of stolen goods, as the price of his connivance at the appropriation +of the rest by the supercargo--since with the wreck of the ship, +whether premeditated or not, he had certainly nothing to do--and the +outrages committed by the wild Bedoweens on the beach can scarcely be +laid to his charge. A far more atrocious insult to the British flag in +1826, when a brig from the Mauritius had been piratically seized at +Berbera, (a port on the African coast, just outside the Straits of +Bab-el-Mandeb,) and part of her crew murdered, had been expiated by +the submission of the offenders, and the repayment of the value of the +plunder by yearly instalments, (see WELLSTED'S _Arabia_, vol. ii. +chap. 18;)--whereas, in the present case, restitution, however reluctant, +had been prompt and complete. But so eager were the authorities in India +to possess themselves of the place on any terms, that even while the +above-mentioned negotiation was pending, a minute was drawn up +(Sept. 28) by the Governor of Bombay, and transmitted to the +Governor-general at Calcutta, in which, after stating that "the +establishment of a monthly communication by steam with the Red Sea, +and the formation of a flotilla of armed steamers, renders it +_absolutely necessary_ that we should have a station of our own on +the coast of Arabia, as we already have on the Persian Gulf" +--alluding to the seizure of the island of Karrack--and noticing +"the insult which has been offered to the British flag by the Sultan +of Aden," requests permission "to take possession of Cape Aden." [42] +The Governor-general, however, in his reply, (Oct. 16,) appears scarcely +of opinion that so strong a measure is warranted by the provocation, +and suggests "that satisfaction should, in the first instance, be +demanded of the Sultan. If it be granted, some _amicable arrangement_ +may be made with him for the occupation of this port as a depot for +coals, and harbour for shelter. If it be refused, then further measures +may be considered." [43] + +[Footnote 42: Correspondence, No. 16.] + +[Footnote 43: Ibid. No. 19.] + +But notwithstanding the qualified terms of the Governor-general's +reply, it appears to have been regarded by the Bombay government as +equivalent to a full permission [44] for the prosecution of the +object on which they had fixed their views: for by the despatch +of Captain Haines from Aden, (dated Jan. 20, 1838,) we find that no +sooner had he "completed the first duty on which he was sent," +(the recovery of the cargo of the Derya-Dowlet,) than he addressed a +letter (Jan. 11) to the Sultan, to the effect that "he was empowered +by Government to form a treaty with the Sultan for the purchase of +Aden, with the land and points surrounding it," &c. &c.--that he felt +assured that the Sultan "would, in his wisdom, readily foresee the +advantages which would accrue to his country from having such an +intimate connecting link with the British"--and enclosing a rough +draft of the terms on which it was proposed that the transfer should +be effected. The Sultan appears to have been considerably _taken +aback_ at this unexpected proposition, which, it should be observed, +was not put forward as part of the atonement required for the affair +of the Derya-Dowlut--as for this, (in the words of Captain Haines,) +"satisfaction has been given by you, and our friendship is as before." +A lengthened correspondence ensued, at the rate of a letter or two +daily, till the end of January--in which the Sultan, with all the +tortuous tact of an Asiatic, endeavoured, without expressly pledging +himself on the main point, to stipulate in the first instance for +assistance, in the shape of artillery and ammunition, against the +hostile tribes in the neighbourhood, and other advantages for +himself and his family, particularly for the retention of their +jurisdiction over the _Arab_ residents in Aden: and he at last +quitted Aden for Lahedj, without absolutely concluding any thing, +but having authorized a merchant of the former place, named +Reshid-Ebn-Abdallah, to act as his agent. + +[Footnote 44: "The Government of India did not, indeed, in express +words authorize us to negotiate with the Sultan for a cession to us +of the post and harbour: but they desired us to obtain the occupation +of the port as a coal depot, and that of the harbour as a place of +shelter. These words far exceed the mere establishment of a coal depot +under the auspices of the Sultan, and in fact, could not in any +practical sense, or to any beneficial purpose, be fulfilled, except +by our obtaining the occupation of that port and harbour as a matter +not of sufferance but of right."--_Minute by the Governor of Bombay_, +No. 49.] + +Still every thing appeared in a fair way for adjustment; the +principal difficulty remaining to be settled being the annual sum to +be paid as an equivalent for the port-dues of Aden. The Sultan's +commissioner at first rated this source of revenue at the exorbitant +sum of 50,000 dollars!--but it was at last agreed that it should be +commuted for a yearly stipend of 8708, a mode of payment preferred +by the Sultan to the receipt of a gross sum, lest the rapacity of +his neighbours should be excited against him by so sudden an +accession of wealth: while the amount thus fixed was believed even +to exceed the actual amount of the customs. The Sultan meanwhile, +though evading the formal execution of the deed of transfer, +constantly wrote from Lahedj that the English were at liberty to +begin building in Aden as soon as they pleased--adding on more than +one occasion--"if the Turks or any other people should come and take +away the whole country by strength from me, the blame will not rest +on my shoulders." + +On the 27th, however, Sultan Hamed, the eldest son and heir-apparent +of Sultan Mahassan, arrived at Aden from Lahedj, accompanied by a +_synd_ or descendant of the prophet, named Hussein, who was +represented as having come as a witness to the transaction; and +Captain Haines was invited on shore to meet them. While he was +preparing, however, to repair to the place of meeting, he received a +private intimation through the merchant already mentioned, +Reshid-Ebn-Abdallih, to the effect that the Arab chiefs had +determined on seizing his person at the interview, in order to +possess themselves of the papers connected with the proposed +transfer of Aden, (to which Sultan Hamed had from the first been +strongly opposed,) and in particular of the bond for 4191 dollars +which had been given in satisfaction for the balance of the goods in +the Derya-Dowlut. How far this imputed treachery was really meditated, +there can be, of course, no means of precisely ascertaining; and the +minute of the governor of Bombay (_Correspondence_, No. 49,) seems +to consider it doubtful; [45] but Captain Haines acted as if fully +convinced of the correctness of the intelligence which he had +received; and after reproaching Sultan Hamed with his intended +perfidy, returned first to Mokha, and afterwards (in February) to +Bombay, carrying with him the letter in which the old Sultan was +alleged to have given his consent to the cession, but leaving the +recovered goods at Aden in charge of a Banyan--a tolerably strong +proof, by the way, that the Sultan, notwithstanding the bad faith +laid to his charge, was not considered likely to appropriate them +afresh. + +[Footnote 45: "I am not, however, disposed to treat the matter as +one of much importance. We have no knowledge of it but from report, +and all concerned in it will solemnly deny the truth of the +information."] + +The unsuccessful issue of this mission pretty clearly proved, that +notwithstanding the dread of the British power entertained by the +Abdalli chiefs, their reluctance to part with their town would not +be easily overcome by peaceable means: while the Governor-general +(then busily engaged at Simla in forwarding the preparations for the +ill-fated invasion of Affghanistan) still declined, in despite of a +renewed application from Bombay to give any special sanction to +ulterior measures--"a question on which"--in the words of the +despatch--"her Majesty's Government is rather called upon to +pronounce judgment, than the supreme government of India." The +authorities at Bombay, however, were not to be thus diverted from +the attainment of their favourite object; and in a despatch of +September 7, 1838, to the Secret Committee, (_Corresp_. No. 59,) +they announce that, "on reconsideration, they have resolved to adopt +immediate measures for attempting to obtain peaceable possession of +Aden, without waiting for the previous instructions of the +Governor-general of India:" but "as the steamer Berenice will leave +Bombay on the 8th inst.," (_the next day_,) "we have not time to +enter into a detail of the reasons which have induced us to come to +the above resolution." A notification similar to the above had been +forwarded two days previously to Lord Auckland at Simla; and a +laconic reply was received (Oct. 4) from Sir William Macnaghten, +simply to the effect that "his lordship was glad to find that, at +the present crisis of our affairs, the governor (of Bombay) in +council has resolved to resort to no other than peaceful means +for the attainment of the object in view." + +In the latter part of October, accordingly, Captain Haines once more +reached Aden in the Coote, with a small party of Bombay sepoys on +board as his escort; but the aspect of affairs was by no means +favourable. The old Sultan Mahassan, worn out with age and +infirmities, had resigned the management of affairs almost entirely +to his fiery son Hamed, who, encouraged not only by his success in +baffling the former attempt, but by the smallness of the force which +had accompanied the British commissioner, [46] openly set him at +defiance, declaring that he himself, and not his father, was now the +Sultan of the Bedoweens: that his father was but an imbecile old man; +and that any promise which might have been extorted from him could +not be regarded as of any avail: and, in short, that the place +should not be given up upon any terms. In pursuance of this +denunciation, all supplies, even of wood and water, were refused to +the ship; the Banyan in charge of the Derya-Dowlut's cargo was +prohibited from giving up the goods to the English; and though the +interchange of letters was kept up as briskly as before, the +resolution of Sultan Hamed was not to be shaken by this torrent of +diplomacy: and he constantly adhered to his first expressed +position--"I wish much to be friends, and that amity was between us, +but you must not speak or write about the land of Aden again." The +English agent, however, persisted in speaking of the transfer as +already legally concluded, and out of the power of Hamed to +repudiate or annul: while, in order to give greater stringency to +his remonstrances, he gave orders for the detention of the +date-boats and other vessels which arrived off Aden, hoping to +starve the Sultan into submission, by thus at once stopping his +provisions, and cutting off his receipt of port dues. The blockade +does not seem to have been very effectual: and an overture from the +Futhali chief to aid with his tribe in an attack on the Abdallis, was +of course declined by Captain Haines. + +[Footnote 46: "Their first exclamation was, 'Are the English so poor +that they can only afford to send one vessel? and is she only come to +talk? Why did they not send her before? Had they sent their men and +vessels, we would have given up; but until they do, they shall never +have the place.'"--CAPTAIN HAINES'S _Despatch_, Nov. 6, (No. 61.)] + +The apparently interminable cross fire of protocols [47] (in which both +Captain Haines and his employers appear to have luxuriated to a degree +which would have gladdened the heart of Lord Palmerston himself) was now, +however, on the point of being brought to a close. On the 20th of +November, one of the Coote's boats, while engaged in overhauling an +Arab vessel near the shore, was fired at by the Bedoweens on the beach, +and hostilities were carried on during several days, but with little +damage on either side. In most cases, it would have been considered +that blockading a port, and intercepting its supplies of provisions +constituted a sufficiently legitimate ground of warfare to justify +these reprisals: but Captain Haines, it appears, thought otherwise, +as he stigmatizes it as "a shameful and cowardly attack," and +becomes urgent with the Bombay government for a reinforcement which +might enable him to assume offensive operations with effect. Her +Majesty's ships Volage, 28, and Cruiser, 16 gun-brig, which had been +employed in some operations about the mouth of the Indus, were +accordingly ordered on this service, and sailed from Bombay December +29, accompanied by two transports conveying about 800 troops--Europeans, +sepoys, and artillerymen--under the command-in-chief of Major Baillie, +24th Bombay native infantry. The Abdalli chiefs, on the other hand, +made an effort to induce the Sultan of the Futhalis, (with whom they +held a conference during the first days of 1839, at the tomb of +Sheikh Othman near Aden, on the occasion of the payment of the annual +tribute above referred to,) to make common cause with them against +the intruders who were endeavouring to establish themselves in the +country; but the negotiation wholly failed, and the two parties +separated on not very amicable terms. + +[Footnote 47: It is worthy of remark, that in a note of December 1st, +(_Corresp_. No. 81,) from the Governor of Bombay to the Sultan, +the ill treatment of the passengers of the Derya-Dowlut is again +advanced as the ground of offence, as an atonement for which the +cession of Aden is indispensable; though for this, ample satisfaction +had been admitted long since to have been given.] + +It appears that the determination of the Abdallis to hold out had +been materially strengthened by the intelligence which they received +from India, (where many Arabs from this part of Yemen and the +neighbouring country of Hadramout are serving as mercenaries to the +native princes,) of the manifold distractions which beset the +Anglo-Indian government, and the armaments in course of equipment for +Affghanistan, Scinde, the Persian Gulf, &c., and which confirmed +them in the belief that no more troops could be spared from Bombay +for an attack on Aden. The stoppage of provisions by sea, however, +and the threatened hostilities of the Futhalis, caused severe +distress among the inhabitants of the town; and dissensions arose +among the chiefs themselves, as to the proportions in which (in the +event of an amicable settlement) the annual payment of 8700 dollars +should be divided among them--it being determined that Sultan +Mahassan should not have it all. An attempt was now made by the +_synds_ to effect a reconciliation; but though abundance of notes +were once more interchanged, [48] and the old Sultan came down +from Lahedj to offer his mediation, all demands for the main +object, the cession of the place, were rejected or evaded. The +negotiation consequently came to nothing, and hostilities were +resumed with more energy than before, the artillery of Aden being +directed (as was reported) by an European Turk; till, on the 16th of +January, the flotilla from Bombay, under the command of Captain Smith, +R.N., anchored in Western Bay. + +[Footnote 48: In this correspondence, the phrase of--"If you will +land and enter the town, I will be upon your head," is more than once +addressed by Sultan Hamed to Captain Haines and seems to have been +understood as a menace; but we have been informed that it rather +implies, "I will be answerable for your safety--your head shall be +in my charge."] + +A peremptory requisition was now sent on shore for the immediate +surrender of the town; but the answer of the Sultan was still evasive, +and, as the troops had only a few days' water on board, an immediate +landing was decided upon. On the morning of the 19th, accordingly, +the Coote, Cruiser, Volage, and the Company's armed schooner Mahi, +weighed and stood in shore, opening a heavy fire on the island of +Seerah and the batteries on the mainland, to cover the disembarkation. +The Arabs at first stood to their guns with great determination, but +their artillery was, of course, speedily silenced or dismounted by +the superior weight and rapidity of the English fire; and though the +troops were galled while in the boats by matchlocks from the shore, +both the town and the island of Seerah were carried by storm without +much difficulty. The loss of the assailants was no more than fifteen +killed and wounded--that of the Arabs more than ten times that number, +including a nephew of the Sultan and a chief of the Houshibee tribe, +who fought gallantly, and received a mortal wound; considerable +bloodshed was also occasioned by the desperate resistance made by the +prisoners taken on Seerah in the attempt to disarm them, during which +the greater part of them cut their way through their captors and got +clear off. Most of the inhabitants fled into the interior during the +assault, but speedily returned on hearing of the discipline and good +order preserved by the conquerors; and the old Sultan, on being +informed of the capture of the place, sent an apologetic letter +(Jan. 21) to Captain Haines, in which he threw all the blame on his +son Hamed, and expressed an earnest wish for a reconciliation. +Little difficulty was now experienced in conducting the negotiations, +and during the first days of February articles of pacification were +signed both with the Abdallis and the other tribes in the +neighbourhood. To secure the good-will of the Futhali chief, the +annual payment which he had received from Aden of 360 dollars, was +still guaranteed to him, as were the 8700 dollars per annum to the +Sultan of Lahedj, whose bond for 4191 dollars was further remitted +as a token of good-will. + +Such were the circumstances under which Aden became part of the +colonial empire of Great Britain--and the details of which we have +taken, almost entirely, from the official accounts published by +order of Government. In whatever point of view we consider the +transaction, we think it can scarcely be denied that it reflects +little credit on the national character for even-handed justice and +fair dealing. Even if the tact and _savoir faire_, which Captain +Haines must be admitted to have displayed in an eminent degree in +the execution of his instructions, had succeeded in intimidating the +Arabs into surrendering the place without resistance, such a +proceeding would have amounted to nothing more or less than the +appropriation of the territory of a tribe not strong enough to defend +themselves, simply because it was situated conveniently for the +purposes of our own navigation: and the open force by which the +scheme was ultimately carried into effect, imparts to this act of +usurpation a character of violence still more to be regretted. The +originally-alleged provocation, the affair of the Derya-Dowlut, is +not for a moment tenable as warranting such extreme measures:--since +not only was the participation of the parties on whom the whole +responsibility was thrown, at all events extremely venial; but +satisfaction had been given, and had been admitted to have been given, +before the subject of the cession of the place was broached:--and +the Sultan constantly denied that his alleged consent to the transfer, +on which the subsequent hostilities were grounded, had ever been +intended to be so construed. It is evident, moreover, that the Arabs +would gladly have yielded to any amicable arrangement short of the +absolute cession of the town, which they regarded as disgraceful: +--the erection of a factory, which might have been fortified so as +to give us the virtual command of the place and the harbour, would +probably have met with no opposition:--and even if Aden had fallen, +as it seemed on the point of doing, into the hands of the Pasha of +Egypt, there can be little doubt that the Viceroy would have shown +himself equally ready to facilitate our intercourse with India, in +his Arabian as in his Egyptian harbours. At all events, it is +evident that the desired object of obtaining a station and coal +depot for the Indian steamers, might easily have been secured in +various ways, without running even the risk of bringing on the +British name the imputation of unnecessary violence and oppression. + +Aden, however, was now, whether for right or wrong, under the British +flag; but the hostile dispositions of the Arabs, notwithstanding the +treaties entered into, were still far from subdued; and the cupidity +of these semi-barbarous tribes was still further excited by the +lavish expenditure of the new garrison, and by the exaggerated +reports of vast treasures said to be brought from India for the +repairs of the works. Among the advantages anticipated by Captain +Haines in his official report from the possession of the town, +especial stress is laid on its vicinity to the coffee and gum +districts, and the certainty, that when it was under the settled +rule of British law, the traffic in these rich products, as well as +in the gold-dust, ivory, and frankincense of the African coast, +would once more centre in its long-neglected harbour. But it was +speedily found that the insecurity of communication with the +interior opposed a serious obstacle to the realization of these +prospects--the European residents and the troops were confined +within the Turkish wall--and though the extreme heat of the climate +(which during summer averaged 90 deg. of Fahrenheit in the shade within +a stone house) did not prove so injurious as had been expected to +European constitutions, it was found, singularly enough, to exercise +a most pernicious influence on the sepoys, who sickened and died in +alarming numbers. Aden at this period is compared, in a letter +quoted in the _Asiatic Journal_, to "the crater of Etna enlarged, +and covered with gravestones and the remains of stone huts;" +provisions were scarce, and vegetables scarcely procurable. By +degrees, however, some symptoms of reviving trade appeared and by the +end of 1839 the population had increased to 1500 souls. + +The smouldering rancour with which the Arabs had all along regarded +the Frank intruders upon their soil, had by this time broken out +into open hostility; and, after some minor acts of violence, an +attack was made on the night of November 9th on the Turkish wall +across the isthmus, (which had been additionally strengthened by +redoubts and some guns,) by a body of 4000 men, collected from the +Abdallis, the Futhalis, and the other tribes in the neighbourhood. +The assailants were of course repulsed, but not without a severe +conflict, in which the Arabs engaged the defenders hand to hand +with the most determined valour--so highly had their hopes of +plunder been stimulated by the rumours of English wealth. This +daring attempt (which the Pasha of Egypt was by some suspected +to have had some share in instigating) at once placed the occupants +of Aden in a state of open warfare with all their Arab neighbours; +and the subsidies hitherto paid to the Futhali chief and the old +Sultan of Lahedj were consequently stopped--while L.100,000 were +voted by the Bombay government for repairing the fortifications, +and engineers were sent from India to put the place in an efficient +state of defence. These regular ramparts, however, even when +completed, can never be relied on as a security against the guerilla +attacks of these daring marauders, who can wade through the sea at +low water round the flanks of the Turkish wall, and scramble over +precipices to get in the rear of the outposts--and accordingly, +during 1840, the garrison had to withstand two more desperate +attempts (May 20, and July 4,) to surprise the place, both of which +were beaten off after some hard fighting, though in one instance the +attacking party succeeded in carrying off a considerable amount of +plunder from the encampment near the Turkish wall. Since that period, +it has been found necessary gradually to raise the strength of the +garrison from 800 to 4000 men, one-fourth of whom are always European +soldiers--and though no attack in force has lately been made by the +Arabs, the necessity of being constantly on the alert against their +covert approaches, renders the duties of the garrison harassing to +the last degree. Though a considerable trade now exists with the +African coast, scarcely any commercial intercourse has yet been +established with the interior of Arabia, (notwithstanding the +friendly dispositions evinced by the Iman of Sana,) the road being +barred by the hostile tribes--and a further impediment to +improvement is found in the dissensions of the civil and military +authorities of the place itself, who, pent up in a narrow space +under a broiling sun, seem to employ their energies in endless +squabbles with each other. Whatever may be the ultimate fate of this +colony, it must be allowed, to quote the candid admission of a +writer in the _United Service Journal_, that "at present we are not +occupying a very proud position in Arabia"--though considering the +means by which we obtained our footing in that peninsula, our +position is perhaps as good as we deserve. + + * * * * * + + + + +SONNET + + BY THE AUTHOR OP THE LIFE OF BURKE, OF GOLDSMITH, &C., + + ON VIEWING MY MOTHER'S PICTURE. + + How warms the heart when dwelling on that face, + Those lips that mine a thousand times have prest, + The swelling source that nurture gav'st her race, + Where found my infant head its downiest rest! + How in those features aim to trace my own, + Cast in a softer mould my being see; + Recall the voice that sooth'd my helpless moan, + The thoughts that sprang for scarcely aught save me; + That shaped and formed me; gave me to the day, + Bade in her breast absorbing love arise; + O'er me a ceaseless tender care display, + For weak all else to thee maternal ties! + This debt of love but One may claim; no other + Such self-devotion boasts, save thee, my Mother! + + * * * * * + + + + +CALEB STUKELY. + + PART XIII. + + THE FUGITIVE. + +The tongue has nothing to say when the soul hath spoken all! What +need of words in the passionate and early intercourse of love! There +is no oral language that can satisfy or meet the requisitions of the +stricken heart. Speech, the worldling and the false--oftener the +dark veil than the bright mirror of man's thoughts--is banished from +the spot consecrated to purity, unselfishness, and truth. The lovely +and beloved Ellen learnt, before a syllable escaped my lips, the +secret which those lips would never have disclosed. Her innocent and +conscious cheek acknowledged instantly her quick perception, and +with maiden modesty she turned aside--not angrily, but timorous as a +bird, upon whose leafy covert the heavy fowler's foot has trod too +harshly and too suddenly. I thought of nothing then but the pain I +had inflicted, and was sensible of no feeling but that of shame and +sorrow for my fault. We walked on in silence. Our road brought us to +the point in the village at which I had met Miss Fairman and her +father, when, for the first time, we became companions in our +evening walk. We retraced the path which then we took, and the +hallowed spot grew lovelier as we followed it. I could not choose +but tell how deeply and indelibly the scene of beauty had become +imprinted on my heart. + +"To you, Miss Fairman," I began, "and to others who were born and +nurtured in this valley, this is a common sight. To me it is a land +of enchantment, and the impression that it brings must affect my +future being. I am sure, whatever may be my lot, that I shall be a +happier man for what I now behold." + +"It is well," said my companion, "that you did not make the +acquaintance of our hills during the bleak winter, when their charms +were hidden in the snow, and they had nothing better to offer their +worshipper than rain and sleet and nipping winds. They would have +lost your praise then." + +"Do you think so? Imprisoned as I have been, and kept a stranger to +the noblest works of Providence, my enjoyment is excessive, and I +dare scarcely trust myself to feel it as I would. I could gaze on +yonder sweet hillock, with its wild-flowers and its own blue patch +of sky, until I wept." + +"Yes, this is a lovely scene in truth!" exclaimed Miss Fairman +pensively. + +"Do you remember, Miss Fairman, our first spring walk? For an hour +we went on, and that little green clump, as it appears from here, +was not for a moment out of my sight. My eyes were riveted upon it, +and I watched the clouds shifting across it, changing its hue, now +darkening, now lighting it up, until it became fixed in my +remembrance, never to depart from it. We have many fair visions +around us, but that is to me the fairest. It is connected with our +evening walk. Neither can be forgotten whilst I live." + +It was well that we reached the parsonage gate before another word +was spoken. In spite of the firmest of resolutions, the smallest +self-indulgence brought me to the very verge of transgression. + +In the evening I sat alone, and began a letter to the minister. I +wrote a few lines expressive of my gratitude and deep sense of +obligation. They did not read well, and I destroyed them. I +recommenced. I reproached myself for presumption and temerity, and +confessed that I had taken advantage of his confidence by attempting +to gain the affections of his only child. I regretted the fault, and +desired to be dismissed. The terms which I employed, on reperusal, +looked too harsh, and did not certainly do justice to the motives by +which throughout I had been actuated; for, however violent had been +my passion, _principle_ had still protected and restrained me. I had +not coldly and _deliberately_ betrayed myself. The second writing, +not more satisfactory than the first, was, in its turn, expunged. I +attempted a third epistle, and failed. Then I put down the pen and +considered. I pondered until I concluded that I had ever been too +hasty and too violent. Miss Fairman would certainly take no notice +of what had happened, and if I were guarded--silent--and determined +for the future, all would still be well. It was madness to indulge a +passion which could only lead to my expulsion from the parsonage, and +end in misery. Had I found it so easy to obtain a home and quiet, +that both were to be so recklessly and shamefully abandoned? Surely +it was time to dwell soberly and seriously upon the affairs of life. +I had numbered years and undergone trial sufficient to be acquainted +with true policy and the line of duty. Both bade me instantly reject +the new solicitation, and pursue, with singleness of purpose, the +occupation which fortune had mercifully vouchsafed to me. All this +was specious and most just, and sounded well to the understanding +that was not less able to look temperately and calmly upon the +argument in consequence of the previous overflow of feeling. Reason +is never so plausible and prevailing as when it takes the place of +gratified passion. Never are we so firmly resolved upon good, as in +the moment that follows instantly the doing of evil. Never is +conscience louder in her complaints than when she rises from a +temporary overthrow. I had discovered every thing to Miss Fairman. I +had fatally committed myself. There was no doubt of this; and +nothing was left for present consolation but sapient resolutions for +the future. Virtuous and fixed they looked in my silent chamber and +in the silent hour of night. Morning had yet to dawn, and they had +yet to contend with the thousand incitements which our desires are +ever setting up to battle with our better judgment. I did not write +to Mr. Fairman, but I rose from my seat much comforted, and softened +my midnight pillow with the best intentions. + +Fancy might have suggested to me, on the following morning, that the +eyes of Miss Fairnan had been visited but little by sleep, and that +her face was far more pallid than usual, if her parent had not +remarked, with much anxiety, when she took her place amongst us, +that she was looking most weary and unwell. Like the sudden +emanation that crimsons all the east, the beautiful and earliest +blush of morning, came the driven blood into the maiden's cheek, +telling of discovery and shame. Nothing she said in answer, but +diligently pursued her occupation. I could perceive that the fair +hand trembled, and that the gentle bosom was disquieted. _I_ could +tell why downwards bent the head, and with what new emotions the +artless spirit had become acquainted. Instantly I saw the mischief +which my rashness had occasioned, and felt how deeply had fallen the +first accents of love into the poor heart of the secluded one. What +had I done by the short, indistinct, most inconsiderate avowal, and +how was it possible now to avert its consequences? Every tender and +uneasy glance that Mr. Fairman cast upon his cherished daughter, +passed like a sting to me, and roused the bitterest self-reproach. I +could have calmed his groundless fears, had I been bold enough to +risk his righteous indignation. The frankness and cordiality which +had ever marked my intercourse with Miss Fairman, were from this +hour suspended. Could it be otherwise with one so innocent, so +truthful, and so meek! Anger she had none, but apprehension and +conceptions strange, such as disturb the awakened soul of woman, ere +the storm of passion comes to overcharge it. + +I slunk from the apartment and the first meal of the day, like a man +guilty of a heinous fault. I pleaded illness, and did not rejoin my +friends. I knew not what to do, and I passed a day in long and +feverish doubt. Evening arrived. My pupils were dismissed, and once +more I sat in my own silent room lost in anxious meditation. Suddenly +an unusual knock at the door roused me, and brought me to my feet. I +requested the visitor to enter, and Mr. Fairman himself walked slowly +in. He was pale and care-worn and he looked, as I imagined, sternly +upon me. "All is known!" was my first thought, and my throat swelled +with agitation. I presented a chair to the incumbent; and when he +sat down and turned his wan face upon me, I felt that my own cheek +was no less blanched than his. I awaited his rebuke in breathless +suspense. + +"You are indeed ill, Stukely," commenced Mr. Fairman, gazing +earnestly. "I was not aware of this, or I would have seen you before. +You have overworked yourself with the boys. You shall be relieved +to-morrow. I will take charge of them myself. You should not have +persevered when you found your strength unequal to the task. A +little repose will, I trust, restore you." + +With every animating syllable, the affrighted blood returned again, +and I gained confidence. His tones assured me that he was still in +ignorance. A load was taken from me. + +"I shall be better in the morning, sir," I answered. "Do not think +seriously of the slightest indisposition. I am better now." + +"I am rejoiced to hear it," answered the incumbent. "I am full of +alarm and wretchedness to-day. Did you observe my daughter this +morning, Stukely?" + +"Yes, sir," I faltered. + +"You did at breakfast, but you have not seen her since. I wish you +had. I am sick at heart." + +"Is she unwell, sir?" + +"Do you know what consumption is? Have you ever watched its fearful +progress?" + +"Never." + +"I thought you might have done so. It is a fearful disease, and +leaves hardly a family untouched. Did she not look ill?--you can +tell me that, at least." + +"Not quite so well, perhaps, as I have seen her, sir; but I should +hope"-- + +"Eh--what, not very ill, then? Well, that is strange, for I was +frightened by her. What can it be? I wish that Mayhew had called in. +Every ailment fills me with terror. I always think of her dear mother. +Three months before her death, she sat with me, as we do here +together, well and strong, and thanking Providence for health and +strength. She withered, as it might be from that hour, and, as I +tell you, three short months of havoc brought her to the grave." + +"Was she young, sir?" + +"A few years older than my child--but that is nothing. Did you say +you did not think her looks this morning indicated any symptoms? +Oh--no! I recollect. You never saw the malady at work. Well, +certainly she does not cough as her poor mother did. Did it look +like languor, think you?" + +"The loss of rest might"-- + +"Yes, it might, and perhaps it is nothing worse. I know Mayhew +thinks lightly of these temporary shadows; but I do not believe he +has ever seen her so thoroughly feeble and depressed as she appears +to-day. She is very pale, but I was glad to find her face free from +all flush whatever. That is comforting. Let us hope the best. How do +the boys advance? What opinion have you formed of the lad Charlton?" + +"He is a dull, good-hearted boy, sir. Willing to learn, with little +ability to help him on. Most difficult of treatment. His tears lie +near the surface. At times it seems that the simplest terms are +beyond his understanding, and then the gentlest reproof opens the +flood-gate, and submerges his faculties for the day." + +"Be tender and cautious, Stukely, with that child. He is a sapling +that will not bear the rough wind. Let him learn what he will--rest +assured, it is all he can. His eagerness to learn will never fall +short of your's to teach. He must be kindly encouraged, not frowned +upon in his reverses; for who fights so hard against them, or +deplores them more deeply than himself? Poor, weak child, he is his +own chastiser." + +"I will take care, sir." + +"Have you seen this coming on, Stukely?" + +"With Charlton, sir?" + +"No. Miss Fairman's indisposition. For many weeks she has certainly +improved in health. I have remarked it, and I was taken by surprise +this morning. I should be easier had Mayhew seen her." + +"Let me fetch him in the morning, sir. His presence will relieve you. +I will start early--and bring him with me." + +"Well, if you are better, but certainly not otherwise. I confess I +should be pleased to talk with him. But do not rise too early. Get +your breakfast first. I will take the boys until you come back." + +This had been the object of the anxious father's visit. As soon as I +had undertaken to meet his wish, he became more tranquil. My mission +was to be kept a secret. The reason why a servant had not been +employed, was the fear of causing alarm in the beloved patient. +Before Mr. Fairman left me, I was more than half persuaded that I +myself had mistaken the cause of his daughter's suffering; so +agreeable is it, even against conviction, to discharge ourselves of +blame. + +The residence of Dr. Mayhew was about four miles distant from our +village. It was a fine brick house, as old as the oaks which stood +before it, conferring upon a few acres of grass land the right to be +regarded as a park. The interior of the house was as substantial as +the outside; both were as solid as the good doctor himself. He was a +man of independent property, a member of the University of Oxford, +and a great stickler for old observances. He received a fee from +every man who was able to pay him for his services; and the poor +might always receive at his door, at the cost of application only, +medical advice and physic, and a few commodities much more +acceptable than either. He kept a good establishment, in the most +interesting portion of which dwelt three decaying creatures, the +youngest fourscore years of age and more. They were an entail from +his grandfather, and had faithfully served that ancestor for many +years as coachman, housekeeper, and butler. The father of Dr. Mayhew +had availed himself of their integrity and experience until Time +robbed them of the latter, and rendered the former a useless ornament; +and dying, he bequeathed them, with the house and lands, to their +present friend and patron. There they sat in their own hall, royal +servants every one, hanging to life by one small thread, which when +it breaks for one must break for all. They had little interest in +the present world, to which the daily visit of the doctor, and that +alone, connected them. He never failed to pay it. Unconscious of all +else, they never failed to look for it. + +The village clock struck eleven as I walked up the avenue that +conducted to the house. The day was intensely hot, and at that early +hour the fierce fire of the sun had rendered the atmosphere sweltry +and oppressive. I knocked many times before I could obtain admittance, +and, at last, the door was opened by a ragged urchin about twelve +years of age, looking more like the son of a thief or a gypsy than a +juvenile member of the decent household. + +"Is Dr. Mayhew at home?" I asked. + +"Oh, I don't know!" he answered surlily; "you had better come and see;" +and therewith he turned upon his heel, and tramped heavily down the +kitchen stairs. For a few seconds I remained where I was. At length, +hearing no voices in the house, and finding that no one was likely +to come to me, I followed him. At the bottom of the stairs was a +long passage leading to the offices. It was very dark, or it was +rendered so to me who had just left the glare of noonday. At the end +of it, however, a small lamp glimmered, and under its feeble help I +advanced. Arriving at its extremity, I was stopped by the hum of many +voices that proceeded from a chamber on the right. Here I knocked +immediately. The voice of Dr. Mayhew desired me to enter. The door +was opened the moment afterwards, and then I beheld the doctor +himself and every servant of the house assembled in a crowd. The +little boy who had given me admission was in the group; and in the +very centre of all, sitting upright in a chair, was the strangest +apparition of a man that I have ever gazed upon, before or since. The +object that attracted, and at the same time repelled, my notice, was +a creature whose age no living man could possibly determine. He was +at least six feet high, with raven hair, and a complexion sallow as +the sear leaf. Look at his figure, then mark the absence of a single +wrinkle, and you judge him for a youth. Observe again: look at the +emaciated face; note the jet-black eye, deeply-sunken, and void of +all fire and life; the crushed, the vacant, and forlorn expression; +the aquiline nose, prominent as an eagle's, from which the parchment +skin is drawn as rigidly as though it were a dead man's skin, +bloodless and inert. The wear and tear, the buffeting and misery of +seventy years are there. Seventy!--yea, twice seventy years of mortal +agony and suffering could hardly leave a deeper impress. He is +strangely clad. He is in rags. The remnants of fine clothes are +dropping from his shrunken body. His hand is white and small. Upon +the largest finger he wears a ring--once, no doubt, before his hand +had shrivelled up--the property and ornament of the smallest. It is +a sparkling diamond, and it glistens as his own black eye should, if +it be true that he is old only in mental misery and pain. There is +no sign of thought or feeling in his look. His eye falls on no one, +but seems to pass beyond the lookers-on, and to rest on space. The +company are far more agitated. A few minutes before my arrival the +strange object had been found, with the boy whom I had first seen, +wandering in the garden. He was apprehended for a thief, brought +into the house, and not until Dr. Mayhew had been summoned, had it +been suspected that the poor creature was an idiot. Commiseration +then took the place of anger quickly, and all was anxiety and desire +to know whence he had come, who he might be, and what his business +was. He could not speak for himself, and the answers of the boy had +been unsatisfactory and vague. When I entered the room, the doctor +gave me a slight recognition, and proceeded at once to a further +examination of the stripling. + +"Where did you pick him up, Sir?" enquired the Doctor. + +"Mother sent me out a-begging with him," answered the gypsy boy. + +"Who is your mother?" + +"Mabel." + +"Mabel what?" + +"Mabel nothing." + +"Where does she live, then?" + +"She doesn't live nowhere. She's a tramper." + +"Where is she now?" + +"How can I tell? We shall pick up somewhere. Let me go, and take +Silly Billy with me. I shall get such a licking if I don't." + +"Is his name Billy?" + +"No, Silly Billy, all then chaps as is fools are called Silly Billy. +You know that, don't you? Oh, I say, do let's go now, there's good +fellows!" + +"Wait a moment, boy--not so fast. How long have you been acquainted +with this unfortunate?" + +"What, Silly Billy? Oh, we ain't very old friends! I only see'd him +yesterday. He came up quite unawares to our camp whilst we were +grubbing. He seemed very hungry, so mother gave him summut, and made +him up a bed--and she means to have him. So she sent me out this +morning a-begging with him, and told me she'd break every gallows +bone I'd got, if I did not bring him back safe. I say, now I have +told all, let us go--there's a good gentleman! I'm quite glad he is +going to live with us. It's so lucky to have a Silly Billy." + +"How is it, you young rascal, you didn't tell me all this before? +What do you mean by it? + +"Why, it isn't no business of your'n. Let us go, will you?" + +"Strange," said Doctor Mayhew, turning to his butler--"Strange, that +they should leave that ring upon his finger--valuable as it looks." + +"Oh, you try it on, that's all! Catch mother leaving that there, if +she could get it off. She tried hard enough, I can tell you and I +thought he'd just have bitten her hand off. Wasn't he savage neither, +oh cry! She won't try at it again in a hurry. She says it serves her +right, for no luck comes of robbing a Silly Billy." + +The servants, who betrayed a few minutes before great anxiety and +apprehension, were perfectly overcome by this humorous sally, and +burst, with on accord, into the loudest laughter. The generally +jocose doctor, however, looked particularly serious, and kept his +eye upon the poor idiot with an expression of deep pity. "Will he +not speak?" he asked, still marking his unhappy countenance bereft of +every sign of sensibility. + +"He won't say not nuffin," said the boy, in a tone which he hoped +would settle the business; "You have no right to keep us. Let us go." + +"Leave me with these persons," said the Doctor, turning to the +servants. "We will see if the tongue of this wretched be really tied. +Go, all of you." + +In an instant the room was left to Doctor Mayhew and myself--the +idiot and his keeper. + +"What is your name, my man?" enquired the physician in a soothing +tone. "Do not be frightened. Nobody will hurt you here. We are all +your very good friends. Tell me now, what is your name?" + +The questioner took the poor fellow at the same time by the hand, and +pressed it kindly. The latter then looked round the room with a +vacant stare, and sighed profoundly. + +"Tell me your name," continued the Doctor, encouraged by the movement. +The lips of the afflicted man unclosed. His brick-red tongue +attempted to moisten them. Fixing his expressionless eyes upon the +doctor, he answered, in a hollow voice, "_Belton_." + +"Well, I never!" exclaimed the boy. "Them Silly Billies is the +deceitfulest chaps as is. He made out to mother that he couldn't +speak a word." + +"Take care what you are about, boy," said Doctor Mayhew sternly. +"I tell you that I suspect you." Turning to the idiot, he proceeded. +"And where do you come from?" + +The lips opened again, and the same hollow voice again answered, +"_Belton_." + +"Yes, I understand--that is your name--but whither do you wish to go?" + +"_Belton_," said the man. + +"Strange!" ejaculated the Doctor. "How old are you?" + +"_Belton_," repeated the simple creature, more earnestly than ever. + +"I am puzzled," exclaimed Mr. Mayhew, releasing the hand of the idiot, +and standing for a few seconds in suspense. "However," he continued, +"upon one thing I am resolved. The man shall be left here, and in my +care. I will be responsible for his safety until something is done +for him. We shall certainly get intelligence. He has escaped from an +asylum--I have not the slightest doubt of it--and we shall be able, +after a few days, to restore him. As for you, sir," he added, +addressing the young gypsy, "make the best of your way to your mother, +and be thankful that you have come so well off--fly." + +The boy began to remonstrate, upon which the doctor began to talk of +the cage and the horsepond. The former then evinced his good sense +by listening to reason, and by selecting, as many a wiser man has +done before him--the smaller of two necessary evils. He departed, +not expressing himself in the most elegant terms that might have +been applied to a leave-taking. + +The benevolent physician soon made arrangements for the comfort of +his charge. He was immediately placed in a bath, supplied with food, +and dressed in decent clothing. He submitted at once to his treatment, +and permitted his attendant to do what he would with him, taking, +all the while, especial care to feel the diamond ring safe and +secure under the palm of his own hand. A room was given to him and +Robin, the gardener's son, who was forthwith installed his guardian, +with strict directions not to leave the patient for an instant by +himself. When Dr. Mayhew had seen every thing that could be done +properly executed, he turned cheerfully to me, and bade me follow +him to his library. + +"His clothes have been good," muttered the doctor to himself, as he +sat down. "Diamond ring! He is a gentleman, or has been one. Curious +business! Well, we shall have him advertised all round the country +in a day or two. Meanwhile here he is, and will be safe. That +trouble is over. Now, Stukely, what brings you so early? Any thing +wrong at home? Fairman in the dumps again; fidgety and restless, eh?" + +I told my errand. + +"Ah, I thought so! There's nothing the matter there, sir. She is +well enough now, and will continue so, if her father doesn't +frighten her into sickness, which he may do. I tell you what, I must +get little puss a husband, and take her from him. That will save her. +I have my eye upon a handsome fellow--Hollo, sir, what's the matter +with you! Just look at your face in that glass. It is as red as fire." + +"The weather, sir, is"-- + +"Oh, is it? You mean to say, then, that you are acquainted with the +influences of the weather. That is just the thing, for you can help +me to a few facts for the little treatise on climate which I have +got now in hand. Well, go on, my friend. You were saying that the +weather is--is what?" + +"It is very hot, sir," I answered, dreadfully annoyed. + +"Well, so it is; that's very true but not original. I have heard the +same remark at least six times this morning. I say, Master Stukely, +you haven't been casting sheep's-eyes in that sweet quarter, have you? +Haven't, perhaps, been giving the young lady instruction as well as +the boys--eh?" + +"I do not understand, sir," I struggled to say with coolness. + +"Oh, very well!" answered Dr. Mayhew dryly. "That's very unfortunate +too, for," continued he, taking out his watch, "I haven't time to +explain myself just now. I have an appointment four miles away in +half an hour's time. I am late as it is. Williams will get you some +lunch. Tell Fairman I shall see him before night. Make yourself +perfectly at home, and don't hurry. But excuse me; this affair has +made me quite behindhand." + +The Doctor took a few papers and a book from the table, and before I +had time to reply, vanished, much to my relief and satisfaction. My +journey homeward was not a happy one. I felt alarm and agitation, +and the beautiful scenery failed to remove or temper them. My +heart's dear secret had been once more discovered. Rumour could not +omit to convey it speedily to the minister himself. In two +directions the flame had now power to advance and spread; and if the +old villager remained faithful, what reason had I to hope that +Dr. Mayhew would not immediately expose me--yes, must not regard it +as his business and duty so to do? Yet one thing was certain. The +secret, such as it had become, might, for all practical purposes, be +known to the whole world, for unquestionably the shallowest observer +was at present able to detect it. The old woman in the village, aged +and ignorant as she was, had been skilful enough to discover it when +I spoke. The doctor had gathered it from my looks even before I +uttered a syllable. What was to hinder the incumbent from reading +the tale on my forehead the moment that I again stood in his presence? + +Reaching the parsonage, I proceeded at once to the drawing-room, +where I expected to see the minister. No one was in the room, but a +chair was drawn to the table, and the implements of drawing were +before it. Could I not guess who had been the recent tenant of that +happy chair--who had been busy there? Forgetful of every thing but +her, I stood for a time in silent adoration of the absent one; then +I ventured to approach and gaze upon her handiwork. I shook with joy, +with ravishment, and ecstasy, when I beheld it. What was not made +known to me in that one hasty look! What golden dreams did not engage, +what blissful triumph did not elevate, what passionate delight did +not overflow my aching heart! Oh, it was true--and the blessed +intelligence came to me with a power and a reality that no language +could contain--SHE LOVED ME! she, the beloved, the good, the innocent, +and pure! Before me was the scene--the dearest to me in +life--through which we had so recently walked together, and upon +which she knew I doated, for the sake of her whose presence had +given it light and hallowed it. Why had she brought it on the paper? +Why this particular scene, and that fair hillock, but for the sake +of him who worshipped them--but that the mysterious and communicable +fire had touched her soul, and melted it? I trembled with my +happiness. There was a spot upon the paper--a tear--one sacred drop +from the immaculate fount. Why had it been shed? In joy or pain--for +whom--and wherefore? The paper was still moist--the tear still warm. +Happiest and most unfortunate of my race, I pressed it to my lips, +and kissed it passionately. + +Miss Fairman entered at that moment. + +She looked pale and ill. This was not a season for consideration. +Before I could speak, I saw her tottering, and about to fall. I +rushed to her and held her in my arms. She strove for recovery, and +set herself at liberty; but she wept aloud as she did so, and +covered her face with her hands. I fell upon my knees, and implored +her to forgive me. + +"I have been rash and cruel, Miss Fairman, but extend to me your +pardon, and I will go for ever, and disturb your peace no more. Do +not despise me, or believe that I have deliberately interfered with +your happiness, and destroyed my own for ever. Do not hate me when I +shall see you no more." + +"Leave me, Mr. Stukely, I entreat," sobbed Miss Fairman, weeping amain. +Her hand fell. I was inflamed with passion, and I became indifferent +to the claims of duty, which were drowned in the louder clamours of +love. I seized that hand and held it firm. It needed not, for the +lady sought not to withdraw it. + +"I am not indifferent to you, dearest Miss Fairman," I exclaimed; +"you do not hate me--you do not despise me--I am sure you do not. +That drawing has revealed to me all that I wish or care to know. I +would rather die this moment possessed of that knowledge, than live +a monarch without it." + +"Leave me, leave me, I implore you," faltered Miss Fairman. + +"Yes, dearest lady, I must--I shall leave you. I can stay no longer +here. Life is valueless now. I have permitted a raging fire to +consume me. I have indulged, madly and fearfully indulged, in error. +I have struggled against the temptation. Heaven has willed that I +should not escape it. I have learnt that you love me--come what may, +I am content." + +"If you regard me, Mr. Stukely, pity me, and go, now. I beg, I +entreat you to leave me." + +I raised the quivering hand, and kissed it ardently. I resigned it, +and departed. + +My whole youth was a succession of inconsiderate yieldings to passion, +and of hasty visitings of remorse. It is not a matter of surprise +that I hated myself for every word that I had spoken as soon as I +was again master of my conduct. It was my nature to fall into error +against conviction and my cool reason, and to experience speedily the +reaction that succeeds the commission of exorbitant crimes. In +proportion to the facility with which I erred, was the extravagance +and exaggeration with which I viewed my faults. During the +predominance of a passion, death, surrounded by its terrors, would +not have frighted me or driven me back--would not have received my +passing notice; whilst it lasted it prevailed. So, afterwards, when +all was calm and over, a crushing sense of wrong and guilt magnified +the smallest offence, until it grew into a bugbear to scare me night +and day. Leaving Miss Fairman, I rushed into the garden, preparatory +to running away from the parsonage altogether. This, in the height +of remorseful excitement, presented itself to my mind forcibly as +the necessary and only available step to adopt; but this soon came +to be regarded as open to numerous and powerful objections. + +It seemed impossible that the incumbent could be kept any longer in +ignorance of the affair; and it was better--oh! how much better--for +comfort and peace of mind that he should not be. In a few hours +Dr. Mayhew would arrive, and his shrewd eye would immediately +penetrate to the very seat of his patient's disquietude. The +discovery would be communicated to her father--and what would he +think of me?--what would become of me? I grew as agitated as though +the doctor were at that moment seated with the minister--and +revealing to his astounded listener the history of my deceit and +black ingratitude. The feeling was not to be borne; and in order to +cast it off, I determined myself to be the messenger of the tale, +and to stand the brunt of his first surprise and indignation. With +the earliest conception of the idea, I ran to put it into execution. +Nor did I stop until I reached the door of his study, when the +difficulty of introducing at once so delicate a business, and the +importance of a little quiet preparation, suggested themselves, +and made me hesitate. It was however, but for a moment for +self-possession. I would argue with myself no longer. The few hours +that intervened before the arrival of the doctor were my own and if +I permitted them to pass away, my opportunity was gone for ever, and +every claim upon the kindness and forgiveness of my patron lost. I +would confess my affection, and offer him the only reparation in my +power--to quit his roof, and carry the passion with me for my +punishment and torment. + +Mr. Fairman was alone. The pupils were playing on the lawn upon +which the window of the study opened. There they ran, and leaped, and +shouted, all feeling and enjoyment, without an atom of the leaden +care of life to press upon the light elastic soul; and there stood I, +young enough to be a playmate brother, separated from them and their +hearts' joyousness by the deep broad line which, once traversed, may +never be recovered, ground to the earth by suffering, trial, and +disappointment; darkness and discouragement without; misery and +self-upbraiding robbing me of peace within. My eyes caught but a +glimpse of the laughing boys before they settled on the minister, +and summoned me to my ungracious task--and it was a glimpse of a +bright and beautiful world, with which I had nothing in common, of +which I had known something, it might be ages since--but whose glory +had departed even from the memory. + +"Is he here?" enquired the incumbent. + +"Doctor Mahew could not accompany me, sir," I answered, "but he will +shortly come." + +"Thank you, Stukely, thank you. I have good news for you. I can +afford you time to recruit and be yourself again. The lads return +home on Monday next; you shall have a month's holiday, and you shall +spend it as you will--with us, or elsewhere. If your health will be +improved by travelling, I shall be happy to provide you with the +means. I cannot afford to lose your services. You must not get ill." + +"You are very kind, sir," I replied--"kinder than I deserve." + +"That is a matter of opinion, Stukely. I do not think so. You have +served me faithfully and well. I consult my own interest in rewarding +you and taking care of yours." + +"Yes, sir--but"-- + +"Well, never mind now. We will not argue on whose side the obligation +lies. It is perhaps well that we should both of us think as we do. It +is likely that we shall both perform our duty more strictly if we +strike the balance against ourselves. Go and refresh yourself. You +look tired and worn. Get a glass of wine, and cheer up. Have you +seen Miss Fairman?" + +"It is concerning her, sir," I answered, trembling in every joint, +"that I desire particularly to speak to you." + +"Good heaven!" exclaimed the incumbent, starting from his chair, +"what do you mean? What is the matter? What has happened? Why do you +tremble, Stukely, and look so ghastly pale? What has happened since +the morning? What ails her? Go on. Speak. Tell me at once. My poor +child--what of her?" + +"Calm yourself, I implore you, sir. Miss Fairman is quite well. +Nothing has happened. Do not distress yourself. I have done very +wrong to speak so indiscreetly. Pardon me, sir. I should have known +better. She is well." + +Mr. Fairman paced the room in perturbation, and held his hand upon +his heart to allay its heavy throbs. + +"This is very wrong," he said--"very impious. I have thought of +nothing else this day--and this is the consequence. I have dwelt +upon the probability of calamity, until I have persuaded myself of +its actual presence--looked for woe, until I have created it. This +is not the patience and resignation which I teach; for shame, for +shame!--go to thy closet, worm--repent and pray." + +Mr. Fairman resumed his seat, and hid his face for a time in his +hands. At length he spoke again. + +"Proceed, Stukely. I am calm now. The thoughts and fears in which it +was most sinfull to indulge, and which accumulated in this most +anxious breast, are dissipated. What would you say? I can listen as I +ought." + +"I am glad, sir, that the boys revisit their homes on Monday, and +that a month, at least, will elapse before their return to you. In +that interval, you will have an opportunity of providing them with a +teacher worthier your regard and confidence; and, if I leave you at +once, you will not be put to inconvenience." + +"I do not understand you." + +"I must resign my office, sir," I said with trepidation. + +"Resign? Wherefore? What have I said or done?" + +"Let me beg your attention, sir, whilst I attempt to explain my +motives, and to do justice to myself and you. I mentioned the name +of Miss Fairman." + +"You did. Ha! Go on, sir." + +"You cannot blame me, Mr. Fairman, if I tell you that, in common +with every one whose happiness it is to be acquainted with that lady, +I have not been insensible to the qualities which render her so +worthy of your love, so deserving the esteem"--I stopped. + +"I am listening, sir--proceed." + +"I know not how to tell you, sir, in what language to express the +growth of an attachment which has taken root in this poor heart, +increased and strengthened against every effort which I have made to +crush it." + +"Sir!" uttered the incumbent in great amazement. + +"Do not be angry, Mr. Fairman, until you have heard all. I confess +that I have been imprudent and rash, that I have foolishly permitted +a passion to take possession of my heart, instead of manfully +resisting its inroads; but if I have been weak, do not believe that +I have been wicked." + +"Speak plainly, Stukely. What am I to understand by this?" + +"That I have dared, sir, to indulge a fond, a hopeless love, +inspired by the gentlest and most innocent of her sex--that I have +striven, and striven, to forget and flee from it--that I have +failed--that I come to confess the fault, to ask your pardon, and +depart." + +"Tell me one thing," asked the incumbent quickly. "Have you +communicated your sentiments to Miss Fairman?" + +"I have, sir." + +"Is her illness connected with that declaration?--You do not answer. +Stukely, I am deceived in you. I mistrust and doubt you. You have +_murdered_ my poor child." + +"Mr. Fairman, do not, I entreat"-- + +"Heaven have mercy upon me for my wild uncrucified temper. I will +use no harsh terms. I retract that expression, young man. I am sorry +that I used it. Let me know what more you have to say." + +The tears came to my eyes, and blinded them. I did not answer. + +"Be seated, Stukely," continued the minister, in a kinder tone; +"compose yourself. I am to blame for using such a term. Forgive me +for it--I did not mean all that it conveyed. But you know how +fragile and how delicate a plant is that. You should have thought of +her and me before you gratified a passion as wild as it is idle. Now, +tell me every thing. Conceal and disguise nothing. I will listen to +your calmly, and I will be indulgent. The past is not to be recalled. +Aid me in the future, if you are generous and just." + +I related all that had passed between Miss Fairman and myself--all +that had taken place in my own turbulent soul--the battlings of the +will and judgment, the determination to overcome temptation, and the +sudden and violent yielding to it. Faithful to his command, I +concealed nothing, and, at the close of all, I signified my readiness, +my wish, and my intention to depart. + +"Forgive me, sir, at parting," said I, "and you shall hear no more of +the disturber of your peace." + +"I do not wish that, Stukely. I am indebted to you for the candour +with which you have spoken, and the proper view which you take of +your position. I wish to hear of you, and to serve you--and I will +do it. I agree with you, that you must leave us now--yes, and at once; +and, as you say, without another interview. But I will not turn you +into the world, lad, without some provision for the present, and +good hopes for the future. I owe you much. Yes--very much. When I +consider how differently you might behave, how very seriously you +might interfere with my happiness"--as Mr. Fairman spoke, he opened +the drawer of a table, and drew a checque-book from it--"I feel that +you ought not to be a loser by your honesty. I do not offer you this +as a reward for that honesty--far from it--I would only indemnify +you--and this is my duty." + +Mr. Fairman placed a draft for a hundred pounds in my hand. + +"Pardon me, sir," said I, replacing it on his table. "I can take no +money. Millions could not _indemnify_ me for all that I resign. +Judge charitably, and think kindly of me, sir--and I am paid. Honour +is priceless." + +"Well, but when you get to London?"-- + +"I am not altogether friendless. My salary is yet untouched, and will +supply my wants until I find employment." + +"Which you shall not be long without, believe me, Stukely, if I have +power to get it you--and I think I have. You will tell me where I may +address my letters. I will not desert you. You shall not repent this." + +"I do not, sir; and I believe I never shall. I propose to leave the +parsonage to-night, sir." + +"No, to-morrow, we must have some talk. You need not see her. I +could not let you go to-night. You shall depart to-morrow, and I rely +upon your good sense and honourable feelings to avoid another meeting. +It could only increase the mischief that has already taken place, and +answer no good purpose. You must be aware of this." + +"I am, sir. You shall have no reason to complain." + +"I am sure of it, Stukely. You had better see about your preparations. +John will help you in any way you wish. Make use of him. There must +be many little things to do. There can be no impropriety, Stukely, +in your accepting the whole of your year's salary. You are entitled +to that. I am sorry to lose you--very--but there's no help for it. I +will come to your room this evening, and have some further +conversation. Leave me now." The incumbent was evidently much excited. +Love for his child, and apprehension for her safety, were feelings +that were, perhaps, too prominent and apparent in the good and +faithful minister of heaven; they betrayed him at times into a +self-forgetfulness, and a warmth of expression, of which he repented +heartily as soon as they occurred. Originally of a violent and +wayward disposition, it had cost the continual exercise and the +prayers of a life, to acquire evenness of temper and gentleness of +deportment, neither of which, in truth, was easily, if ever disturbed, +if not by the amiable infirmity above alluded to. He was the best of +men; but to the best, immunity from the natural weakness of +mortality is not to be vouchsafed. + +Mr. Fairman was the last person whom I saw that night. He remained +with me until I retired to rest. He was the first person whom I saw +on the following morning. I do not believe that he did not rely upon +the word which I had pledged to him. I did not suppose that he +suspected my resolution, but I an convinced that he was most +restless and unhappy, from the moment that I revealed my passion to +him, until that which saw me safely deposited at the foot of the hill, +on my way to the village. So long as I remained in his house, he +could only see danger for his daughter; and with my disappearance he +counted upon her recovery and peace. + +The incumbent was himself my companion from the parsonage. The +servant had already carried my trunk to the inn. At the bottom of +the hill, Mr. Fairman stopped and extended his hand. + +"Fare-you-well, Stukely," said he, with emotion. "Once more, I am +obliged to you. I will never forget your conduct; you shall hear +from me." + +Since the conversation of the preceding day, the incumbent had not +mentioned the name of his daughter. I had not spoken of her. I felt +it impossible to _part_ without a word. + +"What did Doctor Mayhew say?" I asked. + +"She is a little better, and will be soon quite well, we trust." + +"That is good news. Is she composed?" + +"Yes--she is better." + +"One question more, sir. Does she know of my departure?" + +"She does not--but she will, of course." + +"Do not speak unkindly of me to her, sir. I should be sorry if she +thought ill"-- + +"She will respect you, Stukely, for the part which you have acted. +She must do so. You will respect yourself." + +I had nothing more to say, I returned his warm pressure, and bade +him farewell. + +"God bless you, lad, and prosper you! We may meet again in a happier +season; but if we do not, receive a father's thanks and gratitude. +You have behaved nobly. I feel it--believe me." + +Manly and generous tears rushed to the eyes of my venerable friend, +and he could not speak. Once more he grasped my hand fervently, and +in the saddest silence that I have ever known we separated. + +There was gloom around my heart, which the bright sun in heaven, that +gladdened all the land, could not penetrate or disperse; but it gave +way before a touch of true affection, which came to me as a last +memorial of the beloved scene on which I lingered. + +I had hardly parted from the minister, before I perceived walking +before me, at the distance of a few yards, the youngest of the lads +who had been my pupils. At the request of the minister, I had +neither taken leave of them nor informed any one of my departure. +The lad whom I now saw was a fine spirited boy, who had strongly +attached himself to me, and shown great aptitude, as well as deep +desire, for knowledge. He knew very little when I came to him, but +great pains had enabled him to advance rapidly. The interest which +he manifested, called forth in me a corresponding disposition to +assist him; and the grateful boy, altogether overlooking his own +exertions, had over and over again expressed himself in the warmest +terms of thankfulness for my instruction, to which he insisted he +owed all that he had acquired. He was in his eleventh year, and his +heart was as kind and generous as his intellect was vigorous and +clear. I came up to him, and found him plucking the wild-flowers +from the grass as he wandered slowly along. I looked at him as I +passed, and found him weeping. + +"Alfred!" I exclaimed, "What do you here so early?" + +The boy burst into a fresh flow of tears, and threw himself +passionately into my arms. He sobbed piteously, and at length said-- + +"Do not go, sir--do not leave me! You have been so kind to me. Pray, +stop." + +"What is the matter Alfred?" + +"John has told me you are going, sir. He has just taken your box down. +Oh, Mr. Stukely, stay for my sake! I won't give you so much trouble +as I used to do. I'll learn my lessons better--but don't go, pray, +sir." + +"You will have another teacher, Alfred, who will become as good a +friend as I am. I cannot stay. Return to the parsonage--there's a +dear boy." + +"Oh, if you must go, let me walk with you a little, sir! Let me take +your hand. I shall be back in time for breakfast--pray, don't refuse +me that, sir?" + +I complied with his request. He grasped my palm in both his hands, +and held it there, as though he would not part with it again. He +gave me the flowers which he had gathered, and begged me to keep +them for his sake. He repeated every kind thing which I had done for +him, not one of which he would forget, and all the names and dates +which he had got by heart, to please his tutor. He told me that it +would make him wretched, "to get up to-morrow, and remember that I +was gone;" and that he loved me better than any body, for no one had +been so indulgent, and had taken such pains to make him a good boy. +Before we reached the village, his volubility had changed the tears +to smiles. As we reached it, John appeared on his return homeward. I +gave the boy into his charge, and the cloud lowered again, and the +shower fell heavier than ever. I turned at the point at which the +hills became shut out, and there stood the boy fastened to the spot +at which I had left him. + +At the door of the inn, I was surprised to find my luggage in the +custody of Dr. Mayhew's gardener. As soon as he perceived me, he +advanced a few steps with the box, and placed note in my hand. It +was addressed to me at the parsonage, and politely requested me to +wait upon the physician at my earliest convenience. No mention was +made of the object of my visit, or of the doctor's knowledge of my +altered state. The document was as short as it might be, and as +courteous. Having read it, I turned to the gardener, or to where he +had stood a moment before, with the view of questioning that +gentleman; but to my great astonishment, I perceived him about a +hundred yards before me, walking as fast as his load permitted him +towards his master's residence. I called loudly after him, but my +voice only acted as a spur, and increased his pace. My natural +impulse was to follow him, and I obeyed it. + +Dr. Mayhew received me with a very cunning smile and a facetious +observation. + +"Well, Master Stukely, this hot weather has been playing the deuce +with us all. Only think of little puss being attacked with your +complaint, the very day you were here suffering so much from it, and +my getting a touch myself." + +I smiled. + +"Yes, sir, it is very easy to laugh at the troubles of other men, +but I can tell you this is a very disagreeable epidemic. Severe +times these for maids and bachelors. I shall settle in life now, +sooner than I intended. I have fallen in love with puss my self." + +I did not smile. + +"To be sure, I am old enough to be her father, but so much the better +for her. No man should marry till fifty. Your young fellows of twenty +don't know their own mind--don't understand what love means--all +blaze and flash, blue fire and sky-rocket--out in a minute. Eh, what +do you say, Stukely?" + +"Are you aware, sir, that I have left the parsonage?" + +"To be sure I am; and a pretty kettle of fish you have made of it. +Instead of treating love as a quiet and respectable undertaking, as +I mean to treat it--instead of simmering your love down to a +gentlemanly respect and esteem, as I mean to simmer it--and waiting +patiently for the natural consequences of things, as I mean to +wait--you must, like a boy as you are, have it all out in a minute, +set the whole house by the ears, and throw yourself out of it +without rhyme or reason, or profit to any body. Now, sit down, and +tell me what you mean to do with yourself?" + +"I intend to go to London, sir." + +"Does your father live there?" + +"I have no father, sir." + +"Well--your mother?" + +"She is dead, too. I have one friend there--I shall go to him until +I find occupation." + +"You naughty boy! How I should like to whip you! What right had you +to give away so good a chance as you have had? You have committed a +sin, sir--yes, you may look--you have, and a very grievous one. I +speak as I think. You have been flying in the face of Providence, and +doing worse than hiding the talent which was bestowed upon you for +improvement. Do you think I should have behaved so at your age? Do +you think any man in the last generation out of a madhouse would have +done it? Here's your march of education!" + +I bowed to Doctor Mayhew, and wished him good-morning. + +"No, thank you, sir," answered the physician, "if I didn't mean to +say a little more to you, I shouldn't have spoken so much already. We +must talk these matters over quietly. You may as well stay a few +days with your friend in the country as run off directly to the +gentleman in London. Besides, now I have made my mind up so suddenly +to get married, I don't know soon I may be called upon to undergo +the operation--I beg the lady's pardon--the awful ceremony. I shall +want a bride's-man, and you wouldn't make a bad one by any means." + +The physician rang the bell, and Williams the butler--a personage in +black, short and stout, and exceedingly well fed, as his sleek face +showed--entered the apartment. + +"Will you see, Williams, that Mr. Stukely's portmanteau is taken to +his room--bed quite aired--sheets all right, eh?" + +"Both baked, sir," replied Williams with a deferential but expressive +smile, which became his face remarkably well. + +"Then let us have lunch, Williams, and a bottle of _the_ sherry?" + +A look accompanied the request, which was not lost upon the butler. +He made a profound obeisance, and retired. At lunch the doctor +continued his theme, and represented my conduct as most blameable +and improper. He insisted that I ought to be severely punished, and +made to feel that a boy is not to indulge every foolish feeling that +rises, just as he thinks proper, but, like an inconsistent judge, he +concluded the whole of a very powerful and angry summing up, by +pronouncing upon me the verdict of an acquittal--inasmuch as he told +me to make myself as comfortable as I could in his house, and to +enjoy myself thoroughly in it for the next fortnight to come, at the +very least. It may have been that, in considering my faults as those +of the degenerate age in which I lived--which age, however, be it +known, lived afterwards to recover its character, and to be held up +as a model of propriety and virtue to the succeeding generation--the +merciful doctor was willing to merge my chastisement in that which +he bestowed daily upon the unfortunate object of his contempt and +pity, or possibly he desired to inflict no punishment at all, but +simply to perform a duty incumbent upon his years and station. Be +this as it may, certain it is that with the luncheon ended all +upbraiding and rebuke, and commenced an unreservedness of +intercourse--the basis of a generous friendship, which increased and +strengthened day by day, and ended only with the noble-hearted +doctor's life--nor then in its effects upon my character and fortune. + +It was on the night of the day on which I had arrived, that Doctor +Mayhew and I were sitting in his _sanctum_; composedly and happily as +men sit whom care has given over for a moment to the profound and +stilly influences of the home and hearth. One topic of conversation +had given place easily to another, and there seemed at length little +to be said on any subject whatever, when the case of the idiot, +which my own troubles had temporarily dismissed from my mind, +suddenly occurred to me, and afforded us motive for the prolongation +of a discourse, which neither seemed desirous to bring to a close. + +"What have you done with the poor fellow?" I enquired. + +"Nothing," replied the physician. "We have fed him well, and his food +has done him good. He is a hundred per cent better than when he came; +but he is still surly and tongue-tied. He says nothing. He is not +known in the neighbourhood. I have directed hand-bills to be +circulated, and placards to be posted in the villages. If he is not +owned within a week, he must be given to the parish-officers. I +can't help thinking that he is a runaway lunatic, and a gentleman by +birth. Did you notice his delicate white hand, that diamond ring, and +the picture they found tied round his neck?" + +"What picture, sir?" + +"Did I not tell you of it? The portrait of a lovely female--an old +attachment, I suppose, that turned his brain, although I fancy +sometimes that it is his mother or sister, for there is certainly a +resemblance to himself in it. The picture is set in gold. When Robin +first discovered it, the agony of the stricken wretch was most +deplorable. He was afraid that the man would remove it, and he +screamed and implored like a true maniac. When he found that he +might keep it, he evinced the maddest pleasure, and beckoned his +keeper to notice and admire it. He pointed to the eyes, and then +groaned and wept himself; until Robin was frightened out of his wits, +and was on the point of throwing up his office altogether." + +"Do you think the man may recover his reason?" + +"I have no hope of it. It is a case of confirmed fatuity I believe. +If you like to see him again, you shall accompany me to-morrow when +I visit him. What a strange life is this, Stukely! What a strange +history may be that of this poor fellow whom Providence has cast at +our door! Well, poor wretch, we'll do the best we can for him. If we +cannot reach his mind, we may improve his body, and he will be then +perhaps quite as happy as the wisest of us." + +The clock struck twelve as Doctor Mayhew spoke. It startled and +surprised us both. In a few minutes we separated and retired to our +several beds. + +When I saw the idiot on the following day, I could perceive a marked +improvement in his appearance. The deadly pallor of his countenance +had departed; and although no healthy colour had taken its place, +the living blood seemed again in motion, restoring expression to +those wan and withered features. His coal-black eye had recovered +the faintest power of speculation, and the presence of a stranger +was now sufficient to call it into action. He was clean and properly +attired, and he sat--apart from his keeper--conscious of existence. +There was good ground, in the absence of all positive proof, for the +supposition of the doctor. A common observer would have pronounced +him well-born at a glance. Smitten as he was, and unhinged by his sad +affliction, there remained still sufficient of the external forms to +conduct to such an inference. Gracefulness still hovered about the +human ruin, discernible in the most aimless of imbecility's weak +movements, and the limbs were not those of one accustomed to the +drudgery of life. A melancholy creature truly did he look, as I gazed +upon him for a second time. He had carried his chair to a corner of +the room, and there he sat, his face half-hidden, resting upon his +breast, his knee drawn up and pressed tightly by his clasped +hands--those very hands, small and marble-white, forming a ghastful +contrast to the raven hair that fell thickly on his back. He had not +spoken since he rose. Indeed, since his first appearance, he had said +nothing but the unintelligible word which he had uttered four times +in my presence, and which Dr. Mayhew now believed to be the name of +the lady whose portrait he wore. That he could speak was certain, +and his silence was therefore the effect of obstinacy or of absolute +weakness of intellect, which forbade the smallest mental effort. I +approached him, and addressed him in accents of kindness. He raised +his head slowly, and looked piteously upon me, but in a moment again +he resumed his original position. + +For the space of a week I visited the afflicted man dally, remaining +with him perhaps a couple of hours at each interview. No clue had +been discovered to his history, and the worthy physician had fixed +upon one day after another as that upon which he would relieve +himself of his trust; but the day arrived only to find him unwilling +to keep his word. The poor object himself had improved rapidly in +personal appearance, and, as far as could be ascertained from his +gestures and indistinct expressions, was sensible of his protector's +charity, and thankful for it. He now attempted to give to his keeper +the feeble aid he could afford him; he partook of his food with less +avidity, he seemed aware of what was taking place around him. On one +occasion I brought his dinner to him, and sat by whilst it was served +to him. He stared at me as though he had immediate perception of +something unusual. It was on the same day that, whilst trifling with +a piece of broken glass, he cut his hand. I closed the wound with an +adhesive plaster, and bound it up. It was the remembrance of this +act that gained for me the affection of the creature, in whom all +actions seemed dried up and dead. When, on the day that succeeded to +this incident, Robin, as was his custom, placed before the idiot his +substantial meal, the latter turned away from it offended, and would +not taste it. I was sent for. The eyes of the imbecile glistened +when I entered the apartment, and he beckoned me to him. I sat at +his side, as I had done on the day before, and he then, with a smile +of triumph, took his food on his knees, and soon devoured it. When +he had finished, and Robin had retired with the tray and implements, +the poor fellow made me draw my chair still nearer to his own. He +placed his hand upon my knee in great delight, patted it, and then +the wound which I had dressed. There was perfect folly in the mode +in which he fondled this, and yet a reasonableness which the heart +could not fail to detect and contemplate with emotion. First, he +gently stroked it, then placed his head upon it in utmost tenderness, +then hugged it in his arm and rocked it as a child, then kissed it +often with short quick kisses that could scarce be heard; courting +my observation with every change of action, making it apparent how +much he loved, what care he could bestow, upon the hand which had +won the notice and regard of his new friend and benefactor. This over, +he pointed to his breast, dallied for a time, and then drew from it +the picture which he so jealously carried there. He pressed it +between his hands, sighed heavily from his care-crazed heart, and +strove to tell his meaning in words which would not flow, in which +he knew not how to breathe the bubble-thought that danced about his +brain. Closer than ever he approached me, and, with an air which he +intended for one of confidence and great regard, he invited me to +look upon his treasure. I did so, and, to my astonishment and +terror--gazed upon the portrait of the unhappy EMMA HARRINGTON. +Gracious God! what thoughts came rushing into my mind! It was +impossible to err. I, who had passionately dwelt upon those +lineaments in all the fondness of a devoted love, until the form +became my heart's companion by day and night--I, who had watched the +teardrops falling from those eyes, in which the limner had not +failed to fix the natural sorrow that was a part of them--watched +and hung upon them in distress and agony--I, surely I, could not +mistake the faithful likeness. Who, then, was _he_ that wore it? Who +was this, now standing at my side, to turn to whom again became +immediately--sickness--horror! Who could it be but him, the miserable +parricide--the outcast--the unhappy brother--the desperately wicked +son! There was no other in the world to whom the departed penitent +could be dear; and he--oh, was it difficult to suppose that merciful +Heaven, merciful to the guiltiest, had placed between his conscience +and his horrible offence a cloud that made all dim--had rendered his +understanding powerless to comprehend a crime which reason must have +punished and aggravated endlessly My judgment was prostrated by what +I learned so suddenly and fearfully. The discovery had been +miraculous. What should I do? How proceed? How had the youth got here? +What had been his history since his flight? Whither was he wandering? +Did he know the fate of his poor sister? How had he lived? These +questions, and others, crowded into my mind one after another, and I +trembled with the violent rapidity of thought. The figure of the +unhappy girl presented itself--her words vibrated on my ears--her +last dying accents; and I felt that to me was consigned the wretched +object of her solicitude and love--that to me Providence had +directed the miserable man; yes, if only that he who had shared in +the family guilt, might behold and profit by the living witness of +the household wreck. Half forgetful of the presence of the brother, +and remembering nothing well but _her_ and her most pitiable tale, +oppressed by a hundred recollections, I pronounced her name. + +"Poor, poor, much-tried Emma!" I ejaculated, gazing still upon her +image. The idiot leaped from my side at the word, and clapped his +hands, and laughed and shrieked. He ran to me again, and seized my +palm, and pressed it to his lips. His excitement was unbounded. He +could only point to the picture, endeavour to repeat the word which +I had spoken, and direct his finger to my lips beseechingly, as +though he _prayed_ to hear the sound again. Alarmed already at what +I had done, and dreading the consequences of a disclosure, because +ignorant of the effect it would produce upon the idiot, I checked +myself immediately, and spake no more. Robin returned. I contrived +to subdue by degrees the sudden ebullition, and having succeeded, I +restored the criminal to his keeper, and departed. + +It was however, necessary that I should act in some way, possessed of +the information which had so strangely come to me. I desired to be +alone to collect myself, and to determine quietly. I retired to my +bedroom, endeavoured to think composedly, and to mark out the line +of duty. It was a fruitless undertaking. My mind would rest on +nothing but the tragedy in which this miserable creature held so sad +a part, and his unlooked-for resuscitation here--here, under the +roof which sheltered his sister's paramour. Whether to keep the +secret hidden in my bosom, or to communicate it to the physician, +was my duty, I could not settle now. It had been a parting injunction +of my friend Thompson to sleep upon all matters of difficulty, and +to avoid rashness above all things. Alas! I had not profited by his +counsel, nor, in my own case, recurred to it, even for a moment; but +it was different now. The fate, perhaps the life, of another was +involved in my decision; and not to act upon the good advice, not to +be temperate and cautious, would be sinful in the extreme. What, had +she been alive, would the sister have required--entreated at my hands? +And now, if the freed spirit of the injured one looked down upon the +world, what would it expect from him to whom had been committed the +forlorn and stricken wanderer? What if not justice, charity, and +mercy? "And he shall have it!" I exclaimed. "I will act on his behalf. +I will be cool and calm. I will do nothing until tomorrow, when the +excitement of this hour shall have passed away, and reason resumed +its proper influence and rule." + +I rose, contented with my conclusion, and walked to the window, which +overlooked the pleasure-garden of the house. Robin and his patient +were there; the former sitting on a garden chair, and reposing +comfortably after his meal, heedless of the doings of his charge. +The latter stood immediately below the window, gazing upwards, with +the portrait as before pressed between his marble hands. He perceived +me, and screamed in triumph and delight. The keeper started up; I +vanished instantly. He surely could not have known the situation of +my room--could not have waited there and watched for my appearance. +It was impossible. Yes, I said so, and I attempted to console myself +with the assurance; but my blood curdled with a new conviction that +arose and clung to me, and would not be cast off--the certainty that, +by the utterance of one word, I had, for good or ill, linked to my +future destiny the reasonless and wretched being, who stood and +shrieked beneath the casement long after I was gone. + +I joined my friend, the doctor, as usual in the evening, and learnt +from him the news of the day. He had visited his patient at the +parsonage, and he spoke favourably of her case. Although she had +been told of my absence, she was still not aware that I had quitted +the house for ever. Her father thought she was less unquiet, and +believed that in a few days all would be forgotten, and she would be +herself again. Doctor Mayhew assured me that nothing could be kinder +than the manner in which the incumbent spoke of me, and that it was +impossible for any man to feel a favour more deeply than he appeared +to appreciate the consideration which I had shown for him. The +doctor had been silent as to my actual presence in the vicinity, +which, he believed, to have mentioned, would have been to fill the +anxious father's heart with alarms and fears, which, groundless as +they were, might be productive of no little mischief. I acquiesced +in the propriety of his silence, and thanked him for his prudence. +Whilst my friend was speaking, I heard a quick and heavy footstep +on the stairs, which, causing me to start upon the instant, and +hurling sickness to my heart, clearly told, had doubt existed, +how strongly apprehension had fixed itself upon me, and how +certainly and inextricably I had become connected with the object +of my dark and irresistible conceptions. I had no longer an ear for +Doctor Mayhew, but the sense followed the footstep until it reached +the topmost stair--passed along the passage--and stopped--suddenly +at our door. Almost before it stopped, the door was knocked at +violently--quickly--loudly. Before an answer could be given, the +door itself was opened, and Robin rushed in--scared. + +"What is the matter?" I exclaimed, jumping up, and dreading to hear +him tell what I felt must come--another tale of horror--another +crime--what less than _self-destruction_? + +"He's gone, sir--he's gone!" roared the fellow, white as death, and +shaking like an aspen. + +"Gone--how--who?" enquired the doctor. + +"The madman, sir," answered Robin, opening his mouth, and raising +his eyebrows, to exhibit his own praiseworthy astonishment at the +fact. + +"Go on, man," said the doctor. "What have you to say further? How +did it happen? Quick!" + +"I don't know, sir. I eat something for dinner as disagreed. I have +been as sleepy as an owl ever since. We was together in his room, +and I just sot down for a minute to think what it could be as I +_had_ eaten, when I dozed off directly--and when I opened my eyes +again, not quite a minute arterwards, I couldn't find him +nowheres--and nobody can't neither, and we've been searching the +house for the last half hour." + +"Foolish fellow--how long was this ago?" + +"About an hour, sir." + +The doctor said not another word, but taking a candle from the table, +quitted the room, and hurried down stairs. I followed him, and Robin, +almost frightened out of his wits, trod upon my heel and rubbed +against my coat, in his eagerness not to be left behind me. The +establishment was, as it is said, at sixes and sevens. All was +disorder and confusion, and hustling into the most remote corner of +the common room. Mr. Williams especially was very much unsettled. He +stood in the rear of every body else, and looked deathly white. It +was he who ejaculated something upon the sudden entrance of his +master, and was the cause of all the other ejaculations which +followed quickly from every member of the household. Doctor Mayhew +commanded order, and was not long in bringing it about. The house +was searched immediately Wherever it was supposed that the idiot +might hide himself, diligent enquiry was made; cupboards, holes, +corners, and cellars. It was in vain. He certainly had escaped. The +gardens and paddocks, and fields adjacent were scoured, and with like +success. There was no doubt of it--the idiot was gone--who could tell +whither? After two hours' unprofitable labour, Doctor Mayhew was +again in his library, very much disturbed in mind, and reproaching +himself bitterly for his procrastination. "Had I acted," said he, +"upon my first determination, this would never have happened, and my +part in the business would have been faithfully performed. As it is, +if any mischief should come to that man, I shall never cease to +blame myself, and to be considered the immediate cause of it." I made +no reply. I _could_ say nothing. His escape occurring so soon after +my identification of the unfortunate creature, had bewildered and +confounded me. I could not guess at the motive of his flight, nor +conceive a purpose to which it was likely the roused maniac would +aspire; but I was satisfied--yes, too satisfied, for to think of it +was to chill and freeze the heart's warm blood--that the revelation +of the day and his removal were in close connexion. Alas, I dared +not speak, although my fears distracted me whilst I continued dumb! +Arrangements were at last made for watching both within and without +the house during the night--messengers were dispatched to the +contiguous villages, and all that could be done for the recovery of +the runaway was attempted. It was already past twelve o'clock when +Dr. Mayhew insisted upon my retiring to rest. I did not oppose his +wish. He was ill at ease, and angry with himself. Maintaining the +silence which I had kept during the evening, I gave him my hand, and +took my leave. + +I thought I should have dropped dead in the room when, lost in a deep +reverie, I opened my chamber-door, and discovered, sitting at the +table, the very man himself. _There the idiot sat_, portrait in hand, +encountering me with a look of unutterable sorrowfulness. He must +have hid himself amongst the folds of the curtains, for this room, +as well as the rest, was looked into, and its cupboards investigated. +I recoiled with sudden terror, and retreated, but the wretch clasped +his hands in agony, and implored me in gestures which could not be +mistaken, to remain. I recovered, gained confidence, and forbore. + +"What do you desire with me?" I asked quickly. "Can you speak? Do you +understand me?" The unhappy man dropped on his knees, and took my +hand--cried like a beaten child--sobbed and groaned. He raised the +likeness of his sister to my eyes, and then I saw the fire sparkling +in his own lustrous orb, and the supplication bursting from it, that +was not to be resisted. He pointed to his mouth, compelled an +inarticulate sound, and looked at me again, to assure me that he had +spoken all his faculties permitted him. He waited for any answer. + +Melted with pity for the bruised soul before me, I could no longer +deny him the gratification he besought. + +"Emma!" I ejaculated; "Emma Harrington!" + +He wept aloud, and kissed my hand, and put my arm upon his breast, +and caressed it with his own weak head. I permitted the affectionate +creature to display his childish gratitude, and then, taking him by +the wrist, I withdrew him from the room. An infant could not have +been more docile with its nurse. In another moment he was again in +custody. + +It was in vain that I strove to fall asleep, and to forget the +circumstances of the day--in vain that I endeavored to carry out the +resolution which I had taken to my pillow. Gladly would I have +expelled all thought of the idiot from my mind, and risen on the +morrow, prepared by rest and sweet suspension of mental labour for +profitable deliberation. Sound as was the advice of my friend, and +anxious as I was to follow it, obedience rested not with me, and was +impossible. Should I make known the history of the man? Should I +discover his crime? This was the question that haunted my repose, +and knocked at my ears until my labouring brain ached in its +confusion. What might be the effect of a disclosure upon the future +existence of the desolate creature, should he ever recover his reason? +Must he not suffer the extreme penalty of the law? It was dreadful +to think that his life should be forfeited through, and only through, +my agency. There were reasons again equally weighty, why I should +not conceal the facts which were in my possession. How I should have +determined at length, I know not, if an argument--founded on +selfishness had not stepped in and turned the balance in favour of +the idiot. Alas, how easy is it to decide when self-interest +interposes with its intelligence and aid! Neither Mr. Fairman nor +Doctor Mayhew knew of my connexion with the unfortunate Emma +Harrington. To expose the brother would be to commit myself. I was +not yet prepared to acknowledge to the father of Miss Fairman, or to +his friend, the relation that I had borne to that poor girl. And why +not? If to divulge the secret were an act of justice, why should I +hesitate to do it on account of the incumbent, with whom I had +broken off all intercourse for ever? Ah, did I in truth believe that +our separation had been final? Or did I harbour, perhaps against +reason and conviction, a hope, a thought of future reconciliation, a +shadowy yet not weak belief that all might yet end happily, and that +fortune still might favour love! With such faint hope, and such +belief, I must have bribed myself to silence, for I left my couch +resolved to keep my secret close. Doctor Mayhew was deep in the +contemplation of a map when I joined him at the breakfast-table. He +did not take his eyes from it when I entered the apartment, and he +continued his investigations some time after I had taken my seat. He +raised his head at last, and looked hard at me, apparently without +perceiving me, and then he resumed his occupation without having +spoken a syllable: after a further study of five or ten minutes, he +shook his head, and pressed his lips, and frowned, and stroked his +chin, as though he was just arriving at the borders of a notable and +great discovery. "It will be strange indeed!" he muttered to himself. +"How can we find it out?" + +I did not break the thread of cogitation. + +"Well," continued Doctor Maybew, "he must leave this house, at +all events. I will run the risk of losing him no longer. I will +write this morning to the overseer. Yet I _should_ like to +know--really--it may be, after all, the case. Stukely, lad, look here. +What county is this?" he continued, placing his finger on the map. + +Somerset was written in the corner of it, and accordingly I answered. + +"Very well," replied the doctor. "Now, look here. Read this. What do +these letters spell?" + +He pointed to some small characters, which formed evidently the name +of a village that stood upon the banks of a river of some magnitude. +I spelt them as he desired, and pronounced, certainly to my own +surprise, the word--"_Belton_." + +"Just so. Well, what do you say to that? I think I have hit it. +That's the fellow's home. I never thought of that before, and I +shouldn't now, if I hadn't had occasion for the road-book. It was +the first thing that caught my eye. Now--how can we find it out?" + +"It is difficult!" said I. + +"It is likely enough, you see. What should bring him so far westward, +if he hadn't some object? He was either wandering from or to his home, +depend upon it, when the gypsies found him. If Belton be his home, +his frequent repetition of the word was natural enough. Eh, don't +you see it?" + +"Certainly," said I. + +"Very well; then, what's to be done?" + +"I cannot tell," I answered. + +The doctor rung the bell. + +"Is Robin up yet?" he asked, when Williams came in to answer it. + +"He is, sir." + +"And the man?" + +"Both, sir. They have just done breakfast." + +"Very well, Williams, you may go. Now, follow me, Stukely," continued +the physician, the moment that the butler had departed. "I'll do it +now. I am a physiognomist, and I'll tell you in the twinkling of an +eye if we are right, You mark him well, and so will I." The doctor +seized his map and road book, and before I could speak was out of +the room. When I overtook him, he had already reached the idiot, and +dismissed Robin. + +My friend commenced his operations by placing the map and book upon +the table, and closely scanning the countenance of his patient, in +order to detect and fix the smallest alteration of expression in the +coming examination. He might have spared himself the trouble. The +idiot had no eye for him. When I appeared he ran to me, and +manifested the most extravagant delight. He grasped my hand, and +drew me to his chair, and there detained me. He did not introduce +his treasure, but I could not fail to perceive that he intended to +repeat the scene of the previous day, as soon as we were again alone. +I did not wish to afford him opportunity, and I gladly complied with +the physician's request when he called upon me to interrogate the +idiot, in the terms he should employ. He had already himself applied +to the youth, but neither for himself nor his questions could he +obtain the slightest notice. The eye, the heart, and, such as it was, +the mind of the idiot, were upon his sister's friend. + +"Ask him, Stukely," began the doctor, "if he has ever been in +Somerset?" + +I did so, and, in truth, the word roused from their long slumber, or +we believed they did, recollections that argued well for the +physician's theory. The idiot raised his brow, and smiled. + +The doctor referred to his map, and said, whispering as before, +"Mention the river Parret." + +I could not doubt that the name had been familiar to the unhappy man. +He strove to speak, and could not, but he nodded his head +affirmatively and quickly, and the expression of his features +corroborated the strong testimony. + +"Now--_Belton_?" added the doctor. + +I repeated the word, and then the agony of supplication which I had +witnessed once before, was re-enacted, and the shrill and incoherent +cries burst from his afflicted breast. + +"I am satisfied!" exclaimed the doctor, shutting his book. "He shall +leave my house for Belton this very afternoon." + +And so he did, In an hour, arrangements were in progress for his +departure, and I was his guardian and companion. Robin, as soon as +Dr. Mayhew's intention was known, refused to have any thing more to +say, either inside the house or out of it, to the _devil incarnate_, +as he was pleased to call the miserable man. If his place depended +upon his taking charge of him, he was ready to resign it. There was +not another man whom the physician seemed disposed to trust, and in +his difficulty he glanced at me. I understood his meaning. He +proceeded to express his surprise and pleasure at finding an +attachment so strong towards me on the part of the idiot. "It was +remarkable," he said--"very! And what a pity it was that he hadn't +cultivated the same regard for somebody else. A short journey +_then_, to Somerset, would have been the easiest thing in the world. +Nothing but to pop into the coach, to go to an inn on arriving in +Belton, and to make enquiries, which, no doubt, would be +satisfactorily answered in less than no time. Yes, really, it was a +hundred pities!" + +The doctor looked at me again, and then I had already determined to +meet the request he was not bold to ask. I believed, equally with the +physician, from the conduct and expressions of young Harrington, that +the riddle of his present condition waited for explanation in the +village, whose name seemed like a load upon his heart, and +constituted the whole of his discourse since he had arrived amongst +us. It was there he yearned to be. It was necessary only to mention +the word to throw him into an agitation, which it took hours entirely +to dissipate. Yes, for a reason well known to him and hidden from us +all, his object, his only object as it appeared, was to be removed, +and to be conducted thither. I had but one reason for rejecting the +otherwise well sustained hypothesis of my friend. During my whole +intercourse with Emma, I had never heard her speak of Somerset or +Belton, and in her narrative no allusion was made either to the +shire or village. In what way, then, could it be so intimately +connected with her brother--whence was the origin of the hold which +this one word had taken of his shattered brain? I could not guess. +But, on the other hand, it was true that I was ignorant of his +history subsequently to the fearful death of his most sinful father. +How could I tell what new events had arisen, what fresh relations +might have sprung up, to attach and bind him to one particular spot +of ground? Urged by curiosity to discover all that yet remained to +know of his career, and more by a natural and strong desire to serve +the youth--not to desert him in the hour of his extremity--I resolved, +with the first hint of the doctor, to become myself the fellow +traveller of his _protege_. I told him so, and the doctor shook me by +the hand, and thanked me heartily. + +That very evening we were on our road, for our preparations were not +extensive. My instructions were to carry him direct to Belton, to +ascertain, if possible, from his movements the extent of his +acquaintance with the village, and to present him at all places of +resort, in the hope of having him identified. Two days were granted +for our stay. If he should be unknown, we were then to return, and +Doctor Mayhew would at once resign him to the parish. These were his +words at parting. We had no opposition in the idiot. His happiness +was perfect whilst I remained with him. He followed me eagerly +whithersoever I went, and was willing to be led, so long as I +continued guide. I took my seat in the coach, and he placed himself +at my side, trembling with joyousness, and laughing convulsively. +Once seated, he grasped my hand as usual, and did not, through the +livelong night, relinquish it altogether. A hundred affectionate +indications escaped him, and in the hour of darkness and of quiet, +it would have been easy to suppose that an innocent child was +nestling near me, _homeward bound_, and, in the fulness of its +expectant bliss, lavish of its young heartfelt endearments. Yes, it +would have been, but for other thoughts, blacker than the night +itself--how much more fearful!--which rendered every sign of +fondness a hollow, cold, and dismal mockery. Innocence! Alas, poor +parricide! + +In the morning the sun streamed into the coach, of which we were the +only inside passengers. Dancing and playing came the light, now here, +now there, skipping along the seat, and settling nowhere--cheerful +visitant, and to the idiot something more, for he gazed upon it, and +followed its fairy motion, lost in wonder and delight. He looked +from the coach-window, and beheld the far-spreading fields of beauty +with an eye awakened from long lethargy and inaction. He could not +gaze enough. And the voice of nature made giddy the sense of hearing +that drank intoxication from the notes of birds, the gurgling of a +brook, the rustling of a thousand leaves. His feeble powers, taken by +surprise, were vanquished by the summer's loveliness. Once, when our +coach stopped, a peasant girl approached us with a nosegay, which +she entreated me to buy. My fellow-traveller was impatient to obtain +it. I gave it to him, and, for an hour, all was neglected for the toy. +He touched the flowers one by one, viewed them attentively and +lovingly, as we do children whom we have known, and watched, and +loved from infancy--now caressing this, now smiling upon that. What +recollections did they summon in the mind of the destitute and +almost mindless creature? What pictures rose there?--pictures that +may never be excluded from the soul of man, however dim may burn the +intellectual light. His had been no happy boyhood, yet, in the +wilderness of his existence, there must have been vouchsafed to him +in mercy the few green spots that serve to attach to earth the most +afflicted and forlorn of her sad children. How natural for the +glimpses to revisit the broken heart, thus employed, thus roused and +animated by the light of heaven, rendering all things beautiful and +glad! + +As we approached the village, my companion ceased to regard his +many-coloured friends with the same exclusive attention and unmixed +delight. His spirits sank--his joy fled. Clouds gathered across his +brow; he withdrew his hand from mine, and he sat for an hour, +brooding. He held the neglected nosegay before him, and plucked the +pretty leaves one by one--not conscious, I am sure, of what he did. +In a short time, every flower was destroyed, and lay in its +fragments before him. Then, as if stung by remorse for the cruel act, +or shaken by the heavy thoughts that pressed upon his brain, he +covered his pallid face, and groaned bitterly. What were those +thoughts? How connected with the resting-place towards which we were +hastening rapidly? My own anxiety became intense. + +The village of Belton, situated near the mouth, and at the broadest +part of the river Parret, consisted of one long narrow street, and a +few houses scattered here and there on the small eminences which +sheltered it. The adjacent country was of the same character as that +which we had quitted--less luxuriant, perhaps, but still rich and +striking. We arrived at mid-day. I determined to alight at the inn +at which the coach put up, and to make my first enquiries there. +From the moment that we rattled along the stones that formed the +entrance to the village, an unfavourable alteration took place in my +companion. He grew excited and impatient; and his lips quivered, and +his eyes sparkled, as I had never seen them before. I was satisfied +that we had reached the object of his long desire, and that in a few +minutes the mysterious relation in which he stood to the place would +be ascertained. "He MUST be known," I continued to repeat to myself; +"the first eye that falls on him, will recognize him instantly." We +reached the inn; we alighted. The landlord and the ostler came to +the coach door, and received us with extreme civility, and the +former assisted the idiot in his eager endeavour to reach the +ground--I watched the action, expecting him to start, to speak, to +claim acquaintance--and having completed the polite intention, he +stood smiling and scraping. I looked at him, then at the idiot, and +saw at once that they were strangers. A dozen idlers stood about the +door. I waited for a recognition: none came. + +Seated in the parlour of the inn, I asked to see the landlady. The +sight of the idiot caused as little emotion in her, as it had +produced in her husband. I ordered dinner for him. Whilst it was +preparing, I engaged the landlord in conversation at the door. I did +not wish to speak before young Harrington. I dared not leave him. I +enquired, first, if the face of the idiot were familiar to him. I +received for answer, that the man had never seen him in his life +before, nor had his wife. + +"Do you know the name of Harrington?" said I. + +"No--never heard on it," was the reply. + +"Fitzjones, perhaps?" + +"Many Joneses hereabouts, sir," said the landlord, "but none of that +there Christian name." + +The excitement of the idiot did not abate. He would not touch his +food nor sit quietly, but he walked swiftly up and down the room, +breathing heavily, and trembling with increasing agitation. He urged +me in his own peculiar way to leave the house and walk abroad. He +pointed to the road and strove to speak. The attempt was fruitless, +and he paced the room again, wringing his hands and sighing +sorrowfully. At length I yielded to his request, and we were again +in the village, I following whithersoever he led me. He ran through +the street, like a madman as he was, bringing upon him the eyes of +every one, and outstripping me speedily. He stopped for a moment to +collect himself--looked round as though he had lost his way, and +knew not whither to proceed; then bounded off again, the hunted deer +not quicker in his flight, and instantly was out of sight. Without +the smallest hope of seeing him again, I pursued the fugitive, and, +as well as I could guess it, continued in his track. For half a mile +I traced his steps, and then I lost them. His last footmark was at +the closed gate of a good-sized dwelling house. The roof and highest +windows only of the habitation were to be discerned from the path, +and these denoted the residence of a wealthy man. He could have no +business here--no object. "He must have passed," thought I, +"upon the other side." I was about to cross the road, when I +perceived, at the distance of a few yards, a man labouring in a field. +I accosted him, and asked if he had seen the idiot. + +No--he had not. He was sure that nobody had passed by him for hours. +He must have seen the man if he had come that way. + +"Whose house is that?" I asked, not knowing _why_ I asked the +question. + +"What? that?" said he, pointing to the gate. "Oh, that's Squire +_Temple's_." + +The name dropped like a knife upon my heart. I could not speak. I +must have fallen to the earth, if the man, seeing me grow pale as +death, had not started to his feet, and intercepted me. I trembled +with a hundred apprehensions. My throat was dry with fright, and I +thought I should have choked. What follows was like a hideous dream. +The gate was opened suddenly. JAMES TEMPLE issued from it, and +passed me like an arrow. He was appalled and terrorstricken. Behind +him--within six feet--almost upon him, yelling fearfully, was the +brother of the girl he had betrayed and ruined--his friend and +schoolfellow, the miserable Frederick Harrington. I could perceive +that he held aloft, high over his head, the portrait of his sister. +It was all I saw and could distinguish. Both shot by me. I called to +the labourer to follow; and fast as my feet could carry me, I went on. +Temple fell. Harrington was down with him. I reached the spot. The +hand of the idiot was on the chest of the seducer, and the picture +was thrust in agony before his shuddering eyes. There was a +struggle--the idiot was cast away--and Temple was once more dashing +onward. "On, on!--after him!" shrieked the idiot. They reached the +river's edge. "What now--what now?" I exclaimed, beholding them from +afar, bewildered and amazed. The water does not restrain the scared +spirit of the pursued. He rushes on, leaps in, and trusts to the +swift current. So also the pursuer, who, with one long, loud +exclamation of triumph, still with his treasure in his grasp, +springs vehemently forward, and sinks, once and for ever. And the +betrayer beats his way onward, aimless and exhausted, but still he +nears the shore. Shall he reach it? Never! + + * * * * * + + + + +IMAGINARY CONVERSATION, BETWEEN MR. WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR AND THE + EDITOR OF BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE. + +To Christopher North, Esq. + +SIR,--Mr. Walter Savage Landor has become a contributor to _Blackwood's +Magazine_! I stared at the announcement, and it will presently be +seen why. There is nothing extraordinary in the apparition of another +and another of this garrulous sexagenarian's "Imaginary Conversations." +They come like shadows, so depart. + + "The thing, we know, is neither new nor rare, + But wonder how the devil it got there." + +Many of your readers, ignorant or forgetful, may have asked, +"Who is Mr. Landor? We have never heard of any remarkable person of +that name, or bearing a similar one, except the two brothers Lander, +the explorers of the Niger." Mr. Walter Savage would answer, +"Not to know me argues yourself unknown." He was very angry with +Lord Byron for designating him as _a_ Mr. Landor. He thought it +should have been _the_. You ought to have forewarned such readers +that _the_ Mr. Landor, now _your_ Walter Savage, is the learned +author of an epic poem called _Gebir_, composed originally in +Egyptian hieroglyphics, then translated by him into Latin, and +thence done into English blank verse by the same hand. It is a work +of rare occurrence even in the English character, and is said to be +deeply abstruse. Some extracts from it have been buried in, or have +helped to bury, critical reviews. A copy of the Anglo-Gebir is, +however, extant in the British Museum, and is said to have so +puzzled the few philologists who have examined it, that they have +declared none but a sphinx, and that an Egyptian one, could unriddle +it. I would suggest that some Maga of the gypsies should be called +in to interpret. Our vagrant fortune-tellers are reputed to be of +Egyptian origin, and to hold converse among themselves in a very +strange and curious oriental tongue called _Gibberish_, which word, +no doubt, is a derivative from Gebir. Of the existence of the +mysterious epic, the public were made aware many years ago by the +first publication of Mr. Leigh Hunt's _Feast of the Poets_, where it +was mentioned in a note as a thing containing one good passage about +a shell, while in the text the author of _Gebir_ was called a gander, +and Mr. Southey rallied by Apollo for his simplicity in proposing +that the company should drink the gabbler's health. That pleasantry +has disappeared from Mr. Hunt's poem, though Mr. Landor has by no +means left off gabbling. Mr. Hunt is a kindly-natured man as well as +a wit, and no doubt perceived that he had been more prophetic than +he intended--Mr. Landor having, in addition to verses uncounted +unless on his own fingers, favoured the world with five thick octavo +volumes of dialogues. From the four first I have culled a few +specimens; the fifth I have not read. It is rumoured that a sixth is +in the press, with a dedication in the _issimo_ style, to Lord John +Russell, Mr. Landor's lantern having at last enabled him to detect +one honest man in the Imperial Parliament. Lord John, it seems, in +the House of Commons lately quoted something from him about a +Chinese mandarin's opinion of the English; and Mr. Landor is so +delighted that he intends to take the Russells under his protection +for ever, and not only them, but every thing within the range of +their interests. Not a cast horse, attached to a Woburn sand-cart, +shall henceforth crawl towards Bedford and Tavistock Squares, but +the grateful Walter shall swear he is a Bucephalus. You, Mr. North, +have placed the cart before the horse, in allowing Mr. Landor's +dialogue between Porson and Southey precedence of the following +between Mr. Landor and yourself. + +You may object that it is a feigned colloquy, in which an +unauthorized use is made of your name. True; but all Mr. Landor's +colloquies are likewise feigned; and none is more fictitious than +one that has appeared in your pages, wherein Southey's name is used +in a manner not only unauthorized, but at which he would have +sickened. + +You and I must differ more widely in our notions of fair play than I +hope and believe we do, if you refuse to one whose purpose is +neither unjust nor ungenerous, as much license in your columns as +you have accorded to Mr. Landor, when it was his whim, without the +smallest provocation, to throw obloquy on the venerated author of +the _Excursion_. + + + I am, Sir, your faithful servant, + EDWARD QUILLINAN. + + * * * * * + +_Landor_.--Good-morning, Mr. North, I hope you are well. + +_North_.--I thank you, sir.--Be seated. + +_Landor_.--I have called to enquire whether you have considered my +proposal, and are willing to accept my aid. + +_North_.--I am almost afraid to trust you, sir. You treat the +Muses like nine-pins. Neither gods nor men find favour in your sight. +If Homer and Virgil crossed your path, you would throw stones at them. + +_Landor_.--The poems attributed to Homer, were probably, in part at +least, translations. He is a better poet than Hesiod, who has, indeed, +but little merit![49] Virgil has no originality. His epic poem is a +mere echo of the Iliad, softened down in tone for the polite ears of +Augustus and his courtiers. Virgil is inferior to Tasso. Tasso's +characters are more vivid and distinct than Virgil's, and greatly +more interesting. Virgil wants genius. Mezentius is the most +heroical and pious of all the characters in the Aeneid. The Aeneid, I +affirm, is the most misshapen of epics, an epic of episodes.[50] There +are a few good passages in it. I must repeat one for the sake of +proposing an improvement. + + "Quinetiam _hyberno_ moliris sidere classem, + Et mediis properas aquilonibus ire per altum ... + Crudelis! quod si non arva aliena domosque + Ignotas peteres, et Troja antiqua maneret, + Troja per _undosum_ peteretur classibus aequor?" + +If _hybernum_ were substituted for _undosum_, how incomparably more +beautiful would the sentence be for this energetic repetition? [51] + +_North_.--I admire your modesty, Mr. Landor, in quoting Virgil +only to improve him; but your alteration is not an improvement. Dido, +having just complained of her lover for putting out to sea under a +wintry star, would have uttered but a graceless iteration had she in +the same breath added--if Troy yet stood, must even Troy be sought +through a wintry sea? _Undosum_ is the right epithet; it paints to +the eye the danger of the voyage, and adds force to her complaint. + +_Landor_. Pshaw! You Scotchmen are no scholars. Let me proceed. +Virgil has no nature. And, by the way, his translator Dryden, too, +is greatly overrated. + +_North_..--Glorious John? + +_Landor_.--Glorious fiddlestick! It is insufferable that a rhymer +should be called glorious, whose only claim to notice is a clever +drinking song. + +_North_.--A drinking song? + +_Landor_. Yes, the thing termed an Ode for St. Cecilia's Day. + +_North_.--Hegh, sir, indeed! Well, let us go on with the Ancients, +and dispatch them first. To revert to the Greeks, from whom Virgil's +imitation of the Iliad drew us aside, favour me with your opinion of +Plato. + +[Footnote 48: See Mr. Landor's "Imaginary Conversations."--Vol. i. p. +44, and ii. p. 322, note.] + +[Footnote 50: Vol. i p. 269, 270.] + +[Footnote 51: Vol. i. p. 300.] + +_Landor_.--Plato is disingenuous and malicious. I fancy I have +detected him in more than one dark passage, a dagger in his hand and +a bitter sneer on his countenance.[52] He stole (from the Eyptian +priests and other sources) every idea his voluminous books convey. +[53] Plato was a thief. + +_North_.--"Taffy was a Welshman, Taffy was a thief." + +_Landor_.--Do you mean to insinuate that my dialogues are stolen +from Plato's? + +_North_.--Certainly not, Mr. Landor; there is not the remotest +resemblance between them. Lucian and Christopher North are your +models. What do you think of Aristotle? + +_Landor_.--In Plato we find only arbours and grottoes, with moss +and shell work all misplaced. Aristotle has built a solider edifice, +but has built it across the road. We must throw it down again. +[54] + +_North_.--So much for philosophy. What have you to say to Xenophon +as an historian? + +_Landor_.--He is not inelegant, but he is unimpassioned and +affected; [55] and he has not even preserved the coarse features of +nations and of ages in his Cyropaedia.[56] + +_North_.--The dunce! But what of the Anabasis? + +_Landor_.--You may set Xenophon down as a writer of graceful +mediocrity.[57] + +_North_.--Herodotus? + +_Landor_.--If I blame Herodotus, whom can I commend? His view of +history was nevertheless like that of the Asiatics, and there can be +little to instruct and please us in the actions and speeches of +barbarians.[58] + +_North_.--Which of the Greek tragedians do you patronise? + +_Landor_.--Aeschylus is not altogether unworthy of his reputation; +he is sometimes grand, but oftener flighty and obscure.[59] + +_North_.--What say you of Sophocles? + +_Landor_.--He is not so good as his master, though the Athenians +thought otherwise. He is, however, occasionally sublime. + +_North_.--What of Euripides? [60] + +_Landor_.--He came further down into common life than Sophocles, +and he further down than Aeschylus: one would have expected the +reverse. Euripides has but little dramatic power. His dialogue is +sometimes dull and heavy; the construction of his fable infirm and +inartificial, and if in the chorus he assumes another form, and +becomes a more elevated poet, he is still at a loss to make it serve +the interests of the piece. He appears to have written principally +for the purpose of inculcating political and moral axioms. The dogmas, +like _valets de place_, serve any master, and run to any quarter. +Even when new, they are nevertheless miserably flat and idle. + +_North_.--Aristophanes ridiculed him. + +_Landor_.--Yes, Aristophanes had, however, but little true wit. [61] + +_North_.--That was lucky for Euripides. + +_Landor_.-A more skilful archer would have pierced him through +bone and marrow, and saved him from the dogs of Archelaus. + +_North_.--That story is probably an allegory, signifying that +Euripides was after all worried out of life by the curs of criticism +in his old age. + +_Landor_.--As our Keats was in his youth, eh, Mr. North? A worse +fate than that of Aeschylus, who had his skull cracked by a tortoise +dropt by an eagle that mistook his bald head for a stone. + +_North_.--Another fable of his inventive countrymen. He died of +brain-fever, followed by paralysis, the effect of drunkenness. He +was a jolly old toper: I am sorry for him. You just now said that +Aristophanes wanted wit. What foolish fellows then the Athenians +must have been, in the very meridian of their literature, to be so +delighted with what they mistook for wit as to decree him a crown +of olive! He has been styled the Prince of Old Comedy too. How do you +like Menander? + +[Footnote 52: Vol. ii. p. 298.] + +[Footnote 53: Vol. iii p. 514.] + +[Footnote 54: Vol. iv. p 80.] + +[Footnote 55: Vol. i. p. 233.] + +[Footnote 56: Vol. ii. p. 331.] + +[Footnote 57: Vol. iii. p. 35.] + +[Footnote 58: Vol. ii. p. 332.] + +[Footnote 59: Vol. i. pp. 299, 298, 297.] + +[Footnote 60: Vol. i. p. 298.] + +[Footnote 61: Vol. ii. p. 12.] + +_Landor_.--We have not much of him, unless in Terence. [62] The +characters on which Menander raised his glory were trivial and +contemptible. + +[Footnote 62: Vol. ii. p. 5. At p. 6th, Mr. Landor produces some verses +of his own "in the manner of Menander," fathers them on Andrew Marvel, +and makes Milton praise them!] + +_North_.--Now that you have demolished the Greeks, let us go back +to Rome, and have another touch at the Latins. From Menander to +Terence is an easy jump. How do you esteem Terence? + +_Landor_.--Every one knows that he is rather an expert translator +from the Greek than an original writer. There is more pith in Plautus. + +_North_.--You like Plautus, then, and endure Terence? + +_Landor_.--I tolerate both as men of some talents; but comedy is, +at the best, only a low style of literature; and the production of +such trifling stuff is work for the minor geniuses. I have never +composed a comedy. + +_North_.--I see: farewell to the sock, then. Is Horace worth his +salt? + +_Landor_.--There must be some salt in Horace, or he would not have +kept so well. [63] He was a shrewd observer and an easy versifier; but, +like all the pusillanimous, he was malignant. + +[Footnote 63: Vol. ii. p. 249.] + +_North_.--Seneca? + +_Landor_.--He was, like our own Bacon, hard-hearted and +hypocritical, [64] as to his literary merits, Caligula, the excellent +emperor and critic, (who made sundry efforts to extirpate the writings +of Homer and Virgil,) [65] spoke justly and admirably when he compared the +sentences of Seneca to lime without sand. + +[Footnote 64: Vol. iv. p. 31.] + +[Footnote 65: Vol. i. p. 274.] + + +_North_.--Perhaps, after all, you prefer the moderns? + +_Landor_.--I have not said that. + +_North_.--You think well of Spenser? + +_Landor_.--As I do of opium: he sends me to bed [66]. + +[Footnote 66: + Thee, gentle Spenser fondly led, + But me he mostly sent to bed.--LANDOR. ] + +_North_.--You concede the greatness of Milton? + +_Landor_.--Yes, when he is great; but his Satan is often a thing +to be thrown out of the way among the rods and fools' caps of the +nursery [67]. + +[Footnote 67: Vol. i. p. 301.] + +He has sometimes written very contemptibly; his lines on Hobbes, +the carrier, for example, and his versions of Psalms. [68] Milton was +never so great a regicide as when he smote King David. + +[Footnote 68: Blackwood.] + +_North_.--You like, at least, his hatred of kings? + +_Landor_.--That is somewhat after my own heart, I own; but he does +not go far enough in his hatred of them. + +_North_.--You do? + +_Landor_.--I despise and abominate them. How many of them, do you +think, could name their real fathers? [69] + +[Footnote 69: Vol. i. p. 61.] + +_North_.--But, surely, Charles was a martyr? + +_Landor_.--If so, what were those who sold [70] him? + +[Footnote 70: Vol. iv. p. 283.] + +Ha, ha, ha! You a Scotchman, too! However, Charles was not a martyr. +He was justly punished. To a consistent republican, the diadem +should designate the victim: all who wear it, all who offer it, all +who bow to it, should perish. Rewards should be offered for the +heads of those monsters, as for the wolves, the kites, and the vipers. +A true republican can hold no milder doctrine of polity, than that +all nations, all cities, all communities, should enter into one +great hunt, like that of the ancient Scythians at the approach of +winter, and should follow up the kingly power unrelentingly to its +perdition. [71] True republicans can see no reason why they should +not send an executioner to release a king from the prison-house of +his crimes, [72] with his family to attend him. + +[Footnote 71: Vol. iv. 507.] + +[Footnote 72: Vol. i. p. 73.] + +In my Dialogues, I have put such sentiments into the mouth of +Diogenes, that cynic of sterling stamp, and of Aeschines, that +incorruptible orator, as suitable to the maxims of their government. [73] +To my readers, I leave the application of them to nearer interests. + +[Footnote 73: Mr. Landor, with whom the Cynic is a singular favourite, +says, p. 461, vol. iii., that Diogenes was not expelled from Sinope +for having counterfeited money; that he only marked false men. +Aeschines was accused of having been bribed by Philip of Macedon.] + +_North_.--But you would not yourself, in your individual character, +and in deliberate earnestness, apply them to modern times and +monarchies? + +_Landor_.--Why not? Look at my Dialogue with De Lille. [74] What +have I said of Louis the Fourteenth, the great exemplar of kingship, +and of the treatment that he ought to have received from the English? +Deprived of all he had acquired by his treachery and violence, +unless the nation that brought him upon his knees had permitted two +traitors, Harley and St. John, to second the views of a weak woman, +and to obstruct those of policy and of England, he had been carted +to condign punishment in the _Place de Greve_ or at Tyburn. _Such +examples are much wanted, and, as they can rarely be given, should +never be omitted_.[75] + +[Footnote 74: Vol. i.] + +[Footnote 75: Vol. i. p. 281.--Landor.] + +_North_.--The Sans-culottes and Poissardes of the last French +revolution but three, would have raised you by acclamation to the +dignity of Decollator of the royal family of France for that brave +sentiment. But you were not at Paris, I suppose, during the reign of +the guillotine, Mr. Landor? + +_Landor_.--I was not, Mr. North. But as to the king whose plethory +was cured by that sharp remedy, he, Louis the Sixteenth, was only +dragged to a fate which, if he had not experienced it, he would be +acknowledged to have deserved. [76] + +[Footnote 76: Vol. ii. p. 267. This truculent sentiment the Dialogist +imputes to a Spanish liberal. He cannot fairly complain that it is here +restored to its owner. It is exactly in accordance with the sentence +quoted above in italics--a judgment pronounced by Mr. Landor in person. +--Vol. i. p. 281. It also conforms to his philosophy of regicide, as +expounded in various parts of his writings. In his preface to the first +volume of his Imaginary Conversations, he claims exemption, though +somewhat sarcastically, from responsibility for the notions expressed +by his interlocutors. An author, in a style which has all the freedom of +the dramatic form, without its restraints, should especially abstain +from making his work the vehicle of crotchets, prejudices, and +passions peculiar to himself, or unworthy of the characters speaking. +"This form of composition," Mr. Landor says, "among other advantages, +is recommended by the protection it gives from the hostility all +novelty (unless it be vicious) excites." Prudent consideration, but +indiscreet parenthesis.] + +_North_.--I believe one Englishman, a martyr to liberty, has said +something like that before. + +_Landor_.--Who, pray? + +_North_.--The butcher Ings. + +_Landor_.--Ah, I was not aware of it! Ings was a fine fellow. + +_North_.--Your republic will never do here, Mr. Landor. + +_Landor_.--I shall believe that a king is better than a republic +when I find that a single tooth in a head is better than a set. [77] + +[Footnote 77: Vol. ii. p. 31.] + +_North_.--It would be as good logic in a monarchy-man to say, +"I shall believe that a republic is better than a king when I am +convinced that six noses on a face would be better than one." + +_Landor_.--In this age of the march of intellect, when a pillar of +fire is guiding us out of the wilderness of error, you Tories lag +behind, and are lost in darkness, Mr. North. Only the first person +in the kingdom should be unenlightened and void, as only the first +page in a book should be a blank one. It is when it is torn out that +we come at once to the letters. [78] + +[Footnote 78: Vol. iv. p. 405.] + +_North_.--Well, now that you have torn out the first page of the +Court Guide, we come to the Peers, I suppose. + +_Landor_.--The peerage is the park-paling of despotism, arranged +to keep in creatures tame and wild for luxury and diversion, and to +keep out the people. Kings are to peerages what poles are to +rope-dancers, enabling then to play their tricks with greater +confidence and security above the heads of the people. The wisest +and the most independent of the English Parliaments declared the +thing useless. [79] Peers are usually persons of pride without dignity, +of lofty pretensions with low propensities. They invariably bear +towards one another a constrained familiarity or frigid courtesy, +while to their huntsmen and their prickers, their chaplains and +their cooks, (or indeed any other man's,) they display unequivocal +signs of ingenuous cordiality. + +[Footnote 79: Vol. iv. p. 400.] + +How many do you imagine of our nobility are not bastards or sons of +bastards? [80] + +[Footnote 80: Vol. iv. p. 273.] + +_North_.--You have now settled the Peers. The Baronets come next in +order. + +_Landor_.--Baronets are prouder than any thing we see on this side +of the Dardanelles, excepting the proctors of universities, and the +vergers of cathedrals; and their pride is kept in eternal agitation, +both from what is above them and what is below. Gentlemen of any +standing (like Walter Savage Landor, of Warwick Castle, and Lantony +Abbey in Wales,) are apt to investigate their claims a little too +minutely, and nobility has neither bench nor joint-stool for them in +the vestibule. During the whole course of your life, have you ever +seen one among this, our King James's breed of curs, that either did +not curl himself up and lie snug and warm in the lowest company, [81] +or slaver and whimper in fretful quest of the highest. + +[Footnote 81: Vol. iv. p. 400.] + +_North_.--But you allow the English people to be a great people. + +_Landor_.--I allow them to be a nation of great fools. [82] +In England, if you write dwarf on the back of a giant, he will go +for a dwarf. + +[Footnote 82: Vol. iii. p. 135.] + +_North_.--I perceive; some wag has been chalking your back in that +fashion. Why don't you label your breast with the word giant? +Perhaps you would then pass for one. + +_Landor_.--I have so labelled it, but in vain. + +_North_.--Yet we have seen some great men, besides yourself, +Mr. Landor, in our own day. Some great military commanders, for +example; and, as a particular instance, Wellington. + +_Landor_.--It cannot be dissembled that all the victories of the +English, in the last fifty years, have been gained by the high +courage and steady discipline of the soldier, [83] and the most +remarkable where the prudence and skill of the commander were +altogether wanting. + +[Footnote 83: Vol. ii. p 214.] + +_North_.--Ay, that was a terrible mistake at Waterloo. Yet you +will allow Wellington to have been something of a general, if not in +India, at least in Spain. + +_Landor_.--Suppose him, or any distinguished general of the English, +to have been placed where Murillo was placed in America, Mina in +Spain; then inform me what would have been your hopes? [84] +The illustrious Mina, [85] of all the generals who have appeared in our +age, has displayed the greatest genius, and the greatest constancy. +That exalted personage, the admiration of Europe, accomplished the +most arduous and memorable work that any one mortal ever brought to +its termination. + +[Footnote 84: Vol. ii. p. 214.] + +[Footnote 85: Vol. ii. p. 3. Ded. "to Mina."--Wilson.] + +_North_.--We have had some distinguished statesmen at the helm in +our time, Mr. Landor. + +_Landor_.--Not one. + +_North_.--Mr. Pitt. + +_Landor_.--Your pilot that weathered the storm. Ha, ha! He was the +most insidious republican that England ever produced. + +_North_.--You should like him if he was a Republican. + +_Landor_.--But he was a debaser of the people as well as of the +peerage. By the most wasteful prodigality both in finance and war, +he was enabled to distribute more wealth among his friends and +partisans than has been squandered by the uncontrolled profusion of +French monarchs from the first Louis to the last. [86] Yet he was +more short-sighted than the meanest insect that can see an inch +before it. You should have added those equally enlightened and +prudent leaders of our Parliament, Lord Castlereagh and his +successors. Pitt, indeed! whose requisites for a successful minister +were three--to speak like an honest man, to act like a scoundrel, +and to be indifferent which he is called. But you have forgotten my +dialogue between him and that wretched fellow Canning. [87] +I have there given Pitt his quietus. As to Castlereagh and Canning, +I have crushed them to powder, spit upon them, kneaded them into +dough again; and pulverized them once more. Canning is the man who +deserted his party, supplanted his patrons, and abandoned every +principle he protested he would uphold. [88] Castlereagh is the +statesman who was found richer one day, by a million of zecchins, +than he was the day before, and this from having signed a treaty! +The only life he ever personally aimed at was the vilest in existence, +and none complains that he succeeded in his attempt. [89] I forgot: +he aimed at another so like it, (you remember his duel with Canning,) +that it is a pity it did not form a part of it. + +[Footnote 86: Vol. ii. p. 240, 241, 242.] + +[Footnote 87: Vol. iii. p. 66.] + +[Footnote 88: Vol. iii. p. 134.] + +[Footnote 89: Vol. iii. p. 172, and that there should be no mistake as +to the person indicated, Lord Castlereagh is again accused by name +at p. 187. The same charge occurs also in the dialogue between +Aristotle and Calisthenes! p 334, 335, 336; where Prince Metternich, +(Metanyctius,) the briber, is himself represented as a traitor to +his country. Aristotle is the teller of this cock-and-bull story!] + +_North_.--Horrible! most horrible! + +_Landor_.--Hear Epicurus and Leontion and Ternissa discuss the +merits of Castlereagh and Canning. + +_North_.--Epicurus! What, the philosopher who flourished some +centuries before the Christian era? + +_Landor_.--The same. He flourishes still for my purposes. + +_North_.--And who are Leontion and Ternissa? + +_Landor_.--Two of his female pupils. + +_North_.--Oh, two of his misses! And how come they and their master, +who lived above 2000 years before the birth of Canning and +Castlereagh, to know any thing about them? + +_Landor_.--I do not stand at trifles of congruity. Canning is the +very man who has taken especial care that no strong box among us +shall be without a chink at the bottom; the very man who asked and +received a gratuity (you remember the Lisbon job) [90] from the colleague +he had betrayed, belied, and thrown a stone at, for having proved +him in the great market-place a betrayer and a liar. Epicurus describes +Canning as a fugitive slave, a writer of epigrams on walls, and of songs +on the grease of platters, who attempted to cut the throat of a fellow +in the same household, [91] who was soon afterward more successful in doing +it himself. + +[Footnote 90: Vol. iv. p. 194.] + +[Footnote 91: Vol. iv. p. 194.] + +_North_.--Horrible, most horrible mockery! But even that is not new. +It is but Byron's brutal scoff repeated--"Carotid-artery-cutting +Castlereagh." + +_Landor_.--You Tories affect to be so squeamish. Epicurus goes on +to show Canning's ignorance of English. + +_North_.--Epicurus! Why not William Cobbett? + +_Landor_.--The Athenian philosopher introduces the trial of George +the Fourth's wife, and describes her as a drunken old woman, the +companion of soldiers and sailors, and lower and viler men. One +whose eyes, as much as can be seen of them, are streaky fat floating +in semi-liquid rheum. + +_North_.--And this is the language of Epicurus to his female pupils! +He was ever such a beast. + +_Landor_.--You are delicate. He goes on to allude to Canning's +having called her the _pride, the life, the ornament of society_, +(you know he did so call her in the House of Commons, according to +the newspaper reports; it is true he was speaking of what she had +been many years previously; before her departure from England.) [92] +Epicurus says triumphantly that the words, if used at all, should +have been placed thus--_the ornament, pride, and life_; for hardly a +Boeotian bullock-driver would have wedged in _life_ between _pride_ +and _ornament_. + +[Footnote 92: Vol. iv. p. 194, 195.--Pericles and Sophocles also +prattle about Queen Caroline! vol. 2, p. 106, 107.--In another place +the judgment and style of Johnson being under sentence, the Doctor's +judgment is "alike in all things," that is, "unsound and incorrect;" +and as to style, "a sentence of Johnson is like a pair of breeches, +an article of dress, divided into two parts, equal in length, breadth, +and substance, with a protuberance before and behind." The _contour_ +of Mr. Landor's figure can hardly be so graceful as that of the +Pythian Apollo, if his dress-breeches are made in this fashion, and +"his Florentine tailor never fails to fit him."--See vol. i. p. 296, +and p. 185, note.] + +_North_.--What dignified and important criticism! and how +appropriate from the lips of Epicurus! But why were you, Mr. Landor, +so rancorous against that miserable Queen Caroline? You have half +choked Sir Robert Wilson, one of her champions, and the marshal of +her coffin's royal progress through London, with a reeking panegyric +in your dedication to him [93] of a volume of your Talks. + +[Footnote 93: Vol. iii.] + +_Landor_.--I mistook Wilson for an uncompromising Radical. As to +his and Canning's nobled Queen, I confess I owed her a grudge for +disrespect to me at Como long before. + +_North_.--How? Were you personally acquainted with her? + +_Landor_.--Not at all: She was not aware that there was such a man +as Walter Savage Landor upon earth, or she would have taken care +that I should not be stopt by her porter at the lodge-gate, when I +took a fancy to pry into the beauties of her pleasure-ground. + +_North_.--Then her disrespect to you was not only by deputy, but +even without her cognisance? + +_Landor_.--Just so. + +_North_.--And that was the offence for which you assailed her with +such a violent invective after her death? + +_Landor_.--Oh no! it might possibly have sharpened it a little; +but I felt it my duty, as a censor of morals, to mark my reprobation +of her having grown fat and wrinkled in her old age. It was +necessary for me to correct the flattering picture drawn of her by +that caitiff Canning. You know the contempt of Demosthenes for +Canning. + +_North_.--Demosthenes, too! + +_Landor_.--Yes, in my dialogue between him and Eubulides, he +delineates Canning as a clumsy and vulgar man. + +_North_.--Every one knows that he was a man of remarkably fine +person and pleasing manners. + +_Landor_.--Never mind that--A vulgar and clumsy man, a +market-place demagogue, lifted on a honey-barrel by grocers and +slave-merchants, with a dense crowd around him, who listen in +rapture because his jargon is unintelligible. [94] Demosthenes, you +know, was a Liverpool electioneering agent, so he knew all about +Canning and his tricks, and his abstraction of L.14,000 sterling +from the public treasury to defray the expenses of his shameful +flight to Lesbos, that is Lisbon.[95] + +[Footnote 94: Vol. i. p. 245.] + +[Footnote 95: Vol. i. p. 247. This charge against Canning is +repeated at Vol. iii. p. 186, 187, and again at Vol. iv. p. 193.] + +_North_.--Has England produced no honest men of eminence, +Mr. Landor? + +_Landor_.--Very few; I can, however, name two--Archbishop Boulter +and Philip Savage. [96] I am not certain that I should ever have thought +of recording their merits, if their connexion with my own family had +not often reminded me of them; we do not always bear in mind very +retentively what is due to others, unless there is something at home +to stimulate the recollection. Boulter, Primate of Ireland, saved +that kingdom from pestilence and famine in 1729 by supplying the +poor with bread, medicines, attendance, and every possible comfort +and accommodation. Again, in 1740 and 1741, no fewer than 250,000 +persons were fed, twice a-day, principally at his expense. Boulter +was certainly the most disinterested, the most humane, the most +beneficent, and after this it is little to say, the most enlightened +and learned man that ever guided the counsels of a kingdom.[97] +Mr. Philip Savage, Chancellor of the Exchequer, married his wife's +sister, of his own name, but very distantly related. This minister +was so irreproachable, that even Swift could find no fault with him. +[97] He kept a groom in livery, and two saddle-horses. + +[Footnote 96: Also Vol. iii. p. 92.] + +[Footnote 97: Vol. iii. p. 91, 92, note.] + +_North_.--Is it possible? And these great men were of your family, +Mr. Landor! + +_Landor_.--I have told you so, sir--Philip was one of my Savage +ancestors, [98] and he and Boulter married sisters, who were also Savages. + +[Footnote 98: Vol. iii. p. 92, note.] + +_North_.--You have lived a good while in Italy? You like the +Italians, I believe? + +_Landor_.--I despise and abominate the Italians; and I have taken +some pains to show it in various ways. During my long residence at +Florence I was the only Englishman there, I believe, who never went +to court, leaving it to my hatter, who was a very honest man, and my +breeches-maker, who never failed to fit me. [99] The Italians were +always--far exceeding all other nations--parsimonious and avaricious, +the Tuscans beyond all other Italians, the Florentines beyond all other +Tuscans. [100] + +[Footnote 99: Vol. i. p. 185.] + +[Footnote 100: Vol. i. p. 219.] + +_North_.--But even Saul was softened by music: surely that of +Italy must have sometimes soothed you? + +_Landor_.--_Opera_ was, among the Romans, _labour_, as _operae +pretium_, &c. It now signifies the most contemptible of performances, +the vilest office of the feet and tongue. [101] + +[Footnote 101: Vol. i. p. 212.] + +_North_.--But the sculptors, the painters, the architects of Italy? +You smile disdainfully, Mr. Landor! + +_Landor_.--I do; their sculpture and painting have been employed +on most ignoble objects--on scourgers and hangmen, on beggarly +enthusiasts and base impostors. Look at the two masterpieces of the +pencil; the Transfiguration of Raphael, and the St. Jerome of +Correggio; [102] can any thing be more incongruous, any thing more +contrary to truth and history? + +[Footnote 102: Vol. i. p. 109, note.] + +_North_.--There have been able Italian writers both in verse and +prose? + +_Landor_.--In verse not many, in prose hardly any. + +_North_.--Boccaccio? + +_Landor_.--He is entertaining. + +_North_.--Machiavelli? + +_Landor_.--A coarse comedian. [103] + +[Footnote 103: Vol. ii. p. 252.] + +_North_.--You honour Ariosto? + +_Landor_.--I do not. Ariosto is a plagiary, the most so of all +poets. [104] Ariosto is negligent; his plan inartificial, defective, bad. + +[Footnote 104: Vol. i. p. 290.] + +_North_.--You protect Tasso? + +_Landor_.--I do, especially against his French detractors. + +_North_.--But you esteem the French? + +_Landor_.--I despise and abominate the French. + +_North_.--And their literature! + +_Landor_.--And their literature. As to their poets, bad as Ariosto +is, divide the Orlando into three parts, and take the worst of them, +and although it may contain a large portion of extremely vile poetry, +it will contain more of good than the whole French language. [105] + +[Footnote 105: Vol. i. p. 290.] + +_North_.--Is Boileau so very contemptible? + +_Landor_.--Beneath contempt. He is a grub. [106] + +[Footnote 106: See Mr. Landor's Polite Conversation with De Lille, +Vol. i. and Note at the end, p. 309, 310.] + +_North_.--Racine? + +_Landor_.--Diffuse, feeble, and, like Boileau, meanly thievish. +The most admired verse of Racine is stolen, [107] so is almost every other +that is of any value. + +[Footnote 107: Vol. i. p. 293, 294.] + +_North_.--But Voltaire, Mr. Landor? + +_Landor_.--Voltaire, sir, was a man of abilities, and author of +many passable epigrams, besides those which are contained in his +tragedies and heroics, [108] though, like Parisian lackeys, they are +usually the smartest when out of place. I tell you I detest and +abominate every thing French. [109] + +[Footnote 108: Vol. i. p. 254.] + +[Footnote 109: We, however, find Mr. Landor giving the French credit +for their proceedings in one remarkable instance, and it is so +seldom that we catch him in good-humour with any thing, that we will +not miss an opportunity of exhibiting him in an amiable light. This +champion of the liberties of the world, who has cracked his lungs in +endeavouring, on the shores of Italy, to echo the lament of Byron +over Greece, and who denounced the powers of Europe for suffering +the Duke d'Angouleme to assist his cousin Ferdinand in retaking the +Trocadero, yet approves of French proceedings in Spain on a previous +occasion. Admiring reader! you shall hear Sir Oracle himself again:-- +"The laws and institutions introduced by the French into Spain were +excellent, and the _king_" (Joseph Bonaparte!) "was liberal, affable, +sensible, and humane." Poor Trelawney, the friend of Byron, is made +to talk thus! Both Trelawney and Odysseus the noble Greek, to whom +he addresses himself, were more likely to participate in the +"indignation of a high-minded Spaniard," so vividly expressed by a +high-minded Englishman in the following sonnet:-- + + "We can endure that he should waste our lands, + Despoil our temples, and, by sword and flame, + Return us to the dust from which we came; + Such food a tyrant's appetite demands: + And we can brook the thought, that by his hands + Spain may be overpower'd, and he possess, + For his delight, a solemn wilderness, + Where all the brave lie dead. But, when of bands + That he will break for us he dares to speak, + Of benefits, and of a future day + When our enlighten'd minds shall bless his sway-- + Then the strain'd heart of fortitude proves weak; + Our groans, our blushes, our pale cheeks declare + That he has power to inflict what we lack strength to bear."] + +_North_.--Well, Mr. Landor, we have rambled over much ground; we +have journeyed from Dan to Beersheba, and found all barren. Let us +return home. + +_Landor_.--Before we do so, let me observe, that among several +noted Italians whom you have not glanced at, there is one whom I +revere--Alfieri. He was the greatest man of his time in Europe, +though not acknowleged or known to be so; [110] and he well knew his +station as a writer and as a man. Had he found in the world five equal +to himself, he would have walked out of it not to be jostled. [111] + +[Footnote 110: Vol. ii. p. 241.] + +[Footnote 111: Vol. ii. p. 258.] + +_North_.--He would have been sillier, then, than the flatulent +frog in the fable. Yet Alfieri's was, indeed, no ordinary mind, and +he would have been a greater poet than he was, had he been a better +man. I admire his Bruto Primo as much as you do, and I am glad to +hear you give your suffrage so heartily in favour of any one. + +_Landor_.--Sir, I admire the man as much as I do the poet. It is +not every one who can measure his height; I can. + +_North_.--Pop! there you go! you have got out of the bottle again, +and are swelling and vapouring up to the clouds. Do lower yourself +to my humble stature, (I am six feet four in my slippers.) Alfieri +reminds me of Byron. What of him? + +_Landor_.--A sweeper of the Haram. [112] A sweeper of the Haram is +equally in false costume whether assuming the wreath of Musaeus or +wearing the bonnet of a captain of Suliotes. _I_ ought to have been +chosen a leader of the Greeks. I would have led them against the +turbaned Turk to victory, armed not with muskets or swords but with +bows and arrows, and mailed not in steel cuirasses or chain armour +but in cork caps and cork shirts. Nothing is so cool to the head as +cork, and by the use of cork armour the soldier who cannot swim has +all the advantage of him who can. At the head of my swimming archers +I would have astonished the admirers of Leander and Byron in the +Dardanelles, and I would have proved myself a Duck worth two of the +gallant English admiral who tried in vain to force that passage. The +Sultan should have beheld us in Stamboul, and we would have +fluttered his dovecote within the Capi--- + +[Footnote 112: Vol. i. p. 301.--Vol. ii. p. 222, 223.] + +_North_.--I will not tempt you further. Let us proceed to business. +To what am I indebted for the honour of this visit, Mr. Landor? + +_Landor_.--I sent you the manuscript of a new Imaginary +Conversation between Porsou and Southey. + +_North_.--A sort of abnegation of your former one. For what +purpose did you send it to me? + +_Landor_.--For your perusal. Have you read it? + +_North_.--I have, and I do not find it altogether new. + +_Landor_.--How? + +_North_.--I have seen some part of it in print before. + +_Landor_.--Where? + +_North_.--In a production of your own. + +_Landor_.--Impossible! + +_North_.--In a rhymed lampoon printed in London in 1836. It is +called "A Satire on Satirists, and Admonition to Detractors." Do you +know such a thing? + +_Landor_.--(_Aside_. Unlucky! some good-natured friend has sent +him that suppressed pamphlet.) Yes, Mr. North; a poetical manifesto +of mine with that title was printed but not published. + +_North_.--No, only privately distributed among friends. It +contained some reflections on Wordsworth. + +_Landor_.--It did. + +_North_.--Why did you suppress it? + +_Landor_.--Because I was ashamed of it. Byron and others had +anticipated me. I had produced nothing either new or true to damage +Wordsworth. + +_North_.--Yet you have now, in this article that you offer me, +reproduced the same stale gibes. + +_Landor_.--But I have kept them in salt for six years: they will +now have more flavour. I have added some spice, too. + +_North_.--Which you found wrapt up in old leaves of the _Edinburgh +Review_. + +_Landor_.--Not the whole of it; a part was given to me by +acquaintances of the poet. + +_North_.--Eavesdroppers about Rydal Mount and Trinity Lodge. It was +hardly worth your acceptance. + +_Landor_.--Then you refuse my article. + +_North_.--It is a rare article, Mr. Landor--a brave caricature of +many persons and things; but, before I consent to frame it in ebony, +we must come to some understanding about other parts of the +suppressed pamphlet. Here it is. I find that in this atrabilarious +effusion you have treated ourselves very scurvily. At page 9 I see, + + "Sooner shall Tuscan Vallambrosa lack wood, + Than Britain, Grub street, Billingsgate, and _Blackwood_." + +Then there is a note at page 10: "Who can account for the eulogies of +_Blackwood_ on Sotheby's Homer as compared with Pope's and Cowper's? +Eulogy is not reported to be the side he _lies_ upon, in general." +On the same page, and the next, you say of Us, high Churchmen and +high Tories, + + "Beneath the battlements of Holyrood + There never squatted a more sordid brood + Than that which now, across the clotted perch, + Crookens the claw and screams for Court and Church." + +Then again at page 12, + + "Look behind you, look! + There issues from the Treasury, dull and dry as + The leaves in winter, Gifford and Matthias. + Brighter and braver Peter Pindar started, + And ranged around him all the lighter-hearted, + When Peter Pindar sank into decline, + Up from his hole sprang Peter Porcupine" + +All which is nothing to Us, but what does it lead to? + + "Him W ... son follow'd"-- + +Why those dots, Mr. Landor? + + "Him W ... son follow'd, of congenial quill, + As near the dirt and no less prone to ill. + Walcot, of English heart, had English pen, + Buffoon he might be, but for hire was none; + Nor plumed and mounted in Professor's chair + Offer'd to grin for wages at a fair." + +The rest is too foul-mouthed for repetition. You are a man of nasty +ideas, Mr. Landor. You append a note, in which, without any +authority but common rumour, you exhibit the learned Professor as an +important contributor to Blackwood, especially in those graces of +delicate wit so attractive to his subcribers. You declare, too, that +we fight under cover, and only for spite and pay; that honester and +wiser satirists were brave, that-- + + "Their courteous soldiership, outshining ours, + Mounted the engine and took aim from towers;" + +But that + + "From putrid ditches we more safely fight, + And push our zig-zag parallels by night." + +Again, at page 19-- + + "The Gentleman's, the Lady's we have seen, + Now blusters forth the Blackguard's Magazine; + And (Heaven from joint-stock companies protect us!) + Dustman and nightman issue their prospectus." + +_Landor (who has sate listening, with a broad grin, while Mr. North +was getting rather red in the face_.)--Really, Mr. North, +considering that you have followed the trade of a currier for the +last thirty years, you are remarkably sensitive to any little +experiment on your own skin. Put what has my unpublished satire to +do with our present affair? + +_North_.--The answer to that question I will borrow from the +satire itself, as you choose to term your scurrilous lampoon. Our +present affair, then, is to consider whether Walter Savage Landor, +Imaginary Conversation writer, in rushlight emulation of the +wax-candles that illumine our Noctes, shall be raised, as he aspires, +to the dignity of Fellow of the _Blackwood_ Society. In the +note at page 13 of the said lampoon, you state that "Lord Byron +declared that no gentleman could write in _Blackwood_;" and +you ask, "Has this assertion been ever disproved by experiment?" Now, +Mr. Landor, as you have thus adopted and often re-echoed Lord Byron's +opinion, that _no gentleman could write in Blackwood_, and yet wish +to enrol yourself among our writers, what is the inference? + +_Landor_. That I confess myself no gentleman, _you_ would infer. +_I_ make no such confession. I would disprove Byron's assertion, +by making the experiment. + +_North_. You do us too much honour. Yet reflect, Mr. Landor. After +the character you have given us, would you verily seek to be of our +fraternity? You who have denounced us so grandiloquently--you who +claim credit for lofty and disinterested principles of action? +Recollect that you have represented us as the worthy men who have +turned into ridicule Lamb, Keats, Hazlitt, Coleridge--(diverse +metals curiously graduated!)--all in short, who, recently dead, are +now dividing among them the admiration of their country. Whatever +could lessen their estimation; whatever could injure their fortune; +whatever could make their poverty more bitter; whatever could tend +to cast down their aspirations after fame; whatever had a tendency +to drive them to the grave which now has opened to them, was +incessantly brought into action against them by _us_ zealots for +religion and laws. A more deliberate, a more torturing murder, never +was committed, than the murder of Keats. The chief perpetrator of +his murder knew beforehand that he could not be hanged for it. These +are your words, Mr. Landor. + +_Landor_.--I do not deny them. + +_North_.--And in regard to the taste of the common public for +Blackwood's Cordials, you have said that, to those who are +habituated to the gin-shop, the dram is sustenance, and they feel +themselves both uncomfortable and empty without the hot excitement. +_Blackwood's_ is really a gin-palace. _Landor_.--All this I have +both said and printed, and the last sentence you have just read from +my satire is preceded by one that you have not read. An exposure of +the impudence and falsehood of _Blackwood's Magazine_ is not likely +to injure its character, _or diminish the number of its subscribers_; +and in this sentence you have the secret of my desire to become a +contributor to _Blackwood_. I want a popular vehicle to convey my +censures to the world, especially on Wordsworth. I do not pretend to +have any love for you and your brotherhood, Mr. North. But I dislike +you less than I do Wordsworth; and I frankly own to you, that the +fame of that man is a perpetual blister to my self-love. + +_North_.--Your habitual contemplation of his merits has confused +you into a notion that they are your own, and you think him an +usurper of the laurel crown that is yours by the divine right of +genius. What an unhappy monomania! Still, your application for +redress to us is unaccountable. You should know that we Black +Foresters, lawless as you may suppose us, are Wordsworth's liegemen. +He is our intellectual Chief. We call him the General! We are ever +busy in promoting his fame. + +_Landor_.--You are always blowing hot and cold on it, and have +done so for years past. One month you place him among the stars, the +next as low as the daisies. + +_North_.--And rightly too; for both are the better for his presence. + +_Landor_.--But you alternately worship and insult him, as some +people do their wooden idols. + +_North_.--If you must learn the truth, then, he has been to us, in +one sense, nothing better than an unfeeling wooden idol. Some of us +have been provoked by his indifference to our powers of annoyance, +and his ingratitude in not repaying eulogy in kind. We have among +ourselves a gander or two, (no offence, Mr. Landor,) that, +forgetting they are webfooted, pretend to a perch on the tall +bay-tree of Apollo, and, though heavy of wing, are angry with +Wordsworth for not encouraging their awkward flights. They, like you, +accuse him of jealousy, forsooth! That is the reason that they are +now gabbling at his knees, now hissing at his heels. Moreover, our +caprices are not unuseful to our interests. We alternately pique and +soothe readers by them, and so keep our customers. As day is +partitioned between light and darkness, so has the public taste as +to Wordsworth been divided between his reverers and the followers of +the Jeffrey heresy. After a lengthened winter, Wordsworth's glory is +now in the long summer days; all good judgments that lay torpid have +been awakened, and the light prevails against the darkness. But as +bats and owls, the haters of light, are ever most restless in the +season when nights are shortest, so are purblind egotists most +uneasy when their dusky range is contracted by the near approach and +sustained ascendancy of genius. We now put up a screen for the +weak-sighted, now withdraw it from stronger eyes; thus we plague and +please all parties. + +_Landor_.--Except Wordsworth, whose eyelids are too tender to +endure his own lustre reflected and doubled on the focus of your +burnished brass. He dreads the fate of Milton, "blasted with excess +of light." + +_North_. Thank you, sir; that is an ingenious way of accounting for +Wordsworth's neglect of our luminous pages. Yet it rather sounds +like irony, coming from Mr. Walter Savage Landor to the editor of +"The (Not Gentleman's) Magazine." + +_Landor_.--Pshaw! still harping on my Satire. + +_North_.--In that Satire you have charged Wordsworth with having +talked of Southey's poetry as not worth five shillings a ream. So +long as you refrained from _publishing_ this invidious imputation, +even those few among Wordsworth's friends who knew that you had +_printed_ it, (Southey himself among the number,) might think it +discreet to leave the calumny unregarded. But I observe that you +have renewed it, in a somewhat aggravated form, in the Article that +you now wish me to publish. You here allege that Wordsworth +represented Southey as an author, _all_ whose poetry was not worth +five shillings. You and I both know that Wordsworth would not deign +to notice such an accusation. Through good and evil report, the +brave man persevered in his ascent to the mountain-top, without ever +even turning round to look upon the rabble that was hooting him from +its base; and he is not likely now to heed such a charge as this. +But his friends may now ask, on what authority it is published? Was +it to you, Mr. Walter Landor, whom Southey (in his strange affection +for the name of Wat) had honoured with so much kindness--to you +whose "matin chirpings" he had so generously encouraged, (as he did +John Jones's "mellower song,")--was it to you that Wordsworth +delivered so injurious a judgment on the works of your patron? If so, +what was your reply? [113] + +[Footnote 113: + "I lagg'd; he (Southey) call'd me; urgent to prolong + My matin chirpings into mellower song."--LANDON. ] + +_Landor_.--Whether it was expressed to myself or not, is of little +consequence; it has been studiously repeated, and even printed by +others as well as by me. + +_North_.--By whom? + +_Landor_.--That, too, is of no importance to the fact. + +_North_.--I am thoroughly convinced that it is no fact, and that +Wordsworth never uttered any thing like such an opinion in the sense +that you report it. He and Southey have been constant neighbours and +intimate friends for forty years; there has never been the slightest +interruption to their friendship. Every one that knows Wordsworth is +aware of his frank and fearless openness in conversation. He has +been beset for the last half century, not only by genuine admirers, +but by the curious and idle of all ranks and of many nations, +and sometimes by envious and designing listeners, who have +misrepresented and distorted his casual expressions. Instances of +negligent and infelicitous composition are numerous in Southey, as +in most voluminous authors. Suppose some particular passage of this +kind to have been under discussion, and Mr. Wordsworth to have +exclaimed, "I would not give five shillings a ream for such poetry +as that." Southey himself would only smile, (he had probably heard +Wordsworth express himself to the same effect a hundred times); but +some insidious hearer catches at the phrase, and reports it as +Wordsworth's sweeping denunciation of all the poetry that his friend +has ever written, in defiance of all the evidence to the contrary to +be met with, not only in Wordsworth's every-day conversation, but in +his published works. There is no man for whose genius Mr. Wordsworth +has more steadily or consistently testified his admiration than for +Southey's; there is none for whom, and for whose character, he has +evinced more affection and respect. You and I, who have both read +his works, and walked and talked with the Old Man of the Mountain, +know that perfectly well. You have perhaps been under his roof, at +Rydal Mount? I have; and over his dining-room fireplace I observed, +as hundreds of his visitors must have done, five portraits--Chaucer's, +Bacon's, Spenser's, Shakspeare's, and Milton's, in one line. On the +same line is a bust on the right of these, and a portrait on the left; +and there are no other ornaments on that wall of the apartment. That +bust and that portrait are both of Southey, the man whom you pretend +he has so undervalued! By the bye, no one has been more ardent in +praise of Wordsworth than yourself. + +_Landor_.--You allude to the first dialogue between Southey and +Porson, in Vol. i. of my _Imaginary Conversations_. + +_North_.--Not to that only, though in that dialogue there are +sentiments much at variance with those which you would now give out +as Porson's. For example, remember what Porson there says of the +_Laodamia_. + +_Landor_.--The most fervid expression in commendation of it is +printed as Porson's improperly, as the whole context shows. It +should have been Southey's. + +_North_.--So, I perceive, you say in this new dialogue; and such a +mode of attempting to turn your back on yourself, to borrow a phrase +from your friend Lord Castlereagh's rhetoric, will be pronounced, +even by those who do not care a bawbee about the debate, as not only +ludicrous, but pitiably shabby. Keep your seat, Mr. Landor, and keep +your temper for once in your life. Let us examine into this +pretended mistake in your former dialogue about _Laodamia_. Well, as +you are up, do me the favour, sir, to mount the ladder, and take +down from yon top shelf the first volume of your _Conversations_. Up +in the corner, on the left hand, next the ceiling. You see I have +given you a high place. + +_Landor_.--Here is the book, Mr. North; it is covered with dust +and cobwebs. + +_North_.--The fate of classics, Mr. Landor. They are above the +reach of the housemaid, except when she brings the Turk's Head to +bear upon them. Now, let us turn to the list of _errata_ in this +first volume. We are directed to turn to page 52, line 4, and for +_sugar-bakers_, read _sugar-bakers' wives_. I turn to the page, +and find the error corrected by yourself; as are all the press +errors in these volumes, which were presented by you to a friend. I +bought the whole set for an old song at a sale. You see that the +omitted word _wives_ is carefully supplied by yourself, in your own +handwriting, Mr. Landor. On the same page, only five lines below +this correction, is the identical passage that you would now +transfer from Porson to Southey. Why did you not affix Porson's name +to the passage then, when you were so vigilantly perfecting the very +page? Why does no such correction appear even in the printed list of +_errata_? Let us read the passage. "A current of rich and bright +thoughts runs throughout the poem. [114] Pindar himself would not, on that +subject, have braced one into more nerve and freshness, nor +Euripides have inspired into it more tenderness and passion." + +[Footnote 114: Vol. i. p. 52.] + +_Landor_.--Mr. North, I repeat that that sentence should have been +printed as Southey's, not Porson's. + +_North_.--Yet it is quite consistent with a preceding sentence +which you can by no ingenuity of after-thought withdraw from Porson; +for the whole context forbids the possibility of its transition. +What does Porson there testify of the _Laodamia_? That it is +"_a composition such as Sophocles might have exulted to own_!"--and +a part of one of its stanzas "_might have been heard with shouts of +rapture in the Elysium the poet describes_." [115] + +[Footnote 115: Vol. i. p. 51. Few persons will think that Mr. Landor's +drift, which is obvious enough, could be favoured if these passages +could be _all_ shuffled over to Mr. Southey. It would be unwise and +inconsistent in Mr. Landor of all men to intimate that Southey's +judgment in poetry was inferior to Porson's; for Southey has been so +singular as to laud some of Mr. Landor's, and Mr. Landor has been so +grateful as to proclaim Southey the sole critic of modern times who +has shown "a delicate perception in poetry." It is rash, too, in him +to insinuate that Southey's opinion could be influenced by his +friendship; for he, the most amiable of men, was nevertheless a +friend of Mr. Lander also. But the only object of this argument is +to show how mal-adroitly Mr. Landor plays at thimblerig. He lets us +see him shift the pea. As for the praise and censure contained in +his dialogues, we have no doubt that any one concerned willingly +makes him a present of both. It is but returning bad money to +Diogenes. It is all Mr. Landor's; and, lest there should be any +doubt about the matter, he has taken care to tell us that he has not +inserted in his dialogues a single sentence written by, or recorded +of, the persons who are supposed to hold them.--See Vol. i. p. 96, +end of note.] + +These expressions are at least as fervid as those which you would +reclaim from Porson, now that, like a pettifogging practitioner, you +want to retain him as counsel against the most illustrious of +Southey's friends--the individual of whom in this same dialogue you +cause Southey to ask, "What man ever existed who spent a more retired, +a more inoffensive, a more virtuous life, than Wordsworth, or who +has adorned it with nobler studies?"--and what does Porson answer? +"I believe so; I have always heard it; and _those who attack +him with virulence or with levity are men of no morality and no +reflection_." [116] Thus you print Wordsworth's praise in rubric, +and fix it on the walls, and then knock your head against them. You +must have a hard skull, Mr. Landor. + +[Footnote 116: Vol. i. p. 40.] + +_Landor_.--Be civil, Mr. North, or I will brain you. + +_North_.--Pooh, pooh, man! all your Welsh puddles, which you call +pools, wouldn't hold my brains. To return to your proffered article, +there is one very ingenious illustration in it. "Diamonds sparkle +the most brilliantly on heads stricken by the palsy." + +_Landor_.--Yes; I flatter myself that I have there struck out a +new and beautiful, though somewhat melancholy thought. + +_North_.--New! My good man, it isn't yours; you have purloined +those diamonds. + +_Landor_.--From whom? + +_North_.--From the very poet you would disparage--Wordsworth. + + "Diamonds dart their brightest lustre + From the palsy-shaken head." + +Those lines have been in print above twenty years. + +_Landor_.--An untoward coincidence of idea between us. + +_North_.--Both original, no doubt; only, as Puff says in the +_Critic_, one of you thought of it the first, that's all. But how +busy would Wordsworth be, and how we should laugh at him for his +pains, if he were to set about reclaiming the thousands of ideas +that have been pilfered from him, and have been made the staple of +volumes of poems, sermons, and philosophical treatises without end! +He makes no stir about such larcenies. And what a coil have you made +about that eternal sea-shell, which you say he stole from you, and +which, we know, is the true and trivial cause of your hostility +towards him! + +_Landor_.--Surely I am an ill-used man, Mr. North. My poetry, if +not worth five shillings, nor thanks, nor acknowledgment, was yet +worth borrowing and putting on. I, the author of _Gebir_, Mr. North, +--do you mark me? + +_North_.--Yes; the author of Gebir and Gebirus; think of that, St. +Crispin and Crispanus! + + "Sing me the fates of Gebir, and the Nymph + Who challenged Tamar to a wrestling match, + And on the issue pledged her precious shell. + Above her knees she drew the robe succinct; + Above her breast, and just below her arms. + 'She, rushing at him, closed, and floor'd him flat. + And carried off the prize, a bleating sheep; + The sheep she carried easy as a cloak, + And left the loser blubbering from his fall, + And for his vanish'd mutton. Nymph divine! + I cannot wait describing how she came; + My glance first lighted on her nimble feet; + Her feet resembled those long shells explored + By him who, to befriend his steed's dim sight, + Would blow the pungent powder in his eye.'" [117] + +Is that receipt for horse eye-powder to be found in White's Farriery, +Mr. Landor? + +[Footnote 117: The lines within inverted commas, are Mr. Landor's, +without alteration.] + +_Landor_.--Perhaps not, Mr. North. Will you cease your fooling, +and allow me to proceed? "I," the author of _Gebir_, "never lamented +when I believed it lost." The MS. was mislaid at my grandmother's, +and lay undiscovered for four years. "I saw it neglected; and never +complained. Southey and Forster have since given it a place whence +men of lower stature are in vain on tiptoe to take it down. It would +have been honester and more decorous if the writer of certain verses +had mentioned from what bar he took his wine." [118] Now keep your ears +open, Mr. North; I will read my verses first, and then Wordsworth's. +Here they are. I always carry a copy of them both in my pocket. Listen! + +[Footnote 118: Mr. Landor's printed complaint, _verbatim_, from his +"Satire on Satirists."] + +_North_.--List, oh list! I am all attention, Mr. Landor. + +_Landor_ (reads.)-- + + "But I have sinuous shells of pearly hue + Within, and they that lustre have imbibed + In the sun's palace-porch, where, when unyoked, + His chariot-wheel stands midway in the wave." + + "Shake one, and it awakens--then apply + Its polish'd lip to your attentive ear, + And it remembers its august abodes, + And murmurs as the ocean murmurs there." + +These are lines for you, sir! They are mine. What do you think of +them? + +_North_.--I think very well of them; they remind one of +Coleridge's "Eolian Harp." They are very pretty lines, Mr. Landor. I +have written some worse myself. + +_Landor_--So has Wordsworth. Attend to the echo in the _Excursion_. + + "I have seen + A curious child, who dwelt upon a tract + Of inland ground, applying to his ear + The convolutions of a smooth-lipp'd shell, + To which, in silence hush'd, his very soul + Listen'd intensely, and his countenance soon + Brighten'd with joy; for, murmuring from within, + Were heard sonorous cadences, whereby, + To his belief, the monitor express'd + Mysterious union with its native sea." + +_North_.--There is certainly much resemblance between the two +passages; and, so far as you have recited Wordsworth's, his is not +superior to yours; which very likely, too, suggested it; though that +is by no means a sure deduction, for the thought itself is as common +as the sea-shell you describe, and, in all probability, at least as +old as the Deluge. + +_Landor_.--"_It is but justice to add, that this passage has been +the most admired of any in Mr. Wordsworth's great poem_." [119] + +[Footnote 119: From Mr. Landor, _verbatim_.] + +_North_.--Hout, tout, man! The author of the _Excursion_ could +afford to spare you a thousand finer passages, and he would seem +none the poorer. As to the imputed plagiarism, Wordsworth would no +doubt have avowed it had he been conscious that it was one, and that +you could attach so much importance to the honour of having reminded +him of a secret in conchology, known to every old nurse in the +country, as well as to every boy or girl that ever found a shell on +the shore, or was tall enough to reach one off a cottage parlour +mantelpiece; but which he could apply to a sublime and reverent +purpose, never dreamed of by them or you. It is in the application +of the familiar image, that we recognise the master-hand of the +poet. He does not stop when he has described the toy, and the +effect of air within it. The lute in Hamlet's hands is not more +philosophically dealt with. There is a pearl within Wordsworth's +shell, which is not to be found in your's, Mr. Landor. He goes on:-- + + "Even such a shell the universe itself + Is to the ear of Faith; and there are times, + I doubt not, when to you it cloth impart + Authentic tidings of invisible things-- + Of ebb and flow, and ever-during power, + And central peace subsisting at the heart + Of endless agitation." + +These are the lines of a poet, who not only stoops to pick up a +shell now and then, as he saunters along the sea-shore, but who is +accustomed to climb to the promontory above, and to look upon the +ocean of things:-- + + "From those imaginative heights that yield + Far-stretching views into eternity." + +Do not look so fierce again, Mr. Landor. You who are so censorious of +self-complacency in others, and indeed of all other people's faults, +real or imagined, should endure to have your vanity rebuked. + +_Landor_.--I have no vanity. I am too proud to be vain. + +_North_.--Proud of what? + +_Landor_.--Of something beyond the comprehension of a Scotchman, +Mr. North--proud of my genius. + +_North_.--Are you so very great a genius, Mr. Landor? + +_Landor_.--I am. _Almighty Homer is twice far above Troy and her +towers, Olympus and Jupiter. First, when Priam bends before Achilles, +and a second time, when the shade of Agamemnon speaks among the dead. +That awful spectre, called up by genius in after-time, shook the +Athenian stage. That scene was ever before me; father and daughter +were ever in my sight; I felt their looks, their words, and again I +gave them form and utterance; and, with proud humility, I say it_-- + + "I am tragedian in this scene alone. + Station the Greek and Briton side by side + And if derision be deserved--deride." + +_Surely there can be no fairer method of overturning an offensive +reputation, from which the scaffolding is not yet taken down, than +by placing against it the best passages, and most nearly parallel, +in the subject, from AEschylus and Sophocles. To this labour the +whole body of the Scotch critics and poets are invited, and, moreover, +to add the ornaments of translation_. [120] + +[Footnote 120: This strange rhapsody is verily Mr. Landor's. It is +extracted from his "Satire on the Satirists."] + +_North_.--So you are not only a match for AEschylus and Sophocles, +but on a par with "almighty Homer when he is far above Olympus and +Jove." Oh! ho! ho! As you have long since recorded that modest +opinion of yourself in print, and not been lodged in Bedlam for it, +I will not now take upon myself to send for a straight-waistcoat. + +_Landor_.--Is this the treatment I receive fron the Editor of +_Blackwood's Magazine_, in return for my condescension in offering +him my assistance? Give me back my manuscript, sir. I was indeed a +fool to come hither. I see how it is. You Scotchmen are all alike. +We consider no part of God's creation so cringing, so insatiable, so +ungrateful as the Scotch: nevertheless, we see them hang together by +the claws, like bats; and they bite and scratch you to the bone if +you attempt to put an Englishman in the midst of them. [121] But you +shall answer for this usage, Mr. North: you shall suffer for it. +These two fingers have more power than all your malice, sir, even if +you had the two Houses of Parliament to back you. A pen! You shall +live for it. [122] + +[Footnote 121: Imaginary Conversations, vol. iv, p. 283.] + +[Footnote 122: Ibid. vol. i. p. 126.] + +_North_.--Fair and softly, Mr. Landor; I have not rejected your +article yet. I am going to be generous. Notwithstanding all your +abuse of Blackwood and his countrymen, I consent to exhibit you to +the world as a Contributor to _Blackwood's Magazine_, and, in the +teeth of all your recorded admiration of Wordsworth, I will allow +you to prove yourself towards him a more formidable critic than +Wakley, and a candidate for immortality with Lauder. Do you rue? + +_Landor_.--Not at all. I have past the Rubicon. + +_North_.--Is that a pun? It is worthy of Plato. Mr. Landor, you +have been a friend of Wordsworth. But, as _he_ says-- + + "What is friendship? Do not trust her, + Nor the vows which she has made; + Diamonds dart their brightest lustre + From the palsy-shaken head." + +_Landor_.--I have never professed friendship for him. + +_North_.--You have professed something more, then. Let me read a +short poem to you, or at least a portion of it. It is an "Ode to +Wordsworth." + + + "O WORDSWORTH! + That other men should work for me + In the rich mines of poesy, + Pleases me better than the toil + Of smoothing, under harden'd hand, + With attic emery and oil, + The shining point for wisdom's wand, + Like those THOU temperest 'mid the rills + Descending from thy native hills. + He who would build his fame up high, + The rule and plummet must apply, + Nor say--I'll do what I have plann'd, + Before he try if loam or sand + Be still remaining in the place + Delved for each polish'd pillar's base. + _With skilful eye and fit device_ + THOU _raisest every edifice_: + Whether in shelter'd vale it stand, + Or overlook the Dardan strand, + Amid those cypresses that mourn + Laodamia's love forlorn." + +Four of the brightest intellects that ever adorned any age or country. +are then named, and a fifth who, though not equal to the least of +them, is not unworthy of their company; and what follows? + + "I wish them every joy above + That highly blessed spirits prove, + Save one, and that too shall be theirs, + But after many rolling years, + WHEN 'MID THEIR LIGHT THY LIGHT APPEARS." + +Here are Chaucer, Shakspeare, Milton, Spenser, Dryden too, all in +bliss above, yet not to be perfectly blest till the arrival of +Wordsworth among them! Who wrote that, Mr. Landor? [123] + +[Footnote 123: Whom Mr. L., who is the most capricious as well as the +most arrogant of censors, sometimes takes into favour.] + +_Landor_.--I did, Mr. North. + +_North_.--Sir, I accept your article. It shall be published in +_Blackwood's Magazine_. Good-morning, sir. + +_Landor_.--Good-day, sir. Let me request your particular attention +to the correction of the press. (_Landor retires_.) + +_North_.--He is gone! Incomparable Savage! I cannot more +effectually retaliate upon him for all his invectives against us +than by admitting his gossiping trash into the Magazine. No part of +the dialogue will be mistaken for Southey's; nor even for Porson's +inspirations from the brandy-bottle. + +All the honour due to the author will be exclusively Mr. Walter +Savage Landor's; and, as it is certainly "not worth five shillings," +no one will think it "worth borrowing or putting on." + + * * * * * + + + + +THE BURIAL MARCH OF DUNDEE. + + Sound the fife, and raise the slogan--let the pibroch shake the air + With its wild triumphal music, worthy of the freight we bear; + Let the ancient hills of Scotland hear once more the battle song + Swell within their glens and valleys as the clansmen march along. + Never, from the field of combat, never from the deadly fray, + Was a nobler trophy carried than we bring with us to-day: + Never, since the valiant Douglas in his dauntless bosom bore + Good King Robert's heart--the priceless--to our dear Redeemer's shore! + Lo! we bring with us the hero--Lo! we bring the conquering Graeme, + Crown'd as best beseems a victor from the altar of his fame; + Fresh and bleeding from the battle whence his spirit took its flight + Midst the crashing charge of squadrons, and the thunder of the fight! + Strike, I say, the notes of triumph, as we march o'er moor and lea, + Is there any here will venture to bewail our dead Dundee? + Let the widows of the traitors weep until their eyes are dim; + Wail ye may indeed for Scotland--let none dare to mourn for him! + See, above his glorious body lies the royal banner's fold-- + See, his valiant blood is mingled with its crimson and its gold-- + See how calm he looks and stately, like a warrior on his shield, + Waiting till the flush of morning breaks upon the battle field. + See--O never more, my comrades! shall we see that falcon eye + Kindle with its inward lightning, as the hour of fight drew nigh; + Never shall we hear the voice that, clearer than the trumpet's call, + Bade us strike for King and Country, bade us win the field or fall! + On the heights of Killiecrankie yester-morn our army lay: + Slowly rose the mist in columns from the river's broken way, + Hoarsely roar'd the swollen torrent, and the pass was wrapp'd in gloom + When the clansmen rose together from their lair among the broom. + Then we belted on our tartans, and our bonnets down we drew, + And we felt our broadswords' edges, and we proved them to be true, + And we pray'd the prayer of soldiers, and we cried the gathering cry, + And we clasp'd the hands of kinsmen, and we swore to do or die! + Then our leader rode before us on his war-horse black as night-- + Well the Cameronian rebels knew that charger in the fight!-- + And a cry of exultation from the bearded warriors rose, + For we loved the house of Claver'se, and we thought of good Montrose. + But he raised his hand for silence--"Soldiers, I have sworn a vow; + Ere the evening star shall glisten on Schehallion's lofty brow, + Either we shall rest in triumph, or another of the Graemes + Shall have died in battle harness for his country and King James! + Think upon the Royal Martyr--think of what his race endure-- + Think on him whom butchers murder'd on the field of Magus Muir;-- + By his sacred blood I charge ye--by the ruin'd hearth and shrine-- + By the blighted hopes of Scotland--by your injuries and mine-- + Strike this day as if the anvil lay beneath your blows the while, + Be they Covenanting traitors, or the brood of false Argyle! + Strike! and drive the trembling rebels backwards o'er the stormy Forth; + Let them tell their pale Convention how they fared within the North. + Let them tell that Highland honour is not to be bought nor sold, + That we scorn their Prince's anger, as we loathe his foreign gold. + Strike! and when the fight is over, if ye look in vain for me, + Where the dead are lying thickest, search for him who was Dundee!" + + Loudly then the hills re-echo'd with our answer to his call, + But a deeper echo sounded in the bosoms of us all. + For the lands of wide Breadalbane, not a man who heard him speak + Would that day have left the battle. Burning eye and flushing cheek + Told the clansmen's fierce emotion, and they harder drew their breath, + For their souls were strong within them, stronger than the grasp of + death. + Soon we heard a challenge-trumpet sounding in the pass below, + And the distant tramp of horses, and the voices of the foe; + Down we crouch'd amid the bracken, till the Lowland ranks drew near, + Panting like the hounds in summer when they scent the stately deer. + From the dark defile emerging, next we saw the squadrons come, + Leslie's foot and Leven's troopers marching to the tuck of drum; + Through the scatter'd wood of birches, o'er the broken ground and heath, + Wound the long battalion slowly till they gain'd the field beneath, + Then we bounded from our covert.--Judge how look'd the Saxons then, + When they saw the rugged mountain start to life with armed men! + Like a tempest down the ridges swept the hurricane of steel, + Rose the slogan of Macdonald--flash'd the broadsword of Lochiel! + Vainly sped the withering volley 'mongst the foremost of our band, + On we pour'd until we met them, foot to foot, and hand to hand. + Horse and man went down like drift-wood, when the floods are black at + Yule, + And their carcasses are whirling in the Garry's deepest pool. + Horse and man went down before us--living foe there tarried none + On the field of Killiecrankie, when that stubborn fight was done! + + And the evening star was shining on Schehallion's distant head, + When we wiped our bloody broadswords and return'd to count the dead. + There we found him, gash'd and gory, stretch'd upon the cumber'd plain, + As he told us where to seek him, in the thickest of the slain. + And a smile was on his visage, for within his dying ear + Peal'd the joyful note of triumph and the clansmen's clamorous cheer; + So, amidst the battle's thunder, shot, and steel, and scorching flame, + In the glory of his manhood pass'd the spirit of the Graeme! + + Open wide the vaults of Athol, where the bones of heroes rest-- + Open wide the hallow'd portals to receive another guest! + Last of Scots, and last of freemen--last of all that dauntless race, + Who would rather die unsullied than outlive the land's disgrace! + O thou lion-hearted warrior! reck not of the after-time, + Honour may be deem'd dishonour, loyalty be called a crime. + Sleep in peace with kindred ashes of the noble and the true, + Hands that never fail'd their country, hearts that never baseness knew. + Sleep, and till the latest trumpet wakes the dead from earth and sea, + Scotland shall not boast a braver chieftain than our own Dundee! + + W.E.A. + + * * * * * + + + + +LORD ELLENBOROUGH AND THE WHIGS. + + +The period of a single year but just elapsed has exhibited in the +neighbourhood of the Indus events of the most memorable and +momentous kind. Disasters the most disgraceful have been +endured--victories the most brilliant have been achieved. The policy +and the fortunes of a mighty empire under one governor, have been +wholly reversed under another. Safety and security have been +substituted for danger and dismay--a strong and dignified peace for +a weak and aggressive war. These changes have been coincident with a +great revolution in domestic politics. Under Whig auspices those +evils had arisen which their successors have now redressed. Under +the administration of Whigs, that flood of calamity was opened up +which has been arrested without their aid; but which could not have +continued its threatened course without the most perilous +consequences to the country, and the heaviest burden of responsibility +on the authors of the mischief. + +In such circumstances it might have been expected--if manly courage +or common decency were to be looked for in such a quarter--that on +these Eastern questions the Whig party should this session have +followed one or other of two courses: either that they should have +taken a bold line of opposition, and vindicated their own Indian +policy, while they attacked that of their successors: or that they +should have preserved a prudent silence on subjects where they could +say nothing in their own praise, and have only lifted up their voice +to join the general acclamations of the country for successes in +which, though not achieved by themselves, they had the best reason +to rejoice, as shielding them from the ignominy and punishment which, +in an opposite event, would have been poured out by public +indignation on the heads of the original wrongdoers. + +A strong or an honest party would have chosen one or other of these +lines. But the Whigs are neither strong nor honest; and they have +accordingly, in the late Indian discussions in Parlament, pursued a +course of policy in which it is difficult to say whether feebleness +or fraud be the more conspicuous. They have not ventured to +vindicate their own conduct in invading the Affghan country: they +have not dared to dispute the wisdom of their successors in retiring +from it, when the object of a just retribution was accomplished. But +while driven from these points--while forced to acknowledge the +ability and judgment with which the present Governor-General has +applied the forces of the empire to retrieve our honour and +reputation in the East--while unable to point to a single practical +measure as either improperly taken, or improperly omitted by him, +the Whigs could not refrain, on some pretext or other, from marring +the general joy by the discordant hissings of an impotent envy. +Experiencing in an unparalleled degree both the indulgence of a +generous nation, who are willing to forget the past in the enjoyment +of the present, and the forbearance of high-minded opponents, who +could easily have triumphed in the exposure of their disastrous +blunders, the Whigs have made a characteristic return, by +rancorously assailing the man whom the public views as its benefactor, +with captious criticisms on the terms of a proclamation, or +hypocritical objections to the transmission of a trophy. With that +cunning which the faction have often shown in the use of apparent +opportunities, they gained the reluctant concurrence of a few upright +men, of whose peculiar scruples they contrived to avail themselves, +but with an ignorance of the true English character, for which they +are equally distinguished, they overshot the mark, and stand +convicted of a design to make a verbal misconstruction the pretence +for persecuting an absent man, and to convert honest prejudices into +an unconscious instrument of oppression. They have thus earned a +large allowance of general contempt, and they have nowhere, perhaps, +excited a stronger feeling of disgust than in the minds of those who +thought themselves compelled, by a rigid conscience, to give a +seeming concurrence to their proceedings. + +In judging of the conduct and position of Lord Ellenborough, it were +gross ingratitude and injustice to forget the nature of the +calamities with which India was assailed and threatened at the +commencement of his goverment. In the second week of March 1842, the +overland mail from the East conveyed intelligence to our shores which +struck the nation to the very heart, and spread one universal +feeling of grief and dismay, approaching for a time as near to a +feeling of despondency as English breasts can be taught to know. Let +us describe the effect in the words of an impartial observer writing +at the time:-- + +"No such disastrous news has for many years reached this country as +that which has arrived from India. 'The progress of our arms' was +carried merrily on, till our flag was set beside that of our puppet, +Shah Soojah, in Cabul; but there the progress has abruptly +terminated in the total engulfing of 'our arms.' Yes, Sir William +Macnaghten had just written home to declare our supremacy established, +when all Cabul rose beneath his feet. Sir Alex. Burnes was the first +swallowed in the earthquake of arms; next Sir William himself, +governor of Bombay, and representative of the power of England in +North-Western India, was destroyed, and his mutilated remains were +made the object of ignominious ribaldry; and at length, if very +general rumour is to be believed, the English army of occupation has +been literally expunged. Corunna, Walcheren, all the reverses that +have chequered our military career, baffle the memory to find a +parallel to the utter defeat which, in the eyes of the barbarians of +the Indian frontier, has crushed our power."--_Spectator_, p. 242. + +These were the feelings that possessed this country, and which wrung, +even from the Whigs, with every wish to palliate them, an +acknowledgment of the heavy disasters which had befallen us. Pressed +with the weight of these convictions, Mr. Macaulay, in a debate on +the Income-tax, in April 1842, after _cannily_ disclaiming any +responsibility for the Affghan invasion, as having been effected +before he joined the Government, was driven to deplore these +military reverses as the greatest disaster that had ever befallen us: +and added, somewhat incongruously:-- + +"He did not anticipate, if we acted with vigour, the least danger to +our empire; though it must always be remembered that a great +Mahometan success could not but fall like a spark upon tinder, and +act on the freemasonry of Islamism from Morocco to Coromandel." + +What, then, must have been the feeling in India, in the very focus of +this calamitous visitation? Lord Auckland's despatches, now made +public, will tell us what _he_ felt. That he contemplated from the +first the total and instant evacuation of Affghanistan, without +attempting a blow for the vindication of our honour, or the release +of the prisoners, is past all dispute, from documents under his own +hand. Whether he is to be blamed for this resolution, or for the +state of matters which rendered it necessary, is not here the +question. But the fact is remarkable, as throwing further light on +the effrontery of the Whigs. Lord Palmerston, in last August, +twitted the Ministry with Lord Ellenborough's supposed intention to +retire from beyond the Indus, and congratulated the country on the +frustration of that intention, as having saved us "from the eternal +disgrace." He was answered by the Prime Minister at the time in +terms that might have been a warning, and that are now no longer a +mystery. + +"The noble lord presumed much on my forbearance, in what he said with +respect to the Affghan war: and I will not be betrayed by any +language of his to forget what I owe to the public service in +replying to him. It is easy to say, why don't you move troops to +Candahar; and why don't you move troops somewhere else? The noble +lord finds no difficulty in this; but does he recollect that 26,000 +camels, carrying the baggage of the troops in Affghanistan, were +sacrificed before they reached it? The noble lord says, 'Who +contemplated the abandonment of Affghanistan?' _I could tell the +noble lord_. Beware, I say; let the noble lord beware of +indiscriminate reflections upon those in office." + +It is now known "_who_ contemplated the abandonment of Affghanistan," +without a struggle to punish the perfidy of the Affghans, to avenge +the insults to our honour, or to redress the wrongs of our countrymen. +Lord Auckland resolved on this course, without even an aspiration +after any thing better than a safe retreat. Nor is such a resolution +to be wondered at when the state of our military preparations is +considered. A letter from Sir Jasper Nicolls, of 24th January 1842, +to the statements in which we see no contradiction in the _Blue Book_, +exhibits at once the condition of our resources, and the feelings of +the head of the Indian army. + +"After I had dispatched my letter to your Lordship in Council, I +received the note, of which I transmit a copy herewith, from the +Adjutant-General, and I had a second discussion with Mr. Clerk on the +subject of holding our ground at Jellalabad against any Affghan +power or force, in view to retrieving our position at Cabul, by +advancing upon it, at the fit season, simultaneously from Candahar +to Jellalabad. Having thus regained our position, and the influence +which such proof of power must give, not only in Affghanistan but +amongst all the neighbouring states, we should withdraw with dignity +and undiminished honour. Admitting the undeniable force of this +argument, I am greatly inclined to doubt that we have at present +either army or funds sufficient to renew this contest. Money may, +perhaps, be attainable, but soldiers are not, without leaving India +bare. Shortly before I left Calcutta, there were at least 33,000 men +in our pay in Affghanistan and Scinde, including Shah Soojah's troops, +but not the rabble attached to his person. How insufficient that +number has been to awe the barbarous and at first disunited tribes +of Affghanistan and Scinde, our numerous conflicts, our late reverses, +and our heavy losses fully prove. I admit that a blind confidence in +persons around the late envoy--a total want of forethought and +foresight on his part--unaccountable indecision at first, +followed by cessions which, day by day, rendered our force more +helpless--inactivity, perhaps, on some occasions--have led to these +reverses; but we must not overlook the effects of climate, the +difficulty of communication, the distance from our frontier, and the +fanatical zeal of our opponents. No doubt your lordship can cause an +army to force its way to Cabul, if you think our name and +predominance in India cannot otherwise be supported; but our means +are utterly insufficient to insure our dominion over that country. +If this be granted, the questions for your lordship's decision +are--whether we shall retake Cabul, to assert our paramount power; +and whether, if we subsequently retire, our subjects and neighbours +will not attribute our withdrawal even then, to conscious inability +to hold the country." + +In the same spirit the Commander-in-chief, in the beginning of +February transmitted to General Pollock, with the acquiescence of +lord Auckland, to whom he communicated his letter, the following +explanation of the views of Government:-- + +"You may deem it perfectly certain that Government will not do more +than detach this brigade, and this in view to support Major-General +Sale, either at Jellalabad for a few weeks, or to aid his retreat; +very probably also to strengthen the Sikhs at Peshawar for some time. +It is not intended to collect a force for the reconquest of Cabul. +You will convey the preceding paragraph, if you safely can, to the +Major-General." + +Such being the desponding views of the authorities stationed on the +spot, what must have been the anxiety of the new Governor-General on +his arrival in India, when this scene of disaster suddenly opened +upon him with a succession of still further calamities in its train? +We cannot better describe his position than in the words of Sir +Robert Peel, in his speech on the Whig motion for censure-- + +"The moment he set foot in Madras, what intelligence met him!--the +day he arrived at Benares, what a succession of events took place, +calculated to disturb the firmest mind, and to infuse apprehensions +into the breast of the boldest man! It has been said the cry in +England was, 'What next?' That was a question which Lord +Ellenborough had to put to himself for four or five days after his +arrival. He lands at Madras on the 15th of February, presuming at +the time that his predecessor had secured the admirable position so +frequently spoken of in Affghanistan. He lands at Madras, after a +four months' voyage, in necessary ignorance of all that had occurred +in that interval of time, and to his astonishment he hears of the +insurrection at Cabul. He receives tidings that Sir William +Macnaghten and Sir Alexander Burnes, the envoy and representative of +the British Government, had been murdered; that the city was in a +state of insurrection, and that doubts were entertained as to the +security of the British army. What next? He arrives at Calcutta, and +there hears of the orders of his predecessor to hasten the +evacuation of Affghanistan, for the noble reason of inflicting as +little discredit as possible upon the British powers. He repairs to +Benares, and there he hears the tremendous news that not only you +had lost power in Affghanistan, but that you had so depressed the +spirits and shaken the confidence of the native army, that General +Pollock gives this melancholy account in a letter to Captain M'Gregor: +--'It must no doubt appear to you and Sale most extraordinary, that, +with the force I have here, I do not at once move on; God knows it +has been my anxious wish to do so, but I have been helpless. I came +on ahead to Peshawar to arrange for an advance, but was saluted with +a report of 1900 sick, and a bad feeling among the Sepoys. I visited +the hospitals, and endeavoured to encourage by talking to them, but +they had no heart. On the 1st instant the feeling on the part of the +Sepoys broke out, and I had the mortification of knowing that the +Hindoos of four out of five native corps refused to advance. I +immediately took measures to sift the evil, and gradually reaction +has taken place, in the belief that I will wait for the +reinforcements. This has caused me the utmost anxiety on your account; +your situation is never out of my thoughts; but having told you what +I have, you and Sale will at once see that necessity has kept me here. +I verily believe, if I were to attempt to move on now without the +reinforcement, that the four regiments implicated would, as far as +the Hindoos are concerned, stand fast. The case, therefore, now +stands thus--whether I am to attempt, with my present materials, to +advance, and risk the appearance of disaffection or cowardice, which +in such a case could not again be got over, or wait the arrival of a +reinforcement, which will make all sure--this is the real state of +the case. If I attempted now, I might risk you altogether; but if +you can hold out, the reinforcements would make your relief as +certain as any earthly thing can be.' What next? On the 17th of April, +Lord Ellenborough hears of the failure of General England to force +the Kojuck Pass. On the 19th of April he hears that Ghuznee has +fallen. And what next? This was a question which, I repeat, Lord +Ellenborough had from day to day to put to himself. But what next? +Lord Ellenborough had to contemplate the retirement of the British +force from Afghanistan. This was due to the safety of the British +army, after the proof that the king you had set upon the throne had +no root in the affections of the people, and that the army in +possession of Affghanistan was separated from supplies by a distance +of 600 miles. Finding this state of things, Lord Ellenborough +thought he had no alternative but to bring the troops within the +borders of British protection. For that difficult operation your +policy, and not that of Lord Ellenborough, is responsible. Those who +involved the country in an expedition of this kind, ought justly to +be responsible for its retirement." + +It is needless to detail the difficulties in which the armies of +General Pollock and General Nott were then placed. Despondency and +desertion prevailed among the native troops, so as to render any +advance in the utmost degree hazardous, even if they had been +capable of moving. But of the means even of retrograde motion they +were utterly destitute. The explanations given in Parliament on the +vote of thanks to the army and the Governor-General, establish +beyond a doubt the absence of all means of carriage till the +indefatigable exertions of Lord Ellenborough supplied them with +every thing that was needed. The Whigs affect to disparage these +arrangements as belonging to the vulgar department of a +Commissary-General; and we may therefore infer that Lord +Ellenborough's predecessor would have deemed such a task beneath his +dignity, and left it to some delegate, who might have performed or +neglected his duty, as accident might direct. Had that been the case, +the chances are at least equal, that Lord Auckland would have been +as well and as successfully served in this branch of military +administration as he had already been in the occupation of Cabul, +and that further failures and reverses would have hung the tenure of +our Indian empire on the cast of a die. + +The evacuation of Affghanistan at the earliest possible period, was +dictated both by the proceedings of Lord Auckland, by the condition +of India, and by the peaceful policy of a Conservative Government. +But the mode in which it should be accomplished, and the +demonstrations of British power which should attend it, were +necessarily questions depending entirely "upon military +considerations;" and for several months it seemed impossible that +our armies could be put in a state of moral and physical strength, +such as could justify the risk of any forward or devious movement of +importance. The indefatigable zeal and admirable arrangements, +however, of the Governor-General, his personal presence near the +scene of exertion, the concentration of a large and imposing force +on the Sutlej, giving courage and security to the troops in the field, +and the undaunted spirit of British officers, succeeded at last in +giving, an altered and more encouraging complexion to the aspect of +our affairs. In one of the first statements of his views, Lord +Ellenborough had significantly said, (15th March 1842:)-- + +"We are fully sensible of the advantages which would be derived from +the re-occupation of Cabul, the scene of our great disaster and of +so much crime, even for week--of the means which it might afford of +recovering the prisoners, of the gratification which it would give +to the army, and of the effect which it would have upon our enemies. +Our withdrawal might then be made to rest upon an official +declaration of the grounds upon which we retired, as solemn as that +which accompanied our advance; and we should retire as a conquering, +and not as a defeated, power." + +But it was only in July that the Governor-General was in a condition +to suggest the practical accomplishment of this desirable object, +incidentally to our retirement from a country which we should never +have entered. On the 4th July is dated the admirable despatch to +General Nott, which, in the opinion of the Duke of Wellington, was +all that could have been wished for, and which we cannot help +transferring to our columns:-- + +"You will have learnt from Mr. Maddock's letters of the 13th May and +1st of June, that it was not expected that your movement towards +the Indus could be made till October, regard being had to the health +and efficiency of your army. You appear to have been able to give a +sufficient equipment to the force you recently despatched to +Kelat-i-Ghilzie, under Colonel Wymer; and since his return, you will +have received, as I infer from a private letter addressed by Major +Outram to Captain Durand, my private secretary, a further supply of +3000 camels. + +"I have now, therefore, reason to suppose, _for the first time_, +that you have the means of moving a very large proportion of your +army, with ample equipment for any service. + +"There has been no deficiency of provisions at Candahar at any time; +and, immediately after the harvest, you will have an abundant supply. + +"Nothing has occurred to induce me to change my first opinion, that +the measure, commanded by considerations of political and military +prudence, is to bring back the armies now in Affghanistan at the +earliest period at which their retirement can be effected, +consistently with the health and efficiency of the troops, into +positions wherein they may have easy and certain communication with +India; and to this extent, the instructions you have received remain +unaltered. _But the improved position of your army, with sufficient +means of carriage for as large a force as it is necessary to move in +Affghanistan, induced me now to leave to your option the line by +which you shall withdraw your troops from that country_. + +"I must desire, however, that, in forming your decision upon this +most important question, you will attend to the following +considerations:-- + +"In the direction of Quetta and Sukkur, there is no enemy to oppose +you; at each place occupied by detachments, you will find provisions: +and probably, as you descend the passes, you will have increased +means of carriage. The operation is one admitting of no doubt as to +its success. + +"If you determine upon moving upon Ghuznee, Cabul, and Jellalabad, +you will require, for the transport of provisions, a much larger +amount of carriage, and you will be practically without +communications from the time of your leaving Candahar. Dependent +entirely upon the courage of your army, and upon your own ability in +direction it, I should not have any doubt as to the success of the +operations; but whether you will be able to obtain provisions for +your troops during the whole march, and forage for your animals, may +be a matter of reasonable doubt. Yet upon this your success will turn. + +"You must remember that it was not the superior courage of the +Affghans, but want, and the inclemency of the season, which led to +the destruction of the army at Cabul; and you must feel, as I do, +that the loss of another army, from whatever cause it might arise, +might be fatal to our government in India. + +"I do not undervalue the account which our government in India would +receive from the successful execution by your army of a march +through Ghuznee and Cabul, over the scenes of our late disasters. I +know all the effect with it would have upon the minds of our soldiers, +of our allies, of our enemies in Asia, and of our countrymen, and of +all foreign nations in Europe. It is an object of just ambition, +which no one more than myself would rejoice to see effected; but I +see that failure in the attempt is certain and irretrievable ruin; +and I would endeavour to inspire you with the necessary caution, +and make you feel that, great as are the objects to be obtained by +success, the risk is great also. + +"If you determine upon moving by Ghuznee, and entirely give up your +communication by Quetta, I should suggest that you should take with +you only the most efficient troops and men you have, securing the +retreat of the remainder upon Killa, Abdoola, and Quetta. + +"You will in such case, consider it to be entirely a question to be +decided by yourself, according to circumstances, whether you shall +destroy or not the fortifications of Candahar; but, before you set +out upon your adventurous march, do not fail to make the retirement +of the force you leave behind you perfectly secure, and give such +instructions as you deem necessary for the ultimate retirement of the +troops in Scinde, upon Sukkur. + +"You will recollect that what you will have to make is a successful +march; that that march must not be delayed by any hazardous +operations against Ghuznee or Cabul; that you should carefully +calculate the time required to enable you to reach Jellalabad in the +first week in October, so as to form the rearguard of Major-General +Pollock's army. If you should be enabled by _coup-de-main_ to get +possession of Ghuznee and Cabul, you will act as you see fit, +_and leave decisive proofs of the power of the British army, +without impeaching its humanity_. You will bring away from the tomb +of Mahmood of Ghuznee, his club, which hangs over it; and you will +bring away the gates of his tomb, which are the gates of the Temple +of Somnauth. _These will be the just trophies of your successful +march_. + +"You will not fail to disguise your intention of moving, and to +acquaint Major-General Pollock with your plans as soon as you have +formed them. _A copy of this letter will be forwarded to +Major-General Pollock to-day; and he will be instructed, by a +forward movement, to facilitate your advance_; but he will probably +not deem it necessary to move any troops actually to Cabul, where +your force will be amply sufficient to beat any thing the Affghans +can oppose to it. The operations, however, of the two armies must be +combined upon their approach, so as to effect, with the least +possible loss, the occupation of Cabul, and keep open the +communications between Cabul and Peshawar. + +"One apprehension upon my mind is, that, in the event of your +deciding upon moving on Jellalabad, by Ghuznee and Cabul, the +accumulation of so great a force as that of your army, combined with +Major-General Pollock's, in the narrow valley of the Cabul river, +may produce material difficulties in the matter of provisions and +forage; but every effort will be made from India to diminish that +difficulty, should you adopt that line of retirement. + +"This letter remains absolutely secret. I have, &c. + +"ELLENBOROUGH." + +A paltry attempt was made in Parliament by Lord John Russell to +represent this despatch as intended to defraud General Nott of his +military trophies in the event of success, and to relieve the +Governor-General of responsibility in the event of failure. No such +base construction can be put upon it. Lord Ellenborough was doing his +own duty as a civil minister, and leaving General Nott to do _his_ +as a military commander. A military responsibility lay on General +Nott, from which no ruler could relieve him; but the military glory +was his also, if he felt himself justified in choosing the path of +honour that was opened to him. Who grudges the triumphs that General +Nott and his companions-in-arms have achieved? Not certainly Lord +Ellenborough or his friends. Let the distinctions which have been +heaped on the Indian army and its leaders answer that question. But +is their military merit a reason for denying to the man, under whose +administration these victories were won, the high honour of having +done all which a civil governor could do, to direct and assist the +armies of his country? Let each receive the praise of his own merits, +and we doubt not that military men, wherever, at least, they have +experienced the reverse, will be the first to appreciate and commend, +in Lord Ellenborough's administration, that active sympathy and +assistance which are so essential to military efficiency and success. + +It is said that the despatch of the 4th of July is qualified by +heavy cautions. And should it not have been so? In addressing a +British officer with a field of exertion before him, so glorious in +a military, so hazardous in a political view, it is surely not the +spur, but the curb, that a civilian was called on to apply. The +courage of such a commander required nothing to fan the flame: The +danger, if any, was rather that he would rashly seize the +opportunity afforded him, than that he would timidly resign it; and +if he was not prepared to adopt the bolder course, in the face of +all the hazards which attended it, it was best that the enterprize +should not be undertaken at all. + +But Lord Ellenborough knew his man. In appointing General Nott, in +March, to the command of all the troops, and entrusting him with the +control of all the agents in Lower Affghanistan, the Governor and +Council had desired him "to rely upon our constant support, and upon +our placing the most favourable interpretation upon all the measures +he may deem it necessary to adopt in the execution of our orders." +And in now giving him the option of retiring by Cabul, Lord +Ellenborough was assured that the General needed no other +encouragement to avail himself of it, than the feeling that all +counter-considerations had been stated and duly weighed. Every +preparation was immediately made to support General Nott in his +adventurous enterprize; and Lord Ellenborough writes to General +Pollock:-- + +"I am in hopes that Major-General Nott will to-day be in possession +of my letter of the 4th instant, and that you will, very soon after +you receive this letter, be made acquainted with the Major-General's +intentions. _My expectation is_, that Major-General Nott will feel +himself sufficiently strong, and be sufficiently provided with +carriage, to march upon Ghuznee and Cabul." + +The result was such as had been looked for. The combined operation +of the two armies placed the Affghans at our mercy, and terminated, +by the ample vindication of our honour, and the restoration of our +imprisoned friends, our inauspicious connexion with these barbarians, +who had retaliated so cruelly the aggression we had made upon them. + +It may be safely conjectured, that if these final triumphs had been +achieved under the direction of Lord Auckland, even though merely +retrieving the errors of his former policy, we should never have +heard an end of the eulogiums pronounced upon him. Lord John Russell +would have crowed and clapped his wings in the "moment of victory." +Lord Palmerston would have blustered more brazenly than ever. +Mr. Macaulay would have aired the whole stores of his panegyrical +vocabulary; and Sir John Hobhouse would not have gone abroad. + +But, under whatever Government achieved, these results would have +filled the minds of patriotic men with unmingled gratitude to all +who had contributed to their accomplishment. India had been in danger, +and was safe. The British arms had been stained by defeat, and were +again glancing brightly in the light of victory. Our countrymen and +countrywomen had been almost hopeless captives, and were now +restored to freedom and their friends. In such a scene and season of +rejoicing, we might have thought that none but a Whig of the very +oldest school of all, could have entertained any feelings but those +of generous sympathy and unrepining satisfaction. But limits cannot +easily be put to human perverseness. The party whose policy had +caused the evils from which we and they have been delivered, felt +nothing but intense hatred to him who had been most prominent in +that deliverance; and, heedless of the good that he had done, they +fastened on what seemed to their malignant and microscopic vision +some specks that chequered his otherwise unblemished administration +of affairs. + +The idea of discussing in Parliament, as we have lately witnessed, +the literary style of a Government state paper at a crisis so +momentous, implies a levity that would be hateful if it were not +ludicrous. But there is something peculiarly laughable in the +pedantry of such criticism. When other men are thinking of what has +been done, the reviewers and poetasters of the Whig Opposition can +think only of what has been said. The facts that are before them +have no value in their eyes; they see nothing but the phraseology. +From men who had themselves done nothing but what was mischievous, +this is perhaps natural. They are content, possibly, if they have +never said a foolish thing, to have never done a wise one; though we +are doubtful if a taunt about simplicity of composition, either +comes well from the noble leader of the Whigs, or his friends, when +we remember some of their old achievements in addressing their +supporters. But in the peculiar position of the Whigs, with ignominy +and impeachment suspended over their heads for their Affghan errors, +we think that such a course is as becoming as if a condemned +criminal were to carp at the literary composition of his own reprieve. + +The tactics of the Whigs in their move against Lord Ellenborough, had +all the craft of conscious weakness. First, they postponed their +motion from time to time, till they were rescued by their opponents +from Mr. Roebuck's assault upon them. Then they arranged their +attack for the same night in both Houses of Parliament, lest +explanations in any high quarter in the one might damage a future +discussion in the other; and lastly, though thus acting by +simultaneous and concerted movements in both, they framed their +motions differently in each place; and in the Commons, where they had +some dream of better success, confined themselves to the religious +question under the letter on the Somnauth gates, omitting the Simla +proclamation of the 1st October, which they knew neither +Conservative nor Radical would join them to condemn. + +With regard to the Somnauth gates, a pettier piece of hypercriticism, +and a more palpable exhibition of hypocrisy, were never witnessed on +a public question. Two things on this point are as plain as day. + +1. That in retiring from the Affghan country, we were called upon to +do so as much as possible in the light of triumphant victors, +bearing every mark of military prowess and superiority that could +readily be assumed, and inflicting as heavy a blow, and as severe a +discouragement on our perfidious enemies, as humanity would permit. + +2. That, the Affghan trophies of Mahmoud's success were treasured up +by his nation as an assurance of continued ascendancy over their +Hindoo neighbours; and that, in particular, the redelivery to India +of these very gates of Somnauth, were, in negotiations of recent date, +demanded by Runjeet Singh as an inestimable boon, and deprecated by +Shah Soojah as a degrading humiliation. + +Keeping in view these undeniable circumstances, it is clear that the +seizure of these Somnauth gates was appropriately ordered as a +palpable and permanent demonstration of conquest, and one eminently +calculated to encourage the Indian army, and to depress their enemies. + +That these gates were connected with the religion of the country, is +of no relevancy in this matter. Every thing relating to Hindoo +grandeur is more or less interwoven with religion; but we must take +things as they are. We are the rulers of Hindostan; where the vast +preponderance of our subjects and soldiers are Hindoos. We wish them +to be Christians, but they are not so yet; and, until they become +Christianized, we cannot hope or wish that they should forget the +only faith which they have to raise them above the earth they tread. +Their religion is corrupted to the core; but in its primitive type, +after which its worshippers will sometimes even yet aspire, it is +not destitute of a high spirituality that would seek to assimilate +and unite men's souls to the Great Being, whom they reverence as the +maker, maintainer, and changer of the universe. Hindooism is more +fantastic, and less pleasingly endeared to us, than the paganism of +Greece, but it is scarcely more lax or licentious; yet if Fortune, +in its caprices, had ordained our Indian subjects to be heathen +Greeks, with a Whig Governor-General bringing them back in triumph +to their homes, Lord Palmerston, who now, in a mingled rant of +mythology, and methodism, talks of "Dii and Jupiter hostis," would +himself have penned a paragraph about the restored temple of Mars or +Venus, and would have held up the scruples of Sir Robert Inglis and +Mr. Plumptre to classical ridicule. + +But it is plain that here no religious triumph was, or could have +been, contemplated by Lord Ellenborough. On this point we need no +other evidence than that of Joseph Hume, who, combining the +properties of Balaam and his ass, often brays out a blessing when he +intends a curse. He tells us that-- + +A Hindoo of high caste, now in this country, the Vakeel of the Rajah +of Sattara, had written to him a letter, in which he stated-- +"It appears to me that the restoration of the gates of Somnauth +could have no reference either to the support or degradation of any +religious faith. To restore the gates to their original purpose is +impracticable by the tenets of the Hindoo religion. Their doctrine is, +that any thing, when in contact with a dead body, or any thing +belonging to it, whether tomb or garment, is utterly contaminated and +unfit for religious purposes. In my opinion, therefore, the +proclamation must have been intended to gratify the feelings of the +Hindoo portion of our army, by removing a stain which the western +portion of India had long felt oppressive. In fact, he believed that +the Governor-General, by this means, conciliated the feelings of the +Hindoo soldiery in their return from those scenes of death and +disaster in which they had behaved so well, and where thousands of +their fellow-countrymen had fallen. I hope that this intention of +Lord Ellenborough to conciliate the princes of India will extend to +my unfortunate master.' This letter was from (we believe) Rumgoo +Baffagee, Vakeel of the Rajah of Sattara, and he thought it was so +important, that he had sent for the Vakeel, whom he found a most +intelligent man; and from his conversation he (Mr. Hume) was +satisfied that, so far from being applied to the Hindoo population +exclusively, it was utterly impossible that the gates could be used +for the religious purposes to which the Governor-General seemed to +have destined them. He had satisfied him (Mr. Hume) that the object +of the proclamation was merely to bring back to Western India those +gates, the absence of which in Afghanistan had long been felt as an +opprobrium. He hoped therefore, that those religious sects who had +most unnecessarily take the alarm on this score, would be appeased. +So far from the proclamation being an exclusive one, no single +sentence was there in it which could be read after the address to +'_all_ the princes and chiefs, and people of India,' as applicable +to any one." + +But it is said that such a trophy may give offence to Mahommedans; +and Mr. Mangles tells us, that the Mohommedan population sympathize +strongly with the Affghans, and revere the memory of Mahmoud. If +that be the case, it would have been difficult to bring any trophy +home, or to imprint any mark of the superiority of our arms, without +displeasing this sect. But, in that view, who are the parties +responsible for thus placing our essential interests, and the safety +of India generally, in contrast with the feelings of Mohommedan +subjects? Those certainly who, regardless of all justice, made a +wanton aggression on a Mahommedan power. Those certainly who, +regardless of all prudence, gave occasion to the Affghan massacre +and captivity of British and Indian soldiers; and, by a great +Mahommedan success, kindled a spark which was ready to set the +freemasonry of Islamism on fire "from Morocco to Coromandel." If we +have been placed in a false position, as regards our Mahommedan +subjects, we have to blame the Whigs, whose wanton and unwise +measures created this collision of interests, and not Lord +Ellenborough, who has adopted measures the most natural and the most +humane, to reestablish the ascendancy and the reputation of English +and Indian power. + +The proclamation of Simla needs no vindication. It has satisfied +every one but the Whigs, who can never forget and never forgive it. +It is poor pretence to say, that it denounces in an indecorous +manner the errors of the previous governor. It does no such thing. +It speaks, indeed, of errors, but only conscious culpability would +have taken the allusion to itself. There were errors, and grievous +ones. The Whigs themselves must say that; and they have not been +slow to shift to the shoulders of military officers the results that +most people think they should bear themselves. The proclamation of +Lord Ellenborough seems to us to have been framed with a punctilious +desire to reconcile in the eyes of India his own policy with that +which had been avowed by his predecessor, and to ascribe the change +of plans to a change of circumstances, and not of principles. We +speak here of the avowed policy of his predecessor; for Lord Auckland, +at least, pretended that he had no aggressive or hostile views +against the Affghans, and no desire for a permanent occupation of +their country. The real designs of the Whig Government are a +different thing; and with these, as avowed by Lord Palmerston in +Parliament, the intentions of Lord Ellenborough were wholly +irreconcilable. + +Let us listen here to one who knows the subject. The Duke of +Wellington tells us the errors that Lord Ellenborough alludes to as +occasioning our military disasters, and he shows us where those +errors lay:-- + +"There is not a word in this proclamation that is not strictly +true. But I do not blame the noble lord opposite, the late +Governor-General of India; yet I cannot help looking _at the enormous +errors_ which have been committed from the commencement of these +transactions in which these disasters originated, down to the last +retreat from Cabul--I say, looking at all this, I still must blame, +not the late Governor-General, but the gentlemen who acted under him. +In the first place, I attribute the error to the gentleman who fell +a victim to his own want of judgment. The army unfortunately was +partly English and partly Hindoo--not Affghans, but Hindoos. What +was the consequence? To maintain the whole system of the government, +including the collection of the revenue, devolved upon that army. +All the details of the government were carried on through the agency +of that English and Hindoo army, and eventually it became necessary +to support that army with some troops in the service of the Company. +Now, the gentleman who was responsible for this ought to have known +that there was one rule, the violation of which any one acquainted +with the government of India knew nothing could justify, and that was, +the employment of the Company's European troops in the collection of +the revenue. That rule is invariably laid down, and is invariably +observed. That, as your lordships must plainly see, is one of the +errors that has been committed. There is another point to which I +wish to call your attention; it is this, that the country never had +been occupied by an army as it ought to have been occupied. With the +north no practicable communication was maintained--no practicable +communications were kept up between Shikarpore, Candahar, and Ghuznee. +The passes were held only through the agency of banditti. I do not +blame the noble lord, but I blame the gentleman to whom the army was +entrusted. He seemed never to have looked at what had been done by +former commanders in similar circumstances. Any officer who has the +command of an army ought to feel it to be his first duty to keep up +a communication with his own country. If such communication had been +maintained, those disasters never would have befallen us--they could +not have happened. This was one of the errors committed; but I do +not say that the noble lord opposite is answerable for that error. +Not only was no communication kept up with the north, but none was +kept up with the south. Neither the Kojuck nor the Bolan pass was +kept open. Can that, my lords, be called a military communication? +Could such a state of things exist? Why, was not this another +error--a gross error? The noble lord opposite (Lord Auckland) had no +more to do with this than I have. Sir W. Macnaghten, the gentleman +who perished, could not have been ignorant of what was done in other +places. He must have read the history of the Spanish war, and he +must have recollected how the French conducted themselves in a +similar situation; how they fortified the passes, and secured their +communications. But he was not an officer; the gentleman at the head +of the army in Affghanistan was not an officer--that was another +error." + +That such errors existed is undeniable. Lord Auckland says there +were errors:-- + +"With regard to the errors of the campaign, he conceived they rested +with the military commanders, not with Sir W. Macnaghten; and if +errors had been committed by Sir William, they must be shared +between him and the more direct military commanders." + +Lord John Russell said,-- + +"I have heard causes given, and upon very high authority, for these +disasters; I have heard it stated that very great errors were +committed--that those errors consisted partly in not keeping up a +communication by the straightest road between Cabul and Peshawar. +This may be just; these may be errors, but they are errors not +necessary or in any way connected with the policy of entering into +Affghanistan. I may mention another circumstance--that the +expedition into Affghanistan was undertaken under Lord Keane, who was +shortly after succeeded by Sir W. Cotton; he came home, and was +succeeded by General Elphinstone, who, from the time of assuming the +command, never appears to have been in the state of vigorous health +necessary for such a position. Are not these circumstances to be +taken into account? If my Lord Auckland had had at his disposal any +of those illustrious men who had honoured the British army in later +days--if such a man as Lord Keane had remained in Cabul--my +persuasion is, you would never have heard of such a disaster as that +which took place at Cabul." + +We shall leave the Whigs to settle the question with their +subordinates, as to the precise degree of blame which each of the +parties shall bear. But there is seldom blame with the servants +without blame in the master; and it is one of Lord Ellenborough's +just titles to our praise, that he has been ably served by the +officers whom he so ably supported. + +If our Affghan disasters were imputable to gross errors in detail, +was it not right to denounce the cause? It would have been a +melancholy thing if we had been thus betrayed and circumvented +without errors in our own servants. If British troops had been thus +cut off, notwithstanding the use of every prudent precaution, the +disasters would then have gone far to put in question the +invincibility of our military power. It was necessary to declare, +that by individual and special mal-arrangement, this unparalleled +disaster had arisen; so that none of our enemies should thence +derive a hope to crush us again, until at least the incompetent +officials of a confiding Whig Government should give them another +such opportunity. + +The proclamation of Simla had another purpose--that of announcing +the future policy of the Government, and repudiating those designs of +aggression and aggrandizement which there was too good ground for +imputing to us, and which could not fail to inspire distrust and +suspicion in the minds even of friendly neighbours. On this point +nothing can be added to the admirable exposition of Lord Fitzgerald +in the late debate:-- + +"But there were other circumstances which compelled the +Governor-General of India; he meant, which made it his duty to +proclaim the motives of the policy of the Government; and why? +--because a different policy had been proclaimed by his predecessor; +and when it became necessary to withdraw from Affghanistan, it was +necessary to show that this was not a retreat. We were compelled to +show that we were not shrinking from setting up a king, because we +could not sustain him there. He said it was the duty of the +Governor-General to make that known to the Indian public. He would +not attempt to shelter Lord Ellenborough in this respect, by +saying--'it was prudent,' or, 'it did no harm:'--he maintained it +was his duty. What had been the language of the late Ministers of the +Crown, in the last session of Parliament? And these debates, as the +noble Earl had well said, 'went forth to India;' the discussions in +that House went forth to the Indian public. He found one Minister of +the Crown saying--'He should like to see the Minister, or the +Governor of India, who would dare to withdraw from the position we +occupied in Affghanistan.' (Hear, hear.) He found another noble lord, +in another place, stating, 'they took credit for the whole of that +measure, and he trusted that at no time would that position in +Affghanistan be abandoned.' These were views of public policy which +went forth to India, and it was not inconvenient nor unjust that +those who administered the government of India on different +principles should proclaim their views. The noble earl opposite, +knew that at that period it was not intended altogether to confine +the operations of the army to the westward of the Indus. It was very +well to say, that it was unwise and impolitic, and calculated to +destroy the unanimity which was so essential to the Government of +India, to issue public information as to the reasons for the +withdrawal of an army, although its advance was heralded by a +declaration on all these points, because the withdrawal of an army +was supposed to terminate the operations; but in the eyes of India +and Asia, if the declaration of the noble earl, dated from Simla on +the same day of the same month of a preceding year, had remained as +a record of British policy after that declaration had been followed +by a campaign, brilliant at its commencement, but as delusive as +brilliant, and terminated by a most awful tragedy, and by the +greatest disaster that ever befell the British forces--was it +unbecoming in a Governor-General to state, that the views and policy +of the Government of India had changed, and that the Government no +longer wished to interfere in the policy of Affghanistan, its motives +for so doing having passed away on finding that the king, +represented to be so popular, was unpopular? But there was another +circumstance which called for Lord Ellenborough's declaration, namely, +the necessity of allaying the apprehensions and fears of other states; +and it was Lord Ellenborough's duty to do this. Had the Sikhs no +apprehensions with respect to our intentions on Lahore? The most +serious apprehensions had been stated by the Durbar of Lahore to our +political agent there, Mr. Clark, and had been represented by him to +the Government of India.--Other states also had entertained +apprehensions of the intentions and motives of the Indian Government, +and he had yet to learn that it was a fault in a Governor-General to +allay these apprehensions of native states, even if no precedent +could be found for such a proceeding. After the policy of the Indian +Government which had been proclaimed, it became Lord Ellenborough's +duty to take the step he had done." + +This, however, is the true _gravamen_ of the quarrel of the Whigs +with Lord Ellenborough. He has thrown overboard their aggressive +policy--that policy which Lord Auckland, indeed, had not in words +avowed in India, but which his friends at home had openly declared +and gloried in. It was necessary for Lord Ellenborough, by a frank +declaration of his intentions, to exclude the prevalent +suspicion--nay, the universal belief--of those projects of +encroachment which the Whig Government had countenanced. This was +the unkindest cut of all. + + "Ill-weaved ambition! how much art + thou shrunk!" + +It was hard that their Affghan laurels--the only wreaths of victory +that the Whigs had ever won--should have already withered on their +brow. It was hard that their disasters should have been retrieved +under the sway of a political opponent. But it was intolerable that +the plans of conquest which they had fondly cherished, and tried to +press upon the country, should be virtually denounced amid the +universal approbation of all good men at home and abroad; that the +solitary achievement of their administration in military affairs, +should be recorded in the page of history, only to be condemned as +an act of injustice, inexcusably undertaken, and incompetently +executed: and relinquished by their successors in the very hour of +triumph, with a wise self-denial which no one will suspect that a +Whig could have ever practised. + +The cloven foot has here too plainly been revealed. It is not this +phrase or that procession in particular that has displeased the Whigs. +It is the abandonment of a policy which they dared not proclaim in +India, and which they could not justify in England. They are always +hankering after it still. Mr. Vernon Smith: "Considered it most +absurd for any Governor General to declare publicly that our Indian +empire had reached the limits which nature had assigned to it. Why, +what were the limits which nature had assigned to our Indian empire? +In early days, the Mahratta ditch was said to be its natural limit; +and why was the Sutlej or the Indus to be more the boundary of our +empire than the Himalayas?" + +Even Lord John Russell, who _now_ acknowledges the wisdom of +surrendering Affghanistan, declares, in almost so many words, that +his party have shrunk from a general vote of censure because they +could not properly put it, and have chosen this Act as "not the worst," +but the most convenient to attack. What the other errors of Lord +Ellenborough are, or whether there are any, except the exploded +story of the incivility to Mr. Amos, is nowhere definitely, +discoverable in their discussions, and is not likely for some time +to assume a greater degree of consistency than vague Whig calumnies +and general Whig dissatisfaction. Let them come to something definite, +and see how they will fare. If, as their old friend Lord Brougham +said, "revelling in defeat, and intoxicated with failure," they know +not when they have had enough--if they desire a contest on some other +issue--let them name their day and abide the result. + +In conclusion, we would only observe, what a contrast the conduct of +the Whig party towards Lord Ellenborough exhibits to that of their +opponents towards Lord Auckland! The ex Governor-General is not +absent, but here to defend himself; and every one sees how much room +there is for assailing his measures. Their calamitous result would +of itself go far to support the charge of imprudence, or something +worse. But not a word has been said against him that could be avoided; +and even those statements that necessarily reflect upon his +discretion, have been extorted from the Conservative party, in reply +to the attacks which Lord Auckland's friends have made upon his +successor. The English people admire fair play as much as they +appreciate the value of practical benefits. They see the false +pretences on which an absent man has now been assailed by +disappointed opponents; they feel the generosity that has saved his +rival from retaliation. They know the state of Indian affairs when +Lord Ellenborough assumed his office, and they can estimate the +position into which they have now been brought under his vigorous +management. They agree with him in the pacific principles which he +has avowed, and look forward to a continued career of useful services, +in which the resources of that great empire will be more than ever +developed under his control, and the power of the British name +perpetuated by a wise, an upright, and a fearless Administration. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - April +1843, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S APRIL 1843 *** + +***** This file should be named 11745.txt or 11745.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/7/4/11745/ + +Produced by The Internet Library of Early Journals (scanned images) + +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. 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