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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12511 ***
+
+BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE
+
+NO. CCCXXXII.   JUNE, 1843.   VOL. LIII.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+    MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN
+    THE VIGIL OF VENUS. TRANSLATION FROM THE LATIN
+    CHAPTERS OF TURKISH HISTORY. RISE OF THE KIUPRILI FAMILY
+        SIEGE OF CANDIA.--NO. IX.
+    A PASSAGE IN THE LIFE OF A MAÎTRE-D'ARMES
+    AMMALÁT BEK. A TRUE TALE OF THE CAUCASUS, FROM THE
+        RUSSIAN OF MARLÍNSKI.--CONCLUSION
+    MR BAILEY'S REPLY TO AN ARTICLE IN BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE
+    THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD. ILLUSTRATED BY MULREADY
+    THE ATTORNEY'S CLERK IN THE MONK'S HOOD
+    IGNACIO GUERRA AND EL SANGRADOR; A TALE OF CIVIL WAR
+    MEMORANDUMS OF A MONTH'S TOUR IN SICILY
+    COMMERCIAL POLICY--RUSSIA
+    INDEX
+
+
+
+
+MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN.
+
+PART I.
+
+
+   "Have I not in my time heard lions roar?
+    Have I not heard the sea, puft up with wind,
+    Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat?
+    Have I not heard great ordnance in the field,
+    And heaven's artillery thunder in the skies?
+    Have I not in the pitched battle heard
+    Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets clang?"
+                                                    SHAKSPEARE
+
+
+Why I give the world a sketch of my career through it, is not among the
+discoveries which I intend to make. I have been a public man; let those
+who know public life imagine what interest may be felt in reviewing the
+scenes and struggles of which such a life is full. May there not be a
+pleasure in conceiving once again the shapes and circumstances of
+things, as one sitting by his fireside sees castles and cottages, men,
+women, and children in the embers, and shapes them the better for the
+silence and the solitude round him? Let the reader take what reason he
+will. I have seen the world, and fought my way through it; have
+stumbled, like greater men, have risen, like lesser; have been flung
+into the most rapid current of the most hurried, wild, and vivid time
+that the world has ever seen--I have _lived_ through the last fifty
+years. In all the vigour of my life, I have mingled in some of the
+greatest transactions, and been mingled with some of the greatest men,
+of my time. Like one who has tumbled down Niagara, and survived the
+fall, though I have reached still water, the roar of the cataract is yet
+in my ears; and I can even survey it with a fuller gaze, and stronger
+sense of its vastness and power, than, when I was rolling down its
+precipice.
+
+I have been soldier, adventurer, traveller, statesman. I have been
+lover, husband, father--poor and opulent; obscure and conspicuous. There
+are few sensations of our nature, or circumstances of our life, which I
+have not undergone. Alternately suffering to the verge of ruin, and
+enjoying like an epicurean deity: I have been steeped in poverty to the
+lips; I have been surcharged with wealth. I have sacrificed, and
+fearfully, to the love of power; I have been disgusted with its
+possession. I figured in the great Babel until I loved even its
+confusion of tongues; I grew weary of it, until I hated the voice of
+man.
+
+Every man is born for a special purpose, and with a special passion. The
+multitude, possessing both, exhibit neither; they are flung, or choose
+to be flung, into the pond, where they float only to perish, like blind
+puppies. But there are others who stem the great tide, and are only the
+stronger for the struggle. From my first sense, the passion to be known
+and felt, nay, at the expense of being feared, was my impulse. It has
+been the impulse of all men who have ever impressed the world. With
+great talents it is all-commanding: the thunderbolt in the hands of
+Jove. Even with inferior faculties, and I make no pretence of mine, it
+singularly excites, urges, and animates. When the prophet saw the
+leopard _winged_, he saw a miracle; I claim for my powers only those of
+the muscle and sinew.
+
+Ambition was the original passion of my nature. It rose before me, as
+the sun ascends before the Indian, until its fire drives him to the
+shade. I, too, have been scorched, have shrunk, and now I regret my
+shrinking. But time deals alike with all. I can now amuse myself only by
+images of the past; and, in the darkness and solitude of years, I take
+their Magic Lantern, and replace life by the strange, wild, and
+high-coloured extravagances, the ghosts and genii of the phantasmagoria
+of ambition.
+
+I was the seventh son of one of the oldest families of England. If I had
+been the seventh son of the seventh son, I should, by all the laws of
+juggling, have been a conjurer; but I was a generation too early for
+fame. My father was an earl, and as proud of his titles as if he had won
+them at Crecy or Poictiers, and not in the campaigns of Westminster,
+consummated on the backstairs of Whitehall. He had served his country,
+as he termed it, in a long succession of Parliaments; and served her
+still more, as his country neighbours termed it, by accepting a peerage,
+which opened the county to any other representative among the sons of
+men. He was a strong-built, stern-countenanced, and haughty-tongued
+personage--by some thought a man of sense; by others a fool, with all
+his depth, arising from his darkness. My own experience convinced me,
+that no man made more of a secret, or thought less of a job. From my
+boyhood I own I feared more than honoured him; and as for love, if I had
+been more susceptible, mine would have flown round the globe before it
+could have fixed on that iron visage. The little love that I could
+afford for any human being, was for another and a different order of
+existence. Boys have a natural fondness for the mother; and mine was
+gentle, timid, and fond. She always parted with me, on my going to
+school, as if she had lost a limb, and when I returned, received me as
+if she had found a pinion in its place. She perhaps spoiled me by
+indulgence, as much as my lord and father spoiled me by severity; but
+indulgence is the pleasanter of the two, and I followed the course of
+nature, and gave her whatever heart I have. I still remember her. She
+was remarkably indebted to nature, at least for externals. She had fine
+eyes--large, dark, and sentimental; her dress, which would now be
+preposterous, seemed to me, then, the perfection of all taste, and was
+in the highest fashion of her time. Her beauty worked miracles; for now
+and then I have observed even my father's eye fixed on her, with
+something of the admiration which we might conceive in an Esquimaux for
+a fixed star, or in an Italian highwayman for some Parian statue which
+he had stumbled on in his thickets. But the admiration was soon absorbed
+in the job in hand, and he turned away--to scribble to the Minister. Of
+the younger portion of the family I shall say but little. Children are
+happiest in the nursery, and there I leave them. I had two sisters,
+sweet little creatures, one with black eyes and the other with blue.
+This is enough for their description. My four brothers were four rough,
+bold, well-looking animals, all intended for ambassadors, admirals,
+generals, and secretaries of state--for my father had too long tasted of
+the honey of official life to think that there was any other food for a
+gentleman in the world. He had been suckled for too many years at those
+breasts, which, like the bosom of the great Egyptian goddess, pour the
+stream of life through whole generations of hangers-on, to believe that
+any other fount of existence was to be named but the civil list. I am
+strongly inclined to surmise that he would have preferred a pencil,
+purloined from the Treasury, to all the cedars of Lebanon.
+
+It may be presumed that I was destined for public life--in other words,
+to live on the public; and, to prepare me for the performance of a part,
+alternately menial and master--supple as the slave, and superb as the
+minister--I was sent to Eton. At this great school of the aristocracy,
+would-be and real--barons and dukes _in esse_, and the herald's office
+alone, or bedlam, knows what _in posse_, I remained for the customary
+number of years. If whoever does me the honour to read these pages,
+hates the history of schooldays as much as I do their memory, he will
+easily pardon my passing by the topic altogether. If the first purpose
+of all great public institutions is to stand still; the great schools of
+England, fifty years ago, were righteous adherents to their contract;
+they never moved. The world might whirl round them as it would; there
+remained the grey milestones, only measuring the speed with which every
+thing on the road passed them. This, they say, has largely and
+fortunately changed in later years. But the change must proceed; the
+venerable cripples must throw by their crutches, and try the effect of
+flesh and blood. Flogging and fagging, are the education for a footman;
+they disgrace the common sense, and offend the feelings of a manly
+people. The pugilist must be expelled, and the puppy must follow him.
+The detestable grossness of classical impurity, must be no longer the
+price at which Latin "quantities" are to be learned. The last lesson of
+the "prodigal son," must not be the first learned by the son of the
+gentleman of England--to be fed on the "husks" fit only for the swine.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On my delighted release from this supreme laboratory of statesmen, I
+found the state of things considerably altered at Mortimer Castle. I had
+left it a stately but rather melancholy-looking household; I found the
+mansion glittering in all the novelty of French furniture, gilding, and
+_or-molu_--crowded with fashion, and all its menial tribe, from the
+groom in the stables to the gentleman's gentleman, who slipped along the
+chambers in soft silence, and seemed an embodying of Etiquette, all in
+new equipments of all kinds--the avenue trimmed, until it resembled a
+theatrical wood; and the grounds, once sober and silent enough for a
+Jacques to escape from the sight of human kind, and hold dialogues with
+the deer; now levelled, opened, shorn, and shaved, with the precision of
+a retired citizen's elysium.
+
+The heads of the family were equally changed; my mother, unhappily, for
+the worse. Her fine eyes beamed with joy as she threw herself upon my
+neck, and murmured some of those mingled blessings and raptures which
+have a language of their own. But when the first flush was past, I
+perceived that the cheek was thin, the eye was hollow and heavy, and the
+tremulous motion of her slight hand, as it lay in mine, alarmed me; in
+all my ignorance of the frailty of the human frame. But the grand change
+was in the Earl. My father, whom I had left rather degenerating into the
+shape which three courses and a bottle of claret a-day inflict on
+country gentlemen "who live at home at ease," was now braced and laced,
+costumed in the newest fashion, and overflowing with exuberant
+volatility. He breathed of Bond Street. He welcomed me with an ardour
+which astonished, more than delighted, me; Talked fragments of French,
+congratulated me on my "_air distingué_," advised me to put myself "_en
+grande tenue_;" and, after enchanting me in all kinds of strange ways,
+concluded by making an attempt to kiss me on both cheeks, like a true
+Frenchman. My Eton recollections enabled me to resist the paternal
+embrace; until the wonder was simplified, by the discovery that the
+family had but just returned from a continental residence of a couple of
+years--a matter of which no letter or word had given me the knowledge at
+my school. My next discovery was, that an old uncle had died, and left
+us money enough to carry the county; and the last and crowning one was,
+that my eldest brother had just been returned for the North Riding.
+
+This was such an accumulation of good-luck as might have thrown any
+elderly gentleman off the balance of his gravity. It was like Philip's
+three plates at the Greek horse-races, crowned by the birth of
+Alexander. If my lordly father had danced the "Minuette de la Cour" over
+the marble tesselation of his own hall, I should now not have been
+surprised. But, from my first sense, or insensibility, I had felt no
+great delight in matters which were to make my own condition neither
+better nor worse; and after a remarkably brief period, the showy
+_déjeûnés_ and dinners which commemorated the triumphs of the
+heir-apparent of our house, grew tiresome to me beyond all count, and I
+openly petitioned to be sent to college, or to the world's end.
+
+My petition was listened to with a mixture of contempt for my want of
+taste, and astonishment at my presumption. But before the reply had time
+to burst out from lips, at no time too retentive, I was told, that at
+the end of one week more I should be suffered to take my way; that week
+being devoted to a round of especial entertainments in honour of my
+brother's election; the whole to be wound up by that most preposterous
+of all delights, an amateur play.
+
+To keep a house in commotion, to produce mysterious conversations,
+conferences without number, and confidences without end; and to swell
+maidens' hearts and milliners' bills, let me recommend an amateur play
+in the country. The very mention of it awoke every soul in the Castle;
+caps and complexions were matched, and costumes criticised, from morning
+till night, among the ladies. The "acting drama" was turned over leaf by
+leaf by the gentlemen. The sound of many a heavy tread of many a heavy
+student, was heard in the chambers; the gardens were haunted by "the
+characters" getting their parts; and the poet's burlesque of those who
+"rave, recite, and madden round the land," was realized to the life in
+the histrionic labours of the votaries of Thalia and Melpomene, who
+ranged the groves of Mortimer Castle.
+
+Then we had all the charming difficulty of fixing on the play. The
+dullest and dreariest of our country Rosciuses were uniformly for
+comedy; but the fair sex have a leaning to the tragic muse. We had one
+or two, who would have had no objection to be piquant in Lady Teazle, or
+petulant in Lady Townley; but we had half a dozen Desdemonas and
+Ophelias. The soul of an O'Neil was in every one of our party conscious
+of a pair of good eyes, a tolerable shape, and the captivation which, in
+some way or other, most women in existence contrive to discover in their
+own share of the gifts of nature. At length the votes carried it for
+Romeo and Juliet. The eventful night came; the _élite_ of the county
+poured in, the theatre was crowded; all was expectancy before the
+curtain; all was terror, nervousness, and awkwardness behind. The
+orchestra performed its flourish, and the curtain rose.
+
+To do the heads of the household justice, they had done their duty as
+managers. The theatre, though but a temporary building, projecting from
+the ball-room into one of the gardens, was worthy of the very handsome
+apartment which formed its vestibule. The skill of a famous London
+architect had been exerted on this fairy erection, and Verona itself
+had, perhaps, in its palmiest days, seldom exhibited a display of more
+luxuriant elegance. The audience, too, so totally different from the
+mingled, ill-dressed, and irregular assemblage that fills a city
+theatre; blooming girls and showy matrons, range above range, feathered
+and flowered, glittering with all the family jewels, and all animated by
+the novelty of the scene before them, formed an exhibition which, for
+the night, inspired me with the idea, that (strolling excepted) the
+stage might not be a bad resource for a man of talents, after all.
+
+But the play was--must I confess it? though I myself figured as the
+Romeo--utterly deplorable. The men forgot their parts, and their casual
+attempts to recover them made terrible havoc of the harmony of
+Shakspeare. The ladies lost their voices, and carried on their loves,
+their sorrows, and even their scoldings, in a whisper. Our play
+perfectly deserved the criticism of the old gentleman, who, after a
+similar performance, being asked which of the personages he liked best,
+candidly replied, "the prompter, for of him he had heard the most and
+seen the least."
+
+However, every thing has an end; and we had carried Juliet to the tomb
+of all the Capulets, the chant was done, and the mourners were gathered
+in the green-room. I was standing, book in hand, preparing for the last
+agonies of a love very imperfectly committed to memory, when I heard a
+slight confusion in the court-yard, and shortly after the rattle of a
+post-chaise. The sound subsided, and I was summoned to my post at the
+entrance to the place where the lovely Juliet lay entranced. The
+pasteboard gate gave way to knocks enforced with an energy which called
+down rapturous applause; and in all the tortures of a broken heart,
+rewarded by a profusion of handkerchiefs applied to bright eyes, and a
+strong scent of hartshorn round the house, I summoned my fair bride to
+my arms. There was no reply. I again invoked her; still silent. Her
+trance was evidently of the deepest order. I rose from the ground, where
+I had been "taking the measure of my unmade grave," and approaching the
+bier, ventured to drop a despairing hand upon her pillow. To my utter
+surprise, it was vacant. If I had been another Shakspeare, the situation
+was a fine one for a display of original genius. But I was paralyzed. A
+sense of the general embarrassment was my first impression, and I was
+absolutely struck dumb. But this was soon shaken off. My next was a
+sense of the particular burlesque of my situation; I burst out into
+laughter, in which the whole house joined; and throwing down my mattock,
+rushed off the stage. My theatrical dream was broken up for ever.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+But weightier matters now absorbed the universal interest. The
+disappearance of the heroine from the stage was speedily accounted for
+by her flight in the carriage whose wheels had disturbed my study. But
+where fled, why, and with whom? We now found other defalcations in our
+numbers; the Chevalier Paul Charlatanski, a gallant Polish exile, who
+contrived to pass a very pleasant time on the merit of his misfortunes,
+a man of enormous mustaches and calamities, was also missing. His valet,
+his valise, every atom that ever appertained to him, had vanished; the
+clearance was complete. The confusion now thickened. I never saw the
+master of the mansion in such a rage before. Pistols and post-chaises
+were in instant requisition. He vowed that the honour of his house was
+involved in the transaction, and that nothing should tempt him to
+slumber until he had brought the fugitive fair one to the arms of her
+noble family; my Juliet being the ward of a duke, and being also
+entitled to about twenty thousand pounds a-year on her coming of age.
+
+As for the unlucky, or rather the lucky, Chevalier, nothing human ever
+received a hotter shower of surmise and sarcasm. That he was "an
+impostor, a swindler, a spy," was the Earl's conviction, declared in the
+most public manner. The whole body of matrons looked round on their
+blooming innocents, as if they had been snatched from the jaws of a
+legion of wolves and thanked their own prudence which had not trusted
+those men of mustaches within their hall doors. The blooming innocents
+responded in filial gratitude, and, with whatever sincerity, thanked
+their stars for their fortunate escape.
+
+Still, the Earl's indignation was of so _ultra_ a quality; his revenge
+was so fiery, and his tongue so fluent; that I began to suspect he had
+other motives than the insulted laws of hospitality. I reached this
+discovery, too, in time. The declining health of his partner had made
+him speculate on the chances of survivorship. He certainly was no longer
+young, and he had never been an Adonis. Yet his glass did not altogether
+throw him into the rank of the impracticable. A coronet was a well-known
+charm, which had often compensated for every other; in short, he had
+quietly theorized himself into the future husband of the ducal ward; and
+felt on this occasion as an Earl should, plundered, before his face, of
+a clear twenty thousand a-year.
+
+But he was not to suffer alone. On further enquiry, it was ascertained
+that the chevalier's valet had not gone with him. This fellow, a
+Frenchman, had taken wing in another direction, and carried off his
+turtle-dove, too; not one of the full-blown roses of the servant's-hall,
+but a rosebud, the daughter of one of the bulkiest squires of the
+Riding; a man of countless beeves and blunders; one of our Yorkshire
+Nimrods, "a mighty hunter," until club dinners and home-brewed ale tied
+him to his arm-chair, and gout made him a man of peace and flannels, the
+best thriven weed in the swamps of Yorkshire. The young lady had been
+intended for my eldest brother, as a convenient medium of connexion
+between two estates, palpably made for matrimony. Thus we received two
+mortal blows in one evening; never was family pilfered more
+ignominiously; never was amateur play more peevishly catastrophized.
+
+It must be owned, to the credit of "private theatricals," that the play
+had no slight share in the plot. The easy intercourse produced by
+rehearsals, the getting of tender speeches by heart, the pretty
+personalities and allusions growing out of those speeches, the ramblings
+through shades and rose-twined parterres, the raptures and romance, all
+tend prodigiously to take off the alarm, or instruct the inexperience,
+of the female heart. I know no more certain cure for the rigidity that
+is supposed to be a barrier. At all events, the Chevalier and his valet,
+probably both footmen, alike had profited of their opportunity. Our play
+had cost us two elopements; two shots between wind and water, which
+threatened to send the ship down; two breakings of that heart which men
+carry in their purse. I laughed, and the world laughed also. But I was
+then thoughtless, and the world is malicious. My father and the member,
+though they had "never told their love," felt the blow "like a worm in
+the bud," and from that night I date the family decline.
+
+Of course, the two whiskered vagabonds could not be suffered to carry
+off their laurels without an attempt to diminish them, and my father and
+brother were too much in earnest in their objects to lose time. In half
+an hour, four post-horses to each britchska whirled them off;--my
+father, to take the northern road, some hints of Gretna having
+transpired in the slipshod secrecy of the servants' hall--my brother, to
+pursue on the Dover road, conjecturing, with more sagacity than I had
+given him credit for, that as the fox runs round to his earth, the
+Frenchman always speeds for Paris.
+
+The company soon dispersed, after having stayed long enough to glean all
+that they could of the family misfortune, and fix appointments for every
+day in the week to meet each other, and make the most of the whole
+transaction. But still a tolerable number of the steadier hands
+remained, who, to show their sympathy with us, resolved not to separate
+until they received tidings of his lordship's success. I was voted to
+the head of the table, more claret was ordered, the wreck of the general
+supper was cleared for one of a snugger kind; and we drew our chairs
+together. Toast followed toast, and all became communicative. Family
+histories, not excepting our own, were now discussed, with a confidence
+new to my boyish conjectures. Charlatanski's career abroad and at home
+seemed to be as well known as if he had been pilloried in the county
+town; the infinite absurdity of the noble duke who suffered him to make
+his way under his roof, and the palpable _penchant_ of his ward, next
+underwent discussion; until the ignorance of my noble father on the
+subject, gave, with me, the death-blow to his penetration. The
+prettinesses which had won the primrose heart of my brother's intended
+spouse, I found were equally notorious; the Earl's project was as plain
+as if he had pronounced it _viva voce_; and before we parted for the
+night, which did not occur until the sun was blazing through the
+curtains of our banqueting room, I had made up my mind, once for all,
+that neither character nor cunning can be concealed in this world; that
+the craftiest impostor is but a clumsier kind of clown; and that the
+most dexterous disguise is but a waste of time.
+
+I must hasten to the _dénouement_. Our excellent friends indulged us
+with their company, and bored us with their society for a mortal week.
+But, as Sterne says of the sentimental traveller, scenes of sentiment
+are always exhibiting themselves to an appetite eager for knowing what
+the world is doing; the knowledge was contributed with a copiousness
+which left nothing to learn, and but little to desire. Our guests were
+of that class which usually fills the houses of noblemen, in the
+annihilation of life in town; clubmen, to whom St James's Street was the
+terraqueous globe; guardsmen, on leave of absence for the shooting
+season, and saturated with London; several older exhibitors in the
+fashionable circles, who as naturally followed where young guardsmen and
+wealthy squires were to be found, as flies wing to the honey on which
+they live; and two or three of the most opulent and dullest baronets who
+ever played whist and billiards, for the advantage of losing guinea
+points to gentlemen more accomplished in the science of chances.
+
+At length, on the sixth day, when I really began to feel anxious, an
+express announced that his lordship had arrived at a village, about
+fifty miles off, on his way home, wounded, and in great danger. I
+instantly broke up the convivial party, and set out to see him. To the
+imagination of a boy, as I was then, nothing could be more startling
+than the aspect of the habitation which now held the haughty Earl of
+Mortimer. After passing through a variety of dungeon-like rooms, for the
+house had once been a workhouse, or something of the kind, I was ushered
+into the chamber where the patient lay. The village doctor, and one or
+two of the wise people of the neighbourhood, who thought it their duty
+to visit a stranger, that stranger being a man of rank, were standing
+by; and the long faces of those persons, seconded by the professional
+shake of the doctor's head, told me, that they at least had no hope. It
+was not so with the sufferer himself, for he talked as largely and
+loftily of what he was to do within the next ten years, as if he was to
+survive the century. He still breathed rage and retribution against the
+Chevalier, and actually seemed to regard the lady's choice as a
+particular infraction of personal claims. He had pursued the fugitives
+day and night, until the pursuit threw him into a kind of fever. While
+under this paroxysm he had met the enamoured pair, but it was on their
+way from that forge on the Border where so many heavy chains have been
+manufactured. Useless as challenging was now, he challenged the husband.
+The parties met, and my father received a bullet in his body, while he
+had the satisfaction of lodging one in his antagonist's knee-pan. The
+Chevalier was doomed to waltz no more. But his bullet was fatal.
+
+As I looked round the wretched chamber in which this bold, arrogant, and
+busy spirit was evidently about to breathe its last, Pope's lines on the
+most splendid _roué_ of his day involuntarily and painfully shot across
+my recollection:--
+
+   "In the worst inn's worst room, with mat half hung,
+    The walls of plaster, and the floor of dung;
+    The George and Garter dangling from the bed,
+    Where tawdry yellow strove with dirty red,
+    Great Villiers lies; alas, how changed from him
+    The glass of fashion!"
+
+I say no more of those scenes; a few days, only enough to collect the
+branches of the family round the bed, terminated every thing. Grief,
+they say, cannot exist where there is no love, but I was not inclined,
+just then, to draw subtle distinctions. I was grieved; and paid the last
+duties, without blame to myself, or, I hope, irreverence in the sight of
+others. The funeral was stately, and all was over.
+
+Matters now took a new shape at the castle. My brother returned, to find
+himself its possessor. His journey had been equally unproductive with my
+unfortunate father's. By dint of bribing the postilions, he had even
+overpassed the fugitives on the Dover road. But, as he stopped to dine
+in Canterbury, where he had prepared a posse of constables for their
+reception, he had, unluckily, been accosted by an old London
+acquaintance, who had accidentally fixed his quarters there for a day or
+two, "seeking whom he might devour." The dinner was followed by a
+carouse, the carouse by a "quiet game," or games, which lasted till the
+next day; and when my brother rose, with the glow of a superb sunset
+giving him the first intimation that he was among the living, he made
+the discovery that he was stripped of the last shilling of five hundred
+pounds, and that the Frenchman and his prize had quietly changed horses
+at the same hotel half a dozen hours before.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The young forget quickly, but they feel keenly. The event which I had
+just witnessed threw a shade over me, which, in the want of any vigorous
+occupation, began to affect my health. I abjured the sports of the
+field, for which, indeed, I had never felt much liking. I rambled
+through the woods in a kind of dreamy idleness of mind, which took but
+little note of any thing, time included. As mendicants sell tapes and
+matches to escape the imputation of mendicancy, I carried a pencil and
+portfolio, and seemed to be sketching venerable oaks and patches of the
+picturesque, while my mind was wandering from Line to Pole. But in this
+earth no one can be singular with impunity. The gentlemen were
+"convinced" that my meditations were heavy with unpaid college bills;
+and the ladies, from high to low, from "Tilburina, mad in white satin,"
+to her "confidant, mad in white linen," were all of opinion that some
+one among their peerless selves had destroyed the "five wits of young Mr
+Marston." I could have fallen on them with a two-handed sword; but as
+the massacre of the sex was not then in my power, I had only to escape.
+
+There were higher matters to move me. Clouds were gathering on the
+world; the times were fitful; the air was thick with rumours from
+abroad; the sleep of the Continent was breaking up, and Europe lay in
+the anxious and strange expectancy in which some great city might see
+the signs of a coming earthquake, without the power of ascertaining at
+what moment, or from what quarter, its foundations were to be flung up
+in sight of the sun.--We were then in the first stage of the French
+Revolution!
+
+I resolved to linger and be libelled no more; and being ushered, by
+appointment, into the library--for the new master was already all
+etiquette--I promptly stated my wishes, and demanded my portion, to try
+my fortune in the world.
+
+Our conference, if it had but little of the graces of diplomacy, had
+much more than its usual decision. It was abrupt and unhesitating. My
+demand had evidently taken his "lordship" by surprise. He started from
+the magisterial chair, in which he was yet to awe so many successions of
+rustic functionaries, and with a flushed cheek asked "Whether I was
+lunatic, or supposed him to be so?"
+
+"Neither the one nor the other," was my answer. "But, to waste life here
+is out of the question. I demand the means of entering a profession."
+
+"Are you aware, sir, that our interest is lost since the last change of
+ministers? that my estate is loaded with encumbrances? that every
+profession is overstocked? and what can you do in the crowd?"
+
+"What others have done--what I should do in a crowd in the streets--push
+some aside, get before others; if made way for, be civil; if resisted,
+trample; it has been the history of thousands, why not mine?"
+
+The doctrine was as new to this son of indulgence, as if I had
+propounded the philosopher's stone. But his courage was exhausted by a
+controversy perhaps longer than he had ever ventured on before. He
+walked to the glass, adjusted his raven ringlets, and having refreshed
+his spirits with the contemplation, enquired, with a smile which made
+the nearest possible approach to a sneer, whether I had any thing more
+to say?
+
+I had more, and of the kind that least suited his feelings. I demanded
+"my property."
+
+The effect of those two words was electrical. The apathy of the
+exquisite was at an end, and in a voice of the most indignant
+displeasure, he rapidly demanded whether I expected money to fall from
+the moon? whether I was not aware of the expense of keeping up the
+castle? whether I supposed that my mother's jointure and my sisters'
+portions could ever be paid without dipping the rent-roll deeper still?
+and, after various and bitter expostulation, "What right had I to
+suppose that I was worth the smallest coin of the realm, except by his
+bounty?"
+
+One query answered them all. "My lord, is it not true that I am entitled
+to five thousand pounds?"
+
+"Five thousand ----?" what word was to fill up the interval I can only
+guess. But the first lesson which a man learns at the clubs is, to
+control his temper when its display is not likely to be attended with
+effect. He saw that I stood his gaze with but few symptoms of giving
+way, and he changed his tactics with an adroitness that did honour to
+his training. Approaching me, he held out his hand. "Charles, why should
+_we_ quarrel about trifles? I was really not acquainted with the
+circumstance to which you allude, but I shall look into it without
+delay. Pray, can you tell me the when, the where, the how?"
+
+"Your questions may be easily answered. The _when_ was at the death of
+our uncle, the _where_ was in his will, and the _how_--in any way your
+lordship pleases." The truce was now made; he begged of me, "as I valued
+_his_ feelings," to drop the formality of his title, to regard him
+simply as a brother, and to rely on his wish to forward every object
+that might gratify my inclination.
+
+Our conference broke up. He galloped to a neighbouring horse-race. I
+went to take a solitary ramble through the Park.
+
+The hour and the scene were what the poet pronounces "fit to cure all
+sadness but despair." Noble old trees, the "roof star-proof" overhead,
+the cool velvet grass under the feet--glimpses of sunlight striking
+through the trunks--the freshened air coming in gusts across the lake,
+like new life, bathing my burning forehead and feverish hands--the whole
+unrivalled sweetness of the English landscape softened and subdued me.
+Those effects are so common, that I can claim no credit for their
+operation on my mind; and, before I had gone far, I was on the point of
+returning, if not to recant, at least to palliate the harshness of my
+appeal to fraternal justice.
+
+But, by this time I had reached a rising ground which commanded a large
+extent of the surrounding country. The evening was one of those
+magnificent closes of the year, which, like a final scene in a theatre,
+seems intended to comprehend all the beauties and brilliancies of the
+past. The western sky was a blaze of all colours, and all pouring over
+the succession of forest, cultured field, and mountain top, which make
+the English view, if not the most sublime, the most touching of the
+earth!
+
+But as I stood on the hill, gazing round to enjoy every shape and shade
+at leisure, my eye turned on the Castle. It spoiled all my serenity at
+once. I felt that it was a spot from which I was excluded by nature;
+that it belonged to others so wholly, that scarcely by any conceivable
+chance could it ever be mine; and that I could remain within its walls
+no longer, but with a sense of uselessness and shame.
+
+If I could have taken staff in hand and pack on shoulder, I would have
+started at that moment on a pilgrimage that might have circled the
+globe. But the most fiery resolution must submit to circumstances. One
+night more, at least, I must sleep under the paternal roof, and I was
+hastening home, brooding over bitter thoughts, when I suddenly rushed
+against some one whom I nearly overthrew.--"Bless me, Mr Marston, is it
+you?"--told me that I had run down my old tutor, Mr Vincent, the parson
+of the parish. He had been returning from visiting some of his flock,
+and in the exercise of the vocation which he had just been fulfilling,
+he saw that something went ill with me, and taking my arm, forced me to
+go home with him, for such comfort as he could give.
+
+Parsons, above all men, are the better for wives and families; for,
+without them, they are wonderfully apt to grow saturnine or stupid. Of
+course there are exceptions. Vincent had a wife not much younger than
+himself, to whom he always spoke with the courtiership of a _preux
+chevalier_. A portrait of her in her bridal dress, showed that she had
+been a pretty brunette in her youth; and her husband still evidently
+gave her credit for all that she had been. They had, as is generally the
+fate of the clergy, a superfluity of daughters, four or five I think,
+creatures as thoughtless and innocent as their own poultry, or their own
+pet-sheep. But all round their little vicarage was so pure, so quiet,
+and so neat--there was such an aspect of order and even of elegance,
+however inexpensive, that its contrast with the glaring and restless
+tumult of the "great house" was irresistible. I never had so full a
+practical understanding of the world's "pomps and vanities," as while
+looking at the trimmings and trelisses of the parson's dwelling.
+
+I acknowledge myself a worldling, but I suppose that all is not lead or
+iron within me, from my sense of scenes like this. In my wildest hour,
+the sight of fields and gardens has been a kind of febrifuge to me--has
+conveyed a feeling of tranquillity to my mind; as if it drank the
+silence and the freshness, as the flowers drink the dew. I have often
+thus experienced a sudden soothing, which checked the hot current of my
+follies or frenzies, and made me think that there were better things
+than the baubles of cabinets. But it did not last long.
+
+I mention this evening, because it decided my future life; or at least
+the boldest, and perhaps the best portion of it. We had an hour or two
+of the little variations of placid amusement which belong to all
+parsonages in romances, but which here were reality; easy conversation
+on the events of the county; a little political talking with the vicar;
+a few details of persons and fashions at the castle, to which the ladies
+listened as Desdemona might have listened to Othello's history--for the
+Castle was so seldom visited by them, that it had almost the air of a
+Castle of Otranto, and they evidently thought that its frowning towers
+and gilded halls belonged to another race, if not to another region of
+existence; we had, too, some of the last new songs, (at least half a
+century old, but which were not the less touching,) and a duet of
+Geminiani, performed by the two elder proficients on a spinet which
+might have been among the "chamber music" of the Virgin Queen; all
+slight matters to speak of, and yet which contributed to the quietude of
+a mind longing for rest--sights of innocence and sounds of peace, which,
+like the poet's music--
+
+   "Might take the prison'd soul
+    And wrap it in Elysium."
+
+The moon shining in through panes covered with honeysuckle and fragrance
+of all kinds, at length warned me that I was intruding on a household
+primitive in their hours, as in every thing else, and I rose to take my
+leave. But I could not be altogether parted with yet. It seems that they
+had found me a most amusing guest; while, to my own conception, I had
+been singularly spiritless; but the little anecdotes which were trite to
+me had been novelties to them. Fashion has a charm even for
+philosophers; and the freaks and follies of the high-toned sons and
+daughters of fashion--who wore down my gentle mother's frame, drained my
+showy father's rental, and made even myself loathe the sight of loaded
+barouches coming to discharge their cargoes of beaux and belles on us
+for weeks together--were nectar and ambrosia to my sportive and
+rosy-cheeked audience. The five girls put on their bonnets, and looking
+like a group of Titania and her nymphs, as they bounded along in the
+moonlight, escorted us to the boundary of the vicar's territory.
+
+We were about to separate, with all the pretty formalities of village
+leave-taking; when their father, in the act of shaking hands with me,
+fixed his eye on mine, and insisted on seeing me home. Whether the
+thought occurred to him that I had still something on my mind, which was
+not to be trusted within sight of a brook that formed the boundary to
+the Castle grounds, I know not, but I complied; the girls were sent
+homewards, and I heard their gay voices mingling, at a distance, and not
+unsuitably, with the songs of the nightingale.
+
+I took his arm, and we walked on for a while in silence. At length,
+slackening his pace, and speaking in a tone whose earnestness struck me,
+"Charles," said he, "has any thing peculiarly painful lately happened to
+you?--if so, speak out. I know your nature to be above disguise; and
+with whom can you repose your vexations, if such there be, more safely
+than with your old tutor?"
+
+I was taken unawares; and not having yet formed a distinct conception of
+my own grievances, promptly denied that I had any.
+
+"It may be so," said my friend; "and yet once or twice this evening I
+saw your cheek alternately flush and grow pale, with a suddenness that
+alarmed me for your health. In one of your pleasantest stories, while
+you were acting the narrative with a liveliness evidently unconscious,
+and giving me and mine a treat which we have not had for a long time, I
+observed your voice falter, as if some spasm of soul had shot across
+you; and I unquestionably saw, that rare sight in the eyes of man, a
+tear."
+
+I denied this instance of weakness stoutly; but the old man's
+importunities prevailed, and, by degrees, I told him, or rather his
+good-natured cross-examination moulded for me, a statement of my
+anxieties at home.
+
+The Vicar, with all his simplicity of manner, was a man of powerful and
+practical understanding. He had been an eminent scholar at his
+university, and was in a fair way for all its distinctions, when he
+thought proper to fall desperately in love. This, of course, demolished
+his prospects at once. I never heard his subsequent history in detail;
+but he had left England, and undergone a long period of disheartening
+and distress. Whether he had not, in those times of desolation, taken
+service in the Austrian army, and even shared some of its Turkish
+campaigns, was a question which I heard once or twice started at the
+Castle; and a slight contraction of the arm, and a rather significant
+scar which crossed his bold forehead, had been set down to the account
+of the Osmanli cimeter.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Vincent had never told the story of either, but a rumour reached his
+college of his having been seen in the Austrian uniform on the
+Transylvanian frontier, during the campaigns of the Prince of Coburg and
+Laudohn against the Turks. It was singular enough, that on this very
+evening, in arguing against some of my whims touching destinies and
+omens, he illustrated the facility of imposture on such points by an
+incident from one of those campaigns.
+
+"A friend of mine," said he, "a captain in the Lichtenstein hussars,
+happened to be on the outpost service of the army. As the enemy were in
+great force, and commanded by the Vizier in person, an action was daily
+expected, and the pickets and videttes were ordered to be peculiarly on
+the alert. But, on a sudden, every night produced some casualty. They
+either lost videttes, or their patrol was surprised, or their baggage
+plundered--in short, they began to be the talk of the army. The regiment
+had been always one of the most distinguished in the service, and all
+those misfortunes were wholly unaccountable. At length a stronger picket
+than usual was ordered for the night--not a man of them was to be found
+in the morning. As no firing had been heard, the natural conjecture was,
+that they must all have deserted. As this was a still more disgraceful
+result than actual defeat, the colonel called his officers together, to
+give what information they could. The camp, as usual, swarmed with
+Bohemians, fortune-tellers, and gipsies, a race who carry intelligence
+on both sides; and whose performances fully accounted for the knowledge
+which the enemy evidently had of our outposts. The first order was, to
+clear the quarters of the regiment of those encumbrances, and the next
+to direct the videttes to fire without challenging. At midnight a shot
+was heard; all turned out, and on reaching the spot where the alarm had
+been given, the vidette was found lying on the ground and senseless,
+though without a wound. On his recovery, he said that he had seen a
+ghost; but that having fired at it, according to orders, it looked so
+horribly grim at him, that he fell from his horse and saw no more. The
+Austrians are brave, but they are remarkably afraid of supernatural
+visitants, and a ghost would be a much more formidable thing to them
+than a discharge of grape-shot.
+
+"The captain in question was an Englishman, and as John Bull is
+supposed, among foreigners, to carry an unusual portion of brains about
+him, the colonel took him into his special council in the emergency.
+Having settled their measures, the captain prepared to take charge of
+the pickets for the night, making no secret of his dispositions. At
+dark, the videttes and sentries were posted as usual, and the officer
+took his post in the old field redoubt, which had been the headquarters
+of the pickets for the last fortnight.
+
+"All went on quietly until about midnight; the men off duty fast asleep
+in their cloaks, and the captain reading an English novel. He, too, had
+grown weary of the night, and was thinking of stretching himself on the
+floor of his hut, when he saw, and not without some perturbation, a tall
+spectral figure, in armour, enter the works, stride over the sleeping
+men without exciting the smallest movement amongst them, and advance
+towards him. He drew his breath hard, and attempted to call out, but his
+voice was choked, and he began to think himself under the dominion of
+nightmare. The figure came nearer still, looking more menacing, and drew
+its sword. My friend, with an effort which he afterwards acknowledged to
+be desperate, put his hand to his side to draw his own. What was his
+alarm when he found that it had vanished? At this moment his poodle,
+which, against all precautions, had followed him, began barking
+fiercely, and rushing alternately towards him and a corner of the
+redoubt. Though his sabre was gone, a brace of English pistols lay on
+the table beside him, and he fired one of them in the direction. The
+shot was followed by a groan and the disappearance of the spectre. The
+men started to their feet, and all rushed out in pursuit. The captain's
+first step struck upon a dead body, evidently that of the spy who had
+fallen by his fire. The pursuit was now joined in by the whole regiment,
+who had been posted in the rear unseen, to take advantage of
+circumstances. They pushed on, swept all before them, and bore down
+patrol and picket until they reached the enemy's camp. The question then
+was, what to do next? whether to make the best of their way back, or try
+their chance onward? The Englishman's voice was for taking fortune at
+the flow; and the accidental burning of a tent or two by the fugitives
+showed him the Turks already in confusion. The trampling of battalions
+in the rear told him at the same time that he had powerful help at hand,
+and he dashed among the lines at once. The hussars, determined to
+retrieve their reputation, did wonders--the enemy were completely
+surprised. No troops but those in the highest state of discipline are
+good for any thing when attacked at night. The gallantry of the Turk by
+day, deserts him in the dark; and a night surprise, if well followed up,
+is sure to end in a victory. From the random firing and shouting on
+every side, it was clear that they were totally taken unawares; and the
+rapid and general advance of the Austrian brigades, showed that Laudohn
+was in the mind to make a handsome imperial bulletin. Day dawned on a
+rout as entire as ever was witnessed in a barbarian campaign. The enemy
+were flying in all directions like a horde of Tartars, and camp, cannon,
+baggage, standards, every thing was left at the mercy of the pursuers."
+
+"But the captain, the Englishman, what became of him?" I asked, slightly
+glancing at the countenance of the narrator.
+
+"Oh, very well off indeed! Foreign Governments are showy to the soldier,
+and Joseph the Second, though an economist in civil matters, was liberal
+to his successful officers. The captain received a pension; a couple of
+orders; was made a colonel on the first opportunity; and, besides, had
+his share of the plunder--no slight addition to his finances, for the
+military chest had been taken in the baggage of the Seraskier."
+
+"And by this time," said I, with an unenquiring air, "he is doubtless a
+field-marshal?"
+
+"Nothing of the kind," replied my reverend friend, "for his victory
+cured him of soldiership. He was wounded in the engagement, and if he
+had been ever fool enough to think of fame, the solitary hours of his
+invalidism put an end to the folly. Other and dearer thoughts recurred
+to his mind. He had now obtained something approaching to a competence,
+if rightly managed; he asked permission to retire, returned to England,
+married the woman he loved; and never for a moment regretted that he was
+listening to larks and linnets instead of trumpets and cannon, and
+settling the concerns of rustics instead of manoeuvring squadrons and
+battalions."
+
+"But what was the ghost, after all?"
+
+"Oh, the mere trick of a juggler! a figure projected on the wall by some
+ingenious contrivance of glasses. The instrument was found on the body
+of the performer, who turned out to be the colonel's valet--of course in
+the enemy's pay, and who furnished them with daily intelligence of all
+our proceedings. As for the loss of the sabre, which actually startled
+the ghost-seer most, he found it next morning hanging up in the hut,
+where he himself had placed it, and forgotten that he had done so."
+
+"And the captain, or rather the colonel, brought with him to England, a
+cimeter-cut on his arm, and another on his forehead?" I asked, fixing my
+eyes on him. A crimson flush passed over his countenance, he bit his lip
+and turned away. I feared that I had offended irreparably. But his
+natural kindliness of heart prevailed, he turned to me gently, laughed,
+and pressing my hand in his, said, "You have my secret. It has escaped
+me for the first time these thirty years. Keep it like a man of honour."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I have always held that the life of man's mind, where man _has_ a
+mind--which is not always the case--is a thing of fits and starts. I
+even doubt whether any one who will take the trouble to recollect, will
+not be able to put his finger on the precise periods at which new views
+of every thing suddenly opened before him, and he emerged at once, if
+not into new powers, at least into a new use of them. The frame may grow
+like a tree; the faculties may grow as imperceptibly as the frame; but
+the mind acquires that knowledge of life which forms its exercise, its
+use, and perhaps its essence, by bounds and flights. This moonlight walk
+with my old and honoured Mentor, was the beginning of my mental
+adolescence. My manhood was still to come, and with a more severe
+instructor.
+
+As we were passing slowly through the plantations which encircled the
+Castle with all the noble and profuse shelter and ornament which our
+ancestors loved, a distant sound of music came on the wind. I then
+remembered, for the first time, that my brother had, on that evening,
+given a ball to the county, and a sudden sense of the difference of our
+lots in life, came painfully over me;--the course of secure wealth and
+English enjoyment, contrasted with the dependence and wandering which
+must form the existence of myself, and so many thousands of younger
+brothers.
+
+I was awakened from my reverie by the voice of my companion. His face
+was upturned to the cloudless sky, and he was murmuring the fine passage
+in the Merchant of Venice.
+
+   "Look, how the floor of heaven
+    Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold;
+    There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st,
+    But in his motion like an angel sings,
+    Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins:
+    Such harmony is in immortal souls."
+
+"Do you know, Charles," said he, "what changed the whole current of my
+life? what, in fact, brought me back to England?" and there was a slight
+pause. "What made me a Christian? It was such a night as this. As you
+now know the chief part of my story, I need have no further concealment
+on the subject. I had recovered from my wounds, and was preparing to set
+out for Vienna, when one night a tempest blew down our tents, and left
+us to trust to the open air for the hours till morning. Tempests in the
+south are violent, but they are generally brief, and this gale cleared
+the sky of every cloud. As I lay on the ground, and gazed on the unusual
+splendour of the stars, the thought occurred to me, Why should doubts of
+a future state ever come into the mind of man? Why should he hesitate
+about its reality? Was it not there, before his eyes? Were not the very
+regions of future existence already within the reach of one of his
+senses? Why might they not yet be within the reach of all? Of course I
+do not give you all the vague thoughts which passed through my mind; but
+the permanence, power, and astonishing multitude of those bright worlds,
+impressed themselves on me with a new force. I had known all those
+matters before, but on this night I felt them. My next thoughts were of
+the power, the wisdom, and the majesty of the mighty Being by whom all
+this had been formed, moved, and sustained through thousands of years. I
+need not follow the history of my conversion--for a conversion it was.
+When I looked round me on the sleeping troops, I saw nothing but clods
+of the valley--gallant beings, but as insensible to their high
+inheritance as the chargers they rode. My heart moved me towards them;
+and perhaps, in some instances, I succeeded in giving them my own ideas.
+But Austria defies, at least, all human change. I was not a fanatic, and
+I had no wish to strive with impossibilities. I sent in my resignation;
+abandoned the 'pride, pomp, and circumstance' of the most tempting of
+all human pursuits, and returned to England to be, what you see me now."
+
+With this man I could have no reserves, and I freely asked his advice on
+the plunge which I was about to make into that fathomless tide of good
+and ill, the world. I mentioned the Church as the profession which my
+mother had suggested, but for which I did not conceive either my temper
+or my habits suitable.
+
+"You are right, then, in abandoning the idea altogether," was the
+answer; "and yet I know no profession more capable of fulfilling all the
+objects of a vigorous mind. I am not now talking of mitres; they can
+fall to but few. I speak of the prospects which it opens to all; the
+power of exerting the largest influence for the highest purposes; the
+possession of fame without its emptiness, and the indulgence of
+knowledge without its vanity; energy turned to the most practical and
+lofty uses of man; and the full feast of an ambition superior to the
+tinsel of the world, and alike pure in its motives, and immeasurable in
+its rewards."
+
+"And, yet," said I, naming one or two of our clerical slumberers, "the
+profession seems not to be a very disturbing one."
+
+"Those men, was the answer, would have been slumberers at the bar, in
+senates, or in the field. I may be prejudiced in favour of the choice
+which I made so long since, and which I have never found reason to
+repent. But I have not the slightest wish to prejudice any one in its
+favour. There is no profession which more requires a peculiar mind;
+contentment, with whatever consciousness of being overlooked; patience,
+with whatever hopelessness of success; labour, for its own sake; and
+learning, with few to share, few to admire, and fewer still to
+understand."
+
+"If my father had lived," said I, "it was his intention to have tried my
+chance in diplomacy."
+
+"Probably enough; for he had figured in that line himself. I remember
+him secretary of embassy at Vienna. Perhaps you will scarcely believe,
+that I, too, have had my experience on the subject? Accident once made
+me an attaché to our envoy at Naples. The life is an easy one. Idleness
+was never more perfectly reduced to a system, than among the half dozen
+functionaries to whom the interests of the British empire were entrusted
+in the capital of the Lazzaroni. As the Frenchman said of the Academy,
+'We had nothing to do, and we did it.'"
+
+"Italy," said I, "is the land of pleasure, and the Lazzaroni are its
+philosophers, but one cannot sleep like them in the face of day, and all
+day long. Let what will come, I have no desire to be a weed on the
+shore."
+
+"No; we had our occupations; for we had the attendance on the court
+days--a business of as much formality, as if the fate of mankind
+depended on it. Then we had the attendance on the opera at night, a
+matter nearly as tiresome. The post from England reached Naples but once
+a-week, and scarcely once a month conveyed any intelligence that was
+worth the postage. But, if politics were out of the question, we had
+negotiation in abundance; for we carried on the whole diplomacy of the
+opera-house in London, engaged _primo tenores_, and settled the rival
+claims of _prima donnas_; gave our critical opinions on the merits of
+dancers worthy of appearing before the British _cognoscenti_; and
+dispatched poets, ballet-masters, and scene-painters, to our managers,
+with an activity worthy of the purest patriotism. What think you of the
+bar?"
+
+"I have no head for its study; and no heart for its employment."
+
+"It leads more rapidly to rank than any other profession under the sun;
+profit beyond counting, and a peerage. Those are no bad things."
+
+"Both capital, if one could be secure of them. But they take too much
+time for me. I never was born to sit on the woolsack. No; if I were to
+follow my own inclination, I should be a soldier."
+
+I have already said that I have been, throughout life, a kind of
+believer in omens. I have seen such a multitude of things decided by
+some curious coincidence, some passing occurrence, some of those odd
+trifles for which it is impossible to account, but which occur at the
+instant when the mind is wavering on the balance; that I feel no wonder
+at the old superstitions of guessing our destiny from the shooting of a
+star, or the flight of birds. While we were rambling onward, discussing
+the merits and demerits of the profession of arms, we heard the winding
+of the mail-guard's horn. I sprang the fence, and waited in the road to
+enquire the last news from the metropolis. It was momentous--the
+Revolution had effectually broken out. Paris was in an uproar. The
+king's guards had taken up arms for the people. The Bastile was stormed!
+
+If I had hesitated before, this news decided me; not that I pretend to
+have even dreamed of the tremendous changes which were to be produced in
+the world by that convulsion. But it struck me as the beginning of a
+time, when the lazy quietude of years was about to be broken up, and
+room made for all who were inclined to exert themselves. Before we had
+reached the level lawns and trim parterres which showed us the lights of
+the family festivity, I had settled all the difficulties which might
+impede the career of less fortunate individuals; time and chance were
+managed with the adroitness of a projector; and if Bellona had been one
+of the Nine Muses, my speculations could not have been more poetical.
+Somewhat to my surprise, they received no check from my venerable tutor;
+quite the contrary. The singular sympathy with which he listened to my
+most daring and dashing conceptions, would have betrayed his early
+history if I had still the knowledge to acquire. His very looks, as he
+listened to my rodomontades, recurred to me, when I read, many years
+after, Scott's fine description of his soldier-monk in the Lay of the
+Last Minstrel:--
+
+    "Again on the knight look'd the churchman old,
+      And again he sigh'd heavily,
+    For he had himself been a warrior bold,
+      And fought in Spain and Italy.
+    And he thought on the days that were long gone by,
+    When his limbs were strong, and his courage was high."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The news from France produced a sensation throughout England totally
+indescribable at the present day. Every tongue and every heart was full
+of it. It offered something for every mind of the million to seize on.
+Like a waterspout, such as I have seen sweeping over the bosom of the
+Atlantic, half-descending from the skies, and half-ascending from the
+deep; every second man whom one met gave it credit for a different
+origin, some looking at the upper portion and some at the lower; while,
+in the mean time, the huge phenomenon was blackening, gathering, and
+rushing onward, threatening to turn all above into darkness and all
+below into storm. It made the grand subject of parliamentary eloquence,
+and parliament was never more eloquent; it filled the speeches of the
+factious, it was hailed by the shouts of the multitude, and it disturbed
+the fireside with fear and hope, with wishing and wonder. It must be
+acknowledged that a vast quantity of this excitement was absolute folly;
+but, at the same time, there was a sincerity in the folly which redeemed
+it from ridicule. Nothing could be more evident than that this French
+patriotism was as theatrical, in the countless majority of instances, as
+the loves and sorrows of its stage. Yet, however the speeches might be
+got by heart, or the frippery and actors hired, the _drame_ was
+powerfully performed; and all Europe sat by, giving it the tribute of
+its tears and its terrors. Even we of England, with all our more sober
+recollections that the heroes were ragamuffins, and the heroism
+imaginary, gave ourselves up to the illusion. I shall not say that I was
+wiser than the rest of mankind. I liked excitement, wherever it was to
+be found. The barriers to distinction were still too firmly closed
+against the youngest son of an embarrassed family, not to suggest many a
+wish for whatever chance might burst the gate, or blow up the rampart;
+and my first effort in political life was a harangue to the rabble of
+the next borough, conceived in the most Gallic style. Yet this act of
+absurdity had the effect of forwarding my views more rapidly than if I
+had become an aristocratic Demosthenes. My speech was so much applauded
+by the mob, that they began to put its theories in practice, though with
+rather more vigour than I had dreamed of. There were riots, and even
+some attempts at the seizure of arms; and the noble duke, our neighbour,
+had received a threatening letter, which sent him at full gallop to the
+Home Secretary. A note, by no means too gentle in its tone, was
+instantly despatched to my noble brother, enquiring why he did not
+contrive to keep the minor branches of his family in better order, and
+threatening him with the withdrawal of the county patronage. My demand
+of a commission in the Guards was no longer answered by the head of our
+house with astonishment at the loftiness of my expectations, and
+statements of the utter emptiness of the family exchequer. The result of
+his brief correspondence with Downing Street was a letter, notifying
+that his majesty was pleased to accept my services in the Coldstream.
+
+I was enraptured, and my brother was enraptured, for we had both gained
+our objects. I had got rid of him and ennui. He had got rid of me, and
+the displeasure of the grand dispensers of place and pension. No time
+was lost in forwarding me to make my bow at the Horse Guards; and my
+noble brother lost as little time in making me put my hand to a paper,
+in which, for prompt payment, I relinquished one half of my legacy. But
+what cared I for money? I had obtained a profession in which money was
+contemptible, the only purse the military chest, and the only prize,
+like Nelson's, a peerage or Westminster Abbey. The ferment did not cool
+within the week, and within that period I had taken leave of half the
+county, been wished laurels and aiguillettes by a hundred or a thousand
+of the fairest of our country belles; and been wished a thousand miles
+off by the wise matrons, to whom the sight of a "younger son without
+house or land" is a nuisance, a kite among their family pigeons.
+
+At that moment, however, all their dovecots were secure. I should not
+have spent a sigh on the Venus de Medicis had she sprung from her
+pedestal to enchant me. The world was open before me; and trite and
+trifling objects were no more to occupy my time. I felt like one who,
+after wandering all day through the depths of an American forest,
+suddenly reaches its border, and sees before him the boundless prairie,
+with its boundlessness still more striking, from the absence of any
+distinct object on which the eye could rest. What were horses, dogs, and
+country dinners, to the world of London and of life which now came in
+full, and, I will own it, extravagant vision before me? The ideas which
+I conceived of men and things, of my own fortunes, and the fortunate
+exercise of my own powers, were of an order which, in my calmer days,
+have often made me smile; yet what is the whole early life of man but a
+predisposition to fever? and I was then throbbing on the fiery verge of
+the disease.
+
+I shall say but little of my first sensations on reaching London. My
+eyes and ears were in full activity. But the impression upon all who
+enter this mightiest of capitals for the first time, is nearly the same.
+Its perpetual multitude, its incessant movement, its variety of
+occupations, sights and sounds, the echo of the whole vast and sleepless
+machinery of national existence, have been a thousand times the subject
+of description, and always of wonder. Yet, I must acknowledge, that its
+first sight repelled me. I had lived in field and forest, my society had
+been among my fellows in rank; I had lived in magnificent halls, and
+been surrounded by bowing attendants; and now, with my mind full of the
+calm magnificence of English noble life, I felt myself flung into the
+midst of a numberless, miscellaneous, noisy rabble, all rushing on
+regardless of every thing but themselves, pouring through endless lines
+of dingy houses; and I nothing, an atom in the confusion, a grain of
+dust on the great chariot wheel of society, a lonely and obscure
+struggler in the mighty current of human life, which rolled along the
+sullen channels of the most cheerless, however it might be the largest,
+of capitals.
+
+For the first week, I was absolutely unable to collect my thoughts. All
+that I learned was, to make my way through the principal thoroughfares,
+and know the names of her chief buildings. In later days, I took a more
+practical view of matters, and regarded them only as places in which the
+business of the hour was to be done. But in my first view, something of
+the romance and revival of my forest walks clung to me. I remember that,
+when I first saw the Horse Guards, to which, of course, one of my
+earliest visits was paid, I found no slight difficulty in thinking of it
+as only a remarkably clownish mass of brick and stone, crowded with
+clerks. To me it was the very palace of war; the spot from which the
+thunderbolts of England were launched; the centre and the stronghold of
+that irresistible influence with which England sways and moulds mankind.
+The India House was another of my reveries. I could not think of it as
+but a huge pile in a vulgar outlet of the city, as a place of porters
+and messengers loitering in gloomy corridors, of busy clerks for ever
+scribbling in nooks unvisited by the sun, or even of portly directors,
+congregating in halls encrusted with the cobwebs of centuries. To my
+eyes it was invested with the mystery and dignity of Orientalism. I
+thought of the powers by which rajahs were raised and overthrown, of the
+mandates which spread war and restored peace over regions wide as
+Europe, and a thousand times more brilliant. I had rambling visions of
+armies of elephants, superb cavalry, and chieftains covered with gold
+and diamonds. As I traversed the dusky halls, I thought of the will
+which pronounced the fate of kingdoms, the fallen glories of Aurengzebe,
+the broken sceptre of the Mahratta, and the crushed tiara of Mysore.
+Round me was the moving power of an empire, the noblest that the East
+has ever seen, and which, in the act of assuming additional greatness,
+by a contradiction to all the laws of extended conquest, was hourly
+assuming additional stability.
+
+And yet, and yet, are not those the true views, after all? Are the
+effects to be forgotten in the instruments, or is it not the result
+which forms the character of the whole? Are we to think of the dagger
+which strikes the master of a throne, as only the steel in the hand of
+an assassin, or as the summoner to civil war and the subversion of
+thrones? Is the pen which pours political frenzy through the hearts of
+living millions, or sheds the splendours of poetry over millions still
+to come, to be valued only as the feather of a bird? Or is the press
+itself to be remembered only as a dexterous combination of springs and
+screws; or to be bowed down to as the steward of all the hidden
+treasures of mind--as the breaker of intellectual chains, the avenger of
+injured rights, the moral Hercules that goes forth turning the
+wilderness to fertility, and smiting the monsters of the world?
+
+But among the wonders of the time, there was one which struck me with
+prodigious force, which has remained on my recollection to this hour,
+and which still survives with undiminished vividness. It was the acting
+of Siddons.
+
+The stage is now almost undone. The absurd liberalism of the day has
+given every corner of London a theatre, and has degraded the character
+of the stage in all. By scattering the ability which still exists, it
+has stripped the great theatres of the very means of representing
+dramatic excellence; while, by adopting popular contrivances to obtain
+temporary success, they have driven away dramatic genius in contempt or
+in despair. Our stage is now condemned to be fed like a felon from the
+dungeons, and, like the felon, to feel a stigma in every morsel which it
+puts between its lips. It must stoop to French frivolity, or German
+extravagance, and be glad to exist upon either. Yet, why should not
+higher names come to its aid? Why should not the State relieve the
+difficulties of a great institution, which might be made to repay its
+assistance a thousand-fold? Is there nothing that could be withdrawn
+from the waste of our civil lists, or the pomp of public establishments,
+to reunite, to purify, and even to exalt the stage? The people _will_
+have theatres. Good or evil, noble or degraded, the stage will be
+demanded by the people. Is it a thing indifferent to our rulers, to
+supply them with this powerful and universal excitement in its highest
+degree of moral influence, or in its lowest degree of impurity; to bring
+before them, with all the attractions of the drama, the memory of heroes
+and sages, patriots and martyrs, or leave them to rake for the
+indulgence of eye and ear in the very kennels of crime?
+
+"They order those things better in France."
+
+Unquestionably. The care of Government there protects the national
+taste, and prevents the theatres from looking for subsistence to the
+history of the highway. The vices which now haunt theatres are no more
+necessary to their nature, than to the senate or the palace. Why should
+not the State interpose to prevent the sale of poison on the stage, as
+in the streets? Why should it not offer prizes and honours for great
+tragedies and comedies, as soon as it would for a voyage to the Arctic
+or Antarctic? But is dramatic genius dead in England? What, in England!
+where nothing dies--where every faculty of the heart and understanding
+is in the most perpetual activity--where the noblest impulses are
+perpetually pushing forward to the noblest ends--where human nature
+moves in all its vigour, from hour to hour, without disguise--where the
+whole anatomy of the moral frame is visible, and all its weakness, and
+all its wonders, are the daily spectacle of all mankind!
+
+In giving these opinions of the powers of the stage, need I guard them
+by saying, that I contemplate a higher spirit than the drama even of
+Shakspeare has ever displayed--one which, to the vigour of his
+characters, and the splendours of his poetry, should add a moral of
+which his time was scarcely conscious? My idea would approach more
+nearly the objects of the great Greek dramas, in which the first
+sympathies of the people were appealed to by the most powerful
+recollections of historic virtue; their national victories over the
+Persian, the lofty conceptions of their Olympus, the glories of their
+national power, and the prospects of their imperishable renown. I
+contemplate nothing of the weakness, locality, or license, of our old
+drama. I think only of a rich and lofty combination of characters above
+the level of our time, thoughts belonging to that elevation, feelings
+more generous, vivid, and majestic, and exploits uniting the soaring
+spirit of old romance with the sustained strength of modern energy;
+Greece in her brightest days of intellectual lustre, Rome in her most
+heroic days of patriotism, and England in those days which are yet to
+come, and which shall fill up her inheritance of glory.
+
+Siddons was then witching the world--witching, in its more solemn sense;
+for though her smile was exquisite, she might have sat for the picture
+of a Sybil or a Pythoness. The stage had never seen her equal, and will
+probably never see another so completely formed to command all its
+influences. Yet her beauty, her acting, even her movement, were
+characteristic, and their character was noble melancholy. I never saw so
+mournful a countenance combined with so much beauty. Her voice, though
+grand, was melancholy--her step, though superb, was melancholy; her very
+smile was melancholy; and yet there was so much of living intellect in
+her expression, such vast variety of passion in her look and gesture;
+she so deeply awoke the feelings, or so awfully impressed the mind; thus
+it was impossible to escape the spell, while she moved upon the stage.
+
+In this language there is not the slightest exaggeration. I have seen a
+whole audience burst into tears at a single tone of her voice. Her
+natural conception was so fine, that the merest commonplace often
+received a living spirit from her lips. I have seen a single glance from
+her powerful eye hush an audience--I have seen her acting sometimes even
+startle and bewilder the actors beside her. There is perhaps a genius
+for every art, and hers was the genius of the stage--a faculty of
+instant communication between the speaker and the hearer, some
+unaccountable sympathy, the power to create which belongs to but one in
+millions, and which, where it exists, lifts its possessor to the height
+of the Art at once, and constitutes perfection.
+
+It may be presumed that I saw this extraordinary being whenever it was
+possible. But her _chef-d'oeuvre_, in my eyes, was the "wife of
+Macbeth." The character seemed made for her, by something of that
+instinct which in olden times combined the poet and the prophet in one.
+It had the ardour and boldness mingled with the solemnity and mystery
+that belonged to the character of her beauty.
+
+Her entrance was hurried, as if she had but just glanced over the
+letter, and had been eager to escape from the crowd of attendants to
+reperuse it alone. She then read on, in a strong calm voice, until she
+came to the passage which proved the preternatural character of the
+prediction. "They have more in them than mortal knowledge. When I burnt
+with desire to question them further, they made themselves into air
+and--_vanished_." As she was about to pronounce the last word, she
+paused, drew a short breath, her whole frame was disturbed, she threw
+her fine eyes upwards, and exclaimed "_Vanished_!" with a wild force,
+which showed that the whole spirit of the temptation had shrunk into her
+soul. The "Hail, king that shall be!" was the winding-up of the spell.
+It was pronounced with the grandeur of one already by anticipation a
+Queen.
+
+Her solitary summons to her distant lord followed, like an invocation--
+
+                 "Hie thee hither,
+    That I may pour my spirits in thine ear;
+    And chastise with the valour of my tongue
+    All that impedes thee from the golden round."
+
+The murder scene was the next triumph: her acting was that of a
+triumphant fiend. I must follow these recollections no further; but the
+most admirable piece of dumb show that perhaps ever was conceived, was
+her "Banquet scene." That scene, from the terrible business on the
+stage--the entrance of Banquo's ghost, the horrors of Macbeth, stricken
+in the moment of his royal exultation, and the astonishment and alarm of
+the courtiers--is one of the most thrilling and tumultuous. Yet Siddons,
+sitting at the extremity of the royal hall, not having a syllable to
+utter, and simply occupied with courtesies to her guests, made her
+silence so expressive, that she more than divided the interest with the
+powerful action going on in front. And when at last, indignant at
+Macbeth's terrors, stung by conscience, and alarmed at the result of an
+up-breaking of the banquet with such rumours in their lips, she rushed
+towards her unhappy husband, and burst out with the words, still though
+but whispered, yet intensely poured into his passive ear--
+
+         "Are you a _man_?
+    This is the very painting of your fear!
+    This is the air-drawn dagger, which, you said,
+    Led you to Duncan!--
+    Why do you make such faces? When all's done,
+    _You look but on a stool_!"
+
+In those accents all else was forgotten.
+
+But her sleep-walking scene! When shall we see its "second or its
+similar?" Nothing so solemn, nothing so awful, was ever seen upon the
+stage. Yet it had one fault--it was too awful. She more resembled a
+majestic shade rising from the tomb than a living woman, however
+disturbed by wild fear and lofty passion. It is a remarkable instance of
+the genius of Shakspeare, that he here found the means of giving a human
+interest to a being whom he had almost exalted to the "bad eminence" of
+a magnificent fiend. In this famous soliloquy, the thoughts which once
+filled and fired her have totally vanished. Ambition has died; remorse
+lives in its place. The diadem has disappeared; she thinks only of the
+blood that stains her for ever. She is the queen no more, but an
+exhausted and unhappy woman, worn down by the stings of conscience, and
+with her frame dying by the disease of her soul.
+
+But Siddons wanted the agitation, the drooping, the timidity. She looked
+a living statue. She spoke with the solemn tone of a voice from a
+shrine. She stood more the sepulchral avenger of regicide than the
+sufferer from its convictions. Her grand voice, her fixed and marble
+countenance, and her silent step, gave the impression of a supernatural
+being, the genius of an ancient oracle--a tremendous Nemesis.
+
+I have seen all the great tragedians of my day, but I have never seen an
+equal to the sublime of this extraordinary actress. I have seen beauty,
+youth, touching sensibility, and powerful conception; but I never saw so
+complete an union of them all--and that union was the sublime.
+Shakspeare must have had some such form before his mind's eye, while he
+was creating the wife of Macbeth. Some magnificent and regal
+countenance, some movement of native majesty, some imaginary Siddons. He
+could not have gone beyond the true. She was a living Melpomene.
+
+The business of the War-Office was not transacted in those days with the
+dispatch subsequently introduced by the honest Duke of York. After a
+delay of weeks I found myself still ungazetted, grew sad, angry,
+impatient; and after some consideration on the various modes of getting
+rid of _ennui_, which were to be found in enlisting the service of that
+Great Company which extended its wings from Bombay to Bengal, as
+Sheridan said, impudently enough, like the vulture covering his prey; or
+in taking the chance of fortune, in the shape of cabin-boy on board one
+of the thousand ships that were daily floating down the Thames, making
+their way to the extremities of the earth; or in finishing my feverish
+speculations in a cold bath at the bottom of the Thames itself; I did
+what I felt a severer exertion than any of them--I wrote a full and true
+statement of my vexations to my lordly brother.
+
+His answer was lordly enough. He had been "so much occupied with the
+numberless duties devolving upon him as landlord, magistrate,
+lord-lieutenant, and fifty other things, that he absolutely had not been
+able to find a moment to think of me;" and what was rather more
+perplexing to my immediate sensibilities, "he had not been able to send
+me a shilling. However, he did all that he could, and gave me a note to
+a particular friend," Mr Elisha Mordecai of Moorfields.
+
+There is nothing which quickens a man's movements like a depletion of
+the purse; and instead of lounging at my hotel until the morning paper
+brought me the scandals and pleasantries of the day before fresh for my
+breakfast-table, I threw myself out of bed at an hour which I should not
+have ventured to mention to any man with whom I walked arm-in-arm during
+the day, and made my way in a hackney coach, to avoid the possibility of
+being recognised, to the dwelling of my new patron, or rather my guide
+and guardian angel.
+
+I make no attempt to describe the navigation through which I reached
+him; it was winding, dark, and dirty beyond all description, and gave
+the idea of the passages of a dungeon rather than any thing else that I
+could name. And in a hovel worthy to finish such a voyage of discovery,
+I discovered Mr Elisha Mordecai, the man of untold opulence. For a
+while, on being ushered into the office, where he sat pen in hand, I was
+utterly unable to ascertain any thing of him beyond a gaunt thin figure,
+who sat crouching behind a pile of papers, and beneath a small window
+covered with the dirt of ages. He gave me the impression in his dungeon
+of one of those toads which are found from time to time in blocks of
+coal, and have lain there unbreathing and unmoving since the deluge.
+However, he was a man of business, and so was I for the moment. I handed
+him my brother's note; and like a ray of sunshine on the torpid snake,
+it put him into immediate motion. He now took off his spectacles, as if
+to indulge himself with a view of me by the naked eye; and after a
+scrutinizing look, which, in another place and person, I should probably
+have resented as impertinent, but which here seemed part of his
+profession, he rose from his seat and ushered me into another apartment.
+This room was probably his place of reception for criminals of a more
+exalted order; for it was lined with foreign prints, had one or two
+tolerable Dutch pictures, and a bookcase. Out of his bookcase he took
+down a folio, examined it, compared the writing of my credentials with
+the signatures of a book which, as Cromwell's son said of his trunk,
+contained the lives and fortunes, or at least that on which depended the
+lives and fortunes, of half the noble _roués_ of England, their
+"promises to pay," bonds, mortgages, and post-obits, and then performed
+the operation on myself. My L.2500 in prospect was mulcted of a fifth
+for the trouble of realizing it; of another fifth for prompt payment,
+and of another for expediting the affair of my commission. "Another such
+victory would have ruined me."
+
+However, I bore the torture well. In truth, I had so little regard for
+any object but the grand one of wearing a sword and epaulette, that if
+Mordecai had demanded the whole sum in fifths, I should have scarcely
+winced. But my philosophy stood me in good part, for it won a grim smile
+from the torturer, and even a little of his confidence.
+
+"This," said he, running his finger down a list which looked endless, "I
+call my peerage book." Turning to another of equal dimensions, "there
+lies my House of Commons. Not quite as many words wasted in it as in the
+Honourable House, but rather to the purpose."
+
+Mordecai grew facetious; the feeling that he had made a handsome
+morning's work of it put him into spirits, and he let me into some of
+the secrets of high life, with the air of a looker-on who sees the whole
+game, and intends to pocket the stakes of the fools on both sides.
+"Money, Mr Marston," said my hook-nosed and keen-eyed enlightener, "is
+the true business of man. It is philosophy, science, and patriotism in
+one; or, at least, without it the whole three are of but little service.
+Your philosopher dies in a garret, your man of science hawks telescopes,
+and your patriot starves in the streets, or gets himself hanged in
+honour of the 'Rights of Man.' I have known all these things, for I was
+born a German, and bred among the illustrissimi of a German university.
+But I determined not to live a beggar, or at least not to die one. I
+left Gottingen behind on a May morning, and trudged, fought, and begged,
+'borrowed' my way to London. What I am now, you see."
+
+Probably, the glance which I involuntarily gave round the room, did not
+exhibit much admiration.
+
+"Ha," said he with a half smile, which, on his gigantic and sullen
+features, looked like a smile on one of the sculptures of a mausoleum,
+"you are young--you judge by appearances. Let me give you one piece of
+advice: If the Italian said, 'distrust words, they are fit only to
+disguise thoughts,' take a Londoner's warning, and distrust your
+eyes--they are only fit to pretend to see." He paused a moment, and
+turned over some memorandums. "I find," said he, "by these papers, that
+I shall have occasion to leave town in the beginning of next week. You
+shall then see how I live. If I am to be found in this den, it is not
+for want of a liking for light and air. I am a German. I have seen
+plains and mountains in my time. If I had been a fool, there I should
+have remained a bear-shooter; if I were a fool here, I should act like
+others of the breed, and be a fox-hunter. But I had other game in view,
+and now I could sell half the estates in England, call half the
+'Honourable House' to my levee, brush down an old loan, buy up a new
+one, and shake the credit of every thing but the Bank of England."
+
+This was bold speaking, and at another time I should have laughed at it;
+but the times were bold, the language of the streets was bold, the
+country was bold, and I, too, was bold. There was something singular in
+the man; even the hovel round him had a look which added to his
+influence. I listened to the Jew as one might listen to a revealer of
+those secrets which find an echo in every bosom, when they are once
+discovered, and on which still deeper secrets seem to depend. My
+acquiescence, not the less effective for its being expressed more in
+looks than words, warmed even the stern spirit of the Israelite towards
+me, and he actually went the length of ordering some refreshments to be
+put on the table. We eat and drank together; a new source of cordiality.
+Our conversation continued long. I shall have more to say of him, and
+must now proceed to other things; but it ended in my acceptance of his
+invitation to his villa at Brighton, which he termed "a small thing,
+simply for a week's change of air," and where he promised to give me
+some curious explanations of his theory--that money was the master of
+all things, men, manners, and opinions.
+
+On one of the finest mornings of autumn, I was on the box of the Royal
+Sussex Stage.
+
+I had full leisure to admire the country, for our progress occupied
+nearly the whole day. We now laugh at our slow-moving forefathers, but
+is not the time coming when our thirty miles an hour will be laughed at
+as much as their five? when our passage from Calais to Dover will be
+made by the turn of a winch, and Paris will be within the penny-post
+delivery? when the balloon will carry our letters and ourselves; until
+that still more rapid period, when we shall ride on cannon-shot, and
+make but a stage from London to Pekin?
+
+On the roof of the coach I found a strong-featured and closely
+wrapped-up man, who, by degrees, performed the part of my cicerone. His
+knowledge of the localities was perfect; "every bush and bosky dell,"
+every creek and winding, as the shore came in sight, was so familiar to
+him, that I should have set him down at once for a smuggler, but for a
+superiority of tone in his language, and still more from the evident
+deference to him by the coachman, in those days a leading authority with
+all the passengers. His occupation is now nearly o'er. Fire and water
+have swept him away. His broad back, his broad grin, and his broad
+buttons, are now but recollections.
+
+My new acquaintance exhibited as perfect a knowledge of the country
+residents as of its map, and nothing could be more unhesitating than his
+opinions of them all, from the prince and his set, as he termed them, to
+Mordecai himself. Of my Jew friend, he said, with a laugh, "There is not
+a better friend to the King's Bench in all England. If you have any
+thing to lose, he will strip you on the spot. If you have nothing, you
+may escape, unless he can make something by having you hanged." I begged
+of him to spare my new friend. "Why," said he, "he is one of my oldest
+friends, and one of the cleverest fellows alive. I speak tenderly of
+him, from admiration of his talents. I have a liking for the perfection
+of a rogue. He is a superb fellow. You will find his 'Hermitage,' as he
+calls it, a pond of gold fish. But all this you will soon learn for
+yourself." The coach now stopped on a rising ground, which showed the
+little fishing village beneath us, basking in the glow of sunset. My
+cicerone got down, and bade me farewell. On enquiring his name from my
+fellow-travellers, a group of Sussex farmers, I found a general
+disinclination to touch on the subject. Even the coachman, the
+established source of information on all topics, exhibited no wish to
+discuss the stranger; his official loquacity was almost dumb. "He merely
+believed that he was something in the navy, or in the army, or in
+something or other; but he was often in those parts, and generally
+travelled to London by the Royal Sussex Stage."
+
+No country in Europe has changed its appearance more than the greater
+part of England during the last fifty years. Sussex was then as wild as
+the wildest heath of Yorkshire. The population, too, looked as wild as
+the landscape. This was once the very land of the bold smuggler; the
+haunt of the dashing defier of the customhouse officer, who in those
+days generally knew his antagonist too well to interfere with his days
+or nights, the run between every port of the west of France and the
+coasts of the Channel, being, in fact, as familiar to both as the
+lounger in Bond Street to the beau of the day.
+
+We passed groups of men, who, when they had not the sailor's dress, had
+the sailor's look; some trudging along the road-side, evidently not in
+idleness; others mounted on the short rough horse of the country, and
+all knowing and known by our coachman.
+
+On our passing one group, leaning with their backs against one of the
+low walls which seemed the only enclosure of this rugged region, I,
+half-laughingly, hinted to one of my neighbours, a giant of a
+rough-headed farmer, that "perhaps a meeting with such a party, at a
+late hour, might be inconvenient, especially if the traveller had a full
+purse." The fellow turned on me a countenance of ridicule. "What?" said
+he, "do you take them for robbers? Heaven bless you, my lad, they could
+buy the stage, horses, passengers, and all. I'll warrant you, they will
+have news from over there," and he pointed towards France, "before it
+gets into the newspapers, long enough. They are the richest fellows in
+the county."
+
+"Are they smugglers?" I asked, with sufficient want of tact.
+
+"Why, no," was the answer, with a leer. "We have nothing of that breed
+among us; we are all honest men. But what if a man has an acquaintance
+abroad, and gets a commission to sell a cargo of tea or brandy, or
+perhaps a present from a friend--what shall hinder him from going to
+bring it? I'm sure, not I."
+
+It was evidently not the "etiquette" on the roof of the Royal Sussex to
+think much on the subject, and before my curiosity could reach the
+length of actual imprudence, the coachman pulled up, and informed me
+that I had reached the nearest turn to "the Hermitage." My valise was
+lowered down, a peasant was found to carry it, and I plunged into the
+depth of a lane as primitive as if it had been a path in Siberia.
+
+It was brief, however, and in a few minutes I was within sight of the
+villa. Here I at once discovered that Mordecai was a man of taste;
+perhaps the very roughness of the Sussex jungle, through which I had
+just come, had been suffered to remain for the sake of contrast. A small
+lodge, covered with late blooming roses, let me into a narrow avenue of
+all kinds of odorous shrubs; the evening sun was still strong enough to
+show me glimpses of the grounds on either side, and they had all the
+dressed smoothness of a parterre. The scene was so different from all
+that I had been wearied of during the day, that I felt it with double
+enjoyment; and the utter solitude and silence, after the rough voices of
+my companions in the journey, were so soothing, that I involuntarily
+paused before I approached the house, to refresh not more my senses than
+my mind. As I stood leaning against a tree, and baring my hot brain and
+bosom to the breeze, that rose with delicious coolness, I heard music.
+It was a sweet voice, accompanied at intervals by some skilful touches
+of a harp; and, from the solemnity of the measure, I supposed it to be a
+hymn. Who was the minstrel? Mordecai had never mentioned to me either
+wife or daughter. Well, at all events, the song was sweet. The minstrel
+was a woman, and the Jew's household promised me more amusement than I
+could have expected from the man of Moorfields. The song ceased, the
+spell was broken, and I moved on, fully convinced that I had entered on
+a scene where I might expect at least novelty; and the expectation was
+then enough to have led me to the cannon's mouth or the antipodes.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE VIGIL OF VENUS.
+
+TRANSLATED FROM THE LATIN.
+
+
+This old poem, which commemorates the festivities with which ancient
+Rome hailed the returning brightness of spring, may, perhaps, awaken in
+our readers some melancholy reflections on the bygone delights of the
+same season in our own country. To the Romans, it would seem, this
+period of the year never ceased to bring rejoicing holidays. There is
+good reason to suppose that this poem was written in the declining times
+of the empire; if so, it seems that, amidst the public misfortunes that
+followed one another during that age, the people were not woe-worn and
+distressed; that they were able to forget, in social pleasures, the
+gradual decay of their ancient glory. Rome "smiled in death." England is
+still great and powerful, but she is no longer Merry England.
+
+Most people have heard of the Floralia, and have learned to deduce the
+frolics of Maid Marian and her comrades from the Roman observances on
+that festive occasion. But few are aware of the close similarity which
+this poem shows to have existed between the customs of the Romans and
+those of our fathers. In the denunciations of the latter by the acrid
+Puritans of the 17th century, we might almost imagine that the tirade
+was expressly levelled against the vigils described in the _Pervigilium
+Veneris_. If the poem had ever fallen into the hands of those worthies,
+it would have afforded them an additional handle for invective against
+the foul ethnic superstitions which the May-games were denounced as
+representing. Hear Master Stubbes, in his _Anatomie of Abuses_,
+published in 1585:--
+
+    "Against May, Whitsonday, or other time, all the yung men and
+    maides, old men and wives, run gadding over the night to the
+    woods, groves, hils, and mountains, where they spend all the
+    night in pleasant pastimes, and in the morning they return,
+    bringing with them birch and branches of trees, to deck their
+    assemblies withall; and no meruaile, for there is a great Lord
+    present amongst them as superintendent and Lord of their
+    sports, namely, Sathan prince of hel. But the chiefest jewel
+    they bring from thence is their May-pole, (say rather their
+    stinking poole,) which they bring home with great veneration."
+
+Who does not remember Lysander's appointment with Hermia:
+
+      ----"in that wood, a league without the town,
+    Where I did meet thee once with Helena,
+    To do observance to a morn of May,
+    There will I stay for thee."
+
+These passages point us to the time when man and nature met to rejoice
+together on May-day: to the time before the days of the workhouse and
+factory; when the length and breadth of the land rung to the joyaunce
+and glee of the holiday-rejoicing nation, and the gay sounds careered on
+fresh breezes even where now the dense atmosphere of Manchester or
+Ashton glooms over the dens of torture in which withered and debauched
+children are forced to their labour, and the foul haunts under the
+shelter of which desperate men hatch plots of rapine and slaughter.
+
+The poem shows that the Romans, like the English of those days,
+celebrated the season by betaking themselves to the woods throughout the
+night, where they kept a vigil in honour of Venus, to whose guardianship
+the month of April was assigned, as being the universal generating and
+producing power, and more especially to be adored as such by the Romans,
+from having been, through her son Æneas, the author of their race. The
+poem seems to have been composed with a view to its being sung by a
+choir of maidens in their nocturnal rambles beneath the soft light of an
+Italian moon. The delicious balm of that voluptuous climate breathes
+through every line of it, and vividly presents to the reader's
+imagination the scene of the festivity; but whether we can claim these
+celebrations for our own May-day, is a doubtful point; for Wernsdorf,
+who has included the Pervigilium Veneris in his edition of _Poetæ Latini
+Minores_, vol. iii., maintains that it is to be referred to the
+Veneralia, or feast of Venus, on the 1st of April. The Kalendar of
+Constantius marks the 3d day of April as Natalis Quirini. If, then, the
+morrow spoken of in the poem is to be taken to mean this birthday of
+Romulus, we must suppose the vigil of three nights to have begun on the
+night of the last day of March. But perhaps our readers will agree with
+us, that there are quite as good grounds for attributing this vigil to
+the Floralia, which commenced on the 27th of April, and ended on the
+first of May. For although the rites of the Floralia were in honour of
+Flora, yet we may easily conceive the principle by which the worship of
+Venus, the spirit of beauty, and love, and production, would come to be
+intermingled with the homage paid to the flower-goddess. And then the
+three nights would denote the nights of the Floralia already past, if we
+suppose the hymn to have been sung on the night before the 1st of May.
+This seems more natural, as coinciding with the known length of the
+festival, than Wernsdorf's hypothesis, which makes the vigil commence
+before the month of Venus had opened. As regards the time of year, too,
+May is far more suited than April, even in Italy, for outwatching the
+Bear on woodland lawns.
+
+The question regarding the author of the Pervigilium Veneris is still a
+_lis sub judice_. Aldus, Erasmus, and Meursius, attributed it to
+Catullus; but subsequent editors have, with much more probability,
+contended that its age is considerably later. We may notice a scholastic
+and philosophical spirit about it, which is ill-suited to the Bard of
+Verona. Lipsius claimed it for the Augustan age, in consequence of the
+mention of Cæsar which is introduced. But we think we may safely assume,
+that the observance of this vigil grew into custom after the time of
+Ovid, otherwise it is difficult to account for the total absence of all
+allusion, in his Fasti, to a subject so perfectly adapted to his verse.
+But we will not enter any further into a discussion which Salmasius and
+Scaliger could not settle, but shall at once present our readers with
+the following translation of the Pervigilium Veneris:--
+
+      He that never loved before,
+        Let him love to-morrow!
+      He that hath loved o'er and o'er,
+        Let him love to-morrow!
+
+      Spring, young Spring, with song and mirth,
+    Spring is on the newborn earth.
+    Spring is here, the time of love--
+    The merry birds pair in the grove,
+    And the green trees hang their tresses,
+    Loosen'd by the rain's caresses.
+    To-morrow sees the dawn of May,
+    When Venus will her sceptre sway,
+    Glorious, in her justice-hall:
+    There where woodland shadows fall,
+    On bowers of myrtle intertwined,
+    Many a band of love she'll bind.
+                He that never, &c.
+
+    To-morrow is the day when first
+    From the foam-world of Ocean burst,
+    Like one of his own waves, the bright
+    Dione, queen of love and light,
+    Amid the sea-gods' azure train,
+    'Mid the strange horses of the main.
+                He that never, &c.
+
+    She it is that lends the Hours
+    Their crimson glow, their jewel-flowers:
+    At her command the buds are seen,
+    Where the west-wind's breath hath been,
+    To swell within their dwellings green.
+    She abroad those dewdrops flings,
+    Dew that night's cool softness brings;
+    How the bright tears hang declining,
+    And glisten with a tremulous shining,
+    Almost of weight to drop away,
+    And yet too light to leave the spray.
+    Hence the tender plants are bold
+    Their blushing petals to unfold:
+    'Tis that dew, which through the air
+    Falls from heaven when night is fair,
+    That unbinds the moist green vest
+    From the floweret's maiden breast.
+    'Tis Venus' will, when morning glows,
+    'Twill be the bridal of each rose.
+    Then the bride-flower shall reveal,
+    What her veil cloth now conceal,
+    The blush divinest, which of yore
+    She caught from Venus' trickling gore,
+    With Love's kisses mix'd, I trow,
+    With blaze of fire, and rubies' glow,
+    And with many a crimson ray
+    Stolen from the birth of day.
+                He that never, &c.
+
+    All the nymphs the Queen of Love
+    Summons to the myrtle-grove;
+    And see ye, how her wanton boy
+    Comes with them to share our joy?
+    Yet, if Love be arm'd, they say,
+    Love can scarce keep holiday:
+    Love without his bow is straying!
+    Come, ye nymphs, Love goes a Maying.
+    His torch, his shafts, are laid aside--
+    From them no harm shall you betide.
+    Yet, I rede ye, nymphs, beware,
+    For your foe is passing fair;
+    Love is mighty, ye'll confess,
+    Mighty e'en in nakedness;
+    And most panoplied for fight
+    When his charms are bared to sight.
+                He that never, &c.
+
+    Dian, a petition we,
+    By Venus sent, prefer to thee:
+    Virgin envoys, it is meet,
+    Should the Virgin huntress greet:
+    Quit the grove, nor it profane
+    With the blood of quarry slain.
+    She would ask thee, might she dare
+    Hope a maiden's thought to share--
+    She would bid thee join us now,
+    Might cold maids our sport allow.
+    Now three nights thou may'st have seen,
+    Wandering through thine alleys green,
+    Troops of joyous friends, with flowers
+    Crown'd, amidst their myrtle bowers.
+    Ceres and Bacchus us attend,
+    And great Apollo is our friend;
+    All night we must our Vigil keep--
+    Night by song redeem'd from sleep.
+    Let Venus in the woods bear sway,
+    Dian, quit the grove, we pray.
+                He that never, &c.
+
+    Of Hybla's flowers, so Venus will'd,
+    Venus' judgment-seat we build.
+    She is judge supreme; the Graces,
+    As assessors, take their places.
+    Hybla, render all thy store
+    All the season sheds thee o'er,
+    Till a hill of bloom be found
+    Wide as Enna's flowery ground.
+    Attendant nymphs shall here be seen,
+    Those who delight in forest green,
+    Those who on mountain-top abide,
+    And those whom sparkling fountains hide.
+    All these the Queen of joy and sport
+    Summons to attend her court,
+    And bids them all of Love beware,
+    Although the guise of peace he wear.
+                He that never, &c.
+
+    Fresh be your coronals of flowers,
+    And green your overarching bowers,
+    To-morrow brings us the return
+    Of Ether's primal marriage-morn.
+    In amorous showers of rain he came
+    T' embrace his bride's mysterious frame,
+    To generate the blooming year,
+    And all the produce Earth does bear.
+    Venus still through vein and soul
+    Bids the genial current roll;
+    Still she guides its secret course
+    With interpenetrating force,
+    And breathes through heaven, and earth, and sea,
+    A reproductive energy.
+                He that never, &c.
+
+    She old Troy's extinguish'd glory
+    Revived in Latium's later story,
+    When, by her auspices, her son
+    Laurentia's royal damsel won.
+    She vestal Rhea's spotless charms
+    Surrender'd to the War-god's arms;
+    She for Romulus that day
+    The Sabine daughters bore away;
+    Thence sprung the Rhamnes' lofty name,
+    Thence the old Quirites came;
+    And thence the stock of high renown,
+    The blood of Romulus, handed down
+    Through many an age of glory pass'd,
+    To blaze in Cæsar's at last.
+                He that never, &c.
+
+    All rural nature feels the glow
+    Of quickening passion through it flow.
+    Love, in rural scenes of yore,
+    They say, his goddess-mother bore;
+    Received on Earth's sustaining breast,
+    Th' ambrosial infant sunk to rest;
+    And him the wild-flowers, o'er his head
+    Bending, with sweetest kisses fed.
+                He that never, &c.
+
+    On yellow broom out yonder, see,
+    The mighty bulls lie peacefully.
+    Each animal of field or grove
+    Owns faithfully the bond of love.
+    The flocks of ewes, beneath the shade,
+    Around their gallant rams are laid;
+    And Venus bids the birds awake
+    To pour their song through plain and brake.
+    Hark! the noisy pools reply
+    To the swan's hoarse harmony;
+    And Philomel is vocal now,
+    Perch'd upon a poplar-bough.
+    Thou scarce would'st think that dying fall
+    Could ought but love's sweet griefs recall;
+    Thou scarce would'st gather from her song
+    The tale of brother's barbarous wrong.
+    She sings, but I must silent be:--
+    When will the spring-tide come for me?
+    When, like the swallow, spring's own bird,
+    Shall my faint twittering notes be heard?
+    Alas! the muse, while silent I
+    Remain'd, hath gone and pass'd me by,
+    Nor Phoebus listens to my cry.
+    And thus forgotten, I await,
+    By silence lost, Amyclæ's fate.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTERS OF TURKISH HISTORY.
+RISE OF THE KIUPRILI FAMILY--SIEGE OF CANDIA.
+
+NO. IX.
+
+
+The restraint which the ferocious energy of Sultan Mourad-Ghazi, during
+the latter years of his reign, had succeeded in imposing on the
+turbulence of the Janissaries,[1] vanished at his death; and for many
+years subsequently, the domestic annals of the Ottoman capital are
+filled with the details of the intrigues of women and eunuchs within the
+palace, and the sanguinary feuds and excesses of the soldiery without.
+The Sultan Ibrahim, the only surviving brother and successor of Mourad,
+was in his twenty-fifth year at the time of his accession; but he had
+been closely immured in the seraglio from the moment of his birth; and
+the dulness of his temperament (to which he probably owed his escape
+from the bowstring, by which the lives of his three brothers had been
+terminated by order of Mourad) had never been improved by cultivation.
+Destitute alike of capacity and inclination for the toils of government,
+he remained constantly immersed in the pleasures of the harem; while his
+mother, the Sultana-Walidah Kiosem, (surnamed _Mah-peiker_, or the
+_Moon-face_,) who had been the favourite of the harem under Ahmed I.,
+and was a woman of extraordinary beauty and masculine understanding,
+kept the administration of the state almost wholly in her own hands. The
+talents of this princess, aided by the ministers of her selection, for
+some time prevented the incompetency of the sultan from publicly
+manifesting itself; but Ibrahim at last shook off the control of his
+mother, and speedily excited the indignant murmurs of the troops and the
+people by the publicity with which he abandoned himself to the most
+degrading sensuality. The sanctity of the harem and of the bath had
+hitherto been held inviolate by even the most despotic of the Ottoman
+sovereigns; but this sacred barrier was broken through by the unbridled
+passions of Ibrahim, who at length ventured to seize in the public baths
+the daughter of the mufti, and, after detaining her for some days in the
+palace, sent her back with ignominy to her father. This unheard-of
+outrage at once kindled the smouldering discontent into a flame; the
+Moslem population rose in instant and universal revolt; and a scene
+ensued almost without parallel in history--the deposition of an absolute
+sovereign by form of law. The grand-vizir Ahmed, and other panders to
+the vices of the sultan, were seized and put to death on the place of
+public execution; while an immense crowd of soldiers, citizens, and
+janissaries, assembling before the palace of the mufti early on the
+morning of August 8, 1648, received from him a _fetwa_, or decree, to
+the effect that the sultan (designated as "Ibrahim Abdul-Rahman
+Effendi") had, by his habitual immorality and disregard of law,
+forfeited all claim to be considered as a true believer, and was
+therefore incapable of reigning over the Faithful. The execution of this
+sentence was entrusted to the Aga of the Janissaries, the Silihdar or
+grand sword-bearer, and the Kadhi-asker or chief judge of Anatolia, who,
+repairing to the seraglio, attended by a multitude of military officers
+and the _ulemah_, proceeded without ceremony to announce to Ibrahim that
+his rule was at an end. His furious remonstrances were drowned by the
+rude voice of the Kadhi Abdul-Aziz Effendi,[2] who boldly reproached him
+with his vices. "Thou hast gone astray," said he, "from the paths in
+which thy glorious ancestors walked, and hast trampled under foot both
+law and religion, and thou art no longer the padishah of the Moslems!"
+He was at last conducted to the same apartment whence he had been taken
+to ascend the throne, and where, ten days later, his existence was
+terminated by the bowstring; while the Sultana-Walidah, (whose
+acquiescence in this extraordinary revolution had been previously
+secured,) led into the _salamlik_ (hall of audience) her eldest grandson
+Mohammed,[3] an infant scarcely seven years old, who was forthwith
+seated on the imperial sofa, and received the homage of the dignitaries
+of the realm.
+
+    [1] See "Chapters of Turkish History," No. III., November 1840.
+
+    [2] He was afterwards, in 1651, mufti for a few months; but is
+    better known as an historian, (under the appellation of
+    Kara-Tchelibi-Zadah,) and as having been tutor to
+    Ahmed-Kiuprili.
+
+    [3] His name, according to Evliya, was originally Yusuf, but was
+    changed to Mohammed on the entreaty of the ladies of the
+    seraglio, who said that Yusuf was the name of a slave.
+
+Sultan Mohammed IV., afterwards surnamed _Avadji_, or the Hunter, who
+was destined to fill the throne of the Ottoman Empire during one of the
+most eventful periods of its history, possessed qualifications which, if
+his education had not been interrupted by his early accession to supreme
+power, might have entitled him to a high place among the monarchs of his
+line. Unlike most of the imperial family, he was of a spare sinewy form,
+and lofty stature; and his features are said by Evliya to have been
+remarkably handsome, though his forehead was disfigured by a deep scar
+which he had received in his infancy, by being thrown by his father, in
+an access of brutal passion, into a cistern in the gardens of the
+seraglio; and a contemporary Venetian chronicler says that his dark
+complexion and vivid restless eye gave him rather the aspect of a
+_Zigano_, or gipsy, than an Osmanli. In the first years of his reign,
+his grandmother, the Walidah Kiosem, acted as regent; but the rule of a
+woman and a child was little able to curb the turbulent soldiery of the
+capital; and the old feuds between the spahis and janissaries, which had
+been dormant since the death of Abaza, broke out afresh with redoubled
+violence. The war in Crete, which had been commenced under Ibrahim,
+languished for want of troops and supplies; while the rival military
+factions fought, sword in hand, in front of the imperial palace, and
+filled Constantinople with pillage and massacre. The janissaries, who
+were supported by Kiosem, for some time maintained the ascendency; but
+this ambitious princess was at length cut off by an intrigue, in the
+interior of the harem, fomented by the mother of Mohammed, who suspected
+her of a design to prolong her own sway by the removal of the sultan, in
+favour of a still younger son of Ibrahim. Seized in the midst of the
+night of September 3, 1651, by the eunuchs whom her rival had gained,
+Kiosem was strangled (according to a report preserved by Evliya) with
+the braids of her own long hair; and the sultan was exhibited at
+daybreak by the grand-vizir Siawush-Pasha to the people, who thronged
+round the palace on the rumour of this domestic tragedy, to assure them
+of the personal safety of their youthful sovereign.
+
+The supreme power was now lodged in the hands of the young Sultana
+Walidah, and her confidant the Kislar-Aga; but their inexperience was
+little qualified to encounter the task which had wellnigh baffled the
+energies of Kiosem; and the expedient of frequently changing the
+grand-vizir, in obedience to the requisition of which ever party was for
+the time in the ascendant, prevented the measures of government from
+acquiring even a shadow of consistence or stability. Twelve vizirs,
+within eight years from the deposition of Ibrahim, had successively held
+the reins of power for short periods; and not less than six had been
+raised to, and deposed from, that precarious dignity, within the last
+ten months, while the audacity of the troops, and the helplessness of
+the executive, had reached an unparalleled climax. In a memorable
+insurrection, arising from the depreciation of the coinage, which marked
+the spring of 1656, the revolters, not contented with their usual
+license of plunder and bloodshed, forced their way into the palace, and
+exacted from the young sultan the surrender of two of his favourite
+domestics, who were instantly slaughtered before his eyes; while various
+obnoxious public functionaries were dragged to the At-meidan, and
+summarily hanged on the branches of a large plane-tree;[4] and for
+several weeks this proscription was continued, till the cry of "Take him
+to the plane-tree!" became a watchword of as well-known and fearful
+import, as that of "A la lanterne!" in later times. In this emergency,
+when the fabric of government seemed on the verge of dissolution, an
+ancient Anatolian pasha, Mohammed-Kiuprili, who had lately repaired to
+the capital, was named by her confidential advisers to the
+Sultana-Walidah as a man whose eminent discernment and sagacity, not
+less than his fearless intrepidity, rendered him especially fitted for
+the task of stilling the troubled waters. In opposition to these views
+it was contended, that the poverty of the proposed premier would prevent
+his securing the adherence of the troops by the largesses which they had
+been accustomed to receive, and the project was apparently abandoned;
+but the incapacity and unpopularity of the grand-vizir, Mohammed-Pasha,
+(surnamed _Egri_, or the Crooked,) soon made it obvious that a fresh
+change alone could prevent another convulsion. On the 15th September
+1656, therefore, in a fortunate[5] hour for the distracted empire,
+Kiuprili was summoned to the presence of the sultan, who had now,
+nominally at least, assumed the direction of affairs, and received from
+his hands the seals of office.
+
+    [4] The Turkish historian, Naima, fancifully compares this plane
+    to the fabulous tree in the islands of Wak-Wak, the fruit of
+    which consisted of human heads, as is fully detailed in the
+    romance of Hatem Tai, besides various passages of the Thousand
+    and One Nights. Under this same plane, by a singular instance of
+    retribution, the heads of the janissaries massacred in the
+    At-meidan in 1826, were piled by order of Sultan Mahmood.
+
+    [5] The Turkish annalists do not fail to remark, that Kiuprili
+    crossed the imperial threshold at the moment when the call to
+    noon prayers was resounding from the minarets--an evident token
+    of the Divine protection extended to him!
+
+Such were the circumstances of the elevation of this most celebrated of
+Ottoman ministers, whose name stands pre-eminent, not only from his own
+abilities and good fortune, but as the founder of the only family which
+ever continued to enjoy, during several generations, the highest honours
+of the empire. He was the son of an Arnaut[6] soldier, who had settled
+in Anatolia, on receiving a _timar_ or fief in the district of Amasia,
+near the town of Kiupri, ('the bridge:') from which (since distinguished
+from other places of the same name as _Vizir_-Kiupri) his descendants
+derived the surname under which they are generally mentioned in history.
+He commenced his career as a page in the imperial seraglio; which he
+left for a post in the household of Khosroo, afterwards grand-vizir, who
+was then aga of janissaries. Passing through various gradations of rank,
+he held several governments in Syria, and was raised to the grade of
+pasha of three tails: till, at an advanced age, he obtained permission
+to exchange these honours for the post of _sandjak_ of his native
+district, to which he accordingly withdrew. But his retirement was
+disturbed, in 1648, by the insurrection of Varvar-Ali, pasha of Siwas,
+who, rather than surrender a beautiful daughter, the affianced bride of
+his neighbour Ipshir, pasha of Tokat, to the panders of the imperial
+harem, had raised the standard of revolt, and had been joined by the
+pasha of Erzroom, Gourdji-Mohammed, (to whose suite the annalist Evliya
+was then attached,) and by many of the Turkman clans of Anatolia. The
+Sultana-Walidah herself, who was then at variance with her degenerate
+son, secretly encouraged the insurgents, who endeavoured to gain over
+Kiuprili to their party; but as they failed in all their efforts to
+shake his loyalty, Varvar suddenly marched against him, routed the
+troops which he had collected, and made him prisoner, with two
+beglerbegs whom he had summoned to his aid. "I saw these three pashas"
+(says Evliya, who had come to the rebel camp on a mission from
+Gourdji-Mohammed) "stripped of their robes and turbans, and fastened by
+chains round their necks to stakes in front of the tent of Varvar-Ali,
+while the seghbans, and even the surridjis" (irregular horse)
+"brandished their sabres before their faces, threatening them with
+instant death. Thus we see the changes of fortune, that those who were
+the drivers become in their turn the driven," (like cattle.)
+
+    [6] In a narrative by a writer named Chassipol, (Paris, 1676,)
+    professing to be the biography of the two first Kiuprili vizirs,
+    Mohammed is said to have been the son of a French emigrant, and
+    this romance has been copied by most European authors. But the
+    testimony of Evliya, Kara-Tchelibi, and all contemporary Turkish
+    writers, is decisive on the point of his Albanian origin.
+
+Evliya, who seems to feel a malicious pleasure in relating this mishap
+of the future grand-vizir, confesses to having himself received a horse
+and a slave out of his spoils; but even before his departure from the
+camp, the rebellion was crushed, and Kiuprili released, by the base
+treachery of Ipshir-Pasha,[7] for whose sake alone Varvar-Ali had taken
+up arms. Won by the emissaries of the Porte, by the promise of the rich
+pashalic of Aleppo, he suddenly assailed the troops of his
+father-in-law, and seizing his person, cut off his head, and sent it
+with those of his principal followers to Constantinople--an act of
+perfidious ingratitude, which, even among the frequent breaches of faith
+staining the Ottoman annals, has earned for its perpetrator the
+sobriquet of _Khain_, or the traitor, _par excellence_. After this
+unlucky adventure, we hear no more of Kiuprili in his Anatolian sandjak,
+till, in the spring of 1656, we find him accompanying Egri-Mohammed on
+his way to the Porte to assume the vizirat: from which, in less than
+four months, he was removed to make way for his quondam _protégé_, in
+whose elevation he had thus been an involuntary instrument.
+
+    [7] Ipshir Mustapha Pasha was originally a Circassian slave, and
+    said to have been a tribesman and near relation of the famous
+    Abaza. During the revolutions which distracted the minority of
+    Mohammed, he became grand-vizir for a few months, (Oct. 1654-May
+    1655,) but was cut off by an unanimous insurrection of the
+    spahis and janissaries, who forgot their feuds for the sake of
+    vengeance on the common enemy.
+
+Mohamned Kiuprili was at this period nearly eighty years of age, and so
+wholly illiterate that he could neither read nor write; yet such was the
+general estimation of his wisdom and abilities, that the young sultan,
+on entrusting to him the ensigns of office, voluntarily pledged himself
+to leave entirely at his discretion the regulation of the foreign and
+domestic relations of the empire, as well as the disposal of all offices
+of state--thus virtually delegating to him the functions of sovereignty.
+The measures of Kiuprili soon showed that these extraordinary powers
+would not be suffered to remain dormant. The impatience of the troops at
+the strict discipline which he enforced, erelong announced the approach
+of a fresh tumult; and the ringleaders, in the confidence of
+long-continued impunity, openly boasted that "the plane-tree would soon
+bear another crop"--when on the night of Jan. 5, 1657, the grand-vizir,
+accompanied by the aga of the janissaries, and fortified by a fetwa from
+the mufti, legalizing whatever he might do, made the round of the
+barracks with his guards, and seized several hundreds of all ranks in
+the various corps, whose bodies, found floating the next day in the
+Bosphorus, revealed their fate to their dismayed accomplices. The Greek
+patriarch, on suspicion of having endeavoured to engage the Vaivode of
+Wallachia in a plot for a general rising of the Christians, was summoned
+to the Porte, and forthwith bowstrung in the presence of Kiuprili; and
+in the course of a few weeks, not fewer than 4000 of those who had been
+implicated in the previous disorders perished under the hands of the
+executioner: "for as in medicine," remarks a Turkish historian, "it is
+necessary to employ remedies which are analogous to the disease, so by
+bloodshed alone could the state be purified from these lawless shedders
+of blood!"
+
+These terrible severities broke the spirit of insubordination in the
+capital; and the irregularity of their pay, which had been one of the
+chief grievances of the janissaries, was remedied by the good order
+which Kiuprili had from the first introduced in the finances. "He
+proportioned the expenditure of the empire," says Evliya, "to its
+revenues, which he also greatly enlarged, so that he gained the name of
+_Sahib-Kharj_," (master of finance.) The Venetians, who had availed
+themselves of the anarchy reigning at Constantinople to occupy Tenedos
+and Lemnos, so as to blockade the Dardanelles, were dislodged by the
+activity of the vizir, who directed the sieges in person, bestowing
+honours and rewards on the soldiers most distinguished for their
+bravery; and though the Turkish fleet was defeated (July 17, 1657) at
+the entrance of the straits, the Venetians sustained an irreparable loss
+in their valiant admiral Mocenigo, who was blown up with his ship by a
+well-aimed shot from one of the batteries on shore. But though the
+janissaries were thus reduced to order and obedience, the flame of
+disaffection was still smouldering among the spahis of Asia Minor, and
+broke out, in the course of the ensuing year, into a formidable and
+widely-organized rebellion. Not fewer than forty pashas and sandjaks
+followed the banner of the insurgent leader Abaza-Hassan, pasha of
+Aleppo, who advanced towards the Bosphorus at the head of 70,000 men,
+assuming the state of a monarch, and demanding the heads of Kiuprili and
+his principal adherents as the price of his submission. Morteza-Pasha,
+governor of Diarbekr, who attempted to oppose him in the field, was
+routed with the loss of nearly his whole army; and though the emissaries
+who attempted to seduce the troops in Constantinople from their
+allegiance were detected and put to death by the vigilance of Kiuprili,
+the revolt spread throughout Anatolia and Syria, and the sultan was
+preparing to take the field in person, when treachery succeeded in
+accomplishing what force had failed to effect. It has been an uniform
+maxim of the Ottoman domestic policy, which singularly contrasts with
+their scrupulous observance of the treaties entered into with foreign
+powers, that no faith is to be kept with _fermanlis_, or traitors to the
+Padishah; and in the assured belief, confirmed by hostages and solemn
+oaths, that the sultan was willing to accede to his demands,
+Abaza-Hassan suffered himself to be drawn from his headquarters at
+Aintab, with thirty of his officers, to a conference with Morteza at
+Aleppo: but, in the midst of the banquet which followed this interview,
+Abaza and his comrades found themselves in the grasp of the
+executioners--while their followers, dispersed through the town, were
+slaughtered without mercy on the signal of a gun fired from the castle;
+and the army, panic-stricken at the fate of its leaders, quickly melted
+away. But no sooner was the semblance of tranquillity restored, than the
+Kaimakam Ismail Pasha, an unscrupulous agent of the merciless decrees of
+the vizir, was sent into Asia under the new title of Moufetish, or
+inquisitor; and an unsparing proscription almost utterly exterminated
+all the remaining partizans of Abaza-Hassan, without distinction of
+rank; while the suppression of numerous _timars_ or fiefs, and the
+removal of the occupants of others from their ancient abodes to remote
+districts, so effectually loosened the bands which had hitherto united
+the spahis, like the janissaries, into a compact fraternity, that this
+once powerful body was divided and broken; and they no longer occupy, as
+a separate faction, their former conspicuous place in the troubled scene
+of Ottoman history.
+
+The termination of this great revolt freed Kiuprili from the
+apprehension of military sedition, and left him in the enjoyment of more
+absolute and undivided authority than had ever been possessed by any of
+his predecessors in office. The sultan, from whose mind the impression
+of the bloody scenes witnessed in his youth had never been effaced,
+rarely visited Constantinople; devoting himself to the pleasures of the
+chase in the forests and hills of Roumelia, and repairing only at
+intervals to the ancient palace of his ancestors at Adrianople, whither
+his harem and household had been transferred from the capital. The
+uncontrolled administration of the state was left in the hands of the
+vizir, but his implacable severity towards all who failed in implicit
+devotion to his will, continued unabated. "He was unacquainted" (says
+his contemporary, Rycaut) "with mercy, and never pardoned any who were
+either guilty of a fault, or suspected for it;" and neither rank nor
+services afforded protection to those who had incurred his jealousy or
+resentment. Among the numerous victims of his suspicious cruelty, the
+fate of Delhi-Hussein-Pasha was long remembered in Constantinople.
+Originally a _battadji_ or lictor in the seraglio, he had attracted the
+notice of Sultan Mourad-Ghazi by his strength and address in bending a
+bow sent as a challenge by the Shah of Persia, and which had baffled the
+efforts of all the _pelhwans_ or champions of the Ottoman court. His
+first advancement to the post of equerry was only a prelude to the
+attainment of higher honours, and he became successively governor of
+Buda and of Egypt, capitan-pasha and serasker in Candia. His exploits in
+the latter capacity had endeared him to the troops, while his noble
+figure and frank bearing made him equally the idol of the citizens, but
+his unbounded popularity led Kiuprili to foresee a future rival in this
+favourite hero, and the fate of Delhi-Hussein was sealed. In an
+interview with the vizir, he was graciously received, and invested with
+a robe of honour; but as he quitted the Porte he was arrested and
+carried to the Seven Towers, where, two days after, (in spite of the
+intercession of the Sultana-Walidah, and the refusal of the mufti to
+ratify the unjust doom,) he was bowstrung in his cell, as the murmurs of
+the troops prevented the vizir from risking a public execution.
+
+But though thus inexorable to all whose popularity or pretensions might
+interfere with his own supremacy, and haughty even beyond all former
+precedent in his intercourse with the representatives of the Christian
+powers,[8] Kiuprili deserved, by the merits of his domestic
+administration, the high place which has been assigned to him by the
+unanimous voice of the Ottoman historians. The exact regularity which he
+enforced both in the payment and disbursement of the revenue, relieved
+the people from the irregular imposts to which they had been subject, in
+order to make up the deficiencies arising from the interception, by the
+pashas, of the tributes of distant provinces, and the peculation which
+had long reigned unchecked at the seat of government--while the sums
+thus rendered disposable were laid out chiefly in improving the internal
+communications, and strengthening the defences, of the empire. The
+Dardanelles, hitherto guarded only by Mohammed II.'s two castles of
+Europe and Asia, was made almost impregnable by the construction of the
+formidable line of sea defences still existing; the necessity for which
+had been demonstrated by the recent attack of the Venetians; and
+fortified posts were established along the line of the Dnieper and
+Dniester, to keep in cheek the predatory Cossacks between these rivers,
+who were at this time engaged in a furious civil contest with the king
+of Poland, the ally of the Porte. The Hungarian fortresses were also
+repaired, and vast warlike preparations made along the Danube, as the
+peace which for fifty years had subsisted with the empire appeared on
+the verge of inevitable rupture. The succession to the principality of
+Transylvania, the suzerainté of which had long been a point of dispute
+between the Porte and Austria, was now contested between Kemény and
+Michael Abaffi--the latter being the nominee of the sultan, while Kemény
+was supported by the emperor, to whom the late Prince Racoczy had
+transferred his allegiance a short time before his death in battle
+against the Turks, in 1660. The Imperialists and Turks had more than
+once encountered each other as auxiliaries of the rival candidates, and
+Kiuprili was on the point of repairing in person to the scene of action,
+when he died at Adrianople of dropsy, (Oct. 31, 1661,) in the
+eighty-sixth year of his age, and was buried in a splendid mausoleum,
+which he had erected for himself, near the Tauk-bazar (poultry market)
+at Constantinople--the vault of which, during his life, he had daily
+filled with corn, which was then distributed to the poor to purchase
+their prayers! "Thus," says a Turkish annalist, "died Kiuprili-Mohammed,
+who was most zealous and active in the cause of the faith! Enjoying
+absolute power, and being anxious to purify the Ottoman empire, he slew
+in Anatolia 400,000[9] rebels, including seventeen vizirs or pashas of
+three tails, forty-one of two tails, seventy sandjak-beys, three
+mallahs, and a Moghrabiu sheikh. May God be merciful to him!"
+
+    [8] De la Haye, the French ambassador, was imprisoned in 1658,
+    and his son bastinadoed in the presence of Kiuprili, for being
+    unable or unwilling to give a key to some letters in cipher from
+    the Venetians; and some years later, the envoy of the Czar,
+    Alexis Mikhailowitz, was driven, with blows and violence, from
+    the presence of the sultan, who was irritated by the
+    incompetency of the interpreter to translate the Czar's letter!
+    This latter outrage, however, was not till after the death of
+    the elder Kiuprili.
+
+    [9] This monstrous exaggeration is reduced by Rycaut to the more
+    credible, but still enormous number of 36,000 victims during the
+    five years of his ministry.
+
+The genius of the Ottoman institutions is so directly opposed to any
+thing like the perpetuation of offices in a family, which might tend to
+endanger the despotism of the throne by the creation of an hereditary
+aristocracy, that even in the inferior ranks, an instance had hitherto
+scarcely been known of a son succeeding his father. The immediate
+appointment, therefore, of Fazil-Ahmed, the eldest son of the deceased
+minister, to the vizirat, was so complete a departure from all
+established usages, as at once demonstrated to the expectant courtiers
+that the influence of the crafty old vizir had survived him, and that
+"the star of the house of Kiuprili" (in the words of a Turkish writer)
+"had only set in the west to rise again with fresh splendour in the
+east." Ahmed-Kiuprili was now thirty-two years of age, and joined to an
+intellect not less naturally vigorous than that of his father, those
+advantages of education in which the latter had been deficient. At an
+early age he had been placed under the historian, Abdul-Aziz Effendi, as
+a student of divinity and law, in the _medressah_ or college attached to
+the mosque of Sultan Mohammed the Conqueror, and had attained, in due
+course, the rank of _muderris_ or fellow therein; but the elevation of
+his father to the vizirat transferred him from the cloister to the camp,
+and he held the governments successively of Erzroom and Damascus--in the
+latter of which he distinguished himself by his moderation and firmness
+in reducing to order the refractory chiefs of the Druses, of the two
+great rival houses of Shahab and Maan-Oghlu. Recalled, at length, to
+Constantinople to assume the office of kaimakam, he had scarcely entered
+on his new duties when he was summoned to Adrianople, to attend the
+deathbed of his father, and to succeed him in the uncontrolled
+administration of the empire.
+
+The numerous executions which marked the accession of the new vizir, (in
+accordance, as was believed, with the dying injunctions of his father,)
+struck with terror the functionaries of government, who anticipated a
+continuance of the iron rule under which they had so long trembled; but
+the disposition of Ahmed-Kiuprili was not naturally sanguinary, and few
+measures of unnecessary severity characterized his subsequent sway. The
+war in Hungary, meanwhile, had assumed a serious aspect; for though
+Kemény had perished in battle, the Imperialists still continued to
+oppose the claims of Abaffi to the crown of Transylvania; and their
+armies, guided by the valour and experience of Montecuculi, a general
+formed in the Thirty Years' War, were making rapid progress in the
+reduction of the principality. War was now openly declared between the
+two empires; and Kiuprili, assuming the command in person, opened the
+campaign of 1663, in Hungary, with 100,000 men--a force before which
+Montecuculi had no alternative but to retreat, as the rapidity with
+which the Turks had taken the field, had completely outstripped the
+dilatory preparations of the Aulic Council[10]. The exploits of the
+Ottomans, however, were confined to the capture of Ujvar, or Neuhausel,
+after a siege maintained on both sides with such extraordinary vigour,
+as to have given rise to a Hungarian proverb--"As fixed as a Turk before
+Neuhausel,"--after which both armies withdrew into winter-quarters. The
+campaign of 1664 opened also to the advantage of the Ottomans; but in
+attempting the passage of the Raab, (Aug. 1,) at the fords near St
+Gothard, the sudden swelling of the stream cut off the communication
+between one division of their army and the other; and being attacked at
+this juncture by Montecuculi, they sustained the most signal overthrow
+which the Osmanlis had ever yet received from a Christian power--17,000
+of their best troops were slain or drowned, and the vizir, hastily
+drawing on the remains of his forces, sent proposals of peace to the
+Austrian headquarters. Yet such was the indefinite awe with which the
+prowess and resources of the Ottomans were at that time regarded, that
+the Imperialists made no further use of their victory than to conclude a
+truce for twenty years, the conditions of which, in effect, ceded all
+the points for which the war had been undertaken. Abaffi was recognised
+as Prince of Transylvania, and as a tributary of the Porte--the two
+important fortresses of Great-Waradin and Neuhausel, which the Turks had
+taken during the war, were left in their hands, and a breathing-time was
+thus afforded to the two empires for the mortal struggle which was to be
+decided, nineteen years later, under the walls of Vienna.
+
+    [10] "The Turk," says Montecuculi, "who is always armed, never
+    finds time bald, but can always seize him by the forelock: the
+    number of his victories, and the extent of territory which he
+    has taken from the Christians, and which they have never been
+    able to recover, sufficiently proves this, and shows the
+    rashness and folly of those who pretend to make light of his
+    power."
+
+Notwithstanding the ill success of his arms, the vizir was received by
+the sultan, on his return with the army in the ensuing spring to
+Adrianople, with such extraordinary distinction, that those who had
+hoped to profit by his expected fall, could explain such continued
+favour only by the supposition that sorcery had been practised on the
+mind of the monarch by the mother of the all-powerful minister.
+Solicitous to retrieve his military reputation in the eyes of the
+soldiery, Kiuprili now determined to assume in person the conduct of the
+long-continued war in Crete, and to bring the struggle to a close by the
+capture of Candia, the siege of which had already reached near twice the
+duration of that of Troy. To supply the deficiencies of the Turkish
+marine, which had been almost ruined by the repeated naval victories of
+the Venetians, an overture was made to the English ambassador, Lord
+Winchilsea, for permission to hire the services of a number of British
+vessels; but this strange request being evaded, the expedition was
+postponed for a year, while every nerve was strained in the building and
+equipment of galleys; and at length, in the autumn of 1666, the fleet
+set sail from Monembasia in the Morea, under the command of the
+Capitan-pasha Mustafa, surnamed _Kaplan_, or the Tiger, the
+brother-in-law of Kiuprili, and anchored off Canea in the beginning of
+November. But before we proceed to narrate the closing scenes of the
+Cretan war, we must retrace our steps, to give some account of its
+origin and progress.
+
+The dominions of the Venetian Signory in the Levant, which had at one
+time comprehended, besides the scattered isles of the Cyclades, the
+three subject _kingdoms_ (as they were proudly called) of Candia,[11]
+Cyprus, and the Morea, were confined, in the middle of the seventeenth
+century, to the first-named island--the last relics of the Morea having
+been wrested from the republic by the arms of Soliman the Magnificent in
+1540, and Cyprus having been subdued by the lieutenants of his son
+Selim, a few months before the destruction of the Turkish fleet at the
+battle of Lepanto in 1571.[12] The sovereignty of Candia had been
+acquired by purchase from the Marquis of Montferrat, to whom it was
+assigned on the partition of the Greek empire, after the conquest of
+Constantinople, in 1204, by the Latins of the fourth crusade: but the
+four centuries and a half of Venetian rule present little more than an
+unvarying succession of revolts, oppression, and bloodshed. In pursuance
+of their usual system of colonial administration, which strangely
+contrasted with their domestic policy, they had introduced into the
+island a sort of modified feudal system, in order to rivet their
+ascendancy over this remote possession, by the interposition of a class
+of resident proprietors, whose interest it would be to maintain the
+dominion of the parent state: but the _cavaliers_, as the Venetian
+tenants of Cretan fiefs were termed, proved at times even more
+refractory than the candidates themselves, and made the island for many
+years a source of endless difficulties to the Signory. In 1363,
+complaining of their exclusion from the high dignities of the republic,
+the _cavaliers_ openly threw off their allegiance, elected a doge from
+among themselves, and raised the banner of St Titus of Retimo in
+opposition to the standard of St Mark. As they were supported both by
+the native Candiotes and the Greeks of Constantinople, it was not till
+after a harassing warfare of two years that they were reduced, and their
+fortresses razed, by the Provveditori sent from Venice; a second effort
+at independence, a few years later, was not more successful. The Greek
+inhabitants were throughout subjected to a degree of merciless tyranny,
+in comparison of which the worst severities of Turkish rule must have
+appeared lenient. The Sphakiote tribes in particular, who were strong
+both from their arms and martial temperament, and from their habitations
+among the lofty ridges of the _Aspro-Bouna_, or White Mountains, in the
+south of the island, acknowledged at all times but an imperfect
+allegiance to their Venetian lords: and the acts of fiendish barbarity
+by which their frequent revolts were chastised, can scarcely find a
+parallel even in the worst horrors of the French Revolution. Unborn
+infants torn from the womb in pursuance of a judicial sentence solemnly
+pronounced--the head of the father exacted as the ransom for the life of
+the son--such were the methods by which the Provveditori of the Most
+Serene and Christian Republic enforced its authority, and which are
+related, not only without reprehension, but with manifest complacency
+and approval, by the chroniclers of the state.[13]
+
+    [11] The name of Candia, which is the Italianized form of
+    Kandax, (now Megalo-Kastro,) is unknown at the present day to
+    the Greek inhabitants of the island, which they call by its
+    classic name of [Greek: Kraetae].--See PASHLEY'S _Travels in
+    Crete_, i. chap. 11.
+
+    [12] A notable retort is on record from the vizir to the
+    Venetian envoy, who, on repairing to Constantinople after the
+    battle, expressed his astonishment at the progress already made
+    in the equipment of a new fleet. "Know," (said the haughty
+    Osmanli,) "that the loss of a fleet to the Padishah is as the
+    shaving of his beard, which will grow again all the thicker;
+    whereas the loss of Cyprus is to Venice as the amputation of an
+    arm from the body, which will never be reproduced."
+
+    [13] "Thus were they annihilated, and all men who were faithful
+    and devoted to God and their prince, were solaced and
+    consoled."--_MS. Chronicle by the notary Trivan, quoted by_
+    PASHLEY, chap. 33. These atrocities were perpetrated in the
+    early part of the 16th century.
+
+Though the coasts had often been ravaged in former wars by the Turkish
+fleet, particularly under Barbarossa in 1538, no attempt appears ever to
+have been made to effect the conquest of the island by the reduction of
+the fortified cities of the coast, in which the main strength of the
+Venetians lay: and since the treaty of 1573, Venice had remained more
+than seventy years at peace with the Porte. In 1645, however, a fresh
+rupture arose from the capture of a richly-laden Turkish vessel by the
+Maltese cruisers,[14] who were allowed, contrary to the existing
+conventions between the Porte and the Republic, to sell the horses which
+were on board their prize in one of the remote havens of Crete, beyond
+the surveillance of the Venetian authorities. Slight as was the ground
+of offence, it produced an instantaneous ferment at Constantinople: the
+janissaries, calling to mind similar omens said to have preceded the
+conquest of Rhodes and of Cyprus, exclaimed that the land whose soil had
+once been trodden by Moslem horse hoofs, was the predestined inheritance
+of the Faithful: and the flame was fanned by the capitan-pasha Yusuf, a
+Dalmatian renegade, who, independent of the hatred which from early
+associations he bore Venice, dreaded being sent on a bootless expedition
+against the impregnable defences of Malta--an enterprise which, since
+the memorable failure in the last years of Soliman, had never been
+attempted by the Osmanlis. Preparations for war, meanwhile, were carried
+on with unexampled activity, though the destination of the armament was
+kept profoundly secret; till, on April 30, 1545, the most formidable
+expedition which had ever been equipped in the Turkish ports, set sail
+from the Bosphorus. Eight thousand janissaries, 14,000 spahis, and
+upwards of 50,000 _timariots_ or feudal militia, were embarked on board
+the fleet, which consisted of eighty galleys, and more than 300
+transports, besides the auxiliary squadrons of the Barbary regencies,
+which joined the armada, May 7, at the general rendezvous at Scio.
+
+    [14] Among the captives was the ex-nurse of the heir-apparent,
+    afterwards Mohammed IV., with her son, who was mistaken for a
+    prince of the Imperial family; and being carried to Malta, was
+    brought up there as a monk under the name of Padre Ottomanno!
+    During the siege of Candia he was brought to the beleaguered
+    fortress, in the hope that the presence of this supposed Turkish
+    prince of the blood would shake the allegiance of the
+    janissaries--but this notable scheme, as might have been
+    foreseen, was wholly without success.
+
+From Scio the united fleet sailed to Navarino--a course purposely
+adopted to spread the belief that Malta was the point of attack; but no
+sooner were they again at sea, than the capitan-pasha, summoning the
+principal officers on board his galley, read the _khatt sheeref_ of the
+sultan, announcing that he had taken up arms for the conquest of Candia.
+War had, in the mean time, been formally declared against the Republic
+at Constantinople, and the Venetian envoy, Soranzo, imprisoned in the
+Seven Towers: but he had previously contrived to communicate to the
+Signory his suspicions of the impending storm; and supplies and
+reinforcements had been hastily dispatched from Venice to Andrea
+Cornaro, the _inquisitore_, or governor of Crete, in the event of its
+bursting in that quarter. Little serious apprehension seems, however, to
+have been entertained; and great was the consternation of the Candiote
+population, when, on the morning of June 24, the vast armament of the
+Ottomans was seen rounding Cape Spada, and disembarking the troops near
+Canea, on the same spot where, according to tradition, the standards of
+Islam had first been displayed, 820 years before, by the Saracens of
+Spain.
+
+The strong ramparts of Canea opposed but an ineffectual resistance to
+the numbers and resolution of the Ottomans, who pressed the siege with
+all the ardour arising from the confidence of success; and after fifty
+days of open trenches, and the failure of two assaults, the second
+fortress of the island capitulated, August 17. The churches and the
+cathedral of St Nicholas were converted into mosques: and Delhi-Hussein
+(whose subsequent tragical fate has been already commemorated) was sent
+out to take the government of this new conquest. The brave Yusuf,
+returning to Constantinople at the end of the year, was at first
+received with the highest honours by Ibrahim, but soon after put to
+death in one of his fits of senseless cruelty; but the Ottomans in
+Crete, under the gallant leadership of Delhi-Hussein, who now became
+_serdar_ or commander-in-chief, overran and occupied the inland
+districts almost without opposition from the Greek inhabitants, in whose
+eyes any alternative was preferable to the bloody tyranny under which
+they had so long groaned:[15] while the Venitian garrisons, shut up in
+the fortified towns along the northern shore, depended for supplies on
+the Christian fleet, which the Turks did not venture to bring to action.
+The campaign of 1646 was marked by the capture of the important city of
+Retimo, which surrendered Nov. 15, after a murderous siege of
+thirty-nine days, in which both the governor Cornaro and the provveditor
+Molino were slain: but though the Turks received reinforcements to the
+amount of 30,000 men, including 10,000 janissaries, in the course of the
+following year, it was not till May 1648 that the trenches were at
+length opened before Candia, the capital of the island, and the only
+fortress of importance still in the hands of the Venetians.
+
+    [15] Many of them adopted the faith of the invaders--and
+    Tournefort, who visited Crete in 1700, says that "the greater
+    part of the Turks on the island were either renegades, or sons
+    of renegades." The Candiote Turks of the present day are
+    popularly held to combine the vices of the nation from which
+    they descend with those of their adopted countrymen.
+
+The leaguer of Candia was pushed during several months by the Turks,
+animated by the courage and example of their general, with the same
+fanatic zeal which they had displayed before Canea and Retimo; but the
+besieged, whose tenure of Crete depended on this last stronghold, held
+out with equal pertinacity: and their efforts were aided by the presence
+of a large body of Maltese auxiliaries, as well as by the succours which
+the naval superiority of the Venetians enabled them continually to
+introduce by sea. In one sortie, a detachment of the garrison penetrated
+even to the tent of the serdar, who owed his safety to his personal
+prowess; while the outworks of the town were ruined by the constant
+explosion of mines, and the Ottoman standards were planted on the
+bastion of Martinengo, and on several of the redoubts which covered the
+interior defences. But in spite of their repeated assaults, the
+besiegers failed to make any impression on the body of the place; and
+the serdar was compelled to withdraw his diminished army into
+winter-quarters. The anarchy at Constantinople which followed the
+deposition of Ibrahim, combined with the blockade of the Dardanelles by
+the Venetians, prevented any reinforcements from reaching the seat of
+war--yet the siege was renewed in the ensuing summer, and carried on
+with such vigour, that the garrison, weakened by the loss of half its
+numbers, including the valiant governor, Colloredo, was reduced to the
+last extremity; when the arrival of the Maltese squadron, under
+Balbiani, baulked the Turks of their expected prize; and the
+janissaries, breaking out into furious mutiny, compelled Delhi-Hussein
+once more to abandon the hopeless enterprise. All the remainder of the
+island, however, had now peaceably submitted to the Ottoman rule, and
+had been organized into sandjaks and districts; so that the garrison of
+Candia were rather the occupants of a solitary post in a hostile
+country, than defenders of the soil against the invasion; and the
+Turkish commanders, ill supplied from Constantinople, during the
+troubled minority of Mohammed, with siege equipage and munitions of war,
+contented themselves with blockading the town by the erection of
+redoubts, and guarding the open country with their cavalry. While the
+war thus languished in Crete, the events of the maritime contest
+continued to justify the proverbial saying of the Turks, that "Allah had
+given the land to the true believers; but the sea to the infidels!" Not
+only was the blockade of the Dardanelles so strictly kept up, that it
+was only in winter, when the Venetian fleet was unable to remain on its
+station, that the Turks could convey reinforcements to their brethren
+who were waging the _holy war_ in Crete, but repeated and disastrous
+defeats were sustained by the Ottoman navy, whenever it attempted to
+dispute the sovereignty of the sea with the Lion of St Mark. In July
+1651, a formidable armament with supplies and troops for Crete was
+almost entirely destroyed off Naxos by Mocenigo: and on July 6, 1656,
+the same commander inflicted on the Turkish fleet, off the mouth of the
+Straits, the most decisive overthrow which it had sustained since the
+fatal day of Lepanto. Seventy sail of ships and galleys were sunk or
+taken; the Capitan-pasha escaped into the Bosphorus with only fourteen
+vessels; and the inhabitants of Constantinople, in the first access of
+consternation, expected the apparition of the Christian ensigns in the
+Golden Horn; but the victors contented themselves with the occupation of
+Tenedos and Lemnos, which they held till dislodged in the following year
+by Kiuprili.
+
+The serdar, Delhi-Hussein, who had for eleven years gallantly upheld the
+renown of the Ottoman arms in Crete, withstanding with equal firmness
+the efforts of the enemy, and the mutinous spirit of his own soldiers,
+had been recalled early in 1656 to assume the vizirat; a fleeting
+glimpse of honour, which, though cancelled even before he reached
+Constantinople in favour of the Kaimakam Mustapha, subsequently (as
+already related) cost him his life from the jealousy of Mohammed
+Kiuprili. His successors possessed neither his energy nor his military
+skill; and the Venetians, taking courage from the change of commanders,
+sallied from Candia, and even ventured, though without success, to
+attempt the recovery of Canea. Negotiations for peace, meanwhile, had
+been kept on foot almost from the first; but as the Ottoman pride
+absolutely refused to listen to any propositions which did not include
+the total and unconditional surrender of Candia, no pacification could
+be effected; and the war continued to linger till Ahmed-Kiuprili,
+secured on the side of Hungary by the peace with Austria, collected all
+the forces of the empire, to crush this last fragment of Venetian
+dominion in the Levant.
+
+The advanced season of the year when the vizir disembarked in Candia,
+and the disorganized state of the forces which he found there, prevented
+the immediate commencement of offensive operations; but in the course of
+the winter, the arrival of the contingents of Egypt and Africa, as well
+as of a squadron with fresh troops from Constantinople, raised his army
+to between 40,000 and 50,000 effective men; and on the 20th of May 1667,
+the trenches were once more opened in form on the western side of the
+city, while 300 pieces of cannon, thundering from the Ottoman lines,
+covered the approaches of the pioneers.[16] Of the seven[17] great
+bastions which formed the principal defences on the land side, those of
+Panigra, Bethlehem, and Martinengo, were the chief points of attack; the
+vizir himself taking post opposite the first, while the Beglerbeg of
+Anatolia and the Pasha of Egypt were stationed against the Bethlehem and
+the Martinengo. The assault, as on former occasions, was conducted
+chiefly by the slow process of sap and mine; but the superior skill of
+the Christian engineers, enabled them frequently to explore and
+countermine the works of the enemy; and the mining parties were thus
+surprised and blown into the air, while murderous combats took place
+under ground, from the accidental rencounters of the soldiers employed
+in these subterranean galleries. The garrison, which had at first
+numbered about 12,000, under the command of the Marchese di Villa, a
+Piedmontese officer of approved skill and courage, received, at the end
+of June, a reinforcement of 1000 veteran troops, brought by the Venetian
+Captain-General Morosini, who arrived with the fleet at the Isle of
+Standia, off the entrance of the port; and a concourse of volunteers,
+from all parts of Europe, hastened to share in the defence of this last
+bulwark of Christendom in the Grecian seas; while the Maltese, Papal,
+and Neapolitan galleys cruised in the offing, to intercept the supplies
+brought by sea to the Ottoman camp. The Turks, meanwhile, with their
+usual stubborn perseverance, continued to push their sap under the
+ravelin of Mocenigo, and the Panigra bastion which it covered; and
+though their progress was retarded, and their works often ruined, by the
+sallies of the defenders, the foundations were at length shaken, and the
+ramparts rent and shattered, by the explosion of innumerable mines; and
+the janissaries, fired with fanatic zeal, and stimulated by promises of
+reward, rushed again and again to the attack under the eye of the vizir.
+"Many and various," says Rycaut, in his quaint narrative, "were the
+valiant assaults and sallies, the traverses extraordinary, the
+rencounters bloody, the resistance vigorous, not known or recorded in
+any siege before;" and the struggle continued with unabated fury on both
+sides, till the approach of winter; while, after each unsuccessful
+assault, the Venetians, emulating the ferocity of their enemies,
+displayed the heads of the slain and prisoners (for no quarter was given
+or taken) in barbarous triumph from the wall. At length, after a
+desperate conflict on November 16, the janissaries effected a lodgement
+in the Mocenigo bastion and the Panigra; and the Ottoman banners, for
+the first time, were displayed from the summit of the works. But this
+valiant forlorn hope, in the moment of triumph, was hurled into the air
+by the explosion of a previously-prepared mine; and Kiuprili, dismayed
+at this last failure, drew off his troops into their lines, where they
+lay inactive, till the inundation of the camp by the winter rains
+compelled them to withdraw to a greater distance.
+
+    [16] The use of parallels is usually said to have been
+    introduced at this time by Kiuprili; but they were certainly
+    employed before Neuhausel, four years earlier.
+
+    [17] These were, the Sabionera, covered by the detached fort of
+    St Demetrius, the Vetturi, Jesus, Martinengo, Bethlehem,
+    Panigra, and St Andrew.
+
+Great was the rejoicing throughout Europe at the tidings that the pride
+of the Ottoman battle had once more been driven back discomfited, for
+the best and bravest of nearly every nation in Christendom were now to
+be found in the ranks of the defenders:[18] and great, on the other
+hand, was the perplexity of the divan, and the chagrin of the Turkish
+population, at the apparently endless duration of an enterprise, a
+speedy and glorious termination of which had been expected from the
+presence of the vizir. The sultan even dispatched a confidential agent
+to the seat of war, to examine personally into the state of affairs; and
+finding from his report that the army was reduced, by the sword and the
+ravages of disease, to half its original effective strength, he issued
+peremptory firmans to the pashas of the empire to hasten the equipment
+of their contingents; and even announced his intention of repairing in
+person to Crete, to share the perils and glories of the _holy war_.
+Kiuprili, meanwhile, was indefatigable in his exertions to reorganize
+his army, and restore his artillery to efficiency, even casting new guns
+to fit the Venetian bullets, 30,000 of which are said to have been
+picked up in the Turkish lines during the preceding campaign! A strict
+blockade was kept up on the city, while the Venetian cruisers, and the
+Papal galleys under Rospigliosi, the nephew of Pope Clement IX., were
+equally vigilant in preventing supplies from reaching the besiegers by
+sea; and various maritime encounters took place, generally to the
+advantage of the flag of St Mark. The unworthy jealousy[19] entertained
+by Morosini of Di Villa, led, however, early in the spring of 1668, to
+the withdrawal of that gallant soldier from his command, in which he was
+succeeded by the Marquis Montbrun St André, a French volunteer, inferior
+neither in valour nor diligence to his predecessor.
+
+    [18] The majority of these volunteers were supplied by the fiery
+    noblesse of France, among whom the crusading spirit of their
+    ancestors seems to have been revived at this period. At the
+    battle of St Gothard, a considerable body of French auxiliaries
+    was present, under the Duc de la Feuillade, (whose name was
+    travestied by the Turks into, _Fouladi, man of steel_;) and his
+    subsequent expedition to Candia, as well as the more formidable
+    armament under Noailles, seem to have received the direct
+    sanction of Louis XIV. Yet the old treaties between France and
+    the Porte were still in force; so that it was not without some
+    reason that Kiuprili replied, a few years later, to the Marquis
+    de Nointel's professions of amity on the part of France, "I know
+    that the French are our friends, but I always happen to find
+    them in the ranks of our enemies!"
+
+    [19] Villa is said to have produced before the senate of Venice
+    a letter from Morosini to the vizir, offering to betray him into
+    the hands of the Turks.
+
+It was not till the beginning of June that the vizir recommenced active
+operations against Candia; but the plan of attack was now changed. In
+order to command the narrow entrance of the harbour,[20] and so cut off
+the constant reinforcements which reached the besieged by sea, the
+principal batteries were directed against the bastion of Sabionera,
+(called by the Turks the _Kizil-Tabîyah,_ or Red Fort,) at the seaward
+extremity of the works on one side, and against that of St Andrew on the
+other; but the events of the siege during this year present nothing to
+distinguish them from the endless succession of mines, sorties,
+assaults, and countermines, which had marked the campaign of last year.
+The Venetian commanders at length, seeing the Turks preparing to pass
+the winter in their trenches, and sensible that (concentrated as the
+forces of the two contending powers were now for the attack and defence
+of a single fortress) they must eventually be overwhelmed by the
+ponderous strength of the Ottoman empire, once more made overtures for
+peace, offering an annual tribute for Candia, and the cession of the
+rest of the island to the Porte; but the vizir sternly rejected the
+proffered compromise; and his reply to the envoy, Molino--"The Sultan is
+not a merchant, nor does he need money--he has but one word, and that
+is--Candia,"--showed that the long dispute could only be decided by the
+sword. Elated by the hope of speedy triumph, the Turks now ran their
+approaches so close to the bastion of St Andrew, which was held by the
+Maltese knights and militia, that the muzzles of the muskets almost
+touched each other; and the vizir wrote to the Sultan, that they had
+only three yards more of ground to win, when, at this critical moment,
+the spirits of the besieged were revived by the arrival, early in
+December, of the Duc de la Feuillade and the Count de St Pol, with a
+gallant band of 600 volunteers, many of them of the best families of
+France. But the boiling valour of these fiery youths was equally
+difficult to restrain or direct; and, after losing two-thirds of their
+number in desperate, but irregular, sallies against the Turkish lines,
+the survivors of this piece of knight-errantry re-embarked for
+Christendom in January, leaving the heads of their fallen comrades
+ranged on pikes before the tent of Kiuprili. A stancher reinforcement
+was received in the spring of 1669, by the arrival of 3000
+Lunenburghers, whose commander, Count Waldeck, fell a few days after, in
+repulsing an assault on the breach of St Andrew, as did also the former
+governor, Di Villa, whose thirst for glory had brought him back, as
+general of the Papal auxiliaries, to the scene of peril.
+
+    [20] The harbour of Candia (now almost choked up) was at all
+    times so small, and with so little depth of water, as to afford
+    shelter only to galleys, the station of the larger vessels being
+    at the isle of Standia, at some leagues' distance.
+
+These repeated reinforcements, joined to the knowledge that the Pope was
+exerting himself to unite all the princes of Christendom in a league for
+the relief of their hardly-beset brethren, still encouraged the heroic
+defenders of Candia, though the Turks had by this time carried their
+mines at several points within the bastions and exterior defences, and
+compelled the garrison to shelter themselves behind an inner rampart,
+constructed during the winter in anticipation of this extremity:--"So
+that, in effect," says Rycaut, "this most impregnable fort of the world
+was forced and taken by the spade and shovel, and by a crew of unarmed
+labourers, who understood nothing more than the plough and harrow." The
+promised succours, however, were now at hand. On the 22d of June, a
+French fleet appeared off the port, having on board 7000 of the flower
+of the French troops and nobility, who were commanded by the Dukes de
+Noailles and Beaufort, and comprised in their ranks several princes of
+the sovereign houses of Lorrain and Bouillon, the Marshals Colbert and
+De la Motte-Fenelon, the Count of St Pol, and many other names of the
+noblest and bravest in France, who had crowded to embark as volunteers
+in this new and glorious crusade. These gallant auxiliaries landed
+amidst the acclamations of the Venetians; and, on the night of the 27th,
+a general sortie was made, in order to raise the siege by driving the
+Turks from their trenches. The janissaries were driven from their works
+by the impetuous onset of the assailants; but, in the tumult of the
+fight, a large powder-magazine, between the Sabionera and Fort St
+Demetrius, which had been occupied by the French, was accidentally blown
+up. The Duke de Beaufort, and many others, perished in the explosion, or
+were buried under the ruins; and the survivors, panic-stricken at the
+catastrophe, were driven within the walls with terrible slaughter by the
+Turks, who rallied and returned to the charge. The usual hideous
+trophies of Ottoman triumph--the heads of the slain, were laid at the
+feet of the vizir; but the body of the Duc de Beaufort, though anxiously
+sought for at the prayer of his comrades, who offered, through a flag of
+truce, to redeem it at its weight in gold, could never be discovered.
+
+This dreadful blow not only threw a fatal gloom over the ardour of the
+French, but gave rise to an altercation between Morosini and De
+Noailles, each of whom threw on the other the blame of the failure;
+till, after a month thus unprofitably spent, the French commander
+re-embarked his troops, and sailed for Toulon, August 31, leaving the
+town to its fate. The Maltese and Papal galleys departed in his
+company;--"for thus did these accursed swine of Nazarenes" (says the
+Turkish historiographer, Rashid) "withdraw from the doom of hell, which
+awaited them at the hands of the Faithful." The condition of the
+remaining defenders, thus deserted by their allies, and separated from
+the Turks only by breastworks hastily thrown up in the interior of the
+town, was now utterly hopeless, as not more than 3600 men remained fit
+for duty, while the loss in slain and disabled averaged more than a
+hundred a-day. In these desperate circumstances, a council of war was
+summoned by Morosini, to consider whether it might not even yet be
+practicable to avoid the ignominy of a surrender, by evacuating the
+town, and escaping, with the inhabitants, by sea. Their deliberations
+were hastened by a furious assault from the Turks, who were impatient to
+seize their prey; and, though the enemy were repulsed for the time by
+the remains of the Lunenburghers, two officers were eventually
+dispatched to the vizir's headquarters, to announce the submission of
+the garrison, and arrange the terms of capitulation. They were
+courteously received by Kiuprili, who appointed an officer of his own
+household, with Panayoti,[21] the dragoman of the Porte, to confer with
+them; and the articles were settled without much difficulty. Peace was
+concluded between the Porte and the Republic. Candia and the whole of
+Crete was ceded to the Sultan, with the exception of the harbours of
+Grabusa, Suda, and Spinalonga, which the Venetians were allowed to
+retain for purposes of commerce; the garrison and inhabitants of Candia
+were to embark with their arms, baggage, and a certain proportion of
+artillery, and the Ottomans were not to enter the town till the
+embarkation was completed. These conditions were scrupulously observed
+by the victors; till the 27th of September, the evacuation being
+effected, the standard of the cross was at length lowered from the
+walls; and the vizir, standing on the breach of the St Andrew's bastion,
+(thence called by the Turks the _Fort of Surrender_,) in the midst of a
+crowd of pashas and generals, received the keys of the city in a silver
+basin. A body of Turkish troops immediately entered by the breaches, and
+mounted guard on the principal posts; but it was not till the 4th of
+October that the vizir made his triumphant entry at the head of his
+army, (now reduced to about 15,000 regular troops, and 11,000 pioneers
+and irregulars,) and proceeded, bearing in his hand the sacred standard
+of the Prophet, to the cathedral, which was purified from the dead
+bodies interred within its walls, and re-consecrated as a mosque. All
+the other churches underwent the same transformation, with the exception
+of two which Panayoti purchased for the use of the Greeks; for so
+completely was the town deserted, that there remained only, in the words
+of an anonymous eyewitness, "two Greeks, three Jews, and eight other
+strangers, whom the vizir would also have suffered to depart; but they
+chose rather to change their religion than their quarters."
+
+    [21] The appointment of the _Greek_ Panayoti marks an important
+    change in the system of Ottoman diplomacy; as previously the
+    Porte had disdained to employ the _rayahs_ in places of trust,
+    depending wholly, in their intercourse with foreign ambassadors,
+    on the interpreters attached to the suite of the latter.
+
+Thus ended this famous siege, the longest, and one of the most
+memorable, recorded in history. During its continuance, the Venetians
+and their allies lost 30,000 men, and the Turks more than 100,000;
+fifty-six assaults were made on the town above ground, and the same
+number through the mines; and nearly an equal number of sorties was made
+by the garrison. 460 mines were sprung by the Turks, and no less than
+1172 by the Venetians; and the quantity of missiles hurled into the town
+exceeded all calculation. The fortifications were, however, speedily
+repaired by the care of Kiuprili, who remained in the island nine months
+after the surrender, employed in the final organization of this new
+province, which was divided into the three pashaliks of Canea, Retimo,
+and Candia--the last being the residence of the beglerbeg, or supreme
+pasha. The arrangements being at length completed, he quitted Candia for
+Constantinople, whither the capitan-pasha had preceded him with the
+fleet; and, on the 3d of July 1670, he replaced in the hands of the
+Sultan, in his hunting-camp near Rodosto, the _sandjak-sheeref_, which
+had been committed to his charge for the war against the infidels. "In
+this manner," says Rycaut, writing not in a spirit of prophecy, three
+years only before the battle of Vienna, "expired the action of the year,
+fortunate in its success to the Turks; for though they gained but thirty
+acres of land, with expense inestimable of blood and treasure, yet the
+glory and fame which attended it, being the consummation of twenty-five
+years' war, and the theatre where the whole world were spectators, was
+of greater value to the Turks than any other consideration, and may with
+time prove a place of advantage to the further increase of their western
+empire, unless God Almighty, by his mercy and providence, give a stop to
+the progress of this grand oppressor."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+A PASSAGE IN THE LIFE OF A MAÎTRE-D'ARMES
+
+
+The excitement produced in St Petersburg on the occasion of a rash
+conspiracy which had broken out on the inauguration of the Emperor
+Nicholas, had ample time to die away before the sentence pronounced upon
+the conspirators became known. Six months elapsed, months of terrible
+suspense and anxiety to the friends of the unfortunate prisoners. At
+length, on the 14th of July, the decision of the high court of justice
+appeared in the _St Petersburg Gazette_. Six-and-thirty of the accused
+were condemned to death, the others to the mines and to exile. My friend
+and patron, Count Alexis W----, was included in the former list; but an
+act of clemency on the part of the Emperor tempered the severity of
+justice, and only five of the condemned were left for execution, while
+the remaining thirty-one had their sentence commuted to banishment. My
+friend's name was, God be thanked! among the latter.
+
+On reading this announcement, I rushed into the street, and ran, without
+once stopping, until I reached the house of his beloved Louise. Of her,
+for the present, it will be sufficient to say, that she was a young,
+lovely, and intelligent Frenchwoman, whose sister I had known in Paris,
+and to whose patronage, from her position as a first-rate _modiste_ in
+St Petersburg, I was much indebted. Between this truly amiable woman and
+the Count had for some years existed an attachment, not hallowed,
+indeed, by the church, but so long and deeply-rooted in the hearts of
+both, and so dignified by their mutual constancy and worth, as to have
+won the sympathies even of the Count's mother and sisters. To return,
+however, to Louise, whom I found with a copy of the _Gazette_ in her
+hand, and bathed in tears, but they were tears of joy--
+
+"He is saved!" cried she, on seeing me enter; "thank God and the
+Emperor!"
+
+The first moment of joy over, Louise's thoughts turned to the mother and
+sisters of her lover. She calculated that the _Gazette_ would only leave
+St Petersburg by the post of that night, and that by sending off an
+express immediately the news might reach Moscow twelve hours sooner. She
+asked me if I knew a trusty messenger, who could start without delay to
+bear the glad tidings to the Count's family. I had a Russian servant, an
+intelligent active fellow, and I offered his services, which she
+accepted with delight. The only difficulty was the passport, and through
+the kindness of the ex-chief of police, Monsieur de Gorgoli, it was
+procured in half an hour. At the expiration of that time the courier set
+off, with a thousand rubles in his pocket for travelling expenses.
+
+He arrived at Moscow fourteen hours before the post; fourteen hours of
+mortal anxiety saved to the Count's mother and sisters.
+
+The letter he brought back, was one of those that seem written with a
+feather plucked from an angel's wing. The old Countess called Louise her
+daughter, and the young girls named her their sister. They entreated
+that, when the day was known on which the prisoners were to set off for
+their banishment, a courier might be despatched to Moscow with the news.
+I accordingly told my servant to hold himself in readiness to start, to
+his no small satisfaction; for the Count's mother had given him a
+thousand rubles for his first trip, and he trusted the second might be
+equally well rewarded.
+
+There had not been an execution in St Petersburg for sixty years, and
+the curiosity and excitement caused by the anticipation of this one,
+were proportionably great. The day was not fixed beforehand, and the
+inhabitants of the capital got up each morning, expecting to hear that
+the bloody tragedy had been enacted. I had requested a young Frenchman
+attached to Marshal Marmont's special mission, and who was on that
+account likely to have early information, to let me know when it was to
+take place; and on the evening of the 23d of July, he sent me word that
+the marshal and his suite had been invited to repair by four o'clock the
+following morning to the hotel of the French embassy, the windows of
+which commanded the place of execution.
+
+I hastened to communicate this intelligence to Louise. All her fears
+returned. Was it certain that Alexis was pardoned? Might not the
+commutation of punishment announced in the _Gazette_ be a ruse to
+conceal the truth from the people? These, and a thousand other doubts,
+arose in her mind; but I at last succeeded in tranquillizing her, and
+returned home to take some repose till the hour of the execution. Before
+doing so, however, my servant was sent off to Moscow, to inform the
+Countess W---- that the following day her son would leave St Petersburg
+for his place of exile.
+
+At half-past three, I left my house and hastened in the direction of the
+citadel. A grey tinge in the east announced the approach of day, and a
+thin white fog hung like a veil over the Neva. As I passed the corner of
+the French embassy, Marmont and his suite entered the house, and a
+minute afterwards they appeared upon the balcony.
+
+A few persons were standing upon the quay, not in expectation, or
+because they were informed of what was going to take place, but because
+the bridge of the Trinity was occupied by troops, and they were thereby
+prevented from proceeding whither their affairs called them. They seemed
+uneasy, and uncertain whether it might not be dangerous to remain there.
+
+Some minutes before four, a large fire was lighted on the platform of
+the fortress. My attention being drawn to that point, I perceived, by
+the now increasing daylight, a wooden scaffolding, on which were erected
+five black and ominous looking gibbets.
+
+Four o'clock struck, and the prisoners whose punishment had been
+commuted to banishment appeared upon the platform, and ranged themselves
+round the scaffold. They were all in full uniform, wearing their
+epaulettes, and the stars and ribands of their different orders. Their
+swords were carried by soldiers. I tried to distinguish the Count, but
+the distance, and still imperfect light, rendered the attempt fruitless.
+
+The five who were to suffer death now ascended the scaffold, dressed in
+coarse linen frocks, and with a sort of white hood over their heads.
+They doubtless arrived from separate dungeons, for, as they met, they
+were allowed to embrace one another. Immediately afterwards, a man went
+up to them and said something, which was followed by a cheer from the
+soldiers and others attending the execution. It was afterwards reported,
+I know not with what truth, that this man was sent to offer them their
+lives if they chose to beg them; but that they replied to the offer by
+cries of Russia and Liberty!--cries that were rendered inaudible by the
+hurras of the guards and attendants.
+
+The executioners stepped forward, passed the halters round the necks of
+the condemned, and pulled the hoods over their eyes. A neighbouring
+clock struck the first quarter after four, and simultaneously with the
+sound, a trap-door gave way under the feet of the culprits. There was a
+great cry and much confusion, and a number of soldiers jumped upon the
+scaffold.
+
+Two of the ropes had snapped, and the unhappy men round whose necks they
+had been fastened, had fallen through the scaffolding to the platform;
+one of them had broken his thigh, and the other his arm. Ladders were
+brought, and the sufferers carried up to the scaffold and laid upon
+their backs, for they were unable to stand. In a few minutes new halters
+were ready, and with the help of the executioners, the victims managed
+to drag themselves under the gibbets. Their last words were, Russia and
+Liberty! This time the ropes did their duty.
+
+It was said, that when the Emperor was afterwards informed of this
+incident, he was much vexed at its not having been immediately reported
+to him; but nobody had dared take upon himself the responsibility of
+suspending the execution.
+
+It was now the turn of the exiles. Their sentence was read, declaring
+them to have forfeited every thing, rank, possessions, orders, family,
+all that bound them to the world, and the executioners then tore off
+their epaulettes and decorations, which they threw into the fire. Then
+taking the prisoners' swords from the soldiers who held them, they
+seized them by the hilt and point, and broke them over their owners'
+heads, exclaiming, as each snapped in two, "This is the sword of a
+traitor!" This ceremony over, they were stripped of their uniforms,
+which were replaced by coarse grey smock-frocks, and they were then led
+back to prison. The evening of the same day they set out for Siberia.
+
+I returned to Louise, whom I found on her knees, praying and weeping.
+She looked at me as I entered the room as though afraid to interrogate
+me; but I relieved her anxiety by informing her that all had passed as
+announced in the _Gazette_. She raised her eyes to heaven with an
+expression of pious gratitude.
+
+After a pause, "How far is it from here to Tobolsk?" she enquired.
+
+"About eight hundred leagues."
+
+"It is not so far as I thought," was her observation. I looked at her
+for a moment in silence. I began to suspect her intentions.
+
+"Why do you ask the question?" enquired I.
+
+"Can you not guess?"
+
+"But, Louise, it is impossible, at least at this moment."
+
+"Do not be uneasy, my friend. I know my duty to my child, and my
+affection for its father shall not make me forget it. I will wait."
+
+It was not without a motive that the Count's mother and sisters had been
+anxious to obtain the earliest possible intelligence of his departure
+from St Petersburg. The road from that capital to Tobolsk ran through
+Iroslaw, a town about sixty leagues from Moscow, and they entertained
+hopes of being able to see their son and brother as he passed. Their
+passports were ready, and arrangements made; and as soon as they
+received from my servant the news of the departure of the prisoners,
+they got into a _kubiltka_, and without saying a word to any body of
+their intentions, set out for Iroslaw.
+
+Travelling is rapid in Russia; in less than twenty-four hours they
+reached their destination, and learned with delight that the prisoners
+had not yet passed. As their stay at Iroslaw might have excited
+suspicion, they left that town, and took up their quarters in a small
+village on the road, at a solitary cottage, near which the carriages
+containing the exiles were to change horses. In all such cases in
+Russia, the persons in charge of criminals are forbidden to stop or to
+change horses in towns, or even in villages.
+
+After waiting two days, a servant whom the Countess had stationed upon
+the road to watch for the convoy, hastened to her with the news that the
+first division of the prisoners had just arrived in five carriages, and
+that the corporal in charge had sent men to fetch horses from the
+village. The ladies got into their carriage, and set off at full gallop
+for the cottage at which the convoy had halted. They stopped upon the
+high-road opposite the hut, and gazed eagerly through the half-open door
+of its only room. It was crowded with prisoners; but Alexis was not
+amongst them.
+
+In a quarter of an hour horses were brought; the prisoners re-entered
+the carriage, which immediately set off.
+
+Half an hour later the second division of the convoy arrived; but the
+Count was not with it. The third, fourth, and fifth passed, each being
+obliged to wait longer than the preceeding one for horses, those at the
+post-house and in the immediate neighbourhood having all been taken.
+
+It was some time after nightfall when the sixth and last division was
+heard approaching. The poor women clasped their trembling hands
+together. The much wished-for moment had arrived, yet their greatest
+difficulty was to come. It was more than uncertain whether they would be
+permitted to embrace their son and brother.
+
+The convoy stopped, Alexis got out of the third carriage. In spite of
+the darkness and of his ignoble garb, the Countess and her daughters
+recognized him. One of the latter was about to call out his name; but
+her mother placed her hand on her mouth in time to prevent the
+imprudence, and the Count entered the cottage.
+
+The corporal commanding the escort began enquiring about horses, and on
+learning that they were scarce, he sent off his soldiers with orders to
+seize all they could find in the name of the Emperor. The men departed,
+and he remained alone with the prisoners. There was no danger of an
+attempt at escape. In the heart of the Czar's immense dominions, whither
+could a fugitive betake himself without a certainty of being overtaken,
+or of dying from hunger before he reached the frontier?
+
+Corporal Ivan remained then walking up and down in front of the cottage,
+alternately whistling and floging his leathern overalls with his riding
+whip, and occasionally stopping to gaze at the Countess's travelling
+carriage, which was standing without horses in the road. Presently the
+door of the vehicle opened, three ladies alighted and advanced towards
+the corporal. Two of them remained a little behind, the third approached
+him with clasped hands.
+
+"My friend," said the Countess, "my son is amongst the prisoners you are
+escorting; let me see him but for a moment, and name your own reward."
+
+"It is impossible, madam," replied the corporal respectfully. "My orders
+are strict to allow no one to communicate with the prisoners, and the
+knout is the least I may expect if I transgress them."
+
+"But who will know that you have transgressed them?" cried the Countess,
+her voice trembling with eagerness and suspense. Her daughters stepped
+forward, and joined their hands, as in supplication to the soldier.
+
+"It is quite impossible, madam," repeated the man.
+
+"My mother!" cried Alexis, pushing open the cottage door. He had heard
+her voice, and in an instant was clasped in her arms.
+
+The corporal made a movement as though to seize his prisoner; but at the
+same moment the two young girls fell at his feet, and embracing his
+knees, pointed to the touching spectacle before them.
+
+Corporal Ivan was a good fellow in the main. He uttered something
+between a sigh and a growl, and the sisters saw that their prayer was
+granted.
+
+"Mamma," said one of them in a low tone, "he will allow us to embrace
+our brother." The Countess extricated herself from her son's arms, and
+held out a heavy purse to the corporal.
+
+"You risk a punishment for our sakes, my friend, and it is fair you
+should be recompensed for it."
+
+Ivan looked hard at the purse for a moment, then shaking his head and
+putting his hands behind his back, "No, your ladyship," said he, "I am
+committing a breach of duty, but it is not for gold. Here is the best
+excuse I can give my judges, and if they don't accept it, God will;" and
+he pointed to the two weeping girls. The Countess seized the soldier's
+rough hand and pressed it to her lips.
+
+"The horses cannot be here yet;" continued Ivan, "get into your carriage
+and pull down the blinds. By that means nobody will see you, and I may
+perhaps avoid making acquaintance with the knout."
+
+"Thank you, corporal," said Alexis; "but at least take this purse.
+
+"Take it yourself, lieutenant," said Ivan in a low voice, from habit
+giving the Count a title to which he had no longer a right. "You will
+find the use of it at the end of your journey."
+
+"But on arriving they will search me."
+
+"You can give it to me before the search, and I will return it to you.
+But I hear the gallop of a horse; quick into the carriage!" The corporal
+pushed Alexis into the carriage; the ladies followed, and he shut the
+door upon them.
+
+An hour elapsed, an hour of mingled joy and sorrow. At the expiration of
+that time, the door opened, and Ivan appeared. "You must separate," said
+he, "the horses are arriving."
+
+"A few moments longer!" cried the ladies, with tearful voices.
+
+"Not a second, or I am ruined. Go on to the next relay; it is dark, no
+one will see you, and I sha'n't be punished more for twice than once."
+
+"Oh! you will not be punished at all," cried the ladies; "surely God
+will reward you."
+
+"Hum," said the corporal doubtingly, and half pulling his prisoner out
+of the carriage.
+
+At the next relay, things went equally well. A third interview was
+rendered impossible by the approach of day. The sad word _farewell_ was
+pronounced, and the weeping women took the road to Moscow, having
+previously arranged a plan of correspondence, and carrying with them a
+few affectionate lines that Alexis had scrawled in pencil for Louise.
+
+The Countess had ordered my servant to wait at Moscow till she returned,
+and on her arrival there immediately dispatched him to St Petersburg. He
+brought Louise the Count's note, and a letter from his mother, inviting
+her to go to Moscow, for that she was impatient to embrace her as her
+daughter.
+
+Louise kissed her lover's note. She shook her head on reading the
+Countess's letter, and smiled one of those sad smiles that were peculiar
+to her. "I shall not go to Moscow," said she, "my place is elsewhere."
+
+As I had suspected, Louise had resolved to join Count W---- at Tobolsk;
+but she could not set out till after her confinement, which was to take
+place in a couple of months. Meantime she busied herself with
+preparations. By turning every thing she possessed into money, she got
+together a sum of thirty thousand rubles. At her request, I applied to
+my kind friend, Monsieur de Gorgoli, to obtain from the Emperor
+permission for her to rejoin her lover. Her intentions had got wind in
+St Petersburg, and every body spoke with admiration of the devoted
+attachment of the young Frenchwoman. Many thought, however, that her
+courage would fail her when the moment of departure arrived; but I knew
+her better, and felt assured of the contrary.
+
+At the commencement of September, she became the mother of a boy. I
+wished her to write to the mother of Alexis to announce this event; but
+she refused. The Countess heard of it, however, and wrote to Louise, to
+say that she was expecting her with her child.
+
+Her recovery was slow, the various emotions she had undergone during her
+pregnancy having weakened her health. She would have left St Petersburg
+long before she was strong enough to do so; but the permission to join
+Count W---- was to come through me, and I refused to apply for it till
+her medical attendant gave her leave to travel.
+
+One morning the door of my apartment opened and Louise entered, her face
+radiant with joy. "He will escape!" cried she.
+
+"Who?"
+
+"He--Alexis."
+
+"How! Escape? It is impossible."
+
+"Read that," she said and handed me a letter in the Count's
+hand-writing. It was as follows:--"Dearest Louise--Place all confidence
+in the bearer of this letter. He is more than my friend--he is my
+saviour.
+
+"I fell ill upon the road, and was obliged to stop at Perm. The
+physicians declared I was not able to continue my journey, and it was
+decided I should pass the winter in the prison of that town. As good
+fortune would have it, the jailer's brother is an old servant of my
+family and willing to aid my escape. He and his brother fly with me; but
+I must have means of indemnifying them for what they give up on my
+account, and for the risk they run. Give the bearer all the money and
+jewels you possess. As soon as I am in safety I will write to you to
+come and join me. Adieu. W----."
+
+"Well," said I after reading the letter twice over, "what have you
+done?"
+
+"Can you ask the question?"
+
+"What!" cried I. "You have given ...?"
+
+"Every ruble I had," interrupted she.
+
+"And if this letter were not from the Count? If it were a forgery?"
+
+She changed colour, and snatched the paper from my hand.
+
+"Oh, no!" said she. "I know his hand-writing. I cannot be mistaken."
+But, on reading the letter again, I observed that she grew still paler.
+
+"I do not think," I observed, "that Alexis would have addressed such a
+demand to you."
+
+"And why not? Who loves him better than I do?"
+
+"Understand me rightly. For an act of friendship or devotion he would
+have applied to _you_, but for money to his mother. I tell you again,
+either I do not know Count W----'s character, or this letter is not
+written by him."
+
+"But what will become of me? I have given every thing I possessed."
+
+"How did the Count usually sign his letters?"
+
+"Alexis always."
+
+"You see this one is signed W----. It is evidently a forgery and we must
+immediately inform the police."
+
+"And if we are mistaken? If it is not a forgery, by doing so I shall
+prevent his escape. Oh, no! Better lose the money. I can manage without.
+All that I am anxious to know is, whether he is at Perm."
+
+It occurred to me, that I might easily ascertain this latter point
+through a lieutenant of gendarmerie to whom I gave lessons; and begging
+Louise to wait my return, I hastened to his quarters. I told him I had
+particular reasons for wishing to know whether my friend W---- had
+reached Tobolsk, and asked him if it were possible to ascertain. He
+immediately sent an orderly for the non-commissioned officer who had
+commanded the Count's division. Ten minutes afterwards, Corporal Ivan
+entered the room; and, although I was not then aware of the service he
+had rendered the Countess and her daughters, I was immediately
+prepossessed in his favour, by his frank open countenance and soldierly
+bearing.
+
+"You commanded the sixth division of the prisoners lately sent to
+Siberia?" enquired I.
+
+"I did so, your excellency."
+
+"Count W---- was in your division?"
+
+The corporal hesitated, and did not seem much to like the question.
+
+"Fear nothing," said I, "you are speaking to a friend, who would
+sacrifice his own life for him. Tell me the truth, I beseech you. Was
+Count W---- ill on the road?"
+
+"Not the least."
+
+"Did he stop at Perm?"
+
+"Not even to change horses. I left him at Koslowo, a pretty little
+village on the Irtich, twenty leagues from Tobolsk."
+
+"You are sure of what you say?"
+
+"Quite sure. I had a receipt from the authorities, which I delivered
+over to his excellency the grand-master of police."
+
+I now hastened to Monsieur de Gorgoli, and related all that had passed.
+When I had finished--
+
+"Is this young girl decided to go penniless, as she now is, to join her
+lover in Siberia?"
+
+"Quite decided, your excellency; and I am persuaded nothing will alter
+her resolution."
+
+"Then go, and tell her from me, that she shall have the permission."
+
+I hurried back to Louise, and informed her of the result of my two
+interviews. She appeared indifferent to the loss of her little fortune,
+but overjoyed to learn that she would be allowed to join her lover. Her
+only anxiety now was to obtain the requisite permission as soon as
+possible.
+
+Before leaving her, I placed at her disposal what money I had, which,
+unfortunately, was only two or three thousand rubles; for I had, a short
+time previously, remitted to France all that I had laid by during my
+residence at St Petersburg.
+
+The same evening I was at Louise's house, when one of the Emperor's
+aides-de-camp was announced. He brought her a letter of audience for the
+following day. Monsieur de Gorgoli had kept his word.
+
+Early the following morning I called upon Louise, to accompany her to
+the palace. I found her waiting for me, dressed in deep mourning, and
+without a single ornament; but her pale, melancholy style of beauty, was
+rather improved than impaired by the simplicity and sombre colour of her
+attire.
+
+At the palace gate we separated, and I awaited her return in the
+carriage. On presenting her letter of audience, an officer on duty
+conducted her to the Emperor's private cabinet, and desiring her to wait
+there, left the room. She remained alone for about ten minutes, during
+which time, she afterwards told me, she was more than once near fainting
+away. At last a step was heard in the adjoining apartment; a door
+opened, and the Emperor appeared. On seeing him, she, by a spontaneous
+movement, fell upon her knees, and, unable to find words, clasped her
+hands together in mute supplication.
+
+"Rise!" said the Emperor kindly, advancing towards her. "I have been
+already spoken to on the subject of your application. You wish for
+permission to join an exile?"
+
+"Yes, sire, if such a favour may be granted."
+
+"You are neither his sister nor his wife, I believe?"
+
+"I am his--friend, sire," replied poor Louise, a tinge of pink
+over-spreading her pale cheek. "He must sadly need a friend."
+
+"You know that he is banished for life to a country where there are
+scarcely four months of spring, and the rest of the year is one dreary
+winter?"
+
+"I know it, sire."
+
+"Do you know, also, that he has neither rank, fortune, nor title to
+share with you--that he is poorer than the poorest mendicant in St
+Petersburg?"
+
+"Yes, sire."
+
+"You have doubtless some fortune, some resources of your own?"
+
+"Alas, sire, I have nothing! Yesterday I had thirty thousand rubles,
+produced by the sale of all I possessed, but even that little fortune
+was stolen from me."
+
+"I know it. By a forged letter. It was more than a theft, it was a
+sacrilege; and, should its perpetrator be detected, he shall be punished
+as though he had broken open the poor-box in a church. But there are
+means of repairing your loss?"
+
+"How, sire?"
+
+"Inform his family of the circumstance. They are rich, and will assist
+you."
+
+"I thank your Majesty; but I desire no assistance save that of God."
+
+"But without funds how can you travel? Have you no friends who would
+help you?"
+
+"Pardon me, sire, but I am too proud to borrow what I could never repay.
+By selling what little property I have left, I shall raise two or three
+hundred rubles."
+
+"Scarcely sufficient for a quarter of the journey. Do you know the
+distance from here to Tobolsk, my poor girl?"
+
+"Yes, sire--about eight hundred French leagues."
+
+"And how will you get over the five or six hundred leagues you will
+still have to travel when your last ruble is spent?"
+
+"There are towns on the road, sire. When I reach a town I will work till
+I have enough to continue my journey to the next."
+
+"That may do as far as Perm," replied the Emperor; "but after that you
+have the Ural mountains, and you are at the end of Europe. After that
+nothing but a few scattered villages; no inns upon the road; large
+rivers without bridges or ferries, and which must be traversed by
+dangerous fords, whence men and horses are frequently swept away."
+
+"Sire, when I reach the rivers they will be frozen; for I am told that
+in those regions the winter begins earlier than at St Petersburg."
+
+"What!" cried the Emperor, astonished, "do you think of setting out
+now--of performing such a journey in winter?"
+
+"It is during the winter that _his_ solitude must be most intolerable."
+
+"It is impossible. You must be mad to think of it."
+
+"Impossible if your Majesty so wills it. No one can disobey your
+Majesty."
+
+"_I_ shall not prevent it; but surely your own reason, and the immense
+difficulties of such an undertaking, will."
+
+"Sire! I will set out to-morrow."
+
+"But if you perish on the road?"
+
+"If I perish, sire, he will have lost nothing, for I am neither his
+mother, his daughter, nor sister, but only his mistress--that is, a
+woman to whom society gives no rights, and who must consider herself
+fortunate if the world looks upon her with no harsher feeling than
+indifference. But if I _am_ able to join him, I shall be _every thing_
+to him--mother, sister, family, and friends. We shall be two to suffer
+instead of one, and that fearful exile will lose half its terrors. You
+see, sire, I _must_ rejoin him, and that as soon as possible."
+
+"You are right," said the Emperor, looking fixedly at her, "and I no
+longer oppose your departure."
+
+He rang; an aide-de-camp appeared.
+
+"Is Corporal Ivan in attendance?"
+
+"He waits your Majesty's orders."
+
+"Let him come in."
+
+The aide-de-camp bowed, and disappeared. Two minutes afterwards the door
+reopened, and Corporal Ivan stepped into the room, then halted, upright
+and motionless, one hand on the seam of his overalls, the other to the
+front of his schako.
+
+"Draw near," said the Emperor, in a stern voice.
+
+The corporal made four paces to the front, and relapsed into his former
+position.
+
+"Nearer!"
+
+Four more paces, and Ivan was close to the Emperor's writing-table.
+
+"You are Corporal Ivan?"
+
+"Yes, sire."
+
+"You commanded the escort of the sixth division?"
+
+"Yes, sire."
+
+"You had orders to allow the prisoners to communicate with no one?"
+
+This time the corporal's tongue seemed embarrassed by something, and his
+affirmative was uttered in a less steady tone than the preceding ones.
+
+"Count Alexis W---- was one of the prisoners in your division, and in
+spite of your orders you allowed him to have two interviews with his
+mother and sisters. You knew the punishment you exposed yourself to by
+so doing?"
+
+Ivan grew very pale, and was forced to support himself against the
+table.
+
+"Pardon, sire!" gasped he.
+
+Louise seemed about to speak, but a motion of the Emperor's hand warned
+her to remain quiet. After a moment's silence--
+
+"You are pardoned," said the Emperor.
+
+The soldier drew a deep breath. Louise uttered an exclamation of joy.
+
+"Where did you leave Count W----?"
+
+"At Koslowo, your Majesty."
+
+"You will set off again, and escort this lady thither."
+
+"Oh, sire!" exclaimed Louise, who began to understand the Emperor's
+feigned severity,
+
+"You will obey her in all respects, consistently with her safety, for
+which you answer to me with your head; and if, on your return, you bring
+me a letter from her, saying that she is satisfied with your conduct,
+you shall be made sergeant."
+
+"Thanks, father," said Ivan, forgetting for a moment his military
+stiffness, and falling upon his knees. The Emperor gave him his hand to
+kiss, as he was in the habit of doing to the lowest of his subjects.
+Louise was going to throw herself at his feet and kiss his other hand,
+but the Emperor stopped her.
+
+"You are indeed a true and admirable woman," said he. "I have done all I
+can for you. May God bless and protect you!"
+
+"Oh, sire!" exclaimed Louise, "how can I show my gratitude!"
+
+"When you pray for your child," said the Emperor, "pray also for mine."
+And waving his hand kindly to her, he left the room.
+
+When Louise returned home she found a small packet that had been sent
+from the Empress during her absence. It contained thirty thousand
+rubles.
+
+It had been arranged that I should accompany Louise as far as Moscow, a
+city that I was desirous of visiting, and thence she would pursue her
+journey under Ivan's escort. The day after her interview with the
+Emperor, we started in a carriage that Ivan brought, and the combined
+strength and elegance of which surprised me, until I observed on a
+corner of the pannel the mark of the imperial stables. It was an
+excellent travelling berline, lined throughout with fur. Ivan was
+provided with an order, by virtue of which post-horses would be
+furnished us the whole of the journey, at the Emperor's expense. Louise
+got into the carriage with her child in her arms; I seated myself beside
+her, Ivan jumped on the box, and in a few minutes we were rattling along
+the Moscow road.
+
+Louise was received with open arms by the Countess W---- and her
+daughters. The nature of her connexion with Alexis was lost sight of and
+forgotten in the devotion and disinterestedness of her attachment. A
+room was prepared for her in the Countess's house; and, however anxious
+the Count's mother and sisters were that he should have society and
+consolation in his exile, they nevertheless entreated her to pass the
+winter at Moscow, rather than run the risk of so long a journey during
+the bad season that was approaching. But Louise was inflexible. Two days
+were all she would consent to remain. She was forced, however, to leave
+her child in charge of its grandmother, for it would have been madness
+to have done otherwise.
+
+I had been offered an apartment in the Countess's house, but preferred
+taking up my quarters at an hotel, in order to have liberty to spend my
+time in visiting whatever was remarkable at Moscow. On the evening of
+the second day I went to call upon the Countess. The ladies were making
+another effort to persuade Louise to defer her perilous journey till a
+more favourable season. But no arguments, no entreaties, could move her:
+she was determined to set off the following morning. I was invited to
+breakfast, and to witness her departure.
+
+I had been for some days turning over in my mind a project that I now
+resolved to put in execution. I got up early the next morning and bought
+a fur coat and cap, thick furred boots, a carbine, and a brace of
+pistols, all of which I gave to Ivan, and desired him to place them in
+the carriage. I then hastened to the Countess W----'s.
+
+Breakfast over, the carriage drove up to the door. Louise was
+alternately clasped in the arms of the Countess and her daughters. My
+turn came, and she held out her hand. I made a motion to assist her into
+the carriage. "Well," said she, astonished, "don't you bid me farewell?"
+
+"Why should I?"
+
+"I am going to set off."
+
+"So am I."
+
+"You!"
+
+"Certainly. You recollect the Persian fable--the pebble that was not the
+rose, but had caught some of its fragrance by living near it."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Well, I have caught some of your devotedness, and I shall go with you
+to Tobolsk. I will deliver you safe and sound to the Count, and then
+come back again."
+
+Louise looked me earnestly in the face. "I have no right," said she, "to
+prevent your doing a good action--come."
+
+The Countess and her daughters were in tears. "My child! my child!"
+cried Louise, who had remained firm up to this moment, but burst into a
+passion of weeping as she clasped her infant for the last time in her
+arms.
+
+"Adieu! Adieu!" The whip cracked; the wheels rattled over the pavement.
+We were off to Siberia. On we went, day and night. Pokrow, Vladimir,
+Nijni-Novogorod, Casan. "_Pascare! Pascare!_" Quicker! Quicker! was
+Ivan's cry to each new postilion. The snow had not yet begun to fall,
+and he was anxious, if possible, to cross the Ural mountains before it
+set in. The immense plains between Moscow and Perm were traversed with
+tremendous rapidity. On reaching the latter place, Louise was so much
+exhausted that I told Ivan we must halt one night. He hesitated a
+moment, then looking at the sky, which was dark and lowering, "It will
+be as well," said he; "we must soon have snow, and it is better it
+should fall before than during our journey." The next morning his
+prediction was verified. There were two feet of snow in the streets of
+Perm.
+
+Ivan now wished to remain till the cold increased, so that the snow
+might become hard, and the rivers frozen. But all his arguments could
+only induce Louise to wait two days. On the third morning we set off,
+leaving our carriage, and packed into a sort of small vehicle without
+springs, called a _télègue_.
+
+On reaching the foot of the Ural mountains, the cold had so much
+increased that it became advisable to substitute a sledge for our
+wheels. We stopped at a miserable village, composed of a score of
+hovels, in order to effect this exchange, and entered a wretched hut,
+which did duty both as posting-house and as the only inn in the place.
+Eight or nine men, carriers by trade, were crowded round a large fire,
+lighted in the centre of the room, and the smoke of which found a vent
+through a hole in the roof. They paid no attention to our entrance; but
+when I had taken off my cloak, my uniform at once obtained for us the
+best place at the hearth. The landlord of this wretched hostelry met my
+enquires about supper with a stare of astonishment, and offered me a
+huge loaf of hard black bread as the whole contents of his larder. Ivan,
+however, presently appeared, having managed to forage out a couple of
+fowls, which, in an inconceivably short space of time, were plucked, and
+one of them simmering in an iron pot over the fire, while the other hung
+suspended by a string in front of the blaze. Supper over, we wrapped
+ourselves in our furs, and lay down upon the floor, beds in such a place
+being of course out of the question.
+
+Before daybreak, I awoke, and found Ivan and the carriers already afoot,
+and in consultation as to the practicability of continuing our journey.
+The question was at last decided in favour of the march; the waggoners
+hastened to harness their horses, and I went to inspect our carriage,
+which the village blacksmith had taken off its wheels and mounted upon a
+sledge. Ivan meantime was foraging for provisions, and shortly returned
+with a ham, some tolerable bread, and half a dozen bottles of a sort of
+reddish brandy, made, I believe, out of the bark of the birch-tree.
+
+At length all was ready, and off we set, our sledge going first,
+followed by the carriers' waggons. Our new companions, according to a
+custom existing among them, had chosen one of their number as a chief,
+whose experience and judgment were to direct the movements of the party,
+and whose orders were to be obeyed in all things. Their choice had
+fallen on a man named George, whose age I should have guessed to be
+fifty, but who, I learned with astonishment, was upwards of seventy
+years old. He was a powerful and muscular man, with black piercing eyes,
+overhung by thick shaggy eyebrows, which, as well as his long beard,
+were of an iron grey. His dress consisted of a woollen shirt and
+trousers, a fur cap, and a sheepskin with the wool turned inside. To the
+leathern belt round his waist were suspended two or three horse-shoes, a
+metal fork and spoon, a long-bladed knife, a small hatchet, and a sort
+of wallet, in which he carried pipe, tobacco, flint, steel, nails,
+money, and a variety of other things useful or necessary in his mode of
+life. The garb and equipment of the other carriers were, with some small
+differences, the same.
+
+The first day's journey passed without incident. Our march was slow and
+even dangerous, all trace of the road being obliterated, and we were
+obliged to feel our way, as it were, by sending men forward with long
+pikes to sound the depth of snow before us. At nightfall, however, we
+found ourselves in safety on a sort of platform surmounted by a few
+pine-trees. Here we established our bivouac. Branches were cut, and a
+sort of hut built; and, with the aid of enormous fires, the night passed
+in greater comfort than might have been expected on a mountain-side, and
+with snow many feet deep around us.
+
+At daybreak we were again in movement. Our difficulties increased as we
+ascended the mountain: the snow lay in prodigious masses, and more than
+once we were delayed by having to rescue one or other of our advanced
+guard from some hole or ravine into which he had fallen. No serious
+accident, however, occurred, and we had at length the satisfaction of
+finding ourselves descending. We had passed the highest point of the
+road.
+
+We had been going downhill for some three hours, the way zig-zaging
+among rocks and precipices, when suddenly we were startled by a loud
+cracking, followed by a noise that resembled a clap of thunder repeated
+by many echoes. At the same moment a sort of whirlwind swept by us, and
+the air was darkened by a cloud of snow-dust. "An avalanche!" cried
+George, stopping his waggon. Every body halted. In another instant the
+noise ceased, the air became clear, and the avalanche continued its
+downward course, breaking, as it passed, a couple of gigantic pines that
+grew upon a rock, some five hundred feet below us. The carriers gave a
+hurra of joy at their escape, nor was it without reason. Had we been
+only half a verst further on our road, our journey had been at an end.
+
+The avalanche had not passed, however, without doing us some harm, for,
+on reaching the part of the road over which it had swept, we found it
+blocked up by a wall of snow thirty feet thick and of great height.
+There were several hours' work for all of us to clear it away; but
+unfortunately it was already nightfall, and we were obliged to make up
+our minds to remain where we were till morning.
+
+No wood was to be had either for hut or fire. The want of the latter was
+most unfortunate; for independently of the cold rendering it very
+necessary, it was our chief protection against the wolves. Doing the
+best we could under such unfavourable circumstances, we drew up the
+carts in the form of a half circle, of which the two extremities rested
+against the wall of snow it our rear, and within the sort of
+fortification thus formed we placed the horses and our sledge. Our
+arrangements were scarcely completed when it became perfectly dark.
+
+In the absence of fire Louise's supper and mine consisted of dry bread.
+The carriers, however, made a hearty meal on the flesh of a bear they
+had killed that morning, and which they seemed to consider as good raw
+as cooked.
+
+I was regretting the want of any description of light in case of an
+attack from the wolves, when Louise suddenly recollected that Ivan had
+put the lanterns belonging to the travelling carriage into our _télègue_
+when we changed horses. On searching I found them under the seat, each
+furnished with a thick wax taper.
+
+This was, indeed, a treasure. We could not hope to scare away the wolves
+by the light of our two candles; but it would enable us to see them
+coming, and to give them a proper reception. We tied the lanterns to the
+top of two poles fixed firmly in the snow, and saw with pleasure that
+they cast their clear pale light nearly fifty yards around our
+encampment.
+
+We were ten men in all. Two stood sentry on the carts, while the
+remainder set to work to pierce through the obstacle left by the
+avalanche. The snow had already become slightly frozen, so that they
+were able to cut a passage through it. I joined the working party as
+being a warmer occupation than standing sentry. For three or four hours
+we toiled incessantly, and the birch-tree brandy, with which I had
+provided myself, and which we had carefully economized, was now found
+most useful in giving strength and courage to the labourers.
+
+It was about eleven o'clock at night when a long howl was heard, which
+sounded so close and startling that with one accord we suspended our
+work. At the same moment old George, who was on sentry, called to us. We
+ran to the waggons and jumped upon them. A dozen enormous wolves were
+prowling about the outside edge of the bright circle thrown by our
+lanterns. Fear of the light kept them off; but each moment they were
+growing bolder, and it was easy to see that they would not be long
+without attacking us.
+
+I looked to the priming of my carbine and pistols. Ivan was similarly
+armed; but the carriers had only their pikes, hatchets, and knives. With
+these weapons, however, they boldly awaited the attack.
+
+Half an hour passed in this state of suspense, the wolves occasionally
+advancing a pace or two into the circle of light, but always retreating
+again. At length one of them approached so near that I asked George if
+it would not be advisable to reward his temerity with a bullet.
+
+"Yes," was the answer, "if you are certain of hitting him."
+
+"Why must I be certain?"
+
+"Because if you kill him his companions will amuse themselves with
+eating him; to be sure," added he to himself, "if once they taste blood
+they will be mad for more."
+
+"The mark is so good," said I, "I can hardly miss him."
+
+"Fire, then, in God's name!" returned George; "all this must have an end
+one way or the other."
+
+Before the words were out of his mouth I fired, and the wolf writhed in
+agony on the snow. In an instant half a dozen wolves darted forward,
+and, seizing their comrade, carried him off into the darkness.
+
+The howlings now increased, and it was evident more wolves were
+arriving. At length there was a moment's silence.
+
+"Do you hear the horses," said George, "how they neigh, and paw? It is a
+signal for us to be prepared."
+
+"I thought the wolves were gone," replied I; "they have left off
+howling.
+
+"No, they have finished their repast, and are preparing for an attack.
+Here they come."
+
+And that moment eight or ten wolves, that in the imperfect flickering
+light looked as big as jackasses, rushed forward, and instead of
+endeavouring to pass under the waggons, bounded boldly upon them. By
+some chance, however, none of them attacked the waggon on which I was
+posted.
+
+The cart on my right, defended by George, was escaladed by three wolves,
+one of which was immediately disabled by a thrust of the vigorous old
+man's pike. A ball from my carbine settled another, and seeing George's
+hatchet raised over the head of the third I knew he wanted no further
+aid, and looked to see what was going on to my left. Two wolves had
+attacked the waggon which was defended by one of George's sons, who
+received the first of his foes with a lance thrust. But apparently no
+vital part was touched, and the wolf had broken the pike with his teeth;
+so that for a moment the man opposed to him had nothing but the pole
+wherewith to defend himself. The second wolf was scrambling along the
+cart, and on the point of attacking him, when I sprang from one waggon
+to another, and fired one of my pistols into the animal's ear. He fell
+dead beside his companion, who was rolling in the snow, and making
+violent efforts to tear the broken lance from his wound.
+
+Meantime Ivan was hard at work, and I heard a carbine or two pistol
+shots, which told me that our adversaries were as warmly received on the
+left as on the right of the line. An instant later four wolves again
+crossed the circle of light, but this time in full retreat; and at the
+same moment, to our no small astonishment, three others, that we had
+thought dead or mortally wounded, raised themselves up and followed
+their companions, leaving large tracks of blood behind them. Three
+carcasses remained upon the field of battle.
+
+"Load again, and quickly," cried George. "I know their ways; they will
+be back directly." And the old man pointed with his finger into the
+darkness. I listened, and heard distant howlings replying to the nearer
+ones. What we had as yet had was a mere skirmish. The general engagement
+was to come.
+
+"Look behind you!" cried a voice. I turned and saw two fiery eyes
+gleaming on the top of the snow wall in our rear. Before I could draw a
+trigger the wolf gave a leap, and falling upon one of the horses struck
+his fangs into its throat. Three men left their waggons.
+
+"There is but one wolf," cried George, "and one man is enough. Let the
+others remain at their posts."
+
+Two of the men resumed their places. The third crept upon his hands and
+knees among the horses who, in their terror, were kicking and plunging
+violently, and throwing themselves against the carts by which they were
+surrounded. The next instant I saw the gleam of a knife blade, and the
+wolf let go the horse, which reared up on its hind-legs, the blood
+streaming from its throat. A dark mass was rolling and struggling on the
+ground. It was the man and the wolf.
+
+At the end of a few seconds the man stood up. "David," said he to one of
+his comrades, "come and help me to carry away this carrion. The horses
+wont be quiet while it lies here."
+
+They dragged the wolf towards George's waggon, and then raising it up
+from the ground, the old man took it by the hind-legs, as though it had
+been a hare, and threw it outside the line of carts.
+
+"Well, Nicholas," said George to the successful combatant, "don't you
+take your place again."
+
+"No," replied the other; "I have enough as it is."
+
+"Are you wounded?" cried Louise, opening the door of the _télègue_.
+
+"I believe I have killed my last wolf," answered the poor fellow in a
+faint voice.
+
+I gave George my carbine, and hastened to the wounded man. A part of his
+jaw was torn away, and the blood flowed abundantly from a large wound in
+his neck. I for a moment feared that the carotid artery was opened, and
+scarcely knowing whether I did right or wrong, I seized a handful of
+snow and applied it to the wound. The sufferer uttered a cry and fainted
+away.
+
+"O God!" cried Louise, "have mercy upon him!"
+
+"To your posts," shouted George in a stentorian voice; "the wolves are
+upon us."
+
+I left the wounded man in Louise's care, and jumped upon the cart.
+
+I can give no details of the combat that followed. I had too much
+occupation myself to attend to what my companions were doing. We were
+attacked by at least twenty wolves at once. After discharging my two
+pistols, I armed myself with an axe that George gave me. The fight
+lasted nearly a quarter of an hour, and certainly the scene was one of
+the most terrible it is possible to imagine. At length, and just as I
+was splitting the skull of a wolf that hung on to one of the wheels of
+my waggon, a shout of victory resounded along our line, and again our
+enemies fled, but this time it was for good.
+
+Three of our men were wounded, besides Nicholas, who was still alive,
+but in a desperate state. We were obliged to shoot the horse that had
+been torn by the wolf.
+
+By daybreak, a passage was opened through the wall of snow, and we
+resumed our journey. The evening of the same day we reached a small
+village, where we found an inn, that, under any other circumstances,
+would have been pronounced abominable, but which appeared a palace after
+three such days as we had passed. The following morning we parted from
+our friends the carriers, leaving George five hundred rubles to divide
+among them.
+
+All now went well. Thanks to the imperial order with which we were
+provided, the best horses were always for us, and, when necessary,
+escorts of ten or twelve men galloped on either side of our sledge. The
+country was flat and the pace good, and exactly a week after leaving the
+Ural mountains we entered Tobolsk.
+
+We were dreadfully fatigued, but yet Louise would only remain long
+enough to take a bath; and at two in the morning we set out for the
+little town of Koslowo, which had been selected as the abode of twenty
+of the exiles, among whom was Alexis. On arriving, we hastened to the
+officer commanding there, and showing him the Emperor's order, which
+produced its usual effect, enquired after the Count. He was well, was
+the answer, and still at Koslowo.
+
+It had been agreed between Louise and myself that I should go and see
+him first, and inform him of her arrival. I asked the governor for a
+pass, which he gave me without hesitation, and a Cossack conducted me to
+a part of the town composed of some twenty houses enclosed within high
+palisades, and guarded by sentries. We stopped before a door, and my
+guide knocked. "Come in!" said a voice which I recognized as that of
+Alexis.
+
+When I opened the door, he was lying on his bed, dressed, and with a
+book on the floor near him. I stopped upon the threshold. He stared at
+me without speaking, and seemed hardly to believe his eyes.
+
+"Well," said I, "have you forgotten me?"
+
+At the sound of my voice, he sprang from his bed and threw his arms
+round me. But the next instant he started back. "Good heavens!"
+exclaimed he, "you are exiled, and I am probably the cause."
+
+"No, indeed," I replied, "I come here as an amateur." He smiled
+bitterly.
+
+"As an amateur! Into the heart of Siberia! Explain your meaning. But
+first--Louise--what of her?"
+
+"I have just now left her."
+
+"Just now? A month ago, you mean?"
+
+"Five minutes ago."
+
+"Good God! what do you mean?" cried Alexis, growing very pale.
+
+"That Louise has accompanied me, and is now here."
+
+"Oh woman! woman! Thy heart is ever the same," murmured Alexis, while
+tear after tear rolled down his cheek. He was then silent for a time,
+but his lips moved, and I doubt not in thanksgiving to God for such
+happiness.
+
+"Where is she?" he at length exclaimed.
+
+"At the governor's house."
+
+He rushed towards the door. "I am mad," said he, pausing, "I forget that
+I cannot leave my cage without permission. My dearest friend, bring her
+here, I beseech you! Or stay, this man will go." He spoke in Russian to
+the Cossack, who went out.
+
+In a few minutes, and before I could answer a tithe of the numerous
+questions Alexis asked me, the man returned, but alone.
+
+"Well?" said the Count, changing countenance.
+
+"The governor says you must be aware that the prisoners are not allowed
+to receive visits from women."
+
+The Count struck his forehead with his clenched hand, and fell back upon
+a chair. His features were almost convulsed by the violence of his
+emotions. At last he turned to the Cossack.
+
+"Beg the sergeant to come here." The soldier left the room.
+
+"Can any thing be more horrible?" cried Alexis. "She has come nine
+hundred leagues to see me; she is not a hundred yards from me, and we
+are forbidden to meet!"
+
+"There must surely be some blunder," said I; "an order misunderstood, or
+something of the kind."
+
+Alexis shook his head doubtingly. There was a wild look of despair in
+his large dark eyes that alarmed me. At this moment, the sergeant who
+had charge of the prisoners entered.
+
+"Sir," cried the Count with vehemence, "the woman I love has left St
+Petersburg to join me, and after a thousand dangers and hardships has
+arrived here. I am now told that I shall not be allowed to see her. It
+is doubtless a mistake?"
+
+"No, sir," replied the sergeant coolly. "You know very well that the
+prisoners are not permitted to see women."
+
+"But Prince Troubetskoy has that permission. Is it because he is a
+prince?"
+
+"No, sir, it is because the princess is his wife."
+
+"And if Louise were my wife, should I be allowed to see her?"
+
+"Undoubtedly, sir!"
+
+"Ha!" ejaculated the Count, as though a weight were removed from off his
+heart. "I should like to speak with the priest," said he to the
+sergeant, after a moment's pause.
+
+"He shall be sent for immediately," was the reply.
+
+"And now my friend," said Alexis, turning to me, and taking my hands in
+his, "you have been Louise's guardian and defender, will you for once
+act as her father?"
+
+The following morning at ten o'clock, Louise, accompanied by the
+governor and myself, and Alexis by Prince Troubetskoy and the other
+exiles, entered the little church of Koslowa by two different doors.
+Their first meeting was at the altar, and the first word they exchanged
+was the _yes_ that united them for ever.
+
+The Emperor by a private letter to the governor, of which Ivan was the
+bearer, had ordered that the Count should only be allowed to see Louise
+as his wife. It has been seen how willingly my friend obeyed, I should
+rather say anticipated, the Emperor's commands. And rich was his reward
+for thus promptly acknowledging the just claims of this devoted and very
+admirable woman. She was one of "nature's own nobility"--refined and
+graceful, intelligent and high-minded--and would have graced higher rank
+than that to which she was raised by the gratitude of Count Alexis
+W----.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+AMMALÁT BEK.
+
+A TRUE TALE OF THE CAUCASUS. FROM THE RUSSIAN OF MARLÍNSKI.
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+"Will you hold your tongue, little serpent?" said an old Tartar woman to
+her grandson, who, having awakened before daylight, was crying for want
+of something better to do. "Be quiet, or I will kick you into the
+street."
+
+This old woman was Ammalát's nurse: the hut in which she lived stood
+close to the tents of the Begs, and had been given to her by her
+foster-son, Ammalát. It was composed of two clean whitewashed rooms, the
+floor of both was strewed with coarse mats, (ghasil;) in niches close to
+each other, for the room was without windows, stood boxes bound with
+iron, and on them were arranged a feather-bed, blankets, and all the
+utensils. On the cornices, at half the height of the wall, were ranged
+porcelain cups for pillau, having tin covers in the form of helmets, and
+little plates hanging side by side on wires: the holes with which they
+were pierced showing that they served not for use, but for ornament. The
+face of the old woman was covered with wrinkles, and expressed a sort of
+malicious sorrow: the usual consequence of the lonely pleasureless life
+of a Mussulman woman. As a worthy representative of persons of her age
+and country, she never for a moment ceased scolding her grandson from
+under her blanket, and to grumble to herself. "Kess," (be quiet,) she
+cried at length, yet more angrily, "or I will give you to the ghaóuls,
+(devils!) Do you hear how they are scratching at the roof, and knocking
+at the door for you?"
+
+It was a stormy night; a thick rain pattering on the flat roof which
+served as a ceiling, and the roaring of the wind in the chimney,
+answered to her hoarse voice. The boy became quiet, and straining his
+eyes, hearkened in a fright. It really seemed as if some one was
+knocking at the door. The old woman became frightened in her turn: her
+inseparable companion, a dirty dog, lifted up his head from sleep, and
+began to bark in a most pitiful voice. But meanwhile the knocking at the
+door became louder, and an unknown voice cried sternly from without,
+"Atch kapini, akhirin akhirici!" (open the door for the end of ends.)
+The old woman turned pale. "Allah bismallah!" she exclaimed, now
+addressing heaven, then threatening the dog, and then quieting the
+crying child. "Sh, accursed beast! Hold your tongue, I say, kharamzáda,
+(good-for-nothing son of shame!) Who is there? What honest man will
+enter, when it is neither day nor dawn, into the house of a poor old
+woman? If you are Shaitán, go to neighbour Kitchkína. It has been long
+time to show her the road to hell! If you are a tchaóuth,
+(tax-gatherer,) who, to say the truth, is rather worse than Shaitán,
+then go about your business. My son-in-law is not at home; he serves as
+nóuker at Ammalát Bek's; and the Bek has long ago freed me from taxes;
+and as for treating idle travellers, don't expect from me even an egg,
+much less a duck. Is it in vain, then, that I suckled Ammalát?"
+
+"Will you open, you devil's distaff?" impatiently exclaimed the voice,
+"or I will not leave you a plank of this door for your coffin."
+
+The feeble doors shook on their hinges.
+
+"Enter, pray enter," said the old woman, undoing the iron hasp with a
+trembling hand. The door flew open, and there entered a man of a
+middling stature, and of a handsome but melancholy countenance. He was
+clad in the Circassian dress: the water trickled down his bóurka and
+bashlík.[22] Without any apologies, he threw it on the feather-bed, and
+began to untie the lopasti of his bashlík which half covered his
+face--Fatma, having in the mean time lighted a candle, stood before him
+with fear and trembling. The long-whiskered dog, with his tail between
+his legs, pressed himself into a corner, and the child, in a fright,
+climbed into the fire-place--which, used only for ornaments, was never
+heated.
+
+    [22] Bashlík--a bonnet worn in bad weather.
+
+"Well, Fatma, you are grown proud," said the unknown; "you do not
+recognize old friends."
+
+Fatma gazed at the new-comer's features, and her heart grew light within
+her. She recognized Sultan Akhmet Khan, who had ridden in one night from
+Kiafir Kounik to Bouináki.
+
+"May the sand fill my eyes that did not recognize their old master!" she
+replied, respectfully crossing her arms on her breast. "To say truth,
+they are blinded by tears, for her country--for Avár! Forgive an old
+woman, Khan!"
+
+"What old age is yours, Fatma? I remember you a little girl, when I
+myself could hardly reach the young crows from their nests."
+
+"A strange land makes every one old, Khan. In my native mountains I
+should still have been fresh as an apple, and here am I like a snowball
+fallen from the hill into the valley. Pray come hither, Khan, here it is
+more comfortable. What shall I entertain my precious guest with? Is
+there nothing the Khan's soul can wish for?"
+
+"The Khan's soul wishes that you should entertain him with your
+goodwill."
+
+"I am at your will; speak, command!"
+
+"Listen to me, Fatma! I have no time to waste in words. This is why I am
+come here: render me a service with your tongue, and you shall have
+wherewithal to comfort your old teeth. I will make you a present of ten
+sheep; I will dress you in silk from top to toe."
+
+"Ten sheep and a gown!--a silk gown! O gracious Aga! O kind Khan! I have
+not seen such a lord here since the accursed Tartars carried me away,
+and made me marry a hateful ... I am ready to do every thing, Khan, that
+you wish. Cut my ears off even, if you will!"
+
+"What would be the good of that? They must be kept sharp. This is the
+business. Ammalát will come to you to-day with the Colonel. The Shamkhál
+of Tárki will arrive also. This Colonel has attached your young Bek to
+him by witchcraft; and having taught him to eat swine's flesh, wants to
+make a Christian of him: from which Mahomet preserve him!"
+
+The old woman spat around her, and lifted her eyes to heaven.
+
+"To save Ammalát, we must make him quarrel with the Colonel. For this
+purpose you must go to him, throw yourself at his feet, and fall
+a-weeping as if at a funeral. As to tears, you will have no need to go
+and borrow them of your neighbours. Swear like a shopkeeper of Derbénd;
+remember that each oath of yours will bring you a dozen sheep; and at
+last tell him that you have heard a conversation between the Colonel and
+the Shamkhál: that the Shamkhál complained of his sending back his
+daughter: that he hates him out of fear that he should take possession
+of the crown of his Shamkhalát: that he implored the Colonel to allow
+him to kill him in an ambuscade, or to poison him in his food; but that
+the other consented only to send him to Siberia, beyond the end of the
+world. In one word, invent and describe every thing cleverly. You were
+formerly famous for your tales. Do not eat dirt now. And, above all,
+insist that the Colonel, who is going on a furlough, will take him with
+him to Georgieffsk, to separate him from his kinsmen and faithful
+nóukers; and from thence will dispatch him in chains to the devil."
+
+Sultan Akhmet added to this all the particulars necessary to give the
+story the most probable form; and once or twice instructed the old woman
+how to introduce them more skilfully.
+
+"Well, recollect every thing accurately, Fatma," said he, putting on his
+bóurka; "forget not, likewise, with whom you have to do."
+
+"Vallah, billah! let me have ashes instead of salt; may a beggar's
+tchóurek close my eyes; may" ...
+
+"Do not feed the Shaitáns with your oaths; but serve me with your words.
+I know that Ammalát trusts you completely; and if, for his good, you
+will arrange this--he will come over to me, and bring you with him. You
+shall live, singing, under my wing. But I repeat, if, by chance or on
+purpose, you betray me, or injure me by your gossiping, I will make of
+your old flesh a kibab for the Shaitáns!"
+
+"Be easy, Khan! They have nothing to do either for me or with me. I will
+keep the secret like the grave, and I will _put my sarótchka_[23] on
+Ammalát."
+
+    [23] Give him her feelings--a Tartar phrase.
+
+"Well, be it so, old woman. Here is a golden seal for your lips. Take
+pains!"
+
+"_Bathóusta, ghez-óusta_!"[24] exclaimed the old woman, seizing the
+ducat with greediness, and kissing the Khan's hand for his present. The
+Sultan Akhmet Khan looked contemptuously at the base creature, whilst he
+quitted the sákla.
+
+    [24] Willingly, if you please? Literally, "on my head, on my
+    eyes."
+
+"Reptile!" he grumbled to himself, "for a sheep, for a piece of cloth of
+gold, thou wouldst be ready to sell thy daughter's body, thy son's soul,
+and thy foster-son's happiness!"
+
+He did not reflect upon what name he deserved himself, entangling his
+friend in deceit, and hiring such vile creatures for low slander and for
+villanous intentions.
+
+
+_Fragment of a Letter from Colonel Verkhóffsky to his Betrothed_.
+
+Camp near the Village of Kiafir Koumík, August.
+
+... Ammalát loves, and how he loves! Never, not even in the hottest fire
+of my youth, did my love rise to such a frenzy. I burned, like a censer
+lighted by a sunbeam; he flames, like a ship set on fire by lightning on
+the stormy sea. With you, my Maria, I have read more than once
+Shakspeare's Othello; and only the frantic Othello can give an idea of
+the tropical passion of Ammalát. He loves to speak long and often of his
+Seltanetta, and I love to hear his volcanic eloquence. At times it is a
+turbid cataract thrown out by a profound abyss--at times a fiery
+fountain of the naphtha of Bakou. What stars his eyes scatter at that
+moment--what light plays on his cheeks--how handsome he is! There is
+nothing ideal in him: but then the earthly is grand, is captivating. I
+myself, carried away and deeply moved, receive on my breast the youth
+fainting from rapture: he breathes long, with slow sighs, and then
+casting down his eyes, lowering his head as if ashamed to look at the
+light--not only on me--presses my hand, and walks away with an uncertain
+step; and after that one cannot extract a word from him for the rest of
+the day.
+
+Since the time of his return from Khounzákh, he is become still more
+melancholy than before; particularly the last few days. He hides the
+grandest, the noblest feeling which brings man near to divinity, as
+carefully as if it were a shameful weakness or a dreadful crime. He
+imploringly asked me to let him go once more to Khounzákh, to sigh at
+the feet of his fair one; and I refused him--refused him for his own
+good. I wrote long ago about my favourite to Alexéi Petróvitch, and he
+desired me to bring him with me to the waters, where he will be himself.
+He wishes to give him some message to Sultan Akhmet Khan, which will
+bring undoubted advantage to him and to Ammalát. Oh, how happy I shall
+be in his happiness! To me, to me, he will owe the bliss of his
+life--not only empty life. I will force him on his knees before you, and
+will make him say--"Adore her as a deity!" If my heart were not filled
+with love to Maria, thou wouldst not take possession of Seltanetta.
+Yesterday I received an express from the commander-in-chief--a
+noble-minded man! He gives wings to happy news. All is arranged; my
+darling, I go to meet you at the waters. I shall only lead the regiment
+to Derbénd--and then to the saddle! I shall know neither fatigue by day
+nor drowsiness by night, till I repose myself in your embrace. Oh, who
+will give me wings to fly to you! Who will give me strength to bear
+my--_our_--bliss! ... I, in delicious agitation, pressed my bosom, that
+my heart might not burst forth. For a long time I could not sleep:
+imagination painted our meeting in a thousand forms, and in the
+intervals appeared the most trivial but delightful cares, about wedding
+trifles, dresses, presents. You will be clad in my favourite colour,
+green. ... Is it not true, my soul? My fancies kept me from sleeping,
+like a strong perfume of roses; but the sweeter, the more brilliant was
+my sleep. I saw you by the light of dawn, and every time different,
+every time more lovely than before. My dreams were twined together like
+a wreath of flowers; but no! there was no connexion between them. They
+were wonderful phantoms, falling like colours from the kaleidoscope, and
+as impossible to retain. Notwithstanding all this, I awoke sorrowful
+this morning; my awakening took from my childish soul its favourite
+toy.... I went into Ammalát's tent; he was still asleep. His face was
+pale and angry--let him be angry with me! I taste beforehand the
+gratitude of the ardent youth. I, like fate, am preparing his happiness
+in secret....
+
+To-day I bid adieu to these mountains for long--I hope for ever. I am
+very glad to quit Asia, the cradle of mankind, in which the
+understanding has remained till now in its swaddling-clothes.
+Astonishing is the immobility of Asiatic life, in the course of so many
+centuries. Against Asia all attempts of improvement and civilization
+have broken like waves; it seems not to belong to time, but to place.
+The Indian Brahmin, the Chinese Mandarin, the Persian Bek, the mountain
+Ouzdén, are unchanged--the same as they were two thousand years ago. A
+sad truth! They represent, in themselves, a monotonous though varied, a
+lively though soulless nature. The sword and the lash of the conqueror
+have left on them, as on the water, no trace. Books, and the examples of
+missionaries, have produced on them no influence. Sometimes, however,
+they have made an exchange of vices; but never have they learned the
+thoughts or the virtues of others. I quit the land of fruit to transport
+myself to the land of labour--that great inventor of every thing useful,
+that suggester of every thing great, that awakener of the soul of man,
+which has fallen asleep here, and sleeps in weakness on the bosom of the
+seducer--nature.
+
+And truly, how seducing is nature here! Having ridden up the high
+mountain to the left of Kiafir Koumík, I gazed with delight on the
+gradually lighted summit of the Caucasus. I looked, and could not look
+enough at them. What a wondrous beauty decks them as with a crown!
+Another thin veil, woven of light and shadow, lay on the lower hill, but
+the distant snows basked in the sky; and the sky, like a caressing
+mother, bending over them its immeasurable bosom, fed them with the milk
+of the clouds, carefully enfolding them with its swathe of mist, and
+refreshing them with its gently-breathing wind. Oh, with what a flight
+would my soul soar there, where a holy cold has stretched itself like a
+boundary between the earthly and the heavenly! My heart prays and
+thirsts to breathe the air of the inhabitants of the sky. I feel a wish
+to wander over the snows, on which man has never printed the seal of his
+blood-stained footsteps--which have never been darkened by the eagle's
+shadow--which the thunder has never reached--which the war spirits have
+never polluted; and on the ever-young summits where time, the
+continuation of eternity, has left no trace.
+
+Time! A strange thought has come into my head. How many fractional names
+has the weak sense of man invented for the description of an infinitely
+small particle of time out of the infinitely large circle of eternity!
+Years, months, days, hours, minutes! God has nothing of all this: he has
+not even evening nor morrow. With him all this has united itself into
+one eternal _now_!... Shall we ever behold this ocean in which we have
+hitherto been drowning? But I ask, to what end will all this serve man?
+Can it be for the satisfaction of an idle curiosity? No! the knowledge
+of truth, i.e. the All-knowing Goodness, does the soul of the reflecting
+man thirst after. It wishes to draw a full cup from the fountain of
+light which falls on it from time to time in a fine dew!
+
+And I shall imbibe it. The secret fear of death melts like snow before
+the beam of such a hope. I shall draw from it. My real love for my
+fellow-creatures is a security for it. The leaden ways of error will
+fall asunder before a few tears of repentance, and I shall lay down my
+heart as an expiating sacrifice before the judgment-seat which will have
+no terrors for me!
+
+It is wonderful, my beloved--hardly do I look at the mountains, the sea,
+the sky, ... but a solemn but inexpressibly sweet feeling o'er-burthens
+and expands my heart. Thoughts of you mingle with it; and, as in dreams,
+your form flits before me. Is this a foretaste of earthly bliss, which I
+have only known by name, or a foreboding of ... etern ...? O dearest,
+best, angelic soul, one look of yours and I am cured of dreaming! How
+happy am I that I can now say with assurance--_au revoir_!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+The poison of calumny burnt into the soul of Ammalát. By the
+instructions of the Khan, his nurse Fatma related, with every appearance
+of disinterested affection, the story which had been arranged
+beforehand, on the same evening that he came with Verkhóffsky to
+Bouináki, where they were met by the Shamkhál in obedience to the
+Colonel's request. The envenomed shaft struck deep; now doubt would have
+been welcomed by Ammalát, but conviction, it seemed, cast over all his
+former ties of friendship and blood, a bright but funereal light. In a
+frenzy of passion, he burned to drown his revenge in the blood of both;
+but respect for the rites of hospitality quenched his thirst for
+vengeance. He deferred his intention for a time--but could he forget it?
+Every moment of delay fell, like a drop of melted copper, on his heart.
+Memory, conviction, jealousy, love, tore his heart by turns; and this
+state of feeling was to him so new, so strange, so dreadful, that he
+fell into a species of delirium, the more dreadful that he was obliged
+to conceal his internal sensations from his former friend. Thus passed
+twenty-four hours; the detachment pitched their tents near the village
+Bougdén, the gate of which, built in a ravine, and which is closed at
+the will of the inhabitants of Bougdén, serves as a passage to Akóush.
+The following was written by Ammalát, to divert the agony of his soul
+while preparing itself for the commission of a black crime.... ----
+
+MIDNIGHT.
+
+... Why, O Sultan Akhmet! have you cast lightning into my breast? A
+brother's friendship, a brother's treachery, and a brother's murder!...
+What dreadful extremes! And between them there is but a step, but a
+twinkling of the eye. I cannot sleep, I can think of nothing else. I am
+chained to this thought, like a criminal to his stake. A bloody sea
+swells, surges, and roars around me, and above gleams, instead of stars,
+the lightning-flash. My soul is like a naked peak, where only birds of
+prey and evil spirits assemble, to share their plunder, or to prepare
+misfortune. Verkhóffsky, Verkhóffsky! what have I done to you? Why would
+you tear from heaven the star of my liberty? Is it because I loved you
+so tenderly? And why do you approach me stealthily and thief-like? why
+do you slander--why do you betray me, by hypocrisy? You should say
+plainly, "I wish your life," and I would give it freely, without a
+murmur; would have laid it down a sacrifice like the son of Ibrahim,
+(Abraham!) I would have forgiven you, if you had but attempted my life,
+but to sell my freedom, to steal my Seltanetta from me, by burying me
+alive! Villain--and you still live!
+
+But sometimes like a dove, whose wings have been scorched in the smoke
+of a fire, appears thy form to me, Seltanetta. How is it, then, that I
+am no longer gay when I dream of you, as of old?...
+
+They would part us, my love--they would give you to another, to marry me
+on the grave-stone. But I will go to you--I will go to you over a bloody
+carpet--I will fulfil a bloody promise, in order to possess you. Invite
+not only your maiden friends to your marriage feast--invite also the
+vultures and the ravens, they shall all be regaled abundantly. I will
+pay a rich dower. On the pillow of my bride I will lay a heart which
+once I reckoned more precious than the throne-cushion[25] of the
+Persian Padishah. Wonderful destiny!... Innocent girl!... You will be
+the cause of an unheard of deed. Kindest of beings, for you friends will
+tear each other like ferocious beasts--for you and through you--and is
+it really for you alone--with ferocity--with ferocity only! Verkhóffsky
+said, that to kill an enemy by stealth, is base and cowardly. But if I
+cannot do it otherwise? But can he be believed?... Hypocrite! He wished
+to entangle me beforehand; not my hands alone, but even my conscience.
+It was in vain.
+
+    [25] This cushion is embroidered with jewels, and is invaluable.
+
+... I have loaded my rifle. What a fine round barrel--what admirable
+ornaments! The rifle I received from my father--my father got it from my
+grandfather. I have heard of many celebrated shots made with it--and not
+one, not one was fired by stealth.... Always in battle--always before
+the whole army, it sent death; but wrong, but treachery, but you,
+Seltanetta!... My hand will not tremble to level a shot at him, whose
+name it is afraid even to write. One loading, one fire, and all is
+over!...
+
+One loading! How light, but how heavy will be each grain of powder in
+the scales of Allah! How far--how immeasurably will this load bear a
+man's soul? Accursed thou, the inventor of the grey dust, which delivers
+a hero into the hand of the vilest craven, which kills from afar the
+foe, who, with a glance, could have disarmed the hand raised against
+him! So, this shot will tear asunder all my former ties, but it will
+clear a road to new ones. In the cool Caucasus--on the bosom of
+Seltanetta, will my faded heart be refreshed. Like a swallow will I
+build myself a nest in a stranger land--like a swallow, the spring shall
+be my country. I will cast from me old sorrows, as the bird sheds its
+feathers.... But the reproaches of conscience, can they fade?... The
+meanest Lézghin, when he sees in battle the man with whom he has shared
+bread and salt, turns aside his horse, and fires his gun in the air. It
+is true he deceives me; but have I been the less happy? Oh, if with
+these tears I could weep away my grief--drown with them the thirst for
+vengeance--buy with them Seltenetta! Why comes on the dawn of day so
+slowly? Let it come! I will look, without blushing, at the sun--without
+turning pale, into the eyes of Verkhóffsky. My heart is like iron--it is
+locked against mercy; treachery calls for treachery ... I am resolved
+... Quick, quick!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Thus incoherently, thus wildly wrote Ammalát, in order to cheat time and
+to divert his soul. Thus he tried to cheat himself, rousing himself to
+revenge, whilst the real cause of his bloody intentions, viz. the desire
+of possessing Seltanetta, broke through every word.
+
+In order to embolden himself for his crime, he drank deeply of wine, and
+maddened, threw himself, with his gun, into the Colonel's tent; but
+perceiving sentinels at the door, he changed his intention. The natural
+feeling of self-preservation did not abandon him, even in his madness.
+Ammalát put off till the morning the consummation of the murder; but he
+could neither sleep nor distract his thoughts ... and re-entering his
+tent, he seized Saphir Ali by the throat, who was lying fast asleep, and
+shaking him roughly: "Get up, sleepy rascal!"; he cried to him, "it is
+already dawn."
+
+Saphir Ali raised his head in a discontented mood, and yawning,
+answered: "I see only the dawn of wine on your cheek--good-night,
+Ammalát!"
+
+"Up, I tell you! The dead must quit their graves to meet the new-comer
+whom I have promised to send to keep them company!"
+
+"Why, brother, am I dead?... Even the _forty Imaums_[26] may get up from
+the burial-ground of Derbénd--but I will sleep."
+
+    [26] The Mussulmans believe, that in the northern burial-ground
+    of Derbénd, are buried the forty first true believers, who were
+    martyred by the idolaters.
+
+"But you love to drink, Giaour, and you must drink with me."
+
+"That is quite another affair. Pour fuller, _Allah verdi_![27] I am
+always ready to drink and to make love."
+
+    [27] God gave--Much good may it do you.
+
+"And to kill an enemy!... Come, some more! A health to the devil!--who
+changes friends into mortal enemies."
+
+"So be it! Here goes, then, to the devil's health! The poor fellow wants
+health. We will drive him into a consumption out of spite, because he
+cannot make us quarrel!"
+
+"True, true, he is always ready for mischief. If he had seen Verkhóffsky
+and me, he would have thrown down his cards. But you, too, will not, I
+hope, part from me?"
+
+"Ammalát, I have not only quaffed wine from the same bottle with thee,
+but I have drained milk from the same breast. I am thine, even if you
+take it into your head to build yourself, like a vulture, a nest on the
+rock of Khounzákh.... However, my advice would be"----
+
+"No advice, Saphir Ali--no remonstrances.... It is now too late!"
+
+"They would be drowned like flies in wine. But it is now time to sleep."
+
+"Sleep, say you! Sleep, to me! No, I have bidden farewell to sleep. It
+is time for me to awaken. Have you examined the gun, Saphir Ali--is the
+flint good? Has not the powder on the shelf become damp with blood?"
+
+"What is the matter with you, Ammalát? What leaden secret weighs upon
+your heart? Your face is terrible--your speech is yet more frightful."
+
+"And my deeds shall be yet more dreadful. Is it not true, Saphir Ali, my
+Seltanetta--is she not beautiful? Observe! _my_ Seltanetta. Is it
+possible that these are the wedding songs, Saphir Ali? Yes, yes, yes! I
+understand. 'Tis the jackals demanding their prey. Spirits and wild
+beasts, be patient awhile--I will content you! Ho, wine--more wine! more
+blood!... I tell you!"
+
+Ammalát fell on his bed in a drunken insensibility. Foam oozed out of
+his mouth: convulsive movements shook his whole body. He uttered
+unintelligible words, mingled with groans. Saphir Ali carefully
+undressed him, laid him in the bed, enveloped him in the coverings, and
+sat up the rest of the night watching over his foster-brother, in vain
+seeking in his head the explanation of the, to him, enigmatical speech
+and conduct of Ammalát.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+In the morning, before the departure of the detachment, the captain on
+duty came to Colonel Verkhóffsky to present his report, and to receive
+the orders for the day. After the customary exchange of words, he said,
+with an alarmed countenance: "Colonel, I have to communicate a most
+important thing: our yesterday's signal-man, a soldier of my company,
+Hamitóff, heard the conversation of Ammalát Bek with his nurse in
+Bouináki. He is a Tartar of Kazán, and understands pretty well the
+dialect of this country. As far as he could hear and understand, the
+nurse assured the Bek that you, with the Shamkhál, are preparing to send
+him off to the galleys. Ammalát flew into a passion; said, that he knew
+all this from the Khan, and swore to kill you with his own hand. Not
+trusting his ears, however, the soldier determined to tell you nothing,
+but to watch all his steps. Yesterday evening, he says, Ammalát spoke
+with a horseman arrived from afar. On taking leave, he said: 'Tell the
+Khan, that to-morrow, by sunrise, all will be over. Let him be ready: I
+shall soon see him.'"
+
+"And is this all, Captain?" demanded Verkhóffsky.
+
+"I have nothing else to say; but I am much alarmed. I have passed my
+life among the Tartars, Colonel, and I am convinced that it is madness
+to trust the best of them. A born brother is not safe, while resting in
+the arms of a brother."
+
+"This is envy, Captain. Cain has left it as an eternal heirloom to all
+men, and particularly to the neighbours of Ararat. Besides, there is no
+difference between Ammalát and myself. I have done nothing for him but
+good. I intend nothing but kindness. Be easy, Captain: I believe the
+zeal of the signal-man, but I distrust his knowledge of the Tartar
+language. Some similarity of words has led him into error, and when once
+suspicion was awakened in his mind, every thing seemed an additional
+proof. Really, I am not so important a person that Khans and Beks should
+lay plots for my life. I know Ammalát well. He is passionate, but he has
+a good heart, and could not conceal a bad intention two hours together."
+
+"Take care you be not mistaken, Colonel. Ammalát is, after all, an
+Asiatic; and that name is always a proof. Here words hide thoughts--the
+face, the soul. Look at one of them--he seems innocence itself; have any
+thing to do with him, he is an abyss of meanness, treachery and
+ferocity."
+
+"You have a full right to think so, my dear Captain, from experience:
+Sultan Akhmet Khan gave you a memorable proof in Ammalát's house, at
+Bouináki. But for me, I have no reason to suspect any mischief in
+Ammalát; and besides, what would he gain by murdering me? On me depends
+all his hope, all his happiness. He is wild, perhaps, but not a madman.
+Besides, you see the sun is high; and I am alive and well. I am
+grateful, Captain, for the interest you have taken in me; but I entreat
+you, do not suspect Ammalát: and, knowing how much I prize an old
+friendship, be assured that I shall as highly value a new one. Order
+them to beat the march."
+
+The captain departed, gloomily shaking his head. The drums rattled, and
+the detachment, in marching order, moved on from its night-quarters. The
+morning was fresh and bright; the road lay through the green ramparts of
+the mountains of the Caucasus, crowned here and there with forests and
+underwood. The detachment, like a stream of steel, flowed now down the
+hills, and now crept up the declivities. The mist still rested on the
+valleys, and Verkhóffsky, riding to the elevated points, looked round
+frequently to feast his eyes with the ever-changing landscape.
+Descending the mountain, the detachment seemed to be swallowed up in the
+steaming river, like the army of Pharaoh, and anon, with a dull sound,
+the bayonets glittered again from the misty waves. Then appeared heads,
+shoulders; the men seemed to grow up, and then leaping up the rocks,
+were lost anew in the fog.
+
+Ammalát, pale and stern, rode next to the sharpshooters. It appeared
+that he wished to deafen his conscience in the noise of the drums. The
+colonel called him to his side, and said kindly: "You must be scolded,
+Ammalát; you have begun to follow too closely the precepts of Hafiz:
+recollect that wine is a good servant but a bad master: but a headache
+and the bile expressed in your face, will surely do you more good than a
+lecture. You have passed a stormy night, Ammalát."
+
+"A stormy, a torturing night, Colonel! God grant that such a night be
+the last! I dreamed dreadful things."
+
+"Aha, my friend! You see what it is to transgress Mahomet's
+commandments. The conscience of the true believer torments you like a
+shadow."
+
+"It is well for him whose conscience quarrels only with wine."
+
+"That depends on what sort of conscience it is. And fortunately it is as
+much subject to prejudice as reason itself. Every country, every nation,
+has its own conscience; and the voice of immortal, unchangeable truth is
+silent before a would-be truth. Thus it is, thus it ever was. What
+yesterday we counted a mortal sin, to-morrow we adore. What on this bank
+is just and meritorious, on the other side of a brook leads to the
+halter."
+
+"I think, however, that treachery was never, and in no place, considered
+a virtue."
+
+"I will not say even that. We live at a time when success alone
+determines whether the means employed were good or bad; where the most
+conscientious persons have invented for themselves a very convenient
+rule--that the end sanctifies the means."
+
+Ammalát, lost in his reflections, repeated these words, because he
+approved of them. The poison of selfishness began anew to work within
+him; and the words of Verkhóffsky, which he looked on as treacherous,
+poured like oil on flame. "Hypocrite!" said he to himself; "your hour is
+at hand!"
+
+And meanwhile Verkhóffsky, like a victim suspecting nothing, rode side
+by side with his executioner. At about eight versts from Kieként the
+Caspian Sea discovered itself to them from a hill; and the thoughts of
+Verkhóffsky soared above it like a swan. "Mirror of eternity!" said he,
+sinking into a reverie, "why does not your aspect gladden me to-day? As
+of old, the sun plays on you; and your bosom breathes, as sublimely as
+of old, eternal life; but that life is not of this world. You seem to me
+to-day a mournful waste; not a boat, not a sail, not a sign of man's
+existence. All is desolate!
+
+"Yes, Ammalát," he added; "I am tired of your ever-angry, lonely sea--of
+your country peopled with diseases, and with men who are worse than all
+maladies in the world. I am weary of the war itself, of invisible
+enemies, of the service shared with unfriendly comrades. It is not
+enough that they impeded me in my proceedings--they spoiled what I
+ordered to be done--they found fault with what I intended, and
+misrepresented what I had effected. I have served my sovereign with
+truth and fidelity, my country and this region with disinterestedness; I
+have renounced, a voluntary exile, all the conveniences of life, all the
+charms of society; have condemned my intellect to torpidity, being
+deprived of books; have buried my heart in solitude; have abandoned my
+beloved; and what is my reward? When will that moment arrive, when I
+throw myself into the arms of my bride; when I, wearied with service,
+shall repose myself under my native cottage-roof, on the green shore of
+the Dniéper; when a peaceful villager, and a tender father, surrounded
+by my relations and my good peasants, I shall fear only the hail of
+heaven for my harvests; fight only with wild-beasts? My heart yearns for
+that hour. My leave of absence is in my pocket, my dismission is
+promised me.... Oh, that I could fly to my bride!... And in five days I
+shall for certain be in Geórgieffsk. Yet it seems as if the sands of
+Libya, a sea of ice----as if the eternity of the grave itself, separated
+us!"
+
+Verkhóffsky was silent. Tears ran down his cheeks; his horse, feeling
+the slackened rein, quickened his pace--and thus the pair alone,
+advanced to some distance from the detachment.... It seemed as if
+destiny itself surrendered the colonel into the hands of the assassin.
+
+But pity penetrated the heart of Ammalát, maddened as he was, and
+burning with wine--like a sunbeam falling in a robber's cave. He beheld
+the sorrow, the tears of the man whom he had so long considered as his
+friend, and hesitated. "No!" he thought, "to such a degree as that it is
+impossible to dissimulate...."
+
+At this moment Verkhóffsky started from his reverie, lifted up his head,
+and spoke to Ammalát. "Prepare yourself: you are to go with me!"
+
+Unlucky words! Every thing good, every thing noble, which had arisen
+anew in Ammalát's breast, was crushed in a moment by them. The thought
+of treachery--of exile--rushed like a torrent through his whole being
+"With you!" he replied, with a malicious smile--"with you, and into
+Russia?--undoubtedly: if you go yourself!" and in a passion of rage he
+urged his horse into a gallop, in order to have time to prepare his
+arms; suddenly turned back to meet him; flew by him, and began to ride
+rapidly in a circle around him. At each stride of his horse, the flame
+of rage burned more fiercely within him: it seemed as if the wind, as it
+whistled past him, kept whispering "Kill, kill! he is your enemy.
+Remember Seltanetta!" He brought his rifle forward from his shoulder,
+cocked it, and encouraging himself with a cry, he galloped with
+blood-thirsty decision to his doomed victim. Verkhóffsky, meanwhile, not
+cherishing the least suspicion, looked quietly at Ammalát as he galloped
+round, thinking that he was preparing, after the Asiatic manner, for the
+djigítering (equestrian exercises.)
+
+"Fire at your mark, Ammalát Bek!" he exclaimed to the murderer who was
+rushing towards him.
+
+"What mark can be better than the breast of a foe?" answered Ammalát
+Bek, riding up, and at ten paces' distance pulling the trigger!... the
+gun went off: and slowly, without a groan, the colonel sank out of his
+saddle. His affrighted horse, with expanded nostrils and streaming mane,
+smelt at his rider, in whose hands the reins that had so lately guided
+him began to stiffen: and the steed of Ammalát stopped abruptly before
+the corpse, setting his legs straight before him. Ammalát leaped from
+his horse, and, resting his arms on his yet smoking gun, looked for
+several moments steadfastly in the face of the murdered man; as if
+endeavouring to prove to himself that he feared not that fixed gaze,
+those fast-dimming eyes--that fast-freezing blood. It would be difficult
+to understand--'twere impossible to express the thoughts which rolled
+like a whirlwind through his breast. Saphir Ali rode up at full gallop;
+and fell on his knees by the colonel--he laid his ear to the dying man's
+mouth--he breathed not--he felt his heart--it beat not! "He is dead!"
+cried Saphir Ali in a tone of despair. "Dead! quite dead!"
+
+"So much the better ... My happiness is complete!..." exclaimed Ammalát,
+as if awakening from a dream.
+
+"Happiness for you--for you, fratricide! If you meet happiness, the
+world will take to Shaitán instead of Allah."
+
+"Saphir Ali, remember that you are not my judge!" said Ammalát fiercely,
+as he put his foot into the stirrup: "follow me!"
+
+"May remorse alone accompany you, like your shadow! From this hour I am
+not your companion."
+
+Pierced to the very bottom of his heart by this reproach from a man to
+whom he had been from infancy bound by the closest ties, Ammalát uttered
+not a word, but pointing to his astounded nóukers in the ravine, and
+perceiving the pursuit begun, dashed into the mountains like an arrow.
+
+The alarm soon spread through the advanced guard of the detachment: the
+officers, who were in front, and the Don Kazáks, flew to the shot, but
+they came too late. They could neither prevent the crime nor seize the
+flying assassin. In five minutes the bloody corpse of the treacherously
+murdered colonel was surrounded by a crowd of officers and soldiers.
+Doubt, pity, indignation were written on all their faces. The
+grenadiers, leaning on their bayonets, shed tears, and sobbed aloud:
+unflattering drops poured above the brave and much-loved chief.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+For three days and nights did Ammalát wander about the mountains of
+Daghestán. As a Mussulman, even in the villages subject to the Russian
+dominion, he was safe from all pursuit among people for whom robbery and
+murder are virtues. But could he escape from the consciousness of his
+own crime? Neither his heart nor his reason could find an excuse for his
+bloody deed; and the image of Verkhóffsky falling from his horse,
+presented itself unceasingly before his eyes, though closed. This
+recollection infuriated him yet more, yet more tortured him. The
+Asiatic, once turned aside from the right road, travels rapidly over the
+career of villany. The Khan's command, not to appear before him but with
+the head of Verkhóffsky, rang in his ears. Without daring to communicate
+such an intention to his nóukers, and still less relying on their
+bravery, he resolved upon travelling to Derbénd alone. A darksome and
+gloomy night had already expanded it ebon wings over the mountains of
+Caucasus which skirt the sea, when Ammalát passed the ravine which lay
+behind the fortress of Narín-Káli, which served as a citadel to Derbénd.
+He mounted to the ruined turret, which once formed the limit to the
+Caucasian war that had extended through the mountains, and tied his
+horse at the foot of that hill from which Yermóloff had thundered on
+Derbénd when but a lieutenant of artillery. Knowing where the Russian
+officers were buried, he came out upon the upper burial-ground. But how
+to find the new-made grave of Verkhóffsky in the darkness of the night?
+Not a star glimmered in the sky: the clouds lay stretched on the hills,
+the mountain-wind, like a night-bird, lashed the forest with its wing:
+an involuntary shudder crept over Ammalát, in the midst of the region of
+the dead, whose repose he dared to interrupt. He listens: the sea
+murmurs hoarsely against the rocks, tumbling back from them into the
+deep with a sullen sound. The prolonged "slóushai" of the sentinels
+floated round the walls of the town, and when it was silent there rose
+the yell of the jackals; and at last all again was still--every sound
+mingling and losing itself in the rushing of the wind. How often had he
+not sat awake on such nights with Verkhóffsky--and where is he now! And
+who plunged him into the grave! And the murderer was now come to behead
+the corpse of his former friend--to do sacrilege to his remains--like a
+grave-robber to plunder the tomb--to dispute with the jackal his prey!
+
+"Human feeling!" cried Ammalát, as he wiped the cold sweat from his
+forehead, "why visitest thou a heart which has torn itself from
+humanity? Away, away! Is it for me to fear to take off the head of a
+dead man, whom I have robbed of life! For him 'twill be no loss--to me a
+treasure. Dust is insensible!"
+
+Ammalát struck a light with a trembling hand, blew up into a flame some
+dry bourián, (a dry grass of South Russia,) and went with it to search
+for the new-made grave. The loosened earth, and a large cross, pointed
+out the last habitation of the colonel. He tore up the cross, and began
+to dig up the mound with it; he broke through the arch of brickwork,
+which had not yet become hardened, and finally tore the lead from the
+coffin. The bourián, flaring up, threw an uncertain bloody-bluish tinge
+on all around. Leaning over the dead, the murderer, paler than the
+corpse itself, gazed unmovingly on his work; he forgot why he had
+come--he turned away his head from the reek of rottenness--his gorge
+rose within him when he saw the bloody-headed worms that crawled from
+under the clothes. Interrupted in their loathsome work, they, scared by
+the light, crept into a mass, and hid themselves beneath each other. At
+length, steeling himself to the deed, he brandished his dagger, and each
+time his erring hand missed its aim. Nor revenge, nor ambition, nor
+love--in a word, not one of those passions which had urged him to the
+frenzied crime, now encouraged him to the nameless horror. Turning away
+his head, in a sort of insensibility he began to hew at the neck of
+Verkhóffsky--at the fifth blow the head parted from the trunk.
+Shuddering with disgust, he threw it into a bag which he had prepared,
+and hastened from the grave. Hitherto he had remained master of himself;
+but when, with his dreadful treasure, he was scrambling up, when the
+stones crumbling noisily under his feet, and he, covered with sand, fell
+backwards on Verkhóffsky's corpse, then presence of mind left the
+sacrilegious. It seemed as if a flame had seized him, and spirits of
+hell, dancing and grinning, had surrounded him. With a heavy groan he
+tore himself away, crawled half senseless out of the suffocating grave,
+and hurried off, dreading to look back. Leaping on his horse, he urged
+it on, over rocks and ravines, and each bush that caught his dress
+seemed to him the hand of a corpse; the cracking of every branch, the
+shriek of every jackal, sounded like the cry of his twice-murdered
+friend.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Wherever Ammalát passed, he encountered armed bands of Akoushlínetzes
+and Avarétzes, Tchetchenétzes just arrived, and robbers of the Tartar
+villages subject to Russia. They were all hurrying to the trysting-place
+near the border-limits; while the Beks, Ouzdéns, and petty princes, were
+assembling at Khourzákh, for a council with Akhmet Khan, under the
+leading, and by the invitation of whom, they were preparing to fall upon
+Tárki. The present was the most favourable moment for their purpose:
+there was abundance of corn in the ambárs, (magazines,) hay in the
+stacks, and the Russians, having taken hostages, had established
+themselves in full security in winter-quarters. The news of
+Verkhóffsky's murder had flown over all the hills, and powerfully
+encouraged the mountaineers. Merrily they poured together from all
+sides; every where were heard their songs of future battles and plunder;
+and he for whom they were going to fight rode through them like a
+runaway and a culprit, hiding from the light of the sun, and not daring
+to look any one in the face. Every thing that happened, every thing that
+he saw, now seemed like a suffocating dream--he dared not doubt, he
+dared not believe it. On the evening of the third day he reached
+Khounzákh.
+
+Trembling with impatience, he leaped from his horse, worn out with
+fatigue, and took from his saddle-straps the fatal bag. The front
+chambers were filled with warriors; cavaliers in armour were walking up
+and down, or lay on the carpets along the walls, conversing in whispers;
+but their eyebrows were knit and cast down--their stern faces proved
+that bad news had reached Khounzákh. Nóukers ran hurriedly backwards and
+forwards, and none questioned, none accompanied Ammalát, none paid any
+attention to him. At the door of the Khan's bed-chamber sate
+Zoúrkhai-Khan-Djingká, the natural son of Sultan Akhmet, weeping
+bitterly. "What means this?" uneasily demanded Ammalát. "You, from whom
+even in childhood tears could not be drawn--you weep?"
+
+Zoúrkhai silently pointed to the door, and Ammalát, perplexed, crossed
+the threshold. A heart-rending spectacle was presented before the
+new-comer's eyes. In the middle of the room, on a bed, lay the Khan,
+disfigured by a fierce illness; death invisible, but inevitable, hovered
+over him, and his fading glance met it with dread. His breast heaved
+high, and then sank heavily; his breath rattled in his throat, the veins
+of his hands swelled, and then shrank again. In him was taking place the
+last struggle of life with annihilation; the mainspring of existence had
+already burst, but the wheels still moved with an uneven motion,
+catching and entangling in each other. The spark of memory hardly
+glimmered in him, but fitfully flashed like falling stars through the
+darkness of night, which thickened over his soul, and reflected
+themselves in his dying face. His wife and daughter were sobbing on
+their knees by his bed-side; his eldest son, Noútsal, in silent despair
+leaned at his feet, resting his head on his clenched fists. Several
+women and nóukers wept silently at a distance.
+
+All this, however, neither astounded Ammalát nor recalled him to
+himself, occupied as he was with one idea: he approached the Khan with a
+firm step, and said to him aloud--"Hail, Khan! I have brought you a
+present which will restore a dead man to life. Prepare the bridal. Here
+is my purchase-money for Seltanetta; here is the head of Verkhóffsky!"
+With these words he threw it at the Khan's feet.
+
+The well-known voice aroused Sultan Akhmet from his last sleep: he
+raised his head with difficulty to look at the present, and a shudder
+ran like a wave over his body when he beheld the lifeless head. "May he
+eat his own heart who treats a dying man with such dreadful food!" he
+murmured, scarce intelligibly. "I must make my peace with my enemies,
+and not----Ah, I burn, I burn! Give me water, water! Why have you made
+me drink scalding naphtha? Ammalát, I curse you!" This effort exhausted
+the last drops of life in the Khan; he fell a senseless corpse on the
+pillow. The Khansha had looked with horror on the bloody and untimely
+present of Ammalát; but when she saw that this had hastened her
+husband's death, all her grief broke out in a torrent of anger.
+"Messenger of hell!" she exclaimed, her eyes flashing, "rejoice; these
+are your exploits; but for you, my husband would never have thought of
+raising Avár against the Russians, and would have now been sitting in
+health and quiet at home; but for you, visiting the Ouzdens, he fell
+from a rock and was disabled; and you, blood-drinker!--instead of
+consoling the sick with mild words, instead of making his peace with
+Allah by prayers and alms--bring, as if to a cannibal, a dead man's
+head; and whose head? Thy benefactor's, thy protector's, thy friend's!"
+
+"Such was the Khan's will," in his turn replied Ammalát.
+
+"Do not slander the dead; defile not his memory with superfluous blood!"
+screamed the Khansha: "not content with having treacherously murdered a
+man, you come with his head to woo my daughter at the deathbed of her
+father, and you hoped to receive a recompense from man, when you
+deserved the vengeance of God. Godless, soulless being! No! by the
+graves of my ancestors, by the swords of my sons, I swear you shall
+never be my son-in-law, my acquaintance, my guest! Away from my house,
+traitor! I have sons, and you may murder while embracing them. I have a
+daughter, whom you may bewitch and poison with your serpent looks. Go,
+wander in the ravines of the mountains; teach the tigers to tear each
+other; and dispute with the wolves for carcasses. Go, and know that my
+door opens not to a fratricide!"
+
+Ammalát stood like one struck by lightning: all that his conscience had
+indistinctly whispered to him had been spoken out to him at once, and so
+unexpectedly, so cruelly. He knew not where to turn his eyes: there lay
+the head of Verkhóffsky with its accusing blood--there was the
+threatening face of the Khan, printed with the seal of a death of
+torture--there he met the stern glance of the Khansha.... The tearful
+eyes of Seltanetta alone appeared like stars of joy through a rainy
+cloud. To her he resolved to approach, saying timidly, "Seltanetta, for
+you have I committed that for which I lose you. Destiny wills it: be it
+so! One thing tell me--is it possible that you, too, have ceased to love
+me--that you, too, hate me?"
+
+The well-remembered voice of the beloved pierced her heart: Seltanetta
+raised her eyes glistening with tears--eyes full of woe; but on seeing
+Ammalát's dreadful face, spotted with blood, she covered them again with
+her hand. She pointed with her finger at her father's corpse, at the
+head of Verkhóffsky, and said, with firmness, "Farewell, Ammalát! I pity
+thee; but I cannot be thine!" With these words she fell senseless on her
+father's body.
+
+All his native pride, all his blood, rushed to Ammalát's heart; his soul
+fired with fury. "Is it thus I am received?" casting a scornful glance
+at both the women; "is it thus that promises are fulfilled here? I am
+glad that my eyes are opened. I was too simple when I prized the light
+love of a fickle girl--too patient when I hearkened to the ravings of an
+old woman. I see, that with Sultan Akhmet Khan have died the honour and
+hospitality of his house!"
+
+He left the room with a haughty step. He proudly gazed in the face of
+the Ouzdens, grasping the hilt of his dagger as if challenging them to
+combat. All, however, made way for him, but seemingly rather to avoid
+him than from respect. No one saluted him, either by word or sign. He
+went forth into the court-yard, called his nóukers together, silently
+mounted into the saddle, and slowly rode through the empty streets of
+Khounzákh.
+
+From the road he looked back for the last time upon the Khan's house,
+which was blackening in the darkness, while the grated door shone with
+lights. His heart was full of blood; his offended pride fixed in its
+iron talons, while the useless crime, and the love henceforth despised
+and hopeless, poured venom on the wounds. Grief, anger, and remorse
+mingled in the glance which he threw on the harem where he first saw,
+and where he lost, all earthly joy. "And you, and you, Seltanetta!" he
+could utter no more. A mountain of lead lay on his breast; his
+conscience already felt that dreadful hand which was stretched forth
+against it. The past terrified him; the future made him tremble. Where
+will he rest that head on which a price is set? What earth will give
+repose to the bones of a traitor? Nor love, nor friendship, nor
+happiness, will ever again be his care; but a life of misery, a
+wanderer's bread....
+
+Ammalát wished to weep, his eyes burned ... and, like the rich man
+tormented in the fire, his heart prayed for one drop, one tear, to
+quench his intolerable thirst.... He tried to weep, and could not.
+Providence has denied this consolation to the guilty.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And where did the murderer of Verkhóffsky hide himself? Whither did he
+drag his wretched existence? No one knew. In Daghestán it was reported
+that he wandered among the Tchetchenétzes and Koi-Sou-Boulinétzes,
+having lost his beauty, his health, and even his bravery. But who could
+say this with certainty? Little by little the rumours about Ammalát died
+away, though his villanous treachery is still fresh in the memory of
+Russians and Mussulmans who dwell in Daghestán. Even now his name is
+never pronounced without a reproach.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+Anápa, that manufactory of arms for the robbers of the mountains, that
+bazar where are sold the tears, the blood, the sweat of Christian
+slaves, that torch of rebellion to the Caucasus--Anápa, I say, was, in
+1808, invested by the Russian armies, on the sea and on the mountain
+side. The gun-boats, the bomb-vessels, and all the ships that could
+approach the shore, were thundering against the fortifications. The land
+army had passed the river which falls into the Black Sea, under the
+northern wall of Anápa, and was posted in swampy ground around the whole
+city. Then they constructed wooden trenches, hewing down, for that
+purpose, the surrounding forest. Every night new works arose nearer and
+nearer to the walls of the town. The interior of the houses flamed from
+the effects of the shells; the outer walls fell under the cannon-balls.
+But the Turkish garrison, reinforced by the mountaineers, fought
+desperately, made fierce sorties, and replied to all proposals for
+surrender by the shots of their artillery. Meanwhile the besiegers were
+incessantly harassed by the Kabardinétz skirmishers, and the
+foot-archers of Abazékhs, Shamsóukhs, Natoukháitzes, and other wild
+mountaineers of the shores of the Black Sea, assembled, like the
+jackals, in hope of plunder and blood. Against them it was necessary to
+erect redans; and this double work, performed under the fire of cannon
+from the fortress and from the forest, on irregular and boggy ground,
+delayed long the capture of the town.
+
+At length, on the eve of the taking of Anápa, the Russians opened a
+breaching-battery in a ravine on the south-east side of the town: its
+effect was tremendous. At the fifth volley the battlements and parapets
+were overthrown, the guns laid bare and beaten down. The balls, striking
+against the stone facing, flashed like lightning; and then, in a black
+cloud of dust, flew up fragments of shattered stone. The wall crumbled
+and fell to pieces; but the fortress, by the thickness of its walls,
+resisted long the shattering force of the iron; and the precipitous
+steepness of the ruins offered no opportunity for storming. For the
+heated guns, and for the weary artillerymen, worn out by incessant
+firing, repose was absolutely necessary. By degrees the firing from the
+batteries by land and sea began to slacken; thick clouds of smoke,
+floating from the shore, expanded over the waves, sometimes concealing,
+sometimes discovering, the flotilla. From time to time a ball of smoke
+flew up from the guns of the fortress, and after the rolling of the
+cannon-thunder, far echoing among the hills, a ball would whistle by at
+random. And now all was silent--all was still both in the interior of
+Anápa and in the trenches. Not one turban was seen between the
+battlements, not one carabineer's bayonet in the intrenchment. Only the
+Turkish banners on the towers, and the Russian ensign on board the
+ships, waved proudly in the air, now undimmed by a single stream of
+smoke--only the harmonious voices of the muezzins resounded from afar,
+calling the Mussulmans to their mid-day prayer. At this moment, from the
+breach opposite the battery on the plain, descended, or rather rolled
+down, supported by ropes, a horseman on a white horse, who immediately
+leaped over the half-filled ditch, dashed to the left between the
+batteries, flew over the intrenchments, over the soldiers dozing behind
+them, who neither expected nor guessed any thing like this, and,
+followed by their hasty shouts, plunged into the woods. None of the
+cavalry had time to glance at, much less to pursue him: all remained
+thunderstruck with astonishment and vexation; and soon forgot all about
+the brave cavalier, in the alarm of the renewed firing from the
+fortress, which was recommenced in order to give the bold messenger time
+to escape to the mountains. Towards evening the breaching battery, which
+had thundered almost incessantly, had accomplished its work of
+demolition. The prostrate wall formed a kind of bridge for the
+besiegers, who, with the impatience of bravery, prepared for the
+assault; when suddenly an unexpected attack of the Tcherkéss, who had
+driven in the Russian scouts and outposts, compelled the besiegers to
+direct the fire of the redans against the furious mountaineers. A
+thundering Allah-il-Allah, from the walls of Anápa, greeted their
+encounter: the volleys of cannon and musketry arose with redoubled
+violence from the walls, but the Russian grape tore asunder and arrested
+the crowds of horsemen and infantry of the Tcherkéss, as they were
+preparing to throw themselves upon the batteries with their sabres; and
+they, with furious cries of "Giaour, giaourla!" turned back, leaving
+behind them the dead and wounded. In a moment the whole field was strewn
+with their corpses and their disabled, who, staggering to their feet,
+fell back, struck by the balls and grape-shot; whilst the cannon-shot
+shattered the wood, and the grenades, bursting, completed the
+destruction. But from the beginning of the action, till the moment when
+not one of the enemy remained in sight, the Russians saw before them a
+well-built Tcherkéss on a white horse, who rode, at a slow pace, up and
+down before their redans. All recognized in him the same horseman who
+had leaped over the trenches at mid-day, probably in order to induce the
+Tcherkéss to fall upon the Russians from the rear, at the moment when
+the now unsuccessful sortie was to be made from the gate. Crashing and
+thundering danced the grape-shot around him. His horse strained at the
+bridle; but he, looking calmly at the batteries, rode along them as if
+they were raining flowers upon him. The artillerymen ground their teeth
+with vexation at the unpunished daring of the cavalier: shot after shot
+tore up the earth, but he remained unhurt as if enchanted. "Give him a
+cannon-ball!" shouted a young officer of artillery, but lately released
+from the military college, who was above all enraged at their want of
+success: "I would load the gun with my head, so glad would I be to kill
+that bragger: it is not worth while to waste grape upon one
+man--grape--look out! a cannon-ball will reach the guilty!" So saying,
+he screwed up the quoin and levelled the gun, looking through the sight;
+and having exactly calculated the moment when the horseman would ride
+through the line of aim, he stepped aside and ordered the fatal fire.
+
+For some moments the smoke enveloped the battery in darkness: when it
+floated away the frightened horse was dragging the blood-stained corpse
+of his rider, with the foot entangled in the stirrup. "Hit--killed!" was
+shouted from all the trenches; and the young artillery officer, taking
+off his cap, piously crossed himself, and with a joyous face jumped down
+from the battery to seize the prey which he had earned. He soon
+succeeded in catching by the reins the horse of the slain Tcherkéss, for
+he was dragging the body sideways on the ground. The unfortunate man had
+his arm torn off close to the shoulder; but he still breathed, groaned,
+and struggled. Pity touched the good-natured youth: he called some
+soldiers, and ordered them to carry the wounded man carefully into the
+trench, sent for the surgeon, and had the operation performed before his
+eyes. At night, when all was quiet, the artilleryman sat by the side of
+his dying prisoner, and watched him with interest by the dim light of
+the lantern. The serpent-marks of sorrow, graven on his cheek by tears,
+the wrinkles on his forehead, dug, not by years but passions, and bloody
+scratches, disfigured his handsome face; and in it was painted something
+more torturing than pain, more terrible than death. The artilleryman
+could not restrain an involuntary shudder. The prisoner sighed heavily,
+and having, with difficulty, raised his hand to his forehead, opened his
+heavy eyelids, muttering to himself in unintelligible sounds,
+unconnected words.... "Blood," he cried, examining his hand ... "always
+blood! why have they put _his_ bloody shirt upon me? Already, without
+that, I swim in blood.... Why do I not drown in it?... How cold the
+blood is to-day!... Once it used to scald me, and this is no better! In
+the world it is stifling, in the gave so cold.... 'Tis dreadful to be a
+corpse. Fool that I am, I sought death. O, let me live but for one
+little day--one little hour, to live!..."
+
+"What? Why have I hidden another in the grave, _whisperest thou_? Learn
+thyself what it is to die!..." A convulsive paroxysm interrupted his
+raving, an unspeakably dreadful groan burst from the sufferer, and he
+fell into a painful lethargy, in which the soul lives only to suffer.
+
+The artilleryman, touched to the very bottom of his heart, raised the
+head of the miserable being, sprinkled his face with cold water, and
+rubbed his temples with spirits of wine, in order to bring him to
+himself. Slowly he opened his eyes, shook his head several times, as if
+to shake the mist from his eyelashes, and steadfastly directed his gaze
+on the face of the artilleryman, which was faintly lighted up by the
+feeble gleam of the candle. Suddenly, with a piercing cry, he lifted
+himself on his bed, as if by some superhuman force: his hair stood
+upright, his whole body shook with a fevered trembling, his hand seemed
+endeavouring to push something from him, an ineffable horror was
+expressed on his countenance.... "Your name!" he cried at length,
+addressing the artilleryman. "Who are thou, stranger from the grave?"
+
+"I am Verkhóffsky?" ... answered the young artilleryman. This was a shot
+that went straight to the heart of the prisoner. The ligature on the
+principal artery gave way from a rush of blood, which poured through the
+bandages. Yet a few struggles, yet the throat-rattle, and the leaden
+hand of death choked the wounded man's last sigh, imprinted on his brow
+the seal of the last grief; gathering whole years of repentance into one
+rapid moment, in which the soul, tearing itself from the body, fears
+equally the tortures of life and of nothingness, feels at once all the
+gnawing of the past and all the agony of the future. Terrible was it to
+look on the convulsed face of the dead. "He surely must have been a
+great sinner," said Verkhóffsky, in a low voice to the general's
+interpreter, who stood near him, and he shuddered involuntarily.
+
+"A great villain," rejoined the interpreter: "it appears to me he was a
+Russian deserter. I never met with a mountaineer who spoke Russian so
+correctly as this prisoner. Let me look at his arms. We may, perhaps,
+find some marks on them." With these words he unsheathed, with a look of
+curiosity, the dagger which had been taken from the dead man, and
+bringing it to the lantern, deciphered and translated the following
+inscription:--
+
+    "Be slow to offend--swift to revenge!"
+
+"Quite a robber's rule," said Verkhóffsky; "my poor brother Evstafli!
+you fell a victim to such a fanatic principle as this!"
+
+The eyes of the good youth filled with tears.... "Is there not something
+else?" he asked.
+
+"This is apparently the slain man's name," replied the interpreter.
+
+"It is: Ammalát Bek!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+MR BAILEY'S REPLY TO AN ARTICLE IN BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE.
+
+
+We have just been favoured with a pamphlet from Mr Bailey, entitled "A
+Letter to a Philosopher, in Reply to some Recent Attempts to Vindicate
+Berkeley's Theory of Vision, and in further Elucidation of its
+Unsoundness." Our article on Mr Bailey's review of Berkeley's theory,
+which appeared in _Blackwood's Magazine_ of June 1842, was one of these
+attempts. Had the author merely attacked or controverted our
+animadversions on his book, we should probably have left the question to
+its fate, and not have reverted to a subject, the discussion of which,
+even in the first instance, may have been deemed out of place in a
+journal not expressly philosophical. There is, in general, little to be
+gained by protracting such controversies. But, as Mr Bailey accuses us,
+in the present instance, of having misrepresented his views, we must be
+allowed to exculpate ourselves from the charge of having dealt, even
+with unintentional unfairness, towards one whose opinions, however much
+we may dissent from them, are certainly entitled to high respect and a
+candid examination, as the convictions of an able and zealous enquirer
+after truth.
+
+In our strictures on Mr Bailey's work, we remarked, that he had
+represented Berkeley as holding that the eye is not directly and
+originally cognizant of the outness of objects in relation to each
+other, or of what we would call their reciprocal outness; in other
+words, we stated, that, according to Mr Bailey, Berkeley must be
+regarded as denying to the eye the original intuition of space, either
+in length, breadth, or solid depth. It was, however, only in reference
+to one of his arguments, and to one particular division of his subject,
+that we laid this representation to his charge. Throughout the other
+parts of his discussion, we by no means intended to say that such was
+the view he took of the Berkeleian theory. Nor are we aware of having
+made any statement to that effect. If we did, we now take the
+opportunity of remarking, that we restrict our allegation, as we believe
+we formerly restricted it, to the single argument and distinction just
+mentioned, and hereafter to be explained.
+
+In his reply, Mr Bailey disavows the impeachment _in toto_. He declares
+that he never imputed to Berkeley the doctrine, that the eye is not
+directly percipient of space in the two dimensions of length and
+breadth. "The perception of this kind of distance," says he, "never
+formed the subject of controversy with any one ... That we see extension
+in two dimensions is admitted by all."--(_Letter_, p. 10.) If it can be
+shown that the doctrine which is here stated to be admitted by all
+philosophers, is yet expressly controverted by the two metaphysicians
+whom Mr Bailey appears to have studied most assiduously, it is, at any
+rate, possible that he may have overlooked, in his own writings, the
+expression of an opinion which has escaped his penetration in theirs. To
+convince himself, then, how much he is mistaken in supposing that the
+visual intuition of longitudinal and lateral extension is admitted by
+all philosophers, he has but to turn to the works of Dr Brown and the
+elder Mill. In arguing that we have no immediate perception of visible
+figure, Dr Brown not only virtually, but expressly, asserts that the
+sight has no perception of extension in any of its dimensions. Not to
+multiply quotations, the following will, no doubt, be received as
+sufficient:--"They (i.e. philosophers) have--_I think without sufficient
+reason_--universally supposed that the superficial extension of _length
+and breadth_ becomes known to us by sight originally."[28] Dr Brown then
+proceeds to argue, with what success we are not at present considering,
+that our knowledge of extension and figure is derived from another
+source than the sense of sight.
+
+    [28] Brown's Lectures, Lecture xxviii.
+
+Mr James Mill, an author whom Mr Bailey frequently quotes with
+approbation, and in confirmation of his own views, is equally explicit.
+He maintains, in the plainest terms, that the eye has no intuition of
+space, or of the reciprocal outness of visible objects. "Philosophy,"
+says he, "has ascertained that we derive nothing from the eye whatever
+but sensations of colour--that the idea of extension [he means in its
+three dimensions] is derived from sensations not in the eye, but in the
+muscular part of our frame."[29] Thus, contrary to what Mr Bailey
+affirms, these two philosophers limit the office of vision to the
+perception of mere colour or difference of colour, denying to the eye
+the original perception of extension in any dimension whatever. In their
+estimation, the intuition of space is no more involved in our perception
+of different colours than it is involved in our perception of different
+smells or different sounds. Dr Brown's doctrine, in which Mr Mill seems
+to concur, is, that the perception of superficial extension no more
+results from a certain expanse of the optic nerve being affected by a
+variety of colours than it results from a certain expanse of the
+olfactory nerve being affected by a variety of odours.[30] So much for
+Mr Bailey's assertion, that _all_ philosophers admit the perception of
+extension in two dimensions.
+
+    [29] Mill's Analysis, vol. i. p. 73.
+
+    [30] This reasoning of Dr Brown's is founded upon an assumed
+    analogy between the structure of the optic nerve, and the
+    structure of the olfactory nerves and other sensitive nerves,
+    and is completely disproved by the physiological observations of
+    Treviranus, who has shown that no such analogy exists: that the
+    ends of the nervous fibres in the retina being elevated into
+    distinct separate _papillæ_, enable us to perceive the
+    extension, and discriminate the position of visible bodies,
+    while the nerves of the other senses being less delicately
+    defined, are not fitted to furnish us with any such perception,
+    or to aid us in making any such discrimination. See _Müller's
+    Physiology, translated by W. Baly, M.D._, vol. ii. pp. 1073,
+    1074. Although the application of Treviranus's discovery to the
+    refutation of Dr Brown's reasoning is our own, we may remark, in
+    justice to an eminent philosopher, that it was Sir William
+    Hamilton who first directed our attention to the _fact_ as
+    established by the great physiologist.
+
+But, of course, our main business is with the expression of his own
+opinion. In rebutting our charge, he maintains that "the visibility of
+angular distance (that is of extension laterally) is assumed, by
+implication, as part of Berkeley's doctrine, in _almost_ every chapter
+of my book."--(_Letter_, p. 13.) That word _almost_ is a provident
+saving clause; for we undertake to show that not only is the very
+reverse assumed, by implication, as part of Berkeley's doctrine, in the
+_single_ chapter to which we confined our remarks, but that, in another
+part of his work, it is expressly avowed as the only alternative by
+which, in the author's opinion, Berkeley's consistency can be preserved.
+
+At the outset of his enquiry, Mr Bailey divides his discussion into two
+branches: first, Whether objects are originally seen to be external, or
+at _any_ distance at all from the sight; and, secondly, Supposing it
+admitted that they are seen to be external, or at _some_ distance from
+the sight, whether they are all seen in the same plane, or equally near.
+It was to the former of these questions that we exclusively confined our
+remarks;[31] and it was in reference to it, and to an important argument
+evolved by Mr Bailey in the course of its discussion, that we charged
+him with fathering on Berkeley the doctrine which he now disavows as his
+interpretation of the bishop's opinion. He further disputes the
+relevancy of the question about our perception of lateral extension, and
+maintains that distance in a direction from the percipient, or what we
+should call protensive distance, is the only matter in dispute; and that
+it is a misconception of the scope of Berkeley's essay to imagine
+otherwise. The relevancy of the question shall be disposed of
+afterwards. In the mean time, the question at issue is, Can the
+allegation which we have laid to Mr Bailey's charge be proved to be the
+fact, or not?
+
+    [31] Mr Bailey seems disposed to carp at us for having confined
+    our remarks to this first question, and for not having given a
+    more complete review of his book. But the reason why we cut
+    short our critique is obvious; for if it be proved, as we
+    believe it can, that objects are originally seen at _no distance
+    whatever_ from the sight, it becomes quite superfluous to
+    enquire what appearance they would present if originally seen at
+    _some_ distance from the sight. The way in which we disposed of
+    the first question, however imperfect our treatment of it may
+    have been, necessarily prevented us from entering upon the
+    second; and our review, with all its deficiencies, was thus a
+    complete review of his book, though not a review of his complete
+    book.
+
+In discussing the first of the two questions, it was quite possible for
+Mr Bailey to have represented Berkeley as holding, that visible objects,
+though not seen to be external to the sight, were yet seen to be out of
+each other, or laterally extended within the organism or the mind. But
+Mr Bailey makes no such representation of the theory, and the whole
+argument which pervades the chapter in which the first question is
+discussed, is founded on the negation of any such extension. All visible
+extension, he tells us, must, in his opinion, be either plane or solid.
+Now he will scarcely maintain that he regarded Berkeley as holding that
+we perceive solid extension within the organism of the eye. Neither does
+he admit that, according to Berkeley, and in reference to this first
+question, plane extension is perceived within the organism of the eye.
+For when he proceeds to the discussion of the _second_ of the two
+questions, he remarks that "we must, _at this stage_ of the argument,
+consider the theory under examination, as representing that we see all
+things _originally in the same plane_,"[32] obviously implying that he
+had not _as yet_ considered the theory as representing that we see
+things originally in the same plane: in other words, plainly admitting
+that, in his treatment of the first question, he had not regarded the
+theory as representing that we see things originally under the category
+of extension at all.
+
+    [32] Review of Berkeley's Theory, p 35.
+
+But if any more direct evidence on this point were wanted, it is to be
+found in the section of his work which treats of "the perception of
+figure." In the chapter in which he discusses the first of the two
+questions, he constantly speaks of Berkeley's theory as representing
+that "our visual sensations, or what we ultimately term visible objects,
+are originally mere internal feelings." The expression _mere internal
+feelings_, however, is ambiguous; for, as we have said, it might still
+imply that Mr Bailey viewed the theory as representing that there was an
+extension, or reciprocal outness of objects within the retina. But this
+doubt is entirely removed by a passage in the section alluded to, which
+proves that, in Mr Bailey's estimation, these mere internal feelings not
+only involve no such extension, but that there would be an inconsistency
+in supposing they did. In this section he brings forward Berkeley's
+assertion, "that neither solid nor plane figures are immediate objects
+of sight." He then quotes a passage in which the bishop begs the reader
+not to stickle too much "about this or that phrase, or manner of
+expression, but candidly to collect his meaning from the whole sum and
+tenour of his discourse." And then Mr Bailey goes on to say,
+"endeavouring, in the spirit here recommended, to collect the author's
+meaning when he affirms that the figures we see are neither plane nor
+solid, it appears to me to be _a part or consequence_ of his doctrine
+already examined, which asserts that visible objects are only internal
+feelings."[33] We can now be at no loss to understand what Mr Bailey
+means, and conceives Berkeley to mean, by the expression "mere internal
+feelings." He evidently means feelings in which no kind of extension
+whatever is involved: for, in the next page, he informs us that all
+visual extension or extended figure, "_must_ be apprehended as either
+plane or solid, and that it is impossible even to conceive it
+otherwise." Consequently, if the figures we see are, as Berkeley says,
+apprehended neither as plane nor as solid, Mr Bailey, entertaining the
+notions he does on the subject of extension, _must_ regard him as
+holding that they cannot be apprehended as extended at all--and
+accordingly such is the express representation he gives of the theory in
+the passage just quoted, where he says that "the doctrine of Berkeley,
+which affirms that the figures we see are neither plane nor solid, (that
+is, are extended in _no_ direction, according to Mr Bailey's ideas of
+extension,) appears to him to be _a part_ of the doctrine which asserts
+that visible objects are only internal feelings." Now if that be not
+teaching, in the plainest terms, that, according to Berkeley, no species
+of extension is implied in the internal feelings of vision, we know not
+what language means, and any one thought may be identical with its very
+opposite.
+
+    [33] Ibid. p. 136.
+
+Here we might let the subject drop, having, as we conceive, said quite
+enough to prove the truth of our allegation that, in reference to the
+first question discussed, in which our original visual sensations are
+represented by Berkeley to be mere internal feelings, Mr Bailey
+understood and stated those feelings to signify sensations in which no
+perception of extension whatever was involved. However, as Mr Bailey
+further remarks that, "although Berkeley's doctrine about visible
+figures being neither plane not solid, is thus consistent with his
+assertion that they are internal feelings, it is in itself
+contradictory,"[34] we shall contribute a few remarks to show that
+while, on the one hand, the negation of extension is not required to
+vindicate the consistency of Berkeley's assertion, that visible objects
+are internal feelings, neither, on the other hand, is there any
+contradiction in Berkeley's holding that objects are not seen either as
+planes or as solids, and are yet apprehended as extended. Mr Bailey
+alleges that we are "far more successful in involving ourselves in
+subtle speculations of our own, than in faithfully guiding our readers
+through the theories of other philosophers." Perhaps in the present case
+we shall be able to thread a labyrinth where our reviewer has lost his
+clue, and, in spite of the apparent contradiction by which Mr Bailey has
+been gravelled, we shall, perhaps, be more successful than he in
+"collecting Berkeley's meaning from the whole sum and tenour of his
+discourse."
+
+    [34] Review of Berkeley's Theory, p. 137.
+
+First, with regard to the contradiction charged upon the bishop. When we
+open our eyes, what do we behold? We behold points--_minima
+visibilia_--out of one another. Do we see these points to be in the same
+plane? Certainly not. If they are in the same plane we learn this from a
+very different experience from that of sight. Again, do we see these
+points to be _not_ in the same plane? Certainly not. If the points are
+not in the same plane we learn this, too, from a very different
+experience than that of sight. All that we see is that the points are
+out of one another; and this simply implies the perception of extension,
+without implying the perception either of plane or of solid extension.
+Thus by the observation of a very obvious fact, which, however, Mr
+Bailey has overlooked, is Berkeley's assertion that visible objects are
+apprehended as extended, and yet not apprehended either as planes or
+solids, relieved from every appearance of contradiction.
+
+It must, however, be admitted that Mr Bailey has much to justify him in
+his opinion that extension must be apprehended either as plane or as
+solid. None of Berkeley's followers, we believe, have ever dreamt of
+conceiving it otherwise, and finding in their master's work the negation
+of solid extension specially insisted on, they leapt to the conclusion
+that the bishop admitted the original perception of plane extension. But
+Berkeley makes no such admission. He places the perception of plane
+extension on precisely the same footing with that of solid extension.
+"We see planes," says he, "in the same way that we see solids."[35] And
+the wisdom of the averment is obvious; for the affirmation of plane
+extension involves the negation of solid extension, but this negation
+involves the conception (visually derived) of solid extension; but the
+admission of that conception, so derived, would be fatal to the
+Berkeleian theory. Therefore its author wisely avoids the danger by
+holding, that in vision we have merely the perception of what the
+Germans would call the _Auseinanderseyn_, that is, the _asunderness_, of
+things--a perception which implies no judgment as to whether the things
+are secerned in plane or in protensive space.
+
+    [35] Essay, § 158.
+
+With regard to the supposition that, in order to preserve Berkeley's
+consistency, it was necessary for him to teach that our visual
+sensations, (colours namely,) being internal feelings, could involve the
+perception neither of plane nor of solid extension, that is to say, of
+no extension at all, according to Mr Bailey's ideas, we shall merely
+remark, that there appears to us to be no inconsistency in holding, as
+Berkeley does, that these colours, though originally internal to the
+sight, are nevertheless perceived as extended among themselves.
+
+We shall now say a few words on the _relevancy_ of the question, for Mr
+Bailey denies that this question, concerning the reciprocal outness of
+visible objects, ought to form any element in the controversy. We shall
+show, however, that one of his most important arguments depends entirely
+on the view that may be taken of this question; and that while the
+argument alluded to would be utterly fatal to Berkeley's theory, if the
+perception of reciprocal outness were denied, it is perfectly harmless
+if the perception in question be admitted.
+
+Mr Bailey's fundamental and reiterated objection to Berkeley's theory
+is, that it requires us to hold that conceptions or past impressions,
+derived from one sense, (the touch,) are not merely recalled when
+another sense (the sight) executes its functions, but are themselves
+absolutely converted into the present intuitions of that other sense. In
+his own words, (_Review_, p. 69,) the theory is said to require "a
+transmutation of the conceptions derived from touch into the perceptions
+of sight." "According to Berkeley, (says he, _Review_, p. 22,) an
+internal feeling (i.e. a visual sensation) and an external sensation
+(i.e. a tactual sensation) having been experienced at the same time: the
+internal feeling, when it afterwards occurs, not only suggests the idea,
+but, by doing so, suggests the idea, or, if I may use the figure,
+infuses the perception of its own externality. Berkeley thus attributes
+to suggestion an effect contrary to its nature, which, as in the case of
+language, is simply to revive in our conception what has been previously
+perceived by the sense."
+
+Now, this objection would be altogether insurmountable if it were true,
+or if it were a part of Berkeley's doctrine, that the sight has no
+original intuition of space, or of the reciprocal outness of its
+objects--in other words, of colours out of colours; for it being
+admitted that the sight has ultimately such a perception, it would be
+incumbent on the Berkeleian to show how conceptions derived from another
+sense, or how perceptions belonging to another sense, could be converted
+into that perception. We agree with Mr Bailey, in thinking that no
+process of association could effect this conversion; that if we did not
+originally see colours to be out of each other, and the points of the
+same colour to be out of each other, we could never so see them; and
+that his argument, when thus based on the negation of all original
+visual extension, and on the supposition that the touch is the sole
+organ of every species of externality, would remain invulnerable.
+
+But, with the admission of the visual intuition of space, the objection
+vanishes, and the argument is shorn of all its strength. This admission
+relieves the theory from the necessity of maintaining, that conceptions
+derived from touch are transmuted into the perceptions of sight. It
+attributes to the sight all that ever truly belongs to it, namely, the
+perception of colours out of one another; it provides the visual
+intuitions with an externality of their own--and the theory never
+demands that they should acquire any other; and it leaves to these
+visual intuitions the office of merely suggesting to the mind tactual
+impressions, with which they have been invariably associated in place.
+We say, _in place_; and it will be found that there is no contradiction
+in our saying so, when we shall have shown that it is the touch, and not
+the sight, which establishes a protensive interval between the organ and
+the sensations of vision.
+
+Visible extension, then, or the perception of colours external to
+colours, being admitted, Mr Bailey's argument, if he still adheres to
+it, must be presented to us in this form. He must maintain that the
+theory requires that the objects of touch should not only be suggested
+by the visual objects with which they have been associated, but that
+they should actually be _seen_. And then he must maintain that no power
+of association can enable us to see an object which can only be
+touched--a position which, certainly, no one will controvert. The simple
+answer to all which, is, that we never do see tangible objects--that the
+theory never requires we should, and that no power of association is
+necessary to account for a phenomenon which never takes place.
+
+We cannot help thinking, that not a little of the misconception on this
+subject which prevails in the writings of Mr Bailey, and, we may add, of
+many other philosophers, originates in the supposition that we identify
+vision with the eye in the mere act of seeing, and in their taking it
+for granted that sight of itself informs us that we possess such an
+organ as the eye. Of course, if we suppose that we know instinctively,
+or intuitively, from the mere act of seeing, that the eye is the organ
+of vision, that it forms a part of the body we behold, and is located in
+the head, it requires no conjurer to prove that we _must_ have an
+instinctive, or intuitive, knowledge of visible things as larger than
+that organ, and, consequently, as external to it. In this case, no
+process of association is necessary to account for our knowledge of the
+distance of objects. That knowledge must be directly given in the very
+function and exercise of vision, as every one will admit, without going
+to the expense of an octavo volume to have it proved.
+
+But we hold that no truth in mental philosophy is more incontestable
+than this, that the sight originally, and of itself, furnishes us with
+no knowledge of the eye, as we _now_ know that organ to exist. It does
+not inform us that we have an eye at all. And here we may hazard an
+observation, which, simple as it is, appears to us to be new, and not
+unimportant in aiding us to unravel the mysteries of sensation; which
+observation is, that, in no case whatever, does any sense inform us of
+the existence of its appropriate organ, or of the relation which
+subsists between that organ and its objects, but that the interposition
+of some other sense[36] is invariably required to give us this
+information. This truth, which we believe holds good with regard to all
+the senses, is most strikingly exemplified in the case of vision, as we
+shall now endeavour to illustrate.
+
+    [36] It would not be difficult to show, that as, on the one
+    hand, _distance_ is not involved in the original intuitions of
+    sight, so, on the other hand, _proximity_ is not involved in the
+    original intuitions of touch; but that, while it is the touch
+    which establishes an interval between the organ and the objects
+    of sight, it is the sight which establishes _no_ interval
+    between the organ and the objects of touch. Sight thus pays back
+    every fraction of the debt it has incurred to its brother sense.
+    This is an interesting subject, but we can only glance at it
+    here.
+
+Let us begin by supposing that man is a mere "power of seeing". Under
+this supposition, we must hold that the periphery of vision is one and
+the same with the periphery of visible space; and the two peripheries
+being identical, of course whatever objects lie within the sphere of the
+one must lie within the sphere of the other also. Perhaps, strictly
+speaking, it is wrong to say that these objects are apprehended as
+internal to the sight; for the conception of internality implies the
+conception of externality, and neither of these conceptions can, as yet,
+be realized. But it is obvious what the expression _internal_ means; and
+it is unobjectionable, when understood to signify that the Seeing Power,
+the Seeing Act, and the Seen Things, co-exist in a synthesis in which
+there is no interval or discrimination. For, suppose that we know
+instinctively that the seen things occupy a locality separate from the
+sight. But that implies that we instinctively know that the sight
+occupies a locality separate from them. But such a supposition is a
+falling back upon the notion just reprobated, that the mere act of
+seeing can indicate its own organ, or can localise the visual phenomena
+in the eye--a position which, we presume, no philosopher will be hardy
+enough to maintain, when called upon to do so, broadly and
+unequivocally. The conclusion, therefore, is irresistible, that, in mere
+vision, the sight and its objects cling together in a union or
+synthesis, which no function of that sense, and no knowledge imparted to
+us by it, (and, according to the supposition, we have, as yet, no other
+knowledge,) can enable us to discriminate or dissolve. Where the seeing
+is, there is the thing seen, and where the thing seen is, there is the
+seeing of it.
+
+But man is not a mere seeing animal. He has other senses besides: He
+has, for example, the sense of touch, and one of the most important
+offices which this sense performs, is to break up the identity or
+cohesion which subsists between sight and its objects. And how? We
+answer, by teaching us to associate _vision in general_, or the abstract
+_condition_ regulating our visual impressions, with the presence of the
+small tangible body we call the eye, and _vision in particular_, or the
+individual sensations of vision, (i.e. colours,) with the presence of
+immeasurably larger bodies revealed to us by touch, and tangibly
+external to the tangible eye. Sight, as we have said, does not inform us
+that its sensations are situated in the eye: it does not inform us that
+we have an eye at all. Neither does touch inform us that our visual
+sensations are located in the eye. It does not lead us to associate with
+the eye any of the visual phenomena or operations _in the first
+instance_. If it did, it would (_firstly_) either be impossible for it
+_afterwards_ to induce us to associate them with the presence of
+tangible bodies distant and different from the eye: or, (_secondly_),
+such an association would merely give birth to the abstract knowledge or
+conclusion, that these bodies were in one place, while the sensations
+suggesting them were felt to be associated with something in another
+place; colour would not be seen--as it is--incarnated with body: or,
+(_thirdly_), we should be compelled to postulate for the eye, as many
+philosophers have done, in our opinion, most unwarrantably, "a faculty
+of projection"[37] by which it might dissolve the association between
+itself and its sensations, throwing off the latter in the form of
+colours over the surface of things, and reversing the old Epicurean
+doctrine that perception is kept up by the transit to the sensorium of
+the ghosts or _simulacra_ of things,
+
+    Quæ, quasi membranæ, summo de corpore rerum,
+    Direptæ, volitant ultro citroque per auras.[38]
+
+It is difficult to say whether the hypothesis of "cast-off films" is
+more absurd when we make the films come from things to us as spectral
+effluxes, or go from us to them in the semblance of colours.
+
+    [37] We observe that even Müller speaks of the "faculty of
+    projection" as if he sanctioned and adopted the hypothesis.--See
+    _Physiology_, vol. ii. p. 1167.
+
+    [38] Lucretius.
+
+But according to the present view no such incomprehensible faculty, no
+such crude and untenable hypothesis, is required. _Before_ the touch has
+informed us that we have an eye, _before_ it has led us to associate any
+thing visual with the eye, it has _already_ taught us to associate in
+place the sensations of vision (colours) with the presence of tangible
+objects which are not the eye. Therefore, when the touch discovers the
+eye, and induces us to associate vision in some way with it, it cannot
+be the particular sensations of vision called colours which it leads us
+to associate with that organ; for these have been already associated
+with something very different. If it be not colours, then what is it
+that the touch compels us to associate with the eye? We answer that it
+is the abstract _condition_ of impressions as the general law on which
+all seeing depends, but as quite distinct from the particular visual
+sensations apprehended in virtue of the observance of that law.
+
+Nor is it at all difficult to understand how this general condition
+comes to be associated with the eye, and how the particular visual
+sensations come to be associated with something distant from the eye:
+and further, how this association of the condition with one thing, and
+of the sensations with another thing, (an association established by the
+touch and not by the sight,) dissolves the primary synthesis of seeing
+and colours. It is to be observed that there are two stages in the
+process by which this secernment is brought about--_First_, the stage in
+which the visual phenomena are associated with things different from the
+organ of vision, the very existence of which is as yet unknown. Let us
+suppose, then, the function of sight to be in operation. We behold a
+visible object--a particular colour. Let the touch now come into play.
+We feel a tangible object--say a book. Now from the mere fact of the
+visible and the tangible object being seen and felt together, we could
+not associate them in place; for it is quite possible that the tangible
+object may admit of being withdrawn, and yet the visible object remain:
+and if so, no association of the two in place can be established. But
+this is a point that can only be determined by experience; and what says
+that wise instructor? We withdraw the tangible object. The visible
+object, too, disappears: it leaves its place. We replace the tangible
+object--the visible object reappears _in statu quo_. There is no
+occasion to vary the experiment. If we find that the visible object
+invariably leaves its place when the tangible object leaves its, and
+that the one invariably comes back when the other returns, we have
+brought forward quite enough to establish an inevitable association in
+place between the two. The two places are henceforth regarded, not as
+two, but as one and the same.
+
+By the aid of the touch, then, we have associated the visual phenomena
+with thing which are _not_ the organ of vision; and well it is for us
+that we have done so betimes, and before we were aware of the eye's
+existence. Had the eye been indicated to us in the mere act of seeing;
+had we become apprised of its existence _before_ we had associated our
+visual sensations with the tangible objects constituting the material
+universe, the probability, nay the certainty, is that we would have
+associated them with this eye, and that then it would have been as
+impossible for us to break up the association between colours and the
+organ, as it now is for us to dissolve the union between colours and
+material things. In which case we should have remained blind, or as bad
+as blind; brightness would have been in the eye when it ought to have
+been in the sun; greenness would have been in the retina when it ought
+to have been in the grass. A most wise provision of nature it certainly
+is, by which our visual sensations are disposed of in the right way
+before we obtain any knowledge of the eye. And most wisely has nature
+seconded her own scheme by obscuring all the sources from which that
+knowledge might be derived. The light eyelids--the effortless muscular
+apparatus performing its ministrations so gently as to be almost
+unfelt--the tactual sensations so imperceptible when the eye is left to
+its own motions, so keen when it is invaded by an exploring finger, and
+so anxious to avoid all contact by which the existence of the organ
+might be betrayed. All these are so many means adopted by nature to keep
+back from the infant seer all knowledge of his own eye--a knowledge
+which, if developed prematurely, would have perverted the functions, if
+not rendered nugatory the very existence of the organ.
+
+But, _secondly_, we have to consider the stage of the process in which
+vision is in some way associated with an object which is _not_ any of
+the things with which the visual sensations are connected. It is clear
+that the process is not completed--that our task, which is to dissolve
+the primary synthesis of vision and its phenomena, is but half executed,
+unless such an object be found. For though we have associated the visual
+sensations (colours) with something different from themselves, still
+vision clings to them without a hair's-breadth of interval and pursues
+them whithersoever they go. As far, then, as we have yet gone, it cannot
+be said that our vision is felt or known to be distanced from the fixed
+stars even by the diameter of a grain of sand. The synthesis of sight
+and colour is not yet discriminated. How, then, is the interval
+interposed? We answer, by the discovery of a tangible object in a
+different place from any of the tangible objects associated with colour;
+and then by associating, in some way or other, the operations of vision
+with this object. Such an object is discovered in the eye. Now, as has
+frequently been said, we cannot associate colours or the visual
+sensations with this eye; for these have been already disposed of
+otherwise. What, then, do we associate with it--and how? We find, upon
+experiment, that our apprehension of the various visual sensations
+depends on the presence and particular location of this small tangible
+body. We find that the whole array of visual phenomena disappear when it
+is tactually covered, that they reappear when it is reopened, and so
+forth. Thus we come in some way to associate vision with it--not as
+colour, however, not as visual sensation. We regard the organ and its
+dispositions merely as a general condition regulating the apprehension
+of the visual sensations, and no more.
+
+Thus, by attending to the two associations that occur,--the association
+(in place) of visual sensations with tangible bodies that _are not_ the
+eye; and the association (in place) of vision with a small tangible body
+that _is_ the eye--the eye regarded as the condition on which the
+apprehension of these sensations depends; by attending to these, we can
+understand how a protensive interval comes to be recognised between the
+organ and its objects. By means of the touch, we have associated the
+sensations of vision with tangible bodies in one place, and the
+apprehension of these sensations with a tangible body in another place.
+It is, therefore, impossible for the sight to dissolve these
+associations, and bring the sensations out of the one place where they
+are felt, into the other place where the _condition_ of their
+apprehension resides. The sight is, therefore, compelled to leave the
+sensations where they are, and the apprehension of them where it is; and
+to recognize the two as sundered from each other--the sensations as
+separated from the organ, which they truly are. Thus it is that we would
+explain the origin of the perception of distance by the eye; believing
+firmly that the sight would never have discerned this distance without
+the mediation of the touch.
+
+Rightly to understand the foregoing reasoning--indeed to advance a
+single step in the true philosophy of sensation--we much divest
+ourselves of the prejudice instilled into us by a false physiology, that
+what we call our organism, or, in plain words, our body, is necessarily
+_the seat_ of our sensations. That all our sensations come to be
+associated _in some way_ with this body, and that some of them even come
+to be associated with it _in place_, is undeniable; but so far is it
+from being true, that they are all essentially implicated or
+incorporated with it, and cannot exist at a distance from it, that we
+have a direct proof to the contrary in our sensations of vision; and
+until the physiologist can prove (what has never yet been proven) an _à
+priori_ necessity that our sensations must be where our bodies are, and
+an _à priori_ absurdity in the contrary supposition, he must excuse us
+for resolutely standing by the fact as we find it.
+
+This is a view which admits of much discussion, and we would gladly
+expatiate upon the subject, did time and space permit; but we must
+content ourselves with winding up the present observations with the
+accompanying diagram, which we think explains our view beyond the
+possibility of a mistake.
+
+                  A
+          B_a_         _á_C
+
+Let A be the original synthesis, or indiscrimination of vision and its
+sensations--of light and colours. Let _á_ be the visual sensations
+locally associated by means of the touch with the tangible bodies C
+_before_ vision is in any way associated with B--before, indeed, we have
+any knowledge of the existence of B. Then let _a_, the general condition
+on which the sensations, _after a time_, are found to depend, and in
+virtue of which they are apprehended, be locally associated with B--the
+eye discovered by means of the touch--and we have before us what we
+cannot help regarding as a complete _rationale_ of the whole phenomena
+and mysteries of vision. Now, the great difference between this view of
+the subject and the views of it that have been taken by _every_ other
+philosopher, consists in this, that whereas their explanations
+invariably implicated the visual sensations _á_ with B from the very
+first, thereby rendering it either impossible for them to be afterwards
+associated with C, or possible only in virtue of some very extravagant
+hypothesis--our explanation, on the contrary, proceeding on a simple
+observation of the facts, and never implicating the sensations _á_ with
+B at all, but associating them with C _à primordiis_, merely leaving to
+be associated with B, _a_, a certain general condition that must be
+complied with, in order that the sensations _á_ may be apprehended,--in
+this way, we say, our explanation contrives to steer clear both of the
+impossibility and the hypothesis.
+
+We would just add by way of postscript to this article--which, perhaps,
+ought itself to have been only a postscript--that with regard to Mr
+Bailey's allegation of our having plagiarised one of his arguments,
+merely turning the coat of it outside in, we can assure him that he is
+labouring under a mistake. In our former paper, we remarked that we
+could not see things to be _out_ of the sight, because we could not see
+the sight itself. Mr Bailey alleges, that this argument is borrowed from
+him, being a mere reversal of his reasoning, that we cannot see things
+to be _in_ the sight, because we cannot see both the sight and the
+things. That our argument might very naturally have been suggested by
+his, we admit. But it was not so. We had either overlooked the passage
+in his book, or it was clean out of our mind when we were pondering our
+own speculations. It did not suggest our argument, either nearly or
+remotely. Had it done so, we should certainly have noticed it, and
+should probably have handled both Mr Bailey's reasoning and our own to
+better purpose, in consequence. If, notwithstanding this disclaimer, he
+still thinks that appearances are against us, we cannot mend his faith,
+but can merely repeat, that the fact is as we have stated it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD.
+
+WITH THIRTY-TWO ILLUSTRATIONS, BY WILLIAM MULREADY, R.A.
+
+
+In a review we made last January of Goldsmith's "Deserted Village,"
+illustrated by the Etching Club, we concluded our notice with
+recommending to those able artists the "Vicar of Wakefield;" and
+expressed a hope that Mr Maclise would lend his powerful aid, having in
+our recollection some very happy illustrations of his hand in pictures
+exhibited at the Royal Academy Exhibition.
+
+What the Etching Club are about, we know not; but the subject has been
+taken up by Mr Mulready; and we now feel it incumbent upon us to notice
+this new and illustrated edition of that immortal work. Immortal it must
+be; manners pass away, modes change, but the fashion of the heart of man
+is unalterable. The "Vicar of Wakefield" bears the stamp of the age in
+which it was written. Had it been laid aside by the author, discovered,
+and now first brought out, without a notice of the author, or of the
+time of its composition, received it must have been indeed with delight,
+but not as belonging to the present day. It differs in its literature
+and its manners. It is at once a most happy work for illustration, and
+the most difficult. It is universally known. Who has not shed previous
+and heart-improving tears over it? Taking up the tale now, for the
+hundredth time, we are become, from somewhat morose, tender as a
+lamb--propitious condition for a critic! We opened upon the scene where
+Mr Burchell so cruelly tries poor Sophia, by offering her a husband in
+Mr Jenkinson; we know the whole transaction perfectly, the bitter joke,
+the proposal
+
+                        "impares
+    Formas atque animas in juga ahenea
+    Sævo mittere cum joco."
+
+Yet how strangely are we moved! Had the taxman at the moment called for
+the income-tax, he would have concluded we were paying the last farthing
+of our principal. What art is this in a writer, that he should by one
+and the same passage continue to move his readers, though they know the
+trick! Readers, too, that would have turned the cold shoulder to real
+tales of greater distress, and met suspicion that all was a cheat
+halfway; but the acknowledged fictitious they yield to at once their
+whole hearts, throwing to the winds their beggarly stint. Never was
+there a writer that possessed to so great a degree as did Goldsmith this
+wondrous charm; and in him it is the more delightful in the light and
+pleasant _allegria_ with which he works off the feeling. The volume is
+full of subjects that so move; and in this respect it is most admirable
+for illustration, inviting the ablest powers. But the difficulty,
+wherein does that lie? Look at all illustrations that have hitherto
+appeared in print, and you cry out to all--Away with the failure!
+Certain it is that but slender abilities have been hitherto employed;
+and when we hear of better artists coming to the undertaking, we are
+hardened against them. And then, how few come fresh to the tale. To
+those who do, perhaps a new illustration may have a tenfold charm; but
+to any one past five-and-twenty, it must come "with a difference." It is
+very difficult to reconcile one to a new Dr Primrose, a new Mrs
+Primrose. Beauty ever had the power of beauty, and takes us suddenly; we
+can more readily dismiss the old idea and pitch on the new, so that the
+Miss Primroses are more reconcilable and transferable creatures, than
+the Vicar and his wife, or the incomparable Moses and the unyielding Mr
+Burchell. We cannot pretend to tell how all these characters would have
+fitted their images given by Mr Mulready, had the work now first come
+into our hands. As it is, we can only say they are new to us. It
+requires time to reconcile this. In the meanwhile we must take it for
+granted, that they actually do represent those in Mr Mulready's vision,
+and he is a clear-sighted man, and has been accustomed to look into
+character well. His name as the illustrator, gave promise of success.
+Well do we remember an early picture by him--entitled, we believe, the
+Wolf and the Lamb. It represented two schoolboys--the bully, and the
+more tender fatherless child. The history in that little picture was
+quite of the manner of Goldsmith. The orphan boy's face we never can
+forget, not the whole expression of his slender form, though it is many
+years ago that we saw the picture. So that when the name of Mulready
+appeared as illustrator, we said at once, That will do--down came the
+book, and here it is before us. The pages have been turned over again
+and again. We cannot, nevertheless, quite reconcile our ideas to the new
+Dr and Mrs Primrose; but in attempting to do so, so many real artistical
+beauties have beamed from the pages, that we determined at once to pour
+out our hearts to Maga, and turn over page after page once more. The
+illustrations are thirty-two in number; one to head each chapter,
+though, and which we think a defect, the subject of the illustration is
+not always in the chapter at the head of which it is. The first is the
+choice of a wife--"and chose my wife as she did her wedding-gown." The
+intended bride is a very beautiful graceful figure, with a most sweet
+simplicity of countenance. This never could have resembled Mrs Deborah
+Primrose; the outline is most easy and graceful, even as one of
+Raffaelle's pure and lovely beings. The youth of the bride and
+bridegroom, fresh in their hopes of years of happiness, is happily
+contrasted with the staid age of the respectable tradesman, evidently
+one of honest trade and industrious habits--the fair dealer, one of the
+old race before the days of "immense sacrifices" brought goods and men
+into disrepute. The little group is charming; every line assists
+another, and make a perfect whole.
+
+"The Dispute between the Vicar and Mr Wilmot."--"This, as may be
+expected, produced a dispute, attended with some acrimony." Old Wilmot
+is capital; there is acrimony in his face, and combativeness in his
+fists--both clenching confidently his own argument, and ready for
+action; the very drawing back of one leg, and protrusion of the other,
+is indicative of testy impatience. The vicar is a little too loose and
+slovenly, both in attitude and attire; the uniting of the figures
+(artistically speaking) is with Mr Mulready's usual ability.
+
+"The Rescue of Sophia from Drowning by Mr Burchell."--"She must have
+certainly perished, had not my companion, perceiving her danger,
+instantly plunged in to her relief." This is altogether a failure, yet
+it is a good subject; nor has Mr Mulready been at all happy in the
+female beauty. The vicar stands upon the bank too apathetic; and the
+group in the vehicle, crossing the stream above, seem scarcely conscious
+of the event, though they are within sight of it. Mr Mulready has here,
+too, neglected his text. Sophia fell from her horse; all the party set
+out on horseback; there is no carriage mentioned.
+
+"The Vicar at Home, with Neighbour Flamborough and the Piper."--"These
+harmless people had several ways of being good company; while one
+played, the other would sing some soothing ballad." The happy father,
+with his children climbing up his chair, and clinging to him, is a
+beautiful group, and quite worthy of Mr Mulready's pencil.
+
+"Squire Thornhill."--"At last a young gentleman, of a more genteel
+appearance than the rest, came forward, and for a while regarding us,
+instead of pursuing the chase, stopped short, and giving his horse to a
+servant who attended, approached us with a careless, superior air." The
+family are sweetly grouped--the story well told--the easy assurance of
+the squire undeniable. The father holds his two boys, one on his lap,
+the other between his knees; but is he "_the_ vicar?"
+
+"Mr Burchell and Sophia"--A most charming illustration. It is the
+haymaking scene. "I could not avoid, however, observing the assiduity of
+Mr Burchell, in assisting my daughter Sophia in her part of the task."
+Sophia is a lovely creature, just what she should be. We are not quite
+sure of Mr Burchell: possibly he may look too young; he was a character,
+and must have borne about him some little acquired oddity, sturdy, and
+not undignified. In the illustration he is too prettily genteel; but we
+do not wish to see any but Sophia--delightful, loving, lovable Sophia.
+In the background, Moses lies on the ground with his book, and the vicar
+has rather too suspicious a look; but we can forgive him that, and, for
+Sophia's sake, forgive Mr Mulready that he has paid less attention to
+her admirer--for at present he is no more. But his admiration is better,
+and more to the purpose than other men's love.
+
+"Moses defeated in Argument, or rather borne down by the arrogant,
+ignorant volubility of the Squire."--"This effectually raised the laugh
+against poor Moses." It is well grouped; but the only successful figure
+is Moses. The squire is not the well-dressed, designing profligate. If
+the story were not well told by the grouping, we might have taken the
+squire for an itinerant "lecturer." The squire is so prominent a person
+in the tale, that we think there should have been a well-studied
+representation of the accomplished villain and fine gentleman.
+
+No. 8.--Beyond the skill in grouping, Mr Mulready has not attempted any
+great interest in this illustration. It represents the family, with
+their friend Burchell, interrupted in their enjoyment by the chaplain,
+or rather the chaplain's gun; for that only presents its muzzle. "So
+loud a report, and so near, startled my daughters; and I could perceive
+that Sophia, in the fright, had thrown herself into Mr Burchell's arms
+for protection." We do not recognize the alarmed and lovely Sophia--here
+she might be any miss; so that the greatest miss is Mr Mulready's, for
+he has missed an opportunity of showing the beauty of the sweet sisters
+in alarm. In this chapter, we have Goldsmith's delightful ballad, "Turn,
+gentle hermit of the dale." Surely this was worthy an illustration or
+two; and if Mr Mulready felt himself confined to the heads of chapters,
+might he not, for once, have made his digression from the tale, as
+Goldsmith has done, and given us that charming episode?
+
+"The Family Group on Horseback, going to Church."--"And when I got about
+halfway home, perceived the procession marching slowly forward towards
+the church." "The colt that had been nine years in the family, and
+Blackberry, his companion," are not the best horse-flesh. Mr Mulready
+does not draw the horse like Mr Herring; so, having failed in the feet
+of the colt, he has, though rather awkwardly, hidden Blackberry's behind
+a convenient stone, which yet makes us fear that the "family pride" will
+have a fall, and spare the Vicar's reproof. The party on Blackberry is
+good; and the patient, blind face of the animal is well attempted.
+
+"The Visit to Neighbour Flamborough's on Michaelmas Eve."--"But
+previously I should have mentioned the very impolitic behaviour of Mr
+Burchell, who, during this discourse, sat with his face turned to the
+fire; and, at the conclusion of every sentence, would cry out, 'Fudge!'"
+This is scarcely the subject of the illustration, for Mr Burchell is
+quite in the background. We should like to have seen his face. Miss
+Carolina Wilhelmina Amelia Skeggs is good; Lady Blarney is not the
+overdressed and overacting peeress. The whole is very nicely grouped.
+Perhaps we are not so pleased with this illustration, remembering
+Maclise's more finished picture of the subject.
+
+Moses departing for the "Fair." Hopeful and confident are the group, and
+not least so Moses himself. We fancy we recognize in Moses a similar
+figure in a sweet picture exhibited last year by Mr Stonhouse, one of
+the "Etching Club." We are not quite satisfied with the other
+figures--they all hide their faces, as well they might, for their
+simplicity in trusting to the "discreet boy" that can "buy and sell to
+very good advantage"--so off go Moses and the colt that had been nine
+years in the family. "We all followed him several paces from the door,
+bawling after him good-luck! good-luck! till we could see him no
+longer."
+
+No. 12 exhibits simplicity upon a larger scale, and shows the head of
+the family, verifying the old proverb, "like father like son"--though it
+should be here like son like father. The colt was fitly turned over to
+the son, grave blind Blackberry was a horse for the father's art and
+wisdom. "By this time I began to have a most hearty contempt for the
+poor animal myself, and was almost alarmed at the approach of every
+customer." Poor Blackberry! He is quite conscious of his depreciation;
+he is a wise animal, and can see that "with half an eye." Alas! we fear
+he has not that half. Blackberry is good--yet will he sell for nothing;
+how patiently he lets them handle his leg, and a handle it is; we can
+imagine the creature thinking, "pray, sir, would you like to look at the
+other poor thing of a leg?" The rascally Fair, in which Mr Mulready has
+shown, according to his author, that the Vicar ought not to have been,
+is well given; but we should have liked a full length portrait of Mr
+Jenkinson pronouncing [Greek: Anarchon ara chai atelentaion to pan.]
+
+The reading the letter, the well-known letter of Mr Burchell to "The
+Ladies." "There seemed, indeed, something applicable to both sides in
+this letter, and its censures might as well be referred to those to whom
+it was written, as to us; but the malicious meaning was obvious, and we
+went no further." This, as usual, is well grouped; the Vicar ponders,
+and cannot tell what to make of it. We should have preferred, as a
+subject, the Vicar confronting Mr Burchell, and the cool effrontery of
+the philosopher turning the tables upon the Vicar, "and how came you so
+basely to presume to break open this letter?" or better still, perhaps,
+the encounter of art between Mr Burchell and Mrs Deborah Primrose. And
+why have we not Dick's episode of the dwarf and the giant? Episodes are
+excellent things, as good for the illustrations as for the book. No. 14,
+the contrivance of Mrs Primrose to entrap the squire, properly belongs
+to another chapter. "Then the poor woman would sometimes tell the squire
+that she thought him and Olivia extremely of a size, and would bid both
+stand up to see which was tallest." The passage is nicely told; there
+is, however, but one figure to arrest attention, and that is quite
+right, for it is Olivia's, and a sweet figure it is. Dear Olivia! We
+have not seen her portrait before, and we shall love her, beyond "to the
+end of the chapter," to the end of the volume, and the more so, that
+hers after all was a hard fate. It is the part of the tale which leaves
+a melancholy impression; Goldsmith has so determined it--and to his
+judgment we bow implicitly. Had any other author so wretchedly disposed
+of his heroine, in a work not professedly tragic, we should have been
+pert as critics usually are. Mrs Primrose is certainly here too young.
+We cannot keep our eyes off Olivia; and see, the scoundrel has slyly
+taken her innocent hand, and the other is put up to her neck in such
+modest doubt of the liberty allowed. Here, as in other instances, the
+squire is not the well-dressed man of the world, whose gold lace had
+attracted Dick's attention. We could linger longer over this
+illustration, but must pass on--honest Burchell has been dismissed,
+villany has full sway. We must leave poor Olivia to her fate, and turn
+to the family picture "drawn by a limner;" capital--"limner" well
+suiting the intended satire--some say a good-natured, sly cut at Sir
+Joshua. We should certainly have had Mrs Primrose as Venus, and the two
+little ones as Cupids, and the Vicar presenting to her his books on the
+Whistonian controversy, and the squire as Alexander. Whoever wishes to
+see specimens of this kind may see some ludicrous ones at Hampton
+court--particularly of Queen Elizabeth, and the three goddesses abashed
+by her superiority. We thought to leave poor Olivia to her fate--Mr
+Mulready will not let us give her up so easily, and takes us to the
+scene of her quitting her home for her betrayer; and this is the subject
+of--
+
+"Yes, she is gone off with two gentlemen in a post-chaise; and one of
+them kissed her, and said he would die for her;" and there she is,
+hiding her beautiful face with her hands, and poor good Dick is pulling
+her back by her dress, that she may not go; but a villain's hand is
+round her waist, and one foot he has upon the step of the chaise, and
+the door is open. Poor Dick, you have nothing left you to do but to run
+home as fast as you can; and there you will find such a scene of
+innocent enjoyment, how to be marr'd! at the very moment, too, that the
+good Vicar had been feeling and saying, "I think myself happier now than
+the greatest monarch upon earth. He has no such fireside, nor such
+pleasant faces about it. We are descended from ancestors that knew no
+stain, and we shall leave a good and virtuous race of children behind
+us. While we live they will be our support and our pleasure here, and
+when we die they will transmit our honour untainted to posterity. Come,
+my son, we wait for a song: let us have a chorus. But where is my
+darling Olivia? That little cherub's voice is always sweetest in the
+concert." O Dick, Dick! at such a moment as this to run in and tell him
+to be miserable for ever; for that his cherub, his Olivia is gone, and
+gone, as it appears, to infamy, a thousand times more grievous than
+death. Was there ever so touching a scene?--Mr Mulready feared it. That
+is a wonderful chapter--the happiness is so domestically heightened,
+that the homefelt joy may be more instantly crushed. We know we shall
+not see dear darling Olivia again for a long, long time; and feel we
+want a pause and a little diversion--so we will go back to Bill the
+songster for amusement, and take it if we can; and here is for the
+purpose Bill's "Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog," alas! taught him, too,
+by honest Mr Williams; we only hope young, sturdy farmers have strong
+nerves, and don't break their hearts in love's disappointments. Here is
+Dick's Elegy; and as we, too, have a Moses at home of a "miscellaneous
+education," we will put on the Vicar's simplicity, and cheerful
+familiarity with his own flesh and blood--and thus we address our Moses,
+"Come, my boy, you are no hand at singing, so turn the Elegy another
+way: let us have a little Latin, for your music is Hexameter and
+Pentameter." Our Moses, "That's a hard task, sir, for one that cannot
+mount to Parnass Hill without his 'Gradus ad Parnassum.'" "Well, then
+get your Gradus, and put your foot in that first step of the ladder."
+Our Moses, waggishly--"I must mind my feet, sir, or they will be but
+lame verses, and go halting and hobbling--but I suppose you won't be
+very particular as to Latinity. I have heard you tell how Farmer
+Williams"--"No," said we, "not Williams, any other farmer you please;
+poor Williams is not likely to have any children; yet I know what you
+were going to say." "Farmer any body, then," said our Moses, "when he
+took his boy to school, left him with the master; and shortly returned
+to inform him, that, discoursing upon the subject at the 'public,' he
+had heard that there were two sorts of Latin, and so he brought the
+master a gammon of bacon, for he wished his son to have the best: now I
+think, sir, one of these two sorts must be 'dog Latin,' and that must be
+best fitted for the Elegy in question." Our Moses beats the Vicar's
+hollow in waggery, so we are proud of him. He takes after his mother. We
+condescended to be familiar enough to laugh. Now, then, Moses, to _your_
+task and we to _ours_. And here we are at--
+
+The scene of Mr Arnold and his family breaking in upon his butler
+personating his master, we are rather inclined to think a failure. There
+is Mr Mulready's good grouping, but somehow or other it is rather flat
+for so piquant an incident; "I was struck dumb with the apprehension of
+my own absurdity, when whom should I next see enter the room but my dear
+Miss Arabella Wilmot." We should like to have seen, in illustration, the
+political butler ordering the Vicar out of his house, or at least a more
+decided portrait of Arabella Wilmot. "Beauty is," as Miss Skeggs said of
+virtue, "worth any price;" and we are sorry to look about, and continue,
+in her words, "but where is that to be found?" What had Mr Mulready to
+do, that he would not let us have a sight of Arabella Wilmot. We,
+therefore, pass on to her lover, the Vicar's eldest son George,
+delivering his letter of recommendation to the nobleman's footmen, with
+his fee, which brings us to--
+
+"However, after bribing the servants with half my worldly fortune, I was
+at last shown into a spacious apartment, my letter being previously sent
+up for his lordship's inspection." The Vicar's son is a fine fellow in
+the illustration: we are glad to see him, but rather wish Mr Mulready
+had chosen a better subject. George's adventures were written with a
+nice satire; for Goldsmith knew what and whom he had to describe. The
+reasons why he would not do for an usher, are well put. Is it not
+possible that Mr Dickens took his first hint of Do-the-boys' Hall from
+reading this passage in Goldsmith? Indeed, there may be a suspicion that
+Mrs Primrose gave the idea of Mrs Nickleby, though he has made her an
+original. But to return to the traveller--we should like to have seen an
+"illustration" of his interview with the principal of the College of
+Louvain, a passage quite in the spirit of Le Sage. "The principal seemed
+at first to doubt my abilities; but of these I offered to convince him,
+by turning a part of any Greek author he should fix upon into Latin.
+Finding me perfectly earnest in my proposals he addressed me thus, 'You
+see, young man,' continued he, 'I never learned Greek, and I don't find
+that I have ever missed it. I have had a doctor's cap and gown without
+Greek; I have ten thousand florins a year without Greek; and, in short,'
+continued he, 'as I don't know Greek, I do not believe there is any good
+in it.'"
+
+The office of Mr Crispe, who fitted becoming situations upon every body.
+"There I found a number of poor creatures, all in circumstances like
+myself, expecting the arrival of Mr Crispe, presenting a true epitome of
+English impatience." And there is Mr Crispe himself, in the distance
+indeed, but certainly the principal figure. The expectants are good
+enough, but Mr Crispe, with his audacious, confident, deceitful face, is
+excellent; the fellow rattling the money in both his pockets, with
+fraud, successful laughing fraud filling out both his cheeks. The
+audacious wretch! little cares he for the miserable expectants whom he
+means to ship off to America and slavery. Preferring to see the Vicar's
+son among "the harmless peasants of Flanders," we turn over the leaves.
+
+Here is a delightful group,--a fine sturdy fellow holding his dog by a
+handkerchief through his collar, and how naturally the honest brute
+leans against his master, as claiming a sort of kindred--the expression
+of the young woman with the child in her arms, is attention and
+admiration. It is not quite certain that one of the loungers is pleased
+with that admiration. This is a pleasant scene, and happily illustrated.
+"I had some knowledge of music, with a tolerable voice, and now turned
+what was once my amusement into a present means of subsistence." That is
+a pleasant, happy scene, though the personages are the poorest. Of
+another character is the next scene, and quite other personages act in
+it; for we come again to poor Olivia in her distress, grossly, brutally
+insulted by the wealthy profligate.
+
+The profligate scoundrel in the very lowest baseness of his
+character.--It is poor Olivia speaks. "Thus each day I grew more
+pensive, and he more insolent, till at last the monster had the
+assurance to offer me to a young baronet of his acquaintance." This
+scene is not fit for picture; it is seemingly nothing but successful
+villany, and of too gay a cast to be pathetic. The chapter from which it
+is taken would have furnished a much better one--the meeting between the
+Vicar and his poor Olivia. We can bear the suffering of a Cordelia,
+because all in that is great though villany be successful; but there is
+a littleness in mere profligacy that infects even the victim. We could
+have wished that Mr Mulready had taken the "Meeting" for his
+illustration. How exquisitely beautiful is the text! The first impulse
+of affection is to forget, or instantly palliate the fault. "Welcome,
+any way welcome, my dearest lost one, my treasure, to your poor old
+father's bosom!" Then how exquisite her observance of the effect of
+grief upon the parent's appearance. "Surely you have too much wisdom to
+take the miseries of my guilt upon yourself." How timely has Goldsmith
+thrown in this, when we are most willing to catch at a straw of excuse
+for the lovely sufferer! No, we say, she never contemplated the misery
+she has inflicted; and then how natural is the instantaneous remembrance
+of her guilt! The taking it up and laying it down at a moment's call,
+from affection, is most touchingly beautiful. "Our wisdom, young woman,"
+replied I--"Ah, why so cold a name, papa?" cried she. "This is the first
+time you ever called me by so cold a name." "I ask pardon, my darling,"
+returned I; "but I was going to observe that wisdom makes but a slow
+defence against trouble, though at last a sure one." Admitting the
+subject chosen by Mr Mulready, we do not approve of his manner of
+telling it; we scarcely know which is the principal figure. Nor is
+Olivia's good. It has nothing of the madness the text speaks of. "My
+answer to this proposal was almost madness." We are glad to quit the
+scene, though our next step is into deeper misery; and--
+
+"The return of the Vicar to his home in flames," a pitiable sight; but
+here is the triumph of love over misery, and the subject is good. "Now,"
+cried I, holding up my children, "now let the flames burn on, and all my
+possessions perish." The scene is well told, and not the worse for a
+justifiable theft from Correggio in the fainting figure--it is the
+_mother_ in the Ecce Homo in the National Gallery. The failing of the
+hands at the moment of action, is true to the original and to nature. We
+rejoice that Mr Mulready did not take the return of Olivia as his
+subject. We should not like to see Mrs Primrose in that odious light;
+and though admirable in the tale, she is no favourite already. The
+parent had called his child, "woman--young woman"--the coldness passed
+away, and the word was changed for "darling." The word was again to be
+resumed, and how applied!--to the unforgiving--That even the Vicar's
+anger, we must rather say indignation, should be virtuous. "Ah, madam!"
+cried her mother, "this is but a poor place you have come to after so
+much finery. My daughter Sophy and I can afford but little entertainment
+to persons who have kept company only with people of distinction. Yes,
+Miss Livy, your poor father and I have suffered very much of late; but I
+hope Heaven will forgive you." Not a word of her own forgiving, not a
+word of endearment; and we suspect the word madam had, when written,
+more blame in it than it now retains--and how do the words "my daughter
+Sophy and I" cut off the forlorn one from the family!--and the plural
+"persons" avoiding the individuality, the personality of her daughter
+was another deep cut into the very flesh of the lost one's heart. Now
+then comes the reproof, and the good man shines in the glory of goodness
+and greatness, indignation for love's sake. "During this reception the
+unhappy victim stood pale and trembling, unable to weep or to reply; but
+I could not continue a silent spectator of her distress; wherefore,
+assuming a degree of severity in my voice and manner, which was ever
+followed with instant submission, 'I entreat, woman, that my words may
+be now marked once for all: I have brought you back a poor deluded
+wanderer: her return to duty demands the revival of our tenderness. The
+real hardships of life are now coming fast upon us; let us not therefore
+increase them by dissensions among each other." The words to the
+conclusion of the chapter should be written in letters of gold, were not
+the better place for them out of sight, upon the hearts of all; for none
+of us have too much charity, though some may have an excess of love.
+
+No. 22 is an affecting scene. The Vicar with his wounded arm is on his
+bed, with his distressed family about him. Olivia has fainted on hearing
+the news of her betrayer's intended marriage, and the mother is
+attending her. "My compassion for my poor daughter, overpowered by this
+new disaster, interrupted what I had further to observe. I bade her
+mother support her, and after a short time she recovered." The
+countenance of the Vicar in this scene is the best among the
+illustrations--of that good man enduring affliction, that sight worthy
+the gods to look at, as said the Stoic. But we that have human
+sympathies, would willingly turn away from such a sight; and where shall
+we find refuge? for sorrow is coming on--sorrow upon sorrow--an
+accumulation of miseries no Stoic would have borne; for he, with all his
+boasted indifference, would have borne them no longer, but ended them
+and life together, if he might so end them, as he thought. And now,
+happily, "_our_ Moses" comes to our relief, not with extracts from
+chapters on stoicism, or any other false philosophy, but holding up to
+us what he is pleased to call his "dogrel." So, between him and Bill the
+Songster, we will have a duet. But as we have no Bill present, we will
+take his part ourselves, and, like other acting substitutes, go through
+the part, reading. "Now we hope," addressing our Moses, "you have not
+lengthened out your Latin to four lines for the four short English in
+each stanza. If you have, to the flames with them!"
+
+_Our Moses_.--
+
+"CARMINA ELEGIACA IN MORTEM CUJUSDAM CANIS ISLINGTONIENSIS."
+
+(_We_.--Not in such a hurry--"An Elegy on the death of a mad dog;" and
+what made you put in Islingtoniensis? Well, I suppose you call that a
+Ciceronic flourish! Now, I will read the English--you the Latin.)
+
+    _We_.--Good people all, of every sort,
+             Give ear unto my song,
+           And if you find it wondrous short,
+             It cannot hold you long.
+
+    _Our Moses_.--Quotlibet huc, ubicunque hominum, auscultate canenti,
+                  Si breve vos teneam;--non ego longus ero.
+
+    _We_.--In Islington there was a man
+             Of whom the world might say,
+           That still a godly race he ran
+             Whene'er he went to pray.
+
+    _Our Moses_.--Quidam Islingtoniensis erat, quem donec adibat
+                  Templa pius, sacra diximus ire via.
+
+    _We_.--A kind and gentle heart he had
+             To comfort friends and foes;
+           The naked every day he clad
+             When he put on his clothes.
+
+    _Our Moses_.--Suavis amico, inimico, ita mitis, nudum ut amictu,
+                  Quum se vestibat, cotidie indueret.
+
+    _We_.--And in that town a dog was found,
+             As many dogs there be,
+           Both mongrel, puppy, whelp, and hound,
+             And curs of low degree.
+
+    _Our Moses_.--Et canis oppido eodem erat huic, ubi plurimus, et grex
+                  Et fæx, cum catulis plebs numerosa canum.
+
+    _We_.--This dog and man at first were friends,
+             But when a pique began,
+           The dog, to gain some private ends,
+             Went mad and bit the man.
+
+    _Our Moses_.--Grandis amicitia, at Canis, ut sibi gratificetur
+                  Fit rabidus, rabido dente hominemque petit.
+
+    _We_.--Around from all the neighbouring streets
+             The wondering neighbours ran,
+           And swore the dog had lost his wits,
+             To bite so good a man.
+
+    _Our Moses_.--Concurrunt cives, O illum Cerberun, at aiunt,
+                  Qualem amens rabido dense momordet herum.
+
+    _We_.--The wound it seem'd both sore and sad
+             To every Christian eye,
+           And while they swore the dog was mad,
+             They swore the man would die.
+
+    _Our Moses_.--O sævum vulnus, clamant lachrymosius omnes,
+                  En rabidus canis, et mox moriturus homo.
+
+    _We_.--But soon a wonder came to light,
+             That show'd the rogues they lied;
+           The man recover'd of the bite,
+             The dog it was that died.
+
+    _Our Moses_.--Mendaces cives monstrat res prodigiosa,
+                  Sanus homo subito fit--moriturque canis.
+
+"A very good boy, Bill, upon my word," said the Vicar, "and an Elegy
+that may truly be called tragical." So we present our Moses a sovereign
+for his verse--"A sovereign for a verse, my boy." "I will never," quoth
+he, "be averse to a sovereign. We have heard of a monarch who gave a
+crown for a song." A little refreshed, let us turn to the book. Here is
+
+No. 23.--Very well, Mr Mulready, artistically performed; but we fear we
+shall not relish too many of these distressing subjects. We know, from
+distress to distress, you will take us into prison. Artists and writers
+of the present day delight in prison scenes; we are not of that class,
+but endure it. We would on no account sit down with that
+rascally-looking fellow that is driving and taking an inventory of the
+Vicar's stock. It is winter too. "The consequence of my incapacity was
+his driving my cattle that evening, and their being appraised and sold
+the next day for less than half their value."
+
+No. 24--Is the attempt at a rescue. The Vicar represses and reproves the
+violence of his enraged parishioners. The drawing is good; but it is not
+a subject we delight to look at; and we begin to fear that further on we
+shall fare worse. Why did not Mr Mulready give us the interview between
+the Vicar and his old acquaintance, Mr Jenkinson? Artists of skill like
+to show it in grouping, and prefer that to giving character. "The
+consequences might have been fatal, had I not immediately interposed,
+and with some difficulty rescued the officers from the hands of the
+enraged multitude."
+
+"The Prison." We have little wish to stay there long, and look at the
+odious villains that surround the good man "paying his footing." "I was
+apprised of the usual perquisite required upon these occasions, and
+immediately complied with the demand, though the little money I had was
+nearly exhausted." The next illustration, too, takes us into equally bad
+company.
+
+The Vicar's attempt to reform the jail. The mockery, and roguery, and
+Vicar's perseverance, while a practised hand is picking his pocket--are
+admirably represented. "I therefore read them a portion of the service,
+with a loud unaffected voice, and found my audience perfectly merry upon
+the occasion."
+
+The penitent scene. "My design succeeded, and in less than six days some
+were penitent, and all attentive." We now began to say, what a happy
+thing it was that Dr Primrose was sent to jail. Doubtless Goldsmith
+intended to show how good comes out of evil. There are some good figures
+in this illustration.
+
+The seizure of poor Sophia--and very good it is--not that we
+congratulate Mr Mulready on his Sophia here; she is rather a vulgar
+dowdy figure, the others are very good, and the incident well told. "A
+post-chaise and pair drove up to them, and instantly stopped. Upon which
+a well-dressed man, but not Mr Thornhill, stepping out, clasped my
+daughter round the waist, and, forcing her in, bid the postilion drive
+on, so that they were out of sight in a moment." Now, Mr Mulready, in
+the next edition, you must positively illustrate the rescue by Mr
+Burchell.
+
+"The Vicar delivering his sermon"--Charmingly grouped are the attentive
+and subdued audience. Mrs Primrose is surely too young a figure. If we
+could get over our early impression of the Vicar's countenance, his
+figure here would probably please. "The prisoners assembled themselves
+according to my directions, for they loved to hear my counsel--my son
+and his mother supported me on either side."
+
+The return of dear Sophia, with her true but singular lover and
+deliverer--Perhaps the vicar takes it more coolly than the text
+justifies. "Just as he delivered this news, my dearest girl entered, and
+with looks almost wild with pleasure, ran to kiss me in a transport of
+action." There should have been an illustration of the scene where Mr
+Burchell is discovered to be Sir William Thornhill; and above all, where
+he proposes Jenkinson to Sophia.
+
+The complete detection of the squire's villainies, and his great
+disappointment. "And to convince you that I speak nothing but truth,
+here is the license by which you were married together." All here is
+good but the figure of the Squire. In appearance we are to presume that
+Squire Thornhill was a gentleman, or Miss Wilmot could not have endured
+his addresses, nor indeed would Olivia have been deceived by him. In
+this illustration he has neither the appearance, dress, nor attitude of
+one in that condition.
+
+The last illustration, or "All's Well that End's Well." It is, however,
+near ending badly, both as to the incident and the illustration--in the
+latter all is good, excepting only Arabella Wilmot; perhaps there is a
+defect in the printing, which gives her an odd look--but altogether she
+is not a good figure. She should have been elegance personified.
+Burchell looks the sturdy runner that could overtake the chaise, and
+rescue manfully his Sophia, to win and wear a favour, though he seems
+here in little hurry; but that is in character. "But as I stood all this
+time with my book ready, I was at last quite tired of the contest, and
+shutting it, 'I perceive,' cried I, 'that none of you have a mind to be
+married.'" We should like to have seen the dinner-party, and the two
+Miss Flamboroughs ready to die with laughing. "One jest I particularly
+remember: old Mr Wilmot drinking to Moses, whose head was turned another
+way, my son replied, 'Madam, I thank you.' Upon which the old gentleman,
+winking upon the rest of the company, observed that he was thinking of
+his mistress; at which jest I thought the two Miss Flamboroughs would
+have died with laughing." We should like to have seen their faces by Mr
+Mulready's hand, because we are sure that the two Miss Flamboroughs were
+thinking of themselves, in conjunction with Moses and the jest.
+
+We have noticed every illustration. We hope there will be another
+edition, and then we may have a few more plates. We have therefore, as
+we have gone on, ventured to suggest some subjects--but, above all, we
+would recommend Mr Mulready to supply a few portraits, heads only, such
+as that of the "Schoolmaster in the Deserted Village," by the Etching
+Club.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE ATTORNEY'S CLERK IN THE MONK'S HOOD.
+
+
+   "I thought of Chatterton, the marvellous boy--
+    The sleepless soul that perish'd in his pride."
+
+Had the "resolution and independence" which dignify the lowly, and
+strengthen the unhappy, when no visible eye befriends them, been among
+the rich endowments of Chatterton's wonderful mind--had he possessed and
+cherished the courage that bears up against obloquy and neglect--had he
+pursued the rough tenour of his way undaunted, in spite of "solitude,
+pain of heart, distress, and poverty," how different must have been the
+fate of the inspired boy of Bristol! He might be alive yet; he would be
+ninety years old, graced with honour, love, obedience, troops of
+friends, and all that should accompany old age. He might have achieved
+some great epic, or some gorgeous historical dramas,--have finished the
+Fairy Queen, or given us a Fairy King of his own creation.
+
+Among the lighter honours of social distinction, we can fancy his
+reception as a London "lion," by the fair and noble in proud places.
+Still pleasanter is the vision of his less public hours of idleness
+spent among congenial spirits. We can fancy him, the patriarch of living
+poets, seated as a guest at the breakfast-table of Samuel Rogers, who is
+about twelve years his junior, and those fine lads, Lisle Bowles, James
+Montgomery, and William Wordsworth, and those promising children, Tom
+Moore and Tom Campbell, and that braw chiel John Wilson--(_palmam qui
+meruit ferat_)--the youngest of the party something, perhaps, but not
+much, under seventy, except the bard of the Isle of Palms, who is no
+chicken; and unless the master of the feast have summoned those pretty
+babes from the Wood, the two Tennysons. But alas for Chatterton! the
+vision will not hold: he disappears from his chair at the feast, like
+Banquo--"and, when all's done, you look but on a stool." The ghost of
+the slayer of himself, after long haunting Strawberry Hill, to rebuke
+the senile complacency of the chronicler of royal and noble authors,
+repaired, after the death of that prosperous man of wit and fashion, to
+his native town, to prowl in Redcliff church, and about the graves of
+his fathers in its churchyard, and the graves which they had
+successively dug there during a century and a half. His bones were left
+to moulder among those of other pauper strangers in the burial-ground of
+Shoelane workhouse. We attach no credit to the story of the exhumation
+of his body, and its mysterious reinterment in Redcliff. His fathers
+were sextons; and he, too, was in some sort a sexton also--but
+spiritually and transcendantly. He buried his genius in the visionary
+grave of Rowley, "an old chest in an upper room over the chapel on the
+north side of Redcliff church;" and thence, most rare young conjurer, he
+evoked its spirit in the shape of fragments of law-parchment, quaintly
+inscribed with spells of verse and armorial hieroglyphics, to puzzle
+antiquaries and make fools of scholiasts. Puzzle them he did; and they
+could not forgive a clever stripling, whom hunger had tempted to don an
+ancient mask, and impose himself on their spectacled eyes as a reverend
+elder. Rogue!--vagabond! Profligate impostor! The slim, sleek,
+embroidered juggler of the Castle of Otranto had not a kind word for
+this ragged orphan of his own craft. He, whose ambition was to shine
+among writers who have given intellectual grace to their noble
+lineage--among whom assuredly he does and will shine--but whose acute
+consciousness of something meretricious in his metal, made him doubt if
+the public would accept coinage from his mint; and so caused him to wear
+tentative disguises, whether he elaborated a romance or a keen and
+playful witticism--and who really did injustice to his own powers,--not
+from modesty but meanness,--even he, the son of a prime minister and
+heir to a peerage--a man who was himself always something of a
+trickster, now mystifying a blind old woman at Paris; now sending open
+letters, privately nullified, recommending the bearers to his friend the
+envoy at Florence; now, with the mechanic aid of village carpenters and
+bricklayers, rearing a frail edifice bristling with false points, and
+persuading the world that it was all pure Gothic, perhaps chuckling at
+his assurance--even this shrewd mummer gravely shook his head at
+Chatterton, and frowned on him as a cheat! True; they were both cheats;
+Horace Walpole from apprehensive vanity; Chatterton from proud oblique
+humility. The Bristol boy knew his worth; but, doubting the equity as
+well as the sagacity of his judges, he did not venture to produce it as
+his own. He supposed that an obscure and penniless youth, such as he,
+could have little chance of attention or fair play in the world if he
+appeared in his proper character; so he painfully assumed another, of a
+nature that could not long have been supported even had he been a
+various linguist deeply versed in etymologies, and especially proficient
+in our extinct idioms, and their several dates of usage, instead of
+wanting even Latin enough to understand the easiest parts of Skinner's
+Etymology of the English tongue, one of the books that he consulted and
+guessed at.
+
+Of all modern suicides this youth was the most interesting; of all
+literary impostors the least unpardonable, though his ways were,
+unhappily for himself, of indefensible crookedness. He neither ascribed
+his fictions to a great name as Ireland did, nor did he, like
+Macpherson, steal the heart out of national ballads and traditions, to
+stuff a Bombastes Penseroso of his own making.
+
+Any competent, yet moderately indulgent reader, who should for the first
+time take up Chatterton's works, and beginning at the beginning, in
+Tyrwhitt's first edition, for example, peruse no more than sixty or
+seventy pages, would probably lay down the volume somewhat disappointed
+not to have found the very extraordinary merit he had expected. The
+compositions that this partial examination would take in are
+three--Eclogues, Elinour and Juga, Verses to Lydgate, with Song to Ella,
+Lydgate's Answer, and the Tournament.
+
+The first Eclogue is a conversation between two fugitive shepherds, who
+bewail the wretched condition to which the barons' wars have reduced
+them. It contains some pleasing lines.
+
+As the rustics discuss their grievances in a valley under cover of
+
+                    "... Eve's mantle gray,
+      The rustling leaves do their white hearts affray.
+    They regret the pleasures of their forsaken home,
+      ... the kingcup decked mees,
+      The spreading flocks of sheep of lily white,
+      The tender applings and embodied trees,
+      The parker's grange, far spreading to the sight,
+      The gentle kine, the bullocks strong in fight,
+      The garden whiten'd with the comfrey plant,
+      The flowers Saint Mary shooting with the light--
+          ...
+      The far-seen groves around the hermit's cell,
+      The merry fiddle dinning up the dell,
+      The joyous dancing in the hostry court--
+    But now,
+               high song and every joy farewell,
+      Farewell the very shade of fair disport."
+
+In the second Eclogue, a good son invokes blessings on his father, who
+is gone with the crusaders to Palestine. He describes with much
+animation the voyage, the landing in Syria, the warring Saracens, King
+Richard of lion's heart, and anticipates victory and the return to
+England.
+
+   "Thus Nigel said, when from the azure sea
+    The swollen sail did dance before his eyne.
+    Swift as the wish he to the beach did fly,
+    And found his father stepping from the brine.
+    Sprites of the blest, the pious Nigel said,
+    Pour out your pleasance on my father's head!"
+
+The third Eclogue, if divested of certain exuberances--for Chatterton
+was precocious in every thing, and many of his fancies want the Bowdler
+pruning-knife--might be seasonably transferred to some of the penny
+publications for the benefit of Mr Frost's disciples. A poor man and
+woman, on their way to the parson's hayfield, complain to each other of
+their hard lot in being obliged to earn their bread by the sweat of
+their brows. "Why," asks the woman, "should I be more obligated to work
+than the fine Dame Agnes? What is she more than me? The man, unable to
+solve so knotty a point, says he doesn't see how he himself is not as
+good as a lord's son, but he will ask Sir Roger the parson, whom he
+consults accordingly.
+
+        "_Man_.--By your priestship now say unto me,
+                 Sir Godfrey the knight, who liveth hard by,
+                      Why should he than me
+                              Be more great
+                 In honour, knighthood, and estate?
+
+  "_Sir Roger_.--If thou hast ease, the shadow of content,
+                 Believe the truth, none happier is than thee.
+                 Thou workest well; can that a trouble be?
+                 Sloth more would jade thee than the roughest day.
+                 Could'st thou the secret minds of others see,
+                 Thou would'st full soon see truth in what I say.
+                 But let me hear thy way of life, and then
+                 Hear thou from me the lives of richer men.
+
+        "_Man_.--I rise with the sun,
+                 Like him to drive the wain,
+                 And, ere my work is done,
+                 I sing a song or twain.
+                 I follow the plough-tail
+                 With a bottle of ale.
+                 On every saint's day
+                 With the minstrel I'm seen,
+                 All footing away
+                 With the maids on the green.
+               But oh, I wish to be more great,
+               In honour, station, and estate!
+
+    "_Sir Roger_.--Hast thou not seen a tree upon a hill,
+                   Whose ample boughs stretch wide around to sight?
+                   When angry tempests do the heavens fill,
+                   It shaketh drear, in dole and much affright:
+                   While the small flower in lowly graces deck'd
+                   Standeth unhurt, untroubled by the storm.
+                   The picture such of life. The man of might
+                   Is tempest-chafed, his woe great as his form;
+                   Thyself, a floweret of small account,
+                 Would harder feel the wind as higher thou didst mount."
+
+Sir Roger's moral is trite enough, yet it seems to have escaped the
+consideration of our Chartists and Socialists.
+
+Elinour the nut-brown, and Juga the fair, are two pining maidens, who,
+seated on the banks of the Redbourne, a river near St Alban's, are each
+bemoaning their lovers, gone to fight in that neighbourhood for the Rose
+of York. Presently, racked with suspense, they hasten nearer to the
+scene of action.
+
+   "_Like twain of clouds that hold the stormy rain,
+    They moved gently o'er the dewy meads_
+    To where Saint Alban's holy shrines remain.
+    There did they find that both their knights were slain.
+    Distraught they wander'd to swoln Redbourne's side,
+    Yell'd there their deadly knell, sank in the waves, and died."
+
+The verses to Lydgate consist of ten lines of no merit at all, and
+supposed to be sent to him by Rowley, with the Ode to Ella, which has a
+movement that recalls Collins, a lyrical artist perhaps unexcelled in
+our language, and in whose manner Chatterton so obviously and frequently
+composes, that the fact alone might have settled the Rowley question,
+though we are not aware that it was ever particularly insisted on in the
+controversy.
+
+    "Oh Thou, or what remains of Thee,
+        Ella! the darling of futurity,
+    Let this my song bold as thy courage be,
+        As everlasting to posterity--
+
+    "When Dacia's sons, with hair of blood-red hue,
+    Like kingcups glittering with the morning dew,
+        Arranged in drear array,
+        Upon the fatal day,
+    Spread far and wide on Watchet's shore,
+        Then didst thou furious stand,
+        And by thy valiant hand
+    Besprinkle all the meads with gore.
+
+       "Driven by thy broadsword fell,
+        Down to the depths of hell,
+          Thousands of Dacians went.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+       "Oh Thou, where'er, thy bones at rest,
+        Thy sprite to haunt delighteth best,
+    Whether upon the blood-embrued plain--
+        Or where thou ken'st from far,
+        The dismal cry of war,
+    _Or see'st some mountain made of corses slain,_
+
+       "Or see'st the war-clad steed
+        That prances o'er the mead,
+    And neighs to be among the pointed spears--
+        Or in black armour stalk around
+        Embattled Bristol, once thy ground,
+    Or haunt with lurid glow the castle stairs,
+
+       "Or, fiery, round the Minster glare!
+        Let Bristol still be made thy care;
+    Guard it from foeman and consuming fire;
+        Like Avon's stream embrace it round,
+        Nor let a sparkle harm the ground,
+    Till in one flame the total world expire."
+
+The quatrains entitled Lydgate's answer, are amply complimentary on the
+foregoing song, but otherwise as prosaic as the lines that introduce it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    "Among the Grecians Homer was
+      A poet much renown'd;
+    Among the Latins _Virgilius_
+      Was best of poets found.
+
+    "The British Merlin often had
+      The gift of inspiration;
+    And Afled to the Saxon men
+      Did sing with animation.
+
+    "In Norman times Turgotus and
+      Good Chaucer did excel;
+    Then Stowe, the Bristol Carmelite,
+      Did bear away the bell.
+
+    "Now Rowley, in these murky days,
+      Sends out his shining lights,
+    And Turgotus and Chaucer live
+      In every line he writes."
+
+The next is the Tournament, an interlude. Sir Simon de Burton, its hero,
+is supposed to have been the first founder, in accomplishment of a vow
+made on the occasion, of a church dedicated to _Our Lady_, in the place
+where the church of St Mary Redcliff now stands. There is life and force
+in the details of this tourney; and the songs of the minstrel are good,
+especially the first, which is a gallant hunting stave in honour of
+William the Red King, who hunts the stag, the wolf, and "the _lion_
+brought from sultry lands." The sentiment conveyed in the burden of this
+spirited chorus sounds oddly considerate, as the command issued by
+William Rufus:--
+
+    "Go, rouse the lion from his hidden den,
+    Let thy darts drink the blood of any thing but men."
+
+To the paternity of the next in order--the Bristol Tragedy, or Death of
+Sir Charles Baldwin--Chatterton confessed; and such an admission might
+have satisfied any one but Dean Milles. The language is modern--the
+measure flowing without interruption; and, though the orthography
+affects to be antiquated, there is but one word (bataunt) in the whole
+series of quatrains, ninety-eight in number, that would embarrass any
+reader in his teens; though a boy that could generate such a poem as
+that, might well be believed the father of other giants whom he chose to
+disown. It is a masterpiece in its kind, almost unexceptionable in all
+its parts. The subject is supposed to have been suggested by the fate of
+Sir Baldwin Fulford, a zealous Lancastrian, beheaded at Bristol in 1461,
+the first year of the reign of Edward IV., who, it is believed, was
+actually present at the execution.
+
+Now comes Ella, a tragical interlude, or discoursing tragedy, by Thomas
+Rowley, prefaced by two letters to Master Canning, and an introduction.
+In the first letter, among various sarcasms on the age, is one,
+complaining that
+
+    "In holy priest appears the baron's pride."
+
+A proposition, we fear, at least as true in our day as in the fifteenth
+century. From the same epistle we would recommend to the consideration
+of the Pontius Pilates of our era, the numerous poets who choose none
+but awfully perilous themes, and who re-enact tremendous mysteries more
+confidently than if they were all Miltons, the annexed judicious
+admonition:--
+
+    "Plays made from holy tales I hold unmeet;
+      Let some great story of a man be sung;
+    When as a man we God and Jesus treat,
+      In my poor mind we do the Godhead wrong."
+
+And the following piece of advice, from the same letter, would not be
+ill bestowed on modern shopocracy:--
+
+    "Let kings and rulers, when they gain a throne,
+      Show what their grandsires and great-grandsires bore;
+    Let trades' and towns'-folk let such things alone,
+      Nor fight for sable on a field of ore."
+
+Yet he who could give this sensible counsel did by no means follow it.
+Chatterton, who really could trace back his ancestors for 150 years as a
+family of gravediggers, drew out for himself a pedigree which would have
+astonished Garter king-at-arms, and almost abashed a Welsh or German
+genealogy. He derived his descent from Sire de Chasteautonne, of the
+house of Rollo, the first Duke of Normandy, who made an incursion on the
+coast of Britain in the ninth century, and was driven away by Alfred the
+Great! Nine shields, exhibiting the family arms, were carefully prepared
+by him, and are preserved, with many other and very various inventions
+by the same hand, in the British Museum; and neat engravings of those
+Chatterton escutcheons are furnished by Mr Cottle, in his excellent
+essays on this tortuous genius. He was equally liberal in providing a
+pedigree for his friend Mr Burgham, a worthy and credulous pewterer in
+his native town, convincing him, by proofs that were not conclusive at
+the Herald's College, that he was descended from the De Burghams, who
+possessed the estate and manor of Brougham in the reign of Edward the
+Confessor, and so allying the delighted hearer with the forefathers of
+an illustrious Ex-Chancellor of our day. No less a personage, too, than
+Fitz-Stephen, son of Stephen Earl of Ammerle in 1095, grandson of Od,
+Earl of Bloys and Lord of Holderness, was the progenitor gravely
+assigned to Chatterton's relative, Mr Stephens, leather-breeches-maker
+of Salisbury. Evidence of all sorts was ever ready among the treasures
+in the Redcliff muniment room, the Blue-Coat boy's "Open Sesame!"
+
+The plot of Ella may be told in a few words. Ella, a renowned English
+warrior, the same who is invoked in the fine song already quoted,
+marries Bertha, of whom his friend and fellow warrior, Celmond, is
+secretly enamoured. On the wedding-day he is called suddenly away to
+oppose a Danish force, which he defeats, but not without receiving
+wounds severe enough to prevent his immediate return home. Celmond takes
+advantage of this circumstance, and under pretence of conducting Bertha
+to her husband, betrays her into a forest that chances to be the covert
+of Hurra, the Danish general, and other of the discomfited invaders. Her
+shrieks bring Hurra and his companions to her aid. They kill Celmond,
+and generously resolve to restore Bertha to her lord. He in the mean
+time, impatient to rejoin his bride, has contrived to get home, where,
+when he hears of her ill-explained departure, believing her false, he
+stabs himself. She arrives only in time to see him die.
+
+Celmond, soliloquizing on the charms of Bertha, exclaims,--
+
+    "Ah, Bertha, why did nature frame thee fair?
+    Why art thou not as coarse as others are?
+    _But then thy soul would through thy visage shine_;
+    Like nut-brown cloud when by the sun made red,
+    So would thy spirit on thy visage spread."
+
+At the wedding-feast, so unexpectedly interrupted by news of the Danes,
+the following pretty stanzas are sung by minstrels representing a young
+man and woman.
+
+     "_Man_.--Turn thee to thy shepherd swain;
+              Bright sun has not drunk the dew
+              From the flowers of yellow hue;
+              Turn thee, Alice, back again.
+
+    _Woman_.--No, deceiver, I will go,
+              Softly tripping o'er the mees,
+              Like the silver-footed doe
+              Seeking shelter in green trees.
+
+      _Man_.--See the moss-grown daisied bank
+              Peering in the stream below;
+              Here we'll sit in dewy dank,
+              Turn thee, Alice: do not go.
+
+    _Woman_.--I've heard erst my grandam say
+              That young damsels should not be,
+              In the balmy month of May,
+              With young men by the greenwood tree.
+
+      _Man_.--Sit thee, Alice, sit and hark
+              How the blackbird chants his note,
+              The goldfinch and the gray-morn lark,
+              Shrilling from their little throat.
+
+    _Woman_.--I hear them from each greenwood tree
+              Chanting out so lustily,
+              Telling lectures unto me,
+              Mischief is when you are nigh.
+
+      _Man_.--See, along the mends so green
+              Pièd daisies, kingcups sweet,
+              All we see; by none are seen;
+              None but sheep set here their feet.
+
+    _Woman_.--Shepherd swain, you tear my sleeve;
+              Out upon you! let me go;
+              Keep your distance, by your leave,
+              Till Sir Priest make one of two.
+
+      _Man_.--By our lady and her bairn,
+              To-morrow, soon as it is day,
+              I'll make thee wife, nor be forsworn,
+              So may I live or die for aye.
+
+    _Woman_.--What doth hinder but that now
+              We at once, thus hand in hand,
+              Unto a divine do go,
+              And be link'd in wedlock-band?
+                          (Sensible woman!)
+
+      _Man_.--I agree, and thus I plight
+              Hand and heart and all that's mine.
+              Good Sir Herbert do us right,
+              Make us one at Cuthbert's shrine.
+
+     _Both_.--We will in a cottage live,
+              Happy though of no estate;
+              Every hour more love shall give;
+              We in goodness will be great."
+
+The two Danish generals, Hurra and Magnus, warm their blood to the
+fighting temperature before the battle by quarreling with and abusing
+each other, like Grecian heroes. They are both bullies, but Hurra is
+brave and Magnus a craven. Chatterton's sarcastic humour plays them off
+admirably. The result of the struggle between the two armies is pithily
+announced by one of the fugitives:--
+
+   "Fly, fly, ye Danes! Magnus the chief is slain;
+    The Saxons come with Ella at their head:
+    Fly, fly, _this is the kingdom of the dead_."
+
+In this drama is the exquisite melody, "O, sing unto my roundelay!" with
+which every one is familiar, as it is introduced into all our popular
+selections from the poets.
+
+Here is a cunning description of dawn.
+
+   "The morn begins along the east to sheen,
+    _Darkling the light doth on the waters play_;
+    The faint red flame slow creepeth o'er the green,
+    To chase the murkiness of night away,
+    Swift flies the hour that will bring out the day.
+    The soft dew falleth on the greening grass;
+    The shepherd-maiden, dighting her array,
+    _Scarce sees her visage in the wavy glass_."
+
+Such extracts do not, and are not intended to, convey any notion of
+Chatterton's dramatic power in this play. Mere extracts would not do
+justice to that, and therefore we confine ourselves to selections of a
+few out of many passages that can stand independent of plot or action,
+without detriment to their effect. The same remark will not apply to the
+next piece, or rather fragment. Godwin, a Tragedy, by Thomas Rowley. It
+is short, and the dramatic interest weak. In the following noble chorus,
+however, we recognise the genius of Chatterton:--
+
+    "When Freedom, drest in blood-stained vest,
+      To every knight her war-song sung,
+    Upon her head wild weeds were spread,
+      A gory broadsword by her hung.
+            She paced along the heath,
+            She heard the voice of death.
+
+    "Pale-eyed Affright, his heart of silver hue,
+      In vain essay'd her bosom to congeal:
+    She heard inflamed the shrieking voice of Woe,
+      And cry of owls along the sadden'd vale.
+            She shook the pointed spear,
+              On high she raised her shield;
+            Her foemen all appear,
+              And fly along the field.
+
+    "Power, with his head uplifted to the skies,
+      His spear a sunbeam and his shield a star,
+    Like two bright-burning meteors rolls his eyes,
+      Stamps with his iron feet, and sounds to war.
+            She sits upon a rock,
+              She bends before his spear,
+            She rises from the shock,
+              Wielding her own in air.
+
+    "Hard as the thunder doth she drive it on;
+      Keen wit, cross muffled, guides it to his crown;
+    His long sharp spear, his spreading shield are goe;
+      He falls, and falling rolleth thousands down."
+
+A short prologue by Master William Canning, informs us that this tragedy
+of Godwin was designed to vindicate the Kentish earl's memory from
+prejudices raised against him by monkish writers, who had mistaken his
+character, and accused him of ungodliness "for that he gifted not the
+church." There are but three scenes in the play. In the first, Godwin
+and Harold confer together on the distressed state of the nation, and
+the weakness of the king, whose court is overrun with Norman favourites
+to the exclusion of the English knights, and the great oppression of the
+people. Harold, young and impetuous, is for instant rebellion; but the
+father tries to moderate his rage, recommending patience and calm
+preparation.
+
+   "_Godwin_.--What tidings from the king?
+    _Harold_.--                          His Normans know.
+    _Godwin_.--What tidings of the people?
+    _Harold_.--Still murmuring at their fate, still to the king
+                 They roll their troubles like a surging sea.
+               Has England, then, a tongue but not a sting?
+                 Do all complain, yet will none righted be?
+    _Godwin_.--Await the time when God will send us aid.
+    _Harold_.--Must we, then, drowse away the weary hours?
+                 I'll free my country, or I'll die in fight.
+    _Godwin_.--But let us wait until some season fit.
+                 _My_ Kentishmen, _thy_ Somertons shall rise,
+                 Their prowess warmer for the cloak of wit,
+                 Again the argent horse shall prance in skies."
+
+An allusion, says Chatterton, to the arms of Kent, a horse salient,
+argent. As to the cloak of wit, it may possibly be preserved in
+Somersetshire; but the mantle certainly was not tied as an indefeasible
+heirloom over the broad shoulders of the county of Kent. No ancient
+Saxons, or even Britons, ever displayed prowess so stolid as those brave
+wild-wood savages of Boughton Blean, near Canterbury, who recently fell
+in battle with her Majesty's 45th regiment, opposing sticks to balls and
+bayonets, under their doughty leader Sir William Courtenay, Earl of
+Devonshire, Knight of Malta, King of Jerusalem, and much more. And there
+were other blockheads, substantial dunces, of respectable station in
+East Kent, among this ignorant and ambitious madman's supporters; men
+who had been at school to little purpose. Such an insurrection of
+satyrs, and such a Pan, in the middle of the nineteenth century, within
+earshot of the bells of Christchurch! But this by the bye.
+
+The next poem is styled English Metamorphosis, by T. Rowley. It consists
+of eleven stanzas of ten lines each, all fluent and spirited, and some
+of very superior merit. It is the fable of Sabrina, Milton's "daughter
+of Locrine," transliquefied to the river Severn, while her mother,
+Elstrida, was changed to the ridge of stones that rises on either side
+of it, Vincent's rocks at Clifton, and their enemy, the giant, was
+transformed to the mountain Snowdon. This giant was a very Enceladus.
+
+   "He tore a ragged mountain from the ground;
+    Hurried up nodding forests to the sky:
+    Then with a fury that might earth astound,
+    To middle air he let the mountain fly,
+    _The flying wolves sent forth a yelling cry_."
+
+In illustration of Elstrida's beauty,--
+
+   "The morning tinge, the rose, the lily flower,
+    In ever-running race on her did paint their power."
+
+The most vulgar and outworn simile is refreshed with a grace by the
+touch of Chatterton.
+
+Of the next poem--An excellent ballad of Charity, by the good priest,
+Thomas Rowley, 1454--it is clear that the young author thought highly,
+by a note that he transmitted with it to the printer of the "Town and
+Country Magazine," July 4, 1770, the month preceding that of his death.
+Unlike too many bearers of sounding appellations, it has certainly
+something more than its title to recommend it.
+
+The octosyllabic lines--twenty only--on Redcliff Church, by T.R., show
+what nice feeling Chatterton had for the delicacies of that florid
+architecture:--
+
+   "The cunning handiwork so fine,
+    Had wellnigh dazzled mine eyne.
+    Quoth I, some artful fairy hand
+    Uprear'd this chapel in this land.
+    Full well I know so fine a sight,
+    Was never raised by mortal wight."
+
+Of its majesty he speaks in another measure:--
+
+    "Stay, curious traveller, and pass not by
+      Until this festive pile astound thine eye.
+    Whole rocks on rocks, with iron join'd, survey;
+      And oaks with oaks that interfitted lie;
+    This mighty pile that keeps the winds at bay,
+      And doth the lightning and the storm defy,
+    That shoots aloft into the realms of day,
+      Shall be the record of the builder's fame for aye.
+        Thou see'st this mastery of a human hand,
+        The pride of Bristol, and the western land.
+    Yet is the builder's virtue much more great;
+      Greater than can by Rowley's pen be scann'd.
+    Thou see'st _the saints and kings in stony state,
+      As if with breath and human soul expand_.
+        Well may'st thou be astounded--view it well;
+        Go not from hence before thou see thy fill,
+    And learn the builder's virtues and his name.
+      Of this tall spire in every country tell,
+    And with thy tale the lazy rich men shame;
+      Show how the glorious Canning did excel;
+        How he, good man, a friend for kings became,
+        And glorious paved at once the way to heaven and fame."
+
+The "Battle of Hastings" is the longest of Chatterton's poems, and the
+reader who arrives at its abrupt termination will probably not grieve
+that it is left unfinished. The whole contains about 1300 lines in
+stanzas of ten, describing archery fights and heroic duels that are
+rather tedious by their similarity, and offensive from the smell of the
+shambles; and which any quick-witted stripling with the knack of rhyming
+might perhaps have done as well, and less coarsely, after reading
+Chapman's or Ogilby's Homer, or the fighting scenes in Spenser, the
+Border Ballads, &c. But even this composition is not unconscious of the
+true afflatus, such as is incommunicable by learning, not to be inhaled
+by mere imitative powers, and which might be vainly sought for in
+hundreds of highly elaborated prize poems.
+
+There is nothing more interesting in British history than the subject;
+and it is one which Chatterton, with all his genius, was much too young
+to treat in a manner at all approaching to epic completeness. Yet a few
+specimens might show that he is not deficient in the energy of the
+Homeric poetry of action. But here is metal more attractive, a young
+Saxon wife:--
+
+   "White as the chalky cliffs of Britain's isle,
+    Red as the highest-coloured Gallic wine,
+    Gay as all nature at the morning smile,
+    Those hues with pleasance on her lips combine;
+    Her lips more red than summer evening's skies,
+    Or Phoebus rising in a frosty morn;
+    Her breast more white than snow in fields that lies,
+    Or lily lambs that never have been shorn,
+    Swelling like bubbles in a boiling well,
+    Or new-burst brooklets gentling whispering in the dell,
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+   "Brown as the filbert dropping from the shell,
+    Brown as the nappy ale at Hocktide game--
+    So brown the crooked rings that neatly fell
+    Over the neck of that all-beauteous dame.
+    Grey as the morn before the ruddy flame
+    Of Phoebus' chariot rolling through the sky;
+    Grey as the steel-horn'd goats Conyan made tame--
+    So grey appear'd her featly sparkling eye.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+   "Majestic as the grove of oaks that stood
+    Before the abbey built by Oswald king;
+    Majestic as Hibernia's holy wood,
+    Where saints, and souls departed, masses sing--
+    Such awe from her sweet look far issuing,
+    At once for reverence and love did call.
+    Sweet as the voice of thrushes in the spring,
+    So sweet the words that from her lips did fall.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    "Taper as candles laid at Cuthbert's shrine,
+    Taper as silver chalices for wine,
+    So were her arms and shape.--
+    As skilful miners by the stones above
+    Can ken what metal is inlaid below,
+    So Kennewalcha's face, design'd for love,
+    The lovely image of her soul did show.
+    Thus was she outward form'd; the sun, her mind,
+    Did gild her mortal shape and all her charms refined."
+
+The next poem, and the last of the _modern-antiques_ that it may be
+worth while to note, is the story of William Canning, the illustrious
+founder of Redcliff Church, and is worthy of the author and his subject.
+
+   "Anent a brooklet as I lay reclined,
+    Listening to hear the water glide along,
+    Minding how thorough the green meads it twined,
+    While caves responded to its muttering song,
+    To distant-rising Avon as it sped,
+    Where, among hills, the river show'd his head.
+
+    Engarlanded with crowns of osier-weeds,
+    And wreaths of alders of a pleasant scent.
+
+   "Then from the distant stream arose a maid,
+    Whose gentle tresses moved not to the wind.
+    Like to the silver moon in frosty night,
+    The damsel did come on so blithe and bright.
+    No broider'd mantle of a scarlet hue,
+    No peakèd shoon with plaited riband gear,
+    No costly paraments of woaden blue;
+    Nought of a dress but beauty did she wear;
+    Naked she was, and looked sweet of youth,
+    And all betoken'd that her name was Truth."
+
+The few words then spoken by this angelical lady--who unhappily favoured
+Chatterton but with "angel visits, short and far between"--throw him
+into a reverie on the life of William Canning, whose boyhood was more
+fortunate than the poet's; for it is here reported of Canning, that
+
+    "He ate down learning with the wastlecake."
+
+Chatterton, poor fellow, had neither fine bread to eat, nor fine
+learning within the possibility of his acquisition. Yet even the worthy
+Corporation of his native city will, we doubt not, be willing to allow
+that the Blue-Coat Charity boy might be entitled to the praise he gives
+Canning in the next couplet: that he--
+
+    "As wise as any of the Aldermen,
+    Had wit enough to make a Mayor at ten."
+
+We have limited these slight notices to the Rowley Poems; and such
+readers of our extracts as have been repelled from the perusal of those
+poems, by the formidable array of uncouth diction and strange spelling,
+may enquire what has become of the hard words. Here are long quotations,
+and not an obsolete term or unfamiliar metre among them. Chatterton took
+great pains to encrust his gold with verd-antique; it requires little to
+remove the green rubbish from the coin. By the aid of little else than
+his own glossary, "the Gode Preeste Rowleie, Aucthoure," is restored to
+his true form and pressure, and is all the fairer for the renovation.
+
+We have no space for examination of the "numerous verse," and verses
+numerous, that Chatterton left undisguised by barbarous phraseology. His
+modern poems, morally exceptionable as is much of the matter, are
+affluent of the genius that inspired the old. African Eclogues, Elegies,
+Political Satires, Amatory Triflings, Lines on the Copernican System,
+the Consuliad, Lines on Happiness, _Resignation_, The Art of Puffing,
+and Kew Gardens--to say nothing of his equally remarkable prose
+writings--attest the versatility of his powers, and the variety of his
+perception of men and manners. His knowledge of the world appears to
+have been almost intuitive; for surely no youth of his years ever
+displayed so much. Bristol, it is true, was, of all great towns in
+England, one of the most favourable to the development of his peculiar
+and complicated faculties. His passion for antiquarian lore, and his
+poetical enthusiasm, found a nursing mother in a city so rich in ancient
+architecture, heraldic monuments, and historical interest; his caustic
+humour was amply fed from the full tide of human life, with all its
+follies, in that populous mart; and his exquisite sensibility to the
+beautiful and magnificent in nature, was abundantly ministered to by the
+surrounding country. We are told that he had been by some odd chance
+taught his alphabet, and his first lesson in "reading made easy," out of
+a black-letter Bible! That accident may have had its share in forming
+his taste for old-fashioned literature. But he was an attorney's clerk!
+The very name of a lawyer's office seems to suggest a writ of ejectment
+against all poetical influences in the brain of his indented apprentice.
+Yet Chatterton's anomalous genius was in all likelihood fostered by that
+dark, yet subtle atmosphere. His duty of copying precedents must have
+initiated him in many of the astute wiles and twisted lines of reasoning
+that lead to what is termed sharp practice, and so may have confirmed
+and aided his propensities to artifice; while the mere manual operation
+tutored his fingers to dexterity at quaint penmanship. He had much
+leisure too; for it is recorded that his master's business seldom
+occupied him more than two hours a-day. He was left to devote the rest
+of his time unquestioned to all the devices of an inordinate
+imagination.
+
+After all, it is no unreasonable charity to believe, that what was
+unworthy and unsound in his character, and probably in his physical
+temperament, might, under more auspicious circumstances of condition and
+training, have been kept in check till utterly expelled by the force of
+his own maturer mind. In weighing his faults against his genius and its
+better fruits, it should never be forgotten that when he terminated his
+existence he was only seventeen years and nine months old.
+
+   "More wounds than nature gave he knew,
+    While misery's form his fancy drew
+    In dark ideal hues and horrors not its own."[39]
+
+May we not even dare to hope, then, though he "perished in his pride,"
+that he is still a living genius, assoiled of that foul stain of
+self-murder, and a chartered spiritualized melody where want and trouble
+madden not?
+
+    [39] T. Warton's "Suicide."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+IGNACIO GUERRA AND EL SANGRADOR;
+
+A TALE OF CIVIL WAR.
+
+
+On a June evening in the year 1839, four persons were assembled in the
+balcony of a pleasant little villa, some half-league from the town of
+Logroño in Navarre. The site of the house in question was a narrow
+valley, formed by a double range of wood-covered hills, the lower limbs
+of a mountain chain that bounded the horizon some miles in rear of the
+villa. The house itself was a long, low building, of which the white
+stone walls had acquired the mellow tint that time and exposure to the
+seasons can alone impart. A solid balcony of carved unpainted oak ran
+completely round the house, its breadth preventing the rays of the sun
+from entering the rooms on the ground floor, and thereby converting them
+into a cool and delightful refuge from the heats of summer. The windows
+of the first and only story opened upon this balcony, which, in its
+turn, received shelter from a roof of yellow canes, laid side by side,
+and fastened by innumerable packthreads, in the same way as Indian
+matting. This sort of awning was supported by light wooden pillars,
+placed at distances of five or six feet from each other, and
+corresponding with the more massive columns that sustained the balcony.
+At the foot of these latter, various creeping plants had taken root. A
+broad-leafed vine pushed its knotty branches and curled tendrils up to
+the very roof of the dwelling, and a passion-flower displayed its
+mystical purple blossoms nearly at as great a height; while the small
+white stars of the jasmine glittered among its narrow dark-green leaves,
+and every passing breeze wafted the scent of the honeysuckle and
+clematis through the open windows, in puffs of overpowering fragrance.
+
+About two hundred yards to the right of the house, rose one of the
+ranges of hills already mentioned, and on the opposite side the eye
+glanced over some of those luxuriant corn-fields which form so important
+a part of the riches of the fertile province of Navarre. The ground in
+front of the villa was tastefully laid out as a flower garden, and,
+midway between two magnificent chestnut trees, a mountain rivulet fell
+into a large stone basin, and fed a fountain, from which it was spouted
+twenty feet into the air, greatly to the refreshment of the surrounding
+pastures.
+
+The party that on the evening in question was enjoying the scent of the
+flowers and the song of the nightingales, to which the neighbouring
+trees afforded a shelter, consisted, in the first place, of Don Torribio
+Olana, a wealthy proprietor of La Rioja, and owner of the country-house
+that has been described. He had been long used to pass the hot months of
+each year at this pleasant retreat; and it was no small calamity to him
+when the civil war that broke out on the death of Ferdinand, rendered it
+scarcely safe, in Navarre at least, to live out of musket-shot of a
+garrison. Sometimes, however, and in spite of the advice of his friends,
+who urged him to greater prudence, the worthy Riojano would mount his
+easy-going round-quartered cob, and leave the town for a few hours'
+rustication at his _Retiro_. After a time, finding himself unmolested
+either by Carlists or by the numerous predatory bands that overran the
+country, he took for companions of his excursions his daughter
+Gertrudis, and an orphan niece, to whom he supplied the place of a
+father. Five years of impunity were taken as a guarantee for future
+safety, and Don Torribio now no longer hesitated to pass the night at
+his country-house as often as he found it convenient. It was observed,
+also, that many of those persons who had at first loudly blamed him for
+risking his neck, and that of his daughter and niece, in order to enjoy
+a purer atmosphere than could be inhaled in the dusty streets of
+Logroño, at length gathered so much courage from his example, as to
+accompany him out to the _Retiro_, and eat his excellent dinners, and
+empty his cobweb-covered bottles, without allowing their fear of the
+Carlists to diminish their thirst or disturb their digestion.
+
+Upon this occasion, however, the only guest was a young and handsome
+man, whose sunburnt countenance and military gait bespoke the soldier,
+while a double stripe of gold lace on the cuff of his blue frock-coat,
+marked his rank as that of lieutenant-colonel. Although not more than
+thirty years of age, Don Ignacio Guerra had already attained a grade
+which is often the price of as many years' service; but his rapid
+promotion was so well justified by his merit and gallantry, that few
+were found to complain of a preference which all felt was deserved. Both
+by moral and physical qualities, he was admirably suited to the
+profession he had embraced. Slender in person, but well knit and
+muscular, he possessed extraordinary activity, and a capacity of
+enduring great fatigue. Indulgent to those under his command, and
+self-denying in all that regarded himself personally, his enthusiasm for
+the cause he served was such, that during nearly two years that he had
+been the accepted lover of Donna Gertrudis Olana, this was only the
+second time he had left his regiment for a few days' visit to his
+affianced bride. He had arrived at Logroño the preceding day from a town
+lower down the Ebro, where the battalion he commanded was stationed; and
+Don Torribio, with whom he was a great favourite, had lost no time in
+taking him out to the _Retiro_; nor, perhaps, were the lovers sorry to
+leave the noise and bustle of the town for this calm and peaceful
+retreat.
+
+It was about an hour after sunset, and Don Torribio sat dozing in an
+arm-chair, with his old black dog Moro coiled up at his feet, and his
+niece Teresa beside him, busying herself in the arrangement of a bouquet
+of choice flowers, while at the other end of the balcony Gertrudis and
+her lover were looking out upon the garden. The silence was unbroken,
+save by the splashing noise of the fountain as it fell back upon the
+water-lilies that covered its basin. The moon was as yet concealed
+behind the high ground to the right of the house; but the sky in that
+direction was lighted up by its beams, and the outline of every tree and
+bush on the summit of the hill was defined and cut out, as it were,
+against the clear blue background. Suddenly Gertrudis called her
+companion's attention to the neighbouring mountain. "See, Ignacio!"
+exclaimed she, "yonder bush on the very highest point of the hill! Could
+not one almost fancy it to be a man with a gun in his hand? and that
+clump of leaves on the top bough might be the _boina_ of one of those
+horrid Carlists?"
+
+While she spoke the officer ran his eye along the ridge of the hill, and
+started when he caught sight of the object pointed out by Gertrudis; but
+before he could reply to her remark, she was called away by her father.
+At that moment the supposed bush made a sudden movement, and the long
+bright barrel of a musket glittered in the moonbeams. The next instant
+the figure disappeared as suddenly as though it had sunk into the earth.
+
+The Christino colonel remained for a moment gazing on the mountain, and
+then, turning away, hastened to accompany his host and the ladies, who
+had received a summons to supper. On reaching the foot of the stairs,
+however, instead of following them into the supper-room, he passed
+through the house-door, which stood open, and, after a moment's halt in
+the shade of the lattice portico, sprang forward with a light and
+noiseless step, and in three or four bounds found himself under one of
+the large chestnut trees that stood on either side the fountain. Keeping
+within the black shadow thrown by the branches, he cast a keen and
+searching glance over the garden and shrubberies, now partially lighted
+up by the moon. Nothing was moving either in the garden, or as far as he
+could see into the adjacent country. He was about to return to the
+house, when a blow on the back of the head stretched him stunned upon
+the ground. In an instant a slip-knot was drawn tight round his wrists,
+and his person securely pinioned by a strong cord to the tree under
+which he had been standing. A cloth was crammed into his mouth to
+prevent his calling out, and the three men who had thus rapidly and
+dexterously effected his capture, darted off in the direction of the
+house.
+
+Desperate were the efforts made by Don Ignacio to free himself from his
+bonds, and his struggles became almost frantic, when the sound of a
+scuffle in the house, followed by the piercing shrieks of women, reached
+his ears. He succeeded in getting rid of the handkerchief that gagged
+him, but the rope with which his arms were bound, and that had
+afterwards been twined round his body and the tree, withstood his utmost
+efforts. In vain did he throw himself forward with all his strength,
+striking his feet furiously against the trunk of the tree, and writhing
+his arms till the sharp cord cut into the very sinew. The rope appeared
+rather tightened than slackened by his violence. The screams and noise
+in the house continued; he was sufficiently near to hear the hoarse
+voices and obscene oaths of the banditti--the prayers for mercy of their
+victims. At length the shrieks became less frequent and fainter, and at
+last they died away entirely.
+
+Two hours had elapsed since Ignacio had been made prisoner, hours that
+to him appeared centuries. Exhausted by the violence of his exertions,
+and still more by the mental agony he had endured, his head fell forward
+on his breast, a cold sweat stood upon his forehead, and had it not been
+for the cords that held him up, he would have fallen to the ground. He
+was roused from this state of exhaustion and despair by the noise of
+approaching footsteps, and by the arrival of a dozen men, three or four
+of whom carried torches. They were dressed in the sort of half uniform
+worn by the Carlist _volantes_, or irregular troops; round their waists
+were leathern belts filled with cartridges, and supporting bayonets and
+long knives, in many instances without sheaths. Ignacio observed with a
+shudder that several of the ruffians had their hands and weapons stained
+with blood.
+
+"Whom have we here?" exclaimed a sallow, evil-visaged fellow, who wore a
+pair of tarnished epaulets. "Is this the _negro_ you secured at the
+beginning of the affair?"
+
+One of the men nodded assent, and the chief bandit, taking a torch,
+passed it before the face of the captive officer.
+
+"_Un militar_!" exclaimed he, observing the uniform button. "Your name
+and rank?"
+
+Receiving no reply, he stepped a little on one side, and looked to the
+coat-cuff for the usual sign of grade.
+
+"_Teniente coronel_!" cried he on seeing the double stripe.
+
+A man stepped forward, and Ignacio, who knew that death was the best he
+had to expect at the hands of these ruffians, and was observing their
+proceedings in stern silence, immediately recognized a deserter from his
+battalion.
+
+"'Tis the Colonel Ignacio Guerra," said the man; "he commands the first
+battalion of the Toledo regiment."
+
+An exclamation of surprise and pleasure burst from the Carlists on
+hearing the name of an officer and battalion, well known and justly
+dreaded among the adherents of the Pretender. Their leader again threw
+the light of the torch on the features of the Christino, and gazed at
+him for the space of a minute with an expression of cruel triumph.
+
+"Ha!" exclaimed he, "_el Coronel Guerra! He_ is worth taking to
+headquarters."
+
+"We shall have enough to do to get away ourselves, laden as we are,"
+said one of the men, pointing to a number of large packages of plunder
+lying on the grass hard by. "Who is to take charge of the prisoner? Not
+I, for one."
+
+A murmur among the other brigands approved this mutinous speech.
+
+"_Cuatro tiros_," suggested a voice.
+
+"Yes," said the leader, "to bring down the enemy's pickets upon us. They
+are not a quarter of a league off. Pedro, lend me your knife. We will
+see," he added with a cruel grin, "how the gallant colonel will look
+cropped."
+
+A knife-blade glanced for a moment in the torchlight as it was passed
+round the head of the Christino officer.
+
+"_Toma! chicos!_" said the savage, as he threw the ears of the unhappy
+Ignacio amongst his men. A ferocious laugh from the banditti welcomed
+this act of barbarous cruelty.
+
+The leader sheathed the knife twice in his victim's breast before
+restoring it to it's owner, and the Carlists, snatching up their booty,
+disappeared in the direction of the mountains.
+
+At daybreak the following morning, some peasants going to their labour
+in the fields saw the body of the unfortunate officer still fastened to
+the tree. They unbound him, and, perceiving some signs of life, carried
+him into Logroño, where they gave the alarm. A detachment was
+immediately sent out to the Retiro, but it was too late to pursue the
+assassins; and all that could be done was to bring in the bodies of Don
+Torribio, his daughter, and niece, who were lying dead in the
+supper-room. An old groom and two women servants had shared a like fate;
+the horses had been taken out of the stable, and the house ransacked of
+every thing valuable.
+
+For several weeks Ignacio Guerra remained wavering, as it were, between
+life and death. At length he recovered; but his health was so much
+impaired, that the surgeons forbade his again encountering the fatigues
+of a campaign. Enfeebled in body, heartbroken at the horrible fate of
+Gertrudis, and foreseeing the speedy termination of the war, consequent
+on the concluded treaty of Bergara, he threw up his commission, and left
+Spain to seek forgetfulness of his misfortunes in foreign travel.
+
+In all French towns of any consequence, and in many whose size and
+population would almost class them under the denomination of villages,
+there is some favourite spot serving as an evening lounge for the
+inhabitants, whither, on Sundays and fête-days especially, the belles
+and _élégants_ of the place resort, to criticize each other's toilet,
+and parade up and down a walk varying from one to two or three hundred
+yards in extent.
+
+The ancient city of Toulouse is of course not without its promenade,
+although but poor taste has been evinced in its selection; for, while on
+one side of the town soft well-trimmed lawns, cool fountains, and
+magnificent avenues of elm and plane trees, are abandoned to
+nursery-maids and their charges, the rendezvous of the fashionables of
+the pleasant capital of Languedoc is a parched and dusty _allée_,
+scantily sheltered by trees of recent growth, extending from the canal
+to the open square formerly known as the Place d'Angoulême, but since
+1830 re-baptized by the name of the revolutionary patriarch General
+Lafayette.
+
+It was on a Sunday evening of the month of August 1840, and the Allée
+Lafayette was more than usually crowded. After a day of uncommon
+sultriness, a fresh breeze had sprung up, and a little before sundown
+the fair Toulousaines had deserted their darkened and artificially
+cooled rooms, and flocked to the promenade. The walk was thronged with
+gaily attired ladies, smirking dandies, and officers in full dress. In
+the fields on the further side of the canal, a number of men of the
+working-classes, happy in their respite from the toils of the week, were
+singing in parts, with all the musical taste and correctness of ear for
+which the inhabitants of that part of France are noted; while, on the
+broad boulevard that traverses the lower end of the _allée_, a crowd of
+recruits whom the conscription had recently called under the colours,
+stood gazing in open-mouthed astonishment and infinite delight at some
+rudely constructed booths and shows, outside of which, clown and
+paillasse were rivalling each other in the broad humour of their lazzi.
+Parties of students, easily recognizable by their eccentric and
+exaggerated style of dress, and the loud tone of their conversation,
+were seated outside the cafés and ice-rooms, or circulating under the
+trees, puffing forth clouds of tobacco smoke; and on the road round the
+_allée_, open carriages, smart tilburies, and dapper horsemen were
+careering.
+
+Among the various groups thronging the promenade was one, which, in Hyde
+Park or on the Paris boulevards, would have attracted some notice; but
+the persons composing it were of a class too common of late years in the
+south of France to draw upon them any attention from the loungers. The
+party in question consisted of three men, who, by their bronzed
+complexions, ragged mustaches, and sullen, dogged countenances, as well
+as their whole air and _tournure_, were easily distinguishable as
+belonging to the exiled and disappointed faction of the Spanish
+Pretender. Their threadbare costume still exhibited signs of their late
+military employment, probably from a lack of means to replace it by any
+other garments. The closely buttoned blue frock of one of them still had
+upon its shoulders the small lace straps used to support the epaulets,
+and another wore for headdress a _boina_, with its large starlike
+tassels of silver cord. The third and most remarkable of the party, was
+a man in the prime of life and strength, whose countenance bore the
+impress of every bad passion. It was one of those faces sometimes seen
+in old paintings of monkish inquisitors, on viewing which, one feels
+inclined to suspect that the artist has outdone and exaggerated nature.
+The expression of the cold, glassy, grey eye, and thin, pale, compressed
+lips, was one of unrelenting cruelty; while the coarsely moulded chin
+and jaw gave a sensual character to the lower part of the face. The scar
+of a sabre-cut extended from the centre of the forehead nearly to the
+upper lip, partly dividing the nose, and giving a hideously distorted
+and unnatural appearance to that feature. The man's frame was bony and
+powerful; the loose sheepskin jacket he wore was thrown open, and
+through the imperfectly fastened shirt-front, it might be seen that his
+breast was covered with a thick felt of matted hair.
+
+It was the moment of the short twilight that in the south of France
+intervenes between day and night. The Carlists had reached the upper end
+of the walk, and, turning round, began to descend it again three
+abreast, and with the man who has been particularly described in the
+centre. On a sudden the latter stopped short, as though petrified where
+he stood. His countenance, naturally sallow, became pale as ashes, and,
+as if to save himself from falling, he clutched the arm of one of his
+companions with a force that made him wince again, while he gazed with
+distended eyeballs on a man who had halted within half-a-dozen paces of
+the Spaniards. The person whose aspect produced this Medusa-like effect
+upon the Carlist was a man about thirty years of age, plainly but
+elegantly dressed, and of a prepossessing but somewhat sickly
+countenance, the lines of which were now working under the influence of
+some violent emotion. The only peculiarity in his appearance was a black
+silk band which, passing under his chin, was brought up on both sides of
+the head, and fastened on the crown under the hat.
+
+"_Que tienes, Sangrador_? What ails thee, man?" enquired the Carlists of
+their terror-stricken companion, addressing him by a _nom-de-guerre_
+that he doubtless owed to his bloody deeds or disposition. At that
+moment the stranger sprang like a bloodhound into the centre of the
+group. In an instant El Sangrador was on the ground, his assailant's
+knee upon his breast, and his throat compressed by two nervous hands,
+which bade fair to perform the office of a bowstring on the prostrate
+man. All this had passed in far less time than is required to narrate
+it, and the astonishment of the Carlists at their comrade's terror and
+this sudden attack, was such, that, although men of action and energy,
+they were for a moment paralysed, and thought not of rescuing their
+friend from the iron gripe in which he was held. Already his eyes were
+bloodshot, his face purple, and his tongue protruding from his mouth,
+when a gendarme came up, and aided by half-a-dozen of those agents who,
+in plain clothes, half-spy and half-policeman, are to be found in every
+place of public resort in France, succeeded, but not without difficulty,
+in rescuing the Carlist from the fierce clutch of his foe, who clung to
+him with bull-dog tenacity till they were actually drawn asunder by main
+force.
+
+"_Canalla! infame!_" shouted the stranger, as he writhed and struggled
+in the hands of his guards. "By yonder villain have all my hopes in life
+been blasted--an adored mistress outraged and murdered, myself tortured
+and mutilated in cold blood!" And, tearing off the black fillet that
+encircled his head, it was seen that his ears had been cut off. A murmur
+of horror ran through the crowd which this scene had assembled. "And
+shall I not have revenge?" shouted Ignacio (for he it was) in a voice
+rendered shrill by furious passion. And by a violent effort he again
+nearly succeeded in shaking off the men who held him.
+
+El Sangrador, whose first terror had probably been caused by
+astonishment at seeing one whom he firmly believed numbered with the
+dead, had now recovered from his alarm.
+
+"_Adios_, Don Ignacio," cried he with a sneer, as he walked away between
+two gendarmes, while his enemy was hurried off in another direction.
+
+The following day El Sangrador was sent to a depôt of Spanish emigrants
+in the interior of France. On his departure, the authorities, who had
+made themselves acquainted with the particulars of this dramatic
+incident, released Don Ignacio from confinement; but he was informed
+that no passport would be given him to quit Toulouse unless it were for
+the Spanish frontier.
+
+At the distance of a few leagues from the town of Oleron, and in one of
+the wildest parts of the Pyrenees, is a difficult pass, scarcely known,
+except to smugglers and izard-hunters whose hazardous avocations make
+them acquainted with the most hidden recesses of these rugged and
+picturesque mountains. Towards the close of the summer of 1841, this
+defile was occasionally traversed by adherents of the Ex-Queen-Regent
+Christina, entering Spain secretly and in small parties, to be ready to
+take share in the abortive attempt subsequently made to replace the
+reins of government in the hands of Ferdinand's widow. Not a few
+Carlists also, weary of the monotonous inactive life they were leading
+in France, prepared to join the projected insurrection; and, leaving the
+towns in which a residence had been assigned them, sought to gain the
+Spanish side of the Pyrenees, where they might lie _perdus_ until the
+moment for active operation arrived, subsisting in the meanwhile by
+brigandage and other lawless means. Owing to the negligence, either
+accidental or intentional, of the French authorities, these adventurers
+usually found little difficulty in reaching the line of demarcation
+between the two frontiers; but it was there their troubles began, and
+they had to take the greatest precaution to avoid falling into the hands
+of the Spanish _carabineros_ and light troops posted along the frontier.
+
+Among those who intended to take a share in the rebellion, Don Ignacio
+Guerra occupied a prominent place. Being well known to the Spanish
+Government as a devoted adherent of Christina, it would have been in
+vain for him to have attempted entering Spain by one of the ordinary
+roads. Repairing to Oleron, therefore, he procured himself a guide, and
+one of the small but sure-footed horses of the Pyrenees, and, after a
+wearisome march among the mountains, arrived about dusk at a cottage, or
+rather hovel, built on a ledge of rock within half-an-hour's walk of the
+Spanish frontier. Beyond this spot the road was impracticable for a
+horse, and dangerous even for a pedestrian, and Don Ignacio had arranged
+to send back his guide and horse and proceed on foot; in which manner,
+also, it was easier to avoid falling in with the Spanish troops. The
+night was fine, and having had the road minutely explained to him by his
+peasant guide, Ignacio had no doubt of finding himself, in a few hours,
+at a village where shelter and concealment were prepared for him.
+Leaving the horse in a sort of shed that afforded shelter to two or
+three pigs, the Christino officer entered the hut, followed by his guide
+and by a splendid wolf-dog, an old and faithful companion of his
+wanderings. It was some seconds, however, before their eyes got
+sufficiently accustomed to the dark and smoky atmosphere of the place,
+to distinguish the objects it contained. The smoke came from a fire of
+green wood, that was smouldering under an enormous chimney, and over
+which a decrepit old woman was frying _talloua_ or maize-meal cake, in
+grease of a most suspicious odour. The old lady was so intent on the
+preparation of this delicacy, a favourite food of the Pyrenean
+mountaineers, that it was with difficulty she could be prevailed upon to
+prepare something more substantial for the hungry travellers. Some
+smoked goats' flesh and acid wine were at length obtained, and, after a
+hasty meal, Ignacio paid his guide and resumed his perilous journey. The
+moon had not yet risen--the night was dark--the paths rugged and
+difficult, and the troops on the alert; to avoid falling in with an
+enemy, or down a precipice, so much care and attention were necessary,
+that nearly three hours had elapsed before Ignacio perceived that his
+dog had not followed him from the cottage. The animal had gone into the
+stable and lain down beside his master's horse, doubtless imagining, by
+that sort of half-reasoning instinct which dogs possess, that, as long
+as the horse was there, the rider would not be far off.
+
+Ignacio's first impulse, on discovering the absence of his four-footed
+companion, was to return to the cottage; but the risk in so doing was
+extreme, and as he felt certain his guide would take care of the dog,
+and that he should get it at some future day, he resolved to pursue his
+journey. Meantime the night became darker and darker--thick clouds had
+gathered, and hung low--there was no longer the slightest trace or
+indication of a path, and the darkness preventing him from finding
+certain landmarks he had been told to observe, he was obliged to walk on
+nearly at hazard, and soon became aware he had lost his way. To add to
+his difficulties, the low growlings of distant thunder were heard, and
+some large drops of rain fell. A violent storm was evidently
+approaching, and Ignacio quickened his pace in hopes of finding some
+shelter before it came on, resolving to wait at all risks till daylight
+before continuing his route, lest he should run, as it were, blindfolded
+into the very dangers he wished to avoid. A sort of cliff or wall of
+rock he had for some time had on his left hand, now suddenly ended, and
+a scene burst on his view which to him was commonplace enough, but would
+have appeared somewhat strange to a person unaccustomed to such sights.
+The mountain, which had been steep and difficult to descend, now began
+to slope more gradually as it approached nearer its base. On a sort of
+shelving plateau of great extent, a number of charcoal-burners had
+established themselves, and, as the most expeditious way of clearing the
+ground, had set light in various places to the brushwood and furze that
+clothed this part of the mountain. To prevent, however, the
+conflagration from extending too far, they had previously, with their
+axes, cleared rings of several feet wide around the places to which they
+set fire. The bushes and furze they rooted up were thrown into the
+centre, and increased the blaze. In this manner the entire mountain
+side, of which several hundred acres were overlooked from the spot where
+Ignacio stood, appeared dotted with brilliant fiery spots of some fifty
+feet in diameter, the more distant ones assuming a lurid blood-red look,
+seen through the fog and mist that had now gathered over the mountain.
+Ignacio approached the nearest of the fires, lighted close to a crag
+that almost overhung it, and that offered a sufficient shelter from the
+rain which had begun to descend in torrents. Throwing himself on the
+ground with his feet towards the flames, he endeavoured to get a little
+sleep, of which he stood much in need. But it was in vain. The situation
+in which he found himself suggested thoughts that he was unable to drive
+away. Gradually a sort of phantasmagoria passed before his "mind's eye,"
+wherein the various events of his life, which, although a short one, had
+not the less been sadly eventful, were represented in vivid colours. He
+thought of his childhood, spent in the sunny _vegas_ of Andalusia--of
+the companions of his military studies, high-spirited free-hearted lads,
+of whom some had achieved honours and fame, but by far the greater part
+had died on the battle-field--the smoke of the bivouac fire, the merry
+laugh of the _insouciant_ soldier--the din and excitement of the
+fight--the exultation of victory, and the well-won and highly relished
+pleasures of the garrison town after severe duty in the field;--the
+graceful form of Gertrudis now flitted across the picture--her jetty
+hair braided over her pure white forehead, the light of her swimming
+"eye, that mocked her coal-black veil," flashing from under the
+mantilla. Her father, with his portly figure and good-humoured
+countenance, was beside her. They smiled at Ignacio, and seemed to
+beckon to him. So life-like was the illusion of his fancy, he could
+almost have sprung forward to join them. But again there was a change. A
+large and handsome room, a well-covered table--all the appliances of
+modern luxury--plate and crystal sparkling in the brilliant lights--a
+happy cheerful party surrounding the board. Alas, for the tragedy played
+on this stage! The hand of the spoiler was there--blood and womens'
+screams, dishevelled hair and men's deep oaths, the wild and broken
+accents of despair, the coarse jest and ferocious exultation of
+gratified brutality. And then all was dark and gloomy as a winter's
+night, and through the darkness was seen a grave-stone, shadowy and
+spectral, and a man still young, but with heart crushed and hopes
+blighted, lying prostrate before it, his breast heaving with convulsive
+sobs of agony, until at length he rose and moved sadly away, to become
+an exile and a wanderer in a foreign land.
+
+Maddened by these reflections, Ignacio started to his feet, and was
+about to rush out into the storm, and fly, he knew not whither, from his
+own thoughts, when he suddenly became aware of the presence of a man
+within a few yards of him. The projecting crag, under which he had
+sought a shelter, extended all along one side of the fire. In one corner
+an angle of the rock threw a deep shadow, in which Ignacio now stood,
+and was thus enabled, without being seen himself, to observe the
+new-comer, who seated himself on a block of stone close to the fire. As
+he did so, the flame, which had been deadened by the rain, again burned
+up brightly, and threw a strong light on the features of the stranger.
+They were those of _El Sangrador_.
+
+With stealthy pace, and trembling at every step, lest his prey should
+take the alarm, and even yet escape him, Ignacio stole towards his
+mortal foe. The noise of the storm, that still raged furiously, enabled
+him to get within five paces of him without being heard. He then halted,
+and silently cocking a pistol, remained for some time motionless as a
+statue. Now that his revenge was within his grasp, he hesitated to take
+it, not from any relenting weakness, but because the speedy death it was
+in his power to give, appeared an inadequate punishment--a paltry
+vengeance. Had he seen his enemy torn by wild horses, or broken on the
+wheel, his burning thirst for revenge would hardly have been slaked; and
+an easy, painless death by knife or bullet, he looked upon as a boon
+rather than a punishment. An end was put to his hesitation by the
+Carlist himself, who, either tormented by an evil conscience, or
+oppressed by one of those unaccountable and mysterious presentiments
+that sometimes warn us of impending danger, became restless, cast uneasy
+glances about him, and at last, turning round, found himself face to
+face with Ignacio. Almost before he recognized him, a hand was on his
+collar, and the muzzle of a pistol crammed into his ear. The click of
+the lock was heard, but no discharge ensued. The rain had damped the
+powder. Before Ignacio could draw his other pistol, the Carlist grappled
+him fiercely, and a terrible struggle commenced. Their feet soon slipped
+upon the wet rock, and they fell, still grasping each other's throats,
+foaming with rage, and hate, and desperation. The fire, now nearly out,
+afforded little light for the contest; but as they rolled over the
+smouldering embers, clouds of sparks arose, their clothes and hair were
+burned, and their faces scorched by the heat. The Carlist was unarmed,
+save with a clasp-knife, which, being in his pocket, was useless to him;
+for had he ventured to remove one hand from the struggle even for a
+moment, he would have given his antagonist a fatal advantage. At length
+the contest seemed about to terminate in favour of Ignacio. He got his
+enemy under, and knelt upon his breast, while, with a charred,
+half-burned branch which he found at hand, he dealt furious blows upon
+his head. Half-blinded by the smoke and heat, and by his own blood, the
+Carlist felt the sickness of death coming over him. By a last effort he
+slipped one hand, which was now at liberty, into his pocket, and
+immediately withdrawing it, raised it to his mouth. His teeth grated
+upon the blade of the knife as he opened it, and the next instant
+Ignacio, with a long deep sob, rolled over among the ashes. The Carlist
+rose painfully and with difficulty into a sitting posture, and with a
+grim smile gazed upon his enemy, whose eyes were glazing, and features
+settling into the rigidity of death. But the conqueror's triumph was
+short-lived. A deep bark was heard, and a moment afterwards a wolf-dog,
+drenched with mud and rain, leaped into the middle of the embers.
+Placing his black muzzle on Ignacio's face, he gave a long deep howl,
+which was succeeded by a growl like that of a lion, as he sprang upon
+the Carlist.
+
+The morning after the storm, when the charcoal-burners returned to their
+fires, they found two dead bodies amidst the ashes. One of them had a
+stab in his breast, which had caused his death. The other was
+frightfully disfigured, and bore marks of the fangs of some savage
+animal. In that wild district, the skirmishing-ground of smugglers and
+_douaniers_, the mountaineers think little of such occurrences. A hole
+was dug, the bodies thrown into it; and a cross, rudely cut upon the
+rock, alone marks the spot where the midnight conflict took place.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+MEMORANDUMS OF A MONTH'S TOUR IN SICILY.
+
+LEAVING NAPLES.
+
+
+STEAM-BOATIANA.
+
+The _Francesco Primo_ was to leave the harbour at ten o'clock. Better
+acquaintance with Mediterannean _pyroscaphs_, as they call themselves,
+whose axle-trees turn not except when the police pleases, ought to have
+led us to all the latitude of uncertainty; but when two hours and more
+had elapsed with all the passengers aboard, we began to suppose some
+extraordinary cause for so long a detention. A deputation is accordingly
+dispatched to the captain, which brings back an abrupt reply, that he is
+not going _yet_; and that it is for him and the proprietors to be
+dissatisfied, who are wasting steam, while we are only losing patience.
+It shortly transpired that he was under Government orders, and would not
+proceed for another hour at _least_, nor even then, unless he received
+permission from the minister of police. The affair now looked serious.
+We must have some _carbonaro_ on board, who was, in due time, to be
+arrested; and no further doubt could remain of this, when, that other
+hour being past, we saw a longboat leaving shore, with two officers and
+six stout rowers, who soon brought her under our bow. What can it be?
+The senior epaulet rises in the boat--the second follows his
+example--both are on deck; the captain, hitherto unseen, now comes
+forward with alacrity, and, stretching forward _both_ his hands,
+receives with profound reverence a thin, square enclosure, with an
+immense seal attached to it, and retires to put it in a place of safety.
+The uniforms disappear over the side of the vessel--the paddles begin to
+paw the water--we swing round--and in a few seconds our prow points for
+the _Sorrentine_ coast, and we are on our watery way to _Sicily_. What,
+then, had detained us? It is always very provoking to have a miserable
+solution of a promising mystery! We were on the exact spot for a new
+edition of some "_Verbosa et grandis Epistola_" from the tyrants of the
+land; and so it was, but only not _from_ Capreæ or Tiberius this time.
+Yes! The actual cause of the delay of a great steam-boat, full of
+passengers, for three hours, attended, among other melancholy results,
+with that of exciting the choler of a new-made cardinal, was a _letter_
+that the Queen of Naples, who had probably overslept herself, had
+occasion to write to the king on conjugal affairs!--his majesty having
+left her majesty only the day before, to show himself to his loving
+subjects at Palermo. Hem! Campania _felix_! If we were known to be
+inditing this unreverential passage, and its disloyal apostrophe, we
+should, no doubt, be invited to leave "Campania the happy" at a day's
+notice; whereas our comfort is, that this day three months it is quite
+possible that it will have been read in Bengal!
+
+We are now in the middle of the Bay of Naples; the spot from which
+panoramas have been so often sketched on that noble elevation, the deck
+of a lofty ship, swinging on her cables. What numberless sites of
+unparallelled interest are hence visible to the newly arrived and
+insatiable stranger! _Misenum, Baiæ, Puteoli, Gaurus, Vesuvius,
+Herculaneum, Pompeii_! But the office of the cicerone here cannot--alas
+for Britain!--be confined to the old classics, or the mere indication of
+places whose very _names_ are things to _conjure with_! In America, we
+converse with nature only, whose voice is in her woods and waterfalls;
+but, in our threadbare Europe, all _sites_ are _historical_, and chiefly
+in one sad sense--for Waterloo only brings up the rear of fields
+illustrated by the wholesale destruction of mankind! In the position
+which we now occupy, volumes might be written--ay, and _have been
+written_.
+
+Look at that proud, impregnable Castle of St Elmo, culminating over all
+Naples! Look at those sea-washed fortresses which guard the entrance of
+her harbour! The garrisons of those strong places having, in the year
+1799, from the turn of public affairs, judged it expedient to capitulate
+to Ferdinand and his allies, on conditions which should leave their
+honour without blemish, and assure their own safety and that of the
+city; and this capitulation having been solemnly accepted and ratified
+by _Cardinal Ruffo, as the king's legate and plenipotentiary_, by the
+late _Sir Edward Foote_, as acting commodore of the British force, and
+by the representatives of _two European governments_, officially
+residing in the revolutionized city, and the surrender of the forts
+having accordingly taken place, it came to pass, in an evil hour, that
+Lord Nelson, entering the bay as commander-_in-chief_, took upon himself
+the odious responsibility of rescinding the British guarantee, and of
+supporting Ferdinand, powerless but through him, in his refusal to hold
+himself bound by a convention made _by his own viceroy_!--thus
+delivering over the defenceless city to its own implacable sovereign.
+Then came a political persecution unknown in the annals of mankind;
+till, _hebetes lasso lictore secures_, even Naples could bear no more!
+The noblest blood and the most distinguished talent were no protection
+at the bar of a special tribunal, with a low-born monster at its head,
+not surpassed in its atrocities by the revolutionary tyrants of Paris
+and of Lyons. The ships shared the infamy; the venerable and noble
+Caraccioli, seventy-five years of age, himself an admiral, was the first
+_piaculum_! Summarily condemned by a court-martial _held on board
+Nelson's flag-ship_, he was executed like a felon, and cast overboard
+from a Neapolitan frigate floating on the same anchorage, and subject to
+the same authority!
+
+But Nelson's star was then in the ascendant; the presence and notorious
+influence of Emma Hamilton in these frightful transactions, was
+unaccountably connived at by the British nation. The officer who has
+been a party to a convention, which his commander-in-chief thinks proper
+not only to disapprove but to violate, must inevitably suffer in that
+fame and popularity which our public services so justly cherish. And in
+the state of men's passions during that memorable war, _so that it were
+against the French, a successful_ commander-in-chief could do no wrong!
+Yet here, probably, the matter would have rested; but when, nine years
+afterwards, _Stanier Clarke_ so little appreciated the duty of a
+biographer as to relate a transaction susceptible of no excuse, in terms
+unjustified by the facts, and sought to render his hero _immaculate_ at
+the _expense of others_, the excellent officer whose feelings and
+character had been so cruelly sacrificed, felt himself compelled at last
+to publish his "Vindication," judicious in every thing but _the title_.
+He most properly printed the _Convention itself_ in the original words,
+and with all the signatures it bore. Such works, however, even when the
+affairs they refer to are _recent_, are never read but by _friends_--or
+_enemies_. A late atonement was made by William IV. in conferring on Sir
+Edward Foote a titular distinction, which the public heed not; but the
+tables are now turned, and Europe, taught by Cuoco, Coletta, and by
+Botta, the great historian of Italy, has irrevocably closed this _great
+account_. The name of Foote is recorded in all their pages in terms
+which, had he seen them, might well have consoled him for the past;
+while the last and most popular biographer of Nelson (Southey) feels
+himself compelled to admit, and the frank admission does him infinite
+honour, that this is a passage of his hero's life which the muse of
+history "must _record with sorrow and with shame_."
+
+But the sea spray is dashing splendidly on our bows--we are clearing
+Capri, and have, as we pass it, a fine view of that high and precipitous
+rock, thinking of Tiberius and the soothsayer Thrasyllus, and of all the
+monstrous scenes which those unapproachable cliffs concealed from the
+indignation even of a Roman world. But twilight was already coming on,
+and the city and the coast were gradually withdrawn from the
+panorama--dark night came rushing over the deep, an Italian summer's
+night, and yet with no stars or moon; meanwhile steadily rides our
+vessel along the Calabrian waters, confident alike of her strength and
+her bearings, which we soon left her to pursue, and went down to see
+what the cabin and the company promised below. And thus the hours passed
+away; and when the suspended lamp began to burn dimly under the
+skylight, and grey morning found stealthy admittance through the cabin
+windows, although we had been unable to sleep, the anticipation of all
+the marvels we were to see in Sicily had answered the purpose of a
+night's rest, and sent us active and alert on deck to fresh air and the
+rising sun. Nor were we a moment too soon. A large flotilla of little
+boats manoeuvring between two of larger size, placed to defend the space
+destined for their operations, were now in the full activity of the
+thunny and spada fishery; and a most picturesque rock, right over our
+bow, proved to be no other than _Monte Pelegrino_, at the foot of which
+lay Palermo and our breakfast--in short, after a voyage of little more
+than a summer's night, we are again on _terra firma_, if that name can
+be given to volcanic soils, and long before noon are actively engaged in
+perambulating the streets of the Sicilian capital of the _fæcunda
+Panormos_.
+
+Among the most striking peculiarities of the interior or street views,
+presented to the stranger's eye at Palermo, are its very unusually
+situated convents, buildings which, even in cities, are commonly and
+naturally in _retirement_; but here, in whichever of the most public
+ways you walk, a number of extraordinary trellised balconies are
+observed on the upper stories of almost every large house, while
+business and bustle of all kinds are transacted as usual in the street
+below. You may well be surprised to see the nunnery over the _Marchande
+de Modes_! The unhappy inmates thus tormented by the sight and sound of
+worldly activity, have not in Palermo even the solace of a garden; and
+if these places of more than usual mortification have any connexion with
+the world without, it is by an under-ground passage to some church in
+the neighbourhood! Thither repair the poor victims of superstition to
+warble _Aves_ to the Virgin behind their screens, and then back again to
+their monotonous cloister. There are twenty-four nunneries in the city
+of Palermo alone, each containing from thirty to sixty women, and there
+are as many monasteries! With open doors like coffee-houses, full upon
+the street, are placed at Palermo innumerable _consulting shops_ of so
+many _lawyers_; the earliest to begin business, the last to close, you
+may have the luxury of law at any hour of the day till bedtime. Nay,
+your Sicilian lawyer, unlike the lazy tradesman who puts up his shutters
+and sleeps from twelve to four, takes no _siesta_; his _atra janua
+lilis_ is always open, and there sit the _firm_, one listening to a
+client, another smoking a cigar, a third chatting with an acquaintance
+over his coffee or the newspaper. Scarcely less mischievous than these
+sowers of dissension, is the _barber-surgeon_, who still flourishes in
+Trinacria. The bleeding arm over the peruke shop is often to be seen in
+Rome and Naples; but at Palermo almost at every third house, you read
+_Salassatore_ over a half-naked figure in wood or canvass, erect like
+Seneca in his bath, or monumentally recumbent, the blood spouting, like
+so many Tritons, from twenty orifices at once. Led by professional
+curiosity, we enter one of these open doors; and, desiring the ordinary
+service of the razor, and intending to ask some questions
+parenthetically touching the double craft, we have scarcely occupied the
+chair, when a smart youth comes up with a razor and a lancet, and
+quietly asks "_Which_?" Why, surely he could not think of _bleeding_ us
+without a warrant for our needing it. "_Eperchè? Adesso vi le dîrò
+subito_--Why not? I'll tell you whether you want it without a
+doctor,"--feeling for our pulse. "_Non c'è male_--not so much amiss,"
+pursued the functionary; "but a few ounces bleeding would do you _no
+harm_! Your hand is hot, it must be _several months_ since you were last
+bled!" "A year." "Too long: you should be bled, at your age, at least
+_twice a-year_ if you would keep your health!" "What amount of depletion
+did he recommend?" "_Depende--di sei a dieci oncie_," at which portion
+of the dialogue our mouth was shut to all further interrogations by a
+copious supply of soap-suds, and now he became the tonsor only, and
+declares against the mode in which we have our hair cut: "They have cut
+your hair, Signor, _à condannato_--nobody adopts the toilette of the
+guillotine now; it should have been left to grow in front _à la Plutus_,
+or have been long at the sides _à la Nazarène_, which is the mode most
+of our Sicilian gentlemen prefer." We were about to rise, wash, and
+depart, but an impediment is offered by the artist. "_Non l'ho_
+raffinato _ancora, Signor, bisogna_ raffinarlo _un poco_!" and before we
+could arrive at the occult meaning of _raffinare_, his fingers were
+exploring very technically and very disagreeably the whole surface over
+which his razor had travelled, and a number of supplementary scrapings
+were only stopped by an impatient _basta_ of the victim. _Still_ he was
+unwilling to part with us. _Would_ we like, now that we are on the spot,
+to _lose a few ounces of blood_ before he takes a stranger in hand, (who
+is waiting for the one or other operation;) and, as we most positively
+declined, he turned to the latter to ask him whether he was come for his
+"_piccolo salassio di sei oncie_." "_Gia_!" said Signor Antonio, taking
+off his coat, and sitting down with as much _sangfroid_ as if he were
+going to take his breakfast. "Can you shave _me_?" asks a third party,
+standing at the door. "_Adesso_," after I have _bled_ this gentleman.
+Such are all the _interiors_ where _Salassatore_ is written over the
+door; they bleed and they shave indifferently, and doing either, talk of
+the last _take_ of _thunny_, the _opera_ that has been or is to be, and
+the meagre skimmings of their permitted newspaper, _which_ begins
+probably with the advertisement of a church ceremony, and ends always
+with a charade--for our subscribers!!
+
+
+CHURCHES.
+
+The clergy are wealthy, the bishop's salary is 18,000 scudi, and many of
+the convents are very opulent; but there is scarcely one of the churches
+which you care to visit twice. Most of them are disgraced by vulgar
+ornaments, in which respect they surpass even the worst specimens at
+Naples! Gilt stucco, cut and stamped into flowery compartments, shows
+off like a huge twelfth cake! but the _Matrice_ or _Duomo_, and the
+Saracenic _Chapel of the Palazzo Reale_, and the cathedral of
+_Monreale_, four miles beyond the town, are noble exceptions; these in
+their several ways are all interesting, both within and without. The old
+Siculo-Norman archway of _Monreale_, and its fine bronze gates crusted
+with a beautiful hard polished _coin-like patina_, would repay the
+excursion, even were the interior less fine. Here we have columns from
+whose high architraves the Gothic arch springs vigorously; walls
+perfectly covered with old Byzantine mosaics; a roof of marvellous
+lightness, and almost modern elegance; still the critic, who is bound by
+_métier_ to find fault with violated canons, will, we must own, be at no
+loss for a text in the church of Monreale--a building which is, however,
+of sufficient importance in ecclesiastical architecture to have been
+designed, measured, and engraved, in whole and in part, in a splendid
+volume, published in folio, by the Duke of Serra di Falco.
+
+
+VISIT TO THE GARDEN OF THE DUKE OF SERRA DI FALCO, NEAR PALERMO.
+
+After a delicious half hour's drive through country lanes hedged with
+cactus, aloes, and pomegranates, we find ourselves in front of a small
+villa distant about two miles from the sea. As to the house, many an
+English gentleman, in very moderate circumstances, has a far better; but
+on passing the archway of this Sicilian country-box into its garden, two
+trees, which must be astonished at finding themselves out of
+Brazil--trees of surpassing beauty--are seen on a crimson carpet of
+their own fallen petals, mixed with a copious effusion of their seeds,
+like coral. At the northern extremity of Italy (Turin) this _Erythinia
+corallodendron_ is only a small stunted shrub; nor is it much bigger at
+Naples, where it grows under cover. Six years in the _open air_ have in
+Sicily _produced_ the tree before you: it is, in fact, larger than most
+of our fruit-bearers. We next recognise an agreeable acquaintance,
+formed two years ago, in the _Neapolis Japonicus_; it bears a delicate
+fruit, of the size of a plum, whose yellow, freckled skin contains such
+a nectar-like juice that the pine-apple itself scarcely excels it. Our
+fellow-passenger, the infallible voice of a new-made cardinal of the
+warlike name of Schwarzenburg, who tasted it here, as he told us, for
+the first time, has already pronounced a similar opinion, and no
+dissentients being heard, the Japan medlar passed with acclamation. The
+_Buggibellia spectabilis_ of New Holland, calls you to look at his pink
+_blossoms_, which are no other than his leaves in masquerade. We grub
+up, on the gardener's hint and permission, some of the _Cameris
+humilis_, to whose filamentous radicles are attached certain little
+grains, of great sweetness and flavour. The banana-tree, "_Musa
+paradisaica_," which, cooped in our low hot-houses at home, breaks its
+neck, and might well break its heart, as its annual growth is resisted
+by the inexorable glass dome, is here no prisoner but an acclimated
+denizen of sun and air. The _Cactus Opuntiæ_, or Indian fig, is here for
+vulgar tastes; and the _Cactus cochinellifera_ for the Luculluses of the
+day, who could afford to pay for its rearing. The small _sneezing
+plant_, a vegetable smelling-bottle, is still employed in headach by the
+common people of Sicily, who bruise the leaves and sniff their pungency:
+its vulgar name, _malupertusu_, is the corruption of Marum del Cortuso,
+as we find it in the ancient herbal of Durante. The _Ferula communis_ or
+_Saracinisca_, a legacy left to the Sicilian pedagogues by their eastern
+lords, is sold in fagots at the green-grocers, and fulfils the
+scholastic office of _birch_; and, being more elastic, must be pleasant
+to _flog with_. We recommend it to _head masters_. The _sumac_, _Rhus
+coriaria_, is not only to be seen here, but every where else in Sicily;
+and they say there is a daily exportation of one thousand sacks of its
+ground leaves. The ancients knew it well, and employed it for giving a
+flavour to their meat, as they do now in Nubia and Egypt, according to
+Durante, who deems its many virtues deserving of Latin verse. We smell
+pepper!--a graceful shrub, whose slender twigs stand pencilled out like
+sea-weed spread upon paper; and the _Schinus mollis_, a leaf of which we
+have gathered ignorantly, is the source of the smell. We strew some
+leaves on the basin of a neighbouring fountain, and amuse ourselves by
+seeing them swim about as if they were bewitched, parting at the same
+time with a whitish fluid, which, spreading on the surface of the water,
+gives it an iridescent hue. The _Fuchsia arborescens_ of Japan flowers
+here, they say, every month, just as we see him in all his pink
+luxuriance, and makes himself quite at home; and here is that little
+blue vegetable butterfly, the _Polygala_! Who can overlook his _winged_
+petals, peeping out of their myrtle-looking bower? Then the
+_geraniums_!--not potted, as in Covent-Garden, or the _Marché aux
+Fleurs_, but forming vast parti-coloured _hedgerows_, giving to every
+pathway its own _particular flower and perfume_; so that a connoisseur
+might be taken blindfold and declare where each kind grew. _Hedges of
+geranium seven feet high_! Think of that, ye _Dicksons_ and
+nursery-ground men about _Brompton_ and the _King's Road_! The stalks a
+mass of real ligneous matter, fit for the turner's lathe if it were but
+hard enough. A small mound enables us to look about us more at large;
+and now we discern the stately _bamboo_, thicker than your arm, and tall
+as a small mast; and the _sugar-cane_, formerly cultivated for his
+juice, but now looking as if he were ill-used and neglected. His
+biography (but as it is not _auto_-biography, and written with his own
+_reed_, there may be some mistake) is remarkable. Soon after the
+annexation of Sicily to Spain in 1420, he was carried from Syracuse into
+Spanish captivity; he then escaped to Madeira and the Canaries, and at
+length saved himself in the West Indies. The _pistachia_ is also here,
+with its five-partite sessile leaf, like a dwarf walnut; the capsule
+holding the nut containing at present only a white germ, which it will
+require four months more to bring to nutty maturity. The _manna_-tree is
+very like an _alder_ in its general character, but thicker in its stem,
+and bears the cicatrices of last year's _ill treatment_; its wounds,
+however, will not bleed afresh now; but towards August the _salassatore_
+of trees will run his steel into its limbs, taking care to place under
+the bleeding orifices leaves from the _cactus_ hedge hard by to serve as
+recipients, and drain its juices till it faints.
+
+That a _leaf_ might not be _wanting_ to record these vegetable
+treasures, the pagoda-topped _papyrus_ nodded to us gracefully, and
+offered its services; while, to finish the picture, Angola goats are
+browsing amid the green and yellow ribbed _agaves_; and the beautiful
+blue sea peeps in through gaps of the wall of _cactus_, whose green
+stems are now all fringed with yellow blossoms. Leaving the flower
+garden, we enter a labyrinth, and arrive at a small hut, with a closed
+door, upon the threshold of which we have scarcely pressed, when the
+wicket flies open, and a big brown friar, with long beard and sandals,
+starts up in act to frighten us, which he succeeds in doing. This
+automaton _Schedoni_ might really well produce abortion, and would not
+care if he did: he cannot, we suppose, be placed there as a lawful
+instrument of relief, for all the _donzelle_ of Palermo must be _aware_
+of, and be used to him. This, however, is thought so good a joke, that
+it is repeated with variations; for on releasing another spring a
+similar contrivance introduces us to another monk of the same convent,
+who is reading a huge tome on the lives of the saints: resenting the
+interruption, he raises his head, and fixes his eyes on the intruder, at
+the same time beckoning to him with his hand, and intimating that if he
+will do him the favour to come a little nearer, he will knock him down
+with the folio, as Johnson did Osborn the bookseller.
+
+Another surprise is--but really these are surprising enough--and we came
+here to see vegetable rarities, and not the tricks of an overgrown
+toyshop.
+
+
+THE THUNNY FISHERY.
+
+    [Greek: Tan baitan apodys eis chymaia taena haleymai,
+    Hopeth tos Oynnos schopiazeiai 'Olpis o' gripeys.]--THEOC.
+
+The thunny fishery, if not as exciting as that of the whale, is far from
+uninteresting to the uninitiated. We were rowing about in want of an
+object, when our boatmen proposed to take us to see this animating
+species of labour; and off we went to a spot about two miles from shore,
+where we came upon a little flotilla of boats, all occupied in the
+common pursuit. A large quantity of floating cork announced our arrival
+on the fishing ground; then came long lines of buoys, to which the
+drop-nets were attached, and at last we drew alongside a small boat,
+hailing which, we learn that the net is already half-drawn, and that _la
+pipa_ (the sword-fish) is _in_ it. Now, we had long wanted to see a live
+sword-fish, but there was no need to stimulate our rowers, who appeared
+equally eager that we should assist at the fun, and made great exertions
+to reach the spot in time. "_Questa_," says our guide, showing the
+boundary of the space circumscribed by walls of net; "_questa è la
+camera della morte_, (this is the chamber of death,) _piano, piano_, (or
+we shall shoot ahead.") The space thus designated lay between two long
+barges, one of which was fixed by anchor, and had few people on board,
+while the other was crowded with naked limbs, and fine heads in Phrygian
+bonnets, academy figures every man of them. What symmetry of form! what
+jet black beard and mustache! what dark flashing eyes! what noses
+without reproach! All were in the various combinations of action which
+their position demanded, hauling away at what seemed to our impatience
+an endless net; by the shortening of which, however, as their boat
+received it, layer upon layer, fold upon fold, coil upon coil, they were
+slowly bringing up the reticulated wall. As the place of captivity came
+nearer, every body was intensely anxious to get a first view of the
+fish; and many other boats were coming up alongside of ours, which
+fortunately lay right over the meshes of the prison, which was becoming
+every second more and more restricted in size. At length some of us
+obtained a first view of the _spada_ and his long sword, and testified
+our delight with vociferation. The fish, meanwhile, who hates publicity,
+backs off, and would back out, to the opposite end of the net, where,
+still finding himself an object of unpleasant remark, he tries by
+violence to escape sideways; but that is _no go_ even for a sword-fish,
+for a sword is his which cannot cut cords, and he soon finds he can make
+nothing of it. Smaller and smaller, meanwhile, is becoming the condemned
+hold, and greater and greater the perturbation within. The captive fish
+begins to swim round and round, and to watch a new opportunity, but it
+is too late!--too many are on the look-out for him! Every man gets ready
+his hooked pole, and there is more tightening of the tackle! The
+terrified fish now rises to the surface, as it were to reconnoitre, and
+then down he dives with a lash of his tail, which sends buckets of water
+into the boat of the assailants. This dive, of course, only carries him
+to the false bottom of the net, and come up presently he must! Every eye
+now looks _fishy_, and every man's hand is armed for the first blow. One
+tall athletic fellow takes aim, and misses; another is more successful,
+and hits. Stunned by the blow, the poor fish flounders on this side and
+on that, and the water is discoloured by his blood! One, two, three
+pointed poles at once, are again in his flank; and now he rushes about
+like a rounded lion, brandishing his tail, and dashing up whirlpools of
+water. More Blows! more blood! He rushes desperately at the net, and
+running his long snout into the meshes, is hopelessly entangled. It is
+all over with him! Countless wounds follow, till he turns over on his
+side, and is handed up lifeless into the boat.
+
+"There," says one, "goes fifteen scudi's worth, and no harm done to _the
+net_." "Little enough, too; but he is worth two thunny, anyhow," says
+another. "Ay! and gives more _sport_," exclaims a third. Such piscatory
+eclogue fell upon our ear, when our guide announced to us that we had
+now seen every thing. The excitement over, we sat down in our boat to
+make a note of what we have written, while the boatmen clave the
+phosphorescent water homewards, and landed us neatly at sunset, with
+their oars dripping luminous drops at every stroke, in the beautiful
+harbour of Palermo.
+
+Some days after we were still more fortunate; we had observed the scouts
+with a white hood over their boat, _looking keenly down_ (_vide_ our
+quotation from Theocritus) into the deep blue sea, and watching with
+all-eyed attention for the apparition of some giant shadow which should
+pass athwart the abyss, and give the signal for a new chase, while their
+comrades were hauling in an immense miscellaneous _take_ of fish, the
+acquisition of the morning. We shot the outpost, (placed to prevent
+larger vessels from entering the fishing preserves and injuring the
+nets,) and remarked our boatmen uncovering to a small _Madonna_ railed
+in alongside. We were just in time on this occasion to see the water
+enclosed in the _camera della morte_, already all alive with fish; for a
+shoal of _palamide_, and of immense _pesce di moro_, filled the
+reticulated chamber. They darted here and there as the net was raising,
+and splashed so furiously about, that the whole water became one lather;
+meanwhile, the men who had been singing gaily, now prepared their
+landing-nets, shouting in a way which certainly _did_ seem to increase
+the terror of their prisoners, who redoubled their efforts to escape.
+
+The rich hues of the _palamide_, in shape and colour not unlike our
+mackerel, but with longitudinal, in place of transverse, green bands,
+were beautiful objects as they were raised all iridescent in their
+freshness out of the water, and transferred to the side boat. We also
+noticed in the net one or two immense fish, in shape like rounded
+parallelograms, with tough shagreen hides, goggle eyes, and two immense
+leathery fins placed at the lower part of the abdomen. They kept
+flapping these valves up and down, but not offering to strike, though
+lugged out by a hook. The haul was a good one, each fish worth a ducat;
+and had they, in fact, been at this price converted into coin at once,
+the money would have made no mean show in the bottom of the net. The
+treacherous _camera della morte_ was emptied quickly, and in one minute
+more, down it went again into the depths below.
+
+We should have mentioned a singular practice of the fishermen of the
+present day in Sicily, to _pat_ the thunny while he is in the net, as
+you pat a horse or dog: They say it makes him docile. This done, they
+put their legs across his back, and _ride_ him round the net room, an
+experiment few would practise on the dolphin's back, at least in these
+days; yet Aulus Gellius relates that there was a dolphin who used to
+delight in carrying children on his back through the water, swimming out
+to sea with them, and then putting them safe on shore! Now, _but for the
+coins_, taking the above custom into consideration, one might have
+supposed the ancients' _delphinus_ to have been the modern _thunny_.
+
+
+THE FISH MARKET.
+
+"Dragged through the mire, and bleeding from the hock," lay a continuous
+mass of slaughtered thunny, mouths wide open, bloody sockets, from which
+the eyes had been torn to make lamp-oil, gills ripped off to be eaten
+fresh, and roes in baskets by their sides. There was also a quantity of
+a fish of dirty white belly and dusky back, the _alalonga_, and two huge
+_dolphins_, with skins full of lamp-oil. This really ugly creature looks
+far better in the _delphin_ title-pages, with his lamp and his "_alere
+flammam_" on clean paper, than on the stall; but his very best
+appearance is on a fine Sicilian coin, with _Arion on his back_. The
+snouts of four large sword-fish were also conspicuous; and there was
+thunny enough for all the world: some of the supply, however, was to be
+hawked about the streets, in order to which cords are placed under the
+belly of a thunny of fifteen cwt., and off he goes slung on a pole, with
+a drummer before and a drummer behind, to disturb every street and alley
+in Palermo till he is got rid of; not that the stationary market is
+quiet; for the noise made in selling the mutest of all animals is in all
+countries really remarkable; but who shall do justice to a _Sicilian_
+Billingsgate at _mezzogiorno_! "_Trenta sei, trenta sei_," bawls out the
+Padrone, cleaving a fish in twain with one stroke of an immense chopper
+kept for the purpose. "_Trenta sei, trenta sei_," repeat the two
+journeymen accomplices, one counting it on his fingers to secure
+accuracy and telegraph the information to distant purchasers, or such as
+cannot _hear_ in the noise; another holds up a slice as a specimen;
+three fellows at our elbow are roaring "_tutti vivi, tutta vivi_," "_a
+sedici, a sedici_." The man of _whitings_, and even he of _sardines_,
+have a voice and a figure of their own. As you approach each stall, the
+noisy salesmen suspend their voices, and enquire, in gentler accents, if
+you intend to buy; if you do not, like the cicada their stunning sound
+returns as soon as you are past. We have hinted that the thunny,
+"_Integer et cadavere toto_," does not look handsome: vastly less
+attractive is he when mutilated. Big as an elephant's thigh, and with
+flesh like some black-blooded bullock of ocean breed, his unsavoury meat
+attracts a most repulsive assemblage, not only of customers, but of
+flies and wasps, which no flapping will keep off from his grumous liver.
+The _sword-fish_ cuts up into large bloodless slices, which look on the
+stall like so many fillets of very white veal, and might pass for such,
+but that the head and shoulders are fixed upon a long lance, high above
+the stall, to inform the uninitiated that the delicate looking meat in
+question was fed in the pastures of the deep. The _price_ of thunny, a
+staple commodity and object of extensive Sicilian commerce, varies
+considerably with the supply; as to the demand, it never ceases. During
+our stay in Palermo, a whole fish would fetch about eight _scudi_, and
+his retail price was about twopence _per English pound_. Think of paying
+three or four _francs_ for less than half a pound _sott 'olio_ in Paris.
+The supply seems very constant during the season, which, on the Palermo
+side of the island, is from May to July, and continues a month later
+along the _Messina_ coast; after which, as the fish cease to be seen, it
+is presumed here that they have sailed to the African coast. The flesh
+of the _spada_ fish is generally double in market price to that of the
+thunny, selling during the greater part of June at about fourpence
+a-pound. Every thunny is weighed upon landing, and a high tax paid upon
+it to the king, who, in consideration thereof, charges his Sicilian
+subjects no duty for gunpowder or salt. The fixed fisheries for thunny,
+round the Sicilian coast, are upwards of a dozen, the most famous being
+that of Messina. At Palermo, however, they sometimes take an immense
+strike of several hundred in one expedition. The average weight of a
+full grown thunny, is from 1000 to 1200 pounds; of course the men with
+poles who land him, can carry him but a little way, and he reaches the
+market by relays. Every bit of him is eaten, except his bones and his
+eyes, and even these yield a quantity of oil.
+
+The spada, too, is pickled down to his bones--he is in great request for
+the hotels, and his eyes, duly salted, are considered a sort of luxury;
+in some places these are the perquisite of the fishermen, yielded by
+their employers, who farm the fisheries, and having satisfied the king,
+make what terms they can with the subject.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+COMMERCIAL POLICY--RUSSIA.
+
+
+From the brief review, in our last Number, of Spain, her commercial
+policy, her economical resources, her fiscal rigours, her financial
+embarrassments, these facts may be said to have been developed:--In the
+first place, that theoretically--that is, so far as legislation--Spain
+is the land of restrictions and prohibitions; and that the principle of
+protection in behalf, not of nascent, but of comparatively ancient and
+still unestablished interests, is recognized, and carried out in the
+most latitudinarian sense of absolute interdict or extravagant impost.
+Secondly, that under such a system, Spain has continued the exceptional
+case of a non or scarcely progressing European state; that the
+maintenance and enhancement of fiscal rigours and manufacturing
+monopoly, jealously fenced round with a legislative wall of prohibition
+and restriction, has neither advanced the prosperity of the quarter of a
+million of people in Catalonia, Valencia, and Biscay, in whose exclusive
+behalf the great and enduring interests of the remaining thirteen
+millions and upwards of the population have been postponed or
+sacrificed--nor contributed to strengthen the financial resources of the
+government, as proved by the prostrate position and prospects of a
+bankrupt and beggared exchequer; that, as the necessary and inevitable
+consequence, the progress of agriculture, the ascendant interest of
+all-powerful communities and vast territorially endowed states--of
+Spain, the almost one only interest and element of vitality, economical
+and political--has been impeded, and continues to be discouraged; that
+the march of internal improvements is checked or stunted, when not
+absolutely stayed; finally, that public morals--the social health of a
+great people, inheritors of glorious antecedents, of an historic renown
+for those qualities of a high order, the deep-seated sentiment of
+personal, as of national honour and dignity, the integrity, fidelity,
+and gallantry, which more loftily spurn contaminating approximation with
+action springing out of base, sordid, and degrading motives and
+associations--have been sapped and corrupted by the debasing influences
+of that gigantic system of organized illicit trade which covers Spain
+with hordes of _contrabandistas_, more numerous and daring than the
+bands of _aduaneros_ and the armies of regulars whom they set at
+defiance, and infests the coast of Spain with fleets of smuggling craft,
+which all the _guardas costas_, with the ancient armada of Spain, were
+it in existence, would be powerless to annihilate. And all this fine
+nation, of warm and generous temperament, of naturally noble and
+virtuous aspirations, thus desperately to be dismantled of its
+once-proud attributes, and demoralized in its character; its exhaustless
+riches of soil and climate to be wantonly wasted--per force of false
+legislation to be left uncultured--and for why? Shades of the
+illustrious Gabarrus and Jovellanos, why? Why, to enable some half dozen
+_fabricantes_ of Barcelona to keep less than half-a-dozen steam-engines
+at work, which shall turn some few thousands of spindles, spinning and
+twisting some few millions of pounds of yarn, by which, after nearly
+three quarters of a century that the cotton manufacture has been
+planted, "swathed, rocked, and dandled" with legislative fondness into a
+rickety nursling, some fifty millions of yards of cotton cloths are said
+to be painfully brought forth in the year; the value of which may
+probably be equal to the same or a larger quantity of French cottons
+introduced by contraband, and consumed in the provinces of Catalonia and
+Arragon themselves--the first being sole seat of the cotton manufacture
+for all Spain. And for this deplorable consummation, the superabundant
+harvests of the waving fields, the luscious floods of the vineyards, the
+full flowing yield of the olive groves of Spain--of the wine, the oil,
+and the corn, of which nature is more bountiful than in Egypt of
+old--the produce and the wealth of the millions, (which, permitted,
+would exchange advantageously for foreign products, and, bye all the
+value, add to the store of national wealth, and create the means of
+reproduction,) are left to run waste and absolutely perish on the
+ground, as not worth the cost of transport to markets without demand.
+"The production of this soil," observes the Ayuntamiento of Malaga, in
+their eloquent _Exposicion_ to the Cortes cited in our last Number,
+after referring to their own port and province, in whose elaboration
+thousands and thousands of hands are employed, millions and millions of
+capital invested, "are consumed, if not in totality, at least with close
+approximation, in England;" and after enumerating the wines, oil,
+raisins, grapes, oranges, lemons, and almonds, as products so consumed
+in this country--"We have active and formidable rivals in France,
+Germany, Italy, Portugal, Turkey, the Greek Archipelago, and other
+countries. We shall say nothing of the wools, corn and other fruits of
+Spain, so important, and some so depressed in England by foreign
+competition with those of this province. If the treaties of commerce of
+England with Italy and Turkey are carried into effect, the exportation
+of our oils and dried fruits will receive its death warrant--_queda
+herida demuerte_. France, Germany, and Portugal, accepting favourably
+the idea of the British Government, will cause our wines to disappear
+from the market; their consumption is already very limited, inasmuch as
+the excessive duty, to one-third the amount of which the value of the
+wine does not reach, at the mouth of the Thames, prevents the sale of
+the inferior dry wines. The same excessive duty tends to diminish the
+consumption of our fruits from year to year. Our oil has alone been able
+to find vent by favour of the double duty imposed till now upon
+Sicilian, superior to ours in quality. But the English speculators are
+already shy of purchasing, in the expectation of an assimilation of
+duties on oils of whatever origin." The Ayuntamiento proceeds to urge
+the necessity of a "beneficial compensation" to British manufactures in
+the tariff of Spain, without which, "the flattering perspective" of
+prosperous progress for the industry and agriculture of the Andalusias
+will be destroyed, and that those vast, rich, and fertile provinces will
+become a desolate desert. "The admission or prohibition of foreign woven
+cottons," says the _Exposicion_, "is for Malaga and its province of
+vital importance under two aspects--of morality and commerce. Until now
+we have endured the terrible consequences of prohibition. The exorbitant
+gain which it supports is the germ of all the crimes perpetrated in our
+country. The man who carries a weapon, who uses it and sheds the blood
+of an agent of the law in the defence of his illegally acquired goods,
+will not hesitate in shedding the blood of a fellow citizen who may
+stand in the way of his desires. And hence the frequent assassinations.
+He who with gold seduces others for the increase of his own property and
+for antisocial purposes, does not scruple, when fortune is adverse, to
+possess himself by violence of the gold of the honest husbandman, or
+peaceful trader: from hence the constant robberies in the less
+frequented places; from hence the general abuse of carrying prohibited
+arms of all sorts, and using them criminally against any one on the
+least provocation, already accustomed to use them against the
+Government. Who shall venture to enumerate the assassinations, the
+robberies, the ruined families, the misfortunes of all kinds, which,
+directly and indirectly, spring from contraband trade?"
+
+Such is the _Exposicion_, such the experience, and such the views of a
+patriotic and enlightened corporation, representing and ruling over one
+of the most populous, wealthy, and industrially disposed districts of
+Spain. Our object in prefacing at this length, and with seeming
+irrelevance, perhaps, our review of the commercial policy of Russia,
+with its bearings on the interests of Great Britain, is to show the
+differing action of the same commercial system, in the present case of
+the prohibitive and restrictive system in different countries, both in
+respect of the mode in which the internal progress and industry of
+countries acting upon the same principle are variously affected
+themselves and in respect of the nature and extent of the influences of
+such action upon those relations of interchange which they entertain, or
+might otherwise entertain, with other countries where an opposite or
+modified system prevails. In its broad features the system of Russia
+varies from that of Spain only in being more rigorous and intractable
+still. Both, however, are founded on the same exclusive principle, that
+of isolation--that of forcing manufactures at whatever cost--that of
+producing all that may be required for domestic consumption--of
+exporting the greatest possible maximum--of importing the lowest
+conceivable minimum. Starting from the same point, and for the same
+goal, it will not be without interest or instruction to accompany and
+observe the progress of the one, as we have already endeavoured to
+illustrate the fortunes of the other--to present Russia, industrial and
+commercial, side by side, or in contrast with Spain, as we have
+described her. Your absolute theory men, your free-traders with one
+idea, like Lord Howick, your performers in the economic extravaganza now
+rehearsing in the Parliament-house under the style of "leave imports
+free, and the exports will take care of themselves," may chance to meet
+with many strange facts to confound their arbitrary theorems on the
+banks of the Neva. Absolute of wisdom, however, as they arrogate to be,
+and casehardened as they are, against assaulting results which should
+destroy their self-willed principle--a principle, like the laws of the
+Medes and Persians, proclaimed to be unchanged and unchangeable--in face
+of which facts are powerless and adverse experience contumeliously
+scouted, or mendaciously perverted, it is sufficiently obvious that
+lessons in political economy will, less than from any quarter of the
+globe, perhaps, be accepted from St Petersburg--they will fall upon
+unwilling ears--upon understandings obtuse or perverted.
+
+We are not of the number of those who would contend that, under all
+times or circumstances, should a principle, or rather the system built
+upon a principle, be rigorously upheld in its application intact, sacred
+equally from modification on the one hand, as against radical revolution
+on the other. It cannot be denied that, under the protective system,
+have grown into their present gigantic proportions all the great
+manufacturing interests of Great Britain. But, with customary hardihood
+of assertion, maintain the economists--in whose wake follow the
+harder-mouthed, coarser-minded Cobdens of the League--although
+manufactures have flourished under such a system to an extent which has
+constituted this country the workshop of the world, they have so
+flourished in spite of the system; and, in its absence, left exposed to
+free unrestricted competition from abroad, must inevitably have
+progressed at a more gigantic rate of speed still. This is asserted to
+be in the order of nature, but as nature is every where the same--as the
+same broad features and first elements characterize all countries more
+or less alike--we ask for examples, for one example only, of the
+successful establishment and progress of any one unprotected industry.
+The demand is surely limited, and reasonable enough. The mendacious
+League, with the Brights and Cobdens of rude and riotous oratory, are
+daily trumpeting it in the towns, and splitting the ears of rural
+groundlings with the reiterated assertion that, of all others, the
+cotton manufacture owes nothing to protection. What!--nothing? Were
+general restrictive imposts on foreign manufactures no protection? Was
+the virtually prohibited importation of the cotton fabrics of India no
+boon? of India, root and branch sacrificed for the advancement of
+Manchester? Why, there are people yet alive who can recollect the day
+when Manchester cottons could not have stood one hour's competition with
+the free, or even 100 per cent taxed fabrics of India.[40] How, indeed,
+could competition have been possible, with the wages of weaving and
+spinning in India at three-halfpence per day, whilst for equal
+quantities and qualities of workmanship, the British weaver was earning
+five shillings, and the spinner ten shillings per day on the average? In
+1780, Mr Samuel Crompton, the ingenious inventor of the mule frame for
+spinning, such as it exists to this day, and is the vast moving machine
+of cotton manufacturing greatness, stated that he obtained _fourteen_
+shillings per lb. for the spinning and preparation of No. 40 yarn,
+twenty-five shillings for No. 60, and two guineas for No. 80. The same
+descriptions of yarns are now profitably making at prices ranging from
+about tenpence to twentypence per lb. At the same period common calicoes
+were saleable at about two shillings per yard, which now may be
+purchased for threepence. Will it be said that the Indian spinner and
+weaver by hand could not, at the same epoch, have produced their wares
+at one-half the price, had not importation, with unrelenting jealousy,
+been interdicted? Was the rigid prohibition of the export of machinery
+no concession, all exclusively and prodigiously in the interest of the
+cotton manufacture, to the zealous promotion and ascendancy of which the
+mining and agricultural interests are unhesitatingly, not to say
+wantonly, prejudiced, if not absolutely perilled? We say wantonly,
+because the free exportation of cotton yarn, tolerated at the same
+moment, was an absurd and mischievous violation of the very principle on
+which the prohibited exportation of machinery was alone and could be
+justified. In face of these incontrovertible facts, of which hereafter,
+and now that the record of them is consigned to that wide circulation
+through the world which the pages of Blackwood only can afford,
+misrepresentation remains without excuse on the question of that
+fostering protection to which, in a larger degree, if not exclusively,
+the cotton manufacture of Great Britain is indebted for its growth to
+its present colossal, mammoth-like, and almost unwieldy grandeur. We do
+not, however, whilst re-establishing facts in their purity, dream the
+practical impossibility of confounding and disarming the ignorance of
+men unfortunately so ill educated and unread, and with intellect so
+incapable, apparently, of appreciating instruction, if not wilfully
+perverse, as the Cobdens, or of restraining the less coarse but more
+fluent flippancy and equally unscrupulous assurance of friend Bright,
+from resort to that stock and stale weapon of vulgar minds which is so
+readily drawn from the armoury of falsehood. To the end of the chapter
+they will lie on, until doomsday arrive, and they sink, like the Henry
+Hunts, _et id genus omne_, their at least as well-bred predecessors of
+the popularity-hunting school, to their proper level in the cess-pool of
+public contempt. Time, which executes justice upon all in the long run,
+cannot fail to lay the ghost of cotton and anti-corn law imposture, even
+in the troubled waters of the muddy Irk and Irwell, where first conjured
+from. And now, having shown how the cotton manufacture of Great Britain
+was from its birth cradled, rocked, and dandled into successful
+progress; how it was fostered and fenced round with protection and
+prohibitive legislation as against competition from abroad; we shall
+proceed with our review of the rise and career of _protected_
+manufactures in Russia. And we would counsel "one who has whistled at
+the plough," whose "farming notes" in the _Morning Chronicle_, when
+confined to such matters of practical detail as may be supposed to lie
+within the scope of his own experience and comprehension, are not
+destitute of interest and information, though with distorted and
+exaggerated views, to ponder well before a next reiteration of the
+random and absurd assertion that the "corn-law has done to agriculture
+_what every law of protection has done for every trade that was ever
+practised_--it has induced negligence, and, by its uncertain operation,
+has obstructed enterprise." Instead of whistling at the plough, such a
+writer almost deserves to be whipped at the cart's tail for so
+preposterously dogmatic an assumption. It has yet to be demonstrated,
+and the proof is challenged, that ever a great interest, whether
+manufacturing or agricultural, was established in any part of the world,
+since the creation, without the aids and appliances of legislative and
+guernatorial patronage. The degree, the qualification the practical
+limitations, which in the progress of time, with social and industrial
+changes supervening at home and abroad, may be rendered expedient or
+necessary in the application of the principle, constitute quite a
+different question, which may be discussed and entertained without any
+disparagement of the soundness of the policy, as best adapted to
+existing circumstances, of the system when first applied. The theory of
+free trade may be, in its entirety, as plausibly it is presented to us,
+founded on just principle; the abstract truth and perfection of which
+are just as unimpeachable as that of the social theory propounded by
+Rousseau in the Savoyard's profession of faith, or that of the "liberty,
+equality, and community of property" (to say nothing of women) theory
+preached, and practically developed to some extent, in the paganish
+philosophies and New Harmony vagaries of the St Simonians, the
+Fourierians, and of Robert Owen, in these our days. And yet, from the
+beginning of time--whether from the world before the flood, or since the
+reconstruction of the world after--never, to this present epoch, has one
+single example come down to us of the sober realization of either the
+economical abstraction or the social abstraction. Primeval chaos, chaos
+existing before all time, could alone have represented the _beau-ideal_
+of each. So far indeed as their own demesnes and domains, Laban and
+Pharaoh were not without their practical proficiency in the elements of
+economical science--for the one knew how to sell his daughters, as the
+other his corn, in the "dearest market;" and each to buy his labour and
+his money at the "cheapest." And never will these free-trade and social
+day-dreams be accomplished to the end of all time; never until chaos
+come again; never, unless perchance the Fitzwilliams and the Phillipses,
+impregnated with the beatific reveries of socialist Robert Owen, should
+throw open, the one, Wentworth hall, with its splendid parks and
+spacious domains--the other, his Manchester mills, wonder-working
+machinery, and million of capital stock, to joint-stock occupancy, with
+common right of possession of the rural labourers who till the ground,
+and the urban operatives who ply the shuttle--the producers, in fact, of
+all their wealth--share and share alike; themselves, in future,
+undertaking the proportion of daily task-work; driving the "teams
+afield," or tenting the mule-frame. Should, perhaps, the Phalansterial
+system of Fourier preferably suit their taste, they will be entitled to
+enter into the "phalanx of harmony," and share _à des degrés différents,
+dans la répartition des trots facultés--capital, travail, talent_, ...
+with the enjoyment of such an apartment in the Phalansterial "palace"
+for four hundred families, the minimum of the phalanx being eighty,
+which may compare with the quality of _répartition_ corresponding to
+them, as expounded by Madame Gatti de Gamond, the principal legatee of
+Fourier and his system.
+
+    [40] The cotton piece goods of India were still subject, in
+    1814, to a duty on importation equal to 85 per cent. This duty
+    was reduced on the 5th of July 1819, but to L.67, 10s. per cent
+    only. Finally, in 1825 the duty was again reduced to 10 per
+    cent, at which it remains. The duty on cotton yarn imported from
+    India was at the same time subject to a duty of 10d. per lb.,
+    and so remained till 1831 at least. It must be borne in mind,
+    that India was the only country in the world which, before and
+    during the rise of the cotton manufacture in Great Britain, was,
+    or could be, an exporter of cotton fabrics and yarns.
+
+In the course of the discussions which terminated in the treaty of
+commerce and navigation with Russia, laid before parliament on the
+opening of the session--the stipulations of which, however, chiefly bore
+upon the extension of certain reciprocal rights of navigation--the
+Emperor Nicholas, in answer to representations pressed upon him from
+this country, for a liberal extension of the same principle to the
+general commerce of Russia, to foreign imports as well as shipping and
+exports--to let in a glimmer of the free-trade principle, in
+fact--replied, as we observed in a former article, that "the system,
+such as it was, he had received from his predecessors, and it was found
+to work well for the interests of his empire." The Autocrat, despot as
+he may be, was not singular in the opinion; for even our esteemed friend
+Count Valerian Krasinski, distinguished no less for the solidity of his
+literary attainments than for the liberality of opinion and the
+patriotism which condemns him to the penalty of exile in a "dear
+country's cause," who therefore will not be suspected of undue bias in
+favour of Russian systems, had written and published in an able article
+on Russia, treating _inter alia_ of the rise and progress of her
+manufactures and commerce, to the following effect:--"The manufacturers
+of Russia commenced, as in other countries, with the beginning of its
+political importance, but have been chiefly indebted for their
+encouragement and progress to the efforts of the Government ... The
+(protective) system has been steadily adhered to with constantly
+increasing energy, and _the most brilliant success_, up to the present
+time." This was published in 1842. We shall proceed to test the merits
+of the case by reference to documents of official origin, Russian and
+British--both to the latest dates to which made up in a sufficiently
+complete shape for the object in view, and the former in some instances
+later than any yet published in this country, and, as believed,
+exclusively in our possession. We shall have to deal with masses of
+figures; but to the general reader in search of truth, they can hardly
+fail to be more acceptable than whole pages of allegations and
+assumptions unsupported by proof, however eloquently worked out to
+plausible conclusions.
+
+We commence with laying the foundation for a comprehension of the
+industrial progression of Russia, by a comparative statement of the
+average imports of a few of the chief articles of consumption, raw
+materials of manufacture, and manufactures, for two series, of three
+years each; the first series being the earliest for which official
+records can be cited, or were perhaps kept. Accidental circumstances,
+and the special influences which, favourably or unfavourably, may act
+upon particular years, producing at one time a feverish excess of
+commercial movement, and at another, a reacting depression as unnatural,
+are best corrected and balanced by taking averages of years. Thus, the
+mean term of imports for 1793, 1794, and 1795, may be thus contrasted
+with that for 1837, 1838, and 1839, of the following commodities:--
+
+         Annual imports,        1793-95                1837-9
+    Sugar,                341,356     poods       1,675,806     poods
+    Olive oil,             42,239      ib.          345,455      ib.
+    Machines and Instruments
+      of all kinds, for   111,300 silver rubles   1,025,264 silver rubles
+    Woollen cloths for  3,978,000      ib.          570,000      ib.
+    Raw cotton,            10,000     poods         315,000      ib.
+    Cotton-yarn,           50,000      ib.          600,000      ib.
+    Cotton fabrics for  2,600,000 silver rubles   3,866,000      ib.
+
+During the first triennial period, a large proportion of the sugars
+imported was in the refined state, the number of sugar refineries being
+then very limited; in the second period, the imports consisted
+exclusively of raw sugar for the numerous existing refining
+establishments, which consumed besides 125,000 poods of beet-root sugar,
+the produce of the beet-root works established in Southern Russia.
+Woollen manufactories have so rapidly and extensively increased, that,
+whereas, comparatively a few years past only, the manufacture of
+woollens was confined almost exclusively to the coarser sorts for army
+use, whilst the better qualities for the consumption of the more easy
+classes, and for export to Asia, were imported from abroad, chiefly from
+Great Britain; for the fifteen years preceding 1840 the case has been
+completely altered. The import of foreign woollens has almost altogether
+ceased for internal consumption in Russia, whilst no woollens but of
+Russian make are now exported to Asia, and especially China. The export
+of these home-made woollens figures far above two millions of rubles
+yearly in the tables of Russian commerce with eastern countries. It will
+be seen that while the imports of cotton yarn, in the space of forty-two
+years, had increased in the proportion from 1 to 12 only, that of raw
+cotton had advanced in the proportion from 1 to 32. The facts are
+significant of the growing extension both of spinning factories and the
+cotton manufactories. It is difficult to understand or credit the
+increased imported values of cotton fabrics here represented, knowing,
+as we do, the decreased export to Russia in our own tables of values and
+quantities. But we shall have occasion hereafter, perhaps, to notice
+some peculiarities in the Russian official system of valuations, which
+may probably serve to clear up the ambiguity. But although importing
+foreign cottons for internal consumption, Russia is moreover an exporter
+of domestic fabrics, to the value of about one million of silver rubles,
+on the side of Asia. In order to avoid as far as possible the
+multiplication of figures by the accompanying reduction of the moneys
+and weights of Russia into English quantities, it may be convenient to
+state, that the silver ruble is equal to 37-1/2d. sterling, and, in
+commercial reckoning, the pood answers to 36 lbs. avoirdupois.
+
+Limiting our views for the present to the trade in cottons, as the
+manufacture of cottons is of much more recent growth in Russia than
+woollen and other manufactures, we find that the exact imports,
+quantities, or values, of cotton and yarn, are thus quoted in Russian
+official returns for the three last years to which made up _seriatim_.
+
+                       1839.        1840.        1841.
+    Raw cotton,       354,832      398,189      314,000 poods.
+    Cotton yarn,      535,817      519,189      560,799  ...
+
+The depressed state of the cotton trade in 1841 in this country, with
+the very low prices of yarn, from consignments pushed, in consequence,
+for sale at any rates against advances, were doubtless the cause of the
+increased imports of yarn, and the decrease in raw cotton, exhibited in
+the returns for 1841. Otherwise, the import of raw cotton has been
+comparatively much more on the increase than cotton yarn for some years
+past. Thus, beginning with 1822, when the cotton industry began more
+rapidly to develope itself, but omitting the years just given, the
+imports stood thus:--
+
+                    1822.     1830.     1838.
+    Raw cotton,     55,838   116,314   326,707 poods
+    Cotton-yarn,   156,541   429,736   606,667 ib.
+
+Now, it will not be denied that the cotton manufacture in this country
+has enjoyed supereminent advantages over that of any other in the world,
+whether we look at the protective scale of duties maintained for half a
+century in its favour against foreign competition, or regard those
+glorious inventions and improvements in machinery, of which rigorous
+prohibitive laws against export, during the same period in force, long
+secured it a strict, and, even to a more recent period, a _quasi_
+monopoly, and gave it a start in the race, which seemed to leave all
+chance of foreign concurrence, or equal ratio of progression, out of the
+question altogether. Neither for spinning nor weaving could Russia, in
+particular, possess any other than machinery of the rudest kind, with
+hand labour, until perhaps subsequently to 1820. Her tariffs, even by
+special treaty of commerce, in 1797, were entirely favourable to the
+entrance and consumption of British fabrics. The prohibitory, or
+Continental system of Bonaparte, was indeed substituted after the treaty
+of Tilsit; but in 1816 a new tariff was promulgated, modifying the
+"prohibiting system of our trade," as the Emperor Alexander, in his
+ukase on the occasion, expressed it. By this tariff, cotton fabrics of
+all kinds were taxed twenty-five per cent in value only; cotton yarn,
+seven and a half copecs per cent; fine woollens, 1 ruble 25 copecs per
+arschine; kerseymeres and blankets, twenty-five per cent on value;
+flannels, camlets, druggets, cords, &c., fifteen per cent. How, then,
+has Russia, subject to all these disadvantages and drawbacks, and so
+late in the field, fared in comparison with this country, so long and so
+far before her? Let us take the Russian data first given for the two
+triennial periods, and ascertain the issue.
+
+The mean annual imports of cotton taken for consumption into Great
+Britain, deducting exports, may be thus stated in round numbers for the
+two terms, 1793-4-5 and 1837-8-9.
+
+       Annual imports,      1793-5.           1837-9.
+    Raw cotton,          22,000,000 lbs.   391,830,000 lbs.
+
+The ratio of progress of the manufacture, therefore, from one term to
+the other, of the forty-four years, was not far from eighteenfold.
+
+Reducing the quantities of cotton-yarn imported into Russia into the
+state of raw cotton, by an allowance of about three ounces in the pound,
+or nearly seven pounds per pood, for waste in the operations of
+spinning, we have the following approximate results:--
+
+    Annual imports,    1793-5.          1837-9.
+    Raw cotton,        69,700 poods.   1027,500 poods.
+
+The ratio of increase from term to term being thus the greater part of
+fifteenfold.
+
+But as the cotton manufacture, from circumstances referred to of
+favourable tariffs for importation--comparatively free-trade
+tariffs--did not begin fairly to shoot forth until 1822, it will be only
+right to try the question of comparative increase by another list,
+namely, as between the returns of the consumption of cotton respectively
+in the two countries for that year, and one of the later years, 1839,
+1840, or 1841; but say rather an average of the three. We are unable,
+however, to strike a corresponding average three years forward from, but
+inclusive of 1822, for want of the corresponding Russian official
+returns for two of the years. On the other hand, to take the one year of
+1839, when the quantity of cotton taken for consumption in this country
+was at a low ebb, would be like straining for an effect, which the
+impartial seeker after truth can have no object in doing, whilst the
+return for 1840 would be as much in excess the other way. Thus the total
+quantities of raw cotton taken for consumption in Great Britain were--
+
+    For the year 1822,                             144,180,000 lbs.
+    Average of the three years 1839, 1840, 1841,   440,146,000 ib.
+
+The ratio of progression in Great Britain, for the term of eighteen
+years, was somewhat more than threefold.
+
+The imports of raw cotton, and of cotton-yarn, rendered into cotton by
+an allowance in addition, at the rate of about three ounces per lb. for
+waste, or nearly seven pounds per pood, stand thus for Russia in round
+numbers:--
+
+    For the year 1822, in the shape of raw cotton,        55,838 poods.
+        ...      ...   Cotton yarn calculated into about 186,900
+                                                         -------
+                          Total cotton,                          242,738
+    Average raw cotton imports of 1839-40-41             355,673
+    Id. of cotton yarn calculated into cotton,           643,300
+                                                         -------
+                         Total cotton,                           998,973
+
+The ratio of increase in the cotton manufacture of Russia, for the same
+term of eighteen years, was therefore considerably more than fourfold.
+And this steady but extraordinary superiority of Russian progression
+took place in the face of all those prosperity years, when, from 1833 to
+1838, the British cotton manufacture was stimulated, and bloated to
+excess, with the high prices resulting from the flash bank-paper and
+loan system of the United States, and the mad joint-stock banking freaks
+of Lancashire.
+
+The average import and consumption of raw cotton in Russia, and of yarn
+calculated into cotton, was at the rate, on the average of the three
+years cited, of about, 35,963,000 lbs. per annum;
+
+Which approximates the position of the Russian with that of the cotton
+manufacture of France as existing in the year 1818, when the consumption
+of raw cotton is officially stated at, 16,974,159 kilogrammes;
+
+And with that of the cotton manufacture of the United States in 1828,
+when the quantity consumed at home was stated at about, 35,359,000 lbs.
+
+It will still be insisted, doubtless, as all along it has never failed
+to be the cuckoo-note of unreflecting theorists, that the manufactures
+of Russia have flourished, and are flourishing, in spite of protection;
+that the only effect of protection is to repress their growth and mar
+their perfection. The assertion stands ready-made, and ever the stock on
+hand; it is a rash and blindfold speculation upon chance and futurity,
+at the best; a building without a corner stone; a _chateau-d'Espagne_
+nowhere to be found. Where, except in the glowing fictions of
+Scheherezade, may the personification of such a phantom be detected?
+History, whether ancient or modern, may be ransacked in vain for one
+footprint of the realised existence and miraculous economical prodigies
+worked upon the absolute free-trade principle, in the spontaneous
+creation, the progress unrivalled, the prosperity Pactolean, of
+ingenious manufactures. The El-Dorado region has yet to be discovered;
+will Cobden, like another Columbus in search of new worlds, adventure
+upon the desperate enterprise, and furnish the writer of romance with
+apt materials for the frights and freaks of another "phantom ship" on
+the wide ocean? If so inclined, indeed, we may commend him to an
+undertaking now, at this present writing, in actual progress, as we
+learn from assured sources and high quarters, in Paris. A goodly ship of
+substantial proportions is now preparing in a French port, richly
+freighted for an interesting voyage with the products of French
+industry, with destination for the great sea-river of the Amazons, for
+navigating its thousands of miles of unploughed course, and exploring
+those realms untold of, those interminable wastes recorded, and those
+numberless nations as yet unknown, if existing, which coast the vast
+expanse of its waters to the utmost limits of Brazil, and the very
+confines of Bolivia, Peru, and Colombia. The King of the French is
+himself the patron and promoter of this great enterprise. Hasten, then,
+friend Cobden, erratic and chivalrous as Quixote of old, to "swell the
+breezes and partake the gale" of an expedition so glorious; for know,
+that on the banks of the noble Amazons itself, the magnificent
+queen-river, most worthy in the world of such distinction, have poets,
+romancers, and chroniclers, undoubting, from all time, sung of and
+planted the resplendent empire of the El-Dorado itself.
+
+Our design being to demonstrate, by the force of example and contrast,
+the sophistical absurdity of absolute theories, that, however naturally
+and harmoniously their parts may be made to correspond in thesis and
+system as a whole, according to which the same consequences, upon a
+given principle, should inevitably flow from certain causes, yet that,
+practically, it is found the same causes do not produce the same
+effects, even when circumstances are most analogous; that, for instance,
+the protective, or restrictive system of industry, under the rule of
+which Spain languishes, notwithstanding the abundant possession of the
+first materials for the promotion of manufacturing, and the prosperity
+of agricultural interests, proves, at the other extremity of Europe, the
+spring of successful progress and industrial accumulation, and renders
+Russia prosperous, though proportionally not more largely gifted with
+those natural elements of wealth and production which consist in
+fertility of soil, in mines of the precious metals, of coal, iron, &c.
+We shall pursue our task to its completion before we proceed to draw and
+sum up those conclusions which must follow from the premises
+established, before we enter in order upon the analysis and dissection
+of the one absolute principle or theory, by which, in the conceit of
+certain sage travellers on the royal railroad to wisdom, eager for the
+end and impatient of the toil of thinking, the economical destinies of
+all nations should be cut, carved, and adjusted _secundum artem_, with
+mathematical precision and uniformity, according to the rule invariable
+of robber Procrustes, the ancient founder of the sect, who constructed a
+bed--that is, a system of certain proportions of size--that is, upon a
+certain principle--upon which he laid his victims; those found too short
+to fit the dimensions of the pallet, he stretched and tortured into the
+length required; those too long he fitted by decapitating the
+superabundance of head and shoulders, or by squaring off the legs and
+feet; just as economists would sever nations with their invariable
+system; just as, with their selfish and one-sided, sordid idea, the
+junta of Leaguers, rule and plummet in hand, would deal with the British
+empire, with its vast possessions in every clime, on which the sun never
+sets, peopled by races numerous and diverse of origin as of interests,
+multifarious, complicated, often conflicting. "_L'etât_," said Louis le
+Grand, "_c'est moi_." "The British empire"--bellows Syntax Cobden--"'tis
+_me_ and printed calicoes." "The British government and
+legislature"--exclaims Friend Bright--"'tis I and Rochdale flannel."
+
+It is a strange, and, with our qualified and not exclusive opinions, not
+less a discouraging complication of affairs with which we have to deal,
+that, look among the great nations where we will, we find, to a great
+extent, that the protective system of commerce, where in force, or where
+it has superseded a _quasi_ free-trade system before in force, has
+conduced, in no small degree, to the advancement of material interests.
+The Germanic Customs' Union, that peculiar handicraft creation of Lord
+Palmerston, is there to confirm the fact, no less than Russia, than
+France, than Belgium, and other lands. The League themselves
+ostentatiously proclaim it, whilst pretending to impugn the retention of
+the very shadow of a shade of the same principle, for the country, above
+all others, which has grown to greatness under it--the very breath of
+whose nostrils it has been, during the struggles of infancy and progress
+to that full-blown maturity, when assuredly it seeks, (and need seek
+only,) willingly proffers, and readily accepts, equality of
+condition--reciprocity of interchange, with all the world. "The
+Manchester manufacturer"--the false _nom-de-guerre_ of a calico printer,
+who was not a manufacturer at all, and could scarcely distinguish a
+calico from a cambric at the time of writing, who erst was, is yet,
+perchance, the trumpeter of Russian policy, Russian principles, and
+Russian progress in the East and elsewhere--must be grateful for the
+information we have already afforded on the full careering ascendency of
+Russian material interests also. His gratitude will expand as he
+accompanies these pages.
+
+Peter the Great laid the foundations of Russian manufactures, as of the
+Russian empire itself. He founded manufactories in all the larger
+cities. But with his death they fell into decay until the reign of
+Elizabeth. With that epoch began their revival, and the more rigorous
+revival also of the prohibitory system. Their present imposing
+appearance and magnitude date, however, from the peace of 1815, the
+great parent and promoter of all continental manufactures. In 1812 no
+more than 2,332 manufacturing establishments in the whole empire were in
+existence, employing 119,000 work-people; in 1835 the number of the
+former had reached to 6,015, and of the latter to 279,673, the half of
+the free labourers. At the beginning of 1839, says the report of the
+department of manufactures and internal commerce--the last which,
+hitherto, has been made up or come to our hands--the number of factories
+and manufactories had risen to 6,855, an increase over the year
+preceding of 405, whilst the number of workmen employed in them was
+412,931, an increase over the year before of 35,111. Thus, in the space
+of three years, from 1835 to the end of 1838, 810 new establishments had
+been organized, and the number of workmen augmented by one-half. These
+industrial establishments were non-inclusive of mining works, iron
+works, &c., and the people employed in them. They were classed as
+follows:--
+
+    Woollen manufactories,        606
+    Silk    ib.                   227
+    Cotton  ib.                   467
+    Linen   ib.                   216
+    Tanneries,                   1918
+    Tallow works,                 554
+    Candle  ib.                   444
+    Soap    ib.                   270
+    Hardware ib.                  486
+
+The seat of Russian manufactures is principally in the central portion
+of the empire, in its ancient capital Moscow, and the surrounding
+provinces. The progress of Moscow itself may be thus briefly sketched,
+after remarking that in the beginning of 1839 there existed in the
+government, of which it was the capital city, 1058 manufactories,
+employing 83,054 work-people. In the 315 manufactories of the
+neighbouring province of Vladimir, 83,655 work-people were employed; in
+the equally adjacent province of Kalouga, 164 manufactories gave work to
+20,401 workmen. The population of Moscow, the Manchester of Russia,
+amounted in 1825 to 241,514; in 1827 it had risen to 257,694; in 1830 to
+305,631; in 1833 to 333,260; in 1840 to 347,224. The principal
+manufactories were thus classed for the latter year.
+
+    Silk manufacture,        68  looms, 2217
+    Cotton ib.              139    ib.  7252
+    Woollen cloth ib.        51    ib.  2960
+    Other woollen stuff ib.  16    ib.   579
+    Shawl ib.                17    ib.   282
+
+In thirteen of the chief factories there were 263 spinning machines;
+three cotton factories alone contained 138. Besides these larger
+establishments, 3122 workshops, not considerable enough to be ranked as
+manufactories, employed alone 19,638 work-people; and 142 industrial
+establishments, such as founderies, breweries, distilleries, tallow and
+soap works, &c., gave bread to thousands more.
+
+The consumption of the principal raw materials of manufacture is thus
+stated as an average of that and recent preceding years.
+
+    Cotton for the twenty spinneries of Moscow, 100,000 poods per an.
+    Cotton yarn,                                300,000      ...
+    Dyed cotton yarn                                200      ...
+    Raw silk,                                    30,000      ...
+    Dye woods,                                  100,000      ...
+    Madder,                                     250,000      ...
+
+The machinery for the manufactories is made for the most part in the
+founderies and machine-works of Vladimir, Tamboff, Kalouga, and Riazan,
+but, above all, in the city of Tula and the village of Parlovo. In
+McCulloch's _Statistical Dictionary_, the number of steam-engines in the
+government of Moscow is stated, for 1830, at about 100--in 1820, two
+only being in existence. On what authority the statement is given does
+not appear; our own documents, to 1841 inclusive, are silent on that
+head. For Moscow, with its immediate environs, the total number and the
+produce of the cotton looms are thus given:--
+
+    Cotton loom,                      17,000
+    Producing annually,              450,000 pieces of calico
+          Do.                        400,000   do.  of nankeen
+          Do. above,               2,000,000   do.  of handkerchiefs
+    In the whole, inclusive
+      of other goods, such as
+      muslins, velvets, &c., &c.,
+      equal to above,             40,000,000 arschines of fabrics
+    Valued at                      7,500,000 silver rubles.
+
+The arschine is about twenty-eight English inches. The silk manufacture,
+of recent establishment only in Moscow, presented the following results,
+for that city and the surrounding districts:--
+
+    Number of common looms,               10,000
+    Jacquard, more than                    5,000
+    Producing annually,               15,000,000 arschines of st
+    Valued at                         10,000,000 silver rubles.
+
+The woollen manufactories of Moscow, inclusive of the environs, employed
+apart smaller loom shops:--
+
+    Looms,                  5,139
+    Producing yearly,      30,000 pieces of superior quality
+         Do. more than     50,000 do. ordinary for the army
+    And          do.      700,000 arschines of light cloths for China.
+
+The values not given. The imports of merchandise from Moscow by water,
+of which alone exact and detailed particulars are stated, amounted in--
+
+    1837, to               22,881,000 rubles assignation
+    1838,                  22,074,563       ...
+    1839,                  17,467,391       ...
+    1840,                  28,283,877       ...
+
+Three and a half rubles assignation, are equal to one silver ruble.
+Moscow enjoys the advantage of being an internal bonded port, or port of
+intrepôt, a privilege now seeking by Manchester, so that importers of
+foreign merchandise are not called upon for the payment of duties until
+the moment when, withdrawing their imports, or any other portion of them
+as occasion requires, the payment becomes necessary. Formerly the duties
+had to be paid in the frontier ports, and often in bulk. The customhouse
+revenue resulting, amounted in--
+
+    1837, to                  637,074 rubles assignation
+    1838,                     614,464       ...
+    1839,                     626,764       ...
+    1840,                     776,021       ...
+    1841,                     898,398       ...
+
+These returns are proof indisputable of industrial and social progress.
+It is unnecessary further to remark upon the great and growing
+importance of other branches of industry in Moscow, or to extend the
+limits of this notice so far as to comprise a review of the iron and
+hardware manufactories, and the numerous tanneries of Tula and Perm. The
+active movement of internal commerce, may, however, be inferred from the
+returns of products exhibited and sold at twelve fairs held annually,
+with one thrice, and another twice, in the year, the total value of
+which exposed for sale in 1840, was stated at 101,551,000 silver rubles,
+and of the quantity actually sold at 64,326,700 rubles. Of which alone
+at--
+
+                             On Sale.         Sold.
+    Nijny Novgorod, for    47,264,967    38,828,984 silver rubles
+    Irbit,                 12,232,286     7,682,000     ...
+    Romna, 2d fair          9,001,904     4,454,747     ...
+    Kharkoff, 1st fair,     5,743,280     2,944,390     ...
+    Koursk,                 7,014,802     2,014,834     ...
+
+The great fair of Nijny Novgorod may rival with Leipzig in the magnitude
+of its transactions. In 1841, the general movement of values at this
+fair is thus returned:--
+
+Merchandise for sale, 50,506,606 silver rubles, or 176,773,121 rbls. ass.
+Sold,                 41,704,236      ...          145,964,826    ...
+
+By decree of the government, within the last three years, the public
+accounts, before kept in rubles assignation, that is government paper
+money, were ordered to be reckoned in silver rubles. For purposes of
+comparison with former years, we state them in both. Of the mass of
+commodities thus in motion at the fair, there were of Russian
+manufactures and indigenous products, to the total value of 37,132,693
+silver rubles exposed for sale, and for 29,762,473 sold; some other
+chief articles ranging thus;--
+
+                                  For sale.        Sold.
+    Cotton goods,                 7,336,665    5,947,865 silver rubles.
+    Woollens,                     3,448,295    2,620,175     ...
+    Linen and hempen fabrics,     3,126,736    2,375,736     ...
+    Silks,                        3,220,489    2,239,989     ...
+    Leather, worked and not,      1,043,583      876,083     ...
+    Produce of mines and
+      founderies, iron, copper,
+      hardware, jewellery,        7,600,330    6,450,330     ...
+
+Tea, for 7,107,500 rubles assignation, and other products of China, were
+brought to the fair; raw cotton, cotton-yarn, shawls, silks, skins, &c.
+from Persia and Asia, to the value of 29,796,819 roubles assignation,
+and chiefly sold. Of the products of Western Europe, which make but a
+miserable exhibit, the following are the chief:--
+
+    Woollen stuffs, for           256,455 silver rubles.
+    Cottons,                      510,830     ...
+    Linens and hempen fabrics,    192,300     ...
+    Silks,                        423,130     ...
+    Indigo,                       918,000     ...
+
+The growing magnitude of this fair will be appreciated by the following
+returns of former years:--
+
+           Total commodities
+               for sale.                Rubles assignation.
+    1829,    104,018,586 of which sold for 50,104,971  rbls. ass.
+    1831,    129,457,600        ...        98,329,520      ...
+    1833,    146,207,311        ...       117,210,670      ...
+    1835,    143,369,240        ...       117,743,340      ...
+    1837,    146,638,181        ...       125,507,881      ...
+    1838,    156,192,500        ...       129,234,500      ...
+    1839,    161,643,674        ...       137,100,774      ...
+    1840,    165,427,384        ...       135,901,454      ...
+
+The convenience of these fairs for the purposes of interchange, both
+between different industries and the populations of different provinces
+of the same empire, and with contiguous countries from which so great an
+affluence of merchants with their merchandise for exchange was
+attracted, has induced the government to decree the establishment of
+eleven new fairs in different towns, and fifty-nine others in as many
+large villages, which, in growing size, may be already compared with
+towns.
+
+The internal commercial communications of Russia are chiefly carried on
+by means of those innumerable rivers and canals, that network of natural
+and artificial canals, by which she is intersected through all her
+extent, and which, taking their rise in various central parts of the
+empire, pursue their course singly, or falling into each other, and so
+constituting mighty streams, to the White sea and the Baltic, or fall
+into the Black sea and the Caspian. The total movement of this internal
+navigation in all the rivers, presented the following results:--
+
+    Departures from the different ports
+      in the interior in 1839, 60,277 barques.
+                (   do.        24,421 rafts.
+    Arrivals at (   do.        46,850 barques.
+                (   do.        17,469 rafts.
+
+    They were the convoys of merchandise
+     dispatched from the ports
+     to the value of                    737,814,276 rubles ass.
+    Of merchandise forwarded to do.     538,921,730    ...
+    In 1837 the values dispatched
+      from, ascended only to            618,990,306    ...
+        Do.           forwarded to      490,505,940    ...
+
+The various and many basins of river and water communication,
+scientifically arranged, and showing how all parts of that vast empire
+are connected with each other through all and nearly every portion of
+its territorial extent, as in the report before us, is a document worthy
+of study and more minute analysis, but our limits forbid.
+
+The foreign commerce of Russia presents the following results for
+1841:--
+
+    Exports to foreign countries, 86,382,179 silver rubles.
+    Imports from         do.      79,429,490     ...
+
+The Russian official tables include, under the head of foreign commerce,
+the exports and imports with Finland and Poland; but as they fall within
+the range, in reality, of internal commerce, the accounts are better
+simplified by their exclusion. The system of separate returns results,
+doubtless, from the political arrangements and conventions by which
+Russia acquired the possession of those two countries.
+
+The progress of exports and imports may be thus indicated:--
+
+                1838.        1839.       1840.
+    Exports, 85,718,930   94,857,788   82,731,386 silver rubles.
+    Imports, 69,693,824   69,993,589   76,726,490     ...
+
+The remarkable excess of exports in 1839 resulted from the large demand
+for, and shipments of, corn in that year--the official value of which is
+stated at 25,217,027 silver rubles; the smallest export, so far as
+value, being that of 1841, valued at 10,382,509 silver rubles only.
+Exclusive of corn, the exports would stand thus:--
+
+    1838 for  70,562,252 silver rubles.
+    1839      69,640,761     ...
+    1840      68,704,971     ...
+    1841      75,999,670     ...
+
+Gold and silver, in bars or specie, are not comprised in these returns.
+
+    For 1841 the values thus exported were, 4,023,728 silver rubles.
+     ...     ...   ...       imports,       9,347,867      ib.
+
+It is necessary, however, to travel more backwards in order to a right
+appreciation of the progress of the foreign trade of Russia. This
+comparison is here instituted with earlier years, premising that the
+exports to Poland and Finland, amounting to some ten or twelve millions
+of rubles assignation, and imports from, amounting to about three
+millions, are included, and therefore swell the amount of the imports
+and exports of the following years. However, to facilitate the
+comparison, the silver ruble values of 1841 are multiplied into
+corresponding ruble assignation values:
+
+               Exportations.   Importations.   Balance in favour of
+                                                     Russia.
+    In 1830     268,887,342     197,115,340     71,772,002 rb. as.
+       1836     283,748,233     237,251,204     13,733,196
+       1837     264,485,160     251,757,177     12,727,983
+       1841     302,337,626     378,003,215     24,334,411
+
+Add 11,808,743 rubles assignation for exports to, and 4,792,346 imports
+from, Poland and Finland in 1841, and the real comparison would be, for
+1841, exports 314,146,349, imports 282,795,561; balance in favour of
+1841, 31,350,688 rubles assignation.
+
+The bulk of Russian exportations consists of raw or first materials,
+such as flax, hemp, flax-seed, oil, tallow, leather, woad, metals, and
+of which to the aggregate value in 1841, of 59,773,354 silver rubles was
+exported; an amount nearly stationary as compared with the three
+previous years. But the export of Russian manufactures, viz. woollens,
+cottons, linens, candles, cordage, and cloths for China, had improved in
+aggregate amount from,--
+
+                     Silver Rubles.
+    In 1838,           6,527,222
+    To, in 1841,      10,259,209
+
+It was the trade with China by Kiachta, and latterly also by the line of
+Siberia, which, however, had perhaps taken the most remarkable
+extension, and was held to be most promising of future progress and
+profit. The imports, and therefore the consumption, of tea in Russia,
+are growing annually larger; and the exports of Russian products and
+manufactures to China, equally in proportion. For by mutual convention,
+as dictated by China, for regulating the commercial intercourse between
+the two countries strictly limited to that frontier river port, although
+now indirectly countenanced by Siberia, the trade is exclusively one of
+barter; tea and silks for leather, furs, cottons, woollens, and linens.
+A condition, be it observed, which serves to place beyond all doubt the
+fact, that it was not the introduction and consumption, with the
+deterioration to the health of the population resulting, physically and
+morally, from the use of opium, which had so much effect with the
+celestial Emperor in provoking the late war with Great Britain, as the
+abstraction by export in payment, and the drain so constant, of Sycee
+silver. The imports of tea in--
+
+                                             Poods.      Silver Rubles.
+    1838, By Kiachta, were, of good and
+              ordinary quality,             127,645  value  2,015,189
+          By the line of Siberia,                10   ...         600
+                                           --------         ---------
+                                            127,655   ...   2,015,789
+                                           --------         ---------
+
+    1841, By Kiachta,                       168,218   ...   6,976,363
+          By the line of Siberia and
+              Caspian Sea,                    1,364   ...      66,293
+                                           --------         ---------
+                                            169,582   ...   7,012,656
+
+Besides which, the imports of an inferior tea, called _brick tea_,
+amounted to the value of 359,223 silver rubles in 1841. In three years,
+the general trade, China silks inclusive, had therefore more than
+trebled so far as value; for it is remarkable, that though larger
+quantities of tea are imported, yet prices, so far from declining, had
+actually considerably advanced; which proves that the commodity was
+becoming a favourite beverage, and gaining into more general
+consumption, in Russia. The values of the Russian merchandise, such as
+stated, which passed in barter, are said to have been equally sustained.
+It may be noted, indeed, as an extraordinary fact, that whilst, as the
+official report of the department of commerce observes, the prices and
+values of almost all foreign raw products and manufactured wares
+imported into Russia, during the three or four years preceding 1841, and
+including 1841, entered constantly, and some at considerably depreciated
+rates, in the reverse the products of Russia, exported to Europe and
+elsewhere during the same period, quantity for quantity, generally
+improved in prices and ascended in value.
+
+    The foreign commerce of Russia by sea was carried on, during the year
+    1841, by 2,596 vessels, inwards loaded, tonnage,     452,760
+             2,174 do. in ballast,               do.     410,164
+             -----                                       -------
+    Totals,  4,770                                       862,924
+             -----                                       -------
+             4,582 do. outwards loaded,          do.     819,232
+               312 do.  do. in ballast,          do.      58,046
+             -----                                       -------
+    Totals,  4,894                                       877,278
+
+In the coasting trade in the Northern seas, the number of vessels
+dispatched from port to port was 2007, in the Black Sea, 5,275.
+
+The revenue from customs in 1841 amounted to 27,387,494 silver rubles,
+or upwards of two-fifths in excess of the receipts of 1830.
+
+In order to exemplify the nature of the trade betwixt Great Britain and
+Russia, and exhibit it in its most disadvantageous aspect, we shall add
+here, from statements verified as authentic by competent authorities on
+the spot, the returns of British trade and shipping with certain Russian
+ports for 1842, which we have recently received direct. They will assist
+us to a conception of the relative importance of each place in respect
+of its commercial connexion with this country.
+
+The commerce of the port of Archangel, omitting from the table Onega,
+Kola, Kemi, and Soumsk, the other ports in the White Sea, their traffic
+being inconsiderable, is thus represented.
+
+    1842.--Total shipping outward, 212, of which,
+             British, 153, tonnage,                               31,704
+    Total imports, (exclusive of L.13,816
+             by Norway coasters,)                               L.18,384
+    Of which from Great Britain,                                   L.801
+    Total exports, (omitting L.22,236 to Norway,)              L.427,789
+    Of which to Great Britain,                                 L.305,823
+    In 1841, 176 vessels exported for
+             Great Britain the value,                          L.408,077
+      Exclusive of cargoes by 2 other vessel, to the amount
+        of L.7,208, for the Hanse towns and Holland.
+    In 1840, 250 vessels, tonnage 48,249, exported to
+      Great Britain the value of                               L.442,381
+    Exclusive of 6 British vessels which carried cargoes to
+      the Hanse towns, France, and Italy,
+      of the aggregate value of                                 L.12,858.
+
+The commerce with Riga exhibits a somewhat more favourable proportion
+between imports and exports, and we are induced, therefore, to give the
+return of imports for 1842 in same detail as received.
+
+Nature and value of merchandise imported into Riga from Great Britain
+during the year 1842:--
+
+    Coffee,                                         L.2,500  0 0
+    Cotton,                                          11,011  0 0
+    Cotton twist, L.21,159, 10s; do. goods, L.1135,  22,294  0 0
+    Woollen goods,                                    4,100 16 8
+    Woollen twist,                                   19,057  3 4
+    Indigo and other dyes,                           13,764  0 0
+    Dye-woods,                                        2,718  6 8
+    Salt,                                            53,269  3 4
+    Sugar,                                           24,882 10 0
+    Wines and brandies,                              19,200 13 4
+    Iron and steel wares,                             7,025  0 0
+    Spices and drugs,                                13,440  6 8
+    Non-enumerated articles,                         12,527 10 0
+                                                     -----------
+    Total,                                        L.205,791  0 0
+
+Countries from whence British vessels have arrived at the port of Riga
+during the year 1842:--
+
+                  No. of vessels. Tonnage.              Remarks.
+    United Kingdom,    387        59,629     With cargoes and in ballast.
+    Hamburg,             6         1,261     In ballast.
+    Denmark,            21         3,730         ...
+    Norway,             13         2,438         ...
+    France,              5           670         ...
+    Belgium,             1           484         ...
+    Holland,             6         1,018         ...
+    Prussia,             4           562         ...
+    Sweden,              3           669         ...
+                       ---        ------
+          Total,       446        70,461
+
+                                  Total value of      Countries to
+                                   exportations      whence exported.
+    1842 exports.        Tons.   to Great Britain.
+    British vessels, 446 70,461    L.1,527,810 5 4    United Kingdom.
+
+The commerce of Odessa represents a closer approximation still between
+imports and exports; and they would perhaps nearly balance, but for the
+large shipments of wheat to this country, which contribute to swell the
+exports.
+
+    In 1842, 174 British ships entered, tonnage 44,428,
+      sailed 176 tonnage,                                 L.44,929
+    Total value of imports by them,                        185,870
+    Of which, from the United Kingdom,                     184,370
+    The remainder by 64 British vessels entering from
+      Leghorn, Turkey,
+      Algiers, Amsterdam, mostly in ballast.
+    Total average of exports,                              784,865
+    Of which, to the United Kingdom,                       776,995
+    The remainder to the countries above named.
+    1841, Total imports by British ships,                  147,950
+            Do. exports      do.                           590,570
+    1840, Total imports by British ships,                  130,660
+            Do. exports      do.                           859,090
+
+The commerce of St Petersburg is stated, for 1812, imports and exports
+together, at the value of 97,795,415 silver rubles. And of 1147 foreign
+vessels which left that port and Cronstadt with cargoes, more or less,
+515 were British, of 117,793 tonnage--being a rather considerably less
+number than in either 1840 or 1841.
+
+The present is the proper occasion to remark upon and explain the system
+of official valuation pursued in Russia, by which it will be observed
+how the real value, both of imports and exports, is swelled, probably
+with a view to the vain display of a greater commerce than is really
+carried on. As the system is nearly the same for both imports and
+exports, it cannot, of course, materially interfere with, or impeach the
+accuracy of the general balance-sheet. It is desirable, however, that
+the facts should be fairly represented, for the guidance of those who
+may be in the habit of consulting and comparing the official documents
+of different countries; and they will serve moreover to explain, in some
+degree, the extraordinary discrepancies which have been found betwixt
+the declared values of British products and manufactures exported to
+Russia, as published in the Board of Trade tables, and the same exports
+as exhibited in Russian customhouse returns.
+
+In calculating the annual value of importations, it is the rule in the
+Russian customhouses to add the duties paid on the entry of goods to
+their original value. This practice in Russia, where the duties are so
+high, swells the value of imports far beyond their true amount, and
+gives a false and exaggerated view of them.
+
+With respect to the exports, nearly the same practice exists. In
+calculating their value, all the shipping charges are added to the cost
+of the article; and we are informed by merchants resident in Russia,
+that on comparing the annual Government statements of exports for their
+establishments, they are found to correspond with the invoices forwarded
+to their foreign correspondents, which, of course, include commission,
+and all the expenses attendant on the shipping of the goods. The law
+also requires that the shipper, on clearing merchandise for export
+through the customhouse, should declare its value. With a view of
+preserving uniformity, the Russian authorities, from time to time, fix a
+standard price at which particular articles shall be valued for export
+at the customhouse. To exemplify the evil of this system, it is
+necessary only to mention that oats, for example, could lately be
+purchased at a Baltic port at sixty silver rubles per last, while the
+latest customhouse standard values them at eighty silver rubles per
+last. This practice is no way injurious to the merchant, but only
+unnaturally swells the tables of exports when annually made up by the
+Russian Government. A shipper, therefore, of any of the articles
+included in the Russian standard, is compelled to state a much greater
+value at the customhouse than he furnishes to his foreign correspondent,
+who, of course, only pays the market price of the article, with the
+additional shipping expenses.
+
+The difficulty, such as it is, might be obviated, were the masters of
+British merchantmen compelled by law to submit their ship's papers, on
+arrival and departure, to the British consuls at each port, who would
+then be placed on the same footing with the consuls of other countries,
+and be enabled to communicate much important statistical information to
+their Government, of the opportunity for acquiring and transmitting
+which they are now deprived.
+
+Our review of Russian commerce and industry would be more incomplete
+than it is, if we were to omit all notice of the vast mining wealth of
+that empire. But our limits, already nearly reached, do not admit of
+more than a passing reference. Suffice it, that in coal, both bituminous
+and anthracite, in iron and other metals, and salt, constituting the raw
+materials, Russia is rich enough for all her wants, and indeed supplies
+the great bulk of those wants within herself, with to spare in some of
+these products for her neighbours and other countries. Her mines are
+annually increasing in productiveness and number, as enterprise is
+extended and capital invested in them, and as domestic manufactures and
+improving agriculture increasingly absorb their produce. The
+treasure-yielding progress of her gold mines is one of the extraordinary
+events of the age. The existence of gold in Siberia was scarcely
+suspected till 1829. The first researches of adventuring individuals
+were attended with no success. Feodot Popoff, one of the earliest,
+succeeded at length in that year, when all others had abandoned the
+undertaking as hopeless, in discovering traces, and procuring some
+inconsiderable specimens, of gold--not in quantity, however, to repay
+the working; and the doubts before existing seemed confirmed as to the
+fruitlessness of further perseverance in the search. Major-General
+Kovalevsky, of the engineers of mines, having been appointed governor of
+Tomsk, renewed the attempt in 1830; and, at the close of that year, his
+indefatigable labours, and more methodical plan of operations, were
+rewarded with the discovery of a first considerable stratum of
+auriferous sands, which was designated Yégorievsky, (St George.)
+Adventurers flocked into the district forthwith, and in numbers, upon
+the widespreading news; and excellently did renewed labours recompense
+the zeal of the more fortunate; numerous were the discoveries of layers
+of golden sands. In one of these, last year, a massive piece of native
+gold, weighing 24-1/2 pounds Russian, (the Russian pound is about 1-1/2
+oz. less than the English,) was discovered embedded in a fragment of
+quartz, and is now deposited in the museum of the School of Mines at St
+Petersburg. The yield of the Siberian mines has since been at the
+following rate of progression--omitting the intermediate years for
+brevity, although in every year there was an increase of quantity upon
+the preceding:--
+
+    1830    5 poods, 32 lbs., 59-1/2 zdotnicks.
+    1832   21  ---   34 ---   68-3/4    ---
+    1834   65  ---   18 ---   90-3/8    ---
+    1836  105  ---    9 ---   41        ---
+    1838  193  ---    6 ---   47-1/2    ---
+    1840  255  ---   27 ---   26-3/8    ---
+    1842  631  ---    5 ---   21-1/4    ---
+
+The total of the thirteen years has been 2093 poods, 38 lbs., 46 zd. The
+pood, be it remembered, is equal to (rather more than) 36 lbs.
+avoirdupois.
+
+    The total general yield of the older worked mines
+    of the Oural mountains for 1842, was, besides,
+                     149 poods, 18 lbs., 58 zd.
+    And of platina,   53   --   33  --   67  --
+
+On a rough estimation, the produce of all the gold, platina, and silver
+from the silver mines, could not have amounted to less, perhaps, for the
+year 1842, than three millions sterling.
+
+According to the learned academician Köppen, of St Petersburg, in a
+lengthened memoir upon the subject, the total population of Russia,
+inclusive of Poland, Finland, and Trans-Caucasian provinces, ascended in
+
+                       1839 to 65,000,000
+    Or of Russia Proper alone, 55,500,000
+
+With an empire so gigantic, a population so large, however
+disproportioned as compared with territory, and with resources so
+incalculable, it must appear extraordinary that foreign commercial
+relations are so limited. The total of exports and imports together for
+1841, represents only, in round numbers, a commercial movement to the
+value of 165,811,000 silver rubles, or in sterling, about L.25,907,300.
+The matter which most concerns this country, is the very
+disproportionate interest which results to its share in the export and
+import trade of Russia. Taking the latest British returns of the value
+of Russian products imported into England, for the Board of Trade tables
+give quantities only, as we find them stated by Mr McGregor, the
+indefatigable secretary of that board, for 1838, at L.6,977,396, or say,
+
+    in round numbers            L.7,000,000
+    And British exports at the
+    declared value here of,
+    say,                          1,700,000
+                                -----------
+    There would appear to result
+    the very heavy difference
+    against the United
+    Kingdom of                  L.5,300,000
+
+But bad as the case may be, it is not quite so bad as these figures
+would represent. It must not be forgotten in this sort of calculation,
+that shipping, freights, insurances, and commissions, represent property
+quite as substantially in the commercial sense, as even Mr Cobden's
+printed calicos, or friend Bright's flannel pieces. Now, we think it
+might admit of proof, that as much as nine-tenths of all the produce
+brought to this country from Russia, is so brought in British bottoms,
+and so also of the exports to Russia; although in 1840, the last of the
+Board of Trade tables containing such particulars, no more than 1629
+British vessels, of 340,567 tonnage, against 296 foreign, of 79,152
+tonnage, entered British ports from Russia--the proportions being much
+the same outwards; but whether the foreign were all Russian vessels may
+be doubted. Let us assume, however, that no more than three-fourths of
+both imports and exports were so carried, and leaving three-fourths
+British freights outwards to balance Russian one-fourth freights inwards
+and outwards, let us in fairness estimate the worth of that freightage
+in reduction of the enormous balance against us. As for Spain, in our
+last Number, we took twenty per cent to cover all the freightage
+charges, before indicated, on her commodities of less bulk though more
+value in proportion, twenty-five per cent on the average will not be too
+much, certainly, to cover those charges on the more bulky products of
+Russia, more especially when the long, costly, and intricate navigation
+of the Baltic, and the White and Black Seas, are taken into account. The
+calculation will then stand thus:--
+
+    Imports from Russia,                      L.7,000,000
+    Deduct twenty-five per cent freightage, &c.
+      as British property and profit,           1,750,000
+                                              -----------
+    Real value of imports as on board in Russia,            L.5,250,000
+    Declared value of ex-British exports to Russia,
+                                              L.1,700,000
+    Value of British freightage, &c., as above,
+                                                1,750,000
+                                              -----------   L.3,450,000
+                                                            -----------
+    Real approximative balance in favour of Russia,         L.1,800,000
+
+or say two millions, as the three-fourths produce of outward freight
+would, perhaps, not quite compensate the one-fourth on inward and
+outward cargoes to the Russian shipping. Even such a balance is
+exclusively and unjustly large against a country which, like Great
+Britain, is a consumer of Russian products to the extent of
+seven-twelfths of the total exports of Russia to all the world. The
+consequence is, that the rate of exchange is almost invariably against
+this country. Lord Howick, indeed, most quixotically deals with adverse
+exchanges; he disposes of them summarily, and in a style that must have
+astonished the people on 'Change. This disciple and representative of Mr
+Edward Gibbon Wakefield's economics in the House of Commons, as Lord
+Durham was before his political disciple, and the victim of his schemes
+colonial, thus decisively disposes of adverse exchanges in the
+celebrated debate on Import Duties, taking Portugal for an example.
+
+    "A large increase of importations from Portugal would
+    necessarily be attended by a proportionate increase of our
+    export trade. Was it not clear that every merchant who imported
+    a pipe of wine would anticipate the bills drawn against him on
+    account of it, and that, whatever would be the increase in the
+    amount of imports, there would be a corresponding increase in
+    the amount of the bills drawn against us? How were our
+    merchants to provide for them? There would be no difficulty in
+    it, whether the trade of Portugal increased legally or
+    illegally. Suppose an increase of imports into Portugal, there
+    would be an immediate demand for bills to Portugal. _The
+    consequence would be, that if there was any other country from
+    which Portugal received more than it exported, the bill-brokers
+    would get bills from that country_, and our manufactures would
+    be sent there instead of to Portugal. Admit that you could not
+    find in any other country the means of discharging your debt by
+    importation of your manufactures, bills on Portugal should then
+    rise to a certain premium, and gold and silver would be sent to
+    discharge the debt. The gold and silver would come from some
+    other country, and the consequence would be that we should send
+    our manufactures, not to Portugal, but to South America; while
+    Portugal would be obliged to send the bullion to some other
+    country that it might carry on a smuggling trade with its
+    neighbour, Spain. It was impossible for the ingenuity of man to
+    point out any different result."
+
+The "bill-brokers" will be greatly amused with the new line of business
+chalked out for them, of "getting bills" from other countries when short
+in this. There are two descriptions of "bill brokers," but the class
+bearing that designation purely deal with domestic bills only. The other
+class are known as "exchange brokers," because they meddle only with
+foreign bills; but as to "getting bills" from abroad when bills are
+wanting here, that trustworthy and respectable description of agents
+certainly never dreams of such an occupation. Lord Howick would seem to
+imagine that manufactories of bills existed specially abroad, and that
+people could draw with as much nonchalance from Paris or from Hamburg,
+upon Jack Nokes and Tom Styles at Amsterdam or Frankfort, as here Lord
+Huntingtower accepted for his dear friend the Colonel values uncared
+for, or as folks familiarly talk of valuing an Aldgate pump when an
+accommodation bill is in question. May we venture to hint to the member
+for commercial Sunderland, the _ex_ for Northumberland, that the
+functions of "exchange brokers" extend no further than to ask A if he
+has any bills to sell, and B if he is a buyer; whereupon he has only
+further to learn what rate the one will purchase and the other sell at;
+that knotty point arranged, the bargain is concluded, and he receives
+his very small percentage. The operations are carried on every day, more
+or less, but on Tuesdays and Fridays, being especially "post days" on
+London 'Change, where Lord Howick any day may be initiated in the
+mystery, if not punctilious about being unceremoniously elbowed and
+jostled about.
+
+In the principle of protection, we hold Russia to be perfectly in her
+right and her interest; in the abuse of it, she damages herself.
+Prohibition is not protection; restrictive duties equal to absolute
+prohibition, like the 85 per cent prohibitory tax, formerly levied here
+on Indian cotton fabrics, in favour of Lancashire, are not protection in
+the legitimate sense. The late Emperor Alexander hit the true nail of
+principle on the head when, in 1819, he reformed the Russian tariff on
+the calculation of imposts ranging from fifteen to forty per cent. We
+are, nevertheless, bound to say, that, even as protection is understood
+in its exaggerated sense by the Autocrat, the system has worked well for
+Russia, as indeed we have shown. She has accumulated wealth by that
+system; she has secured by it the possession of a large proportion of
+those precious metals, which are indispensable no less as the medium of
+foreign exchanges and balances, than as the means by which, above all
+other means, the operations of industry, and the employment of labour,
+are facilitated at home. How would industry progress, and wages be
+dispensed, if the master manufacturer could offer payment of wages only
+in yards or pieces of cloth, the iron-master in ore, or the
+land-proprietor in oxen, sheep, corn, hay, or cabbages? In respect of
+commercial balances, that of Great Britain against Russia is liquidated
+probably, to some extent, by the yearly balance resulting against Russia
+in her dealings with Persia; for the policy of Russia is to favour the
+commerce of Asia, whilst oppressing that with Europe, and Persia is
+always indebted to Great Britain. She has, however, the game in her own
+hands. Can we wonder that she plays it to her own advantage,
+half-political, half-commercial? She knows as well as we feel keenly,
+that the raw materials, in which she is so rich, are indispensable for
+our use; she charges accordingly. The time may come when we shall be
+more independent of her, and then, then only, she will conform to
+altered circumstances. The able and distinguished diplomatist at her
+court, Lord Stuart de Rothesay, who succeeded in the arduous task of
+negotiating the recent treaty of navigation with that crafty Government,
+is the man also who will not be slow to avail himself of any favourable
+conjuncture for turning circumstances to account, and redressing the
+adverse balance now against this country.
+
+As before said, our intention, on this occasion, is not to dissect
+principles or theories, but to present facts. We have still more in
+store for the absolute theory men. But, in concluding, we may be allowed
+to observe, that the causes why a restrictive and exclusive system does
+answer for Russia, and, on the contrary, tends to the ruin of Spain, are
+simply these:--The raw materials of Russia are indispensable for this
+and other manufacturing countries, because cheaper and more abundant
+than can be elsewhere procured, and the price of labour is low. The raw
+products of Spain necessary for manufactures are, on the reverse, dear
+priced; her products of luxury, even, are dear; her rates of labour are
+higher than in this or any other country of Europe. Two shillings and
+sixpence a-day, or fifteen shillings a-week; with, besides Sundays, a
+hundred saints' days or holidays in the year, put her labour and produce
+quite _hors de combat_ in the race of competition. A Spanish operative
+would no more toil on a _dia de dos cruces_, (two saints on one day,)
+than he would fast on a feast-day, with an odorous _olla podrida_ before
+him on the table.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+INDEX TO VOL. LIII.
+
+
+    [Transcriber's note: The page numbers refer to editions 327 to
+    332, published between January and June 1843, according to the
+    following table:
+
+      Edition 327, pages   1-140, dated January 1843,
+              328,       141-280,       February,
+              329,       281-414,       March,
+              330,       415-550,       April,
+              331,       551-692,       May,
+              332,       693-826,       June.]
+
+Aden, on the occupation of, 484.
+Affghanistan, the war in, 17
+  review of the events in, 239
+  the evacuation of, 266.
+Agriculture, the practice of, 415.
+Akhbar Khan, murder of Macnaghten by, 257
+  defeat of, at Tazeen, 269.
+Amalia, from the German of Schiller, 442.
+Ammalát Bek, a tale, translated from the Russian,
+  Translator's preface, 281
+  Chap. I., 288
+  Chap. II., 296
+  Chap. III., 464
+  Chap. IV., 471
+  Chap. V., 478
+  Chap. VI., 568
+  Chap. VII., 573
+  Chap. VIII., 579
+  Chap. IX., 584
+  Chap. X., 746
+  Chap. XI., 750
+  Chap. XII., 752
+  Chap. XIII., 755
+  Chap. XIV. 759.
+Anti-Corn Law League, failure of the, 6.
+Antique at Paris, the, from Schiller, 312.
+Antique, the, to the Northern Wanderer, 312.
+Aristocracies of London life, the, 67
+  the aristocracy of fashion, 68
+  of power, 227
+  of talent, 386.
+Arnold's lectures on history, review of, 141.
+Astronomical works, from Schiller, 311.
+Attorney's Clerk in the Monk's Hood, the, a review of Chatterton, 780.
+Auckland, Lord, remarks on his policy in India, 18, 266.
+
+Bailey, Mr, his Reply to an Article in Blackwood's Magazine,
+  on Berkeley's Theory of Vision, 762.
+Ballads of Schiller, the, see Schiller.
+Battle, the, from Schiller, 446.
+Battle of the Blocks, the, 614.
+Berkeley's Theory of Vision, further remarks on, 762.
+Book of the Farm, review of the, 415.
+Buckingham, the Duke of, his resignation, 5.
+Burial march of Dundee, the, 537.
+Burnes, Sir Alexander, murder of, 244.
+
+Cabul, Eyre's Narrative of the Operations in, reviewed, 239.
+Caleb Stukely, Part X. The Revulsion, 33
+  Part XI. Saints and Sinners, 213
+  Part XII. The Parsonage, 314
+  Part XIII. The Fugitive, 496
+  Part last, Tranquillity, 651.
+Candia, the siege of, 718.
+Capello, Bianca, history of, 554.
+Chapters of Turkish History, No. IX,
+  Rise of the Kiuprili family siege of Candia, 718.
+Chatterton's Poems, review of, 780.
+Chief End of Man, the, from Schiller, 311.
+China, state of our relations with, at the commencement of 1843, 19
+  justice of the war with, 20
+  future prospects of, 21.
+Claverhouse's Burial March, a poem, 537.
+Columbus, from Schiller, 312.
+Commercial Policy in relation to Spain, review of, 673
+  In relation to Russia, 807.
+Comte, Auguste, review of his Cours de Philosophie Positive, 397.
+Corn-Law, Sir Robert Peel's alteration in the, defended, 5.
+Correctness, from Schiller, 310.
+Count Eberhard the Grumbler, from Schiller, 628.
+Cromwell and Sir Oliver Cromwell, Imaginary conversation between, 209.
+Cunningham's Life of Reynolds, strictures on, 596.
+Curse of Glencoe, the, by B. Simmons, 121.
+
+Death of Thomas Hamilton, Esq., 280.
+Delta, the Lost Lamb, by, 395.
+Disturbances in the manufacturing districts, the, 11.
+Division of Ranks, the, from Schiller, 311.
+Dream of Lord Nithsdale, the, by Charles Mackay, 83.
+Dumas' Travels in Italy, review of, 552.
+Dundee, the burial march of, 537.
+
+East and South of Europe, the, 101.
+Eberhard of Wurtemberg, from Schiller, 628.
+El Empecinado, passage in the career of, 343.
+Ellenborough, Lord, policy of, in India, 18
+  his policy with regard to Affghanistan, 266
+  his proclamation on evacuating the country, 276
+  defended against the charges of the Whigs, 539.
+Elysium, from Schiller, 628.
+Europe, the east and south of, 101.
+Evacuation of Affghanistan, the, 266.
+Expectation and Fulfilment, from Schiller, 439.
+Eyre's narrative of the events in Cabul, review of, 239.
+
+Fantasia to Laura, from Schiller, 638.
+Favour of the moment, the, from Schiller, 438.
+Fight with the dragon, the, from Schiller, 175.
+Financial position of Great Britain at the close of 1842, 6.
+Florence, sketches of, 561.
+Flowers, from Schiller, 445.
+Foreign affairs, aspect of, at the commencement of 1843, 15.
+Fortune and Wisdom, from Schiller, 631.
+Fortune-Favoured, the, from Schiller, 439.
+Founding of the Bell, the, by Charles Mackay, 462.
+Funeral phantasie, from Schiller, 626.
+
+Genius, from Schiller, 310.
+Gentility-mongering, on, 379.
+Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield illustrated, review of, 771.
+Good and the Beautiful, the, from Schiller, 309.
+Great Britain at the commencement of 1843, 1
+  her position on the meeting of parliament, 5
+  financial state, 7
+  aspect of domestic affairs, 14
+  and of foreign relations, 15
+  state of her Indian empire, 18
+  and of affairs in China, 19.
+Group in Tartarus, a, from Schiller, 627.
+
+Hamilton, Thomas, Esq., death of, 280.
+Hector and Andromache, from Schiller, 441.
+History, Arnold's Lectures on, reviewed, 141.
+Honour to Woman, from Schiller, 173.
+
+Ideal, the, from Schiller, 433.
+Ideal and the Actual Life, the, from Schiller, 435.
+Ignacio Guerra and El Sangrador, a tale of civil war, 791.
+Imaginary Conversations,
+  by Walter Savage Landor
+    between Tasso and Cornelia, 62
+    between Cromwell and Sir Oliver Cromwell, 209
+    between Sandt and Kotzebue, 338;
+  by Edward Quillinan
+    between W.S. Landor and Christopher North, 518.
+Imitator, the, from Schiller, 310.
+Income Tax, discussion on the, 7
+  remarks on, 8
+  causes which led to its imposition, 10.
+Infanticide, the, from Schiller, 631.
+Ireland, state of, at the commencement of 1843, 14.
+Italy, Dumas' travels in, reviewed, 552.
+
+Jeweller's Wife, the, a passage in the career of El Empecinado, 343.
+Jove to Hercules, from Schiller, 311.
+
+Khelat, occupation of, by the British, 274.
+Khoord Cabul pass, retreat of the British through the, 262.
+Kiuprili Family, rise of the, a chapter in Turkish history, 718.
+
+Landor, Walter Savage, Imaginary Conversations by
+  between Tasso and Cornelia, 62
+  Cromwell and Sir Oliver Cromwell, 209
+  Sandt and Kotzebue, 338
+  lines by, 337
+  Imaginary conversation between, and Christopher North, 518.
+Last of the Shepherds, the, Chap. I., 447
+  Chap. II., 449
+  Chap. III., 451
+  Chap. IV., 453
+  Chap. V., 455
+  Chap. VI., 458
+  Chap. VII., 460.
+Lay of the Bell, the, from Schiller, 302.
+Leap Year, a tale, Chap. I., 603
+  Chap. II., 606
+  Chap. III., 611.
+Lesurques, or the victim of Judicial error, Chap. I., the four guests, 24
+  Chap. II., the four horsemen, 25
+  Chap. III., the robbery and murder, ib.
+  Chap. IV., the arrest, 26
+  Chap. V., the trial, 28
+  Chap. VI., the execution, 30
+  Chap. VII., the proofs, ib.
+  Chap. VIII., the way in which France rectifies an error, 32.
+London, the world of, see World.
+Londonderry, the Marquis of, review of his steam voyage
+  to Constantinople, &c., 101.
+Lost Lamb, the, by Delta, 295.
+Love's Triumph, from Schiller, 635.
+
+Mackay, Charles, dream of Lord Nithsdale, by, 83
+  Founding of the Bell, by, 462.
+Mackenzie, Captain, account of the murder of Macnaghten, by, 257.
+Macnaghten, Sir William, description of the murder of, 257.
+Maître-d'Armes, a passage in the life of a, 733.
+Marlínski's Ammalát Bek, translation of, Chap. I., 288
+  Chap. II., 296
+  Chap. III., 464
+  Chap. IV., 471
+  Chap. V., 478
+  Chap. VI., 568
+  Chap. VII., 573
+  Chap. VIII., 579
+  Chap. IX., 584
+  Chap. X., 746
+  Chap. XI., 750
+  Chap. XII., 752
+  Chap. XIII., 755
+  Chap. XIV., 759.
+Marston; or, the memoirs of a statesman. Part I., 693.
+Martyr's Monologue, the, a poem, 125.
+Master, the, from Schiller, 310.
+Memorandums of a month's tour in Sicily--leaving Naples
+  steam boatiana, 799
+  churches, 802
+  visit to the gardens of the Duke of Serra di Falco, near Palermo, ib.
+  the Thunny fishery, 804
+  the fishmarket, 805.
+Merchant, the, from Schiller, 312.
+Might of Song, from Schiller, 172.
+Monaco, sketch of the history of, 573.
+Moralist, to a, from Schiller, 630.
+Mulready's illustrations to the Vicar of Wakefield, review of, 771.
+Music in England, state of, Part I., 127.
+Mystery of reminiscence, the, from Schiller, 442.
+
+Natural history of the salmon and sea-trout, the, 640.
+Non-intrusion controversy, account of the, 352.
+Nott, General, movements of, in Cabul, 270.
+
+Occupation of Aden, on the, 484.
+Opium question, the, 22.
+
+Parr, natural history of the, 640
+  its identity with the salmon, 643.
+Passage in the life of a Maître-d'Armes, 733.
+Paul de Kockneyisms, by a Cockney, 366
+  a cit's soirée, 373.
+Paving Question, the, 614.
+Peel, Sir Robert, difficulties of his position
+  on his accession to power, 2
+  errors of his predecessors, 5
+  his alteration in the corn-law, 5
+  his financial policy, 7
+  his tariff, 11.
+Philosophy of Dress, the, 230.
+Poems and Ballads of Schiller. See Schiller.
+Poetry, the dream of Lord Nithsdale, by Charles Mackay, 83
+  the curse of Glencoe, by B. Simmons, 121
+  the martyr's monologue, 125
+  the poems and ballads of Schiller, Part V., 166
+  Part VI., 302
+  Part VII., 433
+  Part VIII., 626
+  the young grey head, 202
+  lines by W.S. Landor, 337
+  the lost lamb, by Delta, 395
+  the founding of the bell, by Charles Mackay, 462
+  sonnet, on viewing my mother's picture, 495
+  the burial march of Dundee, 537
+  the vigil of Venus, 715.
+Poetry of Life, the, from Schiller, 313.
+Pollock, General, advance of, into Affghanistan, 269.
+Poor-law, support of the, by the Conservatives, 14.
+Practice of Agriculture, the, 415.
+Pretenders to Fashion, on, 234.
+
+Quillinan, Edward, imaginary conversation by,
+  between W.S. Landor and Christopher North, 518.
+
+Retreat from Cabul, description of the, 261.
+Reviews, Londonderry's steam voyage to Constantinople, 101
+  Reynolds's discourses, Part II., 181
+  conclusion, 589
+  Eyre's Cabul, 239
+  Auguste Comte's cours de philosophie positive, 397
+  Stephens' Book of the Farm, 415
+  Dumas' Travels in Italy, 552
+  Young and Shaw on Salmon and Sea-Trout, 640
+  The Vicar of Wakefield, illustrated by William Mulready, R.A., 771
+  Chatterton's poems, 780.
+Reynolds, Sir Joshua, review of the discourses of, Part II., 181
+  conclusion, 589
+  defence of, against the aspersions of Allan Cunningham, 496.
+Riots in the manufacturing districts, the, 13.
+Rousseau, from Schiller, 631.
+Rowley's Poems, review of, 780.
+Rudolph of Hapsburg, from Schiller, 169.
+Russia, commercial policy in reference to, 807.
+Russian Literature, remarks on, 281.
+
+Salmon, Natural History of the, 640.
+Sandt and Kotzebue, imaginary conversation between,
+  by Walter Savage Landor, 338
+Sangrador, El, and Ignacio Guerra, a tale of civil war, 791.
+Schiller, the Poems and Ballads of, translated. No. V.
+  The victory-feast, 166
+  Rudolph of Hapsburg, 169
+  the words of error, 171
+  the words of belief, 172
+  the might of song, ib.
+  honour to woman, 173
+  the fight with the dragon, 175
+  No. VI. The lay of the bell, 302
+  votive tablets, 309
+  the good and the beautiful, ib.
+  to ----, 310
+  genius, ib.
+  correctness, ib.
+  the imitator, ib.
+  the master, ib.
+  to the mystic, ib.
+  astronomical works, 311
+  the division of ranks, ib.
+  theophany, ib.
+  the chief end of man, ib.
+  Ulysses, ib.
+  Jove to Hercules, ib.
+  the sower, 312
+  the merchant, ib.
+  Columbus, ib.
+  the antique to the northern wanderer, ib.
+  the antique at Paris, ib.
+  the poetry of life, 313
+  No. VII. The ideal, 433
+  the ideal and the actual life, 435
+  the favour of the moment, 438
+  expectation and fulfilment, 439
+  to the proselyte maker, ib.
+  value and worth, ib.
+  the fortune-favoured, ib.
+  Poems of the first period, introductory remarks on them, 441
+  Hector and Andromache, ib.
+  to Laura, the mystery of reminiscence, 442
+  to Laura, rapture, ib.
+  to Laura, playing, 444
+  flowers, 445
+  the battle, ib.
+  No. VIII. A funeral fantasie, 626
+  a group in Tartarus, 627
+  Elysium, 628
+  Count Eberhard, the grumbler, of Wurtemberg, ib.
+  to a moralist, 630
+  Rousseau, 631
+  fortune and favour, ib.
+  the infanticide, ib.
+  remarks on it, 634
+  the triumph of love, 635
+  fantasie to Laura, 638
+  to the spring, 639.
+Scinde, occupation of, by the British, 273.
+Sea-Trout, natural history of the, 640.
+Shah Shoojah, death of, 266, _note_.
+Shaw, Mr, on sea-trout and salmon, 640.
+Shaw, Thomas B., translation of Ammalát Bek by,
+  introductory remarks, 281
+  Chap. I., 288
+  Chap. II., 296
+  Chap. III., 464
+  Chap. IV., 471
+  Chap. V., 478
+  Chap. VI., 568
+  Chap. VII., 573
+  Chap. VIII., 579
+  Chap. IX., 584
+  Chap. X., 746
+  Chap. XI., 750
+  Chap. XII., 752
+  Chap. XIII., 755
+  Chap. XIV., 759.
+Shepherds, last of the, a tale, Chap. I., 447
+  Chap. II., 449
+  Chap. III., 451
+  Chap. IV., 453
+  Chap. V., 455
+  Chap. VI., 458
+  Chap. VII., 460.
+Sicily, memorandum of a month's tour in, leaving Naples,
+  steam-boatiana, 799
+  churches, 802
+  visit to the garden of the Duke of Serra di Falco, near Palermo, ib.
+  the Thunny fishery, 804
+  the fishmarket, 805.
+Siege of Candia, the, 718.
+Simmons, B., the curse of Glencoe, by, 121.
+Song of the bell, the, from Schiller, 302.
+Sonnet, by the author of the Life of Burke, 495.
+Sower, the, from Schiller, 312.
+Spain, commercial policy of Great Britain towards, 673.
+Spring, address to, from Schiller, 639.
+Statesman, memoirs of a, see Marston.
+Stephens' Book of the Farm, review of, 415.
+
+Tale of a Tub, the, an additional chapter,
+  how Jack ran mad a second time, 352.
+Tariff, reconstruction of the, difficulty of the task, 11.
+Tasso and Cornelia, imaginary conversation between,
+  by Walter Savage Landor, 62.
+Taste and Music in England, state of, Part. I., 127.
+Theophany, from Schiller, 311.
+Thunny fishery, the, 804.
+To ----, from Schiller, 310.
+To Laura, the mystery of reminiscence, from Schiller, 442.
+To Laura, rapture, from Schiller, 443.
+To Laura, playing, from Schiller, 444.
+To a Moralist, from Schiller, 630.
+To the Mystic, from Schiller, 310.
+To the Proselyte-maker, from Schiller, 439.
+To the Spring, from Schiller, 639.
+Triumph of Love, the, from Schiller, 635.
+Turkish History, chapters of; No. IX.
+  rise of the Kiuprili family siege of Candia, 718.
+Two Hours of Mystery, a tale, Chap. I., 85
+  Chap. II., 89
+  Chap. III., 93.
+
+Ulysses, from Schiller, 311.
+
+Value and Worth, from Schiller, 439.
+Vicar of Wakefield illustrated, review of, 771.
+Victory Feast, the, from Schiller, 166.
+Vigil of Venus, the, translated from the Latin, 715.
+Votive Tablets, from Schiller, 309.
+
+Whigs, the, and Lord Ellenborough, 539.
+Wood Paving, remarks on, 614.
+Words of Error, the, from Schiller, 171
+  and of belief, 172.
+World of London, 2d series. Part I. Aristocracies of London life, 67
+  the aristocracy of fashion, 68
+  Part II. Concerning slow fellows, 225
+  the aristocracy of power, 227
+  the philosophy of dress, 230
+  pretenders to fashion, 234
+  Part III. Aristocracies of London life continued,
+    of gentility-mongering, 379
+  the aristocracy of talent, 386.
+
+Young, Mr, on grilse and salmon, review of, 640.
+Young grey head, the, a poem, 202.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+END OF VOL. LIII.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+_Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne and Hughes, Paul's Work._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No.
+CCCXXXII., by Various
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12511 ***
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+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12511 ***</div>
+
+<h1>BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE</h1>
+<hr />
+
+<h2>NO. CCCXXXII. JUNE, 1843. VOL. LIII.</h2>
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<h2>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+<ul>
+  <li><a href="#bw332s1">MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN.</a></li>
+  <li><a href="#bw332s2">THE VIGIL OF VENUS. TRANSLATION FROM THE LATIN</a></li>
+  <li><a href="#bw332s3">CHAPTERS OF TURKISH HISTORY. RISE OF THE KIUPRILI FAMILY&mdash;SIEGE OF CANDIA.&mdash;NO. IX.</a></li>
+  <li><a href="#bw332s4">A PASSAGE IN THE LIFE OF A MA&Icirc;TRE-D'ARMES</a></li>
+  <li><a href="#bw332s5">AMMAL&Aacute;T BEK. A TRUE TALE OF THE CAUCASUS, FROM THE RUSSIAN OF MARL&Iacute;NSKI.&mdash;CONCLUSION</a></li>
+  <li><a href="#bw332s6">MR BAILEY'S REPLY TO AN ARTICLE IN BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE.</a></li>
+  <li><a href="#bw332s7">THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD. ILLUSTRATED BY MULREADY</a></li>
+  <li><a href="#bw332s8">THE ATTORNEY'S CLERK IN THE MONK'S HOOD.</a></li>
+  <li><a href="#bw332s9">IGNACIO GUERRA AND EL SANGRADOR; A TALE OF CIVIL WAR</a></li>
+  <li><a href="#bw332s10">MEMORANDUMS OF A MONTH'S TOUR IN SICILY.</a></li>
+  <li><a href="#bw332s11">COMMERCIAL POLICY&mdash;RUSSIA.</a></li>
+  <li><a href="#bw332-footnotes">[FOOTNOTES]</a></li>
+  <li><a href="#bw332-index">INDEX TO VOL. LIII.</a></li>
+</ul>
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page693" id="page693" title="693"></a></span><a name="bw332s1" id="bw332s1"></a><h2>MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN.</h2>
+
+<h3>PART I.</h3>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Have I not in my time heard lions roar?</p>
+<p>Have I not heard the sea, puft up with wind,</p>
+<p>Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat?</p>
+<p>Have I not heard great ordnance in the field,</p>
+<p>And heaven's artillery thunder in the skies?</p>
+<p>Have I not in the pitched battle heard</p>
+<p>Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets clang?&quot;</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>SHAKSPEARE</p>
+</div></div>
+<br>
+
+<p>Why I give the world a sketch of
+my career through it, is not among
+the discoveries which I intend to
+make. I have been a public man;
+let those who know public life imagine
+what interest may be felt in
+reviewing the scenes and struggles of
+which such a life is full. May there
+not be a pleasure in conceiving once
+again the shapes and circumstances of
+things, as one sitting by his fireside
+sees castles and cottages, men, women,
+and children in the embers, and shapes
+them the better for the silence and the
+solitude round him? Let the reader
+take what reason he will. I have seen
+the world, and fought my way through
+it; have stumbled, like greater men,
+have risen, like lesser; have been flung
+into the most rapid current of the most
+hurried, wild, and vivid time that the
+world has ever seen&mdash;I have <i>lived</i>
+through the last fifty years. In all the
+vigour of my life, I have mingled
+in some of the greatest transactions,
+and been mingled with some of the
+greatest men, of my time. Like one
+who has tumbled down Niagara, and
+survived the fall, though I have reached
+still water, the roar of the cataract
+is yet in my ears; and I can even survey
+it with a fuller gaze, and stronger
+sense of its vastness and power, than,
+when I was rolling down its precipice.</p>
+
+<p>I have been soldier, adventurer,
+traveller, statesman. I have been lover,
+husband, father&mdash;poor and opulent;
+obscure and conspicuous. There
+are few sensations of our nature, or
+circumstances of our life, which I
+have not undergone. Alternately
+suffering to the verge of ruin, and
+enjoying like an epicurean deity: I
+have been steeped in poverty to the
+lips; I have been surcharged with
+wealth. I have sacrificed, and fearfully,
+to the love of power; I have
+been disgusted with its possession.
+I figured in the great Babel until I
+loved even its confusion of tongues;
+I grew weary of it, until I hated the
+voice of man.</p>
+
+<p>Every man is born for a special
+purpose, and with a special passion.
+The multitude, possessing both, exhibit
+neither; they are flung, or choose
+to be flung, into the pond, where they
+float only to perish, like blind puppies.
+But there are others who stem the
+great tide, and are only the stronger
+for the struggle. From my first
+sense, the passion to be known and
+felt, nay, at the expense of being
+feared, was my impulse. It has been
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page694" id="page694" title="694"></a></span> the impulse of all men who have ever
+impressed the world. With great
+talents it is all-commanding: the
+thunderbolt in the hands of Jove.
+Even with inferior faculties, and I
+make no pretence of mine, it singularly
+excites, urges, and animates.
+When the prophet saw the leopard
+<i>winged</i>, he saw a miracle; I claim for
+my powers only those of the muscle
+and sinew.</p>
+
+<p>Ambition was the original passion
+of my nature. It rose before me, as the
+sun ascends before the Indian, until
+its fire drives him to the shade. I,
+too, have been scorched, have shrunk,
+and now I regret my shrinking.
+But time deals alike with all. I can
+now amuse myself only by images of
+the past; and, in the darkness and solitude
+of years, I take their Magic Lantern,
+and replace life by the strange,
+wild, and high-coloured extravagances,
+the ghosts and genii of the phantasmagoria
+of ambition.</p>
+
+<p>I was the seventh son of one of the
+oldest families of England. If I had
+been the seventh son of the seventh
+son, I should, by all the laws of juggling,
+have been a conjurer; but I was
+a generation too early for fame. My
+father was an earl, and as proud of
+his titles as if he had won them at
+Crecy or Poictiers, and not in the
+campaigns of Westminster, consummated
+on the backstairs of Whitehall.
+He had served his country, as he
+termed it, in a long succession of Parliaments;
+and served her still more, as
+his country neighbours termed it, by
+accepting a peerage, which opened
+the county to any other representative
+among the sons of men. He was a
+strong-built, stern-countenanced, and
+haughty-tongued personage&mdash;by some
+thought a man of sense; by others a
+fool, with all his depth, arising from
+his darkness. My own experience convinced
+me, that no man made more of
+a secret, or thought less of a job.
+From my boyhood I own I feared
+more than honoured him; and as for
+love, if I had been more susceptible,
+mine would have flown round the
+globe before it could have fixed on
+that iron visage. The little love that
+I could afford for any human being,
+was for another and a different order
+of existence. Boys have a natural
+fondness for the mother; and mine
+was gentle, timid, and fond. She always
+parted with me, on my going
+to school, as if she had lost a limb, and
+when I returned, received me as if she
+had found a pinion in its place. She
+perhaps spoiled me by indulgence, as
+much as my lord and father spoiled
+me by severity; but indulgence is the
+pleasanter of the two, and I followed
+the course of nature, and gave her
+whatever heart I have. I still remember
+her. She was remarkably indebted
+to nature, at least for externals. She
+had fine eyes&mdash;large, dark, and sentimental;
+her dress, which would now
+be preposterous, seemed to me, then,
+the perfection of all taste, and was in
+the highest fashion of her time. Her
+beauty worked miracles; for now and
+then I have observed even my father's
+eye fixed on her, with something of
+the admiration which we might conceive
+in an Esquimaux for a fixed
+star, or in an Italian highwayman for
+some Parian statue which he had
+stumbled on in his thickets. But the
+admiration was soon absorbed in the
+job in hand, and he turned away&mdash;to
+scribble to the Minister. Of the
+younger portion of the family I shall
+say but little. Children are happiest
+in the nursery, and there I leave
+them. I had two sisters, sweet little
+creatures, one with black eyes and
+the other with blue. This is enough
+for their description. My four brothers
+were four rough, bold, well-looking
+animals, all intended for ambassadors,
+admirals, generals, and
+secretaries of state&mdash;for my father had
+too long tasted of the honey of official
+life to think that there was any other
+food for a gentleman in the world.
+He had been suckled for too many
+years at those breasts, which, like the
+bosom of the great Egyptian goddess,
+pour the stream of life through whole
+generations of hangers-on, to believe
+that any other fount of existence was
+to be named but the civil list. I am
+strongly inclined to surmise that he
+would have preferred a pencil, purloined
+from the Treasury, to all the
+cedars of Lebanon.</p>
+
+<p>It may be presumed that I was
+destined for public life&mdash;in other
+words, to live on the public; and, to
+prepare me for the performance of a
+part, alternately menial and master&mdash;supple
+as the slave, and superb as the
+minister&mdash;I was sent to Eton. At this
+great school of the aristocracy, would-be
+and real&mdash;barons and dukes <i>in esse</i>,
+and the herald's office alone, or bedlam,
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page695" id="page695" title="695"></a></span> knows what <i>in posse</i>, I remained
+for the customary number of years.
+If whoever does me the honour to
+read these pages, hates the history of
+schooldays as much as I do their memory,
+he will easily pardon my passing
+by the topic altogether. If the
+first purpose of all great public institutions
+is to stand still; the great
+schools of England, fifty years ago,
+were righteous adherents to their contract;
+they never moved. The world
+might whirl round them as it would;
+there remained the grey milestones,
+only measuring the speed with which
+every thing on the road passed them.
+This, they say, has largely and fortunately
+changed in later years. But the
+change must proceed; the venerable
+cripples must throw by their crutches,
+and try the effect of flesh and blood.
+Flogging and fagging, are the education
+for a footman; they disgrace the
+common sense, and offend the feelings
+of a manly people. The pugilist must
+be expelled, and the puppy must follow
+him. The detestable grossness
+of classical impurity, must be no longer
+the price at which Latin &quot;quantities&quot;
+are to be learned. The last lesson of
+the &quot;prodigal son,&quot; must not be the
+first learned by the son of the gentleman
+of England&mdash;to be fed on the
+&quot;husks&quot; fit only for the swine.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;">
+
+<p>On my delighted release from this
+supreme laboratory of statesmen, I
+found the state of things considerably
+altered at Mortimer Castle. I had left
+it a stately but rather melancholy-looking
+household; I found the mansion
+glittering in all the novelty of French
+furniture, gilding, and <i>or-molu</i>&mdash;crowded
+with fashion, and all its menial
+tribe, from the groom in the stables
+to the gentleman's gentleman, who
+slipped along the chambers in soft
+silence, and seemed an embodying of
+Etiquette, all in new equipments of all
+kinds&mdash;the avenue trimmed, until it
+resembled a theatrical wood; and the
+grounds, once sober and silent enough
+for a Jacques to escape from the sight
+of human kind, and hold dialogues
+with the deer; now levelled, opened,
+shorn, and shaved, with the precision
+of a retired citizen's elysium.</p>
+
+<p>The heads of the family were equally
+changed; my mother, unhappily,
+for the worse. Her fine eyes beamed
+with joy as she threw herself upon
+my neck, and murmured some of those
+mingled blessings and raptures which
+have a language of their own. But
+when the first flush was past, I perceived
+that the cheek was thin, the
+eye was hollow and heavy, and the
+tremulous motion of her slight hand,
+as it lay in mine, alarmed me; in all
+my ignorance of the frailty of the human
+frame. But the grand change
+was in the Earl. My father, whom I
+had left rather degenerating into the
+shape which three courses and a
+bottle of claret a-day inflict on country
+gentlemen &quot;who live at home at
+ease,&quot; was now braced and laced,
+costumed in the newest fashion, and
+overflowing with exuberant volatility.
+He breathed of Bond Street. He
+welcomed me with an ardour which
+astonished, more than delighted, me;
+Talked fragments of French, congratulated
+me on my &quot;<i>air distingu&eacute;</i>,&quot;
+advised me to put myself &quot;<i>en grande
+tenue</i>;&quot; and, after enchanting me in
+all kinds of strange ways, concluded
+by making an attempt to kiss me on
+both cheeks, like a true Frenchman.
+My Eton recollections enabled me to
+resist the paternal embrace; until the
+wonder was simplified, by the discovery
+that the family had but just returned
+from a continental residence of
+a couple of years&mdash;a matter of which
+no letter or word had given me the
+knowledge at my school. My next
+discovery was, that an old uncle had
+died, and left us money enough to
+carry the county; and the last and
+crowning one was, that my eldest
+brother had just been returned for the
+North Riding.</p>
+
+<p>This was such an accumulation of
+good-luck as might have thrown any
+elderly gentleman off the balance of
+his gravity. It was like Philip's three
+plates at the Greek horse-races,
+crowned by the birth of Alexander.
+If my lordly father had danced the
+&quot;Minuette de la Cour&quot; over the
+marble tesselation of his own hall, I
+should now not have been surprised.
+But, from my first sense, or insensibility,
+I had felt no great delight in matters
+which were to make my own condition
+neither better nor worse; and
+after a remarkably brief period, the
+showy <i>d&eacute;je&ucirc;n&eacute;s</i> and dinners which
+commemorated the triumphs of the
+heir-apparent of our house, grew tiresome
+to me beyond all count, and I
+openly petitioned to be sent to college,
+or to the world's end.</p>
+
+<p><span class="newpage"><a name="page696" id="page696" title="696"></a></span> My petition was listened to with a
+mixture of contempt for my want of
+taste, and astonishment at my presumption.
+But before the reply had
+time to burst out from lips, at no
+time too retentive, I was told, that at
+the end of one week more I should
+be suffered to take my way; that week
+being devoted to a round of especial
+entertainments in honour of my
+brother's election; the whole to be
+wound up by that most preposterous
+of all delights, an amateur play.</p>
+
+<p>To keep a house in commotion, to
+produce mysterious conversations,
+conferences without number, and confidences
+without end; and to swell
+maidens' hearts and milliners' bills,
+let me recommend an amateur play in
+the country. The very mention of it
+awoke every soul in the Castle; caps
+and complexions were matched, and
+costumes criticised, from morning
+till night, among the ladies. The
+&quot;acting drama&quot; was turned over leaf
+by leaf by the gentlemen. The sound
+of many a heavy tread of many a
+heavy student, was heard in the chambers;
+the gardens were haunted by
+&quot;the characters&quot; getting their parts;
+and the poet's burlesque of those who
+&quot;rave, recite, and madden round the
+land,&quot; was realized to the life in the
+histrionic labours of the votaries of
+Thalia and Melpomene, who ranged
+the groves of Mortimer Castle.</p>
+
+<p>Then we had all the charming difficulty
+of fixing on the play. The
+dullest and dreariest of our country
+Rosciuses were uniformly for comedy;
+but the fair sex have a leaning to the
+tragic muse. We had one or two,
+who would have had no objection to
+be piquant in Lady Teazle, or petulant
+in Lady Townley; but we had
+half a dozen Desdemonas and Ophelias.
+The soul of an O'Neil was in
+every one of our party conscious of
+a pair of good eyes, a tolerable shape,
+and the captivation which, in some
+way or other, most women in existence
+contrive to discover in their own
+share of the gifts of nature. At length
+the votes carried it for Romeo and
+Juliet. The eventful night came;
+the <i>&eacute;lite</i> of the county poured in, the
+theatre was crowded; all was expectancy
+before the curtain; all was terror,
+nervousness, and awkwardness
+behind. The orchestra performed its
+flourish, and the curtain rose.</p>
+
+<p>To do the heads of the household
+justice, they had done their duty as
+managers. The theatre, though but
+a temporary building, projecting from
+the ball-room into one of the gardens,
+was worthy of the very handsome
+apartment which formed its vestibule.
+The skill of a famous London architect
+had been exerted on this fairy
+erection, and Verona itself had, perhaps,
+in its palmiest days, seldom exhibited
+a display of more luxuriant
+elegance. The audience, too, so totally
+different from the mingled, ill-dressed,
+and irregular assemblage that
+fills a city theatre; blooming girls
+and showy matrons, range above
+range, feathered and flowered, glittering
+with all the family jewels, and
+all animated by the novelty of the
+scene before them, formed an exhibition
+which, for the night, inspired me
+with the idea, that (strolling excepted)
+the stage might not be a bad resource
+for a man of talents, after all.</p>
+
+<p>But the play was&mdash;must I confess it?
+though I myself figured as the Romeo&mdash;utterly
+deplorable. The men
+forgot their parts, and their casual
+attempts to recover them made terrible
+havoc of the harmony of Shakspeare.
+The ladies lost their voices,
+and carried on their loves, their sorrows,
+and even their scoldings, in a
+whisper. Our play perfectly deserved
+the criticism of the old gentleman,
+who, after a similar performance,
+being asked which of the personages
+he liked best, candidly replied, &quot;the
+prompter, for of him he had heard the
+most and seen the least.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>However, every thing has an end;
+and we had carried Juliet to the tomb
+of all the Capulets, the chant was done,
+and the mourners were gathered in
+the green-room. I was standing,
+book in hand, preparing for the last
+agonies of a love very imperfectly
+committed to memory, when I heard
+a slight confusion in the court-yard,
+and shortly after the rattle of a post-chaise.
+The sound subsided, and I
+was summoned to my post at the entrance
+to the place where the lovely
+Juliet lay entranced. The pasteboard
+gate gave way to knocks enforced with
+an energy which called down rapturous
+applause; and in all the tortures
+of a broken heart, rewarded by a profusion
+of handkerchiefs applied to
+bright eyes, and a strong scent of
+hartshorn round the house, I summoned
+my fair bride to my arms.
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page697" id="page697" title="697"></a></span> There was no reply. I again invoked
+her; still silent. Her trance was evidently
+of the deepest order. I rose
+from the ground, where I had been
+&quot;taking the measure of my unmade
+grave,&quot; and approaching the bier, ventured
+to drop a despairing hand upon
+her pillow. To my utter surprise, it
+was vacant. If I had been another
+Shakspeare, the situation was a fine one
+for a display of original genius. But
+I was paralyzed. A sense of the general
+embarrassment was my first impression,
+and I was absolutely struck
+dumb. But this was soon shaken off.
+My next was a sense of the particular
+burlesque of my situation; I burst out
+into laughter, in which the whole
+house joined; and throwing down my
+mattock, rushed off the stage. My
+theatrical dream was broken up for
+ever.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;">
+
+<p>But weightier matters now absorbed
+the universal interest. The disappearance
+of the heroine from the
+stage was speedily accounted for by
+her flight in the carriage whose wheels
+had disturbed my study. But where
+fled, why, and with whom? We now
+found other defalcations in our numbers;
+the Chevalier Paul Charlatanski,
+a gallant Polish exile, who contrived
+to pass a very pleasant time on
+the merit of his misfortunes, a man of
+enormous mustaches and calamities,
+was also missing. His valet, his valise,
+every atom that ever appertained
+to him, had vanished; the clearance
+was complete. The confusion now
+thickened. I never saw the master
+of the mansion in such a rage before.
+Pistols and post-chaises were in instant
+requisition. He vowed that the
+honour of his house was involved in
+the transaction, and that nothing
+should tempt him to slumber until he
+had brought the fugitive fair one to
+the arms of her noble family; my Juliet
+being the ward of a duke, and
+being also entitled to about twenty
+thousand pounds a-year on her coming
+of age.</p>
+
+<p>As for the unlucky, or rather the
+lucky, Chevalier, nothing human ever
+received a hotter shower of surmise
+and sarcasm. That he was &quot;an impostor,
+a swindler, a spy,&quot; was the Earl's
+conviction, declared in the most public
+manner. The whole body of matrons
+looked round on their blooming
+innocents, as if they had been snatched
+from the jaws of a legion of wolves
+and thanked their own prudence
+which had not trusted those men of
+mustaches within their hall doors.
+The blooming innocents responded in
+filial gratitude, and, with whatever sincerity,
+thanked their stars for their
+fortunate escape.</p>
+
+<p>Still, the Earl's indignation was of
+so <i>ultra</i> a quality; his revenge was
+so fiery, and his tongue so fluent;
+that I began to suspect he had other
+motives than the insulted laws of hospitality.
+I reached this discovery, too,
+in time. The declining health of his
+partner had made him speculate on
+the chances of survivorship. He certainly
+was no longer young, and he
+had never been an Adonis. Yet his
+glass did not altogether throw him into
+the rank of the impracticable. A
+coronet was a well-known charm,
+which had often compensated for every
+other; in short, he had quietly theorized
+himself into the future husband
+of the ducal ward; and felt on this
+occasion as an Earl should, plundered,
+before his face, of a clear twenty
+thousand a-year.</p>
+
+<p>But he was not to suffer alone. On
+further enquiry, it was ascertained
+that the chevalier's valet had not gone
+with him. This fellow, a Frenchman,
+had taken wing in another direction,
+and carried off his turtle-dove,
+too; not one of the full-blown roses
+of the servant's-hall, but a rosebud,
+the daughter of one of the bulkiest
+squires of the Riding; a man of
+countless beeves and blunders; one of
+our Yorkshire Nimrods, &quot;a mighty
+hunter,&quot; until club dinners and home-brewed
+ale tied him to his arm-chair, and
+gout made him a man of peace and
+flannels, the best thriven weed in the
+swamps of Yorkshire. The young
+lady had been intended for my eldest
+brother, as a convenient medium of
+connexion between two estates, palpably
+made for matrimony. Thus we
+received two mortal blows in one
+evening; never was family pilfered
+more ignominiously; never was amateur
+play more peevishly catastrophized.</p>
+
+<p>It must be owned, to the credit of
+&quot;private theatricals,&quot; that the play
+had no slight share in the plot. The
+easy intercourse produced by rehearsals,
+the getting of tender speeches by
+heart, the pretty personalities and allusions
+growing out of those speeches,
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page698" id="page698" title="698"></a></span> the ramblings through shades and
+rose-twined parterres, the raptures
+and romance, all tend prodigiously to
+take off the alarm, or instruct the inexperience,
+of the female heart. I
+know no more certain cure for the
+rigidity that is supposed to be a barrier.
+At all events, the Chevalier
+and his valet, probably both footmen,
+alike had profited of their opportunity.
+Our play had cost us two elopements;
+two shots between wind and
+water, which threatened to send the
+ship down; two breakings of that
+heart which men carry in their purse.
+I laughed, and the world laughed also.
+But I was then thoughtless, and the
+world is malicious. My father and the
+member, though they had &quot;never
+told their love,&quot; felt the blow &quot;like
+a worm in the bud,&quot; and from that
+night I date the family decline.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, the two whiskered vagabonds
+could not be suffered to
+carry off their laurels without an attempt
+to diminish them, and my father
+and brother were too much in
+earnest in their objects to lose time.
+In half an hour, four post-horses to
+each britchska whirled them off;&mdash;my
+father, to take the northern road,
+some hints of Gretna having transpired
+in the slipshod secrecy of the
+servants' hall&mdash;my brother, to pursue
+on the Dover road, conjecturing, with
+more sagacity than I had given him
+credit for, that as the fox runs round
+to his earth, the Frenchman always
+speeds for Paris.</p>
+
+<p>The company soon dispersed, after
+having stayed long enough to glean all
+that they could of the family misfortune,
+and fix appointments for every
+day in the week to meet each other,
+and make the most of the whole transaction.
+But still a tolerable number
+of the steadier hands remained,
+who, to show their sympathy with
+us, resolved not to separate until they
+received tidings of his lordship's success.
+I was voted to the head of the
+table, more claret was ordered, the
+wreck of the general supper was cleared
+for one of a snugger kind; and we
+drew our chairs together. Toast followed
+toast, and all became communicative.
+Family histories, not excepting
+our own, were now discussed, with
+a confidence new to my boyish conjectures.
+Charlatanski's career abroad
+and at home seemed to be as well
+known as if he had been pilloried in
+the county town; the infinite absurdity
+of the noble duke who suffered
+him to make his way under his roof,
+and the palpable <i>penchant</i> of his ward,
+next underwent discussion; until the
+ignorance of my noble father on the
+subject, gave, with me, the death-blow
+to his penetration. The prettinesses
+which had won the primrose heart of
+my brother's intended spouse, I found
+were equally notorious; the Earl's
+project was as plain as if he had pronounced
+it <i>viva voce</i>; and before we
+parted for the night, which did not
+occur until the sun was blazing
+through the curtains of our banqueting
+room, I had made up my mind,
+once for all, that neither character
+nor cunning can be concealed in this
+world; that the craftiest impostor is
+but a clumsier kind of clown; and
+that the most dexterous disguise is but
+a waste of time.</p>
+
+<p>I must hasten to the <i>d&eacute;nouement</i>.
+Our excellent friends indulged us
+with their company, and bored us
+with their society for a mortal week.
+But, as Sterne says of the sentimental
+traveller, scenes of sentiment are always
+exhibiting themselves to an
+appetite eager for knowing what the
+world is doing; the knowledge was
+contributed with a copiousness which
+left nothing to learn, and but little to
+desire. Our guests were of that class
+which usually fills the houses of noblemen,
+in the annihilation of life in town;
+clubmen, to whom St James's Street
+was the terraqueous globe; guardsmen,
+on leave of absence for the shooting
+season, and saturated with London;
+several older exhibitors in the
+fashionable circles, who as naturally
+followed where young guardsmen and
+wealthy squires were to be found, as
+flies wing to the honey on which they
+live; and two or three of the most
+opulent and dullest baronets who ever
+played whist and billiards, for the advantage
+of losing guinea points to
+gentlemen more accomplished in the
+science of chances.</p>
+
+<p>At length, on the sixth day, when I
+really began to feel anxious, an express
+announced that his lordship
+had arrived at a village, about fifty
+miles off, on his way home, wounded,
+and in great danger. I instantly
+broke up the convivial party, and set
+out to see him. To the imagination
+of a boy, as I was then, nothing could
+be more startling than the aspect of
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page699" id="page699" title="699"></a></span> the habitation which now held the
+haughty Earl of Mortimer. After
+passing through a variety of dungeon-like
+rooms, for the house had once
+been a workhouse, or something of
+the kind, I was ushered into the
+chamber where the patient lay. The
+village doctor, and one or two of the
+wise people of the neighbourhood,
+who thought it their duty to visit
+a stranger, that stranger being a
+man of rank, were standing by; and
+the long faces of those persons, seconded
+by the professional shake of
+the doctor's head, told me, that they
+at least had no hope. It was not so
+with the sufferer himself, for he talked
+as largely and loftily of what he
+was to do within the next ten years,
+as if he was to survive the century.
+He still breathed rage and retribution
+against the Chevalier, and actually
+seemed to regard the lady's choice as
+a particular infraction of personal
+claims. He had pursued the fugitives
+day and night, until the pursuit
+threw him into a kind of fever. While
+under this paroxysm he had met the
+enamoured pair, but it was on their
+way from that forge on the Border where
+so many heavy chains have been manufactured.
+Useless as challenging was
+now, he challenged the husband. The
+parties met, and my father received a
+bullet in his body, while he had the
+satisfaction of lodging one in his antagonist's
+knee-pan. The Chevalier
+was doomed to waltz no more. But
+his bullet was fatal.</p>
+
+<p>As I looked round the wretched
+chamber in which this bold, arrogant,
+and busy spirit was evidently about
+to breathe its last, Pope's lines on the
+most splendid <i>rou&eacute;</i> of his day involuntarily
+and painfully shot across my
+recollection:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;In the worst inn's worst room, with mat half hung,</p>
+<p>The walls of plaster, and the floor of dung;</p>
+<p>The George and Garter dangling from the bed,</p>
+<p>Where tawdry yellow strove with dirty red,</p>
+<p>Great Villiers lies; alas, how changed from him</p>
+<p>The glass of fashion!&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>I say no more of those scenes; a
+few days, only enough to collect the
+branches of the family round the bed,
+terminated every thing. Grief, they say,
+cannot exist where there is no love, but
+I was not inclined, just then, to draw
+subtle distinctions. I was grieved;
+and paid the last duties, without blame
+to myself, or, I hope, irreverence in
+the sight of others. The funeral was
+stately, and all was over.</p>
+
+<p>Matters now took a new shape at
+the castle. My brother returned, to
+find himself its possessor. His journey
+had been equally unproductive
+with my unfortunate father's. By dint
+of bribing the postilions, he had even
+overpassed the fugitives on the Dover
+road. But, as he stopped to dine in
+Canterbury, where he had prepared a
+posse of constables for their reception,
+he had, unluckily, been accosted by an
+old London acquaintance, who had
+accidentally fixed his quarters there
+for a day or two, &quot;seeking whom he
+might devour.&quot; The dinner was followed
+by a carouse, the carouse by a
+&quot;quiet game,&quot; or games, which lasted
+till the next day; and when my brother
+rose, with the glow of a superb
+sunset giving him the first intimation
+that he was among the living, he made
+the discovery that he was stripped of
+the last shilling of five hundred pounds,
+and that the Frenchman and his prize
+had quietly changed horses at the
+same hotel half a dozen hours before.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;">
+
+<p>The young forget quickly, but
+they feel keenly. The event which
+I had just witnessed threw a shade
+over me, which, in the want of any
+vigorous occupation, began to affect
+my health. I abjured the sports of
+the field, for which, indeed, I had
+never felt much liking. I rambled
+through the woods in a kind of dreamy
+idleness of mind, which took but little
+note of any thing, time included. As
+mendicants sell tapes and matches
+to escape the imputation of mendicancy,
+I carried a pencil and portfolio,
+and seemed to be sketching venerable
+oaks and patches of the picturesque,
+while my mind was wandering from
+Line to Pole. But in this earth no one
+can be singular with impunity. The
+gentlemen were &quot;convinced&quot; that my
+meditations were heavy with unpaid
+college bills; and the ladies, from
+high to low, from &quot;Tilburina, mad
+in white satin,&quot; to her &quot;confidant,
+mad in white linen,&quot; were all of opinion
+that some one among their peerless
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page700" id="page700" title="700"></a></span> selves had destroyed the &quot;five
+wits of young Mr Marston.&quot; I could
+have fallen on them with a two-handed
+sword; but as the massacre of the sex
+was not then in my power, I had only
+to escape.</p>
+
+<p>There were higher matters to move
+me. Clouds were gathering on the
+world; the times were fitful; the air
+was thick with rumours from abroad;
+the sleep of the Continent was breaking
+up, and Europe lay in the anxious
+and strange expectancy in which some
+great city might see the signs of a
+coming earthquake, without the power
+of ascertaining at what moment, or
+from what quarter, its foundations
+were to be flung up in sight of the
+sun.&mdash;We were then in the first stage
+of the French Revolution!</p>
+
+<p>I resolved to linger and be libelled
+no more; and being ushered, by appointment,
+into the library&mdash;for the
+new master was already all etiquette&mdash;I
+promptly stated my wishes, and demanded
+my portion, to try my fortune
+in the world.</p>
+
+<p>Our conference, if it had but little
+of the graces of diplomacy, had much
+more than its usual decision. It was
+abrupt and unhesitating. My demand
+had evidently taken his &quot;lordship&quot; by
+surprise. He started from the magisterial
+chair, in which he was yet to
+awe so many successions of rustic
+functionaries, and with a flushed
+cheek asked &quot;Whether I was lunatic,
+or supposed him to be so?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Neither the one nor the other,&quot;
+was my answer. &quot;But, to waste life
+here is out of the question. I demand
+the means of entering a profession.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you aware, sir, that our interest
+is lost since the last change of
+ministers? that my estate is loaded
+with encumbrances? that every profession
+is overstocked? and what can
+you do in the crowd?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What others have done&mdash;what I
+should do in a crowd in the streets&mdash;push
+some aside, get before others;
+if made way for, be civil; if resisted,
+trample; it has been the history of
+thousands, why not mine?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The doctrine was as new to this
+son of indulgence, as if I had propounded
+the philosopher's stone. But
+his courage was exhausted by a controversy
+perhaps longer than he had
+ever ventured on before. He walked
+to the glass, adjusted his raven ringlets,
+and having refreshed his spirits
+with the contemplation, enquired, with
+a smile which made the nearest possible
+approach to a sneer, whether I
+had any thing more to say?</p>
+
+<p>I had more, and of the kind that
+least suited his feelings. I demanded
+&quot;my property.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The effect of those two words was
+electrical. The apathy of the exquisite
+was at an end, and in a voice of
+the most indignant displeasure, he rapidly
+demanded whether I expected
+money to fall from the moon? whether
+I was not aware of the expense
+of keeping up the castle? whether I
+supposed that my mother's jointure
+and my sisters' portions could ever be
+paid without dipping the rent-roll
+deeper still? and, after various and bitter
+expostulation, &quot;What right had I
+to suppose that I was worth the smallest
+coin of the realm, except by his
+bounty?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>One query answered them all.
+&quot;My lord, is it not true that I am
+entitled to five thousand pounds?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Five thousand &mdash;&mdash;?&quot; what word
+was to fill up the interval I can only
+guess. But the first lesson which a
+man learns at the clubs is, to control
+his temper when its display is not
+likely to be attended with effect. He
+saw that I stood his gaze with but few
+symptoms of giving way, and he changed
+his tactics with an adroitness that did
+honour to his training. Approaching
+me, he held out his hand. &quot;Charles,
+why should <i>we</i> quarrel about trifles?
+I was really not acquainted with the
+circumstance to which you allude, but
+I shall look into it without delay.
+Pray, can you tell me the when, the
+where, the how?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your questions may be easily answered.
+The <i>when</i> was at the death
+of our uncle, the <i>where</i> was in his
+will, and the <i>how</i>&mdash;in any way your
+lordship pleases.&quot; The truce was
+now made; he begged of me, &quot;as I
+valued <i>his</i> feelings,&quot; to drop the formality
+of his title, to regard him simply
+as a brother, and to rely on his wish
+to forward every object that might
+gratify my inclination.</p>
+
+<p>Our conference broke up. He galloped
+to a neighbouring horse-race. I
+went to take a solitary ramble through
+the Park.</p>
+
+<p>The hour and the scene were what
+the poet pronounces &quot;fit to cure all
+sadness but despair.&quot; Noble old
+trees, the &quot;roof star-proof&quot; overhead,
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page701" id="page701" title="701"></a></span> the cool velvet grass under the
+feet&mdash;glimpses of sunlight striking
+through the trunks&mdash;the freshened air
+coming in gusts across the lake, like
+new life, bathing my burning forehead
+and feverish hands&mdash;the whole unrivalled
+sweetness of the English landscape
+softened and subdued me.
+Those effects are so common, that I
+can claim no credit for their operation
+on my mind; and, before I had
+gone far, I was on the point of returning,
+if not to recant, at least to palliate
+the harshness of my appeal to
+fraternal justice.</p>
+
+<p>But, by this time I had reached a
+rising ground which commanded a
+large extent of the surrounding country.
+The evening was one of those
+magnificent closes of the year, which,
+like a final scene in a theatre, seems
+intended to comprehend all the beauties
+and brilliancies of the past. The
+western sky was a blaze of all colours,
+and all pouring over the succession
+of forest, cultured field, and
+mountain top, which make the English
+view, if not the most sublime, the
+most touching of the earth!</p>
+
+<p>But as I stood on the hill, gazing
+round to enjoy every shape and shade
+at leisure, my eye turned on the
+Castle. It spoiled all my serenity at
+once. I felt that it was a spot from
+which I was excluded by nature; that
+it belonged to others so wholly, that
+scarcely by any conceivable chance
+could it ever be mine; and that I could
+remain within its walls no longer, but
+with a sense of uselessness and shame.</p>
+
+<p>If I could have taken staff in hand
+and pack on shoulder, I would have
+started at that moment on a pilgrimage
+that might have circled the globe.
+But the most fiery resolution must
+submit to circumstances. One night
+more, at least, I must sleep under the
+paternal roof, and I was hastening
+home, brooding over bitter thoughts,
+when I suddenly rushed against some
+one whom I nearly overthrew.&mdash;&quot;Bless
+me, Mr Marston, is it you?&quot;&mdash;told
+me that I had run down my old
+tutor, Mr Vincent, the parson of the
+parish. He had been returning from
+visiting some of his flock, and in the
+exercise of the vocation which he had
+just been fulfilling, he saw that something
+went ill with me, and taking my
+arm, forced me to go home with him,
+for such comfort as he could give.</p>
+
+<p>Parsons, above all men, are the
+better for wives and families; for,
+without them, they are wonderfully
+apt to grow saturnine or stupid. Of
+course there are exceptions. Vincent
+had a wife not much younger than
+himself, to whom he always spoke
+with the courtiership of a <i>preux chevalier</i>.
+A portrait of her in her bridal
+dress, showed that she had been a
+pretty brunette in her youth; and her
+husband still evidently gave her credit
+for all that she had been. They
+had, as is generally the fate of the
+clergy, a superfluity of daughters,
+four or five I think, creatures as
+thoughtless and innocent as their own
+poultry, or their own pet-sheep. But
+all round their little vicarage was so
+pure, so quiet, and so neat&mdash;there was
+such an aspect of order and even of
+elegance, however inexpensive, that
+its contrast with the glaring and restless
+tumult of the &quot;great house&quot; was
+irresistible. I never had so full a
+practical understanding of the world's
+&quot;pomps and vanities,&quot; as while looking
+at the trimmings and trelisses of
+the parson's dwelling.</p>
+
+<p>I acknowledge myself a worldling,
+but I suppose that all is not lead or
+iron within me, from my sense of
+scenes like this. In my wildest hour,
+the sight of fields and gardens has
+been a kind of febrifuge to me&mdash;has
+conveyed a feeling of tranquillity to
+my mind; as if it drank the silence
+and the freshness, as the flowers drink
+the dew. I have often thus experienced
+a sudden soothing, which checked
+the hot current of my follies or frenzies,
+and made me think that there
+were better things than the baubles of
+cabinets. But it did not last long.</p>
+
+<p>I mention this evening, because it
+decided my future life; or at least
+the boldest, and perhaps the best portion
+of it. We had an hour or two of
+the little variations of placid amusement
+which belong to all parsonages
+in romances, but which here were
+reality; easy conversation on the
+events of the county; a little political
+talking with the vicar; a few details
+of persons and fashions at the
+castle, to which the ladies listened as
+Desdemona might have listened to
+Othello's history&mdash;for the Castle was
+so seldom visited by them, that it had
+almost the air of a Castle of Otranto,
+and they evidently thought that its
+frowning towers and gilded halls belonged
+to another race, if not to another
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page702" id="page702" title="702"></a></span> region of existence; we had, too,
+some of the last new songs, (at least
+half a century old, but which were not
+the less touching,) and a duet of Geminiani,
+performed by the two elder
+proficients on a spinet which might
+have been among the &quot;chamber music&quot;
+of the Virgin Queen; all slight
+matters to speak of, and yet which
+contributed to the quietude of a mind
+longing for rest&mdash;sights of innocence
+and sounds of peace, which, like the
+poet's music&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Might take the prison'd soul</p>
+<p>And wrap it in Elysium.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The moon shining in through panes
+covered with honeysuckle and fragrance
+of all kinds, at length warned
+me that I was intruding on a household
+primitive in their hours, as in every
+thing else, and I rose to take my leave.
+But I could not be altogether parted
+with yet. It seems that they had found
+me a most amusing guest; while,
+to my own conception, I had been singularly
+spiritless; but the little anecdotes
+which were trite to me had been
+novelties to them. Fashion has a
+charm even for philosophers; and the
+freaks and follies of the high-toned
+sons and daughters of fashion&mdash;who
+wore down my gentle mother's frame,
+drained my showy father's rental, and
+made even myself loathe the sight of
+loaded barouches coming to discharge
+their cargoes of beaux and belles on
+us for weeks together&mdash;were nectar
+and ambrosia to my sportive and rosy-cheeked
+audience. The five girls put
+on their bonnets, and looking like a
+group of Titania and her nymphs,
+as they bounded along in the moonlight,
+escorted us to the boundary of
+the vicar's territory.</p>
+
+<p>We were about to separate, with all
+the pretty formalities of village leave-taking;
+when their father, in the
+act of shaking hands with me, fixed
+his eye on mine, and insisted on seeing
+me home. Whether the thought occurred
+to him that I had still something
+on my mind, which was not to
+be trusted within sight of a brook that
+formed the boundary to the Castle
+grounds, I know not, but I complied;
+the girls were sent homewards, and I
+heard their gay voices mingling, at a
+distance, and not unsuitably, with the
+songs of the nightingale.</p>
+
+<p>I took his arm, and we walked on
+for a while in silence. At length,
+slackening his pace, and speaking in
+a tone whose earnestness struck me,
+&quot;Charles,&quot; said he, &quot;has any thing
+peculiarly painful lately happened to
+you?&mdash;if so, speak out. I know your
+nature to be above disguise; and with
+whom can you repose your vexations,
+if such there be, more safely than
+with your old tutor?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>I was taken unawares; and not having
+yet formed a distinct conception
+of my own grievances, promptly denied
+that I had any.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It may be so,&quot; said my friend;
+&quot;and yet once or twice this evening I
+saw your cheek alternately flush and
+grow pale, with a suddenness that
+alarmed me for your health. In one
+of your pleasantest stories, while you
+were acting the narrative with a liveliness
+evidently unconscious, and giving
+me and mine a treat which we
+have not had for a long time, I observed
+your voice falter, as if some
+spasm of soul had shot across you;
+and I unquestionably saw, that rare
+sight in the eyes of man, a tear.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>I denied this instance of weakness
+stoutly; but the old man's importunities
+prevailed, and, by degrees, I told
+him, or rather his good-natured cross-examination
+moulded for me, a statement
+of my anxieties at home.</p>
+
+<p>The Vicar, with all his simplicity of
+manner, was a man of powerful and
+practical understanding. He had been
+an eminent scholar at his university,
+and was in a fair way for all its distinctions,
+when he thought proper to fall
+desperately in love. This, of course,
+demolished his prospects at once. I
+never heard his subsequent history in
+detail; but he had left England, and
+undergone a long period of disheartening
+and distress. Whether he had not,
+in those times of desolation, taken service
+in the Austrian army, and even
+shared some of its Turkish campaigns,
+was a question which I heard once or
+twice started at the Castle; and a
+slight contraction of the arm, and a
+rather significant scar which crossed
+his bold forehead, had been set down
+to the account of the Osmanli cimeter.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;">
+
+<p>Vincent had never told the story of
+either, but a rumour reached his college
+of his having been seen in the Austrian
+uniform on the Transylvanian
+frontier, during the campaigns of the
+Prince of Coburg and Laudohn against
+the Turks. It was singular enough,
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page703" id="page703" title="703"></a></span> that on this very evening, in arguing
+against some of my whims touching
+destinies and omens, he illustrated the
+facility of imposture on such points
+by an incident from one of those campaigns.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A friend of mine,&quot; said he, &quot;a
+captain in the Lichtenstein hussars,
+happened to be on the outpost service
+of the army. As the enemy were in
+great force, and commanded by the
+Vizier in person, an action was daily
+expected, and the pickets and videttes
+were ordered to be peculiarly on the
+alert. But, on a sudden, every night
+produced some casualty. They either
+lost videttes, or their patrol was surprised,
+or their baggage plundered&mdash;in
+short, they began to be the talk of
+the army. The regiment had been
+always one of the most distinguished
+in the service, and all those misfortunes
+were wholly unaccountable.
+At length a stronger picket than
+usual was ordered for the night&mdash;not
+a man of them was to be found in
+the morning. As no firing had been
+heard, the natural conjecture was,
+that they must all have deserted. As
+this was a still more disgraceful result
+than actual defeat, the colonel
+called his officers together, to give
+what information they could. The
+camp, as usual, swarmed with Bohemians,
+fortune-tellers, and gipsies, a
+race who carry intelligence on both
+sides; and whose performances fully
+accounted for the knowledge which the
+enemy evidently had of our outposts.
+The first order was, to clear the quarters
+of the regiment of those encumbrances,
+and the next to direct the videttes
+to fire without challenging. At
+midnight a shot was heard; all turned
+out, and on reaching the spot where
+the alarm had been given, the vidette
+was found lying on the ground and
+senseless, though without a wound.
+On his recovery, he said that he had
+seen a ghost; but that having fired at
+it, according to orders, it looked so
+horribly grim at him, that he fell from
+his horse and saw no more. The Austrians
+are brave, but they are remarkably
+afraid of supernatural visitants, and
+a ghost would be a much more formidable
+thing to them than a discharge of
+grape-shot.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The captain in question was an
+Englishman, and as John Bull is supposed,
+among foreigners, to carry an
+unusual portion of brains about him,
+the colonel took him into his special
+council in the emergency. Having
+settled their measures, the captain prepared
+to take charge of the pickets
+for the night, making no secret of his
+dispositions. At dark, the videttes and
+sentries were posted as usual, and the
+officer took his post in the old field
+redoubt, which had been the headquarters
+of the pickets for the last
+fortnight.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All went on quietly until about midnight;
+the men off duty fast asleep in
+their cloaks, and the captain reading
+an English novel. He, too, had grown
+weary of the night, and was thinking
+of stretching himself on the floor of his
+hut, when he saw, and not without
+some perturbation, a tall spectral
+figure, in armour, enter the works, stride
+over the sleeping men without exciting
+the smallest movement amongst
+them, and advance towards him. He
+drew his breath hard, and attempted
+to call out, but his voice was choked,
+and he began to think himself under
+the dominion of nightmare. The
+figure came nearer still, looking more
+menacing, and drew its sword. My
+friend, with an effort which he afterwards
+acknowledged to be desperate,
+put his hand to his side to draw his
+own. What was his alarm when he
+found that it had vanished? At this
+moment his poodle, which, against all
+precautions, had followed him, began
+barking fiercely, and rushing alternately
+towards him and a corner of the
+redoubt. Though his sabre was gone,
+a brace of English pistols lay on the
+table beside him, and he fired one of
+them in the direction. The shot was
+followed by a groan and the disappearance
+of the spectre. The men started
+to their feet, and all rushed out in pursuit.
+The captain's first step struck
+upon a dead body, evidently that of
+the spy who had fallen by his fire. The
+pursuit was now joined in by the whole
+regiment, who had been posted in the
+rear unseen, to take advantage of circumstances.
+They pushed on, swept
+all before them, and bore down patrol
+and picket until they reached the enemy's
+camp. The question then was,
+what to do next? whether to make the
+best of their way back, or try their
+chance onward? The Englishman's
+voice was for taking fortune at the
+flow; and the accidental burning of a
+tent or two by the fugitives showed
+him the Turks already in confusion.
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page704" id="page704" title="704"></a></span> The trampling of battalions in the rear
+told him at the same time that he had
+powerful help at hand, and he dashed
+among the lines at once. The hussars,
+determined to retrieve their reputation,
+did wonders&mdash;the enemy
+were completely surprised. No troops
+but those in the highest state of discipline
+are good for any thing when attacked
+at night. The gallantry of the
+Turk by day, deserts him in the dark;
+and a night surprise, if well followed
+up, is sure to end in a victory. From
+the random firing and shouting on
+every side, it was clear that they were
+totally taken unawares; and the rapid
+and general advance of the Austrian
+brigades, showed that Laudohn was in
+the mind to make a handsome imperial
+bulletin. Day dawned on a rout as
+entire as ever was witnessed in a barbarian
+campaign. The enemy were
+flying in all directions like a horde of
+Tartars, and camp, cannon, baggage,
+standards, every thing was left at the
+mercy of the pursuers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But the captain, the Englishman,
+what became of him?&quot; I asked, slightly
+glancing at the countenance of the
+narrator.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, very well off indeed! Foreign
+Governments are showy to the soldier,
+and Joseph the Second, though
+an economist in civil matters, was
+liberal to his successful officers. The
+captain received a pension; a couple
+of orders; was made a colonel on the
+first opportunity; and, besides, had his
+share of the plunder&mdash;no slight addition
+to his finances, for the military
+chest had been taken in the baggage
+of the Seraskier.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And by this time,&quot; said I, with
+an unenquiring air, &quot;he is doubtless
+a field-marshal?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing of the kind,&quot; replied my
+reverend friend, &quot;for his victory cured
+him of soldiership. He was wounded
+in the engagement, and if he had been
+ever fool enough to think of fame,
+the solitary hours of his invalidism put
+an end to the folly. Other and dearer
+thoughts recurred to his mind. He
+had now obtained something approaching
+to a competence, if rightly managed;
+he asked permission to retire,
+returned to England, married
+the woman he loved; and never for a
+moment regretted that he was listening
+to larks and linnets instead of
+trumpets and cannon, and settling
+the concerns of rustics instead of
+man&oelig;uvring squadrons and battalions.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But what was the ghost, after
+all?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, the mere trick of a juggler!
+a figure projected on the wall by some
+ingenious contrivance of glasses. The
+instrument was found on the body of
+the performer, who turned out to be
+the colonel's valet&mdash;of course in the
+enemy's pay, and who furnished them
+with daily intelligence of all our proceedings.
+As for the loss of the sabre,
+which actually startled the ghost-seer
+most, he found it next morning hanging
+up in the hut, where he himself
+had placed it, and forgotten that he
+had done so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And the captain, or rather the
+colonel, brought with him to England,
+a cimeter-cut on his arm, and
+another on his forehead?&quot; I asked,
+fixing my eyes on him. A crimson
+flush passed over his countenance, he
+bit his lip and turned away. I feared
+that I had offended irreparably. But
+his natural kindliness of heart prevailed,
+he turned to me gently, laughed,
+and pressing my hand in his, said,
+&quot;You have my secret. It has escaped
+me for the first time these thirty
+years. Keep it like a man of honour.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;">
+
+<p>I have always held that the life of
+man's mind, where man <i>has</i> a mind&mdash;which
+is not always the case&mdash;is a
+thing of fits and starts. I even doubt
+whether any one who will take the
+trouble to recollect, will not be able
+to put his finger on the precise periods
+at which new views of every thing
+suddenly opened before him, and he
+emerged at once, if not into new
+powers, at least into a new use of
+them. The frame may grow like a
+tree; the faculties may grow as imperceptibly
+as the frame; but the mind
+acquires that knowledge of life which
+forms its exercise, its use, and perhaps
+its essence, by bounds and flights.
+This moonlight walk with my old
+and honoured Mentor, was the beginning
+of my mental adolescence. My
+manhood was still to come, and with a
+more severe instructor.</p>
+
+<p>As we were passing slowly through
+the plantations which encircled the
+Castle with all the noble and profuse
+shelter and ornament which our ancestors
+loved, a distant sound of music
+came on the wind. I then remembered,
+for the first time, that my brother
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page705" id="page705" title="705"></a></span> had, on that evening, given a ball to
+the county, and a sudden sense of the
+difference of our lots in life, came painfully
+over me;&mdash;the course of secure
+wealth and English enjoyment, contrasted
+with the dependence and wandering
+which must form the existence
+of myself, and so many thousands of
+younger brothers.</p>
+
+<p>I was awakened from my reverie by
+the voice of my companion. His face
+was upturned to the cloudless sky,
+and he was murmuring the fine passage
+in the Merchant of Venice.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Look, how the floor of heaven</p>
+<p>Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold;</p>
+<p>There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st,</p>
+<p>But in his motion like an angel sings,</p>
+<p>Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins:</p>
+<p>Such harmony is in immortal souls.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you know, Charles,&quot; said he,
+&quot;what changed the whole current of
+my life? what, in fact, brought me
+back to England?&quot; and there was a
+slight pause. &quot;What made me a
+Christian? It was such a night as this.
+As you now know the chief part of my
+story, I need have no further concealment
+on the subject. I had recovered
+from my wounds, and was preparing
+to set out for Vienna, when one night
+a tempest blew down our tents, and
+left us to trust to the open air for the
+hours till morning. Tempests in
+the south are violent, but they are
+generally brief, and this gale cleared
+the sky of every cloud. As I lay on
+the ground, and gazed on the unusual
+splendour of the stars, the thought
+occurred to me, Why should doubts
+of a future state ever come into the
+mind of man? Why should he hesitate
+about its reality? Was it not
+there, before his eyes? Were not the
+very regions of future existence already
+within the reach of one of his
+senses? Why might they not yet be
+within the reach of all? Of course I
+do not give you all the vague thoughts
+which passed through my mind; but
+the permanence, power, and astonishing
+multitude of those bright worlds,
+impressed themselves on me with a
+new force. I had known all those
+matters before, but on this night I felt
+them. My next thoughts were of the
+power, the wisdom, and the majesty
+of the mighty Being by whom all this
+had been formed, moved, and sustained
+through thousands of years. I need
+not follow the history of my conversion&mdash;for
+a conversion it was. When
+I looked round me on the sleeping
+troops, I saw nothing but clods of the
+valley&mdash;gallant beings, but as insensible
+to their high inheritance as the
+chargers they rode. My heart moved
+me towards them; and perhaps, in
+some instances, I succeeded in giving
+them my own ideas. But Austria defies,
+at least, all human change. I was not
+a fanatic, and I had no wish to strive
+with impossibilities. I sent in my
+resignation; abandoned the 'pride,
+pomp, and circumstance' of the most
+tempting of all human pursuits, and
+returned to England to be, what you
+see me now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>With this man I could have no
+reserves, and I freely asked his advice
+on the plunge which I was about to
+make into that fathomless tide of good
+and ill, the world. I mentioned the
+Church as the profession which my
+mother had suggested, but for which
+I did not conceive either my temper
+or my habits suitable.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are right, then, in abandoning
+the idea altogether,&quot; was the answer;
+&quot;and yet I know no profession more
+capable of fulfilling all the objects of
+a vigorous mind. I am not now talking
+of mitres; they can fall to but
+few. I speak of the prospects which
+it opens to all; the power of exerting
+the largest influence for the highest
+purposes; the possession of fame
+without its emptiness, and the indulgence
+of knowledge without its
+vanity; energy turned to the most
+practical and lofty uses of man; and
+the full feast of an ambition superior
+to the tinsel of the world, and alike
+pure in its motives, and immeasurable
+in its rewards.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And, yet,&quot; said I, naming one or
+two of our clerical slumberers, &quot;the
+profession seems not to be a very disturbing
+one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Those men, was the answer, would
+have been slumberers at the bar, in
+senates, or in the field. I may be prejudiced
+in favour of the choice which I
+made so long since, and which I have
+never found reason to repent. But I
+have not the slightest wish to prejudice
+any one in its favour. There is
+no profession which more requires a
+peculiar mind; contentment, with
+whatever consciousness of being overlooked;
+patience, with whatever hopelessness
+of success; labour, for its own
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page706" id="page706" title="706"></a></span> sake; and learning, with few to share,
+few to admire, and fewer still to understand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If my father had lived,&quot; said I,
+&quot;it was his intention to have tried my
+chance in diplomacy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Probably enough; for he had figured
+in that line himself. I remember him
+secretary of embassy at Vienna. Perhaps
+you will scarcely believe, that I,
+too, have had my experience on the
+subject? Accident once made me an
+attach&eacute; to our envoy at Naples. The
+life is an easy one. Idleness was
+never more perfectly reduced to a system,
+than among the half dozen functionaries
+to whom the interests of the
+British empire were entrusted in the
+capital of the Lazzaroni. As the
+Frenchman said of the Academy, 'We
+had nothing to do, and we did it.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Italy,&quot; said I, &quot;is the land of pleasure,
+and the Lazzaroni are its philosophers,
+but one cannot sleep like them
+in the face of day, and all day long.
+Let what will come, I have no desire
+to be a weed on the shore.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No; we had our occupations; for
+we had the attendance on the court days&mdash;a
+business of as much formality, as
+if the fate of mankind depended on
+it. Then we had the attendance on
+the opera at night, a matter nearly as
+tiresome. The post from England
+reached Naples but once a-week, and
+scarcely once a month conveyed any
+intelligence that was worth the postage.
+But, if politics were out of the
+question, we had negotiation in abundance;
+for we carried on the whole diplomacy
+of the opera-house in London,
+engaged <i>primo tenores</i>, and settled
+the rival claims of <i>prima donnas</i>;
+gave our critical opinions on the
+merits of dancers worthy of appearing
+before the British <i>cognoscenti</i>; and
+dispatched poets, ballet-masters, and
+scene-painters, to our managers, with
+an activity worthy of the purest patriotism.
+What think you of the bar?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have no head for its study; and
+no heart for its employment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It leads more rapidly to rank than
+any other profession under the sun;
+profit beyond counting, and a peerage.
+Those are no bad things.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Both capital, if one could be secure
+of them. But they take too much
+time for me. I never was born to sit
+on the woolsack. No; if I were to
+follow my own inclination, I should
+be a soldier.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>I have already said that I have
+been, throughout life, a kind of believer
+in omens. I have seen such a
+multitude of things decided by some
+curious coincidence, some passing occurrence,
+some of those odd trifles for
+which it is impossible to account, but
+which occur at the instant when the
+mind is wavering on the balance;
+that I feel no wonder at the old superstitions
+of guessing our destiny from
+the shooting of a star, or the flight of
+birds. While we were rambling onward,
+discussing the merits and demerits
+of the profession of arms, we
+heard the winding of the mail-guard's
+horn. I sprang the fence, and waited
+in the road to enquire the last news
+from the metropolis. It was momentous&mdash;the
+Revolution had effectually
+broken out. Paris was in an uproar.
+The king's guards had taken up arms
+for the people. The Bastile was
+stormed!</p>
+
+<p>If I had hesitated before, this news
+decided me; not that I pretend to have
+even dreamed of the tremendous
+changes which were to be produced in
+the world by that convulsion. But it
+struck me as the beginning of a time,
+when the lazy quietude of years was
+about to be broken up, and room made
+for all who were inclined to exert themselves.
+Before we had reached the
+level lawns and trim parterres which
+showed us the lights of the family
+festivity, I had settled all the difficulties
+which might impede the career of
+less fortunate individuals; time and
+chance were managed with the adroitness
+of a projector; and if Bellona had
+been one of the Nine Muses, my
+speculations could not have been more
+poetical. Somewhat to my surprise,
+they received no check from my venerable
+tutor; quite the contrary. The
+singular sympathy with which he listened
+to my most daring and dashing
+conceptions, would have betrayed his
+early history if I had still the knowledge
+to acquire. His very looks, as
+he listened to my rodomontades, recurred
+to me, when I read, many
+years after, Scott's fine description of
+his soldier-monk in the Lay of the
+Last Minstrel:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Again on the knight look'd the churchman old,</p>
+<p class="i1">And again he sigh'd heavily,</p>
+<p>For he had himself been a warrior bold,</p>
+<p class="i1">And fought in Spain and Italy.</p>
+<p><span class="newpage"><a name="page707" id="page707" title="707"></a></span> And he thought on the days that were long gone by,</p>
+<p>When his limbs were strong, and his courage was high.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;">
+
+<p>The news from France produced
+a sensation throughout England
+totally indescribable at the present
+day. Every tongue and every heart
+was full of it. It offered something
+for every mind of the million
+to seize on. Like a waterspout, such
+as I have seen sweeping over the
+bosom of the Atlantic, half-descending
+from the skies, and half-ascending
+from the deep; every second man
+whom one met gave it credit for a
+different origin, some looking at the
+upper portion and some at the lower;
+while, in the mean time, the huge
+phenomenon was blackening, gathering,
+and rushing onward, threatening
+to turn all above into darkness and all
+below into storm. It made the grand
+subject of parliamentary eloquence,
+and parliament was never more eloquent;
+it filled the speeches of the
+factious, it was hailed by the shouts
+of the multitude, and it disturbed the
+fireside with fear and hope, with wishing
+and wonder. It must be acknowledged
+that a vast quantity of this
+excitement was absolute folly; but, at
+the same time, there was a sincerity
+in the folly which redeemed it from ridicule.
+Nothing could be more evident
+than that this French patriotism was
+as theatrical, in the countless majority
+of instances, as the loves and sorrows
+of its stage. Yet, however the
+speeches might be got by heart, or
+the frippery and actors hired, the
+<i>drame</i> was powerfully performed;
+and all Europe sat by, giving it the
+tribute of its tears and its terrors.
+Even we of England, with all our
+more sober recollections that the
+heroes were ragamuffins, and the heroism
+imaginary, gave ourselves up
+to the illusion. I shall not say that
+I was wiser than the rest of mankind.
+I liked excitement, wherever
+it was to be found. The barriers
+to distinction were still too firmly
+closed against the youngest son of an
+embarrassed family, not to suggest
+many a wish for whatever chance
+might burst the gate, or blow up the
+rampart; and my first effort in political
+life was a harangue to the rabble
+of the next borough, conceived in the
+most Gallic style. Yet this act of
+absurdity had the effect of forwarding
+my views more rapidly than if I had
+become an aristocratic Demosthenes.
+My speech was so much applauded
+by the mob, that they began to put
+its theories in practice, though with
+rather more vigour than I had dreamed
+of. There were riots, and even
+some attempts at the seizure of arms;
+and the noble duke, our neighbour,
+had received a threatening letter,
+which sent him at full gallop to the
+Home Secretary. A note, by no
+means too gentle in its tone, was instantly
+despatched to my noble brother,
+enquiring why he did not contrive
+to keep the minor branches of
+his family in better order, and threatening
+him with the withdrawal of
+the county patronage. My demand
+of a commission in the Guards was
+no longer answered by the head
+of our house with astonishment
+at the loftiness of my expectations,
+and statements of the utter emptiness
+of the family exchequer. The result
+of his brief correspondence with
+Downing Street was a letter, notifying
+that his majesty was pleased to
+accept my services in the Coldstream.</p>
+
+<p>I was enraptured, and my brother
+was enraptured, for we had both gained
+our objects. I had got rid of him
+and ennui. He had got rid of me, and
+the displeasure of the grand dispensers
+of place and pension. No time was
+lost in forwarding me to make my bow
+at the Horse Guards; and my noble
+brother lost as little time in making
+me put my hand to a paper, in which,
+for prompt payment, I relinquished
+one half of my legacy. But what
+cared I for money? I had obtained a
+profession in which money was contemptible,
+the only purse the military
+chest, and the only prize, like Nelson's,
+a peerage or Westminster Abbey.
+The ferment did not cool within
+the week, and within that period I had
+taken leave of half the county, been
+wished laurels and aiguillettes by a
+hundred or a thousand of the fairest
+of our country belles; and been wished
+a thousand miles off by the wise
+matrons, to whom the sight of a
+&quot;younger son without house or land&quot;
+is a nuisance, a kite among their
+family pigeons.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment, however, all their
+dovecots were secure. I should not
+have spent a sigh on the Venus de Medicis
+had she sprung from her pedestal
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page708" id="page708" title="708"></a></span> to enchant me. The world was
+open before me; and trite and trifling
+objects were no more to occupy my
+time. I felt like one who, after wandering
+all day through the depths of
+an American forest, suddenly reaches
+its border, and sees before him the
+boundless prairie, with its boundlessness
+still more striking, from the
+absence of any distinct object on
+which the eye could rest. What were
+horses, dogs, and country dinners, to
+the world of London and of life which
+now came in full, and, I will own it, extravagant
+vision before me? The ideas
+which I conceived of men and things,
+of my own fortunes, and the fortunate
+exercise of my own powers, were of
+an order which, in my calmer days,
+have often made me smile; yet what
+is the whole early life of man but a
+predisposition to fever? and I was
+then throbbing on the fiery verge of
+the disease.</p>
+
+<p>I shall say but little of my first sensations
+on reaching London. My
+eyes and ears were in full activity.
+But the impression upon all who enter
+this mightiest of capitals for the first
+time, is nearly the same. Its perpetual
+multitude, its incessant movement,
+its variety of occupations, sights
+and sounds, the echo of the whole
+vast and sleepless machinery of national
+existence, have been a thousand
+times the subject of description, and
+always of wonder. Yet, I must acknowledge,
+that its first sight repelled
+me. I had lived in field and
+forest, my society had been among
+my fellows in rank; I had lived in
+magnificent halls, and been surrounded
+by bowing attendants; and now,
+with my mind full of the calm magnificence
+of English noble life, I felt
+myself flung into the midst of a numberless,
+miscellaneous, noisy rabble,
+all rushing on regardless of every
+thing but themselves, pouring through
+endless lines of dingy houses; and I
+nothing, an atom in the confusion, a
+grain of dust on the great chariot
+wheel of society, a lonely and obscure
+struggler in the mighty current of
+human life, which rolled along the
+sullen channels of the most cheerless,
+however it might be the largest, of
+capitals.</p>
+
+<p>For the first week, I was absolutely
+unable to collect my thoughts.
+All that I learned was, to make my
+way through the principal thoroughfares,
+and know the names of her
+chief buildings. In later days, I
+took a more practical view of matters,
+and regarded them only as places in
+which the business of the hour was to
+be done. But in my first view, something
+of the romance and revival of
+my forest walks clung to me. I remember
+that, when I first saw the
+Horse Guards, to which, of course,
+one of my earliest visits was paid, I
+found no slight difficulty in thinking
+of it as only a remarkably clownish
+mass of brick and stone, crowded
+with clerks. To me it was the very
+palace of war; the spot from which
+the thunderbolts of England were
+launched; the centre and the stronghold
+of that irresistible influence with
+which England sways and moulds
+mankind. The India House was another
+of my reveries. I could not
+think of it as but a huge pile in a vulgar
+outlet of the city, as a place of porters
+and messengers loitering in gloomy
+corridors, of busy clerks for ever scribbling
+in nooks unvisited by the sun,
+or even of portly directors, congregating
+in halls encrusted with the
+cobwebs of centuries. To my eyes it
+was invested with the mystery and
+dignity of Orientalism. I thought of
+the powers by which rajahs were raised
+and overthrown, of the mandates which
+spread war and restored peace over
+regions wide as Europe, and a thousand
+times more brilliant. I had
+rambling visions of armies of elephants,
+superb cavalry, and chieftains
+covered with gold and diamonds. As
+I traversed the dusky halls, I thought
+of the will which pronounced the fate
+of kingdoms, the fallen glories of
+Aurengzebe, the broken sceptre of
+the Mahratta, and the crushed tiara
+of Mysore. Round me was the moving
+power of an empire, the noblest
+that the East has ever seen, and
+which, in the act of assuming additional
+greatness, by a contradiction to
+all the laws of extended conquest, was
+hourly assuming additional stability.</p>
+
+<p>And yet, and yet, are not those the
+true views, after all? Are the effects
+to be forgotten in the instruments, or
+is it not the result which forms the
+character of the whole? Are we to
+think of the dagger which strikes the
+master of a throne, as only the steel in
+the hand of an assassin, or as the summoner
+to civil war and the subversion
+of thrones? Is the pen which pours
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page709" id="page709" title="709"></a></span> political frenzy through the hearts of
+living millions, or sheds the splendours
+of poetry over millions still to come,
+to be valued only as the feather of a
+bird? Or is the press itself to be
+remembered only as a dexterous combination
+of springs and screws; or to be
+bowed down to as the steward of all
+the hidden treasures of mind&mdash;as the
+breaker of intellectual chains, the
+avenger of injured rights, the moral
+Hercules that goes forth turning the
+wilderness to fertility, and smiting the
+monsters of the world?</p>
+
+<p>But among the wonders of the
+time, there was one which struck me
+with prodigious force, which has remained
+on my recollection to this
+hour, and which still survives with
+undiminished vividness. It was the
+acting of Siddons.</p>
+
+<p>The stage is now almost undone.
+The absurd liberalism of the day has
+given every corner of London a
+theatre, and has degraded the character
+of the stage in all. By scattering
+the ability which still exists, it has
+stripped the great theatres of the very
+means of representing dramatic excellence;
+while, by adopting popular contrivances
+to obtain temporary success,
+they have driven away dramatic
+genius in contempt or in despair. Our
+stage is now condemned to be fed like
+a felon from the dungeons, and, like the
+felon, to feel a stigma in every morsel
+which it puts between its lips. It
+must stoop to French frivolity, or
+German extravagance, and be glad to
+exist upon either. Yet, why should
+not higher names come to its aid?
+Why should not the State relieve the
+difficulties of a great institution, which
+might be made to repay its assistance
+a thousand-fold? Is there nothing
+that could be withdrawn from the
+waste of our civil lists, or the pomp
+of public establishments, to reunite,
+to purify, and even to exalt the stage?
+The people <i>will</i> have theatres. Good
+or evil, noble or degraded, the stage
+will be demanded by the people. Is
+it a thing indifferent to our rulers, to
+supply them with this powerful and
+universal excitement in its highest
+degree of moral influence, or in its
+lowest degree of impurity; to bring
+before them, with all the attractions
+of the drama, the memory of heroes
+and sages, patriots and martyrs, or
+leave them to rake for the indulgence
+of eye and ear in the very kennels of
+crime?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They order those things better
+in France.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Unquestionably. The care of Government
+there protects the national
+taste, and prevents the theatres from
+looking for subsistence to the history
+of the highway. The vices which
+now haunt theatres are no more necessary
+to their nature, than to the
+senate or the palace. Why should
+not the State interpose to prevent
+the sale of poison on the stage,
+as in the streets? Why should
+it not offer prizes and honours for
+great tragedies and comedies, as soon
+as it would for a voyage to the Arctic
+or Antarctic? But is dramatic genius
+dead in England? What, in England!
+where nothing dies&mdash;where every faculty
+of the heart and understanding is
+in the most perpetual activity&mdash;where
+the noblest impulses are perpetually
+pushing forward to the noblest ends&mdash;where
+human nature moves in all
+its vigour, from hour to hour, without
+disguise&mdash;where the whole anatomy
+of the moral frame is visible, and all
+its weakness, and all its wonders,
+are the daily spectacle of all mankind!</p>
+
+<p>In giving these opinions of the powers
+of the stage, need I guard them
+by saying, that I contemplate a higher
+spirit than the drama even of Shakspeare
+has ever displayed&mdash;one
+which, to the vigour of his characters,
+and the splendours of his poetry,
+should add a moral of which his time
+was scarcely conscious? My idea
+would approach more nearly the
+objects of the great Greek dramas, in
+which the first sympathies of the people
+were appealed to by the most
+powerful recollections of historic virtue;
+their national victories over the
+Persian, the lofty conceptions of their
+Olympus, the glories of their national
+power, and the prospects of their
+imperishable renown. I contemplate
+nothing of the weakness, locality, or
+license, of our old drama. I think
+only of a rich and lofty combination
+of characters above the level of our
+time, thoughts belonging to that elevation,
+feelings more generous, vivid,
+and majestic, and exploits uniting the
+soaring spirit of old romance with the
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page710" id="page710" title="710"></a></span> sustained strength of modern energy;
+Greece in her brightest days of intellectual
+lustre, Rome in her most heroic
+days of patriotism, and England
+in those days which are yet to come,
+and which shall fill up her inheritance
+of glory.</p>
+
+<p>Siddons was then witching the
+world&mdash;witching, in its more solemn
+sense; for though her smile was exquisite,
+she might have sat for the
+picture of a Sybil or a Pythoness.
+The stage had never seen her equal,
+and will probably never see another
+so completely formed to command all
+its influences. Yet her beauty, her
+acting, even her movement, were characteristic,
+and their character was
+noble melancholy. I never saw so
+mournful a countenance combined
+with so much beauty. Her voice,
+though grand, was melancholy&mdash;her
+step, though superb, was melancholy;
+her very smile was melancholy;
+and yet there was so much of living
+intellect in her expression, such vast
+variety of passion in her look and
+gesture; she so deeply awoke the
+feelings, or so awfully impressed the
+mind; thus it was impossible to escape
+the spell, while she moved upon the
+stage.</p>
+
+<p>In this language there is not the
+slightest exaggeration. I have seen
+a whole audience burst into tears at
+a single tone of her voice. Her
+natural conception was so fine, that
+the merest commonplace often received
+a living spirit from her lips. I
+have seen a single glance from her
+powerful eye hush an audience&mdash;I
+have seen her acting sometimes even
+startle and bewilder the actors beside
+her. There is perhaps a genius for
+every art, and hers was the genius of
+the stage&mdash;a faculty of instant
+communication between the speaker and
+the hearer, some unaccountable
+sympathy, the power to create which belongs
+to but one in millions, and which,
+where it exists, lifts its possessor to
+the height of the Art at once, and constitutes
+perfection.</p>
+
+<p>It may be presumed that I saw this
+extraordinary being whenever it was
+possible. But her <i>chef-d'&oelig;uvre</i>, in
+my eyes, was the &quot;wife of Macbeth.&quot;
+The character seemed made for her,
+by something of that instinct which
+in olden times combined the poet and
+the prophet in one. It had the ardour
+and boldness mingled with the
+solemnity and mystery that belonged
+to the character of her beauty.</p>
+
+<p>Her entrance was hurried, as if she
+had but just glanced over the letter,
+and had been eager to escape from the
+crowd of attendants to reperuse it
+alone. She then read on, in a strong
+calm voice, until she came to the passage
+which proved the preternatural
+character of the prediction. &quot;They
+have more in them than mortal knowledge.
+When I burnt with desire to
+question them further, they made
+themselves into air and&mdash;<i>vanished</i>.&quot;
+As she was about to pronounce the
+last word, she paused, drew a short
+breath, her whole frame was disturbed,
+she threw her fine eyes upwards, and
+exclaimed &quot;<i>Vanished</i>!&quot; with a wild
+force, which showed that the whole
+spirit of the temptation had shrunk
+into her soul. The &quot;Hail, king that
+shall be!&quot; was the winding-up of the
+spell. It was pronounced with the
+grandeur of one already by anticipation
+a Queen.</p>
+
+<p>Her solitary summons to her distant
+lord followed, like an invocation&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p class="i5">&quot;Hie thee hither,</p>
+<p>That I may pour my spirits in thine ear;</p>
+<p>And chastise with the valour of my tongue</p>
+<p>All that impedes thee from the golden round.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The murder scene was the next
+triumph: her acting was that of a
+triumphant fiend. I must follow these
+recollections no further; but the most
+admirable piece of dumb show that
+perhaps ever was conceived, was her
+&quot;Banquet scene.&quot; That scene, from
+the terrible business on the stage&mdash;the
+entrance of Banquo's ghost, the horrors
+of Macbeth, stricken in the moment of
+his royal exultation, and the astonishment
+and alarm of the courtiers&mdash;is
+one of the most thrilling and tumultuous.
+Yet Siddons, sitting at the extremity
+of the royal hall, not having a
+syllable to utter, and simply occupied
+with courtesies to her guests, made
+her silence so expressive, that she
+more than divided the interest with the
+powerful action going on in front.
+And when at last, indignant at Macbeth's
+terrors, stung by conscience,
+and alarmed at the result of an up-breaking
+of the banquet with such
+rumours in their lips, she rushed towards
+her unhappy husband, and burst
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page711" id="page711" title="711"></a></span> out with the words, still though but
+whispered, yet intensely poured into
+his passive ear&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p class="i2">&quot;Are you a <i>man</i>?</p>
+<p>This is the very painting of your fear!</p>
+<p>This is the air-drawn dagger, which, you said,</p>
+<p>Led you to Duncan!&mdash;</p>
+<p>Why do you make such faces? When all's done,</p>
+<p><i>You look but on a stool</i>!&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>In those accents all else was forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>But her sleep-walking scene! When
+shall we see its &quot;second or its similar?&quot;
+Nothing so solemn, nothing so
+awful, was ever seen upon the stage.
+Yet it had one fault&mdash;it was too awful.
+She more resembled a majestic shade
+rising from the tomb than a living woman,
+however disturbed by wild fear
+and lofty passion. It is a remarkable
+instance of the genius of Shakspeare,
+that he here found the means of giving
+a human interest to a being whom he
+had almost exalted to the &quot;bad eminence&quot;
+of a magnificent fiend. In
+this famous soliloquy, the thoughts
+which once filled and fired her have
+totally vanished. Ambition has died;
+remorse lives in its place. The diadem
+has disappeared; she thinks only
+of the blood that stains her for ever.
+She is the queen no more, but an exhausted
+and unhappy woman, worn
+down by the stings of conscience, and
+with her frame dying by the disease
+of her soul.</p>
+
+<p>But Siddons wanted the agitation,
+the drooping, the timidity. She looked
+a living statue. She spoke with
+the solemn tone of a voice from a
+shrine. She stood more the sepulchral
+avenger of regicide than the
+sufferer from its convictions. Her
+grand voice, her fixed and marble
+countenance, and her silent step, gave
+the impression of a supernatural
+being, the genius of an ancient oracle&mdash;a
+tremendous Nemesis.</p>
+
+<p>I have seen all the great tragedians
+of my day, but I have never seen an
+equal to the sublime of this extraordinary
+actress. I have seen beauty,
+youth, touching sensibility, and powerful
+conception; but I never saw so
+complete an union of them all&mdash;and
+that union was the sublime. Shakspeare
+must have had some such form
+before his mind's eye, while he was
+creating the wife of Macbeth. Some
+magnificent and regal countenance,
+some movement of native majesty,
+some imaginary Siddons. He could
+not have gone beyond the true. She
+was a living Melpomene.</p>
+
+<p>The business of the War-Office was
+not transacted in those days with the
+dispatch subsequently introduced by
+the honest Duke of York. After a
+delay of weeks I found myself still
+ungazetted, grew sad, angry, impatient;
+and after some consideration on
+the various modes of getting rid of
+<i>ennui</i>, which were to be found in enlisting
+the service of that Great
+Company which extended its wings
+from Bombay to Bengal, as Sheridan
+said, impudently enough, like the vulture
+covering his prey; or in taking
+the chance of fortune, in the shape of
+cabin-boy on board one of the thousand
+ships that were daily floating
+down the Thames, making their way
+to the extremities of the earth; or in
+finishing my feverish speculations in
+a cold bath at the bottom of the
+Thames itself; I did what I felt a
+severer exertion than any of them&mdash;I
+wrote a full and true statement of my
+vexations to my lordly brother.</p>
+
+<p>His answer was lordly enough.
+He had been &quot;so much occupied with
+the numberless duties devolving upon
+him as landlord, magistrate, lord-lieutenant,
+and fifty other things, that
+he absolutely had not been able to
+find a moment to think of me;&quot; and
+what was rather more perplexing to
+my immediate sensibilities, &quot;he had
+not been able to send me a shilling.
+However, he did all that he could,
+and gave me a note to a particular
+friend,&quot; Mr Elisha Mordecai of Moorfields.</p>
+
+<p>There is nothing which quickens a
+man's movements like a depletion of
+the purse; and instead of lounging at
+my hotel until the morning paper
+brought me the scandals and pleasantries
+of the day before fresh for
+my breakfast-table, I threw myself
+out of bed at an hour which I should
+not have ventured to mention to any
+man with whom I walked arm-in-arm
+during the day, and made my way in
+a hackney coach, to avoid the possibility
+of being recognised, to the
+dwelling of my new patron, or rather
+my guide and guardian angel.</p>
+
+<p>I make no attempt to describe the
+navigation through which I reached
+him; it was winding, dark, and dirty
+beyond all description, and gave the
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page712" id="page712" title="712"></a></span> idea of the passages of a dungeon
+rather than any thing else that I could
+name. And in a hovel worthy to finish
+such a voyage of discovery, I discovered
+Mr Elisha Mordecai, the man
+of untold opulence. For a while, on
+being ushered into the office, where
+he sat pen in hand, I was utterly
+unable to ascertain any thing of him
+beyond a gaunt thin figure, who sat
+crouching behind a pile of papers,
+and beneath a small window covered
+with the dirt of ages. He gave me
+the impression in his dungeon of one
+of those toads which are found from
+time to time in blocks of coal, and
+have lain there unbreathing and unmoving
+since the deluge. However,
+he was a man of business, and so was
+I for the moment. I handed him my
+brother's note; and like a ray of
+sunshine on the torpid snake, it put
+him into immediate motion. He now
+took off his spectacles, as if to indulge
+himself with a view of me by the
+naked eye; and after a scrutinizing
+look, which, in another place and person,
+I should probably have resented
+as impertinent, but which here seemed
+part of his profession, he rose from
+his seat and ushered me into another
+apartment. This room was probably
+his place of reception for criminals of
+a more exalted order; for it was lined
+with foreign prints, had one or two
+tolerable Dutch pictures, and a bookcase.
+Out of his bookcase he took
+down a folio, examined it, compared
+the writing of my credentials with the
+signatures of a book which, as Cromwell's
+son said of his trunk, contained
+the lives and fortunes, or at least that
+on which depended the lives and fortunes,
+of half the noble <i>rou&eacute;s</i> of England,
+their &quot;promises to pay,&quot; bonds,
+mortgages, and post-obits, and then
+performed the operation on myself.
+My L.2500 in prospect was mulcted
+of a fifth for the trouble of realizing
+it; of another fifth for prompt payment,
+and of another for expediting
+the affair of my commission. &quot;Another
+such victory would have ruined
+me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>However, I bore the torture well.
+In truth, I had so little regard for any
+object but the grand one of wearing
+a sword and epaulette, that if Mordecai
+had demanded the whole sum in
+fifths, I should have scarcely winced.
+But my philosophy stood me in good
+part, for it won a grim smile from the
+torturer, and even a little of his confidence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This,&quot; said he, running his finger
+down a list which looked endless, &quot;I
+call my peerage book.&quot; Turning to
+another of equal dimensions, &quot;there
+lies my House of Commons. Not quite
+as many words wasted in it as in the
+Honourable House, but rather to the
+purpose.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Mordecai grew facetious; the feeling
+that he had made a handsome morning's
+work of it put him into spirits,
+and he let me into some of the secrets
+of high life, with the air of a looker-on
+who sees the whole game, and
+intends to pocket the stakes of the
+fools on both sides. &quot;Money, Mr
+Marston,&quot; said my hook-nosed and
+keen-eyed enlightener, &quot;is the true
+business of man. It is philosophy,
+science, and patriotism in one; or,
+at least, without it the whole three
+are of but little service. Your philosopher
+dies in a garret, your man of
+science hawks telescopes, and your
+patriot starves in the streets, or gets
+himself hanged in honour of the
+'Rights of Man.' I have known all
+these things, for I was born a German,
+and bred among the illustrissimi
+of a German university. But I determined
+not to live a beggar, or at
+least not to die one. I left Gottingen
+behind on a May morning, and
+trudged, fought, and begged, 'borrowed'
+my way to London. What
+I am now, you see.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Probably, the glance which I involuntarily
+gave round the room, did
+not exhibit much admiration.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ha,&quot; said he with a half smile,
+which, on his gigantic and sullen features,
+looked like a smile on one of
+the sculptures of a mausoleum, &quot;you
+are young&mdash;you judge by appearances.
+Let me give you one piece of advice:
+If the Italian said, 'distrust words,
+they are fit only to disguise thoughts,'
+take a Londoner's warning, and distrust
+your eyes&mdash;they are only fit to
+pretend to see.&quot; He paused a moment,
+and turned over some memorandums.
+&quot;I find,&quot; said he, &quot;by
+these papers, that I shall have occasion
+to leave town in the beginning of
+next week. You shall then see how
+I live. If I am to be found in this
+den, it is not for want of a liking for
+light and air. I am a German. I
+have seen plains and mountains in my
+time. If I had been a fool, there I
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page713" id="page713" title="713"></a></span> should have remained a bear-shooter;
+if I were a fool here, I should act like
+others of the breed, and be a fox-hunter.
+But I had other game in
+view, and now I could sell half the
+estates in England, call half the 'Honourable
+House' to my levee, brush
+down an old loan, buy up a new one,
+and shake the credit of every thing
+but the Bank of England.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This was bold speaking, and at another
+time I should have laughed at
+it; but the times were bold, the language
+of the streets was bold, the
+country was bold, and I, too, was bold.
+There was something singular in the
+man; even the hovel round him had a
+look which added to his influence. I
+listened to the Jew as one might listen
+to a revealer of those secrets which
+find an echo in every bosom, when
+they are once discovered, and on
+which still deeper secrets seem to depend.
+My acquiescence, not the less
+effective for its being expressed more
+in looks than words, warmed even the
+stern spirit of the Israelite towards
+me, and he actually went the length
+of ordering some refreshments to be
+put on the table. We eat and drank
+together; a new source of cordiality.
+Our conversation continued long. I
+shall have more to say of him, and
+must now proceed to other things;
+but it ended in my acceptance of his
+invitation to his villa at Brighton,
+which he termed &quot;a small thing,
+simply for a week's change of air,&quot;
+and where he promised to give me
+some curious explanations of his
+theory&mdash;that money was the master of
+all things, men, manners, and opinions.</p>
+
+<p>On one of the finest mornings of
+autumn, I was on the box of the
+Royal Sussex Stage.</p>
+
+<p>I had full leisure to admire the
+country, for our progress occupied
+nearly the whole day. We now
+laugh at our slow-moving forefathers,
+but is not the time coming when our
+thirty miles an hour will be laughed
+at as much as their five? when our
+passage from Calais to Dover will be
+made by the turn of a winch, and
+Paris will be within the penny-post
+delivery? when the balloon will
+carry our letters and ourselves; until
+that still more rapid period, when we
+shall ride on cannon-shot, and make
+but a stage from London to Pekin?</p>
+
+<p>On the roof of the coach I found a
+strong-featured and closely wrapped-up
+man, who, by degrees, performed
+the part of my cicerone. His knowledge
+of the localities was perfect;
+&quot;every bush and bosky dell,&quot; every
+creek and winding, as the shore came
+in sight, was so familiar to him, that
+I should have set him down at once
+for a smuggler, but for a superiority
+of tone in his language, and still more
+from the evident deference to him by
+the coachman, in those days a leading
+authority with all the passengers.
+His occupation is now nearly o'er.
+Fire and water have swept him away.
+His broad back, his broad grin, and
+his broad buttons, are now but recollections.</p>
+
+<p>My new acquaintance exhibited as
+perfect a knowledge of the country
+residents as of its map, and nothing
+could be more unhesitating than his
+opinions of them all, from the prince
+and his set, as he termed them, to
+Mordecai himself. Of my Jew friend,
+he said, with a laugh, &quot;There is not
+a better friend to the King's Bench
+in all England. If you have any
+thing to lose, he will strip you on the
+spot. If you have nothing, you may
+escape, unless he can make something
+by having you hanged.&quot; I begged
+of him to spare my new friend.
+&quot;Why,&quot; said he, &quot;he is one of my
+oldest friends, and one of the cleverest
+fellows alive. I speak tenderly of
+him, from admiration of his talents.
+I have a liking for the perfection of a
+rogue. He is a superb fellow. You
+will find his 'Hermitage,' as he calls
+it, a pond of gold fish. But all this
+you will soon learn for yourself.&quot;
+The coach now stopped on a rising
+ground, which showed the little fishing
+village beneath us, basking in the
+glow of sunset. My cicerone got down,
+and bade me farewell. On enquiring
+his name from my fellow-travellers, a
+group of Sussex farmers, I found a
+general disinclination to touch on the
+subject. Even the coachman, the
+established source of information on
+all topics, exhibited no wish to discuss
+the stranger; his official loquacity
+was almost dumb. &quot;He merely believed
+that he was something in the
+navy, or in the army, or in something
+or other; but he was often in those
+parts, and generally travelled to London
+by the Royal Sussex Stage.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>No country in Europe has changed
+its appearance more than the greater
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page714" id="page714" title="714"></a></span> part of England during the last fifty
+years. Sussex was then as wild as
+the wildest heath of Yorkshire. The
+population, too, looked as wild as the
+landscape. This was once the very
+land of the bold smuggler; the haunt
+of the dashing defier of the customhouse
+officer, who in those days generally
+knew his antagonist too well to
+interfere with his days or nights, the
+run between every port of the west
+of France and the coasts of the Channel,
+being, in fact, as familiar to both
+as the lounger in Bond Street to the
+beau of the day.</p>
+
+<p>We passed groups of men, who,
+when they had not the sailor's dress,
+had the sailor's look; some trudging
+along the road-side, evidently not in
+idleness; others mounted on the short
+rough horse of the country, and all
+knowing and known by our coachman.</p>
+
+<p>On our passing one group, leaning
+with their backs against one of the
+low walls which seemed the only enclosure
+of this rugged region, I, half-laughingly,
+hinted to one of my neighbours,
+a giant of a rough-headed farmer,
+that &quot;perhaps a meeting with
+such a party, at a late hour, might
+be inconvenient, especially if the traveller
+had a full purse.&quot; The fellow
+turned on me a countenance of ridicule.
+&quot;What?&quot; said he, &quot;do you
+take them for robbers? Heaven bless
+you, my lad, they could buy the stage,
+horses, passengers, and all. I'll warrant
+you, they will have news from
+over there,&quot; and he pointed towards
+France, &quot;before it gets into the newspapers,
+long enough. They are the
+richest fellows in the county.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are they smugglers?&quot; I asked,
+with sufficient want of tact.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, no,&quot; was the answer, with
+a leer. &quot;We have nothing of that
+breed among us; we are all honest
+men. But what if a man has an acquaintance
+abroad, and gets a commission
+to sell a cargo of tea or
+brandy, or perhaps a present from a
+friend&mdash;what shall hinder him from
+going to bring it? I'm sure, not I.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was evidently not the &quot;etiquette&quot;
+on the roof of the Royal Sussex to
+think much on the subject, and before
+my curiosity could reach the
+length of actual imprudence, the
+coachman pulled up, and informed
+me that I had reached the nearest
+turn to &quot;the Hermitage.&quot; My valise
+was lowered down, a peasant was
+found to carry it, and I plunged into
+the depth of a lane as primitive as if
+it had been a path in Siberia.</p>
+
+<p>It was brief, however, and in a few
+minutes I was within sight of the
+villa. Here I at once discovered that
+Mordecai was a man of taste; perhaps
+the very roughness of the Sussex
+jungle, through which I had just
+come, had been suffered to remain for
+the sake of contrast. A small lodge,
+covered with late blooming roses, let
+me into a narrow avenue of all kinds
+of odorous shrubs; the evening sun
+was still strong enough to show me
+glimpses of the grounds on either
+side, and they had all the dressed
+smoothness of a parterre. The scene
+was so different from all that I had
+been wearied of during the day, that
+I felt it with double enjoyment; and
+the utter solitude and silence, after
+the rough voices of my companions
+in the journey, were so soothing, that
+I involuntarily paused before I approached
+the house, to refresh not
+more my senses than my mind. As
+I stood leaning against a tree, and
+baring my hot brain and bosom to
+the breeze, that rose with delicious
+coolness, I heard music. It was a
+sweet voice, accompanied at intervals
+by some skilful touches of a harp;
+and, from the solemnity of the measure,
+I supposed it to be a hymn.
+Who was the minstrel? Mordecai
+had never mentioned to me either
+wife or daughter. Well, at all events,
+the song was sweet. The minstrel
+was a woman, and the Jew's household
+promised me more amusement
+than I could have expected from the
+man of Moorfields. The song ceased,
+the spell was broken, and I moved
+on, fully convinced that I had entered
+on a scene where I might expect at
+least novelty; and the expectation
+was then enough to have led me to
+the cannon's mouth or the antipodes.</p>
+
+<hr class="full">
+
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page715" id="page715" title="715"></a></span>
+<a name="bw332s2" id="bw332s2"></a><h2>THE VIGIL OF VENUS.</h2>
+
+<h3>TRANSLATED FROM THE LATIN.</h3>
+
+<p>This old poem, which commemorates the festivities with which ancient
+Rome hailed the returning brightness of spring, may, perhaps, awaken in our
+readers some melancholy reflections on the bygone delights of the same season
+in our own country. To the Romans, it would seem, this period of the year
+never ceased to bring rejoicing holidays. There is good reason to suppose
+that this poem was written in the declining times of the empire; if so, it seems
+that, amidst the public misfortunes that followed one another during that age,
+the people were not woe-worn and distressed; that they were able to forget,
+in social pleasures, the gradual decay of their ancient glory. Rome &quot;smiled
+in death.&quot; England is still great and powerful, but she is no longer Merry
+England.</p>
+
+<p>Most people have heard of the Floralia, and have learned to deduce the
+frolics of Maid Marian and her comrades from the Roman observances on that
+festive occasion. But few are aware of the close similarity which this poem
+shows to have existed between the customs of the Romans and those of our
+fathers. In the denunciations of the latter by the acrid Puritans of the 17th
+century, we might almost imagine that the tirade was expressly levelled
+against the vigils described in the <i>Pervigilium Veneris</i>. If the poem had ever
+fallen into the hands of those worthies, it would have afforded them an additional
+handle for invective against the foul ethnic superstitions which the
+May-games were denounced as representing. Hear Master Stubbes, in his
+<i>Anatomie of Abuses</i>, published in 1585:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blkquot"><p>&quot;Against May, Whitsonday, or other time, all the yung men and maides,
+old men and wives, run gadding over the night to the woods, groves, hils, and
+mountains, where they spend all the night in pleasant pastimes, and in the
+morning they return, bringing with them birch and branches of trees, to deck
+their assemblies withall; and no meruaile, for there is a great Lord present
+amongst them as superintendent and Lord of their sports, namely, Sathan
+prince of hel. But the chiefest jewel they bring from thence is their May-pole,
+(say rather their stinking poole,) which they bring home with great
+veneration.&quot;</p></div>
+
+<p>Who does not remember Lysander's appointment with Hermia:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p class="i1">&mdash;&mdash;&quot;in that wood, a league without the town,</p>
+<p>Where I did meet thee once with Helena,</p>
+<p>To do observance to a morn of May,</p>
+<p>There will I stay for thee.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>These passages point us to the time when man and nature met to rejoice
+together on May-day: to the time before the days of the workhouse and factory;
+when the length and breadth of the land rung to the joyaunce and glee
+of the holiday-rejoicing nation, and the gay sounds careered on fresh breezes
+even where now the dense atmosphere of Manchester or Ashton glooms over
+the dens of torture in which withered and debauched children are forced to
+their labour, and the foul haunts under the shelter of which desperate men
+hatch plots of rapine and slaughter.</p>
+
+<p>The poem shows that the Romans, like the English of those days, celebrated
+the season by betaking themselves to the woods throughout the night, where
+they kept a vigil in honour of Venus, to whose guardianship the month of
+April was assigned, as being the universal generating and producing power, and
+more especially to be adored as such by the Romans, from having been, through
+her son &AElig;neas, the author of their race. The poem seems to have been composed
+with a view to its being sung by a choir of maidens in their nocturnal
+rambles beneath the soft light of an Italian moon. The delicious balm of that
+voluptuous climate breathes through every line of it, and vividly presents to
+the reader's imagination the scene of the festivity; but whether we can claim
+these celebrations for our own May-day, is a doubtful point; for Wernsdorf, who
+has included the Pervigilium Veneris in his edition of <i>Poet&aelig; Latini Minores</i>,
+vol. iii., maintains that it is to be referred to the Veneralia, or feast of Venus,
+on the 1st of April. The Kalendar of Constantius marks the 3d day of April
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page716" id="page716" title="716"></a></span> as Natalis Quirini. If, then, the morrow spoken of in the poem is to be taken
+to mean this birthday of Romulus, we must suppose the vigil of three nights
+to have begun on the night of the last day of March. But perhaps our
+readers will agree with us, that there are quite as good grounds for attributing
+this vigil to the Floralia, which commenced on the 27th of April, and ended
+on the first of May. For although the rites of the Floralia were in honour of
+Flora, yet we may easily conceive the principle by which the worship of
+Venus, the spirit of beauty, and love, and production, would come to be intermingled
+with the homage paid to the flower-goddess. And then the three
+nights would denote the nights of the Floralia already past, if we suppose the
+hymn to have been sung on the night before the 1st of May. This seems
+more natural, as coinciding with the known length of the festival, than Wernsdorf's
+hypothesis, which makes the vigil commence before the month of
+Venus had opened. As regards the time of year, too, May is far more suited
+than April, even in Italy, for outwatching the Bear on woodland lawns.</p>
+
+<p>The question regarding the author of the Pervigilium Veneris is still a <i>lis
+sub judice</i>. Aldus, Erasmus, and Meursius, attributed it to Catullus; but subsequent
+editors have, with much more probability, contended that its age is
+considerably later. We may notice a scholastic and philosophical spirit about
+it, which is ill-suited to the Bard of Verona. Lipsius claimed it for the Augustan
+age, in consequence of the mention of C&aelig;sar which is introduced.
+But we think we may safely assume, that the observance of this vigil grew
+into custom after the time of Ovid, otherwise it is difficult to account for the
+total absence of all allusion, in his Fasti, to a subject so perfectly adapted to
+his verse. But we will not enter any further into a discussion which Salmasius
+and Scaliger could not settle, but shall at once present our readers with
+the following translation of the Pervigilium Veneris:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p class="i1">He that never loved before,</p>
+<p class="i2">Let him love to-morrow!</p>
+<p class="i1">He that hath loved o'er and o'er,</p>
+<p class="i2">Let him love to-morrow!</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>Spring, young Spring, with song and mirth,</p>
+<p>Spring is on the newborn earth.</p>
+<p>Spring is here, the time of love&mdash;</p>
+<p>The merry birds pair in the grove,</p>
+<p>And the green trees hang their tresses,</p>
+<p>Loosen'd by the rain's caresses.</p>
+<p>To-morrow sees the dawn of May,</p>
+<p>When Venus will her sceptre sway,</p>
+<p>Glorious, in her justice-hall:</p>
+<p>There where woodland shadows fall,</p>
+<p>On bowers of myrtle intertwined,</p>
+<p>Many a band of love she'll bind.</p>
+<p class="i4">He that never, &amp;c.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>To-morrow is the day when first</p>
+<p>From the foam-world of Ocean burst,</p>
+<p>Like one of his own waves, the bright</p>
+<p>Dione, queen of love and light,</p>
+<p>Amid the sea-gods' azure train,</p>
+<p>'Mid the strange horses of the main.</p>
+<p class="i4">He that never, &amp;c.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>She it is that lends the Hours</p>
+<p>Their crimson glow, their jewel-flowers:</p>
+<p>At her command the buds are seen,</p>
+<p>Where the west-wind's breath hath been,</p>
+<p>To swell within their dwellings green.</p>
+<p>She abroad those dewdrops flings,</p>
+<p>Dew that night's cool softness brings;</p>
+<p>How the bright tears hang declining,</p>
+<p>And glisten with a tremulous shining,</p>
+<p>Almost of weight to drop away,</p>
+<p>And yet too light to leave the spray.</p>
+<p>Hence the tender plants are bold</p>
+<p>Their blushing petals to unfold:</p>
+<p>'Tis that dew, which through the air</p>
+<p>Falls from heaven when night is fair,</p>
+<p>That unbinds the moist green vest</p>
+<p>From the floweret's maiden breast.</p>
+<p>'Tis Venus' will, when morning glows,</p>
+<p>'Twill be the bridal of each rose.</p>
+<p>Then the bride-flower shall reveal,</p>
+<p>What her veil cloth now conceal,</p>
+<p>The blush divinest, which of yore</p>
+<p>She caught from Venus' trickling gore,</p>
+<p>With Love's kisses mix'd, I trow,</p>
+<p>With blaze of fire, and rubies' glow,</p>
+<p>And with many a crimson ray</p>
+<p>Stolen from the birth of day.</p>
+<p class="i4">He that never, &amp;c.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>All the nymphs the Queen of Love</p>
+<p>Summons to the myrtle-grove;</p>
+<p>And see ye, how her wanton boy</p>
+<p>Comes with them to share our joy?</p>
+<p>Yet, if Love be arm'd, they say,</p>
+<p>Love can scarce keep holiday:</p>
+<p>Love without his bow is straying!</p>
+<p>Come, ye nymphs, Love goes a Maying.</p>
+<p>His torch, his shafts, are laid aside&mdash;</p>
+<p>From them no harm shall you betide.</p>
+<p>Yet, I rede ye, nymphs, beware,</p>
+<p>For your foe is passing fair;</p>
+<p><span class="newpage"><a name="page717" id="page717" title="717"></a></span> Love is mighty, ye'll confess,</p>
+<p>Mighty e'en in nakedness;</p>
+<p>And most panoplied for fight</p>
+<p>When his charms are bared to sight.</p>
+<p class="i4">He that never, &amp;c.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>Dian, a petition we,</p>
+<p>By Venus sent, prefer to thee:</p>
+<p>Virgin envoys, it is meet,</p>
+<p>Should the Virgin huntress greet:</p>
+<p>Quit the grove, nor it profane</p>
+<p>With the blood of quarry slain.</p>
+<p>She would ask thee, might she dare</p>
+<p>Hope a maiden's thought to share&mdash;</p>
+<p>She would bid thee join us now,</p>
+<p>Might cold maids our sport allow.</p>
+<p>Now three nights thou may'st have seen,</p>
+<p>Wandering through thine alleys green,</p>
+<p>Troops of joyous friends, with flowers</p>
+<p>Crown'd, amidst their myrtle bowers.</p>
+<p>Ceres and Bacchus us attend,</p>
+<p>And great Apollo is our friend;</p>
+<p>All night we must our Vigil keep&mdash;</p>
+<p>Night by song redeem'd from sleep.</p>
+<p>Let Venus in the woods bear sway,</p>
+<p>Dian, quit the grove, we pray.</p>
+<p class="i4">He that never, &amp;c.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>Of Hybla's flowers, so Venus will'd,</p>
+<p>Venus' judgment-seat we build.</p>
+<p>She is judge supreme; the Graces,</p>
+<p>As assessors, take their places.</p>
+<p>Hybla, render all thy store</p>
+<p>All the season sheds thee o'er,</p>
+<p>Till a hill of bloom be found</p>
+<p>Wide as Enna's flowery ground.</p>
+<p>Attendant nymphs shall here be seen,</p>
+<p>Those who delight in forest green,</p>
+<p>Those who on mountain-top abide,</p>
+<p>And those whom sparkling fountains hide.</p>
+<p>All these the Queen of joy and sport</p>
+<p>Summons to attend her court,</p>
+<p>And bids them all of Love beware,</p>
+<p>Although the guise of peace he wear.</p>
+<p class="i4">He that never, &amp;c.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>Fresh be your coronals of flowers,</p>
+<p>And green your overarching bowers,</p>
+<p>To-morrow brings us the return</p>
+<p>Of Ether's primal marriage-morn.</p>
+<p>In amorous showers of rain he came</p>
+<p>T' embrace his bride's mysterious frame,</p>
+<p>To generate the blooming year,</p>
+<p>And all the produce Earth does bear.</p>
+<p>Venus still through vein and soul</p>
+<p>Bids the genial current roll;</p>
+<p>Still she guides its secret course</p>
+<p>With interpenetrating force,</p>
+<p>And breathes through heaven, and earth, and sea,</p>
+<p>A reproductive energy.</p>
+<p class="i4">He that never, &amp;c.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>She old Troy's extinguish'd glory</p>
+<p>Revived in Latium's later story,</p>
+<p>When, by her auspices, her son</p>
+<p>Laurentia's royal damsel won.</p>
+<p>She vestal Rhea's spotless charms</p>
+<p>Surrender'd to the War-god's arms;</p>
+<p>She for Romulus that day</p>
+<p>The Sabine daughters bore away;</p>
+<p>Thence sprung the Rhamnes' lofty name,</p>
+<p>Thence the old Quirites came;</p>
+<p>And thence the stock of high renown,</p>
+<p>The blood of Romulus, handed down</p>
+<p>Through many an age of glory pass'd,</p>
+<p>To blaze in C&aelig;sar's at last.</p>
+<p class="i4">He that never, &amp;c.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>All rural nature feels the glow</p>
+<p>Of quickening passion through it flow.</p>
+<p>Love, in rural scenes of yore,</p>
+<p>They say, his goddess-mother bore;</p>
+<p>Received on Earth's sustaining breast,</p>
+<p>Th' ambrosial infant sunk to rest;</p>
+<p>And him the wild-flowers, o'er his head</p>
+<p>Bending, with sweetest kisses fed.</p>
+<p class="i4">He that never, &amp;c.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>On yellow broom out yonder, see,</p>
+<p>The mighty bulls lie peacefully.</p>
+<p>Each animal of field or grove</p>
+<p>Owns faithfully the bond of love.</p>
+<p>The flocks of ewes, beneath the shade,</p>
+<p>Around their gallant rams are laid;</p>
+<p>And Venus bids the birds awake</p>
+<p>To pour their song through plain and brake.</p>
+<p>Hark! the noisy pools reply</p>
+<p>To the swan's hoarse harmony;</p>
+<p>And Philomel is vocal now,</p>
+<p>Perch'd upon a poplar-bough.</p>
+<p>Thou scarce would'st think that dying fall</p>
+<p>Could ought but love's sweet griefs recall;</p>
+<p>Thou scarce would'st gather from her song</p>
+<p>The tale of brother's barbarous wrong.</p>
+<p>She sings, but I must silent be:&mdash;</p>
+<p>When will the spring-tide come for me?</p>
+<p>When, like the swallow, spring's own bird,</p>
+<p>Shall my faint twittering notes be heard?</p>
+<p>Alas! the muse, while silent I</p>
+<p>Remain'd, hath gone and pass'd me by,</p>
+<p>Nor Ph&oelig;bus listens to my cry.</p>
+<p>And thus forgotten, I await,</p>
+<p>By silence lost, Amycl&aelig;'s fate.</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<hr class="full">
+
+
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page718" id="page718" title="718"></a></span>
+<a name="bw332s3" id="bw332s3"></a><h2>CHAPTERS OF TURKISH HISTORY. RISE OF THE KIUPRILI FAMILY&mdash;SIEGE OF CANDIA.</h2>
+
+<h3>NO. IX.</h3>
+
+<p>The restraint which the ferocious
+energy of Sultan Mourad-Ghazi, during
+the latter years of his reign, had
+succeeded in imposing on the turbulence
+of the Janissaries,<a name="footnotetag1" id="footnotetag1"></a><a href="#footnote1"><sup>1</sup></a> vanished at
+his death; and for many years subsequently,
+the domestic annals of the
+Ottoman capital are filled with the
+details of the intrigues of women and
+eunuchs within the palace, and the
+sanguinary feuds and excesses of the
+soldiery without. The Sultan Ibrahim,
+the only surviving brother and successor
+of Mourad, was in his twenty-fifth
+year at the time of his accession; but
+he had been closely immured in the
+seraglio from the moment of his birth;
+and the dulness of his temperament
+(to which he probably owed his escape
+from the bowstring, by which the lives
+of his three brothers had been terminated
+by order of Mourad) had never
+been improved by cultivation. Destitute
+alike of capacity and inclination
+for the toils of government, he remained
+constantly immersed in the
+pleasures of the harem; while his
+mother, the Sultana-Walidah Kiosem,
+(surnamed <i>Mah-peiker</i>, or the <i>Moon-face</i>,)
+who had been the favourite of
+the harem under Ahmed I., and was
+a woman of extraordinary beauty and
+masculine understanding, kept the
+administration of the state almost
+wholly in her own hands. The talents
+of this princess, aided by the ministers
+of her selection, for some time prevented
+the incompetency of the sultan
+from publicly manifesting itself;
+but Ibrahim at last shook off the control
+of his mother, and speedily excited
+the indignant murmurs of the
+troops and the people by the publicity
+with which he abandoned himself to
+the most degrading sensuality. The
+sanctity of the harem and of the bath
+had hitherto been held inviolate by
+even the most despotic of the Ottoman
+sovereigns; but this sacred barrier
+was broken through by the unbridled
+passions of Ibrahim, who at
+length ventured to seize in the public
+baths the daughter of the mufti, and,
+after detaining her for some days in
+the palace, sent her back with ignominy
+to her father. This unheard-of
+outrage at once kindled the smouldering
+discontent into a flame; the Moslem
+population rose in instant and
+universal revolt; and a scene ensued
+almost without parallel in history&mdash;the
+deposition of an absolute sovereign
+by form of law. The grand-vizir
+Ahmed, and other panders to the
+vices of the sultan, were seized and
+put to death on the place of public
+execution; while an immense crowd
+of soldiers, citizens, and janissaries,
+assembling before the palace of the
+mufti early on the morning of August
+8, 1648, received from him a <i>fetwa</i>,
+or decree, to the effect that the sultan
+(designated as &quot;Ibrahim Abdul-Rahman
+Effendi&quot;) had, by his habitual
+immorality and disregard of law,
+forfeited all claim to be considered as
+a true believer, and was therefore incapable
+of reigning over the Faithful.
+The execution of this sentence was
+entrusted to the Aga of the Janissaries,
+the Silihdar or grand sword-bearer,
+and the Kadhi-asker or chief
+judge of Anatolia, who, repairing to
+the seraglio, attended by a multitude
+of military officers and the <i>ulemah</i>,
+proceeded without ceremony to announce
+to Ibrahim that his rule was
+at an end. His furious remonstrances
+were drowned by the rude voice of
+the Kadhi Abdul-Aziz Effendi,<a name="footnotetag2" id="footnotetag2"></a><a href="#footnote2"><sup>2</sup></a> who
+boldly reproached him with his vices.
+&quot;Thou hast gone astray,&quot; said he,
+&quot;from the paths in which thy glorious
+ancestors walked, and hast trampled
+under foot both law and religion, and
+thou art no longer the padishah of
+the Moslems!&quot; He was at last conducted
+to the same apartment whence
+he had been taken to ascend the throne,
+and where, ten days later, his existence
+was terminated by the bowstring;
+while the Sultana-Walidah, (whose
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page719" id="page719" title="719"></a></span> acquiescence in this extraordinary revolution
+had been previously secured,)
+led into the <i>salamlik</i> (hall of audience)
+her eldest grandson Mohammed,<a name="footnotetag3" id="footnotetag3"></a><a href="#footnote3"><sup>3</sup></a> an
+infant scarcely seven years old, who
+was forthwith seated on the imperial
+sofa, and received the homage of the
+dignitaries of the realm.</p>
+
+<p>Sultan Mohammed IV., afterwards
+surnamed <i>Avadji</i>, or the Hunter, who
+was destined to fill the throne of the
+Ottoman Empire during one of the
+most eventful periods of its history,
+possessed qualifications which, if his
+education had not been interrupted by
+his early accession to supreme power,
+might have entitled him to a high
+place among the monarchs of his line.
+Unlike most of the imperial family,
+he was of a spare sinewy form, and
+lofty stature; and his features are
+said by Evliya to have been remarkably
+handsome, though his forehead
+was disfigured by a deep scar which
+he had received in his infancy, by
+being thrown by his father, in an
+access of brutal passion, into a cistern
+in the gardens of the seraglio; and a
+contemporary Venetian chronicler says
+that his dark complexion and vivid
+restless eye gave him rather the aspect
+of a <i>Zigano</i>, or gipsy, than an
+Osmanli. In the first years of his
+reign, his grandmother, the Walidah
+Kiosem, acted as regent; but the rule
+of a woman and a child was little able
+to curb the turbulent soldiery of the
+capital; and the old feuds between
+the spahis and janissaries, which had
+been dormant since the death of Abaza,
+broke out afresh with redoubled
+violence. The war in Crete, which
+had been commenced under Ibrahim,
+languished for want of troops and
+supplies; while the rival military factions
+fought, sword in hand, in front
+of the imperial palace, and filled Constantinople
+with pillage and massacre.
+The janissaries, who were supported
+by Kiosem, for some time maintained
+the ascendency; but this ambitious
+princess was at length cut off by an
+intrigue, in the interior of the harem,
+fomented by the mother of Mohammed,
+who suspected her of a design
+to prolong her own sway by the removal
+of the sultan, in favour of a still
+younger son of Ibrahim. Seized in
+the midst of the night of September
+3, 1651, by the eunuchs whom her
+rival had gained, Kiosem was strangled
+(according to a report preserved
+by Evliya) with the braids of her own
+long hair; and the sultan was exhibited
+at daybreak by the grand-vizir
+Siawush-Pasha to the people, who
+thronged round the palace on the
+rumour of this domestic tragedy, to
+assure them of the personal safety of
+their youthful sovereign.</p>
+
+<p>The supreme power was now lodged
+in the hands of the young Sultana
+Walidah, and her confidant the Kislar-Aga;
+but their inexperience was little
+qualified to encounter the task which
+had wellnigh baffled the energies of
+Kiosem; and the expedient of frequently
+changing the grand-vizir, in
+obedience to the requisition of which
+ever party was for the time in the ascendant,
+prevented the measures of
+government from acquiring even a
+shadow of consistence or stability.
+Twelve vizirs, within eight years from
+the deposition of Ibrahim, had successively
+held the reins of power for
+short periods; and not less than six
+had been raised to, and deposed from,
+that precarious dignity, within the
+last ten months, while the audacity of
+the troops, and the helplessness of the
+executive, had reached an unparalleled
+climax. In a memorable insurrection,
+arising from the depreciation of
+the coinage, which marked the spring
+of 1656, the revolters, not contented
+with their usual license of plunder and
+bloodshed, forced their way into the
+palace, and exacted from the young
+sultan the surrender of two of his favourite
+domestics, who were instantly
+slaughtered before his eyes; while
+various obnoxious public functionaries
+were dragged to the At-meidan, and
+summarily hanged on the branches of
+a large plane-tree;<a name="footnotetag4" id="footnotetag4"></a><a href="#footnote4"><sup>4</sup></a> and for several
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page720" id="page720" title="720"></a></span> weeks this proscription was continued,
+till the cry of &quot;Take him to the
+plane-tree!&quot; became a watchword of
+as well-known and fearful import, as
+that of &quot;A la lanterne!&quot; in later
+times. In this emergency, when the
+fabric of government seemed on the
+verge of dissolution, an ancient Anatolian
+pasha, Mohammed-Kiuprili, who
+had lately repaired to the capital, was
+named by her confidential advisers to
+the Sultana-Walidah as a man whose
+eminent discernment and sagacity, not
+less than his fearless intrepidity, rendered
+him especially fitted for the task
+of stilling the troubled waters. In
+opposition to these views it was contended,
+that the poverty of the proposed
+premier would prevent his securing
+the adherence of the troops
+by the largesses which they had been
+accustomed to receive, and the project
+was apparently abandoned; but
+the incapacity and unpopularity of
+the grand-vizir, Mohammed-Pasha,
+(surnamed <i>Egri</i>, or the Crooked,)
+soon made it obvious that a fresh
+change alone could prevent another
+convulsion. On the 15th September
+1656, therefore, in a fortunate<a name="footnotetag5" id="footnotetag5"></a><a href="#footnote5"><sup>5</sup></a> hour
+for the distracted empire, Kiuprili was
+summoned to the presence of the sultan,
+who had now, nominally at least,
+assumed the direction of affairs, and received
+from his hands the seals of office.</p>
+
+<p>Such were the circumstances of the
+elevation of this most celebrated of
+Ottoman ministers, whose name stands
+pre-eminent, not only from his own
+abilities and good fortune, but as the
+founder of the only family which ever
+continued to enjoy, during several
+generations, the highest honours of
+the empire. He was the son of an
+Arnaut<a name="footnotetag6" id="footnotetag6"></a><a href="#footnote6"><sup>6</sup></a> soldier, who had settled in
+Anatolia, on receiving a <i>timar</i> or
+fief in the district of Amasia, near
+the town of Kiupri, ('the bridge:')
+from which (since distinguished from
+other places of the same name as <i>Vizir</i>-Kiupri)
+his descendants derived
+the surname under which they are generally
+mentioned in history. He
+commenced his career as a page in the
+imperial seraglio; which he left for a
+post in the household of Khosroo, afterwards
+grand-vizir, who was then
+aga of janissaries. Passing through
+various gradations of rank, he held
+several governments in Syria, and was
+raised to the grade of pasha of three
+tails: till, at an advanced age, he obtained
+permission to exchange these
+honours for the post of <i>sandjak</i> of his
+native district, to which he accordingly
+withdrew. But his retirement
+was disturbed, in 1648, by the insurrection
+of Varvar-Ali, pasha of Siwas,
+who, rather than surrender a beautiful
+daughter, the affianced bride of his
+neighbour Ipshir, pasha of Tokat, to
+the panders of the imperial harem, had
+raised the standard of revolt, and had
+been joined by the pasha of Erzroom,
+Gourdji-Mohammed, (to whose suite
+the annalist Evliya was then attached,)
+and by many of the Turkman
+clans of Anatolia. The Sultana-Walidah
+herself, who was then at
+variance with her degenerate son, secretly
+encouraged the insurgents, who
+endeavoured to gain over Kiuprili to
+their party; but as they failed in all
+their efforts to shake his loyalty, Varvar
+suddenly marched against him,
+routed the troops which he had collected,
+and made him prisoner, with
+two beglerbegs whom he had summoned
+to his aid. &quot;I saw these three
+pashas&quot; (says Evliya, who had come
+to the rebel camp on a mission from
+Gourdji-Mohammed) &quot;stripped of
+their robes and turbans, and fastened
+by chains round their necks to stakes
+in front of the tent of Varvar-Ali,
+while the seghbans, and even the surridjis&quot;
+(irregular horse) &quot;brandished
+their sabres before their faces, threatening
+them with instant death. Thus
+we see the changes of fortune, that
+those who were the drivers become
+in their turn the driven,&quot; (like cattle.)</p>
+
+<p>Evliya, who seems to feel a malicious
+pleasure in relating this mishap of
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page721" id="page721" title="721"></a></span> the future grand-vizir, confesses to having
+himself received a horse and a slave
+out of his spoils; but even before his
+departure from the camp, the rebellion
+was crushed, and Kiuprili released,
+by the base treachery of Ipshir-Pasha,<a name="footnotetag7" id="footnotetag7"></a><a href="#footnote7"><sup>7</sup></a>
+for whose sake alone Varvar-Ali
+had taken up arms. Won by the
+emissaries of the Porte, by the promise
+of the rich pashalic of Aleppo, he suddenly
+assailed the troops of his father-in-law,
+and seizing his person, cut off
+his head, and sent it with those of his
+principal followers to Constantinople&mdash;an
+act of perfidious ingratitude, which,
+even among the frequent breaches of
+faith staining the Ottoman annals, has
+earned for its perpetrator the sobriquet
+of <i>Khain</i>, or the traitor, <i>par excellence</i>.
+After this unlucky adventure,
+we hear no more of Kiuprili in
+his Anatolian sandjak, till, in the
+spring of 1656, we find him accompanying
+Egri-Mohammed on his way
+to the Porte to assume the vizirat:
+from which, in less than four months,
+he was removed to make way for his
+quondam <i>prot&eacute;g&eacute;</i>, in whose elevation
+he had thus been an involuntary instrument.</p>
+
+<p>Mohamned Kiuprili was at this period
+nearly eighty years of age, and
+so wholly illiterate that he could neither
+read nor write; yet such was the
+general estimation of his wisdom and
+abilities, that the young sultan, on
+entrusting to him the ensigns of office,
+voluntarily pledged himself to leave
+entirely at his discretion the regulation
+of the foreign and domestic relations
+of the empire, as well as the disposal
+of all offices of state&mdash;thus virtually
+delegating to him the functions
+of sovereignty. The measures of
+Kiuprili soon showed that these extraordinary
+powers would not be suffered
+to remain dormant. The impatience
+of the troops at the strict discipline
+which he enforced, erelong
+announced the approach of a fresh
+tumult; and the ringleaders, in the
+confidence of long-continued impunity,
+openly boasted that &quot;the plane-tree
+would soon bear another crop&quot;&mdash;when
+on the night of Jan. 5, 1657, the grand-vizir,
+accompanied by the aga of the
+janissaries, and fortified by a fetwa
+from the mufti, legalizing whatever
+he might do, made the round of the
+barracks with his guards, and seized
+several hundreds of all ranks in the
+various corps, whose bodies, found
+floating the next day in the Bosphorus,
+revealed their fate to their dismayed
+accomplices. The Greek patriarch,
+on suspicion of having endeavoured
+to engage the Vaivode of Wallachia
+in a plot for a general rising of
+the Christians, was summoned to the
+Porte, and forthwith bowstrung in the
+presence of Kiuprili; and in the
+course of a few weeks, not fewer than
+4000 of those who had been implicated
+in the previous disorders perished
+under the hands of the executioner:
+&quot;for as in medicine,&quot; remarks a Turkish
+historian, &quot;it is necessary to employ
+remedies which are analogous to
+the disease, so by bloodshed alone
+could the state be purified from these
+lawless shedders of blood!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>These terrible severities broke the
+spirit of insubordination in the capital;
+and the irregularity of their pay, which
+had been one of the chief grievances
+of the janissaries, was remedied by the
+good order which Kiuprili had from
+the first introduced in the finances.
+&quot;He proportioned the expenditure of
+the empire,&quot; says Evliya, &quot;to its revenues,
+which he also greatly enlarged,
+so that he gained the name of <i>Sahib-Kharj</i>,&quot;
+(master of finance.) The Venetians,
+who had availed themselves of
+the anarchy reigning at Constantinople
+to occupy Tenedos and Lemnos,
+so as to blockade the Dardanelles,
+were dislodged by the activity of the
+vizir, who directed the sieges in
+person, bestowing honours and rewards
+on the soldiers most distinguished
+for their bravery; and though
+the Turkish fleet was defeated (July
+17, 1657) at the entrance of the
+straits, the Venetians sustained an
+irreparable loss in their valiant admiral
+Mocenigo, who was blown up
+with his ship by a well-aimed shot
+from one of the batteries on shore.
+But though the janissaries were thus
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page722" id="page722" title="722"></a></span> reduced to order and obedience, the
+flame of disaffection was still smouldering
+among the spahis of Asia Minor,
+and broke out, in the course of
+the ensuing year, into a formidable
+and widely-organized rebellion. Not
+fewer than forty pashas and sandjaks
+followed the banner of the insurgent
+leader Abaza-Hassan, pasha of Aleppo,
+who advanced towards the Bosphorus
+at the head of 70,000 men,
+assuming the state of a monarch, and
+demanding the heads of Kiuprili and
+his principal adherents as the price of
+his submission. Morteza-Pasha, governor
+of Diarbekr, who attempted to oppose
+him in the field, was routed with
+the loss of nearly his whole army;
+and though the emissaries who attempted
+to seduce the troops in Constantinople
+from their allegiance were
+detected and put to death by the vigilance
+of Kiuprili, the revolt spread
+throughout Anatolia and Syria, and
+the sultan was preparing to take the
+field in person, when treachery succeeded
+in accomplishing what force
+had failed to effect. It has been an
+uniform maxim of the Ottoman domestic
+policy, which singularly contrasts
+with their scrupulous observance of
+the treaties entered into with foreign
+powers, that no faith is to be kept
+with <i>fermanlis</i>, or traitors to the Padishah;
+and in the assured belief, confirmed
+by hostages and solemn oaths,
+that the sultan was willing to accede
+to his demands, Abaza-Hassan suffered
+himself to be drawn from his
+headquarters at Aintab, with thirty
+of his officers, to a conference with
+Morteza at Aleppo: but, in the midst
+of the banquet which followed this
+interview, Abaza and his comrades
+found themselves in the grasp of the
+executioners&mdash;while their followers,
+dispersed through the town, were
+slaughtered without mercy on the signal
+of a gun fired from the castle;
+and the army, panic-stricken at the
+fate of its leaders, quickly melted away.
+But no sooner was the semblance of
+tranquillity restored, than the Kaimakam
+Ismail Pasha, an unscrupulous
+agent of the merciless decrees of the
+vizir, was sent into Asia under the
+new title of Moufetish, or inquisitor;
+and an unsparing proscription almost
+utterly exterminated all the remaining
+partizans of Abaza-Hassan, without
+distinction of rank; while the
+suppression of numerous <i>timars</i> or
+fiefs, and the removal of the occupants
+of others from their ancient abodes to
+remote districts, so effectually loosened
+the bands which had hitherto united
+the spahis, like the janissaries, into a
+compact fraternity, that this once powerful
+body was divided and broken;
+and they no longer occupy, as a separate
+faction, their former conspicuous
+place in the troubled scene of Ottoman
+history.</p>
+
+<p>The termination of this great revolt
+freed Kiuprili from the apprehension
+of military sedition, and left
+him in the enjoyment of more absolute
+and undivided authority than had
+ever been possessed by any of his
+predecessors in office. The sultan,
+from whose mind the impression of the
+bloody scenes witnessed in his youth
+had never been effaced, rarely visited
+Constantinople; devoting himself to
+the pleasures of the chase in the forests
+and hills of Roumelia, and repairing
+only at intervals to the ancient palace
+of his ancestors at Adrianople, whither
+his harem and household had
+been transferred from the capital. The
+uncontrolled administration of the state
+was left in the hands of the vizir, but
+his implacable severity towards all who
+failed in implicit devotion to his will,
+continued unabated. &quot;He was unacquainted&quot;
+(says his contemporary,
+Rycaut) &quot;with mercy, and never
+pardoned any who were either guilty
+of a fault, or suspected for it;&quot; and
+neither rank nor services afforded protection
+to those who had incurred his
+jealousy or resentment. Among the
+numerous victims of his suspicious
+cruelty, the fate of Delhi-Hussein-Pasha
+was long remembered in Constantinople.
+Originally a <i>battadji</i> or
+lictor in the seraglio, he had attracted
+the notice of Sultan Mourad-Ghazi by
+his strength and address in bending a
+bow sent as a challenge by the Shah of
+Persia, and which had baffled the
+efforts of all the <i>pelhwans</i> or champions
+of the Ottoman court. His first
+advancement to the post of equerry
+was only a prelude to the attainment
+of higher honours, and he became successively
+governor of Buda and of
+Egypt, capitan-pasha and serasker in
+Candia. His exploits in the latter
+capacity had endeared him to the
+troops, while his noble figure and
+frank bearing made him equally the
+idol of the citizens, but his unbounded
+popularity led Kiuprili to foresee a
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page723" id="page723" title="723"></a></span> future rival in this favourite hero, and
+the fate of Delhi-Hussein was sealed.
+In an interview with the vizir, he was
+graciously received, and invested with
+a robe of honour; but as he quitted
+the Porte he was arrested and carried
+to the Seven Towers, where, two days
+after, (in spite of the intercession of
+the Sultana-Walidah, and the refusal
+of the mufti to ratify the unjust doom,)
+he was bowstrung in his cell, as the
+murmurs of the troops prevented the
+vizir from risking a public execution.</p>
+
+<p>But though thus inexorable to all
+whose popularity or pretensions might
+interfere with his own supremacy, and
+haughty even beyond all former precedent
+in his intercourse with the representatives
+of the Christian powers,<a name="footnotetag8" id="footnotetag8"></a><a href="#footnote8"><sup>8</sup></a>
+Kiuprili deserved, by the merits of his
+domestic administration, the high place
+which has been assigned to him by the
+unanimous voice of the Ottoman historians.
+The exact regularity which
+he enforced both in the payment and
+disbursement of the revenue, relieved
+the people from the irregular imposts
+to which they had been subject, in
+order to make up the deficiencies arising
+from the interception, by the
+pashas, of the tributes of distant provinces,
+and the peculation which had
+long reigned unchecked at the seat of
+government&mdash;while the sums thus
+rendered disposable were laid out
+chiefly in improving the internal communications,
+and strengthening the
+defences, of the empire. The Dardanelles,
+hitherto guarded only by
+Mohammed II.'s two castles of Europe
+and Asia, was made almost impregnable
+by the construction of the
+formidable line of sea defences still
+existing; the necessity for which had
+been demonstrated by the recent attack
+of the Venetians; and fortified posts
+were established along the line of the
+Dnieper and Dniester, to keep in
+cheek the predatory Cossacks between
+these rivers, who were at this time engaged
+in a furious civil contest with the
+king of Poland, the ally of the Porte.
+The Hungarian fortresses were also
+repaired, and vast warlike preparations
+made along the Danube, as the
+peace which for fifty years had subsisted
+with the empire appeared on
+the verge of inevitable rupture. The
+succession to the principality of Transylvania,
+the suzeraint&eacute; of which had
+long been a point of dispute between
+the Porte and Austria, was now contested
+between Kem&eacute;ny and Michael
+Abaffi&mdash;the latter being the nominee
+of the sultan, while Kem&eacute;ny was supported
+by the emperor, to whom the
+late Prince Racoczy had transferred
+his allegiance a short time before his
+death in battle against the Turks, in
+1660. The Imperialists and Turks
+had more than once encountered each
+other as auxiliaries of the rival candidates,
+and Kiuprili was on the point
+of repairing in person to the scene of
+action, when he died at Adrianople of
+dropsy, (Oct. 31, 1661,) in the eighty-sixth
+year of his age, and was buried
+in a splendid mausoleum, which he
+had erected for himself, near the Tauk-bazar
+(poultry market) at Constantinople&mdash;the
+vault of which, during his
+life, he had daily filled with corn,
+which was then distributed to the poor
+to purchase their prayers! &quot;Thus,&quot;
+says a Turkish annalist, &quot;died Kiuprili-Mohammed,
+who was most zealous
+and active in the cause of the
+faith! Enjoying absolute power, and
+being anxious to purify the Ottoman
+empire, he slew in Anatolia 400,000<a name="footnotetag9" id="footnotetag9"></a><a href="#footnote9"><sup>9</sup></a>
+rebels, including seventeen vizirs or
+pashas of three tails, forty-one of two
+tails, seventy sandjak-beys, three
+mallahs, and a Moghrabiu sheikh.
+May God be merciful to him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The genius of the Ottoman institutions
+is so directly opposed to any
+thing like the perpetuation of offices
+in a family, which might tend to endanger
+the despotism of the throne by
+the creation of an hereditary aristocracy,
+that even in the inferior ranks,
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page724" id="page724" title="724"></a></span> an instance had hitherto scarcely been
+known of a son succeeding his father.
+The immediate appointment, therefore,
+of Fazil-Ahmed, the eldest son
+of the deceased minister, to the vizirat,
+was so complete a departure from all
+established usages, as at once demonstrated
+to the expectant courtiers that
+the influence of the crafty old vizir
+had survived him, and that &quot;the star
+of the house of Kiuprili&quot; (in the words
+of a Turkish writer) &quot;had only set in
+the west to rise again with fresh splendour
+in the east.&quot; Ahmed-Kiuprili
+was now thirty-two years of age, and
+joined to an intellect not less naturally
+vigorous than that of his father, those
+advantages of education in which the
+latter had been deficient. At an early
+age he had been placed under the historian,
+Abdul-Aziz Effendi, as a student
+of divinity and law, in the <i>medressah</i>
+or college attached to the
+mosque of Sultan Mohammed the
+Conqueror, and had attained, in due
+course, the rank of <i>muderris</i> or fellow
+therein; but the elevation of his father
+to the vizirat transferred him from the
+cloister to the camp, and he held the
+governments successively of Erzroom
+and Damascus&mdash;in the latter of which
+he distinguished himself by his moderation
+and firmness in reducing to
+order the refractory chiefs of the
+Druses, of the two great rival houses
+of Shahab and Maan-Oghlu. Recalled,
+at length, to Constantinople to
+assume the office of kaimakam, he had
+scarcely entered on his new duties
+when he was summoned to Adrianople,
+to attend the deathbed of his
+father, and to succeed him in the uncontrolled
+administration of the empire.</p>
+
+<p>The numerous executions which
+marked the accession of the new vizir,
+(in accordance, as was believed, with
+the dying injunctions of his father,)
+struck with terror the functionaries of
+government, who anticipated a continuance
+of the iron rule under which
+they had so long trembled; but the
+disposition of Ahmed-Kiuprili was not
+naturally sanguinary, and few measures
+of unnecessary severity characterized
+his subsequent sway. The
+war in Hungary, meanwhile, had assumed
+a serious aspect; for though
+Kem&eacute;ny had perished in battle, the
+Imperialists still continued to oppose
+the claims of Abaffi to the crown of
+Transylvania; and their armies, guided
+by the valour and experience of Montecuculi,
+a general formed in the
+Thirty Years' War, were making rapid
+progress in the reduction of the principality.
+War was now openly declared
+between the two empires; and
+Kiuprili, assuming the command in
+person, opened the campaign of 1663,
+in Hungary, with 100,000 men&mdash;a
+force before which Montecuculi had no
+alternative but to retreat, as the rapidity
+with which the Turks had taken
+the field, had completely outstripped
+the dilatory preparations of the Aulic
+Council<a name="footnotetag10" id="footnotetag10"></a><a href="#footnote10"><sup>10</sup></a>. The exploits of the Ottomans,
+however, were confined to the
+capture of Ujvar, or Neuhausel, after
+a siege maintained on both sides with
+such extraordinary vigour, as to have
+given rise to a Hungarian proverb&mdash;&quot;As
+fixed as a Turk before Neuhausel,&quot;&mdash;after
+which both armies withdrew
+into winter-quarters. The campaign
+of 1664 opened also to the
+advantage of the Ottomans; but in
+attempting the passage of the Raab,
+(Aug. 1,) at the fords near St Gothard,
+the sudden swelling of the stream
+cut off the communication between
+one division of their army and the
+other; and being attacked at this juncture
+by Montecuculi, they sustained
+the most signal overthrow which the
+Osmanlis had ever yet received from
+a Christian power&mdash;17,000 of their
+best troops were slain or drowned, and
+the vizir, hastily drawing on the remains
+of his forces, sent proposals of
+peace to the Austrian headquarters.
+Yet such was the indefinite awe with
+which the prowess and resources of
+the Ottomans were at that time regarded,
+that the Imperialists made no
+further use of their victory than to
+conclude a truce for twenty years, the
+conditions of which, in effect, ceded
+all the points for which the war had
+been undertaken. Abaffi was recognised
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page725" id="page725" title="725"></a></span> as Prince of Transylvania, and
+as a tributary of the Porte&mdash;the two
+important fortresses of Great-Waradin
+and Neuhausel, which the Turks
+had taken during the war, were left
+in their hands, and a breathing-time
+was thus afforded to the two empires
+for the mortal struggle which was to
+be decided, nineteen years later, under
+the walls of Vienna.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding the ill success of
+his arms, the vizir was received by the
+sultan, on his return with the army in
+the ensuing spring to Adrianople,
+with such extraordinary distinction,
+that those who had hoped to profit by
+his expected fall, could explain such
+continued favour only by the supposition
+that sorcery had been practised
+on the mind of the monarch by the
+mother of the all-powerful minister.
+Solicitous to retrieve his military reputation
+in the eyes of the soldiery,
+Kiuprili now determined to assume
+in person the conduct of the long-continued
+war in Crete, and to bring
+the struggle to a close by the capture
+of Candia, the siege of which had
+already reached near twice the duration
+of that of Troy. To supply the
+deficiencies of the Turkish marine,
+which had been almost ruined by the
+repeated naval victories of the Venetians,
+an overture was made to the
+English ambassador, Lord Winchilsea,
+for permission to hire the services
+of a number of British vessels; but this
+strange request being evaded, the expedition
+was postponed for a year,
+while every nerve was strained in the
+building and equipment of galleys; and
+at length, in the autumn of 1666, the
+fleet set sail from Monembasia in the
+Morea, under the command of the
+Capitan-pasha Mustafa, surnamed
+<i>Kaplan</i>, or the Tiger, the brother-in-law
+of Kiuprili, and anchored off
+Canea in the beginning of November.
+But before we proceed to narrate the
+closing scenes of the Cretan war, we
+must retrace our steps, to give some
+account of its origin and progress.</p>
+
+<p>The dominions of the Venetian Signory
+in the Levant, which had at one
+time comprehended, besides the scattered
+isles of the Cyclades, the three
+subject <i>kingdoms</i> (as they were proudly
+called) of Candia,<a name="footnotetag11" id="footnotetag11"></a><a href="#footnote11"><sup>11</sup></a> Cyprus, and the
+Morea, were confined, in the middle
+of the seventeenth century, to the
+first-named island&mdash;the last relics of
+the Morea having been wrested from
+the republic by the arms of Soliman
+the Magnificent in 1540, and Cyprus
+having been subdued by the lieutenants
+of his son Selim, a few months
+before the destruction of the Turkish
+fleet at the battle of Lepanto in 1571.<a name="footnotetag12" id="footnotetag12"></a><a href="#footnote12"><sup>12</sup></a>
+The sovereignty of Candia had been
+acquired by purchase from the Marquis
+of Montferrat, to whom it was assigned
+on the partition of the Greek empire,
+after the conquest of Constantinople,
+in 1204, by the Latins of the fourth
+crusade: but the four centuries and a
+half of Venetian rule present little
+more than an unvarying succession of
+revolts, oppression, and bloodshed.
+In pursuance of their usual system of
+colonial administration, which strangely
+contrasted with their domestic policy,
+they had introduced into the island
+a sort of modified feudal system,
+in order to rivet their ascendancy over
+this remote possession, by the interposition
+of a class of resident proprietors,
+whose interest it would be to
+maintain the dominion of the parent
+state: but the <i>cavaliers</i>, as the Venetian
+tenants of Cretan fiefs were termed,
+proved at times even more refractory
+than the candidates themselves,
+and made the island for many years a
+source of endless difficulties to the
+Signory. In 1363, complaining of
+their exclusion from the high dignities
+of the republic, the <i>cavaliers</i> openly
+threw off their allegiance, elected a
+doge from among themselves, and
+raised the banner of St Titus of Retimo
+in opposition to the standard of
+St Mark. As they were supported
+both by the native Candiotes and the
+Greeks of Constantinople, it was not
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page726" id="page726" title="726"></a></span> till after a harassing warfare of two
+years that they were reduced, and
+their fortresses razed, by the Provveditori
+sent from Venice; a second effort
+at independence, a few years later,
+was not more successful. The Greek
+inhabitants were throughout subjected
+to a degree of merciless tyranny, in
+comparison of which the worst severities
+of Turkish rule must have appeared
+lenient. The Sphakiote tribes
+in particular, who were strong both
+from their arms and martial temperament,
+and from their habitations
+among the lofty ridges of the <i>Aspro-Bouna</i>,
+or White Mountains, in the
+south of the island, acknowledged at
+all times but an imperfect allegiance
+to their Venetian lords: and the acts
+of fiendish barbarity by which their
+frequent revolts were chastised, can
+scarcely find a parallel even in the
+worst horrors of the French Revolution.
+Unborn infants torn from the
+womb in pursuance of a judicial sentence
+solemnly pronounced&mdash;the head
+of the father exacted as the ransom
+for the life of the son&mdash;such were the
+methods by which the Provveditori of
+the Most Serene and Christian Republic
+enforced its authority, and
+which are related, not only without
+reprehension, but with manifest complacency
+and approval, by the chroniclers
+of the state.<a name="footnotetag13" id="footnotetag13"></a><a href="#footnote13"><sup>13</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Though the coasts had often been
+ravaged in former wars by the Turkish
+fleet, particularly under Barbarossa
+in 1538, no attempt appears ever
+to have been made to effect the conquest
+of the island by the reduction of
+the fortified cities of the coast, in which
+the main strength of the Venetians
+lay: and since the treaty of 1573,
+Venice had remained more than seventy
+years at peace with the Porte. In
+1645, however, a fresh rupture arose
+from the capture of a richly-laden
+Turkish vessel by the Maltese cruisers,<a name="footnotetag14" id="footnotetag14"></a><a href="#footnote14"><sup>14</sup></a>
+who were allowed, contrary to
+the existing conventions between the
+Porte and the Republic, to sell the
+horses which were on board their
+prize in one of the remote havens of
+Crete, beyond the surveillance of the
+Venetian authorities. Slight as was
+the ground of offence, it produced an
+instantaneous ferment at Constantinople:
+the janissaries, calling to mind
+similar omens said to have preceded
+the conquest of Rhodes and of Cyprus,
+exclaimed that the land whose
+soil had once been trodden by Moslem
+horse hoofs, was the predestined inheritance
+of the Faithful: and the flame
+was fanned by the capitan-pasha Yusuf,
+a Dalmatian renegade, who, independent
+of the hatred which from
+early associations he bore Venice,
+dreaded being sent on a bootless expedition
+against the impregnable defences
+of Malta&mdash;an enterprise which,
+since the memorable failure in the
+last years of Soliman, had never been
+attempted by the Osmanlis. Preparations
+for war, meanwhile, were carried
+on with unexampled activity,
+though the destination of the armament
+was kept profoundly secret; till,
+on April 30, 1545, the most formidable
+expedition which had ever been
+equipped in the Turkish ports, set
+sail from the Bosphorus. Eight
+thousand janissaries, 14,000 spahis,
+and upwards of 50,000 <i>timariots</i> or
+feudal militia, were embarked on board
+the fleet, which consisted of eighty
+galleys, and more than 300 transports,
+besides the auxiliary squadrons
+of the Barbary regencies, which joined
+the armada, May 7, at the general
+rendezvous at Scio.</p>
+
+<p>From Scio the united fleet sailed to
+Navarino&mdash;a course purposely adopted
+to spread the belief that Malta was the
+point of attack; but no sooner were
+they again at sea, than the capitan-pasha,
+summoning the principal officers
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page727" id="page727" title="727"></a></span> on board his galley, read the
+<i>khatt sheeref</i> of the sultan, announcing
+that he had taken up arms for the
+conquest of Candia. War had, in the
+mean time, been formally declared
+against the Republic at Constantinople,
+and the Venetian envoy, Soranzo,
+imprisoned in the Seven Towers: but
+he had previously contrived to communicate
+to the Signory his suspicions
+of the impending storm; and supplies
+and reinforcements had been hastily
+dispatched from Venice to Andrea
+Cornaro, the <i>inquisitore</i>, or governor
+of Crete, in the event of its bursting
+in that quarter. Little serious apprehension
+seems, however, to have been
+entertained; and great was the consternation
+of the Candiote population,
+when, on the morning of June 24, the
+vast armament of the Ottomans was
+seen rounding Cape Spada, and disembarking
+the troops near Canea, on
+the same spot where, according to
+tradition, the standards of Islam had
+first been displayed, 820 years before,
+by the Saracens of Spain.</p>
+
+<p>The strong ramparts of Canea opposed
+but an ineffectual resistance to
+the numbers and resolution of the Ottomans,
+who pressed the siege with all
+the ardour arising from the confidence
+of success; and after fifty days
+of open trenches, and the failure of
+two assaults, the second fortress of the
+island capitulated, August 17. The
+churches and the cathedral of St Nicholas
+were converted into mosques:
+and Delhi-Hussein (whose subsequent
+tragical fate has been already
+commemorated) was sent out to take
+the government of this new conquest.
+The brave Yusuf, returning to Constantinople
+at the end of the year, was
+at first received with the highest honours
+by Ibrahim, but soon after put to
+death in one of his fits of senseless
+cruelty; but the Ottomans in Crete,
+under the gallant leadership of Delhi-Hussein,
+who now became <i>serdar</i> or
+commander-in-chief, overran and occupied
+the inland districts almost
+without opposition from the Greek
+inhabitants, in whose eyes any alternative
+was preferable to the bloody
+tyranny under which they had so long
+groaned:<a name="footnotetag15" id="footnotetag15"></a><a href="#footnote15"><sup>15</sup></a> while the Venitian garrisons,
+shut up in the fortified towns
+along the northern shore, depended
+for supplies on the Christian fleet,
+which the Turks did not venture to
+bring to action. The campaign of
+1646 was marked by the capture of
+the important city of Retimo, which
+surrendered Nov. 15, after a murderous
+siege of thirty-nine days, in which
+both the governor Cornaro and the
+provveditor Molino were slain: but
+though the Turks received reinforcements
+to the amount of 30,000 men,
+including 10,000 janissaries, in the
+course of the following year, it was
+not till May 1648 that the trenches
+were at length opened before Candia,
+the capital of the island, and the only
+fortress of importance still in the
+hands of the Venetians.</p>
+
+<p>The leaguer of Candia was pushed
+during several months by the Turks,
+animated by the courage and example
+of their general, with the same fanatic
+zeal which they had displayed before
+Canea and Retimo; but the besieged,
+whose tenure of Crete depended
+on this last stronghold, held out
+with equal pertinacity: and their efforts
+were aided by the presence of a
+large body of Maltese auxiliaries, as
+well as by the succours which the
+naval superiority of the Venetians
+enabled them continually to introduce
+by sea. In one sortie, a detachment
+of the garrison penetrated even to the
+tent of the serdar, who owed his safety
+to his personal prowess; while the
+outworks of the town were ruined by
+the constant explosion of mines, and
+the Ottoman standards were planted
+on the bastion of Martinengo, and on
+several of the redoubts which covered
+the interior defences. But in spite of
+their repeated assaults, the besiegers
+failed to make any impression on the
+body of the place; and the serdar was
+compelled to withdraw his diminished
+army into winter-quarters. The anarchy
+at Constantinople which followed
+the deposition of Ibrahim, combined
+with the blockade of the Dardanelles
+by the Venetians, prevented any reinforcements
+from reaching the seat of
+war&mdash;yet the siege was renewed in
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page728" id="page728" title="728"></a></span> the ensuing summer, and carried on
+with such vigour, that the garrison,
+weakened by the loss of half its numbers,
+including the valiant governor,
+Colloredo, was reduced to the last extremity;
+when the arrival of the Maltese
+squadron, under Balbiani, baulked
+the Turks of their expected prize;
+and the janissaries, breaking out into
+furious mutiny, compelled Delhi-Hussein
+once more to abandon the hopeless
+enterprise. All the remainder of
+the island, however, had now peaceably
+submitted to the Ottoman rule,
+and had been organized into sandjaks
+and districts; so that the garrison of
+Candia were rather the occupants of
+a solitary post in a hostile country,
+than defenders of the soil against the
+invasion; and the Turkish commanders,
+ill supplied from Constantinople,
+during the troubled minority of
+Mohammed, with siege equipage and
+munitions of war, contented themselves
+with blockading the town by
+the erection of redoubts, and guarding
+the open country with their cavalry.
+While the war thus languished in
+Crete, the events of the maritime contest
+continued to justify the proverbial
+saying of the Turks, that &quot;Allah had
+given the land to the true believers;
+but the sea to the infidels!&quot; Not only
+was the blockade of the Dardanelles
+so strictly kept up, that it was only in
+winter, when the Venetian fleet was
+unable to remain on its station, that
+the Turks could convey reinforcements
+to their brethren who were
+waging the <i>holy war</i> in Crete, but
+repeated and disastrous defeats were
+sustained by the Ottoman navy, whenever
+it attempted to dispute the sovereignty
+of the sea with the Lion of
+St Mark. In July 1651, a formidable
+armament with supplies and troops
+for Crete was almost entirely destroyed
+off Naxos by Mocenigo: and on July
+6, 1656, the same commander inflicted
+on the Turkish fleet, off the mouth of
+the Straits, the most decisive overthrow
+which it had sustained since the
+fatal day of Lepanto. Seventy sail of
+ships and galleys were sunk or taken;
+the Capitan-pasha escaped into the
+Bosphorus with only fourteen vessels;
+and the inhabitants of Constantinople,
+in the first access of consternation,
+expected the apparition of the Christian
+ensigns in the Golden Horn; but
+the victors contented themselves with
+the occupation of Tenedos and Lemnos,
+which they held till dislodged in
+the following year by Kiuprili.</p>
+
+<p>The serdar, Delhi-Hussein, who had
+for eleven years gallantly upheld the
+renown of the Ottoman arms in Crete,
+withstanding with equal firmness the
+efforts of the enemy, and the mutinous
+spirit of his own soldiers, had been recalled
+early in 1656 to assume the
+vizirat; a fleeting glimpse of honour,
+which, though cancelled even before
+he reached Constantinople in favour
+of the Kaimakam Mustapha, subsequently
+(as already related) cost him
+his life from the jealousy of Mohammed
+Kiuprili. His successors possessed
+neither his energy nor his military
+skill; and the Venetians, taking
+courage from the change of commanders,
+sallied from Candia, and
+even ventured, though without success,
+to attempt the recovery of Canea.
+Negotiations for peace, meanwhile,
+had been kept on foot almost from the
+first; but as the Ottoman pride absolutely
+refused to listen to any propositions
+which did not include the total
+and unconditional surrender of Candia,
+no pacification could be effected; and
+the war continued to linger till
+Ahmed-Kiuprili, secured on the side
+of Hungary by the peace with Austria,
+collected all the forces of the empire,
+to crush this last fragment of
+Venetian dominion in the Levant.</p>
+
+<p>The advanced season of the year
+when the vizir disembarked in Candia,
+and the disorganized state of the forces
+which he found there, prevented the
+immediate commencement of offensive
+operations; but in the course of the
+winter, the arrival of the contingents
+of Egypt and Africa, as well as of a
+squadron with fresh troops from Constantinople,
+raised his army to between
+40,000 and 50,000 effective
+men; and on the 20th of May 1667,
+the trenches were once more opened
+in form on the western side of the
+city, while 300 pieces of cannon,
+thundering from the Ottoman lines,
+covered the approaches of the pioneers.<a name="footnotetag16" id="footnotetag16"></a><a href="#footnote16"><sup>16</sup></a>
+Of the seven<a name="footnotetag17" id="footnotetag17"></a><a href="#footnote17"><sup>17</sup></a> great bastions
+which formed the principal defences
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page729" id="page729" title="729"></a></span> on the land side, those of Panigra,
+Bethlehem, and Martinengo, were the
+chief points of attack; the vizir himself
+taking post opposite the first,
+while the Beglerbeg of Anatolia and
+the Pasha of Egypt were stationed
+against the Bethlehem and the Martinengo.
+The assault, as on former
+occasions, was conducted chiefly by
+the slow process of sap and mine; but
+the superior skill of the Christian engineers,
+enabled them frequently to
+explore and countermine the works of
+the enemy; and the mining parties
+were thus surprised and blown into
+the air, while murderous combats took
+place under ground, from the accidental
+rencounters of the soldiers employed
+in these subterranean galleries.
+The garrison, which had at first numbered
+about 12,000, under the command
+of the Marchese di Villa, a
+Piedmontese officer of approved skill
+and courage, received, at the end of
+June, a reinforcement of 1000 veteran
+troops, brought by the Venetian Captain-General
+Morosini, who arrived
+with the fleet at the Isle of Standia,
+off the entrance of the port; and a
+concourse of volunteers, from all parts
+of Europe, hastened to share in the
+defence of this last bulwark of Christendom
+in the Grecian seas; while
+the Maltese, Papal, and Neapolitan
+galleys cruised in the offing, to intercept
+the supplies brought by sea to
+the Ottoman camp. The Turks,
+meanwhile, with their usual stubborn
+perseverance, continued to push their
+sap under the ravelin of Mocenigo,
+and the Panigra bastion which it covered;
+and though their progress was
+retarded, and their works often ruined,
+by the sallies of the defenders, the
+foundations were at length shaken,
+and the ramparts rent and shattered,
+by the explosion of innumerable
+mines; and the janissaries, fired with
+fanatic zeal, and stimulated by promises
+of reward, rushed again and
+again to the attack under the eye of
+the vizir. &quot;Many and various,&quot; says
+Rycaut, in his quaint narrative, &quot;were
+the valiant assaults and sallies, the
+traverses extraordinary, the rencounters
+bloody, the resistance vigorous,
+not known or recorded in any siege
+before;&quot; and the struggle continued
+with unabated fury on both sides, till
+the approach of winter; while, after
+each unsuccessful assault, the Venetians,
+emulating the ferocity of their
+enemies, displayed the heads of the
+slain and prisoners (for no quarter was
+given or taken) in barbarous triumph
+from the wall. At length, after a
+desperate conflict on November 16,
+the janissaries effected a lodgement in
+the Mocenigo bastion and the Panigra;
+and the Ottoman banners, for the first
+time, were displayed from the summit
+of the works. But this valiant
+forlorn hope, in the moment of triumph,
+was hurled into the air by the
+explosion of a previously-prepared
+mine; and Kiuprili, dismayed at this
+last failure, drew off his troops into
+their lines, where they lay inactive,
+till the inundation of the camp by the
+winter rains compelled them to withdraw
+to a greater distance.</p>
+
+<p>Great was the rejoicing throughout
+Europe at the tidings that the pride
+of the Ottoman battle had once more
+been driven back discomfited, for the
+best and bravest of nearly every nation
+in Christendom were now to be
+found in the ranks of the defenders:<a name="footnotetag18" id="footnotetag18"></a><a href="#footnote18"><sup>18</sup></a>
+and great, on the other hand, was the
+perplexity of the divan, and the chagrin
+of the Turkish population, at the
+apparently endless duration of an enterprise,
+a speedy and glorious termination
+of which had been expected
+from the presence of the vizir. The
+sultan even dispatched a confidential
+agent to the seat of war, to examine
+personally into the state of affairs;
+and finding from his report that the
+army was reduced, by the sword and the
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page730" id="page730" title="730"></a></span> ravages of disease, to half its original effective
+strength, he issued peremptory
+firmans to the pashas of the empire to
+hasten the equipment of their contingents;
+and even announced his intention
+of repairing in person to Crete,
+to share the perils and glories of the
+<i>holy war</i>. Kiuprili, meanwhile, was
+indefatigable in his exertions to reorganize
+his army, and restore his
+artillery to efficiency, even casting
+new guns to fit the Venetian bullets,
+30,000 of which are said to have been
+picked up in the Turkish lines during
+the preceding campaign! A strict
+blockade was kept up on the city,
+while the Venetian cruisers, and the
+Papal galleys under Rospigliosi, the
+nephew of Pope Clement IX., were
+equally vigilant in preventing supplies
+from reaching the besiegers by sea;
+and various maritime encounters took
+place, generally to the advantage of
+the flag of St Mark. The unworthy
+jealousy<a name="footnotetag19" id="footnotetag19"></a><a href="#footnote19"><sup>19</sup></a> entertained by Morosini of
+Di Villa, led, however, early in the
+spring of 1668, to the withdrawal of
+that gallant soldier from his command,
+in which he was succeeded by the
+Marquis Montbrun St Andr&eacute;, a French
+volunteer, inferior neither in valour
+nor diligence to his predecessor.</p>
+
+<p>It was not till the beginning of June
+that the vizir recommenced active
+operations against Candia; but the
+plan of attack was now changed. In
+order to command the narrow entrance
+of the harbour,<a name="footnotetag20" id="footnotetag20"></a><a href="#footnote20"><sup>20</sup></a> and so cut
+off the constant reinforcements which
+reached the besieged by sea, the principal
+batteries were directed against
+the bastion of Sabionera, (called by
+the Turks the <i>Kizil-Tab&icirc;yah,</i> or Red
+Fort,) at the seaward extremity of
+the works on one side, and against
+that of St Andrew on the other; but
+the events of the siege during this
+year present nothing to distinguish
+them from the endless succession of
+mines, sorties, assaults, and countermines,
+which had marked the campaign
+of last year. The Venetian
+commanders at length, seeing the
+Turks preparing to pass the winter in
+their trenches, and sensible that (concentrated
+as the forces of the two contending
+powers were now for the attack
+and defence of a single fortress) they
+must eventually be overwhelmed by
+the ponderous strength of the Ottoman
+empire, once more made overtures
+for peace, offering an annual
+tribute for Candia, and the cession of
+the rest of the island to the Porte;
+but the vizir sternly rejected the proffered
+compromise; and his reply to
+the envoy, Molino&mdash;&quot;The Sultan is
+not a merchant, nor does he need
+money&mdash;he has but one word, and that
+is&mdash;Candia,&quot;&mdash;showed that the long
+dispute could only be decided by the
+sword. Elated by the hope of speedy
+triumph, the Turks now ran their
+approaches so close to the bastion of
+St Andrew, which was held by the
+Maltese knights and militia, that the
+muzzles of the muskets almost touched
+each other; and the vizir wrote to the
+Sultan, that they had only three yards
+more of ground to win, when, at this
+critical moment, the spirits of the besieged
+were revived by the arrival,
+early in December, of the Duc de la
+Feuillade and the Count de St Pol,
+with a gallant band of 600 volunteers,
+many of them of the best families of
+France. But the boiling valour of
+these fiery youths was equally difficult
+to restrain or direct; and, after losing
+two-thirds of their number in desperate,
+but irregular, sallies against the
+Turkish lines, the survivors of this
+piece of knight-errantry re-embarked
+for Christendom in January, leaving
+the heads of their fallen comrades
+ranged on pikes before the tent of
+Kiuprili. A stancher reinforcement
+was received in the spring of 1669, by
+the arrival of 3000 Lunenburghers,
+whose commander, Count Waldeck,
+fell a few days after, in repulsing an
+assault on the breach of St Andrew,
+as did also the former governor, Di
+Villa, whose thirst for glory had
+brought him back, as general of the
+Papal auxiliaries, to the scene of
+peril.</p>
+
+<p>These repeated reinforcements, joined
+to the knowledge that the Pope was
+exerting himself to unite all the princes
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page731" id="page731" title="731"></a></span> of Christendom in a league for the relief
+of their hardly-beset brethren,
+still encouraged the heroic defenders
+of Candia, though the Turks had by
+this time carried their mines at several
+points within the bastions and exterior
+defences, and compelled the garrison
+to shelter themselves behind an inner
+rampart, constructed during the winter
+in anticipation of this extremity:&mdash;&quot;So
+that, in effect,&quot; says Rycaut,
+&quot;this most impregnable fort of the
+world was forced and taken by the
+spade and shovel, and by a crew of
+unarmed labourers, who understood
+nothing more than the plough and
+harrow.&quot; The promised succours,
+however, were now at hand. On the
+22d of June, a French fleet appeared
+off the port, having on board 7000 of
+the flower of the French troops and
+nobility, who were commanded by the
+Dukes de Noailles and Beaufort, and
+comprised in their ranks several
+princes of the sovereign houses of
+Lorrain and Bouillon, the Marshals
+Colbert and De la Motte-Fenelon, the
+Count of St Pol, and many other
+names of the noblest and bravest in
+France, who had crowded to embark
+as volunteers in this new and glorious
+crusade. These gallant auxiliaries
+landed amidst the acclamations of the
+Venetians; and, on the night of the
+27th, a general sortie was made, in
+order to raise the siege by driving
+the Turks from their trenches. The
+janissaries were driven from their
+works by the impetuous onset of the
+assailants; but, in the tumult of the
+fight, a large powder-magazine, between
+the Sabionera and Fort St Demetrius,
+which had been occupied by
+the French, was accidentally blown up.
+The Duke de Beaufort, and many
+others, perished in the explosion, or
+were buried under the ruins; and the
+survivors, panic-stricken at the catastrophe,
+were driven within the walls
+with terrible slaughter by the Turks,
+who rallied and returned to the
+charge. The usual hideous trophies
+of Ottoman triumph&mdash;the heads of the
+slain, were laid at the feet of the vizir;
+but the body of the Duc de Beaufort,
+though anxiously sought for at the
+prayer of his comrades, who offered,
+through a flag of truce, to redeem it
+at its weight in gold, could never be
+discovered.</p>
+
+<p>This dreadful blow not only threw
+a fatal gloom over the ardour of the
+French, but gave rise to an altercation
+between Morosini and De Noailles,
+each of whom threw on the other
+the blame of the failure; till, after a
+month thus unprofitably spent, the
+French commander re-embarked his
+troops, and sailed for Toulon, August
+31, leaving the town to its fate. The
+Maltese and Papal galleys departed in
+his company;&mdash;&quot;for thus did these
+accursed swine of Nazarenes&quot; (says
+the Turkish historiographer, Rashid)
+&quot;withdraw from the doom of hell,
+which awaited them at the hands of
+the Faithful.&quot; The condition of the
+remaining defenders, thus deserted by
+their allies, and separated from the
+Turks only by breastworks hastily
+thrown up in the interior of the town,
+was now utterly hopeless, as not more
+than 3600 men remained fit for duty,
+while the loss in slain and disabled
+averaged more than a hundred a-day.
+In these desperate circumstances, a
+council of war was summoned by Morosini,
+to consider whether it might
+not even yet be practicable to avoid
+the ignominy of a surrender, by evacuating
+the town, and escaping, with
+the inhabitants, by sea. Their deliberations
+were hastened by a furious
+assault from the Turks, who were impatient
+to seize their prey; and,
+though the enemy were repulsed for
+the time by the remains of the Lunenburghers,
+two officers were eventually
+dispatched to the vizir's headquarters,
+to announce the submission
+of the garrison, and arrange the terms
+of capitulation. They were courteously
+received by Kiuprili, who
+appointed an officer of his own household,
+with Panayoti,<a name="footnotetag21" id="footnotetag21"></a><a href="#footnote21"><sup>21</sup></a> the dragoman
+of the Porte, to confer with them;
+and the articles were settled without
+much difficulty. Peace was concluded
+between the Porte and the Republic.
+Candia and the whole of Crete was
+ceded to the Sultan, with the exception
+of the harbours of Grabusa, Suda,
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page732" id="page732" title="732"></a></span> and Spinalonga, which the Venetians
+were allowed to retain for purposes
+of commerce; the garrison and
+inhabitants of Candia were to embark
+with their arms, baggage, and a certain
+proportion of artillery, and the
+Ottomans were not to enter the town
+till the embarkation was completed.
+These conditions were scrupulously
+observed by the victors; till the 27th
+of September, the evacuation being
+effected, the standard of the cross was
+at length lowered from the walls; and
+the vizir, standing on the breach of
+the St Andrew's bastion, (thence called
+by the Turks the <i>Fort of Surrender</i>,)
+in the midst of a crowd of pashas
+and generals, received the keys of the
+city in a silver basin. A body of
+Turkish troops immediately entered
+by the breaches, and mounted guard on
+the principal posts; but it was not till
+the 4th of October that the vizir made
+his triumphant entry at the head of his
+army, (now reduced to about 15,000
+regular troops, and 11,000 pioneers
+and irregulars,) and proceeded, bearing
+in his hand the sacred standard of
+the Prophet, to the cathedral, which
+was purified from the dead bodies interred
+within its walls, and re-consecrated
+as a mosque. All the other
+churches underwent the same transformation,
+with the exception of two
+which Panayoti purchased for the use
+of the Greeks; for so completely was
+the town deserted, that there remained
+only, in the words of an anonymous
+eyewitness, &quot;two Greeks, three
+Jews, and eight other strangers, whom
+the vizir would also have suffered to
+depart; but they chose rather to
+change their religion than their quarters.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Thus ended this famous siege, the
+longest, and one of the most memorable,
+recorded in history. During its
+continuance, the Venetians and their
+allies lost 30,000 men, and the Turks
+more than 100,000; fifty-six assaults
+were made on the town above ground,
+and the same number through the
+mines; and nearly an equal number
+of sorties was made by the garrison.
+460 mines were sprung by the Turks,
+and no less than 1172 by the Venetians;
+and the quantity of missiles
+hurled into the town exceeded all calculation.
+The fortifications were,
+however, speedily repaired by the care
+of Kiuprili, who remained in the island
+nine months after the surrender, employed
+in the final organization of this
+new province, which was divided into
+the three pashaliks of Canea, Retimo,
+and Candia&mdash;the last being the residence
+of the beglerbeg, or supreme
+pasha. The arrangements being at
+length completed, he quitted Candia
+for Constantinople, whither the capitan-pasha
+had preceded him with the
+fleet; and, on the 3d of July 1670, he
+replaced in the hands of the Sultan,
+in his hunting-camp near Rodosto,
+the <i>sandjak-sheeref</i>, which had been
+committed to his charge for the war
+against the infidels. &quot;In this manner,&quot;
+says Rycaut, writing not in a
+spirit of prophecy, three years only
+before the battle of Vienna, &quot;expired
+the action of the year, fortunate in its
+success to the Turks; for though they
+gained but thirty acres of land, with
+expense inestimable of blood and treasure,
+yet the glory and fame which
+attended it, being the consummation
+of twenty-five years' war, and the
+theatre where the whole world were
+spectators, was of greater value to the
+Turks than any other consideration,
+and may with time prove a place of
+advantage to the further increase of
+their western empire, unless God Almighty,
+by his mercy and providence,
+give a stop to the progress of this
+grand oppressor.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr class="full">
+
+
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page733" id="page733" title="733"></a></span>
+<a name="bw332s4" id="bw332s4"></a><h2>A PASSAGE IN THE LIFE OF A MA&Icirc;TRE-D'ARMES</h2>
+
+<p>The excitement produced in St
+Petersburg on the occasion of a rash
+conspiracy which had broken out on
+the inauguration of the Emperor Nicholas,
+had ample time to die away
+before the sentence pronounced upon
+the conspirators became known. Six
+months elapsed, months of terrible suspense
+and anxiety to the friends of the
+unfortunate prisoners. At length, on
+the 14th of July, the decision of the
+high court of justice appeared in the
+<i>St Petersburg Gazette</i>. Six-and-thirty
+of the accused were condemned
+to death, the others to the mines and
+to exile. My friend and patron, Count
+Alexis W&mdash;&mdash;, was included in the former
+list; but an act of clemency on
+the part of the Emperor tempered the
+severity of justice, and only five of
+the condemned were left for execution,
+while the remaining thirty-one
+had their sentence commuted
+to banishment. My friend's name
+was, God be thanked! among the
+latter.</p>
+
+<p>On reading this announcement, I
+rushed into the street, and ran, without
+once stopping, until I reached the
+house of his beloved Louise. Of her,
+for the present, it will be sufficient to
+say, that she was a young, lovely, and
+intelligent Frenchwoman, whose sister
+I had known in Paris, and to whose
+patronage, from her position as a first-rate
+<i>modiste</i> in St Petersburg, I was
+much indebted. Between this truly
+amiable woman and the Count had
+for some years existed an attachment,
+not hallowed, indeed, by the church,
+but so long and deeply-rooted in the
+hearts of both, and so dignified by
+their mutual constancy and worth, as
+to have won the sympathies even of
+the Count's mother and sisters. To
+return, however, to Louise, whom I
+found with a copy of the <i>Gazette</i> in
+her hand, and bathed in tears, but
+they were tears of joy&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He is saved!&quot; cried she, on seeing
+me enter; &quot;thank God and the
+Emperor!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The first moment of joy over,
+Louise's thoughts turned to the mother
+and sisters of her lover. She
+calculated that the <i>Gazette</i> would only
+leave St Petersburg by the post of
+that night, and that by sending off an
+express immediately the news might
+reach Moscow twelve hours sooner.
+She asked me if I knew a trusty messenger,
+who could start without delay
+to bear the glad tidings to the
+Count's family. I had a Russian servant,
+an intelligent active fellow, and
+I offered his services, which she accepted
+with delight. The only difficulty
+was the passport, and through
+the kindness of the ex-chief of police,
+Monsieur de Gorgoli, it was procured
+in half an hour. At the expiration of
+that time the courier set off, with a
+thousand rubles in his pocket for travelling
+expenses.</p>
+
+<p>He arrived at Moscow fourteen
+hours before the post; fourteen hours
+of mortal anxiety saved to the Count's
+mother and sisters.</p>
+
+<p>The letter he brought back, was one
+of those that seem written with a
+feather plucked from an angel's wing.
+The old Countess called Louise her
+daughter, and the young girls named
+her their sister. They entreated that,
+when the day was known on which
+the prisoners were to set off for their
+banishment, a courier might be despatched
+to Moscow with the news. I
+accordingly told my servant to hold
+himself in readiness to start, to his no
+small satisfaction; for the Count's mother
+had given him a thousand rubles
+for his first trip, and he trusted the
+second might be equally well rewarded.</p>
+
+<p>There had not been an execution in
+St Petersburg for sixty years, and the
+curiosity and excitement caused by
+the anticipation of this one, were proportionably
+great. The day was not
+fixed beforehand, and the inhabitants
+of the capital got up each morning,
+expecting to hear that the bloody tragedy
+had been enacted. I had requested
+a young Frenchman attached
+to Marshal Marmont's special mission,
+and who was on that account likely
+to have early information, to let me
+know when it was to take place; and
+on the evening of the 23d of July, he
+sent me word that the marshal and his
+suite had been invited to repair by
+four o'clock the following morning
+to the hotel of the French embassy,
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page734" id="page734" title="734"></a></span> the windows of which commanded the
+place of execution.</p>
+
+<p>I hastened to communicate this intelligence
+to Louise. All her fears
+returned. Was it certain that Alexis
+was pardoned? Might not the commutation
+of punishment announced in
+the <i>Gazette</i> be a ruse to conceal the
+truth from the people? These, and
+a thousand other doubts, arose in her
+mind; but I at last succeeded in tranquillizing
+her, and returned home to
+take some repose till the hour of the
+execution. Before doing so, however,
+my servant was sent off to Moscow,
+to inform the Countess W&mdash;&mdash; that
+the following day her son would
+leave St Petersburg for his place of
+exile.</p>
+
+<p>At half-past three, I left my house
+and hastened in the direction of the
+citadel. A grey tinge in the east announced
+the approach of day, and a
+thin white fog hung like a veil over
+the Neva. As I passed the corner of
+the French embassy, Marmont and
+his suite entered the house, and a
+minute afterwards they appeared upon
+the balcony.</p>
+
+<p>A few persons were standing upon
+the quay, not in expectation, or because
+they were informed of what was
+going to take place, but because the
+bridge of the Trinity was occupied by
+troops, and they were thereby prevented
+from proceeding whither their
+affairs called them. They seemed uneasy,
+and uncertain whether it might
+not be dangerous to remain there.</p>
+
+<p>Some minutes before four, a large
+fire was lighted on the platform of the
+fortress. My attention being drawn
+to that point, I perceived, by the now
+increasing daylight, a wooden scaffolding,
+on which were erected five black
+and ominous looking gibbets.</p>
+
+<p>Four o'clock struck, and the prisoners
+whose punishment had been commuted
+to banishment appeared upon
+the platform, and ranged themselves
+round the scaffold. They were all in
+full uniform, wearing their epaulettes,
+and the stars and ribands of their different
+orders. Their swords were
+carried by soldiers. I tried to distinguish
+the Count, but the distance, and
+still imperfect light, rendered the attempt
+fruitless.</p>
+
+<p>The five who were to suffer death
+now ascended the scaffold, dressed in
+coarse linen frocks, and with a sort of
+white hood over their heads. They
+doubtless arrived from separate dungeons,
+for, as they met, they were
+allowed to embrace one another. Immediately
+afterwards, a man went up
+to them and said something, which
+was followed by a cheer from the soldiers
+and others attending the execution.
+It was afterwards reported, I
+know not with what truth, that this
+man was sent to offer them their lives
+if they chose to beg them; but that
+they replied to the offer by cries of
+Russia and Liberty!&mdash;cries that were
+rendered inaudible by the hurras of
+the guards and attendants.</p>
+
+<p>The executioners stepped forward,
+passed the halters round the necks of
+the condemned, and pulled the hoods
+over their eyes. A neighbouring
+clock struck the first quarter after four,
+and simultaneously with the sound, a
+trap-door gave way under the feet of
+the culprits. There was a great cry
+and much confusion, and a number of
+soldiers jumped upon the scaffold.</p>
+
+<p>Two of the ropes had snapped, and
+the unhappy men round whose necks
+they had been fastened, had fallen
+through the scaffolding to the platform;
+one of them had broken his
+thigh, and the other his arm. Ladders
+were brought, and the sufferers
+carried up to the scaffold and laid
+upon their backs, for they were unable
+to stand. In a few minutes new
+halters were ready, and with the help
+of the executioners, the victims managed
+to drag themselves under the
+gibbets. Their last words were, Russia
+and Liberty! This time the ropes
+did their duty.</p>
+
+<p>It was said, that when the Emperor
+was afterwards informed of this incident,
+he was much vexed at its not
+having been immediately reported to
+him; but nobody had dared take upon
+himself the responsibility of suspending
+the execution.</p>
+
+<p>It was now the turn of the exiles.
+Their sentence was read, declaring
+them to have forfeited every thing,
+rank, possessions, orders, family, all
+that bound them to the world, and the
+executioners then tore off their epaulettes
+and decorations, which they
+threw into the fire. Then taking the
+prisoners' swords from the soldiers
+who held them, they seized them by
+the hilt and point, and broke them
+over their owners' heads, exclaiming,
+as each snapped in two, &quot;This is the
+sword of a traitor!&quot; This ceremony
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page735" id="page735" title="735"></a></span> over, they were stripped of their uniforms,
+which were replaced by coarse
+grey smock-frocks, and they were then
+led back to prison. The evening of
+the same day they set out for Siberia.</p>
+
+<p>I returned to Louise, whom I found
+on her knees, praying and weeping.
+She looked at me as I entered the
+room as though afraid to interrogate
+me; but I relieved her anxiety by informing
+her that all had passed as announced
+in the <i>Gazette</i>. She raised
+her eyes to heaven with an expression
+of pious gratitude.</p>
+
+<p>After a pause, &quot;How far is it from
+here to Tobolsk?&quot; she enquired.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;About eight hundred leagues.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is not so far as I thought,&quot; was
+her observation. I looked at her for
+a moment in silence. I began to suspect
+her intentions.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why do you ask the question?&quot;
+enquired I.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can you not guess?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But, Louise, it is impossible, at
+least at this moment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do not be uneasy, my friend. I
+know my duty to my child, and my
+affection for its father shall not make
+me forget it. I will wait.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was not without a motive that
+the Count's mother and sisters had
+been anxious to obtain the earliest
+possible intelligence of his departure
+from St Petersburg. The road from
+that capital to Tobolsk ran through
+Iroslaw, a town about sixty leagues
+from Moscow, and they entertained
+hopes of being able to see their son
+and brother as he passed. Their passports
+were ready, and arrangements
+made; and as soon as they received
+from my servant the news of the departure
+of the prisoners, they got into
+a <i>kubiltka</i>, and without saying a word
+to any body of their intentions, set out
+for Iroslaw.</p>
+
+<p>Travelling is rapid in Russia; in
+less than twenty-four hours they
+reached their destination, and learned
+with delight that the prisoners had
+not yet passed. As their stay at Iroslaw
+might have excited suspicion, they
+left that town, and took up their quarters
+in a small village on the road, at
+a solitary cottage, near which the
+carriages containing the exiles were
+to change horses. In all such cases
+in Russia, the persons in charge of
+criminals are forbidden to stop or to
+change horses in towns, or even in
+villages.</p>
+
+<p>After waiting two days, a servant
+whom the Countess had stationed
+upon the road to watch for the convoy,
+hastened to her with the news
+that the first division of the prisoners
+had just arrived in five carriages, and
+that the corporal in charge had sent
+men to fetch horses from the village.
+The ladies got into their carriage, and
+set off at full gallop for the cottage at
+which the convoy had halted. They
+stopped upon the high-road opposite
+the hut, and gazed eagerly through
+the half-open door of its only room.
+It was crowded with prisoners; but
+Alexis was not amongst them.</p>
+
+<p>In a quarter of an hour horses were
+brought; the prisoners re-entered the
+carriage, which immediately set
+off.</p>
+
+<p>Half an hour later the second division
+of the convoy arrived; but the
+Count was not with it. The third,
+fourth, and fifth passed, each being
+obliged to wait longer than the preceeding
+one for horses, those at the
+post-house and in the immediate neighbourhood
+having all been taken.</p>
+
+<p>It was some time after nightfall
+when the sixth and last division was
+heard approaching. The poor women
+clasped their trembling hands
+together. The much wished-for moment
+had arrived, yet their greatest
+difficulty was to come. It was more
+than uncertain whether they would
+be permitted to embrace their son and
+brother.</p>
+
+<p>The convoy stopped, Alexis got
+out of the third carriage. In spite
+of the darkness and of his ignoble
+garb, the Countess and her daughters
+recognized him. One of the latter
+was about to call out his name; but
+her mother placed her hand on her
+mouth in time to prevent the imprudence,
+and the Count entered the
+cottage.</p>
+
+<p>The corporal commanding the escort
+began enquiring about horses,
+and on learning that they were scarce,
+he sent off his soldiers with orders to
+seize all they could find in the name
+of the Emperor. The men departed,
+and he remained alone with the prisoners.
+There was no danger of an
+attempt at escape. In the heart of
+the Czar's immense dominions, whither
+could a fugitive betake himself
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page736" id="page736" title="736"></a></span> without a certainty of being overtaken,
+or of dying from hunger before
+he reached the frontier?</p>
+
+<p>Corporal Ivan remained then walking
+up and down in front of the cottage,
+alternately whistling and floging
+his leathern overalls with his riding
+whip, and occasionally stopping
+to gaze at the Countess's travelling
+carriage, which was standing without
+horses in the road. Presently the
+door of the vehicle opened, three
+ladies alighted and advanced towards
+the corporal. Two of them remained
+a little behind, the third approached
+him with clasped hands.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My friend,&quot; said the Countess,
+&quot;my son is amongst the prisoners
+you are escorting; let me see him
+but for a moment, and name your
+own reward.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is impossible, madam,&quot; replied
+the corporal respectfully. &quot;My orders
+are strict to allow no one to communicate
+with the prisoners, and the
+knout is the least I may expect if I
+transgress them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But who will know that you have
+transgressed them?&quot; cried the Countess,
+her voice trembling with eagerness
+and suspense. Her daughters
+stepped forward, and joined their
+hands, as in supplication to the soldier.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is quite impossible, madam,&quot;
+repeated the man.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My mother!&quot; cried Alexis, pushing
+open the cottage door. He had
+heard her voice, and in an instant was
+clasped in her arms.</p>
+
+<p>The corporal made a movement as
+though to seize his prisoner; but at
+the same moment the two young girls
+fell at his feet, and embracing his
+knees, pointed to the touching spectacle
+before them.</p>
+
+<p>Corporal Ivan was a good fellow in
+the main. He uttered something between
+a sigh and a growl, and the
+sisters saw that their prayer was
+granted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mamma,&quot; said one of them in a
+low tone, &quot;he will allow us to embrace
+our brother.&quot; The Countess
+extricated herself from her son's arms,
+and held out a heavy purse to the corporal.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You risk a punishment for our
+sakes, my friend, and it is fair you
+should be recompensed for it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Ivan looked hard at the purse for a
+moment, then shaking his head and
+putting his hands behind his back,
+&quot;No, your ladyship,&quot; said he, &quot;I am
+committing a breach of duty, but it
+is not for gold. Here is the best excuse
+I can give my judges, and if they
+don't accept it, God will;&quot; and he
+pointed to the two weeping girls.
+The Countess seized the soldier's
+rough hand and pressed it to her lips.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The horses cannot be here yet;&quot;
+continued Ivan, &quot;get into your carriage
+and pull down the blinds. By
+that means nobody will see you, and
+I may perhaps avoid making acquaintance
+with the knout.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thank you, corporal,&quot; said Alexis;
+&quot;but at least take this purse.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Take it yourself, lieutenant,&quot; said
+Ivan in a low voice, from habit giving
+the Count a title to which he had no
+longer a right. &quot;You will find the
+use of it at the end of your journey.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But on arriving they will search
+me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You can give it to me before the
+search, and I will return it to you.
+But I hear the gallop of a horse;
+quick into the carriage!&quot; The corporal
+pushed Alexis into the carriage;
+the ladies followed, and he shut the
+door upon them.</p>
+
+<p>An hour elapsed, an hour of mingled
+joy and sorrow. At the expiration
+of that time, the door opened,
+and Ivan appeared. &quot;You must
+separate,&quot; said he, &quot;the horses are
+arriving.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A few moments longer!&quot; cried
+the ladies, with tearful voices.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not a second, or I am ruined.
+Go on to the next relay; it is dark,
+no one will see you, and I sha'n't be
+punished more for twice than once.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh! you will not be punished at
+all,&quot; cried the ladies; &quot;surely God
+will reward you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hum,&quot; said the corporal doubtingly,
+and half pulling his prisoner
+out of the carriage.</p>
+
+<p>At the next relay, things went
+equally well. A third interview was
+rendered impossible by the approach
+of day. The sad word <i>farewell</i> was
+pronounced, and the weeping women
+took the road to Moscow, having
+previously arranged a plan of correspondence,
+and carrying with them a
+few affectionate lines that Alexis had
+scrawled in pencil for Louise.</p>
+
+<p>The Countess had ordered my
+servant to wait at Moscow till she
+returned, and on her arrival there
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page737" id="page737" title="737"></a></span> immediately dispatched him to St Petersburg.
+He brought Louise the
+Count's note, and a letter from his
+mother, inviting her to go to Moscow,
+for that she was impatient to embrace
+her as her daughter.</p>
+
+<p>Louise kissed her lover's note. She
+shook her head on reading the Countess's
+letter, and smiled one of those
+sad smiles that were peculiar to her.
+&quot;I shall not go to Moscow,&quot; said she,
+&quot;my place is elsewhere.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As I had suspected, Louise had resolved
+to join Count W&mdash;&mdash; at Tobolsk;
+but she could not set out till
+after her confinement, which was to
+take place in a couple of months.
+Meantime she busied herself with
+preparations. By turning every thing
+she possessed into money, she got
+together a sum of thirty thousand
+rubles. At her request, I applied to
+my kind friend, Monsieur de Gorgoli,
+to obtain from the Emperor permission
+for her to rejoin her lover. Her
+intentions had got wind in St Petersburg,
+and every body spoke with admiration
+of the devoted attachment of
+the young Frenchwoman. Many
+thought, however, that her courage
+would fail her when the moment
+of departure arrived; but I knew her
+better, and felt assured of the contrary.</p>
+
+<p>At the commencement of September,
+she became the mother of a boy.
+I wished her to write to the mother of
+Alexis to announce this event; but
+she refused. The Countess heard of
+it, however, and wrote to Louise, to
+say that she was expecting her with
+her child.</p>
+
+<p>Her recovery was slow, the various
+emotions she had undergone during
+her pregnancy having weakened her
+health. She would have left St Petersburg
+long before she was strong
+enough to do so; but the permission to
+join Count W&mdash;&mdash; was to come through
+me, and I refused to apply for it till
+her medical attendant gave her leave
+to travel.</p>
+
+<p>One morning the door of my apartment
+opened and Louise entered, her
+face radiant with joy. &quot;He will
+escape!&quot; cried she.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He&mdash;Alexis.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How! Escape? It is impossible.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Read that,&quot; she said and handed
+me a letter in the Count's hand-writing.
+It was as follows:&mdash;&quot;Dearest
+Louise&mdash;Place all confidence in the
+bearer of this letter. He is more
+than my friend&mdash;he is my saviour.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I fell ill upon the road, and was
+obliged to stop at Perm. The physicians
+declared I was not able to
+continue my journey, and it was decided
+I should pass the winter in the
+prison of that town. As good fortune
+would have it, the jailer's brother is
+an old servant of my family and willing
+to aid my escape. He and his
+brother fly with me; but I must have
+means of indemnifying them for what
+they give up on my account, and for
+the risk they run. Give the bearer
+all the money and jewels you possess.
+As soon as I am in safety I will write
+to you to come and join me. Adieu.
+W&mdash;&mdash;.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well,&quot; said I after reading the
+letter twice over, &quot;what have you
+done?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can you ask the question?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What!&quot; cried I. &quot;You have
+given ...?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Every ruble I had,&quot; interrupted
+she.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And if this letter were not from
+the Count? If it were a forgery?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She changed colour, and snatched
+the paper from my hand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, no!&quot; said she. &quot;I know his
+hand-writing. I cannot be mistaken.&quot;
+But, on reading the letter again, I
+observed that she grew still paler.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I do not think,&quot; I observed, &quot;that
+Alexis would have addressed such a
+demand to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And why not? Who loves him
+better than I do?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Understand me rightly. For an
+act of friendship or devotion he would
+have applied to <i>you</i>, but for money to
+his mother. I tell you again, either
+I do not know Count W&mdash;&mdash;'s character,
+or this letter is not written by
+him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But what will become of me? I
+have given every thing I possessed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How did the Count usually sign
+his letters?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Alexis always.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You see this one is signed W&mdash;&mdash;.
+It is evidently a forgery and we must
+immediately inform the police.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And if we are mistaken? If it is
+not a forgery, by doing so I shall
+prevent his escape. Oh, no! Better
+lose the money. I can manage without.
+All that I am anxious to know
+is, whether he is at Perm.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><span class="newpage"><a name="page738" id="page738" title="738"></a></span> It occurred to me, that I might
+easily ascertain this latter point
+through a lieutenant of gendarmerie
+to whom I gave lessons; and begging
+Louise to wait my return, I hastened
+to his quarters. I told him I had particular
+reasons for wishing to know
+whether my friend W&mdash;&mdash; had reached
+Tobolsk, and asked him if it were
+possible to ascertain. He immediately
+sent an orderly for the non-commissioned
+officer who had commanded
+the Count's division. Ten
+minutes afterwards, Corporal Ivan
+entered the room; and, although I
+was not then aware of the service he
+had rendered the Countess and her
+daughters, I was immediately prepossessed
+in his favour, by his frank
+open countenance and soldierly bearing.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You commanded the sixth division
+of the prisoners lately sent to
+Siberia?&quot; enquired I.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I did so, your excellency.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Count W&mdash;&mdash; was in your division?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The corporal hesitated, and did not
+seem much to like the question.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Fear nothing,&quot; said I, &quot;you are
+speaking to a friend, who would sacrifice
+his own life for him. Tell me
+the truth, I beseech you. Was Count
+W&mdash;&mdash; ill on the road?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not the least.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Did he stop at Perm?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not even to change horses. I
+left him at Koslowo, a pretty little
+village on the Irtich, twenty leagues
+from Tobolsk.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are sure of what you say?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Quite sure. I had a receipt from
+the authorities, which I delivered over
+to his excellency the grand-master of
+police.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>I now hastened to Monsieur de
+Gorgoli, and related all that had passed.
+When I had finished&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is this young girl decided to go
+penniless, as she now is, to join her
+lover in Siberia?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Quite decided, your excellency;
+and I am persuaded nothing will alter
+her resolution.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then go, and tell her from me,
+that she shall have the permission.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>I hurried back to Louise, and informed
+her of the result of my two
+interviews. She appeared indifferent
+to the loss of her little fortune, but
+overjoyed to learn that she would be
+allowed to join her lover. Her only
+anxiety now was to obtain the requisite
+permission as soon as possible.</p>
+
+<p>Before leaving her, I placed at her
+disposal what money I had, which,
+unfortunately, was only two or three
+thousand rubles; for I had, a short
+time previously, remitted to France
+all that I had laid by during my residence
+at St Petersburg.</p>
+
+<p>The same evening I was at Louise's
+house, when one of the Emperor's
+aides-de-camp was announced. He
+brought her a letter of audience for
+the following day. Monsieur de Gorgoli
+had kept his word.</p>
+
+<p>Early the following morning I
+called upon Louise, to accompany her
+to the palace. I found her waiting
+for me, dressed in deep mourning, and
+without a single ornament; but her
+pale, melancholy style of beauty, was
+rather improved than impaired by the
+simplicity and sombre colour of her
+attire.</p>
+
+<p>At the palace gate we separated,
+and I awaited her return in the carriage.
+On presenting her letter of
+audience, an officer on duty conducted
+her to the Emperor's private cabinet,
+and desiring her to wait there, left the
+room. She remained alone for about
+ten minutes, during which time, she
+afterwards told me, she was more than
+once near fainting away. At last a
+step was heard in the adjoining apartment;
+a door opened, and the Emperor
+appeared. On seeing him, she,
+by a spontaneous movement, fell upon
+her knees, and, unable to find words,
+clasped her hands together in mute
+supplication.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Rise!&quot; said the Emperor kindly,
+advancing towards her. &quot;I have
+been already spoken to on the subject
+of your application. You wish
+for permission to join an exile?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, sire, if such a favour may
+be granted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are neither his sister nor his
+wife, I believe?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am his&mdash;friend, sire,&quot; replied
+poor Louise, a tinge of pink over-spreading
+her pale cheek. &quot;He must
+sadly need a friend.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You know that he is banished for
+life to a country where there are
+scarcely four months of spring, and
+the rest of the year is one dreary
+winter?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know it, sire.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you know, also, that he has
+neither rank, fortune, nor title to
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page739" id="page739" title="739"></a></span> share with you&mdash;that he is poorer than
+the poorest mendicant in St Petersburg?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, sire.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have doubtless some fortune,
+some resources of your own?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Alas, sire, I have nothing! Yesterday
+I had thirty thousand rubles,
+produced by the sale of all I possessed,
+but even that little fortune was stolen
+from me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know it. By a forged letter.
+It was more than a theft, it was a
+sacrilege; and, should its perpetrator
+be detected, he shall be punished as
+though he had broken open the poor-box
+in a church. But there are means
+of repairing your loss?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How, sire?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Inform his family of the circumstance.
+They are rich, and will assist
+you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I thank your Majesty; but I desire
+no assistance save that of God.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But without funds how can you
+travel? Have you no friends who
+would help you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Pardon me, sire, but I am too
+proud to borrow what I could never
+repay. By selling what little property
+I have left, I shall raise two or
+three hundred rubles.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Scarcely sufficient for a quarter
+of the journey. Do you know the
+distance from here to Tobolsk, my
+poor girl?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, sire&mdash;about eight hundred
+French leagues.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And how will you get over the
+five or six hundred leagues you will
+still have to travel when your last
+ruble is spent?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There are towns on the road,
+sire. When I reach a town I will
+work till I have enough to continue
+my journey to the next.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That may do as far as Perm,&quot;
+replied the Emperor; &quot;but after that
+you have the Ural mountains, and you
+are at the end of Europe. After that
+nothing but a few scattered villages;
+no inns upon the road; large rivers
+without bridges or ferries, and which
+must be traversed by dangerous fords,
+whence men and horses are frequently
+swept away.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sire, when I reach the rivers
+they will be frozen; for I am told that
+in those regions the winter begins
+earlier than at St Petersburg.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What!&quot; cried the Emperor, astonished,
+&quot;do you think of setting out
+now&mdash;of performing such a journey in
+winter?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is during the winter that <i>his</i>
+solitude must be most intolerable.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is impossible. You must be
+mad to think of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Impossible if your Majesty so
+wills it. No one can disobey your
+Majesty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<i>I</i> shall not prevent it; but surely
+your own reason, and the immense
+difficulties of such an undertaking,
+will.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sire! I will set out to-morrow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But if you perish on the road?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If I perish, sire, he will have lost
+nothing, for I am neither his mother,
+his daughter, nor sister, but only his
+mistress&mdash;that is, a woman to whom
+society gives no rights, and who must
+consider herself fortunate if the world
+looks upon her with no harsher feeling
+than indifference. But if I <i>am</i> able to
+join him, I shall be <i>every thing</i> to him&mdash;mother,
+sister, family, and friends.
+We shall be two to suffer instead of
+one, and that fearful exile will lose
+half its terrors. You see, sire, I <i>must</i>
+rejoin him, and that as soon as possible.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are right,&quot; said the Emperor,
+looking fixedly at her, &quot;and I no
+longer oppose your departure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He rang; an aide-de-camp appeared.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is Corporal Ivan in attendance?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He waits your Majesty's orders.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let him come in.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The aide-de-camp bowed, and disappeared.
+Two minutes afterwards the
+door reopened, and Corporal Ivan
+stepped into the room, then halted,
+upright and motionless, one hand on
+the seam of his overalls, the other to
+the front of his schako.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Draw near,&quot; said the Emperor, in
+a stern voice.</p>
+
+<p>The corporal made four paces to
+the front, and relapsed into his former
+position.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nearer!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Four more paces, and Ivan was
+close to the Emperor's writing-table.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are Corporal Ivan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, sire.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You commanded the escort of the
+sixth division?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, sire.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You had orders to allow the prisoners
+to communicate with no one?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This time the corporal's tongue
+seemed embarrassed by something,
+and his affirmative was uttered in a
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page740" id="page740" title="740"></a></span> less steady tone than the preceding
+ones.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Count Alexis W&mdash;&mdash; was one of
+the prisoners in your division, and in
+spite of your orders you allowed him
+to have two interviews with his mother
+and sisters. You knew the
+punishment you exposed yourself to
+by so doing?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Ivan grew very pale, and was forced
+to support himself against the table.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Pardon, sire!&quot; gasped he.</p>
+
+<p>Louise seemed about to speak, but a
+motion of the Emperor's hand warned
+her to remain quiet. After a moment's
+silence&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are pardoned,&quot; said the Emperor.</p>
+
+<p>The soldier drew a deep breath.
+Louise uttered an exclamation of joy.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Where did you leave Count
+W&mdash;&mdash;?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;At Koslowo, your Majesty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You will set off again, and escort
+this lady thither.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, sire!&quot; exclaimed Louise, who
+began to understand the Emperor's
+feigned severity,</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You will obey her in all respects,
+consistently with her safety, for which
+you answer to me with your head; and
+if, on your return, you bring me a
+letter from her, saying that she is
+satisfied with your conduct, you shall
+be made sergeant.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thanks, father,&quot; said Ivan, forgetting
+for a moment his military
+stiffness, and falling upon his knees.
+The Emperor gave him his hand to
+kiss, as he was in the habit of doing
+to the lowest of his subjects. Louise
+was going to throw herself at his feet
+and kiss his other hand, but the Emperor
+stopped her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are indeed a true and admirable
+woman,&quot; said he. &quot;I have done
+all I can for you. May God bless
+and protect you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, sire!&quot; exclaimed Louise, &quot;how
+can I show my gratitude!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When you pray for your child,&quot;
+said the Emperor, &quot;pray also for
+mine.&quot; And waving his hand kindly
+to her, he left the room.</p>
+
+<p>When Louise returned home she
+found a small packet that had been
+sent from the Empress during her
+absence. It contained thirty thousand
+rubles.</p>
+
+<p>It had been arranged that I should
+accompany Louise as far as Moscow,
+a city that I was desirous of visiting,
+and thence she would pursue her
+journey under Ivan's escort. The
+day after her interview with the Emperor,
+we started in a carriage that
+Ivan brought, and the combined
+strength and elegance of which surprised
+me, until I observed on a corner
+of the pannel the mark of the imperial
+stables. It was an excellent
+travelling berline, lined throughout
+with fur. Ivan was provided with an
+order, by virtue of which post-horses
+would be furnished us the whole of the
+journey, at the Emperor's expense.
+Louise got into the carriage with her
+child in her arms; I seated myself
+beside her, Ivan jumped on the box,
+and in a few minutes we were rattling
+along the Moscow road.</p>
+
+<p>Louise was received with open arms
+by the Countess W&mdash;&mdash; and her
+daughters. The nature of her connexion
+with Alexis was lost sight of
+and forgotten in the devotion and disinterestedness
+of her attachment. A
+room was prepared for her in the
+Countess's house; and, however anxious
+the Count's mother and sisters
+were that he should have society and
+consolation in his exile, they nevertheless
+entreated her to pass the winter
+at Moscow, rather than run the
+risk of so long a journey during the
+bad season that was approaching.
+But Louise was inflexible. Two days
+were all she would consent to remain.
+She was forced, however, to leave her
+child in charge of its grandmother,
+for it would have been madness to
+have done otherwise.</p>
+
+<p>I had been offered an apartment in
+the Countess's house, but preferred
+taking up my quarters at an hotel, in
+order to have liberty to spend my
+time in visiting whatever was remarkable
+at Moscow. On the evening of
+the second day I went to call upon
+the Countess. The ladies were making
+another effort to persuade Louise
+to defer her perilous journey till a
+more favourable season. But no arguments,
+no entreaties, could move
+her: she was determined to set off
+the following morning. I was invited
+to breakfast, and to witness her
+departure.</p>
+
+<p>I had been for some days turning
+over in my mind a project that I now
+resolved to put in execution. I got
+up early the next morning and bought
+a fur coat and cap, thick furred boots,
+a carbine, and a brace of pistols, all
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page741" id="page741" title="741"></a></span> of which I gave to Ivan, and desired
+him to place them in the carriage. I then
+hastened to the Countess W&mdash;&mdash;'s.</p>
+
+<p>Breakfast over, the carriage drove
+up to the door. Louise was alternately
+clasped in the arms of the
+Countess and her daughters. My
+turn came, and she held out her hand.
+I made a motion to assist her into the
+carriage. &quot;Well,&quot; said she, astonished,
+&quot;don't you bid me farewell?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why should I?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am going to set off.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So am I.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Certainly. You recollect the
+Persian fable&mdash;the pebble that was
+not the rose, but had caught some of
+its fragrance by living near it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, I have caught some of your
+devotedness, and I shall go with you
+to Tobolsk. I will deliver you safe
+and sound to the Count, and then
+come back again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Louise looked me earnestly in the
+face. &quot;I have no right,&quot; said she,
+&quot;to prevent your doing a good action&mdash;come.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Countess and her daughters
+were in tears. &quot;My child! my
+child!&quot; cried Louise, who had remained
+firm up to this moment, but
+burst into a passion of weeping as she
+clasped her infant for the last time in
+her arms.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Adieu! Adieu!&quot; The whip
+cracked; the wheels rattled over the
+pavement. We were off to Siberia.
+On we went, day and night. Pokrow,
+Vladimir, Nijni-Novogorod, Casan.
+&quot;<i>Pascare! Pascare!</i>&quot; Quicker!
+Quicker! was Ivan's cry to each new
+postilion. The snow had not yet
+begun to fall, and he was anxious, if
+possible, to cross the Ural mountains
+before it set in. The immense plains
+between Moscow and Perm were traversed
+with tremendous rapidity. On
+reaching the latter place, Louise was
+so much exhausted that I told Ivan
+we must halt one night. He hesitated
+a moment, then looking at the sky,
+which was dark and lowering, &quot;It
+will be as well,&quot; said he; &quot;we must
+soon have snow, and it is better it
+should fall before than during our
+journey.&quot; The next morning his prediction
+was verified. There were two
+feet of snow in the streets of Perm.</p>
+
+<p>Ivan now wished to remain till the
+cold increased, so that the snow might
+become hard, and the rivers frozen.
+But all his arguments could only induce
+Louise to wait two days. On
+the third morning we set off, leaving
+our carriage, and packed into a sort
+of small vehicle without springs, called
+a <i>t&eacute;l&egrave;gue</i>.</p>
+
+<p>On reaching the foot of the Ural
+mountains, the cold had so much increased
+that it became advisable to
+substitute a sledge for our wheels.
+We stopped at a miserable village,
+composed of a score of hovels, in order
+to effect this exchange, and entered a
+wretched hut, which did duty both as
+posting-house and as the only inn in
+the place. Eight or nine men, carriers
+by trade, were crowded round a
+large fire, lighted in the centre of the
+room, and the smoke of which found
+a vent through a hole in the roof.
+They paid no attention to our entrance;
+but when I had taken off my
+cloak, my uniform at once obtained
+for us the best place at the hearth.
+The landlord of this wretched hostelry
+met my enquires about supper with a
+stare of astonishment, and offered me
+a huge loaf of hard black bread as the
+whole contents of his larder. Ivan,
+however, presently appeared, having
+managed to forage out a couple of
+fowls, which, in an inconceivably
+short space of time, were plucked, and
+one of them simmering in an iron pot
+over the fire, while the other hung
+suspended by a string in front of the
+blaze. Supper over, we wrapped ourselves
+in our furs, and lay down upon
+the floor, beds in such a place being
+of course out of the question.</p>
+
+<p>Before daybreak, I awoke, and
+found Ivan and the carriers already
+afoot, and in consultation as to the
+practicability of continuing our journey.
+The question was at last decided
+in favour of the march; the
+waggoners hastened to harness their
+horses, and I went to inspect our carriage,
+which the village blacksmith
+had taken off its wheels and mounted
+upon a sledge. Ivan meantime was
+foraging for provisions, and shortly
+returned with a ham, some tolerable
+bread, and half a dozen bottles of a
+sort of reddish brandy, made, I believe,
+out of the bark of the birch-tree.</p>
+
+<p>At length all was ready, and off we
+set, our sledge going first, followed
+by the carriers' waggons. Our new
+companions, according to a custom
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page742" id="page742" title="742"></a></span> existing among them, had chosen one
+of their number as a chief, whose experience
+and judgment were to direct
+the movements of the party, and
+whose orders were to be obeyed in all
+things. Their choice had fallen on a
+man named George, whose age I
+should have guessed to be fifty, but
+who, I learned with astonishment,
+was upwards of seventy years old.
+He was a powerful and muscular
+man, with black piercing eyes, overhung
+by thick shaggy eyebrows,
+which, as well as his long beard, were
+of an iron grey. His dress consisted
+of a woollen shirt and trousers, a fur
+cap, and a sheepskin with the wool
+turned inside. To the leathern belt
+round his waist were suspended two
+or three horse-shoes, a metal fork and
+spoon, a long-bladed knife, a small
+hatchet, and a sort of wallet, in which
+he carried pipe, tobacco, flint, steel,
+nails, money, and a variety of other
+things useful or necessary in his mode
+of life. The garb and equipment of
+the other carriers were, with some
+small differences, the same.</p>
+
+<p>The first day's journey passed without
+incident. Our march was slow
+and even dangerous, all trace of the
+road being obliterated, and we were
+obliged to feel our way, as it were, by
+sending men forward with long pikes
+to sound the depth of snow before us.
+At nightfall, however, we found ourselves
+in safety on a sort of platform
+surmounted by a few pine-trees. Here
+we established our bivouac. Branches
+were cut, and a sort of hut built; and,
+with the aid of enormous fires, the
+night passed in greater comfort than
+might have been expected on a mountain-side,
+and with snow many feet
+deep around us.</p>
+
+<p>At daybreak we were again in
+movement. Our difficulties increased
+as we ascended the mountain: the
+snow lay in prodigious masses, and
+more than once we were delayed by
+having to rescue one or other of our
+advanced guard from some hole or
+ravine into which he had fallen. No
+serious accident, however, occurred,
+and we had at length the satisfaction
+of finding ourselves descending. We
+had passed the highest point of the
+road.</p>
+
+<p>We had been going downhill for
+some three hours, the way zig-zaging
+among rocks and precipices, when
+suddenly we were startled by a loud
+cracking, followed by a noise that resembled
+a clap of thunder repeated by
+many echoes. At the same moment
+a sort of whirlwind swept by us, and
+the air was darkened by a cloud of
+snow-dust. &quot;An avalanche!&quot; cried
+George, stopping his waggon. Every
+body halted. In another instant the
+noise ceased, the air became clear,
+and the avalanche continued its downward
+course, breaking, as it passed, a
+couple of gigantic pines that grew
+upon a rock, some five hundred feet
+below us. The carriers gave a hurra
+of joy at their escape, nor was it
+without reason. Had we been only
+half a verst further on our road, our
+journey had been at an end.</p>
+
+<p>The avalanche had not passed, however,
+without doing us some harm,
+for, on reaching the part of the road
+over which it had swept, we found it
+blocked up by a wall of snow thirty
+feet thick and of great height. There
+were several hours' work for all of us
+to clear it away; but unfortunately it
+was already nightfall, and we were
+obliged to make up our minds to remain
+where we were till morning.</p>
+
+<p>No wood was to be had either for
+hut or fire. The want of the latter
+was most unfortunate; for independently
+of the cold rendering it very
+necessary, it was our chief protection
+against the wolves. Doing the best
+we could under such unfavourable
+circumstances, we drew up the carts
+in the form of a half circle, of which
+the two extremities rested against the
+wall of snow it our rear, and within
+the sort of fortification thus formed
+we placed the horses and our sledge.
+Our arrangements were scarcely completed
+when it became perfectly dark.</p>
+
+<p>In the absence of fire Louise's supper
+and mine consisted of dry bread.
+The carriers, however, made a hearty
+meal on the flesh of a bear they had
+killed that morning, and which they
+seemed to consider as good raw as cooked.</p>
+
+<p>I was regretting the want of any
+description of light in case of an attack
+from the wolves, when Louise
+suddenly recollected that Ivan had put
+the lanterns belonging to the travelling
+carriage into our <i>t&eacute;l&egrave;gue</i> when
+we changed horses. On searching I
+found them under the seat, each furnished
+with a thick wax taper.</p>
+
+<p>This was, indeed, a treasure. We
+could not hope to scare away the
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page743" id="page743" title="743"></a></span> wolves by the light of our two candles;
+but it would enable us to see them
+coming, and to give them a proper
+reception. We tied the lanterns to the
+top of two poles fixed firmly in the
+snow, and saw with pleasure that they
+cast their clear pale light nearly fifty
+yards around our encampment.</p>
+
+<p>We were ten men in all. Two
+stood sentry on the carts, while the
+remainder set to work to pierce
+through the obstacle left by the avalanche.
+The snow had already become
+slightly frozen, so that they were
+able to cut a passage through it. I
+joined the working party as being a
+warmer occupation than standing sentry.
+For three or four hours we toiled
+incessantly, and the birch-tree brandy,
+with which I had provided myself, and
+which we had carefully economized,
+was now found most useful in giving
+strength and courage to the labourers.</p>
+
+<p>It was about eleven o'clock at night
+when a long howl was heard, which
+sounded so close and startling that
+with one accord we suspended our
+work. At the same moment old
+George, who was on sentry, called to
+us. We ran to the waggons and
+jumped upon them. A dozen enormous
+wolves were prowling about the
+outside edge of the bright circle thrown
+by our lanterns. Fear of the light
+kept them off; but each moment they
+were growing bolder, and it was easy
+to see that they would not be long
+without attacking us.</p>
+
+<p>I looked to the priming of my carbine
+and pistols. Ivan was similarly
+armed; but the carriers had only their
+pikes, hatchets, and knives. With
+these weapons, however, they boldly
+awaited the attack.</p>
+
+<p>Half an hour passed in this state of
+suspense, the wolves occasionally advancing
+a pace or two into the circle
+of light, but always retreating again.
+At length one of them approached so
+near that I asked George if it would
+not be advisable to reward his temerity
+with a bullet.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes,&quot; was the answer, &quot;if you are
+certain of hitting him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why must I be certain?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because if you kill him his companions
+will amuse themselves with
+eating him; to be sure,&quot; added he to
+himself, &quot;if once they taste blood they
+will be mad for more.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The mark is so good,&quot; said I, &quot;I
+can hardly miss him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Fire, then, in God's name!&quot; returned
+George; &quot;all this must have
+an end one way or the other.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Before the words were out of his
+mouth I fired, and the wolf writhed
+in agony on the snow. In an instant
+half a dozen wolves darted forward,
+and, seizing their comrade, carried
+him off into the darkness.</p>
+
+<p>The howlings now increased, and
+it was evident more wolves were arriving.
+At length there was a moment's
+silence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you hear the horses,&quot; said
+George, &quot;how they neigh, and paw?
+It is a signal for us to be prepared.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I thought the wolves were gone,&quot;
+replied I; &quot;they have left off howling.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, they have finished their repast,
+and are preparing for an attack.
+Here they come.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And that moment eight or ten
+wolves, that in the imperfect flickering
+light looked as big as jackasses,
+rushed forward, and instead of endeavouring
+to pass under the waggons,
+bounded boldly upon them. By some
+chance, however, none of them attacked
+the waggon on which I was
+posted.</p>
+
+<p>The cart on my right, defended by
+George, was escaladed by three
+wolves, one of which was immediately
+disabled by a thrust of the vigorous
+old man's pike. A ball from my carbine
+settled another, and seeing
+George's hatchet raised over the head
+of the third I knew he wanted no further
+aid, and looked to see what was
+going on to my left. Two wolves had
+attacked the waggon which was defended
+by one of George's sons, who
+received the first of his foes with a
+lance thrust. But apparently no vital
+part was touched, and the wolf had
+broken the pike with his teeth; so that
+for a moment the man opposed to him
+had nothing but the pole wherewith to
+defend himself. The second wolf was
+scrambling along the cart, and on the
+point of attacking him, when I sprang
+from one waggon to another, and fired
+one of my pistols into the animal's ear.
+He fell dead beside his companion, who
+was rolling in the snow, and making
+violent efforts to tear the broken lance
+from his wound.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime Ivan was hard at work,
+and I heard a carbine or two pistol
+shots, which told me that our adversaries
+were as warmly received on the
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page744" id="page744" title="744"></a></span> left as on the right of the line. An instant
+later four wolves again crossed the
+circle of light, but this time in full retreat;
+and at the same moment, to our
+no small astonishment, three others,
+that we had thought dead or mortally
+wounded, raised themselves up and
+followed their companions, leaving
+large tracks of blood behind them.
+Three carcasses remained upon the
+field of battle.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Load again, and quickly,&quot; cried
+George. &quot;I know their ways; they
+will be back directly.&quot; And the old
+man pointed with his finger into the
+darkness. I listened, and heard distant
+howlings replying to the nearer
+ones. What we had as yet had was
+a mere skirmish. The general engagement
+was to come.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Look behind you!&quot; cried a voice.
+I turned and saw two fiery eyes gleaming
+on the top of the snow wall in our
+rear. Before I could draw a trigger
+the wolf gave a leap, and falling upon
+one of the horses struck his fangs into
+its throat. Three men left their waggons.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is but one wolf,&quot; cried
+George, &quot;and one man is enough.
+Let the others remain at their posts.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Two of the men resumed their
+places. The third crept upon his
+hands and knees among the horses
+who, in their terror, were kicking and
+plunging violently, and throwing themselves
+against the carts by which they
+were surrounded. The next instant
+I saw the gleam of a knife blade, and
+the wolf let go the horse, which
+reared up on its hind-legs, the blood
+streaming from its throat. A dark
+mass was rolling and struggling on
+the ground. It was the man and the
+wolf.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of a few seconds the
+man stood up. &quot;David,&quot; said he to
+one of his comrades, &quot;come and help
+me to carry away this carrion. The
+horses wont be quiet while it lies
+here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They dragged the wolf towards
+George's waggon, and then raising it
+up from the ground, the old man took
+it by the hind-legs, as though it had
+been a hare, and threw it outside the
+line of carts.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, Nicholas,&quot; said George to
+the successful combatant, &quot;don't you
+take your place again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No,&quot; replied the other; &quot;I have
+enough as it is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you wounded?&quot; cried Louise,
+opening the door of the <i>t&eacute;l&egrave;gue</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I believe I have killed my last
+wolf,&quot; answered the poor fellow in a
+faint voice.</p>
+
+<p>I gave George my carbine, and hastened
+to the wounded man. A part
+of his jaw was torn away, and the
+blood flowed abundantly from a large
+wound in his neck. I for a moment
+feared that the carotid artery was
+opened, and scarcely knowing whether
+I did right or wrong, I seized a handful
+of snow and applied it to the
+wound. The sufferer uttered a cry
+and fainted away.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;O God!&quot; cried Louise, &quot;have mercy upon him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To your posts,&quot; shouted George
+in a stentorian voice; &quot;the wolves
+are upon us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>I left the wounded man in Louise's
+care, and jumped upon the cart.</p>
+
+<p>I can give no details of the combat
+that followed. I had too much occupation
+myself to attend to what my
+companions were doing. We were
+attacked by at least twenty wolves at
+once. After discharging my two pistols,
+I armed myself with an axe that
+George gave me. The fight lasted
+nearly a quarter of an hour, and certainly
+the scene was one of the most
+terrible it is possible to imagine. At
+length, and just as I was splitting the
+skull of a wolf that hung on to one of
+the wheels of my waggon, a shout of
+victory resounded along our line, and
+again our enemies fled, but this time
+it was for good.</p>
+
+<p>Three of our men were wounded,
+besides Nicholas, who was still alive,
+but in a desperate state. We were
+obliged to shoot the horse that had
+been torn by the wolf.</p>
+
+<p>By daybreak, a passage was opened
+through the wall of snow, and we resumed
+our journey. The evening of
+the same day we reached a small village,
+where we found an inn, that,
+under any other circumstances, would
+have been pronounced abominable,
+but which appeared a palace after three
+such days as we had passed. The following
+morning we parted from our
+friends the carriers, leaving George
+five hundred rubles to divide among
+them.</p>
+
+<p>All now went well. Thanks to the
+imperial order with which we were
+provided, the best horses were always
+for us, and, when necessary, escorts of
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page745" id="page745" title="745"></a></span> ten or twelve men galloped on either
+side of our sledge. The country was
+flat and the pace good, and exactly a
+week after leaving the Ural mountains
+we entered Tobolsk.</p>
+
+<p>We were dreadfully fatigued, but
+yet Louise would only remain long
+enough to take a bath; and at two in
+the morning we set out for the little
+town of Koslowo, which had been selected
+as the abode of twenty of the
+exiles, among whom was Alexis. On
+arriving, we hastened to the officer
+commanding there, and showing him
+the Emperor's order, which produced
+its usual effect, enquired after the
+Count. He was well, was the answer,
+and still at Koslowo.</p>
+
+<p>It had been agreed between Louise
+and myself that I should go and see
+him first, and inform him of her arrival.
+I asked the governor for a pass,
+which he gave me without hesitation,
+and a Cossack conducted me to a part
+of the town composed of some twenty
+houses enclosed within high palisades,
+and guarded by sentries. We stopped
+before a door, and my guide knocked.
+&quot;Come in!&quot; said a voice which I recognized
+as that of Alexis.</p>
+
+<p>When I opened the door, he was
+lying on his bed, dressed, and with a
+book on the floor near him. I stopped
+upon the threshold. He stared at
+me without speaking, and seemed
+hardly to believe his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well,&quot; said I, &quot;have you forgotten
+me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At the sound of my voice, he
+sprang from his bed and threw his
+arms round me. But the next instant
+he started back. &quot;Good heavens!&quot;
+exclaimed he, &quot;you are exiled, and I
+am probably the cause.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, indeed,&quot; I replied, &quot;I come
+here as an amateur.&quot; He smiled bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As an amateur! Into the heart
+of Siberia! Explain your meaning.
+But first&mdash;Louise&mdash;what of her?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have just now left her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Just now? A month ago, you mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Five minutes ago.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good God! what do you mean?&quot;
+cried Alexis, growing very pale.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That Louise has accompanied me,
+and is now here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh woman! woman! Thy heart
+is ever the same,&quot; murmured Alexis,
+while tear after tear rolled down his
+cheek. He was then silent for a time,
+but his lips moved, and I doubt not in
+thanksgiving to God for such happiness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Where is she?&quot; he at length exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;At the governor's house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He rushed towards the door. &quot;I
+am mad,&quot; said he, pausing, &quot;I forget
+that I cannot leave my cage without
+permission. My dearest friend, bring
+her here, I beseech you! Or stay, this
+man will go.&quot; He spoke in Russian
+to the Cossack, who went out.</p>
+
+<p>In a few minutes, and before I
+could answer a tithe of the numerous
+questions Alexis asked me, the man
+returned, but alone.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well?&quot; said the Count, changing
+countenance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The governor says you must be
+aware that the prisoners are not allowed
+to receive visits from women.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Count struck his forehead with
+his clenched hand, and fell back upon
+a chair. His features were almost
+convulsed by the violence of his emotions.
+At last he turned to the Cossack.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Beg the sergeant to come here.&quot;
+The soldier left the room.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can any thing be more horrible?&quot;
+cried Alexis. &quot;She has come nine
+hundred leagues to see me; she is
+not a hundred yards from me, and we
+are forbidden to meet!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There must surely be some blunder,&quot;
+said I; &quot;an order misunderstood,
+or something of the kind.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Alexis shook his head doubtingly.
+There was a wild look of despair in
+his large dark eyes that alarmed me.
+At this moment, the sergeant who
+had charge of the prisoners entered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sir,&quot; cried the Count with vehemence,
+&quot;the woman I love has left
+St Petersburg to join me, and after a
+thousand dangers and hardships has
+arrived here. I am now told that I
+shall not be allowed to see her. It is
+doubtless a mistake?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, sir,&quot; replied the sergeant
+coolly. &quot;You know very well that
+the prisoners are not permitted to see
+women.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But Prince Troubetskoy has that
+permission. Is it because he is a
+prince?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, sir, it is because the princess
+is his wife.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And if Louise were my wife,
+should I be allowed to see her?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Undoubtedly, sir!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ha!&quot; ejaculated the Count, as
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page746" id="page746" title="746"></a></span> though a weight were removed from
+off his heart. &quot;I should like to speak
+with the priest,&quot; said he to the sergeant,
+after a moment's pause.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He shall be sent for immediately,&quot;
+was the reply.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And now my friend,&quot; said Alexis,
+turning to me, and taking my hands
+in his, &quot;you have been Louise's
+guardian and defender, will you for
+once act as her father?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The following morning at ten o'clock,
+Louise, accompanied by the governor
+and myself, and Alexis by Prince
+Troubetskoy and the other exiles, entered
+the little church of Koslowa by
+two different doors. Their first meeting
+was at the altar, and the first word
+they exchanged was the <i>yes</i> that united
+them for ever.</p>
+
+<p>The Emperor by a private letter to
+the governor, of which Ivan was the
+bearer, had ordered that the Count
+should only be allowed to see Louise
+as his wife. It has been seen how
+willingly my friend obeyed, I should
+rather say anticipated, the Emperor's
+commands. And rich was his reward
+for thus promptly acknowledging the
+just claims of this devoted and very
+admirable woman. She was one of
+&quot;nature's own nobility&quot;&mdash;refined and
+graceful, intelligent and high-minded&mdash;and
+would have graced higher rank
+than that to which she was raised by
+the gratitude of Count Alexis W&mdash;&mdash;.</p>
+
+<hr class="full">
+
+
+<a name="bw332s5" id="bw332s5"></a><h2>AMMAL&Aacute;T BEK.</h2>
+
+<h3>A TRUE TALE OF THE CAUCASUS. FROM THE RUSSIAN OF MARL&Iacute;NSKI.</h3>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER X.</h3>
+
+<p>&quot;Will you hold your tongue, little
+serpent?&quot; said an old Tartar woman
+to her grandson, who, having awakened
+before daylight, was crying for
+want of something better to do. &quot;Be
+quiet, or I will kick you into the
+street.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This old woman was Ammal&aacute;t's
+nurse: the hut in which she lived stood
+close to the tents of the Begs, and had
+been given to her by her foster-son, Ammal&aacute;t.
+It was composed of two clean
+whitewashed rooms, the floor of both
+was strewed with coarse mats, (ghasil;)
+in niches close to each other, for
+the room was without windows, stood
+boxes bound with iron, and on them
+were arranged a feather-bed, blankets,
+and all the utensils. On the cornices,
+at half the height of the wall, were
+ranged porcelain cups for pillau, having
+tin covers in the form of helmets,
+and little plates hanging side by side
+on wires: the holes with which they
+were pierced showing that they served
+not for use, but for ornament. The
+face of the old woman was covered
+with wrinkles, and expressed a sort of
+malicious sorrow: the usual consequence
+of the lonely pleasureless life
+of a Mussulman woman. As a worthy
+representative of persons of her
+age and country, she never for a moment
+ceased scolding her grandson
+from under her blanket, and to grumble
+to herself. &quot;Kess,&quot; (be quiet,)
+she cried at length, yet more angrily,
+&quot;or I will give you to the gha&oacute;uls,
+(devils!) Do you hear how they are
+scratching at the roof, and knocking
+at the door for you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was a stormy night; a thick rain
+pattering on the flat roof which served
+as a ceiling, and the roaring of the
+wind in the chimney, answered to her
+hoarse voice. The boy became quiet,
+and straining his eyes, hearkened in a
+fright. It really seemed as if some
+one was knocking at the door. The
+old woman became frightened in her
+turn: her inseparable companion,
+a dirty dog, lifted up his head from sleep,
+and began to bark in a most pitiful
+voice. But meanwhile the knocking
+at the door became louder, and an unknown
+voice cried sternly from without,
+&quot;Atch kapini, akhirin akhirici!&quot;
+(open the door for the end of ends.)
+The old woman turned pale. &quot;Allah
+bismallah!&quot; she exclaimed, now
+addressing heaven, then threatening
+the dog, and then quieting the crying
+child. &quot;Sh, accursed beast! Hold
+your tongue, I say, kharamz&aacute;da, (good-for-nothing
+son of shame!) Who is
+there? What honest man will enter,
+when it is neither day nor dawn, into
+the house of a poor old woman? If
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page747" id="page747" title="747"></a></span> you are Shait&aacute;n, go to neighbour
+Kitchk&iacute;na. It has been long time to
+show her the road to hell! If you
+are a tcha&oacute;uth, (tax-gatherer,) who,
+to say the truth, is rather worse than
+Shait&aacute;n, then go about your business.
+My son-in-law is not at home; he
+serves as n&oacute;uker at Ammal&aacute;t Bek's;
+and the Bek has long ago freed me
+from taxes; and as for treating idle
+travellers, don't expect from me even
+an egg, much less a duck. Is it in
+vain, then, that I suckled Ammal&aacute;t?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Will you open, you devil's distaff?&quot;
+impatiently exclaimed the
+voice, &quot;or I will not leave you a plank
+of this door for your coffin.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The feeble doors shook on their
+hinges.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Enter, pray enter,&quot; said the old
+woman, undoing the iron hasp with a
+trembling hand. The door flew open,
+and there entered a man of a middling
+stature, and of a handsome but melancholy
+countenance. He was clad in
+the Circassian dress: the water trickled
+down his b&oacute;urka and bashl&iacute;k.<a name="footnotetag22" id="footnotetag22"></a><a href="#footnote22"><sup>22</sup></a>
+Without any apologies, he threw it on
+the feather-bed, and began to untie
+the lopasti of his bashl&iacute;k which half
+covered his face&mdash;Fatma, having in the
+mean time lighted a candle, stood before
+him with fear and trembling.
+The long-whiskered dog, with his tail
+between his legs, pressed himself into
+a corner, and the child, in a fright,
+climbed into the fire-place&mdash;which,
+used only for ornaments, was never
+heated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, Fatma, you are grown
+proud,&quot; said the unknown; &quot;you do
+not recognize old friends.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Fatma gazed at the new-comer's
+features, and her heart grew light
+within her. She recognized Sultan
+Akhmet Khan, who had ridden in one
+night from Kiafir Kounik to Bouin&aacute;ki.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;May the sand fill my eyes that
+did not recognize their old master!&quot;
+she replied, respectfully crossing her
+arms on her breast. &quot;To say truth,
+they are blinded by tears, for her
+country&mdash;for Av&aacute;r! Forgive an old
+woman, Khan!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What old age is yours, Fatma?
+I remember you a little girl, when I
+myself could hardly reach the young
+crows from their nests.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A strange land makes every one
+old, Khan. In my native mountains
+I should still have been fresh as an
+apple, and here am I like a snowball
+fallen from the hill into the valley.
+Pray come hither, Khan, here it is
+more comfortable. What shall I entertain
+my precious guest with? Is
+there nothing the Khan's soul can wish
+for?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Khan's soul wishes that you
+should entertain him with your goodwill.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am at your will; speak, command!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Listen to me, Fatma! I have
+no time to waste in words. This is
+why I am come here: render me a
+service with your tongue, and you
+shall have wherewithal to comfort
+your old teeth. I will make you a
+present of ten sheep; I will dress you
+in silk from top to toe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ten sheep and a gown!&mdash;a silk
+gown! O gracious Aga! O kind
+Khan! I have not seen such a lord
+here since the accursed Tartars carried
+me away, and made me marry a
+hateful ... I am ready to do every
+thing, Khan, that you wish. Cut my
+ears off even, if you will!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What would be the good of that?
+They must be kept sharp. This is
+the business. Ammal&aacute;t will come to
+you to-day with the Colonel. The
+Shamkh&aacute;l of T&aacute;rki will arrive also.
+This Colonel has attached your young
+Bek to him by witchcraft; and having
+taught him to eat swine's flesh, wants
+to make a Christian of him: from
+which Mahomet preserve him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The old woman spat around her,
+and lifted her eyes to heaven.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To save Ammal&aacute;t, we must make
+him quarrel with the Colonel. For
+this purpose you must go to him,
+throw yourself at his feet, and fall a-weeping
+as if at a funeral. As to tears,
+you will have no need to go and borrow
+them of your neighbours. Swear
+like a shopkeeper of Derb&eacute;nd; remember
+that each oath of yours will
+bring you a dozen sheep; and at last
+tell him that you have heard a conversation
+between the Colonel and the
+Shamkh&aacute;l: that the Shamkh&aacute;l complained
+of his sending back his daughter:
+that he hates him out of fear that
+he should take possession of the crown
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page748" id="page748" title="748"></a></span> of his Shamkhal&aacute;t: that he implored
+the Colonel to allow him to kill him
+in an ambuscade, or to poison him in
+his food; but that the other consented
+only to send him to Siberia, beyond
+the end of the world. In one word,
+invent and describe every thing cleverly.
+You were formerly famous
+for your tales. Do not eat dirt now.
+And, above all, insist that the Colonel,
+who is going on a furlough, will take
+him with him to Georgieffsk, to separate
+him from his kinsmen and faithful
+n&oacute;ukers; and from thence will dispatch
+him in chains to the devil.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Sultan Akhmet added to this all the
+particulars necessary to give the story
+the most probable form; and once or
+twice instructed the old woman how
+to introduce them more skilfully.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, recollect every thing accurately,
+Fatma,&quot; said he, putting on his
+b&oacute;urka; &quot;forget not, likewise, with
+whom you have to do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Vallah, billah! let me have ashes
+instead of salt; may a beggar's
+tch&oacute;urek close my eyes; may&quot; ...</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do not feed the Shait&aacute;ns with
+your oaths; but serve me with your
+words. I know that Ammal&aacute;t trusts
+you completely; and if, for his good,
+you will arrange this&mdash;he will come
+over to me, and bring you with him.
+You shall live, singing, under my
+wing. But I repeat, if, by chance or
+on purpose, you betray me, or injure
+me by your gossiping, I will make of
+your old flesh a kibab for the Shait&aacute;ns!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Be easy, Khan! They have nothing
+to do either for me or with me.
+I will keep the secret like the grave,
+and I will <i>put my sar&oacute;tchka</i><a name="footnotetag23" id="footnotetag23"></a><a href="#footnote23"><sup>23</sup></a> on Ammal&aacute;t.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, be it so, old woman. Here
+is a golden seal for your lips. Take
+pains!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<i>Bath&oacute;usta, ghez-&oacute;usta</i>!&quot;<a name="footnotetag24" id="footnotetag24"></a><a href="#footnote24"><sup>24</sup></a> exclaimed
+the old woman, seizing the ducat
+with greediness, and kissing the
+Khan's hand for his present. The
+Sultan Akhmet Khan looked contemptuously
+at the base creature,
+whilst he quitted the s&aacute;kla.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Reptile!&quot; he grumbled to himself,
+&quot;for a sheep, for a piece of cloth
+of gold, thou wouldst be ready to sell
+thy daughter's body, thy son's soul,
+and thy foster-son's happiness!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He did not reflect upon what name
+he deserved himself, entangling his
+friend in deceit, and hiring such vile
+creatures for low slander and for villanous
+intentions.</p>
+<br>
+
+<p><i>Fragment of a Letter from Colonel Verkh&oacute;ffsky to his Betrothed</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Camp near the Village of Kiafir Koum&iacute;k,
+August.</p>
+
+<p>... Ammal&aacute;t loves, and how
+he loves! Never, not even in the
+hottest fire of my youth, did my love
+rise to such a frenzy. I burned, like
+a censer lighted by a sunbeam; he
+flames, like a ship set on fire by lightning
+on the stormy sea. With you,
+my Maria, I have read more than
+once Shakspeare's Othello; and only
+the frantic Othello can give an idea
+of the tropical passion of Ammal&aacute;t.
+He loves to speak long and often of
+his Seltanetta, and I love to hear his
+volcanic eloquence. At times it is a
+turbid cataract thrown out by a profound
+abyss&mdash;at times a fiery fountain
+of the naphtha of Bakou. What stars
+his eyes scatter at that moment&mdash;what
+light plays on his cheeks&mdash;how handsome
+he is! There is nothing ideal in
+him: but then the earthly is grand, is
+captivating. I myself, carried away
+and deeply moved, receive on my
+breast the youth fainting from rapture:
+he breathes long, with slow
+sighs, and then casting down his
+eyes, lowering his head as if ashamed
+to look at the light&mdash;not only on me&mdash;presses
+my hand, and walks away
+with an uncertain step; and after that
+one cannot extract a word from him
+for the rest of the day.</p>
+
+<p>Since the time of his return from
+Khounz&aacute;kh, he is become still more
+melancholy than before; particularly
+the last few days. He hides the
+grandest, the noblest feeling which
+brings man near to divinity, as carefully
+as if it were a shameful weakness
+or a dreadful crime. He imploringly
+asked me to let him go once
+more to Khounz&aacute;kh, to sigh at the
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page749" id="page749" title="749"></a></span> feet of his fair one; and I refused
+him&mdash;refused him for his own good.
+I wrote long ago about my favourite
+to Alex&eacute;i Petr&oacute;vitch, and he desired
+me to bring him with me to the waters,
+where he will be himself. He
+wishes to give him some message to
+Sultan Akhmet Khan, which will
+bring undoubted advantage to him
+and to Ammal&aacute;t. Oh, how happy I
+shall be in his happiness! To me, to
+me, he will owe the bliss of his life&mdash;not
+only empty life. I will force him
+on his knees before you, and will make
+him say&mdash;&quot;Adore her as a deity!&quot;
+If my heart were not filled with love
+to Maria, thou wouldst not take possession
+of Seltanetta. Yesterday I
+received an express from the commander-in-chief&mdash;a
+noble-minded man!
+He gives wings to happy news. All
+is arranged; my darling, I go to meet
+you at the waters. I shall only lead
+the regiment to Derb&eacute;nd&mdash;and then
+to the saddle! I shall know neither
+fatigue by day nor drowsiness by
+night, till I repose myself in your
+embrace. Oh, who will give me
+wings to fly to you! Who will give
+me strength to bear my&mdash;<i>our</i>&mdash;bliss!
+... I, in delicious agitation, pressed
+my bosom, that my heart might not
+burst forth. For a long time I could
+not sleep: imagination painted our
+meeting in a thousand forms, and in
+the intervals appeared the most trivial
+but delightful cares, about wedding
+trifles, dresses, presents. You will be
+clad in my favourite colour, green.
+... Is it not true, my soul? My
+fancies kept me from sleeping, like a
+strong perfume of roses; but the
+sweeter, the more brilliant was my
+sleep. I saw you by the light of
+dawn, and every time different, every
+time more lovely than before. My
+dreams were twined together like a
+wreath of flowers; but no! there was
+no connexion between them. They
+were wonderful phantoms, falling like
+colours from the kaleidoscope, and as
+impossible to retain. Notwithstanding
+all this, I awoke sorrowful this
+morning; my awakening took from
+my childish soul its favourite toy....
+I went into Ammal&aacute;t's tent;
+he was still asleep. His face was pale
+and angry&mdash;let him be angry with me!
+I taste beforehand the gratitude of the
+ardent youth. I, like fate, am preparing
+his happiness in secret....</p>
+
+<p>To-day I bid adieu to these mountains
+for long&mdash;I hope for ever. I
+am very glad to quit Asia, the cradle
+of mankind, in which the understanding
+has remained till now in its
+swaddling-clothes. Astonishing is the
+immobility of Asiatic life, in the course
+of so many centuries. Against Asia
+all attempts of improvement and civilization
+have broken like waves; it
+seems not to belong to time, but to
+place. The Indian Brahmin, the Chinese
+Mandarin, the Persian Bek, the
+mountain Ouzd&eacute;n, are unchanged&mdash;the
+same as they were two thousand
+years ago. A sad truth! They represent,
+in themselves, a monotonous
+though varied, a lively though soulless
+nature. The sword and the lash
+of the conqueror have left on them, as
+on the water, no trace. Books, and
+the examples of missionaries, have
+produced on them no influence. Sometimes,
+however, they have made an
+exchange of vices; but never have
+they learned the thoughts or the virtues
+of others. I quit the land of
+fruit to transport myself to the land of
+labour&mdash;that great inventor of every
+thing useful, that suggester of every
+thing great, that awakener of the soul
+of man, which has fallen asleep here,
+and sleeps in weakness on the bosom
+of the seducer&mdash;nature.</p>
+
+<p>And truly, how seducing is nature
+here! Having ridden up the high
+mountain to the left of Kiafir Koum&iacute;k,
+I gazed with delight on the gradually
+lighted summit of the Caucasus. I
+looked, and could not look enough at
+them. What a wondrous beauty decks
+them as with a crown! Another thin
+veil, woven of light and shadow, lay
+on the lower hill, but the distant snows
+basked in the sky; and the sky, like a
+caressing mother, bending over them
+its immeasurable bosom, fed them with
+the milk of the clouds, carefully enfolding
+them with its swathe of mist,
+and refreshing them with its gently-breathing
+wind. Oh, with what a flight
+would my soul soar there, where a
+holy cold has stretched itself like a
+boundary between the earthly and the
+heavenly! My heart prays and thirsts
+to breathe the air of the inhabitants of
+the sky. I feel a wish to wander over
+the snows, on which man has never
+printed the seal of his blood-stained
+footsteps&mdash;which have never been
+darkened by the eagle's shadow&mdash;which
+the thunder has never reached&mdash;which
+the war spirits have never
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page750" id="page750" title="750"></a></span> polluted; and on the ever-young summits
+where time, the continuation of
+eternity, has left no trace.</p>
+
+<p>Time! A strange thought has come
+into my head. How many fractional
+names has the weak sense of man invented
+for the description of an infinitely
+small particle of time out of the
+infinitely large circle of eternity!
+Years, months, days, hours, minutes!
+God has nothing of all this: he has
+not even evening nor morrow. With
+him all this has united itself into one
+eternal <i>now</i>!... Shall we ever
+behold this ocean in which we have
+hitherto been drowning? But I ask,
+to what end will all this serve man?
+Can it be for the satisfaction of an idle
+curiosity? No! the knowledge of
+truth, <i>i.e.</i> the All-knowing Goodness,
+does the soul of the reflecting man
+thirst after. It wishes to draw a full
+cup from the fountain of light which
+falls on it from time to time in a fine
+dew!</p>
+
+<p>And I shall imbibe it. The secret
+fear of death melts like snow before
+the beam of such a hope. I shall
+draw from it. My real love for my
+fellow-creatures is a security for it.
+The leaden ways of error will fall
+asunder before a few tears of repentance,
+and I shall lay down my heart
+as an expiating sacrifice before the
+judgment-seat which will have no terrors
+for me!</p>
+
+<p>It is wonderful, my beloved&mdash;hardly
+do I look at the mountains, the sea,
+the sky, ... but a solemn but inexpressibly
+sweet feeling o'er-burthens
+and expands my heart. Thoughts of
+you mingle with it; and, as in dreams,
+your form flits before me. Is this a
+foretaste of earthly bliss, which I have
+only known by name, or a foreboding
+of ... etern ...? O dearest,
+best, angelic soul, one look of yours
+and I am cured of dreaming! How
+happy am I that I can now say with
+assurance&mdash;<i>au revoir</i>!</p>
+
+<br>
+
+<p>CHAPTER XI.</p>
+<br>
+
+<p>The poison of calumny burnt into
+the soul of Ammal&aacute;t. By the instructions
+of the Khan, his nurse Fatma
+related, with every appearance of disinterested
+affection, the story which
+had been arranged beforehand, on
+the same evening that he came with
+Verkh&oacute;ffsky to Bouin&aacute;ki, where they
+were met by the Shamkh&aacute;l in obedience
+to the Colonel's request. The
+envenomed shaft struck deep; now
+doubt would have been welcomed by
+Ammal&aacute;t, but conviction, it seemed,
+cast over all his former ties of friendship
+and blood, a bright but funereal
+light. In a frenzy of passion, he
+burned to drown his revenge in the
+blood of both; but respect for the
+rites of hospitality quenched his thirst
+for vengeance. He deferred his intention
+for a time&mdash;but could he forget
+it? Every moment of delay fell,
+like a drop of melted copper, on his
+heart. Memory, conviction, jealousy,
+love, tore his heart by turns; and this
+state of feeling was to him so new, so
+strange, so dreadful, that he fell into
+a species of delirium, the more dreadful
+that he was obliged to conceal his
+internal sensations from his former
+friend. Thus passed twenty-four
+hours; the detachment pitched their
+tents near the village Bougd&eacute;n, the
+gate of which, built in a ravine, and
+which is closed at the will of the inhabitants
+of Bougd&eacute;n, serves as a passage
+to Ak&oacute;ush. The following was
+written by Ammal&aacute;t, to divert the
+agony of his soul while preparing
+itself for the commission of a black
+crime.... &mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>MIDNIGHT.</p>
+
+<p>... Why, O Sultan Akhmet!
+have you cast lightning into my
+breast? A brother's friendship, a
+brother's treachery, and a brother's
+murder!... What dreadful extremes!
+And between them there is
+but a step, but a twinkling of the eye.
+I cannot sleep, I can think of nothing
+else. I am chained to this thought,
+like a criminal to his stake. A bloody
+sea swells, surges, and roars around
+me, and above gleams, instead of stars,
+the lightning-flash. My soul is like a
+naked peak, where only birds of prey
+and evil spirits assemble, to share
+their plunder, or to prepare misfortune.
+Verkh&oacute;ffsky, Verkh&oacute;ffsky! what
+have I done to you? Why would
+you tear from heaven the star of my
+liberty? Is it because I loved you so
+tenderly? And why do you approach
+me stealthily and thief-like? why do
+you slander&mdash;why do you betray me,
+by hypocrisy? You should say plainly,
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page751" id="page751" title="751"></a></span> &quot;I wish your life,&quot; and I would
+give it freely, without a murmur;
+would have laid it down a sacrifice
+like the son of Ibrahim, (Abraham!)
+I would have forgiven you, if you had
+but attempted my life, but to sell my
+freedom, to steal my Seltanetta from
+me, by burying me alive! Villain&mdash;and
+you still live!</p>
+
+<p>But sometimes like a dove, whose
+wings have been scorched in the
+smoke of a fire, appears thy form to
+me, Seltanetta. How is it, then, that
+I am no longer gay when I dream of
+you, as of old?...</p>
+
+<p>They would part us, my love&mdash;they
+would give you to another, to marry
+me on the grave-stone. But I will go
+to you&mdash;I will go to you over a bloody
+carpet&mdash;I will fulfil a bloody promise,
+in order to possess you. Invite not
+only your maiden friends to your marriage
+feast&mdash;invite also the vultures
+and the ravens, they shall all be regaled
+abundantly. I will pay a rich
+dower. On the pillow of my bride I
+will lay a heart which once I reckoned
+more precious than the throne-cushion<a name="footnotetag25" id="footnotetag25"></a><a href="#footnote25"><sup>25</sup></a>
+of the Persian Padishah.
+Wonderful destiny!... Innocent
+girl!... You will be the cause of
+an unheard of deed. Kindest of beings,
+for you friends will tear each
+other like ferocious beasts&mdash;for you
+and through you&mdash;and is it really for
+you alone&mdash;with ferocity&mdash;with ferocity
+only! Verkh&oacute;ffsky said, that to
+kill an enemy by stealth, is base and
+cowardly. But if I cannot do it
+otherwise? But can he be believed?...
+Hypocrite! He wished to
+entangle me beforehand; not my
+hands alone, but even my conscience.
+It was in vain.</p>
+
+<p>... I have loaded my rifle.
+What a fine round barrel&mdash;what admirable
+ornaments! The rifle I received
+from my father&mdash;my father got
+it from my grandfather. I have heard
+of many celebrated shots made with
+it&mdash;and not one, not one was fired by
+stealth.... Always in battle&mdash;always
+before the whole army, it sent
+death; but wrong, but treachery, but
+you, Seltanetta!... My hand
+will not tremble to level a shot at him,
+whose name it is afraid even to write.
+One loading, one fire, and all is
+over!...</p>
+
+<p>One loading! How light, but how
+heavy will be each grain of powder in
+the scales of Allah! How far&mdash;how
+immeasurably will this load bear a
+man's soul? Accursed thou, the inventor
+of the grey dust, which delivers
+a hero into the hand of the vilest
+craven, which kills from afar the foe,
+who, with a glance, could have disarmed
+the hand raised against him!
+So, this shot will tear asunder all my
+former ties, but it will clear a road to
+new ones. In the cool Caucasus&mdash;on
+the bosom of Seltanetta, will my faded
+heart be refreshed. Like a swallow
+will I build myself a nest in a
+stranger land&mdash;like a swallow, the
+spring shall be my country. I will
+cast from me old sorrows, as the bird
+sheds its feathers.... But the
+reproaches of conscience, can they
+fade?... The meanest L&eacute;zghin,
+when he sees in battle the man with
+whom he has shared bread and salt,
+turns aside his horse, and fires his gun
+in the air. It is true he deceives me;
+but have I been the less happy? Oh,
+if with these tears I could weep away
+my grief&mdash;drown with them the thirst
+for vengeance&mdash;buy with them Seltenetta!
+Why comes on the dawn of
+day so slowly? Let it come! I will
+look, without blushing, at the sun&mdash;without
+turning pale, into the eyes of
+Verkh&oacute;ffsky. My heart is like iron&mdash;it
+is locked against mercy; treachery
+calls for treachery ... I am
+resolved ... Quick, quick!</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;">
+
+<p>Thus incoherently, thus wildly
+wrote Ammal&aacute;t, in order to cheat
+time and to divert his soul. Thus he
+tried to cheat himself, rousing himself
+to revenge, whilst the real cause of
+his bloody intentions, viz. the desire
+of possessing Seltanetta, broke through
+every word.</p>
+
+<p>In order to embolden himself for
+his crime, he drank deeply of wine,
+and maddened, threw himself, with his
+gun, into the Colonel's tent; but perceiving
+sentinels at the door, he
+changed his intention. The natural
+feeling of self-preservation did not
+abandon him, even in his madness.
+Ammal&aacute;t put off till the morning the
+consummation of the murder; but he
+could neither sleep nor distract his
+thoughts ... and re-entering his
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page752" id="page752" title="752"></a></span> tent, he seized Saphir Ali by the
+throat, who was lying fast asleep,
+and shaking him roughly: &quot;Get up,
+sleepy rascal!&quot;; he cried to him, &quot;it
+is already dawn.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Saphir Ali raised his head in a discontented
+mood, and yawning, answered:
+&quot;I see only the dawn of wine
+on your cheek&mdash;good-night, Ammal&aacute;t!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Up, I tell you! The dead must
+quit their graves to meet the new-comer
+whom I have promised to send
+to keep them company!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, brother, am I dead?...
+Even the <i>forty Imaums</i><a name="footnotetag26" id="footnotetag26"></a><a href="#footnote26"><sup>26</sup></a> may get up
+from the burial-ground of Derb&eacute;nd&mdash;but
+I will sleep.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But you love to drink, Giaour,
+and you must drink with me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is quite another affair. Pour
+fuller, <i>Allah verdi</i>!<a name="footnotetag27" id="footnotetag27"></a><a href="#footnote27"><sup>27</sup></a> I am always ready
+to drink and to make love.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And to kill an enemy!...
+Come, some more! A health to the
+devil!&mdash;who changes friends into mortal
+enemies.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So be it! Here goes, then, to the
+devil's health! The poor fellow wants
+health. We will drive him into a
+consumption out of spite, because he
+cannot make us quarrel!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;True, true, he is always ready for
+mischief. If he had seen Verkh&oacute;ffsky
+and me, he would have thrown
+down his cards. But you, too, will
+not, I hope, part from me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ammal&aacute;t, I have not only quaffed
+wine from the same bottle with
+thee, but I have drained milk from the
+same breast. I am thine, even if you
+take it into your head to build yourself,
+like a vulture, a nest on the rock
+of Khounz&aacute;kh.... However, my
+advice would be&quot;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No advice, Saphir Ali&mdash;no remonstrances....
+It is now too
+late!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They would be drowned like flies
+in wine. But it is now time to
+sleep.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sleep, say you! Sleep, to me!
+No, I have bidden farewell to sleep.
+It is time for me to awaken. Have
+you examined the gun, Saphir Ali&mdash;is
+the flint good? Has not the powder
+on the shelf become damp with blood?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is the matter with you, Ammal&aacute;t?
+What leaden secret weighs
+upon your heart? Your face is terrible&mdash;your
+speech is yet more frightful.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And my deeds shall be yet more
+dreadful. Is it not true, Saphir Ali,
+my Seltanetta&mdash;is she not beautiful?
+Observe! <i>my</i> Seltanetta. Is it possible
+that these are the wedding songs,
+Saphir Ali? Yes, yes, yes! I understand.
+'Tis the jackals demanding
+their prey. Spirits and wild beasts,
+be patient awhile&mdash;I will content you!
+Ho, wine&mdash;more wine! more blood!...
+I tell you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Ammal&aacute;t fell on his bed in a drunken
+insensibility. Foam oozed out of
+his mouth: convulsive movements
+shook his whole body. He uttered
+unintelligible words, mingled with
+groans. Saphir Ali carefully undressed
+him, laid him in the bed, enveloped
+him in the coverings, and sat
+up the rest of the night watching
+over his foster-brother, in vain seeking
+in his head the explanation of the,
+to him, enigmatical speech and conduct
+of Ammal&aacute;t.</p>
+
+<br>
+
+<p>CHAPTER XII.</p>
+<br>
+
+<p>In the morning, before the departure
+of the detachment, the captain
+on duty came to Colonel Verkh&oacute;ffsky
+to present his report, and to receive
+the orders for the day. After the customary
+exchange of words, he said,
+with an alarmed countenance: &quot;Colonel,
+I have to communicate a most
+important thing: our yesterday's signal-man,
+a soldier of my company,
+Hamit&oacute;ff, heard the conversation of
+Ammal&aacute;t Bek with his nurse in Bouin&aacute;ki.
+He is a Tartar of Kaz&aacute;n, and
+understands pretty well the dialect of
+this country. As far as he could hear
+and understand, the nurse assured the
+Bek that you, with the Shamkh&aacute;l,
+are preparing to send him off to the
+galleys. Ammal&aacute;t flew into a passion;
+said, that he knew all this from
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page753" id="page753" title="753"></a></span> the Khan, and swore to kill you with
+his own hand. Not trusting his ears,
+however, the soldier determined to
+tell you nothing, but to watch all his
+steps. Yesterday evening, he says,
+Ammal&aacute;t spoke with a horseman arrived
+from afar. On taking leave,
+he said: 'Tell the Khan, that to-morrow,
+by sunrise, all will be over.
+Let him be ready: I shall soon see him.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And is this all, Captain?&quot; demanded
+Verkh&oacute;ffsky.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have nothing else to say; but
+I am much alarmed. I have passed
+my life among the Tartars, Colonel,
+and I am convinced that it is madness
+to trust the best of them. A
+born brother is not safe, while resting
+in the arms of a brother.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is envy, Captain. Cain has
+left it as an eternal heirloom to all
+men, and particularly to the neighbours
+of Ararat. Besides, there is
+no difference between Ammal&aacute;t and
+myself. I have done nothing for him
+but good. I intend nothing but kindness.
+Be easy, Captain: I believe
+the zeal of the signal-man, but I distrust
+his knowledge of the Tartar language.
+Some similarity of words
+has led him into error, and when
+once suspicion was awakened in his
+mind, every thing seemed an additional
+proof. Really, I am not so important
+a person that Khans and
+Beks should lay plots for my life. I
+know Ammal&aacute;t well. He is passionate,
+but he has a good heart, and
+could not conceal a bad intention two
+hours together.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Take care you be not mistaken,
+Colonel. Ammal&aacute;t is, after all, an
+Asiatic; and that name is always a
+proof. Here words hide thoughts&mdash;the
+face, the soul. Look at one of
+them&mdash;he seems innocence itself;
+have any thing to do with him, he is
+an abyss of meanness, treachery and
+ferocity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have a full right to think so,
+my dear Captain, from experience:
+Sultan Akhmet Khan gave you a
+memorable proof in Ammal&aacute;t's house,
+at Bouin&aacute;ki. But for me, I have no
+reason to suspect any mischief in Ammal&aacute;t;
+and besides, what would he
+gain by murdering me? On me depends
+all his hope, all his happiness.
+He is wild, perhaps, but not a madman.
+Besides, you see the sun is
+high; and I am alive and well. I am
+grateful, Captain, for the interest you
+have taken in me; but I entreat you,
+do not suspect Ammal&aacute;t: and, knowing
+how much I prize an old friendship,
+be assured that I shall as highly
+value a new one. Order them to beat
+the march.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The captain departed, gloomily
+shaking his head. The drums rattled,
+and the detachment, in marching order,
+moved on from its night-quarters.
+The morning was fresh and
+bright; the road lay through the
+green ramparts of the mountains of
+the Caucasus, crowned here and there
+with forests and underwood. The detachment,
+like a stream of steel, flowed
+now down the hills, and now crept
+up the declivities. The mist still
+rested on the valleys, and Verkh&oacute;ffsky,
+riding to the elevated points, looked
+round frequently to feast his eyes
+with the ever-changing landscape.
+Descending the mountain, the detachment
+seemed to be swallowed up in
+the steaming river, like the army of
+Pharaoh, and anon, with a dull sound,
+the bayonets glittered again from the
+misty waves. Then appeared heads,
+shoulders; the men seemed to grow
+up, and then leaping up the rocks,
+were lost anew in the fog.</p>
+
+<p>Ammal&aacute;t, pale and stern, rode next
+to the sharpshooters. It appeared
+that he wished to deafen his conscience
+in the noise of the drums.
+The colonel called him to his side,
+and said kindly: &quot;You must be scolded,
+Ammal&aacute;t; you have begun to
+follow too closely the precepts of
+Hafiz: recollect that wine is a good
+servant but a bad master: but a headache
+and the bile expressed in your
+face, will surely do you more good
+than a lecture. You have passed a
+stormy night, Ammal&aacute;t.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A stormy, a torturing night, Colonel!
+God grant that such a night
+be the last! I dreamed dreadful
+things.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Aha, my friend! You see what it
+is to transgress Mahomet's commandments.
+The conscience of the true
+believer torments you like a shadow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is well for him whose conscience
+quarrels only with wine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That depends on what sort of
+conscience it is. And fortunately it
+is as much subject to prejudice as reason
+itself. Every country, every nation,
+has its own conscience; and the
+voice of immortal, unchangeable truth
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page754" id="page754" title="754"></a></span> is silent before a would-be truth.
+Thus it is, thus it ever was. What
+yesterday we counted a mortal sin,
+to-morrow we adore. What on this
+bank is just and meritorious, on the
+other side of a brook leads to the
+halter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think, however, that treachery
+was never, and in no place, considered
+a virtue.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I will not say even that. We live
+at a time when success alone determines
+whether the means employed
+were good or bad; where the most
+conscientious persons have invented
+for themselves a very convenient rule&mdash;that
+the end sanctifies the means.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Ammal&aacute;t, lost in his reflections,
+repeated these words, because he approved
+of them. The poison of selfishness
+began anew to work within
+him; and the words of Verkh&oacute;ffsky,
+which he looked on as treacherous,
+poured like oil on flame. &quot;Hypocrite!&quot;
+said he to himself; &quot;your
+hour is at hand!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And meanwhile Verkh&oacute;ffsky, like
+a victim suspecting nothing, rode side
+by side with his executioner. At
+about eight versts from Kiek&eacute;nt the
+Caspian Sea discovered itself to them
+from a hill; and the thoughts of
+Verkh&oacute;ffsky soared above it like a
+swan. &quot;Mirror of eternity!&quot; said
+he, sinking into a reverie, &quot;why does
+not your aspect gladden me to-day?
+As of old, the sun plays on you; and
+your bosom breathes, as sublimely as
+of old, eternal life; but that life is
+not of this world. You seem to me
+to-day a mournful waste; not a boat,
+not a sail, not a sign of man's existence.
+All is desolate!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, Ammal&aacute;t,&quot; he added; &quot;I
+am tired of your ever-angry, lonely
+sea&mdash;of your country peopled with
+diseases, and with men who are
+worse than all maladies in the world.
+I am weary of the war itself, of
+invisible enemies, of the service
+shared with unfriendly comrades.
+It is not enough that they impeded
+me in my proceedings&mdash;they spoiled
+what I ordered to be done&mdash;they
+found fault with what I intended, and
+misrepresented what I had effected.
+I have served my sovereign with truth
+and fidelity, my country and this
+region with disinterestedness; I have
+renounced, a voluntary exile, all the
+conveniences of life, all the charms
+of society; have condemned my intellect
+to torpidity, being deprived of
+books; have buried my heart in solitude;
+have abandoned my beloved;
+and what is my reward? When will
+that moment arrive, when I throw
+myself into the arms of my bride;
+when I, wearied with service, shall
+repose myself under my native cottage-roof,
+on the green shore of the
+Dni&eacute;per; when a peaceful villager,
+and a tender father, surrounded by
+my relations and my good peasants,
+I shall fear only the hail of heaven
+for my harvests; fight only with
+wild-beasts? My heart yearns for that
+hour. My leave of absence is in my
+pocket, my dismission is promised me....
+Oh, that I could fly to my
+bride!... And in five days I shall
+for certain be in Ge&oacute;rgieffsk. Yet it
+seems as if the sands of Libya, a sea
+of ice&mdash;&mdash;as if the eternity of the
+grave itself, separated us!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Verkh&oacute;ffsky was silent. Tears ran
+down his cheeks; his horse, feeling
+the slackened rein, quickened his pace&mdash;and
+thus the pair alone, advanced
+to some distance from the detachment....
+It seemed as if destiny
+itself surrendered the colonel into
+the hands of the assassin.</p>
+
+<p>But pity penetrated the heart of
+Ammal&aacute;t, maddened as he was, and
+burning with wine&mdash;like a sunbeam
+falling in a robber's cave. He beheld
+the sorrow, the tears of the man whom
+he had so long considered as his friend,
+and hesitated. &quot;No!&quot; he thought,
+&quot;to such a degree as that it is impossible
+to dissimulate....&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this moment Verkh&oacute;ffsky started
+from his reverie, lifted up his head,
+and spoke to Ammal&aacute;t. &quot;Prepare
+yourself: you are to go with me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Unlucky words! Every thing good,
+every thing noble, which had arisen
+anew in Ammal&aacute;t's breast, was crushed
+in a moment by them. The thought
+of treachery&mdash;of exile&mdash;rushed like
+a torrent through his whole being
+&quot;With you!&quot; he replied, with a
+malicious smile&mdash;&quot;with you, and into
+Russia?&mdash;undoubtedly: if you go
+yourself!&quot; and in a passion of rage
+he urged his horse into a gallop, in
+order to have time to prepare his
+arms; suddenly turned back to meet
+him; flew by him, and began to ride
+rapidly in a circle around him. At
+each stride of his horse, the flame of
+rage burned more fiercely within him:
+it seemed as if the wind, as it whistled
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page755" id="page755" title="755"></a></span> past him, kept whispering &quot;Kill,
+kill! he is your enemy. Remember
+Seltanetta!&quot; He brought his rifle
+forward from his shoulder, cocked it,
+and encouraging himself with a cry,
+he galloped with blood-thirsty decision
+to his doomed victim. Verkh&oacute;ffsky,
+meanwhile, not cherishing the
+least suspicion, looked quietly at Ammal&aacute;t
+as he galloped round, thinking
+that he was preparing, after the Asiatic
+manner, for the djig&iacute;tering (equestrian
+exercises.)</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Fire at your mark, Ammal&aacute;t
+Bek!&quot; he exclaimed to the murderer
+who was rushing towards him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What mark can be better than
+the breast of a foe?&quot; answered Ammal&aacute;t
+Bek, riding up, and at ten paces'
+distance pulling the trigger!...
+the gun went off: and slowly, without
+a groan, the colonel sank out of
+his saddle. His affrighted horse,
+with expanded nostrils and streaming
+mane, smelt at his rider, in whose
+hands the reins that had so lately
+guided him began to stiffen: and the
+steed of Ammal&aacute;t stopped abruptly
+before the corpse, setting his legs
+straight before him. Ammal&aacute;t leaped
+from his horse, and, resting his arms
+on his yet smoking gun, looked for
+several moments steadfastly in the
+face of the murdered man; as if
+endeavouring to prove to himself that
+he feared not that fixed gaze, those
+fast-dimming eyes&mdash;that fast-freezing
+blood. It would be difficult to
+understand&mdash;'twere impossible to express
+the thoughts which rolled like
+a whirlwind through his breast.
+Saphir Ali rode up at full gallop;
+and fell on his knees by the colonel&mdash;he
+laid his ear to the dying man's
+mouth&mdash;he breathed not&mdash;he felt his
+heart&mdash;it beat not! &quot;He is dead!&quot;
+cried Saphir Ali in a tone of despair.
+&quot;Dead! quite dead!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So much the better ... My
+happiness is complete!...&quot; exclaimed
+Ammal&aacute;t, as if awakening
+from a dream.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Happiness for you&mdash;for you, fratricide!
+If you meet happiness, the
+world will take to Shait&aacute;n
+instead of Allah.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Saphir Ali, remember that you
+are not my judge!&quot; said Ammal&aacute;t
+fiercely, as he put his foot into the
+stirrup: &quot;follow me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;May remorse alone accompany
+you, like your shadow! From this
+hour I am not your companion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Pierced to the very bottom of his
+heart by this reproach from a man to
+whom he had been from infancy
+bound by the closest ties, Ammal&aacute;t
+uttered not a word, but pointing to
+his astounded n&oacute;ukers in the ravine,
+and perceiving the pursuit begun,
+dashed into the mountains like an
+arrow.</p>
+
+<p>The alarm soon spread through the
+advanced guard of the detachment:
+the officers, who were in front, and
+the Don Kaz&aacute;ks, flew to the shot,
+but they came too late. They could
+neither prevent the crime nor seize
+the flying assassin. In five minutes
+the bloody corpse of the treacherously
+murdered colonel was surrounded
+by a crowd of officers and soldiers.
+Doubt, pity, indignation were written
+on all their faces. The grenadiers,
+leaning on their bayonets, shed
+tears, and sobbed aloud: unflattering
+drops poured above the brave and
+much-loved chief.</p>
+
+<br>
+
+<p>CHAPTER XIII.</p>
+<br>
+
+<p>For three days and nights did Ammal&aacute;t
+wander about the mountains of
+Daghest&aacute;n. As a Mussulman, even
+in the villages subject to the Russian
+dominion, he was safe from all pursuit
+among people for whom robbery
+and murder are virtues. But could
+he escape from the consciousness of
+his own crime? Neither his heart nor
+his reason could find an excuse for his
+bloody deed; and the image of Verkh&oacute;ffsky
+falling from his horse, presented
+itself unceasingly before his
+eyes, though closed. This recollection
+infuriated him yet more, yet
+more tortured him. The Asiatic,
+once turned aside from the right road,
+travels rapidly over the career of
+villany. The Khan's command, not
+to appear before him but with the
+head of Verkh&oacute;ffsky, rang in his ears.
+Without daring to communicate such
+an intention to his n&oacute;ukers, and still
+less relying on their bravery, he resolved
+upon travelling to Derb&eacute;nd
+alone. A darksome and gloomy night
+had already expanded it ebon wings
+over the mountains of Caucasus which
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page756" id="page756" title="756"></a></span> skirt the sea, when Ammal&aacute;t passed
+the ravine which lay behind the fortress
+of Nar&iacute;n-K&aacute;li, which served as
+a citadel to Derb&eacute;nd. He mounted
+to the ruined turret, which once formed
+the limit to the Caucasian war
+that had extended through the mountains,
+and tied his horse at the foot of
+that hill from which Yerm&oacute;loff had
+thundered on Derb&eacute;nd when but a
+lieutenant of artillery. Knowing
+where the Russian officers were buried,
+he came out upon the upper
+burial-ground. But how to find the
+new-made grave of Verkh&oacute;ffsky in
+the darkness of the night? Not
+a star glimmered in the sky: the
+clouds lay stretched on the hills,
+the mountain-wind, like a night-bird,
+lashed the forest with its wing:
+an involuntary shudder crept over
+Ammal&aacute;t, in the midst of the region
+of the dead, whose repose he
+dared to interrupt. He listens: the
+sea murmurs hoarsely against the
+rocks, tumbling back from them into
+the deep with a sullen sound. The
+prolonged &quot;sl&oacute;ushai&quot; of the sentinels
+floated round the walls of the town,
+and when it was silent there rose the
+yell of the jackals; and at last all
+again was still&mdash;every sound mingling
+and losing itself in the rushing of the
+wind. How often had he not sat
+awake on such nights with Verkh&oacute;ffsky&mdash;and
+where is he now! And who
+plunged him into the grave! And
+the murderer was now come to behead
+the corpse of his former friend&mdash;to
+do sacrilege to his remains&mdash;like a
+grave-robber to plunder the tomb&mdash;to
+dispute with the jackal his prey!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Human feeling!&quot; cried Ammal&aacute;t,
+as he wiped the cold sweat from
+his forehead, &quot;why visitest thou a
+heart which has torn itself from humanity?
+Away, away! Is it for me
+to fear to take off the head of a dead
+man, whom I have robbed of life!
+For him 'twill be no loss&mdash;to me a
+treasure. Dust is insensible!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Ammal&aacute;t struck a light with a
+trembling hand, blew up into a flame
+some dry bouri&aacute;n, (a dry grass of
+South Russia,) and went with it to
+search for the new-made grave. The
+loosened earth, and a large cross,
+pointed out the last habitation of the
+colonel. He tore up the cross, and
+began to dig up the mound with it;
+he broke through the arch of brickwork,
+which had not yet become hardened,
+and finally tore the lead from
+the coffin. The bouri&aacute;n, flaring up,
+threw an uncertain bloody-bluish tinge
+on all around. Leaning over the
+dead, the murderer, paler than the
+corpse itself, gazed unmovingly on his
+work; he forgot why he had come&mdash;he
+turned away his head from the reek
+of rottenness&mdash;his gorge rose within
+him when he saw the bloody-headed
+worms that crawled from under the
+clothes. Interrupted in their loathsome
+work, they, scared by the light,
+crept into a mass, and hid themselves
+beneath each other. At length, steeling
+himself to the deed, he brandished
+his dagger, and each time his erring
+hand missed its aim. Nor revenge,
+nor ambition, nor love&mdash;in a word,
+not one of those passions which had
+urged him to the frenzied crime, now
+encouraged him to the nameless horror.
+Turning away his head, in a
+sort of insensibility he began to hew
+at the neck of Verkh&oacute;ffsky&mdash;at the
+fifth blow the head parted from the
+trunk. Shuddering with disgust, he
+threw it into a bag which he had prepared,
+and hastened from the grave.
+Hitherto he had remained master of
+himself; but when, with his dreadful
+treasure, he was scrambling up, when
+the stones crumbling noisily under his
+feet, and he, covered with sand, fell
+backwards on Verkh&oacute;ffsky's corpse,
+then presence of mind left the sacrilegious.
+It seemed as if a flame had
+seized him, and spirits of hell, dancing
+and grinning, had surrounded him.
+With a heavy groan he tore himself
+away, crawled half senseless out of
+the suffocating grave, and hurried off,
+dreading to look back. Leaping on
+his horse, he urged it on, over rocks
+and ravines, and each bush that caught
+his dress seemed to him the hand of a
+corpse; the cracking of every branch,
+the shriek of every jackal, sounded
+like the cry of his twice-murdered
+friend.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;">
+
+<p>Wherever Ammal&aacute;t passed, he encountered
+armed bands of Akoushl&iacute;netzes
+and Avar&eacute;tzes, Tchetchen&eacute;tzes
+just arrived, and robbers of the
+Tartar villages subject to Russia.
+They were all hurrying to the trysting-place
+near the border-limits; while
+the Beks, Ouzd&eacute;ns, and petty princes,
+were assembling at Khourz&aacute;kh, for a
+council with Akhmet Khan, under the
+leading, and by the invitation of whom,
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page757" id="page757" title="757"></a></span> they were preparing to fall upon
+T&aacute;rki. The present was the most
+favourable moment for their purpose:
+there was abundance of corn in the
+amb&aacute;rs, (magazines,) hay in the stacks,
+and the Russians, having taken hostages,
+had established themselves in
+full security in winter-quarters. The
+news of Verkh&oacute;ffsky's murder had
+flown over all the hills, and powerfully
+encouraged the mountaineers. Merrily
+they poured together from all
+sides; every where were heard their
+songs of future battles and plunder;
+and he for whom they were going to
+fight rode through them like a runaway
+and a culprit, hiding from the
+light of the sun, and not daring to
+look any one in the face. Every
+thing that happened, every thing that
+he saw, now seemed like a suffocating
+dream&mdash;he dared not doubt, he dared
+not believe it. On the evening of the
+third day he reached Khounz&aacute;kh.</p>
+
+<p>Trembling with impatience, he
+leaped from his horse, worn out with
+fatigue, and took from his saddle-straps
+the fatal bag. The front
+chambers were filled with warriors;
+cavaliers in armour were walking
+up and down, or lay on the carpets
+along the walls, conversing in whispers;
+but their eyebrows were knit
+and cast down&mdash;their stern faces
+proved that bad news had reached
+Khounz&aacute;kh. N&oacute;ukers ran hurriedly
+backwards and forwards, and none
+questioned, none accompanied Ammal&aacute;t,
+none paid any attention to him.
+At the door of the Khan's bed-chamber
+sate Zo&uacute;rkhai-Khan-Djingk&aacute;, the
+natural son of Sultan Akhmet, weeping
+bitterly. &quot;What means this?&quot;
+uneasily demanded Ammal&aacute;t. &quot;You,
+from whom even in childhood tears
+could not be drawn&mdash;you weep?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Zo&uacute;rkhai silently pointed to the
+door, and Ammal&aacute;t, perplexed, crossed
+the threshold. A heart-rending
+spectacle was presented before the
+new-comer's eyes. In the middle of
+the room, on a bed, lay the Khan,
+disfigured by a fierce illness; death
+invisible, but inevitable, hovered over
+him, and his fading glance met it with
+dread. His breast heaved high, and
+then sank heavily; his breath rattled
+in his throat, the veins of his hands
+swelled, and then shrank again. In
+him was taking place the last struggle
+of life with annihilation; the
+mainspring of existence had already
+burst, but the wheels still moved with
+an uneven motion, catching and entangling
+in each other. The spark of
+memory hardly glimmered in him,
+but fitfully flashed like falling stars
+through the darkness of night, which
+thickened over his soul, and reflected
+themselves in his dying face. His
+wife and daughter were sobbing on
+their knees by his bed-side; his eldest
+son, No&uacute;tsal, in silent despair leaned
+at his feet, resting his head on his
+clenched fists. Several women and
+n&oacute;ukers wept silently at a distance.</p>
+
+<p>All this, however, neither astounded
+Ammal&aacute;t nor recalled him to himself,
+occupied as he was with one idea:
+he approached the Khan with a firm
+step, and said to him aloud&mdash;&quot;Hail,
+Khan! I have brought you a present
+which will restore a dead man to
+life. Prepare the bridal. Here is
+my purchase-money for Seltanetta;
+here is the head of Verkh&oacute;ffsky!&quot;
+With these words he threw it at the
+Khan's feet.</p>
+
+<p>The well-known voice aroused Sultan
+Akhmet from his last sleep: he
+raised his head with difficulty to look
+at the present, and a shudder ran like
+a wave over his body when he beheld
+the lifeless head. &quot;May he eat his
+own heart who treats a dying man
+with such dreadful food!&quot; he murmured,
+scarce intelligibly. &quot;I must
+make my peace with my enemies, and
+not&mdash;&mdash;Ah, I burn, I burn! Give me
+water, water! Why have you made
+me drink scalding naphtha? Ammal&aacute;t,
+I curse you!&quot; This effort exhausted
+the last drops of life in the
+Khan; he fell a senseless corpse on
+the pillow. The Khansha had looked
+with horror on the bloody and untimely
+present of Ammal&aacute;t; but when
+she saw that this had hastened her
+husband's death, all her grief broke
+out in a torrent of anger. &quot;Messenger
+of hell!&quot; she exclaimed, her eyes
+flashing, &quot;rejoice; these are your
+exploits; but for you, my husband
+would never have thought of raising
+Av&aacute;r against the Russians, and would
+have now been sitting in health and
+quiet at home; but for you, visiting
+the Ouzdens, he fell from a rock and
+was disabled; and you, blood-drinker!&mdash;instead
+of consoling the sick with
+mild words, instead of making his
+peace with Allah by prayers and alms&mdash;bring,
+as if to a cannibal, a dead
+man's head; and whose head? Thy
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page758" id="page758" title="758"></a></span> benefactor's, thy protector's, thy
+friend's!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Such was the Khan's will,&quot; in
+his turn replied Ammal&aacute;t.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do not slander the dead; defile not
+his memory with superfluous blood!&quot;
+screamed the Khansha: &quot;not content
+with having treacherously murdered
+a man, you come with his head to
+woo my daughter at the deathbed of
+her father, and you hoped to receive
+a recompense from man, when you
+deserved the vengeance of God. Godless,
+soulless being! No! by the
+graves of my ancestors, by the swords
+of my sons, I swear you shall never
+be my son-in-law, my acquaintance,
+my guest! Away from my house,
+traitor! I have sons, and you may
+murder while embracing them. I
+have a daughter, whom you may bewitch
+and poison with your serpent
+looks. Go, wander in the ravines of
+the mountains; teach the tigers to
+tear each other; and dispute with the
+wolves for carcasses. Go, and know
+that my door opens not to a fratricide!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Ammal&aacute;t stood like one struck by
+lightning: all that his conscience had
+indistinctly whispered to him had been
+spoken out to him at once, and so
+unexpectedly, so cruelly. He knew
+not where to turn his eyes: there lay
+the head of Verkh&oacute;ffsky with its accusing
+blood&mdash;there was the threatening
+face of the Khan, printed with
+the seal of a death of torture&mdash;there
+he met the stern glance of the Khansha....
+The tearful eyes of
+Seltanetta alone appeared like stars of
+joy through a rainy cloud. To her he
+resolved to approach, saying timidly,
+&quot;Seltanetta, for you have I committed
+that for which I lose you. Destiny
+wills it: be it so! One thing tell
+me&mdash;is it possible that you, too, have
+ceased to love me&mdash;that you, too, hate
+me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The well-remembered voice of the
+beloved pierced her heart: Seltanetta
+raised her eyes glistening with tears&mdash;eyes
+full of woe; but on seeing
+Ammal&aacute;t's dreadful face, spotted with
+blood, she covered them again with
+her hand. She pointed with her finger
+at her father's corpse, at the head of
+Verkh&oacute;ffsky, and said, with firmness,
+&quot;Farewell, Ammal&aacute;t! I pity thee;
+but I cannot be thine!&quot; With these
+words she fell senseless on her father's
+body.</p>
+
+<p>All his native pride, all his blood,
+rushed to Ammal&aacute;t's heart; his soul
+fired with fury. &quot;Is it thus I am
+received?&quot; casting a scornful glance
+at both the women; &quot;is it thus that
+promises are fulfilled here? I am
+glad that my eyes are opened. I was
+too simple when I prized the light
+love of a fickle girl&mdash;too patient when
+I hearkened to the ravings of an old
+woman. I see, that with Sultan
+Akhmet Khan have died the honour
+and hospitality of his house!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He left the room with a haughty
+step. He proudly gazed in the face
+of the Ouzdens, grasping the hilt of
+his dagger as if challenging them to
+combat. All, however, made way
+for him, but seemingly rather to
+avoid him than from respect. No one
+saluted him, either by word or sign.
+He went forth into the court-yard,
+called his n&oacute;ukers together, silently
+mounted into the saddle, and slowly
+rode through the empty streets of
+Khounz&aacute;kh.</p>
+
+<p>From the road he looked back for
+the last time upon the Khan's house,
+which was blackening in the darkness,
+while the grated door shone with
+lights. His heart was full of blood;
+his offended pride fixed in its iron talons,
+while the useless crime, and the
+love henceforth despised and hopeless,
+poured venom on the wounds. Grief,
+anger, and remorse mingled in the
+glance which he threw on the harem
+where he first saw, and where he lost,
+all earthly joy. &quot;And you, and you,
+Seltanetta!&quot; he could utter no more.
+A mountain of lead lay on his breast;
+his conscience already felt that dreadful
+hand which was stretched forth
+against it. The past terrified him;
+the future made him tremble. Where
+will he rest that head on which a
+price is set? What earth will give
+repose to the bones of a traitor? Nor
+love, nor friendship, nor happiness,
+will ever again be his care; but a life
+of misery, a wanderer's bread....</p>
+
+<p>Ammal&aacute;t wished to weep, his eyes
+burned ... and, like the rich man
+tormented in the fire, his heart prayed
+for one drop, one tear, to quench his
+intolerable thirst.... He tried to
+weep, and could not. Providence
+has denied this consolation to the
+guilty.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;">
+
+<p>And where did the murderer of
+Verkh&oacute;ffsky hide himself? Whither
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page759" id="page759" title="759"></a></span> did he drag his wretched existence?
+No one knew. In Daghest&aacute;n it was
+reported that he wandered among the
+Tchetchen&eacute;tzes and Koi-Sou-Boulin&eacute;tzes,
+having lost his beauty, his
+health, and even his bravery. But
+who could say this with certainty?
+Little by little the rumours about
+Ammal&aacute;t died away, though his villanous
+treachery is still fresh in the
+memory of Russians and Mussulmans
+who dwell in Daghest&aacute;n. Even now
+his name is never pronounced without
+a reproach.</p>
+
+<br>
+
+<p>CHAPTER XIV.</p>
+<br>
+
+<p>An&aacute;pa, that manufactory of arms
+for the robbers of the mountains, that
+bazar where are sold the tears, the
+blood, the sweat of Christian slaves,
+that torch of rebellion to the Caucasus&mdash;An&aacute;pa,
+I say, was, in 1808, invested
+by the Russian armies, on the
+sea and on the mountain side. The
+gun-boats, the bomb-vessels, and all
+the ships that could approach the
+shore, were thundering against the
+fortifications. The land army had
+passed the river which falls into the
+Black Sea, under the northern wall
+of An&aacute;pa, and was posted in swampy
+ground around the whole city. Then
+they constructed wooden trenches,
+hewing down, for that purpose, the
+surrounding forest. Every night new
+works arose nearer and nearer to the
+walls of the town. The interior of
+the houses flamed from the effects of
+the shells; the outer walls fell under
+the cannon-balls. But the Turkish
+garrison, reinforced by the mountaineers,
+fought desperately, made fierce
+sorties, and replied to all proposals for
+surrender by the shots of their artillery.
+Meanwhile the besiegers were
+incessantly harassed by the Kabardin&eacute;tz
+skirmishers, and the foot-archers
+of Abaz&eacute;khs, Shams&oacute;ukhs, Natoukh&aacute;itzes,
+and other wild mountaineers
+of the shores of the Black Sea,
+assembled, like the jackals, in hope of
+plunder and blood. Against them it
+was necessary to erect redans; and
+this double work, performed under
+the fire of cannon from the fortress
+and from the forest, on irregular and
+boggy ground, delayed long the capture
+of the town.</p>
+
+<p>At length, on the eve of the taking
+of An&aacute;pa, the Russians opened a
+breaching-battery in a ravine on the
+south-east side of the town: its effect
+was tremendous. At the fifth volley
+the battlements and parapets were
+overthrown, the guns laid bare and
+beaten down. The balls, striking
+against the stone facing, flashed like
+lightning; and then, in a black cloud
+of dust, flew up fragments of shattered
+stone. The wall crumbled and
+fell to pieces; but the fortress, by the
+thickness of its walls, resisted long the
+shattering force of the iron; and the
+precipitous steepness of the ruins offered
+no opportunity for storming.
+For the heated guns, and for the
+weary artillerymen, worn out by incessant
+firing, repose was absolutely
+necessary. By degrees the firing
+from the batteries by land and sea
+began to slacken; thick clouds of
+smoke, floating from the shore, expanded
+over the waves, sometimes
+concealing, sometimes discovering,
+the flotilla. From time to time a ball
+of smoke flew up from the guns of
+the fortress, and after the rolling
+of the cannon-thunder, far echoing
+among the hills, a ball would whistle
+by at random. And now all was
+silent&mdash;all was still both in the interior
+of An&aacute;pa and in the trenches.
+Not one turban was seen between the
+battlements, not one carabineer's bayonet
+in the intrenchment. Only the
+Turkish banners on the towers, and
+the Russian ensign on board the ships,
+waved proudly in the air, now undimmed
+by a single stream of smoke&mdash;only
+the harmonious voices of the
+muezzins resounded from afar, calling
+the Mussulmans to their mid-day
+prayer. At this moment, from the
+breach opposite the battery on the
+plain, descended, or rather rolled
+down, supported by ropes, a horseman
+on a white horse, who immediately
+leaped over the half-filled ditch, dashed
+to the left between the batteries,
+flew over the intrenchments, over the
+soldiers dozing behind them, who
+neither expected nor guessed any
+thing like this, and, followed by their
+hasty shouts, plunged into the woods.
+None of the cavalry had time to
+glance at, much less to pursue him:
+all remained thunderstruck with astonishment
+and vexation; and soon
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page760" id="page760" title="760"></a></span> forgot all about the brave cavalier, in
+the alarm of the renewed firing from
+the fortress, which was recommenced
+in order to give the bold messenger
+time to escape to the mountains. Towards
+evening the breaching battery,
+which had thundered almost incessantly,
+had accomplished its work of
+demolition. The prostrate wall formed
+a kind of bridge for the besiegers,
+who, with the impatience of bravery,
+prepared for the assault; when suddenly
+an unexpected attack of the
+Tcherk&eacute;ss, who had driven in the
+Russian scouts and outposts, compelled
+the besiegers to direct the fire of the
+redans against the furious mountaineers.
+A thundering Allah-il-Allah,
+from the walls of An&aacute;pa, greeted their
+encounter: the volleys of cannon and
+musketry arose with redoubled violence
+from the walls, but the Russian
+grape tore asunder and arrested the
+crowds of horsemen and infantry of
+the Tcherk&eacute;ss, as they were preparing
+to throw themselves upon the batteries
+with their sabres; and they, with
+furious cries of &quot;Giaour, giaourla!&quot;
+turned back, leaving behind them the
+dead and wounded. In a moment the
+whole field was strewn with their
+corpses and their disabled, who, staggering
+to their feet, fell back, struck
+by the balls and grape-shot; whilst the
+cannon-shot shattered the wood, and
+the grenades, bursting, completed
+the destruction. But from the beginning
+of the action, till the moment
+when not one of the enemy remained
+in sight, the Russians saw before them
+a well-built Tcherk&eacute;ss on a white
+horse, who rode, at a slow pace, up
+and down before their redans. All
+recognized in him the same horseman
+who had leaped over the trenches at
+mid-day, probably in order to induce
+the Tcherk&eacute;ss to fall upon the Russians
+from the rear, at the moment
+when the now unsuccessful sortie was
+to be made from the gate. Crashing
+and thundering danced the grape-shot
+around him. His horse strained
+at the bridle; but he, looking calmly
+at the batteries, rode along them as
+if they were raining flowers upon him.
+The artillerymen ground their teeth
+with vexation at the unpunished daring
+of the cavalier: shot after shot
+tore up the earth, but he remained
+unhurt as if enchanted. &quot;Give him
+a cannon-ball!&quot; shouted a young officer
+of artillery, but lately released
+from the military college, who was
+above all enraged at their want of
+success: &quot;I would load the gun with
+my head, so glad would I be to kill
+that bragger: it is not worth while to
+waste grape upon one man&mdash;grape&mdash;look
+out! a cannon-ball will reach the
+guilty!&quot; So saying, he screwed up
+the quoin and levelled the gun, looking
+through the sight; and having
+exactly calculated the moment when
+the horseman would ride through the
+line of aim, he stepped aside and ordered
+the fatal fire.</p>
+
+<p>For some moments the smoke enveloped
+the battery in darkness:
+when it floated away the frightened
+horse was dragging the blood-stained
+corpse of his rider, with the foot entangled
+in the stirrup. &quot;Hit&mdash;killed!&quot;
+was shouted from all the trenches; and
+the young artillery officer, taking off
+his cap, piously crossed himself, and
+with a joyous face jumped down from
+the battery to seize the prey which he
+had earned. He soon succeeded in
+catching by the reins the horse of the
+slain Tcherk&eacute;ss, for he was dragging
+the body sideways on the ground.
+The unfortunate man had his arm
+torn off close to the shoulder; but he
+still breathed, groaned, and struggled.
+Pity touched the good-natured youth:
+he called some soldiers, and ordered
+them to carry the wounded man carefully
+into the trench, sent for the surgeon,
+and had the operation performed
+before his eyes. At night, when all
+was quiet, the artilleryman sat by the
+side of his dying prisoner, and watched
+him with interest by the dim light of
+the lantern. The serpent-marks of
+sorrow, graven on his cheek by tears,
+the wrinkles on his forehead, dug, not
+by years but passions, and bloody
+scratches, disfigured his handsome
+face; and in it was painted something
+more torturing than pain, more
+terrible than death. The artilleryman
+could not restrain an involuntary
+shudder. The prisoner sighed heavily,
+and having, with difficulty, raised
+his hand to his forehead, opened his
+heavy eyelids, muttering to himself
+in unintelligible sounds, unconnected
+words.... &quot;Blood,&quot; he cried, examining
+his hand ... &quot;always
+blood! why have they put <i>his</i> bloody
+shirt upon me? Already, without
+that, I swim in blood.... Why do
+I not drown in it?... How cold
+the blood is to-day!... Once it
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page761" id="page761" title="761"></a></span> used to scald me, and this is no better!
+In the world it is stifling, in the
+gave so cold.... 'Tis dreadful to
+be a corpse. Fool that I am, I sought
+death. O, let me live but for one
+little day&mdash;one little hour, to live!...&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What? Why have I hidden
+another in the grave, <i>whisperest thou</i>?
+Learn thyself what it is to die!...&quot;
+A convulsive paroxysm interrupted
+his raving, an unspeakably dreadful
+groan burst from the sufferer, and he
+fell into a painful lethargy, in which
+the soul lives only to suffer.</p>
+
+<p>The artilleryman, touched to the
+very bottom of his heart, raised the
+head of the miserable being, sprinkled
+his face with cold water, and rubbed
+his temples with spirits of wine, in order
+to bring him to himself. Slowly
+he opened his eyes, shook his head
+several times, as if to shake the mist
+from his eyelashes, and steadfastly
+directed his gaze on the face of the
+artilleryman, which was faintly lighted
+up by the feeble gleam of the candle.
+Suddenly, with a piercing cry, he
+lifted himself on his bed, as if by some
+superhuman force: his hair stood upright,
+his whole body shook with a
+fevered trembling, his hand seemed
+endeavouring to push something from
+him, an ineffable horror was expressed
+on his countenance.... &quot;Your
+name!&quot; he cried at length, addressing
+the artilleryman. &quot;Who are thou,
+stranger from the grave?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am Verkh&oacute;ffsky?&quot; ... answered
+the young artilleryman. This
+was a shot that went straight to the
+heart of the prisoner. The ligature
+on the principal artery gave way from
+a rush of blood, which poured through
+the bandages. Yet a few struggles,
+yet the throat-rattle, and the leaden
+hand of death choked the wounded
+man's last sigh, imprinted on his brow
+the seal of the last grief; gathering
+whole years of repentance into one
+rapid moment, in which the soul, tearing
+itself from the body, fears equally
+the tortures of life and of nothingness,
+feels at once all the gnawing of the
+past and all the agony of the future.
+Terrible was it to look on the convulsed
+face of the dead. &quot;He surely
+must have been a great sinner,&quot; said
+Verkh&oacute;ffsky, in a low voice to the
+general's interpreter, who stood near
+him, and he shuddered involuntarily.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A great villain,&quot; rejoined the interpreter:
+&quot;it appears to me he was
+a Russian deserter. I never met with
+a mountaineer who spoke Russian so
+correctly as this prisoner. Let me
+look at his arms. We may, perhaps,
+find some marks on them.&quot; With these
+words he unsheathed, with a look of
+curiosity, the dagger which had been
+taken from the dead man, and bringing
+it to the lantern, deciphered and
+translated the following inscription:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blkquot"><p>&quot;Be slow to offend&mdash;swift to revenge!&quot;</p></div>
+
+<p>&quot;Quite a robber's rule,&quot; said Verkh&oacute;ffsky;
+&quot;my poor brother Evstafli!
+you fell a victim to such a fanatic
+principle as this!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The eyes of the good youth filled
+with tears.... &quot;Is there not something
+else?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is apparently the slain man's
+name,&quot; replied the interpreter.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is: Ammal&aacute;t Bek!&quot;</p>
+
+<hr class="full">
+
+
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page762" id="page762" title="762"></a></span>
+<a name="bw332s6" id="bw332s6"></a><h2>MR BAILEY'S REPLY TO AN ARTICLE IN BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE.</h2>
+
+<p>We have just been favoured with a
+pamphlet from Mr Bailey, entitled
+&quot;A Letter to a Philosopher, in Reply
+to some Recent Attempts to Vindicate
+Berkeley's Theory of Vision, and
+in further Elucidation of its Unsoundness.&quot;
+Our article on Mr Bailey's
+review of Berkeley's theory, which
+appeared in <i>Blackwood's Magazine</i> of
+June 1842, was one of these attempts.
+Had the author merely attacked or
+controverted our animadversions on
+his book, we should probably have
+left the question to its fate, and not
+have reverted to a subject, the discussion
+of which, even in the first instance,
+may have been deemed out of
+place in a journal not expressly philosophical.
+There is, in general, little
+to be gained by protracting such controversies.
+But, as Mr Bailey accuses
+us, in the present instance, of having
+misrepresented his views, we must be
+allowed to exculpate ourselves from
+the charge of having dealt, even with
+unintentional unfairness, towards one
+whose opinions, however much we
+may dissent from them, are certainly
+entitled to high respect and a candid
+examination, as the convictions of an
+able and zealous enquirer after truth.</p>
+
+<p>In our strictures on Mr Bailey's
+work, we remarked, that he had represented
+Berkeley as holding that the
+eye is not directly and originally cognizant
+of the outness of objects in
+relation to each other, or of what we
+would call their reciprocal outness;
+in other words, we stated, that, according
+to Mr Bailey, Berkeley must
+be regarded as denying to the eye the
+original intuition of space, either in
+length, breadth, or solid depth. It
+was, however, only in reference to one
+of his arguments, and to one particular
+division of his subject, that we laid
+this representation to his charge.
+Throughout the other parts of his
+discussion, we by no means intended
+to say that such was the view he took
+of the Berkeleian theory. Nor are
+we aware of having made any statement
+to that effect. If we did, we
+now take the opportunity of remarking,
+that we restrict our allegation, as
+we believe we formerly restricted it,
+to the single argument and distinction
+just mentioned, and hereafter to be
+explained.</p>
+
+<p>In his reply, Mr Bailey disavows
+the impeachment <i>in toto</i>. He declares
+that he never imputed to Berkeley the
+doctrine, that the eye is not directly
+percipient of space in the two dimensions
+of length and breadth. &quot;The
+perception of this kind of distance,&quot;
+says he, &quot;never formed the subject
+of controversy with any one ...
+That we see extension in two dimensions
+is admitted by all.&quot;&mdash;(<i>Letter</i>,
+p. 10.) If it can be shown that the
+doctrine which is here stated to be
+admitted by all philosophers, is yet
+expressly controverted by the two
+metaphysicians whom Mr Bailey appears
+to have studied most assiduously,
+it is, at any rate, possible that he may
+have overlooked, in his own writings,
+the expression of an opinion which has
+escaped his penetration in theirs. To
+convince himself, then, how much he
+is mistaken in supposing that the visual
+intuition of longitudinal and lateral
+extension is admitted by all philosophers,
+he has but to turn to the
+works of Dr Brown and the elder
+Mill. In arguing that we have no
+immediate perception of visible figure,
+Dr Brown not only virtually, but expressly,
+asserts that the sight has no
+perception of extension in any of its
+dimensions. Not to multiply quotations,
+the following will, no doubt, be
+received as sufficient:&mdash;&quot;They (<i>i.e.</i>
+philosophers) have&mdash;<i>I think without
+sufficient reason</i>&mdash;universally supposed
+that the superficial extension of <i>length
+and breadth</i> becomes known to us by
+sight originally.&quot;<a name="footnotetag28" id="footnotetag28"></a><a href="#footnote28"><sup>28</sup></a> Dr Brown then
+proceeds to argue, with what success
+we are not at present considering,
+that our knowledge of extension and
+figure is derived from another source
+than the sense of sight.</p>
+
+<p>Mr James Mill, an author whom
+Mr Bailey frequently quotes with approbation,
+and in confirmation of his
+own views, is equally explicit. He
+maintains, in the plainest terms, that
+the eye has no intuition of space, or
+of the reciprocal outness of visible
+objects. &quot;Philosophy,&quot; says he, &quot;has
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page763" id="page763" title="763"></a></span> ascertained that we derive nothing
+from the eye whatever but sensations
+of colour&mdash;that the idea of extension
+[he means in its three dimensions]
+is derived from sensations not in the
+eye, but in the muscular part of our
+frame.&quot;<a name="footnotetag29" id="footnotetag29"></a><a href="#footnote29"><sup>29</sup></a> Thus, contrary to what Mr
+Bailey affirms, these two philosophers
+limit the office of vision to
+the perception of mere colour or
+difference of colour, denying to the
+eye the original perception of extension
+in any dimension whatever. In
+their estimation, the intuition of space
+is no more involved in our perception
+of different colours than it is involved
+in our perception of different smells
+or different sounds. Dr Brown's doctrine,
+in which Mr Mill seems to concur,
+is, that the perception of superficial
+extension no more results from
+a certain expanse of the optic nerve
+being affected by a variety of colours
+than it results from a certain expanse
+of the olfactory nerve being affected
+by a variety of odours.<a name="footnotetag30" id="footnotetag30"></a><a href="#footnote30"><sup>30</sup></a> So much
+for Mr Bailey's assertion, that <i>all</i> philosophers
+admit the perception of extension
+in two dimensions.</p>
+
+<p>But, of course, our main business is
+with the expression of his own opinion.
+In rebutting our charge, he maintains
+that &quot;the visibility of angular distance
+(that is of extension laterally) is
+assumed, by implication, as part of
+Berkeley's doctrine, in <i>almost</i> every
+chapter of my book.&quot;&mdash;(<i>Letter</i>, p. 13.)
+That word <i>almost</i> is a provident saving
+clause; for we undertake to show that
+not only is the very reverse assumed,
+by implication, as part of Berkeley's
+doctrine, in the <i>single</i> chapter to which
+we confined our remarks, but that, in
+another part of his work, it is expressly
+avowed as the only alternative
+by which, in the author's opinion, Berkeley's
+consistency can be preserved.</p>
+
+<p>At the outset of his enquiry, Mr
+Bailey divides his discussion into two
+branches: first, Whether objects are
+originally seen to be external, or at <i>any</i>
+distance at all from the sight; and,
+secondly, Supposing it admitted that
+they are seen to be external, or at
+<i>some</i> distance from the sight, whether
+they are all seen in the same plane, or
+equally near.  It was to the former
+of these questions that we exclusively
+confined our remarks;<a name="footnotetag31" id="footnotetag31"></a><a href="#footnote31"><sup>31</sup></a> and it was in
+reference to it, and to an important
+argument evolved by Mr Bailey in
+the course of its discussion, that we
+charged him with fathering on Berkeley
+the doctrine which he now disavows
+as his interpretation of the bishop's
+opinion. He further disputes
+the relevancy of the question about
+our perception of lateral extension,
+and maintains that distance in a direction
+from the percipient, or what
+we should call protensive distance, is
+the only matter in dispute; and that
+it is a misconception of the scope of
+Berkeley's essay to imagine otherwise.
+The relevancy of the question shall be
+disposed of afterwards. In the mean
+time, the question at issue is, Can the
+allegation which we have laid to Mr
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page764" id="page764" title="764"></a></span> Bailey's charge be proved to be the
+fact, or not?</p>
+
+<p>In discussing the first of the two
+questions, it was quite possible for Mr
+Bailey to have represented Berkeley
+as holding, that visible objects, though
+not seen to be external to the sight,
+were yet seen to be out of each other,
+or laterally extended within the organism
+or the mind. But Mr Bailey
+makes no such representation of the
+theory, and the whole argument which
+pervades the chapter in which the first
+question is discussed, is founded on the
+negation of any such extension. All
+visible extension, he tells us, must,
+in his opinion, be either plane or solid.
+Now he will scarcely maintain
+that he regarded Berkeley as holding
+that we perceive solid extension
+within the organism of the eye. Neither
+does he admit that, according
+to Berkeley, and in reference to this
+first question, plane extension is perceived
+within the organism of the eye.
+For when he proceeds to the discussion
+of the <i>second</i> of the two questions,
+he remarks that &quot;we must, <i>at this stage</i>
+of the argument, consider the theory
+under examination, as representing that
+we see all things <i>originally in the same
+plane</i>,&quot;<a name="footnotetag32" id="footnotetag32"></a><a href="#footnote32"><sup>32</sup></a> obviously implying that he
+had not <i>as yet</i> considered the theory as
+representing that we see things originally
+in the same plane: in other
+words, plainly admitting that, in his
+treatment of the first question, he had
+not regarded the theory as representing
+that we see things originally under the
+category of extension at all.</p>
+
+<p>But if any more direct evidence on
+this point were wanted, it is to be
+found in the section of his work which
+treats of &quot;the perception of figure.&quot;
+In the chapter in which he discusses
+the first of the two questions, he constantly
+speaks of Berkeley's theory as
+representing that &quot;our visual sensations,
+or what we ultimately term visible
+objects, are originally mere internal
+feelings.&quot; The expression <i>mere internal feelings</i>,
+however, is ambiguous; for,
+as we have said, it might still imply
+that Mr Bailey viewed the theory as
+representing that there was an extension,
+or reciprocal outness of objects
+within the retina. But this doubt is
+entirely removed by a passage in the
+section alluded to, which proves that,
+in Mr Bailey's estimation, these mere
+internal feelings not only involve no
+such extension, but that there would
+be an inconsistency in supposing they
+did. In this section he brings forward
+Berkeley's assertion, &quot;that neither
+solid nor plane figures are immediate
+objects of sight.&quot; He then
+quotes a passage in which the bishop
+begs the reader not to stickle too
+much &quot;about this or that phrase, or
+manner of expression, but candidly to
+collect his meaning from the whole
+sum and tenour of his discourse.&quot; And
+then Mr Bailey goes on to say, &quot;endeavouring,
+in the spirit here recommended,
+to collect the author's meaning
+when he affirms that the figures we
+see are neither plane nor solid, it appears
+to me to be <i>a part or consequence</i>
+of his doctrine already examined, which
+asserts that visible objects are only internal
+feelings.&quot;<a name="footnotetag33" id="footnotetag33"></a><a href="#footnote33"><sup>33</sup></a> We can now be at
+no loss to understand what Mr Bailey
+means, and conceives Berkeley to
+mean, by the expression &quot;mere internal
+feelings.&quot; He evidently means feelings
+in which no kind of extension whatever
+is involved: for, in the next page,
+he informs us that all visual extension
+or extended figure, &quot;<i>must</i> be apprehended
+as either plane or solid, and
+that it is impossible even to conceive
+it otherwise.&quot; Consequently, if the
+figures we see are, as Berkeley says,
+apprehended neither as plane nor as
+solid, Mr Bailey, entertaining the notions
+he does on the subject of extension,
+<i>must</i> regard him as holding that
+they cannot be apprehended as extended
+at all&mdash;and accordingly such is
+the express representation he gives of
+the theory in the passage just quoted,
+where he says that &quot;the doctrine of
+Berkeley, which affirms that the figures
+we see are neither plane nor solid,
+(that is, are extended in <i>no</i> direction,
+according to Mr Bailey's ideas of extension,)
+appears to him to be <i>a part</i>
+of the doctrine which asserts that visible
+objects are only internal feelings.&quot;
+Now if that be not teaching, in the
+plainest terms, that, according to Berkeley,
+no species of extension is implied
+in the internal feelings of vision, we
+know not what language means, and
+any one thought may be identical with
+its very opposite.</p>
+
+<p>Here we might let the subject drop,
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page765" id="page765" title="765"></a></span> having, as we conceive, said quite
+enough to prove the truth of our allegation
+that, in reference to the first
+question discussed, in which our original
+visual sensations are represented
+by Berkeley to be mere internal feelings,
+Mr Bailey understood and stated
+those feelings to signify sensations in
+which no perception of extension
+whatever was involved. However, as
+Mr Bailey further remarks that, &quot;although
+Berkeley's doctrine about visible
+figures being neither plane not
+solid, is thus consistent with his assertion
+that they are internal feelings, it
+is in itself contradictory,&quot;<a name="footnotetag34" id="footnotetag34"></a><a href="#footnote34"><sup>34</sup></a> we shall
+contribute a few remarks to show that
+while, on the one hand, the negation
+of extension is not required to vindicate
+the consistency of Berkeley's assertion,
+that visible objects are internal
+feelings, neither, on the other
+hand, is there any contradiction in
+Berkeley's holding that objects are not
+seen either as planes or as solids, and
+are yet apprehended as extended. Mr
+Bailey alleges that we are &quot;far more
+successful in involving ourselves in
+subtle speculations of our own, than in
+faithfully guiding our readers through
+the theories of other philosophers.&quot;
+Perhaps in the present case we shall
+be able to thread a labyrinth where our
+reviewer has lost his clue, and, in spite
+of the apparent contradiction by which
+Mr Bailey has been gravelled, we shall,
+perhaps, be more successful than he in
+&quot;collecting Berkeley's meaning from
+the whole sum and tenour of his discourse.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>First, with regard to the contradiction
+charged upon the bishop. When
+we open our eyes, what do we behold?
+We behold points&mdash;<i>minima visibilia</i>&mdash;out
+of one another. Do we
+see these points to be in the same
+plane? Certainly not. If they are in
+the same plane we learn this from a
+very different experience from that of
+sight. Again, do we see these points
+to be <i>not</i> in the same plane? Certainly
+not. If the points are not in the
+same plane we learn this, too, from a
+very different experience than that of
+sight. All that we see is that the
+points are out of one another; and
+this simply implies the perception of
+extension, without implying the perception
+either of plane or of solid extension.
+Thus by the observation of a
+very obvious fact, which, however, Mr
+Bailey has overlooked, is Berkeley's
+assertion that visible objects are apprehended
+as extended, and yet not apprehended
+either as planes or solids, relieved
+from every appearance of contradiction.</p>
+
+<p>It must, however, be admitted that
+Mr Bailey has much to justify him in his
+opinion that extension must be apprehended
+either as plane or as solid. None
+of Berkeley's followers, we believe, have
+ever dreamt of conceiving it otherwise,
+and finding in their master's work the
+negation of solid extension specially
+insisted on, they leapt to the conclusion
+that the bishop admitted the original
+perception of plane extension.
+But Berkeley makes no such admission.
+He places the perception of
+plane extension on precisely the same
+footing with that of solid extension.
+&quot;We see planes,&quot; says he, &quot;in the
+same way that we see solids.&quot;<a name="footnotetag35" id="footnotetag35"></a><a href="#footnote35"><sup>35</sup></a> And
+the wisdom of the averment is obvious;
+for the affirmation of plane extension
+involves the negation of solid extension,
+but this negation involves the
+conception (visually derived) of solid
+extension; but the admission of that
+conception, so derived, would be fatal
+to the Berkeleian theory. Therefore
+its author wisely avoids the danger by
+holding, that in vision we have merely
+the perception of what the Germans
+would call the <i>Auseinanderseyn</i>, that is,
+the <i>asunderness</i>, of things&mdash;a perception
+which implies no judgment as to whether
+the things are secerned in plane
+or in protensive space.</p>
+
+<p>With regard to the supposition that,
+in order to preserve Berkeley's consistency,
+it was necessary for him to
+teach that our visual sensations, (colours
+namely,) being internal feelings,
+could involve the perception neither
+of plane nor of solid extension, that is
+to say, of no extension at all, according
+to Mr Bailey's ideas, we shall
+merely remark, that there appears to
+us to be no inconsistency in holding,
+as Berkeley does, that these colours,
+though originally internal to the sight,
+are nevertheless perceived as extended
+among themselves.</p>
+
+<p>We shall now say a few words on
+the <i>relevancy</i> of the question, for Mr
+Bailey denies that this question, concerning
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page766" id="page766" title="766"></a></span> the reciprocal outness of visible
+objects, ought to form any element
+in the controversy. We shall show,
+however, that one of his most important
+arguments depends entirely on the
+view that may be taken of this question;
+and that while the argument
+alluded to would be utterly fatal to
+Berkeley's theory, if the perception of
+reciprocal outness were denied, it is
+perfectly harmless if the perception in
+question be admitted.</p>
+
+<p>Mr Bailey's fundamental and reiterated
+objection to Berkeley's theory is,
+that it requires us to hold that conceptions
+or past impressions, derived
+from one sense, (the touch,) are not
+merely recalled when another sense
+(the sight) executes its functions, but
+are themselves absolutely converted
+into the present intuitions of that
+other sense. In his own words, (<i>Review</i>,
+p. 69,) the theory is said to require
+&quot;a transmutation of the conceptions
+derived from touch into the perceptions
+of sight.&quot; &quot;According to
+Berkeley, (says he, <i>Review</i>, p. 22,) an
+internal feeling (<i>i.e.</i> a visual sensation)
+and an external sensation (<i>i.e.</i> a tactual
+sensation) having been experienced
+at the same time: the internal feeling,
+when it afterwards occurs, not only
+suggests the idea, but, by doing so, suggests
+the idea, or, if I may use the figure,
+infuses the perception of its own
+externality. Berkeley thus attributes
+to suggestion an effect contrary to its
+nature, which, as in the case of language,
+is simply to revive in our conception
+what has been previously perceived
+by the sense.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Now, this objection would be altogether
+insurmountable if it were true,
+or if it were a part of Berkeley's doctrine,
+that the sight has no original
+intuition of space, or of the reciprocal
+outness of its objects&mdash;in other words,
+of colours out of colours; for it being
+admitted that the sight has ultimately
+such a perception, it would be incumbent
+on the Berkeleian to show how
+conceptions derived from another sense,
+or how perceptions belonging to another
+sense, could be converted into
+that perception. We agree with Mr
+Bailey, in thinking that no process of
+association could effect this conversion;
+that if we did not originally see
+colours to be out of each other, and
+the points of the same colour to be
+out of each other, we could never so
+see them; and that his argument, when
+thus based on the negation of all original
+visual extension, and on the
+supposition that the touch is the sole
+organ of every species of externality,
+would remain invulnerable.</p>
+
+<p>But, with the admission of the visual
+intuition of space, the objection vanishes,
+and the argument is shorn of
+all its strength. This admission relieves
+the theory from the necessity of
+maintaining, that conceptions derived
+from touch are transmuted into the
+perceptions of sight. It attributes to
+the sight all that ever truly belongs
+to it, namely, the perception of colours
+out of one another; it provides the
+visual intuitions with an externality of
+their own&mdash;and the theory never demands
+that they should acquire any
+other; and it leaves to these visual
+intuitions the office of merely suggesting
+to the mind tactual impressions,
+with which they have been invariably
+associated in place. We say, <i>in place</i>;
+and it will be found that there is no
+contradiction in our saying so, when
+we shall have shown that it is the
+touch, and not the sight, which establishes
+a protensive interval between
+the organ and the sensations of vision.</p>
+
+<p>Visible extension, then, or the perception
+of colours external to colours,
+being admitted, Mr Bailey's argument,
+if he still adheres to it, must be presented
+to us in this form. He must
+maintain that the theory requires that
+the objects of touch should not only
+be suggested by the visual objects with
+which they have been associated, but
+that they should actually be <i>seen</i>. And
+then he must maintain that no power
+of association can enable us to see an
+object which can only be touched&mdash;a
+position which, certainly, no one will
+controvert. The simple answer to all
+which, is, that we never do see tangible
+objects&mdash;that the theory never
+requires we should, and that no power
+of association is necessary to account
+for a phenomenon which never takes
+place.</p>
+
+<p>We cannot help thinking, that not a
+little of the misconception on this subject
+which prevails in the writings of
+Mr Bailey, and, we may add, of many
+other philosophers, originates in the
+supposition that we identify vision with
+the eye in the mere act of seeing, and
+in their taking it for granted that sight
+of itself informs us that we possess
+such an organ as the eye. Of course,
+if we suppose that we know instinctively,
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page767" id="page767" title="767"></a></span> or intuitively, from the mere
+act of seeing, that the eye is the organ
+of vision, that it forms a part of the
+body we behold, and is located in the
+head, it requires no conjurer to prove
+that we <i>must</i> have an instinctive, or
+intuitive, knowledge of visible things
+as larger than that organ, and, consequently,
+as external to it. In this
+case, no process of association is necessary
+to account for our knowledge
+of the distance of objects. That
+knowledge must be directly given in
+the very function and exercise of vision,
+as every one will admit, without
+going to the expense of an octavo
+volume to have it proved.</p>
+
+<p>But we hold that no truth in mental
+philosophy is more incontestable than
+this, that the sight originally, and of
+itself, furnishes us with no knowledge
+of the eye, as we <i>now</i> know that organ
+to exist. It does not inform us that
+we have an eye at all. And here we
+may hazard an observation, which,
+simple as it is, appears to us to be
+new, and not unimportant in aiding us
+to unravel the mysteries of sensation;
+which observation is, that, in no case
+whatever, does any sense inform us of
+the existence of its appropriate organ,
+or of the relation which subsists between
+that organ and its objects, but
+that the interposition of some other
+sense<a name="footnotetag36" id="footnotetag36"></a><a href="#footnote36"><sup>36</sup></a> is invariably required to give us
+this information. This truth, which
+we believe holds good with regard to
+all the senses, is most strikingly exemplified
+in the case of vision, as we shall
+now endeavour to illustrate.</p>
+
+<p>Let us begin by supposing that man
+is a mere &quot;power of seeing&quot;. Under
+this supposition, we must hold that
+the periphery of vision is one and the
+same with the periphery of visible
+space; and the two peripheries being
+identical, of course whatever objects
+lie within the sphere of the one must
+lie within the sphere of the other also.
+Perhaps, strictly speaking, it is wrong
+to say that these objects are apprehended
+as internal to the sight; for
+the conception of internality implies
+the conception of externality, and neither
+of these conceptions can, as yet,
+be realized. But it is obvious what
+the expression <i>internal</i> means; and it
+is unobjectionable, when understood
+to signify that the Seeing Power, the
+Seeing Act, and the Seen Things, co-exist
+in a synthesis in which there is
+no interval or discrimination. For,
+suppose that we know instinctively
+that the seen things occupy a locality
+separate from the sight. But that implies
+that we instinctively know that
+the sight occupies a locality separate
+from them. But such a supposition
+is a falling back upon the notion just
+reprobated, that the mere act of seeing
+can indicate its own organ, or can
+localise the visual phenomena in the
+eye&mdash;a position which, we presume, no
+philosopher will be hardy enough to
+maintain, when called upon to do so,
+broadly and unequivocally. The conclusion,
+therefore, is irresistible, that,
+in mere vision, the sight and its objects
+cling together in a union or synthesis,
+which no function of that sense, and
+no knowledge imparted to us by it,
+(and, according to the supposition, we
+have, as yet, no other knowledge,) can
+enable us to discriminate or dissolve.
+Where the seeing is, there is the thing
+seen, and where the thing seen is,
+there is the seeing of it.</p>
+
+<p>But man is not a mere seeing animal.
+He has other senses besides: He has,
+for example, the sense of touch, and
+one of the most important offices which
+this sense performs, is to break up the
+identity or cohesion which subsists between
+sight and its objects. And how?
+We answer, by teaching us to associate
+<i>vision in general</i>, or the abstract <i>condition</i>
+regulating our visual impressions,
+with the presence of the small tangible
+body we call the eye, and <i>vision in
+particular</i>, or the individual sensations
+of vision, (<i>i.e.</i> colours,) with the presence
+of immeasurably larger bodies
+revealed to us by touch, and tangibly
+external to the tangible eye. Sight,
+as we have said, does not inform us
+that its sensations are situated in the
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page768" id="page768" title="768"></a></span> eye: it does not inform us that we
+have an eye at all. Neither does
+touch inform us that our visual sensations
+are located in the eye. It does
+not lead us to associate with the eye any
+of the visual phenomena or operations
+<i>in the first instance</i>. If it did, it would
+(<i>firstly</i>) either be impossible for it
+<i>afterwards</i> to induce us to associate
+them with the presence of tangible
+bodies distant and different from the
+eye: or, (<i>secondly</i>), such an association
+would merely give birth to the
+abstract knowledge or conclusion, that
+these bodies were in one place, while
+the sensations suggesting them were
+felt to be associated with something in
+another place; colour would not be
+seen&mdash;as it is&mdash;incarnated with body:
+or, (<i>thirdly</i>), we should be compelled
+to postulate for the eye, as many philosophers
+have done, in our opinion,
+most unwarrantably, &quot;a faculty of
+projection&quot;<a name="footnotetag37" id="footnotetag37"></a><a href="#footnote37"><sup>37</sup></a> by which it might dissolve
+the association between itself and its
+sensations, throwing off the latter in
+the form of colours over the surface
+of things, and reversing the old Epicurean
+doctrine that perception is kept
+up by the transit to the sensorium of
+the ghosts or <i>simulacra</i> of things,</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>Qu&aelig;, quasi membran&aelig;, summo de corpore rerum,</p>
+<p>Dirept&aelig;, volitant ultro citroque per auras.<a name="footnotetag38" id="footnotetag38"></a><a href="#footnote38"><sup>38</sup></a></p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>It is difficult to say whether the hypothesis
+of &quot;cast-off films&quot; is more
+absurd when we make the films come
+from things to us as spectral effluxes, or
+go from us to them in the semblance
+of colours.</p>
+
+<p>But according to the present view
+no such incomprehensible faculty, no
+such crude and untenable hypothesis,
+is required. <i>Before</i> the touch has informed
+us that we have an eye, <i>before</i>
+it has led us to associate any thing
+visual with the eye, it has <i>already</i>
+taught us to associate in place the
+sensations of vision (colours) with the
+presence of tangible objects which are
+not the eye. Therefore, when the
+touch discovers the eye, and induces
+us to associate vision in some way
+with it, it cannot be the particular
+sensations of vision called colours
+which it leads us to associate with that
+organ; for these have been already associated
+with something very different.
+If it be not colours, then what is it
+that the touch compels us to associate
+with the eye? We answer that it is
+the abstract <i>condition</i> of impressions as
+the general law on which all seeing
+depends, but as quite distinct from
+the particular visual sensations apprehended
+in virtue of the observance of
+that law.</p>
+
+<p>Nor is it at all difficult to understand
+how this general condition comes to
+be associated with the eye, and how
+the particular visual sensations come
+to be associated with something
+distant from the eye: and further,
+how this association of the condition
+with one thing, and of the sensations
+with another thing, (an association
+established by the touch and not
+by the sight,) dissolves the primary
+synthesis of seeing and colours. It is
+to be observed that there are two
+stages in the process by which this secernment
+is brought about&mdash;<i>First</i>, the
+stage in which the visual phenomena
+are associated with things different from
+the organ of vision, the very existence
+of which is as yet unknown. Let us
+suppose, then, the function of sight to
+be in operation. We behold a visible
+object&mdash;a particular colour. Let the
+touch now come into play. We feel
+a tangible object&mdash;say a book. Now
+from the mere fact of the visible and
+the tangible object being seen and felt
+together, we could not associate them
+in place; for it is quite possible that
+the tangible object may admit of being
+withdrawn, and yet the visible object
+remain: and if so, no association of
+the two in place can be established.
+But this is a point that can only be
+determined by experience; and what
+says that wise instructor? We withdraw
+the tangible object. The visible
+object, too, disappears: it leaves its
+place. We replace the tangible object&mdash;the
+visible object reappears <i>in
+statu quo</i>. There is no occasion to
+vary the experiment. If we find that
+the visible object invariably leaves its
+place when the tangible object leaves
+its, and that the one invariably comes
+back when the other returns, we have
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page769" id="page769" title="769"></a></span> brought forward quite enough to establish
+an inevitable association in place
+between the two. The two places
+are henceforth regarded, not as two,
+but as one and the same.</p>
+
+<p>By the aid of the touch, then, we
+have associated the visual phenomena
+with thing which are <i>not</i> the organ of
+vision; and well it is for us that we
+have done so betimes, and before we
+were aware of the eye's existence.
+Had the eye been indicated to us in
+the mere act of seeing; had we become
+apprised of its existence <i>before</i>
+we had associated our visual
+sensations with the tangible objects
+constituting the material universe, the
+probability, nay the certainty, is that
+we would have associated them with
+this eye, and that then it would have
+been as impossible for us to break
+up the association between colours
+and the organ, as it now is for us to
+dissolve the union between colours and
+material things. In which case we
+should have remained blind, or as bad
+as blind; brightness would have been
+in the eye when it ought to have been
+in the sun; greenness would have
+been in the retina when it ought to
+have been in the grass. A most wise
+provision of nature it certainly is, by
+which our visual sensations are disposed
+of in the right way before we obtain
+any knowledge of the eye. And
+most wisely has nature seconded her
+own scheme by obscuring all the
+sources from which that knowledge
+might be derived. The light eyelids&mdash;the
+effortless muscular apparatus performing
+its ministrations so gently as to
+be almost unfelt&mdash;the tactual sensations
+so imperceptible when the eye is left
+to its own motions, so keen when it is
+invaded by an exploring finger, and so
+anxious to avoid all contact by which
+the existence of the organ might be
+betrayed. All these are so many means
+adopted by nature to keep back from
+the infant seer all knowledge of his
+own eye&mdash;a knowledge which, if developed
+prematurely, would have perverted
+the functions, if not rendered nugatory
+the very existence of the organ.</p>
+
+<p>But, <i>secondly</i>, we have to consider the
+stage of the process in which vision is
+in some way associated with an object
+which is <i>not</i> any of the things with
+which the visual sensations are connected.
+It is clear that the process is
+not completed&mdash;that our task, which is
+to dissolve the primary synthesis of
+vision and its phenomena, is but half
+executed, unless such an object be
+found. For though we have associated
+the visual sensations (colours)
+with something different from themselves,
+still vision clings to them without
+a hair's-breadth of interval and
+pursues them whithersoever they go.
+As far, then, as we have yet gone, it
+cannot be said that our vision is felt or
+known to be distanced from the fixed
+stars even by the diameter of a grain of
+sand. The synthesis of sight and colour
+is not yet discriminated. How,
+then, is the interval interposed? We
+answer, by the discovery of a tangible
+object in a different place from any of
+the tangible objects associated with
+colour; and then by associating, in
+some way or other, the operations of
+vision with this object. Such an object
+is discovered in the eye. Now, as
+has frequently been said, we cannot
+associate colours or the visual sensations
+with this eye; for these have been
+already disposed of otherwise. What,
+then, do we associate with it&mdash;and how?
+We find, upon experiment, that our apprehension
+of the various visual sensations
+depends on the presence and particular
+location of this small tangible
+body. We find that the whole array of
+visual phenomena disappear when it is
+tactually covered, that they reappear
+when it is reopened, and so forth.
+Thus we come in some way to associate
+vision with it&mdash;not as colour,
+however, not as visual sensation. We
+regard the organ and its dispositions
+merely as a general condition regulating
+the apprehension of the visual
+sensations, and no more.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, by attending to the two associations
+that occur,&mdash;the association
+(in place) of visual sensations with
+tangible bodies that <i>are not</i> the eye;
+and the association (in place) of vision
+with a small tangible body that <i>is</i> the
+eye&mdash;the eye regarded as the condition
+on which the apprehension of
+these sensations depends; by attending
+to these, we can understand how
+a protensive interval comes to be recognised
+between the organ and its
+objects. By means of the touch, we
+have associated the sensations of vision
+with tangible bodies in one place,
+and the apprehension of these sensations
+with a tangible body in another
+place. It is, therefore, impossible for
+the sight to dissolve these associations,
+and bring the sensations out of the
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page770" id="page770" title="770"></a></span> one place where they are felt, into
+the other place where the <i>condition</i> of
+their apprehension resides. The sight
+is, therefore, compelled to leave the
+sensations where they are, and the
+apprehension of them where it is;
+and to recognize the two as sundered
+from each other&mdash;the sensations as
+separated from the organ, which they
+truly are. Thus it is that we would
+explain the origin of the perception
+of distance by the eye; believing firmly
+that the sight would never have
+discerned this distance without the
+mediation of the touch.</p>
+
+<p>Rightly to understand the foregoing
+reasoning&mdash;indeed to advance a single
+step in the true philosophy of sensation&mdash;we
+much divest ourselves of the
+prejudice instilled into us by a false
+physiology, that what we call our organism,
+or, in plain words, our body, is
+necessarily <i>the seat</i> of our sensations.
+That all our sensations come to be
+associated <i>in some way</i> with this body,
+and that some of them even come to
+be associated with it <i>in place</i>, is undeniable;
+but so far is it from being
+true, that they are all essentially implicated
+or incorporated with it, and
+cannot exist at a distance from it, that
+we have a direct proof to the contrary
+in our sensations of vision; and
+until the physiologist can prove (what
+has never yet been proven) an <i>&agrave; priori</i>
+necessity that our sensations must be
+where our bodies are, and an <i>&agrave; priori</i>
+absurdity in the contrary supposition,
+he must excuse us for resolutely standing
+by the fact as we find it.</p>
+
+<p>This is a view which admits of much
+discussion, and we would gladly expatiate
+upon the subject, did time and
+space permit; but we must content
+ourselves with winding up the present
+observations with the accompanying
+diagram, which we think explains our
+view beyond the possibility of a mistake.</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp; A &nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>B<i>a</i></td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td><i>&aacute;</i>C</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Let A be the original synthesis, or
+indiscrimination of vision and its sensations&mdash;of
+light and colours. Let <i>&aacute;</i>
+be the visual sensations locally associated
+by means of the touch with the
+tangible bodies C <i>before</i> vision is in
+any way associated with B&mdash;before,
+indeed, we have any knowledge of the
+existence of B. Then let <i>a</i>, the general
+condition on which the sensations,
+<i>after a time</i>, are found to depend,
+and in virtue of which they are
+apprehended, be locally associated
+with B&mdash;the eye discovered by means
+of the touch&mdash;and we have before us
+what we cannot help regarding as a
+complete <i>rationale</i> of the whole phenomena
+and mysteries of vision. Now,
+the great difference between this view
+of the subject and the views of it that
+have been taken by <i>every</i> other philosopher,
+consists in this, that whereas
+their explanations invariably implicated
+the visual sensations <i>&aacute;</i> with B from
+the very first, thereby rendering it
+either impossible for them to be afterwards
+associated with C, or possible
+only in virtue of some very extravagant
+hypothesis&mdash;our explanation, on
+the contrary, proceeding on a simple
+observation of the facts, and never
+implicating the sensations <i>&aacute;</i> with B at
+all, but associating them with C <i>&agrave; primordiis</i>,
+merely leaving to be associated
+with B, <i>a</i>, a certain general condition
+that must be complied with, in
+order that the sensations <i>&aacute;</i> may be
+apprehended,&mdash;in this way, we say, our
+explanation contrives to steer clear
+both of the impossibility and the hypothesis.</p>
+
+<p>We would just add by way of postscript
+to this article&mdash;which, perhaps,
+ought itself to have been only a postscript&mdash;that
+with regard to Mr Bailey's
+allegation of our having plagiarised
+one of his arguments, merely turning
+the coat of it outside in, we can assure
+him that he is labouring under a mistake.
+In our former paper, we remarked
+that we could not see things
+to be <i>out</i> of the sight, because we
+could not see the sight itself. Mr
+Bailey alleges, that this argument is
+borrowed from him, being a mere reversal
+of his reasoning, that we cannot
+see things to be <i>in</i> the sight, because
+we cannot see both the sight
+and the things. That our argument
+might very naturally have been suggested
+by his, we admit. But it was
+not so. We had either overlooked
+the passage in his book, or it was clean
+out of our mind when we were pondering
+our own speculations. It did
+not suggest our argument, either nearly
+or remotely. Had it done so, we
+should certainly have noticed it, and
+should probably have handled both
+Mr Bailey's reasoning and our own
+to better purpose, in consequence.
+If, notwithstanding this disclaimer,
+he still thinks that appearances are
+against us, we cannot mend his faith,
+but can merely repeat, that the fact
+is as we have stated it.</p>
+
+<hr class="full">
+
+
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page771" id="page771" title="771"></a></span>
+<a name="bw332s7" id="bw332s7"></a><h2>THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD.</h2>
+
+<h3>WITH THIRTY-TWO ILLUSTRATIONS, BY WILLIAM MULREADY, R.A.</h3>
+
+<p>In a review we made last January
+of Goldsmith's &quot;Deserted Village,&quot;
+illustrated by the Etching Club, we
+concluded our notice with recommending
+to those able artists the
+&quot;Vicar of Wakefield;&quot; and expressed
+a hope that Mr Maclise would
+lend his powerful aid, having in our
+recollection some very happy illustrations
+of his hand in pictures exhibited
+at the Royal Academy Exhibition.</p>
+
+<p>What the Etching Club are about,
+we know not; but the subject has
+been taken up by Mr Mulready; and
+we now feel it incumbent upon us to
+notice this new and illustrated edition
+of that immortal work. Immortal it
+must be; manners pass away, modes
+change, but the fashion of the heart
+of man is unalterable. The &quot;Vicar
+of Wakefield&quot; bears the stamp of the
+age in which it was written. Had it
+been laid aside by the author, discovered,
+and now first brought out,
+without a notice of the author, or of
+the time of its composition, received it
+must have been indeed with delight,
+but not as belonging to the present
+day. It differs in its literature and its
+manners. It is at once a most happy
+work for illustration, and the most
+difficult. It is universally known.
+Who has not shed previous and heart-improving
+tears over it? Taking up
+the tale now, for the hundredth time,
+we are become, from somewhat morose,
+tender as a lamb&mdash;propitious
+condition for a critic! We opened
+upon the scene where Mr Burchell
+so cruelly tries poor Sophia, by offering
+her a husband in Mr Jenkinson;
+we know the whole transaction perfectly,
+the bitter joke, the proposal</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p class="i6">&quot;impares</p>
+<p>Formas atque animas in juga ahenea</p>
+<p>S&aelig;vo mittere cum joco.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Yet how strangely are we moved!
+Had the taxman at the moment called
+for the income-tax, he would have
+concluded we were paying the last
+farthing of our principal. What art
+is this in a writer, that he should by
+one and the same passage continue to
+move his readers, though they know
+the trick! Readers, too, that would
+have turned the cold shoulder to real
+tales of greater distress, and met suspicion
+that all was a cheat halfway;
+but the acknowledged fictitious they
+yield to at once their whole hearts,
+throwing to the winds their beggarly
+stint. Never was there a writer that
+possessed to so great a degree as did
+Goldsmith this wondrous charm; and
+in him it is the more delightful in the
+light and pleasant <i>allegria</i> with which
+he works off the feeling. The volume
+is full of subjects that so move; and
+in this respect it is most admirable for
+illustration, inviting the ablest powers.
+But the difficulty, wherein does that
+lie? Look at all illustrations that have
+hitherto appeared in print, and you cry
+out to all&mdash;Away with the failure!
+Certain it is that but slender abilities
+have been hitherto employed; and
+when we hear of better artists coming
+to the undertaking, we are hardened
+against them. And then, how few
+come fresh to the tale. To those
+who do, perhaps a new illustration
+may have a tenfold charm; but to
+any one past five-and-twenty, it must
+come &quot;with a difference.&quot; It is very
+difficult to reconcile one to a new Dr
+Primrose, a new Mrs Primrose.
+Beauty ever had the power of beauty,
+and takes us suddenly; we can more
+readily dismiss the old idea and
+pitch on the new, so that the Miss
+Primroses are more reconcilable and
+transferable creatures, than the Vicar
+and his wife, or the incomparable
+Moses and the unyielding Mr Burchell.
+We cannot pretend to tell how
+all these characters would have fitted
+their images given by Mr Mulready,
+had the work now first come into our
+hands. As it is, we can only say
+they are new to us. It requires time
+to reconcile this. In the meanwhile
+we must take it for granted, that they
+actually do represent those in Mr
+Mulready's vision, and he is a clear-sighted
+man, and has been accustomed
+to look into character well. His
+name as the illustrator, gave promise
+of success. Well do we remember
+an early picture by him&mdash;entitled, we
+believe, the Wolf and the Lamb. It
+represented two schoolboys&mdash;the bully,
+and the more tender fatherless child.
+The history in that little picture was
+quite of the manner of Goldsmith. The
+orphan boy's face we never can forget,
+not the whole expression of his
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page772" id="page772" title="772"></a></span> slender form, though it is many years
+ago that we saw the picture. So that
+when the name of Mulready appeared
+as illustrator, we said at once, That
+will do&mdash;down came the book, and
+here it is before us. The pages have
+been turned over again and again.
+We cannot, nevertheless, quite reconcile
+our ideas to the new Dr and Mrs
+Primrose; but in attempting to do so,
+so many real artistical beauties have
+beamed from the pages, that we determined
+at once to pour out our
+hearts to Maga, and turn over page
+after page once more. The illustrations
+are thirty-two in number; one
+to head each chapter, though, and
+which we think a defect, the subject
+of the illustration is not always in
+the chapter at the head of which it is.
+The first is the choice of a wife&mdash;&quot;and
+chose my wife as she did her
+wedding-gown.&quot; The intended bride
+is a very beautiful graceful figure,
+with a most sweet simplicity of countenance.
+This never could have resembled
+Mrs Deborah Primrose; the
+outline is most easy and graceful, even
+as one of Raffaelle's pure and lovely
+beings. The youth of the bride and
+bridegroom, fresh in their hopes of
+years of happiness, is happily contrasted
+with the staid age of the respectable
+tradesman, evidently one of honest
+trade and industrious habits&mdash;the fair
+dealer, one of the old race before the
+days of &quot;immense sacrifices&quot; brought
+goods and men into disrepute. The
+little group is charming; every line
+assists another, and make a perfect
+whole.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Dispute between the Vicar
+and Mr Wilmot.&quot;&mdash;&quot;This, as may be
+expected, produced a dispute, attended
+with some acrimony.&quot; Old Wilmot
+is capital; there is acrimony in his
+face, and combativeness in his fists&mdash;both
+clenching confidently his own
+argument, and ready for action; the
+very drawing back of one leg, and
+protrusion of the other, is indicative
+of testy impatience. The vicar is a
+little too loose and slovenly, both in
+attitude and attire; the uniting of the
+figures (artistically speaking) is with
+Mr Mulready's usual ability.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Rescue of Sophia from
+Drowning by Mr Burchell.&quot;&mdash;&quot;She
+must have certainly perished, had not
+my companion, perceiving her danger,
+instantly plunged in to her relief.&quot;
+This is altogether a failure, yet it is a
+good subject; nor has Mr Mulready
+been at all happy in the female beauty.
+The vicar stands upon the bank too
+apathetic; and the group in the vehicle,
+crossing the stream above, seem
+scarcely conscious of the event, though
+they are within sight of it. Mr Mulready
+has here, too, neglected his
+text. Sophia fell from her horse; all
+the party set out on horseback; there
+is no carriage mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Vicar at Home, with Neighbour
+Flamborough and the Piper.&quot;&mdash;&quot;These
+harmless people had several
+ways of being good company; while
+one played, the other would sing some
+soothing ballad.&quot; The happy father,
+with his children climbing up his chair,
+and clinging to him, is a beautiful
+group, and quite worthy of Mr Mulready's
+pencil.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Squire Thornhill.&quot;&mdash;&quot;At last a
+young gentleman, of a more genteel
+appearance than the rest, came forward,
+and for a while regarding us,
+instead of pursuing the chase, stopped
+short, and giving his horse to a servant
+who attended, approached us
+with a careless, superior air.&quot; The
+family are sweetly grouped&mdash;the story
+well told&mdash;the easy assurance of the
+squire undeniable. The father holds
+his two boys, one on his lap, the other
+between his knees; but is he &quot;<i>the</i>
+vicar?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr Burchell and Sophia&quot;&mdash;A
+most charming illustration. It is the
+haymaking scene. &quot;I could not avoid,
+however, observing the assiduity of
+Mr Burchell, in assisting my daughter
+Sophia in her part of the task.&quot;
+Sophia is a lovely creature, just what
+she should be. We are not quite
+sure of Mr Burchell: possibly he may
+look too young; he was a character,
+and must have borne about him some
+little acquired oddity, sturdy, and not
+undignified. In the illustration he is
+too prettily genteel; but we do not
+wish to see any but Sophia&mdash;delightful,
+loving, lovable Sophia. In the
+background, Moses lies on the ground
+with his book, and the vicar has rather
+too suspicious a look; but we can forgive
+him that, and, for Sophia's sake,
+forgive Mr Mulready that he has
+paid less attention to her admirer&mdash;for
+at present he is no more. But his
+admiration is better, and more to the
+purpose than other men's love.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Moses defeated in Argument, or
+rather borne down by the arrogant,
+ignorant volubility of the Squire.&quot;&mdash;&quot;This
+effectually raised the laugh
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page773" id="page773" title="773"></a></span> against poor Moses.&quot; It is well
+grouped; but the only successful
+figure is Moses. The squire is not
+the well-dressed, designing profligate.
+If the story were not well told by the
+grouping, we might have taken the
+squire for an itinerant &quot;lecturer.&quot;
+The squire is so prominent a person
+in the tale, that we think there should
+have been a well-studied representation
+of the accomplished villain and
+fine gentleman.</p>
+
+<p>No. 8.&mdash;Beyond the skill in grouping,
+Mr Mulready has not attempted
+any great interest in this illustration.
+It represents the family, with their
+friend Burchell, interrupted in their
+enjoyment by the chaplain, or rather
+the chaplain's gun; for that only presents
+its muzzle. &quot;So loud a report,
+and so near, startled my daughters;
+and I could perceive that Sophia, in
+the fright, had thrown herself into Mr
+Burchell's arms for protection.&quot; We
+do not recognize the alarmed and
+lovely Sophia&mdash;here she might be any
+miss; so that the greatest miss is Mr
+Mulready's, for he has missed an opportunity
+of showing the beauty of
+the sweet sisters in alarm. In this
+chapter, we have Goldsmith's delightful
+ballad, &quot;Turn, gentle hermit of
+the dale.&quot; Surely this was worthy
+an illustration or two; and if Mr Mulready
+felt himself confined to the
+heads of chapters, might he not, for
+once, have made his digression from
+the tale, as Goldsmith has done, and
+given us that charming episode?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Family Group on Horseback,
+going to Church.&quot;&mdash;&quot;And
+when I got about halfway home, perceived
+the procession marching slowly
+forward towards the church.&quot; &quot;The
+colt that had been nine years in the
+family, and Blackberry, his companion,&quot;
+are not the best horse-flesh.
+Mr Mulready does not draw the horse
+like Mr Herring; so, having failed in
+the feet of the colt, he has, though
+rather awkwardly, hidden Blackberry's
+behind a convenient stone, which
+yet makes us fear that the &quot;family
+pride&quot; will have a fall, and spare the
+Vicar's reproof. The party on Blackberry
+is good; and the patient, blind
+face of the animal is well attempted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Visit to Neighbour Flamborough's
+on Michaelmas Eve.&quot;&mdash;&quot;But
+previously I should have mentioned
+the very impolitic behaviour of
+Mr Burchell, who, during this discourse,
+sat with his face turned to
+the fire; and, at the conclusion of
+every sentence, would cry out,
+'Fudge!'&quot; This is scarcely the subject
+of the illustration, for Mr Burchell
+is quite in the background. We
+should like to have seen his face. Miss
+Carolina Wilhelmina Amelia Skeggs
+is good; Lady Blarney is not the
+overdressed and overacting peeress.
+The whole is very nicely grouped.
+Perhaps we are not so pleased with
+this illustration, remembering Maclise's
+more finished picture of the
+subject.</p>
+
+<p>Moses departing for the &quot;Fair.&quot;
+Hopeful and confident are the group,
+and not least so Moses himself. We
+fancy we recognize in Moses a similar
+figure in a sweet picture exhibited
+last year by Mr Stonhouse, one of the
+&quot;Etching Club.&quot; We are not quite
+satisfied  with the other figures&mdash;they
+all hide their faces, as well they might,
+for their simplicity in trusting to the
+&quot;discreet boy&quot; that can &quot;buy and
+sell to very good advantage&quot;&mdash;so off
+go Moses and the colt that had been
+nine years in the family. &quot;We all
+followed him several paces from the
+door, bawling after him good-luck! good-luck!
+till we  could see him no longer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>No. 12 exhibits simplicity upon a
+larger scale, and shows the head of
+the family, verifying the old proverb,
+&quot;like father like son&quot;&mdash;though it
+should be here like son like father.
+The colt was fitly turned over to the
+son, grave blind Blackberry was a
+horse for the father's art and wisdom.
+&quot;By this time I began to have a most
+hearty contempt for the poor animal
+myself, and was almost alarmed at
+the approach of every customer.&quot;
+Poor Blackberry! He is quite conscious
+of his depreciation; he is a wise animal,
+and can see that &quot;with half an
+eye.&quot; Alas! we fear he has not that half.
+Blackberry is good&mdash;yet will he
+sell for nothing; how patiently he lets
+them handle his leg, and a handle it
+is; we can imagine the creature thinking,
+&quot;pray, sir, would you like to look
+at the other poor thing of a leg?&quot;
+The rascally Fair, in which Mr Mulready
+has shown, according to his
+author, that the Vicar ought not to
+have been, is well given; but we
+should have liked a full length portrait
+of Mr Jenkinson pronouncing
+<span class="greek" title="Anarchon ara kai atelentaion to pan.">&Alpha;&nu;&alpha;&rho;&chi;&omicron;&nu; &alpha;&rho;&alpha; &kappa;&alpha;&iota; &alpha;&tau;&epsilon;&lambda;&epsilon;&nu;&tau;&alpha;&iota;&omicron;&nu; &tau;&omicron; &pi;&alpha;&nu;</span>.
+
+<p>The reading the letter, the well-known
+letter of Mr Burchell to &quot;The
+Ladies.&quot; &quot;There seemed, indeed,
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page774" id="page774" title="774"></a></span> something applicable to both sides in
+this letter, and its censures might as
+well be referred to those to whom it
+was written, as to us; but the malicious
+meaning was obvious, and we went
+no further.&quot; This, as usual, is well
+grouped; the Vicar ponders, and cannot
+tell what to make of it. We should
+have preferred, as a subject, the Vicar
+confronting Mr Burchell, and the cool
+effrontery of the philosopher turning
+the tables upon the Vicar, &quot;and how
+came you so basely to presume to
+break open this letter?&quot; or better still,
+perhaps, the encounter of art between
+Mr Burchell and Mrs Deborah Primrose.
+And why have we not Dick's
+episode of the dwarf and the giant?
+Episodes are excellent things, as good
+for the illustrations as for the book.
+No. 14, the contrivance of Mrs Primrose
+to entrap the squire, properly belongs
+to another chapter. &quot;Then the
+poor woman would sometimes tell the
+squire that she thought him and Olivia
+extremely of a size, and would bid
+both stand up to see which was tallest.&quot;
+The passage is nicely told;
+there is, however, but one figure to
+arrest attention, and that is quite
+right, for it is Olivia's, and a sweet
+figure it is. Dear Olivia! We have not
+seen her portrait before, and we shall
+love her, beyond &quot;to the end of the
+chapter,&quot; to the end of the volume,
+and the more so, that hers after all
+was a hard fate. It is the part of the
+tale which leaves a melancholy impression;
+Goldsmith has so determined it&mdash;and
+to his judgment we bow implicitly.
+Had any other author so
+wretchedly disposed of his heroine, in
+a work not professedly tragic, we
+should have been pert as critics usually
+are. Mrs Primrose is certainly here
+too young. We cannot keep our eyes
+off Olivia; and see, the scoundrel has
+slyly taken her innocent hand, and
+the other is put up to her neck in such
+modest doubt of the liberty allowed.
+Here, as in other instances, the squire
+is not the well-dressed man of the
+world, whose gold lace had attracted
+Dick's attention. We could linger
+longer over this illustration, but must
+pass on&mdash;honest Burchell has been
+dismissed, villany has full sway. We
+must leave poor Olivia to her fate,
+and turn to the family picture
+&quot;drawn by a limner;&quot; capital&mdash;&quot;limner&quot;
+well suiting the intended satire&mdash;some
+say a good-natured, sly cut at
+Sir Joshua. We should certainly
+have had Mrs Primrose as Venus, and
+the two little ones as Cupids, and the
+Vicar presenting to her his books on
+the Whistonian controversy, and the
+squire as Alexander. Whoever wishes
+to see specimens of this kind may see
+some ludicrous ones at Hampton court&mdash;particularly
+of Queen Elizabeth,
+and the three goddesses abashed by
+her superiority. We thought to leave
+poor Olivia to her fate&mdash;Mr Mulready
+will not let us give her up so easily,
+and takes us to the scene of her quitting
+her home for her betrayer; and
+this is the subject of&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, she is gone off with two
+gentlemen in a post-chaise; and one
+of them kissed her, and said he would
+die for her;&quot; and there she is, hiding
+her beautiful face with her hands, and
+poor good Dick is pulling her back by
+her dress, that she may not go; but a
+villain's hand is round her waist, and
+one foot he has upon the step of the
+chaise, and the door is open. Poor
+Dick, you have nothing left you to do
+but to run home as fast as you can; and
+there you will find such a scene of innocent
+enjoyment, how to be marr'd!
+at the very moment, too, that the good
+Vicar had been feeling and saying, &quot;I
+think myself happier now than the
+greatest monarch upon earth. He
+has no such fireside, nor such pleasant
+faces about it. We are descended
+from ancestors that knew no stain,
+and we shall leave a good and virtuous
+race of children behind us. While
+we live they will be our support and
+our pleasure here, and when we die
+they will transmit our honour untainted
+to posterity. Come, my son,
+we wait for a song: let us have a
+chorus. But where is my darling
+Olivia? That little cherub's voice is
+always sweetest in the concert.&quot; O
+Dick, Dick! at such a moment as this
+to run in and tell him to be miserable
+for ever; for that his cherub, his
+Olivia is gone, and gone, as it appears,
+to infamy, a thousand times more
+grievous than death. Was there ever
+so touching a scene?&mdash;Mr Mulready
+feared it. That is a wonderful chapter&mdash;the
+happiness is so domestically
+heightened, that the homefelt joy
+may be more instantly crushed. We
+know we shall not see dear darling
+Olivia again for a long, long time; and
+feel we want a pause and a little diversion&mdash;so
+we will go back to Bill the
+songster for amusement, and take it if
+we can; and here is for the purpose
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page775" id="page775" title="775"></a></span> Bill's &quot;Elegy on the Death of a Mad
+Dog,&quot; alas! taught him, too, by honest
+Mr Williams; we only hope young,
+sturdy farmers have strong nerves, and
+don't break their hearts in love's disappointments.
+Here is Dick's Elegy;
+and as we, too, have a Moses at home
+of a &quot;miscellaneous education,&quot; we
+will put on the Vicar's simplicity, and
+cheerful familiarity with his own flesh
+and blood&mdash;and thus we address our
+Moses, &quot;Come, my boy, you are no
+hand at singing, so turn the Elegy
+another way: let us have a little Latin,
+for your music is Hexameter and
+Pentameter.&quot; Our Moses, &quot;That's a
+hard task, sir, for one that cannot
+mount to Parnass Hill without his
+'Gradus ad Parnassum.'&quot; &quot;Well,
+then get your Gradus, and put your
+foot in that first step of the ladder.&quot;
+Our Moses, waggishly&mdash;&quot;I must mind
+my feet, sir, or they will be but lame
+verses, and go halting and hobbling&mdash;but
+I suppose you won't be very particular
+as to Latinity. I have heard you
+tell how Farmer Williams&quot;&mdash;&quot;No,&quot;
+said we, &quot;not Williams, any other farmer
+you please; poor Williams is not
+likely to have any children; yet I
+know what you were going to say.&quot;
+&quot;Farmer any body, then,&quot; said our
+Moses, &quot;when he took his boy to
+school, left him with the master;
+and shortly returned to inform him,
+that, discoursing upon the subject at
+the 'public,' he had heard that there
+were two sorts of Latin, and so he
+brought the master a gammon of
+bacon, for he wished his son to have
+the best: now I think, sir, one of
+these two sorts must be 'dog Latin,'
+and that must be best fitted for the
+Elegy in question.&quot; Our Moses beats
+the Vicar's hollow in waggery, so we
+are proud of him. He takes after his
+mother. We condescended to be familiar
+enough to laugh. Now, then,
+Moses, to <i>your</i> task and we to <i>ours</i>.
+And here we are at&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>The scene of Mr Arnold and his
+family breaking in upon his butler
+personating his master, we are rather
+inclined to think a failure. There
+is Mr Mulready's good grouping, but
+somehow or other it is rather flat for
+so piquant an incident; &quot;I was struck
+dumb with the apprehension of my
+own absurdity, when whom should I
+next see enter the room but my dear
+Miss Arabella Wilmot.&quot; We should
+like to have seen, in illustration, the
+political butler ordering the Vicar
+out of his house, or at least a more
+decided portrait of Arabella Wilmot.
+&quot;Beauty is,&quot; as Miss Skeggs said of
+virtue, &quot;worth any price;&quot; and we
+are sorry to look about, and continue,
+in her words, &quot;but where is that to
+be found?&quot; What had Mr Mulready
+to do, that he would not let us have a
+sight of Arabella Wilmot. We,
+therefore, pass on to her lover, the
+Vicar's eldest son George, delivering
+his letter of recommendation to the
+nobleman's footmen, with his fee,
+which brings us to&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;However, after bribing the servants
+with half my worldly fortune,
+I was at last shown into a spacious
+apartment, my letter being previously
+sent up for his lordship's inspection.&quot;
+The Vicar's son is a fine fellow in the
+illustration: we are glad to see him,
+but rather wish Mr Mulready had
+chosen a better subject. George's
+adventures were written with a nice
+satire; for Goldsmith knew what and
+whom he had to describe. The reasons
+why he would not do for an
+usher, are well put. Is it not possible
+that Mr Dickens took his first
+hint of Do-the-boys' Hall from reading
+this passage in Goldsmith? Indeed,
+there may be a suspicion that Mrs
+Primrose gave the idea of Mrs Nickleby,
+though he has made her an original.
+But to return to the traveller&mdash;we
+should like to have seen an
+&quot;illustration&quot; of his interview with the
+principal of the College of Louvain, a
+passage quite in the spirit of Le Sage.
+&quot;The principal seemed at first to
+doubt my abilities; but of these I
+offered to convince him, by turning a
+part of any Greek author he should fix
+upon into Latin. Finding me perfectly
+earnest in my proposals he addressed
+me thus, 'You see, young man,' continued
+he, 'I never learned Greek,
+and I don't find that I have ever missed
+it. I have had a doctor's cap and
+gown without Greek; I have ten
+thousand florins a year without Greek;
+and, in short,' continued he, 'as I don't
+know Greek, I do not believe there is
+any good in it.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The office of Mr Crispe, who fitted
+becoming situations upon every body.
+&quot;There I found a number of poor
+creatures, all in circumstances like
+myself, expecting the arrival of Mr
+Crispe, presenting a true epitome of
+English impatience.&quot; And there is
+Mr Crispe himself, in the distance
+indeed, but certainly the principal
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page776" id="page776" title="776"></a></span> figure. The expectants are good enough,
+but Mr Crispe, with his audacious,
+confident, deceitful face, is excellent;
+the fellow rattling the money in both
+his pockets, with fraud, successful
+laughing fraud filling out both his
+cheeks. The audacious wretch! little
+cares he for the miserable expectants
+whom he means to ship off to America
+and slavery. Preferring to see
+the Vicar's son among &quot;the harmless
+peasants of Flanders,&quot; we turn over
+the leaves.</p>
+
+<p>Here is a delightful group,&mdash;a
+fine sturdy fellow holding his dog
+by a handkerchief through his collar,
+and how naturally the honest brute
+leans against his master, as claiming
+a sort of kindred&mdash;the expression of
+the young woman with the child in
+her arms, is attention and admiration.
+It is not quite certain that one
+of the loungers is pleased with that
+admiration. This is a pleasant scene,
+and happily illustrated. &quot;I had some
+knowledge of music, with a tolerable
+voice, and now turned what was once
+my amusement into a present means
+of subsistence.&quot; That is a pleasant,
+happy scene, though the personages
+are the poorest. Of another character
+is the next scene, and quite other
+personages act in it; for we come
+again to poor Olivia in her distress,
+grossly, brutally insulted by the
+wealthy profligate.</p>
+
+<p>The profligate scoundrel in the
+very lowest baseness of his character.&mdash;It
+is poor Olivia speaks. &quot;Thus
+each day I grew more pensive, and
+he more insolent, till at last the
+monster had the assurance to offer me to
+a young baronet of his acquaintance.&quot;
+This scene is not fit for picture; it is
+seemingly nothing but successful villany,
+and of too gay a cast to be pathetic.
+The chapter from which it is
+taken would have furnished a much
+better one&mdash;the meeting between the
+Vicar and his poor Olivia. We can
+bear the suffering of a Cordelia, because
+all in that is great though villany
+be successful; but there is a littleness
+in mere profligacy that infects
+even the victim. We could have
+wished that Mr Mulready had taken
+the &quot;Meeting&quot; for his illustration.
+How exquisitely beautiful is the text!
+The first impulse of affection is to
+forget, or instantly palliate the fault.
+&quot;Welcome, any way welcome, my
+dearest lost one, my treasure, to your
+poor old father's bosom!&quot; Then how
+exquisite her observance of the effect
+of grief upon the parent's appearance.
+&quot;Surely you have too much wisdom
+to take the miseries of my guilt upon
+yourself.&quot; How timely has Goldsmith
+thrown in this, when we are
+most willing to catch at a straw of
+excuse for the lovely sufferer! No,
+we say, she never contemplated the
+misery she has inflicted; and then
+how natural is the instantaneous remembrance
+of her guilt! The taking it
+up and laying it down at a moment's
+call, from affection, is most touchingly
+beautiful. &quot;Our wisdom, young woman,&quot;
+replied I&mdash;&quot;Ah, why so cold
+a name, papa?&quot; cried she. &quot;This is
+the first time you ever called me by
+so cold a name.&quot; &quot;I ask pardon, my
+darling,&quot; returned I; &quot;but I was
+going to observe that wisdom makes
+but a slow defence against trouble,
+though at last a sure one.&quot; Admitting
+the subject chosen by Mr Mulready,
+we do not approve of his manner of
+telling it; we scarcely know which is
+the principal figure. Nor is Olivia's
+good. It has nothing of the madness
+the text speaks of. &quot;My answer to
+this proposal was almost madness.&quot;
+We are glad to quit the scene, though
+our next step is into deeper misery;
+and&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The return of the Vicar to his
+home in flames,&quot; a pitiable sight; but
+here is the triumph of love over misery,
+and the subject is good. &quot;Now,&quot;
+cried I, holding up my children, &quot;now
+let the flames burn on, and all my
+possessions perish.&quot; The scene is well
+told, and not the worse for a justifiable
+theft from Correggio in the fainting
+figure&mdash;it is the <i>mother</i> in the Ecce
+Homo in the National Gallery. The
+failing of the hands at the moment
+of action, is true to the original and
+to nature. We rejoice that Mr Mulready
+did not take the return of
+Olivia as his subject. We should not
+like to see Mrs Primrose in that
+odious light; and though admirable in
+the tale, she is no favourite already.
+The parent had called his child,
+&quot;woman&mdash;young woman&quot;&mdash;the coldness
+passed away, and the word was
+changed for &quot;darling.&quot; The word
+was again to be resumed, and how
+applied!&mdash;to the unforgiving&mdash;That
+even the Vicar's anger, we must
+rather say indignation, should be
+virtuous. &quot;Ah, madam!&quot; cried her mother,
+&quot;this is but a poor place you
+have come to after so much finery.
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page777" id="page777" title="777"></a></span> My daughter Sophy and I can afford
+but little entertainment to persons
+who have kept company only with
+people of distinction. Yes, Miss
+Livy, your poor father and I have
+suffered very much of late; but I
+hope Heaven will forgive you.&quot; Not
+a word of her own forgiving, not a
+word of endearment; and we suspect
+the word madam had, when written,
+more blame in it than it now retains&mdash;and
+how do the words &quot;my daughter
+Sophy and I&quot; cut off the forlorn
+one from the family!&mdash;and the plural
+&quot;persons&quot; avoiding the individuality,
+the personality of her daughter was
+another deep cut into the very flesh
+of the lost one's heart. Now then
+comes the reproof, and the good man
+shines in the glory of goodness and
+greatness, indignation for love's sake.
+&quot;During this reception the unhappy
+victim stood pale and trembling, unable
+to weep or to reply; but I could
+not continue a silent spectator of her
+distress; wherefore, assuming a degree
+of severity in my voice and
+manner, which was ever followed with
+instant submission, 'I entreat, woman,
+that my words may be now
+marked once for all: I have brought
+you back a poor deluded wanderer:
+her return to duty demands the revival
+of our tenderness. The real
+hardships of life are now coming fast
+upon us; let us not therefore increase
+them by dissensions among each other.&quot;
+The words to the conclusion of the
+chapter should be written in letters
+of gold, were not the better place for
+them out of sight, upon the hearts of
+all; for none of us have too much
+charity, though some may have an
+excess of love.</p>
+
+<p>No. 22 is an affecting scene. The
+Vicar with his wounded arm is on
+his bed, with his distressed family
+about him. Olivia has fainted on
+hearing the news of her betrayer's
+intended marriage, and the mother is
+attending her. &quot;My compassion for
+my poor daughter, overpowered by
+this new disaster, interrupted what I
+had further to observe. I bade her
+mother support her, and after a short
+time she recovered.&quot; The countenance
+of the Vicar in this scene is the
+best among the illustrations&mdash;of that
+good man enduring affliction, that
+sight worthy the gods to look at, as
+said the Stoic. But we that have
+human sympathies, would willingly
+turn away from such a sight; and
+where shall we find refuge? for sorrow
+is coming on&mdash;sorrow upon sorrow&mdash;an
+accumulation of miseries
+no Stoic would have borne; for he,
+with all his boasted indifference, would
+have borne them no longer, but ended
+them and life together, if he might so
+end them, as he thought. And now,
+happily, &quot;<i>our</i> Moses&quot; comes to our
+relief, not with extracts from chapters
+on stoicism, or any other false philosophy,
+but holding up to us what he
+is pleased to call his &quot;dogrel.&quot; So,
+between him and Bill the Songster, we
+will have a duet. But as we have no
+Bill present, we will take his part
+ourselves, and, like other acting substitutes,
+go through the part, reading.
+&quot;Now we hope,&quot; addressing our
+Moses, &quot;you have not lengthened out
+your Latin to four lines for the four
+short English in each stanza. If you
+have, to the flames with them!&quot;</p>
+
+<p><i>Our Moses</i>.&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;CARMINA ELEGIACA IN MORTEM CUJUSDAM CANIS ISLINGTONIENSIS.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>(<i>We</i>.&mdash;Not in such a hurry&mdash;&quot;An Elegy on the death of a mad dog;&quot; and what
+made you put in Islingtoniensis? Well, I suppose you call that a Ciceronic flourish!
+Now, I will read the English&mdash;you the Latin.)</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>We</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">Good people all, of every sort,</p>
+<p class="i5">Give ear unto my song,</p>
+<p class="i4">And if you find it wondrous short,</p>
+<p class="i5">It cannot hold you long.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>Our Moses</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">Quotlibet huc, ubicunque hominum, auscultate canenti,</p>
+<p class="i4">Si breve vos teneam;&mdash;non ego longus ero.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>We</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">In Islington there was a man</p>
+<p class="i5">Of whom the world might say,</p>
+<p class="i4">That still a godly race he ran</p>
+<p class="i5">Whene'er he went to pray.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>Our Moses</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">Quidam Islingtoniensis erat, quem donec adibat</p>
+<p class="i4">Templa pius, sacra diximus ire via.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>We</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">A kind and gentle heart he had</p>
+<p class="i5">To comfort friends and foes;</p>
+<p class="i4"><span class="newpage"><a name="page778" id="page778" title="778"></a></span> The naked every day he clad</p>
+<p class="i5">When he put on his clothes.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>Our Moses</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">Suavis amico, inimico, ita mitis, nudum ut amictu,</p>
+<p class="i4">Quum se vestibat, cotidie indueret.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>We</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">And in that town a dog was found,</p>
+<p class="i5">As many dogs there be,</p>
+<p class="i4">Both mongrel, puppy, whelp, and hound,</p>
+<p class="i5">And curs of low degree.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>Our Moses</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">Et canis oppido eodem erat huic, ubi plurimus, et grex</p>
+<p class="i4">Et f&aelig;x, cum catulis plebs numerosa canum.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>We</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">This dog and man at first were friends,</p>
+<p class="i5">But when a pique began,</p>
+<p class="i4">The dog, to gain some private ends,</p>
+<p class="i5">Went mad and bit the man.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>Our Moses</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">Grandis amicitia, at Canis, ut sibi gratificetur</p>
+<p class="i4">Fit rabidus, rabido dente hominemque petit.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>We</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">Around from all the neighbouring streets</p>
+<p class="i5">The wondering neighbours ran,</p>
+<p class="i4">And swore the dog had lost his wits,</p>
+<p class="i5">To bite so good a man.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>Our Moses</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">Concurrunt cives, O illum Cerberun, at aiunt,</p>
+<p class="i4">Qualem amens rabido dense momordet herum.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>We</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">The wound it seem'd both sore and sad</p>
+<p class="i5">To every Christian eye,</p>
+<p class="i4">And while they swore the dog was mad,</p>
+<p class="i5">They swore the man would die.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>Our Moses</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">O s&aelig;vum vulnus, clamant lachrymosius omnes,</p>
+<p class="i4">En rabidus canis, et mox moriturus homo.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>We</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">But soon a wonder came to light,</p>
+<p class="i5">That show'd the rogues they lied;</p>
+<p class="i4">The man recover'd of the bite,</p>
+<p class="i5">The dog it was that died.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>Our Moses</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">Mendaces cives monstrat res prodigiosa,</p>
+<p class="i4">Sanus homo subito fit&mdash;moriturque canis.</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>&quot;A very good boy, Bill, upon my
+word,&quot; said the Vicar, &quot;and an Elegy
+that may truly be called tragical.&quot;
+So we present our Moses a sovereign
+for his verse&mdash;&quot;A sovereign for a
+verse, my boy.&quot; &quot;I will never,&quot;
+quoth he, &quot;be averse to a sovereign.
+We have heard of a monarch who
+gave a crown for a song.&quot; A little
+refreshed, let us turn to the book.
+Here is</p>
+
+<p>No. 23.&mdash;Very well, Mr Mulready,
+artistically performed; but we fear we
+shall not relish too many of these distressing
+subjects. We know, from
+distress to distress, you will take us
+into prison. Artists and writers of
+the present day delight in prison
+scenes; we are not of that class, but
+endure it. We would on no account
+sit down with that rascally-looking
+fellow that is driving and taking an
+inventory of the Vicar's stock. It
+is winter too. &quot;The consequence of
+my incapacity was his driving my
+cattle that evening, and their being
+appraised and sold the next day for
+less than half their value.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>No. 24&mdash;Is the attempt at a rescue.
+The Vicar represses and reproves the
+violence of his enraged parishioners.
+The drawing is good; but it is not
+a subject we delight to look at; and
+we begin to fear that further on we
+shall fare worse. Why did not Mr
+Mulready give us the interview between
+the Vicar and his old acquaintance,
+Mr Jenkinson? Artists
+of skill like to show it in grouping,
+and prefer that to giving character.
+&quot;The consequences might have been
+fatal, had I not immediately interposed,
+and with some difficulty rescued
+the officers from the hands of the enraged
+multitude.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Prison.&quot; We have little wish to
+stay there long, and look at the odious
+villains that surround the good man
+&quot;paying his footing.&quot; &quot;I was apprised
+of the usual perquisite required
+upon these occasions, and immediately
+complied with the demand, though the
+little money I had was nearly exhausted.&quot;
+The next illustration, too, takes
+us into equally bad company.</p>
+
+<p>The Vicar's attempt to reform the
+jail. The mockery, and roguery, and
+Vicar's perseverance, while a practised
+hand is picking his pocket&mdash;are admirably
+represented. &quot;I therefore read
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page779" id="page779" title="779"></a></span> them a portion of the service, with a
+loud unaffected voice, and found my
+audience perfectly merry upon the
+occasion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The penitent scene. &quot;My design
+succeeded, and in less than six days
+some were penitent, and all attentive.&quot;
+We now began to say, what a happy
+thing it was that Dr Primrose was
+sent to jail. Doubtless Goldsmith
+intended to show how good comes out
+of evil. There are some good figures
+in this illustration.</p>
+
+<p>The seizure of poor Sophia&mdash;and
+very good it is&mdash;not that we congratulate
+Mr Mulready on his Sophia
+here; she is rather a vulgar dowdy
+figure, the others are very good, and
+the incident well told. &quot;A post-chaise
+and pair drove up to them, and
+instantly stopped. Upon which a well-dressed
+man, but not Mr Thornhill,
+stepping out, clasped my daughter
+round the waist, and, forcing her in,
+bid the postilion drive on, so that they
+were out of sight in a moment.&quot; Now,
+Mr Mulready, in the next edition, you
+must positively illustrate the rescue by
+Mr Burchell.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Vicar delivering his sermon&quot;&mdash;Charmingly
+grouped are the attentive
+and subdued audience. Mrs Primrose
+is surely too young a figure. If we
+could get over our early impression of
+the Vicar's countenance, his figure
+here would probably please. &quot;The
+prisoners assembled themselves according
+to my directions, for they loved to
+hear my counsel&mdash;my son and his mother
+supported me on either side.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The return of dear Sophia, with her
+true but singular lover and deliverer&mdash;Perhaps
+the vicar takes it more
+coolly than the text justifies. &quot;Just
+as he delivered this news, my dearest
+girl entered, and with looks almost
+wild with pleasure, ran to kiss me in a
+transport of action.&quot; There should
+have been an illustration of the scene
+where Mr Burchell is discovered to
+be Sir William Thornhill; and above
+all, where he proposes Jenkinson to
+Sophia.</p>
+
+<p>The complete detection of the
+squire's villainies, and his great disappointment.
+&quot;And to convince you
+that I speak nothing but truth, here is
+the license by which you were married
+together.&quot; All here is good but
+the figure of the Squire. In appearance
+we are to presume that Squire
+Thornhill was a gentleman, or Miss
+Wilmot could not have endured his
+addresses, nor indeed would Olivia
+have been deceived by him. In this
+illustration he has neither the appearance,
+dress, nor attitude of one in that
+condition.</p>
+
+<p>The last illustration, or &quot;All's Well
+that End's Well.&quot; It is, however,
+near ending badly, both as to the incident
+and the illustration&mdash;in the latter
+all is good, excepting only Arabella
+Wilmot; perhaps there is a defect
+in the printing, which gives her
+an odd look&mdash;but altogether she is not
+a good figure. She should have been
+elegance personified. Burchell looks
+the sturdy runner that could overtake
+the chaise, and rescue manfully his
+Sophia, to win and wear a favour,
+though he seems here in little hurry;
+but that is in character. &quot;But as I
+stood all this time with my book
+ready, I was at last quite tired of the
+contest, and shutting it, 'I perceive,'
+cried I, 'that none of you have a mind
+to be married.'&quot; We should like to
+have seen the dinner-party, and the
+two Miss Flamboroughs ready to die
+with laughing. &quot;One jest I particularly
+remember: old Mr Wilmot drinking to
+Moses, whose head was turned another
+way, my son replied, 'Madam, I thank
+you.' Upon which the old gentleman,
+winking upon the rest of the
+company, observed that he was thinking
+of his mistress; at which jest I
+thought the two Miss Flamboroughs
+would have died with laughing.&quot; We
+should like to have seen their faces by
+Mr Mulready's hand, because we are
+sure that the two Miss Flamboroughs
+were thinking of themselves, in conjunction
+with Moses and the jest.</p>
+
+<p>We have noticed every illustration.
+We hope there will be another edition,
+and then we may have a few
+more plates. We have therefore, as
+we have gone on, ventured to suggest
+some subjects&mdash;but, above all, we would
+recommend Mr Mulready to supply a
+few portraits, heads only, such as that
+of the &quot;Schoolmaster in the Deserted
+Village,&quot; by the Etching Club.</p>
+
+<hr class="full">
+
+
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page780" id="page780" title="780"></a></span>
+<a name="bw332s8" id="bw332s8"></a><h2>THE ATTORNEY'S CLERK IN THE MONK'S HOOD.</h2>
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;I thought of Chatterton, the marvellous boy&mdash;</p>
+<p>The sleepless soul that perish'd in his pride.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Had the &quot;resolution and independence&quot;
+which dignify the lowly,
+and strengthen the unhappy, when no
+visible eye befriends them, been
+among the rich endowments of Chatterton's
+wonderful mind&mdash;had he possessed
+and cherished the courage that
+bears up against obloquy and neglect&mdash;had
+he pursued the rough tenour
+of his way undaunted, in spite of
+&quot;solitude, pain of heart, distress, and
+poverty,&quot; how different must have
+been the fate of the inspired boy of
+Bristol! He might be alive yet; he
+would be ninety years old, graced
+with honour, love, obedience, troops
+of friends, and all that should accompany
+old age. He might have
+achieved some great epic, or some
+gorgeous historical dramas,&mdash;have
+finished the Fairy Queen, or given
+us a Fairy King of his own creation.</p>
+
+<p>Among the lighter honours of social
+distinction, we can fancy his
+reception as a London &quot;lion,&quot; by
+the fair and noble in proud places.
+Still pleasanter is the vision of his
+less public hours of idleness spent
+among congenial spirits. We can
+fancy him, the patriarch of living
+poets, seated as a guest at the breakfast-table
+of Samuel Rogers, who is
+about twelve years his junior, and
+those fine lads, Lisle Bowles, James
+Montgomery, and William Wordsworth,
+and those promising children,
+Tom Moore and Tom Campbell, and
+that braw chiel John Wilson&mdash;(<i>palmam
+qui meruit ferat</i>)&mdash;the youngest
+of the party something, perhaps, but
+not much, under seventy, except the
+bard of the Isle of Palms, who is no
+chicken; and unless the master of the
+feast have summoned those pretty
+babes from the Wood, the two Tennysons.
+But alas for Chatterton!
+the vision will not hold: he disappears
+from his chair at the feast, like
+Banquo&mdash;&quot;and, when all's done, you
+look but on a stool.&quot; The ghost of
+the slayer of himself, after long
+haunting Strawberry Hill, to rebuke
+the senile complacency of the chronicler
+of royal and noble authors, repaired,
+after the death of that prosperous
+man of wit and fashion, to his
+native town, to prowl in Redcliff
+church, and about the graves of his
+fathers in its churchyard, and the
+graves which they had successively
+dug there during a century and a
+half. His bones were left to moulder
+among those of other pauper strangers
+in the burial-ground of Shoelane
+workhouse. We attach no
+credit to the story of the exhumation
+of his body, and its mysterious reinterment
+in Redcliff. His fathers were
+sextons; and he, too, was in some
+sort a sexton also&mdash;but spiritually
+and transcendantly. He buried his
+genius in the visionary grave of Rowley,
+&quot;an old chest in an upper room
+over the chapel on the north side of
+Redcliff church;&quot; and thence, most
+rare young conjurer, he evoked its
+spirit in the shape of fragments of
+law-parchment, quaintly inscribed
+with spells of verse and armorial
+hieroglyphics, to puzzle antiquaries
+and make fools of scholiasts. Puzzle
+them he did; and they could not forgive
+a clever stripling, whom hunger
+had tempted to don an ancient mask,
+and impose himself on their spectacled
+eyes as a reverend elder. Rogue!&mdash;vagabond!
+Profligate impostor!
+The slim, sleek, embroidered juggler
+of the Castle of Otranto had not a
+kind word for this ragged orphan of
+his own craft. He, whose ambition
+was to shine among writers who have
+given intellectual grace to their noble
+lineage&mdash;among whom assuredly he
+does and will shine&mdash;but whose acute
+consciousness of something meretricious
+in his metal, made him doubt if
+the public would accept coinage from
+his mint; and so caused him to wear
+tentative disguises, whether he elaborated
+a romance or a keen and
+playful witticism&mdash;and who really
+did injustice to his own powers,&mdash;not
+from modesty but meanness,&mdash;even
+he, the son of a prime
+minister and heir to a peerage&mdash;a man
+who was himself always something of
+a trickster, now mystifying a blind old
+woman at Paris; now sending open
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page781" id="page781" title="781"></a></span> letters, privately nullified, recommending
+the bearers to his friend the
+envoy at Florence; now, with the
+mechanic aid of village carpenters and
+bricklayers, rearing a frail edifice
+bristling with false points, and persuading
+the world that it was all pure
+Gothic, perhaps chuckling at his assurance&mdash;even
+this shrewd mummer
+gravely shook his head at Chatterton,
+and frowned on him as a cheat! True;
+they were both cheats; Horace Walpole
+from apprehensive vanity; Chatterton
+from proud oblique humility.
+The Bristol boy knew his worth; but,
+doubting the equity as well as the sagacity
+of his judges, he did not venture
+to produce it as his own. He
+supposed that an obscure and penniless
+youth, such as he, could have little
+chance of attention or fair play in
+the world if he appeared in his proper
+character; so he painfully assumed
+another, of a nature that could not long
+have been supported even had he been
+a various linguist deeply versed in
+etymologies, and especially proficient
+in our extinct idioms, and their several
+dates of usage, instead of wanting
+even Latin enough to understand the
+easiest parts of Skinner's Etymology
+of the English tongue, one of the books
+that he consulted and guessed at.</p>
+
+<p>Of all modern suicides this youth
+was the most interesting; of all literary
+impostors the least unpardonable,
+though his ways were, unhappily for
+himself, of indefensible crookedness.
+He neither ascribed his fictions to a
+great name as Ireland did, nor did he,
+like Macpherson, steal the heart out of
+national ballads and traditions, to
+stuff a Bombastes Penseroso of his own
+making.</p>
+
+<p>Any competent, yet moderately indulgent
+reader, who should for the
+first time take up Chatterton's works,
+and beginning at the beginning, in
+Tyrwhitt's first edition, for example,
+peruse no more than sixty or seventy
+pages, would probably lay down the
+volume somewhat disappointed not to
+have found the very extraordinary
+merit he had expected. The compositions
+that this partial examination
+would take in are three&mdash;Eclogues,
+Elinour and Juga, Verses to Lydgate,
+with Song to Ella, Lydgate's Answer,
+and the Tournament.</p>
+
+<p>The first Eclogue is a conversation
+between two fugitive shepherds, who
+bewail the wretched condition to which
+the barons' wars have reduced them.
+It contains some pleasing lines.</p>
+
+<p>As the rustics discuss their grievances
+in a valley under cover of</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p class="i6">&quot;... Eve's mantle gray,</p>
+<p class="i2">The rustling leaves do their white hearts affray.</p>
+<p>They regret the pleasures of their forsaken home,</p>
+<p class="i6">... the kingcup decked mees,</p>
+<p class="i2">The spreading flocks of sheep of lily white,</p>
+<p class="i2">The tender applings and embodied trees,</p>
+<p class="i2">The parker's grange, far spreading to the sight,</p>
+<p class="i2">The gentle kine, the bullocks strong in fight,</p>
+<p class="i2">The garden whiten'd with the comfrey plant,</p>
+<p class="i2">The flowers Saint Mary shooting with the light&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i6">...</p>
+<p class="i2">The far-seen groves around the hermit's cell,</p>
+<p class="i2">The merry fiddle dinning up the dell,</p>
+<p class="i2">The joyous dancing in the hostry court&mdash;</p>
+<p>But now,</p>
+<p class="i6">high song and every joy farewell,</p>
+<p class="i2">Farewell the very shade of fair disport.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>In the second Eclogue, a good son
+invokes blessings on his father, who is
+gone with the crusaders to Palestine.
+He describes with much animation
+the voyage, the landing in Syria, the
+warring Saracens, King Richard of
+lion's heart, and anticipates victory
+and the return to England.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Thus Nigel said, when from the azure sea</p>
+<p>The swollen sail did dance before his eyne.</p>
+<p>Swift as the wish he to the beach did fly,</p>
+<p>And found his father stepping from the brine.</p>
+<p>Sprites of the blest, the pious Nigel said,</p>
+<p>Pour out your pleasance on my father's head!&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class="newpage"><a name="page782" id="page782" title="782"></a></span> The third Eclogue, if divested of certain
+exuberances&mdash;for Chatterton was
+precocious in every thing, and many
+of his fancies want the Bowdler pruning-knife&mdash;might
+be seasonably transferred
+to some of the penny publications
+for the benefit of Mr Frost's
+disciples. A poor man and woman,
+on their way to the parson's hayfield,
+complain to each other of their hard
+lot in being obliged to earn their
+bread by the sweat of their brows.
+&quot;Why,&quot; asks the woman, &quot;should I
+be more obligated to work than the
+fine Dame Agnes? What is she more
+than me? The man, unable to solve
+so knotty a point, says he doesn't see
+how he himself is not as good as a
+lord's son, but he will ask Sir Roger
+the parson, whom he consults accordingly.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;<i>Man</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">By your priestship now say unto me,</p>
+<p class="i4">Sir Godfrey the knight, who liveth hard by,</p>
+<p class="i5">Why should he than me</p>
+<p class="i6">Be more great</p>
+<p class="i4">In honour, knighthood, and estate?</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;<i>Sir Roger</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">If thou hast ease, the shadow of content,</p>
+<p class="i4">Believe the truth, none happier is than thee.</p>
+<p class="i4">Thou workest well; can that a trouble be?</p>
+<p class="i4">Sloth more would jade thee than the roughest day.</p>
+<p class="i4">Could'st thou the secret minds of others see,</p>
+<p class="i4">Thou would'st full soon see truth in what I say.</p>
+<p class="i4">But let me hear thy way of life, and then</p>
+<p class="i4">Hear thou from me the lives of richer men.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;<i>Man</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i5">I rise with the sun,</p>
+<p class="i5">Like him to drive the wain,</p>
+<p class="i5">And, ere my work is done,</p>
+<p class="i5">I sing a song or twain.</p>
+<p class="i5">I follow the plough-tail</p>
+<p class="i5">With a bottle of ale.</p>
+<p class="i5">On every saint's day</p>
+<p class="i5">With the minstrel I'm seen,</p>
+<p class="i5">All footing away</p>
+<p class="i5">With the maids on the green.</p>
+<p class="i4">But oh, I wish to be more great,</p>
+<p class="i4">In honour, station, and estate!</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;<i>Sir Roger</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i5">Hast thou not seen a tree upon a hill,</p>
+<p class="i5">Whose ample boughs stretch wide around to sight?</p>
+<p class="i5">When angry tempests do the heavens fill,</p>
+<p class="i5">It shaketh drear, in dole and much affright:</p>
+<p class="i5">While the small flower in lowly graces deck'd</p>
+<p class="i5">Standeth unhurt, untroubled by the storm.</p>
+<p class="i5">The picture such of life. The man of might</p>
+<p class="i5">Is tempest-chafed, his woe great as his form;</p>
+<p class="i5">Thyself, a floweret of small account,</p>
+<p class="i4">Would harder feel the wind as higher thou didst mount.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Sir Roger's moral is trite enough,
+yet it seems to have escaped the consideration
+of our Chartists and Socialists.</p>
+
+<p>Elinour the nut-brown, and Juga
+the fair, are two pining maidens, who,
+seated on the banks of the Redbourne,
+a river near St Alban's, are each bemoaning
+their lovers, gone to fight in
+that neighbourhood for the Rose of
+York. Presently, racked with suspense,
+they hasten nearer to the scene of
+action.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;<i>Like twain of clouds that hold the stormy rain,</i></p>
+<p><i>They moved gently o'er the dewy meads</i></p>
+<p>To where Saint Alban's holy shrines remain.</p>
+<p>There did they find that both their knights were slain.</p>
+<p>Distraught they wander'd to swoln Redbourne's side,</p>
+<p>Yell'd there their deadly knell, sank in the waves, and died.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class="newpage"><a name="page783" id="page783" title="783"></a></span> The verses to Lydgate consist of
+ten lines of no merit at all, and supposed
+to be sent to him by Rowley,
+with the Ode to Ella, which has a
+movement that recalls Collins, a lyrical
+artist perhaps unexcelled in our language,
+and in whose manner Chatterton
+so obviously and frequently composes,
+that the fact alone might have
+settled the Rowley question, though
+we are not aware that it was ever particularly
+insisted on in the controversy.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Oh Thou, or what remains of Thee,</p>
+<p class="i3">Ella! the darling of futurity,</p>
+<p>Let this my song bold as thy courage be,</p>
+<p class="i3">As everlasting to posterity&mdash;</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;When Dacia's sons, with hair of blood-red hue,</p>
+<p>Like kingcups glittering with the morning dew,</p>
+<p class="i3">Arranged in drear array,</p>
+<p class="i3">Upon the fatal day,</p>
+<p>Spread far and wide on Watchet's shore,</p>
+<p class="i3">Then didst thou furious stand,</p>
+<p class="i3">And by thy valiant hand</p>
+<p>Besprinkle all the meads with gore.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p class="i3">&quot;Driven by thy broadsword fell,</p>
+<p class="i3">Down to the depths of hell,</p>
+<p class="i4">Thousands of Dacians went.</p>
+<p class="i3">...</p>
+<p class="i3">&quot;Oh Thou, where'er, thy bones at rest,</p>
+<p class="i3">Thy sprite to haunt delighteth best,</p>
+<p>Whether upon the blood-embrued plain&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i3">Or where thou ken'st from far,</p>
+<p class="i3">The dismal cry of war,</p>
+<p><i>Or see'st some mountain made of corses slain,</i></p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p class="i3">&quot;Or see'st the war-clad steed</p>
+<p class="i3">That prances o'er the mead,</p>
+<p>And neighs to be among the pointed spears&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i3">Or in black armour stalk around</p>
+<p class="i3">Embattled Bristol, once thy ground,</p>
+<p>Or haunt with lurid glow the castle stairs,</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p class="i3">&quot;Or, fiery, round the Minster glare!</p>
+<p class="i3">Let Bristol still be made thy care;</p>
+<p>Guard it from foeman and consuming fire;</p>
+<p class="i3">Like Avon's stream embrace it round,</p>
+<p class="i3">Nor let a sparkle harm the ground,</p>
+<p>Till in one flame the total world expire.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The quatrains entitled Lydgate's answer, are amply complimentary on the
+foregoing song, but otherwise as prosaic as the lines that introduce it.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;">
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Among the Grecians Homer was</p>
+<p class="i1">A poet much renown'd;</p>
+<p>Among the Latins <i>Virgilius</i></p>
+<p class="i1">Was best of poets found.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;The British Merlin often had</p>
+<p class="i1">The gift of inspiration;</p>
+<p>And Afled to the Saxon men</p>
+<p class="i1">Did sing with animation.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;In Norman times Turgotus and</p>
+<p class="i1">Good Chaucer did excel;</p>
+<p>Then Stowe, the Bristol Carmelite,</p>
+<p class="i1">Did bear away the bell.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Now Rowley, in these murky days,</p>
+<p class="i1">Sends out his shining lights,</p>
+<p>And Turgotus and Chaucer live</p>
+<p class="i1">In every line he writes.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The next is the Tournament, an interlude.
+Sir Simon de Burton, its
+hero, is supposed to have been the
+first founder, in accomplishment of a
+vow made on the occasion, of a church
+dedicated to <i>Our Lady</i>, in the place
+where the church of St Mary Redcliff
+now stands. There is life and force
+in the details of this tourney; and the
+songs of the minstrel are good, especially
+the first, which is a gallant
+hunting stave in honour of William
+the Red King, who hunts the stag,
+the wolf, and &quot;the <i>lion</i> brought from
+sultry lands.&quot; The sentiment conveyed
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page784" id="page784" title="784"></a></span> in the burden of this spirited
+chorus sounds oddly considerate, as
+the command issued by William Rufus:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Go, rouse the lion from his hidden den,</p>
+<p>Let thy darts drink the blood of any thing but men.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>To the paternity of the next in order&mdash;the
+Bristol Tragedy, or Death
+of Sir Charles Baldwin&mdash;Chatterton
+confessed; and such an admission
+might have satisfied any one but Dean
+Milles. The language is modern&mdash;the
+measure flowing without interruption;
+and, though the orthography
+affects to be antiquated, there is but
+one word (bataunt) in the whole series
+of quatrains, ninety-eight in number,
+that would embarrass any reader in his
+teens; though a boy that could generate
+such a poem as that, might well
+be believed the father of other giants
+whom he chose to disown. It is a
+masterpiece in its kind, almost unexceptionable
+in all its parts. The subject
+is supposed to have been suggested
+by the fate of Sir Baldwin Fulford,
+a zealous Lancastrian, beheaded at
+Bristol in 1461, the first year of the
+reign of Edward IV., who, it is believed,
+was actually present at the
+execution.</p>
+
+<p>Now comes Ella, a tragical interlude,
+or discoursing tragedy, by Thomas
+Rowley, prefaced by two letters
+to Master Canning, and an introduction.
+In the first letter, among various
+sarcasms on the age, is one, complaining
+that</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;In holy priest appears the baron's pride.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>A proposition, we fear, at least as
+true in our day as in the fifteenth
+century. From the same epistle we
+would recommend to the consideration
+of the Pontius Pilates of our era, the
+numerous poets who choose none but
+awfully perilous themes, and who re-enact
+tremendous mysteries more confidently
+than if they were all Miltons,
+the annexed judicious admonition:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Plays made from holy tales I hold unmeet;</p>
+<p class="i1">Let some great story of a man be sung;</p>
+<p>When as a man we God and Jesus treat,</p>
+<p class="i1">In my poor mind we do the Godhead wrong.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>And the following piece of advice,
+from the same letter, would not be ill
+bestowed on modern shopocracy:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Let kings and rulers, when they gain a throne,</p>
+<p class="i1">Show what their grandsires and great-grandsires bore;</p>
+<p>Let trades' and towns'-folk let such things alone,</p>
+<p class="i1">Nor fight for sable on a field of ore.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Yet he who could give this sensible
+counsel did by no means follow it.
+Chatterton, who really could trace
+back his ancestors for 150 years as a
+family of gravediggers, drew out for
+himself a pedigree which would have
+astonished Garter king-at-arms, and
+almost abashed a Welsh or German
+genealogy. He derived his descent
+from Sire de Chasteautonne, of the
+house of Rollo, the first Duke of Normandy,
+who made an incursion on the
+coast of Britain in the ninth century,
+and was driven away by Alfred the
+Great! Nine shields, exhibiting the
+family arms, were carefully prepared
+by him, and are preserved, with many
+other and very various inventions by
+the same hand, in the British Museum;
+and neat engravings of those
+Chatterton escutcheons are furnished
+by Mr Cottle, in his excellent essays
+on this tortuous genius. He was
+equally liberal in providing a pedigree
+for his friend Mr Burgham, a
+worthy and credulous pewterer in his
+native town, convincing him, by proofs
+that were not conclusive at the Herald's
+College, that he was descended
+from the De Burghams, who possessed
+the estate and manor of Brougham
+in the reign of Edward the Confessor,
+and so allying the delighted hearer
+with the forefathers of an illustrious
+Ex-Chancellor of our day. No less a
+personage, too, than Fitz-Stephen, son
+of Stephen Earl of Ammerle in 1095,
+grandson of Od, Earl of Bloys and
+Lord of Holderness, was the progenitor
+gravely assigned to Chatterton's
+relative, Mr Stephens, leather-breeches-maker
+of Salisbury. Evidence
+of all sorts was ever ready
+among the treasures in the Redcliff
+muniment room, the Blue-Coat boy's
+&quot;Open Sesame!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The plot of Ella may be told in a
+few words. Ella, a renowned English
+warrior, the same who is invoked in
+the fine song already quoted, marries
+Bertha, of whom his friend and fellow
+warrior, Celmond, is secretly
+enamoured. On the wedding-day he
+is called suddenly away to oppose a
+Danish force, which he defeats, but
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page785" id="page785" title="785"></a></span> not without receiving wounds severe
+enough to prevent his immediate return
+home. Celmond takes advantage
+of this circumstance, and under
+pretence of conducting Bertha to her
+husband, betrays her into a forest
+that chances to be the covert of Hurra,
+the Danish general, and other of the
+discomfited invaders. Her shrieks
+bring Hurra and his companions to
+her aid. They kill Celmond, and generously
+resolve to restore Bertha to
+her lord. He in the mean time, impatient
+to rejoin his bride, has contrived
+to get home, where, when he
+hears of her ill-explained departure,
+believing her false, he stabs himself.
+She arrives only in time to see him
+die.</p>
+
+<p>Celmond, soliloquizing on the
+charms of Bertha, exclaims,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Ah, Bertha, why did nature frame thee fair?</p>
+<p>Why art thou not as coarse as others are?</p>
+<p><i>But then thy soul would through thy visage shine</i>;</p>
+<p>Like nut-brown cloud when by the sun made red,</p>
+<p>So would thy spirit on thy visage spread.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>At the wedding-feast, so unexpectedly interrupted by news of the Danes,
+the following pretty stanzas are sung by minstrels representing a young man
+and woman.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;<i>Man</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">Turn thee to thy shepherd swain;</p>
+<p class="i4">Bright sun has not drunk the dew</p>
+<p class="i4">From the flowers of yellow hue;</p>
+<p class="i4">Turn thee, Alice, back again.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>Woman</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">No, deceiver, I will go,</p>
+<p class="i4">Softly tripping o'er the mees,</p>
+<p class="i4">Like the silver-footed doe</p>
+<p class="i4">Seeking shelter in green trees.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>Man</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">See the moss-grown daisied bank</p>
+<p class="i4">Peering in the stream below;</p>
+<p class="i4">Here we'll sit in dewy dank,</p>
+<p class="i4">Turn thee, Alice: do not go.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>Woman</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">I've heard erst my grandam say</p>
+<p class="i4">That young damsels should not be,</p>
+<p class="i4">In the balmy month of May,</p>
+<p class="i4">With young men by the greenwood tree.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>Man</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">Sit thee, Alice, sit and hark</p>
+<p class="i4">How the blackbird chants his note,</p>
+<p class="i4">The goldfinch and the gray-morn lark,</p>
+<p class="i4">Shrilling from their little throat.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>Woman</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">I hear them from each greenwood tree</p>
+<p class="i4">Chanting out so lustily,</p>
+<p class="i4">Telling lectures unto me,</p>
+<p class="i4">Mischief is when you are nigh.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>Man</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">See, along the mends so green</p>
+<p class="i4">Pi&egrave;d daisies, kingcups sweet,</p>
+<p class="i4">All we see; by none are seen;</p>
+<p class="i4">None but sheep set here their feet.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>Woman</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">Shepherd swain, you tear my sleeve;</p>
+<p class="i4">Out upon you! let me go;</p>
+<p class="i4">Keep your distance, by your leave,</p>
+<p class="i4">Till Sir Priest make one of two.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>Man</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">By our lady and her bairn,</p>
+<p class="i4">To-morrow, soon as it is day,</p>
+<p class="i4">I'll make thee wife, nor be forsworn,</p>
+<p class="i4">So may I live or die for aye.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>Woman</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">What doth hinder but that now</p>
+<p class="i4">We at once, thus hand in hand,</p>
+<p class="i4"><span class="newpage"><a name="page786" id="page786" title="786"></a></span> Unto a divine do go,</p>
+<p class="i4">And be link'd in wedlock-band?</p>
+<p class="i6">(Sensible woman!)</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>Man</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">I agree, and thus I plight</p>
+<p class="i4">Hand and heart and all that's mine.</p>
+<p class="i4">Good Sir Herbert do us right,</p>
+<p class="i4">Make us one at Cuthbert's shrine.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>Both</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">We will in a cottage live,</p>
+<p class="i4">Happy though of no estate;</p>
+<p class="i4">Every hour more love shall give;</p>
+<p class="i4">We in goodness will be great.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The two Danish generals, Hurra
+and Magnus, warm their blood to the
+fighting temperature before the battle
+by quarreling with and abusing each
+other, like Grecian heroes. They are
+both bullies, but Hurra is brave and
+Magnus a craven. Chatterton's sarcastic
+humour plays them off admirably.
+The result of the struggle between
+the two armies is pithily announced
+by one of the fugitives:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Fly, fly, ye Danes! Magnus the chief is slain;</p>
+<p>The Saxons come with Ella at their head:</p>
+<p>Fly, fly, <i>this is the kingdom of the dead</i>.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>In this drama is the exquisite melody, &quot;O, sing unto my roundelay!&quot;
+with which every one is familiar, as it is introduced into all our popular selections
+from the poets.</p>
+
+<p>Here is a cunning description of dawn.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;The morn begins along the east to sheen,</p>
+<p><i>Darkling the light doth on the waters play</i>;</p>
+<p>The faint red flame slow creepeth o'er the green,</p>
+<p>To chase the murkiness of night away,</p>
+<p>Swift flies the hour that will bring out the day.</p>
+<p>The soft dew falleth on the greening grass;</p>
+<p>The shepherd-maiden, dighting her array,</p>
+<p><i>Scarce sees her visage in the wavy glass</i>.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Such extracts do not, and are not
+intended to, convey any notion of
+Chatterton's dramatic power in this
+play. Mere extracts would not do
+justice to that, and therefore we confine
+ourselves to selections of a few
+out of many passages that can stand
+independent of plot or action, without
+detriment to their effect. The same
+remark will not apply to the next
+piece, or rather fragment. Godwin,
+a Tragedy, by Thomas Rowley. It
+is short, and the dramatic interest
+weak. In the following noble chorus,
+however, we recognise the genius of
+Chatterton:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;When Freedom, drest in blood-stained vest,</p>
+<p class="i1">To every knight her war-song sung,</p>
+<p>Upon her head wild weeds were spread,</p>
+<p class="i1">A gory broadsword by her hung.</p>
+<p class="i4">She paced along the heath,</p>
+<p class="i4">She heard the voice of death.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Pale-eyed Affright, his heart of silver hue,</p>
+<p class="i1">In vain essay'd her bosom to congeal:</p>
+<p>She heard inflamed the shrieking voice of Woe,</p>
+<p class="i1">And cry of owls along the sadden'd vale.</p>
+<p class="i4">She shook the pointed spear,</p>
+<p class="i5">On high she raised her shield;</p>
+<p class="i4">Her foemen all appear,</p>
+<p class="i5">And fly along the field.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Power, with his head uplifted to the skies,</p>
+<p class="i1">His spear a sunbeam and his shield a star,</p>
+<p>Like two bright-burning meteors rolls his eyes,</p>
+<p class="i1">Stamps with his iron feet, and sounds to war.</p>
+<p class="i4"><span class="newpage"><a name="page787" id="page787" title="787"></a></span> She sits upon a rock,</p>
+<p class="i5">She bends before his spear,</p>
+<p class="i4">She rises from the shock,</p>
+<p class="i5">Wielding her own in air.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Hard as the thunder doth she drive it on;</p>
+<p class="i1">Keen wit, cross muffled, guides it to his crown;</p>
+<p>His long sharp spear, his spreading shield are goe;</p>
+<p class="i1">He falls, and falling rolleth thousands down.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>A short prologue by Master William
+Canning, informs us that this
+tragedy of Godwin was designed to
+vindicate the Kentish earl's memory
+from prejudices raised against him by
+monkish writers, who had mistaken
+his character, and accused him of ungodliness
+&quot;for that he gifted not the
+church.&quot; There are but three scenes
+in the play. In the first, Godwin and
+Harold confer together on the distressed
+state of the nation, and the weakness
+of the king, whose court is overrun
+with Norman favourites to the
+exclusion of the English knights, and
+the great oppression of the people.
+Harold, young and impetuous, is for
+instant rebellion; but the father tries
+to moderate his rage, recommending
+patience and calm preparation.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;<i>Godwin</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i3">What tidings from the king?</p>
+<p><i>Harold</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i6">His Normans know.</p>
+<p><i>Godwin</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i3">What tidings of the people?</p>
+<p><i>Harold</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i3">Still murmuring at their fate, still to the king</p>
+<p class="i4">They roll their troubles like a surging sea.</p>
+<p class="i3">Has England, then, a tongue but not a sting?</p>
+<p class="i4">Do all complain, yet will none righted be?</p>
+<p><i>Godwin</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i3">Await the time when God will send us aid.</p>
+<p><i>Harold</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i3">Must we, then, drowse away the weary hours?</p>
+<p class="i4">I'll free my country, or I'll die in fight.</p>
+<p><i>Godwin</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i3">But let us wait until some season fit.</p>
+<p class="i4"><i>My</i> Kentishmen, <i>thy</i> Somertons shall rise,</p>
+<p class="i4">Their prowess warmer for the cloak of wit,</p>
+<p class="i4">Again the argent horse shall prance in skies.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>An allusion, says Chatterton, to the
+arms of Kent, a horse salient, argent.
+As to the cloak of wit, it may possibly
+be preserved in Somersetshire; but
+the mantle certainly was not tied as an
+indefeasible heirloom over the broad
+shoulders of the county of Kent. No
+ancient Saxons, or even Britons, ever
+displayed prowess so stolid as those
+brave wild-wood savages of Boughton
+Blean, near Canterbury, who recently
+fell in battle with her Majesty's 45th
+regiment, opposing sticks to balls and
+bayonets, under their doughty leader
+Sir William Courtenay, Earl of Devonshire,
+Knight of Malta, King of
+Jerusalem, and much more. And there
+were other blockheads, substantial
+dunces, of respectable station in East
+Kent, among this ignorant and ambitious
+madman's supporters; men who
+had been at school to little purpose.
+Such an insurrection of satyrs, and
+such a Pan, in the middle of the nineteenth
+century, within earshot of the
+bells of Christchurch! But this by
+the bye.</p>
+
+<p>The next poem is styled English
+Metamorphosis, by T. Rowley. It
+consists of eleven stanzas of ten lines
+each, all fluent and spirited, and some
+of very superior merit. It is the fable
+of Sabrina, Milton's &quot;daughter of Locrine,&quot;
+transliquefied to the river Severn,
+while her mother, Elstrida, was
+changed to the ridge of stones that
+rises on either side of it, Vincent's
+rocks at Clifton, and their enemy, the
+giant, was transformed to the mountain
+Snowdon. This giant was a very
+Enceladus.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;He tore a ragged mountain from the ground;</p>
+<p>Hurried up nodding forests to the sky:</p>
+<p>Then with a fury that might earth astound,</p>
+<p>To middle air he let the mountain fly,</p>
+<p><i>The flying wolves sent forth a yelling cry</i>.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>In illustration of Elstrida's beauty,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;The morning tinge, the rose, the lily flower,</p>
+<p>In ever-running race on her did paint their power.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class="newpage"><a name="page788" id="page788" title="788"></a></span> The most vulgar and outworn simile
+is refreshed with a grace by the touch
+of Chatterton.</p>
+
+<p>Of the next poem&mdash;An excellent
+ballad of Charity, by the good priest,
+Thomas Rowley, 1454&mdash;it is clear
+that the young author thought highly,
+by a note that he transmitted with it
+to the printer of the &quot;Town and
+Country Magazine,&quot; July 4, 1770, the
+month preceding that of his death.
+Unlike too many bearers of sounding
+appellations, it has certainly something
+more than its title to recommend
+it.</p>
+
+<p>The octosyllabic lines&mdash;twenty
+only&mdash;on Redcliff Church, by T.R.,
+show what nice feeling Chatterton
+had for the delicacies of that florid
+architecture:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;The cunning handiwork so fine,</p>
+<p>Had wellnigh dazzled mine eyne.</p>
+<p>Quoth I, some artful fairy hand</p>
+<p>Uprear'd this chapel in this land.</p>
+<p>Full well I know so fine a sight,</p>
+<p>Was never raised by mortal wight.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Of its majesty he speaks in another
+measure:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Stay, curious traveller, and pass not by</p>
+<p class="i1">Until this festive pile astound thine eye.</p>
+<p>Whole rocks on rocks, with iron join'd, survey;</p>
+<p class="i1">And oaks with oaks that interfitted lie;</p>
+<p>This mighty pile that keeps the winds at bay,</p>
+<p class="i1">And doth the lightning and the storm defy,</p>
+<p>That shoots aloft into the realms of day,</p>
+<p class="i1">Shall be the record of the builder's fame for aye.</p>
+<p class="i2">Thou see'st this mastery of a human hand,</p>
+<p class="i2">The pride of Bristol, and the western land.</p>
+<p>Yet is the builder's virtue much more great;</p>
+<p class="i1">Greater than can by Rowley's pen be scann'd.</p>
+<p><i>Thou see'st </i>the saints and kings in stony state,</p>
+<p class="i1"><i>As if with breath and human soul expand</i>.</p>
+<p class="i2">Well may'st thou be astounded&mdash;view it well;</p>
+<p class="i2">Go not from hence before thou see thy fill,</p>
+<p>And learn the builder's virtues and his name.</p>
+<p class="i1">Of this tall spire in every country tell,</p>
+<p>And with thy tale the lazy rich men shame;</p>
+<p class="i1">Show how the glorious Canning did excel;</p>
+<p class="i2">How he, good man, a friend for kings became,</p>
+<p class="i2">And glorious paved at once the way to heaven and fame.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The &quot;Battle of Hastings&quot; is the
+longest of Chatterton's poems, and
+the reader who arrives at its abrupt
+termination will probably not grieve
+that it is left unfinished. The whole
+contains about 1300 lines in stanzas
+of ten, describing archery fights and
+heroic duels that are rather tedious
+by their similarity, and offensive from
+the smell of the shambles; and which
+any quick-witted stripling with the
+knack of rhyming might perhaps have
+done as well, and less coarsely, after
+reading Chapman's or Ogilby's Homer,
+or the fighting scenes in Spenser,
+the Border Ballads, &amp;c. But even
+this composition is not unconscious of
+the true afflatus, such as is incommunicable
+by learning, not to be inhaled
+by mere imitative powers, and which
+might be vainly sought for in hundreds
+of highly elaborated prize
+poems.</p>
+
+<p>There is nothing more interesting
+in British history than the subject;
+and it is one which Chatterton, with
+all his genius, was much too young to
+treat in a manner at all approaching
+to epic completeness. Yet a few specimens
+might show that he is not deficient
+in the energy of the Homeric
+poetry of action. But here is metal
+more attractive, a young Saxon wife:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;White as the chalky cliffs of Britain's isle,</p>
+<p>Red as the highest-coloured Gallic wine,</p>
+<p>Gay as all nature at the morning smile,</p>
+<p>Those hues with pleasance on her lips combine;</p>
+<p>Her lips more red than summer evening's skies,</p>
+<p>Or Ph&oelig;bus rising in a frosty morn;</p>
+<p>Her breast more white than snow in fields that lies,</p>
+<p>Or lily lambs that never have been shorn,</p>
+<p>Swelling like bubbles in a boiling well,</p>
+<p>Or new-burst brooklets gentling whispering in the dell,</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<hr style="width: 45%;">
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><span class="newpage"><a name="page789" id="page789" title="789"></a></span> &quot;Brown as the filbert dropping from the shell,</p>
+<p>Brown as the nappy ale at Hocktide game&mdash;</p>
+<p>So brown the crooked rings that neatly fell</p>
+<p>Over the neck of that all-beauteous dame.</p>
+<p>Grey as the morn before the ruddy flame</p>
+<p>Of Ph&oelig;bus' chariot rolling through the sky;</p>
+<p>Grey as the steel-horn'd goats Conyan made tame&mdash;</p>
+<p>So grey appear'd her featly sparkling eye.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<hr style="width: 45%;">
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Majestic as the grove of oaks that stood</p>
+<p>Before the abbey built by Oswald king;</p>
+<p>Majestic as Hibernia's holy wood,</p>
+<p>Where saints, and souls departed, masses sing&mdash;</p>
+<p>Such awe from her sweet look far issuing,</p>
+<p>At once for reverence and love did call.</p>
+<p>Sweet as the voice of thrushes in the spring,</p>
+<p>So sweet the words that from her lips did fall.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<hr style="width: 45%;">
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Taper as candles laid at Cuthbert's shrine,</p>
+<p>Taper as silver chalices for wine,</p>
+<p>So were her arms and shape.&mdash;</p>
+<p>As skilful miners by the stones above</p>
+<p>Can ken what metal is inlaid below,</p>
+<p>So Kennewalcha's face, design'd for love,</p>
+<p>The lovely image of her soul did show.</p>
+<p>Thus was she outward form'd; the sun, her mind,</p>
+<p>Did gild her mortal shape and all her charms refined.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The next poem, and the last of the <i>modern-antiques</i> that it may be worth
+while to note, is the story of William Canning, the illustrious founder of Redcliff
+Church, and is worthy of the author and his subject.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Anent a brooklet as I lay reclined,</p>
+<p>Listening to hear the water glide along,</p>
+<p>Minding how thorough the green meads it twined,</p>
+<p>While caves responded to its muttering song,</p>
+<p>To distant-rising Avon as it sped,</p>
+<p>Where, among hills, the river show'd his head.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>Engarlanded with crowns of osier-weeds,</p>
+<p>And wreaths of alders of a pleasant scent.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Then from the distant stream arose a maid,</p>
+<p>Whose gentle tresses moved not to the wind.</p>
+<p>Like to the silver moon in frosty night,</p>
+<p>The damsel did come on so blithe and bright.</p>
+<p>No broider'd mantle of a scarlet hue,</p>
+<p>No peak&egrave;d shoon with plaited riband gear,</p>
+<p>No costly paraments of woaden blue;</p>
+<p>Nought of a dress but beauty did she wear;</p>
+<p>Naked she was, and looked sweet of youth,</p>
+<p>And all betoken'd that her name was Truth.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The few words then spoken by this
+angelical lady&mdash;who unhappily favoured
+Chatterton but with &quot;angel visits,
+short and far between&quot;&mdash;throw him
+into a reverie on the life of William
+Canning, whose boyhood was more
+fortunate than the poet's; for it is here
+reported of Canning, that</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;He ate down learning with the wastlecake.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Chatterton, poor fellow, had neither
+fine bread to eat, nor fine learning
+within the possibility of his acquisition.
+Yet even the worthy Corporation
+of his native city will, we doubt
+not, be willing to allow that the Blue-Coat
+Charity boy might be entitled
+to the praise he gives Canning in the
+next couplet: that he&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p><span class="newpage"><a name="page790" id="page790" title="790"></a></span> &quot;As wise as any of the Aldermen,</p>
+<p>Had wit enough to make a Mayor at ten.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>We have limited these slight notices
+to the Rowley Poems; and such readers
+of our extracts as have been repelled
+from the perusal of those poems,
+by the formidable array of uncouth
+diction and strange spelling, may enquire
+what has become of the hard
+words. Here are long quotations,
+and not an obsolete term or unfamiliar
+metre among them. Chatterton
+took great pains to encrust his gold
+with verd-antique; it requires little to
+remove the green rubbish from the
+coin. By the aid of little else than
+his own glossary, &quot;the Gode Preeste
+Rowleie, Aucthoure,&quot; is restored to
+his true form and pressure, and is all
+the fairer for the renovation.</p>
+
+<p>We have no space for examination
+of the &quot;numerous verse,&quot; and verses
+numerous, that Chatterton left undisguised
+by barbarous phraseology.
+His modern poems, morally exceptionable
+as is much of the matter, are
+affluent of the genius that inspired the
+old. African Eclogues, Elegies, Political
+Satires, Amatory Triflings, Lines on
+the Copernican System, the Consuliad,
+Lines on Happiness, <i>Resignation</i>, The
+Art of Puffing, and Kew Gardens&mdash;to
+say nothing of his equally remarkable
+prose writings&mdash;attest the versatility
+of his powers, and the variety of his
+perception of men and manners. His
+knowledge of the world appears to
+have been almost intuitive; for surely
+no youth of his years ever displayed so
+much. Bristol, it is true, was, of all
+great towns in England, one of the
+most favourable to the development
+of his peculiar and complicated faculties.
+His passion for antiquarian lore,
+and his poetical enthusiasm, found a
+nursing mother in a city so rich in
+ancient architecture, heraldic monuments,
+and historical interest; his
+caustic humour was amply fed from
+the full tide of human life, with all its
+follies, in that populous mart; and his
+exquisite sensibility to the beautiful
+and magnificent in nature, was abundantly
+ministered to by the surrounding
+country. We are told that he had
+been by some odd chance taught his
+alphabet, and his first lesson in &quot;reading
+made easy,&quot; out of a black-letter
+Bible! That accident may have had
+its share in forming his taste for old-fashioned
+literature. But he was an
+attorney's clerk! The very name of
+a lawyer's office seems to suggest a
+writ of ejectment against all poetical
+influences in the brain of his indented
+apprentice. Yet Chatterton's anomalous
+genius was in all likelihood
+fostered by that dark, yet subtle atmosphere.
+His duty of copying precedents
+must have initiated him in
+many of the astute wiles and twisted
+lines of reasoning that lead to what is
+termed sharp practice, and so may
+have confirmed and aided his propensities
+to artifice; while the mere manual
+operation tutored his fingers to dexterity
+at quaint penmanship. He had
+much leisure too; for it is recorded
+that his master's business seldom occupied
+him more than two hours a-day.
+He was left to devote the rest
+of his time unquestioned to all the devices
+of an inordinate imagination.</p>
+
+<p>After all, it is no unreasonable
+charity to believe, that what was unworthy
+and unsound in his character,
+and probably in his physical temperament,
+might, under more auspicious
+circumstances of condition and training,
+have been kept in check till
+utterly expelled by the force of his
+own maturer mind. In weighing his
+faults against his genius and its better
+fruits, it should never be forgotten that
+when he terminated his existence he
+was only seventeen years and nine
+months old.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p class="i2">&quot;More wounds than nature gave he knew,</p>
+<p class="i2">While misery's form his fancy drew</p>
+<p>In dark ideal hues and horrors not its own.&quot;<a name="footnotetag39" id="footnotetag39"></a><a href="#footnote39"><sup>39</sup></a></p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>May we not even dare to hope, then,
+though he &quot;perished in his pride,&quot;
+that he is still a living genius, assoiled
+of that foul stain of self-murder, and
+a chartered spiritualized melody where
+want and trouble madden not?</p>
+
+<hr class="full">
+
+
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page791" id="page791" title="791"></a></span>
+<a name="bw332s9" id="bw332s9"></a><h2>IGNACIO GUERRA AND EL SANGRADOR;</h2>
+
+<h3>A TALE OF CIVIL WAR.</h3>
+
+<p>On a June evening in the year 1839,
+four persons were assembled in the
+balcony of a pleasant little villa, some
+half-league from the town of Logro&ntilde;o
+in Navarre. The site of the house in
+question was a narrow valley, formed
+by a double range of wood-covered
+hills, the lower limbs of a mountain
+chain that bounded the horizon some
+miles in rear of the villa. The house
+itself was a long, low building, of which
+the white stone walls had acquired
+the mellow tint that time and exposure
+to the seasons can alone impart. A
+solid balcony of carved unpainted oak
+ran completely round the house, its
+breadth preventing the rays of the sun
+from entering the rooms on the ground
+floor, and thereby converting them
+into a cool and delightful refuge from
+the heats of summer. The windows
+of the first and only story opened upon
+this balcony, which, in its turn, received
+shelter from a roof of yellow
+canes, laid side by side, and fastened
+by innumerable packthreads, in the
+same way as Indian matting. This
+sort of awning was supported by light
+wooden pillars, placed at distances of
+five or six feet from each other, and
+corresponding with the more massive
+columns that sustained the balcony.
+At the foot of these latter, various
+creeping plants had taken root. A
+broad-leafed vine pushed its knotty
+branches and curled tendrils up to the
+very roof of the dwelling, and a passion-flower
+displayed its mystical purple
+blossoms nearly at as great a height;
+while the small white stars of the jasmine
+glittered among its narrow dark-green
+leaves, and every passing breeze
+wafted the scent of the honeysuckle
+and clematis through the open windows,
+in puffs of overpowering fragrance.</p>
+
+<p>About two hundred yards to the
+right of the house, rose one of the
+ranges of hills already mentioned, and
+on the opposite side the eye glanced
+over some of those luxuriant corn-fields
+which form so important a part of the
+riches of the fertile province of Navarre.
+The ground in front of the villa was
+tastefully laid out as a flower garden,
+and, midway between two magnificent
+chestnut trees, a mountain rivulet fell
+into a large stone basin, and fed a
+fountain, from which it was spouted
+twenty feet into the air, greatly to the
+refreshment of the surrounding pastures.</p>
+
+<p>The party that on the evening in
+question was enjoying the scent of the
+flowers and the song of the nightingales,
+to which the neighbouring trees
+afforded a shelter, consisted, in the first
+place, of Don Torribio Olana, a wealthy
+proprietor of La Rioja, and owner
+of the country-house that has been described.
+He had been long used to
+pass the hot months of each year at
+this pleasant retreat; and it was no
+small calamity to him when the civil
+war that broke out on the death of
+Ferdinand, rendered it scarcely safe, in
+Navarre at least, to live out of musket-shot
+of a garrison. Sometimes, however,
+and in spite of the advice of his
+friends, who urged him to greater prudence,
+the worthy Riojano would
+mount his easy-going round-quartered
+cob, and leave the town for a few hours'
+rustication at his <i>Retiro</i>. After a time,
+finding himself unmolested either by
+Carlists or by the numerous predatory
+bands that overran the country, he
+took for companions of his excursions
+his daughter Gertrudis, and an orphan
+niece, to whom he supplied the place
+of a father. Five years of impunity
+were taken as a guarantee for future
+safety, and Don Torribio now no longer
+hesitated to pass the night at his country-house
+as often as he found it convenient.
+It was observed, also, that
+many of those persons who had at first
+loudly blamed him for risking his neck,
+and that of his daughter and niece, in
+order to enjoy a purer atmosphere than
+could be inhaled in the dusty streets of
+Logro&ntilde;o, at length gathered so much
+courage from his example, as to accompany
+him out to the <i>Retiro</i>, and eat
+his excellent dinners, and empty his
+cobweb-covered bottles, without allowing
+their fear of the Carlists to diminish
+their thirst or disturb their digestion.</p>
+
+<p>Upon this occasion, however, the
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page792" id="page792" title="792"></a></span> only guest was a young and handsome
+man, whose sunburnt countenance and
+military gait bespoke the soldier, while
+a double stripe of gold lace on the cuff
+of his blue frock-coat, marked his rank
+as that of lieutenant-colonel. Although
+not more than thirty years of age, Don
+Ignacio Guerra had already attained a
+grade which is often the price of as
+many years' service; but his rapid promotion
+was so well justified by his
+merit and gallantry, that few were
+found to complain of a preference
+which all felt was deserved. Both by
+moral and physical qualities, he was
+admirably suited to the profession he
+had embraced. Slender in person, but
+well knit and muscular, he possessed
+extraordinary activity, and a capacity
+of enduring great fatigue. Indulgent
+to those under his command, and self-denying
+in all that regarded himself personally,
+his enthusiasm for the cause
+he served was such, that during nearly
+two years that he had been the accepted
+lover of Donna Gertrudis Olana, this
+was only the second time he had left
+his regiment for a few days' visit to his
+affianced bride. He had arrived at
+Logro&ntilde;o the preceding day from a town
+lower down the Ebro, where the battalion
+he commanded was stationed; and
+Don Torribio, with whom he was a
+great favourite, had lost no time in
+taking him out to the <i>Retiro</i>; nor, perhaps,
+were the lovers sorry to leave the
+noise and bustle of the town for this
+calm and peaceful retreat.</p>
+
+<p>It was about an hour after sunset,
+and Don Torribio sat dozing in an
+arm-chair, with his old black dog
+Moro coiled up at his feet, and his
+niece Teresa beside him, busying herself
+in the arrangement of a bouquet of
+choice flowers, while at the other end
+of the balcony Gertrudis and her lover
+were looking out upon the garden.
+The silence was unbroken, save by the
+splashing noise of the fountain as it
+fell back upon the water-lilies that covered
+its basin. The moon was as yet
+concealed behind the high ground to
+the right of the house; but the sky in
+that direction was lighted up by its
+beams, and the outline of every tree
+and bush on the summit of the hill
+was defined and cut out, as it were,
+against the clear blue background.
+Suddenly Gertrudis called her companion's
+attention to the neighbouring
+mountain. &quot;See, Ignacio!&quot; exclaimed
+she, &quot;yonder bush on the very highest
+point of the hill! Could not one almost
+fancy it to be a man with a gun
+in his hand? and that clump of leaves
+on the top bough might be the <i>boina</i>
+of one of those horrid Carlists?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>While she spoke the officer ran his
+eye along the ridge of the hill, and
+started when he caught sight of the
+object pointed out by Gertrudis; but
+before he could reply to her remark,
+she was called away by her father.
+At that moment the supposed bush
+made a sudden movement, and the
+long bright barrel of a musket glittered
+in the moonbeams. The next instant
+the figure disappeared as suddenly
+as though it had sunk into the
+earth.</p>
+
+<p>The Christino colonel remained for
+a moment gazing on the mountain,
+and then, turning away, hastened to
+accompany his host and the ladies, who
+had received a summons to supper.
+On reaching the foot of the stairs,
+however, instead of following them
+into the supper-room, he passed
+through the house-door, which stood
+open, and, after a moment's halt in the
+shade of the lattice portico, sprang
+forward with a light and noiseless
+step, and in three or four bounds found
+himself under one of the large chestnut
+trees that stood on either side the
+fountain. Keeping within the black
+shadow thrown by the branches, he
+cast a keen and searching glance over
+the garden and shrubberies, now partially
+lighted up by the moon. Nothing
+was moving either in the garden,
+or as far as he could see into the
+adjacent country. He was about to
+return to the house, when a blow on
+the back of the head stretched him
+stunned upon the ground. In an instant
+a slip-knot was drawn tight
+round his wrists, and his person securely
+pinioned by a strong cord to
+the tree under which he had been
+standing. A cloth was crammed into
+his mouth to prevent his calling out,
+and the three men who had thus rapidly
+and dexterously effected his capture,
+darted off in the direction of the
+house.</p>
+
+<p>Desperate were the efforts made by
+Don Ignacio to free himself from his
+bonds, and his struggles became almost
+frantic, when the sound of a scuffle in
+the house, followed by the piercing
+shrieks of women, reached his ears.
+He succeeded in getting rid of the
+handkerchief that gagged him, but
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page793" id="page793" title="793"></a></span> the rope with which his arms were
+bound, and that had afterwards been
+twined round his body and the tree,
+withstood his utmost efforts. In vain
+did he throw himself forward with all
+his strength, striking his feet furiously
+against the trunk of the tree, and
+writhing his arms till the sharp cord
+cut into the very sinew. The rope
+appeared rather tightened than slackened
+by his violence. The screams
+and noise in the house continued; he
+was sufficiently near to hear the hoarse
+voices and obscene oaths of the banditti&mdash;the
+prayers for mercy of their
+victims. At length the shrieks became
+less frequent and fainter, and at
+last they died away entirely.</p>
+
+<p>Two hours had elapsed since Ignacio
+had been made prisoner, hours that
+to him appeared centuries. Exhausted
+by the violence of his exertions, and
+still more by the mental agony he had
+endured, his head fell forward on his
+breast, a cold sweat stood upon his forehead,
+and had it not been for the cords
+that held him up, he would have fallen
+to the ground. He was roused from
+this state of exhaustion and despair
+by the noise of approaching footsteps,
+and by the arrival of a dozen men,
+three or four of whom carried torches.
+They were dressed in the sort of half
+uniform worn by the Carlist <i>volantes</i>,
+or irregular troops; round their waists
+were leathern belts filled with cartridges,
+and supporting bayonets and
+long knives, in many instances without
+sheaths. Ignacio observed with
+a shudder that several of the ruffians
+had their hands and weapons stained
+with blood.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Whom have we here?&quot; exclaimed
+a sallow, evil-visaged fellow, who wore
+a pair of tarnished epaulets. &quot;Is this
+the <i>negro</i> you secured at the beginning
+of the affair?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>One of the men nodded assent, and
+the chief bandit, taking a torch, passed
+it before the face of the captive
+officer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<i>Un militar</i>!&quot; exclaimed he, observing
+the uniform button. &quot;Your
+name and rank?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Receiving no reply, he stepped a
+little on one side, and looked to the
+coat-cuff for the usual sign of grade.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<i>Teniente coronel</i>!&quot; cried he on
+seeing the double stripe.</p>
+
+<p>A man stepped forward, and Ignacio,
+who knew that death was the best he
+had to expect at the hands of these
+ruffians, and was observing their proceedings
+in stern silence, immediately
+recognized a deserter from his battalion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis the Colonel Ignacio Guerra,&quot;
+said the man; &quot;he commands the first
+battalion of the Toledo regiment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>An exclamation of surprise and pleasure
+burst from the Carlists on hearing
+the name of an officer and battalion,
+well known and justly dreaded
+among the adherents of the Pretender.
+Their leader again threw the light of
+the torch on the features of the Christino,
+and gazed at him for the space of
+a minute with an expression of cruel
+triumph.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ha!&quot; exclaimed he, &quot;<i>el Coronel
+Guerra! He</i> is worth taking to headquarters.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We shall have enough to do to get
+away ourselves, laden as we are,&quot; said
+one of the men, pointing to a number
+of large packages of plunder lying on
+the grass hard by. &quot;Who is to take
+charge of the prisoner? Not I, for
+one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A murmur among the other brigands
+approved this mutinous speech.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<i>Cuatro tiros</i>,&quot; suggested a voice.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes,&quot; said the leader, &quot;to bring
+down the enemy's pickets upon us.
+They are not a quarter of a league off.
+Pedro, lend me your knife. We will
+see,&quot; he added with a cruel grin,
+&quot;how the gallant colonel will look
+cropped.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A knife-blade glanced for a moment
+in the torchlight as it was passed
+round the head of the Christino officer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<i>Toma! chicos!</i>&quot; said the savage,
+as he threw the ears of the unhappy
+Ignacio amongst his men. A ferocious
+laugh from the banditti welcomed
+this act of barbarous cruelty.</p>
+
+<p>The leader sheathed the knife twice
+in his victim's breast before restoring
+it to it's owner, and the Carlists, snatching
+up their booty, disappeared in the
+direction of the mountains.</p>
+
+<p>At daybreak the following morning,
+some peasants going to their labour in
+the fields saw the body of the unfortunate
+officer still fastened to the tree.
+They unbound him, and, perceiving some
+signs of life, carried him into Logro&ntilde;o,
+where they gave the alarm. A
+detachment was immediately sent out
+to the Retiro, but it was too late to
+pursue the assassins; and all that
+could be done was to bring in the
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page794" id="page794" title="794"></a></span> bodies of Don Torribio, his daughter,
+and niece, who were lying dead in the
+supper-room. An old groom and two
+women servants had shared a like fate;
+the horses had been taken out of the
+stable, and the house ransacked of
+every thing valuable.</p>
+
+<p>For several weeks Ignacio Guerra
+remained wavering, as it were, between
+life and death. At length he recovered;
+but his health was so much impaired,
+that the surgeons forbade his again encountering
+the fatigues of a campaign.
+Enfeebled in body, heartbroken at the
+horrible fate of Gertrudis, and foreseeing
+the speedy termination of the
+war, consequent on the concluded
+treaty of Bergara, he threw up his
+commission, and left Spain to seek
+forgetfulness of his misfortunes in foreign
+travel.</p>
+
+<p>In all French towns of any consequence,
+and in many whose size and
+population would almost class them
+under the denomination of villages,
+there is some favourite spot serving as
+an evening lounge for the inhabitants,
+whither, on Sundays and f&ecirc;te-days especially,
+the belles and <i>&eacute;l&eacute;gants</i> of the
+place resort, to criticize each other's
+toilet, and parade up and down a walk
+varying from one to two or three hundred
+yards in extent.</p>
+
+<p>The ancient city of Toulouse is of
+course not without its promenade, although
+but poor taste has been evinced
+in its selection; for, while on one side
+of the town soft well-trimmed lawns,
+cool fountains, and magnificent avenues
+of elm and plane trees, are abandoned
+to nursery-maids and their charges,
+the rendezvous of the fashionables of
+the pleasant capital of Languedoc is
+a parched and dusty <i>all&eacute;e</i>, scantily
+sheltered by trees of recent growth, extending
+from the canal to the open
+square formerly known as the Place
+d'Angoul&ecirc;me, but since 1830 re-baptized
+by the name of the revolutionary
+patriarch General Lafayette.</p>
+
+<p>It was on a Sunday evening of the
+month of August 1840, and the All&eacute;e
+Lafayette was more than usually
+crowded. After a day of uncommon
+sultriness, a fresh breeze had sprung
+up, and a little before sundown the
+fair Toulousaines had deserted their
+darkened and artificially cooled rooms,
+and flocked to the promenade. The
+walk was thronged with gaily attired
+ladies, smirking dandies, and officers
+in full dress. In the fields on the
+further side of the canal, a number of
+men of the working-classes, happy in
+their respite from the toils of the week,
+were singing in parts, with all the musical
+taste and correctness of ear for
+which the inhabitants of that part of
+France are noted; while, on the broad
+boulevard that traverses the lower end
+of the <i>all&eacute;e</i>, a crowd of recruits whom
+the conscription had recently called under
+the colours, stood gazing in open-mouthed
+astonishment and infinite delight
+at some rudely constructed
+booths and shows, outside of which,
+clown and paillasse were rivalling
+each other in the broad humour of
+their lazzi. Parties of students, easily
+recognizable by their eccentric and
+exaggerated style of dress, and the
+loud tone of their conversation, were
+seated outside the caf&eacute;s and ice-rooms,
+or circulating under the trees, puffing
+forth clouds of tobacco smoke; and on
+the road round the <i>all&eacute;e</i>, open carriages,
+smart tilburies, and dapper
+horsemen were careering.</p>
+
+<p>Among the various groups thronging
+the promenade was one, which, in
+Hyde Park or on the Paris boulevards,
+would have attracted some notice; but
+the persons composing it were of a
+class too common of late years in the
+south of France to draw upon them
+any attention from the loungers. The
+party in question consisted of three
+men, who, by their bronzed complexions,
+ragged mustaches, and sullen,
+dogged countenances, as well as their
+whole air and <i>tournure</i>, were easily distinguishable
+as belonging to the exiled
+and disappointed faction of the Spanish
+Pretender. Their threadbare costume
+still exhibited signs of their late military
+employment, probably from a
+lack of means to replace it by any
+other garments. The closely buttoned
+blue frock of one of them still
+had upon its shoulders the small lace
+straps used to support the epaulets, and
+another wore for headdress a <i>boina</i>,
+with its large starlike tassels of silver
+cord. The third and most remarkable
+of the party, was a man in the
+prime of life and strength, whose countenance
+bore the impress of every bad
+passion. It was one of those faces
+sometimes seen in old paintings of
+monkish inquisitors, on viewing which,
+one feels inclined to suspect that the
+artist has outdone and exaggerated
+nature. The expression of the cold,
+glassy, grey eye, and thin, pale, compressed
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page795" id="page795" title="795"></a></span> lips, was one of unrelenting
+cruelty; while the coarsely moulded
+chin and jaw gave a sensual character
+to the lower part of the face. The
+scar of a sabre-cut extended from the
+centre of the forehead nearly to the
+upper lip, partly dividing the nose, and
+giving a hideously distorted and unnatural
+appearance to that feature.
+The man's frame was bony and powerful;
+the loose sheepskin jacket he wore
+was thrown open, and through the
+imperfectly fastened shirt-front, it
+might be seen that his breast was
+covered with a thick felt of matted
+hair.</p>
+
+<p>It was the moment of the short twilight
+that in the south of France intervenes
+between day and night. The
+Carlists had reached the upper end of
+the walk, and, turning round, began to
+descend it again three abreast, and
+with the man who has been particularly
+described in the centre. On
+a sudden the latter stopped short,
+as though petrified where he stood.
+His countenance, naturally sallow, became
+pale as ashes, and, as if to save
+himself from falling, he clutched the
+arm of one of his companions with a
+force that made him wince again,
+while he gazed with distended eyeballs
+on a man who had halted within half-a-dozen
+paces of the Spaniards. The
+person whose aspect produced this
+Medusa-like effect upon the Carlist
+was a man about thirty years of age,
+plainly but elegantly dressed, and of
+a prepossessing but somewhat sickly
+countenance, the lines of which were
+now working under the influence of
+some violent emotion. The only peculiarity
+in his appearance was a
+black silk band which, passing under
+his chin, was brought up on both sides
+of the head, and fastened on the crown
+under the hat.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<i>Que tienes, Sangrador</i>? What ails
+thee, man?&quot; enquired the Carlists of
+their terror-stricken companion, addressing
+him by a <i>nom-de-guerre</i> that
+he doubtless owed to his bloody deeds
+or disposition. At that moment the
+stranger sprang like a bloodhound into
+the centre of the group. In an instant
+El Sangrador was on the ground, his
+assailant's knee upon his breast, and
+his throat compressed by two nervous
+hands, which bade fair to perform the
+office of a bowstring on the prostrate
+man. All this had passed in far less
+time than is required to narrate it, and
+the astonishment of the Carlists at their
+comrade's terror and this sudden attack,
+was such, that, although men of
+action and energy, they were for a
+moment paralysed, and thought not of
+rescuing their friend from the iron
+gripe in which he was held. Already
+his eyes were bloodshot, his face
+purple, and his tongue protruding
+from his mouth, when a gendarme
+came up, and aided by half-a-dozen of
+those agents who, in plain clothes,
+half-spy and half-policeman, are to be
+found in every place of public resort in
+France, succeeded, but not without
+difficulty, in rescuing the Carlist from
+the fierce clutch of his foe, who clung
+to him with bull-dog tenacity till they
+were actually drawn asunder by main
+force.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<i>Canalla! infame!</i>&quot; shouted the
+stranger, as he writhed and struggled
+in the hands of his guards. &quot;By
+yonder villain have all my hopes in
+life been blasted&mdash;an adored mistress
+outraged and murdered, myself tortured
+and mutilated in cold blood!&quot;
+And, tearing off the black fillet that
+encircled his head, it was seen that his
+ears had been cut off. A murmur of
+horror ran through the crowd which
+this scene had assembled. &quot;And shall
+I not have revenge?&quot; shouted Ignacio
+(for he it was) in a voice rendered
+shrill by furious passion. And by a
+violent effort he again nearly succeeded
+in shaking off the men who held
+him.</p>
+
+<p>El Sangrador, whose first terror had
+probably been caused by astonishment
+at seeing one whom he firmly
+believed numbered with the dead, had
+now recovered from his alarm.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<i>Adios</i>, Don Ignacio,&quot; cried he
+with a sneer, as he walked away between
+two gendarmes, while his enemy
+was hurried off in another direction.</p>
+
+<p>The following day El Sangrador was
+sent to a dep&ocirc;t of Spanish emigrants in
+the interior of France. On his departure,
+the authorities, who had made
+themselves acquainted with the particulars
+of this dramatic incident, released
+Don Ignacio from confinement;
+but he was informed that no passport
+would be given him to quit Toulouse
+unless it were for the Spanish frontier.</p>
+
+<p>At the distance of a few leagues
+from the town of Oleron, and in one
+of the wildest parts of the Pyrenees, is
+a difficult pass, scarcely known, except
+to smugglers and izard-hunters
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page796" id="page796" title="796"></a></span> whose hazardous avocations make them
+acquainted with the most hidden recesses
+of these rugged and picturesque
+mountains. Towards the close of the
+summer of 1841, this defile was occasionally
+traversed by adherents of the
+Ex-Queen-Regent Christina, entering
+Spain secretly and in small parties, to
+be ready to take share in the abortive
+attempt subsequently made to replace
+the reins of government in the hands
+of Ferdinand's widow. Not a few
+Carlists also, weary of the monotonous
+inactive life they were leading in
+France, prepared to join the projected
+insurrection; and, leaving the towns in
+which a residence had been assigned
+them, sought to gain the Spanish side
+of the Pyrenees, where they might lie
+<i>perdus</i> until the moment for active
+operation arrived, subsisting in the
+meanwhile by brigandage and other
+lawless means. Owing to the negligence,
+either accidental or intentional,
+of the French authorities, these adventurers
+usually found little difficulty
+in reaching the line of demarcation
+between the two frontiers; but it was
+there their troubles began, and they
+had to take the greatest precaution to
+avoid falling into the hands of the
+Spanish <i>carabineros</i> and light troops
+posted along the frontier.</p>
+
+<p>Among those who intended to take
+a share in the rebellion, Don Ignacio
+Guerra occupied a prominent place.
+Being well known to the Spanish Government
+as a devoted adherent of
+Christina, it would have been in vain
+for him to have attempted entering
+Spain by one of the ordinary roads.
+Repairing to Oleron, therefore, he
+procured himself a guide, and one of
+the small but sure-footed horses of the
+Pyrenees, and, after a wearisome march
+among the mountains, arrived about
+dusk at a cottage, or rather hovel,
+built on a ledge of rock within half-an-hour's
+walk of the Spanish frontier.
+Beyond this spot the road was
+impracticable for a horse, and dangerous
+even for a pedestrian, and Don
+Ignacio had arranged to send back his
+guide and horse and proceed on foot;
+in which manner, also, it was easier
+to avoid falling in with the Spanish
+troops. The night was fine, and having
+had the road minutely explained
+to him by his peasant guide, Ignacio
+had no doubt of finding himself, in a
+few hours, at a village where shelter
+and concealment were prepared for
+him. Leaving the horse in a sort of
+shed that afforded shelter to two or
+three pigs, the Christino officer entered
+the hut, followed by his guide and by
+a splendid wolf-dog, an old and faithful
+companion of his wanderings. It
+was some seconds, however, before their
+eyes got sufficiently accustomed to the
+dark and smoky atmosphere of the
+place, to distinguish the objects it
+contained. The smoke came from a
+fire of green wood, that was smouldering
+under an enormous chimney, and
+over which a decrepit old woman was
+frying <i>talloua</i> or maize-meal cake, in
+grease of a most suspicious odour.
+The old lady was so intent on the preparation
+of this delicacy, a favourite
+food of the Pyrenean mountaineers,
+that it was with difficulty she could
+be prevailed upon to prepare something
+more substantial for the hungry
+travellers. Some smoked goats'
+flesh and acid wine were at length
+obtained, and, after a hasty meal, Ignacio
+paid his guide and resumed his
+perilous journey. The moon had not
+yet risen&mdash;the night was dark&mdash;the
+paths rugged and difficult, and the
+troops on the alert; to avoid falling in
+with an enemy, or down a precipice,
+so much care and attention were necessary,
+that nearly three hours had
+elapsed before Ignacio perceived that
+his dog had not followed him from the
+cottage. The animal had gone into
+the stable and lain down beside his
+master's horse, doubtless imagining,
+by that sort of half-reasoning instinct
+which dogs possess, that, as long as
+the horse was there, the rider would
+not be far off.</p>
+
+<p>Ignacio's first impulse, on discovering
+the absence of his four-footed
+companion, was to return to the cottage;
+but the risk in so doing was extreme,
+and as he felt certain his guide
+would take care of the dog, and that
+he should get it at some future day,
+he resolved to pursue his journey.
+Meantime the night became darker
+and darker&mdash;thick clouds had gathered,
+and hung low&mdash;there was no longer
+the slightest trace or indication of a
+path, and the darkness preventing him
+from finding certain landmarks he had
+been told to observe, he was obliged
+to walk on nearly at hazard, and soon
+became aware he had lost his way.
+To add to his difficulties, the low
+growlings of distant thunder were
+heard, and some large drops of rain
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page797" id="page797" title="797"></a></span> fell. A violent storm was evidently
+approaching, and Ignacio quickened
+his pace in hopes of finding some shelter
+before it came on, resolving to
+wait at all risks till daylight before
+continuing his route, lest he should
+run, as it were, blindfolded into the
+very dangers he wished to avoid. A
+sort of cliff or wall of rock he had for
+some time had on his left hand, now
+suddenly ended, and a scene burst on
+his view which to him was commonplace
+enough, but would have appeared
+somewhat strange to a person unaccustomed
+to such sights. The mountain,
+which had been steep and difficult
+to descend, now began to slope
+more gradually as it approached nearer
+its base. On a sort of shelving plateau
+of great extent, a number of charcoal-burners
+had established themselves,
+and, as the most expeditious way of
+clearing the ground, had set light in
+various places to the brushwood and
+furze that clothed this part of the
+mountain. To prevent, however, the
+conflagration from extending too far,
+they had previously, with their axes,
+cleared rings of several feet wide
+around the places to which they set
+fire. The bushes and furze they rooted
+up were thrown into the centre, and
+increased the blaze. In this manner
+the entire mountain side, of which
+several hundred acres were overlooked
+from the spot where Ignacio stood,
+appeared dotted with brilliant fiery
+spots of some fifty feet in diameter,
+the more distant ones assuming a lurid
+blood-red look, seen through the fog and
+mist that had now gathered over the
+mountain. Ignacio approached the
+nearest of the fires, lighted close to a
+crag that almost overhung it, and that
+offered a sufficient shelter from the rain
+which had begun to descend in torrents.
+Throwing himself on the
+ground with his feet towards the
+flames, he endeavoured to get a little
+sleep, of which he stood much in
+need. But it was in vain. The situation
+in which he found himself
+suggested thoughts that he was unable
+to drive away. Gradually a sort
+of phantasmagoria passed before his
+&quot;mind's eye,&quot; wherein the various
+events of his life, which, although a short
+one, had not the less been sadly eventful,
+were represented in vivid colours.
+He thought of his childhood, spent in
+the sunny <i>vegas</i> of Andalusia&mdash;of the
+companions of his military studies,
+high-spirited free-hearted lads, of
+whom some had achieved honours and
+fame, but by far the greater part had
+died on the battle-field&mdash;the smoke
+of the bivouac fire, the merry laugh of
+the <i>insouciant</i> soldier&mdash;the din and excitement
+of the fight&mdash;the exultation of
+victory, and the well-won and highly
+relished pleasures of the garrison town
+after severe duty in the field;&mdash;the
+graceful form of Gertrudis now flitted
+across the picture&mdash;her jetty hair
+braided over her pure white forehead,
+the light of her swimming &quot;eye, that
+mocked her coal-black veil,&quot; flashing
+from under the mantilla. Her father,
+with his portly figure and good-humoured
+countenance, was beside her. They
+smiled at Ignacio, and seemed to beckon
+to him. So life-like was the illusion
+of his fancy, he could almost have
+sprung forward to join them. But
+again there was a change. A large
+and handsome room, a well-covered
+table&mdash;all the appliances of modern
+luxury&mdash;plate and crystal sparkling in
+the brilliant lights&mdash;a happy cheerful
+party surrounding the board. Alas,
+for the tragedy played on this stage!
+The hand of the spoiler was there&mdash;blood
+and womens' screams, dishevelled
+hair and men's deep oaths, the
+wild and broken accents of despair,
+the coarse jest and ferocious exultation
+of gratified brutality. And then
+all was dark and gloomy as a winter's
+night, and through the darkness was
+seen a grave-stone, shadowy and spectral,
+and a man still young, but with
+heart crushed and hopes blighted, lying
+prostrate before it, his breast heaving
+with convulsive sobs of agony,
+until at length he rose and moved sadly
+away, to become an exile and a wanderer
+in a foreign land.</p>
+
+<p>Maddened by these reflections, Ignacio
+started to his feet, and was about
+to rush out into the storm, and fly, he
+knew not whither, from his own
+thoughts, when he suddenly became
+aware of the presence of a man within
+a few yards of him. The projecting
+crag, under which he had sought a
+shelter, extended all along one side of
+the fire. In one corner an angle of
+the rock threw a deep shadow, in which
+Ignacio now stood, and was thus enabled,
+without being seen himself, to
+observe the new-comer, who seated
+himself on a block of stone close to the
+fire. As he did so, the flame, which
+had been deadened by the rain, again
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page798" id="page798" title="798"></a></span> burned up brightly, and threw a strong
+light on the features of the stranger.
+They were those of <i>El Sangrador</i>.</p>
+
+<p>With stealthy pace, and trembling
+at every step, lest his prey should take
+the alarm, and even yet escape him,
+Ignacio stole towards his mortal foe.
+The noise of the storm, that still raged
+furiously, enabled him to get within
+five paces of him without being heard.
+He then halted, and silently cocking a
+pistol, remained for some time motionless
+as a statue. Now that his revenge
+was within his grasp, he hesitated to
+take it, not from any relenting weakness,
+but because the speedy death it
+was in his power to give, appeared an
+inadequate punishment&mdash;a paltry vengeance.
+Had he seen his enemy torn
+by wild horses, or broken on the wheel,
+his burning thirst for revenge would
+hardly have been slaked; and an easy,
+painless death by knife or bullet, he
+looked upon as a boon rather than a
+punishment. An end was put to his
+hesitation by the Carlist himself, who,
+either tormented by an evil conscience,
+or oppressed by one of those unaccountable
+and mysterious presentiments that
+sometimes warn us of impending danger,
+became restless, cast uneasy glances
+about him, and at last, turning
+round, found himself face to face with
+Ignacio. Almost before he recognized
+him, a hand was on his collar,
+and the muzzle of a pistol crammed
+into his ear. The click of the lock
+was heard, but no discharge ensued.
+The rain had damped the powder. Before
+Ignacio could draw his other pistol,
+the Carlist grappled him fiercely,
+and a terrible struggle commenced.
+Their feet soon slipped upon the wet
+rock, and they fell, still grasping each
+other's throats, foaming with rage, and
+hate, and desperation. The fire, now
+nearly out, afforded little light for the
+contest; but as they rolled over the
+smouldering embers, clouds of sparks
+arose, their clothes and hair were burned,
+and their faces scorched by the heat.
+The Carlist was unarmed, save with a
+clasp-knife, which, being in his pocket,
+was useless to him; for had he ventured
+to remove one hand from the
+struggle even for a moment, he would
+have given his antagonist a fatal advantage.
+At length the contest seemed
+about to terminate in favour of Ignacio.
+He got his enemy under, and
+knelt upon his breast, while, with a
+charred, half-burned branch which he
+found at hand, he dealt furious blows
+upon his head. Half-blinded by the
+smoke and heat, and by his own blood,
+the Carlist felt the sickness of death
+coming over him. By a last effort he
+slipped one hand, which was now at
+liberty, into his pocket, and immediately
+withdrawing it, raised it to his
+mouth. His teeth grated upon the
+blade of the knife as he opened it, and
+the next instant Ignacio, with a long
+deep sob, rolled over among the ashes.
+The Carlist rose painfully and with
+difficulty into a sitting posture, and
+with a grim smile gazed upon his enemy,
+whose eyes were glazing, and features
+settling into the rigidity of death.
+But the conqueror's triumph was short-lived.
+A deep bark was heard, and a
+moment afterwards a wolf-dog, drenched
+with mud and rain, leaped into the
+middle of the embers. Placing his
+black muzzle on Ignacio's face, he
+gave a long deep howl, which was succeeded
+by a growl like that of a lion,
+as he sprang upon the Carlist.</p>
+
+<p>The morning after the storm, when
+the charcoal-burners returned to their
+fires, they found two dead bodies amidst
+the ashes. One of them had a
+stab in his breast, which had caused
+his death. The other was frightfully
+disfigured, and bore marks of the fangs
+of some savage animal. In that wild
+district, the skirmishing-ground of
+smugglers and <i>douaniers</i>, the mountaineers
+think little of such occurrences.
+A hole was dug, the bodies thrown
+into it; and a cross, rudely cut upon
+the rock, alone marks the spot where
+the midnight conflict took place.</p>
+
+<hr class="full">
+
+
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page799" id="page799" title="799"></a></span>
+<a name="bw332s10" id="bw332s10"></a><h2>MEMORANDUMS OF A MONTH'S TOUR IN SICILY.</h2>
+
+<h3>LEAVING NAPLES.</h3>
+
+<h3>STEAM-BOATIANA.</h3>
+
+<p>The <i>Francesco Primo</i> was to leave
+the harbour at ten o'clock. Better
+acquaintance with Mediterannean <i>pyroscaphs</i>,
+as they call themselves,
+whose axle-trees turn not except when
+the police pleases, ought to have led
+us to all the latitude of uncertainty;
+but when two hours and more had
+elapsed with all the passengers aboard,
+we began to suppose some extraordinary
+cause for so long a detention.
+A deputation is accordingly dispatched
+to the captain, which brings back
+an abrupt reply, that he is not going
+<i>yet</i>; and that it is for him and the proprietors
+to be dissatisfied, who are
+wasting steam, while we are only losing
+patience. It shortly transpired
+that he was under Government orders,
+and would not proceed for another
+hour at <i>least</i>, nor even then, unless he
+received permission from the minister
+of police. The affair now looked serious.
+We must have some <i>carbonaro</i>
+on board, who was, in due time, to be
+arrested; and no further doubt could
+remain of this, when, that other hour
+being past, we saw a longboat leaving
+shore, with two officers and six
+stout rowers, who soon brought her
+under our bow. What can it be?
+The senior epaulet rises in the boat&mdash;the
+second follows his example&mdash;both
+are on deck; the captain, hitherto
+unseen, now comes forward with
+alacrity, and, stretching forward <i>both</i>
+his hands, receives with profound reverence
+a thin, square enclosure, with
+an immense seal attached to it, and
+retires to put it in a place of safety.
+The uniforms disappear over the side
+of the vessel&mdash;the paddles begin to
+paw the water&mdash;we swing round&mdash;and
+in a few seconds our prow points
+for the <i>Sorrentine</i> coast, and we are
+on our watery way to <i>Sicily</i>. What,
+then, had detained us? It is always
+very provoking to have a miserable
+solution of a promising mystery!
+We were on the exact spot for a new
+edition of some &quot;<i>Verbosa et grandis
+Epistola</i>&quot; from the tyrants of the
+land; and so it was, but only not
+<i>from</i> Capre&aelig; or Tiberius this time.
+Yes! The actual cause of the delay
+of a great steam-boat, full of passengers,
+for three hours, attended, among
+other melancholy results, with that of
+exciting the choler of a new-made
+cardinal, was a <i>letter</i> that the Queen
+of Naples, who had probably overslept
+herself, had occasion to write to
+the king on conjugal affairs!&mdash;his
+majesty having left her majesty only
+the day before, to show himself to his
+loving subjects at Palermo. Hem!
+Campania <i>felix</i>! If we were known
+to be inditing this unreverential passage,
+and its disloyal apostrophe, we
+should, no doubt, be invited to leave
+&quot;Campania the happy&quot; at a day's
+notice; whereas our comfort is, that
+this day three months it is quite possible
+that it will have been read in
+Bengal!</p>
+
+<p>We are now in the middle of the
+Bay of Naples; the spot from which
+panoramas have been so often sketched
+on that noble elevation, the deck of
+a lofty ship, swinging on her cables.
+What numberless sites of unparallelled
+interest are hence visible to the
+newly arrived and insatiable stranger!
+<i>Misenum, Bai&aelig;, Puteoli, Gaurus,
+Vesuvius, Herculaneum, Pompeii</i>!
+But the office of the cicerone here
+cannot&mdash;alas for Britain!&mdash;be confined
+to the old classics, or the mere indication
+of places whose very <i>names</i> are
+things to <i>conjure with</i>! In America,
+we converse with nature only, whose
+voice is in her woods and waterfalls;
+but, in our threadbare Europe, all
+<i>sites</i> are <i>historical</i>, and chiefly in one
+sad sense&mdash;for Waterloo only brings
+up the rear of fields illustrated by the
+wholesale destruction of mankind!
+In the position which we now occupy,
+volumes might be written&mdash;ay, and
+<i>have been written</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Look at that proud, impregnable
+Castle of St Elmo, culminating over
+all Naples! Look at those sea-washed
+fortresses which guard the entrance of
+her harbour! The garrisons
+of those strong places having, in the
+year 1799, from the turn of public
+affairs, judged it expedient to capitulate
+to Ferdinand and his allies, on
+conditions which should leave their
+honour without blemish, and assure
+their own safety and that of the city;
+and this capitulation having been solemnly
+accepted and ratified by <i>Cardinal
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page800" id="page800" title="800"></a></span> Ruffo, as the king's legate and
+plenipotentiary</i>, by the late <i>Sir Edward
+Foote</i>, as acting commodore of
+the British force, and by the representatives
+of <i>two European governments</i>,
+officially residing in the revolutionized
+city, and the surrender of
+the forts having accordingly taken
+place, it came to pass, in an evil
+hour, that Lord Nelson, entering the
+bay as commander-<i>in-chief</i>, took upon
+himself the odious responsibility of
+rescinding the British guarantee, and
+of supporting Ferdinand, powerless
+but through him, in his refusal to
+hold himself bound by a convention
+made <i>by his own viceroy</i>!&mdash;thus delivering
+over the defenceless city to
+its own implacable sovereign. Then
+came a political persecution unknown
+in the annals of mankind; till, <i>hebetes
+lasso lictore secures</i>, even Naples could
+bear no more! The noblest blood
+and the most distinguished talent were
+no protection at the bar of a special
+tribunal, with a low-born monster at
+its head, not surpassed in its atrocities
+by the revolutionary tyrants of Paris
+and of Lyons. The ships shared the
+infamy; the venerable and noble Caraccioli,
+seventy-five years of age,
+himself an admiral, was the first <i>piaculum</i>!
+Summarily condemned by
+a court-martial <i>held on board Nelson's
+flag-ship</i>, he was executed like a felon,
+and cast overboard from a Neapolitan
+frigate floating on the same anchorage,
+and subject to the same authority!</p>
+
+<p>But Nelson's star was then in the ascendant;
+the presence and notorious influence
+of Emma Hamilton in these
+frightful transactions, was unaccountably
+connived at by the British nation.
+The officer who has been a party to a
+convention, which his commander-in-chief
+thinks proper not only to disapprove
+but to violate, must inevitably
+suffer in that fame and popularity
+which our public services so justly
+cherish. And in the state of men's
+passions during that memorable war,
+<i>so that it were against the French, a successful</i>
+commander-in-chief could do
+no wrong! Yet here, probably, the
+matter would have rested; but when,
+nine years afterwards, <i>Stanier Clarke</i>
+so little appreciated the duty of a biographer
+as to relate a transaction
+susceptible of no excuse, in terms unjustified
+by the facts, and sought to
+render his hero <i>immaculate</i> at the <i>expense
+of others</i>, the excellent officer
+whose feelings and character had been
+so cruelly sacrificed, felt himself compelled
+at last to publish his &quot;Vindication,&quot;
+judicious in every thing but
+<i>the title</i>. He most properly printed the
+<i>Convention itself</i> in the original words,
+and with all the signatures it bore.
+Such works, however, even when the
+affairs they refer to are <i>recent</i>, are never
+read but by <i>friends</i>&mdash;or <i>enemies</i>. A
+late atonement was made by William
+IV. in conferring on Sir Edward
+Foote a titular distinction, which the
+public heed not; but the tables are
+now turned, and Europe, taught by
+Cuoco, Coletta, and by Botta, the great
+historian of Italy, has irrevocably
+closed this <i>great account</i>. The name
+of Foote is recorded in all their pages
+in terms which, had he seen them,
+might well have consoled him for the
+past; while the last and most popular
+biographer of Nelson (Southey) feels
+himself compelled to admit, and the
+frank admission does him infinite honour,
+that this is a passage of his
+hero's life which the muse of history
+&quot;must <i>record with sorrow and with
+shame</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But the sea spray is dashing splendidly
+on our bows&mdash;we are clearing
+Capri, and have, as we pass it, a fine
+view of that high and precipitous
+rock, thinking of Tiberius and the
+soothsayer Thrasyllus, and of all the
+monstrous scenes which those unapproachable
+cliffs concealed from the
+indignation even of a Roman world.
+But twilight was already coming on,
+and the city and the coast were gradually
+withdrawn from the panorama&mdash;dark
+night came rushing over the
+deep, an Italian summer's night, and
+yet with no stars or moon; meanwhile
+steadily rides our vessel along
+the Calabrian waters, confident alike
+of her strength and her bearings,
+which we soon left her to pursue, and
+went down to see what the cabin and
+the company promised below. And
+thus the hours passed away; and when
+the suspended lamp began to burn
+dimly under the skylight, and grey
+morning found stealthy admittance
+through the cabin windows, although
+we had been unable to sleep, the anticipation
+of all the marvels we were to
+see in Sicily had answered the purpose
+of a night's rest, and sent us active
+and alert on deck to fresh air and
+the rising sun. Nor were we a moment
+too soon. A large flotilla of little
+boats man&oelig;uvring between two of
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page801" id="page801" title="801"></a></span> larger size, placed to defend the space
+destined for their operations, were
+now in the full activity of the thunny
+and spada fishery; and a most picturesque
+rock, right over our bow,
+proved to be no other than <i>Monte Pelegrino</i>,
+at the foot of which lay Palermo
+and our breakfast&mdash;in short, after
+a voyage of little more than a summer's
+night, we are again on <i>terra
+firma</i>, if that name can be given to
+volcanic soils, and long before noon
+are actively engaged in perambulating
+the streets of the Sicilian capital of
+the <i>f&aelig;cunda Panormos</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Among the most striking peculiarities
+of the interior or street views,
+presented to the stranger's eye at Palermo,
+are its very unusually situated
+convents, buildings which, even in
+cities, are commonly and naturally in
+<i>retirement</i>; but here, in whichever of
+the most public ways you walk, a number
+of extraordinary trellised balconies
+are observed on the upper stories
+of almost every large house, while
+business and bustle of all kinds are
+transacted as usual in the street below.
+You may well be surprised to see the
+nunnery over the <i>Marchande de
+Modes</i>! The unhappy inmates thus
+tormented by the sight and sound
+of worldly activity, have not in
+Palermo even the solace of a garden;
+and if these places of more than
+usual mortification have any connexion
+with the world without, it is by an
+under-ground passage to some church
+in the neighbourhood! Thither repair
+the poor victims of superstition
+to warble <i>Aves</i> to the Virgin
+behind their screens, and then back
+again to their monotonous cloister.
+There are twenty-four nunneries in
+the city of Palermo alone, each containing
+from thirty to sixty women,
+and there are as many monasteries!
+With open doors like coffee-houses,
+full upon the street, are placed at
+Palermo innumerable <i>consulting shops</i>
+of so many <i>lawyers</i>; the earliest to begin
+business, the last to close, you
+may have the luxury of law at any
+hour of the day till bedtime. Nay,
+your Sicilian lawyer, unlike the lazy
+tradesman who puts up his shutters
+and sleeps from twelve to four, takes
+no <i>siesta</i>; his <i>atra janua lilis</i> is always
+open, and there sit the <i>firm</i>, one listening
+to a client, another smoking a
+cigar, a third chatting with an acquaintance
+over his coffee or the
+newspaper. Scarcely less mischievous
+than these sowers of dissension,
+is the <i>barber-surgeon</i>, who still
+flourishes in Trinacria. The bleeding
+arm over the peruke shop is often
+to be seen in Rome and Naples;
+but at Palermo almost at every
+third house, you read <i>Salassatore</i> over
+a half-naked figure in wood or canvass,
+erect like Seneca in his bath, or
+monumentally recumbent, the blood
+spouting, like so many Tritons, from
+twenty orifices at once. Led by professional
+curiosity, we enter one of
+these open doors; and, desiring the ordinary
+service of the razor, and intending
+to ask some questions parenthetically
+touching the double craft, we
+have scarcely occupied the chair,
+when a smart youth comes up with a
+razor and a lancet, and quietly asks
+&quot;<i>Which</i>?&quot; Why, surely he could not
+think of <i>bleeding</i> us without a warrant
+for our needing it. &quot;<i>Eperch&egrave;? Adesso
+vi le d&icirc;r&ograve; subito</i>&mdash;Why not? I'll
+tell you whether you want it without
+a doctor,&quot;&mdash;feeling for our pulse.
+&quot;<i>Non c'&egrave; male</i>&mdash;not so much amiss,&quot;
+pursued the functionary; &quot;but a few
+ounces bleeding would do you <i>no harm</i>!
+Your hand is hot, it must be <i>several
+months</i> since you were last bled!&quot;
+&quot;A year.&quot; &quot;Too long: you should
+be bled, at your age, at least <i>twice a-year</i>
+if you would keep your health!&quot;
+&quot;What amount of depletion did he
+recommend?&quot; &quot;<i>Depende&mdash;di sei a
+dieci oncie</i>,&quot; at which portion of the
+dialogue our mouth was shut to all
+further interrogations by a copious
+supply of soap-suds, and now he became
+the tonsor only, and declares
+against the mode in which we have
+our hair cut: &quot;They have cut your
+hair, Signor, <i>&agrave; condannato</i>&mdash;nobody
+adopts the toilette of the guillotine
+now; it should have been left to grow
+in front <i>&agrave; la Plutus</i>, or have been long
+at the sides <i>&agrave; la Nazar&egrave;ne</i>, which is
+the mode most of our Sicilian gentlemen
+prefer.&quot; We were about to rise,
+wash, and depart, but an impediment
+is offered by the artist. &quot;<i>Non l'ho</i>
+raffinato <i>ancora, Signor, bisogna</i> raffinarlo
+<i>un poco</i>!&quot; and before we could
+arrive at the occult meaning of <i>raffinare</i>,
+his fingers were exploring very
+technically and very disagreeably the
+whole surface over which his razor had
+travelled, and a number of supplementary
+scrapings were only stopped
+by an impatient <i>basta</i> of the victim.
+<i>Still</i> he was unwilling to part with us.
+<i>Would</i> we like, now that we are on
+the spot, to <i>lose a few ounces of blood</i>
+before he takes a stranger in hand,
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page802" id="page802" title="802"></a></span> (who is waiting for the one or other
+operation;) and, as we most positively
+declined, he turned to the latter to
+ask him whether he was come for his
+&quot;<i>piccolo salassio di sei oncie</i>.&quot; &quot;<i>Gia</i>!&quot;
+said Signor Antonio, taking off his
+coat, and sitting down with as much
+<i>sangfroid</i> as if he were going to take
+his breakfast. &quot;Can you shave <i>me</i>?&quot;
+asks a third party, standing at the
+door. &quot;<i>Adesso</i>,&quot; after I have <i>bled</i>
+this gentleman. Such are all the <i>interiors</i>
+where <i>Salassatore</i> is written
+over the door; they bleed and they
+shave indifferently, and doing either,
+talk of the last <i>take</i> of <i>thunny</i>, the
+<i>opera</i> that has been or is to be, and
+the meagre skimmings of their permitted
+newspaper, <i>which</i> begins probably
+with the advertisement of a
+church ceremony, and ends always
+with a charade&mdash;for our subscribers!!</p>
+<br>
+
+<h3>CHURCHES.</h3>
+
+<p>The clergy are wealthy, the bishop's
+salary is 18,000 scudi, and many of
+the convents are very opulent; but
+there is scarcely one of the churches
+which you care to visit twice. Most
+of them are disgraced by vulgar ornaments,
+in which respect they surpass
+even the worst specimens at Naples!
+Gilt stucco, cut and stamped into
+flowery compartments, shows off like
+a huge twelfth cake! but the <i>Matrice</i>
+or <i>Duomo</i>, and the Saracenic <i>Chapel of
+the Palazzo Reale</i>, and the cathedral of
+<i>Monreale</i>, four miles beyond the town,
+are noble exceptions; these in their
+several ways are all interesting, both
+within and without. The old Siculo-Norman
+archway of <i>Monreale</i>, and its
+fine bronze gates crusted with a beautiful
+hard polished <i>coin-like patina</i>, would
+repay the excursion, even were the interior
+less fine. Here we have columns
+from whose high architraves the Gothic
+arch springs vigorously; walls
+perfectly covered with old Byzantine
+mosaics; a roof of marvellous lightness,
+and almost modern elegance;
+still the critic, who is bound by <i>m&eacute;tier</i>
+to find fault with violated canons, will,
+we must own, be at no loss for a text
+in the church of Monreale&mdash;a building
+which is, however, of sufficient importance
+in ecclesiastical architecture to
+have been designed, measured, and
+engraved, in whole and in part, in a
+splendid volume, published in folio, by
+the Duke of Serra di Falco.</p>
+<br>
+
+<h3>VISIT TO THE GARDEN OF THE DUKE OF SERRA DI FALCO, NEAR PALERMO.</h3>
+
+<p>After a delicious half hour's drive
+through country lanes hedged with
+cactus, aloes, and pomegranates, we
+find ourselves in front of a small villa
+distant about two miles from the sea.
+As to the house, many an English
+gentleman, in very moderate circumstances,
+has a far better; but on passing
+the archway of this Sicilian country-box
+into its garden, two trees,
+which must be astonished at finding
+themselves out of Brazil&mdash;trees of surpassing
+beauty&mdash;are seen on a crimson
+carpet of their own fallen petals, mixed
+with a copious effusion of their seeds,
+like coral. At the northern extremity
+of Italy (Turin) this <i>Erythinia corallodendron</i>
+is only a small stunted
+shrub; nor is it much bigger at
+Naples, where it grows under cover.
+Six years in the <i>open air</i> have in Sicily
+<i>produced</i> the tree before you: it is, in
+fact, larger than most of our fruit-bearers.
+We next recognise an agreeable
+acquaintance, formed two years
+ago, in the <i>Neapolis Japonicus</i>; it
+bears a delicate fruit, of the size of a
+plum, whose yellow, freckled skin
+contains such a nectar-like juice that
+the pine-apple itself scarcely excels it.
+Our fellow-passenger, the infallible
+voice of a new-made cardinal of the
+warlike name of Schwarzenburg, who
+tasted it here, as he told us, for the
+first time, has already pronounced a
+similar opinion, and no dissentients
+being heard, the Japan medlar passed
+with acclamation. The <i>Buggibellia
+spectabilis</i> of New Holland, calls you
+to look at his pink <i>blossoms</i>, which are
+no other than his leaves in masquerade.
+We grub up, on the gardener's hint
+and permission, some of the <i>Cameris
+humilis</i>, to whose filamentous radicles
+are attached certain little grains, of
+great sweetness and flavour. The
+banana-tree, &quot;<i>Musa paradisaica</i>,&quot;
+which, cooped in our low hot-houses
+at home, breaks its neck, and might
+well break its heart, as its annual
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page803" id="page803" title="803"></a></span> growth is resisted by the inexorable
+glass dome, is here no prisoner but
+an acclimated denizen of sun and air.
+The <i>Cactus Opunti&aelig;</i>, or Indian fig, is
+here for vulgar tastes; and the <i>Cactus
+cochinellifera</i> for the Luculluses of the
+day, who could afford to pay for its
+rearing. The small <i>sneezing plant</i>, a
+vegetable smelling-bottle, is still employed
+in headach by the common
+people of Sicily, who bruise the leaves
+and sniff their pungency: its vulgar
+name, <i>malupertusu</i>, is the corruption of
+Marum del Cortuso, as we find it in
+the ancient herbal of Durante. The
+<i>Ferula communis</i> or <i>Saracinisca</i>, a legacy
+left to the Sicilian pedagogues by their
+eastern lords, is sold in fagots at the
+green-grocers, and fulfils the scholastic
+office of <i>birch</i>; and, being more elastic,
+must be pleasant to <i>flog with</i>. We
+recommend it to <i>head masters</i>. The
+<i>sumac</i>, <i>Rhus coriaria</i>, is not only to be
+seen here, but every where else in Sicily;
+and they say there is a daily exportation
+of one thousand sacks of its
+ground leaves. The ancients knew it
+well, and employed it for giving a
+flavour to their meat, as they do now
+in Nubia and Egypt, according to
+Durante, who deems its many virtues
+deserving of Latin verse. We
+smell pepper!&mdash;a graceful shrub,
+whose slender twigs stand pencilled
+out like sea-weed spread upon
+paper; and the <i>Schinus mollis</i>, a
+leaf of which we have gathered ignorantly,
+is the source of the smell. We
+strew some leaves on the basin of a
+neighbouring fountain, and amuse ourselves
+by seeing them swim about as
+if they were bewitched, parting at the
+same time with a whitish fluid, which,
+spreading on the surface of the water,
+gives it an iridescent hue. The <i>Fuchsia
+arborescens</i> of Japan flowers here, they
+say, every month, just as we see him
+in all his pink luxuriance, and makes
+himself quite at home; and here
+is that little blue vegetable butterfly,
+the <i>Polygala</i>! Who can overlook
+his <i>winged</i> petals, peeping out of their
+myrtle-looking bower? Then the
+<i>geraniums</i>!&mdash;not potted, as in Covent-Garden,
+or the <i>March&eacute; aux Fleurs</i>, but
+forming vast parti-coloured <i>hedgerows</i>,
+giving to every pathway its own
+<i>particular flower and perfume</i>; so that
+a connoisseur might be taken blindfold
+and declare where each kind
+grew. <i>Hedges of geranium seven feet
+high</i>! Think of that, ye <i>Dicksons</i> and
+nursery-ground men about <i>Brompton</i>
+and the <i>King's Road</i>! The stalks a mass
+of real ligneous matter, fit for the turner's
+lathe if it were but hard enough.
+A small mound enables us to look
+about us more at large; and now we
+discern the stately <i>bamboo</i>, thicker
+than your arm, and tall as a small
+mast; and the <i>sugar-cane</i>, formerly
+cultivated for his juice, but now looking
+as if he were ill-used and neglected.
+His biography (but as it is not
+<i>auto</i>-biography, and written with his
+own <i>reed</i>, there may be some mistake)
+is remarkable. Soon after the annexation
+of Sicily to Spain in 1420, he
+was carried from Syracuse into Spanish
+captivity; he then escaped to
+Madeira and the Canaries, and at
+length saved himself in the West
+Indies. The <i>pistachia</i> is also here,
+with its five-partite sessile leaf, like a
+dwarf walnut; the capsule holding
+the nut containing at present only a
+white germ, which it will require four
+months more to bring to nutty maturity.
+The <i>manna</i>-tree is very like an
+<i>alder</i> in its general character, but
+thicker in its stem, and bears the
+cicatrices of last year's <i>ill treatment</i>;
+its wounds, however, will not bleed
+afresh now; but towards August the
+<i>salassatore</i> of trees will run his steel
+into its limbs, taking care to place
+under the bleeding orifices leaves from
+the <i>cactus</i> hedge hard by to serve as
+recipients, and drain its juices till it
+faints.</p>
+
+<p>That a <i>leaf</i> might not be <i>wanting</i> to
+record these vegetable treasures, the
+pagoda-topped <i>papyrus</i> nodded to us
+gracefully, and offered its services;
+while, to finish the picture, Angola
+goats are browsing amid the green
+and yellow ribbed <i>agaves</i>; and the
+beautiful blue sea peeps in through
+gaps of the wall of <i>cactus</i>, whose green
+stems are now all fringed with yellow
+blossoms. Leaving the flower garden,
+we enter a labyrinth, and arrive
+at a small hut, with a closed door,
+upon the threshold of which we have
+scarcely pressed, when the wicket
+flies open, and a big brown friar, with
+long beard and sandals, starts up in
+act to frighten us, which he succeeds
+in doing. This automaton <i>Schedoni</i>
+might really well produce abortion,
+and would not care if he did: he cannot,
+we suppose, be placed there as a
+lawful instrument of relief, for all the
+<i>donzelle</i> of Palermo must be <i>aware</i> of,
+and be used to him. This, however,
+is thought so good a joke, that it is
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page804" id="page804" title="804"></a></span> repeated with variations; for on releasing
+another spring a similar contrivance
+introduces us to another
+monk of the same convent, who is
+reading a huge tome on the lives of
+the saints: resenting the interruption,
+he raises his head, and fixes his eyes
+on the intruder, at the same time
+beckoning to him with his hand, and
+intimating that if he will do him the
+favour to come a little nearer, he will
+knock him down with the folio, as
+Johnson did Osborn the bookseller.</p>
+
+<p>Another surprise is&mdash;but really
+these are surprising enough&mdash;and we
+came here to see vegetable rarities,
+and not the tricks of an overgrown
+toyshop.</p>
+<br>
+
+<h3>THE THUNNY FISHERY.</h3>
+
+<div class="blkquot">
+<span class="greek" title="Tan baitan apodys eis kymata taena haleymai,
+Hopeth tos Thunnos skopiazetai Olpis ho gripeys.
+
+Translation:
+Will you not hear me, nor regard my woe?
+I'll strip, and throw me from yon rock so high,
+Where Olpis sits to watch the scaly fry.">&Tau;&alpha;&nu; &beta;&alpha;&iota;&tau;&alpha;&nu;
+&alpha;&pi;&omicron;&delta;&upsilon;&sigmaf; &epsilon;&iota;&sigmaf; &kappa;&upsilon;&mu;&alpha;&tau;&alpha; &tau;&eta;&nu;&alpha; &alpha;&lambda;&epsilon;&upsilon;&mu;&alpha;&iota;<br>
+&Omega;&pi;&epsilon;&rho; &tau;&omega;&sigmaf; &Theta;&upsilon;&nu;&nu;&omega;&sigmaf; &sigma;&kappa;&omicron;&pi;&iota;&alpha;&zeta;&epsilon;&tau;&alpha;&iota; &Omicron;&lambda;&pi;&iota;&sigmaf;
+&omicron; &gamma;&rho;&iota;&pi;&epsilon;&upsilon;&sigmaf;&mdash;Theoc.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The thunny fishery, if not as exciting
+as that of the whale, is far from
+uninteresting to the uninitiated. We
+were rowing about in want of an object,
+when our boatmen proposed to
+take us to see this animating species
+of labour; and off we went to a spot
+about two miles from shore, where we
+came upon a little flotilla of boats, all
+occupied in the common pursuit. A
+large quantity of floating cork announced
+our arrival on the fishing
+ground; then came long lines of buoys,
+to which the drop-nets were attached,
+and at last we drew alongside a small
+boat, hailing which, we learn that the
+net is already half-drawn, and that
+<i>la pipa</i> (the sword-fish) is <i>in</i> it. Now,
+we had long wanted to see a live
+sword-fish, but there was no need to
+stimulate our rowers, who appeared
+equally eager that we should assist at
+the fun, and made great exertions to
+reach the spot in time. &quot;<i>Questa</i>,&quot;
+says our guide, showing the boundary
+of the space circumscribed by
+walls of net; &quot;<i>questa &egrave; la camera della
+morte</i>, (this is the chamber of death,)
+<i>piano, piano</i>, (or we shall shoot ahead.&quot;)
+The space thus designated
+lay between two long barges, one of
+which was fixed by anchor, and had
+few people on board, while the other
+was crowded with naked limbs, and
+fine heads in Phrygian bonnets, academy
+figures every man of them.
+What symmetry of form! what jet
+black beard and mustache! what dark
+flashing eyes! what noses without reproach!
+All were in the various combinations
+of action which their position
+demanded, hauling away at what
+seemed to our impatience an endless
+net; by the shortening of which,
+however, as their boat received it,
+layer upon layer, fold upon fold, coil
+upon coil, they were slowly bringing
+up the reticulated wall. As the place
+of captivity came nearer, every body
+was intensely anxious to get a first
+view of the fish; and many other boats
+were coming up alongside of ours,
+which fortunately lay right over the
+meshes of the prison, which was becoming
+every second more and more
+restricted in size. At length some of
+us obtained a first view of the <i>spada</i>
+and his long sword, and testified our
+delight with vociferation. The fish,
+meanwhile, who hates publicity, backs
+off, and would back out, to the opposite
+end of the net, where, still finding
+himself an object of unpleasant remark,
+he tries by violence to escape
+sideways; but that is <i>no go</i> even for a
+sword-fish, for a sword is his which
+cannot cut cords, and he soon finds
+he can make nothing of it. Smaller
+and smaller, meanwhile, is becoming
+the condemned hold, and greater and
+greater the perturbation within. The
+captive fish begins to swim round and
+round, and to watch a new opportunity,
+but it is too late!&mdash;too many are
+on the look-out for him! Every man
+gets ready his hooked pole, and there
+is more tightening of the tackle! The
+terrified fish now rises to the surface,
+as it were to reconnoitre, and then
+down he dives with a lash of his tail,
+which sends buckets of water into the
+boat of the assailants. This dive, of
+course, only carries him to the false
+bottom of the net, and come up presently
+he must! Every eye now looks
+<i>fishy</i>, and every man's hand is armed
+for the first blow. One tall athletic
+fellow takes aim, and misses; another
+is more successful, and hits. Stunned
+by the blow, the poor fish flounders
+on this side and on that, and the water
+is discoloured by his blood! One,
+two, three pointed poles at once, are
+again in his flank; and now he rushes
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page805" id="page805" title="805"></a></span> about like a rounded lion, brandishing
+his tail, and dashing up whirlpools
+of water. More Blows! more
+blood! He rushes desperately at the
+net, and running his long snout into
+the meshes, is hopelessly entangled.
+It is all over with him! Countless
+wounds follow, till he turns over on
+his side, and is handed up lifeless into
+the boat.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There,&quot; says one, &quot;goes fifteen
+scudi's worth, and no harm done to
+<i>the net</i>.&quot; &quot;Little enough, too; but
+he is worth two thunny, anyhow,&quot;
+says another. &quot;Ay! and gives more
+<i>sport</i>,&quot; exclaims a third. Such piscatory
+eclogue fell upon our ear, when
+our guide announced to us that we
+had now seen every thing. The excitement
+over, we sat down in our
+boat to make a note of what we have
+written, while the boatmen clave the
+phosphorescent water homewards, and
+landed us neatly at sunset, with their
+oars dripping luminous drops at every
+stroke, in the beautiful harbour of
+Palermo.</p>
+
+<p>Some days after we were still more
+fortunate; we had observed the scouts
+with a white hood over their boat,
+<i>looking keenly down</i> (<i>vide</i> our quotation
+from Theocritus) into the deep
+blue sea, and watching with all-eyed
+attention for the apparition of some
+giant shadow which should pass
+athwart the abyss, and give the signal
+for a new chase, while their comrades
+were hauling in an immense miscellaneous
+<i>take</i> of fish, the acquisition of
+the morning. We shot the outpost,
+(placed to prevent larger vessels
+from entering the fishing preserves
+and injuring the nets,) and remarked
+our boatmen uncovering to a small
+<i>Madonna</i> railed in alongside. We
+were just in time on this occasion to
+see the water enclosed in the <i>camera
+della morte</i>, already all alive with fish;
+for a shoal of <i>palamide</i>, and of immense
+<i>pesce di moro</i>, filled the reticulated
+chamber. They darted here and
+there as the net was raising, and
+splashed so furiously about, that the
+whole water became one lather;
+meanwhile, the men who had been
+singing gaily, now prepared their
+landing-nets, shouting in a way which
+certainly <i>did</i> seem to increase the terror
+of their prisoners, who redoubled
+their efforts to escape.</p>
+
+<p>The rich hues of the <i>palamide</i>, in
+shape and colour not unlike our mackerel,
+but with longitudinal, in place
+of transverse, green bands, were beautiful
+objects as they were raised all
+iridescent in their freshness out of the
+water, and transferred to the side
+boat. We also noticed in the net
+one or two immense fish, in shape like
+rounded parallelograms, with tough
+shagreen hides, goggle eyes, and two
+immense leathery fins placed at the
+lower part of the abdomen. They
+kept flapping these valves up and
+down, but not offering to strike, though
+lugged out by a hook. The haul was
+a good one, each fish worth a ducat;
+and had they, in fact, been at this
+price converted into coin at once, the
+money would have made no mean
+show in the bottom of the net. The
+treacherous <i>camera della morte</i> was
+emptied quickly, and in one minute
+more, down it went again into the
+depths below.</p>
+
+<p>We should have mentioned a singular
+practice of the fishermen of the
+present day in Sicily, to <i>pat</i> the thunny
+while he is in the net, as you pat a
+horse or dog: They say it makes
+him docile. This done, they put their
+legs across his back, and <i>ride</i> him
+round the net room, an experiment
+few would practise on the dolphin's
+back, at least in these days; yet Aulus
+Gellius relates that there was a
+dolphin who used to delight in carrying
+children on his back through the
+water, swimming out to sea with
+them, and then putting them safe on
+shore! Now, <i>but for the coins</i>, taking
+the above custom into consideration,
+one might have supposed the ancients'
+<i>delphinus</i> to have been the modern
+<i>thunny</i>.</p>
+<br>
+
+<h3>THE FISH MARKET.</h3>
+
+<p>&quot;Dragged through the mire, and
+bleeding from the hock,&quot; lay a continuous
+mass of slaughtered thunny,
+mouths wide open, bloody sockets,
+from which the eyes had been torn to
+make lamp-oil, gills ripped off to be
+eaten fresh, and roes in baskets by
+their sides. There was also a quantity
+of a fish of dirty white belly and
+dusky back, the <i>alalonga</i>, and two huge
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page806" id="page806" title="806"></a></span> <i>dolphins</i>, with skins full of lamp-oil.
+This really ugly creature looks far
+better in the <i>delphin</i> title-pages, with
+his lamp and his &quot;<i>alere flammam</i>&quot; on
+clean paper, than on the stall; but his
+very best appearance is on a fine Sicilian
+coin, with <i>Arion on his back</i>.
+The snouts of four large sword-fish
+were also conspicuous; and there was
+thunny enough for all the world:
+some of the supply, however, was to
+be hawked about the streets, in order
+to which cords are placed under the
+belly of a thunny of fifteen cwt., and
+off he goes slung on a pole, with a
+drummer before and a drummer behind,
+to disturb every street and alley
+in Palermo till he is got rid of; not
+that the stationary market is quiet;
+for the noise made in selling the
+mutest of all animals is in all countries
+really remarkable; but who shall
+do justice to a <i>Sicilian</i> Billingsgate at
+<i>mezzogiorno</i>! &quot;<i>Trenta sei, trenta
+sei</i>,&quot; bawls out the Padrone, cleaving
+a fish in twain with one stroke of an
+immense chopper kept for the purpose.
+&quot;<i>Trenta sei, trenta sei</i>,&quot; repeat
+the two journeymen accomplices,
+one counting it on his fingers to secure
+accuracy and telegraph the information
+to distant purchasers, or
+such as cannot <i>hear</i> in the noise; another
+holds up a slice as a specimen;
+three fellows at our elbow are roaring
+&quot;<i>tutti vivi, tutta vivi</i>,&quot; &quot;<i>a sedici, a
+sedici</i>.&quot; The man of <i>whitings</i>, and
+even he of <i>sardines</i>, have a voice and
+a figure of their own. As you approach
+each stall, the noisy salesmen
+suspend their voices, and enquire, in
+gentler accents, if you intend to buy;
+if you do not, like the cicada their
+stunning sound returns as soon as
+you are past. We have hinted that
+the thunny, &quot;<i>Integer et cadavere
+toto</i>,&quot; does not look handsome: vastly
+less attractive is he when mutilated.
+Big as an elephant's thigh, and with
+flesh like some black-blooded bullock
+of ocean breed, his unsavoury meat attracts
+a most repulsive assemblage,
+not only of customers, but of flies and
+wasps, which no flapping will keep
+off from his grumous liver. The
+<i>sword-fish</i> cuts up into large bloodless
+slices, which look on the stall like so
+many fillets of very white veal, and
+might pass for such, but that the head
+and shoulders are fixed upon a long
+lance, high above the stall, to inform
+the uninitiated that the delicate looking
+meat in question was fed in the
+pastures of the deep. The <i>price</i> of
+thunny, a staple commodity and object
+of extensive Sicilian commerce,
+varies considerably with the supply;
+as to the demand, it never ceases.
+During our stay in Palermo, a whole
+fish would fetch about eight <i>scudi</i>, and
+his retail price was about twopence
+<i>per English pound</i>. Think of paying
+three or four <i>francs</i> for less than half
+a pound <i>sott 'olio</i> in Paris. The supply
+seems very constant during the
+season, which, on the Palermo side of
+the island, is from May to July, and
+continues a month later along the
+<i>Messina</i> coast; after which, as the
+fish cease to be seen, it is presumed
+here that they have sailed to the African
+coast. The flesh of the <i>spada</i>
+fish is generally double in market
+price to that of the thunny, selling during
+the greater part of June at about
+fourpence a-pound. Every thunny
+is weighed upon landing, and a high
+tax paid upon it to the king, who,
+in consideration thereof, charges his
+Sicilian subjects no duty for gunpowder
+or salt. The fixed fisheries
+for thunny, round the Sicilian coast,
+are upwards of a dozen, the most famous
+being that of Messina. At
+Palermo, however, they sometimes
+take an immense strike of several
+hundred in one expedition. The
+average weight of a full grown
+thunny, is from 1000 to 1200 pounds;
+of course the men with poles who land
+him, can carry him but a little way,
+and he reaches the market by relays.
+Every bit of him is eaten, except his
+bones and his eyes, and even these
+yield a quantity of oil.</p>
+
+<p>The spada, too, is pickled down to
+his bones&mdash;he is in great request for
+the hotels, and his eyes, duly salted,
+are considered a sort of luxury; in
+some places these are the perquisite
+of the fishermen, yielded by their
+employers, who farm the fisheries,
+and having satisfied the king, make
+what terms they can with the subject.</p>
+
+<hr class="full">
+
+
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page807" id="page807" title="807"></a></span>
+<a name="bw332s11" id="bw332s11"></a><h2>COMMERCIAL POLICY&mdash;RUSSIA.</h2>
+
+<p>From the brief review, in our last
+Number, of Spain, her commercial policy,
+her economical resources, her fiscal
+rigours, her financial embarrassments,
+these facts may be said to have
+been developed:&mdash;In the first place,
+that theoretically&mdash;that is, so far as legislation&mdash;Spain
+is the land of restrictions
+and prohibitions; and that the
+principle of protection in behalf, not
+of nascent, but of comparatively ancient
+and still unestablished interests,
+is recognized, and carried out in the
+most latitudinarian sense of absolute
+interdict or extravagant impost. Secondly,
+that under such a system, Spain
+has continued the exceptional case of
+a non or scarcely progressing European
+state; that the maintenance and
+enhancement of fiscal rigours and
+manufacturing monopoly, jealously
+fenced round with a legislative wall
+of prohibition and restriction, has
+neither advanced the prosperity of
+the quarter of a million of people in
+Catalonia, Valencia, and Biscay, in
+whose exclusive behalf the great and
+enduring interests of the remaining
+thirteen millions and upwards of the
+population have been postponed or sacrificed&mdash;nor
+contributed to strengthen
+the financial resources of the government,
+as proved by the prostrate position
+and prospects of a bankrupt and
+beggared exchequer; that, as the necessary
+and inevitable consequence,
+the progress of agriculture, the ascendant
+interest of all-powerful communities
+and vast territorially endowed
+states&mdash;of Spain, the almost one only
+interest and element of vitality, economical
+and political&mdash;has been impeded,
+and continues to be discouraged;
+that the march of internal improvements
+is checked or stunted, when not
+absolutely stayed; finally, that public
+morals&mdash;the social health of a great
+people, inheritors of glorious antecedents,
+of an historic renown for those
+qualities of a high order, the deep-seated
+sentiment of personal, as of national
+honour and dignity, the integrity,
+fidelity, and gallantry, which
+more loftily spurn contaminating approximation
+with action springing out
+of base, sordid, and degrading motives
+and associations&mdash;have been sapped
+and corrupted by the debasing influences
+of that gigantic system of organized
+illicit trade which covers Spain
+with hordes of <i>contrabandistas</i>, more
+numerous and daring than the bands
+of <i>aduaneros</i> and the armies of regulars
+whom they set at defiance, and
+infests the coast of Spain with fleets
+of smuggling craft, which all the <i>guardas
+costas</i>, with the ancient armada of
+Spain, were it in existence, would be
+powerless to annihilate. And all this
+fine nation, of warm and generous temperament,
+of naturally noble and virtuous
+aspirations, thus desperately to
+be dismantled of its once-proud attributes,
+and demoralized in its character;
+its exhaustless riches of soil and
+climate to be wantonly wasted&mdash;per
+force of false legislation to be left uncultured&mdash;and
+for why? Shades of the
+illustrious Gabarrus and Jovellanos,
+why? Why, to enable some half dozen
+<i>fabricantes</i> of Barcelona to keep less
+than half-a-dozen steam-engines at
+work, which shall turn some few thousands
+of spindles, spinning and twisting
+some few millions of pounds of
+yarn, by which, after nearly three
+quarters of a century that the cotton
+manufacture has been planted, &quot;swathed,
+rocked, and dandled&quot; with legislative
+fondness into a rickety nursling,
+some fifty millions of yards of cotton
+cloths are said to be painfully brought
+forth in the year; the value of which
+may probably be equal to the same or
+a larger quantity of French cottons introduced
+by contraband, and consumed
+in the provinces of Catalonia and
+Arragon themselves&mdash;the first being
+sole seat of the cotton manufacture for
+all Spain. And for this deplorable
+consummation, the superabundant harvests
+of the waving fields, the luscious
+floods of the vineyards, the full flowing
+yield of the olive groves of Spain&mdash;of
+the wine, the oil, and the corn, of
+which nature is more bountiful than
+in Egypt of old&mdash;the produce and the
+wealth of the millions, (which, permitted,
+would exchange advantageously
+for foreign products, and, bye all the
+value, add to the store of national
+wealth, and create the means of reproduction,)
+are left to run waste and absolutely
+perish on the ground, as not
+worth the cost of transport to markets
+without demand. &quot;The production
+of this soil,&quot; observes the Ayuntamiento
+of Malaga, in their eloquent <i>Exposicion</i>
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page808" id="page808" title="808"></a></span> to the Cortes cited in our last
+Number, after referring to their own
+port and province, in whose elaboration
+thousands and thousands of hands
+are employed, millions and millions of
+capital invested, &quot;are consumed, if
+not in totality, at least with close approximation,
+in England;&quot; and after
+enumerating the wines, oil, raisins,
+grapes, oranges, lemons, and almonds,
+as products so consumed in this country&mdash;&quot;We
+have active and formidable
+rivals in France, Germany, Italy, Portugal,
+Turkey, the Greek Archipelago,
+and other countries. We shall say nothing
+of the wools, corn and other
+fruits of Spain, so important, and some
+so depressed in England by foreign
+competition with those of this province.
+If the treaties of commerce of
+England with Italy and Turkey are
+carried into effect, the exportation of
+our oils and dried fruits will receive its
+death warrant&mdash;<i>queda herida demuerte</i>.
+France, Germany, and Portugal, accepting
+favourably the idea of the British
+Government, will cause our wines
+to disappear from the market; their
+consumption is already very limited,
+inasmuch as the excessive duty, to one-third
+the amount of which the value
+of the wine does not reach, at the mouth
+of the Thames, prevents the sale of
+the inferior dry wines. The same excessive
+duty tends to diminish the
+consumption of our fruits from year to
+year. Our oil has alone been able to
+find vent by favour of the double duty
+imposed till now upon Sicilian, superior
+to ours in quality. But the English
+speculators are already shy of
+purchasing, in the expectation of an
+assimilation of duties on oils of whatever
+origin.&quot; The Ayuntamiento proceeds
+to urge the necessity of a &quot;beneficial
+compensation&quot; to British manufactures
+in the tariff of Spain, without
+which, &quot;the flattering perspective&quot; of
+prosperous progress for the industry
+and agriculture of the Andalusias will
+be destroyed, and that those vast, rich,
+and fertile provinces will become a desolate
+desert. &quot;The admission or prohibition
+of foreign woven cottons,&quot; says
+the <i>Exposicion</i>, &quot;is for Malaga and its
+province of vital importance under two
+aspects&mdash;of morality and commerce.
+Until now we have endured the terrible
+consequences of prohibition. The
+exorbitant gain which it supports is
+the germ of all the crimes perpetrated
+in our country. The man who carries
+a weapon, who uses it and sheds the
+blood of an agent of the law in the
+defence of his illegally acquired goods,
+will not hesitate in shedding the blood
+of a fellow citizen who may stand in
+the way of his desires. And hence the
+frequent assassinations. He who with
+gold seduces others for the increase of
+his own property and for antisocial
+purposes, does not scruple, when fortune
+is adverse, to possess himself by
+violence of the gold of the honest husbandman,
+or peaceful trader: from
+hence the constant robberies in the less
+frequented places; from hence the general
+abuse of carrying prohibited arms
+of all sorts, and using them criminally
+against any one on the least provocation,
+already accustomed to use them
+against the Government. Who shall
+venture to enumerate the assassinations,
+the robberies, the ruined families,
+the misfortunes of all kinds, which,
+directly and indirectly, spring from
+contraband trade?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Such is the <i>Exposicion</i>, such the
+experience, and such the views of a
+patriotic and enlightened corporation,
+representing and ruling over one of
+the most populous, wealthy, and industrially
+disposed districts of Spain. Our
+object in prefacing at this length, and
+with seeming irrelevance, perhaps, our
+review of the commercial policy of
+Russia, with its bearings on the interests
+of Great Britain, is to show the
+differing action of the same commercial
+system, in the present case of the
+prohibitive and restrictive system in
+different countries, both in respect of
+the mode in which the internal progress
+and industry of countries acting
+upon the same principle are variously
+affected themselves and in respect of
+the nature and extent of the influences
+of such action upon those relations of
+interchange which they entertain, or
+might otherwise entertain, with other
+countries where an opposite or modified
+system prevails. In its broad features
+the system of Russia varies from
+that of Spain only in being more rigorous
+and intractable still. Both,
+however, are founded on the same exclusive
+principle, that of isolation&mdash;that
+of forcing manufactures at whatever
+cost&mdash;that of producing all that
+may be required for domestic consumption&mdash;of
+exporting the greatest
+possible maximum&mdash;of importing the
+lowest conceivable minimum. Starting
+from the same point, and for the
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page809" id="page809" title="809"></a></span> same goal, it will not be without interest
+or instruction to accompany and
+observe the progress of the one, as we
+have already endeavoured to illustrate
+the fortunes of the other&mdash;to present
+Russia, industrial and commercial, side
+by side, or in contrast with Spain, as
+we have described her. Your absolute
+theory men, your free-traders with
+one idea, like Lord Howick, your performers
+in the economic extravaganza
+now rehearsing in the Parliament-house
+under the style of &quot;leave imports
+free, and the exports will take
+care of themselves,&quot; may chance to
+meet with many strange facts to confound
+their arbitrary theorems on the
+banks of the Neva. Absolute of wisdom,
+however, as they arrogate to be,
+and casehardened as they are, against
+assaulting results which should destroy
+their self-willed principle&mdash;a principle,
+like the laws of the Medes and Persians,
+proclaimed to be unchanged and
+unchangeable&mdash;in face of which facts
+are powerless and adverse experience
+contumeliously scouted, or mendaciously
+perverted, it is sufficiently obvious
+that lessons in political economy
+will, less than from any quarter of the
+globe, perhaps, be accepted from St
+Petersburg&mdash;they will fall upon unwilling
+ears&mdash;upon understandings obtuse
+or perverted.</p>
+
+<p>We are not of the number of those
+who would contend that, under all
+times or circumstances, should a
+principle, or rather the system built
+upon a principle, be rigorously upheld
+in its application intact, sacred equally
+from modification on the one hand, as
+against radical revolution on the other.
+It cannot be denied that, under the
+protective system, have grown into
+their present gigantic proportions all
+the great manufacturing interests of
+Great Britain. But, with customary
+hardihood of assertion, maintain the
+economists&mdash;in whose wake follow the
+harder-mouthed, coarser-minded Cobdens
+of the League&mdash;although manufactures
+have flourished under such a
+system to an extent which has constituted
+this country the workshop of the
+world, they have so flourished in spite
+of the system; and, in its absence, left
+exposed to free unrestricted competition
+from abroad, must inevitably have
+progressed at a more gigantic rate of
+speed still. This is asserted to be in
+the order of nature, but as nature is
+every where the same&mdash;as the same
+broad features and first elements characterize
+all countries more or less
+alike&mdash;we ask for examples, for one
+example only, of the successful establishment
+and progress of any one unprotected
+industry. The demand is
+surely limited, and reasonable enough.
+The mendacious League, with the
+Brights and Cobdens of rude and riotous
+oratory, are daily trumpeting it in
+the towns, and splitting the ears of
+rural groundlings with the reiterated
+assertion that, of all others, the cotton
+manufacture owes nothing to protection.
+What!&mdash;nothing? Were general
+restrictive imposts on foreign manufactures
+no protection? Was the virtually
+prohibited importation of the
+cotton fabrics of India no boon? of
+India, root and branch sacrificed for
+the advancement of Manchester?
+Why, there are people yet alive who
+can recollect the day when Manchester
+cottons could not have stood one
+hour's competition with the free, or
+even 100 per cent taxed fabrics of India.<a name="footnotetag40" id="footnotetag40"></a><a href="#footnote40"><sup>40</sup></a>
+How, indeed, could competition
+have been possible, with the wages of
+weaving and spinning in India at
+three-halfpence per day, whilst for
+equal quantities and qualities of workmanship,
+the British weaver was earning
+five shillings, and the spinner ten
+shillings per day on the average? In
+1780, Mr Samuel Crompton, the ingenious
+inventor of the mule frame for
+spinning, such as it exists to this day,
+and is the vast moving machine of
+cotton manufacturing greatness, stated
+that he obtained <i>fourteen</i> shillings per
+lb. for the spinning and preparation of
+No. 40 yarn, twenty-five shillings for
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page810" id="page810" title="810"></a></span> No. 60, and two guineas for No. 80.
+The same descriptions of yarns are
+now profitably making at prices ranging
+from about tenpence to twentypence
+per lb. At the same period
+common calicoes were saleable at about
+two shillings per yard, which now may
+be purchased for threepence. Will it
+be said that the Indian spinner and
+weaver by hand could not, at the same
+epoch, have produced their wares at
+one-half the price, had not importation,
+with unrelenting jealousy, been interdicted?
+Was the rigid prohibition of
+the export of machinery no concession,
+all exclusively and prodigiously in the
+interest of the cotton manufacture, to
+the zealous promotion and ascendancy
+of which the mining and agricultural
+interests are unhesitatingly, not to say
+wantonly, prejudiced, if not absolutely
+perilled? We say wantonly, because
+the free exportation of cotton yarn,
+tolerated at the same moment, was an
+absurd and mischievous violation of
+the very principle on which the prohibited
+exportation of machinery was
+alone and could be justified. In face
+of these incontrovertible facts, of
+which hereafter, and now that the
+record of them is consigned to that
+wide circulation through the world
+which the pages of Blackwood only
+can afford, misrepresentation remains
+without excuse on the question of that
+fostering protection to which, in a
+larger degree, if not exclusively, the
+cotton manufacture of Great Britain is
+indebted for its growth to its present
+colossal, mammoth-like, and almost unwieldy
+grandeur. We do not, however,
+whilst re-establishing facts in their purity,
+dream the practical impossibility
+of confounding and disarming the
+ignorance of men unfortunately so ill
+educated and unread, and with intellect
+so incapable, apparently, of appreciating
+instruction, if not wilfully perverse,
+as the Cobdens, or of restraining
+the less coarse but more fluent
+flippancy and equally unscrupulous
+assurance of friend Bright, from resort
+to that stock and stale weapon of vulgar
+minds which is so readily drawn
+from the armoury of falsehood. To
+the end of the chapter they will lie
+on, until doomsday arrive, and they
+sink, like the Henry Hunts, <i>et id genus
+omne</i>, their at least as well-bred predecessors
+of the popularity-hunting
+school, to their proper level in the
+cess-pool of public contempt. Time,
+which executes justice upon all in the
+long run, cannot fail to lay the ghost
+of cotton and anti-corn law imposture,
+even in the troubled waters of
+the muddy Irk and Irwell, where first
+conjured from. And now, having
+shown how the cotton manufacture of
+Great Britain was from its birth cradled,
+rocked, and dandled into successful
+progress; how it was fostered
+and fenced round with protection and
+prohibitive legislation as against competition
+from abroad; we shall proceed
+with our review of the rise and
+career of <i>protected</i> manufactures in
+Russia. And we would counsel &quot;one
+who has whistled at the plough,&quot;
+whose &quot;farming notes&quot; in the <i>Morning
+Chronicle</i>, when confined to such
+matters of practical detail as may be
+supposed to lie within the scope of his
+own experience and comprehension,
+are not destitute of interest and information,
+though with distorted and
+exaggerated views, to ponder well before
+a next reiteration of the random
+and absurd assertion that the &quot;corn-law
+has done to agriculture <i>what every
+law of protection has done for every
+trade that was ever practised</i>&mdash;it has
+induced negligence, and, by its uncertain
+operation, has obstructed enterprise.&quot;
+Instead of whistling at the
+plough, such a writer almost deserves
+to be whipped at the cart's tail for so
+preposterously dogmatic an assumption.
+It has yet to be demonstrated,
+and the proof is challenged, that ever
+a great interest, whether manufacturing
+or agricultural, was established in
+any part of the world, since the creation,
+without the aids and appliances
+of legislative and guernatorial patronage.
+The degree, the qualification
+the practical limitations, which in
+the progress of time, with social
+and industrial changes supervening
+at home and abroad, may be rendered
+expedient or necessary in the
+application of the principle, constitute
+quite a different question, which
+may be discussed and entertained
+without any disparagement of the
+soundness of the policy, as best adapted
+to existing circumstances, of the
+system when first applied. The theory
+of free trade may be, in its entirety,
+as plausibly it is presented to us,
+founded on just principle; the abstract
+truth and perfection of which are just
+as unimpeachable as that of the social
+theory propounded by Rousseau in
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page811" id="page811" title="811"></a></span> the Savoyard's profession of faith, or
+that of the &quot;liberty, equality, and
+community of property&quot; (to say nothing
+of women) theory preached, and
+practically developed to some extent,
+in the paganish philosophies and New
+Harmony vagaries of the St Simonians,
+the Fourierians, and of Robert
+Owen, in these our days. And yet,
+from the beginning of time&mdash;whether
+from the world before the flood, or
+since the reconstruction of the world
+after&mdash;never, to this present epoch, has
+one single example come down to us
+of the sober realization of either the
+economical abstraction or the social
+abstraction. Primeval chaos, chaos
+existing before all time, could alone
+have represented the <i>beau-ideal</i> of
+each. So far indeed as their own demesnes
+and domains, Laban and Pharaoh
+were not without their practical
+proficiency in the elements of economical
+science&mdash;for the one knew how
+to sell his daughters, as the other his
+corn, in the &quot;dearest market;&quot; and
+each to buy his labour and his money
+at the &quot;cheapest.&quot; And never will
+these free-trade and social day-dreams
+be accomplished to the end of all time;
+never until chaos come again; never,
+unless perchance the Fitzwilliams
+and the Phillipses, impregnated with
+the beatific reveries of socialist Robert
+Owen, should throw open, the one,
+Wentworth hall, with its splendid
+parks and spacious domains&mdash;the other,
+his Manchester mills, wonder-working
+machinery, and million of capital stock,
+to joint-stock occupancy, with common
+right of possession of the rural
+labourers who till the ground, and the
+urban operatives who ply the shuttle&mdash;the
+producers, in fact, of all their
+wealth&mdash;share and share alike; themselves,
+in future, undertaking the proportion
+of daily task-work; driving
+the &quot;teams afield,&quot; or tenting the
+mule-frame. Should, perhaps, the
+Phalansterial system of Fourier preferably
+suit their taste, they will be
+entitled to enter into the &quot;phalanx of
+harmony,&quot; and share <i>&agrave; des degr&eacute;s diff&eacute;rents,
+dans la r&eacute;partition des trots facult&eacute;s&mdash;capital,
+travail, talent</i>, ... with
+the enjoyment of such an apartment
+in the Phalansterial &quot;palace&quot; for four
+hundred families, the minimum of the
+phalanx being eighty, which may
+compare with the quality of <i>r&eacute;partition</i>
+corresponding to them, as expounded
+by Madame Gatti de Gamond,
+the principal legatee of Fourier
+and his system.</p>
+
+<p>In the course of the discussions
+which terminated in the treaty of
+commerce and navigation with Russia,
+laid before parliament on the opening
+of the session&mdash;the stipulations of
+which, however, chiefly bore upon the
+extension of certain reciprocal rights
+of navigation&mdash;the Emperor Nicholas,
+in answer to representations pressed
+upon him from this country, for a liberal
+extension of the same principle
+to the general commerce of Russia, to
+foreign imports as well as shipping
+and exports&mdash;to let in a glimmer of the
+free-trade principle, in fact&mdash;replied, as
+we observed in a former article, that
+&quot;the system, such as it was, he had
+received from his predecessors, and it
+was found to work well for the interests
+of his empire.&quot; The Autocrat,
+despot as he may be, was not singular
+in the opinion; for even our esteemed
+friend Count Valerian Krasinski, distinguished
+no less for the solidity of
+his literary attainments than for the
+liberality of opinion and the patriotism
+which condemns him to the penalty
+of exile in a &quot;dear country's
+cause,&quot; who therefore will not be suspected
+of undue bias in favour of Russian
+systems, had written and published
+in an able article on Russia,
+treating <i>inter alia</i> of the rise and
+progress of her manufactures and
+commerce, to the following effect:&mdash;&quot;The
+manufacturers of Russia commenced,
+as in other countries, with
+the beginning of its political importance,
+but have been chiefly indebted
+for their encouragement and progress
+to the efforts of the Government ...
+The (protective) system has been
+steadily adhered to with constantly
+increasing energy, and <i>the most brilliant
+success</i>, up to the present time.&quot;
+This was published in 1842. We shall
+proceed to test the merits of the case
+by reference to documents of official
+origin, Russian and British&mdash;both to
+the latest dates to which made up in
+a sufficiently complete shape for the
+object in view, and the former in some
+instances later than any yet published
+in this country, and, as believed, exclusively
+in our possession. We shall
+have to deal with masses of figures;
+but to the general reader in search of
+truth, they can hardly fail to be more
+acceptable than whole pages of allegations
+and assumptions unsupported by
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page812" id="page812" title="812"></a></span> proof, however eloquently worked out
+to plausible conclusions.</p>
+
+<p>We commence with laying the
+foundation for a comprehension of the
+industrial progression of Russia, by a
+comparative statement of the average
+imports of a few of the chief articles of
+consumption, raw materials of manufacture,
+and manufactures, for two
+series, of three years each; the first
+series being the earliest for which official
+records can be cited, or were perhaps
+kept. Accidental circumstances,
+and the special influences which, favourably
+or unfavourably, may act
+upon particular years, producing at
+one time a feverish excess of commercial
+movement, and at another, a reacting
+depression as unnatural, are best
+corrected and balanced by taking averages
+of years. Thus, the mean term
+of imports for 1793, 1794, and 1795,
+may be thus contrasted with that for
+1837, 1838, and 1839, of the following
+commodities:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">Annual imports,</td>
+    <td align="center" colspan="2">1793&ndash;95</td>
+    <td align="center" colspan="2">1837&ndash;9</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Sugar,</td>
+    <td align="right">341,356</td>
+    <td align="center">poods</td>
+    <td align="right">1,675,806</td>
+    <td align="center">poods</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Olive oil,</td>
+    <td align="right">42,239</td>
+    <td align="center">ib.</td>
+    <td align="right">345,455</td>
+    <td align="center">ib.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Machines and Instruments of all kinds, for</td>
+    <td align="right">111,300</td>
+    <td align="center">&nbsp; silver rubles &nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1,025,264</td>
+    <td align="center">&nbsp; silver rubles &nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Woollen cloths for</td>
+    <td align="right">3,978,000</td>
+    <td align="center">ib.</td>
+    <td align="right">570,000</td>
+    <td align="center">ib.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Raw cotton,</td>
+    <td align="right">10,000</td>
+    <td align="center">poods</td>
+    <td align="right">315,000</td>
+    <td align="center">ib.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Cotton-yarn,</td>
+    <td align="right">50,000</td>
+    <td align="center">ib.</td>
+    <td align="right">600,000</td>
+    <td align="center">ib.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Cotton fabrics for</td>
+    <td align="right">2,600,000</td>
+    <td align="center">silver rubles</td>
+    <td align="right">3,866,000</td>
+    <td align="center">ib.</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>During the first triennial period, a
+large proportion of the sugars imported
+was in the refined state, the number
+of sugar refineries being then very
+limited; in the second period, the
+imports consisted exclusively of raw
+sugar for the numerous existing refining
+establishments, which consumed
+besides 125,000 poods of beet-root
+sugar, the produce of the beet-root
+works established in Southern Russia.
+Woollen manufactories have so rapidly
+and extensively increased, that,
+whereas, comparatively a few years
+past only, the manufacture of woollens
+was confined almost exclusively to the
+coarser sorts for army use, whilst the
+better qualities for the consumption
+of the more easy classes, and for export
+to Asia, were imported from
+abroad, chiefly from Great Britain; for
+the fifteen years preceding 1840 the
+case has been completely altered. The
+import of foreign woollens has almost
+altogether ceased for internal consumption
+in Russia, whilst no woollens
+but of Russian make are now exported
+to Asia, and especially China.
+The export of these home-made woollens
+figures far above two millions of
+rubles yearly in the tables of Russian
+commerce with eastern countries. It
+will be seen that while the imports of
+cotton yarn, in the space of forty-two
+years, had increased in the proportion
+from 1 to 12 only, that of raw cotton
+had advanced in the proportion from 1
+to 32. The facts are significant of the
+growing extension both of spinning
+factories and the cotton manufactories.
+It is difficult to understand or credit
+the increased imported values of cotton
+fabrics here represented, knowing,
+as we do, the decreased export to Russia
+in our own tables of values and quantities.
+But we shall have occasion hereafter,
+perhaps, to notice some peculiarities
+in the Russian official system of
+valuations, which may probably serve to
+clear up the ambiguity. But although
+importing foreign cottons for internal
+consumption, Russia is moreover an exporter
+of domestic fabrics, to the value
+of about one million of silver rubles,
+on the side of Asia. In order to avoid
+as far as possible the multiplication of
+figures by the accompanying reduction
+of the moneys and weights of Russia
+into English quantities, it may be convenient
+to state, that the silver ruble
+is equal to 37&frac12;. sterling, and, in commercial
+reckoning, the pood answers to
+36 lbs. avoirdupois.</p>
+
+<p>Limiting our views for the present
+to the trade in cottons, as the manufacture
+of cottons is of much more recent
+growth in Russia than woollen
+and other manufactures, we find that
+the exact imports, quantities, or values,
+of cotton and yarn, are thus quoted in
+Russian official returns for the three
+last years to which made up <i>seriatim</i>.</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="center">1839.</td>
+    <td align="center">1840.</td>
+    <td align="center">1841.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Raw cotton,</td>
+    <td align="right">&nbsp; 354,832</td>
+    <td align="right">&nbsp; 398,189</td>
+    <td align="right">&nbsp; 314,000</td>
+    <td align="center">poods.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Cotton yarn,</td>
+    <td align="right">535,817</td>
+    <td align="right">519,189</td>
+    <td align="right">560,799</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The depressed state of the cotton
+trade in 1841 in this country, with the
+very low prices of yarn, from consignments
+pushed, in consequence, for sale
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page813" id="page813" title="813"></a></span> at any rates against advances, were
+doubtless the cause of the increased
+imports of yarn, and the decrease in
+raw cotton, exhibited in the returns for
+1841. Otherwise, the import of raw
+cotton has been comparatively much
+more on the increase than cotton yarn
+for some years past. Thus, beginning
+with 1822, when the cotton industry
+began more rapidly to develope itself,
+but omitting the years just given, the
+imports stood thus:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="center">1822.</td>
+    <td align="center">1830.</td>
+    <td align="center">1838.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Raw cotton,</td>
+    <td align="right">55,838</td>
+    <td align="right">116,314</td>
+    <td align="right">326,707</td>
+    <td align="center">poods</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Cotton-yarn,</td>
+    <td align="right">&nbsp; 156,541</td>
+    <td align="right">&nbsp; 429,736</td>
+    <td align="right">&nbsp; 606,667</td>
+    <td align="center">ib.</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Now, it will not be denied that the
+cotton manufacture in this country
+has enjoyed supereminent advantages
+over that of any other in the world,
+whether we look at the protective
+scale of duties maintained for half a
+century in its favour against foreign
+competition, or regard those glorious
+inventions and improvements in machinery,
+of which rigorous prohibitive
+laws against export, during the same
+period in force, long secured it a
+strict, and, even to a more recent period,
+a <i>quasi</i> monopoly, and gave it a start
+in the race, which seemed to leave all
+chance of foreign concurrence, or
+equal ratio of progression, out of the
+question altogether. Neither for spinning
+nor weaving could Russia, in
+particular, possess any other than machinery
+of the rudest kind, with hand
+labour, until perhaps subsequently to
+1820. Her tariffs, even by special
+treaty of commerce, in 1797, were
+entirely favourable to the entrance
+and consumption of British fabrics.
+The prohibitory, or Continental system
+of Bonaparte, was indeed substituted
+after the treaty of Tilsit; but
+in 1816 a new tariff was promulgated,
+modifying the &quot;prohibiting system of
+our trade,&quot; as the Emperor Alexander,
+in his ukase on the occasion, expressed
+it. By this tariff, cotton fabrics of all
+kinds were taxed twenty-five per cent
+in value only; cotton yarn, seven and
+a half copecs per cent; fine woollens,
+1 ruble 25 copecs per arschine; kerseymeres
+and blankets, twenty-five
+per cent on value; flannels, camlets,
+druggets, cords, &amp;c., fifteen per cent.
+How, then, has Russia, subject to all
+these disadvantages and drawbacks,
+and so late in the field, fared in comparison
+with this country, so long and
+so far before her? Let us take the
+Russian data first given for the two
+triennial periods, and ascertain the
+issue.</p>
+
+<p>The mean annual imports of cotton
+taken for consumption into Great
+Britain, deducting exports, may be
+thus stated in round numbers for the
+two terms, 1793&ndash;4&ndash;5 and 1837&ndash;8&ndash;9.</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">Annual imports,</td>
+    <td align="center">1793&ndash;5.</td>
+    <td align="center">1837&ndash;9.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Raw cotton,</td>
+    <td align="right">&nbsp; 22,000,000 lbs.</td>
+    <td align="right">&nbsp; 391,830,000 lbs.</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The ratio of progress of the manufacture,
+therefore, from one term to
+the other, of the forty-four years, was
+not far from eighteenfold.</p>
+
+<p>Reducing the quantities of cotton-yarn
+imported into Russia into the
+state of raw cotton, by an allowance
+of about three ounces in the pound, or
+nearly seven pounds per pood, for
+waste in the operations of spinning,
+we have the following approximate
+results:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">Annual imports,</td>
+    <td align="center">1793&ndash;5.</td>
+    <td align="center">1837&ndash;9.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Raw cotton,</td>
+    <td align="right">&nbsp; 69,700 poods.</td>
+    <td align="right">&nbsp; 1027,500 poods.</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The ratio of increase from term to
+term being thus the greater part of fifteenfold.</p>
+
+<p>But as the cotton manufacture,
+from circumstances referred to of favourable
+tariffs for importation&mdash;comparatively
+free-trade tariffs&mdash;did
+not begin fairly to shoot forth until
+1822, it will be only right to try the
+question of comparative increase by
+another list, namely, as between the
+returns of the consumption of cotton
+respectively in the two countries for
+that year, and one of the later years,
+1839, 1840, or 1841; but say rather
+an average of the three. We are unable,
+however, to strike a corresponding
+average three years forward from,
+but inclusive of 1822, for want of the
+corresponding Russian official returns
+for two of the years. On the other
+hand, to take the one year of 1839,
+when the quantity of cotton taken for
+consumption in this country was at a
+low ebb, would be like straining for an
+effect, which the impartial seeker after
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page814" id="page814" title="814"></a></span> truth can have no object in doing,
+whilst the return for 1840 would be as
+much in excess the other way. Thus
+the total quantities of raw cotton taken
+for consumption in Great Britain
+were&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>For the year 1822,</td>
+    <td align="right">144,180,000</td>
+    <td>lbs.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Average of the three years 1839, 1840, 1841,</td>
+    <td align="right">&nbsp; 440,146,000</td>
+    <td>ib.</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The ratio of progression in Great Britain,
+for the term of eighteen years,
+was somewhat more than threefold.</p>
+
+<p>The imports of raw cotton, and of
+cotton-yarn, rendered into cotton by
+an allowance in addition, at the rate
+of about three ounces per lb. for waste,
+or nearly seven pounds per pood,
+stand thus for Russia in round numbers:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>For the year 1822,</td>
+    <td>in the shape of raw cotton,</td>
+    <td align="right">55,838</td>
+    <td>poods.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+    <td>Cotton yarn calculated into about</td>
+    <td align="right">&nbsp;186,900</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="center">Total cotton,</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&nbsp; 242,738</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2">Average raw cotton imports of 1839&ndash;40&ndash;41</td>
+    <td align="right">355,673</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2">Id. of cotton yarn calculated into cotton,</td>
+    <td align="right">643,300</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="center">Total cotton,</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&nbsp; 998,973</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The ratio of increase in the cotton
+manufacture of Russia, for the same
+term of eighteen years, was therefore
+considerably more than fourfold. And
+this steady but extraordinary superiority
+of Russian progression took place
+in the face of all those prosperity
+years, when, from 1833 to 1838, the
+British cotton manufacture was stimulated,
+and bloated to excess, with the
+high prices resulting from the flash
+bank-paper and loan system of the
+United States, and the mad joint-stock
+banking freaks of Lancashire.</p>
+
+<p>The average import and consumption of raw cotton in Russia, and of yarn
+calculated into cotton, was at the rate, on the average of the three years cited,
+of about, 35,963,000 lbs. per annum;</p>
+
+<p>Which approximates the position of the Russian
+with that of the cotton manufacture of
+France as existing in the year 1818, when the
+consumption of raw cotton is officially stated at, 16,974,159 kilogrammes;</p>
+
+<p>And with that of the cotton manufacture of
+the United States in 1828, when the quantity
+consumed at home was stated at about, 35,359,000 lbs.</p>
+
+<p>It will still be insisted, doubtless, as
+all along it has never failed to be the
+cuckoo-note of unreflecting theorists,
+that the manufactures of Russia have
+flourished, and are flourishing, in spite
+of protection; that the only effect of
+protection is to repress their growth
+and mar their perfection. The assertion
+stands ready-made, and ever the
+stock on hand; it is a rash and blindfold
+speculation upon chance and futurity,
+at the best; a building without
+a corner stone; a <i>chateau-d'Espagne</i>
+nowhere to be found. Where, except
+in the glowing fictions of Scheherezade,
+may the personification of such
+a phantom be detected? History,
+whether ancient or modern, may be
+ransacked in vain for one footprint of
+the realised existence and miraculous
+economical prodigies worked upon the
+absolute free-trade principle, in the
+spontaneous creation, the progress unrivalled,
+the prosperity Pactolean, of
+ingenious manufactures. The El-Dorado
+region has yet to be discovered;
+will Cobden, like another Columbus
+in search of new worlds, adventure
+upon the desperate enterprise,
+and furnish the writer of romance
+with apt materials for the frights and
+freaks of another &quot;phantom ship&quot; on
+the wide ocean? If so inclined, indeed,
+we may commend him to an
+undertaking now, at this present writing,
+in actual progress, as we learn
+from assured sources and high quarters,
+in Paris. A goodly ship of substantial
+proportions is now preparing
+in a French port, richly freighted for
+an interesting voyage with the products
+of French industry, with destination
+for the great sea-river of the
+Amazons, for navigating its thousands
+of miles of unploughed course, and
+exploring those realms untold of, those
+interminable wastes recorded, and
+those numberless nations as yet unknown,
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page815" id="page815" title="815"></a></span> if existing, which coast the
+vast expanse of its waters to the utmost
+limits of Brazil, and the very
+confines of Bolivia, Peru, and Colombia.
+The King of the French is himself
+the patron and promoter of this
+great enterprise. Hasten, then, friend
+Cobden, erratic and chivalrous as
+Quixote of old, to &quot;swell the breezes
+and partake the gale&quot; of an expedition
+so glorious; for know, that on
+the banks of the noble Amazons itself,
+the magnificent queen-river, most
+worthy in the world of such distinction,
+have poets, romancers, and chroniclers,
+undoubting, from all time,
+sung of and planted the resplendent
+empire of the El-Dorado itself.</p>
+
+<p>Our design being to demonstrate,
+by the force of example and contrast,
+the sophistical absurdity of absolute
+theories, that, however naturally and
+harmoniously their parts may be made
+to correspond in thesis and system as
+a whole, according to which the same
+consequences, upon a given principle,
+should inevitably flow from certain
+causes, yet that, practically, it is found
+the same causes do not produce the
+same effects, even when circumstances
+are most analogous; that, for instance,
+the protective, or restrictive system of
+industry, under the rule of which
+Spain languishes, notwithstanding the
+abundant possession of the first materials
+for the promotion of manufacturing,
+and the prosperity of agricultural
+interests, proves, at the other
+extremity of Europe, the spring of
+successful progress and industrial accumulation,
+and renders Russia prosperous,
+though proportionally not
+more largely gifted with those natural
+elements of wealth and production
+which consist in fertility of soil, in
+mines of the precious metals, of coal,
+iron, &amp;c. We shall pursue our task
+to its completion before we proceed to
+draw and sum up those conclusions
+which must follow from the premises
+established, before we enter in order
+upon the analysis and dissection of the
+one absolute principle or theory, by
+which, in the conceit of certain sage
+travellers on the royal railroad to wisdom,
+eager for the end and impatient
+of the toil of thinking, the economical
+destinies of all nations should
+be cut, carved, and adjusted <i>secundum
+artem</i>, with mathematical precision
+and uniformity, according to the rule
+invariable of robber Procrustes, the
+ancient founder of the sect, who constructed
+a bed&mdash;that is, a system of
+certain proportions of size&mdash;that is,
+upon a certain principle&mdash;upon which
+he laid his victims; those found too
+short to fit the dimensions of the
+pallet, he stretched and tortured
+into the length required; those too
+long he fitted by decapitating the superabundance
+of head and shoulders,
+or by squaring off the legs and feet;
+just as economists would sever nations
+with their invariable system; just as,
+with their selfish and one-sided, sordid
+idea, the junta of Leaguers, rule and
+plummet in hand, would deal with the
+British empire, with its vast possessions
+in every clime, on which the sun
+never sets, peopled by races numerous
+and diverse of origin as of interests,
+multifarious, complicated, often conflicting.
+&quot;<i>L'et&acirc;t</i>,&quot; said Louis le
+Grand, &quot;<i>c'est moi</i>.&quot; &quot;The British
+empire&quot;&mdash;bellows Syntax Cobden&mdash;&quot;'tis
+<i>me</i> and printed calicoes.&quot; &quot;The
+British government and legislature&quot;&mdash;exclaims
+Friend Bright&mdash;&quot;'tis I and
+Rochdale flannel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It is a strange, and, with our qualified
+and not exclusive opinions, not
+less a discouraging complication of
+affairs with which we have to deal,
+that, look among the great nations
+where we will, we find, to a great
+extent, that the protective system of
+commerce, where in force, or where
+it has superseded a <i>quasi</i> free-trade
+system before in force, has conduced,
+in no small degree, to the advancement
+of material interests. The Germanic
+Customs' Union, that peculiar
+handicraft creation of Lord Palmerston,
+is there to confirm the fact,
+no less than Russia, than France, than
+Belgium, and other lands. The League
+themselves ostentatiously proclaim it,
+whilst pretending to impugn the retention
+of the very shadow of a shade
+of the same principle, for the country,
+above all others, which has grown to
+greatness under it&mdash;the very breath of
+whose nostrils it has been, during the
+struggles of infancy and progress to
+that full-blown maturity, when assuredly
+it seeks, (and need seek only,)
+willingly proffers, and readily accepts,
+equality of condition&mdash;reciprocity of
+interchange, with all the world. &quot;The
+Manchester manufacturer&quot;&mdash;the false
+<i>nom-de-guerre</i> of a calico printer, who
+was not a manufacturer at all, and
+could scarcely distinguish a calico from
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page816" id="page816" title="816"></a></span> a cambric at the time of writing, who
+erst was, is yet, perchance, the trumpeter
+of Russian policy, Russian principles,
+and Russian progress in the
+East and elsewhere&mdash;must be grateful
+for the information we have already
+afforded on the full careering ascendency
+of Russian material interests
+also. His gratitude will expand as he
+accompanies these pages.</p>
+
+<p>Peter the Great laid the foundations
+of Russian manufactures, as of
+the Russian empire itself. He founded
+manufactories in all the larger cities.
+But with his death they fell into
+decay until the reign of Elizabeth.
+With that epoch began their revival,
+and the more rigorous revival also of
+the prohibitory system. Their present
+imposing appearance and magnitude
+date, however, from the peace of
+1815, the great parent and promoter
+of all continental manufactures. In
+1812 no more than 2,332 manufacturing
+establishments in the whole empire
+were in existence, employing
+119,000 work-people; in 1835 the
+number of the former had reached to
+6,015, and of the latter to 279,673, the
+half of the free labourers. At the beginning
+of 1839, says the report of the
+department of manufactures and internal
+commerce&mdash;the last which, hitherto,
+has been made up or come to our
+hands&mdash;the number of factories and
+manufactories had risen to 6,855, an
+increase over the year preceding of
+405, whilst the number of workmen
+employed in them was 412,931, an
+increase over the year before of 35,111.
+Thus, in the space of three years,
+from 1835 to the end of 1838, 810
+new establishments had been organized,
+and the number of workmen
+augmented by one-half. These industrial
+establishments were non-inclusive
+of mining works, iron works,
+&amp;c., and the people employed in them.
+They were classed as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>Woollen manufactories,</td>
+    <td align="right">606</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Silk ib.</td>
+    <td align="right">227</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Cotton ib.</td>
+    <td align="right">467</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Linen ib.</td>
+    <td align="right">216</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Tanneries,</td>
+    <td align="right">1918</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Tallow works,</td>
+    <td align="right">554</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Candle ib.</td>
+    <td align="right">444</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Soap ib.</td>
+    <td align="right">270</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Hardware ib.</td>
+    <td align="right">486</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The seat of Russian manufactures is
+principally in the central portion of
+the empire, in its ancient capital Moscow,
+and the surrounding provinces.
+The progress of Moscow itself may
+be thus briefly sketched, after remarking
+that in the beginning of 1839
+there existed in the government, of
+which it was the capital city, 1058 manufactories,
+employing 83,054 work-people.
+In the 315 manufactories of
+the neighbouring province of Vladimir,
+83,655 work-people were employed;
+in the equally adjacent province
+of Kalouga, 164 manufactories gave
+work to 20,401 workmen. The population
+of Moscow, the Manchester
+of Russia, amounted in 1825 to
+241,514; in 1827 it had risen to
+257,694; in 1830 to 305,631; in 1833
+to 333,260; in 1840 to 347,224. The
+principal manufactories were thus
+classed for the latter year.</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>Silk manufacture,</td>
+    <td align="right">68</td>
+    <td align="center">looms,</td>
+    <td align="right">2217</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Cotton ib.</td>
+    <td align="right">139</td>
+    <td align="center">ib.</td>
+    <td align="right">7252</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Woollen cloth ib.</td>
+    <td align="right">51</td>
+    <td align="center">ib.</td>
+    <td align="right">2960</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Other woollen stuff ib.</td>
+    <td align="right">16</td>
+    <td align="center">ib.</td>
+    <td align="right">579</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Shawl ib.</td>
+    <td align="right">17</td>
+    <td align="center">ib.</td>
+    <td align="right">282</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>In thirteen of the chief factories
+there were 263 spinning machines;
+three cotton factories alone contained
+138. Besides these larger establishments,
+3122 workshops, not considerable
+enough to be ranked as manufactories,
+employed alone 19,638
+work-people; and 142 industrial establishments,
+such as founderies, breweries,
+distilleries, tallow and soap
+works, &amp;c., gave bread to thousands
+more.</p>
+
+<p>The consumption of the principal
+raw materials of manufacture is thus
+stated as an average of that and recent
+preceding years.</p>
+
+<p><span class="newpage"><a name="page817" id="page817" title="817"></a></span></p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>Cotton for the twenty spinneries of Moscow,</td>
+    <td align="right">100,000</td>
+    <td align="center">poods per an.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Cotton yarn,</td>
+    <td align="right">300,000</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Dyed cotton yarn</td>
+    <td align="right">200</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Raw silk,</td>
+    <td align="right">30,000</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Dye woods,</td>
+    <td align="right">100,000</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Madder,</td>
+    <td align="right">250,000</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The machinery for the manufactories
+is made for the most part in the
+founderies and machine-works of Vladimir,
+Tamboff, Kalouga, and Riazan,
+but, above all, in the city of Tula and
+the village of Parlovo. In McCulloch's
+<i>Statistical Dictionary</i>, the number
+of steam-engines in the government
+of Moscow is stated, for 1830,
+at about 100&mdash;in 1820, two only being
+in existence. On what authority the
+statement is given does not appear;
+our own documents, to 1841 inclusive,
+are silent on that head. For Moscow,
+with its immediate environs, the total
+number and the produce of the cotton
+looms are thus given:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Cotton loom,</td>
+    <td align="right">17,000</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Producing annually,</td>
+    <td align="right">450,000</td>
+    <td>pieces of calico</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Do.</td>
+    <td align="right">400,000</td>
+    <td>do. of nankeen</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Do. above,</td>
+    <td align="right">2,000,000</td>
+    <td>do.&nbsp;of&nbsp;handkerchiefs</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>In the whole, inclusive of other goods, such as muslins, velvets, &amp;c., &amp;c., equal to above,</td>
+    <td align="right">40,000,000</td>
+    <td>arschines of fabrics</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Valued at</td>
+    <td align="right">7,500,000</td>
+    <td>silver rubles.</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The arschine is about twenty-eight English inches. The silk manufacture,
+of recent establishment only in Moscow, presented the following results,
+for that city and the surrounding districts:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>Number of common looms,</td>
+    <td align="right">10,000</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Jacquard, more than</td>
+    <td align="right">5,000</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Producing annually,</td>
+    <td align="right">15,000,000</td>
+    <td>arschines of st</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Valued at</td>
+    <td align="right">10,000,000</td>
+    <td>silver rubles.</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The woollen manufactories of Moscow, inclusive of the environs, employed
+apart smaller loom shops:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>Looms,</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">5,139</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Producing</td>
+    <td>yearly,</td>
+    <td align="right">30,000</td>
+    <td align="center">pieces</td>
+    <td>of superior quality</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">Do.</td>
+    <td>more than</td>
+    <td align="right">50,000</td>
+    <td align="center">do.</td>
+    <td>ordinary for the army</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>And</td>
+    <td align="center">do.</td>
+    <td align="right">&nbsp; 700,000</td>
+    <td colspan="2">&nbsp;arschines of light cloths for China.</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The values not given. The imports of merchandise from Moscow by
+water, of which alone exact and detailed particulars are stated, amounted
+in&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>1837, to &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; </td>
+    <td align="right">22,881,000</td>
+    <td>rubles assignation</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1838,</td>
+    <td align="right">22,074,563</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1839,</td>
+    <td align="right">17,467,391</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1840,</td>
+    <td align="right">28,283,877</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Three and a half rubles assignation,
+are equal to one silver ruble.
+Moscow enjoys the advantage of being
+an internal bonded port, or port of
+intrep&ocirc;t, a privilege now seeking by
+Manchester, so that importers of foreign
+merchandise are not called upon
+for the payment of duties until the
+moment when, withdrawing their imports,
+or any other portion of them as occasion
+requires, the payment becomes
+necessary. Formerly the duties had
+to be paid in the frontier ports, and
+often in bulk. The customhouse revenue
+resulting, amounted in&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>1837, to &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; </td>
+    <td align="right">637,074</td>
+    <td>rubles assignation</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1838,</td>
+    <td align="right">614,464</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1839,</td>
+    <td align="right">626,764</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1840,</td>
+    <td align="right">776,021</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1841,</td>
+    <td align="right">898,398</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><span class="newpage"><a name="page818" id="page818" title="818"></a></span> These returns are proof indisputable
+of industrial and social progress.
+It is unnecessary further to remark
+upon the great and growing importance
+of other branches of industry in
+Moscow, or to extend the limits of
+this notice so far as to comprise a review
+of the iron and hardware manufactories,
+and the numerous tanneries
+of Tula and Perm. The active movement
+of internal commerce, may,
+however, be inferred from the returns
+of products exhibited and sold at
+twelve fairs held annually, with one
+thrice, and another twice, in the year,
+the total value of which exposed for
+sale in 1840, was stated at 101,551,000
+silver rubles, and of the quantity
+actually sold at 64,326,700 rubles.
+Of which alone at&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="center">On Sale.</td>
+    <td align="center">Sold.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Nijny Novgorod, for &nbsp; &nbsp; </td>
+    <td align="right"> &nbsp; 47,264,967</td>
+    <td align="right"> &nbsp; 38,828,984</td>
+    <td align="center">silver rubles</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Irbit,</td>
+    <td align="right">12,232,286</td>
+    <td align="right">7,682,000</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Romna, 2d fair</td>
+    <td align="right">9,001,904</td>
+    <td align="right">4,454,747</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Kharkoff, 1st fair,</td>
+    <td align="right">5,743,280</td>
+    <td align="right">2,944,390</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Koursk,</td>
+    <td align="right">7,014,802</td>
+    <td align="right">2,014,834</td>
+    <td align="center">...<br>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The great fair of Nijny Novgorod may rival with Leipzig in the magnitude
+of its transactions. In 1841, the general movement of values at this
+fair is thus returned:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>Merchandise for sale,</td>
+    <td align="right">50,506,606</td>
+    <td>silver rubles, or</td>
+    <td align="right">176,773,121</td>
+    <td>rbls. ass.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Sold,</td>
+    <td align="right">41,704,236</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+    <td align="right">145,964,826</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>By decree of the government, within
+the last three years, the public accounts,
+before kept in rubles assignation,
+that is government paper money,
+were ordered to be reckoned in silver
+rubles. For purposes of comparison
+with former years, we state them in
+both. Of the mass of commodities
+thus in motion at the fair, there were
+of Russian manufactures and indigenous
+products, to the total value of
+37,132,693 silver rubles exposed for
+sale, and for 29,762,473 sold; some
+other chief articles ranging thus;&mdash;</p>
+
+<table>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="center">For sale.</td>
+    <td align="center">Sold.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Cotton goods,</td>
+    <td align="right">7,336,665</td>
+    <td align="right">5,947,865</td>
+    <td align="center">silver rubles.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Woollens,</td>
+    <td align="right">3,448,295</td>
+    <td align="right">2,620,175</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Linen and hempen fabrics,</td>
+    <td align="right">3,126,736</td>
+    <td align="right">2,375,736</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Silks,</td>
+    <td align="right">3,220,489</td>
+    <td align="right">2,239,989</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Leather, worked and not,</td>
+    <td align="right">1,043,583</td>
+    <td align="right">876,083</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Produce of mines and founderies, iron, copper, hardware, jewellery,</td>
+    <td align="right">&nbsp; 7,600,330</td>
+    <td align="right">&nbsp; 6,450,330</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Tea, for 7,107,500 rubles assignation,
+and other products of China,
+were brought to the fair; raw cotton,
+cotton-yarn, shawls, silks, skins, &amp;c.
+from Persia and Asia, to the value of
+29,796,819 roubles assignation, and
+chiefly sold. Of the products of Western
+Europe, which make but a miserable
+exhibit, the following are the chief:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>Woollen stuffs, for</td>
+    <td align="right">256,455</td>
+    <td align="center">silver rubles.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Cottons,</td>
+    <td align="right">510,830</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Linens and hempen fabrics, &nbsp; </td>
+    <td align="right">192,300</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Silks,</td>
+    <td align="right">423,130</td>
+    <td align="center">...<br>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Indigo,</td>
+    <td align="right">918,000</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The growing magnitude of this fair will be appreciated by the following returns
+of former years:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="center">Total commodities</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="center">for sale.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="center">Rubles assignation.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1829,</td>
+    <td align="right">104,018,586</td>
+    <td align="center">of which sold for</td>
+    <td align="right">50,104,971</td>
+    <td>rbls. ass.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1831,</td>
+    <td align="right">129,457,600</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+    <td align="right">98,329,520</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1833,</td>
+    <td align="right">146,207,311</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+    <td align="right">117,210,670</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1835,</td>
+    <td align="right">143,369,240</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+    <td align="right">117,743,340</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1837,</td>
+    <td align="right">146,638,181
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+    <td align="right">125,507,881</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1838,</td>
+    <td align="right">156,192,500</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+    <td align="right">129,234,500</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1839,</td>
+    <td align="right">161,643,674</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+    <td align="right">137,100,774</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1840,</td>
+    <td align="right">165,427,384</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+    <td align="right">135,901,454</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><span class="newpage"><a name="page819" id="page819" title="819"></a></span> The convenience of these fairs for
+the purposes of interchange, both between
+different industries and the populations
+of different provinces of the
+same empire, and with contiguous
+countries from which so great an affluence
+of merchants with their merchandise
+for exchange was attracted,
+has induced the government to decree
+the establishment of eleven new fairs
+in different towns, and fifty-nine others
+in as many large villages, which, in
+growing size, may be already compared
+with towns.</p>
+
+<p>The internal commercial communications
+of Russia are chiefly carried
+on by means of those innumerable
+rivers and canals, that network of natural
+and artificial canals, by which
+she is intersected through all her extent,
+and which, taking their rise in
+various central parts of the empire,
+pursue their course singly, or falling
+into each other, and so constituting
+mighty streams, to the White sea and
+the Baltic, or fall into the Black sea
+and the Caspian. The total movement
+of this internal navigation in all
+the rivers, presented the following results:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2">Departures from the different ports in the interior in 1839,</td>
+    <td align="right">60,277</td>
+    <td>barques.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="right">(</td>
+    <td>&nbsp; do.</td>
+    <td align="right">24,421</td>
+    <td>rafts.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="right">Arrivals at (</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;  do.</td>
+    <td align="right">46,850</td>
+    <td>barques.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="right">(</td>
+    <td>&nbsp; do.</td>
+    <td align="right">17,469</td>
+    <td>rafts.</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+   <td>They were the convoys of merchandise dispatched from the ports to the value of</td>
+   <td align="right">737,814,276</td>
+   <td>rubles ass.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Of merchandise forwarded to do.</td>
+    <td align="right">538,921,730</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>In 1837 the values dispatched from, ascended only to</td>
+    <td align="right">618,990,306</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Do. forwarded to</td>
+    <td align="right">490,505,940</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The various and many basins of
+river and water communication, scientifically
+arranged, and showing how
+all parts of that vast empire are connected
+with each other through all
+and nearly every portion of its territorial
+extent, as in the report before
+us, is a document worthy of study and
+more minute analysis, but our limits
+forbid.</p>
+
+<p>The foreign commerce of Russia presents the following results for 1841:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>Exports to foreign countries, &nbsp; </td>
+    <td align="right">86,382,179</td>
+    <td align="center">silver rubles.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Imports from do.</td>
+    <td align="right">79,429,490</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+ </table>
+
+<p>The Russian official tables include,
+under the head of foreign commerce,
+the exports and imports with Finland
+and Poland; but as they fall within
+the range, in reality, of internal commerce,
+the accounts are better simplified
+by their exclusion. The system
+of separate returns results, doubtless,
+from the political arrangements and
+conventions by which Russia acquired
+the possession of those two countries.</p>
+
+<p>The progress of exports and imports
+may be thus indicated:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="center">1838.</td>
+    <td align="center">1839.</td>
+    <td align="center">1840.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Exports,</td>
+    <td align="right"> &nbsp; 85,718,930</td>
+    <td align="right"> &nbsp; 94,857,788</td>
+    <td align="right"> &nbsp; 82,731,386</td>
+    <td align="center">&nbsp;silver rubles.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Imports,</td>
+    <td align="right">69,693,824</td>
+    <td align="right">69,993,589</td>
+    <td align="right">76,726,490</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The remarkable excess of exports
+in 1839 resulted from the large demand
+for, and shipments of, corn in
+that year&mdash;the official value of which
+is stated at 25,217,027 silver rubles;
+the smallest export, so far as value,
+being that of 1841, valued at 10,382,509
+silver rubles only. Exclusive of corn,
+the exports would stand thus:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>1838 for &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; </td>
+    <td align="right">70,562,252</td>
+    <td align="center">&nbsp; silver rubles.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1839</td>
+    <td align="right">69,640,761</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1840</td>
+    <td align="right">68,704,971</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1841</td>
+    <td align="right">75,999,670</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Gold and silver, in bars or specie, are not comprised in these returns.</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>For 1841 the values thus exported were, &nbsp; </td>
+    <td align="right">4,023,728</td>
+    <td align="center">&nbsp;silver rubles.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td> &nbsp; ... imports,</td>
+    <td align="right">9,347,867</td>
+    <td align="center">ib.</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>It is necessary, however, to travel
+more backwards in order to a right
+appreciation of the progress of the
+foreign trade of Russia. This comparison
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page820" id="page820" title="820"></a></span> is here instituted with earlier
+years, premising that the exports to
+Poland and Finland, amounting to
+some ten or twelve millions of rubles
+assignation, and imports from, amounting
+to about three millions, are included,
+and therefore swell the amount
+of the imports and exports of the following
+years. However, to facilitate
+the comparison, the silver ruble values
+of 1841 are multiplied into corresponding
+ruble assignation values:</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="center">Exportations.</td>
+    <td align="center">Importations.</td>
+    <td align="center">Balance</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="center">in favour</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="center">of Russia.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>In</td>
+    <td>1830</td>
+    <td align="right"> &nbsp; &nbsp; 268,887,342</td>
+    <td align="right"> &nbsp; &nbsp; 197,115,340</td>
+    <td align="right"> &nbsp; &nbsp; 71,772,002</td>
+    <td>rb. as.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>1836</td>
+    <td align="right">283,748,233</td>
+    <td align="right">237,251,204</td>
+    <td align="right">13,733,196</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>1837</td>
+    <td align="right">264,485,160</td>
+    <td align="right">251,757,177</td>
+    <td align="right">12,727,983</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>1841</td>
+    <td align="right">302,337,626</td>
+    <td align="right">378,003,215</td>
+    <td align="right">24,334,411</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Add 11,808,743 rubles assignation
+for exports to, and 4,792,346 imports
+from, Poland and Finland in 1841,
+and the real comparison would be, for
+1841, exports 314,146,349, imports
+282,795,561; balance in favour of
+1841, 31,350,688 rubles assignation.</p>
+
+<p>The bulk of Russian exportations
+consists of raw or first materials, such
+as flax, hemp, flax-seed, oil, tallow,
+leather, woad, metals, and of which
+to the aggregate value in 1841, of
+59,773,354 silver rubles was exported;
+an amount nearly stationary as
+compared with the three previous
+years. But the export of Russian
+manufactures, viz. woollens, cottons,
+linens, candles, cordage, and cloths
+for China, had improved in aggregate
+amount from,&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>Silver Rubles.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>In 1838,</td>
+    <td align="right">6,527,222</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>To, in 1841,</td>
+    <td align="right">10,259,209</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>It was the trade with China by
+Kiachta, and latterly also by the line
+of Siberia, which, however, had perhaps
+taken the most remarkable extension,
+and was held to be most promising
+of future progress and profit.
+The imports, and therefore the consumption,
+of tea in Russia, are growing
+annually larger; and the exports
+of Russian products and manufactures
+to China, equally in proportion. For
+by mutual convention, as dictated by
+China, for regulating the commercial
+intercourse between the two countries
+strictly limited to that frontier river
+port, although now indirectly countenanced
+by Siberia, the trade is exclusively
+one of barter; tea and silks
+for leather, furs, cottons, woollens,
+and linens. A condition, be it observed,
+which serves to place beyond
+all doubt the fact, that it was not the
+introduction and consumption, with
+the deterioration to the health of the
+population resulting, physically and
+morally, from the use of opium, which
+had so much effect with the celestial
+Emperor in provoking the late war with
+Great Britain, as the abstraction by
+export in payment, and the drain so
+constant, of Sycee silver. The imports
+of tea in&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="center">Poods.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">Silver Rubles.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1838,</td>
+    <td>By Kiachta, were, of good and ordinary quality, &nbsp; </td>
+    <td align="right">127,645</td>
+    <td align="center">&nbsp; value</td>
+    <td align="right">2,015,189</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>By the line of Siberia,</td>
+    <td align="right">10</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+    <td align="right">600</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">127,655</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+    <td align="right">2,015,789</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1841,</td>
+    <td>By Kiachta,</td>
+    <td align="right">168,218</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+    <td align="right">6,976,363</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>By the line of Siberia and Caspian Sea,</td>
+    <td align="right">1,364</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+    <td align="right">66,293</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">169,582</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+    <td align="right">7,012,656</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Besides which, the imports of an
+inferior tea, called <i>brick tea</i>, amounted
+to the value of 359,223 silver rubles
+in 1841. In three years, the general
+trade, China silks inclusive, had therefore
+more than trebled so far as value;
+for it is remarkable, that though
+larger quantities of tea are imported,
+yet prices, so far from declining, had
+actually considerably advanced; which
+proves that the commodity was becoming
+a favourite beverage, and gaining
+into more general consumption, in
+Russia. The values of the Russian
+merchandise, such as stated, which
+passed in barter, are said to have been
+equally sustained. It may be noted,
+indeed, as an extraordinary fact, that
+whilst, as the official report of the
+department of commerce observes,
+the prices and values of almost all
+foreign raw products and manufactured
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page821" id="page821" title="821"></a></span> wares imported into Russia, during
+the three or four years preceding
+1841, and including 1841, entered
+constantly, and some at considerably
+depreciated rates, in the reverse the
+products of Russia, exported to Europe
+and elsewhere during the same period,
+quantity for quantity, generally improved
+in prices and ascended in
+value.</p>
+
+The foreign commerce of Russia by sea was carried on, during the year<br>
+1841, by
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">2,596</td>
+    <td>vessels, inwards loaded,</td>
+    <td align="center">tonnage,</td>
+    <td align="right"> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 452,760</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">2,174</td>
+    <td>do. in ballast,</td>
+    <td align="center">do.</td>
+    <td align="right">410,164</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Totals,</td>
+    <td align="right">4,770</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">862,924</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">4,582</td>
+    <td>do. outwards loaded,</td>
+    <td align="center">do.</td>
+    <td align="right">819,232</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">312</td>
+    <td>do.&nbsp; do. in ballast,</td>
+    <td align="center">do.</td>
+    <td align="right">58,046</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Totals,</td>
+    <td align="right">4,894</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">877,278</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>In the coasting trade in the Northern
+seas, the number of vessels dispatched
+from port to port was 2007,
+in the Black Sea, 5,275.</p>
+
+<p>The revenue from customs in 1841
+amounted to 27,387,494 silver rubles,
+or upwards of two-fifths in excess
+of the receipts of 1830.</p>
+
+<p>In order to exemplify the nature
+of the trade betwixt Great Britain and
+Russia, and exhibit it in its most disadvantageous
+aspect, we shall add
+here, from statements verified as authentic
+by competent authorities on
+the spot, the returns of British trade
+and shipping with certain Russian
+ports for 1842, which we have recently
+received direct. They will assist us
+to a conception of the relative importance
+of each place in respect of
+its commercial connexion with this
+country.</p>
+
+<p>The commerce of the port of
+Archangel, omitting from the table
+Onega, Kola, Kemi, and Soumsk, the
+other ports in the White Sea, their
+traffic being inconsiderable, is thus
+represented.</p>
+
+<p>1842.&mdash;Total shipping outward, 212, of which, British, 153, tonnage, 31,704</p>
+
+<table>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Total imports, (exclusive of L.13,816 by Norway coasters,)</td>
+    <td align="right">L.18,384</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Of which from Great Britain,</td>
+    <td align="right">L.801</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Total exports, (omitting L.22,236 to Norway,)</td>
+    <td align="right">L.427,789</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Of which to Great Britain,</td>
+    <td align="right">L.305,823</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>In 1841, 176 vessels exported for Great Britain the value,</td>
+    <td align="right">L.408,077</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Exclusive of cargoes by 2 other vessel, to the amount of L.7,208, for the Hanse towns and Holland.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>In 1840, 250 vessels, tonnage 48,249, exported to Great Britain the value of</td>
+    <td align="right">L.442,381</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Exclusive of 6 British vessels which carried cargoes to the Hanse towns, France, and Italy, of the aggregate value of L.12,858.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The commerce with Riga exhibits
+a somewhat more favourable proportion
+between imports and exports,
+and we are induced, therefore, to give
+the return of imports for 1842 in same
+detail as received.</p>
+
+<p>Nature and value of merchandise imported into Riga from Great Britain
+during the year 1842:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>Coffee,</td>
+    <td align="right">L.2,500</td>
+    <td align="right">0</td>
+    <td align="right">0</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Cotton,</td>
+    <td align="right">11,011</td>
+    <td align="right">0</td>
+    <td align="right">0</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Cotton twist, L.21,159, 10s; do. goods, L.1135,</td>
+    <td align="right">22,294</td>
+    <td align="right">0</td>
+    <td align="right">0</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Woollen goods,</td>
+    <td align="right">4,100</td>
+    <td align="right">16</td>
+    <td align="right">8</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Woollen twist,</td>
+    <td align="right">19,057</td>
+    <td align="right">3</td>
+    <td align="right">4</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Indigo and other dyes,</td>
+    <td align="right">13,764</td>
+    <td align="right">0</td>
+    <td align="right">0</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Dye-woods,</td>
+    <td align="right">2,718</td>
+    <td align="right">6</td>
+    <td align="right">8</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Salt,</td>
+    <td align="right">53,269</td>
+    <td align="right">3</td>
+    <td align="right">4</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Sugar,</td>
+    <td align="right">24,882</td>
+    <td align="right">10</td>
+    <td align="right">0</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Wines and brandies,</td>
+    <td align="right">19,200</td>
+    <td align="right">13</td>
+    <td align="right">4</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Iron and steel wares,</td>
+    <td align="right">7,025</td>
+    <td align="right">0</td>
+    <td align="right">0</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Spices and drugs,</td>
+    <td align="right">13,440</td>
+    <td align="right">6</td>
+    <td align="right">8</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Non-enumerated articles,</td>
+    <td align="right">12,527</td>
+    <td align="right">10</td>
+    <td align="right">0</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right" colspan="3">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">Total,</td>
+    <td align="right">L.205,791</td>
+    <td align="right">0</td>
+    <td align="right">0</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><span class="newpage"><a name="page822" id="page822" title="822"></a></span> Countries from whence British vessels have arrived at the port of Riga
+during the year 1842:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="center">No. of vessels.</td>
+    <td align="center">Tonnage.</td>
+    <td>Remarks.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>United Kingdom,</td>
+    <td align="right">387</td>
+    <td align="right">59,629</td>
+    <td>With cargoes and in ballast.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Hamburg,</td>
+    <td align="right">6</td>
+    <td align="right">1,261</td>
+    <td>In ballast.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Denmark,</td>
+    <td align="right">21</td>
+    <td align="right">3,730</td>
+    <td>...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Norway,</td>
+    <td align="right">13</td>
+    <td align="right">2,438</td>
+    <td>...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>France,</td>
+    <td align="right">5</td>
+    <td align="right">670</td>
+    <td>...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Belgium,</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td>
+    <td align="right">484</td>
+    <td>...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Holland,</td>
+    <td align="right">6</td>
+    <td align="right">1,018</td>
+    <td>...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Prussia,</td>
+    <td align="right">4</td>
+    <td align="right">562</td>
+    <td>...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Sweden,</td>
+    <td align="right">3</td>
+    <td align="right">669</td>
+    <td>...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">Total,</td>
+    <td align="right">446</td>
+    <td align="right">70,461</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">1842 exports.
+    <td align="center">Tons.</td>
+    <td>Total value of exportations to Great Britain.</td>
+    <td>Countries to whence exported.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>British vessels, 446</td>
+    <td align="right">70,461</td>
+    <td align="right">L.1,527,810&nbsp;5&nbsp;4</td>
+    <td>United Kingdom.</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The commerce of Odessa represents
+a closer approximation still between
+imports and exports; and they would
+perhaps nearly balance, but for the
+large shipments of wheat to this country,
+which contribute to swell the exports.</p>
+
+<p>In 1842, 174 British ships entered, tonnage 44,428, sailed 176 tonnage, 44929</p>
+
+<table>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Total value of imports by them,</td>
+    <td align="right">L.185,870</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Of which, from the United Kingdom,</td>
+    <td align="right">184,370</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The remainder by 64 British vessels entering from Leghorn, Turkey, Algiers, Amsterdam, mostly in ballast.</p>
+
+<table>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Total average of exports,</td>
+    <td align="right">784,865</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Of which, to the United Kingdom,</td>
+    <td align="right">776,995</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The remainder to the countries above named.</p>
+
+<table>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1841,</td>
+    <td>Total imports by British ships,</td>
+    <td align="right">147,950</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>Do. exports do.</td>
+    <td align="right">590,570</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1840,</td>
+    <td>Total imports by British ships,</td>
+    <td align="right">130,660</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>Do. exports do.</td>
+    <td align="right">859,090</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The commerce of St Petersburg is
+stated, for 1812, imports and exports
+together, at the value of 97,795,415
+silver rubles. And of 1147 foreign vessels
+which left that port and Cronstadt
+with cargoes, more or less, 515 were
+British, of 117,793 tonnage&mdash;being a
+rather considerably less number than
+in either 1840 or 1841.</p>
+
+<p>The present is the proper occasion to
+remark upon and explain the system of
+official valuation pursued in Russia, by
+which it will be observed how the real
+value, both of imports and exports, is
+swelled, probably with a view to the
+vain display of a greater commerce than
+is really carried on. As the system is
+nearly the same for both imports and
+exports, it cannot, of course, materially
+interfere with, or impeach the
+accuracy of the general balance-sheet.
+It is desirable, however, that the facts
+should be fairly represented, for the
+guidance of those who may be in the
+habit of consulting and comparing the
+official documents of different countries;
+and they will serve moreover to
+explain, in some degree, the extraordinary
+discrepancies which have been
+found betwixt the declared values of
+British products and manufactures exported
+to Russia, as published in the
+Board of Trade tables, and the same
+exports as exhibited in Russian customhouse
+returns.</p>
+
+<p>In calculating the annual value of
+importations, it is the rule in the Russian
+customhouses to add the duties
+paid on the entry of goods to their
+original value. This practice in Russia,
+where the duties are so high,
+swells the value of imports far beyond
+their true amount, and gives a false
+and exaggerated view of them.</p>
+
+<p>With respect to the exports, nearly
+the same practice exists. In calculating
+their value, all the shipping
+charges are added to the cost of the
+article; and we are informed by merchants
+resident in Russia, that on
+comparing the annual Government
+statements of exports for their establishments,
+they are found to correspond
+with the invoices forwarded to
+their foreign correspondents, which,
+of course, include commission, and all
+the expenses attendant on the shipping
+of the goods. The law also requires
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page823" id="page823" title="823"></a></span> that the shipper, on clearing
+merchandise for export through the
+customhouse, should declare its
+value. With a view of preserving
+uniformity, the Russian authorities,
+from time to time, fix a standard price
+at which particular articles shall be
+valued for export at the customhouse.
+To exemplify the evil of this system,
+it is necessary only to mention that
+oats, for example, could lately be purchased
+at a Baltic port at sixty silver
+rubles per last, while the latest customhouse
+standard values them at
+eighty silver rubles per last. This
+practice is no way injurious to the
+merchant, but only unnaturally swells
+the tables of exports when annually
+made up by the Russian Government.
+A shipper, therefore, of any of the
+articles included in the Russian standard,
+is compelled to state a much
+greater value at the customhouse than
+he furnishes to his foreign correspondent,
+who, of course, only pays the
+market price of the article, with the
+additional shipping expenses.</p>
+
+<p>The difficulty, such as it is, might
+be obviated, were the masters of
+British merchantmen compelled by
+law to submit their ship's papers, on
+arrival and departure, to the British
+consuls at each port, who would then
+be placed on the same footing with
+the consuls of other countries, and be
+enabled to communicate much important
+statistical information to their
+Government, of the opportunity for
+acquiring and transmitting which
+they are now deprived.</p>
+
+<p>Our review of Russian commerce
+and industry would be more incomplete
+than it is, if we were to omit all
+notice of the vast mining wealth of
+that empire. But our limits, already
+nearly reached, do not admit of more
+than a passing reference. Suffice it,
+that in coal, both bituminous and
+anthracite, in iron and other metals,
+and salt, constituting the raw materials,
+Russia is rich enough for all her
+wants, and indeed supplies the great
+bulk of those wants within herself,
+with to spare in some of these products
+for her neighbours and other
+countries. Her mines are annually
+increasing in productiveness and number,
+as enterprise is extended and
+capital invested in them, and as domestic
+manufactures and improving
+agriculture increasingly absorb their
+produce. The treasure-yielding progress
+of her gold mines is one of the
+extraordinary events of the age. The
+existence of gold in Siberia was
+scarcely suspected till 1829. The
+first researches of adventuring individuals
+were attended with no success.
+Feodot Popoff, one of the earliest,
+succeeded at length in that year,
+when all others had abandoned the
+undertaking as hopeless, in discovering
+traces, and procuring some inconsiderable
+specimens, of gold&mdash;not in
+quantity, however, to repay the
+working; and the doubts before existing
+seemed confirmed as to the
+fruitlessness of further perseverance
+in the search. Major-General Kovalevsky,
+of the engineers of mines,
+having been appointed governor of
+Tomsk, renewed the attempt in
+1830; and, at the close of that year,
+his indefatigable labours, and more
+methodical plan of operations, were
+rewarded with the discovery of a first
+considerable stratum of auriferous
+sands, which was designated Y&eacute;gorievsky,
+(St George.) Adventurers
+flocked into the district forthwith,
+and in numbers, upon the widespreading
+news; and excellently did
+renewed labours recompense the zeal
+of the more fortunate; numerous
+were the discoveries of layers of
+golden sands. In one of these, last
+year, a massive piece of native gold,
+weighing 24&frac12; pounds Russian, (the
+Russian pound is about 1&frac12; oz. less
+than the English,) was discovered
+embedded in a fragment of quartz,
+and is now deposited in the museum
+of the School of Mines at St Petersburg.
+The yield of the Siberian
+mines has since been at the following
+rate of progression&mdash;omitting the intermediate
+years for brevity, although
+in every year there was an increase
+of quantity upon the preceding:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>1830 &nbsp; </td>
+    <td align="right">5</td>
+    <td align="center">poods, &nbsp; </td>
+    <td align="right">32</td>
+    <td align="center">lbs., &nbsp; </td>
+    <td align="center">59-1/2</td>
+    <td> &nbsp; zdotnicks.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1832</td>
+    <td align="right">21</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+    <td align="right">34</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+    <td align="center">68-3/4</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1834</td>
+    <td align="right">65</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+    <td align="right">18</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+    <td align="center">90-3/8</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1836</td>
+    <td align="right">105</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+    <td align="right">9</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+    <td align="center">41</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1838</td>
+    <td align="right">193</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+    <td align="right">6</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+    <td align="center">47-1/2</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1840</td>
+    <td align="right">255</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+    <td align="right">27</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+    <td align="center">26-3/8</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1842</td>
+    <td align="right">631</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+    <td align="right">5</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+    <td align="center">21-1/4</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The total of the thirteen years has been 2093 poods, 38 lbs., 46 zd.
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page824" id="page824" title="824"></a></span> The pood, be it remembered, is equal to (rather more than) 36 lbs. avoirdupois.</p>
+
+<table>
+  <tr>
+    <td>The total general yield of the older worked mines of the Oural mountains for 1842, was, besides,</td>
+    <td align="right">149</td>
+    <td>poods,</td>
+    <td align="right">18</td>
+    <td>lbs.,</td>
+    <td align="right">58</td>
+    <td>zd.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>And of platina,</td>
+    <td align="right">53</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+    <td align="right">33</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+    <td align="right">67</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>On a rough estimation, the produce
+of all the gold, platina, and silver
+from the silver mines, could not have
+amounted to less, perhaps, for the year
+1842, than three millions sterling.</p>
+
+<p>According to the learned academician
+K&ouml;ppen, of St Petersburg, in a
+lengthened memoir upon the subject,
+the total population of Russia, inclusive
+of Poland, Finland, and Trans-Caucasian
+provinces, ascended in
+1839 to 65,000,000.
+Or of Russia Proper alone, 55,500,000.</p>
+
+<p>With an empire so gigantic, a population
+so large, however disproportioned
+as compared with territory, and
+with resources so incalculable, it must
+appear extraordinary that foreign commercial
+relations are so limited. The
+total of exports and imports together
+for 1841, represents only, in round
+numbers, a commercial movement to
+the value of 165,811,000 silver rubles,
+or in sterling, about L.25,907,300.
+The matter which most concerns this
+country, is the very disproportionate
+interest which results to its share in
+the export and import trade of Russia.
+Taking the latest British returns of
+the value of Russian products imported
+into England, for the Board of
+Trade tables give quantities only, as
+we find them stated by Mr McGregor,
+the indefatigable secretary of that
+board, for 1838, at L.6,977,396, or say,</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>in round numbers</td>
+    <td align="right">L.7,000,000</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>And British exports at the declared value here of, say,</td>
+    <td align="right">1,700,000</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>There would appear to result the very heavy difference against the United Kingdom of</td>
+    <td align="right">L.5,300,000</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>But bad as the case may be, it is
+not quite so bad as these figures would
+represent. It must not be forgotten
+in this sort of calculation, that shipping,
+freights, insurances, and commissions,
+represent property quite as
+substantially in the commercial sense,
+as even Mr Cobden's printed calicos,
+or friend Bright's flannel pieces. Now,
+we think it might admit of proof,
+that as much as nine-tenths of all the
+produce brought to this country from
+Russia, is so brought in British bottoms,
+and so also of the exports to
+Russia; although in 1840, the last of
+the Board of Trade tables containing
+such particulars, no more than 1629
+British vessels, of 340,567 tonnage,
+against 296 foreign, of 79,152 tonnage,
+entered British ports from Russia&mdash;the
+proportions being much the same
+outwards; but whether the foreign
+were all Russian vessels may be doubted.
+Let us assume, however, that no
+more than three-fourths of both imports
+and exports were so carried, and leaving
+three-fourths British freights outwards
+to balance Russian one-fourth
+freights inwards and outwards, let us in
+fairness estimate the worth of that
+freightage in reduction of the enormous
+balance against us. As for
+Spain, in our last Number, we took
+twenty per cent to cover all the freightage
+charges, before indicated, on her
+commodities of less bulk though more
+value in proportion, twenty-five per
+cent on the average will not be too
+much, certainly, to cover those charges
+on the more bulky products of Russia,
+more especially when the long, costly,
+and intricate navigation of the Baltic,
+and the White and Black Seas, are
+taken into account. The calculation
+will then stand thus:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>Imports from Russia,</td>
+    <td align="right">L.7,000,000</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Deduct twenty-five per cent freightage, &amp;c. as British property and profit,</td>
+    <td align="right">1,750,000</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Real value of imports as on board in Russia,</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right"> &nbsp; L.5,250,000</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Declared value of ex-British exports to Russia,</td>
+    <td align="right">L.1,700,000</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Value of British freightage, &amp;c., as above,</td>
+    <td align="right">1,750,000</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+    <td align="right">L.3,450,000</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Real approximative balance in favour of Russia,</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">L.1,800,000</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><span class="newpage"><a name="page825" id="page825" title="825"></a></span> or say two millions, as the three-fourths
+produce of outward freight
+would, perhaps, not quite compensate
+the one-fourth on inward and outward
+cargoes to the Russian shipping. Even
+such a balance is exclusively and unjustly
+large against a country which,
+like Great Britain, is a consumer of
+Russian products to the extent of
+seven-twelfths of the total exports of
+Russia to all the world. The consequence
+is, that the rate of exchange
+is almost invariably against this country.
+Lord Howick, indeed, most
+quixotically deals with adverse exchanges;
+he disposes of them summarily,
+and in a style that must have
+astonished the people on 'Change.
+This disciple and representative of
+Mr Edward Gibbon Wakefield's economics
+in the House of Commons, as
+Lord Durham was before his political
+disciple, and the victim of his schemes
+colonial, thus decisively disposes of
+adverse exchanges in the celebrated
+debate on Import Duties, taking Portugal
+for an example.</p>
+
+<div class="blkquot"><p>&quot;A large increase of importations from
+Portugal would necessarily be attended by
+a proportionate increase of our export
+trade. Was it not clear that every merchant
+who imported a pipe of wine would
+anticipate the bills drawn against him on
+account of it, and that, whatever would be
+the increase in the amount of imports,
+there would be a corresponding increase
+in the amount of the bills drawn against
+us? How were our merchants to provide
+for them? There would be no difficulty
+in it, whether the trade of Portugal increased
+legally or illegally. Suppose an
+increase of imports into Portugal, there
+would be an immediate demand for bills
+to Portugal. <i>The consequence would be,
+that if there was any other country from
+which Portugal received more than it exported,
+the bill-brokers would get bills
+from that country</i>, and our manufactures
+would be sent there instead of to Portugal.
+Admit that you could not find in any
+other country the means of discharging
+your debt by importation of your manufactures,
+bills on Portugal should then rise
+to a certain premium, and gold and silver
+would be sent to discharge the debt. The
+gold and silver would come from some
+other country, and the consequence would
+be that we should send our manufactures,
+not to Portugal, but to South America;
+while Portugal would be obliged to send
+the bullion to some other country that it
+might carry on a smuggling trade with its
+neighbour, Spain. It was impossible for
+the ingenuity of man to point out any
+different result.&quot;</p></div>
+
+<p>The &quot;bill-brokers&quot; will be greatly
+amused with the new line of business
+chalked out for them, of &quot;getting
+bills&quot; from other countries when short
+in this. There are two descriptions
+of &quot;bill brokers,&quot; but the class bearing
+that designation purely deal with
+domestic bills only. The other class
+are known as &quot;exchange brokers,&quot;
+because they meddle only with foreign
+bills; but as to &quot;getting bills&quot; from
+abroad when bills are wanting here,
+that trustworthy and respectable description
+of agents certainly never
+dreams of such an occupation. Lord
+Howick would seem to imagine that
+manufactories of bills existed specially
+abroad, and that people could draw
+with as much nonchalance from Paris
+or from Hamburg, upon Jack Nokes
+and Tom Styles at Amsterdam or
+Frankfort, as here Lord Huntingtower
+accepted for his dear friend the Colonel
+values uncared for, or as folks
+familiarly talk of valuing an Aldgate
+pump when an accommodation bill is
+in question. May we venture to hint
+to the member for commercial Sunderland,
+the <i>ex</i> for Northumberland,
+that the functions of &quot;exchange brokers&quot;
+extend no further than to ask
+A if he has any bills to sell, and B if
+he is a buyer; whereupon he has only
+further to learn what rate the one will
+purchase and the other sell at; that
+knotty point arranged, the bargain is
+concluded, and he receives his very
+small percentage. The operations
+are carried on every day, more or less,
+but on Tuesdays and Fridays, being
+especially &quot;post days&quot; on London
+'Change, where Lord Howick any day
+may be initiated in the mystery, if not
+punctilious about being unceremoniously
+elbowed and jostled about.</p>
+
+<p>In the principle of protection, we
+hold Russia to be perfectly in her
+right and her interest; in the abuse
+of it, she damages herself. Prohibition
+is not protection; restrictive duties
+equal to absolute prohibition, like
+the 85 per cent prohibitory tax, formerly
+levied here on Indian cotton
+fabrics, in favour of Lancashire, are
+not protection in the legitimate sense.
+The late Emperor Alexander hit the
+true nail of principle on the head
+when, in 1819, he reformed the Russian
+tariff on the calculation of imposts
+ranging from fifteen to forty per cent.
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page826" id="page826" title="826"></a></span> We are, nevertheless, bound to say,
+that, even as protection is understood
+in its exaggerated sense by the Autocrat,
+the system has worked well for
+Russia, as indeed we have shown.
+She has accumulated wealth by that
+system; she has secured by it the
+possession of a large proportion of
+those precious metals, which are indispensable
+no less as the medium of
+foreign exchanges and balances, than
+as the means by which, above all other
+means, the operations of industry, and
+the employment of labour, are facilitated
+at home. How would industry
+progress, and wages be dispensed, if
+the master manufacturer could offer
+payment of wages only in yards or
+pieces of cloth, the iron-master in ore,
+or the land-proprietor in oxen, sheep,
+corn, hay, or cabbages? In respect
+of commercial balances, that of Great
+Britain against Russia is liquidated
+probably, to some extent, by the
+yearly balance resulting against Russia
+in her dealings with Persia; for
+the policy of Russia is to favour the
+commerce of Asia, whilst oppressing
+that with Europe, and Persia is always
+indebted to Great Britain. She has,
+however, the game in her own hands.
+Can we wonder that she plays it to
+her own advantage, half-political, half-commercial?
+She knows as well as
+we feel keenly, that the raw materials,
+in which she is so rich, are indispensable
+for our use; she charges accordingly.
+The time may come when we
+shall be more independent of her, and
+then, then only, she will conform to
+altered circumstances. The able and
+distinguished diplomatist at her court,
+Lord Stuart de Rothesay, who succeeded
+in the arduous task of negotiating
+the recent treaty of navigation
+with that crafty Government, is the
+man also who will not be slow to
+avail himself of any favourable conjuncture
+for turning circumstances to
+account, and redressing the adverse
+balance now against this country.</p>
+
+<p>As before said, our intention, on
+this occasion, is not to dissect principles
+or theories, but to present facts.
+We have still more in store for the absolute
+theory men. But, in concluding,
+we may be allowed to observe, that the
+causes why a restrictive and exclusive
+system does answer for Russia, and,
+on the contrary, tends to the ruin of
+Spain, are simply these:&mdash;The raw
+materials of Russia are indispensable
+for this and other manufacturing
+countries, because cheaper and more
+abundant than can be elsewhere procured,
+and the price of labour is low.
+The raw products of Spain necessary
+for manufactures are, on the reverse,
+dear priced; her products of luxury,
+even, are dear; her rates of labour
+are higher than in this or any other
+country of Europe. Two shillings
+and sixpence a-day, or fifteen shillings
+a-week; with, besides Sundays, a hundred
+saints' days or holidays in the
+year, put her labour and produce quite
+<i>hors de combat</i> in the race of competition.
+A Spanish operative would
+no more toil on a <i>dia de dos cruces</i>,
+(two saints on one day,) than he would
+fast on a feast-day, with an odorous
+<i>olla podrida</i> before him on the table.</p>
+
+<hr class="full">
+
+<a name="bw332-footnotes" id="bw332-footnotes"></a><h2>FOOTNOTES.</h2>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote1" id="footnote1"></a><b>Footnote 1</b>: <a href="#footnotetag1">(return)</a>
+<p>See &quot;Chapters of Turkish History,&quot; No. III., November 1840.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote2" id="footnote2"></a><b>Footnote 2</b>: <a href="#footnotetag2">(return)</a><p>
+He was afterwards, in 1651, mufti for a few months; but is better known as an
+historian, (under the appellation of Kara-Tchelibi-Zadah,) and as having been tutor
+to Ahmed-Kiuprili.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote3" id="footnote3"></a><b>Footnote 3</b>: <a href="#footnotetag3">(return)</a><p>
+His name, according to Evliya, was originally Yusuf, but was changed to Mohammed
+on the entreaty of the ladies of the seraglio, who said that Yusuf was the name of
+a slave.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote4" id="footnote4"></a><b>Footnote 4</b>: <a href="#footnotetag4">(return)</a><p>
+The Turkish historian, Naima, fancifully compares this plane to the fabulous tree
+in the islands of Wak-Wak, the fruit of which consisted of human heads, as is fully
+detailed in the romance of Hatem Tai, besides various passages of the Thousand and
+One Nights. Under this same plane, by a singular instance of retribution, the heads
+of the janissaries massacred in the At-meidan in 1826, were piled by order of Sultan
+Mahmood.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote5" id="footnote5"></a><b>Footnote 5</b>: <a href="#footnotetag5">(return)</a><p>
+The Turkish annalists do not fail to remark, that Kiuprili crossed the imperial
+threshold at the moment when the call to noon prayers was resounding from the minarets&mdash;an
+evident token of the Divine protection extended to him!</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote6" id="footnote6"></a><b>Footnote 6</b>: <a href="#footnotetag6">(return)</a><p>
+In a narrative by a writer named Chassipol, (Paris, 1676,) professing to be the
+biography of the two first Kiuprili vizirs, Mohammed is said to have been the son of a
+French emigrant, and this romance has been copied by most European authors. But
+the testimony of Evliya, Kara-Tchelibi, and all contemporary Turkish writers, is decisive
+on the point of his Albanian origin.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote7" id="footnote7"></a><b>Footnote 7</b>: <a href="#footnotetag7">(return)</a><p>
+Ipshir Mustapha Pasha was originally a Circassian slave, and said to have been
+a tribesman and near relation of the famous Abaza. During the revolutions which distracted
+the minority of Mohammed, he became grand-vizir for a few months, (Oct.
+1654&ndash;May 1655,) but was cut off by an unanimous insurrection of the spahis and
+janissaries, who forgot their feuds for the sake of vengeance on the common enemy.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote8" id="footnote8"></a><b>Footnote 8</b>: <a href="#footnotetag8">(return)</a><p>
+De la Haye, the French ambassador, was imprisoned in 1658, and his son bastinadoed
+in the presence of Kiuprili, for being unable or unwilling to give a key to some
+letters in cipher from the Venetians; and some years later, the envoy of the Czar,
+Alexis Mikhailowitz, was driven, with blows and violence, from the presence of the
+sultan, who was irritated by the incompetency of the interpreter to translate the Czar's
+letter! This latter outrage, however, was not till after the death of the elder Kiuprili.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote9" id="footnote9"></a><b>Footnote 9</b>: <a href="#footnotetag9">(return)</a><p>
+This monstrous exaggeration is reduced by Rycaut to the more credible, but still
+enormous number of 36,000 victims during the five years of his ministry.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote10" id="footnote10"></a><b>Footnote 10</b>: <a href="#footnotetag10">(return)</a><p>
+&quot;The Turk,&quot; says Montecuculi, &quot;who is always armed, never finds time bald,
+but can always seize him by the forelock: the number of his victories, and the extent
+of territory which he has taken from the Christians, and which they have never been
+able to recover, sufficiently proves this, and shows the rashness and folly of those who
+pretend to make light of his power.&quot;</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote11" id="footnote11"></a><b>Footnote 11</b>: <a href="#footnotetag11">(return)</a><p>
+The name of Candia, which is the Italianized form of Kandax, (now Megalo-Kastro,)
+is unknown at the present day to the Greek inhabitants of the island, which
+they call by its classic name of <span class="greek" title="Kraetae">&Kappa;&rho;&eta;&tau;&eta;</span>.&mdash;See PASHLEY'S <i>Travels in Crete</i>, i. chap. 11.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote12" id="footnote12"></a><b>Footnote 12</b>: <a href="#footnotetag12">(return)</a><p>
+A notable retort is on record from the vizir to the Venetian envoy, who, on repairing
+to Constantinople after the battle, expressed his astonishment at the progress already
+made in the equipment of a new fleet. &quot;Know,&quot; (said the haughty Osmanli,) &quot;that
+the loss of a fleet to the Padishah is as the shaving of his beard, which will grow again
+all the thicker; whereas the loss of Cyprus is to Venice as the amputation of an arm
+from the body, which will never be reproduced.&quot;</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote13" id="footnote13"></a><b>Footnote 13</b>: <a href="#footnotetag13">(return)</a><p>
+&quot;Thus were they annihilated, and all men who were faithful and devoted to God
+and their prince, were solaced and consoled.&quot;&mdash;<i>MS. Chronicle by the notary Trivan,
+quoted by</i> PASHLEY, chap. 33. These atrocities were perpetrated in the early part of
+the 16th century.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote14" id="footnote14"></a><b>Footnote 14</b>: <a href="#footnotetag14">(return)</a><p>
+Among the captives was the ex-nurse of the heir-apparent, afterwards Mohammed
+IV., with her son, who was mistaken for a prince of the Imperial family; and
+being carried to Malta, was brought up there as a monk under the name of Padre
+Ottomanno! During the siege of Candia he was brought to the beleaguered fortress,
+in the hope that the presence of this supposed Turkish prince of the blood would shake
+the allegiance of the janissaries&mdash;but this notable scheme, as might have been foreseen,
+was wholly without success.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote15" id="footnote15"></a><b>Footnote 15</b>: <a href="#footnotetag15">(return)</a><p>
+Many of them adopted the faith of the invaders&mdash;and Tournefort, who visited
+Crete in 1700, says that &quot;the greater part of the Turks on the island were either
+renegades, or sons of renegades.&quot; The Candiote Turks of the present day are popularly
+held to combine the vices of the nation from which they descend with those of
+their adopted countrymen.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote16" id="footnote16"></a><b>Footnote 16</b>: <a href="#footnotetag16">(return)</a><p>
+The use of parallels is usually said to have been introduced at this time by Kiuprili;
+but they were certainly employed before Neuhausel, four years earlier.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote17" id="footnote17"></a><b>Footnote 17</b>: <a href="#footnotetag17">(return)</a><p>
+These were, the Sabionera, covered by the detached fort of St Demetrius, the
+Vetturi, Jesus, Martinengo, Bethlehem, Panigra, and St Andrew.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote18" id="footnote18"></a><b>Footnote 18</b>: <a href="#footnotetag18">(return)</a><p>
+The majority of these volunteers were supplied by the fiery noblesse of France,
+among whom the crusading spirit of their ancestors seems to have been revived at this
+period. At the battle of St Gothard, a considerable body of French auxiliaries was
+present, under the Duc de la Feuillade, (whose name was travestied by the Turks into,
+<i>Fouladi, man of steel</i>;) and his subsequent expedition to Candia, as well as the more
+formidable armament under Noailles, seem to have received the direct sanction of Louis
+XIV. Yet the old treaties between France and the Porte were still in force; so that
+it was not without some reason that Kiuprili replied, a few years later, to the Marquis
+de Nointel's professions of amity on the part of France, &quot;I know that the French are
+our friends, but I always happen to find them in the ranks of our enemies!&quot;</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote19" id="footnote19"></a><b>Footnote 19</b>: <a href="#footnotetag19">(return)</a><p>
+Villa is said to have produced before the senate of Venice a letter from Morosini
+to the vizir, offering to betray him into the hands of the Turks.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote20" id="footnote20"></a><b>Footnote 20</b>: <a href="#footnotetag20">(return)</a><p>
+The harbour of Candia (now almost choked up) was at all times so small, and with
+so little depth of water, as to afford shelter only to galleys, the station of the larger
+vessels being at the isle of Standia, at some leagues' distance.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote21" id="footnote21"></a><b>Footnote 21</b>: <a href="#footnotetag21">(return)</a><p>
+The appointment of the <i>Greek</i> Panayoti marks an important change in the system
+of Ottoman diplomacy; as previously the Porte had disdained to employ the <i>rayahs</i> in
+places of trust, depending wholly, in their intercourse with foreign ambassadors, on the
+interpreters attached to the suite of the latter.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote22" id="footnote22"></a><b>Footnote 22</b>: <a href="#footnotetag22">(return)</a><p>
+Bashl&iacute;k&mdash;a bonnet worn in bad weather.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote23" id="footnote23"></a><b>Footnote 23</b>: <a href="#footnotetag23">(return)</a><p>
+Give him her feelings&mdash;a Tartar phrase.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote24" id="footnote24"></a><b>Footnote 24</b>: <a href="#footnotetag24">(return)</a><p>
+Willingly, if you please? Literally, &quot;on my head, on my eyes.&quot;</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote25" id="footnote25"></a><b>Footnote 25</b>: <a href="#footnotetag25">(return)</a><p>
+This cushion is embroidered with jewels, and is invaluable.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote26" id="footnote26"></a><b>Footnote 26</b>: <a href="#footnotetag26">(return)</a><p>
+The Mussulmans believe, that in the northern burial-ground of Derb&eacute;nd, are
+buried the forty first true believers, who were martyred by the idolaters.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote27" id="footnote27"></a><b>Footnote 27</b>: <a href="#footnotetag27">(return)</a><p>
+God gave&mdash;Much good may it do you.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote28" id="footnote28"></a><b>Footnote 28</b>: <a href="#footnotetag28">(return)</a><p>
+Brown's Lectures, Lecture xxviii.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote29" id="footnote29"></a><b>Footnote 29</b>: <a href="#footnotetag29">(return)</a><p>
+Mill's Analysis, vol. i. p. 73.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote30" id="footnote30"></a><b>Footnote 30</b>: <a href="#footnotetag30">(return)</a><p>
+This reasoning of Dr Brown's is founded upon an assumed analogy between the
+structure of the optic nerve, and the structure of the olfactory nerves and other sensitive
+nerves, and is completely disproved by the physiological observations of Treviranus,
+who has shown that no such analogy exists: that the ends of the nervous fibres in the
+retina being elevated into distinct separate <i>papill&aelig;</i>, enable us to perceive the extension,
+and discriminate the position of visible bodies, while the nerves of the other
+senses being less delicately defined, are not fitted to furnish us with any such perception,
+or to aid us in making any such discrimination.  See <i>M&uuml;ller's Physiology,
+translated by W. Baly, M.D.</i>, vol. ii. pp. 1073, 1074. Although the application
+of Treviranus's discovery to the refutation of Dr Brown's reasoning is our own, we
+may remark, in justice to an eminent philosopher, that it was Sir William Hamilton
+who first directed our attention to the <i>fact</i> as established by the great physiologist.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote31" id="footnote31"></a><b>Footnote 31</b>: <a href="#footnotetag31">(return)</a><p>
+Mr Bailey seems disposed to carp at us for having confined our remarks to this
+first question, and for not having given a more complete review of his book. But the
+reason why we cut short our critique is obvious; for if it be proved, as we believe it
+can, that objects are originally seen at <i>no distance whatever</i> from the sight, it becomes
+quite superfluous to enquire what appearance they would present if originally seen at
+<i>some</i> distance from the sight. The way in which we disposed of the first question,
+however imperfect our treatment of it may have been, necessarily prevented us from
+entering upon the second; and our review, with all its deficiencies, was thus a complete
+review of his book, though not a review of his complete book.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote32" id="footnote32"></a><b>Footnote 32</b>: <a href="#footnotetag32">(return)</a><p>
+Review of Berkeley's Theory, p 35.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote33" id="footnote33"></a><b>Footnote 33</b>: <a href="#footnotetag33">(return)</a><p>
+Ibid. p. 136.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote34" id="footnote34"></a><b>Footnote 34</b>: <a href="#footnotetag34">(return)</a><p>
+Review of Berkeley's Theory, p. 137.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote35" id="footnote35"></a><b>Footnote 35</b>: <a href="#footnotetag35">(return)</a><p>
+Essay, &sect; 158.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote36" id="footnote36"></a><b>Footnote 36</b>: <a href="#footnotetag36">(return)</a><p>
+It would not be difficult to show, that as, on the one hand, <i>distance</i> is not involved
+in the original intuitions of sight, so, on the other hand, <i>proximity</i> is not involved in
+the original intuitions of touch; but that, while it is the touch which establishes an interval
+between the organ and the objects of sight, it is the sight which establishes <i>no</i>
+interval between the organ and the objects of touch. Sight thus pays back every fraction
+of the debt it has incurred to its brother sense. This is an interesting subject, but
+we can only glance at it here.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote37" id="footnote37"></a><b>Footnote 37</b>: <a href="#footnotetag37">(return)</a><p>
+We observe that even M&uuml;ller speaks of the &quot;faculty of projection&quot; as if he sanctioned
+and adopted the hypothesis.&mdash;See <i>Physiology</i>, vol. ii. p. 1167.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote38" id="footnote38"></a><b>Footnote 38</b>: <a href="#footnotetag38">(return)</a><p>
+Lucretius.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote39" id="footnote39"></a><b>Footnote 39</b>: <a href="#footnotetag39">(return)</a><p>
+T. Warton's &quot;Suicide.&quot;</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote40" id="footnote40"></a><b>Footnote 40</b>: <a href="#footnotetag40">(return)</a><p>
+The cotton piece goods of India were still subject, in 1814, to a duty on importation
+equal to 85 per cent. This duty was reduced on the 5th of July 1819,
+but to L.67, 10s. per cent only. Finally, in 1825 the duty was again reduced to
+10 per cent, at which it remains. The duty on cotton yarn imported from India
+was at the same time subject to a duty of 10d. per lb., and so remained till 1831
+at least. It must be borne in mind, that India was the only country in the world
+which, before and during the rise of the cotton manufacture in Great Britain, was,
+or could be, an exporter of cotton fabrics and yarns.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+
+<hr class="full">
+
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page827" id="page827" title="827"></a></span>
+<a name="bw332-index" id="bw332-index"></a><h2>INDEX TO VOL. LIII.</h2>
+
+<div class="blkquot"><p>[Transcriber's note: The page numbers refer to editions 327 to 332,
+published between January and June, 1843, according to the following
+table:</p></div>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr><td align="center">Edition</td><td align="center">&nbsp; &nbsp; Pages &nbsp; &nbsp;</td><td align="center">Month</td></tr>
+  <tr><td align="center">327</td><td align="center">1&ndash;140</td><td align="center">January</td></tr>
+  <tr><td align="center">328</td><td align="center">141&ndash;280</td><td align="center">February</td></tr>
+  <tr><td align="center">329</td><td align="center">281&ndash;414</td><td align="center">March</td></tr>
+  <tr><td align="center">330</td><td align="center">415&ndash;550</td><td align="center">April</td></tr>
+  <tr><td align="center">331</td><td align="center">551&ndash;692</td><td align="center">May</td></tr>
+  <tr><td align="center">332</td><td align="center">693&ndash;826</td><td align="center">June.]</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<ul>
+  <li>Aden, on the occupation of, 484.</li>
+  <li>Affghanistan,
+  <ul>
+    <li>the war in, 17</li>
+    <li>review of the events in, 239</li>
+    <li>the evacuation of, 266.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Agriculture, the practice of, 415.</li>
+  <li>Akhbar Khan,
+  <ul>
+    <li>murder of Macnaghten by, 257</li>
+    <li>defeat of, at Tazeen, 269.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Amalia, from the German of Schiller, 442.</li>
+  <li>Ammal&aacute;t Bek, a tale, translated from the Russian,
+  <ul>
+    <li>Translator's preface, 281</li>
+    <li>Chap. I., 288</li>
+    <li>Chap. II., 296</li>
+    <li>Chap. III., 464</li>
+    <li>Chap. IV., 471</li>
+    <li>Chap. V., 478</li>
+    <li>Chap. VI., 568</li>
+    <li>Chap. VII., 573</li>
+    <li>Chap. VIII., 579</li>
+    <li>Chap. IX., 584</li>
+    <li>Chap. X., <a href="#page746">746</a></li>
+    <li>Chap. XI., <a href="#page750">750</a></li>
+    <li>Chap. XII., <a href="#page752">752</a></li>
+    <li>Chap. XIII., <a href="#page755">755</a></li>
+    <li>Chap. XIV. <a href="#page759">759</a>.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Anti-Corn Law League, failure of the, 6.</li>
+  <li>Antique at Paris, the, from Schiller, 312.</li>
+  <li>Antique, the, to the Northern Wanderer, 312.</li>
+  <li>Aristocracies of London life, the, 67
+  <ul>
+    <li>the aristocracy of fashion, 68</li>
+    <li>of power, 227</li>
+    <li>of talent, 386.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Arnold's lectures on history, review of, 141.</li>
+  <li>Astronomical works, from Schiller, 311.</li>
+  <li>Attorney's Clerk in the Monk's Hood, the, a review of Chatterton, <a href="#page780">780</a>.</li>
+  <li>Auckland, Lord, remarks on his policy in India, 18, 266.</li>
+  <li>Bailey, Mr, his Reply to an Article in Blackwood's Magazine, on Berkeley's Theory of Vision, <a href="#page762">762</a>.</li>
+  <li>Ballads of Schiller, the, see <a href="#index-Schiller">Schiller</a>.</li>
+  <li>Battle, the, from Schiller, 446.</li>
+  <li>Battle of the Blocks, the, 614.</li>
+  <li>Berkeley's Theory of Vision, further remarks on, <a href="#page762">762</a>.</li>
+  <li>Book of the Farm, review of the, 415.</li>
+  <li>Buckingham, the Duke of, his resignation, 5.</li>
+  <li>Burial march of Dundee, the, 537.</li>
+  <li>Burnes, Sir Alexander, murder of, 244.</li>
+  <li>Cabul, Eyre's Narrative of the Operations in, reviewed, 239.</li>
+  <li>Caleb Stukely,
+  <ul>
+    <li>Part X. The Revulsion, 33</li>
+    <li>Part XI. Saints and Sinners, 213</li>
+    <li>Part XII. The Parsonage, 314</li>
+    <li>Part XIII. The Fugitive, 496</li>
+    <li>Part last, Tranquillity, 651.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Candia, the siege of, <a href="#page718">718</a>.</li>
+  <li>Capello, Bianca, history of, 554.</li>
+  <li>Chapters of Turkish History, No. IX, Rise of the Kiuprili family siege of Candia, <a href="#page718">718</a>.</li>
+  <li>Chatterton's Poems, review of, <a href="#page780">780</a>.</li>
+  <li>Chief End of Man, the, from Schiller, 311.</li>
+  <li>China, state of our relations with, at the commencement of 1843, 19
+  <ul>
+    <li>justice of the war with, 20</li>
+    <li>future prospects of, 21.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Claverhouse's Burial March, a poem, 537.</li>
+  <li>Columbus, from Schiller, 312.</li>
+  <li>Commercial Policy in relation to Spain, review of, 673
+  <ul>
+    <li>In relation to Russia, <a href="#page807">807</a>.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Comte, Auguste, review of his Cours de Philosophie Positive, 397.</li>
+  <li>Corn-Law, Sir Robert Peel's alteration in the, defended, 5.</li>
+  <li>Correctness, from Schiller, 310.</li>
+  <li>Count Eberhard the Grumbler, from Schiller, 628.</li>
+  <li>Cromwell and Sir Oliver Cromwell, Imaginary conversation between, 209.</li>
+  <li>Cunningham's Life of Reynolds, strictures on, 596.</li>
+  <li>Curse of Glencoe, the, by B. Simmons, 121.</li>
+  <li>Death of Thomas Hamilton, Esq., 280.</li>
+  <li>Delta, the Lost Lamb, by, 395.</li>
+  <li>Disturbances in the manufacturing districts, the, 11.</li>
+  <li>Division of Ranks, the, from Schiller, 311.</li>
+  <li>Dream of Lord Nithsdale, the, by Charles Mackay, 83.</li>
+  <li>Dumas' Travels in Italy, review of, 552.</li>
+  <li>Dundee, the burial march of, 537.</li>
+  <li>East and South of Europe, the, 101.<span class="newpage"><a name="page828" id="page828" title="828"></a></span></li>
+  <li>Eberhard of Wurtemberg, from Schiller, 628.</li>
+  <li>El Empecinado, passage in the career of, 343.</li>
+  <li>Ellenborough, Lord, policy of, in India, 18
+  <ul>
+    <li>his policy with regard to Affghanistan, 266</li>
+    <li>his proclamation on evacuating the country, 276</li>
+    <li>defended against the charges of the Whigs, 539.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Elysium, from Schiller, 628.</li>
+  <li>Europe, the east and south of, 101.</li>
+  <li>Evacuation of Affghanistan, the, 266.</li>
+  <li>Expectation and Fulfilment, from Schiller, 439.</li>
+  <li>Eyre's narrative of the events in Cabul, review of, 239.</li>
+  <li>Fantasia to Laura, from Schiller, 638.</li>
+  <li>Favour of the moment, the, from Schiller, 438.</li>
+  <li>Fight with the dragon, the, from Schiller, 175.</li>
+  <li>Financial position of Great Britain at the close of 1842, 6.</li>
+  <li>Florence, sketches of, 561.</li>
+  <li>Flowers, from Schiller, 445.</li>
+  <li>Foreign affairs, aspect of, at the commencement of 1843, 15.</li>
+  <li>Fortune and Wisdom, from Schiller, 631.</li>
+  <li>Fortune-Favoured, the, from Schiller, 439.</li>
+  <li>Founding of the Bell, the, by Charles Mackay, 462.</li>
+  <li>Funeral phantasie, from Schiller, 626.</li>
+  <li>Genius, from Schiller, 310.</li>
+  <li>Gentility-mongering, on, 379.</li>
+  <li>Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield illustrated, review of, <a href="#page771">771</a>.</li>
+  <li>Good and the Beautiful, the, from Schiller, 309.</li>
+  <li>Great Britain at the commencement of 1843, 1
+  <ul>
+    <li>her position on the meeting of parliament, 5</li>
+    <li>financial state, 7</li>
+    <li>aspect of domestic affairs, 14</li>
+    <li>and of foreign relations, 15</li>
+    <li>state of her Indian empire, 18</li>
+    <li>and of affairs in China, 19.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Group in Tartarus, a, from Schiller, 627.</li>
+  <li>Hamilton, Thomas, Esq., death of, 280.</li>
+  <li>Hector and Andromache, from Schiller, 441.</li>
+  <li>History, Arnold's Lectures on, reviewed, 141.</li>
+  <li>Honour to Woman, from Schiller, 173.</li>
+  <li>Ideal, the, from Schiller, 433.</li>
+  <li>Ideal and the Actual Life, the, from Schiller, 435.</li>
+  <li>Ignacio Guerra and El Sangrador, a tale of civil war, <a href="#page791">791</a>.</li>
+  <li>Imaginary Conversations,
+  <ul>
+    <li>by Walter Savage Landor
+      <ul>
+        <li>between Tasso and Cornelia, 62</li>
+        <li>between Cromwell and Sir Oliver Cromwell, 209</li>
+        <li>between Sandt and Kotzebue, 338;</li>
+      </ul></li>
+    <li>by Edward Quillinan
+      <ul>
+        <li>between W.S. Landor and Christopher North, 518.</li>
+      </ul></li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Imitator, the, from Schiller, 310.</li>
+  <li>Income Tax, discussion on the, 7
+  <ul>
+    <li>remarks on, 8</li>
+    <li>causes which led to its imposition, 10.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Infanticide, the, from Schiller, 631.</li>
+  <li>Ireland, state of, at the commencement of 1843, 14.</li>
+  <li>Italy, Dumas' travels in, reviewed, 552.</li>
+  <li>Jeweller's Wife, the, a passage in the career of El Empecinado, 343.</li>
+  <li>Jove to Hercules, from Schiller, 311.</li>
+  <li>Khelat, occupation of, by the British, 274.</li>
+  <li>Khoord Cabul pass, retreat of the British through the, 262.</li>
+  <li>Kiuprili Family, rise of the, a chapter in Turkish history, <a href="#page718">718</a>.</li>
+  <li>Landor, Walter Savage, Imaginary Conversations by
+  <ul>
+    <li>between Tasso and Cornelia, 62</li>
+    <li>Cromwell and Sir Oliver Cromwell, 209</li>
+    <li>Sandt and Kotzebue, 338</li>
+    <li>lines by, 337</li>
+    <li>Imaginary conversation between, and Christopher North, 518.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Last of the Shepherds, the,
+  <ul>
+    <li>Chap. I., 447</li>
+    <li>Chap. II., 449</li>
+    <li>Chap. III., 451</li>
+    <li>Chap. IV., 453</li>
+    <li>Chap. V., 455</li>
+    <li>Chap. VI., 458</li>
+    <li>Chap. VII., 460.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Lay of the Bell, the, from Schiller, 302.</li>
+  <li>Leap Year, a tale,
+  <ul>
+    <li>Chap. I., 603</li>
+    <li>Chap. II., 606</li>
+    <li>Chap. III., 611.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Lesurques, or the victim of Judicial error,
+  <ul>
+    <li>Chap. I., the four guests, 24</li>
+    <li>Chap. II., the four horsemen, 25</li>
+    <li>Chap. III., the robbery and murder, ib.</li>
+    <li>Chap. IV., the arrest, 26</li>
+    <li>Chap. V., the trial, 28</li>
+    <li>Chap. VI., the execution, 30</li>
+    <li>Chap. VII., the proofs, ib.</li>
+    <li>Chap. VIII., the way in which France rectifies an error, 32.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>London, the world of, see <a href="#index-World">World</a>.</li>
+  <li>Londonderry, the Marquis of, review of his steam voyage to Constantinople, &amp;c., 101.</li>
+  <li>Lost Lamb, the, by Delta, 295.</li>
+  <li>Love's Triumph, from Schiller, 635.</li>
+  <li>Mackay, Charles, dream of Lord Nithsdale, by, 83
+  <ul>
+    <li>Founding of the Bell, by, 462.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Mackenzie, Captain, account of the murder of Macnaghten, by, 257.</li>
+  <li>Macnaghten, Sir William, description of the murder of, 257.</li>
+  <li>Ma&icirc;tre-d'Armes, a passage in the life of a, <a href="#page733">733</a>.</li>
+  <li>Marl&iacute;nski's Ammal&aacute;t Bek, translation of,
+  <ul>
+    <li>Chap. I., 288</li>
+    <li>Chap. II., 296</li>
+    <li>Chap. III., 464</li>
+    <li>Chap. IV., 471</li>
+    <li>Chap. V., 478</li>
+    <li>Chap. VI., 568</li>
+    <li>Chap. VII., 573</li>
+    <li>Chap. VIII., 579</li>
+    <li>Chap. IX., 584</li>
+    <li>Chap. X., <a href="#page746">746</a></li>
+    <li>Chap. XI., <a href="#page750">750</a></li>
+    <li>Chap. XII., <a href="#page752">752</a></li>
+    <li>Chap. XIII., <a href="#page755">755</a></li>
+    <li>Chap. XIV., <a href="#page759">759</a>.</li>
+  </ul><span class="newpage"><a name="page829" id="page829" title="829"></a></span></li>
+  <li><a name="index-Marston" id="index-Marston">Marston</a>; or, the memoirs of a statesman. Part I., <a href="#page693">693</a>.</li>
+  <li>Martyr's Monologue, the, a poem, 125.</li>
+  <li>Master, the, from Schiller, 310.</li>
+  <li>Memorandums of a month's tour in Sicily&mdash;leaving Naples&mdash;steam boatiana, <a href="#page799">799</a>
+  <ul>
+    <li>churches, <a href="#page802">802</a></li>
+    <li>visit to the gardens of the Duke of Serra di Falco, near Palermo, <a href="#page802">ib</a>.</li>
+    <li>the Thunny fishery, <a href="#page804">804</a></li>
+    <li>the fishmarket, <a href="#page805">805</a>.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Merchant, the, from Schiller, 312.</li>
+  <li>Might of Song, from Schiller, 172.</li>
+  <li>Monaco, sketch of the history of, 573.</li>
+  <li>Moralist, to a, from Schiller, 630.</li>
+  <li>Mulready's illustrations to the Vicar of Wakefield, review of, <a href="#page771">771</a>.</li>
+  <li>Music in England, state of, Part I., 127.</li>
+  <li>Mystery of reminiscence, the, from Schiller, 442.</li>
+  <li>Natural history of the salmon and sea-trout, the, 640.</li>
+  <li>Non-intrusion controversy, account of the, 352.</li>
+  <li>Nott, General, movements of, in Cabul, 270.</li>
+  <li>Occupation of Aden, on the, 484.</li>
+  <li>Opium question, the, 22.</li>
+  <li>Parr, natural history of the, 640
+  <ul>
+    <li>its identity with the salmon, 643.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Passage in the life of a Ma&icirc;tre-d'Armes, <a href="#page733">733</a>.</li>
+  <li>Paul de Kockneyisms, by a Cockney, 366
+  <ul>
+    <li>a cit's soir&eacute;e, 373.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Paving Question, the, 614.</li>
+  <li>Peel, Sir Robert, difficulties of his position on his accession to power, 2
+  <ul>
+    <li>errors of his predecessors, 5</li>
+    <li>his alteration in the corn-law, 5</li>
+    <li>his financial policy, 7</li>
+    <li>his tariff, 11.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Philosophy of Dress, the, 230.</li>
+  <li>Poems and Ballads of Schiller. See <a href="#index-Schiller">Schiller</a>.</li>
+  <li>Poetry, the dream of Lord Nithsdale, by Charles Mackay, 83
+  <ul>
+    <li>the curse of Glencoe, by B. Simmons, 121</li>
+    <li>the martyr's monologue, 125</li>
+    <li>the poems and ballads of Schiller,
+    <ul>
+      <li>Part V., 166</li>
+      <li>Part VI., 302</li>
+      <li>Part VII., 433</li>
+      <li>Part VIII., 626</li>
+    </ul></li>
+    <li>the young grey head, 202</li>
+    <li>lines by W.S. Landor, 337</li>
+    <li>the lost lamb, by Delta, 395</li>
+    <li>the founding of the bell, by Charles Mackay, 462</li>
+    <li>sonnet, on viewing my mother's picture, 495</li>
+    <li>the burial march of Dundee, 537</li>
+    <li>the vigil of Venus, <a href="#page715">715</a>.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Poetry of Life, the, from Schiller, 313.</li>
+  <li>Pollock, General, advance of, into Affghanistan, 269.</li>
+  <li>Poor-law, support of the, by the Conservatives, 14.</li>
+  <li>Practice of Agriculture, the, 415.</li>
+  <li>Pretenders to Fashion, on, 234.</li>
+  <li>Quillinan, Edward, imaginary conversation by, between W.S. Landor and Christopher North, 518.</li>
+  <li>Retreat from Cabul, description of the, 261.</li>
+  <li>Reviews,
+  <ul>
+    <li>Londonderry's steam voyage to Constantinople, 101</li>
+    <li>Reynolds's discourses,
+    <ul>
+      <li>Part II., 181</li>
+      <li>conclusion, 589</li>
+    </ul></li>
+    <li>Eyre's Cabul, 239</li>
+    <li>Auguste Comte's cours de philosophie positive, 397</li>
+    <li>Stephens' Book of the Farm, 415</li>
+    <li>Dumas' Travels in Italy, 552</li>
+    <li>Young and Shaw on Salmon and Sea-Trout, 640</li>
+    <li>The Vicar of Wakefield, illustrated by William Mulready, R.A., <a href="#page771">771</a></li>
+    <li>Chatterton's poems, <a href="#page780">780</a>.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Reynolds, Sir Joshua, review of the discourses of, Part II., 181
+  <ul>
+    <li>conclusion, 589</li>
+    <li>defence of, against the aspersions of Allan Cunningham, 496.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Riots in the manufacturing districts, the, 13.</li>
+  <li>Rousseau, from Schiller, 631.</li>
+  <li>Rowley's Poems, review of, <a href="#page780">780</a>.</li>
+  <li>Rudolph of Hapsburg, from Schiller, 169.</li>
+  <li>Russia, commercial policy in reference to, <a href="#page807">807</a>.</li>
+  <li>Russian Literature, remarks on, 281.</li>
+  <li>Salmon, Natural History of the, 640.</li>
+  <li>Sandt and Kotzebue, imaginary conversation between, by Walter Savage Landor, 338</li>
+  <li>Sangrador, El, and Ignacio Guerra, a tale of civil war, <a href="#page791">791</a>.</li>
+  <li><a name="index-Schiller" id="index-Schiller">Schiller</a>, the Poems and Ballads of, translated.
+  <ul>
+    <li>No. V.
+    <ul>
+      <li>The victory-feast, 166</li>
+      <li>Rudolph of Hapsburg, 169</li>
+      <li>the words of error, 171</li>
+      <li>the words of belief, 172</li>
+      <li>the might of song, ib.</li>
+      <li>honour to woman, 173</li>
+      <li>the fight with the dragon, 175</li>
+    </ul>
+    <li>No. VI.
+    <ul>
+      <li>The lay of the bell, 302</li>
+      <li>votive tablets, 309</li>
+      <li>the good and the beautiful, ib.</li>
+      <li>to &mdash;&mdash;, 310</li>
+      <li>genius, ib.</li>
+      <li>correctness, ib.</li>
+      <li>the imitator, ib.</li>
+      <li>the master, ib.</li>
+      <li>to the mystic, ib.</li>
+      <li>astronomical works, 311</li>
+      <li>the division of ranks, ib.</li>
+      <li>theophany, ib.</li>
+      <li>the chief end of man, ib.</li>
+      <li>Ulysses, ib.</li>
+      <li>Jove to Hercules, ib.</li>
+      <li>the sower, 312</li>
+      <li>the merchant, ib.</li>
+      <li>Columbus, ib.</li>
+      <li>the antique to the northern wanderer, ib.</li>
+      <li>the antique at Paris, ib.</li>
+      <li>the poetry of life, 313</li>
+    </ul></li>
+    <li>No. VII.
+    <ul>
+      <li>The ideal, 433</li>
+      <li>the ideal and the actual life, 435</li>
+      <li>the favour of the moment, 438</li>
+      <li>expectation and fulfilment, 439</li>
+      <li>to the proselyte maker, ib.</li>
+      <li>value and worth, ib.</li>
+      <li>the fortune-favoured, ib.</li>
+      <li>Poems of the first period, introductory remarks on them, 441</li>
+      <li>Hector and Andromache, ib.</li>
+      <li>to Laura, the mystery of reminiscence, 442</li>
+      <li>to Laura, rapture, ib.</li>
+      <li>to Laura, playing, 444</li>
+      <li>flowers, 445</li>
+      <li>the battle, ib.</li>
+    </ul></li>
+    <li>No. VIII.
+    <ul>
+      <li>A funeral fantasie, 626<span class="newpage"><a name="page830" id="page830" title="830"></a></span></li>
+      <li>a group in Tartarus, 627</li>
+      <li>Elysium, 628</li>
+      <li>Count Eberhard, the grumbler, of Wurtemberg, ib.</li>
+      <li>to a moralist, 630</li>
+      <li>Rousseau, 631</li>
+      <li>fortune and favour, ib.</li>
+      <li>the infanticide, ib.</li>
+      <li>remarks on it, 634</li>
+      <li>the triumph of love, 635</li>
+      <li>fantasie to Laura, 638</li>
+      <li>to the spring, 639.</li>
+    </ul></li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Scinde, occupation of, by the British, 273.</li>
+  <li>Sea-Trout, natural history of the, 640.</li>
+  <li>Shah Shoojah, death of, 266, <i>note</i>.</li>
+  <li>Shaw, Mr, on sea-trout and salmon, 640.</li>
+  <li>Shaw, Thomas B., translation of Ammal&aacute;t Bek by, introductory remarks, 281
+  <ul>
+    <li>Chap. I., 288</li>
+    <li>Chap. II., 296</li>
+    <li>Chap. III., 464</li>
+    <li>Chap. IV., 471</li>
+    <li>Chap. V., 478</li>
+    <li>Chap. VI., 568</li>
+    <li>Chap. VII., 573</li>
+    <li>Chap. VIII., 579</li>
+    <li>Chap. IX., 584</li>
+    <li>Chap. X., <a href="#page746">746</a></li>
+    <li>Chap. XI., <a href="#page750">750</a></li>
+    <li>Chap. XII., <a href="#page752">752</a></li>
+    <li>Chap. XIII., <a href="#page755">755</a></li>
+    <li>Chap. XIV., <a href="#page759">759</a>.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Shepherds, last of the, a tale,
+  <ul>
+    <li>Chap. I., 447</li>
+    <li>Chap. II., 449</li>
+    <li>Chap. III., 451</li>
+    <li>Chap. IV., 453</li>
+    <li>Chap. V., 455</li>
+    <li>Chap. VI., 458</li>
+    <li>Chap. VII., 460.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Sicily, memorandum of a month's tour in, leaving Naples, steam-boatiana, <a href="#page799">799</a>
+  <ul>
+    <li>churches, <a href="#page802">802</a></li>
+    <li>visit to the garden of the Duke of Serra di Falco, near Palermo, <a href="#page802">ib</a>.</li>
+    <li>the Thunny fishery, <a href="#page804">804</a></li>
+    <li>the fishmarket, <a href="#page805">805</a>.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Siege of Candia, the, <a href="#page718">718</a>.</li>
+  <li>Simmons, B., the curse of Glencoe, by, 121.</li>
+  <li>Song of the bell, the, from Schiller, 302.</li>
+  <li>Sonnet, by the author of the Life of Burke, 495.</li>
+  <li>Sower, the, from Schiller, 312.</li>
+  <li>Spain, commercial policy of Great Britain towards, 673.</li>
+  <li>Spring, address to, from Schiller, 639.</li>
+  <li>Statesman, memoirs of a, see <a href="#index-Marston">Marston</a>.</li>
+  <li>Stephens' Book of the Farm, review of, 415.</li>
+  <li>Tale of a Tub, the, an additional chapter, how Jack ran mad a second time, 352.</li>
+  <li>Tariff, reconstruction of the, difficulty of the task, 11.</li>
+  <li>Tasso and Cornelia, imaginary conversation between, by Walter Savage Landor, 62.</li>
+  <li>Taste and Music in England, state of, Part. I., 127.</li>
+  <li>Theophany, from Schiller, 311.</li>
+  <li>Thunny fishery, the, <a href="#page804">804</a>.</li>
+  <li>To &mdash;&mdash;, from Schiller, 310.</li>
+  <li>To Laura, the mystery of reminiscence, from Schiller, 442.</li>
+  <li>To Laura, rapture, from Schiller, 443.</li>
+  <li>To Laura, playing, from Schiller, 444.</li>
+  <li>To a Moralist, from Schiller, 630.</li>
+  <li>To the Mystic, from Schiller, 310.</li>
+  <li>To the Proselyte-maker, from Schiller, 439.</li>
+  <li>To the Spring, from Schiller, 639.</li>
+  <li>Triumph of Love, the, from Schiller, 635.</li>
+  <li>Turkish History, chapters of; No. IX. rise of the Kiuprili family siege of Candia, <a href="#page718">718</a>.</li>
+  <li>Two Hours of Mystery, a tale,
+  <ul>
+    <li>Chap. I., 85</li>
+    <li>Chap. II., 89</li>
+    <li>Chap. III., 93.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Ulysses, from Schiller, 311.</li>
+  <li>Value and Worth, from Schiller, 439.</li>
+  <li>Vicar of Wakefield illustrated, review of, <a href="#page771">771</a>.</li>
+  <li>Victory Feast, the, from Schiller, 166.</li>
+  <li>Vigil of Venus, the, translated from the Latin, <a href="#page715">715</a>.</li>
+  <li>Votive Tablets, from Schiller, 309.</li>
+  <li>Whigs, the, and Lord Ellenborough, 539.</li>
+  <li>Wood Paving, remarks on, 614.</li>
+  <li>Words of Error, the, from Schiller, 171
+  <ul>
+    <li>and of belief, 172.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li><a name="index-World" id="index-World">World</a> of London, 2d series.
+  <ul>
+    <li>Part I.
+    <ul>
+      <li>Aristocracies of London life, 67</li>
+      <li>the aristocracy of fashion, 68</li>
+    </ul></li>
+    <li>Part II.
+    <ul>
+      <li>Concerning slow fellows, 225</li>
+      <li>the aristocracy of power, 227</li>
+      <li>the philosophy of dress, 230</li>
+      <li>pretenders to fashion, 234</li>
+    </ul></li>
+    <li>Part III.
+    <ul>
+      <li>Aristocracies of London life continued, of gentility-mongering, 379</li>
+      <li>the aristocracy of talent, 386.</li>
+    </ul></li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Young, Mr, on grilse and salmon, review of, 640.</li>
+  <li>Young grey head, the, a poem, 202.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<hr class="full">
+
+<h2>END OF VOL. LIII.</h2>
+
+<hr class="full">
+
+<center><i>Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne and Hughes, Paul's Work.</i></center>
+
+<hr class="full">
+
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12511 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #12511 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12511)
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+Project Gutenberg's Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXII., 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, No. CCCXXXII.
+       June, 1843.,Vol. LIII.
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: June 4, 2004 [EBook #12511]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jon Ingram, Brendan O'Connor and PG Distributed
+Proofreaders. Produced from page images provided by The Internet
+Library of Early Journals.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE
+
+NO. CCCXXXII.   JUNE, 1843.   VOL. LIII.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+    MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN
+    THE VIGIL OF VENUS. TRANSLATION FROM THE LATIN
+    CHAPTERS OF TURKISH HISTORY. RISE OF THE KIUPRILI FAMILY
+        SIEGE OF CANDIA.--NO. IX.
+    A PASSAGE IN THE LIFE OF A MA�TRE-D'ARMES
+    AMMAL�T BEK. A TRUE TALE OF THE CAUCASUS, FROM THE
+        RUSSIAN OF MARL�NSKI.--CONCLUSION
+    MR BAILEY'S REPLY TO AN ARTICLE IN BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE
+    THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD. ILLUSTRATED BY MULREADY
+    THE ATTORNEY'S CLERK IN THE MONK'S HOOD
+    IGNACIO GUERRA AND EL SANGRADOR; A TALE OF CIVIL WAR
+    MEMORANDUMS OF A MONTH'S TOUR IN SICILY
+    COMMERCIAL POLICY--RUSSIA
+    INDEX
+
+
+
+
+MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN.
+
+PART I.
+
+
+   "Have I not in my time heard lions roar?
+    Have I not heard the sea, puft up with wind,
+    Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat?
+    Have I not heard great ordnance in the field,
+    And heaven's artillery thunder in the skies?
+    Have I not in the pitched battle heard
+    Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets clang?"
+                                                    SHAKSPEARE
+
+
+Why I give the world a sketch of my career through it, is not among the
+discoveries which I intend to make. I have been a public man; let those
+who know public life imagine what interest may be felt in reviewing the
+scenes and struggles of which such a life is full. May there not be a
+pleasure in conceiving once again the shapes and circumstances of
+things, as one sitting by his fireside sees castles and cottages, men,
+women, and children in the embers, and shapes them the better for the
+silence and the solitude round him? Let the reader take what reason he
+will. I have seen the world, and fought my way through it; have
+stumbled, like greater men, have risen, like lesser; have been flung
+into the most rapid current of the most hurried, wild, and vivid time
+that the world has ever seen--I have _lived_ through the last fifty
+years. In all the vigour of my life, I have mingled in some of the
+greatest transactions, and been mingled with some of the greatest men,
+of my time. Like one who has tumbled down Niagara, and survived the
+fall, though I have reached still water, the roar of the cataract is yet
+in my ears; and I can even survey it with a fuller gaze, and stronger
+sense of its vastness and power, than, when I was rolling down its
+precipice.
+
+I have been soldier, adventurer, traveller, statesman. I have been
+lover, husband, father--poor and opulent; obscure and conspicuous. There
+are few sensations of our nature, or circumstances of our life, which I
+have not undergone. Alternately suffering to the verge of ruin, and
+enjoying like an epicurean deity: I have been steeped in poverty to the
+lips; I have been surcharged with wealth. I have sacrificed, and
+fearfully, to the love of power; I have been disgusted with its
+possession. I figured in the great Babel until I loved even its
+confusion of tongues; I grew weary of it, until I hated the voice of
+man.
+
+Every man is born for a special purpose, and with a special passion. The
+multitude, possessing both, exhibit neither; they are flung, or choose
+to be flung, into the pond, where they float only to perish, like blind
+puppies. But there are others who stem the great tide, and are only the
+stronger for the struggle. From my first sense, the passion to be known
+and felt, nay, at the expense of being feared, was my impulse. It has
+been the impulse of all men who have ever impressed the world. With
+great talents it is all-commanding: the thunderbolt in the hands of
+Jove. Even with inferior faculties, and I make no pretence of mine, it
+singularly excites, urges, and animates. When the prophet saw the
+leopard _winged_, he saw a miracle; I claim for my powers only those of
+the muscle and sinew.
+
+Ambition was the original passion of my nature. It rose before me, as
+the sun ascends before the Indian, until its fire drives him to the
+shade. I, too, have been scorched, have shrunk, and now I regret my
+shrinking. But time deals alike with all. I can now amuse myself only by
+images of the past; and, in the darkness and solitude of years, I take
+their Magic Lantern, and replace life by the strange, wild, and
+high-coloured extravagances, the ghosts and genii of the phantasmagoria
+of ambition.
+
+I was the seventh son of one of the oldest families of England. If I had
+been the seventh son of the seventh son, I should, by all the laws of
+juggling, have been a conjurer; but I was a generation too early for
+fame. My father was an earl, and as proud of his titles as if he had won
+them at Crecy or Poictiers, and not in the campaigns of Westminster,
+consummated on the backstairs of Whitehall. He had served his country,
+as he termed it, in a long succession of Parliaments; and served her
+still more, as his country neighbours termed it, by accepting a peerage,
+which opened the county to any other representative among the sons of
+men. He was a strong-built, stern-countenanced, and haughty-tongued
+personage--by some thought a man of sense; by others a fool, with all
+his depth, arising from his darkness. My own experience convinced me,
+that no man made more of a secret, or thought less of a job. From my
+boyhood I own I feared more than honoured him; and as for love, if I had
+been more susceptible, mine would have flown round the globe before it
+could have fixed on that iron visage. The little love that I could
+afford for any human being, was for another and a different order of
+existence. Boys have a natural fondness for the mother; and mine was
+gentle, timid, and fond. She always parted with me, on my going to
+school, as if she had lost a limb, and when I returned, received me as
+if she had found a pinion in its place. She perhaps spoiled me by
+indulgence, as much as my lord and father spoiled me by severity; but
+indulgence is the pleasanter of the two, and I followed the course of
+nature, and gave her whatever heart I have. I still remember her. She
+was remarkably indebted to nature, at least for externals. She had fine
+eyes--large, dark, and sentimental; her dress, which would now be
+preposterous, seemed to me, then, the perfection of all taste, and was
+in the highest fashion of her time. Her beauty worked miracles; for now
+and then I have observed even my father's eye fixed on her, with
+something of the admiration which we might conceive in an Esquimaux for
+a fixed star, or in an Italian highwayman for some Parian statue which
+he had stumbled on in his thickets. But the admiration was soon absorbed
+in the job in hand, and he turned away--to scribble to the Minister. Of
+the younger portion of the family I shall say but little. Children are
+happiest in the nursery, and there I leave them. I had two sisters,
+sweet little creatures, one with black eyes and the other with blue.
+This is enough for their description. My four brothers were four rough,
+bold, well-looking animals, all intended for ambassadors, admirals,
+generals, and secretaries of state--for my father had too long tasted of
+the honey of official life to think that there was any other food for a
+gentleman in the world. He had been suckled for too many years at those
+breasts, which, like the bosom of the great Egyptian goddess, pour the
+stream of life through whole generations of hangers-on, to believe that
+any other fount of existence was to be named but the civil list. I am
+strongly inclined to surmise that he would have preferred a pencil,
+purloined from the Treasury, to all the cedars of Lebanon.
+
+It may be presumed that I was destined for public life--in other words,
+to live on the public; and, to prepare me for the performance of a part,
+alternately menial and master--supple as the slave, and superb as the
+minister--I was sent to Eton. At this great school of the aristocracy,
+would-be and real--barons and dukes _in esse_, and the herald's office
+alone, or bedlam, knows what _in posse_, I remained for the customary
+number of years. If whoever does me the honour to read these pages,
+hates the history of schooldays as much as I do their memory, he will
+easily pardon my passing by the topic altogether. If the first purpose
+of all great public institutions is to stand still; the great schools of
+England, fifty years ago, were righteous adherents to their contract;
+they never moved. The world might whirl round them as it would; there
+remained the grey milestones, only measuring the speed with which every
+thing on the road passed them. This, they say, has largely and
+fortunately changed in later years. But the change must proceed; the
+venerable cripples must throw by their crutches, and try the effect of
+flesh and blood. Flogging and fagging, are the education for a footman;
+they disgrace the common sense, and offend the feelings of a manly
+people. The pugilist must be expelled, and the puppy must follow him.
+The detestable grossness of classical impurity, must be no longer the
+price at which Latin "quantities" are to be learned. The last lesson of
+the "prodigal son," must not be the first learned by the son of the
+gentleman of England--to be fed on the "husks" fit only for the swine.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On my delighted release from this supreme laboratory of statesmen, I
+found the state of things considerably altered at Mortimer Castle. I had
+left it a stately but rather melancholy-looking household; I found the
+mansion glittering in all the novelty of French furniture, gilding, and
+_or-molu_--crowded with fashion, and all its menial tribe, from the
+groom in the stables to the gentleman's gentleman, who slipped along the
+chambers in soft silence, and seemed an embodying of Etiquette, all in
+new equipments of all kinds--the avenue trimmed, until it resembled a
+theatrical wood; and the grounds, once sober and silent enough for a
+Jacques to escape from the sight of human kind, and hold dialogues with
+the deer; now levelled, opened, shorn, and shaved, with the precision of
+a retired citizen's elysium.
+
+The heads of the family were equally changed; my mother, unhappily, for
+the worse. Her fine eyes beamed with joy as she threw herself upon my
+neck, and murmured some of those mingled blessings and raptures which
+have a language of their own. But when the first flush was past, I
+perceived that the cheek was thin, the eye was hollow and heavy, and the
+tremulous motion of her slight hand, as it lay in mine, alarmed me; in
+all my ignorance of the frailty of the human frame. But the grand change
+was in the Earl. My father, whom I had left rather degenerating into the
+shape which three courses and a bottle of claret a-day inflict on
+country gentlemen "who live at home at ease," was now braced and laced,
+costumed in the newest fashion, and overflowing with exuberant
+volatility. He breathed of Bond Street. He welcomed me with an ardour
+which astonished, more than delighted, me; Talked fragments of French,
+congratulated me on my "_air distingu�_," advised me to put myself "_en
+grande tenue_;" and, after enchanting me in all kinds of strange ways,
+concluded by making an attempt to kiss me on both cheeks, like a true
+Frenchman. My Eton recollections enabled me to resist the paternal
+embrace; until the wonder was simplified, by the discovery that the
+family had but just returned from a continental residence of a couple of
+years--a matter of which no letter or word had given me the knowledge at
+my school. My next discovery was, that an old uncle had died, and left
+us money enough to carry the county; and the last and crowning one was,
+that my eldest brother had just been returned for the North Riding.
+
+This was such an accumulation of good-luck as might have thrown any
+elderly gentleman off the balance of his gravity. It was like Philip's
+three plates at the Greek horse-races, crowned by the birth of
+Alexander. If my lordly father had danced the "Minuette de la Cour" over
+the marble tesselation of his own hall, I should now not have been
+surprised. But, from my first sense, or insensibility, I had felt no
+great delight in matters which were to make my own condition neither
+better nor worse; and after a remarkably brief period, the showy
+_d�je�n�s_ and dinners which commemorated the triumphs of the
+heir-apparent of our house, grew tiresome to me beyond all count, and I
+openly petitioned to be sent to college, or to the world's end.
+
+My petition was listened to with a mixture of contempt for my want of
+taste, and astonishment at my presumption. But before the reply had time
+to burst out from lips, at no time too retentive, I was told, that at
+the end of one week more I should be suffered to take my way; that week
+being devoted to a round of especial entertainments in honour of my
+brother's election; the whole to be wound up by that most preposterous
+of all delights, an amateur play.
+
+To keep a house in commotion, to produce mysterious conversations,
+conferences without number, and confidences without end; and to swell
+maidens' hearts and milliners' bills, let me recommend an amateur play
+in the country. The very mention of it awoke every soul in the Castle;
+caps and complexions were matched, and costumes criticised, from morning
+till night, among the ladies. The "acting drama" was turned over leaf by
+leaf by the gentlemen. The sound of many a heavy tread of many a heavy
+student, was heard in the chambers; the gardens were haunted by "the
+characters" getting their parts; and the poet's burlesque of those who
+"rave, recite, and madden round the land," was realized to the life in
+the histrionic labours of the votaries of Thalia and Melpomene, who
+ranged the groves of Mortimer Castle.
+
+Then we had all the charming difficulty of fixing on the play. The
+dullest and dreariest of our country Rosciuses were uniformly for
+comedy; but the fair sex have a leaning to the tragic muse. We had one
+or two, who would have had no objection to be piquant in Lady Teazle, or
+petulant in Lady Townley; but we had half a dozen Desdemonas and
+Ophelias. The soul of an O'Neil was in every one of our party conscious
+of a pair of good eyes, a tolerable shape, and the captivation which, in
+some way or other, most women in existence contrive to discover in their
+own share of the gifts of nature. At length the votes carried it for
+Romeo and Juliet. The eventful night came; the _�lite_ of the county
+poured in, the theatre was crowded; all was expectancy before the
+curtain; all was terror, nervousness, and awkwardness behind. The
+orchestra performed its flourish, and the curtain rose.
+
+To do the heads of the household justice, they had done their duty as
+managers. The theatre, though but a temporary building, projecting from
+the ball-room into one of the gardens, was worthy of the very handsome
+apartment which formed its vestibule. The skill of a famous London
+architect had been exerted on this fairy erection, and Verona itself
+had, perhaps, in its palmiest days, seldom exhibited a display of more
+luxuriant elegance. The audience, too, so totally different from the
+mingled, ill-dressed, and irregular assemblage that fills a city
+theatre; blooming girls and showy matrons, range above range, feathered
+and flowered, glittering with all the family jewels, and all animated by
+the novelty of the scene before them, formed an exhibition which, for
+the night, inspired me with the idea, that (strolling excepted) the
+stage might not be a bad resource for a man of talents, after all.
+
+But the play was--must I confess it? though I myself figured as the
+Romeo--utterly deplorable. The men forgot their parts, and their casual
+attempts to recover them made terrible havoc of the harmony of
+Shakspeare. The ladies lost their voices, and carried on their loves,
+their sorrows, and even their scoldings, in a whisper. Our play
+perfectly deserved the criticism of the old gentleman, who, after a
+similar performance, being asked which of the personages he liked best,
+candidly replied, "the prompter, for of him he had heard the most and
+seen the least."
+
+However, every thing has an end; and we had carried Juliet to the tomb
+of all the Capulets, the chant was done, and the mourners were gathered
+in the green-room. I was standing, book in hand, preparing for the last
+agonies of a love very imperfectly committed to memory, when I heard a
+slight confusion in the court-yard, and shortly after the rattle of a
+post-chaise. The sound subsided, and I was summoned to my post at the
+entrance to the place where the lovely Juliet lay entranced. The
+pasteboard gate gave way to knocks enforced with an energy which called
+down rapturous applause; and in all the tortures of a broken heart,
+rewarded by a profusion of handkerchiefs applied to bright eyes, and a
+strong scent of hartshorn round the house, I summoned my fair bride to
+my arms. There was no reply. I again invoked her; still silent. Her
+trance was evidently of the deepest order. I rose from the ground, where
+I had been "taking the measure of my unmade grave," and approaching the
+bier, ventured to drop a despairing hand upon her pillow. To my utter
+surprise, it was vacant. If I had been another Shakspeare, the situation
+was a fine one for a display of original genius. But I was paralyzed. A
+sense of the general embarrassment was my first impression, and I was
+absolutely struck dumb. But this was soon shaken off. My next was a
+sense of the particular burlesque of my situation; I burst out into
+laughter, in which the whole house joined; and throwing down my mattock,
+rushed off the stage. My theatrical dream was broken up for ever.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+But weightier matters now absorbed the universal interest. The
+disappearance of the heroine from the stage was speedily accounted for
+by her flight in the carriage whose wheels had disturbed my study. But
+where fled, why, and with whom? We now found other defalcations in our
+numbers; the Chevalier Paul Charlatanski, a gallant Polish exile, who
+contrived to pass a very pleasant time on the merit of his misfortunes,
+a man of enormous mustaches and calamities, was also missing. His valet,
+his valise, every atom that ever appertained to him, had vanished; the
+clearance was complete. The confusion now thickened. I never saw the
+master of the mansion in such a rage before. Pistols and post-chaises
+were in instant requisition. He vowed that the honour of his house was
+involved in the transaction, and that nothing should tempt him to
+slumber until he had brought the fugitive fair one to the arms of her
+noble family; my Juliet being the ward of a duke, and being also
+entitled to about twenty thousand pounds a-year on her coming of age.
+
+As for the unlucky, or rather the lucky, Chevalier, nothing human ever
+received a hotter shower of surmise and sarcasm. That he was "an
+impostor, a swindler, a spy," was the Earl's conviction, declared in the
+most public manner. The whole body of matrons looked round on their
+blooming innocents, as if they had been snatched from the jaws of a
+legion of wolves and thanked their own prudence which had not trusted
+those men of mustaches within their hall doors. The blooming innocents
+responded in filial gratitude, and, with whatever sincerity, thanked
+their stars for their fortunate escape.
+
+Still, the Earl's indignation was of so _ultra_ a quality; his revenge
+was so fiery, and his tongue so fluent; that I began to suspect he had
+other motives than the insulted laws of hospitality. I reached this
+discovery, too, in time. The declining health of his partner had made
+him speculate on the chances of survivorship. He certainly was no longer
+young, and he had never been an Adonis. Yet his glass did not altogether
+throw him into the rank of the impracticable. A coronet was a well-known
+charm, which had often compensated for every other; in short, he had
+quietly theorized himself into the future husband of the ducal ward; and
+felt on this occasion as an Earl should, plundered, before his face, of
+a clear twenty thousand a-year.
+
+But he was not to suffer alone. On further enquiry, it was ascertained
+that the chevalier's valet had not gone with him. This fellow, a
+Frenchman, had taken wing in another direction, and carried off his
+turtle-dove, too; not one of the full-blown roses of the servant's-hall,
+but a rosebud, the daughter of one of the bulkiest squires of the
+Riding; a man of countless beeves and blunders; one of our Yorkshire
+Nimrods, "a mighty hunter," until club dinners and home-brewed ale tied
+him to his arm-chair, and gout made him a man of peace and flannels, the
+best thriven weed in the swamps of Yorkshire. The young lady had been
+intended for my eldest brother, as a convenient medium of connexion
+between two estates, palpably made for matrimony. Thus we received two
+mortal blows in one evening; never was family pilfered more
+ignominiously; never was amateur play more peevishly catastrophized.
+
+It must be owned, to the credit of "private theatricals," that the play
+had no slight share in the plot. The easy intercourse produced by
+rehearsals, the getting of tender speeches by heart, the pretty
+personalities and allusions growing out of those speeches, the ramblings
+through shades and rose-twined parterres, the raptures and romance, all
+tend prodigiously to take off the alarm, or instruct the inexperience,
+of the female heart. I know no more certain cure for the rigidity that
+is supposed to be a barrier. At all events, the Chevalier and his valet,
+probably both footmen, alike had profited of their opportunity. Our play
+had cost us two elopements; two shots between wind and water, which
+threatened to send the ship down; two breakings of that heart which men
+carry in their purse. I laughed, and the world laughed also. But I was
+then thoughtless, and the world is malicious. My father and the member,
+though they had "never told their love," felt the blow "like a worm in
+the bud," and from that night I date the family decline.
+
+Of course, the two whiskered vagabonds could not be suffered to carry
+off their laurels without an attempt to diminish them, and my father and
+brother were too much in earnest in their objects to lose time. In half
+an hour, four post-horses to each britchska whirled them off;--my
+father, to take the northern road, some hints of Gretna having
+transpired in the slipshod secrecy of the servants' hall--my brother, to
+pursue on the Dover road, conjecturing, with more sagacity than I had
+given him credit for, that as the fox runs round to his earth, the
+Frenchman always speeds for Paris.
+
+The company soon dispersed, after having stayed long enough to glean all
+that they could of the family misfortune, and fix appointments for every
+day in the week to meet each other, and make the most of the whole
+transaction. But still a tolerable number of the steadier hands
+remained, who, to show their sympathy with us, resolved not to separate
+until they received tidings of his lordship's success. I was voted to
+the head of the table, more claret was ordered, the wreck of the general
+supper was cleared for one of a snugger kind; and we drew our chairs
+together. Toast followed toast, and all became communicative. Family
+histories, not excepting our own, were now discussed, with a confidence
+new to my boyish conjectures. Charlatanski's career abroad and at home
+seemed to be as well known as if he had been pilloried in the county
+town; the infinite absurdity of the noble duke who suffered him to make
+his way under his roof, and the palpable _penchant_ of his ward, next
+underwent discussion; until the ignorance of my noble father on the
+subject, gave, with me, the death-blow to his penetration. The
+prettinesses which had won the primrose heart of my brother's intended
+spouse, I found were equally notorious; the Earl's project was as plain
+as if he had pronounced it _viva voce_; and before we parted for the
+night, which did not occur until the sun was blazing through the
+curtains of our banqueting room, I had made up my mind, once for all,
+that neither character nor cunning can be concealed in this world; that
+the craftiest impostor is but a clumsier kind of clown; and that the
+most dexterous disguise is but a waste of time.
+
+I must hasten to the _d�nouement_. Our excellent friends indulged us
+with their company, and bored us with their society for a mortal week.
+But, as Sterne says of the sentimental traveller, scenes of sentiment
+are always exhibiting themselves to an appetite eager for knowing what
+the world is doing; the knowledge was contributed with a copiousness
+which left nothing to learn, and but little to desire. Our guests were
+of that class which usually fills the houses of noblemen, in the
+annihilation of life in town; clubmen, to whom St James's Street was the
+terraqueous globe; guardsmen, on leave of absence for the shooting
+season, and saturated with London; several older exhibitors in the
+fashionable circles, who as naturally followed where young guardsmen and
+wealthy squires were to be found, as flies wing to the honey on which
+they live; and two or three of the most opulent and dullest baronets who
+ever played whist and billiards, for the advantage of losing guinea
+points to gentlemen more accomplished in the science of chances.
+
+At length, on the sixth day, when I really began to feel anxious, an
+express announced that his lordship had arrived at a village, about
+fifty miles off, on his way home, wounded, and in great danger. I
+instantly broke up the convivial party, and set out to see him. To the
+imagination of a boy, as I was then, nothing could be more startling
+than the aspect of the habitation which now held the haughty Earl of
+Mortimer. After passing through a variety of dungeon-like rooms, for the
+house had once been a workhouse, or something of the kind, I was ushered
+into the chamber where the patient lay. The village doctor, and one or
+two of the wise people of the neighbourhood, who thought it their duty
+to visit a stranger, that stranger being a man of rank, were standing
+by; and the long faces of those persons, seconded by the professional
+shake of the doctor's head, told me, that they at least had no hope. It
+was not so with the sufferer himself, for he talked as largely and
+loftily of what he was to do within the next ten years, as if he was to
+survive the century. He still breathed rage and retribution against the
+Chevalier, and actually seemed to regard the lady's choice as a
+particular infraction of personal claims. He had pursued the fugitives
+day and night, until the pursuit threw him into a kind of fever. While
+under this paroxysm he had met the enamoured pair, but it was on their
+way from that forge on the Border where so many heavy chains have been
+manufactured. Useless as challenging was now, he challenged the husband.
+The parties met, and my father received a bullet in his body, while he
+had the satisfaction of lodging one in his antagonist's knee-pan. The
+Chevalier was doomed to waltz no more. But his bullet was fatal.
+
+As I looked round the wretched chamber in which this bold, arrogant, and
+busy spirit was evidently about to breathe its last, Pope's lines on the
+most splendid _rou�_ of his day involuntarily and painfully shot across
+my recollection:--
+
+   "In the worst inn's worst room, with mat half hung,
+    The walls of plaster, and the floor of dung;
+    The George and Garter dangling from the bed,
+    Where tawdry yellow strove with dirty red,
+    Great Villiers lies; alas, how changed from him
+    The glass of fashion!"
+
+I say no more of those scenes; a few days, only enough to collect the
+branches of the family round the bed, terminated every thing. Grief,
+they say, cannot exist where there is no love, but I was not inclined,
+just then, to draw subtle distinctions. I was grieved; and paid the last
+duties, without blame to myself, or, I hope, irreverence in the sight of
+others. The funeral was stately, and all was over.
+
+Matters now took a new shape at the castle. My brother returned, to find
+himself its possessor. His journey had been equally unproductive with my
+unfortunate father's. By dint of bribing the postilions, he had even
+overpassed the fugitives on the Dover road. But, as he stopped to dine
+in Canterbury, where he had prepared a posse of constables for their
+reception, he had, unluckily, been accosted by an old London
+acquaintance, who had accidentally fixed his quarters there for a day or
+two, "seeking whom he might devour." The dinner was followed by a
+carouse, the carouse by a "quiet game," or games, which lasted till the
+next day; and when my brother rose, with the glow of a superb sunset
+giving him the first intimation that he was among the living, he made
+the discovery that he was stripped of the last shilling of five hundred
+pounds, and that the Frenchman and his prize had quietly changed horses
+at the same hotel half a dozen hours before.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The young forget quickly, but they feel keenly. The event which I had
+just witnessed threw a shade over me, which, in the want of any vigorous
+occupation, began to affect my health. I abjured the sports of the
+field, for which, indeed, I had never felt much liking. I rambled
+through the woods in a kind of dreamy idleness of mind, which took but
+little note of any thing, time included. As mendicants sell tapes and
+matches to escape the imputation of mendicancy, I carried a pencil and
+portfolio, and seemed to be sketching venerable oaks and patches of the
+picturesque, while my mind was wandering from Line to Pole. But in this
+earth no one can be singular with impunity. The gentlemen were
+"convinced" that my meditations were heavy with unpaid college bills;
+and the ladies, from high to low, from "Tilburina, mad in white satin,"
+to her "confidant, mad in white linen," were all of opinion that some
+one among their peerless selves had destroyed the "five wits of young Mr
+Marston." I could have fallen on them with a two-handed sword; but as
+the massacre of the sex was not then in my power, I had only to escape.
+
+There were higher matters to move me. Clouds were gathering on the
+world; the times were fitful; the air was thick with rumours from
+abroad; the sleep of the Continent was breaking up, and Europe lay in
+the anxious and strange expectancy in which some great city might see
+the signs of a coming earthquake, without the power of ascertaining at
+what moment, or from what quarter, its foundations were to be flung up
+in sight of the sun.--We were then in the first stage of the French
+Revolution!
+
+I resolved to linger and be libelled no more; and being ushered, by
+appointment, into the library--for the new master was already all
+etiquette--I promptly stated my wishes, and demanded my portion, to try
+my fortune in the world.
+
+Our conference, if it had but little of the graces of diplomacy, had
+much more than its usual decision. It was abrupt and unhesitating. My
+demand had evidently taken his "lordship" by surprise. He started from
+the magisterial chair, in which he was yet to awe so many successions of
+rustic functionaries, and with a flushed cheek asked "Whether I was
+lunatic, or supposed him to be so?"
+
+"Neither the one nor the other," was my answer. "But, to waste life here
+is out of the question. I demand the means of entering a profession."
+
+"Are you aware, sir, that our interest is lost since the last change of
+ministers? that my estate is loaded with encumbrances? that every
+profession is overstocked? and what can you do in the crowd?"
+
+"What others have done--what I should do in a crowd in the streets--push
+some aside, get before others; if made way for, be civil; if resisted,
+trample; it has been the history of thousands, why not mine?"
+
+The doctrine was as new to this son of indulgence, as if I had
+propounded the philosopher's stone. But his courage was exhausted by a
+controversy perhaps longer than he had ever ventured on before. He
+walked to the glass, adjusted his raven ringlets, and having refreshed
+his spirits with the contemplation, enquired, with a smile which made
+the nearest possible approach to a sneer, whether I had any thing more
+to say?
+
+I had more, and of the kind that least suited his feelings. I demanded
+"my property."
+
+The effect of those two words was electrical. The apathy of the
+exquisite was at an end, and in a voice of the most indignant
+displeasure, he rapidly demanded whether I expected money to fall from
+the moon? whether I was not aware of the expense of keeping up the
+castle? whether I supposed that my mother's jointure and my sisters'
+portions could ever be paid without dipping the rent-roll deeper still?
+and, after various and bitter expostulation, "What right had I to
+suppose that I was worth the smallest coin of the realm, except by his
+bounty?"
+
+One query answered them all. "My lord, is it not true that I am entitled
+to five thousand pounds?"
+
+"Five thousand ----?" what word was to fill up the interval I can only
+guess. But the first lesson which a man learns at the clubs is, to
+control his temper when its display is not likely to be attended with
+effect. He saw that I stood his gaze with but few symptoms of giving
+way, and he changed his tactics with an adroitness that did honour to
+his training. Approaching me, he held out his hand. "Charles, why should
+_we_ quarrel about trifles? I was really not acquainted with the
+circumstance to which you allude, but I shall look into it without
+delay. Pray, can you tell me the when, the where, the how?"
+
+"Your questions may be easily answered. The _when_ was at the death of
+our uncle, the _where_ was in his will, and the _how_--in any way your
+lordship pleases." The truce was now made; he begged of me, "as I valued
+_his_ feelings," to drop the formality of his title, to regard him
+simply as a brother, and to rely on his wish to forward every object
+that might gratify my inclination.
+
+Our conference broke up. He galloped to a neighbouring horse-race. I
+went to take a solitary ramble through the Park.
+
+The hour and the scene were what the poet pronounces "fit to cure all
+sadness but despair." Noble old trees, the "roof star-proof" overhead,
+the cool velvet grass under the feet--glimpses of sunlight striking
+through the trunks--the freshened air coming in gusts across the lake,
+like new life, bathing my burning forehead and feverish hands--the whole
+unrivalled sweetness of the English landscape softened and subdued me.
+Those effects are so common, that I can claim no credit for their
+operation on my mind; and, before I had gone far, I was on the point of
+returning, if not to recant, at least to palliate the harshness of my
+appeal to fraternal justice.
+
+But, by this time I had reached a rising ground which commanded a large
+extent of the surrounding country. The evening was one of those
+magnificent closes of the year, which, like a final scene in a theatre,
+seems intended to comprehend all the beauties and brilliancies of the
+past. The western sky was a blaze of all colours, and all pouring over
+the succession of forest, cultured field, and mountain top, which make
+the English view, if not the most sublime, the most touching of the
+earth!
+
+But as I stood on the hill, gazing round to enjoy every shape and shade
+at leisure, my eye turned on the Castle. It spoiled all my serenity at
+once. I felt that it was a spot from which I was excluded by nature;
+that it belonged to others so wholly, that scarcely by any conceivable
+chance could it ever be mine; and that I could remain within its walls
+no longer, but with a sense of uselessness and shame.
+
+If I could have taken staff in hand and pack on shoulder, I would have
+started at that moment on a pilgrimage that might have circled the
+globe. But the most fiery resolution must submit to circumstances. One
+night more, at least, I must sleep under the paternal roof, and I was
+hastening home, brooding over bitter thoughts, when I suddenly rushed
+against some one whom I nearly overthrew.--"Bless me, Mr Marston, is it
+you?"--told me that I had run down my old tutor, Mr Vincent, the parson
+of the parish. He had been returning from visiting some of his flock,
+and in the exercise of the vocation which he had just been fulfilling,
+he saw that something went ill with me, and taking my arm, forced me to
+go home with him, for such comfort as he could give.
+
+Parsons, above all men, are the better for wives and families; for,
+without them, they are wonderfully apt to grow saturnine or stupid. Of
+course there are exceptions. Vincent had a wife not much younger than
+himself, to whom he always spoke with the courtiership of a _preux
+chevalier_. A portrait of her in her bridal dress, showed that she had
+been a pretty brunette in her youth; and her husband still evidently
+gave her credit for all that she had been. They had, as is generally the
+fate of the clergy, a superfluity of daughters, four or five I think,
+creatures as thoughtless and innocent as their own poultry, or their own
+pet-sheep. But all round their little vicarage was so pure, so quiet,
+and so neat--there was such an aspect of order and even of elegance,
+however inexpensive, that its contrast with the glaring and restless
+tumult of the "great house" was irresistible. I never had so full a
+practical understanding of the world's "pomps and vanities," as while
+looking at the trimmings and trelisses of the parson's dwelling.
+
+I acknowledge myself a worldling, but I suppose that all is not lead or
+iron within me, from my sense of scenes like this. In my wildest hour,
+the sight of fields and gardens has been a kind of febrifuge to me--has
+conveyed a feeling of tranquillity to my mind; as if it drank the
+silence and the freshness, as the flowers drink the dew. I have often
+thus experienced a sudden soothing, which checked the hot current of my
+follies or frenzies, and made me think that there were better things
+than the baubles of cabinets. But it did not last long.
+
+I mention this evening, because it decided my future life; or at least
+the boldest, and perhaps the best portion of it. We had an hour or two
+of the little variations of placid amusement which belong to all
+parsonages in romances, but which here were reality; easy conversation
+on the events of the county; a little political talking with the vicar;
+a few details of persons and fashions at the castle, to which the ladies
+listened as Desdemona might have listened to Othello's history--for the
+Castle was so seldom visited by them, that it had almost the air of a
+Castle of Otranto, and they evidently thought that its frowning towers
+and gilded halls belonged to another race, if not to another region of
+existence; we had, too, some of the last new songs, (at least half a
+century old, but which were not the less touching,) and a duet of
+Geminiani, performed by the two elder proficients on a spinet which
+might have been among the "chamber music" of the Virgin Queen; all
+slight matters to speak of, and yet which contributed to the quietude of
+a mind longing for rest--sights of innocence and sounds of peace, which,
+like the poet's music--
+
+   "Might take the prison'd soul
+    And wrap it in Elysium."
+
+The moon shining in through panes covered with honeysuckle and fragrance
+of all kinds, at length warned me that I was intruding on a household
+primitive in their hours, as in every thing else, and I rose to take my
+leave. But I could not be altogether parted with yet. It seems that they
+had found me a most amusing guest; while, to my own conception, I had
+been singularly spiritless; but the little anecdotes which were trite to
+me had been novelties to them. Fashion has a charm even for
+philosophers; and the freaks and follies of the high-toned sons and
+daughters of fashion--who wore down my gentle mother's frame, drained my
+showy father's rental, and made even myself loathe the sight of loaded
+barouches coming to discharge their cargoes of beaux and belles on us
+for weeks together--were nectar and ambrosia to my sportive and
+rosy-cheeked audience. The five girls put on their bonnets, and looking
+like a group of Titania and her nymphs, as they bounded along in the
+moonlight, escorted us to the boundary of the vicar's territory.
+
+We were about to separate, with all the pretty formalities of village
+leave-taking; when their father, in the act of shaking hands with me,
+fixed his eye on mine, and insisted on seeing me home. Whether the
+thought occurred to him that I had still something on my mind, which was
+not to be trusted within sight of a brook that formed the boundary to
+the Castle grounds, I know not, but I complied; the girls were sent
+homewards, and I heard their gay voices mingling, at a distance, and not
+unsuitably, with the songs of the nightingale.
+
+I took his arm, and we walked on for a while in silence. At length,
+slackening his pace, and speaking in a tone whose earnestness struck me,
+"Charles," said he, "has any thing peculiarly painful lately happened to
+you?--if so, speak out. I know your nature to be above disguise; and
+with whom can you repose your vexations, if such there be, more safely
+than with your old tutor?"
+
+I was taken unawares; and not having yet formed a distinct conception of
+my own grievances, promptly denied that I had any.
+
+"It may be so," said my friend; "and yet once or twice this evening I
+saw your cheek alternately flush and grow pale, with a suddenness that
+alarmed me for your health. In one of your pleasantest stories, while
+you were acting the narrative with a liveliness evidently unconscious,
+and giving me and mine a treat which we have not had for a long time, I
+observed your voice falter, as if some spasm of soul had shot across
+you; and I unquestionably saw, that rare sight in the eyes of man, a
+tear."
+
+I denied this instance of weakness stoutly; but the old man's
+importunities prevailed, and, by degrees, I told him, or rather his
+good-natured cross-examination moulded for me, a statement of my
+anxieties at home.
+
+The Vicar, with all his simplicity of manner, was a man of powerful and
+practical understanding. He had been an eminent scholar at his
+university, and was in a fair way for all its distinctions, when he
+thought proper to fall desperately in love. This, of course, demolished
+his prospects at once. I never heard his subsequent history in detail;
+but he had left England, and undergone a long period of disheartening
+and distress. Whether he had not, in those times of desolation, taken
+service in the Austrian army, and even shared some of its Turkish
+campaigns, was a question which I heard once or twice started at the
+Castle; and a slight contraction of the arm, and a rather significant
+scar which crossed his bold forehead, had been set down to the account
+of the Osmanli cimeter.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Vincent had never told the story of either, but a rumour reached his
+college of his having been seen in the Austrian uniform on the
+Transylvanian frontier, during the campaigns of the Prince of Coburg and
+Laudohn against the Turks. It was singular enough, that on this very
+evening, in arguing against some of my whims touching destinies and
+omens, he illustrated the facility of imposture on such points by an
+incident from one of those campaigns.
+
+"A friend of mine," said he, "a captain in the Lichtenstein hussars,
+happened to be on the outpost service of the army. As the enemy were in
+great force, and commanded by the Vizier in person, an action was daily
+expected, and the pickets and videttes were ordered to be peculiarly on
+the alert. But, on a sudden, every night produced some casualty. They
+either lost videttes, or their patrol was surprised, or their baggage
+plundered--in short, they began to be the talk of the army. The regiment
+had been always one of the most distinguished in the service, and all
+those misfortunes were wholly unaccountable. At length a stronger picket
+than usual was ordered for the night--not a man of them was to be found
+in the morning. As no firing had been heard, the natural conjecture was,
+that they must all have deserted. As this was a still more disgraceful
+result than actual defeat, the colonel called his officers together, to
+give what information they could. The camp, as usual, swarmed with
+Bohemians, fortune-tellers, and gipsies, a race who carry intelligence
+on both sides; and whose performances fully accounted for the knowledge
+which the enemy evidently had of our outposts. The first order was, to
+clear the quarters of the regiment of those encumbrances, and the next
+to direct the videttes to fire without challenging. At midnight a shot
+was heard; all turned out, and on reaching the spot where the alarm had
+been given, the vidette was found lying on the ground and senseless,
+though without a wound. On his recovery, he said that he had seen a
+ghost; but that having fired at it, according to orders, it looked so
+horribly grim at him, that he fell from his horse and saw no more. The
+Austrians are brave, but they are remarkably afraid of supernatural
+visitants, and a ghost would be a much more formidable thing to them
+than a discharge of grape-shot.
+
+"The captain in question was an Englishman, and as John Bull is
+supposed, among foreigners, to carry an unusual portion of brains about
+him, the colonel took him into his special council in the emergency.
+Having settled their measures, the captain prepared to take charge of
+the pickets for the night, making no secret of his dispositions. At
+dark, the videttes and sentries were posted as usual, and the officer
+took his post in the old field redoubt, which had been the headquarters
+of the pickets for the last fortnight.
+
+"All went on quietly until about midnight; the men off duty fast asleep
+in their cloaks, and the captain reading an English novel. He, too, had
+grown weary of the night, and was thinking of stretching himself on the
+floor of his hut, when he saw, and not without some perturbation, a tall
+spectral figure, in armour, enter the works, stride over the sleeping
+men without exciting the smallest movement amongst them, and advance
+towards him. He drew his breath hard, and attempted to call out, but his
+voice was choked, and he began to think himself under the dominion of
+nightmare. The figure came nearer still, looking more menacing, and drew
+its sword. My friend, with an effort which he afterwards acknowledged to
+be desperate, put his hand to his side to draw his own. What was his
+alarm when he found that it had vanished? At this moment his poodle,
+which, against all precautions, had followed him, began barking
+fiercely, and rushing alternately towards him and a corner of the
+redoubt. Though his sabre was gone, a brace of English pistols lay on
+the table beside him, and he fired one of them in the direction. The
+shot was followed by a groan and the disappearance of the spectre. The
+men started to their feet, and all rushed out in pursuit. The captain's
+first step struck upon a dead body, evidently that of the spy who had
+fallen by his fire. The pursuit was now joined in by the whole regiment,
+who had been posted in the rear unseen, to take advantage of
+circumstances. They pushed on, swept all before them, and bore down
+patrol and picket until they reached the enemy's camp. The question then
+was, what to do next? whether to make the best of their way back, or try
+their chance onward? The Englishman's voice was for taking fortune at
+the flow; and the accidental burning of a tent or two by the fugitives
+showed him the Turks already in confusion. The trampling of battalions
+in the rear told him at the same time that he had powerful help at hand,
+and he dashed among the lines at once. The hussars, determined to
+retrieve their reputation, did wonders--the enemy were completely
+surprised. No troops but those in the highest state of discipline are
+good for any thing when attacked at night. The gallantry of the Turk by
+day, deserts him in the dark; and a night surprise, if well followed up,
+is sure to end in a victory. From the random firing and shouting on
+every side, it was clear that they were totally taken unawares; and the
+rapid and general advance of the Austrian brigades, showed that Laudohn
+was in the mind to make a handsome imperial bulletin. Day dawned on a
+rout as entire as ever was witnessed in a barbarian campaign. The enemy
+were flying in all directions like a horde of Tartars, and camp, cannon,
+baggage, standards, every thing was left at the mercy of the pursuers."
+
+"But the captain, the Englishman, what became of him?" I asked, slightly
+glancing at the countenance of the narrator.
+
+"Oh, very well off indeed! Foreign Governments are showy to the soldier,
+and Joseph the Second, though an economist in civil matters, was liberal
+to his successful officers. The captain received a pension; a couple of
+orders; was made a colonel on the first opportunity; and, besides, had
+his share of the plunder--no slight addition to his finances, for the
+military chest had been taken in the baggage of the Seraskier."
+
+"And by this time," said I, with an unenquiring air, "he is doubtless a
+field-marshal?"
+
+"Nothing of the kind," replied my reverend friend, "for his victory
+cured him of soldiership. He was wounded in the engagement, and if he
+had been ever fool enough to think of fame, the solitary hours of his
+invalidism put an end to the folly. Other and dearer thoughts recurred
+to his mind. He had now obtained something approaching to a competence,
+if rightly managed; he asked permission to retire, returned to England,
+married the woman he loved; and never for a moment regretted that he was
+listening to larks and linnets instead of trumpets and cannon, and
+settling the concerns of rustics instead of manoeuvring squadrons and
+battalions."
+
+"But what was the ghost, after all?"
+
+"Oh, the mere trick of a juggler! a figure projected on the wall by some
+ingenious contrivance of glasses. The instrument was found on the body
+of the performer, who turned out to be the colonel's valet--of course in
+the enemy's pay, and who furnished them with daily intelligence of all
+our proceedings. As for the loss of the sabre, which actually startled
+the ghost-seer most, he found it next morning hanging up in the hut,
+where he himself had placed it, and forgotten that he had done so."
+
+"And the captain, or rather the colonel, brought with him to England, a
+cimeter-cut on his arm, and another on his forehead?" I asked, fixing my
+eyes on him. A crimson flush passed over his countenance, he bit his lip
+and turned away. I feared that I had offended irreparably. But his
+natural kindliness of heart prevailed, he turned to me gently, laughed,
+and pressing my hand in his, said, "You have my secret. It has escaped
+me for the first time these thirty years. Keep it like a man of honour."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I have always held that the life of man's mind, where man _has_ a
+mind--which is not always the case--is a thing of fits and starts. I
+even doubt whether any one who will take the trouble to recollect, will
+not be able to put his finger on the precise periods at which new views
+of every thing suddenly opened before him, and he emerged at once, if
+not into new powers, at least into a new use of them. The frame may grow
+like a tree; the faculties may grow as imperceptibly as the frame; but
+the mind acquires that knowledge of life which forms its exercise, its
+use, and perhaps its essence, by bounds and flights. This moonlight walk
+with my old and honoured Mentor, was the beginning of my mental
+adolescence. My manhood was still to come, and with a more severe
+instructor.
+
+As we were passing slowly through the plantations which encircled the
+Castle with all the noble and profuse shelter and ornament which our
+ancestors loved, a distant sound of music came on the wind. I then
+remembered, for the first time, that my brother had, on that evening,
+given a ball to the county, and a sudden sense of the difference of our
+lots in life, came painfully over me;--the course of secure wealth and
+English enjoyment, contrasted with the dependence and wandering which
+must form the existence of myself, and so many thousands of younger
+brothers.
+
+I was awakened from my reverie by the voice of my companion. His face
+was upturned to the cloudless sky, and he was murmuring the fine passage
+in the Merchant of Venice.
+
+   "Look, how the floor of heaven
+    Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold;
+    There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st,
+    But in his motion like an angel sings,
+    Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins:
+    Such harmony is in immortal souls."
+
+"Do you know, Charles," said he, "what changed the whole current of my
+life? what, in fact, brought me back to England?" and there was a slight
+pause. "What made me a Christian? It was such a night as this. As you
+now know the chief part of my story, I need have no further concealment
+on the subject. I had recovered from my wounds, and was preparing to set
+out for Vienna, when one night a tempest blew down our tents, and left
+us to trust to the open air for the hours till morning. Tempests in the
+south are violent, but they are generally brief, and this gale cleared
+the sky of every cloud. As I lay on the ground, and gazed on the unusual
+splendour of the stars, the thought occurred to me, Why should doubts of
+a future state ever come into the mind of man? Why should he hesitate
+about its reality? Was it not there, before his eyes? Were not the very
+regions of future existence already within the reach of one of his
+senses? Why might they not yet be within the reach of all? Of course I
+do not give you all the vague thoughts which passed through my mind; but
+the permanence, power, and astonishing multitude of those bright worlds,
+impressed themselves on me with a new force. I had known all those
+matters before, but on this night I felt them. My next thoughts were of
+the power, the wisdom, and the majesty of the mighty Being by whom all
+this had been formed, moved, and sustained through thousands of years. I
+need not follow the history of my conversion--for a conversion it was.
+When I looked round me on the sleeping troops, I saw nothing but clods
+of the valley--gallant beings, but as insensible to their high
+inheritance as the chargers they rode. My heart moved me towards them;
+and perhaps, in some instances, I succeeded in giving them my own ideas.
+But Austria defies, at least, all human change. I was not a fanatic, and
+I had no wish to strive with impossibilities. I sent in my resignation;
+abandoned the 'pride, pomp, and circumstance' of the most tempting of
+all human pursuits, and returned to England to be, what you see me now."
+
+With this man I could have no reserves, and I freely asked his advice on
+the plunge which I was about to make into that fathomless tide of good
+and ill, the world. I mentioned the Church as the profession which my
+mother had suggested, but for which I did not conceive either my temper
+or my habits suitable.
+
+"You are right, then, in abandoning the idea altogether," was the
+answer; "and yet I know no profession more capable of fulfilling all the
+objects of a vigorous mind. I am not now talking of mitres; they can
+fall to but few. I speak of the prospects which it opens to all; the
+power of exerting the largest influence for the highest purposes; the
+possession of fame without its emptiness, and the indulgence of
+knowledge without its vanity; energy turned to the most practical and
+lofty uses of man; and the full feast of an ambition superior to the
+tinsel of the world, and alike pure in its motives, and immeasurable in
+its rewards."
+
+"And, yet," said I, naming one or two of our clerical slumberers, "the
+profession seems not to be a very disturbing one."
+
+"Those men, was the answer, would have been slumberers at the bar, in
+senates, or in the field. I may be prejudiced in favour of the choice
+which I made so long since, and which I have never found reason to
+repent. But I have not the slightest wish to prejudice any one in its
+favour. There is no profession which more requires a peculiar mind;
+contentment, with whatever consciousness of being overlooked; patience,
+with whatever hopelessness of success; labour, for its own sake; and
+learning, with few to share, few to admire, and fewer still to
+understand."
+
+"If my father had lived," said I, "it was his intention to have tried my
+chance in diplomacy."
+
+"Probably enough; for he had figured in that line himself. I remember
+him secretary of embassy at Vienna. Perhaps you will scarcely believe,
+that I, too, have had my experience on the subject? Accident once made
+me an attach� to our envoy at Naples. The life is an easy one. Idleness
+was never more perfectly reduced to a system, than among the half dozen
+functionaries to whom the interests of the British empire were entrusted
+in the capital of the Lazzaroni. As the Frenchman said of the Academy,
+'We had nothing to do, and we did it.'"
+
+"Italy," said I, "is the land of pleasure, and the Lazzaroni are its
+philosophers, but one cannot sleep like them in the face of day, and all
+day long. Let what will come, I have no desire to be a weed on the
+shore."
+
+"No; we had our occupations; for we had the attendance on the court
+days--a business of as much formality, as if the fate of mankind
+depended on it. Then we had the attendance on the opera at night, a
+matter nearly as tiresome. The post from England reached Naples but once
+a-week, and scarcely once a month conveyed any intelligence that was
+worth the postage. But, if politics were out of the question, we had
+negotiation in abundance; for we carried on the whole diplomacy of the
+opera-house in London, engaged _primo tenores_, and settled the rival
+claims of _prima donnas_; gave our critical opinions on the merits of
+dancers worthy of appearing before the British _cognoscenti_; and
+dispatched poets, ballet-masters, and scene-painters, to our managers,
+with an activity worthy of the purest patriotism. What think you of the
+bar?"
+
+"I have no head for its study; and no heart for its employment."
+
+"It leads more rapidly to rank than any other profession under the sun;
+profit beyond counting, and a peerage. Those are no bad things."
+
+"Both capital, if one could be secure of them. But they take too much
+time for me. I never was born to sit on the woolsack. No; if I were to
+follow my own inclination, I should be a soldier."
+
+I have already said that I have been, throughout life, a kind of
+believer in omens. I have seen such a multitude of things decided by
+some curious coincidence, some passing occurrence, some of those odd
+trifles for which it is impossible to account, but which occur at the
+instant when the mind is wavering on the balance; that I feel no wonder
+at the old superstitions of guessing our destiny from the shooting of a
+star, or the flight of birds. While we were rambling onward, discussing
+the merits and demerits of the profession of arms, we heard the winding
+of the mail-guard's horn. I sprang the fence, and waited in the road to
+enquire the last news from the metropolis. It was momentous--the
+Revolution had effectually broken out. Paris was in an uproar. The
+king's guards had taken up arms for the people. The Bastile was stormed!
+
+If I had hesitated before, this news decided me; not that I pretend to
+have even dreamed of the tremendous changes which were to be produced in
+the world by that convulsion. But it struck me as the beginning of a
+time, when the lazy quietude of years was about to be broken up, and
+room made for all who were inclined to exert themselves. Before we had
+reached the level lawns and trim parterres which showed us the lights of
+the family festivity, I had settled all the difficulties which might
+impede the career of less fortunate individuals; time and chance were
+managed with the adroitness of a projector; and if Bellona had been one
+of the Nine Muses, my speculations could not have been more poetical.
+Somewhat to my surprise, they received no check from my venerable tutor;
+quite the contrary. The singular sympathy with which he listened to my
+most daring and dashing conceptions, would have betrayed his early
+history if I had still the knowledge to acquire. His very looks, as he
+listened to my rodomontades, recurred to me, when I read, many years
+after, Scott's fine description of his soldier-monk in the Lay of the
+Last Minstrel:--
+
+    "Again on the knight look'd the churchman old,
+      And again he sigh'd heavily,
+    For he had himself been a warrior bold,
+      And fought in Spain and Italy.
+    And he thought on the days that were long gone by,
+    When his limbs were strong, and his courage was high."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The news from France produced a sensation throughout England totally
+indescribable at the present day. Every tongue and every heart was full
+of it. It offered something for every mind of the million to seize on.
+Like a waterspout, such as I have seen sweeping over the bosom of the
+Atlantic, half-descending from the skies, and half-ascending from the
+deep; every second man whom one met gave it credit for a different
+origin, some looking at the upper portion and some at the lower; while,
+in the mean time, the huge phenomenon was blackening, gathering, and
+rushing onward, threatening to turn all above into darkness and all
+below into storm. It made the grand subject of parliamentary eloquence,
+and parliament was never more eloquent; it filled the speeches of the
+factious, it was hailed by the shouts of the multitude, and it disturbed
+the fireside with fear and hope, with wishing and wonder. It must be
+acknowledged that a vast quantity of this excitement was absolute folly;
+but, at the same time, there was a sincerity in the folly which redeemed
+it from ridicule. Nothing could be more evident than that this French
+patriotism was as theatrical, in the countless majority of instances, as
+the loves and sorrows of its stage. Yet, however the speeches might be
+got by heart, or the frippery and actors hired, the _drame_ was
+powerfully performed; and all Europe sat by, giving it the tribute of
+its tears and its terrors. Even we of England, with all our more sober
+recollections that the heroes were ragamuffins, and the heroism
+imaginary, gave ourselves up to the illusion. I shall not say that I was
+wiser than the rest of mankind. I liked excitement, wherever it was to
+be found. The barriers to distinction were still too firmly closed
+against the youngest son of an embarrassed family, not to suggest many a
+wish for whatever chance might burst the gate, or blow up the rampart;
+and my first effort in political life was a harangue to the rabble of
+the next borough, conceived in the most Gallic style. Yet this act of
+absurdity had the effect of forwarding my views more rapidly than if I
+had become an aristocratic Demosthenes. My speech was so much applauded
+by the mob, that they began to put its theories in practice, though with
+rather more vigour than I had dreamed of. There were riots, and even
+some attempts at the seizure of arms; and the noble duke, our neighbour,
+had received a threatening letter, which sent him at full gallop to the
+Home Secretary. A note, by no means too gentle in its tone, was
+instantly despatched to my noble brother, enquiring why he did not
+contrive to keep the minor branches of his family in better order, and
+threatening him with the withdrawal of the county patronage. My demand
+of a commission in the Guards was no longer answered by the head of our
+house with astonishment at the loftiness of my expectations, and
+statements of the utter emptiness of the family exchequer. The result of
+his brief correspondence with Downing Street was a letter, notifying
+that his majesty was pleased to accept my services in the Coldstream.
+
+I was enraptured, and my brother was enraptured, for we had both gained
+our objects. I had got rid of him and ennui. He had got rid of me, and
+the displeasure of the grand dispensers of place and pension. No time
+was lost in forwarding me to make my bow at the Horse Guards; and my
+noble brother lost as little time in making me put my hand to a paper,
+in which, for prompt payment, I relinquished one half of my legacy. But
+what cared I for money? I had obtained a profession in which money was
+contemptible, the only purse the military chest, and the only prize,
+like Nelson's, a peerage or Westminster Abbey. The ferment did not cool
+within the week, and within that period I had taken leave of half the
+county, been wished laurels and aiguillettes by a hundred or a thousand
+of the fairest of our country belles; and been wished a thousand miles
+off by the wise matrons, to whom the sight of a "younger son without
+house or land" is a nuisance, a kite among their family pigeons.
+
+At that moment, however, all their dovecots were secure. I should not
+have spent a sigh on the Venus de Medicis had she sprung from her
+pedestal to enchant me. The world was open before me; and trite and
+trifling objects were no more to occupy my time. I felt like one who,
+after wandering all day through the depths of an American forest,
+suddenly reaches its border, and sees before him the boundless prairie,
+with its boundlessness still more striking, from the absence of any
+distinct object on which the eye could rest. What were horses, dogs, and
+country dinners, to the world of London and of life which now came in
+full, and, I will own it, extravagant vision before me? The ideas which
+I conceived of men and things, of my own fortunes, and the fortunate
+exercise of my own powers, were of an order which, in my calmer days,
+have often made me smile; yet what is the whole early life of man but a
+predisposition to fever? and I was then throbbing on the fiery verge of
+the disease.
+
+I shall say but little of my first sensations on reaching London. My
+eyes and ears were in full activity. But the impression upon all who
+enter this mightiest of capitals for the first time, is nearly the same.
+Its perpetual multitude, its incessant movement, its variety of
+occupations, sights and sounds, the echo of the whole vast and sleepless
+machinery of national existence, have been a thousand times the subject
+of description, and always of wonder. Yet, I must acknowledge, that its
+first sight repelled me. I had lived in field and forest, my society had
+been among my fellows in rank; I had lived in magnificent halls, and
+been surrounded by bowing attendants; and now, with my mind full of the
+calm magnificence of English noble life, I felt myself flung into the
+midst of a numberless, miscellaneous, noisy rabble, all rushing on
+regardless of every thing but themselves, pouring through endless lines
+of dingy houses; and I nothing, an atom in the confusion, a grain of
+dust on the great chariot wheel of society, a lonely and obscure
+struggler in the mighty current of human life, which rolled along the
+sullen channels of the most cheerless, however it might be the largest,
+of capitals.
+
+For the first week, I was absolutely unable to collect my thoughts. All
+that I learned was, to make my way through the principal thoroughfares,
+and know the names of her chief buildings. In later days, I took a more
+practical view of matters, and regarded them only as places in which the
+business of the hour was to be done. But in my first view, something of
+the romance and revival of my forest walks clung to me. I remember that,
+when I first saw the Horse Guards, to which, of course, one of my
+earliest visits was paid, I found no slight difficulty in thinking of it
+as only a remarkably clownish mass of brick and stone, crowded with
+clerks. To me it was the very palace of war; the spot from which the
+thunderbolts of England were launched; the centre and the stronghold of
+that irresistible influence with which England sways and moulds mankind.
+The India House was another of my reveries. I could not think of it as
+but a huge pile in a vulgar outlet of the city, as a place of porters
+and messengers loitering in gloomy corridors, of busy clerks for ever
+scribbling in nooks unvisited by the sun, or even of portly directors,
+congregating in halls encrusted with the cobwebs of centuries. To my
+eyes it was invested with the mystery and dignity of Orientalism. I
+thought of the powers by which rajahs were raised and overthrown, of the
+mandates which spread war and restored peace over regions wide as
+Europe, and a thousand times more brilliant. I had rambling visions of
+armies of elephants, superb cavalry, and chieftains covered with gold
+and diamonds. As I traversed the dusky halls, I thought of the will
+which pronounced the fate of kingdoms, the fallen glories of Aurengzebe,
+the broken sceptre of the Mahratta, and the crushed tiara of Mysore.
+Round me was the moving power of an empire, the noblest that the East
+has ever seen, and which, in the act of assuming additional greatness,
+by a contradiction to all the laws of extended conquest, was hourly
+assuming additional stability.
+
+And yet, and yet, are not those the true views, after all? Are the
+effects to be forgotten in the instruments, or is it not the result
+which forms the character of the whole? Are we to think of the dagger
+which strikes the master of a throne, as only the steel in the hand of
+an assassin, or as the summoner to civil war and the subversion of
+thrones? Is the pen which pours political frenzy through the hearts of
+living millions, or sheds the splendours of poetry over millions still
+to come, to be valued only as the feather of a bird? Or is the press
+itself to be remembered only as a dexterous combination of springs and
+screws; or to be bowed down to as the steward of all the hidden
+treasures of mind--as the breaker of intellectual chains, the avenger of
+injured rights, the moral Hercules that goes forth turning the
+wilderness to fertility, and smiting the monsters of the world?
+
+But among the wonders of the time, there was one which struck me with
+prodigious force, which has remained on my recollection to this hour,
+and which still survives with undiminished vividness. It was the acting
+of Siddons.
+
+The stage is now almost undone. The absurd liberalism of the day has
+given every corner of London a theatre, and has degraded the character
+of the stage in all. By scattering the ability which still exists, it
+has stripped the great theatres of the very means of representing
+dramatic excellence; while, by adopting popular contrivances to obtain
+temporary success, they have driven away dramatic genius in contempt or
+in despair. Our stage is now condemned to be fed like a felon from the
+dungeons, and, like the felon, to feel a stigma in every morsel which it
+puts between its lips. It must stoop to French frivolity, or German
+extravagance, and be glad to exist upon either. Yet, why should not
+higher names come to its aid? Why should not the State relieve the
+difficulties of a great institution, which might be made to repay its
+assistance a thousand-fold? Is there nothing that could be withdrawn
+from the waste of our civil lists, or the pomp of public establishments,
+to reunite, to purify, and even to exalt the stage? The people _will_
+have theatres. Good or evil, noble or degraded, the stage will be
+demanded by the people. Is it a thing indifferent to our rulers, to
+supply them with this powerful and universal excitement in its highest
+degree of moral influence, or in its lowest degree of impurity; to bring
+before them, with all the attractions of the drama, the memory of heroes
+and sages, patriots and martyrs, or leave them to rake for the
+indulgence of eye and ear in the very kennels of crime?
+
+"They order those things better in France."
+
+Unquestionably. The care of Government there protects the national
+taste, and prevents the theatres from looking for subsistence to the
+history of the highway. The vices which now haunt theatres are no more
+necessary to their nature, than to the senate or the palace. Why should
+not the State interpose to prevent the sale of poison on the stage, as
+in the streets? Why should it not offer prizes and honours for great
+tragedies and comedies, as soon as it would for a voyage to the Arctic
+or Antarctic? But is dramatic genius dead in England? What, in England!
+where nothing dies--where every faculty of the heart and understanding
+is in the most perpetual activity--where the noblest impulses are
+perpetually pushing forward to the noblest ends--where human nature
+moves in all its vigour, from hour to hour, without disguise--where the
+whole anatomy of the moral frame is visible, and all its weakness, and
+all its wonders, are the daily spectacle of all mankind!
+
+In giving these opinions of the powers of the stage, need I guard them
+by saying, that I contemplate a higher spirit than the drama even of
+Shakspeare has ever displayed--one which, to the vigour of his
+characters, and the splendours of his poetry, should add a moral of
+which his time was scarcely conscious? My idea would approach more
+nearly the objects of the great Greek dramas, in which the first
+sympathies of the people were appealed to by the most powerful
+recollections of historic virtue; their national victories over the
+Persian, the lofty conceptions of their Olympus, the glories of their
+national power, and the prospects of their imperishable renown. I
+contemplate nothing of the weakness, locality, or license, of our old
+drama. I think only of a rich and lofty combination of characters above
+the level of our time, thoughts belonging to that elevation, feelings
+more generous, vivid, and majestic, and exploits uniting the soaring
+spirit of old romance with the sustained strength of modern energy;
+Greece in her brightest days of intellectual lustre, Rome in her most
+heroic days of patriotism, and England in those days which are yet to
+come, and which shall fill up her inheritance of glory.
+
+Siddons was then witching the world--witching, in its more solemn sense;
+for though her smile was exquisite, she might have sat for the picture
+of a Sybil or a Pythoness. The stage had never seen her equal, and will
+probably never see another so completely formed to command all its
+influences. Yet her beauty, her acting, even her movement, were
+characteristic, and their character was noble melancholy. I never saw so
+mournful a countenance combined with so much beauty. Her voice, though
+grand, was melancholy--her step, though superb, was melancholy; her very
+smile was melancholy; and yet there was so much of living intellect in
+her expression, such vast variety of passion in her look and gesture;
+she so deeply awoke the feelings, or so awfully impressed the mind; thus
+it was impossible to escape the spell, while she moved upon the stage.
+
+In this language there is not the slightest exaggeration. I have seen a
+whole audience burst into tears at a single tone of her voice. Her
+natural conception was so fine, that the merest commonplace often
+received a living spirit from her lips. I have seen a single glance from
+her powerful eye hush an audience--I have seen her acting sometimes even
+startle and bewilder the actors beside her. There is perhaps a genius
+for every art, and hers was the genius of the stage--a faculty of
+instant communication between the speaker and the hearer, some
+unaccountable sympathy, the power to create which belongs to but one in
+millions, and which, where it exists, lifts its possessor to the height
+of the Art at once, and constitutes perfection.
+
+It may be presumed that I saw this extraordinary being whenever it was
+possible. But her _chef-d'oeuvre_, in my eyes, was the "wife of
+Macbeth." The character seemed made for her, by something of that
+instinct which in olden times combined the poet and the prophet in one.
+It had the ardour and boldness mingled with the solemnity and mystery
+that belonged to the character of her beauty.
+
+Her entrance was hurried, as if she had but just glanced over the
+letter, and had been eager to escape from the crowd of attendants to
+reperuse it alone. She then read on, in a strong calm voice, until she
+came to the passage which proved the preternatural character of the
+prediction. "They have more in them than mortal knowledge. When I burnt
+with desire to question them further, they made themselves into air
+and--_vanished_." As she was about to pronounce the last word, she
+paused, drew a short breath, her whole frame was disturbed, she threw
+her fine eyes upwards, and exclaimed "_Vanished_!" with a wild force,
+which showed that the whole spirit of the temptation had shrunk into her
+soul. The "Hail, king that shall be!" was the winding-up of the spell.
+It was pronounced with the grandeur of one already by anticipation a
+Queen.
+
+Her solitary summons to her distant lord followed, like an invocation--
+
+                 "Hie thee hither,
+    That I may pour my spirits in thine ear;
+    And chastise with the valour of my tongue
+    All that impedes thee from the golden round."
+
+The murder scene was the next triumph: her acting was that of a
+triumphant fiend. I must follow these recollections no further; but the
+most admirable piece of dumb show that perhaps ever was conceived, was
+her "Banquet scene." That scene, from the terrible business on the
+stage--the entrance of Banquo's ghost, the horrors of Macbeth, stricken
+in the moment of his royal exultation, and the astonishment and alarm of
+the courtiers--is one of the most thrilling and tumultuous. Yet Siddons,
+sitting at the extremity of the royal hall, not having a syllable to
+utter, and simply occupied with courtesies to her guests, made her
+silence so expressive, that she more than divided the interest with the
+powerful action going on in front. And when at last, indignant at
+Macbeth's terrors, stung by conscience, and alarmed at the result of an
+up-breaking of the banquet with such rumours in their lips, she rushed
+towards her unhappy husband, and burst out with the words, still though
+but whispered, yet intensely poured into his passive ear--
+
+         "Are you a _man_?
+    This is the very painting of your fear!
+    This is the air-drawn dagger, which, you said,
+    Led you to Duncan!--
+    Why do you make such faces? When all's done,
+    _You look but on a stool_!"
+
+In those accents all else was forgotten.
+
+But her sleep-walking scene! When shall we see its "second or its
+similar?" Nothing so solemn, nothing so awful, was ever seen upon the
+stage. Yet it had one fault--it was too awful. She more resembled a
+majestic shade rising from the tomb than a living woman, however
+disturbed by wild fear and lofty passion. It is a remarkable instance of
+the genius of Shakspeare, that he here found the means of giving a human
+interest to a being whom he had almost exalted to the "bad eminence" of
+a magnificent fiend. In this famous soliloquy, the thoughts which once
+filled and fired her have totally vanished. Ambition has died; remorse
+lives in its place. The diadem has disappeared; she thinks only of the
+blood that stains her for ever. She is the queen no more, but an
+exhausted and unhappy woman, worn down by the stings of conscience, and
+with her frame dying by the disease of her soul.
+
+But Siddons wanted the agitation, the drooping, the timidity. She looked
+a living statue. She spoke with the solemn tone of a voice from a
+shrine. She stood more the sepulchral avenger of regicide than the
+sufferer from its convictions. Her grand voice, her fixed and marble
+countenance, and her silent step, gave the impression of a supernatural
+being, the genius of an ancient oracle--a tremendous Nemesis.
+
+I have seen all the great tragedians of my day, but I have never seen an
+equal to the sublime of this extraordinary actress. I have seen beauty,
+youth, touching sensibility, and powerful conception; but I never saw so
+complete an union of them all--and that union was the sublime.
+Shakspeare must have had some such form before his mind's eye, while he
+was creating the wife of Macbeth. Some magnificent and regal
+countenance, some movement of native majesty, some imaginary Siddons. He
+could not have gone beyond the true. She was a living Melpomene.
+
+The business of the War-Office was not transacted in those days with the
+dispatch subsequently introduced by the honest Duke of York. After a
+delay of weeks I found myself still ungazetted, grew sad, angry,
+impatient; and after some consideration on the various modes of getting
+rid of _ennui_, which were to be found in enlisting the service of that
+Great Company which extended its wings from Bombay to Bengal, as
+Sheridan said, impudently enough, like the vulture covering his prey; or
+in taking the chance of fortune, in the shape of cabin-boy on board one
+of the thousand ships that were daily floating down the Thames, making
+their way to the extremities of the earth; or in finishing my feverish
+speculations in a cold bath at the bottom of the Thames itself; I did
+what I felt a severer exertion than any of them--I wrote a full and true
+statement of my vexations to my lordly brother.
+
+His answer was lordly enough. He had been "so much occupied with the
+numberless duties devolving upon him as landlord, magistrate,
+lord-lieutenant, and fifty other things, that he absolutely had not been
+able to find a moment to think of me;" and what was rather more
+perplexing to my immediate sensibilities, "he had not been able to send
+me a shilling. However, he did all that he could, and gave me a note to
+a particular friend," Mr Elisha Mordecai of Moorfields.
+
+There is nothing which quickens a man's movements like a depletion of
+the purse; and instead of lounging at my hotel until the morning paper
+brought me the scandals and pleasantries of the day before fresh for my
+breakfast-table, I threw myself out of bed at an hour which I should not
+have ventured to mention to any man with whom I walked arm-in-arm during
+the day, and made my way in a hackney coach, to avoid the possibility of
+being recognised, to the dwelling of my new patron, or rather my guide
+and guardian angel.
+
+I make no attempt to describe the navigation through which I reached
+him; it was winding, dark, and dirty beyond all description, and gave
+the idea of the passages of a dungeon rather than any thing else that I
+could name. And in a hovel worthy to finish such a voyage of discovery,
+I discovered Mr Elisha Mordecai, the man of untold opulence. For a
+while, on being ushered into the office, where he sat pen in hand, I was
+utterly unable to ascertain any thing of him beyond a gaunt thin figure,
+who sat crouching behind a pile of papers, and beneath a small window
+covered with the dirt of ages. He gave me the impression in his dungeon
+of one of those toads which are found from time to time in blocks of
+coal, and have lain there unbreathing and unmoving since the deluge.
+However, he was a man of business, and so was I for the moment. I handed
+him my brother's note; and like a ray of sunshine on the torpid snake,
+it put him into immediate motion. He now took off his spectacles, as if
+to indulge himself with a view of me by the naked eye; and after a
+scrutinizing look, which, in another place and person, I should probably
+have resented as impertinent, but which here seemed part of his
+profession, he rose from his seat and ushered me into another apartment.
+This room was probably his place of reception for criminals of a more
+exalted order; for it was lined with foreign prints, had one or two
+tolerable Dutch pictures, and a bookcase. Out of his bookcase he took
+down a folio, examined it, compared the writing of my credentials with
+the signatures of a book which, as Cromwell's son said of his trunk,
+contained the lives and fortunes, or at least that on which depended the
+lives and fortunes, of half the noble _rou�s_ of England, their
+"promises to pay," bonds, mortgages, and post-obits, and then performed
+the operation on myself. My L.2500 in prospect was mulcted of a fifth
+for the trouble of realizing it; of another fifth for prompt payment,
+and of another for expediting the affair of my commission. "Another such
+victory would have ruined me."
+
+However, I bore the torture well. In truth, I had so little regard for
+any object but the grand one of wearing a sword and epaulette, that if
+Mordecai had demanded the whole sum in fifths, I should have scarcely
+winced. But my philosophy stood me in good part, for it won a grim smile
+from the torturer, and even a little of his confidence.
+
+"This," said he, running his finger down a list which looked endless, "I
+call my peerage book." Turning to another of equal dimensions, "there
+lies my House of Commons. Not quite as many words wasted in it as in the
+Honourable House, but rather to the purpose."
+
+Mordecai grew facetious; the feeling that he had made a handsome
+morning's work of it put him into spirits, and he let me into some of
+the secrets of high life, with the air of a looker-on who sees the whole
+game, and intends to pocket the stakes of the fools on both sides.
+"Money, Mr Marston," said my hook-nosed and keen-eyed enlightener, "is
+the true business of man. It is philosophy, science, and patriotism in
+one; or, at least, without it the whole three are of but little service.
+Your philosopher dies in a garret, your man of science hawks telescopes,
+and your patriot starves in the streets, or gets himself hanged in
+honour of the 'Rights of Man.' I have known all these things, for I was
+born a German, and bred among the illustrissimi of a German university.
+But I determined not to live a beggar, or at least not to die one. I
+left Gottingen behind on a May morning, and trudged, fought, and begged,
+'borrowed' my way to London. What I am now, you see."
+
+Probably, the glance which I involuntarily gave round the room, did not
+exhibit much admiration.
+
+"Ha," said he with a half smile, which, on his gigantic and sullen
+features, looked like a smile on one of the sculptures of a mausoleum,
+"you are young--you judge by appearances. Let me give you one piece of
+advice: If the Italian said, 'distrust words, they are fit only to
+disguise thoughts,' take a Londoner's warning, and distrust your
+eyes--they are only fit to pretend to see." He paused a moment, and
+turned over some memorandums. "I find," said he, "by these papers, that
+I shall have occasion to leave town in the beginning of next week. You
+shall then see how I live. If I am to be found in this den, it is not
+for want of a liking for light and air. I am a German. I have seen
+plains and mountains in my time. If I had been a fool, there I should
+have remained a bear-shooter; if I were a fool here, I should act like
+others of the breed, and be a fox-hunter. But I had other game in view,
+and now I could sell half the estates in England, call half the
+'Honourable House' to my levee, brush down an old loan, buy up a new
+one, and shake the credit of every thing but the Bank of England."
+
+This was bold speaking, and at another time I should have laughed at it;
+but the times were bold, the language of the streets was bold, the
+country was bold, and I, too, was bold. There was something singular in
+the man; even the hovel round him had a look which added to his
+influence. I listened to the Jew as one might listen to a revealer of
+those secrets which find an echo in every bosom, when they are once
+discovered, and on which still deeper secrets seem to depend. My
+acquiescence, not the less effective for its being expressed more in
+looks than words, warmed even the stern spirit of the Israelite towards
+me, and he actually went the length of ordering some refreshments to be
+put on the table. We eat and drank together; a new source of cordiality.
+Our conversation continued long. I shall have more to say of him, and
+must now proceed to other things; but it ended in my acceptance of his
+invitation to his villa at Brighton, which he termed "a small thing,
+simply for a week's change of air," and where he promised to give me
+some curious explanations of his theory--that money was the master of
+all things, men, manners, and opinions.
+
+On one of the finest mornings of autumn, I was on the box of the Royal
+Sussex Stage.
+
+I had full leisure to admire the country, for our progress occupied
+nearly the whole day. We now laugh at our slow-moving forefathers, but
+is not the time coming when our thirty miles an hour will be laughed at
+as much as their five? when our passage from Calais to Dover will be
+made by the turn of a winch, and Paris will be within the penny-post
+delivery? when the balloon will carry our letters and ourselves; until
+that still more rapid period, when we shall ride on cannon-shot, and
+make but a stage from London to Pekin?
+
+On the roof of the coach I found a strong-featured and closely
+wrapped-up man, who, by degrees, performed the part of my cicerone. His
+knowledge of the localities was perfect; "every bush and bosky dell,"
+every creek and winding, as the shore came in sight, was so familiar to
+him, that I should have set him down at once for a smuggler, but for a
+superiority of tone in his language, and still more from the evident
+deference to him by the coachman, in those days a leading authority with
+all the passengers. His occupation is now nearly o'er. Fire and water
+have swept him away. His broad back, his broad grin, and his broad
+buttons, are now but recollections.
+
+My new acquaintance exhibited as perfect a knowledge of the country
+residents as of its map, and nothing could be more unhesitating than his
+opinions of them all, from the prince and his set, as he termed them, to
+Mordecai himself. Of my Jew friend, he said, with a laugh, "There is not
+a better friend to the King's Bench in all England. If you have any
+thing to lose, he will strip you on the spot. If you have nothing, you
+may escape, unless he can make something by having you hanged." I begged
+of him to spare my new friend. "Why," said he, "he is one of my oldest
+friends, and one of the cleverest fellows alive. I speak tenderly of
+him, from admiration of his talents. I have a liking for the perfection
+of a rogue. He is a superb fellow. You will find his 'Hermitage,' as he
+calls it, a pond of gold fish. But all this you will soon learn for
+yourself." The coach now stopped on a rising ground, which showed the
+little fishing village beneath us, basking in the glow of sunset. My
+cicerone got down, and bade me farewell. On enquiring his name from my
+fellow-travellers, a group of Sussex farmers, I found a general
+disinclination to touch on the subject. Even the coachman, the
+established source of information on all topics, exhibited no wish to
+discuss the stranger; his official loquacity was almost dumb. "He merely
+believed that he was something in the navy, or in the army, or in
+something or other; but he was often in those parts, and generally
+travelled to London by the Royal Sussex Stage."
+
+No country in Europe has changed its appearance more than the greater
+part of England during the last fifty years. Sussex was then as wild as
+the wildest heath of Yorkshire. The population, too, looked as wild as
+the landscape. This was once the very land of the bold smuggler; the
+haunt of the dashing defier of the customhouse officer, who in those
+days generally knew his antagonist too well to interfere with his days
+or nights, the run between every port of the west of France and the
+coasts of the Channel, being, in fact, as familiar to both as the
+lounger in Bond Street to the beau of the day.
+
+We passed groups of men, who, when they had not the sailor's dress, had
+the sailor's look; some trudging along the road-side, evidently not in
+idleness; others mounted on the short rough horse of the country, and
+all knowing and known by our coachman.
+
+On our passing one group, leaning with their backs against one of the
+low walls which seemed the only enclosure of this rugged region, I,
+half-laughingly, hinted to one of my neighbours, a giant of a
+rough-headed farmer, that "perhaps a meeting with such a party, at a
+late hour, might be inconvenient, especially if the traveller had a full
+purse." The fellow turned on me a countenance of ridicule. "What?" said
+he, "do you take them for robbers? Heaven bless you, my lad, they could
+buy the stage, horses, passengers, and all. I'll warrant you, they will
+have news from over there," and he pointed towards France, "before it
+gets into the newspapers, long enough. They are the richest fellows in
+the county."
+
+"Are they smugglers?" I asked, with sufficient want of tact.
+
+"Why, no," was the answer, with a leer. "We have nothing of that breed
+among us; we are all honest men. But what if a man has an acquaintance
+abroad, and gets a commission to sell a cargo of tea or brandy, or
+perhaps a present from a friend--what shall hinder him from going to
+bring it? I'm sure, not I."
+
+It was evidently not the "etiquette" on the roof of the Royal Sussex to
+think much on the subject, and before my curiosity could reach the
+length of actual imprudence, the coachman pulled up, and informed me
+that I had reached the nearest turn to "the Hermitage." My valise was
+lowered down, a peasant was found to carry it, and I plunged into the
+depth of a lane as primitive as if it had been a path in Siberia.
+
+It was brief, however, and in a few minutes I was within sight of the
+villa. Here I at once discovered that Mordecai was a man of taste;
+perhaps the very roughness of the Sussex jungle, through which I had
+just come, had been suffered to remain for the sake of contrast. A small
+lodge, covered with late blooming roses, let me into a narrow avenue of
+all kinds of odorous shrubs; the evening sun was still strong enough to
+show me glimpses of the grounds on either side, and they had all the
+dressed smoothness of a parterre. The scene was so different from all
+that I had been wearied of during the day, that I felt it with double
+enjoyment; and the utter solitude and silence, after the rough voices of
+my companions in the journey, were so soothing, that I involuntarily
+paused before I approached the house, to refresh not more my senses than
+my mind. As I stood leaning against a tree, and baring my hot brain and
+bosom to the breeze, that rose with delicious coolness, I heard music.
+It was a sweet voice, accompanied at intervals by some skilful touches
+of a harp; and, from the solemnity of the measure, I supposed it to be a
+hymn. Who was the minstrel? Mordecai had never mentioned to me either
+wife or daughter. Well, at all events, the song was sweet. The minstrel
+was a woman, and the Jew's household promised me more amusement than I
+could have expected from the man of Moorfields. The song ceased, the
+spell was broken, and I moved on, fully convinced that I had entered on
+a scene where I might expect at least novelty; and the expectation was
+then enough to have led me to the cannon's mouth or the antipodes.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE VIGIL OF VENUS.
+
+TRANSLATED FROM THE LATIN.
+
+
+This old poem, which commemorates the festivities with which ancient
+Rome hailed the returning brightness of spring, may, perhaps, awaken in
+our readers some melancholy reflections on the bygone delights of the
+same season in our own country. To the Romans, it would seem, this
+period of the year never ceased to bring rejoicing holidays. There is
+good reason to suppose that this poem was written in the declining times
+of the empire; if so, it seems that, amidst the public misfortunes that
+followed one another during that age, the people were not woe-worn and
+distressed; that they were able to forget, in social pleasures, the
+gradual decay of their ancient glory. Rome "smiled in death." England is
+still great and powerful, but she is no longer Merry England.
+
+Most people have heard of the Floralia, and have learned to deduce the
+frolics of Maid Marian and her comrades from the Roman observances on
+that festive occasion. But few are aware of the close similarity which
+this poem shows to have existed between the customs of the Romans and
+those of our fathers. In the denunciations of the latter by the acrid
+Puritans of the 17th century, we might almost imagine that the tirade
+was expressly levelled against the vigils described in the _Pervigilium
+Veneris_. If the poem had ever fallen into the hands of those worthies,
+it would have afforded them an additional handle for invective against
+the foul ethnic superstitions which the May-games were denounced as
+representing. Hear Master Stubbes, in his _Anatomie of Abuses_,
+published in 1585:--
+
+    "Against May, Whitsonday, or other time, all the yung men and
+    maides, old men and wives, run gadding over the night to the
+    woods, groves, hils, and mountains, where they spend all the
+    night in pleasant pastimes, and in the morning they return,
+    bringing with them birch and branches of trees, to deck their
+    assemblies withall; and no meruaile, for there is a great Lord
+    present amongst them as superintendent and Lord of their
+    sports, namely, Sathan prince of hel. But the chiefest jewel
+    they bring from thence is their May-pole, (say rather their
+    stinking poole,) which they bring home with great veneration."
+
+Who does not remember Lysander's appointment with Hermia:
+
+      ----"in that wood, a league without the town,
+    Where I did meet thee once with Helena,
+    To do observance to a morn of May,
+    There will I stay for thee."
+
+These passages point us to the time when man and nature met to rejoice
+together on May-day: to the time before the days of the workhouse and
+factory; when the length and breadth of the land rung to the joyaunce
+and glee of the holiday-rejoicing nation, and the gay sounds careered on
+fresh breezes even where now the dense atmosphere of Manchester or
+Ashton glooms over the dens of torture in which withered and debauched
+children are forced to their labour, and the foul haunts under the
+shelter of which desperate men hatch plots of rapine and slaughter.
+
+The poem shows that the Romans, like the English of those days,
+celebrated the season by betaking themselves to the woods throughout the
+night, where they kept a vigil in honour of Venus, to whose guardianship
+the month of April was assigned, as being the universal generating and
+producing power, and more especially to be adored as such by the Romans,
+from having been, through her son �neas, the author of their race. The
+poem seems to have been composed with a view to its being sung by a
+choir of maidens in their nocturnal rambles beneath the soft light of an
+Italian moon. The delicious balm of that voluptuous climate breathes
+through every line of it, and vividly presents to the reader's
+imagination the scene of the festivity; but whether we can claim these
+celebrations for our own May-day, is a doubtful point; for Wernsdorf,
+who has included the Pervigilium Veneris in his edition of _Poet� Latini
+Minores_, vol. iii., maintains that it is to be referred to the
+Veneralia, or feast of Venus, on the 1st of April. The Kalendar of
+Constantius marks the 3d day of April as Natalis Quirini. If, then, the
+morrow spoken of in the poem is to be taken to mean this birthday of
+Romulus, we must suppose the vigil of three nights to have begun on the
+night of the last day of March. But perhaps our readers will agree with
+us, that there are quite as good grounds for attributing this vigil to
+the Floralia, which commenced on the 27th of April, and ended on the
+first of May. For although the rites of the Floralia were in honour of
+Flora, yet we may easily conceive the principle by which the worship of
+Venus, the spirit of beauty, and love, and production, would come to be
+intermingled with the homage paid to the flower-goddess. And then the
+three nights would denote the nights of the Floralia already past, if we
+suppose the hymn to have been sung on the night before the 1st of May.
+This seems more natural, as coinciding with the known length of the
+festival, than Wernsdorf's hypothesis, which makes the vigil commence
+before the month of Venus had opened. As regards the time of year, too,
+May is far more suited than April, even in Italy, for outwatching the
+Bear on woodland lawns.
+
+The question regarding the author of the Pervigilium Veneris is still a
+_lis sub judice_. Aldus, Erasmus, and Meursius, attributed it to
+Catullus; but subsequent editors have, with much more probability,
+contended that its age is considerably later. We may notice a scholastic
+and philosophical spirit about it, which is ill-suited to the Bard of
+Verona. Lipsius claimed it for the Augustan age, in consequence of the
+mention of C�sar which is introduced. But we think we may safely assume,
+that the observance of this vigil grew into custom after the time of
+Ovid, otherwise it is difficult to account for the total absence of all
+allusion, in his Fasti, to a subject so perfectly adapted to his verse.
+But we will not enter any further into a discussion which Salmasius and
+Scaliger could not settle, but shall at once present our readers with
+the following translation of the Pervigilium Veneris:--
+
+      He that never loved before,
+        Let him love to-morrow!
+      He that hath loved o'er and o'er,
+        Let him love to-morrow!
+
+      Spring, young Spring, with song and mirth,
+    Spring is on the newborn earth.
+    Spring is here, the time of love--
+    The merry birds pair in the grove,
+    And the green trees hang their tresses,
+    Loosen'd by the rain's caresses.
+    To-morrow sees the dawn of May,
+    When Venus will her sceptre sway,
+    Glorious, in her justice-hall:
+    There where woodland shadows fall,
+    On bowers of myrtle intertwined,
+    Many a band of love she'll bind.
+                He that never, &c.
+
+    To-morrow is the day when first
+    From the foam-world of Ocean burst,
+    Like one of his own waves, the bright
+    Dione, queen of love and light,
+    Amid the sea-gods' azure train,
+    'Mid the strange horses of the main.
+                He that never, &c.
+
+    She it is that lends the Hours
+    Their crimson glow, their jewel-flowers:
+    At her command the buds are seen,
+    Where the west-wind's breath hath been,
+    To swell within their dwellings green.
+    She abroad those dewdrops flings,
+    Dew that night's cool softness brings;
+    How the bright tears hang declining,
+    And glisten with a tremulous shining,
+    Almost of weight to drop away,
+    And yet too light to leave the spray.
+    Hence the tender plants are bold
+    Their blushing petals to unfold:
+    'Tis that dew, which through the air
+    Falls from heaven when night is fair,
+    That unbinds the moist green vest
+    From the floweret's maiden breast.
+    'Tis Venus' will, when morning glows,
+    'Twill be the bridal of each rose.
+    Then the bride-flower shall reveal,
+    What her veil cloth now conceal,
+    The blush divinest, which of yore
+    She caught from Venus' trickling gore,
+    With Love's kisses mix'd, I trow,
+    With blaze of fire, and rubies' glow,
+    And with many a crimson ray
+    Stolen from the birth of day.
+                He that never, &c.
+
+    All the nymphs the Queen of Love
+    Summons to the myrtle-grove;
+    And see ye, how her wanton boy
+    Comes with them to share our joy?
+    Yet, if Love be arm'd, they say,
+    Love can scarce keep holiday:
+    Love without his bow is straying!
+    Come, ye nymphs, Love goes a Maying.
+    His torch, his shafts, are laid aside--
+    From them no harm shall you betide.
+    Yet, I rede ye, nymphs, beware,
+    For your foe is passing fair;
+    Love is mighty, ye'll confess,
+    Mighty e'en in nakedness;
+    And most panoplied for fight
+    When his charms are bared to sight.
+                He that never, &c.
+
+    Dian, a petition we,
+    By Venus sent, prefer to thee:
+    Virgin envoys, it is meet,
+    Should the Virgin huntress greet:
+    Quit the grove, nor it profane
+    With the blood of quarry slain.
+    She would ask thee, might she dare
+    Hope a maiden's thought to share--
+    She would bid thee join us now,
+    Might cold maids our sport allow.
+    Now three nights thou may'st have seen,
+    Wandering through thine alleys green,
+    Troops of joyous friends, with flowers
+    Crown'd, amidst their myrtle bowers.
+    Ceres and Bacchus us attend,
+    And great Apollo is our friend;
+    All night we must our Vigil keep--
+    Night by song redeem'd from sleep.
+    Let Venus in the woods bear sway,
+    Dian, quit the grove, we pray.
+                He that never, &c.
+
+    Of Hybla's flowers, so Venus will'd,
+    Venus' judgment-seat we build.
+    She is judge supreme; the Graces,
+    As assessors, take their places.
+    Hybla, render all thy store
+    All the season sheds thee o'er,
+    Till a hill of bloom be found
+    Wide as Enna's flowery ground.
+    Attendant nymphs shall here be seen,
+    Those who delight in forest green,
+    Those who on mountain-top abide,
+    And those whom sparkling fountains hide.
+    All these the Queen of joy and sport
+    Summons to attend her court,
+    And bids them all of Love beware,
+    Although the guise of peace he wear.
+                He that never, &c.
+
+    Fresh be your coronals of flowers,
+    And green your overarching bowers,
+    To-morrow brings us the return
+    Of Ether's primal marriage-morn.
+    In amorous showers of rain he came
+    T' embrace his bride's mysterious frame,
+    To generate the blooming year,
+    And all the produce Earth does bear.
+    Venus still through vein and soul
+    Bids the genial current roll;
+    Still she guides its secret course
+    With interpenetrating force,
+    And breathes through heaven, and earth, and sea,
+    A reproductive energy.
+                He that never, &c.
+
+    She old Troy's extinguish'd glory
+    Revived in Latium's later story,
+    When, by her auspices, her son
+    Laurentia's royal damsel won.
+    She vestal Rhea's spotless charms
+    Surrender'd to the War-god's arms;
+    She for Romulus that day
+    The Sabine daughters bore away;
+    Thence sprung the Rhamnes' lofty name,
+    Thence the old Quirites came;
+    And thence the stock of high renown,
+    The blood of Romulus, handed down
+    Through many an age of glory pass'd,
+    To blaze in C�sar's at last.
+                He that never, &c.
+
+    All rural nature feels the glow
+    Of quickening passion through it flow.
+    Love, in rural scenes of yore,
+    They say, his goddess-mother bore;
+    Received on Earth's sustaining breast,
+    Th' ambrosial infant sunk to rest;
+    And him the wild-flowers, o'er his head
+    Bending, with sweetest kisses fed.
+                He that never, &c.
+
+    On yellow broom out yonder, see,
+    The mighty bulls lie peacefully.
+    Each animal of field or grove
+    Owns faithfully the bond of love.
+    The flocks of ewes, beneath the shade,
+    Around their gallant rams are laid;
+    And Venus bids the birds awake
+    To pour their song through plain and brake.
+    Hark! the noisy pools reply
+    To the swan's hoarse harmony;
+    And Philomel is vocal now,
+    Perch'd upon a poplar-bough.
+    Thou scarce would'st think that dying fall
+    Could ought but love's sweet griefs recall;
+    Thou scarce would'st gather from her song
+    The tale of brother's barbarous wrong.
+    She sings, but I must silent be:--
+    When will the spring-tide come for me?
+    When, like the swallow, spring's own bird,
+    Shall my faint twittering notes be heard?
+    Alas! the muse, while silent I
+    Remain'd, hath gone and pass'd me by,
+    Nor Phoebus listens to my cry.
+    And thus forgotten, I await,
+    By silence lost, Amycl�'s fate.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTERS OF TURKISH HISTORY.
+RISE OF THE KIUPRILI FAMILY--SIEGE OF CANDIA.
+
+NO. IX.
+
+
+The restraint which the ferocious energy of Sultan Mourad-Ghazi, during
+the latter years of his reign, had succeeded in imposing on the
+turbulence of the Janissaries,[1] vanished at his death; and for many
+years subsequently, the domestic annals of the Ottoman capital are
+filled with the details of the intrigues of women and eunuchs within the
+palace, and the sanguinary feuds and excesses of the soldiery without.
+The Sultan Ibrahim, the only surviving brother and successor of Mourad,
+was in his twenty-fifth year at the time of his accession; but he had
+been closely immured in the seraglio from the moment of his birth; and
+the dulness of his temperament (to which he probably owed his escape
+from the bowstring, by which the lives of his three brothers had been
+terminated by order of Mourad) had never been improved by cultivation.
+Destitute alike of capacity and inclination for the toils of government,
+he remained constantly immersed in the pleasures of the harem; while his
+mother, the Sultana-Walidah Kiosem, (surnamed _Mah-peiker_, or the
+_Moon-face_,) who had been the favourite of the harem under Ahmed I.,
+and was a woman of extraordinary beauty and masculine understanding,
+kept the administration of the state almost wholly in her own hands. The
+talents of this princess, aided by the ministers of her selection, for
+some time prevented the incompetency of the sultan from publicly
+manifesting itself; but Ibrahim at last shook off the control of his
+mother, and speedily excited the indignant murmurs of the troops and the
+people by the publicity with which he abandoned himself to the most
+degrading sensuality. The sanctity of the harem and of the bath had
+hitherto been held inviolate by even the most despotic of the Ottoman
+sovereigns; but this sacred barrier was broken through by the unbridled
+passions of Ibrahim, who at length ventured to seize in the public baths
+the daughter of the mufti, and, after detaining her for some days in the
+palace, sent her back with ignominy to her father. This unheard-of
+outrage at once kindled the smouldering discontent into a flame; the
+Moslem population rose in instant and universal revolt; and a scene
+ensued almost without parallel in history--the deposition of an absolute
+sovereign by form of law. The grand-vizir Ahmed, and other panders to
+the vices of the sultan, were seized and put to death on the place of
+public execution; while an immense crowd of soldiers, citizens, and
+janissaries, assembling before the palace of the mufti early on the
+morning of August 8, 1648, received from him a _fetwa_, or decree, to
+the effect that the sultan (designated as "Ibrahim Abdul-Rahman
+Effendi") had, by his habitual immorality and disregard of law,
+forfeited all claim to be considered as a true believer, and was
+therefore incapable of reigning over the Faithful. The execution of this
+sentence was entrusted to the Aga of the Janissaries, the Silihdar or
+grand sword-bearer, and the Kadhi-asker or chief judge of Anatolia, who,
+repairing to the seraglio, attended by a multitude of military officers
+and the _ulemah_, proceeded without ceremony to announce to Ibrahim that
+his rule was at an end. His furious remonstrances were drowned by the
+rude voice of the Kadhi Abdul-Aziz Effendi,[2] who boldly reproached him
+with his vices. "Thou hast gone astray," said he, "from the paths in
+which thy glorious ancestors walked, and hast trampled under foot both
+law and religion, and thou art no longer the padishah of the Moslems!"
+He was at last conducted to the same apartment whence he had been taken
+to ascend the throne, and where, ten days later, his existence was
+terminated by the bowstring; while the Sultana-Walidah, (whose
+acquiescence in this extraordinary revolution had been previously
+secured,) led into the _salamlik_ (hall of audience) her eldest grandson
+Mohammed,[3] an infant scarcely seven years old, who was forthwith
+seated on the imperial sofa, and received the homage of the dignitaries
+of the realm.
+
+    [1] See "Chapters of Turkish History," No. III., November 1840.
+
+    [2] He was afterwards, in 1651, mufti for a few months; but is
+    better known as an historian, (under the appellation of
+    Kara-Tchelibi-Zadah,) and as having been tutor to
+    Ahmed-Kiuprili.
+
+    [3] His name, according to Evliya, was originally Yusuf, but was
+    changed to Mohammed on the entreaty of the ladies of the
+    seraglio, who said that Yusuf was the name of a slave.
+
+Sultan Mohammed IV., afterwards surnamed _Avadji_, or the Hunter, who
+was destined to fill the throne of the Ottoman Empire during one of the
+most eventful periods of its history, possessed qualifications which, if
+his education had not been interrupted by his early accession to supreme
+power, might have entitled him to a high place among the monarchs of his
+line. Unlike most of the imperial family, he was of a spare sinewy form,
+and lofty stature; and his features are said by Evliya to have been
+remarkably handsome, though his forehead was disfigured by a deep scar
+which he had received in his infancy, by being thrown by his father, in
+an access of brutal passion, into a cistern in the gardens of the
+seraglio; and a contemporary Venetian chronicler says that his dark
+complexion and vivid restless eye gave him rather the aspect of a
+_Zigano_, or gipsy, than an Osmanli. In the first years of his reign,
+his grandmother, the Walidah Kiosem, acted as regent; but the rule of a
+woman and a child was little able to curb the turbulent soldiery of the
+capital; and the old feuds between the spahis and janissaries, which had
+been dormant since the death of Abaza, broke out afresh with redoubled
+violence. The war in Crete, which had been commenced under Ibrahim,
+languished for want of troops and supplies; while the rival military
+factions fought, sword in hand, in front of the imperial palace, and
+filled Constantinople with pillage and massacre. The janissaries, who
+were supported by Kiosem, for some time maintained the ascendency; but
+this ambitious princess was at length cut off by an intrigue, in the
+interior of the harem, fomented by the mother of Mohammed, who suspected
+her of a design to prolong her own sway by the removal of the sultan, in
+favour of a still younger son of Ibrahim. Seized in the midst of the
+night of September 3, 1651, by the eunuchs whom her rival had gained,
+Kiosem was strangled (according to a report preserved by Evliya) with
+the braids of her own long hair; and the sultan was exhibited at
+daybreak by the grand-vizir Siawush-Pasha to the people, who thronged
+round the palace on the rumour of this domestic tragedy, to assure them
+of the personal safety of their youthful sovereign.
+
+The supreme power was now lodged in the hands of the young Sultana
+Walidah, and her confidant the Kislar-Aga; but their inexperience was
+little qualified to encounter the task which had wellnigh baffled the
+energies of Kiosem; and the expedient of frequently changing the
+grand-vizir, in obedience to the requisition of which ever party was for
+the time in the ascendant, prevented the measures of government from
+acquiring even a shadow of consistence or stability. Twelve vizirs,
+within eight years from the deposition of Ibrahim, had successively held
+the reins of power for short periods; and not less than six had been
+raised to, and deposed from, that precarious dignity, within the last
+ten months, while the audacity of the troops, and the helplessness of
+the executive, had reached an unparalleled climax. In a memorable
+insurrection, arising from the depreciation of the coinage, which marked
+the spring of 1656, the revolters, not contented with their usual
+license of plunder and bloodshed, forced their way into the palace, and
+exacted from the young sultan the surrender of two of his favourite
+domestics, who were instantly slaughtered before his eyes; while various
+obnoxious public functionaries were dragged to the At-meidan, and
+summarily hanged on the branches of a large plane-tree;[4] and for
+several weeks this proscription was continued, till the cry of "Take him
+to the plane-tree!" became a watchword of as well-known and fearful
+import, as that of "A la lanterne!" in later times. In this emergency,
+when the fabric of government seemed on the verge of dissolution, an
+ancient Anatolian pasha, Mohammed-Kiuprili, who had lately repaired to
+the capital, was named by her confidential advisers to the
+Sultana-Walidah as a man whose eminent discernment and sagacity, not
+less than his fearless intrepidity, rendered him especially fitted for
+the task of stilling the troubled waters. In opposition to these views
+it was contended, that the poverty of the proposed premier would prevent
+his securing the adherence of the troops by the largesses which they had
+been accustomed to receive, and the project was apparently abandoned;
+but the incapacity and unpopularity of the grand-vizir, Mohammed-Pasha,
+(surnamed _Egri_, or the Crooked,) soon made it obvious that a fresh
+change alone could prevent another convulsion. On the 15th September
+1656, therefore, in a fortunate[5] hour for the distracted empire,
+Kiuprili was summoned to the presence of the sultan, who had now,
+nominally at least, assumed the direction of affairs, and received from
+his hands the seals of office.
+
+    [4] The Turkish historian, Naima, fancifully compares this plane
+    to the fabulous tree in the islands of Wak-Wak, the fruit of
+    which consisted of human heads, as is fully detailed in the
+    romance of Hatem Tai, besides various passages of the Thousand
+    and One Nights. Under this same plane, by a singular instance of
+    retribution, the heads of the janissaries massacred in the
+    At-meidan in 1826, were piled by order of Sultan Mahmood.
+
+    [5] The Turkish annalists do not fail to remark, that Kiuprili
+    crossed the imperial threshold at the moment when the call to
+    noon prayers was resounding from the minarets--an evident token
+    of the Divine protection extended to him!
+
+Such were the circumstances of the elevation of this most celebrated of
+Ottoman ministers, whose name stands pre-eminent, not only from his own
+abilities and good fortune, but as the founder of the only family which
+ever continued to enjoy, during several generations, the highest honours
+of the empire. He was the son of an Arnaut[6] soldier, who had settled
+in Anatolia, on receiving a _timar_ or fief in the district of Amasia,
+near the town of Kiupri, ('the bridge:') from which (since distinguished
+from other places of the same name as _Vizir_-Kiupri) his descendants
+derived the surname under which they are generally mentioned in history.
+He commenced his career as a page in the imperial seraglio; which he
+left for a post in the household of Khosroo, afterwards grand-vizir, who
+was then aga of janissaries. Passing through various gradations of rank,
+he held several governments in Syria, and was raised to the grade of
+pasha of three tails: till, at an advanced age, he obtained permission
+to exchange these honours for the post of _sandjak_ of his native
+district, to which he accordingly withdrew. But his retirement was
+disturbed, in 1648, by the insurrection of Varvar-Ali, pasha of Siwas,
+who, rather than surrender a beautiful daughter, the affianced bride of
+his neighbour Ipshir, pasha of Tokat, to the panders of the imperial
+harem, had raised the standard of revolt, and had been joined by the
+pasha of Erzroom, Gourdji-Mohammed, (to whose suite the annalist Evliya
+was then attached,) and by many of the Turkman clans of Anatolia. The
+Sultana-Walidah herself, who was then at variance with her degenerate
+son, secretly encouraged the insurgents, who endeavoured to gain over
+Kiuprili to their party; but as they failed in all their efforts to
+shake his loyalty, Varvar suddenly marched against him, routed the
+troops which he had collected, and made him prisoner, with two
+beglerbegs whom he had summoned to his aid. "I saw these three pashas"
+(says Evliya, who had come to the rebel camp on a mission from
+Gourdji-Mohammed) "stripped of their robes and turbans, and fastened by
+chains round their necks to stakes in front of the tent of Varvar-Ali,
+while the seghbans, and even the surridjis" (irregular horse)
+"brandished their sabres before their faces, threatening them with
+instant death. Thus we see the changes of fortune, that those who were
+the drivers become in their turn the driven," (like cattle.)
+
+    [6] In a narrative by a writer named Chassipol, (Paris, 1676,)
+    professing to be the biography of the two first Kiuprili vizirs,
+    Mohammed is said to have been the son of a French emigrant, and
+    this romance has been copied by most European authors. But the
+    testimony of Evliya, Kara-Tchelibi, and all contemporary Turkish
+    writers, is decisive on the point of his Albanian origin.
+
+Evliya, who seems to feel a malicious pleasure in relating this mishap
+of the future grand-vizir, confesses to having himself received a horse
+and a slave out of his spoils; but even before his departure from the
+camp, the rebellion was crushed, and Kiuprili released, by the base
+treachery of Ipshir-Pasha,[7] for whose sake alone Varvar-Ali had taken
+up arms. Won by the emissaries of the Porte, by the promise of the rich
+pashalic of Aleppo, he suddenly assailed the troops of his
+father-in-law, and seizing his person, cut off his head, and sent it
+with those of his principal followers to Constantinople--an act of
+perfidious ingratitude, which, even among the frequent breaches of faith
+staining the Ottoman annals, has earned for its perpetrator the
+sobriquet of _Khain_, or the traitor, _par excellence_. After this
+unlucky adventure, we hear no more of Kiuprili in his Anatolian sandjak,
+till, in the spring of 1656, we find him accompanying Egri-Mohammed on
+his way to the Porte to assume the vizirat: from which, in less than
+four months, he was removed to make way for his quondam _prot�g�_, in
+whose elevation he had thus been an involuntary instrument.
+
+    [7] Ipshir Mustapha Pasha was originally a Circassian slave, and
+    said to have been a tribesman and near relation of the famous
+    Abaza. During the revolutions which distracted the minority of
+    Mohammed, he became grand-vizir for a few months, (Oct. 1654-May
+    1655,) but was cut off by an unanimous insurrection of the
+    spahis and janissaries, who forgot their feuds for the sake of
+    vengeance on the common enemy.
+
+Mohamned Kiuprili was at this period nearly eighty years of age, and so
+wholly illiterate that he could neither read nor write; yet such was the
+general estimation of his wisdom and abilities, that the young sultan,
+on entrusting to him the ensigns of office, voluntarily pledged himself
+to leave entirely at his discretion the regulation of the foreign and
+domestic relations of the empire, as well as the disposal of all offices
+of state--thus virtually delegating to him the functions of sovereignty.
+The measures of Kiuprili soon showed that these extraordinary powers
+would not be suffered to remain dormant. The impatience of the troops at
+the strict discipline which he enforced, erelong announced the approach
+of a fresh tumult; and the ringleaders, in the confidence of
+long-continued impunity, openly boasted that "the plane-tree would soon
+bear another crop"--when on the night of Jan. 5, 1657, the grand-vizir,
+accompanied by the aga of the janissaries, and fortified by a fetwa from
+the mufti, legalizing whatever he might do, made the round of the
+barracks with his guards, and seized several hundreds of all ranks in
+the various corps, whose bodies, found floating the next day in the
+Bosphorus, revealed their fate to their dismayed accomplices. The Greek
+patriarch, on suspicion of having endeavoured to engage the Vaivode of
+Wallachia in a plot for a general rising of the Christians, was summoned
+to the Porte, and forthwith bowstrung in the presence of Kiuprili; and
+in the course of a few weeks, not fewer than 4000 of those who had been
+implicated in the previous disorders perished under the hands of the
+executioner: "for as in medicine," remarks a Turkish historian, "it is
+necessary to employ remedies which are analogous to the disease, so by
+bloodshed alone could the state be purified from these lawless shedders
+of blood!"
+
+These terrible severities broke the spirit of insubordination in the
+capital; and the irregularity of their pay, which had been one of the
+chief grievances of the janissaries, was remedied by the good order
+which Kiuprili had from the first introduced in the finances. "He
+proportioned the expenditure of the empire," says Evliya, "to its
+revenues, which he also greatly enlarged, so that he gained the name of
+_Sahib-Kharj_," (master of finance.) The Venetians, who had availed
+themselves of the anarchy reigning at Constantinople to occupy Tenedos
+and Lemnos, so as to blockade the Dardanelles, were dislodged by the
+activity of the vizir, who directed the sieges in person, bestowing
+honours and rewards on the soldiers most distinguished for their
+bravery; and though the Turkish fleet was defeated (July 17, 1657) at
+the entrance of the straits, the Venetians sustained an irreparable loss
+in their valiant admiral Mocenigo, who was blown up with his ship by a
+well-aimed shot from one of the batteries on shore. But though the
+janissaries were thus reduced to order and obedience, the flame of
+disaffection was still smouldering among the spahis of Asia Minor, and
+broke out, in the course of the ensuing year, into a formidable and
+widely-organized rebellion. Not fewer than forty pashas and sandjaks
+followed the banner of the insurgent leader Abaza-Hassan, pasha of
+Aleppo, who advanced towards the Bosphorus at the head of 70,000 men,
+assuming the state of a monarch, and demanding the heads of Kiuprili and
+his principal adherents as the price of his submission. Morteza-Pasha,
+governor of Diarbekr, who attempted to oppose him in the field, was
+routed with the loss of nearly his whole army; and though the emissaries
+who attempted to seduce the troops in Constantinople from their
+allegiance were detected and put to death by the vigilance of Kiuprili,
+the revolt spread throughout Anatolia and Syria, and the sultan was
+preparing to take the field in person, when treachery succeeded in
+accomplishing what force had failed to effect. It has been an uniform
+maxim of the Ottoman domestic policy, which singularly contrasts with
+their scrupulous observance of the treaties entered into with foreign
+powers, that no faith is to be kept with _fermanlis_, or traitors to the
+Padishah; and in the assured belief, confirmed by hostages and solemn
+oaths, that the sultan was willing to accede to his demands,
+Abaza-Hassan suffered himself to be drawn from his headquarters at
+Aintab, with thirty of his officers, to a conference with Morteza at
+Aleppo: but, in the midst of the banquet which followed this interview,
+Abaza and his comrades found themselves in the grasp of the
+executioners--while their followers, dispersed through the town, were
+slaughtered without mercy on the signal of a gun fired from the castle;
+and the army, panic-stricken at the fate of its leaders, quickly melted
+away. But no sooner was the semblance of tranquillity restored, than the
+Kaimakam Ismail Pasha, an unscrupulous agent of the merciless decrees of
+the vizir, was sent into Asia under the new title of Moufetish, or
+inquisitor; and an unsparing proscription almost utterly exterminated
+all the remaining partizans of Abaza-Hassan, without distinction of
+rank; while the suppression of numerous _timars_ or fiefs, and the
+removal of the occupants of others from their ancient abodes to remote
+districts, so effectually loosened the bands which had hitherto united
+the spahis, like the janissaries, into a compact fraternity, that this
+once powerful body was divided and broken; and they no longer occupy, as
+a separate faction, their former conspicuous place in the troubled scene
+of Ottoman history.
+
+The termination of this great revolt freed Kiuprili from the
+apprehension of military sedition, and left him in the enjoyment of more
+absolute and undivided authority than had ever been possessed by any of
+his predecessors in office. The sultan, from whose mind the impression
+of the bloody scenes witnessed in his youth had never been effaced,
+rarely visited Constantinople; devoting himself to the pleasures of the
+chase in the forests and hills of Roumelia, and repairing only at
+intervals to the ancient palace of his ancestors at Adrianople, whither
+his harem and household had been transferred from the capital. The
+uncontrolled administration of the state was left in the hands of the
+vizir, but his implacable severity towards all who failed in implicit
+devotion to his will, continued unabated. "He was unacquainted" (says
+his contemporary, Rycaut) "with mercy, and never pardoned any who were
+either guilty of a fault, or suspected for it;" and neither rank nor
+services afforded protection to those who had incurred his jealousy or
+resentment. Among the numerous victims of his suspicious cruelty, the
+fate of Delhi-Hussein-Pasha was long remembered in Constantinople.
+Originally a _battadji_ or lictor in the seraglio, he had attracted the
+notice of Sultan Mourad-Ghazi by his strength and address in bending a
+bow sent as a challenge by the Shah of Persia, and which had baffled the
+efforts of all the _pelhwans_ or champions of the Ottoman court. His
+first advancement to the post of equerry was only a prelude to the
+attainment of higher honours, and he became successively governor of
+Buda and of Egypt, capitan-pasha and serasker in Candia. His exploits in
+the latter capacity had endeared him to the troops, while his noble
+figure and frank bearing made him equally the idol of the citizens, but
+his unbounded popularity led Kiuprili to foresee a future rival in this
+favourite hero, and the fate of Delhi-Hussein was sealed. In an
+interview with the vizir, he was graciously received, and invested with
+a robe of honour; but as he quitted the Porte he was arrested and
+carried to the Seven Towers, where, two days after, (in spite of the
+intercession of the Sultana-Walidah, and the refusal of the mufti to
+ratify the unjust doom,) he was bowstrung in his cell, as the murmurs of
+the troops prevented the vizir from risking a public execution.
+
+But though thus inexorable to all whose popularity or pretensions might
+interfere with his own supremacy, and haughty even beyond all former
+precedent in his intercourse with the representatives of the Christian
+powers,[8] Kiuprili deserved, by the merits of his domestic
+administration, the high place which has been assigned to him by the
+unanimous voice of the Ottoman historians. The exact regularity which he
+enforced both in the payment and disbursement of the revenue, relieved
+the people from the irregular imposts to which they had been subject, in
+order to make up the deficiencies arising from the interception, by the
+pashas, of the tributes of distant provinces, and the peculation which
+had long reigned unchecked at the seat of government--while the sums
+thus rendered disposable were laid out chiefly in improving the internal
+communications, and strengthening the defences, of the empire. The
+Dardanelles, hitherto guarded only by Mohammed II.'s two castles of
+Europe and Asia, was made almost impregnable by the construction of the
+formidable line of sea defences still existing; the necessity for which
+had been demonstrated by the recent attack of the Venetians; and
+fortified posts were established along the line of the Dnieper and
+Dniester, to keep in cheek the predatory Cossacks between these rivers,
+who were at this time engaged in a furious civil contest with the king
+of Poland, the ally of the Porte. The Hungarian fortresses were also
+repaired, and vast warlike preparations made along the Danube, as the
+peace which for fifty years had subsisted with the empire appeared on
+the verge of inevitable rupture. The succession to the principality of
+Transylvania, the suzeraint� of which had long been a point of dispute
+between the Porte and Austria, was now contested between Kem�ny and
+Michael Abaffi--the latter being the nominee of the sultan, while Kem�ny
+was supported by the emperor, to whom the late Prince Racoczy had
+transferred his allegiance a short time before his death in battle
+against the Turks, in 1660. The Imperialists and Turks had more than
+once encountered each other as auxiliaries of the rival candidates, and
+Kiuprili was on the point of repairing in person to the scene of action,
+when he died at Adrianople of dropsy, (Oct. 31, 1661,) in the
+eighty-sixth year of his age, and was buried in a splendid mausoleum,
+which he had erected for himself, near the Tauk-bazar (poultry market)
+at Constantinople--the vault of which, during his life, he had daily
+filled with corn, which was then distributed to the poor to purchase
+their prayers! "Thus," says a Turkish annalist, "died Kiuprili-Mohammed,
+who was most zealous and active in the cause of the faith! Enjoying
+absolute power, and being anxious to purify the Ottoman empire, he slew
+in Anatolia 400,000[9] rebels, including seventeen vizirs or pashas of
+three tails, forty-one of two tails, seventy sandjak-beys, three
+mallahs, and a Moghrabiu sheikh. May God be merciful to him!"
+
+    [8] De la Haye, the French ambassador, was imprisoned in 1658,
+    and his son bastinadoed in the presence of Kiuprili, for being
+    unable or unwilling to give a key to some letters in cipher from
+    the Venetians; and some years later, the envoy of the Czar,
+    Alexis Mikhailowitz, was driven, with blows and violence, from
+    the presence of the sultan, who was irritated by the
+    incompetency of the interpreter to translate the Czar's letter!
+    This latter outrage, however, was not till after the death of
+    the elder Kiuprili.
+
+    [9] This monstrous exaggeration is reduced by Rycaut to the more
+    credible, but still enormous number of 36,000 victims during the
+    five years of his ministry.
+
+The genius of the Ottoman institutions is so directly opposed to any
+thing like the perpetuation of offices in a family, which might tend to
+endanger the despotism of the throne by the creation of an hereditary
+aristocracy, that even in the inferior ranks, an instance had hitherto
+scarcely been known of a son succeeding his father. The immediate
+appointment, therefore, of Fazil-Ahmed, the eldest son of the deceased
+minister, to the vizirat, was so complete a departure from all
+established usages, as at once demonstrated to the expectant courtiers
+that the influence of the crafty old vizir had survived him, and that
+"the star of the house of Kiuprili" (in the words of a Turkish writer)
+"had only set in the west to rise again with fresh splendour in the
+east." Ahmed-Kiuprili was now thirty-two years of age, and joined to an
+intellect not less naturally vigorous than that of his father, those
+advantages of education in which the latter had been deficient. At an
+early age he had been placed under the historian, Abdul-Aziz Effendi, as
+a student of divinity and law, in the _medressah_ or college attached to
+the mosque of Sultan Mohammed the Conqueror, and had attained, in due
+course, the rank of _muderris_ or fellow therein; but the elevation of
+his father to the vizirat transferred him from the cloister to the camp,
+and he held the governments successively of Erzroom and Damascus--in the
+latter of which he distinguished himself by his moderation and firmness
+in reducing to order the refractory chiefs of the Druses, of the two
+great rival houses of Shahab and Maan-Oghlu. Recalled, at length, to
+Constantinople to assume the office of kaimakam, he had scarcely entered
+on his new duties when he was summoned to Adrianople, to attend the
+deathbed of his father, and to succeed him in the uncontrolled
+administration of the empire.
+
+The numerous executions which marked the accession of the new vizir, (in
+accordance, as was believed, with the dying injunctions of his father,)
+struck with terror the functionaries of government, who anticipated a
+continuance of the iron rule under which they had so long trembled; but
+the disposition of Ahmed-Kiuprili was not naturally sanguinary, and few
+measures of unnecessary severity characterized his subsequent sway. The
+war in Hungary, meanwhile, had assumed a serious aspect; for though
+Kem�ny had perished in battle, the Imperialists still continued to
+oppose the claims of Abaffi to the crown of Transylvania; and their
+armies, guided by the valour and experience of Montecuculi, a general
+formed in the Thirty Years' War, were making rapid progress in the
+reduction of the principality. War was now openly declared between the
+two empires; and Kiuprili, assuming the command in person, opened the
+campaign of 1663, in Hungary, with 100,000 men--a force before which
+Montecuculi had no alternative but to retreat, as the rapidity with
+which the Turks had taken the field, had completely outstripped the
+dilatory preparations of the Aulic Council[10]. The exploits of the
+Ottomans, however, were confined to the capture of Ujvar, or Neuhausel,
+after a siege maintained on both sides with such extraordinary vigour,
+as to have given rise to a Hungarian proverb--"As fixed as a Turk before
+Neuhausel,"--after which both armies withdrew into winter-quarters. The
+campaign of 1664 opened also to the advantage of the Ottomans; but in
+attempting the passage of the Raab, (Aug. 1,) at the fords near St
+Gothard, the sudden swelling of the stream cut off the communication
+between one division of their army and the other; and being attacked at
+this juncture by Montecuculi, they sustained the most signal overthrow
+which the Osmanlis had ever yet received from a Christian power--17,000
+of their best troops were slain or drowned, and the vizir, hastily
+drawing on the remains of his forces, sent proposals of peace to the
+Austrian headquarters. Yet such was the indefinite awe with which the
+prowess and resources of the Ottomans were at that time regarded, that
+the Imperialists made no further use of their victory than to conclude a
+truce for twenty years, the conditions of which, in effect, ceded all
+the points for which the war had been undertaken. Abaffi was recognised
+as Prince of Transylvania, and as a tributary of the Porte--the two
+important fortresses of Great-Waradin and Neuhausel, which the Turks had
+taken during the war, were left in their hands, and a breathing-time was
+thus afforded to the two empires for the mortal struggle which was to be
+decided, nineteen years later, under the walls of Vienna.
+
+    [10] "The Turk," says Montecuculi, "who is always armed, never
+    finds time bald, but can always seize him by the forelock: the
+    number of his victories, and the extent of territory which he
+    has taken from the Christians, and which they have never been
+    able to recover, sufficiently proves this, and shows the
+    rashness and folly of those who pretend to make light of his
+    power."
+
+Notwithstanding the ill success of his arms, the vizir was received by
+the sultan, on his return with the army in the ensuing spring to
+Adrianople, with such extraordinary distinction, that those who had
+hoped to profit by his expected fall, could explain such continued
+favour only by the supposition that sorcery had been practised on the
+mind of the monarch by the mother of the all-powerful minister.
+Solicitous to retrieve his military reputation in the eyes of the
+soldiery, Kiuprili now determined to assume in person the conduct of the
+long-continued war in Crete, and to bring the struggle to a close by the
+capture of Candia, the siege of which had already reached near twice the
+duration of that of Troy. To supply the deficiencies of the Turkish
+marine, which had been almost ruined by the repeated naval victories of
+the Venetians, an overture was made to the English ambassador, Lord
+Winchilsea, for permission to hire the services of a number of British
+vessels; but this strange request being evaded, the expedition was
+postponed for a year, while every nerve was strained in the building and
+equipment of galleys; and at length, in the autumn of 1666, the fleet
+set sail from Monembasia in the Morea, under the command of the
+Capitan-pasha Mustafa, surnamed _Kaplan_, or the Tiger, the
+brother-in-law of Kiuprili, and anchored off Canea in the beginning of
+November. But before we proceed to narrate the closing scenes of the
+Cretan war, we must retrace our steps, to give some account of its
+origin and progress.
+
+The dominions of the Venetian Signory in the Levant, which had at one
+time comprehended, besides the scattered isles of the Cyclades, the
+three subject _kingdoms_ (as they were proudly called) of Candia,[11]
+Cyprus, and the Morea, were confined, in the middle of the seventeenth
+century, to the first-named island--the last relics of the Morea having
+been wrested from the republic by the arms of Soliman the Magnificent in
+1540, and Cyprus having been subdued by the lieutenants of his son
+Selim, a few months before the destruction of the Turkish fleet at the
+battle of Lepanto in 1571.[12] The sovereignty of Candia had been
+acquired by purchase from the Marquis of Montferrat, to whom it was
+assigned on the partition of the Greek empire, after the conquest of
+Constantinople, in 1204, by the Latins of the fourth crusade: but the
+four centuries and a half of Venetian rule present little more than an
+unvarying succession of revolts, oppression, and bloodshed. In pursuance
+of their usual system of colonial administration, which strangely
+contrasted with their domestic policy, they had introduced into the
+island a sort of modified feudal system, in order to rivet their
+ascendancy over this remote possession, by the interposition of a class
+of resident proprietors, whose interest it would be to maintain the
+dominion of the parent state: but the _cavaliers_, as the Venetian
+tenants of Cretan fiefs were termed, proved at times even more
+refractory than the candidates themselves, and made the island for many
+years a source of endless difficulties to the Signory. In 1363,
+complaining of their exclusion from the high dignities of the republic,
+the _cavaliers_ openly threw off their allegiance, elected a doge from
+among themselves, and raised the banner of St Titus of Retimo in
+opposition to the standard of St Mark. As they were supported both by
+the native Candiotes and the Greeks of Constantinople, it was not till
+after a harassing warfare of two years that they were reduced, and their
+fortresses razed, by the Provveditori sent from Venice; a second effort
+at independence, a few years later, was not more successful. The Greek
+inhabitants were throughout subjected to a degree of merciless tyranny,
+in comparison of which the worst severities of Turkish rule must have
+appeared lenient. The Sphakiote tribes in particular, who were strong
+both from their arms and martial temperament, and from their habitations
+among the lofty ridges of the _Aspro-Bouna_, or White Mountains, in the
+south of the island, acknowledged at all times but an imperfect
+allegiance to their Venetian lords: and the acts of fiendish barbarity
+by which their frequent revolts were chastised, can scarcely find a
+parallel even in the worst horrors of the French Revolution. Unborn
+infants torn from the womb in pursuance of a judicial sentence solemnly
+pronounced--the head of the father exacted as the ransom for the life of
+the son--such were the methods by which the Provveditori of the Most
+Serene and Christian Republic enforced its authority, and which are
+related, not only without reprehension, but with manifest complacency
+and approval, by the chroniclers of the state.[13]
+
+    [11] The name of Candia, which is the Italianized form of
+    Kandax, (now Megalo-Kastro,) is unknown at the present day to
+    the Greek inhabitants of the island, which they call by its
+    classic name of [Greek: Kraetae].--See PASHLEY'S _Travels in
+    Crete_, i. chap. 11.
+
+    [12] A notable retort is on record from the vizir to the
+    Venetian envoy, who, on repairing to Constantinople after the
+    battle, expressed his astonishment at the progress already made
+    in the equipment of a new fleet. "Know," (said the haughty
+    Osmanli,) "that the loss of a fleet to the Padishah is as the
+    shaving of his beard, which will grow again all the thicker;
+    whereas the loss of Cyprus is to Venice as the amputation of an
+    arm from the body, which will never be reproduced."
+
+    [13] "Thus were they annihilated, and all men who were faithful
+    and devoted to God and their prince, were solaced and
+    consoled."--_MS. Chronicle by the notary Trivan, quoted by_
+    PASHLEY, chap. 33. These atrocities were perpetrated in the
+    early part of the 16th century.
+
+Though the coasts had often been ravaged in former wars by the Turkish
+fleet, particularly under Barbarossa in 1538, no attempt appears ever to
+have been made to effect the conquest of the island by the reduction of
+the fortified cities of the coast, in which the main strength of the
+Venetians lay: and since the treaty of 1573, Venice had remained more
+than seventy years at peace with the Porte. In 1645, however, a fresh
+rupture arose from the capture of a richly-laden Turkish vessel by the
+Maltese cruisers,[14] who were allowed, contrary to the existing
+conventions between the Porte and the Republic, to sell the horses which
+were on board their prize in one of the remote havens of Crete, beyond
+the surveillance of the Venetian authorities. Slight as was the ground
+of offence, it produced an instantaneous ferment at Constantinople: the
+janissaries, calling to mind similar omens said to have preceded the
+conquest of Rhodes and of Cyprus, exclaimed that the land whose soil had
+once been trodden by Moslem horse hoofs, was the predestined inheritance
+of the Faithful: and the flame was fanned by the capitan-pasha Yusuf, a
+Dalmatian renegade, who, independent of the hatred which from early
+associations he bore Venice, dreaded being sent on a bootless expedition
+against the impregnable defences of Malta--an enterprise which, since
+the memorable failure in the last years of Soliman, had never been
+attempted by the Osmanlis. Preparations for war, meanwhile, were carried
+on with unexampled activity, though the destination of the armament was
+kept profoundly secret; till, on April 30, 1545, the most formidable
+expedition which had ever been equipped in the Turkish ports, set sail
+from the Bosphorus. Eight thousand janissaries, 14,000 spahis, and
+upwards of 50,000 _timariots_ or feudal militia, were embarked on board
+the fleet, which consisted of eighty galleys, and more than 300
+transports, besides the auxiliary squadrons of the Barbary regencies,
+which joined the armada, May 7, at the general rendezvous at Scio.
+
+    [14] Among the captives was the ex-nurse of the heir-apparent,
+    afterwards Mohammed IV., with her son, who was mistaken for a
+    prince of the Imperial family; and being carried to Malta, was
+    brought up there as a monk under the name of Padre Ottomanno!
+    During the siege of Candia he was brought to the beleaguered
+    fortress, in the hope that the presence of this supposed Turkish
+    prince of the blood would shake the allegiance of the
+    janissaries--but this notable scheme, as might have been
+    foreseen, was wholly without success.
+
+From Scio the united fleet sailed to Navarino--a course purposely
+adopted to spread the belief that Malta was the point of attack; but no
+sooner were they again at sea, than the capitan-pasha, summoning the
+principal officers on board his galley, read the _khatt sheeref_ of the
+sultan, announcing that he had taken up arms for the conquest of Candia.
+War had, in the mean time, been formally declared against the Republic
+at Constantinople, and the Venetian envoy, Soranzo, imprisoned in the
+Seven Towers: but he had previously contrived to communicate to the
+Signory his suspicions of the impending storm; and supplies and
+reinforcements had been hastily dispatched from Venice to Andrea
+Cornaro, the _inquisitore_, or governor of Crete, in the event of its
+bursting in that quarter. Little serious apprehension seems, however, to
+have been entertained; and great was the consternation of the Candiote
+population, when, on the morning of June 24, the vast armament of the
+Ottomans was seen rounding Cape Spada, and disembarking the troops near
+Canea, on the same spot where, according to tradition, the standards of
+Islam had first been displayed, 820 years before, by the Saracens of
+Spain.
+
+The strong ramparts of Canea opposed but an ineffectual resistance to
+the numbers and resolution of the Ottomans, who pressed the siege with
+all the ardour arising from the confidence of success; and after fifty
+days of open trenches, and the failure of two assaults, the second
+fortress of the island capitulated, August 17. The churches and the
+cathedral of St Nicholas were converted into mosques: and Delhi-Hussein
+(whose subsequent tragical fate has been already commemorated) was sent
+out to take the government of this new conquest. The brave Yusuf,
+returning to Constantinople at the end of the year, was at first
+received with the highest honours by Ibrahim, but soon after put to
+death in one of his fits of senseless cruelty; but the Ottomans in
+Crete, under the gallant leadership of Delhi-Hussein, who now became
+_serdar_ or commander-in-chief, overran and occupied the inland
+districts almost without opposition from the Greek inhabitants, in whose
+eyes any alternative was preferable to the bloody tyranny under which
+they had so long groaned:[15] while the Venitian garrisons, shut up in
+the fortified towns along the northern shore, depended for supplies on
+the Christian fleet, which the Turks did not venture to bring to action.
+The campaign of 1646 was marked by the capture of the important city of
+Retimo, which surrendered Nov. 15, after a murderous siege of
+thirty-nine days, in which both the governor Cornaro and the provveditor
+Molino were slain: but though the Turks received reinforcements to the
+amount of 30,000 men, including 10,000 janissaries, in the course of the
+following year, it was not till May 1648 that the trenches were at
+length opened before Candia, the capital of the island, and the only
+fortress of importance still in the hands of the Venetians.
+
+    [15] Many of them adopted the faith of the invaders--and
+    Tournefort, who visited Crete in 1700, says that "the greater
+    part of the Turks on the island were either renegades, or sons
+    of renegades." The Candiote Turks of the present day are
+    popularly held to combine the vices of the nation from which
+    they descend with those of their adopted countrymen.
+
+The leaguer of Candia was pushed during several months by the Turks,
+animated by the courage and example of their general, with the same
+fanatic zeal which they had displayed before Canea and Retimo; but the
+besieged, whose tenure of Crete depended on this last stronghold, held
+out with equal pertinacity: and their efforts were aided by the presence
+of a large body of Maltese auxiliaries, as well as by the succours which
+the naval superiority of the Venetians enabled them continually to
+introduce by sea. In one sortie, a detachment of the garrison penetrated
+even to the tent of the serdar, who owed his safety to his personal
+prowess; while the outworks of the town were ruined by the constant
+explosion of mines, and the Ottoman standards were planted on the
+bastion of Martinengo, and on several of the redoubts which covered the
+interior defences. But in spite of their repeated assaults, the
+besiegers failed to make any impression on the body of the place; and
+the serdar was compelled to withdraw his diminished army into
+winter-quarters. The anarchy at Constantinople which followed the
+deposition of Ibrahim, combined with the blockade of the Dardanelles by
+the Venetians, prevented any reinforcements from reaching the seat of
+war--yet the siege was renewed in the ensuing summer, and carried on
+with such vigour, that the garrison, weakened by the loss of half its
+numbers, including the valiant governor, Colloredo, was reduced to the
+last extremity; when the arrival of the Maltese squadron, under
+Balbiani, baulked the Turks of their expected prize; and the
+janissaries, breaking out into furious mutiny, compelled Delhi-Hussein
+once more to abandon the hopeless enterprise. All the remainder of the
+island, however, had now peaceably submitted to the Ottoman rule, and
+had been organized into sandjaks and districts; so that the garrison of
+Candia were rather the occupants of a solitary post in a hostile
+country, than defenders of the soil against the invasion; and the
+Turkish commanders, ill supplied from Constantinople, during the
+troubled minority of Mohammed, with siege equipage and munitions of war,
+contented themselves with blockading the town by the erection of
+redoubts, and guarding the open country with their cavalry. While the
+war thus languished in Crete, the events of the maritime contest
+continued to justify the proverbial saying of the Turks, that "Allah had
+given the land to the true believers; but the sea to the infidels!" Not
+only was the blockade of the Dardanelles so strictly kept up, that it
+was only in winter, when the Venetian fleet was unable to remain on its
+station, that the Turks could convey reinforcements to their brethren
+who were waging the _holy war_ in Crete, but repeated and disastrous
+defeats were sustained by the Ottoman navy, whenever it attempted to
+dispute the sovereignty of the sea with the Lion of St Mark. In July
+1651, a formidable armament with supplies and troops for Crete was
+almost entirely destroyed off Naxos by Mocenigo: and on July 6, 1656,
+the same commander inflicted on the Turkish fleet, off the mouth of the
+Straits, the most decisive overthrow which it had sustained since the
+fatal day of Lepanto. Seventy sail of ships and galleys were sunk or
+taken; the Capitan-pasha escaped into the Bosphorus with only fourteen
+vessels; and the inhabitants of Constantinople, in the first access of
+consternation, expected the apparition of the Christian ensigns in the
+Golden Horn; but the victors contented themselves with the occupation of
+Tenedos and Lemnos, which they held till dislodged in the following year
+by Kiuprili.
+
+The serdar, Delhi-Hussein, who had for eleven years gallantly upheld the
+renown of the Ottoman arms in Crete, withstanding with equal firmness
+the efforts of the enemy, and the mutinous spirit of his own soldiers,
+had been recalled early in 1656 to assume the vizirat; a fleeting
+glimpse of honour, which, though cancelled even before he reached
+Constantinople in favour of the Kaimakam Mustapha, subsequently (as
+already related) cost him his life from the jealousy of Mohammed
+Kiuprili. His successors possessed neither his energy nor his military
+skill; and the Venetians, taking courage from the change of commanders,
+sallied from Candia, and even ventured, though without success, to
+attempt the recovery of Canea. Negotiations for peace, meanwhile, had
+been kept on foot almost from the first; but as the Ottoman pride
+absolutely refused to listen to any propositions which did not include
+the total and unconditional surrender of Candia, no pacification could
+be effected; and the war continued to linger till Ahmed-Kiuprili,
+secured on the side of Hungary by the peace with Austria, collected all
+the forces of the empire, to crush this last fragment of Venetian
+dominion in the Levant.
+
+The advanced season of the year when the vizir disembarked in Candia,
+and the disorganized state of the forces which he found there, prevented
+the immediate commencement of offensive operations; but in the course of
+the winter, the arrival of the contingents of Egypt and Africa, as well
+as of a squadron with fresh troops from Constantinople, raised his army
+to between 40,000 and 50,000 effective men; and on the 20th of May 1667,
+the trenches were once more opened in form on the western side of the
+city, while 300 pieces of cannon, thundering from the Ottoman lines,
+covered the approaches of the pioneers.[16] Of the seven[17] great
+bastions which formed the principal defences on the land side, those of
+Panigra, Bethlehem, and Martinengo, were the chief points of attack; the
+vizir himself taking post opposite the first, while the Beglerbeg of
+Anatolia and the Pasha of Egypt were stationed against the Bethlehem and
+the Martinengo. The assault, as on former occasions, was conducted
+chiefly by the slow process of sap and mine; but the superior skill of
+the Christian engineers, enabled them frequently to explore and
+countermine the works of the enemy; and the mining parties were thus
+surprised and blown into the air, while murderous combats took place
+under ground, from the accidental rencounters of the soldiers employed
+in these subterranean galleries. The garrison, which had at first
+numbered about 12,000, under the command of the Marchese di Villa, a
+Piedmontese officer of approved skill and courage, received, at the end
+of June, a reinforcement of 1000 veteran troops, brought by the Venetian
+Captain-General Morosini, who arrived with the fleet at the Isle of
+Standia, off the entrance of the port; and a concourse of volunteers,
+from all parts of Europe, hastened to share in the defence of this last
+bulwark of Christendom in the Grecian seas; while the Maltese, Papal,
+and Neapolitan galleys cruised in the offing, to intercept the supplies
+brought by sea to the Ottoman camp. The Turks, meanwhile, with their
+usual stubborn perseverance, continued to push their sap under the
+ravelin of Mocenigo, and the Panigra bastion which it covered; and
+though their progress was retarded, and their works often ruined, by the
+sallies of the defenders, the foundations were at length shaken, and the
+ramparts rent and shattered, by the explosion of innumerable mines; and
+the janissaries, fired with fanatic zeal, and stimulated by promises of
+reward, rushed again and again to the attack under the eye of the vizir.
+"Many and various," says Rycaut, in his quaint narrative, "were the
+valiant assaults and sallies, the traverses extraordinary, the
+rencounters bloody, the resistance vigorous, not known or recorded in
+any siege before;" and the struggle continued with unabated fury on both
+sides, till the approach of winter; while, after each unsuccessful
+assault, the Venetians, emulating the ferocity of their enemies,
+displayed the heads of the slain and prisoners (for no quarter was given
+or taken) in barbarous triumph from the wall. At length, after a
+desperate conflict on November 16, the janissaries effected a lodgement
+in the Mocenigo bastion and the Panigra; and the Ottoman banners, for
+the first time, were displayed from the summit of the works. But this
+valiant forlorn hope, in the moment of triumph, was hurled into the air
+by the explosion of a previously-prepared mine; and Kiuprili, dismayed
+at this last failure, drew off his troops into their lines, where they
+lay inactive, till the inundation of the camp by the winter rains
+compelled them to withdraw to a greater distance.
+
+    [16] The use of parallels is usually said to have been
+    introduced at this time by Kiuprili; but they were certainly
+    employed before Neuhausel, four years earlier.
+
+    [17] These were, the Sabionera, covered by the detached fort of
+    St Demetrius, the Vetturi, Jesus, Martinengo, Bethlehem,
+    Panigra, and St Andrew.
+
+Great was the rejoicing throughout Europe at the tidings that the pride
+of the Ottoman battle had once more been driven back discomfited, for
+the best and bravest of nearly every nation in Christendom were now to
+be found in the ranks of the defenders:[18] and great, on the other
+hand, was the perplexity of the divan, and the chagrin of the Turkish
+population, at the apparently endless duration of an enterprise, a
+speedy and glorious termination of which had been expected from the
+presence of the vizir. The sultan even dispatched a confidential agent
+to the seat of war, to examine personally into the state of affairs; and
+finding from his report that the army was reduced, by the sword and the
+ravages of disease, to half its original effective strength, he issued
+peremptory firmans to the pashas of the empire to hasten the equipment
+of their contingents; and even announced his intention of repairing in
+person to Crete, to share the perils and glories of the _holy war_.
+Kiuprili, meanwhile, was indefatigable in his exertions to reorganize
+his army, and restore his artillery to efficiency, even casting new guns
+to fit the Venetian bullets, 30,000 of which are said to have been
+picked up in the Turkish lines during the preceding campaign! A strict
+blockade was kept up on the city, while the Venetian cruisers, and the
+Papal galleys under Rospigliosi, the nephew of Pope Clement IX., were
+equally vigilant in preventing supplies from reaching the besiegers by
+sea; and various maritime encounters took place, generally to the
+advantage of the flag of St Mark. The unworthy jealousy[19] entertained
+by Morosini of Di Villa, led, however, early in the spring of 1668, to
+the withdrawal of that gallant soldier from his command, in which he was
+succeeded by the Marquis Montbrun St Andr�, a French volunteer, inferior
+neither in valour nor diligence to his predecessor.
+
+    [18] The majority of these volunteers were supplied by the fiery
+    noblesse of France, among whom the crusading spirit of their
+    ancestors seems to have been revived at this period. At the
+    battle of St Gothard, a considerable body of French auxiliaries
+    was present, under the Duc de la Feuillade, (whose name was
+    travestied by the Turks into, _Fouladi, man of steel_;) and his
+    subsequent expedition to Candia, as well as the more formidable
+    armament under Noailles, seem to have received the direct
+    sanction of Louis XIV. Yet the old treaties between France and
+    the Porte were still in force; so that it was not without some
+    reason that Kiuprili replied, a few years later, to the Marquis
+    de Nointel's professions of amity on the part of France, "I know
+    that the French are our friends, but I always happen to find
+    them in the ranks of our enemies!"
+
+    [19] Villa is said to have produced before the senate of Venice
+    a letter from Morosini to the vizir, offering to betray him into
+    the hands of the Turks.
+
+It was not till the beginning of June that the vizir recommenced active
+operations against Candia; but the plan of attack was now changed. In
+order to command the narrow entrance of the harbour,[20] and so cut off
+the constant reinforcements which reached the besieged by sea, the
+principal batteries were directed against the bastion of Sabionera,
+(called by the Turks the _Kizil-Tab�yah,_ or Red Fort,) at the seaward
+extremity of the works on one side, and against that of St Andrew on the
+other; but the events of the siege during this year present nothing to
+distinguish them from the endless succession of mines, sorties,
+assaults, and countermines, which had marked the campaign of last year.
+The Venetian commanders at length, seeing the Turks preparing to pass
+the winter in their trenches, and sensible that (concentrated as the
+forces of the two contending powers were now for the attack and defence
+of a single fortress) they must eventually be overwhelmed by the
+ponderous strength of the Ottoman empire, once more made overtures for
+peace, offering an annual tribute for Candia, and the cession of the
+rest of the island to the Porte; but the vizir sternly rejected the
+proffered compromise; and his reply to the envoy, Molino--"The Sultan is
+not a merchant, nor does he need money--he has but one word, and that
+is--Candia,"--showed that the long dispute could only be decided by the
+sword. Elated by the hope of speedy triumph, the Turks now ran their
+approaches so close to the bastion of St Andrew, which was held by the
+Maltese knights and militia, that the muzzles of the muskets almost
+touched each other; and the vizir wrote to the Sultan, that they had
+only three yards more of ground to win, when, at this critical moment,
+the spirits of the besieged were revived by the arrival, early in
+December, of the Duc de la Feuillade and the Count de St Pol, with a
+gallant band of 600 volunteers, many of them of the best families of
+France. But the boiling valour of these fiery youths was equally
+difficult to restrain or direct; and, after losing two-thirds of their
+number in desperate, but irregular, sallies against the Turkish lines,
+the survivors of this piece of knight-errantry re-embarked for
+Christendom in January, leaving the heads of their fallen comrades
+ranged on pikes before the tent of Kiuprili. A stancher reinforcement
+was received in the spring of 1669, by the arrival of 3000
+Lunenburghers, whose commander, Count Waldeck, fell a few days after, in
+repulsing an assault on the breach of St Andrew, as did also the former
+governor, Di Villa, whose thirst for glory had brought him back, as
+general of the Papal auxiliaries, to the scene of peril.
+
+    [20] The harbour of Candia (now almost choked up) was at all
+    times so small, and with so little depth of water, as to afford
+    shelter only to galleys, the station of the larger vessels being
+    at the isle of Standia, at some leagues' distance.
+
+These repeated reinforcements, joined to the knowledge that the Pope was
+exerting himself to unite all the princes of Christendom in a league for
+the relief of their hardly-beset brethren, still encouraged the heroic
+defenders of Candia, though the Turks had by this time carried their
+mines at several points within the bastions and exterior defences, and
+compelled the garrison to shelter themselves behind an inner rampart,
+constructed during the winter in anticipation of this extremity:--"So
+that, in effect," says Rycaut, "this most impregnable fort of the world
+was forced and taken by the spade and shovel, and by a crew of unarmed
+labourers, who understood nothing more than the plough and harrow." The
+promised succours, however, were now at hand. On the 22d of June, a
+French fleet appeared off the port, having on board 7000 of the flower
+of the French troops and nobility, who were commanded by the Dukes de
+Noailles and Beaufort, and comprised in their ranks several princes of
+the sovereign houses of Lorrain and Bouillon, the Marshals Colbert and
+De la Motte-Fenelon, the Count of St Pol, and many other names of the
+noblest and bravest in France, who had crowded to embark as volunteers
+in this new and glorious crusade. These gallant auxiliaries landed
+amidst the acclamations of the Venetians; and, on the night of the 27th,
+a general sortie was made, in order to raise the siege by driving the
+Turks from their trenches. The janissaries were driven from their works
+by the impetuous onset of the assailants; but, in the tumult of the
+fight, a large powder-magazine, between the Sabionera and Fort St
+Demetrius, which had been occupied by the French, was accidentally blown
+up. The Duke de Beaufort, and many others, perished in the explosion, or
+were buried under the ruins; and the survivors, panic-stricken at the
+catastrophe, were driven within the walls with terrible slaughter by the
+Turks, who rallied and returned to the charge. The usual hideous
+trophies of Ottoman triumph--the heads of the slain, were laid at the
+feet of the vizir; but the body of the Duc de Beaufort, though anxiously
+sought for at the prayer of his comrades, who offered, through a flag of
+truce, to redeem it at its weight in gold, could never be discovered.
+
+This dreadful blow not only threw a fatal gloom over the ardour of the
+French, but gave rise to an altercation between Morosini and De
+Noailles, each of whom threw on the other the blame of the failure;
+till, after a month thus unprofitably spent, the French commander
+re-embarked his troops, and sailed for Toulon, August 31, leaving the
+town to its fate. The Maltese and Papal galleys departed in his
+company;--"for thus did these accursed swine of Nazarenes" (says the
+Turkish historiographer, Rashid) "withdraw from the doom of hell, which
+awaited them at the hands of the Faithful." The condition of the
+remaining defenders, thus deserted by their allies, and separated from
+the Turks only by breastworks hastily thrown up in the interior of the
+town, was now utterly hopeless, as not more than 3600 men remained fit
+for duty, while the loss in slain and disabled averaged more than a
+hundred a-day. In these desperate circumstances, a council of war was
+summoned by Morosini, to consider whether it might not even yet be
+practicable to avoid the ignominy of a surrender, by evacuating the
+town, and escaping, with the inhabitants, by sea. Their deliberations
+were hastened by a furious assault from the Turks, who were impatient to
+seize their prey; and, though the enemy were repulsed for the time by
+the remains of the Lunenburghers, two officers were eventually
+dispatched to the vizir's headquarters, to announce the submission of
+the garrison, and arrange the terms of capitulation. They were
+courteously received by Kiuprili, who appointed an officer of his own
+household, with Panayoti,[21] the dragoman of the Porte, to confer with
+them; and the articles were settled without much difficulty. Peace was
+concluded between the Porte and the Republic. Candia and the whole of
+Crete was ceded to the Sultan, with the exception of the harbours of
+Grabusa, Suda, and Spinalonga, which the Venetians were allowed to
+retain for purposes of commerce; the garrison and inhabitants of Candia
+were to embark with their arms, baggage, and a certain proportion of
+artillery, and the Ottomans were not to enter the town till the
+embarkation was completed. These conditions were scrupulously observed
+by the victors; till the 27th of September, the evacuation being
+effected, the standard of the cross was at length lowered from the
+walls; and the vizir, standing on the breach of the St Andrew's bastion,
+(thence called by the Turks the _Fort of Surrender_,) in the midst of a
+crowd of pashas and generals, received the keys of the city in a silver
+basin. A body of Turkish troops immediately entered by the breaches, and
+mounted guard on the principal posts; but it was not till the 4th of
+October that the vizir made his triumphant entry at the head of his
+army, (now reduced to about 15,000 regular troops, and 11,000 pioneers
+and irregulars,) and proceeded, bearing in his hand the sacred standard
+of the Prophet, to the cathedral, which was purified from the dead
+bodies interred within its walls, and re-consecrated as a mosque. All
+the other churches underwent the same transformation, with the exception
+of two which Panayoti purchased for the use of the Greeks; for so
+completely was the town deserted, that there remained only, in the words
+of an anonymous eyewitness, "two Greeks, three Jews, and eight other
+strangers, whom the vizir would also have suffered to depart; but they
+chose rather to change their religion than their quarters."
+
+    [21] The appointment of the _Greek_ Panayoti marks an important
+    change in the system of Ottoman diplomacy; as previously the
+    Porte had disdained to employ the _rayahs_ in places of trust,
+    depending wholly, in their intercourse with foreign ambassadors,
+    on the interpreters attached to the suite of the latter.
+
+Thus ended this famous siege, the longest, and one of the most
+memorable, recorded in history. During its continuance, the Venetians
+and their allies lost 30,000 men, and the Turks more than 100,000;
+fifty-six assaults were made on the town above ground, and the same
+number through the mines; and nearly an equal number of sorties was made
+by the garrison. 460 mines were sprung by the Turks, and no less than
+1172 by the Venetians; and the quantity of missiles hurled into the town
+exceeded all calculation. The fortifications were, however, speedily
+repaired by the care of Kiuprili, who remained in the island nine months
+after the surrender, employed in the final organization of this new
+province, which was divided into the three pashaliks of Canea, Retimo,
+and Candia--the last being the residence of the beglerbeg, or supreme
+pasha. The arrangements being at length completed, he quitted Candia for
+Constantinople, whither the capitan-pasha had preceded him with the
+fleet; and, on the 3d of July 1670, he replaced in the hands of the
+Sultan, in his hunting-camp near Rodosto, the _sandjak-sheeref_, which
+had been committed to his charge for the war against the infidels. "In
+this manner," says Rycaut, writing not in a spirit of prophecy, three
+years only before the battle of Vienna, "expired the action of the year,
+fortunate in its success to the Turks; for though they gained but thirty
+acres of land, with expense inestimable of blood and treasure, yet the
+glory and fame which attended it, being the consummation of twenty-five
+years' war, and the theatre where the whole world were spectators, was
+of greater value to the Turks than any other consideration, and may with
+time prove a place of advantage to the further increase of their western
+empire, unless God Almighty, by his mercy and providence, give a stop to
+the progress of this grand oppressor."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+A PASSAGE IN THE LIFE OF A MA�TRE-D'ARMES
+
+
+The excitement produced in St Petersburg on the occasion of a rash
+conspiracy which had broken out on the inauguration of the Emperor
+Nicholas, had ample time to die away before the sentence pronounced upon
+the conspirators became known. Six months elapsed, months of terrible
+suspense and anxiety to the friends of the unfortunate prisoners. At
+length, on the 14th of July, the decision of the high court of justice
+appeared in the _St Petersburg Gazette_. Six-and-thirty of the accused
+were condemned to death, the others to the mines and to exile. My friend
+and patron, Count Alexis W----, was included in the former list; but an
+act of clemency on the part of the Emperor tempered the severity of
+justice, and only five of the condemned were left for execution, while
+the remaining thirty-one had their sentence commuted to banishment. My
+friend's name was, God be thanked! among the latter.
+
+On reading this announcement, I rushed into the street, and ran, without
+once stopping, until I reached the house of his beloved Louise. Of her,
+for the present, it will be sufficient to say, that she was a young,
+lovely, and intelligent Frenchwoman, whose sister I had known in Paris,
+and to whose patronage, from her position as a first-rate _modiste_ in
+St Petersburg, I was much indebted. Between this truly amiable woman and
+the Count had for some years existed an attachment, not hallowed,
+indeed, by the church, but so long and deeply-rooted in the hearts of
+both, and so dignified by their mutual constancy and worth, as to have
+won the sympathies even of the Count's mother and sisters. To return,
+however, to Louise, whom I found with a copy of the _Gazette_ in her
+hand, and bathed in tears, but they were tears of joy--
+
+"He is saved!" cried she, on seeing me enter; "thank God and the
+Emperor!"
+
+The first moment of joy over, Louise's thoughts turned to the mother and
+sisters of her lover. She calculated that the _Gazette_ would only leave
+St Petersburg by the post of that night, and that by sending off an
+express immediately the news might reach Moscow twelve hours sooner. She
+asked me if I knew a trusty messenger, who could start without delay to
+bear the glad tidings to the Count's family. I had a Russian servant, an
+intelligent active fellow, and I offered his services, which she
+accepted with delight. The only difficulty was the passport, and through
+the kindness of the ex-chief of police, Monsieur de Gorgoli, it was
+procured in half an hour. At the expiration of that time the courier set
+off, with a thousand rubles in his pocket for travelling expenses.
+
+He arrived at Moscow fourteen hours before the post; fourteen hours of
+mortal anxiety saved to the Count's mother and sisters.
+
+The letter he brought back, was one of those that seem written with a
+feather plucked from an angel's wing. The old Countess called Louise her
+daughter, and the young girls named her their sister. They entreated
+that, when the day was known on which the prisoners were to set off for
+their banishment, a courier might be despatched to Moscow with the news.
+I accordingly told my servant to hold himself in readiness to start, to
+his no small satisfaction; for the Count's mother had given him a
+thousand rubles for his first trip, and he trusted the second might be
+equally well rewarded.
+
+There had not been an execution in St Petersburg for sixty years, and
+the curiosity and excitement caused by the anticipation of this one,
+were proportionably great. The day was not fixed beforehand, and the
+inhabitants of the capital got up each morning, expecting to hear that
+the bloody tragedy had been enacted. I had requested a young Frenchman
+attached to Marshal Marmont's special mission, and who was on that
+account likely to have early information, to let me know when it was to
+take place; and on the evening of the 23d of July, he sent me word that
+the marshal and his suite had been invited to repair by four o'clock the
+following morning to the hotel of the French embassy, the windows of
+which commanded the place of execution.
+
+I hastened to communicate this intelligence to Louise. All her fears
+returned. Was it certain that Alexis was pardoned? Might not the
+commutation of punishment announced in the _Gazette_ be a ruse to
+conceal the truth from the people? These, and a thousand other doubts,
+arose in her mind; but I at last succeeded in tranquillizing her, and
+returned home to take some repose till the hour of the execution. Before
+doing so, however, my servant was sent off to Moscow, to inform the
+Countess W---- that the following day her son would leave St Petersburg
+for his place of exile.
+
+At half-past three, I left my house and hastened in the direction of the
+citadel. A grey tinge in the east announced the approach of day, and a
+thin white fog hung like a veil over the Neva. As I passed the corner of
+the French embassy, Marmont and his suite entered the house, and a
+minute afterwards they appeared upon the balcony.
+
+A few persons were standing upon the quay, not in expectation, or
+because they were informed of what was going to take place, but because
+the bridge of the Trinity was occupied by troops, and they were thereby
+prevented from proceeding whither their affairs called them. They seemed
+uneasy, and uncertain whether it might not be dangerous to remain there.
+
+Some minutes before four, a large fire was lighted on the platform of
+the fortress. My attention being drawn to that point, I perceived, by
+the now increasing daylight, a wooden scaffolding, on which were erected
+five black and ominous looking gibbets.
+
+Four o'clock struck, and the prisoners whose punishment had been
+commuted to banishment appeared upon the platform, and ranged themselves
+round the scaffold. They were all in full uniform, wearing their
+epaulettes, and the stars and ribands of their different orders. Their
+swords were carried by soldiers. I tried to distinguish the Count, but
+the distance, and still imperfect light, rendered the attempt fruitless.
+
+The five who were to suffer death now ascended the scaffold, dressed in
+coarse linen frocks, and with a sort of white hood over their heads.
+They doubtless arrived from separate dungeons, for, as they met, they
+were allowed to embrace one another. Immediately afterwards, a man went
+up to them and said something, which was followed by a cheer from the
+soldiers and others attending the execution. It was afterwards reported,
+I know not with what truth, that this man was sent to offer them their
+lives if they chose to beg them; but that they replied to the offer by
+cries of Russia and Liberty!--cries that were rendered inaudible by the
+hurras of the guards and attendants.
+
+The executioners stepped forward, passed the halters round the necks of
+the condemned, and pulled the hoods over their eyes. A neighbouring
+clock struck the first quarter after four, and simultaneously with the
+sound, a trap-door gave way under the feet of the culprits. There was a
+great cry and much confusion, and a number of soldiers jumped upon the
+scaffold.
+
+Two of the ropes had snapped, and the unhappy men round whose necks they
+had been fastened, had fallen through the scaffolding to the platform;
+one of them had broken his thigh, and the other his arm. Ladders were
+brought, and the sufferers carried up to the scaffold and laid upon
+their backs, for they were unable to stand. In a few minutes new halters
+were ready, and with the help of the executioners, the victims managed
+to drag themselves under the gibbets. Their last words were, Russia and
+Liberty! This time the ropes did their duty.
+
+It was said, that when the Emperor was afterwards informed of this
+incident, he was much vexed at its not having been immediately reported
+to him; but nobody had dared take upon himself the responsibility of
+suspending the execution.
+
+It was now the turn of the exiles. Their sentence was read, declaring
+them to have forfeited every thing, rank, possessions, orders, family,
+all that bound them to the world, and the executioners then tore off
+their epaulettes and decorations, which they threw into the fire. Then
+taking the prisoners' swords from the soldiers who held them, they
+seized them by the hilt and point, and broke them over their owners'
+heads, exclaiming, as each snapped in two, "This is the sword of a
+traitor!" This ceremony over, they were stripped of their uniforms,
+which were replaced by coarse grey smock-frocks, and they were then led
+back to prison. The evening of the same day they set out for Siberia.
+
+I returned to Louise, whom I found on her knees, praying and weeping.
+She looked at me as I entered the room as though afraid to interrogate
+me; but I relieved her anxiety by informing her that all had passed as
+announced in the _Gazette_. She raised her eyes to heaven with an
+expression of pious gratitude.
+
+After a pause, "How far is it from here to Tobolsk?" she enquired.
+
+"About eight hundred leagues."
+
+"It is not so far as I thought," was her observation. I looked at her
+for a moment in silence. I began to suspect her intentions.
+
+"Why do you ask the question?" enquired I.
+
+"Can you not guess?"
+
+"But, Louise, it is impossible, at least at this moment."
+
+"Do not be uneasy, my friend. I know my duty to my child, and my
+affection for its father shall not make me forget it. I will wait."
+
+It was not without a motive that the Count's mother and sisters had been
+anxious to obtain the earliest possible intelligence of his departure
+from St Petersburg. The road from that capital to Tobolsk ran through
+Iroslaw, a town about sixty leagues from Moscow, and they entertained
+hopes of being able to see their son and brother as he passed. Their
+passports were ready, and arrangements made; and as soon as they
+received from my servant the news of the departure of the prisoners,
+they got into a _kubiltka_, and without saying a word to any body of
+their intentions, set out for Iroslaw.
+
+Travelling is rapid in Russia; in less than twenty-four hours they
+reached their destination, and learned with delight that the prisoners
+had not yet passed. As their stay at Iroslaw might have excited
+suspicion, they left that town, and took up their quarters in a small
+village on the road, at a solitary cottage, near which the carriages
+containing the exiles were to change horses. In all such cases in
+Russia, the persons in charge of criminals are forbidden to stop or to
+change horses in towns, or even in villages.
+
+After waiting two days, a servant whom the Countess had stationed upon
+the road to watch for the convoy, hastened to her with the news that the
+first division of the prisoners had just arrived in five carriages, and
+that the corporal in charge had sent men to fetch horses from the
+village. The ladies got into their carriage, and set off at full gallop
+for the cottage at which the convoy had halted. They stopped upon the
+high-road opposite the hut, and gazed eagerly through the half-open door
+of its only room. It was crowded with prisoners; but Alexis was not
+amongst them.
+
+In a quarter of an hour horses were brought; the prisoners re-entered
+the carriage, which immediately set off.
+
+Half an hour later the second division of the convoy arrived; but the
+Count was not with it. The third, fourth, and fifth passed, each being
+obliged to wait longer than the preceeding one for horses, those at the
+post-house and in the immediate neighbourhood having all been taken.
+
+It was some time after nightfall when the sixth and last division was
+heard approaching. The poor women clasped their trembling hands
+together. The much wished-for moment had arrived, yet their greatest
+difficulty was to come. It was more than uncertain whether they would be
+permitted to embrace their son and brother.
+
+The convoy stopped, Alexis got out of the third carriage. In spite of
+the darkness and of his ignoble garb, the Countess and her daughters
+recognized him. One of the latter was about to call out his name; but
+her mother placed her hand on her mouth in time to prevent the
+imprudence, and the Count entered the cottage.
+
+The corporal commanding the escort began enquiring about horses, and on
+learning that they were scarce, he sent off his soldiers with orders to
+seize all they could find in the name of the Emperor. The men departed,
+and he remained alone with the prisoners. There was no danger of an
+attempt at escape. In the heart of the Czar's immense dominions, whither
+could a fugitive betake himself without a certainty of being overtaken,
+or of dying from hunger before he reached the frontier?
+
+Corporal Ivan remained then walking up and down in front of the cottage,
+alternately whistling and floging his leathern overalls with his riding
+whip, and occasionally stopping to gaze at the Countess's travelling
+carriage, which was standing without horses in the road. Presently the
+door of the vehicle opened, three ladies alighted and advanced towards
+the corporal. Two of them remained a little behind, the third approached
+him with clasped hands.
+
+"My friend," said the Countess, "my son is amongst the prisoners you are
+escorting; let me see him but for a moment, and name your own reward."
+
+"It is impossible, madam," replied the corporal respectfully. "My orders
+are strict to allow no one to communicate with the prisoners, and the
+knout is the least I may expect if I transgress them."
+
+"But who will know that you have transgressed them?" cried the Countess,
+her voice trembling with eagerness and suspense. Her daughters stepped
+forward, and joined their hands, as in supplication to the soldier.
+
+"It is quite impossible, madam," repeated the man.
+
+"My mother!" cried Alexis, pushing open the cottage door. He had heard
+her voice, and in an instant was clasped in her arms.
+
+The corporal made a movement as though to seize his prisoner; but at the
+same moment the two young girls fell at his feet, and embracing his
+knees, pointed to the touching spectacle before them.
+
+Corporal Ivan was a good fellow in the main. He uttered something
+between a sigh and a growl, and the sisters saw that their prayer was
+granted.
+
+"Mamma," said one of them in a low tone, "he will allow us to embrace
+our brother." The Countess extricated herself from her son's arms, and
+held out a heavy purse to the corporal.
+
+"You risk a punishment for our sakes, my friend, and it is fair you
+should be recompensed for it."
+
+Ivan looked hard at the purse for a moment, then shaking his head and
+putting his hands behind his back, "No, your ladyship," said he, "I am
+committing a breach of duty, but it is not for gold. Here is the best
+excuse I can give my judges, and if they don't accept it, God will;" and
+he pointed to the two weeping girls. The Countess seized the soldier's
+rough hand and pressed it to her lips.
+
+"The horses cannot be here yet;" continued Ivan, "get into your carriage
+and pull down the blinds. By that means nobody will see you, and I may
+perhaps avoid making acquaintance with the knout."
+
+"Thank you, corporal," said Alexis; "but at least take this purse.
+
+"Take it yourself, lieutenant," said Ivan in a low voice, from habit
+giving the Count a title to which he had no longer a right. "You will
+find the use of it at the end of your journey."
+
+"But on arriving they will search me."
+
+"You can give it to me before the search, and I will return it to you.
+But I hear the gallop of a horse; quick into the carriage!" The corporal
+pushed Alexis into the carriage; the ladies followed, and he shut the
+door upon them.
+
+An hour elapsed, an hour of mingled joy and sorrow. At the expiration of
+that time, the door opened, and Ivan appeared. "You must separate," said
+he, "the horses are arriving."
+
+"A few moments longer!" cried the ladies, with tearful voices.
+
+"Not a second, or I am ruined. Go on to the next relay; it is dark, no
+one will see you, and I sha'n't be punished more for twice than once."
+
+"Oh! you will not be punished at all," cried the ladies; "surely God
+will reward you."
+
+"Hum," said the corporal doubtingly, and half pulling his prisoner out
+of the carriage.
+
+At the next relay, things went equally well. A third interview was
+rendered impossible by the approach of day. The sad word _farewell_ was
+pronounced, and the weeping women took the road to Moscow, having
+previously arranged a plan of correspondence, and carrying with them a
+few affectionate lines that Alexis had scrawled in pencil for Louise.
+
+The Countess had ordered my servant to wait at Moscow till she returned,
+and on her arrival there immediately dispatched him to St Petersburg. He
+brought Louise the Count's note, and a letter from his mother, inviting
+her to go to Moscow, for that she was impatient to embrace her as her
+daughter.
+
+Louise kissed her lover's note. She shook her head on reading the
+Countess's letter, and smiled one of those sad smiles that were peculiar
+to her. "I shall not go to Moscow," said she, "my place is elsewhere."
+
+As I had suspected, Louise had resolved to join Count W---- at Tobolsk;
+but she could not set out till after her confinement, which was to take
+place in a couple of months. Meantime she busied herself with
+preparations. By turning every thing she possessed into money, she got
+together a sum of thirty thousand rubles. At her request, I applied to
+my kind friend, Monsieur de Gorgoli, to obtain from the Emperor
+permission for her to rejoin her lover. Her intentions had got wind in
+St Petersburg, and every body spoke with admiration of the devoted
+attachment of the young Frenchwoman. Many thought, however, that her
+courage would fail her when the moment of departure arrived; but I knew
+her better, and felt assured of the contrary.
+
+At the commencement of September, she became the mother of a boy. I
+wished her to write to the mother of Alexis to announce this event; but
+she refused. The Countess heard of it, however, and wrote to Louise, to
+say that she was expecting her with her child.
+
+Her recovery was slow, the various emotions she had undergone during her
+pregnancy having weakened her health. She would have left St Petersburg
+long before she was strong enough to do so; but the permission to join
+Count W---- was to come through me, and I refused to apply for it till
+her medical attendant gave her leave to travel.
+
+One morning the door of my apartment opened and Louise entered, her face
+radiant with joy. "He will escape!" cried she.
+
+"Who?"
+
+"He--Alexis."
+
+"How! Escape? It is impossible."
+
+"Read that," she said and handed me a letter in the Count's
+hand-writing. It was as follows:--"Dearest Louise--Place all confidence
+in the bearer of this letter. He is more than my friend--he is my
+saviour.
+
+"I fell ill upon the road, and was obliged to stop at Perm. The
+physicians declared I was not able to continue my journey, and it was
+decided I should pass the winter in the prison of that town. As good
+fortune would have it, the jailer's brother is an old servant of my
+family and willing to aid my escape. He and his brother fly with me; but
+I must have means of indemnifying them for what they give up on my
+account, and for the risk they run. Give the bearer all the money and
+jewels you possess. As soon as I am in safety I will write to you to
+come and join me. Adieu. W----."
+
+"Well," said I after reading the letter twice over, "what have you
+done?"
+
+"Can you ask the question?"
+
+"What!" cried I. "You have given ...?"
+
+"Every ruble I had," interrupted she.
+
+"And if this letter were not from the Count? If it were a forgery?"
+
+She changed colour, and snatched the paper from my hand.
+
+"Oh, no!" said she. "I know his hand-writing. I cannot be mistaken."
+But, on reading the letter again, I observed that she grew still paler.
+
+"I do not think," I observed, "that Alexis would have addressed such a
+demand to you."
+
+"And why not? Who loves him better than I do?"
+
+"Understand me rightly. For an act of friendship or devotion he would
+have applied to _you_, but for money to his mother. I tell you again,
+either I do not know Count W----'s character, or this letter is not
+written by him."
+
+"But what will become of me? I have given every thing I possessed."
+
+"How did the Count usually sign his letters?"
+
+"Alexis always."
+
+"You see this one is signed W----. It is evidently a forgery and we must
+immediately inform the police."
+
+"And if we are mistaken? If it is not a forgery, by doing so I shall
+prevent his escape. Oh, no! Better lose the money. I can manage without.
+All that I am anxious to know is, whether he is at Perm."
+
+It occurred to me, that I might easily ascertain this latter point
+through a lieutenant of gendarmerie to whom I gave lessons; and begging
+Louise to wait my return, I hastened to his quarters. I told him I had
+particular reasons for wishing to know whether my friend W---- had
+reached Tobolsk, and asked him if it were possible to ascertain. He
+immediately sent an orderly for the non-commissioned officer who had
+commanded the Count's division. Ten minutes afterwards, Corporal Ivan
+entered the room; and, although I was not then aware of the service he
+had rendered the Countess and her daughters, I was immediately
+prepossessed in his favour, by his frank open countenance and soldierly
+bearing.
+
+"You commanded the sixth division of the prisoners lately sent to
+Siberia?" enquired I.
+
+"I did so, your excellency."
+
+"Count W---- was in your division?"
+
+The corporal hesitated, and did not seem much to like the question.
+
+"Fear nothing," said I, "you are speaking to a friend, who would
+sacrifice his own life for him. Tell me the truth, I beseech you. Was
+Count W---- ill on the road?"
+
+"Not the least."
+
+"Did he stop at Perm?"
+
+"Not even to change horses. I left him at Koslowo, a pretty little
+village on the Irtich, twenty leagues from Tobolsk."
+
+"You are sure of what you say?"
+
+"Quite sure. I had a receipt from the authorities, which I delivered
+over to his excellency the grand-master of police."
+
+I now hastened to Monsieur de Gorgoli, and related all that had passed.
+When I had finished--
+
+"Is this young girl decided to go penniless, as she now is, to join her
+lover in Siberia?"
+
+"Quite decided, your excellency; and I am persuaded nothing will alter
+her resolution."
+
+"Then go, and tell her from me, that she shall have the permission."
+
+I hurried back to Louise, and informed her of the result of my two
+interviews. She appeared indifferent to the loss of her little fortune,
+but overjoyed to learn that she would be allowed to join her lover. Her
+only anxiety now was to obtain the requisite permission as soon as
+possible.
+
+Before leaving her, I placed at her disposal what money I had, which,
+unfortunately, was only two or three thousand rubles; for I had, a short
+time previously, remitted to France all that I had laid by during my
+residence at St Petersburg.
+
+The same evening I was at Louise's house, when one of the Emperor's
+aides-de-camp was announced. He brought her a letter of audience for the
+following day. Monsieur de Gorgoli had kept his word.
+
+Early the following morning I called upon Louise, to accompany her to
+the palace. I found her waiting for me, dressed in deep mourning, and
+without a single ornament; but her pale, melancholy style of beauty, was
+rather improved than impaired by the simplicity and sombre colour of her
+attire.
+
+At the palace gate we separated, and I awaited her return in the
+carriage. On presenting her letter of audience, an officer on duty
+conducted her to the Emperor's private cabinet, and desiring her to wait
+there, left the room. She remained alone for about ten minutes, during
+which time, she afterwards told me, she was more than once near fainting
+away. At last a step was heard in the adjoining apartment; a door
+opened, and the Emperor appeared. On seeing him, she, by a spontaneous
+movement, fell upon her knees, and, unable to find words, clasped her
+hands together in mute supplication.
+
+"Rise!" said the Emperor kindly, advancing towards her. "I have been
+already spoken to on the subject of your application. You wish for
+permission to join an exile?"
+
+"Yes, sire, if such a favour may be granted."
+
+"You are neither his sister nor his wife, I believe?"
+
+"I am his--friend, sire," replied poor Louise, a tinge of pink
+over-spreading her pale cheek. "He must sadly need a friend."
+
+"You know that he is banished for life to a country where there are
+scarcely four months of spring, and the rest of the year is one dreary
+winter?"
+
+"I know it, sire."
+
+"Do you know, also, that he has neither rank, fortune, nor title to
+share with you--that he is poorer than the poorest mendicant in St
+Petersburg?"
+
+"Yes, sire."
+
+"You have doubtless some fortune, some resources of your own?"
+
+"Alas, sire, I have nothing! Yesterday I had thirty thousand rubles,
+produced by the sale of all I possessed, but even that little fortune
+was stolen from me."
+
+"I know it. By a forged letter. It was more than a theft, it was a
+sacrilege; and, should its perpetrator be detected, he shall be punished
+as though he had broken open the poor-box in a church. But there are
+means of repairing your loss?"
+
+"How, sire?"
+
+"Inform his family of the circumstance. They are rich, and will assist
+you."
+
+"I thank your Majesty; but I desire no assistance save that of God."
+
+"But without funds how can you travel? Have you no friends who would
+help you?"
+
+"Pardon me, sire, but I am too proud to borrow what I could never repay.
+By selling what little property I have left, I shall raise two or three
+hundred rubles."
+
+"Scarcely sufficient for a quarter of the journey. Do you know the
+distance from here to Tobolsk, my poor girl?"
+
+"Yes, sire--about eight hundred French leagues."
+
+"And how will you get over the five or six hundred leagues you will
+still have to travel when your last ruble is spent?"
+
+"There are towns on the road, sire. When I reach a town I will work till
+I have enough to continue my journey to the next."
+
+"That may do as far as Perm," replied the Emperor; "but after that you
+have the Ural mountains, and you are at the end of Europe. After that
+nothing but a few scattered villages; no inns upon the road; large
+rivers without bridges or ferries, and which must be traversed by
+dangerous fords, whence men and horses are frequently swept away."
+
+"Sire, when I reach the rivers they will be frozen; for I am told that
+in those regions the winter begins earlier than at St Petersburg."
+
+"What!" cried the Emperor, astonished, "do you think of setting out
+now--of performing such a journey in winter?"
+
+"It is during the winter that _his_ solitude must be most intolerable."
+
+"It is impossible. You must be mad to think of it."
+
+"Impossible if your Majesty so wills it. No one can disobey your
+Majesty."
+
+"_I_ shall not prevent it; but surely your own reason, and the immense
+difficulties of such an undertaking, will."
+
+"Sire! I will set out to-morrow."
+
+"But if you perish on the road?"
+
+"If I perish, sire, he will have lost nothing, for I am neither his
+mother, his daughter, nor sister, but only his mistress--that is, a
+woman to whom society gives no rights, and who must consider herself
+fortunate if the world looks upon her with no harsher feeling than
+indifference. But if I _am_ able to join him, I shall be _every thing_
+to him--mother, sister, family, and friends. We shall be two to suffer
+instead of one, and that fearful exile will lose half its terrors. You
+see, sire, I _must_ rejoin him, and that as soon as possible."
+
+"You are right," said the Emperor, looking fixedly at her, "and I no
+longer oppose your departure."
+
+He rang; an aide-de-camp appeared.
+
+"Is Corporal Ivan in attendance?"
+
+"He waits your Majesty's orders."
+
+"Let him come in."
+
+The aide-de-camp bowed, and disappeared. Two minutes afterwards the door
+reopened, and Corporal Ivan stepped into the room, then halted, upright
+and motionless, one hand on the seam of his overalls, the other to the
+front of his schako.
+
+"Draw near," said the Emperor, in a stern voice.
+
+The corporal made four paces to the front, and relapsed into his former
+position.
+
+"Nearer!"
+
+Four more paces, and Ivan was close to the Emperor's writing-table.
+
+"You are Corporal Ivan?"
+
+"Yes, sire."
+
+"You commanded the escort of the sixth division?"
+
+"Yes, sire."
+
+"You had orders to allow the prisoners to communicate with no one?"
+
+This time the corporal's tongue seemed embarrassed by something, and his
+affirmative was uttered in a less steady tone than the preceding ones.
+
+"Count Alexis W---- was one of the prisoners in your division, and in
+spite of your orders you allowed him to have two interviews with his
+mother and sisters. You knew the punishment you exposed yourself to by
+so doing?"
+
+Ivan grew very pale, and was forced to support himself against the
+table.
+
+"Pardon, sire!" gasped he.
+
+Louise seemed about to speak, but a motion of the Emperor's hand warned
+her to remain quiet. After a moment's silence--
+
+"You are pardoned," said the Emperor.
+
+The soldier drew a deep breath. Louise uttered an exclamation of joy.
+
+"Where did you leave Count W----?"
+
+"At Koslowo, your Majesty."
+
+"You will set off again, and escort this lady thither."
+
+"Oh, sire!" exclaimed Louise, who began to understand the Emperor's
+feigned severity,
+
+"You will obey her in all respects, consistently with her safety, for
+which you answer to me with your head; and if, on your return, you bring
+me a letter from her, saying that she is satisfied with your conduct,
+you shall be made sergeant."
+
+"Thanks, father," said Ivan, forgetting for a moment his military
+stiffness, and falling upon his knees. The Emperor gave him his hand to
+kiss, as he was in the habit of doing to the lowest of his subjects.
+Louise was going to throw herself at his feet and kiss his other hand,
+but the Emperor stopped her.
+
+"You are indeed a true and admirable woman," said he. "I have done all I
+can for you. May God bless and protect you!"
+
+"Oh, sire!" exclaimed Louise, "how can I show my gratitude!"
+
+"When you pray for your child," said the Emperor, "pray also for mine."
+And waving his hand kindly to her, he left the room.
+
+When Louise returned home she found a small packet that had been sent
+from the Empress during her absence. It contained thirty thousand
+rubles.
+
+It had been arranged that I should accompany Louise as far as Moscow, a
+city that I was desirous of visiting, and thence she would pursue her
+journey under Ivan's escort. The day after her interview with the
+Emperor, we started in a carriage that Ivan brought, and the combined
+strength and elegance of which surprised me, until I observed on a
+corner of the pannel the mark of the imperial stables. It was an
+excellent travelling berline, lined throughout with fur. Ivan was
+provided with an order, by virtue of which post-horses would be
+furnished us the whole of the journey, at the Emperor's expense. Louise
+got into the carriage with her child in her arms; I seated myself beside
+her, Ivan jumped on the box, and in a few minutes we were rattling along
+the Moscow road.
+
+Louise was received with open arms by the Countess W---- and her
+daughters. The nature of her connexion with Alexis was lost sight of and
+forgotten in the devotion and disinterestedness of her attachment. A
+room was prepared for her in the Countess's house; and, however anxious
+the Count's mother and sisters were that he should have society and
+consolation in his exile, they nevertheless entreated her to pass the
+winter at Moscow, rather than run the risk of so long a journey during
+the bad season that was approaching. But Louise was inflexible. Two days
+were all she would consent to remain. She was forced, however, to leave
+her child in charge of its grandmother, for it would have been madness
+to have done otherwise.
+
+I had been offered an apartment in the Countess's house, but preferred
+taking up my quarters at an hotel, in order to have liberty to spend my
+time in visiting whatever was remarkable at Moscow. On the evening of
+the second day I went to call upon the Countess. The ladies were making
+another effort to persuade Louise to defer her perilous journey till a
+more favourable season. But no arguments, no entreaties, could move her:
+she was determined to set off the following morning. I was invited to
+breakfast, and to witness her departure.
+
+I had been for some days turning over in my mind a project that I now
+resolved to put in execution. I got up early the next morning and bought
+a fur coat and cap, thick furred boots, a carbine, and a brace of
+pistols, all of which I gave to Ivan, and desired him to place them in
+the carriage. I then hastened to the Countess W----'s.
+
+Breakfast over, the carriage drove up to the door. Louise was
+alternately clasped in the arms of the Countess and her daughters. My
+turn came, and she held out her hand. I made a motion to assist her into
+the carriage. "Well," said she, astonished, "don't you bid me farewell?"
+
+"Why should I?"
+
+"I am going to set off."
+
+"So am I."
+
+"You!"
+
+"Certainly. You recollect the Persian fable--the pebble that was not the
+rose, but had caught some of its fragrance by living near it."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Well, I have caught some of your devotedness, and I shall go with you
+to Tobolsk. I will deliver you safe and sound to the Count, and then
+come back again."
+
+Louise looked me earnestly in the face. "I have no right," said she, "to
+prevent your doing a good action--come."
+
+The Countess and her daughters were in tears. "My child! my child!"
+cried Louise, who had remained firm up to this moment, but burst into a
+passion of weeping as she clasped her infant for the last time in her
+arms.
+
+"Adieu! Adieu!" The whip cracked; the wheels rattled over the pavement.
+We were off to Siberia. On we went, day and night. Pokrow, Vladimir,
+Nijni-Novogorod, Casan. "_Pascare! Pascare!_" Quicker! Quicker! was
+Ivan's cry to each new postilion. The snow had not yet begun to fall,
+and he was anxious, if possible, to cross the Ural mountains before it
+set in. The immense plains between Moscow and Perm were traversed with
+tremendous rapidity. On reaching the latter place, Louise was so much
+exhausted that I told Ivan we must halt one night. He hesitated a
+moment, then looking at the sky, which was dark and lowering, "It will
+be as well," said he; "we must soon have snow, and it is better it
+should fall before than during our journey." The next morning his
+prediction was verified. There were two feet of snow in the streets of
+Perm.
+
+Ivan now wished to remain till the cold increased, so that the snow
+might become hard, and the rivers frozen. But all his arguments could
+only induce Louise to wait two days. On the third morning we set off,
+leaving our carriage, and packed into a sort of small vehicle without
+springs, called a _t�l�gue_.
+
+On reaching the foot of the Ural mountains, the cold had so much
+increased that it became advisable to substitute a sledge for our
+wheels. We stopped at a miserable village, composed of a score of
+hovels, in order to effect this exchange, and entered a wretched hut,
+which did duty both as posting-house and as the only inn in the place.
+Eight or nine men, carriers by trade, were crowded round a large fire,
+lighted in the centre of the room, and the smoke of which found a vent
+through a hole in the roof. They paid no attention to our entrance; but
+when I had taken off my cloak, my uniform at once obtained for us the
+best place at the hearth. The landlord of this wretched hostelry met my
+enquires about supper with a stare of astonishment, and offered me a
+huge loaf of hard black bread as the whole contents of his larder. Ivan,
+however, presently appeared, having managed to forage out a couple of
+fowls, which, in an inconceivably short space of time, were plucked, and
+one of them simmering in an iron pot over the fire, while the other hung
+suspended by a string in front of the blaze. Supper over, we wrapped
+ourselves in our furs, and lay down upon the floor, beds in such a place
+being of course out of the question.
+
+Before daybreak, I awoke, and found Ivan and the carriers already afoot,
+and in consultation as to the practicability of continuing our journey.
+The question was at last decided in favour of the march; the waggoners
+hastened to harness their horses, and I went to inspect our carriage,
+which the village blacksmith had taken off its wheels and mounted upon a
+sledge. Ivan meantime was foraging for provisions, and shortly returned
+with a ham, some tolerable bread, and half a dozen bottles of a sort of
+reddish brandy, made, I believe, out of the bark of the birch-tree.
+
+At length all was ready, and off we set, our sledge going first,
+followed by the carriers' waggons. Our new companions, according to a
+custom existing among them, had chosen one of their number as a chief,
+whose experience and judgment were to direct the movements of the party,
+and whose orders were to be obeyed in all things. Their choice had
+fallen on a man named George, whose age I should have guessed to be
+fifty, but who, I learned with astonishment, was upwards of seventy
+years old. He was a powerful and muscular man, with black piercing eyes,
+overhung by thick shaggy eyebrows, which, as well as his long beard,
+were of an iron grey. His dress consisted of a woollen shirt and
+trousers, a fur cap, and a sheepskin with the wool turned inside. To the
+leathern belt round his waist were suspended two or three horse-shoes, a
+metal fork and spoon, a long-bladed knife, a small hatchet, and a sort
+of wallet, in which he carried pipe, tobacco, flint, steel, nails,
+money, and a variety of other things useful or necessary in his mode of
+life. The garb and equipment of the other carriers were, with some small
+differences, the same.
+
+The first day's journey passed without incident. Our march was slow and
+even dangerous, all trace of the road being obliterated, and we were
+obliged to feel our way, as it were, by sending men forward with long
+pikes to sound the depth of snow before us. At nightfall, however, we
+found ourselves in safety on a sort of platform surmounted by a few
+pine-trees. Here we established our bivouac. Branches were cut, and a
+sort of hut built; and, with the aid of enormous fires, the night passed
+in greater comfort than might have been expected on a mountain-side, and
+with snow many feet deep around us.
+
+At daybreak we were again in movement. Our difficulties increased as we
+ascended the mountain: the snow lay in prodigious masses, and more than
+once we were delayed by having to rescue one or other of our advanced
+guard from some hole or ravine into which he had fallen. No serious
+accident, however, occurred, and we had at length the satisfaction of
+finding ourselves descending. We had passed the highest point of the
+road.
+
+We had been going downhill for some three hours, the way zig-zaging
+among rocks and precipices, when suddenly we were startled by a loud
+cracking, followed by a noise that resembled a clap of thunder repeated
+by many echoes. At the same moment a sort of whirlwind swept by us, and
+the air was darkened by a cloud of snow-dust. "An avalanche!" cried
+George, stopping his waggon. Every body halted. In another instant the
+noise ceased, the air became clear, and the avalanche continued its
+downward course, breaking, as it passed, a couple of gigantic pines that
+grew upon a rock, some five hundred feet below us. The carriers gave a
+hurra of joy at their escape, nor was it without reason. Had we been
+only half a verst further on our road, our journey had been at an end.
+
+The avalanche had not passed, however, without doing us some harm, for,
+on reaching the part of the road over which it had swept, we found it
+blocked up by a wall of snow thirty feet thick and of great height.
+There were several hours' work for all of us to clear it away; but
+unfortunately it was already nightfall, and we were obliged to make up
+our minds to remain where we were till morning.
+
+No wood was to be had either for hut or fire. The want of the latter was
+most unfortunate; for independently of the cold rendering it very
+necessary, it was our chief protection against the wolves. Doing the
+best we could under such unfavourable circumstances, we drew up the
+carts in the form of a half circle, of which the two extremities rested
+against the wall of snow it our rear, and within the sort of
+fortification thus formed we placed the horses and our sledge. Our
+arrangements were scarcely completed when it became perfectly dark.
+
+In the absence of fire Louise's supper and mine consisted of dry bread.
+The carriers, however, made a hearty meal on the flesh of a bear they
+had killed that morning, and which they seemed to consider as good raw
+as cooked.
+
+I was regretting the want of any description of light in case of an
+attack from the wolves, when Louise suddenly recollected that Ivan had
+put the lanterns belonging to the travelling carriage into our _t�l�gue_
+when we changed horses. On searching I found them under the seat, each
+furnished with a thick wax taper.
+
+This was, indeed, a treasure. We could not hope to scare away the wolves
+by the light of our two candles; but it would enable us to see them
+coming, and to give them a proper reception. We tied the lanterns to the
+top of two poles fixed firmly in the snow, and saw with pleasure that
+they cast their clear pale light nearly fifty yards around our
+encampment.
+
+We were ten men in all. Two stood sentry on the carts, while the
+remainder set to work to pierce through the obstacle left by the
+avalanche. The snow had already become slightly frozen, so that they
+were able to cut a passage through it. I joined the working party as
+being a warmer occupation than standing sentry. For three or four hours
+we toiled incessantly, and the birch-tree brandy, with which I had
+provided myself, and which we had carefully economized, was now found
+most useful in giving strength and courage to the labourers.
+
+It was about eleven o'clock at night when a long howl was heard, which
+sounded so close and startling that with one accord we suspended our
+work. At the same moment old George, who was on sentry, called to us. We
+ran to the waggons and jumped upon them. A dozen enormous wolves were
+prowling about the outside edge of the bright circle thrown by our
+lanterns. Fear of the light kept them off; but each moment they were
+growing bolder, and it was easy to see that they would not be long
+without attacking us.
+
+I looked to the priming of my carbine and pistols. Ivan was similarly
+armed; but the carriers had only their pikes, hatchets, and knives. With
+these weapons, however, they boldly awaited the attack.
+
+Half an hour passed in this state of suspense, the wolves occasionally
+advancing a pace or two into the circle of light, but always retreating
+again. At length one of them approached so near that I asked George if
+it would not be advisable to reward his temerity with a bullet.
+
+"Yes," was the answer, "if you are certain of hitting him."
+
+"Why must I be certain?"
+
+"Because if you kill him his companions will amuse themselves with
+eating him; to be sure," added he to himself, "if once they taste blood
+they will be mad for more."
+
+"The mark is so good," said I, "I can hardly miss him."
+
+"Fire, then, in God's name!" returned George; "all this must have an end
+one way or the other."
+
+Before the words were out of his mouth I fired, and the wolf writhed in
+agony on the snow. In an instant half a dozen wolves darted forward,
+and, seizing their comrade, carried him off into the darkness.
+
+The howlings now increased, and it was evident more wolves were
+arriving. At length there was a moment's silence.
+
+"Do you hear the horses," said George, "how they neigh, and paw? It is a
+signal for us to be prepared."
+
+"I thought the wolves were gone," replied I; "they have left off
+howling.
+
+"No, they have finished their repast, and are preparing for an attack.
+Here they come."
+
+And that moment eight or ten wolves, that in the imperfect flickering
+light looked as big as jackasses, rushed forward, and instead of
+endeavouring to pass under the waggons, bounded boldly upon them. By
+some chance, however, none of them attacked the waggon on which I was
+posted.
+
+The cart on my right, defended by George, was escaladed by three wolves,
+one of which was immediately disabled by a thrust of the vigorous old
+man's pike. A ball from my carbine settled another, and seeing George's
+hatchet raised over the head of the third I knew he wanted no further
+aid, and looked to see what was going on to my left. Two wolves had
+attacked the waggon which was defended by one of George's sons, who
+received the first of his foes with a lance thrust. But apparently no
+vital part was touched, and the wolf had broken the pike with his teeth;
+so that for a moment the man opposed to him had nothing but the pole
+wherewith to defend himself. The second wolf was scrambling along the
+cart, and on the point of attacking him, when I sprang from one waggon
+to another, and fired one of my pistols into the animal's ear. He fell
+dead beside his companion, who was rolling in the snow, and making
+violent efforts to tear the broken lance from his wound.
+
+Meantime Ivan was hard at work, and I heard a carbine or two pistol
+shots, which told me that our adversaries were as warmly received on the
+left as on the right of the line. An instant later four wolves again
+crossed the circle of light, but this time in full retreat; and at the
+same moment, to our no small astonishment, three others, that we had
+thought dead or mortally wounded, raised themselves up and followed
+their companions, leaving large tracks of blood behind them. Three
+carcasses remained upon the field of battle.
+
+"Load again, and quickly," cried George. "I know their ways; they will
+be back directly." And the old man pointed with his finger into the
+darkness. I listened, and heard distant howlings replying to the nearer
+ones. What we had as yet had was a mere skirmish. The general engagement
+was to come.
+
+"Look behind you!" cried a voice. I turned and saw two fiery eyes
+gleaming on the top of the snow wall in our rear. Before I could draw a
+trigger the wolf gave a leap, and falling upon one of the horses struck
+his fangs into its throat. Three men left their waggons.
+
+"There is but one wolf," cried George, "and one man is enough. Let the
+others remain at their posts."
+
+Two of the men resumed their places. The third crept upon his hands and
+knees among the horses who, in their terror, were kicking and plunging
+violently, and throwing themselves against the carts by which they were
+surrounded. The next instant I saw the gleam of a knife blade, and the
+wolf let go the horse, which reared up on its hind-legs, the blood
+streaming from its throat. A dark mass was rolling and struggling on the
+ground. It was the man and the wolf.
+
+At the end of a few seconds the man stood up. "David," said he to one of
+his comrades, "come and help me to carry away this carrion. The horses
+wont be quiet while it lies here."
+
+They dragged the wolf towards George's waggon, and then raising it up
+from the ground, the old man took it by the hind-legs, as though it had
+been a hare, and threw it outside the line of carts.
+
+"Well, Nicholas," said George to the successful combatant, "don't you
+take your place again."
+
+"No," replied the other; "I have enough as it is."
+
+"Are you wounded?" cried Louise, opening the door of the _t�l�gue_.
+
+"I believe I have killed my last wolf," answered the poor fellow in a
+faint voice.
+
+I gave George my carbine, and hastened to the wounded man. A part of his
+jaw was torn away, and the blood flowed abundantly from a large wound in
+his neck. I for a moment feared that the carotid artery was opened, and
+scarcely knowing whether I did right or wrong, I seized a handful of
+snow and applied it to the wound. The sufferer uttered a cry and fainted
+away.
+
+"O God!" cried Louise, "have mercy upon him!"
+
+"To your posts," shouted George in a stentorian voice; "the wolves are
+upon us."
+
+I left the wounded man in Louise's care, and jumped upon the cart.
+
+I can give no details of the combat that followed. I had too much
+occupation myself to attend to what my companions were doing. We were
+attacked by at least twenty wolves at once. After discharging my two
+pistols, I armed myself with an axe that George gave me. The fight
+lasted nearly a quarter of an hour, and certainly the scene was one of
+the most terrible it is possible to imagine. At length, and just as I
+was splitting the skull of a wolf that hung on to one of the wheels of
+my waggon, a shout of victory resounded along our line, and again our
+enemies fled, but this time it was for good.
+
+Three of our men were wounded, besides Nicholas, who was still alive,
+but in a desperate state. We were obliged to shoot the horse that had
+been torn by the wolf.
+
+By daybreak, a passage was opened through the wall of snow, and we
+resumed our journey. The evening of the same day we reached a small
+village, where we found an inn, that, under any other circumstances,
+would have been pronounced abominable, but which appeared a palace after
+three such days as we had passed. The following morning we parted from
+our friends the carriers, leaving George five hundred rubles to divide
+among them.
+
+All now went well. Thanks to the imperial order with which we were
+provided, the best horses were always for us, and, when necessary,
+escorts of ten or twelve men galloped on either side of our sledge. The
+country was flat and the pace good, and exactly a week after leaving the
+Ural mountains we entered Tobolsk.
+
+We were dreadfully fatigued, but yet Louise would only remain long
+enough to take a bath; and at two in the morning we set out for the
+little town of Koslowo, which had been selected as the abode of twenty
+of the exiles, among whom was Alexis. On arriving, we hastened to the
+officer commanding there, and showing him the Emperor's order, which
+produced its usual effect, enquired after the Count. He was well, was
+the answer, and still at Koslowo.
+
+It had been agreed between Louise and myself that I should go and see
+him first, and inform him of her arrival. I asked the governor for a
+pass, which he gave me without hesitation, and a Cossack conducted me to
+a part of the town composed of some twenty houses enclosed within high
+palisades, and guarded by sentries. We stopped before a door, and my
+guide knocked. "Come in!" said a voice which I recognized as that of
+Alexis.
+
+When I opened the door, he was lying on his bed, dressed, and with a
+book on the floor near him. I stopped upon the threshold. He stared at
+me without speaking, and seemed hardly to believe his eyes.
+
+"Well," said I, "have you forgotten me?"
+
+At the sound of my voice, he sprang from his bed and threw his arms
+round me. But the next instant he started back. "Good heavens!"
+exclaimed he, "you are exiled, and I am probably the cause."
+
+"No, indeed," I replied, "I come here as an amateur." He smiled
+bitterly.
+
+"As an amateur! Into the heart of Siberia! Explain your meaning. But
+first--Louise--what of her?"
+
+"I have just now left her."
+
+"Just now? A month ago, you mean?"
+
+"Five minutes ago."
+
+"Good God! what do you mean?" cried Alexis, growing very pale.
+
+"That Louise has accompanied me, and is now here."
+
+"Oh woman! woman! Thy heart is ever the same," murmured Alexis, while
+tear after tear rolled down his cheek. He was then silent for a time,
+but his lips moved, and I doubt not in thanksgiving to God for such
+happiness.
+
+"Where is she?" he at length exclaimed.
+
+"At the governor's house."
+
+He rushed towards the door. "I am mad," said he, pausing, "I forget that
+I cannot leave my cage without permission. My dearest friend, bring her
+here, I beseech you! Or stay, this man will go." He spoke in Russian to
+the Cossack, who went out.
+
+In a few minutes, and before I could answer a tithe of the numerous
+questions Alexis asked me, the man returned, but alone.
+
+"Well?" said the Count, changing countenance.
+
+"The governor says you must be aware that the prisoners are not allowed
+to receive visits from women."
+
+The Count struck his forehead with his clenched hand, and fell back upon
+a chair. His features were almost convulsed by the violence of his
+emotions. At last he turned to the Cossack.
+
+"Beg the sergeant to come here." The soldier left the room.
+
+"Can any thing be more horrible?" cried Alexis. "She has come nine
+hundred leagues to see me; she is not a hundred yards from me, and we
+are forbidden to meet!"
+
+"There must surely be some blunder," said I; "an order misunderstood, or
+something of the kind."
+
+Alexis shook his head doubtingly. There was a wild look of despair in
+his large dark eyes that alarmed me. At this moment, the sergeant who
+had charge of the prisoners entered.
+
+"Sir," cried the Count with vehemence, "the woman I love has left St
+Petersburg to join me, and after a thousand dangers and hardships has
+arrived here. I am now told that I shall not be allowed to see her. It
+is doubtless a mistake?"
+
+"No, sir," replied the sergeant coolly. "You know very well that the
+prisoners are not permitted to see women."
+
+"But Prince Troubetskoy has that permission. Is it because he is a
+prince?"
+
+"No, sir, it is because the princess is his wife."
+
+"And if Louise were my wife, should I be allowed to see her?"
+
+"Undoubtedly, sir!"
+
+"Ha!" ejaculated the Count, as though a weight were removed from off his
+heart. "I should like to speak with the priest," said he to the
+sergeant, after a moment's pause.
+
+"He shall be sent for immediately," was the reply.
+
+"And now my friend," said Alexis, turning to me, and taking my hands in
+his, "you have been Louise's guardian and defender, will you for once
+act as her father?"
+
+The following morning at ten o'clock, Louise, accompanied by the
+governor and myself, and Alexis by Prince Troubetskoy and the other
+exiles, entered the little church of Koslowa by two different doors.
+Their first meeting was at the altar, and the first word they exchanged
+was the _yes_ that united them for ever.
+
+The Emperor by a private letter to the governor, of which Ivan was the
+bearer, had ordered that the Count should only be allowed to see Louise
+as his wife. It has been seen how willingly my friend obeyed, I should
+rather say anticipated, the Emperor's commands. And rich was his reward
+for thus promptly acknowledging the just claims of this devoted and very
+admirable woman. She was one of "nature's own nobility"--refined and
+graceful, intelligent and high-minded--and would have graced higher rank
+than that to which she was raised by the gratitude of Count Alexis
+W----.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+AMMAL�T BEK.
+
+A TRUE TALE OF THE CAUCASUS. FROM THE RUSSIAN OF MARL�NSKI.
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+"Will you hold your tongue, little serpent?" said an old Tartar woman to
+her grandson, who, having awakened before daylight, was crying for want
+of something better to do. "Be quiet, or I will kick you into the
+street."
+
+This old woman was Ammal�t's nurse: the hut in which she lived stood
+close to the tents of the Begs, and had been given to her by her
+foster-son, Ammal�t. It was composed of two clean whitewashed rooms, the
+floor of both was strewed with coarse mats, (ghasil;) in niches close to
+each other, for the room was without windows, stood boxes bound with
+iron, and on them were arranged a feather-bed, blankets, and all the
+utensils. On the cornices, at half the height of the wall, were ranged
+porcelain cups for pillau, having tin covers in the form of helmets, and
+little plates hanging side by side on wires: the holes with which they
+were pierced showing that they served not for use, but for ornament. The
+face of the old woman was covered with wrinkles, and expressed a sort of
+malicious sorrow: the usual consequence of the lonely pleasureless life
+of a Mussulman woman. As a worthy representative of persons of her age
+and country, she never for a moment ceased scolding her grandson from
+under her blanket, and to grumble to herself. "Kess," (be quiet,) she
+cried at length, yet more angrily, "or I will give you to the gha�uls,
+(devils!) Do you hear how they are scratching at the roof, and knocking
+at the door for you?"
+
+It was a stormy night; a thick rain pattering on the flat roof which
+served as a ceiling, and the roaring of the wind in the chimney,
+answered to her hoarse voice. The boy became quiet, and straining his
+eyes, hearkened in a fright. It really seemed as if some one was
+knocking at the door. The old woman became frightened in her turn: her
+inseparable companion, a dirty dog, lifted up his head from sleep, and
+began to bark in a most pitiful voice. But meanwhile the knocking at the
+door became louder, and an unknown voice cried sternly from without,
+"Atch kapini, akhirin akhirici!" (open the door for the end of ends.)
+The old woman turned pale. "Allah bismallah!" she exclaimed, now
+addressing heaven, then threatening the dog, and then quieting the
+crying child. "Sh, accursed beast! Hold your tongue, I say, kharamz�da,
+(good-for-nothing son of shame!) Who is there? What honest man will
+enter, when it is neither day nor dawn, into the house of a poor old
+woman? If you are Shait�n, go to neighbour Kitchk�na. It has been long
+time to show her the road to hell! If you are a tcha�uth,
+(tax-gatherer,) who, to say the truth, is rather worse than Shait�n,
+then go about your business. My son-in-law is not at home; he serves as
+n�uker at Ammal�t Bek's; and the Bek has long ago freed me from taxes;
+and as for treating idle travellers, don't expect from me even an egg,
+much less a duck. Is it in vain, then, that I suckled Ammal�t?"
+
+"Will you open, you devil's distaff?" impatiently exclaimed the voice,
+"or I will not leave you a plank of this door for your coffin."
+
+The feeble doors shook on their hinges.
+
+"Enter, pray enter," said the old woman, undoing the iron hasp with a
+trembling hand. The door flew open, and there entered a man of a
+middling stature, and of a handsome but melancholy countenance. He was
+clad in the Circassian dress: the water trickled down his b�urka and
+bashl�k.[22] Without any apologies, he threw it on the feather-bed, and
+began to untie the lopasti of his bashl�k which half covered his
+face--Fatma, having in the mean time lighted a candle, stood before him
+with fear and trembling. The long-whiskered dog, with his tail between
+his legs, pressed himself into a corner, and the child, in a fright,
+climbed into the fire-place--which, used only for ornaments, was never
+heated.
+
+    [22] Bashl�k--a bonnet worn in bad weather.
+
+"Well, Fatma, you are grown proud," said the unknown; "you do not
+recognize old friends."
+
+Fatma gazed at the new-comer's features, and her heart grew light within
+her. She recognized Sultan Akhmet Khan, who had ridden in one night from
+Kiafir Kounik to Bouin�ki.
+
+"May the sand fill my eyes that did not recognize their old master!" she
+replied, respectfully crossing her arms on her breast. "To say truth,
+they are blinded by tears, for her country--for Av�r! Forgive an old
+woman, Khan!"
+
+"What old age is yours, Fatma? I remember you a little girl, when I
+myself could hardly reach the young crows from their nests."
+
+"A strange land makes every one old, Khan. In my native mountains I
+should still have been fresh as an apple, and here am I like a snowball
+fallen from the hill into the valley. Pray come hither, Khan, here it is
+more comfortable. What shall I entertain my precious guest with? Is
+there nothing the Khan's soul can wish for?"
+
+"The Khan's soul wishes that you should entertain him with your
+goodwill."
+
+"I am at your will; speak, command!"
+
+"Listen to me, Fatma! I have no time to waste in words. This is why I am
+come here: render me a service with your tongue, and you shall have
+wherewithal to comfort your old teeth. I will make you a present of ten
+sheep; I will dress you in silk from top to toe."
+
+"Ten sheep and a gown!--a silk gown! O gracious Aga! O kind Khan! I have
+not seen such a lord here since the accursed Tartars carried me away,
+and made me marry a hateful ... I am ready to do every thing, Khan, that
+you wish. Cut my ears off even, if you will!"
+
+"What would be the good of that? They must be kept sharp. This is the
+business. Ammal�t will come to you to-day with the Colonel. The Shamkh�l
+of T�rki will arrive also. This Colonel has attached your young Bek to
+him by witchcraft; and having taught him to eat swine's flesh, wants to
+make a Christian of him: from which Mahomet preserve him!"
+
+The old woman spat around her, and lifted her eyes to heaven.
+
+"To save Ammal�t, we must make him quarrel with the Colonel. For this
+purpose you must go to him, throw yourself at his feet, and fall
+a-weeping as if at a funeral. As to tears, you will have no need to go
+and borrow them of your neighbours. Swear like a shopkeeper of Derb�nd;
+remember that each oath of yours will bring you a dozen sheep; and at
+last tell him that you have heard a conversation between the Colonel and
+the Shamkh�l: that the Shamkh�l complained of his sending back his
+daughter: that he hates him out of fear that he should take possession
+of the crown of his Shamkhal�t: that he implored the Colonel to allow
+him to kill him in an ambuscade, or to poison him in his food; but that
+the other consented only to send him to Siberia, beyond the end of the
+world. In one word, invent and describe every thing cleverly. You were
+formerly famous for your tales. Do not eat dirt now. And, above all,
+insist that the Colonel, who is going on a furlough, will take him with
+him to Georgieffsk, to separate him from his kinsmen and faithful
+n�ukers; and from thence will dispatch him in chains to the devil."
+
+Sultan Akhmet added to this all the particulars necessary to give the
+story the most probable form; and once or twice instructed the old woman
+how to introduce them more skilfully.
+
+"Well, recollect every thing accurately, Fatma," said he, putting on his
+b�urka; "forget not, likewise, with whom you have to do."
+
+"Vallah, billah! let me have ashes instead of salt; may a beggar's
+tch�urek close my eyes; may" ...
+
+"Do not feed the Shait�ns with your oaths; but serve me with your words.
+I know that Ammal�t trusts you completely; and if, for his good, you
+will arrange this--he will come over to me, and bring you with him. You
+shall live, singing, under my wing. But I repeat, if, by chance or on
+purpose, you betray me, or injure me by your gossiping, I will make of
+your old flesh a kibab for the Shait�ns!"
+
+"Be easy, Khan! They have nothing to do either for me or with me. I will
+keep the secret like the grave, and I will _put my sar�tchka_[23] on
+Ammal�t."
+
+    [23] Give him her feelings--a Tartar phrase.
+
+"Well, be it so, old woman. Here is a golden seal for your lips. Take
+pains!"
+
+"_Bath�usta, ghez-�usta_!"[24] exclaimed the old woman, seizing the
+ducat with greediness, and kissing the Khan's hand for his present. The
+Sultan Akhmet Khan looked contemptuously at the base creature, whilst he
+quitted the s�kla.
+
+    [24] Willingly, if you please? Literally, "on my head, on my
+    eyes."
+
+"Reptile!" he grumbled to himself, "for a sheep, for a piece of cloth of
+gold, thou wouldst be ready to sell thy daughter's body, thy son's soul,
+and thy foster-son's happiness!"
+
+He did not reflect upon what name he deserved himself, entangling his
+friend in deceit, and hiring such vile creatures for low slander and for
+villanous intentions.
+
+
+_Fragment of a Letter from Colonel Verkh�ffsky to his Betrothed_.
+
+Camp near the Village of Kiafir Koum�k, August.
+
+... Ammal�t loves, and how he loves! Never, not even in the hottest fire
+of my youth, did my love rise to such a frenzy. I burned, like a censer
+lighted by a sunbeam; he flames, like a ship set on fire by lightning on
+the stormy sea. With you, my Maria, I have read more than once
+Shakspeare's Othello; and only the frantic Othello can give an idea of
+the tropical passion of Ammal�t. He loves to speak long and often of his
+Seltanetta, and I love to hear his volcanic eloquence. At times it is a
+turbid cataract thrown out by a profound abyss--at times a fiery
+fountain of the naphtha of Bakou. What stars his eyes scatter at that
+moment--what light plays on his cheeks--how handsome he is! There is
+nothing ideal in him: but then the earthly is grand, is captivating. I
+myself, carried away and deeply moved, receive on my breast the youth
+fainting from rapture: he breathes long, with slow sighs, and then
+casting down his eyes, lowering his head as if ashamed to look at the
+light--not only on me--presses my hand, and walks away with an uncertain
+step; and after that one cannot extract a word from him for the rest of
+the day.
+
+Since the time of his return from Khounz�kh, he is become still more
+melancholy than before; particularly the last few days. He hides the
+grandest, the noblest feeling which brings man near to divinity, as
+carefully as if it were a shameful weakness or a dreadful crime. He
+imploringly asked me to let him go once more to Khounz�kh, to sigh at
+the feet of his fair one; and I refused him--refused him for his own
+good. I wrote long ago about my favourite to Alex�i Petr�vitch, and he
+desired me to bring him with me to the waters, where he will be himself.
+He wishes to give him some message to Sultan Akhmet Khan, which will
+bring undoubted advantage to him and to Ammal�t. Oh, how happy I shall
+be in his happiness! To me, to me, he will owe the bliss of his
+life--not only empty life. I will force him on his knees before you, and
+will make him say--"Adore her as a deity!" If my heart were not filled
+with love to Maria, thou wouldst not take possession of Seltanetta.
+Yesterday I received an express from the commander-in-chief--a
+noble-minded man! He gives wings to happy news. All is arranged; my
+darling, I go to meet you at the waters. I shall only lead the regiment
+to Derb�nd--and then to the saddle! I shall know neither fatigue by day
+nor drowsiness by night, till I repose myself in your embrace. Oh, who
+will give me wings to fly to you! Who will give me strength to bear
+my--_our_--bliss! ... I, in delicious agitation, pressed my bosom, that
+my heart might not burst forth. For a long time I could not sleep:
+imagination painted our meeting in a thousand forms, and in the
+intervals appeared the most trivial but delightful cares, about wedding
+trifles, dresses, presents. You will be clad in my favourite colour,
+green. ... Is it not true, my soul? My fancies kept me from sleeping,
+like a strong perfume of roses; but the sweeter, the more brilliant was
+my sleep. I saw you by the light of dawn, and every time different,
+every time more lovely than before. My dreams were twined together like
+a wreath of flowers; but no! there was no connexion between them. They
+were wonderful phantoms, falling like colours from the kaleidoscope, and
+as impossible to retain. Notwithstanding all this, I awoke sorrowful
+this morning; my awakening took from my childish soul its favourite
+toy.... I went into Ammal�t's tent; he was still asleep. His face was
+pale and angry--let him be angry with me! I taste beforehand the
+gratitude of the ardent youth. I, like fate, am preparing his happiness
+in secret....
+
+To-day I bid adieu to these mountains for long--I hope for ever. I am
+very glad to quit Asia, the cradle of mankind, in which the
+understanding has remained till now in its swaddling-clothes.
+Astonishing is the immobility of Asiatic life, in the course of so many
+centuries. Against Asia all attempts of improvement and civilization
+have broken like waves; it seems not to belong to time, but to place.
+The Indian Brahmin, the Chinese Mandarin, the Persian Bek, the mountain
+Ouzd�n, are unchanged--the same as they were two thousand years ago. A
+sad truth! They represent, in themselves, a monotonous though varied, a
+lively though soulless nature. The sword and the lash of the conqueror
+have left on them, as on the water, no trace. Books, and the examples of
+missionaries, have produced on them no influence. Sometimes, however,
+they have made an exchange of vices; but never have they learned the
+thoughts or the virtues of others. I quit the land of fruit to transport
+myself to the land of labour--that great inventor of every thing useful,
+that suggester of every thing great, that awakener of the soul of man,
+which has fallen asleep here, and sleeps in weakness on the bosom of the
+seducer--nature.
+
+And truly, how seducing is nature here! Having ridden up the high
+mountain to the left of Kiafir Koum�k, I gazed with delight on the
+gradually lighted summit of the Caucasus. I looked, and could not look
+enough at them. What a wondrous beauty decks them as with a crown!
+Another thin veil, woven of light and shadow, lay on the lower hill, but
+the distant snows basked in the sky; and the sky, like a caressing
+mother, bending over them its immeasurable bosom, fed them with the milk
+of the clouds, carefully enfolding them with its swathe of mist, and
+refreshing them with its gently-breathing wind. Oh, with what a flight
+would my soul soar there, where a holy cold has stretched itself like a
+boundary between the earthly and the heavenly! My heart prays and
+thirsts to breathe the air of the inhabitants of the sky. I feel a wish
+to wander over the snows, on which man has never printed the seal of his
+blood-stained footsteps--which have never been darkened by the eagle's
+shadow--which the thunder has never reached--which the war spirits have
+never polluted; and on the ever-young summits where time, the
+continuation of eternity, has left no trace.
+
+Time! A strange thought has come into my head. How many fractional names
+has the weak sense of man invented for the description of an infinitely
+small particle of time out of the infinitely large circle of eternity!
+Years, months, days, hours, minutes! God has nothing of all this: he has
+not even evening nor morrow. With him all this has united itself into
+one eternal _now_!... Shall we ever behold this ocean in which we have
+hitherto been drowning? But I ask, to what end will all this serve man?
+Can it be for the satisfaction of an idle curiosity? No! the knowledge
+of truth, i.e. the All-knowing Goodness, does the soul of the reflecting
+man thirst after. It wishes to draw a full cup from the fountain of
+light which falls on it from time to time in a fine dew!
+
+And I shall imbibe it. The secret fear of death melts like snow before
+the beam of such a hope. I shall draw from it. My real love for my
+fellow-creatures is a security for it. The leaden ways of error will
+fall asunder before a few tears of repentance, and I shall lay down my
+heart as an expiating sacrifice before the judgment-seat which will have
+no terrors for me!
+
+It is wonderful, my beloved--hardly do I look at the mountains, the sea,
+the sky, ... but a solemn but inexpressibly sweet feeling o'er-burthens
+and expands my heart. Thoughts of you mingle with it; and, as in dreams,
+your form flits before me. Is this a foretaste of earthly bliss, which I
+have only known by name, or a foreboding of ... etern ...? O dearest,
+best, angelic soul, one look of yours and I am cured of dreaming! How
+happy am I that I can now say with assurance--_au revoir_!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+The poison of calumny burnt into the soul of Ammal�t. By the
+instructions of the Khan, his nurse Fatma related, with every appearance
+of disinterested affection, the story which had been arranged
+beforehand, on the same evening that he came with Verkh�ffsky to
+Bouin�ki, where they were met by the Shamkh�l in obedience to the
+Colonel's request. The envenomed shaft struck deep; now doubt would have
+been welcomed by Ammal�t, but conviction, it seemed, cast over all his
+former ties of friendship and blood, a bright but funereal light. In a
+frenzy of passion, he burned to drown his revenge in the blood of both;
+but respect for the rites of hospitality quenched his thirst for
+vengeance. He deferred his intention for a time--but could he forget it?
+Every moment of delay fell, like a drop of melted copper, on his heart.
+Memory, conviction, jealousy, love, tore his heart by turns; and this
+state of feeling was to him so new, so strange, so dreadful, that he
+fell into a species of delirium, the more dreadful that he was obliged
+to conceal his internal sensations from his former friend. Thus passed
+twenty-four hours; the detachment pitched their tents near the village
+Bougd�n, the gate of which, built in a ravine, and which is closed at
+the will of the inhabitants of Bougd�n, serves as a passage to Ak�ush.
+The following was written by Ammal�t, to divert the agony of his soul
+while preparing itself for the commission of a black crime.... ----
+
+MIDNIGHT.
+
+... Why, O Sultan Akhmet! have you cast lightning into my breast? A
+brother's friendship, a brother's treachery, and a brother's murder!...
+What dreadful extremes! And between them there is but a step, but a
+twinkling of the eye. I cannot sleep, I can think of nothing else. I am
+chained to this thought, like a criminal to his stake. A bloody sea
+swells, surges, and roars around me, and above gleams, instead of stars,
+the lightning-flash. My soul is like a naked peak, where only birds of
+prey and evil spirits assemble, to share their plunder, or to prepare
+misfortune. Verkh�ffsky, Verkh�ffsky! what have I done to you? Why would
+you tear from heaven the star of my liberty? Is it because I loved you
+so tenderly? And why do you approach me stealthily and thief-like? why
+do you slander--why do you betray me, by hypocrisy? You should say
+plainly, "I wish your life," and I would give it freely, without a
+murmur; would have laid it down a sacrifice like the son of Ibrahim,
+(Abraham!) I would have forgiven you, if you had but attempted my life,
+but to sell my freedom, to steal my Seltanetta from me, by burying me
+alive! Villain--and you still live!
+
+But sometimes like a dove, whose wings have been scorched in the smoke
+of a fire, appears thy form to me, Seltanetta. How is it, then, that I
+am no longer gay when I dream of you, as of old?...
+
+They would part us, my love--they would give you to another, to marry me
+on the grave-stone. But I will go to you--I will go to you over a bloody
+carpet--I will fulfil a bloody promise, in order to possess you. Invite
+not only your maiden friends to your marriage feast--invite also the
+vultures and the ravens, they shall all be regaled abundantly. I will
+pay a rich dower. On the pillow of my bride I will lay a heart which
+once I reckoned more precious than the throne-cushion[25] of the
+Persian Padishah. Wonderful destiny!... Innocent girl!... You will be
+the cause of an unheard of deed. Kindest of beings, for you friends will
+tear each other like ferocious beasts--for you and through you--and is
+it really for you alone--with ferocity--with ferocity only! Verkh�ffsky
+said, that to kill an enemy by stealth, is base and cowardly. But if I
+cannot do it otherwise? But can he be believed?... Hypocrite! He wished
+to entangle me beforehand; not my hands alone, but even my conscience.
+It was in vain.
+
+    [25] This cushion is embroidered with jewels, and is invaluable.
+
+... I have loaded my rifle. What a fine round barrel--what admirable
+ornaments! The rifle I received from my father--my father got it from my
+grandfather. I have heard of many celebrated shots made with it--and not
+one, not one was fired by stealth.... Always in battle--always before
+the whole army, it sent death; but wrong, but treachery, but you,
+Seltanetta!... My hand will not tremble to level a shot at him, whose
+name it is afraid even to write. One loading, one fire, and all is
+over!...
+
+One loading! How light, but how heavy will be each grain of powder in
+the scales of Allah! How far--how immeasurably will this load bear a
+man's soul? Accursed thou, the inventor of the grey dust, which delivers
+a hero into the hand of the vilest craven, which kills from afar the
+foe, who, with a glance, could have disarmed the hand raised against
+him! So, this shot will tear asunder all my former ties, but it will
+clear a road to new ones. In the cool Caucasus--on the bosom of
+Seltanetta, will my faded heart be refreshed. Like a swallow will I
+build myself a nest in a stranger land--like a swallow, the spring shall
+be my country. I will cast from me old sorrows, as the bird sheds its
+feathers.... But the reproaches of conscience, can they fade?... The
+meanest L�zghin, when he sees in battle the man with whom he has shared
+bread and salt, turns aside his horse, and fires his gun in the air. It
+is true he deceives me; but have I been the less happy? Oh, if with
+these tears I could weep away my grief--drown with them the thirst for
+vengeance--buy with them Seltenetta! Why comes on the dawn of day so
+slowly? Let it come! I will look, without blushing, at the sun--without
+turning pale, into the eyes of Verkh�ffsky. My heart is like iron--it is
+locked against mercy; treachery calls for treachery ... I am resolved
+... Quick, quick!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Thus incoherently, thus wildly wrote Ammal�t, in order to cheat time and
+to divert his soul. Thus he tried to cheat himself, rousing himself to
+revenge, whilst the real cause of his bloody intentions, viz. the desire
+of possessing Seltanetta, broke through every word.
+
+In order to embolden himself for his crime, he drank deeply of wine, and
+maddened, threw himself, with his gun, into the Colonel's tent; but
+perceiving sentinels at the door, he changed his intention. The natural
+feeling of self-preservation did not abandon him, even in his madness.
+Ammal�t put off till the morning the consummation of the murder; but he
+could neither sleep nor distract his thoughts ... and re-entering his
+tent, he seized Saphir Ali by the throat, who was lying fast asleep, and
+shaking him roughly: "Get up, sleepy rascal!"; he cried to him, "it is
+already dawn."
+
+Saphir Ali raised his head in a discontented mood, and yawning,
+answered: "I see only the dawn of wine on your cheek--good-night,
+Ammal�t!"
+
+"Up, I tell you! The dead must quit their graves to meet the new-comer
+whom I have promised to send to keep them company!"
+
+"Why, brother, am I dead?... Even the _forty Imaums_[26] may get up from
+the burial-ground of Derb�nd--but I will sleep."
+
+    [26] The Mussulmans believe, that in the northern burial-ground
+    of Derb�nd, are buried the forty first true believers, who were
+    martyred by the idolaters.
+
+"But you love to drink, Giaour, and you must drink with me."
+
+"That is quite another affair. Pour fuller, _Allah verdi_![27] I am
+always ready to drink and to make love."
+
+    [27] God gave--Much good may it do you.
+
+"And to kill an enemy!... Come, some more! A health to the devil!--who
+changes friends into mortal enemies."
+
+"So be it! Here goes, then, to the devil's health! The poor fellow wants
+health. We will drive him into a consumption out of spite, because he
+cannot make us quarrel!"
+
+"True, true, he is always ready for mischief. If he had seen Verkh�ffsky
+and me, he would have thrown down his cards. But you, too, will not, I
+hope, part from me?"
+
+"Ammal�t, I have not only quaffed wine from the same bottle with thee,
+but I have drained milk from the same breast. I am thine, even if you
+take it into your head to build yourself, like a vulture, a nest on the
+rock of Khounz�kh.... However, my advice would be"----
+
+"No advice, Saphir Ali--no remonstrances.... It is now too late!"
+
+"They would be drowned like flies in wine. But it is now time to sleep."
+
+"Sleep, say you! Sleep, to me! No, I have bidden farewell to sleep. It
+is time for me to awaken. Have you examined the gun, Saphir Ali--is the
+flint good? Has not the powder on the shelf become damp with blood?"
+
+"What is the matter with you, Ammal�t? What leaden secret weighs upon
+your heart? Your face is terrible--your speech is yet more frightful."
+
+"And my deeds shall be yet more dreadful. Is it not true, Saphir Ali, my
+Seltanetta--is she not beautiful? Observe! _my_ Seltanetta. Is it
+possible that these are the wedding songs, Saphir Ali? Yes, yes, yes! I
+understand. 'Tis the jackals demanding their prey. Spirits and wild
+beasts, be patient awhile--I will content you! Ho, wine--more wine! more
+blood!... I tell you!"
+
+Ammal�t fell on his bed in a drunken insensibility. Foam oozed out of
+his mouth: convulsive movements shook his whole body. He uttered
+unintelligible words, mingled with groans. Saphir Ali carefully
+undressed him, laid him in the bed, enveloped him in the coverings, and
+sat up the rest of the night watching over his foster-brother, in vain
+seeking in his head the explanation of the, to him, enigmatical speech
+and conduct of Ammal�t.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+In the morning, before the departure of the detachment, the captain on
+duty came to Colonel Verkh�ffsky to present his report, and to receive
+the orders for the day. After the customary exchange of words, he said,
+with an alarmed countenance: "Colonel, I have to communicate a most
+important thing: our yesterday's signal-man, a soldier of my company,
+Hamit�ff, heard the conversation of Ammal�t Bek with his nurse in
+Bouin�ki. He is a Tartar of Kaz�n, and understands pretty well the
+dialect of this country. As far as he could hear and understand, the
+nurse assured the Bek that you, with the Shamkh�l, are preparing to send
+him off to the galleys. Ammal�t flew into a passion; said, that he knew
+all this from the Khan, and swore to kill you with his own hand. Not
+trusting his ears, however, the soldier determined to tell you nothing,
+but to watch all his steps. Yesterday evening, he says, Ammal�t spoke
+with a horseman arrived from afar. On taking leave, he said: 'Tell the
+Khan, that to-morrow, by sunrise, all will be over. Let him be ready: I
+shall soon see him.'"
+
+"And is this all, Captain?" demanded Verkh�ffsky.
+
+"I have nothing else to say; but I am much alarmed. I have passed my
+life among the Tartars, Colonel, and I am convinced that it is madness
+to trust the best of them. A born brother is not safe, while resting in
+the arms of a brother."
+
+"This is envy, Captain. Cain has left it as an eternal heirloom to all
+men, and particularly to the neighbours of Ararat. Besides, there is no
+difference between Ammal�t and myself. I have done nothing for him but
+good. I intend nothing but kindness. Be easy, Captain: I believe the
+zeal of the signal-man, but I distrust his knowledge of the Tartar
+language. Some similarity of words has led him into error, and when once
+suspicion was awakened in his mind, every thing seemed an additional
+proof. Really, I am not so important a person that Khans and Beks should
+lay plots for my life. I know Ammal�t well. He is passionate, but he has
+a good heart, and could not conceal a bad intention two hours together."
+
+"Take care you be not mistaken, Colonel. Ammal�t is, after all, an
+Asiatic; and that name is always a proof. Here words hide thoughts--the
+face, the soul. Look at one of them--he seems innocence itself; have any
+thing to do with him, he is an abyss of meanness, treachery and
+ferocity."
+
+"You have a full right to think so, my dear Captain, from experience:
+Sultan Akhmet Khan gave you a memorable proof in Ammal�t's house, at
+Bouin�ki. But for me, I have no reason to suspect any mischief in
+Ammal�t; and besides, what would he gain by murdering me? On me depends
+all his hope, all his happiness. He is wild, perhaps, but not a madman.
+Besides, you see the sun is high; and I am alive and well. I am
+grateful, Captain, for the interest you have taken in me; but I entreat
+you, do not suspect Ammal�t: and, knowing how much I prize an old
+friendship, be assured that I shall as highly value a new one. Order
+them to beat the march."
+
+The captain departed, gloomily shaking his head. The drums rattled, and
+the detachment, in marching order, moved on from its night-quarters. The
+morning was fresh and bright; the road lay through the green ramparts of
+the mountains of the Caucasus, crowned here and there with forests and
+underwood. The detachment, like a stream of steel, flowed now down the
+hills, and now crept up the declivities. The mist still rested on the
+valleys, and Verkh�ffsky, riding to the elevated points, looked round
+frequently to feast his eyes with the ever-changing landscape.
+Descending the mountain, the detachment seemed to be swallowed up in the
+steaming river, like the army of Pharaoh, and anon, with a dull sound,
+the bayonets glittered again from the misty waves. Then appeared heads,
+shoulders; the men seemed to grow up, and then leaping up the rocks,
+were lost anew in the fog.
+
+Ammal�t, pale and stern, rode next to the sharpshooters. It appeared
+that he wished to deafen his conscience in the noise of the drums. The
+colonel called him to his side, and said kindly: "You must be scolded,
+Ammal�t; you have begun to follow too closely the precepts of Hafiz:
+recollect that wine is a good servant but a bad master: but a headache
+and the bile expressed in your face, will surely do you more good than a
+lecture. You have passed a stormy night, Ammal�t."
+
+"A stormy, a torturing night, Colonel! God grant that such a night be
+the last! I dreamed dreadful things."
+
+"Aha, my friend! You see what it is to transgress Mahomet's
+commandments. The conscience of the true believer torments you like a
+shadow."
+
+"It is well for him whose conscience quarrels only with wine."
+
+"That depends on what sort of conscience it is. And fortunately it is as
+much subject to prejudice as reason itself. Every country, every nation,
+has its own conscience; and the voice of immortal, unchangeable truth is
+silent before a would-be truth. Thus it is, thus it ever was. What
+yesterday we counted a mortal sin, to-morrow we adore. What on this bank
+is just and meritorious, on the other side of a brook leads to the
+halter."
+
+"I think, however, that treachery was never, and in no place, considered
+a virtue."
+
+"I will not say even that. We live at a time when success alone
+determines whether the means employed were good or bad; where the most
+conscientious persons have invented for themselves a very convenient
+rule--that the end sanctifies the means."
+
+Ammal�t, lost in his reflections, repeated these words, because he
+approved of them. The poison of selfishness began anew to work within
+him; and the words of Verkh�ffsky, which he looked on as treacherous,
+poured like oil on flame. "Hypocrite!" said he to himself; "your hour is
+at hand!"
+
+And meanwhile Verkh�ffsky, like a victim suspecting nothing, rode side
+by side with his executioner. At about eight versts from Kiek�nt the
+Caspian Sea discovered itself to them from a hill; and the thoughts of
+Verkh�ffsky soared above it like a swan. "Mirror of eternity!" said he,
+sinking into a reverie, "why does not your aspect gladden me to-day? As
+of old, the sun plays on you; and your bosom breathes, as sublimely as
+of old, eternal life; but that life is not of this world. You seem to me
+to-day a mournful waste; not a boat, not a sail, not a sign of man's
+existence. All is desolate!
+
+"Yes, Ammal�t," he added; "I am tired of your ever-angry, lonely sea--of
+your country peopled with diseases, and with men who are worse than all
+maladies in the world. I am weary of the war itself, of invisible
+enemies, of the service shared with unfriendly comrades. It is not
+enough that they impeded me in my proceedings--they spoiled what I
+ordered to be done--they found fault with what I intended, and
+misrepresented what I had effected. I have served my sovereign with
+truth and fidelity, my country and this region with disinterestedness; I
+have renounced, a voluntary exile, all the conveniences of life, all the
+charms of society; have condemned my intellect to torpidity, being
+deprived of books; have buried my heart in solitude; have abandoned my
+beloved; and what is my reward? When will that moment arrive, when I
+throw myself into the arms of my bride; when I, wearied with service,
+shall repose myself under my native cottage-roof, on the green shore of
+the Dni�per; when a peaceful villager, and a tender father, surrounded
+by my relations and my good peasants, I shall fear only the hail of
+heaven for my harvests; fight only with wild-beasts? My heart yearns for
+that hour. My leave of absence is in my pocket, my dismission is
+promised me.... Oh, that I could fly to my bride!... And in five days I
+shall for certain be in Ge�rgieffsk. Yet it seems as if the sands of
+Libya, a sea of ice----as if the eternity of the grave itself, separated
+us!"
+
+Verkh�ffsky was silent. Tears ran down his cheeks; his horse, feeling
+the slackened rein, quickened his pace--and thus the pair alone,
+advanced to some distance from the detachment.... It seemed as if
+destiny itself surrendered the colonel into the hands of the assassin.
+
+But pity penetrated the heart of Ammal�t, maddened as he was, and
+burning with wine--like a sunbeam falling in a robber's cave. He beheld
+the sorrow, the tears of the man whom he had so long considered as his
+friend, and hesitated. "No!" he thought, "to such a degree as that it is
+impossible to dissimulate...."
+
+At this moment Verkh�ffsky started from his reverie, lifted up his head,
+and spoke to Ammal�t. "Prepare yourself: you are to go with me!"
+
+Unlucky words! Every thing good, every thing noble, which had arisen
+anew in Ammal�t's breast, was crushed in a moment by them. The thought
+of treachery--of exile--rushed like a torrent through his whole being
+"With you!" he replied, with a malicious smile--"with you, and into
+Russia?--undoubtedly: if you go yourself!" and in a passion of rage he
+urged his horse into a gallop, in order to have time to prepare his
+arms; suddenly turned back to meet him; flew by him, and began to ride
+rapidly in a circle around him. At each stride of his horse, the flame
+of rage burned more fiercely within him: it seemed as if the wind, as it
+whistled past him, kept whispering "Kill, kill! he is your enemy.
+Remember Seltanetta!" He brought his rifle forward from his shoulder,
+cocked it, and encouraging himself with a cry, he galloped with
+blood-thirsty decision to his doomed victim. Verkh�ffsky, meanwhile, not
+cherishing the least suspicion, looked quietly at Ammal�t as he galloped
+round, thinking that he was preparing, after the Asiatic manner, for the
+djig�tering (equestrian exercises.)
+
+"Fire at your mark, Ammal�t Bek!" he exclaimed to the murderer who was
+rushing towards him.
+
+"What mark can be better than the breast of a foe?" answered Ammal�t
+Bek, riding up, and at ten paces' distance pulling the trigger!... the
+gun went off: and slowly, without a groan, the colonel sank out of his
+saddle. His affrighted horse, with expanded nostrils and streaming mane,
+smelt at his rider, in whose hands the reins that had so lately guided
+him began to stiffen: and the steed of Ammal�t stopped abruptly before
+the corpse, setting his legs straight before him. Ammal�t leaped from
+his horse, and, resting his arms on his yet smoking gun, looked for
+several moments steadfastly in the face of the murdered man; as if
+endeavouring to prove to himself that he feared not that fixed gaze,
+those fast-dimming eyes--that fast-freezing blood. It would be difficult
+to understand--'twere impossible to express the thoughts which rolled
+like a whirlwind through his breast. Saphir Ali rode up at full gallop;
+and fell on his knees by the colonel--he laid his ear to the dying man's
+mouth--he breathed not--he felt his heart--it beat not! "He is dead!"
+cried Saphir Ali in a tone of despair. "Dead! quite dead!"
+
+"So much the better ... My happiness is complete!..." exclaimed Ammal�t,
+as if awakening from a dream.
+
+"Happiness for you--for you, fratricide! If you meet happiness, the
+world will take to Shait�n instead of Allah."
+
+"Saphir Ali, remember that you are not my judge!" said Ammal�t fiercely,
+as he put his foot into the stirrup: "follow me!"
+
+"May remorse alone accompany you, like your shadow! From this hour I am
+not your companion."
+
+Pierced to the very bottom of his heart by this reproach from a man to
+whom he had been from infancy bound by the closest ties, Ammal�t uttered
+not a word, but pointing to his astounded n�ukers in the ravine, and
+perceiving the pursuit begun, dashed into the mountains like an arrow.
+
+The alarm soon spread through the advanced guard of the detachment: the
+officers, who were in front, and the Don Kaz�ks, flew to the shot, but
+they came too late. They could neither prevent the crime nor seize the
+flying assassin. In five minutes the bloody corpse of the treacherously
+murdered colonel was surrounded by a crowd of officers and soldiers.
+Doubt, pity, indignation were written on all their faces. The
+grenadiers, leaning on their bayonets, shed tears, and sobbed aloud:
+unflattering drops poured above the brave and much-loved chief.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+For three days and nights did Ammal�t wander about the mountains of
+Daghest�n. As a Mussulman, even in the villages subject to the Russian
+dominion, he was safe from all pursuit among people for whom robbery and
+murder are virtues. But could he escape from the consciousness of his
+own crime? Neither his heart nor his reason could find an excuse for his
+bloody deed; and the image of Verkh�ffsky falling from his horse,
+presented itself unceasingly before his eyes, though closed. This
+recollection infuriated him yet more, yet more tortured him. The
+Asiatic, once turned aside from the right road, travels rapidly over the
+career of villany. The Khan's command, not to appear before him but with
+the head of Verkh�ffsky, rang in his ears. Without daring to communicate
+such an intention to his n�ukers, and still less relying on their
+bravery, he resolved upon travelling to Derb�nd alone. A darksome and
+gloomy night had already expanded it ebon wings over the mountains of
+Caucasus which skirt the sea, when Ammal�t passed the ravine which lay
+behind the fortress of Nar�n-K�li, which served as a citadel to Derb�nd.
+He mounted to the ruined turret, which once formed the limit to the
+Caucasian war that had extended through the mountains, and tied his
+horse at the foot of that hill from which Yerm�loff had thundered on
+Derb�nd when but a lieutenant of artillery. Knowing where the Russian
+officers were buried, he came out upon the upper burial-ground. But how
+to find the new-made grave of Verkh�ffsky in the darkness of the night?
+Not a star glimmered in the sky: the clouds lay stretched on the hills,
+the mountain-wind, like a night-bird, lashed the forest with its wing:
+an involuntary shudder crept over Ammal�t, in the midst of the region of
+the dead, whose repose he dared to interrupt. He listens: the sea
+murmurs hoarsely against the rocks, tumbling back from them into the
+deep with a sullen sound. The prolonged "sl�ushai" of the sentinels
+floated round the walls of the town, and when it was silent there rose
+the yell of the jackals; and at last all again was still--every sound
+mingling and losing itself in the rushing of the wind. How often had he
+not sat awake on such nights with Verkh�ffsky--and where is he now! And
+who plunged him into the grave! And the murderer was now come to behead
+the corpse of his former friend--to do sacrilege to his remains--like a
+grave-robber to plunder the tomb--to dispute with the jackal his prey!
+
+"Human feeling!" cried Ammal�t, as he wiped the cold sweat from his
+forehead, "why visitest thou a heart which has torn itself from
+humanity? Away, away! Is it for me to fear to take off the head of a
+dead man, whom I have robbed of life! For him 'twill be no loss--to me a
+treasure. Dust is insensible!"
+
+Ammal�t struck a light with a trembling hand, blew up into a flame some
+dry bouri�n, (a dry grass of South Russia,) and went with it to search
+for the new-made grave. The loosened earth, and a large cross, pointed
+out the last habitation of the colonel. He tore up the cross, and began
+to dig up the mound with it; he broke through the arch of brickwork,
+which had not yet become hardened, and finally tore the lead from the
+coffin. The bouri�n, flaring up, threw an uncertain bloody-bluish tinge
+on all around. Leaning over the dead, the murderer, paler than the
+corpse itself, gazed unmovingly on his work; he forgot why he had
+come--he turned away his head from the reek of rottenness--his gorge
+rose within him when he saw the bloody-headed worms that crawled from
+under the clothes. Interrupted in their loathsome work, they, scared by
+the light, crept into a mass, and hid themselves beneath each other. At
+length, steeling himself to the deed, he brandished his dagger, and each
+time his erring hand missed its aim. Nor revenge, nor ambition, nor
+love--in a word, not one of those passions which had urged him to the
+frenzied crime, now encouraged him to the nameless horror. Turning away
+his head, in a sort of insensibility he began to hew at the neck of
+Verkh�ffsky--at the fifth blow the head parted from the trunk.
+Shuddering with disgust, he threw it into a bag which he had prepared,
+and hastened from the grave. Hitherto he had remained master of himself;
+but when, with his dreadful treasure, he was scrambling up, when the
+stones crumbling noisily under his feet, and he, covered with sand, fell
+backwards on Verkh�ffsky's corpse, then presence of mind left the
+sacrilegious. It seemed as if a flame had seized him, and spirits of
+hell, dancing and grinning, had surrounded him. With a heavy groan he
+tore himself away, crawled half senseless out of the suffocating grave,
+and hurried off, dreading to look back. Leaping on his horse, he urged
+it on, over rocks and ravines, and each bush that caught his dress
+seemed to him the hand of a corpse; the cracking of every branch, the
+shriek of every jackal, sounded like the cry of his twice-murdered
+friend.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Wherever Ammal�t passed, he encountered armed bands of Akoushl�netzes
+and Avar�tzes, Tchetchen�tzes just arrived, and robbers of the Tartar
+villages subject to Russia. They were all hurrying to the trysting-place
+near the border-limits; while the Beks, Ouzd�ns, and petty princes, were
+assembling at Khourz�kh, for a council with Akhmet Khan, under the
+leading, and by the invitation of whom, they were preparing to fall upon
+T�rki. The present was the most favourable moment for their purpose:
+there was abundance of corn in the amb�rs, (magazines,) hay in the
+stacks, and the Russians, having taken hostages, had established
+themselves in full security in winter-quarters. The news of
+Verkh�ffsky's murder had flown over all the hills, and powerfully
+encouraged the mountaineers. Merrily they poured together from all
+sides; every where were heard their songs of future battles and plunder;
+and he for whom they were going to fight rode through them like a
+runaway and a culprit, hiding from the light of the sun, and not daring
+to look any one in the face. Every thing that happened, every thing that
+he saw, now seemed like a suffocating dream--he dared not doubt, he
+dared not believe it. On the evening of the third day he reached
+Khounz�kh.
+
+Trembling with impatience, he leaped from his horse, worn out with
+fatigue, and took from his saddle-straps the fatal bag. The front
+chambers were filled with warriors; cavaliers in armour were walking up
+and down, or lay on the carpets along the walls, conversing in whispers;
+but their eyebrows were knit and cast down--their stern faces proved
+that bad news had reached Khounz�kh. N�ukers ran hurriedly backwards and
+forwards, and none questioned, none accompanied Ammal�t, none paid any
+attention to him. At the door of the Khan's bed-chamber sate
+Zo�rkhai-Khan-Djingk�, the natural son of Sultan Akhmet, weeping
+bitterly. "What means this?" uneasily demanded Ammal�t. "You, from whom
+even in childhood tears could not be drawn--you weep?"
+
+Zo�rkhai silently pointed to the door, and Ammal�t, perplexed, crossed
+the threshold. A heart-rending spectacle was presented before the
+new-comer's eyes. In the middle of the room, on a bed, lay the Khan,
+disfigured by a fierce illness; death invisible, but inevitable, hovered
+over him, and his fading glance met it with dread. His breast heaved
+high, and then sank heavily; his breath rattled in his throat, the veins
+of his hands swelled, and then shrank again. In him was taking place the
+last struggle of life with annihilation; the mainspring of existence had
+already burst, but the wheels still moved with an uneven motion,
+catching and entangling in each other. The spark of memory hardly
+glimmered in him, but fitfully flashed like falling stars through the
+darkness of night, which thickened over his soul, and reflected
+themselves in his dying face. His wife and daughter were sobbing on
+their knees by his bed-side; his eldest son, No�tsal, in silent despair
+leaned at his feet, resting his head on his clenched fists. Several
+women and n�ukers wept silently at a distance.
+
+All this, however, neither astounded Ammal�t nor recalled him to
+himself, occupied as he was with one idea: he approached the Khan with a
+firm step, and said to him aloud--"Hail, Khan! I have brought you a
+present which will restore a dead man to life. Prepare the bridal. Here
+is my purchase-money for Seltanetta; here is the head of Verkh�ffsky!"
+With these words he threw it at the Khan's feet.
+
+The well-known voice aroused Sultan Akhmet from his last sleep: he
+raised his head with difficulty to look at the present, and a shudder
+ran like a wave over his body when he beheld the lifeless head. "May he
+eat his own heart who treats a dying man with such dreadful food!" he
+murmured, scarce intelligibly. "I must make my peace with my enemies,
+and not----Ah, I burn, I burn! Give me water, water! Why have you made
+me drink scalding naphtha? Ammal�t, I curse you!" This effort exhausted
+the last drops of life in the Khan; he fell a senseless corpse on the
+pillow. The Khansha had looked with horror on the bloody and untimely
+present of Ammal�t; but when she saw that this had hastened her
+husband's death, all her grief broke out in a torrent of anger.
+"Messenger of hell!" she exclaimed, her eyes flashing, "rejoice; these
+are your exploits; but for you, my husband would never have thought of
+raising Av�r against the Russians, and would have now been sitting in
+health and quiet at home; but for you, visiting the Ouzdens, he fell
+from a rock and was disabled; and you, blood-drinker!--instead of
+consoling the sick with mild words, instead of making his peace with
+Allah by prayers and alms--bring, as if to a cannibal, a dead man's
+head; and whose head? Thy benefactor's, thy protector's, thy friend's!"
+
+"Such was the Khan's will," in his turn replied Ammal�t.
+
+"Do not slander the dead; defile not his memory with superfluous blood!"
+screamed the Khansha: "not content with having treacherously murdered a
+man, you come with his head to woo my daughter at the deathbed of her
+father, and you hoped to receive a recompense from man, when you
+deserved the vengeance of God. Godless, soulless being! No! by the
+graves of my ancestors, by the swords of my sons, I swear you shall
+never be my son-in-law, my acquaintance, my guest! Away from my house,
+traitor! I have sons, and you may murder while embracing them. I have a
+daughter, whom you may bewitch and poison with your serpent looks. Go,
+wander in the ravines of the mountains; teach the tigers to tear each
+other; and dispute with the wolves for carcasses. Go, and know that my
+door opens not to a fratricide!"
+
+Ammal�t stood like one struck by lightning: all that his conscience had
+indistinctly whispered to him had been spoken out to him at once, and so
+unexpectedly, so cruelly. He knew not where to turn his eyes: there lay
+the head of Verkh�ffsky with its accusing blood--there was the
+threatening face of the Khan, printed with the seal of a death of
+torture--there he met the stern glance of the Khansha.... The tearful
+eyes of Seltanetta alone appeared like stars of joy through a rainy
+cloud. To her he resolved to approach, saying timidly, "Seltanetta, for
+you have I committed that for which I lose you. Destiny wills it: be it
+so! One thing tell me--is it possible that you, too, have ceased to love
+me--that you, too, hate me?"
+
+The well-remembered voice of the beloved pierced her heart: Seltanetta
+raised her eyes glistening with tears--eyes full of woe; but on seeing
+Ammal�t's dreadful face, spotted with blood, she covered them again with
+her hand. She pointed with her finger at her father's corpse, at the
+head of Verkh�ffsky, and said, with firmness, "Farewell, Ammal�t! I pity
+thee; but I cannot be thine!" With these words she fell senseless on her
+father's body.
+
+All his native pride, all his blood, rushed to Ammal�t's heart; his soul
+fired with fury. "Is it thus I am received?" casting a scornful glance
+at both the women; "is it thus that promises are fulfilled here? I am
+glad that my eyes are opened. I was too simple when I prized the light
+love of a fickle girl--too patient when I hearkened to the ravings of an
+old woman. I see, that with Sultan Akhmet Khan have died the honour and
+hospitality of his house!"
+
+He left the room with a haughty step. He proudly gazed in the face of
+the Ouzdens, grasping the hilt of his dagger as if challenging them to
+combat. All, however, made way for him, but seemingly rather to avoid
+him than from respect. No one saluted him, either by word or sign. He
+went forth into the court-yard, called his n�ukers together, silently
+mounted into the saddle, and slowly rode through the empty streets of
+Khounz�kh.
+
+From the road he looked back for the last time upon the Khan's house,
+which was blackening in the darkness, while the grated door shone with
+lights. His heart was full of blood; his offended pride fixed in its
+iron talons, while the useless crime, and the love henceforth despised
+and hopeless, poured venom on the wounds. Grief, anger, and remorse
+mingled in the glance which he threw on the harem where he first saw,
+and where he lost, all earthly joy. "And you, and you, Seltanetta!" he
+could utter no more. A mountain of lead lay on his breast; his
+conscience already felt that dreadful hand which was stretched forth
+against it. The past terrified him; the future made him tremble. Where
+will he rest that head on which a price is set? What earth will give
+repose to the bones of a traitor? Nor love, nor friendship, nor
+happiness, will ever again be his care; but a life of misery, a
+wanderer's bread....
+
+Ammal�t wished to weep, his eyes burned ... and, like the rich man
+tormented in the fire, his heart prayed for one drop, one tear, to
+quench his intolerable thirst.... He tried to weep, and could not.
+Providence has denied this consolation to the guilty.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And where did the murderer of Verkh�ffsky hide himself? Whither did he
+drag his wretched existence? No one knew. In Daghest�n it was reported
+that he wandered among the Tchetchen�tzes and Koi-Sou-Boulin�tzes,
+having lost his beauty, his health, and even his bravery. But who could
+say this with certainty? Little by little the rumours about Ammal�t died
+away, though his villanous treachery is still fresh in the memory of
+Russians and Mussulmans who dwell in Daghest�n. Even now his name is
+never pronounced without a reproach.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+An�pa, that manufactory of arms for the robbers of the mountains, that
+bazar where are sold the tears, the blood, the sweat of Christian
+slaves, that torch of rebellion to the Caucasus--An�pa, I say, was, in
+1808, invested by the Russian armies, on the sea and on the mountain
+side. The gun-boats, the bomb-vessels, and all the ships that could
+approach the shore, were thundering against the fortifications. The land
+army had passed the river which falls into the Black Sea, under the
+northern wall of An�pa, and was posted in swampy ground around the whole
+city. Then they constructed wooden trenches, hewing down, for that
+purpose, the surrounding forest. Every night new works arose nearer and
+nearer to the walls of the town. The interior of the houses flamed from
+the effects of the shells; the outer walls fell under the cannon-balls.
+But the Turkish garrison, reinforced by the mountaineers, fought
+desperately, made fierce sorties, and replied to all proposals for
+surrender by the shots of their artillery. Meanwhile the besiegers were
+incessantly harassed by the Kabardin�tz skirmishers, and the
+foot-archers of Abaz�khs, Shams�ukhs, Natoukh�itzes, and other wild
+mountaineers of the shores of the Black Sea, assembled, like the
+jackals, in hope of plunder and blood. Against them it was necessary to
+erect redans; and this double work, performed under the fire of cannon
+from the fortress and from the forest, on irregular and boggy ground,
+delayed long the capture of the town.
+
+At length, on the eve of the taking of An�pa, the Russians opened a
+breaching-battery in a ravine on the south-east side of the town: its
+effect was tremendous. At the fifth volley the battlements and parapets
+were overthrown, the guns laid bare and beaten down. The balls, striking
+against the stone facing, flashed like lightning; and then, in a black
+cloud of dust, flew up fragments of shattered stone. The wall crumbled
+and fell to pieces; but the fortress, by the thickness of its walls,
+resisted long the shattering force of the iron; and the precipitous
+steepness of the ruins offered no opportunity for storming. For the
+heated guns, and for the weary artillerymen, worn out by incessant
+firing, repose was absolutely necessary. By degrees the firing from the
+batteries by land and sea began to slacken; thick clouds of smoke,
+floating from the shore, expanded over the waves, sometimes concealing,
+sometimes discovering, the flotilla. From time to time a ball of smoke
+flew up from the guns of the fortress, and after the rolling of the
+cannon-thunder, far echoing among the hills, a ball would whistle by at
+random. And now all was silent--all was still both in the interior of
+An�pa and in the trenches. Not one turban was seen between the
+battlements, not one carabineer's bayonet in the intrenchment. Only the
+Turkish banners on the towers, and the Russian ensign on board the
+ships, waved proudly in the air, now undimmed by a single stream of
+smoke--only the harmonious voices of the muezzins resounded from afar,
+calling the Mussulmans to their mid-day prayer. At this moment, from the
+breach opposite the battery on the plain, descended, or rather rolled
+down, supported by ropes, a horseman on a white horse, who immediately
+leaped over the half-filled ditch, dashed to the left between the
+batteries, flew over the intrenchments, over the soldiers dozing behind
+them, who neither expected nor guessed any thing like this, and,
+followed by their hasty shouts, plunged into the woods. None of the
+cavalry had time to glance at, much less to pursue him: all remained
+thunderstruck with astonishment and vexation; and soon forgot all about
+the brave cavalier, in the alarm of the renewed firing from the
+fortress, which was recommenced in order to give the bold messenger time
+to escape to the mountains. Towards evening the breaching battery, which
+had thundered almost incessantly, had accomplished its work of
+demolition. The prostrate wall formed a kind of bridge for the
+besiegers, who, with the impatience of bravery, prepared for the
+assault; when suddenly an unexpected attack of the Tcherk�ss, who had
+driven in the Russian scouts and outposts, compelled the besiegers to
+direct the fire of the redans against the furious mountaineers. A
+thundering Allah-il-Allah, from the walls of An�pa, greeted their
+encounter: the volleys of cannon and musketry arose with redoubled
+violence from the walls, but the Russian grape tore asunder and arrested
+the crowds of horsemen and infantry of the Tcherk�ss, as they were
+preparing to throw themselves upon the batteries with their sabres; and
+they, with furious cries of "Giaour, giaourla!" turned back, leaving
+behind them the dead and wounded. In a moment the whole field was strewn
+with their corpses and their disabled, who, staggering to their feet,
+fell back, struck by the balls and grape-shot; whilst the cannon-shot
+shattered the wood, and the grenades, bursting, completed the
+destruction. But from the beginning of the action, till the moment when
+not one of the enemy remained in sight, the Russians saw before them a
+well-built Tcherk�ss on a white horse, who rode, at a slow pace, up and
+down before their redans. All recognized in him the same horseman who
+had leaped over the trenches at mid-day, probably in order to induce the
+Tcherk�ss to fall upon the Russians from the rear, at the moment when
+the now unsuccessful sortie was to be made from the gate. Crashing and
+thundering danced the grape-shot around him. His horse strained at the
+bridle; but he, looking calmly at the batteries, rode along them as if
+they were raining flowers upon him. The artillerymen ground their teeth
+with vexation at the unpunished daring of the cavalier: shot after shot
+tore up the earth, but he remained unhurt as if enchanted. "Give him a
+cannon-ball!" shouted a young officer of artillery, but lately released
+from the military college, who was above all enraged at their want of
+success: "I would load the gun with my head, so glad would I be to kill
+that bragger: it is not worth while to waste grape upon one
+man--grape--look out! a cannon-ball will reach the guilty!" So saying,
+he screwed up the quoin and levelled the gun, looking through the sight;
+and having exactly calculated the moment when the horseman would ride
+through the line of aim, he stepped aside and ordered the fatal fire.
+
+For some moments the smoke enveloped the battery in darkness: when it
+floated away the frightened horse was dragging the blood-stained corpse
+of his rider, with the foot entangled in the stirrup. "Hit--killed!" was
+shouted from all the trenches; and the young artillery officer, taking
+off his cap, piously crossed himself, and with a joyous face jumped down
+from the battery to seize the prey which he had earned. He soon
+succeeded in catching by the reins the horse of the slain Tcherk�ss, for
+he was dragging the body sideways on the ground. The unfortunate man had
+his arm torn off close to the shoulder; but he still breathed, groaned,
+and struggled. Pity touched the good-natured youth: he called some
+soldiers, and ordered them to carry the wounded man carefully into the
+trench, sent for the surgeon, and had the operation performed before his
+eyes. At night, when all was quiet, the artilleryman sat by the side of
+his dying prisoner, and watched him with interest by the dim light of
+the lantern. The serpent-marks of sorrow, graven on his cheek by tears,
+the wrinkles on his forehead, dug, not by years but passions, and bloody
+scratches, disfigured his handsome face; and in it was painted something
+more torturing than pain, more terrible than death. The artilleryman
+could not restrain an involuntary shudder. The prisoner sighed heavily,
+and having, with difficulty, raised his hand to his forehead, opened his
+heavy eyelids, muttering to himself in unintelligible sounds,
+unconnected words.... "Blood," he cried, examining his hand ... "always
+blood! why have they put _his_ bloody shirt upon me? Already, without
+that, I swim in blood.... Why do I not drown in it?... How cold the
+blood is to-day!... Once it used to scald me, and this is no better! In
+the world it is stifling, in the gave so cold.... 'Tis dreadful to be a
+corpse. Fool that I am, I sought death. O, let me live but for one
+little day--one little hour, to live!..."
+
+"What? Why have I hidden another in the grave, _whisperest thou_? Learn
+thyself what it is to die!..." A convulsive paroxysm interrupted his
+raving, an unspeakably dreadful groan burst from the sufferer, and he
+fell into a painful lethargy, in which the soul lives only to suffer.
+
+The artilleryman, touched to the very bottom of his heart, raised the
+head of the miserable being, sprinkled his face with cold water, and
+rubbed his temples with spirits of wine, in order to bring him to
+himself. Slowly he opened his eyes, shook his head several times, as if
+to shake the mist from his eyelashes, and steadfastly directed his gaze
+on the face of the artilleryman, which was faintly lighted up by the
+feeble gleam of the candle. Suddenly, with a piercing cry, he lifted
+himself on his bed, as if by some superhuman force: his hair stood
+upright, his whole body shook with a fevered trembling, his hand seemed
+endeavouring to push something from him, an ineffable horror was
+expressed on his countenance.... "Your name!" he cried at length,
+addressing the artilleryman. "Who are thou, stranger from the grave?"
+
+"I am Verkh�ffsky?" ... answered the young artilleryman. This was a shot
+that went straight to the heart of the prisoner. The ligature on the
+principal artery gave way from a rush of blood, which poured through the
+bandages. Yet a few struggles, yet the throat-rattle, and the leaden
+hand of death choked the wounded man's last sigh, imprinted on his brow
+the seal of the last grief; gathering whole years of repentance into one
+rapid moment, in which the soul, tearing itself from the body, fears
+equally the tortures of life and of nothingness, feels at once all the
+gnawing of the past and all the agony of the future. Terrible was it to
+look on the convulsed face of the dead. "He surely must have been a
+great sinner," said Verkh�ffsky, in a low voice to the general's
+interpreter, who stood near him, and he shuddered involuntarily.
+
+"A great villain," rejoined the interpreter: "it appears to me he was a
+Russian deserter. I never met with a mountaineer who spoke Russian so
+correctly as this prisoner. Let me look at his arms. We may, perhaps,
+find some marks on them." With these words he unsheathed, with a look of
+curiosity, the dagger which had been taken from the dead man, and
+bringing it to the lantern, deciphered and translated the following
+inscription:--
+
+    "Be slow to offend--swift to revenge!"
+
+"Quite a robber's rule," said Verkh�ffsky; "my poor brother Evstafli!
+you fell a victim to such a fanatic principle as this!"
+
+The eyes of the good youth filled with tears.... "Is there not something
+else?" he asked.
+
+"This is apparently the slain man's name," replied the interpreter.
+
+"It is: Ammal�t Bek!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+MR BAILEY'S REPLY TO AN ARTICLE IN BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE.
+
+
+We have just been favoured with a pamphlet from Mr Bailey, entitled "A
+Letter to a Philosopher, in Reply to some Recent Attempts to Vindicate
+Berkeley's Theory of Vision, and in further Elucidation of its
+Unsoundness." Our article on Mr Bailey's review of Berkeley's theory,
+which appeared in _Blackwood's Magazine_ of June 1842, was one of these
+attempts. Had the author merely attacked or controverted our
+animadversions on his book, we should probably have left the question to
+its fate, and not have reverted to a subject, the discussion of which,
+even in the first instance, may have been deemed out of place in a
+journal not expressly philosophical. There is, in general, little to be
+gained by protracting such controversies. But, as Mr Bailey accuses us,
+in the present instance, of having misrepresented his views, we must be
+allowed to exculpate ourselves from the charge of having dealt, even
+with unintentional unfairness, towards one whose opinions, however much
+we may dissent from them, are certainly entitled to high respect and a
+candid examination, as the convictions of an able and zealous enquirer
+after truth.
+
+In our strictures on Mr Bailey's work, we remarked, that he had
+represented Berkeley as holding that the eye is not directly and
+originally cognizant of the outness of objects in relation to each
+other, or of what we would call their reciprocal outness; in other
+words, we stated, that, according to Mr Bailey, Berkeley must be
+regarded as denying to the eye the original intuition of space, either
+in length, breadth, or solid depth. It was, however, only in reference
+to one of his arguments, and to one particular division of his subject,
+that we laid this representation to his charge. Throughout the other
+parts of his discussion, we by no means intended to say that such was
+the view he took of the Berkeleian theory. Nor are we aware of having
+made any statement to that effect. If we did, we now take the
+opportunity of remarking, that we restrict our allegation, as we believe
+we formerly restricted it, to the single argument and distinction just
+mentioned, and hereafter to be explained.
+
+In his reply, Mr Bailey disavows the impeachment _in toto_. He declares
+that he never imputed to Berkeley the doctrine, that the eye is not
+directly percipient of space in the two dimensions of length and
+breadth. "The perception of this kind of distance," says he, "never
+formed the subject of controversy with any one ... That we see extension
+in two dimensions is admitted by all."--(_Letter_, p. 10.) If it can be
+shown that the doctrine which is here stated to be admitted by all
+philosophers, is yet expressly controverted by the two metaphysicians
+whom Mr Bailey appears to have studied most assiduously, it is, at any
+rate, possible that he may have overlooked, in his own writings, the
+expression of an opinion which has escaped his penetration in theirs. To
+convince himself, then, how much he is mistaken in supposing that the
+visual intuition of longitudinal and lateral extension is admitted by
+all philosophers, he has but to turn to the works of Dr Brown and the
+elder Mill. In arguing that we have no immediate perception of visible
+figure, Dr Brown not only virtually, but expressly, asserts that the
+sight has no perception of extension in any of its dimensions. Not to
+multiply quotations, the following will, no doubt, be received as
+sufficient:--"They (i.e. philosophers) have--_I think without sufficient
+reason_--universally supposed that the superficial extension of _length
+and breadth_ becomes known to us by sight originally."[28] Dr Brown then
+proceeds to argue, with what success we are not at present considering,
+that our knowledge of extension and figure is derived from another
+source than the sense of sight.
+
+    [28] Brown's Lectures, Lecture xxviii.
+
+Mr James Mill, an author whom Mr Bailey frequently quotes with
+approbation, and in confirmation of his own views, is equally explicit.
+He maintains, in the plainest terms, that the eye has no intuition of
+space, or of the reciprocal outness of visible objects. "Philosophy,"
+says he, "has ascertained that we derive nothing from the eye whatever
+but sensations of colour--that the idea of extension [he means in its
+three dimensions] is derived from sensations not in the eye, but in the
+muscular part of our frame."[29] Thus, contrary to what Mr Bailey
+affirms, these two philosophers limit the office of vision to the
+perception of mere colour or difference of colour, denying to the eye
+the original perception of extension in any dimension whatever. In their
+estimation, the intuition of space is no more involved in our perception
+of different colours than it is involved in our perception of different
+smells or different sounds. Dr Brown's doctrine, in which Mr Mill seems
+to concur, is, that the perception of superficial extension no more
+results from a certain expanse of the optic nerve being affected by a
+variety of colours than it results from a certain expanse of the
+olfactory nerve being affected by a variety of odours.[30] So much for
+Mr Bailey's assertion, that _all_ philosophers admit the perception of
+extension in two dimensions.
+
+    [29] Mill's Analysis, vol. i. p. 73.
+
+    [30] This reasoning of Dr Brown's is founded upon an assumed
+    analogy between the structure of the optic nerve, and the
+    structure of the olfactory nerves and other sensitive nerves,
+    and is completely disproved by the physiological observations of
+    Treviranus, who has shown that no such analogy exists: that the
+    ends of the nervous fibres in the retina being elevated into
+    distinct separate _papill�_, enable us to perceive the
+    extension, and discriminate the position of visible bodies,
+    while the nerves of the other senses being less delicately
+    defined, are not fitted to furnish us with any such perception,
+    or to aid us in making any such discrimination. See _M�ller's
+    Physiology, translated by W. Baly, M.D._, vol. ii. pp. 1073,
+    1074. Although the application of Treviranus's discovery to the
+    refutation of Dr Brown's reasoning is our own, we may remark, in
+    justice to an eminent philosopher, that it was Sir William
+    Hamilton who first directed our attention to the _fact_ as
+    established by the great physiologist.
+
+But, of course, our main business is with the expression of his own
+opinion. In rebutting our charge, he maintains that "the visibility of
+angular distance (that is of extension laterally) is assumed, by
+implication, as part of Berkeley's doctrine, in _almost_ every chapter
+of my book."--(_Letter_, p. 13.) That word _almost_ is a provident
+saving clause; for we undertake to show that not only is the very
+reverse assumed, by implication, as part of Berkeley's doctrine, in the
+_single_ chapter to which we confined our remarks, but that, in another
+part of his work, it is expressly avowed as the only alternative by
+which, in the author's opinion, Berkeley's consistency can be preserved.
+
+At the outset of his enquiry, Mr Bailey divides his discussion into two
+branches: first, Whether objects are originally seen to be external, or
+at _any_ distance at all from the sight; and, secondly, Supposing it
+admitted that they are seen to be external, or at _some_ distance from
+the sight, whether they are all seen in the same plane, or equally near.
+It was to the former of these questions that we exclusively confined our
+remarks;[31] and it was in reference to it, and to an important argument
+evolved by Mr Bailey in the course of its discussion, that we charged
+him with fathering on Berkeley the doctrine which he now disavows as his
+interpretation of the bishop's opinion. He further disputes the
+relevancy of the question about our perception of lateral extension, and
+maintains that distance in a direction from the percipient, or what we
+should call protensive distance, is the only matter in dispute; and that
+it is a misconception of the scope of Berkeley's essay to imagine
+otherwise. The relevancy of the question shall be disposed of
+afterwards. In the mean time, the question at issue is, Can the
+allegation which we have laid to Mr Bailey's charge be proved to be the
+fact, or not?
+
+    [31] Mr Bailey seems disposed to carp at us for having confined
+    our remarks to this first question, and for not having given a
+    more complete review of his book. But the reason why we cut
+    short our critique is obvious; for if it be proved, as we
+    believe it can, that objects are originally seen at _no distance
+    whatever_ from the sight, it becomes quite superfluous to
+    enquire what appearance they would present if originally seen at
+    _some_ distance from the sight. The way in which we disposed of
+    the first question, however imperfect our treatment of it may
+    have been, necessarily prevented us from entering upon the
+    second; and our review, with all its deficiencies, was thus a
+    complete review of his book, though not a review of his complete
+    book.
+
+In discussing the first of the two questions, it was quite possible for
+Mr Bailey to have represented Berkeley as holding, that visible objects,
+though not seen to be external to the sight, were yet seen to be out of
+each other, or laterally extended within the organism or the mind. But
+Mr Bailey makes no such representation of the theory, and the whole
+argument which pervades the chapter in which the first question is
+discussed, is founded on the negation of any such extension. All visible
+extension, he tells us, must, in his opinion, be either plane or solid.
+Now he will scarcely maintain that he regarded Berkeley as holding that
+we perceive solid extension within the organism of the eye. Neither does
+he admit that, according to Berkeley, and in reference to this first
+question, plane extension is perceived within the organism of the eye.
+For when he proceeds to the discussion of the _second_ of the two
+questions, he remarks that "we must, _at this stage_ of the argument,
+consider the theory under examination, as representing that we see all
+things _originally in the same plane_,"[32] obviously implying that he
+had not _as yet_ considered the theory as representing that we see
+things originally in the same plane: in other words, plainly admitting
+that, in his treatment of the first question, he had not regarded the
+theory as representing that we see things originally under the category
+of extension at all.
+
+    [32] Review of Berkeley's Theory, p 35.
+
+But if any more direct evidence on this point were wanted, it is to be
+found in the section of his work which treats of "the perception of
+figure." In the chapter in which he discusses the first of the two
+questions, he constantly speaks of Berkeley's theory as representing
+that "our visual sensations, or what we ultimately term visible objects,
+are originally mere internal feelings." The expression _mere internal
+feelings_, however, is ambiguous; for, as we have said, it might still
+imply that Mr Bailey viewed the theory as representing that there was an
+extension, or reciprocal outness of objects within the retina. But this
+doubt is entirely removed by a passage in the section alluded to, which
+proves that, in Mr Bailey's estimation, these mere internal feelings not
+only involve no such extension, but that there would be an inconsistency
+in supposing they did. In this section he brings forward Berkeley's
+assertion, "that neither solid nor plane figures are immediate objects
+of sight." He then quotes a passage in which the bishop begs the reader
+not to stickle too much "about this or that phrase, or manner of
+expression, but candidly to collect his meaning from the whole sum and
+tenour of his discourse." And then Mr Bailey goes on to say,
+"endeavouring, in the spirit here recommended, to collect the author's
+meaning when he affirms that the figures we see are neither plane nor
+solid, it appears to me to be _a part or consequence_ of his doctrine
+already examined, which asserts that visible objects are only internal
+feelings."[33] We can now be at no loss to understand what Mr Bailey
+means, and conceives Berkeley to mean, by the expression "mere internal
+feelings." He evidently means feelings in which no kind of extension
+whatever is involved: for, in the next page, he informs us that all
+visual extension or extended figure, "_must_ be apprehended as either
+plane or solid, and that it is impossible even to conceive it
+otherwise." Consequently, if the figures we see are, as Berkeley says,
+apprehended neither as plane nor as solid, Mr Bailey, entertaining the
+notions he does on the subject of extension, _must_ regard him as
+holding that they cannot be apprehended as extended at all--and
+accordingly such is the express representation he gives of the theory in
+the passage just quoted, where he says that "the doctrine of Berkeley,
+which affirms that the figures we see are neither plane nor solid, (that
+is, are extended in _no_ direction, according to Mr Bailey's ideas of
+extension,) appears to him to be _a part_ of the doctrine which asserts
+that visible objects are only internal feelings." Now if that be not
+teaching, in the plainest terms, that, according to Berkeley, no species
+of extension is implied in the internal feelings of vision, we know not
+what language means, and any one thought may be identical with its very
+opposite.
+
+    [33] Ibid. p. 136.
+
+Here we might let the subject drop, having, as we conceive, said quite
+enough to prove the truth of our allegation that, in reference to the
+first question discussed, in which our original visual sensations are
+represented by Berkeley to be mere internal feelings, Mr Bailey
+understood and stated those feelings to signify sensations in which no
+perception of extension whatever was involved. However, as Mr Bailey
+further remarks that, "although Berkeley's doctrine about visible
+figures being neither plane not solid, is thus consistent with his
+assertion that they are internal feelings, it is in itself
+contradictory,"[34] we shall contribute a few remarks to show that
+while, on the one hand, the negation of extension is not required to
+vindicate the consistency of Berkeley's assertion, that visible objects
+are internal feelings, neither, on the other hand, is there any
+contradiction in Berkeley's holding that objects are not seen either as
+planes or as solids, and are yet apprehended as extended. Mr Bailey
+alleges that we are "far more successful in involving ourselves in
+subtle speculations of our own, than in faithfully guiding our readers
+through the theories of other philosophers." Perhaps in the present case
+we shall be able to thread a labyrinth where our reviewer has lost his
+clue, and, in spite of the apparent contradiction by which Mr Bailey has
+been gravelled, we shall, perhaps, be more successful than he in
+"collecting Berkeley's meaning from the whole sum and tenour of his
+discourse."
+
+    [34] Review of Berkeley's Theory, p. 137.
+
+First, with regard to the contradiction charged upon the bishop. When we
+open our eyes, what do we behold? We behold points--_minima
+visibilia_--out of one another. Do we see these points to be in the same
+plane? Certainly not. If they are in the same plane we learn this from a
+very different experience from that of sight. Again, do we see these
+points to be _not_ in the same plane? Certainly not. If the points are
+not in the same plane we learn this, too, from a very different
+experience than that of sight. All that we see is that the points are
+out of one another; and this simply implies the perception of extension,
+without implying the perception either of plane or of solid extension.
+Thus by the observation of a very obvious fact, which, however, Mr
+Bailey has overlooked, is Berkeley's assertion that visible objects are
+apprehended as extended, and yet not apprehended either as planes or
+solids, relieved from every appearance of contradiction.
+
+It must, however, be admitted that Mr Bailey has much to justify him in
+his opinion that extension must be apprehended either as plane or as
+solid. None of Berkeley's followers, we believe, have ever dreamt of
+conceiving it otherwise, and finding in their master's work the negation
+of solid extension specially insisted on, they leapt to the conclusion
+that the bishop admitted the original perception of plane extension. But
+Berkeley makes no such admission. He places the perception of plane
+extension on precisely the same footing with that of solid extension.
+"We see planes," says he, "in the same way that we see solids."[35] And
+the wisdom of the averment is obvious; for the affirmation of plane
+extension involves the negation of solid extension, but this negation
+involves the conception (visually derived) of solid extension; but the
+admission of that conception, so derived, would be fatal to the
+Berkeleian theory. Therefore its author wisely avoids the danger by
+holding, that in vision we have merely the perception of what the
+Germans would call the _Auseinanderseyn_, that is, the _asunderness_, of
+things--a perception which implies no judgment as to whether the things
+are secerned in plane or in protensive space.
+
+    [35] Essay, � 158.
+
+With regard to the supposition that, in order to preserve Berkeley's
+consistency, it was necessary for him to teach that our visual
+sensations, (colours namely,) being internal feelings, could involve the
+perception neither of plane nor of solid extension, that is to say, of
+no extension at all, according to Mr Bailey's ideas, we shall merely
+remark, that there appears to us to be no inconsistency in holding, as
+Berkeley does, that these colours, though originally internal to the
+sight, are nevertheless perceived as extended among themselves.
+
+We shall now say a few words on the _relevancy_ of the question, for Mr
+Bailey denies that this question, concerning the reciprocal outness of
+visible objects, ought to form any element in the controversy. We shall
+show, however, that one of his most important arguments depends entirely
+on the view that may be taken of this question; and that while the
+argument alluded to would be utterly fatal to Berkeley's theory, if the
+perception of reciprocal outness were denied, it is perfectly harmless
+if the perception in question be admitted.
+
+Mr Bailey's fundamental and reiterated objection to Berkeley's theory
+is, that it requires us to hold that conceptions or past impressions,
+derived from one sense, (the touch,) are not merely recalled when
+another sense (the sight) executes its functions, but are themselves
+absolutely converted into the present intuitions of that other sense. In
+his own words, (_Review_, p. 69,) the theory is said to require "a
+transmutation of the conceptions derived from touch into the perceptions
+of sight." "According to Berkeley, (says he, _Review_, p. 22,) an
+internal feeling (i.e. a visual sensation) and an external sensation
+(i.e. a tactual sensation) having been experienced at the same time: the
+internal feeling, when it afterwards occurs, not only suggests the idea,
+but, by doing so, suggests the idea, or, if I may use the figure,
+infuses the perception of its own externality. Berkeley thus attributes
+to suggestion an effect contrary to its nature, which, as in the case of
+language, is simply to revive in our conception what has been previously
+perceived by the sense."
+
+Now, this objection would be altogether insurmountable if it were true,
+or if it were a part of Berkeley's doctrine, that the sight has no
+original intuition of space, or of the reciprocal outness of its
+objects--in other words, of colours out of colours; for it being
+admitted that the sight has ultimately such a perception, it would be
+incumbent on the Berkeleian to show how conceptions derived from another
+sense, or how perceptions belonging to another sense, could be converted
+into that perception. We agree with Mr Bailey, in thinking that no
+process of association could effect this conversion; that if we did not
+originally see colours to be out of each other, and the points of the
+same colour to be out of each other, we could never so see them; and
+that his argument, when thus based on the negation of all original
+visual extension, and on the supposition that the touch is the sole
+organ of every species of externality, would remain invulnerable.
+
+But, with the admission of the visual intuition of space, the objection
+vanishes, and the argument is shorn of all its strength. This admission
+relieves the theory from the necessity of maintaining, that conceptions
+derived from touch are transmuted into the perceptions of sight. It
+attributes to the sight all that ever truly belongs to it, namely, the
+perception of colours out of one another; it provides the visual
+intuitions with an externality of their own--and the theory never
+demands that they should acquire any other; and it leaves to these
+visual intuitions the office of merely suggesting to the mind tactual
+impressions, with which they have been invariably associated in place.
+We say, _in place_; and it will be found that there is no contradiction
+in our saying so, when we shall have shown that it is the touch, and not
+the sight, which establishes a protensive interval between the organ and
+the sensations of vision.
+
+Visible extension, then, or the perception of colours external to
+colours, being admitted, Mr Bailey's argument, if he still adheres to
+it, must be presented to us in this form. He must maintain that the
+theory requires that the objects of touch should not only be suggested
+by the visual objects with which they have been associated, but that
+they should actually be _seen_. And then he must maintain that no power
+of association can enable us to see an object which can only be
+touched--a position which, certainly, no one will controvert. The simple
+answer to all which, is, that we never do see tangible objects--that the
+theory never requires we should, and that no power of association is
+necessary to account for a phenomenon which never takes place.
+
+We cannot help thinking, that not a little of the misconception on this
+subject which prevails in the writings of Mr Bailey, and, we may add, of
+many other philosophers, originates in the supposition that we identify
+vision with the eye in the mere act of seeing, and in their taking it
+for granted that sight of itself informs us that we possess such an
+organ as the eye. Of course, if we suppose that we know instinctively,
+or intuitively, from the mere act of seeing, that the eye is the organ
+of vision, that it forms a part of the body we behold, and is located in
+the head, it requires no conjurer to prove that we _must_ have an
+instinctive, or intuitive, knowledge of visible things as larger than
+that organ, and, consequently, as external to it. In this case, no
+process of association is necessary to account for our knowledge of the
+distance of objects. That knowledge must be directly given in the very
+function and exercise of vision, as every one will admit, without going
+to the expense of an octavo volume to have it proved.
+
+But we hold that no truth in mental philosophy is more incontestable
+than this, that the sight originally, and of itself, furnishes us with
+no knowledge of the eye, as we _now_ know that organ to exist. It does
+not inform us that we have an eye at all. And here we may hazard an
+observation, which, simple as it is, appears to us to be new, and not
+unimportant in aiding us to unravel the mysteries of sensation; which
+observation is, that, in no case whatever, does any sense inform us of
+the existence of its appropriate organ, or of the relation which
+subsists between that organ and its objects, but that the interposition
+of some other sense[36] is invariably required to give us this
+information. This truth, which we believe holds good with regard to all
+the senses, is most strikingly exemplified in the case of vision, as we
+shall now endeavour to illustrate.
+
+    [36] It would not be difficult to show, that as, on the one
+    hand, _distance_ is not involved in the original intuitions of
+    sight, so, on the other hand, _proximity_ is not involved in the
+    original intuitions of touch; but that, while it is the touch
+    which establishes an interval between the organ and the objects
+    of sight, it is the sight which establishes _no_ interval
+    between the organ and the objects of touch. Sight thus pays back
+    every fraction of the debt it has incurred to its brother sense.
+    This is an interesting subject, but we can only glance at it
+    here.
+
+Let us begin by supposing that man is a mere "power of seeing". Under
+this supposition, we must hold that the periphery of vision is one and
+the same with the periphery of visible space; and the two peripheries
+being identical, of course whatever objects lie within the sphere of the
+one must lie within the sphere of the other also. Perhaps, strictly
+speaking, it is wrong to say that these objects are apprehended as
+internal to the sight; for the conception of internality implies the
+conception of externality, and neither of these conceptions can, as yet,
+be realized. But it is obvious what the expression _internal_ means; and
+it is unobjectionable, when understood to signify that the Seeing Power,
+the Seeing Act, and the Seen Things, co-exist in a synthesis in which
+there is no interval or discrimination. For, suppose that we know
+instinctively that the seen things occupy a locality separate from the
+sight. But that implies that we instinctively know that the sight
+occupies a locality separate from them. But such a supposition is a
+falling back upon the notion just reprobated, that the mere act of
+seeing can indicate its own organ, or can localise the visual phenomena
+in the eye--a position which, we presume, no philosopher will be hardy
+enough to maintain, when called upon to do so, broadly and
+unequivocally. The conclusion, therefore, is irresistible, that, in mere
+vision, the sight and its objects cling together in a union or
+synthesis, which no function of that sense, and no knowledge imparted to
+us by it, (and, according to the supposition, we have, as yet, no other
+knowledge,) can enable us to discriminate or dissolve. Where the seeing
+is, there is the thing seen, and where the thing seen is, there is the
+seeing of it.
+
+But man is not a mere seeing animal. He has other senses besides: He
+has, for example, the sense of touch, and one of the most important
+offices which this sense performs, is to break up the identity or
+cohesion which subsists between sight and its objects. And how? We
+answer, by teaching us to associate _vision in general_, or the abstract
+_condition_ regulating our visual impressions, with the presence of the
+small tangible body we call the eye, and _vision in particular_, or the
+individual sensations of vision, (i.e. colours,) with the presence of
+immeasurably larger bodies revealed to us by touch, and tangibly
+external to the tangible eye. Sight, as we have said, does not inform us
+that its sensations are situated in the eye: it does not inform us that
+we have an eye at all. Neither does touch inform us that our visual
+sensations are located in the eye. It does not lead us to associate with
+the eye any of the visual phenomena or operations _in the first
+instance_. If it did, it would (_firstly_) either be impossible for it
+_afterwards_ to induce us to associate them with the presence of
+tangible bodies distant and different from the eye: or, (_secondly_),
+such an association would merely give birth to the abstract knowledge or
+conclusion, that these bodies were in one place, while the sensations
+suggesting them were felt to be associated with something in another
+place; colour would not be seen--as it is--incarnated with body: or,
+(_thirdly_), we should be compelled to postulate for the eye, as many
+philosophers have done, in our opinion, most unwarrantably, "a faculty
+of projection"[37] by which it might dissolve the association between
+itself and its sensations, throwing off the latter in the form of
+colours over the surface of things, and reversing the old Epicurean
+doctrine that perception is kept up by the transit to the sensorium of
+the ghosts or _simulacra_ of things,
+
+    Qu�, quasi membran�, summo de corpore rerum,
+    Dirept�, volitant ultro citroque per auras.[38]
+
+It is difficult to say whether the hypothesis of "cast-off films" is
+more absurd when we make the films come from things to us as spectral
+effluxes, or go from us to them in the semblance of colours.
+
+    [37] We observe that even M�ller speaks of the "faculty of
+    projection" as if he sanctioned and adopted the hypothesis.--See
+    _Physiology_, vol. ii. p. 1167.
+
+    [38] Lucretius.
+
+But according to the present view no such incomprehensible faculty, no
+such crude and untenable hypothesis, is required. _Before_ the touch has
+informed us that we have an eye, _before_ it has led us to associate any
+thing visual with the eye, it has _already_ taught us to associate in
+place the sensations of vision (colours) with the presence of tangible
+objects which are not the eye. Therefore, when the touch discovers the
+eye, and induces us to associate vision in some way with it, it cannot
+be the particular sensations of vision called colours which it leads us
+to associate with that organ; for these have been already associated
+with something very different. If it be not colours, then what is it
+that the touch compels us to associate with the eye? We answer that it
+is the abstract _condition_ of impressions as the general law on which
+all seeing depends, but as quite distinct from the particular visual
+sensations apprehended in virtue of the observance of that law.
+
+Nor is it at all difficult to understand how this general condition
+comes to be associated with the eye, and how the particular visual
+sensations come to be associated with something distant from the eye:
+and further, how this association of the condition with one thing, and
+of the sensations with another thing, (an association established by the
+touch and not by the sight,) dissolves the primary synthesis of seeing
+and colours. It is to be observed that there are two stages in the
+process by which this secernment is brought about--_First_, the stage in
+which the visual phenomena are associated with things different from the
+organ of vision, the very existence of which is as yet unknown. Let us
+suppose, then, the function of sight to be in operation. We behold a
+visible object--a particular colour. Let the touch now come into play.
+We feel a tangible object--say a book. Now from the mere fact of the
+visible and the tangible object being seen and felt together, we could
+not associate them in place; for it is quite possible that the tangible
+object may admit of being withdrawn, and yet the visible object remain:
+and if so, no association of the two in place can be established. But
+this is a point that can only be determined by experience; and what says
+that wise instructor? We withdraw the tangible object. The visible
+object, too, disappears: it leaves its place. We replace the tangible
+object--the visible object reappears _in statu quo_. There is no
+occasion to vary the experiment. If we find that the visible object
+invariably leaves its place when the tangible object leaves its, and
+that the one invariably comes back when the other returns, we have
+brought forward quite enough to establish an inevitable association in
+place between the two. The two places are henceforth regarded, not as
+two, but as one and the same.
+
+By the aid of the touch, then, we have associated the visual phenomena
+with thing which are _not_ the organ of vision; and well it is for us
+that we have done so betimes, and before we were aware of the eye's
+existence. Had the eye been indicated to us in the mere act of seeing;
+had we become apprised of its existence _before_ we had associated our
+visual sensations with the tangible objects constituting the material
+universe, the probability, nay the certainty, is that we would have
+associated them with this eye, and that then it would have been as
+impossible for us to break up the association between colours and the
+organ, as it now is for us to dissolve the union between colours and
+material things. In which case we should have remained blind, or as bad
+as blind; brightness would have been in the eye when it ought to have
+been in the sun; greenness would have been in the retina when it ought
+to have been in the grass. A most wise provision of nature it certainly
+is, by which our visual sensations are disposed of in the right way
+before we obtain any knowledge of the eye. And most wisely has nature
+seconded her own scheme by obscuring all the sources from which that
+knowledge might be derived. The light eyelids--the effortless muscular
+apparatus performing its ministrations so gently as to be almost
+unfelt--the tactual sensations so imperceptible when the eye is left to
+its own motions, so keen when it is invaded by an exploring finger, and
+so anxious to avoid all contact by which the existence of the organ
+might be betrayed. All these are so many means adopted by nature to keep
+back from the infant seer all knowledge of his own eye--a knowledge
+which, if developed prematurely, would have perverted the functions, if
+not rendered nugatory the very existence of the organ.
+
+But, _secondly_, we have to consider the stage of the process in which
+vision is in some way associated with an object which is _not_ any of
+the things with which the visual sensations are connected. It is clear
+that the process is not completed--that our task, which is to dissolve
+the primary synthesis of vision and its phenomena, is but half executed,
+unless such an object be found. For though we have associated the visual
+sensations (colours) with something different from themselves, still
+vision clings to them without a hair's-breadth of interval and pursues
+them whithersoever they go. As far, then, as we have yet gone, it cannot
+be said that our vision is felt or known to be distanced from the fixed
+stars even by the diameter of a grain of sand. The synthesis of sight
+and colour is not yet discriminated. How, then, is the interval
+interposed? We answer, by the discovery of a tangible object in a
+different place from any of the tangible objects associated with colour;
+and then by associating, in some way or other, the operations of vision
+with this object. Such an object is discovered in the eye. Now, as has
+frequently been said, we cannot associate colours or the visual
+sensations with this eye; for these have been already disposed of
+otherwise. What, then, do we associate with it--and how? We find, upon
+experiment, that our apprehension of the various visual sensations
+depends on the presence and particular location of this small tangible
+body. We find that the whole array of visual phenomena disappear when it
+is tactually covered, that they reappear when it is reopened, and so
+forth. Thus we come in some way to associate vision with it--not as
+colour, however, not as visual sensation. We regard the organ and its
+dispositions merely as a general condition regulating the apprehension
+of the visual sensations, and no more.
+
+Thus, by attending to the two associations that occur,--the association
+(in place) of visual sensations with tangible bodies that _are not_ the
+eye; and the association (in place) of vision with a small tangible body
+that _is_ the eye--the eye regarded as the condition on which the
+apprehension of these sensations depends; by attending to these, we can
+understand how a protensive interval comes to be recognised between the
+organ and its objects. By means of the touch, we have associated the
+sensations of vision with tangible bodies in one place, and the
+apprehension of these sensations with a tangible body in another place.
+It is, therefore, impossible for the sight to dissolve these
+associations, and bring the sensations out of the one place where they
+are felt, into the other place where the _condition_ of their
+apprehension resides. The sight is, therefore, compelled to leave the
+sensations where they are, and the apprehension of them where it is; and
+to recognize the two as sundered from each other--the sensations as
+separated from the organ, which they truly are. Thus it is that we would
+explain the origin of the perception of distance by the eye; believing
+firmly that the sight would never have discerned this distance without
+the mediation of the touch.
+
+Rightly to understand the foregoing reasoning--indeed to advance a
+single step in the true philosophy of sensation--we much divest
+ourselves of the prejudice instilled into us by a false physiology, that
+what we call our organism, or, in plain words, our body, is necessarily
+_the seat_ of our sensations. That all our sensations come to be
+associated _in some way_ with this body, and that some of them even come
+to be associated with it _in place_, is undeniable; but so far is it
+from being true, that they are all essentially implicated or
+incorporated with it, and cannot exist at a distance from it, that we
+have a direct proof to the contrary in our sensations of vision; and
+until the physiologist can prove (what has never yet been proven) an _�
+priori_ necessity that our sensations must be where our bodies are, and
+an _� priori_ absurdity in the contrary supposition, he must excuse us
+for resolutely standing by the fact as we find it.
+
+This is a view which admits of much discussion, and we would gladly
+expatiate upon the subject, did time and space permit; but we must
+content ourselves with winding up the present observations with the
+accompanying diagram, which we think explains our view beyond the
+possibility of a mistake.
+
+                  A
+          B_a_         _�_C
+
+Let A be the original synthesis, or indiscrimination of vision and its
+sensations--of light and colours. Let _�_ be the visual sensations
+locally associated by means of the touch with the tangible bodies C
+_before_ vision is in any way associated with B--before, indeed, we have
+any knowledge of the existence of B. Then let _a_, the general condition
+on which the sensations, _after a time_, are found to depend, and in
+virtue of which they are apprehended, be locally associated with B--the
+eye discovered by means of the touch--and we have before us what we
+cannot help regarding as a complete _rationale_ of the whole phenomena
+and mysteries of vision. Now, the great difference between this view of
+the subject and the views of it that have been taken by _every_ other
+philosopher, consists in this, that whereas their explanations
+invariably implicated the visual sensations _�_ with B from the very
+first, thereby rendering it either impossible for them to be afterwards
+associated with C, or possible only in virtue of some very extravagant
+hypothesis--our explanation, on the contrary, proceeding on a simple
+observation of the facts, and never implicating the sensations _�_ with
+B at all, but associating them with C _� primordiis_, merely leaving to
+be associated with B, _a_, a certain general condition that must be
+complied with, in order that the sensations _�_ may be apprehended,--in
+this way, we say, our explanation contrives to steer clear both of the
+impossibility and the hypothesis.
+
+We would just add by way of postscript to this article--which, perhaps,
+ought itself to have been only a postscript--that with regard to Mr
+Bailey's allegation of our having plagiarised one of his arguments,
+merely turning the coat of it outside in, we can assure him that he is
+labouring under a mistake. In our former paper, we remarked that we
+could not see things to be _out_ of the sight, because we could not see
+the sight itself. Mr Bailey alleges, that this argument is borrowed from
+him, being a mere reversal of his reasoning, that we cannot see things
+to be _in_ the sight, because we cannot see both the sight and the
+things. That our argument might very naturally have been suggested by
+his, we admit. But it was not so. We had either overlooked the passage
+in his book, or it was clean out of our mind when we were pondering our
+own speculations. It did not suggest our argument, either nearly or
+remotely. Had it done so, we should certainly have noticed it, and
+should probably have handled both Mr Bailey's reasoning and our own to
+better purpose, in consequence. If, notwithstanding this disclaimer, he
+still thinks that appearances are against us, we cannot mend his faith,
+but can merely repeat, that the fact is as we have stated it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD.
+
+WITH THIRTY-TWO ILLUSTRATIONS, BY WILLIAM MULREADY, R.A.
+
+
+In a review we made last January of Goldsmith's "Deserted Village,"
+illustrated by the Etching Club, we concluded our notice with
+recommending to those able artists the "Vicar of Wakefield;" and
+expressed a hope that Mr Maclise would lend his powerful aid, having in
+our recollection some very happy illustrations of his hand in pictures
+exhibited at the Royal Academy Exhibition.
+
+What the Etching Club are about, we know not; but the subject has been
+taken up by Mr Mulready; and we now feel it incumbent upon us to notice
+this new and illustrated edition of that immortal work. Immortal it must
+be; manners pass away, modes change, but the fashion of the heart of man
+is unalterable. The "Vicar of Wakefield" bears the stamp of the age in
+which it was written. Had it been laid aside by the author, discovered,
+and now first brought out, without a notice of the author, or of the
+time of its composition, received it must have been indeed with delight,
+but not as belonging to the present day. It differs in its literature
+and its manners. It is at once a most happy work for illustration, and
+the most difficult. It is universally known. Who has not shed previous
+and heart-improving tears over it? Taking up the tale now, for the
+hundredth time, we are become, from somewhat morose, tender as a
+lamb--propitious condition for a critic! We opened upon the scene where
+Mr Burchell so cruelly tries poor Sophia, by offering her a husband in
+Mr Jenkinson; we know the whole transaction perfectly, the bitter joke,
+the proposal
+
+                        "impares
+    Formas atque animas in juga ahenea
+    S�vo mittere cum joco."
+
+Yet how strangely are we moved! Had the taxman at the moment called for
+the income-tax, he would have concluded we were paying the last farthing
+of our principal. What art is this in a writer, that he should by one
+and the same passage continue to move his readers, though they know the
+trick! Readers, too, that would have turned the cold shoulder to real
+tales of greater distress, and met suspicion that all was a cheat
+halfway; but the acknowledged fictitious they yield to at once their
+whole hearts, throwing to the winds their beggarly stint. Never was
+there a writer that possessed to so great a degree as did Goldsmith this
+wondrous charm; and in him it is the more delightful in the light and
+pleasant _allegria_ with which he works off the feeling. The volume is
+full of subjects that so move; and in this respect it is most admirable
+for illustration, inviting the ablest powers. But the difficulty,
+wherein does that lie? Look at all illustrations that have hitherto
+appeared in print, and you cry out to all--Away with the failure!
+Certain it is that but slender abilities have been hitherto employed;
+and when we hear of better artists coming to the undertaking, we are
+hardened against them. And then, how few come fresh to the tale. To
+those who do, perhaps a new illustration may have a tenfold charm; but
+to any one past five-and-twenty, it must come "with a difference." It is
+very difficult to reconcile one to a new Dr Primrose, a new Mrs
+Primrose. Beauty ever had the power of beauty, and takes us suddenly; we
+can more readily dismiss the old idea and pitch on the new, so that the
+Miss Primroses are more reconcilable and transferable creatures, than
+the Vicar and his wife, or the incomparable Moses and the unyielding Mr
+Burchell. We cannot pretend to tell how all these characters would have
+fitted their images given by Mr Mulready, had the work now first come
+into our hands. As it is, we can only say they are new to us. It
+requires time to reconcile this. In the meanwhile we must take it for
+granted, that they actually do represent those in Mr Mulready's vision,
+and he is a clear-sighted man, and has been accustomed to look into
+character well. His name as the illustrator, gave promise of success.
+Well do we remember an early picture by him--entitled, we believe, the
+Wolf and the Lamb. It represented two schoolboys--the bully, and the
+more tender fatherless child. The history in that little picture was
+quite of the manner of Goldsmith. The orphan boy's face we never can
+forget, not the whole expression of his slender form, though it is many
+years ago that we saw the picture. So that when the name of Mulready
+appeared as illustrator, we said at once, That will do--down came the
+book, and here it is before us. The pages have been turned over again
+and again. We cannot, nevertheless, quite reconcile our ideas to the new
+Dr and Mrs Primrose; but in attempting to do so, so many real artistical
+beauties have beamed from the pages, that we determined at once to pour
+out our hearts to Maga, and turn over page after page once more. The
+illustrations are thirty-two in number; one to head each chapter,
+though, and which we think a defect, the subject of the illustration is
+not always in the chapter at the head of which it is. The first is the
+choice of a wife--"and chose my wife as she did her wedding-gown." The
+intended bride is a very beautiful graceful figure, with a most sweet
+simplicity of countenance. This never could have resembled Mrs Deborah
+Primrose; the outline is most easy and graceful, even as one of
+Raffaelle's pure and lovely beings. The youth of the bride and
+bridegroom, fresh in their hopes of years of happiness, is happily
+contrasted with the staid age of the respectable tradesman, evidently
+one of honest trade and industrious habits--the fair dealer, one of the
+old race before the days of "immense sacrifices" brought goods and men
+into disrepute. The little group is charming; every line assists
+another, and make a perfect whole.
+
+"The Dispute between the Vicar and Mr Wilmot."--"This, as may be
+expected, produced a dispute, attended with some acrimony." Old Wilmot
+is capital; there is acrimony in his face, and combativeness in his
+fists--both clenching confidently his own argument, and ready for
+action; the very drawing back of one leg, and protrusion of the other,
+is indicative of testy impatience. The vicar is a little too loose and
+slovenly, both in attitude and attire; the uniting of the figures
+(artistically speaking) is with Mr Mulready's usual ability.
+
+"The Rescue of Sophia from Drowning by Mr Burchell."--"She must have
+certainly perished, had not my companion, perceiving her danger,
+instantly plunged in to her relief." This is altogether a failure, yet
+it is a good subject; nor has Mr Mulready been at all happy in the
+female beauty. The vicar stands upon the bank too apathetic; and the
+group in the vehicle, crossing the stream above, seem scarcely conscious
+of the event, though they are within sight of it. Mr Mulready has here,
+too, neglected his text. Sophia fell from her horse; all the party set
+out on horseback; there is no carriage mentioned.
+
+"The Vicar at Home, with Neighbour Flamborough and the Piper."--"These
+harmless people had several ways of being good company; while one
+played, the other would sing some soothing ballad." The happy father,
+with his children climbing up his chair, and clinging to him, is a
+beautiful group, and quite worthy of Mr Mulready's pencil.
+
+"Squire Thornhill."--"At last a young gentleman, of a more genteel
+appearance than the rest, came forward, and for a while regarding us,
+instead of pursuing the chase, stopped short, and giving his horse to a
+servant who attended, approached us with a careless, superior air." The
+family are sweetly grouped--the story well told--the easy assurance of
+the squire undeniable. The father holds his two boys, one on his lap,
+the other between his knees; but is he "_the_ vicar?"
+
+"Mr Burchell and Sophia"--A most charming illustration. It is the
+haymaking scene. "I could not avoid, however, observing the assiduity of
+Mr Burchell, in assisting my daughter Sophia in her part of the task."
+Sophia is a lovely creature, just what she should be. We are not quite
+sure of Mr Burchell: possibly he may look too young; he was a character,
+and must have borne about him some little acquired oddity, sturdy, and
+not undignified. In the illustration he is too prettily genteel; but we
+do not wish to see any but Sophia--delightful, loving, lovable Sophia.
+In the background, Moses lies on the ground with his book, and the vicar
+has rather too suspicious a look; but we can forgive him that, and, for
+Sophia's sake, forgive Mr Mulready that he has paid less attention to
+her admirer--for at present he is no more. But his admiration is better,
+and more to the purpose than other men's love.
+
+"Moses defeated in Argument, or rather borne down by the arrogant,
+ignorant volubility of the Squire."--"This effectually raised the laugh
+against poor Moses." It is well grouped; but the only successful figure
+is Moses. The squire is not the well-dressed, designing profligate. If
+the story were not well told by the grouping, we might have taken the
+squire for an itinerant "lecturer." The squire is so prominent a person
+in the tale, that we think there should have been a well-studied
+representation of the accomplished villain and fine gentleman.
+
+No. 8.--Beyond the skill in grouping, Mr Mulready has not attempted any
+great interest in this illustration. It represents the family, with
+their friend Burchell, interrupted in their enjoyment by the chaplain,
+or rather the chaplain's gun; for that only presents its muzzle. "So
+loud a report, and so near, startled my daughters; and I could perceive
+that Sophia, in the fright, had thrown herself into Mr Burchell's arms
+for protection." We do not recognize the alarmed and lovely Sophia--here
+she might be any miss; so that the greatest miss is Mr Mulready's, for
+he has missed an opportunity of showing the beauty of the sweet sisters
+in alarm. In this chapter, we have Goldsmith's delightful ballad, "Turn,
+gentle hermit of the dale." Surely this was worthy an illustration or
+two; and if Mr Mulready felt himself confined to the heads of chapters,
+might he not, for once, have made his digression from the tale, as
+Goldsmith has done, and given us that charming episode?
+
+"The Family Group on Horseback, going to Church."--"And when I got about
+halfway home, perceived the procession marching slowly forward towards
+the church." "The colt that had been nine years in the family, and
+Blackberry, his companion," are not the best horse-flesh. Mr Mulready
+does not draw the horse like Mr Herring; so, having failed in the feet
+of the colt, he has, though rather awkwardly, hidden Blackberry's behind
+a convenient stone, which yet makes us fear that the "family pride" will
+have a fall, and spare the Vicar's reproof. The party on Blackberry is
+good; and the patient, blind face of the animal is well attempted.
+
+"The Visit to Neighbour Flamborough's on Michaelmas Eve."--"But
+previously I should have mentioned the very impolitic behaviour of Mr
+Burchell, who, during this discourse, sat with his face turned to the
+fire; and, at the conclusion of every sentence, would cry out, 'Fudge!'"
+This is scarcely the subject of the illustration, for Mr Burchell is
+quite in the background. We should like to have seen his face. Miss
+Carolina Wilhelmina Amelia Skeggs is good; Lady Blarney is not the
+overdressed and overacting peeress. The whole is very nicely grouped.
+Perhaps we are not so pleased with this illustration, remembering
+Maclise's more finished picture of the subject.
+
+Moses departing for the "Fair." Hopeful and confident are the group, and
+not least so Moses himself. We fancy we recognize in Moses a similar
+figure in a sweet picture exhibited last year by Mr Stonhouse, one of
+the "Etching Club." We are not quite satisfied with the other
+figures--they all hide their faces, as well they might, for their
+simplicity in trusting to the "discreet boy" that can "buy and sell to
+very good advantage"--so off go Moses and the colt that had been nine
+years in the family. "We all followed him several paces from the door,
+bawling after him good-luck! good-luck! till we could see him no
+longer."
+
+No. 12 exhibits simplicity upon a larger scale, and shows the head of
+the family, verifying the old proverb, "like father like son"--though it
+should be here like son like father. The colt was fitly turned over to
+the son, grave blind Blackberry was a horse for the father's art and
+wisdom. "By this time I began to have a most hearty contempt for the
+poor animal myself, and was almost alarmed at the approach of every
+customer." Poor Blackberry! He is quite conscious of his depreciation;
+he is a wise animal, and can see that "with half an eye." Alas! we fear
+he has not that half. Blackberry is good--yet will he sell for nothing;
+how patiently he lets them handle his leg, and a handle it is; we can
+imagine the creature thinking, "pray, sir, would you like to look at the
+other poor thing of a leg?" The rascally Fair, in which Mr Mulready has
+shown, according to his author, that the Vicar ought not to have been,
+is well given; but we should have liked a full length portrait of Mr
+Jenkinson pronouncing [Greek: Anarchon ara chai atelentaion to pan.]
+
+The reading the letter, the well-known letter of Mr Burchell to "The
+Ladies." "There seemed, indeed, something applicable to both sides in
+this letter, and its censures might as well be referred to those to whom
+it was written, as to us; but the malicious meaning was obvious, and we
+went no further." This, as usual, is well grouped; the Vicar ponders,
+and cannot tell what to make of it. We should have preferred, as a
+subject, the Vicar confronting Mr Burchell, and the cool effrontery of
+the philosopher turning the tables upon the Vicar, "and how came you so
+basely to presume to break open this letter?" or better still, perhaps,
+the encounter of art between Mr Burchell and Mrs Deborah Primrose. And
+why have we not Dick's episode of the dwarf and the giant? Episodes are
+excellent things, as good for the illustrations as for the book. No. 14,
+the contrivance of Mrs Primrose to entrap the squire, properly belongs
+to another chapter. "Then the poor woman would sometimes tell the squire
+that she thought him and Olivia extremely of a size, and would bid both
+stand up to see which was tallest." The passage is nicely told; there
+is, however, but one figure to arrest attention, and that is quite
+right, for it is Olivia's, and a sweet figure it is. Dear Olivia! We
+have not seen her portrait before, and we shall love her, beyond "to the
+end of the chapter," to the end of the volume, and the more so, that
+hers after all was a hard fate. It is the part of the tale which leaves
+a melancholy impression; Goldsmith has so determined it--and to his
+judgment we bow implicitly. Had any other author so wretchedly disposed
+of his heroine, in a work not professedly tragic, we should have been
+pert as critics usually are. Mrs Primrose is certainly here too young.
+We cannot keep our eyes off Olivia; and see, the scoundrel has slyly
+taken her innocent hand, and the other is put up to her neck in such
+modest doubt of the liberty allowed. Here, as in other instances, the
+squire is not the well-dressed man of the world, whose gold lace had
+attracted Dick's attention. We could linger longer over this
+illustration, but must pass on--honest Burchell has been dismissed,
+villany has full sway. We must leave poor Olivia to her fate, and turn
+to the family picture "drawn by a limner;" capital--"limner" well
+suiting the intended satire--some say a good-natured, sly cut at Sir
+Joshua. We should certainly have had Mrs Primrose as Venus, and the two
+little ones as Cupids, and the Vicar presenting to her his books on the
+Whistonian controversy, and the squire as Alexander. Whoever wishes to
+see specimens of this kind may see some ludicrous ones at Hampton
+court--particularly of Queen Elizabeth, and the three goddesses abashed
+by her superiority. We thought to leave poor Olivia to her fate--Mr
+Mulready will not let us give her up so easily, and takes us to the
+scene of her quitting her home for her betrayer; and this is the subject
+of--
+
+"Yes, she is gone off with two gentlemen in a post-chaise; and one of
+them kissed her, and said he would die for her;" and there she is,
+hiding her beautiful face with her hands, and poor good Dick is pulling
+her back by her dress, that she may not go; but a villain's hand is
+round her waist, and one foot he has upon the step of the chaise, and
+the door is open. Poor Dick, you have nothing left you to do but to run
+home as fast as you can; and there you will find such a scene of
+innocent enjoyment, how to be marr'd! at the very moment, too, that the
+good Vicar had been feeling and saying, "I think myself happier now than
+the greatest monarch upon earth. He has no such fireside, nor such
+pleasant faces about it. We are descended from ancestors that knew no
+stain, and we shall leave a good and virtuous race of children behind
+us. While we live they will be our support and our pleasure here, and
+when we die they will transmit our honour untainted to posterity. Come,
+my son, we wait for a song: let us have a chorus. But where is my
+darling Olivia? That little cherub's voice is always sweetest in the
+concert." O Dick, Dick! at such a moment as this to run in and tell him
+to be miserable for ever; for that his cherub, his Olivia is gone, and
+gone, as it appears, to infamy, a thousand times more grievous than
+death. Was there ever so touching a scene?--Mr Mulready feared it. That
+is a wonderful chapter--the happiness is so domestically heightened,
+that the homefelt joy may be more instantly crushed. We know we shall
+not see dear darling Olivia again for a long, long time; and feel we
+want a pause and a little diversion--so we will go back to Bill the
+songster for amusement, and take it if we can; and here is for the
+purpose Bill's "Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog," alas! taught him, too,
+by honest Mr Williams; we only hope young, sturdy farmers have strong
+nerves, and don't break their hearts in love's disappointments. Here is
+Dick's Elegy; and as we, too, have a Moses at home of a "miscellaneous
+education," we will put on the Vicar's simplicity, and cheerful
+familiarity with his own flesh and blood--and thus we address our Moses,
+"Come, my boy, you are no hand at singing, so turn the Elegy another
+way: let us have a little Latin, for your music is Hexameter and
+Pentameter." Our Moses, "That's a hard task, sir, for one that cannot
+mount to Parnass Hill without his 'Gradus ad Parnassum.'" "Well, then
+get your Gradus, and put your foot in that first step of the ladder."
+Our Moses, waggishly--"I must mind my feet, sir, or they will be but
+lame verses, and go halting and hobbling--but I suppose you won't be
+very particular as to Latinity. I have heard you tell how Farmer
+Williams"--"No," said we, "not Williams, any other farmer you please;
+poor Williams is not likely to have any children; yet I know what you
+were going to say." "Farmer any body, then," said our Moses, "when he
+took his boy to school, left him with the master; and shortly returned
+to inform him, that, discoursing upon the subject at the 'public,' he
+had heard that there were two sorts of Latin, and so he brought the
+master a gammon of bacon, for he wished his son to have the best: now I
+think, sir, one of these two sorts must be 'dog Latin,' and that must be
+best fitted for the Elegy in question." Our Moses beats the Vicar's
+hollow in waggery, so we are proud of him. He takes after his mother. We
+condescended to be familiar enough to laugh. Now, then, Moses, to _your_
+task and we to _ours_. And here we are at--
+
+The scene of Mr Arnold and his family breaking in upon his butler
+personating his master, we are rather inclined to think a failure. There
+is Mr Mulready's good grouping, but somehow or other it is rather flat
+for so piquant an incident; "I was struck dumb with the apprehension of
+my own absurdity, when whom should I next see enter the room but my dear
+Miss Arabella Wilmot." We should like to have seen, in illustration, the
+political butler ordering the Vicar out of his house, or at least a more
+decided portrait of Arabella Wilmot. "Beauty is," as Miss Skeggs said of
+virtue, "worth any price;" and we are sorry to look about, and continue,
+in her words, "but where is that to be found?" What had Mr Mulready to
+do, that he would not let us have a sight of Arabella Wilmot. We,
+therefore, pass on to her lover, the Vicar's eldest son George,
+delivering his letter of recommendation to the nobleman's footmen, with
+his fee, which brings us to--
+
+"However, after bribing the servants with half my worldly fortune, I was
+at last shown into a spacious apartment, my letter being previously sent
+up for his lordship's inspection." The Vicar's son is a fine fellow in
+the illustration: we are glad to see him, but rather wish Mr Mulready
+had chosen a better subject. George's adventures were written with a
+nice satire; for Goldsmith knew what and whom he had to describe. The
+reasons why he would not do for an usher, are well put. Is it not
+possible that Mr Dickens took his first hint of Do-the-boys' Hall from
+reading this passage in Goldsmith? Indeed, there may be a suspicion that
+Mrs Primrose gave the idea of Mrs Nickleby, though he has made her an
+original. But to return to the traveller--we should like to have seen an
+"illustration" of his interview with the principal of the College of
+Louvain, a passage quite in the spirit of Le Sage. "The principal seemed
+at first to doubt my abilities; but of these I offered to convince him,
+by turning a part of any Greek author he should fix upon into Latin.
+Finding me perfectly earnest in my proposals he addressed me thus, 'You
+see, young man,' continued he, 'I never learned Greek, and I don't find
+that I have ever missed it. I have had a doctor's cap and gown without
+Greek; I have ten thousand florins a year without Greek; and, in short,'
+continued he, 'as I don't know Greek, I do not believe there is any good
+in it.'"
+
+The office of Mr Crispe, who fitted becoming situations upon every body.
+"There I found a number of poor creatures, all in circumstances like
+myself, expecting the arrival of Mr Crispe, presenting a true epitome of
+English impatience." And there is Mr Crispe himself, in the distance
+indeed, but certainly the principal figure. The expectants are good
+enough, but Mr Crispe, with his audacious, confident, deceitful face, is
+excellent; the fellow rattling the money in both his pockets, with
+fraud, successful laughing fraud filling out both his cheeks. The
+audacious wretch! little cares he for the miserable expectants whom he
+means to ship off to America and slavery. Preferring to see the Vicar's
+son among "the harmless peasants of Flanders," we turn over the leaves.
+
+Here is a delightful group,--a fine sturdy fellow holding his dog by a
+handkerchief through his collar, and how naturally the honest brute
+leans against his master, as claiming a sort of kindred--the expression
+of the young woman with the child in her arms, is attention and
+admiration. It is not quite certain that one of the loungers is pleased
+with that admiration. This is a pleasant scene, and happily illustrated.
+"I had some knowledge of music, with a tolerable voice, and now turned
+what was once my amusement into a present means of subsistence." That is
+a pleasant, happy scene, though the personages are the poorest. Of
+another character is the next scene, and quite other personages act in
+it; for we come again to poor Olivia in her distress, grossly, brutally
+insulted by the wealthy profligate.
+
+The profligate scoundrel in the very lowest baseness of his
+character.--It is poor Olivia speaks. "Thus each day I grew more
+pensive, and he more insolent, till at last the monster had the
+assurance to offer me to a young baronet of his acquaintance." This
+scene is not fit for picture; it is seemingly nothing but successful
+villany, and of too gay a cast to be pathetic. The chapter from which it
+is taken would have furnished a much better one--the meeting between the
+Vicar and his poor Olivia. We can bear the suffering of a Cordelia,
+because all in that is great though villany be successful; but there is
+a littleness in mere profligacy that infects even the victim. We could
+have wished that Mr Mulready had taken the "Meeting" for his
+illustration. How exquisitely beautiful is the text! The first impulse
+of affection is to forget, or instantly palliate the fault. "Welcome,
+any way welcome, my dearest lost one, my treasure, to your poor old
+father's bosom!" Then how exquisite her observance of the effect of
+grief upon the parent's appearance. "Surely you have too much wisdom to
+take the miseries of my guilt upon yourself." How timely has Goldsmith
+thrown in this, when we are most willing to catch at a straw of excuse
+for the lovely sufferer! No, we say, she never contemplated the misery
+she has inflicted; and then how natural is the instantaneous remembrance
+of her guilt! The taking it up and laying it down at a moment's call,
+from affection, is most touchingly beautiful. "Our wisdom, young woman,"
+replied I--"Ah, why so cold a name, papa?" cried she. "This is the first
+time you ever called me by so cold a name." "I ask pardon, my darling,"
+returned I; "but I was going to observe that wisdom makes but a slow
+defence against trouble, though at last a sure one." Admitting the
+subject chosen by Mr Mulready, we do not approve of his manner of
+telling it; we scarcely know which is the principal figure. Nor is
+Olivia's good. It has nothing of the madness the text speaks of. "My
+answer to this proposal was almost madness." We are glad to quit the
+scene, though our next step is into deeper misery; and--
+
+"The return of the Vicar to his home in flames," a pitiable sight; but
+here is the triumph of love over misery, and the subject is good. "Now,"
+cried I, holding up my children, "now let the flames burn on, and all my
+possessions perish." The scene is well told, and not the worse for a
+justifiable theft from Correggio in the fainting figure--it is the
+_mother_ in the Ecce Homo in the National Gallery. The failing of the
+hands at the moment of action, is true to the original and to nature. We
+rejoice that Mr Mulready did not take the return of Olivia as his
+subject. We should not like to see Mrs Primrose in that odious light;
+and though admirable in the tale, she is no favourite already. The
+parent had called his child, "woman--young woman"--the coldness passed
+away, and the word was changed for "darling." The word was again to be
+resumed, and how applied!--to the unforgiving--That even the Vicar's
+anger, we must rather say indignation, should be virtuous. "Ah, madam!"
+cried her mother, "this is but a poor place you have come to after so
+much finery. My daughter Sophy and I can afford but little entertainment
+to persons who have kept company only with people of distinction. Yes,
+Miss Livy, your poor father and I have suffered very much of late; but I
+hope Heaven will forgive you." Not a word of her own forgiving, not a
+word of endearment; and we suspect the word madam had, when written,
+more blame in it than it now retains--and how do the words "my daughter
+Sophy and I" cut off the forlorn one from the family!--and the plural
+"persons" avoiding the individuality, the personality of her daughter
+was another deep cut into the very flesh of the lost one's heart. Now
+then comes the reproof, and the good man shines in the glory of goodness
+and greatness, indignation for love's sake. "During this reception the
+unhappy victim stood pale and trembling, unable to weep or to reply; but
+I could not continue a silent spectator of her distress; wherefore,
+assuming a degree of severity in my voice and manner, which was ever
+followed with instant submission, 'I entreat, woman, that my words may
+be now marked once for all: I have brought you back a poor deluded
+wanderer: her return to duty demands the revival of our tenderness. The
+real hardships of life are now coming fast upon us; let us not therefore
+increase them by dissensions among each other." The words to the
+conclusion of the chapter should be written in letters of gold, were not
+the better place for them out of sight, upon the hearts of all; for none
+of us have too much charity, though some may have an excess of love.
+
+No. 22 is an affecting scene. The Vicar with his wounded arm is on his
+bed, with his distressed family about him. Olivia has fainted on hearing
+the news of her betrayer's intended marriage, and the mother is
+attending her. "My compassion for my poor daughter, overpowered by this
+new disaster, interrupted what I had further to observe. I bade her
+mother support her, and after a short time she recovered." The
+countenance of the Vicar in this scene is the best among the
+illustrations--of that good man enduring affliction, that sight worthy
+the gods to look at, as said the Stoic. But we that have human
+sympathies, would willingly turn away from such a sight; and where shall
+we find refuge? for sorrow is coming on--sorrow upon sorrow--an
+accumulation of miseries no Stoic would have borne; for he, with all his
+boasted indifference, would have borne them no longer, but ended them
+and life together, if he might so end them, as he thought. And now,
+happily, "_our_ Moses" comes to our relief, not with extracts from
+chapters on stoicism, or any other false philosophy, but holding up to
+us what he is pleased to call his "dogrel." So, between him and Bill the
+Songster, we will have a duet. But as we have no Bill present, we will
+take his part ourselves, and, like other acting substitutes, go through
+the part, reading. "Now we hope," addressing our Moses, "you have not
+lengthened out your Latin to four lines for the four short English in
+each stanza. If you have, to the flames with them!"
+
+_Our Moses_.--
+
+"CARMINA ELEGIACA IN MORTEM CUJUSDAM CANIS ISLINGTONIENSIS."
+
+(_We_.--Not in such a hurry--"An Elegy on the death of a mad dog;" and
+what made you put in Islingtoniensis? Well, I suppose you call that a
+Ciceronic flourish! Now, I will read the English--you the Latin.)
+
+    _We_.--Good people all, of every sort,
+             Give ear unto my song,
+           And if you find it wondrous short,
+             It cannot hold you long.
+
+    _Our Moses_.--Quotlibet huc, ubicunque hominum, auscultate canenti,
+                  Si breve vos teneam;--non ego longus ero.
+
+    _We_.--In Islington there was a man
+             Of whom the world might say,
+           That still a godly race he ran
+             Whene'er he went to pray.
+
+    _Our Moses_.--Quidam Islingtoniensis erat, quem donec adibat
+                  Templa pius, sacra diximus ire via.
+
+    _We_.--A kind and gentle heart he had
+             To comfort friends and foes;
+           The naked every day he clad
+             When he put on his clothes.
+
+    _Our Moses_.--Suavis amico, inimico, ita mitis, nudum ut amictu,
+                  Quum se vestibat, cotidie indueret.
+
+    _We_.--And in that town a dog was found,
+             As many dogs there be,
+           Both mongrel, puppy, whelp, and hound,
+             And curs of low degree.
+
+    _Our Moses_.--Et canis oppido eodem erat huic, ubi plurimus, et grex
+                  Et f�x, cum catulis plebs numerosa canum.
+
+    _We_.--This dog and man at first were friends,
+             But when a pique began,
+           The dog, to gain some private ends,
+             Went mad and bit the man.
+
+    _Our Moses_.--Grandis amicitia, at Canis, ut sibi gratificetur
+                  Fit rabidus, rabido dente hominemque petit.
+
+    _We_.--Around from all the neighbouring streets
+             The wondering neighbours ran,
+           And swore the dog had lost his wits,
+             To bite so good a man.
+
+    _Our Moses_.--Concurrunt cives, O illum Cerberun, at aiunt,
+                  Qualem amens rabido dense momordet herum.
+
+    _We_.--The wound it seem'd both sore and sad
+             To every Christian eye,
+           And while they swore the dog was mad,
+             They swore the man would die.
+
+    _Our Moses_.--O s�vum vulnus, clamant lachrymosius omnes,
+                  En rabidus canis, et mox moriturus homo.
+
+    _We_.--But soon a wonder came to light,
+             That show'd the rogues they lied;
+           The man recover'd of the bite,
+             The dog it was that died.
+
+    _Our Moses_.--Mendaces cives monstrat res prodigiosa,
+                  Sanus homo subito fit--moriturque canis.
+
+"A very good boy, Bill, upon my word," said the Vicar, "and an Elegy
+that may truly be called tragical." So we present our Moses a sovereign
+for his verse--"A sovereign for a verse, my boy." "I will never," quoth
+he, "be averse to a sovereign. We have heard of a monarch who gave a
+crown for a song." A little refreshed, let us turn to the book. Here is
+
+No. 23.--Very well, Mr Mulready, artistically performed; but we fear we
+shall not relish too many of these distressing subjects. We know, from
+distress to distress, you will take us into prison. Artists and writers
+of the present day delight in prison scenes; we are not of that class,
+but endure it. We would on no account sit down with that
+rascally-looking fellow that is driving and taking an inventory of the
+Vicar's stock. It is winter too. "The consequence of my incapacity was
+his driving my cattle that evening, and their being appraised and sold
+the next day for less than half their value."
+
+No. 24--Is the attempt at a rescue. The Vicar represses and reproves the
+violence of his enraged parishioners. The drawing is good; but it is not
+a subject we delight to look at; and we begin to fear that further on we
+shall fare worse. Why did not Mr Mulready give us the interview between
+the Vicar and his old acquaintance, Mr Jenkinson? Artists of skill like
+to show it in grouping, and prefer that to giving character. "The
+consequences might have been fatal, had I not immediately interposed,
+and with some difficulty rescued the officers from the hands of the
+enraged multitude."
+
+"The Prison." We have little wish to stay there long, and look at the
+odious villains that surround the good man "paying his footing." "I was
+apprised of the usual perquisite required upon these occasions, and
+immediately complied with the demand, though the little money I had was
+nearly exhausted." The next illustration, too, takes us into equally bad
+company.
+
+The Vicar's attempt to reform the jail. The mockery, and roguery, and
+Vicar's perseverance, while a practised hand is picking his pocket--are
+admirably represented. "I therefore read them a portion of the service,
+with a loud unaffected voice, and found my audience perfectly merry upon
+the occasion."
+
+The penitent scene. "My design succeeded, and in less than six days some
+were penitent, and all attentive." We now began to say, what a happy
+thing it was that Dr Primrose was sent to jail. Doubtless Goldsmith
+intended to show how good comes out of evil. There are some good figures
+in this illustration.
+
+The seizure of poor Sophia--and very good it is--not that we
+congratulate Mr Mulready on his Sophia here; she is rather a vulgar
+dowdy figure, the others are very good, and the incident well told. "A
+post-chaise and pair drove up to them, and instantly stopped. Upon which
+a well-dressed man, but not Mr Thornhill, stepping out, clasped my
+daughter round the waist, and, forcing her in, bid the postilion drive
+on, so that they were out of sight in a moment." Now, Mr Mulready, in
+the next edition, you must positively illustrate the rescue by Mr
+Burchell.
+
+"The Vicar delivering his sermon"--Charmingly grouped are the attentive
+and subdued audience. Mrs Primrose is surely too young a figure. If we
+could get over our early impression of the Vicar's countenance, his
+figure here would probably please. "The prisoners assembled themselves
+according to my directions, for they loved to hear my counsel--my son
+and his mother supported me on either side."
+
+The return of dear Sophia, with her true but singular lover and
+deliverer--Perhaps the vicar takes it more coolly than the text
+justifies. "Just as he delivered this news, my dearest girl entered, and
+with looks almost wild with pleasure, ran to kiss me in a transport of
+action." There should have been an illustration of the scene where Mr
+Burchell is discovered to be Sir William Thornhill; and above all, where
+he proposes Jenkinson to Sophia.
+
+The complete detection of the squire's villainies, and his great
+disappointment. "And to convince you that I speak nothing but truth,
+here is the license by which you were married together." All here is
+good but the figure of the Squire. In appearance we are to presume that
+Squire Thornhill was a gentleman, or Miss Wilmot could not have endured
+his addresses, nor indeed would Olivia have been deceived by him. In
+this illustration he has neither the appearance, dress, nor attitude of
+one in that condition.
+
+The last illustration, or "All's Well that End's Well." It is, however,
+near ending badly, both as to the incident and the illustration--in the
+latter all is good, excepting only Arabella Wilmot; perhaps there is a
+defect in the printing, which gives her an odd look--but altogether she
+is not a good figure. She should have been elegance personified.
+Burchell looks the sturdy runner that could overtake the chaise, and
+rescue manfully his Sophia, to win and wear a favour, though he seems
+here in little hurry; but that is in character. "But as I stood all this
+time with my book ready, I was at last quite tired of the contest, and
+shutting it, 'I perceive,' cried I, 'that none of you have a mind to be
+married.'" We should like to have seen the dinner-party, and the two
+Miss Flamboroughs ready to die with laughing. "One jest I particularly
+remember: old Mr Wilmot drinking to Moses, whose head was turned another
+way, my son replied, 'Madam, I thank you.' Upon which the old gentleman,
+winking upon the rest of the company, observed that he was thinking of
+his mistress; at which jest I thought the two Miss Flamboroughs would
+have died with laughing." We should like to have seen their faces by Mr
+Mulready's hand, because we are sure that the two Miss Flamboroughs were
+thinking of themselves, in conjunction with Moses and the jest.
+
+We have noticed every illustration. We hope there will be another
+edition, and then we may have a few more plates. We have therefore, as
+we have gone on, ventured to suggest some subjects--but, above all, we
+would recommend Mr Mulready to supply a few portraits, heads only, such
+as that of the "Schoolmaster in the Deserted Village," by the Etching
+Club.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE ATTORNEY'S CLERK IN THE MONK'S HOOD.
+
+
+   "I thought of Chatterton, the marvellous boy--
+    The sleepless soul that perish'd in his pride."
+
+Had the "resolution and independence" which dignify the lowly, and
+strengthen the unhappy, when no visible eye befriends them, been among
+the rich endowments of Chatterton's wonderful mind--had he possessed and
+cherished the courage that bears up against obloquy and neglect--had he
+pursued the rough tenour of his way undaunted, in spite of "solitude,
+pain of heart, distress, and poverty," how different must have been the
+fate of the inspired boy of Bristol! He might be alive yet; he would be
+ninety years old, graced with honour, love, obedience, troops of
+friends, and all that should accompany old age. He might have achieved
+some great epic, or some gorgeous historical dramas,--have finished the
+Fairy Queen, or given us a Fairy King of his own creation.
+
+Among the lighter honours of social distinction, we can fancy his
+reception as a London "lion," by the fair and noble in proud places.
+Still pleasanter is the vision of his less public hours of idleness
+spent among congenial spirits. We can fancy him, the patriarch of living
+poets, seated as a guest at the breakfast-table of Samuel Rogers, who is
+about twelve years his junior, and those fine lads, Lisle Bowles, James
+Montgomery, and William Wordsworth, and those promising children, Tom
+Moore and Tom Campbell, and that braw chiel John Wilson--(_palmam qui
+meruit ferat_)--the youngest of the party something, perhaps, but not
+much, under seventy, except the bard of the Isle of Palms, who is no
+chicken; and unless the master of the feast have summoned those pretty
+babes from the Wood, the two Tennysons. But alas for Chatterton! the
+vision will not hold: he disappears from his chair at the feast, like
+Banquo--"and, when all's done, you look but on a stool." The ghost of
+the slayer of himself, after long haunting Strawberry Hill, to rebuke
+the senile complacency of the chronicler of royal and noble authors,
+repaired, after the death of that prosperous man of wit and fashion, to
+his native town, to prowl in Redcliff church, and about the graves of
+his fathers in its churchyard, and the graves which they had
+successively dug there during a century and a half. His bones were left
+to moulder among those of other pauper strangers in the burial-ground of
+Shoelane workhouse. We attach no credit to the story of the exhumation
+of his body, and its mysterious reinterment in Redcliff. His fathers
+were sextons; and he, too, was in some sort a sexton also--but
+spiritually and transcendantly. He buried his genius in the visionary
+grave of Rowley, "an old chest in an upper room over the chapel on the
+north side of Redcliff church;" and thence, most rare young conjurer, he
+evoked its spirit in the shape of fragments of law-parchment, quaintly
+inscribed with spells of verse and armorial hieroglyphics, to puzzle
+antiquaries and make fools of scholiasts. Puzzle them he did; and they
+could not forgive a clever stripling, whom hunger had tempted to don an
+ancient mask, and impose himself on their spectacled eyes as a reverend
+elder. Rogue!--vagabond! Profligate impostor! The slim, sleek,
+embroidered juggler of the Castle of Otranto had not a kind word for
+this ragged orphan of his own craft. He, whose ambition was to shine
+among writers who have given intellectual grace to their noble
+lineage--among whom assuredly he does and will shine--but whose acute
+consciousness of something meretricious in his metal, made him doubt if
+the public would accept coinage from his mint; and so caused him to wear
+tentative disguises, whether he elaborated a romance or a keen and
+playful witticism--and who really did injustice to his own powers,--not
+from modesty but meanness,--even he, the son of a prime minister and
+heir to a peerage--a man who was himself always something of a
+trickster, now mystifying a blind old woman at Paris; now sending open
+letters, privately nullified, recommending the bearers to his friend the
+envoy at Florence; now, with the mechanic aid of village carpenters and
+bricklayers, rearing a frail edifice bristling with false points, and
+persuading the world that it was all pure Gothic, perhaps chuckling at
+his assurance--even this shrewd mummer gravely shook his head at
+Chatterton, and frowned on him as a cheat! True; they were both cheats;
+Horace Walpole from apprehensive vanity; Chatterton from proud oblique
+humility. The Bristol boy knew his worth; but, doubting the equity as
+well as the sagacity of his judges, he did not venture to produce it as
+his own. He supposed that an obscure and penniless youth, such as he,
+could have little chance of attention or fair play in the world if he
+appeared in his proper character; so he painfully assumed another, of a
+nature that could not long have been supported even had he been a
+various linguist deeply versed in etymologies, and especially proficient
+in our extinct idioms, and their several dates of usage, instead of
+wanting even Latin enough to understand the easiest parts of Skinner's
+Etymology of the English tongue, one of the books that he consulted and
+guessed at.
+
+Of all modern suicides this youth was the most interesting; of all
+literary impostors the least unpardonable, though his ways were,
+unhappily for himself, of indefensible crookedness. He neither ascribed
+his fictions to a great name as Ireland did, nor did he, like
+Macpherson, steal the heart out of national ballads and traditions, to
+stuff a Bombastes Penseroso of his own making.
+
+Any competent, yet moderately indulgent reader, who should for the first
+time take up Chatterton's works, and beginning at the beginning, in
+Tyrwhitt's first edition, for example, peruse no more than sixty or
+seventy pages, would probably lay down the volume somewhat disappointed
+not to have found the very extraordinary merit he had expected. The
+compositions that this partial examination would take in are
+three--Eclogues, Elinour and Juga, Verses to Lydgate, with Song to Ella,
+Lydgate's Answer, and the Tournament.
+
+The first Eclogue is a conversation between two fugitive shepherds, who
+bewail the wretched condition to which the barons' wars have reduced
+them. It contains some pleasing lines.
+
+As the rustics discuss their grievances in a valley under cover of
+
+                    "... Eve's mantle gray,
+      The rustling leaves do their white hearts affray.
+    They regret the pleasures of their forsaken home,
+      ... the kingcup decked mees,
+      The spreading flocks of sheep of lily white,
+      The tender applings and embodied trees,
+      The parker's grange, far spreading to the sight,
+      The gentle kine, the bullocks strong in fight,
+      The garden whiten'd with the comfrey plant,
+      The flowers Saint Mary shooting with the light--
+          ...
+      The far-seen groves around the hermit's cell,
+      The merry fiddle dinning up the dell,
+      The joyous dancing in the hostry court--
+    But now,
+               high song and every joy farewell,
+      Farewell the very shade of fair disport."
+
+In the second Eclogue, a good son invokes blessings on his father, who
+is gone with the crusaders to Palestine. He describes with much
+animation the voyage, the landing in Syria, the warring Saracens, King
+Richard of lion's heart, and anticipates victory and the return to
+England.
+
+   "Thus Nigel said, when from the azure sea
+    The swollen sail did dance before his eyne.
+    Swift as the wish he to the beach did fly,
+    And found his father stepping from the brine.
+    Sprites of the blest, the pious Nigel said,
+    Pour out your pleasance on my father's head!"
+
+The third Eclogue, if divested of certain exuberances--for Chatterton
+was precocious in every thing, and many of his fancies want the Bowdler
+pruning-knife--might be seasonably transferred to some of the penny
+publications for the benefit of Mr Frost's disciples. A poor man and
+woman, on their way to the parson's hayfield, complain to each other of
+their hard lot in being obliged to earn their bread by the sweat of
+their brows. "Why," asks the woman, "should I be more obligated to work
+than the fine Dame Agnes? What is she more than me? The man, unable to
+solve so knotty a point, says he doesn't see how he himself is not as
+good as a lord's son, but he will ask Sir Roger the parson, whom he
+consults accordingly.
+
+        "_Man_.--By your priestship now say unto me,
+                 Sir Godfrey the knight, who liveth hard by,
+                      Why should he than me
+                              Be more great
+                 In honour, knighthood, and estate?
+
+  "_Sir Roger_.--If thou hast ease, the shadow of content,
+                 Believe the truth, none happier is than thee.
+                 Thou workest well; can that a trouble be?
+                 Sloth more would jade thee than the roughest day.
+                 Could'st thou the secret minds of others see,
+                 Thou would'st full soon see truth in what I say.
+                 But let me hear thy way of life, and then
+                 Hear thou from me the lives of richer men.
+
+        "_Man_.--I rise with the sun,
+                 Like him to drive the wain,
+                 And, ere my work is done,
+                 I sing a song or twain.
+                 I follow the plough-tail
+                 With a bottle of ale.
+                 On every saint's day
+                 With the minstrel I'm seen,
+                 All footing away
+                 With the maids on the green.
+               But oh, I wish to be more great,
+               In honour, station, and estate!
+
+    "_Sir Roger_.--Hast thou not seen a tree upon a hill,
+                   Whose ample boughs stretch wide around to sight?
+                   When angry tempests do the heavens fill,
+                   It shaketh drear, in dole and much affright:
+                   While the small flower in lowly graces deck'd
+                   Standeth unhurt, untroubled by the storm.
+                   The picture such of life. The man of might
+                   Is tempest-chafed, his woe great as his form;
+                   Thyself, a floweret of small account,
+                 Would harder feel the wind as higher thou didst mount."
+
+Sir Roger's moral is trite enough, yet it seems to have escaped the
+consideration of our Chartists and Socialists.
+
+Elinour the nut-brown, and Juga the fair, are two pining maidens, who,
+seated on the banks of the Redbourne, a river near St Alban's, are each
+bemoaning their lovers, gone to fight in that neighbourhood for the Rose
+of York. Presently, racked with suspense, they hasten nearer to the
+scene of action.
+
+   "_Like twain of clouds that hold the stormy rain,
+    They moved gently o'er the dewy meads_
+    To where Saint Alban's holy shrines remain.
+    There did they find that both their knights were slain.
+    Distraught they wander'd to swoln Redbourne's side,
+    Yell'd there their deadly knell, sank in the waves, and died."
+
+The verses to Lydgate consist of ten lines of no merit at all, and
+supposed to be sent to him by Rowley, with the Ode to Ella, which has a
+movement that recalls Collins, a lyrical artist perhaps unexcelled in
+our language, and in whose manner Chatterton so obviously and frequently
+composes, that the fact alone might have settled the Rowley question,
+though we are not aware that it was ever particularly insisted on in the
+controversy.
+
+    "Oh Thou, or what remains of Thee,
+        Ella! the darling of futurity,
+    Let this my song bold as thy courage be,
+        As everlasting to posterity--
+
+    "When Dacia's sons, with hair of blood-red hue,
+    Like kingcups glittering with the morning dew,
+        Arranged in drear array,
+        Upon the fatal day,
+    Spread far and wide on Watchet's shore,
+        Then didst thou furious stand,
+        And by thy valiant hand
+    Besprinkle all the meads with gore.
+
+       "Driven by thy broadsword fell,
+        Down to the depths of hell,
+          Thousands of Dacians went.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+       "Oh Thou, where'er, thy bones at rest,
+        Thy sprite to haunt delighteth best,
+    Whether upon the blood-embrued plain--
+        Or where thou ken'st from far,
+        The dismal cry of war,
+    _Or see'st some mountain made of corses slain,_
+
+       "Or see'st the war-clad steed
+        That prances o'er the mead,
+    And neighs to be among the pointed spears--
+        Or in black armour stalk around
+        Embattled Bristol, once thy ground,
+    Or haunt with lurid glow the castle stairs,
+
+       "Or, fiery, round the Minster glare!
+        Let Bristol still be made thy care;
+    Guard it from foeman and consuming fire;
+        Like Avon's stream embrace it round,
+        Nor let a sparkle harm the ground,
+    Till in one flame the total world expire."
+
+The quatrains entitled Lydgate's answer, are amply complimentary on the
+foregoing song, but otherwise as prosaic as the lines that introduce it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    "Among the Grecians Homer was
+      A poet much renown'd;
+    Among the Latins _Virgilius_
+      Was best of poets found.
+
+    "The British Merlin often had
+      The gift of inspiration;
+    And Afled to the Saxon men
+      Did sing with animation.
+
+    "In Norman times Turgotus and
+      Good Chaucer did excel;
+    Then Stowe, the Bristol Carmelite,
+      Did bear away the bell.
+
+    "Now Rowley, in these murky days,
+      Sends out his shining lights,
+    And Turgotus and Chaucer live
+      In every line he writes."
+
+The next is the Tournament, an interlude. Sir Simon de Burton, its hero,
+is supposed to have been the first founder, in accomplishment of a vow
+made on the occasion, of a church dedicated to _Our Lady_, in the place
+where the church of St Mary Redcliff now stands. There is life and force
+in the details of this tourney; and the songs of the minstrel are good,
+especially the first, which is a gallant hunting stave in honour of
+William the Red King, who hunts the stag, the wolf, and "the _lion_
+brought from sultry lands." The sentiment conveyed in the burden of this
+spirited chorus sounds oddly considerate, as the command issued by
+William Rufus:--
+
+    "Go, rouse the lion from his hidden den,
+    Let thy darts drink the blood of any thing but men."
+
+To the paternity of the next in order--the Bristol Tragedy, or Death of
+Sir Charles Baldwin--Chatterton confessed; and such an admission might
+have satisfied any one but Dean Milles. The language is modern--the
+measure flowing without interruption; and, though the orthography
+affects to be antiquated, there is but one word (bataunt) in the whole
+series of quatrains, ninety-eight in number, that would embarrass any
+reader in his teens; though a boy that could generate such a poem as
+that, might well be believed the father of other giants whom he chose to
+disown. It is a masterpiece in its kind, almost unexceptionable in all
+its parts. The subject is supposed to have been suggested by the fate of
+Sir Baldwin Fulford, a zealous Lancastrian, beheaded at Bristol in 1461,
+the first year of the reign of Edward IV., who, it is believed, was
+actually present at the execution.
+
+Now comes Ella, a tragical interlude, or discoursing tragedy, by Thomas
+Rowley, prefaced by two letters to Master Canning, and an introduction.
+In the first letter, among various sarcasms on the age, is one,
+complaining that
+
+    "In holy priest appears the baron's pride."
+
+A proposition, we fear, at least as true in our day as in the fifteenth
+century. From the same epistle we would recommend to the consideration
+of the Pontius Pilates of our era, the numerous poets who choose none
+but awfully perilous themes, and who re-enact tremendous mysteries more
+confidently than if they were all Miltons, the annexed judicious
+admonition:--
+
+    "Plays made from holy tales I hold unmeet;
+      Let some great story of a man be sung;
+    When as a man we God and Jesus treat,
+      In my poor mind we do the Godhead wrong."
+
+And the following piece of advice, from the same letter, would not be
+ill bestowed on modern shopocracy:--
+
+    "Let kings and rulers, when they gain a throne,
+      Show what their grandsires and great-grandsires bore;
+    Let trades' and towns'-folk let such things alone,
+      Nor fight for sable on a field of ore."
+
+Yet he who could give this sensible counsel did by no means follow it.
+Chatterton, who really could trace back his ancestors for 150 years as a
+family of gravediggers, drew out for himself a pedigree which would have
+astonished Garter king-at-arms, and almost abashed a Welsh or German
+genealogy. He derived his descent from Sire de Chasteautonne, of the
+house of Rollo, the first Duke of Normandy, who made an incursion on the
+coast of Britain in the ninth century, and was driven away by Alfred the
+Great! Nine shields, exhibiting the family arms, were carefully prepared
+by him, and are preserved, with many other and very various inventions
+by the same hand, in the British Museum; and neat engravings of those
+Chatterton escutcheons are furnished by Mr Cottle, in his excellent
+essays on this tortuous genius. He was equally liberal in providing a
+pedigree for his friend Mr Burgham, a worthy and credulous pewterer in
+his native town, convincing him, by proofs that were not conclusive at
+the Herald's College, that he was descended from the De Burghams, who
+possessed the estate and manor of Brougham in the reign of Edward the
+Confessor, and so allying the delighted hearer with the forefathers of
+an illustrious Ex-Chancellor of our day. No less a personage, too, than
+Fitz-Stephen, son of Stephen Earl of Ammerle in 1095, grandson of Od,
+Earl of Bloys and Lord of Holderness, was the progenitor gravely
+assigned to Chatterton's relative, Mr Stephens, leather-breeches-maker
+of Salisbury. Evidence of all sorts was ever ready among the treasures
+in the Redcliff muniment room, the Blue-Coat boy's "Open Sesame!"
+
+The plot of Ella may be told in a few words. Ella, a renowned English
+warrior, the same who is invoked in the fine song already quoted,
+marries Bertha, of whom his friend and fellow warrior, Celmond, is
+secretly enamoured. On the wedding-day he is called suddenly away to
+oppose a Danish force, which he defeats, but not without receiving
+wounds severe enough to prevent his immediate return home. Celmond takes
+advantage of this circumstance, and under pretence of conducting Bertha
+to her husband, betrays her into a forest that chances to be the covert
+of Hurra, the Danish general, and other of the discomfited invaders. Her
+shrieks bring Hurra and his companions to her aid. They kill Celmond,
+and generously resolve to restore Bertha to her lord. He in the mean
+time, impatient to rejoin his bride, has contrived to get home, where,
+when he hears of her ill-explained departure, believing her false, he
+stabs himself. She arrives only in time to see him die.
+
+Celmond, soliloquizing on the charms of Bertha, exclaims,--
+
+    "Ah, Bertha, why did nature frame thee fair?
+    Why art thou not as coarse as others are?
+    _But then thy soul would through thy visage shine_;
+    Like nut-brown cloud when by the sun made red,
+    So would thy spirit on thy visage spread."
+
+At the wedding-feast, so unexpectedly interrupted by news of the Danes,
+the following pretty stanzas are sung by minstrels representing a young
+man and woman.
+
+     "_Man_.--Turn thee to thy shepherd swain;
+              Bright sun has not drunk the dew
+              From the flowers of yellow hue;
+              Turn thee, Alice, back again.
+
+    _Woman_.--No, deceiver, I will go,
+              Softly tripping o'er the mees,
+              Like the silver-footed doe
+              Seeking shelter in green trees.
+
+      _Man_.--See the moss-grown daisied bank
+              Peering in the stream below;
+              Here we'll sit in dewy dank,
+              Turn thee, Alice: do not go.
+
+    _Woman_.--I've heard erst my grandam say
+              That young damsels should not be,
+              In the balmy month of May,
+              With young men by the greenwood tree.
+
+      _Man_.--Sit thee, Alice, sit and hark
+              How the blackbird chants his note,
+              The goldfinch and the gray-morn lark,
+              Shrilling from their little throat.
+
+    _Woman_.--I hear them from each greenwood tree
+              Chanting out so lustily,
+              Telling lectures unto me,
+              Mischief is when you are nigh.
+
+      _Man_.--See, along the mends so green
+              Pi�d daisies, kingcups sweet,
+              All we see; by none are seen;
+              None but sheep set here their feet.
+
+    _Woman_.--Shepherd swain, you tear my sleeve;
+              Out upon you! let me go;
+              Keep your distance, by your leave,
+              Till Sir Priest make one of two.
+
+      _Man_.--By our lady and her bairn,
+              To-morrow, soon as it is day,
+              I'll make thee wife, nor be forsworn,
+              So may I live or die for aye.
+
+    _Woman_.--What doth hinder but that now
+              We at once, thus hand in hand,
+              Unto a divine do go,
+              And be link'd in wedlock-band?
+                          (Sensible woman!)
+
+      _Man_.--I agree, and thus I plight
+              Hand and heart and all that's mine.
+              Good Sir Herbert do us right,
+              Make us one at Cuthbert's shrine.
+
+     _Both_.--We will in a cottage live,
+              Happy though of no estate;
+              Every hour more love shall give;
+              We in goodness will be great."
+
+The two Danish generals, Hurra and Magnus, warm their blood to the
+fighting temperature before the battle by quarreling with and abusing
+each other, like Grecian heroes. They are both bullies, but Hurra is
+brave and Magnus a craven. Chatterton's sarcastic humour plays them off
+admirably. The result of the struggle between the two armies is pithily
+announced by one of the fugitives:--
+
+   "Fly, fly, ye Danes! Magnus the chief is slain;
+    The Saxons come with Ella at their head:
+    Fly, fly, _this is the kingdom of the dead_."
+
+In this drama is the exquisite melody, "O, sing unto my roundelay!" with
+which every one is familiar, as it is introduced into all our popular
+selections from the poets.
+
+Here is a cunning description of dawn.
+
+   "The morn begins along the east to sheen,
+    _Darkling the light doth on the waters play_;
+    The faint red flame slow creepeth o'er the green,
+    To chase the murkiness of night away,
+    Swift flies the hour that will bring out the day.
+    The soft dew falleth on the greening grass;
+    The shepherd-maiden, dighting her array,
+    _Scarce sees her visage in the wavy glass_."
+
+Such extracts do not, and are not intended to, convey any notion of
+Chatterton's dramatic power in this play. Mere extracts would not do
+justice to that, and therefore we confine ourselves to selections of a
+few out of many passages that can stand independent of plot or action,
+without detriment to their effect. The same remark will not apply to the
+next piece, or rather fragment. Godwin, a Tragedy, by Thomas Rowley. It
+is short, and the dramatic interest weak. In the following noble chorus,
+however, we recognise the genius of Chatterton:--
+
+    "When Freedom, drest in blood-stained vest,
+      To every knight her war-song sung,
+    Upon her head wild weeds were spread,
+      A gory broadsword by her hung.
+            She paced along the heath,
+            She heard the voice of death.
+
+    "Pale-eyed Affright, his heart of silver hue,
+      In vain essay'd her bosom to congeal:
+    She heard inflamed the shrieking voice of Woe,
+      And cry of owls along the sadden'd vale.
+            She shook the pointed spear,
+              On high she raised her shield;
+            Her foemen all appear,
+              And fly along the field.
+
+    "Power, with his head uplifted to the skies,
+      His spear a sunbeam and his shield a star,
+    Like two bright-burning meteors rolls his eyes,
+      Stamps with his iron feet, and sounds to war.
+            She sits upon a rock,
+              She bends before his spear,
+            She rises from the shock,
+              Wielding her own in air.
+
+    "Hard as the thunder doth she drive it on;
+      Keen wit, cross muffled, guides it to his crown;
+    His long sharp spear, his spreading shield are goe;
+      He falls, and falling rolleth thousands down."
+
+A short prologue by Master William Canning, informs us that this tragedy
+of Godwin was designed to vindicate the Kentish earl's memory from
+prejudices raised against him by monkish writers, who had mistaken his
+character, and accused him of ungodliness "for that he gifted not the
+church." There are but three scenes in the play. In the first, Godwin
+and Harold confer together on the distressed state of the nation, and
+the weakness of the king, whose court is overrun with Norman favourites
+to the exclusion of the English knights, and the great oppression of the
+people. Harold, young and impetuous, is for instant rebellion; but the
+father tries to moderate his rage, recommending patience and calm
+preparation.
+
+   "_Godwin_.--What tidings from the king?
+    _Harold_.--                          His Normans know.
+    _Godwin_.--What tidings of the people?
+    _Harold_.--Still murmuring at their fate, still to the king
+                 They roll their troubles like a surging sea.
+               Has England, then, a tongue but not a sting?
+                 Do all complain, yet will none righted be?
+    _Godwin_.--Await the time when God will send us aid.
+    _Harold_.--Must we, then, drowse away the weary hours?
+                 I'll free my country, or I'll die in fight.
+    _Godwin_.--But let us wait until some season fit.
+                 _My_ Kentishmen, _thy_ Somertons shall rise,
+                 Their prowess warmer for the cloak of wit,
+                 Again the argent horse shall prance in skies."
+
+An allusion, says Chatterton, to the arms of Kent, a horse salient,
+argent. As to the cloak of wit, it may possibly be preserved in
+Somersetshire; but the mantle certainly was not tied as an indefeasible
+heirloom over the broad shoulders of the county of Kent. No ancient
+Saxons, or even Britons, ever displayed prowess so stolid as those brave
+wild-wood savages of Boughton Blean, near Canterbury, who recently fell
+in battle with her Majesty's 45th regiment, opposing sticks to balls and
+bayonets, under their doughty leader Sir William Courtenay, Earl of
+Devonshire, Knight of Malta, King of Jerusalem, and much more. And there
+were other blockheads, substantial dunces, of respectable station in
+East Kent, among this ignorant and ambitious madman's supporters; men
+who had been at school to little purpose. Such an insurrection of
+satyrs, and such a Pan, in the middle of the nineteenth century, within
+earshot of the bells of Christchurch! But this by the bye.
+
+The next poem is styled English Metamorphosis, by T. Rowley. It consists
+of eleven stanzas of ten lines each, all fluent and spirited, and some
+of very superior merit. It is the fable of Sabrina, Milton's "daughter
+of Locrine," transliquefied to the river Severn, while her mother,
+Elstrida, was changed to the ridge of stones that rises on either side
+of it, Vincent's rocks at Clifton, and their enemy, the giant, was
+transformed to the mountain Snowdon. This giant was a very Enceladus.
+
+   "He tore a ragged mountain from the ground;
+    Hurried up nodding forests to the sky:
+    Then with a fury that might earth astound,
+    To middle air he let the mountain fly,
+    _The flying wolves sent forth a yelling cry_."
+
+In illustration of Elstrida's beauty,--
+
+   "The morning tinge, the rose, the lily flower,
+    In ever-running race on her did paint their power."
+
+The most vulgar and outworn simile is refreshed with a grace by the
+touch of Chatterton.
+
+Of the next poem--An excellent ballad of Charity, by the good priest,
+Thomas Rowley, 1454--it is clear that the young author thought highly,
+by a note that he transmitted with it to the printer of the "Town and
+Country Magazine," July 4, 1770, the month preceding that of his death.
+Unlike too many bearers of sounding appellations, it has certainly
+something more than its title to recommend it.
+
+The octosyllabic lines--twenty only--on Redcliff Church, by T.R., show
+what nice feeling Chatterton had for the delicacies of that florid
+architecture:--
+
+   "The cunning handiwork so fine,
+    Had wellnigh dazzled mine eyne.
+    Quoth I, some artful fairy hand
+    Uprear'd this chapel in this land.
+    Full well I know so fine a sight,
+    Was never raised by mortal wight."
+
+Of its majesty he speaks in another measure:--
+
+    "Stay, curious traveller, and pass not by
+      Until this festive pile astound thine eye.
+    Whole rocks on rocks, with iron join'd, survey;
+      And oaks with oaks that interfitted lie;
+    This mighty pile that keeps the winds at bay,
+      And doth the lightning and the storm defy,
+    That shoots aloft into the realms of day,
+      Shall be the record of the builder's fame for aye.
+        Thou see'st this mastery of a human hand,
+        The pride of Bristol, and the western land.
+    Yet is the builder's virtue much more great;
+      Greater than can by Rowley's pen be scann'd.
+    Thou see'st _the saints and kings in stony state,
+      As if with breath and human soul expand_.
+        Well may'st thou be astounded--view it well;
+        Go not from hence before thou see thy fill,
+    And learn the builder's virtues and his name.
+      Of this tall spire in every country tell,
+    And with thy tale the lazy rich men shame;
+      Show how the glorious Canning did excel;
+        How he, good man, a friend for kings became,
+        And glorious paved at once the way to heaven and fame."
+
+The "Battle of Hastings" is the longest of Chatterton's poems, and the
+reader who arrives at its abrupt termination will probably not grieve
+that it is left unfinished. The whole contains about 1300 lines in
+stanzas of ten, describing archery fights and heroic duels that are
+rather tedious by their similarity, and offensive from the smell of the
+shambles; and which any quick-witted stripling with the knack of rhyming
+might perhaps have done as well, and less coarsely, after reading
+Chapman's or Ogilby's Homer, or the fighting scenes in Spenser, the
+Border Ballads, &c. But even this composition is not unconscious of the
+true afflatus, such as is incommunicable by learning, not to be inhaled
+by mere imitative powers, and which might be vainly sought for in
+hundreds of highly elaborated prize poems.
+
+There is nothing more interesting in British history than the subject;
+and it is one which Chatterton, with all his genius, was much too young
+to treat in a manner at all approaching to epic completeness. Yet a few
+specimens might show that he is not deficient in the energy of the
+Homeric poetry of action. But here is metal more attractive, a young
+Saxon wife:--
+
+   "White as the chalky cliffs of Britain's isle,
+    Red as the highest-coloured Gallic wine,
+    Gay as all nature at the morning smile,
+    Those hues with pleasance on her lips combine;
+    Her lips more red than summer evening's skies,
+    Or Phoebus rising in a frosty morn;
+    Her breast more white than snow in fields that lies,
+    Or lily lambs that never have been shorn,
+    Swelling like bubbles in a boiling well,
+    Or new-burst brooklets gentling whispering in the dell,
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+   "Brown as the filbert dropping from the shell,
+    Brown as the nappy ale at Hocktide game--
+    So brown the crooked rings that neatly fell
+    Over the neck of that all-beauteous dame.
+    Grey as the morn before the ruddy flame
+    Of Phoebus' chariot rolling through the sky;
+    Grey as the steel-horn'd goats Conyan made tame--
+    So grey appear'd her featly sparkling eye.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+   "Majestic as the grove of oaks that stood
+    Before the abbey built by Oswald king;
+    Majestic as Hibernia's holy wood,
+    Where saints, and souls departed, masses sing--
+    Such awe from her sweet look far issuing,
+    At once for reverence and love did call.
+    Sweet as the voice of thrushes in the spring,
+    So sweet the words that from her lips did fall.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    "Taper as candles laid at Cuthbert's shrine,
+    Taper as silver chalices for wine,
+    So were her arms and shape.--
+    As skilful miners by the stones above
+    Can ken what metal is inlaid below,
+    So Kennewalcha's face, design'd for love,
+    The lovely image of her soul did show.
+    Thus was she outward form'd; the sun, her mind,
+    Did gild her mortal shape and all her charms refined."
+
+The next poem, and the last of the _modern-antiques_ that it may be
+worth while to note, is the story of William Canning, the illustrious
+founder of Redcliff Church, and is worthy of the author and his subject.
+
+   "Anent a brooklet as I lay reclined,
+    Listening to hear the water glide along,
+    Minding how thorough the green meads it twined,
+    While caves responded to its muttering song,
+    To distant-rising Avon as it sped,
+    Where, among hills, the river show'd his head.
+
+    Engarlanded with crowns of osier-weeds,
+    And wreaths of alders of a pleasant scent.
+
+   "Then from the distant stream arose a maid,
+    Whose gentle tresses moved not to the wind.
+    Like to the silver moon in frosty night,
+    The damsel did come on so blithe and bright.
+    No broider'd mantle of a scarlet hue,
+    No peak�d shoon with plaited riband gear,
+    No costly paraments of woaden blue;
+    Nought of a dress but beauty did she wear;
+    Naked she was, and looked sweet of youth,
+    And all betoken'd that her name was Truth."
+
+The few words then spoken by this angelical lady--who unhappily favoured
+Chatterton but with "angel visits, short and far between"--throw him
+into a reverie on the life of William Canning, whose boyhood was more
+fortunate than the poet's; for it is here reported of Canning, that
+
+    "He ate down learning with the wastlecake."
+
+Chatterton, poor fellow, had neither fine bread to eat, nor fine
+learning within the possibility of his acquisition. Yet even the worthy
+Corporation of his native city will, we doubt not, be willing to allow
+that the Blue-Coat Charity boy might be entitled to the praise he gives
+Canning in the next couplet: that he--
+
+    "As wise as any of the Aldermen,
+    Had wit enough to make a Mayor at ten."
+
+We have limited these slight notices to the Rowley Poems; and such
+readers of our extracts as have been repelled from the perusal of those
+poems, by the formidable array of uncouth diction and strange spelling,
+may enquire what has become of the hard words. Here are long quotations,
+and not an obsolete term or unfamiliar metre among them. Chatterton took
+great pains to encrust his gold with verd-antique; it requires little to
+remove the green rubbish from the coin. By the aid of little else than
+his own glossary, "the Gode Preeste Rowleie, Aucthoure," is restored to
+his true form and pressure, and is all the fairer for the renovation.
+
+We have no space for examination of the "numerous verse," and verses
+numerous, that Chatterton left undisguised by barbarous phraseology. His
+modern poems, morally exceptionable as is much of the matter, are
+affluent of the genius that inspired the old. African Eclogues, Elegies,
+Political Satires, Amatory Triflings, Lines on the Copernican System,
+the Consuliad, Lines on Happiness, _Resignation_, The Art of Puffing,
+and Kew Gardens--to say nothing of his equally remarkable prose
+writings--attest the versatility of his powers, and the variety of his
+perception of men and manners. His knowledge of the world appears to
+have been almost intuitive; for surely no youth of his years ever
+displayed so much. Bristol, it is true, was, of all great towns in
+England, one of the most favourable to the development of his peculiar
+and complicated faculties. His passion for antiquarian lore, and his
+poetical enthusiasm, found a nursing mother in a city so rich in ancient
+architecture, heraldic monuments, and historical interest; his caustic
+humour was amply fed from the full tide of human life, with all its
+follies, in that populous mart; and his exquisite sensibility to the
+beautiful and magnificent in nature, was abundantly ministered to by the
+surrounding country. We are told that he had been by some odd chance
+taught his alphabet, and his first lesson in "reading made easy," out of
+a black-letter Bible! That accident may have had its share in forming
+his taste for old-fashioned literature. But he was an attorney's clerk!
+The very name of a lawyer's office seems to suggest a writ of ejectment
+against all poetical influences in the brain of his indented apprentice.
+Yet Chatterton's anomalous genius was in all likelihood fostered by that
+dark, yet subtle atmosphere. His duty of copying precedents must have
+initiated him in many of the astute wiles and twisted lines of reasoning
+that lead to what is termed sharp practice, and so may have confirmed
+and aided his propensities to artifice; while the mere manual operation
+tutored his fingers to dexterity at quaint penmanship. He had much
+leisure too; for it is recorded that his master's business seldom
+occupied him more than two hours a-day. He was left to devote the rest
+of his time unquestioned to all the devices of an inordinate
+imagination.
+
+After all, it is no unreasonable charity to believe, that what was
+unworthy and unsound in his character, and probably in his physical
+temperament, might, under more auspicious circumstances of condition and
+training, have been kept in check till utterly expelled by the force of
+his own maturer mind. In weighing his faults against his genius and its
+better fruits, it should never be forgotten that when he terminated his
+existence he was only seventeen years and nine months old.
+
+   "More wounds than nature gave he knew,
+    While misery's form his fancy drew
+    In dark ideal hues and horrors not its own."[39]
+
+May we not even dare to hope, then, though he "perished in his pride,"
+that he is still a living genius, assoiled of that foul stain of
+self-murder, and a chartered spiritualized melody where want and trouble
+madden not?
+
+    [39] T. Warton's "Suicide."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+IGNACIO GUERRA AND EL SANGRADOR;
+
+A TALE OF CIVIL WAR.
+
+
+On a June evening in the year 1839, four persons were assembled in the
+balcony of a pleasant little villa, some half-league from the town of
+Logro�o in Navarre. The site of the house in question was a narrow
+valley, formed by a double range of wood-covered hills, the lower limbs
+of a mountain chain that bounded the horizon some miles in rear of the
+villa. The house itself was a long, low building, of which the white
+stone walls had acquired the mellow tint that time and exposure to the
+seasons can alone impart. A solid balcony of carved unpainted oak ran
+completely round the house, its breadth preventing the rays of the sun
+from entering the rooms on the ground floor, and thereby converting them
+into a cool and delightful refuge from the heats of summer. The windows
+of the first and only story opened upon this balcony, which, in its
+turn, received shelter from a roof of yellow canes, laid side by side,
+and fastened by innumerable packthreads, in the same way as Indian
+matting. This sort of awning was supported by light wooden pillars,
+placed at distances of five or six feet from each other, and
+corresponding with the more massive columns that sustained the balcony.
+At the foot of these latter, various creeping plants had taken root. A
+broad-leafed vine pushed its knotty branches and curled tendrils up to
+the very roof of the dwelling, and a passion-flower displayed its
+mystical purple blossoms nearly at as great a height; while the small
+white stars of the jasmine glittered among its narrow dark-green leaves,
+and every passing breeze wafted the scent of the honeysuckle and
+clematis through the open windows, in puffs of overpowering fragrance.
+
+About two hundred yards to the right of the house, rose one of the
+ranges of hills already mentioned, and on the opposite side the eye
+glanced over some of those luxuriant corn-fields which form so important
+a part of the riches of the fertile province of Navarre. The ground in
+front of the villa was tastefully laid out as a flower garden, and,
+midway between two magnificent chestnut trees, a mountain rivulet fell
+into a large stone basin, and fed a fountain, from which it was spouted
+twenty feet into the air, greatly to the refreshment of the surrounding
+pastures.
+
+The party that on the evening in question was enjoying the scent of the
+flowers and the song of the nightingales, to which the neighbouring
+trees afforded a shelter, consisted, in the first place, of Don Torribio
+Olana, a wealthy proprietor of La Rioja, and owner of the country-house
+that has been described. He had been long used to pass the hot months of
+each year at this pleasant retreat; and it was no small calamity to him
+when the civil war that broke out on the death of Ferdinand, rendered it
+scarcely safe, in Navarre at least, to live out of musket-shot of a
+garrison. Sometimes, however, and in spite of the advice of his friends,
+who urged him to greater prudence, the worthy Riojano would mount his
+easy-going round-quartered cob, and leave the town for a few hours'
+rustication at his _Retiro_. After a time, finding himself unmolested
+either by Carlists or by the numerous predatory bands that overran the
+country, he took for companions of his excursions his daughter
+Gertrudis, and an orphan niece, to whom he supplied the place of a
+father. Five years of impunity were taken as a guarantee for future
+safety, and Don Torribio now no longer hesitated to pass the night at
+his country-house as often as he found it convenient. It was observed,
+also, that many of those persons who had at first loudly blamed him for
+risking his neck, and that of his daughter and niece, in order to enjoy
+a purer atmosphere than could be inhaled in the dusty streets of
+Logro�o, at length gathered so much courage from his example, as to
+accompany him out to the _Retiro_, and eat his excellent dinners, and
+empty his cobweb-covered bottles, without allowing their fear of the
+Carlists to diminish their thirst or disturb their digestion.
+
+Upon this occasion, however, the only guest was a young and handsome
+man, whose sunburnt countenance and military gait bespoke the soldier,
+while a double stripe of gold lace on the cuff of his blue frock-coat,
+marked his rank as that of lieutenant-colonel. Although not more than
+thirty years of age, Don Ignacio Guerra had already attained a grade
+which is often the price of as many years' service; but his rapid
+promotion was so well justified by his merit and gallantry, that few
+were found to complain of a preference which all felt was deserved. Both
+by moral and physical qualities, he was admirably suited to the
+profession he had embraced. Slender in person, but well knit and
+muscular, he possessed extraordinary activity, and a capacity of
+enduring great fatigue. Indulgent to those under his command, and
+self-denying in all that regarded himself personally, his enthusiasm for
+the cause he served was such, that during nearly two years that he had
+been the accepted lover of Donna Gertrudis Olana, this was only the
+second time he had left his regiment for a few days' visit to his
+affianced bride. He had arrived at Logro�o the preceding day from a town
+lower down the Ebro, where the battalion he commanded was stationed; and
+Don Torribio, with whom he was a great favourite, had lost no time in
+taking him out to the _Retiro_; nor, perhaps, were the lovers sorry to
+leave the noise and bustle of the town for this calm and peaceful
+retreat.
+
+It was about an hour after sunset, and Don Torribio sat dozing in an
+arm-chair, with his old black dog Moro coiled up at his feet, and his
+niece Teresa beside him, busying herself in the arrangement of a bouquet
+of choice flowers, while at the other end of the balcony Gertrudis and
+her lover were looking out upon the garden. The silence was unbroken,
+save by the splashing noise of the fountain as it fell back upon the
+water-lilies that covered its basin. The moon was as yet concealed
+behind the high ground to the right of the house; but the sky in that
+direction was lighted up by its beams, and the outline of every tree and
+bush on the summit of the hill was defined and cut out, as it were,
+against the clear blue background. Suddenly Gertrudis called her
+companion's attention to the neighbouring mountain. "See, Ignacio!"
+exclaimed she, "yonder bush on the very highest point of the hill! Could
+not one almost fancy it to be a man with a gun in his hand? and that
+clump of leaves on the top bough might be the _boina_ of one of those
+horrid Carlists?"
+
+While she spoke the officer ran his eye along the ridge of the hill, and
+started when he caught sight of the object pointed out by Gertrudis; but
+before he could reply to her remark, she was called away by her father.
+At that moment the supposed bush made a sudden movement, and the long
+bright barrel of a musket glittered in the moonbeams. The next instant
+the figure disappeared as suddenly as though it had sunk into the earth.
+
+The Christino colonel remained for a moment gazing on the mountain, and
+then, turning away, hastened to accompany his host and the ladies, who
+had received a summons to supper. On reaching the foot of the stairs,
+however, instead of following them into the supper-room, he passed
+through the house-door, which stood open, and, after a moment's halt in
+the shade of the lattice portico, sprang forward with a light and
+noiseless step, and in three or four bounds found himself under one of
+the large chestnut trees that stood on either side the fountain. Keeping
+within the black shadow thrown by the branches, he cast a keen and
+searching glance over the garden and shrubberies, now partially lighted
+up by the moon. Nothing was moving either in the garden, or as far as he
+could see into the adjacent country. He was about to return to the
+house, when a blow on the back of the head stretched him stunned upon
+the ground. In an instant a slip-knot was drawn tight round his wrists,
+and his person securely pinioned by a strong cord to the tree under
+which he had been standing. A cloth was crammed into his mouth to
+prevent his calling out, and the three men who had thus rapidly and
+dexterously effected his capture, darted off in the direction of the
+house.
+
+Desperate were the efforts made by Don Ignacio to free himself from his
+bonds, and his struggles became almost frantic, when the sound of a
+scuffle in the house, followed by the piercing shrieks of women, reached
+his ears. He succeeded in getting rid of the handkerchief that gagged
+him, but the rope with which his arms were bound, and that had
+afterwards been twined round his body and the tree, withstood his utmost
+efforts. In vain did he throw himself forward with all his strength,
+striking his feet furiously against the trunk of the tree, and writhing
+his arms till the sharp cord cut into the very sinew. The rope appeared
+rather tightened than slackened by his violence. The screams and noise
+in the house continued; he was sufficiently near to hear the hoarse
+voices and obscene oaths of the banditti--the prayers for mercy of their
+victims. At length the shrieks became less frequent and fainter, and at
+last they died away entirely.
+
+Two hours had elapsed since Ignacio had been made prisoner, hours that
+to him appeared centuries. Exhausted by the violence of his exertions,
+and still more by the mental agony he had endured, his head fell forward
+on his breast, a cold sweat stood upon his forehead, and had it not been
+for the cords that held him up, he would have fallen to the ground. He
+was roused from this state of exhaustion and despair by the noise of
+approaching footsteps, and by the arrival of a dozen men, three or four
+of whom carried torches. They were dressed in the sort of half uniform
+worn by the Carlist _volantes_, or irregular troops; round their waists
+were leathern belts filled with cartridges, and supporting bayonets and
+long knives, in many instances without sheaths. Ignacio observed with a
+shudder that several of the ruffians had their hands and weapons stained
+with blood.
+
+"Whom have we here?" exclaimed a sallow, evil-visaged fellow, who wore a
+pair of tarnished epaulets. "Is this the _negro_ you secured at the
+beginning of the affair?"
+
+One of the men nodded assent, and the chief bandit, taking a torch,
+passed it before the face of the captive officer.
+
+"_Un militar_!" exclaimed he, observing the uniform button. "Your name
+and rank?"
+
+Receiving no reply, he stepped a little on one side, and looked to the
+coat-cuff for the usual sign of grade.
+
+"_Teniente coronel_!" cried he on seeing the double stripe.
+
+A man stepped forward, and Ignacio, who knew that death was the best he
+had to expect at the hands of these ruffians, and was observing their
+proceedings in stern silence, immediately recognized a deserter from his
+battalion.
+
+"'Tis the Colonel Ignacio Guerra," said the man; "he commands the first
+battalion of the Toledo regiment."
+
+An exclamation of surprise and pleasure burst from the Carlists on
+hearing the name of an officer and battalion, well known and justly
+dreaded among the adherents of the Pretender. Their leader again threw
+the light of the torch on the features of the Christino, and gazed at
+him for the space of a minute with an expression of cruel triumph.
+
+"Ha!" exclaimed he, "_el Coronel Guerra! He_ is worth taking to
+headquarters."
+
+"We shall have enough to do to get away ourselves, laden as we are,"
+said one of the men, pointing to a number of large packages of plunder
+lying on the grass hard by. "Who is to take charge of the prisoner? Not
+I, for one."
+
+A murmur among the other brigands approved this mutinous speech.
+
+"_Cuatro tiros_," suggested a voice.
+
+"Yes," said the leader, "to bring down the enemy's pickets upon us. They
+are not a quarter of a league off. Pedro, lend me your knife. We will
+see," he added with a cruel grin, "how the gallant colonel will look
+cropped."
+
+A knife-blade glanced for a moment in the torchlight as it was passed
+round the head of the Christino officer.
+
+"_Toma! chicos!_" said the savage, as he threw the ears of the unhappy
+Ignacio amongst his men. A ferocious laugh from the banditti welcomed
+this act of barbarous cruelty.
+
+The leader sheathed the knife twice in his victim's breast before
+restoring it to it's owner, and the Carlists, snatching up their booty,
+disappeared in the direction of the mountains.
+
+At daybreak the following morning, some peasants going to their labour
+in the fields saw the body of the unfortunate officer still fastened to
+the tree. They unbound him, and, perceiving some signs of life, carried
+him into Logro�o, where they gave the alarm. A detachment was
+immediately sent out to the Retiro, but it was too late to pursue the
+assassins; and all that could be done was to bring in the bodies of Don
+Torribio, his daughter, and niece, who were lying dead in the
+supper-room. An old groom and two women servants had shared a like fate;
+the horses had been taken out of the stable, and the house ransacked of
+every thing valuable.
+
+For several weeks Ignacio Guerra remained wavering, as it were, between
+life and death. At length he recovered; but his health was so much
+impaired, that the surgeons forbade his again encountering the fatigues
+of a campaign. Enfeebled in body, heartbroken at the horrible fate of
+Gertrudis, and foreseeing the speedy termination of the war, consequent
+on the concluded treaty of Bergara, he threw up his commission, and left
+Spain to seek forgetfulness of his misfortunes in foreign travel.
+
+In all French towns of any consequence, and in many whose size and
+population would almost class them under the denomination of villages,
+there is some favourite spot serving as an evening lounge for the
+inhabitants, whither, on Sundays and f�te-days especially, the belles
+and _�l�gants_ of the place resort, to criticize each other's toilet,
+and parade up and down a walk varying from one to two or three hundred
+yards in extent.
+
+The ancient city of Toulouse is of course not without its promenade,
+although but poor taste has been evinced in its selection; for, while on
+one side of the town soft well-trimmed lawns, cool fountains, and
+magnificent avenues of elm and plane trees, are abandoned to
+nursery-maids and their charges, the rendezvous of the fashionables of
+the pleasant capital of Languedoc is a parched and dusty _all�e_,
+scantily sheltered by trees of recent growth, extending from the canal
+to the open square formerly known as the Place d'Angoul�me, but since
+1830 re-baptized by the name of the revolutionary patriarch General
+Lafayette.
+
+It was on a Sunday evening of the month of August 1840, and the All�e
+Lafayette was more than usually crowded. After a day of uncommon
+sultriness, a fresh breeze had sprung up, and a little before sundown
+the fair Toulousaines had deserted their darkened and artificially
+cooled rooms, and flocked to the promenade. The walk was thronged with
+gaily attired ladies, smirking dandies, and officers in full dress. In
+the fields on the further side of the canal, a number of men of the
+working-classes, happy in their respite from the toils of the week, were
+singing in parts, with all the musical taste and correctness of ear for
+which the inhabitants of that part of France are noted; while, on the
+broad boulevard that traverses the lower end of the _all�e_, a crowd of
+recruits whom the conscription had recently called under the colours,
+stood gazing in open-mouthed astonishment and infinite delight at some
+rudely constructed booths and shows, outside of which, clown and
+paillasse were rivalling each other in the broad humour of their lazzi.
+Parties of students, easily recognizable by their eccentric and
+exaggerated style of dress, and the loud tone of their conversation,
+were seated outside the caf�s and ice-rooms, or circulating under the
+trees, puffing forth clouds of tobacco smoke; and on the road round the
+_all�e_, open carriages, smart tilburies, and dapper horsemen were
+careering.
+
+Among the various groups thronging the promenade was one, which, in Hyde
+Park or on the Paris boulevards, would have attracted some notice; but
+the persons composing it were of a class too common of late years in the
+south of France to draw upon them any attention from the loungers. The
+party in question consisted of three men, who, by their bronzed
+complexions, ragged mustaches, and sullen, dogged countenances, as well
+as their whole air and _tournure_, were easily distinguishable as
+belonging to the exiled and disappointed faction of the Spanish
+Pretender. Their threadbare costume still exhibited signs of their late
+military employment, probably from a lack of means to replace it by any
+other garments. The closely buttoned blue frock of one of them still had
+upon its shoulders the small lace straps used to support the epaulets,
+and another wore for headdress a _boina_, with its large starlike
+tassels of silver cord. The third and most remarkable of the party, was
+a man in the prime of life and strength, whose countenance bore the
+impress of every bad passion. It was one of those faces sometimes seen
+in old paintings of monkish inquisitors, on viewing which, one feels
+inclined to suspect that the artist has outdone and exaggerated nature.
+The expression of the cold, glassy, grey eye, and thin, pale, compressed
+lips, was one of unrelenting cruelty; while the coarsely moulded chin
+and jaw gave a sensual character to the lower part of the face. The scar
+of a sabre-cut extended from the centre of the forehead nearly to the
+upper lip, partly dividing the nose, and giving a hideously distorted
+and unnatural appearance to that feature. The man's frame was bony and
+powerful; the loose sheepskin jacket he wore was thrown open, and
+through the imperfectly fastened shirt-front, it might be seen that his
+breast was covered with a thick felt of matted hair.
+
+It was the moment of the short twilight that in the south of France
+intervenes between day and night. The Carlists had reached the upper end
+of the walk, and, turning round, began to descend it again three
+abreast, and with the man who has been particularly described in the
+centre. On a sudden the latter stopped short, as though petrified where
+he stood. His countenance, naturally sallow, became pale as ashes, and,
+as if to save himself from falling, he clutched the arm of one of his
+companions with a force that made him wince again, while he gazed with
+distended eyeballs on a man who had halted within half-a-dozen paces of
+the Spaniards. The person whose aspect produced this Medusa-like effect
+upon the Carlist was a man about thirty years of age, plainly but
+elegantly dressed, and of a prepossessing but somewhat sickly
+countenance, the lines of which were now working under the influence of
+some violent emotion. The only peculiarity in his appearance was a black
+silk band which, passing under his chin, was brought up on both sides of
+the head, and fastened on the crown under the hat.
+
+"_Que tienes, Sangrador_? What ails thee, man?" enquired the Carlists of
+their terror-stricken companion, addressing him by a _nom-de-guerre_
+that he doubtless owed to his bloody deeds or disposition. At that
+moment the stranger sprang like a bloodhound into the centre of the
+group. In an instant El Sangrador was on the ground, his assailant's
+knee upon his breast, and his throat compressed by two nervous hands,
+which bade fair to perform the office of a bowstring on the prostrate
+man. All this had passed in far less time than is required to narrate
+it, and the astonishment of the Carlists at their comrade's terror and
+this sudden attack, was such, that, although men of action and energy,
+they were for a moment paralysed, and thought not of rescuing their
+friend from the iron gripe in which he was held. Already his eyes were
+bloodshot, his face purple, and his tongue protruding from his mouth,
+when a gendarme came up, and aided by half-a-dozen of those agents who,
+in plain clothes, half-spy and half-policeman, are to be found in every
+place of public resort in France, succeeded, but not without difficulty,
+in rescuing the Carlist from the fierce clutch of his foe, who clung to
+him with bull-dog tenacity till they were actually drawn asunder by main
+force.
+
+"_Canalla! infame!_" shouted the stranger, as he writhed and struggled
+in the hands of his guards. "By yonder villain have all my hopes in life
+been blasted--an adored mistress outraged and murdered, myself tortured
+and mutilated in cold blood!" And, tearing off the black fillet that
+encircled his head, it was seen that his ears had been cut off. A murmur
+of horror ran through the crowd which this scene had assembled. "And
+shall I not have revenge?" shouted Ignacio (for he it was) in a voice
+rendered shrill by furious passion. And by a violent effort he again
+nearly succeeded in shaking off the men who held him.
+
+El Sangrador, whose first terror had probably been caused by
+astonishment at seeing one whom he firmly believed numbered with the
+dead, had now recovered from his alarm.
+
+"_Adios_, Don Ignacio," cried he with a sneer, as he walked away between
+two gendarmes, while his enemy was hurried off in another direction.
+
+The following day El Sangrador was sent to a dep�t of Spanish emigrants
+in the interior of France. On his departure, the authorities, who had
+made themselves acquainted with the particulars of this dramatic
+incident, released Don Ignacio from confinement; but he was informed
+that no passport would be given him to quit Toulouse unless it were for
+the Spanish frontier.
+
+At the distance of a few leagues from the town of Oleron, and in one of
+the wildest parts of the Pyrenees, is a difficult pass, scarcely known,
+except to smugglers and izard-hunters whose hazardous avocations make
+them acquainted with the most hidden recesses of these rugged and
+picturesque mountains. Towards the close of the summer of 1841, this
+defile was occasionally traversed by adherents of the Ex-Queen-Regent
+Christina, entering Spain secretly and in small parties, to be ready to
+take share in the abortive attempt subsequently made to replace the
+reins of government in the hands of Ferdinand's widow. Not a few
+Carlists also, weary of the monotonous inactive life they were leading
+in France, prepared to join the projected insurrection; and, leaving the
+towns in which a residence had been assigned them, sought to gain the
+Spanish side of the Pyrenees, where they might lie _perdus_ until the
+moment for active operation arrived, subsisting in the meanwhile by
+brigandage and other lawless means. Owing to the negligence, either
+accidental or intentional, of the French authorities, these adventurers
+usually found little difficulty in reaching the line of demarcation
+between the two frontiers; but it was there their troubles began, and
+they had to take the greatest precaution to avoid falling into the hands
+of the Spanish _carabineros_ and light troops posted along the frontier.
+
+Among those who intended to take a share in the rebellion, Don Ignacio
+Guerra occupied a prominent place. Being well known to the Spanish
+Government as a devoted adherent of Christina, it would have been in
+vain for him to have attempted entering Spain by one of the ordinary
+roads. Repairing to Oleron, therefore, he procured himself a guide, and
+one of the small but sure-footed horses of the Pyrenees, and, after a
+wearisome march among the mountains, arrived about dusk at a cottage, or
+rather hovel, built on a ledge of rock within half-an-hour's walk of the
+Spanish frontier. Beyond this spot the road was impracticable for a
+horse, and dangerous even for a pedestrian, and Don Ignacio had arranged
+to send back his guide and horse and proceed on foot; in which manner,
+also, it was easier to avoid falling in with the Spanish troops. The
+night was fine, and having had the road minutely explained to him by his
+peasant guide, Ignacio had no doubt of finding himself, in a few hours,
+at a village where shelter and concealment were prepared for him.
+Leaving the horse in a sort of shed that afforded shelter to two or
+three pigs, the Christino officer entered the hut, followed by his guide
+and by a splendid wolf-dog, an old and faithful companion of his
+wanderings. It was some seconds, however, before their eyes got
+sufficiently accustomed to the dark and smoky atmosphere of the place,
+to distinguish the objects it contained. The smoke came from a fire of
+green wood, that was smouldering under an enormous chimney, and over
+which a decrepit old woman was frying _talloua_ or maize-meal cake, in
+grease of a most suspicious odour. The old lady was so intent on the
+preparation of this delicacy, a favourite food of the Pyrenean
+mountaineers, that it was with difficulty she could be prevailed upon to
+prepare something more substantial for the hungry travellers. Some
+smoked goats' flesh and acid wine were at length obtained, and, after a
+hasty meal, Ignacio paid his guide and resumed his perilous journey. The
+moon had not yet risen--the night was dark--the paths rugged and
+difficult, and the troops on the alert; to avoid falling in with an
+enemy, or down a precipice, so much care and attention were necessary,
+that nearly three hours had elapsed before Ignacio perceived that his
+dog had not followed him from the cottage. The animal had gone into the
+stable and lain down beside his master's horse, doubtless imagining, by
+that sort of half-reasoning instinct which dogs possess, that, as long
+as the horse was there, the rider would not be far off.
+
+Ignacio's first impulse, on discovering the absence of his four-footed
+companion, was to return to the cottage; but the risk in so doing was
+extreme, and as he felt certain his guide would take care of the dog,
+and that he should get it at some future day, he resolved to pursue his
+journey. Meantime the night became darker and darker--thick clouds had
+gathered, and hung low--there was no longer the slightest trace or
+indication of a path, and the darkness preventing him from finding
+certain landmarks he had been told to observe, he was obliged to walk on
+nearly at hazard, and soon became aware he had lost his way. To add to
+his difficulties, the low growlings of distant thunder were heard, and
+some large drops of rain fell. A violent storm was evidently
+approaching, and Ignacio quickened his pace in hopes of finding some
+shelter before it came on, resolving to wait at all risks till daylight
+before continuing his route, lest he should run, as it were, blindfolded
+into the very dangers he wished to avoid. A sort of cliff or wall of
+rock he had for some time had on his left hand, now suddenly ended, and
+a scene burst on his view which to him was commonplace enough, but would
+have appeared somewhat strange to a person unaccustomed to such sights.
+The mountain, which had been steep and difficult to descend, now began
+to slope more gradually as it approached nearer its base. On a sort of
+shelving plateau of great extent, a number of charcoal-burners had
+established themselves, and, as the most expeditious way of clearing the
+ground, had set light in various places to the brushwood and furze that
+clothed this part of the mountain. To prevent, however, the
+conflagration from extending too far, they had previously, with their
+axes, cleared rings of several feet wide around the places to which they
+set fire. The bushes and furze they rooted up were thrown into the
+centre, and increased the blaze. In this manner the entire mountain
+side, of which several hundred acres were overlooked from the spot where
+Ignacio stood, appeared dotted with brilliant fiery spots of some fifty
+feet in diameter, the more distant ones assuming a lurid blood-red look,
+seen through the fog and mist that had now gathered over the mountain.
+Ignacio approached the nearest of the fires, lighted close to a crag
+that almost overhung it, and that offered a sufficient shelter from the
+rain which had begun to descend in torrents. Throwing himself on the
+ground with his feet towards the flames, he endeavoured to get a little
+sleep, of which he stood much in need. But it was in vain. The situation
+in which he found himself suggested thoughts that he was unable to drive
+away. Gradually a sort of phantasmagoria passed before his "mind's eye,"
+wherein the various events of his life, which, although a short one, had
+not the less been sadly eventful, were represented in vivid colours. He
+thought of his childhood, spent in the sunny _vegas_ of Andalusia--of
+the companions of his military studies, high-spirited free-hearted lads,
+of whom some had achieved honours and fame, but by far the greater part
+had died on the battle-field--the smoke of the bivouac fire, the merry
+laugh of the _insouciant_ soldier--the din and excitement of the
+fight--the exultation of victory, and the well-won and highly relished
+pleasures of the garrison town after severe duty in the field;--the
+graceful form of Gertrudis now flitted across the picture--her jetty
+hair braided over her pure white forehead, the light of her swimming
+"eye, that mocked her coal-black veil," flashing from under the
+mantilla. Her father, with his portly figure and good-humoured
+countenance, was beside her. They smiled at Ignacio, and seemed to
+beckon to him. So life-like was the illusion of his fancy, he could
+almost have sprung forward to join them. But again there was a change. A
+large and handsome room, a well-covered table--all the appliances of
+modern luxury--plate and crystal sparkling in the brilliant lights--a
+happy cheerful party surrounding the board. Alas, for the tragedy played
+on this stage! The hand of the spoiler was there--blood and womens'
+screams, dishevelled hair and men's deep oaths, the wild and broken
+accents of despair, the coarse jest and ferocious exultation of
+gratified brutality. And then all was dark and gloomy as a winter's
+night, and through the darkness was seen a grave-stone, shadowy and
+spectral, and a man still young, but with heart crushed and hopes
+blighted, lying prostrate before it, his breast heaving with convulsive
+sobs of agony, until at length he rose and moved sadly away, to become
+an exile and a wanderer in a foreign land.
+
+Maddened by these reflections, Ignacio started to his feet, and was
+about to rush out into the storm, and fly, he knew not whither, from his
+own thoughts, when he suddenly became aware of the presence of a man
+within a few yards of him. The projecting crag, under which he had
+sought a shelter, extended all along one side of the fire. In one corner
+an angle of the rock threw a deep shadow, in which Ignacio now stood,
+and was thus enabled, without being seen himself, to observe the
+new-comer, who seated himself on a block of stone close to the fire. As
+he did so, the flame, which had been deadened by the rain, again burned
+up brightly, and threw a strong light on the features of the stranger.
+They were those of _El Sangrador_.
+
+With stealthy pace, and trembling at every step, lest his prey should
+take the alarm, and even yet escape him, Ignacio stole towards his
+mortal foe. The noise of the storm, that still raged furiously, enabled
+him to get within five paces of him without being heard. He then halted,
+and silently cocking a pistol, remained for some time motionless as a
+statue. Now that his revenge was within his grasp, he hesitated to take
+it, not from any relenting weakness, but because the speedy death it was
+in his power to give, appeared an inadequate punishment--a paltry
+vengeance. Had he seen his enemy torn by wild horses, or broken on the
+wheel, his burning thirst for revenge would hardly have been slaked; and
+an easy, painless death by knife or bullet, he looked upon as a boon
+rather than a punishment. An end was put to his hesitation by the
+Carlist himself, who, either tormented by an evil conscience, or
+oppressed by one of those unaccountable and mysterious presentiments
+that sometimes warn us of impending danger, became restless, cast uneasy
+glances about him, and at last, turning round, found himself face to
+face with Ignacio. Almost before he recognized him, a hand was on his
+collar, and the muzzle of a pistol crammed into his ear. The click of
+the lock was heard, but no discharge ensued. The rain had damped the
+powder. Before Ignacio could draw his other pistol, the Carlist grappled
+him fiercely, and a terrible struggle commenced. Their feet soon slipped
+upon the wet rock, and they fell, still grasping each other's throats,
+foaming with rage, and hate, and desperation. The fire, now nearly out,
+afforded little light for the contest; but as they rolled over the
+smouldering embers, clouds of sparks arose, their clothes and hair were
+burned, and their faces scorched by the heat. The Carlist was unarmed,
+save with a clasp-knife, which, being in his pocket, was useless to him;
+for had he ventured to remove one hand from the struggle even for a
+moment, he would have given his antagonist a fatal advantage. At length
+the contest seemed about to terminate in favour of Ignacio. He got his
+enemy under, and knelt upon his breast, while, with a charred,
+half-burned branch which he found at hand, he dealt furious blows upon
+his head. Half-blinded by the smoke and heat, and by his own blood, the
+Carlist felt the sickness of death coming over him. By a last effort he
+slipped one hand, which was now at liberty, into his pocket, and
+immediately withdrawing it, raised it to his mouth. His teeth grated
+upon the blade of the knife as he opened it, and the next instant
+Ignacio, with a long deep sob, rolled over among the ashes. The Carlist
+rose painfully and with difficulty into a sitting posture, and with a
+grim smile gazed upon his enemy, whose eyes were glazing, and features
+settling into the rigidity of death. But the conqueror's triumph was
+short-lived. A deep bark was heard, and a moment afterwards a wolf-dog,
+drenched with mud and rain, leaped into the middle of the embers.
+Placing his black muzzle on Ignacio's face, he gave a long deep howl,
+which was succeeded by a growl like that of a lion, as he sprang upon
+the Carlist.
+
+The morning after the storm, when the charcoal-burners returned to their
+fires, they found two dead bodies amidst the ashes. One of them had a
+stab in his breast, which had caused his death. The other was
+frightfully disfigured, and bore marks of the fangs of some savage
+animal. In that wild district, the skirmishing-ground of smugglers and
+_douaniers_, the mountaineers think little of such occurrences. A hole
+was dug, the bodies thrown into it; and a cross, rudely cut upon the
+rock, alone marks the spot where the midnight conflict took place.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+MEMORANDUMS OF A MONTH'S TOUR IN SICILY.
+
+LEAVING NAPLES.
+
+
+STEAM-BOATIANA.
+
+The _Francesco Primo_ was to leave the harbour at ten o'clock. Better
+acquaintance with Mediterannean _pyroscaphs_, as they call themselves,
+whose axle-trees turn not except when the police pleases, ought to have
+led us to all the latitude of uncertainty; but when two hours and more
+had elapsed with all the passengers aboard, we began to suppose some
+extraordinary cause for so long a detention. A deputation is accordingly
+dispatched to the captain, which brings back an abrupt reply, that he is
+not going _yet_; and that it is for him and the proprietors to be
+dissatisfied, who are wasting steam, while we are only losing patience.
+It shortly transpired that he was under Government orders, and would not
+proceed for another hour at _least_, nor even then, unless he received
+permission from the minister of police. The affair now looked serious.
+We must have some _carbonaro_ on board, who was, in due time, to be
+arrested; and no further doubt could remain of this, when, that other
+hour being past, we saw a longboat leaving shore, with two officers and
+six stout rowers, who soon brought her under our bow. What can it be?
+The senior epaulet rises in the boat--the second follows his
+example--both are on deck; the captain, hitherto unseen, now comes
+forward with alacrity, and, stretching forward _both_ his hands,
+receives with profound reverence a thin, square enclosure, with an
+immense seal attached to it, and retires to put it in a place of safety.
+The uniforms disappear over the side of the vessel--the paddles begin to
+paw the water--we swing round--and in a few seconds our prow points for
+the _Sorrentine_ coast, and we are on our watery way to _Sicily_. What,
+then, had detained us? It is always very provoking to have a miserable
+solution of a promising mystery! We were on the exact spot for a new
+edition of some "_Verbosa et grandis Epistola_" from the tyrants of the
+land; and so it was, but only not _from_ Capre� or Tiberius this time.
+Yes! The actual cause of the delay of a great steam-boat, full of
+passengers, for three hours, attended, among other melancholy results,
+with that of exciting the choler of a new-made cardinal, was a _letter_
+that the Queen of Naples, who had probably overslept herself, had
+occasion to write to the king on conjugal affairs!--his majesty having
+left her majesty only the day before, to show himself to his loving
+subjects at Palermo. Hem! Campania _felix_! If we were known to be
+inditing this unreverential passage, and its disloyal apostrophe, we
+should, no doubt, be invited to leave "Campania the happy" at a day's
+notice; whereas our comfort is, that this day three months it is quite
+possible that it will have been read in Bengal!
+
+We are now in the middle of the Bay of Naples; the spot from which
+panoramas have been so often sketched on that noble elevation, the deck
+of a lofty ship, swinging on her cables. What numberless sites of
+unparallelled interest are hence visible to the newly arrived and
+insatiable stranger! _Misenum, Bai�, Puteoli, Gaurus, Vesuvius,
+Herculaneum, Pompeii_! But the office of the cicerone here cannot--alas
+for Britain!--be confined to the old classics, or the mere indication of
+places whose very _names_ are things to _conjure with_! In America, we
+converse with nature only, whose voice is in her woods and waterfalls;
+but, in our threadbare Europe, all _sites_ are _historical_, and chiefly
+in one sad sense--for Waterloo only brings up the rear of fields
+illustrated by the wholesale destruction of mankind! In the position
+which we now occupy, volumes might be written--ay, and _have been
+written_.
+
+Look at that proud, impregnable Castle of St Elmo, culminating over all
+Naples! Look at those sea-washed fortresses which guard the entrance of
+her harbour! The garrisons of those strong places having, in the year
+1799, from the turn of public affairs, judged it expedient to capitulate
+to Ferdinand and his allies, on conditions which should leave their
+honour without blemish, and assure their own safety and that of the
+city; and this capitulation having been solemnly accepted and ratified
+by _Cardinal Ruffo, as the king's legate and plenipotentiary_, by the
+late _Sir Edward Foote_, as acting commodore of the British force, and
+by the representatives of _two European governments_, officially
+residing in the revolutionized city, and the surrender of the forts
+having accordingly taken place, it came to pass, in an evil hour, that
+Lord Nelson, entering the bay as commander-_in-chief_, took upon himself
+the odious responsibility of rescinding the British guarantee, and of
+supporting Ferdinand, powerless but through him, in his refusal to hold
+himself bound by a convention made _by his own viceroy_!--thus
+delivering over the defenceless city to its own implacable sovereign.
+Then came a political persecution unknown in the annals of mankind;
+till, _hebetes lasso lictore secures_, even Naples could bear no more!
+The noblest blood and the most distinguished talent were no protection
+at the bar of a special tribunal, with a low-born monster at its head,
+not surpassed in its atrocities by the revolutionary tyrants of Paris
+and of Lyons. The ships shared the infamy; the venerable and noble
+Caraccioli, seventy-five years of age, himself an admiral, was the first
+_piaculum_! Summarily condemned by a court-martial _held on board
+Nelson's flag-ship_, he was executed like a felon, and cast overboard
+from a Neapolitan frigate floating on the same anchorage, and subject to
+the same authority!
+
+But Nelson's star was then in the ascendant; the presence and notorious
+influence of Emma Hamilton in these frightful transactions, was
+unaccountably connived at by the British nation. The officer who has
+been a party to a convention, which his commander-in-chief thinks proper
+not only to disapprove but to violate, must inevitably suffer in that
+fame and popularity which our public services so justly cherish. And in
+the state of men's passions during that memorable war, _so that it were
+against the French, a successful_ commander-in-chief could do no wrong!
+Yet here, probably, the matter would have rested; but when, nine years
+afterwards, _Stanier Clarke_ so little appreciated the duty of a
+biographer as to relate a transaction susceptible of no excuse, in terms
+unjustified by the facts, and sought to render his hero _immaculate_ at
+the _expense of others_, the excellent officer whose feelings and
+character had been so cruelly sacrificed, felt himself compelled at last
+to publish his "Vindication," judicious in every thing but _the title_.
+He most properly printed the _Convention itself_ in the original words,
+and with all the signatures it bore. Such works, however, even when the
+affairs they refer to are _recent_, are never read but by _friends_--or
+_enemies_. A late atonement was made by William IV. in conferring on Sir
+Edward Foote a titular distinction, which the public heed not; but the
+tables are now turned, and Europe, taught by Cuoco, Coletta, and by
+Botta, the great historian of Italy, has irrevocably closed this _great
+account_. The name of Foote is recorded in all their pages in terms
+which, had he seen them, might well have consoled him for the past;
+while the last and most popular biographer of Nelson (Southey) feels
+himself compelled to admit, and the frank admission does him infinite
+honour, that this is a passage of his hero's life which the muse of
+history "must _record with sorrow and with shame_."
+
+But the sea spray is dashing splendidly on our bows--we are clearing
+Capri, and have, as we pass it, a fine view of that high and precipitous
+rock, thinking of Tiberius and the soothsayer Thrasyllus, and of all the
+monstrous scenes which those unapproachable cliffs concealed from the
+indignation even of a Roman world. But twilight was already coming on,
+and the city and the coast were gradually withdrawn from the
+panorama--dark night came rushing over the deep, an Italian summer's
+night, and yet with no stars or moon; meanwhile steadily rides our
+vessel along the Calabrian waters, confident alike of her strength and
+her bearings, which we soon left her to pursue, and went down to see
+what the cabin and the company promised below. And thus the hours passed
+away; and when the suspended lamp began to burn dimly under the
+skylight, and grey morning found stealthy admittance through the cabin
+windows, although we had been unable to sleep, the anticipation of all
+the marvels we were to see in Sicily had answered the purpose of a
+night's rest, and sent us active and alert on deck to fresh air and the
+rising sun. Nor were we a moment too soon. A large flotilla of little
+boats manoeuvring between two of larger size, placed to defend the space
+destined for their operations, were now in the full activity of the
+thunny and spada fishery; and a most picturesque rock, right over our
+bow, proved to be no other than _Monte Pelegrino_, at the foot of which
+lay Palermo and our breakfast--in short, after a voyage of little more
+than a summer's night, we are again on _terra firma_, if that name can
+be given to volcanic soils, and long before noon are actively engaged in
+perambulating the streets of the Sicilian capital of the _f�cunda
+Panormos_.
+
+Among the most striking peculiarities of the interior or street views,
+presented to the stranger's eye at Palermo, are its very unusually
+situated convents, buildings which, even in cities, are commonly and
+naturally in _retirement_; but here, in whichever of the most public
+ways you walk, a number of extraordinary trellised balconies are
+observed on the upper stories of almost every large house, while
+business and bustle of all kinds are transacted as usual in the street
+below. You may well be surprised to see the nunnery over the _Marchande
+de Modes_! The unhappy inmates thus tormented by the sight and sound of
+worldly activity, have not in Palermo even the solace of a garden; and
+if these places of more than usual mortification have any connexion with
+the world without, it is by an under-ground passage to some church in
+the neighbourhood! Thither repair the poor victims of superstition to
+warble _Aves_ to the Virgin behind their screens, and then back again to
+their monotonous cloister. There are twenty-four nunneries in the city
+of Palermo alone, each containing from thirty to sixty women, and there
+are as many monasteries! With open doors like coffee-houses, full upon
+the street, are placed at Palermo innumerable _consulting shops_ of so
+many _lawyers_; the earliest to begin business, the last to close, you
+may have the luxury of law at any hour of the day till bedtime. Nay,
+your Sicilian lawyer, unlike the lazy tradesman who puts up his shutters
+and sleeps from twelve to four, takes no _siesta_; his _atra janua
+lilis_ is always open, and there sit the _firm_, one listening to a
+client, another smoking a cigar, a third chatting with an acquaintance
+over his coffee or the newspaper. Scarcely less mischievous than these
+sowers of dissension, is the _barber-surgeon_, who still flourishes in
+Trinacria. The bleeding arm over the peruke shop is often to be seen in
+Rome and Naples; but at Palermo almost at every third house, you read
+_Salassatore_ over a half-naked figure in wood or canvass, erect like
+Seneca in his bath, or monumentally recumbent, the blood spouting, like
+so many Tritons, from twenty orifices at once. Led by professional
+curiosity, we enter one of these open doors; and, desiring the ordinary
+service of the razor, and intending to ask some questions
+parenthetically touching the double craft, we have scarcely occupied the
+chair, when a smart youth comes up with a razor and a lancet, and
+quietly asks "_Which_?" Why, surely he could not think of _bleeding_ us
+without a warrant for our needing it. "_Eperch�? Adesso vi le d�r�
+subito_--Why not? I'll tell you whether you want it without a
+doctor,"--feeling for our pulse. "_Non c'� male_--not so much amiss,"
+pursued the functionary; "but a few ounces bleeding would do you _no
+harm_! Your hand is hot, it must be _several months_ since you were last
+bled!" "A year." "Too long: you should be bled, at your age, at least
+_twice a-year_ if you would keep your health!" "What amount of depletion
+did he recommend?" "_Depende--di sei a dieci oncie_," at which portion
+of the dialogue our mouth was shut to all further interrogations by a
+copious supply of soap-suds, and now he became the tonsor only, and
+declares against the mode in which we have our hair cut: "They have cut
+your hair, Signor, _� condannato_--nobody adopts the toilette of the
+guillotine now; it should have been left to grow in front _� la Plutus_,
+or have been long at the sides _� la Nazar�ne_, which is the mode most
+of our Sicilian gentlemen prefer." We were about to rise, wash, and
+depart, but an impediment is offered by the artist. "_Non l'ho_
+raffinato _ancora, Signor, bisogna_ raffinarlo _un poco_!" and before we
+could arrive at the occult meaning of _raffinare_, his fingers were
+exploring very technically and very disagreeably the whole surface over
+which his razor had travelled, and a number of supplementary scrapings
+were only stopped by an impatient _basta_ of the victim. _Still_ he was
+unwilling to part with us. _Would_ we like, now that we are on the spot,
+to _lose a few ounces of blood_ before he takes a stranger in hand, (who
+is waiting for the one or other operation;) and, as we most positively
+declined, he turned to the latter to ask him whether he was come for his
+"_piccolo salassio di sei oncie_." "_Gia_!" said Signor Antonio, taking
+off his coat, and sitting down with as much _sangfroid_ as if he were
+going to take his breakfast. "Can you shave _me_?" asks a third party,
+standing at the door. "_Adesso_," after I have _bled_ this gentleman.
+Such are all the _interiors_ where _Salassatore_ is written over the
+door; they bleed and they shave indifferently, and doing either, talk of
+the last _take_ of _thunny_, the _opera_ that has been or is to be, and
+the meagre skimmings of their permitted newspaper, _which_ begins
+probably with the advertisement of a church ceremony, and ends always
+with a charade--for our subscribers!!
+
+
+CHURCHES.
+
+The clergy are wealthy, the bishop's salary is 18,000 scudi, and many of
+the convents are very opulent; but there is scarcely one of the churches
+which you care to visit twice. Most of them are disgraced by vulgar
+ornaments, in which respect they surpass even the worst specimens at
+Naples! Gilt stucco, cut and stamped into flowery compartments, shows
+off like a huge twelfth cake! but the _Matrice_ or _Duomo_, and the
+Saracenic _Chapel of the Palazzo Reale_, and the cathedral of
+_Monreale_, four miles beyond the town, are noble exceptions; these in
+their several ways are all interesting, both within and without. The old
+Siculo-Norman archway of _Monreale_, and its fine bronze gates crusted
+with a beautiful hard polished _coin-like patina_, would repay the
+excursion, even were the interior less fine. Here we have columns from
+whose high architraves the Gothic arch springs vigorously; walls
+perfectly covered with old Byzantine mosaics; a roof of marvellous
+lightness, and almost modern elegance; still the critic, who is bound by
+_m�tier_ to find fault with violated canons, will, we must own, be at no
+loss for a text in the church of Monreale--a building which is, however,
+of sufficient importance in ecclesiastical architecture to have been
+designed, measured, and engraved, in whole and in part, in a splendid
+volume, published in folio, by the Duke of Serra di Falco.
+
+
+VISIT TO THE GARDEN OF THE DUKE OF SERRA DI FALCO, NEAR PALERMO.
+
+After a delicious half hour's drive through country lanes hedged with
+cactus, aloes, and pomegranates, we find ourselves in front of a small
+villa distant about two miles from the sea. As to the house, many an
+English gentleman, in very moderate circumstances, has a far better; but
+on passing the archway of this Sicilian country-box into its garden, two
+trees, which must be astonished at finding themselves out of
+Brazil--trees of surpassing beauty--are seen on a crimson carpet of
+their own fallen petals, mixed with a copious effusion of their seeds,
+like coral. At the northern extremity of Italy (Turin) this _Erythinia
+corallodendron_ is only a small stunted shrub; nor is it much bigger at
+Naples, where it grows under cover. Six years in the _open air_ have in
+Sicily _produced_ the tree before you: it is, in fact, larger than most
+of our fruit-bearers. We next recognise an agreeable acquaintance,
+formed two years ago, in the _Neapolis Japonicus_; it bears a delicate
+fruit, of the size of a plum, whose yellow, freckled skin contains such
+a nectar-like juice that the pine-apple itself scarcely excels it. Our
+fellow-passenger, the infallible voice of a new-made cardinal of the
+warlike name of Schwarzenburg, who tasted it here, as he told us, for
+the first time, has already pronounced a similar opinion, and no
+dissentients being heard, the Japan medlar passed with acclamation. The
+_Buggibellia spectabilis_ of New Holland, calls you to look at his pink
+_blossoms_, which are no other than his leaves in masquerade. We grub
+up, on the gardener's hint and permission, some of the _Cameris
+humilis_, to whose filamentous radicles are attached certain little
+grains, of great sweetness and flavour. The banana-tree, "_Musa
+paradisaica_," which, cooped in our low hot-houses at home, breaks its
+neck, and might well break its heart, as its annual growth is resisted
+by the inexorable glass dome, is here no prisoner but an acclimated
+denizen of sun and air. The _Cactus Opunti�_, or Indian fig, is here for
+vulgar tastes; and the _Cactus cochinellifera_ for the Luculluses of the
+day, who could afford to pay for its rearing. The small _sneezing
+plant_, a vegetable smelling-bottle, is still employed in headach by the
+common people of Sicily, who bruise the leaves and sniff their pungency:
+its vulgar name, _malupertusu_, is the corruption of Marum del Cortuso,
+as we find it in the ancient herbal of Durante. The _Ferula communis_ or
+_Saracinisca_, a legacy left to the Sicilian pedagogues by their eastern
+lords, is sold in fagots at the green-grocers, and fulfils the
+scholastic office of _birch_; and, being more elastic, must be pleasant
+to _flog with_. We recommend it to _head masters_. The _sumac_, _Rhus
+coriaria_, is not only to be seen here, but every where else in Sicily;
+and they say there is a daily exportation of one thousand sacks of its
+ground leaves. The ancients knew it well, and employed it for giving a
+flavour to their meat, as they do now in Nubia and Egypt, according to
+Durante, who deems its many virtues deserving of Latin verse. We smell
+pepper!--a graceful shrub, whose slender twigs stand pencilled out like
+sea-weed spread upon paper; and the _Schinus mollis_, a leaf of which we
+have gathered ignorantly, is the source of the smell. We strew some
+leaves on the basin of a neighbouring fountain, and amuse ourselves by
+seeing them swim about as if they were bewitched, parting at the same
+time with a whitish fluid, which, spreading on the surface of the water,
+gives it an iridescent hue. The _Fuchsia arborescens_ of Japan flowers
+here, they say, every month, just as we see him in all his pink
+luxuriance, and makes himself quite at home; and here is that little
+blue vegetable butterfly, the _Polygala_! Who can overlook his _winged_
+petals, peeping out of their myrtle-looking bower? Then the
+_geraniums_!--not potted, as in Covent-Garden, or the _March� aux
+Fleurs_, but forming vast parti-coloured _hedgerows_, giving to every
+pathway its own _particular flower and perfume_; so that a connoisseur
+might be taken blindfold and declare where each kind grew. _Hedges of
+geranium seven feet high_! Think of that, ye _Dicksons_ and
+nursery-ground men about _Brompton_ and the _King's Road_! The stalks a
+mass of real ligneous matter, fit for the turner's lathe if it were but
+hard enough. A small mound enables us to look about us more at large;
+and now we discern the stately _bamboo_, thicker than your arm, and tall
+as a small mast; and the _sugar-cane_, formerly cultivated for his
+juice, but now looking as if he were ill-used and neglected. His
+biography (but as it is not _auto_-biography, and written with his own
+_reed_, there may be some mistake) is remarkable. Soon after the
+annexation of Sicily to Spain in 1420, he was carried from Syracuse into
+Spanish captivity; he then escaped to Madeira and the Canaries, and at
+length saved himself in the West Indies. The _pistachia_ is also here,
+with its five-partite sessile leaf, like a dwarf walnut; the capsule
+holding the nut containing at present only a white germ, which it will
+require four months more to bring to nutty maturity. The _manna_-tree is
+very like an _alder_ in its general character, but thicker in its stem,
+and bears the cicatrices of last year's _ill treatment_; its wounds,
+however, will not bleed afresh now; but towards August the _salassatore_
+of trees will run his steel into its limbs, taking care to place under
+the bleeding orifices leaves from the _cactus_ hedge hard by to serve as
+recipients, and drain its juices till it faints.
+
+That a _leaf_ might not be _wanting_ to record these vegetable
+treasures, the pagoda-topped _papyrus_ nodded to us gracefully, and
+offered its services; while, to finish the picture, Angola goats are
+browsing amid the green and yellow ribbed _agaves_; and the beautiful
+blue sea peeps in through gaps of the wall of _cactus_, whose green
+stems are now all fringed with yellow blossoms. Leaving the flower
+garden, we enter a labyrinth, and arrive at a small hut, with a closed
+door, upon the threshold of which we have scarcely pressed, when the
+wicket flies open, and a big brown friar, with long beard and sandals,
+starts up in act to frighten us, which he succeeds in doing. This
+automaton _Schedoni_ might really well produce abortion, and would not
+care if he did: he cannot, we suppose, be placed there as a lawful
+instrument of relief, for all the _donzelle_ of Palermo must be _aware_
+of, and be used to him. This, however, is thought so good a joke, that
+it is repeated with variations; for on releasing another spring a
+similar contrivance introduces us to another monk of the same convent,
+who is reading a huge tome on the lives of the saints: resenting the
+interruption, he raises his head, and fixes his eyes on the intruder, at
+the same time beckoning to him with his hand, and intimating that if he
+will do him the favour to come a little nearer, he will knock him down
+with the folio, as Johnson did Osborn the bookseller.
+
+Another surprise is--but really these are surprising enough--and we came
+here to see vegetable rarities, and not the tricks of an overgrown
+toyshop.
+
+
+THE THUNNY FISHERY.
+
+    [Greek: Tan baitan apodys eis chymaia taena haleymai,
+    Hopeth tos Oynnos schopiazeiai 'Olpis o' gripeys.]--THEOC.
+
+The thunny fishery, if not as exciting as that of the whale, is far from
+uninteresting to the uninitiated. We were rowing about in want of an
+object, when our boatmen proposed to take us to see this animating
+species of labour; and off we went to a spot about two miles from shore,
+where we came upon a little flotilla of boats, all occupied in the
+common pursuit. A large quantity of floating cork announced our arrival
+on the fishing ground; then came long lines of buoys, to which the
+drop-nets were attached, and at last we drew alongside a small boat,
+hailing which, we learn that the net is already half-drawn, and that _la
+pipa_ (the sword-fish) is _in_ it. Now, we had long wanted to see a live
+sword-fish, but there was no need to stimulate our rowers, who appeared
+equally eager that we should assist at the fun, and made great exertions
+to reach the spot in time. "_Questa_," says our guide, showing the
+boundary of the space circumscribed by walls of net; "_questa � la
+camera della morte_, (this is the chamber of death,) _piano, piano_, (or
+we shall shoot ahead.") The space thus designated lay between two long
+barges, one of which was fixed by anchor, and had few people on board,
+while the other was crowded with naked limbs, and fine heads in Phrygian
+bonnets, academy figures every man of them. What symmetry of form! what
+jet black beard and mustache! what dark flashing eyes! what noses
+without reproach! All were in the various combinations of action which
+their position demanded, hauling away at what seemed to our impatience
+an endless net; by the shortening of which, however, as their boat
+received it, layer upon layer, fold upon fold, coil upon coil, they were
+slowly bringing up the reticulated wall. As the place of captivity came
+nearer, every body was intensely anxious to get a first view of the
+fish; and many other boats were coming up alongside of ours, which
+fortunately lay right over the meshes of the prison, which was becoming
+every second more and more restricted in size. At length some of us
+obtained a first view of the _spada_ and his long sword, and testified
+our delight with vociferation. The fish, meanwhile, who hates publicity,
+backs off, and would back out, to the opposite end of the net, where,
+still finding himself an object of unpleasant remark, he tries by
+violence to escape sideways; but that is _no go_ even for a sword-fish,
+for a sword is his which cannot cut cords, and he soon finds he can make
+nothing of it. Smaller and smaller, meanwhile, is becoming the condemned
+hold, and greater and greater the perturbation within. The captive fish
+begins to swim round and round, and to watch a new opportunity, but it
+is too late!--too many are on the look-out for him! Every man gets ready
+his hooked pole, and there is more tightening of the tackle! The
+terrified fish now rises to the surface, as it were to reconnoitre, and
+then down he dives with a lash of his tail, which sends buckets of water
+into the boat of the assailants. This dive, of course, only carries him
+to the false bottom of the net, and come up presently he must! Every eye
+now looks _fishy_, and every man's hand is armed for the first blow. One
+tall athletic fellow takes aim, and misses; another is more successful,
+and hits. Stunned by the blow, the poor fish flounders on this side and
+on that, and the water is discoloured by his blood! One, two, three
+pointed poles at once, are again in his flank; and now he rushes about
+like a rounded lion, brandishing his tail, and dashing up whirlpools of
+water. More Blows! more blood! He rushes desperately at the net, and
+running his long snout into the meshes, is hopelessly entangled. It is
+all over with him! Countless wounds follow, till he turns over on his
+side, and is handed up lifeless into the boat.
+
+"There," says one, "goes fifteen scudi's worth, and no harm done to _the
+net_." "Little enough, too; but he is worth two thunny, anyhow," says
+another. "Ay! and gives more _sport_," exclaims a third. Such piscatory
+eclogue fell upon our ear, when our guide announced to us that we had
+now seen every thing. The excitement over, we sat down in our boat to
+make a note of what we have written, while the boatmen clave the
+phosphorescent water homewards, and landed us neatly at sunset, with
+their oars dripping luminous drops at every stroke, in the beautiful
+harbour of Palermo.
+
+Some days after we were still more fortunate; we had observed the scouts
+with a white hood over their boat, _looking keenly down_ (_vide_ our
+quotation from Theocritus) into the deep blue sea, and watching with
+all-eyed attention for the apparition of some giant shadow which should
+pass athwart the abyss, and give the signal for a new chase, while their
+comrades were hauling in an immense miscellaneous _take_ of fish, the
+acquisition of the morning. We shot the outpost, (placed to prevent
+larger vessels from entering the fishing preserves and injuring the
+nets,) and remarked our boatmen uncovering to a small _Madonna_ railed
+in alongside. We were just in time on this occasion to see the water
+enclosed in the _camera della morte_, already all alive with fish; for a
+shoal of _palamide_, and of immense _pesce di moro_, filled the
+reticulated chamber. They darted here and there as the net was raising,
+and splashed so furiously about, that the whole water became one lather;
+meanwhile, the men who had been singing gaily, now prepared their
+landing-nets, shouting in a way which certainly _did_ seem to increase
+the terror of their prisoners, who redoubled their efforts to escape.
+
+The rich hues of the _palamide_, in shape and colour not unlike our
+mackerel, but with longitudinal, in place of transverse, green bands,
+were beautiful objects as they were raised all iridescent in their
+freshness out of the water, and transferred to the side boat. We also
+noticed in the net one or two immense fish, in shape like rounded
+parallelograms, with tough shagreen hides, goggle eyes, and two immense
+leathery fins placed at the lower part of the abdomen. They kept
+flapping these valves up and down, but not offering to strike, though
+lugged out by a hook. The haul was a good one, each fish worth a ducat;
+and had they, in fact, been at this price converted into coin at once,
+the money would have made no mean show in the bottom of the net. The
+treacherous _camera della morte_ was emptied quickly, and in one minute
+more, down it went again into the depths below.
+
+We should have mentioned a singular practice of the fishermen of the
+present day in Sicily, to _pat_ the thunny while he is in the net, as
+you pat a horse or dog: They say it makes him docile. This done, they
+put their legs across his back, and _ride_ him round the net room, an
+experiment few would practise on the dolphin's back, at least in these
+days; yet Aulus Gellius relates that there was a dolphin who used to
+delight in carrying children on his back through the water, swimming out
+to sea with them, and then putting them safe on shore! Now, _but for the
+coins_, taking the above custom into consideration, one might have
+supposed the ancients' _delphinus_ to have been the modern _thunny_.
+
+
+THE FISH MARKET.
+
+"Dragged through the mire, and bleeding from the hock," lay a continuous
+mass of slaughtered thunny, mouths wide open, bloody sockets, from which
+the eyes had been torn to make lamp-oil, gills ripped off to be eaten
+fresh, and roes in baskets by their sides. There was also a quantity of
+a fish of dirty white belly and dusky back, the _alalonga_, and two huge
+_dolphins_, with skins full of lamp-oil. This really ugly creature looks
+far better in the _delphin_ title-pages, with his lamp and his "_alere
+flammam_" on clean paper, than on the stall; but his very best
+appearance is on a fine Sicilian coin, with _Arion on his back_. The
+snouts of four large sword-fish were also conspicuous; and there was
+thunny enough for all the world: some of the supply, however, was to be
+hawked about the streets, in order to which cords are placed under the
+belly of a thunny of fifteen cwt., and off he goes slung on a pole, with
+a drummer before and a drummer behind, to disturb every street and alley
+in Palermo till he is got rid of; not that the stationary market is
+quiet; for the noise made in selling the mutest of all animals is in all
+countries really remarkable; but who shall do justice to a _Sicilian_
+Billingsgate at _mezzogiorno_! "_Trenta sei, trenta sei_," bawls out the
+Padrone, cleaving a fish in twain with one stroke of an immense chopper
+kept for the purpose. "_Trenta sei, trenta sei_," repeat the two
+journeymen accomplices, one counting it on his fingers to secure
+accuracy and telegraph the information to distant purchasers, or such as
+cannot _hear_ in the noise; another holds up a slice as a specimen;
+three fellows at our elbow are roaring "_tutti vivi, tutta vivi_," "_a
+sedici, a sedici_." The man of _whitings_, and even he of _sardines_,
+have a voice and a figure of their own. As you approach each stall, the
+noisy salesmen suspend their voices, and enquire, in gentler accents, if
+you intend to buy; if you do not, like the cicada their stunning sound
+returns as soon as you are past. We have hinted that the thunny,
+"_Integer et cadavere toto_," does not look handsome: vastly less
+attractive is he when mutilated. Big as an elephant's thigh, and with
+flesh like some black-blooded bullock of ocean breed, his unsavoury meat
+attracts a most repulsive assemblage, not only of customers, but of
+flies and wasps, which no flapping will keep off from his grumous liver.
+The _sword-fish_ cuts up into large bloodless slices, which look on the
+stall like so many fillets of very white veal, and might pass for such,
+but that the head and shoulders are fixed upon a long lance, high above
+the stall, to inform the uninitiated that the delicate looking meat in
+question was fed in the pastures of the deep. The _price_ of thunny, a
+staple commodity and object of extensive Sicilian commerce, varies
+considerably with the supply; as to the demand, it never ceases. During
+our stay in Palermo, a whole fish would fetch about eight _scudi_, and
+his retail price was about twopence _per English pound_. Think of paying
+three or four _francs_ for less than half a pound _sott 'olio_ in Paris.
+The supply seems very constant during the season, which, on the Palermo
+side of the island, is from May to July, and continues a month later
+along the _Messina_ coast; after which, as the fish cease to be seen, it
+is presumed here that they have sailed to the African coast. The flesh
+of the _spada_ fish is generally double in market price to that of the
+thunny, selling during the greater part of June at about fourpence
+a-pound. Every thunny is weighed upon landing, and a high tax paid upon
+it to the king, who, in consideration thereof, charges his Sicilian
+subjects no duty for gunpowder or salt. The fixed fisheries for thunny,
+round the Sicilian coast, are upwards of a dozen, the most famous being
+that of Messina. At Palermo, however, they sometimes take an immense
+strike of several hundred in one expedition. The average weight of a
+full grown thunny, is from 1000 to 1200 pounds; of course the men with
+poles who land him, can carry him but a little way, and he reaches the
+market by relays. Every bit of him is eaten, except his bones and his
+eyes, and even these yield a quantity of oil.
+
+The spada, too, is pickled down to his bones--he is in great request for
+the hotels, and his eyes, duly salted, are considered a sort of luxury;
+in some places these are the perquisite of the fishermen, yielded by
+their employers, who farm the fisheries, and having satisfied the king,
+make what terms they can with the subject.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+COMMERCIAL POLICY--RUSSIA.
+
+
+From the brief review, in our last Number, of Spain, her commercial
+policy, her economical resources, her fiscal rigours, her financial
+embarrassments, these facts may be said to have been developed:--In the
+first place, that theoretically--that is, so far as legislation--Spain
+is the land of restrictions and prohibitions; and that the principle of
+protection in behalf, not of nascent, but of comparatively ancient and
+still unestablished interests, is recognized, and carried out in the
+most latitudinarian sense of absolute interdict or extravagant impost.
+Secondly, that under such a system, Spain has continued the exceptional
+case of a non or scarcely progressing European state; that the
+maintenance and enhancement of fiscal rigours and manufacturing
+monopoly, jealously fenced round with a legislative wall of prohibition
+and restriction, has neither advanced the prosperity of the quarter of a
+million of people in Catalonia, Valencia, and Biscay, in whose exclusive
+behalf the great and enduring interests of the remaining thirteen
+millions and upwards of the population have been postponed or
+sacrificed--nor contributed to strengthen the financial resources of the
+government, as proved by the prostrate position and prospects of a
+bankrupt and beggared exchequer; that, as the necessary and inevitable
+consequence, the progress of agriculture, the ascendant interest of
+all-powerful communities and vast territorially endowed states--of
+Spain, the almost one only interest and element of vitality, economical
+and political--has been impeded, and continues to be discouraged; that
+the march of internal improvements is checked or stunted, when not
+absolutely stayed; finally, that public morals--the social health of a
+great people, inheritors of glorious antecedents, of an historic renown
+for those qualities of a high order, the deep-seated sentiment of
+personal, as of national honour and dignity, the integrity, fidelity,
+and gallantry, which more loftily spurn contaminating approximation with
+action springing out of base, sordid, and degrading motives and
+associations--have been sapped and corrupted by the debasing influences
+of that gigantic system of organized illicit trade which covers Spain
+with hordes of _contrabandistas_, more numerous and daring than the
+bands of _aduaneros_ and the armies of regulars whom they set at
+defiance, and infests the coast of Spain with fleets of smuggling craft,
+which all the _guardas costas_, with the ancient armada of Spain, were
+it in existence, would be powerless to annihilate. And all this fine
+nation, of warm and generous temperament, of naturally noble and
+virtuous aspirations, thus desperately to be dismantled of its
+once-proud attributes, and demoralized in its character; its exhaustless
+riches of soil and climate to be wantonly wasted--per force of false
+legislation to be left uncultured--and for why? Shades of the
+illustrious Gabarrus and Jovellanos, why? Why, to enable some half dozen
+_fabricantes_ of Barcelona to keep less than half-a-dozen steam-engines
+at work, which shall turn some few thousands of spindles, spinning and
+twisting some few millions of pounds of yarn, by which, after nearly
+three quarters of a century that the cotton manufacture has been
+planted, "swathed, rocked, and dandled" with legislative fondness into a
+rickety nursling, some fifty millions of yards of cotton cloths are said
+to be painfully brought forth in the year; the value of which may
+probably be equal to the same or a larger quantity of French cottons
+introduced by contraband, and consumed in the provinces of Catalonia and
+Arragon themselves--the first being sole seat of the cotton manufacture
+for all Spain. And for this deplorable consummation, the superabundant
+harvests of the waving fields, the luscious floods of the vineyards, the
+full flowing yield of the olive groves of Spain--of the wine, the oil,
+and the corn, of which nature is more bountiful than in Egypt of
+old--the produce and the wealth of the millions, (which, permitted,
+would exchange advantageously for foreign products, and, bye all the
+value, add to the store of national wealth, and create the means of
+reproduction,) are left to run waste and absolutely perish on the
+ground, as not worth the cost of transport to markets without demand.
+"The production of this soil," observes the Ayuntamiento of Malaga, in
+their eloquent _Exposicion_ to the Cortes cited in our last Number,
+after referring to their own port and province, in whose elaboration
+thousands and thousands of hands are employed, millions and millions of
+capital invested, "are consumed, if not in totality, at least with close
+approximation, in England;" and after enumerating the wines, oil,
+raisins, grapes, oranges, lemons, and almonds, as products so consumed
+in this country--"We have active and formidable rivals in France,
+Germany, Italy, Portugal, Turkey, the Greek Archipelago, and other
+countries. We shall say nothing of the wools, corn and other fruits of
+Spain, so important, and some so depressed in England by foreign
+competition with those of this province. If the treaties of commerce of
+England with Italy and Turkey are carried into effect, the exportation
+of our oils and dried fruits will receive its death warrant--_queda
+herida demuerte_. France, Germany, and Portugal, accepting favourably
+the idea of the British Government, will cause our wines to disappear
+from the market; their consumption is already very limited, inasmuch as
+the excessive duty, to one-third the amount of which the value of the
+wine does not reach, at the mouth of the Thames, prevents the sale of
+the inferior dry wines. The same excessive duty tends to diminish the
+consumption of our fruits from year to year. Our oil has alone been able
+to find vent by favour of the double duty imposed till now upon
+Sicilian, superior to ours in quality. But the English speculators are
+already shy of purchasing, in the expectation of an assimilation of
+duties on oils of whatever origin." The Ayuntamiento proceeds to urge
+the necessity of a "beneficial compensation" to British manufactures in
+the tariff of Spain, without which, "the flattering perspective" of
+prosperous progress for the industry and agriculture of the Andalusias
+will be destroyed, and that those vast, rich, and fertile provinces will
+become a desolate desert. "The admission or prohibition of foreign woven
+cottons," says the _Exposicion_, "is for Malaga and its province of
+vital importance under two aspects--of morality and commerce. Until now
+we have endured the terrible consequences of prohibition. The exorbitant
+gain which it supports is the germ of all the crimes perpetrated in our
+country. The man who carries a weapon, who uses it and sheds the blood
+of an agent of the law in the defence of his illegally acquired goods,
+will not hesitate in shedding the blood of a fellow citizen who may
+stand in the way of his desires. And hence the frequent assassinations.
+He who with gold seduces others for the increase of his own property and
+for antisocial purposes, does not scruple, when fortune is adverse, to
+possess himself by violence of the gold of the honest husbandman, or
+peaceful trader: from hence the constant robberies in the less
+frequented places; from hence the general abuse of carrying prohibited
+arms of all sorts, and using them criminally against any one on the
+least provocation, already accustomed to use them against the
+Government. Who shall venture to enumerate the assassinations, the
+robberies, the ruined families, the misfortunes of all kinds, which,
+directly and indirectly, spring from contraband trade?"
+
+Such is the _Exposicion_, such the experience, and such the views of a
+patriotic and enlightened corporation, representing and ruling over one
+of the most populous, wealthy, and industrially disposed districts of
+Spain. Our object in prefacing at this length, and with seeming
+irrelevance, perhaps, our review of the commercial policy of Russia,
+with its bearings on the interests of Great Britain, is to show the
+differing action of the same commercial system, in the present case of
+the prohibitive and restrictive system in different countries, both in
+respect of the mode in which the internal progress and industry of
+countries acting upon the same principle are variously affected
+themselves and in respect of the nature and extent of the influences of
+such action upon those relations of interchange which they entertain, or
+might otherwise entertain, with other countries where an opposite or
+modified system prevails. In its broad features the system of Russia
+varies from that of Spain only in being more rigorous and intractable
+still. Both, however, are founded on the same exclusive principle, that
+of isolation--that of forcing manufactures at whatever cost--that of
+producing all that may be required for domestic consumption--of
+exporting the greatest possible maximum--of importing the lowest
+conceivable minimum. Starting from the same point, and for the same
+goal, it will not be without interest or instruction to accompany and
+observe the progress of the one, as we have already endeavoured to
+illustrate the fortunes of the other--to present Russia, industrial and
+commercial, side by side, or in contrast with Spain, as we have
+described her. Your absolute theory men, your free-traders with one
+idea, like Lord Howick, your performers in the economic extravaganza now
+rehearsing in the Parliament-house under the style of "leave imports
+free, and the exports will take care of themselves," may chance to meet
+with many strange facts to confound their arbitrary theorems on the
+banks of the Neva. Absolute of wisdom, however, as they arrogate to be,
+and casehardened as they are, against assaulting results which should
+destroy their self-willed principle--a principle, like the laws of the
+Medes and Persians, proclaimed to be unchanged and unchangeable--in face
+of which facts are powerless and adverse experience contumeliously
+scouted, or mendaciously perverted, it is sufficiently obvious that
+lessons in political economy will, less than from any quarter of the
+globe, perhaps, be accepted from St Petersburg--they will fall upon
+unwilling ears--upon understandings obtuse or perverted.
+
+We are not of the number of those who would contend that, under all
+times or circumstances, should a principle, or rather the system built
+upon a principle, be rigorously upheld in its application intact, sacred
+equally from modification on the one hand, as against radical revolution
+on the other. It cannot be denied that, under the protective system,
+have grown into their present gigantic proportions all the great
+manufacturing interests of Great Britain. But, with customary hardihood
+of assertion, maintain the economists--in whose wake follow the
+harder-mouthed, coarser-minded Cobdens of the League--although
+manufactures have flourished under such a system to an extent which has
+constituted this country the workshop of the world, they have so
+flourished in spite of the system; and, in its absence, left exposed to
+free unrestricted competition from abroad, must inevitably have
+progressed at a more gigantic rate of speed still. This is asserted to
+be in the order of nature, but as nature is every where the same--as the
+same broad features and first elements characterize all countries more
+or less alike--we ask for examples, for one example only, of the
+successful establishment and progress of any one unprotected industry.
+The demand is surely limited, and reasonable enough. The mendacious
+League, with the Brights and Cobdens of rude and riotous oratory, are
+daily trumpeting it in the towns, and splitting the ears of rural
+groundlings with the reiterated assertion that, of all others, the
+cotton manufacture owes nothing to protection. What!--nothing? Were
+general restrictive imposts on foreign manufactures no protection? Was
+the virtually prohibited importation of the cotton fabrics of India no
+boon? of India, root and branch sacrificed for the advancement of
+Manchester? Why, there are people yet alive who can recollect the day
+when Manchester cottons could not have stood one hour's competition with
+the free, or even 100 per cent taxed fabrics of India.[40] How, indeed,
+could competition have been possible, with the wages of weaving and
+spinning in India at three-halfpence per day, whilst for equal
+quantities and qualities of workmanship, the British weaver was earning
+five shillings, and the spinner ten shillings per day on the average? In
+1780, Mr Samuel Crompton, the ingenious inventor of the mule frame for
+spinning, such as it exists to this day, and is the vast moving machine
+of cotton manufacturing greatness, stated that he obtained _fourteen_
+shillings per lb. for the spinning and preparation of No. 40 yarn,
+twenty-five shillings for No. 60, and two guineas for No. 80. The same
+descriptions of yarns are now profitably making at prices ranging from
+about tenpence to twentypence per lb. At the same period common calicoes
+were saleable at about two shillings per yard, which now may be
+purchased for threepence. Will it be said that the Indian spinner and
+weaver by hand could not, at the same epoch, have produced their wares
+at one-half the price, had not importation, with unrelenting jealousy,
+been interdicted? Was the rigid prohibition of the export of machinery
+no concession, all exclusively and prodigiously in the interest of the
+cotton manufacture, to the zealous promotion and ascendancy of which the
+mining and agricultural interests are unhesitatingly, not to say
+wantonly, prejudiced, if not absolutely perilled? We say wantonly,
+because the free exportation of cotton yarn, tolerated at the same
+moment, was an absurd and mischievous violation of the very principle on
+which the prohibited exportation of machinery was alone and could be
+justified. In face of these incontrovertible facts, of which hereafter,
+and now that the record of them is consigned to that wide circulation
+through the world which the pages of Blackwood only can afford,
+misrepresentation remains without excuse on the question of that
+fostering protection to which, in a larger degree, if not exclusively,
+the cotton manufacture of Great Britain is indebted for its growth to
+its present colossal, mammoth-like, and almost unwieldy grandeur. We do
+not, however, whilst re-establishing facts in their purity, dream the
+practical impossibility of confounding and disarming the ignorance of
+men unfortunately so ill educated and unread, and with intellect so
+incapable, apparently, of appreciating instruction, if not wilfully
+perverse, as the Cobdens, or of restraining the less coarse but more
+fluent flippancy and equally unscrupulous assurance of friend Bright,
+from resort to that stock and stale weapon of vulgar minds which is so
+readily drawn from the armoury of falsehood. To the end of the chapter
+they will lie on, until doomsday arrive, and they sink, like the Henry
+Hunts, _et id genus omne_, their at least as well-bred predecessors of
+the popularity-hunting school, to their proper level in the cess-pool of
+public contempt. Time, which executes justice upon all in the long run,
+cannot fail to lay the ghost of cotton and anti-corn law imposture, even
+in the troubled waters of the muddy Irk and Irwell, where first conjured
+from. And now, having shown how the cotton manufacture of Great Britain
+was from its birth cradled, rocked, and dandled into successful
+progress; how it was fostered and fenced round with protection and
+prohibitive legislation as against competition from abroad; we shall
+proceed with our review of the rise and career of _protected_
+manufactures in Russia. And we would counsel "one who has whistled at
+the plough," whose "farming notes" in the _Morning Chronicle_, when
+confined to such matters of practical detail as may be supposed to lie
+within the scope of his own experience and comprehension, are not
+destitute of interest and information, though with distorted and
+exaggerated views, to ponder well before a next reiteration of the
+random and absurd assertion that the "corn-law has done to agriculture
+_what every law of protection has done for every trade that was ever
+practised_--it has induced negligence, and, by its uncertain operation,
+has obstructed enterprise." Instead of whistling at the plough, such a
+writer almost deserves to be whipped at the cart's tail for so
+preposterously dogmatic an assumption. It has yet to be demonstrated,
+and the proof is challenged, that ever a great interest, whether
+manufacturing or agricultural, was established in any part of the world,
+since the creation, without the aids and appliances of legislative and
+guernatorial patronage. The degree, the qualification the practical
+limitations, which in the progress of time, with social and industrial
+changes supervening at home and abroad, may be rendered expedient or
+necessary in the application of the principle, constitute quite a
+different question, which may be discussed and entertained without any
+disparagement of the soundness of the policy, as best adapted to
+existing circumstances, of the system when first applied. The theory of
+free trade may be, in its entirety, as plausibly it is presented to us,
+founded on just principle; the abstract truth and perfection of which
+are just as unimpeachable as that of the social theory propounded by
+Rousseau in the Savoyard's profession of faith, or that of the "liberty,
+equality, and community of property" (to say nothing of women) theory
+preached, and practically developed to some extent, in the paganish
+philosophies and New Harmony vagaries of the St Simonians, the
+Fourierians, and of Robert Owen, in these our days. And yet, from the
+beginning of time--whether from the world before the flood, or since the
+reconstruction of the world after--never, to this present epoch, has one
+single example come down to us of the sober realization of either the
+economical abstraction or the social abstraction. Primeval chaos, chaos
+existing before all time, could alone have represented the _beau-ideal_
+of each. So far indeed as their own demesnes and domains, Laban and
+Pharaoh were not without their practical proficiency in the elements of
+economical science--for the one knew how to sell his daughters, as the
+other his corn, in the "dearest market;" and each to buy his labour and
+his money at the "cheapest." And never will these free-trade and social
+day-dreams be accomplished to the end of all time; never until chaos
+come again; never, unless perchance the Fitzwilliams and the Phillipses,
+impregnated with the beatific reveries of socialist Robert Owen, should
+throw open, the one, Wentworth hall, with its splendid parks and
+spacious domains--the other, his Manchester mills, wonder-working
+machinery, and million of capital stock, to joint-stock occupancy, with
+common right of possession of the rural labourers who till the ground,
+and the urban operatives who ply the shuttle--the producers, in fact, of
+all their wealth--share and share alike; themselves, in future,
+undertaking the proportion of daily task-work; driving the "teams
+afield," or tenting the mule-frame. Should, perhaps, the Phalansterial
+system of Fourier preferably suit their taste, they will be entitled to
+enter into the "phalanx of harmony," and share _� des degr�s diff�rents,
+dans la r�partition des trots facult�s--capital, travail, talent_, ...
+with the enjoyment of such an apartment in the Phalansterial "palace"
+for four hundred families, the minimum of the phalanx being eighty,
+which may compare with the quality of _r�partition_ corresponding to
+them, as expounded by Madame Gatti de Gamond, the principal legatee of
+Fourier and his system.
+
+    [40] The cotton piece goods of India were still subject, in
+    1814, to a duty on importation equal to 85 per cent. This duty
+    was reduced on the 5th of July 1819, but to L.67, 10s. per cent
+    only. Finally, in 1825 the duty was again reduced to 10 per
+    cent, at which it remains. The duty on cotton yarn imported from
+    India was at the same time subject to a duty of 10d. per lb.,
+    and so remained till 1831 at least. It must be borne in mind,
+    that India was the only country in the world which, before and
+    during the rise of the cotton manufacture in Great Britain, was,
+    or could be, an exporter of cotton fabrics and yarns.
+
+In the course of the discussions which terminated in the treaty of
+commerce and navigation with Russia, laid before parliament on the
+opening of the session--the stipulations of which, however, chiefly bore
+upon the extension of certain reciprocal rights of navigation--the
+Emperor Nicholas, in answer to representations pressed upon him from
+this country, for a liberal extension of the same principle to the
+general commerce of Russia, to foreign imports as well as shipping and
+exports--to let in a glimmer of the free-trade principle, in
+fact--replied, as we observed in a former article, that "the system,
+such as it was, he had received from his predecessors, and it was found
+to work well for the interests of his empire." The Autocrat, despot as
+he may be, was not singular in the opinion; for even our esteemed friend
+Count Valerian Krasinski, distinguished no less for the solidity of his
+literary attainments than for the liberality of opinion and the
+patriotism which condemns him to the penalty of exile in a "dear
+country's cause," who therefore will not be suspected of undue bias in
+favour of Russian systems, had written and published in an able article
+on Russia, treating _inter alia_ of the rise and progress of her
+manufactures and commerce, to the following effect:--"The manufacturers
+of Russia commenced, as in other countries, with the beginning of its
+political importance, but have been chiefly indebted for their
+encouragement and progress to the efforts of the Government ... The
+(protective) system has been steadily adhered to with constantly
+increasing energy, and _the most brilliant success_, up to the present
+time." This was published in 1842. We shall proceed to test the merits
+of the case by reference to documents of official origin, Russian and
+British--both to the latest dates to which made up in a sufficiently
+complete shape for the object in view, and the former in some instances
+later than any yet published in this country, and, as believed,
+exclusively in our possession. We shall have to deal with masses of
+figures; but to the general reader in search of truth, they can hardly
+fail to be more acceptable than whole pages of allegations and
+assumptions unsupported by proof, however eloquently worked out to
+plausible conclusions.
+
+We commence with laying the foundation for a comprehension of the
+industrial progression of Russia, by a comparative statement of the
+average imports of a few of the chief articles of consumption, raw
+materials of manufacture, and manufactures, for two series, of three
+years each; the first series being the earliest for which official
+records can be cited, or were perhaps kept. Accidental circumstances,
+and the special influences which, favourably or unfavourably, may act
+upon particular years, producing at one time a feverish excess of
+commercial movement, and at another, a reacting depression as unnatural,
+are best corrected and balanced by taking averages of years. Thus, the
+mean term of imports for 1793, 1794, and 1795, may be thus contrasted
+with that for 1837, 1838, and 1839, of the following commodities:--
+
+         Annual imports,        1793-95                1837-9
+    Sugar,                341,356     poods       1,675,806     poods
+    Olive oil,             42,239      ib.          345,455      ib.
+    Machines and Instruments
+      of all kinds, for   111,300 silver rubles   1,025,264 silver rubles
+    Woollen cloths for  3,978,000      ib.          570,000      ib.
+    Raw cotton,            10,000     poods         315,000      ib.
+    Cotton-yarn,           50,000      ib.          600,000      ib.
+    Cotton fabrics for  2,600,000 silver rubles   3,866,000      ib.
+
+During the first triennial period, a large proportion of the sugars
+imported was in the refined state, the number of sugar refineries being
+then very limited; in the second period, the imports consisted
+exclusively of raw sugar for the numerous existing refining
+establishments, which consumed besides 125,000 poods of beet-root sugar,
+the produce of the beet-root works established in Southern Russia.
+Woollen manufactories have so rapidly and extensively increased, that,
+whereas, comparatively a few years past only, the manufacture of
+woollens was confined almost exclusively to the coarser sorts for army
+use, whilst the better qualities for the consumption of the more easy
+classes, and for export to Asia, were imported from abroad, chiefly from
+Great Britain; for the fifteen years preceding 1840 the case has been
+completely altered. The import of foreign woollens has almost altogether
+ceased for internal consumption in Russia, whilst no woollens but of
+Russian make are now exported to Asia, and especially China. The export
+of these home-made woollens figures far above two millions of rubles
+yearly in the tables of Russian commerce with eastern countries. It will
+be seen that while the imports of cotton yarn, in the space of forty-two
+years, had increased in the proportion from 1 to 12 only, that of raw
+cotton had advanced in the proportion from 1 to 32. The facts are
+significant of the growing extension both of spinning factories and the
+cotton manufactories. It is difficult to understand or credit the
+increased imported values of cotton fabrics here represented, knowing,
+as we do, the decreased export to Russia in our own tables of values and
+quantities. But we shall have occasion hereafter, perhaps, to notice
+some peculiarities in the Russian official system of valuations, which
+may probably serve to clear up the ambiguity. But although importing
+foreign cottons for internal consumption, Russia is moreover an exporter
+of domestic fabrics, to the value of about one million of silver rubles,
+on the side of Asia. In order to avoid as far as possible the
+multiplication of figures by the accompanying reduction of the moneys
+and weights of Russia into English quantities, it may be convenient to
+state, that the silver ruble is equal to 37-1/2d. sterling, and, in
+commercial reckoning, the pood answers to 36 lbs. avoirdupois.
+
+Limiting our views for the present to the trade in cottons, as the
+manufacture of cottons is of much more recent growth in Russia than
+woollen and other manufactures, we find that the exact imports,
+quantities, or values, of cotton and yarn, are thus quoted in Russian
+official returns for the three last years to which made up _seriatim_.
+
+                       1839.        1840.        1841.
+    Raw cotton,       354,832      398,189      314,000 poods.
+    Cotton yarn,      535,817      519,189      560,799  ...
+
+The depressed state of the cotton trade in 1841 in this country, with
+the very low prices of yarn, from consignments pushed, in consequence,
+for sale at any rates against advances, were doubtless the cause of the
+increased imports of yarn, and the decrease in raw cotton, exhibited in
+the returns for 1841. Otherwise, the import of raw cotton has been
+comparatively much more on the increase than cotton yarn for some years
+past. Thus, beginning with 1822, when the cotton industry began more
+rapidly to develope itself, but omitting the years just given, the
+imports stood thus:--
+
+                    1822.     1830.     1838.
+    Raw cotton,     55,838   116,314   326,707 poods
+    Cotton-yarn,   156,541   429,736   606,667 ib.
+
+Now, it will not be denied that the cotton manufacture in this country
+has enjoyed supereminent advantages over that of any other in the world,
+whether we look at the protective scale of duties maintained for half a
+century in its favour against foreign competition, or regard those
+glorious inventions and improvements in machinery, of which rigorous
+prohibitive laws against export, during the same period in force, long
+secured it a strict, and, even to a more recent period, a _quasi_
+monopoly, and gave it a start in the race, which seemed to leave all
+chance of foreign concurrence, or equal ratio of progression, out of the
+question altogether. Neither for spinning nor weaving could Russia, in
+particular, possess any other than machinery of the rudest kind, with
+hand labour, until perhaps subsequently to 1820. Her tariffs, even by
+special treaty of commerce, in 1797, were entirely favourable to the
+entrance and consumption of British fabrics. The prohibitory, or
+Continental system of Bonaparte, was indeed substituted after the treaty
+of Tilsit; but in 1816 a new tariff was promulgated, modifying the
+"prohibiting system of our trade," as the Emperor Alexander, in his
+ukase on the occasion, expressed it. By this tariff, cotton fabrics of
+all kinds were taxed twenty-five per cent in value only; cotton yarn,
+seven and a half copecs per cent; fine woollens, 1 ruble 25 copecs per
+arschine; kerseymeres and blankets, twenty-five per cent on value;
+flannels, camlets, druggets, cords, &c., fifteen per cent. How, then,
+has Russia, subject to all these disadvantages and drawbacks, and so
+late in the field, fared in comparison with this country, so long and so
+far before her? Let us take the Russian data first given for the two
+triennial periods, and ascertain the issue.
+
+The mean annual imports of cotton taken for consumption into Great
+Britain, deducting exports, may be thus stated in round numbers for the
+two terms, 1793-4-5 and 1837-8-9.
+
+       Annual imports,      1793-5.           1837-9.
+    Raw cotton,          22,000,000 lbs.   391,830,000 lbs.
+
+The ratio of progress of the manufacture, therefore, from one term to
+the other, of the forty-four years, was not far from eighteenfold.
+
+Reducing the quantities of cotton-yarn imported into Russia into the
+state of raw cotton, by an allowance of about three ounces in the pound,
+or nearly seven pounds per pood, for waste in the operations of
+spinning, we have the following approximate results:--
+
+    Annual imports,    1793-5.          1837-9.
+    Raw cotton,        69,700 poods.   1027,500 poods.
+
+The ratio of increase from term to term being thus the greater part of
+fifteenfold.
+
+But as the cotton manufacture, from circumstances referred to of
+favourable tariffs for importation--comparatively free-trade
+tariffs--did not begin fairly to shoot forth until 1822, it will be only
+right to try the question of comparative increase by another list,
+namely, as between the returns of the consumption of cotton respectively
+in the two countries for that year, and one of the later years, 1839,
+1840, or 1841; but say rather an average of the three. We are unable,
+however, to strike a corresponding average three years forward from, but
+inclusive of 1822, for want of the corresponding Russian official
+returns for two of the years. On the other hand, to take the one year of
+1839, when the quantity of cotton taken for consumption in this country
+was at a low ebb, would be like straining for an effect, which the
+impartial seeker after truth can have no object in doing, whilst the
+return for 1840 would be as much in excess the other way. Thus the total
+quantities of raw cotton taken for consumption in Great Britain were--
+
+    For the year 1822,                             144,180,000 lbs.
+    Average of the three years 1839, 1840, 1841,   440,146,000 ib.
+
+The ratio of progression in Great Britain, for the term of eighteen
+years, was somewhat more than threefold.
+
+The imports of raw cotton, and of cotton-yarn, rendered into cotton by
+an allowance in addition, at the rate of about three ounces per lb. for
+waste, or nearly seven pounds per pood, stand thus for Russia in round
+numbers:--
+
+    For the year 1822, in the shape of raw cotton,        55,838 poods.
+        ...      ...   Cotton yarn calculated into about 186,900
+                                                         -------
+                          Total cotton,                          242,738
+    Average raw cotton imports of 1839-40-41             355,673
+    Id. of cotton yarn calculated into cotton,           643,300
+                                                         -------
+                         Total cotton,                           998,973
+
+The ratio of increase in the cotton manufacture of Russia, for the same
+term of eighteen years, was therefore considerably more than fourfold.
+And this steady but extraordinary superiority of Russian progression
+took place in the face of all those prosperity years, when, from 1833 to
+1838, the British cotton manufacture was stimulated, and bloated to
+excess, with the high prices resulting from the flash bank-paper and
+loan system of the United States, and the mad joint-stock banking freaks
+of Lancashire.
+
+The average import and consumption of raw cotton in Russia, and of yarn
+calculated into cotton, was at the rate, on the average of the three
+years cited, of about, 35,963,000 lbs. per annum;
+
+Which approximates the position of the Russian with that of the cotton
+manufacture of France as existing in the year 1818, when the consumption
+of raw cotton is officially stated at, 16,974,159 kilogrammes;
+
+And with that of the cotton manufacture of the United States in 1828,
+when the quantity consumed at home was stated at about, 35,359,000 lbs.
+
+It will still be insisted, doubtless, as all along it has never failed
+to be the cuckoo-note of unreflecting theorists, that the manufactures
+of Russia have flourished, and are flourishing, in spite of protection;
+that the only effect of protection is to repress their growth and mar
+their perfection. The assertion stands ready-made, and ever the stock on
+hand; it is a rash and blindfold speculation upon chance and futurity,
+at the best; a building without a corner stone; a _chateau-d'Espagne_
+nowhere to be found. Where, except in the glowing fictions of
+Scheherezade, may the personification of such a phantom be detected?
+History, whether ancient or modern, may be ransacked in vain for one
+footprint of the realised existence and miraculous economical prodigies
+worked upon the absolute free-trade principle, in the spontaneous
+creation, the progress unrivalled, the prosperity Pactolean, of
+ingenious manufactures. The El-Dorado region has yet to be discovered;
+will Cobden, like another Columbus in search of new worlds, adventure
+upon the desperate enterprise, and furnish the writer of romance with
+apt materials for the frights and freaks of another "phantom ship" on
+the wide ocean? If so inclined, indeed, we may commend him to an
+undertaking now, at this present writing, in actual progress, as we
+learn from assured sources and high quarters, in Paris. A goodly ship of
+substantial proportions is now preparing in a French port, richly
+freighted for an interesting voyage with the products of French
+industry, with destination for the great sea-river of the Amazons, for
+navigating its thousands of miles of unploughed course, and exploring
+those realms untold of, those interminable wastes recorded, and those
+numberless nations as yet unknown, if existing, which coast the vast
+expanse of its waters to the utmost limits of Brazil, and the very
+confines of Bolivia, Peru, and Colombia. The King of the French is
+himself the patron and promoter of this great enterprise. Hasten, then,
+friend Cobden, erratic and chivalrous as Quixote of old, to "swell the
+breezes and partake the gale" of an expedition so glorious; for know,
+that on the banks of the noble Amazons itself, the magnificent
+queen-river, most worthy in the world of such distinction, have poets,
+romancers, and chroniclers, undoubting, from all time, sung of and
+planted the resplendent empire of the El-Dorado itself.
+
+Our design being to demonstrate, by the force of example and contrast,
+the sophistical absurdity of absolute theories, that, however naturally
+and harmoniously their parts may be made to correspond in thesis and
+system as a whole, according to which the same consequences, upon a
+given principle, should inevitably flow from certain causes, yet that,
+practically, it is found the same causes do not produce the same
+effects, even when circumstances are most analogous; that, for instance,
+the protective, or restrictive system of industry, under the rule of
+which Spain languishes, notwithstanding the abundant possession of the
+first materials for the promotion of manufacturing, and the prosperity
+of agricultural interests, proves, at the other extremity of Europe, the
+spring of successful progress and industrial accumulation, and renders
+Russia prosperous, though proportionally not more largely gifted with
+those natural elements of wealth and production which consist in
+fertility of soil, in mines of the precious metals, of coal, iron, &c.
+We shall pursue our task to its completion before we proceed to draw and
+sum up those conclusions which must follow from the premises
+established, before we enter in order upon the analysis and dissection
+of the one absolute principle or theory, by which, in the conceit of
+certain sage travellers on the royal railroad to wisdom, eager for the
+end and impatient of the toil of thinking, the economical destinies of
+all nations should be cut, carved, and adjusted _secundum artem_, with
+mathematical precision and uniformity, according to the rule invariable
+of robber Procrustes, the ancient founder of the sect, who constructed a
+bed--that is, a system of certain proportions of size--that is, upon a
+certain principle--upon which he laid his victims; those found too short
+to fit the dimensions of the pallet, he stretched and tortured into the
+length required; those too long he fitted by decapitating the
+superabundance of head and shoulders, or by squaring off the legs and
+feet; just as economists would sever nations with their invariable
+system; just as, with their selfish and one-sided, sordid idea, the
+junta of Leaguers, rule and plummet in hand, would deal with the British
+empire, with its vast possessions in every clime, on which the sun never
+sets, peopled by races numerous and diverse of origin as of interests,
+multifarious, complicated, often conflicting. "_L'et�t_," said Louis le
+Grand, "_c'est moi_." "The British empire"--bellows Syntax Cobden--"'tis
+_me_ and printed calicoes." "The British government and
+legislature"--exclaims Friend Bright--"'tis I and Rochdale flannel."
+
+It is a strange, and, with our qualified and not exclusive opinions, not
+less a discouraging complication of affairs with which we have to deal,
+that, look among the great nations where we will, we find, to a great
+extent, that the protective system of commerce, where in force, or where
+it has superseded a _quasi_ free-trade system before in force, has
+conduced, in no small degree, to the advancement of material interests.
+The Germanic Customs' Union, that peculiar handicraft creation of Lord
+Palmerston, is there to confirm the fact, no less than Russia, than
+France, than Belgium, and other lands. The League themselves
+ostentatiously proclaim it, whilst pretending to impugn the retention of
+the very shadow of a shade of the same principle, for the country, above
+all others, which has grown to greatness under it--the very breath of
+whose nostrils it has been, during the struggles of infancy and progress
+to that full-blown maturity, when assuredly it seeks, (and need seek
+only,) willingly proffers, and readily accepts, equality of
+condition--reciprocity of interchange, with all the world. "The
+Manchester manufacturer"--the false _nom-de-guerre_ of a calico printer,
+who was not a manufacturer at all, and could scarcely distinguish a
+calico from a cambric at the time of writing, who erst was, is yet,
+perchance, the trumpeter of Russian policy, Russian principles, and
+Russian progress in the East and elsewhere--must be grateful for the
+information we have already afforded on the full careering ascendency of
+Russian material interests also. His gratitude will expand as he
+accompanies these pages.
+
+Peter the Great laid the foundations of Russian manufactures, as of the
+Russian empire itself. He founded manufactories in all the larger
+cities. But with his death they fell into decay until the reign of
+Elizabeth. With that epoch began their revival, and the more rigorous
+revival also of the prohibitory system. Their present imposing
+appearance and magnitude date, however, from the peace of 1815, the
+great parent and promoter of all continental manufactures. In 1812 no
+more than 2,332 manufacturing establishments in the whole empire were in
+existence, employing 119,000 work-people; in 1835 the number of the
+former had reached to 6,015, and of the latter to 279,673, the half of
+the free labourers. At the beginning of 1839, says the report of the
+department of manufactures and internal commerce--the last which,
+hitherto, has been made up or come to our hands--the number of factories
+and manufactories had risen to 6,855, an increase over the year
+preceding of 405, whilst the number of workmen employed in them was
+412,931, an increase over the year before of 35,111. Thus, in the space
+of three years, from 1835 to the end of 1838, 810 new establishments had
+been organized, and the number of workmen augmented by one-half. These
+industrial establishments were non-inclusive of mining works, iron
+works, &c., and the people employed in them. They were classed as
+follows:--
+
+    Woollen manufactories,        606
+    Silk    ib.                   227
+    Cotton  ib.                   467
+    Linen   ib.                   216
+    Tanneries,                   1918
+    Tallow works,                 554
+    Candle  ib.                   444
+    Soap    ib.                   270
+    Hardware ib.                  486
+
+The seat of Russian manufactures is principally in the central portion
+of the empire, in its ancient capital Moscow, and the surrounding
+provinces. The progress of Moscow itself may be thus briefly sketched,
+after remarking that in the beginning of 1839 there existed in the
+government, of which it was the capital city, 1058 manufactories,
+employing 83,054 work-people. In the 315 manufactories of the
+neighbouring province of Vladimir, 83,655 work-people were employed; in
+the equally adjacent province of Kalouga, 164 manufactories gave work to
+20,401 workmen. The population of Moscow, the Manchester of Russia,
+amounted in 1825 to 241,514; in 1827 it had risen to 257,694; in 1830 to
+305,631; in 1833 to 333,260; in 1840 to 347,224. The principal
+manufactories were thus classed for the latter year.
+
+    Silk manufacture,        68  looms, 2217
+    Cotton ib.              139    ib.  7252
+    Woollen cloth ib.        51    ib.  2960
+    Other woollen stuff ib.  16    ib.   579
+    Shawl ib.                17    ib.   282
+
+In thirteen of the chief factories there were 263 spinning machines;
+three cotton factories alone contained 138. Besides these larger
+establishments, 3122 workshops, not considerable enough to be ranked as
+manufactories, employed alone 19,638 work-people; and 142 industrial
+establishments, such as founderies, breweries, distilleries, tallow and
+soap works, &c., gave bread to thousands more.
+
+The consumption of the principal raw materials of manufacture is thus
+stated as an average of that and recent preceding years.
+
+    Cotton for the twenty spinneries of Moscow, 100,000 poods per an.
+    Cotton yarn,                                300,000      ...
+    Dyed cotton yarn                                200      ...
+    Raw silk,                                    30,000      ...
+    Dye woods,                                  100,000      ...
+    Madder,                                     250,000      ...
+
+The machinery for the manufactories is made for the most part in the
+founderies and machine-works of Vladimir, Tamboff, Kalouga, and Riazan,
+but, above all, in the city of Tula and the village of Parlovo. In
+McCulloch's _Statistical Dictionary_, the number of steam-engines in the
+government of Moscow is stated, for 1830, at about 100--in 1820, two
+only being in existence. On what authority the statement is given does
+not appear; our own documents, to 1841 inclusive, are silent on that
+head. For Moscow, with its immediate environs, the total number and the
+produce of the cotton looms are thus given:--
+
+    Cotton loom,                      17,000
+    Producing annually,              450,000 pieces of calico
+          Do.                        400,000   do.  of nankeen
+          Do. above,               2,000,000   do.  of handkerchiefs
+    In the whole, inclusive
+      of other goods, such as
+      muslins, velvets, &c., &c.,
+      equal to above,             40,000,000 arschines of fabrics
+    Valued at                      7,500,000 silver rubles.
+
+The arschine is about twenty-eight English inches. The silk manufacture,
+of recent establishment only in Moscow, presented the following results,
+for that city and the surrounding districts:--
+
+    Number of common looms,               10,000
+    Jacquard, more than                    5,000
+    Producing annually,               15,000,000 arschines of st
+    Valued at                         10,000,000 silver rubles.
+
+The woollen manufactories of Moscow, inclusive of the environs, employed
+apart smaller loom shops:--
+
+    Looms,                  5,139
+    Producing yearly,      30,000 pieces of superior quality
+         Do. more than     50,000 do. ordinary for the army
+    And          do.      700,000 arschines of light cloths for China.
+
+The values not given. The imports of merchandise from Moscow by water,
+of which alone exact and detailed particulars are stated, amounted in--
+
+    1837, to               22,881,000 rubles assignation
+    1838,                  22,074,563       ...
+    1839,                  17,467,391       ...
+    1840,                  28,283,877       ...
+
+Three and a half rubles assignation, are equal to one silver ruble.
+Moscow enjoys the advantage of being an internal bonded port, or port of
+intrep�t, a privilege now seeking by Manchester, so that importers of
+foreign merchandise are not called upon for the payment of duties until
+the moment when, withdrawing their imports, or any other portion of them
+as occasion requires, the payment becomes necessary. Formerly the duties
+had to be paid in the frontier ports, and often in bulk. The customhouse
+revenue resulting, amounted in--
+
+    1837, to                  637,074 rubles assignation
+    1838,                     614,464       ...
+    1839,                     626,764       ...
+    1840,                     776,021       ...
+    1841,                     898,398       ...
+
+These returns are proof indisputable of industrial and social progress.
+It is unnecessary further to remark upon the great and growing
+importance of other branches of industry in Moscow, or to extend the
+limits of this notice so far as to comprise a review of the iron and
+hardware manufactories, and the numerous tanneries of Tula and Perm. The
+active movement of internal commerce, may, however, be inferred from the
+returns of products exhibited and sold at twelve fairs held annually,
+with one thrice, and another twice, in the year, the total value of
+which exposed for sale in 1840, was stated at 101,551,000 silver rubles,
+and of the quantity actually sold at 64,326,700 rubles. Of which alone
+at--
+
+                             On Sale.         Sold.
+    Nijny Novgorod, for    47,264,967    38,828,984 silver rubles
+    Irbit,                 12,232,286     7,682,000     ...
+    Romna, 2d fair          9,001,904     4,454,747     ...
+    Kharkoff, 1st fair,     5,743,280     2,944,390     ...
+    Koursk,                 7,014,802     2,014,834     ...
+
+The great fair of Nijny Novgorod may rival with Leipzig in the magnitude
+of its transactions. In 1841, the general movement of values at this
+fair is thus returned:--
+
+Merchandise for sale, 50,506,606 silver rubles, or 176,773,121 rbls. ass.
+Sold,                 41,704,236      ...          145,964,826    ...
+
+By decree of the government, within the last three years, the public
+accounts, before kept in rubles assignation, that is government paper
+money, were ordered to be reckoned in silver rubles. For purposes of
+comparison with former years, we state them in both. Of the mass of
+commodities thus in motion at the fair, there were of Russian
+manufactures and indigenous products, to the total value of 37,132,693
+silver rubles exposed for sale, and for 29,762,473 sold; some other
+chief articles ranging thus;--
+
+                                  For sale.        Sold.
+    Cotton goods,                 7,336,665    5,947,865 silver rubles.
+    Woollens,                     3,448,295    2,620,175     ...
+    Linen and hempen fabrics,     3,126,736    2,375,736     ...
+    Silks,                        3,220,489    2,239,989     ...
+    Leather, worked and not,      1,043,583      876,083     ...
+    Produce of mines and
+      founderies, iron, copper,
+      hardware, jewellery,        7,600,330    6,450,330     ...
+
+Tea, for 7,107,500 rubles assignation, and other products of China, were
+brought to the fair; raw cotton, cotton-yarn, shawls, silks, skins, &c.
+from Persia and Asia, to the value of 29,796,819 roubles assignation,
+and chiefly sold. Of the products of Western Europe, which make but a
+miserable exhibit, the following are the chief:--
+
+    Woollen stuffs, for           256,455 silver rubles.
+    Cottons,                      510,830     ...
+    Linens and hempen fabrics,    192,300     ...
+    Silks,                        423,130     ...
+    Indigo,                       918,000     ...
+
+The growing magnitude of this fair will be appreciated by the following
+returns of former years:--
+
+           Total commodities
+               for sale.                Rubles assignation.
+    1829,    104,018,586 of which sold for 50,104,971  rbls. ass.
+    1831,    129,457,600        ...        98,329,520      ...
+    1833,    146,207,311        ...       117,210,670      ...
+    1835,    143,369,240        ...       117,743,340      ...
+    1837,    146,638,181        ...       125,507,881      ...
+    1838,    156,192,500        ...       129,234,500      ...
+    1839,    161,643,674        ...       137,100,774      ...
+    1840,    165,427,384        ...       135,901,454      ...
+
+The convenience of these fairs for the purposes of interchange, both
+between different industries and the populations of different provinces
+of the same empire, and with contiguous countries from which so great an
+affluence of merchants with their merchandise for exchange was
+attracted, has induced the government to decree the establishment of
+eleven new fairs in different towns, and fifty-nine others in as many
+large villages, which, in growing size, may be already compared with
+towns.
+
+The internal commercial communications of Russia are chiefly carried on
+by means of those innumerable rivers and canals, that network of natural
+and artificial canals, by which she is intersected through all her
+extent, and which, taking their rise in various central parts of the
+empire, pursue their course singly, or falling into each other, and so
+constituting mighty streams, to the White sea and the Baltic, or fall
+into the Black sea and the Caspian. The total movement of this internal
+navigation in all the rivers, presented the following results:--
+
+    Departures from the different ports
+      in the interior in 1839, 60,277 barques.
+                (   do.        24,421 rafts.
+    Arrivals at (   do.        46,850 barques.
+                (   do.        17,469 rafts.
+
+    They were the convoys of merchandise
+     dispatched from the ports
+     to the value of                    737,814,276 rubles ass.
+    Of merchandise forwarded to do.     538,921,730    ...
+    In 1837 the values dispatched
+      from, ascended only to            618,990,306    ...
+        Do.           forwarded to      490,505,940    ...
+
+The various and many basins of river and water communication,
+scientifically arranged, and showing how all parts of that vast empire
+are connected with each other through all and nearly every portion of
+its territorial extent, as in the report before us, is a document worthy
+of study and more minute analysis, but our limits forbid.
+
+The foreign commerce of Russia presents the following results for
+1841:--
+
+    Exports to foreign countries, 86,382,179 silver rubles.
+    Imports from         do.      79,429,490     ...
+
+The Russian official tables include, under the head of foreign commerce,
+the exports and imports with Finland and Poland; but as they fall within
+the range, in reality, of internal commerce, the accounts are better
+simplified by their exclusion. The system of separate returns results,
+doubtless, from the political arrangements and conventions by which
+Russia acquired the possession of those two countries.
+
+The progress of exports and imports may be thus indicated:--
+
+                1838.        1839.       1840.
+    Exports, 85,718,930   94,857,788   82,731,386 silver rubles.
+    Imports, 69,693,824   69,993,589   76,726,490     ...
+
+The remarkable excess of exports in 1839 resulted from the large demand
+for, and shipments of, corn in that year--the official value of which is
+stated at 25,217,027 silver rubles; the smallest export, so far as
+value, being that of 1841, valued at 10,382,509 silver rubles only.
+Exclusive of corn, the exports would stand thus:--
+
+    1838 for  70,562,252 silver rubles.
+    1839      69,640,761     ...
+    1840      68,704,971     ...
+    1841      75,999,670     ...
+
+Gold and silver, in bars or specie, are not comprised in these returns.
+
+    For 1841 the values thus exported were, 4,023,728 silver rubles.
+     ...     ...   ...       imports,       9,347,867      ib.
+
+It is necessary, however, to travel more backwards in order to a right
+appreciation of the progress of the foreign trade of Russia. This
+comparison is here instituted with earlier years, premising that the
+exports to Poland and Finland, amounting to some ten or twelve millions
+of rubles assignation, and imports from, amounting to about three
+millions, are included, and therefore swell the amount of the imports
+and exports of the following years. However, to facilitate the
+comparison, the silver ruble values of 1841 are multiplied into
+corresponding ruble assignation values:
+
+               Exportations.   Importations.   Balance in favour of
+                                                     Russia.
+    In 1830     268,887,342     197,115,340     71,772,002 rb. as.
+       1836     283,748,233     237,251,204     13,733,196
+       1837     264,485,160     251,757,177     12,727,983
+       1841     302,337,626     378,003,215     24,334,411
+
+Add 11,808,743 rubles assignation for exports to, and 4,792,346 imports
+from, Poland and Finland in 1841, and the real comparison would be, for
+1841, exports 314,146,349, imports 282,795,561; balance in favour of
+1841, 31,350,688 rubles assignation.
+
+The bulk of Russian exportations consists of raw or first materials,
+such as flax, hemp, flax-seed, oil, tallow, leather, woad, metals, and
+of which to the aggregate value in 1841, of 59,773,354 silver rubles was
+exported; an amount nearly stationary as compared with the three
+previous years. But the export of Russian manufactures, viz. woollens,
+cottons, linens, candles, cordage, and cloths for China, had improved in
+aggregate amount from,--
+
+                     Silver Rubles.
+    In 1838,           6,527,222
+    To, in 1841,      10,259,209
+
+It was the trade with China by Kiachta, and latterly also by the line of
+Siberia, which, however, had perhaps taken the most remarkable
+extension, and was held to be most promising of future progress and
+profit. The imports, and therefore the consumption, of tea in Russia,
+are growing annually larger; and the exports of Russian products and
+manufactures to China, equally in proportion. For by mutual convention,
+as dictated by China, for regulating the commercial intercourse between
+the two countries strictly limited to that frontier river port, although
+now indirectly countenanced by Siberia, the trade is exclusively one of
+barter; tea and silks for leather, furs, cottons, woollens, and linens.
+A condition, be it observed, which serves to place beyond all doubt the
+fact, that it was not the introduction and consumption, with the
+deterioration to the health of the population resulting, physically and
+morally, from the use of opium, which had so much effect with the
+celestial Emperor in provoking the late war with Great Britain, as the
+abstraction by export in payment, and the drain so constant, of Sycee
+silver. The imports of tea in--
+
+                                             Poods.      Silver Rubles.
+    1838, By Kiachta, were, of good and
+              ordinary quality,             127,645  value  2,015,189
+          By the line of Siberia,                10   ...         600
+                                           --------         ---------
+                                            127,655   ...   2,015,789
+                                           --------         ---------
+
+    1841, By Kiachta,                       168,218   ...   6,976,363
+          By the line of Siberia and
+              Caspian Sea,                    1,364   ...      66,293
+                                           --------         ---------
+                                            169,582   ...   7,012,656
+
+Besides which, the imports of an inferior tea, called _brick tea_,
+amounted to the value of 359,223 silver rubles in 1841. In three years,
+the general trade, China silks inclusive, had therefore more than
+trebled so far as value; for it is remarkable, that though larger
+quantities of tea are imported, yet prices, so far from declining, had
+actually considerably advanced; which proves that the commodity was
+becoming a favourite beverage, and gaining into more general
+consumption, in Russia. The values of the Russian merchandise, such as
+stated, which passed in barter, are said to have been equally sustained.
+It may be noted, indeed, as an extraordinary fact, that whilst, as the
+official report of the department of commerce observes, the prices and
+values of almost all foreign raw products and manufactured wares
+imported into Russia, during the three or four years preceding 1841, and
+including 1841, entered constantly, and some at considerably depreciated
+rates, in the reverse the products of Russia, exported to Europe and
+elsewhere during the same period, quantity for quantity, generally
+improved in prices and ascended in value.
+
+    The foreign commerce of Russia by sea was carried on, during the year
+    1841, by 2,596 vessels, inwards loaded, tonnage,     452,760
+             2,174 do. in ballast,               do.     410,164
+             -----                                       -------
+    Totals,  4,770                                       862,924
+             -----                                       -------
+             4,582 do. outwards loaded,          do.     819,232
+               312 do.  do. in ballast,          do.      58,046
+             -----                                       -------
+    Totals,  4,894                                       877,278
+
+In the coasting trade in the Northern seas, the number of vessels
+dispatched from port to port was 2007, in the Black Sea, 5,275.
+
+The revenue from customs in 1841 amounted to 27,387,494 silver rubles,
+or upwards of two-fifths in excess of the receipts of 1830.
+
+In order to exemplify the nature of the trade betwixt Great Britain and
+Russia, and exhibit it in its most disadvantageous aspect, we shall add
+here, from statements verified as authentic by competent authorities on
+the spot, the returns of British trade and shipping with certain Russian
+ports for 1842, which we have recently received direct. They will assist
+us to a conception of the relative importance of each place in respect
+of its commercial connexion with this country.
+
+The commerce of the port of Archangel, omitting from the table Onega,
+Kola, Kemi, and Soumsk, the other ports in the White Sea, their traffic
+being inconsiderable, is thus represented.
+
+    1842.--Total shipping outward, 212, of which,
+             British, 153, tonnage,                               31,704
+    Total imports, (exclusive of L.13,816
+             by Norway coasters,)                               L.18,384
+    Of which from Great Britain,                                   L.801
+    Total exports, (omitting L.22,236 to Norway,)              L.427,789
+    Of which to Great Britain,                                 L.305,823
+    In 1841, 176 vessels exported for
+             Great Britain the value,                          L.408,077
+      Exclusive of cargoes by 2 other vessel, to the amount
+        of L.7,208, for the Hanse towns and Holland.
+    In 1840, 250 vessels, tonnage 48,249, exported to
+      Great Britain the value of                               L.442,381
+    Exclusive of 6 British vessels which carried cargoes to
+      the Hanse towns, France, and Italy,
+      of the aggregate value of                                 L.12,858.
+
+The commerce with Riga exhibits a somewhat more favourable proportion
+between imports and exports, and we are induced, therefore, to give the
+return of imports for 1842 in same detail as received.
+
+Nature and value of merchandise imported into Riga from Great Britain
+during the year 1842:--
+
+    Coffee,                                         L.2,500  0 0
+    Cotton,                                          11,011  0 0
+    Cotton twist, L.21,159, 10s; do. goods, L.1135,  22,294  0 0
+    Woollen goods,                                    4,100 16 8
+    Woollen twist,                                   19,057  3 4
+    Indigo and other dyes,                           13,764  0 0
+    Dye-woods,                                        2,718  6 8
+    Salt,                                            53,269  3 4
+    Sugar,                                           24,882 10 0
+    Wines and brandies,                              19,200 13 4
+    Iron and steel wares,                             7,025  0 0
+    Spices and drugs,                                13,440  6 8
+    Non-enumerated articles,                         12,527 10 0
+                                                     -----------
+    Total,                                        L.205,791  0 0
+
+Countries from whence British vessels have arrived at the port of Riga
+during the year 1842:--
+
+                  No. of vessels. Tonnage.              Remarks.
+    United Kingdom,    387        59,629     With cargoes and in ballast.
+    Hamburg,             6         1,261     In ballast.
+    Denmark,            21         3,730         ...
+    Norway,             13         2,438         ...
+    France,              5           670         ...
+    Belgium,             1           484         ...
+    Holland,             6         1,018         ...
+    Prussia,             4           562         ...
+    Sweden,              3           669         ...
+                       ---        ------
+          Total,       446        70,461
+
+                                  Total value of      Countries to
+                                   exportations      whence exported.
+    1842 exports.        Tons.   to Great Britain.
+    British vessels, 446 70,461    L.1,527,810 5 4    United Kingdom.
+
+The commerce of Odessa represents a closer approximation still between
+imports and exports; and they would perhaps nearly balance, but for the
+large shipments of wheat to this country, which contribute to swell the
+exports.
+
+    In 1842, 174 British ships entered, tonnage 44,428,
+      sailed 176 tonnage,                                 L.44,929
+    Total value of imports by them,                        185,870
+    Of which, from the United Kingdom,                     184,370
+    The remainder by 64 British vessels entering from
+      Leghorn, Turkey,
+      Algiers, Amsterdam, mostly in ballast.
+    Total average of exports,                              784,865
+    Of which, to the United Kingdom,                       776,995
+    The remainder to the countries above named.
+    1841, Total imports by British ships,                  147,950
+            Do. exports      do.                           590,570
+    1840, Total imports by British ships,                  130,660
+            Do. exports      do.                           859,090
+
+The commerce of St Petersburg is stated, for 1812, imports and exports
+together, at the value of 97,795,415 silver rubles. And of 1147 foreign
+vessels which left that port and Cronstadt with cargoes, more or less,
+515 were British, of 117,793 tonnage--being a rather considerably less
+number than in either 1840 or 1841.
+
+The present is the proper occasion to remark upon and explain the system
+of official valuation pursued in Russia, by which it will be observed
+how the real value, both of imports and exports, is swelled, probably
+with a view to the vain display of a greater commerce than is really
+carried on. As the system is nearly the same for both imports and
+exports, it cannot, of course, materially interfere with, or impeach the
+accuracy of the general balance-sheet. It is desirable, however, that
+the facts should be fairly represented, for the guidance of those who
+may be in the habit of consulting and comparing the official documents
+of different countries; and they will serve moreover to explain, in some
+degree, the extraordinary discrepancies which have been found betwixt
+the declared values of British products and manufactures exported to
+Russia, as published in the Board of Trade tables, and the same exports
+as exhibited in Russian customhouse returns.
+
+In calculating the annual value of importations, it is the rule in the
+Russian customhouses to add the duties paid on the entry of goods to
+their original value. This practice in Russia, where the duties are so
+high, swells the value of imports far beyond their true amount, and
+gives a false and exaggerated view of them.
+
+With respect to the exports, nearly the same practice exists. In
+calculating their value, all the shipping charges are added to the cost
+of the article; and we are informed by merchants resident in Russia,
+that on comparing the annual Government statements of exports for their
+establishments, they are found to correspond with the invoices forwarded
+to their foreign correspondents, which, of course, include commission,
+and all the expenses attendant on the shipping of the goods. The law
+also requires that the shipper, on clearing merchandise for export
+through the customhouse, should declare its value. With a view of
+preserving uniformity, the Russian authorities, from time to time, fix a
+standard price at which particular articles shall be valued for export
+at the customhouse. To exemplify the evil of this system, it is
+necessary only to mention that oats, for example, could lately be
+purchased at a Baltic port at sixty silver rubles per last, while the
+latest customhouse standard values them at eighty silver rubles per
+last. This practice is no way injurious to the merchant, but only
+unnaturally swells the tables of exports when annually made up by the
+Russian Government. A shipper, therefore, of any of the articles
+included in the Russian standard, is compelled to state a much greater
+value at the customhouse than he furnishes to his foreign correspondent,
+who, of course, only pays the market price of the article, with the
+additional shipping expenses.
+
+The difficulty, such as it is, might be obviated, were the masters of
+British merchantmen compelled by law to submit their ship's papers, on
+arrival and departure, to the British consuls at each port, who would
+then be placed on the same footing with the consuls of other countries,
+and be enabled to communicate much important statistical information to
+their Government, of the opportunity for acquiring and transmitting
+which they are now deprived.
+
+Our review of Russian commerce and industry would be more incomplete
+than it is, if we were to omit all notice of the vast mining wealth of
+that empire. But our limits, already nearly reached, do not admit of
+more than a passing reference. Suffice it, that in coal, both bituminous
+and anthracite, in iron and other metals, and salt, constituting the raw
+materials, Russia is rich enough for all her wants, and indeed supplies
+the great bulk of those wants within herself, with to spare in some of
+these products for her neighbours and other countries. Her mines are
+annually increasing in productiveness and number, as enterprise is
+extended and capital invested in them, and as domestic manufactures and
+improving agriculture increasingly absorb their produce. The
+treasure-yielding progress of her gold mines is one of the extraordinary
+events of the age. The existence of gold in Siberia was scarcely
+suspected till 1829. The first researches of adventuring individuals
+were attended with no success. Feodot Popoff, one of the earliest,
+succeeded at length in that year, when all others had abandoned the
+undertaking as hopeless, in discovering traces, and procuring some
+inconsiderable specimens, of gold--not in quantity, however, to repay
+the working; and the doubts before existing seemed confirmed as to the
+fruitlessness of further perseverance in the search. Major-General
+Kovalevsky, of the engineers of mines, having been appointed governor of
+Tomsk, renewed the attempt in 1830; and, at the close of that year, his
+indefatigable labours, and more methodical plan of operations, were
+rewarded with the discovery of a first considerable stratum of
+auriferous sands, which was designated Y�gorievsky, (St George.)
+Adventurers flocked into the district forthwith, and in numbers, upon
+the widespreading news; and excellently did renewed labours recompense
+the zeal of the more fortunate; numerous were the discoveries of layers
+of golden sands. In one of these, last year, a massive piece of native
+gold, weighing 24-1/2 pounds Russian, (the Russian pound is about 1-1/2
+oz. less than the English,) was discovered embedded in a fragment of
+quartz, and is now deposited in the museum of the School of Mines at St
+Petersburg. The yield of the Siberian mines has since been at the
+following rate of progression--omitting the intermediate years for
+brevity, although in every year there was an increase of quantity upon
+the preceding:--
+
+    1830    5 poods, 32 lbs., 59-1/2 zdotnicks.
+    1832   21  ---   34 ---   68-3/4    ---
+    1834   65  ---   18 ---   90-3/8    ---
+    1836  105  ---    9 ---   41        ---
+    1838  193  ---    6 ---   47-1/2    ---
+    1840  255  ---   27 ---   26-3/8    ---
+    1842  631  ---    5 ---   21-1/4    ---
+
+The total of the thirteen years has been 2093 poods, 38 lbs., 46 zd. The
+pood, be it remembered, is equal to (rather more than) 36 lbs.
+avoirdupois.
+
+    The total general yield of the older worked mines
+    of the Oural mountains for 1842, was, besides,
+                     149 poods, 18 lbs., 58 zd.
+    And of platina,   53   --   33  --   67  --
+
+On a rough estimation, the produce of all the gold, platina, and silver
+from the silver mines, could not have amounted to less, perhaps, for the
+year 1842, than three millions sterling.
+
+According to the learned academician K�ppen, of St Petersburg, in a
+lengthened memoir upon the subject, the total population of Russia,
+inclusive of Poland, Finland, and Trans-Caucasian provinces, ascended in
+
+                       1839 to 65,000,000
+    Or of Russia Proper alone, 55,500,000
+
+With an empire so gigantic, a population so large, however
+disproportioned as compared with territory, and with resources so
+incalculable, it must appear extraordinary that foreign commercial
+relations are so limited. The total of exports and imports together for
+1841, represents only, in round numbers, a commercial movement to the
+value of 165,811,000 silver rubles, or in sterling, about L.25,907,300.
+The matter which most concerns this country, is the very
+disproportionate interest which results to its share in the export and
+import trade of Russia. Taking the latest British returns of the value
+of Russian products imported into England, for the Board of Trade tables
+give quantities only, as we find them stated by Mr McGregor, the
+indefatigable secretary of that board, for 1838, at L.6,977,396, or say,
+
+    in round numbers            L.7,000,000
+    And British exports at the
+    declared value here of,
+    say,                          1,700,000
+                                -----------
+    There would appear to result
+    the very heavy difference
+    against the United
+    Kingdom of                  L.5,300,000
+
+But bad as the case may be, it is not quite so bad as these figures
+would represent. It must not be forgotten in this sort of calculation,
+that shipping, freights, insurances, and commissions, represent property
+quite as substantially in the commercial sense, as even Mr Cobden's
+printed calicos, or friend Bright's flannel pieces. Now, we think it
+might admit of proof, that as much as nine-tenths of all the produce
+brought to this country from Russia, is so brought in British bottoms,
+and so also of the exports to Russia; although in 1840, the last of the
+Board of Trade tables containing such particulars, no more than 1629
+British vessels, of 340,567 tonnage, against 296 foreign, of 79,152
+tonnage, entered British ports from Russia--the proportions being much
+the same outwards; but whether the foreign were all Russian vessels may
+be doubted. Let us assume, however, that no more than three-fourths of
+both imports and exports were so carried, and leaving three-fourths
+British freights outwards to balance Russian one-fourth freights inwards
+and outwards, let us in fairness estimate the worth of that freightage
+in reduction of the enormous balance against us. As for Spain, in our
+last Number, we took twenty per cent to cover all the freightage
+charges, before indicated, on her commodities of less bulk though more
+value in proportion, twenty-five per cent on the average will not be too
+much, certainly, to cover those charges on the more bulky products of
+Russia, more especially when the long, costly, and intricate navigation
+of the Baltic, and the White and Black Seas, are taken into account. The
+calculation will then stand thus:--
+
+    Imports from Russia,                      L.7,000,000
+    Deduct twenty-five per cent freightage, &c.
+      as British property and profit,           1,750,000
+                                              -----------
+    Real value of imports as on board in Russia,            L.5,250,000
+    Declared value of ex-British exports to Russia,
+                                              L.1,700,000
+    Value of British freightage, &c., as above,
+                                                1,750,000
+                                              -----------   L.3,450,000
+                                                            -----------
+    Real approximative balance in favour of Russia,         L.1,800,000
+
+or say two millions, as the three-fourths produce of outward freight
+would, perhaps, not quite compensate the one-fourth on inward and
+outward cargoes to the Russian shipping. Even such a balance is
+exclusively and unjustly large against a country which, like Great
+Britain, is a consumer of Russian products to the extent of
+seven-twelfths of the total exports of Russia to all the world. The
+consequence is, that the rate of exchange is almost invariably against
+this country. Lord Howick, indeed, most quixotically deals with adverse
+exchanges; he disposes of them summarily, and in a style that must have
+astonished the people on 'Change. This disciple and representative of Mr
+Edward Gibbon Wakefield's economics in the House of Commons, as Lord
+Durham was before his political disciple, and the victim of his schemes
+colonial, thus decisively disposes of adverse exchanges in the
+celebrated debate on Import Duties, taking Portugal for an example.
+
+    "A large increase of importations from Portugal would
+    necessarily be attended by a proportionate increase of our
+    export trade. Was it not clear that every merchant who imported
+    a pipe of wine would anticipate the bills drawn against him on
+    account of it, and that, whatever would be the increase in the
+    amount of imports, there would be a corresponding increase in
+    the amount of the bills drawn against us? How were our
+    merchants to provide for them? There would be no difficulty in
+    it, whether the trade of Portugal increased legally or
+    illegally. Suppose an increase of imports into Portugal, there
+    would be an immediate demand for bills to Portugal. _The
+    consequence would be, that if there was any other country from
+    which Portugal received more than it exported, the bill-brokers
+    would get bills from that country_, and our manufactures would
+    be sent there instead of to Portugal. Admit that you could not
+    find in any other country the means of discharging your debt by
+    importation of your manufactures, bills on Portugal should then
+    rise to a certain premium, and gold and silver would be sent to
+    discharge the debt. The gold and silver would come from some
+    other country, and the consequence would be that we should send
+    our manufactures, not to Portugal, but to South America; while
+    Portugal would be obliged to send the bullion to some other
+    country that it might carry on a smuggling trade with its
+    neighbour, Spain. It was impossible for the ingenuity of man to
+    point out any different result."
+
+The "bill-brokers" will be greatly amused with the new line of business
+chalked out for them, of "getting bills" from other countries when short
+in this. There are two descriptions of "bill brokers," but the class
+bearing that designation purely deal with domestic bills only. The other
+class are known as "exchange brokers," because they meddle only with
+foreign bills; but as to "getting bills" from abroad when bills are
+wanting here, that trustworthy and respectable description of agents
+certainly never dreams of such an occupation. Lord Howick would seem to
+imagine that manufactories of bills existed specially abroad, and that
+people could draw with as much nonchalance from Paris or from Hamburg,
+upon Jack Nokes and Tom Styles at Amsterdam or Frankfort, as here Lord
+Huntingtower accepted for his dear friend the Colonel values uncared
+for, or as folks familiarly talk of valuing an Aldgate pump when an
+accommodation bill is in question. May we venture to hint to the member
+for commercial Sunderland, the _ex_ for Northumberland, that the
+functions of "exchange brokers" extend no further than to ask A if he
+has any bills to sell, and B if he is a buyer; whereupon he has only
+further to learn what rate the one will purchase and the other sell at;
+that knotty point arranged, the bargain is concluded, and he receives
+his very small percentage. The operations are carried on every day, more
+or less, but on Tuesdays and Fridays, being especially "post days" on
+London 'Change, where Lord Howick any day may be initiated in the
+mystery, if not punctilious about being unceremoniously elbowed and
+jostled about.
+
+In the principle of protection, we hold Russia to be perfectly in her
+right and her interest; in the abuse of it, she damages herself.
+Prohibition is not protection; restrictive duties equal to absolute
+prohibition, like the 85 per cent prohibitory tax, formerly levied here
+on Indian cotton fabrics, in favour of Lancashire, are not protection in
+the legitimate sense. The late Emperor Alexander hit the true nail of
+principle on the head when, in 1819, he reformed the Russian tariff on
+the calculation of imposts ranging from fifteen to forty per cent. We
+are, nevertheless, bound to say, that, even as protection is understood
+in its exaggerated sense by the Autocrat, the system has worked well for
+Russia, as indeed we have shown. She has accumulated wealth by that
+system; she has secured by it the possession of a large proportion of
+those precious metals, which are indispensable no less as the medium of
+foreign exchanges and balances, than as the means by which, above all
+other means, the operations of industry, and the employment of labour,
+are facilitated at home. How would industry progress, and wages be
+dispensed, if the master manufacturer could offer payment of wages only
+in yards or pieces of cloth, the iron-master in ore, or the
+land-proprietor in oxen, sheep, corn, hay, or cabbages? In respect of
+commercial balances, that of Great Britain against Russia is liquidated
+probably, to some extent, by the yearly balance resulting against Russia
+in her dealings with Persia; for the policy of Russia is to favour the
+commerce of Asia, whilst oppressing that with Europe, and Persia is
+always indebted to Great Britain. She has, however, the game in her own
+hands. Can we wonder that she plays it to her own advantage,
+half-political, half-commercial? She knows as well as we feel keenly,
+that the raw materials, in which she is so rich, are indispensable for
+our use; she charges accordingly. The time may come when we shall be
+more independent of her, and then, then only, she will conform to
+altered circumstances. The able and distinguished diplomatist at her
+court, Lord Stuart de Rothesay, who succeeded in the arduous task of
+negotiating the recent treaty of navigation with that crafty Government,
+is the man also who will not be slow to avail himself of any favourable
+conjuncture for turning circumstances to account, and redressing the
+adverse balance now against this country.
+
+As before said, our intention, on this occasion, is not to dissect
+principles or theories, but to present facts. We have still more in
+store for the absolute theory men. But, in concluding, we may be allowed
+to observe, that the causes why a restrictive and exclusive system does
+answer for Russia, and, on the contrary, tends to the ruin of Spain, are
+simply these:--The raw materials of Russia are indispensable for this
+and other manufacturing countries, because cheaper and more abundant
+than can be elsewhere procured, and the price of labour is low. The raw
+products of Spain necessary for manufactures are, on the reverse, dear
+priced; her products of luxury, even, are dear; her rates of labour are
+higher than in this or any other country of Europe. Two shillings and
+sixpence a-day, or fifteen shillings a-week; with, besides Sundays, a
+hundred saints' days or holidays in the year, put her labour and produce
+quite _hors de combat_ in the race of competition. A Spanish operative
+would no more toil on a _dia de dos cruces_, (two saints on one day,)
+than he would fast on a feast-day, with an odorous _olla podrida_ before
+him on the table.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+INDEX TO VOL. LIII.
+
+
+    [Transcriber's note: The page numbers refer to editions 327 to
+    332, published between January and June 1843, according to the
+    following table:
+
+      Edition 327, pages   1-140, dated January 1843,
+              328,       141-280,       February,
+              329,       281-414,       March,
+              330,       415-550,       April,
+              331,       551-692,       May,
+              332,       693-826,       June.]
+
+Aden, on the occupation of, 484.
+Affghanistan, the war in, 17
+  review of the events in, 239
+  the evacuation of, 266.
+Agriculture, the practice of, 415.
+Akhbar Khan, murder of Macnaghten by, 257
+  defeat of, at Tazeen, 269.
+Amalia, from the German of Schiller, 442.
+Ammal�t Bek, a tale, translated from the Russian,
+  Translator's preface, 281
+  Chap. I., 288
+  Chap. II., 296
+  Chap. III., 464
+  Chap. IV., 471
+  Chap. V., 478
+  Chap. VI., 568
+  Chap. VII., 573
+  Chap. VIII., 579
+  Chap. IX., 584
+  Chap. X., 746
+  Chap. XI., 750
+  Chap. XII., 752
+  Chap. XIII., 755
+  Chap. XIV. 759.
+Anti-Corn Law League, failure of the, 6.
+Antique at Paris, the, from Schiller, 312.
+Antique, the, to the Northern Wanderer, 312.
+Aristocracies of London life, the, 67
+  the aristocracy of fashion, 68
+  of power, 227
+  of talent, 386.
+Arnold's lectures on history, review of, 141.
+Astronomical works, from Schiller, 311.
+Attorney's Clerk in the Monk's Hood, the, a review of Chatterton, 780.
+Auckland, Lord, remarks on his policy in India, 18, 266.
+
+Bailey, Mr, his Reply to an Article in Blackwood's Magazine,
+  on Berkeley's Theory of Vision, 762.
+Ballads of Schiller, the, see Schiller.
+Battle, the, from Schiller, 446.
+Battle of the Blocks, the, 614.
+Berkeley's Theory of Vision, further remarks on, 762.
+Book of the Farm, review of the, 415.
+Buckingham, the Duke of, his resignation, 5.
+Burial march of Dundee, the, 537.
+Burnes, Sir Alexander, murder of, 244.
+
+Cabul, Eyre's Narrative of the Operations in, reviewed, 239.
+Caleb Stukely, Part X. The Revulsion, 33
+  Part XI. Saints and Sinners, 213
+  Part XII. The Parsonage, 314
+  Part XIII. The Fugitive, 496
+  Part last, Tranquillity, 651.
+Candia, the siege of, 718.
+Capello, Bianca, history of, 554.
+Chapters of Turkish History, No. IX,
+  Rise of the Kiuprili family siege of Candia, 718.
+Chatterton's Poems, review of, 780.
+Chief End of Man, the, from Schiller, 311.
+China, state of our relations with, at the commencement of 1843, 19
+  justice of the war with, 20
+  future prospects of, 21.
+Claverhouse's Burial March, a poem, 537.
+Columbus, from Schiller, 312.
+Commercial Policy in relation to Spain, review of, 673
+  In relation to Russia, 807.
+Comte, Auguste, review of his Cours de Philosophie Positive, 397.
+Corn-Law, Sir Robert Peel's alteration in the, defended, 5.
+Correctness, from Schiller, 310.
+Count Eberhard the Grumbler, from Schiller, 628.
+Cromwell and Sir Oliver Cromwell, Imaginary conversation between, 209.
+Cunningham's Life of Reynolds, strictures on, 596.
+Curse of Glencoe, the, by B. Simmons, 121.
+
+Death of Thomas Hamilton, Esq., 280.
+Delta, the Lost Lamb, by, 395.
+Disturbances in the manufacturing districts, the, 11.
+Division of Ranks, the, from Schiller, 311.
+Dream of Lord Nithsdale, the, by Charles Mackay, 83.
+Dumas' Travels in Italy, review of, 552.
+Dundee, the burial march of, 537.
+
+East and South of Europe, the, 101.
+Eberhard of Wurtemberg, from Schiller, 628.
+El Empecinado, passage in the career of, 343.
+Ellenborough, Lord, policy of, in India, 18
+  his policy with regard to Affghanistan, 266
+  his proclamation on evacuating the country, 276
+  defended against the charges of the Whigs, 539.
+Elysium, from Schiller, 628.
+Europe, the east and south of, 101.
+Evacuation of Affghanistan, the, 266.
+Expectation and Fulfilment, from Schiller, 439.
+Eyre's narrative of the events in Cabul, review of, 239.
+
+Fantasia to Laura, from Schiller, 638.
+Favour of the moment, the, from Schiller, 438.
+Fight with the dragon, the, from Schiller, 175.
+Financial position of Great Britain at the close of 1842, 6.
+Florence, sketches of, 561.
+Flowers, from Schiller, 445.
+Foreign affairs, aspect of, at the commencement of 1843, 15.
+Fortune and Wisdom, from Schiller, 631.
+Fortune-Favoured, the, from Schiller, 439.
+Founding of the Bell, the, by Charles Mackay, 462.
+Funeral phantasie, from Schiller, 626.
+
+Genius, from Schiller, 310.
+Gentility-mongering, on, 379.
+Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield illustrated, review of, 771.
+Good and the Beautiful, the, from Schiller, 309.
+Great Britain at the commencement of 1843, 1
+  her position on the meeting of parliament, 5
+  financial state, 7
+  aspect of domestic affairs, 14
+  and of foreign relations, 15
+  state of her Indian empire, 18
+  and of affairs in China, 19.
+Group in Tartarus, a, from Schiller, 627.
+
+Hamilton, Thomas, Esq., death of, 280.
+Hector and Andromache, from Schiller, 441.
+History, Arnold's Lectures on, reviewed, 141.
+Honour to Woman, from Schiller, 173.
+
+Ideal, the, from Schiller, 433.
+Ideal and the Actual Life, the, from Schiller, 435.
+Ignacio Guerra and El Sangrador, a tale of civil war, 791.
+Imaginary Conversations,
+  by Walter Savage Landor
+    between Tasso and Cornelia, 62
+    between Cromwell and Sir Oliver Cromwell, 209
+    between Sandt and Kotzebue, 338;
+  by Edward Quillinan
+    between W.S. Landor and Christopher North, 518.
+Imitator, the, from Schiller, 310.
+Income Tax, discussion on the, 7
+  remarks on, 8
+  causes which led to its imposition, 10.
+Infanticide, the, from Schiller, 631.
+Ireland, state of, at the commencement of 1843, 14.
+Italy, Dumas' travels in, reviewed, 552.
+
+Jeweller's Wife, the, a passage in the career of El Empecinado, 343.
+Jove to Hercules, from Schiller, 311.
+
+Khelat, occupation of, by the British, 274.
+Khoord Cabul pass, retreat of the British through the, 262.
+Kiuprili Family, rise of the, a chapter in Turkish history, 718.
+
+Landor, Walter Savage, Imaginary Conversations by
+  between Tasso and Cornelia, 62
+  Cromwell and Sir Oliver Cromwell, 209
+  Sandt and Kotzebue, 338
+  lines by, 337
+  Imaginary conversation between, and Christopher North, 518.
+Last of the Shepherds, the, Chap. I., 447
+  Chap. II., 449
+  Chap. III., 451
+  Chap. IV., 453
+  Chap. V., 455
+  Chap. VI., 458
+  Chap. VII., 460.
+Lay of the Bell, the, from Schiller, 302.
+Leap Year, a tale, Chap. I., 603
+  Chap. II., 606
+  Chap. III., 611.
+Lesurques, or the victim of Judicial error, Chap. I., the four guests, 24
+  Chap. II., the four horsemen, 25
+  Chap. III., the robbery and murder, ib.
+  Chap. IV., the arrest, 26
+  Chap. V., the trial, 28
+  Chap. VI., the execution, 30
+  Chap. VII., the proofs, ib.
+  Chap. VIII., the way in which France rectifies an error, 32.
+London, the world of, see World.
+Londonderry, the Marquis of, review of his steam voyage
+  to Constantinople, &c., 101.
+Lost Lamb, the, by Delta, 295.
+Love's Triumph, from Schiller, 635.
+
+Mackay, Charles, dream of Lord Nithsdale, by, 83
+  Founding of the Bell, by, 462.
+Mackenzie, Captain, account of the murder of Macnaghten, by, 257.
+Macnaghten, Sir William, description of the murder of, 257.
+Ma�tre-d'Armes, a passage in the life of a, 733.
+Marl�nski's Ammal�t Bek, translation of, Chap. I., 288
+  Chap. II., 296
+  Chap. III., 464
+  Chap. IV., 471
+  Chap. V., 478
+  Chap. VI., 568
+  Chap. VII., 573
+  Chap. VIII., 579
+  Chap. IX., 584
+  Chap. X., 746
+  Chap. XI., 750
+  Chap. XII., 752
+  Chap. XIII., 755
+  Chap. XIV., 759.
+Marston; or, the memoirs of a statesman. Part I., 693.
+Martyr's Monologue, the, a poem, 125.
+Master, the, from Schiller, 310.
+Memorandums of a month's tour in Sicily--leaving Naples
+  steam boatiana, 799
+  churches, 802
+  visit to the gardens of the Duke of Serra di Falco, near Palermo, ib.
+  the Thunny fishery, 804
+  the fishmarket, 805.
+Merchant, the, from Schiller, 312.
+Might of Song, from Schiller, 172.
+Monaco, sketch of the history of, 573.
+Moralist, to a, from Schiller, 630.
+Mulready's illustrations to the Vicar of Wakefield, review of, 771.
+Music in England, state of, Part I., 127.
+Mystery of reminiscence, the, from Schiller, 442.
+
+Natural history of the salmon and sea-trout, the, 640.
+Non-intrusion controversy, account of the, 352.
+Nott, General, movements of, in Cabul, 270.
+
+Occupation of Aden, on the, 484.
+Opium question, the, 22.
+
+Parr, natural history of the, 640
+  its identity with the salmon, 643.
+Passage in the life of a Ma�tre-d'Armes, 733.
+Paul de Kockneyisms, by a Cockney, 366
+  a cit's soir�e, 373.
+Paving Question, the, 614.
+Peel, Sir Robert, difficulties of his position
+  on his accession to power, 2
+  errors of his predecessors, 5
+  his alteration in the corn-law, 5
+  his financial policy, 7
+  his tariff, 11.
+Philosophy of Dress, the, 230.
+Poems and Ballads of Schiller. See Schiller.
+Poetry, the dream of Lord Nithsdale, by Charles Mackay, 83
+  the curse of Glencoe, by B. Simmons, 121
+  the martyr's monologue, 125
+  the poems and ballads of Schiller, Part V., 166
+  Part VI., 302
+  Part VII., 433
+  Part VIII., 626
+  the young grey head, 202
+  lines by W.S. Landor, 337
+  the lost lamb, by Delta, 395
+  the founding of the bell, by Charles Mackay, 462
+  sonnet, on viewing my mother's picture, 495
+  the burial march of Dundee, 537
+  the vigil of Venus, 715.
+Poetry of Life, the, from Schiller, 313.
+Pollock, General, advance of, into Affghanistan, 269.
+Poor-law, support of the, by the Conservatives, 14.
+Practice of Agriculture, the, 415.
+Pretenders to Fashion, on, 234.
+
+Quillinan, Edward, imaginary conversation by,
+  between W.S. Landor and Christopher North, 518.
+
+Retreat from Cabul, description of the, 261.
+Reviews, Londonderry's steam voyage to Constantinople, 101
+  Reynolds's discourses, Part II., 181
+  conclusion, 589
+  Eyre's Cabul, 239
+  Auguste Comte's cours de philosophie positive, 397
+  Stephens' Book of the Farm, 415
+  Dumas' Travels in Italy, 552
+  Young and Shaw on Salmon and Sea-Trout, 640
+  The Vicar of Wakefield, illustrated by William Mulready, R.A., 771
+  Chatterton's poems, 780.
+Reynolds, Sir Joshua, review of the discourses of, Part II., 181
+  conclusion, 589
+  defence of, against the aspersions of Allan Cunningham, 496.
+Riots in the manufacturing districts, the, 13.
+Rousseau, from Schiller, 631.
+Rowley's Poems, review of, 780.
+Rudolph of Hapsburg, from Schiller, 169.
+Russia, commercial policy in reference to, 807.
+Russian Literature, remarks on, 281.
+
+Salmon, Natural History of the, 640.
+Sandt and Kotzebue, imaginary conversation between,
+  by Walter Savage Landor, 338
+Sangrador, El, and Ignacio Guerra, a tale of civil war, 791.
+Schiller, the Poems and Ballads of, translated. No. V.
+  The victory-feast, 166
+  Rudolph of Hapsburg, 169
+  the words of error, 171
+  the words of belief, 172
+  the might of song, ib.
+  honour to woman, 173
+  the fight with the dragon, 175
+  No. VI. The lay of the bell, 302
+  votive tablets, 309
+  the good and the beautiful, ib.
+  to ----, 310
+  genius, ib.
+  correctness, ib.
+  the imitator, ib.
+  the master, ib.
+  to the mystic, ib.
+  astronomical works, 311
+  the division of ranks, ib.
+  theophany, ib.
+  the chief end of man, ib.
+  Ulysses, ib.
+  Jove to Hercules, ib.
+  the sower, 312
+  the merchant, ib.
+  Columbus, ib.
+  the antique to the northern wanderer, ib.
+  the antique at Paris, ib.
+  the poetry of life, 313
+  No. VII. The ideal, 433
+  the ideal and the actual life, 435
+  the favour of the moment, 438
+  expectation and fulfilment, 439
+  to the proselyte maker, ib.
+  value and worth, ib.
+  the fortune-favoured, ib.
+  Poems of the first period, introductory remarks on them, 441
+  Hector and Andromache, ib.
+  to Laura, the mystery of reminiscence, 442
+  to Laura, rapture, ib.
+  to Laura, playing, 444
+  flowers, 445
+  the battle, ib.
+  No. VIII. A funeral fantasie, 626
+  a group in Tartarus, 627
+  Elysium, 628
+  Count Eberhard, the grumbler, of Wurtemberg, ib.
+  to a moralist, 630
+  Rousseau, 631
+  fortune and favour, ib.
+  the infanticide, ib.
+  remarks on it, 634
+  the triumph of love, 635
+  fantasie to Laura, 638
+  to the spring, 639.
+Scinde, occupation of, by the British, 273.
+Sea-Trout, natural history of the, 640.
+Shah Shoojah, death of, 266, _note_.
+Shaw, Mr, on sea-trout and salmon, 640.
+Shaw, Thomas B., translation of Ammal�t Bek by,
+  introductory remarks, 281
+  Chap. I., 288
+  Chap. II., 296
+  Chap. III., 464
+  Chap. IV., 471
+  Chap. V., 478
+  Chap. VI., 568
+  Chap. VII., 573
+  Chap. VIII., 579
+  Chap. IX., 584
+  Chap. X., 746
+  Chap. XI., 750
+  Chap. XII., 752
+  Chap. XIII., 755
+  Chap. XIV., 759.
+Shepherds, last of the, a tale, Chap. I., 447
+  Chap. II., 449
+  Chap. III., 451
+  Chap. IV., 453
+  Chap. V., 455
+  Chap. VI., 458
+  Chap. VII., 460.
+Sicily, memorandum of a month's tour in, leaving Naples,
+  steam-boatiana, 799
+  churches, 802
+  visit to the garden of the Duke of Serra di Falco, near Palermo, ib.
+  the Thunny fishery, 804
+  the fishmarket, 805.
+Siege of Candia, the, 718.
+Simmons, B., the curse of Glencoe, by, 121.
+Song of the bell, the, from Schiller, 302.
+Sonnet, by the author of the Life of Burke, 495.
+Sower, the, from Schiller, 312.
+Spain, commercial policy of Great Britain towards, 673.
+Spring, address to, from Schiller, 639.
+Statesman, memoirs of a, see Marston.
+Stephens' Book of the Farm, review of, 415.
+
+Tale of a Tub, the, an additional chapter,
+  how Jack ran mad a second time, 352.
+Tariff, reconstruction of the, difficulty of the task, 11.
+Tasso and Cornelia, imaginary conversation between,
+  by Walter Savage Landor, 62.
+Taste and Music in England, state of, Part. I., 127.
+Theophany, from Schiller, 311.
+Thunny fishery, the, 804.
+To ----, from Schiller, 310.
+To Laura, the mystery of reminiscence, from Schiller, 442.
+To Laura, rapture, from Schiller, 443.
+To Laura, playing, from Schiller, 444.
+To a Moralist, from Schiller, 630.
+To the Mystic, from Schiller, 310.
+To the Proselyte-maker, from Schiller, 439.
+To the Spring, from Schiller, 639.
+Triumph of Love, the, from Schiller, 635.
+Turkish History, chapters of; No. IX.
+  rise of the Kiuprili family siege of Candia, 718.
+Two Hours of Mystery, a tale, Chap. I., 85
+  Chap. II., 89
+  Chap. III., 93.
+
+Ulysses, from Schiller, 311.
+
+Value and Worth, from Schiller, 439.
+Vicar of Wakefield illustrated, review of, 771.
+Victory Feast, the, from Schiller, 166.
+Vigil of Venus, the, translated from the Latin, 715.
+Votive Tablets, from Schiller, 309.
+
+Whigs, the, and Lord Ellenborough, 539.
+Wood Paving, remarks on, 614.
+Words of Error, the, from Schiller, 171
+  and of belief, 172.
+World of London, 2d series. Part I. Aristocracies of London life, 67
+  the aristocracy of fashion, 68
+  Part II. Concerning slow fellows, 225
+  the aristocracy of power, 227
+  the philosophy of dress, 230
+  pretenders to fashion, 234
+  Part III. Aristocracies of London life continued,
+    of gentility-mongering, 379
+  the aristocracy of talent, 386.
+
+Young, Mr, on grilse and salmon, review of, 640.
+Young grey head, the, a poem, 202.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+END OF VOL. LIII.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+_Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne and Hughes, Paul's Work._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No.
+CCCXXXII., by Various
+
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+<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
+<html>
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
+
+    <title>Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 53, No. 332.</title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+/*<![CDATA[  XML blockout */
+<!--
+    P {  margin-top: .75em;
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+
+    .poem             {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;}
+    .poem .stanza     {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;}
+    .poem p           {margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem p.i1        {margin-left: 1em;}
+    .poem p.i2        {margin-left: 2em;}
+    .poem p.i3        {margin-left: 3em;}
+    .poem p.i4        {margin-left: 4em;}
+    .poem p.i5        {margin-left: 5em;}
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+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXII., 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, No. CCCXXXII.
+       June, 1843.,Vol. LIII.
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: June 4, 2004 [EBook #12511]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jon Ingram, Brendan O'Connor and PG Distributed
+Proofreaders. Produced from page images provided by The Internet
+Library of Early Journals.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+<h1>BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE</h1>
+<hr />
+
+<h2>NO. CCCXXXII. JUNE, 1843. VOL. LIII.</h2>
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<h2>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+<ul>
+  <li><a href="#bw332s1">MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN.</a></li>
+  <li><a href="#bw332s2">THE VIGIL OF VENUS. TRANSLATION FROM THE LATIN</a></li>
+  <li><a href="#bw332s3">CHAPTERS OF TURKISH HISTORY. RISE OF THE KIUPRILI FAMILY&mdash;SIEGE OF CANDIA.&mdash;NO. IX.</a></li>
+  <li><a href="#bw332s4">A PASSAGE IN THE LIFE OF A MA&Icirc;TRE-D'ARMES</a></li>
+  <li><a href="#bw332s5">AMMAL&Aacute;T BEK. A TRUE TALE OF THE CAUCASUS, FROM THE RUSSIAN OF MARL&Iacute;NSKI.&mdash;CONCLUSION</a></li>
+  <li><a href="#bw332s6">MR BAILEY'S REPLY TO AN ARTICLE IN BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE.</a></li>
+  <li><a href="#bw332s7">THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD. ILLUSTRATED BY MULREADY</a></li>
+  <li><a href="#bw332s8">THE ATTORNEY'S CLERK IN THE MONK'S HOOD.</a></li>
+  <li><a href="#bw332s9">IGNACIO GUERRA AND EL SANGRADOR; A TALE OF CIVIL WAR</a></li>
+  <li><a href="#bw332s10">MEMORANDUMS OF A MONTH'S TOUR IN SICILY.</a></li>
+  <li><a href="#bw332s11">COMMERCIAL POLICY&mdash;RUSSIA.</a></li>
+  <li><a href="#bw332-footnotes">[FOOTNOTES]</a></li>
+  <li><a href="#bw332-index">INDEX TO VOL. LIII.</a></li>
+</ul>
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page693" id="page693" title="693"></a></span><a name="bw332s1" id="bw332s1"></a><h2>MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN.</h2>
+
+<h3>PART I.</h3>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Have I not in my time heard lions roar?</p>
+<p>Have I not heard the sea, puft up with wind,</p>
+<p>Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat?</p>
+<p>Have I not heard great ordnance in the field,</p>
+<p>And heaven's artillery thunder in the skies?</p>
+<p>Have I not in the pitched battle heard</p>
+<p>Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets clang?&quot;</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>SHAKSPEARE</p>
+</div></div>
+<br>
+
+<p>Why I give the world a sketch of
+my career through it, is not among
+the discoveries which I intend to
+make. I have been a public man;
+let those who know public life imagine
+what interest may be felt in
+reviewing the scenes and struggles of
+which such a life is full. May there
+not be a pleasure in conceiving once
+again the shapes and circumstances of
+things, as one sitting by his fireside
+sees castles and cottages, men, women,
+and children in the embers, and shapes
+them the better for the silence and the
+solitude round him? Let the reader
+take what reason he will. I have seen
+the world, and fought my way through
+it; have stumbled, like greater men,
+have risen, like lesser; have been flung
+into the most rapid current of the most
+hurried, wild, and vivid time that the
+world has ever seen&mdash;I have <i>lived</i>
+through the last fifty years. In all the
+vigour of my life, I have mingled
+in some of the greatest transactions,
+and been mingled with some of the
+greatest men, of my time. Like one
+who has tumbled down Niagara, and
+survived the fall, though I have reached
+still water, the roar of the cataract
+is yet in my ears; and I can even survey
+it with a fuller gaze, and stronger
+sense of its vastness and power, than,
+when I was rolling down its precipice.</p>
+
+<p>I have been soldier, adventurer,
+traveller, statesman. I have been lover,
+husband, father&mdash;poor and opulent;
+obscure and conspicuous. There
+are few sensations of our nature, or
+circumstances of our life, which I
+have not undergone. Alternately
+suffering to the verge of ruin, and
+enjoying like an epicurean deity: I
+have been steeped in poverty to the
+lips; I have been surcharged with
+wealth. I have sacrificed, and fearfully,
+to the love of power; I have
+been disgusted with its possession.
+I figured in the great Babel until I
+loved even its confusion of tongues;
+I grew weary of it, until I hated the
+voice of man.</p>
+
+<p>Every man is born for a special
+purpose, and with a special passion.
+The multitude, possessing both, exhibit
+neither; they are flung, or choose
+to be flung, into the pond, where they
+float only to perish, like blind puppies.
+But there are others who stem the
+great tide, and are only the stronger
+for the struggle. From my first
+sense, the passion to be known and
+felt, nay, at the expense of being
+feared, was my impulse. It has been
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page694" id="page694" title="694"></a></span> the impulse of all men who have ever
+impressed the world. With great
+talents it is all-commanding: the
+thunderbolt in the hands of Jove.
+Even with inferior faculties, and I
+make no pretence of mine, it singularly
+excites, urges, and animates.
+When the prophet saw the leopard
+<i>winged</i>, he saw a miracle; I claim for
+my powers only those of the muscle
+and sinew.</p>
+
+<p>Ambition was the original passion
+of my nature. It rose before me, as the
+sun ascends before the Indian, until
+its fire drives him to the shade. I,
+too, have been scorched, have shrunk,
+and now I regret my shrinking.
+But time deals alike with all. I can
+now amuse myself only by images of
+the past; and, in the darkness and solitude
+of years, I take their Magic Lantern,
+and replace life by the strange,
+wild, and high-coloured extravagances,
+the ghosts and genii of the phantasmagoria
+of ambition.</p>
+
+<p>I was the seventh son of one of the
+oldest families of England. If I had
+been the seventh son of the seventh
+son, I should, by all the laws of juggling,
+have been a conjurer; but I was
+a generation too early for fame. My
+father was an earl, and as proud of
+his titles as if he had won them at
+Crecy or Poictiers, and not in the
+campaigns of Westminster, consummated
+on the backstairs of Whitehall.
+He had served his country, as he
+termed it, in a long succession of Parliaments;
+and served her still more, as
+his country neighbours termed it, by
+accepting a peerage, which opened
+the county to any other representative
+among the sons of men. He was a
+strong-built, stern-countenanced, and
+haughty-tongued personage&mdash;by some
+thought a man of sense; by others a
+fool, with all his depth, arising from
+his darkness. My own experience convinced
+me, that no man made more of
+a secret, or thought less of a job.
+From my boyhood I own I feared
+more than honoured him; and as for
+love, if I had been more susceptible,
+mine would have flown round the
+globe before it could have fixed on
+that iron visage. The little love that
+I could afford for any human being,
+was for another and a different order
+of existence. Boys have a natural
+fondness for the mother; and mine
+was gentle, timid, and fond. She always
+parted with me, on my going
+to school, as if she had lost a limb, and
+when I returned, received me as if she
+had found a pinion in its place. She
+perhaps spoiled me by indulgence, as
+much as my lord and father spoiled
+me by severity; but indulgence is the
+pleasanter of the two, and I followed
+the course of nature, and gave her
+whatever heart I have. I still remember
+her. She was remarkably indebted
+to nature, at least for externals. She
+had fine eyes&mdash;large, dark, and sentimental;
+her dress, which would now
+be preposterous, seemed to me, then,
+the perfection of all taste, and was in
+the highest fashion of her time. Her
+beauty worked miracles; for now and
+then I have observed even my father's
+eye fixed on her, with something of
+the admiration which we might conceive
+in an Esquimaux for a fixed
+star, or in an Italian highwayman for
+some Parian statue which he had
+stumbled on in his thickets. But the
+admiration was soon absorbed in the
+job in hand, and he turned away&mdash;to
+scribble to the Minister. Of the
+younger portion of the family I shall
+say but little. Children are happiest
+in the nursery, and there I leave
+them. I had two sisters, sweet little
+creatures, one with black eyes and
+the other with blue. This is enough
+for their description. My four brothers
+were four rough, bold, well-looking
+animals, all intended for ambassadors,
+admirals, generals, and
+secretaries of state&mdash;for my father had
+too long tasted of the honey of official
+life to think that there was any other
+food for a gentleman in the world.
+He had been suckled for too many
+years at those breasts, which, like the
+bosom of the great Egyptian goddess,
+pour the stream of life through whole
+generations of hangers-on, to believe
+that any other fount of existence was
+to be named but the civil list. I am
+strongly inclined to surmise that he
+would have preferred a pencil, purloined
+from the Treasury, to all the
+cedars of Lebanon.</p>
+
+<p>It may be presumed that I was
+destined for public life&mdash;in other
+words, to live on the public; and, to
+prepare me for the performance of a
+part, alternately menial and master&mdash;supple
+as the slave, and superb as the
+minister&mdash;I was sent to Eton. At this
+great school of the aristocracy, would-be
+and real&mdash;barons and dukes <i>in esse</i>,
+and the herald's office alone, or bedlam,
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page695" id="page695" title="695"></a></span> knows what <i>in posse</i>, I remained
+for the customary number of years.
+If whoever does me the honour to
+read these pages, hates the history of
+schooldays as much as I do their memory,
+he will easily pardon my passing
+by the topic altogether. If the
+first purpose of all great public institutions
+is to stand still; the great
+schools of England, fifty years ago,
+were righteous adherents to their contract;
+they never moved. The world
+might whirl round them as it would;
+there remained the grey milestones,
+only measuring the speed with which
+every thing on the road passed them.
+This, they say, has largely and fortunately
+changed in later years. But the
+change must proceed; the venerable
+cripples must throw by their crutches,
+and try the effect of flesh and blood.
+Flogging and fagging, are the education
+for a footman; they disgrace the
+common sense, and offend the feelings
+of a manly people. The pugilist must
+be expelled, and the puppy must follow
+him. The detestable grossness
+of classical impurity, must be no longer
+the price at which Latin &quot;quantities&quot;
+are to be learned. The last lesson of
+the &quot;prodigal son,&quot; must not be the
+first learned by the son of the gentleman
+of England&mdash;to be fed on the
+&quot;husks&quot; fit only for the swine.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;">
+
+<p>On my delighted release from this
+supreme laboratory of statesmen, I
+found the state of things considerably
+altered at Mortimer Castle. I had left
+it a stately but rather melancholy-looking
+household; I found the mansion
+glittering in all the novelty of French
+furniture, gilding, and <i>or-molu</i>&mdash;crowded
+with fashion, and all its menial
+tribe, from the groom in the stables
+to the gentleman's gentleman, who
+slipped along the chambers in soft
+silence, and seemed an embodying of
+Etiquette, all in new equipments of all
+kinds&mdash;the avenue trimmed, until it
+resembled a theatrical wood; and the
+grounds, once sober and silent enough
+for a Jacques to escape from the sight
+of human kind, and hold dialogues
+with the deer; now levelled, opened,
+shorn, and shaved, with the precision
+of a retired citizen's elysium.</p>
+
+<p>The heads of the family were equally
+changed; my mother, unhappily,
+for the worse. Her fine eyes beamed
+with joy as she threw herself upon
+my neck, and murmured some of those
+mingled blessings and raptures which
+have a language of their own. But
+when the first flush was past, I perceived
+that the cheek was thin, the
+eye was hollow and heavy, and the
+tremulous motion of her slight hand,
+as it lay in mine, alarmed me; in all
+my ignorance of the frailty of the human
+frame. But the grand change
+was in the Earl. My father, whom I
+had left rather degenerating into the
+shape which three courses and a
+bottle of claret a-day inflict on country
+gentlemen &quot;who live at home at
+ease,&quot; was now braced and laced,
+costumed in the newest fashion, and
+overflowing with exuberant volatility.
+He breathed of Bond Street. He
+welcomed me with an ardour which
+astonished, more than delighted, me;
+Talked fragments of French, congratulated
+me on my &quot;<i>air distingu&eacute;</i>,&quot;
+advised me to put myself &quot;<i>en grande
+tenue</i>;&quot; and, after enchanting me in
+all kinds of strange ways, concluded
+by making an attempt to kiss me on
+both cheeks, like a true Frenchman.
+My Eton recollections enabled me to
+resist the paternal embrace; until the
+wonder was simplified, by the discovery
+that the family had but just returned
+from a continental residence of
+a couple of years&mdash;a matter of which
+no letter or word had given me the
+knowledge at my school. My next
+discovery was, that an old uncle had
+died, and left us money enough to
+carry the county; and the last and
+crowning one was, that my eldest
+brother had just been returned for the
+North Riding.</p>
+
+<p>This was such an accumulation of
+good-luck as might have thrown any
+elderly gentleman off the balance of
+his gravity. It was like Philip's three
+plates at the Greek horse-races,
+crowned by the birth of Alexander.
+If my lordly father had danced the
+&quot;Minuette de la Cour&quot; over the
+marble tesselation of his own hall, I
+should now not have been surprised.
+But, from my first sense, or insensibility,
+I had felt no great delight in matters
+which were to make my own condition
+neither better nor worse; and
+after a remarkably brief period, the
+showy <i>d&eacute;je&ucirc;n&eacute;s</i> and dinners which
+commemorated the triumphs of the
+heir-apparent of our house, grew tiresome
+to me beyond all count, and I
+openly petitioned to be sent to college,
+or to the world's end.</p>
+
+<p><span class="newpage"><a name="page696" id="page696" title="696"></a></span> My petition was listened to with a
+mixture of contempt for my want of
+taste, and astonishment at my presumption.
+But before the reply had
+time to burst out from lips, at no
+time too retentive, I was told, that at
+the end of one week more I should
+be suffered to take my way; that week
+being devoted to a round of especial
+entertainments in honour of my
+brother's election; the whole to be
+wound up by that most preposterous
+of all delights, an amateur play.</p>
+
+<p>To keep a house in commotion, to
+produce mysterious conversations,
+conferences without number, and confidences
+without end; and to swell
+maidens' hearts and milliners' bills,
+let me recommend an amateur play in
+the country. The very mention of it
+awoke every soul in the Castle; caps
+and complexions were matched, and
+costumes criticised, from morning
+till night, among the ladies. The
+&quot;acting drama&quot; was turned over leaf
+by leaf by the gentlemen. The sound
+of many a heavy tread of many a
+heavy student, was heard in the chambers;
+the gardens were haunted by
+&quot;the characters&quot; getting their parts;
+and the poet's burlesque of those who
+&quot;rave, recite, and madden round the
+land,&quot; was realized to the life in the
+histrionic labours of the votaries of
+Thalia and Melpomene, who ranged
+the groves of Mortimer Castle.</p>
+
+<p>Then we had all the charming difficulty
+of fixing on the play. The
+dullest and dreariest of our country
+Rosciuses were uniformly for comedy;
+but the fair sex have a leaning to the
+tragic muse. We had one or two,
+who would have had no objection to
+be piquant in Lady Teazle, or petulant
+in Lady Townley; but we had
+half a dozen Desdemonas and Ophelias.
+The soul of an O'Neil was in
+every one of our party conscious of
+a pair of good eyes, a tolerable shape,
+and the captivation which, in some
+way or other, most women in existence
+contrive to discover in their own
+share of the gifts of nature. At length
+the votes carried it for Romeo and
+Juliet. The eventful night came;
+the <i>&eacute;lite</i> of the county poured in, the
+theatre was crowded; all was expectancy
+before the curtain; all was terror,
+nervousness, and awkwardness
+behind. The orchestra performed its
+flourish, and the curtain rose.</p>
+
+<p>To do the heads of the household
+justice, they had done their duty as
+managers. The theatre, though but
+a temporary building, projecting from
+the ball-room into one of the gardens,
+was worthy of the very handsome
+apartment which formed its vestibule.
+The skill of a famous London architect
+had been exerted on this fairy
+erection, and Verona itself had, perhaps,
+in its palmiest days, seldom exhibited
+a display of more luxuriant
+elegance. The audience, too, so totally
+different from the mingled, ill-dressed,
+and irregular assemblage that
+fills a city theatre; blooming girls
+and showy matrons, range above
+range, feathered and flowered, glittering
+with all the family jewels, and
+all animated by the novelty of the
+scene before them, formed an exhibition
+which, for the night, inspired me
+with the idea, that (strolling excepted)
+the stage might not be a bad resource
+for a man of talents, after all.</p>
+
+<p>But the play was&mdash;must I confess it?
+though I myself figured as the Romeo&mdash;utterly
+deplorable. The men
+forgot their parts, and their casual
+attempts to recover them made terrible
+havoc of the harmony of Shakspeare.
+The ladies lost their voices,
+and carried on their loves, their sorrows,
+and even their scoldings, in a
+whisper. Our play perfectly deserved
+the criticism of the old gentleman,
+who, after a similar performance,
+being asked which of the personages
+he liked best, candidly replied, &quot;the
+prompter, for of him he had heard the
+most and seen the least.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>However, every thing has an end;
+and we had carried Juliet to the tomb
+of all the Capulets, the chant was done,
+and the mourners were gathered in
+the green-room. I was standing,
+book in hand, preparing for the last
+agonies of a love very imperfectly
+committed to memory, when I heard
+a slight confusion in the court-yard,
+and shortly after the rattle of a post-chaise.
+The sound subsided, and I
+was summoned to my post at the entrance
+to the place where the lovely
+Juliet lay entranced. The pasteboard
+gate gave way to knocks enforced with
+an energy which called down rapturous
+applause; and in all the tortures
+of a broken heart, rewarded by a profusion
+of handkerchiefs applied to
+bright eyes, and a strong scent of
+hartshorn round the house, I summoned
+my fair bride to my arms.
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page697" id="page697" title="697"></a></span> There was no reply. I again invoked
+her; still silent. Her trance was evidently
+of the deepest order. I rose
+from the ground, where I had been
+&quot;taking the measure of my unmade
+grave,&quot; and approaching the bier, ventured
+to drop a despairing hand upon
+her pillow. To my utter surprise, it
+was vacant. If I had been another
+Shakspeare, the situation was a fine one
+for a display of original genius. But
+I was paralyzed. A sense of the general
+embarrassment was my first impression,
+and I was absolutely struck
+dumb. But this was soon shaken off.
+My next was a sense of the particular
+burlesque of my situation; I burst out
+into laughter, in which the whole
+house joined; and throwing down my
+mattock, rushed off the stage. My
+theatrical dream was broken up for
+ever.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;">
+
+<p>But weightier matters now absorbed
+the universal interest. The disappearance
+of the heroine from the
+stage was speedily accounted for by
+her flight in the carriage whose wheels
+had disturbed my study. But where
+fled, why, and with whom? We now
+found other defalcations in our numbers;
+the Chevalier Paul Charlatanski,
+a gallant Polish exile, who contrived
+to pass a very pleasant time on
+the merit of his misfortunes, a man of
+enormous mustaches and calamities,
+was also missing. His valet, his valise,
+every atom that ever appertained
+to him, had vanished; the clearance
+was complete. The confusion now
+thickened. I never saw the master
+of the mansion in such a rage before.
+Pistols and post-chaises were in instant
+requisition. He vowed that the
+honour of his house was involved in
+the transaction, and that nothing
+should tempt him to slumber until he
+had brought the fugitive fair one to
+the arms of her noble family; my Juliet
+being the ward of a duke, and
+being also entitled to about twenty
+thousand pounds a-year on her coming
+of age.</p>
+
+<p>As for the unlucky, or rather the
+lucky, Chevalier, nothing human ever
+received a hotter shower of surmise
+and sarcasm. That he was &quot;an impostor,
+a swindler, a spy,&quot; was the Earl's
+conviction, declared in the most public
+manner. The whole body of matrons
+looked round on their blooming
+innocents, as if they had been snatched
+from the jaws of a legion of wolves
+and thanked their own prudence
+which had not trusted those men of
+mustaches within their hall doors.
+The blooming innocents responded in
+filial gratitude, and, with whatever sincerity,
+thanked their stars for their
+fortunate escape.</p>
+
+<p>Still, the Earl's indignation was of
+so <i>ultra</i> a quality; his revenge was
+so fiery, and his tongue so fluent;
+that I began to suspect he had other
+motives than the insulted laws of hospitality.
+I reached this discovery, too,
+in time. The declining health of his
+partner had made him speculate on
+the chances of survivorship. He certainly
+was no longer young, and he
+had never been an Adonis. Yet his
+glass did not altogether throw him into
+the rank of the impracticable. A
+coronet was a well-known charm,
+which had often compensated for every
+other; in short, he had quietly theorized
+himself into the future husband
+of the ducal ward; and felt on this
+occasion as an Earl should, plundered,
+before his face, of a clear twenty
+thousand a-year.</p>
+
+<p>But he was not to suffer alone. On
+further enquiry, it was ascertained
+that the chevalier's valet had not gone
+with him. This fellow, a Frenchman,
+had taken wing in another direction,
+and carried off his turtle-dove,
+too; not one of the full-blown roses
+of the servant's-hall, but a rosebud,
+the daughter of one of the bulkiest
+squires of the Riding; a man of
+countless beeves and blunders; one of
+our Yorkshire Nimrods, &quot;a mighty
+hunter,&quot; until club dinners and home-brewed
+ale tied him to his arm-chair, and
+gout made him a man of peace and
+flannels, the best thriven weed in the
+swamps of Yorkshire. The young
+lady had been intended for my eldest
+brother, as a convenient medium of
+connexion between two estates, palpably
+made for matrimony. Thus we
+received two mortal blows in one
+evening; never was family pilfered
+more ignominiously; never was amateur
+play more peevishly catastrophized.</p>
+
+<p>It must be owned, to the credit of
+&quot;private theatricals,&quot; that the play
+had no slight share in the plot. The
+easy intercourse produced by rehearsals,
+the getting of tender speeches by
+heart, the pretty personalities and allusions
+growing out of those speeches,
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page698" id="page698" title="698"></a></span> the ramblings through shades and
+rose-twined parterres, the raptures
+and romance, all tend prodigiously to
+take off the alarm, or instruct the inexperience,
+of the female heart. I
+know no more certain cure for the
+rigidity that is supposed to be a barrier.
+At all events, the Chevalier
+and his valet, probably both footmen,
+alike had profited of their opportunity.
+Our play had cost us two elopements;
+two shots between wind and
+water, which threatened to send the
+ship down; two breakings of that
+heart which men carry in their purse.
+I laughed, and the world laughed also.
+But I was then thoughtless, and the
+world is malicious. My father and the
+member, though they had &quot;never
+told their love,&quot; felt the blow &quot;like
+a worm in the bud,&quot; and from that
+night I date the family decline.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, the two whiskered vagabonds
+could not be suffered to
+carry off their laurels without an attempt
+to diminish them, and my father
+and brother were too much in
+earnest in their objects to lose time.
+In half an hour, four post-horses to
+each britchska whirled them off;&mdash;my
+father, to take the northern road,
+some hints of Gretna having transpired
+in the slipshod secrecy of the
+servants' hall&mdash;my brother, to pursue
+on the Dover road, conjecturing, with
+more sagacity than I had given him
+credit for, that as the fox runs round
+to his earth, the Frenchman always
+speeds for Paris.</p>
+
+<p>The company soon dispersed, after
+having stayed long enough to glean all
+that they could of the family misfortune,
+and fix appointments for every
+day in the week to meet each other,
+and make the most of the whole transaction.
+But still a tolerable number
+of the steadier hands remained,
+who, to show their sympathy with
+us, resolved not to separate until they
+received tidings of his lordship's success.
+I was voted to the head of the
+table, more claret was ordered, the
+wreck of the general supper was cleared
+for one of a snugger kind; and we
+drew our chairs together. Toast followed
+toast, and all became communicative.
+Family histories, not excepting
+our own, were now discussed, with
+a confidence new to my boyish conjectures.
+Charlatanski's career abroad
+and at home seemed to be as well
+known as if he had been pilloried in
+the county town; the infinite absurdity
+of the noble duke who suffered
+him to make his way under his roof,
+and the palpable <i>penchant</i> of his ward,
+next underwent discussion; until the
+ignorance of my noble father on the
+subject, gave, with me, the death-blow
+to his penetration. The prettinesses
+which had won the primrose heart of
+my brother's intended spouse, I found
+were equally notorious; the Earl's
+project was as plain as if he had pronounced
+it <i>viva voce</i>; and before we
+parted for the night, which did not
+occur until the sun was blazing
+through the curtains of our banqueting
+room, I had made up my mind,
+once for all, that neither character
+nor cunning can be concealed in this
+world; that the craftiest impostor is
+but a clumsier kind of clown; and
+that the most dexterous disguise is but
+a waste of time.</p>
+
+<p>I must hasten to the <i>d&eacute;nouement</i>.
+Our excellent friends indulged us
+with their company, and bored us
+with their society for a mortal week.
+But, as Sterne says of the sentimental
+traveller, scenes of sentiment are always
+exhibiting themselves to an
+appetite eager for knowing what the
+world is doing; the knowledge was
+contributed with a copiousness which
+left nothing to learn, and but little to
+desire. Our guests were of that class
+which usually fills the houses of noblemen,
+in the annihilation of life in town;
+clubmen, to whom St James's Street
+was the terraqueous globe; guardsmen,
+on leave of absence for the shooting
+season, and saturated with London;
+several older exhibitors in the
+fashionable circles, who as naturally
+followed where young guardsmen and
+wealthy squires were to be found, as
+flies wing to the honey on which they
+live; and two or three of the most
+opulent and dullest baronets who ever
+played whist and billiards, for the advantage
+of losing guinea points to
+gentlemen more accomplished in the
+science of chances.</p>
+
+<p>At length, on the sixth day, when I
+really began to feel anxious, an express
+announced that his lordship
+had arrived at a village, about fifty
+miles off, on his way home, wounded,
+and in great danger. I instantly
+broke up the convivial party, and set
+out to see him. To the imagination
+of a boy, as I was then, nothing could
+be more startling than the aspect of
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page699" id="page699" title="699"></a></span> the habitation which now held the
+haughty Earl of Mortimer. After
+passing through a variety of dungeon-like
+rooms, for the house had once
+been a workhouse, or something of
+the kind, I was ushered into the
+chamber where the patient lay. The
+village doctor, and one or two of the
+wise people of the neighbourhood,
+who thought it their duty to visit
+a stranger, that stranger being a
+man of rank, were standing by; and
+the long faces of those persons, seconded
+by the professional shake of
+the doctor's head, told me, that they
+at least had no hope. It was not so
+with the sufferer himself, for he talked
+as largely and loftily of what he
+was to do within the next ten years,
+as if he was to survive the century.
+He still breathed rage and retribution
+against the Chevalier, and actually
+seemed to regard the lady's choice as
+a particular infraction of personal
+claims. He had pursued the fugitives
+day and night, until the pursuit
+threw him into a kind of fever. While
+under this paroxysm he had met the
+enamoured pair, but it was on their
+way from that forge on the Border where
+so many heavy chains have been manufactured.
+Useless as challenging was
+now, he challenged the husband. The
+parties met, and my father received a
+bullet in his body, while he had the
+satisfaction of lodging one in his antagonist's
+knee-pan. The Chevalier
+was doomed to waltz no more. But
+his bullet was fatal.</p>
+
+<p>As I looked round the wretched
+chamber in which this bold, arrogant,
+and busy spirit was evidently about
+to breathe its last, Pope's lines on the
+most splendid <i>rou&eacute;</i> of his day involuntarily
+and painfully shot across my
+recollection:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;In the worst inn's worst room, with mat half hung,</p>
+<p>The walls of plaster, and the floor of dung;</p>
+<p>The George and Garter dangling from the bed,</p>
+<p>Where tawdry yellow strove with dirty red,</p>
+<p>Great Villiers lies; alas, how changed from him</p>
+<p>The glass of fashion!&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>I say no more of those scenes; a
+few days, only enough to collect the
+branches of the family round the bed,
+terminated every thing. Grief, they say,
+cannot exist where there is no love, but
+I was not inclined, just then, to draw
+subtle distinctions. I was grieved;
+and paid the last duties, without blame
+to myself, or, I hope, irreverence in
+the sight of others. The funeral was
+stately, and all was over.</p>
+
+<p>Matters now took a new shape at
+the castle. My brother returned, to
+find himself its possessor. His journey
+had been equally unproductive
+with my unfortunate father's. By dint
+of bribing the postilions, he had even
+overpassed the fugitives on the Dover
+road. But, as he stopped to dine in
+Canterbury, where he had prepared a
+posse of constables for their reception,
+he had, unluckily, been accosted by an
+old London acquaintance, who had
+accidentally fixed his quarters there
+for a day or two, &quot;seeking whom he
+might devour.&quot; The dinner was followed
+by a carouse, the carouse by a
+&quot;quiet game,&quot; or games, which lasted
+till the next day; and when my brother
+rose, with the glow of a superb
+sunset giving him the first intimation
+that he was among the living, he made
+the discovery that he was stripped of
+the last shilling of five hundred pounds,
+and that the Frenchman and his prize
+had quietly changed horses at the
+same hotel half a dozen hours before.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;">
+
+<p>The young forget quickly, but
+they feel keenly. The event which
+I had just witnessed threw a shade
+over me, which, in the want of any
+vigorous occupation, began to affect
+my health. I abjured the sports of
+the field, for which, indeed, I had
+never felt much liking. I rambled
+through the woods in a kind of dreamy
+idleness of mind, which took but little
+note of any thing, time included. As
+mendicants sell tapes and matches
+to escape the imputation of mendicancy,
+I carried a pencil and portfolio,
+and seemed to be sketching venerable
+oaks and patches of the picturesque,
+while my mind was wandering from
+Line to Pole. But in this earth no one
+can be singular with impunity. The
+gentlemen were &quot;convinced&quot; that my
+meditations were heavy with unpaid
+college bills; and the ladies, from
+high to low, from &quot;Tilburina, mad
+in white satin,&quot; to her &quot;confidant,
+mad in white linen,&quot; were all of opinion
+that some one among their peerless
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page700" id="page700" title="700"></a></span> selves had destroyed the &quot;five
+wits of young Mr Marston.&quot; I could
+have fallen on them with a two-handed
+sword; but as the massacre of the sex
+was not then in my power, I had only
+to escape.</p>
+
+<p>There were higher matters to move
+me. Clouds were gathering on the
+world; the times were fitful; the air
+was thick with rumours from abroad;
+the sleep of the Continent was breaking
+up, and Europe lay in the anxious
+and strange expectancy in which some
+great city might see the signs of a
+coming earthquake, without the power
+of ascertaining at what moment, or
+from what quarter, its foundations
+were to be flung up in sight of the
+sun.&mdash;We were then in the first stage
+of the French Revolution!</p>
+
+<p>I resolved to linger and be libelled
+no more; and being ushered, by appointment,
+into the library&mdash;for the
+new master was already all etiquette&mdash;I
+promptly stated my wishes, and demanded
+my portion, to try my fortune
+in the world.</p>
+
+<p>Our conference, if it had but little
+of the graces of diplomacy, had much
+more than its usual decision. It was
+abrupt and unhesitating. My demand
+had evidently taken his &quot;lordship&quot; by
+surprise. He started from the magisterial
+chair, in which he was yet to
+awe so many successions of rustic
+functionaries, and with a flushed
+cheek asked &quot;Whether I was lunatic,
+or supposed him to be so?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Neither the one nor the other,&quot;
+was my answer. &quot;But, to waste life
+here is out of the question. I demand
+the means of entering a profession.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you aware, sir, that our interest
+is lost since the last change of
+ministers? that my estate is loaded
+with encumbrances? that every profession
+is overstocked? and what can
+you do in the crowd?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What others have done&mdash;what I
+should do in a crowd in the streets&mdash;push
+some aside, get before others;
+if made way for, be civil; if resisted,
+trample; it has been the history of
+thousands, why not mine?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The doctrine was as new to this
+son of indulgence, as if I had propounded
+the philosopher's stone. But
+his courage was exhausted by a controversy
+perhaps longer than he had
+ever ventured on before. He walked
+to the glass, adjusted his raven ringlets,
+and having refreshed his spirits
+with the contemplation, enquired, with
+a smile which made the nearest possible
+approach to a sneer, whether I
+had any thing more to say?</p>
+
+<p>I had more, and of the kind that
+least suited his feelings. I demanded
+&quot;my property.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The effect of those two words was
+electrical. The apathy of the exquisite
+was at an end, and in a voice of
+the most indignant displeasure, he rapidly
+demanded whether I expected
+money to fall from the moon? whether
+I was not aware of the expense
+of keeping up the castle? whether I
+supposed that my mother's jointure
+and my sisters' portions could ever be
+paid without dipping the rent-roll
+deeper still? and, after various and bitter
+expostulation, &quot;What right had I
+to suppose that I was worth the smallest
+coin of the realm, except by his
+bounty?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>One query answered them all.
+&quot;My lord, is it not true that I am
+entitled to five thousand pounds?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Five thousand &mdash;&mdash;?&quot; what word
+was to fill up the interval I can only
+guess. But the first lesson which a
+man learns at the clubs is, to control
+his temper when its display is not
+likely to be attended with effect. He
+saw that I stood his gaze with but few
+symptoms of giving way, and he changed
+his tactics with an adroitness that did
+honour to his training. Approaching
+me, he held out his hand. &quot;Charles,
+why should <i>we</i> quarrel about trifles?
+I was really not acquainted with the
+circumstance to which you allude, but
+I shall look into it without delay.
+Pray, can you tell me the when, the
+where, the how?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your questions may be easily answered.
+The <i>when</i> was at the death
+of our uncle, the <i>where</i> was in his
+will, and the <i>how</i>&mdash;in any way your
+lordship pleases.&quot; The truce was
+now made; he begged of me, &quot;as I
+valued <i>his</i> feelings,&quot; to drop the formality
+of his title, to regard him simply
+as a brother, and to rely on his wish
+to forward every object that might
+gratify my inclination.</p>
+
+<p>Our conference broke up. He galloped
+to a neighbouring horse-race. I
+went to take a solitary ramble through
+the Park.</p>
+
+<p>The hour and the scene were what
+the poet pronounces &quot;fit to cure all
+sadness but despair.&quot; Noble old
+trees, the &quot;roof star-proof&quot; overhead,
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page701" id="page701" title="701"></a></span> the cool velvet grass under the
+feet&mdash;glimpses of sunlight striking
+through the trunks&mdash;the freshened air
+coming in gusts across the lake, like
+new life, bathing my burning forehead
+and feverish hands&mdash;the whole unrivalled
+sweetness of the English landscape
+softened and subdued me.
+Those effects are so common, that I
+can claim no credit for their operation
+on my mind; and, before I had
+gone far, I was on the point of returning,
+if not to recant, at least to palliate
+the harshness of my appeal to
+fraternal justice.</p>
+
+<p>But, by this time I had reached a
+rising ground which commanded a
+large extent of the surrounding country.
+The evening was one of those
+magnificent closes of the year, which,
+like a final scene in a theatre, seems
+intended to comprehend all the beauties
+and brilliancies of the past. The
+western sky was a blaze of all colours,
+and all pouring over the succession
+of forest, cultured field, and
+mountain top, which make the English
+view, if not the most sublime, the
+most touching of the earth!</p>
+
+<p>But as I stood on the hill, gazing
+round to enjoy every shape and shade
+at leisure, my eye turned on the
+Castle. It spoiled all my serenity at
+once. I felt that it was a spot from
+which I was excluded by nature; that
+it belonged to others so wholly, that
+scarcely by any conceivable chance
+could it ever be mine; and that I could
+remain within its walls no longer, but
+with a sense of uselessness and shame.</p>
+
+<p>If I could have taken staff in hand
+and pack on shoulder, I would have
+started at that moment on a pilgrimage
+that might have circled the globe.
+But the most fiery resolution must
+submit to circumstances. One night
+more, at least, I must sleep under the
+paternal roof, and I was hastening
+home, brooding over bitter thoughts,
+when I suddenly rushed against some
+one whom I nearly overthrew.&mdash;&quot;Bless
+me, Mr Marston, is it you?&quot;&mdash;told
+me that I had run down my old
+tutor, Mr Vincent, the parson of the
+parish. He had been returning from
+visiting some of his flock, and in the
+exercise of the vocation which he had
+just been fulfilling, he saw that something
+went ill with me, and taking my
+arm, forced me to go home with him,
+for such comfort as he could give.</p>
+
+<p>Parsons, above all men, are the
+better for wives and families; for,
+without them, they are wonderfully
+apt to grow saturnine or stupid. Of
+course there are exceptions. Vincent
+had a wife not much younger than
+himself, to whom he always spoke
+with the courtiership of a <i>preux chevalier</i>.
+A portrait of her in her bridal
+dress, showed that she had been a
+pretty brunette in her youth; and her
+husband still evidently gave her credit
+for all that she had been. They
+had, as is generally the fate of the
+clergy, a superfluity of daughters,
+four or five I think, creatures as
+thoughtless and innocent as their own
+poultry, or their own pet-sheep. But
+all round their little vicarage was so
+pure, so quiet, and so neat&mdash;there was
+such an aspect of order and even of
+elegance, however inexpensive, that
+its contrast with the glaring and restless
+tumult of the &quot;great house&quot; was
+irresistible. I never had so full a
+practical understanding of the world's
+&quot;pomps and vanities,&quot; as while looking
+at the trimmings and trelisses of
+the parson's dwelling.</p>
+
+<p>I acknowledge myself a worldling,
+but I suppose that all is not lead or
+iron within me, from my sense of
+scenes like this. In my wildest hour,
+the sight of fields and gardens has
+been a kind of febrifuge to me&mdash;has
+conveyed a feeling of tranquillity to
+my mind; as if it drank the silence
+and the freshness, as the flowers drink
+the dew. I have often thus experienced
+a sudden soothing, which checked
+the hot current of my follies or frenzies,
+and made me think that there
+were better things than the baubles of
+cabinets. But it did not last long.</p>
+
+<p>I mention this evening, because it
+decided my future life; or at least
+the boldest, and perhaps the best portion
+of it. We had an hour or two of
+the little variations of placid amusement
+which belong to all parsonages
+in romances, but which here were
+reality; easy conversation on the
+events of the county; a little political
+talking with the vicar; a few details
+of persons and fashions at the
+castle, to which the ladies listened as
+Desdemona might have listened to
+Othello's history&mdash;for the Castle was
+so seldom visited by them, that it had
+almost the air of a Castle of Otranto,
+and they evidently thought that its
+frowning towers and gilded halls belonged
+to another race, if not to another
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page702" id="page702" title="702"></a></span> region of existence; we had, too,
+some of the last new songs, (at least
+half a century old, but which were not
+the less touching,) and a duet of Geminiani,
+performed by the two elder
+proficients on a spinet which might
+have been among the &quot;chamber music&quot;
+of the Virgin Queen; all slight
+matters to speak of, and yet which
+contributed to the quietude of a mind
+longing for rest&mdash;sights of innocence
+and sounds of peace, which, like the
+poet's music&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Might take the prison'd soul</p>
+<p>And wrap it in Elysium.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The moon shining in through panes
+covered with honeysuckle and fragrance
+of all kinds, at length warned
+me that I was intruding on a household
+primitive in their hours, as in every
+thing else, and I rose to take my leave.
+But I could not be altogether parted
+with yet. It seems that they had found
+me a most amusing guest; while,
+to my own conception, I had been singularly
+spiritless; but the little anecdotes
+which were trite to me had been
+novelties to them. Fashion has a
+charm even for philosophers; and the
+freaks and follies of the high-toned
+sons and daughters of fashion&mdash;who
+wore down my gentle mother's frame,
+drained my showy father's rental, and
+made even myself loathe the sight of
+loaded barouches coming to discharge
+their cargoes of beaux and belles on
+us for weeks together&mdash;were nectar
+and ambrosia to my sportive and rosy-cheeked
+audience. The five girls put
+on their bonnets, and looking like a
+group of Titania and her nymphs,
+as they bounded along in the moonlight,
+escorted us to the boundary of
+the vicar's territory.</p>
+
+<p>We were about to separate, with all
+the pretty formalities of village leave-taking;
+when their father, in the
+act of shaking hands with me, fixed
+his eye on mine, and insisted on seeing
+me home. Whether the thought occurred
+to him that I had still something
+on my mind, which was not to
+be trusted within sight of a brook that
+formed the boundary to the Castle
+grounds, I know not, but I complied;
+the girls were sent homewards, and I
+heard their gay voices mingling, at a
+distance, and not unsuitably, with the
+songs of the nightingale.</p>
+
+<p>I took his arm, and we walked on
+for a while in silence. At length,
+slackening his pace, and speaking in
+a tone whose earnestness struck me,
+&quot;Charles,&quot; said he, &quot;has any thing
+peculiarly painful lately happened to
+you?&mdash;if so, speak out. I know your
+nature to be above disguise; and with
+whom can you repose your vexations,
+if such there be, more safely than
+with your old tutor?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>I was taken unawares; and not having
+yet formed a distinct conception
+of my own grievances, promptly denied
+that I had any.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It may be so,&quot; said my friend;
+&quot;and yet once or twice this evening I
+saw your cheek alternately flush and
+grow pale, with a suddenness that
+alarmed me for your health. In one
+of your pleasantest stories, while you
+were acting the narrative with a liveliness
+evidently unconscious, and giving
+me and mine a treat which we
+have not had for a long time, I observed
+your voice falter, as if some
+spasm of soul had shot across you;
+and I unquestionably saw, that rare
+sight in the eyes of man, a tear.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>I denied this instance of weakness
+stoutly; but the old man's importunities
+prevailed, and, by degrees, I told
+him, or rather his good-natured cross-examination
+moulded for me, a statement
+of my anxieties at home.</p>
+
+<p>The Vicar, with all his simplicity of
+manner, was a man of powerful and
+practical understanding. He had been
+an eminent scholar at his university,
+and was in a fair way for all its distinctions,
+when he thought proper to fall
+desperately in love. This, of course,
+demolished his prospects at once. I
+never heard his subsequent history in
+detail; but he had left England, and
+undergone a long period of disheartening
+and distress. Whether he had not,
+in those times of desolation, taken service
+in the Austrian army, and even
+shared some of its Turkish campaigns,
+was a question which I heard once or
+twice started at the Castle; and a
+slight contraction of the arm, and a
+rather significant scar which crossed
+his bold forehead, had been set down
+to the account of the Osmanli cimeter.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;">
+
+<p>Vincent had never told the story of
+either, but a rumour reached his college
+of his having been seen in the Austrian
+uniform on the Transylvanian
+frontier, during the campaigns of the
+Prince of Coburg and Laudohn against
+the Turks. It was singular enough,
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page703" id="page703" title="703"></a></span> that on this very evening, in arguing
+against some of my whims touching
+destinies and omens, he illustrated the
+facility of imposture on such points
+by an incident from one of those campaigns.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A friend of mine,&quot; said he, &quot;a
+captain in the Lichtenstein hussars,
+happened to be on the outpost service
+of the army. As the enemy were in
+great force, and commanded by the
+Vizier in person, an action was daily
+expected, and the pickets and videttes
+were ordered to be peculiarly on the
+alert. But, on a sudden, every night
+produced some casualty. They either
+lost videttes, or their patrol was surprised,
+or their baggage plundered&mdash;in
+short, they began to be the talk of
+the army. The regiment had been
+always one of the most distinguished
+in the service, and all those misfortunes
+were wholly unaccountable.
+At length a stronger picket than
+usual was ordered for the night&mdash;not
+a man of them was to be found in
+the morning. As no firing had been
+heard, the natural conjecture was,
+that they must all have deserted. As
+this was a still more disgraceful result
+than actual defeat, the colonel
+called his officers together, to give
+what information they could. The
+camp, as usual, swarmed with Bohemians,
+fortune-tellers, and gipsies, a
+race who carry intelligence on both
+sides; and whose performances fully
+accounted for the knowledge which the
+enemy evidently had of our outposts.
+The first order was, to clear the quarters
+of the regiment of those encumbrances,
+and the next to direct the videttes
+to fire without challenging. At
+midnight a shot was heard; all turned
+out, and on reaching the spot where
+the alarm had been given, the vidette
+was found lying on the ground and
+senseless, though without a wound.
+On his recovery, he said that he had
+seen a ghost; but that having fired at
+it, according to orders, it looked so
+horribly grim at him, that he fell from
+his horse and saw no more. The Austrians
+are brave, but they are remarkably
+afraid of supernatural visitants, and
+a ghost would be a much more formidable
+thing to them than a discharge of
+grape-shot.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The captain in question was an
+Englishman, and as John Bull is supposed,
+among foreigners, to carry an
+unusual portion of brains about him,
+the colonel took him into his special
+council in the emergency. Having
+settled their measures, the captain prepared
+to take charge of the pickets
+for the night, making no secret of his
+dispositions. At dark, the videttes and
+sentries were posted as usual, and the
+officer took his post in the old field
+redoubt, which had been the headquarters
+of the pickets for the last
+fortnight.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All went on quietly until about midnight;
+the men off duty fast asleep in
+their cloaks, and the captain reading
+an English novel. He, too, had grown
+weary of the night, and was thinking
+of stretching himself on the floor of his
+hut, when he saw, and not without
+some perturbation, a tall spectral
+figure, in armour, enter the works, stride
+over the sleeping men without exciting
+the smallest movement amongst
+them, and advance towards him. He
+drew his breath hard, and attempted
+to call out, but his voice was choked,
+and he began to think himself under
+the dominion of nightmare. The
+figure came nearer still, looking more
+menacing, and drew its sword. My
+friend, with an effort which he afterwards
+acknowledged to be desperate,
+put his hand to his side to draw his
+own. What was his alarm when he
+found that it had vanished? At this
+moment his poodle, which, against all
+precautions, had followed him, began
+barking fiercely, and rushing alternately
+towards him and a corner of the
+redoubt. Though his sabre was gone,
+a brace of English pistols lay on the
+table beside him, and he fired one of
+them in the direction. The shot was
+followed by a groan and the disappearance
+of the spectre. The men started
+to their feet, and all rushed out in pursuit.
+The captain's first step struck
+upon a dead body, evidently that of
+the spy who had fallen by his fire. The
+pursuit was now joined in by the whole
+regiment, who had been posted in the
+rear unseen, to take advantage of circumstances.
+They pushed on, swept
+all before them, and bore down patrol
+and picket until they reached the enemy's
+camp. The question then was,
+what to do next? whether to make the
+best of their way back, or try their
+chance onward? The Englishman's
+voice was for taking fortune at the
+flow; and the accidental burning of a
+tent or two by the fugitives showed
+him the Turks already in confusion.
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page704" id="page704" title="704"></a></span> The trampling of battalions in the rear
+told him at the same time that he had
+powerful help at hand, and he dashed
+among the lines at once. The hussars,
+determined to retrieve their reputation,
+did wonders&mdash;the enemy
+were completely surprised. No troops
+but those in the highest state of discipline
+are good for any thing when attacked
+at night. The gallantry of the
+Turk by day, deserts him in the dark;
+and a night surprise, if well followed
+up, is sure to end in a victory. From
+the random firing and shouting on
+every side, it was clear that they were
+totally taken unawares; and the rapid
+and general advance of the Austrian
+brigades, showed that Laudohn was in
+the mind to make a handsome imperial
+bulletin. Day dawned on a rout as
+entire as ever was witnessed in a barbarian
+campaign. The enemy were
+flying in all directions like a horde of
+Tartars, and camp, cannon, baggage,
+standards, every thing was left at the
+mercy of the pursuers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But the captain, the Englishman,
+what became of him?&quot; I asked, slightly
+glancing at the countenance of the
+narrator.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, very well off indeed! Foreign
+Governments are showy to the soldier,
+and Joseph the Second, though
+an economist in civil matters, was
+liberal to his successful officers. The
+captain received a pension; a couple
+of orders; was made a colonel on the
+first opportunity; and, besides, had his
+share of the plunder&mdash;no slight addition
+to his finances, for the military
+chest had been taken in the baggage
+of the Seraskier.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And by this time,&quot; said I, with
+an unenquiring air, &quot;he is doubtless
+a field-marshal?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing of the kind,&quot; replied my
+reverend friend, &quot;for his victory cured
+him of soldiership. He was wounded
+in the engagement, and if he had been
+ever fool enough to think of fame,
+the solitary hours of his invalidism put
+an end to the folly. Other and dearer
+thoughts recurred to his mind. He
+had now obtained something approaching
+to a competence, if rightly managed;
+he asked permission to retire,
+returned to England, married
+the woman he loved; and never for a
+moment regretted that he was listening
+to larks and linnets instead of
+trumpets and cannon, and settling
+the concerns of rustics instead of
+man&oelig;uvring squadrons and battalions.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But what was the ghost, after
+all?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, the mere trick of a juggler!
+a figure projected on the wall by some
+ingenious contrivance of glasses. The
+instrument was found on the body of
+the performer, who turned out to be
+the colonel's valet&mdash;of course in the
+enemy's pay, and who furnished them
+with daily intelligence of all our proceedings.
+As for the loss of the sabre,
+which actually startled the ghost-seer
+most, he found it next morning hanging
+up in the hut, where he himself
+had placed it, and forgotten that he
+had done so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And the captain, or rather the
+colonel, brought with him to England,
+a cimeter-cut on his arm, and
+another on his forehead?&quot; I asked,
+fixing my eyes on him. A crimson
+flush passed over his countenance, he
+bit his lip and turned away. I feared
+that I had offended irreparably. But
+his natural kindliness of heart prevailed,
+he turned to me gently, laughed,
+and pressing my hand in his, said,
+&quot;You have my secret. It has escaped
+me for the first time these thirty
+years. Keep it like a man of honour.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;">
+
+<p>I have always held that the life of
+man's mind, where man <i>has</i> a mind&mdash;which
+is not always the case&mdash;is a
+thing of fits and starts. I even doubt
+whether any one who will take the
+trouble to recollect, will not be able
+to put his finger on the precise periods
+at which new views of every thing
+suddenly opened before him, and he
+emerged at once, if not into new
+powers, at least into a new use of
+them. The frame may grow like a
+tree; the faculties may grow as imperceptibly
+as the frame; but the mind
+acquires that knowledge of life which
+forms its exercise, its use, and perhaps
+its essence, by bounds and flights.
+This moonlight walk with my old
+and honoured Mentor, was the beginning
+of my mental adolescence. My
+manhood was still to come, and with a
+more severe instructor.</p>
+
+<p>As we were passing slowly through
+the plantations which encircled the
+Castle with all the noble and profuse
+shelter and ornament which our ancestors
+loved, a distant sound of music
+came on the wind. I then remembered,
+for the first time, that my brother
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page705" id="page705" title="705"></a></span> had, on that evening, given a ball to
+the county, and a sudden sense of the
+difference of our lots in life, came painfully
+over me;&mdash;the course of secure
+wealth and English enjoyment, contrasted
+with the dependence and wandering
+which must form the existence
+of myself, and so many thousands of
+younger brothers.</p>
+
+<p>I was awakened from my reverie by
+the voice of my companion. His face
+was upturned to the cloudless sky,
+and he was murmuring the fine passage
+in the Merchant of Venice.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Look, how the floor of heaven</p>
+<p>Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold;</p>
+<p>There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st,</p>
+<p>But in his motion like an angel sings,</p>
+<p>Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins:</p>
+<p>Such harmony is in immortal souls.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you know, Charles,&quot; said he,
+&quot;what changed the whole current of
+my life? what, in fact, brought me
+back to England?&quot; and there was a
+slight pause. &quot;What made me a
+Christian? It was such a night as this.
+As you now know the chief part of my
+story, I need have no further concealment
+on the subject. I had recovered
+from my wounds, and was preparing
+to set out for Vienna, when one night
+a tempest blew down our tents, and
+left us to trust to the open air for the
+hours till morning. Tempests in
+the south are violent, but they are
+generally brief, and this gale cleared
+the sky of every cloud. As I lay on
+the ground, and gazed on the unusual
+splendour of the stars, the thought
+occurred to me, Why should doubts
+of a future state ever come into the
+mind of man? Why should he hesitate
+about its reality? Was it not
+there, before his eyes? Were not the
+very regions of future existence already
+within the reach of one of his
+senses? Why might they not yet be
+within the reach of all? Of course I
+do not give you all the vague thoughts
+which passed through my mind; but
+the permanence, power, and astonishing
+multitude of those bright worlds,
+impressed themselves on me with a
+new force. I had known all those
+matters before, but on this night I felt
+them. My next thoughts were of the
+power, the wisdom, and the majesty
+of the mighty Being by whom all this
+had been formed, moved, and sustained
+through thousands of years. I need
+not follow the history of my conversion&mdash;for
+a conversion it was. When
+I looked round me on the sleeping
+troops, I saw nothing but clods of the
+valley&mdash;gallant beings, but as insensible
+to their high inheritance as the
+chargers they rode. My heart moved
+me towards them; and perhaps, in
+some instances, I succeeded in giving
+them my own ideas. But Austria defies,
+at least, all human change. I was not
+a fanatic, and I had no wish to strive
+with impossibilities. I sent in my
+resignation; abandoned the 'pride,
+pomp, and circumstance' of the most
+tempting of all human pursuits, and
+returned to England to be, what you
+see me now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>With this man I could have no
+reserves, and I freely asked his advice
+on the plunge which I was about to
+make into that fathomless tide of good
+and ill, the world. I mentioned the
+Church as the profession which my
+mother had suggested, but for which
+I did not conceive either my temper
+or my habits suitable.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are right, then, in abandoning
+the idea altogether,&quot; was the answer;
+&quot;and yet I know no profession more
+capable of fulfilling all the objects of
+a vigorous mind. I am not now talking
+of mitres; they can fall to but
+few. I speak of the prospects which
+it opens to all; the power of exerting
+the largest influence for the highest
+purposes; the possession of fame
+without its emptiness, and the indulgence
+of knowledge without its
+vanity; energy turned to the most
+practical and lofty uses of man; and
+the full feast of an ambition superior
+to the tinsel of the world, and alike
+pure in its motives, and immeasurable
+in its rewards.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And, yet,&quot; said I, naming one or
+two of our clerical slumberers, &quot;the
+profession seems not to be a very disturbing
+one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Those men, was the answer, would
+have been slumberers at the bar, in
+senates, or in the field. I may be prejudiced
+in favour of the choice which I
+made so long since, and which I have
+never found reason to repent. But I
+have not the slightest wish to prejudice
+any one in its favour. There is
+no profession which more requires a
+peculiar mind; contentment, with
+whatever consciousness of being overlooked;
+patience, with whatever hopelessness
+of success; labour, for its own
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page706" id="page706" title="706"></a></span> sake; and learning, with few to share,
+few to admire, and fewer still to understand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If my father had lived,&quot; said I,
+&quot;it was his intention to have tried my
+chance in diplomacy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Probably enough; for he had figured
+in that line himself. I remember him
+secretary of embassy at Vienna. Perhaps
+you will scarcely believe, that I,
+too, have had my experience on the
+subject? Accident once made me an
+attach&eacute; to our envoy at Naples. The
+life is an easy one. Idleness was
+never more perfectly reduced to a system,
+than among the half dozen functionaries
+to whom the interests of the
+British empire were entrusted in the
+capital of the Lazzaroni. As the
+Frenchman said of the Academy, 'We
+had nothing to do, and we did it.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Italy,&quot; said I, &quot;is the land of pleasure,
+and the Lazzaroni are its philosophers,
+but one cannot sleep like them
+in the face of day, and all day long.
+Let what will come, I have no desire
+to be a weed on the shore.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No; we had our occupations; for
+we had the attendance on the court days&mdash;a
+business of as much formality, as
+if the fate of mankind depended on
+it. Then we had the attendance on
+the opera at night, a matter nearly as
+tiresome. The post from England
+reached Naples but once a-week, and
+scarcely once a month conveyed any
+intelligence that was worth the postage.
+But, if politics were out of the
+question, we had negotiation in abundance;
+for we carried on the whole diplomacy
+of the opera-house in London,
+engaged <i>primo tenores</i>, and settled
+the rival claims of <i>prima donnas</i>;
+gave our critical opinions on the
+merits of dancers worthy of appearing
+before the British <i>cognoscenti</i>; and
+dispatched poets, ballet-masters, and
+scene-painters, to our managers, with
+an activity worthy of the purest patriotism.
+What think you of the bar?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have no head for its study; and
+no heart for its employment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It leads more rapidly to rank than
+any other profession under the sun;
+profit beyond counting, and a peerage.
+Those are no bad things.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Both capital, if one could be secure
+of them. But they take too much
+time for me. I never was born to sit
+on the woolsack. No; if I were to
+follow my own inclination, I should
+be a soldier.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>I have already said that I have
+been, throughout life, a kind of believer
+in omens. I have seen such a
+multitude of things decided by some
+curious coincidence, some passing occurrence,
+some of those odd trifles for
+which it is impossible to account, but
+which occur at the instant when the
+mind is wavering on the balance;
+that I feel no wonder at the old superstitions
+of guessing our destiny from
+the shooting of a star, or the flight of
+birds. While we were rambling onward,
+discussing the merits and demerits
+of the profession of arms, we
+heard the winding of the mail-guard's
+horn. I sprang the fence, and waited
+in the road to enquire the last news
+from the metropolis. It was momentous&mdash;the
+Revolution had effectually
+broken out. Paris was in an uproar.
+The king's guards had taken up arms
+for the people. The Bastile was
+stormed!</p>
+
+<p>If I had hesitated before, this news
+decided me; not that I pretend to have
+even dreamed of the tremendous
+changes which were to be produced in
+the world by that convulsion. But it
+struck me as the beginning of a time,
+when the lazy quietude of years was
+about to be broken up, and room made
+for all who were inclined to exert themselves.
+Before we had reached the
+level lawns and trim parterres which
+showed us the lights of the family
+festivity, I had settled all the difficulties
+which might impede the career of
+less fortunate individuals; time and
+chance were managed with the adroitness
+of a projector; and if Bellona had
+been one of the Nine Muses, my
+speculations could not have been more
+poetical. Somewhat to my surprise,
+they received no check from my venerable
+tutor; quite the contrary. The
+singular sympathy with which he listened
+to my most daring and dashing
+conceptions, would have betrayed his
+early history if I had still the knowledge
+to acquire. His very looks, as
+he listened to my rodomontades, recurred
+to me, when I read, many
+years after, Scott's fine description of
+his soldier-monk in the Lay of the
+Last Minstrel:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Again on the knight look'd the churchman old,</p>
+<p class="i1">And again he sigh'd heavily,</p>
+<p>For he had himself been a warrior bold,</p>
+<p class="i1">And fought in Spain and Italy.</p>
+<p><span class="newpage"><a name="page707" id="page707" title="707"></a></span> And he thought on the days that were long gone by,</p>
+<p>When his limbs were strong, and his courage was high.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;">
+
+<p>The news from France produced
+a sensation throughout England
+totally indescribable at the present
+day. Every tongue and every heart
+was full of it. It offered something
+for every mind of the million
+to seize on. Like a waterspout, such
+as I have seen sweeping over the
+bosom of the Atlantic, half-descending
+from the skies, and half-ascending
+from the deep; every second man
+whom one met gave it credit for a
+different origin, some looking at the
+upper portion and some at the lower;
+while, in the mean time, the huge
+phenomenon was blackening, gathering,
+and rushing onward, threatening
+to turn all above into darkness and all
+below into storm. It made the grand
+subject of parliamentary eloquence,
+and parliament was never more eloquent;
+it filled the speeches of the
+factious, it was hailed by the shouts
+of the multitude, and it disturbed the
+fireside with fear and hope, with wishing
+and wonder. It must be acknowledged
+that a vast quantity of this
+excitement was absolute folly; but, at
+the same time, there was a sincerity
+in the folly which redeemed it from ridicule.
+Nothing could be more evident
+than that this French patriotism was
+as theatrical, in the countless majority
+of instances, as the loves and sorrows
+of its stage. Yet, however the
+speeches might be got by heart, or
+the frippery and actors hired, the
+<i>drame</i> was powerfully performed;
+and all Europe sat by, giving it the
+tribute of its tears and its terrors.
+Even we of England, with all our
+more sober recollections that the
+heroes were ragamuffins, and the heroism
+imaginary, gave ourselves up
+to the illusion. I shall not say that
+I was wiser than the rest of mankind.
+I liked excitement, wherever
+it was to be found. The barriers
+to distinction were still too firmly
+closed against the youngest son of an
+embarrassed family, not to suggest
+many a wish for whatever chance
+might burst the gate, or blow up the
+rampart; and my first effort in political
+life was a harangue to the rabble
+of the next borough, conceived in the
+most Gallic style. Yet this act of
+absurdity had the effect of forwarding
+my views more rapidly than if I had
+become an aristocratic Demosthenes.
+My speech was so much applauded
+by the mob, that they began to put
+its theories in practice, though with
+rather more vigour than I had dreamed
+of. There were riots, and even
+some attempts at the seizure of arms;
+and the noble duke, our neighbour,
+had received a threatening letter,
+which sent him at full gallop to the
+Home Secretary. A note, by no
+means too gentle in its tone, was instantly
+despatched to my noble brother,
+enquiring why he did not contrive
+to keep the minor branches of
+his family in better order, and threatening
+him with the withdrawal of
+the county patronage. My demand
+of a commission in the Guards was
+no longer answered by the head
+of our house with astonishment
+at the loftiness of my expectations,
+and statements of the utter emptiness
+of the family exchequer. The result
+of his brief correspondence with
+Downing Street was a letter, notifying
+that his majesty was pleased to
+accept my services in the Coldstream.</p>
+
+<p>I was enraptured, and my brother
+was enraptured, for we had both gained
+our objects. I had got rid of him
+and ennui. He had got rid of me, and
+the displeasure of the grand dispensers
+of place and pension. No time was
+lost in forwarding me to make my bow
+at the Horse Guards; and my noble
+brother lost as little time in making
+me put my hand to a paper, in which,
+for prompt payment, I relinquished
+one half of my legacy. But what
+cared I for money? I had obtained a
+profession in which money was contemptible,
+the only purse the military
+chest, and the only prize, like Nelson's,
+a peerage or Westminster Abbey.
+The ferment did not cool within
+the week, and within that period I had
+taken leave of half the county, been
+wished laurels and aiguillettes by a
+hundred or a thousand of the fairest
+of our country belles; and been wished
+a thousand miles off by the wise
+matrons, to whom the sight of a
+&quot;younger son without house or land&quot;
+is a nuisance, a kite among their
+family pigeons.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment, however, all their
+dovecots were secure. I should not
+have spent a sigh on the Venus de Medicis
+had she sprung from her pedestal
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page708" id="page708" title="708"></a></span> to enchant me. The world was
+open before me; and trite and trifling
+objects were no more to occupy my
+time. I felt like one who, after wandering
+all day through the depths of
+an American forest, suddenly reaches
+its border, and sees before him the
+boundless prairie, with its boundlessness
+still more striking, from the
+absence of any distinct object on
+which the eye could rest. What were
+horses, dogs, and country dinners, to
+the world of London and of life which
+now came in full, and, I will own it, extravagant
+vision before me? The ideas
+which I conceived of men and things,
+of my own fortunes, and the fortunate
+exercise of my own powers, were of
+an order which, in my calmer days,
+have often made me smile; yet what
+is the whole early life of man but a
+predisposition to fever? and I was
+then throbbing on the fiery verge of
+the disease.</p>
+
+<p>I shall say but little of my first sensations
+on reaching London. My
+eyes and ears were in full activity.
+But the impression upon all who enter
+this mightiest of capitals for the first
+time, is nearly the same. Its perpetual
+multitude, its incessant movement,
+its variety of occupations, sights
+and sounds, the echo of the whole
+vast and sleepless machinery of national
+existence, have been a thousand
+times the subject of description, and
+always of wonder. Yet, I must acknowledge,
+that its first sight repelled
+me. I had lived in field and
+forest, my society had been among
+my fellows in rank; I had lived in
+magnificent halls, and been surrounded
+by bowing attendants; and now,
+with my mind full of the calm magnificence
+of English noble life, I felt
+myself flung into the midst of a numberless,
+miscellaneous, noisy rabble,
+all rushing on regardless of every
+thing but themselves, pouring through
+endless lines of dingy houses; and I
+nothing, an atom in the confusion, a
+grain of dust on the great chariot
+wheel of society, a lonely and obscure
+struggler in the mighty current of
+human life, which rolled along the
+sullen channels of the most cheerless,
+however it might be the largest, of
+capitals.</p>
+
+<p>For the first week, I was absolutely
+unable to collect my thoughts.
+All that I learned was, to make my
+way through the principal thoroughfares,
+and know the names of her
+chief buildings. In later days, I
+took a more practical view of matters,
+and regarded them only as places in
+which the business of the hour was to
+be done. But in my first view, something
+of the romance and revival of
+my forest walks clung to me. I remember
+that, when I first saw the
+Horse Guards, to which, of course,
+one of my earliest visits was paid, I
+found no slight difficulty in thinking
+of it as only a remarkably clownish
+mass of brick and stone, crowded
+with clerks. To me it was the very
+palace of war; the spot from which
+the thunderbolts of England were
+launched; the centre and the stronghold
+of that irresistible influence with
+which England sways and moulds
+mankind. The India House was another
+of my reveries. I could not
+think of it as but a huge pile in a vulgar
+outlet of the city, as a place of porters
+and messengers loitering in gloomy
+corridors, of busy clerks for ever scribbling
+in nooks unvisited by the sun,
+or even of portly directors, congregating
+in halls encrusted with the
+cobwebs of centuries. To my eyes it
+was invested with the mystery and
+dignity of Orientalism. I thought of
+the powers by which rajahs were raised
+and overthrown, of the mandates which
+spread war and restored peace over
+regions wide as Europe, and a thousand
+times more brilliant. I had
+rambling visions of armies of elephants,
+superb cavalry, and chieftains
+covered with gold and diamonds. As
+I traversed the dusky halls, I thought
+of the will which pronounced the fate
+of kingdoms, the fallen glories of
+Aurengzebe, the broken sceptre of
+the Mahratta, and the crushed tiara
+of Mysore. Round me was the moving
+power of an empire, the noblest
+that the East has ever seen, and
+which, in the act of assuming additional
+greatness, by a contradiction to
+all the laws of extended conquest, was
+hourly assuming additional stability.</p>
+
+<p>And yet, and yet, are not those the
+true views, after all? Are the effects
+to be forgotten in the instruments, or
+is it not the result which forms the
+character of the whole? Are we to
+think of the dagger which strikes the
+master of a throne, as only the steel in
+the hand of an assassin, or as the summoner
+to civil war and the subversion
+of thrones? Is the pen which pours
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page709" id="page709" title="709"></a></span> political frenzy through the hearts of
+living millions, or sheds the splendours
+of poetry over millions still to come,
+to be valued only as the feather of a
+bird? Or is the press itself to be
+remembered only as a dexterous combination
+of springs and screws; or to be
+bowed down to as the steward of all
+the hidden treasures of mind&mdash;as the
+breaker of intellectual chains, the
+avenger of injured rights, the moral
+Hercules that goes forth turning the
+wilderness to fertility, and smiting the
+monsters of the world?</p>
+
+<p>But among the wonders of the
+time, there was one which struck me
+with prodigious force, which has remained
+on my recollection to this
+hour, and which still survives with
+undiminished vividness. It was the
+acting of Siddons.</p>
+
+<p>The stage is now almost undone.
+The absurd liberalism of the day has
+given every corner of London a
+theatre, and has degraded the character
+of the stage in all. By scattering
+the ability which still exists, it has
+stripped the great theatres of the very
+means of representing dramatic excellence;
+while, by adopting popular contrivances
+to obtain temporary success,
+they have driven away dramatic
+genius in contempt or in despair. Our
+stage is now condemned to be fed like
+a felon from the dungeons, and, like the
+felon, to feel a stigma in every morsel
+which it puts between its lips. It
+must stoop to French frivolity, or
+German extravagance, and be glad to
+exist upon either. Yet, why should
+not higher names come to its aid?
+Why should not the State relieve the
+difficulties of a great institution, which
+might be made to repay its assistance
+a thousand-fold? Is there nothing
+that could be withdrawn from the
+waste of our civil lists, or the pomp
+of public establishments, to reunite,
+to purify, and even to exalt the stage?
+The people <i>will</i> have theatres. Good
+or evil, noble or degraded, the stage
+will be demanded by the people. Is
+it a thing indifferent to our rulers, to
+supply them with this powerful and
+universal excitement in its highest
+degree of moral influence, or in its
+lowest degree of impurity; to bring
+before them, with all the attractions
+of the drama, the memory of heroes
+and sages, patriots and martyrs, or
+leave them to rake for the indulgence
+of eye and ear in the very kennels of
+crime?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They order those things better
+in France.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Unquestionably. The care of Government
+there protects the national
+taste, and prevents the theatres from
+looking for subsistence to the history
+of the highway. The vices which
+now haunt theatres are no more necessary
+to their nature, than to the
+senate or the palace. Why should
+not the State interpose to prevent
+the sale of poison on the stage,
+as in the streets? Why should
+it not offer prizes and honours for
+great tragedies and comedies, as soon
+as it would for a voyage to the Arctic
+or Antarctic? But is dramatic genius
+dead in England? What, in England!
+where nothing dies&mdash;where every faculty
+of the heart and understanding is
+in the most perpetual activity&mdash;where
+the noblest impulses are perpetually
+pushing forward to the noblest ends&mdash;where
+human nature moves in all
+its vigour, from hour to hour, without
+disguise&mdash;where the whole anatomy
+of the moral frame is visible, and all
+its weakness, and all its wonders,
+are the daily spectacle of all mankind!</p>
+
+<p>In giving these opinions of the powers
+of the stage, need I guard them
+by saying, that I contemplate a higher
+spirit than the drama even of Shakspeare
+has ever displayed&mdash;one
+which, to the vigour of his characters,
+and the splendours of his poetry,
+should add a moral of which his time
+was scarcely conscious? My idea
+would approach more nearly the
+objects of the great Greek dramas, in
+which the first sympathies of the people
+were appealed to by the most
+powerful recollections of historic virtue;
+their national victories over the
+Persian, the lofty conceptions of their
+Olympus, the glories of their national
+power, and the prospects of their
+imperishable renown. I contemplate
+nothing of the weakness, locality, or
+license, of our old drama. I think
+only of a rich and lofty combination
+of characters above the level of our
+time, thoughts belonging to that elevation,
+feelings more generous, vivid,
+and majestic, and exploits uniting the
+soaring spirit of old romance with the
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page710" id="page710" title="710"></a></span> sustained strength of modern energy;
+Greece in her brightest days of intellectual
+lustre, Rome in her most heroic
+days of patriotism, and England
+in those days which are yet to come,
+and which shall fill up her inheritance
+of glory.</p>
+
+<p>Siddons was then witching the
+world&mdash;witching, in its more solemn
+sense; for though her smile was exquisite,
+she might have sat for the
+picture of a Sybil or a Pythoness.
+The stage had never seen her equal,
+and will probably never see another
+so completely formed to command all
+its influences. Yet her beauty, her
+acting, even her movement, were characteristic,
+and their character was
+noble melancholy. I never saw so
+mournful a countenance combined
+with so much beauty. Her voice,
+though grand, was melancholy&mdash;her
+step, though superb, was melancholy;
+her very smile was melancholy;
+and yet there was so much of living
+intellect in her expression, such vast
+variety of passion in her look and
+gesture; she so deeply awoke the
+feelings, or so awfully impressed the
+mind; thus it was impossible to escape
+the spell, while she moved upon the
+stage.</p>
+
+<p>In this language there is not the
+slightest exaggeration. I have seen
+a whole audience burst into tears at
+a single tone of her voice. Her
+natural conception was so fine, that
+the merest commonplace often received
+a living spirit from her lips. I
+have seen a single glance from her
+powerful eye hush an audience&mdash;I
+have seen her acting sometimes even
+startle and bewilder the actors beside
+her. There is perhaps a genius for
+every art, and hers was the genius of
+the stage&mdash;a faculty of instant
+communication between the speaker and
+the hearer, some unaccountable
+sympathy, the power to create which belongs
+to but one in millions, and which,
+where it exists, lifts its possessor to
+the height of the Art at once, and constitutes
+perfection.</p>
+
+<p>It may be presumed that I saw this
+extraordinary being whenever it was
+possible. But her <i>chef-d'&oelig;uvre</i>, in
+my eyes, was the &quot;wife of Macbeth.&quot;
+The character seemed made for her,
+by something of that instinct which
+in olden times combined the poet and
+the prophet in one. It had the ardour
+and boldness mingled with the
+solemnity and mystery that belonged
+to the character of her beauty.</p>
+
+<p>Her entrance was hurried, as if she
+had but just glanced over the letter,
+and had been eager to escape from the
+crowd of attendants to reperuse it
+alone. She then read on, in a strong
+calm voice, until she came to the passage
+which proved the preternatural
+character of the prediction. &quot;They
+have more in them than mortal knowledge.
+When I burnt with desire to
+question them further, they made
+themselves into air and&mdash;<i>vanished</i>.&quot;
+As she was about to pronounce the
+last word, she paused, drew a short
+breath, her whole frame was disturbed,
+she threw her fine eyes upwards, and
+exclaimed &quot;<i>Vanished</i>!&quot; with a wild
+force, which showed that the whole
+spirit of the temptation had shrunk
+into her soul. The &quot;Hail, king that
+shall be!&quot; was the winding-up of the
+spell. It was pronounced with the
+grandeur of one already by anticipation
+a Queen.</p>
+
+<p>Her solitary summons to her distant
+lord followed, like an invocation&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p class="i5">&quot;Hie thee hither,</p>
+<p>That I may pour my spirits in thine ear;</p>
+<p>And chastise with the valour of my tongue</p>
+<p>All that impedes thee from the golden round.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The murder scene was the next
+triumph: her acting was that of a
+triumphant fiend. I must follow these
+recollections no further; but the most
+admirable piece of dumb show that
+perhaps ever was conceived, was her
+&quot;Banquet scene.&quot; That scene, from
+the terrible business on the stage&mdash;the
+entrance of Banquo's ghost, the horrors
+of Macbeth, stricken in the moment of
+his royal exultation, and the astonishment
+and alarm of the courtiers&mdash;is
+one of the most thrilling and tumultuous.
+Yet Siddons, sitting at the extremity
+of the royal hall, not having a
+syllable to utter, and simply occupied
+with courtesies to her guests, made
+her silence so expressive, that she
+more than divided the interest with the
+powerful action going on in front.
+And when at last, indignant at Macbeth's
+terrors, stung by conscience,
+and alarmed at the result of an up-breaking
+of the banquet with such
+rumours in their lips, she rushed towards
+her unhappy husband, and burst
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page711" id="page711" title="711"></a></span> out with the words, still though but
+whispered, yet intensely poured into
+his passive ear&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p class="i2">&quot;Are you a <i>man</i>?</p>
+<p>This is the very painting of your fear!</p>
+<p>This is the air-drawn dagger, which, you said,</p>
+<p>Led you to Duncan!&mdash;</p>
+<p>Why do you make such faces? When all's done,</p>
+<p><i>You look but on a stool</i>!&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>In those accents all else was forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>But her sleep-walking scene! When
+shall we see its &quot;second or its similar?&quot;
+Nothing so solemn, nothing so
+awful, was ever seen upon the stage.
+Yet it had one fault&mdash;it was too awful.
+She more resembled a majestic shade
+rising from the tomb than a living woman,
+however disturbed by wild fear
+and lofty passion. It is a remarkable
+instance of the genius of Shakspeare,
+that he here found the means of giving
+a human interest to a being whom he
+had almost exalted to the &quot;bad eminence&quot;
+of a magnificent fiend. In
+this famous soliloquy, the thoughts
+which once filled and fired her have
+totally vanished. Ambition has died;
+remorse lives in its place. The diadem
+has disappeared; she thinks only
+of the blood that stains her for ever.
+She is the queen no more, but an exhausted
+and unhappy woman, worn
+down by the stings of conscience, and
+with her frame dying by the disease
+of her soul.</p>
+
+<p>But Siddons wanted the agitation,
+the drooping, the timidity. She looked
+a living statue. She spoke with
+the solemn tone of a voice from a
+shrine. She stood more the sepulchral
+avenger of regicide than the
+sufferer from its convictions. Her
+grand voice, her fixed and marble
+countenance, and her silent step, gave
+the impression of a supernatural
+being, the genius of an ancient oracle&mdash;a
+tremendous Nemesis.</p>
+
+<p>I have seen all the great tragedians
+of my day, but I have never seen an
+equal to the sublime of this extraordinary
+actress. I have seen beauty,
+youth, touching sensibility, and powerful
+conception; but I never saw so
+complete an union of them all&mdash;and
+that union was the sublime. Shakspeare
+must have had some such form
+before his mind's eye, while he was
+creating the wife of Macbeth. Some
+magnificent and regal countenance,
+some movement of native majesty,
+some imaginary Siddons. He could
+not have gone beyond the true. She
+was a living Melpomene.</p>
+
+<p>The business of the War-Office was
+not transacted in those days with the
+dispatch subsequently introduced by
+the honest Duke of York. After a
+delay of weeks I found myself still
+ungazetted, grew sad, angry, impatient;
+and after some consideration on
+the various modes of getting rid of
+<i>ennui</i>, which were to be found in enlisting
+the service of that Great
+Company which extended its wings
+from Bombay to Bengal, as Sheridan
+said, impudently enough, like the vulture
+covering his prey; or in taking
+the chance of fortune, in the shape of
+cabin-boy on board one of the thousand
+ships that were daily floating
+down the Thames, making their way
+to the extremities of the earth; or in
+finishing my feverish speculations in
+a cold bath at the bottom of the
+Thames itself; I did what I felt a
+severer exertion than any of them&mdash;I
+wrote a full and true statement of my
+vexations to my lordly brother.</p>
+
+<p>His answer was lordly enough.
+He had been &quot;so much occupied with
+the numberless duties devolving upon
+him as landlord, magistrate, lord-lieutenant,
+and fifty other things, that
+he absolutely had not been able to
+find a moment to think of me;&quot; and
+what was rather more perplexing to
+my immediate sensibilities, &quot;he had
+not been able to send me a shilling.
+However, he did all that he could,
+and gave me a note to a particular
+friend,&quot; Mr Elisha Mordecai of Moorfields.</p>
+
+<p>There is nothing which quickens a
+man's movements like a depletion of
+the purse; and instead of lounging at
+my hotel until the morning paper
+brought me the scandals and pleasantries
+of the day before fresh for
+my breakfast-table, I threw myself
+out of bed at an hour which I should
+not have ventured to mention to any
+man with whom I walked arm-in-arm
+during the day, and made my way in
+a hackney coach, to avoid the possibility
+of being recognised, to the
+dwelling of my new patron, or rather
+my guide and guardian angel.</p>
+
+<p>I make no attempt to describe the
+navigation through which I reached
+him; it was winding, dark, and dirty
+beyond all description, and gave the
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page712" id="page712" title="712"></a></span> idea of the passages of a dungeon
+rather than any thing else that I could
+name. And in a hovel worthy to finish
+such a voyage of discovery, I discovered
+Mr Elisha Mordecai, the man
+of untold opulence. For a while, on
+being ushered into the office, where
+he sat pen in hand, I was utterly
+unable to ascertain any thing of him
+beyond a gaunt thin figure, who sat
+crouching behind a pile of papers,
+and beneath a small window covered
+with the dirt of ages. He gave me
+the impression in his dungeon of one
+of those toads which are found from
+time to time in blocks of coal, and
+have lain there unbreathing and unmoving
+since the deluge. However,
+he was a man of business, and so was
+I for the moment. I handed him my
+brother's note; and like a ray of
+sunshine on the torpid snake, it put
+him into immediate motion. He now
+took off his spectacles, as if to indulge
+himself with a view of me by the
+naked eye; and after a scrutinizing
+look, which, in another place and person,
+I should probably have resented
+as impertinent, but which here seemed
+part of his profession, he rose from
+his seat and ushered me into another
+apartment. This room was probably
+his place of reception for criminals of
+a more exalted order; for it was lined
+with foreign prints, had one or two
+tolerable Dutch pictures, and a bookcase.
+Out of his bookcase he took
+down a folio, examined it, compared
+the writing of my credentials with the
+signatures of a book which, as Cromwell's
+son said of his trunk, contained
+the lives and fortunes, or at least that
+on which depended the lives and fortunes,
+of half the noble <i>rou&eacute;s</i> of England,
+their &quot;promises to pay,&quot; bonds,
+mortgages, and post-obits, and then
+performed the operation on myself.
+My L.2500 in prospect was mulcted
+of a fifth for the trouble of realizing
+it; of another fifth for prompt payment,
+and of another for expediting
+the affair of my commission. &quot;Another
+such victory would have ruined
+me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>However, I bore the torture well.
+In truth, I had so little regard for any
+object but the grand one of wearing
+a sword and epaulette, that if Mordecai
+had demanded the whole sum in
+fifths, I should have scarcely winced.
+But my philosophy stood me in good
+part, for it won a grim smile from the
+torturer, and even a little of his confidence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This,&quot; said he, running his finger
+down a list which looked endless, &quot;I
+call my peerage book.&quot; Turning to
+another of equal dimensions, &quot;there
+lies my House of Commons. Not quite
+as many words wasted in it as in the
+Honourable House, but rather to the
+purpose.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Mordecai grew facetious; the feeling
+that he had made a handsome morning's
+work of it put him into spirits,
+and he let me into some of the secrets
+of high life, with the air of a looker-on
+who sees the whole game, and
+intends to pocket the stakes of the
+fools on both sides. &quot;Money, Mr
+Marston,&quot; said my hook-nosed and
+keen-eyed enlightener, &quot;is the true
+business of man. It is philosophy,
+science, and patriotism in one; or,
+at least, without it the whole three
+are of but little service. Your philosopher
+dies in a garret, your man of
+science hawks telescopes, and your
+patriot starves in the streets, or gets
+himself hanged in honour of the
+'Rights of Man.' I have known all
+these things, for I was born a German,
+and bred among the illustrissimi
+of a German university. But I determined
+not to live a beggar, or at
+least not to die one. I left Gottingen
+behind on a May morning, and
+trudged, fought, and begged, 'borrowed'
+my way to London. What
+I am now, you see.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Probably, the glance which I involuntarily
+gave round the room, did
+not exhibit much admiration.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ha,&quot; said he with a half smile,
+which, on his gigantic and sullen features,
+looked like a smile on one of
+the sculptures of a mausoleum, &quot;you
+are young&mdash;you judge by appearances.
+Let me give you one piece of advice:
+If the Italian said, 'distrust words,
+they are fit only to disguise thoughts,'
+take a Londoner's warning, and distrust
+your eyes&mdash;they are only fit to
+pretend to see.&quot; He paused a moment,
+and turned over some memorandums.
+&quot;I find,&quot; said he, &quot;by
+these papers, that I shall have occasion
+to leave town in the beginning of
+next week. You shall then see how
+I live. If I am to be found in this
+den, it is not for want of a liking for
+light and air. I am a German. I
+have seen plains and mountains in my
+time. If I had been a fool, there I
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page713" id="page713" title="713"></a></span> should have remained a bear-shooter;
+if I were a fool here, I should act like
+others of the breed, and be a fox-hunter.
+But I had other game in
+view, and now I could sell half the
+estates in England, call half the 'Honourable
+House' to my levee, brush
+down an old loan, buy up a new one,
+and shake the credit of every thing
+but the Bank of England.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This was bold speaking, and at another
+time I should have laughed at
+it; but the times were bold, the language
+of the streets was bold, the
+country was bold, and I, too, was bold.
+There was something singular in the
+man; even the hovel round him had a
+look which added to his influence. I
+listened to the Jew as one might listen
+to a revealer of those secrets which
+find an echo in every bosom, when
+they are once discovered, and on
+which still deeper secrets seem to depend.
+My acquiescence, not the less
+effective for its being expressed more
+in looks than words, warmed even the
+stern spirit of the Israelite towards
+me, and he actually went the length
+of ordering some refreshments to be
+put on the table. We eat and drank
+together; a new source of cordiality.
+Our conversation continued long. I
+shall have more to say of him, and
+must now proceed to other things;
+but it ended in my acceptance of his
+invitation to his villa at Brighton,
+which he termed &quot;a small thing,
+simply for a week's change of air,&quot;
+and where he promised to give me
+some curious explanations of his
+theory&mdash;that money was the master of
+all things, men, manners, and opinions.</p>
+
+<p>On one of the finest mornings of
+autumn, I was on the box of the
+Royal Sussex Stage.</p>
+
+<p>I had full leisure to admire the
+country, for our progress occupied
+nearly the whole day. We now
+laugh at our slow-moving forefathers,
+but is not the time coming when our
+thirty miles an hour will be laughed
+at as much as their five? when our
+passage from Calais to Dover will be
+made by the turn of a winch, and
+Paris will be within the penny-post
+delivery? when the balloon will
+carry our letters and ourselves; until
+that still more rapid period, when we
+shall ride on cannon-shot, and make
+but a stage from London to Pekin?</p>
+
+<p>On the roof of the coach I found a
+strong-featured and closely wrapped-up
+man, who, by degrees, performed
+the part of my cicerone. His knowledge
+of the localities was perfect;
+&quot;every bush and bosky dell,&quot; every
+creek and winding, as the shore came
+in sight, was so familiar to him, that
+I should have set him down at once
+for a smuggler, but for a superiority
+of tone in his language, and still more
+from the evident deference to him by
+the coachman, in those days a leading
+authority with all the passengers.
+His occupation is now nearly o'er.
+Fire and water have swept him away.
+His broad back, his broad grin, and
+his broad buttons, are now but recollections.</p>
+
+<p>My new acquaintance exhibited as
+perfect a knowledge of the country
+residents as of its map, and nothing
+could be more unhesitating than his
+opinions of them all, from the prince
+and his set, as he termed them, to
+Mordecai himself. Of my Jew friend,
+he said, with a laugh, &quot;There is not
+a better friend to the King's Bench
+in all England. If you have any
+thing to lose, he will strip you on the
+spot. If you have nothing, you may
+escape, unless he can make something
+by having you hanged.&quot; I begged
+of him to spare my new friend.
+&quot;Why,&quot; said he, &quot;he is one of my
+oldest friends, and one of the cleverest
+fellows alive. I speak tenderly of
+him, from admiration of his talents.
+I have a liking for the perfection of a
+rogue. He is a superb fellow. You
+will find his 'Hermitage,' as he calls
+it, a pond of gold fish. But all this
+you will soon learn for yourself.&quot;
+The coach now stopped on a rising
+ground, which showed the little fishing
+village beneath us, basking in the
+glow of sunset. My cicerone got down,
+and bade me farewell. On enquiring
+his name from my fellow-travellers, a
+group of Sussex farmers, I found a
+general disinclination to touch on the
+subject. Even the coachman, the
+established source of information on
+all topics, exhibited no wish to discuss
+the stranger; his official loquacity
+was almost dumb. &quot;He merely believed
+that he was something in the
+navy, or in the army, or in something
+or other; but he was often in those
+parts, and generally travelled to London
+by the Royal Sussex Stage.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>No country in Europe has changed
+its appearance more than the greater
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page714" id="page714" title="714"></a></span> part of England during the last fifty
+years. Sussex was then as wild as
+the wildest heath of Yorkshire. The
+population, too, looked as wild as the
+landscape. This was once the very
+land of the bold smuggler; the haunt
+of the dashing defier of the customhouse
+officer, who in those days generally
+knew his antagonist too well to
+interfere with his days or nights, the
+run between every port of the west
+of France and the coasts of the Channel,
+being, in fact, as familiar to both
+as the lounger in Bond Street to the
+beau of the day.</p>
+
+<p>We passed groups of men, who,
+when they had not the sailor's dress,
+had the sailor's look; some trudging
+along the road-side, evidently not in
+idleness; others mounted on the short
+rough horse of the country, and all
+knowing and known by our coachman.</p>
+
+<p>On our passing one group, leaning
+with their backs against one of the
+low walls which seemed the only enclosure
+of this rugged region, I, half-laughingly,
+hinted to one of my neighbours,
+a giant of a rough-headed farmer,
+that &quot;perhaps a meeting with
+such a party, at a late hour, might
+be inconvenient, especially if the traveller
+had a full purse.&quot; The fellow
+turned on me a countenance of ridicule.
+&quot;What?&quot; said he, &quot;do you
+take them for robbers? Heaven bless
+you, my lad, they could buy the stage,
+horses, passengers, and all. I'll warrant
+you, they will have news from
+over there,&quot; and he pointed towards
+France, &quot;before it gets into the newspapers,
+long enough. They are the
+richest fellows in the county.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are they smugglers?&quot; I asked,
+with sufficient want of tact.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, no,&quot; was the answer, with
+a leer. &quot;We have nothing of that
+breed among us; we are all honest
+men. But what if a man has an acquaintance
+abroad, and gets a commission
+to sell a cargo of tea or
+brandy, or perhaps a present from a
+friend&mdash;what shall hinder him from
+going to bring it? I'm sure, not I.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was evidently not the &quot;etiquette&quot;
+on the roof of the Royal Sussex to
+think much on the subject, and before
+my curiosity could reach the
+length of actual imprudence, the
+coachman pulled up, and informed
+me that I had reached the nearest
+turn to &quot;the Hermitage.&quot; My valise
+was lowered down, a peasant was
+found to carry it, and I plunged into
+the depth of a lane as primitive as if
+it had been a path in Siberia.</p>
+
+<p>It was brief, however, and in a few
+minutes I was within sight of the
+villa. Here I at once discovered that
+Mordecai was a man of taste; perhaps
+the very roughness of the Sussex
+jungle, through which I had just
+come, had been suffered to remain for
+the sake of contrast. A small lodge,
+covered with late blooming roses, let
+me into a narrow avenue of all kinds
+of odorous shrubs; the evening sun
+was still strong enough to show me
+glimpses of the grounds on either
+side, and they had all the dressed
+smoothness of a parterre. The scene
+was so different from all that I had
+been wearied of during the day, that
+I felt it with double enjoyment; and
+the utter solitude and silence, after
+the rough voices of my companions
+in the journey, were so soothing, that
+I involuntarily paused before I approached
+the house, to refresh not
+more my senses than my mind. As
+I stood leaning against a tree, and
+baring my hot brain and bosom to
+the breeze, that rose with delicious
+coolness, I heard music. It was a
+sweet voice, accompanied at intervals
+by some skilful touches of a harp;
+and, from the solemnity of the measure,
+I supposed it to be a hymn.
+Who was the minstrel? Mordecai
+had never mentioned to me either
+wife or daughter. Well, at all events,
+the song was sweet. The minstrel
+was a woman, and the Jew's household
+promised me more amusement
+than I could have expected from the
+man of Moorfields. The song ceased,
+the spell was broken, and I moved
+on, fully convinced that I had entered
+on a scene where I might expect at
+least novelty; and the expectation
+was then enough to have led me to
+the cannon's mouth or the antipodes.</p>
+
+<hr class="full">
+
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page715" id="page715" title="715"></a></span>
+<a name="bw332s2" id="bw332s2"></a><h2>THE VIGIL OF VENUS.</h2>
+
+<h3>TRANSLATED FROM THE LATIN.</h3>
+
+<p>This old poem, which commemorates the festivities with which ancient
+Rome hailed the returning brightness of spring, may, perhaps, awaken in our
+readers some melancholy reflections on the bygone delights of the same season
+in our own country. To the Romans, it would seem, this period of the year
+never ceased to bring rejoicing holidays. There is good reason to suppose
+that this poem was written in the declining times of the empire; if so, it seems
+that, amidst the public misfortunes that followed one another during that age,
+the people were not woe-worn and distressed; that they were able to forget,
+in social pleasures, the gradual decay of their ancient glory. Rome &quot;smiled
+in death.&quot; England is still great and powerful, but she is no longer Merry
+England.</p>
+
+<p>Most people have heard of the Floralia, and have learned to deduce the
+frolics of Maid Marian and her comrades from the Roman observances on that
+festive occasion. But few are aware of the close similarity which this poem
+shows to have existed between the customs of the Romans and those of our
+fathers. In the denunciations of the latter by the acrid Puritans of the 17th
+century, we might almost imagine that the tirade was expressly levelled
+against the vigils described in the <i>Pervigilium Veneris</i>. If the poem had ever
+fallen into the hands of those worthies, it would have afforded them an additional
+handle for invective against the foul ethnic superstitions which the
+May-games were denounced as representing. Hear Master Stubbes, in his
+<i>Anatomie of Abuses</i>, published in 1585:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blkquot"><p>&quot;Against May, Whitsonday, or other time, all the yung men and maides,
+old men and wives, run gadding over the night to the woods, groves, hils, and
+mountains, where they spend all the night in pleasant pastimes, and in the
+morning they return, bringing with them birch and branches of trees, to deck
+their assemblies withall; and no meruaile, for there is a great Lord present
+amongst them as superintendent and Lord of their sports, namely, Sathan
+prince of hel. But the chiefest jewel they bring from thence is their May-pole,
+(say rather their stinking poole,) which they bring home with great
+veneration.&quot;</p></div>
+
+<p>Who does not remember Lysander's appointment with Hermia:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p class="i1">&mdash;&mdash;&quot;in that wood, a league without the town,</p>
+<p>Where I did meet thee once with Helena,</p>
+<p>To do observance to a morn of May,</p>
+<p>There will I stay for thee.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>These passages point us to the time when man and nature met to rejoice
+together on May-day: to the time before the days of the workhouse and factory;
+when the length and breadth of the land rung to the joyaunce and glee
+of the holiday-rejoicing nation, and the gay sounds careered on fresh breezes
+even where now the dense atmosphere of Manchester or Ashton glooms over
+the dens of torture in which withered and debauched children are forced to
+their labour, and the foul haunts under the shelter of which desperate men
+hatch plots of rapine and slaughter.</p>
+
+<p>The poem shows that the Romans, like the English of those days, celebrated
+the season by betaking themselves to the woods throughout the night, where
+they kept a vigil in honour of Venus, to whose guardianship the month of
+April was assigned, as being the universal generating and producing power, and
+more especially to be adored as such by the Romans, from having been, through
+her son &AElig;neas, the author of their race. The poem seems to have been composed
+with a view to its being sung by a choir of maidens in their nocturnal
+rambles beneath the soft light of an Italian moon. The delicious balm of that
+voluptuous climate breathes through every line of it, and vividly presents to
+the reader's imagination the scene of the festivity; but whether we can claim
+these celebrations for our own May-day, is a doubtful point; for Wernsdorf, who
+has included the Pervigilium Veneris in his edition of <i>Poet&aelig; Latini Minores</i>,
+vol. iii., maintains that it is to be referred to the Veneralia, or feast of Venus,
+on the 1st of April. The Kalendar of Constantius marks the 3d day of April
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page716" id="page716" title="716"></a></span> as Natalis Quirini. If, then, the morrow spoken of in the poem is to be taken
+to mean this birthday of Romulus, we must suppose the vigil of three nights
+to have begun on the night of the last day of March. But perhaps our
+readers will agree with us, that there are quite as good grounds for attributing
+this vigil to the Floralia, which commenced on the 27th of April, and ended
+on the first of May. For although the rites of the Floralia were in honour of
+Flora, yet we may easily conceive the principle by which the worship of
+Venus, the spirit of beauty, and love, and production, would come to be intermingled
+with the homage paid to the flower-goddess. And then the three
+nights would denote the nights of the Floralia already past, if we suppose the
+hymn to have been sung on the night before the 1st of May. This seems
+more natural, as coinciding with the known length of the festival, than Wernsdorf's
+hypothesis, which makes the vigil commence before the month of
+Venus had opened. As regards the time of year, too, May is far more suited
+than April, even in Italy, for outwatching the Bear on woodland lawns.</p>
+
+<p>The question regarding the author of the Pervigilium Veneris is still a <i>lis
+sub judice</i>. Aldus, Erasmus, and Meursius, attributed it to Catullus; but subsequent
+editors have, with much more probability, contended that its age is
+considerably later. We may notice a scholastic and philosophical spirit about
+it, which is ill-suited to the Bard of Verona. Lipsius claimed it for the Augustan
+age, in consequence of the mention of C&aelig;sar which is introduced.
+But we think we may safely assume, that the observance of this vigil grew
+into custom after the time of Ovid, otherwise it is difficult to account for the
+total absence of all allusion, in his Fasti, to a subject so perfectly adapted to
+his verse. But we will not enter any further into a discussion which Salmasius
+and Scaliger could not settle, but shall at once present our readers with
+the following translation of the Pervigilium Veneris:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p class="i1">He that never loved before,</p>
+<p class="i2">Let him love to-morrow!</p>
+<p class="i1">He that hath loved o'er and o'er,</p>
+<p class="i2">Let him love to-morrow!</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>Spring, young Spring, with song and mirth,</p>
+<p>Spring is on the newborn earth.</p>
+<p>Spring is here, the time of love&mdash;</p>
+<p>The merry birds pair in the grove,</p>
+<p>And the green trees hang their tresses,</p>
+<p>Loosen'd by the rain's caresses.</p>
+<p>To-morrow sees the dawn of May,</p>
+<p>When Venus will her sceptre sway,</p>
+<p>Glorious, in her justice-hall:</p>
+<p>There where woodland shadows fall,</p>
+<p>On bowers of myrtle intertwined,</p>
+<p>Many a band of love she'll bind.</p>
+<p class="i4">He that never, &amp;c.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>To-morrow is the day when first</p>
+<p>From the foam-world of Ocean burst,</p>
+<p>Like one of his own waves, the bright</p>
+<p>Dione, queen of love and light,</p>
+<p>Amid the sea-gods' azure train,</p>
+<p>'Mid the strange horses of the main.</p>
+<p class="i4">He that never, &amp;c.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>She it is that lends the Hours</p>
+<p>Their crimson glow, their jewel-flowers:</p>
+<p>At her command the buds are seen,</p>
+<p>Where the west-wind's breath hath been,</p>
+<p>To swell within their dwellings green.</p>
+<p>She abroad those dewdrops flings,</p>
+<p>Dew that night's cool softness brings;</p>
+<p>How the bright tears hang declining,</p>
+<p>And glisten with a tremulous shining,</p>
+<p>Almost of weight to drop away,</p>
+<p>And yet too light to leave the spray.</p>
+<p>Hence the tender plants are bold</p>
+<p>Their blushing petals to unfold:</p>
+<p>'Tis that dew, which through the air</p>
+<p>Falls from heaven when night is fair,</p>
+<p>That unbinds the moist green vest</p>
+<p>From the floweret's maiden breast.</p>
+<p>'Tis Venus' will, when morning glows,</p>
+<p>'Twill be the bridal of each rose.</p>
+<p>Then the bride-flower shall reveal,</p>
+<p>What her veil cloth now conceal,</p>
+<p>The blush divinest, which of yore</p>
+<p>She caught from Venus' trickling gore,</p>
+<p>With Love's kisses mix'd, I trow,</p>
+<p>With blaze of fire, and rubies' glow,</p>
+<p>And with many a crimson ray</p>
+<p>Stolen from the birth of day.</p>
+<p class="i4">He that never, &amp;c.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>All the nymphs the Queen of Love</p>
+<p>Summons to the myrtle-grove;</p>
+<p>And see ye, how her wanton boy</p>
+<p>Comes with them to share our joy?</p>
+<p>Yet, if Love be arm'd, they say,</p>
+<p>Love can scarce keep holiday:</p>
+<p>Love without his bow is straying!</p>
+<p>Come, ye nymphs, Love goes a Maying.</p>
+<p>His torch, his shafts, are laid aside&mdash;</p>
+<p>From them no harm shall you betide.</p>
+<p>Yet, I rede ye, nymphs, beware,</p>
+<p>For your foe is passing fair;</p>
+<p><span class="newpage"><a name="page717" id="page717" title="717"></a></span> Love is mighty, ye'll confess,</p>
+<p>Mighty e'en in nakedness;</p>
+<p>And most panoplied for fight</p>
+<p>When his charms are bared to sight.</p>
+<p class="i4">He that never, &amp;c.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>Dian, a petition we,</p>
+<p>By Venus sent, prefer to thee:</p>
+<p>Virgin envoys, it is meet,</p>
+<p>Should the Virgin huntress greet:</p>
+<p>Quit the grove, nor it profane</p>
+<p>With the blood of quarry slain.</p>
+<p>She would ask thee, might she dare</p>
+<p>Hope a maiden's thought to share&mdash;</p>
+<p>She would bid thee join us now,</p>
+<p>Might cold maids our sport allow.</p>
+<p>Now three nights thou may'st have seen,</p>
+<p>Wandering through thine alleys green,</p>
+<p>Troops of joyous friends, with flowers</p>
+<p>Crown'd, amidst their myrtle bowers.</p>
+<p>Ceres and Bacchus us attend,</p>
+<p>And great Apollo is our friend;</p>
+<p>All night we must our Vigil keep&mdash;</p>
+<p>Night by song redeem'd from sleep.</p>
+<p>Let Venus in the woods bear sway,</p>
+<p>Dian, quit the grove, we pray.</p>
+<p class="i4">He that never, &amp;c.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>Of Hybla's flowers, so Venus will'd,</p>
+<p>Venus' judgment-seat we build.</p>
+<p>She is judge supreme; the Graces,</p>
+<p>As assessors, take their places.</p>
+<p>Hybla, render all thy store</p>
+<p>All the season sheds thee o'er,</p>
+<p>Till a hill of bloom be found</p>
+<p>Wide as Enna's flowery ground.</p>
+<p>Attendant nymphs shall here be seen,</p>
+<p>Those who delight in forest green,</p>
+<p>Those who on mountain-top abide,</p>
+<p>And those whom sparkling fountains hide.</p>
+<p>All these the Queen of joy and sport</p>
+<p>Summons to attend her court,</p>
+<p>And bids them all of Love beware,</p>
+<p>Although the guise of peace he wear.</p>
+<p class="i4">He that never, &amp;c.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>Fresh be your coronals of flowers,</p>
+<p>And green your overarching bowers,</p>
+<p>To-morrow brings us the return</p>
+<p>Of Ether's primal marriage-morn.</p>
+<p>In amorous showers of rain he came</p>
+<p>T' embrace his bride's mysterious frame,</p>
+<p>To generate the blooming year,</p>
+<p>And all the produce Earth does bear.</p>
+<p>Venus still through vein and soul</p>
+<p>Bids the genial current roll;</p>
+<p>Still she guides its secret course</p>
+<p>With interpenetrating force,</p>
+<p>And breathes through heaven, and earth, and sea,</p>
+<p>A reproductive energy.</p>
+<p class="i4">He that never, &amp;c.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>She old Troy's extinguish'd glory</p>
+<p>Revived in Latium's later story,</p>
+<p>When, by her auspices, her son</p>
+<p>Laurentia's royal damsel won.</p>
+<p>She vestal Rhea's spotless charms</p>
+<p>Surrender'd to the War-god's arms;</p>
+<p>She for Romulus that day</p>
+<p>The Sabine daughters bore away;</p>
+<p>Thence sprung the Rhamnes' lofty name,</p>
+<p>Thence the old Quirites came;</p>
+<p>And thence the stock of high renown,</p>
+<p>The blood of Romulus, handed down</p>
+<p>Through many an age of glory pass'd,</p>
+<p>To blaze in C&aelig;sar's at last.</p>
+<p class="i4">He that never, &amp;c.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>All rural nature feels the glow</p>
+<p>Of quickening passion through it flow.</p>
+<p>Love, in rural scenes of yore,</p>
+<p>They say, his goddess-mother bore;</p>
+<p>Received on Earth's sustaining breast,</p>
+<p>Th' ambrosial infant sunk to rest;</p>
+<p>And him the wild-flowers, o'er his head</p>
+<p>Bending, with sweetest kisses fed.</p>
+<p class="i4">He that never, &amp;c.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>On yellow broom out yonder, see,</p>
+<p>The mighty bulls lie peacefully.</p>
+<p>Each animal of field or grove</p>
+<p>Owns faithfully the bond of love.</p>
+<p>The flocks of ewes, beneath the shade,</p>
+<p>Around their gallant rams are laid;</p>
+<p>And Venus bids the birds awake</p>
+<p>To pour their song through plain and brake.</p>
+<p>Hark! the noisy pools reply</p>
+<p>To the swan's hoarse harmony;</p>
+<p>And Philomel is vocal now,</p>
+<p>Perch'd upon a poplar-bough.</p>
+<p>Thou scarce would'st think that dying fall</p>
+<p>Could ought but love's sweet griefs recall;</p>
+<p>Thou scarce would'st gather from her song</p>
+<p>The tale of brother's barbarous wrong.</p>
+<p>She sings, but I must silent be:&mdash;</p>
+<p>When will the spring-tide come for me?</p>
+<p>When, like the swallow, spring's own bird,</p>
+<p>Shall my faint twittering notes be heard?</p>
+<p>Alas! the muse, while silent I</p>
+<p>Remain'd, hath gone and pass'd me by,</p>
+<p>Nor Ph&oelig;bus listens to my cry.</p>
+<p>And thus forgotten, I await,</p>
+<p>By silence lost, Amycl&aelig;'s fate.</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<hr class="full">
+
+
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page718" id="page718" title="718"></a></span>
+<a name="bw332s3" id="bw332s3"></a><h2>CHAPTERS OF TURKISH HISTORY. RISE OF THE KIUPRILI FAMILY&mdash;SIEGE OF CANDIA.</h2>
+
+<h3>NO. IX.</h3>
+
+<p>The restraint which the ferocious
+energy of Sultan Mourad-Ghazi, during
+the latter years of his reign, had
+succeeded in imposing on the turbulence
+of the Janissaries,<a name="footnotetag1" id="footnotetag1"></a><a href="#footnote1"><sup>1</sup></a> vanished at
+his death; and for many years subsequently,
+the domestic annals of the
+Ottoman capital are filled with the
+details of the intrigues of women and
+eunuchs within the palace, and the
+sanguinary feuds and excesses of the
+soldiery without. The Sultan Ibrahim,
+the only surviving brother and successor
+of Mourad, was in his twenty-fifth
+year at the time of his accession; but
+he had been closely immured in the
+seraglio from the moment of his birth;
+and the dulness of his temperament
+(to which he probably owed his escape
+from the bowstring, by which the lives
+of his three brothers had been terminated
+by order of Mourad) had never
+been improved by cultivation. Destitute
+alike of capacity and inclination
+for the toils of government, he remained
+constantly immersed in the
+pleasures of the harem; while his
+mother, the Sultana-Walidah Kiosem,
+(surnamed <i>Mah-peiker</i>, or the <i>Moon-face</i>,)
+who had been the favourite of
+the harem under Ahmed I., and was
+a woman of extraordinary beauty and
+masculine understanding, kept the
+administration of the state almost
+wholly in her own hands. The talents
+of this princess, aided by the ministers
+of her selection, for some time prevented
+the incompetency of the sultan
+from publicly manifesting itself;
+but Ibrahim at last shook off the control
+of his mother, and speedily excited
+the indignant murmurs of the
+troops and the people by the publicity
+with which he abandoned himself to
+the most degrading sensuality. The
+sanctity of the harem and of the bath
+had hitherto been held inviolate by
+even the most despotic of the Ottoman
+sovereigns; but this sacred barrier
+was broken through by the unbridled
+passions of Ibrahim, who at
+length ventured to seize in the public
+baths the daughter of the mufti, and,
+after detaining her for some days in
+the palace, sent her back with ignominy
+to her father. This unheard-of
+outrage at once kindled the smouldering
+discontent into a flame; the Moslem
+population rose in instant and
+universal revolt; and a scene ensued
+almost without parallel in history&mdash;the
+deposition of an absolute sovereign
+by form of law. The grand-vizir
+Ahmed, and other panders to the
+vices of the sultan, were seized and
+put to death on the place of public
+execution; while an immense crowd
+of soldiers, citizens, and janissaries,
+assembling before the palace of the
+mufti early on the morning of August
+8, 1648, received from him a <i>fetwa</i>,
+or decree, to the effect that the sultan
+(designated as &quot;Ibrahim Abdul-Rahman
+Effendi&quot;) had, by his habitual
+immorality and disregard of law,
+forfeited all claim to be considered as
+a true believer, and was therefore incapable
+of reigning over the Faithful.
+The execution of this sentence was
+entrusted to the Aga of the Janissaries,
+the Silihdar or grand sword-bearer,
+and the Kadhi-asker or chief
+judge of Anatolia, who, repairing to
+the seraglio, attended by a multitude
+of military officers and the <i>ulemah</i>,
+proceeded without ceremony to announce
+to Ibrahim that his rule was
+at an end. His furious remonstrances
+were drowned by the rude voice of
+the Kadhi Abdul-Aziz Effendi,<a name="footnotetag2" id="footnotetag2"></a><a href="#footnote2"><sup>2</sup></a> who
+boldly reproached him with his vices.
+&quot;Thou hast gone astray,&quot; said he,
+&quot;from the paths in which thy glorious
+ancestors walked, and hast trampled
+under foot both law and religion, and
+thou art no longer the padishah of
+the Moslems!&quot; He was at last conducted
+to the same apartment whence
+he had been taken to ascend the throne,
+and where, ten days later, his existence
+was terminated by the bowstring;
+while the Sultana-Walidah, (whose
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page719" id="page719" title="719"></a></span> acquiescence in this extraordinary revolution
+had been previously secured,)
+led into the <i>salamlik</i> (hall of audience)
+her eldest grandson Mohammed,<a name="footnotetag3" id="footnotetag3"></a><a href="#footnote3"><sup>3</sup></a> an
+infant scarcely seven years old, who
+was forthwith seated on the imperial
+sofa, and received the homage of the
+dignitaries of the realm.</p>
+
+<p>Sultan Mohammed IV., afterwards
+surnamed <i>Avadji</i>, or the Hunter, who
+was destined to fill the throne of the
+Ottoman Empire during one of the
+most eventful periods of its history,
+possessed qualifications which, if his
+education had not been interrupted by
+his early accession to supreme power,
+might have entitled him to a high
+place among the monarchs of his line.
+Unlike most of the imperial family,
+he was of a spare sinewy form, and
+lofty stature; and his features are
+said by Evliya to have been remarkably
+handsome, though his forehead
+was disfigured by a deep scar which
+he had received in his infancy, by
+being thrown by his father, in an
+access of brutal passion, into a cistern
+in the gardens of the seraglio; and a
+contemporary Venetian chronicler says
+that his dark complexion and vivid
+restless eye gave him rather the aspect
+of a <i>Zigano</i>, or gipsy, than an
+Osmanli. In the first years of his
+reign, his grandmother, the Walidah
+Kiosem, acted as regent; but the rule
+of a woman and a child was little able
+to curb the turbulent soldiery of the
+capital; and the old feuds between
+the spahis and janissaries, which had
+been dormant since the death of Abaza,
+broke out afresh with redoubled
+violence. The war in Crete, which
+had been commenced under Ibrahim,
+languished for want of troops and
+supplies; while the rival military factions
+fought, sword in hand, in front
+of the imperial palace, and filled Constantinople
+with pillage and massacre.
+The janissaries, who were supported
+by Kiosem, for some time maintained
+the ascendency; but this ambitious
+princess was at length cut off by an
+intrigue, in the interior of the harem,
+fomented by the mother of Mohammed,
+who suspected her of a design
+to prolong her own sway by the removal
+of the sultan, in favour of a still
+younger son of Ibrahim. Seized in
+the midst of the night of September
+3, 1651, by the eunuchs whom her
+rival had gained, Kiosem was strangled
+(according to a report preserved
+by Evliya) with the braids of her own
+long hair; and the sultan was exhibited
+at daybreak by the grand-vizir
+Siawush-Pasha to the people, who
+thronged round the palace on the
+rumour of this domestic tragedy, to
+assure them of the personal safety of
+their youthful sovereign.</p>
+
+<p>The supreme power was now lodged
+in the hands of the young Sultana
+Walidah, and her confidant the Kislar-Aga;
+but their inexperience was little
+qualified to encounter the task which
+had wellnigh baffled the energies of
+Kiosem; and the expedient of frequently
+changing the grand-vizir, in
+obedience to the requisition of which
+ever party was for the time in the ascendant,
+prevented the measures of
+government from acquiring even a
+shadow of consistence or stability.
+Twelve vizirs, within eight years from
+the deposition of Ibrahim, had successively
+held the reins of power for
+short periods; and not less than six
+had been raised to, and deposed from,
+that precarious dignity, within the
+last ten months, while the audacity of
+the troops, and the helplessness of the
+executive, had reached an unparalleled
+climax. In a memorable insurrection,
+arising from the depreciation of
+the coinage, which marked the spring
+of 1656, the revolters, not contented
+with their usual license of plunder and
+bloodshed, forced their way into the
+palace, and exacted from the young
+sultan the surrender of two of his favourite
+domestics, who were instantly
+slaughtered before his eyes; while
+various obnoxious public functionaries
+were dragged to the At-meidan, and
+summarily hanged on the branches of
+a large plane-tree;<a name="footnotetag4" id="footnotetag4"></a><a href="#footnote4"><sup>4</sup></a> and for several
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page720" id="page720" title="720"></a></span> weeks this proscription was continued,
+till the cry of &quot;Take him to the
+plane-tree!&quot; became a watchword of
+as well-known and fearful import, as
+that of &quot;A la lanterne!&quot; in later
+times. In this emergency, when the
+fabric of government seemed on the
+verge of dissolution, an ancient Anatolian
+pasha, Mohammed-Kiuprili, who
+had lately repaired to the capital, was
+named by her confidential advisers to
+the Sultana-Walidah as a man whose
+eminent discernment and sagacity, not
+less than his fearless intrepidity, rendered
+him especially fitted for the task
+of stilling the troubled waters. In
+opposition to these views it was contended,
+that the poverty of the proposed
+premier would prevent his securing
+the adherence of the troops
+by the largesses which they had been
+accustomed to receive, and the project
+was apparently abandoned; but
+the incapacity and unpopularity of
+the grand-vizir, Mohammed-Pasha,
+(surnamed <i>Egri</i>, or the Crooked,)
+soon made it obvious that a fresh
+change alone could prevent another
+convulsion. On the 15th September
+1656, therefore, in a fortunate<a name="footnotetag5" id="footnotetag5"></a><a href="#footnote5"><sup>5</sup></a> hour
+for the distracted empire, Kiuprili was
+summoned to the presence of the sultan,
+who had now, nominally at least,
+assumed the direction of affairs, and received
+from his hands the seals of office.</p>
+
+<p>Such were the circumstances of the
+elevation of this most celebrated of
+Ottoman ministers, whose name stands
+pre-eminent, not only from his own
+abilities and good fortune, but as the
+founder of the only family which ever
+continued to enjoy, during several
+generations, the highest honours of
+the empire. He was the son of an
+Arnaut<a name="footnotetag6" id="footnotetag6"></a><a href="#footnote6"><sup>6</sup></a> soldier, who had settled in
+Anatolia, on receiving a <i>timar</i> or
+fief in the district of Amasia, near
+the town of Kiupri, ('the bridge:')
+from which (since distinguished from
+other places of the same name as <i>Vizir</i>-Kiupri)
+his descendants derived
+the surname under which they are generally
+mentioned in history. He
+commenced his career as a page in the
+imperial seraglio; which he left for a
+post in the household of Khosroo, afterwards
+grand-vizir, who was then
+aga of janissaries. Passing through
+various gradations of rank, he held
+several governments in Syria, and was
+raised to the grade of pasha of three
+tails: till, at an advanced age, he obtained
+permission to exchange these
+honours for the post of <i>sandjak</i> of his
+native district, to which he accordingly
+withdrew. But his retirement
+was disturbed, in 1648, by the insurrection
+of Varvar-Ali, pasha of Siwas,
+who, rather than surrender a beautiful
+daughter, the affianced bride of his
+neighbour Ipshir, pasha of Tokat, to
+the panders of the imperial harem, had
+raised the standard of revolt, and had
+been joined by the pasha of Erzroom,
+Gourdji-Mohammed, (to whose suite
+the annalist Evliya was then attached,)
+and by many of the Turkman
+clans of Anatolia. The Sultana-Walidah
+herself, who was then at
+variance with her degenerate son, secretly
+encouraged the insurgents, who
+endeavoured to gain over Kiuprili to
+their party; but as they failed in all
+their efforts to shake his loyalty, Varvar
+suddenly marched against him,
+routed the troops which he had collected,
+and made him prisoner, with
+two beglerbegs whom he had summoned
+to his aid. &quot;I saw these three
+pashas&quot; (says Evliya, who had come
+to the rebel camp on a mission from
+Gourdji-Mohammed) &quot;stripped of
+their robes and turbans, and fastened
+by chains round their necks to stakes
+in front of the tent of Varvar-Ali,
+while the seghbans, and even the surridjis&quot;
+(irregular horse) &quot;brandished
+their sabres before their faces, threatening
+them with instant death. Thus
+we see the changes of fortune, that
+those who were the drivers become
+in their turn the driven,&quot; (like cattle.)</p>
+
+<p>Evliya, who seems to feel a malicious
+pleasure in relating this mishap of
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page721" id="page721" title="721"></a></span> the future grand-vizir, confesses to having
+himself received a horse and a slave
+out of his spoils; but even before his
+departure from the camp, the rebellion
+was crushed, and Kiuprili released,
+by the base treachery of Ipshir-Pasha,<a name="footnotetag7" id="footnotetag7"></a><a href="#footnote7"><sup>7</sup></a>
+for whose sake alone Varvar-Ali
+had taken up arms. Won by the
+emissaries of the Porte, by the promise
+of the rich pashalic of Aleppo, he suddenly
+assailed the troops of his father-in-law,
+and seizing his person, cut off
+his head, and sent it with those of his
+principal followers to Constantinople&mdash;an
+act of perfidious ingratitude, which,
+even among the frequent breaches of
+faith staining the Ottoman annals, has
+earned for its perpetrator the sobriquet
+of <i>Khain</i>, or the traitor, <i>par excellence</i>.
+After this unlucky adventure,
+we hear no more of Kiuprili in
+his Anatolian sandjak, till, in the
+spring of 1656, we find him accompanying
+Egri-Mohammed on his way
+to the Porte to assume the vizirat:
+from which, in less than four months,
+he was removed to make way for his
+quondam <i>prot&eacute;g&eacute;</i>, in whose elevation
+he had thus been an involuntary instrument.</p>
+
+<p>Mohamned Kiuprili was at this period
+nearly eighty years of age, and
+so wholly illiterate that he could neither
+read nor write; yet such was the
+general estimation of his wisdom and
+abilities, that the young sultan, on
+entrusting to him the ensigns of office,
+voluntarily pledged himself to leave
+entirely at his discretion the regulation
+of the foreign and domestic relations
+of the empire, as well as the disposal
+of all offices of state&mdash;thus virtually
+delegating to him the functions
+of sovereignty. The measures of
+Kiuprili soon showed that these extraordinary
+powers would not be suffered
+to remain dormant. The impatience
+of the troops at the strict discipline
+which he enforced, erelong
+announced the approach of a fresh
+tumult; and the ringleaders, in the
+confidence of long-continued impunity,
+openly boasted that &quot;the plane-tree
+would soon bear another crop&quot;&mdash;when
+on the night of Jan. 5, 1657, the grand-vizir,
+accompanied by the aga of the
+janissaries, and fortified by a fetwa
+from the mufti, legalizing whatever
+he might do, made the round of the
+barracks with his guards, and seized
+several hundreds of all ranks in the
+various corps, whose bodies, found
+floating the next day in the Bosphorus,
+revealed their fate to their dismayed
+accomplices. The Greek patriarch,
+on suspicion of having endeavoured
+to engage the Vaivode of Wallachia
+in a plot for a general rising of
+the Christians, was summoned to the
+Porte, and forthwith bowstrung in the
+presence of Kiuprili; and in the
+course of a few weeks, not fewer than
+4000 of those who had been implicated
+in the previous disorders perished
+under the hands of the executioner:
+&quot;for as in medicine,&quot; remarks a Turkish
+historian, &quot;it is necessary to employ
+remedies which are analogous to
+the disease, so by bloodshed alone
+could the state be purified from these
+lawless shedders of blood!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>These terrible severities broke the
+spirit of insubordination in the capital;
+and the irregularity of their pay, which
+had been one of the chief grievances
+of the janissaries, was remedied by the
+good order which Kiuprili had from
+the first introduced in the finances.
+&quot;He proportioned the expenditure of
+the empire,&quot; says Evliya, &quot;to its revenues,
+which he also greatly enlarged,
+so that he gained the name of <i>Sahib-Kharj</i>,&quot;
+(master of finance.) The Venetians,
+who had availed themselves of
+the anarchy reigning at Constantinople
+to occupy Tenedos and Lemnos,
+so as to blockade the Dardanelles,
+were dislodged by the activity of the
+vizir, who directed the sieges in
+person, bestowing honours and rewards
+on the soldiers most distinguished
+for their bravery; and though
+the Turkish fleet was defeated (July
+17, 1657) at the entrance of the
+straits, the Venetians sustained an
+irreparable loss in their valiant admiral
+Mocenigo, who was blown up
+with his ship by a well-aimed shot
+from one of the batteries on shore.
+But though the janissaries were thus
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page722" id="page722" title="722"></a></span> reduced to order and obedience, the
+flame of disaffection was still smouldering
+among the spahis of Asia Minor,
+and broke out, in the course of
+the ensuing year, into a formidable
+and widely-organized rebellion. Not
+fewer than forty pashas and sandjaks
+followed the banner of the insurgent
+leader Abaza-Hassan, pasha of Aleppo,
+who advanced towards the Bosphorus
+at the head of 70,000 men,
+assuming the state of a monarch, and
+demanding the heads of Kiuprili and
+his principal adherents as the price of
+his submission. Morteza-Pasha, governor
+of Diarbekr, who attempted to oppose
+him in the field, was routed with
+the loss of nearly his whole army;
+and though the emissaries who attempted
+to seduce the troops in Constantinople
+from their allegiance were
+detected and put to death by the vigilance
+of Kiuprili, the revolt spread
+throughout Anatolia and Syria, and
+the sultan was preparing to take the
+field in person, when treachery succeeded
+in accomplishing what force
+had failed to effect. It has been an
+uniform maxim of the Ottoman domestic
+policy, which singularly contrasts
+with their scrupulous observance of
+the treaties entered into with foreign
+powers, that no faith is to be kept
+with <i>fermanlis</i>, or traitors to the Padishah;
+and in the assured belief, confirmed
+by hostages and solemn oaths,
+that the sultan was willing to accede
+to his demands, Abaza-Hassan suffered
+himself to be drawn from his
+headquarters at Aintab, with thirty
+of his officers, to a conference with
+Morteza at Aleppo: but, in the midst
+of the banquet which followed this
+interview, Abaza and his comrades
+found themselves in the grasp of the
+executioners&mdash;while their followers,
+dispersed through the town, were
+slaughtered without mercy on the signal
+of a gun fired from the castle;
+and the army, panic-stricken at the
+fate of its leaders, quickly melted away.
+But no sooner was the semblance of
+tranquillity restored, than the Kaimakam
+Ismail Pasha, an unscrupulous
+agent of the merciless decrees of the
+vizir, was sent into Asia under the
+new title of Moufetish, or inquisitor;
+and an unsparing proscription almost
+utterly exterminated all the remaining
+partizans of Abaza-Hassan, without
+distinction of rank; while the
+suppression of numerous <i>timars</i> or
+fiefs, and the removal of the occupants
+of others from their ancient abodes to
+remote districts, so effectually loosened
+the bands which had hitherto united
+the spahis, like the janissaries, into a
+compact fraternity, that this once powerful
+body was divided and broken;
+and they no longer occupy, as a separate
+faction, their former conspicuous
+place in the troubled scene of Ottoman
+history.</p>
+
+<p>The termination of this great revolt
+freed Kiuprili from the apprehension
+of military sedition, and left
+him in the enjoyment of more absolute
+and undivided authority than had
+ever been possessed by any of his
+predecessors in office. The sultan,
+from whose mind the impression of the
+bloody scenes witnessed in his youth
+had never been effaced, rarely visited
+Constantinople; devoting himself to
+the pleasures of the chase in the forests
+and hills of Roumelia, and repairing
+only at intervals to the ancient palace
+of his ancestors at Adrianople, whither
+his harem and household had
+been transferred from the capital. The
+uncontrolled administration of the state
+was left in the hands of the vizir, but
+his implacable severity towards all who
+failed in implicit devotion to his will,
+continued unabated. &quot;He was unacquainted&quot;
+(says his contemporary,
+Rycaut) &quot;with mercy, and never
+pardoned any who were either guilty
+of a fault, or suspected for it;&quot; and
+neither rank nor services afforded protection
+to those who had incurred his
+jealousy or resentment. Among the
+numerous victims of his suspicious
+cruelty, the fate of Delhi-Hussein-Pasha
+was long remembered in Constantinople.
+Originally a <i>battadji</i> or
+lictor in the seraglio, he had attracted
+the notice of Sultan Mourad-Ghazi by
+his strength and address in bending a
+bow sent as a challenge by the Shah of
+Persia, and which had baffled the
+efforts of all the <i>pelhwans</i> or champions
+of the Ottoman court. His first
+advancement to the post of equerry
+was only a prelude to the attainment
+of higher honours, and he became successively
+governor of Buda and of
+Egypt, capitan-pasha and serasker in
+Candia. His exploits in the latter
+capacity had endeared him to the
+troops, while his noble figure and
+frank bearing made him equally the
+idol of the citizens, but his unbounded
+popularity led Kiuprili to foresee a
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page723" id="page723" title="723"></a></span> future rival in this favourite hero, and
+the fate of Delhi-Hussein was sealed.
+In an interview with the vizir, he was
+graciously received, and invested with
+a robe of honour; but as he quitted
+the Porte he was arrested and carried
+to the Seven Towers, where, two days
+after, (in spite of the intercession of
+the Sultana-Walidah, and the refusal
+of the mufti to ratify the unjust doom,)
+he was bowstrung in his cell, as the
+murmurs of the troops prevented the
+vizir from risking a public execution.</p>
+
+<p>But though thus inexorable to all
+whose popularity or pretensions might
+interfere with his own supremacy, and
+haughty even beyond all former precedent
+in his intercourse with the representatives
+of the Christian powers,<a name="footnotetag8" id="footnotetag8"></a><a href="#footnote8"><sup>8</sup></a>
+Kiuprili deserved, by the merits of his
+domestic administration, the high place
+which has been assigned to him by the
+unanimous voice of the Ottoman historians.
+The exact regularity which
+he enforced both in the payment and
+disbursement of the revenue, relieved
+the people from the irregular imposts
+to which they had been subject, in
+order to make up the deficiencies arising
+from the interception, by the
+pashas, of the tributes of distant provinces,
+and the peculation which had
+long reigned unchecked at the seat of
+government&mdash;while the sums thus
+rendered disposable were laid out
+chiefly in improving the internal communications,
+and strengthening the
+defences, of the empire. The Dardanelles,
+hitherto guarded only by
+Mohammed II.'s two castles of Europe
+and Asia, was made almost impregnable
+by the construction of the
+formidable line of sea defences still
+existing; the necessity for which had
+been demonstrated by the recent attack
+of the Venetians; and fortified posts
+were established along the line of the
+Dnieper and Dniester, to keep in
+cheek the predatory Cossacks between
+these rivers, who were at this time engaged
+in a furious civil contest with the
+king of Poland, the ally of the Porte.
+The Hungarian fortresses were also
+repaired, and vast warlike preparations
+made along the Danube, as the
+peace which for fifty years had subsisted
+with the empire appeared on
+the verge of inevitable rupture. The
+succession to the principality of Transylvania,
+the suzeraint&eacute; of which had
+long been a point of dispute between
+the Porte and Austria, was now contested
+between Kem&eacute;ny and Michael
+Abaffi&mdash;the latter being the nominee
+of the sultan, while Kem&eacute;ny was supported
+by the emperor, to whom the
+late Prince Racoczy had transferred
+his allegiance a short time before his
+death in battle against the Turks, in
+1660. The Imperialists and Turks
+had more than once encountered each
+other as auxiliaries of the rival candidates,
+and Kiuprili was on the point
+of repairing in person to the scene of
+action, when he died at Adrianople of
+dropsy, (Oct. 31, 1661,) in the eighty-sixth
+year of his age, and was buried
+in a splendid mausoleum, which he
+had erected for himself, near the Tauk-bazar
+(poultry market) at Constantinople&mdash;the
+vault of which, during his
+life, he had daily filled with corn,
+which was then distributed to the poor
+to purchase their prayers! &quot;Thus,&quot;
+says a Turkish annalist, &quot;died Kiuprili-Mohammed,
+who was most zealous
+and active in the cause of the
+faith! Enjoying absolute power, and
+being anxious to purify the Ottoman
+empire, he slew in Anatolia 400,000<a name="footnotetag9" id="footnotetag9"></a><a href="#footnote9"><sup>9</sup></a>
+rebels, including seventeen vizirs or
+pashas of three tails, forty-one of two
+tails, seventy sandjak-beys, three
+mallahs, and a Moghrabiu sheikh.
+May God be merciful to him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The genius of the Ottoman institutions
+is so directly opposed to any
+thing like the perpetuation of offices
+in a family, which might tend to endanger
+the despotism of the throne by
+the creation of an hereditary aristocracy,
+that even in the inferior ranks,
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page724" id="page724" title="724"></a></span> an instance had hitherto scarcely been
+known of a son succeeding his father.
+The immediate appointment, therefore,
+of Fazil-Ahmed, the eldest son
+of the deceased minister, to the vizirat,
+was so complete a departure from all
+established usages, as at once demonstrated
+to the expectant courtiers that
+the influence of the crafty old vizir
+had survived him, and that &quot;the star
+of the house of Kiuprili&quot; (in the words
+of a Turkish writer) &quot;had only set in
+the west to rise again with fresh splendour
+in the east.&quot; Ahmed-Kiuprili
+was now thirty-two years of age, and
+joined to an intellect not less naturally
+vigorous than that of his father, those
+advantages of education in which the
+latter had been deficient. At an early
+age he had been placed under the historian,
+Abdul-Aziz Effendi, as a student
+of divinity and law, in the <i>medressah</i>
+or college attached to the
+mosque of Sultan Mohammed the
+Conqueror, and had attained, in due
+course, the rank of <i>muderris</i> or fellow
+therein; but the elevation of his father
+to the vizirat transferred him from the
+cloister to the camp, and he held the
+governments successively of Erzroom
+and Damascus&mdash;in the latter of which
+he distinguished himself by his moderation
+and firmness in reducing to
+order the refractory chiefs of the
+Druses, of the two great rival houses
+of Shahab and Maan-Oghlu. Recalled,
+at length, to Constantinople to
+assume the office of kaimakam, he had
+scarcely entered on his new duties
+when he was summoned to Adrianople,
+to attend the deathbed of his
+father, and to succeed him in the uncontrolled
+administration of the empire.</p>
+
+<p>The numerous executions which
+marked the accession of the new vizir,
+(in accordance, as was believed, with
+the dying injunctions of his father,)
+struck with terror the functionaries of
+government, who anticipated a continuance
+of the iron rule under which
+they had so long trembled; but the
+disposition of Ahmed-Kiuprili was not
+naturally sanguinary, and few measures
+of unnecessary severity characterized
+his subsequent sway. The
+war in Hungary, meanwhile, had assumed
+a serious aspect; for though
+Kem&eacute;ny had perished in battle, the
+Imperialists still continued to oppose
+the claims of Abaffi to the crown of
+Transylvania; and their armies, guided
+by the valour and experience of Montecuculi,
+a general formed in the
+Thirty Years' War, were making rapid
+progress in the reduction of the principality.
+War was now openly declared
+between the two empires; and
+Kiuprili, assuming the command in
+person, opened the campaign of 1663,
+in Hungary, with 100,000 men&mdash;a
+force before which Montecuculi had no
+alternative but to retreat, as the rapidity
+with which the Turks had taken
+the field, had completely outstripped
+the dilatory preparations of the Aulic
+Council<a name="footnotetag10" id="footnotetag10"></a><a href="#footnote10"><sup>10</sup></a>. The exploits of the Ottomans,
+however, were confined to the
+capture of Ujvar, or Neuhausel, after
+a siege maintained on both sides with
+such extraordinary vigour, as to have
+given rise to a Hungarian proverb&mdash;&quot;As
+fixed as a Turk before Neuhausel,&quot;&mdash;after
+which both armies withdrew
+into winter-quarters. The campaign
+of 1664 opened also to the
+advantage of the Ottomans; but in
+attempting the passage of the Raab,
+(Aug. 1,) at the fords near St Gothard,
+the sudden swelling of the stream
+cut off the communication between
+one division of their army and the
+other; and being attacked at this juncture
+by Montecuculi, they sustained
+the most signal overthrow which the
+Osmanlis had ever yet received from
+a Christian power&mdash;17,000 of their
+best troops were slain or drowned, and
+the vizir, hastily drawing on the remains
+of his forces, sent proposals of
+peace to the Austrian headquarters.
+Yet such was the indefinite awe with
+which the prowess and resources of
+the Ottomans were at that time regarded,
+that the Imperialists made no
+further use of their victory than to
+conclude a truce for twenty years, the
+conditions of which, in effect, ceded
+all the points for which the war had
+been undertaken. Abaffi was recognised
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page725" id="page725" title="725"></a></span> as Prince of Transylvania, and
+as a tributary of the Porte&mdash;the two
+important fortresses of Great-Waradin
+and Neuhausel, which the Turks
+had taken during the war, were left
+in their hands, and a breathing-time
+was thus afforded to the two empires
+for the mortal struggle which was to
+be decided, nineteen years later, under
+the walls of Vienna.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding the ill success of
+his arms, the vizir was received by the
+sultan, on his return with the army in
+the ensuing spring to Adrianople,
+with such extraordinary distinction,
+that those who had hoped to profit by
+his expected fall, could explain such
+continued favour only by the supposition
+that sorcery had been practised
+on the mind of the monarch by the
+mother of the all-powerful minister.
+Solicitous to retrieve his military reputation
+in the eyes of the soldiery,
+Kiuprili now determined to assume
+in person the conduct of the long-continued
+war in Crete, and to bring
+the struggle to a close by the capture
+of Candia, the siege of which had
+already reached near twice the duration
+of that of Troy. To supply the
+deficiencies of the Turkish marine,
+which had been almost ruined by the
+repeated naval victories of the Venetians,
+an overture was made to the
+English ambassador, Lord Winchilsea,
+for permission to hire the services
+of a number of British vessels; but this
+strange request being evaded, the expedition
+was postponed for a year,
+while every nerve was strained in the
+building and equipment of galleys; and
+at length, in the autumn of 1666, the
+fleet set sail from Monembasia in the
+Morea, under the command of the
+Capitan-pasha Mustafa, surnamed
+<i>Kaplan</i>, or the Tiger, the brother-in-law
+of Kiuprili, and anchored off
+Canea in the beginning of November.
+But before we proceed to narrate the
+closing scenes of the Cretan war, we
+must retrace our steps, to give some
+account of its origin and progress.</p>
+
+<p>The dominions of the Venetian Signory
+in the Levant, which had at one
+time comprehended, besides the scattered
+isles of the Cyclades, the three
+subject <i>kingdoms</i> (as they were proudly
+called) of Candia,<a name="footnotetag11" id="footnotetag11"></a><a href="#footnote11"><sup>11</sup></a> Cyprus, and the
+Morea, were confined, in the middle
+of the seventeenth century, to the
+first-named island&mdash;the last relics of
+the Morea having been wrested from
+the republic by the arms of Soliman
+the Magnificent in 1540, and Cyprus
+having been subdued by the lieutenants
+of his son Selim, a few months
+before the destruction of the Turkish
+fleet at the battle of Lepanto in 1571.<a name="footnotetag12" id="footnotetag12"></a><a href="#footnote12"><sup>12</sup></a>
+The sovereignty of Candia had been
+acquired by purchase from the Marquis
+of Montferrat, to whom it was assigned
+on the partition of the Greek empire,
+after the conquest of Constantinople,
+in 1204, by the Latins of the fourth
+crusade: but the four centuries and a
+half of Venetian rule present little
+more than an unvarying succession of
+revolts, oppression, and bloodshed.
+In pursuance of their usual system of
+colonial administration, which strangely
+contrasted with their domestic policy,
+they had introduced into the island
+a sort of modified feudal system,
+in order to rivet their ascendancy over
+this remote possession, by the interposition
+of a class of resident proprietors,
+whose interest it would be to
+maintain the dominion of the parent
+state: but the <i>cavaliers</i>, as the Venetian
+tenants of Cretan fiefs were termed,
+proved at times even more refractory
+than the candidates themselves,
+and made the island for many years a
+source of endless difficulties to the
+Signory. In 1363, complaining of
+their exclusion from the high dignities
+of the republic, the <i>cavaliers</i> openly
+threw off their allegiance, elected a
+doge from among themselves, and
+raised the banner of St Titus of Retimo
+in opposition to the standard of
+St Mark. As they were supported
+both by the native Candiotes and the
+Greeks of Constantinople, it was not
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page726" id="page726" title="726"></a></span> till after a harassing warfare of two
+years that they were reduced, and
+their fortresses razed, by the Provveditori
+sent from Venice; a second effort
+at independence, a few years later,
+was not more successful. The Greek
+inhabitants were throughout subjected
+to a degree of merciless tyranny, in
+comparison of which the worst severities
+of Turkish rule must have appeared
+lenient. The Sphakiote tribes
+in particular, who were strong both
+from their arms and martial temperament,
+and from their habitations
+among the lofty ridges of the <i>Aspro-Bouna</i>,
+or White Mountains, in the
+south of the island, acknowledged at
+all times but an imperfect allegiance
+to their Venetian lords: and the acts
+of fiendish barbarity by which their
+frequent revolts were chastised, can
+scarcely find a parallel even in the
+worst horrors of the French Revolution.
+Unborn infants torn from the
+womb in pursuance of a judicial sentence
+solemnly pronounced&mdash;the head
+of the father exacted as the ransom
+for the life of the son&mdash;such were the
+methods by which the Provveditori of
+the Most Serene and Christian Republic
+enforced its authority, and
+which are related, not only without
+reprehension, but with manifest complacency
+and approval, by the chroniclers
+of the state.<a name="footnotetag13" id="footnotetag13"></a><a href="#footnote13"><sup>13</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Though the coasts had often been
+ravaged in former wars by the Turkish
+fleet, particularly under Barbarossa
+in 1538, no attempt appears ever
+to have been made to effect the conquest
+of the island by the reduction of
+the fortified cities of the coast, in which
+the main strength of the Venetians
+lay: and since the treaty of 1573,
+Venice had remained more than seventy
+years at peace with the Porte. In
+1645, however, a fresh rupture arose
+from the capture of a richly-laden
+Turkish vessel by the Maltese cruisers,<a name="footnotetag14" id="footnotetag14"></a><a href="#footnote14"><sup>14</sup></a>
+who were allowed, contrary to
+the existing conventions between the
+Porte and the Republic, to sell the
+horses which were on board their
+prize in one of the remote havens of
+Crete, beyond the surveillance of the
+Venetian authorities. Slight as was
+the ground of offence, it produced an
+instantaneous ferment at Constantinople:
+the janissaries, calling to mind
+similar omens said to have preceded
+the conquest of Rhodes and of Cyprus,
+exclaimed that the land whose
+soil had once been trodden by Moslem
+horse hoofs, was the predestined inheritance
+of the Faithful: and the flame
+was fanned by the capitan-pasha Yusuf,
+a Dalmatian renegade, who, independent
+of the hatred which from
+early associations he bore Venice,
+dreaded being sent on a bootless expedition
+against the impregnable defences
+of Malta&mdash;an enterprise which,
+since the memorable failure in the
+last years of Soliman, had never been
+attempted by the Osmanlis. Preparations
+for war, meanwhile, were carried
+on with unexampled activity,
+though the destination of the armament
+was kept profoundly secret; till,
+on April 30, 1545, the most formidable
+expedition which had ever been
+equipped in the Turkish ports, set
+sail from the Bosphorus. Eight
+thousand janissaries, 14,000 spahis,
+and upwards of 50,000 <i>timariots</i> or
+feudal militia, were embarked on board
+the fleet, which consisted of eighty
+galleys, and more than 300 transports,
+besides the auxiliary squadrons
+of the Barbary regencies, which joined
+the armada, May 7, at the general
+rendezvous at Scio.</p>
+
+<p>From Scio the united fleet sailed to
+Navarino&mdash;a course purposely adopted
+to spread the belief that Malta was the
+point of attack; but no sooner were
+they again at sea, than the capitan-pasha,
+summoning the principal officers
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page727" id="page727" title="727"></a></span> on board his galley, read the
+<i>khatt sheeref</i> of the sultan, announcing
+that he had taken up arms for the
+conquest of Candia. War had, in the
+mean time, been formally declared
+against the Republic at Constantinople,
+and the Venetian envoy, Soranzo,
+imprisoned in the Seven Towers: but
+he had previously contrived to communicate
+to the Signory his suspicions
+of the impending storm; and supplies
+and reinforcements had been hastily
+dispatched from Venice to Andrea
+Cornaro, the <i>inquisitore</i>, or governor
+of Crete, in the event of its bursting
+in that quarter. Little serious apprehension
+seems, however, to have been
+entertained; and great was the consternation
+of the Candiote population,
+when, on the morning of June 24, the
+vast armament of the Ottomans was
+seen rounding Cape Spada, and disembarking
+the troops near Canea, on
+the same spot where, according to
+tradition, the standards of Islam had
+first been displayed, 820 years before,
+by the Saracens of Spain.</p>
+
+<p>The strong ramparts of Canea opposed
+but an ineffectual resistance to
+the numbers and resolution of the Ottomans,
+who pressed the siege with all
+the ardour arising from the confidence
+of success; and after fifty days
+of open trenches, and the failure of
+two assaults, the second fortress of the
+island capitulated, August 17. The
+churches and the cathedral of St Nicholas
+were converted into mosques:
+and Delhi-Hussein (whose subsequent
+tragical fate has been already
+commemorated) was sent out to take
+the government of this new conquest.
+The brave Yusuf, returning to Constantinople
+at the end of the year, was
+at first received with the highest honours
+by Ibrahim, but soon after put to
+death in one of his fits of senseless
+cruelty; but the Ottomans in Crete,
+under the gallant leadership of Delhi-Hussein,
+who now became <i>serdar</i> or
+commander-in-chief, overran and occupied
+the inland districts almost
+without opposition from the Greek
+inhabitants, in whose eyes any alternative
+was preferable to the bloody
+tyranny under which they had so long
+groaned:<a name="footnotetag15" id="footnotetag15"></a><a href="#footnote15"><sup>15</sup></a> while the Venitian garrisons,
+shut up in the fortified towns
+along the northern shore, depended
+for supplies on the Christian fleet,
+which the Turks did not venture to
+bring to action. The campaign of
+1646 was marked by the capture of
+the important city of Retimo, which
+surrendered Nov. 15, after a murderous
+siege of thirty-nine days, in which
+both the governor Cornaro and the
+provveditor Molino were slain: but
+though the Turks received reinforcements
+to the amount of 30,000 men,
+including 10,000 janissaries, in the
+course of the following year, it was
+not till May 1648 that the trenches
+were at length opened before Candia,
+the capital of the island, and the only
+fortress of importance still in the
+hands of the Venetians.</p>
+
+<p>The leaguer of Candia was pushed
+during several months by the Turks,
+animated by the courage and example
+of their general, with the same fanatic
+zeal which they had displayed before
+Canea and Retimo; but the besieged,
+whose tenure of Crete depended
+on this last stronghold, held out
+with equal pertinacity: and their efforts
+were aided by the presence of a
+large body of Maltese auxiliaries, as
+well as by the succours which the
+naval superiority of the Venetians
+enabled them continually to introduce
+by sea. In one sortie, a detachment
+of the garrison penetrated even to the
+tent of the serdar, who owed his safety
+to his personal prowess; while the
+outworks of the town were ruined by
+the constant explosion of mines, and
+the Ottoman standards were planted
+on the bastion of Martinengo, and on
+several of the redoubts which covered
+the interior defences. But in spite of
+their repeated assaults, the besiegers
+failed to make any impression on the
+body of the place; and the serdar was
+compelled to withdraw his diminished
+army into winter-quarters. The anarchy
+at Constantinople which followed
+the deposition of Ibrahim, combined
+with the blockade of the Dardanelles
+by the Venetians, prevented any reinforcements
+from reaching the seat of
+war&mdash;yet the siege was renewed in
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page728" id="page728" title="728"></a></span> the ensuing summer, and carried on
+with such vigour, that the garrison,
+weakened by the loss of half its numbers,
+including the valiant governor,
+Colloredo, was reduced to the last extremity;
+when the arrival of the Maltese
+squadron, under Balbiani, baulked
+the Turks of their expected prize;
+and the janissaries, breaking out into
+furious mutiny, compelled Delhi-Hussein
+once more to abandon the hopeless
+enterprise. All the remainder of
+the island, however, had now peaceably
+submitted to the Ottoman rule,
+and had been organized into sandjaks
+and districts; so that the garrison of
+Candia were rather the occupants of
+a solitary post in a hostile country,
+than defenders of the soil against the
+invasion; and the Turkish commanders,
+ill supplied from Constantinople,
+during the troubled minority of
+Mohammed, with siege equipage and
+munitions of war, contented themselves
+with blockading the town by
+the erection of redoubts, and guarding
+the open country with their cavalry.
+While the war thus languished in
+Crete, the events of the maritime contest
+continued to justify the proverbial
+saying of the Turks, that &quot;Allah had
+given the land to the true believers;
+but the sea to the infidels!&quot; Not only
+was the blockade of the Dardanelles
+so strictly kept up, that it was only in
+winter, when the Venetian fleet was
+unable to remain on its station, that
+the Turks could convey reinforcements
+to their brethren who were
+waging the <i>holy war</i> in Crete, but
+repeated and disastrous defeats were
+sustained by the Ottoman navy, whenever
+it attempted to dispute the sovereignty
+of the sea with the Lion of
+St Mark. In July 1651, a formidable
+armament with supplies and troops
+for Crete was almost entirely destroyed
+off Naxos by Mocenigo: and on July
+6, 1656, the same commander inflicted
+on the Turkish fleet, off the mouth of
+the Straits, the most decisive overthrow
+which it had sustained since the
+fatal day of Lepanto. Seventy sail of
+ships and galleys were sunk or taken;
+the Capitan-pasha escaped into the
+Bosphorus with only fourteen vessels;
+and the inhabitants of Constantinople,
+in the first access of consternation,
+expected the apparition of the Christian
+ensigns in the Golden Horn; but
+the victors contented themselves with
+the occupation of Tenedos and Lemnos,
+which they held till dislodged in
+the following year by Kiuprili.</p>
+
+<p>The serdar, Delhi-Hussein, who had
+for eleven years gallantly upheld the
+renown of the Ottoman arms in Crete,
+withstanding with equal firmness the
+efforts of the enemy, and the mutinous
+spirit of his own soldiers, had been recalled
+early in 1656 to assume the
+vizirat; a fleeting glimpse of honour,
+which, though cancelled even before
+he reached Constantinople in favour
+of the Kaimakam Mustapha, subsequently
+(as already related) cost him
+his life from the jealousy of Mohammed
+Kiuprili. His successors possessed
+neither his energy nor his military
+skill; and the Venetians, taking
+courage from the change of commanders,
+sallied from Candia, and
+even ventured, though without success,
+to attempt the recovery of Canea.
+Negotiations for peace, meanwhile,
+had been kept on foot almost from the
+first; but as the Ottoman pride absolutely
+refused to listen to any propositions
+which did not include the total
+and unconditional surrender of Candia,
+no pacification could be effected; and
+the war continued to linger till
+Ahmed-Kiuprili, secured on the side
+of Hungary by the peace with Austria,
+collected all the forces of the empire,
+to crush this last fragment of
+Venetian dominion in the Levant.</p>
+
+<p>The advanced season of the year
+when the vizir disembarked in Candia,
+and the disorganized state of the forces
+which he found there, prevented the
+immediate commencement of offensive
+operations; but in the course of the
+winter, the arrival of the contingents
+of Egypt and Africa, as well as of a
+squadron with fresh troops from Constantinople,
+raised his army to between
+40,000 and 50,000 effective
+men; and on the 20th of May 1667,
+the trenches were once more opened
+in form on the western side of the
+city, while 300 pieces of cannon,
+thundering from the Ottoman lines,
+covered the approaches of the pioneers.<a name="footnotetag16" id="footnotetag16"></a><a href="#footnote16"><sup>16</sup></a>
+Of the seven<a name="footnotetag17" id="footnotetag17"></a><a href="#footnote17"><sup>17</sup></a> great bastions
+which formed the principal defences
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page729" id="page729" title="729"></a></span> on the land side, those of Panigra,
+Bethlehem, and Martinengo, were the
+chief points of attack; the vizir himself
+taking post opposite the first,
+while the Beglerbeg of Anatolia and
+the Pasha of Egypt were stationed
+against the Bethlehem and the Martinengo.
+The assault, as on former
+occasions, was conducted chiefly by
+the slow process of sap and mine; but
+the superior skill of the Christian engineers,
+enabled them frequently to
+explore and countermine the works of
+the enemy; and the mining parties
+were thus surprised and blown into
+the air, while murderous combats took
+place under ground, from the accidental
+rencounters of the soldiers employed
+in these subterranean galleries.
+The garrison, which had at first numbered
+about 12,000, under the command
+of the Marchese di Villa, a
+Piedmontese officer of approved skill
+and courage, received, at the end of
+June, a reinforcement of 1000 veteran
+troops, brought by the Venetian Captain-General
+Morosini, who arrived
+with the fleet at the Isle of Standia,
+off the entrance of the port; and a
+concourse of volunteers, from all parts
+of Europe, hastened to share in the
+defence of this last bulwark of Christendom
+in the Grecian seas; while
+the Maltese, Papal, and Neapolitan
+galleys cruised in the offing, to intercept
+the supplies brought by sea to
+the Ottoman camp. The Turks,
+meanwhile, with their usual stubborn
+perseverance, continued to push their
+sap under the ravelin of Mocenigo,
+and the Panigra bastion which it covered;
+and though their progress was
+retarded, and their works often ruined,
+by the sallies of the defenders, the
+foundations were at length shaken,
+and the ramparts rent and shattered,
+by the explosion of innumerable
+mines; and the janissaries, fired with
+fanatic zeal, and stimulated by promises
+of reward, rushed again and
+again to the attack under the eye of
+the vizir. &quot;Many and various,&quot; says
+Rycaut, in his quaint narrative, &quot;were
+the valiant assaults and sallies, the
+traverses extraordinary, the rencounters
+bloody, the resistance vigorous,
+not known or recorded in any siege
+before;&quot; and the struggle continued
+with unabated fury on both sides, till
+the approach of winter; while, after
+each unsuccessful assault, the Venetians,
+emulating the ferocity of their
+enemies, displayed the heads of the
+slain and prisoners (for no quarter was
+given or taken) in barbarous triumph
+from the wall. At length, after a
+desperate conflict on November 16,
+the janissaries effected a lodgement in
+the Mocenigo bastion and the Panigra;
+and the Ottoman banners, for the first
+time, were displayed from the summit
+of the works. But this valiant
+forlorn hope, in the moment of triumph,
+was hurled into the air by the
+explosion of a previously-prepared
+mine; and Kiuprili, dismayed at this
+last failure, drew off his troops into
+their lines, where they lay inactive,
+till the inundation of the camp by the
+winter rains compelled them to withdraw
+to a greater distance.</p>
+
+<p>Great was the rejoicing throughout
+Europe at the tidings that the pride
+of the Ottoman battle had once more
+been driven back discomfited, for the
+best and bravest of nearly every nation
+in Christendom were now to be
+found in the ranks of the defenders:<a name="footnotetag18" id="footnotetag18"></a><a href="#footnote18"><sup>18</sup></a>
+and great, on the other hand, was the
+perplexity of the divan, and the chagrin
+of the Turkish population, at the
+apparently endless duration of an enterprise,
+a speedy and glorious termination
+of which had been expected
+from the presence of the vizir. The
+sultan even dispatched a confidential
+agent to the seat of war, to examine
+personally into the state of affairs;
+and finding from his report that the
+army was reduced, by the sword and the
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page730" id="page730" title="730"></a></span> ravages of disease, to half its original effective
+strength, he issued peremptory
+firmans to the pashas of the empire to
+hasten the equipment of their contingents;
+and even announced his intention
+of repairing in person to Crete,
+to share the perils and glories of the
+<i>holy war</i>. Kiuprili, meanwhile, was
+indefatigable in his exertions to reorganize
+his army, and restore his
+artillery to efficiency, even casting
+new guns to fit the Venetian bullets,
+30,000 of which are said to have been
+picked up in the Turkish lines during
+the preceding campaign! A strict
+blockade was kept up on the city,
+while the Venetian cruisers, and the
+Papal galleys under Rospigliosi, the
+nephew of Pope Clement IX., were
+equally vigilant in preventing supplies
+from reaching the besiegers by sea;
+and various maritime encounters took
+place, generally to the advantage of
+the flag of St Mark. The unworthy
+jealousy<a name="footnotetag19" id="footnotetag19"></a><a href="#footnote19"><sup>19</sup></a> entertained by Morosini of
+Di Villa, led, however, early in the
+spring of 1668, to the withdrawal of
+that gallant soldier from his command,
+in which he was succeeded by the
+Marquis Montbrun St Andr&eacute;, a French
+volunteer, inferior neither in valour
+nor diligence to his predecessor.</p>
+
+<p>It was not till the beginning of June
+that the vizir recommenced active
+operations against Candia; but the
+plan of attack was now changed. In
+order to command the narrow entrance
+of the harbour,<a name="footnotetag20" id="footnotetag20"></a><a href="#footnote20"><sup>20</sup></a> and so cut
+off the constant reinforcements which
+reached the besieged by sea, the principal
+batteries were directed against
+the bastion of Sabionera, (called by
+the Turks the <i>Kizil-Tab&icirc;yah,</i> or Red
+Fort,) at the seaward extremity of
+the works on one side, and against
+that of St Andrew on the other; but
+the events of the siege during this
+year present nothing to distinguish
+them from the endless succession of
+mines, sorties, assaults, and countermines,
+which had marked the campaign
+of last year. The Venetian
+commanders at length, seeing the
+Turks preparing to pass the winter in
+their trenches, and sensible that (concentrated
+as the forces of the two contending
+powers were now for the attack
+and defence of a single fortress) they
+must eventually be overwhelmed by
+the ponderous strength of the Ottoman
+empire, once more made overtures
+for peace, offering an annual
+tribute for Candia, and the cession of
+the rest of the island to the Porte;
+but the vizir sternly rejected the proffered
+compromise; and his reply to
+the envoy, Molino&mdash;&quot;The Sultan is
+not a merchant, nor does he need
+money&mdash;he has but one word, and that
+is&mdash;Candia,&quot;&mdash;showed that the long
+dispute could only be decided by the
+sword. Elated by the hope of speedy
+triumph, the Turks now ran their
+approaches so close to the bastion of
+St Andrew, which was held by the
+Maltese knights and militia, that the
+muzzles of the muskets almost touched
+each other; and the vizir wrote to the
+Sultan, that they had only three yards
+more of ground to win, when, at this
+critical moment, the spirits of the besieged
+were revived by the arrival,
+early in December, of the Duc de la
+Feuillade and the Count de St Pol,
+with a gallant band of 600 volunteers,
+many of them of the best families of
+France. But the boiling valour of
+these fiery youths was equally difficult
+to restrain or direct; and, after losing
+two-thirds of their number in desperate,
+but irregular, sallies against the
+Turkish lines, the survivors of this
+piece of knight-errantry re-embarked
+for Christendom in January, leaving
+the heads of their fallen comrades
+ranged on pikes before the tent of
+Kiuprili. A stancher reinforcement
+was received in the spring of 1669, by
+the arrival of 3000 Lunenburghers,
+whose commander, Count Waldeck,
+fell a few days after, in repulsing an
+assault on the breach of St Andrew,
+as did also the former governor, Di
+Villa, whose thirst for glory had
+brought him back, as general of the
+Papal auxiliaries, to the scene of
+peril.</p>
+
+<p>These repeated reinforcements, joined
+to the knowledge that the Pope was
+exerting himself to unite all the princes
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page731" id="page731" title="731"></a></span> of Christendom in a league for the relief
+of their hardly-beset brethren,
+still encouraged the heroic defenders
+of Candia, though the Turks had by
+this time carried their mines at several
+points within the bastions and exterior
+defences, and compelled the garrison
+to shelter themselves behind an inner
+rampart, constructed during the winter
+in anticipation of this extremity:&mdash;&quot;So
+that, in effect,&quot; says Rycaut,
+&quot;this most impregnable fort of the
+world was forced and taken by the
+spade and shovel, and by a crew of
+unarmed labourers, who understood
+nothing more than the plough and
+harrow.&quot; The promised succours,
+however, were now at hand. On the
+22d of June, a French fleet appeared
+off the port, having on board 7000 of
+the flower of the French troops and
+nobility, who were commanded by the
+Dukes de Noailles and Beaufort, and
+comprised in their ranks several
+princes of the sovereign houses of
+Lorrain and Bouillon, the Marshals
+Colbert and De la Motte-Fenelon, the
+Count of St Pol, and many other
+names of the noblest and bravest in
+France, who had crowded to embark
+as volunteers in this new and glorious
+crusade. These gallant auxiliaries
+landed amidst the acclamations of the
+Venetians; and, on the night of the
+27th, a general sortie was made, in
+order to raise the siege by driving
+the Turks from their trenches. The
+janissaries were driven from their
+works by the impetuous onset of the
+assailants; but, in the tumult of the
+fight, a large powder-magazine, between
+the Sabionera and Fort St Demetrius,
+which had been occupied by
+the French, was accidentally blown up.
+The Duke de Beaufort, and many
+others, perished in the explosion, or
+were buried under the ruins; and the
+survivors, panic-stricken at the catastrophe,
+were driven within the walls
+with terrible slaughter by the Turks,
+who rallied and returned to the
+charge. The usual hideous trophies
+of Ottoman triumph&mdash;the heads of the
+slain, were laid at the feet of the vizir;
+but the body of the Duc de Beaufort,
+though anxiously sought for at the
+prayer of his comrades, who offered,
+through a flag of truce, to redeem it
+at its weight in gold, could never be
+discovered.</p>
+
+<p>This dreadful blow not only threw
+a fatal gloom over the ardour of the
+French, but gave rise to an altercation
+between Morosini and De Noailles,
+each of whom threw on the other
+the blame of the failure; till, after a
+month thus unprofitably spent, the
+French commander re-embarked his
+troops, and sailed for Toulon, August
+31, leaving the town to its fate. The
+Maltese and Papal galleys departed in
+his company;&mdash;&quot;for thus did these
+accursed swine of Nazarenes&quot; (says
+the Turkish historiographer, Rashid)
+&quot;withdraw from the doom of hell,
+which awaited them at the hands of
+the Faithful.&quot; The condition of the
+remaining defenders, thus deserted by
+their allies, and separated from the
+Turks only by breastworks hastily
+thrown up in the interior of the town,
+was now utterly hopeless, as not more
+than 3600 men remained fit for duty,
+while the loss in slain and disabled
+averaged more than a hundred a-day.
+In these desperate circumstances, a
+council of war was summoned by Morosini,
+to consider whether it might
+not even yet be practicable to avoid
+the ignominy of a surrender, by evacuating
+the town, and escaping, with
+the inhabitants, by sea. Their deliberations
+were hastened by a furious
+assault from the Turks, who were impatient
+to seize their prey; and,
+though the enemy were repulsed for
+the time by the remains of the Lunenburghers,
+two officers were eventually
+dispatched to the vizir's headquarters,
+to announce the submission
+of the garrison, and arrange the terms
+of capitulation. They were courteously
+received by Kiuprili, who
+appointed an officer of his own household,
+with Panayoti,<a name="footnotetag21" id="footnotetag21"></a><a href="#footnote21"><sup>21</sup></a> the dragoman
+of the Porte, to confer with them;
+and the articles were settled without
+much difficulty. Peace was concluded
+between the Porte and the Republic.
+Candia and the whole of Crete was
+ceded to the Sultan, with the exception
+of the harbours of Grabusa, Suda,
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page732" id="page732" title="732"></a></span> and Spinalonga, which the Venetians
+were allowed to retain for purposes
+of commerce; the garrison and
+inhabitants of Candia were to embark
+with their arms, baggage, and a certain
+proportion of artillery, and the
+Ottomans were not to enter the town
+till the embarkation was completed.
+These conditions were scrupulously
+observed by the victors; till the 27th
+of September, the evacuation being
+effected, the standard of the cross was
+at length lowered from the walls; and
+the vizir, standing on the breach of
+the St Andrew's bastion, (thence called
+by the Turks the <i>Fort of Surrender</i>,)
+in the midst of a crowd of pashas
+and generals, received the keys of the
+city in a silver basin. A body of
+Turkish troops immediately entered
+by the breaches, and mounted guard on
+the principal posts; but it was not till
+the 4th of October that the vizir made
+his triumphant entry at the head of his
+army, (now reduced to about 15,000
+regular troops, and 11,000 pioneers
+and irregulars,) and proceeded, bearing
+in his hand the sacred standard of
+the Prophet, to the cathedral, which
+was purified from the dead bodies interred
+within its walls, and re-consecrated
+as a mosque. All the other
+churches underwent the same transformation,
+with the exception of two
+which Panayoti purchased for the use
+of the Greeks; for so completely was
+the town deserted, that there remained
+only, in the words of an anonymous
+eyewitness, &quot;two Greeks, three
+Jews, and eight other strangers, whom
+the vizir would also have suffered to
+depart; but they chose rather to
+change their religion than their quarters.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Thus ended this famous siege, the
+longest, and one of the most memorable,
+recorded in history. During its
+continuance, the Venetians and their
+allies lost 30,000 men, and the Turks
+more than 100,000; fifty-six assaults
+were made on the town above ground,
+and the same number through the
+mines; and nearly an equal number
+of sorties was made by the garrison.
+460 mines were sprung by the Turks,
+and no less than 1172 by the Venetians;
+and the quantity of missiles
+hurled into the town exceeded all calculation.
+The fortifications were,
+however, speedily repaired by the care
+of Kiuprili, who remained in the island
+nine months after the surrender, employed
+in the final organization of this
+new province, which was divided into
+the three pashaliks of Canea, Retimo,
+and Candia&mdash;the last being the residence
+of the beglerbeg, or supreme
+pasha. The arrangements being at
+length completed, he quitted Candia
+for Constantinople, whither the capitan-pasha
+had preceded him with the
+fleet; and, on the 3d of July 1670, he
+replaced in the hands of the Sultan,
+in his hunting-camp near Rodosto,
+the <i>sandjak-sheeref</i>, which had been
+committed to his charge for the war
+against the infidels. &quot;In this manner,&quot;
+says Rycaut, writing not in a
+spirit of prophecy, three years only
+before the battle of Vienna, &quot;expired
+the action of the year, fortunate in its
+success to the Turks; for though they
+gained but thirty acres of land, with
+expense inestimable of blood and treasure,
+yet the glory and fame which
+attended it, being the consummation
+of twenty-five years' war, and the
+theatre where the whole world were
+spectators, was of greater value to the
+Turks than any other consideration,
+and may with time prove a place of
+advantage to the further increase of
+their western empire, unless God Almighty,
+by his mercy and providence,
+give a stop to the progress of this
+grand oppressor.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr class="full">
+
+
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page733" id="page733" title="733"></a></span>
+<a name="bw332s4" id="bw332s4"></a><h2>A PASSAGE IN THE LIFE OF A MA&Icirc;TRE-D'ARMES</h2>
+
+<p>The excitement produced in St
+Petersburg on the occasion of a rash
+conspiracy which had broken out on
+the inauguration of the Emperor Nicholas,
+had ample time to die away
+before the sentence pronounced upon
+the conspirators became known. Six
+months elapsed, months of terrible suspense
+and anxiety to the friends of the
+unfortunate prisoners. At length, on
+the 14th of July, the decision of the
+high court of justice appeared in the
+<i>St Petersburg Gazette</i>. Six-and-thirty
+of the accused were condemned
+to death, the others to the mines and
+to exile. My friend and patron, Count
+Alexis W&mdash;&mdash;, was included in the former
+list; but an act of clemency on
+the part of the Emperor tempered the
+severity of justice, and only five of
+the condemned were left for execution,
+while the remaining thirty-one
+had their sentence commuted
+to banishment. My friend's name
+was, God be thanked! among the
+latter.</p>
+
+<p>On reading this announcement, I
+rushed into the street, and ran, without
+once stopping, until I reached the
+house of his beloved Louise. Of her,
+for the present, it will be sufficient to
+say, that she was a young, lovely, and
+intelligent Frenchwoman, whose sister
+I had known in Paris, and to whose
+patronage, from her position as a first-rate
+<i>modiste</i> in St Petersburg, I was
+much indebted. Between this truly
+amiable woman and the Count had
+for some years existed an attachment,
+not hallowed, indeed, by the church,
+but so long and deeply-rooted in the
+hearts of both, and so dignified by
+their mutual constancy and worth, as
+to have won the sympathies even of
+the Count's mother and sisters. To
+return, however, to Louise, whom I
+found with a copy of the <i>Gazette</i> in
+her hand, and bathed in tears, but
+they were tears of joy&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He is saved!&quot; cried she, on seeing
+me enter; &quot;thank God and the
+Emperor!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The first moment of joy over,
+Louise's thoughts turned to the mother
+and sisters of her lover. She
+calculated that the <i>Gazette</i> would only
+leave St Petersburg by the post of
+that night, and that by sending off an
+express immediately the news might
+reach Moscow twelve hours sooner.
+She asked me if I knew a trusty messenger,
+who could start without delay
+to bear the glad tidings to the
+Count's family. I had a Russian servant,
+an intelligent active fellow, and
+I offered his services, which she accepted
+with delight. The only difficulty
+was the passport, and through
+the kindness of the ex-chief of police,
+Monsieur de Gorgoli, it was procured
+in half an hour. At the expiration of
+that time the courier set off, with a
+thousand rubles in his pocket for travelling
+expenses.</p>
+
+<p>He arrived at Moscow fourteen
+hours before the post; fourteen hours
+of mortal anxiety saved to the Count's
+mother and sisters.</p>
+
+<p>The letter he brought back, was one
+of those that seem written with a
+feather plucked from an angel's wing.
+The old Countess called Louise her
+daughter, and the young girls named
+her their sister. They entreated that,
+when the day was known on which
+the prisoners were to set off for their
+banishment, a courier might be despatched
+to Moscow with the news. I
+accordingly told my servant to hold
+himself in readiness to start, to his no
+small satisfaction; for the Count's mother
+had given him a thousand rubles
+for his first trip, and he trusted the
+second might be equally well rewarded.</p>
+
+<p>There had not been an execution in
+St Petersburg for sixty years, and the
+curiosity and excitement caused by
+the anticipation of this one, were proportionably
+great. The day was not
+fixed beforehand, and the inhabitants
+of the capital got up each morning,
+expecting to hear that the bloody tragedy
+had been enacted. I had requested
+a young Frenchman attached
+to Marshal Marmont's special mission,
+and who was on that account likely
+to have early information, to let me
+know when it was to take place; and
+on the evening of the 23d of July, he
+sent me word that the marshal and his
+suite had been invited to repair by
+four o'clock the following morning
+to the hotel of the French embassy,
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page734" id="page734" title="734"></a></span> the windows of which commanded the
+place of execution.</p>
+
+<p>I hastened to communicate this intelligence
+to Louise. All her fears
+returned. Was it certain that Alexis
+was pardoned? Might not the commutation
+of punishment announced in
+the <i>Gazette</i> be a ruse to conceal the
+truth from the people? These, and
+a thousand other doubts, arose in her
+mind; but I at last succeeded in tranquillizing
+her, and returned home to
+take some repose till the hour of the
+execution. Before doing so, however,
+my servant was sent off to Moscow,
+to inform the Countess W&mdash;&mdash; that
+the following day her son would
+leave St Petersburg for his place of
+exile.</p>
+
+<p>At half-past three, I left my house
+and hastened in the direction of the
+citadel. A grey tinge in the east announced
+the approach of day, and a
+thin white fog hung like a veil over
+the Neva. As I passed the corner of
+the French embassy, Marmont and
+his suite entered the house, and a
+minute afterwards they appeared upon
+the balcony.</p>
+
+<p>A few persons were standing upon
+the quay, not in expectation, or because
+they were informed of what was
+going to take place, but because the
+bridge of the Trinity was occupied by
+troops, and they were thereby prevented
+from proceeding whither their
+affairs called them. They seemed uneasy,
+and uncertain whether it might
+not be dangerous to remain there.</p>
+
+<p>Some minutes before four, a large
+fire was lighted on the platform of the
+fortress. My attention being drawn
+to that point, I perceived, by the now
+increasing daylight, a wooden scaffolding,
+on which were erected five black
+and ominous looking gibbets.</p>
+
+<p>Four o'clock struck, and the prisoners
+whose punishment had been commuted
+to banishment appeared upon
+the platform, and ranged themselves
+round the scaffold. They were all in
+full uniform, wearing their epaulettes,
+and the stars and ribands of their different
+orders. Their swords were
+carried by soldiers. I tried to distinguish
+the Count, but the distance, and
+still imperfect light, rendered the attempt
+fruitless.</p>
+
+<p>The five who were to suffer death
+now ascended the scaffold, dressed in
+coarse linen frocks, and with a sort of
+white hood over their heads. They
+doubtless arrived from separate dungeons,
+for, as they met, they were
+allowed to embrace one another. Immediately
+afterwards, a man went up
+to them and said something, which
+was followed by a cheer from the soldiers
+and others attending the execution.
+It was afterwards reported, I
+know not with what truth, that this
+man was sent to offer them their lives
+if they chose to beg them; but that
+they replied to the offer by cries of
+Russia and Liberty!&mdash;cries that were
+rendered inaudible by the hurras of
+the guards and attendants.</p>
+
+<p>The executioners stepped forward,
+passed the halters round the necks of
+the condemned, and pulled the hoods
+over their eyes. A neighbouring
+clock struck the first quarter after four,
+and simultaneously with the sound, a
+trap-door gave way under the feet of
+the culprits. There was a great cry
+and much confusion, and a number of
+soldiers jumped upon the scaffold.</p>
+
+<p>Two of the ropes had snapped, and
+the unhappy men round whose necks
+they had been fastened, had fallen
+through the scaffolding to the platform;
+one of them had broken his
+thigh, and the other his arm. Ladders
+were brought, and the sufferers
+carried up to the scaffold and laid
+upon their backs, for they were unable
+to stand. In a few minutes new
+halters were ready, and with the help
+of the executioners, the victims managed
+to drag themselves under the
+gibbets. Their last words were, Russia
+and Liberty! This time the ropes
+did their duty.</p>
+
+<p>It was said, that when the Emperor
+was afterwards informed of this incident,
+he was much vexed at its not
+having been immediately reported to
+him; but nobody had dared take upon
+himself the responsibility of suspending
+the execution.</p>
+
+<p>It was now the turn of the exiles.
+Their sentence was read, declaring
+them to have forfeited every thing,
+rank, possessions, orders, family, all
+that bound them to the world, and the
+executioners then tore off their epaulettes
+and decorations, which they
+threw into the fire. Then taking the
+prisoners' swords from the soldiers
+who held them, they seized them by
+the hilt and point, and broke them
+over their owners' heads, exclaiming,
+as each snapped in two, &quot;This is the
+sword of a traitor!&quot; This ceremony
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page735" id="page735" title="735"></a></span> over, they were stripped of their uniforms,
+which were replaced by coarse
+grey smock-frocks, and they were then
+led back to prison. The evening of
+the same day they set out for Siberia.</p>
+
+<p>I returned to Louise, whom I found
+on her knees, praying and weeping.
+She looked at me as I entered the
+room as though afraid to interrogate
+me; but I relieved her anxiety by informing
+her that all had passed as announced
+in the <i>Gazette</i>. She raised
+her eyes to heaven with an expression
+of pious gratitude.</p>
+
+<p>After a pause, &quot;How far is it from
+here to Tobolsk?&quot; she enquired.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;About eight hundred leagues.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is not so far as I thought,&quot; was
+her observation. I looked at her for
+a moment in silence. I began to suspect
+her intentions.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why do you ask the question?&quot;
+enquired I.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can you not guess?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But, Louise, it is impossible, at
+least at this moment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do not be uneasy, my friend. I
+know my duty to my child, and my
+affection for its father shall not make
+me forget it. I will wait.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was not without a motive that
+the Count's mother and sisters had
+been anxious to obtain the earliest
+possible intelligence of his departure
+from St Petersburg. The road from
+that capital to Tobolsk ran through
+Iroslaw, a town about sixty leagues
+from Moscow, and they entertained
+hopes of being able to see their son
+and brother as he passed. Their passports
+were ready, and arrangements
+made; and as soon as they received
+from my servant the news of the departure
+of the prisoners, they got into
+a <i>kubiltka</i>, and without saying a word
+to any body of their intentions, set out
+for Iroslaw.</p>
+
+<p>Travelling is rapid in Russia; in
+less than twenty-four hours they
+reached their destination, and learned
+with delight that the prisoners had
+not yet passed. As their stay at Iroslaw
+might have excited suspicion, they
+left that town, and took up their quarters
+in a small village on the road, at
+a solitary cottage, near which the
+carriages containing the exiles were
+to change horses. In all such cases
+in Russia, the persons in charge of
+criminals are forbidden to stop or to
+change horses in towns, or even in
+villages.</p>
+
+<p>After waiting two days, a servant
+whom the Countess had stationed
+upon the road to watch for the convoy,
+hastened to her with the news
+that the first division of the prisoners
+had just arrived in five carriages, and
+that the corporal in charge had sent
+men to fetch horses from the village.
+The ladies got into their carriage, and
+set off at full gallop for the cottage at
+which the convoy had halted. They
+stopped upon the high-road opposite
+the hut, and gazed eagerly through
+the half-open door of its only room.
+It was crowded with prisoners; but
+Alexis was not amongst them.</p>
+
+<p>In a quarter of an hour horses were
+brought; the prisoners re-entered the
+carriage, which immediately set
+off.</p>
+
+<p>Half an hour later the second division
+of the convoy arrived; but the
+Count was not with it. The third,
+fourth, and fifth passed, each being
+obliged to wait longer than the preceeding
+one for horses, those at the
+post-house and in the immediate neighbourhood
+having all been taken.</p>
+
+<p>It was some time after nightfall
+when the sixth and last division was
+heard approaching. The poor women
+clasped their trembling hands
+together. The much wished-for moment
+had arrived, yet their greatest
+difficulty was to come. It was more
+than uncertain whether they would
+be permitted to embrace their son and
+brother.</p>
+
+<p>The convoy stopped, Alexis got
+out of the third carriage. In spite
+of the darkness and of his ignoble
+garb, the Countess and her daughters
+recognized him. One of the latter
+was about to call out his name; but
+her mother placed her hand on her
+mouth in time to prevent the imprudence,
+and the Count entered the
+cottage.</p>
+
+<p>The corporal commanding the escort
+began enquiring about horses,
+and on learning that they were scarce,
+he sent off his soldiers with orders to
+seize all they could find in the name
+of the Emperor. The men departed,
+and he remained alone with the prisoners.
+There was no danger of an
+attempt at escape. In the heart of
+the Czar's immense dominions, whither
+could a fugitive betake himself
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page736" id="page736" title="736"></a></span> without a certainty of being overtaken,
+or of dying from hunger before
+he reached the frontier?</p>
+
+<p>Corporal Ivan remained then walking
+up and down in front of the cottage,
+alternately whistling and floging
+his leathern overalls with his riding
+whip, and occasionally stopping
+to gaze at the Countess's travelling
+carriage, which was standing without
+horses in the road. Presently the
+door of the vehicle opened, three
+ladies alighted and advanced towards
+the corporal. Two of them remained
+a little behind, the third approached
+him with clasped hands.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My friend,&quot; said the Countess,
+&quot;my son is amongst the prisoners
+you are escorting; let me see him
+but for a moment, and name your
+own reward.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is impossible, madam,&quot; replied
+the corporal respectfully. &quot;My orders
+are strict to allow no one to communicate
+with the prisoners, and the
+knout is the least I may expect if I
+transgress them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But who will know that you have
+transgressed them?&quot; cried the Countess,
+her voice trembling with eagerness
+and suspense. Her daughters
+stepped forward, and joined their
+hands, as in supplication to the soldier.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is quite impossible, madam,&quot;
+repeated the man.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My mother!&quot; cried Alexis, pushing
+open the cottage door. He had
+heard her voice, and in an instant was
+clasped in her arms.</p>
+
+<p>The corporal made a movement as
+though to seize his prisoner; but at
+the same moment the two young girls
+fell at his feet, and embracing his
+knees, pointed to the touching spectacle
+before them.</p>
+
+<p>Corporal Ivan was a good fellow in
+the main. He uttered something between
+a sigh and a growl, and the
+sisters saw that their prayer was
+granted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mamma,&quot; said one of them in a
+low tone, &quot;he will allow us to embrace
+our brother.&quot; The Countess
+extricated herself from her son's arms,
+and held out a heavy purse to the corporal.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You risk a punishment for our
+sakes, my friend, and it is fair you
+should be recompensed for it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Ivan looked hard at the purse for a
+moment, then shaking his head and
+putting his hands behind his back,
+&quot;No, your ladyship,&quot; said he, &quot;I am
+committing a breach of duty, but it
+is not for gold. Here is the best excuse
+I can give my judges, and if they
+don't accept it, God will;&quot; and he
+pointed to the two weeping girls.
+The Countess seized the soldier's
+rough hand and pressed it to her lips.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The horses cannot be here yet;&quot;
+continued Ivan, &quot;get into your carriage
+and pull down the blinds. By
+that means nobody will see you, and
+I may perhaps avoid making acquaintance
+with the knout.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thank you, corporal,&quot; said Alexis;
+&quot;but at least take this purse.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Take it yourself, lieutenant,&quot; said
+Ivan in a low voice, from habit giving
+the Count a title to which he had no
+longer a right. &quot;You will find the
+use of it at the end of your journey.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But on arriving they will search
+me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You can give it to me before the
+search, and I will return it to you.
+But I hear the gallop of a horse;
+quick into the carriage!&quot; The corporal
+pushed Alexis into the carriage;
+the ladies followed, and he shut the
+door upon them.</p>
+
+<p>An hour elapsed, an hour of mingled
+joy and sorrow. At the expiration
+of that time, the door opened,
+and Ivan appeared. &quot;You must
+separate,&quot; said he, &quot;the horses are
+arriving.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A few moments longer!&quot; cried
+the ladies, with tearful voices.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not a second, or I am ruined.
+Go on to the next relay; it is dark,
+no one will see you, and I sha'n't be
+punished more for twice than once.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh! you will not be punished at
+all,&quot; cried the ladies; &quot;surely God
+will reward you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hum,&quot; said the corporal doubtingly,
+and half pulling his prisoner
+out of the carriage.</p>
+
+<p>At the next relay, things went
+equally well. A third interview was
+rendered impossible by the approach
+of day. The sad word <i>farewell</i> was
+pronounced, and the weeping women
+took the road to Moscow, having
+previously arranged a plan of correspondence,
+and carrying with them a
+few affectionate lines that Alexis had
+scrawled in pencil for Louise.</p>
+
+<p>The Countess had ordered my
+servant to wait at Moscow till she
+returned, and on her arrival there
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page737" id="page737" title="737"></a></span> immediately dispatched him to St Petersburg.
+He brought Louise the
+Count's note, and a letter from his
+mother, inviting her to go to Moscow,
+for that she was impatient to embrace
+her as her daughter.</p>
+
+<p>Louise kissed her lover's note. She
+shook her head on reading the Countess's
+letter, and smiled one of those
+sad smiles that were peculiar to her.
+&quot;I shall not go to Moscow,&quot; said she,
+&quot;my place is elsewhere.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As I had suspected, Louise had resolved
+to join Count W&mdash;&mdash; at Tobolsk;
+but she could not set out till
+after her confinement, which was to
+take place in a couple of months.
+Meantime she busied herself with
+preparations. By turning every thing
+she possessed into money, she got
+together a sum of thirty thousand
+rubles. At her request, I applied to
+my kind friend, Monsieur de Gorgoli,
+to obtain from the Emperor permission
+for her to rejoin her lover. Her
+intentions had got wind in St Petersburg,
+and every body spoke with admiration
+of the devoted attachment of
+the young Frenchwoman. Many
+thought, however, that her courage
+would fail her when the moment
+of departure arrived; but I knew her
+better, and felt assured of the contrary.</p>
+
+<p>At the commencement of September,
+she became the mother of a boy.
+I wished her to write to the mother of
+Alexis to announce this event; but
+she refused. The Countess heard of
+it, however, and wrote to Louise, to
+say that she was expecting her with
+her child.</p>
+
+<p>Her recovery was slow, the various
+emotions she had undergone during
+her pregnancy having weakened her
+health. She would have left St Petersburg
+long before she was strong
+enough to do so; but the permission to
+join Count W&mdash;&mdash; was to come through
+me, and I refused to apply for it till
+her medical attendant gave her leave
+to travel.</p>
+
+<p>One morning the door of my apartment
+opened and Louise entered, her
+face radiant with joy. &quot;He will
+escape!&quot; cried she.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He&mdash;Alexis.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How! Escape? It is impossible.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Read that,&quot; she said and handed
+me a letter in the Count's hand-writing.
+It was as follows:&mdash;&quot;Dearest
+Louise&mdash;Place all confidence in the
+bearer of this letter. He is more
+than my friend&mdash;he is my saviour.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I fell ill upon the road, and was
+obliged to stop at Perm. The physicians
+declared I was not able to
+continue my journey, and it was decided
+I should pass the winter in the
+prison of that town. As good fortune
+would have it, the jailer's brother is
+an old servant of my family and willing
+to aid my escape. He and his
+brother fly with me; but I must have
+means of indemnifying them for what
+they give up on my account, and for
+the risk they run. Give the bearer
+all the money and jewels you possess.
+As soon as I am in safety I will write
+to you to come and join me. Adieu.
+W&mdash;&mdash;.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well,&quot; said I after reading the
+letter twice over, &quot;what have you
+done?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can you ask the question?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What!&quot; cried I. &quot;You have
+given ...?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Every ruble I had,&quot; interrupted
+she.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And if this letter were not from
+the Count? If it were a forgery?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She changed colour, and snatched
+the paper from my hand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, no!&quot; said she. &quot;I know his
+hand-writing. I cannot be mistaken.&quot;
+But, on reading the letter again, I
+observed that she grew still paler.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I do not think,&quot; I observed, &quot;that
+Alexis would have addressed such a
+demand to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And why not? Who loves him
+better than I do?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Understand me rightly. For an
+act of friendship or devotion he would
+have applied to <i>you</i>, but for money to
+his mother. I tell you again, either
+I do not know Count W&mdash;&mdash;'s character,
+or this letter is not written by
+him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But what will become of me? I
+have given every thing I possessed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How did the Count usually sign
+his letters?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Alexis always.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You see this one is signed W&mdash;&mdash;.
+It is evidently a forgery and we must
+immediately inform the police.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And if we are mistaken? If it is
+not a forgery, by doing so I shall
+prevent his escape. Oh, no! Better
+lose the money. I can manage without.
+All that I am anxious to know
+is, whether he is at Perm.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><span class="newpage"><a name="page738" id="page738" title="738"></a></span> It occurred to me, that I might
+easily ascertain this latter point
+through a lieutenant of gendarmerie
+to whom I gave lessons; and begging
+Louise to wait my return, I hastened
+to his quarters. I told him I had particular
+reasons for wishing to know
+whether my friend W&mdash;&mdash; had reached
+Tobolsk, and asked him if it were
+possible to ascertain. He immediately
+sent an orderly for the non-commissioned
+officer who had commanded
+the Count's division. Ten
+minutes afterwards, Corporal Ivan
+entered the room; and, although I
+was not then aware of the service he
+had rendered the Countess and her
+daughters, I was immediately prepossessed
+in his favour, by his frank
+open countenance and soldierly bearing.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You commanded the sixth division
+of the prisoners lately sent to
+Siberia?&quot; enquired I.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I did so, your excellency.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Count W&mdash;&mdash; was in your division?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The corporal hesitated, and did not
+seem much to like the question.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Fear nothing,&quot; said I, &quot;you are
+speaking to a friend, who would sacrifice
+his own life for him. Tell me
+the truth, I beseech you. Was Count
+W&mdash;&mdash; ill on the road?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not the least.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Did he stop at Perm?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not even to change horses. I
+left him at Koslowo, a pretty little
+village on the Irtich, twenty leagues
+from Tobolsk.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are sure of what you say?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Quite sure. I had a receipt from
+the authorities, which I delivered over
+to his excellency the grand-master of
+police.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>I now hastened to Monsieur de
+Gorgoli, and related all that had passed.
+When I had finished&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is this young girl decided to go
+penniless, as she now is, to join her
+lover in Siberia?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Quite decided, your excellency;
+and I am persuaded nothing will alter
+her resolution.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then go, and tell her from me,
+that she shall have the permission.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>I hurried back to Louise, and informed
+her of the result of my two
+interviews. She appeared indifferent
+to the loss of her little fortune, but
+overjoyed to learn that she would be
+allowed to join her lover. Her only
+anxiety now was to obtain the requisite
+permission as soon as possible.</p>
+
+<p>Before leaving her, I placed at her
+disposal what money I had, which,
+unfortunately, was only two or three
+thousand rubles; for I had, a short
+time previously, remitted to France
+all that I had laid by during my residence
+at St Petersburg.</p>
+
+<p>The same evening I was at Louise's
+house, when one of the Emperor's
+aides-de-camp was announced. He
+brought her a letter of audience for
+the following day. Monsieur de Gorgoli
+had kept his word.</p>
+
+<p>Early the following morning I
+called upon Louise, to accompany her
+to the palace. I found her waiting
+for me, dressed in deep mourning, and
+without a single ornament; but her
+pale, melancholy style of beauty, was
+rather improved than impaired by the
+simplicity and sombre colour of her
+attire.</p>
+
+<p>At the palace gate we separated,
+and I awaited her return in the carriage.
+On presenting her letter of
+audience, an officer on duty conducted
+her to the Emperor's private cabinet,
+and desiring her to wait there, left the
+room. She remained alone for about
+ten minutes, during which time, she
+afterwards told me, she was more than
+once near fainting away. At last a
+step was heard in the adjoining apartment;
+a door opened, and the Emperor
+appeared. On seeing him, she,
+by a spontaneous movement, fell upon
+her knees, and, unable to find words,
+clasped her hands together in mute
+supplication.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Rise!&quot; said the Emperor kindly,
+advancing towards her. &quot;I have
+been already spoken to on the subject
+of your application. You wish
+for permission to join an exile?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, sire, if such a favour may
+be granted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are neither his sister nor his
+wife, I believe?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am his&mdash;friend, sire,&quot; replied
+poor Louise, a tinge of pink over-spreading
+her pale cheek. &quot;He must
+sadly need a friend.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You know that he is banished for
+life to a country where there are
+scarcely four months of spring, and
+the rest of the year is one dreary
+winter?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know it, sire.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you know, also, that he has
+neither rank, fortune, nor title to
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page739" id="page739" title="739"></a></span> share with you&mdash;that he is poorer than
+the poorest mendicant in St Petersburg?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, sire.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have doubtless some fortune,
+some resources of your own?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Alas, sire, I have nothing! Yesterday
+I had thirty thousand rubles,
+produced by the sale of all I possessed,
+but even that little fortune was stolen
+from me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know it. By a forged letter.
+It was more than a theft, it was a
+sacrilege; and, should its perpetrator
+be detected, he shall be punished as
+though he had broken open the poor-box
+in a church. But there are means
+of repairing your loss?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How, sire?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Inform his family of the circumstance.
+They are rich, and will assist
+you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I thank your Majesty; but I desire
+no assistance save that of God.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But without funds how can you
+travel? Have you no friends who
+would help you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Pardon me, sire, but I am too
+proud to borrow what I could never
+repay. By selling what little property
+I have left, I shall raise two or
+three hundred rubles.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Scarcely sufficient for a quarter
+of the journey. Do you know the
+distance from here to Tobolsk, my
+poor girl?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, sire&mdash;about eight hundred
+French leagues.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And how will you get over the
+five or six hundred leagues you will
+still have to travel when your last
+ruble is spent?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There are towns on the road,
+sire. When I reach a town I will
+work till I have enough to continue
+my journey to the next.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That may do as far as Perm,&quot;
+replied the Emperor; &quot;but after that
+you have the Ural mountains, and you
+are at the end of Europe. After that
+nothing but a few scattered villages;
+no inns upon the road; large rivers
+without bridges or ferries, and which
+must be traversed by dangerous fords,
+whence men and horses are frequently
+swept away.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sire, when I reach the rivers
+they will be frozen; for I am told that
+in those regions the winter begins
+earlier than at St Petersburg.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What!&quot; cried the Emperor, astonished,
+&quot;do you think of setting out
+now&mdash;of performing such a journey in
+winter?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is during the winter that <i>his</i>
+solitude must be most intolerable.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is impossible. You must be
+mad to think of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Impossible if your Majesty so
+wills it. No one can disobey your
+Majesty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<i>I</i> shall not prevent it; but surely
+your own reason, and the immense
+difficulties of such an undertaking,
+will.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sire! I will set out to-morrow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But if you perish on the road?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If I perish, sire, he will have lost
+nothing, for I am neither his mother,
+his daughter, nor sister, but only his
+mistress&mdash;that is, a woman to whom
+society gives no rights, and who must
+consider herself fortunate if the world
+looks upon her with no harsher feeling
+than indifference. But if I <i>am</i> able to
+join him, I shall be <i>every thing</i> to him&mdash;mother,
+sister, family, and friends.
+We shall be two to suffer instead of
+one, and that fearful exile will lose
+half its terrors. You see, sire, I <i>must</i>
+rejoin him, and that as soon as possible.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are right,&quot; said the Emperor,
+looking fixedly at her, &quot;and I no
+longer oppose your departure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He rang; an aide-de-camp appeared.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is Corporal Ivan in attendance?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He waits your Majesty's orders.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let him come in.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The aide-de-camp bowed, and disappeared.
+Two minutes afterwards the
+door reopened, and Corporal Ivan
+stepped into the room, then halted,
+upright and motionless, one hand on
+the seam of his overalls, the other to
+the front of his schako.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Draw near,&quot; said the Emperor, in
+a stern voice.</p>
+
+<p>The corporal made four paces to
+the front, and relapsed into his former
+position.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nearer!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Four more paces, and Ivan was
+close to the Emperor's writing-table.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are Corporal Ivan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, sire.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You commanded the escort of the
+sixth division?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, sire.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You had orders to allow the prisoners
+to communicate with no one?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This time the corporal's tongue
+seemed embarrassed by something,
+and his affirmative was uttered in a
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page740" id="page740" title="740"></a></span> less steady tone than the preceding
+ones.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Count Alexis W&mdash;&mdash; was one of
+the prisoners in your division, and in
+spite of your orders you allowed him
+to have two interviews with his mother
+and sisters. You knew the
+punishment you exposed yourself to
+by so doing?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Ivan grew very pale, and was forced
+to support himself against the table.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Pardon, sire!&quot; gasped he.</p>
+
+<p>Louise seemed about to speak, but a
+motion of the Emperor's hand warned
+her to remain quiet. After a moment's
+silence&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are pardoned,&quot; said the Emperor.</p>
+
+<p>The soldier drew a deep breath.
+Louise uttered an exclamation of joy.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Where did you leave Count
+W&mdash;&mdash;?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;At Koslowo, your Majesty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You will set off again, and escort
+this lady thither.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, sire!&quot; exclaimed Louise, who
+began to understand the Emperor's
+feigned severity,</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You will obey her in all respects,
+consistently with her safety, for which
+you answer to me with your head; and
+if, on your return, you bring me a
+letter from her, saying that she is
+satisfied with your conduct, you shall
+be made sergeant.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thanks, father,&quot; said Ivan, forgetting
+for a moment his military
+stiffness, and falling upon his knees.
+The Emperor gave him his hand to
+kiss, as he was in the habit of doing
+to the lowest of his subjects. Louise
+was going to throw herself at his feet
+and kiss his other hand, but the Emperor
+stopped her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are indeed a true and admirable
+woman,&quot; said he. &quot;I have done
+all I can for you. May God bless
+and protect you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, sire!&quot; exclaimed Louise, &quot;how
+can I show my gratitude!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When you pray for your child,&quot;
+said the Emperor, &quot;pray also for
+mine.&quot; And waving his hand kindly
+to her, he left the room.</p>
+
+<p>When Louise returned home she
+found a small packet that had been
+sent from the Empress during her
+absence. It contained thirty thousand
+rubles.</p>
+
+<p>It had been arranged that I should
+accompany Louise as far as Moscow,
+a city that I was desirous of visiting,
+and thence she would pursue her
+journey under Ivan's escort. The
+day after her interview with the Emperor,
+we started in a carriage that
+Ivan brought, and the combined
+strength and elegance of which surprised
+me, until I observed on a corner
+of the pannel the mark of the imperial
+stables. It was an excellent
+travelling berline, lined throughout
+with fur. Ivan was provided with an
+order, by virtue of which post-horses
+would be furnished us the whole of the
+journey, at the Emperor's expense.
+Louise got into the carriage with her
+child in her arms; I seated myself
+beside her, Ivan jumped on the box,
+and in a few minutes we were rattling
+along the Moscow road.</p>
+
+<p>Louise was received with open arms
+by the Countess W&mdash;&mdash; and her
+daughters. The nature of her connexion
+with Alexis was lost sight of
+and forgotten in the devotion and disinterestedness
+of her attachment. A
+room was prepared for her in the
+Countess's house; and, however anxious
+the Count's mother and sisters
+were that he should have society and
+consolation in his exile, they nevertheless
+entreated her to pass the winter
+at Moscow, rather than run the
+risk of so long a journey during the
+bad season that was approaching.
+But Louise was inflexible. Two days
+were all she would consent to remain.
+She was forced, however, to leave her
+child in charge of its grandmother,
+for it would have been madness to
+have done otherwise.</p>
+
+<p>I had been offered an apartment in
+the Countess's house, but preferred
+taking up my quarters at an hotel, in
+order to have liberty to spend my
+time in visiting whatever was remarkable
+at Moscow. On the evening of
+the second day I went to call upon
+the Countess. The ladies were making
+another effort to persuade Louise
+to defer her perilous journey till a
+more favourable season. But no arguments,
+no entreaties, could move
+her: she was determined to set off
+the following morning. I was invited
+to breakfast, and to witness her
+departure.</p>
+
+<p>I had been for some days turning
+over in my mind a project that I now
+resolved to put in execution. I got
+up early the next morning and bought
+a fur coat and cap, thick furred boots,
+a carbine, and a brace of pistols, all
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page741" id="page741" title="741"></a></span> of which I gave to Ivan, and desired
+him to place them in the carriage. I then
+hastened to the Countess W&mdash;&mdash;'s.</p>
+
+<p>Breakfast over, the carriage drove
+up to the door. Louise was alternately
+clasped in the arms of the
+Countess and her daughters. My
+turn came, and she held out her hand.
+I made a motion to assist her into the
+carriage. &quot;Well,&quot; said she, astonished,
+&quot;don't you bid me farewell?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why should I?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am going to set off.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So am I.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Certainly. You recollect the
+Persian fable&mdash;the pebble that was
+not the rose, but had caught some of
+its fragrance by living near it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, I have caught some of your
+devotedness, and I shall go with you
+to Tobolsk. I will deliver you safe
+and sound to the Count, and then
+come back again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Louise looked me earnestly in the
+face. &quot;I have no right,&quot; said she,
+&quot;to prevent your doing a good action&mdash;come.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Countess and her daughters
+were in tears. &quot;My child! my
+child!&quot; cried Louise, who had remained
+firm up to this moment, but
+burst into a passion of weeping as she
+clasped her infant for the last time in
+her arms.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Adieu! Adieu!&quot; The whip
+cracked; the wheels rattled over the
+pavement. We were off to Siberia.
+On we went, day and night. Pokrow,
+Vladimir, Nijni-Novogorod, Casan.
+&quot;<i>Pascare! Pascare!</i>&quot; Quicker!
+Quicker! was Ivan's cry to each new
+postilion. The snow had not yet
+begun to fall, and he was anxious, if
+possible, to cross the Ural mountains
+before it set in. The immense plains
+between Moscow and Perm were traversed
+with tremendous rapidity. On
+reaching the latter place, Louise was
+so much exhausted that I told Ivan
+we must halt one night. He hesitated
+a moment, then looking at the sky,
+which was dark and lowering, &quot;It
+will be as well,&quot; said he; &quot;we must
+soon have snow, and it is better it
+should fall before than during our
+journey.&quot; The next morning his prediction
+was verified. There were two
+feet of snow in the streets of Perm.</p>
+
+<p>Ivan now wished to remain till the
+cold increased, so that the snow might
+become hard, and the rivers frozen.
+But all his arguments could only induce
+Louise to wait two days. On
+the third morning we set off, leaving
+our carriage, and packed into a sort
+of small vehicle without springs, called
+a <i>t&eacute;l&egrave;gue</i>.</p>
+
+<p>On reaching the foot of the Ural
+mountains, the cold had so much increased
+that it became advisable to
+substitute a sledge for our wheels.
+We stopped at a miserable village,
+composed of a score of hovels, in order
+to effect this exchange, and entered a
+wretched hut, which did duty both as
+posting-house and as the only inn in
+the place. Eight or nine men, carriers
+by trade, were crowded round a
+large fire, lighted in the centre of the
+room, and the smoke of which found
+a vent through a hole in the roof.
+They paid no attention to our entrance;
+but when I had taken off my
+cloak, my uniform at once obtained
+for us the best place at the hearth.
+The landlord of this wretched hostelry
+met my enquires about supper with a
+stare of astonishment, and offered me
+a huge loaf of hard black bread as the
+whole contents of his larder. Ivan,
+however, presently appeared, having
+managed to forage out a couple of
+fowls, which, in an inconceivably
+short space of time, were plucked, and
+one of them simmering in an iron pot
+over the fire, while the other hung
+suspended by a string in front of the
+blaze. Supper over, we wrapped ourselves
+in our furs, and lay down upon
+the floor, beds in such a place being
+of course out of the question.</p>
+
+<p>Before daybreak, I awoke, and
+found Ivan and the carriers already
+afoot, and in consultation as to the
+practicability of continuing our journey.
+The question was at last decided
+in favour of the march; the
+waggoners hastened to harness their
+horses, and I went to inspect our carriage,
+which the village blacksmith
+had taken off its wheels and mounted
+upon a sledge. Ivan meantime was
+foraging for provisions, and shortly
+returned with a ham, some tolerable
+bread, and half a dozen bottles of a
+sort of reddish brandy, made, I believe,
+out of the bark of the birch-tree.</p>
+
+<p>At length all was ready, and off we
+set, our sledge going first, followed
+by the carriers' waggons. Our new
+companions, according to a custom
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page742" id="page742" title="742"></a></span> existing among them, had chosen one
+of their number as a chief, whose experience
+and judgment were to direct
+the movements of the party, and
+whose orders were to be obeyed in all
+things. Their choice had fallen on a
+man named George, whose age I
+should have guessed to be fifty, but
+who, I learned with astonishment,
+was upwards of seventy years old.
+He was a powerful and muscular
+man, with black piercing eyes, overhung
+by thick shaggy eyebrows,
+which, as well as his long beard, were
+of an iron grey. His dress consisted
+of a woollen shirt and trousers, a fur
+cap, and a sheepskin with the wool
+turned inside. To the leathern belt
+round his waist were suspended two
+or three horse-shoes, a metal fork and
+spoon, a long-bladed knife, a small
+hatchet, and a sort of wallet, in which
+he carried pipe, tobacco, flint, steel,
+nails, money, and a variety of other
+things useful or necessary in his mode
+of life. The garb and equipment of
+the other carriers were, with some
+small differences, the same.</p>
+
+<p>The first day's journey passed without
+incident. Our march was slow
+and even dangerous, all trace of the
+road being obliterated, and we were
+obliged to feel our way, as it were, by
+sending men forward with long pikes
+to sound the depth of snow before us.
+At nightfall, however, we found ourselves
+in safety on a sort of platform
+surmounted by a few pine-trees. Here
+we established our bivouac. Branches
+were cut, and a sort of hut built; and,
+with the aid of enormous fires, the
+night passed in greater comfort than
+might have been expected on a mountain-side,
+and with snow many feet
+deep around us.</p>
+
+<p>At daybreak we were again in
+movement. Our difficulties increased
+as we ascended the mountain: the
+snow lay in prodigious masses, and
+more than once we were delayed by
+having to rescue one or other of our
+advanced guard from some hole or
+ravine into which he had fallen. No
+serious accident, however, occurred,
+and we had at length the satisfaction
+of finding ourselves descending. We
+had passed the highest point of the
+road.</p>
+
+<p>We had been going downhill for
+some three hours, the way zig-zaging
+among rocks and precipices, when
+suddenly we were startled by a loud
+cracking, followed by a noise that resembled
+a clap of thunder repeated by
+many echoes. At the same moment
+a sort of whirlwind swept by us, and
+the air was darkened by a cloud of
+snow-dust. &quot;An avalanche!&quot; cried
+George, stopping his waggon. Every
+body halted. In another instant the
+noise ceased, the air became clear,
+and the avalanche continued its downward
+course, breaking, as it passed, a
+couple of gigantic pines that grew
+upon a rock, some five hundred feet
+below us. The carriers gave a hurra
+of joy at their escape, nor was it
+without reason. Had we been only
+half a verst further on our road, our
+journey had been at an end.</p>
+
+<p>The avalanche had not passed, however,
+without doing us some harm,
+for, on reaching the part of the road
+over which it had swept, we found it
+blocked up by a wall of snow thirty
+feet thick and of great height. There
+were several hours' work for all of us
+to clear it away; but unfortunately it
+was already nightfall, and we were
+obliged to make up our minds to remain
+where we were till morning.</p>
+
+<p>No wood was to be had either for
+hut or fire. The want of the latter
+was most unfortunate; for independently
+of the cold rendering it very
+necessary, it was our chief protection
+against the wolves. Doing the best
+we could under such unfavourable
+circumstances, we drew up the carts
+in the form of a half circle, of which
+the two extremities rested against the
+wall of snow it our rear, and within
+the sort of fortification thus formed
+we placed the horses and our sledge.
+Our arrangements were scarcely completed
+when it became perfectly dark.</p>
+
+<p>In the absence of fire Louise's supper
+and mine consisted of dry bread.
+The carriers, however, made a hearty
+meal on the flesh of a bear they had
+killed that morning, and which they
+seemed to consider as good raw as cooked.</p>
+
+<p>I was regretting the want of any
+description of light in case of an attack
+from the wolves, when Louise
+suddenly recollected that Ivan had put
+the lanterns belonging to the travelling
+carriage into our <i>t&eacute;l&egrave;gue</i> when
+we changed horses. On searching I
+found them under the seat, each furnished
+with a thick wax taper.</p>
+
+<p>This was, indeed, a treasure. We
+could not hope to scare away the
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page743" id="page743" title="743"></a></span> wolves by the light of our two candles;
+but it would enable us to see them
+coming, and to give them a proper
+reception. We tied the lanterns to the
+top of two poles fixed firmly in the
+snow, and saw with pleasure that they
+cast their clear pale light nearly fifty
+yards around our encampment.</p>
+
+<p>We were ten men in all. Two
+stood sentry on the carts, while the
+remainder set to work to pierce
+through the obstacle left by the avalanche.
+The snow had already become
+slightly frozen, so that they were
+able to cut a passage through it. I
+joined the working party as being a
+warmer occupation than standing sentry.
+For three or four hours we toiled
+incessantly, and the birch-tree brandy,
+with which I had provided myself, and
+which we had carefully economized,
+was now found most useful in giving
+strength and courage to the labourers.</p>
+
+<p>It was about eleven o'clock at night
+when a long howl was heard, which
+sounded so close and startling that
+with one accord we suspended our
+work. At the same moment old
+George, who was on sentry, called to
+us. We ran to the waggons and
+jumped upon them. A dozen enormous
+wolves were prowling about the
+outside edge of the bright circle thrown
+by our lanterns. Fear of the light
+kept them off; but each moment they
+were growing bolder, and it was easy
+to see that they would not be long
+without attacking us.</p>
+
+<p>I looked to the priming of my carbine
+and pistols. Ivan was similarly
+armed; but the carriers had only their
+pikes, hatchets, and knives. With
+these weapons, however, they boldly
+awaited the attack.</p>
+
+<p>Half an hour passed in this state of
+suspense, the wolves occasionally advancing
+a pace or two into the circle
+of light, but always retreating again.
+At length one of them approached so
+near that I asked George if it would
+not be advisable to reward his temerity
+with a bullet.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes,&quot; was the answer, &quot;if you are
+certain of hitting him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why must I be certain?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because if you kill him his companions
+will amuse themselves with
+eating him; to be sure,&quot; added he to
+himself, &quot;if once they taste blood they
+will be mad for more.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The mark is so good,&quot; said I, &quot;I
+can hardly miss him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Fire, then, in God's name!&quot; returned
+George; &quot;all this must have
+an end one way or the other.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Before the words were out of his
+mouth I fired, and the wolf writhed
+in agony on the snow. In an instant
+half a dozen wolves darted forward,
+and, seizing their comrade, carried
+him off into the darkness.</p>
+
+<p>The howlings now increased, and
+it was evident more wolves were arriving.
+At length there was a moment's
+silence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you hear the horses,&quot; said
+George, &quot;how they neigh, and paw?
+It is a signal for us to be prepared.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I thought the wolves were gone,&quot;
+replied I; &quot;they have left off howling.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, they have finished their repast,
+and are preparing for an attack.
+Here they come.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And that moment eight or ten
+wolves, that in the imperfect flickering
+light looked as big as jackasses,
+rushed forward, and instead of endeavouring
+to pass under the waggons,
+bounded boldly upon them. By some
+chance, however, none of them attacked
+the waggon on which I was
+posted.</p>
+
+<p>The cart on my right, defended by
+George, was escaladed by three
+wolves, one of which was immediately
+disabled by a thrust of the vigorous
+old man's pike. A ball from my carbine
+settled another, and seeing
+George's hatchet raised over the head
+of the third I knew he wanted no further
+aid, and looked to see what was
+going on to my left. Two wolves had
+attacked the waggon which was defended
+by one of George's sons, who
+received the first of his foes with a
+lance thrust. But apparently no vital
+part was touched, and the wolf had
+broken the pike with his teeth; so that
+for a moment the man opposed to him
+had nothing but the pole wherewith to
+defend himself. The second wolf was
+scrambling along the cart, and on the
+point of attacking him, when I sprang
+from one waggon to another, and fired
+one of my pistols into the animal's ear.
+He fell dead beside his companion, who
+was rolling in the snow, and making
+violent efforts to tear the broken lance
+from his wound.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime Ivan was hard at work,
+and I heard a carbine or two pistol
+shots, which told me that our adversaries
+were as warmly received on the
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page744" id="page744" title="744"></a></span> left as on the right of the line. An instant
+later four wolves again crossed the
+circle of light, but this time in full retreat;
+and at the same moment, to our
+no small astonishment, three others,
+that we had thought dead or mortally
+wounded, raised themselves up and
+followed their companions, leaving
+large tracks of blood behind them.
+Three carcasses remained upon the
+field of battle.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Load again, and quickly,&quot; cried
+George. &quot;I know their ways; they
+will be back directly.&quot; And the old
+man pointed with his finger into the
+darkness. I listened, and heard distant
+howlings replying to the nearer
+ones. What we had as yet had was
+a mere skirmish. The general engagement
+was to come.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Look behind you!&quot; cried a voice.
+I turned and saw two fiery eyes gleaming
+on the top of the snow wall in our
+rear. Before I could draw a trigger
+the wolf gave a leap, and falling upon
+one of the horses struck his fangs into
+its throat. Three men left their waggons.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is but one wolf,&quot; cried
+George, &quot;and one man is enough.
+Let the others remain at their posts.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Two of the men resumed their
+places. The third crept upon his
+hands and knees among the horses
+who, in their terror, were kicking and
+plunging violently, and throwing themselves
+against the carts by which they
+were surrounded. The next instant
+I saw the gleam of a knife blade, and
+the wolf let go the horse, which
+reared up on its hind-legs, the blood
+streaming from its throat. A dark
+mass was rolling and struggling on
+the ground. It was the man and the
+wolf.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of a few seconds the
+man stood up. &quot;David,&quot; said he to
+one of his comrades, &quot;come and help
+me to carry away this carrion. The
+horses wont be quiet while it lies
+here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They dragged the wolf towards
+George's waggon, and then raising it
+up from the ground, the old man took
+it by the hind-legs, as though it had
+been a hare, and threw it outside the
+line of carts.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, Nicholas,&quot; said George to
+the successful combatant, &quot;don't you
+take your place again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No,&quot; replied the other; &quot;I have
+enough as it is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you wounded?&quot; cried Louise,
+opening the door of the <i>t&eacute;l&egrave;gue</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I believe I have killed my last
+wolf,&quot; answered the poor fellow in a
+faint voice.</p>
+
+<p>I gave George my carbine, and hastened
+to the wounded man. A part
+of his jaw was torn away, and the
+blood flowed abundantly from a large
+wound in his neck. I for a moment
+feared that the carotid artery was
+opened, and scarcely knowing whether
+I did right or wrong, I seized a handful
+of snow and applied it to the
+wound. The sufferer uttered a cry
+and fainted away.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;O God!&quot; cried Louise, &quot;have mercy upon him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To your posts,&quot; shouted George
+in a stentorian voice; &quot;the wolves
+are upon us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>I left the wounded man in Louise's
+care, and jumped upon the cart.</p>
+
+<p>I can give no details of the combat
+that followed. I had too much occupation
+myself to attend to what my
+companions were doing. We were
+attacked by at least twenty wolves at
+once. After discharging my two pistols,
+I armed myself with an axe that
+George gave me. The fight lasted
+nearly a quarter of an hour, and certainly
+the scene was one of the most
+terrible it is possible to imagine. At
+length, and just as I was splitting the
+skull of a wolf that hung on to one of
+the wheels of my waggon, a shout of
+victory resounded along our line, and
+again our enemies fled, but this time
+it was for good.</p>
+
+<p>Three of our men were wounded,
+besides Nicholas, who was still alive,
+but in a desperate state. We were
+obliged to shoot the horse that had
+been torn by the wolf.</p>
+
+<p>By daybreak, a passage was opened
+through the wall of snow, and we resumed
+our journey. The evening of
+the same day we reached a small village,
+where we found an inn, that,
+under any other circumstances, would
+have been pronounced abominable,
+but which appeared a palace after three
+such days as we had passed. The following
+morning we parted from our
+friends the carriers, leaving George
+five hundred rubles to divide among
+them.</p>
+
+<p>All now went well. Thanks to the
+imperial order with which we were
+provided, the best horses were always
+for us, and, when necessary, escorts of
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page745" id="page745" title="745"></a></span> ten or twelve men galloped on either
+side of our sledge. The country was
+flat and the pace good, and exactly a
+week after leaving the Ural mountains
+we entered Tobolsk.</p>
+
+<p>We were dreadfully fatigued, but
+yet Louise would only remain long
+enough to take a bath; and at two in
+the morning we set out for the little
+town of Koslowo, which had been selected
+as the abode of twenty of the
+exiles, among whom was Alexis. On
+arriving, we hastened to the officer
+commanding there, and showing him
+the Emperor's order, which produced
+its usual effect, enquired after the
+Count. He was well, was the answer,
+and still at Koslowo.</p>
+
+<p>It had been agreed between Louise
+and myself that I should go and see
+him first, and inform him of her arrival.
+I asked the governor for a pass,
+which he gave me without hesitation,
+and a Cossack conducted me to a part
+of the town composed of some twenty
+houses enclosed within high palisades,
+and guarded by sentries. We stopped
+before a door, and my guide knocked.
+&quot;Come in!&quot; said a voice which I recognized
+as that of Alexis.</p>
+
+<p>When I opened the door, he was
+lying on his bed, dressed, and with a
+book on the floor near him. I stopped
+upon the threshold. He stared at
+me without speaking, and seemed
+hardly to believe his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well,&quot; said I, &quot;have you forgotten
+me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At the sound of my voice, he
+sprang from his bed and threw his
+arms round me. But the next instant
+he started back. &quot;Good heavens!&quot;
+exclaimed he, &quot;you are exiled, and I
+am probably the cause.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, indeed,&quot; I replied, &quot;I come
+here as an amateur.&quot; He smiled bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As an amateur! Into the heart
+of Siberia! Explain your meaning.
+But first&mdash;Louise&mdash;what of her?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have just now left her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Just now? A month ago, you mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Five minutes ago.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good God! what do you mean?&quot;
+cried Alexis, growing very pale.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That Louise has accompanied me,
+and is now here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh woman! woman! Thy heart
+is ever the same,&quot; murmured Alexis,
+while tear after tear rolled down his
+cheek. He was then silent for a time,
+but his lips moved, and I doubt not in
+thanksgiving to God for such happiness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Where is she?&quot; he at length exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;At the governor's house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He rushed towards the door. &quot;I
+am mad,&quot; said he, pausing, &quot;I forget
+that I cannot leave my cage without
+permission. My dearest friend, bring
+her here, I beseech you! Or stay, this
+man will go.&quot; He spoke in Russian
+to the Cossack, who went out.</p>
+
+<p>In a few minutes, and before I
+could answer a tithe of the numerous
+questions Alexis asked me, the man
+returned, but alone.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well?&quot; said the Count, changing
+countenance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The governor says you must be
+aware that the prisoners are not allowed
+to receive visits from women.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Count struck his forehead with
+his clenched hand, and fell back upon
+a chair. His features were almost
+convulsed by the violence of his emotions.
+At last he turned to the Cossack.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Beg the sergeant to come here.&quot;
+The soldier left the room.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can any thing be more horrible?&quot;
+cried Alexis. &quot;She has come nine
+hundred leagues to see me; she is
+not a hundred yards from me, and we
+are forbidden to meet!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There must surely be some blunder,&quot;
+said I; &quot;an order misunderstood,
+or something of the kind.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Alexis shook his head doubtingly.
+There was a wild look of despair in
+his large dark eyes that alarmed me.
+At this moment, the sergeant who
+had charge of the prisoners entered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sir,&quot; cried the Count with vehemence,
+&quot;the woman I love has left
+St Petersburg to join me, and after a
+thousand dangers and hardships has
+arrived here. I am now told that I
+shall not be allowed to see her. It is
+doubtless a mistake?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, sir,&quot; replied the sergeant
+coolly. &quot;You know very well that
+the prisoners are not permitted to see
+women.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But Prince Troubetskoy has that
+permission. Is it because he is a
+prince?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, sir, it is because the princess
+is his wife.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And if Louise were my wife,
+should I be allowed to see her?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Undoubtedly, sir!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ha!&quot; ejaculated the Count, as
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page746" id="page746" title="746"></a></span> though a weight were removed from
+off his heart. &quot;I should like to speak
+with the priest,&quot; said he to the sergeant,
+after a moment's pause.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He shall be sent for immediately,&quot;
+was the reply.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And now my friend,&quot; said Alexis,
+turning to me, and taking my hands
+in his, &quot;you have been Louise's
+guardian and defender, will you for
+once act as her father?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The following morning at ten o'clock,
+Louise, accompanied by the governor
+and myself, and Alexis by Prince
+Troubetskoy and the other exiles, entered
+the little church of Koslowa by
+two different doors. Their first meeting
+was at the altar, and the first word
+they exchanged was the <i>yes</i> that united
+them for ever.</p>
+
+<p>The Emperor by a private letter to
+the governor, of which Ivan was the
+bearer, had ordered that the Count
+should only be allowed to see Louise
+as his wife. It has been seen how
+willingly my friend obeyed, I should
+rather say anticipated, the Emperor's
+commands. And rich was his reward
+for thus promptly acknowledging the
+just claims of this devoted and very
+admirable woman. She was one of
+&quot;nature's own nobility&quot;&mdash;refined and
+graceful, intelligent and high-minded&mdash;and
+would have graced higher rank
+than that to which she was raised by
+the gratitude of Count Alexis W&mdash;&mdash;.</p>
+
+<hr class="full">
+
+
+<a name="bw332s5" id="bw332s5"></a><h2>AMMAL&Aacute;T BEK.</h2>
+
+<h3>A TRUE TALE OF THE CAUCASUS. FROM THE RUSSIAN OF MARL&Iacute;NSKI.</h3>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER X.</h3>
+
+<p>&quot;Will you hold your tongue, little
+serpent?&quot; said an old Tartar woman
+to her grandson, who, having awakened
+before daylight, was crying for
+want of something better to do. &quot;Be
+quiet, or I will kick you into the
+street.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This old woman was Ammal&aacute;t's
+nurse: the hut in which she lived stood
+close to the tents of the Begs, and had
+been given to her by her foster-son, Ammal&aacute;t.
+It was composed of two clean
+whitewashed rooms, the floor of both
+was strewed with coarse mats, (ghasil;)
+in niches close to each other, for
+the room was without windows, stood
+boxes bound with iron, and on them
+were arranged a feather-bed, blankets,
+and all the utensils. On the cornices,
+at half the height of the wall, were
+ranged porcelain cups for pillau, having
+tin covers in the form of helmets,
+and little plates hanging side by side
+on wires: the holes with which they
+were pierced showing that they served
+not for use, but for ornament. The
+face of the old woman was covered
+with wrinkles, and expressed a sort of
+malicious sorrow: the usual consequence
+of the lonely pleasureless life
+of a Mussulman woman. As a worthy
+representative of persons of her
+age and country, she never for a moment
+ceased scolding her grandson
+from under her blanket, and to grumble
+to herself. &quot;Kess,&quot; (be quiet,)
+she cried at length, yet more angrily,
+&quot;or I will give you to the gha&oacute;uls,
+(devils!) Do you hear how they are
+scratching at the roof, and knocking
+at the door for you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was a stormy night; a thick rain
+pattering on the flat roof which served
+as a ceiling, and the roaring of the
+wind in the chimney, answered to her
+hoarse voice. The boy became quiet,
+and straining his eyes, hearkened in a
+fright. It really seemed as if some
+one was knocking at the door. The
+old woman became frightened in her
+turn: her inseparable companion,
+a dirty dog, lifted up his head from sleep,
+and began to bark in a most pitiful
+voice. But meanwhile the knocking
+at the door became louder, and an unknown
+voice cried sternly from without,
+&quot;Atch kapini, akhirin akhirici!&quot;
+(open the door for the end of ends.)
+The old woman turned pale. &quot;Allah
+bismallah!&quot; she exclaimed, now
+addressing heaven, then threatening
+the dog, and then quieting the crying
+child. &quot;Sh, accursed beast! Hold
+your tongue, I say, kharamz&aacute;da, (good-for-nothing
+son of shame!) Who is
+there? What honest man will enter,
+when it is neither day nor dawn, into
+the house of a poor old woman? If
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page747" id="page747" title="747"></a></span> you are Shait&aacute;n, go to neighbour
+Kitchk&iacute;na. It has been long time to
+show her the road to hell! If you
+are a tcha&oacute;uth, (tax-gatherer,) who,
+to say the truth, is rather worse than
+Shait&aacute;n, then go about your business.
+My son-in-law is not at home; he
+serves as n&oacute;uker at Ammal&aacute;t Bek's;
+and the Bek has long ago freed me
+from taxes; and as for treating idle
+travellers, don't expect from me even
+an egg, much less a duck. Is it in
+vain, then, that I suckled Ammal&aacute;t?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Will you open, you devil's distaff?&quot;
+impatiently exclaimed the
+voice, &quot;or I will not leave you a plank
+of this door for your coffin.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The feeble doors shook on their
+hinges.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Enter, pray enter,&quot; said the old
+woman, undoing the iron hasp with a
+trembling hand. The door flew open,
+and there entered a man of a middling
+stature, and of a handsome but melancholy
+countenance. He was clad in
+the Circassian dress: the water trickled
+down his b&oacute;urka and bashl&iacute;k.<a name="footnotetag22" id="footnotetag22"></a><a href="#footnote22"><sup>22</sup></a>
+Without any apologies, he threw it on
+the feather-bed, and began to untie
+the lopasti of his bashl&iacute;k which half
+covered his face&mdash;Fatma, having in the
+mean time lighted a candle, stood before
+him with fear and trembling.
+The long-whiskered dog, with his tail
+between his legs, pressed himself into
+a corner, and the child, in a fright,
+climbed into the fire-place&mdash;which,
+used only for ornaments, was never
+heated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, Fatma, you are grown
+proud,&quot; said the unknown; &quot;you do
+not recognize old friends.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Fatma gazed at the new-comer's
+features, and her heart grew light
+within her. She recognized Sultan
+Akhmet Khan, who had ridden in one
+night from Kiafir Kounik to Bouin&aacute;ki.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;May the sand fill my eyes that
+did not recognize their old master!&quot;
+she replied, respectfully crossing her
+arms on her breast. &quot;To say truth,
+they are blinded by tears, for her
+country&mdash;for Av&aacute;r! Forgive an old
+woman, Khan!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What old age is yours, Fatma?
+I remember you a little girl, when I
+myself could hardly reach the young
+crows from their nests.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A strange land makes every one
+old, Khan. In my native mountains
+I should still have been fresh as an
+apple, and here am I like a snowball
+fallen from the hill into the valley.
+Pray come hither, Khan, here it is
+more comfortable. What shall I entertain
+my precious guest with? Is
+there nothing the Khan's soul can wish
+for?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Khan's soul wishes that you
+should entertain him with your goodwill.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am at your will; speak, command!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Listen to me, Fatma! I have
+no time to waste in words. This is
+why I am come here: render me a
+service with your tongue, and you
+shall have wherewithal to comfort
+your old teeth. I will make you a
+present of ten sheep; I will dress you
+in silk from top to toe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ten sheep and a gown!&mdash;a silk
+gown! O gracious Aga! O kind
+Khan! I have not seen such a lord
+here since the accursed Tartars carried
+me away, and made me marry a
+hateful ... I am ready to do every
+thing, Khan, that you wish. Cut my
+ears off even, if you will!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What would be the good of that?
+They must be kept sharp. This is
+the business. Ammal&aacute;t will come to
+you to-day with the Colonel. The
+Shamkh&aacute;l of T&aacute;rki will arrive also.
+This Colonel has attached your young
+Bek to him by witchcraft; and having
+taught him to eat swine's flesh, wants
+to make a Christian of him: from
+which Mahomet preserve him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The old woman spat around her,
+and lifted her eyes to heaven.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To save Ammal&aacute;t, we must make
+him quarrel with the Colonel. For
+this purpose you must go to him,
+throw yourself at his feet, and fall a-weeping
+as if at a funeral. As to tears,
+you will have no need to go and borrow
+them of your neighbours. Swear
+like a shopkeeper of Derb&eacute;nd; remember
+that each oath of yours will
+bring you a dozen sheep; and at last
+tell him that you have heard a conversation
+between the Colonel and the
+Shamkh&aacute;l: that the Shamkh&aacute;l complained
+of his sending back his daughter:
+that he hates him out of fear that
+he should take possession of the crown
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page748" id="page748" title="748"></a></span> of his Shamkhal&aacute;t: that he implored
+the Colonel to allow him to kill him
+in an ambuscade, or to poison him in
+his food; but that the other consented
+only to send him to Siberia, beyond
+the end of the world. In one word,
+invent and describe every thing cleverly.
+You were formerly famous
+for your tales. Do not eat dirt now.
+And, above all, insist that the Colonel,
+who is going on a furlough, will take
+him with him to Georgieffsk, to separate
+him from his kinsmen and faithful
+n&oacute;ukers; and from thence will dispatch
+him in chains to the devil.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Sultan Akhmet added to this all the
+particulars necessary to give the story
+the most probable form; and once or
+twice instructed the old woman how
+to introduce them more skilfully.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, recollect every thing accurately,
+Fatma,&quot; said he, putting on his
+b&oacute;urka; &quot;forget not, likewise, with
+whom you have to do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Vallah, billah! let me have ashes
+instead of salt; may a beggar's
+tch&oacute;urek close my eyes; may&quot; ...</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do not feed the Shait&aacute;ns with
+your oaths; but serve me with your
+words. I know that Ammal&aacute;t trusts
+you completely; and if, for his good,
+you will arrange this&mdash;he will come
+over to me, and bring you with him.
+You shall live, singing, under my
+wing. But I repeat, if, by chance or
+on purpose, you betray me, or injure
+me by your gossiping, I will make of
+your old flesh a kibab for the Shait&aacute;ns!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Be easy, Khan! They have nothing
+to do either for me or with me.
+I will keep the secret like the grave,
+and I will <i>put my sar&oacute;tchka</i><a name="footnotetag23" id="footnotetag23"></a><a href="#footnote23"><sup>23</sup></a> on Ammal&aacute;t.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, be it so, old woman. Here
+is a golden seal for your lips. Take
+pains!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<i>Bath&oacute;usta, ghez-&oacute;usta</i>!&quot;<a name="footnotetag24" id="footnotetag24"></a><a href="#footnote24"><sup>24</sup></a> exclaimed
+the old woman, seizing the ducat
+with greediness, and kissing the
+Khan's hand for his present. The
+Sultan Akhmet Khan looked contemptuously
+at the base creature,
+whilst he quitted the s&aacute;kla.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Reptile!&quot; he grumbled to himself,
+&quot;for a sheep, for a piece of cloth
+of gold, thou wouldst be ready to sell
+thy daughter's body, thy son's soul,
+and thy foster-son's happiness!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He did not reflect upon what name
+he deserved himself, entangling his
+friend in deceit, and hiring such vile
+creatures for low slander and for villanous
+intentions.</p>
+<br>
+
+<p><i>Fragment of a Letter from Colonel Verkh&oacute;ffsky to his Betrothed</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Camp near the Village of Kiafir Koum&iacute;k,
+August.</p>
+
+<p>... Ammal&aacute;t loves, and how
+he loves! Never, not even in the
+hottest fire of my youth, did my love
+rise to such a frenzy. I burned, like
+a censer lighted by a sunbeam; he
+flames, like a ship set on fire by lightning
+on the stormy sea. With you,
+my Maria, I have read more than
+once Shakspeare's Othello; and only
+the frantic Othello can give an idea
+of the tropical passion of Ammal&aacute;t.
+He loves to speak long and often of
+his Seltanetta, and I love to hear his
+volcanic eloquence. At times it is a
+turbid cataract thrown out by a profound
+abyss&mdash;at times a fiery fountain
+of the naphtha of Bakou. What stars
+his eyes scatter at that moment&mdash;what
+light plays on his cheeks&mdash;how handsome
+he is! There is nothing ideal in
+him: but then the earthly is grand, is
+captivating. I myself, carried away
+and deeply moved, receive on my
+breast the youth fainting from rapture:
+he breathes long, with slow
+sighs, and then casting down his
+eyes, lowering his head as if ashamed
+to look at the light&mdash;not only on me&mdash;presses
+my hand, and walks away
+with an uncertain step; and after that
+one cannot extract a word from him
+for the rest of the day.</p>
+
+<p>Since the time of his return from
+Khounz&aacute;kh, he is become still more
+melancholy than before; particularly
+the last few days. He hides the
+grandest, the noblest feeling which
+brings man near to divinity, as carefully
+as if it were a shameful weakness
+or a dreadful crime. He imploringly
+asked me to let him go once
+more to Khounz&aacute;kh, to sigh at the
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page749" id="page749" title="749"></a></span> feet of his fair one; and I refused
+him&mdash;refused him for his own good.
+I wrote long ago about my favourite
+to Alex&eacute;i Petr&oacute;vitch, and he desired
+me to bring him with me to the waters,
+where he will be himself. He
+wishes to give him some message to
+Sultan Akhmet Khan, which will
+bring undoubted advantage to him
+and to Ammal&aacute;t. Oh, how happy I
+shall be in his happiness! To me, to
+me, he will owe the bliss of his life&mdash;not
+only empty life. I will force him
+on his knees before you, and will make
+him say&mdash;&quot;Adore her as a deity!&quot;
+If my heart were not filled with love
+to Maria, thou wouldst not take possession
+of Seltanetta. Yesterday I
+received an express from the commander-in-chief&mdash;a
+noble-minded man!
+He gives wings to happy news. All
+is arranged; my darling, I go to meet
+you at the waters. I shall only lead
+the regiment to Derb&eacute;nd&mdash;and then
+to the saddle! I shall know neither
+fatigue by day nor drowsiness by
+night, till I repose myself in your
+embrace. Oh, who will give me
+wings to fly to you! Who will give
+me strength to bear my&mdash;<i>our</i>&mdash;bliss!
+... I, in delicious agitation, pressed
+my bosom, that my heart might not
+burst forth. For a long time I could
+not sleep: imagination painted our
+meeting in a thousand forms, and in
+the intervals appeared the most trivial
+but delightful cares, about wedding
+trifles, dresses, presents. You will be
+clad in my favourite colour, green.
+... Is it not true, my soul? My
+fancies kept me from sleeping, like a
+strong perfume of roses; but the
+sweeter, the more brilliant was my
+sleep. I saw you by the light of
+dawn, and every time different, every
+time more lovely than before. My
+dreams were twined together like a
+wreath of flowers; but no! there was
+no connexion between them. They
+were wonderful phantoms, falling like
+colours from the kaleidoscope, and as
+impossible to retain. Notwithstanding
+all this, I awoke sorrowful this
+morning; my awakening took from
+my childish soul its favourite toy....
+I went into Ammal&aacute;t's tent;
+he was still asleep. His face was pale
+and angry&mdash;let him be angry with me!
+I taste beforehand the gratitude of the
+ardent youth. I, like fate, am preparing
+his happiness in secret....</p>
+
+<p>To-day I bid adieu to these mountains
+for long&mdash;I hope for ever. I
+am very glad to quit Asia, the cradle
+of mankind, in which the understanding
+has remained till now in its
+swaddling-clothes. Astonishing is the
+immobility of Asiatic life, in the course
+of so many centuries. Against Asia
+all attempts of improvement and civilization
+have broken like waves; it
+seems not to belong to time, but to
+place. The Indian Brahmin, the Chinese
+Mandarin, the Persian Bek, the
+mountain Ouzd&eacute;n, are unchanged&mdash;the
+same as they were two thousand
+years ago. A sad truth! They represent,
+in themselves, a monotonous
+though varied, a lively though soulless
+nature. The sword and the lash
+of the conqueror have left on them, as
+on the water, no trace. Books, and
+the examples of missionaries, have
+produced on them no influence. Sometimes,
+however, they have made an
+exchange of vices; but never have
+they learned the thoughts or the virtues
+of others. I quit the land of
+fruit to transport myself to the land of
+labour&mdash;that great inventor of every
+thing useful, that suggester of every
+thing great, that awakener of the soul
+of man, which has fallen asleep here,
+and sleeps in weakness on the bosom
+of the seducer&mdash;nature.</p>
+
+<p>And truly, how seducing is nature
+here! Having ridden up the high
+mountain to the left of Kiafir Koum&iacute;k,
+I gazed with delight on the gradually
+lighted summit of the Caucasus. I
+looked, and could not look enough at
+them. What a wondrous beauty decks
+them as with a crown! Another thin
+veil, woven of light and shadow, lay
+on the lower hill, but the distant snows
+basked in the sky; and the sky, like a
+caressing mother, bending over them
+its immeasurable bosom, fed them with
+the milk of the clouds, carefully enfolding
+them with its swathe of mist,
+and refreshing them with its gently-breathing
+wind. Oh, with what a flight
+would my soul soar there, where a
+holy cold has stretched itself like a
+boundary between the earthly and the
+heavenly! My heart prays and thirsts
+to breathe the air of the inhabitants of
+the sky. I feel a wish to wander over
+the snows, on which man has never
+printed the seal of his blood-stained
+footsteps&mdash;which have never been
+darkened by the eagle's shadow&mdash;which
+the thunder has never reached&mdash;which
+the war spirits have never
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page750" id="page750" title="750"></a></span> polluted; and on the ever-young summits
+where time, the continuation of
+eternity, has left no trace.</p>
+
+<p>Time! A strange thought has come
+into my head. How many fractional
+names has the weak sense of man invented
+for the description of an infinitely
+small particle of time out of the
+infinitely large circle of eternity!
+Years, months, days, hours, minutes!
+God has nothing of all this: he has
+not even evening nor morrow. With
+him all this has united itself into one
+eternal <i>now</i>!... Shall we ever
+behold this ocean in which we have
+hitherto been drowning? But I ask,
+to what end will all this serve man?
+Can it be for the satisfaction of an idle
+curiosity? No! the knowledge of
+truth, <i>i.e.</i> the All-knowing Goodness,
+does the soul of the reflecting man
+thirst after. It wishes to draw a full
+cup from the fountain of light which
+falls on it from time to time in a fine
+dew!</p>
+
+<p>And I shall imbibe it. The secret
+fear of death melts like snow before
+the beam of such a hope. I shall
+draw from it. My real love for my
+fellow-creatures is a security for it.
+The leaden ways of error will fall
+asunder before a few tears of repentance,
+and I shall lay down my heart
+as an expiating sacrifice before the
+judgment-seat which will have no terrors
+for me!</p>
+
+<p>It is wonderful, my beloved&mdash;hardly
+do I look at the mountains, the sea,
+the sky, ... but a solemn but inexpressibly
+sweet feeling o'er-burthens
+and expands my heart. Thoughts of
+you mingle with it; and, as in dreams,
+your form flits before me. Is this a
+foretaste of earthly bliss, which I have
+only known by name, or a foreboding
+of ... etern ...? O dearest,
+best, angelic soul, one look of yours
+and I am cured of dreaming! How
+happy am I that I can now say with
+assurance&mdash;<i>au revoir</i>!</p>
+
+<br>
+
+<p>CHAPTER XI.</p>
+<br>
+
+<p>The poison of calumny burnt into
+the soul of Ammal&aacute;t. By the instructions
+of the Khan, his nurse Fatma
+related, with every appearance of disinterested
+affection, the story which
+had been arranged beforehand, on
+the same evening that he came with
+Verkh&oacute;ffsky to Bouin&aacute;ki, where they
+were met by the Shamkh&aacute;l in obedience
+to the Colonel's request. The
+envenomed shaft struck deep; now
+doubt would have been welcomed by
+Ammal&aacute;t, but conviction, it seemed,
+cast over all his former ties of friendship
+and blood, a bright but funereal
+light. In a frenzy of passion, he
+burned to drown his revenge in the
+blood of both; but respect for the
+rites of hospitality quenched his thirst
+for vengeance. He deferred his intention
+for a time&mdash;but could he forget
+it? Every moment of delay fell,
+like a drop of melted copper, on his
+heart. Memory, conviction, jealousy,
+love, tore his heart by turns; and this
+state of feeling was to him so new, so
+strange, so dreadful, that he fell into
+a species of delirium, the more dreadful
+that he was obliged to conceal his
+internal sensations from his former
+friend. Thus passed twenty-four
+hours; the detachment pitched their
+tents near the village Bougd&eacute;n, the
+gate of which, built in a ravine, and
+which is closed at the will of the inhabitants
+of Bougd&eacute;n, serves as a passage
+to Ak&oacute;ush. The following was
+written by Ammal&aacute;t, to divert the
+agony of his soul while preparing
+itself for the commission of a black
+crime.... &mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>MIDNIGHT.</p>
+
+<p>... Why, O Sultan Akhmet!
+have you cast lightning into my
+breast? A brother's friendship, a
+brother's treachery, and a brother's
+murder!... What dreadful extremes!
+And between them there is
+but a step, but a twinkling of the eye.
+I cannot sleep, I can think of nothing
+else. I am chained to this thought,
+like a criminal to his stake. A bloody
+sea swells, surges, and roars around
+me, and above gleams, instead of stars,
+the lightning-flash. My soul is like a
+naked peak, where only birds of prey
+and evil spirits assemble, to share
+their plunder, or to prepare misfortune.
+Verkh&oacute;ffsky, Verkh&oacute;ffsky! what
+have I done to you? Why would
+you tear from heaven the star of my
+liberty? Is it because I loved you so
+tenderly? And why do you approach
+me stealthily and thief-like? why do
+you slander&mdash;why do you betray me,
+by hypocrisy? You should say plainly,
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page751" id="page751" title="751"></a></span> &quot;I wish your life,&quot; and I would
+give it freely, without a murmur;
+would have laid it down a sacrifice
+like the son of Ibrahim, (Abraham!)
+I would have forgiven you, if you had
+but attempted my life, but to sell my
+freedom, to steal my Seltanetta from
+me, by burying me alive! Villain&mdash;and
+you still live!</p>
+
+<p>But sometimes like a dove, whose
+wings have been scorched in the
+smoke of a fire, appears thy form to
+me, Seltanetta. How is it, then, that
+I am no longer gay when I dream of
+you, as of old?...</p>
+
+<p>They would part us, my love&mdash;they
+would give you to another, to marry
+me on the grave-stone. But I will go
+to you&mdash;I will go to you over a bloody
+carpet&mdash;I will fulfil a bloody promise,
+in order to possess you. Invite not
+only your maiden friends to your marriage
+feast&mdash;invite also the vultures
+and the ravens, they shall all be regaled
+abundantly. I will pay a rich
+dower. On the pillow of my bride I
+will lay a heart which once I reckoned
+more precious than the throne-cushion<a name="footnotetag25" id="footnotetag25"></a><a href="#footnote25"><sup>25</sup></a>
+of the Persian Padishah.
+Wonderful destiny!... Innocent
+girl!... You will be the cause of
+an unheard of deed. Kindest of beings,
+for you friends will tear each
+other like ferocious beasts&mdash;for you
+and through you&mdash;and is it really for
+you alone&mdash;with ferocity&mdash;with ferocity
+only! Verkh&oacute;ffsky said, that to
+kill an enemy by stealth, is base and
+cowardly. But if I cannot do it
+otherwise? But can he be believed?...
+Hypocrite! He wished to
+entangle me beforehand; not my
+hands alone, but even my conscience.
+It was in vain.</p>
+
+<p>... I have loaded my rifle.
+What a fine round barrel&mdash;what admirable
+ornaments! The rifle I received
+from my father&mdash;my father got
+it from my grandfather. I have heard
+of many celebrated shots made with
+it&mdash;and not one, not one was fired by
+stealth.... Always in battle&mdash;always
+before the whole army, it sent
+death; but wrong, but treachery, but
+you, Seltanetta!... My hand
+will not tremble to level a shot at him,
+whose name it is afraid even to write.
+One loading, one fire, and all is
+over!...</p>
+
+<p>One loading! How light, but how
+heavy will be each grain of powder in
+the scales of Allah! How far&mdash;how
+immeasurably will this load bear a
+man's soul? Accursed thou, the inventor
+of the grey dust, which delivers
+a hero into the hand of the vilest
+craven, which kills from afar the foe,
+who, with a glance, could have disarmed
+the hand raised against him!
+So, this shot will tear asunder all my
+former ties, but it will clear a road to
+new ones. In the cool Caucasus&mdash;on
+the bosom of Seltanetta, will my faded
+heart be refreshed. Like a swallow
+will I build myself a nest in a
+stranger land&mdash;like a swallow, the
+spring shall be my country. I will
+cast from me old sorrows, as the bird
+sheds its feathers.... But the
+reproaches of conscience, can they
+fade?... The meanest L&eacute;zghin,
+when he sees in battle the man with
+whom he has shared bread and salt,
+turns aside his horse, and fires his gun
+in the air. It is true he deceives me;
+but have I been the less happy? Oh,
+if with these tears I could weep away
+my grief&mdash;drown with them the thirst
+for vengeance&mdash;buy with them Seltenetta!
+Why comes on the dawn of
+day so slowly? Let it come! I will
+look, without blushing, at the sun&mdash;without
+turning pale, into the eyes of
+Verkh&oacute;ffsky. My heart is like iron&mdash;it
+is locked against mercy; treachery
+calls for treachery ... I am
+resolved ... Quick, quick!</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;">
+
+<p>Thus incoherently, thus wildly
+wrote Ammal&aacute;t, in order to cheat
+time and to divert his soul. Thus he
+tried to cheat himself, rousing himself
+to revenge, whilst the real cause of
+his bloody intentions, viz. the desire
+of possessing Seltanetta, broke through
+every word.</p>
+
+<p>In order to embolden himself for
+his crime, he drank deeply of wine,
+and maddened, threw himself, with his
+gun, into the Colonel's tent; but perceiving
+sentinels at the door, he
+changed his intention. The natural
+feeling of self-preservation did not
+abandon him, even in his madness.
+Ammal&aacute;t put off till the morning the
+consummation of the murder; but he
+could neither sleep nor distract his
+thoughts ... and re-entering his
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page752" id="page752" title="752"></a></span> tent, he seized Saphir Ali by the
+throat, who was lying fast asleep,
+and shaking him roughly: &quot;Get up,
+sleepy rascal!&quot;; he cried to him, &quot;it
+is already dawn.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Saphir Ali raised his head in a discontented
+mood, and yawning, answered:
+&quot;I see only the dawn of wine
+on your cheek&mdash;good-night, Ammal&aacute;t!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Up, I tell you! The dead must
+quit their graves to meet the new-comer
+whom I have promised to send
+to keep them company!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, brother, am I dead?...
+Even the <i>forty Imaums</i><a name="footnotetag26" id="footnotetag26"></a><a href="#footnote26"><sup>26</sup></a> may get up
+from the burial-ground of Derb&eacute;nd&mdash;but
+I will sleep.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But you love to drink, Giaour,
+and you must drink with me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is quite another affair. Pour
+fuller, <i>Allah verdi</i>!<a name="footnotetag27" id="footnotetag27"></a><a href="#footnote27"><sup>27</sup></a> I am always ready
+to drink and to make love.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And to kill an enemy!...
+Come, some more! A health to the
+devil!&mdash;who changes friends into mortal
+enemies.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So be it! Here goes, then, to the
+devil's health! The poor fellow wants
+health. We will drive him into a
+consumption out of spite, because he
+cannot make us quarrel!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;True, true, he is always ready for
+mischief. If he had seen Verkh&oacute;ffsky
+and me, he would have thrown
+down his cards. But you, too, will
+not, I hope, part from me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ammal&aacute;t, I have not only quaffed
+wine from the same bottle with
+thee, but I have drained milk from the
+same breast. I am thine, even if you
+take it into your head to build yourself,
+like a vulture, a nest on the rock
+of Khounz&aacute;kh.... However, my
+advice would be&quot;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No advice, Saphir Ali&mdash;no remonstrances....
+It is now too
+late!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They would be drowned like flies
+in wine. But it is now time to
+sleep.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sleep, say you! Sleep, to me!
+No, I have bidden farewell to sleep.
+It is time for me to awaken. Have
+you examined the gun, Saphir Ali&mdash;is
+the flint good? Has not the powder
+on the shelf become damp with blood?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is the matter with you, Ammal&aacute;t?
+What leaden secret weighs
+upon your heart? Your face is terrible&mdash;your
+speech is yet more frightful.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And my deeds shall be yet more
+dreadful. Is it not true, Saphir Ali,
+my Seltanetta&mdash;is she not beautiful?
+Observe! <i>my</i> Seltanetta. Is it possible
+that these are the wedding songs,
+Saphir Ali? Yes, yes, yes! I understand.
+'Tis the jackals demanding
+their prey. Spirits and wild beasts,
+be patient awhile&mdash;I will content you!
+Ho, wine&mdash;more wine! more blood!...
+I tell you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Ammal&aacute;t fell on his bed in a drunken
+insensibility. Foam oozed out of
+his mouth: convulsive movements
+shook his whole body. He uttered
+unintelligible words, mingled with
+groans. Saphir Ali carefully undressed
+him, laid him in the bed, enveloped
+him in the coverings, and sat
+up the rest of the night watching
+over his foster-brother, in vain seeking
+in his head the explanation of the,
+to him, enigmatical speech and conduct
+of Ammal&aacute;t.</p>
+
+<br>
+
+<p>CHAPTER XII.</p>
+<br>
+
+<p>In the morning, before the departure
+of the detachment, the captain
+on duty came to Colonel Verkh&oacute;ffsky
+to present his report, and to receive
+the orders for the day. After the customary
+exchange of words, he said,
+with an alarmed countenance: &quot;Colonel,
+I have to communicate a most
+important thing: our yesterday's signal-man,
+a soldier of my company,
+Hamit&oacute;ff, heard the conversation of
+Ammal&aacute;t Bek with his nurse in Bouin&aacute;ki.
+He is a Tartar of Kaz&aacute;n, and
+understands pretty well the dialect of
+this country. As far as he could hear
+and understand, the nurse assured the
+Bek that you, with the Shamkh&aacute;l,
+are preparing to send him off to the
+galleys. Ammal&aacute;t flew into a passion;
+said, that he knew all this from
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page753" id="page753" title="753"></a></span> the Khan, and swore to kill you with
+his own hand. Not trusting his ears,
+however, the soldier determined to
+tell you nothing, but to watch all his
+steps. Yesterday evening, he says,
+Ammal&aacute;t spoke with a horseman arrived
+from afar. On taking leave,
+he said: 'Tell the Khan, that to-morrow,
+by sunrise, all will be over.
+Let him be ready: I shall soon see him.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And is this all, Captain?&quot; demanded
+Verkh&oacute;ffsky.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have nothing else to say; but
+I am much alarmed. I have passed
+my life among the Tartars, Colonel,
+and I am convinced that it is madness
+to trust the best of them. A
+born brother is not safe, while resting
+in the arms of a brother.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is envy, Captain. Cain has
+left it as an eternal heirloom to all
+men, and particularly to the neighbours
+of Ararat. Besides, there is
+no difference between Ammal&aacute;t and
+myself. I have done nothing for him
+but good. I intend nothing but kindness.
+Be easy, Captain: I believe
+the zeal of the signal-man, but I distrust
+his knowledge of the Tartar language.
+Some similarity of words
+has led him into error, and when
+once suspicion was awakened in his
+mind, every thing seemed an additional
+proof. Really, I am not so important
+a person that Khans and
+Beks should lay plots for my life. I
+know Ammal&aacute;t well. He is passionate,
+but he has a good heart, and
+could not conceal a bad intention two
+hours together.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Take care you be not mistaken,
+Colonel. Ammal&aacute;t is, after all, an
+Asiatic; and that name is always a
+proof. Here words hide thoughts&mdash;the
+face, the soul. Look at one of
+them&mdash;he seems innocence itself;
+have any thing to do with him, he is
+an abyss of meanness, treachery and
+ferocity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have a full right to think so,
+my dear Captain, from experience:
+Sultan Akhmet Khan gave you a
+memorable proof in Ammal&aacute;t's house,
+at Bouin&aacute;ki. But for me, I have no
+reason to suspect any mischief in Ammal&aacute;t;
+and besides, what would he
+gain by murdering me? On me depends
+all his hope, all his happiness.
+He is wild, perhaps, but not a madman.
+Besides, you see the sun is
+high; and I am alive and well. I am
+grateful, Captain, for the interest you
+have taken in me; but I entreat you,
+do not suspect Ammal&aacute;t: and, knowing
+how much I prize an old friendship,
+be assured that I shall as highly
+value a new one. Order them to beat
+the march.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The captain departed, gloomily
+shaking his head. The drums rattled,
+and the detachment, in marching order,
+moved on from its night-quarters.
+The morning was fresh and
+bright; the road lay through the
+green ramparts of the mountains of
+the Caucasus, crowned here and there
+with forests and underwood. The detachment,
+like a stream of steel, flowed
+now down the hills, and now crept
+up the declivities. The mist still
+rested on the valleys, and Verkh&oacute;ffsky,
+riding to the elevated points, looked
+round frequently to feast his eyes
+with the ever-changing landscape.
+Descending the mountain, the detachment
+seemed to be swallowed up in
+the steaming river, like the army of
+Pharaoh, and anon, with a dull sound,
+the bayonets glittered again from the
+misty waves. Then appeared heads,
+shoulders; the men seemed to grow
+up, and then leaping up the rocks,
+were lost anew in the fog.</p>
+
+<p>Ammal&aacute;t, pale and stern, rode next
+to the sharpshooters. It appeared
+that he wished to deafen his conscience
+in the noise of the drums.
+The colonel called him to his side,
+and said kindly: &quot;You must be scolded,
+Ammal&aacute;t; you have begun to
+follow too closely the precepts of
+Hafiz: recollect that wine is a good
+servant but a bad master: but a headache
+and the bile expressed in your
+face, will surely do you more good
+than a lecture. You have passed a
+stormy night, Ammal&aacute;t.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A stormy, a torturing night, Colonel!
+God grant that such a night
+be the last! I dreamed dreadful
+things.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Aha, my friend! You see what it
+is to transgress Mahomet's commandments.
+The conscience of the true
+believer torments you like a shadow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is well for him whose conscience
+quarrels only with wine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That depends on what sort of
+conscience it is. And fortunately it
+is as much subject to prejudice as reason
+itself. Every country, every nation,
+has its own conscience; and the
+voice of immortal, unchangeable truth
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page754" id="page754" title="754"></a></span> is silent before a would-be truth.
+Thus it is, thus it ever was. What
+yesterday we counted a mortal sin,
+to-morrow we adore. What on this
+bank is just and meritorious, on the
+other side of a brook leads to the
+halter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think, however, that treachery
+was never, and in no place, considered
+a virtue.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I will not say even that. We live
+at a time when success alone determines
+whether the means employed
+were good or bad; where the most
+conscientious persons have invented
+for themselves a very convenient rule&mdash;that
+the end sanctifies the means.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Ammal&aacute;t, lost in his reflections,
+repeated these words, because he approved
+of them. The poison of selfishness
+began anew to work within
+him; and the words of Verkh&oacute;ffsky,
+which he looked on as treacherous,
+poured like oil on flame. &quot;Hypocrite!&quot;
+said he to himself; &quot;your
+hour is at hand!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And meanwhile Verkh&oacute;ffsky, like
+a victim suspecting nothing, rode side
+by side with his executioner. At
+about eight versts from Kiek&eacute;nt the
+Caspian Sea discovered itself to them
+from a hill; and the thoughts of
+Verkh&oacute;ffsky soared above it like a
+swan. &quot;Mirror of eternity!&quot; said
+he, sinking into a reverie, &quot;why does
+not your aspect gladden me to-day?
+As of old, the sun plays on you; and
+your bosom breathes, as sublimely as
+of old, eternal life; but that life is
+not of this world. You seem to me
+to-day a mournful waste; not a boat,
+not a sail, not a sign of man's existence.
+All is desolate!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, Ammal&aacute;t,&quot; he added; &quot;I
+am tired of your ever-angry, lonely
+sea&mdash;of your country peopled with
+diseases, and with men who are
+worse than all maladies in the world.
+I am weary of the war itself, of
+invisible enemies, of the service
+shared with unfriendly comrades.
+It is not enough that they impeded
+me in my proceedings&mdash;they spoiled
+what I ordered to be done&mdash;they
+found fault with what I intended, and
+misrepresented what I had effected.
+I have served my sovereign with truth
+and fidelity, my country and this
+region with disinterestedness; I have
+renounced, a voluntary exile, all the
+conveniences of life, all the charms
+of society; have condemned my intellect
+to torpidity, being deprived of
+books; have buried my heart in solitude;
+have abandoned my beloved;
+and what is my reward? When will
+that moment arrive, when I throw
+myself into the arms of my bride;
+when I, wearied with service, shall
+repose myself under my native cottage-roof,
+on the green shore of the
+Dni&eacute;per; when a peaceful villager,
+and a tender father, surrounded by
+my relations and my good peasants,
+I shall fear only the hail of heaven
+for my harvests; fight only with
+wild-beasts? My heart yearns for that
+hour. My leave of absence is in my
+pocket, my dismission is promised me....
+Oh, that I could fly to my
+bride!... And in five days I shall
+for certain be in Ge&oacute;rgieffsk. Yet it
+seems as if the sands of Libya, a sea
+of ice&mdash;&mdash;as if the eternity of the
+grave itself, separated us!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Verkh&oacute;ffsky was silent. Tears ran
+down his cheeks; his horse, feeling
+the slackened rein, quickened his pace&mdash;and
+thus the pair alone, advanced
+to some distance from the detachment....
+It seemed as if destiny
+itself surrendered the colonel into
+the hands of the assassin.</p>
+
+<p>But pity penetrated the heart of
+Ammal&aacute;t, maddened as he was, and
+burning with wine&mdash;like a sunbeam
+falling in a robber's cave. He beheld
+the sorrow, the tears of the man whom
+he had so long considered as his friend,
+and hesitated. &quot;No!&quot; he thought,
+&quot;to such a degree as that it is impossible
+to dissimulate....&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this moment Verkh&oacute;ffsky started
+from his reverie, lifted up his head,
+and spoke to Ammal&aacute;t. &quot;Prepare
+yourself: you are to go with me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Unlucky words! Every thing good,
+every thing noble, which had arisen
+anew in Ammal&aacute;t's breast, was crushed
+in a moment by them. The thought
+of treachery&mdash;of exile&mdash;rushed like
+a torrent through his whole being
+&quot;With you!&quot; he replied, with a
+malicious smile&mdash;&quot;with you, and into
+Russia?&mdash;undoubtedly: if you go
+yourself!&quot; and in a passion of rage
+he urged his horse into a gallop, in
+order to have time to prepare his
+arms; suddenly turned back to meet
+him; flew by him, and began to ride
+rapidly in a circle around him. At
+each stride of his horse, the flame of
+rage burned more fiercely within him:
+it seemed as if the wind, as it whistled
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page755" id="page755" title="755"></a></span> past him, kept whispering &quot;Kill,
+kill! he is your enemy. Remember
+Seltanetta!&quot; He brought his rifle
+forward from his shoulder, cocked it,
+and encouraging himself with a cry,
+he galloped with blood-thirsty decision
+to his doomed victim. Verkh&oacute;ffsky,
+meanwhile, not cherishing the
+least suspicion, looked quietly at Ammal&aacute;t
+as he galloped round, thinking
+that he was preparing, after the Asiatic
+manner, for the djig&iacute;tering (equestrian
+exercises.)</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Fire at your mark, Ammal&aacute;t
+Bek!&quot; he exclaimed to the murderer
+who was rushing towards him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What mark can be better than
+the breast of a foe?&quot; answered Ammal&aacute;t
+Bek, riding up, and at ten paces'
+distance pulling the trigger!...
+the gun went off: and slowly, without
+a groan, the colonel sank out of
+his saddle. His affrighted horse,
+with expanded nostrils and streaming
+mane, smelt at his rider, in whose
+hands the reins that had so lately
+guided him began to stiffen: and the
+steed of Ammal&aacute;t stopped abruptly
+before the corpse, setting his legs
+straight before him. Ammal&aacute;t leaped
+from his horse, and, resting his arms
+on his yet smoking gun, looked for
+several moments steadfastly in the
+face of the murdered man; as if
+endeavouring to prove to himself that
+he feared not that fixed gaze, those
+fast-dimming eyes&mdash;that fast-freezing
+blood. It would be difficult to
+understand&mdash;'twere impossible to express
+the thoughts which rolled like
+a whirlwind through his breast.
+Saphir Ali rode up at full gallop;
+and fell on his knees by the colonel&mdash;he
+laid his ear to the dying man's
+mouth&mdash;he breathed not&mdash;he felt his
+heart&mdash;it beat not! &quot;He is dead!&quot;
+cried Saphir Ali in a tone of despair.
+&quot;Dead! quite dead!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So much the better ... My
+happiness is complete!...&quot; exclaimed
+Ammal&aacute;t, as if awakening
+from a dream.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Happiness for you&mdash;for you, fratricide!
+If you meet happiness, the
+world will take to Shait&aacute;n
+instead of Allah.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Saphir Ali, remember that you
+are not my judge!&quot; said Ammal&aacute;t
+fiercely, as he put his foot into the
+stirrup: &quot;follow me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;May remorse alone accompany
+you, like your shadow! From this
+hour I am not your companion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Pierced to the very bottom of his
+heart by this reproach from a man to
+whom he had been from infancy
+bound by the closest ties, Ammal&aacute;t
+uttered not a word, but pointing to
+his astounded n&oacute;ukers in the ravine,
+and perceiving the pursuit begun,
+dashed into the mountains like an
+arrow.</p>
+
+<p>The alarm soon spread through the
+advanced guard of the detachment:
+the officers, who were in front, and
+the Don Kaz&aacute;ks, flew to the shot,
+but they came too late. They could
+neither prevent the crime nor seize
+the flying assassin. In five minutes
+the bloody corpse of the treacherously
+murdered colonel was surrounded
+by a crowd of officers and soldiers.
+Doubt, pity, indignation were written
+on all their faces. The grenadiers,
+leaning on their bayonets, shed
+tears, and sobbed aloud: unflattering
+drops poured above the brave and
+much-loved chief.</p>
+
+<br>
+
+<p>CHAPTER XIII.</p>
+<br>
+
+<p>For three days and nights did Ammal&aacute;t
+wander about the mountains of
+Daghest&aacute;n. As a Mussulman, even
+in the villages subject to the Russian
+dominion, he was safe from all pursuit
+among people for whom robbery
+and murder are virtues. But could
+he escape from the consciousness of
+his own crime? Neither his heart nor
+his reason could find an excuse for his
+bloody deed; and the image of Verkh&oacute;ffsky
+falling from his horse, presented
+itself unceasingly before his
+eyes, though closed. This recollection
+infuriated him yet more, yet
+more tortured him. The Asiatic,
+once turned aside from the right road,
+travels rapidly over the career of
+villany. The Khan's command, not
+to appear before him but with the
+head of Verkh&oacute;ffsky, rang in his ears.
+Without daring to communicate such
+an intention to his n&oacute;ukers, and still
+less relying on their bravery, he resolved
+upon travelling to Derb&eacute;nd
+alone. A darksome and gloomy night
+had already expanded it ebon wings
+over the mountains of Caucasus which
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page756" id="page756" title="756"></a></span> skirt the sea, when Ammal&aacute;t passed
+the ravine which lay behind the fortress
+of Nar&iacute;n-K&aacute;li, which served as
+a citadel to Derb&eacute;nd. He mounted
+to the ruined turret, which once formed
+the limit to the Caucasian war
+that had extended through the mountains,
+and tied his horse at the foot of
+that hill from which Yerm&oacute;loff had
+thundered on Derb&eacute;nd when but a
+lieutenant of artillery. Knowing
+where the Russian officers were buried,
+he came out upon the upper
+burial-ground. But how to find the
+new-made grave of Verkh&oacute;ffsky in
+the darkness of the night? Not
+a star glimmered in the sky: the
+clouds lay stretched on the hills,
+the mountain-wind, like a night-bird,
+lashed the forest with its wing:
+an involuntary shudder crept over
+Ammal&aacute;t, in the midst of the region
+of the dead, whose repose he
+dared to interrupt. He listens: the
+sea murmurs hoarsely against the
+rocks, tumbling back from them into
+the deep with a sullen sound. The
+prolonged &quot;sl&oacute;ushai&quot; of the sentinels
+floated round the walls of the town,
+and when it was silent there rose the
+yell of the jackals; and at last all
+again was still&mdash;every sound mingling
+and losing itself in the rushing of the
+wind. How often had he not sat
+awake on such nights with Verkh&oacute;ffsky&mdash;and
+where is he now! And who
+plunged him into the grave! And
+the murderer was now come to behead
+the corpse of his former friend&mdash;to
+do sacrilege to his remains&mdash;like a
+grave-robber to plunder the tomb&mdash;to
+dispute with the jackal his prey!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Human feeling!&quot; cried Ammal&aacute;t,
+as he wiped the cold sweat from
+his forehead, &quot;why visitest thou a
+heart which has torn itself from humanity?
+Away, away! Is it for me
+to fear to take off the head of a dead
+man, whom I have robbed of life!
+For him 'twill be no loss&mdash;to me a
+treasure. Dust is insensible!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Ammal&aacute;t struck a light with a
+trembling hand, blew up into a flame
+some dry bouri&aacute;n, (a dry grass of
+South Russia,) and went with it to
+search for the new-made grave. The
+loosened earth, and a large cross,
+pointed out the last habitation of the
+colonel. He tore up the cross, and
+began to dig up the mound with it;
+he broke through the arch of brickwork,
+which had not yet become hardened,
+and finally tore the lead from
+the coffin. The bouri&aacute;n, flaring up,
+threw an uncertain bloody-bluish tinge
+on all around. Leaning over the
+dead, the murderer, paler than the
+corpse itself, gazed unmovingly on his
+work; he forgot why he had come&mdash;he
+turned away his head from the reek
+of rottenness&mdash;his gorge rose within
+him when he saw the bloody-headed
+worms that crawled from under the
+clothes. Interrupted in their loathsome
+work, they, scared by the light,
+crept into a mass, and hid themselves
+beneath each other. At length, steeling
+himself to the deed, he brandished
+his dagger, and each time his erring
+hand missed its aim. Nor revenge,
+nor ambition, nor love&mdash;in a word,
+not one of those passions which had
+urged him to the frenzied crime, now
+encouraged him to the nameless horror.
+Turning away his head, in a
+sort of insensibility he began to hew
+at the neck of Verkh&oacute;ffsky&mdash;at the
+fifth blow the head parted from the
+trunk. Shuddering with disgust, he
+threw it into a bag which he had prepared,
+and hastened from the grave.
+Hitherto he had remained master of
+himself; but when, with his dreadful
+treasure, he was scrambling up, when
+the stones crumbling noisily under his
+feet, and he, covered with sand, fell
+backwards on Verkh&oacute;ffsky's corpse,
+then presence of mind left the sacrilegious.
+It seemed as if a flame had
+seized him, and spirits of hell, dancing
+and grinning, had surrounded him.
+With a heavy groan he tore himself
+away, crawled half senseless out of
+the suffocating grave, and hurried off,
+dreading to look back. Leaping on
+his horse, he urged it on, over rocks
+and ravines, and each bush that caught
+his dress seemed to him the hand of a
+corpse; the cracking of every branch,
+the shriek of every jackal, sounded
+like the cry of his twice-murdered
+friend.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;">
+
+<p>Wherever Ammal&aacute;t passed, he encountered
+armed bands of Akoushl&iacute;netzes
+and Avar&eacute;tzes, Tchetchen&eacute;tzes
+just arrived, and robbers of the
+Tartar villages subject to Russia.
+They were all hurrying to the trysting-place
+near the border-limits; while
+the Beks, Ouzd&eacute;ns, and petty princes,
+were assembling at Khourz&aacute;kh, for a
+council with Akhmet Khan, under the
+leading, and by the invitation of whom,
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page757" id="page757" title="757"></a></span> they were preparing to fall upon
+T&aacute;rki. The present was the most
+favourable moment for their purpose:
+there was abundance of corn in the
+amb&aacute;rs, (magazines,) hay in the stacks,
+and the Russians, having taken hostages,
+had established themselves in
+full security in winter-quarters. The
+news of Verkh&oacute;ffsky's murder had
+flown over all the hills, and powerfully
+encouraged the mountaineers. Merrily
+they poured together from all
+sides; every where were heard their
+songs of future battles and plunder;
+and he for whom they were going to
+fight rode through them like a runaway
+and a culprit, hiding from the
+light of the sun, and not daring to
+look any one in the face. Every
+thing that happened, every thing that
+he saw, now seemed like a suffocating
+dream&mdash;he dared not doubt, he dared
+not believe it. On the evening of the
+third day he reached Khounz&aacute;kh.</p>
+
+<p>Trembling with impatience, he
+leaped from his horse, worn out with
+fatigue, and took from his saddle-straps
+the fatal bag. The front
+chambers were filled with warriors;
+cavaliers in armour were walking
+up and down, or lay on the carpets
+along the walls, conversing in whispers;
+but their eyebrows were knit
+and cast down&mdash;their stern faces
+proved that bad news had reached
+Khounz&aacute;kh. N&oacute;ukers ran hurriedly
+backwards and forwards, and none
+questioned, none accompanied Ammal&aacute;t,
+none paid any attention to him.
+At the door of the Khan's bed-chamber
+sate Zo&uacute;rkhai-Khan-Djingk&aacute;, the
+natural son of Sultan Akhmet, weeping
+bitterly. &quot;What means this?&quot;
+uneasily demanded Ammal&aacute;t. &quot;You,
+from whom even in childhood tears
+could not be drawn&mdash;you weep?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Zo&uacute;rkhai silently pointed to the
+door, and Ammal&aacute;t, perplexed, crossed
+the threshold. A heart-rending
+spectacle was presented before the
+new-comer's eyes. In the middle of
+the room, on a bed, lay the Khan,
+disfigured by a fierce illness; death
+invisible, but inevitable, hovered over
+him, and his fading glance met it with
+dread. His breast heaved high, and
+then sank heavily; his breath rattled
+in his throat, the veins of his hands
+swelled, and then shrank again. In
+him was taking place the last struggle
+of life with annihilation; the
+mainspring of existence had already
+burst, but the wheels still moved with
+an uneven motion, catching and entangling
+in each other. The spark of
+memory hardly glimmered in him,
+but fitfully flashed like falling stars
+through the darkness of night, which
+thickened over his soul, and reflected
+themselves in his dying face. His
+wife and daughter were sobbing on
+their knees by his bed-side; his eldest
+son, No&uacute;tsal, in silent despair leaned
+at his feet, resting his head on his
+clenched fists. Several women and
+n&oacute;ukers wept silently at a distance.</p>
+
+<p>All this, however, neither astounded
+Ammal&aacute;t nor recalled him to himself,
+occupied as he was with one idea:
+he approached the Khan with a firm
+step, and said to him aloud&mdash;&quot;Hail,
+Khan! I have brought you a present
+which will restore a dead man to
+life. Prepare the bridal. Here is
+my purchase-money for Seltanetta;
+here is the head of Verkh&oacute;ffsky!&quot;
+With these words he threw it at the
+Khan's feet.</p>
+
+<p>The well-known voice aroused Sultan
+Akhmet from his last sleep: he
+raised his head with difficulty to look
+at the present, and a shudder ran like
+a wave over his body when he beheld
+the lifeless head. &quot;May he eat his
+own heart who treats a dying man
+with such dreadful food!&quot; he murmured,
+scarce intelligibly. &quot;I must
+make my peace with my enemies, and
+not&mdash;&mdash;Ah, I burn, I burn! Give me
+water, water! Why have you made
+me drink scalding naphtha? Ammal&aacute;t,
+I curse you!&quot; This effort exhausted
+the last drops of life in the
+Khan; he fell a senseless corpse on
+the pillow. The Khansha had looked
+with horror on the bloody and untimely
+present of Ammal&aacute;t; but when
+she saw that this had hastened her
+husband's death, all her grief broke
+out in a torrent of anger. &quot;Messenger
+of hell!&quot; she exclaimed, her eyes
+flashing, &quot;rejoice; these are your
+exploits; but for you, my husband
+would never have thought of raising
+Av&aacute;r against the Russians, and would
+have now been sitting in health and
+quiet at home; but for you, visiting
+the Ouzdens, he fell from a rock and
+was disabled; and you, blood-drinker!&mdash;instead
+of consoling the sick with
+mild words, instead of making his
+peace with Allah by prayers and alms&mdash;bring,
+as if to a cannibal, a dead
+man's head; and whose head? Thy
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page758" id="page758" title="758"></a></span> benefactor's, thy protector's, thy
+friend's!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Such was the Khan's will,&quot; in
+his turn replied Ammal&aacute;t.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do not slander the dead; defile not
+his memory with superfluous blood!&quot;
+screamed the Khansha: &quot;not content
+with having treacherously murdered
+a man, you come with his head to
+woo my daughter at the deathbed of
+her father, and you hoped to receive
+a recompense from man, when you
+deserved the vengeance of God. Godless,
+soulless being! No! by the
+graves of my ancestors, by the swords
+of my sons, I swear you shall never
+be my son-in-law, my acquaintance,
+my guest! Away from my house,
+traitor! I have sons, and you may
+murder while embracing them. I
+have a daughter, whom you may bewitch
+and poison with your serpent
+looks. Go, wander in the ravines of
+the mountains; teach the tigers to
+tear each other; and dispute with the
+wolves for carcasses. Go, and know
+that my door opens not to a fratricide!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Ammal&aacute;t stood like one struck by
+lightning: all that his conscience had
+indistinctly whispered to him had been
+spoken out to him at once, and so
+unexpectedly, so cruelly. He knew
+not where to turn his eyes: there lay
+the head of Verkh&oacute;ffsky with its accusing
+blood&mdash;there was the threatening
+face of the Khan, printed with
+the seal of a death of torture&mdash;there
+he met the stern glance of the Khansha....
+The tearful eyes of
+Seltanetta alone appeared like stars of
+joy through a rainy cloud. To her he
+resolved to approach, saying timidly,
+&quot;Seltanetta, for you have I committed
+that for which I lose you. Destiny
+wills it: be it so! One thing tell
+me&mdash;is it possible that you, too, have
+ceased to love me&mdash;that you, too, hate
+me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The well-remembered voice of the
+beloved pierced her heart: Seltanetta
+raised her eyes glistening with tears&mdash;eyes
+full of woe; but on seeing
+Ammal&aacute;t's dreadful face, spotted with
+blood, she covered them again with
+her hand. She pointed with her finger
+at her father's corpse, at the head of
+Verkh&oacute;ffsky, and said, with firmness,
+&quot;Farewell, Ammal&aacute;t! I pity thee;
+but I cannot be thine!&quot; With these
+words she fell senseless on her father's
+body.</p>
+
+<p>All his native pride, all his blood,
+rushed to Ammal&aacute;t's heart; his soul
+fired with fury. &quot;Is it thus I am
+received?&quot; casting a scornful glance
+at both the women; &quot;is it thus that
+promises are fulfilled here? I am
+glad that my eyes are opened. I was
+too simple when I prized the light
+love of a fickle girl&mdash;too patient when
+I hearkened to the ravings of an old
+woman. I see, that with Sultan
+Akhmet Khan have died the honour
+and hospitality of his house!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He left the room with a haughty
+step. He proudly gazed in the face
+of the Ouzdens, grasping the hilt of
+his dagger as if challenging them to
+combat. All, however, made way
+for him, but seemingly rather to
+avoid him than from respect. No one
+saluted him, either by word or sign.
+He went forth into the court-yard,
+called his n&oacute;ukers together, silently
+mounted into the saddle, and slowly
+rode through the empty streets of
+Khounz&aacute;kh.</p>
+
+<p>From the road he looked back for
+the last time upon the Khan's house,
+which was blackening in the darkness,
+while the grated door shone with
+lights. His heart was full of blood;
+his offended pride fixed in its iron talons,
+while the useless crime, and the
+love henceforth despised and hopeless,
+poured venom on the wounds. Grief,
+anger, and remorse mingled in the
+glance which he threw on the harem
+where he first saw, and where he lost,
+all earthly joy. &quot;And you, and you,
+Seltanetta!&quot; he could utter no more.
+A mountain of lead lay on his breast;
+his conscience already felt that dreadful
+hand which was stretched forth
+against it. The past terrified him;
+the future made him tremble. Where
+will he rest that head on which a
+price is set? What earth will give
+repose to the bones of a traitor? Nor
+love, nor friendship, nor happiness,
+will ever again be his care; but a life
+of misery, a wanderer's bread....</p>
+
+<p>Ammal&aacute;t wished to weep, his eyes
+burned ... and, like the rich man
+tormented in the fire, his heart prayed
+for one drop, one tear, to quench his
+intolerable thirst.... He tried to
+weep, and could not. Providence
+has denied this consolation to the
+guilty.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;">
+
+<p>And where did the murderer of
+Verkh&oacute;ffsky hide himself? Whither
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page759" id="page759" title="759"></a></span> did he drag his wretched existence?
+No one knew. In Daghest&aacute;n it was
+reported that he wandered among the
+Tchetchen&eacute;tzes and Koi-Sou-Boulin&eacute;tzes,
+having lost his beauty, his
+health, and even his bravery. But
+who could say this with certainty?
+Little by little the rumours about
+Ammal&aacute;t died away, though his villanous
+treachery is still fresh in the
+memory of Russians and Mussulmans
+who dwell in Daghest&aacute;n. Even now
+his name is never pronounced without
+a reproach.</p>
+
+<br>
+
+<p>CHAPTER XIV.</p>
+<br>
+
+<p>An&aacute;pa, that manufactory of arms
+for the robbers of the mountains, that
+bazar where are sold the tears, the
+blood, the sweat of Christian slaves,
+that torch of rebellion to the Caucasus&mdash;An&aacute;pa,
+I say, was, in 1808, invested
+by the Russian armies, on the
+sea and on the mountain side. The
+gun-boats, the bomb-vessels, and all
+the ships that could approach the
+shore, were thundering against the
+fortifications. The land army had
+passed the river which falls into the
+Black Sea, under the northern wall
+of An&aacute;pa, and was posted in swampy
+ground around the whole city. Then
+they constructed wooden trenches,
+hewing down, for that purpose, the
+surrounding forest. Every night new
+works arose nearer and nearer to the
+walls of the town. The interior of
+the houses flamed from the effects of
+the shells; the outer walls fell under
+the cannon-balls. But the Turkish
+garrison, reinforced by the mountaineers,
+fought desperately, made fierce
+sorties, and replied to all proposals for
+surrender by the shots of their artillery.
+Meanwhile the besiegers were
+incessantly harassed by the Kabardin&eacute;tz
+skirmishers, and the foot-archers
+of Abaz&eacute;khs, Shams&oacute;ukhs, Natoukh&aacute;itzes,
+and other wild mountaineers
+of the shores of the Black Sea,
+assembled, like the jackals, in hope of
+plunder and blood. Against them it
+was necessary to erect redans; and
+this double work, performed under
+the fire of cannon from the fortress
+and from the forest, on irregular and
+boggy ground, delayed long the capture
+of the town.</p>
+
+<p>At length, on the eve of the taking
+of An&aacute;pa, the Russians opened a
+breaching-battery in a ravine on the
+south-east side of the town: its effect
+was tremendous. At the fifth volley
+the battlements and parapets were
+overthrown, the guns laid bare and
+beaten down. The balls, striking
+against the stone facing, flashed like
+lightning; and then, in a black cloud
+of dust, flew up fragments of shattered
+stone. The wall crumbled and
+fell to pieces; but the fortress, by the
+thickness of its walls, resisted long the
+shattering force of the iron; and the
+precipitous steepness of the ruins offered
+no opportunity for storming.
+For the heated guns, and for the
+weary artillerymen, worn out by incessant
+firing, repose was absolutely
+necessary. By degrees the firing
+from the batteries by land and sea
+began to slacken; thick clouds of
+smoke, floating from the shore, expanded
+over the waves, sometimes
+concealing, sometimes discovering,
+the flotilla. From time to time a ball
+of smoke flew up from the guns of
+the fortress, and after the rolling
+of the cannon-thunder, far echoing
+among the hills, a ball would whistle
+by at random. And now all was
+silent&mdash;all was still both in the interior
+of An&aacute;pa and in the trenches.
+Not one turban was seen between the
+battlements, not one carabineer's bayonet
+in the intrenchment. Only the
+Turkish banners on the towers, and
+the Russian ensign on board the ships,
+waved proudly in the air, now undimmed
+by a single stream of smoke&mdash;only
+the harmonious voices of the
+muezzins resounded from afar, calling
+the Mussulmans to their mid-day
+prayer. At this moment, from the
+breach opposite the battery on the
+plain, descended, or rather rolled
+down, supported by ropes, a horseman
+on a white horse, who immediately
+leaped over the half-filled ditch, dashed
+to the left between the batteries,
+flew over the intrenchments, over the
+soldiers dozing behind them, who
+neither expected nor guessed any
+thing like this, and, followed by their
+hasty shouts, plunged into the woods.
+None of the cavalry had time to
+glance at, much less to pursue him:
+all remained thunderstruck with astonishment
+and vexation; and soon
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page760" id="page760" title="760"></a></span> forgot all about the brave cavalier, in
+the alarm of the renewed firing from
+the fortress, which was recommenced
+in order to give the bold messenger
+time to escape to the mountains. Towards
+evening the breaching battery,
+which had thundered almost incessantly,
+had accomplished its work of
+demolition. The prostrate wall formed
+a kind of bridge for the besiegers,
+who, with the impatience of bravery,
+prepared for the assault; when suddenly
+an unexpected attack of the
+Tcherk&eacute;ss, who had driven in the
+Russian scouts and outposts, compelled
+the besiegers to direct the fire of the
+redans against the furious mountaineers.
+A thundering Allah-il-Allah,
+from the walls of An&aacute;pa, greeted their
+encounter: the volleys of cannon and
+musketry arose with redoubled violence
+from the walls, but the Russian
+grape tore asunder and arrested the
+crowds of horsemen and infantry of
+the Tcherk&eacute;ss, as they were preparing
+to throw themselves upon the batteries
+with their sabres; and they, with
+furious cries of &quot;Giaour, giaourla!&quot;
+turned back, leaving behind them the
+dead and wounded. In a moment the
+whole field was strewn with their
+corpses and their disabled, who, staggering
+to their feet, fell back, struck
+by the balls and grape-shot; whilst the
+cannon-shot shattered the wood, and
+the grenades, bursting, completed
+the destruction. But from the beginning
+of the action, till the moment
+when not one of the enemy remained
+in sight, the Russians saw before them
+a well-built Tcherk&eacute;ss on a white
+horse, who rode, at a slow pace, up
+and down before their redans. All
+recognized in him the same horseman
+who had leaped over the trenches at
+mid-day, probably in order to induce
+the Tcherk&eacute;ss to fall upon the Russians
+from the rear, at the moment
+when the now unsuccessful sortie was
+to be made from the gate. Crashing
+and thundering danced the grape-shot
+around him. His horse strained
+at the bridle; but he, looking calmly
+at the batteries, rode along them as
+if they were raining flowers upon him.
+The artillerymen ground their teeth
+with vexation at the unpunished daring
+of the cavalier: shot after shot
+tore up the earth, but he remained
+unhurt as if enchanted. &quot;Give him
+a cannon-ball!&quot; shouted a young officer
+of artillery, but lately released
+from the military college, who was
+above all enraged at their want of
+success: &quot;I would load the gun with
+my head, so glad would I be to kill
+that bragger: it is not worth while to
+waste grape upon one man&mdash;grape&mdash;look
+out! a cannon-ball will reach the
+guilty!&quot; So saying, he screwed up
+the quoin and levelled the gun, looking
+through the sight; and having
+exactly calculated the moment when
+the horseman would ride through the
+line of aim, he stepped aside and ordered
+the fatal fire.</p>
+
+<p>For some moments the smoke enveloped
+the battery in darkness:
+when it floated away the frightened
+horse was dragging the blood-stained
+corpse of his rider, with the foot entangled
+in the stirrup. &quot;Hit&mdash;killed!&quot;
+was shouted from all the trenches; and
+the young artillery officer, taking off
+his cap, piously crossed himself, and
+with a joyous face jumped down from
+the battery to seize the prey which he
+had earned. He soon succeeded in
+catching by the reins the horse of the
+slain Tcherk&eacute;ss, for he was dragging
+the body sideways on the ground.
+The unfortunate man had his arm
+torn off close to the shoulder; but he
+still breathed, groaned, and struggled.
+Pity touched the good-natured youth:
+he called some soldiers, and ordered
+them to carry the wounded man carefully
+into the trench, sent for the surgeon,
+and had the operation performed
+before his eyes. At night, when all
+was quiet, the artilleryman sat by the
+side of his dying prisoner, and watched
+him with interest by the dim light of
+the lantern. The serpent-marks of
+sorrow, graven on his cheek by tears,
+the wrinkles on his forehead, dug, not
+by years but passions, and bloody
+scratches, disfigured his handsome
+face; and in it was painted something
+more torturing than pain, more
+terrible than death. The artilleryman
+could not restrain an involuntary
+shudder. The prisoner sighed heavily,
+and having, with difficulty, raised
+his hand to his forehead, opened his
+heavy eyelids, muttering to himself
+in unintelligible sounds, unconnected
+words.... &quot;Blood,&quot; he cried, examining
+his hand ... &quot;always
+blood! why have they put <i>his</i> bloody
+shirt upon me? Already, without
+that, I swim in blood.... Why do
+I not drown in it?... How cold
+the blood is to-day!... Once it
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page761" id="page761" title="761"></a></span> used to scald me, and this is no better!
+In the world it is stifling, in the
+gave so cold.... 'Tis dreadful to
+be a corpse. Fool that I am, I sought
+death. O, let me live but for one
+little day&mdash;one little hour, to live!...&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What? Why have I hidden
+another in the grave, <i>whisperest thou</i>?
+Learn thyself what it is to die!...&quot;
+A convulsive paroxysm interrupted
+his raving, an unspeakably dreadful
+groan burst from the sufferer, and he
+fell into a painful lethargy, in which
+the soul lives only to suffer.</p>
+
+<p>The artilleryman, touched to the
+very bottom of his heart, raised the
+head of the miserable being, sprinkled
+his face with cold water, and rubbed
+his temples with spirits of wine, in order
+to bring him to himself. Slowly
+he opened his eyes, shook his head
+several times, as if to shake the mist
+from his eyelashes, and steadfastly
+directed his gaze on the face of the
+artilleryman, which was faintly lighted
+up by the feeble gleam of the candle.
+Suddenly, with a piercing cry, he
+lifted himself on his bed, as if by some
+superhuman force: his hair stood upright,
+his whole body shook with a
+fevered trembling, his hand seemed
+endeavouring to push something from
+him, an ineffable horror was expressed
+on his countenance.... &quot;Your
+name!&quot; he cried at length, addressing
+the artilleryman. &quot;Who are thou,
+stranger from the grave?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am Verkh&oacute;ffsky?&quot; ... answered
+the young artilleryman. This
+was a shot that went straight to the
+heart of the prisoner. The ligature
+on the principal artery gave way from
+a rush of blood, which poured through
+the bandages. Yet a few struggles,
+yet the throat-rattle, and the leaden
+hand of death choked the wounded
+man's last sigh, imprinted on his brow
+the seal of the last grief; gathering
+whole years of repentance into one
+rapid moment, in which the soul, tearing
+itself from the body, fears equally
+the tortures of life and of nothingness,
+feels at once all the gnawing of the
+past and all the agony of the future.
+Terrible was it to look on the convulsed
+face of the dead. &quot;He surely
+must have been a great sinner,&quot; said
+Verkh&oacute;ffsky, in a low voice to the
+general's interpreter, who stood near
+him, and he shuddered involuntarily.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A great villain,&quot; rejoined the interpreter:
+&quot;it appears to me he was
+a Russian deserter. I never met with
+a mountaineer who spoke Russian so
+correctly as this prisoner. Let me
+look at his arms. We may, perhaps,
+find some marks on them.&quot; With these
+words he unsheathed, with a look of
+curiosity, the dagger which had been
+taken from the dead man, and bringing
+it to the lantern, deciphered and
+translated the following inscription:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blkquot"><p>&quot;Be slow to offend&mdash;swift to revenge!&quot;</p></div>
+
+<p>&quot;Quite a robber's rule,&quot; said Verkh&oacute;ffsky;
+&quot;my poor brother Evstafli!
+you fell a victim to such a fanatic
+principle as this!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The eyes of the good youth filled
+with tears.... &quot;Is there not something
+else?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is apparently the slain man's
+name,&quot; replied the interpreter.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is: Ammal&aacute;t Bek!&quot;</p>
+
+<hr class="full">
+
+
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page762" id="page762" title="762"></a></span>
+<a name="bw332s6" id="bw332s6"></a><h2>MR BAILEY'S REPLY TO AN ARTICLE IN BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE.</h2>
+
+<p>We have just been favoured with a
+pamphlet from Mr Bailey, entitled
+&quot;A Letter to a Philosopher, in Reply
+to some Recent Attempts to Vindicate
+Berkeley's Theory of Vision, and
+in further Elucidation of its Unsoundness.&quot;
+Our article on Mr Bailey's
+review of Berkeley's theory, which
+appeared in <i>Blackwood's Magazine</i> of
+June 1842, was one of these attempts.
+Had the author merely attacked or
+controverted our animadversions on
+his book, we should probably have
+left the question to its fate, and not
+have reverted to a subject, the discussion
+of which, even in the first instance,
+may have been deemed out of
+place in a journal not expressly philosophical.
+There is, in general, little
+to be gained by protracting such controversies.
+But, as Mr Bailey accuses
+us, in the present instance, of having
+misrepresented his views, we must be
+allowed to exculpate ourselves from
+the charge of having dealt, even with
+unintentional unfairness, towards one
+whose opinions, however much we
+may dissent from them, are certainly
+entitled to high respect and a candid
+examination, as the convictions of an
+able and zealous enquirer after truth.</p>
+
+<p>In our strictures on Mr Bailey's
+work, we remarked, that he had represented
+Berkeley as holding that the
+eye is not directly and originally cognizant
+of the outness of objects in
+relation to each other, or of what we
+would call their reciprocal outness;
+in other words, we stated, that, according
+to Mr Bailey, Berkeley must
+be regarded as denying to the eye the
+original intuition of space, either in
+length, breadth, or solid depth. It
+was, however, only in reference to one
+of his arguments, and to one particular
+division of his subject, that we laid
+this representation to his charge.
+Throughout the other parts of his
+discussion, we by no means intended
+to say that such was the view he took
+of the Berkeleian theory. Nor are
+we aware of having made any statement
+to that effect. If we did, we
+now take the opportunity of remarking,
+that we restrict our allegation, as
+we believe we formerly restricted it,
+to the single argument and distinction
+just mentioned, and hereafter to be
+explained.</p>
+
+<p>In his reply, Mr Bailey disavows
+the impeachment <i>in toto</i>. He declares
+that he never imputed to Berkeley the
+doctrine, that the eye is not directly
+percipient of space in the two dimensions
+of length and breadth. &quot;The
+perception of this kind of distance,&quot;
+says he, &quot;never formed the subject
+of controversy with any one ...
+That we see extension in two dimensions
+is admitted by all.&quot;&mdash;(<i>Letter</i>,
+p. 10.) If it can be shown that the
+doctrine which is here stated to be
+admitted by all philosophers, is yet
+expressly controverted by the two
+metaphysicians whom Mr Bailey appears
+to have studied most assiduously,
+it is, at any rate, possible that he may
+have overlooked, in his own writings,
+the expression of an opinion which has
+escaped his penetration in theirs. To
+convince himself, then, how much he
+is mistaken in supposing that the visual
+intuition of longitudinal and lateral
+extension is admitted by all philosophers,
+he has but to turn to the
+works of Dr Brown and the elder
+Mill. In arguing that we have no
+immediate perception of visible figure,
+Dr Brown not only virtually, but expressly,
+asserts that the sight has no
+perception of extension in any of its
+dimensions. Not to multiply quotations,
+the following will, no doubt, be
+received as sufficient:&mdash;&quot;They (<i>i.e.</i>
+philosophers) have&mdash;<i>I think without
+sufficient reason</i>&mdash;universally supposed
+that the superficial extension of <i>length
+and breadth</i> becomes known to us by
+sight originally.&quot;<a name="footnotetag28" id="footnotetag28"></a><a href="#footnote28"><sup>28</sup></a> Dr Brown then
+proceeds to argue, with what success
+we are not at present considering,
+that our knowledge of extension and
+figure is derived from another source
+than the sense of sight.</p>
+
+<p>Mr James Mill, an author whom
+Mr Bailey frequently quotes with approbation,
+and in confirmation of his
+own views, is equally explicit. He
+maintains, in the plainest terms, that
+the eye has no intuition of space, or
+of the reciprocal outness of visible
+objects. &quot;Philosophy,&quot; says he, &quot;has
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page763" id="page763" title="763"></a></span> ascertained that we derive nothing
+from the eye whatever but sensations
+of colour&mdash;that the idea of extension
+[he means in its three dimensions]
+is derived from sensations not in the
+eye, but in the muscular part of our
+frame.&quot;<a name="footnotetag29" id="footnotetag29"></a><a href="#footnote29"><sup>29</sup></a> Thus, contrary to what Mr
+Bailey affirms, these two philosophers
+limit the office of vision to
+the perception of mere colour or
+difference of colour, denying to the
+eye the original perception of extension
+in any dimension whatever. In
+their estimation, the intuition of space
+is no more involved in our perception
+of different colours than it is involved
+in our perception of different smells
+or different sounds. Dr Brown's doctrine,
+in which Mr Mill seems to concur,
+is, that the perception of superficial
+extension no more results from
+a certain expanse of the optic nerve
+being affected by a variety of colours
+than it results from a certain expanse
+of the olfactory nerve being affected
+by a variety of odours.<a name="footnotetag30" id="footnotetag30"></a><a href="#footnote30"><sup>30</sup></a> So much
+for Mr Bailey's assertion, that <i>all</i> philosophers
+admit the perception of extension
+in two dimensions.</p>
+
+<p>But, of course, our main business is
+with the expression of his own opinion.
+In rebutting our charge, he maintains
+that &quot;the visibility of angular distance
+(that is of extension laterally) is
+assumed, by implication, as part of
+Berkeley's doctrine, in <i>almost</i> every
+chapter of my book.&quot;&mdash;(<i>Letter</i>, p. 13.)
+That word <i>almost</i> is a provident saving
+clause; for we undertake to show that
+not only is the very reverse assumed,
+by implication, as part of Berkeley's
+doctrine, in the <i>single</i> chapter to which
+we confined our remarks, but that, in
+another part of his work, it is expressly
+avowed as the only alternative
+by which, in the author's opinion, Berkeley's
+consistency can be preserved.</p>
+
+<p>At the outset of his enquiry, Mr
+Bailey divides his discussion into two
+branches: first, Whether objects are
+originally seen to be external, or at <i>any</i>
+distance at all from the sight; and,
+secondly, Supposing it admitted that
+they are seen to be external, or at
+<i>some</i> distance from the sight, whether
+they are all seen in the same plane, or
+equally near.  It was to the former
+of these questions that we exclusively
+confined our remarks;<a name="footnotetag31" id="footnotetag31"></a><a href="#footnote31"><sup>31</sup></a> and it was in
+reference to it, and to an important
+argument evolved by Mr Bailey in
+the course of its discussion, that we
+charged him with fathering on Berkeley
+the doctrine which he now disavows
+as his interpretation of the bishop's
+opinion. He further disputes
+the relevancy of the question about
+our perception of lateral extension,
+and maintains that distance in a direction
+from the percipient, or what
+we should call protensive distance, is
+the only matter in dispute; and that
+it is a misconception of the scope of
+Berkeley's essay to imagine otherwise.
+The relevancy of the question shall be
+disposed of afterwards. In the mean
+time, the question at issue is, Can the
+allegation which we have laid to Mr
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page764" id="page764" title="764"></a></span> Bailey's charge be proved to be the
+fact, or not?</p>
+
+<p>In discussing the first of the two
+questions, it was quite possible for Mr
+Bailey to have represented Berkeley
+as holding, that visible objects, though
+not seen to be external to the sight,
+were yet seen to be out of each other,
+or laterally extended within the organism
+or the mind. But Mr Bailey
+makes no such representation of the
+theory, and the whole argument which
+pervades the chapter in which the first
+question is discussed, is founded on the
+negation of any such extension. All
+visible extension, he tells us, must,
+in his opinion, be either plane or solid.
+Now he will scarcely maintain
+that he regarded Berkeley as holding
+that we perceive solid extension
+within the organism of the eye. Neither
+does he admit that, according
+to Berkeley, and in reference to this
+first question, plane extension is perceived
+within the organism of the eye.
+For when he proceeds to the discussion
+of the <i>second</i> of the two questions,
+he remarks that &quot;we must, <i>at this stage</i>
+of the argument, consider the theory
+under examination, as representing that
+we see all things <i>originally in the same
+plane</i>,&quot;<a name="footnotetag32" id="footnotetag32"></a><a href="#footnote32"><sup>32</sup></a> obviously implying that he
+had not <i>as yet</i> considered the theory as
+representing that we see things originally
+in the same plane: in other
+words, plainly admitting that, in his
+treatment of the first question, he had
+not regarded the theory as representing
+that we see things originally under the
+category of extension at all.</p>
+
+<p>But if any more direct evidence on
+this point were wanted, it is to be
+found in the section of his work which
+treats of &quot;the perception of figure.&quot;
+In the chapter in which he discusses
+the first of the two questions, he constantly
+speaks of Berkeley's theory as
+representing that &quot;our visual sensations,
+or what we ultimately term visible
+objects, are originally mere internal
+feelings.&quot; The expression <i>mere internal feelings</i>,
+however, is ambiguous; for,
+as we have said, it might still imply
+that Mr Bailey viewed the theory as
+representing that there was an extension,
+or reciprocal outness of objects
+within the retina. But this doubt is
+entirely removed by a passage in the
+section alluded to, which proves that,
+in Mr Bailey's estimation, these mere
+internal feelings not only involve no
+such extension, but that there would
+be an inconsistency in supposing they
+did. In this section he brings forward
+Berkeley's assertion, &quot;that neither
+solid nor plane figures are immediate
+objects of sight.&quot; He then
+quotes a passage in which the bishop
+begs the reader not to stickle too
+much &quot;about this or that phrase, or
+manner of expression, but candidly to
+collect his meaning from the whole
+sum and tenour of his discourse.&quot; And
+then Mr Bailey goes on to say, &quot;endeavouring,
+in the spirit here recommended,
+to collect the author's meaning
+when he affirms that the figures we
+see are neither plane nor solid, it appears
+to me to be <i>a part or consequence</i>
+of his doctrine already examined, which
+asserts that visible objects are only internal
+feelings.&quot;<a name="footnotetag33" id="footnotetag33"></a><a href="#footnote33"><sup>33</sup></a> We can now be at
+no loss to understand what Mr Bailey
+means, and conceives Berkeley to
+mean, by the expression &quot;mere internal
+feelings.&quot; He evidently means feelings
+in which no kind of extension whatever
+is involved: for, in the next page,
+he informs us that all visual extension
+or extended figure, &quot;<i>must</i> be apprehended
+as either plane or solid, and
+that it is impossible even to conceive
+it otherwise.&quot; Consequently, if the
+figures we see are, as Berkeley says,
+apprehended neither as plane nor as
+solid, Mr Bailey, entertaining the notions
+he does on the subject of extension,
+<i>must</i> regard him as holding that
+they cannot be apprehended as extended
+at all&mdash;and accordingly such is
+the express representation he gives of
+the theory in the passage just quoted,
+where he says that &quot;the doctrine of
+Berkeley, which affirms that the figures
+we see are neither plane nor solid,
+(that is, are extended in <i>no</i> direction,
+according to Mr Bailey's ideas of extension,)
+appears to him to be <i>a part</i>
+of the doctrine which asserts that visible
+objects are only internal feelings.&quot;
+Now if that be not teaching, in the
+plainest terms, that, according to Berkeley,
+no species of extension is implied
+in the internal feelings of vision, we
+know not what language means, and
+any one thought may be identical with
+its very opposite.</p>
+
+<p>Here we might let the subject drop,
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page765" id="page765" title="765"></a></span> having, as we conceive, said quite
+enough to prove the truth of our allegation
+that, in reference to the first
+question discussed, in which our original
+visual sensations are represented
+by Berkeley to be mere internal feelings,
+Mr Bailey understood and stated
+those feelings to signify sensations in
+which no perception of extension
+whatever was involved. However, as
+Mr Bailey further remarks that, &quot;although
+Berkeley's doctrine about visible
+figures being neither plane not
+solid, is thus consistent with his assertion
+that they are internal feelings, it
+is in itself contradictory,&quot;<a name="footnotetag34" id="footnotetag34"></a><a href="#footnote34"><sup>34</sup></a> we shall
+contribute a few remarks to show that
+while, on the one hand, the negation
+of extension is not required to vindicate
+the consistency of Berkeley's assertion,
+that visible objects are internal
+feelings, neither, on the other
+hand, is there any contradiction in
+Berkeley's holding that objects are not
+seen either as planes or as solids, and
+are yet apprehended as extended. Mr
+Bailey alleges that we are &quot;far more
+successful in involving ourselves in
+subtle speculations of our own, than in
+faithfully guiding our readers through
+the theories of other philosophers.&quot;
+Perhaps in the present case we shall
+be able to thread a labyrinth where our
+reviewer has lost his clue, and, in spite
+of the apparent contradiction by which
+Mr Bailey has been gravelled, we shall,
+perhaps, be more successful than he in
+&quot;collecting Berkeley's meaning from
+the whole sum and tenour of his discourse.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>First, with regard to the contradiction
+charged upon the bishop. When
+we open our eyes, what do we behold?
+We behold points&mdash;<i>minima visibilia</i>&mdash;out
+of one another. Do we
+see these points to be in the same
+plane? Certainly not. If they are in
+the same plane we learn this from a
+very different experience from that of
+sight. Again, do we see these points
+to be <i>not</i> in the same plane? Certainly
+not. If the points are not in the
+same plane we learn this, too, from a
+very different experience than that of
+sight. All that we see is that the
+points are out of one another; and
+this simply implies the perception of
+extension, without implying the perception
+either of plane or of solid extension.
+Thus by the observation of a
+very obvious fact, which, however, Mr
+Bailey has overlooked, is Berkeley's
+assertion that visible objects are apprehended
+as extended, and yet not apprehended
+either as planes or solids, relieved
+from every appearance of contradiction.</p>
+
+<p>It must, however, be admitted that
+Mr Bailey has much to justify him in his
+opinion that extension must be apprehended
+either as plane or as solid. None
+of Berkeley's followers, we believe, have
+ever dreamt of conceiving it otherwise,
+and finding in their master's work the
+negation of solid extension specially
+insisted on, they leapt to the conclusion
+that the bishop admitted the original
+perception of plane extension.
+But Berkeley makes no such admission.
+He places the perception of
+plane extension on precisely the same
+footing with that of solid extension.
+&quot;We see planes,&quot; says he, &quot;in the
+same way that we see solids.&quot;<a name="footnotetag35" id="footnotetag35"></a><a href="#footnote35"><sup>35</sup></a> And
+the wisdom of the averment is obvious;
+for the affirmation of plane extension
+involves the negation of solid extension,
+but this negation involves the
+conception (visually derived) of solid
+extension; but the admission of that
+conception, so derived, would be fatal
+to the Berkeleian theory. Therefore
+its author wisely avoids the danger by
+holding, that in vision we have merely
+the perception of what the Germans
+would call the <i>Auseinanderseyn</i>, that is,
+the <i>asunderness</i>, of things&mdash;a perception
+which implies no judgment as to whether
+the things are secerned in plane
+or in protensive space.</p>
+
+<p>With regard to the supposition that,
+in order to preserve Berkeley's consistency,
+it was necessary for him to
+teach that our visual sensations, (colours
+namely,) being internal feelings,
+could involve the perception neither
+of plane nor of solid extension, that is
+to say, of no extension at all, according
+to Mr Bailey's ideas, we shall
+merely remark, that there appears to
+us to be no inconsistency in holding,
+as Berkeley does, that these colours,
+though originally internal to the sight,
+are nevertheless perceived as extended
+among themselves.</p>
+
+<p>We shall now say a few words on
+the <i>relevancy</i> of the question, for Mr
+Bailey denies that this question, concerning
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page766" id="page766" title="766"></a></span> the reciprocal outness of visible
+objects, ought to form any element
+in the controversy. We shall show,
+however, that one of his most important
+arguments depends entirely on the
+view that may be taken of this question;
+and that while the argument
+alluded to would be utterly fatal to
+Berkeley's theory, if the perception of
+reciprocal outness were denied, it is
+perfectly harmless if the perception in
+question be admitted.</p>
+
+<p>Mr Bailey's fundamental and reiterated
+objection to Berkeley's theory is,
+that it requires us to hold that conceptions
+or past impressions, derived
+from one sense, (the touch,) are not
+merely recalled when another sense
+(the sight) executes its functions, but
+are themselves absolutely converted
+into the present intuitions of that
+other sense. In his own words, (<i>Review</i>,
+p. 69,) the theory is said to require
+&quot;a transmutation of the conceptions
+derived from touch into the perceptions
+of sight.&quot; &quot;According to
+Berkeley, (says he, <i>Review</i>, p. 22,) an
+internal feeling (<i>i.e.</i> a visual sensation)
+and an external sensation (<i>i.e.</i> a tactual
+sensation) having been experienced
+at the same time: the internal feeling,
+when it afterwards occurs, not only
+suggests the idea, but, by doing so, suggests
+the idea, or, if I may use the figure,
+infuses the perception of its own
+externality. Berkeley thus attributes
+to suggestion an effect contrary to its
+nature, which, as in the case of language,
+is simply to revive in our conception
+what has been previously perceived
+by the sense.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Now, this objection would be altogether
+insurmountable if it were true,
+or if it were a part of Berkeley's doctrine,
+that the sight has no original
+intuition of space, or of the reciprocal
+outness of its objects&mdash;in other words,
+of colours out of colours; for it being
+admitted that the sight has ultimately
+such a perception, it would be incumbent
+on the Berkeleian to show how
+conceptions derived from another sense,
+or how perceptions belonging to another
+sense, could be converted into
+that perception. We agree with Mr
+Bailey, in thinking that no process of
+association could effect this conversion;
+that if we did not originally see
+colours to be out of each other, and
+the points of the same colour to be
+out of each other, we could never so
+see them; and that his argument, when
+thus based on the negation of all original
+visual extension, and on the
+supposition that the touch is the sole
+organ of every species of externality,
+would remain invulnerable.</p>
+
+<p>But, with the admission of the visual
+intuition of space, the objection vanishes,
+and the argument is shorn of
+all its strength. This admission relieves
+the theory from the necessity of
+maintaining, that conceptions derived
+from touch are transmuted into the
+perceptions of sight. It attributes to
+the sight all that ever truly belongs
+to it, namely, the perception of colours
+out of one another; it provides the
+visual intuitions with an externality of
+their own&mdash;and the theory never demands
+that they should acquire any
+other; and it leaves to these visual
+intuitions the office of merely suggesting
+to the mind tactual impressions,
+with which they have been invariably
+associated in place. We say, <i>in place</i>;
+and it will be found that there is no
+contradiction in our saying so, when
+we shall have shown that it is the
+touch, and not the sight, which establishes
+a protensive interval between
+the organ and the sensations of vision.</p>
+
+<p>Visible extension, then, or the perception
+of colours external to colours,
+being admitted, Mr Bailey's argument,
+if he still adheres to it, must be presented
+to us in this form. He must
+maintain that the theory requires that
+the objects of touch should not only
+be suggested by the visual objects with
+which they have been associated, but
+that they should actually be <i>seen</i>. And
+then he must maintain that no power
+of association can enable us to see an
+object which can only be touched&mdash;a
+position which, certainly, no one will
+controvert. The simple answer to all
+which, is, that we never do see tangible
+objects&mdash;that the theory never
+requires we should, and that no power
+of association is necessary to account
+for a phenomenon which never takes
+place.</p>
+
+<p>We cannot help thinking, that not a
+little of the misconception on this subject
+which prevails in the writings of
+Mr Bailey, and, we may add, of many
+other philosophers, originates in the
+supposition that we identify vision with
+the eye in the mere act of seeing, and
+in their taking it for granted that sight
+of itself informs us that we possess
+such an organ as the eye. Of course,
+if we suppose that we know instinctively,
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page767" id="page767" title="767"></a></span> or intuitively, from the mere
+act of seeing, that the eye is the organ
+of vision, that it forms a part of the
+body we behold, and is located in the
+head, it requires no conjurer to prove
+that we <i>must</i> have an instinctive, or
+intuitive, knowledge of visible things
+as larger than that organ, and, consequently,
+as external to it. In this
+case, no process of association is necessary
+to account for our knowledge
+of the distance of objects. That
+knowledge must be directly given in
+the very function and exercise of vision,
+as every one will admit, without
+going to the expense of an octavo
+volume to have it proved.</p>
+
+<p>But we hold that no truth in mental
+philosophy is more incontestable than
+this, that the sight originally, and of
+itself, furnishes us with no knowledge
+of the eye, as we <i>now</i> know that organ
+to exist. It does not inform us that
+we have an eye at all. And here we
+may hazard an observation, which,
+simple as it is, appears to us to be
+new, and not unimportant in aiding us
+to unravel the mysteries of sensation;
+which observation is, that, in no case
+whatever, does any sense inform us of
+the existence of its appropriate organ,
+or of the relation which subsists between
+that organ and its objects, but
+that the interposition of some other
+sense<a name="footnotetag36" id="footnotetag36"></a><a href="#footnote36"><sup>36</sup></a> is invariably required to give us
+this information. This truth, which
+we believe holds good with regard to
+all the senses, is most strikingly exemplified
+in the case of vision, as we shall
+now endeavour to illustrate.</p>
+
+<p>Let us begin by supposing that man
+is a mere &quot;power of seeing&quot;. Under
+this supposition, we must hold that
+the periphery of vision is one and the
+same with the periphery of visible
+space; and the two peripheries being
+identical, of course whatever objects
+lie within the sphere of the one must
+lie within the sphere of the other also.
+Perhaps, strictly speaking, it is wrong
+to say that these objects are apprehended
+as internal to the sight; for
+the conception of internality implies
+the conception of externality, and neither
+of these conceptions can, as yet,
+be realized. But it is obvious what
+the expression <i>internal</i> means; and it
+is unobjectionable, when understood
+to signify that the Seeing Power, the
+Seeing Act, and the Seen Things, co-exist
+in a synthesis in which there is
+no interval or discrimination. For,
+suppose that we know instinctively
+that the seen things occupy a locality
+separate from the sight. But that implies
+that we instinctively know that
+the sight occupies a locality separate
+from them. But such a supposition
+is a falling back upon the notion just
+reprobated, that the mere act of seeing
+can indicate its own organ, or can
+localise the visual phenomena in the
+eye&mdash;a position which, we presume, no
+philosopher will be hardy enough to
+maintain, when called upon to do so,
+broadly and unequivocally. The conclusion,
+therefore, is irresistible, that,
+in mere vision, the sight and its objects
+cling together in a union or synthesis,
+which no function of that sense, and
+no knowledge imparted to us by it,
+(and, according to the supposition, we
+have, as yet, no other knowledge,) can
+enable us to discriminate or dissolve.
+Where the seeing is, there is the thing
+seen, and where the thing seen is,
+there is the seeing of it.</p>
+
+<p>But man is not a mere seeing animal.
+He has other senses besides: He has,
+for example, the sense of touch, and
+one of the most important offices which
+this sense performs, is to break up the
+identity or cohesion which subsists between
+sight and its objects. And how?
+We answer, by teaching us to associate
+<i>vision in general</i>, or the abstract <i>condition</i>
+regulating our visual impressions,
+with the presence of the small tangible
+body we call the eye, and <i>vision in
+particular</i>, or the individual sensations
+of vision, (<i>i.e.</i> colours,) with the presence
+of immeasurably larger bodies
+revealed to us by touch, and tangibly
+external to the tangible eye. Sight,
+as we have said, does not inform us
+that its sensations are situated in the
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page768" id="page768" title="768"></a></span> eye: it does not inform us that we
+have an eye at all. Neither does
+touch inform us that our visual sensations
+are located in the eye. It does
+not lead us to associate with the eye any
+of the visual phenomena or operations
+<i>in the first instance</i>. If it did, it would
+(<i>firstly</i>) either be impossible for it
+<i>afterwards</i> to induce us to associate
+them with the presence of tangible
+bodies distant and different from the
+eye: or, (<i>secondly</i>), such an association
+would merely give birth to the
+abstract knowledge or conclusion, that
+these bodies were in one place, while
+the sensations suggesting them were
+felt to be associated with something in
+another place; colour would not be
+seen&mdash;as it is&mdash;incarnated with body:
+or, (<i>thirdly</i>), we should be compelled
+to postulate for the eye, as many philosophers
+have done, in our opinion,
+most unwarrantably, &quot;a faculty of
+projection&quot;<a name="footnotetag37" id="footnotetag37"></a><a href="#footnote37"><sup>37</sup></a> by which it might dissolve
+the association between itself and its
+sensations, throwing off the latter in
+the form of colours over the surface
+of things, and reversing the old Epicurean
+doctrine that perception is kept
+up by the transit to the sensorium of
+the ghosts or <i>simulacra</i> of things,</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>Qu&aelig;, quasi membran&aelig;, summo de corpore rerum,</p>
+<p>Dirept&aelig;, volitant ultro citroque per auras.<a name="footnotetag38" id="footnotetag38"></a><a href="#footnote38"><sup>38</sup></a></p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>It is difficult to say whether the hypothesis
+of &quot;cast-off films&quot; is more
+absurd when we make the films come
+from things to us as spectral effluxes, or
+go from us to them in the semblance
+of colours.</p>
+
+<p>But according to the present view
+no such incomprehensible faculty, no
+such crude and untenable hypothesis,
+is required. <i>Before</i> the touch has informed
+us that we have an eye, <i>before</i>
+it has led us to associate any thing
+visual with the eye, it has <i>already</i>
+taught us to associate in place the
+sensations of vision (colours) with the
+presence of tangible objects which are
+not the eye. Therefore, when the
+touch discovers the eye, and induces
+us to associate vision in some way
+with it, it cannot be the particular
+sensations of vision called colours
+which it leads us to associate with that
+organ; for these have been already associated
+with something very different.
+If it be not colours, then what is it
+that the touch compels us to associate
+with the eye? We answer that it is
+the abstract <i>condition</i> of impressions as
+the general law on which all seeing
+depends, but as quite distinct from
+the particular visual sensations apprehended
+in virtue of the observance of
+that law.</p>
+
+<p>Nor is it at all difficult to understand
+how this general condition comes to
+be associated with the eye, and how
+the particular visual sensations come
+to be associated with something
+distant from the eye: and further,
+how this association of the condition
+with one thing, and of the sensations
+with another thing, (an association
+established by the touch and not
+by the sight,) dissolves the primary
+synthesis of seeing and colours. It is
+to be observed that there are two
+stages in the process by which this secernment
+is brought about&mdash;<i>First</i>, the
+stage in which the visual phenomena
+are associated with things different from
+the organ of vision, the very existence
+of which is as yet unknown. Let us
+suppose, then, the function of sight to
+be in operation. We behold a visible
+object&mdash;a particular colour. Let the
+touch now come into play. We feel
+a tangible object&mdash;say a book. Now
+from the mere fact of the visible and
+the tangible object being seen and felt
+together, we could not associate them
+in place; for it is quite possible that
+the tangible object may admit of being
+withdrawn, and yet the visible object
+remain: and if so, no association of
+the two in place can be established.
+But this is a point that can only be
+determined by experience; and what
+says that wise instructor? We withdraw
+the tangible object. The visible
+object, too, disappears: it leaves its
+place. We replace the tangible object&mdash;the
+visible object reappears <i>in
+statu quo</i>. There is no occasion to
+vary the experiment. If we find that
+the visible object invariably leaves its
+place when the tangible object leaves
+its, and that the one invariably comes
+back when the other returns, we have
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page769" id="page769" title="769"></a></span> brought forward quite enough to establish
+an inevitable association in place
+between the two. The two places
+are henceforth regarded, not as two,
+but as one and the same.</p>
+
+<p>By the aid of the touch, then, we
+have associated the visual phenomena
+with thing which are <i>not</i> the organ of
+vision; and well it is for us that we
+have done so betimes, and before we
+were aware of the eye's existence.
+Had the eye been indicated to us in
+the mere act of seeing; had we become
+apprised of its existence <i>before</i>
+we had associated our visual
+sensations with the tangible objects
+constituting the material universe, the
+probability, nay the certainty, is that
+we would have associated them with
+this eye, and that then it would have
+been as impossible for us to break
+up the association between colours
+and the organ, as it now is for us to
+dissolve the union between colours and
+material things. In which case we
+should have remained blind, or as bad
+as blind; brightness would have been
+in the eye when it ought to have been
+in the sun; greenness would have
+been in the retina when it ought to
+have been in the grass. A most wise
+provision of nature it certainly is, by
+which our visual sensations are disposed
+of in the right way before we obtain
+any knowledge of the eye. And
+most wisely has nature seconded her
+own scheme by obscuring all the
+sources from which that knowledge
+might be derived. The light eyelids&mdash;the
+effortless muscular apparatus performing
+its ministrations so gently as to
+be almost unfelt&mdash;the tactual sensations
+so imperceptible when the eye is left
+to its own motions, so keen when it is
+invaded by an exploring finger, and so
+anxious to avoid all contact by which
+the existence of the organ might be
+betrayed. All these are so many means
+adopted by nature to keep back from
+the infant seer all knowledge of his
+own eye&mdash;a knowledge which, if developed
+prematurely, would have perverted
+the functions, if not rendered nugatory
+the very existence of the organ.</p>
+
+<p>But, <i>secondly</i>, we have to consider the
+stage of the process in which vision is
+in some way associated with an object
+which is <i>not</i> any of the things with
+which the visual sensations are connected.
+It is clear that the process is
+not completed&mdash;that our task, which is
+to dissolve the primary synthesis of
+vision and its phenomena, is but half
+executed, unless such an object be
+found. For though we have associated
+the visual sensations (colours)
+with something different from themselves,
+still vision clings to them without
+a hair's-breadth of interval and
+pursues them whithersoever they go.
+As far, then, as we have yet gone, it
+cannot be said that our vision is felt or
+known to be distanced from the fixed
+stars even by the diameter of a grain of
+sand. The synthesis of sight and colour
+is not yet discriminated. How,
+then, is the interval interposed? We
+answer, by the discovery of a tangible
+object in a different place from any of
+the tangible objects associated with
+colour; and then by associating, in
+some way or other, the operations of
+vision with this object. Such an object
+is discovered in the eye. Now, as
+has frequently been said, we cannot
+associate colours or the visual sensations
+with this eye; for these have been
+already disposed of otherwise. What,
+then, do we associate with it&mdash;and how?
+We find, upon experiment, that our apprehension
+of the various visual sensations
+depends on the presence and particular
+location of this small tangible
+body. We find that the whole array of
+visual phenomena disappear when it is
+tactually covered, that they reappear
+when it is reopened, and so forth.
+Thus we come in some way to associate
+vision with it&mdash;not as colour,
+however, not as visual sensation. We
+regard the organ and its dispositions
+merely as a general condition regulating
+the apprehension of the visual
+sensations, and no more.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, by attending to the two associations
+that occur,&mdash;the association
+(in place) of visual sensations with
+tangible bodies that <i>are not</i> the eye;
+and the association (in place) of vision
+with a small tangible body that <i>is</i> the
+eye&mdash;the eye regarded as the condition
+on which the apprehension of
+these sensations depends; by attending
+to these, we can understand how
+a protensive interval comes to be recognised
+between the organ and its
+objects. By means of the touch, we
+have associated the sensations of vision
+with tangible bodies in one place,
+and the apprehension of these sensations
+with a tangible body in another
+place. It is, therefore, impossible for
+the sight to dissolve these associations,
+and bring the sensations out of the
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page770" id="page770" title="770"></a></span> one place where they are felt, into
+the other place where the <i>condition</i> of
+their apprehension resides. The sight
+is, therefore, compelled to leave the
+sensations where they are, and the
+apprehension of them where it is;
+and to recognize the two as sundered
+from each other&mdash;the sensations as
+separated from the organ, which they
+truly are. Thus it is that we would
+explain the origin of the perception
+of distance by the eye; believing firmly
+that the sight would never have
+discerned this distance without the
+mediation of the touch.</p>
+
+<p>Rightly to understand the foregoing
+reasoning&mdash;indeed to advance a single
+step in the true philosophy of sensation&mdash;we
+much divest ourselves of the
+prejudice instilled into us by a false
+physiology, that what we call our organism,
+or, in plain words, our body, is
+necessarily <i>the seat</i> of our sensations.
+That all our sensations come to be
+associated <i>in some way</i> with this body,
+and that some of them even come to
+be associated with it <i>in place</i>, is undeniable;
+but so far is it from being
+true, that they are all essentially implicated
+or incorporated with it, and
+cannot exist at a distance from it, that
+we have a direct proof to the contrary
+in our sensations of vision; and
+until the physiologist can prove (what
+has never yet been proven) an <i>&agrave; priori</i>
+necessity that our sensations must be
+where our bodies are, and an <i>&agrave; priori</i>
+absurdity in the contrary supposition,
+he must excuse us for resolutely standing
+by the fact as we find it.</p>
+
+<p>This is a view which admits of much
+discussion, and we would gladly expatiate
+upon the subject, did time and
+space permit; but we must content
+ourselves with winding up the present
+observations with the accompanying
+diagram, which we think explains our
+view beyond the possibility of a mistake.</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp; A &nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>B<i>a</i></td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td><i>&aacute;</i>C</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Let A be the original synthesis, or
+indiscrimination of vision and its sensations&mdash;of
+light and colours. Let <i>&aacute;</i>
+be the visual sensations locally associated
+by means of the touch with the
+tangible bodies C <i>before</i> vision is in
+any way associated with B&mdash;before,
+indeed, we have any knowledge of the
+existence of B. Then let <i>a</i>, the general
+condition on which the sensations,
+<i>after a time</i>, are found to depend,
+and in virtue of which they are
+apprehended, be locally associated
+with B&mdash;the eye discovered by means
+of the touch&mdash;and we have before us
+what we cannot help regarding as a
+complete <i>rationale</i> of the whole phenomena
+and mysteries of vision. Now,
+the great difference between this view
+of the subject and the views of it that
+have been taken by <i>every</i> other philosopher,
+consists in this, that whereas
+their explanations invariably implicated
+the visual sensations <i>&aacute;</i> with B from
+the very first, thereby rendering it
+either impossible for them to be afterwards
+associated with C, or possible
+only in virtue of some very extravagant
+hypothesis&mdash;our explanation, on
+the contrary, proceeding on a simple
+observation of the facts, and never
+implicating the sensations <i>&aacute;</i> with B at
+all, but associating them with C <i>&agrave; primordiis</i>,
+merely leaving to be associated
+with B, <i>a</i>, a certain general condition
+that must be complied with, in
+order that the sensations <i>&aacute;</i> may be
+apprehended,&mdash;in this way, we say, our
+explanation contrives to steer clear
+both of the impossibility and the hypothesis.</p>
+
+<p>We would just add by way of postscript
+to this article&mdash;which, perhaps,
+ought itself to have been only a postscript&mdash;that
+with regard to Mr Bailey's
+allegation of our having plagiarised
+one of his arguments, merely turning
+the coat of it outside in, we can assure
+him that he is labouring under a mistake.
+In our former paper, we remarked
+that we could not see things
+to be <i>out</i> of the sight, because we
+could not see the sight itself. Mr
+Bailey alleges, that this argument is
+borrowed from him, being a mere reversal
+of his reasoning, that we cannot
+see things to be <i>in</i> the sight, because
+we cannot see both the sight
+and the things. That our argument
+might very naturally have been suggested
+by his, we admit. But it was
+not so. We had either overlooked
+the passage in his book, or it was clean
+out of our mind when we were pondering
+our own speculations. It did
+not suggest our argument, either nearly
+or remotely. Had it done so, we
+should certainly have noticed it, and
+should probably have handled both
+Mr Bailey's reasoning and our own
+to better purpose, in consequence.
+If, notwithstanding this disclaimer,
+he still thinks that appearances are
+against us, we cannot mend his faith,
+but can merely repeat, that the fact
+is as we have stated it.</p>
+
+<hr class="full">
+
+
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page771" id="page771" title="771"></a></span>
+<a name="bw332s7" id="bw332s7"></a><h2>THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD.</h2>
+
+<h3>WITH THIRTY-TWO ILLUSTRATIONS, BY WILLIAM MULREADY, R.A.</h3>
+
+<p>In a review we made last January
+of Goldsmith's &quot;Deserted Village,&quot;
+illustrated by the Etching Club, we
+concluded our notice with recommending
+to those able artists the
+&quot;Vicar of Wakefield;&quot; and expressed
+a hope that Mr Maclise would
+lend his powerful aid, having in our
+recollection some very happy illustrations
+of his hand in pictures exhibited
+at the Royal Academy Exhibition.</p>
+
+<p>What the Etching Club are about,
+we know not; but the subject has
+been taken up by Mr Mulready; and
+we now feel it incumbent upon us to
+notice this new and illustrated edition
+of that immortal work. Immortal it
+must be; manners pass away, modes
+change, but the fashion of the heart
+of man is unalterable. The &quot;Vicar
+of Wakefield&quot; bears the stamp of the
+age in which it was written. Had it
+been laid aside by the author, discovered,
+and now first brought out,
+without a notice of the author, or of
+the time of its composition, received it
+must have been indeed with delight,
+but not as belonging to the present
+day. It differs in its literature and its
+manners. It is at once a most happy
+work for illustration, and the most
+difficult. It is universally known.
+Who has not shed previous and heart-improving
+tears over it? Taking up
+the tale now, for the hundredth time,
+we are become, from somewhat morose,
+tender as a lamb&mdash;propitious
+condition for a critic! We opened
+upon the scene where Mr Burchell
+so cruelly tries poor Sophia, by offering
+her a husband in Mr Jenkinson;
+we know the whole transaction perfectly,
+the bitter joke, the proposal</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p class="i6">&quot;impares</p>
+<p>Formas atque animas in juga ahenea</p>
+<p>S&aelig;vo mittere cum joco.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Yet how strangely are we moved!
+Had the taxman at the moment called
+for the income-tax, he would have
+concluded we were paying the last
+farthing of our principal. What art
+is this in a writer, that he should by
+one and the same passage continue to
+move his readers, though they know
+the trick! Readers, too, that would
+have turned the cold shoulder to real
+tales of greater distress, and met suspicion
+that all was a cheat halfway;
+but the acknowledged fictitious they
+yield to at once their whole hearts,
+throwing to the winds their beggarly
+stint. Never was there a writer that
+possessed to so great a degree as did
+Goldsmith this wondrous charm; and
+in him it is the more delightful in the
+light and pleasant <i>allegria</i> with which
+he works off the feeling. The volume
+is full of subjects that so move; and
+in this respect it is most admirable for
+illustration, inviting the ablest powers.
+But the difficulty, wherein does that
+lie? Look at all illustrations that have
+hitherto appeared in print, and you cry
+out to all&mdash;Away with the failure!
+Certain it is that but slender abilities
+have been hitherto employed; and
+when we hear of better artists coming
+to the undertaking, we are hardened
+against them. And then, how few
+come fresh to the tale. To those
+who do, perhaps a new illustration
+may have a tenfold charm; but to
+any one past five-and-twenty, it must
+come &quot;with a difference.&quot; It is very
+difficult to reconcile one to a new Dr
+Primrose, a new Mrs Primrose.
+Beauty ever had the power of beauty,
+and takes us suddenly; we can more
+readily dismiss the old idea and
+pitch on the new, so that the Miss
+Primroses are more reconcilable and
+transferable creatures, than the Vicar
+and his wife, or the incomparable
+Moses and the unyielding Mr Burchell.
+We cannot pretend to tell how
+all these characters would have fitted
+their images given by Mr Mulready,
+had the work now first come into our
+hands. As it is, we can only say
+they are new to us. It requires time
+to reconcile this. In the meanwhile
+we must take it for granted, that they
+actually do represent those in Mr
+Mulready's vision, and he is a clear-sighted
+man, and has been accustomed
+to look into character well. His
+name as the illustrator, gave promise
+of success. Well do we remember
+an early picture by him&mdash;entitled, we
+believe, the Wolf and the Lamb. It
+represented two schoolboys&mdash;the bully,
+and the more tender fatherless child.
+The history in that little picture was
+quite of the manner of Goldsmith. The
+orphan boy's face we never can forget,
+not the whole expression of his
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page772" id="page772" title="772"></a></span> slender form, though it is many years
+ago that we saw the picture. So that
+when the name of Mulready appeared
+as illustrator, we said at once, That
+will do&mdash;down came the book, and
+here it is before us. The pages have
+been turned over again and again.
+We cannot, nevertheless, quite reconcile
+our ideas to the new Dr and Mrs
+Primrose; but in attempting to do so,
+so many real artistical beauties have
+beamed from the pages, that we determined
+at once to pour out our
+hearts to Maga, and turn over page
+after page once more. The illustrations
+are thirty-two in number; one
+to head each chapter, though, and
+which we think a defect, the subject
+of the illustration is not always in
+the chapter at the head of which it is.
+The first is the choice of a wife&mdash;&quot;and
+chose my wife as she did her
+wedding-gown.&quot; The intended bride
+is a very beautiful graceful figure,
+with a most sweet simplicity of countenance.
+This never could have resembled
+Mrs Deborah Primrose; the
+outline is most easy and graceful, even
+as one of Raffaelle's pure and lovely
+beings. The youth of the bride and
+bridegroom, fresh in their hopes of
+years of happiness, is happily contrasted
+with the staid age of the respectable
+tradesman, evidently one of honest
+trade and industrious habits&mdash;the fair
+dealer, one of the old race before the
+days of &quot;immense sacrifices&quot; brought
+goods and men into disrepute. The
+little group is charming; every line
+assists another, and make a perfect
+whole.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Dispute between the Vicar
+and Mr Wilmot.&quot;&mdash;&quot;This, as may be
+expected, produced a dispute, attended
+with some acrimony.&quot; Old Wilmot
+is capital; there is acrimony in his
+face, and combativeness in his fists&mdash;both
+clenching confidently his own
+argument, and ready for action; the
+very drawing back of one leg, and
+protrusion of the other, is indicative
+of testy impatience. The vicar is a
+little too loose and slovenly, both in
+attitude and attire; the uniting of the
+figures (artistically speaking) is with
+Mr Mulready's usual ability.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Rescue of Sophia from
+Drowning by Mr Burchell.&quot;&mdash;&quot;She
+must have certainly perished, had not
+my companion, perceiving her danger,
+instantly plunged in to her relief.&quot;
+This is altogether a failure, yet it is a
+good subject; nor has Mr Mulready
+been at all happy in the female beauty.
+The vicar stands upon the bank too
+apathetic; and the group in the vehicle,
+crossing the stream above, seem
+scarcely conscious of the event, though
+they are within sight of it. Mr Mulready
+has here, too, neglected his
+text. Sophia fell from her horse; all
+the party set out on horseback; there
+is no carriage mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Vicar at Home, with Neighbour
+Flamborough and the Piper.&quot;&mdash;&quot;These
+harmless people had several
+ways of being good company; while
+one played, the other would sing some
+soothing ballad.&quot; The happy father,
+with his children climbing up his chair,
+and clinging to him, is a beautiful
+group, and quite worthy of Mr Mulready's
+pencil.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Squire Thornhill.&quot;&mdash;&quot;At last a
+young gentleman, of a more genteel
+appearance than the rest, came forward,
+and for a while regarding us,
+instead of pursuing the chase, stopped
+short, and giving his horse to a servant
+who attended, approached us
+with a careless, superior air.&quot; The
+family are sweetly grouped&mdash;the story
+well told&mdash;the easy assurance of the
+squire undeniable. The father holds
+his two boys, one on his lap, the other
+between his knees; but is he &quot;<i>the</i>
+vicar?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr Burchell and Sophia&quot;&mdash;A
+most charming illustration. It is the
+haymaking scene. &quot;I could not avoid,
+however, observing the assiduity of
+Mr Burchell, in assisting my daughter
+Sophia in her part of the task.&quot;
+Sophia is a lovely creature, just what
+she should be. We are not quite
+sure of Mr Burchell: possibly he may
+look too young; he was a character,
+and must have borne about him some
+little acquired oddity, sturdy, and not
+undignified. In the illustration he is
+too prettily genteel; but we do not
+wish to see any but Sophia&mdash;delightful,
+loving, lovable Sophia. In the
+background, Moses lies on the ground
+with his book, and the vicar has rather
+too suspicious a look; but we can forgive
+him that, and, for Sophia's sake,
+forgive Mr Mulready that he has
+paid less attention to her admirer&mdash;for
+at present he is no more. But his
+admiration is better, and more to the
+purpose than other men's love.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Moses defeated in Argument, or
+rather borne down by the arrogant,
+ignorant volubility of the Squire.&quot;&mdash;&quot;This
+effectually raised the laugh
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page773" id="page773" title="773"></a></span> against poor Moses.&quot; It is well
+grouped; but the only successful
+figure is Moses. The squire is not
+the well-dressed, designing profligate.
+If the story were not well told by the
+grouping, we might have taken the
+squire for an itinerant &quot;lecturer.&quot;
+The squire is so prominent a person
+in the tale, that we think there should
+have been a well-studied representation
+of the accomplished villain and
+fine gentleman.</p>
+
+<p>No. 8.&mdash;Beyond the skill in grouping,
+Mr Mulready has not attempted
+any great interest in this illustration.
+It represents the family, with their
+friend Burchell, interrupted in their
+enjoyment by the chaplain, or rather
+the chaplain's gun; for that only presents
+its muzzle. &quot;So loud a report,
+and so near, startled my daughters;
+and I could perceive that Sophia, in
+the fright, had thrown herself into Mr
+Burchell's arms for protection.&quot; We
+do not recognize the alarmed and
+lovely Sophia&mdash;here she might be any
+miss; so that the greatest miss is Mr
+Mulready's, for he has missed an opportunity
+of showing the beauty of
+the sweet sisters in alarm. In this
+chapter, we have Goldsmith's delightful
+ballad, &quot;Turn, gentle hermit of
+the dale.&quot; Surely this was worthy
+an illustration or two; and if Mr Mulready
+felt himself confined to the
+heads of chapters, might he not, for
+once, have made his digression from
+the tale, as Goldsmith has done, and
+given us that charming episode?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Family Group on Horseback,
+going to Church.&quot;&mdash;&quot;And
+when I got about halfway home, perceived
+the procession marching slowly
+forward towards the church.&quot; &quot;The
+colt that had been nine years in the
+family, and Blackberry, his companion,&quot;
+are not the best horse-flesh.
+Mr Mulready does not draw the horse
+like Mr Herring; so, having failed in
+the feet of the colt, he has, though
+rather awkwardly, hidden Blackberry's
+behind a convenient stone, which
+yet makes us fear that the &quot;family
+pride&quot; will have a fall, and spare the
+Vicar's reproof. The party on Blackberry
+is good; and the patient, blind
+face of the animal is well attempted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Visit to Neighbour Flamborough's
+on Michaelmas Eve.&quot;&mdash;&quot;But
+previously I should have mentioned
+the very impolitic behaviour of
+Mr Burchell, who, during this discourse,
+sat with his face turned to
+the fire; and, at the conclusion of
+every sentence, would cry out,
+'Fudge!'&quot; This is scarcely the subject
+of the illustration, for Mr Burchell
+is quite in the background. We
+should like to have seen his face. Miss
+Carolina Wilhelmina Amelia Skeggs
+is good; Lady Blarney is not the
+overdressed and overacting peeress.
+The whole is very nicely grouped.
+Perhaps we are not so pleased with
+this illustration, remembering Maclise's
+more finished picture of the
+subject.</p>
+
+<p>Moses departing for the &quot;Fair.&quot;
+Hopeful and confident are the group,
+and not least so Moses himself. We
+fancy we recognize in Moses a similar
+figure in a sweet picture exhibited
+last year by Mr Stonhouse, one of the
+&quot;Etching Club.&quot; We are not quite
+satisfied  with the other figures&mdash;they
+all hide their faces, as well they might,
+for their simplicity in trusting to the
+&quot;discreet boy&quot; that can &quot;buy and
+sell to very good advantage&quot;&mdash;so off
+go Moses and the colt that had been
+nine years in the family. &quot;We all
+followed him several paces from the
+door, bawling after him good-luck! good-luck!
+till we  could see him no longer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>No. 12 exhibits simplicity upon a
+larger scale, and shows the head of
+the family, verifying the old proverb,
+&quot;like father like son&quot;&mdash;though it
+should be here like son like father.
+The colt was fitly turned over to the
+son, grave blind Blackberry was a
+horse for the father's art and wisdom.
+&quot;By this time I began to have a most
+hearty contempt for the poor animal
+myself, and was almost alarmed at
+the approach of every customer.&quot;
+Poor Blackberry! He is quite conscious
+of his depreciation; he is a wise animal,
+and can see that &quot;with half an
+eye.&quot; Alas! we fear he has not that half.
+Blackberry is good&mdash;yet will he
+sell for nothing; how patiently he lets
+them handle his leg, and a handle it
+is; we can imagine the creature thinking,
+&quot;pray, sir, would you like to look
+at the other poor thing of a leg?&quot;
+The rascally Fair, in which Mr Mulready
+has shown, according to his
+author, that the Vicar ought not to
+have been, is well given; but we
+should have liked a full length portrait
+of Mr Jenkinson pronouncing
+<span class="greek" title="Anarchon ara kai atelentaion to pan.">&Alpha;&nu;&alpha;&rho;&chi;&omicron;&nu; &alpha;&rho;&alpha; &kappa;&alpha;&iota; &alpha;&tau;&epsilon;&lambda;&epsilon;&nu;&tau;&alpha;&iota;&omicron;&nu; &tau;&omicron; &pi;&alpha;&nu;</span>.
+
+<p>The reading the letter, the well-known
+letter of Mr Burchell to &quot;The
+Ladies.&quot; &quot;There seemed, indeed,
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page774" id="page774" title="774"></a></span> something applicable to both sides in
+this letter, and its censures might as
+well be referred to those to whom it
+was written, as to us; but the malicious
+meaning was obvious, and we went
+no further.&quot; This, as usual, is well
+grouped; the Vicar ponders, and cannot
+tell what to make of it. We should
+have preferred, as a subject, the Vicar
+confronting Mr Burchell, and the cool
+effrontery of the philosopher turning
+the tables upon the Vicar, &quot;and how
+came you so basely to presume to
+break open this letter?&quot; or better still,
+perhaps, the encounter of art between
+Mr Burchell and Mrs Deborah Primrose.
+And why have we not Dick's
+episode of the dwarf and the giant?
+Episodes are excellent things, as good
+for the illustrations as for the book.
+No. 14, the contrivance of Mrs Primrose
+to entrap the squire, properly belongs
+to another chapter. &quot;Then the
+poor woman would sometimes tell the
+squire that she thought him and Olivia
+extremely of a size, and would bid
+both stand up to see which was tallest.&quot;
+The passage is nicely told;
+there is, however, but one figure to
+arrest attention, and that is quite
+right, for it is Olivia's, and a sweet
+figure it is. Dear Olivia! We have not
+seen her portrait before, and we shall
+love her, beyond &quot;to the end of the
+chapter,&quot; to the end of the volume,
+and the more so, that hers after all
+was a hard fate. It is the part of the
+tale which leaves a melancholy impression;
+Goldsmith has so determined it&mdash;and
+to his judgment we bow implicitly.
+Had any other author so
+wretchedly disposed of his heroine, in
+a work not professedly tragic, we
+should have been pert as critics usually
+are. Mrs Primrose is certainly here
+too young. We cannot keep our eyes
+off Olivia; and see, the scoundrel has
+slyly taken her innocent hand, and
+the other is put up to her neck in such
+modest doubt of the liberty allowed.
+Here, as in other instances, the squire
+is not the well-dressed man of the
+world, whose gold lace had attracted
+Dick's attention. We could linger
+longer over this illustration, but must
+pass on&mdash;honest Burchell has been
+dismissed, villany has full sway. We
+must leave poor Olivia to her fate,
+and turn to the family picture
+&quot;drawn by a limner;&quot; capital&mdash;&quot;limner&quot;
+well suiting the intended satire&mdash;some
+say a good-natured, sly cut at
+Sir Joshua. We should certainly
+have had Mrs Primrose as Venus, and
+the two little ones as Cupids, and the
+Vicar presenting to her his books on
+the Whistonian controversy, and the
+squire as Alexander. Whoever wishes
+to see specimens of this kind may see
+some ludicrous ones at Hampton court&mdash;particularly
+of Queen Elizabeth,
+and the three goddesses abashed by
+her superiority. We thought to leave
+poor Olivia to her fate&mdash;Mr Mulready
+will not let us give her up so easily,
+and takes us to the scene of her quitting
+her home for her betrayer; and
+this is the subject of&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, she is gone off with two
+gentlemen in a post-chaise; and one
+of them kissed her, and said he would
+die for her;&quot; and there she is, hiding
+her beautiful face with her hands, and
+poor good Dick is pulling her back by
+her dress, that she may not go; but a
+villain's hand is round her waist, and
+one foot he has upon the step of the
+chaise, and the door is open. Poor
+Dick, you have nothing left you to do
+but to run home as fast as you can; and
+there you will find such a scene of innocent
+enjoyment, how to be marr'd!
+at the very moment, too, that the good
+Vicar had been feeling and saying, &quot;I
+think myself happier now than the
+greatest monarch upon earth. He
+has no such fireside, nor such pleasant
+faces about it. We are descended
+from ancestors that knew no stain,
+and we shall leave a good and virtuous
+race of children behind us. While
+we live they will be our support and
+our pleasure here, and when we die
+they will transmit our honour untainted
+to posterity. Come, my son,
+we wait for a song: let us have a
+chorus. But where is my darling
+Olivia? That little cherub's voice is
+always sweetest in the concert.&quot; O
+Dick, Dick! at such a moment as this
+to run in and tell him to be miserable
+for ever; for that his cherub, his
+Olivia is gone, and gone, as it appears,
+to infamy, a thousand times more
+grievous than death. Was there ever
+so touching a scene?&mdash;Mr Mulready
+feared it. That is a wonderful chapter&mdash;the
+happiness is so domestically
+heightened, that the homefelt joy
+may be more instantly crushed. We
+know we shall not see dear darling
+Olivia again for a long, long time; and
+feel we want a pause and a little diversion&mdash;so
+we will go back to Bill the
+songster for amusement, and take it if
+we can; and here is for the purpose
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page775" id="page775" title="775"></a></span> Bill's &quot;Elegy on the Death of a Mad
+Dog,&quot; alas! taught him, too, by honest
+Mr Williams; we only hope young,
+sturdy farmers have strong nerves, and
+don't break their hearts in love's disappointments.
+Here is Dick's Elegy;
+and as we, too, have a Moses at home
+of a &quot;miscellaneous education,&quot; we
+will put on the Vicar's simplicity, and
+cheerful familiarity with his own flesh
+and blood&mdash;and thus we address our
+Moses, &quot;Come, my boy, you are no
+hand at singing, so turn the Elegy
+another way: let us have a little Latin,
+for your music is Hexameter and
+Pentameter.&quot; Our Moses, &quot;That's a
+hard task, sir, for one that cannot
+mount to Parnass Hill without his
+'Gradus ad Parnassum.'&quot; &quot;Well,
+then get your Gradus, and put your
+foot in that first step of the ladder.&quot;
+Our Moses, waggishly&mdash;&quot;I must mind
+my feet, sir, or they will be but lame
+verses, and go halting and hobbling&mdash;but
+I suppose you won't be very particular
+as to Latinity. I have heard you
+tell how Farmer Williams&quot;&mdash;&quot;No,&quot;
+said we, &quot;not Williams, any other farmer
+you please; poor Williams is not
+likely to have any children; yet I
+know what you were going to say.&quot;
+&quot;Farmer any body, then,&quot; said our
+Moses, &quot;when he took his boy to
+school, left him with the master;
+and shortly returned to inform him,
+that, discoursing upon the subject at
+the 'public,' he had heard that there
+were two sorts of Latin, and so he
+brought the master a gammon of
+bacon, for he wished his son to have
+the best: now I think, sir, one of
+these two sorts must be 'dog Latin,'
+and that must be best fitted for the
+Elegy in question.&quot; Our Moses beats
+the Vicar's hollow in waggery, so we
+are proud of him. He takes after his
+mother. We condescended to be familiar
+enough to laugh. Now, then,
+Moses, to <i>your</i> task and we to <i>ours</i>.
+And here we are at&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>The scene of Mr Arnold and his
+family breaking in upon his butler
+personating his master, we are rather
+inclined to think a failure. There
+is Mr Mulready's good grouping, but
+somehow or other it is rather flat for
+so piquant an incident; &quot;I was struck
+dumb with the apprehension of my
+own absurdity, when whom should I
+next see enter the room but my dear
+Miss Arabella Wilmot.&quot; We should
+like to have seen, in illustration, the
+political butler ordering the Vicar
+out of his house, or at least a more
+decided portrait of Arabella Wilmot.
+&quot;Beauty is,&quot; as Miss Skeggs said of
+virtue, &quot;worth any price;&quot; and we
+are sorry to look about, and continue,
+in her words, &quot;but where is that to
+be found?&quot; What had Mr Mulready
+to do, that he would not let us have a
+sight of Arabella Wilmot. We,
+therefore, pass on to her lover, the
+Vicar's eldest son George, delivering
+his letter of recommendation to the
+nobleman's footmen, with his fee,
+which brings us to&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;However, after bribing the servants
+with half my worldly fortune,
+I was at last shown into a spacious
+apartment, my letter being previously
+sent up for his lordship's inspection.&quot;
+The Vicar's son is a fine fellow in the
+illustration: we are glad to see him,
+but rather wish Mr Mulready had
+chosen a better subject. George's
+adventures were written with a nice
+satire; for Goldsmith knew what and
+whom he had to describe. The reasons
+why he would not do for an
+usher, are well put. Is it not possible
+that Mr Dickens took his first
+hint of Do-the-boys' Hall from reading
+this passage in Goldsmith? Indeed,
+there may be a suspicion that Mrs
+Primrose gave the idea of Mrs Nickleby,
+though he has made her an original.
+But to return to the traveller&mdash;we
+should like to have seen an
+&quot;illustration&quot; of his interview with the
+principal of the College of Louvain, a
+passage quite in the spirit of Le Sage.
+&quot;The principal seemed at first to
+doubt my abilities; but of these I
+offered to convince him, by turning a
+part of any Greek author he should fix
+upon into Latin. Finding me perfectly
+earnest in my proposals he addressed
+me thus, 'You see, young man,' continued
+he, 'I never learned Greek,
+and I don't find that I have ever missed
+it. I have had a doctor's cap and
+gown without Greek; I have ten
+thousand florins a year without Greek;
+and, in short,' continued he, 'as I don't
+know Greek, I do not believe there is
+any good in it.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The office of Mr Crispe, who fitted
+becoming situations upon every body.
+&quot;There I found a number of poor
+creatures, all in circumstances like
+myself, expecting the arrival of Mr
+Crispe, presenting a true epitome of
+English impatience.&quot; And there is
+Mr Crispe himself, in the distance
+indeed, but certainly the principal
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page776" id="page776" title="776"></a></span> figure. The expectants are good enough,
+but Mr Crispe, with his audacious,
+confident, deceitful face, is excellent;
+the fellow rattling the money in both
+his pockets, with fraud, successful
+laughing fraud filling out both his
+cheeks. The audacious wretch! little
+cares he for the miserable expectants
+whom he means to ship off to America
+and slavery. Preferring to see
+the Vicar's son among &quot;the harmless
+peasants of Flanders,&quot; we turn over
+the leaves.</p>
+
+<p>Here is a delightful group,&mdash;a
+fine sturdy fellow holding his dog
+by a handkerchief through his collar,
+and how naturally the honest brute
+leans against his master, as claiming
+a sort of kindred&mdash;the expression of
+the young woman with the child in
+her arms, is attention and admiration.
+It is not quite certain that one
+of the loungers is pleased with that
+admiration. This is a pleasant scene,
+and happily illustrated. &quot;I had some
+knowledge of music, with a tolerable
+voice, and now turned what was once
+my amusement into a present means
+of subsistence.&quot; That is a pleasant,
+happy scene, though the personages
+are the poorest. Of another character
+is the next scene, and quite other
+personages act in it; for we come
+again to poor Olivia in her distress,
+grossly, brutally insulted by the
+wealthy profligate.</p>
+
+<p>The profligate scoundrel in the
+very lowest baseness of his character.&mdash;It
+is poor Olivia speaks. &quot;Thus
+each day I grew more pensive, and
+he more insolent, till at last the
+monster had the assurance to offer me to
+a young baronet of his acquaintance.&quot;
+This scene is not fit for picture; it is
+seemingly nothing but successful villany,
+and of too gay a cast to be pathetic.
+The chapter from which it is
+taken would have furnished a much
+better one&mdash;the meeting between the
+Vicar and his poor Olivia. We can
+bear the suffering of a Cordelia, because
+all in that is great though villany
+be successful; but there is a littleness
+in mere profligacy that infects
+even the victim. We could have
+wished that Mr Mulready had taken
+the &quot;Meeting&quot; for his illustration.
+How exquisitely beautiful is the text!
+The first impulse of affection is to
+forget, or instantly palliate the fault.
+&quot;Welcome, any way welcome, my
+dearest lost one, my treasure, to your
+poor old father's bosom!&quot; Then how
+exquisite her observance of the effect
+of grief upon the parent's appearance.
+&quot;Surely you have too much wisdom
+to take the miseries of my guilt upon
+yourself.&quot; How timely has Goldsmith
+thrown in this, when we are
+most willing to catch at a straw of
+excuse for the lovely sufferer! No,
+we say, she never contemplated the
+misery she has inflicted; and then
+how natural is the instantaneous remembrance
+of her guilt! The taking it
+up and laying it down at a moment's
+call, from affection, is most touchingly
+beautiful. &quot;Our wisdom, young woman,&quot;
+replied I&mdash;&quot;Ah, why so cold
+a name, papa?&quot; cried she. &quot;This is
+the first time you ever called me by
+so cold a name.&quot; &quot;I ask pardon, my
+darling,&quot; returned I; &quot;but I was
+going to observe that wisdom makes
+but a slow defence against trouble,
+though at last a sure one.&quot; Admitting
+the subject chosen by Mr Mulready,
+we do not approve of his manner of
+telling it; we scarcely know which is
+the principal figure. Nor is Olivia's
+good. It has nothing of the madness
+the text speaks of. &quot;My answer to
+this proposal was almost madness.&quot;
+We are glad to quit the scene, though
+our next step is into deeper misery;
+and&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The return of the Vicar to his
+home in flames,&quot; a pitiable sight; but
+here is the triumph of love over misery,
+and the subject is good. &quot;Now,&quot;
+cried I, holding up my children, &quot;now
+let the flames burn on, and all my
+possessions perish.&quot; The scene is well
+told, and not the worse for a justifiable
+theft from Correggio in the fainting
+figure&mdash;it is the <i>mother</i> in the Ecce
+Homo in the National Gallery. The
+failing of the hands at the moment
+of action, is true to the original and
+to nature. We rejoice that Mr Mulready
+did not take the return of
+Olivia as his subject. We should not
+like to see Mrs Primrose in that
+odious light; and though admirable in
+the tale, she is no favourite already.
+The parent had called his child,
+&quot;woman&mdash;young woman&quot;&mdash;the coldness
+passed away, and the word was
+changed for &quot;darling.&quot; The word
+was again to be resumed, and how
+applied!&mdash;to the unforgiving&mdash;That
+even the Vicar's anger, we must
+rather say indignation, should be
+virtuous. &quot;Ah, madam!&quot; cried her mother,
+&quot;this is but a poor place you
+have come to after so much finery.
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page777" id="page777" title="777"></a></span> My daughter Sophy and I can afford
+but little entertainment to persons
+who have kept company only with
+people of distinction. Yes, Miss
+Livy, your poor father and I have
+suffered very much of late; but I
+hope Heaven will forgive you.&quot; Not
+a word of her own forgiving, not a
+word of endearment; and we suspect
+the word madam had, when written,
+more blame in it than it now retains&mdash;and
+how do the words &quot;my daughter
+Sophy and I&quot; cut off the forlorn
+one from the family!&mdash;and the plural
+&quot;persons&quot; avoiding the individuality,
+the personality of her daughter was
+another deep cut into the very flesh
+of the lost one's heart. Now then
+comes the reproof, and the good man
+shines in the glory of goodness and
+greatness, indignation for love's sake.
+&quot;During this reception the unhappy
+victim stood pale and trembling, unable
+to weep or to reply; but I could
+not continue a silent spectator of her
+distress; wherefore, assuming a degree
+of severity in my voice and
+manner, which was ever followed with
+instant submission, 'I entreat, woman,
+that my words may be now
+marked once for all: I have brought
+you back a poor deluded wanderer:
+her return to duty demands the revival
+of our tenderness. The real
+hardships of life are now coming fast
+upon us; let us not therefore increase
+them by dissensions among each other.&quot;
+The words to the conclusion of the
+chapter should be written in letters
+of gold, were not the better place for
+them out of sight, upon the hearts of
+all; for none of us have too much
+charity, though some may have an
+excess of love.</p>
+
+<p>No. 22 is an affecting scene. The
+Vicar with his wounded arm is on
+his bed, with his distressed family
+about him. Olivia has fainted on
+hearing the news of her betrayer's
+intended marriage, and the mother is
+attending her. &quot;My compassion for
+my poor daughter, overpowered by
+this new disaster, interrupted what I
+had further to observe. I bade her
+mother support her, and after a short
+time she recovered.&quot; The countenance
+of the Vicar in this scene is the
+best among the illustrations&mdash;of that
+good man enduring affliction, that
+sight worthy the gods to look at, as
+said the Stoic. But we that have
+human sympathies, would willingly
+turn away from such a sight; and
+where shall we find refuge? for sorrow
+is coming on&mdash;sorrow upon sorrow&mdash;an
+accumulation of miseries
+no Stoic would have borne; for he,
+with all his boasted indifference, would
+have borne them no longer, but ended
+them and life together, if he might so
+end them, as he thought. And now,
+happily, &quot;<i>our</i> Moses&quot; comes to our
+relief, not with extracts from chapters
+on stoicism, or any other false philosophy,
+but holding up to us what he
+is pleased to call his &quot;dogrel.&quot; So,
+between him and Bill the Songster, we
+will have a duet. But as we have no
+Bill present, we will take his part
+ourselves, and, like other acting substitutes,
+go through the part, reading.
+&quot;Now we hope,&quot; addressing our
+Moses, &quot;you have not lengthened out
+your Latin to four lines for the four
+short English in each stanza. If you
+have, to the flames with them!&quot;</p>
+
+<p><i>Our Moses</i>.&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;CARMINA ELEGIACA IN MORTEM CUJUSDAM CANIS ISLINGTONIENSIS.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>(<i>We</i>.&mdash;Not in such a hurry&mdash;&quot;An Elegy on the death of a mad dog;&quot; and what
+made you put in Islingtoniensis? Well, I suppose you call that a Ciceronic flourish!
+Now, I will read the English&mdash;you the Latin.)</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>We</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">Good people all, of every sort,</p>
+<p class="i5">Give ear unto my song,</p>
+<p class="i4">And if you find it wondrous short,</p>
+<p class="i5">It cannot hold you long.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>Our Moses</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">Quotlibet huc, ubicunque hominum, auscultate canenti,</p>
+<p class="i4">Si breve vos teneam;&mdash;non ego longus ero.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>We</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">In Islington there was a man</p>
+<p class="i5">Of whom the world might say,</p>
+<p class="i4">That still a godly race he ran</p>
+<p class="i5">Whene'er he went to pray.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>Our Moses</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">Quidam Islingtoniensis erat, quem donec adibat</p>
+<p class="i4">Templa pius, sacra diximus ire via.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>We</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">A kind and gentle heart he had</p>
+<p class="i5">To comfort friends and foes;</p>
+<p class="i4"><span class="newpage"><a name="page778" id="page778" title="778"></a></span> The naked every day he clad</p>
+<p class="i5">When he put on his clothes.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>Our Moses</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">Suavis amico, inimico, ita mitis, nudum ut amictu,</p>
+<p class="i4">Quum se vestibat, cotidie indueret.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>We</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">And in that town a dog was found,</p>
+<p class="i5">As many dogs there be,</p>
+<p class="i4">Both mongrel, puppy, whelp, and hound,</p>
+<p class="i5">And curs of low degree.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>Our Moses</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">Et canis oppido eodem erat huic, ubi plurimus, et grex</p>
+<p class="i4">Et f&aelig;x, cum catulis plebs numerosa canum.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>We</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">This dog and man at first were friends,</p>
+<p class="i5">But when a pique began,</p>
+<p class="i4">The dog, to gain some private ends,</p>
+<p class="i5">Went mad and bit the man.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>Our Moses</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">Grandis amicitia, at Canis, ut sibi gratificetur</p>
+<p class="i4">Fit rabidus, rabido dente hominemque petit.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>We</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">Around from all the neighbouring streets</p>
+<p class="i5">The wondering neighbours ran,</p>
+<p class="i4">And swore the dog had lost his wits,</p>
+<p class="i5">To bite so good a man.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>Our Moses</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">Concurrunt cives, O illum Cerberun, at aiunt,</p>
+<p class="i4">Qualem amens rabido dense momordet herum.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>We</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">The wound it seem'd both sore and sad</p>
+<p class="i5">To every Christian eye,</p>
+<p class="i4">And while they swore the dog was mad,</p>
+<p class="i5">They swore the man would die.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>Our Moses</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">O s&aelig;vum vulnus, clamant lachrymosius omnes,</p>
+<p class="i4">En rabidus canis, et mox moriturus homo.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>We</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">But soon a wonder came to light,</p>
+<p class="i5">That show'd the rogues they lied;</p>
+<p class="i4">The man recover'd of the bite,</p>
+<p class="i5">The dog it was that died.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>Our Moses</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">Mendaces cives monstrat res prodigiosa,</p>
+<p class="i4">Sanus homo subito fit&mdash;moriturque canis.</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>&quot;A very good boy, Bill, upon my
+word,&quot; said the Vicar, &quot;and an Elegy
+that may truly be called tragical.&quot;
+So we present our Moses a sovereign
+for his verse&mdash;&quot;A sovereign for a
+verse, my boy.&quot; &quot;I will never,&quot;
+quoth he, &quot;be averse to a sovereign.
+We have heard of a monarch who
+gave a crown for a song.&quot; A little
+refreshed, let us turn to the book.
+Here is</p>
+
+<p>No. 23.&mdash;Very well, Mr Mulready,
+artistically performed; but we fear we
+shall not relish too many of these distressing
+subjects. We know, from
+distress to distress, you will take us
+into prison. Artists and writers of
+the present day delight in prison
+scenes; we are not of that class, but
+endure it. We would on no account
+sit down with that rascally-looking
+fellow that is driving and taking an
+inventory of the Vicar's stock. It
+is winter too. &quot;The consequence of
+my incapacity was his driving my
+cattle that evening, and their being
+appraised and sold the next day for
+less than half their value.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>No. 24&mdash;Is the attempt at a rescue.
+The Vicar represses and reproves the
+violence of his enraged parishioners.
+The drawing is good; but it is not
+a subject we delight to look at; and
+we begin to fear that further on we
+shall fare worse. Why did not Mr
+Mulready give us the interview between
+the Vicar and his old acquaintance,
+Mr Jenkinson? Artists
+of skill like to show it in grouping,
+and prefer that to giving character.
+&quot;The consequences might have been
+fatal, had I not immediately interposed,
+and with some difficulty rescued
+the officers from the hands of the enraged
+multitude.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Prison.&quot; We have little wish to
+stay there long, and look at the odious
+villains that surround the good man
+&quot;paying his footing.&quot; &quot;I was apprised
+of the usual perquisite required
+upon these occasions, and immediately
+complied with the demand, though the
+little money I had was nearly exhausted.&quot;
+The next illustration, too, takes
+us into equally bad company.</p>
+
+<p>The Vicar's attempt to reform the
+jail. The mockery, and roguery, and
+Vicar's perseverance, while a practised
+hand is picking his pocket&mdash;are admirably
+represented. &quot;I therefore read
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page779" id="page779" title="779"></a></span> them a portion of the service, with a
+loud unaffected voice, and found my
+audience perfectly merry upon the
+occasion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The penitent scene. &quot;My design
+succeeded, and in less than six days
+some were penitent, and all attentive.&quot;
+We now began to say, what a happy
+thing it was that Dr Primrose was
+sent to jail. Doubtless Goldsmith
+intended to show how good comes out
+of evil. There are some good figures
+in this illustration.</p>
+
+<p>The seizure of poor Sophia&mdash;and
+very good it is&mdash;not that we congratulate
+Mr Mulready on his Sophia
+here; she is rather a vulgar dowdy
+figure, the others are very good, and
+the incident well told. &quot;A post-chaise
+and pair drove up to them, and
+instantly stopped. Upon which a well-dressed
+man, but not Mr Thornhill,
+stepping out, clasped my daughter
+round the waist, and, forcing her in,
+bid the postilion drive on, so that they
+were out of sight in a moment.&quot; Now,
+Mr Mulready, in the next edition, you
+must positively illustrate the rescue by
+Mr Burchell.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Vicar delivering his sermon&quot;&mdash;Charmingly
+grouped are the attentive
+and subdued audience. Mrs Primrose
+is surely too young a figure. If we
+could get over our early impression of
+the Vicar's countenance, his figure
+here would probably please. &quot;The
+prisoners assembled themselves according
+to my directions, for they loved to
+hear my counsel&mdash;my son and his mother
+supported me on either side.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The return of dear Sophia, with her
+true but singular lover and deliverer&mdash;Perhaps
+the vicar takes it more
+coolly than the text justifies. &quot;Just
+as he delivered this news, my dearest
+girl entered, and with looks almost
+wild with pleasure, ran to kiss me in a
+transport of action.&quot; There should
+have been an illustration of the scene
+where Mr Burchell is discovered to
+be Sir William Thornhill; and above
+all, where he proposes Jenkinson to
+Sophia.</p>
+
+<p>The complete detection of the
+squire's villainies, and his great disappointment.
+&quot;And to convince you
+that I speak nothing but truth, here is
+the license by which you were married
+together.&quot; All here is good but
+the figure of the Squire. In appearance
+we are to presume that Squire
+Thornhill was a gentleman, or Miss
+Wilmot could not have endured his
+addresses, nor indeed would Olivia
+have been deceived by him. In this
+illustration he has neither the appearance,
+dress, nor attitude of one in that
+condition.</p>
+
+<p>The last illustration, or &quot;All's Well
+that End's Well.&quot; It is, however,
+near ending badly, both as to the incident
+and the illustration&mdash;in the latter
+all is good, excepting only Arabella
+Wilmot; perhaps there is a defect
+in the printing, which gives her
+an odd look&mdash;but altogether she is not
+a good figure. She should have been
+elegance personified. Burchell looks
+the sturdy runner that could overtake
+the chaise, and rescue manfully his
+Sophia, to win and wear a favour,
+though he seems here in little hurry;
+but that is in character. &quot;But as I
+stood all this time with my book
+ready, I was at last quite tired of the
+contest, and shutting it, 'I perceive,'
+cried I, 'that none of you have a mind
+to be married.'&quot; We should like to
+have seen the dinner-party, and the
+two Miss Flamboroughs ready to die
+with laughing. &quot;One jest I particularly
+remember: old Mr Wilmot drinking to
+Moses, whose head was turned another
+way, my son replied, 'Madam, I thank
+you.' Upon which the old gentleman,
+winking upon the rest of the
+company, observed that he was thinking
+of his mistress; at which jest I
+thought the two Miss Flamboroughs
+would have died with laughing.&quot; We
+should like to have seen their faces by
+Mr Mulready's hand, because we are
+sure that the two Miss Flamboroughs
+were thinking of themselves, in conjunction
+with Moses and the jest.</p>
+
+<p>We have noticed every illustration.
+We hope there will be another edition,
+and then we may have a few
+more plates. We have therefore, as
+we have gone on, ventured to suggest
+some subjects&mdash;but, above all, we would
+recommend Mr Mulready to supply a
+few portraits, heads only, such as that
+of the &quot;Schoolmaster in the Deserted
+Village,&quot; by the Etching Club.</p>
+
+<hr class="full">
+
+
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page780" id="page780" title="780"></a></span>
+<a name="bw332s8" id="bw332s8"></a><h2>THE ATTORNEY'S CLERK IN THE MONK'S HOOD.</h2>
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;I thought of Chatterton, the marvellous boy&mdash;</p>
+<p>The sleepless soul that perish'd in his pride.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Had the &quot;resolution and independence&quot;
+which dignify the lowly,
+and strengthen the unhappy, when no
+visible eye befriends them, been
+among the rich endowments of Chatterton's
+wonderful mind&mdash;had he possessed
+and cherished the courage that
+bears up against obloquy and neglect&mdash;had
+he pursued the rough tenour
+of his way undaunted, in spite of
+&quot;solitude, pain of heart, distress, and
+poverty,&quot; how different must have
+been the fate of the inspired boy of
+Bristol! He might be alive yet; he
+would be ninety years old, graced
+with honour, love, obedience, troops
+of friends, and all that should accompany
+old age. He might have
+achieved some great epic, or some
+gorgeous historical dramas,&mdash;have
+finished the Fairy Queen, or given
+us a Fairy King of his own creation.</p>
+
+<p>Among the lighter honours of social
+distinction, we can fancy his
+reception as a London &quot;lion,&quot; by
+the fair and noble in proud places.
+Still pleasanter is the vision of his
+less public hours of idleness spent
+among congenial spirits. We can
+fancy him, the patriarch of living
+poets, seated as a guest at the breakfast-table
+of Samuel Rogers, who is
+about twelve years his junior, and
+those fine lads, Lisle Bowles, James
+Montgomery, and William Wordsworth,
+and those promising children,
+Tom Moore and Tom Campbell, and
+that braw chiel John Wilson&mdash;(<i>palmam
+qui meruit ferat</i>)&mdash;the youngest
+of the party something, perhaps, but
+not much, under seventy, except the
+bard of the Isle of Palms, who is no
+chicken; and unless the master of the
+feast have summoned those pretty
+babes from the Wood, the two Tennysons.
+But alas for Chatterton!
+the vision will not hold: he disappears
+from his chair at the feast, like
+Banquo&mdash;&quot;and, when all's done, you
+look but on a stool.&quot; The ghost of
+the slayer of himself, after long
+haunting Strawberry Hill, to rebuke
+the senile complacency of the chronicler
+of royal and noble authors, repaired,
+after the death of that prosperous
+man of wit and fashion, to his
+native town, to prowl in Redcliff
+church, and about the graves of his
+fathers in its churchyard, and the
+graves which they had successively
+dug there during a century and a
+half. His bones were left to moulder
+among those of other pauper strangers
+in the burial-ground of Shoelane
+workhouse. We attach no
+credit to the story of the exhumation
+of his body, and its mysterious reinterment
+in Redcliff. His fathers were
+sextons; and he, too, was in some
+sort a sexton also&mdash;but spiritually
+and transcendantly. He buried his
+genius in the visionary grave of Rowley,
+&quot;an old chest in an upper room
+over the chapel on the north side of
+Redcliff church;&quot; and thence, most
+rare young conjurer, he evoked its
+spirit in the shape of fragments of
+law-parchment, quaintly inscribed
+with spells of verse and armorial
+hieroglyphics, to puzzle antiquaries
+and make fools of scholiasts. Puzzle
+them he did; and they could not forgive
+a clever stripling, whom hunger
+had tempted to don an ancient mask,
+and impose himself on their spectacled
+eyes as a reverend elder. Rogue!&mdash;vagabond!
+Profligate impostor!
+The slim, sleek, embroidered juggler
+of the Castle of Otranto had not a
+kind word for this ragged orphan of
+his own craft. He, whose ambition
+was to shine among writers who have
+given intellectual grace to their noble
+lineage&mdash;among whom assuredly he
+does and will shine&mdash;but whose acute
+consciousness of something meretricious
+in his metal, made him doubt if
+the public would accept coinage from
+his mint; and so caused him to wear
+tentative disguises, whether he elaborated
+a romance or a keen and
+playful witticism&mdash;and who really
+did injustice to his own powers,&mdash;not
+from modesty but meanness,&mdash;even
+he, the son of a prime
+minister and heir to a peerage&mdash;a man
+who was himself always something of
+a trickster, now mystifying a blind old
+woman at Paris; now sending open
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page781" id="page781" title="781"></a></span> letters, privately nullified, recommending
+the bearers to his friend the
+envoy at Florence; now, with the
+mechanic aid of village carpenters and
+bricklayers, rearing a frail edifice
+bristling with false points, and persuading
+the world that it was all pure
+Gothic, perhaps chuckling at his assurance&mdash;even
+this shrewd mummer
+gravely shook his head at Chatterton,
+and frowned on him as a cheat! True;
+they were both cheats; Horace Walpole
+from apprehensive vanity; Chatterton
+from proud oblique humility.
+The Bristol boy knew his worth; but,
+doubting the equity as well as the sagacity
+of his judges, he did not venture
+to produce it as his own. He
+supposed that an obscure and penniless
+youth, such as he, could have little
+chance of attention or fair play in
+the world if he appeared in his proper
+character; so he painfully assumed
+another, of a nature that could not long
+have been supported even had he been
+a various linguist deeply versed in
+etymologies, and especially proficient
+in our extinct idioms, and their several
+dates of usage, instead of wanting
+even Latin enough to understand the
+easiest parts of Skinner's Etymology
+of the English tongue, one of the books
+that he consulted and guessed at.</p>
+
+<p>Of all modern suicides this youth
+was the most interesting; of all literary
+impostors the least unpardonable,
+though his ways were, unhappily for
+himself, of indefensible crookedness.
+He neither ascribed his fictions to a
+great name as Ireland did, nor did he,
+like Macpherson, steal the heart out of
+national ballads and traditions, to
+stuff a Bombastes Penseroso of his own
+making.</p>
+
+<p>Any competent, yet moderately indulgent
+reader, who should for the
+first time take up Chatterton's works,
+and beginning at the beginning, in
+Tyrwhitt's first edition, for example,
+peruse no more than sixty or seventy
+pages, would probably lay down the
+volume somewhat disappointed not to
+have found the very extraordinary
+merit he had expected. The compositions
+that this partial examination
+would take in are three&mdash;Eclogues,
+Elinour and Juga, Verses to Lydgate,
+with Song to Ella, Lydgate's Answer,
+and the Tournament.</p>
+
+<p>The first Eclogue is a conversation
+between two fugitive shepherds, who
+bewail the wretched condition to which
+the barons' wars have reduced them.
+It contains some pleasing lines.</p>
+
+<p>As the rustics discuss their grievances
+in a valley under cover of</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p class="i6">&quot;... Eve's mantle gray,</p>
+<p class="i2">The rustling leaves do their white hearts affray.</p>
+<p>They regret the pleasures of their forsaken home,</p>
+<p class="i6">... the kingcup decked mees,</p>
+<p class="i2">The spreading flocks of sheep of lily white,</p>
+<p class="i2">The tender applings and embodied trees,</p>
+<p class="i2">The parker's grange, far spreading to the sight,</p>
+<p class="i2">The gentle kine, the bullocks strong in fight,</p>
+<p class="i2">The garden whiten'd with the comfrey plant,</p>
+<p class="i2">The flowers Saint Mary shooting with the light&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i6">...</p>
+<p class="i2">The far-seen groves around the hermit's cell,</p>
+<p class="i2">The merry fiddle dinning up the dell,</p>
+<p class="i2">The joyous dancing in the hostry court&mdash;</p>
+<p>But now,</p>
+<p class="i6">high song and every joy farewell,</p>
+<p class="i2">Farewell the very shade of fair disport.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>In the second Eclogue, a good son
+invokes blessings on his father, who is
+gone with the crusaders to Palestine.
+He describes with much animation
+the voyage, the landing in Syria, the
+warring Saracens, King Richard of
+lion's heart, and anticipates victory
+and the return to England.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Thus Nigel said, when from the azure sea</p>
+<p>The swollen sail did dance before his eyne.</p>
+<p>Swift as the wish he to the beach did fly,</p>
+<p>And found his father stepping from the brine.</p>
+<p>Sprites of the blest, the pious Nigel said,</p>
+<p>Pour out your pleasance on my father's head!&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class="newpage"><a name="page782" id="page782" title="782"></a></span> The third Eclogue, if divested of certain
+exuberances&mdash;for Chatterton was
+precocious in every thing, and many
+of his fancies want the Bowdler pruning-knife&mdash;might
+be seasonably transferred
+to some of the penny publications
+for the benefit of Mr Frost's
+disciples. A poor man and woman,
+on their way to the parson's hayfield,
+complain to each other of their hard
+lot in being obliged to earn their
+bread by the sweat of their brows.
+&quot;Why,&quot; asks the woman, &quot;should I
+be more obligated to work than the
+fine Dame Agnes? What is she more
+than me? The man, unable to solve
+so knotty a point, says he doesn't see
+how he himself is not as good as a
+lord's son, but he will ask Sir Roger
+the parson, whom he consults accordingly.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;<i>Man</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">By your priestship now say unto me,</p>
+<p class="i4">Sir Godfrey the knight, who liveth hard by,</p>
+<p class="i5">Why should he than me</p>
+<p class="i6">Be more great</p>
+<p class="i4">In honour, knighthood, and estate?</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;<i>Sir Roger</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">If thou hast ease, the shadow of content,</p>
+<p class="i4">Believe the truth, none happier is than thee.</p>
+<p class="i4">Thou workest well; can that a trouble be?</p>
+<p class="i4">Sloth more would jade thee than the roughest day.</p>
+<p class="i4">Could'st thou the secret minds of others see,</p>
+<p class="i4">Thou would'st full soon see truth in what I say.</p>
+<p class="i4">But let me hear thy way of life, and then</p>
+<p class="i4">Hear thou from me the lives of richer men.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;<i>Man</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i5">I rise with the sun,</p>
+<p class="i5">Like him to drive the wain,</p>
+<p class="i5">And, ere my work is done,</p>
+<p class="i5">I sing a song or twain.</p>
+<p class="i5">I follow the plough-tail</p>
+<p class="i5">With a bottle of ale.</p>
+<p class="i5">On every saint's day</p>
+<p class="i5">With the minstrel I'm seen,</p>
+<p class="i5">All footing away</p>
+<p class="i5">With the maids on the green.</p>
+<p class="i4">But oh, I wish to be more great,</p>
+<p class="i4">In honour, station, and estate!</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;<i>Sir Roger</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i5">Hast thou not seen a tree upon a hill,</p>
+<p class="i5">Whose ample boughs stretch wide around to sight?</p>
+<p class="i5">When angry tempests do the heavens fill,</p>
+<p class="i5">It shaketh drear, in dole and much affright:</p>
+<p class="i5">While the small flower in lowly graces deck'd</p>
+<p class="i5">Standeth unhurt, untroubled by the storm.</p>
+<p class="i5">The picture such of life. The man of might</p>
+<p class="i5">Is tempest-chafed, his woe great as his form;</p>
+<p class="i5">Thyself, a floweret of small account,</p>
+<p class="i4">Would harder feel the wind as higher thou didst mount.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Sir Roger's moral is trite enough,
+yet it seems to have escaped the consideration
+of our Chartists and Socialists.</p>
+
+<p>Elinour the nut-brown, and Juga
+the fair, are two pining maidens, who,
+seated on the banks of the Redbourne,
+a river near St Alban's, are each bemoaning
+their lovers, gone to fight in
+that neighbourhood for the Rose of
+York. Presently, racked with suspense,
+they hasten nearer to the scene of
+action.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;<i>Like twain of clouds that hold the stormy rain,</i></p>
+<p><i>They moved gently o'er the dewy meads</i></p>
+<p>To where Saint Alban's holy shrines remain.</p>
+<p>There did they find that both their knights were slain.</p>
+<p>Distraught they wander'd to swoln Redbourne's side,</p>
+<p>Yell'd there their deadly knell, sank in the waves, and died.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class="newpage"><a name="page783" id="page783" title="783"></a></span> The verses to Lydgate consist of
+ten lines of no merit at all, and supposed
+to be sent to him by Rowley,
+with the Ode to Ella, which has a
+movement that recalls Collins, a lyrical
+artist perhaps unexcelled in our language,
+and in whose manner Chatterton
+so obviously and frequently composes,
+that the fact alone might have
+settled the Rowley question, though
+we are not aware that it was ever particularly
+insisted on in the controversy.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Oh Thou, or what remains of Thee,</p>
+<p class="i3">Ella! the darling of futurity,</p>
+<p>Let this my song bold as thy courage be,</p>
+<p class="i3">As everlasting to posterity&mdash;</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;When Dacia's sons, with hair of blood-red hue,</p>
+<p>Like kingcups glittering with the morning dew,</p>
+<p class="i3">Arranged in drear array,</p>
+<p class="i3">Upon the fatal day,</p>
+<p>Spread far and wide on Watchet's shore,</p>
+<p class="i3">Then didst thou furious stand,</p>
+<p class="i3">And by thy valiant hand</p>
+<p>Besprinkle all the meads with gore.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p class="i3">&quot;Driven by thy broadsword fell,</p>
+<p class="i3">Down to the depths of hell,</p>
+<p class="i4">Thousands of Dacians went.</p>
+<p class="i3">...</p>
+<p class="i3">&quot;Oh Thou, where'er, thy bones at rest,</p>
+<p class="i3">Thy sprite to haunt delighteth best,</p>
+<p>Whether upon the blood-embrued plain&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i3">Or where thou ken'st from far,</p>
+<p class="i3">The dismal cry of war,</p>
+<p><i>Or see'st some mountain made of corses slain,</i></p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p class="i3">&quot;Or see'st the war-clad steed</p>
+<p class="i3">That prances o'er the mead,</p>
+<p>And neighs to be among the pointed spears&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i3">Or in black armour stalk around</p>
+<p class="i3">Embattled Bristol, once thy ground,</p>
+<p>Or haunt with lurid glow the castle stairs,</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p class="i3">&quot;Or, fiery, round the Minster glare!</p>
+<p class="i3">Let Bristol still be made thy care;</p>
+<p>Guard it from foeman and consuming fire;</p>
+<p class="i3">Like Avon's stream embrace it round,</p>
+<p class="i3">Nor let a sparkle harm the ground,</p>
+<p>Till in one flame the total world expire.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The quatrains entitled Lydgate's answer, are amply complimentary on the
+foregoing song, but otherwise as prosaic as the lines that introduce it.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;">
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Among the Grecians Homer was</p>
+<p class="i1">A poet much renown'd;</p>
+<p>Among the Latins <i>Virgilius</i></p>
+<p class="i1">Was best of poets found.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;The British Merlin often had</p>
+<p class="i1">The gift of inspiration;</p>
+<p>And Afled to the Saxon men</p>
+<p class="i1">Did sing with animation.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;In Norman times Turgotus and</p>
+<p class="i1">Good Chaucer did excel;</p>
+<p>Then Stowe, the Bristol Carmelite,</p>
+<p class="i1">Did bear away the bell.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Now Rowley, in these murky days,</p>
+<p class="i1">Sends out his shining lights,</p>
+<p>And Turgotus and Chaucer live</p>
+<p class="i1">In every line he writes.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The next is the Tournament, an interlude.
+Sir Simon de Burton, its
+hero, is supposed to have been the
+first founder, in accomplishment of a
+vow made on the occasion, of a church
+dedicated to <i>Our Lady</i>, in the place
+where the church of St Mary Redcliff
+now stands. There is life and force
+in the details of this tourney; and the
+songs of the minstrel are good, especially
+the first, which is a gallant
+hunting stave in honour of William
+the Red King, who hunts the stag,
+the wolf, and &quot;the <i>lion</i> brought from
+sultry lands.&quot; The sentiment conveyed
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page784" id="page784" title="784"></a></span> in the burden of this spirited
+chorus sounds oddly considerate, as
+the command issued by William Rufus:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Go, rouse the lion from his hidden den,</p>
+<p>Let thy darts drink the blood of any thing but men.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>To the paternity of the next in order&mdash;the
+Bristol Tragedy, or Death
+of Sir Charles Baldwin&mdash;Chatterton
+confessed; and such an admission
+might have satisfied any one but Dean
+Milles. The language is modern&mdash;the
+measure flowing without interruption;
+and, though the orthography
+affects to be antiquated, there is but
+one word (bataunt) in the whole series
+of quatrains, ninety-eight in number,
+that would embarrass any reader in his
+teens; though a boy that could generate
+such a poem as that, might well
+be believed the father of other giants
+whom he chose to disown. It is a
+masterpiece in its kind, almost unexceptionable
+in all its parts. The subject
+is supposed to have been suggested
+by the fate of Sir Baldwin Fulford,
+a zealous Lancastrian, beheaded at
+Bristol in 1461, the first year of the
+reign of Edward IV., who, it is believed,
+was actually present at the
+execution.</p>
+
+<p>Now comes Ella, a tragical interlude,
+or discoursing tragedy, by Thomas
+Rowley, prefaced by two letters
+to Master Canning, and an introduction.
+In the first letter, among various
+sarcasms on the age, is one, complaining
+that</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;In holy priest appears the baron's pride.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>A proposition, we fear, at least as
+true in our day as in the fifteenth
+century. From the same epistle we
+would recommend to the consideration
+of the Pontius Pilates of our era, the
+numerous poets who choose none but
+awfully perilous themes, and who re-enact
+tremendous mysteries more confidently
+than if they were all Miltons,
+the annexed judicious admonition:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Plays made from holy tales I hold unmeet;</p>
+<p class="i1">Let some great story of a man be sung;</p>
+<p>When as a man we God and Jesus treat,</p>
+<p class="i1">In my poor mind we do the Godhead wrong.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>And the following piece of advice,
+from the same letter, would not be ill
+bestowed on modern shopocracy:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Let kings and rulers, when they gain a throne,</p>
+<p class="i1">Show what their grandsires and great-grandsires bore;</p>
+<p>Let trades' and towns'-folk let such things alone,</p>
+<p class="i1">Nor fight for sable on a field of ore.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Yet he who could give this sensible
+counsel did by no means follow it.
+Chatterton, who really could trace
+back his ancestors for 150 years as a
+family of gravediggers, drew out for
+himself a pedigree which would have
+astonished Garter king-at-arms, and
+almost abashed a Welsh or German
+genealogy. He derived his descent
+from Sire de Chasteautonne, of the
+house of Rollo, the first Duke of Normandy,
+who made an incursion on the
+coast of Britain in the ninth century,
+and was driven away by Alfred the
+Great! Nine shields, exhibiting the
+family arms, were carefully prepared
+by him, and are preserved, with many
+other and very various inventions by
+the same hand, in the British Museum;
+and neat engravings of those
+Chatterton escutcheons are furnished
+by Mr Cottle, in his excellent essays
+on this tortuous genius. He was
+equally liberal in providing a pedigree
+for his friend Mr Burgham, a
+worthy and credulous pewterer in his
+native town, convincing him, by proofs
+that were not conclusive at the Herald's
+College, that he was descended
+from the De Burghams, who possessed
+the estate and manor of Brougham
+in the reign of Edward the Confessor,
+and so allying the delighted hearer
+with the forefathers of an illustrious
+Ex-Chancellor of our day. No less a
+personage, too, than Fitz-Stephen, son
+of Stephen Earl of Ammerle in 1095,
+grandson of Od, Earl of Bloys and
+Lord of Holderness, was the progenitor
+gravely assigned to Chatterton's
+relative, Mr Stephens, leather-breeches-maker
+of Salisbury. Evidence
+of all sorts was ever ready
+among the treasures in the Redcliff
+muniment room, the Blue-Coat boy's
+&quot;Open Sesame!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The plot of Ella may be told in a
+few words. Ella, a renowned English
+warrior, the same who is invoked in
+the fine song already quoted, marries
+Bertha, of whom his friend and fellow
+warrior, Celmond, is secretly
+enamoured. On the wedding-day he
+is called suddenly away to oppose a
+Danish force, which he defeats, but
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page785" id="page785" title="785"></a></span> not without receiving wounds severe
+enough to prevent his immediate return
+home. Celmond takes advantage
+of this circumstance, and under
+pretence of conducting Bertha to her
+husband, betrays her into a forest
+that chances to be the covert of Hurra,
+the Danish general, and other of the
+discomfited invaders. Her shrieks
+bring Hurra and his companions to
+her aid. They kill Celmond, and generously
+resolve to restore Bertha to
+her lord. He in the mean time, impatient
+to rejoin his bride, has contrived
+to get home, where, when he
+hears of her ill-explained departure,
+believing her false, he stabs himself.
+She arrives only in time to see him
+die.</p>
+
+<p>Celmond, soliloquizing on the
+charms of Bertha, exclaims,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Ah, Bertha, why did nature frame thee fair?</p>
+<p>Why art thou not as coarse as others are?</p>
+<p><i>But then thy soul would through thy visage shine</i>;</p>
+<p>Like nut-brown cloud when by the sun made red,</p>
+<p>So would thy spirit on thy visage spread.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>At the wedding-feast, so unexpectedly interrupted by news of the Danes,
+the following pretty stanzas are sung by minstrels representing a young man
+and woman.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;<i>Man</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">Turn thee to thy shepherd swain;</p>
+<p class="i4">Bright sun has not drunk the dew</p>
+<p class="i4">From the flowers of yellow hue;</p>
+<p class="i4">Turn thee, Alice, back again.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>Woman</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">No, deceiver, I will go,</p>
+<p class="i4">Softly tripping o'er the mees,</p>
+<p class="i4">Like the silver-footed doe</p>
+<p class="i4">Seeking shelter in green trees.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>Man</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">See the moss-grown daisied bank</p>
+<p class="i4">Peering in the stream below;</p>
+<p class="i4">Here we'll sit in dewy dank,</p>
+<p class="i4">Turn thee, Alice: do not go.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>Woman</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">I've heard erst my grandam say</p>
+<p class="i4">That young damsels should not be,</p>
+<p class="i4">In the balmy month of May,</p>
+<p class="i4">With young men by the greenwood tree.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>Man</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">Sit thee, Alice, sit and hark</p>
+<p class="i4">How the blackbird chants his note,</p>
+<p class="i4">The goldfinch and the gray-morn lark,</p>
+<p class="i4">Shrilling from their little throat.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>Woman</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">I hear them from each greenwood tree</p>
+<p class="i4">Chanting out so lustily,</p>
+<p class="i4">Telling lectures unto me,</p>
+<p class="i4">Mischief is when you are nigh.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>Man</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">See, along the mends so green</p>
+<p class="i4">Pi&egrave;d daisies, kingcups sweet,</p>
+<p class="i4">All we see; by none are seen;</p>
+<p class="i4">None but sheep set here their feet.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>Woman</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">Shepherd swain, you tear my sleeve;</p>
+<p class="i4">Out upon you! let me go;</p>
+<p class="i4">Keep your distance, by your leave,</p>
+<p class="i4">Till Sir Priest make one of two.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>Man</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">By our lady and her bairn,</p>
+<p class="i4">To-morrow, soon as it is day,</p>
+<p class="i4">I'll make thee wife, nor be forsworn,</p>
+<p class="i4">So may I live or die for aye.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>Woman</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">What doth hinder but that now</p>
+<p class="i4">We at once, thus hand in hand,</p>
+<p class="i4"><span class="newpage"><a name="page786" id="page786" title="786"></a></span> Unto a divine do go,</p>
+<p class="i4">And be link'd in wedlock-band?</p>
+<p class="i6">(Sensible woman!)</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>Man</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">I agree, and thus I plight</p>
+<p class="i4">Hand and heart and all that's mine.</p>
+<p class="i4">Good Sir Herbert do us right,</p>
+<p class="i4">Make us one at Cuthbert's shrine.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><i>Both</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i4">We will in a cottage live,</p>
+<p class="i4">Happy though of no estate;</p>
+<p class="i4">Every hour more love shall give;</p>
+<p class="i4">We in goodness will be great.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The two Danish generals, Hurra
+and Magnus, warm their blood to the
+fighting temperature before the battle
+by quarreling with and abusing each
+other, like Grecian heroes. They are
+both bullies, but Hurra is brave and
+Magnus a craven. Chatterton's sarcastic
+humour plays them off admirably.
+The result of the struggle between
+the two armies is pithily announced
+by one of the fugitives:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Fly, fly, ye Danes! Magnus the chief is slain;</p>
+<p>The Saxons come with Ella at their head:</p>
+<p>Fly, fly, <i>this is the kingdom of the dead</i>.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>In this drama is the exquisite melody, &quot;O, sing unto my roundelay!&quot;
+with which every one is familiar, as it is introduced into all our popular selections
+from the poets.</p>
+
+<p>Here is a cunning description of dawn.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;The morn begins along the east to sheen,</p>
+<p><i>Darkling the light doth on the waters play</i>;</p>
+<p>The faint red flame slow creepeth o'er the green,</p>
+<p>To chase the murkiness of night away,</p>
+<p>Swift flies the hour that will bring out the day.</p>
+<p>The soft dew falleth on the greening grass;</p>
+<p>The shepherd-maiden, dighting her array,</p>
+<p><i>Scarce sees her visage in the wavy glass</i>.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Such extracts do not, and are not
+intended to, convey any notion of
+Chatterton's dramatic power in this
+play. Mere extracts would not do
+justice to that, and therefore we confine
+ourselves to selections of a few
+out of many passages that can stand
+independent of plot or action, without
+detriment to their effect. The same
+remark will not apply to the next
+piece, or rather fragment. Godwin,
+a Tragedy, by Thomas Rowley. It
+is short, and the dramatic interest
+weak. In the following noble chorus,
+however, we recognise the genius of
+Chatterton:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;When Freedom, drest in blood-stained vest,</p>
+<p class="i1">To every knight her war-song sung,</p>
+<p>Upon her head wild weeds were spread,</p>
+<p class="i1">A gory broadsword by her hung.</p>
+<p class="i4">She paced along the heath,</p>
+<p class="i4">She heard the voice of death.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Pale-eyed Affright, his heart of silver hue,</p>
+<p class="i1">In vain essay'd her bosom to congeal:</p>
+<p>She heard inflamed the shrieking voice of Woe,</p>
+<p class="i1">And cry of owls along the sadden'd vale.</p>
+<p class="i4">She shook the pointed spear,</p>
+<p class="i5">On high she raised her shield;</p>
+<p class="i4">Her foemen all appear,</p>
+<p class="i5">And fly along the field.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Power, with his head uplifted to the skies,</p>
+<p class="i1">His spear a sunbeam and his shield a star,</p>
+<p>Like two bright-burning meteors rolls his eyes,</p>
+<p class="i1">Stamps with his iron feet, and sounds to war.</p>
+<p class="i4"><span class="newpage"><a name="page787" id="page787" title="787"></a></span> She sits upon a rock,</p>
+<p class="i5">She bends before his spear,</p>
+<p class="i4">She rises from the shock,</p>
+<p class="i5">Wielding her own in air.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Hard as the thunder doth she drive it on;</p>
+<p class="i1">Keen wit, cross muffled, guides it to his crown;</p>
+<p>His long sharp spear, his spreading shield are goe;</p>
+<p class="i1">He falls, and falling rolleth thousands down.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>A short prologue by Master William
+Canning, informs us that this
+tragedy of Godwin was designed to
+vindicate the Kentish earl's memory
+from prejudices raised against him by
+monkish writers, who had mistaken
+his character, and accused him of ungodliness
+&quot;for that he gifted not the
+church.&quot; There are but three scenes
+in the play. In the first, Godwin and
+Harold confer together on the distressed
+state of the nation, and the weakness
+of the king, whose court is overrun
+with Norman favourites to the
+exclusion of the English knights, and
+the great oppression of the people.
+Harold, young and impetuous, is for
+instant rebellion; but the father tries
+to moderate his rage, recommending
+patience and calm preparation.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;<i>Godwin</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i3">What tidings from the king?</p>
+<p><i>Harold</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i6">His Normans know.</p>
+<p><i>Godwin</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i3">What tidings of the people?</p>
+<p><i>Harold</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i3">Still murmuring at their fate, still to the king</p>
+<p class="i4">They roll their troubles like a surging sea.</p>
+<p class="i3">Has England, then, a tongue but not a sting?</p>
+<p class="i4">Do all complain, yet will none righted be?</p>
+<p><i>Godwin</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i3">Await the time when God will send us aid.</p>
+<p><i>Harold</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i3">Must we, then, drowse away the weary hours?</p>
+<p class="i4">I'll free my country, or I'll die in fight.</p>
+<p><i>Godwin</i>.&mdash;</p>
+<p class="i3">But let us wait until some season fit.</p>
+<p class="i4"><i>My</i> Kentishmen, <i>thy</i> Somertons shall rise,</p>
+<p class="i4">Their prowess warmer for the cloak of wit,</p>
+<p class="i4">Again the argent horse shall prance in skies.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>An allusion, says Chatterton, to the
+arms of Kent, a horse salient, argent.
+As to the cloak of wit, it may possibly
+be preserved in Somersetshire; but
+the mantle certainly was not tied as an
+indefeasible heirloom over the broad
+shoulders of the county of Kent. No
+ancient Saxons, or even Britons, ever
+displayed prowess so stolid as those
+brave wild-wood savages of Boughton
+Blean, near Canterbury, who recently
+fell in battle with her Majesty's 45th
+regiment, opposing sticks to balls and
+bayonets, under their doughty leader
+Sir William Courtenay, Earl of Devonshire,
+Knight of Malta, King of
+Jerusalem, and much more. And there
+were other blockheads, substantial
+dunces, of respectable station in East
+Kent, among this ignorant and ambitious
+madman's supporters; men who
+had been at school to little purpose.
+Such an insurrection of satyrs, and
+such a Pan, in the middle of the nineteenth
+century, within earshot of the
+bells of Christchurch! But this by
+the bye.</p>
+
+<p>The next poem is styled English
+Metamorphosis, by T. Rowley. It
+consists of eleven stanzas of ten lines
+each, all fluent and spirited, and some
+of very superior merit. It is the fable
+of Sabrina, Milton's &quot;daughter of Locrine,&quot;
+transliquefied to the river Severn,
+while her mother, Elstrida, was
+changed to the ridge of stones that
+rises on either side of it, Vincent's
+rocks at Clifton, and their enemy, the
+giant, was transformed to the mountain
+Snowdon. This giant was a very
+Enceladus.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;He tore a ragged mountain from the ground;</p>
+<p>Hurried up nodding forests to the sky:</p>
+<p>Then with a fury that might earth astound,</p>
+<p>To middle air he let the mountain fly,</p>
+<p><i>The flying wolves sent forth a yelling cry</i>.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>In illustration of Elstrida's beauty,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;The morning tinge, the rose, the lily flower,</p>
+<p>In ever-running race on her did paint their power.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class="newpage"><a name="page788" id="page788" title="788"></a></span> The most vulgar and outworn simile
+is refreshed with a grace by the touch
+of Chatterton.</p>
+
+<p>Of the next poem&mdash;An excellent
+ballad of Charity, by the good priest,
+Thomas Rowley, 1454&mdash;it is clear
+that the young author thought highly,
+by a note that he transmitted with it
+to the printer of the &quot;Town and
+Country Magazine,&quot; July 4, 1770, the
+month preceding that of his death.
+Unlike too many bearers of sounding
+appellations, it has certainly something
+more than its title to recommend
+it.</p>
+
+<p>The octosyllabic lines&mdash;twenty
+only&mdash;on Redcliff Church, by T.R.,
+show what nice feeling Chatterton
+had for the delicacies of that florid
+architecture:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;The cunning handiwork so fine,</p>
+<p>Had wellnigh dazzled mine eyne.</p>
+<p>Quoth I, some artful fairy hand</p>
+<p>Uprear'd this chapel in this land.</p>
+<p>Full well I know so fine a sight,</p>
+<p>Was never raised by mortal wight.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Of its majesty he speaks in another
+measure:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Stay, curious traveller, and pass not by</p>
+<p class="i1">Until this festive pile astound thine eye.</p>
+<p>Whole rocks on rocks, with iron join'd, survey;</p>
+<p class="i1">And oaks with oaks that interfitted lie;</p>
+<p>This mighty pile that keeps the winds at bay,</p>
+<p class="i1">And doth the lightning and the storm defy,</p>
+<p>That shoots aloft into the realms of day,</p>
+<p class="i1">Shall be the record of the builder's fame for aye.</p>
+<p class="i2">Thou see'st this mastery of a human hand,</p>
+<p class="i2">The pride of Bristol, and the western land.</p>
+<p>Yet is the builder's virtue much more great;</p>
+<p class="i1">Greater than can by Rowley's pen be scann'd.</p>
+<p><i>Thou see'st </i>the saints and kings in stony state,</p>
+<p class="i1"><i>As if with breath and human soul expand</i>.</p>
+<p class="i2">Well may'st thou be astounded&mdash;view it well;</p>
+<p class="i2">Go not from hence before thou see thy fill,</p>
+<p>And learn the builder's virtues and his name.</p>
+<p class="i1">Of this tall spire in every country tell,</p>
+<p>And with thy tale the lazy rich men shame;</p>
+<p class="i1">Show how the glorious Canning did excel;</p>
+<p class="i2">How he, good man, a friend for kings became,</p>
+<p class="i2">And glorious paved at once the way to heaven and fame.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The &quot;Battle of Hastings&quot; is the
+longest of Chatterton's poems, and
+the reader who arrives at its abrupt
+termination will probably not grieve
+that it is left unfinished. The whole
+contains about 1300 lines in stanzas
+of ten, describing archery fights and
+heroic duels that are rather tedious
+by their similarity, and offensive from
+the smell of the shambles; and which
+any quick-witted stripling with the
+knack of rhyming might perhaps have
+done as well, and less coarsely, after
+reading Chapman's or Ogilby's Homer,
+or the fighting scenes in Spenser,
+the Border Ballads, &amp;c. But even
+this composition is not unconscious of
+the true afflatus, such as is incommunicable
+by learning, not to be inhaled
+by mere imitative powers, and which
+might be vainly sought for in hundreds
+of highly elaborated prize
+poems.</p>
+
+<p>There is nothing more interesting
+in British history than the subject;
+and it is one which Chatterton, with
+all his genius, was much too young to
+treat in a manner at all approaching
+to epic completeness. Yet a few specimens
+might show that he is not deficient
+in the energy of the Homeric
+poetry of action. But here is metal
+more attractive, a young Saxon wife:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;White as the chalky cliffs of Britain's isle,</p>
+<p>Red as the highest-coloured Gallic wine,</p>
+<p>Gay as all nature at the morning smile,</p>
+<p>Those hues with pleasance on her lips combine;</p>
+<p>Her lips more red than summer evening's skies,</p>
+<p>Or Ph&oelig;bus rising in a frosty morn;</p>
+<p>Her breast more white than snow in fields that lies,</p>
+<p>Or lily lambs that never have been shorn,</p>
+<p>Swelling like bubbles in a boiling well,</p>
+<p>Or new-burst brooklets gentling whispering in the dell,</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<hr style="width: 45%;">
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p><span class="newpage"><a name="page789" id="page789" title="789"></a></span> &quot;Brown as the filbert dropping from the shell,</p>
+<p>Brown as the nappy ale at Hocktide game&mdash;</p>
+<p>So brown the crooked rings that neatly fell</p>
+<p>Over the neck of that all-beauteous dame.</p>
+<p>Grey as the morn before the ruddy flame</p>
+<p>Of Ph&oelig;bus' chariot rolling through the sky;</p>
+<p>Grey as the steel-horn'd goats Conyan made tame&mdash;</p>
+<p>So grey appear'd her featly sparkling eye.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<hr style="width: 45%;">
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Majestic as the grove of oaks that stood</p>
+<p>Before the abbey built by Oswald king;</p>
+<p>Majestic as Hibernia's holy wood,</p>
+<p>Where saints, and souls departed, masses sing&mdash;</p>
+<p>Such awe from her sweet look far issuing,</p>
+<p>At once for reverence and love did call.</p>
+<p>Sweet as the voice of thrushes in the spring,</p>
+<p>So sweet the words that from her lips did fall.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<hr style="width: 45%;">
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Taper as candles laid at Cuthbert's shrine,</p>
+<p>Taper as silver chalices for wine,</p>
+<p>So were her arms and shape.&mdash;</p>
+<p>As skilful miners by the stones above</p>
+<p>Can ken what metal is inlaid below,</p>
+<p>So Kennewalcha's face, design'd for love,</p>
+<p>The lovely image of her soul did show.</p>
+<p>Thus was she outward form'd; the sun, her mind,</p>
+<p>Did gild her mortal shape and all her charms refined.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The next poem, and the last of the <i>modern-antiques</i> that it may be worth
+while to note, is the story of William Canning, the illustrious founder of Redcliff
+Church, and is worthy of the author and his subject.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Anent a brooklet as I lay reclined,</p>
+<p>Listening to hear the water glide along,</p>
+<p>Minding how thorough the green meads it twined,</p>
+<p>While caves responded to its muttering song,</p>
+<p>To distant-rising Avon as it sped,</p>
+<p>Where, among hills, the river show'd his head.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>Engarlanded with crowns of osier-weeds,</p>
+<p>And wreaths of alders of a pleasant scent.</p>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;Then from the distant stream arose a maid,</p>
+<p>Whose gentle tresses moved not to the wind.</p>
+<p>Like to the silver moon in frosty night,</p>
+<p>The damsel did come on so blithe and bright.</p>
+<p>No broider'd mantle of a scarlet hue,</p>
+<p>No peak&egrave;d shoon with plaited riband gear,</p>
+<p>No costly paraments of woaden blue;</p>
+<p>Nought of a dress but beauty did she wear;</p>
+<p>Naked she was, and looked sweet of youth,</p>
+<p>And all betoken'd that her name was Truth.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The few words then spoken by this
+angelical lady&mdash;who unhappily favoured
+Chatterton but with &quot;angel visits,
+short and far between&quot;&mdash;throw him
+into a reverie on the life of William
+Canning, whose boyhood was more
+fortunate than the poet's; for it is here
+reported of Canning, that</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p>&quot;He ate down learning with the wastlecake.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Chatterton, poor fellow, had neither
+fine bread to eat, nor fine learning
+within the possibility of his acquisition.
+Yet even the worthy Corporation
+of his native city will, we doubt
+not, be willing to allow that the Blue-Coat
+Charity boy might be entitled
+to the praise he gives Canning in the
+next couplet: that he&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p><span class="newpage"><a name="page790" id="page790" title="790"></a></span> &quot;As wise as any of the Aldermen,</p>
+<p>Had wit enough to make a Mayor at ten.&quot;</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>We have limited these slight notices
+to the Rowley Poems; and such readers
+of our extracts as have been repelled
+from the perusal of those poems,
+by the formidable array of uncouth
+diction and strange spelling, may enquire
+what has become of the hard
+words. Here are long quotations,
+and not an obsolete term or unfamiliar
+metre among them. Chatterton
+took great pains to encrust his gold
+with verd-antique; it requires little to
+remove the green rubbish from the
+coin. By the aid of little else than
+his own glossary, &quot;the Gode Preeste
+Rowleie, Aucthoure,&quot; is restored to
+his true form and pressure, and is all
+the fairer for the renovation.</p>
+
+<p>We have no space for examination
+of the &quot;numerous verse,&quot; and verses
+numerous, that Chatterton left undisguised
+by barbarous phraseology.
+His modern poems, morally exceptionable
+as is much of the matter, are
+affluent of the genius that inspired the
+old. African Eclogues, Elegies, Political
+Satires, Amatory Triflings, Lines on
+the Copernican System, the Consuliad,
+Lines on Happiness, <i>Resignation</i>, The
+Art of Puffing, and Kew Gardens&mdash;to
+say nothing of his equally remarkable
+prose writings&mdash;attest the versatility
+of his powers, and the variety of his
+perception of men and manners. His
+knowledge of the world appears to
+have been almost intuitive; for surely
+no youth of his years ever displayed so
+much. Bristol, it is true, was, of all
+great towns in England, one of the
+most favourable to the development
+of his peculiar and complicated faculties.
+His passion for antiquarian lore,
+and his poetical enthusiasm, found a
+nursing mother in a city so rich in
+ancient architecture, heraldic monuments,
+and historical interest; his
+caustic humour was amply fed from
+the full tide of human life, with all its
+follies, in that populous mart; and his
+exquisite sensibility to the beautiful
+and magnificent in nature, was abundantly
+ministered to by the surrounding
+country. We are told that he had
+been by some odd chance taught his
+alphabet, and his first lesson in &quot;reading
+made easy,&quot; out of a black-letter
+Bible! That accident may have had
+its share in forming his taste for old-fashioned
+literature. But he was an
+attorney's clerk! The very name of
+a lawyer's office seems to suggest a
+writ of ejectment against all poetical
+influences in the brain of his indented
+apprentice. Yet Chatterton's anomalous
+genius was in all likelihood
+fostered by that dark, yet subtle atmosphere.
+His duty of copying precedents
+must have initiated him in
+many of the astute wiles and twisted
+lines of reasoning that lead to what is
+termed sharp practice, and so may
+have confirmed and aided his propensities
+to artifice; while the mere manual
+operation tutored his fingers to dexterity
+at quaint penmanship. He had
+much leisure too; for it is recorded
+that his master's business seldom occupied
+him more than two hours a-day.
+He was left to devote the rest
+of his time unquestioned to all the devices
+of an inordinate imagination.</p>
+
+<p>After all, it is no unreasonable
+charity to believe, that what was unworthy
+and unsound in his character,
+and probably in his physical temperament,
+might, under more auspicious
+circumstances of condition and training,
+have been kept in check till
+utterly expelled by the force of his
+own maturer mind. In weighing his
+faults against his genius and its better
+fruits, it should never be forgotten that
+when he terminated his existence he
+was only seventeen years and nine
+months old.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p class="i2">&quot;More wounds than nature gave he knew,</p>
+<p class="i2">While misery's form his fancy drew</p>
+<p>In dark ideal hues and horrors not its own.&quot;<a name="footnotetag39" id="footnotetag39"></a><a href="#footnote39"><sup>39</sup></a></p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>May we not even dare to hope, then,
+though he &quot;perished in his pride,&quot;
+that he is still a living genius, assoiled
+of that foul stain of self-murder, and
+a chartered spiritualized melody where
+want and trouble madden not?</p>
+
+<hr class="full">
+
+
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page791" id="page791" title="791"></a></span>
+<a name="bw332s9" id="bw332s9"></a><h2>IGNACIO GUERRA AND EL SANGRADOR;</h2>
+
+<h3>A TALE OF CIVIL WAR.</h3>
+
+<p>On a June evening in the year 1839,
+four persons were assembled in the
+balcony of a pleasant little villa, some
+half-league from the town of Logro&ntilde;o
+in Navarre. The site of the house in
+question was a narrow valley, formed
+by a double range of wood-covered
+hills, the lower limbs of a mountain
+chain that bounded the horizon some
+miles in rear of the villa. The house
+itself was a long, low building, of which
+the white stone walls had acquired
+the mellow tint that time and exposure
+to the seasons can alone impart. A
+solid balcony of carved unpainted oak
+ran completely round the house, its
+breadth preventing the rays of the sun
+from entering the rooms on the ground
+floor, and thereby converting them
+into a cool and delightful refuge from
+the heats of summer. The windows
+of the first and only story opened upon
+this balcony, which, in its turn, received
+shelter from a roof of yellow
+canes, laid side by side, and fastened
+by innumerable packthreads, in the
+same way as Indian matting. This
+sort of awning was supported by light
+wooden pillars, placed at distances of
+five or six feet from each other, and
+corresponding with the more massive
+columns that sustained the balcony.
+At the foot of these latter, various
+creeping plants had taken root. A
+broad-leafed vine pushed its knotty
+branches and curled tendrils up to the
+very roof of the dwelling, and a passion-flower
+displayed its mystical purple
+blossoms nearly at as great a height;
+while the small white stars of the jasmine
+glittered among its narrow dark-green
+leaves, and every passing breeze
+wafted the scent of the honeysuckle
+and clematis through the open windows,
+in puffs of overpowering fragrance.</p>
+
+<p>About two hundred yards to the
+right of the house, rose one of the
+ranges of hills already mentioned, and
+on the opposite side the eye glanced
+over some of those luxuriant corn-fields
+which form so important a part of the
+riches of the fertile province of Navarre.
+The ground in front of the villa was
+tastefully laid out as a flower garden,
+and, midway between two magnificent
+chestnut trees, a mountain rivulet fell
+into a large stone basin, and fed a
+fountain, from which it was spouted
+twenty feet into the air, greatly to the
+refreshment of the surrounding pastures.</p>
+
+<p>The party that on the evening in
+question was enjoying the scent of the
+flowers and the song of the nightingales,
+to which the neighbouring trees
+afforded a shelter, consisted, in the first
+place, of Don Torribio Olana, a wealthy
+proprietor of La Rioja, and owner
+of the country-house that has been described.
+He had been long used to
+pass the hot months of each year at
+this pleasant retreat; and it was no
+small calamity to him when the civil
+war that broke out on the death of
+Ferdinand, rendered it scarcely safe, in
+Navarre at least, to live out of musket-shot
+of a garrison. Sometimes, however,
+and in spite of the advice of his
+friends, who urged him to greater prudence,
+the worthy Riojano would
+mount his easy-going round-quartered
+cob, and leave the town for a few hours'
+rustication at his <i>Retiro</i>. After a time,
+finding himself unmolested either by
+Carlists or by the numerous predatory
+bands that overran the country, he
+took for companions of his excursions
+his daughter Gertrudis, and an orphan
+niece, to whom he supplied the place
+of a father. Five years of impunity
+were taken as a guarantee for future
+safety, and Don Torribio now no longer
+hesitated to pass the night at his country-house
+as often as he found it convenient.
+It was observed, also, that
+many of those persons who had at first
+loudly blamed him for risking his neck,
+and that of his daughter and niece, in
+order to enjoy a purer atmosphere than
+could be inhaled in the dusty streets of
+Logro&ntilde;o, at length gathered so much
+courage from his example, as to accompany
+him out to the <i>Retiro</i>, and eat
+his excellent dinners, and empty his
+cobweb-covered bottles, without allowing
+their fear of the Carlists to diminish
+their thirst or disturb their digestion.</p>
+
+<p>Upon this occasion, however, the
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page792" id="page792" title="792"></a></span> only guest was a young and handsome
+man, whose sunburnt countenance and
+military gait bespoke the soldier, while
+a double stripe of gold lace on the cuff
+of his blue frock-coat, marked his rank
+as that of lieutenant-colonel. Although
+not more than thirty years of age, Don
+Ignacio Guerra had already attained a
+grade which is often the price of as
+many years' service; but his rapid promotion
+was so well justified by his
+merit and gallantry, that few were
+found to complain of a preference
+which all felt was deserved. Both by
+moral and physical qualities, he was
+admirably suited to the profession he
+had embraced. Slender in person, but
+well knit and muscular, he possessed
+extraordinary activity, and a capacity
+of enduring great fatigue. Indulgent
+to those under his command, and self-denying
+in all that regarded himself personally,
+his enthusiasm for the cause
+he served was such, that during nearly
+two years that he had been the accepted
+lover of Donna Gertrudis Olana, this
+was only the second time he had left
+his regiment for a few days' visit to his
+affianced bride. He had arrived at
+Logro&ntilde;o the preceding day from a town
+lower down the Ebro, where the battalion
+he commanded was stationed; and
+Don Torribio, with whom he was a
+great favourite, had lost no time in
+taking him out to the <i>Retiro</i>; nor, perhaps,
+were the lovers sorry to leave the
+noise and bustle of the town for this
+calm and peaceful retreat.</p>
+
+<p>It was about an hour after sunset,
+and Don Torribio sat dozing in an
+arm-chair, with his old black dog
+Moro coiled up at his feet, and his
+niece Teresa beside him, busying herself
+in the arrangement of a bouquet of
+choice flowers, while at the other end
+of the balcony Gertrudis and her lover
+were looking out upon the garden.
+The silence was unbroken, save by the
+splashing noise of the fountain as it
+fell back upon the water-lilies that covered
+its basin. The moon was as yet
+concealed behind the high ground to
+the right of the house; but the sky in
+that direction was lighted up by its
+beams, and the outline of every tree
+and bush on the summit of the hill
+was defined and cut out, as it were,
+against the clear blue background.
+Suddenly Gertrudis called her companion's
+attention to the neighbouring
+mountain. &quot;See, Ignacio!&quot; exclaimed
+she, &quot;yonder bush on the very highest
+point of the hill! Could not one almost
+fancy it to be a man with a gun
+in his hand? and that clump of leaves
+on the top bough might be the <i>boina</i>
+of one of those horrid Carlists?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>While she spoke the officer ran his
+eye along the ridge of the hill, and
+started when he caught sight of the
+object pointed out by Gertrudis; but
+before he could reply to her remark,
+she was called away by her father.
+At that moment the supposed bush
+made a sudden movement, and the
+long bright barrel of a musket glittered
+in the moonbeams. The next instant
+the figure disappeared as suddenly
+as though it had sunk into the
+earth.</p>
+
+<p>The Christino colonel remained for
+a moment gazing on the mountain,
+and then, turning away, hastened to
+accompany his host and the ladies, who
+had received a summons to supper.
+On reaching the foot of the stairs,
+however, instead of following them
+into the supper-room, he passed
+through the house-door, which stood
+open, and, after a moment's halt in the
+shade of the lattice portico, sprang
+forward with a light and noiseless
+step, and in three or four bounds found
+himself under one of the large chestnut
+trees that stood on either side the
+fountain. Keeping within the black
+shadow thrown by the branches, he
+cast a keen and searching glance over
+the garden and shrubberies, now partially
+lighted up by the moon. Nothing
+was moving either in the garden,
+or as far as he could see into the
+adjacent country. He was about to
+return to the house, when a blow on
+the back of the head stretched him
+stunned upon the ground. In an instant
+a slip-knot was drawn tight
+round his wrists, and his person securely
+pinioned by a strong cord to
+the tree under which he had been
+standing. A cloth was crammed into
+his mouth to prevent his calling out,
+and the three men who had thus rapidly
+and dexterously effected his capture,
+darted off in the direction of the
+house.</p>
+
+<p>Desperate were the efforts made by
+Don Ignacio to free himself from his
+bonds, and his struggles became almost
+frantic, when the sound of a scuffle in
+the house, followed by the piercing
+shrieks of women, reached his ears.
+He succeeded in getting rid of the
+handkerchief that gagged him, but
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page793" id="page793" title="793"></a></span> the rope with which his arms were
+bound, and that had afterwards been
+twined round his body and the tree,
+withstood his utmost efforts. In vain
+did he throw himself forward with all
+his strength, striking his feet furiously
+against the trunk of the tree, and
+writhing his arms till the sharp cord
+cut into the very sinew. The rope
+appeared rather tightened than slackened
+by his violence. The screams
+and noise in the house continued; he
+was sufficiently near to hear the hoarse
+voices and obscene oaths of the banditti&mdash;the
+prayers for mercy of their
+victims. At length the shrieks became
+less frequent and fainter, and at
+last they died away entirely.</p>
+
+<p>Two hours had elapsed since Ignacio
+had been made prisoner, hours that
+to him appeared centuries. Exhausted
+by the violence of his exertions, and
+still more by the mental agony he had
+endured, his head fell forward on his
+breast, a cold sweat stood upon his forehead,
+and had it not been for the cords
+that held him up, he would have fallen
+to the ground. He was roused from
+this state of exhaustion and despair
+by the noise of approaching footsteps,
+and by the arrival of a dozen men,
+three or four of whom carried torches.
+They were dressed in the sort of half
+uniform worn by the Carlist <i>volantes</i>,
+or irregular troops; round their waists
+were leathern belts filled with cartridges,
+and supporting bayonets and
+long knives, in many instances without
+sheaths. Ignacio observed with
+a shudder that several of the ruffians
+had their hands and weapons stained
+with blood.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Whom have we here?&quot; exclaimed
+a sallow, evil-visaged fellow, who wore
+a pair of tarnished epaulets. &quot;Is this
+the <i>negro</i> you secured at the beginning
+of the affair?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>One of the men nodded assent, and
+the chief bandit, taking a torch, passed
+it before the face of the captive
+officer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<i>Un militar</i>!&quot; exclaimed he, observing
+the uniform button. &quot;Your
+name and rank?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Receiving no reply, he stepped a
+little on one side, and looked to the
+coat-cuff for the usual sign of grade.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<i>Teniente coronel</i>!&quot; cried he on
+seeing the double stripe.</p>
+
+<p>A man stepped forward, and Ignacio,
+who knew that death was the best he
+had to expect at the hands of these
+ruffians, and was observing their proceedings
+in stern silence, immediately
+recognized a deserter from his battalion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Tis the Colonel Ignacio Guerra,&quot;
+said the man; &quot;he commands the first
+battalion of the Toledo regiment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>An exclamation of surprise and pleasure
+burst from the Carlists on hearing
+the name of an officer and battalion,
+well known and justly dreaded
+among the adherents of the Pretender.
+Their leader again threw the light of
+the torch on the features of the Christino,
+and gazed at him for the space of
+a minute with an expression of cruel
+triumph.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ha!&quot; exclaimed he, &quot;<i>el Coronel
+Guerra! He</i> is worth taking to headquarters.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We shall have enough to do to get
+away ourselves, laden as we are,&quot; said
+one of the men, pointing to a number
+of large packages of plunder lying on
+the grass hard by. &quot;Who is to take
+charge of the prisoner? Not I, for
+one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A murmur among the other brigands
+approved this mutinous speech.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<i>Cuatro tiros</i>,&quot; suggested a voice.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes,&quot; said the leader, &quot;to bring
+down the enemy's pickets upon us.
+They are not a quarter of a league off.
+Pedro, lend me your knife. We will
+see,&quot; he added with a cruel grin,
+&quot;how the gallant colonel will look
+cropped.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A knife-blade glanced for a moment
+in the torchlight as it was passed
+round the head of the Christino officer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<i>Toma! chicos!</i>&quot; said the savage,
+as he threw the ears of the unhappy
+Ignacio amongst his men. A ferocious
+laugh from the banditti welcomed
+this act of barbarous cruelty.</p>
+
+<p>The leader sheathed the knife twice
+in his victim's breast before restoring
+it to it's owner, and the Carlists, snatching
+up their booty, disappeared in the
+direction of the mountains.</p>
+
+<p>At daybreak the following morning,
+some peasants going to their labour in
+the fields saw the body of the unfortunate
+officer still fastened to the tree.
+They unbound him, and, perceiving some
+signs of life, carried him into Logro&ntilde;o,
+where they gave the alarm. A
+detachment was immediately sent out
+to the Retiro, but it was too late to
+pursue the assassins; and all that
+could be done was to bring in the
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page794" id="page794" title="794"></a></span> bodies of Don Torribio, his daughter,
+and niece, who were lying dead in the
+supper-room. An old groom and two
+women servants had shared a like fate;
+the horses had been taken out of the
+stable, and the house ransacked of
+every thing valuable.</p>
+
+<p>For several weeks Ignacio Guerra
+remained wavering, as it were, between
+life and death. At length he recovered;
+but his health was so much impaired,
+that the surgeons forbade his again encountering
+the fatigues of a campaign.
+Enfeebled in body, heartbroken at the
+horrible fate of Gertrudis, and foreseeing
+the speedy termination of the
+war, consequent on the concluded
+treaty of Bergara, he threw up his
+commission, and left Spain to seek
+forgetfulness of his misfortunes in foreign
+travel.</p>
+
+<p>In all French towns of any consequence,
+and in many whose size and
+population would almost class them
+under the denomination of villages,
+there is some favourite spot serving as
+an evening lounge for the inhabitants,
+whither, on Sundays and f&ecirc;te-days especially,
+the belles and <i>&eacute;l&eacute;gants</i> of the
+place resort, to criticize each other's
+toilet, and parade up and down a walk
+varying from one to two or three hundred
+yards in extent.</p>
+
+<p>The ancient city of Toulouse is of
+course not without its promenade, although
+but poor taste has been evinced
+in its selection; for, while on one side
+of the town soft well-trimmed lawns,
+cool fountains, and magnificent avenues
+of elm and plane trees, are abandoned
+to nursery-maids and their charges,
+the rendezvous of the fashionables of
+the pleasant capital of Languedoc is
+a parched and dusty <i>all&eacute;e</i>, scantily
+sheltered by trees of recent growth, extending
+from the canal to the open
+square formerly known as the Place
+d'Angoul&ecirc;me, but since 1830 re-baptized
+by the name of the revolutionary
+patriarch General Lafayette.</p>
+
+<p>It was on a Sunday evening of the
+month of August 1840, and the All&eacute;e
+Lafayette was more than usually
+crowded. After a day of uncommon
+sultriness, a fresh breeze had sprung
+up, and a little before sundown the
+fair Toulousaines had deserted their
+darkened and artificially cooled rooms,
+and flocked to the promenade. The
+walk was thronged with gaily attired
+ladies, smirking dandies, and officers
+in full dress. In the fields on the
+further side of the canal, a number of
+men of the working-classes, happy in
+their respite from the toils of the week,
+were singing in parts, with all the musical
+taste and correctness of ear for
+which the inhabitants of that part of
+France are noted; while, on the broad
+boulevard that traverses the lower end
+of the <i>all&eacute;e</i>, a crowd of recruits whom
+the conscription had recently called under
+the colours, stood gazing in open-mouthed
+astonishment and infinite delight
+at some rudely constructed
+booths and shows, outside of which,
+clown and paillasse were rivalling
+each other in the broad humour of
+their lazzi. Parties of students, easily
+recognizable by their eccentric and
+exaggerated style of dress, and the
+loud tone of their conversation, were
+seated outside the caf&eacute;s and ice-rooms,
+or circulating under the trees, puffing
+forth clouds of tobacco smoke; and on
+the road round the <i>all&eacute;e</i>, open carriages,
+smart tilburies, and dapper
+horsemen were careering.</p>
+
+<p>Among the various groups thronging
+the promenade was one, which, in
+Hyde Park or on the Paris boulevards,
+would have attracted some notice; but
+the persons composing it were of a
+class too common of late years in the
+south of France to draw upon them
+any attention from the loungers. The
+party in question consisted of three
+men, who, by their bronzed complexions,
+ragged mustaches, and sullen,
+dogged countenances, as well as their
+whole air and <i>tournure</i>, were easily distinguishable
+as belonging to the exiled
+and disappointed faction of the Spanish
+Pretender. Their threadbare costume
+still exhibited signs of their late military
+employment, probably from a
+lack of means to replace it by any
+other garments. The closely buttoned
+blue frock of one of them still
+had upon its shoulders the small lace
+straps used to support the epaulets, and
+another wore for headdress a <i>boina</i>,
+with its large starlike tassels of silver
+cord. The third and most remarkable
+of the party, was a man in the
+prime of life and strength, whose countenance
+bore the impress of every bad
+passion. It was one of those faces
+sometimes seen in old paintings of
+monkish inquisitors, on viewing which,
+one feels inclined to suspect that the
+artist has outdone and exaggerated
+nature. The expression of the cold,
+glassy, grey eye, and thin, pale, compressed
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page795" id="page795" title="795"></a></span> lips, was one of unrelenting
+cruelty; while the coarsely moulded
+chin and jaw gave a sensual character
+to the lower part of the face. The
+scar of a sabre-cut extended from the
+centre of the forehead nearly to the
+upper lip, partly dividing the nose, and
+giving a hideously distorted and unnatural
+appearance to that feature.
+The man's frame was bony and powerful;
+the loose sheepskin jacket he wore
+was thrown open, and through the
+imperfectly fastened shirt-front, it
+might be seen that his breast was
+covered with a thick felt of matted
+hair.</p>
+
+<p>It was the moment of the short twilight
+that in the south of France intervenes
+between day and night. The
+Carlists had reached the upper end of
+the walk, and, turning round, began to
+descend it again three abreast, and
+with the man who has been particularly
+described in the centre. On
+a sudden the latter stopped short,
+as though petrified where he stood.
+His countenance, naturally sallow, became
+pale as ashes, and, as if to save
+himself from falling, he clutched the
+arm of one of his companions with a
+force that made him wince again,
+while he gazed with distended eyeballs
+on a man who had halted within half-a-dozen
+paces of the Spaniards. The
+person whose aspect produced this
+Medusa-like effect upon the Carlist
+was a man about thirty years of age,
+plainly but elegantly dressed, and of
+a prepossessing but somewhat sickly
+countenance, the lines of which were
+now working under the influence of
+some violent emotion. The only peculiarity
+in his appearance was a
+black silk band which, passing under
+his chin, was brought up on both sides
+of the head, and fastened on the crown
+under the hat.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<i>Que tienes, Sangrador</i>? What ails
+thee, man?&quot; enquired the Carlists of
+their terror-stricken companion, addressing
+him by a <i>nom-de-guerre</i> that
+he doubtless owed to his bloody deeds
+or disposition. At that moment the
+stranger sprang like a bloodhound into
+the centre of the group. In an instant
+El Sangrador was on the ground, his
+assailant's knee upon his breast, and
+his throat compressed by two nervous
+hands, which bade fair to perform the
+office of a bowstring on the prostrate
+man. All this had passed in far less
+time than is required to narrate it, and
+the astonishment of the Carlists at their
+comrade's terror and this sudden attack,
+was such, that, although men of
+action and energy, they were for a
+moment paralysed, and thought not of
+rescuing their friend from the iron
+gripe in which he was held. Already
+his eyes were bloodshot, his face
+purple, and his tongue protruding
+from his mouth, when a gendarme
+came up, and aided by half-a-dozen of
+those agents who, in plain clothes,
+half-spy and half-policeman, are to be
+found in every place of public resort in
+France, succeeded, but not without
+difficulty, in rescuing the Carlist from
+the fierce clutch of his foe, who clung
+to him with bull-dog tenacity till they
+were actually drawn asunder by main
+force.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<i>Canalla! infame!</i>&quot; shouted the
+stranger, as he writhed and struggled
+in the hands of his guards. &quot;By
+yonder villain have all my hopes in
+life been blasted&mdash;an adored mistress
+outraged and murdered, myself tortured
+and mutilated in cold blood!&quot;
+And, tearing off the black fillet that
+encircled his head, it was seen that his
+ears had been cut off. A murmur of
+horror ran through the crowd which
+this scene had assembled. &quot;And shall
+I not have revenge?&quot; shouted Ignacio
+(for he it was) in a voice rendered
+shrill by furious passion. And by a
+violent effort he again nearly succeeded
+in shaking off the men who held
+him.</p>
+
+<p>El Sangrador, whose first terror had
+probably been caused by astonishment
+at seeing one whom he firmly
+believed numbered with the dead, had
+now recovered from his alarm.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<i>Adios</i>, Don Ignacio,&quot; cried he
+with a sneer, as he walked away between
+two gendarmes, while his enemy
+was hurried off in another direction.</p>
+
+<p>The following day El Sangrador was
+sent to a dep&ocirc;t of Spanish emigrants in
+the interior of France. On his departure,
+the authorities, who had made
+themselves acquainted with the particulars
+of this dramatic incident, released
+Don Ignacio from confinement;
+but he was informed that no passport
+would be given him to quit Toulouse
+unless it were for the Spanish frontier.</p>
+
+<p>At the distance of a few leagues
+from the town of Oleron, and in one
+of the wildest parts of the Pyrenees, is
+a difficult pass, scarcely known, except
+to smugglers and izard-hunters
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page796" id="page796" title="796"></a></span> whose hazardous avocations make them
+acquainted with the most hidden recesses
+of these rugged and picturesque
+mountains. Towards the close of the
+summer of 1841, this defile was occasionally
+traversed by adherents of the
+Ex-Queen-Regent Christina, entering
+Spain secretly and in small parties, to
+be ready to take share in the abortive
+attempt subsequently made to replace
+the reins of government in the hands
+of Ferdinand's widow. Not a few
+Carlists also, weary of the monotonous
+inactive life they were leading in
+France, prepared to join the projected
+insurrection; and, leaving the towns in
+which a residence had been assigned
+them, sought to gain the Spanish side
+of the Pyrenees, where they might lie
+<i>perdus</i> until the moment for active
+operation arrived, subsisting in the
+meanwhile by brigandage and other
+lawless means. Owing to the negligence,
+either accidental or intentional,
+of the French authorities, these adventurers
+usually found little difficulty
+in reaching the line of demarcation
+between the two frontiers; but it was
+there their troubles began, and they
+had to take the greatest precaution to
+avoid falling into the hands of the
+Spanish <i>carabineros</i> and light troops
+posted along the frontier.</p>
+
+<p>Among those who intended to take
+a share in the rebellion, Don Ignacio
+Guerra occupied a prominent place.
+Being well known to the Spanish Government
+as a devoted adherent of
+Christina, it would have been in vain
+for him to have attempted entering
+Spain by one of the ordinary roads.
+Repairing to Oleron, therefore, he
+procured himself a guide, and one of
+the small but sure-footed horses of the
+Pyrenees, and, after a wearisome march
+among the mountains, arrived about
+dusk at a cottage, or rather hovel,
+built on a ledge of rock within half-an-hour's
+walk of the Spanish frontier.
+Beyond this spot the road was
+impracticable for a horse, and dangerous
+even for a pedestrian, and Don
+Ignacio had arranged to send back his
+guide and horse and proceed on foot;
+in which manner, also, it was easier
+to avoid falling in with the Spanish
+troops. The night was fine, and having
+had the road minutely explained
+to him by his peasant guide, Ignacio
+had no doubt of finding himself, in a
+few hours, at a village where shelter
+and concealment were prepared for
+him. Leaving the horse in a sort of
+shed that afforded shelter to two or
+three pigs, the Christino officer entered
+the hut, followed by his guide and by
+a splendid wolf-dog, an old and faithful
+companion of his wanderings. It
+was some seconds, however, before their
+eyes got sufficiently accustomed to the
+dark and smoky atmosphere of the
+place, to distinguish the objects it
+contained. The smoke came from a
+fire of green wood, that was smouldering
+under an enormous chimney, and
+over which a decrepit old woman was
+frying <i>talloua</i> or maize-meal cake, in
+grease of a most suspicious odour.
+The old lady was so intent on the preparation
+of this delicacy, a favourite
+food of the Pyrenean mountaineers,
+that it was with difficulty she could
+be prevailed upon to prepare something
+more substantial for the hungry
+travellers. Some smoked goats'
+flesh and acid wine were at length
+obtained, and, after a hasty meal, Ignacio
+paid his guide and resumed his
+perilous journey. The moon had not
+yet risen&mdash;the night was dark&mdash;the
+paths rugged and difficult, and the
+troops on the alert; to avoid falling in
+with an enemy, or down a precipice,
+so much care and attention were necessary,
+that nearly three hours had
+elapsed before Ignacio perceived that
+his dog had not followed him from the
+cottage. The animal had gone into
+the stable and lain down beside his
+master's horse, doubtless imagining,
+by that sort of half-reasoning instinct
+which dogs possess, that, as long as
+the horse was there, the rider would
+not be far off.</p>
+
+<p>Ignacio's first impulse, on discovering
+the absence of his four-footed
+companion, was to return to the cottage;
+but the risk in so doing was extreme,
+and as he felt certain his guide
+would take care of the dog, and that
+he should get it at some future day,
+he resolved to pursue his journey.
+Meantime the night became darker
+and darker&mdash;thick clouds had gathered,
+and hung low&mdash;there was no longer
+the slightest trace or indication of a
+path, and the darkness preventing him
+from finding certain landmarks he had
+been told to observe, he was obliged
+to walk on nearly at hazard, and soon
+became aware he had lost his way.
+To add to his difficulties, the low
+growlings of distant thunder were
+heard, and some large drops of rain
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page797" id="page797" title="797"></a></span> fell. A violent storm was evidently
+approaching, and Ignacio quickened
+his pace in hopes of finding some shelter
+before it came on, resolving to
+wait at all risks till daylight before
+continuing his route, lest he should
+run, as it were, blindfolded into the
+very dangers he wished to avoid. A
+sort of cliff or wall of rock he had for
+some time had on his left hand, now
+suddenly ended, and a scene burst on
+his view which to him was commonplace
+enough, but would have appeared
+somewhat strange to a person unaccustomed
+to such sights. The mountain,
+which had been steep and difficult
+to descend, now began to slope
+more gradually as it approached nearer
+its base. On a sort of shelving plateau
+of great extent, a number of charcoal-burners
+had established themselves,
+and, as the most expeditious way of
+clearing the ground, had set light in
+various places to the brushwood and
+furze that clothed this part of the
+mountain. To prevent, however, the
+conflagration from extending too far,
+they had previously, with their axes,
+cleared rings of several feet wide
+around the places to which they set
+fire. The bushes and furze they rooted
+up were thrown into the centre, and
+increased the blaze. In this manner
+the entire mountain side, of which
+several hundred acres were overlooked
+from the spot where Ignacio stood,
+appeared dotted with brilliant fiery
+spots of some fifty feet in diameter,
+the more distant ones assuming a lurid
+blood-red look, seen through the fog and
+mist that had now gathered over the
+mountain. Ignacio approached the
+nearest of the fires, lighted close to a
+crag that almost overhung it, and that
+offered a sufficient shelter from the rain
+which had begun to descend in torrents.
+Throwing himself on the
+ground with his feet towards the
+flames, he endeavoured to get a little
+sleep, of which he stood much in
+need. But it was in vain. The situation
+in which he found himself
+suggested thoughts that he was unable
+to drive away. Gradually a sort
+of phantasmagoria passed before his
+&quot;mind's eye,&quot; wherein the various
+events of his life, which, although a short
+one, had not the less been sadly eventful,
+were represented in vivid colours.
+He thought of his childhood, spent in
+the sunny <i>vegas</i> of Andalusia&mdash;of the
+companions of his military studies,
+high-spirited free-hearted lads, of
+whom some had achieved honours and
+fame, but by far the greater part had
+died on the battle-field&mdash;the smoke
+of the bivouac fire, the merry laugh of
+the <i>insouciant</i> soldier&mdash;the din and excitement
+of the fight&mdash;the exultation of
+victory, and the well-won and highly
+relished pleasures of the garrison town
+after severe duty in the field;&mdash;the
+graceful form of Gertrudis now flitted
+across the picture&mdash;her jetty hair
+braided over her pure white forehead,
+the light of her swimming &quot;eye, that
+mocked her coal-black veil,&quot; flashing
+from under the mantilla. Her father,
+with his portly figure and good-humoured
+countenance, was beside her. They
+smiled at Ignacio, and seemed to beckon
+to him. So life-like was the illusion
+of his fancy, he could almost have
+sprung forward to join them. But
+again there was a change. A large
+and handsome room, a well-covered
+table&mdash;all the appliances of modern
+luxury&mdash;plate and crystal sparkling in
+the brilliant lights&mdash;a happy cheerful
+party surrounding the board. Alas,
+for the tragedy played on this stage!
+The hand of the spoiler was there&mdash;blood
+and womens' screams, dishevelled
+hair and men's deep oaths, the
+wild and broken accents of despair,
+the coarse jest and ferocious exultation
+of gratified brutality. And then
+all was dark and gloomy as a winter's
+night, and through the darkness was
+seen a grave-stone, shadowy and spectral,
+and a man still young, but with
+heart crushed and hopes blighted, lying
+prostrate before it, his breast heaving
+with convulsive sobs of agony,
+until at length he rose and moved sadly
+away, to become an exile and a wanderer
+in a foreign land.</p>
+
+<p>Maddened by these reflections, Ignacio
+started to his feet, and was about
+to rush out into the storm, and fly, he
+knew not whither, from his own
+thoughts, when he suddenly became
+aware of the presence of a man within
+a few yards of him. The projecting
+crag, under which he had sought a
+shelter, extended all along one side of
+the fire. In one corner an angle of
+the rock threw a deep shadow, in which
+Ignacio now stood, and was thus enabled,
+without being seen himself, to
+observe the new-comer, who seated
+himself on a block of stone close to the
+fire. As he did so, the flame, which
+had been deadened by the rain, again
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page798" id="page798" title="798"></a></span> burned up brightly, and threw a strong
+light on the features of the stranger.
+They were those of <i>El Sangrador</i>.</p>
+
+<p>With stealthy pace, and trembling
+at every step, lest his prey should take
+the alarm, and even yet escape him,
+Ignacio stole towards his mortal foe.
+The noise of the storm, that still raged
+furiously, enabled him to get within
+five paces of him without being heard.
+He then halted, and silently cocking a
+pistol, remained for some time motionless
+as a statue. Now that his revenge
+was within his grasp, he hesitated to
+take it, not from any relenting weakness,
+but because the speedy death it
+was in his power to give, appeared an
+inadequate punishment&mdash;a paltry vengeance.
+Had he seen his enemy torn
+by wild horses, or broken on the wheel,
+his burning thirst for revenge would
+hardly have been slaked; and an easy,
+painless death by knife or bullet, he
+looked upon as a boon rather than a
+punishment. An end was put to his
+hesitation by the Carlist himself, who,
+either tormented by an evil conscience,
+or oppressed by one of those unaccountable
+and mysterious presentiments that
+sometimes warn us of impending danger,
+became restless, cast uneasy glances
+about him, and at last, turning
+round, found himself face to face with
+Ignacio. Almost before he recognized
+him, a hand was on his collar,
+and the muzzle of a pistol crammed
+into his ear. The click of the lock
+was heard, but no discharge ensued.
+The rain had damped the powder. Before
+Ignacio could draw his other pistol,
+the Carlist grappled him fiercely,
+and a terrible struggle commenced.
+Their feet soon slipped upon the wet
+rock, and they fell, still grasping each
+other's throats, foaming with rage, and
+hate, and desperation. The fire, now
+nearly out, afforded little light for the
+contest; but as they rolled over the
+smouldering embers, clouds of sparks
+arose, their clothes and hair were burned,
+and their faces scorched by the heat.
+The Carlist was unarmed, save with a
+clasp-knife, which, being in his pocket,
+was useless to him; for had he ventured
+to remove one hand from the
+struggle even for a moment, he would
+have given his antagonist a fatal advantage.
+At length the contest seemed
+about to terminate in favour of Ignacio.
+He got his enemy under, and
+knelt upon his breast, while, with a
+charred, half-burned branch which he
+found at hand, he dealt furious blows
+upon his head. Half-blinded by the
+smoke and heat, and by his own blood,
+the Carlist felt the sickness of death
+coming over him. By a last effort he
+slipped one hand, which was now at
+liberty, into his pocket, and immediately
+withdrawing it, raised it to his
+mouth. His teeth grated upon the
+blade of the knife as he opened it, and
+the next instant Ignacio, with a long
+deep sob, rolled over among the ashes.
+The Carlist rose painfully and with
+difficulty into a sitting posture, and
+with a grim smile gazed upon his enemy,
+whose eyes were glazing, and features
+settling into the rigidity of death.
+But the conqueror's triumph was short-lived.
+A deep bark was heard, and a
+moment afterwards a wolf-dog, drenched
+with mud and rain, leaped into the
+middle of the embers. Placing his
+black muzzle on Ignacio's face, he
+gave a long deep howl, which was succeeded
+by a growl like that of a lion,
+as he sprang upon the Carlist.</p>
+
+<p>The morning after the storm, when
+the charcoal-burners returned to their
+fires, they found two dead bodies amidst
+the ashes. One of them had a
+stab in his breast, which had caused
+his death. The other was frightfully
+disfigured, and bore marks of the fangs
+of some savage animal. In that wild
+district, the skirmishing-ground of
+smugglers and <i>douaniers</i>, the mountaineers
+think little of such occurrences.
+A hole was dug, the bodies thrown
+into it; and a cross, rudely cut upon
+the rock, alone marks the spot where
+the midnight conflict took place.</p>
+
+<hr class="full">
+
+
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page799" id="page799" title="799"></a></span>
+<a name="bw332s10" id="bw332s10"></a><h2>MEMORANDUMS OF A MONTH'S TOUR IN SICILY.</h2>
+
+<h3>LEAVING NAPLES.</h3>
+
+<h3>STEAM-BOATIANA.</h3>
+
+<p>The <i>Francesco Primo</i> was to leave
+the harbour at ten o'clock. Better
+acquaintance with Mediterannean <i>pyroscaphs</i>,
+as they call themselves,
+whose axle-trees turn not except when
+the police pleases, ought to have led
+us to all the latitude of uncertainty;
+but when two hours and more had
+elapsed with all the passengers aboard,
+we began to suppose some extraordinary
+cause for so long a detention.
+A deputation is accordingly dispatched
+to the captain, which brings back
+an abrupt reply, that he is not going
+<i>yet</i>; and that it is for him and the proprietors
+to be dissatisfied, who are
+wasting steam, while we are only losing
+patience. It shortly transpired
+that he was under Government orders,
+and would not proceed for another
+hour at <i>least</i>, nor even then, unless he
+received permission from the minister
+of police. The affair now looked serious.
+We must have some <i>carbonaro</i>
+on board, who was, in due time, to be
+arrested; and no further doubt could
+remain of this, when, that other hour
+being past, we saw a longboat leaving
+shore, with two officers and six
+stout rowers, who soon brought her
+under our bow. What can it be?
+The senior epaulet rises in the boat&mdash;the
+second follows his example&mdash;both
+are on deck; the captain, hitherto
+unseen, now comes forward with
+alacrity, and, stretching forward <i>both</i>
+his hands, receives with profound reverence
+a thin, square enclosure, with
+an immense seal attached to it, and
+retires to put it in a place of safety.
+The uniforms disappear over the side
+of the vessel&mdash;the paddles begin to
+paw the water&mdash;we swing round&mdash;and
+in a few seconds our prow points
+for the <i>Sorrentine</i> coast, and we are
+on our watery way to <i>Sicily</i>. What,
+then, had detained us? It is always
+very provoking to have a miserable
+solution of a promising mystery!
+We were on the exact spot for a new
+edition of some &quot;<i>Verbosa et grandis
+Epistola</i>&quot; from the tyrants of the
+land; and so it was, but only not
+<i>from</i> Capre&aelig; or Tiberius this time.
+Yes! The actual cause of the delay
+of a great steam-boat, full of passengers,
+for three hours, attended, among
+other melancholy results, with that of
+exciting the choler of a new-made
+cardinal, was a <i>letter</i> that the Queen
+of Naples, who had probably overslept
+herself, had occasion to write to
+the king on conjugal affairs!&mdash;his
+majesty having left her majesty only
+the day before, to show himself to his
+loving subjects at Palermo. Hem!
+Campania <i>felix</i>! If we were known
+to be inditing this unreverential passage,
+and its disloyal apostrophe, we
+should, no doubt, be invited to leave
+&quot;Campania the happy&quot; at a day's
+notice; whereas our comfort is, that
+this day three months it is quite possible
+that it will have been read in
+Bengal!</p>
+
+<p>We are now in the middle of the
+Bay of Naples; the spot from which
+panoramas have been so often sketched
+on that noble elevation, the deck of
+a lofty ship, swinging on her cables.
+What numberless sites of unparallelled
+interest are hence visible to the
+newly arrived and insatiable stranger!
+<i>Misenum, Bai&aelig;, Puteoli, Gaurus,
+Vesuvius, Herculaneum, Pompeii</i>!
+But the office of the cicerone here
+cannot&mdash;alas for Britain!&mdash;be confined
+to the old classics, or the mere indication
+of places whose very <i>names</i> are
+things to <i>conjure with</i>! In America,
+we converse with nature only, whose
+voice is in her woods and waterfalls;
+but, in our threadbare Europe, all
+<i>sites</i> are <i>historical</i>, and chiefly in one
+sad sense&mdash;for Waterloo only brings
+up the rear of fields illustrated by the
+wholesale destruction of mankind!
+In the position which we now occupy,
+volumes might be written&mdash;ay, and
+<i>have been written</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Look at that proud, impregnable
+Castle of St Elmo, culminating over
+all Naples! Look at those sea-washed
+fortresses which guard the entrance of
+her harbour! The garrisons
+of those strong places having, in the
+year 1799, from the turn of public
+affairs, judged it expedient to capitulate
+to Ferdinand and his allies, on
+conditions which should leave their
+honour without blemish, and assure
+their own safety and that of the city;
+and this capitulation having been solemnly
+accepted and ratified by <i>Cardinal
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page800" id="page800" title="800"></a></span> Ruffo, as the king's legate and
+plenipotentiary</i>, by the late <i>Sir Edward
+Foote</i>, as acting commodore of
+the British force, and by the representatives
+of <i>two European governments</i>,
+officially residing in the revolutionized
+city, and the surrender of
+the forts having accordingly taken
+place, it came to pass, in an evil
+hour, that Lord Nelson, entering the
+bay as commander-<i>in-chief</i>, took upon
+himself the odious responsibility of
+rescinding the British guarantee, and
+of supporting Ferdinand, powerless
+but through him, in his refusal to
+hold himself bound by a convention
+made <i>by his own viceroy</i>!&mdash;thus delivering
+over the defenceless city to
+its own implacable sovereign. Then
+came a political persecution unknown
+in the annals of mankind; till, <i>hebetes
+lasso lictore secures</i>, even Naples could
+bear no more! The noblest blood
+and the most distinguished talent were
+no protection at the bar of a special
+tribunal, with a low-born monster at
+its head, not surpassed in its atrocities
+by the revolutionary tyrants of Paris
+and of Lyons. The ships shared the
+infamy; the venerable and noble Caraccioli,
+seventy-five years of age,
+himself an admiral, was the first <i>piaculum</i>!
+Summarily condemned by
+a court-martial <i>held on board Nelson's
+flag-ship</i>, he was executed like a felon,
+and cast overboard from a Neapolitan
+frigate floating on the same anchorage,
+and subject to the same authority!</p>
+
+<p>But Nelson's star was then in the ascendant;
+the presence and notorious influence
+of Emma Hamilton in these
+frightful transactions, was unaccountably
+connived at by the British nation.
+The officer who has been a party to a
+convention, which his commander-in-chief
+thinks proper not only to disapprove
+but to violate, must inevitably
+suffer in that fame and popularity
+which our public services so justly
+cherish. And in the state of men's
+passions during that memorable war,
+<i>so that it were against the French, a successful</i>
+commander-in-chief could do
+no wrong! Yet here, probably, the
+matter would have rested; but when,
+nine years afterwards, <i>Stanier Clarke</i>
+so little appreciated the duty of a biographer
+as to relate a transaction
+susceptible of no excuse, in terms unjustified
+by the facts, and sought to
+render his hero <i>immaculate</i> at the <i>expense
+of others</i>, the excellent officer
+whose feelings and character had been
+so cruelly sacrificed, felt himself compelled
+at last to publish his &quot;Vindication,&quot;
+judicious in every thing but
+<i>the title</i>. He most properly printed the
+<i>Convention itself</i> in the original words,
+and with all the signatures it bore.
+Such works, however, even when the
+affairs they refer to are <i>recent</i>, are never
+read but by <i>friends</i>&mdash;or <i>enemies</i>. A
+late atonement was made by William
+IV. in conferring on Sir Edward
+Foote a titular distinction, which the
+public heed not; but the tables are
+now turned, and Europe, taught by
+Cuoco, Coletta, and by Botta, the great
+historian of Italy, has irrevocably
+closed this <i>great account</i>. The name
+of Foote is recorded in all their pages
+in terms which, had he seen them,
+might well have consoled him for the
+past; while the last and most popular
+biographer of Nelson (Southey) feels
+himself compelled to admit, and the
+frank admission does him infinite honour,
+that this is a passage of his
+hero's life which the muse of history
+&quot;must <i>record with sorrow and with
+shame</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But the sea spray is dashing splendidly
+on our bows&mdash;we are clearing
+Capri, and have, as we pass it, a fine
+view of that high and precipitous
+rock, thinking of Tiberius and the
+soothsayer Thrasyllus, and of all the
+monstrous scenes which those unapproachable
+cliffs concealed from the
+indignation even of a Roman world.
+But twilight was already coming on,
+and the city and the coast were gradually
+withdrawn from the panorama&mdash;dark
+night came rushing over the
+deep, an Italian summer's night, and
+yet with no stars or moon; meanwhile
+steadily rides our vessel along
+the Calabrian waters, confident alike
+of her strength and her bearings,
+which we soon left her to pursue, and
+went down to see what the cabin and
+the company promised below. And
+thus the hours passed away; and when
+the suspended lamp began to burn
+dimly under the skylight, and grey
+morning found stealthy admittance
+through the cabin windows, although
+we had been unable to sleep, the anticipation
+of all the marvels we were to
+see in Sicily had answered the purpose
+of a night's rest, and sent us active
+and alert on deck to fresh air and
+the rising sun. Nor were we a moment
+too soon. A large flotilla of little
+boats man&oelig;uvring between two of
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page801" id="page801" title="801"></a></span> larger size, placed to defend the space
+destined for their operations, were
+now in the full activity of the thunny
+and spada fishery; and a most picturesque
+rock, right over our bow,
+proved to be no other than <i>Monte Pelegrino</i>,
+at the foot of which lay Palermo
+and our breakfast&mdash;in short, after
+a voyage of little more than a summer's
+night, we are again on <i>terra
+firma</i>, if that name can be given to
+volcanic soils, and long before noon
+are actively engaged in perambulating
+the streets of the Sicilian capital of
+the <i>f&aelig;cunda Panormos</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Among the most striking peculiarities
+of the interior or street views,
+presented to the stranger's eye at Palermo,
+are its very unusually situated
+convents, buildings which, even in
+cities, are commonly and naturally in
+<i>retirement</i>; but here, in whichever of
+the most public ways you walk, a number
+of extraordinary trellised balconies
+are observed on the upper stories
+of almost every large house, while
+business and bustle of all kinds are
+transacted as usual in the street below.
+You may well be surprised to see the
+nunnery over the <i>Marchande de
+Modes</i>! The unhappy inmates thus
+tormented by the sight and sound
+of worldly activity, have not in
+Palermo even the solace of a garden;
+and if these places of more than
+usual mortification have any connexion
+with the world without, it is by an
+under-ground passage to some church
+in the neighbourhood! Thither repair
+the poor victims of superstition
+to warble <i>Aves</i> to the Virgin
+behind their screens, and then back
+again to their monotonous cloister.
+There are twenty-four nunneries in
+the city of Palermo alone, each containing
+from thirty to sixty women,
+and there are as many monasteries!
+With open doors like coffee-houses,
+full upon the street, are placed at
+Palermo innumerable <i>consulting shops</i>
+of so many <i>lawyers</i>; the earliest to begin
+business, the last to close, you
+may have the luxury of law at any
+hour of the day till bedtime. Nay,
+your Sicilian lawyer, unlike the lazy
+tradesman who puts up his shutters
+and sleeps from twelve to four, takes
+no <i>siesta</i>; his <i>atra janua lilis</i> is always
+open, and there sit the <i>firm</i>, one listening
+to a client, another smoking a
+cigar, a third chatting with an acquaintance
+over his coffee or the
+newspaper. Scarcely less mischievous
+than these sowers of dissension,
+is the <i>barber-surgeon</i>, who still
+flourishes in Trinacria. The bleeding
+arm over the peruke shop is often
+to be seen in Rome and Naples;
+but at Palermo almost at every
+third house, you read <i>Salassatore</i> over
+a half-naked figure in wood or canvass,
+erect like Seneca in his bath, or
+monumentally recumbent, the blood
+spouting, like so many Tritons, from
+twenty orifices at once. Led by professional
+curiosity, we enter one of
+these open doors; and, desiring the ordinary
+service of the razor, and intending
+to ask some questions parenthetically
+touching the double craft, we
+have scarcely occupied the chair,
+when a smart youth comes up with a
+razor and a lancet, and quietly asks
+&quot;<i>Which</i>?&quot; Why, surely he could not
+think of <i>bleeding</i> us without a warrant
+for our needing it. &quot;<i>Eperch&egrave;? Adesso
+vi le d&icirc;r&ograve; subito</i>&mdash;Why not? I'll
+tell you whether you want it without
+a doctor,&quot;&mdash;feeling for our pulse.
+&quot;<i>Non c'&egrave; male</i>&mdash;not so much amiss,&quot;
+pursued the functionary; &quot;but a few
+ounces bleeding would do you <i>no harm</i>!
+Your hand is hot, it must be <i>several
+months</i> since you were last bled!&quot;
+&quot;A year.&quot; &quot;Too long: you should
+be bled, at your age, at least <i>twice a-year</i>
+if you would keep your health!&quot;
+&quot;What amount of depletion did he
+recommend?&quot; &quot;<i>Depende&mdash;di sei a
+dieci oncie</i>,&quot; at which portion of the
+dialogue our mouth was shut to all
+further interrogations by a copious
+supply of soap-suds, and now he became
+the tonsor only, and declares
+against the mode in which we have
+our hair cut: &quot;They have cut your
+hair, Signor, <i>&agrave; condannato</i>&mdash;nobody
+adopts the toilette of the guillotine
+now; it should have been left to grow
+in front <i>&agrave; la Plutus</i>, or have been long
+at the sides <i>&agrave; la Nazar&egrave;ne</i>, which is
+the mode most of our Sicilian gentlemen
+prefer.&quot; We were about to rise,
+wash, and depart, but an impediment
+is offered by the artist. &quot;<i>Non l'ho</i>
+raffinato <i>ancora, Signor, bisogna</i> raffinarlo
+<i>un poco</i>!&quot; and before we could
+arrive at the occult meaning of <i>raffinare</i>,
+his fingers were exploring very
+technically and very disagreeably the
+whole surface over which his razor had
+travelled, and a number of supplementary
+scrapings were only stopped
+by an impatient <i>basta</i> of the victim.
+<i>Still</i> he was unwilling to part with us.
+<i>Would</i> we like, now that we are on
+the spot, to <i>lose a few ounces of blood</i>
+before he takes a stranger in hand,
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page802" id="page802" title="802"></a></span> (who is waiting for the one or other
+operation;) and, as we most positively
+declined, he turned to the latter to
+ask him whether he was come for his
+&quot;<i>piccolo salassio di sei oncie</i>.&quot; &quot;<i>Gia</i>!&quot;
+said Signor Antonio, taking off his
+coat, and sitting down with as much
+<i>sangfroid</i> as if he were going to take
+his breakfast. &quot;Can you shave <i>me</i>?&quot;
+asks a third party, standing at the
+door. &quot;<i>Adesso</i>,&quot; after I have <i>bled</i>
+this gentleman. Such are all the <i>interiors</i>
+where <i>Salassatore</i> is written
+over the door; they bleed and they
+shave indifferently, and doing either,
+talk of the last <i>take</i> of <i>thunny</i>, the
+<i>opera</i> that has been or is to be, and
+the meagre skimmings of their permitted
+newspaper, <i>which</i> begins probably
+with the advertisement of a
+church ceremony, and ends always
+with a charade&mdash;for our subscribers!!</p>
+<br>
+
+<h3>CHURCHES.</h3>
+
+<p>The clergy are wealthy, the bishop's
+salary is 18,000 scudi, and many of
+the convents are very opulent; but
+there is scarcely one of the churches
+which you care to visit twice. Most
+of them are disgraced by vulgar ornaments,
+in which respect they surpass
+even the worst specimens at Naples!
+Gilt stucco, cut and stamped into
+flowery compartments, shows off like
+a huge twelfth cake! but the <i>Matrice</i>
+or <i>Duomo</i>, and the Saracenic <i>Chapel of
+the Palazzo Reale</i>, and the cathedral of
+<i>Monreale</i>, four miles beyond the town,
+are noble exceptions; these in their
+several ways are all interesting, both
+within and without. The old Siculo-Norman
+archway of <i>Monreale</i>, and its
+fine bronze gates crusted with a beautiful
+hard polished <i>coin-like patina</i>, would
+repay the excursion, even were the interior
+less fine. Here we have columns
+from whose high architraves the Gothic
+arch springs vigorously; walls
+perfectly covered with old Byzantine
+mosaics; a roof of marvellous lightness,
+and almost modern elegance;
+still the critic, who is bound by <i>m&eacute;tier</i>
+to find fault with violated canons, will,
+we must own, be at no loss for a text
+in the church of Monreale&mdash;a building
+which is, however, of sufficient importance
+in ecclesiastical architecture to
+have been designed, measured, and
+engraved, in whole and in part, in a
+splendid volume, published in folio, by
+the Duke of Serra di Falco.</p>
+<br>
+
+<h3>VISIT TO THE GARDEN OF THE DUKE OF SERRA DI FALCO, NEAR PALERMO.</h3>
+
+<p>After a delicious half hour's drive
+through country lanes hedged with
+cactus, aloes, and pomegranates, we
+find ourselves in front of a small villa
+distant about two miles from the sea.
+As to the house, many an English
+gentleman, in very moderate circumstances,
+has a far better; but on passing
+the archway of this Sicilian country-box
+into its garden, two trees,
+which must be astonished at finding
+themselves out of Brazil&mdash;trees of surpassing
+beauty&mdash;are seen on a crimson
+carpet of their own fallen petals, mixed
+with a copious effusion of their seeds,
+like coral. At the northern extremity
+of Italy (Turin) this <i>Erythinia corallodendron</i>
+is only a small stunted
+shrub; nor is it much bigger at
+Naples, where it grows under cover.
+Six years in the <i>open air</i> have in Sicily
+<i>produced</i> the tree before you: it is, in
+fact, larger than most of our fruit-bearers.
+We next recognise an agreeable
+acquaintance, formed two years
+ago, in the <i>Neapolis Japonicus</i>; it
+bears a delicate fruit, of the size of a
+plum, whose yellow, freckled skin
+contains such a nectar-like juice that
+the pine-apple itself scarcely excels it.
+Our fellow-passenger, the infallible
+voice of a new-made cardinal of the
+warlike name of Schwarzenburg, who
+tasted it here, as he told us, for the
+first time, has already pronounced a
+similar opinion, and no dissentients
+being heard, the Japan medlar passed
+with acclamation. The <i>Buggibellia
+spectabilis</i> of New Holland, calls you
+to look at his pink <i>blossoms</i>, which are
+no other than his leaves in masquerade.
+We grub up, on the gardener's hint
+and permission, some of the <i>Cameris
+humilis</i>, to whose filamentous radicles
+are attached certain little grains, of
+great sweetness and flavour. The
+banana-tree, &quot;<i>Musa paradisaica</i>,&quot;
+which, cooped in our low hot-houses
+at home, breaks its neck, and might
+well break its heart, as its annual
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page803" id="page803" title="803"></a></span> growth is resisted by the inexorable
+glass dome, is here no prisoner but
+an acclimated denizen of sun and air.
+The <i>Cactus Opunti&aelig;</i>, or Indian fig, is
+here for vulgar tastes; and the <i>Cactus
+cochinellifera</i> for the Luculluses of the
+day, who could afford to pay for its
+rearing. The small <i>sneezing plant</i>, a
+vegetable smelling-bottle, is still employed
+in headach by the common
+people of Sicily, who bruise the leaves
+and sniff their pungency: its vulgar
+name, <i>malupertusu</i>, is the corruption of
+Marum del Cortuso, as we find it in
+the ancient herbal of Durante. The
+<i>Ferula communis</i> or <i>Saracinisca</i>, a legacy
+left to the Sicilian pedagogues by their
+eastern lords, is sold in fagots at the
+green-grocers, and fulfils the scholastic
+office of <i>birch</i>; and, being more elastic,
+must be pleasant to <i>flog with</i>. We
+recommend it to <i>head masters</i>. The
+<i>sumac</i>, <i>Rhus coriaria</i>, is not only to be
+seen here, but every where else in Sicily;
+and they say there is a daily exportation
+of one thousand sacks of its
+ground leaves. The ancients knew it
+well, and employed it for giving a
+flavour to their meat, as they do now
+in Nubia and Egypt, according to
+Durante, who deems its many virtues
+deserving of Latin verse. We
+smell pepper!&mdash;a graceful shrub,
+whose slender twigs stand pencilled
+out like sea-weed spread upon
+paper; and the <i>Schinus mollis</i>, a
+leaf of which we have gathered ignorantly,
+is the source of the smell. We
+strew some leaves on the basin of a
+neighbouring fountain, and amuse ourselves
+by seeing them swim about as
+if they were bewitched, parting at the
+same time with a whitish fluid, which,
+spreading on the surface of the water,
+gives it an iridescent hue. The <i>Fuchsia
+arborescens</i> of Japan flowers here, they
+say, every month, just as we see him
+in all his pink luxuriance, and makes
+himself quite at home; and here
+is that little blue vegetable butterfly,
+the <i>Polygala</i>! Who can overlook
+his <i>winged</i> petals, peeping out of their
+myrtle-looking bower? Then the
+<i>geraniums</i>!&mdash;not potted, as in Covent-Garden,
+or the <i>March&eacute; aux Fleurs</i>, but
+forming vast parti-coloured <i>hedgerows</i>,
+giving to every pathway its own
+<i>particular flower and perfume</i>; so that
+a connoisseur might be taken blindfold
+and declare where each kind
+grew. <i>Hedges of geranium seven feet
+high</i>! Think of that, ye <i>Dicksons</i> and
+nursery-ground men about <i>Brompton</i>
+and the <i>King's Road</i>! The stalks a mass
+of real ligneous matter, fit for the turner's
+lathe if it were but hard enough.
+A small mound enables us to look
+about us more at large; and now we
+discern the stately <i>bamboo</i>, thicker
+than your arm, and tall as a small
+mast; and the <i>sugar-cane</i>, formerly
+cultivated for his juice, but now looking
+as if he were ill-used and neglected.
+His biography (but as it is not
+<i>auto</i>-biography, and written with his
+own <i>reed</i>, there may be some mistake)
+is remarkable. Soon after the annexation
+of Sicily to Spain in 1420, he
+was carried from Syracuse into Spanish
+captivity; he then escaped to
+Madeira and the Canaries, and at
+length saved himself in the West
+Indies. The <i>pistachia</i> is also here,
+with its five-partite sessile leaf, like a
+dwarf walnut; the capsule holding
+the nut containing at present only a
+white germ, which it will require four
+months more to bring to nutty maturity.
+The <i>manna</i>-tree is very like an
+<i>alder</i> in its general character, but
+thicker in its stem, and bears the
+cicatrices of last year's <i>ill treatment</i>;
+its wounds, however, will not bleed
+afresh now; but towards August the
+<i>salassatore</i> of trees will run his steel
+into its limbs, taking care to place
+under the bleeding orifices leaves from
+the <i>cactus</i> hedge hard by to serve as
+recipients, and drain its juices till it
+faints.</p>
+
+<p>That a <i>leaf</i> might not be <i>wanting</i> to
+record these vegetable treasures, the
+pagoda-topped <i>papyrus</i> nodded to us
+gracefully, and offered its services;
+while, to finish the picture, Angola
+goats are browsing amid the green
+and yellow ribbed <i>agaves</i>; and the
+beautiful blue sea peeps in through
+gaps of the wall of <i>cactus</i>, whose green
+stems are now all fringed with yellow
+blossoms. Leaving the flower garden,
+we enter a labyrinth, and arrive
+at a small hut, with a closed door,
+upon the threshold of which we have
+scarcely pressed, when the wicket
+flies open, and a big brown friar, with
+long beard and sandals, starts up in
+act to frighten us, which he succeeds
+in doing. This automaton <i>Schedoni</i>
+might really well produce abortion,
+and would not care if he did: he cannot,
+we suppose, be placed there as a
+lawful instrument of relief, for all the
+<i>donzelle</i> of Palermo must be <i>aware</i> of,
+and be used to him. This, however,
+is thought so good a joke, that it is
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page804" id="page804" title="804"></a></span> repeated with variations; for on releasing
+another spring a similar contrivance
+introduces us to another
+monk of the same convent, who is
+reading a huge tome on the lives of
+the saints: resenting the interruption,
+he raises his head, and fixes his eyes
+on the intruder, at the same time
+beckoning to him with his hand, and
+intimating that if he will do him the
+favour to come a little nearer, he will
+knock him down with the folio, as
+Johnson did Osborn the bookseller.</p>
+
+<p>Another surprise is&mdash;but really
+these are surprising enough&mdash;and we
+came here to see vegetable rarities,
+and not the tricks of an overgrown
+toyshop.</p>
+<br>
+
+<h3>THE THUNNY FISHERY.</h3>
+
+<div class="blkquot">
+<span class="greek" title="Tan baitan apodys eis kymata taena haleymai,
+Hopeth tos Thunnos skopiazetai Olpis ho gripeys.
+
+Translation:
+Will you not hear me, nor regard my woe?
+I'll strip, and throw me from yon rock so high,
+Where Olpis sits to watch the scaly fry.">&Tau;&alpha;&nu; &beta;&alpha;&iota;&tau;&alpha;&nu;
+&alpha;&pi;&omicron;&delta;&upsilon;&sigmaf; &epsilon;&iota;&sigmaf; &kappa;&upsilon;&mu;&alpha;&tau;&alpha; &tau;&eta;&nu;&alpha; &alpha;&lambda;&epsilon;&upsilon;&mu;&alpha;&iota;<br>
+&Omega;&pi;&epsilon;&rho; &tau;&omega;&sigmaf; &Theta;&upsilon;&nu;&nu;&omega;&sigmaf; &sigma;&kappa;&omicron;&pi;&iota;&alpha;&zeta;&epsilon;&tau;&alpha;&iota; &Omicron;&lambda;&pi;&iota;&sigmaf;
+&omicron; &gamma;&rho;&iota;&pi;&epsilon;&upsilon;&sigmaf;&mdash;Theoc.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The thunny fishery, if not as exciting
+as that of the whale, is far from
+uninteresting to the uninitiated. We
+were rowing about in want of an object,
+when our boatmen proposed to
+take us to see this animating species
+of labour; and off we went to a spot
+about two miles from shore, where we
+came upon a little flotilla of boats, all
+occupied in the common pursuit. A
+large quantity of floating cork announced
+our arrival on the fishing
+ground; then came long lines of buoys,
+to which the drop-nets were attached,
+and at last we drew alongside a small
+boat, hailing which, we learn that the
+net is already half-drawn, and that
+<i>la pipa</i> (the sword-fish) is <i>in</i> it. Now,
+we had long wanted to see a live
+sword-fish, but there was no need to
+stimulate our rowers, who appeared
+equally eager that we should assist at
+the fun, and made great exertions to
+reach the spot in time. &quot;<i>Questa</i>,&quot;
+says our guide, showing the boundary
+of the space circumscribed by
+walls of net; &quot;<i>questa &egrave; la camera della
+morte</i>, (this is the chamber of death,)
+<i>piano, piano</i>, (or we shall shoot ahead.&quot;)
+The space thus designated
+lay between two long barges, one of
+which was fixed by anchor, and had
+few people on board, while the other
+was crowded with naked limbs, and
+fine heads in Phrygian bonnets, academy
+figures every man of them.
+What symmetry of form! what jet
+black beard and mustache! what dark
+flashing eyes! what noses without reproach!
+All were in the various combinations
+of action which their position
+demanded, hauling away at what
+seemed to our impatience an endless
+net; by the shortening of which,
+however, as their boat received it,
+layer upon layer, fold upon fold, coil
+upon coil, they were slowly bringing
+up the reticulated wall. As the place
+of captivity came nearer, every body
+was intensely anxious to get a first
+view of the fish; and many other boats
+were coming up alongside of ours,
+which fortunately lay right over the
+meshes of the prison, which was becoming
+every second more and more
+restricted in size. At length some of
+us obtained a first view of the <i>spada</i>
+and his long sword, and testified our
+delight with vociferation. The fish,
+meanwhile, who hates publicity, backs
+off, and would back out, to the opposite
+end of the net, where, still finding
+himself an object of unpleasant remark,
+he tries by violence to escape
+sideways; but that is <i>no go</i> even for a
+sword-fish, for a sword is his which
+cannot cut cords, and he soon finds
+he can make nothing of it. Smaller
+and smaller, meanwhile, is becoming
+the condemned hold, and greater and
+greater the perturbation within. The
+captive fish begins to swim round and
+round, and to watch a new opportunity,
+but it is too late!&mdash;too many are
+on the look-out for him! Every man
+gets ready his hooked pole, and there
+is more tightening of the tackle! The
+terrified fish now rises to the surface,
+as it were to reconnoitre, and then
+down he dives with a lash of his tail,
+which sends buckets of water into the
+boat of the assailants. This dive, of
+course, only carries him to the false
+bottom of the net, and come up presently
+he must! Every eye now looks
+<i>fishy</i>, and every man's hand is armed
+for the first blow. One tall athletic
+fellow takes aim, and misses; another
+is more successful, and hits. Stunned
+by the blow, the poor fish flounders
+on this side and on that, and the water
+is discoloured by his blood! One,
+two, three pointed poles at once, are
+again in his flank; and now he rushes
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page805" id="page805" title="805"></a></span> about like a rounded lion, brandishing
+his tail, and dashing up whirlpools
+of water. More Blows! more
+blood! He rushes desperately at the
+net, and running his long snout into
+the meshes, is hopelessly entangled.
+It is all over with him! Countless
+wounds follow, till he turns over on
+his side, and is handed up lifeless into
+the boat.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There,&quot; says one, &quot;goes fifteen
+scudi's worth, and no harm done to
+<i>the net</i>.&quot; &quot;Little enough, too; but
+he is worth two thunny, anyhow,&quot;
+says another. &quot;Ay! and gives more
+<i>sport</i>,&quot; exclaims a third. Such piscatory
+eclogue fell upon our ear, when
+our guide announced to us that we
+had now seen every thing. The excitement
+over, we sat down in our
+boat to make a note of what we have
+written, while the boatmen clave the
+phosphorescent water homewards, and
+landed us neatly at sunset, with their
+oars dripping luminous drops at every
+stroke, in the beautiful harbour of
+Palermo.</p>
+
+<p>Some days after we were still more
+fortunate; we had observed the scouts
+with a white hood over their boat,
+<i>looking keenly down</i> (<i>vide</i> our quotation
+from Theocritus) into the deep
+blue sea, and watching with all-eyed
+attention for the apparition of some
+giant shadow which should pass
+athwart the abyss, and give the signal
+for a new chase, while their comrades
+were hauling in an immense miscellaneous
+<i>take</i> of fish, the acquisition of
+the morning. We shot the outpost,
+(placed to prevent larger vessels
+from entering the fishing preserves
+and injuring the nets,) and remarked
+our boatmen uncovering to a small
+<i>Madonna</i> railed in alongside. We
+were just in time on this occasion to
+see the water enclosed in the <i>camera
+della morte</i>, already all alive with fish;
+for a shoal of <i>palamide</i>, and of immense
+<i>pesce di moro</i>, filled the reticulated
+chamber. They darted here and
+there as the net was raising, and
+splashed so furiously about, that the
+whole water became one lather;
+meanwhile, the men who had been
+singing gaily, now prepared their
+landing-nets, shouting in a way which
+certainly <i>did</i> seem to increase the terror
+of their prisoners, who redoubled
+their efforts to escape.</p>
+
+<p>The rich hues of the <i>palamide</i>, in
+shape and colour not unlike our mackerel,
+but with longitudinal, in place
+of transverse, green bands, were beautiful
+objects as they were raised all
+iridescent in their freshness out of the
+water, and transferred to the side
+boat. We also noticed in the net
+one or two immense fish, in shape like
+rounded parallelograms, with tough
+shagreen hides, goggle eyes, and two
+immense leathery fins placed at the
+lower part of the abdomen. They
+kept flapping these valves up and
+down, but not offering to strike, though
+lugged out by a hook. The haul was
+a good one, each fish worth a ducat;
+and had they, in fact, been at this
+price converted into coin at once, the
+money would have made no mean
+show in the bottom of the net. The
+treacherous <i>camera della morte</i> was
+emptied quickly, and in one minute
+more, down it went again into the
+depths below.</p>
+
+<p>We should have mentioned a singular
+practice of the fishermen of the
+present day in Sicily, to <i>pat</i> the thunny
+while he is in the net, as you pat a
+horse or dog: They say it makes
+him docile. This done, they put their
+legs across his back, and <i>ride</i> him
+round the net room, an experiment
+few would practise on the dolphin's
+back, at least in these days; yet Aulus
+Gellius relates that there was a
+dolphin who used to delight in carrying
+children on his back through the
+water, swimming out to sea with
+them, and then putting them safe on
+shore! Now, <i>but for the coins</i>, taking
+the above custom into consideration,
+one might have supposed the ancients'
+<i>delphinus</i> to have been the modern
+<i>thunny</i>.</p>
+<br>
+
+<h3>THE FISH MARKET.</h3>
+
+<p>&quot;Dragged through the mire, and
+bleeding from the hock,&quot; lay a continuous
+mass of slaughtered thunny,
+mouths wide open, bloody sockets,
+from which the eyes had been torn to
+make lamp-oil, gills ripped off to be
+eaten fresh, and roes in baskets by
+their sides. There was also a quantity
+of a fish of dirty white belly and
+dusky back, the <i>alalonga</i>, and two huge
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page806" id="page806" title="806"></a></span> <i>dolphins</i>, with skins full of lamp-oil.
+This really ugly creature looks far
+better in the <i>delphin</i> title-pages, with
+his lamp and his &quot;<i>alere flammam</i>&quot; on
+clean paper, than on the stall; but his
+very best appearance is on a fine Sicilian
+coin, with <i>Arion on his back</i>.
+The snouts of four large sword-fish
+were also conspicuous; and there was
+thunny enough for all the world:
+some of the supply, however, was to
+be hawked about the streets, in order
+to which cords are placed under the
+belly of a thunny of fifteen cwt., and
+off he goes slung on a pole, with a
+drummer before and a drummer behind,
+to disturb every street and alley
+in Palermo till he is got rid of; not
+that the stationary market is quiet;
+for the noise made in selling the
+mutest of all animals is in all countries
+really remarkable; but who shall
+do justice to a <i>Sicilian</i> Billingsgate at
+<i>mezzogiorno</i>! &quot;<i>Trenta sei, trenta
+sei</i>,&quot; bawls out the Padrone, cleaving
+a fish in twain with one stroke of an
+immense chopper kept for the purpose.
+&quot;<i>Trenta sei, trenta sei</i>,&quot; repeat
+the two journeymen accomplices,
+one counting it on his fingers to secure
+accuracy and telegraph the information
+to distant purchasers, or
+such as cannot <i>hear</i> in the noise; another
+holds up a slice as a specimen;
+three fellows at our elbow are roaring
+&quot;<i>tutti vivi, tutta vivi</i>,&quot; &quot;<i>a sedici, a
+sedici</i>.&quot; The man of <i>whitings</i>, and
+even he of <i>sardines</i>, have a voice and
+a figure of their own. As you approach
+each stall, the noisy salesmen
+suspend their voices, and enquire, in
+gentler accents, if you intend to buy;
+if you do not, like the cicada their
+stunning sound returns as soon as
+you are past. We have hinted that
+the thunny, &quot;<i>Integer et cadavere
+toto</i>,&quot; does not look handsome: vastly
+less attractive is he when mutilated.
+Big as an elephant's thigh, and with
+flesh like some black-blooded bullock
+of ocean breed, his unsavoury meat attracts
+a most repulsive assemblage,
+not only of customers, but of flies and
+wasps, which no flapping will keep
+off from his grumous liver. The
+<i>sword-fish</i> cuts up into large bloodless
+slices, which look on the stall like so
+many fillets of very white veal, and
+might pass for such, but that the head
+and shoulders are fixed upon a long
+lance, high above the stall, to inform
+the uninitiated that the delicate looking
+meat in question was fed in the
+pastures of the deep. The <i>price</i> of
+thunny, a staple commodity and object
+of extensive Sicilian commerce,
+varies considerably with the supply;
+as to the demand, it never ceases.
+During our stay in Palermo, a whole
+fish would fetch about eight <i>scudi</i>, and
+his retail price was about twopence
+<i>per English pound</i>. Think of paying
+three or four <i>francs</i> for less than half
+a pound <i>sott 'olio</i> in Paris. The supply
+seems very constant during the
+season, which, on the Palermo side of
+the island, is from May to July, and
+continues a month later along the
+<i>Messina</i> coast; after which, as the
+fish cease to be seen, it is presumed
+here that they have sailed to the African
+coast. The flesh of the <i>spada</i>
+fish is generally double in market
+price to that of the thunny, selling during
+the greater part of June at about
+fourpence a-pound. Every thunny
+is weighed upon landing, and a high
+tax paid upon it to the king, who,
+in consideration thereof, charges his
+Sicilian subjects no duty for gunpowder
+or salt. The fixed fisheries
+for thunny, round the Sicilian coast,
+are upwards of a dozen, the most famous
+being that of Messina. At
+Palermo, however, they sometimes
+take an immense strike of several
+hundred in one expedition. The
+average weight of a full grown
+thunny, is from 1000 to 1200 pounds;
+of course the men with poles who land
+him, can carry him but a little way,
+and he reaches the market by relays.
+Every bit of him is eaten, except his
+bones and his eyes, and even these
+yield a quantity of oil.</p>
+
+<p>The spada, too, is pickled down to
+his bones&mdash;he is in great request for
+the hotels, and his eyes, duly salted,
+are considered a sort of luxury; in
+some places these are the perquisite
+of the fishermen, yielded by their
+employers, who farm the fisheries,
+and having satisfied the king, make
+what terms they can with the subject.</p>
+
+<hr class="full">
+
+
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page807" id="page807" title="807"></a></span>
+<a name="bw332s11" id="bw332s11"></a><h2>COMMERCIAL POLICY&mdash;RUSSIA.</h2>
+
+<p>From the brief review, in our last
+Number, of Spain, her commercial policy,
+her economical resources, her fiscal
+rigours, her financial embarrassments,
+these facts may be said to have
+been developed:&mdash;In the first place,
+that theoretically&mdash;that is, so far as legislation&mdash;Spain
+is the land of restrictions
+and prohibitions; and that the
+principle of protection in behalf, not
+of nascent, but of comparatively ancient
+and still unestablished interests,
+is recognized, and carried out in the
+most latitudinarian sense of absolute
+interdict or extravagant impost. Secondly,
+that under such a system, Spain
+has continued the exceptional case of
+a non or scarcely progressing European
+state; that the maintenance and
+enhancement of fiscal rigours and
+manufacturing monopoly, jealously
+fenced round with a legislative wall
+of prohibition and restriction, has
+neither advanced the prosperity of
+the quarter of a million of people in
+Catalonia, Valencia, and Biscay, in
+whose exclusive behalf the great and
+enduring interests of the remaining
+thirteen millions and upwards of the
+population have been postponed or sacrificed&mdash;nor
+contributed to strengthen
+the financial resources of the government,
+as proved by the prostrate position
+and prospects of a bankrupt and
+beggared exchequer; that, as the necessary
+and inevitable consequence,
+the progress of agriculture, the ascendant
+interest of all-powerful communities
+and vast territorially endowed
+states&mdash;of Spain, the almost one only
+interest and element of vitality, economical
+and political&mdash;has been impeded,
+and continues to be discouraged;
+that the march of internal improvements
+is checked or stunted, when not
+absolutely stayed; finally, that public
+morals&mdash;the social health of a great
+people, inheritors of glorious antecedents,
+of an historic renown for those
+qualities of a high order, the deep-seated
+sentiment of personal, as of national
+honour and dignity, the integrity,
+fidelity, and gallantry, which
+more loftily spurn contaminating approximation
+with action springing out
+of base, sordid, and degrading motives
+and associations&mdash;have been sapped
+and corrupted by the debasing influences
+of that gigantic system of organized
+illicit trade which covers Spain
+with hordes of <i>contrabandistas</i>, more
+numerous and daring than the bands
+of <i>aduaneros</i> and the armies of regulars
+whom they set at defiance, and
+infests the coast of Spain with fleets
+of smuggling craft, which all the <i>guardas
+costas</i>, with the ancient armada of
+Spain, were it in existence, would be
+powerless to annihilate. And all this
+fine nation, of warm and generous temperament,
+of naturally noble and virtuous
+aspirations, thus desperately to
+be dismantled of its once-proud attributes,
+and demoralized in its character;
+its exhaustless riches of soil and
+climate to be wantonly wasted&mdash;per
+force of false legislation to be left uncultured&mdash;and
+for why? Shades of the
+illustrious Gabarrus and Jovellanos,
+why? Why, to enable some half dozen
+<i>fabricantes</i> of Barcelona to keep less
+than half-a-dozen steam-engines at
+work, which shall turn some few thousands
+of spindles, spinning and twisting
+some few millions of pounds of
+yarn, by which, after nearly three
+quarters of a century that the cotton
+manufacture has been planted, &quot;swathed,
+rocked, and dandled&quot; with legislative
+fondness into a rickety nursling,
+some fifty millions of yards of cotton
+cloths are said to be painfully brought
+forth in the year; the value of which
+may probably be equal to the same or
+a larger quantity of French cottons introduced
+by contraband, and consumed
+in the provinces of Catalonia and
+Arragon themselves&mdash;the first being
+sole seat of the cotton manufacture for
+all Spain. And for this deplorable
+consummation, the superabundant harvests
+of the waving fields, the luscious
+floods of the vineyards, the full flowing
+yield of the olive groves of Spain&mdash;of
+the wine, the oil, and the corn, of
+which nature is more bountiful than
+in Egypt of old&mdash;the produce and the
+wealth of the millions, (which, permitted,
+would exchange advantageously
+for foreign products, and, bye all the
+value, add to the store of national
+wealth, and create the means of reproduction,)
+are left to run waste and absolutely
+perish on the ground, as not
+worth the cost of transport to markets
+without demand. &quot;The production
+of this soil,&quot; observes the Ayuntamiento
+of Malaga, in their eloquent <i>Exposicion</i>
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page808" id="page808" title="808"></a></span> to the Cortes cited in our last
+Number, after referring to their own
+port and province, in whose elaboration
+thousands and thousands of hands
+are employed, millions and millions of
+capital invested, &quot;are consumed, if
+not in totality, at least with close approximation,
+in England;&quot; and after
+enumerating the wines, oil, raisins,
+grapes, oranges, lemons, and almonds,
+as products so consumed in this country&mdash;&quot;We
+have active and formidable
+rivals in France, Germany, Italy, Portugal,
+Turkey, the Greek Archipelago,
+and other countries. We shall say nothing
+of the wools, corn and other
+fruits of Spain, so important, and some
+so depressed in England by foreign
+competition with those of this province.
+If the treaties of commerce of
+England with Italy and Turkey are
+carried into effect, the exportation of
+our oils and dried fruits will receive its
+death warrant&mdash;<i>queda herida demuerte</i>.
+France, Germany, and Portugal, accepting
+favourably the idea of the British
+Government, will cause our wines
+to disappear from the market; their
+consumption is already very limited,
+inasmuch as the excessive duty, to one-third
+the amount of which the value
+of the wine does not reach, at the mouth
+of the Thames, prevents the sale of
+the inferior dry wines. The same excessive
+duty tends to diminish the
+consumption of our fruits from year to
+year. Our oil has alone been able to
+find vent by favour of the double duty
+imposed till now upon Sicilian, superior
+to ours in quality. But the English
+speculators are already shy of
+purchasing, in the expectation of an
+assimilation of duties on oils of whatever
+origin.&quot; The Ayuntamiento proceeds
+to urge the necessity of a &quot;beneficial
+compensation&quot; to British manufactures
+in the tariff of Spain, without
+which, &quot;the flattering perspective&quot; of
+prosperous progress for the industry
+and agriculture of the Andalusias will
+be destroyed, and that those vast, rich,
+and fertile provinces will become a desolate
+desert. &quot;The admission or prohibition
+of foreign woven cottons,&quot; says
+the <i>Exposicion</i>, &quot;is for Malaga and its
+province of vital importance under two
+aspects&mdash;of morality and commerce.
+Until now we have endured the terrible
+consequences of prohibition. The
+exorbitant gain which it supports is
+the germ of all the crimes perpetrated
+in our country. The man who carries
+a weapon, who uses it and sheds the
+blood of an agent of the law in the
+defence of his illegally acquired goods,
+will not hesitate in shedding the blood
+of a fellow citizen who may stand in
+the way of his desires. And hence the
+frequent assassinations. He who with
+gold seduces others for the increase of
+his own property and for antisocial
+purposes, does not scruple, when fortune
+is adverse, to possess himself by
+violence of the gold of the honest husbandman,
+or peaceful trader: from
+hence the constant robberies in the less
+frequented places; from hence the general
+abuse of carrying prohibited arms
+of all sorts, and using them criminally
+against any one on the least provocation,
+already accustomed to use them
+against the Government. Who shall
+venture to enumerate the assassinations,
+the robberies, the ruined families,
+the misfortunes of all kinds, which,
+directly and indirectly, spring from
+contraband trade?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Such is the <i>Exposicion</i>, such the
+experience, and such the views of a
+patriotic and enlightened corporation,
+representing and ruling over one of
+the most populous, wealthy, and industrially
+disposed districts of Spain. Our
+object in prefacing at this length, and
+with seeming irrelevance, perhaps, our
+review of the commercial policy of
+Russia, with its bearings on the interests
+of Great Britain, is to show the
+differing action of the same commercial
+system, in the present case of the
+prohibitive and restrictive system in
+different countries, both in respect of
+the mode in which the internal progress
+and industry of countries acting
+upon the same principle are variously
+affected themselves and in respect of
+the nature and extent of the influences
+of such action upon those relations of
+interchange which they entertain, or
+might otherwise entertain, with other
+countries where an opposite or modified
+system prevails. In its broad features
+the system of Russia varies from
+that of Spain only in being more rigorous
+and intractable still. Both,
+however, are founded on the same exclusive
+principle, that of isolation&mdash;that
+of forcing manufactures at whatever
+cost&mdash;that of producing all that
+may be required for domestic consumption&mdash;of
+exporting the greatest
+possible maximum&mdash;of importing the
+lowest conceivable minimum. Starting
+from the same point, and for the
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page809" id="page809" title="809"></a></span> same goal, it will not be without interest
+or instruction to accompany and
+observe the progress of the one, as we
+have already endeavoured to illustrate
+the fortunes of the other&mdash;to present
+Russia, industrial and commercial, side
+by side, or in contrast with Spain, as
+we have described her. Your absolute
+theory men, your free-traders with
+one idea, like Lord Howick, your performers
+in the economic extravaganza
+now rehearsing in the Parliament-house
+under the style of &quot;leave imports
+free, and the exports will take
+care of themselves,&quot; may chance to
+meet with many strange facts to confound
+their arbitrary theorems on the
+banks of the Neva. Absolute of wisdom,
+however, as they arrogate to be,
+and casehardened as they are, against
+assaulting results which should destroy
+their self-willed principle&mdash;a principle,
+like the laws of the Medes and Persians,
+proclaimed to be unchanged and
+unchangeable&mdash;in face of which facts
+are powerless and adverse experience
+contumeliously scouted, or mendaciously
+perverted, it is sufficiently obvious
+that lessons in political economy
+will, less than from any quarter of the
+globe, perhaps, be accepted from St
+Petersburg&mdash;they will fall upon unwilling
+ears&mdash;upon understandings obtuse
+or perverted.</p>
+
+<p>We are not of the number of those
+who would contend that, under all
+times or circumstances, should a
+principle, or rather the system built
+upon a principle, be rigorously upheld
+in its application intact, sacred equally
+from modification on the one hand, as
+against radical revolution on the other.
+It cannot be denied that, under the
+protective system, have grown into
+their present gigantic proportions all
+the great manufacturing interests of
+Great Britain. But, with customary
+hardihood of assertion, maintain the
+economists&mdash;in whose wake follow the
+harder-mouthed, coarser-minded Cobdens
+of the League&mdash;although manufactures
+have flourished under such a
+system to an extent which has constituted
+this country the workshop of the
+world, they have so flourished in spite
+of the system; and, in its absence, left
+exposed to free unrestricted competition
+from abroad, must inevitably have
+progressed at a more gigantic rate of
+speed still. This is asserted to be in
+the order of nature, but as nature is
+every where the same&mdash;as the same
+broad features and first elements characterize
+all countries more or less
+alike&mdash;we ask for examples, for one
+example only, of the successful establishment
+and progress of any one unprotected
+industry. The demand is
+surely limited, and reasonable enough.
+The mendacious League, with the
+Brights and Cobdens of rude and riotous
+oratory, are daily trumpeting it in
+the towns, and splitting the ears of
+rural groundlings with the reiterated
+assertion that, of all others, the cotton
+manufacture owes nothing to protection.
+What!&mdash;nothing? Were general
+restrictive imposts on foreign manufactures
+no protection? Was the virtually
+prohibited importation of the
+cotton fabrics of India no boon? of
+India, root and branch sacrificed for
+the advancement of Manchester?
+Why, there are people yet alive who
+can recollect the day when Manchester
+cottons could not have stood one
+hour's competition with the free, or
+even 100 per cent taxed fabrics of India.<a name="footnotetag40" id="footnotetag40"></a><a href="#footnote40"><sup>40</sup></a>
+How, indeed, could competition
+have been possible, with the wages of
+weaving and spinning in India at
+three-halfpence per day, whilst for
+equal quantities and qualities of workmanship,
+the British weaver was earning
+five shillings, and the spinner ten
+shillings per day on the average? In
+1780, Mr Samuel Crompton, the ingenious
+inventor of the mule frame for
+spinning, such as it exists to this day,
+and is the vast moving machine of
+cotton manufacturing greatness, stated
+that he obtained <i>fourteen</i> shillings per
+lb. for the spinning and preparation of
+No. 40 yarn, twenty-five shillings for
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page810" id="page810" title="810"></a></span> No. 60, and two guineas for No. 80.
+The same descriptions of yarns are
+now profitably making at prices ranging
+from about tenpence to twentypence
+per lb. At the same period
+common calicoes were saleable at about
+two shillings per yard, which now may
+be purchased for threepence. Will it
+be said that the Indian spinner and
+weaver by hand could not, at the same
+epoch, have produced their wares at
+one-half the price, had not importation,
+with unrelenting jealousy, been interdicted?
+Was the rigid prohibition of
+the export of machinery no concession,
+all exclusively and prodigiously in the
+interest of the cotton manufacture, to
+the zealous promotion and ascendancy
+of which the mining and agricultural
+interests are unhesitatingly, not to say
+wantonly, prejudiced, if not absolutely
+perilled? We say wantonly, because
+the free exportation of cotton yarn,
+tolerated at the same moment, was an
+absurd and mischievous violation of
+the very principle on which the prohibited
+exportation of machinery was
+alone and could be justified. In face
+of these incontrovertible facts, of
+which hereafter, and now that the
+record of them is consigned to that
+wide circulation through the world
+which the pages of Blackwood only
+can afford, misrepresentation remains
+without excuse on the question of that
+fostering protection to which, in a
+larger degree, if not exclusively, the
+cotton manufacture of Great Britain is
+indebted for its growth to its present
+colossal, mammoth-like, and almost unwieldy
+grandeur. We do not, however,
+whilst re-establishing facts in their purity,
+dream the practical impossibility
+of confounding and disarming the
+ignorance of men unfortunately so ill
+educated and unread, and with intellect
+so incapable, apparently, of appreciating
+instruction, if not wilfully perverse,
+as the Cobdens, or of restraining
+the less coarse but more fluent
+flippancy and equally unscrupulous
+assurance of friend Bright, from resort
+to that stock and stale weapon of vulgar
+minds which is so readily drawn
+from the armoury of falsehood. To
+the end of the chapter they will lie
+on, until doomsday arrive, and they
+sink, like the Henry Hunts, <i>et id genus
+omne</i>, their at least as well-bred predecessors
+of the popularity-hunting
+school, to their proper level in the
+cess-pool of public contempt. Time,
+which executes justice upon all in the
+long run, cannot fail to lay the ghost
+of cotton and anti-corn law imposture,
+even in the troubled waters of
+the muddy Irk and Irwell, where first
+conjured from. And now, having
+shown how the cotton manufacture of
+Great Britain was from its birth cradled,
+rocked, and dandled into successful
+progress; how it was fostered
+and fenced round with protection and
+prohibitive legislation as against competition
+from abroad; we shall proceed
+with our review of the rise and
+career of <i>protected</i> manufactures in
+Russia. And we would counsel &quot;one
+who has whistled at the plough,&quot;
+whose &quot;farming notes&quot; in the <i>Morning
+Chronicle</i>, when confined to such
+matters of practical detail as may be
+supposed to lie within the scope of his
+own experience and comprehension,
+are not destitute of interest and information,
+though with distorted and
+exaggerated views, to ponder well before
+a next reiteration of the random
+and absurd assertion that the &quot;corn-law
+has done to agriculture <i>what every
+law of protection has done for every
+trade that was ever practised</i>&mdash;it has
+induced negligence, and, by its uncertain
+operation, has obstructed enterprise.&quot;
+Instead of whistling at the
+plough, such a writer almost deserves
+to be whipped at the cart's tail for so
+preposterously dogmatic an assumption.
+It has yet to be demonstrated,
+and the proof is challenged, that ever
+a great interest, whether manufacturing
+or agricultural, was established in
+any part of the world, since the creation,
+without the aids and appliances
+of legislative and guernatorial patronage.
+The degree, the qualification
+the practical limitations, which in
+the progress of time, with social
+and industrial changes supervening
+at home and abroad, may be rendered
+expedient or necessary in the
+application of the principle, constitute
+quite a different question, which
+may be discussed and entertained
+without any disparagement of the
+soundness of the policy, as best adapted
+to existing circumstances, of the
+system when first applied. The theory
+of free trade may be, in its entirety,
+as plausibly it is presented to us,
+founded on just principle; the abstract
+truth and perfection of which are just
+as unimpeachable as that of the social
+theory propounded by Rousseau in
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page811" id="page811" title="811"></a></span> the Savoyard's profession of faith, or
+that of the &quot;liberty, equality, and
+community of property&quot; (to say nothing
+of women) theory preached, and
+practically developed to some extent,
+in the paganish philosophies and New
+Harmony vagaries of the St Simonians,
+the Fourierians, and of Robert
+Owen, in these our days. And yet,
+from the beginning of time&mdash;whether
+from the world before the flood, or
+since the reconstruction of the world
+after&mdash;never, to this present epoch, has
+one single example come down to us
+of the sober realization of either the
+economical abstraction or the social
+abstraction. Primeval chaos, chaos
+existing before all time, could alone
+have represented the <i>beau-ideal</i> of
+each. So far indeed as their own demesnes
+and domains, Laban and Pharaoh
+were not without their practical
+proficiency in the elements of economical
+science&mdash;for the one knew how
+to sell his daughters, as the other his
+corn, in the &quot;dearest market;&quot; and
+each to buy his labour and his money
+at the &quot;cheapest.&quot; And never will
+these free-trade and social day-dreams
+be accomplished to the end of all time;
+never until chaos come again; never,
+unless perchance the Fitzwilliams
+and the Phillipses, impregnated with
+the beatific reveries of socialist Robert
+Owen, should throw open, the one,
+Wentworth hall, with its splendid
+parks and spacious domains&mdash;the other,
+his Manchester mills, wonder-working
+machinery, and million of capital stock,
+to joint-stock occupancy, with common
+right of possession of the rural
+labourers who till the ground, and the
+urban operatives who ply the shuttle&mdash;the
+producers, in fact, of all their
+wealth&mdash;share and share alike; themselves,
+in future, undertaking the proportion
+of daily task-work; driving
+the &quot;teams afield,&quot; or tenting the
+mule-frame. Should, perhaps, the
+Phalansterial system of Fourier preferably
+suit their taste, they will be
+entitled to enter into the &quot;phalanx of
+harmony,&quot; and share <i>&agrave; des degr&eacute;s diff&eacute;rents,
+dans la r&eacute;partition des trots facult&eacute;s&mdash;capital,
+travail, talent</i>, ... with
+the enjoyment of such an apartment
+in the Phalansterial &quot;palace&quot; for four
+hundred families, the minimum of the
+phalanx being eighty, which may
+compare with the quality of <i>r&eacute;partition</i>
+corresponding to them, as expounded
+by Madame Gatti de Gamond,
+the principal legatee of Fourier
+and his system.</p>
+
+<p>In the course of the discussions
+which terminated in the treaty of
+commerce and navigation with Russia,
+laid before parliament on the opening
+of the session&mdash;the stipulations of
+which, however, chiefly bore upon the
+extension of certain reciprocal rights
+of navigation&mdash;the Emperor Nicholas,
+in answer to representations pressed
+upon him from this country, for a liberal
+extension of the same principle
+to the general commerce of Russia, to
+foreign imports as well as shipping
+and exports&mdash;to let in a glimmer of the
+free-trade principle, in fact&mdash;replied, as
+we observed in a former article, that
+&quot;the system, such as it was, he had
+received from his predecessors, and it
+was found to work well for the interests
+of his empire.&quot; The Autocrat,
+despot as he may be, was not singular
+in the opinion; for even our esteemed
+friend Count Valerian Krasinski, distinguished
+no less for the solidity of
+his literary attainments than for the
+liberality of opinion and the patriotism
+which condemns him to the penalty
+of exile in a &quot;dear country's
+cause,&quot; who therefore will not be suspected
+of undue bias in favour of Russian
+systems, had written and published
+in an able article on Russia,
+treating <i>inter alia</i> of the rise and
+progress of her manufactures and
+commerce, to the following effect:&mdash;&quot;The
+manufacturers of Russia commenced,
+as in other countries, with
+the beginning of its political importance,
+but have been chiefly indebted
+for their encouragement and progress
+to the efforts of the Government ...
+The (protective) system has been
+steadily adhered to with constantly
+increasing energy, and <i>the most brilliant
+success</i>, up to the present time.&quot;
+This was published in 1842. We shall
+proceed to test the merits of the case
+by reference to documents of official
+origin, Russian and British&mdash;both to
+the latest dates to which made up in
+a sufficiently complete shape for the
+object in view, and the former in some
+instances later than any yet published
+in this country, and, as believed, exclusively
+in our possession. We shall
+have to deal with masses of figures;
+but to the general reader in search of
+truth, they can hardly fail to be more
+acceptable than whole pages of allegations
+and assumptions unsupported by
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page812" id="page812" title="812"></a></span> proof, however eloquently worked out
+to plausible conclusions.</p>
+
+<p>We commence with laying the
+foundation for a comprehension of the
+industrial progression of Russia, by a
+comparative statement of the average
+imports of a few of the chief articles of
+consumption, raw materials of manufacture,
+and manufactures, for two
+series, of three years each; the first
+series being the earliest for which official
+records can be cited, or were perhaps
+kept. Accidental circumstances,
+and the special influences which, favourably
+or unfavourably, may act
+upon particular years, producing at
+one time a feverish excess of commercial
+movement, and at another, a reacting
+depression as unnatural, are best
+corrected and balanced by taking averages
+of years. Thus, the mean term
+of imports for 1793, 1794, and 1795,
+may be thus contrasted with that for
+1837, 1838, and 1839, of the following
+commodities:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">Annual imports,</td>
+    <td align="center" colspan="2">1793&ndash;95</td>
+    <td align="center" colspan="2">1837&ndash;9</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Sugar,</td>
+    <td align="right">341,356</td>
+    <td align="center">poods</td>
+    <td align="right">1,675,806</td>
+    <td align="center">poods</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Olive oil,</td>
+    <td align="right">42,239</td>
+    <td align="center">ib.</td>
+    <td align="right">345,455</td>
+    <td align="center">ib.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Machines and Instruments of all kinds, for</td>
+    <td align="right">111,300</td>
+    <td align="center">&nbsp; silver rubles &nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1,025,264</td>
+    <td align="center">&nbsp; silver rubles &nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Woollen cloths for</td>
+    <td align="right">3,978,000</td>
+    <td align="center">ib.</td>
+    <td align="right">570,000</td>
+    <td align="center">ib.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Raw cotton,</td>
+    <td align="right">10,000</td>
+    <td align="center">poods</td>
+    <td align="right">315,000</td>
+    <td align="center">ib.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Cotton-yarn,</td>
+    <td align="right">50,000</td>
+    <td align="center">ib.</td>
+    <td align="right">600,000</td>
+    <td align="center">ib.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Cotton fabrics for</td>
+    <td align="right">2,600,000</td>
+    <td align="center">silver rubles</td>
+    <td align="right">3,866,000</td>
+    <td align="center">ib.</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>During the first triennial period, a
+large proportion of the sugars imported
+was in the refined state, the number
+of sugar refineries being then very
+limited; in the second period, the
+imports consisted exclusively of raw
+sugar for the numerous existing refining
+establishments, which consumed
+besides 125,000 poods of beet-root
+sugar, the produce of the beet-root
+works established in Southern Russia.
+Woollen manufactories have so rapidly
+and extensively increased, that,
+whereas, comparatively a few years
+past only, the manufacture of woollens
+was confined almost exclusively to the
+coarser sorts for army use, whilst the
+better qualities for the consumption
+of the more easy classes, and for export
+to Asia, were imported from
+abroad, chiefly from Great Britain; for
+the fifteen years preceding 1840 the
+case has been completely altered. The
+import of foreign woollens has almost
+altogether ceased for internal consumption
+in Russia, whilst no woollens
+but of Russian make are now exported
+to Asia, and especially China.
+The export of these home-made woollens
+figures far above two millions of
+rubles yearly in the tables of Russian
+commerce with eastern countries. It
+will be seen that while the imports of
+cotton yarn, in the space of forty-two
+years, had increased in the proportion
+from 1 to 12 only, that of raw cotton
+had advanced in the proportion from 1
+to 32. The facts are significant of the
+growing extension both of spinning
+factories and the cotton manufactories.
+It is difficult to understand or credit
+the increased imported values of cotton
+fabrics here represented, knowing,
+as we do, the decreased export to Russia
+in our own tables of values and quantities.
+But we shall have occasion hereafter,
+perhaps, to notice some peculiarities
+in the Russian official system of
+valuations, which may probably serve to
+clear up the ambiguity. But although
+importing foreign cottons for internal
+consumption, Russia is moreover an exporter
+of domestic fabrics, to the value
+of about one million of silver rubles,
+on the side of Asia. In order to avoid
+as far as possible the multiplication of
+figures by the accompanying reduction
+of the moneys and weights of Russia
+into English quantities, it may be convenient
+to state, that the silver ruble
+is equal to 37&frac12;. sterling, and, in commercial
+reckoning, the pood answers to
+36 lbs. avoirdupois.</p>
+
+<p>Limiting our views for the present
+to the trade in cottons, as the manufacture
+of cottons is of much more recent
+growth in Russia than woollen
+and other manufactures, we find that
+the exact imports, quantities, or values,
+of cotton and yarn, are thus quoted in
+Russian official returns for the three
+last years to which made up <i>seriatim</i>.</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="center">1839.</td>
+    <td align="center">1840.</td>
+    <td align="center">1841.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Raw cotton,</td>
+    <td align="right">&nbsp; 354,832</td>
+    <td align="right">&nbsp; 398,189</td>
+    <td align="right">&nbsp; 314,000</td>
+    <td align="center">poods.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Cotton yarn,</td>
+    <td align="right">535,817</td>
+    <td align="right">519,189</td>
+    <td align="right">560,799</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The depressed state of the cotton
+trade in 1841 in this country, with the
+very low prices of yarn, from consignments
+pushed, in consequence, for sale
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page813" id="page813" title="813"></a></span> at any rates against advances, were
+doubtless the cause of the increased
+imports of yarn, and the decrease in
+raw cotton, exhibited in the returns for
+1841. Otherwise, the import of raw
+cotton has been comparatively much
+more on the increase than cotton yarn
+for some years past. Thus, beginning
+with 1822, when the cotton industry
+began more rapidly to develope itself,
+but omitting the years just given, the
+imports stood thus:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="center">1822.</td>
+    <td align="center">1830.</td>
+    <td align="center">1838.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Raw cotton,</td>
+    <td align="right">55,838</td>
+    <td align="right">116,314</td>
+    <td align="right">326,707</td>
+    <td align="center">poods</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Cotton-yarn,</td>
+    <td align="right">&nbsp; 156,541</td>
+    <td align="right">&nbsp; 429,736</td>
+    <td align="right">&nbsp; 606,667</td>
+    <td align="center">ib.</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Now, it will not be denied that the
+cotton manufacture in this country
+has enjoyed supereminent advantages
+over that of any other in the world,
+whether we look at the protective
+scale of duties maintained for half a
+century in its favour against foreign
+competition, or regard those glorious
+inventions and improvements in machinery,
+of which rigorous prohibitive
+laws against export, during the same
+period in force, long secured it a
+strict, and, even to a more recent period,
+a <i>quasi</i> monopoly, and gave it a start
+in the race, which seemed to leave all
+chance of foreign concurrence, or
+equal ratio of progression, out of the
+question altogether. Neither for spinning
+nor weaving could Russia, in
+particular, possess any other than machinery
+of the rudest kind, with hand
+labour, until perhaps subsequently to
+1820. Her tariffs, even by special
+treaty of commerce, in 1797, were
+entirely favourable to the entrance
+and consumption of British fabrics.
+The prohibitory, or Continental system
+of Bonaparte, was indeed substituted
+after the treaty of Tilsit; but
+in 1816 a new tariff was promulgated,
+modifying the &quot;prohibiting system of
+our trade,&quot; as the Emperor Alexander,
+in his ukase on the occasion, expressed
+it. By this tariff, cotton fabrics of all
+kinds were taxed twenty-five per cent
+in value only; cotton yarn, seven and
+a half copecs per cent; fine woollens,
+1 ruble 25 copecs per arschine; kerseymeres
+and blankets, twenty-five
+per cent on value; flannels, camlets,
+druggets, cords, &amp;c., fifteen per cent.
+How, then, has Russia, subject to all
+these disadvantages and drawbacks,
+and so late in the field, fared in comparison
+with this country, so long and
+so far before her? Let us take the
+Russian data first given for the two
+triennial periods, and ascertain the
+issue.</p>
+
+<p>The mean annual imports of cotton
+taken for consumption into Great
+Britain, deducting exports, may be
+thus stated in round numbers for the
+two terms, 1793&ndash;4&ndash;5 and 1837&ndash;8&ndash;9.</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">Annual imports,</td>
+    <td align="center">1793&ndash;5.</td>
+    <td align="center">1837&ndash;9.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Raw cotton,</td>
+    <td align="right">&nbsp; 22,000,000 lbs.</td>
+    <td align="right">&nbsp; 391,830,000 lbs.</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The ratio of progress of the manufacture,
+therefore, from one term to
+the other, of the forty-four years, was
+not far from eighteenfold.</p>
+
+<p>Reducing the quantities of cotton-yarn
+imported into Russia into the
+state of raw cotton, by an allowance
+of about three ounces in the pound, or
+nearly seven pounds per pood, for
+waste in the operations of spinning,
+we have the following approximate
+results:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">Annual imports,</td>
+    <td align="center">1793&ndash;5.</td>
+    <td align="center">1837&ndash;9.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Raw cotton,</td>
+    <td align="right">&nbsp; 69,700 poods.</td>
+    <td align="right">&nbsp; 1027,500 poods.</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The ratio of increase from term to
+term being thus the greater part of fifteenfold.</p>
+
+<p>But as the cotton manufacture,
+from circumstances referred to of favourable
+tariffs for importation&mdash;comparatively
+free-trade tariffs&mdash;did
+not begin fairly to shoot forth until
+1822, it will be only right to try the
+question of comparative increase by
+another list, namely, as between the
+returns of the consumption of cotton
+respectively in the two countries for
+that year, and one of the later years,
+1839, 1840, or 1841; but say rather
+an average of the three. We are unable,
+however, to strike a corresponding
+average three years forward from,
+but inclusive of 1822, for want of the
+corresponding Russian official returns
+for two of the years. On the other
+hand, to take the one year of 1839,
+when the quantity of cotton taken for
+consumption in this country was at a
+low ebb, would be like straining for an
+effect, which the impartial seeker after
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page814" id="page814" title="814"></a></span> truth can have no object in doing,
+whilst the return for 1840 would be as
+much in excess the other way. Thus
+the total quantities of raw cotton taken
+for consumption in Great Britain
+were&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>For the year 1822,</td>
+    <td align="right">144,180,000</td>
+    <td>lbs.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Average of the three years 1839, 1840, 1841,</td>
+    <td align="right">&nbsp; 440,146,000</td>
+    <td>ib.</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The ratio of progression in Great Britain,
+for the term of eighteen years,
+was somewhat more than threefold.</p>
+
+<p>The imports of raw cotton, and of
+cotton-yarn, rendered into cotton by
+an allowance in addition, at the rate
+of about three ounces per lb. for waste,
+or nearly seven pounds per pood,
+stand thus for Russia in round numbers:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>For the year 1822,</td>
+    <td>in the shape of raw cotton,</td>
+    <td align="right">55,838</td>
+    <td>poods.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+    <td>Cotton yarn calculated into about</td>
+    <td align="right">&nbsp;186,900</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="center">Total cotton,</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&nbsp; 242,738</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2">Average raw cotton imports of 1839&ndash;40&ndash;41</td>
+    <td align="right">355,673</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2">Id. of cotton yarn calculated into cotton,</td>
+    <td align="right">643,300</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="center">Total cotton,</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&nbsp; 998,973</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The ratio of increase in the cotton
+manufacture of Russia, for the same
+term of eighteen years, was therefore
+considerably more than fourfold. And
+this steady but extraordinary superiority
+of Russian progression took place
+in the face of all those prosperity
+years, when, from 1833 to 1838, the
+British cotton manufacture was stimulated,
+and bloated to excess, with the
+high prices resulting from the flash
+bank-paper and loan system of the
+United States, and the mad joint-stock
+banking freaks of Lancashire.</p>
+
+<p>The average import and consumption of raw cotton in Russia, and of yarn
+calculated into cotton, was at the rate, on the average of the three years cited,
+of about, 35,963,000 lbs. per annum;</p>
+
+<p>Which approximates the position of the Russian
+with that of the cotton manufacture of
+France as existing in the year 1818, when the
+consumption of raw cotton is officially stated at, 16,974,159 kilogrammes;</p>
+
+<p>And with that of the cotton manufacture of
+the United States in 1828, when the quantity
+consumed at home was stated at about, 35,359,000 lbs.</p>
+
+<p>It will still be insisted, doubtless, as
+all along it has never failed to be the
+cuckoo-note of unreflecting theorists,
+that the manufactures of Russia have
+flourished, and are flourishing, in spite
+of protection; that the only effect of
+protection is to repress their growth
+and mar their perfection. The assertion
+stands ready-made, and ever the
+stock on hand; it is a rash and blindfold
+speculation upon chance and futurity,
+at the best; a building without
+a corner stone; a <i>chateau-d'Espagne</i>
+nowhere to be found. Where, except
+in the glowing fictions of Scheherezade,
+may the personification of such
+a phantom be detected? History,
+whether ancient or modern, may be
+ransacked in vain for one footprint of
+the realised existence and miraculous
+economical prodigies worked upon the
+absolute free-trade principle, in the
+spontaneous creation, the progress unrivalled,
+the prosperity Pactolean, of
+ingenious manufactures. The El-Dorado
+region has yet to be discovered;
+will Cobden, like another Columbus
+in search of new worlds, adventure
+upon the desperate enterprise,
+and furnish the writer of romance
+with apt materials for the frights and
+freaks of another &quot;phantom ship&quot; on
+the wide ocean? If so inclined, indeed,
+we may commend him to an
+undertaking now, at this present writing,
+in actual progress, as we learn
+from assured sources and high quarters,
+in Paris. A goodly ship of substantial
+proportions is now preparing
+in a French port, richly freighted for
+an interesting voyage with the products
+of French industry, with destination
+for the great sea-river of the
+Amazons, for navigating its thousands
+of miles of unploughed course, and
+exploring those realms untold of, those
+interminable wastes recorded, and
+those numberless nations as yet unknown,
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page815" id="page815" title="815"></a></span> if existing, which coast the
+vast expanse of its waters to the utmost
+limits of Brazil, and the very
+confines of Bolivia, Peru, and Colombia.
+The King of the French is himself
+the patron and promoter of this
+great enterprise. Hasten, then, friend
+Cobden, erratic and chivalrous as
+Quixote of old, to &quot;swell the breezes
+and partake the gale&quot; of an expedition
+so glorious; for know, that on
+the banks of the noble Amazons itself,
+the magnificent queen-river, most
+worthy in the world of such distinction,
+have poets, romancers, and chroniclers,
+undoubting, from all time,
+sung of and planted the resplendent
+empire of the El-Dorado itself.</p>
+
+<p>Our design being to demonstrate,
+by the force of example and contrast,
+the sophistical absurdity of absolute
+theories, that, however naturally and
+harmoniously their parts may be made
+to correspond in thesis and system as
+a whole, according to which the same
+consequences, upon a given principle,
+should inevitably flow from certain
+causes, yet that, practically, it is found
+the same causes do not produce the
+same effects, even when circumstances
+are most analogous; that, for instance,
+the protective, or restrictive system of
+industry, under the rule of which
+Spain languishes, notwithstanding the
+abundant possession of the first materials
+for the promotion of manufacturing,
+and the prosperity of agricultural
+interests, proves, at the other
+extremity of Europe, the spring of
+successful progress and industrial accumulation,
+and renders Russia prosperous,
+though proportionally not
+more largely gifted with those natural
+elements of wealth and production
+which consist in fertility of soil, in
+mines of the precious metals, of coal,
+iron, &amp;c. We shall pursue our task
+to its completion before we proceed to
+draw and sum up those conclusions
+which must follow from the premises
+established, before we enter in order
+upon the analysis and dissection of the
+one absolute principle or theory, by
+which, in the conceit of certain sage
+travellers on the royal railroad to wisdom,
+eager for the end and impatient
+of the toil of thinking, the economical
+destinies of all nations should
+be cut, carved, and adjusted <i>secundum
+artem</i>, with mathematical precision
+and uniformity, according to the rule
+invariable of robber Procrustes, the
+ancient founder of the sect, who constructed
+a bed&mdash;that is, a system of
+certain proportions of size&mdash;that is,
+upon a certain principle&mdash;upon which
+he laid his victims; those found too
+short to fit the dimensions of the
+pallet, he stretched and tortured
+into the length required; those too
+long he fitted by decapitating the superabundance
+of head and shoulders,
+or by squaring off the legs and feet;
+just as economists would sever nations
+with their invariable system; just as,
+with their selfish and one-sided, sordid
+idea, the junta of Leaguers, rule and
+plummet in hand, would deal with the
+British empire, with its vast possessions
+in every clime, on which the sun
+never sets, peopled by races numerous
+and diverse of origin as of interests,
+multifarious, complicated, often conflicting.
+&quot;<i>L'et&acirc;t</i>,&quot; said Louis le
+Grand, &quot;<i>c'est moi</i>.&quot; &quot;The British
+empire&quot;&mdash;bellows Syntax Cobden&mdash;&quot;'tis
+<i>me</i> and printed calicoes.&quot; &quot;The
+British government and legislature&quot;&mdash;exclaims
+Friend Bright&mdash;&quot;'tis I and
+Rochdale flannel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It is a strange, and, with our qualified
+and not exclusive opinions, not
+less a discouraging complication of
+affairs with which we have to deal,
+that, look among the great nations
+where we will, we find, to a great
+extent, that the protective system of
+commerce, where in force, or where
+it has superseded a <i>quasi</i> free-trade
+system before in force, has conduced,
+in no small degree, to the advancement
+of material interests. The Germanic
+Customs' Union, that peculiar
+handicraft creation of Lord Palmerston,
+is there to confirm the fact,
+no less than Russia, than France, than
+Belgium, and other lands. The League
+themselves ostentatiously proclaim it,
+whilst pretending to impugn the retention
+of the very shadow of a shade
+of the same principle, for the country,
+above all others, which has grown to
+greatness under it&mdash;the very breath of
+whose nostrils it has been, during the
+struggles of infancy and progress to
+that full-blown maturity, when assuredly
+it seeks, (and need seek only,)
+willingly proffers, and readily accepts,
+equality of condition&mdash;reciprocity of
+interchange, with all the world. &quot;The
+Manchester manufacturer&quot;&mdash;the false
+<i>nom-de-guerre</i> of a calico printer, who
+was not a manufacturer at all, and
+could scarcely distinguish a calico from
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page816" id="page816" title="816"></a></span> a cambric at the time of writing, who
+erst was, is yet, perchance, the trumpeter
+of Russian policy, Russian principles,
+and Russian progress in the
+East and elsewhere&mdash;must be grateful
+for the information we have already
+afforded on the full careering ascendency
+of Russian material interests
+also. His gratitude will expand as he
+accompanies these pages.</p>
+
+<p>Peter the Great laid the foundations
+of Russian manufactures, as of
+the Russian empire itself. He founded
+manufactories in all the larger cities.
+But with his death they fell into
+decay until the reign of Elizabeth.
+With that epoch began their revival,
+and the more rigorous revival also of
+the prohibitory system. Their present
+imposing appearance and magnitude
+date, however, from the peace of
+1815, the great parent and promoter
+of all continental manufactures. In
+1812 no more than 2,332 manufacturing
+establishments in the whole empire
+were in existence, employing
+119,000 work-people; in 1835 the
+number of the former had reached to
+6,015, and of the latter to 279,673, the
+half of the free labourers. At the beginning
+of 1839, says the report of the
+department of manufactures and internal
+commerce&mdash;the last which, hitherto,
+has been made up or come to our
+hands&mdash;the number of factories and
+manufactories had risen to 6,855, an
+increase over the year preceding of
+405, whilst the number of workmen
+employed in them was 412,931, an
+increase over the year before of 35,111.
+Thus, in the space of three years,
+from 1835 to the end of 1838, 810
+new establishments had been organized,
+and the number of workmen
+augmented by one-half. These industrial
+establishments were non-inclusive
+of mining works, iron works,
+&amp;c., and the people employed in them.
+They were classed as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>Woollen manufactories,</td>
+    <td align="right">606</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Silk ib.</td>
+    <td align="right">227</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Cotton ib.</td>
+    <td align="right">467</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Linen ib.</td>
+    <td align="right">216</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Tanneries,</td>
+    <td align="right">1918</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Tallow works,</td>
+    <td align="right">554</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Candle ib.</td>
+    <td align="right">444</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Soap ib.</td>
+    <td align="right">270</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Hardware ib.</td>
+    <td align="right">486</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The seat of Russian manufactures is
+principally in the central portion of
+the empire, in its ancient capital Moscow,
+and the surrounding provinces.
+The progress of Moscow itself may
+be thus briefly sketched, after remarking
+that in the beginning of 1839
+there existed in the government, of
+which it was the capital city, 1058 manufactories,
+employing 83,054 work-people.
+In the 315 manufactories of
+the neighbouring province of Vladimir,
+83,655 work-people were employed;
+in the equally adjacent province
+of Kalouga, 164 manufactories gave
+work to 20,401 workmen. The population
+of Moscow, the Manchester
+of Russia, amounted in 1825 to
+241,514; in 1827 it had risen to
+257,694; in 1830 to 305,631; in 1833
+to 333,260; in 1840 to 347,224. The
+principal manufactories were thus
+classed for the latter year.</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>Silk manufacture,</td>
+    <td align="right">68</td>
+    <td align="center">looms,</td>
+    <td align="right">2217</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Cotton ib.</td>
+    <td align="right">139</td>
+    <td align="center">ib.</td>
+    <td align="right">7252</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Woollen cloth ib.</td>
+    <td align="right">51</td>
+    <td align="center">ib.</td>
+    <td align="right">2960</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Other woollen stuff ib.</td>
+    <td align="right">16</td>
+    <td align="center">ib.</td>
+    <td align="right">579</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Shawl ib.</td>
+    <td align="right">17</td>
+    <td align="center">ib.</td>
+    <td align="right">282</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>In thirteen of the chief factories
+there were 263 spinning machines;
+three cotton factories alone contained
+138. Besides these larger establishments,
+3122 workshops, not considerable
+enough to be ranked as manufactories,
+employed alone 19,638
+work-people; and 142 industrial establishments,
+such as founderies, breweries,
+distilleries, tallow and soap
+works, &amp;c., gave bread to thousands
+more.</p>
+
+<p>The consumption of the principal
+raw materials of manufacture is thus
+stated as an average of that and recent
+preceding years.</p>
+
+<p><span class="newpage"><a name="page817" id="page817" title="817"></a></span></p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>Cotton for the twenty spinneries of Moscow,</td>
+    <td align="right">100,000</td>
+    <td align="center">poods per an.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Cotton yarn,</td>
+    <td align="right">300,000</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Dyed cotton yarn</td>
+    <td align="right">200</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Raw silk,</td>
+    <td align="right">30,000</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Dye woods,</td>
+    <td align="right">100,000</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Madder,</td>
+    <td align="right">250,000</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The machinery for the manufactories
+is made for the most part in the
+founderies and machine-works of Vladimir,
+Tamboff, Kalouga, and Riazan,
+but, above all, in the city of Tula and
+the village of Parlovo. In McCulloch's
+<i>Statistical Dictionary</i>, the number
+of steam-engines in the government
+of Moscow is stated, for 1830,
+at about 100&mdash;in 1820, two only being
+in existence. On what authority the
+statement is given does not appear;
+our own documents, to 1841 inclusive,
+are silent on that head. For Moscow,
+with its immediate environs, the total
+number and the produce of the cotton
+looms are thus given:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Cotton loom,</td>
+    <td align="right">17,000</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Producing annually,</td>
+    <td align="right">450,000</td>
+    <td>pieces of calico</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Do.</td>
+    <td align="right">400,000</td>
+    <td>do. of nankeen</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Do. above,</td>
+    <td align="right">2,000,000</td>
+    <td>do.&nbsp;of&nbsp;handkerchiefs</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>In the whole, inclusive of other goods, such as muslins, velvets, &amp;c., &amp;c., equal to above,</td>
+    <td align="right">40,000,000</td>
+    <td>arschines of fabrics</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Valued at</td>
+    <td align="right">7,500,000</td>
+    <td>silver rubles.</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The arschine is about twenty-eight English inches. The silk manufacture,
+of recent establishment only in Moscow, presented the following results,
+for that city and the surrounding districts:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>Number of common looms,</td>
+    <td align="right">10,000</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Jacquard, more than</td>
+    <td align="right">5,000</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Producing annually,</td>
+    <td align="right">15,000,000</td>
+    <td>arschines of st</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Valued at</td>
+    <td align="right">10,000,000</td>
+    <td>silver rubles.</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The woollen manufactories of Moscow, inclusive of the environs, employed
+apart smaller loom shops:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>Looms,</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">5,139</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Producing</td>
+    <td>yearly,</td>
+    <td align="right">30,000</td>
+    <td align="center">pieces</td>
+    <td>of superior quality</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">Do.</td>
+    <td>more than</td>
+    <td align="right">50,000</td>
+    <td align="center">do.</td>
+    <td>ordinary for the army</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>And</td>
+    <td align="center">do.</td>
+    <td align="right">&nbsp; 700,000</td>
+    <td colspan="2">&nbsp;arschines of light cloths for China.</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The values not given. The imports of merchandise from Moscow by
+water, of which alone exact and detailed particulars are stated, amounted
+in&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>1837, to &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; </td>
+    <td align="right">22,881,000</td>
+    <td>rubles assignation</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1838,</td>
+    <td align="right">22,074,563</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1839,</td>
+    <td align="right">17,467,391</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1840,</td>
+    <td align="right">28,283,877</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Three and a half rubles assignation,
+are equal to one silver ruble.
+Moscow enjoys the advantage of being
+an internal bonded port, or port of
+intrep&ocirc;t, a privilege now seeking by
+Manchester, so that importers of foreign
+merchandise are not called upon
+for the payment of duties until the
+moment when, withdrawing their imports,
+or any other portion of them as occasion
+requires, the payment becomes
+necessary. Formerly the duties had
+to be paid in the frontier ports, and
+often in bulk. The customhouse revenue
+resulting, amounted in&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>1837, to &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; </td>
+    <td align="right">637,074</td>
+    <td>rubles assignation</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1838,</td>
+    <td align="right">614,464</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1839,</td>
+    <td align="right">626,764</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1840,</td>
+    <td align="right">776,021</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1841,</td>
+    <td align="right">898,398</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><span class="newpage"><a name="page818" id="page818" title="818"></a></span> These returns are proof indisputable
+of industrial and social progress.
+It is unnecessary further to remark
+upon the great and growing importance
+of other branches of industry in
+Moscow, or to extend the limits of
+this notice so far as to comprise a review
+of the iron and hardware manufactories,
+and the numerous tanneries
+of Tula and Perm. The active movement
+of internal commerce, may,
+however, be inferred from the returns
+of products exhibited and sold at
+twelve fairs held annually, with one
+thrice, and another twice, in the year,
+the total value of which exposed for
+sale in 1840, was stated at 101,551,000
+silver rubles, and of the quantity
+actually sold at 64,326,700 rubles.
+Of which alone at&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="center">On Sale.</td>
+    <td align="center">Sold.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Nijny Novgorod, for &nbsp; &nbsp; </td>
+    <td align="right"> &nbsp; 47,264,967</td>
+    <td align="right"> &nbsp; 38,828,984</td>
+    <td align="center">silver rubles</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Irbit,</td>
+    <td align="right">12,232,286</td>
+    <td align="right">7,682,000</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Romna, 2d fair</td>
+    <td align="right">9,001,904</td>
+    <td align="right">4,454,747</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Kharkoff, 1st fair,</td>
+    <td align="right">5,743,280</td>
+    <td align="right">2,944,390</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Koursk,</td>
+    <td align="right">7,014,802</td>
+    <td align="right">2,014,834</td>
+    <td align="center">...<br>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The great fair of Nijny Novgorod may rival with Leipzig in the magnitude
+of its transactions. In 1841, the general movement of values at this
+fair is thus returned:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>Merchandise for sale,</td>
+    <td align="right">50,506,606</td>
+    <td>silver rubles, or</td>
+    <td align="right">176,773,121</td>
+    <td>rbls. ass.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Sold,</td>
+    <td align="right">41,704,236</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+    <td align="right">145,964,826</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>By decree of the government, within
+the last three years, the public accounts,
+before kept in rubles assignation,
+that is government paper money,
+were ordered to be reckoned in silver
+rubles. For purposes of comparison
+with former years, we state them in
+both. Of the mass of commodities
+thus in motion at the fair, there were
+of Russian manufactures and indigenous
+products, to the total value of
+37,132,693 silver rubles exposed for
+sale, and for 29,762,473 sold; some
+other chief articles ranging thus;&mdash;</p>
+
+<table>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="center">For sale.</td>
+    <td align="center">Sold.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Cotton goods,</td>
+    <td align="right">7,336,665</td>
+    <td align="right">5,947,865</td>
+    <td align="center">silver rubles.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Woollens,</td>
+    <td align="right">3,448,295</td>
+    <td align="right">2,620,175</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Linen and hempen fabrics,</td>
+    <td align="right">3,126,736</td>
+    <td align="right">2,375,736</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Silks,</td>
+    <td align="right">3,220,489</td>
+    <td align="right">2,239,989</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Leather, worked and not,</td>
+    <td align="right">1,043,583</td>
+    <td align="right">876,083</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Produce of mines and founderies, iron, copper, hardware, jewellery,</td>
+    <td align="right">&nbsp; 7,600,330</td>
+    <td align="right">&nbsp; 6,450,330</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Tea, for 7,107,500 rubles assignation,
+and other products of China,
+were brought to the fair; raw cotton,
+cotton-yarn, shawls, silks, skins, &amp;c.
+from Persia and Asia, to the value of
+29,796,819 roubles assignation, and
+chiefly sold. Of the products of Western
+Europe, which make but a miserable
+exhibit, the following are the chief:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>Woollen stuffs, for</td>
+    <td align="right">256,455</td>
+    <td align="center">silver rubles.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Cottons,</td>
+    <td align="right">510,830</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Linens and hempen fabrics, &nbsp; </td>
+    <td align="right">192,300</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Silks,</td>
+    <td align="right">423,130</td>
+    <td align="center">...<br>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Indigo,</td>
+    <td align="right">918,000</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The growing magnitude of this fair will be appreciated by the following returns
+of former years:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="center">Total commodities</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="center">for sale.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="center">Rubles assignation.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1829,</td>
+    <td align="right">104,018,586</td>
+    <td align="center">of which sold for</td>
+    <td align="right">50,104,971</td>
+    <td>rbls. ass.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1831,</td>
+    <td align="right">129,457,600</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+    <td align="right">98,329,520</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1833,</td>
+    <td align="right">146,207,311</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+    <td align="right">117,210,670</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1835,</td>
+    <td align="right">143,369,240</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+    <td align="right">117,743,340</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1837,</td>
+    <td align="right">146,638,181
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+    <td align="right">125,507,881</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1838,</td>
+    <td align="right">156,192,500</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+    <td align="right">129,234,500</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1839,</td>
+    <td align="right">161,643,674</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+    <td align="right">137,100,774</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1840,</td>
+    <td align="right">165,427,384</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+    <td align="right">135,901,454</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><span class="newpage"><a name="page819" id="page819" title="819"></a></span> The convenience of these fairs for
+the purposes of interchange, both between
+different industries and the populations
+of different provinces of the
+same empire, and with contiguous
+countries from which so great an affluence
+of merchants with their merchandise
+for exchange was attracted,
+has induced the government to decree
+the establishment of eleven new fairs
+in different towns, and fifty-nine others
+in as many large villages, which, in
+growing size, may be already compared
+with towns.</p>
+
+<p>The internal commercial communications
+of Russia are chiefly carried
+on by means of those innumerable
+rivers and canals, that network of natural
+and artificial canals, by which
+she is intersected through all her extent,
+and which, taking their rise in
+various central parts of the empire,
+pursue their course singly, or falling
+into each other, and so constituting
+mighty streams, to the White sea and
+the Baltic, or fall into the Black sea
+and the Caspian. The total movement
+of this internal navigation in all
+the rivers, presented the following results:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2">Departures from the different ports in the interior in 1839,</td>
+    <td align="right">60,277</td>
+    <td>barques.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="right">(</td>
+    <td>&nbsp; do.</td>
+    <td align="right">24,421</td>
+    <td>rafts.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="right">Arrivals at (</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;  do.</td>
+    <td align="right">46,850</td>
+    <td>barques.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="right">(</td>
+    <td>&nbsp; do.</td>
+    <td align="right">17,469</td>
+    <td>rafts.</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+   <td>They were the convoys of merchandise dispatched from the ports to the value of</td>
+   <td align="right">737,814,276</td>
+   <td>rubles ass.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Of merchandise forwarded to do.</td>
+    <td align="right">538,921,730</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>In 1837 the values dispatched from, ascended only to</td>
+    <td align="right">618,990,306</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Do. forwarded to</td>
+    <td align="right">490,505,940</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The various and many basins of
+river and water communication, scientifically
+arranged, and showing how
+all parts of that vast empire are connected
+with each other through all
+and nearly every portion of its territorial
+extent, as in the report before
+us, is a document worthy of study and
+more minute analysis, but our limits
+forbid.</p>
+
+<p>The foreign commerce of Russia presents the following results for 1841:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>Exports to foreign countries, &nbsp; </td>
+    <td align="right">86,382,179</td>
+    <td align="center">silver rubles.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Imports from do.</td>
+    <td align="right">79,429,490</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+ </table>
+
+<p>The Russian official tables include,
+under the head of foreign commerce,
+the exports and imports with Finland
+and Poland; but as they fall within
+the range, in reality, of internal commerce,
+the accounts are better simplified
+by their exclusion. The system
+of separate returns results, doubtless,
+from the political arrangements and
+conventions by which Russia acquired
+the possession of those two countries.</p>
+
+<p>The progress of exports and imports
+may be thus indicated:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="center">1838.</td>
+    <td align="center">1839.</td>
+    <td align="center">1840.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Exports,</td>
+    <td align="right"> &nbsp; 85,718,930</td>
+    <td align="right"> &nbsp; 94,857,788</td>
+    <td align="right"> &nbsp; 82,731,386</td>
+    <td align="center">&nbsp;silver rubles.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Imports,</td>
+    <td align="right">69,693,824</td>
+    <td align="right">69,993,589</td>
+    <td align="right">76,726,490</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The remarkable excess of exports
+in 1839 resulted from the large demand
+for, and shipments of, corn in
+that year&mdash;the official value of which
+is stated at 25,217,027 silver rubles;
+the smallest export, so far as value,
+being that of 1841, valued at 10,382,509
+silver rubles only. Exclusive of corn,
+the exports would stand thus:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>1838 for &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; </td>
+    <td align="right">70,562,252</td>
+    <td align="center">&nbsp; silver rubles.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1839</td>
+    <td align="right">69,640,761</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1840</td>
+    <td align="right">68,704,971</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1841</td>
+    <td align="right">75,999,670</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Gold and silver, in bars or specie, are not comprised in these returns.</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>For 1841 the values thus exported were, &nbsp; </td>
+    <td align="right">4,023,728</td>
+    <td align="center">&nbsp;silver rubles.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td> &nbsp; ... imports,</td>
+    <td align="right">9,347,867</td>
+    <td align="center">ib.</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>It is necessary, however, to travel
+more backwards in order to a right
+appreciation of the progress of the
+foreign trade of Russia. This comparison
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page820" id="page820" title="820"></a></span> is here instituted with earlier
+years, premising that the exports to
+Poland and Finland, amounting to
+some ten or twelve millions of rubles
+assignation, and imports from, amounting
+to about three millions, are included,
+and therefore swell the amount
+of the imports and exports of the following
+years. However, to facilitate
+the comparison, the silver ruble values
+of 1841 are multiplied into corresponding
+ruble assignation values:</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="center">Exportations.</td>
+    <td align="center">Importations.</td>
+    <td align="center">Balance</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="center">in favour</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="center">of Russia.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>In</td>
+    <td>1830</td>
+    <td align="right"> &nbsp; &nbsp; 268,887,342</td>
+    <td align="right"> &nbsp; &nbsp; 197,115,340</td>
+    <td align="right"> &nbsp; &nbsp; 71,772,002</td>
+    <td>rb. as.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>1836</td>
+    <td align="right">283,748,233</td>
+    <td align="right">237,251,204</td>
+    <td align="right">13,733,196</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>1837</td>
+    <td align="right">264,485,160</td>
+    <td align="right">251,757,177</td>
+    <td align="right">12,727,983</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>1841</td>
+    <td align="right">302,337,626</td>
+    <td align="right">378,003,215</td>
+    <td align="right">24,334,411</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Add 11,808,743 rubles assignation
+for exports to, and 4,792,346 imports
+from, Poland and Finland in 1841,
+and the real comparison would be, for
+1841, exports 314,146,349, imports
+282,795,561; balance in favour of
+1841, 31,350,688 rubles assignation.</p>
+
+<p>The bulk of Russian exportations
+consists of raw or first materials, such
+as flax, hemp, flax-seed, oil, tallow,
+leather, woad, metals, and of which
+to the aggregate value in 1841, of
+59,773,354 silver rubles was exported;
+an amount nearly stationary as
+compared with the three previous
+years. But the export of Russian
+manufactures, viz. woollens, cottons,
+linens, candles, cordage, and cloths
+for China, had improved in aggregate
+amount from,&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>Silver Rubles.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>In 1838,</td>
+    <td align="right">6,527,222</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>To, in 1841,</td>
+    <td align="right">10,259,209</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>It was the trade with China by
+Kiachta, and latterly also by the line
+of Siberia, which, however, had perhaps
+taken the most remarkable extension,
+and was held to be most promising
+of future progress and profit.
+The imports, and therefore the consumption,
+of tea in Russia, are growing
+annually larger; and the exports
+of Russian products and manufactures
+to China, equally in proportion. For
+by mutual convention, as dictated by
+China, for regulating the commercial
+intercourse between the two countries
+strictly limited to that frontier river
+port, although now indirectly countenanced
+by Siberia, the trade is exclusively
+one of barter; tea and silks
+for leather, furs, cottons, woollens,
+and linens. A condition, be it observed,
+which serves to place beyond
+all doubt the fact, that it was not the
+introduction and consumption, with
+the deterioration to the health of the
+population resulting, physically and
+morally, from the use of opium, which
+had so much effect with the celestial
+Emperor in provoking the late war with
+Great Britain, as the abstraction by
+export in payment, and the drain so
+constant, of Sycee silver. The imports
+of tea in&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="center">Poods.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">Silver Rubles.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1838,</td>
+    <td>By Kiachta, were, of good and ordinary quality, &nbsp; </td>
+    <td align="right">127,645</td>
+    <td align="center">&nbsp; value</td>
+    <td align="right">2,015,189</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>By the line of Siberia,</td>
+    <td align="right">10</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+    <td align="right">600</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">127,655</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+    <td align="right">2,015,789</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1841,</td>
+    <td>By Kiachta,</td>
+    <td align="right">168,218</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+    <td align="right">6,976,363</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>By the line of Siberia and Caspian Sea,</td>
+    <td align="right">1,364</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+    <td align="right">66,293</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">169,582</td>
+    <td align="center">...</td>
+    <td align="right">7,012,656</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Besides which, the imports of an
+inferior tea, called <i>brick tea</i>, amounted
+to the value of 359,223 silver rubles
+in 1841. In three years, the general
+trade, China silks inclusive, had therefore
+more than trebled so far as value;
+for it is remarkable, that though
+larger quantities of tea are imported,
+yet prices, so far from declining, had
+actually considerably advanced; which
+proves that the commodity was becoming
+a favourite beverage, and gaining
+into more general consumption, in
+Russia. The values of the Russian
+merchandise, such as stated, which
+passed in barter, are said to have been
+equally sustained. It may be noted,
+indeed, as an extraordinary fact, that
+whilst, as the official report of the
+department of commerce observes,
+the prices and values of almost all
+foreign raw products and manufactured
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page821" id="page821" title="821"></a></span> wares imported into Russia, during
+the three or four years preceding
+1841, and including 1841, entered
+constantly, and some at considerably
+depreciated rates, in the reverse the
+products of Russia, exported to Europe
+and elsewhere during the same period,
+quantity for quantity, generally improved
+in prices and ascended in
+value.</p>
+
+The foreign commerce of Russia by sea was carried on, during the year<br>
+1841, by
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">2,596</td>
+    <td>vessels, inwards loaded,</td>
+    <td align="center">tonnage,</td>
+    <td align="right"> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 452,760</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">2,174</td>
+    <td>do. in ballast,</td>
+    <td align="center">do.</td>
+    <td align="right">410,164</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Totals,</td>
+    <td align="right">4,770</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">862,924</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">4,582</td>
+    <td>do. outwards loaded,</td>
+    <td align="center">do.</td>
+    <td align="right">819,232</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">312</td>
+    <td>do.&nbsp; do. in ballast,</td>
+    <td align="center">do.</td>
+    <td align="right">58,046</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Totals,</td>
+    <td align="right">4,894</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">877,278</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>In the coasting trade in the Northern
+seas, the number of vessels dispatched
+from port to port was 2007,
+in the Black Sea, 5,275.</p>
+
+<p>The revenue from customs in 1841
+amounted to 27,387,494 silver rubles,
+or upwards of two-fifths in excess
+of the receipts of 1830.</p>
+
+<p>In order to exemplify the nature
+of the trade betwixt Great Britain and
+Russia, and exhibit it in its most disadvantageous
+aspect, we shall add
+here, from statements verified as authentic
+by competent authorities on
+the spot, the returns of British trade
+and shipping with certain Russian
+ports for 1842, which we have recently
+received direct. They will assist us
+to a conception of the relative importance
+of each place in respect of
+its commercial connexion with this
+country.</p>
+
+<p>The commerce of the port of
+Archangel, omitting from the table
+Onega, Kola, Kemi, and Soumsk, the
+other ports in the White Sea, their
+traffic being inconsiderable, is thus
+represented.</p>
+
+<p>1842.&mdash;Total shipping outward, 212, of which, British, 153, tonnage, 31,704</p>
+
+<table>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Total imports, (exclusive of L.13,816 by Norway coasters,)</td>
+    <td align="right">L.18,384</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Of which from Great Britain,</td>
+    <td align="right">L.801</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Total exports, (omitting L.22,236 to Norway,)</td>
+    <td align="right">L.427,789</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Of which to Great Britain,</td>
+    <td align="right">L.305,823</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>In 1841, 176 vessels exported for Great Britain the value,</td>
+    <td align="right">L.408,077</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Exclusive of cargoes by 2 other vessel, to the amount of L.7,208, for the Hanse towns and Holland.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>In 1840, 250 vessels, tonnage 48,249, exported to Great Britain the value of</td>
+    <td align="right">L.442,381</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Exclusive of 6 British vessels which carried cargoes to the Hanse towns, France, and Italy, of the aggregate value of L.12,858.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The commerce with Riga exhibits
+a somewhat more favourable proportion
+between imports and exports,
+and we are induced, therefore, to give
+the return of imports for 1842 in same
+detail as received.</p>
+
+<p>Nature and value of merchandise imported into Riga from Great Britain
+during the year 1842:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>Coffee,</td>
+    <td align="right">L.2,500</td>
+    <td align="right">0</td>
+    <td align="right">0</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Cotton,</td>
+    <td align="right">11,011</td>
+    <td align="right">0</td>
+    <td align="right">0</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Cotton twist, L.21,159, 10s; do. goods, L.1135,</td>
+    <td align="right">22,294</td>
+    <td align="right">0</td>
+    <td align="right">0</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Woollen goods,</td>
+    <td align="right">4,100</td>
+    <td align="right">16</td>
+    <td align="right">8</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Woollen twist,</td>
+    <td align="right">19,057</td>
+    <td align="right">3</td>
+    <td align="right">4</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Indigo and other dyes,</td>
+    <td align="right">13,764</td>
+    <td align="right">0</td>
+    <td align="right">0</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Dye-woods,</td>
+    <td align="right">2,718</td>
+    <td align="right">6</td>
+    <td align="right">8</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Salt,</td>
+    <td align="right">53,269</td>
+    <td align="right">3</td>
+    <td align="right">4</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Sugar,</td>
+    <td align="right">24,882</td>
+    <td align="right">10</td>
+    <td align="right">0</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Wines and brandies,</td>
+    <td align="right">19,200</td>
+    <td align="right">13</td>
+    <td align="right">4</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Iron and steel wares,</td>
+    <td align="right">7,025</td>
+    <td align="right">0</td>
+    <td align="right">0</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Spices and drugs,</td>
+    <td align="right">13,440</td>
+    <td align="right">6</td>
+    <td align="right">8</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Non-enumerated articles,</td>
+    <td align="right">12,527</td>
+    <td align="right">10</td>
+    <td align="right">0</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right" colspan="3">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">Total,</td>
+    <td align="right">L.205,791</td>
+    <td align="right">0</td>
+    <td align="right">0</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><span class="newpage"><a name="page822" id="page822" title="822"></a></span> Countries from whence British vessels have arrived at the port of Riga
+during the year 1842:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="center">No. of vessels.</td>
+    <td align="center">Tonnage.</td>
+    <td>Remarks.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>United Kingdom,</td>
+    <td align="right">387</td>
+    <td align="right">59,629</td>
+    <td>With cargoes and in ballast.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Hamburg,</td>
+    <td align="right">6</td>
+    <td align="right">1,261</td>
+    <td>In ballast.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Denmark,</td>
+    <td align="right">21</td>
+    <td align="right">3,730</td>
+    <td>...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Norway,</td>
+    <td align="right">13</td>
+    <td align="right">2,438</td>
+    <td>...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>France,</td>
+    <td align="right">5</td>
+    <td align="right">670</td>
+    <td>...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Belgium,</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td>
+    <td align="right">484</td>
+    <td>...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Holland,</td>
+    <td align="right">6</td>
+    <td align="right">1,018</td>
+    <td>...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Prussia,</td>
+    <td align="right">4</td>
+    <td align="right">562</td>
+    <td>...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Sweden,</td>
+    <td align="right">3</td>
+    <td align="right">669</td>
+    <td>...</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">Total,</td>
+    <td align="right">446</td>
+    <td align="right">70,461</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">1842 exports.
+    <td align="center">Tons.</td>
+    <td>Total value of exportations to Great Britain.</td>
+    <td>Countries to whence exported.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>British vessels, 446</td>
+    <td align="right">70,461</td>
+    <td align="right">L.1,527,810&nbsp;5&nbsp;4</td>
+    <td>United Kingdom.</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The commerce of Odessa represents
+a closer approximation still between
+imports and exports; and they would
+perhaps nearly balance, but for the
+large shipments of wheat to this country,
+which contribute to swell the exports.</p>
+
+<p>In 1842, 174 British ships entered, tonnage 44,428, sailed 176 tonnage, 44929</p>
+
+<table>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Total value of imports by them,</td>
+    <td align="right">L.185,870</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Of which, from the United Kingdom,</td>
+    <td align="right">184,370</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The remainder by 64 British vessels entering from Leghorn, Turkey, Algiers, Amsterdam, mostly in ballast.</p>
+
+<table>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Total average of exports,</td>
+    <td align="right">784,865</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Of which, to the United Kingdom,</td>
+    <td align="right">776,995</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The remainder to the countries above named.</p>
+
+<table>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1841,</td>
+    <td>Total imports by British ships,</td>
+    <td align="right">147,950</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>Do. exports do.</td>
+    <td align="right">590,570</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1840,</td>
+    <td>Total imports by British ships,</td>
+    <td align="right">130,660</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>Do. exports do.</td>
+    <td align="right">859,090</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The commerce of St Petersburg is
+stated, for 1812, imports and exports
+together, at the value of 97,795,415
+silver rubles. And of 1147 foreign vessels
+which left that port and Cronstadt
+with cargoes, more or less, 515 were
+British, of 117,793 tonnage&mdash;being a
+rather considerably less number than
+in either 1840 or 1841.</p>
+
+<p>The present is the proper occasion to
+remark upon and explain the system of
+official valuation pursued in Russia, by
+which it will be observed how the real
+value, both of imports and exports, is
+swelled, probably with a view to the
+vain display of a greater commerce than
+is really carried on. As the system is
+nearly the same for both imports and
+exports, it cannot, of course, materially
+interfere with, or impeach the
+accuracy of the general balance-sheet.
+It is desirable, however, that the facts
+should be fairly represented, for the
+guidance of those who may be in the
+habit of consulting and comparing the
+official documents of different countries;
+and they will serve moreover to
+explain, in some degree, the extraordinary
+discrepancies which have been
+found betwixt the declared values of
+British products and manufactures exported
+to Russia, as published in the
+Board of Trade tables, and the same
+exports as exhibited in Russian customhouse
+returns.</p>
+
+<p>In calculating the annual value of
+importations, it is the rule in the Russian
+customhouses to add the duties
+paid on the entry of goods to their
+original value. This practice in Russia,
+where the duties are so high,
+swells the value of imports far beyond
+their true amount, and gives a false
+and exaggerated view of them.</p>
+
+<p>With respect to the exports, nearly
+the same practice exists. In calculating
+their value, all the shipping
+charges are added to the cost of the
+article; and we are informed by merchants
+resident in Russia, that on
+comparing the annual Government
+statements of exports for their establishments,
+they are found to correspond
+with the invoices forwarded to
+their foreign correspondents, which,
+of course, include commission, and all
+the expenses attendant on the shipping
+of the goods. The law also requires
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page823" id="page823" title="823"></a></span> that the shipper, on clearing
+merchandise for export through the
+customhouse, should declare its
+value. With a view of preserving
+uniformity, the Russian authorities,
+from time to time, fix a standard price
+at which particular articles shall be
+valued for export at the customhouse.
+To exemplify the evil of this system,
+it is necessary only to mention that
+oats, for example, could lately be purchased
+at a Baltic port at sixty silver
+rubles per last, while the latest customhouse
+standard values them at
+eighty silver rubles per last. This
+practice is no way injurious to the
+merchant, but only unnaturally swells
+the tables of exports when annually
+made up by the Russian Government.
+A shipper, therefore, of any of the
+articles included in the Russian standard,
+is compelled to state a much
+greater value at the customhouse than
+he furnishes to his foreign correspondent,
+who, of course, only pays the
+market price of the article, with the
+additional shipping expenses.</p>
+
+<p>The difficulty, such as it is, might
+be obviated, were the masters of
+British merchantmen compelled by
+law to submit their ship's papers, on
+arrival and departure, to the British
+consuls at each port, who would then
+be placed on the same footing with
+the consuls of other countries, and be
+enabled to communicate much important
+statistical information to their
+Government, of the opportunity for
+acquiring and transmitting which
+they are now deprived.</p>
+
+<p>Our review of Russian commerce
+and industry would be more incomplete
+than it is, if we were to omit all
+notice of the vast mining wealth of
+that empire. But our limits, already
+nearly reached, do not admit of more
+than a passing reference. Suffice it,
+that in coal, both bituminous and
+anthracite, in iron and other metals,
+and salt, constituting the raw materials,
+Russia is rich enough for all her
+wants, and indeed supplies the great
+bulk of those wants within herself,
+with to spare in some of these products
+for her neighbours and other
+countries. Her mines are annually
+increasing in productiveness and number,
+as enterprise is extended and
+capital invested in them, and as domestic
+manufactures and improving
+agriculture increasingly absorb their
+produce. The treasure-yielding progress
+of her gold mines is one of the
+extraordinary events of the age. The
+existence of gold in Siberia was
+scarcely suspected till 1829. The
+first researches of adventuring individuals
+were attended with no success.
+Feodot Popoff, one of the earliest,
+succeeded at length in that year,
+when all others had abandoned the
+undertaking as hopeless, in discovering
+traces, and procuring some inconsiderable
+specimens, of gold&mdash;not in
+quantity, however, to repay the
+working; and the doubts before existing
+seemed confirmed as to the
+fruitlessness of further perseverance
+in the search. Major-General Kovalevsky,
+of the engineers of mines,
+having been appointed governor of
+Tomsk, renewed the attempt in
+1830; and, at the close of that year,
+his indefatigable labours, and more
+methodical plan of operations, were
+rewarded with the discovery of a first
+considerable stratum of auriferous
+sands, which was designated Y&eacute;gorievsky,
+(St George.) Adventurers
+flocked into the district forthwith,
+and in numbers, upon the widespreading
+news; and excellently did
+renewed labours recompense the zeal
+of the more fortunate; numerous
+were the discoveries of layers of
+golden sands. In one of these, last
+year, a massive piece of native gold,
+weighing 24&frac12; pounds Russian, (the
+Russian pound is about 1&frac12; oz. less
+than the English,) was discovered
+embedded in a fragment of quartz,
+and is now deposited in the museum
+of the School of Mines at St Petersburg.
+The yield of the Siberian
+mines has since been at the following
+rate of progression&mdash;omitting the intermediate
+years for brevity, although
+in every year there was an increase
+of quantity upon the preceding:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>1830 &nbsp; </td>
+    <td align="right">5</td>
+    <td align="center">poods, &nbsp; </td>
+    <td align="right">32</td>
+    <td align="center">lbs., &nbsp; </td>
+    <td align="center">59-1/2</td>
+    <td> &nbsp; zdotnicks.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1832</td>
+    <td align="right">21</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+    <td align="right">34</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+    <td align="center">68-3/4</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1834</td>
+    <td align="right">65</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+    <td align="right">18</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+    <td align="center">90-3/8</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1836</td>
+    <td align="right">105</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+    <td align="right">9</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+    <td align="center">41</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1838</td>
+    <td align="right">193</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+    <td align="right">6</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+    <td align="center">47-1/2</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1840</td>
+    <td align="right">255</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+    <td align="right">27</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+    <td align="center">26-3/8</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1842</td>
+    <td align="right">631</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+    <td align="right">5</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+    <td align="center">21-1/4</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The total of the thirteen years has been 2093 poods, 38 lbs., 46 zd.
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page824" id="page824" title="824"></a></span> The pood, be it remembered, is equal to (rather more than) 36 lbs. avoirdupois.</p>
+
+<table>
+  <tr>
+    <td>The total general yield of the older worked mines of the Oural mountains for 1842, was, besides,</td>
+    <td align="right">149</td>
+    <td>poods,</td>
+    <td align="right">18</td>
+    <td>lbs.,</td>
+    <td align="right">58</td>
+    <td>zd.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>And of platina,</td>
+    <td align="right">53</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+    <td align="right">33</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+    <td align="right">67</td>
+    <td align="center">&mdash;</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>On a rough estimation, the produce
+of all the gold, platina, and silver
+from the silver mines, could not have
+amounted to less, perhaps, for the year
+1842, than three millions sterling.</p>
+
+<p>According to the learned academician
+K&ouml;ppen, of St Petersburg, in a
+lengthened memoir upon the subject,
+the total population of Russia, inclusive
+of Poland, Finland, and Trans-Caucasian
+provinces, ascended in
+1839 to 65,000,000.
+Or of Russia Proper alone, 55,500,000.</p>
+
+<p>With an empire so gigantic, a population
+so large, however disproportioned
+as compared with territory, and
+with resources so incalculable, it must
+appear extraordinary that foreign commercial
+relations are so limited. The
+total of exports and imports together
+for 1841, represents only, in round
+numbers, a commercial movement to
+the value of 165,811,000 silver rubles,
+or in sterling, about L.25,907,300.
+The matter which most concerns this
+country, is the very disproportionate
+interest which results to its share in
+the export and import trade of Russia.
+Taking the latest British returns of
+the value of Russian products imported
+into England, for the Board of
+Trade tables give quantities only, as
+we find them stated by Mr McGregor,
+the indefatigable secretary of that
+board, for 1838, at L.6,977,396, or say,</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>in round numbers</td>
+    <td align="right">L.7,000,000</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>And British exports at the declared value here of, say,</td>
+    <td align="right">1,700,000</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>There would appear to result the very heavy difference against the United Kingdom of</td>
+    <td align="right">L.5,300,000</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>But bad as the case may be, it is
+not quite so bad as these figures would
+represent. It must not be forgotten
+in this sort of calculation, that shipping,
+freights, insurances, and commissions,
+represent property quite as
+substantially in the commercial sense,
+as even Mr Cobden's printed calicos,
+or friend Bright's flannel pieces. Now,
+we think it might admit of proof,
+that as much as nine-tenths of all the
+produce brought to this country from
+Russia, is so brought in British bottoms,
+and so also of the exports to
+Russia; although in 1840, the last of
+the Board of Trade tables containing
+such particulars, no more than 1629
+British vessels, of 340,567 tonnage,
+against 296 foreign, of 79,152 tonnage,
+entered British ports from Russia&mdash;the
+proportions being much the same
+outwards; but whether the foreign
+were all Russian vessels may be doubted.
+Let us assume, however, that no
+more than three-fourths of both imports
+and exports were so carried, and leaving
+three-fourths British freights outwards
+to balance Russian one-fourth
+freights inwards and outwards, let us in
+fairness estimate the worth of that
+freightage in reduction of the enormous
+balance against us. As for
+Spain, in our last Number, we took
+twenty per cent to cover all the freightage
+charges, before indicated, on her
+commodities of less bulk though more
+value in proportion, twenty-five per
+cent on the average will not be too
+much, certainly, to cover those charges
+on the more bulky products of Russia,
+more especially when the long, costly,
+and intricate navigation of the Baltic,
+and the White and Black Seas, are
+taken into account. The calculation
+will then stand thus:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr>
+    <td>Imports from Russia,</td>
+    <td align="right">L.7,000,000</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Deduct twenty-five per cent freightage, &amp;c. as British property and profit,</td>
+    <td align="right">1,750,000</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Real value of imports as on board in Russia,</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right"> &nbsp; L.5,250,000</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Declared value of ex-British exports to Russia,</td>
+    <td align="right">L.1,700,000</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Value of British freightage, &amp;c., as above,</td>
+    <td align="right">1,750,000</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+    <td align="right">L.3,450,000</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Real approximative balance in favour of Russia,</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">L.1,800,000</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><span class="newpage"><a name="page825" id="page825" title="825"></a></span> or say two millions, as the three-fourths
+produce of outward freight
+would, perhaps, not quite compensate
+the one-fourth on inward and outward
+cargoes to the Russian shipping. Even
+such a balance is exclusively and unjustly
+large against a country which,
+like Great Britain, is a consumer of
+Russian products to the extent of
+seven-twelfths of the total exports of
+Russia to all the world. The consequence
+is, that the rate of exchange
+is almost invariably against this country.
+Lord Howick, indeed, most
+quixotically deals with adverse exchanges;
+he disposes of them summarily,
+and in a style that must have
+astonished the people on 'Change.
+This disciple and representative of
+Mr Edward Gibbon Wakefield's economics
+in the House of Commons, as
+Lord Durham was before his political
+disciple, and the victim of his schemes
+colonial, thus decisively disposes of
+adverse exchanges in the celebrated
+debate on Import Duties, taking Portugal
+for an example.</p>
+
+<div class="blkquot"><p>&quot;A large increase of importations from
+Portugal would necessarily be attended by
+a proportionate increase of our export
+trade. Was it not clear that every merchant
+who imported a pipe of wine would
+anticipate the bills drawn against him on
+account of it, and that, whatever would be
+the increase in the amount of imports,
+there would be a corresponding increase
+in the amount of the bills drawn against
+us? How were our merchants to provide
+for them? There would be no difficulty
+in it, whether the trade of Portugal increased
+legally or illegally. Suppose an
+increase of imports into Portugal, there
+would be an immediate demand for bills
+to Portugal. <i>The consequence would be,
+that if there was any other country from
+which Portugal received more than it exported,
+the bill-brokers would get bills
+from that country</i>, and our manufactures
+would be sent there instead of to Portugal.
+Admit that you could not find in any
+other country the means of discharging
+your debt by importation of your manufactures,
+bills on Portugal should then rise
+to a certain premium, and gold and silver
+would be sent to discharge the debt. The
+gold and silver would come from some
+other country, and the consequence would
+be that we should send our manufactures,
+not to Portugal, but to South America;
+while Portugal would be obliged to send
+the bullion to some other country that it
+might carry on a smuggling trade with its
+neighbour, Spain. It was impossible for
+the ingenuity of man to point out any
+different result.&quot;</p></div>
+
+<p>The &quot;bill-brokers&quot; will be greatly
+amused with the new line of business
+chalked out for them, of &quot;getting
+bills&quot; from other countries when short
+in this. There are two descriptions
+of &quot;bill brokers,&quot; but the class bearing
+that designation purely deal with
+domestic bills only. The other class
+are known as &quot;exchange brokers,&quot;
+because they meddle only with foreign
+bills; but as to &quot;getting bills&quot; from
+abroad when bills are wanting here,
+that trustworthy and respectable description
+of agents certainly never
+dreams of such an occupation. Lord
+Howick would seem to imagine that
+manufactories of bills existed specially
+abroad, and that people could draw
+with as much nonchalance from Paris
+or from Hamburg, upon Jack Nokes
+and Tom Styles at Amsterdam or
+Frankfort, as here Lord Huntingtower
+accepted for his dear friend the Colonel
+values uncared for, or as folks
+familiarly talk of valuing an Aldgate
+pump when an accommodation bill is
+in question. May we venture to hint
+to the member for commercial Sunderland,
+the <i>ex</i> for Northumberland,
+that the functions of &quot;exchange brokers&quot;
+extend no further than to ask
+A if he has any bills to sell, and B if
+he is a buyer; whereupon he has only
+further to learn what rate the one will
+purchase and the other sell at; that
+knotty point arranged, the bargain is
+concluded, and he receives his very
+small percentage. The operations
+are carried on every day, more or less,
+but on Tuesdays and Fridays, being
+especially &quot;post days&quot; on London
+'Change, where Lord Howick any day
+may be initiated in the mystery, if not
+punctilious about being unceremoniously
+elbowed and jostled about.</p>
+
+<p>In the principle of protection, we
+hold Russia to be perfectly in her
+right and her interest; in the abuse
+of it, she damages herself. Prohibition
+is not protection; restrictive duties
+equal to absolute prohibition, like
+the 85 per cent prohibitory tax, formerly
+levied here on Indian cotton
+fabrics, in favour of Lancashire, are
+not protection in the legitimate sense.
+The late Emperor Alexander hit the
+true nail of principle on the head
+when, in 1819, he reformed the Russian
+tariff on the calculation of imposts
+ranging from fifteen to forty per cent.
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page826" id="page826" title="826"></a></span> We are, nevertheless, bound to say,
+that, even as protection is understood
+in its exaggerated sense by the Autocrat,
+the system has worked well for
+Russia, as indeed we have shown.
+She has accumulated wealth by that
+system; she has secured by it the
+possession of a large proportion of
+those precious metals, which are indispensable
+no less as the medium of
+foreign exchanges and balances, than
+as the means by which, above all other
+means, the operations of industry, and
+the employment of labour, are facilitated
+at home. How would industry
+progress, and wages be dispensed, if
+the master manufacturer could offer
+payment of wages only in yards or
+pieces of cloth, the iron-master in ore,
+or the land-proprietor in oxen, sheep,
+corn, hay, or cabbages? In respect
+of commercial balances, that of Great
+Britain against Russia is liquidated
+probably, to some extent, by the
+yearly balance resulting against Russia
+in her dealings with Persia; for
+the policy of Russia is to favour the
+commerce of Asia, whilst oppressing
+that with Europe, and Persia is always
+indebted to Great Britain. She has,
+however, the game in her own hands.
+Can we wonder that she plays it to
+her own advantage, half-political, half-commercial?
+She knows as well as
+we feel keenly, that the raw materials,
+in which she is so rich, are indispensable
+for our use; she charges accordingly.
+The time may come when we
+shall be more independent of her, and
+then, then only, she will conform to
+altered circumstances. The able and
+distinguished diplomatist at her court,
+Lord Stuart de Rothesay, who succeeded
+in the arduous task of negotiating
+the recent treaty of navigation
+with that crafty Government, is the
+man also who will not be slow to
+avail himself of any favourable conjuncture
+for turning circumstances to
+account, and redressing the adverse
+balance now against this country.</p>
+
+<p>As before said, our intention, on
+this occasion, is not to dissect principles
+or theories, but to present facts.
+We have still more in store for the absolute
+theory men. But, in concluding,
+we may be allowed to observe, that the
+causes why a restrictive and exclusive
+system does answer for Russia, and,
+on the contrary, tends to the ruin of
+Spain, are simply these:&mdash;The raw
+materials of Russia are indispensable
+for this and other manufacturing
+countries, because cheaper and more
+abundant than can be elsewhere procured,
+and the price of labour is low.
+The raw products of Spain necessary
+for manufactures are, on the reverse,
+dear priced; her products of luxury,
+even, are dear; her rates of labour
+are higher than in this or any other
+country of Europe. Two shillings
+and sixpence a-day, or fifteen shillings
+a-week; with, besides Sundays, a hundred
+saints' days or holidays in the
+year, put her labour and produce quite
+<i>hors de combat</i> in the race of competition.
+A Spanish operative would
+no more toil on a <i>dia de dos cruces</i>,
+(two saints on one day,) than he would
+fast on a feast-day, with an odorous
+<i>olla podrida</i> before him on the table.</p>
+
+<hr class="full">
+
+<a name="bw332-footnotes" id="bw332-footnotes"></a><h2>FOOTNOTES.</h2>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote1" id="footnote1"></a><b>Footnote 1</b>: <a href="#footnotetag1">(return)</a>
+<p>See &quot;Chapters of Turkish History,&quot; No. III., November 1840.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote2" id="footnote2"></a><b>Footnote 2</b>: <a href="#footnotetag2">(return)</a><p>
+He was afterwards, in 1651, mufti for a few months; but is better known as an
+historian, (under the appellation of Kara-Tchelibi-Zadah,) and as having been tutor
+to Ahmed-Kiuprili.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote3" id="footnote3"></a><b>Footnote 3</b>: <a href="#footnotetag3">(return)</a><p>
+His name, according to Evliya, was originally Yusuf, but was changed to Mohammed
+on the entreaty of the ladies of the seraglio, who said that Yusuf was the name of
+a slave.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote4" id="footnote4"></a><b>Footnote 4</b>: <a href="#footnotetag4">(return)</a><p>
+The Turkish historian, Naima, fancifully compares this plane to the fabulous tree
+in the islands of Wak-Wak, the fruit of which consisted of human heads, as is fully
+detailed in the romance of Hatem Tai, besides various passages of the Thousand and
+One Nights. Under this same plane, by a singular instance of retribution, the heads
+of the janissaries massacred in the At-meidan in 1826, were piled by order of Sultan
+Mahmood.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote5" id="footnote5"></a><b>Footnote 5</b>: <a href="#footnotetag5">(return)</a><p>
+The Turkish annalists do not fail to remark, that Kiuprili crossed the imperial
+threshold at the moment when the call to noon prayers was resounding from the minarets&mdash;an
+evident token of the Divine protection extended to him!</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote6" id="footnote6"></a><b>Footnote 6</b>: <a href="#footnotetag6">(return)</a><p>
+In a narrative by a writer named Chassipol, (Paris, 1676,) professing to be the
+biography of the two first Kiuprili vizirs, Mohammed is said to have been the son of a
+French emigrant, and this romance has been copied by most European authors. But
+the testimony of Evliya, Kara-Tchelibi, and all contemporary Turkish writers, is decisive
+on the point of his Albanian origin.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote7" id="footnote7"></a><b>Footnote 7</b>: <a href="#footnotetag7">(return)</a><p>
+Ipshir Mustapha Pasha was originally a Circassian slave, and said to have been
+a tribesman and near relation of the famous Abaza. During the revolutions which distracted
+the minority of Mohammed, he became grand-vizir for a few months, (Oct.
+1654&ndash;May 1655,) but was cut off by an unanimous insurrection of the spahis and
+janissaries, who forgot their feuds for the sake of vengeance on the common enemy.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote8" id="footnote8"></a><b>Footnote 8</b>: <a href="#footnotetag8">(return)</a><p>
+De la Haye, the French ambassador, was imprisoned in 1658, and his son bastinadoed
+in the presence of Kiuprili, for being unable or unwilling to give a key to some
+letters in cipher from the Venetians; and some years later, the envoy of the Czar,
+Alexis Mikhailowitz, was driven, with blows and violence, from the presence of the
+sultan, who was irritated by the incompetency of the interpreter to translate the Czar's
+letter! This latter outrage, however, was not till after the death of the elder Kiuprili.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote9" id="footnote9"></a><b>Footnote 9</b>: <a href="#footnotetag9">(return)</a><p>
+This monstrous exaggeration is reduced by Rycaut to the more credible, but still
+enormous number of 36,000 victims during the five years of his ministry.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote10" id="footnote10"></a><b>Footnote 10</b>: <a href="#footnotetag10">(return)</a><p>
+&quot;The Turk,&quot; says Montecuculi, &quot;who is always armed, never finds time bald,
+but can always seize him by the forelock: the number of his victories, and the extent
+of territory which he has taken from the Christians, and which they have never been
+able to recover, sufficiently proves this, and shows the rashness and folly of those who
+pretend to make light of his power.&quot;</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote11" id="footnote11"></a><b>Footnote 11</b>: <a href="#footnotetag11">(return)</a><p>
+The name of Candia, which is the Italianized form of Kandax, (now Megalo-Kastro,)
+is unknown at the present day to the Greek inhabitants of the island, which
+they call by its classic name of <span class="greek" title="Kraetae">&Kappa;&rho;&eta;&tau;&eta;</span>.&mdash;See PASHLEY'S <i>Travels in Crete</i>, i. chap. 11.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote12" id="footnote12"></a><b>Footnote 12</b>: <a href="#footnotetag12">(return)</a><p>
+A notable retort is on record from the vizir to the Venetian envoy, who, on repairing
+to Constantinople after the battle, expressed his astonishment at the progress already
+made in the equipment of a new fleet. &quot;Know,&quot; (said the haughty Osmanli,) &quot;that
+the loss of a fleet to the Padishah is as the shaving of his beard, which will grow again
+all the thicker; whereas the loss of Cyprus is to Venice as the amputation of an arm
+from the body, which will never be reproduced.&quot;</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote13" id="footnote13"></a><b>Footnote 13</b>: <a href="#footnotetag13">(return)</a><p>
+&quot;Thus were they annihilated, and all men who were faithful and devoted to God
+and their prince, were solaced and consoled.&quot;&mdash;<i>MS. Chronicle by the notary Trivan,
+quoted by</i> PASHLEY, chap. 33. These atrocities were perpetrated in the early part of
+the 16th century.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote14" id="footnote14"></a><b>Footnote 14</b>: <a href="#footnotetag14">(return)</a><p>
+Among the captives was the ex-nurse of the heir-apparent, afterwards Mohammed
+IV., with her son, who was mistaken for a prince of the Imperial family; and
+being carried to Malta, was brought up there as a monk under the name of Padre
+Ottomanno! During the siege of Candia he was brought to the beleaguered fortress,
+in the hope that the presence of this supposed Turkish prince of the blood would shake
+the allegiance of the janissaries&mdash;but this notable scheme, as might have been foreseen,
+was wholly without success.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote15" id="footnote15"></a><b>Footnote 15</b>: <a href="#footnotetag15">(return)</a><p>
+Many of them adopted the faith of the invaders&mdash;and Tournefort, who visited
+Crete in 1700, says that &quot;the greater part of the Turks on the island were either
+renegades, or sons of renegades.&quot; The Candiote Turks of the present day are popularly
+held to combine the vices of the nation from which they descend with those of
+their adopted countrymen.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote16" id="footnote16"></a><b>Footnote 16</b>: <a href="#footnotetag16">(return)</a><p>
+The use of parallels is usually said to have been introduced at this time by Kiuprili;
+but they were certainly employed before Neuhausel, four years earlier.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote17" id="footnote17"></a><b>Footnote 17</b>: <a href="#footnotetag17">(return)</a><p>
+These were, the Sabionera, covered by the detached fort of St Demetrius, the
+Vetturi, Jesus, Martinengo, Bethlehem, Panigra, and St Andrew.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote18" id="footnote18"></a><b>Footnote 18</b>: <a href="#footnotetag18">(return)</a><p>
+The majority of these volunteers were supplied by the fiery noblesse of France,
+among whom the crusading spirit of their ancestors seems to have been revived at this
+period. At the battle of St Gothard, a considerable body of French auxiliaries was
+present, under the Duc de la Feuillade, (whose name was travestied by the Turks into,
+<i>Fouladi, man of steel</i>;) and his subsequent expedition to Candia, as well as the more
+formidable armament under Noailles, seem to have received the direct sanction of Louis
+XIV. Yet the old treaties between France and the Porte were still in force; so that
+it was not without some reason that Kiuprili replied, a few years later, to the Marquis
+de Nointel's professions of amity on the part of France, &quot;I know that the French are
+our friends, but I always happen to find them in the ranks of our enemies!&quot;</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote19" id="footnote19"></a><b>Footnote 19</b>: <a href="#footnotetag19">(return)</a><p>
+Villa is said to have produced before the senate of Venice a letter from Morosini
+to the vizir, offering to betray him into the hands of the Turks.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote20" id="footnote20"></a><b>Footnote 20</b>: <a href="#footnotetag20">(return)</a><p>
+The harbour of Candia (now almost choked up) was at all times so small, and with
+so little depth of water, as to afford shelter only to galleys, the station of the larger
+vessels being at the isle of Standia, at some leagues' distance.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote21" id="footnote21"></a><b>Footnote 21</b>: <a href="#footnotetag21">(return)</a><p>
+The appointment of the <i>Greek</i> Panayoti marks an important change in the system
+of Ottoman diplomacy; as previously the Porte had disdained to employ the <i>rayahs</i> in
+places of trust, depending wholly, in their intercourse with foreign ambassadors, on the
+interpreters attached to the suite of the latter.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote22" id="footnote22"></a><b>Footnote 22</b>: <a href="#footnotetag22">(return)</a><p>
+Bashl&iacute;k&mdash;a bonnet worn in bad weather.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote23" id="footnote23"></a><b>Footnote 23</b>: <a href="#footnotetag23">(return)</a><p>
+Give him her feelings&mdash;a Tartar phrase.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote24" id="footnote24"></a><b>Footnote 24</b>: <a href="#footnotetag24">(return)</a><p>
+Willingly, if you please? Literally, &quot;on my head, on my eyes.&quot;</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote25" id="footnote25"></a><b>Footnote 25</b>: <a href="#footnotetag25">(return)</a><p>
+This cushion is embroidered with jewels, and is invaluable.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote26" id="footnote26"></a><b>Footnote 26</b>: <a href="#footnotetag26">(return)</a><p>
+The Mussulmans believe, that in the northern burial-ground of Derb&eacute;nd, are
+buried the forty first true believers, who were martyred by the idolaters.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote27" id="footnote27"></a><b>Footnote 27</b>: <a href="#footnotetag27">(return)</a><p>
+God gave&mdash;Much good may it do you.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote28" id="footnote28"></a><b>Footnote 28</b>: <a href="#footnotetag28">(return)</a><p>
+Brown's Lectures, Lecture xxviii.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote29" id="footnote29"></a><b>Footnote 29</b>: <a href="#footnotetag29">(return)</a><p>
+Mill's Analysis, vol. i. p. 73.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote30" id="footnote30"></a><b>Footnote 30</b>: <a href="#footnotetag30">(return)</a><p>
+This reasoning of Dr Brown's is founded upon an assumed analogy between the
+structure of the optic nerve, and the structure of the olfactory nerves and other sensitive
+nerves, and is completely disproved by the physiological observations of Treviranus,
+who has shown that no such analogy exists: that the ends of the nervous fibres in the
+retina being elevated into distinct separate <i>papill&aelig;</i>, enable us to perceive the extension,
+and discriminate the position of visible bodies, while the nerves of the other
+senses being less delicately defined, are not fitted to furnish us with any such perception,
+or to aid us in making any such discrimination.  See <i>M&uuml;ller's Physiology,
+translated by W. Baly, M.D.</i>, vol. ii. pp. 1073, 1074. Although the application
+of Treviranus's discovery to the refutation of Dr Brown's reasoning is our own, we
+may remark, in justice to an eminent philosopher, that it was Sir William Hamilton
+who first directed our attention to the <i>fact</i> as established by the great physiologist.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote31" id="footnote31"></a><b>Footnote 31</b>: <a href="#footnotetag31">(return)</a><p>
+Mr Bailey seems disposed to carp at us for having confined our remarks to this
+first question, and for not having given a more complete review of his book. But the
+reason why we cut short our critique is obvious; for if it be proved, as we believe it
+can, that objects are originally seen at <i>no distance whatever</i> from the sight, it becomes
+quite superfluous to enquire what appearance they would present if originally seen at
+<i>some</i> distance from the sight. The way in which we disposed of the first question,
+however imperfect our treatment of it may have been, necessarily prevented us from
+entering upon the second; and our review, with all its deficiencies, was thus a complete
+review of his book, though not a review of his complete book.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote32" id="footnote32"></a><b>Footnote 32</b>: <a href="#footnotetag32">(return)</a><p>
+Review of Berkeley's Theory, p 35.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote33" id="footnote33"></a><b>Footnote 33</b>: <a href="#footnotetag33">(return)</a><p>
+Ibid. p. 136.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote34" id="footnote34"></a><b>Footnote 34</b>: <a href="#footnotetag34">(return)</a><p>
+Review of Berkeley's Theory, p. 137.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote35" id="footnote35"></a><b>Footnote 35</b>: <a href="#footnotetag35">(return)</a><p>
+Essay, &sect; 158.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote36" id="footnote36"></a><b>Footnote 36</b>: <a href="#footnotetag36">(return)</a><p>
+It would not be difficult to show, that as, on the one hand, <i>distance</i> is not involved
+in the original intuitions of sight, so, on the other hand, <i>proximity</i> is not involved in
+the original intuitions of touch; but that, while it is the touch which establishes an interval
+between the organ and the objects of sight, it is the sight which establishes <i>no</i>
+interval between the organ and the objects of touch. Sight thus pays back every fraction
+of the debt it has incurred to its brother sense. This is an interesting subject, but
+we can only glance at it here.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote37" id="footnote37"></a><b>Footnote 37</b>: <a href="#footnotetag37">(return)</a><p>
+We observe that even M&uuml;ller speaks of the &quot;faculty of projection&quot; as if he sanctioned
+and adopted the hypothesis.&mdash;See <i>Physiology</i>, vol. ii. p. 1167.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote38" id="footnote38"></a><b>Footnote 38</b>: <a href="#footnotetag38">(return)</a><p>
+Lucretius.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote39" id="footnote39"></a><b>Footnote 39</b>: <a href="#footnotetag39">(return)</a><p>
+T. Warton's &quot;Suicide.&quot;</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote">
+<a name="footnote40" id="footnote40"></a><b>Footnote 40</b>: <a href="#footnotetag40">(return)</a><p>
+The cotton piece goods of India were still subject, in 1814, to a duty on importation
+equal to 85 per cent. This duty was reduced on the 5th of July 1819,
+but to L.67, 10s. per cent only. Finally, in 1825 the duty was again reduced to
+10 per cent, at which it remains. The duty on cotton yarn imported from India
+was at the same time subject to a duty of 10d. per lb., and so remained till 1831
+at least. It must be borne in mind, that India was the only country in the world
+which, before and during the rise of the cotton manufacture in Great Britain, was,
+or could be, an exporter of cotton fabrics and yarns.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+
+<hr class="full">
+
+<span class="newpage"><a name="page827" id="page827" title="827"></a></span>
+<a name="bw332-index" id="bw332-index"></a><h2>INDEX TO VOL. LIII.</h2>
+
+<div class="blkquot"><p>[Transcriber's note: The page numbers refer to editions 327 to 332,
+published between January and June, 1843, according to the following
+table:</p></div>
+
+<table align="center">
+  <tr><td align="center">Edition</td><td align="center">&nbsp; &nbsp; Pages &nbsp; &nbsp;</td><td align="center">Month</td></tr>
+  <tr><td align="center">327</td><td align="center">1&ndash;140</td><td align="center">January</td></tr>
+  <tr><td align="center">328</td><td align="center">141&ndash;280</td><td align="center">February</td></tr>
+  <tr><td align="center">329</td><td align="center">281&ndash;414</td><td align="center">March</td></tr>
+  <tr><td align="center">330</td><td align="center">415&ndash;550</td><td align="center">April</td></tr>
+  <tr><td align="center">331</td><td align="center">551&ndash;692</td><td align="center">May</td></tr>
+  <tr><td align="center">332</td><td align="center">693&ndash;826</td><td align="center">June.]</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<ul>
+  <li>Aden, on the occupation of, 484.</li>
+  <li>Affghanistan,
+  <ul>
+    <li>the war in, 17</li>
+    <li>review of the events in, 239</li>
+    <li>the evacuation of, 266.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Agriculture, the practice of, 415.</li>
+  <li>Akhbar Khan,
+  <ul>
+    <li>murder of Macnaghten by, 257</li>
+    <li>defeat of, at Tazeen, 269.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Amalia, from the German of Schiller, 442.</li>
+  <li>Ammal&aacute;t Bek, a tale, translated from the Russian,
+  <ul>
+    <li>Translator's preface, 281</li>
+    <li>Chap. I., 288</li>
+    <li>Chap. II., 296</li>
+    <li>Chap. III., 464</li>
+    <li>Chap. IV., 471</li>
+    <li>Chap. V., 478</li>
+    <li>Chap. VI., 568</li>
+    <li>Chap. VII., 573</li>
+    <li>Chap. VIII., 579</li>
+    <li>Chap. IX., 584</li>
+    <li>Chap. X., <a href="#page746">746</a></li>
+    <li>Chap. XI., <a href="#page750">750</a></li>
+    <li>Chap. XII., <a href="#page752">752</a></li>
+    <li>Chap. XIII., <a href="#page755">755</a></li>
+    <li>Chap. XIV. <a href="#page759">759</a>.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Anti-Corn Law League, failure of the, 6.</li>
+  <li>Antique at Paris, the, from Schiller, 312.</li>
+  <li>Antique, the, to the Northern Wanderer, 312.</li>
+  <li>Aristocracies of London life, the, 67
+  <ul>
+    <li>the aristocracy of fashion, 68</li>
+    <li>of power, 227</li>
+    <li>of talent, 386.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Arnold's lectures on history, review of, 141.</li>
+  <li>Astronomical works, from Schiller, 311.</li>
+  <li>Attorney's Clerk in the Monk's Hood, the, a review of Chatterton, <a href="#page780">780</a>.</li>
+  <li>Auckland, Lord, remarks on his policy in India, 18, 266.</li>
+  <li>Bailey, Mr, his Reply to an Article in Blackwood's Magazine, on Berkeley's Theory of Vision, <a href="#page762">762</a>.</li>
+  <li>Ballads of Schiller, the, see <a href="#index-Schiller">Schiller</a>.</li>
+  <li>Battle, the, from Schiller, 446.</li>
+  <li>Battle of the Blocks, the, 614.</li>
+  <li>Berkeley's Theory of Vision, further remarks on, <a href="#page762">762</a>.</li>
+  <li>Book of the Farm, review of the, 415.</li>
+  <li>Buckingham, the Duke of, his resignation, 5.</li>
+  <li>Burial march of Dundee, the, 537.</li>
+  <li>Burnes, Sir Alexander, murder of, 244.</li>
+  <li>Cabul, Eyre's Narrative of the Operations in, reviewed, 239.</li>
+  <li>Caleb Stukely,
+  <ul>
+    <li>Part X. The Revulsion, 33</li>
+    <li>Part XI. Saints and Sinners, 213</li>
+    <li>Part XII. The Parsonage, 314</li>
+    <li>Part XIII. The Fugitive, 496</li>
+    <li>Part last, Tranquillity, 651.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Candia, the siege of, <a href="#page718">718</a>.</li>
+  <li>Capello, Bianca, history of, 554.</li>
+  <li>Chapters of Turkish History, No. IX, Rise of the Kiuprili family siege of Candia, <a href="#page718">718</a>.</li>
+  <li>Chatterton's Poems, review of, <a href="#page780">780</a>.</li>
+  <li>Chief End of Man, the, from Schiller, 311.</li>
+  <li>China, state of our relations with, at the commencement of 1843, 19
+  <ul>
+    <li>justice of the war with, 20</li>
+    <li>future prospects of, 21.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Claverhouse's Burial March, a poem, 537.</li>
+  <li>Columbus, from Schiller, 312.</li>
+  <li>Commercial Policy in relation to Spain, review of, 673
+  <ul>
+    <li>In relation to Russia, <a href="#page807">807</a>.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Comte, Auguste, review of his Cours de Philosophie Positive, 397.</li>
+  <li>Corn-Law, Sir Robert Peel's alteration in the, defended, 5.</li>
+  <li>Correctness, from Schiller, 310.</li>
+  <li>Count Eberhard the Grumbler, from Schiller, 628.</li>
+  <li>Cromwell and Sir Oliver Cromwell, Imaginary conversation between, 209.</li>
+  <li>Cunningham's Life of Reynolds, strictures on, 596.</li>
+  <li>Curse of Glencoe, the, by B. Simmons, 121.</li>
+  <li>Death of Thomas Hamilton, Esq., 280.</li>
+  <li>Delta, the Lost Lamb, by, 395.</li>
+  <li>Disturbances in the manufacturing districts, the, 11.</li>
+  <li>Division of Ranks, the, from Schiller, 311.</li>
+  <li>Dream of Lord Nithsdale, the, by Charles Mackay, 83.</li>
+  <li>Dumas' Travels in Italy, review of, 552.</li>
+  <li>Dundee, the burial march of, 537.</li>
+  <li>East and South of Europe, the, 101.<span class="newpage"><a name="page828" id="page828" title="828"></a></span></li>
+  <li>Eberhard of Wurtemberg, from Schiller, 628.</li>
+  <li>El Empecinado, passage in the career of, 343.</li>
+  <li>Ellenborough, Lord, policy of, in India, 18
+  <ul>
+    <li>his policy with regard to Affghanistan, 266</li>
+    <li>his proclamation on evacuating the country, 276</li>
+    <li>defended against the charges of the Whigs, 539.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Elysium, from Schiller, 628.</li>
+  <li>Europe, the east and south of, 101.</li>
+  <li>Evacuation of Affghanistan, the, 266.</li>
+  <li>Expectation and Fulfilment, from Schiller, 439.</li>
+  <li>Eyre's narrative of the events in Cabul, review of, 239.</li>
+  <li>Fantasia to Laura, from Schiller, 638.</li>
+  <li>Favour of the moment, the, from Schiller, 438.</li>
+  <li>Fight with the dragon, the, from Schiller, 175.</li>
+  <li>Financial position of Great Britain at the close of 1842, 6.</li>
+  <li>Florence, sketches of, 561.</li>
+  <li>Flowers, from Schiller, 445.</li>
+  <li>Foreign affairs, aspect of, at the commencement of 1843, 15.</li>
+  <li>Fortune and Wisdom, from Schiller, 631.</li>
+  <li>Fortune-Favoured, the, from Schiller, 439.</li>
+  <li>Founding of the Bell, the, by Charles Mackay, 462.</li>
+  <li>Funeral phantasie, from Schiller, 626.</li>
+  <li>Genius, from Schiller, 310.</li>
+  <li>Gentility-mongering, on, 379.</li>
+  <li>Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield illustrated, review of, <a href="#page771">771</a>.</li>
+  <li>Good and the Beautiful, the, from Schiller, 309.</li>
+  <li>Great Britain at the commencement of 1843, 1
+  <ul>
+    <li>her position on the meeting of parliament, 5</li>
+    <li>financial state, 7</li>
+    <li>aspect of domestic affairs, 14</li>
+    <li>and of foreign relations, 15</li>
+    <li>state of her Indian empire, 18</li>
+    <li>and of affairs in China, 19.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Group in Tartarus, a, from Schiller, 627.</li>
+  <li>Hamilton, Thomas, Esq., death of, 280.</li>
+  <li>Hector and Andromache, from Schiller, 441.</li>
+  <li>History, Arnold's Lectures on, reviewed, 141.</li>
+  <li>Honour to Woman, from Schiller, 173.</li>
+  <li>Ideal, the, from Schiller, 433.</li>
+  <li>Ideal and the Actual Life, the, from Schiller, 435.</li>
+  <li>Ignacio Guerra and El Sangrador, a tale of civil war, <a href="#page791">791</a>.</li>
+  <li>Imaginary Conversations,
+  <ul>
+    <li>by Walter Savage Landor
+      <ul>
+        <li>between Tasso and Cornelia, 62</li>
+        <li>between Cromwell and Sir Oliver Cromwell, 209</li>
+        <li>between Sandt and Kotzebue, 338;</li>
+      </ul></li>
+    <li>by Edward Quillinan
+      <ul>
+        <li>between W.S. Landor and Christopher North, 518.</li>
+      </ul></li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Imitator, the, from Schiller, 310.</li>
+  <li>Income Tax, discussion on the, 7
+  <ul>
+    <li>remarks on, 8</li>
+    <li>causes which led to its imposition, 10.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Infanticide, the, from Schiller, 631.</li>
+  <li>Ireland, state of, at the commencement of 1843, 14.</li>
+  <li>Italy, Dumas' travels in, reviewed, 552.</li>
+  <li>Jeweller's Wife, the, a passage in the career of El Empecinado, 343.</li>
+  <li>Jove to Hercules, from Schiller, 311.</li>
+  <li>Khelat, occupation of, by the British, 274.</li>
+  <li>Khoord Cabul pass, retreat of the British through the, 262.</li>
+  <li>Kiuprili Family, rise of the, a chapter in Turkish history, <a href="#page718">718</a>.</li>
+  <li>Landor, Walter Savage, Imaginary Conversations by
+  <ul>
+    <li>between Tasso and Cornelia, 62</li>
+    <li>Cromwell and Sir Oliver Cromwell, 209</li>
+    <li>Sandt and Kotzebue, 338</li>
+    <li>lines by, 337</li>
+    <li>Imaginary conversation between, and Christopher North, 518.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Last of the Shepherds, the,
+  <ul>
+    <li>Chap. I., 447</li>
+    <li>Chap. II., 449</li>
+    <li>Chap. III., 451</li>
+    <li>Chap. IV., 453</li>
+    <li>Chap. V., 455</li>
+    <li>Chap. VI., 458</li>
+    <li>Chap. VII., 460.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Lay of the Bell, the, from Schiller, 302.</li>
+  <li>Leap Year, a tale,
+  <ul>
+    <li>Chap. I., 603</li>
+    <li>Chap. II., 606</li>
+    <li>Chap. III., 611.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Lesurques, or the victim of Judicial error,
+  <ul>
+    <li>Chap. I., the four guests, 24</li>
+    <li>Chap. II., the four horsemen, 25</li>
+    <li>Chap. III., the robbery and murder, ib.</li>
+    <li>Chap. IV., the arrest, 26</li>
+    <li>Chap. V., the trial, 28</li>
+    <li>Chap. VI., the execution, 30</li>
+    <li>Chap. VII., the proofs, ib.</li>
+    <li>Chap. VIII., the way in which France rectifies an error, 32.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>London, the world of, see <a href="#index-World">World</a>.</li>
+  <li>Londonderry, the Marquis of, review of his steam voyage to Constantinople, &amp;c., 101.</li>
+  <li>Lost Lamb, the, by Delta, 295.</li>
+  <li>Love's Triumph, from Schiller, 635.</li>
+  <li>Mackay, Charles, dream of Lord Nithsdale, by, 83
+  <ul>
+    <li>Founding of the Bell, by, 462.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Mackenzie, Captain, account of the murder of Macnaghten, by, 257.</li>
+  <li>Macnaghten, Sir William, description of the murder of, 257.</li>
+  <li>Ma&icirc;tre-d'Armes, a passage in the life of a, <a href="#page733">733</a>.</li>
+  <li>Marl&iacute;nski's Ammal&aacute;t Bek, translation of,
+  <ul>
+    <li>Chap. I., 288</li>
+    <li>Chap. II., 296</li>
+    <li>Chap. III., 464</li>
+    <li>Chap. IV., 471</li>
+    <li>Chap. V., 478</li>
+    <li>Chap. VI., 568</li>
+    <li>Chap. VII., 573</li>
+    <li>Chap. VIII., 579</li>
+    <li>Chap. IX., 584</li>
+    <li>Chap. X., <a href="#page746">746</a></li>
+    <li>Chap. XI., <a href="#page750">750</a></li>
+    <li>Chap. XII., <a href="#page752">752</a></li>
+    <li>Chap. XIII., <a href="#page755">755</a></li>
+    <li>Chap. XIV., <a href="#page759">759</a>.</li>
+  </ul><span class="newpage"><a name="page829" id="page829" title="829"></a></span></li>
+  <li><a name="index-Marston" id="index-Marston">Marston</a>; or, the memoirs of a statesman. Part I., <a href="#page693">693</a>.</li>
+  <li>Martyr's Monologue, the, a poem, 125.</li>
+  <li>Master, the, from Schiller, 310.</li>
+  <li>Memorandums of a month's tour in Sicily&mdash;leaving Naples&mdash;steam boatiana, <a href="#page799">799</a>
+  <ul>
+    <li>churches, <a href="#page802">802</a></li>
+    <li>visit to the gardens of the Duke of Serra di Falco, near Palermo, <a href="#page802">ib</a>.</li>
+    <li>the Thunny fishery, <a href="#page804">804</a></li>
+    <li>the fishmarket, <a href="#page805">805</a>.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Merchant, the, from Schiller, 312.</li>
+  <li>Might of Song, from Schiller, 172.</li>
+  <li>Monaco, sketch of the history of, 573.</li>
+  <li>Moralist, to a, from Schiller, 630.</li>
+  <li>Mulready's illustrations to the Vicar of Wakefield, review of, <a href="#page771">771</a>.</li>
+  <li>Music in England, state of, Part I., 127.</li>
+  <li>Mystery of reminiscence, the, from Schiller, 442.</li>
+  <li>Natural history of the salmon and sea-trout, the, 640.</li>
+  <li>Non-intrusion controversy, account of the, 352.</li>
+  <li>Nott, General, movements of, in Cabul, 270.</li>
+  <li>Occupation of Aden, on the, 484.</li>
+  <li>Opium question, the, 22.</li>
+  <li>Parr, natural history of the, 640
+  <ul>
+    <li>its identity with the salmon, 643.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Passage in the life of a Ma&icirc;tre-d'Armes, <a href="#page733">733</a>.</li>
+  <li>Paul de Kockneyisms, by a Cockney, 366
+  <ul>
+    <li>a cit's soir&eacute;e, 373.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Paving Question, the, 614.</li>
+  <li>Peel, Sir Robert, difficulties of his position on his accession to power, 2
+  <ul>
+    <li>errors of his predecessors, 5</li>
+    <li>his alteration in the corn-law, 5</li>
+    <li>his financial policy, 7</li>
+    <li>his tariff, 11.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Philosophy of Dress, the, 230.</li>
+  <li>Poems and Ballads of Schiller. See <a href="#index-Schiller">Schiller</a>.</li>
+  <li>Poetry, the dream of Lord Nithsdale, by Charles Mackay, 83
+  <ul>
+    <li>the curse of Glencoe, by B. Simmons, 121</li>
+    <li>the martyr's monologue, 125</li>
+    <li>the poems and ballads of Schiller,
+    <ul>
+      <li>Part V., 166</li>
+      <li>Part VI., 302</li>
+      <li>Part VII., 433</li>
+      <li>Part VIII., 626</li>
+    </ul></li>
+    <li>the young grey head, 202</li>
+    <li>lines by W.S. Landor, 337</li>
+    <li>the lost lamb, by Delta, 395</li>
+    <li>the founding of the bell, by Charles Mackay, 462</li>
+    <li>sonnet, on viewing my mother's picture, 495</li>
+    <li>the burial march of Dundee, 537</li>
+    <li>the vigil of Venus, <a href="#page715">715</a>.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Poetry of Life, the, from Schiller, 313.</li>
+  <li>Pollock, General, advance of, into Affghanistan, 269.</li>
+  <li>Poor-law, support of the, by the Conservatives, 14.</li>
+  <li>Practice of Agriculture, the, 415.</li>
+  <li>Pretenders to Fashion, on, 234.</li>
+  <li>Quillinan, Edward, imaginary conversation by, between W.S. Landor and Christopher North, 518.</li>
+  <li>Retreat from Cabul, description of the, 261.</li>
+  <li>Reviews,
+  <ul>
+    <li>Londonderry's steam voyage to Constantinople, 101</li>
+    <li>Reynolds's discourses,
+    <ul>
+      <li>Part II., 181</li>
+      <li>conclusion, 589</li>
+    </ul></li>
+    <li>Eyre's Cabul, 239</li>
+    <li>Auguste Comte's cours de philosophie positive, 397</li>
+    <li>Stephens' Book of the Farm, 415</li>
+    <li>Dumas' Travels in Italy, 552</li>
+    <li>Young and Shaw on Salmon and Sea-Trout, 640</li>
+    <li>The Vicar of Wakefield, illustrated by William Mulready, R.A., <a href="#page771">771</a></li>
+    <li>Chatterton's poems, <a href="#page780">780</a>.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Reynolds, Sir Joshua, review of the discourses of, Part II., 181
+  <ul>
+    <li>conclusion, 589</li>
+    <li>defence of, against the aspersions of Allan Cunningham, 496.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Riots in the manufacturing districts, the, 13.</li>
+  <li>Rousseau, from Schiller, 631.</li>
+  <li>Rowley's Poems, review of, <a href="#page780">780</a>.</li>
+  <li>Rudolph of Hapsburg, from Schiller, 169.</li>
+  <li>Russia, commercial policy in reference to, <a href="#page807">807</a>.</li>
+  <li>Russian Literature, remarks on, 281.</li>
+  <li>Salmon, Natural History of the, 640.</li>
+  <li>Sandt and Kotzebue, imaginary conversation between, by Walter Savage Landor, 338</li>
+  <li>Sangrador, El, and Ignacio Guerra, a tale of civil war, <a href="#page791">791</a>.</li>
+  <li><a name="index-Schiller" id="index-Schiller">Schiller</a>, the Poems and Ballads of, translated.
+  <ul>
+    <li>No. V.
+    <ul>
+      <li>The victory-feast, 166</li>
+      <li>Rudolph of Hapsburg, 169</li>
+      <li>the words of error, 171</li>
+      <li>the words of belief, 172</li>
+      <li>the might of song, ib.</li>
+      <li>honour to woman, 173</li>
+      <li>the fight with the dragon, 175</li>
+    </ul>
+    <li>No. VI.
+    <ul>
+      <li>The lay of the bell, 302</li>
+      <li>votive tablets, 309</li>
+      <li>the good and the beautiful, ib.</li>
+      <li>to &mdash;&mdash;, 310</li>
+      <li>genius, ib.</li>
+      <li>correctness, ib.</li>
+      <li>the imitator, ib.</li>
+      <li>the master, ib.</li>
+      <li>to the mystic, ib.</li>
+      <li>astronomical works, 311</li>
+      <li>the division of ranks, ib.</li>
+      <li>theophany, ib.</li>
+      <li>the chief end of man, ib.</li>
+      <li>Ulysses, ib.</li>
+      <li>Jove to Hercules, ib.</li>
+      <li>the sower, 312</li>
+      <li>the merchant, ib.</li>
+      <li>Columbus, ib.</li>
+      <li>the antique to the northern wanderer, ib.</li>
+      <li>the antique at Paris, ib.</li>
+      <li>the poetry of life, 313</li>
+    </ul></li>
+    <li>No. VII.
+    <ul>
+      <li>The ideal, 433</li>
+      <li>the ideal and the actual life, 435</li>
+      <li>the favour of the moment, 438</li>
+      <li>expectation and fulfilment, 439</li>
+      <li>to the proselyte maker, ib.</li>
+      <li>value and worth, ib.</li>
+      <li>the fortune-favoured, ib.</li>
+      <li>Poems of the first period, introductory remarks on them, 441</li>
+      <li>Hector and Andromache, ib.</li>
+      <li>to Laura, the mystery of reminiscence, 442</li>
+      <li>to Laura, rapture, ib.</li>
+      <li>to Laura, playing, 444</li>
+      <li>flowers, 445</li>
+      <li>the battle, ib.</li>
+    </ul></li>
+    <li>No. VIII.
+    <ul>
+      <li>A funeral fantasie, 626<span class="newpage"><a name="page830" id="page830" title="830"></a></span></li>
+      <li>a group in Tartarus, 627</li>
+      <li>Elysium, 628</li>
+      <li>Count Eberhard, the grumbler, of Wurtemberg, ib.</li>
+      <li>to a moralist, 630</li>
+      <li>Rousseau, 631</li>
+      <li>fortune and favour, ib.</li>
+      <li>the infanticide, ib.</li>
+      <li>remarks on it, 634</li>
+      <li>the triumph of love, 635</li>
+      <li>fantasie to Laura, 638</li>
+      <li>to the spring, 639.</li>
+    </ul></li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Scinde, occupation of, by the British, 273.</li>
+  <li>Sea-Trout, natural history of the, 640.</li>
+  <li>Shah Shoojah, death of, 266, <i>note</i>.</li>
+  <li>Shaw, Mr, on sea-trout and salmon, 640.</li>
+  <li>Shaw, Thomas B., translation of Ammal&aacute;t Bek by, introductory remarks, 281
+  <ul>
+    <li>Chap. I., 288</li>
+    <li>Chap. II., 296</li>
+    <li>Chap. III., 464</li>
+    <li>Chap. IV., 471</li>
+    <li>Chap. V., 478</li>
+    <li>Chap. VI., 568</li>
+    <li>Chap. VII., 573</li>
+    <li>Chap. VIII., 579</li>
+    <li>Chap. IX., 584</li>
+    <li>Chap. X., <a href="#page746">746</a></li>
+    <li>Chap. XI., <a href="#page750">750</a></li>
+    <li>Chap. XII., <a href="#page752">752</a></li>
+    <li>Chap. XIII., <a href="#page755">755</a></li>
+    <li>Chap. XIV., <a href="#page759">759</a>.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Shepherds, last of the, a tale,
+  <ul>
+    <li>Chap. I., 447</li>
+    <li>Chap. II., 449</li>
+    <li>Chap. III., 451</li>
+    <li>Chap. IV., 453</li>
+    <li>Chap. V., 455</li>
+    <li>Chap. VI., 458</li>
+    <li>Chap. VII., 460.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Sicily, memorandum of a month's tour in, leaving Naples, steam-boatiana, <a href="#page799">799</a>
+  <ul>
+    <li>churches, <a href="#page802">802</a></li>
+    <li>visit to the garden of the Duke of Serra di Falco, near Palermo, <a href="#page802">ib</a>.</li>
+    <li>the Thunny fishery, <a href="#page804">804</a></li>
+    <li>the fishmarket, <a href="#page805">805</a>.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Siege of Candia, the, <a href="#page718">718</a>.</li>
+  <li>Simmons, B., the curse of Glencoe, by, 121.</li>
+  <li>Song of the bell, the, from Schiller, 302.</li>
+  <li>Sonnet, by the author of the Life of Burke, 495.</li>
+  <li>Sower, the, from Schiller, 312.</li>
+  <li>Spain, commercial policy of Great Britain towards, 673.</li>
+  <li>Spring, address to, from Schiller, 639.</li>
+  <li>Statesman, memoirs of a, see <a href="#index-Marston">Marston</a>.</li>
+  <li>Stephens' Book of the Farm, review of, 415.</li>
+  <li>Tale of a Tub, the, an additional chapter, how Jack ran mad a second time, 352.</li>
+  <li>Tariff, reconstruction of the, difficulty of the task, 11.</li>
+  <li>Tasso and Cornelia, imaginary conversation between, by Walter Savage Landor, 62.</li>
+  <li>Taste and Music in England, state of, Part. I., 127.</li>
+  <li>Theophany, from Schiller, 311.</li>
+  <li>Thunny fishery, the, <a href="#page804">804</a>.</li>
+  <li>To &mdash;&mdash;, from Schiller, 310.</li>
+  <li>To Laura, the mystery of reminiscence, from Schiller, 442.</li>
+  <li>To Laura, rapture, from Schiller, 443.</li>
+  <li>To Laura, playing, from Schiller, 444.</li>
+  <li>To a Moralist, from Schiller, 630.</li>
+  <li>To the Mystic, from Schiller, 310.</li>
+  <li>To the Proselyte-maker, from Schiller, 439.</li>
+  <li>To the Spring, from Schiller, 639.</li>
+  <li>Triumph of Love, the, from Schiller, 635.</li>
+  <li>Turkish History, chapters of; No. IX. rise of the Kiuprili family siege of Candia, <a href="#page718">718</a>.</li>
+  <li>Two Hours of Mystery, a tale,
+  <ul>
+    <li>Chap. I., 85</li>
+    <li>Chap. II., 89</li>
+    <li>Chap. III., 93.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Ulysses, from Schiller, 311.</li>
+  <li>Value and Worth, from Schiller, 439.</li>
+  <li>Vicar of Wakefield illustrated, review of, <a href="#page771">771</a>.</li>
+  <li>Victory Feast, the, from Schiller, 166.</li>
+  <li>Vigil of Venus, the, translated from the Latin, <a href="#page715">715</a>.</li>
+  <li>Votive Tablets, from Schiller, 309.</li>
+  <li>Whigs, the, and Lord Ellenborough, 539.</li>
+  <li>Wood Paving, remarks on, 614.</li>
+  <li>Words of Error, the, from Schiller, 171
+  <ul>
+    <li>and of belief, 172.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li><a name="index-World" id="index-World">World</a> of London, 2d series.
+  <ul>
+    <li>Part I.
+    <ul>
+      <li>Aristocracies of London life, 67</li>
+      <li>the aristocracy of fashion, 68</li>
+    </ul></li>
+    <li>Part II.
+    <ul>
+      <li>Concerning slow fellows, 225</li>
+      <li>the aristocracy of power, 227</li>
+      <li>the philosophy of dress, 230</li>
+      <li>pretenders to fashion, 234</li>
+    </ul></li>
+    <li>Part III.
+    <ul>
+      <li>Aristocracies of London life continued, of gentility-mongering, 379</li>
+      <li>the aristocracy of talent, 386.</li>
+    </ul></li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Young, Mr, on grilse and salmon, review of, 640.</li>
+  <li>Young grey head, the, a poem, 202.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<hr class="full">
+
+<h2>END OF VOL. LIII.</h2>
+
+<hr class="full">
+
+<center><i>Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne and Hughes, Paul's Work.</i></center>
+
+<hr class="full">
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No.
+CCCXXXII., by Various
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diff --git a/old/12511.txt b/old/12511.txt
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+Project Gutenberg's Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXII., 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, No. CCCXXXII.
+       June, 1843.,Vol. LIII.
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: June 4, 2004 [EBook #12511]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jon Ingram, Brendan O'Connor and PG Distributed
+Proofreaders. Produced from page images provided by The Internet
+Library of Early Journals.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE
+
+NO. CCCXXXII.   JUNE, 1843.   VOL. LIII.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+    MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN
+    THE VIGIL OF VENUS. TRANSLATION FROM THE LATIN
+    CHAPTERS OF TURKISH HISTORY. RISE OF THE KIUPRILI FAMILY
+        SIEGE OF CANDIA.--NO. IX.
+    A PASSAGE IN THE LIFE OF A MAITRE-D'ARMES
+    AMMALAT BEK. A TRUE TALE OF THE CAUCASUS, FROM THE
+        RUSSIAN OF MARLINSKI.--CONCLUSION
+    MR BAILEY'S REPLY TO AN ARTICLE IN BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE
+    THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD. ILLUSTRATED BY MULREADY
+    THE ATTORNEY'S CLERK IN THE MONK'S HOOD
+    IGNACIO GUERRA AND EL SANGRADOR; A TALE OF CIVIL WAR
+    MEMORANDUMS OF A MONTH'S TOUR IN SICILY
+    COMMERCIAL POLICY--RUSSIA
+    INDEX
+
+
+
+
+MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN.
+
+PART I.
+
+
+   "Have I not in my time heard lions roar?
+    Have I not heard the sea, puft up with wind,
+    Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat?
+    Have I not heard great ordnance in the field,
+    And heaven's artillery thunder in the skies?
+    Have I not in the pitched battle heard
+    Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets clang?"
+                                                    SHAKSPEARE
+
+
+Why I give the world a sketch of my career through it, is not among the
+discoveries which I intend to make. I have been a public man; let those
+who know public life imagine what interest may be felt in reviewing the
+scenes and struggles of which such a life is full. May there not be a
+pleasure in conceiving once again the shapes and circumstances of
+things, as one sitting by his fireside sees castles and cottages, men,
+women, and children in the embers, and shapes them the better for the
+silence and the solitude round him? Let the reader take what reason he
+will. I have seen the world, and fought my way through it; have
+stumbled, like greater men, have risen, like lesser; have been flung
+into the most rapid current of the most hurried, wild, and vivid time
+that the world has ever seen--I have _lived_ through the last fifty
+years. In all the vigour of my life, I have mingled in some of the
+greatest transactions, and been mingled with some of the greatest men,
+of my time. Like one who has tumbled down Niagara, and survived the
+fall, though I have reached still water, the roar of the cataract is yet
+in my ears; and I can even survey it with a fuller gaze, and stronger
+sense of its vastness and power, than, when I was rolling down its
+precipice.
+
+I have been soldier, adventurer, traveller, statesman. I have been
+lover, husband, father--poor and opulent; obscure and conspicuous. There
+are few sensations of our nature, or circumstances of our life, which I
+have not undergone. Alternately suffering to the verge of ruin, and
+enjoying like an epicurean deity: I have been steeped in poverty to the
+lips; I have been surcharged with wealth. I have sacrificed, and
+fearfully, to the love of power; I have been disgusted with its
+possession. I figured in the great Babel until I loved even its
+confusion of tongues; I grew weary of it, until I hated the voice of
+man.
+
+Every man is born for a special purpose, and with a special passion. The
+multitude, possessing both, exhibit neither; they are flung, or choose
+to be flung, into the pond, where they float only to perish, like blind
+puppies. But there are others who stem the great tide, and are only the
+stronger for the struggle. From my first sense, the passion to be known
+and felt, nay, at the expense of being feared, was my impulse. It has
+been the impulse of all men who have ever impressed the world. With
+great talents it is all-commanding: the thunderbolt in the hands of
+Jove. Even with inferior faculties, and I make no pretence of mine, it
+singularly excites, urges, and animates. When the prophet saw the
+leopard _winged_, he saw a miracle; I claim for my powers only those of
+the muscle and sinew.
+
+Ambition was the original passion of my nature. It rose before me, as
+the sun ascends before the Indian, until its fire drives him to the
+shade. I, too, have been scorched, have shrunk, and now I regret my
+shrinking. But time deals alike with all. I can now amuse myself only by
+images of the past; and, in the darkness and solitude of years, I take
+their Magic Lantern, and replace life by the strange, wild, and
+high-coloured extravagances, the ghosts and genii of the phantasmagoria
+of ambition.
+
+I was the seventh son of one of the oldest families of England. If I had
+been the seventh son of the seventh son, I should, by all the laws of
+juggling, have been a conjurer; but I was a generation too early for
+fame. My father was an earl, and as proud of his titles as if he had won
+them at Crecy or Poictiers, and not in the campaigns of Westminster,
+consummated on the backstairs of Whitehall. He had served his country,
+as he termed it, in a long succession of Parliaments; and served her
+still more, as his country neighbours termed it, by accepting a peerage,
+which opened the county to any other representative among the sons of
+men. He was a strong-built, stern-countenanced, and haughty-tongued
+personage--by some thought a man of sense; by others a fool, with all
+his depth, arising from his darkness. My own experience convinced me,
+that no man made more of a secret, or thought less of a job. From my
+boyhood I own I feared more than honoured him; and as for love, if I had
+been more susceptible, mine would have flown round the globe before it
+could have fixed on that iron visage. The little love that I could
+afford for any human being, was for another and a different order of
+existence. Boys have a natural fondness for the mother; and mine was
+gentle, timid, and fond. She always parted with me, on my going to
+school, as if she had lost a limb, and when I returned, received me as
+if she had found a pinion in its place. She perhaps spoiled me by
+indulgence, as much as my lord and father spoiled me by severity; but
+indulgence is the pleasanter of the two, and I followed the course of
+nature, and gave her whatever heart I have. I still remember her. She
+was remarkably indebted to nature, at least for externals. She had fine
+eyes--large, dark, and sentimental; her dress, which would now be
+preposterous, seemed to me, then, the perfection of all taste, and was
+in the highest fashion of her time. Her beauty worked miracles; for now
+and then I have observed even my father's eye fixed on her, with
+something of the admiration which we might conceive in an Esquimaux for
+a fixed star, or in an Italian highwayman for some Parian statue which
+he had stumbled on in his thickets. But the admiration was soon absorbed
+in the job in hand, and he turned away--to scribble to the Minister. Of
+the younger portion of the family I shall say but little. Children are
+happiest in the nursery, and there I leave them. I had two sisters,
+sweet little creatures, one with black eyes and the other with blue.
+This is enough for their description. My four brothers were four rough,
+bold, well-looking animals, all intended for ambassadors, admirals,
+generals, and secretaries of state--for my father had too long tasted of
+the honey of official life to think that there was any other food for a
+gentleman in the world. He had been suckled for too many years at those
+breasts, which, like the bosom of the great Egyptian goddess, pour the
+stream of life through whole generations of hangers-on, to believe that
+any other fount of existence was to be named but the civil list. I am
+strongly inclined to surmise that he would have preferred a pencil,
+purloined from the Treasury, to all the cedars of Lebanon.
+
+It may be presumed that I was destined for public life--in other words,
+to live on the public; and, to prepare me for the performance of a part,
+alternately menial and master--supple as the slave, and superb as the
+minister--I was sent to Eton. At this great school of the aristocracy,
+would-be and real--barons and dukes _in esse_, and the herald's office
+alone, or bedlam, knows what _in posse_, I remained for the customary
+number of years. If whoever does me the honour to read these pages,
+hates the history of schooldays as much as I do their memory, he will
+easily pardon my passing by the topic altogether. If the first purpose
+of all great public institutions is to stand still; the great schools of
+England, fifty years ago, were righteous adherents to their contract;
+they never moved. The world might whirl round them as it would; there
+remained the grey milestones, only measuring the speed with which every
+thing on the road passed them. This, they say, has largely and
+fortunately changed in later years. But the change must proceed; the
+venerable cripples must throw by their crutches, and try the effect of
+flesh and blood. Flogging and fagging, are the education for a footman;
+they disgrace the common sense, and offend the feelings of a manly
+people. The pugilist must be expelled, and the puppy must follow him.
+The detestable grossness of classical impurity, must be no longer the
+price at which Latin "quantities" are to be learned. The last lesson of
+the "prodigal son," must not be the first learned by the son of the
+gentleman of England--to be fed on the "husks" fit only for the swine.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On my delighted release from this supreme laboratory of statesmen, I
+found the state of things considerably altered at Mortimer Castle. I had
+left it a stately but rather melancholy-looking household; I found the
+mansion glittering in all the novelty of French furniture, gilding, and
+_or-molu_--crowded with fashion, and all its menial tribe, from the
+groom in the stables to the gentleman's gentleman, who slipped along the
+chambers in soft silence, and seemed an embodying of Etiquette, all in
+new equipments of all kinds--the avenue trimmed, until it resembled a
+theatrical wood; and the grounds, once sober and silent enough for a
+Jacques to escape from the sight of human kind, and hold dialogues with
+the deer; now levelled, opened, shorn, and shaved, with the precision of
+a retired citizen's elysium.
+
+The heads of the family were equally changed; my mother, unhappily, for
+the worse. Her fine eyes beamed with joy as she threw herself upon my
+neck, and murmured some of those mingled blessings and raptures which
+have a language of their own. But when the first flush was past, I
+perceived that the cheek was thin, the eye was hollow and heavy, and the
+tremulous motion of her slight hand, as it lay in mine, alarmed me; in
+all my ignorance of the frailty of the human frame. But the grand change
+was in the Earl. My father, whom I had left rather degenerating into the
+shape which three courses and a bottle of claret a-day inflict on
+country gentlemen "who live at home at ease," was now braced and laced,
+costumed in the newest fashion, and overflowing with exuberant
+volatility. He breathed of Bond Street. He welcomed me with an ardour
+which astonished, more than delighted, me; Talked fragments of French,
+congratulated me on my "_air distingue_," advised me to put myself "_en
+grande tenue_;" and, after enchanting me in all kinds of strange ways,
+concluded by making an attempt to kiss me on both cheeks, like a true
+Frenchman. My Eton recollections enabled me to resist the paternal
+embrace; until the wonder was simplified, by the discovery that the
+family had but just returned from a continental residence of a couple of
+years--a matter of which no letter or word had given me the knowledge at
+my school. My next discovery was, that an old uncle had died, and left
+us money enough to carry the county; and the last and crowning one was,
+that my eldest brother had just been returned for the North Riding.
+
+This was such an accumulation of good-luck as might have thrown any
+elderly gentleman off the balance of his gravity. It was like Philip's
+three plates at the Greek horse-races, crowned by the birth of
+Alexander. If my lordly father had danced the "Minuette de la Cour" over
+the marble tesselation of his own hall, I should now not have been
+surprised. But, from my first sense, or insensibility, I had felt no
+great delight in matters which were to make my own condition neither
+better nor worse; and after a remarkably brief period, the showy
+_dejeunes_ and dinners which commemorated the triumphs of the
+heir-apparent of our house, grew tiresome to me beyond all count, and I
+openly petitioned to be sent to college, or to the world's end.
+
+My petition was listened to with a mixture of contempt for my want of
+taste, and astonishment at my presumption. But before the reply had time
+to burst out from lips, at no time too retentive, I was told, that at
+the end of one week more I should be suffered to take my way; that week
+being devoted to a round of especial entertainments in honour of my
+brother's election; the whole to be wound up by that most preposterous
+of all delights, an amateur play.
+
+To keep a house in commotion, to produce mysterious conversations,
+conferences without number, and confidences without end; and to swell
+maidens' hearts and milliners' bills, let me recommend an amateur play
+in the country. The very mention of it awoke every soul in the Castle;
+caps and complexions were matched, and costumes criticised, from morning
+till night, among the ladies. The "acting drama" was turned over leaf by
+leaf by the gentlemen. The sound of many a heavy tread of many a heavy
+student, was heard in the chambers; the gardens were haunted by "the
+characters" getting their parts; and the poet's burlesque of those who
+"rave, recite, and madden round the land," was realized to the life in
+the histrionic labours of the votaries of Thalia and Melpomene, who
+ranged the groves of Mortimer Castle.
+
+Then we had all the charming difficulty of fixing on the play. The
+dullest and dreariest of our country Rosciuses were uniformly for
+comedy; but the fair sex have a leaning to the tragic muse. We had one
+or two, who would have had no objection to be piquant in Lady Teazle, or
+petulant in Lady Townley; but we had half a dozen Desdemonas and
+Ophelias. The soul of an O'Neil was in every one of our party conscious
+of a pair of good eyes, a tolerable shape, and the captivation which, in
+some way or other, most women in existence contrive to discover in their
+own share of the gifts of nature. At length the votes carried it for
+Romeo and Juliet. The eventful night came; the _elite_ of the county
+poured in, the theatre was crowded; all was expectancy before the
+curtain; all was terror, nervousness, and awkwardness behind. The
+orchestra performed its flourish, and the curtain rose.
+
+To do the heads of the household justice, they had done their duty as
+managers. The theatre, though but a temporary building, projecting from
+the ball-room into one of the gardens, was worthy of the very handsome
+apartment which formed its vestibule. The skill of a famous London
+architect had been exerted on this fairy erection, and Verona itself
+had, perhaps, in its palmiest days, seldom exhibited a display of more
+luxuriant elegance. The audience, too, so totally different from the
+mingled, ill-dressed, and irregular assemblage that fills a city
+theatre; blooming girls and showy matrons, range above range, feathered
+and flowered, glittering with all the family jewels, and all animated by
+the novelty of the scene before them, formed an exhibition which, for
+the night, inspired me with the idea, that (strolling excepted) the
+stage might not be a bad resource for a man of talents, after all.
+
+But the play was--must I confess it? though I myself figured as the
+Romeo--utterly deplorable. The men forgot their parts, and their casual
+attempts to recover them made terrible havoc of the harmony of
+Shakspeare. The ladies lost their voices, and carried on their loves,
+their sorrows, and even their scoldings, in a whisper. Our play
+perfectly deserved the criticism of the old gentleman, who, after a
+similar performance, being asked which of the personages he liked best,
+candidly replied, "the prompter, for of him he had heard the most and
+seen the least."
+
+However, every thing has an end; and we had carried Juliet to the tomb
+of all the Capulets, the chant was done, and the mourners were gathered
+in the green-room. I was standing, book in hand, preparing for the last
+agonies of a love very imperfectly committed to memory, when I heard a
+slight confusion in the court-yard, and shortly after the rattle of a
+post-chaise. The sound subsided, and I was summoned to my post at the
+entrance to the place where the lovely Juliet lay entranced. The
+pasteboard gate gave way to knocks enforced with an energy which called
+down rapturous applause; and in all the tortures of a broken heart,
+rewarded by a profusion of handkerchiefs applied to bright eyes, and a
+strong scent of hartshorn round the house, I summoned my fair bride to
+my arms. There was no reply. I again invoked her; still silent. Her
+trance was evidently of the deepest order. I rose from the ground, where
+I had been "taking the measure of my unmade grave," and approaching the
+bier, ventured to drop a despairing hand upon her pillow. To my utter
+surprise, it was vacant. If I had been another Shakspeare, the situation
+was a fine one for a display of original genius. But I was paralyzed. A
+sense of the general embarrassment was my first impression, and I was
+absolutely struck dumb. But this was soon shaken off. My next was a
+sense of the particular burlesque of my situation; I burst out into
+laughter, in which the whole house joined; and throwing down my mattock,
+rushed off the stage. My theatrical dream was broken up for ever.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+But weightier matters now absorbed the universal interest. The
+disappearance of the heroine from the stage was speedily accounted for
+by her flight in the carriage whose wheels had disturbed my study. But
+where fled, why, and with whom? We now found other defalcations in our
+numbers; the Chevalier Paul Charlatanski, a gallant Polish exile, who
+contrived to pass a very pleasant time on the merit of his misfortunes,
+a man of enormous mustaches and calamities, was also missing. His valet,
+his valise, every atom that ever appertained to him, had vanished; the
+clearance was complete. The confusion now thickened. I never saw the
+master of the mansion in such a rage before. Pistols and post-chaises
+were in instant requisition. He vowed that the honour of his house was
+involved in the transaction, and that nothing should tempt him to
+slumber until he had brought the fugitive fair one to the arms of her
+noble family; my Juliet being the ward of a duke, and being also
+entitled to about twenty thousand pounds a-year on her coming of age.
+
+As for the unlucky, or rather the lucky, Chevalier, nothing human ever
+received a hotter shower of surmise and sarcasm. That he was "an
+impostor, a swindler, a spy," was the Earl's conviction, declared in the
+most public manner. The whole body of matrons looked round on their
+blooming innocents, as if they had been snatched from the jaws of a
+legion of wolves and thanked their own prudence which had not trusted
+those men of mustaches within their hall doors. The blooming innocents
+responded in filial gratitude, and, with whatever sincerity, thanked
+their stars for their fortunate escape.
+
+Still, the Earl's indignation was of so _ultra_ a quality; his revenge
+was so fiery, and his tongue so fluent; that I began to suspect he had
+other motives than the insulted laws of hospitality. I reached this
+discovery, too, in time. The declining health of his partner had made
+him speculate on the chances of survivorship. He certainly was no longer
+young, and he had never been an Adonis. Yet his glass did not altogether
+throw him into the rank of the impracticable. A coronet was a well-known
+charm, which had often compensated for every other; in short, he had
+quietly theorized himself into the future husband of the ducal ward; and
+felt on this occasion as an Earl should, plundered, before his face, of
+a clear twenty thousand a-year.
+
+But he was not to suffer alone. On further enquiry, it was ascertained
+that the chevalier's valet had not gone with him. This fellow, a
+Frenchman, had taken wing in another direction, and carried off his
+turtle-dove, too; not one of the full-blown roses of the servant's-hall,
+but a rosebud, the daughter of one of the bulkiest squires of the
+Riding; a man of countless beeves and blunders; one of our Yorkshire
+Nimrods, "a mighty hunter," until club dinners and home-brewed ale tied
+him to his arm-chair, and gout made him a man of peace and flannels, the
+best thriven weed in the swamps of Yorkshire. The young lady had been
+intended for my eldest brother, as a convenient medium of connexion
+between two estates, palpably made for matrimony. Thus we received two
+mortal blows in one evening; never was family pilfered more
+ignominiously; never was amateur play more peevishly catastrophized.
+
+It must be owned, to the credit of "private theatricals," that the play
+had no slight share in the plot. The easy intercourse produced by
+rehearsals, the getting of tender speeches by heart, the pretty
+personalities and allusions growing out of those speeches, the ramblings
+through shades and rose-twined parterres, the raptures and romance, all
+tend prodigiously to take off the alarm, or instruct the inexperience,
+of the female heart. I know no more certain cure for the rigidity that
+is supposed to be a barrier. At all events, the Chevalier and his valet,
+probably both footmen, alike had profited of their opportunity. Our play
+had cost us two elopements; two shots between wind and water, which
+threatened to send the ship down; two breakings of that heart which men
+carry in their purse. I laughed, and the world laughed also. But I was
+then thoughtless, and the world is malicious. My father and the member,
+though they had "never told their love," felt the blow "like a worm in
+the bud," and from that night I date the family decline.
+
+Of course, the two whiskered vagabonds could not be suffered to carry
+off their laurels without an attempt to diminish them, and my father and
+brother were too much in earnest in their objects to lose time. In half
+an hour, four post-horses to each britchska whirled them off;--my
+father, to take the northern road, some hints of Gretna having
+transpired in the slipshod secrecy of the servants' hall--my brother, to
+pursue on the Dover road, conjecturing, with more sagacity than I had
+given him credit for, that as the fox runs round to his earth, the
+Frenchman always speeds for Paris.
+
+The company soon dispersed, after having stayed long enough to glean all
+that they could of the family misfortune, and fix appointments for every
+day in the week to meet each other, and make the most of the whole
+transaction. But still a tolerable number of the steadier hands
+remained, who, to show their sympathy with us, resolved not to separate
+until they received tidings of his lordship's success. I was voted to
+the head of the table, more claret was ordered, the wreck of the general
+supper was cleared for one of a snugger kind; and we drew our chairs
+together. Toast followed toast, and all became communicative. Family
+histories, not excepting our own, were now discussed, with a confidence
+new to my boyish conjectures. Charlatanski's career abroad and at home
+seemed to be as well known as if he had been pilloried in the county
+town; the infinite absurdity of the noble duke who suffered him to make
+his way under his roof, and the palpable _penchant_ of his ward, next
+underwent discussion; until the ignorance of my noble father on the
+subject, gave, with me, the death-blow to his penetration. The
+prettinesses which had won the primrose heart of my brother's intended
+spouse, I found were equally notorious; the Earl's project was as plain
+as if he had pronounced it _viva voce_; and before we parted for the
+night, which did not occur until the sun was blazing through the
+curtains of our banqueting room, I had made up my mind, once for all,
+that neither character nor cunning can be concealed in this world; that
+the craftiest impostor is but a clumsier kind of clown; and that the
+most dexterous disguise is but a waste of time.
+
+I must hasten to the _denouement_. Our excellent friends indulged us
+with their company, and bored us with their society for a mortal week.
+But, as Sterne says of the sentimental traveller, scenes of sentiment
+are always exhibiting themselves to an appetite eager for knowing what
+the world is doing; the knowledge was contributed with a copiousness
+which left nothing to learn, and but little to desire. Our guests were
+of that class which usually fills the houses of noblemen, in the
+annihilation of life in town; clubmen, to whom St James's Street was the
+terraqueous globe; guardsmen, on leave of absence for the shooting
+season, and saturated with London; several older exhibitors in the
+fashionable circles, who as naturally followed where young guardsmen and
+wealthy squires were to be found, as flies wing to the honey on which
+they live; and two or three of the most opulent and dullest baronets who
+ever played whist and billiards, for the advantage of losing guinea
+points to gentlemen more accomplished in the science of chances.
+
+At length, on the sixth day, when I really began to feel anxious, an
+express announced that his lordship had arrived at a village, about
+fifty miles off, on his way home, wounded, and in great danger. I
+instantly broke up the convivial party, and set out to see him. To the
+imagination of a boy, as I was then, nothing could be more startling
+than the aspect of the habitation which now held the haughty Earl of
+Mortimer. After passing through a variety of dungeon-like rooms, for the
+house had once been a workhouse, or something of the kind, I was ushered
+into the chamber where the patient lay. The village doctor, and one or
+two of the wise people of the neighbourhood, who thought it their duty
+to visit a stranger, that stranger being a man of rank, were standing
+by; and the long faces of those persons, seconded by the professional
+shake of the doctor's head, told me, that they at least had no hope. It
+was not so with the sufferer himself, for he talked as largely and
+loftily of what he was to do within the next ten years, as if he was to
+survive the century. He still breathed rage and retribution against the
+Chevalier, and actually seemed to regard the lady's choice as a
+particular infraction of personal claims. He had pursued the fugitives
+day and night, until the pursuit threw him into a kind of fever. While
+under this paroxysm he had met the enamoured pair, but it was on their
+way from that forge on the Border where so many heavy chains have been
+manufactured. Useless as challenging was now, he challenged the husband.
+The parties met, and my father received a bullet in his body, while he
+had the satisfaction of lodging one in his antagonist's knee-pan. The
+Chevalier was doomed to waltz no more. But his bullet was fatal.
+
+As I looked round the wretched chamber in which this bold, arrogant, and
+busy spirit was evidently about to breathe its last, Pope's lines on the
+most splendid _roue_ of his day involuntarily and painfully shot across
+my recollection:--
+
+   "In the worst inn's worst room, with mat half hung,
+    The walls of plaster, and the floor of dung;
+    The George and Garter dangling from the bed,
+    Where tawdry yellow strove with dirty red,
+    Great Villiers lies; alas, how changed from him
+    The glass of fashion!"
+
+I say no more of those scenes; a few days, only enough to collect the
+branches of the family round the bed, terminated every thing. Grief,
+they say, cannot exist where there is no love, but I was not inclined,
+just then, to draw subtle distinctions. I was grieved; and paid the last
+duties, without blame to myself, or, I hope, irreverence in the sight of
+others. The funeral was stately, and all was over.
+
+Matters now took a new shape at the castle. My brother returned, to find
+himself its possessor. His journey had been equally unproductive with my
+unfortunate father's. By dint of bribing the postilions, he had even
+overpassed the fugitives on the Dover road. But, as he stopped to dine
+in Canterbury, where he had prepared a posse of constables for their
+reception, he had, unluckily, been accosted by an old London
+acquaintance, who had accidentally fixed his quarters there for a day or
+two, "seeking whom he might devour." The dinner was followed by a
+carouse, the carouse by a "quiet game," or games, which lasted till the
+next day; and when my brother rose, with the glow of a superb sunset
+giving him the first intimation that he was among the living, he made
+the discovery that he was stripped of the last shilling of five hundred
+pounds, and that the Frenchman and his prize had quietly changed horses
+at the same hotel half a dozen hours before.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The young forget quickly, but they feel keenly. The event which I had
+just witnessed threw a shade over me, which, in the want of any vigorous
+occupation, began to affect my health. I abjured the sports of the
+field, for which, indeed, I had never felt much liking. I rambled
+through the woods in a kind of dreamy idleness of mind, which took but
+little note of any thing, time included. As mendicants sell tapes and
+matches to escape the imputation of mendicancy, I carried a pencil and
+portfolio, and seemed to be sketching venerable oaks and patches of the
+picturesque, while my mind was wandering from Line to Pole. But in this
+earth no one can be singular with impunity. The gentlemen were
+"convinced" that my meditations were heavy with unpaid college bills;
+and the ladies, from high to low, from "Tilburina, mad in white satin,"
+to her "confidant, mad in white linen," were all of opinion that some
+one among their peerless selves had destroyed the "five wits of young Mr
+Marston." I could have fallen on them with a two-handed sword; but as
+the massacre of the sex was not then in my power, I had only to escape.
+
+There were higher matters to move me. Clouds were gathering on the
+world; the times were fitful; the air was thick with rumours from
+abroad; the sleep of the Continent was breaking up, and Europe lay in
+the anxious and strange expectancy in which some great city might see
+the signs of a coming earthquake, without the power of ascertaining at
+what moment, or from what quarter, its foundations were to be flung up
+in sight of the sun.--We were then in the first stage of the French
+Revolution!
+
+I resolved to linger and be libelled no more; and being ushered, by
+appointment, into the library--for the new master was already all
+etiquette--I promptly stated my wishes, and demanded my portion, to try
+my fortune in the world.
+
+Our conference, if it had but little of the graces of diplomacy, had
+much more than its usual decision. It was abrupt and unhesitating. My
+demand had evidently taken his "lordship" by surprise. He started from
+the magisterial chair, in which he was yet to awe so many successions of
+rustic functionaries, and with a flushed cheek asked "Whether I was
+lunatic, or supposed him to be so?"
+
+"Neither the one nor the other," was my answer. "But, to waste life here
+is out of the question. I demand the means of entering a profession."
+
+"Are you aware, sir, that our interest is lost since the last change of
+ministers? that my estate is loaded with encumbrances? that every
+profession is overstocked? and what can you do in the crowd?"
+
+"What others have done--what I should do in a crowd in the streets--push
+some aside, get before others; if made way for, be civil; if resisted,
+trample; it has been the history of thousands, why not mine?"
+
+The doctrine was as new to this son of indulgence, as if I had
+propounded the philosopher's stone. But his courage was exhausted by a
+controversy perhaps longer than he had ever ventured on before. He
+walked to the glass, adjusted his raven ringlets, and having refreshed
+his spirits with the contemplation, enquired, with a smile which made
+the nearest possible approach to a sneer, whether I had any thing more
+to say?
+
+I had more, and of the kind that least suited his feelings. I demanded
+"my property."
+
+The effect of those two words was electrical. The apathy of the
+exquisite was at an end, and in a voice of the most indignant
+displeasure, he rapidly demanded whether I expected money to fall from
+the moon? whether I was not aware of the expense of keeping up the
+castle? whether I supposed that my mother's jointure and my sisters'
+portions could ever be paid without dipping the rent-roll deeper still?
+and, after various and bitter expostulation, "What right had I to
+suppose that I was worth the smallest coin of the realm, except by his
+bounty?"
+
+One query answered them all. "My lord, is it not true that I am entitled
+to five thousand pounds?"
+
+"Five thousand ----?" what word was to fill up the interval I can only
+guess. But the first lesson which a man learns at the clubs is, to
+control his temper when its display is not likely to be attended with
+effect. He saw that I stood his gaze with but few symptoms of giving
+way, and he changed his tactics with an adroitness that did honour to
+his training. Approaching me, he held out his hand. "Charles, why should
+_we_ quarrel about trifles? I was really not acquainted with the
+circumstance to which you allude, but I shall look into it without
+delay. Pray, can you tell me the when, the where, the how?"
+
+"Your questions may be easily answered. The _when_ was at the death of
+our uncle, the _where_ was in his will, and the _how_--in any way your
+lordship pleases." The truce was now made; he begged of me, "as I valued
+_his_ feelings," to drop the formality of his title, to regard him
+simply as a brother, and to rely on his wish to forward every object
+that might gratify my inclination.
+
+Our conference broke up. He galloped to a neighbouring horse-race. I
+went to take a solitary ramble through the Park.
+
+The hour and the scene were what the poet pronounces "fit to cure all
+sadness but despair." Noble old trees, the "roof star-proof" overhead,
+the cool velvet grass under the feet--glimpses of sunlight striking
+through the trunks--the freshened air coming in gusts across the lake,
+like new life, bathing my burning forehead and feverish hands--the whole
+unrivalled sweetness of the English landscape softened and subdued me.
+Those effects are so common, that I can claim no credit for their
+operation on my mind; and, before I had gone far, I was on the point of
+returning, if not to recant, at least to palliate the harshness of my
+appeal to fraternal justice.
+
+But, by this time I had reached a rising ground which commanded a large
+extent of the surrounding country. The evening was one of those
+magnificent closes of the year, which, like a final scene in a theatre,
+seems intended to comprehend all the beauties and brilliancies of the
+past. The western sky was a blaze of all colours, and all pouring over
+the succession of forest, cultured field, and mountain top, which make
+the English view, if not the most sublime, the most touching of the
+earth!
+
+But as I stood on the hill, gazing round to enjoy every shape and shade
+at leisure, my eye turned on the Castle. It spoiled all my serenity at
+once. I felt that it was a spot from which I was excluded by nature;
+that it belonged to others so wholly, that scarcely by any conceivable
+chance could it ever be mine; and that I could remain within its walls
+no longer, but with a sense of uselessness and shame.
+
+If I could have taken staff in hand and pack on shoulder, I would have
+started at that moment on a pilgrimage that might have circled the
+globe. But the most fiery resolution must submit to circumstances. One
+night more, at least, I must sleep under the paternal roof, and I was
+hastening home, brooding over bitter thoughts, when I suddenly rushed
+against some one whom I nearly overthrew.--"Bless me, Mr Marston, is it
+you?"--told me that I had run down my old tutor, Mr Vincent, the parson
+of the parish. He had been returning from visiting some of his flock,
+and in the exercise of the vocation which he had just been fulfilling,
+he saw that something went ill with me, and taking my arm, forced me to
+go home with him, for such comfort as he could give.
+
+Parsons, above all men, are the better for wives and families; for,
+without them, they are wonderfully apt to grow saturnine or stupid. Of
+course there are exceptions. Vincent had a wife not much younger than
+himself, to whom he always spoke with the courtiership of a _preux
+chevalier_. A portrait of her in her bridal dress, showed that she had
+been a pretty brunette in her youth; and her husband still evidently
+gave her credit for all that she had been. They had, as is generally the
+fate of the clergy, a superfluity of daughters, four or five I think,
+creatures as thoughtless and innocent as their own poultry, or their own
+pet-sheep. But all round their little vicarage was so pure, so quiet,
+and so neat--there was such an aspect of order and even of elegance,
+however inexpensive, that its contrast with the glaring and restless
+tumult of the "great house" was irresistible. I never had so full a
+practical understanding of the world's "pomps and vanities," as while
+looking at the trimmings and trelisses of the parson's dwelling.
+
+I acknowledge myself a worldling, but I suppose that all is not lead or
+iron within me, from my sense of scenes like this. In my wildest hour,
+the sight of fields and gardens has been a kind of febrifuge to me--has
+conveyed a feeling of tranquillity to my mind; as if it drank the
+silence and the freshness, as the flowers drink the dew. I have often
+thus experienced a sudden soothing, which checked the hot current of my
+follies or frenzies, and made me think that there were better things
+than the baubles of cabinets. But it did not last long.
+
+I mention this evening, because it decided my future life; or at least
+the boldest, and perhaps the best portion of it. We had an hour or two
+of the little variations of placid amusement which belong to all
+parsonages in romances, but which here were reality; easy conversation
+on the events of the county; a little political talking with the vicar;
+a few details of persons and fashions at the castle, to which the ladies
+listened as Desdemona might have listened to Othello's history--for the
+Castle was so seldom visited by them, that it had almost the air of a
+Castle of Otranto, and they evidently thought that its frowning towers
+and gilded halls belonged to another race, if not to another region of
+existence; we had, too, some of the last new songs, (at least half a
+century old, but which were not the less touching,) and a duet of
+Geminiani, performed by the two elder proficients on a spinet which
+might have been among the "chamber music" of the Virgin Queen; all
+slight matters to speak of, and yet which contributed to the quietude of
+a mind longing for rest--sights of innocence and sounds of peace, which,
+like the poet's music--
+
+   "Might take the prison'd soul
+    And wrap it in Elysium."
+
+The moon shining in through panes covered with honeysuckle and fragrance
+of all kinds, at length warned me that I was intruding on a household
+primitive in their hours, as in every thing else, and I rose to take my
+leave. But I could not be altogether parted with yet. It seems that they
+had found me a most amusing guest; while, to my own conception, I had
+been singularly spiritless; but the little anecdotes which were trite to
+me had been novelties to them. Fashion has a charm even for
+philosophers; and the freaks and follies of the high-toned sons and
+daughters of fashion--who wore down my gentle mother's frame, drained my
+showy father's rental, and made even myself loathe the sight of loaded
+barouches coming to discharge their cargoes of beaux and belles on us
+for weeks together--were nectar and ambrosia to my sportive and
+rosy-cheeked audience. The five girls put on their bonnets, and looking
+like a group of Titania and her nymphs, as they bounded along in the
+moonlight, escorted us to the boundary of the vicar's territory.
+
+We were about to separate, with all the pretty formalities of village
+leave-taking; when their father, in the act of shaking hands with me,
+fixed his eye on mine, and insisted on seeing me home. Whether the
+thought occurred to him that I had still something on my mind, which was
+not to be trusted within sight of a brook that formed the boundary to
+the Castle grounds, I know not, but I complied; the girls were sent
+homewards, and I heard their gay voices mingling, at a distance, and not
+unsuitably, with the songs of the nightingale.
+
+I took his arm, and we walked on for a while in silence. At length,
+slackening his pace, and speaking in a tone whose earnestness struck me,
+"Charles," said he, "has any thing peculiarly painful lately happened to
+you?--if so, speak out. I know your nature to be above disguise; and
+with whom can you repose your vexations, if such there be, more safely
+than with your old tutor?"
+
+I was taken unawares; and not having yet formed a distinct conception of
+my own grievances, promptly denied that I had any.
+
+"It may be so," said my friend; "and yet once or twice this evening I
+saw your cheek alternately flush and grow pale, with a suddenness that
+alarmed me for your health. In one of your pleasantest stories, while
+you were acting the narrative with a liveliness evidently unconscious,
+and giving me and mine a treat which we have not had for a long time, I
+observed your voice falter, as if some spasm of soul had shot across
+you; and I unquestionably saw, that rare sight in the eyes of man, a
+tear."
+
+I denied this instance of weakness stoutly; but the old man's
+importunities prevailed, and, by degrees, I told him, or rather his
+good-natured cross-examination moulded for me, a statement of my
+anxieties at home.
+
+The Vicar, with all his simplicity of manner, was a man of powerful and
+practical understanding. He had been an eminent scholar at his
+university, and was in a fair way for all its distinctions, when he
+thought proper to fall desperately in love. This, of course, demolished
+his prospects at once. I never heard his subsequent history in detail;
+but he had left England, and undergone a long period of disheartening
+and distress. Whether he had not, in those times of desolation, taken
+service in the Austrian army, and even shared some of its Turkish
+campaigns, was a question which I heard once or twice started at the
+Castle; and a slight contraction of the arm, and a rather significant
+scar which crossed his bold forehead, had been set down to the account
+of the Osmanli cimeter.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Vincent had never told the story of either, but a rumour reached his
+college of his having been seen in the Austrian uniform on the
+Transylvanian frontier, during the campaigns of the Prince of Coburg and
+Laudohn against the Turks. It was singular enough, that on this very
+evening, in arguing against some of my whims touching destinies and
+omens, he illustrated the facility of imposture on such points by an
+incident from one of those campaigns.
+
+"A friend of mine," said he, "a captain in the Lichtenstein hussars,
+happened to be on the outpost service of the army. As the enemy were in
+great force, and commanded by the Vizier in person, an action was daily
+expected, and the pickets and videttes were ordered to be peculiarly on
+the alert. But, on a sudden, every night produced some casualty. They
+either lost videttes, or their patrol was surprised, or their baggage
+plundered--in short, they began to be the talk of the army. The regiment
+had been always one of the most distinguished in the service, and all
+those misfortunes were wholly unaccountable. At length a stronger picket
+than usual was ordered for the night--not a man of them was to be found
+in the morning. As no firing had been heard, the natural conjecture was,
+that they must all have deserted. As this was a still more disgraceful
+result than actual defeat, the colonel called his officers together, to
+give what information they could. The camp, as usual, swarmed with
+Bohemians, fortune-tellers, and gipsies, a race who carry intelligence
+on both sides; and whose performances fully accounted for the knowledge
+which the enemy evidently had of our outposts. The first order was, to
+clear the quarters of the regiment of those encumbrances, and the next
+to direct the videttes to fire without challenging. At midnight a shot
+was heard; all turned out, and on reaching the spot where the alarm had
+been given, the vidette was found lying on the ground and senseless,
+though without a wound. On his recovery, he said that he had seen a
+ghost; but that having fired at it, according to orders, it looked so
+horribly grim at him, that he fell from his horse and saw no more. The
+Austrians are brave, but they are remarkably afraid of supernatural
+visitants, and a ghost would be a much more formidable thing to them
+than a discharge of grape-shot.
+
+"The captain in question was an Englishman, and as John Bull is
+supposed, among foreigners, to carry an unusual portion of brains about
+him, the colonel took him into his special council in the emergency.
+Having settled their measures, the captain prepared to take charge of
+the pickets for the night, making no secret of his dispositions. At
+dark, the videttes and sentries were posted as usual, and the officer
+took his post in the old field redoubt, which had been the headquarters
+of the pickets for the last fortnight.
+
+"All went on quietly until about midnight; the men off duty fast asleep
+in their cloaks, and the captain reading an English novel. He, too, had
+grown weary of the night, and was thinking of stretching himself on the
+floor of his hut, when he saw, and not without some perturbation, a tall
+spectral figure, in armour, enter the works, stride over the sleeping
+men without exciting the smallest movement amongst them, and advance
+towards him. He drew his breath hard, and attempted to call out, but his
+voice was choked, and he began to think himself under the dominion of
+nightmare. The figure came nearer still, looking more menacing, and drew
+its sword. My friend, with an effort which he afterwards acknowledged to
+be desperate, put his hand to his side to draw his own. What was his
+alarm when he found that it had vanished? At this moment his poodle,
+which, against all precautions, had followed him, began barking
+fiercely, and rushing alternately towards him and a corner of the
+redoubt. Though his sabre was gone, a brace of English pistols lay on
+the table beside him, and he fired one of them in the direction. The
+shot was followed by a groan and the disappearance of the spectre. The
+men started to their feet, and all rushed out in pursuit. The captain's
+first step struck upon a dead body, evidently that of the spy who had
+fallen by his fire. The pursuit was now joined in by the whole regiment,
+who had been posted in the rear unseen, to take advantage of
+circumstances. They pushed on, swept all before them, and bore down
+patrol and picket until they reached the enemy's camp. The question then
+was, what to do next? whether to make the best of their way back, or try
+their chance onward? The Englishman's voice was for taking fortune at
+the flow; and the accidental burning of a tent or two by the fugitives
+showed him the Turks already in confusion. The trampling of battalions
+in the rear told him at the same time that he had powerful help at hand,
+and he dashed among the lines at once. The hussars, determined to
+retrieve their reputation, did wonders--the enemy were completely
+surprised. No troops but those in the highest state of discipline are
+good for any thing when attacked at night. The gallantry of the Turk by
+day, deserts him in the dark; and a night surprise, if well followed up,
+is sure to end in a victory. From the random firing and shouting on
+every side, it was clear that they were totally taken unawares; and the
+rapid and general advance of the Austrian brigades, showed that Laudohn
+was in the mind to make a handsome imperial bulletin. Day dawned on a
+rout as entire as ever was witnessed in a barbarian campaign. The enemy
+were flying in all directions like a horde of Tartars, and camp, cannon,
+baggage, standards, every thing was left at the mercy of the pursuers."
+
+"But the captain, the Englishman, what became of him?" I asked, slightly
+glancing at the countenance of the narrator.
+
+"Oh, very well off indeed! Foreign Governments are showy to the soldier,
+and Joseph the Second, though an economist in civil matters, was liberal
+to his successful officers. The captain received a pension; a couple of
+orders; was made a colonel on the first opportunity; and, besides, had
+his share of the plunder--no slight addition to his finances, for the
+military chest had been taken in the baggage of the Seraskier."
+
+"And by this time," said I, with an unenquiring air, "he is doubtless a
+field-marshal?"
+
+"Nothing of the kind," replied my reverend friend, "for his victory
+cured him of soldiership. He was wounded in the engagement, and if he
+had been ever fool enough to think of fame, the solitary hours of his
+invalidism put an end to the folly. Other and dearer thoughts recurred
+to his mind. He had now obtained something approaching to a competence,
+if rightly managed; he asked permission to retire, returned to England,
+married the woman he loved; and never for a moment regretted that he was
+listening to larks and linnets instead of trumpets and cannon, and
+settling the concerns of rustics instead of manoeuvring squadrons and
+battalions."
+
+"But what was the ghost, after all?"
+
+"Oh, the mere trick of a juggler! a figure projected on the wall by some
+ingenious contrivance of glasses. The instrument was found on the body
+of the performer, who turned out to be the colonel's valet--of course in
+the enemy's pay, and who furnished them with daily intelligence of all
+our proceedings. As for the loss of the sabre, which actually startled
+the ghost-seer most, he found it next morning hanging up in the hut,
+where he himself had placed it, and forgotten that he had done so."
+
+"And the captain, or rather the colonel, brought with him to England, a
+cimeter-cut on his arm, and another on his forehead?" I asked, fixing my
+eyes on him. A crimson flush passed over his countenance, he bit his lip
+and turned away. I feared that I had offended irreparably. But his
+natural kindliness of heart prevailed, he turned to me gently, laughed,
+and pressing my hand in his, said, "You have my secret. It has escaped
+me for the first time these thirty years. Keep it like a man of honour."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I have always held that the life of man's mind, where man _has_ a
+mind--which is not always the case--is a thing of fits and starts. I
+even doubt whether any one who will take the trouble to recollect, will
+not be able to put his finger on the precise periods at which new views
+of every thing suddenly opened before him, and he emerged at once, if
+not into new powers, at least into a new use of them. The frame may grow
+like a tree; the faculties may grow as imperceptibly as the frame; but
+the mind acquires that knowledge of life which forms its exercise, its
+use, and perhaps its essence, by bounds and flights. This moonlight walk
+with my old and honoured Mentor, was the beginning of my mental
+adolescence. My manhood was still to come, and with a more severe
+instructor.
+
+As we were passing slowly through the plantations which encircled the
+Castle with all the noble and profuse shelter and ornament which our
+ancestors loved, a distant sound of music came on the wind. I then
+remembered, for the first time, that my brother had, on that evening,
+given a ball to the county, and a sudden sense of the difference of our
+lots in life, came painfully over me;--the course of secure wealth and
+English enjoyment, contrasted with the dependence and wandering which
+must form the existence of myself, and so many thousands of younger
+brothers.
+
+I was awakened from my reverie by the voice of my companion. His face
+was upturned to the cloudless sky, and he was murmuring the fine passage
+in the Merchant of Venice.
+
+   "Look, how the floor of heaven
+    Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold;
+    There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st,
+    But in his motion like an angel sings,
+    Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins:
+    Such harmony is in immortal souls."
+
+"Do you know, Charles," said he, "what changed the whole current of my
+life? what, in fact, brought me back to England?" and there was a slight
+pause. "What made me a Christian? It was such a night as this. As you
+now know the chief part of my story, I need have no further concealment
+on the subject. I had recovered from my wounds, and was preparing to set
+out for Vienna, when one night a tempest blew down our tents, and left
+us to trust to the open air for the hours till morning. Tempests in the
+south are violent, but they are generally brief, and this gale cleared
+the sky of every cloud. As I lay on the ground, and gazed on the unusual
+splendour of the stars, the thought occurred to me, Why should doubts of
+a future state ever come into the mind of man? Why should he hesitate
+about its reality? Was it not there, before his eyes? Were not the very
+regions of future existence already within the reach of one of his
+senses? Why might they not yet be within the reach of all? Of course I
+do not give you all the vague thoughts which passed through my mind; but
+the permanence, power, and astonishing multitude of those bright worlds,
+impressed themselves on me with a new force. I had known all those
+matters before, but on this night I felt them. My next thoughts were of
+the power, the wisdom, and the majesty of the mighty Being by whom all
+this had been formed, moved, and sustained through thousands of years. I
+need not follow the history of my conversion--for a conversion it was.
+When I looked round me on the sleeping troops, I saw nothing but clods
+of the valley--gallant beings, but as insensible to their high
+inheritance as the chargers they rode. My heart moved me towards them;
+and perhaps, in some instances, I succeeded in giving them my own ideas.
+But Austria defies, at least, all human change. I was not a fanatic, and
+I had no wish to strive with impossibilities. I sent in my resignation;
+abandoned the 'pride, pomp, and circumstance' of the most tempting of
+all human pursuits, and returned to England to be, what you see me now."
+
+With this man I could have no reserves, and I freely asked his advice on
+the plunge which I was about to make into that fathomless tide of good
+and ill, the world. I mentioned the Church as the profession which my
+mother had suggested, but for which I did not conceive either my temper
+or my habits suitable.
+
+"You are right, then, in abandoning the idea altogether," was the
+answer; "and yet I know no profession more capable of fulfilling all the
+objects of a vigorous mind. I am not now talking of mitres; they can
+fall to but few. I speak of the prospects which it opens to all; the
+power of exerting the largest influence for the highest purposes; the
+possession of fame without its emptiness, and the indulgence of
+knowledge without its vanity; energy turned to the most practical and
+lofty uses of man; and the full feast of an ambition superior to the
+tinsel of the world, and alike pure in its motives, and immeasurable in
+its rewards."
+
+"And, yet," said I, naming one or two of our clerical slumberers, "the
+profession seems not to be a very disturbing one."
+
+"Those men, was the answer, would have been slumberers at the bar, in
+senates, or in the field. I may be prejudiced in favour of the choice
+which I made so long since, and which I have never found reason to
+repent. But I have not the slightest wish to prejudice any one in its
+favour. There is no profession which more requires a peculiar mind;
+contentment, with whatever consciousness of being overlooked; patience,
+with whatever hopelessness of success; labour, for its own sake; and
+learning, with few to share, few to admire, and fewer still to
+understand."
+
+"If my father had lived," said I, "it was his intention to have tried my
+chance in diplomacy."
+
+"Probably enough; for he had figured in that line himself. I remember
+him secretary of embassy at Vienna. Perhaps you will scarcely believe,
+that I, too, have had my experience on the subject? Accident once made
+me an attache to our envoy at Naples. The life is an easy one. Idleness
+was never more perfectly reduced to a system, than among the half dozen
+functionaries to whom the interests of the British empire were entrusted
+in the capital of the Lazzaroni. As the Frenchman said of the Academy,
+'We had nothing to do, and we did it.'"
+
+"Italy," said I, "is the land of pleasure, and the Lazzaroni are its
+philosophers, but one cannot sleep like them in the face of day, and all
+day long. Let what will come, I have no desire to be a weed on the
+shore."
+
+"No; we had our occupations; for we had the attendance on the court
+days--a business of as much formality, as if the fate of mankind
+depended on it. Then we had the attendance on the opera at night, a
+matter nearly as tiresome. The post from England reached Naples but once
+a-week, and scarcely once a month conveyed any intelligence that was
+worth the postage. But, if politics were out of the question, we had
+negotiation in abundance; for we carried on the whole diplomacy of the
+opera-house in London, engaged _primo tenores_, and settled the rival
+claims of _prima donnas_; gave our critical opinions on the merits of
+dancers worthy of appearing before the British _cognoscenti_; and
+dispatched poets, ballet-masters, and scene-painters, to our managers,
+with an activity worthy of the purest patriotism. What think you of the
+bar?"
+
+"I have no head for its study; and no heart for its employment."
+
+"It leads more rapidly to rank than any other profession under the sun;
+profit beyond counting, and a peerage. Those are no bad things."
+
+"Both capital, if one could be secure of them. But they take too much
+time for me. I never was born to sit on the woolsack. No; if I were to
+follow my own inclination, I should be a soldier."
+
+I have already said that I have been, throughout life, a kind of
+believer in omens. I have seen such a multitude of things decided by
+some curious coincidence, some passing occurrence, some of those odd
+trifles for which it is impossible to account, but which occur at the
+instant when the mind is wavering on the balance; that I feel no wonder
+at the old superstitions of guessing our destiny from the shooting of a
+star, or the flight of birds. While we were rambling onward, discussing
+the merits and demerits of the profession of arms, we heard the winding
+of the mail-guard's horn. I sprang the fence, and waited in the road to
+enquire the last news from the metropolis. It was momentous--the
+Revolution had effectually broken out. Paris was in an uproar. The
+king's guards had taken up arms for the people. The Bastile was stormed!
+
+If I had hesitated before, this news decided me; not that I pretend to
+have even dreamed of the tremendous changes which were to be produced in
+the world by that convulsion. But it struck me as the beginning of a
+time, when the lazy quietude of years was about to be broken up, and
+room made for all who were inclined to exert themselves. Before we had
+reached the level lawns and trim parterres which showed us the lights of
+the family festivity, I had settled all the difficulties which might
+impede the career of less fortunate individuals; time and chance were
+managed with the adroitness of a projector; and if Bellona had been one
+of the Nine Muses, my speculations could not have been more poetical.
+Somewhat to my surprise, they received no check from my venerable tutor;
+quite the contrary. The singular sympathy with which he listened to my
+most daring and dashing conceptions, would have betrayed his early
+history if I had still the knowledge to acquire. His very looks, as he
+listened to my rodomontades, recurred to me, when I read, many years
+after, Scott's fine description of his soldier-monk in the Lay of the
+Last Minstrel:--
+
+    "Again on the knight look'd the churchman old,
+      And again he sigh'd heavily,
+    For he had himself been a warrior bold,
+      And fought in Spain and Italy.
+    And he thought on the days that were long gone by,
+    When his limbs were strong, and his courage was high."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The news from France produced a sensation throughout England totally
+indescribable at the present day. Every tongue and every heart was full
+of it. It offered something for every mind of the million to seize on.
+Like a waterspout, such as I have seen sweeping over the bosom of the
+Atlantic, half-descending from the skies, and half-ascending from the
+deep; every second man whom one met gave it credit for a different
+origin, some looking at the upper portion and some at the lower; while,
+in the mean time, the huge phenomenon was blackening, gathering, and
+rushing onward, threatening to turn all above into darkness and all
+below into storm. It made the grand subject of parliamentary eloquence,
+and parliament was never more eloquent; it filled the speeches of the
+factious, it was hailed by the shouts of the multitude, and it disturbed
+the fireside with fear and hope, with wishing and wonder. It must be
+acknowledged that a vast quantity of this excitement was absolute folly;
+but, at the same time, there was a sincerity in the folly which redeemed
+it from ridicule. Nothing could be more evident than that this French
+patriotism was as theatrical, in the countless majority of instances, as
+the loves and sorrows of its stage. Yet, however the speeches might be
+got by heart, or the frippery and actors hired, the _drame_ was
+powerfully performed; and all Europe sat by, giving it the tribute of
+its tears and its terrors. Even we of England, with all our more sober
+recollections that the heroes were ragamuffins, and the heroism
+imaginary, gave ourselves up to the illusion. I shall not say that I was
+wiser than the rest of mankind. I liked excitement, wherever it was to
+be found. The barriers to distinction were still too firmly closed
+against the youngest son of an embarrassed family, not to suggest many a
+wish for whatever chance might burst the gate, or blow up the rampart;
+and my first effort in political life was a harangue to the rabble of
+the next borough, conceived in the most Gallic style. Yet this act of
+absurdity had the effect of forwarding my views more rapidly than if I
+had become an aristocratic Demosthenes. My speech was so much applauded
+by the mob, that they began to put its theories in practice, though with
+rather more vigour than I had dreamed of. There were riots, and even
+some attempts at the seizure of arms; and the noble duke, our neighbour,
+had received a threatening letter, which sent him at full gallop to the
+Home Secretary. A note, by no means too gentle in its tone, was
+instantly despatched to my noble brother, enquiring why he did not
+contrive to keep the minor branches of his family in better order, and
+threatening him with the withdrawal of the county patronage. My demand
+of a commission in the Guards was no longer answered by the head of our
+house with astonishment at the loftiness of my expectations, and
+statements of the utter emptiness of the family exchequer. The result of
+his brief correspondence with Downing Street was a letter, notifying
+that his majesty was pleased to accept my services in the Coldstream.
+
+I was enraptured, and my brother was enraptured, for we had both gained
+our objects. I had got rid of him and ennui. He had got rid of me, and
+the displeasure of the grand dispensers of place and pension. No time
+was lost in forwarding me to make my bow at the Horse Guards; and my
+noble brother lost as little time in making me put my hand to a paper,
+in which, for prompt payment, I relinquished one half of my legacy. But
+what cared I for money? I had obtained a profession in which money was
+contemptible, the only purse the military chest, and the only prize,
+like Nelson's, a peerage or Westminster Abbey. The ferment did not cool
+within the week, and within that period I had taken leave of half the
+county, been wished laurels and aiguillettes by a hundred or a thousand
+of the fairest of our country belles; and been wished a thousand miles
+off by the wise matrons, to whom the sight of a "younger son without
+house or land" is a nuisance, a kite among their family pigeons.
+
+At that moment, however, all their dovecots were secure. I should not
+have spent a sigh on the Venus de Medicis had she sprung from her
+pedestal to enchant me. The world was open before me; and trite and
+trifling objects were no more to occupy my time. I felt like one who,
+after wandering all day through the depths of an American forest,
+suddenly reaches its border, and sees before him the boundless prairie,
+with its boundlessness still more striking, from the absence of any
+distinct object on which the eye could rest. What were horses, dogs, and
+country dinners, to the world of London and of life which now came in
+full, and, I will own it, extravagant vision before me? The ideas which
+I conceived of men and things, of my own fortunes, and the fortunate
+exercise of my own powers, were of an order which, in my calmer days,
+have often made me smile; yet what is the whole early life of man but a
+predisposition to fever? and I was then throbbing on the fiery verge of
+the disease.
+
+I shall say but little of my first sensations on reaching London. My
+eyes and ears were in full activity. But the impression upon all who
+enter this mightiest of capitals for the first time, is nearly the same.
+Its perpetual multitude, its incessant movement, its variety of
+occupations, sights and sounds, the echo of the whole vast and sleepless
+machinery of national existence, have been a thousand times the subject
+of description, and always of wonder. Yet, I must acknowledge, that its
+first sight repelled me. I had lived in field and forest, my society had
+been among my fellows in rank; I had lived in magnificent halls, and
+been surrounded by bowing attendants; and now, with my mind full of the
+calm magnificence of English noble life, I felt myself flung into the
+midst of a numberless, miscellaneous, noisy rabble, all rushing on
+regardless of every thing but themselves, pouring through endless lines
+of dingy houses; and I nothing, an atom in the confusion, a grain of
+dust on the great chariot wheel of society, a lonely and obscure
+struggler in the mighty current of human life, which rolled along the
+sullen channels of the most cheerless, however it might be the largest,
+of capitals.
+
+For the first week, I was absolutely unable to collect my thoughts. All
+that I learned was, to make my way through the principal thoroughfares,
+and know the names of her chief buildings. In later days, I took a more
+practical view of matters, and regarded them only as places in which the
+business of the hour was to be done. But in my first view, something of
+the romance and revival of my forest walks clung to me. I remember that,
+when I first saw the Horse Guards, to which, of course, one of my
+earliest visits was paid, I found no slight difficulty in thinking of it
+as only a remarkably clownish mass of brick and stone, crowded with
+clerks. To me it was the very palace of war; the spot from which the
+thunderbolts of England were launched; the centre and the stronghold of
+that irresistible influence with which England sways and moulds mankind.
+The India House was another of my reveries. I could not think of it as
+but a huge pile in a vulgar outlet of the city, as a place of porters
+and messengers loitering in gloomy corridors, of busy clerks for ever
+scribbling in nooks unvisited by the sun, or even of portly directors,
+congregating in halls encrusted with the cobwebs of centuries. To my
+eyes it was invested with the mystery and dignity of Orientalism. I
+thought of the powers by which rajahs were raised and overthrown, of the
+mandates which spread war and restored peace over regions wide as
+Europe, and a thousand times more brilliant. I had rambling visions of
+armies of elephants, superb cavalry, and chieftains covered with gold
+and diamonds. As I traversed the dusky halls, I thought of the will
+which pronounced the fate of kingdoms, the fallen glories of Aurengzebe,
+the broken sceptre of the Mahratta, and the crushed tiara of Mysore.
+Round me was the moving power of an empire, the noblest that the East
+has ever seen, and which, in the act of assuming additional greatness,
+by a contradiction to all the laws of extended conquest, was hourly
+assuming additional stability.
+
+And yet, and yet, are not those the true views, after all? Are the
+effects to be forgotten in the instruments, or is it not the result
+which forms the character of the whole? Are we to think of the dagger
+which strikes the master of a throne, as only the steel in the hand of
+an assassin, or as the summoner to civil war and the subversion of
+thrones? Is the pen which pours political frenzy through the hearts of
+living millions, or sheds the splendours of poetry over millions still
+to come, to be valued only as the feather of a bird? Or is the press
+itself to be remembered only as a dexterous combination of springs and
+screws; or to be bowed down to as the steward of all the hidden
+treasures of mind--as the breaker of intellectual chains, the avenger of
+injured rights, the moral Hercules that goes forth turning the
+wilderness to fertility, and smiting the monsters of the world?
+
+But among the wonders of the time, there was one which struck me with
+prodigious force, which has remained on my recollection to this hour,
+and which still survives with undiminished vividness. It was the acting
+of Siddons.
+
+The stage is now almost undone. The absurd liberalism of the day has
+given every corner of London a theatre, and has degraded the character
+of the stage in all. By scattering the ability which still exists, it
+has stripped the great theatres of the very means of representing
+dramatic excellence; while, by adopting popular contrivances to obtain
+temporary success, they have driven away dramatic genius in contempt or
+in despair. Our stage is now condemned to be fed like a felon from the
+dungeons, and, like the felon, to feel a stigma in every morsel which it
+puts between its lips. It must stoop to French frivolity, or German
+extravagance, and be glad to exist upon either. Yet, why should not
+higher names come to its aid? Why should not the State relieve the
+difficulties of a great institution, which might be made to repay its
+assistance a thousand-fold? Is there nothing that could be withdrawn
+from the waste of our civil lists, or the pomp of public establishments,
+to reunite, to purify, and even to exalt the stage? The people _will_
+have theatres. Good or evil, noble or degraded, the stage will be
+demanded by the people. Is it a thing indifferent to our rulers, to
+supply them with this powerful and universal excitement in its highest
+degree of moral influence, or in its lowest degree of impurity; to bring
+before them, with all the attractions of the drama, the memory of heroes
+and sages, patriots and martyrs, or leave them to rake for the
+indulgence of eye and ear in the very kennels of crime?
+
+"They order those things better in France."
+
+Unquestionably. The care of Government there protects the national
+taste, and prevents the theatres from looking for subsistence to the
+history of the highway. The vices which now haunt theatres are no more
+necessary to their nature, than to the senate or the palace. Why should
+not the State interpose to prevent the sale of poison on the stage, as
+in the streets? Why should it not offer prizes and honours for great
+tragedies and comedies, as soon as it would for a voyage to the Arctic
+or Antarctic? But is dramatic genius dead in England? What, in England!
+where nothing dies--where every faculty of the heart and understanding
+is in the most perpetual activity--where the noblest impulses are
+perpetually pushing forward to the noblest ends--where human nature
+moves in all its vigour, from hour to hour, without disguise--where the
+whole anatomy of the moral frame is visible, and all its weakness, and
+all its wonders, are the daily spectacle of all mankind!
+
+In giving these opinions of the powers of the stage, need I guard them
+by saying, that I contemplate a higher spirit than the drama even of
+Shakspeare has ever displayed--one which, to the vigour of his
+characters, and the splendours of his poetry, should add a moral of
+which his time was scarcely conscious? My idea would approach more
+nearly the objects of the great Greek dramas, in which the first
+sympathies of the people were appealed to by the most powerful
+recollections of historic virtue; their national victories over the
+Persian, the lofty conceptions of their Olympus, the glories of their
+national power, and the prospects of their imperishable renown. I
+contemplate nothing of the weakness, locality, or license, of our old
+drama. I think only of a rich and lofty combination of characters above
+the level of our time, thoughts belonging to that elevation, feelings
+more generous, vivid, and majestic, and exploits uniting the soaring
+spirit of old romance with the sustained strength of modern energy;
+Greece in her brightest days of intellectual lustre, Rome in her most
+heroic days of patriotism, and England in those days which are yet to
+come, and which shall fill up her inheritance of glory.
+
+Siddons was then witching the world--witching, in its more solemn sense;
+for though her smile was exquisite, she might have sat for the picture
+of a Sybil or a Pythoness. The stage had never seen her equal, and will
+probably never see another so completely formed to command all its
+influences. Yet her beauty, her acting, even her movement, were
+characteristic, and their character was noble melancholy. I never saw so
+mournful a countenance combined with so much beauty. Her voice, though
+grand, was melancholy--her step, though superb, was melancholy; her very
+smile was melancholy; and yet there was so much of living intellect in
+her expression, such vast variety of passion in her look and gesture;
+she so deeply awoke the feelings, or so awfully impressed the mind; thus
+it was impossible to escape the spell, while she moved upon the stage.
+
+In this language there is not the slightest exaggeration. I have seen a
+whole audience burst into tears at a single tone of her voice. Her
+natural conception was so fine, that the merest commonplace often
+received a living spirit from her lips. I have seen a single glance from
+her powerful eye hush an audience--I have seen her acting sometimes even
+startle and bewilder the actors beside her. There is perhaps a genius
+for every art, and hers was the genius of the stage--a faculty of
+instant communication between the speaker and the hearer, some
+unaccountable sympathy, the power to create which belongs to but one in
+millions, and which, where it exists, lifts its possessor to the height
+of the Art at once, and constitutes perfection.
+
+It may be presumed that I saw this extraordinary being whenever it was
+possible. But her _chef-d'oeuvre_, in my eyes, was the "wife of
+Macbeth." The character seemed made for her, by something of that
+instinct which in olden times combined the poet and the prophet in one.
+It had the ardour and boldness mingled with the solemnity and mystery
+that belonged to the character of her beauty.
+
+Her entrance was hurried, as if she had but just glanced over the
+letter, and had been eager to escape from the crowd of attendants to
+reperuse it alone. She then read on, in a strong calm voice, until she
+came to the passage which proved the preternatural character of the
+prediction. "They have more in them than mortal knowledge. When I burnt
+with desire to question them further, they made themselves into air
+and--_vanished_." As she was about to pronounce the last word, she
+paused, drew a short breath, her whole frame was disturbed, she threw
+her fine eyes upwards, and exclaimed "_Vanished_!" with a wild force,
+which showed that the whole spirit of the temptation had shrunk into her
+soul. The "Hail, king that shall be!" was the winding-up of the spell.
+It was pronounced with the grandeur of one already by anticipation a
+Queen.
+
+Her solitary summons to her distant lord followed, like an invocation--
+
+                 "Hie thee hither,
+    That I may pour my spirits in thine ear;
+    And chastise with the valour of my tongue
+    All that impedes thee from the golden round."
+
+The murder scene was the next triumph: her acting was that of a
+triumphant fiend. I must follow these recollections no further; but the
+most admirable piece of dumb show that perhaps ever was conceived, was
+her "Banquet scene." That scene, from the terrible business on the
+stage--the entrance of Banquo's ghost, the horrors of Macbeth, stricken
+in the moment of his royal exultation, and the astonishment and alarm of
+the courtiers--is one of the most thrilling and tumultuous. Yet Siddons,
+sitting at the extremity of the royal hall, not having a syllable to
+utter, and simply occupied with courtesies to her guests, made her
+silence so expressive, that she more than divided the interest with the
+powerful action going on in front. And when at last, indignant at
+Macbeth's terrors, stung by conscience, and alarmed at the result of an
+up-breaking of the banquet with such rumours in their lips, she rushed
+towards her unhappy husband, and burst out with the words, still though
+but whispered, yet intensely poured into his passive ear--
+
+         "Are you a _man_?
+    This is the very painting of your fear!
+    This is the air-drawn dagger, which, you said,
+    Led you to Duncan!--
+    Why do you make such faces? When all's done,
+    _You look but on a stool_!"
+
+In those accents all else was forgotten.
+
+But her sleep-walking scene! When shall we see its "second or its
+similar?" Nothing so solemn, nothing so awful, was ever seen upon the
+stage. Yet it had one fault--it was too awful. She more resembled a
+majestic shade rising from the tomb than a living woman, however
+disturbed by wild fear and lofty passion. It is a remarkable instance of
+the genius of Shakspeare, that he here found the means of giving a human
+interest to a being whom he had almost exalted to the "bad eminence" of
+a magnificent fiend. In this famous soliloquy, the thoughts which once
+filled and fired her have totally vanished. Ambition has died; remorse
+lives in its place. The diadem has disappeared; she thinks only of the
+blood that stains her for ever. She is the queen no more, but an
+exhausted and unhappy woman, worn down by the stings of conscience, and
+with her frame dying by the disease of her soul.
+
+But Siddons wanted the agitation, the drooping, the timidity. She looked
+a living statue. She spoke with the solemn tone of a voice from a
+shrine. She stood more the sepulchral avenger of regicide than the
+sufferer from its convictions. Her grand voice, her fixed and marble
+countenance, and her silent step, gave the impression of a supernatural
+being, the genius of an ancient oracle--a tremendous Nemesis.
+
+I have seen all the great tragedians of my day, but I have never seen an
+equal to the sublime of this extraordinary actress. I have seen beauty,
+youth, touching sensibility, and powerful conception; but I never saw so
+complete an union of them all--and that union was the sublime.
+Shakspeare must have had some such form before his mind's eye, while he
+was creating the wife of Macbeth. Some magnificent and regal
+countenance, some movement of native majesty, some imaginary Siddons. He
+could not have gone beyond the true. She was a living Melpomene.
+
+The business of the War-Office was not transacted in those days with the
+dispatch subsequently introduced by the honest Duke of York. After a
+delay of weeks I found myself still ungazetted, grew sad, angry,
+impatient; and after some consideration on the various modes of getting
+rid of _ennui_, which were to be found in enlisting the service of that
+Great Company which extended its wings from Bombay to Bengal, as
+Sheridan said, impudently enough, like the vulture covering his prey; or
+in taking the chance of fortune, in the shape of cabin-boy on board one
+of the thousand ships that were daily floating down the Thames, making
+their way to the extremities of the earth; or in finishing my feverish
+speculations in a cold bath at the bottom of the Thames itself; I did
+what I felt a severer exertion than any of them--I wrote a full and true
+statement of my vexations to my lordly brother.
+
+His answer was lordly enough. He had been "so much occupied with the
+numberless duties devolving upon him as landlord, magistrate,
+lord-lieutenant, and fifty other things, that he absolutely had not been
+able to find a moment to think of me;" and what was rather more
+perplexing to my immediate sensibilities, "he had not been able to send
+me a shilling. However, he did all that he could, and gave me a note to
+a particular friend," Mr Elisha Mordecai of Moorfields.
+
+There is nothing which quickens a man's movements like a depletion of
+the purse; and instead of lounging at my hotel until the morning paper
+brought me the scandals and pleasantries of the day before fresh for my
+breakfast-table, I threw myself out of bed at an hour which I should not
+have ventured to mention to any man with whom I walked arm-in-arm during
+the day, and made my way in a hackney coach, to avoid the possibility of
+being recognised, to the dwelling of my new patron, or rather my guide
+and guardian angel.
+
+I make no attempt to describe the navigation through which I reached
+him; it was winding, dark, and dirty beyond all description, and gave
+the idea of the passages of a dungeon rather than any thing else that I
+could name. And in a hovel worthy to finish such a voyage of discovery,
+I discovered Mr Elisha Mordecai, the man of untold opulence. For a
+while, on being ushered into the office, where he sat pen in hand, I was
+utterly unable to ascertain any thing of him beyond a gaunt thin figure,
+who sat crouching behind a pile of papers, and beneath a small window
+covered with the dirt of ages. He gave me the impression in his dungeon
+of one of those toads which are found from time to time in blocks of
+coal, and have lain there unbreathing and unmoving since the deluge.
+However, he was a man of business, and so was I for the moment. I handed
+him my brother's note; and like a ray of sunshine on the torpid snake,
+it put him into immediate motion. He now took off his spectacles, as if
+to indulge himself with a view of me by the naked eye; and after a
+scrutinizing look, which, in another place and person, I should probably
+have resented as impertinent, but which here seemed part of his
+profession, he rose from his seat and ushered me into another apartment.
+This room was probably his place of reception for criminals of a more
+exalted order; for it was lined with foreign prints, had one or two
+tolerable Dutch pictures, and a bookcase. Out of his bookcase he took
+down a folio, examined it, compared the writing of my credentials with
+the signatures of a book which, as Cromwell's son said of his trunk,
+contained the lives and fortunes, or at least that on which depended the
+lives and fortunes, of half the noble _roues_ of England, their
+"promises to pay," bonds, mortgages, and post-obits, and then performed
+the operation on myself. My L.2500 in prospect was mulcted of a fifth
+for the trouble of realizing it; of another fifth for prompt payment,
+and of another for expediting the affair of my commission. "Another such
+victory would have ruined me."
+
+However, I bore the torture well. In truth, I had so little regard for
+any object but the grand one of wearing a sword and epaulette, that if
+Mordecai had demanded the whole sum in fifths, I should have scarcely
+winced. But my philosophy stood me in good part, for it won a grim smile
+from the torturer, and even a little of his confidence.
+
+"This," said he, running his finger down a list which looked endless, "I
+call my peerage book." Turning to another of equal dimensions, "there
+lies my House of Commons. Not quite as many words wasted in it as in the
+Honourable House, but rather to the purpose."
+
+Mordecai grew facetious; the feeling that he had made a handsome
+morning's work of it put him into spirits, and he let me into some of
+the secrets of high life, with the air of a looker-on who sees the whole
+game, and intends to pocket the stakes of the fools on both sides.
+"Money, Mr Marston," said my hook-nosed and keen-eyed enlightener, "is
+the true business of man. It is philosophy, science, and patriotism in
+one; or, at least, without it the whole three are of but little service.
+Your philosopher dies in a garret, your man of science hawks telescopes,
+and your patriot starves in the streets, or gets himself hanged in
+honour of the 'Rights of Man.' I have known all these things, for I was
+born a German, and bred among the illustrissimi of a German university.
+But I determined not to live a beggar, or at least not to die one. I
+left Gottingen behind on a May morning, and trudged, fought, and begged,
+'borrowed' my way to London. What I am now, you see."
+
+Probably, the glance which I involuntarily gave round the room, did not
+exhibit much admiration.
+
+"Ha," said he with a half smile, which, on his gigantic and sullen
+features, looked like a smile on one of the sculptures of a mausoleum,
+"you are young--you judge by appearances. Let me give you one piece of
+advice: If the Italian said, 'distrust words, they are fit only to
+disguise thoughts,' take a Londoner's warning, and distrust your
+eyes--they are only fit to pretend to see." He paused a moment, and
+turned over some memorandums. "I find," said he, "by these papers, that
+I shall have occasion to leave town in the beginning of next week. You
+shall then see how I live. If I am to be found in this den, it is not
+for want of a liking for light and air. I am a German. I have seen
+plains and mountains in my time. If I had been a fool, there I should
+have remained a bear-shooter; if I were a fool here, I should act like
+others of the breed, and be a fox-hunter. But I had other game in view,
+and now I could sell half the estates in England, call half the
+'Honourable House' to my levee, brush down an old loan, buy up a new
+one, and shake the credit of every thing but the Bank of England."
+
+This was bold speaking, and at another time I should have laughed at it;
+but the times were bold, the language of the streets was bold, the
+country was bold, and I, too, was bold. There was something singular in
+the man; even the hovel round him had a look which added to his
+influence. I listened to the Jew as one might listen to a revealer of
+those secrets which find an echo in every bosom, when they are once
+discovered, and on which still deeper secrets seem to depend. My
+acquiescence, not the less effective for its being expressed more in
+looks than words, warmed even the stern spirit of the Israelite towards
+me, and he actually went the length of ordering some refreshments to be
+put on the table. We eat and drank together; a new source of cordiality.
+Our conversation continued long. I shall have more to say of him, and
+must now proceed to other things; but it ended in my acceptance of his
+invitation to his villa at Brighton, which he termed "a small thing,
+simply for a week's change of air," and where he promised to give me
+some curious explanations of his theory--that money was the master of
+all things, men, manners, and opinions.
+
+On one of the finest mornings of autumn, I was on the box of the Royal
+Sussex Stage.
+
+I had full leisure to admire the country, for our progress occupied
+nearly the whole day. We now laugh at our slow-moving forefathers, but
+is not the time coming when our thirty miles an hour will be laughed at
+as much as their five? when our passage from Calais to Dover will be
+made by the turn of a winch, and Paris will be within the penny-post
+delivery? when the balloon will carry our letters and ourselves; until
+that still more rapid period, when we shall ride on cannon-shot, and
+make but a stage from London to Pekin?
+
+On the roof of the coach I found a strong-featured and closely
+wrapped-up man, who, by degrees, performed the part of my cicerone. His
+knowledge of the localities was perfect; "every bush and bosky dell,"
+every creek and winding, as the shore came in sight, was so familiar to
+him, that I should have set him down at once for a smuggler, but for a
+superiority of tone in his language, and still more from the evident
+deference to him by the coachman, in those days a leading authority with
+all the passengers. His occupation is now nearly o'er. Fire and water
+have swept him away. His broad back, his broad grin, and his broad
+buttons, are now but recollections.
+
+My new acquaintance exhibited as perfect a knowledge of the country
+residents as of its map, and nothing could be more unhesitating than his
+opinions of them all, from the prince and his set, as he termed them, to
+Mordecai himself. Of my Jew friend, he said, with a laugh, "There is not
+a better friend to the King's Bench in all England. If you have any
+thing to lose, he will strip you on the spot. If you have nothing, you
+may escape, unless he can make something by having you hanged." I begged
+of him to spare my new friend. "Why," said he, "he is one of my oldest
+friends, and one of the cleverest fellows alive. I speak tenderly of
+him, from admiration of his talents. I have a liking for the perfection
+of a rogue. He is a superb fellow. You will find his 'Hermitage,' as he
+calls it, a pond of gold fish. But all this you will soon learn for
+yourself." The coach now stopped on a rising ground, which showed the
+little fishing village beneath us, basking in the glow of sunset. My
+cicerone got down, and bade me farewell. On enquiring his name from my
+fellow-travellers, a group of Sussex farmers, I found a general
+disinclination to touch on the subject. Even the coachman, the
+established source of information on all topics, exhibited no wish to
+discuss the stranger; his official loquacity was almost dumb. "He merely
+believed that he was something in the navy, or in the army, or in
+something or other; but he was often in those parts, and generally
+travelled to London by the Royal Sussex Stage."
+
+No country in Europe has changed its appearance more than the greater
+part of England during the last fifty years. Sussex was then as wild as
+the wildest heath of Yorkshire. The population, too, looked as wild as
+the landscape. This was once the very land of the bold smuggler; the
+haunt of the dashing defier of the customhouse officer, who in those
+days generally knew his antagonist too well to interfere with his days
+or nights, the run between every port of the west of France and the
+coasts of the Channel, being, in fact, as familiar to both as the
+lounger in Bond Street to the beau of the day.
+
+We passed groups of men, who, when they had not the sailor's dress, had
+the sailor's look; some trudging along the road-side, evidently not in
+idleness; others mounted on the short rough horse of the country, and
+all knowing and known by our coachman.
+
+On our passing one group, leaning with their backs against one of the
+low walls which seemed the only enclosure of this rugged region, I,
+half-laughingly, hinted to one of my neighbours, a giant of a
+rough-headed farmer, that "perhaps a meeting with such a party, at a
+late hour, might be inconvenient, especially if the traveller had a full
+purse." The fellow turned on me a countenance of ridicule. "What?" said
+he, "do you take them for robbers? Heaven bless you, my lad, they could
+buy the stage, horses, passengers, and all. I'll warrant you, they will
+have news from over there," and he pointed towards France, "before it
+gets into the newspapers, long enough. They are the richest fellows in
+the county."
+
+"Are they smugglers?" I asked, with sufficient want of tact.
+
+"Why, no," was the answer, with a leer. "We have nothing of that breed
+among us; we are all honest men. But what if a man has an acquaintance
+abroad, and gets a commission to sell a cargo of tea or brandy, or
+perhaps a present from a friend--what shall hinder him from going to
+bring it? I'm sure, not I."
+
+It was evidently not the "etiquette" on the roof of the Royal Sussex to
+think much on the subject, and before my curiosity could reach the
+length of actual imprudence, the coachman pulled up, and informed me
+that I had reached the nearest turn to "the Hermitage." My valise was
+lowered down, a peasant was found to carry it, and I plunged into the
+depth of a lane as primitive as if it had been a path in Siberia.
+
+It was brief, however, and in a few minutes I was within sight of the
+villa. Here I at once discovered that Mordecai was a man of taste;
+perhaps the very roughness of the Sussex jungle, through which I had
+just come, had been suffered to remain for the sake of contrast. A small
+lodge, covered with late blooming roses, let me into a narrow avenue of
+all kinds of odorous shrubs; the evening sun was still strong enough to
+show me glimpses of the grounds on either side, and they had all the
+dressed smoothness of a parterre. The scene was so different from all
+that I had been wearied of during the day, that I felt it with double
+enjoyment; and the utter solitude and silence, after the rough voices of
+my companions in the journey, were so soothing, that I involuntarily
+paused before I approached the house, to refresh not more my senses than
+my mind. As I stood leaning against a tree, and baring my hot brain and
+bosom to the breeze, that rose with delicious coolness, I heard music.
+It was a sweet voice, accompanied at intervals by some skilful touches
+of a harp; and, from the solemnity of the measure, I supposed it to be a
+hymn. Who was the minstrel? Mordecai had never mentioned to me either
+wife or daughter. Well, at all events, the song was sweet. The minstrel
+was a woman, and the Jew's household promised me more amusement than I
+could have expected from the man of Moorfields. The song ceased, the
+spell was broken, and I moved on, fully convinced that I had entered on
+a scene where I might expect at least novelty; and the expectation was
+then enough to have led me to the cannon's mouth or the antipodes.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE VIGIL OF VENUS.
+
+TRANSLATED FROM THE LATIN.
+
+
+This old poem, which commemorates the festivities with which ancient
+Rome hailed the returning brightness of spring, may, perhaps, awaken in
+our readers some melancholy reflections on the bygone delights of the
+same season in our own country. To the Romans, it would seem, this
+period of the year never ceased to bring rejoicing holidays. There is
+good reason to suppose that this poem was written in the declining times
+of the empire; if so, it seems that, amidst the public misfortunes that
+followed one another during that age, the people were not woe-worn and
+distressed; that they were able to forget, in social pleasures, the
+gradual decay of their ancient glory. Rome "smiled in death." England is
+still great and powerful, but she is no longer Merry England.
+
+Most people have heard of the Floralia, and have learned to deduce the
+frolics of Maid Marian and her comrades from the Roman observances on
+that festive occasion. But few are aware of the close similarity which
+this poem shows to have existed between the customs of the Romans and
+those of our fathers. In the denunciations of the latter by the acrid
+Puritans of the 17th century, we might almost imagine that the tirade
+was expressly levelled against the vigils described in the _Pervigilium
+Veneris_. If the poem had ever fallen into the hands of those worthies,
+it would have afforded them an additional handle for invective against
+the foul ethnic superstitions which the May-games were denounced as
+representing. Hear Master Stubbes, in his _Anatomie of Abuses_,
+published in 1585:--
+
+    "Against May, Whitsonday, or other time, all the yung men and
+    maides, old men and wives, run gadding over the night to the
+    woods, groves, hils, and mountains, where they spend all the
+    night in pleasant pastimes, and in the morning they return,
+    bringing with them birch and branches of trees, to deck their
+    assemblies withall; and no meruaile, for there is a great Lord
+    present amongst them as superintendent and Lord of their
+    sports, namely, Sathan prince of hel. But the chiefest jewel
+    they bring from thence is their May-pole, (say rather their
+    stinking poole,) which they bring home with great veneration."
+
+Who does not remember Lysander's appointment with Hermia:
+
+      ----"in that wood, a league without the town,
+    Where I did meet thee once with Helena,
+    To do observance to a morn of May,
+    There will I stay for thee."
+
+These passages point us to the time when man and nature met to rejoice
+together on May-day: to the time before the days of the workhouse and
+factory; when the length and breadth of the land rung to the joyaunce
+and glee of the holiday-rejoicing nation, and the gay sounds careered on
+fresh breezes even where now the dense atmosphere of Manchester or
+Ashton glooms over the dens of torture in which withered and debauched
+children are forced to their labour, and the foul haunts under the
+shelter of which desperate men hatch plots of rapine and slaughter.
+
+The poem shows that the Romans, like the English of those days,
+celebrated the season by betaking themselves to the woods throughout the
+night, where they kept a vigil in honour of Venus, to whose guardianship
+the month of April was assigned, as being the universal generating and
+producing power, and more especially to be adored as such by the Romans,
+from having been, through her son AEneas, the author of their race. The
+poem seems to have been composed with a view to its being sung by a
+choir of maidens in their nocturnal rambles beneath the soft light of an
+Italian moon. The delicious balm of that voluptuous climate breathes
+through every line of it, and vividly presents to the reader's
+imagination the scene of the festivity; but whether we can claim these
+celebrations for our own May-day, is a doubtful point; for Wernsdorf,
+who has included the Pervigilium Veneris in his edition of _Poetae Latini
+Minores_, vol. iii., maintains that it is to be referred to the
+Veneralia, or feast of Venus, on the 1st of April. The Kalendar of
+Constantius marks the 3d day of April as Natalis Quirini. If, then, the
+morrow spoken of in the poem is to be taken to mean this birthday of
+Romulus, we must suppose the vigil of three nights to have begun on the
+night of the last day of March. But perhaps our readers will agree with
+us, that there are quite as good grounds for attributing this vigil to
+the Floralia, which commenced on the 27th of April, and ended on the
+first of May. For although the rites of the Floralia were in honour of
+Flora, yet we may easily conceive the principle by which the worship of
+Venus, the spirit of beauty, and love, and production, would come to be
+intermingled with the homage paid to the flower-goddess. And then the
+three nights would denote the nights of the Floralia already past, if we
+suppose the hymn to have been sung on the night before the 1st of May.
+This seems more natural, as coinciding with the known length of the
+festival, than Wernsdorf's hypothesis, which makes the vigil commence
+before the month of Venus had opened. As regards the time of year, too,
+May is far more suited than April, even in Italy, for outwatching the
+Bear on woodland lawns.
+
+The question regarding the author of the Pervigilium Veneris is still a
+_lis sub judice_. Aldus, Erasmus, and Meursius, attributed it to
+Catullus; but subsequent editors have, with much more probability,
+contended that its age is considerably later. We may notice a scholastic
+and philosophical spirit about it, which is ill-suited to the Bard of
+Verona. Lipsius claimed it for the Augustan age, in consequence of the
+mention of Caesar which is introduced. But we think we may safely assume,
+that the observance of this vigil grew into custom after the time of
+Ovid, otherwise it is difficult to account for the total absence of all
+allusion, in his Fasti, to a subject so perfectly adapted to his verse.
+But we will not enter any further into a discussion which Salmasius and
+Scaliger could not settle, but shall at once present our readers with
+the following translation of the Pervigilium Veneris:--
+
+      He that never loved before,
+        Let him love to-morrow!
+      He that hath loved o'er and o'er,
+        Let him love to-morrow!
+
+      Spring, young Spring, with song and mirth,
+    Spring is on the newborn earth.
+    Spring is here, the time of love--
+    The merry birds pair in the grove,
+    And the green trees hang their tresses,
+    Loosen'd by the rain's caresses.
+    To-morrow sees the dawn of May,
+    When Venus will her sceptre sway,
+    Glorious, in her justice-hall:
+    There where woodland shadows fall,
+    On bowers of myrtle intertwined,
+    Many a band of love she'll bind.
+                He that never, &c.
+
+    To-morrow is the day when first
+    From the foam-world of Ocean burst,
+    Like one of his own waves, the bright
+    Dione, queen of love and light,
+    Amid the sea-gods' azure train,
+    'Mid the strange horses of the main.
+                He that never, &c.
+
+    She it is that lends the Hours
+    Their crimson glow, their jewel-flowers:
+    At her command the buds are seen,
+    Where the west-wind's breath hath been,
+    To swell within their dwellings green.
+    She abroad those dewdrops flings,
+    Dew that night's cool softness brings;
+    How the bright tears hang declining,
+    And glisten with a tremulous shining,
+    Almost of weight to drop away,
+    And yet too light to leave the spray.
+    Hence the tender plants are bold
+    Their blushing petals to unfold:
+    'Tis that dew, which through the air
+    Falls from heaven when night is fair,
+    That unbinds the moist green vest
+    From the floweret's maiden breast.
+    'Tis Venus' will, when morning glows,
+    'Twill be the bridal of each rose.
+    Then the bride-flower shall reveal,
+    What her veil cloth now conceal,
+    The blush divinest, which of yore
+    She caught from Venus' trickling gore,
+    With Love's kisses mix'd, I trow,
+    With blaze of fire, and rubies' glow,
+    And with many a crimson ray
+    Stolen from the birth of day.
+                He that never, &c.
+
+    All the nymphs the Queen of Love
+    Summons to the myrtle-grove;
+    And see ye, how her wanton boy
+    Comes with them to share our joy?
+    Yet, if Love be arm'd, they say,
+    Love can scarce keep holiday:
+    Love without his bow is straying!
+    Come, ye nymphs, Love goes a Maying.
+    His torch, his shafts, are laid aside--
+    From them no harm shall you betide.
+    Yet, I rede ye, nymphs, beware,
+    For your foe is passing fair;
+    Love is mighty, ye'll confess,
+    Mighty e'en in nakedness;
+    And most panoplied for fight
+    When his charms are bared to sight.
+                He that never, &c.
+
+    Dian, a petition we,
+    By Venus sent, prefer to thee:
+    Virgin envoys, it is meet,
+    Should the Virgin huntress greet:
+    Quit the grove, nor it profane
+    With the blood of quarry slain.
+    She would ask thee, might she dare
+    Hope a maiden's thought to share--
+    She would bid thee join us now,
+    Might cold maids our sport allow.
+    Now three nights thou may'st have seen,
+    Wandering through thine alleys green,
+    Troops of joyous friends, with flowers
+    Crown'd, amidst their myrtle bowers.
+    Ceres and Bacchus us attend,
+    And great Apollo is our friend;
+    All night we must our Vigil keep--
+    Night by song redeem'd from sleep.
+    Let Venus in the woods bear sway,
+    Dian, quit the grove, we pray.
+                He that never, &c.
+
+    Of Hybla's flowers, so Venus will'd,
+    Venus' judgment-seat we build.
+    She is judge supreme; the Graces,
+    As assessors, take their places.
+    Hybla, render all thy store
+    All the season sheds thee o'er,
+    Till a hill of bloom be found
+    Wide as Enna's flowery ground.
+    Attendant nymphs shall here be seen,
+    Those who delight in forest green,
+    Those who on mountain-top abide,
+    And those whom sparkling fountains hide.
+    All these the Queen of joy and sport
+    Summons to attend her court,
+    And bids them all of Love beware,
+    Although the guise of peace he wear.
+                He that never, &c.
+
+    Fresh be your coronals of flowers,
+    And green your overarching bowers,
+    To-morrow brings us the return
+    Of Ether's primal marriage-morn.
+    In amorous showers of rain he came
+    T' embrace his bride's mysterious frame,
+    To generate the blooming year,
+    And all the produce Earth does bear.
+    Venus still through vein and soul
+    Bids the genial current roll;
+    Still she guides its secret course
+    With interpenetrating force,
+    And breathes through heaven, and earth, and sea,
+    A reproductive energy.
+                He that never, &c.
+
+    She old Troy's extinguish'd glory
+    Revived in Latium's later story,
+    When, by her auspices, her son
+    Laurentia's royal damsel won.
+    She vestal Rhea's spotless charms
+    Surrender'd to the War-god's arms;
+    She for Romulus that day
+    The Sabine daughters bore away;
+    Thence sprung the Rhamnes' lofty name,
+    Thence the old Quirites came;
+    And thence the stock of high renown,
+    The blood of Romulus, handed down
+    Through many an age of glory pass'd,
+    To blaze in Caesar's at last.
+                He that never, &c.
+
+    All rural nature feels the glow
+    Of quickening passion through it flow.
+    Love, in rural scenes of yore,
+    They say, his goddess-mother bore;
+    Received on Earth's sustaining breast,
+    Th' ambrosial infant sunk to rest;
+    And him the wild-flowers, o'er his head
+    Bending, with sweetest kisses fed.
+                He that never, &c.
+
+    On yellow broom out yonder, see,
+    The mighty bulls lie peacefully.
+    Each animal of field or grove
+    Owns faithfully the bond of love.
+    The flocks of ewes, beneath the shade,
+    Around their gallant rams are laid;
+    And Venus bids the birds awake
+    To pour their song through plain and brake.
+    Hark! the noisy pools reply
+    To the swan's hoarse harmony;
+    And Philomel is vocal now,
+    Perch'd upon a poplar-bough.
+    Thou scarce would'st think that dying fall
+    Could ought but love's sweet griefs recall;
+    Thou scarce would'st gather from her song
+    The tale of brother's barbarous wrong.
+    She sings, but I must silent be:--
+    When will the spring-tide come for me?
+    When, like the swallow, spring's own bird,
+    Shall my faint twittering notes be heard?
+    Alas! the muse, while silent I
+    Remain'd, hath gone and pass'd me by,
+    Nor Phoebus listens to my cry.
+    And thus forgotten, I await,
+    By silence lost, Amyclae's fate.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTERS OF TURKISH HISTORY.
+RISE OF THE KIUPRILI FAMILY--SIEGE OF CANDIA.
+
+NO. IX.
+
+
+The restraint which the ferocious energy of Sultan Mourad-Ghazi, during
+the latter years of his reign, had succeeded in imposing on the
+turbulence of the Janissaries,[1] vanished at his death; and for many
+years subsequently, the domestic annals of the Ottoman capital are
+filled with the details of the intrigues of women and eunuchs within the
+palace, and the sanguinary feuds and excesses of the soldiery without.
+The Sultan Ibrahim, the only surviving brother and successor of Mourad,
+was in his twenty-fifth year at the time of his accession; but he had
+been closely immured in the seraglio from the moment of his birth; and
+the dulness of his temperament (to which he probably owed his escape
+from the bowstring, by which the lives of his three brothers had been
+terminated by order of Mourad) had never been improved by cultivation.
+Destitute alike of capacity and inclination for the toils of government,
+he remained constantly immersed in the pleasures of the harem; while his
+mother, the Sultana-Walidah Kiosem, (surnamed _Mah-peiker_, or the
+_Moon-face_,) who had been the favourite of the harem under Ahmed I.,
+and was a woman of extraordinary beauty and masculine understanding,
+kept the administration of the state almost wholly in her own hands. The
+talents of this princess, aided by the ministers of her selection, for
+some time prevented the incompetency of the sultan from publicly
+manifesting itself; but Ibrahim at last shook off the control of his
+mother, and speedily excited the indignant murmurs of the troops and the
+people by the publicity with which he abandoned himself to the most
+degrading sensuality. The sanctity of the harem and of the bath had
+hitherto been held inviolate by even the most despotic of the Ottoman
+sovereigns; but this sacred barrier was broken through by the unbridled
+passions of Ibrahim, who at length ventured to seize in the public baths
+the daughter of the mufti, and, after detaining her for some days in the
+palace, sent her back with ignominy to her father. This unheard-of
+outrage at once kindled the smouldering discontent into a flame; the
+Moslem population rose in instant and universal revolt; and a scene
+ensued almost without parallel in history--the deposition of an absolute
+sovereign by form of law. The grand-vizir Ahmed, and other panders to
+the vices of the sultan, were seized and put to death on the place of
+public execution; while an immense crowd of soldiers, citizens, and
+janissaries, assembling before the palace of the mufti early on the
+morning of August 8, 1648, received from him a _fetwa_, or decree, to
+the effect that the sultan (designated as "Ibrahim Abdul-Rahman
+Effendi") had, by his habitual immorality and disregard of law,
+forfeited all claim to be considered as a true believer, and was
+therefore incapable of reigning over the Faithful. The execution of this
+sentence was entrusted to the Aga of the Janissaries, the Silihdar or
+grand sword-bearer, and the Kadhi-asker or chief judge of Anatolia, who,
+repairing to the seraglio, attended by a multitude of military officers
+and the _ulemah_, proceeded without ceremony to announce to Ibrahim that
+his rule was at an end. His furious remonstrances were drowned by the
+rude voice of the Kadhi Abdul-Aziz Effendi,[2] who boldly reproached him
+with his vices. "Thou hast gone astray," said he, "from the paths in
+which thy glorious ancestors walked, and hast trampled under foot both
+law and religion, and thou art no longer the padishah of the Moslems!"
+He was at last conducted to the same apartment whence he had been taken
+to ascend the throne, and where, ten days later, his existence was
+terminated by the bowstring; while the Sultana-Walidah, (whose
+acquiescence in this extraordinary revolution had been previously
+secured,) led into the _salamlik_ (hall of audience) her eldest grandson
+Mohammed,[3] an infant scarcely seven years old, who was forthwith
+seated on the imperial sofa, and received the homage of the dignitaries
+of the realm.
+
+    [1] See "Chapters of Turkish History," No. III., November 1840.
+
+    [2] He was afterwards, in 1651, mufti for a few months; but is
+    better known as an historian, (under the appellation of
+    Kara-Tchelibi-Zadah,) and as having been tutor to
+    Ahmed-Kiuprili.
+
+    [3] His name, according to Evliya, was originally Yusuf, but was
+    changed to Mohammed on the entreaty of the ladies of the
+    seraglio, who said that Yusuf was the name of a slave.
+
+Sultan Mohammed IV., afterwards surnamed _Avadji_, or the Hunter, who
+was destined to fill the throne of the Ottoman Empire during one of the
+most eventful periods of its history, possessed qualifications which, if
+his education had not been interrupted by his early accession to supreme
+power, might have entitled him to a high place among the monarchs of his
+line. Unlike most of the imperial family, he was of a spare sinewy form,
+and lofty stature; and his features are said by Evliya to have been
+remarkably handsome, though his forehead was disfigured by a deep scar
+which he had received in his infancy, by being thrown by his father, in
+an access of brutal passion, into a cistern in the gardens of the
+seraglio; and a contemporary Venetian chronicler says that his dark
+complexion and vivid restless eye gave him rather the aspect of a
+_Zigano_, or gipsy, than an Osmanli. In the first years of his reign,
+his grandmother, the Walidah Kiosem, acted as regent; but the rule of a
+woman and a child was little able to curb the turbulent soldiery of the
+capital; and the old feuds between the spahis and janissaries, which had
+been dormant since the death of Abaza, broke out afresh with redoubled
+violence. The war in Crete, which had been commenced under Ibrahim,
+languished for want of troops and supplies; while the rival military
+factions fought, sword in hand, in front of the imperial palace, and
+filled Constantinople with pillage and massacre. The janissaries, who
+were supported by Kiosem, for some time maintained the ascendency; but
+this ambitious princess was at length cut off by an intrigue, in the
+interior of the harem, fomented by the mother of Mohammed, who suspected
+her of a design to prolong her own sway by the removal of the sultan, in
+favour of a still younger son of Ibrahim. Seized in the midst of the
+night of September 3, 1651, by the eunuchs whom her rival had gained,
+Kiosem was strangled (according to a report preserved by Evliya) with
+the braids of her own long hair; and the sultan was exhibited at
+daybreak by the grand-vizir Siawush-Pasha to the people, who thronged
+round the palace on the rumour of this domestic tragedy, to assure them
+of the personal safety of their youthful sovereign.
+
+The supreme power was now lodged in the hands of the young Sultana
+Walidah, and her confidant the Kislar-Aga; but their inexperience was
+little qualified to encounter the task which had wellnigh baffled the
+energies of Kiosem; and the expedient of frequently changing the
+grand-vizir, in obedience to the requisition of which ever party was for
+the time in the ascendant, prevented the measures of government from
+acquiring even a shadow of consistence or stability. Twelve vizirs,
+within eight years from the deposition of Ibrahim, had successively held
+the reins of power for short periods; and not less than six had been
+raised to, and deposed from, that precarious dignity, within the last
+ten months, while the audacity of the troops, and the helplessness of
+the executive, had reached an unparalleled climax. In a memorable
+insurrection, arising from the depreciation of the coinage, which marked
+the spring of 1656, the revolters, not contented with their usual
+license of plunder and bloodshed, forced their way into the palace, and
+exacted from the young sultan the surrender of two of his favourite
+domestics, who were instantly slaughtered before his eyes; while various
+obnoxious public functionaries were dragged to the At-meidan, and
+summarily hanged on the branches of a large plane-tree;[4] and for
+several weeks this proscription was continued, till the cry of "Take him
+to the plane-tree!" became a watchword of as well-known and fearful
+import, as that of "A la lanterne!" in later times. In this emergency,
+when the fabric of government seemed on the verge of dissolution, an
+ancient Anatolian pasha, Mohammed-Kiuprili, who had lately repaired to
+the capital, was named by her confidential advisers to the
+Sultana-Walidah as a man whose eminent discernment and sagacity, not
+less than his fearless intrepidity, rendered him especially fitted for
+the task of stilling the troubled waters. In opposition to these views
+it was contended, that the poverty of the proposed premier would prevent
+his securing the adherence of the troops by the largesses which they had
+been accustomed to receive, and the project was apparently abandoned;
+but the incapacity and unpopularity of the grand-vizir, Mohammed-Pasha,
+(surnamed _Egri_, or the Crooked,) soon made it obvious that a fresh
+change alone could prevent another convulsion. On the 15th September
+1656, therefore, in a fortunate[5] hour for the distracted empire,
+Kiuprili was summoned to the presence of the sultan, who had now,
+nominally at least, assumed the direction of affairs, and received from
+his hands the seals of office.
+
+    [4] The Turkish historian, Naima, fancifully compares this plane
+    to the fabulous tree in the islands of Wak-Wak, the fruit of
+    which consisted of human heads, as is fully detailed in the
+    romance of Hatem Tai, besides various passages of the Thousand
+    and One Nights. Under this same plane, by a singular instance of
+    retribution, the heads of the janissaries massacred in the
+    At-meidan in 1826, were piled by order of Sultan Mahmood.
+
+    [5] The Turkish annalists do not fail to remark, that Kiuprili
+    crossed the imperial threshold at the moment when the call to
+    noon prayers was resounding from the minarets--an evident token
+    of the Divine protection extended to him!
+
+Such were the circumstances of the elevation of this most celebrated of
+Ottoman ministers, whose name stands pre-eminent, not only from his own
+abilities and good fortune, but as the founder of the only family which
+ever continued to enjoy, during several generations, the highest honours
+of the empire. He was the son of an Arnaut[6] soldier, who had settled
+in Anatolia, on receiving a _timar_ or fief in the district of Amasia,
+near the town of Kiupri, ('the bridge:') from which (since distinguished
+from other places of the same name as _Vizir_-Kiupri) his descendants
+derived the surname under which they are generally mentioned in history.
+He commenced his career as a page in the imperial seraglio; which he
+left for a post in the household of Khosroo, afterwards grand-vizir, who
+was then aga of janissaries. Passing through various gradations of rank,
+he held several governments in Syria, and was raised to the grade of
+pasha of three tails: till, at an advanced age, he obtained permission
+to exchange these honours for the post of _sandjak_ of his native
+district, to which he accordingly withdrew. But his retirement was
+disturbed, in 1648, by the insurrection of Varvar-Ali, pasha of Siwas,
+who, rather than surrender a beautiful daughter, the affianced bride of
+his neighbour Ipshir, pasha of Tokat, to the panders of the imperial
+harem, had raised the standard of revolt, and had been joined by the
+pasha of Erzroom, Gourdji-Mohammed, (to whose suite the annalist Evliya
+was then attached,) and by many of the Turkman clans of Anatolia. The
+Sultana-Walidah herself, who was then at variance with her degenerate
+son, secretly encouraged the insurgents, who endeavoured to gain over
+Kiuprili to their party; but as they failed in all their efforts to
+shake his loyalty, Varvar suddenly marched against him, routed the
+troops which he had collected, and made him prisoner, with two
+beglerbegs whom he had summoned to his aid. "I saw these three pashas"
+(says Evliya, who had come to the rebel camp on a mission from
+Gourdji-Mohammed) "stripped of their robes and turbans, and fastened by
+chains round their necks to stakes in front of the tent of Varvar-Ali,
+while the seghbans, and even the surridjis" (irregular horse)
+"brandished their sabres before their faces, threatening them with
+instant death. Thus we see the changes of fortune, that those who were
+the drivers become in their turn the driven," (like cattle.)
+
+    [6] In a narrative by a writer named Chassipol, (Paris, 1676,)
+    professing to be the biography of the two first Kiuprili vizirs,
+    Mohammed is said to have been the son of a French emigrant, and
+    this romance has been copied by most European authors. But the
+    testimony of Evliya, Kara-Tchelibi, and all contemporary Turkish
+    writers, is decisive on the point of his Albanian origin.
+
+Evliya, who seems to feel a malicious pleasure in relating this mishap
+of the future grand-vizir, confesses to having himself received a horse
+and a slave out of his spoils; but even before his departure from the
+camp, the rebellion was crushed, and Kiuprili released, by the base
+treachery of Ipshir-Pasha,[7] for whose sake alone Varvar-Ali had taken
+up arms. Won by the emissaries of the Porte, by the promise of the rich
+pashalic of Aleppo, he suddenly assailed the troops of his
+father-in-law, and seizing his person, cut off his head, and sent it
+with those of his principal followers to Constantinople--an act of
+perfidious ingratitude, which, even among the frequent breaches of faith
+staining the Ottoman annals, has earned for its perpetrator the
+sobriquet of _Khain_, or the traitor, _par excellence_. After this
+unlucky adventure, we hear no more of Kiuprili in his Anatolian sandjak,
+till, in the spring of 1656, we find him accompanying Egri-Mohammed on
+his way to the Porte to assume the vizirat: from which, in less than
+four months, he was removed to make way for his quondam _protege_, in
+whose elevation he had thus been an involuntary instrument.
+
+    [7] Ipshir Mustapha Pasha was originally a Circassian slave, and
+    said to have been a tribesman and near relation of the famous
+    Abaza. During the revolutions which distracted the minority of
+    Mohammed, he became grand-vizir for a few months, (Oct. 1654-May
+    1655,) but was cut off by an unanimous insurrection of the
+    spahis and janissaries, who forgot their feuds for the sake of
+    vengeance on the common enemy.
+
+Mohamned Kiuprili was at this period nearly eighty years of age, and so
+wholly illiterate that he could neither read nor write; yet such was the
+general estimation of his wisdom and abilities, that the young sultan,
+on entrusting to him the ensigns of office, voluntarily pledged himself
+to leave entirely at his discretion the regulation of the foreign and
+domestic relations of the empire, as well as the disposal of all offices
+of state--thus virtually delegating to him the functions of sovereignty.
+The measures of Kiuprili soon showed that these extraordinary powers
+would not be suffered to remain dormant. The impatience of the troops at
+the strict discipline which he enforced, erelong announced the approach
+of a fresh tumult; and the ringleaders, in the confidence of
+long-continued impunity, openly boasted that "the plane-tree would soon
+bear another crop"--when on the night of Jan. 5, 1657, the grand-vizir,
+accompanied by the aga of the janissaries, and fortified by a fetwa from
+the mufti, legalizing whatever he might do, made the round of the
+barracks with his guards, and seized several hundreds of all ranks in
+the various corps, whose bodies, found floating the next day in the
+Bosphorus, revealed their fate to their dismayed accomplices. The Greek
+patriarch, on suspicion of having endeavoured to engage the Vaivode of
+Wallachia in a plot for a general rising of the Christians, was summoned
+to the Porte, and forthwith bowstrung in the presence of Kiuprili; and
+in the course of a few weeks, not fewer than 4000 of those who had been
+implicated in the previous disorders perished under the hands of the
+executioner: "for as in medicine," remarks a Turkish historian, "it is
+necessary to employ remedies which are analogous to the disease, so by
+bloodshed alone could the state be purified from these lawless shedders
+of blood!"
+
+These terrible severities broke the spirit of insubordination in the
+capital; and the irregularity of their pay, which had been one of the
+chief grievances of the janissaries, was remedied by the good order
+which Kiuprili had from the first introduced in the finances. "He
+proportioned the expenditure of the empire," says Evliya, "to its
+revenues, which he also greatly enlarged, so that he gained the name of
+_Sahib-Kharj_," (master of finance.) The Venetians, who had availed
+themselves of the anarchy reigning at Constantinople to occupy Tenedos
+and Lemnos, so as to blockade the Dardanelles, were dislodged by the
+activity of the vizir, who directed the sieges in person, bestowing
+honours and rewards on the soldiers most distinguished for their
+bravery; and though the Turkish fleet was defeated (July 17, 1657) at
+the entrance of the straits, the Venetians sustained an irreparable loss
+in their valiant admiral Mocenigo, who was blown up with his ship by a
+well-aimed shot from one of the batteries on shore. But though the
+janissaries were thus reduced to order and obedience, the flame of
+disaffection was still smouldering among the spahis of Asia Minor, and
+broke out, in the course of the ensuing year, into a formidable and
+widely-organized rebellion. Not fewer than forty pashas and sandjaks
+followed the banner of the insurgent leader Abaza-Hassan, pasha of
+Aleppo, who advanced towards the Bosphorus at the head of 70,000 men,
+assuming the state of a monarch, and demanding the heads of Kiuprili and
+his principal adherents as the price of his submission. Morteza-Pasha,
+governor of Diarbekr, who attempted to oppose him in the field, was
+routed with the loss of nearly his whole army; and though the emissaries
+who attempted to seduce the troops in Constantinople from their
+allegiance were detected and put to death by the vigilance of Kiuprili,
+the revolt spread throughout Anatolia and Syria, and the sultan was
+preparing to take the field in person, when treachery succeeded in
+accomplishing what force had failed to effect. It has been an uniform
+maxim of the Ottoman domestic policy, which singularly contrasts with
+their scrupulous observance of the treaties entered into with foreign
+powers, that no faith is to be kept with _fermanlis_, or traitors to the
+Padishah; and in the assured belief, confirmed by hostages and solemn
+oaths, that the sultan was willing to accede to his demands,
+Abaza-Hassan suffered himself to be drawn from his headquarters at
+Aintab, with thirty of his officers, to a conference with Morteza at
+Aleppo: but, in the midst of the banquet which followed this interview,
+Abaza and his comrades found themselves in the grasp of the
+executioners--while their followers, dispersed through the town, were
+slaughtered without mercy on the signal of a gun fired from the castle;
+and the army, panic-stricken at the fate of its leaders, quickly melted
+away. But no sooner was the semblance of tranquillity restored, than the
+Kaimakam Ismail Pasha, an unscrupulous agent of the merciless decrees of
+the vizir, was sent into Asia under the new title of Moufetish, or
+inquisitor; and an unsparing proscription almost utterly exterminated
+all the remaining partizans of Abaza-Hassan, without distinction of
+rank; while the suppression of numerous _timars_ or fiefs, and the
+removal of the occupants of others from their ancient abodes to remote
+districts, so effectually loosened the bands which had hitherto united
+the spahis, like the janissaries, into a compact fraternity, that this
+once powerful body was divided and broken; and they no longer occupy, as
+a separate faction, their former conspicuous place in the troubled scene
+of Ottoman history.
+
+The termination of this great revolt freed Kiuprili from the
+apprehension of military sedition, and left him in the enjoyment of more
+absolute and undivided authority than had ever been possessed by any of
+his predecessors in office. The sultan, from whose mind the impression
+of the bloody scenes witnessed in his youth had never been effaced,
+rarely visited Constantinople; devoting himself to the pleasures of the
+chase in the forests and hills of Roumelia, and repairing only at
+intervals to the ancient palace of his ancestors at Adrianople, whither
+his harem and household had been transferred from the capital. The
+uncontrolled administration of the state was left in the hands of the
+vizir, but his implacable severity towards all who failed in implicit
+devotion to his will, continued unabated. "He was unacquainted" (says
+his contemporary, Rycaut) "with mercy, and never pardoned any who were
+either guilty of a fault, or suspected for it;" and neither rank nor
+services afforded protection to those who had incurred his jealousy or
+resentment. Among the numerous victims of his suspicious cruelty, the
+fate of Delhi-Hussein-Pasha was long remembered in Constantinople.
+Originally a _battadji_ or lictor in the seraglio, he had attracted the
+notice of Sultan Mourad-Ghazi by his strength and address in bending a
+bow sent as a challenge by the Shah of Persia, and which had baffled the
+efforts of all the _pelhwans_ or champions of the Ottoman court. His
+first advancement to the post of equerry was only a prelude to the
+attainment of higher honours, and he became successively governor of
+Buda and of Egypt, capitan-pasha and serasker in Candia. His exploits in
+the latter capacity had endeared him to the troops, while his noble
+figure and frank bearing made him equally the idol of the citizens, but
+his unbounded popularity led Kiuprili to foresee a future rival in this
+favourite hero, and the fate of Delhi-Hussein was sealed. In an
+interview with the vizir, he was graciously received, and invested with
+a robe of honour; but as he quitted the Porte he was arrested and
+carried to the Seven Towers, where, two days after, (in spite of the
+intercession of the Sultana-Walidah, and the refusal of the mufti to
+ratify the unjust doom,) he was bowstrung in his cell, as the murmurs of
+the troops prevented the vizir from risking a public execution.
+
+But though thus inexorable to all whose popularity or pretensions might
+interfere with his own supremacy, and haughty even beyond all former
+precedent in his intercourse with the representatives of the Christian
+powers,[8] Kiuprili deserved, by the merits of his domestic
+administration, the high place which has been assigned to him by the
+unanimous voice of the Ottoman historians. The exact regularity which he
+enforced both in the payment and disbursement of the revenue, relieved
+the people from the irregular imposts to which they had been subject, in
+order to make up the deficiencies arising from the interception, by the
+pashas, of the tributes of distant provinces, and the peculation which
+had long reigned unchecked at the seat of government--while the sums
+thus rendered disposable were laid out chiefly in improving the internal
+communications, and strengthening the defences, of the empire. The
+Dardanelles, hitherto guarded only by Mohammed II.'s two castles of
+Europe and Asia, was made almost impregnable by the construction of the
+formidable line of sea defences still existing; the necessity for which
+had been demonstrated by the recent attack of the Venetians; and
+fortified posts were established along the line of the Dnieper and
+Dniester, to keep in cheek the predatory Cossacks between these rivers,
+who were at this time engaged in a furious civil contest with the king
+of Poland, the ally of the Porte. The Hungarian fortresses were also
+repaired, and vast warlike preparations made along the Danube, as the
+peace which for fifty years had subsisted with the empire appeared on
+the verge of inevitable rupture. The succession to the principality of
+Transylvania, the suzerainte of which had long been a point of dispute
+between the Porte and Austria, was now contested between Kemeny and
+Michael Abaffi--the latter being the nominee of the sultan, while Kemeny
+was supported by the emperor, to whom the late Prince Racoczy had
+transferred his allegiance a short time before his death in battle
+against the Turks, in 1660. The Imperialists and Turks had more than
+once encountered each other as auxiliaries of the rival candidates, and
+Kiuprili was on the point of repairing in person to the scene of action,
+when he died at Adrianople of dropsy, (Oct. 31, 1661,) in the
+eighty-sixth year of his age, and was buried in a splendid mausoleum,
+which he had erected for himself, near the Tauk-bazar (poultry market)
+at Constantinople--the vault of which, during his life, he had daily
+filled with corn, which was then distributed to the poor to purchase
+their prayers! "Thus," says a Turkish annalist, "died Kiuprili-Mohammed,
+who was most zealous and active in the cause of the faith! Enjoying
+absolute power, and being anxious to purify the Ottoman empire, he slew
+in Anatolia 400,000[9] rebels, including seventeen vizirs or pashas of
+three tails, forty-one of two tails, seventy sandjak-beys, three
+mallahs, and a Moghrabiu sheikh. May God be merciful to him!"
+
+    [8] De la Haye, the French ambassador, was imprisoned in 1658,
+    and his son bastinadoed in the presence of Kiuprili, for being
+    unable or unwilling to give a key to some letters in cipher from
+    the Venetians; and some years later, the envoy of the Czar,
+    Alexis Mikhailowitz, was driven, with blows and violence, from
+    the presence of the sultan, who was irritated by the
+    incompetency of the interpreter to translate the Czar's letter!
+    This latter outrage, however, was not till after the death of
+    the elder Kiuprili.
+
+    [9] This monstrous exaggeration is reduced by Rycaut to the more
+    credible, but still enormous number of 36,000 victims during the
+    five years of his ministry.
+
+The genius of the Ottoman institutions is so directly opposed to any
+thing like the perpetuation of offices in a family, which might tend to
+endanger the despotism of the throne by the creation of an hereditary
+aristocracy, that even in the inferior ranks, an instance had hitherto
+scarcely been known of a son succeeding his father. The immediate
+appointment, therefore, of Fazil-Ahmed, the eldest son of the deceased
+minister, to the vizirat, was so complete a departure from all
+established usages, as at once demonstrated to the expectant courtiers
+that the influence of the crafty old vizir had survived him, and that
+"the star of the house of Kiuprili" (in the words of a Turkish writer)
+"had only set in the west to rise again with fresh splendour in the
+east." Ahmed-Kiuprili was now thirty-two years of age, and joined to an
+intellect not less naturally vigorous than that of his father, those
+advantages of education in which the latter had been deficient. At an
+early age he had been placed under the historian, Abdul-Aziz Effendi, as
+a student of divinity and law, in the _medressah_ or college attached to
+the mosque of Sultan Mohammed the Conqueror, and had attained, in due
+course, the rank of _muderris_ or fellow therein; but the elevation of
+his father to the vizirat transferred him from the cloister to the camp,
+and he held the governments successively of Erzroom and Damascus--in the
+latter of which he distinguished himself by his moderation and firmness
+in reducing to order the refractory chiefs of the Druses, of the two
+great rival houses of Shahab and Maan-Oghlu. Recalled, at length, to
+Constantinople to assume the office of kaimakam, he had scarcely entered
+on his new duties when he was summoned to Adrianople, to attend the
+deathbed of his father, and to succeed him in the uncontrolled
+administration of the empire.
+
+The numerous executions which marked the accession of the new vizir, (in
+accordance, as was believed, with the dying injunctions of his father,)
+struck with terror the functionaries of government, who anticipated a
+continuance of the iron rule under which they had so long trembled; but
+the disposition of Ahmed-Kiuprili was not naturally sanguinary, and few
+measures of unnecessary severity characterized his subsequent sway. The
+war in Hungary, meanwhile, had assumed a serious aspect; for though
+Kemeny had perished in battle, the Imperialists still continued to
+oppose the claims of Abaffi to the crown of Transylvania; and their
+armies, guided by the valour and experience of Montecuculi, a general
+formed in the Thirty Years' War, were making rapid progress in the
+reduction of the principality. War was now openly declared between the
+two empires; and Kiuprili, assuming the command in person, opened the
+campaign of 1663, in Hungary, with 100,000 men--a force before which
+Montecuculi had no alternative but to retreat, as the rapidity with
+which the Turks had taken the field, had completely outstripped the
+dilatory preparations of the Aulic Council[10]. The exploits of the
+Ottomans, however, were confined to the capture of Ujvar, or Neuhausel,
+after a siege maintained on both sides with such extraordinary vigour,
+as to have given rise to a Hungarian proverb--"As fixed as a Turk before
+Neuhausel,"--after which both armies withdrew into winter-quarters. The
+campaign of 1664 opened also to the advantage of the Ottomans; but in
+attempting the passage of the Raab, (Aug. 1,) at the fords near St
+Gothard, the sudden swelling of the stream cut off the communication
+between one division of their army and the other; and being attacked at
+this juncture by Montecuculi, they sustained the most signal overthrow
+which the Osmanlis had ever yet received from a Christian power--17,000
+of their best troops were slain or drowned, and the vizir, hastily
+drawing on the remains of his forces, sent proposals of peace to the
+Austrian headquarters. Yet such was the indefinite awe with which the
+prowess and resources of the Ottomans were at that time regarded, that
+the Imperialists made no further use of their victory than to conclude a
+truce for twenty years, the conditions of which, in effect, ceded all
+the points for which the war had been undertaken. Abaffi was recognised
+as Prince of Transylvania, and as a tributary of the Porte--the two
+important fortresses of Great-Waradin and Neuhausel, which the Turks had
+taken during the war, were left in their hands, and a breathing-time was
+thus afforded to the two empires for the mortal struggle which was to be
+decided, nineteen years later, under the walls of Vienna.
+
+    [10] "The Turk," says Montecuculi, "who is always armed, never
+    finds time bald, but can always seize him by the forelock: the
+    number of his victories, and the extent of territory which he
+    has taken from the Christians, and which they have never been
+    able to recover, sufficiently proves this, and shows the
+    rashness and folly of those who pretend to make light of his
+    power."
+
+Notwithstanding the ill success of his arms, the vizir was received by
+the sultan, on his return with the army in the ensuing spring to
+Adrianople, with such extraordinary distinction, that those who had
+hoped to profit by his expected fall, could explain such continued
+favour only by the supposition that sorcery had been practised on the
+mind of the monarch by the mother of the all-powerful minister.
+Solicitous to retrieve his military reputation in the eyes of the
+soldiery, Kiuprili now determined to assume in person the conduct of the
+long-continued war in Crete, and to bring the struggle to a close by the
+capture of Candia, the siege of which had already reached near twice the
+duration of that of Troy. To supply the deficiencies of the Turkish
+marine, which had been almost ruined by the repeated naval victories of
+the Venetians, an overture was made to the English ambassador, Lord
+Winchilsea, for permission to hire the services of a number of British
+vessels; but this strange request being evaded, the expedition was
+postponed for a year, while every nerve was strained in the building and
+equipment of galleys; and at length, in the autumn of 1666, the fleet
+set sail from Monembasia in the Morea, under the command of the
+Capitan-pasha Mustafa, surnamed _Kaplan_, or the Tiger, the
+brother-in-law of Kiuprili, and anchored off Canea in the beginning of
+November. But before we proceed to narrate the closing scenes of the
+Cretan war, we must retrace our steps, to give some account of its
+origin and progress.
+
+The dominions of the Venetian Signory in the Levant, which had at one
+time comprehended, besides the scattered isles of the Cyclades, the
+three subject _kingdoms_ (as they were proudly called) of Candia,[11]
+Cyprus, and the Morea, were confined, in the middle of the seventeenth
+century, to the first-named island--the last relics of the Morea having
+been wrested from the republic by the arms of Soliman the Magnificent in
+1540, and Cyprus having been subdued by the lieutenants of his son
+Selim, a few months before the destruction of the Turkish fleet at the
+battle of Lepanto in 1571.[12] The sovereignty of Candia had been
+acquired by purchase from the Marquis of Montferrat, to whom it was
+assigned on the partition of the Greek empire, after the conquest of
+Constantinople, in 1204, by the Latins of the fourth crusade: but the
+four centuries and a half of Venetian rule present little more than an
+unvarying succession of revolts, oppression, and bloodshed. In pursuance
+of their usual system of colonial administration, which strangely
+contrasted with their domestic policy, they had introduced into the
+island a sort of modified feudal system, in order to rivet their
+ascendancy over this remote possession, by the interposition of a class
+of resident proprietors, whose interest it would be to maintain the
+dominion of the parent state: but the _cavaliers_, as the Venetian
+tenants of Cretan fiefs were termed, proved at times even more
+refractory than the candidates themselves, and made the island for many
+years a source of endless difficulties to the Signory. In 1363,
+complaining of their exclusion from the high dignities of the republic,
+the _cavaliers_ openly threw off their allegiance, elected a doge from
+among themselves, and raised the banner of St Titus of Retimo in
+opposition to the standard of St Mark. As they were supported both by
+the native Candiotes and the Greeks of Constantinople, it was not till
+after a harassing warfare of two years that they were reduced, and their
+fortresses razed, by the Provveditori sent from Venice; a second effort
+at independence, a few years later, was not more successful. The Greek
+inhabitants were throughout subjected to a degree of merciless tyranny,
+in comparison of which the worst severities of Turkish rule must have
+appeared lenient. The Sphakiote tribes in particular, who were strong
+both from their arms and martial temperament, and from their habitations
+among the lofty ridges of the _Aspro-Bouna_, or White Mountains, in the
+south of the island, acknowledged at all times but an imperfect
+allegiance to their Venetian lords: and the acts of fiendish barbarity
+by which their frequent revolts were chastised, can scarcely find a
+parallel even in the worst horrors of the French Revolution. Unborn
+infants torn from the womb in pursuance of a judicial sentence solemnly
+pronounced--the head of the father exacted as the ransom for the life of
+the son--such were the methods by which the Provveditori of the Most
+Serene and Christian Republic enforced its authority, and which are
+related, not only without reprehension, but with manifest complacency
+and approval, by the chroniclers of the state.[13]
+
+    [11] The name of Candia, which is the Italianized form of
+    Kandax, (now Megalo-Kastro,) is unknown at the present day to
+    the Greek inhabitants of the island, which they call by its
+    classic name of [Greek: Kraetae].--See PASHLEY'S _Travels in
+    Crete_, i. chap. 11.
+
+    [12] A notable retort is on record from the vizir to the
+    Venetian envoy, who, on repairing to Constantinople after the
+    battle, expressed his astonishment at the progress already made
+    in the equipment of a new fleet. "Know," (said the haughty
+    Osmanli,) "that the loss of a fleet to the Padishah is as the
+    shaving of his beard, which will grow again all the thicker;
+    whereas the loss of Cyprus is to Venice as the amputation of an
+    arm from the body, which will never be reproduced."
+
+    [13] "Thus were they annihilated, and all men who were faithful
+    and devoted to God and their prince, were solaced and
+    consoled."--_MS. Chronicle by the notary Trivan, quoted by_
+    PASHLEY, chap. 33. These atrocities were perpetrated in the
+    early part of the 16th century.
+
+Though the coasts had often been ravaged in former wars by the Turkish
+fleet, particularly under Barbarossa in 1538, no attempt appears ever to
+have been made to effect the conquest of the island by the reduction of
+the fortified cities of the coast, in which the main strength of the
+Venetians lay: and since the treaty of 1573, Venice had remained more
+than seventy years at peace with the Porte. In 1645, however, a fresh
+rupture arose from the capture of a richly-laden Turkish vessel by the
+Maltese cruisers,[14] who were allowed, contrary to the existing
+conventions between the Porte and the Republic, to sell the horses which
+were on board their prize in one of the remote havens of Crete, beyond
+the surveillance of the Venetian authorities. Slight as was the ground
+of offence, it produced an instantaneous ferment at Constantinople: the
+janissaries, calling to mind similar omens said to have preceded the
+conquest of Rhodes and of Cyprus, exclaimed that the land whose soil had
+once been trodden by Moslem horse hoofs, was the predestined inheritance
+of the Faithful: and the flame was fanned by the capitan-pasha Yusuf, a
+Dalmatian renegade, who, independent of the hatred which from early
+associations he bore Venice, dreaded being sent on a bootless expedition
+against the impregnable defences of Malta--an enterprise which, since
+the memorable failure in the last years of Soliman, had never been
+attempted by the Osmanlis. Preparations for war, meanwhile, were carried
+on with unexampled activity, though the destination of the armament was
+kept profoundly secret; till, on April 30, 1545, the most formidable
+expedition which had ever been equipped in the Turkish ports, set sail
+from the Bosphorus. Eight thousand janissaries, 14,000 spahis, and
+upwards of 50,000 _timariots_ or feudal militia, were embarked on board
+the fleet, which consisted of eighty galleys, and more than 300
+transports, besides the auxiliary squadrons of the Barbary regencies,
+which joined the armada, May 7, at the general rendezvous at Scio.
+
+    [14] Among the captives was the ex-nurse of the heir-apparent,
+    afterwards Mohammed IV., with her son, who was mistaken for a
+    prince of the Imperial family; and being carried to Malta, was
+    brought up there as a monk under the name of Padre Ottomanno!
+    During the siege of Candia he was brought to the beleaguered
+    fortress, in the hope that the presence of this supposed Turkish
+    prince of the blood would shake the allegiance of the
+    janissaries--but this notable scheme, as might have been
+    foreseen, was wholly without success.
+
+From Scio the united fleet sailed to Navarino--a course purposely
+adopted to spread the belief that Malta was the point of attack; but no
+sooner were they again at sea, than the capitan-pasha, summoning the
+principal officers on board his galley, read the _khatt sheeref_ of the
+sultan, announcing that he had taken up arms for the conquest of Candia.
+War had, in the mean time, been formally declared against the Republic
+at Constantinople, and the Venetian envoy, Soranzo, imprisoned in the
+Seven Towers: but he had previously contrived to communicate to the
+Signory his suspicions of the impending storm; and supplies and
+reinforcements had been hastily dispatched from Venice to Andrea
+Cornaro, the _inquisitore_, or governor of Crete, in the event of its
+bursting in that quarter. Little serious apprehension seems, however, to
+have been entertained; and great was the consternation of the Candiote
+population, when, on the morning of June 24, the vast armament of the
+Ottomans was seen rounding Cape Spada, and disembarking the troops near
+Canea, on the same spot where, according to tradition, the standards of
+Islam had first been displayed, 820 years before, by the Saracens of
+Spain.
+
+The strong ramparts of Canea opposed but an ineffectual resistance to
+the numbers and resolution of the Ottomans, who pressed the siege with
+all the ardour arising from the confidence of success; and after fifty
+days of open trenches, and the failure of two assaults, the second
+fortress of the island capitulated, August 17. The churches and the
+cathedral of St Nicholas were converted into mosques: and Delhi-Hussein
+(whose subsequent tragical fate has been already commemorated) was sent
+out to take the government of this new conquest. The brave Yusuf,
+returning to Constantinople at the end of the year, was at first
+received with the highest honours by Ibrahim, but soon after put to
+death in one of his fits of senseless cruelty; but the Ottomans in
+Crete, under the gallant leadership of Delhi-Hussein, who now became
+_serdar_ or commander-in-chief, overran and occupied the inland
+districts almost without opposition from the Greek inhabitants, in whose
+eyes any alternative was preferable to the bloody tyranny under which
+they had so long groaned:[15] while the Venitian garrisons, shut up in
+the fortified towns along the northern shore, depended for supplies on
+the Christian fleet, which the Turks did not venture to bring to action.
+The campaign of 1646 was marked by the capture of the important city of
+Retimo, which surrendered Nov. 15, after a murderous siege of
+thirty-nine days, in which both the governor Cornaro and the provveditor
+Molino were slain: but though the Turks received reinforcements to the
+amount of 30,000 men, including 10,000 janissaries, in the course of the
+following year, it was not till May 1648 that the trenches were at
+length opened before Candia, the capital of the island, and the only
+fortress of importance still in the hands of the Venetians.
+
+    [15] Many of them adopted the faith of the invaders--and
+    Tournefort, who visited Crete in 1700, says that "the greater
+    part of the Turks on the island were either renegades, or sons
+    of renegades." The Candiote Turks of the present day are
+    popularly held to combine the vices of the nation from which
+    they descend with those of their adopted countrymen.
+
+The leaguer of Candia was pushed during several months by the Turks,
+animated by the courage and example of their general, with the same
+fanatic zeal which they had displayed before Canea and Retimo; but the
+besieged, whose tenure of Crete depended on this last stronghold, held
+out with equal pertinacity: and their efforts were aided by the presence
+of a large body of Maltese auxiliaries, as well as by the succours which
+the naval superiority of the Venetians enabled them continually to
+introduce by sea. In one sortie, a detachment of the garrison penetrated
+even to the tent of the serdar, who owed his safety to his personal
+prowess; while the outworks of the town were ruined by the constant
+explosion of mines, and the Ottoman standards were planted on the
+bastion of Martinengo, and on several of the redoubts which covered the
+interior defences. But in spite of their repeated assaults, the
+besiegers failed to make any impression on the body of the place; and
+the serdar was compelled to withdraw his diminished army into
+winter-quarters. The anarchy at Constantinople which followed the
+deposition of Ibrahim, combined with the blockade of the Dardanelles by
+the Venetians, prevented any reinforcements from reaching the seat of
+war--yet the siege was renewed in the ensuing summer, and carried on
+with such vigour, that the garrison, weakened by the loss of half its
+numbers, including the valiant governor, Colloredo, was reduced to the
+last extremity; when the arrival of the Maltese squadron, under
+Balbiani, baulked the Turks of their expected prize; and the
+janissaries, breaking out into furious mutiny, compelled Delhi-Hussein
+once more to abandon the hopeless enterprise. All the remainder of the
+island, however, had now peaceably submitted to the Ottoman rule, and
+had been organized into sandjaks and districts; so that the garrison of
+Candia were rather the occupants of a solitary post in a hostile
+country, than defenders of the soil against the invasion; and the
+Turkish commanders, ill supplied from Constantinople, during the
+troubled minority of Mohammed, with siege equipage and munitions of war,
+contented themselves with blockading the town by the erection of
+redoubts, and guarding the open country with their cavalry. While the
+war thus languished in Crete, the events of the maritime contest
+continued to justify the proverbial saying of the Turks, that "Allah had
+given the land to the true believers; but the sea to the infidels!" Not
+only was the blockade of the Dardanelles so strictly kept up, that it
+was only in winter, when the Venetian fleet was unable to remain on its
+station, that the Turks could convey reinforcements to their brethren
+who were waging the _holy war_ in Crete, but repeated and disastrous
+defeats were sustained by the Ottoman navy, whenever it attempted to
+dispute the sovereignty of the sea with the Lion of St Mark. In July
+1651, a formidable armament with supplies and troops for Crete was
+almost entirely destroyed off Naxos by Mocenigo: and on July 6, 1656,
+the same commander inflicted on the Turkish fleet, off the mouth of the
+Straits, the most decisive overthrow which it had sustained since the
+fatal day of Lepanto. Seventy sail of ships and galleys were sunk or
+taken; the Capitan-pasha escaped into the Bosphorus with only fourteen
+vessels; and the inhabitants of Constantinople, in the first access of
+consternation, expected the apparition of the Christian ensigns in the
+Golden Horn; but the victors contented themselves with the occupation of
+Tenedos and Lemnos, which they held till dislodged in the following year
+by Kiuprili.
+
+The serdar, Delhi-Hussein, who had for eleven years gallantly upheld the
+renown of the Ottoman arms in Crete, withstanding with equal firmness
+the efforts of the enemy, and the mutinous spirit of his own soldiers,
+had been recalled early in 1656 to assume the vizirat; a fleeting
+glimpse of honour, which, though cancelled even before he reached
+Constantinople in favour of the Kaimakam Mustapha, subsequently (as
+already related) cost him his life from the jealousy of Mohammed
+Kiuprili. His successors possessed neither his energy nor his military
+skill; and the Venetians, taking courage from the change of commanders,
+sallied from Candia, and even ventured, though without success, to
+attempt the recovery of Canea. Negotiations for peace, meanwhile, had
+been kept on foot almost from the first; but as the Ottoman pride
+absolutely refused to listen to any propositions which did not include
+the total and unconditional surrender of Candia, no pacification could
+be effected; and the war continued to linger till Ahmed-Kiuprili,
+secured on the side of Hungary by the peace with Austria, collected all
+the forces of the empire, to crush this last fragment of Venetian
+dominion in the Levant.
+
+The advanced season of the year when the vizir disembarked in Candia,
+and the disorganized state of the forces which he found there, prevented
+the immediate commencement of offensive operations; but in the course of
+the winter, the arrival of the contingents of Egypt and Africa, as well
+as of a squadron with fresh troops from Constantinople, raised his army
+to between 40,000 and 50,000 effective men; and on the 20th of May 1667,
+the trenches were once more opened in form on the western side of the
+city, while 300 pieces of cannon, thundering from the Ottoman lines,
+covered the approaches of the pioneers.[16] Of the seven[17] great
+bastions which formed the principal defences on the land side, those of
+Panigra, Bethlehem, and Martinengo, were the chief points of attack; the
+vizir himself taking post opposite the first, while the Beglerbeg of
+Anatolia and the Pasha of Egypt were stationed against the Bethlehem and
+the Martinengo. The assault, as on former occasions, was conducted
+chiefly by the slow process of sap and mine; but the superior skill of
+the Christian engineers, enabled them frequently to explore and
+countermine the works of the enemy; and the mining parties were thus
+surprised and blown into the air, while murderous combats took place
+under ground, from the accidental rencounters of the soldiers employed
+in these subterranean galleries. The garrison, which had at first
+numbered about 12,000, under the command of the Marchese di Villa, a
+Piedmontese officer of approved skill and courage, received, at the end
+of June, a reinforcement of 1000 veteran troops, brought by the Venetian
+Captain-General Morosini, who arrived with the fleet at the Isle of
+Standia, off the entrance of the port; and a concourse of volunteers,
+from all parts of Europe, hastened to share in the defence of this last
+bulwark of Christendom in the Grecian seas; while the Maltese, Papal,
+and Neapolitan galleys cruised in the offing, to intercept the supplies
+brought by sea to the Ottoman camp. The Turks, meanwhile, with their
+usual stubborn perseverance, continued to push their sap under the
+ravelin of Mocenigo, and the Panigra bastion which it covered; and
+though their progress was retarded, and their works often ruined, by the
+sallies of the defenders, the foundations were at length shaken, and the
+ramparts rent and shattered, by the explosion of innumerable mines; and
+the janissaries, fired with fanatic zeal, and stimulated by promises of
+reward, rushed again and again to the attack under the eye of the vizir.
+"Many and various," says Rycaut, in his quaint narrative, "were the
+valiant assaults and sallies, the traverses extraordinary, the
+rencounters bloody, the resistance vigorous, not known or recorded in
+any siege before;" and the struggle continued with unabated fury on both
+sides, till the approach of winter; while, after each unsuccessful
+assault, the Venetians, emulating the ferocity of their enemies,
+displayed the heads of the slain and prisoners (for no quarter was given
+or taken) in barbarous triumph from the wall. At length, after a
+desperate conflict on November 16, the janissaries effected a lodgement
+in the Mocenigo bastion and the Panigra; and the Ottoman banners, for
+the first time, were displayed from the summit of the works. But this
+valiant forlorn hope, in the moment of triumph, was hurled into the air
+by the explosion of a previously-prepared mine; and Kiuprili, dismayed
+at this last failure, drew off his troops into their lines, where they
+lay inactive, till the inundation of the camp by the winter rains
+compelled them to withdraw to a greater distance.
+
+    [16] The use of parallels is usually said to have been
+    introduced at this time by Kiuprili; but they were certainly
+    employed before Neuhausel, four years earlier.
+
+    [17] These were, the Sabionera, covered by the detached fort of
+    St Demetrius, the Vetturi, Jesus, Martinengo, Bethlehem,
+    Panigra, and St Andrew.
+
+Great was the rejoicing throughout Europe at the tidings that the pride
+of the Ottoman battle had once more been driven back discomfited, for
+the best and bravest of nearly every nation in Christendom were now to
+be found in the ranks of the defenders:[18] and great, on the other
+hand, was the perplexity of the divan, and the chagrin of the Turkish
+population, at the apparently endless duration of an enterprise, a
+speedy and glorious termination of which had been expected from the
+presence of the vizir. The sultan even dispatched a confidential agent
+to the seat of war, to examine personally into the state of affairs; and
+finding from his report that the army was reduced, by the sword and the
+ravages of disease, to half its original effective strength, he issued
+peremptory firmans to the pashas of the empire to hasten the equipment
+of their contingents; and even announced his intention of repairing in
+person to Crete, to share the perils and glories of the _holy war_.
+Kiuprili, meanwhile, was indefatigable in his exertions to reorganize
+his army, and restore his artillery to efficiency, even casting new guns
+to fit the Venetian bullets, 30,000 of which are said to have been
+picked up in the Turkish lines during the preceding campaign! A strict
+blockade was kept up on the city, while the Venetian cruisers, and the
+Papal galleys under Rospigliosi, the nephew of Pope Clement IX., were
+equally vigilant in preventing supplies from reaching the besiegers by
+sea; and various maritime encounters took place, generally to the
+advantage of the flag of St Mark. The unworthy jealousy[19] entertained
+by Morosini of Di Villa, led, however, early in the spring of 1668, to
+the withdrawal of that gallant soldier from his command, in which he was
+succeeded by the Marquis Montbrun St Andre, a French volunteer, inferior
+neither in valour nor diligence to his predecessor.
+
+    [18] The majority of these volunteers were supplied by the fiery
+    noblesse of France, among whom the crusading spirit of their
+    ancestors seems to have been revived at this period. At the
+    battle of St Gothard, a considerable body of French auxiliaries
+    was present, under the Duc de la Feuillade, (whose name was
+    travestied by the Turks into, _Fouladi, man of steel_;) and his
+    subsequent expedition to Candia, as well as the more formidable
+    armament under Noailles, seem to have received the direct
+    sanction of Louis XIV. Yet the old treaties between France and
+    the Porte were still in force; so that it was not without some
+    reason that Kiuprili replied, a few years later, to the Marquis
+    de Nointel's professions of amity on the part of France, "I know
+    that the French are our friends, but I always happen to find
+    them in the ranks of our enemies!"
+
+    [19] Villa is said to have produced before the senate of Venice
+    a letter from Morosini to the vizir, offering to betray him into
+    the hands of the Turks.
+
+It was not till the beginning of June that the vizir recommenced active
+operations against Candia; but the plan of attack was now changed. In
+order to command the narrow entrance of the harbour,[20] and so cut off
+the constant reinforcements which reached the besieged by sea, the
+principal batteries were directed against the bastion of Sabionera,
+(called by the Turks the _Kizil-Tabiyah,_ or Red Fort,) at the seaward
+extremity of the works on one side, and against that of St Andrew on the
+other; but the events of the siege during this year present nothing to
+distinguish them from the endless succession of mines, sorties,
+assaults, and countermines, which had marked the campaign of last year.
+The Venetian commanders at length, seeing the Turks preparing to pass
+the winter in their trenches, and sensible that (concentrated as the
+forces of the two contending powers were now for the attack and defence
+of a single fortress) they must eventually be overwhelmed by the
+ponderous strength of the Ottoman empire, once more made overtures for
+peace, offering an annual tribute for Candia, and the cession of the
+rest of the island to the Porte; but the vizir sternly rejected the
+proffered compromise; and his reply to the envoy, Molino--"The Sultan is
+not a merchant, nor does he need money--he has but one word, and that
+is--Candia,"--showed that the long dispute could only be decided by the
+sword. Elated by the hope of speedy triumph, the Turks now ran their
+approaches so close to the bastion of St Andrew, which was held by the
+Maltese knights and militia, that the muzzles of the muskets almost
+touched each other; and the vizir wrote to the Sultan, that they had
+only three yards more of ground to win, when, at this critical moment,
+the spirits of the besieged were revived by the arrival, early in
+December, of the Duc de la Feuillade and the Count de St Pol, with a
+gallant band of 600 volunteers, many of them of the best families of
+France. But the boiling valour of these fiery youths was equally
+difficult to restrain or direct; and, after losing two-thirds of their
+number in desperate, but irregular, sallies against the Turkish lines,
+the survivors of this piece of knight-errantry re-embarked for
+Christendom in January, leaving the heads of their fallen comrades
+ranged on pikes before the tent of Kiuprili. A stancher reinforcement
+was received in the spring of 1669, by the arrival of 3000
+Lunenburghers, whose commander, Count Waldeck, fell a few days after, in
+repulsing an assault on the breach of St Andrew, as did also the former
+governor, Di Villa, whose thirst for glory had brought him back, as
+general of the Papal auxiliaries, to the scene of peril.
+
+    [20] The harbour of Candia (now almost choked up) was at all
+    times so small, and with so little depth of water, as to afford
+    shelter only to galleys, the station of the larger vessels being
+    at the isle of Standia, at some leagues' distance.
+
+These repeated reinforcements, joined to the knowledge that the Pope was
+exerting himself to unite all the princes of Christendom in a league for
+the relief of their hardly-beset brethren, still encouraged the heroic
+defenders of Candia, though the Turks had by this time carried their
+mines at several points within the bastions and exterior defences, and
+compelled the garrison to shelter themselves behind an inner rampart,
+constructed during the winter in anticipation of this extremity:--"So
+that, in effect," says Rycaut, "this most impregnable fort of the world
+was forced and taken by the spade and shovel, and by a crew of unarmed
+labourers, who understood nothing more than the plough and harrow." The
+promised succours, however, were now at hand. On the 22d of June, a
+French fleet appeared off the port, having on board 7000 of the flower
+of the French troops and nobility, who were commanded by the Dukes de
+Noailles and Beaufort, and comprised in their ranks several princes of
+the sovereign houses of Lorrain and Bouillon, the Marshals Colbert and
+De la Motte-Fenelon, the Count of St Pol, and many other names of the
+noblest and bravest in France, who had crowded to embark as volunteers
+in this new and glorious crusade. These gallant auxiliaries landed
+amidst the acclamations of the Venetians; and, on the night of the 27th,
+a general sortie was made, in order to raise the siege by driving the
+Turks from their trenches. The janissaries were driven from their works
+by the impetuous onset of the assailants; but, in the tumult of the
+fight, a large powder-magazine, between the Sabionera and Fort St
+Demetrius, which had been occupied by the French, was accidentally blown
+up. The Duke de Beaufort, and many others, perished in the explosion, or
+were buried under the ruins; and the survivors, panic-stricken at the
+catastrophe, were driven within the walls with terrible slaughter by the
+Turks, who rallied and returned to the charge. The usual hideous
+trophies of Ottoman triumph--the heads of the slain, were laid at the
+feet of the vizir; but the body of the Duc de Beaufort, though anxiously
+sought for at the prayer of his comrades, who offered, through a flag of
+truce, to redeem it at its weight in gold, could never be discovered.
+
+This dreadful blow not only threw a fatal gloom over the ardour of the
+French, but gave rise to an altercation between Morosini and De
+Noailles, each of whom threw on the other the blame of the failure;
+till, after a month thus unprofitably spent, the French commander
+re-embarked his troops, and sailed for Toulon, August 31, leaving the
+town to its fate. The Maltese and Papal galleys departed in his
+company;--"for thus did these accursed swine of Nazarenes" (says the
+Turkish historiographer, Rashid) "withdraw from the doom of hell, which
+awaited them at the hands of the Faithful." The condition of the
+remaining defenders, thus deserted by their allies, and separated from
+the Turks only by breastworks hastily thrown up in the interior of the
+town, was now utterly hopeless, as not more than 3600 men remained fit
+for duty, while the loss in slain and disabled averaged more than a
+hundred a-day. In these desperate circumstances, a council of war was
+summoned by Morosini, to consider whether it might not even yet be
+practicable to avoid the ignominy of a surrender, by evacuating the
+town, and escaping, with the inhabitants, by sea. Their deliberations
+were hastened by a furious assault from the Turks, who were impatient to
+seize their prey; and, though the enemy were repulsed for the time by
+the remains of the Lunenburghers, two officers were eventually
+dispatched to the vizir's headquarters, to announce the submission of
+the garrison, and arrange the terms of capitulation. They were
+courteously received by Kiuprili, who appointed an officer of his own
+household, with Panayoti,[21] the dragoman of the Porte, to confer with
+them; and the articles were settled without much difficulty. Peace was
+concluded between the Porte and the Republic. Candia and the whole of
+Crete was ceded to the Sultan, with the exception of the harbours of
+Grabusa, Suda, and Spinalonga, which the Venetians were allowed to
+retain for purposes of commerce; the garrison and inhabitants of Candia
+were to embark with their arms, baggage, and a certain proportion of
+artillery, and the Ottomans were not to enter the town till the
+embarkation was completed. These conditions were scrupulously observed
+by the victors; till the 27th of September, the evacuation being
+effected, the standard of the cross was at length lowered from the
+walls; and the vizir, standing on the breach of the St Andrew's bastion,
+(thence called by the Turks the _Fort of Surrender_,) in the midst of a
+crowd of pashas and generals, received the keys of the city in a silver
+basin. A body of Turkish troops immediately entered by the breaches, and
+mounted guard on the principal posts; but it was not till the 4th of
+October that the vizir made his triumphant entry at the head of his
+army, (now reduced to about 15,000 regular troops, and 11,000 pioneers
+and irregulars,) and proceeded, bearing in his hand the sacred standard
+of the Prophet, to the cathedral, which was purified from the dead
+bodies interred within its walls, and re-consecrated as a mosque. All
+the other churches underwent the same transformation, with the exception
+of two which Panayoti purchased for the use of the Greeks; for so
+completely was the town deserted, that there remained only, in the words
+of an anonymous eyewitness, "two Greeks, three Jews, and eight other
+strangers, whom the vizir would also have suffered to depart; but they
+chose rather to change their religion than their quarters."
+
+    [21] The appointment of the _Greek_ Panayoti marks an important
+    change in the system of Ottoman diplomacy; as previously the
+    Porte had disdained to employ the _rayahs_ in places of trust,
+    depending wholly, in their intercourse with foreign ambassadors,
+    on the interpreters attached to the suite of the latter.
+
+Thus ended this famous siege, the longest, and one of the most
+memorable, recorded in history. During its continuance, the Venetians
+and their allies lost 30,000 men, and the Turks more than 100,000;
+fifty-six assaults were made on the town above ground, and the same
+number through the mines; and nearly an equal number of sorties was made
+by the garrison. 460 mines were sprung by the Turks, and no less than
+1172 by the Venetians; and the quantity of missiles hurled into the town
+exceeded all calculation. The fortifications were, however, speedily
+repaired by the care of Kiuprili, who remained in the island nine months
+after the surrender, employed in the final organization of this new
+province, which was divided into the three pashaliks of Canea, Retimo,
+and Candia--the last being the residence of the beglerbeg, or supreme
+pasha. The arrangements being at length completed, he quitted Candia for
+Constantinople, whither the capitan-pasha had preceded him with the
+fleet; and, on the 3d of July 1670, he replaced in the hands of the
+Sultan, in his hunting-camp near Rodosto, the _sandjak-sheeref_, which
+had been committed to his charge for the war against the infidels. "In
+this manner," says Rycaut, writing not in a spirit of prophecy, three
+years only before the battle of Vienna, "expired the action of the year,
+fortunate in its success to the Turks; for though they gained but thirty
+acres of land, with expense inestimable of blood and treasure, yet the
+glory and fame which attended it, being the consummation of twenty-five
+years' war, and the theatre where the whole world were spectators, was
+of greater value to the Turks than any other consideration, and may with
+time prove a place of advantage to the further increase of their western
+empire, unless God Almighty, by his mercy and providence, give a stop to
+the progress of this grand oppressor."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+A PASSAGE IN THE LIFE OF A MAITRE-D'ARMES
+
+
+The excitement produced in St Petersburg on the occasion of a rash
+conspiracy which had broken out on the inauguration of the Emperor
+Nicholas, had ample time to die away before the sentence pronounced upon
+the conspirators became known. Six months elapsed, months of terrible
+suspense and anxiety to the friends of the unfortunate prisoners. At
+length, on the 14th of July, the decision of the high court of justice
+appeared in the _St Petersburg Gazette_. Six-and-thirty of the accused
+were condemned to death, the others to the mines and to exile. My friend
+and patron, Count Alexis W----, was included in the former list; but an
+act of clemency on the part of the Emperor tempered the severity of
+justice, and only five of the condemned were left for execution, while
+the remaining thirty-one had their sentence commuted to banishment. My
+friend's name was, God be thanked! among the latter.
+
+On reading this announcement, I rushed into the street, and ran, without
+once stopping, until I reached the house of his beloved Louise. Of her,
+for the present, it will be sufficient to say, that she was a young,
+lovely, and intelligent Frenchwoman, whose sister I had known in Paris,
+and to whose patronage, from her position as a first-rate _modiste_ in
+St Petersburg, I was much indebted. Between this truly amiable woman and
+the Count had for some years existed an attachment, not hallowed,
+indeed, by the church, but so long and deeply-rooted in the hearts of
+both, and so dignified by their mutual constancy and worth, as to have
+won the sympathies even of the Count's mother and sisters. To return,
+however, to Louise, whom I found with a copy of the _Gazette_ in her
+hand, and bathed in tears, but they were tears of joy--
+
+"He is saved!" cried she, on seeing me enter; "thank God and the
+Emperor!"
+
+The first moment of joy over, Louise's thoughts turned to the mother and
+sisters of her lover. She calculated that the _Gazette_ would only leave
+St Petersburg by the post of that night, and that by sending off an
+express immediately the news might reach Moscow twelve hours sooner. She
+asked me if I knew a trusty messenger, who could start without delay to
+bear the glad tidings to the Count's family. I had a Russian servant, an
+intelligent active fellow, and I offered his services, which she
+accepted with delight. The only difficulty was the passport, and through
+the kindness of the ex-chief of police, Monsieur de Gorgoli, it was
+procured in half an hour. At the expiration of that time the courier set
+off, with a thousand rubles in his pocket for travelling expenses.
+
+He arrived at Moscow fourteen hours before the post; fourteen hours of
+mortal anxiety saved to the Count's mother and sisters.
+
+The letter he brought back, was one of those that seem written with a
+feather plucked from an angel's wing. The old Countess called Louise her
+daughter, and the young girls named her their sister. They entreated
+that, when the day was known on which the prisoners were to set off for
+their banishment, a courier might be despatched to Moscow with the news.
+I accordingly told my servant to hold himself in readiness to start, to
+his no small satisfaction; for the Count's mother had given him a
+thousand rubles for his first trip, and he trusted the second might be
+equally well rewarded.
+
+There had not been an execution in St Petersburg for sixty years, and
+the curiosity and excitement caused by the anticipation of this one,
+were proportionably great. The day was not fixed beforehand, and the
+inhabitants of the capital got up each morning, expecting to hear that
+the bloody tragedy had been enacted. I had requested a young Frenchman
+attached to Marshal Marmont's special mission, and who was on that
+account likely to have early information, to let me know when it was to
+take place; and on the evening of the 23d of July, he sent me word that
+the marshal and his suite had been invited to repair by four o'clock the
+following morning to the hotel of the French embassy, the windows of
+which commanded the place of execution.
+
+I hastened to communicate this intelligence to Louise. All her fears
+returned. Was it certain that Alexis was pardoned? Might not the
+commutation of punishment announced in the _Gazette_ be a ruse to
+conceal the truth from the people? These, and a thousand other doubts,
+arose in her mind; but I at last succeeded in tranquillizing her, and
+returned home to take some repose till the hour of the execution. Before
+doing so, however, my servant was sent off to Moscow, to inform the
+Countess W---- that the following day her son would leave St Petersburg
+for his place of exile.
+
+At half-past three, I left my house and hastened in the direction of the
+citadel. A grey tinge in the east announced the approach of day, and a
+thin white fog hung like a veil over the Neva. As I passed the corner of
+the French embassy, Marmont and his suite entered the house, and a
+minute afterwards they appeared upon the balcony.
+
+A few persons were standing upon the quay, not in expectation, or
+because they were informed of what was going to take place, but because
+the bridge of the Trinity was occupied by troops, and they were thereby
+prevented from proceeding whither their affairs called them. They seemed
+uneasy, and uncertain whether it might not be dangerous to remain there.
+
+Some minutes before four, a large fire was lighted on the platform of
+the fortress. My attention being drawn to that point, I perceived, by
+the now increasing daylight, a wooden scaffolding, on which were erected
+five black and ominous looking gibbets.
+
+Four o'clock struck, and the prisoners whose punishment had been
+commuted to banishment appeared upon the platform, and ranged themselves
+round the scaffold. They were all in full uniform, wearing their
+epaulettes, and the stars and ribands of their different orders. Their
+swords were carried by soldiers. I tried to distinguish the Count, but
+the distance, and still imperfect light, rendered the attempt fruitless.
+
+The five who were to suffer death now ascended the scaffold, dressed in
+coarse linen frocks, and with a sort of white hood over their heads.
+They doubtless arrived from separate dungeons, for, as they met, they
+were allowed to embrace one another. Immediately afterwards, a man went
+up to them and said something, which was followed by a cheer from the
+soldiers and others attending the execution. It was afterwards reported,
+I know not with what truth, that this man was sent to offer them their
+lives if they chose to beg them; but that they replied to the offer by
+cries of Russia and Liberty!--cries that were rendered inaudible by the
+hurras of the guards and attendants.
+
+The executioners stepped forward, passed the halters round the necks of
+the condemned, and pulled the hoods over their eyes. A neighbouring
+clock struck the first quarter after four, and simultaneously with the
+sound, a trap-door gave way under the feet of the culprits. There was a
+great cry and much confusion, and a number of soldiers jumped upon the
+scaffold.
+
+Two of the ropes had snapped, and the unhappy men round whose necks they
+had been fastened, had fallen through the scaffolding to the platform;
+one of them had broken his thigh, and the other his arm. Ladders were
+brought, and the sufferers carried up to the scaffold and laid upon
+their backs, for they were unable to stand. In a few minutes new halters
+were ready, and with the help of the executioners, the victims managed
+to drag themselves under the gibbets. Their last words were, Russia and
+Liberty! This time the ropes did their duty.
+
+It was said, that when the Emperor was afterwards informed of this
+incident, he was much vexed at its not having been immediately reported
+to him; but nobody had dared take upon himself the responsibility of
+suspending the execution.
+
+It was now the turn of the exiles. Their sentence was read, declaring
+them to have forfeited every thing, rank, possessions, orders, family,
+all that bound them to the world, and the executioners then tore off
+their epaulettes and decorations, which they threw into the fire. Then
+taking the prisoners' swords from the soldiers who held them, they
+seized them by the hilt and point, and broke them over their owners'
+heads, exclaiming, as each snapped in two, "This is the sword of a
+traitor!" This ceremony over, they were stripped of their uniforms,
+which were replaced by coarse grey smock-frocks, and they were then led
+back to prison. The evening of the same day they set out for Siberia.
+
+I returned to Louise, whom I found on her knees, praying and weeping.
+She looked at me as I entered the room as though afraid to interrogate
+me; but I relieved her anxiety by informing her that all had passed as
+announced in the _Gazette_. She raised her eyes to heaven with an
+expression of pious gratitude.
+
+After a pause, "How far is it from here to Tobolsk?" she enquired.
+
+"About eight hundred leagues."
+
+"It is not so far as I thought," was her observation. I looked at her
+for a moment in silence. I began to suspect her intentions.
+
+"Why do you ask the question?" enquired I.
+
+"Can you not guess?"
+
+"But, Louise, it is impossible, at least at this moment."
+
+"Do not be uneasy, my friend. I know my duty to my child, and my
+affection for its father shall not make me forget it. I will wait."
+
+It was not without a motive that the Count's mother and sisters had been
+anxious to obtain the earliest possible intelligence of his departure
+from St Petersburg. The road from that capital to Tobolsk ran through
+Iroslaw, a town about sixty leagues from Moscow, and they entertained
+hopes of being able to see their son and brother as he passed. Their
+passports were ready, and arrangements made; and as soon as they
+received from my servant the news of the departure of the prisoners,
+they got into a _kubiltka_, and without saying a word to any body of
+their intentions, set out for Iroslaw.
+
+Travelling is rapid in Russia; in less than twenty-four hours they
+reached their destination, and learned with delight that the prisoners
+had not yet passed. As their stay at Iroslaw might have excited
+suspicion, they left that town, and took up their quarters in a small
+village on the road, at a solitary cottage, near which the carriages
+containing the exiles were to change horses. In all such cases in
+Russia, the persons in charge of criminals are forbidden to stop or to
+change horses in towns, or even in villages.
+
+After waiting two days, a servant whom the Countess had stationed upon
+the road to watch for the convoy, hastened to her with the news that the
+first division of the prisoners had just arrived in five carriages, and
+that the corporal in charge had sent men to fetch horses from the
+village. The ladies got into their carriage, and set off at full gallop
+for the cottage at which the convoy had halted. They stopped upon the
+high-road opposite the hut, and gazed eagerly through the half-open door
+of its only room. It was crowded with prisoners; but Alexis was not
+amongst them.
+
+In a quarter of an hour horses were brought; the prisoners re-entered
+the carriage, which immediately set off.
+
+Half an hour later the second division of the convoy arrived; but the
+Count was not with it. The third, fourth, and fifth passed, each being
+obliged to wait longer than the preceeding one for horses, those at the
+post-house and in the immediate neighbourhood having all been taken.
+
+It was some time after nightfall when the sixth and last division was
+heard approaching. The poor women clasped their trembling hands
+together. The much wished-for moment had arrived, yet their greatest
+difficulty was to come. It was more than uncertain whether they would be
+permitted to embrace their son and brother.
+
+The convoy stopped, Alexis got out of the third carriage. In spite of
+the darkness and of his ignoble garb, the Countess and her daughters
+recognized him. One of the latter was about to call out his name; but
+her mother placed her hand on her mouth in time to prevent the
+imprudence, and the Count entered the cottage.
+
+The corporal commanding the escort began enquiring about horses, and on
+learning that they were scarce, he sent off his soldiers with orders to
+seize all they could find in the name of the Emperor. The men departed,
+and he remained alone with the prisoners. There was no danger of an
+attempt at escape. In the heart of the Czar's immense dominions, whither
+could a fugitive betake himself without a certainty of being overtaken,
+or of dying from hunger before he reached the frontier?
+
+Corporal Ivan remained then walking up and down in front of the cottage,
+alternately whistling and floging his leathern overalls with his riding
+whip, and occasionally stopping to gaze at the Countess's travelling
+carriage, which was standing without horses in the road. Presently the
+door of the vehicle opened, three ladies alighted and advanced towards
+the corporal. Two of them remained a little behind, the third approached
+him with clasped hands.
+
+"My friend," said the Countess, "my son is amongst the prisoners you are
+escorting; let me see him but for a moment, and name your own reward."
+
+"It is impossible, madam," replied the corporal respectfully. "My orders
+are strict to allow no one to communicate with the prisoners, and the
+knout is the least I may expect if I transgress them."
+
+"But who will know that you have transgressed them?" cried the Countess,
+her voice trembling with eagerness and suspense. Her daughters stepped
+forward, and joined their hands, as in supplication to the soldier.
+
+"It is quite impossible, madam," repeated the man.
+
+"My mother!" cried Alexis, pushing open the cottage door. He had heard
+her voice, and in an instant was clasped in her arms.
+
+The corporal made a movement as though to seize his prisoner; but at the
+same moment the two young girls fell at his feet, and embracing his
+knees, pointed to the touching spectacle before them.
+
+Corporal Ivan was a good fellow in the main. He uttered something
+between a sigh and a growl, and the sisters saw that their prayer was
+granted.
+
+"Mamma," said one of them in a low tone, "he will allow us to embrace
+our brother." The Countess extricated herself from her son's arms, and
+held out a heavy purse to the corporal.
+
+"You risk a punishment for our sakes, my friend, and it is fair you
+should be recompensed for it."
+
+Ivan looked hard at the purse for a moment, then shaking his head and
+putting his hands behind his back, "No, your ladyship," said he, "I am
+committing a breach of duty, but it is not for gold. Here is the best
+excuse I can give my judges, and if they don't accept it, God will;" and
+he pointed to the two weeping girls. The Countess seized the soldier's
+rough hand and pressed it to her lips.
+
+"The horses cannot be here yet;" continued Ivan, "get into your carriage
+and pull down the blinds. By that means nobody will see you, and I may
+perhaps avoid making acquaintance with the knout."
+
+"Thank you, corporal," said Alexis; "but at least take this purse.
+
+"Take it yourself, lieutenant," said Ivan in a low voice, from habit
+giving the Count a title to which he had no longer a right. "You will
+find the use of it at the end of your journey."
+
+"But on arriving they will search me."
+
+"You can give it to me before the search, and I will return it to you.
+But I hear the gallop of a horse; quick into the carriage!" The corporal
+pushed Alexis into the carriage; the ladies followed, and he shut the
+door upon them.
+
+An hour elapsed, an hour of mingled joy and sorrow. At the expiration of
+that time, the door opened, and Ivan appeared. "You must separate," said
+he, "the horses are arriving."
+
+"A few moments longer!" cried the ladies, with tearful voices.
+
+"Not a second, or I am ruined. Go on to the next relay; it is dark, no
+one will see you, and I sha'n't be punished more for twice than once."
+
+"Oh! you will not be punished at all," cried the ladies; "surely God
+will reward you."
+
+"Hum," said the corporal doubtingly, and half pulling his prisoner out
+of the carriage.
+
+At the next relay, things went equally well. A third interview was
+rendered impossible by the approach of day. The sad word _farewell_ was
+pronounced, and the weeping women took the road to Moscow, having
+previously arranged a plan of correspondence, and carrying with them a
+few affectionate lines that Alexis had scrawled in pencil for Louise.
+
+The Countess had ordered my servant to wait at Moscow till she returned,
+and on her arrival there immediately dispatched him to St Petersburg. He
+brought Louise the Count's note, and a letter from his mother, inviting
+her to go to Moscow, for that she was impatient to embrace her as her
+daughter.
+
+Louise kissed her lover's note. She shook her head on reading the
+Countess's letter, and smiled one of those sad smiles that were peculiar
+to her. "I shall not go to Moscow," said she, "my place is elsewhere."
+
+As I had suspected, Louise had resolved to join Count W---- at Tobolsk;
+but she could not set out till after her confinement, which was to take
+place in a couple of months. Meantime she busied herself with
+preparations. By turning every thing she possessed into money, she got
+together a sum of thirty thousand rubles. At her request, I applied to
+my kind friend, Monsieur de Gorgoli, to obtain from the Emperor
+permission for her to rejoin her lover. Her intentions had got wind in
+St Petersburg, and every body spoke with admiration of the devoted
+attachment of the young Frenchwoman. Many thought, however, that her
+courage would fail her when the moment of departure arrived; but I knew
+her better, and felt assured of the contrary.
+
+At the commencement of September, she became the mother of a boy. I
+wished her to write to the mother of Alexis to announce this event; but
+she refused. The Countess heard of it, however, and wrote to Louise, to
+say that she was expecting her with her child.
+
+Her recovery was slow, the various emotions she had undergone during her
+pregnancy having weakened her health. She would have left St Petersburg
+long before she was strong enough to do so; but the permission to join
+Count W---- was to come through me, and I refused to apply for it till
+her medical attendant gave her leave to travel.
+
+One morning the door of my apartment opened and Louise entered, her face
+radiant with joy. "He will escape!" cried she.
+
+"Who?"
+
+"He--Alexis."
+
+"How! Escape? It is impossible."
+
+"Read that," she said and handed me a letter in the Count's
+hand-writing. It was as follows:--"Dearest Louise--Place all confidence
+in the bearer of this letter. He is more than my friend--he is my
+saviour.
+
+"I fell ill upon the road, and was obliged to stop at Perm. The
+physicians declared I was not able to continue my journey, and it was
+decided I should pass the winter in the prison of that town. As good
+fortune would have it, the jailer's brother is an old servant of my
+family and willing to aid my escape. He and his brother fly with me; but
+I must have means of indemnifying them for what they give up on my
+account, and for the risk they run. Give the bearer all the money and
+jewels you possess. As soon as I am in safety I will write to you to
+come and join me. Adieu. W----."
+
+"Well," said I after reading the letter twice over, "what have you
+done?"
+
+"Can you ask the question?"
+
+"What!" cried I. "You have given ...?"
+
+"Every ruble I had," interrupted she.
+
+"And if this letter were not from the Count? If it were a forgery?"
+
+She changed colour, and snatched the paper from my hand.
+
+"Oh, no!" said she. "I know his hand-writing. I cannot be mistaken."
+But, on reading the letter again, I observed that she grew still paler.
+
+"I do not think," I observed, "that Alexis would have addressed such a
+demand to you."
+
+"And why not? Who loves him better than I do?"
+
+"Understand me rightly. For an act of friendship or devotion he would
+have applied to _you_, but for money to his mother. I tell you again,
+either I do not know Count W----'s character, or this letter is not
+written by him."
+
+"But what will become of me? I have given every thing I possessed."
+
+"How did the Count usually sign his letters?"
+
+"Alexis always."
+
+"You see this one is signed W----. It is evidently a forgery and we must
+immediately inform the police."
+
+"And if we are mistaken? If it is not a forgery, by doing so I shall
+prevent his escape. Oh, no! Better lose the money. I can manage without.
+All that I am anxious to know is, whether he is at Perm."
+
+It occurred to me, that I might easily ascertain this latter point
+through a lieutenant of gendarmerie to whom I gave lessons; and begging
+Louise to wait my return, I hastened to his quarters. I told him I had
+particular reasons for wishing to know whether my friend W---- had
+reached Tobolsk, and asked him if it were possible to ascertain. He
+immediately sent an orderly for the non-commissioned officer who had
+commanded the Count's division. Ten minutes afterwards, Corporal Ivan
+entered the room; and, although I was not then aware of the service he
+had rendered the Countess and her daughters, I was immediately
+prepossessed in his favour, by his frank open countenance and soldierly
+bearing.
+
+"You commanded the sixth division of the prisoners lately sent to
+Siberia?" enquired I.
+
+"I did so, your excellency."
+
+"Count W---- was in your division?"
+
+The corporal hesitated, and did not seem much to like the question.
+
+"Fear nothing," said I, "you are speaking to a friend, who would
+sacrifice his own life for him. Tell me the truth, I beseech you. Was
+Count W---- ill on the road?"
+
+"Not the least."
+
+"Did he stop at Perm?"
+
+"Not even to change horses. I left him at Koslowo, a pretty little
+village on the Irtich, twenty leagues from Tobolsk."
+
+"You are sure of what you say?"
+
+"Quite sure. I had a receipt from the authorities, which I delivered
+over to his excellency the grand-master of police."
+
+I now hastened to Monsieur de Gorgoli, and related all that had passed.
+When I had finished--
+
+"Is this young girl decided to go penniless, as she now is, to join her
+lover in Siberia?"
+
+"Quite decided, your excellency; and I am persuaded nothing will alter
+her resolution."
+
+"Then go, and tell her from me, that she shall have the permission."
+
+I hurried back to Louise, and informed her of the result of my two
+interviews. She appeared indifferent to the loss of her little fortune,
+but overjoyed to learn that she would be allowed to join her lover. Her
+only anxiety now was to obtain the requisite permission as soon as
+possible.
+
+Before leaving her, I placed at her disposal what money I had, which,
+unfortunately, was only two or three thousand rubles; for I had, a short
+time previously, remitted to France all that I had laid by during my
+residence at St Petersburg.
+
+The same evening I was at Louise's house, when one of the Emperor's
+aides-de-camp was announced. He brought her a letter of audience for the
+following day. Monsieur de Gorgoli had kept his word.
+
+Early the following morning I called upon Louise, to accompany her to
+the palace. I found her waiting for me, dressed in deep mourning, and
+without a single ornament; but her pale, melancholy style of beauty, was
+rather improved than impaired by the simplicity and sombre colour of her
+attire.
+
+At the palace gate we separated, and I awaited her return in the
+carriage. On presenting her letter of audience, an officer on duty
+conducted her to the Emperor's private cabinet, and desiring her to wait
+there, left the room. She remained alone for about ten minutes, during
+which time, she afterwards told me, she was more than once near fainting
+away. At last a step was heard in the adjoining apartment; a door
+opened, and the Emperor appeared. On seeing him, she, by a spontaneous
+movement, fell upon her knees, and, unable to find words, clasped her
+hands together in mute supplication.
+
+"Rise!" said the Emperor kindly, advancing towards her. "I have been
+already spoken to on the subject of your application. You wish for
+permission to join an exile?"
+
+"Yes, sire, if such a favour may be granted."
+
+"You are neither his sister nor his wife, I believe?"
+
+"I am his--friend, sire," replied poor Louise, a tinge of pink
+over-spreading her pale cheek. "He must sadly need a friend."
+
+"You know that he is banished for life to a country where there are
+scarcely four months of spring, and the rest of the year is one dreary
+winter?"
+
+"I know it, sire."
+
+"Do you know, also, that he has neither rank, fortune, nor title to
+share with you--that he is poorer than the poorest mendicant in St
+Petersburg?"
+
+"Yes, sire."
+
+"You have doubtless some fortune, some resources of your own?"
+
+"Alas, sire, I have nothing! Yesterday I had thirty thousand rubles,
+produced by the sale of all I possessed, but even that little fortune
+was stolen from me."
+
+"I know it. By a forged letter. It was more than a theft, it was a
+sacrilege; and, should its perpetrator be detected, he shall be punished
+as though he had broken open the poor-box in a church. But there are
+means of repairing your loss?"
+
+"How, sire?"
+
+"Inform his family of the circumstance. They are rich, and will assist
+you."
+
+"I thank your Majesty; but I desire no assistance save that of God."
+
+"But without funds how can you travel? Have you no friends who would
+help you?"
+
+"Pardon me, sire, but I am too proud to borrow what I could never repay.
+By selling what little property I have left, I shall raise two or three
+hundred rubles."
+
+"Scarcely sufficient for a quarter of the journey. Do you know the
+distance from here to Tobolsk, my poor girl?"
+
+"Yes, sire--about eight hundred French leagues."
+
+"And how will you get over the five or six hundred leagues you will
+still have to travel when your last ruble is spent?"
+
+"There are towns on the road, sire. When I reach a town I will work till
+I have enough to continue my journey to the next."
+
+"That may do as far as Perm," replied the Emperor; "but after that you
+have the Ural mountains, and you are at the end of Europe. After that
+nothing but a few scattered villages; no inns upon the road; large
+rivers without bridges or ferries, and which must be traversed by
+dangerous fords, whence men and horses are frequently swept away."
+
+"Sire, when I reach the rivers they will be frozen; for I am told that
+in those regions the winter begins earlier than at St Petersburg."
+
+"What!" cried the Emperor, astonished, "do you think of setting out
+now--of performing such a journey in winter?"
+
+"It is during the winter that _his_ solitude must be most intolerable."
+
+"It is impossible. You must be mad to think of it."
+
+"Impossible if your Majesty so wills it. No one can disobey your
+Majesty."
+
+"_I_ shall not prevent it; but surely your own reason, and the immense
+difficulties of such an undertaking, will."
+
+"Sire! I will set out to-morrow."
+
+"But if you perish on the road?"
+
+"If I perish, sire, he will have lost nothing, for I am neither his
+mother, his daughter, nor sister, but only his mistress--that is, a
+woman to whom society gives no rights, and who must consider herself
+fortunate if the world looks upon her with no harsher feeling than
+indifference. But if I _am_ able to join him, I shall be _every thing_
+to him--mother, sister, family, and friends. We shall be two to suffer
+instead of one, and that fearful exile will lose half its terrors. You
+see, sire, I _must_ rejoin him, and that as soon as possible."
+
+"You are right," said the Emperor, looking fixedly at her, "and I no
+longer oppose your departure."
+
+He rang; an aide-de-camp appeared.
+
+"Is Corporal Ivan in attendance?"
+
+"He waits your Majesty's orders."
+
+"Let him come in."
+
+The aide-de-camp bowed, and disappeared. Two minutes afterwards the door
+reopened, and Corporal Ivan stepped into the room, then halted, upright
+and motionless, one hand on the seam of his overalls, the other to the
+front of his schako.
+
+"Draw near," said the Emperor, in a stern voice.
+
+The corporal made four paces to the front, and relapsed into his former
+position.
+
+"Nearer!"
+
+Four more paces, and Ivan was close to the Emperor's writing-table.
+
+"You are Corporal Ivan?"
+
+"Yes, sire."
+
+"You commanded the escort of the sixth division?"
+
+"Yes, sire."
+
+"You had orders to allow the prisoners to communicate with no one?"
+
+This time the corporal's tongue seemed embarrassed by something, and his
+affirmative was uttered in a less steady tone than the preceding ones.
+
+"Count Alexis W---- was one of the prisoners in your division, and in
+spite of your orders you allowed him to have two interviews with his
+mother and sisters. You knew the punishment you exposed yourself to by
+so doing?"
+
+Ivan grew very pale, and was forced to support himself against the
+table.
+
+"Pardon, sire!" gasped he.
+
+Louise seemed about to speak, but a motion of the Emperor's hand warned
+her to remain quiet. After a moment's silence--
+
+"You are pardoned," said the Emperor.
+
+The soldier drew a deep breath. Louise uttered an exclamation of joy.
+
+"Where did you leave Count W----?"
+
+"At Koslowo, your Majesty."
+
+"You will set off again, and escort this lady thither."
+
+"Oh, sire!" exclaimed Louise, who began to understand the Emperor's
+feigned severity,
+
+"You will obey her in all respects, consistently with her safety, for
+which you answer to me with your head; and if, on your return, you bring
+me a letter from her, saying that she is satisfied with your conduct,
+you shall be made sergeant."
+
+"Thanks, father," said Ivan, forgetting for a moment his military
+stiffness, and falling upon his knees. The Emperor gave him his hand to
+kiss, as he was in the habit of doing to the lowest of his subjects.
+Louise was going to throw herself at his feet and kiss his other hand,
+but the Emperor stopped her.
+
+"You are indeed a true and admirable woman," said he. "I have done all I
+can for you. May God bless and protect you!"
+
+"Oh, sire!" exclaimed Louise, "how can I show my gratitude!"
+
+"When you pray for your child," said the Emperor, "pray also for mine."
+And waving his hand kindly to her, he left the room.
+
+When Louise returned home she found a small packet that had been sent
+from the Empress during her absence. It contained thirty thousand
+rubles.
+
+It had been arranged that I should accompany Louise as far as Moscow, a
+city that I was desirous of visiting, and thence she would pursue her
+journey under Ivan's escort. The day after her interview with the
+Emperor, we started in a carriage that Ivan brought, and the combined
+strength and elegance of which surprised me, until I observed on a
+corner of the pannel the mark of the imperial stables. It was an
+excellent travelling berline, lined throughout with fur. Ivan was
+provided with an order, by virtue of which post-horses would be
+furnished us the whole of the journey, at the Emperor's expense. Louise
+got into the carriage with her child in her arms; I seated myself beside
+her, Ivan jumped on the box, and in a few minutes we were rattling along
+the Moscow road.
+
+Louise was received with open arms by the Countess W---- and her
+daughters. The nature of her connexion with Alexis was lost sight of and
+forgotten in the devotion and disinterestedness of her attachment. A
+room was prepared for her in the Countess's house; and, however anxious
+the Count's mother and sisters were that he should have society and
+consolation in his exile, they nevertheless entreated her to pass the
+winter at Moscow, rather than run the risk of so long a journey during
+the bad season that was approaching. But Louise was inflexible. Two days
+were all she would consent to remain. She was forced, however, to leave
+her child in charge of its grandmother, for it would have been madness
+to have done otherwise.
+
+I had been offered an apartment in the Countess's house, but preferred
+taking up my quarters at an hotel, in order to have liberty to spend my
+time in visiting whatever was remarkable at Moscow. On the evening of
+the second day I went to call upon the Countess. The ladies were making
+another effort to persuade Louise to defer her perilous journey till a
+more favourable season. But no arguments, no entreaties, could move her:
+she was determined to set off the following morning. I was invited to
+breakfast, and to witness her departure.
+
+I had been for some days turning over in my mind a project that I now
+resolved to put in execution. I got up early the next morning and bought
+a fur coat and cap, thick furred boots, a carbine, and a brace of
+pistols, all of which I gave to Ivan, and desired him to place them in
+the carriage. I then hastened to the Countess W----'s.
+
+Breakfast over, the carriage drove up to the door. Louise was
+alternately clasped in the arms of the Countess and her daughters. My
+turn came, and she held out her hand. I made a motion to assist her into
+the carriage. "Well," said she, astonished, "don't you bid me farewell?"
+
+"Why should I?"
+
+"I am going to set off."
+
+"So am I."
+
+"You!"
+
+"Certainly. You recollect the Persian fable--the pebble that was not the
+rose, but had caught some of its fragrance by living near it."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Well, I have caught some of your devotedness, and I shall go with you
+to Tobolsk. I will deliver you safe and sound to the Count, and then
+come back again."
+
+Louise looked me earnestly in the face. "I have no right," said she, "to
+prevent your doing a good action--come."
+
+The Countess and her daughters were in tears. "My child! my child!"
+cried Louise, who had remained firm up to this moment, but burst into a
+passion of weeping as she clasped her infant for the last time in her
+arms.
+
+"Adieu! Adieu!" The whip cracked; the wheels rattled over the pavement.
+We were off to Siberia. On we went, day and night. Pokrow, Vladimir,
+Nijni-Novogorod, Casan. "_Pascare! Pascare!_" Quicker! Quicker! was
+Ivan's cry to each new postilion. The snow had not yet begun to fall,
+and he was anxious, if possible, to cross the Ural mountains before it
+set in. The immense plains between Moscow and Perm were traversed with
+tremendous rapidity. On reaching the latter place, Louise was so much
+exhausted that I told Ivan we must halt one night. He hesitated a
+moment, then looking at the sky, which was dark and lowering, "It will
+be as well," said he; "we must soon have snow, and it is better it
+should fall before than during our journey." The next morning his
+prediction was verified. There were two feet of snow in the streets of
+Perm.
+
+Ivan now wished to remain till the cold increased, so that the snow
+might become hard, and the rivers frozen. But all his arguments could
+only induce Louise to wait two days. On the third morning we set off,
+leaving our carriage, and packed into a sort of small vehicle without
+springs, called a _telegue_.
+
+On reaching the foot of the Ural mountains, the cold had so much
+increased that it became advisable to substitute a sledge for our
+wheels. We stopped at a miserable village, composed of a score of
+hovels, in order to effect this exchange, and entered a wretched hut,
+which did duty both as posting-house and as the only inn in the place.
+Eight or nine men, carriers by trade, were crowded round a large fire,
+lighted in the centre of the room, and the smoke of which found a vent
+through a hole in the roof. They paid no attention to our entrance; but
+when I had taken off my cloak, my uniform at once obtained for us the
+best place at the hearth. The landlord of this wretched hostelry met my
+enquires about supper with a stare of astonishment, and offered me a
+huge loaf of hard black bread as the whole contents of his larder. Ivan,
+however, presently appeared, having managed to forage out a couple of
+fowls, which, in an inconceivably short space of time, were plucked, and
+one of them simmering in an iron pot over the fire, while the other hung
+suspended by a string in front of the blaze. Supper over, we wrapped
+ourselves in our furs, and lay down upon the floor, beds in such a place
+being of course out of the question.
+
+Before daybreak, I awoke, and found Ivan and the carriers already afoot,
+and in consultation as to the practicability of continuing our journey.
+The question was at last decided in favour of the march; the waggoners
+hastened to harness their horses, and I went to inspect our carriage,
+which the village blacksmith had taken off its wheels and mounted upon a
+sledge. Ivan meantime was foraging for provisions, and shortly returned
+with a ham, some tolerable bread, and half a dozen bottles of a sort of
+reddish brandy, made, I believe, out of the bark of the birch-tree.
+
+At length all was ready, and off we set, our sledge going first,
+followed by the carriers' waggons. Our new companions, according to a
+custom existing among them, had chosen one of their number as a chief,
+whose experience and judgment were to direct the movements of the party,
+and whose orders were to be obeyed in all things. Their choice had
+fallen on a man named George, whose age I should have guessed to be
+fifty, but who, I learned with astonishment, was upwards of seventy
+years old. He was a powerful and muscular man, with black piercing eyes,
+overhung by thick shaggy eyebrows, which, as well as his long beard,
+were of an iron grey. His dress consisted of a woollen shirt and
+trousers, a fur cap, and a sheepskin with the wool turned inside. To the
+leathern belt round his waist were suspended two or three horse-shoes, a
+metal fork and spoon, a long-bladed knife, a small hatchet, and a sort
+of wallet, in which he carried pipe, tobacco, flint, steel, nails,
+money, and a variety of other things useful or necessary in his mode of
+life. The garb and equipment of the other carriers were, with some small
+differences, the same.
+
+The first day's journey passed without incident. Our march was slow and
+even dangerous, all trace of the road being obliterated, and we were
+obliged to feel our way, as it were, by sending men forward with long
+pikes to sound the depth of snow before us. At nightfall, however, we
+found ourselves in safety on a sort of platform surmounted by a few
+pine-trees. Here we established our bivouac. Branches were cut, and a
+sort of hut built; and, with the aid of enormous fires, the night passed
+in greater comfort than might have been expected on a mountain-side, and
+with snow many feet deep around us.
+
+At daybreak we were again in movement. Our difficulties increased as we
+ascended the mountain: the snow lay in prodigious masses, and more than
+once we were delayed by having to rescue one or other of our advanced
+guard from some hole or ravine into which he had fallen. No serious
+accident, however, occurred, and we had at length the satisfaction of
+finding ourselves descending. We had passed the highest point of the
+road.
+
+We had been going downhill for some three hours, the way zig-zaging
+among rocks and precipices, when suddenly we were startled by a loud
+cracking, followed by a noise that resembled a clap of thunder repeated
+by many echoes. At the same moment a sort of whirlwind swept by us, and
+the air was darkened by a cloud of snow-dust. "An avalanche!" cried
+George, stopping his waggon. Every body halted. In another instant the
+noise ceased, the air became clear, and the avalanche continued its
+downward course, breaking, as it passed, a couple of gigantic pines that
+grew upon a rock, some five hundred feet below us. The carriers gave a
+hurra of joy at their escape, nor was it without reason. Had we been
+only half a verst further on our road, our journey had been at an end.
+
+The avalanche had not passed, however, without doing us some harm, for,
+on reaching the part of the road over which it had swept, we found it
+blocked up by a wall of snow thirty feet thick and of great height.
+There were several hours' work for all of us to clear it away; but
+unfortunately it was already nightfall, and we were obliged to make up
+our minds to remain where we were till morning.
+
+No wood was to be had either for hut or fire. The want of the latter was
+most unfortunate; for independently of the cold rendering it very
+necessary, it was our chief protection against the wolves. Doing the
+best we could under such unfavourable circumstances, we drew up the
+carts in the form of a half circle, of which the two extremities rested
+against the wall of snow it our rear, and within the sort of
+fortification thus formed we placed the horses and our sledge. Our
+arrangements were scarcely completed when it became perfectly dark.
+
+In the absence of fire Louise's supper and mine consisted of dry bread.
+The carriers, however, made a hearty meal on the flesh of a bear they
+had killed that morning, and which they seemed to consider as good raw
+as cooked.
+
+I was regretting the want of any description of light in case of an
+attack from the wolves, when Louise suddenly recollected that Ivan had
+put the lanterns belonging to the travelling carriage into our _telegue_
+when we changed horses. On searching I found them under the seat, each
+furnished with a thick wax taper.
+
+This was, indeed, a treasure. We could not hope to scare away the wolves
+by the light of our two candles; but it would enable us to see them
+coming, and to give them a proper reception. We tied the lanterns to the
+top of two poles fixed firmly in the snow, and saw with pleasure that
+they cast their clear pale light nearly fifty yards around our
+encampment.
+
+We were ten men in all. Two stood sentry on the carts, while the
+remainder set to work to pierce through the obstacle left by the
+avalanche. The snow had already become slightly frozen, so that they
+were able to cut a passage through it. I joined the working party as
+being a warmer occupation than standing sentry. For three or four hours
+we toiled incessantly, and the birch-tree brandy, with which I had
+provided myself, and which we had carefully economized, was now found
+most useful in giving strength and courage to the labourers.
+
+It was about eleven o'clock at night when a long howl was heard, which
+sounded so close and startling that with one accord we suspended our
+work. At the same moment old George, who was on sentry, called to us. We
+ran to the waggons and jumped upon them. A dozen enormous wolves were
+prowling about the outside edge of the bright circle thrown by our
+lanterns. Fear of the light kept them off; but each moment they were
+growing bolder, and it was easy to see that they would not be long
+without attacking us.
+
+I looked to the priming of my carbine and pistols. Ivan was similarly
+armed; but the carriers had only their pikes, hatchets, and knives. With
+these weapons, however, they boldly awaited the attack.
+
+Half an hour passed in this state of suspense, the wolves occasionally
+advancing a pace or two into the circle of light, but always retreating
+again. At length one of them approached so near that I asked George if
+it would not be advisable to reward his temerity with a bullet.
+
+"Yes," was the answer, "if you are certain of hitting him."
+
+"Why must I be certain?"
+
+"Because if you kill him his companions will amuse themselves with
+eating him; to be sure," added he to himself, "if once they taste blood
+they will be mad for more."
+
+"The mark is so good," said I, "I can hardly miss him."
+
+"Fire, then, in God's name!" returned George; "all this must have an end
+one way or the other."
+
+Before the words were out of his mouth I fired, and the wolf writhed in
+agony on the snow. In an instant half a dozen wolves darted forward,
+and, seizing their comrade, carried him off into the darkness.
+
+The howlings now increased, and it was evident more wolves were
+arriving. At length there was a moment's silence.
+
+"Do you hear the horses," said George, "how they neigh, and paw? It is a
+signal for us to be prepared."
+
+"I thought the wolves were gone," replied I; "they have left off
+howling.
+
+"No, they have finished their repast, and are preparing for an attack.
+Here they come."
+
+And that moment eight or ten wolves, that in the imperfect flickering
+light looked as big as jackasses, rushed forward, and instead of
+endeavouring to pass under the waggons, bounded boldly upon them. By
+some chance, however, none of them attacked the waggon on which I was
+posted.
+
+The cart on my right, defended by George, was escaladed by three wolves,
+one of which was immediately disabled by a thrust of the vigorous old
+man's pike. A ball from my carbine settled another, and seeing George's
+hatchet raised over the head of the third I knew he wanted no further
+aid, and looked to see what was going on to my left. Two wolves had
+attacked the waggon which was defended by one of George's sons, who
+received the first of his foes with a lance thrust. But apparently no
+vital part was touched, and the wolf had broken the pike with his teeth;
+so that for a moment the man opposed to him had nothing but the pole
+wherewith to defend himself. The second wolf was scrambling along the
+cart, and on the point of attacking him, when I sprang from one waggon
+to another, and fired one of my pistols into the animal's ear. He fell
+dead beside his companion, who was rolling in the snow, and making
+violent efforts to tear the broken lance from his wound.
+
+Meantime Ivan was hard at work, and I heard a carbine or two pistol
+shots, which told me that our adversaries were as warmly received on the
+left as on the right of the line. An instant later four wolves again
+crossed the circle of light, but this time in full retreat; and at the
+same moment, to our no small astonishment, three others, that we had
+thought dead or mortally wounded, raised themselves up and followed
+their companions, leaving large tracks of blood behind them. Three
+carcasses remained upon the field of battle.
+
+"Load again, and quickly," cried George. "I know their ways; they will
+be back directly." And the old man pointed with his finger into the
+darkness. I listened, and heard distant howlings replying to the nearer
+ones. What we had as yet had was a mere skirmish. The general engagement
+was to come.
+
+"Look behind you!" cried a voice. I turned and saw two fiery eyes
+gleaming on the top of the snow wall in our rear. Before I could draw a
+trigger the wolf gave a leap, and falling upon one of the horses struck
+his fangs into its throat. Three men left their waggons.
+
+"There is but one wolf," cried George, "and one man is enough. Let the
+others remain at their posts."
+
+Two of the men resumed their places. The third crept upon his hands and
+knees among the horses who, in their terror, were kicking and plunging
+violently, and throwing themselves against the carts by which they were
+surrounded. The next instant I saw the gleam of a knife blade, and the
+wolf let go the horse, which reared up on its hind-legs, the blood
+streaming from its throat. A dark mass was rolling and struggling on the
+ground. It was the man and the wolf.
+
+At the end of a few seconds the man stood up. "David," said he to one of
+his comrades, "come and help me to carry away this carrion. The horses
+wont be quiet while it lies here."
+
+They dragged the wolf towards George's waggon, and then raising it up
+from the ground, the old man took it by the hind-legs, as though it had
+been a hare, and threw it outside the line of carts.
+
+"Well, Nicholas," said George to the successful combatant, "don't you
+take your place again."
+
+"No," replied the other; "I have enough as it is."
+
+"Are you wounded?" cried Louise, opening the door of the _telegue_.
+
+"I believe I have killed my last wolf," answered the poor fellow in a
+faint voice.
+
+I gave George my carbine, and hastened to the wounded man. A part of his
+jaw was torn away, and the blood flowed abundantly from a large wound in
+his neck. I for a moment feared that the carotid artery was opened, and
+scarcely knowing whether I did right or wrong, I seized a handful of
+snow and applied it to the wound. The sufferer uttered a cry and fainted
+away.
+
+"O God!" cried Louise, "have mercy upon him!"
+
+"To your posts," shouted George in a stentorian voice; "the wolves are
+upon us."
+
+I left the wounded man in Louise's care, and jumped upon the cart.
+
+I can give no details of the combat that followed. I had too much
+occupation myself to attend to what my companions were doing. We were
+attacked by at least twenty wolves at once. After discharging my two
+pistols, I armed myself with an axe that George gave me. The fight
+lasted nearly a quarter of an hour, and certainly the scene was one of
+the most terrible it is possible to imagine. At length, and just as I
+was splitting the skull of a wolf that hung on to one of the wheels of
+my waggon, a shout of victory resounded along our line, and again our
+enemies fled, but this time it was for good.
+
+Three of our men were wounded, besides Nicholas, who was still alive,
+but in a desperate state. We were obliged to shoot the horse that had
+been torn by the wolf.
+
+By daybreak, a passage was opened through the wall of snow, and we
+resumed our journey. The evening of the same day we reached a small
+village, where we found an inn, that, under any other circumstances,
+would have been pronounced abominable, but which appeared a palace after
+three such days as we had passed. The following morning we parted from
+our friends the carriers, leaving George five hundred rubles to divide
+among them.
+
+All now went well. Thanks to the imperial order with which we were
+provided, the best horses were always for us, and, when necessary,
+escorts of ten or twelve men galloped on either side of our sledge. The
+country was flat and the pace good, and exactly a week after leaving the
+Ural mountains we entered Tobolsk.
+
+We were dreadfully fatigued, but yet Louise would only remain long
+enough to take a bath; and at two in the morning we set out for the
+little town of Koslowo, which had been selected as the abode of twenty
+of the exiles, among whom was Alexis. On arriving, we hastened to the
+officer commanding there, and showing him the Emperor's order, which
+produced its usual effect, enquired after the Count. He was well, was
+the answer, and still at Koslowo.
+
+It had been agreed between Louise and myself that I should go and see
+him first, and inform him of her arrival. I asked the governor for a
+pass, which he gave me without hesitation, and a Cossack conducted me to
+a part of the town composed of some twenty houses enclosed within high
+palisades, and guarded by sentries. We stopped before a door, and my
+guide knocked. "Come in!" said a voice which I recognized as that of
+Alexis.
+
+When I opened the door, he was lying on his bed, dressed, and with a
+book on the floor near him. I stopped upon the threshold. He stared at
+me without speaking, and seemed hardly to believe his eyes.
+
+"Well," said I, "have you forgotten me?"
+
+At the sound of my voice, he sprang from his bed and threw his arms
+round me. But the next instant he started back. "Good heavens!"
+exclaimed he, "you are exiled, and I am probably the cause."
+
+"No, indeed," I replied, "I come here as an amateur." He smiled
+bitterly.
+
+"As an amateur! Into the heart of Siberia! Explain your meaning. But
+first--Louise--what of her?"
+
+"I have just now left her."
+
+"Just now? A month ago, you mean?"
+
+"Five minutes ago."
+
+"Good God! what do you mean?" cried Alexis, growing very pale.
+
+"That Louise has accompanied me, and is now here."
+
+"Oh woman! woman! Thy heart is ever the same," murmured Alexis, while
+tear after tear rolled down his cheek. He was then silent for a time,
+but his lips moved, and I doubt not in thanksgiving to God for such
+happiness.
+
+"Where is she?" he at length exclaimed.
+
+"At the governor's house."
+
+He rushed towards the door. "I am mad," said he, pausing, "I forget that
+I cannot leave my cage without permission. My dearest friend, bring her
+here, I beseech you! Or stay, this man will go." He spoke in Russian to
+the Cossack, who went out.
+
+In a few minutes, and before I could answer a tithe of the numerous
+questions Alexis asked me, the man returned, but alone.
+
+"Well?" said the Count, changing countenance.
+
+"The governor says you must be aware that the prisoners are not allowed
+to receive visits from women."
+
+The Count struck his forehead with his clenched hand, and fell back upon
+a chair. His features were almost convulsed by the violence of his
+emotions. At last he turned to the Cossack.
+
+"Beg the sergeant to come here." The soldier left the room.
+
+"Can any thing be more horrible?" cried Alexis. "She has come nine
+hundred leagues to see me; she is not a hundred yards from me, and we
+are forbidden to meet!"
+
+"There must surely be some blunder," said I; "an order misunderstood, or
+something of the kind."
+
+Alexis shook his head doubtingly. There was a wild look of despair in
+his large dark eyes that alarmed me. At this moment, the sergeant who
+had charge of the prisoners entered.
+
+"Sir," cried the Count with vehemence, "the woman I love has left St
+Petersburg to join me, and after a thousand dangers and hardships has
+arrived here. I am now told that I shall not be allowed to see her. It
+is doubtless a mistake?"
+
+"No, sir," replied the sergeant coolly. "You know very well that the
+prisoners are not permitted to see women."
+
+"But Prince Troubetskoy has that permission. Is it because he is a
+prince?"
+
+"No, sir, it is because the princess is his wife."
+
+"And if Louise were my wife, should I be allowed to see her?"
+
+"Undoubtedly, sir!"
+
+"Ha!" ejaculated the Count, as though a weight were removed from off his
+heart. "I should like to speak with the priest," said he to the
+sergeant, after a moment's pause.
+
+"He shall be sent for immediately," was the reply.
+
+"And now my friend," said Alexis, turning to me, and taking my hands in
+his, "you have been Louise's guardian and defender, will you for once
+act as her father?"
+
+The following morning at ten o'clock, Louise, accompanied by the
+governor and myself, and Alexis by Prince Troubetskoy and the other
+exiles, entered the little church of Koslowa by two different doors.
+Their first meeting was at the altar, and the first word they exchanged
+was the _yes_ that united them for ever.
+
+The Emperor by a private letter to the governor, of which Ivan was the
+bearer, had ordered that the Count should only be allowed to see Louise
+as his wife. It has been seen how willingly my friend obeyed, I should
+rather say anticipated, the Emperor's commands. And rich was his reward
+for thus promptly acknowledging the just claims of this devoted and very
+admirable woman. She was one of "nature's own nobility"--refined and
+graceful, intelligent and high-minded--and would have graced higher rank
+than that to which she was raised by the gratitude of Count Alexis
+W----.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+AMMALAT BEK.
+
+A TRUE TALE OF THE CAUCASUS. FROM THE RUSSIAN OF MARLINSKI.
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+"Will you hold your tongue, little serpent?" said an old Tartar woman to
+her grandson, who, having awakened before daylight, was crying for want
+of something better to do. "Be quiet, or I will kick you into the
+street."
+
+This old woman was Ammalat's nurse: the hut in which she lived stood
+close to the tents of the Begs, and had been given to her by her
+foster-son, Ammalat. It was composed of two clean whitewashed rooms, the
+floor of both was strewed with coarse mats, (ghasil;) in niches close to
+each other, for the room was without windows, stood boxes bound with
+iron, and on them were arranged a feather-bed, blankets, and all the
+utensils. On the cornices, at half the height of the wall, were ranged
+porcelain cups for pillau, having tin covers in the form of helmets, and
+little plates hanging side by side on wires: the holes with which they
+were pierced showing that they served not for use, but for ornament. The
+face of the old woman was covered with wrinkles, and expressed a sort of
+malicious sorrow: the usual consequence of the lonely pleasureless life
+of a Mussulman woman. As a worthy representative of persons of her age
+and country, she never for a moment ceased scolding her grandson from
+under her blanket, and to grumble to herself. "Kess," (be quiet,) she
+cried at length, yet more angrily, "or I will give you to the ghaouls,
+(devils!) Do you hear how they are scratching at the roof, and knocking
+at the door for you?"
+
+It was a stormy night; a thick rain pattering on the flat roof which
+served as a ceiling, and the roaring of the wind in the chimney,
+answered to her hoarse voice. The boy became quiet, and straining his
+eyes, hearkened in a fright. It really seemed as if some one was
+knocking at the door. The old woman became frightened in her turn: her
+inseparable companion, a dirty dog, lifted up his head from sleep, and
+began to bark in a most pitiful voice. But meanwhile the knocking at the
+door became louder, and an unknown voice cried sternly from without,
+"Atch kapini, akhirin akhirici!" (open the door for the end of ends.)
+The old woman turned pale. "Allah bismallah!" she exclaimed, now
+addressing heaven, then threatening the dog, and then quieting the
+crying child. "Sh, accursed beast! Hold your tongue, I say, kharamzada,
+(good-for-nothing son of shame!) Who is there? What honest man will
+enter, when it is neither day nor dawn, into the house of a poor old
+woman? If you are Shaitan, go to neighbour Kitchkina. It has been long
+time to show her the road to hell! If you are a tchaouth,
+(tax-gatherer,) who, to say the truth, is rather worse than Shaitan,
+then go about your business. My son-in-law is not at home; he serves as
+nouker at Ammalat Bek's; and the Bek has long ago freed me from taxes;
+and as for treating idle travellers, don't expect from me even an egg,
+much less a duck. Is it in vain, then, that I suckled Ammalat?"
+
+"Will you open, you devil's distaff?" impatiently exclaimed the voice,
+"or I will not leave you a plank of this door for your coffin."
+
+The feeble doors shook on their hinges.
+
+"Enter, pray enter," said the old woman, undoing the iron hasp with a
+trembling hand. The door flew open, and there entered a man of a
+middling stature, and of a handsome but melancholy countenance. He was
+clad in the Circassian dress: the water trickled down his bourka and
+bashlik.[22] Without any apologies, he threw it on the feather-bed, and
+began to untie the lopasti of his bashlik which half covered his
+face--Fatma, having in the mean time lighted a candle, stood before him
+with fear and trembling. The long-whiskered dog, with his tail between
+his legs, pressed himself into a corner, and the child, in a fright,
+climbed into the fire-place--which, used only for ornaments, was never
+heated.
+
+    [22] Bashlik--a bonnet worn in bad weather.
+
+"Well, Fatma, you are grown proud," said the unknown; "you do not
+recognize old friends."
+
+Fatma gazed at the new-comer's features, and her heart grew light within
+her. She recognized Sultan Akhmet Khan, who had ridden in one night from
+Kiafir Kounik to Bouinaki.
+
+"May the sand fill my eyes that did not recognize their old master!" she
+replied, respectfully crossing her arms on her breast. "To say truth,
+they are blinded by tears, for her country--for Avar! Forgive an old
+woman, Khan!"
+
+"What old age is yours, Fatma? I remember you a little girl, when I
+myself could hardly reach the young crows from their nests."
+
+"A strange land makes every one old, Khan. In my native mountains I
+should still have been fresh as an apple, and here am I like a snowball
+fallen from the hill into the valley. Pray come hither, Khan, here it is
+more comfortable. What shall I entertain my precious guest with? Is
+there nothing the Khan's soul can wish for?"
+
+"The Khan's soul wishes that you should entertain him with your
+goodwill."
+
+"I am at your will; speak, command!"
+
+"Listen to me, Fatma! I have no time to waste in words. This is why I am
+come here: render me a service with your tongue, and you shall have
+wherewithal to comfort your old teeth. I will make you a present of ten
+sheep; I will dress you in silk from top to toe."
+
+"Ten sheep and a gown!--a silk gown! O gracious Aga! O kind Khan! I have
+not seen such a lord here since the accursed Tartars carried me away,
+and made me marry a hateful ... I am ready to do every thing, Khan, that
+you wish. Cut my ears off even, if you will!"
+
+"What would be the good of that? They must be kept sharp. This is the
+business. Ammalat will come to you to-day with the Colonel. The Shamkhal
+of Tarki will arrive also. This Colonel has attached your young Bek to
+him by witchcraft; and having taught him to eat swine's flesh, wants to
+make a Christian of him: from which Mahomet preserve him!"
+
+The old woman spat around her, and lifted her eyes to heaven.
+
+"To save Ammalat, we must make him quarrel with the Colonel. For this
+purpose you must go to him, throw yourself at his feet, and fall
+a-weeping as if at a funeral. As to tears, you will have no need to go
+and borrow them of your neighbours. Swear like a shopkeeper of Derbend;
+remember that each oath of yours will bring you a dozen sheep; and at
+last tell him that you have heard a conversation between the Colonel and
+the Shamkhal: that the Shamkhal complained of his sending back his
+daughter: that he hates him out of fear that he should take possession
+of the crown of his Shamkhalat: that he implored the Colonel to allow
+him to kill him in an ambuscade, or to poison him in his food; but that
+the other consented only to send him to Siberia, beyond the end of the
+world. In one word, invent and describe every thing cleverly. You were
+formerly famous for your tales. Do not eat dirt now. And, above all,
+insist that the Colonel, who is going on a furlough, will take him with
+him to Georgieffsk, to separate him from his kinsmen and faithful
+noukers; and from thence will dispatch him in chains to the devil."
+
+Sultan Akhmet added to this all the particulars necessary to give the
+story the most probable form; and once or twice instructed the old woman
+how to introduce them more skilfully.
+
+"Well, recollect every thing accurately, Fatma," said he, putting on his
+bourka; "forget not, likewise, with whom you have to do."
+
+"Vallah, billah! let me have ashes instead of salt; may a beggar's
+tchourek close my eyes; may" ...
+
+"Do not feed the Shaitans with your oaths; but serve me with your words.
+I know that Ammalat trusts you completely; and if, for his good, you
+will arrange this--he will come over to me, and bring you with him. You
+shall live, singing, under my wing. But I repeat, if, by chance or on
+purpose, you betray me, or injure me by your gossiping, I will make of
+your old flesh a kibab for the Shaitans!"
+
+"Be easy, Khan! They have nothing to do either for me or with me. I will
+keep the secret like the grave, and I will _put my sarotchka_[23] on
+Ammalat."
+
+    [23] Give him her feelings--a Tartar phrase.
+
+"Well, be it so, old woman. Here is a golden seal for your lips. Take
+pains!"
+
+"_Bathousta, ghez-ousta_!"[24] exclaimed the old woman, seizing the
+ducat with greediness, and kissing the Khan's hand for his present. The
+Sultan Akhmet Khan looked contemptuously at the base creature, whilst he
+quitted the sakla.
+
+    [24] Willingly, if you please? Literally, "on my head, on my
+    eyes."
+
+"Reptile!" he grumbled to himself, "for a sheep, for a piece of cloth of
+gold, thou wouldst be ready to sell thy daughter's body, thy son's soul,
+and thy foster-son's happiness!"
+
+He did not reflect upon what name he deserved himself, entangling his
+friend in deceit, and hiring such vile creatures for low slander and for
+villanous intentions.
+
+
+_Fragment of a Letter from Colonel Verkhoffsky to his Betrothed_.
+
+Camp near the Village of Kiafir Koumik, August.
+
+... Ammalat loves, and how he loves! Never, not even in the hottest fire
+of my youth, did my love rise to such a frenzy. I burned, like a censer
+lighted by a sunbeam; he flames, like a ship set on fire by lightning on
+the stormy sea. With you, my Maria, I have read more than once
+Shakspeare's Othello; and only the frantic Othello can give an idea of
+the tropical passion of Ammalat. He loves to speak long and often of his
+Seltanetta, and I love to hear his volcanic eloquence. At times it is a
+turbid cataract thrown out by a profound abyss--at times a fiery
+fountain of the naphtha of Bakou. What stars his eyes scatter at that
+moment--what light plays on his cheeks--how handsome he is! There is
+nothing ideal in him: but then the earthly is grand, is captivating. I
+myself, carried away and deeply moved, receive on my breast the youth
+fainting from rapture: he breathes long, with slow sighs, and then
+casting down his eyes, lowering his head as if ashamed to look at the
+light--not only on me--presses my hand, and walks away with an uncertain
+step; and after that one cannot extract a word from him for the rest of
+the day.
+
+Since the time of his return from Khounzakh, he is become still more
+melancholy than before; particularly the last few days. He hides the
+grandest, the noblest feeling which brings man near to divinity, as
+carefully as if it were a shameful weakness or a dreadful crime. He
+imploringly asked me to let him go once more to Khounzakh, to sigh at
+the feet of his fair one; and I refused him--refused him for his own
+good. I wrote long ago about my favourite to Alexei Petrovitch, and he
+desired me to bring him with me to the waters, where he will be himself.
+He wishes to give him some message to Sultan Akhmet Khan, which will
+bring undoubted advantage to him and to Ammalat. Oh, how happy I shall
+be in his happiness! To me, to me, he will owe the bliss of his
+life--not only empty life. I will force him on his knees before you, and
+will make him say--"Adore her as a deity!" If my heart were not filled
+with love to Maria, thou wouldst not take possession of Seltanetta.
+Yesterday I received an express from the commander-in-chief--a
+noble-minded man! He gives wings to happy news. All is arranged; my
+darling, I go to meet you at the waters. I shall only lead the regiment
+to Derbend--and then to the saddle! I shall know neither fatigue by day
+nor drowsiness by night, till I repose myself in your embrace. Oh, who
+will give me wings to fly to you! Who will give me strength to bear
+my--_our_--bliss! ... I, in delicious agitation, pressed my bosom, that
+my heart might not burst forth. For a long time I could not sleep:
+imagination painted our meeting in a thousand forms, and in the
+intervals appeared the most trivial but delightful cares, about wedding
+trifles, dresses, presents. You will be clad in my favourite colour,
+green. ... Is it not true, my soul? My fancies kept me from sleeping,
+like a strong perfume of roses; but the sweeter, the more brilliant was
+my sleep. I saw you by the light of dawn, and every time different,
+every time more lovely than before. My dreams were twined together like
+a wreath of flowers; but no! there was no connexion between them. They
+were wonderful phantoms, falling like colours from the kaleidoscope, and
+as impossible to retain. Notwithstanding all this, I awoke sorrowful
+this morning; my awakening took from my childish soul its favourite
+toy.... I went into Ammalat's tent; he was still asleep. His face was
+pale and angry--let him be angry with me! I taste beforehand the
+gratitude of the ardent youth. I, like fate, am preparing his happiness
+in secret....
+
+To-day I bid adieu to these mountains for long--I hope for ever. I am
+very glad to quit Asia, the cradle of mankind, in which the
+understanding has remained till now in its swaddling-clothes.
+Astonishing is the immobility of Asiatic life, in the course of so many
+centuries. Against Asia all attempts of improvement and civilization
+have broken like waves; it seems not to belong to time, but to place.
+The Indian Brahmin, the Chinese Mandarin, the Persian Bek, the mountain
+Ouzden, are unchanged--the same as they were two thousand years ago. A
+sad truth! They represent, in themselves, a monotonous though varied, a
+lively though soulless nature. The sword and the lash of the conqueror
+have left on them, as on the water, no trace. Books, and the examples of
+missionaries, have produced on them no influence. Sometimes, however,
+they have made an exchange of vices; but never have they learned the
+thoughts or the virtues of others. I quit the land of fruit to transport
+myself to the land of labour--that great inventor of every thing useful,
+that suggester of every thing great, that awakener of the soul of man,
+which has fallen asleep here, and sleeps in weakness on the bosom of the
+seducer--nature.
+
+And truly, how seducing is nature here! Having ridden up the high
+mountain to the left of Kiafir Koumik, I gazed with delight on the
+gradually lighted summit of the Caucasus. I looked, and could not look
+enough at them. What a wondrous beauty decks them as with a crown!
+Another thin veil, woven of light and shadow, lay on the lower hill, but
+the distant snows basked in the sky; and the sky, like a caressing
+mother, bending over them its immeasurable bosom, fed them with the milk
+of the clouds, carefully enfolding them with its swathe of mist, and
+refreshing them with its gently-breathing wind. Oh, with what a flight
+would my soul soar there, where a holy cold has stretched itself like a
+boundary between the earthly and the heavenly! My heart prays and
+thirsts to breathe the air of the inhabitants of the sky. I feel a wish
+to wander over the snows, on which man has never printed the seal of his
+blood-stained footsteps--which have never been darkened by the eagle's
+shadow--which the thunder has never reached--which the war spirits have
+never polluted; and on the ever-young summits where time, the
+continuation of eternity, has left no trace.
+
+Time! A strange thought has come into my head. How many fractional names
+has the weak sense of man invented for the description of an infinitely
+small particle of time out of the infinitely large circle of eternity!
+Years, months, days, hours, minutes! God has nothing of all this: he has
+not even evening nor morrow. With him all this has united itself into
+one eternal _now_!... Shall we ever behold this ocean in which we have
+hitherto been drowning? But I ask, to what end will all this serve man?
+Can it be for the satisfaction of an idle curiosity? No! the knowledge
+of truth, i.e. the All-knowing Goodness, does the soul of the reflecting
+man thirst after. It wishes to draw a full cup from the fountain of
+light which falls on it from time to time in a fine dew!
+
+And I shall imbibe it. The secret fear of death melts like snow before
+the beam of such a hope. I shall draw from it. My real love for my
+fellow-creatures is a security for it. The leaden ways of error will
+fall asunder before a few tears of repentance, and I shall lay down my
+heart as an expiating sacrifice before the judgment-seat which will have
+no terrors for me!
+
+It is wonderful, my beloved--hardly do I look at the mountains, the sea,
+the sky, ... but a solemn but inexpressibly sweet feeling o'er-burthens
+and expands my heart. Thoughts of you mingle with it; and, as in dreams,
+your form flits before me. Is this a foretaste of earthly bliss, which I
+have only known by name, or a foreboding of ... etern ...? O dearest,
+best, angelic soul, one look of yours and I am cured of dreaming! How
+happy am I that I can now say with assurance--_au revoir_!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+The poison of calumny burnt into the soul of Ammalat. By the
+instructions of the Khan, his nurse Fatma related, with every appearance
+of disinterested affection, the story which had been arranged
+beforehand, on the same evening that he came with Verkhoffsky to
+Bouinaki, where they were met by the Shamkhal in obedience to the
+Colonel's request. The envenomed shaft struck deep; now doubt would have
+been welcomed by Ammalat, but conviction, it seemed, cast over all his
+former ties of friendship and blood, a bright but funereal light. In a
+frenzy of passion, he burned to drown his revenge in the blood of both;
+but respect for the rites of hospitality quenched his thirst for
+vengeance. He deferred his intention for a time--but could he forget it?
+Every moment of delay fell, like a drop of melted copper, on his heart.
+Memory, conviction, jealousy, love, tore his heart by turns; and this
+state of feeling was to him so new, so strange, so dreadful, that he
+fell into a species of delirium, the more dreadful that he was obliged
+to conceal his internal sensations from his former friend. Thus passed
+twenty-four hours; the detachment pitched their tents near the village
+Bougden, the gate of which, built in a ravine, and which is closed at
+the will of the inhabitants of Bougden, serves as a passage to Akoush.
+The following was written by Ammalat, to divert the agony of his soul
+while preparing itself for the commission of a black crime.... ----
+
+MIDNIGHT.
+
+... Why, O Sultan Akhmet! have you cast lightning into my breast? A
+brother's friendship, a brother's treachery, and a brother's murder!...
+What dreadful extremes! And between them there is but a step, but a
+twinkling of the eye. I cannot sleep, I can think of nothing else. I am
+chained to this thought, like a criminal to his stake. A bloody sea
+swells, surges, and roars around me, and above gleams, instead of stars,
+the lightning-flash. My soul is like a naked peak, where only birds of
+prey and evil spirits assemble, to share their plunder, or to prepare
+misfortune. Verkhoffsky, Verkhoffsky! what have I done to you? Why would
+you tear from heaven the star of my liberty? Is it because I loved you
+so tenderly? And why do you approach me stealthily and thief-like? why
+do you slander--why do you betray me, by hypocrisy? You should say
+plainly, "I wish your life," and I would give it freely, without a
+murmur; would have laid it down a sacrifice like the son of Ibrahim,
+(Abraham!) I would have forgiven you, if you had but attempted my life,
+but to sell my freedom, to steal my Seltanetta from me, by burying me
+alive! Villain--and you still live!
+
+But sometimes like a dove, whose wings have been scorched in the smoke
+of a fire, appears thy form to me, Seltanetta. How is it, then, that I
+am no longer gay when I dream of you, as of old?...
+
+They would part us, my love--they would give you to another, to marry me
+on the grave-stone. But I will go to you--I will go to you over a bloody
+carpet--I will fulfil a bloody promise, in order to possess you. Invite
+not only your maiden friends to your marriage feast--invite also the
+vultures and the ravens, they shall all be regaled abundantly. I will
+pay a rich dower. On the pillow of my bride I will lay a heart which
+once I reckoned more precious than the throne-cushion[25] of the
+Persian Padishah. Wonderful destiny!... Innocent girl!... You will be
+the cause of an unheard of deed. Kindest of beings, for you friends will
+tear each other like ferocious beasts--for you and through you--and is
+it really for you alone--with ferocity--with ferocity only! Verkhoffsky
+said, that to kill an enemy by stealth, is base and cowardly. But if I
+cannot do it otherwise? But can he be believed?... Hypocrite! He wished
+to entangle me beforehand; not my hands alone, but even my conscience.
+It was in vain.
+
+    [25] This cushion is embroidered with jewels, and is invaluable.
+
+... I have loaded my rifle. What a fine round barrel--what admirable
+ornaments! The rifle I received from my father--my father got it from my
+grandfather. I have heard of many celebrated shots made with it--and not
+one, not one was fired by stealth.... Always in battle--always before
+the whole army, it sent death; but wrong, but treachery, but you,
+Seltanetta!... My hand will not tremble to level a shot at him, whose
+name it is afraid even to write. One loading, one fire, and all is
+over!...
+
+One loading! How light, but how heavy will be each grain of powder in
+the scales of Allah! How far--how immeasurably will this load bear a
+man's soul? Accursed thou, the inventor of the grey dust, which delivers
+a hero into the hand of the vilest craven, which kills from afar the
+foe, who, with a glance, could have disarmed the hand raised against
+him! So, this shot will tear asunder all my former ties, but it will
+clear a road to new ones. In the cool Caucasus--on the bosom of
+Seltanetta, will my faded heart be refreshed. Like a swallow will I
+build myself a nest in a stranger land--like a swallow, the spring shall
+be my country. I will cast from me old sorrows, as the bird sheds its
+feathers.... But the reproaches of conscience, can they fade?... The
+meanest Lezghin, when he sees in battle the man with whom he has shared
+bread and salt, turns aside his horse, and fires his gun in the air. It
+is true he deceives me; but have I been the less happy? Oh, if with
+these tears I could weep away my grief--drown with them the thirst for
+vengeance--buy with them Seltenetta! Why comes on the dawn of day so
+slowly? Let it come! I will look, without blushing, at the sun--without
+turning pale, into the eyes of Verkhoffsky. My heart is like iron--it is
+locked against mercy; treachery calls for treachery ... I am resolved
+... Quick, quick!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Thus incoherently, thus wildly wrote Ammalat, in order to cheat time and
+to divert his soul. Thus he tried to cheat himself, rousing himself to
+revenge, whilst the real cause of his bloody intentions, viz. the desire
+of possessing Seltanetta, broke through every word.
+
+In order to embolden himself for his crime, he drank deeply of wine, and
+maddened, threw himself, with his gun, into the Colonel's tent; but
+perceiving sentinels at the door, he changed his intention. The natural
+feeling of self-preservation did not abandon him, even in his madness.
+Ammalat put off till the morning the consummation of the murder; but he
+could neither sleep nor distract his thoughts ... and re-entering his
+tent, he seized Saphir Ali by the throat, who was lying fast asleep, and
+shaking him roughly: "Get up, sleepy rascal!"; he cried to him, "it is
+already dawn."
+
+Saphir Ali raised his head in a discontented mood, and yawning,
+answered: "I see only the dawn of wine on your cheek--good-night,
+Ammalat!"
+
+"Up, I tell you! The dead must quit their graves to meet the new-comer
+whom I have promised to send to keep them company!"
+
+"Why, brother, am I dead?... Even the _forty Imaums_[26] may get up from
+the burial-ground of Derbend--but I will sleep."
+
+    [26] The Mussulmans believe, that in the northern burial-ground
+    of Derbend, are buried the forty first true believers, who were
+    martyred by the idolaters.
+
+"But you love to drink, Giaour, and you must drink with me."
+
+"That is quite another affair. Pour fuller, _Allah verdi_![27] I am
+always ready to drink and to make love."
+
+    [27] God gave--Much good may it do you.
+
+"And to kill an enemy!... Come, some more! A health to the devil!--who
+changes friends into mortal enemies."
+
+"So be it! Here goes, then, to the devil's health! The poor fellow wants
+health. We will drive him into a consumption out of spite, because he
+cannot make us quarrel!"
+
+"True, true, he is always ready for mischief. If he had seen Verkhoffsky
+and me, he would have thrown down his cards. But you, too, will not, I
+hope, part from me?"
+
+"Ammalat, I have not only quaffed wine from the same bottle with thee,
+but I have drained milk from the same breast. I am thine, even if you
+take it into your head to build yourself, like a vulture, a nest on the
+rock of Khounzakh.... However, my advice would be"----
+
+"No advice, Saphir Ali--no remonstrances.... It is now too late!"
+
+"They would be drowned like flies in wine. But it is now time to sleep."
+
+"Sleep, say you! Sleep, to me! No, I have bidden farewell to sleep. It
+is time for me to awaken. Have you examined the gun, Saphir Ali--is the
+flint good? Has not the powder on the shelf become damp with blood?"
+
+"What is the matter with you, Ammalat? What leaden secret weighs upon
+your heart? Your face is terrible--your speech is yet more frightful."
+
+"And my deeds shall be yet more dreadful. Is it not true, Saphir Ali, my
+Seltanetta--is she not beautiful? Observe! _my_ Seltanetta. Is it
+possible that these are the wedding songs, Saphir Ali? Yes, yes, yes! I
+understand. 'Tis the jackals demanding their prey. Spirits and wild
+beasts, be patient awhile--I will content you! Ho, wine--more wine! more
+blood!... I tell you!"
+
+Ammalat fell on his bed in a drunken insensibility. Foam oozed out of
+his mouth: convulsive movements shook his whole body. He uttered
+unintelligible words, mingled with groans. Saphir Ali carefully
+undressed him, laid him in the bed, enveloped him in the coverings, and
+sat up the rest of the night watching over his foster-brother, in vain
+seeking in his head the explanation of the, to him, enigmatical speech
+and conduct of Ammalat.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+In the morning, before the departure of the detachment, the captain on
+duty came to Colonel Verkhoffsky to present his report, and to receive
+the orders for the day. After the customary exchange of words, he said,
+with an alarmed countenance: "Colonel, I have to communicate a most
+important thing: our yesterday's signal-man, a soldier of my company,
+Hamitoff, heard the conversation of Ammalat Bek with his nurse in
+Bouinaki. He is a Tartar of Kazan, and understands pretty well the
+dialect of this country. As far as he could hear and understand, the
+nurse assured the Bek that you, with the Shamkhal, are preparing to send
+him off to the galleys. Ammalat flew into a passion; said, that he knew
+all this from the Khan, and swore to kill you with his own hand. Not
+trusting his ears, however, the soldier determined to tell you nothing,
+but to watch all his steps. Yesterday evening, he says, Ammalat spoke
+with a horseman arrived from afar. On taking leave, he said: 'Tell the
+Khan, that to-morrow, by sunrise, all will be over. Let him be ready: I
+shall soon see him.'"
+
+"And is this all, Captain?" demanded Verkhoffsky.
+
+"I have nothing else to say; but I am much alarmed. I have passed my
+life among the Tartars, Colonel, and I am convinced that it is madness
+to trust the best of them. A born brother is not safe, while resting in
+the arms of a brother."
+
+"This is envy, Captain. Cain has left it as an eternal heirloom to all
+men, and particularly to the neighbours of Ararat. Besides, there is no
+difference between Ammalat and myself. I have done nothing for him but
+good. I intend nothing but kindness. Be easy, Captain: I believe the
+zeal of the signal-man, but I distrust his knowledge of the Tartar
+language. Some similarity of words has led him into error, and when once
+suspicion was awakened in his mind, every thing seemed an additional
+proof. Really, I am not so important a person that Khans and Beks should
+lay plots for my life. I know Ammalat well. He is passionate, but he has
+a good heart, and could not conceal a bad intention two hours together."
+
+"Take care you be not mistaken, Colonel. Ammalat is, after all, an
+Asiatic; and that name is always a proof. Here words hide thoughts--the
+face, the soul. Look at one of them--he seems innocence itself; have any
+thing to do with him, he is an abyss of meanness, treachery and
+ferocity."
+
+"You have a full right to think so, my dear Captain, from experience:
+Sultan Akhmet Khan gave you a memorable proof in Ammalat's house, at
+Bouinaki. But for me, I have no reason to suspect any mischief in
+Ammalat; and besides, what would he gain by murdering me? On me depends
+all his hope, all his happiness. He is wild, perhaps, but not a madman.
+Besides, you see the sun is high; and I am alive and well. I am
+grateful, Captain, for the interest you have taken in me; but I entreat
+you, do not suspect Ammalat: and, knowing how much I prize an old
+friendship, be assured that I shall as highly value a new one. Order
+them to beat the march."
+
+The captain departed, gloomily shaking his head. The drums rattled, and
+the detachment, in marching order, moved on from its night-quarters. The
+morning was fresh and bright; the road lay through the green ramparts of
+the mountains of the Caucasus, crowned here and there with forests and
+underwood. The detachment, like a stream of steel, flowed now down the
+hills, and now crept up the declivities. The mist still rested on the
+valleys, and Verkhoffsky, riding to the elevated points, looked round
+frequently to feast his eyes with the ever-changing landscape.
+Descending the mountain, the detachment seemed to be swallowed up in the
+steaming river, like the army of Pharaoh, and anon, with a dull sound,
+the bayonets glittered again from the misty waves. Then appeared heads,
+shoulders; the men seemed to grow up, and then leaping up the rocks,
+were lost anew in the fog.
+
+Ammalat, pale and stern, rode next to the sharpshooters. It appeared
+that he wished to deafen his conscience in the noise of the drums. The
+colonel called him to his side, and said kindly: "You must be scolded,
+Ammalat; you have begun to follow too closely the precepts of Hafiz:
+recollect that wine is a good servant but a bad master: but a headache
+and the bile expressed in your face, will surely do you more good than a
+lecture. You have passed a stormy night, Ammalat."
+
+"A stormy, a torturing night, Colonel! God grant that such a night be
+the last! I dreamed dreadful things."
+
+"Aha, my friend! You see what it is to transgress Mahomet's
+commandments. The conscience of the true believer torments you like a
+shadow."
+
+"It is well for him whose conscience quarrels only with wine."
+
+"That depends on what sort of conscience it is. And fortunately it is as
+much subject to prejudice as reason itself. Every country, every nation,
+has its own conscience; and the voice of immortal, unchangeable truth is
+silent before a would-be truth. Thus it is, thus it ever was. What
+yesterday we counted a mortal sin, to-morrow we adore. What on this bank
+is just and meritorious, on the other side of a brook leads to the
+halter."
+
+"I think, however, that treachery was never, and in no place, considered
+a virtue."
+
+"I will not say even that. We live at a time when success alone
+determines whether the means employed were good or bad; where the most
+conscientious persons have invented for themselves a very convenient
+rule--that the end sanctifies the means."
+
+Ammalat, lost in his reflections, repeated these words, because he
+approved of them. The poison of selfishness began anew to work within
+him; and the words of Verkhoffsky, which he looked on as treacherous,
+poured like oil on flame. "Hypocrite!" said he to himself; "your hour is
+at hand!"
+
+And meanwhile Verkhoffsky, like a victim suspecting nothing, rode side
+by side with his executioner. At about eight versts from Kiekent the
+Caspian Sea discovered itself to them from a hill; and the thoughts of
+Verkhoffsky soared above it like a swan. "Mirror of eternity!" said he,
+sinking into a reverie, "why does not your aspect gladden me to-day? As
+of old, the sun plays on you; and your bosom breathes, as sublimely as
+of old, eternal life; but that life is not of this world. You seem to me
+to-day a mournful waste; not a boat, not a sail, not a sign of man's
+existence. All is desolate!
+
+"Yes, Ammalat," he added; "I am tired of your ever-angry, lonely sea--of
+your country peopled with diseases, and with men who are worse than all
+maladies in the world. I am weary of the war itself, of invisible
+enemies, of the service shared with unfriendly comrades. It is not
+enough that they impeded me in my proceedings--they spoiled what I
+ordered to be done--they found fault with what I intended, and
+misrepresented what I had effected. I have served my sovereign with
+truth and fidelity, my country and this region with disinterestedness; I
+have renounced, a voluntary exile, all the conveniences of life, all the
+charms of society; have condemned my intellect to torpidity, being
+deprived of books; have buried my heart in solitude; have abandoned my
+beloved; and what is my reward? When will that moment arrive, when I
+throw myself into the arms of my bride; when I, wearied with service,
+shall repose myself under my native cottage-roof, on the green shore of
+the Dnieper; when a peaceful villager, and a tender father, surrounded
+by my relations and my good peasants, I shall fear only the hail of
+heaven for my harvests; fight only with wild-beasts? My heart yearns for
+that hour. My leave of absence is in my pocket, my dismission is
+promised me.... Oh, that I could fly to my bride!... And in five days I
+shall for certain be in Georgieffsk. Yet it seems as if the sands of
+Libya, a sea of ice----as if the eternity of the grave itself, separated
+us!"
+
+Verkhoffsky was silent. Tears ran down his cheeks; his horse, feeling
+the slackened rein, quickened his pace--and thus the pair alone,
+advanced to some distance from the detachment.... It seemed as if
+destiny itself surrendered the colonel into the hands of the assassin.
+
+But pity penetrated the heart of Ammalat, maddened as he was, and
+burning with wine--like a sunbeam falling in a robber's cave. He beheld
+the sorrow, the tears of the man whom he had so long considered as his
+friend, and hesitated. "No!" he thought, "to such a degree as that it is
+impossible to dissimulate...."
+
+At this moment Verkhoffsky started from his reverie, lifted up his head,
+and spoke to Ammalat. "Prepare yourself: you are to go with me!"
+
+Unlucky words! Every thing good, every thing noble, which had arisen
+anew in Ammalat's breast, was crushed in a moment by them. The thought
+of treachery--of exile--rushed like a torrent through his whole being
+"With you!" he replied, with a malicious smile--"with you, and into
+Russia?--undoubtedly: if you go yourself!" and in a passion of rage he
+urged his horse into a gallop, in order to have time to prepare his
+arms; suddenly turned back to meet him; flew by him, and began to ride
+rapidly in a circle around him. At each stride of his horse, the flame
+of rage burned more fiercely within him: it seemed as if the wind, as it
+whistled past him, kept whispering "Kill, kill! he is your enemy.
+Remember Seltanetta!" He brought his rifle forward from his shoulder,
+cocked it, and encouraging himself with a cry, he galloped with
+blood-thirsty decision to his doomed victim. Verkhoffsky, meanwhile, not
+cherishing the least suspicion, looked quietly at Ammalat as he galloped
+round, thinking that he was preparing, after the Asiatic manner, for the
+djigitering (equestrian exercises.)
+
+"Fire at your mark, Ammalat Bek!" he exclaimed to the murderer who was
+rushing towards him.
+
+"What mark can be better than the breast of a foe?" answered Ammalat
+Bek, riding up, and at ten paces' distance pulling the trigger!... the
+gun went off: and slowly, without a groan, the colonel sank out of his
+saddle. His affrighted horse, with expanded nostrils and streaming mane,
+smelt at his rider, in whose hands the reins that had so lately guided
+him began to stiffen: and the steed of Ammalat stopped abruptly before
+the corpse, setting his legs straight before him. Ammalat leaped from
+his horse, and, resting his arms on his yet smoking gun, looked for
+several moments steadfastly in the face of the murdered man; as if
+endeavouring to prove to himself that he feared not that fixed gaze,
+those fast-dimming eyes--that fast-freezing blood. It would be difficult
+to understand--'twere impossible to express the thoughts which rolled
+like a whirlwind through his breast. Saphir Ali rode up at full gallop;
+and fell on his knees by the colonel--he laid his ear to the dying man's
+mouth--he breathed not--he felt his heart--it beat not! "He is dead!"
+cried Saphir Ali in a tone of despair. "Dead! quite dead!"
+
+"So much the better ... My happiness is complete!..." exclaimed Ammalat,
+as if awakening from a dream.
+
+"Happiness for you--for you, fratricide! If you meet happiness, the
+world will take to Shaitan instead of Allah."
+
+"Saphir Ali, remember that you are not my judge!" said Ammalat fiercely,
+as he put his foot into the stirrup: "follow me!"
+
+"May remorse alone accompany you, like your shadow! From this hour I am
+not your companion."
+
+Pierced to the very bottom of his heart by this reproach from a man to
+whom he had been from infancy bound by the closest ties, Ammalat uttered
+not a word, but pointing to his astounded noukers in the ravine, and
+perceiving the pursuit begun, dashed into the mountains like an arrow.
+
+The alarm soon spread through the advanced guard of the detachment: the
+officers, who were in front, and the Don Kazaks, flew to the shot, but
+they came too late. They could neither prevent the crime nor seize the
+flying assassin. In five minutes the bloody corpse of the treacherously
+murdered colonel was surrounded by a crowd of officers and soldiers.
+Doubt, pity, indignation were written on all their faces. The
+grenadiers, leaning on their bayonets, shed tears, and sobbed aloud:
+unflattering drops poured above the brave and much-loved chief.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+For three days and nights did Ammalat wander about the mountains of
+Daghestan. As a Mussulman, even in the villages subject to the Russian
+dominion, he was safe from all pursuit among people for whom robbery and
+murder are virtues. But could he escape from the consciousness of his
+own crime? Neither his heart nor his reason could find an excuse for his
+bloody deed; and the image of Verkhoffsky falling from his horse,
+presented itself unceasingly before his eyes, though closed. This
+recollection infuriated him yet more, yet more tortured him. The
+Asiatic, once turned aside from the right road, travels rapidly over the
+career of villany. The Khan's command, not to appear before him but with
+the head of Verkhoffsky, rang in his ears. Without daring to communicate
+such an intention to his noukers, and still less relying on their
+bravery, he resolved upon travelling to Derbend alone. A darksome and
+gloomy night had already expanded it ebon wings over the mountains of
+Caucasus which skirt the sea, when Ammalat passed the ravine which lay
+behind the fortress of Narin-Kali, which served as a citadel to Derbend.
+He mounted to the ruined turret, which once formed the limit to the
+Caucasian war that had extended through the mountains, and tied his
+horse at the foot of that hill from which Yermoloff had thundered on
+Derbend when but a lieutenant of artillery. Knowing where the Russian
+officers were buried, he came out upon the upper burial-ground. But how
+to find the new-made grave of Verkhoffsky in the darkness of the night?
+Not a star glimmered in the sky: the clouds lay stretched on the hills,
+the mountain-wind, like a night-bird, lashed the forest with its wing:
+an involuntary shudder crept over Ammalat, in the midst of the region of
+the dead, whose repose he dared to interrupt. He listens: the sea
+murmurs hoarsely against the rocks, tumbling back from them into the
+deep with a sullen sound. The prolonged "sloushai" of the sentinels
+floated round the walls of the town, and when it was silent there rose
+the yell of the jackals; and at last all again was still--every sound
+mingling and losing itself in the rushing of the wind. How often had he
+not sat awake on such nights with Verkhoffsky--and where is he now! And
+who plunged him into the grave! And the murderer was now come to behead
+the corpse of his former friend--to do sacrilege to his remains--like a
+grave-robber to plunder the tomb--to dispute with the jackal his prey!
+
+"Human feeling!" cried Ammalat, as he wiped the cold sweat from his
+forehead, "why visitest thou a heart which has torn itself from
+humanity? Away, away! Is it for me to fear to take off the head of a
+dead man, whom I have robbed of life! For him 'twill be no loss--to me a
+treasure. Dust is insensible!"
+
+Ammalat struck a light with a trembling hand, blew up into a flame some
+dry bourian, (a dry grass of South Russia,) and went with it to search
+for the new-made grave. The loosened earth, and a large cross, pointed
+out the last habitation of the colonel. He tore up the cross, and began
+to dig up the mound with it; he broke through the arch of brickwork,
+which had not yet become hardened, and finally tore the lead from the
+coffin. The bourian, flaring up, threw an uncertain bloody-bluish tinge
+on all around. Leaning over the dead, the murderer, paler than the
+corpse itself, gazed unmovingly on his work; he forgot why he had
+come--he turned away his head from the reek of rottenness--his gorge
+rose within him when he saw the bloody-headed worms that crawled from
+under the clothes. Interrupted in their loathsome work, they, scared by
+the light, crept into a mass, and hid themselves beneath each other. At
+length, steeling himself to the deed, he brandished his dagger, and each
+time his erring hand missed its aim. Nor revenge, nor ambition, nor
+love--in a word, not one of those passions which had urged him to the
+frenzied crime, now encouraged him to the nameless horror. Turning away
+his head, in a sort of insensibility he began to hew at the neck of
+Verkhoffsky--at the fifth blow the head parted from the trunk.
+Shuddering with disgust, he threw it into a bag which he had prepared,
+and hastened from the grave. Hitherto he had remained master of himself;
+but when, with his dreadful treasure, he was scrambling up, when the
+stones crumbling noisily under his feet, and he, covered with sand, fell
+backwards on Verkhoffsky's corpse, then presence of mind left the
+sacrilegious. It seemed as if a flame had seized him, and spirits of
+hell, dancing and grinning, had surrounded him. With a heavy groan he
+tore himself away, crawled half senseless out of the suffocating grave,
+and hurried off, dreading to look back. Leaping on his horse, he urged
+it on, over rocks and ravines, and each bush that caught his dress
+seemed to him the hand of a corpse; the cracking of every branch, the
+shriek of every jackal, sounded like the cry of his twice-murdered
+friend.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Wherever Ammalat passed, he encountered armed bands of Akoushlinetzes
+and Avaretzes, Tchetchenetzes just arrived, and robbers of the Tartar
+villages subject to Russia. They were all hurrying to the trysting-place
+near the border-limits; while the Beks, Ouzdens, and petty princes, were
+assembling at Khourzakh, for a council with Akhmet Khan, under the
+leading, and by the invitation of whom, they were preparing to fall upon
+Tarki. The present was the most favourable moment for their purpose:
+there was abundance of corn in the ambars, (magazines,) hay in the
+stacks, and the Russians, having taken hostages, had established
+themselves in full security in winter-quarters. The news of
+Verkhoffsky's murder had flown over all the hills, and powerfully
+encouraged the mountaineers. Merrily they poured together from all
+sides; every where were heard their songs of future battles and plunder;
+and he for whom they were going to fight rode through them like a
+runaway and a culprit, hiding from the light of the sun, and not daring
+to look any one in the face. Every thing that happened, every thing that
+he saw, now seemed like a suffocating dream--he dared not doubt, he
+dared not believe it. On the evening of the third day he reached
+Khounzakh.
+
+Trembling with impatience, he leaped from his horse, worn out with
+fatigue, and took from his saddle-straps the fatal bag. The front
+chambers were filled with warriors; cavaliers in armour were walking up
+and down, or lay on the carpets along the walls, conversing in whispers;
+but their eyebrows were knit and cast down--their stern faces proved
+that bad news had reached Khounzakh. Noukers ran hurriedly backwards and
+forwards, and none questioned, none accompanied Ammalat, none paid any
+attention to him. At the door of the Khan's bed-chamber sate
+Zourkhai-Khan-Djingka, the natural son of Sultan Akhmet, weeping
+bitterly. "What means this?" uneasily demanded Ammalat. "You, from whom
+even in childhood tears could not be drawn--you weep?"
+
+Zourkhai silently pointed to the door, and Ammalat, perplexed, crossed
+the threshold. A heart-rending spectacle was presented before the
+new-comer's eyes. In the middle of the room, on a bed, lay the Khan,
+disfigured by a fierce illness; death invisible, but inevitable, hovered
+over him, and his fading glance met it with dread. His breast heaved
+high, and then sank heavily; his breath rattled in his throat, the veins
+of his hands swelled, and then shrank again. In him was taking place the
+last struggle of life with annihilation; the mainspring of existence had
+already burst, but the wheels still moved with an uneven motion,
+catching and entangling in each other. The spark of memory hardly
+glimmered in him, but fitfully flashed like falling stars through the
+darkness of night, which thickened over his soul, and reflected
+themselves in his dying face. His wife and daughter were sobbing on
+their knees by his bed-side; his eldest son, Noutsal, in silent despair
+leaned at his feet, resting his head on his clenched fists. Several
+women and noukers wept silently at a distance.
+
+All this, however, neither astounded Ammalat nor recalled him to
+himself, occupied as he was with one idea: he approached the Khan with a
+firm step, and said to him aloud--"Hail, Khan! I have brought you a
+present which will restore a dead man to life. Prepare the bridal. Here
+is my purchase-money for Seltanetta; here is the head of Verkhoffsky!"
+With these words he threw it at the Khan's feet.
+
+The well-known voice aroused Sultan Akhmet from his last sleep: he
+raised his head with difficulty to look at the present, and a shudder
+ran like a wave over his body when he beheld the lifeless head. "May he
+eat his own heart who treats a dying man with such dreadful food!" he
+murmured, scarce intelligibly. "I must make my peace with my enemies,
+and not----Ah, I burn, I burn! Give me water, water! Why have you made
+me drink scalding naphtha? Ammalat, I curse you!" This effort exhausted
+the last drops of life in the Khan; he fell a senseless corpse on the
+pillow. The Khansha had looked with horror on the bloody and untimely
+present of Ammalat; but when she saw that this had hastened her
+husband's death, all her grief broke out in a torrent of anger.
+"Messenger of hell!" she exclaimed, her eyes flashing, "rejoice; these
+are your exploits; but for you, my husband would never have thought of
+raising Avar against the Russians, and would have now been sitting in
+health and quiet at home; but for you, visiting the Ouzdens, he fell
+from a rock and was disabled; and you, blood-drinker!--instead of
+consoling the sick with mild words, instead of making his peace with
+Allah by prayers and alms--bring, as if to a cannibal, a dead man's
+head; and whose head? Thy benefactor's, thy protector's, thy friend's!"
+
+"Such was the Khan's will," in his turn replied Ammalat.
+
+"Do not slander the dead; defile not his memory with superfluous blood!"
+screamed the Khansha: "not content with having treacherously murdered a
+man, you come with his head to woo my daughter at the deathbed of her
+father, and you hoped to receive a recompense from man, when you
+deserved the vengeance of God. Godless, soulless being! No! by the
+graves of my ancestors, by the swords of my sons, I swear you shall
+never be my son-in-law, my acquaintance, my guest! Away from my house,
+traitor! I have sons, and you may murder while embracing them. I have a
+daughter, whom you may bewitch and poison with your serpent looks. Go,
+wander in the ravines of the mountains; teach the tigers to tear each
+other; and dispute with the wolves for carcasses. Go, and know that my
+door opens not to a fratricide!"
+
+Ammalat stood like one struck by lightning: all that his conscience had
+indistinctly whispered to him had been spoken out to him at once, and so
+unexpectedly, so cruelly. He knew not where to turn his eyes: there lay
+the head of Verkhoffsky with its accusing blood--there was the
+threatening face of the Khan, printed with the seal of a death of
+torture--there he met the stern glance of the Khansha.... The tearful
+eyes of Seltanetta alone appeared like stars of joy through a rainy
+cloud. To her he resolved to approach, saying timidly, "Seltanetta, for
+you have I committed that for which I lose you. Destiny wills it: be it
+so! One thing tell me--is it possible that you, too, have ceased to love
+me--that you, too, hate me?"
+
+The well-remembered voice of the beloved pierced her heart: Seltanetta
+raised her eyes glistening with tears--eyes full of woe; but on seeing
+Ammalat's dreadful face, spotted with blood, she covered them again with
+her hand. She pointed with her finger at her father's corpse, at the
+head of Verkhoffsky, and said, with firmness, "Farewell, Ammalat! I pity
+thee; but I cannot be thine!" With these words she fell senseless on her
+father's body.
+
+All his native pride, all his blood, rushed to Ammalat's heart; his soul
+fired with fury. "Is it thus I am received?" casting a scornful glance
+at both the women; "is it thus that promises are fulfilled here? I am
+glad that my eyes are opened. I was too simple when I prized the light
+love of a fickle girl--too patient when I hearkened to the ravings of an
+old woman. I see, that with Sultan Akhmet Khan have died the honour and
+hospitality of his house!"
+
+He left the room with a haughty step. He proudly gazed in the face of
+the Ouzdens, grasping the hilt of his dagger as if challenging them to
+combat. All, however, made way for him, but seemingly rather to avoid
+him than from respect. No one saluted him, either by word or sign. He
+went forth into the court-yard, called his noukers together, silently
+mounted into the saddle, and slowly rode through the empty streets of
+Khounzakh.
+
+From the road he looked back for the last time upon the Khan's house,
+which was blackening in the darkness, while the grated door shone with
+lights. His heart was full of blood; his offended pride fixed in its
+iron talons, while the useless crime, and the love henceforth despised
+and hopeless, poured venom on the wounds. Grief, anger, and remorse
+mingled in the glance which he threw on the harem where he first saw,
+and where he lost, all earthly joy. "And you, and you, Seltanetta!" he
+could utter no more. A mountain of lead lay on his breast; his
+conscience already felt that dreadful hand which was stretched forth
+against it. The past terrified him; the future made him tremble. Where
+will he rest that head on which a price is set? What earth will give
+repose to the bones of a traitor? Nor love, nor friendship, nor
+happiness, will ever again be his care; but a life of misery, a
+wanderer's bread....
+
+Ammalat wished to weep, his eyes burned ... and, like the rich man
+tormented in the fire, his heart prayed for one drop, one tear, to
+quench his intolerable thirst.... He tried to weep, and could not.
+Providence has denied this consolation to the guilty.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And where did the murderer of Verkhoffsky hide himself? Whither did he
+drag his wretched existence? No one knew. In Daghestan it was reported
+that he wandered among the Tchetchenetzes and Koi-Sou-Boulinetzes,
+having lost his beauty, his health, and even his bravery. But who could
+say this with certainty? Little by little the rumours about Ammalat died
+away, though his villanous treachery is still fresh in the memory of
+Russians and Mussulmans who dwell in Daghestan. Even now his name is
+never pronounced without a reproach.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+Anapa, that manufactory of arms for the robbers of the mountains, that
+bazar where are sold the tears, the blood, the sweat of Christian
+slaves, that torch of rebellion to the Caucasus--Anapa, I say, was, in
+1808, invested by the Russian armies, on the sea and on the mountain
+side. The gun-boats, the bomb-vessels, and all the ships that could
+approach the shore, were thundering against the fortifications. The land
+army had passed the river which falls into the Black Sea, under the
+northern wall of Anapa, and was posted in swampy ground around the whole
+city. Then they constructed wooden trenches, hewing down, for that
+purpose, the surrounding forest. Every night new works arose nearer and
+nearer to the walls of the town. The interior of the houses flamed from
+the effects of the shells; the outer walls fell under the cannon-balls.
+But the Turkish garrison, reinforced by the mountaineers, fought
+desperately, made fierce sorties, and replied to all proposals for
+surrender by the shots of their artillery. Meanwhile the besiegers were
+incessantly harassed by the Kabardinetz skirmishers, and the
+foot-archers of Abazekhs, Shamsoukhs, Natoukhaitzes, and other wild
+mountaineers of the shores of the Black Sea, assembled, like the
+jackals, in hope of plunder and blood. Against them it was necessary to
+erect redans; and this double work, performed under the fire of cannon
+from the fortress and from the forest, on irregular and boggy ground,
+delayed long the capture of the town.
+
+At length, on the eve of the taking of Anapa, the Russians opened a
+breaching-battery in a ravine on the south-east side of the town: its
+effect was tremendous. At the fifth volley the battlements and parapets
+were overthrown, the guns laid bare and beaten down. The balls, striking
+against the stone facing, flashed like lightning; and then, in a black
+cloud of dust, flew up fragments of shattered stone. The wall crumbled
+and fell to pieces; but the fortress, by the thickness of its walls,
+resisted long the shattering force of the iron; and the precipitous
+steepness of the ruins offered no opportunity for storming. For the
+heated guns, and for the weary artillerymen, worn out by incessant
+firing, repose was absolutely necessary. By degrees the firing from the
+batteries by land and sea began to slacken; thick clouds of smoke,
+floating from the shore, expanded over the waves, sometimes concealing,
+sometimes discovering, the flotilla. From time to time a ball of smoke
+flew up from the guns of the fortress, and after the rolling of the
+cannon-thunder, far echoing among the hills, a ball would whistle by at
+random. And now all was silent--all was still both in the interior of
+Anapa and in the trenches. Not one turban was seen between the
+battlements, not one carabineer's bayonet in the intrenchment. Only the
+Turkish banners on the towers, and the Russian ensign on board the
+ships, waved proudly in the air, now undimmed by a single stream of
+smoke--only the harmonious voices of the muezzins resounded from afar,
+calling the Mussulmans to their mid-day prayer. At this moment, from the
+breach opposite the battery on the plain, descended, or rather rolled
+down, supported by ropes, a horseman on a white horse, who immediately
+leaped over the half-filled ditch, dashed to the left between the
+batteries, flew over the intrenchments, over the soldiers dozing behind
+them, who neither expected nor guessed any thing like this, and,
+followed by their hasty shouts, plunged into the woods. None of the
+cavalry had time to glance at, much less to pursue him: all remained
+thunderstruck with astonishment and vexation; and soon forgot all about
+the brave cavalier, in the alarm of the renewed firing from the
+fortress, which was recommenced in order to give the bold messenger time
+to escape to the mountains. Towards evening the breaching battery, which
+had thundered almost incessantly, had accomplished its work of
+demolition. The prostrate wall formed a kind of bridge for the
+besiegers, who, with the impatience of bravery, prepared for the
+assault; when suddenly an unexpected attack of the Tcherkess, who had
+driven in the Russian scouts and outposts, compelled the besiegers to
+direct the fire of the redans against the furious mountaineers. A
+thundering Allah-il-Allah, from the walls of Anapa, greeted their
+encounter: the volleys of cannon and musketry arose with redoubled
+violence from the walls, but the Russian grape tore asunder and arrested
+the crowds of horsemen and infantry of the Tcherkess, as they were
+preparing to throw themselves upon the batteries with their sabres; and
+they, with furious cries of "Giaour, giaourla!" turned back, leaving
+behind them the dead and wounded. In a moment the whole field was strewn
+with their corpses and their disabled, who, staggering to their feet,
+fell back, struck by the balls and grape-shot; whilst the cannon-shot
+shattered the wood, and the grenades, bursting, completed the
+destruction. But from the beginning of the action, till the moment when
+not one of the enemy remained in sight, the Russians saw before them a
+well-built Tcherkess on a white horse, who rode, at a slow pace, up and
+down before their redans. All recognized in him the same horseman who
+had leaped over the trenches at mid-day, probably in order to induce the
+Tcherkess to fall upon the Russians from the rear, at the moment when
+the now unsuccessful sortie was to be made from the gate. Crashing and
+thundering danced the grape-shot around him. His horse strained at the
+bridle; but he, looking calmly at the batteries, rode along them as if
+they were raining flowers upon him. The artillerymen ground their teeth
+with vexation at the unpunished daring of the cavalier: shot after shot
+tore up the earth, but he remained unhurt as if enchanted. "Give him a
+cannon-ball!" shouted a young officer of artillery, but lately released
+from the military college, who was above all enraged at their want of
+success: "I would load the gun with my head, so glad would I be to kill
+that bragger: it is not worth while to waste grape upon one
+man--grape--look out! a cannon-ball will reach the guilty!" So saying,
+he screwed up the quoin and levelled the gun, looking through the sight;
+and having exactly calculated the moment when the horseman would ride
+through the line of aim, he stepped aside and ordered the fatal fire.
+
+For some moments the smoke enveloped the battery in darkness: when it
+floated away the frightened horse was dragging the blood-stained corpse
+of his rider, with the foot entangled in the stirrup. "Hit--killed!" was
+shouted from all the trenches; and the young artillery officer, taking
+off his cap, piously crossed himself, and with a joyous face jumped down
+from the battery to seize the prey which he had earned. He soon
+succeeded in catching by the reins the horse of the slain Tcherkess, for
+he was dragging the body sideways on the ground. The unfortunate man had
+his arm torn off close to the shoulder; but he still breathed, groaned,
+and struggled. Pity touched the good-natured youth: he called some
+soldiers, and ordered them to carry the wounded man carefully into the
+trench, sent for the surgeon, and had the operation performed before his
+eyes. At night, when all was quiet, the artilleryman sat by the side of
+his dying prisoner, and watched him with interest by the dim light of
+the lantern. The serpent-marks of sorrow, graven on his cheek by tears,
+the wrinkles on his forehead, dug, not by years but passions, and bloody
+scratches, disfigured his handsome face; and in it was painted something
+more torturing than pain, more terrible than death. The artilleryman
+could not restrain an involuntary shudder. The prisoner sighed heavily,
+and having, with difficulty, raised his hand to his forehead, opened his
+heavy eyelids, muttering to himself in unintelligible sounds,
+unconnected words.... "Blood," he cried, examining his hand ... "always
+blood! why have they put _his_ bloody shirt upon me? Already, without
+that, I swim in blood.... Why do I not drown in it?... How cold the
+blood is to-day!... Once it used to scald me, and this is no better! In
+the world it is stifling, in the gave so cold.... 'Tis dreadful to be a
+corpse. Fool that I am, I sought death. O, let me live but for one
+little day--one little hour, to live!..."
+
+"What? Why have I hidden another in the grave, _whisperest thou_? Learn
+thyself what it is to die!..." A convulsive paroxysm interrupted his
+raving, an unspeakably dreadful groan burst from the sufferer, and he
+fell into a painful lethargy, in which the soul lives only to suffer.
+
+The artilleryman, touched to the very bottom of his heart, raised the
+head of the miserable being, sprinkled his face with cold water, and
+rubbed his temples with spirits of wine, in order to bring him to
+himself. Slowly he opened his eyes, shook his head several times, as if
+to shake the mist from his eyelashes, and steadfastly directed his gaze
+on the face of the artilleryman, which was faintly lighted up by the
+feeble gleam of the candle. Suddenly, with a piercing cry, he lifted
+himself on his bed, as if by some superhuman force: his hair stood
+upright, his whole body shook with a fevered trembling, his hand seemed
+endeavouring to push something from him, an ineffable horror was
+expressed on his countenance.... "Your name!" he cried at length,
+addressing the artilleryman. "Who are thou, stranger from the grave?"
+
+"I am Verkhoffsky?" ... answered the young artilleryman. This was a shot
+that went straight to the heart of the prisoner. The ligature on the
+principal artery gave way from a rush of blood, which poured through the
+bandages. Yet a few struggles, yet the throat-rattle, and the leaden
+hand of death choked the wounded man's last sigh, imprinted on his brow
+the seal of the last grief; gathering whole years of repentance into one
+rapid moment, in which the soul, tearing itself from the body, fears
+equally the tortures of life and of nothingness, feels at once all the
+gnawing of the past and all the agony of the future. Terrible was it to
+look on the convulsed face of the dead. "He surely must have been a
+great sinner," said Verkhoffsky, in a low voice to the general's
+interpreter, who stood near him, and he shuddered involuntarily.
+
+"A great villain," rejoined the interpreter: "it appears to me he was a
+Russian deserter. I never met with a mountaineer who spoke Russian so
+correctly as this prisoner. Let me look at his arms. We may, perhaps,
+find some marks on them." With these words he unsheathed, with a look of
+curiosity, the dagger which had been taken from the dead man, and
+bringing it to the lantern, deciphered and translated the following
+inscription:--
+
+    "Be slow to offend--swift to revenge!"
+
+"Quite a robber's rule," said Verkhoffsky; "my poor brother Evstafli!
+you fell a victim to such a fanatic principle as this!"
+
+The eyes of the good youth filled with tears.... "Is there not something
+else?" he asked.
+
+"This is apparently the slain man's name," replied the interpreter.
+
+"It is: Ammalat Bek!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+MR BAILEY'S REPLY TO AN ARTICLE IN BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE.
+
+
+We have just been favoured with a pamphlet from Mr Bailey, entitled "A
+Letter to a Philosopher, in Reply to some Recent Attempts to Vindicate
+Berkeley's Theory of Vision, and in further Elucidation of its
+Unsoundness." Our article on Mr Bailey's review of Berkeley's theory,
+which appeared in _Blackwood's Magazine_ of June 1842, was one of these
+attempts. Had the author merely attacked or controverted our
+animadversions on his book, we should probably have left the question to
+its fate, and not have reverted to a subject, the discussion of which,
+even in the first instance, may have been deemed out of place in a
+journal not expressly philosophical. There is, in general, little to be
+gained by protracting such controversies. But, as Mr Bailey accuses us,
+in the present instance, of having misrepresented his views, we must be
+allowed to exculpate ourselves from the charge of having dealt, even
+with unintentional unfairness, towards one whose opinions, however much
+we may dissent from them, are certainly entitled to high respect and a
+candid examination, as the convictions of an able and zealous enquirer
+after truth.
+
+In our strictures on Mr Bailey's work, we remarked, that he had
+represented Berkeley as holding that the eye is not directly and
+originally cognizant of the outness of objects in relation to each
+other, or of what we would call their reciprocal outness; in other
+words, we stated, that, according to Mr Bailey, Berkeley must be
+regarded as denying to the eye the original intuition of space, either
+in length, breadth, or solid depth. It was, however, only in reference
+to one of his arguments, and to one particular division of his subject,
+that we laid this representation to his charge. Throughout the other
+parts of his discussion, we by no means intended to say that such was
+the view he took of the Berkeleian theory. Nor are we aware of having
+made any statement to that effect. If we did, we now take the
+opportunity of remarking, that we restrict our allegation, as we believe
+we formerly restricted it, to the single argument and distinction just
+mentioned, and hereafter to be explained.
+
+In his reply, Mr Bailey disavows the impeachment _in toto_. He declares
+that he never imputed to Berkeley the doctrine, that the eye is not
+directly percipient of space in the two dimensions of length and
+breadth. "The perception of this kind of distance," says he, "never
+formed the subject of controversy with any one ... That we see extension
+in two dimensions is admitted by all."--(_Letter_, p. 10.) If it can be
+shown that the doctrine which is here stated to be admitted by all
+philosophers, is yet expressly controverted by the two metaphysicians
+whom Mr Bailey appears to have studied most assiduously, it is, at any
+rate, possible that he may have overlooked, in his own writings, the
+expression of an opinion which has escaped his penetration in theirs. To
+convince himself, then, how much he is mistaken in supposing that the
+visual intuition of longitudinal and lateral extension is admitted by
+all philosophers, he has but to turn to the works of Dr Brown and the
+elder Mill. In arguing that we have no immediate perception of visible
+figure, Dr Brown not only virtually, but expressly, asserts that the
+sight has no perception of extension in any of its dimensions. Not to
+multiply quotations, the following will, no doubt, be received as
+sufficient:--"They (i.e. philosophers) have--_I think without sufficient
+reason_--universally supposed that the superficial extension of _length
+and breadth_ becomes known to us by sight originally."[28] Dr Brown then
+proceeds to argue, with what success we are not at present considering,
+that our knowledge of extension and figure is derived from another
+source than the sense of sight.
+
+    [28] Brown's Lectures, Lecture xxviii.
+
+Mr James Mill, an author whom Mr Bailey frequently quotes with
+approbation, and in confirmation of his own views, is equally explicit.
+He maintains, in the plainest terms, that the eye has no intuition of
+space, or of the reciprocal outness of visible objects. "Philosophy,"
+says he, "has ascertained that we derive nothing from the eye whatever
+but sensations of colour--that the idea of extension [he means in its
+three dimensions] is derived from sensations not in the eye, but in the
+muscular part of our frame."[29] Thus, contrary to what Mr Bailey
+affirms, these two philosophers limit the office of vision to the
+perception of mere colour or difference of colour, denying to the eye
+the original perception of extension in any dimension whatever. In their
+estimation, the intuition of space is no more involved in our perception
+of different colours than it is involved in our perception of different
+smells or different sounds. Dr Brown's doctrine, in which Mr Mill seems
+to concur, is, that the perception of superficial extension no more
+results from a certain expanse of the optic nerve being affected by a
+variety of colours than it results from a certain expanse of the
+olfactory nerve being affected by a variety of odours.[30] So much for
+Mr Bailey's assertion, that _all_ philosophers admit the perception of
+extension in two dimensions.
+
+    [29] Mill's Analysis, vol. i. p. 73.
+
+    [30] This reasoning of Dr Brown's is founded upon an assumed
+    analogy between the structure of the optic nerve, and the
+    structure of the olfactory nerves and other sensitive nerves,
+    and is completely disproved by the physiological observations of
+    Treviranus, who has shown that no such analogy exists: that the
+    ends of the nervous fibres in the retina being elevated into
+    distinct separate _papillae_, enable us to perceive the
+    extension, and discriminate the position of visible bodies,
+    while the nerves of the other senses being less delicately
+    defined, are not fitted to furnish us with any such perception,
+    or to aid us in making any such discrimination. See _Mueller's
+    Physiology, translated by W. Baly, M.D._, vol. ii. pp. 1073,
+    1074. Although the application of Treviranus's discovery to the
+    refutation of Dr Brown's reasoning is our own, we may remark, in
+    justice to an eminent philosopher, that it was Sir William
+    Hamilton who first directed our attention to the _fact_ as
+    established by the great physiologist.
+
+But, of course, our main business is with the expression of his own
+opinion. In rebutting our charge, he maintains that "the visibility of
+angular distance (that is of extension laterally) is assumed, by
+implication, as part of Berkeley's doctrine, in _almost_ every chapter
+of my book."--(_Letter_, p. 13.) That word _almost_ is a provident
+saving clause; for we undertake to show that not only is the very
+reverse assumed, by implication, as part of Berkeley's doctrine, in the
+_single_ chapter to which we confined our remarks, but that, in another
+part of his work, it is expressly avowed as the only alternative by
+which, in the author's opinion, Berkeley's consistency can be preserved.
+
+At the outset of his enquiry, Mr Bailey divides his discussion into two
+branches: first, Whether objects are originally seen to be external, or
+at _any_ distance at all from the sight; and, secondly, Supposing it
+admitted that they are seen to be external, or at _some_ distance from
+the sight, whether they are all seen in the same plane, or equally near.
+It was to the former of these questions that we exclusively confined our
+remarks;[31] and it was in reference to it, and to an important argument
+evolved by Mr Bailey in the course of its discussion, that we charged
+him with fathering on Berkeley the doctrine which he now disavows as his
+interpretation of the bishop's opinion. He further disputes the
+relevancy of the question about our perception of lateral extension, and
+maintains that distance in a direction from the percipient, or what we
+should call protensive distance, is the only matter in dispute; and that
+it is a misconception of the scope of Berkeley's essay to imagine
+otherwise. The relevancy of the question shall be disposed of
+afterwards. In the mean time, the question at issue is, Can the
+allegation which we have laid to Mr Bailey's charge be proved to be the
+fact, or not?
+
+    [31] Mr Bailey seems disposed to carp at us for having confined
+    our remarks to this first question, and for not having given a
+    more complete review of his book. But the reason why we cut
+    short our critique is obvious; for if it be proved, as we
+    believe it can, that objects are originally seen at _no distance
+    whatever_ from the sight, it becomes quite superfluous to
+    enquire what appearance they would present if originally seen at
+    _some_ distance from the sight. The way in which we disposed of
+    the first question, however imperfect our treatment of it may
+    have been, necessarily prevented us from entering upon the
+    second; and our review, with all its deficiencies, was thus a
+    complete review of his book, though not a review of his complete
+    book.
+
+In discussing the first of the two questions, it was quite possible for
+Mr Bailey to have represented Berkeley as holding, that visible objects,
+though not seen to be external to the sight, were yet seen to be out of
+each other, or laterally extended within the organism or the mind. But
+Mr Bailey makes no such representation of the theory, and the whole
+argument which pervades the chapter in which the first question is
+discussed, is founded on the negation of any such extension. All visible
+extension, he tells us, must, in his opinion, be either plane or solid.
+Now he will scarcely maintain that he regarded Berkeley as holding that
+we perceive solid extension within the organism of the eye. Neither does
+he admit that, according to Berkeley, and in reference to this first
+question, plane extension is perceived within the organism of the eye.
+For when he proceeds to the discussion of the _second_ of the two
+questions, he remarks that "we must, _at this stage_ of the argument,
+consider the theory under examination, as representing that we see all
+things _originally in the same plane_,"[32] obviously implying that he
+had not _as yet_ considered the theory as representing that we see
+things originally in the same plane: in other words, plainly admitting
+that, in his treatment of the first question, he had not regarded the
+theory as representing that we see things originally under the category
+of extension at all.
+
+    [32] Review of Berkeley's Theory, p 35.
+
+But if any more direct evidence on this point were wanted, it is to be
+found in the section of his work which treats of "the perception of
+figure." In the chapter in which he discusses the first of the two
+questions, he constantly speaks of Berkeley's theory as representing
+that "our visual sensations, or what we ultimately term visible objects,
+are originally mere internal feelings." The expression _mere internal
+feelings_, however, is ambiguous; for, as we have said, it might still
+imply that Mr Bailey viewed the theory as representing that there was an
+extension, or reciprocal outness of objects within the retina. But this
+doubt is entirely removed by a passage in the section alluded to, which
+proves that, in Mr Bailey's estimation, these mere internal feelings not
+only involve no such extension, but that there would be an inconsistency
+in supposing they did. In this section he brings forward Berkeley's
+assertion, "that neither solid nor plane figures are immediate objects
+of sight." He then quotes a passage in which the bishop begs the reader
+not to stickle too much "about this or that phrase, or manner of
+expression, but candidly to collect his meaning from the whole sum and
+tenour of his discourse." And then Mr Bailey goes on to say,
+"endeavouring, in the spirit here recommended, to collect the author's
+meaning when he affirms that the figures we see are neither plane nor
+solid, it appears to me to be _a part or consequence_ of his doctrine
+already examined, which asserts that visible objects are only internal
+feelings."[33] We can now be at no loss to understand what Mr Bailey
+means, and conceives Berkeley to mean, by the expression "mere internal
+feelings." He evidently means feelings in which no kind of extension
+whatever is involved: for, in the next page, he informs us that all
+visual extension or extended figure, "_must_ be apprehended as either
+plane or solid, and that it is impossible even to conceive it
+otherwise." Consequently, if the figures we see are, as Berkeley says,
+apprehended neither as plane nor as solid, Mr Bailey, entertaining the
+notions he does on the subject of extension, _must_ regard him as
+holding that they cannot be apprehended as extended at all--and
+accordingly such is the express representation he gives of the theory in
+the passage just quoted, where he says that "the doctrine of Berkeley,
+which affirms that the figures we see are neither plane nor solid, (that
+is, are extended in _no_ direction, according to Mr Bailey's ideas of
+extension,) appears to him to be _a part_ of the doctrine which asserts
+that visible objects are only internal feelings." Now if that be not
+teaching, in the plainest terms, that, according to Berkeley, no species
+of extension is implied in the internal feelings of vision, we know not
+what language means, and any one thought may be identical with its very
+opposite.
+
+    [33] Ibid. p. 136.
+
+Here we might let the subject drop, having, as we conceive, said quite
+enough to prove the truth of our allegation that, in reference to the
+first question discussed, in which our original visual sensations are
+represented by Berkeley to be mere internal feelings, Mr Bailey
+understood and stated those feelings to signify sensations in which no
+perception of extension whatever was involved. However, as Mr Bailey
+further remarks that, "although Berkeley's doctrine about visible
+figures being neither plane not solid, is thus consistent with his
+assertion that they are internal feelings, it is in itself
+contradictory,"[34] we shall contribute a few remarks to show that
+while, on the one hand, the negation of extension is not required to
+vindicate the consistency of Berkeley's assertion, that visible objects
+are internal feelings, neither, on the other hand, is there any
+contradiction in Berkeley's holding that objects are not seen either as
+planes or as solids, and are yet apprehended as extended. Mr Bailey
+alleges that we are "far more successful in involving ourselves in
+subtle speculations of our own, than in faithfully guiding our readers
+through the theories of other philosophers." Perhaps in the present case
+we shall be able to thread a labyrinth where our reviewer has lost his
+clue, and, in spite of the apparent contradiction by which Mr Bailey has
+been gravelled, we shall, perhaps, be more successful than he in
+"collecting Berkeley's meaning from the whole sum and tenour of his
+discourse."
+
+    [34] Review of Berkeley's Theory, p. 137.
+
+First, with regard to the contradiction charged upon the bishop. When we
+open our eyes, what do we behold? We behold points--_minima
+visibilia_--out of one another. Do we see these points to be in the same
+plane? Certainly not. If they are in the same plane we learn this from a
+very different experience from that of sight. Again, do we see these
+points to be _not_ in the same plane? Certainly not. If the points are
+not in the same plane we learn this, too, from a very different
+experience than that of sight. All that we see is that the points are
+out of one another; and this simply implies the perception of extension,
+without implying the perception either of plane or of solid extension.
+Thus by the observation of a very obvious fact, which, however, Mr
+Bailey has overlooked, is Berkeley's assertion that visible objects are
+apprehended as extended, and yet not apprehended either as planes or
+solids, relieved from every appearance of contradiction.
+
+It must, however, be admitted that Mr Bailey has much to justify him in
+his opinion that extension must be apprehended either as plane or as
+solid. None of Berkeley's followers, we believe, have ever dreamt of
+conceiving it otherwise, and finding in their master's work the negation
+of solid extension specially insisted on, they leapt to the conclusion
+that the bishop admitted the original perception of plane extension. But
+Berkeley makes no such admission. He places the perception of plane
+extension on precisely the same footing with that of solid extension.
+"We see planes," says he, "in the same way that we see solids."[35] And
+the wisdom of the averment is obvious; for the affirmation of plane
+extension involves the negation of solid extension, but this negation
+involves the conception (visually derived) of solid extension; but the
+admission of that conception, so derived, would be fatal to the
+Berkeleian theory. Therefore its author wisely avoids the danger by
+holding, that in vision we have merely the perception of what the
+Germans would call the _Auseinanderseyn_, that is, the _asunderness_, of
+things--a perception which implies no judgment as to whether the things
+are secerned in plane or in protensive space.
+
+    [35] Essay, Sec. 158.
+
+With regard to the supposition that, in order to preserve Berkeley's
+consistency, it was necessary for him to teach that our visual
+sensations, (colours namely,) being internal feelings, could involve the
+perception neither of plane nor of solid extension, that is to say, of
+no extension at all, according to Mr Bailey's ideas, we shall merely
+remark, that there appears to us to be no inconsistency in holding, as
+Berkeley does, that these colours, though originally internal to the
+sight, are nevertheless perceived as extended among themselves.
+
+We shall now say a few words on the _relevancy_ of the question, for Mr
+Bailey denies that this question, concerning the reciprocal outness of
+visible objects, ought to form any element in the controversy. We shall
+show, however, that one of his most important arguments depends entirely
+on the view that may be taken of this question; and that while the
+argument alluded to would be utterly fatal to Berkeley's theory, if the
+perception of reciprocal outness were denied, it is perfectly harmless
+if the perception in question be admitted.
+
+Mr Bailey's fundamental and reiterated objection to Berkeley's theory
+is, that it requires us to hold that conceptions or past impressions,
+derived from one sense, (the touch,) are not merely recalled when
+another sense (the sight) executes its functions, but are themselves
+absolutely converted into the present intuitions of that other sense. In
+his own words, (_Review_, p. 69,) the theory is said to require "a
+transmutation of the conceptions derived from touch into the perceptions
+of sight." "According to Berkeley, (says he, _Review_, p. 22,) an
+internal feeling (i.e. a visual sensation) and an external sensation
+(i.e. a tactual sensation) having been experienced at the same time: the
+internal feeling, when it afterwards occurs, not only suggests the idea,
+but, by doing so, suggests the idea, or, if I may use the figure,
+infuses the perception of its own externality. Berkeley thus attributes
+to suggestion an effect contrary to its nature, which, as in the case of
+language, is simply to revive in our conception what has been previously
+perceived by the sense."
+
+Now, this objection would be altogether insurmountable if it were true,
+or if it were a part of Berkeley's doctrine, that the sight has no
+original intuition of space, or of the reciprocal outness of its
+objects--in other words, of colours out of colours; for it being
+admitted that the sight has ultimately such a perception, it would be
+incumbent on the Berkeleian to show how conceptions derived from another
+sense, or how perceptions belonging to another sense, could be converted
+into that perception. We agree with Mr Bailey, in thinking that no
+process of association could effect this conversion; that if we did not
+originally see colours to be out of each other, and the points of the
+same colour to be out of each other, we could never so see them; and
+that his argument, when thus based on the negation of all original
+visual extension, and on the supposition that the touch is the sole
+organ of every species of externality, would remain invulnerable.
+
+But, with the admission of the visual intuition of space, the objection
+vanishes, and the argument is shorn of all its strength. This admission
+relieves the theory from the necessity of maintaining, that conceptions
+derived from touch are transmuted into the perceptions of sight. It
+attributes to the sight all that ever truly belongs to it, namely, the
+perception of colours out of one another; it provides the visual
+intuitions with an externality of their own--and the theory never
+demands that they should acquire any other; and it leaves to these
+visual intuitions the office of merely suggesting to the mind tactual
+impressions, with which they have been invariably associated in place.
+We say, _in place_; and it will be found that there is no contradiction
+in our saying so, when we shall have shown that it is the touch, and not
+the sight, which establishes a protensive interval between the organ and
+the sensations of vision.
+
+Visible extension, then, or the perception of colours external to
+colours, being admitted, Mr Bailey's argument, if he still adheres to
+it, must be presented to us in this form. He must maintain that the
+theory requires that the objects of touch should not only be suggested
+by the visual objects with which they have been associated, but that
+they should actually be _seen_. And then he must maintain that no power
+of association can enable us to see an object which can only be
+touched--a position which, certainly, no one will controvert. The simple
+answer to all which, is, that we never do see tangible objects--that the
+theory never requires we should, and that no power of association is
+necessary to account for a phenomenon which never takes place.
+
+We cannot help thinking, that not a little of the misconception on this
+subject which prevails in the writings of Mr Bailey, and, we may add, of
+many other philosophers, originates in the supposition that we identify
+vision with the eye in the mere act of seeing, and in their taking it
+for granted that sight of itself informs us that we possess such an
+organ as the eye. Of course, if we suppose that we know instinctively,
+or intuitively, from the mere act of seeing, that the eye is the organ
+of vision, that it forms a part of the body we behold, and is located in
+the head, it requires no conjurer to prove that we _must_ have an
+instinctive, or intuitive, knowledge of visible things as larger than
+that organ, and, consequently, as external to it. In this case, no
+process of association is necessary to account for our knowledge of the
+distance of objects. That knowledge must be directly given in the very
+function and exercise of vision, as every one will admit, without going
+to the expense of an octavo volume to have it proved.
+
+But we hold that no truth in mental philosophy is more incontestable
+than this, that the sight originally, and of itself, furnishes us with
+no knowledge of the eye, as we _now_ know that organ to exist. It does
+not inform us that we have an eye at all. And here we may hazard an
+observation, which, simple as it is, appears to us to be new, and not
+unimportant in aiding us to unravel the mysteries of sensation; which
+observation is, that, in no case whatever, does any sense inform us of
+the existence of its appropriate organ, or of the relation which
+subsists between that organ and its objects, but that the interposition
+of some other sense[36] is invariably required to give us this
+information. This truth, which we believe holds good with regard to all
+the senses, is most strikingly exemplified in the case of vision, as we
+shall now endeavour to illustrate.
+
+    [36] It would not be difficult to show, that as, on the one
+    hand, _distance_ is not involved in the original intuitions of
+    sight, so, on the other hand, _proximity_ is not involved in the
+    original intuitions of touch; but that, while it is the touch
+    which establishes an interval between the organ and the objects
+    of sight, it is the sight which establishes _no_ interval
+    between the organ and the objects of touch. Sight thus pays back
+    every fraction of the debt it has incurred to its brother sense.
+    This is an interesting subject, but we can only glance at it
+    here.
+
+Let us begin by supposing that man is a mere "power of seeing". Under
+this supposition, we must hold that the periphery of vision is one and
+the same with the periphery of visible space; and the two peripheries
+being identical, of course whatever objects lie within the sphere of the
+one must lie within the sphere of the other also. Perhaps, strictly
+speaking, it is wrong to say that these objects are apprehended as
+internal to the sight; for the conception of internality implies the
+conception of externality, and neither of these conceptions can, as yet,
+be realized. But it is obvious what the expression _internal_ means; and
+it is unobjectionable, when understood to signify that the Seeing Power,
+the Seeing Act, and the Seen Things, co-exist in a synthesis in which
+there is no interval or discrimination. For, suppose that we know
+instinctively that the seen things occupy a locality separate from the
+sight. But that implies that we instinctively know that the sight
+occupies a locality separate from them. But such a supposition is a
+falling back upon the notion just reprobated, that the mere act of
+seeing can indicate its own organ, or can localise the visual phenomena
+in the eye--a position which, we presume, no philosopher will be hardy
+enough to maintain, when called upon to do so, broadly and
+unequivocally. The conclusion, therefore, is irresistible, that, in mere
+vision, the sight and its objects cling together in a union or
+synthesis, which no function of that sense, and no knowledge imparted to
+us by it, (and, according to the supposition, we have, as yet, no other
+knowledge,) can enable us to discriminate or dissolve. Where the seeing
+is, there is the thing seen, and where the thing seen is, there is the
+seeing of it.
+
+But man is not a mere seeing animal. He has other senses besides: He
+has, for example, the sense of touch, and one of the most important
+offices which this sense performs, is to break up the identity or
+cohesion which subsists between sight and its objects. And how? We
+answer, by teaching us to associate _vision in general_, or the abstract
+_condition_ regulating our visual impressions, with the presence of the
+small tangible body we call the eye, and _vision in particular_, or the
+individual sensations of vision, (i.e. colours,) with the presence of
+immeasurably larger bodies revealed to us by touch, and tangibly
+external to the tangible eye. Sight, as we have said, does not inform us
+that its sensations are situated in the eye: it does not inform us that
+we have an eye at all. Neither does touch inform us that our visual
+sensations are located in the eye. It does not lead us to associate with
+the eye any of the visual phenomena or operations _in the first
+instance_. If it did, it would (_firstly_) either be impossible for it
+_afterwards_ to induce us to associate them with the presence of
+tangible bodies distant and different from the eye: or, (_secondly_),
+such an association would merely give birth to the abstract knowledge or
+conclusion, that these bodies were in one place, while the sensations
+suggesting them were felt to be associated with something in another
+place; colour would not be seen--as it is--incarnated with body: or,
+(_thirdly_), we should be compelled to postulate for the eye, as many
+philosophers have done, in our opinion, most unwarrantably, "a faculty
+of projection"[37] by which it might dissolve the association between
+itself and its sensations, throwing off the latter in the form of
+colours over the surface of things, and reversing the old Epicurean
+doctrine that perception is kept up by the transit to the sensorium of
+the ghosts or _simulacra_ of things,
+
+    Quae, quasi membranae, summo de corpore rerum,
+    Direptae, volitant ultro citroque per auras.[38]
+
+It is difficult to say whether the hypothesis of "cast-off films" is
+more absurd when we make the films come from things to us as spectral
+effluxes, or go from us to them in the semblance of colours.
+
+    [37] We observe that even Mueller speaks of the "faculty of
+    projection" as if he sanctioned and adopted the hypothesis.--See
+    _Physiology_, vol. ii. p. 1167.
+
+    [38] Lucretius.
+
+But according to the present view no such incomprehensible faculty, no
+such crude and untenable hypothesis, is required. _Before_ the touch has
+informed us that we have an eye, _before_ it has led us to associate any
+thing visual with the eye, it has _already_ taught us to associate in
+place the sensations of vision (colours) with the presence of tangible
+objects which are not the eye. Therefore, when the touch discovers the
+eye, and induces us to associate vision in some way with it, it cannot
+be the particular sensations of vision called colours which it leads us
+to associate with that organ; for these have been already associated
+with something very different. If it be not colours, then what is it
+that the touch compels us to associate with the eye? We answer that it
+is the abstract _condition_ of impressions as the general law on which
+all seeing depends, but as quite distinct from the particular visual
+sensations apprehended in virtue of the observance of that law.
+
+Nor is it at all difficult to understand how this general condition
+comes to be associated with the eye, and how the particular visual
+sensations come to be associated with something distant from the eye:
+and further, how this association of the condition with one thing, and
+of the sensations with another thing, (an association established by the
+touch and not by the sight,) dissolves the primary synthesis of seeing
+and colours. It is to be observed that there are two stages in the
+process by which this secernment is brought about--_First_, the stage in
+which the visual phenomena are associated with things different from the
+organ of vision, the very existence of which is as yet unknown. Let us
+suppose, then, the function of sight to be in operation. We behold a
+visible object--a particular colour. Let the touch now come into play.
+We feel a tangible object--say a book. Now from the mere fact of the
+visible and the tangible object being seen and felt together, we could
+not associate them in place; for it is quite possible that the tangible
+object may admit of being withdrawn, and yet the visible object remain:
+and if so, no association of the two in place can be established. But
+this is a point that can only be determined by experience; and what says
+that wise instructor? We withdraw the tangible object. The visible
+object, too, disappears: it leaves its place. We replace the tangible
+object--the visible object reappears _in statu quo_. There is no
+occasion to vary the experiment. If we find that the visible object
+invariably leaves its place when the tangible object leaves its, and
+that the one invariably comes back when the other returns, we have
+brought forward quite enough to establish an inevitable association in
+place between the two. The two places are henceforth regarded, not as
+two, but as one and the same.
+
+By the aid of the touch, then, we have associated the visual phenomena
+with thing which are _not_ the organ of vision; and well it is for us
+that we have done so betimes, and before we were aware of the eye's
+existence. Had the eye been indicated to us in the mere act of seeing;
+had we become apprised of its existence _before_ we had associated our
+visual sensations with the tangible objects constituting the material
+universe, the probability, nay the certainty, is that we would have
+associated them with this eye, and that then it would have been as
+impossible for us to break up the association between colours and the
+organ, as it now is for us to dissolve the union between colours and
+material things. In which case we should have remained blind, or as bad
+as blind; brightness would have been in the eye when it ought to have
+been in the sun; greenness would have been in the retina when it ought
+to have been in the grass. A most wise provision of nature it certainly
+is, by which our visual sensations are disposed of in the right way
+before we obtain any knowledge of the eye. And most wisely has nature
+seconded her own scheme by obscuring all the sources from which that
+knowledge might be derived. The light eyelids--the effortless muscular
+apparatus performing its ministrations so gently as to be almost
+unfelt--the tactual sensations so imperceptible when the eye is left to
+its own motions, so keen when it is invaded by an exploring finger, and
+so anxious to avoid all contact by which the existence of the organ
+might be betrayed. All these are so many means adopted by nature to keep
+back from the infant seer all knowledge of his own eye--a knowledge
+which, if developed prematurely, would have perverted the functions, if
+not rendered nugatory the very existence of the organ.
+
+But, _secondly_, we have to consider the stage of the process in which
+vision is in some way associated with an object which is _not_ any of
+the things with which the visual sensations are connected. It is clear
+that the process is not completed--that our task, which is to dissolve
+the primary synthesis of vision and its phenomena, is but half executed,
+unless such an object be found. For though we have associated the visual
+sensations (colours) with something different from themselves, still
+vision clings to them without a hair's-breadth of interval and pursues
+them whithersoever they go. As far, then, as we have yet gone, it cannot
+be said that our vision is felt or known to be distanced from the fixed
+stars even by the diameter of a grain of sand. The synthesis of sight
+and colour is not yet discriminated. How, then, is the interval
+interposed? We answer, by the discovery of a tangible object in a
+different place from any of the tangible objects associated with colour;
+and then by associating, in some way or other, the operations of vision
+with this object. Such an object is discovered in the eye. Now, as has
+frequently been said, we cannot associate colours or the visual
+sensations with this eye; for these have been already disposed of
+otherwise. What, then, do we associate with it--and how? We find, upon
+experiment, that our apprehension of the various visual sensations
+depends on the presence and particular location of this small tangible
+body. We find that the whole array of visual phenomena disappear when it
+is tactually covered, that they reappear when it is reopened, and so
+forth. Thus we come in some way to associate vision with it--not as
+colour, however, not as visual sensation. We regard the organ and its
+dispositions merely as a general condition regulating the apprehension
+of the visual sensations, and no more.
+
+Thus, by attending to the two associations that occur,--the association
+(in place) of visual sensations with tangible bodies that _are not_ the
+eye; and the association (in place) of vision with a small tangible body
+that _is_ the eye--the eye regarded as the condition on which the
+apprehension of these sensations depends; by attending to these, we can
+understand how a protensive interval comes to be recognised between the
+organ and its objects. By means of the touch, we have associated the
+sensations of vision with tangible bodies in one place, and the
+apprehension of these sensations with a tangible body in another place.
+It is, therefore, impossible for the sight to dissolve these
+associations, and bring the sensations out of the one place where they
+are felt, into the other place where the _condition_ of their
+apprehension resides. The sight is, therefore, compelled to leave the
+sensations where they are, and the apprehension of them where it is; and
+to recognize the two as sundered from each other--the sensations as
+separated from the organ, which they truly are. Thus it is that we would
+explain the origin of the perception of distance by the eye; believing
+firmly that the sight would never have discerned this distance without
+the mediation of the touch.
+
+Rightly to understand the foregoing reasoning--indeed to advance a
+single step in the true philosophy of sensation--we much divest
+ourselves of the prejudice instilled into us by a false physiology, that
+what we call our organism, or, in plain words, our body, is necessarily
+_the seat_ of our sensations. That all our sensations come to be
+associated _in some way_ with this body, and that some of them even come
+to be associated with it _in place_, is undeniable; but so far is it
+from being true, that they are all essentially implicated or
+incorporated with it, and cannot exist at a distance from it, that we
+have a direct proof to the contrary in our sensations of vision; and
+until the physiologist can prove (what has never yet been proven) an _a
+priori_ necessity that our sensations must be where our bodies are, and
+an _a priori_ absurdity in the contrary supposition, he must excuse us
+for resolutely standing by the fact as we find it.
+
+This is a view which admits of much discussion, and we would gladly
+expatiate upon the subject, did time and space permit; but we must
+content ourselves with winding up the present observations with the
+accompanying diagram, which we think explains our view beyond the
+possibility of a mistake.
+
+                  A
+          B_a_         _a_C
+
+Let A be the original synthesis, or indiscrimination of vision and its
+sensations--of light and colours. Let _a_ be the visual sensations
+locally associated by means of the touch with the tangible bodies C
+_before_ vision is in any way associated with B--before, indeed, we have
+any knowledge of the existence of B. Then let _a_, the general condition
+on which the sensations, _after a time_, are found to depend, and in
+virtue of which they are apprehended, be locally associated with B--the
+eye discovered by means of the touch--and we have before us what we
+cannot help regarding as a complete _rationale_ of the whole phenomena
+and mysteries of vision. Now, the great difference between this view of
+the subject and the views of it that have been taken by _every_ other
+philosopher, consists in this, that whereas their explanations
+invariably implicated the visual sensations _a_ with B from the very
+first, thereby rendering it either impossible for them to be afterwards
+associated with C, or possible only in virtue of some very extravagant
+hypothesis--our explanation, on the contrary, proceeding on a simple
+observation of the facts, and never implicating the sensations _a_ with
+B at all, but associating them with C _a primordiis_, merely leaving to
+be associated with B, _a_, a certain general condition that must be
+complied with, in order that the sensations _a_ may be apprehended,--in
+this way, we say, our explanation contrives to steer clear both of the
+impossibility and the hypothesis.
+
+We would just add by way of postscript to this article--which, perhaps,
+ought itself to have been only a postscript--that with regard to Mr
+Bailey's allegation of our having plagiarised one of his arguments,
+merely turning the coat of it outside in, we can assure him that he is
+labouring under a mistake. In our former paper, we remarked that we
+could not see things to be _out_ of the sight, because we could not see
+the sight itself. Mr Bailey alleges, that this argument is borrowed from
+him, being a mere reversal of his reasoning, that we cannot see things
+to be _in_ the sight, because we cannot see both the sight and the
+things. That our argument might very naturally have been suggested by
+his, we admit. But it was not so. We had either overlooked the passage
+in his book, or it was clean out of our mind when we were pondering our
+own speculations. It did not suggest our argument, either nearly or
+remotely. Had it done so, we should certainly have noticed it, and
+should probably have handled both Mr Bailey's reasoning and our own to
+better purpose, in consequence. If, notwithstanding this disclaimer, he
+still thinks that appearances are against us, we cannot mend his faith,
+but can merely repeat, that the fact is as we have stated it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD.
+
+WITH THIRTY-TWO ILLUSTRATIONS, BY WILLIAM MULREADY, R.A.
+
+
+In a review we made last January of Goldsmith's "Deserted Village,"
+illustrated by the Etching Club, we concluded our notice with
+recommending to those able artists the "Vicar of Wakefield;" and
+expressed a hope that Mr Maclise would lend his powerful aid, having in
+our recollection some very happy illustrations of his hand in pictures
+exhibited at the Royal Academy Exhibition.
+
+What the Etching Club are about, we know not; but the subject has been
+taken up by Mr Mulready; and we now feel it incumbent upon us to notice
+this new and illustrated edition of that immortal work. Immortal it must
+be; manners pass away, modes change, but the fashion of the heart of man
+is unalterable. The "Vicar of Wakefield" bears the stamp of the age in
+which it was written. Had it been laid aside by the author, discovered,
+and now first brought out, without a notice of the author, or of the
+time of its composition, received it must have been indeed with delight,
+but not as belonging to the present day. It differs in its literature
+and its manners. It is at once a most happy work for illustration, and
+the most difficult. It is universally known. Who has not shed previous
+and heart-improving tears over it? Taking up the tale now, for the
+hundredth time, we are become, from somewhat morose, tender as a
+lamb--propitious condition for a critic! We opened upon the scene where
+Mr Burchell so cruelly tries poor Sophia, by offering her a husband in
+Mr Jenkinson; we know the whole transaction perfectly, the bitter joke,
+the proposal
+
+                        "impares
+    Formas atque animas in juga ahenea
+    Saevo mittere cum joco."
+
+Yet how strangely are we moved! Had the taxman at the moment called for
+the income-tax, he would have concluded we were paying the last farthing
+of our principal. What art is this in a writer, that he should by one
+and the same passage continue to move his readers, though they know the
+trick! Readers, too, that would have turned the cold shoulder to real
+tales of greater distress, and met suspicion that all was a cheat
+halfway; but the acknowledged fictitious they yield to at once their
+whole hearts, throwing to the winds their beggarly stint. Never was
+there a writer that possessed to so great a degree as did Goldsmith this
+wondrous charm; and in him it is the more delightful in the light and
+pleasant _allegria_ with which he works off the feeling. The volume is
+full of subjects that so move; and in this respect it is most admirable
+for illustration, inviting the ablest powers. But the difficulty,
+wherein does that lie? Look at all illustrations that have hitherto
+appeared in print, and you cry out to all--Away with the failure!
+Certain it is that but slender abilities have been hitherto employed;
+and when we hear of better artists coming to the undertaking, we are
+hardened against them. And then, how few come fresh to the tale. To
+those who do, perhaps a new illustration may have a tenfold charm; but
+to any one past five-and-twenty, it must come "with a difference." It is
+very difficult to reconcile one to a new Dr Primrose, a new Mrs
+Primrose. Beauty ever had the power of beauty, and takes us suddenly; we
+can more readily dismiss the old idea and pitch on the new, so that the
+Miss Primroses are more reconcilable and transferable creatures, than
+the Vicar and his wife, or the incomparable Moses and the unyielding Mr
+Burchell. We cannot pretend to tell how all these characters would have
+fitted their images given by Mr Mulready, had the work now first come
+into our hands. As it is, we can only say they are new to us. It
+requires time to reconcile this. In the meanwhile we must take it for
+granted, that they actually do represent those in Mr Mulready's vision,
+and he is a clear-sighted man, and has been accustomed to look into
+character well. His name as the illustrator, gave promise of success.
+Well do we remember an early picture by him--entitled, we believe, the
+Wolf and the Lamb. It represented two schoolboys--the bully, and the
+more tender fatherless child. The history in that little picture was
+quite of the manner of Goldsmith. The orphan boy's face we never can
+forget, not the whole expression of his slender form, though it is many
+years ago that we saw the picture. So that when the name of Mulready
+appeared as illustrator, we said at once, That will do--down came the
+book, and here it is before us. The pages have been turned over again
+and again. We cannot, nevertheless, quite reconcile our ideas to the new
+Dr and Mrs Primrose; but in attempting to do so, so many real artistical
+beauties have beamed from the pages, that we determined at once to pour
+out our hearts to Maga, and turn over page after page once more. The
+illustrations are thirty-two in number; one to head each chapter,
+though, and which we think a defect, the subject of the illustration is
+not always in the chapter at the head of which it is. The first is the
+choice of a wife--"and chose my wife as she did her wedding-gown." The
+intended bride is a very beautiful graceful figure, with a most sweet
+simplicity of countenance. This never could have resembled Mrs Deborah
+Primrose; the outline is most easy and graceful, even as one of
+Raffaelle's pure and lovely beings. The youth of the bride and
+bridegroom, fresh in their hopes of years of happiness, is happily
+contrasted with the staid age of the respectable tradesman, evidently
+one of honest trade and industrious habits--the fair dealer, one of the
+old race before the days of "immense sacrifices" brought goods and men
+into disrepute. The little group is charming; every line assists
+another, and make a perfect whole.
+
+"The Dispute between the Vicar and Mr Wilmot."--"This, as may be
+expected, produced a dispute, attended with some acrimony." Old Wilmot
+is capital; there is acrimony in his face, and combativeness in his
+fists--both clenching confidently his own argument, and ready for
+action; the very drawing back of one leg, and protrusion of the other,
+is indicative of testy impatience. The vicar is a little too loose and
+slovenly, both in attitude and attire; the uniting of the figures
+(artistically speaking) is with Mr Mulready's usual ability.
+
+"The Rescue of Sophia from Drowning by Mr Burchell."--"She must have
+certainly perished, had not my companion, perceiving her danger,
+instantly plunged in to her relief." This is altogether a failure, yet
+it is a good subject; nor has Mr Mulready been at all happy in the
+female beauty. The vicar stands upon the bank too apathetic; and the
+group in the vehicle, crossing the stream above, seem scarcely conscious
+of the event, though they are within sight of it. Mr Mulready has here,
+too, neglected his text. Sophia fell from her horse; all the party set
+out on horseback; there is no carriage mentioned.
+
+"The Vicar at Home, with Neighbour Flamborough and the Piper."--"These
+harmless people had several ways of being good company; while one
+played, the other would sing some soothing ballad." The happy father,
+with his children climbing up his chair, and clinging to him, is a
+beautiful group, and quite worthy of Mr Mulready's pencil.
+
+"Squire Thornhill."--"At last a young gentleman, of a more genteel
+appearance than the rest, came forward, and for a while regarding us,
+instead of pursuing the chase, stopped short, and giving his horse to a
+servant who attended, approached us with a careless, superior air." The
+family are sweetly grouped--the story well told--the easy assurance of
+the squire undeniable. The father holds his two boys, one on his lap,
+the other between his knees; but is he "_the_ vicar?"
+
+"Mr Burchell and Sophia"--A most charming illustration. It is the
+haymaking scene. "I could not avoid, however, observing the assiduity of
+Mr Burchell, in assisting my daughter Sophia in her part of the task."
+Sophia is a lovely creature, just what she should be. We are not quite
+sure of Mr Burchell: possibly he may look too young; he was a character,
+and must have borne about him some little acquired oddity, sturdy, and
+not undignified. In the illustration he is too prettily genteel; but we
+do not wish to see any but Sophia--delightful, loving, lovable Sophia.
+In the background, Moses lies on the ground with his book, and the vicar
+has rather too suspicious a look; but we can forgive him that, and, for
+Sophia's sake, forgive Mr Mulready that he has paid less attention to
+her admirer--for at present he is no more. But his admiration is better,
+and more to the purpose than other men's love.
+
+"Moses defeated in Argument, or rather borne down by the arrogant,
+ignorant volubility of the Squire."--"This effectually raised the laugh
+against poor Moses." It is well grouped; but the only successful figure
+is Moses. The squire is not the well-dressed, designing profligate. If
+the story were not well told by the grouping, we might have taken the
+squire for an itinerant "lecturer." The squire is so prominent a person
+in the tale, that we think there should have been a well-studied
+representation of the accomplished villain and fine gentleman.
+
+No. 8.--Beyond the skill in grouping, Mr Mulready has not attempted any
+great interest in this illustration. It represents the family, with
+their friend Burchell, interrupted in their enjoyment by the chaplain,
+or rather the chaplain's gun; for that only presents its muzzle. "So
+loud a report, and so near, startled my daughters; and I could perceive
+that Sophia, in the fright, had thrown herself into Mr Burchell's arms
+for protection." We do not recognize the alarmed and lovely Sophia--here
+she might be any miss; so that the greatest miss is Mr Mulready's, for
+he has missed an opportunity of showing the beauty of the sweet sisters
+in alarm. In this chapter, we have Goldsmith's delightful ballad, "Turn,
+gentle hermit of the dale." Surely this was worthy an illustration or
+two; and if Mr Mulready felt himself confined to the heads of chapters,
+might he not, for once, have made his digression from the tale, as
+Goldsmith has done, and given us that charming episode?
+
+"The Family Group on Horseback, going to Church."--"And when I got about
+halfway home, perceived the procession marching slowly forward towards
+the church." "The colt that had been nine years in the family, and
+Blackberry, his companion," are not the best horse-flesh. Mr Mulready
+does not draw the horse like Mr Herring; so, having failed in the feet
+of the colt, he has, though rather awkwardly, hidden Blackberry's behind
+a convenient stone, which yet makes us fear that the "family pride" will
+have a fall, and spare the Vicar's reproof. The party on Blackberry is
+good; and the patient, blind face of the animal is well attempted.
+
+"The Visit to Neighbour Flamborough's on Michaelmas Eve."--"But
+previously I should have mentioned the very impolitic behaviour of Mr
+Burchell, who, during this discourse, sat with his face turned to the
+fire; and, at the conclusion of every sentence, would cry out, 'Fudge!'"
+This is scarcely the subject of the illustration, for Mr Burchell is
+quite in the background. We should like to have seen his face. Miss
+Carolina Wilhelmina Amelia Skeggs is good; Lady Blarney is not the
+overdressed and overacting peeress. The whole is very nicely grouped.
+Perhaps we are not so pleased with this illustration, remembering
+Maclise's more finished picture of the subject.
+
+Moses departing for the "Fair." Hopeful and confident are the group, and
+not least so Moses himself. We fancy we recognize in Moses a similar
+figure in a sweet picture exhibited last year by Mr Stonhouse, one of
+the "Etching Club." We are not quite satisfied with the other
+figures--they all hide their faces, as well they might, for their
+simplicity in trusting to the "discreet boy" that can "buy and sell to
+very good advantage"--so off go Moses and the colt that had been nine
+years in the family. "We all followed him several paces from the door,
+bawling after him good-luck! good-luck! till we could see him no
+longer."
+
+No. 12 exhibits simplicity upon a larger scale, and shows the head of
+the family, verifying the old proverb, "like father like son"--though it
+should be here like son like father. The colt was fitly turned over to
+the son, grave blind Blackberry was a horse for the father's art and
+wisdom. "By this time I began to have a most hearty contempt for the
+poor animal myself, and was almost alarmed at the approach of every
+customer." Poor Blackberry! He is quite conscious of his depreciation;
+he is a wise animal, and can see that "with half an eye." Alas! we fear
+he has not that half. Blackberry is good--yet will he sell for nothing;
+how patiently he lets them handle his leg, and a handle it is; we can
+imagine the creature thinking, "pray, sir, would you like to look at the
+other poor thing of a leg?" The rascally Fair, in which Mr Mulready has
+shown, according to his author, that the Vicar ought not to have been,
+is well given; but we should have liked a full length portrait of Mr
+Jenkinson pronouncing [Greek: Anarchon ara chai atelentaion to pan.]
+
+The reading the letter, the well-known letter of Mr Burchell to "The
+Ladies." "There seemed, indeed, something applicable to both sides in
+this letter, and its censures might as well be referred to those to whom
+it was written, as to us; but the malicious meaning was obvious, and we
+went no further." This, as usual, is well grouped; the Vicar ponders,
+and cannot tell what to make of it. We should have preferred, as a
+subject, the Vicar confronting Mr Burchell, and the cool effrontery of
+the philosopher turning the tables upon the Vicar, "and how came you so
+basely to presume to break open this letter?" or better still, perhaps,
+the encounter of art between Mr Burchell and Mrs Deborah Primrose. And
+why have we not Dick's episode of the dwarf and the giant? Episodes are
+excellent things, as good for the illustrations as for the book. No. 14,
+the contrivance of Mrs Primrose to entrap the squire, properly belongs
+to another chapter. "Then the poor woman would sometimes tell the squire
+that she thought him and Olivia extremely of a size, and would bid both
+stand up to see which was tallest." The passage is nicely told; there
+is, however, but one figure to arrest attention, and that is quite
+right, for it is Olivia's, and a sweet figure it is. Dear Olivia! We
+have not seen her portrait before, and we shall love her, beyond "to the
+end of the chapter," to the end of the volume, and the more so, that
+hers after all was a hard fate. It is the part of the tale which leaves
+a melancholy impression; Goldsmith has so determined it--and to his
+judgment we bow implicitly. Had any other author so wretchedly disposed
+of his heroine, in a work not professedly tragic, we should have been
+pert as critics usually are. Mrs Primrose is certainly here too young.
+We cannot keep our eyes off Olivia; and see, the scoundrel has slyly
+taken her innocent hand, and the other is put up to her neck in such
+modest doubt of the liberty allowed. Here, as in other instances, the
+squire is not the well-dressed man of the world, whose gold lace had
+attracted Dick's attention. We could linger longer over this
+illustration, but must pass on--honest Burchell has been dismissed,
+villany has full sway. We must leave poor Olivia to her fate, and turn
+to the family picture "drawn by a limner;" capital--"limner" well
+suiting the intended satire--some say a good-natured, sly cut at Sir
+Joshua. We should certainly have had Mrs Primrose as Venus, and the two
+little ones as Cupids, and the Vicar presenting to her his books on the
+Whistonian controversy, and the squire as Alexander. Whoever wishes to
+see specimens of this kind may see some ludicrous ones at Hampton
+court--particularly of Queen Elizabeth, and the three goddesses abashed
+by her superiority. We thought to leave poor Olivia to her fate--Mr
+Mulready will not let us give her up so easily, and takes us to the
+scene of her quitting her home for her betrayer; and this is the subject
+of--
+
+"Yes, she is gone off with two gentlemen in a post-chaise; and one of
+them kissed her, and said he would die for her;" and there she is,
+hiding her beautiful face with her hands, and poor good Dick is pulling
+her back by her dress, that she may not go; but a villain's hand is
+round her waist, and one foot he has upon the step of the chaise, and
+the door is open. Poor Dick, you have nothing left you to do but to run
+home as fast as you can; and there you will find such a scene of
+innocent enjoyment, how to be marr'd! at the very moment, too, that the
+good Vicar had been feeling and saying, "I think myself happier now than
+the greatest monarch upon earth. He has no such fireside, nor such
+pleasant faces about it. We are descended from ancestors that knew no
+stain, and we shall leave a good and virtuous race of children behind
+us. While we live they will be our support and our pleasure here, and
+when we die they will transmit our honour untainted to posterity. Come,
+my son, we wait for a song: let us have a chorus. But where is my
+darling Olivia? That little cherub's voice is always sweetest in the
+concert." O Dick, Dick! at such a moment as this to run in and tell him
+to be miserable for ever; for that his cherub, his Olivia is gone, and
+gone, as it appears, to infamy, a thousand times more grievous than
+death. Was there ever so touching a scene?--Mr Mulready feared it. That
+is a wonderful chapter--the happiness is so domestically heightened,
+that the homefelt joy may be more instantly crushed. We know we shall
+not see dear darling Olivia again for a long, long time; and feel we
+want a pause and a little diversion--so we will go back to Bill the
+songster for amusement, and take it if we can; and here is for the
+purpose Bill's "Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog," alas! taught him, too,
+by honest Mr Williams; we only hope young, sturdy farmers have strong
+nerves, and don't break their hearts in love's disappointments. Here is
+Dick's Elegy; and as we, too, have a Moses at home of a "miscellaneous
+education," we will put on the Vicar's simplicity, and cheerful
+familiarity with his own flesh and blood--and thus we address our Moses,
+"Come, my boy, you are no hand at singing, so turn the Elegy another
+way: let us have a little Latin, for your music is Hexameter and
+Pentameter." Our Moses, "That's a hard task, sir, for one that cannot
+mount to Parnass Hill without his 'Gradus ad Parnassum.'" "Well, then
+get your Gradus, and put your foot in that first step of the ladder."
+Our Moses, waggishly--"I must mind my feet, sir, or they will be but
+lame verses, and go halting and hobbling--but I suppose you won't be
+very particular as to Latinity. I have heard you tell how Farmer
+Williams"--"No," said we, "not Williams, any other farmer you please;
+poor Williams is not likely to have any children; yet I know what you
+were going to say." "Farmer any body, then," said our Moses, "when he
+took his boy to school, left him with the master; and shortly returned
+to inform him, that, discoursing upon the subject at the 'public,' he
+had heard that there were two sorts of Latin, and so he brought the
+master a gammon of bacon, for he wished his son to have the best: now I
+think, sir, one of these two sorts must be 'dog Latin,' and that must be
+best fitted for the Elegy in question." Our Moses beats the Vicar's
+hollow in waggery, so we are proud of him. He takes after his mother. We
+condescended to be familiar enough to laugh. Now, then, Moses, to _your_
+task and we to _ours_. And here we are at--
+
+The scene of Mr Arnold and his family breaking in upon his butler
+personating his master, we are rather inclined to think a failure. There
+is Mr Mulready's good grouping, but somehow or other it is rather flat
+for so piquant an incident; "I was struck dumb with the apprehension of
+my own absurdity, when whom should I next see enter the room but my dear
+Miss Arabella Wilmot." We should like to have seen, in illustration, the
+political butler ordering the Vicar out of his house, or at least a more
+decided portrait of Arabella Wilmot. "Beauty is," as Miss Skeggs said of
+virtue, "worth any price;" and we are sorry to look about, and continue,
+in her words, "but where is that to be found?" What had Mr Mulready to
+do, that he would not let us have a sight of Arabella Wilmot. We,
+therefore, pass on to her lover, the Vicar's eldest son George,
+delivering his letter of recommendation to the nobleman's footmen, with
+his fee, which brings us to--
+
+"However, after bribing the servants with half my worldly fortune, I was
+at last shown into a spacious apartment, my letter being previously sent
+up for his lordship's inspection." The Vicar's son is a fine fellow in
+the illustration: we are glad to see him, but rather wish Mr Mulready
+had chosen a better subject. George's adventures were written with a
+nice satire; for Goldsmith knew what and whom he had to describe. The
+reasons why he would not do for an usher, are well put. Is it not
+possible that Mr Dickens took his first hint of Do-the-boys' Hall from
+reading this passage in Goldsmith? Indeed, there may be a suspicion that
+Mrs Primrose gave the idea of Mrs Nickleby, though he has made her an
+original. But to return to the traveller--we should like to have seen an
+"illustration" of his interview with the principal of the College of
+Louvain, a passage quite in the spirit of Le Sage. "The principal seemed
+at first to doubt my abilities; but of these I offered to convince him,
+by turning a part of any Greek author he should fix upon into Latin.
+Finding me perfectly earnest in my proposals he addressed me thus, 'You
+see, young man,' continued he, 'I never learned Greek, and I don't find
+that I have ever missed it. I have had a doctor's cap and gown without
+Greek; I have ten thousand florins a year without Greek; and, in short,'
+continued he, 'as I don't know Greek, I do not believe there is any good
+in it.'"
+
+The office of Mr Crispe, who fitted becoming situations upon every body.
+"There I found a number of poor creatures, all in circumstances like
+myself, expecting the arrival of Mr Crispe, presenting a true epitome of
+English impatience." And there is Mr Crispe himself, in the distance
+indeed, but certainly the principal figure. The expectants are good
+enough, but Mr Crispe, with his audacious, confident, deceitful face, is
+excellent; the fellow rattling the money in both his pockets, with
+fraud, successful laughing fraud filling out both his cheeks. The
+audacious wretch! little cares he for the miserable expectants whom he
+means to ship off to America and slavery. Preferring to see the Vicar's
+son among "the harmless peasants of Flanders," we turn over the leaves.
+
+Here is a delightful group,--a fine sturdy fellow holding his dog by a
+handkerchief through his collar, and how naturally the honest brute
+leans against his master, as claiming a sort of kindred--the expression
+of the young woman with the child in her arms, is attention and
+admiration. It is not quite certain that one of the loungers is pleased
+with that admiration. This is a pleasant scene, and happily illustrated.
+"I had some knowledge of music, with a tolerable voice, and now turned
+what was once my amusement into a present means of subsistence." That is
+a pleasant, happy scene, though the personages are the poorest. Of
+another character is the next scene, and quite other personages act in
+it; for we come again to poor Olivia in her distress, grossly, brutally
+insulted by the wealthy profligate.
+
+The profligate scoundrel in the very lowest baseness of his
+character.--It is poor Olivia speaks. "Thus each day I grew more
+pensive, and he more insolent, till at last the monster had the
+assurance to offer me to a young baronet of his acquaintance." This
+scene is not fit for picture; it is seemingly nothing but successful
+villany, and of too gay a cast to be pathetic. The chapter from which it
+is taken would have furnished a much better one--the meeting between the
+Vicar and his poor Olivia. We can bear the suffering of a Cordelia,
+because all in that is great though villany be successful; but there is
+a littleness in mere profligacy that infects even the victim. We could
+have wished that Mr Mulready had taken the "Meeting" for his
+illustration. How exquisitely beautiful is the text! The first impulse
+of affection is to forget, or instantly palliate the fault. "Welcome,
+any way welcome, my dearest lost one, my treasure, to your poor old
+father's bosom!" Then how exquisite her observance of the effect of
+grief upon the parent's appearance. "Surely you have too much wisdom to
+take the miseries of my guilt upon yourself." How timely has Goldsmith
+thrown in this, when we are most willing to catch at a straw of excuse
+for the lovely sufferer! No, we say, she never contemplated the misery
+she has inflicted; and then how natural is the instantaneous remembrance
+of her guilt! The taking it up and laying it down at a moment's call,
+from affection, is most touchingly beautiful. "Our wisdom, young woman,"
+replied I--"Ah, why so cold a name, papa?" cried she. "This is the first
+time you ever called me by so cold a name." "I ask pardon, my darling,"
+returned I; "but I was going to observe that wisdom makes but a slow
+defence against trouble, though at last a sure one." Admitting the
+subject chosen by Mr Mulready, we do not approve of his manner of
+telling it; we scarcely know which is the principal figure. Nor is
+Olivia's good. It has nothing of the madness the text speaks of. "My
+answer to this proposal was almost madness." We are glad to quit the
+scene, though our next step is into deeper misery; and--
+
+"The return of the Vicar to his home in flames," a pitiable sight; but
+here is the triumph of love over misery, and the subject is good. "Now,"
+cried I, holding up my children, "now let the flames burn on, and all my
+possessions perish." The scene is well told, and not the worse for a
+justifiable theft from Correggio in the fainting figure--it is the
+_mother_ in the Ecce Homo in the National Gallery. The failing of the
+hands at the moment of action, is true to the original and to nature. We
+rejoice that Mr Mulready did not take the return of Olivia as his
+subject. We should not like to see Mrs Primrose in that odious light;
+and though admirable in the tale, she is no favourite already. The
+parent had called his child, "woman--young woman"--the coldness passed
+away, and the word was changed for "darling." The word was again to be
+resumed, and how applied!--to the unforgiving--That even the Vicar's
+anger, we must rather say indignation, should be virtuous. "Ah, madam!"
+cried her mother, "this is but a poor place you have come to after so
+much finery. My daughter Sophy and I can afford but little entertainment
+to persons who have kept company only with people of distinction. Yes,
+Miss Livy, your poor father and I have suffered very much of late; but I
+hope Heaven will forgive you." Not a word of her own forgiving, not a
+word of endearment; and we suspect the word madam had, when written,
+more blame in it than it now retains--and how do the words "my daughter
+Sophy and I" cut off the forlorn one from the family!--and the plural
+"persons" avoiding the individuality, the personality of her daughter
+was another deep cut into the very flesh of the lost one's heart. Now
+then comes the reproof, and the good man shines in the glory of goodness
+and greatness, indignation for love's sake. "During this reception the
+unhappy victim stood pale and trembling, unable to weep or to reply; but
+I could not continue a silent spectator of her distress; wherefore,
+assuming a degree of severity in my voice and manner, which was ever
+followed with instant submission, 'I entreat, woman, that my words may
+be now marked once for all: I have brought you back a poor deluded
+wanderer: her return to duty demands the revival of our tenderness. The
+real hardships of life are now coming fast upon us; let us not therefore
+increase them by dissensions among each other." The words to the
+conclusion of the chapter should be written in letters of gold, were not
+the better place for them out of sight, upon the hearts of all; for none
+of us have too much charity, though some may have an excess of love.
+
+No. 22 is an affecting scene. The Vicar with his wounded arm is on his
+bed, with his distressed family about him. Olivia has fainted on hearing
+the news of her betrayer's intended marriage, and the mother is
+attending her. "My compassion for my poor daughter, overpowered by this
+new disaster, interrupted what I had further to observe. I bade her
+mother support her, and after a short time she recovered." The
+countenance of the Vicar in this scene is the best among the
+illustrations--of that good man enduring affliction, that sight worthy
+the gods to look at, as said the Stoic. But we that have human
+sympathies, would willingly turn away from such a sight; and where shall
+we find refuge? for sorrow is coming on--sorrow upon sorrow--an
+accumulation of miseries no Stoic would have borne; for he, with all his
+boasted indifference, would have borne them no longer, but ended them
+and life together, if he might so end them, as he thought. And now,
+happily, "_our_ Moses" comes to our relief, not with extracts from
+chapters on stoicism, or any other false philosophy, but holding up to
+us what he is pleased to call his "dogrel." So, between him and Bill the
+Songster, we will have a duet. But as we have no Bill present, we will
+take his part ourselves, and, like other acting substitutes, go through
+the part, reading. "Now we hope," addressing our Moses, "you have not
+lengthened out your Latin to four lines for the four short English in
+each stanza. If you have, to the flames with them!"
+
+_Our Moses_.--
+
+"CARMINA ELEGIACA IN MORTEM CUJUSDAM CANIS ISLINGTONIENSIS."
+
+(_We_.--Not in such a hurry--"An Elegy on the death of a mad dog;" and
+what made you put in Islingtoniensis? Well, I suppose you call that a
+Ciceronic flourish! Now, I will read the English--you the Latin.)
+
+    _We_.--Good people all, of every sort,
+             Give ear unto my song,
+           And if you find it wondrous short,
+             It cannot hold you long.
+
+    _Our Moses_.--Quotlibet huc, ubicunque hominum, auscultate canenti,
+                  Si breve vos teneam;--non ego longus ero.
+
+    _We_.--In Islington there was a man
+             Of whom the world might say,
+           That still a godly race he ran
+             Whene'er he went to pray.
+
+    _Our Moses_.--Quidam Islingtoniensis erat, quem donec adibat
+                  Templa pius, sacra diximus ire via.
+
+    _We_.--A kind and gentle heart he had
+             To comfort friends and foes;
+           The naked every day he clad
+             When he put on his clothes.
+
+    _Our Moses_.--Suavis amico, inimico, ita mitis, nudum ut amictu,
+                  Quum se vestibat, cotidie indueret.
+
+    _We_.--And in that town a dog was found,
+             As many dogs there be,
+           Both mongrel, puppy, whelp, and hound,
+             And curs of low degree.
+
+    _Our Moses_.--Et canis oppido eodem erat huic, ubi plurimus, et grex
+                  Et faex, cum catulis plebs numerosa canum.
+
+    _We_.--This dog and man at first were friends,
+             But when a pique began,
+           The dog, to gain some private ends,
+             Went mad and bit the man.
+
+    _Our Moses_.--Grandis amicitia, at Canis, ut sibi gratificetur
+                  Fit rabidus, rabido dente hominemque petit.
+
+    _We_.--Around from all the neighbouring streets
+             The wondering neighbours ran,
+           And swore the dog had lost his wits,
+             To bite so good a man.
+
+    _Our Moses_.--Concurrunt cives, O illum Cerberun, at aiunt,
+                  Qualem amens rabido dense momordet herum.
+
+    _We_.--The wound it seem'd both sore and sad
+             To every Christian eye,
+           And while they swore the dog was mad,
+             They swore the man would die.
+
+    _Our Moses_.--O saevum vulnus, clamant lachrymosius omnes,
+                  En rabidus canis, et mox moriturus homo.
+
+    _We_.--But soon a wonder came to light,
+             That show'd the rogues they lied;
+           The man recover'd of the bite,
+             The dog it was that died.
+
+    _Our Moses_.--Mendaces cives monstrat res prodigiosa,
+                  Sanus homo subito fit--moriturque canis.
+
+"A very good boy, Bill, upon my word," said the Vicar, "and an Elegy
+that may truly be called tragical." So we present our Moses a sovereign
+for his verse--"A sovereign for a verse, my boy." "I will never," quoth
+he, "be averse to a sovereign. We have heard of a monarch who gave a
+crown for a song." A little refreshed, let us turn to the book. Here is
+
+No. 23.--Very well, Mr Mulready, artistically performed; but we fear we
+shall not relish too many of these distressing subjects. We know, from
+distress to distress, you will take us into prison. Artists and writers
+of the present day delight in prison scenes; we are not of that class,
+but endure it. We would on no account sit down with that
+rascally-looking fellow that is driving and taking an inventory of the
+Vicar's stock. It is winter too. "The consequence of my incapacity was
+his driving my cattle that evening, and their being appraised and sold
+the next day for less than half their value."
+
+No. 24--Is the attempt at a rescue. The Vicar represses and reproves the
+violence of his enraged parishioners. The drawing is good; but it is not
+a subject we delight to look at; and we begin to fear that further on we
+shall fare worse. Why did not Mr Mulready give us the interview between
+the Vicar and his old acquaintance, Mr Jenkinson? Artists of skill like
+to show it in grouping, and prefer that to giving character. "The
+consequences might have been fatal, had I not immediately interposed,
+and with some difficulty rescued the officers from the hands of the
+enraged multitude."
+
+"The Prison." We have little wish to stay there long, and look at the
+odious villains that surround the good man "paying his footing." "I was
+apprised of the usual perquisite required upon these occasions, and
+immediately complied with the demand, though the little money I had was
+nearly exhausted." The next illustration, too, takes us into equally bad
+company.
+
+The Vicar's attempt to reform the jail. The mockery, and roguery, and
+Vicar's perseverance, while a practised hand is picking his pocket--are
+admirably represented. "I therefore read them a portion of the service,
+with a loud unaffected voice, and found my audience perfectly merry upon
+the occasion."
+
+The penitent scene. "My design succeeded, and in less than six days some
+were penitent, and all attentive." We now began to say, what a happy
+thing it was that Dr Primrose was sent to jail. Doubtless Goldsmith
+intended to show how good comes out of evil. There are some good figures
+in this illustration.
+
+The seizure of poor Sophia--and very good it is--not that we
+congratulate Mr Mulready on his Sophia here; she is rather a vulgar
+dowdy figure, the others are very good, and the incident well told. "A
+post-chaise and pair drove up to them, and instantly stopped. Upon which
+a well-dressed man, but not Mr Thornhill, stepping out, clasped my
+daughter round the waist, and, forcing her in, bid the postilion drive
+on, so that they were out of sight in a moment." Now, Mr Mulready, in
+the next edition, you must positively illustrate the rescue by Mr
+Burchell.
+
+"The Vicar delivering his sermon"--Charmingly grouped are the attentive
+and subdued audience. Mrs Primrose is surely too young a figure. If we
+could get over our early impression of the Vicar's countenance, his
+figure here would probably please. "The prisoners assembled themselves
+according to my directions, for they loved to hear my counsel--my son
+and his mother supported me on either side."
+
+The return of dear Sophia, with her true but singular lover and
+deliverer--Perhaps the vicar takes it more coolly than the text
+justifies. "Just as he delivered this news, my dearest girl entered, and
+with looks almost wild with pleasure, ran to kiss me in a transport of
+action." There should have been an illustration of the scene where Mr
+Burchell is discovered to be Sir William Thornhill; and above all, where
+he proposes Jenkinson to Sophia.
+
+The complete detection of the squire's villainies, and his great
+disappointment. "And to convince you that I speak nothing but truth,
+here is the license by which you were married together." All here is
+good but the figure of the Squire. In appearance we are to presume that
+Squire Thornhill was a gentleman, or Miss Wilmot could not have endured
+his addresses, nor indeed would Olivia have been deceived by him. In
+this illustration he has neither the appearance, dress, nor attitude of
+one in that condition.
+
+The last illustration, or "All's Well that End's Well." It is, however,
+near ending badly, both as to the incident and the illustration--in the
+latter all is good, excepting only Arabella Wilmot; perhaps there is a
+defect in the printing, which gives her an odd look--but altogether she
+is not a good figure. She should have been elegance personified.
+Burchell looks the sturdy runner that could overtake the chaise, and
+rescue manfully his Sophia, to win and wear a favour, though he seems
+here in little hurry; but that is in character. "But as I stood all this
+time with my book ready, I was at last quite tired of the contest, and
+shutting it, 'I perceive,' cried I, 'that none of you have a mind to be
+married.'" We should like to have seen the dinner-party, and the two
+Miss Flamboroughs ready to die with laughing. "One jest I particularly
+remember: old Mr Wilmot drinking to Moses, whose head was turned another
+way, my son replied, 'Madam, I thank you.' Upon which the old gentleman,
+winking upon the rest of the company, observed that he was thinking of
+his mistress; at which jest I thought the two Miss Flamboroughs would
+have died with laughing." We should like to have seen their faces by Mr
+Mulready's hand, because we are sure that the two Miss Flamboroughs were
+thinking of themselves, in conjunction with Moses and the jest.
+
+We have noticed every illustration. We hope there will be another
+edition, and then we may have a few more plates. We have therefore, as
+we have gone on, ventured to suggest some subjects--but, above all, we
+would recommend Mr Mulready to supply a few portraits, heads only, such
+as that of the "Schoolmaster in the Deserted Village," by the Etching
+Club.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE ATTORNEY'S CLERK IN THE MONK'S HOOD.
+
+
+   "I thought of Chatterton, the marvellous boy--
+    The sleepless soul that perish'd in his pride."
+
+Had the "resolution and independence" which dignify the lowly, and
+strengthen the unhappy, when no visible eye befriends them, been among
+the rich endowments of Chatterton's wonderful mind--had he possessed and
+cherished the courage that bears up against obloquy and neglect--had he
+pursued the rough tenour of his way undaunted, in spite of "solitude,
+pain of heart, distress, and poverty," how different must have been the
+fate of the inspired boy of Bristol! He might be alive yet; he would be
+ninety years old, graced with honour, love, obedience, troops of
+friends, and all that should accompany old age. He might have achieved
+some great epic, or some gorgeous historical dramas,--have finished the
+Fairy Queen, or given us a Fairy King of his own creation.
+
+Among the lighter honours of social distinction, we can fancy his
+reception as a London "lion," by the fair and noble in proud places.
+Still pleasanter is the vision of his less public hours of idleness
+spent among congenial spirits. We can fancy him, the patriarch of living
+poets, seated as a guest at the breakfast-table of Samuel Rogers, who is
+about twelve years his junior, and those fine lads, Lisle Bowles, James
+Montgomery, and William Wordsworth, and those promising children, Tom
+Moore and Tom Campbell, and that braw chiel John Wilson--(_palmam qui
+meruit ferat_)--the youngest of the party something, perhaps, but not
+much, under seventy, except the bard of the Isle of Palms, who is no
+chicken; and unless the master of the feast have summoned those pretty
+babes from the Wood, the two Tennysons. But alas for Chatterton! the
+vision will not hold: he disappears from his chair at the feast, like
+Banquo--"and, when all's done, you look but on a stool." The ghost of
+the slayer of himself, after long haunting Strawberry Hill, to rebuke
+the senile complacency of the chronicler of royal and noble authors,
+repaired, after the death of that prosperous man of wit and fashion, to
+his native town, to prowl in Redcliff church, and about the graves of
+his fathers in its churchyard, and the graves which they had
+successively dug there during a century and a half. His bones were left
+to moulder among those of other pauper strangers in the burial-ground of
+Shoelane workhouse. We attach no credit to the story of the exhumation
+of his body, and its mysterious reinterment in Redcliff. His fathers
+were sextons; and he, too, was in some sort a sexton also--but
+spiritually and transcendantly. He buried his genius in the visionary
+grave of Rowley, "an old chest in an upper room over the chapel on the
+north side of Redcliff church;" and thence, most rare young conjurer, he
+evoked its spirit in the shape of fragments of law-parchment, quaintly
+inscribed with spells of verse and armorial hieroglyphics, to puzzle
+antiquaries and make fools of scholiasts. Puzzle them he did; and they
+could not forgive a clever stripling, whom hunger had tempted to don an
+ancient mask, and impose himself on their spectacled eyes as a reverend
+elder. Rogue!--vagabond! Profligate impostor! The slim, sleek,
+embroidered juggler of the Castle of Otranto had not a kind word for
+this ragged orphan of his own craft. He, whose ambition was to shine
+among writers who have given intellectual grace to their noble
+lineage--among whom assuredly he does and will shine--but whose acute
+consciousness of something meretricious in his metal, made him doubt if
+the public would accept coinage from his mint; and so caused him to wear
+tentative disguises, whether he elaborated a romance or a keen and
+playful witticism--and who really did injustice to his own powers,--not
+from modesty but meanness,--even he, the son of a prime minister and
+heir to a peerage--a man who was himself always something of a
+trickster, now mystifying a blind old woman at Paris; now sending open
+letters, privately nullified, recommending the bearers to his friend the
+envoy at Florence; now, with the mechanic aid of village carpenters and
+bricklayers, rearing a frail edifice bristling with false points, and
+persuading the world that it was all pure Gothic, perhaps chuckling at
+his assurance--even this shrewd mummer gravely shook his head at
+Chatterton, and frowned on him as a cheat! True; they were both cheats;
+Horace Walpole from apprehensive vanity; Chatterton from proud oblique
+humility. The Bristol boy knew his worth; but, doubting the equity as
+well as the sagacity of his judges, he did not venture to produce it as
+his own. He supposed that an obscure and penniless youth, such as he,
+could have little chance of attention or fair play in the world if he
+appeared in his proper character; so he painfully assumed another, of a
+nature that could not long have been supported even had he been a
+various linguist deeply versed in etymologies, and especially proficient
+in our extinct idioms, and their several dates of usage, instead of
+wanting even Latin enough to understand the easiest parts of Skinner's
+Etymology of the English tongue, one of the books that he consulted and
+guessed at.
+
+Of all modern suicides this youth was the most interesting; of all
+literary impostors the least unpardonable, though his ways were,
+unhappily for himself, of indefensible crookedness. He neither ascribed
+his fictions to a great name as Ireland did, nor did he, like
+Macpherson, steal the heart out of national ballads and traditions, to
+stuff a Bombastes Penseroso of his own making.
+
+Any competent, yet moderately indulgent reader, who should for the first
+time take up Chatterton's works, and beginning at the beginning, in
+Tyrwhitt's first edition, for example, peruse no more than sixty or
+seventy pages, would probably lay down the volume somewhat disappointed
+not to have found the very extraordinary merit he had expected. The
+compositions that this partial examination would take in are
+three--Eclogues, Elinour and Juga, Verses to Lydgate, with Song to Ella,
+Lydgate's Answer, and the Tournament.
+
+The first Eclogue is a conversation between two fugitive shepherds, who
+bewail the wretched condition to which the barons' wars have reduced
+them. It contains some pleasing lines.
+
+As the rustics discuss their grievances in a valley under cover of
+
+                    "... Eve's mantle gray,
+      The rustling leaves do their white hearts affray.
+    They regret the pleasures of their forsaken home,
+      ... the kingcup decked mees,
+      The spreading flocks of sheep of lily white,
+      The tender applings and embodied trees,
+      The parker's grange, far spreading to the sight,
+      The gentle kine, the bullocks strong in fight,
+      The garden whiten'd with the comfrey plant,
+      The flowers Saint Mary shooting with the light--
+          ...
+      The far-seen groves around the hermit's cell,
+      The merry fiddle dinning up the dell,
+      The joyous dancing in the hostry court--
+    But now,
+               high song and every joy farewell,
+      Farewell the very shade of fair disport."
+
+In the second Eclogue, a good son invokes blessings on his father, who
+is gone with the crusaders to Palestine. He describes with much
+animation the voyage, the landing in Syria, the warring Saracens, King
+Richard of lion's heart, and anticipates victory and the return to
+England.
+
+   "Thus Nigel said, when from the azure sea
+    The swollen sail did dance before his eyne.
+    Swift as the wish he to the beach did fly,
+    And found his father stepping from the brine.
+    Sprites of the blest, the pious Nigel said,
+    Pour out your pleasance on my father's head!"
+
+The third Eclogue, if divested of certain exuberances--for Chatterton
+was precocious in every thing, and many of his fancies want the Bowdler
+pruning-knife--might be seasonably transferred to some of the penny
+publications for the benefit of Mr Frost's disciples. A poor man and
+woman, on their way to the parson's hayfield, complain to each other of
+their hard lot in being obliged to earn their bread by the sweat of
+their brows. "Why," asks the woman, "should I be more obligated to work
+than the fine Dame Agnes? What is she more than me? The man, unable to
+solve so knotty a point, says he doesn't see how he himself is not as
+good as a lord's son, but he will ask Sir Roger the parson, whom he
+consults accordingly.
+
+        "_Man_.--By your priestship now say unto me,
+                 Sir Godfrey the knight, who liveth hard by,
+                      Why should he than me
+                              Be more great
+                 In honour, knighthood, and estate?
+
+  "_Sir Roger_.--If thou hast ease, the shadow of content,
+                 Believe the truth, none happier is than thee.
+                 Thou workest well; can that a trouble be?
+                 Sloth more would jade thee than the roughest day.
+                 Could'st thou the secret minds of others see,
+                 Thou would'st full soon see truth in what I say.
+                 But let me hear thy way of life, and then
+                 Hear thou from me the lives of richer men.
+
+        "_Man_.--I rise with the sun,
+                 Like him to drive the wain,
+                 And, ere my work is done,
+                 I sing a song or twain.
+                 I follow the plough-tail
+                 With a bottle of ale.
+                 On every saint's day
+                 With the minstrel I'm seen,
+                 All footing away
+                 With the maids on the green.
+               But oh, I wish to be more great,
+               In honour, station, and estate!
+
+    "_Sir Roger_.--Hast thou not seen a tree upon a hill,
+                   Whose ample boughs stretch wide around to sight?
+                   When angry tempests do the heavens fill,
+                   It shaketh drear, in dole and much affright:
+                   While the small flower in lowly graces deck'd
+                   Standeth unhurt, untroubled by the storm.
+                   The picture such of life. The man of might
+                   Is tempest-chafed, his woe great as his form;
+                   Thyself, a floweret of small account,
+                 Would harder feel the wind as higher thou didst mount."
+
+Sir Roger's moral is trite enough, yet it seems to have escaped the
+consideration of our Chartists and Socialists.
+
+Elinour the nut-brown, and Juga the fair, are two pining maidens, who,
+seated on the banks of the Redbourne, a river near St Alban's, are each
+bemoaning their lovers, gone to fight in that neighbourhood for the Rose
+of York. Presently, racked with suspense, they hasten nearer to the
+scene of action.
+
+   "_Like twain of clouds that hold the stormy rain,
+    They moved gently o'er the dewy meads_
+    To where Saint Alban's holy shrines remain.
+    There did they find that both their knights were slain.
+    Distraught they wander'd to swoln Redbourne's side,
+    Yell'd there their deadly knell, sank in the waves, and died."
+
+The verses to Lydgate consist of ten lines of no merit at all, and
+supposed to be sent to him by Rowley, with the Ode to Ella, which has a
+movement that recalls Collins, a lyrical artist perhaps unexcelled in
+our language, and in whose manner Chatterton so obviously and frequently
+composes, that the fact alone might have settled the Rowley question,
+though we are not aware that it was ever particularly insisted on in the
+controversy.
+
+    "Oh Thou, or what remains of Thee,
+        Ella! the darling of futurity,
+    Let this my song bold as thy courage be,
+        As everlasting to posterity--
+
+    "When Dacia's sons, with hair of blood-red hue,
+    Like kingcups glittering with the morning dew,
+        Arranged in drear array,
+        Upon the fatal day,
+    Spread far and wide on Watchet's shore,
+        Then didst thou furious stand,
+        And by thy valiant hand
+    Besprinkle all the meads with gore.
+
+       "Driven by thy broadsword fell,
+        Down to the depths of hell,
+          Thousands of Dacians went.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+       "Oh Thou, where'er, thy bones at rest,
+        Thy sprite to haunt delighteth best,
+    Whether upon the blood-embrued plain--
+        Or where thou ken'st from far,
+        The dismal cry of war,
+    _Or see'st some mountain made of corses slain,_
+
+       "Or see'st the war-clad steed
+        That prances o'er the mead,
+    And neighs to be among the pointed spears--
+        Or in black armour stalk around
+        Embattled Bristol, once thy ground,
+    Or haunt with lurid glow the castle stairs,
+
+       "Or, fiery, round the Minster glare!
+        Let Bristol still be made thy care;
+    Guard it from foeman and consuming fire;
+        Like Avon's stream embrace it round,
+        Nor let a sparkle harm the ground,
+    Till in one flame the total world expire."
+
+The quatrains entitled Lydgate's answer, are amply complimentary on the
+foregoing song, but otherwise as prosaic as the lines that introduce it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    "Among the Grecians Homer was
+      A poet much renown'd;
+    Among the Latins _Virgilius_
+      Was best of poets found.
+
+    "The British Merlin often had
+      The gift of inspiration;
+    And Afled to the Saxon men
+      Did sing with animation.
+
+    "In Norman times Turgotus and
+      Good Chaucer did excel;
+    Then Stowe, the Bristol Carmelite,
+      Did bear away the bell.
+
+    "Now Rowley, in these murky days,
+      Sends out his shining lights,
+    And Turgotus and Chaucer live
+      In every line he writes."
+
+The next is the Tournament, an interlude. Sir Simon de Burton, its hero,
+is supposed to have been the first founder, in accomplishment of a vow
+made on the occasion, of a church dedicated to _Our Lady_, in the place
+where the church of St Mary Redcliff now stands. There is life and force
+in the details of this tourney; and the songs of the minstrel are good,
+especially the first, which is a gallant hunting stave in honour of
+William the Red King, who hunts the stag, the wolf, and "the _lion_
+brought from sultry lands." The sentiment conveyed in the burden of this
+spirited chorus sounds oddly considerate, as the command issued by
+William Rufus:--
+
+    "Go, rouse the lion from his hidden den,
+    Let thy darts drink the blood of any thing but men."
+
+To the paternity of the next in order--the Bristol Tragedy, or Death of
+Sir Charles Baldwin--Chatterton confessed; and such an admission might
+have satisfied any one but Dean Milles. The language is modern--the
+measure flowing without interruption; and, though the orthography
+affects to be antiquated, there is but one word (bataunt) in the whole
+series of quatrains, ninety-eight in number, that would embarrass any
+reader in his teens; though a boy that could generate such a poem as
+that, might well be believed the father of other giants whom he chose to
+disown. It is a masterpiece in its kind, almost unexceptionable in all
+its parts. The subject is supposed to have been suggested by the fate of
+Sir Baldwin Fulford, a zealous Lancastrian, beheaded at Bristol in 1461,
+the first year of the reign of Edward IV., who, it is believed, was
+actually present at the execution.
+
+Now comes Ella, a tragical interlude, or discoursing tragedy, by Thomas
+Rowley, prefaced by two letters to Master Canning, and an introduction.
+In the first letter, among various sarcasms on the age, is one,
+complaining that
+
+    "In holy priest appears the baron's pride."
+
+A proposition, we fear, at least as true in our day as in the fifteenth
+century. From the same epistle we would recommend to the consideration
+of the Pontius Pilates of our era, the numerous poets who choose none
+but awfully perilous themes, and who re-enact tremendous mysteries more
+confidently than if they were all Miltons, the annexed judicious
+admonition:--
+
+    "Plays made from holy tales I hold unmeet;
+      Let some great story of a man be sung;
+    When as a man we God and Jesus treat,
+      In my poor mind we do the Godhead wrong."
+
+And the following piece of advice, from the same letter, would not be
+ill bestowed on modern shopocracy:--
+
+    "Let kings and rulers, when they gain a throne,
+      Show what their grandsires and great-grandsires bore;
+    Let trades' and towns'-folk let such things alone,
+      Nor fight for sable on a field of ore."
+
+Yet he who could give this sensible counsel did by no means follow it.
+Chatterton, who really could trace back his ancestors for 150 years as a
+family of gravediggers, drew out for himself a pedigree which would have
+astonished Garter king-at-arms, and almost abashed a Welsh or German
+genealogy. He derived his descent from Sire de Chasteautonne, of the
+house of Rollo, the first Duke of Normandy, who made an incursion on the
+coast of Britain in the ninth century, and was driven away by Alfred the
+Great! Nine shields, exhibiting the family arms, were carefully prepared
+by him, and are preserved, with many other and very various inventions
+by the same hand, in the British Museum; and neat engravings of those
+Chatterton escutcheons are furnished by Mr Cottle, in his excellent
+essays on this tortuous genius. He was equally liberal in providing a
+pedigree for his friend Mr Burgham, a worthy and credulous pewterer in
+his native town, convincing him, by proofs that were not conclusive at
+the Herald's College, that he was descended from the De Burghams, who
+possessed the estate and manor of Brougham in the reign of Edward the
+Confessor, and so allying the delighted hearer with the forefathers of
+an illustrious Ex-Chancellor of our day. No less a personage, too, than
+Fitz-Stephen, son of Stephen Earl of Ammerle in 1095, grandson of Od,
+Earl of Bloys and Lord of Holderness, was the progenitor gravely
+assigned to Chatterton's relative, Mr Stephens, leather-breeches-maker
+of Salisbury. Evidence of all sorts was ever ready among the treasures
+in the Redcliff muniment room, the Blue-Coat boy's "Open Sesame!"
+
+The plot of Ella may be told in a few words. Ella, a renowned English
+warrior, the same who is invoked in the fine song already quoted,
+marries Bertha, of whom his friend and fellow warrior, Celmond, is
+secretly enamoured. On the wedding-day he is called suddenly away to
+oppose a Danish force, which he defeats, but not without receiving
+wounds severe enough to prevent his immediate return home. Celmond takes
+advantage of this circumstance, and under pretence of conducting Bertha
+to her husband, betrays her into a forest that chances to be the covert
+of Hurra, the Danish general, and other of the discomfited invaders. Her
+shrieks bring Hurra and his companions to her aid. They kill Celmond,
+and generously resolve to restore Bertha to her lord. He in the mean
+time, impatient to rejoin his bride, has contrived to get home, where,
+when he hears of her ill-explained departure, believing her false, he
+stabs himself. She arrives only in time to see him die.
+
+Celmond, soliloquizing on the charms of Bertha, exclaims,--
+
+    "Ah, Bertha, why did nature frame thee fair?
+    Why art thou not as coarse as others are?
+    _But then thy soul would through thy visage shine_;
+    Like nut-brown cloud when by the sun made red,
+    So would thy spirit on thy visage spread."
+
+At the wedding-feast, so unexpectedly interrupted by news of the Danes,
+the following pretty stanzas are sung by minstrels representing a young
+man and woman.
+
+     "_Man_.--Turn thee to thy shepherd swain;
+              Bright sun has not drunk the dew
+              From the flowers of yellow hue;
+              Turn thee, Alice, back again.
+
+    _Woman_.--No, deceiver, I will go,
+              Softly tripping o'er the mees,
+              Like the silver-footed doe
+              Seeking shelter in green trees.
+
+      _Man_.--See the moss-grown daisied bank
+              Peering in the stream below;
+              Here we'll sit in dewy dank,
+              Turn thee, Alice: do not go.
+
+    _Woman_.--I've heard erst my grandam say
+              That young damsels should not be,
+              In the balmy month of May,
+              With young men by the greenwood tree.
+
+      _Man_.--Sit thee, Alice, sit and hark
+              How the blackbird chants his note,
+              The goldfinch and the gray-morn lark,
+              Shrilling from their little throat.
+
+    _Woman_.--I hear them from each greenwood tree
+              Chanting out so lustily,
+              Telling lectures unto me,
+              Mischief is when you are nigh.
+
+      _Man_.--See, along the mends so green
+              Pied daisies, kingcups sweet,
+              All we see; by none are seen;
+              None but sheep set here their feet.
+
+    _Woman_.--Shepherd swain, you tear my sleeve;
+              Out upon you! let me go;
+              Keep your distance, by your leave,
+              Till Sir Priest make one of two.
+
+      _Man_.--By our lady and her bairn,
+              To-morrow, soon as it is day,
+              I'll make thee wife, nor be forsworn,
+              So may I live or die for aye.
+
+    _Woman_.--What doth hinder but that now
+              We at once, thus hand in hand,
+              Unto a divine do go,
+              And be link'd in wedlock-band?
+                          (Sensible woman!)
+
+      _Man_.--I agree, and thus I plight
+              Hand and heart and all that's mine.
+              Good Sir Herbert do us right,
+              Make us one at Cuthbert's shrine.
+
+     _Both_.--We will in a cottage live,
+              Happy though of no estate;
+              Every hour more love shall give;
+              We in goodness will be great."
+
+The two Danish generals, Hurra and Magnus, warm their blood to the
+fighting temperature before the battle by quarreling with and abusing
+each other, like Grecian heroes. They are both bullies, but Hurra is
+brave and Magnus a craven. Chatterton's sarcastic humour plays them off
+admirably. The result of the struggle between the two armies is pithily
+announced by one of the fugitives:--
+
+   "Fly, fly, ye Danes! Magnus the chief is slain;
+    The Saxons come with Ella at their head:
+    Fly, fly, _this is the kingdom of the dead_."
+
+In this drama is the exquisite melody, "O, sing unto my roundelay!" with
+which every one is familiar, as it is introduced into all our popular
+selections from the poets.
+
+Here is a cunning description of dawn.
+
+   "The morn begins along the east to sheen,
+    _Darkling the light doth on the waters play_;
+    The faint red flame slow creepeth o'er the green,
+    To chase the murkiness of night away,
+    Swift flies the hour that will bring out the day.
+    The soft dew falleth on the greening grass;
+    The shepherd-maiden, dighting her array,
+    _Scarce sees her visage in the wavy glass_."
+
+Such extracts do not, and are not intended to, convey any notion of
+Chatterton's dramatic power in this play. Mere extracts would not do
+justice to that, and therefore we confine ourselves to selections of a
+few out of many passages that can stand independent of plot or action,
+without detriment to their effect. The same remark will not apply to the
+next piece, or rather fragment. Godwin, a Tragedy, by Thomas Rowley. It
+is short, and the dramatic interest weak. In the following noble chorus,
+however, we recognise the genius of Chatterton:--
+
+    "When Freedom, drest in blood-stained vest,
+      To every knight her war-song sung,
+    Upon her head wild weeds were spread,
+      A gory broadsword by her hung.
+            She paced along the heath,
+            She heard the voice of death.
+
+    "Pale-eyed Affright, his heart of silver hue,
+      In vain essay'd her bosom to congeal:
+    She heard inflamed the shrieking voice of Woe,
+      And cry of owls along the sadden'd vale.
+            She shook the pointed spear,
+              On high she raised her shield;
+            Her foemen all appear,
+              And fly along the field.
+
+    "Power, with his head uplifted to the skies,
+      His spear a sunbeam and his shield a star,
+    Like two bright-burning meteors rolls his eyes,
+      Stamps with his iron feet, and sounds to war.
+            She sits upon a rock,
+              She bends before his spear,
+            She rises from the shock,
+              Wielding her own in air.
+
+    "Hard as the thunder doth she drive it on;
+      Keen wit, cross muffled, guides it to his crown;
+    His long sharp spear, his spreading shield are goe;
+      He falls, and falling rolleth thousands down."
+
+A short prologue by Master William Canning, informs us that this tragedy
+of Godwin was designed to vindicate the Kentish earl's memory from
+prejudices raised against him by monkish writers, who had mistaken his
+character, and accused him of ungodliness "for that he gifted not the
+church." There are but three scenes in the play. In the first, Godwin
+and Harold confer together on the distressed state of the nation, and
+the weakness of the king, whose court is overrun with Norman favourites
+to the exclusion of the English knights, and the great oppression of the
+people. Harold, young and impetuous, is for instant rebellion; but the
+father tries to moderate his rage, recommending patience and calm
+preparation.
+
+   "_Godwin_.--What tidings from the king?
+    _Harold_.--                          His Normans know.
+    _Godwin_.--What tidings of the people?
+    _Harold_.--Still murmuring at their fate, still to the king
+                 They roll their troubles like a surging sea.
+               Has England, then, a tongue but not a sting?
+                 Do all complain, yet will none righted be?
+    _Godwin_.--Await the time when God will send us aid.
+    _Harold_.--Must we, then, drowse away the weary hours?
+                 I'll free my country, or I'll die in fight.
+    _Godwin_.--But let us wait until some season fit.
+                 _My_ Kentishmen, _thy_ Somertons shall rise,
+                 Their prowess warmer for the cloak of wit,
+                 Again the argent horse shall prance in skies."
+
+An allusion, says Chatterton, to the arms of Kent, a horse salient,
+argent. As to the cloak of wit, it may possibly be preserved in
+Somersetshire; but the mantle certainly was not tied as an indefeasible
+heirloom over the broad shoulders of the county of Kent. No ancient
+Saxons, or even Britons, ever displayed prowess so stolid as those brave
+wild-wood savages of Boughton Blean, near Canterbury, who recently fell
+in battle with her Majesty's 45th regiment, opposing sticks to balls and
+bayonets, under their doughty leader Sir William Courtenay, Earl of
+Devonshire, Knight of Malta, King of Jerusalem, and much more. And there
+were other blockheads, substantial dunces, of respectable station in
+East Kent, among this ignorant and ambitious madman's supporters; men
+who had been at school to little purpose. Such an insurrection of
+satyrs, and such a Pan, in the middle of the nineteenth century, within
+earshot of the bells of Christchurch! But this by the bye.
+
+The next poem is styled English Metamorphosis, by T. Rowley. It consists
+of eleven stanzas of ten lines each, all fluent and spirited, and some
+of very superior merit. It is the fable of Sabrina, Milton's "daughter
+of Locrine," transliquefied to the river Severn, while her mother,
+Elstrida, was changed to the ridge of stones that rises on either side
+of it, Vincent's rocks at Clifton, and their enemy, the giant, was
+transformed to the mountain Snowdon. This giant was a very Enceladus.
+
+   "He tore a ragged mountain from the ground;
+    Hurried up nodding forests to the sky:
+    Then with a fury that might earth astound,
+    To middle air he let the mountain fly,
+    _The flying wolves sent forth a yelling cry_."
+
+In illustration of Elstrida's beauty,--
+
+   "The morning tinge, the rose, the lily flower,
+    In ever-running race on her did paint their power."
+
+The most vulgar and outworn simile is refreshed with a grace by the
+touch of Chatterton.
+
+Of the next poem--An excellent ballad of Charity, by the good priest,
+Thomas Rowley, 1454--it is clear that the young author thought highly,
+by a note that he transmitted with it to the printer of the "Town and
+Country Magazine," July 4, 1770, the month preceding that of his death.
+Unlike too many bearers of sounding appellations, it has certainly
+something more than its title to recommend it.
+
+The octosyllabic lines--twenty only--on Redcliff Church, by T.R., show
+what nice feeling Chatterton had for the delicacies of that florid
+architecture:--
+
+   "The cunning handiwork so fine,
+    Had wellnigh dazzled mine eyne.
+    Quoth I, some artful fairy hand
+    Uprear'd this chapel in this land.
+    Full well I know so fine a sight,
+    Was never raised by mortal wight."
+
+Of its majesty he speaks in another measure:--
+
+    "Stay, curious traveller, and pass not by
+      Until this festive pile astound thine eye.
+    Whole rocks on rocks, with iron join'd, survey;
+      And oaks with oaks that interfitted lie;
+    This mighty pile that keeps the winds at bay,
+      And doth the lightning and the storm defy,
+    That shoots aloft into the realms of day,
+      Shall be the record of the builder's fame for aye.
+        Thou see'st this mastery of a human hand,
+        The pride of Bristol, and the western land.
+    Yet is the builder's virtue much more great;
+      Greater than can by Rowley's pen be scann'd.
+    Thou see'st _the saints and kings in stony state,
+      As if with breath and human soul expand_.
+        Well may'st thou be astounded--view it well;
+        Go not from hence before thou see thy fill,
+    And learn the builder's virtues and his name.
+      Of this tall spire in every country tell,
+    And with thy tale the lazy rich men shame;
+      Show how the glorious Canning did excel;
+        How he, good man, a friend for kings became,
+        And glorious paved at once the way to heaven and fame."
+
+The "Battle of Hastings" is the longest of Chatterton's poems, and the
+reader who arrives at its abrupt termination will probably not grieve
+that it is left unfinished. The whole contains about 1300 lines in
+stanzas of ten, describing archery fights and heroic duels that are
+rather tedious by their similarity, and offensive from the smell of the
+shambles; and which any quick-witted stripling with the knack of rhyming
+might perhaps have done as well, and less coarsely, after reading
+Chapman's or Ogilby's Homer, or the fighting scenes in Spenser, the
+Border Ballads, &c. But even this composition is not unconscious of the
+true afflatus, such as is incommunicable by learning, not to be inhaled
+by mere imitative powers, and which might be vainly sought for in
+hundreds of highly elaborated prize poems.
+
+There is nothing more interesting in British history than the subject;
+and it is one which Chatterton, with all his genius, was much too young
+to treat in a manner at all approaching to epic completeness. Yet a few
+specimens might show that he is not deficient in the energy of the
+Homeric poetry of action. But here is metal more attractive, a young
+Saxon wife:--
+
+   "White as the chalky cliffs of Britain's isle,
+    Red as the highest-coloured Gallic wine,
+    Gay as all nature at the morning smile,
+    Those hues with pleasance on her lips combine;
+    Her lips more red than summer evening's skies,
+    Or Phoebus rising in a frosty morn;
+    Her breast more white than snow in fields that lies,
+    Or lily lambs that never have been shorn,
+    Swelling like bubbles in a boiling well,
+    Or new-burst brooklets gentling whispering in the dell,
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+   "Brown as the filbert dropping from the shell,
+    Brown as the nappy ale at Hocktide game--
+    So brown the crooked rings that neatly fell
+    Over the neck of that all-beauteous dame.
+    Grey as the morn before the ruddy flame
+    Of Phoebus' chariot rolling through the sky;
+    Grey as the steel-horn'd goats Conyan made tame--
+    So grey appear'd her featly sparkling eye.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+   "Majestic as the grove of oaks that stood
+    Before the abbey built by Oswald king;
+    Majestic as Hibernia's holy wood,
+    Where saints, and souls departed, masses sing--
+    Such awe from her sweet look far issuing,
+    At once for reverence and love did call.
+    Sweet as the voice of thrushes in the spring,
+    So sweet the words that from her lips did fall.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    "Taper as candles laid at Cuthbert's shrine,
+    Taper as silver chalices for wine,
+    So were her arms and shape.--
+    As skilful miners by the stones above
+    Can ken what metal is inlaid below,
+    So Kennewalcha's face, design'd for love,
+    The lovely image of her soul did show.
+    Thus was she outward form'd; the sun, her mind,
+    Did gild her mortal shape and all her charms refined."
+
+The next poem, and the last of the _modern-antiques_ that it may be
+worth while to note, is the story of William Canning, the illustrious
+founder of Redcliff Church, and is worthy of the author and his subject.
+
+   "Anent a brooklet as I lay reclined,
+    Listening to hear the water glide along,
+    Minding how thorough the green meads it twined,
+    While caves responded to its muttering song,
+    To distant-rising Avon as it sped,
+    Where, among hills, the river show'd his head.
+
+    Engarlanded with crowns of osier-weeds,
+    And wreaths of alders of a pleasant scent.
+
+   "Then from the distant stream arose a maid,
+    Whose gentle tresses moved not to the wind.
+    Like to the silver moon in frosty night,
+    The damsel did come on so blithe and bright.
+    No broider'd mantle of a scarlet hue,
+    No peaked shoon with plaited riband gear,
+    No costly paraments of woaden blue;
+    Nought of a dress but beauty did she wear;
+    Naked she was, and looked sweet of youth,
+    And all betoken'd that her name was Truth."
+
+The few words then spoken by this angelical lady--who unhappily favoured
+Chatterton but with "angel visits, short and far between"--throw him
+into a reverie on the life of William Canning, whose boyhood was more
+fortunate than the poet's; for it is here reported of Canning, that
+
+    "He ate down learning with the wastlecake."
+
+Chatterton, poor fellow, had neither fine bread to eat, nor fine
+learning within the possibility of his acquisition. Yet even the worthy
+Corporation of his native city will, we doubt not, be willing to allow
+that the Blue-Coat Charity boy might be entitled to the praise he gives
+Canning in the next couplet: that he--
+
+    "As wise as any of the Aldermen,
+    Had wit enough to make a Mayor at ten."
+
+We have limited these slight notices to the Rowley Poems; and such
+readers of our extracts as have been repelled from the perusal of those
+poems, by the formidable array of uncouth diction and strange spelling,
+may enquire what has become of the hard words. Here are long quotations,
+and not an obsolete term or unfamiliar metre among them. Chatterton took
+great pains to encrust his gold with verd-antique; it requires little to
+remove the green rubbish from the coin. By the aid of little else than
+his own glossary, "the Gode Preeste Rowleie, Aucthoure," is restored to
+his true form and pressure, and is all the fairer for the renovation.
+
+We have no space for examination of the "numerous verse," and verses
+numerous, that Chatterton left undisguised by barbarous phraseology. His
+modern poems, morally exceptionable as is much of the matter, are
+affluent of the genius that inspired the old. African Eclogues, Elegies,
+Political Satires, Amatory Triflings, Lines on the Copernican System,
+the Consuliad, Lines on Happiness, _Resignation_, The Art of Puffing,
+and Kew Gardens--to say nothing of his equally remarkable prose
+writings--attest the versatility of his powers, and the variety of his
+perception of men and manners. His knowledge of the world appears to
+have been almost intuitive; for surely no youth of his years ever
+displayed so much. Bristol, it is true, was, of all great towns in
+England, one of the most favourable to the development of his peculiar
+and complicated faculties. His passion for antiquarian lore, and his
+poetical enthusiasm, found a nursing mother in a city so rich in ancient
+architecture, heraldic monuments, and historical interest; his caustic
+humour was amply fed from the full tide of human life, with all its
+follies, in that populous mart; and his exquisite sensibility to the
+beautiful and magnificent in nature, was abundantly ministered to by the
+surrounding country. We are told that he had been by some odd chance
+taught his alphabet, and his first lesson in "reading made easy," out of
+a black-letter Bible! That accident may have had its share in forming
+his taste for old-fashioned literature. But he was an attorney's clerk!
+The very name of a lawyer's office seems to suggest a writ of ejectment
+against all poetical influences in the brain of his indented apprentice.
+Yet Chatterton's anomalous genius was in all likelihood fostered by that
+dark, yet subtle atmosphere. His duty of copying precedents must have
+initiated him in many of the astute wiles and twisted lines of reasoning
+that lead to what is termed sharp practice, and so may have confirmed
+and aided his propensities to artifice; while the mere manual operation
+tutored his fingers to dexterity at quaint penmanship. He had much
+leisure too; for it is recorded that his master's business seldom
+occupied him more than two hours a-day. He was left to devote the rest
+of his time unquestioned to all the devices of an inordinate
+imagination.
+
+After all, it is no unreasonable charity to believe, that what was
+unworthy and unsound in his character, and probably in his physical
+temperament, might, under more auspicious circumstances of condition and
+training, have been kept in check till utterly expelled by the force of
+his own maturer mind. In weighing his faults against his genius and its
+better fruits, it should never be forgotten that when he terminated his
+existence he was only seventeen years and nine months old.
+
+   "More wounds than nature gave he knew,
+    While misery's form his fancy drew
+    In dark ideal hues and horrors not its own."[39]
+
+May we not even dare to hope, then, though he "perished in his pride,"
+that he is still a living genius, assoiled of that foul stain of
+self-murder, and a chartered spiritualized melody where want and trouble
+madden not?
+
+    [39] T. Warton's "Suicide."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+IGNACIO GUERRA AND EL SANGRADOR;
+
+A TALE OF CIVIL WAR.
+
+
+On a June evening in the year 1839, four persons were assembled in the
+balcony of a pleasant little villa, some half-league from the town of
+Logrono in Navarre. The site of the house in question was a narrow
+valley, formed by a double range of wood-covered hills, the lower limbs
+of a mountain chain that bounded the horizon some miles in rear of the
+villa. The house itself was a long, low building, of which the white
+stone walls had acquired the mellow tint that time and exposure to the
+seasons can alone impart. A solid balcony of carved unpainted oak ran
+completely round the house, its breadth preventing the rays of the sun
+from entering the rooms on the ground floor, and thereby converting them
+into a cool and delightful refuge from the heats of summer. The windows
+of the first and only story opened upon this balcony, which, in its
+turn, received shelter from a roof of yellow canes, laid side by side,
+and fastened by innumerable packthreads, in the same way as Indian
+matting. This sort of awning was supported by light wooden pillars,
+placed at distances of five or six feet from each other, and
+corresponding with the more massive columns that sustained the balcony.
+At the foot of these latter, various creeping plants had taken root. A
+broad-leafed vine pushed its knotty branches and curled tendrils up to
+the very roof of the dwelling, and a passion-flower displayed its
+mystical purple blossoms nearly at as great a height; while the small
+white stars of the jasmine glittered among its narrow dark-green leaves,
+and every passing breeze wafted the scent of the honeysuckle and
+clematis through the open windows, in puffs of overpowering fragrance.
+
+About two hundred yards to the right of the house, rose one of the
+ranges of hills already mentioned, and on the opposite side the eye
+glanced over some of those luxuriant corn-fields which form so important
+a part of the riches of the fertile province of Navarre. The ground in
+front of the villa was tastefully laid out as a flower garden, and,
+midway between two magnificent chestnut trees, a mountain rivulet fell
+into a large stone basin, and fed a fountain, from which it was spouted
+twenty feet into the air, greatly to the refreshment of the surrounding
+pastures.
+
+The party that on the evening in question was enjoying the scent of the
+flowers and the song of the nightingales, to which the neighbouring
+trees afforded a shelter, consisted, in the first place, of Don Torribio
+Olana, a wealthy proprietor of La Rioja, and owner of the country-house
+that has been described. He had been long used to pass the hot months of
+each year at this pleasant retreat; and it was no small calamity to him
+when the civil war that broke out on the death of Ferdinand, rendered it
+scarcely safe, in Navarre at least, to live out of musket-shot of a
+garrison. Sometimes, however, and in spite of the advice of his friends,
+who urged him to greater prudence, the worthy Riojano would mount his
+easy-going round-quartered cob, and leave the town for a few hours'
+rustication at his _Retiro_. After a time, finding himself unmolested
+either by Carlists or by the numerous predatory bands that overran the
+country, he took for companions of his excursions his daughter
+Gertrudis, and an orphan niece, to whom he supplied the place of a
+father. Five years of impunity were taken as a guarantee for future
+safety, and Don Torribio now no longer hesitated to pass the night at
+his country-house as often as he found it convenient. It was observed,
+also, that many of those persons who had at first loudly blamed him for
+risking his neck, and that of his daughter and niece, in order to enjoy
+a purer atmosphere than could be inhaled in the dusty streets of
+Logrono, at length gathered so much courage from his example, as to
+accompany him out to the _Retiro_, and eat his excellent dinners, and
+empty his cobweb-covered bottles, without allowing their fear of the
+Carlists to diminish their thirst or disturb their digestion.
+
+Upon this occasion, however, the only guest was a young and handsome
+man, whose sunburnt countenance and military gait bespoke the soldier,
+while a double stripe of gold lace on the cuff of his blue frock-coat,
+marked his rank as that of lieutenant-colonel. Although not more than
+thirty years of age, Don Ignacio Guerra had already attained a grade
+which is often the price of as many years' service; but his rapid
+promotion was so well justified by his merit and gallantry, that few
+were found to complain of a preference which all felt was deserved. Both
+by moral and physical qualities, he was admirably suited to the
+profession he had embraced. Slender in person, but well knit and
+muscular, he possessed extraordinary activity, and a capacity of
+enduring great fatigue. Indulgent to those under his command, and
+self-denying in all that regarded himself personally, his enthusiasm for
+the cause he served was such, that during nearly two years that he had
+been the accepted lover of Donna Gertrudis Olana, this was only the
+second time he had left his regiment for a few days' visit to his
+affianced bride. He had arrived at Logrono the preceding day from a town
+lower down the Ebro, where the battalion he commanded was stationed; and
+Don Torribio, with whom he was a great favourite, had lost no time in
+taking him out to the _Retiro_; nor, perhaps, were the lovers sorry to
+leave the noise and bustle of the town for this calm and peaceful
+retreat.
+
+It was about an hour after sunset, and Don Torribio sat dozing in an
+arm-chair, with his old black dog Moro coiled up at his feet, and his
+niece Teresa beside him, busying herself in the arrangement of a bouquet
+of choice flowers, while at the other end of the balcony Gertrudis and
+her lover were looking out upon the garden. The silence was unbroken,
+save by the splashing noise of the fountain as it fell back upon the
+water-lilies that covered its basin. The moon was as yet concealed
+behind the high ground to the right of the house; but the sky in that
+direction was lighted up by its beams, and the outline of every tree and
+bush on the summit of the hill was defined and cut out, as it were,
+against the clear blue background. Suddenly Gertrudis called her
+companion's attention to the neighbouring mountain. "See, Ignacio!"
+exclaimed she, "yonder bush on the very highest point of the hill! Could
+not one almost fancy it to be a man with a gun in his hand? and that
+clump of leaves on the top bough might be the _boina_ of one of those
+horrid Carlists?"
+
+While she spoke the officer ran his eye along the ridge of the hill, and
+started when he caught sight of the object pointed out by Gertrudis; but
+before he could reply to her remark, she was called away by her father.
+At that moment the supposed bush made a sudden movement, and the long
+bright barrel of a musket glittered in the moonbeams. The next instant
+the figure disappeared as suddenly as though it had sunk into the earth.
+
+The Christino colonel remained for a moment gazing on the mountain, and
+then, turning away, hastened to accompany his host and the ladies, who
+had received a summons to supper. On reaching the foot of the stairs,
+however, instead of following them into the supper-room, he passed
+through the house-door, which stood open, and, after a moment's halt in
+the shade of the lattice portico, sprang forward with a light and
+noiseless step, and in three or four bounds found himself under one of
+the large chestnut trees that stood on either side the fountain. Keeping
+within the black shadow thrown by the branches, he cast a keen and
+searching glance over the garden and shrubberies, now partially lighted
+up by the moon. Nothing was moving either in the garden, or as far as he
+could see into the adjacent country. He was about to return to the
+house, when a blow on the back of the head stretched him stunned upon
+the ground. In an instant a slip-knot was drawn tight round his wrists,
+and his person securely pinioned by a strong cord to the tree under
+which he had been standing. A cloth was crammed into his mouth to
+prevent his calling out, and the three men who had thus rapidly and
+dexterously effected his capture, darted off in the direction of the
+house.
+
+Desperate were the efforts made by Don Ignacio to free himself from his
+bonds, and his struggles became almost frantic, when the sound of a
+scuffle in the house, followed by the piercing shrieks of women, reached
+his ears. He succeeded in getting rid of the handkerchief that gagged
+him, but the rope with which his arms were bound, and that had
+afterwards been twined round his body and the tree, withstood his utmost
+efforts. In vain did he throw himself forward with all his strength,
+striking his feet furiously against the trunk of the tree, and writhing
+his arms till the sharp cord cut into the very sinew. The rope appeared
+rather tightened than slackened by his violence. The screams and noise
+in the house continued; he was sufficiently near to hear the hoarse
+voices and obscene oaths of the banditti--the prayers for mercy of their
+victims. At length the shrieks became less frequent and fainter, and at
+last they died away entirely.
+
+Two hours had elapsed since Ignacio had been made prisoner, hours that
+to him appeared centuries. Exhausted by the violence of his exertions,
+and still more by the mental agony he had endured, his head fell forward
+on his breast, a cold sweat stood upon his forehead, and had it not been
+for the cords that held him up, he would have fallen to the ground. He
+was roused from this state of exhaustion and despair by the noise of
+approaching footsteps, and by the arrival of a dozen men, three or four
+of whom carried torches. They were dressed in the sort of half uniform
+worn by the Carlist _volantes_, or irregular troops; round their waists
+were leathern belts filled with cartridges, and supporting bayonets and
+long knives, in many instances without sheaths. Ignacio observed with a
+shudder that several of the ruffians had their hands and weapons stained
+with blood.
+
+"Whom have we here?" exclaimed a sallow, evil-visaged fellow, who wore a
+pair of tarnished epaulets. "Is this the _negro_ you secured at the
+beginning of the affair?"
+
+One of the men nodded assent, and the chief bandit, taking a torch,
+passed it before the face of the captive officer.
+
+"_Un militar_!" exclaimed he, observing the uniform button. "Your name
+and rank?"
+
+Receiving no reply, he stepped a little on one side, and looked to the
+coat-cuff for the usual sign of grade.
+
+"_Teniente coronel_!" cried he on seeing the double stripe.
+
+A man stepped forward, and Ignacio, who knew that death was the best he
+had to expect at the hands of these ruffians, and was observing their
+proceedings in stern silence, immediately recognized a deserter from his
+battalion.
+
+"'Tis the Colonel Ignacio Guerra," said the man; "he commands the first
+battalion of the Toledo regiment."
+
+An exclamation of surprise and pleasure burst from the Carlists on
+hearing the name of an officer and battalion, well known and justly
+dreaded among the adherents of the Pretender. Their leader again threw
+the light of the torch on the features of the Christino, and gazed at
+him for the space of a minute with an expression of cruel triumph.
+
+"Ha!" exclaimed he, "_el Coronel Guerra! He_ is worth taking to
+headquarters."
+
+"We shall have enough to do to get away ourselves, laden as we are,"
+said one of the men, pointing to a number of large packages of plunder
+lying on the grass hard by. "Who is to take charge of the prisoner? Not
+I, for one."
+
+A murmur among the other brigands approved this mutinous speech.
+
+"_Cuatro tiros_," suggested a voice.
+
+"Yes," said the leader, "to bring down the enemy's pickets upon us. They
+are not a quarter of a league off. Pedro, lend me your knife. We will
+see," he added with a cruel grin, "how the gallant colonel will look
+cropped."
+
+A knife-blade glanced for a moment in the torchlight as it was passed
+round the head of the Christino officer.
+
+"_Toma! chicos!_" said the savage, as he threw the ears of the unhappy
+Ignacio amongst his men. A ferocious laugh from the banditti welcomed
+this act of barbarous cruelty.
+
+The leader sheathed the knife twice in his victim's breast before
+restoring it to it's owner, and the Carlists, snatching up their booty,
+disappeared in the direction of the mountains.
+
+At daybreak the following morning, some peasants going to their labour
+in the fields saw the body of the unfortunate officer still fastened to
+the tree. They unbound him, and, perceiving some signs of life, carried
+him into Logrono, where they gave the alarm. A detachment was
+immediately sent out to the Retiro, but it was too late to pursue the
+assassins; and all that could be done was to bring in the bodies of Don
+Torribio, his daughter, and niece, who were lying dead in the
+supper-room. An old groom and two women servants had shared a like fate;
+the horses had been taken out of the stable, and the house ransacked of
+every thing valuable.
+
+For several weeks Ignacio Guerra remained wavering, as it were, between
+life and death. At length he recovered; but his health was so much
+impaired, that the surgeons forbade his again encountering the fatigues
+of a campaign. Enfeebled in body, heartbroken at the horrible fate of
+Gertrudis, and foreseeing the speedy termination of the war, consequent
+on the concluded treaty of Bergara, he threw up his commission, and left
+Spain to seek forgetfulness of his misfortunes in foreign travel.
+
+In all French towns of any consequence, and in many whose size and
+population would almost class them under the denomination of villages,
+there is some favourite spot serving as an evening lounge for the
+inhabitants, whither, on Sundays and fete-days especially, the belles
+and _elegants_ of the place resort, to criticize each other's toilet,
+and parade up and down a walk varying from one to two or three hundred
+yards in extent.
+
+The ancient city of Toulouse is of course not without its promenade,
+although but poor taste has been evinced in its selection; for, while on
+one side of the town soft well-trimmed lawns, cool fountains, and
+magnificent avenues of elm and plane trees, are abandoned to
+nursery-maids and their charges, the rendezvous of the fashionables of
+the pleasant capital of Languedoc is a parched and dusty _allee_,
+scantily sheltered by trees of recent growth, extending from the canal
+to the open square formerly known as the Place d'Angouleme, but since
+1830 re-baptized by the name of the revolutionary patriarch General
+Lafayette.
+
+It was on a Sunday evening of the month of August 1840, and the Allee
+Lafayette was more than usually crowded. After a day of uncommon
+sultriness, a fresh breeze had sprung up, and a little before sundown
+the fair Toulousaines had deserted their darkened and artificially
+cooled rooms, and flocked to the promenade. The walk was thronged with
+gaily attired ladies, smirking dandies, and officers in full dress. In
+the fields on the further side of the canal, a number of men of the
+working-classes, happy in their respite from the toils of the week, were
+singing in parts, with all the musical taste and correctness of ear for
+which the inhabitants of that part of France are noted; while, on the
+broad boulevard that traverses the lower end of the _allee_, a crowd of
+recruits whom the conscription had recently called under the colours,
+stood gazing in open-mouthed astonishment and infinite delight at some
+rudely constructed booths and shows, outside of which, clown and
+paillasse were rivalling each other in the broad humour of their lazzi.
+Parties of students, easily recognizable by their eccentric and
+exaggerated style of dress, and the loud tone of their conversation,
+were seated outside the cafes and ice-rooms, or circulating under the
+trees, puffing forth clouds of tobacco smoke; and on the road round the
+_allee_, open carriages, smart tilburies, and dapper horsemen were
+careering.
+
+Among the various groups thronging the promenade was one, which, in Hyde
+Park or on the Paris boulevards, would have attracted some notice; but
+the persons composing it were of a class too common of late years in the
+south of France to draw upon them any attention from the loungers. The
+party in question consisted of three men, who, by their bronzed
+complexions, ragged mustaches, and sullen, dogged countenances, as well
+as their whole air and _tournure_, were easily distinguishable as
+belonging to the exiled and disappointed faction of the Spanish
+Pretender. Their threadbare costume still exhibited signs of their late
+military employment, probably from a lack of means to replace it by any
+other garments. The closely buttoned blue frock of one of them still had
+upon its shoulders the small lace straps used to support the epaulets,
+and another wore for headdress a _boina_, with its large starlike
+tassels of silver cord. The third and most remarkable of the party, was
+a man in the prime of life and strength, whose countenance bore the
+impress of every bad passion. It was one of those faces sometimes seen
+in old paintings of monkish inquisitors, on viewing which, one feels
+inclined to suspect that the artist has outdone and exaggerated nature.
+The expression of the cold, glassy, grey eye, and thin, pale, compressed
+lips, was one of unrelenting cruelty; while the coarsely moulded chin
+and jaw gave a sensual character to the lower part of the face. The scar
+of a sabre-cut extended from the centre of the forehead nearly to the
+upper lip, partly dividing the nose, and giving a hideously distorted
+and unnatural appearance to that feature. The man's frame was bony and
+powerful; the loose sheepskin jacket he wore was thrown open, and
+through the imperfectly fastened shirt-front, it might be seen that his
+breast was covered with a thick felt of matted hair.
+
+It was the moment of the short twilight that in the south of France
+intervenes between day and night. The Carlists had reached the upper end
+of the walk, and, turning round, began to descend it again three
+abreast, and with the man who has been particularly described in the
+centre. On a sudden the latter stopped short, as though petrified where
+he stood. His countenance, naturally sallow, became pale as ashes, and,
+as if to save himself from falling, he clutched the arm of one of his
+companions with a force that made him wince again, while he gazed with
+distended eyeballs on a man who had halted within half-a-dozen paces of
+the Spaniards. The person whose aspect produced this Medusa-like effect
+upon the Carlist was a man about thirty years of age, plainly but
+elegantly dressed, and of a prepossessing but somewhat sickly
+countenance, the lines of which were now working under the influence of
+some violent emotion. The only peculiarity in his appearance was a black
+silk band which, passing under his chin, was brought up on both sides of
+the head, and fastened on the crown under the hat.
+
+"_Que tienes, Sangrador_? What ails thee, man?" enquired the Carlists of
+their terror-stricken companion, addressing him by a _nom-de-guerre_
+that he doubtless owed to his bloody deeds or disposition. At that
+moment the stranger sprang like a bloodhound into the centre of the
+group. In an instant El Sangrador was on the ground, his assailant's
+knee upon his breast, and his throat compressed by two nervous hands,
+which bade fair to perform the office of a bowstring on the prostrate
+man. All this had passed in far less time than is required to narrate
+it, and the astonishment of the Carlists at their comrade's terror and
+this sudden attack, was such, that, although men of action and energy,
+they were for a moment paralysed, and thought not of rescuing their
+friend from the iron gripe in which he was held. Already his eyes were
+bloodshot, his face purple, and his tongue protruding from his mouth,
+when a gendarme came up, and aided by half-a-dozen of those agents who,
+in plain clothes, half-spy and half-policeman, are to be found in every
+place of public resort in France, succeeded, but not without difficulty,
+in rescuing the Carlist from the fierce clutch of his foe, who clung to
+him with bull-dog tenacity till they were actually drawn asunder by main
+force.
+
+"_Canalla! infame!_" shouted the stranger, as he writhed and struggled
+in the hands of his guards. "By yonder villain have all my hopes in life
+been blasted--an adored mistress outraged and murdered, myself tortured
+and mutilated in cold blood!" And, tearing off the black fillet that
+encircled his head, it was seen that his ears had been cut off. A murmur
+of horror ran through the crowd which this scene had assembled. "And
+shall I not have revenge?" shouted Ignacio (for he it was) in a voice
+rendered shrill by furious passion. And by a violent effort he again
+nearly succeeded in shaking off the men who held him.
+
+El Sangrador, whose first terror had probably been caused by
+astonishment at seeing one whom he firmly believed numbered with the
+dead, had now recovered from his alarm.
+
+"_Adios_, Don Ignacio," cried he with a sneer, as he walked away between
+two gendarmes, while his enemy was hurried off in another direction.
+
+The following day El Sangrador was sent to a depot of Spanish emigrants
+in the interior of France. On his departure, the authorities, who had
+made themselves acquainted with the particulars of this dramatic
+incident, released Don Ignacio from confinement; but he was informed
+that no passport would be given him to quit Toulouse unless it were for
+the Spanish frontier.
+
+At the distance of a few leagues from the town of Oleron, and in one of
+the wildest parts of the Pyrenees, is a difficult pass, scarcely known,
+except to smugglers and izard-hunters whose hazardous avocations make
+them acquainted with the most hidden recesses of these rugged and
+picturesque mountains. Towards the close of the summer of 1841, this
+defile was occasionally traversed by adherents of the Ex-Queen-Regent
+Christina, entering Spain secretly and in small parties, to be ready to
+take share in the abortive attempt subsequently made to replace the
+reins of government in the hands of Ferdinand's widow. Not a few
+Carlists also, weary of the monotonous inactive life they were leading
+in France, prepared to join the projected insurrection; and, leaving the
+towns in which a residence had been assigned them, sought to gain the
+Spanish side of the Pyrenees, where they might lie _perdus_ until the
+moment for active operation arrived, subsisting in the meanwhile by
+brigandage and other lawless means. Owing to the negligence, either
+accidental or intentional, of the French authorities, these adventurers
+usually found little difficulty in reaching the line of demarcation
+between the two frontiers; but it was there their troubles began, and
+they had to take the greatest precaution to avoid falling into the hands
+of the Spanish _carabineros_ and light troops posted along the frontier.
+
+Among those who intended to take a share in the rebellion, Don Ignacio
+Guerra occupied a prominent place. Being well known to the Spanish
+Government as a devoted adherent of Christina, it would have been in
+vain for him to have attempted entering Spain by one of the ordinary
+roads. Repairing to Oleron, therefore, he procured himself a guide, and
+one of the small but sure-footed horses of the Pyrenees, and, after a
+wearisome march among the mountains, arrived about dusk at a cottage, or
+rather hovel, built on a ledge of rock within half-an-hour's walk of the
+Spanish frontier. Beyond this spot the road was impracticable for a
+horse, and dangerous even for a pedestrian, and Don Ignacio had arranged
+to send back his guide and horse and proceed on foot; in which manner,
+also, it was easier to avoid falling in with the Spanish troops. The
+night was fine, and having had the road minutely explained to him by his
+peasant guide, Ignacio had no doubt of finding himself, in a few hours,
+at a village where shelter and concealment were prepared for him.
+Leaving the horse in a sort of shed that afforded shelter to two or
+three pigs, the Christino officer entered the hut, followed by his guide
+and by a splendid wolf-dog, an old and faithful companion of his
+wanderings. It was some seconds, however, before their eyes got
+sufficiently accustomed to the dark and smoky atmosphere of the place,
+to distinguish the objects it contained. The smoke came from a fire of
+green wood, that was smouldering under an enormous chimney, and over
+which a decrepit old woman was frying _talloua_ or maize-meal cake, in
+grease of a most suspicious odour. The old lady was so intent on the
+preparation of this delicacy, a favourite food of the Pyrenean
+mountaineers, that it was with difficulty she could be prevailed upon to
+prepare something more substantial for the hungry travellers. Some
+smoked goats' flesh and acid wine were at length obtained, and, after a
+hasty meal, Ignacio paid his guide and resumed his perilous journey. The
+moon had not yet risen--the night was dark--the paths rugged and
+difficult, and the troops on the alert; to avoid falling in with an
+enemy, or down a precipice, so much care and attention were necessary,
+that nearly three hours had elapsed before Ignacio perceived that his
+dog had not followed him from the cottage. The animal had gone into the
+stable and lain down beside his master's horse, doubtless imagining, by
+that sort of half-reasoning instinct which dogs possess, that, as long
+as the horse was there, the rider would not be far off.
+
+Ignacio's first impulse, on discovering the absence of his four-footed
+companion, was to return to the cottage; but the risk in so doing was
+extreme, and as he felt certain his guide would take care of the dog,
+and that he should get it at some future day, he resolved to pursue his
+journey. Meantime the night became darker and darker--thick clouds had
+gathered, and hung low--there was no longer the slightest trace or
+indication of a path, and the darkness preventing him from finding
+certain landmarks he had been told to observe, he was obliged to walk on
+nearly at hazard, and soon became aware he had lost his way. To add to
+his difficulties, the low growlings of distant thunder were heard, and
+some large drops of rain fell. A violent storm was evidently
+approaching, and Ignacio quickened his pace in hopes of finding some
+shelter before it came on, resolving to wait at all risks till daylight
+before continuing his route, lest he should run, as it were, blindfolded
+into the very dangers he wished to avoid. A sort of cliff or wall of
+rock he had for some time had on his left hand, now suddenly ended, and
+a scene burst on his view which to him was commonplace enough, but would
+have appeared somewhat strange to a person unaccustomed to such sights.
+The mountain, which had been steep and difficult to descend, now began
+to slope more gradually as it approached nearer its base. On a sort of
+shelving plateau of great extent, a number of charcoal-burners had
+established themselves, and, as the most expeditious way of clearing the
+ground, had set light in various places to the brushwood and furze that
+clothed this part of the mountain. To prevent, however, the
+conflagration from extending too far, they had previously, with their
+axes, cleared rings of several feet wide around the places to which they
+set fire. The bushes and furze they rooted up were thrown into the
+centre, and increased the blaze. In this manner the entire mountain
+side, of which several hundred acres were overlooked from the spot where
+Ignacio stood, appeared dotted with brilliant fiery spots of some fifty
+feet in diameter, the more distant ones assuming a lurid blood-red look,
+seen through the fog and mist that had now gathered over the mountain.
+Ignacio approached the nearest of the fires, lighted close to a crag
+that almost overhung it, and that offered a sufficient shelter from the
+rain which had begun to descend in torrents. Throwing himself on the
+ground with his feet towards the flames, he endeavoured to get a little
+sleep, of which he stood much in need. But it was in vain. The situation
+in which he found himself suggested thoughts that he was unable to drive
+away. Gradually a sort of phantasmagoria passed before his "mind's eye,"
+wherein the various events of his life, which, although a short one, had
+not the less been sadly eventful, were represented in vivid colours. He
+thought of his childhood, spent in the sunny _vegas_ of Andalusia--of
+the companions of his military studies, high-spirited free-hearted lads,
+of whom some had achieved honours and fame, but by far the greater part
+had died on the battle-field--the smoke of the bivouac fire, the merry
+laugh of the _insouciant_ soldier--the din and excitement of the
+fight--the exultation of victory, and the well-won and highly relished
+pleasures of the garrison town after severe duty in the field;--the
+graceful form of Gertrudis now flitted across the picture--her jetty
+hair braided over her pure white forehead, the light of her swimming
+"eye, that mocked her coal-black veil," flashing from under the
+mantilla. Her father, with his portly figure and good-humoured
+countenance, was beside her. They smiled at Ignacio, and seemed to
+beckon to him. So life-like was the illusion of his fancy, he could
+almost have sprung forward to join them. But again there was a change. A
+large and handsome room, a well-covered table--all the appliances of
+modern luxury--plate and crystal sparkling in the brilliant lights--a
+happy cheerful party surrounding the board. Alas, for the tragedy played
+on this stage! The hand of the spoiler was there--blood and womens'
+screams, dishevelled hair and men's deep oaths, the wild and broken
+accents of despair, the coarse jest and ferocious exultation of
+gratified brutality. And then all was dark and gloomy as a winter's
+night, and through the darkness was seen a grave-stone, shadowy and
+spectral, and a man still young, but with heart crushed and hopes
+blighted, lying prostrate before it, his breast heaving with convulsive
+sobs of agony, until at length he rose and moved sadly away, to become
+an exile and a wanderer in a foreign land.
+
+Maddened by these reflections, Ignacio started to his feet, and was
+about to rush out into the storm, and fly, he knew not whither, from his
+own thoughts, when he suddenly became aware of the presence of a man
+within a few yards of him. The projecting crag, under which he had
+sought a shelter, extended all along one side of the fire. In one corner
+an angle of the rock threw a deep shadow, in which Ignacio now stood,
+and was thus enabled, without being seen himself, to observe the
+new-comer, who seated himself on a block of stone close to the fire. As
+he did so, the flame, which had been deadened by the rain, again burned
+up brightly, and threw a strong light on the features of the stranger.
+They were those of _El Sangrador_.
+
+With stealthy pace, and trembling at every step, lest his prey should
+take the alarm, and even yet escape him, Ignacio stole towards his
+mortal foe. The noise of the storm, that still raged furiously, enabled
+him to get within five paces of him without being heard. He then halted,
+and silently cocking a pistol, remained for some time motionless as a
+statue. Now that his revenge was within his grasp, he hesitated to take
+it, not from any relenting weakness, but because the speedy death it was
+in his power to give, appeared an inadequate punishment--a paltry
+vengeance. Had he seen his enemy torn by wild horses, or broken on the
+wheel, his burning thirst for revenge would hardly have been slaked; and
+an easy, painless death by knife or bullet, he looked upon as a boon
+rather than a punishment. An end was put to his hesitation by the
+Carlist himself, who, either tormented by an evil conscience, or
+oppressed by one of those unaccountable and mysterious presentiments
+that sometimes warn us of impending danger, became restless, cast uneasy
+glances about him, and at last, turning round, found himself face to
+face with Ignacio. Almost before he recognized him, a hand was on his
+collar, and the muzzle of a pistol crammed into his ear. The click of
+the lock was heard, but no discharge ensued. The rain had damped the
+powder. Before Ignacio could draw his other pistol, the Carlist grappled
+him fiercely, and a terrible struggle commenced. Their feet soon slipped
+upon the wet rock, and they fell, still grasping each other's throats,
+foaming with rage, and hate, and desperation. The fire, now nearly out,
+afforded little light for the contest; but as they rolled over the
+smouldering embers, clouds of sparks arose, their clothes and hair were
+burned, and their faces scorched by the heat. The Carlist was unarmed,
+save with a clasp-knife, which, being in his pocket, was useless to him;
+for had he ventured to remove one hand from the struggle even for a
+moment, he would have given his antagonist a fatal advantage. At length
+the contest seemed about to terminate in favour of Ignacio. He got his
+enemy under, and knelt upon his breast, while, with a charred,
+half-burned branch which he found at hand, he dealt furious blows upon
+his head. Half-blinded by the smoke and heat, and by his own blood, the
+Carlist felt the sickness of death coming over him. By a last effort he
+slipped one hand, which was now at liberty, into his pocket, and
+immediately withdrawing it, raised it to his mouth. His teeth grated
+upon the blade of the knife as he opened it, and the next instant
+Ignacio, with a long deep sob, rolled over among the ashes. The Carlist
+rose painfully and with difficulty into a sitting posture, and with a
+grim smile gazed upon his enemy, whose eyes were glazing, and features
+settling into the rigidity of death. But the conqueror's triumph was
+short-lived. A deep bark was heard, and a moment afterwards a wolf-dog,
+drenched with mud and rain, leaped into the middle of the embers.
+Placing his black muzzle on Ignacio's face, he gave a long deep howl,
+which was succeeded by a growl like that of a lion, as he sprang upon
+the Carlist.
+
+The morning after the storm, when the charcoal-burners returned to their
+fires, they found two dead bodies amidst the ashes. One of them had a
+stab in his breast, which had caused his death. The other was
+frightfully disfigured, and bore marks of the fangs of some savage
+animal. In that wild district, the skirmishing-ground of smugglers and
+_douaniers_, the mountaineers think little of such occurrences. A hole
+was dug, the bodies thrown into it; and a cross, rudely cut upon the
+rock, alone marks the spot where the midnight conflict took place.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+MEMORANDUMS OF A MONTH'S TOUR IN SICILY.
+
+LEAVING NAPLES.
+
+
+STEAM-BOATIANA.
+
+The _Francesco Primo_ was to leave the harbour at ten o'clock. Better
+acquaintance with Mediterannean _pyroscaphs_, as they call themselves,
+whose axle-trees turn not except when the police pleases, ought to have
+led us to all the latitude of uncertainty; but when two hours and more
+had elapsed with all the passengers aboard, we began to suppose some
+extraordinary cause for so long a detention. A deputation is accordingly
+dispatched to the captain, which brings back an abrupt reply, that he is
+not going _yet_; and that it is for him and the proprietors to be
+dissatisfied, who are wasting steam, while we are only losing patience.
+It shortly transpired that he was under Government orders, and would not
+proceed for another hour at _least_, nor even then, unless he received
+permission from the minister of police. The affair now looked serious.
+We must have some _carbonaro_ on board, who was, in due time, to be
+arrested; and no further doubt could remain of this, when, that other
+hour being past, we saw a longboat leaving shore, with two officers and
+six stout rowers, who soon brought her under our bow. What can it be?
+The senior epaulet rises in the boat--the second follows his
+example--both are on deck; the captain, hitherto unseen, now comes
+forward with alacrity, and, stretching forward _both_ his hands,
+receives with profound reverence a thin, square enclosure, with an
+immense seal attached to it, and retires to put it in a place of safety.
+The uniforms disappear over the side of the vessel--the paddles begin to
+paw the water--we swing round--and in a few seconds our prow points for
+the _Sorrentine_ coast, and we are on our watery way to _Sicily_. What,
+then, had detained us? It is always very provoking to have a miserable
+solution of a promising mystery! We were on the exact spot for a new
+edition of some "_Verbosa et grandis Epistola_" from the tyrants of the
+land; and so it was, but only not _from_ Capreae or Tiberius this time.
+Yes! The actual cause of the delay of a great steam-boat, full of
+passengers, for three hours, attended, among other melancholy results,
+with that of exciting the choler of a new-made cardinal, was a _letter_
+that the Queen of Naples, who had probably overslept herself, had
+occasion to write to the king on conjugal affairs!--his majesty having
+left her majesty only the day before, to show himself to his loving
+subjects at Palermo. Hem! Campania _felix_! If we were known to be
+inditing this unreverential passage, and its disloyal apostrophe, we
+should, no doubt, be invited to leave "Campania the happy" at a day's
+notice; whereas our comfort is, that this day three months it is quite
+possible that it will have been read in Bengal!
+
+We are now in the middle of the Bay of Naples; the spot from which
+panoramas have been so often sketched on that noble elevation, the deck
+of a lofty ship, swinging on her cables. What numberless sites of
+unparallelled interest are hence visible to the newly arrived and
+insatiable stranger! _Misenum, Baiae, Puteoli, Gaurus, Vesuvius,
+Herculaneum, Pompeii_! But the office of the cicerone here cannot--alas
+for Britain!--be confined to the old classics, or the mere indication of
+places whose very _names_ are things to _conjure with_! In America, we
+converse with nature only, whose voice is in her woods and waterfalls;
+but, in our threadbare Europe, all _sites_ are _historical_, and chiefly
+in one sad sense--for Waterloo only brings up the rear of fields
+illustrated by the wholesale destruction of mankind! In the position
+which we now occupy, volumes might be written--ay, and _have been
+written_.
+
+Look at that proud, impregnable Castle of St Elmo, culminating over all
+Naples! Look at those sea-washed fortresses which guard the entrance of
+her harbour! The garrisons of those strong places having, in the year
+1799, from the turn of public affairs, judged it expedient to capitulate
+to Ferdinand and his allies, on conditions which should leave their
+honour without blemish, and assure their own safety and that of the
+city; and this capitulation having been solemnly accepted and ratified
+by _Cardinal Ruffo, as the king's legate and plenipotentiary_, by the
+late _Sir Edward Foote_, as acting commodore of the British force, and
+by the representatives of _two European governments_, officially
+residing in the revolutionized city, and the surrender of the forts
+having accordingly taken place, it came to pass, in an evil hour, that
+Lord Nelson, entering the bay as commander-_in-chief_, took upon himself
+the odious responsibility of rescinding the British guarantee, and of
+supporting Ferdinand, powerless but through him, in his refusal to hold
+himself bound by a convention made _by his own viceroy_!--thus
+delivering over the defenceless city to its own implacable sovereign.
+Then came a political persecution unknown in the annals of mankind;
+till, _hebetes lasso lictore secures_, even Naples could bear no more!
+The noblest blood and the most distinguished talent were no protection
+at the bar of a special tribunal, with a low-born monster at its head,
+not surpassed in its atrocities by the revolutionary tyrants of Paris
+and of Lyons. The ships shared the infamy; the venerable and noble
+Caraccioli, seventy-five years of age, himself an admiral, was the first
+_piaculum_! Summarily condemned by a court-martial _held on board
+Nelson's flag-ship_, he was executed like a felon, and cast overboard
+from a Neapolitan frigate floating on the same anchorage, and subject to
+the same authority!
+
+But Nelson's star was then in the ascendant; the presence and notorious
+influence of Emma Hamilton in these frightful transactions, was
+unaccountably connived at by the British nation. The officer who has
+been a party to a convention, which his commander-in-chief thinks proper
+not only to disapprove but to violate, must inevitably suffer in that
+fame and popularity which our public services so justly cherish. And in
+the state of men's passions during that memorable war, _so that it were
+against the French, a successful_ commander-in-chief could do no wrong!
+Yet here, probably, the matter would have rested; but when, nine years
+afterwards, _Stanier Clarke_ so little appreciated the duty of a
+biographer as to relate a transaction susceptible of no excuse, in terms
+unjustified by the facts, and sought to render his hero _immaculate_ at
+the _expense of others_, the excellent officer whose feelings and
+character had been so cruelly sacrificed, felt himself compelled at last
+to publish his "Vindication," judicious in every thing but _the title_.
+He most properly printed the _Convention itself_ in the original words,
+and with all the signatures it bore. Such works, however, even when the
+affairs they refer to are _recent_, are never read but by _friends_--or
+_enemies_. A late atonement was made by William IV. in conferring on Sir
+Edward Foote a titular distinction, which the public heed not; but the
+tables are now turned, and Europe, taught by Cuoco, Coletta, and by
+Botta, the great historian of Italy, has irrevocably closed this _great
+account_. The name of Foote is recorded in all their pages in terms
+which, had he seen them, might well have consoled him for the past;
+while the last and most popular biographer of Nelson (Southey) feels
+himself compelled to admit, and the frank admission does him infinite
+honour, that this is a passage of his hero's life which the muse of
+history "must _record with sorrow and with shame_."
+
+But the sea spray is dashing splendidly on our bows--we are clearing
+Capri, and have, as we pass it, a fine view of that high and precipitous
+rock, thinking of Tiberius and the soothsayer Thrasyllus, and of all the
+monstrous scenes which those unapproachable cliffs concealed from the
+indignation even of a Roman world. But twilight was already coming on,
+and the city and the coast were gradually withdrawn from the
+panorama--dark night came rushing over the deep, an Italian summer's
+night, and yet with no stars or moon; meanwhile steadily rides our
+vessel along the Calabrian waters, confident alike of her strength and
+her bearings, which we soon left her to pursue, and went down to see
+what the cabin and the company promised below. And thus the hours passed
+away; and when the suspended lamp began to burn dimly under the
+skylight, and grey morning found stealthy admittance through the cabin
+windows, although we had been unable to sleep, the anticipation of all
+the marvels we were to see in Sicily had answered the purpose of a
+night's rest, and sent us active and alert on deck to fresh air and the
+rising sun. Nor were we a moment too soon. A large flotilla of little
+boats manoeuvring between two of larger size, placed to defend the space
+destined for their operations, were now in the full activity of the
+thunny and spada fishery; and a most picturesque rock, right over our
+bow, proved to be no other than _Monte Pelegrino_, at the foot of which
+lay Palermo and our breakfast--in short, after a voyage of little more
+than a summer's night, we are again on _terra firma_, if that name can
+be given to volcanic soils, and long before noon are actively engaged in
+perambulating the streets of the Sicilian capital of the _faecunda
+Panormos_.
+
+Among the most striking peculiarities of the interior or street views,
+presented to the stranger's eye at Palermo, are its very unusually
+situated convents, buildings which, even in cities, are commonly and
+naturally in _retirement_; but here, in whichever of the most public
+ways you walk, a number of extraordinary trellised balconies are
+observed on the upper stories of almost every large house, while
+business and bustle of all kinds are transacted as usual in the street
+below. You may well be surprised to see the nunnery over the _Marchande
+de Modes_! The unhappy inmates thus tormented by the sight and sound of
+worldly activity, have not in Palermo even the solace of a garden; and
+if these places of more than usual mortification have any connexion with
+the world without, it is by an under-ground passage to some church in
+the neighbourhood! Thither repair the poor victims of superstition to
+warble _Aves_ to the Virgin behind their screens, and then back again to
+their monotonous cloister. There are twenty-four nunneries in the city
+of Palermo alone, each containing from thirty to sixty women, and there
+are as many monasteries! With open doors like coffee-houses, full upon
+the street, are placed at Palermo innumerable _consulting shops_ of so
+many _lawyers_; the earliest to begin business, the last to close, you
+may have the luxury of law at any hour of the day till bedtime. Nay,
+your Sicilian lawyer, unlike the lazy tradesman who puts up his shutters
+and sleeps from twelve to four, takes no _siesta_; his _atra janua
+lilis_ is always open, and there sit the _firm_, one listening to a
+client, another smoking a cigar, a third chatting with an acquaintance
+over his coffee or the newspaper. Scarcely less mischievous than these
+sowers of dissension, is the _barber-surgeon_, who still flourishes in
+Trinacria. The bleeding arm over the peruke shop is often to be seen in
+Rome and Naples; but at Palermo almost at every third house, you read
+_Salassatore_ over a half-naked figure in wood or canvass, erect like
+Seneca in his bath, or monumentally recumbent, the blood spouting, like
+so many Tritons, from twenty orifices at once. Led by professional
+curiosity, we enter one of these open doors; and, desiring the ordinary
+service of the razor, and intending to ask some questions
+parenthetically touching the double craft, we have scarcely occupied the
+chair, when a smart youth comes up with a razor and a lancet, and
+quietly asks "_Which_?" Why, surely he could not think of _bleeding_ us
+without a warrant for our needing it. "_Eperche? Adesso vi le diro
+subito_--Why not? I'll tell you whether you want it without a
+doctor,"--feeling for our pulse. "_Non c'e male_--not so much amiss,"
+pursued the functionary; "but a few ounces bleeding would do you _no
+harm_! Your hand is hot, it must be _several months_ since you were last
+bled!" "A year." "Too long: you should be bled, at your age, at least
+_twice a-year_ if you would keep your health!" "What amount of depletion
+did he recommend?" "_Depende--di sei a dieci oncie_," at which portion
+of the dialogue our mouth was shut to all further interrogations by a
+copious supply of soap-suds, and now he became the tonsor only, and
+declares against the mode in which we have our hair cut: "They have cut
+your hair, Signor, _a condannato_--nobody adopts the toilette of the
+guillotine now; it should have been left to grow in front _a la Plutus_,
+or have been long at the sides _a la Nazarene_, which is the mode most
+of our Sicilian gentlemen prefer." We were about to rise, wash, and
+depart, but an impediment is offered by the artist. "_Non l'ho_
+raffinato _ancora, Signor, bisogna_ raffinarlo _un poco_!" and before we
+could arrive at the occult meaning of _raffinare_, his fingers were
+exploring very technically and very disagreeably the whole surface over
+which his razor had travelled, and a number of supplementary scrapings
+were only stopped by an impatient _basta_ of the victim. _Still_ he was
+unwilling to part with us. _Would_ we like, now that we are on the spot,
+to _lose a few ounces of blood_ before he takes a stranger in hand, (who
+is waiting for the one or other operation;) and, as we most positively
+declined, he turned to the latter to ask him whether he was come for his
+"_piccolo salassio di sei oncie_." "_Gia_!" said Signor Antonio, taking
+off his coat, and sitting down with as much _sangfroid_ as if he were
+going to take his breakfast. "Can you shave _me_?" asks a third party,
+standing at the door. "_Adesso_," after I have _bled_ this gentleman.
+Such are all the _interiors_ where _Salassatore_ is written over the
+door; they bleed and they shave indifferently, and doing either, talk of
+the last _take_ of _thunny_, the _opera_ that has been or is to be, and
+the meagre skimmings of their permitted newspaper, _which_ begins
+probably with the advertisement of a church ceremony, and ends always
+with a charade--for our subscribers!!
+
+
+CHURCHES.
+
+The clergy are wealthy, the bishop's salary is 18,000 scudi, and many of
+the convents are very opulent; but there is scarcely one of the churches
+which you care to visit twice. Most of them are disgraced by vulgar
+ornaments, in which respect they surpass even the worst specimens at
+Naples! Gilt stucco, cut and stamped into flowery compartments, shows
+off like a huge twelfth cake! but the _Matrice_ or _Duomo_, and the
+Saracenic _Chapel of the Palazzo Reale_, and the cathedral of
+_Monreale_, four miles beyond the town, are noble exceptions; these in
+their several ways are all interesting, both within and without. The old
+Siculo-Norman archway of _Monreale_, and its fine bronze gates crusted
+with a beautiful hard polished _coin-like patina_, would repay the
+excursion, even were the interior less fine. Here we have columns from
+whose high architraves the Gothic arch springs vigorously; walls
+perfectly covered with old Byzantine mosaics; a roof of marvellous
+lightness, and almost modern elegance; still the critic, who is bound by
+_metier_ to find fault with violated canons, will, we must own, be at no
+loss for a text in the church of Monreale--a building which is, however,
+of sufficient importance in ecclesiastical architecture to have been
+designed, measured, and engraved, in whole and in part, in a splendid
+volume, published in folio, by the Duke of Serra di Falco.
+
+
+VISIT TO THE GARDEN OF THE DUKE OF SERRA DI FALCO, NEAR PALERMO.
+
+After a delicious half hour's drive through country lanes hedged with
+cactus, aloes, and pomegranates, we find ourselves in front of a small
+villa distant about two miles from the sea. As to the house, many an
+English gentleman, in very moderate circumstances, has a far better; but
+on passing the archway of this Sicilian country-box into its garden, two
+trees, which must be astonished at finding themselves out of
+Brazil--trees of surpassing beauty--are seen on a crimson carpet of
+their own fallen petals, mixed with a copious effusion of their seeds,
+like coral. At the northern extremity of Italy (Turin) this _Erythinia
+corallodendron_ is only a small stunted shrub; nor is it much bigger at
+Naples, where it grows under cover. Six years in the _open air_ have in
+Sicily _produced_ the tree before you: it is, in fact, larger than most
+of our fruit-bearers. We next recognise an agreeable acquaintance,
+formed two years ago, in the _Neapolis Japonicus_; it bears a delicate
+fruit, of the size of a plum, whose yellow, freckled skin contains such
+a nectar-like juice that the pine-apple itself scarcely excels it. Our
+fellow-passenger, the infallible voice of a new-made cardinal of the
+warlike name of Schwarzenburg, who tasted it here, as he told us, for
+the first time, has already pronounced a similar opinion, and no
+dissentients being heard, the Japan medlar passed with acclamation. The
+_Buggibellia spectabilis_ of New Holland, calls you to look at his pink
+_blossoms_, which are no other than his leaves in masquerade. We grub
+up, on the gardener's hint and permission, some of the _Cameris
+humilis_, to whose filamentous radicles are attached certain little
+grains, of great sweetness and flavour. The banana-tree, "_Musa
+paradisaica_," which, cooped in our low hot-houses at home, breaks its
+neck, and might well break its heart, as its annual growth is resisted
+by the inexorable glass dome, is here no prisoner but an acclimated
+denizen of sun and air. The _Cactus Opuntiae_, or Indian fig, is here for
+vulgar tastes; and the _Cactus cochinellifera_ for the Luculluses of the
+day, who could afford to pay for its rearing. The small _sneezing
+plant_, a vegetable smelling-bottle, is still employed in headach by the
+common people of Sicily, who bruise the leaves and sniff their pungency:
+its vulgar name, _malupertusu_, is the corruption of Marum del Cortuso,
+as we find it in the ancient herbal of Durante. The _Ferula communis_ or
+_Saracinisca_, a legacy left to the Sicilian pedagogues by their eastern
+lords, is sold in fagots at the green-grocers, and fulfils the
+scholastic office of _birch_; and, being more elastic, must be pleasant
+to _flog with_. We recommend it to _head masters_. The _sumac_, _Rhus
+coriaria_, is not only to be seen here, but every where else in Sicily;
+and they say there is a daily exportation of one thousand sacks of its
+ground leaves. The ancients knew it well, and employed it for giving a
+flavour to their meat, as they do now in Nubia and Egypt, according to
+Durante, who deems its many virtues deserving of Latin verse. We smell
+pepper!--a graceful shrub, whose slender twigs stand pencilled out like
+sea-weed spread upon paper; and the _Schinus mollis_, a leaf of which we
+have gathered ignorantly, is the source of the smell. We strew some
+leaves on the basin of a neighbouring fountain, and amuse ourselves by
+seeing them swim about as if they were bewitched, parting at the same
+time with a whitish fluid, which, spreading on the surface of the water,
+gives it an iridescent hue. The _Fuchsia arborescens_ of Japan flowers
+here, they say, every month, just as we see him in all his pink
+luxuriance, and makes himself quite at home; and here is that little
+blue vegetable butterfly, the _Polygala_! Who can overlook his _winged_
+petals, peeping out of their myrtle-looking bower? Then the
+_geraniums_!--not potted, as in Covent-Garden, or the _Marche aux
+Fleurs_, but forming vast parti-coloured _hedgerows_, giving to every
+pathway its own _particular flower and perfume_; so that a connoisseur
+might be taken blindfold and declare where each kind grew. _Hedges of
+geranium seven feet high_! Think of that, ye _Dicksons_ and
+nursery-ground men about _Brompton_ and the _King's Road_! The stalks a
+mass of real ligneous matter, fit for the turner's lathe if it were but
+hard enough. A small mound enables us to look about us more at large;
+and now we discern the stately _bamboo_, thicker than your arm, and tall
+as a small mast; and the _sugar-cane_, formerly cultivated for his
+juice, but now looking as if he were ill-used and neglected. His
+biography (but as it is not _auto_-biography, and written with his own
+_reed_, there may be some mistake) is remarkable. Soon after the
+annexation of Sicily to Spain in 1420, he was carried from Syracuse into
+Spanish captivity; he then escaped to Madeira and the Canaries, and at
+length saved himself in the West Indies. The _pistachia_ is also here,
+with its five-partite sessile leaf, like a dwarf walnut; the capsule
+holding the nut containing at present only a white germ, which it will
+require four months more to bring to nutty maturity. The _manna_-tree is
+very like an _alder_ in its general character, but thicker in its stem,
+and bears the cicatrices of last year's _ill treatment_; its wounds,
+however, will not bleed afresh now; but towards August the _salassatore_
+of trees will run his steel into its limbs, taking care to place under
+the bleeding orifices leaves from the _cactus_ hedge hard by to serve as
+recipients, and drain its juices till it faints.
+
+That a _leaf_ might not be _wanting_ to record these vegetable
+treasures, the pagoda-topped _papyrus_ nodded to us gracefully, and
+offered its services; while, to finish the picture, Angola goats are
+browsing amid the green and yellow ribbed _agaves_; and the beautiful
+blue sea peeps in through gaps of the wall of _cactus_, whose green
+stems are now all fringed with yellow blossoms. Leaving the flower
+garden, we enter a labyrinth, and arrive at a small hut, with a closed
+door, upon the threshold of which we have scarcely pressed, when the
+wicket flies open, and a big brown friar, with long beard and sandals,
+starts up in act to frighten us, which he succeeds in doing. This
+automaton _Schedoni_ might really well produce abortion, and would not
+care if he did: he cannot, we suppose, be placed there as a lawful
+instrument of relief, for all the _donzelle_ of Palermo must be _aware_
+of, and be used to him. This, however, is thought so good a joke, that
+it is repeated with variations; for on releasing another spring a
+similar contrivance introduces us to another monk of the same convent,
+who is reading a huge tome on the lives of the saints: resenting the
+interruption, he raises his head, and fixes his eyes on the intruder, at
+the same time beckoning to him with his hand, and intimating that if he
+will do him the favour to come a little nearer, he will knock him down
+with the folio, as Johnson did Osborn the bookseller.
+
+Another surprise is--but really these are surprising enough--and we came
+here to see vegetable rarities, and not the tricks of an overgrown
+toyshop.
+
+
+THE THUNNY FISHERY.
+
+    [Greek: Tan baitan apodys eis chymaia taena haleymai,
+    Hopeth tos Oynnos schopiazeiai 'Olpis o' gripeys.]--THEOC.
+
+The thunny fishery, if not as exciting as that of the whale, is far from
+uninteresting to the uninitiated. We were rowing about in want of an
+object, when our boatmen proposed to take us to see this animating
+species of labour; and off we went to a spot about two miles from shore,
+where we came upon a little flotilla of boats, all occupied in the
+common pursuit. A large quantity of floating cork announced our arrival
+on the fishing ground; then came long lines of buoys, to which the
+drop-nets were attached, and at last we drew alongside a small boat,
+hailing which, we learn that the net is already half-drawn, and that _la
+pipa_ (the sword-fish) is _in_ it. Now, we had long wanted to see a live
+sword-fish, but there was no need to stimulate our rowers, who appeared
+equally eager that we should assist at the fun, and made great exertions
+to reach the spot in time. "_Questa_," says our guide, showing the
+boundary of the space circumscribed by walls of net; "_questa e la
+camera della morte_, (this is the chamber of death,) _piano, piano_, (or
+we shall shoot ahead.") The space thus designated lay between two long
+barges, one of which was fixed by anchor, and had few people on board,
+while the other was crowded with naked limbs, and fine heads in Phrygian
+bonnets, academy figures every man of them. What symmetry of form! what
+jet black beard and mustache! what dark flashing eyes! what noses
+without reproach! All were in the various combinations of action which
+their position demanded, hauling away at what seemed to our impatience
+an endless net; by the shortening of which, however, as their boat
+received it, layer upon layer, fold upon fold, coil upon coil, they were
+slowly bringing up the reticulated wall. As the place of captivity came
+nearer, every body was intensely anxious to get a first view of the
+fish; and many other boats were coming up alongside of ours, which
+fortunately lay right over the meshes of the prison, which was becoming
+every second more and more restricted in size. At length some of us
+obtained a first view of the _spada_ and his long sword, and testified
+our delight with vociferation. The fish, meanwhile, who hates publicity,
+backs off, and would back out, to the opposite end of the net, where,
+still finding himself an object of unpleasant remark, he tries by
+violence to escape sideways; but that is _no go_ even for a sword-fish,
+for a sword is his which cannot cut cords, and he soon finds he can make
+nothing of it. Smaller and smaller, meanwhile, is becoming the condemned
+hold, and greater and greater the perturbation within. The captive fish
+begins to swim round and round, and to watch a new opportunity, but it
+is too late!--too many are on the look-out for him! Every man gets ready
+his hooked pole, and there is more tightening of the tackle! The
+terrified fish now rises to the surface, as it were to reconnoitre, and
+then down he dives with a lash of his tail, which sends buckets of water
+into the boat of the assailants. This dive, of course, only carries him
+to the false bottom of the net, and come up presently he must! Every eye
+now looks _fishy_, and every man's hand is armed for the first blow. One
+tall athletic fellow takes aim, and misses; another is more successful,
+and hits. Stunned by the blow, the poor fish flounders on this side and
+on that, and the water is discoloured by his blood! One, two, three
+pointed poles at once, are again in his flank; and now he rushes about
+like a rounded lion, brandishing his tail, and dashing up whirlpools of
+water. More Blows! more blood! He rushes desperately at the net, and
+running his long snout into the meshes, is hopelessly entangled. It is
+all over with him! Countless wounds follow, till he turns over on his
+side, and is handed up lifeless into the boat.
+
+"There," says one, "goes fifteen scudi's worth, and no harm done to _the
+net_." "Little enough, too; but he is worth two thunny, anyhow," says
+another. "Ay! and gives more _sport_," exclaims a third. Such piscatory
+eclogue fell upon our ear, when our guide announced to us that we had
+now seen every thing. The excitement over, we sat down in our boat to
+make a note of what we have written, while the boatmen clave the
+phosphorescent water homewards, and landed us neatly at sunset, with
+their oars dripping luminous drops at every stroke, in the beautiful
+harbour of Palermo.
+
+Some days after we were still more fortunate; we had observed the scouts
+with a white hood over their boat, _looking keenly down_ (_vide_ our
+quotation from Theocritus) into the deep blue sea, and watching with
+all-eyed attention for the apparition of some giant shadow which should
+pass athwart the abyss, and give the signal for a new chase, while their
+comrades were hauling in an immense miscellaneous _take_ of fish, the
+acquisition of the morning. We shot the outpost, (placed to prevent
+larger vessels from entering the fishing preserves and injuring the
+nets,) and remarked our boatmen uncovering to a small _Madonna_ railed
+in alongside. We were just in time on this occasion to see the water
+enclosed in the _camera della morte_, already all alive with fish; for a
+shoal of _palamide_, and of immense _pesce di moro_, filled the
+reticulated chamber. They darted here and there as the net was raising,
+and splashed so furiously about, that the whole water became one lather;
+meanwhile, the men who had been singing gaily, now prepared their
+landing-nets, shouting in a way which certainly _did_ seem to increase
+the terror of their prisoners, who redoubled their efforts to escape.
+
+The rich hues of the _palamide_, in shape and colour not unlike our
+mackerel, but with longitudinal, in place of transverse, green bands,
+were beautiful objects as they were raised all iridescent in their
+freshness out of the water, and transferred to the side boat. We also
+noticed in the net one or two immense fish, in shape like rounded
+parallelograms, with tough shagreen hides, goggle eyes, and two immense
+leathery fins placed at the lower part of the abdomen. They kept
+flapping these valves up and down, but not offering to strike, though
+lugged out by a hook. The haul was a good one, each fish worth a ducat;
+and had they, in fact, been at this price converted into coin at once,
+the money would have made no mean show in the bottom of the net. The
+treacherous _camera della morte_ was emptied quickly, and in one minute
+more, down it went again into the depths below.
+
+We should have mentioned a singular practice of the fishermen of the
+present day in Sicily, to _pat_ the thunny while he is in the net, as
+you pat a horse or dog: They say it makes him docile. This done, they
+put their legs across his back, and _ride_ him round the net room, an
+experiment few would practise on the dolphin's back, at least in these
+days; yet Aulus Gellius relates that there was a dolphin who used to
+delight in carrying children on his back through the water, swimming out
+to sea with them, and then putting them safe on shore! Now, _but for the
+coins_, taking the above custom into consideration, one might have
+supposed the ancients' _delphinus_ to have been the modern _thunny_.
+
+
+THE FISH MARKET.
+
+"Dragged through the mire, and bleeding from the hock," lay a continuous
+mass of slaughtered thunny, mouths wide open, bloody sockets, from which
+the eyes had been torn to make lamp-oil, gills ripped off to be eaten
+fresh, and roes in baskets by their sides. There was also a quantity of
+a fish of dirty white belly and dusky back, the _alalonga_, and two huge
+_dolphins_, with skins full of lamp-oil. This really ugly creature looks
+far better in the _delphin_ title-pages, with his lamp and his "_alere
+flammam_" on clean paper, than on the stall; but his very best
+appearance is on a fine Sicilian coin, with _Arion on his back_. The
+snouts of four large sword-fish were also conspicuous; and there was
+thunny enough for all the world: some of the supply, however, was to be
+hawked about the streets, in order to which cords are placed under the
+belly of a thunny of fifteen cwt., and off he goes slung on a pole, with
+a drummer before and a drummer behind, to disturb every street and alley
+in Palermo till he is got rid of; not that the stationary market is
+quiet; for the noise made in selling the mutest of all animals is in all
+countries really remarkable; but who shall do justice to a _Sicilian_
+Billingsgate at _mezzogiorno_! "_Trenta sei, trenta sei_," bawls out the
+Padrone, cleaving a fish in twain with one stroke of an immense chopper
+kept for the purpose. "_Trenta sei, trenta sei_," repeat the two
+journeymen accomplices, one counting it on his fingers to secure
+accuracy and telegraph the information to distant purchasers, or such as
+cannot _hear_ in the noise; another holds up a slice as a specimen;
+three fellows at our elbow are roaring "_tutti vivi, tutta vivi_," "_a
+sedici, a sedici_." The man of _whitings_, and even he of _sardines_,
+have a voice and a figure of their own. As you approach each stall, the
+noisy salesmen suspend their voices, and enquire, in gentler accents, if
+you intend to buy; if you do not, like the cicada their stunning sound
+returns as soon as you are past. We have hinted that the thunny,
+"_Integer et cadavere toto_," does not look handsome: vastly less
+attractive is he when mutilated. Big as an elephant's thigh, and with
+flesh like some black-blooded bullock of ocean breed, his unsavoury meat
+attracts a most repulsive assemblage, not only of customers, but of
+flies and wasps, which no flapping will keep off from his grumous liver.
+The _sword-fish_ cuts up into large bloodless slices, which look on the
+stall like so many fillets of very white veal, and might pass for such,
+but that the head and shoulders are fixed upon a long lance, high above
+the stall, to inform the uninitiated that the delicate looking meat in
+question was fed in the pastures of the deep. The _price_ of thunny, a
+staple commodity and object of extensive Sicilian commerce, varies
+considerably with the supply; as to the demand, it never ceases. During
+our stay in Palermo, a whole fish would fetch about eight _scudi_, and
+his retail price was about twopence _per English pound_. Think of paying
+three or four _francs_ for less than half a pound _sott 'olio_ in Paris.
+The supply seems very constant during the season, which, on the Palermo
+side of the island, is from May to July, and continues a month later
+along the _Messina_ coast; after which, as the fish cease to be seen, it
+is presumed here that they have sailed to the African coast. The flesh
+of the _spada_ fish is generally double in market price to that of the
+thunny, selling during the greater part of June at about fourpence
+a-pound. Every thunny is weighed upon landing, and a high tax paid upon
+it to the king, who, in consideration thereof, charges his Sicilian
+subjects no duty for gunpowder or salt. The fixed fisheries for thunny,
+round the Sicilian coast, are upwards of a dozen, the most famous being
+that of Messina. At Palermo, however, they sometimes take an immense
+strike of several hundred in one expedition. The average weight of a
+full grown thunny, is from 1000 to 1200 pounds; of course the men with
+poles who land him, can carry him but a little way, and he reaches the
+market by relays. Every bit of him is eaten, except his bones and his
+eyes, and even these yield a quantity of oil.
+
+The spada, too, is pickled down to his bones--he is in great request for
+the hotels, and his eyes, duly salted, are considered a sort of luxury;
+in some places these are the perquisite of the fishermen, yielded by
+their employers, who farm the fisheries, and having satisfied the king,
+make what terms they can with the subject.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+COMMERCIAL POLICY--RUSSIA.
+
+
+From the brief review, in our last Number, of Spain, her commercial
+policy, her economical resources, her fiscal rigours, her financial
+embarrassments, these facts may be said to have been developed:--In the
+first place, that theoretically--that is, so far as legislation--Spain
+is the land of restrictions and prohibitions; and that the principle of
+protection in behalf, not of nascent, but of comparatively ancient and
+still unestablished interests, is recognized, and carried out in the
+most latitudinarian sense of absolute interdict or extravagant impost.
+Secondly, that under such a system, Spain has continued the exceptional
+case of a non or scarcely progressing European state; that the
+maintenance and enhancement of fiscal rigours and manufacturing
+monopoly, jealously fenced round with a legislative wall of prohibition
+and restriction, has neither advanced the prosperity of the quarter of a
+million of people in Catalonia, Valencia, and Biscay, in whose exclusive
+behalf the great and enduring interests of the remaining thirteen
+millions and upwards of the population have been postponed or
+sacrificed--nor contributed to strengthen the financial resources of the
+government, as proved by the prostrate position and prospects of a
+bankrupt and beggared exchequer; that, as the necessary and inevitable
+consequence, the progress of agriculture, the ascendant interest of
+all-powerful communities and vast territorially endowed states--of
+Spain, the almost one only interest and element of vitality, economical
+and political--has been impeded, and continues to be discouraged; that
+the march of internal improvements is checked or stunted, when not
+absolutely stayed; finally, that public morals--the social health of a
+great people, inheritors of glorious antecedents, of an historic renown
+for those qualities of a high order, the deep-seated sentiment of
+personal, as of national honour and dignity, the integrity, fidelity,
+and gallantry, which more loftily spurn contaminating approximation with
+action springing out of base, sordid, and degrading motives and
+associations--have been sapped and corrupted by the debasing influences
+of that gigantic system of organized illicit trade which covers Spain
+with hordes of _contrabandistas_, more numerous and daring than the
+bands of _aduaneros_ and the armies of regulars whom they set at
+defiance, and infests the coast of Spain with fleets of smuggling craft,
+which all the _guardas costas_, with the ancient armada of Spain, were
+it in existence, would be powerless to annihilate. And all this fine
+nation, of warm and generous temperament, of naturally noble and
+virtuous aspirations, thus desperately to be dismantled of its
+once-proud attributes, and demoralized in its character; its exhaustless
+riches of soil and climate to be wantonly wasted--per force of false
+legislation to be left uncultured--and for why? Shades of the
+illustrious Gabarrus and Jovellanos, why? Why, to enable some half dozen
+_fabricantes_ of Barcelona to keep less than half-a-dozen steam-engines
+at work, which shall turn some few thousands of spindles, spinning and
+twisting some few millions of pounds of yarn, by which, after nearly
+three quarters of a century that the cotton manufacture has been
+planted, "swathed, rocked, and dandled" with legislative fondness into a
+rickety nursling, some fifty millions of yards of cotton cloths are said
+to be painfully brought forth in the year; the value of which may
+probably be equal to the same or a larger quantity of French cottons
+introduced by contraband, and consumed in the provinces of Catalonia and
+Arragon themselves--the first being sole seat of the cotton manufacture
+for all Spain. And for this deplorable consummation, the superabundant
+harvests of the waving fields, the luscious floods of the vineyards, the
+full flowing yield of the olive groves of Spain--of the wine, the oil,
+and the corn, of which nature is more bountiful than in Egypt of
+old--the produce and the wealth of the millions, (which, permitted,
+would exchange advantageously for foreign products, and, bye all the
+value, add to the store of national wealth, and create the means of
+reproduction,) are left to run waste and absolutely perish on the
+ground, as not worth the cost of transport to markets without demand.
+"The production of this soil," observes the Ayuntamiento of Malaga, in
+their eloquent _Exposicion_ to the Cortes cited in our last Number,
+after referring to their own port and province, in whose elaboration
+thousands and thousands of hands are employed, millions and millions of
+capital invested, "are consumed, if not in totality, at least with close
+approximation, in England;" and after enumerating the wines, oil,
+raisins, grapes, oranges, lemons, and almonds, as products so consumed
+in this country--"We have active and formidable rivals in France,
+Germany, Italy, Portugal, Turkey, the Greek Archipelago, and other
+countries. We shall say nothing of the wools, corn and other fruits of
+Spain, so important, and some so depressed in England by foreign
+competition with those of this province. If the treaties of commerce of
+England with Italy and Turkey are carried into effect, the exportation
+of our oils and dried fruits will receive its death warrant--_queda
+herida demuerte_. France, Germany, and Portugal, accepting favourably
+the idea of the British Government, will cause our wines to disappear
+from the market; their consumption is already very limited, inasmuch as
+the excessive duty, to one-third the amount of which the value of the
+wine does not reach, at the mouth of the Thames, prevents the sale of
+the inferior dry wines. The same excessive duty tends to diminish the
+consumption of our fruits from year to year. Our oil has alone been able
+to find vent by favour of the double duty imposed till now upon
+Sicilian, superior to ours in quality. But the English speculators are
+already shy of purchasing, in the expectation of an assimilation of
+duties on oils of whatever origin." The Ayuntamiento proceeds to urge
+the necessity of a "beneficial compensation" to British manufactures in
+the tariff of Spain, without which, "the flattering perspective" of
+prosperous progress for the industry and agriculture of the Andalusias
+will be destroyed, and that those vast, rich, and fertile provinces will
+become a desolate desert. "The admission or prohibition of foreign woven
+cottons," says the _Exposicion_, "is for Malaga and its province of
+vital importance under two aspects--of morality and commerce. Until now
+we have endured the terrible consequences of prohibition. The exorbitant
+gain which it supports is the germ of all the crimes perpetrated in our
+country. The man who carries a weapon, who uses it and sheds the blood
+of an agent of the law in the defence of his illegally acquired goods,
+will not hesitate in shedding the blood of a fellow citizen who may
+stand in the way of his desires. And hence the frequent assassinations.
+He who with gold seduces others for the increase of his own property and
+for antisocial purposes, does not scruple, when fortune is adverse, to
+possess himself by violence of the gold of the honest husbandman, or
+peaceful trader: from hence the constant robberies in the less
+frequented places; from hence the general abuse of carrying prohibited
+arms of all sorts, and using them criminally against any one on the
+least provocation, already accustomed to use them against the
+Government. Who shall venture to enumerate the assassinations, the
+robberies, the ruined families, the misfortunes of all kinds, which,
+directly and indirectly, spring from contraband trade?"
+
+Such is the _Exposicion_, such the experience, and such the views of a
+patriotic and enlightened corporation, representing and ruling over one
+of the most populous, wealthy, and industrially disposed districts of
+Spain. Our object in prefacing at this length, and with seeming
+irrelevance, perhaps, our review of the commercial policy of Russia,
+with its bearings on the interests of Great Britain, is to show the
+differing action of the same commercial system, in the present case of
+the prohibitive and restrictive system in different countries, both in
+respect of the mode in which the internal progress and industry of
+countries acting upon the same principle are variously affected
+themselves and in respect of the nature and extent of the influences of
+such action upon those relations of interchange which they entertain, or
+might otherwise entertain, with other countries where an opposite or
+modified system prevails. In its broad features the system of Russia
+varies from that of Spain only in being more rigorous and intractable
+still. Both, however, are founded on the same exclusive principle, that
+of isolation--that of forcing manufactures at whatever cost--that of
+producing all that may be required for domestic consumption--of
+exporting the greatest possible maximum--of importing the lowest
+conceivable minimum. Starting from the same point, and for the same
+goal, it will not be without interest or instruction to accompany and
+observe the progress of the one, as we have already endeavoured to
+illustrate the fortunes of the other--to present Russia, industrial and
+commercial, side by side, or in contrast with Spain, as we have
+described her. Your absolute theory men, your free-traders with one
+idea, like Lord Howick, your performers in the economic extravaganza now
+rehearsing in the Parliament-house under the style of "leave imports
+free, and the exports will take care of themselves," may chance to meet
+with many strange facts to confound their arbitrary theorems on the
+banks of the Neva. Absolute of wisdom, however, as they arrogate to be,
+and casehardened as they are, against assaulting results which should
+destroy their self-willed principle--a principle, like the laws of the
+Medes and Persians, proclaimed to be unchanged and unchangeable--in face
+of which facts are powerless and adverse experience contumeliously
+scouted, or mendaciously perverted, it is sufficiently obvious that
+lessons in political economy will, less than from any quarter of the
+globe, perhaps, be accepted from St Petersburg--they will fall upon
+unwilling ears--upon understandings obtuse or perverted.
+
+We are not of the number of those who would contend that, under all
+times or circumstances, should a principle, or rather the system built
+upon a principle, be rigorously upheld in its application intact, sacred
+equally from modification on the one hand, as against radical revolution
+on the other. It cannot be denied that, under the protective system,
+have grown into their present gigantic proportions all the great
+manufacturing interests of Great Britain. But, with customary hardihood
+of assertion, maintain the economists--in whose wake follow the
+harder-mouthed, coarser-minded Cobdens of the League--although
+manufactures have flourished under such a system to an extent which has
+constituted this country the workshop of the world, they have so
+flourished in spite of the system; and, in its absence, left exposed to
+free unrestricted competition from abroad, must inevitably have
+progressed at a more gigantic rate of speed still. This is asserted to
+be in the order of nature, but as nature is every where the same--as the
+same broad features and first elements characterize all countries more
+or less alike--we ask for examples, for one example only, of the
+successful establishment and progress of any one unprotected industry.
+The demand is surely limited, and reasonable enough. The mendacious
+League, with the Brights and Cobdens of rude and riotous oratory, are
+daily trumpeting it in the towns, and splitting the ears of rural
+groundlings with the reiterated assertion that, of all others, the
+cotton manufacture owes nothing to protection. What!--nothing? Were
+general restrictive imposts on foreign manufactures no protection? Was
+the virtually prohibited importation of the cotton fabrics of India no
+boon? of India, root and branch sacrificed for the advancement of
+Manchester? Why, there are people yet alive who can recollect the day
+when Manchester cottons could not have stood one hour's competition with
+the free, or even 100 per cent taxed fabrics of India.[40] How, indeed,
+could competition have been possible, with the wages of weaving and
+spinning in India at three-halfpence per day, whilst for equal
+quantities and qualities of workmanship, the British weaver was earning
+five shillings, and the spinner ten shillings per day on the average? In
+1780, Mr Samuel Crompton, the ingenious inventor of the mule frame for
+spinning, such as it exists to this day, and is the vast moving machine
+of cotton manufacturing greatness, stated that he obtained _fourteen_
+shillings per lb. for the spinning and preparation of No. 40 yarn,
+twenty-five shillings for No. 60, and two guineas for No. 80. The same
+descriptions of yarns are now profitably making at prices ranging from
+about tenpence to twentypence per lb. At the same period common calicoes
+were saleable at about two shillings per yard, which now may be
+purchased for threepence. Will it be said that the Indian spinner and
+weaver by hand could not, at the same epoch, have produced their wares
+at one-half the price, had not importation, with unrelenting jealousy,
+been interdicted? Was the rigid prohibition of the export of machinery
+no concession, all exclusively and prodigiously in the interest of the
+cotton manufacture, to the zealous promotion and ascendancy of which the
+mining and agricultural interests are unhesitatingly, not to say
+wantonly, prejudiced, if not absolutely perilled? We say wantonly,
+because the free exportation of cotton yarn, tolerated at the same
+moment, was an absurd and mischievous violation of the very principle on
+which the prohibited exportation of machinery was alone and could be
+justified. In face of these incontrovertible facts, of which hereafter,
+and now that the record of them is consigned to that wide circulation
+through the world which the pages of Blackwood only can afford,
+misrepresentation remains without excuse on the question of that
+fostering protection to which, in a larger degree, if not exclusively,
+the cotton manufacture of Great Britain is indebted for its growth to
+its present colossal, mammoth-like, and almost unwieldy grandeur. We do
+not, however, whilst re-establishing facts in their purity, dream the
+practical impossibility of confounding and disarming the ignorance of
+men unfortunately so ill educated and unread, and with intellect so
+incapable, apparently, of appreciating instruction, if not wilfully
+perverse, as the Cobdens, or of restraining the less coarse but more
+fluent flippancy and equally unscrupulous assurance of friend Bright,
+from resort to that stock and stale weapon of vulgar minds which is so
+readily drawn from the armoury of falsehood. To the end of the chapter
+they will lie on, until doomsday arrive, and they sink, like the Henry
+Hunts, _et id genus omne_, their at least as well-bred predecessors of
+the popularity-hunting school, to their proper level in the cess-pool of
+public contempt. Time, which executes justice upon all in the long run,
+cannot fail to lay the ghost of cotton and anti-corn law imposture, even
+in the troubled waters of the muddy Irk and Irwell, where first conjured
+from. And now, having shown how the cotton manufacture of Great Britain
+was from its birth cradled, rocked, and dandled into successful
+progress; how it was fostered and fenced round with protection and
+prohibitive legislation as against competition from abroad; we shall
+proceed with our review of the rise and career of _protected_
+manufactures in Russia. And we would counsel "one who has whistled at
+the plough," whose "farming notes" in the _Morning Chronicle_, when
+confined to such matters of practical detail as may be supposed to lie
+within the scope of his own experience and comprehension, are not
+destitute of interest and information, though with distorted and
+exaggerated views, to ponder well before a next reiteration of the
+random and absurd assertion that the "corn-law has done to agriculture
+_what every law of protection has done for every trade that was ever
+practised_--it has induced negligence, and, by its uncertain operation,
+has obstructed enterprise." Instead of whistling at the plough, such a
+writer almost deserves to be whipped at the cart's tail for so
+preposterously dogmatic an assumption. It has yet to be demonstrated,
+and the proof is challenged, that ever a great interest, whether
+manufacturing or agricultural, was established in any part of the world,
+since the creation, without the aids and appliances of legislative and
+guernatorial patronage. The degree, the qualification the practical
+limitations, which in the progress of time, with social and industrial
+changes supervening at home and abroad, may be rendered expedient or
+necessary in the application of the principle, constitute quite a
+different question, which may be discussed and entertained without any
+disparagement of the soundness of the policy, as best adapted to
+existing circumstances, of the system when first applied. The theory of
+free trade may be, in its entirety, as plausibly it is presented to us,
+founded on just principle; the abstract truth and perfection of which
+are just as unimpeachable as that of the social theory propounded by
+Rousseau in the Savoyard's profession of faith, or that of the "liberty,
+equality, and community of property" (to say nothing of women) theory
+preached, and practically developed to some extent, in the paganish
+philosophies and New Harmony vagaries of the St Simonians, the
+Fourierians, and of Robert Owen, in these our days. And yet, from the
+beginning of time--whether from the world before the flood, or since the
+reconstruction of the world after--never, to this present epoch, has one
+single example come down to us of the sober realization of either the
+economical abstraction or the social abstraction. Primeval chaos, chaos
+existing before all time, could alone have represented the _beau-ideal_
+of each. So far indeed as their own demesnes and domains, Laban and
+Pharaoh were not without their practical proficiency in the elements of
+economical science--for the one knew how to sell his daughters, as the
+other his corn, in the "dearest market;" and each to buy his labour and
+his money at the "cheapest." And never will these free-trade and social
+day-dreams be accomplished to the end of all time; never until chaos
+come again; never, unless perchance the Fitzwilliams and the Phillipses,
+impregnated with the beatific reveries of socialist Robert Owen, should
+throw open, the one, Wentworth hall, with its splendid parks and
+spacious domains--the other, his Manchester mills, wonder-working
+machinery, and million of capital stock, to joint-stock occupancy, with
+common right of possession of the rural labourers who till the ground,
+and the urban operatives who ply the shuttle--the producers, in fact, of
+all their wealth--share and share alike; themselves, in future,
+undertaking the proportion of daily task-work; driving the "teams
+afield," or tenting the mule-frame. Should, perhaps, the Phalansterial
+system of Fourier preferably suit their taste, they will be entitled to
+enter into the "phalanx of harmony," and share _a des degres differents,
+dans la repartition des trots facultes--capital, travail, talent_, ...
+with the enjoyment of such an apartment in the Phalansterial "palace"
+for four hundred families, the minimum of the phalanx being eighty,
+which may compare with the quality of _repartition_ corresponding to
+them, as expounded by Madame Gatti de Gamond, the principal legatee of
+Fourier and his system.
+
+    [40] The cotton piece goods of India were still subject, in
+    1814, to a duty on importation equal to 85 per cent. This duty
+    was reduced on the 5th of July 1819, but to L.67, 10s. per cent
+    only. Finally, in 1825 the duty was again reduced to 10 per
+    cent, at which it remains. The duty on cotton yarn imported from
+    India was at the same time subject to a duty of 10d. per lb.,
+    and so remained till 1831 at least. It must be borne in mind,
+    that India was the only country in the world which, before and
+    during the rise of the cotton manufacture in Great Britain, was,
+    or could be, an exporter of cotton fabrics and yarns.
+
+In the course of the discussions which terminated in the treaty of
+commerce and navigation with Russia, laid before parliament on the
+opening of the session--the stipulations of which, however, chiefly bore
+upon the extension of certain reciprocal rights of navigation--the
+Emperor Nicholas, in answer to representations pressed upon him from
+this country, for a liberal extension of the same principle to the
+general commerce of Russia, to foreign imports as well as shipping and
+exports--to let in a glimmer of the free-trade principle, in
+fact--replied, as we observed in a former article, that "the system,
+such as it was, he had received from his predecessors, and it was found
+to work well for the interests of his empire." The Autocrat, despot as
+he may be, was not singular in the opinion; for even our esteemed friend
+Count Valerian Krasinski, distinguished no less for the solidity of his
+literary attainments than for the liberality of opinion and the
+patriotism which condemns him to the penalty of exile in a "dear
+country's cause," who therefore will not be suspected of undue bias in
+favour of Russian systems, had written and published in an able article
+on Russia, treating _inter alia_ of the rise and progress of her
+manufactures and commerce, to the following effect:--"The manufacturers
+of Russia commenced, as in other countries, with the beginning of its
+political importance, but have been chiefly indebted for their
+encouragement and progress to the efforts of the Government ... The
+(protective) system has been steadily adhered to with constantly
+increasing energy, and _the most brilliant success_, up to the present
+time." This was published in 1842. We shall proceed to test the merits
+of the case by reference to documents of official origin, Russian and
+British--both to the latest dates to which made up in a sufficiently
+complete shape for the object in view, and the former in some instances
+later than any yet published in this country, and, as believed,
+exclusively in our possession. We shall have to deal with masses of
+figures; but to the general reader in search of truth, they can hardly
+fail to be more acceptable than whole pages of allegations and
+assumptions unsupported by proof, however eloquently worked out to
+plausible conclusions.
+
+We commence with laying the foundation for a comprehension of the
+industrial progression of Russia, by a comparative statement of the
+average imports of a few of the chief articles of consumption, raw
+materials of manufacture, and manufactures, for two series, of three
+years each; the first series being the earliest for which official
+records can be cited, or were perhaps kept. Accidental circumstances,
+and the special influences which, favourably or unfavourably, may act
+upon particular years, producing at one time a feverish excess of
+commercial movement, and at another, a reacting depression as unnatural,
+are best corrected and balanced by taking averages of years. Thus, the
+mean term of imports for 1793, 1794, and 1795, may be thus contrasted
+with that for 1837, 1838, and 1839, of the following commodities:--
+
+         Annual imports,        1793-95                1837-9
+    Sugar,                341,356     poods       1,675,806     poods
+    Olive oil,             42,239      ib.          345,455      ib.
+    Machines and Instruments
+      of all kinds, for   111,300 silver rubles   1,025,264 silver rubles
+    Woollen cloths for  3,978,000      ib.          570,000      ib.
+    Raw cotton,            10,000     poods         315,000      ib.
+    Cotton-yarn,           50,000      ib.          600,000      ib.
+    Cotton fabrics for  2,600,000 silver rubles   3,866,000      ib.
+
+During the first triennial period, a large proportion of the sugars
+imported was in the refined state, the number of sugar refineries being
+then very limited; in the second period, the imports consisted
+exclusively of raw sugar for the numerous existing refining
+establishments, which consumed besides 125,000 poods of beet-root sugar,
+the produce of the beet-root works established in Southern Russia.
+Woollen manufactories have so rapidly and extensively increased, that,
+whereas, comparatively a few years past only, the manufacture of
+woollens was confined almost exclusively to the coarser sorts for army
+use, whilst the better qualities for the consumption of the more easy
+classes, and for export to Asia, were imported from abroad, chiefly from
+Great Britain; for the fifteen years preceding 1840 the case has been
+completely altered. The import of foreign woollens has almost altogether
+ceased for internal consumption in Russia, whilst no woollens but of
+Russian make are now exported to Asia, and especially China. The export
+of these home-made woollens figures far above two millions of rubles
+yearly in the tables of Russian commerce with eastern countries. It will
+be seen that while the imports of cotton yarn, in the space of forty-two
+years, had increased in the proportion from 1 to 12 only, that of raw
+cotton had advanced in the proportion from 1 to 32. The facts are
+significant of the growing extension both of spinning factories and the
+cotton manufactories. It is difficult to understand or credit the
+increased imported values of cotton fabrics here represented, knowing,
+as we do, the decreased export to Russia in our own tables of values and
+quantities. But we shall have occasion hereafter, perhaps, to notice
+some peculiarities in the Russian official system of valuations, which
+may probably serve to clear up the ambiguity. But although importing
+foreign cottons for internal consumption, Russia is moreover an exporter
+of domestic fabrics, to the value of about one million of silver rubles,
+on the side of Asia. In order to avoid as far as possible the
+multiplication of figures by the accompanying reduction of the moneys
+and weights of Russia into English quantities, it may be convenient to
+state, that the silver ruble is equal to 37-1/2d. sterling, and, in
+commercial reckoning, the pood answers to 36 lbs. avoirdupois.
+
+Limiting our views for the present to the trade in cottons, as the
+manufacture of cottons is of much more recent growth in Russia than
+woollen and other manufactures, we find that the exact imports,
+quantities, or values, of cotton and yarn, are thus quoted in Russian
+official returns for the three last years to which made up _seriatim_.
+
+                       1839.        1840.        1841.
+    Raw cotton,       354,832      398,189      314,000 poods.
+    Cotton yarn,      535,817      519,189      560,799  ...
+
+The depressed state of the cotton trade in 1841 in this country, with
+the very low prices of yarn, from consignments pushed, in consequence,
+for sale at any rates against advances, were doubtless the cause of the
+increased imports of yarn, and the decrease in raw cotton, exhibited in
+the returns for 1841. Otherwise, the import of raw cotton has been
+comparatively much more on the increase than cotton yarn for some years
+past. Thus, beginning with 1822, when the cotton industry began more
+rapidly to develope itself, but omitting the years just given, the
+imports stood thus:--
+
+                    1822.     1830.     1838.
+    Raw cotton,     55,838   116,314   326,707 poods
+    Cotton-yarn,   156,541   429,736   606,667 ib.
+
+Now, it will not be denied that the cotton manufacture in this country
+has enjoyed supereminent advantages over that of any other in the world,
+whether we look at the protective scale of duties maintained for half a
+century in its favour against foreign competition, or regard those
+glorious inventions and improvements in machinery, of which rigorous
+prohibitive laws against export, during the same period in force, long
+secured it a strict, and, even to a more recent period, a _quasi_
+monopoly, and gave it a start in the race, which seemed to leave all
+chance of foreign concurrence, or equal ratio of progression, out of the
+question altogether. Neither for spinning nor weaving could Russia, in
+particular, possess any other than machinery of the rudest kind, with
+hand labour, until perhaps subsequently to 1820. Her tariffs, even by
+special treaty of commerce, in 1797, were entirely favourable to the
+entrance and consumption of British fabrics. The prohibitory, or
+Continental system of Bonaparte, was indeed substituted after the treaty
+of Tilsit; but in 1816 a new tariff was promulgated, modifying the
+"prohibiting system of our trade," as the Emperor Alexander, in his
+ukase on the occasion, expressed it. By this tariff, cotton fabrics of
+all kinds were taxed twenty-five per cent in value only; cotton yarn,
+seven and a half copecs per cent; fine woollens, 1 ruble 25 copecs per
+arschine; kerseymeres and blankets, twenty-five per cent on value;
+flannels, camlets, druggets, cords, &c., fifteen per cent. How, then,
+has Russia, subject to all these disadvantages and drawbacks, and so
+late in the field, fared in comparison with this country, so long and so
+far before her? Let us take the Russian data first given for the two
+triennial periods, and ascertain the issue.
+
+The mean annual imports of cotton taken for consumption into Great
+Britain, deducting exports, may be thus stated in round numbers for the
+two terms, 1793-4-5 and 1837-8-9.
+
+       Annual imports,      1793-5.           1837-9.
+    Raw cotton,          22,000,000 lbs.   391,830,000 lbs.
+
+The ratio of progress of the manufacture, therefore, from one term to
+the other, of the forty-four years, was not far from eighteenfold.
+
+Reducing the quantities of cotton-yarn imported into Russia into the
+state of raw cotton, by an allowance of about three ounces in the pound,
+or nearly seven pounds per pood, for waste in the operations of
+spinning, we have the following approximate results:--
+
+    Annual imports,    1793-5.          1837-9.
+    Raw cotton,        69,700 poods.   1027,500 poods.
+
+The ratio of increase from term to term being thus the greater part of
+fifteenfold.
+
+But as the cotton manufacture, from circumstances referred to of
+favourable tariffs for importation--comparatively free-trade
+tariffs--did not begin fairly to shoot forth until 1822, it will be only
+right to try the question of comparative increase by another list,
+namely, as between the returns of the consumption of cotton respectively
+in the two countries for that year, and one of the later years, 1839,
+1840, or 1841; but say rather an average of the three. We are unable,
+however, to strike a corresponding average three years forward from, but
+inclusive of 1822, for want of the corresponding Russian official
+returns for two of the years. On the other hand, to take the one year of
+1839, when the quantity of cotton taken for consumption in this country
+was at a low ebb, would be like straining for an effect, which the
+impartial seeker after truth can have no object in doing, whilst the
+return for 1840 would be as much in excess the other way. Thus the total
+quantities of raw cotton taken for consumption in Great Britain were--
+
+    For the year 1822,                             144,180,000 lbs.
+    Average of the three years 1839, 1840, 1841,   440,146,000 ib.
+
+The ratio of progression in Great Britain, for the term of eighteen
+years, was somewhat more than threefold.
+
+The imports of raw cotton, and of cotton-yarn, rendered into cotton by
+an allowance in addition, at the rate of about three ounces per lb. for
+waste, or nearly seven pounds per pood, stand thus for Russia in round
+numbers:--
+
+    For the year 1822, in the shape of raw cotton,        55,838 poods.
+        ...      ...   Cotton yarn calculated into about 186,900
+                                                         -------
+                          Total cotton,                          242,738
+    Average raw cotton imports of 1839-40-41             355,673
+    Id. of cotton yarn calculated into cotton,           643,300
+                                                         -------
+                         Total cotton,                           998,973
+
+The ratio of increase in the cotton manufacture of Russia, for the same
+term of eighteen years, was therefore considerably more than fourfold.
+And this steady but extraordinary superiority of Russian progression
+took place in the face of all those prosperity years, when, from 1833 to
+1838, the British cotton manufacture was stimulated, and bloated to
+excess, with the high prices resulting from the flash bank-paper and
+loan system of the United States, and the mad joint-stock banking freaks
+of Lancashire.
+
+The average import and consumption of raw cotton in Russia, and of yarn
+calculated into cotton, was at the rate, on the average of the three
+years cited, of about, 35,963,000 lbs. per annum;
+
+Which approximates the position of the Russian with that of the cotton
+manufacture of France as existing in the year 1818, when the consumption
+of raw cotton is officially stated at, 16,974,159 kilogrammes;
+
+And with that of the cotton manufacture of the United States in 1828,
+when the quantity consumed at home was stated at about, 35,359,000 lbs.
+
+It will still be insisted, doubtless, as all along it has never failed
+to be the cuckoo-note of unreflecting theorists, that the manufactures
+of Russia have flourished, and are flourishing, in spite of protection;
+that the only effect of protection is to repress their growth and mar
+their perfection. The assertion stands ready-made, and ever the stock on
+hand; it is a rash and blindfold speculation upon chance and futurity,
+at the best; a building without a corner stone; a _chateau-d'Espagne_
+nowhere to be found. Where, except in the glowing fictions of
+Scheherezade, may the personification of such a phantom be detected?
+History, whether ancient or modern, may be ransacked in vain for one
+footprint of the realised existence and miraculous economical prodigies
+worked upon the absolute free-trade principle, in the spontaneous
+creation, the progress unrivalled, the prosperity Pactolean, of
+ingenious manufactures. The El-Dorado region has yet to be discovered;
+will Cobden, like another Columbus in search of new worlds, adventure
+upon the desperate enterprise, and furnish the writer of romance with
+apt materials for the frights and freaks of another "phantom ship" on
+the wide ocean? If so inclined, indeed, we may commend him to an
+undertaking now, at this present writing, in actual progress, as we
+learn from assured sources and high quarters, in Paris. A goodly ship of
+substantial proportions is now preparing in a French port, richly
+freighted for an interesting voyage with the products of French
+industry, with destination for the great sea-river of the Amazons, for
+navigating its thousands of miles of unploughed course, and exploring
+those realms untold of, those interminable wastes recorded, and those
+numberless nations as yet unknown, if existing, which coast the vast
+expanse of its waters to the utmost limits of Brazil, and the very
+confines of Bolivia, Peru, and Colombia. The King of the French is
+himself the patron and promoter of this great enterprise. Hasten, then,
+friend Cobden, erratic and chivalrous as Quixote of old, to "swell the
+breezes and partake the gale" of an expedition so glorious; for know,
+that on the banks of the noble Amazons itself, the magnificent
+queen-river, most worthy in the world of such distinction, have poets,
+romancers, and chroniclers, undoubting, from all time, sung of and
+planted the resplendent empire of the El-Dorado itself.
+
+Our design being to demonstrate, by the force of example and contrast,
+the sophistical absurdity of absolute theories, that, however naturally
+and harmoniously their parts may be made to correspond in thesis and
+system as a whole, according to which the same consequences, upon a
+given principle, should inevitably flow from certain causes, yet that,
+practically, it is found the same causes do not produce the same
+effects, even when circumstances are most analogous; that, for instance,
+the protective, or restrictive system of industry, under the rule of
+which Spain languishes, notwithstanding the abundant possession of the
+first materials for the promotion of manufacturing, and the prosperity
+of agricultural interests, proves, at the other extremity of Europe, the
+spring of successful progress and industrial accumulation, and renders
+Russia prosperous, though proportionally not more largely gifted with
+those natural elements of wealth and production which consist in
+fertility of soil, in mines of the precious metals, of coal, iron, &c.
+We shall pursue our task to its completion before we proceed to draw and
+sum up those conclusions which must follow from the premises
+established, before we enter in order upon the analysis and dissection
+of the one absolute principle or theory, by which, in the conceit of
+certain sage travellers on the royal railroad to wisdom, eager for the
+end and impatient of the toil of thinking, the economical destinies of
+all nations should be cut, carved, and adjusted _secundum artem_, with
+mathematical precision and uniformity, according to the rule invariable
+of robber Procrustes, the ancient founder of the sect, who constructed a
+bed--that is, a system of certain proportions of size--that is, upon a
+certain principle--upon which he laid his victims; those found too short
+to fit the dimensions of the pallet, he stretched and tortured into the
+length required; those too long he fitted by decapitating the
+superabundance of head and shoulders, or by squaring off the legs and
+feet; just as economists would sever nations with their invariable
+system; just as, with their selfish and one-sided, sordid idea, the
+junta of Leaguers, rule and plummet in hand, would deal with the British
+empire, with its vast possessions in every clime, on which the sun never
+sets, peopled by races numerous and diverse of origin as of interests,
+multifarious, complicated, often conflicting. "_L'etat_," said Louis le
+Grand, "_c'est moi_." "The British empire"--bellows Syntax Cobden--"'tis
+_me_ and printed calicoes." "The British government and
+legislature"--exclaims Friend Bright--"'tis I and Rochdale flannel."
+
+It is a strange, and, with our qualified and not exclusive opinions, not
+less a discouraging complication of affairs with which we have to deal,
+that, look among the great nations where we will, we find, to a great
+extent, that the protective system of commerce, where in force, or where
+it has superseded a _quasi_ free-trade system before in force, has
+conduced, in no small degree, to the advancement of material interests.
+The Germanic Customs' Union, that peculiar handicraft creation of Lord
+Palmerston, is there to confirm the fact, no less than Russia, than
+France, than Belgium, and other lands. The League themselves
+ostentatiously proclaim it, whilst pretending to impugn the retention of
+the very shadow of a shade of the same principle, for the country, above
+all others, which has grown to greatness under it--the very breath of
+whose nostrils it has been, during the struggles of infancy and progress
+to that full-blown maturity, when assuredly it seeks, (and need seek
+only,) willingly proffers, and readily accepts, equality of
+condition--reciprocity of interchange, with all the world. "The
+Manchester manufacturer"--the false _nom-de-guerre_ of a calico printer,
+who was not a manufacturer at all, and could scarcely distinguish a
+calico from a cambric at the time of writing, who erst was, is yet,
+perchance, the trumpeter of Russian policy, Russian principles, and
+Russian progress in the East and elsewhere--must be grateful for the
+information we have already afforded on the full careering ascendency of
+Russian material interests also. His gratitude will expand as he
+accompanies these pages.
+
+Peter the Great laid the foundations of Russian manufactures, as of the
+Russian empire itself. He founded manufactories in all the larger
+cities. But with his death they fell into decay until the reign of
+Elizabeth. With that epoch began their revival, and the more rigorous
+revival also of the prohibitory system. Their present imposing
+appearance and magnitude date, however, from the peace of 1815, the
+great parent and promoter of all continental manufactures. In 1812 no
+more than 2,332 manufacturing establishments in the whole empire were in
+existence, employing 119,000 work-people; in 1835 the number of the
+former had reached to 6,015, and of the latter to 279,673, the half of
+the free labourers. At the beginning of 1839, says the report of the
+department of manufactures and internal commerce--the last which,
+hitherto, has been made up or come to our hands--the number of factories
+and manufactories had risen to 6,855, an increase over the year
+preceding of 405, whilst the number of workmen employed in them was
+412,931, an increase over the year before of 35,111. Thus, in the space
+of three years, from 1835 to the end of 1838, 810 new establishments had
+been organized, and the number of workmen augmented by one-half. These
+industrial establishments were non-inclusive of mining works, iron
+works, &c., and the people employed in them. They were classed as
+follows:--
+
+    Woollen manufactories,        606
+    Silk    ib.                   227
+    Cotton  ib.                   467
+    Linen   ib.                   216
+    Tanneries,                   1918
+    Tallow works,                 554
+    Candle  ib.                   444
+    Soap    ib.                   270
+    Hardware ib.                  486
+
+The seat of Russian manufactures is principally in the central portion
+of the empire, in its ancient capital Moscow, and the surrounding
+provinces. The progress of Moscow itself may be thus briefly sketched,
+after remarking that in the beginning of 1839 there existed in the
+government, of which it was the capital city, 1058 manufactories,
+employing 83,054 work-people. In the 315 manufactories of the
+neighbouring province of Vladimir, 83,655 work-people were employed; in
+the equally adjacent province of Kalouga, 164 manufactories gave work to
+20,401 workmen. The population of Moscow, the Manchester of Russia,
+amounted in 1825 to 241,514; in 1827 it had risen to 257,694; in 1830 to
+305,631; in 1833 to 333,260; in 1840 to 347,224. The principal
+manufactories were thus classed for the latter year.
+
+    Silk manufacture,        68  looms, 2217
+    Cotton ib.              139    ib.  7252
+    Woollen cloth ib.        51    ib.  2960
+    Other woollen stuff ib.  16    ib.   579
+    Shawl ib.                17    ib.   282
+
+In thirteen of the chief factories there were 263 spinning machines;
+three cotton factories alone contained 138. Besides these larger
+establishments, 3122 workshops, not considerable enough to be ranked as
+manufactories, employed alone 19,638 work-people; and 142 industrial
+establishments, such as founderies, breweries, distilleries, tallow and
+soap works, &c., gave bread to thousands more.
+
+The consumption of the principal raw materials of manufacture is thus
+stated as an average of that and recent preceding years.
+
+    Cotton for the twenty spinneries of Moscow, 100,000 poods per an.
+    Cotton yarn,                                300,000      ...
+    Dyed cotton yarn                                200      ...
+    Raw silk,                                    30,000      ...
+    Dye woods,                                  100,000      ...
+    Madder,                                     250,000      ...
+
+The machinery for the manufactories is made for the most part in the
+founderies and machine-works of Vladimir, Tamboff, Kalouga, and Riazan,
+but, above all, in the city of Tula and the village of Parlovo. In
+McCulloch's _Statistical Dictionary_, the number of steam-engines in the
+government of Moscow is stated, for 1830, at about 100--in 1820, two
+only being in existence. On what authority the statement is given does
+not appear; our own documents, to 1841 inclusive, are silent on that
+head. For Moscow, with its immediate environs, the total number and the
+produce of the cotton looms are thus given:--
+
+    Cotton loom,                      17,000
+    Producing annually,              450,000 pieces of calico
+          Do.                        400,000   do.  of nankeen
+          Do. above,               2,000,000   do.  of handkerchiefs
+    In the whole, inclusive
+      of other goods, such as
+      muslins, velvets, &c., &c.,
+      equal to above,             40,000,000 arschines of fabrics
+    Valued at                      7,500,000 silver rubles.
+
+The arschine is about twenty-eight English inches. The silk manufacture,
+of recent establishment only in Moscow, presented the following results,
+for that city and the surrounding districts:--
+
+    Number of common looms,               10,000
+    Jacquard, more than                    5,000
+    Producing annually,               15,000,000 arschines of st
+    Valued at                         10,000,000 silver rubles.
+
+The woollen manufactories of Moscow, inclusive of the environs, employed
+apart smaller loom shops:--
+
+    Looms,                  5,139
+    Producing yearly,      30,000 pieces of superior quality
+         Do. more than     50,000 do. ordinary for the army
+    And          do.      700,000 arschines of light cloths for China.
+
+The values not given. The imports of merchandise from Moscow by water,
+of which alone exact and detailed particulars are stated, amounted in--
+
+    1837, to               22,881,000 rubles assignation
+    1838,                  22,074,563       ...
+    1839,                  17,467,391       ...
+    1840,                  28,283,877       ...
+
+Three and a half rubles assignation, are equal to one silver ruble.
+Moscow enjoys the advantage of being an internal bonded port, or port of
+intrepot, a privilege now seeking by Manchester, so that importers of
+foreign merchandise are not called upon for the payment of duties until
+the moment when, withdrawing their imports, or any other portion of them
+as occasion requires, the payment becomes necessary. Formerly the duties
+had to be paid in the frontier ports, and often in bulk. The customhouse
+revenue resulting, amounted in--
+
+    1837, to                  637,074 rubles assignation
+    1838,                     614,464       ...
+    1839,                     626,764       ...
+    1840,                     776,021       ...
+    1841,                     898,398       ...
+
+These returns are proof indisputable of industrial and social progress.
+It is unnecessary further to remark upon the great and growing
+importance of other branches of industry in Moscow, or to extend the
+limits of this notice so far as to comprise a review of the iron and
+hardware manufactories, and the numerous tanneries of Tula and Perm. The
+active movement of internal commerce, may, however, be inferred from the
+returns of products exhibited and sold at twelve fairs held annually,
+with one thrice, and another twice, in the year, the total value of
+which exposed for sale in 1840, was stated at 101,551,000 silver rubles,
+and of the quantity actually sold at 64,326,700 rubles. Of which alone
+at--
+
+                             On Sale.         Sold.
+    Nijny Novgorod, for    47,264,967    38,828,984 silver rubles
+    Irbit,                 12,232,286     7,682,000     ...
+    Romna, 2d fair          9,001,904     4,454,747     ...
+    Kharkoff, 1st fair,     5,743,280     2,944,390     ...
+    Koursk,                 7,014,802     2,014,834     ...
+
+The great fair of Nijny Novgorod may rival with Leipzig in the magnitude
+of its transactions. In 1841, the general movement of values at this
+fair is thus returned:--
+
+Merchandise for sale, 50,506,606 silver rubles, or 176,773,121 rbls. ass.
+Sold,                 41,704,236      ...          145,964,826    ...
+
+By decree of the government, within the last three years, the public
+accounts, before kept in rubles assignation, that is government paper
+money, were ordered to be reckoned in silver rubles. For purposes of
+comparison with former years, we state them in both. Of the mass of
+commodities thus in motion at the fair, there were of Russian
+manufactures and indigenous products, to the total value of 37,132,693
+silver rubles exposed for sale, and for 29,762,473 sold; some other
+chief articles ranging thus;--
+
+                                  For sale.        Sold.
+    Cotton goods,                 7,336,665    5,947,865 silver rubles.
+    Woollens,                     3,448,295    2,620,175     ...
+    Linen and hempen fabrics,     3,126,736    2,375,736     ...
+    Silks,                        3,220,489    2,239,989     ...
+    Leather, worked and not,      1,043,583      876,083     ...
+    Produce of mines and
+      founderies, iron, copper,
+      hardware, jewellery,        7,600,330    6,450,330     ...
+
+Tea, for 7,107,500 rubles assignation, and other products of China, were
+brought to the fair; raw cotton, cotton-yarn, shawls, silks, skins, &c.
+from Persia and Asia, to the value of 29,796,819 roubles assignation,
+and chiefly sold. Of the products of Western Europe, which make but a
+miserable exhibit, the following are the chief:--
+
+    Woollen stuffs, for           256,455 silver rubles.
+    Cottons,                      510,830     ...
+    Linens and hempen fabrics,    192,300     ...
+    Silks,                        423,130     ...
+    Indigo,                       918,000     ...
+
+The growing magnitude of this fair will be appreciated by the following
+returns of former years:--
+
+           Total commodities
+               for sale.                Rubles assignation.
+    1829,    104,018,586 of which sold for 50,104,971  rbls. ass.
+    1831,    129,457,600        ...        98,329,520      ...
+    1833,    146,207,311        ...       117,210,670      ...
+    1835,    143,369,240        ...       117,743,340      ...
+    1837,    146,638,181        ...       125,507,881      ...
+    1838,    156,192,500        ...       129,234,500      ...
+    1839,    161,643,674        ...       137,100,774      ...
+    1840,    165,427,384        ...       135,901,454      ...
+
+The convenience of these fairs for the purposes of interchange, both
+between different industries and the populations of different provinces
+of the same empire, and with contiguous countries from which so great an
+affluence of merchants with their merchandise for exchange was
+attracted, has induced the government to decree the establishment of
+eleven new fairs in different towns, and fifty-nine others in as many
+large villages, which, in growing size, may be already compared with
+towns.
+
+The internal commercial communications of Russia are chiefly carried on
+by means of those innumerable rivers and canals, that network of natural
+and artificial canals, by which she is intersected through all her
+extent, and which, taking their rise in various central parts of the
+empire, pursue their course singly, or falling into each other, and so
+constituting mighty streams, to the White sea and the Baltic, or fall
+into the Black sea and the Caspian. The total movement of this internal
+navigation in all the rivers, presented the following results:--
+
+    Departures from the different ports
+      in the interior in 1839, 60,277 barques.
+                (   do.        24,421 rafts.
+    Arrivals at (   do.        46,850 barques.
+                (   do.        17,469 rafts.
+
+    They were the convoys of merchandise
+     dispatched from the ports
+     to the value of                    737,814,276 rubles ass.
+    Of merchandise forwarded to do.     538,921,730    ...
+    In 1837 the values dispatched
+      from, ascended only to            618,990,306    ...
+        Do.           forwarded to      490,505,940    ...
+
+The various and many basins of river and water communication,
+scientifically arranged, and showing how all parts of that vast empire
+are connected with each other through all and nearly every portion of
+its territorial extent, as in the report before us, is a document worthy
+of study and more minute analysis, but our limits forbid.
+
+The foreign commerce of Russia presents the following results for
+1841:--
+
+    Exports to foreign countries, 86,382,179 silver rubles.
+    Imports from         do.      79,429,490     ...
+
+The Russian official tables include, under the head of foreign commerce,
+the exports and imports with Finland and Poland; but as they fall within
+the range, in reality, of internal commerce, the accounts are better
+simplified by their exclusion. The system of separate returns results,
+doubtless, from the political arrangements and conventions by which
+Russia acquired the possession of those two countries.
+
+The progress of exports and imports may be thus indicated:--
+
+                1838.        1839.       1840.
+    Exports, 85,718,930   94,857,788   82,731,386 silver rubles.
+    Imports, 69,693,824   69,993,589   76,726,490     ...
+
+The remarkable excess of exports in 1839 resulted from the large demand
+for, and shipments of, corn in that year--the official value of which is
+stated at 25,217,027 silver rubles; the smallest export, so far as
+value, being that of 1841, valued at 10,382,509 silver rubles only.
+Exclusive of corn, the exports would stand thus:--
+
+    1838 for  70,562,252 silver rubles.
+    1839      69,640,761     ...
+    1840      68,704,971     ...
+    1841      75,999,670     ...
+
+Gold and silver, in bars or specie, are not comprised in these returns.
+
+    For 1841 the values thus exported were, 4,023,728 silver rubles.
+     ...     ...   ...       imports,       9,347,867      ib.
+
+It is necessary, however, to travel more backwards in order to a right
+appreciation of the progress of the foreign trade of Russia. This
+comparison is here instituted with earlier years, premising that the
+exports to Poland and Finland, amounting to some ten or twelve millions
+of rubles assignation, and imports from, amounting to about three
+millions, are included, and therefore swell the amount of the imports
+and exports of the following years. However, to facilitate the
+comparison, the silver ruble values of 1841 are multiplied into
+corresponding ruble assignation values:
+
+               Exportations.   Importations.   Balance in favour of
+                                                     Russia.
+    In 1830     268,887,342     197,115,340     71,772,002 rb. as.
+       1836     283,748,233     237,251,204     13,733,196
+       1837     264,485,160     251,757,177     12,727,983
+       1841     302,337,626     378,003,215     24,334,411
+
+Add 11,808,743 rubles assignation for exports to, and 4,792,346 imports
+from, Poland and Finland in 1841, and the real comparison would be, for
+1841, exports 314,146,349, imports 282,795,561; balance in favour of
+1841, 31,350,688 rubles assignation.
+
+The bulk of Russian exportations consists of raw or first materials,
+such as flax, hemp, flax-seed, oil, tallow, leather, woad, metals, and
+of which to the aggregate value in 1841, of 59,773,354 silver rubles was
+exported; an amount nearly stationary as compared with the three
+previous years. But the export of Russian manufactures, viz. woollens,
+cottons, linens, candles, cordage, and cloths for China, had improved in
+aggregate amount from,--
+
+                     Silver Rubles.
+    In 1838,           6,527,222
+    To, in 1841,      10,259,209
+
+It was the trade with China by Kiachta, and latterly also by the line of
+Siberia, which, however, had perhaps taken the most remarkable
+extension, and was held to be most promising of future progress and
+profit. The imports, and therefore the consumption, of tea in Russia,
+are growing annually larger; and the exports of Russian products and
+manufactures to China, equally in proportion. For by mutual convention,
+as dictated by China, for regulating the commercial intercourse between
+the two countries strictly limited to that frontier river port, although
+now indirectly countenanced by Siberia, the trade is exclusively one of
+barter; tea and silks for leather, furs, cottons, woollens, and linens.
+A condition, be it observed, which serves to place beyond all doubt the
+fact, that it was not the introduction and consumption, with the
+deterioration to the health of the population resulting, physically and
+morally, from the use of opium, which had so much effect with the
+celestial Emperor in provoking the late war with Great Britain, as the
+abstraction by export in payment, and the drain so constant, of Sycee
+silver. The imports of tea in--
+
+                                             Poods.      Silver Rubles.
+    1838, By Kiachta, were, of good and
+              ordinary quality,             127,645  value  2,015,189
+          By the line of Siberia,                10   ...         600
+                                           --------         ---------
+                                            127,655   ...   2,015,789
+                                           --------         ---------
+
+    1841, By Kiachta,                       168,218   ...   6,976,363
+          By the line of Siberia and
+              Caspian Sea,                    1,364   ...      66,293
+                                           --------         ---------
+                                            169,582   ...   7,012,656
+
+Besides which, the imports of an inferior tea, called _brick tea_,
+amounted to the value of 359,223 silver rubles in 1841. In three years,
+the general trade, China silks inclusive, had therefore more than
+trebled so far as value; for it is remarkable, that though larger
+quantities of tea are imported, yet prices, so far from declining, had
+actually considerably advanced; which proves that the commodity was
+becoming a favourite beverage, and gaining into more general
+consumption, in Russia. The values of the Russian merchandise, such as
+stated, which passed in barter, are said to have been equally sustained.
+It may be noted, indeed, as an extraordinary fact, that whilst, as the
+official report of the department of commerce observes, the prices and
+values of almost all foreign raw products and manufactured wares
+imported into Russia, during the three or four years preceding 1841, and
+including 1841, entered constantly, and some at considerably depreciated
+rates, in the reverse the products of Russia, exported to Europe and
+elsewhere during the same period, quantity for quantity, generally
+improved in prices and ascended in value.
+
+    The foreign commerce of Russia by sea was carried on, during the year
+    1841, by 2,596 vessels, inwards loaded, tonnage,     452,760
+             2,174 do. in ballast,               do.     410,164
+             -----                                       -------
+    Totals,  4,770                                       862,924
+             -----                                       -------
+             4,582 do. outwards loaded,          do.     819,232
+               312 do.  do. in ballast,          do.      58,046
+             -----                                       -------
+    Totals,  4,894                                       877,278
+
+In the coasting trade in the Northern seas, the number of vessels
+dispatched from port to port was 2007, in the Black Sea, 5,275.
+
+The revenue from customs in 1841 amounted to 27,387,494 silver rubles,
+or upwards of two-fifths in excess of the receipts of 1830.
+
+In order to exemplify the nature of the trade betwixt Great Britain and
+Russia, and exhibit it in its most disadvantageous aspect, we shall add
+here, from statements verified as authentic by competent authorities on
+the spot, the returns of British trade and shipping with certain Russian
+ports for 1842, which we have recently received direct. They will assist
+us to a conception of the relative importance of each place in respect
+of its commercial connexion with this country.
+
+The commerce of the port of Archangel, omitting from the table Onega,
+Kola, Kemi, and Soumsk, the other ports in the White Sea, their traffic
+being inconsiderable, is thus represented.
+
+    1842.--Total shipping outward, 212, of which,
+             British, 153, tonnage,                               31,704
+    Total imports, (exclusive of L.13,816
+             by Norway coasters,)                               L.18,384
+    Of which from Great Britain,                                   L.801
+    Total exports, (omitting L.22,236 to Norway,)              L.427,789
+    Of which to Great Britain,                                 L.305,823
+    In 1841, 176 vessels exported for
+             Great Britain the value,                          L.408,077
+      Exclusive of cargoes by 2 other vessel, to the amount
+        of L.7,208, for the Hanse towns and Holland.
+    In 1840, 250 vessels, tonnage 48,249, exported to
+      Great Britain the value of                               L.442,381
+    Exclusive of 6 British vessels which carried cargoes to
+      the Hanse towns, France, and Italy,
+      of the aggregate value of                                 L.12,858.
+
+The commerce with Riga exhibits a somewhat more favourable proportion
+between imports and exports, and we are induced, therefore, to give the
+return of imports for 1842 in same detail as received.
+
+Nature and value of merchandise imported into Riga from Great Britain
+during the year 1842:--
+
+    Coffee,                                         L.2,500  0 0
+    Cotton,                                          11,011  0 0
+    Cotton twist, L.21,159, 10s; do. goods, L.1135,  22,294  0 0
+    Woollen goods,                                    4,100 16 8
+    Woollen twist,                                   19,057  3 4
+    Indigo and other dyes,                           13,764  0 0
+    Dye-woods,                                        2,718  6 8
+    Salt,                                            53,269  3 4
+    Sugar,                                           24,882 10 0
+    Wines and brandies,                              19,200 13 4
+    Iron and steel wares,                             7,025  0 0
+    Spices and drugs,                                13,440  6 8
+    Non-enumerated articles,                         12,527 10 0
+                                                     -----------
+    Total,                                        L.205,791  0 0
+
+Countries from whence British vessels have arrived at the port of Riga
+during the year 1842:--
+
+                  No. of vessels. Tonnage.              Remarks.
+    United Kingdom,    387        59,629     With cargoes and in ballast.
+    Hamburg,             6         1,261     In ballast.
+    Denmark,            21         3,730         ...
+    Norway,             13         2,438         ...
+    France,              5           670         ...
+    Belgium,             1           484         ...
+    Holland,             6         1,018         ...
+    Prussia,             4           562         ...
+    Sweden,              3           669         ...
+                       ---        ------
+          Total,       446        70,461
+
+                                  Total value of      Countries to
+                                   exportations      whence exported.
+    1842 exports.        Tons.   to Great Britain.
+    British vessels, 446 70,461    L.1,527,810 5 4    United Kingdom.
+
+The commerce of Odessa represents a closer approximation still between
+imports and exports; and they would perhaps nearly balance, but for the
+large shipments of wheat to this country, which contribute to swell the
+exports.
+
+    In 1842, 174 British ships entered, tonnage 44,428,
+      sailed 176 tonnage,                                 L.44,929
+    Total value of imports by them,                        185,870
+    Of which, from the United Kingdom,                     184,370
+    The remainder by 64 British vessels entering from
+      Leghorn, Turkey,
+      Algiers, Amsterdam, mostly in ballast.
+    Total average of exports,                              784,865
+    Of which, to the United Kingdom,                       776,995
+    The remainder to the countries above named.
+    1841, Total imports by British ships,                  147,950
+            Do. exports      do.                           590,570
+    1840, Total imports by British ships,                  130,660
+            Do. exports      do.                           859,090
+
+The commerce of St Petersburg is stated, for 1812, imports and exports
+together, at the value of 97,795,415 silver rubles. And of 1147 foreign
+vessels which left that port and Cronstadt with cargoes, more or less,
+515 were British, of 117,793 tonnage--being a rather considerably less
+number than in either 1840 or 1841.
+
+The present is the proper occasion to remark upon and explain the system
+of official valuation pursued in Russia, by which it will be observed
+how the real value, both of imports and exports, is swelled, probably
+with a view to the vain display of a greater commerce than is really
+carried on. As the system is nearly the same for both imports and
+exports, it cannot, of course, materially interfere with, or impeach the
+accuracy of the general balance-sheet. It is desirable, however, that
+the facts should be fairly represented, for the guidance of those who
+may be in the habit of consulting and comparing the official documents
+of different countries; and they will serve moreover to explain, in some
+degree, the extraordinary discrepancies which have been found betwixt
+the declared values of British products and manufactures exported to
+Russia, as published in the Board of Trade tables, and the same exports
+as exhibited in Russian customhouse returns.
+
+In calculating the annual value of importations, it is the rule in the
+Russian customhouses to add the duties paid on the entry of goods to
+their original value. This practice in Russia, where the duties are so
+high, swells the value of imports far beyond their true amount, and
+gives a false and exaggerated view of them.
+
+With respect to the exports, nearly the same practice exists. In
+calculating their value, all the shipping charges are added to the cost
+of the article; and we are informed by merchants resident in Russia,
+that on comparing the annual Government statements of exports for their
+establishments, they are found to correspond with the invoices forwarded
+to their foreign correspondents, which, of course, include commission,
+and all the expenses attendant on the shipping of the goods. The law
+also requires that the shipper, on clearing merchandise for export
+through the customhouse, should declare its value. With a view of
+preserving uniformity, the Russian authorities, from time to time, fix a
+standard price at which particular articles shall be valued for export
+at the customhouse. To exemplify the evil of this system, it is
+necessary only to mention that oats, for example, could lately be
+purchased at a Baltic port at sixty silver rubles per last, while the
+latest customhouse standard values them at eighty silver rubles per
+last. This practice is no way injurious to the merchant, but only
+unnaturally swells the tables of exports when annually made up by the
+Russian Government. A shipper, therefore, of any of the articles
+included in the Russian standard, is compelled to state a much greater
+value at the customhouse than he furnishes to his foreign correspondent,
+who, of course, only pays the market price of the article, with the
+additional shipping expenses.
+
+The difficulty, such as it is, might be obviated, were the masters of
+British merchantmen compelled by law to submit their ship's papers, on
+arrival and departure, to the British consuls at each port, who would
+then be placed on the same footing with the consuls of other countries,
+and be enabled to communicate much important statistical information to
+their Government, of the opportunity for acquiring and transmitting
+which they are now deprived.
+
+Our review of Russian commerce and industry would be more incomplete
+than it is, if we were to omit all notice of the vast mining wealth of
+that empire. But our limits, already nearly reached, do not admit of
+more than a passing reference. Suffice it, that in coal, both bituminous
+and anthracite, in iron and other metals, and salt, constituting the raw
+materials, Russia is rich enough for all her wants, and indeed supplies
+the great bulk of those wants within herself, with to spare in some of
+these products for her neighbours and other countries. Her mines are
+annually increasing in productiveness and number, as enterprise is
+extended and capital invested in them, and as domestic manufactures and
+improving agriculture increasingly absorb their produce. The
+treasure-yielding progress of her gold mines is one of the extraordinary
+events of the age. The existence of gold in Siberia was scarcely
+suspected till 1829. The first researches of adventuring individuals
+were attended with no success. Feodot Popoff, one of the earliest,
+succeeded at length in that year, when all others had abandoned the
+undertaking as hopeless, in discovering traces, and procuring some
+inconsiderable specimens, of gold--not in quantity, however, to repay
+the working; and the doubts before existing seemed confirmed as to the
+fruitlessness of further perseverance in the search. Major-General
+Kovalevsky, of the engineers of mines, having been appointed governor of
+Tomsk, renewed the attempt in 1830; and, at the close of that year, his
+indefatigable labours, and more methodical plan of operations, were
+rewarded with the discovery of a first considerable stratum of
+auriferous sands, which was designated Yegorievsky, (St George.)
+Adventurers flocked into the district forthwith, and in numbers, upon
+the widespreading news; and excellently did renewed labours recompense
+the zeal of the more fortunate; numerous were the discoveries of layers
+of golden sands. In one of these, last year, a massive piece of native
+gold, weighing 24-1/2 pounds Russian, (the Russian pound is about 1-1/2
+oz. less than the English,) was discovered embedded in a fragment of
+quartz, and is now deposited in the museum of the School of Mines at St
+Petersburg. The yield of the Siberian mines has since been at the
+following rate of progression--omitting the intermediate years for
+brevity, although in every year there was an increase of quantity upon
+the preceding:--
+
+    1830    5 poods, 32 lbs., 59-1/2 zdotnicks.
+    1832   21  ---   34 ---   68-3/4    ---
+    1834   65  ---   18 ---   90-3/8    ---
+    1836  105  ---    9 ---   41        ---
+    1838  193  ---    6 ---   47-1/2    ---
+    1840  255  ---   27 ---   26-3/8    ---
+    1842  631  ---    5 ---   21-1/4    ---
+
+The total of the thirteen years has been 2093 poods, 38 lbs., 46 zd. The
+pood, be it remembered, is equal to (rather more than) 36 lbs.
+avoirdupois.
+
+    The total general yield of the older worked mines
+    of the Oural mountains for 1842, was, besides,
+                     149 poods, 18 lbs., 58 zd.
+    And of platina,   53   --   33  --   67  --
+
+On a rough estimation, the produce of all the gold, platina, and silver
+from the silver mines, could not have amounted to less, perhaps, for the
+year 1842, than three millions sterling.
+
+According to the learned academician Koeppen, of St Petersburg, in a
+lengthened memoir upon the subject, the total population of Russia,
+inclusive of Poland, Finland, and Trans-Caucasian provinces, ascended in
+
+                       1839 to 65,000,000
+    Or of Russia Proper alone, 55,500,000
+
+With an empire so gigantic, a population so large, however
+disproportioned as compared with territory, and with resources so
+incalculable, it must appear extraordinary that foreign commercial
+relations are so limited. The total of exports and imports together for
+1841, represents only, in round numbers, a commercial movement to the
+value of 165,811,000 silver rubles, or in sterling, about L.25,907,300.
+The matter which most concerns this country, is the very
+disproportionate interest which results to its share in the export and
+import trade of Russia. Taking the latest British returns of the value
+of Russian products imported into England, for the Board of Trade tables
+give quantities only, as we find them stated by Mr McGregor, the
+indefatigable secretary of that board, for 1838, at L.6,977,396, or say,
+
+    in round numbers            L.7,000,000
+    And British exports at the
+    declared value here of,
+    say,                          1,700,000
+                                -----------
+    There would appear to result
+    the very heavy difference
+    against the United
+    Kingdom of                  L.5,300,000
+
+But bad as the case may be, it is not quite so bad as these figures
+would represent. It must not be forgotten in this sort of calculation,
+that shipping, freights, insurances, and commissions, represent property
+quite as substantially in the commercial sense, as even Mr Cobden's
+printed calicos, or friend Bright's flannel pieces. Now, we think it
+might admit of proof, that as much as nine-tenths of all the produce
+brought to this country from Russia, is so brought in British bottoms,
+and so also of the exports to Russia; although in 1840, the last of the
+Board of Trade tables containing such particulars, no more than 1629
+British vessels, of 340,567 tonnage, against 296 foreign, of 79,152
+tonnage, entered British ports from Russia--the proportions being much
+the same outwards; but whether the foreign were all Russian vessels may
+be doubted. Let us assume, however, that no more than three-fourths of
+both imports and exports were so carried, and leaving three-fourths
+British freights outwards to balance Russian one-fourth freights inwards
+and outwards, let us in fairness estimate the worth of that freightage
+in reduction of the enormous balance against us. As for Spain, in our
+last Number, we took twenty per cent to cover all the freightage
+charges, before indicated, on her commodities of less bulk though more
+value in proportion, twenty-five per cent on the average will not be too
+much, certainly, to cover those charges on the more bulky products of
+Russia, more especially when the long, costly, and intricate navigation
+of the Baltic, and the White and Black Seas, are taken into account. The
+calculation will then stand thus:--
+
+    Imports from Russia,                      L.7,000,000
+    Deduct twenty-five per cent freightage, &c.
+      as British property and profit,           1,750,000
+                                              -----------
+    Real value of imports as on board in Russia,            L.5,250,000
+    Declared value of ex-British exports to Russia,
+                                              L.1,700,000
+    Value of British freightage, &c., as above,
+                                                1,750,000
+                                              -----------   L.3,450,000
+                                                            -----------
+    Real approximative balance in favour of Russia,         L.1,800,000
+
+or say two millions, as the three-fourths produce of outward freight
+would, perhaps, not quite compensate the one-fourth on inward and
+outward cargoes to the Russian shipping. Even such a balance is
+exclusively and unjustly large against a country which, like Great
+Britain, is a consumer of Russian products to the extent of
+seven-twelfths of the total exports of Russia to all the world. The
+consequence is, that the rate of exchange is almost invariably against
+this country. Lord Howick, indeed, most quixotically deals with adverse
+exchanges; he disposes of them summarily, and in a style that must have
+astonished the people on 'Change. This disciple and representative of Mr
+Edward Gibbon Wakefield's economics in the House of Commons, as Lord
+Durham was before his political disciple, and the victim of his schemes
+colonial, thus decisively disposes of adverse exchanges in the
+celebrated debate on Import Duties, taking Portugal for an example.
+
+    "A large increase of importations from Portugal would
+    necessarily be attended by a proportionate increase of our
+    export trade. Was it not clear that every merchant who imported
+    a pipe of wine would anticipate the bills drawn against him on
+    account of it, and that, whatever would be the increase in the
+    amount of imports, there would be a corresponding increase in
+    the amount of the bills drawn against us? How were our
+    merchants to provide for them? There would be no difficulty in
+    it, whether the trade of Portugal increased legally or
+    illegally. Suppose an increase of imports into Portugal, there
+    would be an immediate demand for bills to Portugal. _The
+    consequence would be, that if there was any other country from
+    which Portugal received more than it exported, the bill-brokers
+    would get bills from that country_, and our manufactures would
+    be sent there instead of to Portugal. Admit that you could not
+    find in any other country the means of discharging your debt by
+    importation of your manufactures, bills on Portugal should then
+    rise to a certain premium, and gold and silver would be sent to
+    discharge the debt. The gold and silver would come from some
+    other country, and the consequence would be that we should send
+    our manufactures, not to Portugal, but to South America; while
+    Portugal would be obliged to send the bullion to some other
+    country that it might carry on a smuggling trade with its
+    neighbour, Spain. It was impossible for the ingenuity of man to
+    point out any different result."
+
+The "bill-brokers" will be greatly amused with the new line of business
+chalked out for them, of "getting bills" from other countries when short
+in this. There are two descriptions of "bill brokers," but the class
+bearing that designation purely deal with domestic bills only. The other
+class are known as "exchange brokers," because they meddle only with
+foreign bills; but as to "getting bills" from abroad when bills are
+wanting here, that trustworthy and respectable description of agents
+certainly never dreams of such an occupation. Lord Howick would seem to
+imagine that manufactories of bills existed specially abroad, and that
+people could draw with as much nonchalance from Paris or from Hamburg,
+upon Jack Nokes and Tom Styles at Amsterdam or Frankfort, as here Lord
+Huntingtower accepted for his dear friend the Colonel values uncared
+for, or as folks familiarly talk of valuing an Aldgate pump when an
+accommodation bill is in question. May we venture to hint to the member
+for commercial Sunderland, the _ex_ for Northumberland, that the
+functions of "exchange brokers" extend no further than to ask A if he
+has any bills to sell, and B if he is a buyer; whereupon he has only
+further to learn what rate the one will purchase and the other sell at;
+that knotty point arranged, the bargain is concluded, and he receives
+his very small percentage. The operations are carried on every day, more
+or less, but on Tuesdays and Fridays, being especially "post days" on
+London 'Change, where Lord Howick any day may be initiated in the
+mystery, if not punctilious about being unceremoniously elbowed and
+jostled about.
+
+In the principle of protection, we hold Russia to be perfectly in her
+right and her interest; in the abuse of it, she damages herself.
+Prohibition is not protection; restrictive duties equal to absolute
+prohibition, like the 85 per cent prohibitory tax, formerly levied here
+on Indian cotton fabrics, in favour of Lancashire, are not protection in
+the legitimate sense. The late Emperor Alexander hit the true nail of
+principle on the head when, in 1819, he reformed the Russian tariff on
+the calculation of imposts ranging from fifteen to forty per cent. We
+are, nevertheless, bound to say, that, even as protection is understood
+in its exaggerated sense by the Autocrat, the system has worked well for
+Russia, as indeed we have shown. She has accumulated wealth by that
+system; she has secured by it the possession of a large proportion of
+those precious metals, which are indispensable no less as the medium of
+foreign exchanges and balances, than as the means by which, above all
+other means, the operations of industry, and the employment of labour,
+are facilitated at home. How would industry progress, and wages be
+dispensed, if the master manufacturer could offer payment of wages only
+in yards or pieces of cloth, the iron-master in ore, or the
+land-proprietor in oxen, sheep, corn, hay, or cabbages? In respect of
+commercial balances, that of Great Britain against Russia is liquidated
+probably, to some extent, by the yearly balance resulting against Russia
+in her dealings with Persia; for the policy of Russia is to favour the
+commerce of Asia, whilst oppressing that with Europe, and Persia is
+always indebted to Great Britain. She has, however, the game in her own
+hands. Can we wonder that she plays it to her own advantage,
+half-political, half-commercial? She knows as well as we feel keenly,
+that the raw materials, in which she is so rich, are indispensable for
+our use; she charges accordingly. The time may come when we shall be
+more independent of her, and then, then only, she will conform to
+altered circumstances. The able and distinguished diplomatist at her
+court, Lord Stuart de Rothesay, who succeeded in the arduous task of
+negotiating the recent treaty of navigation with that crafty Government,
+is the man also who will not be slow to avail himself of any favourable
+conjuncture for turning circumstances to account, and redressing the
+adverse balance now against this country.
+
+As before said, our intention, on this occasion, is not to dissect
+principles or theories, but to present facts. We have still more in
+store for the absolute theory men. But, in concluding, we may be allowed
+to observe, that the causes why a restrictive and exclusive system does
+answer for Russia, and, on the contrary, tends to the ruin of Spain, are
+simply these:--The raw materials of Russia are indispensable for this
+and other manufacturing countries, because cheaper and more abundant
+than can be elsewhere procured, and the price of labour is low. The raw
+products of Spain necessary for manufactures are, on the reverse, dear
+priced; her products of luxury, even, are dear; her rates of labour are
+higher than in this or any other country of Europe. Two shillings and
+sixpence a-day, or fifteen shillings a-week; with, besides Sundays, a
+hundred saints' days or holidays in the year, put her labour and produce
+quite _hors de combat_ in the race of competition. A Spanish operative
+would no more toil on a _dia de dos cruces_, (two saints on one day,)
+than he would fast on a feast-day, with an odorous _olla podrida_ before
+him on the table.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+INDEX TO VOL. LIII.
+
+
+    [Transcriber's note: The page numbers refer to editions 327 to
+    332, published between January and June 1843, according to the
+    following table:
+
+      Edition 327, pages   1-140, dated January 1843,
+              328,       141-280,       February,
+              329,       281-414,       March,
+              330,       415-550,       April,
+              331,       551-692,       May,
+              332,       693-826,       June.]
+
+Aden, on the occupation of, 484.
+Affghanistan, the war in, 17
+  review of the events in, 239
+  the evacuation of, 266.
+Agriculture, the practice of, 415.
+Akhbar Khan, murder of Macnaghten by, 257
+  defeat of, at Tazeen, 269.
+Amalia, from the German of Schiller, 442.
+Ammalat Bek, a tale, translated from the Russian,
+  Translator's preface, 281
+  Chap. I., 288
+  Chap. II., 296
+  Chap. III., 464
+  Chap. IV., 471
+  Chap. V., 478
+  Chap. VI., 568
+  Chap. VII., 573
+  Chap. VIII., 579
+  Chap. IX., 584
+  Chap. X., 746
+  Chap. XI., 750
+  Chap. XII., 752
+  Chap. XIII., 755
+  Chap. XIV. 759.
+Anti-Corn Law League, failure of the, 6.
+Antique at Paris, the, from Schiller, 312.
+Antique, the, to the Northern Wanderer, 312.
+Aristocracies of London life, the, 67
+  the aristocracy of fashion, 68
+  of power, 227
+  of talent, 386.
+Arnold's lectures on history, review of, 141.
+Astronomical works, from Schiller, 311.
+Attorney's Clerk in the Monk's Hood, the, a review of Chatterton, 780.
+Auckland, Lord, remarks on his policy in India, 18, 266.
+
+Bailey, Mr, his Reply to an Article in Blackwood's Magazine,
+  on Berkeley's Theory of Vision, 762.
+Ballads of Schiller, the, see Schiller.
+Battle, the, from Schiller, 446.
+Battle of the Blocks, the, 614.
+Berkeley's Theory of Vision, further remarks on, 762.
+Book of the Farm, review of the, 415.
+Buckingham, the Duke of, his resignation, 5.
+Burial march of Dundee, the, 537.
+Burnes, Sir Alexander, murder of, 244.
+
+Cabul, Eyre's Narrative of the Operations in, reviewed, 239.
+Caleb Stukely, Part X. The Revulsion, 33
+  Part XI. Saints and Sinners, 213
+  Part XII. The Parsonage, 314
+  Part XIII. The Fugitive, 496
+  Part last, Tranquillity, 651.
+Candia, the siege of, 718.
+Capello, Bianca, history of, 554.
+Chapters of Turkish History, No. IX,
+  Rise of the Kiuprili family siege of Candia, 718.
+Chatterton's Poems, review of, 780.
+Chief End of Man, the, from Schiller, 311.
+China, state of our relations with, at the commencement of 1843, 19
+  justice of the war with, 20
+  future prospects of, 21.
+Claverhouse's Burial March, a poem, 537.
+Columbus, from Schiller, 312.
+Commercial Policy in relation to Spain, review of, 673
+  In relation to Russia, 807.
+Comte, Auguste, review of his Cours de Philosophie Positive, 397.
+Corn-Law, Sir Robert Peel's alteration in the, defended, 5.
+Correctness, from Schiller, 310.
+Count Eberhard the Grumbler, from Schiller, 628.
+Cromwell and Sir Oliver Cromwell, Imaginary conversation between, 209.
+Cunningham's Life of Reynolds, strictures on, 596.
+Curse of Glencoe, the, by B. Simmons, 121.
+
+Death of Thomas Hamilton, Esq., 280.
+Delta, the Lost Lamb, by, 395.
+Disturbances in the manufacturing districts, the, 11.
+Division of Ranks, the, from Schiller, 311.
+Dream of Lord Nithsdale, the, by Charles Mackay, 83.
+Dumas' Travels in Italy, review of, 552.
+Dundee, the burial march of, 537.
+
+East and South of Europe, the, 101.
+Eberhard of Wurtemberg, from Schiller, 628.
+El Empecinado, passage in the career of, 343.
+Ellenborough, Lord, policy of, in India, 18
+  his policy with regard to Affghanistan, 266
+  his proclamation on evacuating the country, 276
+  defended against the charges of the Whigs, 539.
+Elysium, from Schiller, 628.
+Europe, the east and south of, 101.
+Evacuation of Affghanistan, the, 266.
+Expectation and Fulfilment, from Schiller, 439.
+Eyre's narrative of the events in Cabul, review of, 239.
+
+Fantasia to Laura, from Schiller, 638.
+Favour of the moment, the, from Schiller, 438.
+Fight with the dragon, the, from Schiller, 175.
+Financial position of Great Britain at the close of 1842, 6.
+Florence, sketches of, 561.
+Flowers, from Schiller, 445.
+Foreign affairs, aspect of, at the commencement of 1843, 15.
+Fortune and Wisdom, from Schiller, 631.
+Fortune-Favoured, the, from Schiller, 439.
+Founding of the Bell, the, by Charles Mackay, 462.
+Funeral phantasie, from Schiller, 626.
+
+Genius, from Schiller, 310.
+Gentility-mongering, on, 379.
+Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield illustrated, review of, 771.
+Good and the Beautiful, the, from Schiller, 309.
+Great Britain at the commencement of 1843, 1
+  her position on the meeting of parliament, 5
+  financial state, 7
+  aspect of domestic affairs, 14
+  and of foreign relations, 15
+  state of her Indian empire, 18
+  and of affairs in China, 19.
+Group in Tartarus, a, from Schiller, 627.
+
+Hamilton, Thomas, Esq., death of, 280.
+Hector and Andromache, from Schiller, 441.
+History, Arnold's Lectures on, reviewed, 141.
+Honour to Woman, from Schiller, 173.
+
+Ideal, the, from Schiller, 433.
+Ideal and the Actual Life, the, from Schiller, 435.
+Ignacio Guerra and El Sangrador, a tale of civil war, 791.
+Imaginary Conversations,
+  by Walter Savage Landor
+    between Tasso and Cornelia, 62
+    between Cromwell and Sir Oliver Cromwell, 209
+    between Sandt and Kotzebue, 338;
+  by Edward Quillinan
+    between W.S. Landor and Christopher North, 518.
+Imitator, the, from Schiller, 310.
+Income Tax, discussion on the, 7
+  remarks on, 8
+  causes which led to its imposition, 10.
+Infanticide, the, from Schiller, 631.
+Ireland, state of, at the commencement of 1843, 14.
+Italy, Dumas' travels in, reviewed, 552.
+
+Jeweller's Wife, the, a passage in the career of El Empecinado, 343.
+Jove to Hercules, from Schiller, 311.
+
+Khelat, occupation of, by the British, 274.
+Khoord Cabul pass, retreat of the British through the, 262.
+Kiuprili Family, rise of the, a chapter in Turkish history, 718.
+
+Landor, Walter Savage, Imaginary Conversations by
+  between Tasso and Cornelia, 62
+  Cromwell and Sir Oliver Cromwell, 209
+  Sandt and Kotzebue, 338
+  lines by, 337
+  Imaginary conversation between, and Christopher North, 518.
+Last of the Shepherds, the, Chap. I., 447
+  Chap. II., 449
+  Chap. III., 451
+  Chap. IV., 453
+  Chap. V., 455
+  Chap. VI., 458
+  Chap. VII., 460.
+Lay of the Bell, the, from Schiller, 302.
+Leap Year, a tale, Chap. I., 603
+  Chap. II., 606
+  Chap. III., 611.
+Lesurques, or the victim of Judicial error, Chap. I., the four guests, 24
+  Chap. II., the four horsemen, 25
+  Chap. III., the robbery and murder, ib.
+  Chap. IV., the arrest, 26
+  Chap. V., the trial, 28
+  Chap. VI., the execution, 30
+  Chap. VII., the proofs, ib.
+  Chap. VIII., the way in which France rectifies an error, 32.
+London, the world of, see World.
+Londonderry, the Marquis of, review of his steam voyage
+  to Constantinople, &c., 101.
+Lost Lamb, the, by Delta, 295.
+Love's Triumph, from Schiller, 635.
+
+Mackay, Charles, dream of Lord Nithsdale, by, 83
+  Founding of the Bell, by, 462.
+Mackenzie, Captain, account of the murder of Macnaghten, by, 257.
+Macnaghten, Sir William, description of the murder of, 257.
+Maitre-d'Armes, a passage in the life of a, 733.
+Marlinski's Ammalat Bek, translation of, Chap. I., 288
+  Chap. II., 296
+  Chap. III., 464
+  Chap. IV., 471
+  Chap. V., 478
+  Chap. VI., 568
+  Chap. VII., 573
+  Chap. VIII., 579
+  Chap. IX., 584
+  Chap. X., 746
+  Chap. XI., 750
+  Chap. XII., 752
+  Chap. XIII., 755
+  Chap. XIV., 759.
+Marston; or, the memoirs of a statesman. Part I., 693.
+Martyr's Monologue, the, a poem, 125.
+Master, the, from Schiller, 310.
+Memorandums of a month's tour in Sicily--leaving Naples
+  steam boatiana, 799
+  churches, 802
+  visit to the gardens of the Duke of Serra di Falco, near Palermo, ib.
+  the Thunny fishery, 804
+  the fishmarket, 805.
+Merchant, the, from Schiller, 312.
+Might of Song, from Schiller, 172.
+Monaco, sketch of the history of, 573.
+Moralist, to a, from Schiller, 630.
+Mulready's illustrations to the Vicar of Wakefield, review of, 771.
+Music in England, state of, Part I., 127.
+Mystery of reminiscence, the, from Schiller, 442.
+
+Natural history of the salmon and sea-trout, the, 640.
+Non-intrusion controversy, account of the, 352.
+Nott, General, movements of, in Cabul, 270.
+
+Occupation of Aden, on the, 484.
+Opium question, the, 22.
+
+Parr, natural history of the, 640
+  its identity with the salmon, 643.
+Passage in the life of a Maitre-d'Armes, 733.
+Paul de Kockneyisms, by a Cockney, 366
+  a cit's soiree, 373.
+Paving Question, the, 614.
+Peel, Sir Robert, difficulties of his position
+  on his accession to power, 2
+  errors of his predecessors, 5
+  his alteration in the corn-law, 5
+  his financial policy, 7
+  his tariff, 11.
+Philosophy of Dress, the, 230.
+Poems and Ballads of Schiller. See Schiller.
+Poetry, the dream of Lord Nithsdale, by Charles Mackay, 83
+  the curse of Glencoe, by B. Simmons, 121
+  the martyr's monologue, 125
+  the poems and ballads of Schiller, Part V., 166
+  Part VI., 302
+  Part VII., 433
+  Part VIII., 626
+  the young grey head, 202
+  lines by W.S. Landor, 337
+  the lost lamb, by Delta, 395
+  the founding of the bell, by Charles Mackay, 462
+  sonnet, on viewing my mother's picture, 495
+  the burial march of Dundee, 537
+  the vigil of Venus, 715.
+Poetry of Life, the, from Schiller, 313.
+Pollock, General, advance of, into Affghanistan, 269.
+Poor-law, support of the, by the Conservatives, 14.
+Practice of Agriculture, the, 415.
+Pretenders to Fashion, on, 234.
+
+Quillinan, Edward, imaginary conversation by,
+  between W.S. Landor and Christopher North, 518.
+
+Retreat from Cabul, description of the, 261.
+Reviews, Londonderry's steam voyage to Constantinople, 101
+  Reynolds's discourses, Part II., 181
+  conclusion, 589
+  Eyre's Cabul, 239
+  Auguste Comte's cours de philosophie positive, 397
+  Stephens' Book of the Farm, 415
+  Dumas' Travels in Italy, 552
+  Young and Shaw on Salmon and Sea-Trout, 640
+  The Vicar of Wakefield, illustrated by William Mulready, R.A., 771
+  Chatterton's poems, 780.
+Reynolds, Sir Joshua, review of the discourses of, Part II., 181
+  conclusion, 589
+  defence of, against the aspersions of Allan Cunningham, 496.
+Riots in the manufacturing districts, the, 13.
+Rousseau, from Schiller, 631.
+Rowley's Poems, review of, 780.
+Rudolph of Hapsburg, from Schiller, 169.
+Russia, commercial policy in reference to, 807.
+Russian Literature, remarks on, 281.
+
+Salmon, Natural History of the, 640.
+Sandt and Kotzebue, imaginary conversation between,
+  by Walter Savage Landor, 338
+Sangrador, El, and Ignacio Guerra, a tale of civil war, 791.
+Schiller, the Poems and Ballads of, translated. No. V.
+  The victory-feast, 166
+  Rudolph of Hapsburg, 169
+  the words of error, 171
+  the words of belief, 172
+  the might of song, ib.
+  honour to woman, 173
+  the fight with the dragon, 175
+  No. VI. The lay of the bell, 302
+  votive tablets, 309
+  the good and the beautiful, ib.
+  to ----, 310
+  genius, ib.
+  correctness, ib.
+  the imitator, ib.
+  the master, ib.
+  to the mystic, ib.
+  astronomical works, 311
+  the division of ranks, ib.
+  theophany, ib.
+  the chief end of man, ib.
+  Ulysses, ib.
+  Jove to Hercules, ib.
+  the sower, 312
+  the merchant, ib.
+  Columbus, ib.
+  the antique to the northern wanderer, ib.
+  the antique at Paris, ib.
+  the poetry of life, 313
+  No. VII. The ideal, 433
+  the ideal and the actual life, 435
+  the favour of the moment, 438
+  expectation and fulfilment, 439
+  to the proselyte maker, ib.
+  value and worth, ib.
+  the fortune-favoured, ib.
+  Poems of the first period, introductory remarks on them, 441
+  Hector and Andromache, ib.
+  to Laura, the mystery of reminiscence, 442
+  to Laura, rapture, ib.
+  to Laura, playing, 444
+  flowers, 445
+  the battle, ib.
+  No. VIII. A funeral fantasie, 626
+  a group in Tartarus, 627
+  Elysium, 628
+  Count Eberhard, the grumbler, of Wurtemberg, ib.
+  to a moralist, 630
+  Rousseau, 631
+  fortune and favour, ib.
+  the infanticide, ib.
+  remarks on it, 634
+  the triumph of love, 635
+  fantasie to Laura, 638
+  to the spring, 639.
+Scinde, occupation of, by the British, 273.
+Sea-Trout, natural history of the, 640.
+Shah Shoojah, death of, 266, _note_.
+Shaw, Mr, on sea-trout and salmon, 640.
+Shaw, Thomas B., translation of Ammalat Bek by,
+  introductory remarks, 281
+  Chap. I., 288
+  Chap. II., 296
+  Chap. III., 464
+  Chap. IV., 471
+  Chap. V., 478
+  Chap. VI., 568
+  Chap. VII., 573
+  Chap. VIII., 579
+  Chap. IX., 584
+  Chap. X., 746
+  Chap. XI., 750
+  Chap. XII., 752
+  Chap. XIII., 755
+  Chap. XIV., 759.
+Shepherds, last of the, a tale, Chap. I., 447
+  Chap. II., 449
+  Chap. III., 451
+  Chap. IV., 453
+  Chap. V., 455
+  Chap. VI., 458
+  Chap. VII., 460.
+Sicily, memorandum of a month's tour in, leaving Naples,
+  steam-boatiana, 799
+  churches, 802
+  visit to the garden of the Duke of Serra di Falco, near Palermo, ib.
+  the Thunny fishery, 804
+  the fishmarket, 805.
+Siege of Candia, the, 718.
+Simmons, B., the curse of Glencoe, by, 121.
+Song of the bell, the, from Schiller, 302.
+Sonnet, by the author of the Life of Burke, 495.
+Sower, the, from Schiller, 312.
+Spain, commercial policy of Great Britain towards, 673.
+Spring, address to, from Schiller, 639.
+Statesman, memoirs of a, see Marston.
+Stephens' Book of the Farm, review of, 415.
+
+Tale of a Tub, the, an additional chapter,
+  how Jack ran mad a second time, 352.
+Tariff, reconstruction of the, difficulty of the task, 11.
+Tasso and Cornelia, imaginary conversation between,
+  by Walter Savage Landor, 62.
+Taste and Music in England, state of, Part. I., 127.
+Theophany, from Schiller, 311.
+Thunny fishery, the, 804.
+To ----, from Schiller, 310.
+To Laura, the mystery of reminiscence, from Schiller, 442.
+To Laura, rapture, from Schiller, 443.
+To Laura, playing, from Schiller, 444.
+To a Moralist, from Schiller, 630.
+To the Mystic, from Schiller, 310.
+To the Proselyte-maker, from Schiller, 439.
+To the Spring, from Schiller, 639.
+Triumph of Love, the, from Schiller, 635.
+Turkish History, chapters of; No. IX.
+  rise of the Kiuprili family siege of Candia, 718.
+Two Hours of Mystery, a tale, Chap. I., 85
+  Chap. II., 89
+  Chap. III., 93.
+
+Ulysses, from Schiller, 311.
+
+Value and Worth, from Schiller, 439.
+Vicar of Wakefield illustrated, review of, 771.
+Victory Feast, the, from Schiller, 166.
+Vigil of Venus, the, translated from the Latin, 715.
+Votive Tablets, from Schiller, 309.
+
+Whigs, the, and Lord Ellenborough, 539.
+Wood Paving, remarks on, 614.
+Words of Error, the, from Schiller, 171
+  and of belief, 172.
+World of London, 2d series. Part I. Aristocracies of London life, 67
+  the aristocracy of fashion, 68
+  Part II. Concerning slow fellows, 225
+  the aristocracy of power, 227
+  the philosophy of dress, 230
+  pretenders to fashion, 234
+  Part III. Aristocracies of London life continued,
+    of gentility-mongering, 379
+  the aristocracy of talent, 386.
+
+Young, Mr, on grilse and salmon, review of, 640.
+Young grey head, the, a poem, 202.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+END OF VOL. LIII.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+_Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne and Hughes, Paul's Work._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No.
+CCCXXXII., by Various
+
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