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diff --git a/old/12511.txt b/old/12511.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bb079f1 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12511.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10674 @@ +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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE *** + +***** This file should be named 12511.txt or 12511.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/5/1/12511/ + +Produced by Jon Ingram, Brendan O'Connor and PG Distributed +Proofreaders. Produced from page images provided by The Internet +Library of Early Journals. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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