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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 15, +No. 87, March, 1875 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: July 31, 2004 [eBook #13061] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE OF POPULAR +LITERATURE AND SCIENCE, VOL. 15, NO. 87, MARCH, 1875*** + + +E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Sandra Brown, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +Note: The Table of Contents and the list of illustrations were added + by the transcriber. + + Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 13061-h.htm or 13061-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/0/6/13061/13061-h/13061-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/0/6/13061/13061-h.zip) + + + + + +LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE OF POPULAR LITERATURE AND SCIENCE + +MARCH, 1875. + +Vol. XV, No. 87 + + + + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + ILLUSTRATIONS + AN ESCAPE FROM SIBERIA. [Illustrated] + AUSTRALIAN SCENES AND ADVENTURES. + Two Papers.--1. [Illustrated] + FORECAST by CHARLOTTE F. BATES. + THE MATCHLESS ONE: + A Tale of American Society, In Four Chapters by ITA ANIOL PROKOP. + Chapter III. + Chapter IV. + MUNICH AS A PEST-CITY. + AMONG THE BLOUSARDS by WIRT SIKES. + SONNET by F.A. HILLARD. + THREE FEATHERS by WILLIAM BLACK + Chapter XXVI. A Perilous Truce. + Chapter XXVII. Further Entanglements. + Chapter XXVIII. Farewell! + LA MADONNA DELLA SEDIA. + A Tradition by EMMA LAZARUS. + EARLY TRAVELING EXPERIENCES IN INDIA by FITZEDWARD HALL. + ONCE AND AGAIN by CHARLES WARREN STODDARD. + THE SCIENTIFIC LIFE by S. WEIR MITCHELL. + PLAYING WITH FIRE by HARRIET PRESCOTT SPOFFORD. + RECOLLECTIONS OF THE TUSCAN COURT UNDER THE GRAND DUKE LEOPOLD + by T. ADOLPHUS TROLLOPE. + OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP. + Old English Charities. + Landoriana. + The Death of Doctors' Commons. + The Lay of the Leveler. + The Philosopher Strauss as A Poet. + LITERATURE OF THE DAY. + Books Received. + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + RUFIN PIOTROWSKI. + THE ARREST. + CROSSING THE COURTYARD OF THE PRISON. + OUTSTARING THE GUARD. + CHARITY TO THE EXILE. + A RUSSIAN OTHELLO. + VAIN ATTEMPT TO ESCAPE. + A SAMARITAN OF THE STEPPES. + THE BENEDICTION WITH TWO FINGERS. + CROSSING THE FRONTIER. + ABORIGINES OF THE EASTERN COAST. + KING TATAMBO. + DAUGHTER OF KING TATAMBO. + NEGRO WAR-DANCE, OR CORROBORI. + A GOLD-MINE. + KANGAROO HUNT. + CATTLE-HUNTING. + COMPANIONS OF THE HUNT. + FERN TREES NEAR HOBART TOWN. + FOREST OF FERNS. + LIBRARY OF MELBOURNE. + THE ENVIRONS OF MELBOURNE. + + + + +AN ESCAPE FROM SIBERIA. + +[Illustration: RUFIN PIOTROWSKI.] + +All the languages of continental Europe have some phrase by which a +parting people express the hope of meeting again. The French _au +revoir_, the Italian _à rivederla_, the Spanish _hasta mañana_, the +German _Auf Wiedersehen_,--these and similar forms, varied with the +occasion, have grown from the need of the heart to cheat separation of +its pain. The Poles have an expression of infinitely deeper meaning, +which embodies all that human nature can utter of grief and +despair--"To meet nevermore." This is the heart-rending farewell with +which the patriot exiled to Siberia takes leave of family and friends. + +There is indeed little chance that he will ever again return to his +country and his home. Since Beniowski the Pole made his famous +romantic flight from the coal-mines of Kamschatka in the last century, +there has been but a single instance of a Siberian exile making good +his escape. In our day, M. Rufin Piotrowski, also a Polish patriot, +has had the marvelous good-fortune to succeed in the all but +impossible attempt; and he has given his story to his countrymen in a +simple, unpretending narrative, which, even in an abridged form, will, +we think, be found one of thrilling interest. + +In January, 1843, we find Piotrowski in Paris, a refugee for already +twelve years, and on the eve of a secret mission into Poland of which +he gives no explanation. By means of an American acquaintance he +procured a passport from the British embassy describing him as Joseph +Catharo of Malta: he spoke Italian perfectly, English indifferently, +and was thus well suited to support the character of an Italian-born +subject of Queen Victoria. Having crossed France, Germany, Austria and +Hungary in safety, he reached his destination, the town of Kamenitz in +Podolia, on the Turkish frontier. His ostensible object was to settle +there as a teacher of languages, and on the strength of his British +passport he obtained the necessary permission from the police before +their suspicions had been roused. He also gained admission at once +into the society of the place, where, notwithstanding his pretended +origin, he was generally known as "the Frenchman," the common nickname +for a foreigner in the Polish provinces. He had soon a number of +pupils, some of them Poles--others, members of the families of Russian +resident officials. He frequented the houses of the latter most, in +order not to attract attention to his intercourse with his +compatriots. He spoke Russian fluently, but feigned total ignorance +both of that and his own language, and even affected an incapacity for +learning them when urged to do so by his scholars. Among the risks to +which this exposed him was the temptation of cutting short a difficult +explanation in his lessons by a single word, which would have made the +whole matter clear. But this, although the most frequent and +vexatious, was not the severest trial of his _incognito_. One day, +while giving a lesson to two beautiful Polish girls, daughters of a +lady who had shown him great kindness, the conversation turned upon +Poland: he spoke with an indifference which roused the younger to a +vehement outburst on behalf of her country. The elder interrupted her +sharply in their native language with, "How can you speak of holy +things to a hare-brained Frenchman?" At another Polish house, a +visitor, hearing that M. Catharo was from Paris, was eager to ask news +of his brother, who was living there in exile: their host dissuaded +him, saying, "You know that inquiries about relations in exile are +strictly forbidden. Take care! one is never safe with a stranger." +Their unfortunate fellow-countryman, who knew the visitor's brother +very well, was forced to bend over a book to hide the blood which +rushed to his face in the conflict of feeling. He kept so close a +guard upon himself that he would never sleep in the room with another +person--which it was sometimes difficult to avoid on visits to +neighboring country-seats--lest a word spoken in his troubled slumbers +should betray him. He passed nine months in familiar relations with +all the principal people of the place, his nationality and his designs +being known to but very few of his countrymen, who kept the secret +with rigid fidelity. At length, however, he became aware that he was +watched; the manner of some of his Russian friends grew inquiring and +constrained; he received private warnings, and perceived that he was +dogged by the police. It was not too late for flight, but he knew that +such a course would involve all who were in his secret, and perhaps +thousands of others, in tribulation, and that for their sakes it +behooved him to await the terrible day of reckoning which was +inevitably approaching. The only use to which he could turn this time +of horrible suspense was in concerting a plan of action with his +colleagues. His final interview with the chief of them took place in a +church at the close of the short winter twilight on the last day of +the year. After agreeing on all the points which they could foresee, +they solemnly took leave of each other, and Piotrowski was left alone +in the church, where he lingered to pray fervently for strength for +the hour that was at hand. + +The next morning at daybreak he was suddenly shaken by the arm: he +composed himself for the part he was to play, and slowly opened his +eyes. His room was filled with Russian officials: he was arrested. He +protested against the outrage to a British subject, but his papers +were seized, he was carried before the governor of the place, and +after a brief examination given into the custody of the police. + +[Illustration: THE ARREST.] + +He was examined on several successive days, but persisted in his first +story, although aware that his identity was known, and that the +information had come from St. Petersburg. His object was to force the +authorities to confront him with those who had been accused on his +account, that they might hear his confession and regulate their own +accordingly. One day a number of them were brought together--some his +real accomplices, others mere acquaintance. After the usual routine of +questions and denials, Piotrowski suddenly exclaimed in Polish, as one +who can hold out no longer, "Well, then, yes! I am no British subject, +but a Pole of the Ukraine. I emigrated after the revolution of 1831: I +came back because I could bear a life of exile no longer, and I only +wished to breathe my native air. I came under a false name, for I +could not have come in my own. I confided my secret to a few of my +countrymen, and asked their aid and advice: I had nothing else to ask +or tell them." + +[Illustration: CROSSING THE COURTYARD OF THE PRISON.] + +The preliminary interrogatories concluded, he was sent for a more +rigid examination to the fortress of Kiow. He left Kamenitz early in +January at midnight, under an escort of soldiers and police. The town +was dark and silent as they passed through the deserted streets, but +he saw lights in the upper windows of several houses whose inmates had +been implicated in his accusation. Was it a mute farewell or the sign +of vigils of anguish? They traveled all night and part of the next +day: their first halt was at a great state prison, where Piotrowski +was for the first time shut up in a cell. He was suffering from the +excitement through which he had been passing, from the furious speed +of the journey, which had been also very rough, and from a slight +concussion of the brain occasioned by one of the terrible jolts of the +rude vehicle: a physician saw him and ordered repose. The long, dark, +still hours of the night were gradually calming his nerves when he was +disturbed by a distant sound, which he soon guessed to be the clanking +of chains, followed by a chant in which many voices mingled. It was +Christmas Eve, old style, as still observed in some of the provinces, +and the midnight chorus was singing an ancient Christmas hymn which +every Polish child knows from the cradle. For twelve years the dear +familiar melody had not greeted his ears, and now he heard it sung by +his captive fellow-countrymen in a Russian dungeon. + +Two days later they set out again, and now he was chained hand and +foot with heavy irons, rusty, and too small for his limbs. The sleigh +hurried on day and night with headlong haste: it was upset, everybody +was thrown out, the prisoner's chain caught and he was dragged until +he lost consciousness. In this state he arrived at Kiow. Here he was +thrown into a cell six feet by five, almost dark and disgustingly +dirty. The wretched man was soon covered from head to foot with +vermin, of which his handcuffs prevented his ridding himself. However, +in a day or two, after a visit from the commandant, his cell was +cleaned. His manacles prevented his walking, or even standing, and the +moral effect of being unable to use his hands was a strange apathy +such as might precede imbecility. He was interrogated several times, +but always adhered to his confession at Kamenitz; menaces of harsher +treatment, even of torture, were tried--means which he knew too well +had been resorted to before; his guards were forbidden to exchange a +word with him, so that his time was passed in solitude, silence and +absolute inoccupation. Since Levitoux, another political prisoner, +fearful that the tortures to which he was subjected might wring from +him confessions which would criminate his friends, had set fire to his +straw bed with his night-lamp and burned himself alive, no lights were +allowed in the cells, so that a great portion of the twenty-four hours +went by in darkness. After some time he was visited by Prince +Bibikoff, the governor-general of that section of the country, one of +the men whose names are most associated with the sufferings of Poland: +he tried by intimidation and persuasion to induce the prisoner to +reveal his projects and the names of his associates. Piotrowski held +firm, but the prince on withdrawing ordered his chains to be struck +off. The relief was ineffable: he could do nothing but stretch his +arms to enjoy the sense of their free possession, and he felt his +natural energy and independence of thought return. He had not been +able to take off his boots since leaving Kamenitz, and his legs were +bruised and sore, but he walked to and fro in his cell all day, +enjoying the very pain this gave him as a proof that they were +unchained. Several weeks passed without any other incident, when late +one night he was surprised by a light in his cell: an aide-de-camp and +four soldiers entered and ordered him to rise and follow them. He +thought that he was summoned to his execution. He crossed the great +courtyard of the prison supported by the soldiers; the snow creaked +under foot; the night was very dark, and the sharp fresh air almost +took away his breath, yet it was infinitely welcome to him after the +heavy atmosphere of his cell, and he inhaled it with keen pleasure, +thinking that each whiff was almost the last. He was led into a +large, faintly-lighted room, where officers of various grades were +smoking around a large table. It was only the committee of +investigation, for hitherto his examinations had not been strictly in +order. + +This was but the first of a series of sittings which were prolonged +through nearly half a year. During this time his treatment improved; +his cell was kept clean; he had no cause to complain of his food; he +was allowed to walk for an hour daily in the corridor, which, though +cold and damp, in some degree satisfied his need of exercise. He was +always guarded by two sentinels, to whom he was forbidden to speak. He +learned in some way, however, that several of his co-accused were his +fellow-prisoners: they were confined in another part of the fortress, +and he but once caught a glimpse of one of them--so changed that he +hardly recognized him. His neighbors on the corridor were common +criminals. The president of the committee offered him the use of a +library, but he only asked for a Bible, "with which," he says, "I was +no longer alone." His greatest suffering arose from the nervous +irritability caused by the unremitting watch of the sentinel at his +door, which drove him almost frantic. The sensation of being spied at +every instant, in every action, of meeting this relentless, +irresponsive gaze on waking, of encountering it at each minute of the +day, was maddening. From daybreak he longed for the night, which +should deliver him from the sight. Sometimes, beside himself, he would +suddenly put his own face close to the grating and stare into the +tormenting eyes to force them to divert their gaze for a moment, +laughing like a savage when he succeeded. He was in this feverish +condition when called to his last examination. He perceived at once, +from the solemnity of all present, that the crisis had come. His +sentence was pronounced: death, commuted by Prince Bibikoff's +intercession to hard labor for life in Siberia. He was degraded from +the nobility, to which order, like half the inhabitants of Poland, he +belonged, and condemned to make the journey in chains. Without being +taken back to his cell, he was at once put into irons, the same rusty, +galling ones he had worn already, and placed in a _kibitka_, or +traveling-carriage, between two armed guards. The gates of the +fortress closed behind him, and before him opened the road to Siberia. + +[Illustration: OUTSTARING THE GUARD.] + +His destination was about two thousand miles distant. The incidents of +the journey were few and much of the same character. Charity and +sympathy were shown him by people of every class. Travelers of +distinction, especially ladies, pursued him with offers of assistance +and money, which he would not accept. The only gifts which he did not +refuse were the food and drink brought him by the peasants where they +stopped to change horses: wherever there was a halt the good people +plied him with tea, brandy and simple dainties, which he gratefully +accepted. At one station a man in the uniform of the Russian civil +service timidly offered him a parcel wrapped in a silk handkerchief, +saying, "Accept this from my saint." Piotrowski, repelled by the sight +of the uniform, shook his head. The other flushed: "You are a Pole, +and do not understand our customs. This is my birthday, and on this +day, above all others, I should share what I have with the +unfortunate. Pray accept it in the name of my patron saint." He could +not resist so Christian an appeal. The parcel contained bread, salt +and some money: the last he handed over to the guards, who in any case +would not have let him keep it: he broke the bread with its donor. His +guards were almost the only persons with whom he had to do who showed +themselves insensible to his pain and sorrow. They were divided +between their fears of not arriving on the day fixed, in which case +they would be flogged, and of his dying of fatigue on the route, when +they would fare still worse. The apprehension of his suicide beset +them: at the ferries or fords which they crossed each of them held him +by an arm lest he should drown himself, and all his meat was given to +him minced, to be eaten with a spoon, as he was not to be trusted for +an instant with a knife. Thus they traveled night and day for three +weeks, only stopping to change horses and take their meals; yet he +esteemed himself lucky not to have been sent with a gang of convicts, +chained to some atrocious malefactor, or to have been ordered to make +the journey on foot, like his countryman, Prince Sanguzsko. At last +they reached Omsk, the head-quarters of Prince Gortchakoff, then +governor-general of Western Siberia. By some informality in the mode +of his transportation, the interpretation of Piotrowski's sentence +depended solely on this man: he might be sent to work in one of the +government manufactories, or to the mines, the last, worst dread of a +Siberian exile. While awaiting the decision he was in charge of a gay, +handsome young officer, who treated him with great friendliness, and +in the course of their conversation, which turned chiefly on Siberia, +showed him a map of the country. The prisoner devoured it with his +eyes, tried to engrave it on his memory, asked innumerable questions +about roads and water-courses, and betrayed so much agitation that the +young fellow noticed it, and exclaimed, "Ah! don't think of escape. +Too many of your countrymen have tried it, and those are fortunate +who, tracked on every side, famished, desperate, have been able to put +an end to themselves before being retaken, for if they are, then comes +the knout and a life of misery beyond words. In Heaven's name, give up +that thought!" The commandant of the fortress paid him a short +official visit, and exclaimed repeatedly, "How sad! how sad! to come +back when you were free-in a foreign country!" The chief of police, a +hard, dry, vulture-like man, asked why he had dared to return without +the czar's permission. "I could not bear my homesickness," replied the +prisoner. "O native country!" said the Russian in a softened voice, +"how dear thou art!" After various official interviews he was taken to +the governor-general's ante-chamber, where he found a number of +clerks, most of whom were his exiled compatriots and received him +warmly. While he was talking with them a door opened, and Gortchakoff +stood on the threshold: he fixed his eyes on the prisoner for some +moments, and withdrew without a word. An hour of intense anxiety +followed, and then an officer appeared, who announced that he was +consigned to the distilleries of Ekaterininski-Zavod, some two hundred +miles farther north. + +Ekaterininski-Zavod is a miserable village of a couple of hundred +small houses on the river Irtish, in the midst of a wide plain. Its +inhabitants are all in some way connected with the government +distillery: they are the descendants of criminals formerly +transported. Piotrowski, after a short interview with the inspector of +the works, was entered on the list of convicts and sent to the +guard-house. "He is to work with his feet in irons," added the +inspector. This unusual severity was in consequence of a memorandum in +Prince Gortchakoff's own writing appended to the prisoner's papers: +"Piotrowski must be watched with especial care." The injunction was +unprecedented, and impressed the director with the prisoner's +importance. Before being taken to his work he was surrounded by his +fellow-countrymen, young men of talent and promise, who were there, +like himself, for political reasons. Their emotion was extreme: they +talked rapidly and eagerly, exhorting him to patience and silence, and +to do nothing to incur corporal punishment, which was the mode of +keeping the workmen in order, so that in time he might be promoted, +like themselves, from hard labor to office-work. At the guard-house he +found a crowd of soldiers, among whom were many Poles, incorporated +into the standing army of Siberia for having taken up arms for their +country. This is one of the mildest punishments for that offence. They +seized every pretext for speaking to him, to ask what was going on in +Poland, and whether there were any hopes for her. Overcome by fatigue +and misery, he sat down upon a bench, where he remained sunk in the +gloomiest thoughts until accosted by a man of repulsive aspect, +branded on the face--the Russian practice with criminals of the worst +sort--who said abruptly, "Get up and go to work." It was the overseer, +himself a former convict. "O my God!" exclaims Piotrowski, "Thou alone +didst hear the bitter cry of my soul when this outcast first spoke to +me as my master." + +[Illustration: CHARITY TO THE EXILE.] + +Before going to work his irons were struck off, thanks to the instant +entreaties of his compatriots: he was then given a broom and shovel +and set to clear rubbish and filth off the roof of a large unfinished +building. On one side was a convict of the lowest order, with whom he +worked--on the other, the soldier who mounted guard over them. To +avoid the indignity of chastisement or reproof--indeed, to escape +notice altogether--he bent his whole force to his task, without +raising his head, or even his eyes, but the iron entered into his soul +and he wept. + +The order of his days knew no variation. Rising at sunrise, the +convicts worked until eight o'clock, when they breakfasted, then until +their dinner at noon, and again from one o'clock until dark. His tasks +were fetching wood and water, splitting and piling logs, and +scavenger-work of all sorts: it was all out of doors and in every +extreme of the Siberian climate. His companions were all ruffians of a +desperate caste: burglary, highway robbery, rape, murder in every +degree, were common cases. One instance will suffice, and it is not +the worst: it was that of a young man, clerk of a wine-merchant in St. +Petersburg. He had a mistress whom he loved, but suspected of +infidelity; he took her and another girl into the country for a +holiday, and as they walked together in the fields fired a pistol at +his sweetheart's head: it only wounded her; the friend rushed away +shrieking for help; the victim fell on her knees and cried, "Forgive +me!" but he plunged a knife up to the hilt in her breast, and she fell +dead at his feet. He gave himself up to justice, received the knout +and was transported for life. + +[Illustration: A RUSSIAN OTHELLO.] + +The daily contact with ignorant, brutish men, made worse than brutes +by a life of hideous crime, was the worst feature in his wretched +existence. He had determined never to submit to blows, should the +forfeit be his own life or another's, and the incessant apprehension +kept his mind in a state of frightful tension: it also nerved him to +physical exertions beyond his strength, and to a moral restraint of +which he had not deemed himself capable in the way of endurance and +self-command. But in the end he was the gainer. After the first year +he was taken into the office of the establishment, and received a +salary of ten francs a month. He was also allowed to leave the +barracks where he had been herded with the convicts, and to lodge with +two fellow-countrymen in a little house which they built for +themselves, and which they shared with the soldiers who guarded them. +It was a privilege granted to the most exemplary of the convicts to +lodge with one or other of the private inhabitants of the village; but +besides their own expenses they had to pay those of the soldier +detailed to watch them. In the course of the winter they were +comforted by the visit of a Polish priest. A certain number are +permitted, to travel through Siberia yearly, stopping wherever there +are Polish prisoners to administer the sacraments and consolations of +their Church to them: there is no hardship which these heroic men will +not encounter in performing their thrice holy mission. Piotrowski, +who, like all Poles, was an ingrained Roman Catholic, after passing +through phases of doubt and disbelief had returned to a fervent +orthodoxy: this spiritual succor was most precious to himself and his +brother-exiles. + +One idea, however, was never absent from his mind--that of escape. At +the moment of receiving his sentence at Kiow he had resolved to be +free, and his resolution had not faltered. He had neglected no means +of acquiring information about Siberia and the adjacent countries. For +this he had listened to the revolting confidences of the malefactors +at the barracks--for this he heard with unflagging attention, yet with +no sign of interest, the long stories of the traders who came to the +distillery from all parts of the empire to sell grain or buy spirits. +The office in which he passed his time from eight in the morning +until ten or eleven at night was their _rendezvous_, and by a +concentration of his mental powers he acquired a thorough and accurate +knowledge of the country from the Frozen Ocean to the frontiers of +Persia and China, and of all its manners and customs. The prisoner who +meditates escape, he says, is absorbed in an infinitude of details and +calculations, of which it is only possible to give the final result. +Slowly and painfully, little by little, he accumulated the +indispensable articles--disguise, money, food, a weapon, passports. +The last were the most essential and the most difficult: two were +required, both upon paper with the government stamp--one a simple pass +for short distances and absences, useless beyond a certain limit and +date; the other, the _plakatny_, or real passport, a document of vital +importance. He was able to abstract the paper from the office, and a +counterfeiter in the community forged the formula and signatures. His +appearance he had gradually changed by allowing his hair and beard to +grow, and he had studied the tone of thought and peculiar phraseology +of the born Siberian, that he might the better pass for a native. More +than six months went by in preparations: then he made two false +starts. He had placed much hope on a little boat, which was often +forgotten at evening, moored in the Irtish. One dark night he quietly +loosed it and began to row away: suddenly the moon broke through the +clouds, and at the same instant the voices of the inspector and some +of his subordinates were heard on the banks. Piotrowski was fortunate +enough to get back unperceived. On the second attempt a dense fog rose +and shut him in: he could not see a yard before him. All night long he +pushed the boat hither and thither, trying at least to regain the +shore; at daybreak the vapor began to disperse, but it was too late to +go on; he again had the good luck to land undiscovered. Five routes +were open to him--all long, and each beset with its own perils. He +decided to go northward, recross the Uralian Mountains, and make his +way to Archangel, nearly a thousand miles off, where, among the +hundreds of foreign ships constantly in the docks, he trusted to find +one which would bring him to America. Nobody knew his secret: he had +vowed to perish rather than ever again involve others in his fate. He +reckoned on getting over the first danger of pursuit by mingling with +the crowds of people then traveling from every quarter to the annual +fair at Irbite at the foot of the Urals. + +[Illustration: VAIN ATTEMPT TO ESCAPE.] + +Finally, in February, 1846, he set out on foot. His costume consisted +of three shirts--a colored one uppermost, worn, Russian fashion, +outside his trousers, which were of heavy cloth, like his +waistcoat--and a small sheepskin burnous, heavy high boots, a bright +woolen sash, a red cap with a fur border--the dress of a well-to-do +peasant or commercial traveler. In a small bag he carried a change of +clothing and his provisions: his money and passports were hidden about +his person; he was armed with a dagger and a bludgeon. He had scarcely +crossed the frozen Irtish when the sound of a sleigh behind him +brought his heart to his mouth: he held his ground and was hailed by a +peasant, who wanted to drive a bargain with him for a lift. After a +little politic chaffering he got in, and was carried to a village +about eight miles off at a gallop. There the peasant set him down, +and, knocking at the first house, he asked for horses to the fair at +Irbite. More bargaining, but they were soon on the road. Erelong, +however, it began to snow; the track disappeared, the driver lost his +way; they wandered about for some time, and were forced to stop all +night in a forest--a night of agony. They were not twelve miles from +Ekaterininski-Zavod: every minute the fugitive fancied he heard the +bells of the pursuing _kibitkas_; he had a horrible suspicion, too, +that his driver was delaying purposely to betray him, as had befallen +a fellow-countryman in similar circumstances. But at daybreak they +found the road, and by nightfall, having changed horses once or twice +and traveled like the wind, he was well on his way. At a fresh relay +he was forced to go into a tavern to make change to pay his driver: as +he stood among the tipsy crowd he was hustled and his pocket-book +snatched from his hand. He could not discover the thief nor recover +the purse: he durst not appeal to the police, and had to let it go. In +it, besides a quarter of his little hoard of money, there was a +memorandum of every town and village on his way to Archangel, and his +_plakatny_. In this desperate strait--for the last loss seemed to cut +off hope--he had one paramount motive for going on: return was +impossible. Once having left Ekaterininski-Zavod, his fate was sealed +if retaken: he must go forward. Forward he went, falling in with +troops of travelers bound to the fair. On the third evening of his +flight, notwithstanding the time lost, he was at the gates of Irbite, +over six hundred miles from his prison. "Halt and show your passport!" +cried the sentinel. He was fumbling for the local pass with a sinking +heart when the soldier whispered, "Twenty kopecks and go ahead." He +passed in. The loss of his money and the unavoidable expenses had +reduced his resources so much that he found it necessary to continue +the journey on foot. He slept at Irbite, but was up early, and passed +out of an opposite gate unchallenged. + +Now began a long and weary tramp. The winter of 1846 was one of +unparalleled rigor in Siberia. The snow fell in enormous masses, which +buried the roads deep out of sight and crushed solidly-built houses +under its weight. Every difficulty of an ordinary journey on foot was +increased tenfold. Piotrowski's clothes encumbered him excessively, +yet he dared not take any of them off. His habit was to avoid passing +through villages as much as possible, but, if forced to do so to +inquire his way, only to stop at the last house. When he was hungry he +drew a bit of frozen bread from his wallet and ate it as he went +along: to quench his thirst he often had no resource but melting the +snow in his mouth, which rather tends to increase the desire for +water. At night he went into the depths of the forest, dug a hole +under the snow, and creeping in slept there as best he might. At the +first experiment his feet were frozen: he succeeded in curing them, +though not without great pain. Sometimes he plunged up to the waist or +neck in the drifts, and expected at the next step to be buried alive. +One night, having tasted to the full those two tortures, cold and +hunger--of which, as he says, we complain so frequently without +knowing what they mean--he ventured to ask for shelter at a little hut +near a hamlet where there were only two women. They gave him warm +food: he dried his drenched clothes, and stretched himself out to +sleep on the bench near the kitchen stove. He was roused by voices, +then shaken roughly and asked for his passport: there were three men +in the room. With amazing presence of mind he demanded by what right +they asked for his passport: were any of them officials? No, but they +insisted on knowing who he was and where he was going, and seeing his +pass. He told them the same story that he had told the women, and +finally exhibited the local pass, which was now quite worthless, and +would not have deceived a government functionary for a moment: they +were satisfied with the sight of the stamp. They excused themselves, +saying that the women had taken fright and given the alarm, thinking +that, as sometimes happened, they were housing an escaped convict. +This adventure taught him a severe lesson of prudence. He often passed +fifteen or twenty nights under the snow in the forest, without seeking +food or shelter, hearing the wolves howl at a distance. In this savage +mode of life he lost the count of time: he was already far in the Ural +Mountains before he again ventured to sleep beneath a roof. As he was +starting the next morning his hosts said, in answer to his inquiries +as to the road, "A little farther on you will find a guard-house, +where they will look at your papers and give you precise directions." +Again how narrow an escape! He turned from the road and crossed hills +and gorges, often up to the chin in snow, and made an immense curve +before taking up his march again. + +[Illustration: A SAMARITAN OF THE STEPPES.] + +One moonlight night, in the dead silence of the ice-bound winter, he +stood on the ridge of the mountain-chain and began to descend its +eastern slope. Still on and on, the way more dangerous than before, +for now there were large towns upon his route, which he could only +avoid by going greatly out of his way. One night in the woods he +completely lost his bearings; a tempest of wind and snow literally +whirled him around; his stock of bread was exhausted, and he fell upon +the earth powerless; there was a buzzing in his ears, a confusion in +his ideas; his senses forsook him, and but for spasms of cramp in his +stomach he had no consciousness left. Torpor was settling upon him +when a loud voice recalled him to himself: it was a trapper, who lived +hard by, going home with his booty. He poured some brandy down the +dying man's throat, and when this had somewhat revived him gave him +food from his store. After some delay the stranger urged Piotrowski to +get up and walk, which he did with the utmost difficulty: leaning upon +this Samaritan of the steppes, he contrived to reach the highway, +where a small roadside inn was in sight. There his companion left him, +and he staggered forward with unspeakable joy toward the warmth and +shelter. He would have gone in if he had known the guards were there +on the lookout for him, for his case was now desperate. He only got as +far as the threshold, and there fell forward and rolled under a +bench. He asked for hot soup, but could not swallow, and after a few +minutes fell into a swoon-like sleep which lasted twenty-four hours. +Restored by nourishment, rest and dry clothes, he set forth again at +once. + +During the first part of his journey he had passed as a commercial +traveler; after leaving Irbite he was a workman seeking employment in +the government establishments; but now he assumed the character of a +pilgrim to the convent of Solovetsk on a holy island in the White Sea, +near Archangel. For each change of part he had to change his manners, +mode of speech, his whole personality, and always be probable and +consistent in his account of himself. It was mid-April: he had been +journeying on foot for two months. Easter was approaching, when these +pious journeys were frequent, and not far from Veliki-Oustiog he fell +in with several bands of men and women--_bohomolets_, as they are +called--on their way to Solovetsk. There were more than two thousand +in the town waiting for the frozen Dwina to open, that they might +proceed by water to Archangel. It being Holy Week, Piotrowski was +forced to conform to the innumerable observances of the Greek +ritual--prayers, canticles, genuflexions, prostrations, crossings and +bowings, as manifold as in his own, but different. His inner +consciousness suffered from this hypocrisy, but it was necessary to +his part. They were detained at Veliki-Oustiog a mortal month, during +which these acts of devotion went on with almost unabated zeal among +the _boholomets._ At length the river was free, and they set out. +Their vessel was a huge hulk which looked like a floating barn: it was +manned by twenty or thirty rowers, and to replenish his purse a little +the fugitive took an oar. The agent who had charge of the expedition +required their passports: among the number the irregularity of +Piotrowski's escaped notice. The prayers and prostrations went on +during the voyage, which lasted a fort-night. One morning the early +sunshine glittered on the gilded domes of Archangel: the vessel soon +touched the shore, and his passport was returned to him uninspected, +with the small sum he had earned by rowing. + +He had reached his goal; a thousand miles of deadly suffering and +danger lay behind him; he was on the shores of the White Sea, with +vessels of every nation lying at anchor ready to bear him away to +freedom. Yet he was careful not to commit himself by any imprudence or +inconsistency. He went with the pilgrims to their vast crowded +lodging-house, and for several days joined in their visits to the +different churches of Archangel; but when they embarked again for the +holy island he stayed behind under the pretext of fatigue, but really +to go unobserved to the harbor. There lay the ships from every part of +the world, with their flags floating from the masts. Alas! alas! on +every wharf a Russian sentinel mounted guard day and night, +challenging every one who passed, and on the deck of each ship there +was another. In vain he risked the consequences of dropping his +character of an ignorant Siberian peasant so far as to speak to a +group of sailors, first in French and then in German; they understood +neither: the idlers on the quays began to gather round in idle +curiosity, and he had to desist. In vain, despite the icy coldness of +the water, he tried swimming in the bay to approach some vessel for +the chance of getting speech of the captain or crew unseen by the +sentinel. In vain he resorted to every device which desperation could +suggest. After three days he was forced to look the terrible truth in +the face: there was no escape possible from Archangel. + +Baffled and hopeless, he turned his back on the town, not knowing +where to go. To retrace his steps would be madness. He followed the +shore of the White Sea to Onega, a natural direction for pilgrims +returning from Solovetsk to take. His lonely way lay through a land of +swamp and sand, with a sparse growth of stunted pines; the midnight +sun streamed across the silent stretches; the huge waves of the White +Sea, lashed by a long storm, plunged foaming upon the desolate beach. +Days and nights of walking brought him to Onega: there was no way of +getting to sea from there, and after a short halt he resumed his +journey southward along the banks of the river Onega, hardly knowing +whither or wherefore he went. The hardships of his existence at +midsummer were fewer than at midwinter, but the dangers were greater: +the absence of a definite goal, of a distinct hope which had supported +him before, unnerved him physically. He had reached the point when he +dreaded fatigue more than risk. In spite of his familiarity with the +minutiae of Russian customs, he was nearly betrayed one day by his +ignorance of _tolokno_, a national dish. On another occasion he +stopped at the cabin of a poor old man to ask his way: the gray-beard +made him come in, and after some conversation began to confide his +religious grievances to him, which turned upon the persecutions to +which a sect of religionists is exposed in Russia for adhering to +certain peculiarities in the forms of worship. Happily, Piorowski was +well versed in these subjects. The poor old man, after dwelling long +and tearfully on the woes of his fellow-believers, looked cautiously +in every direction, locked the door, and after exacting an oath of +secresy drew from a hiding-place a little antique brass figure of +Byzantine origin, representing our Saviour in the act of benediction +with two fingers only raised, according to the form cherished by the +dissenters. + +[Illustration: THE BENEDICTION WITH TWO FINGERS.] + +Following his purposeless march for hundreds of miles, the fugitive +reached Vytegra, where the river issues from the Lake of Onega. There, +on the wharf, a peasant asked him whither he was bound: he replied +that he was a pilgrim on his way from Solovetsk to the shrines of +Novgorod and Kiow. The peasant said he was going to St. Petersburg, +and would give him a passage for his service if he would take an oar. +The bargain was struck, and that night they started on their voyage to +the capital of Poland's arch-enemy, the head-quarters of politics, the +source whence his own arrest had emanated. He had no design: he was +going at hazard. The voyage was long: they followed the Lake of Onega, +the Lake of Ladoga and the river Neva. Sometimes poor people got a +lift in the boat: toward the end of the voyage they took aboard a +number of women-servants returning to their situations in town from a +visit to their country homes. Among them was an elderly woman going to +see her daughter, who was a washerwoman at St. Petersburg. Piotrowski +showed her some small kindnesses, which won her fervent gratitude. As +they landed in the great capital, which seemed the very focus of his +dangers, and he stood on the wharf wholly at a loss what should be his +next step, the poor woman came up with her daughter and offered to +show him cheap lodgings. He followed them, carrying his protectress's +trunk. The lodgings were cheap and miserable, and the woman of the +house demanded his passport. He handed it to her with a thrill of +anxiety, and carelessly announced his intention of reporting himself +at the police-office according to rule. She glanced at the paper, +which she could not read, and saw the official stamp: she was +satisfied, and began to dissuade him from going to the police. It then +appeared that the law required her to accompany him as her lodger; +that a great deal of her time would be lost in the delays and +formalities of the office, which, being a working-woman, she could ill +afford; and as he was merely passing through the city and had his +passport, there could be no harm in staying away. The next day, while +wandering about the streets seeking a mode of escape, the pilot of a +steam-packet to Riga asked him if he would like to sail with them the +next day, and named a very moderate fare. His heart leapt up, but the +next instant the man asked to see his passport: he took it out +trembling, but the sailor, without scrutiny, cried, "Good! Be off with +you, and come back to-morrow morning at seven o'clock." The next +morning at seven he was on board, and the boat was under way. + +[Illustration: CROSSING THE FRONTIER.] + +From Riga he had to make his way on foot across Courland and Lithuania +to the Prussian frontier. He now made a change in his disguise, and +gave himself out as a dealer in hogs' bristles. In Lithuania he found +himself once more on his beloved native soil, and the longing to speak +his own language, to make himself known to a fellow-countryman, was +almost irresistible; but he sternly quelled such a yearning. As he +neared the frontier he had the utmost difficulty in ascertaining where +and how it was guarded, and what he should have to encounter in +passing. At length he learned enough for his purpose: there were no +guards on the Prussian side. Reaching a rampart of the fortifications, +he waited until the moment when the two sentinels on duty were back to +back on their beats, and jumped down into the first of the three +ditches which protected the boundary. Clambering and jumping, he +reached the edge of the third: shots were fired in several directions; +he had been seen. He slid into the third ditch, scrambled up the +opposite side, sprang down once more, rushed on until out of sight of +the soldiers, and fell panting in a little wood. There he lay for +hours without stirring, as he knew the Russian guards sometimes +violated the boundary in pursuit of fugitives. But there was no +pursuit, and he at last took heart. Then he began a final +transformation. He had lately bought a razor, a pocket-mirror and some +soap, and with these, by the aid of a slight rain which was falling, +he succeeded with much difficulty in shaving himself and changing his +clothes to a costume he had provided expressly for Prussia. When night +had closed he set forth once more, lighter of heart than for many long +years, though well aware that by international agreement he was not +yet out of danger. He pushed on toward the grand duchy of Posen, where +he hoped to find assistance from his fellow-countrymen, who, being +under Prussian rule, would not be compromised by aiding him. He passed +through Memel and Tilsit, and reached Königsberg without let or +hindrance--over two hundred miles on Prussian soil in addition to all +the rest. There he found a steamboat to sail the next day in the +direction which he wished to follow. He had slept only in the open +fields, and meant to do so on this night and re-enter the town betimes +in the morning. Meanwhile he sat down on a heap of stones in the +street, and, overcome by fatigue, fell into a profound sleep. He was +awakened by the patrol: his first confused words excited suspicion, +and he was arrested and carried to the station-house. After all his +perils, his escapes, his adventures, his disguises, to be taken by a +Prussian watchman! The next morning he was examined by the police: he +declared himself a French artisan on his way home from Russia, but as +having lost his passport. The story imposed upon nobody, and he +perceived that he was supposed to be a malefactor of some dangerous +sort: his real case was not suspected. A month's incarceration +followed, and then a new interrogation, in which he was informed that +all his statements had been found to be false, and that he was an +object of the gravest suspicion. He demanded a private interview with +one of the higher functionaries and a M. Fleury, a naturalized +Frenchman in some way connected with the police-courts. To them he +told his whole story. After the first moment's stupefaction the +Prussian cried, "But, unhappy man, we must send you back: the treaty +compels it. My God! my God! why did you come here?"--"There is no help +for us," said M. Fleury, "but in Heaven's name write to Count +Eulenberg, on whom all depends: he is a man whom everybody loves. What +a misfortune!" + +He was taken back to prison. He wrote; he received a kind but vague +reply; delays followed, and investigations into the truth of his +story; his anguish of mind was reaching a climax in which he felt that +his dagger would be his best friend after all. A citizen of the place, +a M. Kamke, a total stranger, offered to go bail for him: his story +had got abroad and excited the deepest sympathy. The bail was not +effected without difficulty: ultimately, he was declared free, +however, but the chief of police intimated that he had better remain +in Königsberg for the present. Anxious to show his gratitude to his +benefactors, fearful, too, of being suspected, he tarried for a week, +which he passed in the family of the generous M. Kamke. At the end of +that time he was again summoned to the police-court, where two +officials whom he already knew told him sadly that the order to send +him back to Russia had come from Berlin: they could but give him time +to escape at his own risk, and pray God for his safety. He went back +to his friend M. Kamke: a plan was organized at once, and by the +morrow he was on the way to Dantzic. Well provided with money and +letters by the good souls at Königsberg, he crossed Germany safely, +and on the 22d of September, 1846, found himself safe in Paris. + + + + +AUSTRALIAN SCENES AND ADVENTURES. + +TWO PAPERS.--1. + + +Australia is still the world's latest wonder--a land whose very +existence was but a few years ago ignored by geographers, but which +they now acknowledge as a fifth continent; a land of marvels that +courts and repays the investigation of the curious by its wild +scenery, its strange aboriginal inhabitants, its birds and beasts +unlike all others, its rich floral treasures, its mines of +inexhaustible wealth, its meadows and plains of dimensions so vast as +to defy for centuries to come a general cultivation; a land that has +in less than half a century experienced a growth and expansion +unprecedented in the history of nations. Yet is the civilization an +imported one, not indigenous, and to be traced only here and there in +the colonies, having as yet scarcely touched the interior of the +island or its aboriginal inhabitants. These are, in our own day, +hardly less untamed and untamable than when visited by the great +adventurer William Dampier in the latter part of the seventeenth +century, now almost two hundred years ago. So little regard was paid +to the reports of Dampier that nearly another century elapsed without +further efforts at the exploration of Australia, till in 1770 Cook, in +his first voyage around the world, visited this great island, +furnishing to his country the first accurate information of its +climate, soil and productions. Yet his marvelous accounts, though +exciting at first a sort of nine days' wonder, failed to awaken any +permanent interest, and soon Australia was again forgotten. But when +England, in consequence of the loss of her valuable American colonies, +to which she had been accustomed to transport her worst offenders, +began to look around for a substitute, the eyes of the government +were for the first time turned toward Australia. In May, 1787, the +first shipload of convicts was sent out, and in the following January +the foundation of Sydney, the future capital of the penal settlement, +was laid. Little, however, was done in the way of exploring the +country until the discovery of gold within its borders. Then, indeed, +the world woke up, and long-forgotten, neglected Australia came to be +reckoned a point of interest, at least to fortune-hunters. + +Seen in the distance, the view of this great island is scarcely +attractive. Its abrupt shores wear a sombre hue, and the traveler, ere +he sets foot on the soil, detects a sort of savage air that seems to +reign triumphant over the demi-civilization that has been the growth +of only a score or two of years. Tiny native huts, looking as though +the architect had studied how small, uncouth and inconvenient a human +dwelling could possibly be made, contrast strangely with the tasteful +white cottages surrounded by flower-gardens and wreathed with vines, +or the elegant mansions of stone and slate, that form the homes of +foreign residents; natives in filthy garb, or no garb at all, prowl +about the dwellings or worm their devious way among the costly +equipages of Europeans; orchards and vineyards are planted under the +very shadow of forests where roam in all their savage freedom herds of +wild cattle and their wilder masters; and out from the rocks and +boulders of the most rugged spots rise clusters of the graceful +umbrella palm, with a foliage, fern-like and feathery, of the +loveliest emerald, and a cone expanding like a lady's fan. The odor of +English cowslips mingles with the spicy aroma of tropical fruits, and +the perpetual snow of-lofty peaks is reflected on fields of golden +maize and on meadows that gleam and glitter in the bright sunlight as +if paved with emeralds. It is contrast, not similitude, that attracts +the eye, novelty more than beauty, and quaintness rather than such +gorgeous sights as one meets everywhere within the tropics. + +[Illustration: ABORIGINES OF THE EASTERN COAST.] + +The harbors are very marvels of commodiousness, that of Port Jackson, +the entrance to Sydney, being fifteen miles long. It is landlocked on +both sides, without a shoal or rock to mar its perfectness, and broad +enough to afford safe anchorage to all the navies of the world. Here +ride at anchor vessels of almost every nation, their gay pennons +flaunting in the breeze, while worming their way in and out among the +shipping may be seen multitudes of native boats made of bark, quaint +as frail, and looking for all the world like a shoal of soldiers' +cocked hats. A man on land carries his tiny craft on his shoulders +with less difficulty, apparently, than the boat carries him on the +water. Rowing one seems about as difficult an operation as balancing +one's self on a straw would, be; but it has an especial point of +merit--it never sink, only purls, and an Australian takes a good +ducking as nonchalantly as he smokes his pipe. The natives usually +paddle in companies of three, and when one of the triad is purled the +other two come to the rescue. One on each side taking a hand of their +unlucky comrade, and reseating him, they move on rapidly as before, +cutting the blue water with their slender paddles and enlivening the +scene by occasional songs. The presence of numerous sharks in these +waters is the chief drawback to the pleasures of boating, and many an +ill-fated oarsman pays the forfeit of life or limb for his temerity in +venturing out too far. The nose of the shark is his most vulnerable +part; and the natives, who eat this sea-monster as willingly as he +eats them, often inflict a fatal wound by slinging a huge stone at his +nose and battering it to a jelly as he rises out of the water. The +flesh is eaten raw by the aborigines in their wild state, but the more +civilized "burn it," as they say, "like white men;" that is, they cut +off huge lumps of the flesh, lay them before a fire to roast, gnaw off +the surface as fast as it burns, and put down the remainder to toast +again until the appetite is glutted. + +[Illustration: KING TATAMBO.] + +[Illustration: DAUGHTER OF KING TATAMBO.] + +These islanders were all cannibals when first discovered by Europeans, +intellectually inferior to other savages, ignorant of agricultural and +mechanical arts, going entirely naked, and living more like brutes +than human beings. Slowly and mutinously have their barbarous customs +been relinquished, even by those brought into occasional contact with +foreigners, while those in the interior are savage as the monsters +that prowl about them in dens and holes of the earth. Even such as +mingle most freely with the colonists can seldom be prevailed on to +practice permanently the arts of civilized life, usually preferring +their original habits and pursuits to the restraints of society. They +readily admit the superiority of foreigners, but cling tenaciously to +their forest homes and rude lives of unfettered freedom. In character +they are cruel and vindictive, improvident and thievish; and they seem +almost devoid of gallantry in the treatment of their women, wooing +their wives with blows, and often inflicting death upon women and +children for the slightest offences. Yet they have some ideas of a +Supreme Being and a future state, they practice a sort of religious +worship, and they bury or burn their dead. They call their chiefs +_be-à-na_, or "father," but unless compelled by fear to obedience they +treat them with little respect or affection. Their language has a +musical sound, but the vocabulary is scanty; and thus far the origin +of these people and their language remains a matter of doubt, though +in many particulars they bear a decided resemblance to the negroes of +Guinea. In regard to dress their habits are certainly primitive. A +single ratskin often forms the entire wardrobe of a native chief, and +a tomahawk with a brace of spears pointed with iron-wood or flint his +adornments. Opossum-skins tied together form a sort of cloak used as a +protection against the cold, but if on the chase the wearer finds his +upper garment oppressively warm, he tosses it away, and trusts to +finding or stealing another when he needs it. Their dwellings are +wretched little huts, or rather sheds, composed of bark or dried +leaves, and so low-pitched that one must crawl on his knees to enter +them. They are ill-ventilated and filthy in the extreme, utterly +devoid of furniture and household implements, and without any means of +securing either privacy or warmth--places where we should deem it +impossible to dwell content. Yet the native Australian seems always +merry, and he would not exchange his filthy hovel for the palace of a +prince. Unpretending as that of his subjects was the royal abode of +the venerable King Tatambo, an old man, whom the count de Beauvoir +describes as having a "skin black and shiny as liquorice, with +snow-white hair and beard," his only garment being a fur cloak that +was cast aside during the dance at which the count was present. He +gives, in connection with the king's portrait, that of "the youngest +and most beautiful of His Majesty's daughters," which may serve as a +type of the female beauty of Australia. + +[Illustration: NEGRO WAR-DANCE, OR CORROBORI.] + +The Australians are extremely fond of dancing, especially their +_corrobori_ or war-dance, performed always with bodies perfectly nude, +while they brandish a spear in one hand and a flaming brand in the +other. The night is invariably selected for the performance of the +corrobori, and the effect upon unaccustomed eyes is startling in the +extreme. The agile movements of the lean forms, black as night, +reflected by the radiance of their gleaming torches, the yells and +frantic gestures, together with the fierce onsets of the combatants +with spear and tomahawk, present a spectacle of weird interest, quite +in keeping with the wild scenery of the defiles and ravines where the +corrobori is usually celebrated. + +[Illustration: A GOLD-MINE.] + +The complexion of the Australians is black or very dark brown, their +hair straight, and their features of the negro type. They are of +medium stature, but generally thin, though well-formed, athletic and +agile. They are eager in the pursuit of gain, and this characteristic, +combined with their wonderful powers of endurance both of hunger and +fatigue, renders them patient and successful miners, while all other +causes combined have tended less to the development and improvement of +the Australian than has the discovery of gold within his borders. This +discovery, that has so changed the aspect of everything in Australia, +was the result of a mere accident that a thinking mind knew how to +turn to advantage. An adventurer from California, whose dreams by day +and by night were all of the land of gold he had so recently left, +while searching in company with another for a new pasturage-ground for +their sheep, came one day upon a range of low hills so like the +"Golden Range" of California as to bring back all his old +prepossessions in favor of mining. Stopping to examine, he found the +hills composed of granite, mica and quartz, the natural home of gold, +and his experience as a miner led to the conviction that though the +main body of the gold might have been already washed out among the +surrounding clay, yet enough remained to repay a careful search and to +indicate the existence, somewhere in the immediate vicinity, of a mine +of untold wealth. Several days were spent in unprofitable search: then +more favorable indications led the shepherds to dispose of their +flocks and set out in good earnest to dig for gold. A couple of +spades, a trowel and a calabash were their only tools, but our +adventurer was a knowing man, and "knowledge is power." His practiced +eye knew just where the precious metals would be most likely to exist +if at all in that locality--that in the old beds of rivers now dried +up gold would more naturally be found than in younger streams, and +especially that where round pebbles indicated a strong eddy ten times +as much gold might be expected as in the level parts. Gravel and +shingle were cleared away without examination, then a bed of gray +clay, as too porous to hold gold; but when a stratum of pipeclay was +reached the diggers knew that not an ounce of gold would be found +beneath, and their search was confined to a little streak of brownish +clay, about an inch in thickness, just above the pipeclay. Every +particle of this was carefully washed, and after hours of patient +labor the toilers were rewarded by about a thimbleful of the shining +dust they were so eagerly seeking. From this small beginning on the +10th of June, 1851, have grown the wonderful mining operations of +Australia; and in less than a month after the little incident related +above twenty thousand diggers--in a year increased to one hundred and +fifty thousand--were busy in the inexhaustible mines of that far-off +land; and so came those rugged, barren lands, hitherto scarcely broken +even by savages, to be peopled by men from every civilized land. + +[Illustration: KANGAROO HUNT.] + +[Illustration: CATTLE-HUNTING.] + +Ballarat, the centre of one of the chief mining districts, is +connected now by railway with Melbourne, so that in the interval of +only four hours one passes from the commercial metropolis to the "City +of Gold." Over the fertile belt of cultivated lands that surrounds +Melbourne, through rugged rocks and barren sands, runs this road, on +which one meets crowds of pedestrians, many of them barefoot, the sole +capital of each a tent and a pickaxe. Nearing the mines, the aspect of +everything is changed: whole forests of trees demolished as if by a +thunderbolt; rivers turned out of their natural bed; fertile meadows +laid waste; gaping chasms and frightful depths here and there, in +which are men toiling half naked, begrimed with mud, and fierce, +reckless, cadaverous faces that tell of hardships and strife and sin +in the eager pursuit of riches. Ballarat was at first only a +mining-camp of immense size, and its environs are still occupied by +tents, where transient visitors find very passable accommodations. But +the city proper, now some sixteen years old, with a population already +of thirty thousand, is an exact transcript of Melbourne, with +beautiful dwellings, and broad streets thronged with carriages by day +and lighted with gas by night. It boasts already its clubs and +theatres, its banks and libraries and reading--rooms, where the +successful miner may invest his earnings, cultivate his intellect and +seek recreation for his leisure hours. + +[Illustration: COMPANIONS OF THE HUNT.] There are over two thousand +mining districts in Australia, of which one of the richest is "Black +Hill Mine," but why called "Black Hill" it would be difficult to say, +as its beautiful glistening sands are far nearer white than black. +Next to gold, the most valuable ore is mercury, immense quantities of +which are shipped annually to England from these mines. Iron-ore is +found in nearly every part of the island, much of it so rich as to +produce nearly three-fourths of its weight of metal. Topazes of rare +beauty are frequently obtained, and coal is both good and abundant. In +addition to these the island possesses an almost inexhaustible store +of granite, slate and freestone, well adapted to building purposes. +Sometimes gold is found diffused with wonderful regularity within a +few inches of the surface, and so abundant that a single cradleful +will yield an ounce of pure gold-dust, the miners readily realizing +two or three thousand dollars per diem. As the grass is torn up, +flecks of bright gold are found clinging to the roots, and the clay as +it is turned over glitters with the precious dust. Again, the digger +has to search for his treasure deep in the bowels of the earth, or +among flinty rocks, or far down beneath a river's bed, and, it may be, +spend weeks or months without realizing a bawbee. Nothing else is so +uncertain as to results as the search for gold, and few vocations are +at once so fascinating and so cruelly exacting in regard to health, +ease, and even life. + +[Illustration: FERN TREES NEAR HOBART TOWN.] + +Among the mines, and amid barren, rugged scenery in Australia, one is +often surprised by glimpses of rare beauty--flowers of wondrous +brilliancy, odorless though they be; a gigantic tree twined about by a +delicate creeper of exquisite loveliness; or one of those magnificent +Australian lakes that show nothing at first but the greenest grass, +tall and luxuriant as under the equator; then, as he attempts to ride +through the grass, he suddenly finds his horse's feet growing moist +and the spongy vegetation getting fuller and fuller of water, till he +discovers that he has entered a lake so wide and deep that his only +safety lies in a quick retreat. This phenomenon is repeated on a small +scale all through the jungle-lands, little tufts of grass here and +there, known readily by their brighter green, furnishing water enough +to meet the wants of a thirsty animal. A calabash full of pure, sweet +water may be expressed from one of these tiny clumps of grassy sponge, +as many a weary traveler has attested while roaming over sterile +regions destitute alike of wells and springs. + +But of surprises there is no end in Australia. Flowers fascinating to +the eye have no smell, but uncouth--looking shrubs and bushes often +fill the air with their delicate aroma; crows look like magpies, and +dogs like jackals; four-footed animals hop about on two feet; rivers +seem to turn their backs on the sea and run inland; swans are black, +and eagles white; some of the parrots have webbed feet; and birds +laugh and chatter like human beings, while never a song, or even a +chirrup, can be heard from their nests and perches. So an English lark +or nightingale is at a premium; and many a rough miner, with his +shaggy beard and uncouth ways, his oaths and lawlessness and crimes, +has been known to walk on Sunday evenings to a little English cottage +twelve miles out of the settlement just to hear the sweet song of a +pet lark. + +The variety of vegetable productions is so great that above five +thousand species, more than half of which are peculiar to the country, +have been described and classed. Among the most remarkable is the +species of _Eucalyptus_, or gum tree, that forms some of the largest +timber yet discovered, having been seen of the height of one hundred +and fifty feet, and thirty to forty in girth near the root. The +leafless acacias are also found here, as well as the _Nepenthes +distillatoria_ and the _Cephalotus follicularis_, two remarkable +varieties of the monkey-cup or pitcher-plant; while many very +beautiful ferns and flowering vines adorn the coasts and lave their +graceful fringes in the blue ocean waves. The timber of the country is +of gigantic size, and with other varieties may be found cedar, +rosewood, tulip and mahogany. + +But the most wonderful products of Australia belong to the animal +kingdom, among them the kangaroo, the wombat, and that strange anomaly +of the animal creation, the _Ornithorynchus_, or "duck-billed +quadruped." Emus, eagles, parrots, white swans and overgrown pelicans +of many varieties, enrich the ornithological kingdom, while among +insects and reptiles are found some less desirable specimens, such as +tarantulas. The natives of the island hold the old tradition of the +ancients, that one bitten by a tarantula will dance himself to death. +The plumage of Australian birds is varied and brilliant, and the +natives make pretty fans by arranging the feathers in assorted colors; +while a sort of head-dress worn by both men and women on the occasion +of their marriage, and composed entirely of feathers made into +many-tinted flowers, is a very gorgeous affair. Among the varieties of +birds peculiar to the island are the "lyre-bird" and that known as the +"satin-bower," so called from its glossy plumage, which is green while +the bird is young and jet black at maturity. Before building their +nests these birds gather a large quantity of twigs, weaving them into +a sort of bower, which they tastefully decorate with bones, feathers, +leaves and such other adornments as they are able to collect. Here in +this arena the courting is done, the male bird chasing his mate up and +down, bowing his pretty head and playing the agreeable generally, +while she indulges in all manner of airs and graces, pretends to be +very coy, and acts the coquette to perfection. But her lover's +devotion conquers at last, and in due time the fair flirt surrenders, +yields up her liberty and settles down as a dutiful wife and loving +mother, bringing up a family of sons and daughters, and no doubt duly +instructing them in the part they in their turn are to take in life's +drama. The black swans are not prettier than white ones, but they are +rarer, and when both are floating together over the smooth surface of +those lovely Australian lakes they present a picture of which one +never wearies, see it as often as one may. + +[Illustration: FOREST OF FERNS.] + +The count de Beauvoir, in describing a hunt of several days, speaks +with enthusiasm of the flocks of wild-turkeys and blue cranes, but +bewails his ill-success in running down the huge emus that stalked +before the hunters faster than their horses could gallop. He +describes also a kangaroo-hunt, and a single combat with an old +kangaroo, grizzled and gray, that in a hand-to-hand fight for a long +time parried all the hunter's efforts to take him, either living or +dead. He was brought down at last by a revolver, and his skin was +carried off as a trophy of victory. The cattle-hunt was even more +exciting, in the wild flight of four or five thousand terrified +beeves, rushing pell-mell through the tall grass or over sandy plains, +stopping occasionally to hide their terrified faces from the dangers +that beset them, but one occasionally succumbing to the trusty weapons +of the count and his comrades. The hunters were certainly not +encumbered with superfluous garments, several of the boys being +clothed only in a pair of boots, and none with more than a single +garment. The immense droves of cattle and sheep herded together in +Australia cannot fail to awaken the surprise of the visitor on his +first arrival in the country, an Australian herdsman reckoning his +flocks by hundreds, and even a thousand or two heads of cattle owned +by one man being no unusual occurrence. Indeed, everything seems on a +mammoth scale in Australia--forests of timber trees that outlive +generation after generation of men, and yet have no thought of dying; +ferns like those near Hobart Town, that lift their graceful fringes +high over men's heads or serve as shade trees to their dwellings; +gigantic emus flying like the fabled Mazeppa over plains the extent of +which the eye cannot measure; and those fathomless mines of +inexhaustible wealth that seem to promise gold enough for all the +world for the centuries yet unborn. + +[Illustration: LIBRARY OF MELBOURNE.] + +Aristocracy is a queer thing in Australia. Many of those now claiming +"respectability" and holding themselves aloof from the members of the +settlements did not have their expenses paid out by government, +because they were born on the island--not convicts, but only the +offspring of those who were. In the race for wealth educated and +refined gentlemen are generally outstripped by those who with less +mind have greater physical strength, more practical knowledge of the +world and more tact in overcoming difficulties; so that one meets +wealthy miners who cannot write their own names, and learned +bootblacks and cooks who have taken their degrees in mathematics and +the languages. One millionaire who had a fancy to be thought literary +sent regular contributions to the English magazines, every line of +which was written by his footman, to whom he paid an enormous salary, +not so much for writing as for keeping his secret, and it was years +before it leaked out. In the struggle for position the man of gold +gains the day, and not unfrequently brute force or unscrupulous +trickery is called in to keep that which wealth has purchased. + +Melbourne is the commercial metropolis of Australia, as Sydney is the +capital of the penal colony, and though both are large, well-built +and thriving cities, they are strikingly in contrast with each other. +One is the scion of a lordly house, "to the manner born"--the other, +the _parvenu_ of yesterday, whose gold makes his position. Melbourne +is to all intents a European city, with its boulevards and regular +streets, whole blocks of costly stores and princely dwellings, and +environed by elegant villas and country-seats adorned with gardens, +vineyards and choice shrubbery. It has its English and Chinese +quarters, the latter as essentially Chinese as if built in the +Celestials' own land, and brought over, mandarin buttons, tiny +teapots, opium-pipes and all, in one of their own junks. The English +quarter contains, besides the government buildings, several schools, +hospitals, churches and benevolent institutions, the public library, a +polytechnic hall, a national museum, theatres and opera-houses, all +built in a style alike elegant and substantial. The library only ten +years after it was opened numbered 41,000 volumes, and has since been +largely increased. Science rather than literature, and practical +utility more than entertainment, have been kept in the ascendency in +the management of this institution. The hall is open for daily +lectures, and some valuable telescopes and other apparatus belong to +the institution. The cabinet of natural history contains many rare +specimens that serve to elucidate the ancient and modern history of +the country, especially in regard to some of the animals and +vegetables indigenous to the island. The museum is built on a +commanding eminence, and from its spacious windows one sees clearly to +the opposite side of Hobson's Bay. + +[Illustration: THE ENVIRONS OF MELBOURNE.] + +The city is not built on the sea-coast, but two or three miles from +the shore, its port being Sandridge, with which it is connected by +railway. Vessels of all nations crowd the harbor, and the streets are +as full of busy life and gay frivolity as those of Havre or +Marseilles. The drives in the environs of the city are replete with +picturesque beauty--meadows dotted with many--tinted flowers and +magnificent forest trees, about which are festooned flowering vines +and creepers. Their thick branches are the resort of cockatoos, +parrots and paroquets in brilliant plumage, and perhaps most beautiful +of all, because most rare, sparrows, not clothed, like ours, in sombre +gray, but rejoicing in vestments of green and gold. But brilliancy of +plumage is the solitary charm of these feathered beauties, for their +voices are harsh and their song a very burlesque on the name of music. + + + + +FORECAST. + + + When I, for ever out of human sight, + Shall seem beyond the wish for anything, + Oh then believe at morning and at night + My soul shall listen for thy whispering. + + The work of life may so fill up the day + That not a thought of me shall venture there; + And after labor Love may charm away + What could not enter for the press of care. + + But when thou'st bidden all _this_ world good-night, + And enterest that which lies so close to mine, + _Call me by name_--it is my angel's right-- + And I shall hear thee, though I give no sign. + + When morn undoes the high, white gates of sleep, + Pause, as thou comest forth, to speak to me: + It may seem vain, for silence will be deep, + But uttered wishes wait on prophecy. + + And when some day far distant thou dost feel + That night and morrow will no longer come, + The pitying heart will let me then reveal + My presence to thee on the passage home. + +CHARLOTTE F. BATES. + + + + +THE MATCHLESS ONE: + +A TALE OF AMERICAN SOCIETY, IN FOUR CHAPTERS. + + +CHAPTER III. + + +I was nearly asleep, though my thoughts were entertaining enough, when +again footsteps entered the arbor below. This time the intruder did +not pause. A woman's voice humming an air seemed to approach, and in a +moment more a swift hand parted the bushes behind me, and Blanche +Furnaval appeared. I was very much surprised, but stood up to make way +for her, at the same time throwing aside my cigar. + +"I beg your pardon," she exclaimed immediately, clearly as much +astonished as I: "I did not know any one had found this pretty spot +but myself." + +"I think I know how to look for pretty things," I replied, gazing at +her face, which was glowing from quick walking, though her breath came +evenly through her parted lips. + +"Do you never tire of making those silly speeches?" she asked, lifting +her gray eyes candidly to my face. "Excuse me, you need not answer: I +am very brusque. You see I did not expect to find any one here, and +consequently left my company manners at home. I am sorry to have +disturbed you," she continued, turning to go. + +"Let us compare notes, Miss Blanche, and see to whom the rock belongs +by right of discovery. Won't you be seated?" I said, making a place +for her. + +"I came to see the sunset," she replied after a moment's hesitation, +"and if it won't incommode you I will stay. Should you not care to +talk, please read on: I shall not mind. And won't you light another +cigar? I have no objection to cigars in the open air, though I think +them disgusting in the house." + +"Thank you," I said as she sat down and I took another Havana for the +one I had thrown away at her arrival. "Will you relate to me the +manner of your discovery? I would rather not read." + +"About two weeks ago," she began, looking over the landscape, and not +at me, "I was sitting in the arbor below, and I heard Mrs.--well, a +lady coming whom, to be sincere with you, I dislike. If I stayed, I +knew she would have a long talk with me: if I walked on, she might +call me back. I looked about in haste for a hiding-place. The bushes +near me appeared as if I might get behind them: I pushed through, saw +a little path, which I followed, turned round the base of a hillock, +and found two rocks, upon which I raised myself with the help of a +sapling. Then, carefully parting the branches, I saw this," waving her +small hand that I might see it, but still not looking at me. "The sun +was just setting; away down in yonder field the sorrel was as fire in +its rays; a catbird was reciting a merry pastoral in the thicket +beyond; two goats stood high on a bank, like satyrs guarding the +place. You see why I come again." + +"I have the right of discovery," I cried gayly: "I made the path and +placed the rocks. I claim it, that I may lay it at your feet." + +"Do you like it?" she asked, turning to me and laying a slight stress +on "you." + +"I told you I admired pretty things, and you know, Miss Blanche, I am +a bit of a poet." + +She smiled: "Ah yes; but do you really admire this?" + +"Of course I do--think it dem foine." + +She laughed outright--a laugh so gay that I joined her, though I could +not tell why. "As for sorrel," I added, "you ought to see The +Beauties: the fields are full of it, though the farmers don't seem to +admire it much." + +"Well, I am very fond of the sorrel," she replied, "with the +clover-tops, the seed-globes of dandelion and the daisies by the +water: it makes quite a bouquet in yonder field." + +I looked at her to see if she was chaffing me: not at all--she was +sober as a judge. + +"Dem foine! I beg pardon, very nice indeed. How would you like to +carry it to the ball this evening?" + +"I never take anything to a ball that I care to have appreciated," she +answered dryly. + +"Aw! That is the reason you won't sing down there: isn't it, now? But, +really, they thought it fine the other night--quite clever, I heard +some of them say." + +"Oh yes," with a weary smile that had a little contempt in it. + +"Did that ugly little Italian know very much about singing? You seemed +pleased with his admiration." + +"That ugly Italian, as you call him, has heard some of the best prima +donnas in Europe. He is poor, he is seedy--for his voice left him just +as he was on the eve of success--but he was the only person in the +room who could tell me that I sang as well as the greatest of them." +Her voice quivered as she spoke. + +"You are mistaken indeed, Miss Blanche," I said. "Any fellow there +would have paid you the same compliment if you had given him a chance; +but you were so confoundedly wrapped up in that Italian chap that you +would not look at the rest of us." + +"I don't care for the compliment," she said, cooling down directly: "I +care for the truth. They don't know if I sing well or not." + +"Then you only sing to be admired, Miss Furnaval?" + +"I don't sing at all," she said, coloring. + +"But you _should_ sing." + +"Why?" she asked. + +"To please--to give pleasure to others." + +"I don't care to please any one but myself." + +"But that is not right, you know. Now, I try to please everybody." + +"Do you always succeed, Mr. Highrank?" + +"Yes, always; and though it's tiresome at times, I bear it. Last +autumn you never saw anything to compare to it--in the country, you +know. But it's my vocation, and I try to live up to it. People do +wrong who have talents and do not use them. That is why I blame you, +Miss Blanche." + +"It is not worth the trouble. I have withdrawn my hand from market, +and intend to please myself the remainder of my life." + +"From what market? What do you mean?" + +"I mean the matrimonial market, of course." + +"Why won't you marry? if I may ask." + +"It is too much trouble. I won't be a slave to the caprices of the +world so that I may be called amiable. Now, if I don't wish to appear +in the parlor, I stay in my room; if I don't wish to receive callers, +I refuse; if I don't wish to attend a party, I stay at home. I need +not visit to keep myself 'before, the public.' I can be as eccentric +as I like. When I disagree with a gentleman, I can contradict him; if +I do not feel like smiling, I frown; and when I want to walk alone, I +go. I can please myself from morning till night, and I enjoy it." + +"You like clever fellows, don't you?" I asked, remembering the +conversation I had just overheard. + +"Yes," she answered, and then speaking decidedly, added, "and I like +'poor devils,' as you call them: they are not so dreadfully conceited +as _some_ men are." + +"I tell you what," I said--just for the purpose of getting her opinion +of myself, you know--"I am a clever fellow: I hope you like me." + +She glanced round--I suppose to see if I was in earnest--then turning +away said, "Y-e-s, pretty well." + +It was rough on a chap, but she looked so sweet as she said it, and +sat so very unconscious that I was looking at her, that I thought I +would give her a little advice. I could not get it out of my head how +Mrs. Stunner said she would end badly, and it seemed a pity for a +charming girl such as she was. So I said, persuasively, "Now, don't +you go and marry one of those poor chaps, Miss Blanche. You see, you +will be regularly unhappy, and all that sort of thing, if you do." + +"How do you know?" she asked. + +"Oh," I replied, not knowing what to to say for an instant, "I heard +it." + +"Heard what?" she said, looking at me curiously. + +"That you would do it, and would be unhappy." + +"A report made to order by those good people whom you want me to take +pains to please. 'Tis a method to make a harmless rival of me. Rumor +that I am engaged, and to a man beneath me, and of course other +gentlemen will not pay me attention. Mean! mean! But no matter," she +continued after a moment: "it won't hurt me. I am not engaged, and +don't intend to be; and it is nothing new for me to know that the +world is not particularly truthful." + +"But why not marry? You had better change your mind--indeed you had: I +advise you for your good." + +"You say I must not select a poor man, and the rich require too much +devotion from the ladies. You gentlemen let us take all the trouble to +please: you present yourselves, and expect us to fall at your feet._I_ +am waiting for a chevalier who will go the world over to win me--who +will consider it an honor if I finally accept him, instead of +fancying, that I am honored by his choice." + +"I used to have ideas of that kind, but found them false. It _is_ an +honor to receive a proposal, you know. Every one thinks so, else they +would not tell of it and brag as they do. By being so unlike the rest +of the world you will end badly--indeed you will, Miss Blanche." + +"Look for a moment at the case as I put it. A man asks me to marry +him: he likes me--thinks I shall make him a good wife. He woos me to +please himself, not to please me, and you think I should be grateful +because his vanity prompts him to believe that I am highly honored. +But this is only one of the many fallacies which people adopt without +question. It is good for a man to be refused several times: it takes +some little conceit out of him, and makes him more humble and nice for +the poor woman who is ultimately to be his wife. I am convinced that +there is no gentleman who makes his first proposal that has a doubt of +his being accepted. Now, is there?" she asked, appealing to me. + +"Well, you are about right. Women are not so particular about making a +choice, you know. It isn't so hard for them to find, somebody that +suits. I suppose I should be accepted by any girl I might ask. +Frankly, now," I said, wishing to give her a poser, "wouldn't you +accept me?" + +"Frankly," she replied, taking my own tone, "I would not." + +"And why not?" I asked. + +"There would be too many young ladies made unhappy through losing +you," she answered banteringly. + +"But you know I should not care for that: I can't marry them all." + +"You told me you thought it your duty to please everybody." + +"Come, now, think of it, and tell the real truth: you know if I marry +it would have to be but one girl." + +"You might go to Utah." + +"You won't answer. Silence gives consent, don't it?" I said in a tone +of triumph. + +"Do you really want me to answer your question?" she asked, looking at +me queerly. + +"By Jove!" I thought, "it's coming now. I've pushed it too far--never +thought what I was doing: she will certainly accept me, and I cannot +retract." It took me but a moment to see my danger and to make up my +mind. A gentleman will always sustain his word. My voice was shaking a +little from the greatness of the resolution I had made, but I managed +to say pretty steadily, "Of course I do." It was so very sudden, you +know. I felt I should be an engaged man in five minutes more. + +"You are awfully funny," she exclaimed after quite a pause. + +"I believe I am considered witty," I replied, hardly knowing what I +said: I tell you, that sort of thing makes a man confoundedly nervous. + +Then she began laughing, and I thought she, would never stop. I did +not feel like laughing, so I just sat and looked at her. + +"Oh my! oh my!" she gasped, trying to control herself, "why didn't you +say No? You never intended to ask me at all. It is the funniest thing +I ever heard of. Oh my! I shall die of laughing. I think _you_ will +'end badly' if you go on so," she said, quoting what I had repeated. +"What induced you to act in this manner?" + +I saw that she had found me out and thought I was a fool. This +provoked me, and I replied, rather warmly, pretending I did not know +what she meant, "It appears to me an odd manner you have of receiving +an offer, Miss Blanche. I think you should at least treat me with +politeness." + +She became serious in a moment when she saw I was hurt, and did not +lose her good-temper at my rude speech, but said pleasantly, "You are +not fond of being teased, Mr. Highrank. Never mind: I don't intend to +take advantage of your blunder, nor keep you long in suspense. Go +"--and she smiled as if she really could not help it--"go, and be +sensible in future." + +"You mean that you won't marry me?" I asked. + +"Don't talk of that: let us pretend we were in fun--as of course we +were--and let me thank you for a very agreeable afternoon." + +I declare she looked so bewitching as she spoke that I wished she had +thought me in earnest and accepted me. It was real good in her, giving +a fellow a second chance when she might have snapped him up directly. +I think girls ought to give a man two chances, but they seldom do. +Many a poor soul repents the moment the words are spoken, but he can't +help himself. Generally, when 'tis done 'tis done. + +She made a motion to rise: I could not permit her to go without an +explanation. She had been so generous, and she was so beautiful, that +I began to desire quite earnestly that she would be my wife, and that +we could settle down at The Beauties together: she would like the +sorrel at any rate. Perhaps Fortune had sent her to me this very +afternoon, and I ought not to let the opportunity slip, but ask her +seriously before she left. Of course she would accept me if she knew I +was in earnest. She was too delicate to take advantage of a +mistake--mighty few girls so particular. The more I entertained the +idea, the more I liked it, so I resolved to speak. I fancied that she +was a little cool in her manner: possibly she thought I ought not have +jested on such a subject, but I would make it all right now. I was +sitting on a stone a little lower than she. I leaned forward and +placed my arm on the rock and round her--just near enough to keep her +there, you know. Then I spoke: "I want to beg your pardon, Miss +Blanche. You are offended, but I did not mean to annoy you: I esteem +you too highly for that." + +"I am not at all offended, not at all," she said heartily, at the same +time trying to rise, but as I was leaning on her dress she could not. +"I must beg you to move: I am going home," she added, looking round: +then seeing where my arm was, her tone became slightly angry: "Will +you allow me to rise?" + +"Not until you listen to me. Do not be displeased when I tell you the +truth. I was jesting, or at least did not think what I was asking, a +moment ago, but now I am in real earnest. I want you to marry +me--truly I do. I love you, and am willing to do everything you can +desire. See, I will kneel if you like devotion;" and I fell on my +knees before her, catching her little white hands and kissing them. +"Won't you love me?" I felt as I looked into her sweet face that I +could do anything in the world for her. + +"A little less devotion and more respect would suit me better, Mr. +Highrank. Will you stop this farce and release my dress? I shall +certainly be offended if you do not rise instantly." + +"I will obey you if you will give me one kind word." + +"I have none for you," she said frigidly. + +"You think I have been too hasty--that I am not really in love with +you; but I am, I assure you. I fall, in love very quickly--indeed I +do. I have often been in love with a girl the first time I saw her, +and I have known you ever so long. Won't you believe me, Blanche?" + +"I believe you are treating me in a most ungentlemanly manner in +keeping me here when I don't wish to stay." + +"I can't let you go," I said as I rose, but standing so that she could +not pass, "till you are convinced that I love you, for I do, and shall +always. Surely I have a right to an answer." + +"I thought you were good-natured"--now she spoke reproachfully--"and +you are teasing me in the most disagreeable way. Please let me pass." + +"Do you think me so base as to tease you on such a subject? What shall +I do to persuade you that I am sincere." + +"Let me go home." + +"May I go with you?" + +"I would rather you did not come, please." + +"Why are you so unkind?" I asked, taking her hand. "Tell me you love +me, and let us be happy." + +"But I don't love you," she said, trying to withdraw her hand, and the +tears coming into her eyes. "I don't love you, and I want to go home." +She turned from me to hide her face, looking about at the same time +for some way of escape. + +"But you will love me by to-morrow," I replied soothingly. "I may ask +you again, may I not?" and then she looked so pitiful, with the tears +rolling from her frightened eyes and her hand trembling in mine, that +I thought I would put my arm around her--to comfort her, you know. +"Poor child!" I said, drawing her to me as they do in the theatre, "you +don't know your own heart: rest here." + +I wish you had seen her!--I _wish_ you had seen her! She drew herself +from me quivering with indignation, her eyes% sparkled, and she was in +such a rage that she could hardly speak, but after an effort she broke +forth in a torrent of words: "I have an utter contempt for you, and I +will bear this no longer. You think you are irresistible--that all the +girls are in love with you--that your wealth buys you impunity--that +your position will excuse your rudeness--and that you can dispense +with politeness because your name is Highrank! I would like to box +your ears. I despise you and your behavior so thoroughly that were you +a hundred times in earnest in asking me to marry you, I would refuse +you a hundred times!" Then she rushed past me, and I was so astonished +that I did not try to prevent her. + +The idea of her refusing _me_, and in such a manner! No wonder if she +should end badly. Mrs. Stunner was right. However, I am glad she _did_ +refuse me, for she must certainly be a little wrong in her head. +Wonder if her ancestors were insane or anything. She was deuced +handsome when she got angry. Never saw a woman angry at me before: +something very queer about her. Had a contempt for me, too! Why should +she have that? I don't understand it. Said I was conceited--that I +thought all the girls would marry me. And so they would, all but +herself; and that shows there is something odd about her--not at all +like any other woman. Deuced glad she did not take me at my word. +Queerest thing! She cried when I put my arm around her: never knew a +woman would cry at _that_ before. Little Eva wouldn't. I believe I +like tender women best--at one time I thought they were not nice. What +a fool I was! What should I do with a wife I could not kiss? I wonder +if Blanche will speak to me again? Maybe all this was a dodge, women +have so many; but she looked in earnest. I might have frightened her +by being so sudden, but why the deuce should women be frightened at +proposals, when they pass their lives in trying to get them? So Mrs. +Stunner said. Poor birdie!, what a soft hand she has! Maybe some women +are modest: I will ask Hardcash about it. She may not have known what +she was saying--agitated, and all that sort of thing. I will see how +she acts to-night--need not ask her again if she is not civil. Eva +will comfort me if I need it. What a sweet voice she had till she got +angry! but she was very odd. + +I strolled home to the hotel, musing over the adventure of the +afternoon. Blanche was a girl who might be included in the star type +that I had once sought for: wanted to be worshiped and play the +superior. Now that I had found her I was surprised how little I liked +that style. Just as if a good-looking fellow like me was a bear or a +wild Indian, to be afraid of! I don't see that she would have been any +the worse for it if I _had_ kissed her; and wasn't I as respectful as +her nearest relation? 'Pon honor I was. A very odd girl. I shall ask +Ned Hardcash about it. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +I never saw Eva looking better than she did that night. I lounged +around the room until I came to her crowd, attached myself there, and +did some heavy flirting. I asked her to take a moonlight stroll, but +her aunt overheard me and gave her a look, upon which she said the air +outside was too cool. I saw the play was to be above-board. Aunt +Stunner had taken matters into her own hands, and the game had +commenced in earnest. Mr. David Todd, Jr., was there, and Eva paid him +a good deal of attention: I did not like it. + +Presently she went off to dance with him, and Aunt Stunner sat down by +me. Fanning herself energetically, she said in a confidential tone, +"Eva is looking sweetly to-night: don't you think so, Mr. Highrank?" + +"Miss Eva always looks jolly," I said shortly. I did not want to talk +to the old lady. + +"Mr. Todd appears to think so too," she went on with a nod and a +knowing look at me. Evidently she was playing Todd against Highrank. + +"Mr. David Todd, Jr.?" I asked languidly: "he has thirty thousand a +year, hasn't he?" + +She looked at me sharply for an instant, then smiled and said, "How +should I know, dear Mr. Highrank? It is his rare personal merit that +pleases me. I own I am happy to see him so attentive to the child for +her sake. She is so impulsive and innocent, so likely to fancy a +younger, more dashing kind of man"--here she glanced at me--"that I +acknowledge I do feel anxious to have her settled happily. Not but +that some young men are exceptions," she continued amiably, "and make +excellent husbands." + +"There are two classes of men," I remarked quietly. "They can be +divided into those who make good husbands and those who don't. Wealthy +men are the most superior, and are best fitted to fill the situation." + +"I agree with you entirely: you are a very sensible young man," +enthusiastically replied the old lady, not recognizing the quotation. + +We talked on until Eva came back: then I claimed the next waltz, and +decided I would carry her off from Todd. I pressed her hand, but she +would not respond: it was plain she was obeying orders. + +"Won't you walk with me?" I whispered as we were near an open window +in a pause of the dance. + +"I can't, Charley--indeed I can't," as I tried to draw her outside: "I +will explain another time." + +"You are very cruel," I continued in the same undertone. + +"You don't care if I am," she said a little bitterly. + +"As if I do not care when you use me badly! Won't you tell me what is +the matter?" I asked tenderly. + +"Oh, Mr. Highrank, I am so unhappy!" she whispered. + +"Why so, my dear?" No one could help calling Eva "my dear"; besides, +we were hidden by the heavy window curtain and no one overheard us. + +"I--I--am going to be married," she said. + +"It appears to me that ought to make you particularly merry, oughtn't +it?" + +"But it don't," she answered, sighing. + +"Why not, you foolish girl?" + +"Oh, everything is so different from what I expected." + +"In what way?" + +"W-h-y," she answered slowly, "I thought it would be romantic, and +that he would ask me in the moonlight." + +"Like to-night, for instance?" I said, taking her hand and drawing her +through the low window on to the piazza. + +"Yes," she replied, "and instead of that--" + +"Well, instead of that?" I repeated, seeing she paused. + +"Instead of that, it was in that old parlor of ours. I have never had +a nice time since we took it two weeks ago, odious green place! I +detest green furniture; it is so unbecoming," she said pathetically. + +"And who is the happy dog--I mean gentleman'--Eva? I may call you Eva, +just for this evening yet, mayn't I?" + +"I don't care if--if--Oh my! what a name! Charley, did you ever hear +such a dreadful name as David?" + +"What! old Todd? It isn't old Todd?" I asked, laughing. + +"It is very unkind of you to laugh when you know I must marry him." + +"I won't laugh," I said, putting her arm in mine and walking down the +verandah. "Come, sit on this sofa and tell me all about it." + +"Well," she said, half pouting and half crying, "I must marry some one +this season--both mamma and auntie say so--and I can't marry Ned." + +"Ned Hardcash? You don't mean to say he was spooney on you?" + +"Yes he was, but I told him he was too poor." + +"You are very reasonable, Eva." + +"You need not talk that way. Mamma would not hear of it. I could not +let him ask her, for she would have been so angry, and she and auntie +would have scolded me; and you don't know how fearfully auntie can +abuse one when she begins." + +"How did Ned take your answer?" + +"Oh, he just went away, and did not care a bit, and I have not seen +him since." + +"He did not care?" thinking I now had the clew to Ned's savage manner +for the week past. "When did it happen?" + +"I can't exactly remember: it was soon after we took the parlor. +Auntie would not let me invite him there, and he got angry and jealous +of Mr. Todd, who was with me all the time, and--" + +"But that showed he loved you, don't you think so?" + +"Well, perhaps he did a little: he told me if I Would trust him he +would not let mamma or auntie scold; but you know that was nonsense. I +would like to see any one prevent them if they want to do it. And he +hadn't any money, and we should have starved: I told him so. Then he +said there was no danger of that: he could manage to keep the wolf +from the door. I knew of course that be could easily keep wolves away, +for there are none here, and I would not live in that horrid West; but +that would not prevent us starving: auntie said we would starve." + +"Poor Ned!" I murmured. + +"You pity poor Ned," said she, now sobbing, "but you don't pity poor +me at all, and I am the most wretched." + +"Come, don't cry, Eva," I said, putting my arm around her: it was very +dark in that corner, and I knew Eva would not fuss about it, as a +certain other person did not long ago. "What shall I do for you, my +dear? Do you want Ned back? I'll tell him and make it up between you: +shall I?" + +"No, no! He is so cross and fierce that I should be afraid of him: he +was dreadfully ill-tempered when he left me that night." + +"But that was because he loved you, Eva." + +"When people love me I don't want them to be disagreeable: I should +not want to vex any one if I loved him." + +"You will make a dear, kind, amiable little wife, I know." + +"But I don't want to marry Mr. Todd," she said, still sobbing on my +shoulder. "Oh, Charley, what shall I do?" + +Could I find a lovelier, more tender, sweeter wife than the girl now +in my arms? My ideas of affectionate women had changed, dating from +about two weeks back, and the conduct of Miss Blanche, who would +neither see me nor speak to me since that afternoon, strengthened me +in the opinion that a woman is best with some heart. Was it any +wonder, then, that I decided on the spot to answer Eva's question of +"Charley, what shall I do?" by saying "Marry _me_, my dear: 'tis the +only way I see for you to get out of the scrape"? Just as my resolve +became fixed I heard footsteps near. In another moment, scarcely +giving Eva time to wipe her eyes, those three sisters, the Greys, came +trooping by, and stopped in front of us. + +"Spooning as usual?" remarked one of them to me. + +"Miss Eva, won't you ask Mr. Todd to give him a lesson in proposing? I +don't believe he knows how to do it. A deplorable state of ignorance!" +said another. + +A merry group soon joined them, and I did not get another chance that +evening. However, I went to my room happy, for I knew I should be +successful on the morrow. Eva loved me: her mother had said as much +when I overheard her in the arbor on the mountain-side, and I knew +Aunt Stunner would have no objection, as my income exceeded Todd's. In +an easy-chair by the open window I thought over my resolution, and +counted myself a fortunate man. In the midst of this reverie the door +burst open, shut with a bang, and Ned Hardcash threw himself on a +fauteuil opposite me. + +"What's up now?" I cried. "Has Harry Basset lost?" Ned was always deep +on the turf, and I could think of nothing else that would cut him up +so much. + +"D----n Harry Basset! I say, Charley, haven't you some brandy?" + +"Too hot for brandy to-night," I said: "take some of this," pushing +him a bottle. + +"Stuff!" and he looked at it contemptuously. "If you can't treat a +poor devil more like a man when he comes, he will go;" and he rose +with a jerk. + +"Sit down, old fellow! or rather go to that closet and get what you +want--enough there for a night or two." + +He looked the worse for hard drink already, but of course I could not +refuse him if he wanted it. It is true politeness, if your friend +wants to commit suicide, to sharpen the razor for him and ask no +questions. I leaned back while he mixed a glass with seltzer and drank +it greedily. Finally, when he looked more composed, I said, "I want to +ask you a question, Ned." I thought of Blanche Furnaval's strange +conduct on seeing Ned before me, and resolved to ask him if he could +explain it. "I believe you know something about the queer ways of +women. Can you tell--" + +"Look here, Charley," he broke out savagely: "I want one thing +understood. You are always teasing and bothering about the women; and +as you have not got a piece of flesh as big as a pea for a heart, you +will never understand anything about them; so, if you don't want to +set me crazy, just let that subject down while I am here." + +"It's a woman, then," I said, forgetting in my surprise to be angry. +"Cheer up, old boy! You will soon get over it: no woman's worth it." + +"Not to you, perhaps, but it may be the contrary with me," he answered +moodily. + +There was a long silence. I smoked, he drank: at last I broke it by +saying unconsciously, "She is a dear little thing." My thoughts had +reverted to Eva. + +"Ah, you saw it?" cried Ned eagerly. "Then I can talk to you about it. +You may well say she is a dear little thing. She is an angel--too good +for a fellow like me. But the poor child dotes on me: that is the +hardest part of the cursed thing. How she laid her head on my shoulder +and cried, and said she did not want to marry that other fellow, d----n +him! It almost broke my heart," he continued dejectedly, "and it is +not of the stuff that breaks easily. I told her I would take her off +and we would run for it, though Heaven knows what we should do +afterward. Sometimes it seems as if I could not bear it. I wish I +could strangle Todd: that would be some comfort." + +"What makes you so savage against old Todd?" + +"Don't you know he and Eva are engaged? All owing to the interference +of that old Stunner. What business was it of hers, I wonder? And poor +Eva disliking him as she does, and so unhappy about it, and I can't +help her! My cursed luck, always;" and Ned heaved a brandy-and-seltzer +sigh. + +Yes, it was Eva. I had forgotten all she had told me about Ned, or +rather she had not told me as much as he did. She sobbed on his +shoulder, did she? His shoulder! disgusting! She dote on him! he +comfort her! It was horrible! A sudden idea struck me. "Did you kiss +her, Ned?" I asked gruffly. + +"You are asking a d----d impertinent question, old fellow, and of +course I sha'n't answer you;" and he tried to make his drunken face +look grave. + +I should have liked to throw him out of the window, but the question +was, as he said, hardly one to be asked; and then, if she allowed it, +what right had I--It was enough. It might be pleasant to have an +affectionate wife, but no drinking gambler like Ned Hardcash should +ever be able to say or remember that he had kissed the mistress of The +Beauties. + +I was sad at heart: hope now failed me. Poor little Eva! I must bury +her image with the "wild rose," with "my star," with the "sympathizing +friend." All, all are emptiness--are names, are dreams. The poets were +old-fogy chaps: they never saw the women of to-day, and well for them +they did not. + +I am still unmated: I bear the loneliness that awaits all great +excellence. The sun has no companion in glory; the moon shines alone; +there was but one phoenix; the white elephant is solitary. So it must +be with me. I am not misanthropic: I have learned to bear my +superiority with philosophy. I was groomsman at Eva's wedding the +other day, and gave her a handsome present, as it was expected I +should. I still like my fellow-beings, and fulfill the duties of life +to the best of my abilities. I flirt, I dance, walk, drive, pursue my +usual occupations, give bachelor-parties at The Beauties, and have +grown contented from habit, but I am a confirmed old--or shall I say +young?--bachelor. + +ITA ANIOL PROKOP. + + + + +MUNICH AS A PEST-CITY. + + +From a time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary, +Munich has had the reputation of being an exceptionally unhealthy +place. All ancient towns have their legends of desolating plagues, the +record of an ignorant defiance of sanitary laws, but such stories are +especially numerous in the traditions of Munich, and are connected +with circumstances which show that epidemic diseases were formerly +extremely frequent and virulent in that City. + +The absurd festival of the "Metzger-Sprung" (Butchers' Leap), which +takes place annually on the Monday before Ash-Wednesday, when +butcher-boys attain to the second grade of their apprenticeship by +dressing themselves in long robes trimmed with calves' tails, and +springing into the old fountain in the Marien-Platz in the face of an +admiring crowd, is held in commemoration of a similar frolic contrived +several hundred years ago by lads of the same trade during the +prevalence of a horrible epidemic, for the purpose of tempting the +frightened citizens out of their gloomy houses into fresh air and +merriment, which these sensible youths had concluded to be the best +safeguards against disease. The grotesque procession of the +"Schäffler-Tanz" (Coopers' Dance), which occurs once in every seven +years, just before the Carnival, has a similar origin. One of the +favorite myths of Munich is that of an enormous dragon which lived in +the ground beneath the city and poisoned all the wells with his +venomous breath, until, being at last lured to the surface by seeing +his reflection in a mirror held above a certain spring, a brave +knight slew him and saved the people from further destruction. The +former imminence of danger from pestilence is shown also in the songs +of the night-watchmen, who every hour exhorted to prayer for exemption +from the plague, as well as from the terrors of fire, sword and +famine. + +And this evil fame still clings to Munich, in spite of all that has +been done to improve its condition, and of all that has been written +to purge it of its contempt. Efforts of the latter kind have indeed +been prodigious, increasing with the growing importance of the place +as a centre of education in science and art. Local medical authorities +issue from time to time ingenious pamphlets on hygienic +investigations, with particular application to the suspicion under +which their city labors in this regard; the newspapers keep up the +whitewashing process with diligence, not forgetting to hold up +frequently before their readers the sanitary shortcomings of Vienna +and Berlin; nay, the traveler is met at the very threshold of his +hotel by a tiny tract containing not only a list of the principal +sights, but also a comforting assurance that the climate is not so bad +as has been represented, and that by wearing sufficient wrappings and +avoiding the ordinary drinking water, strangers may hope to accomplish +their visit and escape unharmed. Surely no other city takes such +benevolent pains to reassure its inhabitants and instruct and warn its +stranger-guests: perhaps it is because deeds have not kept pace with +words that assertion and argument have hitherto failed of the desired +effect. The protracted, repeated cholera epidemic of 1873-74 may well +challenge a close observation of the situation, surroundings and +sanitary condition of Munich as a means of ascertaining the causes of +this exceptional visitation, as well as of the continual existence of +an indigenous disease which, more than almost any other, is dependent +upon circumstances within the power of man to control. + +Instead, therefore, of constructing the cholera and the typhus out of +our "inner consciousness," as certain of the physicians and hygienists +of Munich, in true German fashion, appear disposed to do, let us look +at some of the facts of the case--facts sufficiently obvious to be +perceptible to any person of intelligence, and the nature of which is +so well understood as to be accepted at once as bearing closely upon +the subject in question. + +And first, as to climate. Considering that the cholera, from which +Munich suffers more at every visitation than almost any other European +city, and typhus, which is always at home within its limits, are not, +properly speaking, climatal diseases, it would seem at first sight +unnecessary to consider the situation of Munich in this respect. But +while the principal object of the present paper is to indicate the +causes of the above-mentioned plagues, the fact should not be lost +sight of that nearly all known diseases flourish in this unfortunate +city, many of them owing to its exceptionally bad climate, while the +sudden and extreme changes of temperature which occur in every season +of the year have a tendency to aggravate those ills which find their +sources in more preventable conditions. + +Munich stands upon a high, barren plain, sixteen hundred feet above +the level of the sea, exposed to the full power of the sun in summer, +brooded over by chilly fogs in spring and autumn, and swept the whole +year through by all the storms that accumulate upon the mountains +filling the horizon to the south and east. The air is mountain-air, +_minus_ the aroma and stimulus of evergreen forests, and _plus_ the +miasma of miles of marsh and peat-land and the foulnesses of the city +exhalations. It is the thin air of a high elevation, pleasantly +bracing to persons so fortunate as to possess nerves of iron and lungs +of leather, but extremely irritating to sensitive brains and delicate +chests, and too exhausting, after a time, in its demands upon the most +abundant vitality. It is the boast of certain physicians in Munich +that consumption is rare in that city, but the weekly report of deaths +would seem to contradict this assertion. Certain it is that diseases +of the throat and lungs are very common, especially during the spring, +and that all the rest of the year the whole population suffers more or +less from catarrh. Perhaps if there be less of consumption than one +would expect to find in such a climate, it is because those who would +otherwise be its victims are carried off early by acute inflammation +of the implicated organs. "Of course, if these die in the beginning, +they cannot die at a later period," as a recent medical writer has +wisely and wittily pointed out to certain amateur statisticians who +would fain reduce the mortality of Munich by leaving out of view the +immense percentage of infant deaths. + +The evil effects of the harsh air are increased by the clouds of dust +which the wind is continually raising in the broad graveled +streets--dust the more irritating to eyes, nose and lungs because +largely composed of lime, and which dries with marvelous rapidity +after the frequent heavy showers and protracted rains for which this +region is also remarkable. It is the last resort of the citizens of +Munich, when driven out of every other defence of their climate, to +say, "But it is a good climate for the nerves." One would like to know +for _what_ nerves and _whose_ nerves, since strangers who reside here +for any length of time generally find that any constitutional tendency +to ailments in which the nerves are principally involved is increased, +instead of lessened; and among the natives themselves brain diseases, +strokes of all kinds, fits and cramps, are frequent and fatal, while +the enemy which they fear the most, and which presses them the +hardest, is known by them as "nervous fever," The air is too +stimulating for any but the most robust constitutions; and the sudden +blasts of fierce wind that continually interrupt the enjoyment of even +the few days of otherwise pleasant weather, and the intolerable glare +of the sun upon the dusty streets and squares and monotonous rows, of +light-colored houses, unrelieved, for the most part, by trees or vines +or any green thing, are perpetual irritants which must react +unfavorably upon the general health. Indeed, one begins at last to +find in the harshness of the climate some explanation, if not excuse, +for the roughness of disposition and manner which have made the people +of Munich a proverb among their countrymen and a terror to foreign +residents. + +Another cause of the unhealthiness of Munich is the nature of the +soil. The ground upon which the city is built, as also the land for a +considerable distance round about, was formerly the bed of a lake, and +consists of a loose gravel to the depth of many feet, there being +scarcely enough earth upon the top to furnish subsistence for the +commonest grass and weeds, while trees, esculent vegetables and +flowers can only be raised by preparing a new soil, which must be +continually enriched by artificial means. A proverb says, "Scratch a +Russian and the Tartar shows through;" so one has only to stir the +soil of Munich to find just below the surface the coarse gravel, +defying cultivation. Of course, all the fluid matter deposited upon +the surface that does not exhale in the atmosphere percolates through +this loose stratum until it reaches the rock, where it stagnates and +corrupts, returning into the air in the form of poisonous gases, +instead of undergoing the healthy transformation which is effected in +all soils capable of sustaining vegetable life. If the fluid thus held +in solution were only the rain from heaven, the result would not be so +disastrous; but, unfortunately, there is scarcely any kind of filth +that is not allowed to contribute constantly to the subterranean +supply of moisture. It has been estimated that of the seventy-five +thousand tons of refuse matter which Munich furnishes within a year, +scarcely one-third is carried out of the city: the rest is suffered to +go into the ground upon the spot. Nor can that third which is gathered +up be considered as taken out of harm's way, since all of it that can +be regarded as manure is spread at once upon the neighboring fields, +whence it sends back its stenches upon every wind that blows. + +The people of Munich, according to one of their most famous +chroniclers, have always been noted for their piety ("Fromm waren die +Münchner zu jeder Zeit"), but they have never been celebrated for that +virtue of cleanliness which is said to be akin to godliness: indeed, +they are known amongst other Bavarians as _die dreckigen Münchner_ +("the filthy Munichers"); and certain it is that their city is far +behind the times in all sanitary matters. The introduction of sewers +is a very recent improvement. It will scarcely be believed that many +of the broad, showy streets which came into existence under the +patronage of Ludwig I. were laid out and built up without any +reference to this first necessity of all thoroughfares. Even the +Theresien Strasse has not long rejoiced in a "canal;" and the sewer +was laid in that finest part of the Gabelsberger Strasse which runs +past the Pinakothek and the Polytechnic School as late as the summer +of 1873, while the upper end of the same street, which is notoriously +unhealthy, is still unpaved and undrained. The Munich sewers, however, +are not so great a boon as one might suppose: indeed, they may be +considered as mere receptacles and condensers of the evil substances +and odors that would be promiscuously diffused. Owing to a want of +knowledge or of skill in their construction there is not sufficient +fall to carry away their contents, nor is there any system of flushing +to drive out the sediment and cleanse the pipes. Consequently, there +is a horrible odor ascending at all times from the open gratings, and +frequently the pipes become choked, so as to necessitate the +uncovering of the receptacle at a junction, and the taking out and +carting away of the hideous slime--an operation which, of course, adds +temporary intensity to the usual stench. + +Another source of polluted air is the cellars of a great proportion of +the houses. Of course the families living in the several flats of each +building are all dependent upon one cellar, which is divided off into +compartments according to the number of stories in the house. These +compartments, however, are in many instances separated from each other +by a mere partition of laths or rough boards, so that any want of +cleanliness on the part of an individual house-keeper is sure to +disturb all her neighbors. Owing to the custom of allowing small shops +to be kept in the ground-floor of dwelling-houses there is apt to be a +mingling of articles for storage in the cellar such as is neither +agreeable nor wholesome. Thus, for instance, a dairywoman will fill +the shelves of her compartment with pans of milk: her next neighbor is +perhaps a small dealer in wood, coal and turf, and raises a dust +accordingly; the greengrocer opposite makes the air damp and bitter +with his heaps of neglected vegetables; while the butcher not only has +a right to hang up his newly-slaughtered animals and chop his +sausage-meat inside of his particular compartment, but may allow a +living pig or calf, whose death-hour has not yet arrived, to roam up +and down the dark passages, to the increase of the general dirt and +discomfort. In this connection it may be well to enter a protest +against the Munich regulation, or absence of regulation, which allows +every butcher to slaughter pigs, calves and sheep upon his own +premises. To say nothing of the shocking sights and sounds which are +thereby forced upon the attention of the dwellers in the neighborhood +of such shops, it is impossible, considering the defective drainage +and insufficient water supply, that the practice should not be of +serious injury to the public health. There are also many cellars which +are rented out entirely to fruiterers and green-grocers not living in +the buildings as a place to store their goods for the winter. In such +cases the cellars are apt to remain in a filthy condition, and the +smells that pour from the windows are at once a nuisance to passers-by +and a source of danger to the inhabitants of the houses. But it is not +only the living inhabitants of Munich that are corrupting the heavens +above, the earth beneath and the waters under the earth: the dead in +their graves are busy at the same work. It is a pity that all thinking +persons who still object to the practice of cremation as unnecessary +and impious could not be compelled to take up their residence for a +while in the neighborhood of the two great cemeteries of Munich: they +would not be long in crying out for the adoption of purifying flames +and the innoxious columbarium. + +The Old (or Southern) Cemetery at the time of its first enclosure was +a short distance outside of the city, though not so far as it ought to +have been; but by degrees the streets have been extended to its very +walls, and property-owners build without hesitation handsome dwelling +houses whose windows look directly down upon that field of corruption, +piously denominated "God's Acre." The New Cemetery, on the north side +of the town, has been in use only five or six years, and was from the +beginning but a block or two removed from the nearest houses. The air +in the vicinity of the Old Cemetery is so laden with the smell of +death that even the natives are aware of it, while strangers generally +avoid a second visit. It is a rule that every seven years a portion of +the ground occupied by rented graves shall be dug over for new +tenants, the partially decayed remains found therein being brought +together and buried again in an indiscriminate heap. This method is +about as bad as it could be, but the graves that are left undisturbed +are not much less harmful to the living. These can be leased for a +period of seventy years, the lease to be renewed if desired, but never +for a longer term than seventy years without renewal. Whole +generations of families are thus buried together, each grave being dug +deep enough to hold several coffins one above another, the last one +coming to within a few feet of the surface. Now, when one considers +the nature of the soil, the closeness of the cemetery to the abodes of +the living, the frequency with which the earth is turned over, and the +great number of corpses which in a city of the size of Munich must be +interred every year, an idea can be formed of the disagreeableness and +unhealthiness of the cemeteries. Moreover, bodies are not brought +there to be buried at once, but are placed within twelve hours after +death in the dead-house, where they are allowed to remain forty-eight +hours before burial. This provision, which is in force in most of the +cities of Germany, is a wise one in view of the number of families +inhabiting a single house: it would seem also to offer additional +securities against the horrible fate of being buried alive, though the +time allowed is not sufficient to ensure certainty in suspicious +cases, and is apt to be infringed upon in seasons of epidemic. But, be +that as it may, the continual presence of scores of corpses lying in +open coffins, and separated only by glass doors from the hundreds of +spectators who come daily to gaze upon the ghastly sight, cannot be +otherwise than injurious to the general health. Also, the practice of +the citizens using the cemeteries as a favorite promenade, and of +spending hours in wandering amongst the graves, is highly pernicious: +it would seem as though the people of Munich had fed upon stenches so +long that they could not be satisfied with the ordinary smells of the +houses and streets, but must seek the fountain-head of corruption to +still their morbid craving for the odors of decay. During the height +of the cholera epidemic of the winter of 1873-74 an article appeared +in one of the newspapers, written by a citizen who signed himself "A +Constant Visitor of the Dead-houses;" and the article was answered by +an opponent who signed himself "Another Constant Visitor of the +Dead-houses;" as though no more worthy occupation could be imagined +than this of prowling like ghouls among the victims of the pestilence! + +It is now time to speak of another principal cause of the +unhealthiness of Munich, perhaps the most important one of all--the +water. As before stated, Munich is situated on what was formerly the +bed of a lake: the ground, therefore, is full of springs, and from +these the water-supply of the inhabitants has always been obtained. +There is a well in the court of almost every house, in close proximity +to the vault, the refuse-pit and the drain, and well impregnated also, +doubtless, with that bugbear of Munich hygienists, "the +ground-water." The most ignorant citizen knows that the well-water is +not fit to drink, and avoids it as a beverage; still, its use +necessarily enters largely into all domestic arrangements. Children +are frequently thirsty, and cannot be kept from the pumps and +fountains; the poor are not able to afford a constant supply of beer +(and, for that matter, the beer itself is made with the same +material); it is used in cooking and for washing and bathing; and +though its impurities are lessened through boiling, it is so corrupt +that nothing short of complete distillation could make it wholesome +for either outward or inward application. Strangers are warned against +drinking it, and in numerous instances among the citizens bowel +complaints and typhus have been traced directly to its poison. It is +true that a small portion of the inhabitants are more favored in +respect to their water-supply. Within a few years the water of two +springs rising a little way out of the city, at Brunnthal and +Thalkirchen, has been introduced into a few streets and houses, and, +though by no means pure, it is vastly better than that of the wells. +But the whole yield from these sources is not sufficient for more than +a third of the inhabitants; and the Thalkirchner water has recently +been corrupted by the breaking in of the Isar, in consequence of an +attempt to enlarge the spring. + +But besides the unfavorable nature of the climate and soil of +Munich--which cannot be helped--and the shameful condition of its +sewerage and water-supply--for which the city government is mainly +responsible--there are many accessory causes of disease to be found in +the habits and customs of the people. The open-air gatherings of the +Germans are, in many respects, a pleasant-and praiseworthy trait of +their social life, but the practice needs to be held in judicious +restraint to make it safe for the citizens of Munich. The changes of +temperature in that region are so frequent and so severe, and the +atmosphere at night is so heavily charged with moisture and malaria, +that the mere tarrying late in public gardens is dangerous; but when +to this source of danger are added the imbibing of copious draughts of +ice-cold beer and the eating of suppers of heavy food, such as +sausages, roast pork, radishes, etc., it is easy to see how a sudden +check of perspiration might react upon a gorged stomach and produce +the fevers and inflammation which abound. + +Attention has been called to the peculiar soil of Munich as a +disadvantageous characteristic of the locality. There is, however, a +strip of land following the course of the Isar and bordering the city +on the north-eastern side, which is an exception to the general +barrenness, it having been gradually formed out of the soil and +vegetation brought down the river from more fruitful regions during +periods of inundation. It is a low, marshy, heavily-timbered tract, +which has been partially drained and laid out as a public park, the +so-called English Garden--spot beloved of the people for its welcome +shades, where artificial waterfalls, from the "Isar rolling rapidly," +add chill to the natural dampness; where unwilling streamlets creep +slowly through tortuous channels toward a stagnant pond, and +pestiferous miasma, rising like incense at the going down of the sun, +broods over the meadows until his rising again. It was in one of the +streets bordering this park that the cholera broke out in 1873, and +there too, Kaulbach, one of its last victims, had his home. So +notorious is the spot as a breeding-place of typhus that it is +generally abandoned at sunset; but the same crowd that hurry out of +its dripping shades at twilight return in the early summer mornings +before the dew has dried on the grass or the poisonous damps have +exhaled from the glens and thickets. + +So long as the sun is in the sky it is fine weather to a Municher, no +matter what wind may blow or what evil the earth may be bringing +forth. Thus, on Christmas Day of 1873, when the weather, though +unusually mild for the season, was still windy and chilly, and utterly +unfit for any open-air enjoyment other than a brisk walk, every +beer-garden in the city was filled with an eating and drinking +multitude; and this, too, when a cold was especially to be +deprecated, as the cholera was increasing every hour. And so on all +Sundays and feast-days and fast-days and fairs there is a general +pouring out of the population into places of amusement near and +remote, no matter what may be the state of the weather or what the +condition of the public health. + +But, though the people of Munich are extremely fond of staying out of +doors, they are by no means lovers of fresh air in their houses. With +the dread of fever always before their eyes, they make all close when +they go to bed, forgetting that "the only air at night is night air;" +and, hardened by habit, they spend long winter evenings in +concert-rooms and tavern beer-halls, made stifling with tobacco smoke +and foul with accumulated breaths; while at home, especially among the +poorer classes, the air is purposely unchanged in order to economize +heat. Even the Odeon Music-Hail, the place where aristocratic concerts +are given, is so badly constructed with respect to ventilation that +when crowded, as it generally is, women frequently faint away, while +many persons avoid going there entirely through dread of the +discomfort and fear of its effects. So, too, the theatres show a +shameful negligence of the health and comfort of the audiences as to +this particular, the Royal Theatre especially becoming almost a "Black +Hole of Calcutta" by the end of a six hours' Wagner opera. The close +air of the crowded lecture-rooms of the Polytechnic School is a source +of positive injury to the students, and the same may be said of the +halls appropriated to pupils in the Academy of Art. + +With respect to bathing, there is no danger of the people of Munich +being mistaken for an amphibious race. The tiny bowls and pitchers +that furnish an ordinary German washstand, and the absence of +slop-pail and foot-bath, are sufficient proof that only partial +ablutions are expected to be performed in the bed-chamber; while the +lack of a bath-room in even genteel houses, and the smallness and +rarity of bathing establishments, show that the practice is by no +means frequent or general among the better classes. The fiercest +radical who should find himself for a time in the midst of a crowd of +the populace would scarcely hesitate (supposing him to be possessed of +delicate olfactories) to bestow upon them the epithet of "The Great +Unwashed." Indeed, it would be hardly reasonable to expect that people +should indulge often in a full bath at home in a city where the water +must be drawn from wells, and carried up long flights of stairs in +pitchers and pails by women and children. + +The notions of the lower classes with regard to dress have doubtless a +good deal to do with their health. The same notions prevail in most +parts of Germany, but are especially hurtful in a climate so severe +and variable as that of Munich. Thus, it is considered improper for a +servant-girl to wear a hat or a bonnet in the street when she is about +the business of her calling. On Sundays and holidays, indeed, or when +she has an outing in the afternoon, she may adorn herself with such an +appendage; but to go to market or to the grocer's with her head +covered would be a piece of presumption which would at once expose her +to ridicule from all the members of her class. Hence, all day and +every day women and girls may be seen in the streets without any +covering on the head, though, by way of compensation, most of them are +obliged to go about a good share of the time with their faces bound up +on account of swelled jaws and tonsils, the natural result of such +unnatural exposure. Occasionally, in the coldest weather some few, +more prudent than the others, wear a hood or a small shawl over the +head, but these cases are rare, and excepting in the depth of winter +such a precaution is not thought of, although the gusty, chilly +weather of spring and autumn and the frequent cold blasts that occur +in summer are quite as dangerous, if not prepared for, as are the +winter storms. As a general thing, a servant goes out on errands in +precisely the same clothes that she wears in the kitchen, and paddles +about in rain and snow in the thin, low house-shoes which, on account +of their cheapness, are the favorite foot-gear of the ordinary Munich +women. + +Children, too, are sent to school in the same unprotected manner: one +may meet them any day trooping through the streets, their bare heads +shining in the sun or glistening in the rain, according as the fickle +sky may smile or weep; and babies are drawn about in the open air, +two, and sometimes three of them, crowded into a small carriage and +sweltering under a feather bed which covers them to their chins, and +yet with their bald pates exposed to all the winds that blow. The +ignorant recklessness with which the changes of temperature are met is +well exemplified in the attire of little girls and young maidens who +participate in the religious processions which take place so +frequently in Munich, especially during the spring and early summer. +On such occasions, although the weather may be so chilly that the +bystanders are wrapped up to their eyes in shawls and cloaks, these +young creatures appear clad in thin white muslin dresses, with necks +and arms bare, and with no covering upon the head more substantial +than a wreath of flowers or a gauze veil: and in this condition they +march through the wet and windy streets, and settle down finally to a +prolonged service in a church as cold and damp as a cellar. + +Another source of harm is the ordinary diet of the citizens. There is +probably no large city of the Old World where the lower classes are +able to obtain so much substantial food as in Munich. Indeed, there +is, properly speaking, no abject poverty in that city, although the +population, as a whole, possesses less wealth than is usually found in +capitals; one reason of this being the fact that many families who are +rich enough to choose their place of residence avoid Munich on account +of its notorious sickliness, while their places are filled by +tradesmen and artisans of all kinds, who must make a living at +whatever risk of life. But, at any rate, no one dies there of +starvation, and the great majority of the citizens are able to have +meat for dinner every day. Unfortunately, veal--and very young veal at +that--is the favorite dish of all classes, so that the benefit derived +from animal juices is not so great as it might be. During the recent +Franco-German war it was remarked that the Bavarian soldiers were able +neither to resist nor to endure so well as the troops of North +Germany; and by many this difference was ascribed to the habitual use +by the former of veal as the chief article of diet. There is no doubt, +too, that the immoderate drinking of beer tends to weaken instead of +strengthen the inhabitants, especially as so many of them drink when +they ought to eat, even beginning a day's work by chilling their +stomachs with this cold beverage, and necessitating thereby a +supplementary draught of "schnapps," thus creating excitement instead +of nourishment, and superinducing a second bad habit upon a first. +Pure Bavarian beer, taken in moderation, would be an excellent thing, +for its stimulating and nutritive properties are a good counterpoise +to the exhausting effects of the harsh climate; but, alas! this +renowned specialty of Munich is losing its ancient fame: the beer is +no longer under governmental inspection, and bitter is the general +complaint against the brewers on account of its alleged adulteration +through the use of foreign drugs and poisonous indigenous plants, to +say nothing of its dilution by the retailers with Munich water, itself +a poison sufficiently strong. For the rest, the amount of pork and +sausages consumed is enormous: the favorite vegetable is the +indigestible sauerkraut, and the bread in general use is uniformly +bad. Nor can tobacco be considered as otherwise than an article of +diet, since the men and boys are hardly ever seen without a pipe or +cigar in their mouths, while the women and girls spend the greater +part of their lives in an atmosphere blue and heavy with tobacco +smoke. + +Having now given many reasons why the citizens of Munich ought to be +sick, it is time to see to what degree effects correspond to causes in +the sanitary condition of the city. Munich is known all over the world +as a nest for typhus fever; nor will it soon be forgotten that within +a year it has suffered from two distinct outbreaks of cholera, besides +being the only city in Europe where that epidemic continued to rage +during the winter. The population is estimated at one hundred and +eighty-eight thousand, but this number is generally considered as +greater than the truth. Statistics show that between two and three +thousand sicken annually of typhus, and that of these between two and +three hundred die. Some idea of the special tendency to this disease +may be obtained by comparing the statistics of Munich with those of +Berlin, which is also an unfavorably situated and very unhealthy city. +In Berlin, the regiment most exposed to fever loses annually three +men: in Munich, the first regiment of artillery loses annually +thirteen men. In Berlin, of the whole body of the soldiery--over +eighteen thousand men--sixteen men die annually of typhus; in Munich, +where the number of the soldiers is only twelve thousand, fifty men +die annually of typhus. The disease, too, has been on the increase for +the last three years. In 1872 four hundred and seven persons died of +it, and during the first four months of 1873 one hundred and +twenty-two died. Moreover, it must not be forgotten that many persons +visiting Munich contract the fever there, but return home to sicken +with it, and that this number has greatly increased since the recent +facilities for travel have been extended in all directions from the +capital. If all these cases were to be added to the list of +victims--and they properly belong to it--the number would be appalling +indeed. Even that small body, the Bavarian Parliament, loses one or +more of its members every year from the same disease and yet these men +are more favorably situated than almost any others as regards +protective circumstances. So patent is the danger, and so many are the +instances of disease contracted during a short stay in the capital and +carried away to spread contagion in remote places, that frequently +persons chosen to honorable and lucrative official positions refuse to +accept because, in order to hold such situations, they must reside +temporarily or entirely in Munich. Finally, the general unhealthiness +of Munich cannot be questioned, since statistics show that nearly +fifty per cent, of the children born there die in infancy, and that +the death-rate for the whole population is nearly forty in a thousand. + +But is there no help for this state of things? The foregoing account +of the principal causes of disease suggests naturally the means of at +least partial cure for the accumulated evils under which the benighted +city is suffering. It is true that the climate must always be +unfavorable to persons of a certain constitution, but its bracing air +is a tonic to those who are able to bear it, and its fierce winds +serve to sweep away many an impurity. It is true, also, that the soil +must always be in some degree a manufactory of injurious effluvia, and +that the vicinity of that long strip of marshy bottom known as the +English Garden must continue to be a source of mischief; but if the +dead had never been buried in the neighborhood of the town, and if the +excreta of the living had not from the beginning until how been +allowed to corrupt the air and the water, the occasional prevalence of +vegetable miasma would give comparatively little trouble. In fact, the +extreme backwardness of the people with regard to knowledge of, and +obedience to, the simplest sanitary laws is a great aggravation of +both their necessary and unnecessary ills. During the recent cholera +epidemic the physicians complained that all rational means of abating +the plague were continually thwarted by the ignorance and obstinacy of +the lower classes. Very few families kept remedies in their houses, +and yet in many cases medical aid was not applied for, lest the +regulations concerning the disinfection of furniture and the burning +of bedding, and other clothing should be enforced. There was the +greatest dissatisfaction with the prohibition against the holding of +public balls and other amusements wherein health would be particularly +exposed; and the foolish citizens crowded all the more into the +unventilated, tobacco-poisoned beer-cellars and concert-halls, and +persisted in supping on heavy food and cold beer in the open air, as +though on purpose to spite the over-anxious magistrates and doctors. +Nor was the stupidity confined entirely to the lower classes. People +who ought to have known better defied the cholera in excess of +rioting, while those of another turn of mind gave way to superstitious +fears, and as soon as they felt the first symptoms of the disease fled +to the cold, damp churches and wasted in prayer upon their knees the +few precious hours which, spent in a warm bed and under the influence +of proper remedies, might have ensured them the salvation of at least +their temporal life. + +To go still higher. Although Munich had warning of the approach of the +epidemic months before it broke out, no sufficient means were adopted +by the authorities to fortify the city against its attack. All summer +long the street-drains sent up their concentrated stenches and the +undrained streets spread far and wide their promiscuous abominations. +The general daily disinfection ordered by the city government was +never thoroughly enforcedly the police, and as often as a lull +occurred in the virulence of the pestilence it was almost totally +neglected by the citizens. When the plague ceased for a few days in +the autumn, the chief medical authorities announced that it was at an +end; and when it broke out again, these wise ones comforted the public +by assuring them that it was only a "_Nach-epidemie_"--an _after +epidemic_--that is, a final effort of the mysterious poison, like the +last flashing up of an expiring flame. And yet this "after epidemic" +lasted more than five months, and was more virulent in its workings +than had been the three months' visitation in the previous summer! The +official reports and scientific discussions of the subject were +unsatisfactory to the last degree. The principal object seemed to be, +not to cleanse Munich and get rid of the pestilence, but to +substantiate the proposition that the variations in the sanitary +condition of the city are intimately connected with the rising and +falling of the ground-water _(grund-wasser)_--a theory which, whether +true or not, is of small practical value under existing circumstances, +since the ground-water, so far as quality is concerned, is entirely +beyond human control, while the drinking-water and the sewers are +capable of improvement. + +It is but justice to say that a few physicians--who, having recently +come to Munich, are properly impressed with its sanitary deficiencies, +and one, at least, who, long a resident, has a thorough knowledge of +what is wanted, and sufficient common sense and courage to speak +out--do not hesitate to declare that the bad water and bad drainage of +that city are the principal causes of its everlasting typhus and its +frequent epidemics. But these men are in bad odor with their +colleagues, and are denounced on all sides as enemies of the fair fame +and prosperity of Munich. Certain physicians of high standing there +laugh at the fuss made about the water, and tell their patients, even +foreigners, to drink all the water they want; while it may be doubted +whether any, excepting the few referred to above, have any adequate +idea of the injury constantly accruing from the unwashed drains and +the crowded cemeteries. + +And Munich will be visited with a succession of "after epidemics," and +physicians will continue to talk nonsense and make blunders and be at +their wits' end, so long as they persist in ignoring the true causes +of these plagues and in delaying to apply the only remedy. Water is +what Munich needs--pure water for the people to drink and to cook +with; plenty of water for them to bathe in; water to wash out the +vaults and drains; water for a daily flushing of the sewers. As long +ago as 1822 a competent authority pointed out an inexhaustible source +from which water might be obtained, with a fall sufficient to obviate +the necessity of any hydraulic works for its elevation. There is in +the Bavarian Mountains, not far away, a lake of remarkably pure water, +situated at such a height that the level would be above the loftiest +houses in Munich. The estimated cost of bringing the water into the +city is only five millions of gulden (about two millions of dollars). +It seems surprising that with this excellent opportunity at hand there +should be any hesitation about accepting it. And yet, after having +been possessed of the knowledge for more than fifty years, there was +only one vote in favor of the enterprise when the subject was +discussed in a meeting of the municipal and medical authorities a +short time ago. The proverbial thriftiness of the German is apt to +degenerate into stinginess when the object to be attained is of +general rather than individual benefit; and though Munich claims a +high place as an art-centre, it would take a long time to convince its +citizens that three hundred millions of kreuzers are but as dust in +the balance when weighed against the value to the world of Kaulbach. + +One step, however, has been gained. The urgent need of an abundant +supply of good water, which is so patent a fact to all strangers +visiting Munich, is beginning to dawn upon the intelligence of the +community. The connection between cause and effect was so evident +during the cholera epidemic of last year that even Ignorance +recognized the Law, while Superstition dared only whisper of +"judgments," and refrained from attempting to propitiate the +destroying angel by religious mummeries until it was certain that his +wrath was nearly spent. But it is to be feared that, taking counsel of +penuriousness, an attempt will be made to utilize certain sources +which have recently been discovered near the city, and which are not +only insufficient, but impure, instead of bringing, once for all, a +full supply for every purpose from the neighboring mountain lake. + +The dragon that haunted the soil of Munich in the old days is still +poisoning the springs and the atmosphere with his pestilent breath, +nor can he be tempted forth to his destruction until he shall see his +reflection mirrored in fountains of pure water. + +E. + + + + +AMONG THE BLOUSARDS. + + +When the _misèrables_ of the horrible and fascinating old Paris that +people used to read about in the works of Eugène Sue and the elder +Dumas were drawn into the streets of modern Paris by the ragings of +the last revolution, people asked, "Where did these dreadful creatures +come from?" Not only did the well-to-do citizen of Paris, who has his +_habitudes_, and never departs from them, and knows nothing outside of +them, ask this question, but the American or English tourist who was +caught in Paris at the moment asked it. These frightful creatures were +not Parisians, surely? Parisians! Why the very word is redolent of +ess. bouquet! The well-to-do citizen, sipping his black coffee after +dinner in his favorite corner on the Boulevard, explained that they +came from the provinces--"Oui, they were provincials, these +_misèrables_" And the tourist knew no better than the citizen where +the Communist demon came from, with his flaring torch, his red eyes, +his flying hair, his hoarse howl, his sturdy tramp, which trampled +civilization in the dust, and his reckless spirit, which let loose all +the devils of incarnate vice for a mad riot. There are no such +creatures as this under the shadow of the Madeleine! We never meet +them on the Boulevard des Italiens! They don't live in the Faubourg +St. Germain! There are none such in the Champs Élysées, even on +Sunday, when, as everybody knows, the lower orders invade the haunts +of the better classes--to wit, ourselves, the tourists. + +Nevertheless, these very creatures are still in Paris in great +numbers. The most elegant tourist who has walked the streets of the +French capital this year, though he kept strictly to the choicer +quarters, has touched elbows with these creatures unconsciously; and +if he has ventured into the Belleville quarter, into the regions +beyond the Place of the Bastile, into the neighborhood of the Panthéon +or the Gobelins tapestry-mill, he has been jostled against, on the +narrow sidewalks of narrow streets, by thousands of them. They are not +such a conspicuous feature of the city's daily life now as they were +when the volcano of revolution was belching its lava torrent through +the streets; but they are there. They are not now occupied in the way +they were then; they make less noise; they dress more quietly; they +attend, in one way or other, to the business of getting a living. Some +are working at trades; some are playing at soldiers; some are keeping +cabarets; some are driving fiacres. I am morally certain the rascal +who drove me home from the Gymnase one night was a petroleum-flinger +at the most active period of his existence. "Give me your ticket, +cocher," I said to him; for the law requires the cabman to give to his +fare, without solicitation, a, ticket with his number, and the legal +rates of fare printed on it. He cracked his whip at the left ear of +his steed, and drove on without paying any attention. "Give me your +ticket," I repeated. This time he shrugged his shoulders--it requires +a really superhuman effort on the part of a Frenchman to refrain from +letting his shoulders fly up to his ears, whatever his determination +to control himself--but drove on in silence. Then I brandished my +umbrella, and punching him with that weapon in the back in an +energetic manner, repeated, "Cocher, oblige me with your ticket, tout +de suite." He turned round on his seat in a fury. "Ah, ça!" he roared, +thee-thou-ing me as an expression of his direst rage and power of +insult, "where hast thou come out of, then, that thou hast no sense +left thee at the last?" Yes, I am morally certain he helped burn the +Tuileries, that fellow! + +Others of the former demons who howled in the Commune mobs are now +doing the congenial work of thievery which they did before the Commune +days, and especially during them. They are not the worst-looking of +the demons. A thief is generally a rather sleek-looking person in his +station. Rich thieves treat themselves to the best of broadcloth and +the shiniest of tall hats. Poor thieves usually at least shave their +faces, and try to look unforbidding. If they wear a blouse, it is +because they belong on a social scale which does not dream of wearing +a coat. The blousard of Paris may be either a thief or a working-man: +he is always the one or the other, and sometimes he is both. + +The great mass of those who rioted in the Commune--the rank and file +of that turbulent army--may be found wherever there are blouses in +Paris. Occasionally, arrests are made, even now, of men who were +prominently active, unduly noisy, in that terrible time: the French +police has got a list of such, and will go on tracking them down and +bringing them to punishment for years to come, or until the next +revolution arrives. In a most respectable street in the Faubourg St. +Germain, where I lived, a quiet wine-seller next door to me was +arrested and his business broken up nearly two years after the war was +over, his only offence being that he had been too active a Communist. +Later, an industrious blousard of my acquaintance was arrested at his +work, and sent to prison for the same offence: he was a +carriage-maker. In the Rue de Provence an old woman who begged very +assiduously with a drugged baby, and whom I used to watch from my +window by the half hour, fascinated by her practical methods of doing +business, was hauled up one day on the same charge, and went her way +with the gendarme, to be seen no more. A meeker-looking old creature I +never saw as she leaned against the wall over the way, and collected +sous industriously from the passers-by, and hid them in a pocket in +the small of the poor baby's back; but I was told she displayed +tremendous energy as a pétroleuse in those other days when robbery was +a better trade than even beggary. You may have observed, when you +have been returning home from the opera some night in Paris, in the +gloom succeeding midnight, a dusky figure moving along by the paved +gutter in the shadow of a large square lantern which he carries. The +lantern has a light only in front, and catches your eye as it glides +along two or three inches above the paving-stones, so that you see the +figure in the shadow behind it but dimly. Close down to the stones it +throws its glare for two or three feet about, and into that +glare-emerges a hook--an iron hook--which pokes and prods at>out in +the gutters, and now and then fastens like a finger on a wisp of paper +and disappears behind the lamp. Following the hook with your eye, you +see that it deposits the wisps of paper in a deep basket fastened on +the back of a man. The is shaggy, dirty and begrimed. He wears a hat +which he has at some fished out of a gutter, a ragged blue blouse, a +raggeder apron, which was in its brighter days a coffee-sack, and +wooden shoes upon his feet. A short pipe, sometimes alight, but more +often empty, is in a corner of his mouth. No one needs to be told who +he is or what his calling. In the argot of the blousards he is known +as the Chevalier of the Hook. + +The ragpicker of Paris has been often written of, but what I have read +of him has never shown him to me in quite the colors I have found him +in by personal observation and inquiry concerning his ways of life. He +has been somewhat idealized in print, I find. Victor Hugo has +presented him in a light not unlike that of Cooper's noble +savage--with large difference of color and pose, of course. The +average Frenchman knows Cooper's noble savage as well as we know +Hugo's romantic ragpicker, and he knows nothing of the American Indian +besides. (It is a curious fact, which I may note in passing, that the +only American author whose writings appear to be really well known in +Paris to-day is Fenimore Cooper. Next to him stands Edgar +Poe--_Poaye_, as the French call him, pronouncing both the vowels.) +There is a street in the crowded quarter of Paris back of the Panthéon +which has the, reputation of being the especial haunt of the +ragpickers. It is called the Rue Mouffetard, and includes many of this +class of blousards among its population; but as there are over twenty +thousand ragpickers in Paris, it needs little argument to show that +they are not _all_ hived in the Rue Mouffetard. Great numbers live in +the Brise Miche quarter, behind the church of St. Méry; at Montmartre, +along the Canal de Bièvre; in the purlieus of Belleville; out beyond +the Bastile; in fact, wherever there is dirt enough to suit their +tastes. For if the truth is to be written here, it must be said that +the ragpicker of Paris is the most degraded creature ever met in the +guise of a human being. I have met Digger Indians, too, in California. +There is something to be said in defence of the bestiality of a +Digger: he has not been exposed to the refining influences of +surrounding civilization; he was reared in darkness and ignorance; so +were his fathers before him for many generations; the white man and +his ways have just dawned upon the poor Digger's consciousness; and so +on. These things cannot be said for the ragpicker of Paris. He is +almost equally dirty with the Digger, and he lives in the gayest +capital of the world. He is also almost equally ignorant with the +Digger: neither can read or write; neither has any idea whether the +world is round or flat; neither is aware, save dimly, that there are +other lands and other peoples than his own; but the ragpicker is in a +city full of books and newspapers (and, oddly enough, is a principal +purveyor for the mills that make paper for printing); and the Digger +has the advantage in the comparison. The Digger lives in vicious +sexual relations, but in this particular point the comparison leaves +the Indian far in advance of his rival, for the ragpicker's customs in +this regard are worse by far than those of even the most degraded +Indians of America. There is nothing in any savage country more +horrible, more astounding and incredible than the practices of the +ragpickers of Paris in respect of the relations between the sexes. +They are so atrociously vile that it is difficult to state the truth +in cleanly words. + +You may have heard that a ragpicker who has risen to the rank of a +boss in his trade, and so remains at home in a shop and goes out with +his hook no more, is called an _ogre_. A woman attaining this dignity +is called an _ogress_. The terms are not idle ones. Like many of the +words and phrases of slang they are based on the clearest conception +of the merits of the case. An ogre or ogress without a daughter, real +or adopted, lacks the first requisite for doing a successful business. +The ogre or ogress has his or her especial workmen, who go out and +scour the streets, bringing home their load, and being paid in board +and lodging simply. When there is a daughter in the business the +workmen are her husbands. The process of divorce is easy, and consists +simply in the ragpicker's returning with his _hotte_ (_la hotte_ is +the basket which hangs on the back) to some other ogre or ogress after +his daily or nightly tour of the streets. Marriage among the +ragpickers of Paris is so rare an incident as to be virtually no part +of their plan of life. + +The Paris ragpicker is seldom seen in the streets by day: his most +profitable season is the night. And what meagre pickings are his at +the best! what despicable bits of paper, of twine, of coal-refuse, of +rejected food, bones, potato-skins, he gathers carefully in his hoard! +A bit of paper no larger than a postage-stamp he saves. A crust of +bread no bigger than a walnut is a prize, for rare are the households +in Paris in which a crust that is large enough to be visible to the +naked eye is allowed to be thrown into the street. Standing and +watching this poor wretch prodding in a gutter after hopeless +infinitesimals, I have pictured to myself what emotions would surge +through his breast if a New York garbage-barrel were to be set down +before him. I am not sure he would be able to refrain from fainting +away at sight of such a mine of wealth. Happy ragpicker of New York +who takes his morning stroll and his lordly pick from the contents of +the teeming barrels our servants set out on the pavement for him! _He_ +does not have to work at night: he is a sort of prince, compared to +his Paris fellow. If a Paris ragpicker could have the monopoly of the +barrels in a single block between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, I am +convinced he would retire from business at the end of ten years with +an independent fortune--that is, if with the New York barrels he could +have the Paris market and live on Paris fare. It is an old story that +in Paris nothing is wasted. The very mud in the streets is gathered up +and sold. There is a market for everything. + +An important division of the army of blousards is that composed of the +street-sweepers of Paris. They share the Rue Mouffetard and the Place +Maubert with the ragpickers, and, like them, are scattered about in +various poorer quarters of the city. Ever-picturesque argot has given +them a name of ridicule, and calls them _les peintres_ and their +brooms their inspired brushes. Every tourist has seen those unhappy +wretches at work, sometimes alone, sometimes in gangs of three or +four, men and women together. There is no distinction of sex in this +branch of industry, as indeed there is in none of the lowest fields of +labor in Paris. Women and girls are quite often ragpickers; among the +street-sweepers they form a good half of the force; they are also +street--peddlers, dragging cartloads of vegetables about and crying +aloud their wares; they are porters, lugging bundles on their backs; +they are oyster-openers, hacking away with iron knife at coarse +shells; they even drive drays and big market-wagons; they split wood +and shovel coal, and in a hundred ways confound and confuse those +theorizers who pretend that male bone and muscle is by nature brawnier +than female. The female scavengers are quite as strong, quite as +coarse, quite as dirty, and can smoke their pipes with quite as much +gusto as their male compeers. + +The scavengers are six thousand in number, and are employed by +contractors, who pay them at the rate of four to eight sous per hour. +They use up seventy thousand brooms a year, and the filth they gather +is rotted in pits and sold for manure, yielding about seven hundred +thousand dollars a year. Until the rubbish of New York streets is made +to yield a profit in a similar manner our streets will never be +cleaned as they should be. But I fear it is hopeless to expect that +New York streets will ever be cleaned as they are in Paris, from lack +of the human element that does the work in the French capital. A hard +ten hours' work would yield the Paris scavenger forty to eighty sous, +and on this sum he would be rich, for he can clothe and feed himself +on a sum which would scarcely buy a New York laborer what drink he +needs alone, to say nothing about food and clothing. But the Paris +scavenger is rarely privileged to work ten hours a day, and his +earnings the year round will barely exceed on an average twenty-five +cents a day. For this sum he can have sufficient food, and as for +clothing, it is hardly an exaggeration to say that he never buys any. +At various stages in his career he becomes possessed by a stroke of +fortune of some article of cast-off clothing, which he wears, as it +were, for life. Ordinarily, the poorest blousard has a new blouse once +in five or ten years, and a new pair of wooden shoes in the same time; +but the scavenger's apparel is for ever old, and he never lays it off. +I have seen thousands of men and women in Paris of whom it would be +mere idle dreaming to suppose that they undressed themselves at night. +Their clothing was practically as much a part of them as their skins. +It is only in the matter of lodging that the lowest classes of Paris +are hard pressed. Rents in Paris are high. Few families, even of the +better sort of blousards, have a home attractive enough to compete +with the fascinations of the street or the café. Even in the Rue +Mouffetard there are cafés where wine is sold at two sous the glass, +and even cheaper, which would put to the blush some of the most +frequented "saloons" of Broadway in point of elegance and comfort for +the lounger. Stuccoed walls, frescoed ceilings, huge mirrors, velvet +sofas, marble-topped tables, gleaming chandeliers, gilt and glitter +that would be called "palatial" in New York, make the place +attractive. Yet a man could hardly be too ragged to be welcome therein +if he had a few sous in his pocket. + +The scavenger and the ragpicker, being the lowest grade of blousards, +do not always rise to the dignity even of a blouse. They wear a coat +sometimes, but it is a marvel of a coat, and was in the last stages of +tottering old age before it fell to the blousard. They wear leather +boots too sometimes, instead of the wooden shoes belonging to their +station, but they are boots which are but a mockery and a delusion, +and yield the wearer no comfort. A respectable blousard--a carpenter +or a shoemaker or a member of any honest trade--would scorn to be seen +in any other dress but his neat blouse, unless on some great day, a +fete, his wedding or at church, when he wears his only coat, or his +father's or a friend's. The blouse is in its sphere a badge of +respectability to the wearer, and honest blousards look upon the +assumption of a blouse by a thief as a gross imposition upon the +public at large and an outrage upon honest workingmen. There is a wide +range of quality in blouses, too. I bought one in the Rue Mouffetard, +to wear as a protection in some of my night-wanderings, for the sum of +forty cents: it was a plain frock of coarse stuff, with a string at +the neck. But there were blouses of several degrees of fineness in the +shop--some of very fine linen, tied with a white silk ribbon, and +neatly embroidered. The usual color of blouses is white, blue or +black. The material is often a coarse, warm cloth, such as one might +make a very respectable overcoat of, I should think. In cold weather +it is common to see men wearing two or even three blouses, one over +the other. Caps are sold at from twenty to sixty cents each in the +same street. It will be seen that clothing is inexpensive to the +blousard, and as the fashions _never_ change with him, he never lays +aside a garment till it is quite worn out. + +One of the peculiar features of low Paris is the shop for the sale of +articles at the uniform price of one son. One before which I paused +in the Rue Mouffetard was presided over, by two women--evidently +grandmother and granddaughter. The former was as grotesque a type of +the jolly old _vendeuse_ of Paris as it would be possible to find. A +low, winey humor twinkled in her little black eyes, hidden in wrinkly +wads of fat; her nose glowed with good feeling; her toothless mouth +smirked good-naturedly. A worn shawl covered her chunky shoulders, and +a cap like a muslin and flannel extinguisher protected her bald old +head from the weather. The granddaughter, being young and rather +pretty, was less interesting as a picture of a curious type. The shop +occupied a corner, and seemed to literally overflow upon the sidewalks +of the two streets, so that care was needful in moving about to avoid +stumbling over the profuse array of objects which littered the way. A +group of old women were standing near, laughing and chattering in +toothless merriment over some mysterious cause of amusement, which I +grievously suspected to be myself, the apparition of a foreigner being +no doubt an uncommon one in that quarter. But the women of the shop, +having an eye to sales, were obsequiously polite to the stranger. I +engaged in conversation with the old woman, who proved quite +communicative, and set me off on a path of inquiry which yielded +information of curious interest. + +"Voyez!" cried out the younger woman from behind the broad counter +open to the street, and spread with a literally innumerable variety of +articles--"Voyez! All one sou! your choice in the sale!" + +To study the shop was to find many suggestions of the types of people +living in the surrounding buildings--alphabets and whistles for +children; playing-cards for gamesters; camphor cigarettes for +invalids; sewing-cases for work-girls; mirrors for coquettes; and toys +innumerable, "all one sou." In the grand shops on the fashionable +boulevards you may see the last new mode in toys--for no season goes +by in Paris without bringing some especial toy or toys to become "the +rage"--but in the Rue Mouffetard the toys are all classics. They have +been handed down from generation to generation precisely in the forms +you see them here. Babies who are now tottering grandfathers and +grandmothers played with the toys of the "boutique à un sou" in their +day, as the babies of the present do, and paid the same price for +them, in spite of the changes of time and the decreased purchasing +value of the son in most respects. I bought a large collection of +these toys purely as objects of curiosity, and it was really amazing +to see, when spread out on a table, what a collection I had gathered +for the incredible price of sixteen cents. Many of the toys would be +readily recognized as old acquaintances in America, but others, common +here for a hundred years past, I never saw at home. The articulated +monkey chasing his nose over the end of a stick; the wooden snake +undulating in a surprisingly life-like manner; the noisy "watchman's +rattle," which in our village was popularly supposed to be the +constant companion of the New York policeman on his beat; the +jumping-jack, the wooden sword, the whip and the doll,--all these are +household friends in the humblest American homes. But not so the frog +which jumps with a spring, the wooden hammers which fall alternately +on their wooden anvil by the simplest of contrivances, and the +horseman without legs, whose horse has a whistle instead of a tail. +How any one of these articles could be sold for a sou passed my +comprehension until I learned details so surprising as to throw this +one quite into the shade. + +There are blousards whose whole lives are passed in carving these toys +from the wood of the linden tree, and daubing them with the most +flaming reds, the most glittering yellows, the most dazzling blues, +that ever colorist beheld. The toy whips with handles decorated with +gilt paper wrapped about them spirally are said to be exclusively made +by Israelites, but the ingenuity of the human mind has not devised an +explanation of this curious fact. The papier-mâché sheep is one of +the most elaborately fashioned toys sold for a sou, and the mode of +making it is this: The workman takes old scraps of paper and mashes +them in water to a pulp: this he sticks around the inside of a rude +mould, which is in two parts, one for each side of the sheep. When the +two sides are moulded, he sticks them together and dips the whole in a +pot of white mucilaginous paint. When this coating is dry, he tattoos +the sheep according to his fancy, covers its back with a bit of +sheepskin, and ties a red string around its neck. And all this work +for a sou? is one's incredulous question. Why, our blousard would +think his fortune was made if he could get a sou for it. The retailer +in the Rue Mouffetard sells it for a sou: the man who made it would be +happy if he could sell it at the rate of eight sous the dozen, but, +like most other workers, he must deal with a middleman. No retailer +could take his stock off his hands in sufficient quantities: he must +sell to a wholesale dealer in the first place, and the wholesale +dealer sells to the little shopkeeper at eight sous the dozen. All +this work for half a sou, then! And when it is added that the workman +has to furnish the materials for his work besides, it really entitles +the toy to a niche in the realms of the marvelous. I have found my +eyes growing moist in New York as I listened to the tales of +sewing-girls who made coarse shirts at six cents apiece, and found the +thread, but such cases were exceptional, and could only be viewed in +the light of intolerable hardships; while the poor wretches who make +these toys at these prices are following the trade to which they were +bred, and which their fathers followed before them, and their only +fear is that they may be unable to get enough of this work to do. Each +of the other toys in my collection is made at the same or a smaller +price. The little lead candlestick is sold by the wholesale dealer at +_four_ sous the dozen. Whistles are sold at _two_ sous the dozen. +There are little watches of stamped brass with a crystal, movable +hands, and a cord of yellow cotton with an occasional gold thread +running through it, which are sold wholesale at seven sous the dozen. + +"Voyez! Make your choice, brave parents! If the little one pulls in +pieces the object of his affection, no matter: it will not derange +your resources to replace it." + +Courier, in the preface to his translation of Herodotus, tells us that +Malherbe, the courtier, used to say, "I learn all my French at the +Place Maubert," and that Plato, who was a poet and did not like the +lower orders, nevertheless called them his "masters of language." The +gamin of Paris, who is the father of argot, long ago gave to the +quarter of the city through which the Rue Mouffetard runs a name which +clings to it tenaciously. He called it the "quartier souffrant"--the +suffering quarter. A designation like this, given by a magazinist, +would be fitting enough, certainly, but received into the current +slang of Paris, it becomes a really striking phrase. It is nothing to +read of a suffering quarter, but it is almost startling to hear an +omnibus conductor call out, "Place Maubert! Rue St. Victor! Panthéon! +Quartier Souffrant! Anybody for the Suffering Quarter?" and to see a +rheumatic old woman, tottering with years and clad in dirty rags, get +down and go clattering off into the quarter to which she so palpably +belongs. + +The Rue Mouffetard, which in old times was a continuation of the Place +Maubert from the river Seine, then extended in an unbroken line to the +Barrière d'Italie, at the remote southern limit of the city of Paris. +The Haussmannizing reform which set in under the Empire went at the +horrible neighborhood with a sort of sublime fury of destruction. +Whole blocks of dark, forbidding buildings were obliterated by the +pickaxes of the blousards, who thus assisted at their own +regeneration. The result is, that there is a long and wide avenue now +stretching its lines of lamps into the distance from the point where +the Rue Mouffetard stops and the Avenue Gobelins begins. The old +street--the portion of it which remains--looks with a dazed and dirty +sorrowfulness up the broad, clean avenue which once was dirty and +narrow like itself. The work of transformation ceased with the +breaking out of the war with Germany. So did the like work in numerous +other quarters of the town which needed it quite as badly as the Rue +Mouffetard. But under the government of the Septennat the work has +been resumed in some degree. The double purpose is hereby served of +letting in light on the dark spots of the town, and of giving +employment to the needy blousards, who might get into obstreperous +moods again if crowded too hard by poverty and want. It seems at first +sight an awful destruction of property, this work of demolition, but I +believe it has been proved that the rise in value of the real estate +thus regenerated more than compensates for the losses sustained, in +the long run. All the blousard cares about the matter, however, is +that it gives him work, and that is what he craves. + +To see gangs of brawny fellows tearing down walls, ripping off doors, +carrying away timbers on their shoulders when a street is in its +decaying stage, is to see a most interesting sight. At the entrance of +the street a sign is put up: "RUE BARRÉE." The front walls of +buildings torn away, winding staircases are seen climbing up with all +their burden of years upon them and all their secret weaknesses +exposed. Sometimes these stairways are of stone, sometimes of wood: +when the latter, if in a fair state of preservation, they are taken +away bodily, to be put up again in some remote quarter of the town. +Shop-windows are offered for sale for like purposes. At night the +scene is made lurid by the glare of triangular lanterns, which throw +out their warning red light, and the entrance to the street is +carefully guarded. Gradually the old buildings are taken to pieces and +removed, bit by bit. New walls of creamy stone, with modern windows, +handsomely carved cornices, stone piazzas, and the like, are built up. +The street has become widened where it was narrow, and straightened +where it was crooked. The very sidewalks on either side of the new +boulevard or avenue are as wide as was the whole of the old street +which has now disappeared. And with the old street the old tenants +have disappeared too. Handsome shops occupy the ground-floors, wealthy +citizens live in the richly adorned apartments on the upper floors. +The blousards who hived in the old street have found a nook in some +other old street, or they have fled to the suburbs--the best place for +them, as it is for all people of limited resources in all large towns. + +WIRT SIKES. + + + + +SONNET. + + + If thou didst love me for imagined fame, + Or for some reason bred within thy mind + By teeming Fancy, till thy sense grew blind, + And wish and its possession seemed the same, + Was it my fault that I was not endowed + With all the virtues of thy paragon-- + That clearer light did shine my flaws upon, + And showed the actual presence free from cloud? + Ah, no! the fault, if blame there be, was thine. + If thou hadst loved me for myself alone, + Thy love had lent its graces unto mine, + Until my frailties had to merits grown-- + Till light, reflected from thy soul divine, + Had so transfused me that I too had shone. + +F.A. HILLARD. + + + + +THREE FEATHERS. + +BY WILLIAM BLACK, AUTHOR OF "A PRINCESS OF THULE." + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +A PERILOUS TRUCE. + + +The very stars in their courses seemed to fight for this young man. + +No sooner had Wenna Rosewarne fled to her own room, there to think +over in a wild and bewildered way all that had just happened, than her +heart smote her sorely. She had not acted prudently; she had forgotten +her self-respect; she ought to have forbidden him to come near her +again--at least until such time as this foolish fancy of his should +have passed away and been forgotten. + +How could she have parted with him so calmly, and led him to suppose +that their former relations were unaltered? She looked back on the +forced quietude of her manner, and was herself astonished. Now her +heart was beating rapidly; her trembling fingers were unconsciously +twisting and untwisting a bit of ribbon; her head seemed giddy with +the recollection of that brief and strange interview, Then, somehow, +she thought of the look on his face when she told him that henceforth +they must be strangers to each other. It seemed hard that he should be +badly used for what was perhaps no intentional fault. If anybody had +been in fault, it was herself in being blind to a possibility to which +even her own sister had drawn her attention; and so the punishment +ought to fall on her. + +She would humble herself before Mr. Roscorla. She would force herself +to be affectionate toward him in her letters. She would even write to +Mabyn, and beg of her to take no notice of that angry remonstrance. + +Then Wenna thought of her mother, and how she ought to tell her of all +these things. But how could she? During the past day or two Mrs. +Rosewarne had been at times singularly fretful and anxious. No letter +had come from her husband. In vain did Wenna remind her that men were +more careless of such small matters than women, and that it was too +soon to expect her father to sit down and write. Mrs. Rosewarne sat +brooding over her husband's silence; then she would get up in an +excited fashion and declare her intention of going straight back to +Eglosilyan; and these fitful moods prayed on the health of the +invalid. Ought Wenna to risk increasing her anxiety by telling her +this strange tale? She would doubtless misunderstand it. She might be +angry with Harry Trelyon. She would certainly be surprised that Wenna +had given him permission to see her again--not knowing that the girl, +in her forced composure, had been talking to him as if this avowal of +his were of no great moment. + +All the same, Wenna had a secret fear that she had been imprudent in +giving him this permission; and the most she could do now was to make +his visits as few, short and ceremonious as possible. She would avoid +him by every means in her power; and the first thing was to make sure +that he should not call on them again while they remained in Penzance. + +So she went down to the small parlor in a much more equable frame of +mind, though her heart was still throbbing in an unusual way. The +moment she entered the room she saw that something had occurred to +disturb her mother. Mrs. Rosewarne turned from the window, and there +was an excited look in her eyes. "Wenna," she said hurriedly, "did you +see that carriage? Did you see that woman? Who was with her? Did you +see who was with her? I know it was she: not if I live a hundred years +could I forget that--that devil in human shape!" + +"Mother, I don't know what you mean," Wenna said, wholly aghast. + +Her mother had gone to the window again, and she was saying to +herself, hurriedly and in a low voice, "No, you don't know--you don't +know: why should you know? That shameless creature! And to drive by +here! She must have known I was here. Oh, the shamelessness of the +woman!" + +She turned to Wenna again: "Wenna, I thought Mr. Trelyon was here. How +long has he gone? I want to see him most particularly--most +particularly, and only for a moment. He is sure to know all the +strangers at his hotel, is he not? I want to ask him some questions. +Wenna, will you go at once and bid him come to see me for a moment?" + +"Mother!" Wenna said. How could she go to the hotel with such a +message? + +"Well, send a note to him, Wenna--send him a note by the girl down +stairs. What harm is there in that?" + +"Lie down, then, mother," said the girl calmly, "and I will send a +message to Mr. Trelyon." + +She drew her chair to the table, and her cheeks crimsoned to think of +what he might imagine this letter to mean when he got the envelope in +his hands. Her fingers trembled as she wrote the date at the head of +the note. Then she came to the word "Dear," and it seemed to her that +if shame were a punishment, she was doing sufficient penance for her +indiscretion of that morning. Yet the note was not a compromising one. +It merely said-- + + "DEAR MR. TRELYON: If you have a moment to spare, my mother + would be most obliged to you if you would call on her. I hope + you will forgive the trouble. + + "Yours sincerely, + WENNA ROSEWARNE." + +When the young man got that note--he was just entering the hotel when +the servant arrived--he stared with surprise. He told the girl he +would call on Mrs. Rosewarne directly. Then he followed her. + +He never for a moment doubted that this note had reference to his own +affairs. Wenna had told her mother what had happened. The mother +wished to see him to ask him to cease visiting them. Well, he was +prepared for that. He would ask Wenna to leave the room. He would +attack the mother boldly, and tell her what he thought of Mr. +Roscorla. He would appeal to her to save her daughter from the +impending marriage. He would win her over to be his secret ally and +friend; and while nothing should be done precipitately to alarm Wenna +or arouse her suspicions, might not these two carry the citadel of her +heart in time, and hand over the keys to the rightful lord? It was a +pleasant speculation: it was at least marked by that audacity that +never wholly forsook Master Harry Trelyon. Of course he was the +rightful lord, ready to bid all false claimants, rivals and pretenders +Beware! + +And yet, as he walked up to the house, some little tremor of anxiety +crept into his heart. It was no mere game of brag in which he was +engaged. As he went into the parlor Wenna stepped quietly by him, her +eyes downcast, and he knew that all he cared to look forward to in the +world depended on the decision of that quiet little person with the +sensitive mouth and the earnest eyes. Fighting was not of much use +there. + +"Well, Mrs. Rosewarne," said he, rather shamefacedly, "I suppose you +mean to scold me?" + +Her answer surprised him. She took no heed of his remark, but in a +vehement, excited way began to ask him questions about a woman whom +she described. + +He stared at her. "I hope you don't know anything about that elegant +creature?" he said. + +She did not wholly tell him the story, but left him to guess at some +portions of it; and then she demanded to know all about the woman and +her companion, and how long they had been in Penzance, and where they +were going. Master Harry was by chance able to reply to certain of her +questions. The answers comforted her greatly. Was he quite sure that +she was married? What was her husband's name? She was no longer Mrs. +Shirley? Would he find out all he could? Would he forgive her asking +him to take all this trouble? and would he promise to say no word +about it to Wenna? When all this had been said and done the young +man felt himself considerably embarrassed. Was there to be no mention +of his own affairs? So far from remonstrating with him and forbidding +him the house, Mrs. Rosewarne was almost effusively grateful to him, +and could only beg him a thousand times not to mention the subject to +her daughter. + +"Oh, of course not," said he, rather bewildered. "But--but I thought +from the way in which she left the room that--that perhaps I had +offended her." + +"Oh no, I am sure that is not the case," said Mrs. Rosewarne; and she +immediately went and called Wenna, who came into the room with rather +an anxious look on her face. She immediately perceived the change in +her mother's mood. The demon of suspicion and jealousy had been as +suddenly exorcised as it had been summoned. Mrs. Rosewarne's fine eyes +were lit by quite a new brightness and gayety of spirits. She bade +Wenna declare what fearful cause of offence Mr. Trelyon had given, and +laughed when the young man, blushing somewhat, hastily assured both of +them that it was all a stupid mistake of his own. + +"Oh yes," Wenna said rather nervously, "it is a mistake. I am sure you +have given me no offence at all, Mr. Trelyon." + +It was an embarrassing moment for two, at least, out of these three +persons; and Mrs. Rosewarne, in her abundant good-nature, could not +understand their awkward silence. Wenna was apparently looking out of +the window at the bright blue bay and the boats, and yet the girl was +not ordinarily so occupied when Mr. Trelyon was present. As for him, +he had got his hat in his hands; he seemed to be much concerned about +it or about his boots; one did not often find Master Harry actually +showing shyness. + +At last he said, desperately, "Mrs. Rosewarne, perhaps you would go +out for a sail in the afternoon? I could get you a nice little yacht +and some rods and lines. Won't you?" + +Mrs. Rosewarne was in a kindly humor. She said she would be very glad +to go, for Wenna was growing tired of always sitting by the window. +This would be some little variety for her. + +"I hope you won't consider me, mother," said the young lady quickly +lady and with some asperity. "I am quite pleased to sit by the window: +I could do so always. And it is very wrong of us to take up so much of +Mr. Trelyon's time." + +"Because Mr. Trelyon's time is of so much use to him!" said that young +man with a laugh; and then he told them when to expect him in the +afternoon, and went his way. + +He was in much better spirits when he went out. He whistled as he +went. The plash of the blue sea all along the shingle seemed to have a +sort of laugh in it: he was in love with Penzance and all its +beautiful neighborhood. Once again, he was saying to himself, he would +spend a quiet and delightful afternoon with Wenna Rosewarne, even if +that were to be the last. He would surrender himself to the gentle +intoxication of her presence. He would get a glimpse, from time to +time, of her dark eyes when she was looking wistfully and absently +over the sea. It was no breach of the implied contract with her that +he should have seized this occasion. He had been sent for. And if it +was necessary that he should abstain from seeing her for any great +length of time, why this single afternoon would not make much +difference. Afterward he would obey her wishes in any manner she +pleased. + +He walked into the hotel. There was a gentleman standing in the hall +whose acquaintance Master Harry had condescended to make. He was a +person of much money, uncertain grammar and oppressive generosity: he +wore a frilled shirt and diamond studs, and he had such a vast +admiration for this handsome, careless and somewhat rude young man +that he would have been very glad had Mr. Trelyon dined with him every +evening, and taken the trouble to win any reasonable amount of money +of him at billiards afterward. Mr. Trelyon had not as yet graced his +table. + +"Oh, Grainger," said the young man, "I want to speak to you. Will you +dine with me to-night at eight?" + +"No, no, no," said Mr. Grainger, shaking his head in humble protest, +"that isn't fair. You dine with me. It ain't the first or the second +time of asking, either." + +"But look here," said Trelyon, "I've got lots more to ask of you. I +want you to lend me that little cutter of yours for the afternoon: +will you? You send your man on board to see she's all right, and I'll +pull out to her in about half an hour's time. You'll do that, won't +you, like a good fellow?" + +Mr. Grainger was not only willing to lend the yacht, but also his own +services to see that she properly received so distinguished a guest; +whereupon Trelyon had to explain that he wanted the small craft merely +to give a couple of ladies a sail for an hour or so. Then Mr. Grainger +would have his man instructed to let the ladies have some tea on +board; and he would give Master Harry the key of certain receptacles +in which he would find cans of preserved meat, fancy biscuits, jam, +and even a few bottles of dry sillery; finally, he would immediately +hurry off to see about fishing-rods. Trelyon had to acknowledge to +himself that this worthy person deserved the best dinner that the +hotel could produce. + +In the afternoon he walked along to fetch Mrs. Rosewarne and her +daughter, his face bright with expectation. Mrs. Rosewarne was dressed +and ready when he went in, but she said, "I am afraid I can't go, Mr. +Trelyon. Wenna says she is a little tired, and would rather stay at +home." + +"Wenna, that isn't fair," he said, obviously hurt. "You ought to make +some little effort when you know it will do your mother good. And it +will do you good too, if only you make up your mind to go." + +She hesitated for a moment: she saw that her mother was disappointed. +Then, without a word, she went and put on her hat and shawl. + +"Well," he said approvingly, "you are very reasonable and very +obedient. But we can't have you go with us with such a face as that. +People would say we were going to a funeral." + +A shy smile came over the gentle features, and she turned aside. + +"And we can't have you pretend that we forced you to go. If we go at +all, you must lead the way." + +"You would tease the life out of a saint," she said with a vexed and +embarrassed laugh; and then she marched out before them, very glad to +be able to conceal her heightened color. + +But much of her reserve vanished when they had set sail; and when the +small cutter was beginning to make way through the light and plashing +waves Wenna's face brightened. She no longer let her two companions +talk exclusively to each other. She began to show a great curiosity +about the little yacht; she grew anxious to have the lines flung out; +no words of hers could express her admiration for the beauty of the +afternoon and of the scene around her. + +"Now, are you glad you came out?" he said to her. + +"Yes," she answered shyly. "And you'll take my advice another time?" + +"Do _you_ ever take any one's advice?" she said, venturing to look up. + +"Yes, certainly," he answered, "when it agrees with my own +inclination. Who ever does any more than that?" + +They had now got a good bit away from land. + +"Skipper," said Trelyon to Mr. Grainger's man, "we'll put her about +now and let her drift. Here is a cigar for you: you can take it up to +the bow and smoke it, and keep a good lookout for the sea-serpent." + +By this arrangement they obtained, as they sat and idly talked, an +excellent view of all the land around the bay, and of the pale, clear +sunset shining in the western skies. They lay almost motionless in the +lapping water: the light breeze scarcely stirred the loose canvas. +From time to time they could hear a sound of calling or laughing from +the distant fishing-boats; and that only seemed to increase the +silence around them. + +It was an evening that invited to repose and reverie: there were not +even the usual fiery colors of the sunset to arouse and fix attention +by their rapidly-changing and glowing hues. The town itself, lying +darkly all around the sweep of the bay, was dusky and distant: +elsewhere all the world seemed to be flooded with the silver light +coming over from behind the western hills. The sky was of the palest +blue; the long mackerel clouds that stretched across were of the +faintest yellow and lightest gray; and into that shining gray rose the +black stems of the trees that were just over the outline of these low +heights. St. Michael's-Mount had its summit touched by the pale glow: +the rest of the giant rock and the far stretches of sea around it were +gray with mist. But close by the boat there was a sharper light on the +lapping waves and on the tall spars, while it was warm enough to +heighten the color on Wenna's face as she sat and looked silently at +the great and open world around her. + +They were drifting in more ways than one. Wenna almost forgot what had +occurred in the morning. She was so pleased to see her mother pleased +that she conversed quite unreservedly with the young man who had +wrought the change, was ready to believe all that Mrs. Rosewarne said +in private about his being so delightful and cheerful a companion. As +for him, he was determined to profit by this last opportunity. If the +Strict rules of honor demanded that Mr. Roscorla should have fair +play, or if Wenna wished him to absent himself--which was of more +consequence than Mr. Roscorla's interest--he would make his visits few +and formal, but in the mean time, at least, they would have this one +pleasant afternoon together. Sometimes, it is true, he rebelled +against the uncertain pledge he had given her. Why should he not seek +to win her? What had the strict rules of honor to do with the prospect +of a young girl allowing herself to be sacrificed, while here he was, +able and willing to snatch her away from her fate? + +"How fond you are of the sea and of boats!" he said to her. "Sometimes +I think I shall have a big schooner yacht built for myself, and take +her to the Mediterranean, going from place to place just as I have the +fancy. But it would be very dull by one's self, wouldn't it, even if +one had a dozen men on What one wants is to have a small party all +very friendly with each other, and at night they would sit up on deck +and sing songs. And I think they would admire those old-fashioned +songs that you sing, Miss Wenna, all the better for hearing them so +far away from home--at least, I should, but then I'm an outer +barbarian. I think you, now, would be delighted with the grand music +abroad--with the operas, you know, and all that. I have had to knock +about these places with people, but I don't care about it. I would +rather hear 'Norah, the Pride of Kildare,' or 'The Maid of +Llangollen,' because, I suppose, those young women are more in my +line. You see, I shouldn't care to make the acquaintance of a gorgeous +creature with black hair and a train of yellow satin half a mile long, +who tosses up a gilt goblet when she sings a drinking-song, and then +gets into a frightful passion about what one doesn't understand. +Wouldn't you rather meet the 'Maid of Llangollen' coming along a +country road--coming in by Marazion over there, for example--with a +bright print dress all smelling of lavender, and a basket of fresh +eggs over her arm? Well--What was I saying? Oh yes!, Don't you think +if you were away in the Adriatic, and sitting up on deck at night, you +would make the people have a quiet cry when you sang 'Home, Sweet +Home'? The words are rather silly, aren't they? But they make you +think such a lot if you hear them abroad." + +"And when are you going away?--this year, Mr. Trelyon?" Wenna said, +looking down. + +"Oh, I don't know," he said cheerfully: he would have no question of +his going away interfere with the happiness of the present moment. + +At length, however, they had to bethink themselves of getting back, +for the western skies were deepening in color and the evening air was +growing chill. They ran the small cutter back to her moorings: then +they put off in the small boat for the shore. It was a beautiful, +quiet evening. Wenna, who had taken off her glove and was allowing +her bare hand to drag through the rippling water, seemed to be lost in +distant and idle fancies not altogether of a melancholy nature. + +"Wenna," her mother said, "you will get your hand perfectly chilled." + +The girl drew back her hand and shook the water off her dripping +fingers. Then she uttered a slight cry. "My ring!" she said, looking +with absolute fright at her hand and then at the sea. + +Of course they stopped the boat instantly, but all they could do was +to stare at the clear, dark water. The distress of the girl was beyond +expression. This was no ordinary trinket that had been lost: it was a +gage of plighted affection given her by one now far away, and in his +absence she had carelessly flung it into the sea. She had no fear of +omens, as her sister had, but surely, of all things in the world, she +ought to have treasured up this ring. In spite of herself, tears +sprang to her eyes. Her mother in vain attempted to make light of the +loss. + +And then at last Harry Trelyon, driven almost beside himself by seeing +the girl so plunged in grief, hit upon a wild fashion of consoling +her. "Wenna," he said, "don't disturb yourself. Why, we can easily get +you the ring. Look at the rocks there: a long bank of smooth sand +slopes out from them, and your ring is quietly lying on the sand. +There is nothing easier than to get it up with a dredging machine: I +will undertake to let you have it by to-morrow afternoon." + +Mrs. Rosewarne thought he was joking, but he effectually persuaded +Wenna, at all events, that she should have her ring next day. Then he +discovered that he would be just in time to catch the half-past six +train to Plymouth, where he would get the proper apparatus, and return +in the morning. + +"It was a pretty ring," said he. "There were six stones in it, weren't +there?" + +"Five," she said. So much she knew, though it must be confessed she +had not studied that token of Mr. Roscorla's affection with the +earnest solicitude which most young ladies bestow on the first gift of +their lovers. + +Trelyon jumped into a fly and drove off to the station, where he sent +back an apology to Mr. Grainger. Wenna went home more perturbed than +she had been for many a day, and that not solely on account of the +lost ring. + +Everything seemed to conspire against her and keep her from carrying +out her honorable resolutions. That sail in the afternoon she could +not well have avoided, but she had determined to take some; +opportunity of begging Mr. Trelyon not to visit them again while they +remained in Penzance. Now, however, he was coming next day, and +whether or not he was successful in his quest after the missing ring, +would she not have to show herself abundantly grateful for all his +kindness? + +In putting away her gloves she came upon the letter of Mr. Roscorla, +which she had not yet answered. She shivered slightly: the handwriting +on the envelope seemed to reproach her. And yet something of a +rebellious spirit rose in her against this imaginary accusation; and +she grew angry that she was called upon to serve this harsh and +inconsiderate task-master, and give him explanations which humiliated +her. He had no right to ask questions about Mr. Trelyon. He ought not +to have listened to idle gossip. He should have had sufficient faith +in her promised word; and if he only knew the torture of doubt and +anxiety she was suffering on his behalf--She did not pursue these +speculations farther, but it was well with Mr. Roscorla that she did +not at that moment sit down and answer his letter. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +FURTHER ENTANGLEMENTS. + + +"Mother," said Wenna that night, "what vexed you so this morning? Who +was the woman who went by?" + +"Don't ask me, Wenna," the mother said rather uneasily. "It would do +you no good to know. And you must not speak of that woman: she is too +horrid a creature to be mentioned by a young girl, ever." Wenna +looked surprised, and then she said warmly, "And if she is so, mother, +how could you ask Mr. Trelyon to have anything to do with her? Why +should you send, for him? Why should he be spoken to about her?" + +"Mr. Trelyon!" her mother said impatiently. "You seem to have no +thought now for anybody but Mr. Trelyon. Surely the young man can take +care of himself." + +The reproof was just: the justice of it was its sting. She was indeed +thinking too much about the young man, and her mother was right in +saying so; but who was to understand the extreme anxiety that +possessed her to bring these dangerous relations to an end? + +On the, following afternoon Wenna, sitting alone at the window, heard +Trelyon enter below. The young person who had charge of such matters +allowed him to go up stairs and announce himself as a matter of +course. He tapped at the door and came into the room. "Where's your +mother, Wenna? The girl said she was here. However, never mind: I've +brought you something that will astonish you. What do you think of +that?" + +She scarcely looked at the ring, so great was her embarrassment. That +the present of one lover should be brought back to her by another was +an awkward, almost humiliating circumstance, Yet she was glad as well +as ashamed. "Oh, Mr. Trelyon, how can I thank you?" she said in a low +earnest voice. "All you seem to care for is to make other people +happy. And the trouble you have taken, too!" + +She forgot to look at the ring, even when he pointed out how the +washing in the sea had made it bright. She never asked about the +dredging. Indeed, she was evidently disinclined to speak of this +matter in any way, and kept the finger with the ring on it out of +sight. + +"Mr. Trelyon," she said then with equal steadiness of voice, "I am +going to ask something more from you; and I am sure you will not +refuse it." + +"I know," said he hastily; "and let me have the first word. I have +been thinking over our position during this trip to Plymouth and back. +Well, I think I have become a nuisance to you--Wait a bit, let me say +my say in my own way. I can see that I only embarrass you when I call +on you, and that the permission you gave me is only leading to +awkwardness and discomfort. Mind, I don't think you are acting fairly +to yourself or to me in forbidding me to mention again what I told +you. I know you're wrong. You should let me show you what sort of a +life lies before you--But there! I promised to keep clear of that. +Well, I will do what you like; and if you'd rather have me stay away +altogether, I will do that. I don't want to be a nuisance to you. But +mind this, Wenna, I do it because you wish it: I don't do it because I +think any man is bound to respect an engagement which--which--which, +in fact, he doesn't respect." + +His eloquence broke down, but his meaning was clear. He stood there +before her, ready to accept her decision with all meekness and +obedience, but giving her frankly to understand that he did not any +the more countenance or consider as a binding thing her engagement to +Mr. Roscorla. + +"Mind you," he said, "I am not quite as indifferent about all this as +I look. It isn't the way of our family to put their hands in their +pockets and wait for orders. But I can't fight with you. Many a time I +wish there was a man in the case--then he and I might have it out--but +as it is, I suppose I have got to do what they say, Wenna, and that's +the long and short of it." + +She did not hesitate. She went forward and offered him her hand, and +with her frank eyes looking him in the face she said, "You have said +what I wished to say, and I feared I had not the courage to say it. +Now you are acting bravely. Perhaps at some future time we may become +friends again--oh yes, and I do hope that--but in the mean time you +will treat me as if I were a stranger to you." + +"That is quite impossible," said he decisively. "You ask too much of +me, Wenna." "Would not that be the simpler way?" she said, looking +at him again with the frank and earnest eyes; and he knew she was +right. + +"And the length of time?" he said. + +"Until Mr. Roscorla comes home again, at all events," she said. + +She had touched an angry chord. "What has he to do with us?" the young +man said almost fiercely. "I refuse to have him come in as arbiter or +in any way whatever. Let him mind his own business; and I can tell +you, when he and I come to talk over this engagement of yours--" + +"You promised not to speak of that," she said quietly, and he +instantly ceased. + +"Well, Wenna," he said after a minute or two, "I think you ask too +much, but you must have it your own way. I won't annoy you and drive +you into a corner: you may depend on that, to be perfect strangers for +an indefinite time--Then you won't speak to me when I see you passing +to church?" + +"Oh yes," she said, looking down: "I did not mean strangers like +that." + +"And I thought," said he, with something more than disappointment in +his face, "that when I proposed to--to relieve you from my visits, you +would at least let us have one more afternoon together--only one--for +a drive, you know. It would be nothing to you: it would be 'something +for me to remember." + +She would not recognize the fact, but for a brief moment his under lip +quivered; and somehow she seemed to know it, though she dared not look +up to his face. + +"One afternoon, only one--to-morrow--next day, Wenna? Surely you +cannot refuse me that?" Then, looking at her with a great compassion +in his eyes, he suddenly altered his tone. "I think I ought to be +hanged," he said in a vexed way. "You are the only person in the world +I care for, and every time I see you I plunge you into trouble. Well, +this is the last time. Good-bye, Wenna." Almost involuntarily she put +out her hand, but it was with the least perceptible gesture, to bid +him remain. Then she went past him, and there were tears running down +her face. "If--if you will wait a moment," she said, "I will see if +mamma and I can go with you to-morrow afternoon." + +She went out, and he was left alone. Each word that she had uttered +had pierced his heart; but which did he feel the more deeply--remorse +that he should have insisted on this slight and useless concession, or +bitter rage against the circumstances that environed them, and against +the man who was altogether responsible for these? There was now at +least one person in the world who greatly longed for the return of Mr. +Roscorla. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +FAREWELL! + + +"Yes, it is true," the young man said next morning to his cousin: +"this is the last time I shall see her for many a day." He was +standing with his back to her, moodily staring out of the window. + +"Well, Harry," his cousin said, gently enough, "you won't be hurt if I +say it is a very good thing? I am glad to see you have so much +patience and reasonableness. Indeed, I think Miss Rosewarne has very +much improved you in that respect; and it is very good advice she has +given you now." + +"Oh yes, it is all very well to talk!" he said, impatiently. "Common +sense is precious easy when you are quite indifferent. Of course she +is quite indifferent, and she says, 'Don't trouble me,' What can one +do but go? But if she was not so indifferent--" He turned suddenly: +"Jue, you can't tell what trouble I am in. Do you know that sometimes +I have fancied she was not quite as indifferent--I have had the +cheek to think so from one or two things she said--and then, if that +were so, it is enough to drive one mad to think of leaving her. How +could I leave her, Jue? If any one cared for you, would you quietly +sneak off in order to consult your own comfort and convenience? Would +you be patient and reasonable then?" + +"Harry, don't talk in that excited way. Listen! She does not ask you +to go away for your sake, but for hers." + +"For her sake?" he repeated, staring. "If she is indifferent how can +that matter to her? Well, I suppose I am a nuisance to her--as much as +I am to myself. There it is: I am an interloper." + +"My poor boy," his cousin said with a kindly smile, "you don't know +your own mind two minutes running. During this past week you have been +blown about by all sorts of contrary winds of opinion and fancy. +Sometimes you thought she cared for you--sometimes no. Sometimes you +thought it a shame to interfere with Mr. Roscorla; then again you grew +indignant and would have slaughtered him. Now you don't know whether +you ought to go away or stop to persecute her. Don't you think she is +the best judge?" + +"No, I don't," he said. "I think she is no judge of what is best for +her, because she never thinks of that. She wants somebody by her to +insist on her being properly selfish." + +"That would be a pretty lesson." + +"A necessary one, anyhow, with some women, I can tell you. But I +suppose I must go, as she says. I couldn't bear meeting her about +Eglosilyan and be scarcely allowed to speak to her. Then when that +hideous little beast comes back from Jamaica, fancy seeing them walk +about together! I must cut the whole place. I shall go into the army: +it's the only profession open to a fool like me; and they say it won't +be long open, either. When I come back, Jue, I suppose you'll be Mrs. +Tressider." + +"I am very sorry," his cousin said, not heeding the reference to +herself: "I never expected to see you so deep in trouble, Harry. But +you have youth and good spirits on your side: you will get over it." + +"I suppose so," he said, not very cheerfully; and then he went off to +see about the carriage which was to take Wenna and himself for their +last drive together. + +At the same time that he was talking to his cousin, Wenna was seated +at her writing-desk answering Mr. Roscorla's letter. Her brows were +knit together: she was evidently laboring at some difficult and +disagreeable task. + +Her mother, lying on the sofa, was regarding her with an amused look: +"What is the matter, Wenna? That letter seems to give you a deal of +trouble." + +The girl put down her pen with some trace of vexation in her face: +"Yes indeed, mother. How is one to explain delicate matters in a +letter? Every phrase seems capable of misconstruction. And then the +mischief it may cause!" + +"But surely you don't need to write with such care to Mr. Roscorla?" + +Wenna colored slightly, and hesitated as she answered, "Well, mother, +it is something peculiar. I did not wish to trouble you, but, after +all, I don't think you will vex yourself about so small a thing. Mr. +Roscorla has been told stories about me. He is angry that Mr. Trelyon +should visit us so often. And--and--I am trying to explain. That is +all, mother." + +"It is quite enough, Wenna; but I am not surprised. Of course, if +foolish persons liked to misconstrue Mr. Trelyon's visits, they might +make mischief. I see no harm in them myself. I suppose the young man +found an evening at the inn amusing; and I can see that he likes you +very well, as many other people do. But you know how you are situated, +Wenna. If Mr. Roscorla objects to your continuing an acquaintance with +Mr. Trelyon, your duty is clear." + +"I do not think it is, mother," Wenna said, an indignant flush of +color appearing in her face. "I should not be justified in throwing +over any friend or acquaintance merely because Mr. Roscorla had heard +rumors: I would not do it. He ought not to listen to such things: he +ought to have greater faith in me. But at the same time I have asked +Mr. Trelyon not to come here so often--I have done so already; and +after to-day, mother, the gossips will have nothing to report." + +"That is better, Wenna," the mother said. "I shall be sorry myself to +miss the young man, for I like him, but it is better you should attend +to Mr. Roscorla's wishes. And don't answer his letter in a vexed or +angry way, Wenna." + +She was certainly not doing so. Whatever she might be thinking, a +deliberate and even anxious courtesy was visible in the answer she was +sending him. Her pride would not allow her to apologize for what had +been done--in which she had seen no wrong--but as to the future she +was earnest in her promises. And yet she could not help saying a good +word for Trelyon. + +"You have known him longer than I," she wrote, "and you know what his +character is. I could see nothing wrong in his coming to see my family +and myself; nor did you say anything against him while you saw him +with us. I am sure you believe he is straightforward, honest and +frank; and if his frankness sometimes verges upon rudeness, he is of +late greatly improved in that respect, as in many others, and he is +most respectful and gentle in his manners. As for his kindness to my +mother and myself, we could not shut our eyes to it. Here is the +latest instance of it, although I feel deeply ashamed to tell you the +story. We were returning in a small boat, and I was carelessly letting +my hand drag through the water, when somehow the ring you gave me +dropped off. Of course, we all considered it lost--all except Mr. +Trelyon, who took the trouble to go at once all the way to Plymouth +for a dredging-machine, and the following afternoon I was overjoyed to +find him return with the lost ring, which I had scarcely dared hope to +see again. How many gentlemen would have done so much for a mere +acquaintance? I am sure if you had been here you would have been +ashamed of me if I had not been grateful to him. Now, however, since +you appear to attach importance to these idle rumors, I have asked Mr. +Trelyon--" + +So the letter went on. She would not have written so calmly if she had +foreseen the passion which her ingenuous story about the +dredging-machine was destined to arouse. When Mr. Roscorla read that +simple narrative, he first stared with astonishment as though she were +making some foolish joke. Directly he saw she was serious, however, +his rage and mortification were indescribable. Here was this young +man, not content with hanging about the girl so that neighbors talked, +but actually imposing on her credulity, and making a jest of that +engaged ring which ought to have been sacred to her. Mr. Roscorla at +once saw through the whole affair--the trip to Plymouth, the +purchasing of a gypsy-ring that could have been matched a dozen times +over anywhere, the return to Penzance with a cock-and-bull story about +a dredging-machine. So hot was his anger that it overcame his +prudence. He would start for England at once. He had taken no such +resolution when he heard from the friendly and communicative Mr. +Barnes that Mr. Trelyon's conduct with regard to Wenna was causing +scandal, but this making a fool of him in his absence he could not +bear. At any cost he would set out for England, arrange matters more +to his satisfaction by recalling Wenna to a sense of her position; and +then he would return to Jamaica. His affairs there were already +promising so well that he could afford the trip. + +Meanwhile, Wenna had just finished her letter when Mr. Trelyon drove +up with the carriage, and shortly afterward came into the room. He +seemed rather grave, and yet not at all sentimentally sad. He +addressed himself mostly to Mrs. Rosewarne, and talked to her about +the Port Isaac fishing, the emigration of the miners and other +matters. Then Wenna slipped away to get ready. + +"Mrs. Rosewarne," he said, "you asked me to find out what I could +about that red-faced person, you know. Well, here is an advertisement +which may interest you. I came on it quite accidentally last night in +the smoking-room of the hotel." + +It was a marriage advertisement, cut from a paper about a week old. +The name of the lady was "Katherine Ann, widow of the late J.T. +Shirley, Esq., of Barrackpore." + +"Yes, I was sure it was that woman," Mrs. Rosewarne said eagerly. "And +so she is married again?" + +"I fancied the gay young things were here on their wedding-trip," +Trelyon said carelessly. "They amused me. I like to see turtle-doves +of fifty billing and cooing on the promenade, especially when +one of them wears a brown wig, has an Irish accent and drinks +brandy-and-water at breakfast. But he is a good billiard-player--yes, +he is an uncommonly good billiard-player. He told me last night he had +beaten the Irish secretary the other day in the billiard-room of the +House of Commons. I humbly suspect that was a lie. At least, I can't +remember anything about a billiard-table in the House of Commons, and +I was two or three times through every bit of it when I was a little +chap with an uncle of mine, who was a member then; but perhaps they've +got a billiard-table now. Who knows? He told me he had stood for an +Irish borough, spent three thousand pounds on a population of two +hundred and eighty-four, and all he got was a black eye and a broken +head. I should say all that was a fabrication too; indeed, I think he +rather amuses himself with lies--and brandy-and-water. But you don't +want to know anything more about him, Mrs. Rosewarne?" + +She did not. All that she cared to know was in that little strip of +printed paper; and as she left the room to get ready for the drive she +expressed herself grateful to him in such warm tones that he was +rather astonished. After all, as he said to himself, he had had +nothing to do in bringing about the marriage of that somewhat gorgeous +person in whom Mrs. Rosewarne was so strangely interested. + +They were silent as they drove away. There was one happy face amongst +them, that of Mrs. Rosewarne, but she was thinking of her own affairs +in a sort of pleased reverie. Wenna was timid and a trifle sad: she +said little beyond "Yes, Mr. Trelyon," and "No, Mr. Trelyon," and even +that was said in low voice. As for him, he spoke to her gravely and +respectfully: it was already as if she were a mere stranger. + +Had some of his old friends and acquaintances seen him now, they would +have been something more than astonished. Was this young man, talking +in a gentle and courteous fashion to his companion, and endeavoring to +interest her in the various things around her, the same daredevil lad +who used to clatter down the main street of Eglosilyan, who knew no +control other than his own unruly wishes, and who had no answer but a +mocking jest for any remonstrance? + +"And how long do you remain in Penzance, Mr. Trelyon?" Mrs. Rosewarne +said at length. + +"Until to-morrow, I expect," he answered. + +"To-morrow?" + +"Yes: I am going back to Eglosilyan. You know my mother means to give +some party or other on my coming of age, and there is so little of +that amusement going on at our house that it needs all possible +encouragement. After that I mean to leave Eglosilyan for a time." + +Wenna said nothing, but her downcast face grew a little paler: it was +she who was banishing him. + +"By the way," he continued with a smile, "my mother is very anxious +about Miss Wenna's return. I fancy she has been trying to go into that +business of the sewing club on her own account; and in that case she +would be sure to get into a mess. I know her first impulse would be to +pay any money to smooth matters over, but that would be a bad +beginning, wouldn't it?" + +"Yes, it would," Wenna said, but somehow, at this moment, she was less +inclined to be hopeful about the future. + +"And as for you, Mrs. Rosewarne," he said, "I suppose you will be +going home soon, now that the change seems to have done you so much +good?" + +"Yes, I hope so," she said, "but Wenna must go first. My husband +writes to me that he cannot do without her, and offers to send Mabyn +instead. Nobody seems to be able to get on without our Wenna." + +"And yet she has the most curious fancy that she is of no account to +anybody. Why, some day I expect to hear of the people in Eglosilyan +holding a public meeting to present her with a service of plate and an +address written on parchment with blue and gold letters." + +"Perhaps they will do that when she gets married," the mother said, +ignorant of the stab she was dealing. + +It was a picturesque and pleasant bit of country through which they +were driving, yet to two of them at least the afternoon sun seemed to +shine over it with a certain sadness. It was as if they were bidding +good-bye to some beautiful scene they could scarcely expect to +revisit. For many a day thereafter, indeed, Wenna seemed to recollect +that drive as though it had happened in a dream. She remembered the +rough and lonely road leading up sharp hills and getting down into +valleys again, the masses of ferns and wild-flowers by the stone +walls, the wild and undulating country, with its stretches of yellow +furze, its clumps of trees and its huge blocks of gray granite. She +remembered their passing into a curious little valley, densely wooded, +the winding path of which was not well fitted for a broad carriage and +a pair of horses. They had to watch the boughs and branches as they +jolted by. The sun was warm among the foliage: there was a resinous +scent of ferns about. By and by the valley abruptly opened on a wide +and beautiful picture. Lamorna Cove lay before them, and a cold fresh +breeze came in from the sea. Here the world seemed to cease suddenly. +All around them were huge rocks and wild-flowers and trees; and far up +there on their left rose a hill of granite, burning red with the +sunset; but down below them the strange little harbor was in shadow, +and the sea beyond, catching nothing of the glow in the west, was gray +and mystic and silent. Not a ship was visible on that pale plain; no +human being could be seen about the stone quays and the cottages; it +seemed as if they had come to the end of the world, and were its last +inhabitants. All these things Wenna thought of in after days, until +the odd and plain little harbor of Lamorna, and its rocks and bushes +and slopes of granite, seemed to be some bit of Fairyland, steeped in +the rich hues of the sunset, and yet ethereal, distant and +unrecoverable. + +Mrs. Rosewarne did not at all understand the silence of these young +people, and made many attempts to break it up. Was the mere fact of +Mr. Trelyon returning to Eglosilyan next day anything to be sad about? +He was not a school-boy going back to school. As for Wenna, she had got +back her engaged ring, and ought to have been grateful and happy. + +"Come now," she said: "if you propose to drive back by the Mouse Hole, +we must waste no more time here. Wenna, have you gone to sleep?" + +The girl started as if she really had been asleep: then she walked +back to the carriage and got in. They drove away again without saying +a word. + +"What is the matter with you, Wenna? Why are you so downcast?" her +mother said. + +"Oh, nothing," the girl said hastily. "But--but one does not care to +talk much on so beautiful an evening." + +"Yes, that is quite true," said Mr. Trelyon, quite as eagerly, and +with something of a blush: "one only cares to sit and look at things." + +"Oh, indeed!" said Mrs. Rosewarne with a smile: she had never before +heard Mr. Trelyon give expression to his views upon scenery. + +They drove round by the Mouse Hole, and when they came in sight of +Penzance again, the bay and the semicircle of houses and St. Michael's +Mount were all a pale gray in the twilight. As they drove quietly +along they heard the voices of people from time to time: the occupants +of the cottages had come out for their evening stroll and chat. +Suddenly, as they were passing certain huge masses of rock that sloped +suddenly down to the sea, they heard another sound--that of two or +three boys calling out for help. The briefest glance showed what was +going on. These boys were standing on the rocks, staring fixedly at +one of their companions, who had fallen into the water and was wildly +splashing about, while all they could do to help him was to call for +aid at the pitch of their voices. + +"That chap's drowning," Trelyon said, jumping out of the carriage. +The next minute he was out on the rocks, hastily pulling of his coat. +What was it he heard just as he plunged into the sea?--the agonized +voice of a girl calling him back? + +Mrs. Rosewarne was at this moment staring at her daughter with almost +a horror-stricken look on her face. Was it really Wenna Rosewarne who +had been so mean? and what madness possessed her to make her so? The +girl had hold of her mother's arm with both her hands, and held it +with the grip of a vice, while her white face was turned to the rocks +and the sea. "Oh, mother!" she cried, "it is only a boy, and he is a +man; and there is not another in all the world like him!" + +"Wenna, is it you who are speaking, or a devil? The boy is drowning." + +But he was drowning no longer. He was laid hold of by a strong arm, +dragged in to the rocks, and there fished out by his companions. Then +Trelyon got up on the rocks and calmly looked at his dripping clothes. +"You are a nice little beast, you are!" he said to the small boy, who +had swallowed a good deal of salt water, but was otherwise quite +unhurt. "How do you expect I am going home in these trousers? Perhaps +your mother'll pay me for a new pair, eh? And give you a jolly good +thrashing for tumbling in? Here's half a crown for you, you young +ruffian! and if I catch you on these rocks again, I'll throw you in +and let you swim for it: see if I don't." + +He walked up to the carriage, shaking himself, and putting on his coat +as he went with great difficulty: "Mrs. Rosewarne, I must walk back: I +can't think of--" + +He uttered a short cry. Wenna was lying as one dead in her mother's +arms, Mrs. Rosewarne vainly endeavoring to revive her. He rushed down +the rocks again to a pool and soaked his handkerchief in the water: +then he went hurriedly back to the carriage and put the cold +handkerchief on her temples and on her face. + +"Oh, Mr. Trelyon, do go away or you will get your death of cold," Mrs. +Rosewarne said. "Leave Wenna to me. See, there is a gentleman who will +lend you his horse, and you will get to your hotel directly." + +He did not even answer her. His own face was about as pale as that of +the girl before him, and hers was that of a corpse. But by and by +strange tremors passed through her frame: her hands tightened their +grip of her mother's arm, and with a sort of shudder she opened her +eyes and fearfully looked around. She caught sight of the young man +standing there: she scarcely seemed to recognize him for a moment. And +then, with a quick nervous action, she caught at his hand and kissed +it twice, hurriedly and wildly: then she turned to her mother, hid her +face in her bosom and burst into a flood of tears. Probably the girl +scarcely knew all that had taken place, but her two companions, in +silence and with a great apprehension filling their hearts, saw and +recognized the story she had told. + +"Mr. Trelyon," said Mrs. Rosewarne, "you must not remain here." + +Mechanically he obeyed her. The gentleman who had been riding along +the road had dismounted, and, fearing some accident had occurred, had +come forward to offer his assistance. When he was told how matters +stood, he at once gave Trelyon his horse to ride in to Penzance; and +then the carriage was driven off also at a considerably less rapid +pace. + +That evening, Trelyon, having got into warm clothes and dined, went +along to ask how Wenna was. His heart beat hurriedly as he knocked at +the door. He had intended merely making the inquiry and coming away +again, but the servant said that Mrs. Rosewarne wished to see him. + +He went up stairs and found Mrs. Rosewarne alone. These two looked at +each other: that single glance told everything. They were both aware +of the secret that had been revealed. + +For an instant there was dead silence between them, and then Mrs. +Rosewarne, with a great sadness in her voice, despite its studied +calmness, said, "Mr. Trelyon, we need say nothing of what has +occurred. There are some things that are best not spoken of. But I +can trust to you not to seek to see Wenna before you leave here. She +is quite recovered--only a little nervous, you know, and frightened. +To-morrow she will be quite well again." + +"You will bid her good-bye for me?" he said. + +But for the tight clasp of the hand between these two, it was an +ordinary parting. He put on his hat and went out. Perhaps it was the +cold sea-air that made his face so pale. + +[TO BE CONTINUED.] + + + + +LA MADONNA DELLA SEDIA. + +A TRADITION. + + + Raphael. Still in this free, clear air that vision floats + Before my brain. I may nor banish it + Nor grasp it. 'Tis too fine, too spirit-like, + To offer as the type of motherhood. + Color and blood and life and truth it lacks. + Gods! can it be that our imaginings + Excel your handiwork? Must life seem dull, + Must earth seem barren and unbeautiful, + For ever unto him who can create + This rarer world of delicate phantasy? + I lift mine eyes, and nothing real responds + To those ideal forms. God pardon me! + There in the everlasting sunshine sits + The Mother with the Infant at her breast. + Hence, ghostly shadows! let me learn to draw + Mine inspiration from the common air. + A peasant-woman auburn-haired, large-eyed, + Within the shade of overhanging boughs + Suckles her babe, and sees her eldest born + Gambol upon the grass: the elf has wrought + With two snapt boughs the semblance of a cross, + And proudly holds the sacred symbol high + Above his head to win his mother's praise. + Mine art may haply reproduce that wealth + Of brilliant hues--the dusk hair's glimmering gold, + The auroral blush, the bare breasts shining white + Where the babe's warm rose-face is pressed against + That fount of generous life; but ah! what craft + May paint the unearthly peace upon her brow, + The holy love that from her dark moist orbs + Beams with no lesser glory than the eyes + Of the Maid-Mother toward her heaven-born Child. + + _Little Boy with the Cross_. + Oh, mother, such a stranger comes this way! + I saw him as I climbed the olive tree + To break the branches for my crucifix-- + tall, fair youth with floating yellow curls. + Is he an angel? + + _Maria_. Silly darling, peace! + No longer dwell the angels on the earth, + And see, he comes. + + _Raphael_. Madonna mia, hail! + God bless thee and thy cherubim! + + _Maria_. Amen! + God bless thee also for the pious wish! + No cherubim are these, but, Heaven be thanked, + Two healthy boys. Pray, sit and rest with us: + The heat has been too fierce for wayfarers, + And 'neath these shady vines the afternoon + Is doubly fresh. + + _Raphael_. Thanks, 'tis a grateful air: + The weariness of travel it uplifts + From heavy brow and body with its breath, + Delicious as cool water to the touch. + + _Maria_. Bernardo, climb yon trunk again and pluck + Some ripened clusters for this gentleman. + + _Raphael_. Ah, 'tis a radiant child: what full, lithe limbs! + What cream-white dimpling flesh! what golden lights + Glance through the foliage on his crisp-curled head! + What rosy shadows on the naked form + Against gray olive leaves and blue-green vine! + And see, where now the bright, round face peers down, + And smiles and nods, and beckons us as one + Who leaneth out of heaven. + + _Maria_. A wanton imp, + And full of freaks. I marvel much thereat, + Since I have named him from a holy saint, + Who bode among us many years, and gave + His dying blessing unto me and mine. + + _Raphael_. The child could be no other than he is + Without some loss, mother. But what saint + Had here his hermitage? + + _Maria_. Nay, pardon me, + 'Twas but my reverent love that sainted him; + Yet was he one most worthy of the crown, + If austere life of white simplicity, + Large charity and strict self-sacrifice + Can sanctify a mortal. + + _Raphael_. Yet I see + No convent nigh. + + _Maria_. Nay, sir, no convent his. + Beyond our comfortable homes he dwelt, + Not lonely though alone: 'neath yonder hill + His hut was reared; a tall full-foliaged oak + O'ershadowed it. 'Tis not so long agone + Since he was here to comfort, help and heal, + Yet now no earthly trace of him remains. + Spring freshets from the hills have washed away + The last wrecked fragments of his hermitage, + And though I pleaded hard, I could not save + The oak, his dear dumb daughter, from the axe, + Albeit 'twas she preserved him unto us. + Forgive me, sir, my chatter wearies you, + Here be the grapes my boy has plucked: they sate + Both thirst and hunger, pray refresh yourself. + + _Raphael_. Dear mother, it is rest to hear thee speak. + 'Tis not my hale young limbs that are forespent, + But an outwearied spirit, seeking peace, + Hath found it in thy voice. Speak on, speak on. + What of this holy saint? how chanced the tree + To save his life? + + _Maria_. Ah, 'twas a miracle. + Through summer's withering heats and blighting droughts + His own hands gave the thirsty roots to drink. + In spring the first pale growth of tender green + Thrilled him with scarcely less delight than mine + At my babe's earliest glance of answering love. + Daily he fed the tame free birds that went + Singing among its boughs; he tended it, + He watched, he cherished, yea he talked to it, + As though it had a soul. God gave to him + Two daughters, he was wont to say--one mute, + And one who spake, the oak tree and myself. + A child, scarce older than my Bernard now, + I nestled to the quaint, kind hermit's heart, + And grew to girlhood with my hand in his. + I loved to prank his wretched cell with flowers. + Twisting bright weeds around his crucifix, + Or trailing ivy wreaths about his door. + One winter came when half my father's vines + Were killed with frost; the valley was as white + As yonder boldest mountain-top; the air + Cut like a knife; the brooks were still and stiff; + The high drifts choked the hollows of the hills. + When spring approached and swollen brooks ran free. + And in the ponds the blue ice cracked and brake, + The hard snows melted and the bladed green + Put forth again, then from the mountain-slopes, + The avalanches rolled; the streams o'erflowed; + The fields were flooded; flocks were swept away, + And folk fared o'er the pasture-ground in boats. + Two days and nights the sun and stars seemed drowned, + The air was thick with water, and the world + Lay ruined under rain and sliding snows. + Then day and night my thoughts were with the saint + Whose poor hut clung to yonder treacherous slope: + My dreams, my tears, my prayers were all for him. + Not till the flood subsided, and again + A watery sun shone forth, my prayers prevailed + Upon my father, and he went with me + To seek the holy man. "Just God!" he cried, + And I, with both hands pressed against mine eyes, + Burst into sobs. No hermitage was there: + Naught save one broken, tottering wall remained + Beneath the unshaken, firmly-rooted oak. + Then from the branches came a faint, thin voice, + "My children, I am saved!" and looking up, + We found him clinging with what strength was left + Unto the boughs. We led him home with us, + Starving and sick, and chilled through blood and bone. + Our tenderest care was needed to revive + The life half spent, and soon we learned the tale + Of his salvation. He had climbed at first + Unto his roof, but saw ere long small chance + For that frail hut to stand against the storm. + It rocked beneath him as a bark at sea, + The hard wind beat upon him, and the rain + Drenched him and seemed to scourge him as with flails. + He gave himself to God; composed with prayer + His spirit to meet death; when overhead + The swaying oak-limbs seemed to beckon him + To seek the branches' shelter and support. + His prayer till death was that the Lord would bless + His daughters, and distinguish them above + All children of the earth. For me his suit + Hath well prevailed, thank God! A happy wife, + A happy mother, I have naught to ask: + My blessings overflow. + + _Raphael_. Thanks for thy tale, + Most gracious mother. See thy babe is lulled + To smiling sleep. + + _Maria_. Yea, and the silence now + Awakens him. Ah, darling rogue, art flushed + With too much comfort? So! let the cool air + Play with thy curls and fan the plump, hot cheek. + + _Raphael_. Hold, as the child uplifts his cherub face, + Opens his soft small arms to stroke thy cheek, + Crowing with glee, while the slant sunbeams light + A halo of gold fire about thy hair, + I see again a canvas that is hung + Over the altar in our church at home. + "_Mater amabilis_," yet here be traits, + Colors and tones the artist never dreamed. + Sweet mother, let me sketch thee with thy babe: + So rare a picture should not pass away + With the brief moment which it illustrates. + + _Maria_. Art thou a painter too, Sir Traveler? + Where be thy brush and colors? + + _Raphael_. Ah, 'tis true, + Naught have I with me. What is this? 'twill serve + My purpose. + + _Maria_. 'Tis the cover of a cask, + Made of the very oak whereof I spake: + My father for his wine-casks felled the tree. + + _Raphael_. A miracle! the hermit's daughters thus + Will be remembered in the years to come. + My pencil will suffice to scratch the lines + Upon the wood: my memory will hold + The lights, the tints, the golden atmosphere, + The genius of the scene--the mother-love. + +EMMA LAZARUS. + + + + +EARLY TRAVELING EXPERIENCES IN INDIA. + + +In August, 1849, when I had been living at Calcutta nearly three +years, I was warned by my doctor that I must go on a sea-voyage or +else to the Himalaya Mountains, if life was an object with me. Such it +was, and very keenly. The four-and-twenty years of it which I had +divided between study and rollicking had approved themselves, like +this poor old world when it was new, "very good," and I had a strong +objection to parting with it on so short an acquaintance. True, my +hepatic apparatus, as the doctors grandly call the liver, had got +miserably out of gear, though I was a water-drinker, and though I had +a wholesome horror of tropical sunshine. But I had a good +constitution, and I had the word of the medical faculty for it that +many a man with not half so good a one as mine had pulled through a +much worse condition than I was in. To go away somewhere, however, was +proposed as my only alternative to migrating down to the hideous +cemetery among the bogs and jackals of Chowringhee. But where should I +go? After having been shot once and drowned twice when a boy, I had +been ship-wrecked at the mouth of the sacred and accursed Ganges, and +had just escaped with my life and Greek lexicon. Shooting--and I may +throw in hanging--I felt proof against, and as for drowning, I had no +fear of that. Nevertheless, I had been very near five months in coming +out from Boston under the blundering seamanship of Captain Coffin +(ominous cognomen!), and salt water, hard junk and weevilly biscuit +were as unattractive to me in possible prospect as they were in +retrospect. The sea I had weighed in the balance and had found it much +wanting. I would, then, go to the Himalayas. + +So I prepared to make for Simla, which, however, I never saw, nor had +occasion to see, my liver complaint seeming to have been left behind, +with my good wishes, in the City of Palaces. In the early days of +Indian civilization to which I refer the most convenient way of +journeying on high-roads was by palanquin. One of the black +packing-cases so called was purchased, and an arrangement entered +into, after the custom of the country, with the post-office to have +relays of bearers provided on the road at stated times and places. +Thus, I was to go as far as Ghazeepore, where I had a friend living, +and there I was to give due notice if I wished to proceed farther. +Traveling in India has so frequently been a subject of description +that I shall not describe it anew. I allow myself, however, to say +that if, before venturing on it, you lay in a stock of boiled tongues, +sardines, marmalade, and tea and sugar, you could not do better by way +of forestalling starvation and repentance. Every day I stopped once or +twice at a travelers' bungalow, or rest-house; and I managed, +notwithstanding that my stock of Urdû was scanty, to make my wants +understood. That a great part of the copious monologue which my +purveyors expended, as we settled the details of breakfast or dinner, +was lost on me, did not seem, in the final result, to matter in the +least. What I needed I asked for, and then listened attentively for +the barbaric representative of "yes" or "no" in the Babel of sounds +that followed, neglecting the flux of verbiage that engulfed it with +the same lofty indifference which a mathematician professes toward +infinitely small quantities. With a view to avoiding cross-purposes +there is nothing like economy of speech. But how my tawny hosts could +contrive to realize such a fortune of talk out of their very meagre +capital of subject-matter excited my never-ending wonder. They could +provide forlorn pullets, certainly from the same farmyard with the +lean kine of Egypt, and to these they could add, what was much better +left unadded, a villainous species of unleavened bread, a sort of +hoecake, not at all improved--precisely like the run of travelers--by +leaving home and wandering in the Orient. And this was about all they +could provide. But, I repeat, how could expatiate on them! And how +bespattered one with compound epithets of adulation! + +A friend of mine, a lady, when fresh in the country once compromised +herself rather astonishingly by lending an ear to their multiloquence, +instead of resolutely refusing her attention to all communication but +that consisting of "yea, yea," and "nay, nay." She had noted down, in +her tablets, the Urdû wherewith to ask whether a thing is procurable, +and to order it, if procurable, to be forthcoming, with the +appropriate outlandish words for "pullet" and "hoecake," and also +those for straightforward answers, affirmative and negative. She was +certain that with this lingual accoutrement she could not possibly be +taken at a disadvantage. The experience of a few hours, however, +unsettled her self-confidence very considerably. She alights at a +wayside hostelry. Khudâbakhsh, the chief servant in attendance, +arrayed in more or less fine linen, without the purple, surmounted by +a turban after the likeness of Saturn and his rings in a pictorial +astronomy-book, presents himself, and worships her with lowly +salutations. "Is a fowl to be had?"--"Gharîb-parwar," is the prompt +reply.--"Is hoecake to be had?"--"Dharm-antâr," officiously cuts in +Khudâbakhsh's mate, a low-caste Hindoo; and the principal thinks it +unnecessary to respond to the question a second time. Now, what is to +be done? What do they mean? Have they fowl and hoecake? Have they not +fowl and hoecake? Here, to be sure, is a very _bivium_ of +perplexities. The lady at last, with quiet nonchalance, demands the +production of a gharîb-parwar and a dharm-antâr, thus unconsciously +ordering a "cherisher of the poor" and an "incarnation of justice," +the pretty appellations used to designate herself. "Queer things for +breakfast!" Khudâbakhsh and his mate mentally reflect, exchanging +glances, but without moving a muscle. Breakfast is served, and my +friend sees before her just what she meant to order. On one dish reeks +the bony contour of a chicken, grinning thankfulness for extinction at +every joint, and on a second dish towers a pile of things like small +wooden trenchers pressed flat. Of course she has been puzzled, she +self-flatteringly concludes, by some less common names of the very +common viands which lie displayed before her. By and by, however, she +discovers that gharîb-parwar and dharm-antâr are not articles of +gastronomic indulgence, at least beyond the borders of those islands +of the blest where slices of cold missionary come on with the dessert. +When fully aware of her little blunder she marvels, and not +unreasonably, that any one should address a lady as "cherisher of the +poor" or as "incarnation of justice," rather than as plain "madam;" +and she thinks it equally strange that any one should so beat about +the bush as to substitute polysyllables of compliment for _hân_, the +much more expeditious equivalent of "yes." + +Everything went on smoothly and monotonously enough till I was within +twenty miles, roughly computed, of Ghazeepore. At this point, on +reaching the end of a stage, my bearers woke me to say there was no +relay waiting for them. It may have been midnight. I told them to set +me down, to make up a fire and to go to sleep around it, but keeping +watch, turn and turn about, each for an hour. Matters being thus +disposed, I shut and hooked the palanquin doors, readjusting my +blankets, and was soon dreaming of another hemisphere. At sunrise no +new bearers had yet shown themselves. My men belonged to the region we +were in, and I learned from them that the nearest European dwelt only +eight miles distant. I bargained with them to take me to his bungalow. +The unexpected wages which they were promised being liberal, they +trotted off with unwonted briskness. In due course the bungalow loomed +in sight, and as I approached it a burly figure, in shirt-sleeves and +with arms akimbo, appeared in the verandah, his eyes turned in the +direction of his unlooked-for visitor. "God bless you, Hugh Maxwell! +I'm devilish glad to see you," shouted the burly figure, benedictory, +but even in benediction not oblivious of the Old Teaser. "I wish to +Goodness I was Hugh Maxwell!" I returned, stepping to the ground. "Oh, +never mind," rejoined the hearty indigo-planter, perceiving his +mistake and offering me his hand. "There is just time for a bath +before breakfast," he added; and a good tubbing, in sufficient light +to see and evade creeping things by, was far from unacceptable. I +stayed with my good-natured host two days and nights, picking up, in +the mean while, much curious information touching the cultivation and +manufacture in which he was occupied. Like most persons of his +calling, he was an ardent sportsman. The early hours of the morning he +gave almost daily to a stroll with his gun; and the first evening I +passed with him he invited me, in startlingly piebald phraseology, to +accompany him on the morrow. "Be up by _top dage_," said he: "we will +have _chhotî hâzirî_, and then a _chal_ over the _khets_ for some +_shikâr_" Why he did not prefer to say "gun-fire," "tea and toast," +"run," "fields," and "game," probably he could not have told himself. +His way of peppering his English with Urdû was characteristic of his +class, and till I got accustomed to it I found it somewhat perplexing. +If he had known me all his life he could not have been more friendly. +Yet his kindness and hospitality were not exceptional things in the +India of a quarter of a century ago. All is changed there now--whether +much for the better I am skeptical. Twenty-two hours after they were +due my missing bearers made their appearance. Arrived at Ghazeepore, I +addressed a complaint to the postmaster-general. Thereupon two sides +of a large sheet of paper were spread for me with base official +circumlocution, through the darkness of which I groped out, after some +labor, the audacious libel that the blame, if there were any, rested +entirely with myself. This stuff, signed by the functionary aforesaid, +but doubtless concocted without his privity by one of his graceless +subordinates, I knew to be the only satisfaction I was to look for. A +request for revision of judgment would have been received with silent +scorn, and appeal there was none. Digesting my disgust as best I +could, I lighted my cheroot with the mendacious foolscap and blushed +for my species. + +Let us pass on to the beginning of 1851. Having then been stationary +at Benares for a whole year, I was longing for a little variety. Oude, +deservedly called the Garden of India, was, by all accounts, well +worth visiting. I resolved to visit it. But not merely was independent +exploration in that kingdom attended with risk: in strict propriety, +one had no business there except by royal authority, which royal +authority, as concerned a traveler, strongly recommended itself to +respectful consideration from including a guard, and that free of +expense. An acquaintance of mine wrote a letter for me to the Resident +at Lucknow, Sir Henry Sleeman. The royal authority was obtained, and +the guard inclusive was to meet me on the Oude frontier. Tents were +borrowed; servants and camels were hired; long consultations were held +with old stagers in the marching line. The canvas which was to shelter +me for six weeks was built up in front of my house, and already I felt +myself half a nomad. The last evening was spent with veterans in the +ways of camping out, and at three o'clock the next morning I mounted +my horse and began my journey. My road lay through Jaunpoor, and here +I encountered a violent thunderstorm in the middle of the night, with +floods of rain. At the cost of being almost drowned out and blown +away, I learned the expediency of trenching one's tabernacle, and the +wisdom of putting one's confidence in none but brand-new cordage. In +the city of Jaunpoor there is not much to arrest notice, saving its +very durable bridge, dating from the time of Akbar, and the Atâlâ +Masjid, a mosque deformed from a rather ancient Hindoo temple; and the +rest of the district of Jaunpoor which my route lay through was +altogether uninteresting. The borders of the district crossed, after +traversing a narrow strip of Oude I came again to British territory. +This fragment formed a perfect island, so to speak, the domains of the +nawab hemming it in on every side. The one European inhabitant of this +isolated but fertile spot was an indigo-planter, near whose bungalow +and factory I encamped for a night. His establishment was of long +standing, but he had no neighbor within many miles, and there was that +about the place which filled me with a sense of utter dreariness and +depression. Hard by the house was a burial-ground, and wholly by that +house it had been peopled with all its many tenants. Saddening were +the brief and almost unvaried histories recorded on its unpretending +monuments. There was a name, and then a date, and then that word at +the bare mention of which there are few old Indians who, as it calls +up memories of bygone shocks and griefs, can refrain from a sickening +shudder--"cholera." Among all who rested there in peace, so far away +from every reminder of childhood and of home, not one had passed the +prime of life. It was easy to picture to one's self the last gloomy +hours of those hapless exiles, stricken down by the fell scourge in +the pride of their strength, and perhaps at the full tide of their +prosperity, with none to succor, and with no hope from the first but +that they must perish. Nor was this quite all. How could their sole +companions, their servants, people of the country, and bound to their +masters by none but the mercenary tie of a hireling, soothe their +dying moments with any genuine sympathy, or supply in the dread +travail of mortality the room of a friend, or even of a +fellow-countryman? This is no baseless sketch of fancy. Familiar facts +dispense with all need to draw on the imagination in outlining the end +of one who meets a destiny like theirs. The planter suddenly finds +himself ill; he rapidly grows worse; a few hours of agony in his +solitude, and all is over. Tidings of the event are carried to the +nearest factory, and then to another and another. Two or three of his +former acquaintances ride over to his bungalow, knock up a rude +coffin, mumble a few sentences about "the resurrection and the life," +"our dear brother here departed," and "ashes to ashes, dust to dust," +bury him out of sight, and set up a decent stone over his grave. His +place is filled again in a few weeks or months, and his successor, +regardless of warnings, toils on in the old routine, possibly to share +his miserable fate. + +As I have said above, a guard was directed to await me on the Oude +borders. Various, conflicting, and all of them wide of the mark, were +my speculations on its outward and visible form, and the martial +equipment by which it was to strike terror in all beholders. Was it to +consist of horse or of foot? and of how many men? and so forth. The +mystery was resolved at the time and place appointed. A camel--a +picked sample, seemingly, for general ugliness and the vicious way it +writhed its mouth--shambled up to my tent. Its rider, who in all +specialties of repulsiveness tallied with the beast to a hair, impaled +a letter on the tip of his spear and handed it down. It was from the +Resident at Lucknow. In its unpromising bearer I beheld my guard. If +the look of a thorough ruffian, much unwashed, with the spear just +mentioned, a matchlock, and an assortment round his waist of what +resembled carving-knives and skewers, was to be my sufficient defence +in time of trouble, I was well provided for. However it was to be +explained, no harm came to me anywhere on my march. But my guard, if +he looked zealously after my interests, looked full as zealously after +his own. For what I knew he was licensed, as a servant of the state, +to billet himself at free quarters on his royal master's subjects: at +any rate, so he did. But, greatly to his vexation, I would not hear of +his compelling the shopkeepers with whom my butler had daily dealings +in buying necessaries for me to provision my camp at their own charge. +The man was for carrying things with a high hand; and at the period of +which I am writing to do so was in Oude wellnigh the universal rule. +Justice was fast dying out in the land, and violence already reigned +prevalent in its stead. The taxes, exorbitant as apportioned at the +court, were farmed by merciless wretches who made them more exorbitant +still, and who collected them, for the most part, at the point of the +sword. Open robbery, deadly brawls and private assassination had +become matters of perpetual occurrence. There was scarcely a day +during my tour that I was not in the close vicinity of fatal +skirmishes, and that I did not fall in with parties carrying away from +them the dead or wounded. Obviously, this state of affairs could not +exist for any very long duration. The nawab was advised, warned, and +then menaced with deposal, provided things were not righted in his +dominions, radically and speedily, to the satisfaction of the East +India Company. Harsh measures, equally with mild, were, however, +altogether wasted on him. Personally, he was a groveling debauchee, +exhausted alike in mind and in body to sheer imbecility; and his +courtiers and counselors were little better than himself. To anarchy, +insurrection seemed inevitably imminent. It was precluded by +annexation, and the kingdom of Oude, not an hour in advance of its +deserts, took its place in finished history. + +Game of a humbler description I met with in abundance everywhere in +Oude, but I had hunted the tiger with the rajah of Benares, and since +then had conceived a disdain of feathered things, bustards excepted. +Moreover, I had lately bought a superb double-barreled Swiss rifle, as +yet untested in real work. With inviting jungles constantly within +easy reach, not to experiment with this lordly implement on something +bigger than a wild pig demanded abnegation beyond my philosophy. I had +no companion, but then I would control my impetuosity, do nothing +rash, and, if I could, keep out of the way of temptation. One day, +therefore, breakfast despatched, I shouldered my lovely Switzer, and +struck off at random across the open. Woodland was not far to seek, +and before I had been away an hour I was in the heart of a dense +jungle. Ordinary deer and "such-like" I might have shot at will, but I +happened to be in an exclusive mood of mind, and was determined to +drop a blue-cow, if anything. But let not my Occidental reader +reproach me with having meditated such an atrocity as bovicide. I have +literally translated the Hindoo _nîl gâe_, the misleading name given +in India to the white-footed antelope, sometimes called also _rojh_. +At last my slaughterous appetite was gratified, and a blue-cow bore +witness to the merit of my rifle, if not to my marksmanship. It had +cost me a tiresome search, and, being a shy animal, much stealthy +tracking. Yet when the beautiful creature lay stretched at my feet it +seemed as if I had been guilty of wanton cruelty, and I wished my aim +had miscarried, proud as I had just before been of having done +execution at what looked to be an impracticably long range. Not +improbably I tried to extenuate my inhumanity by the argument that if +I had not killed it somebody else would have done so. Be this how it +may, I could never bring myself to shoot another, though I had many a +fair chance. All things considered, then, I am disposed to strike a +balance in my favor. + +However, a little while previously I had done a bit of bloodshed which +could not have lain on the very tenderest of consciences. The +circumstances were these: Near my camp was a patch of sugar-cane, +which I noticed bore marks of visitation by some creature with a taste +for sweets. The neighborhood, I ascertained, was infested with wild +hogs. In the afternoon I surveyed the fields adjoining the sugar-cane, +and made my dispositions against night. The moon was at the full. As +soon as it rose I took my rifle and repaired to a position selected +with reference to a certain tree. This tree had a low--but not too +low--horizontal branch, strong enough, as proved by experiment, to +bear my weight. Presently, an unmistakable concert of snorting and +grunting announced the approach of swine. I picked out their fugleman, +a well-grown boar, and fired. He was only wounded, and immediately +gave chase after me. I might discharge my second barrel at him, but +suppose I should miss? Perched out of his reach, I might miss him +with impunity, and load again. All this I had pondered beforehand. So +I started for my tree, which I reached some ten seconds sooner than +the boar, swung myself up on its low branch, and there took my seat. +The boar rushed furiously to and fro, raging like the heathen of the +Psalmist, and also, like the Psalmist's people--not a well-ordered +democracy like ours, of course--imagining a vain thing. Again and +again he quixotically charged the bole of the tree, no doubt thinking +it to be myself in a new shape. A fine classical boar he must have +been, with his poetic faith in instantaneous metamorphosis. His +classicality, however, what with his unmannerly savageness and my own +suspension between heaven and earth, I did not feel bound to respect. +So, without the slightest emotion of sentimentality, I put a ball +through his head. + +Let us now hark back to the blue-cow, beautiful and breathless. +Satisfied, for the nonce, with my prowess in laying it low, I plunged +into the forest, just to explore. I must have rambled several miles, +when I suddenly came upon an impervious barrier of quickset. Following +its course a little way, I found that it curved, and at one point I +espied through it a broad ditch filled with water, and a wall beyond. +By and by I reached a gap in the barrier, and a drawbridge leading up +to a large gate. I crossed the bridge, knocked at the gate, parleyed +with an invisible porter, and was admitted. My visit was evidently +viewed with a mixture of dislike and suspicion, but with no sign of +alarm when it was seen that I was really unaccompanied, as, while +still outside, I had said I was. Looking around, I perceived that I +was in a substantial fortress. Eight or ten ruffianly fellows came +about me and wished to know what I wanted. I asked who lived there, +and they informed me, adding an expression of surprise at my putting +such a question. Was their master at home? He was. And could I see +him? They would let me know directly. On this I was conducted to a +small room, and left there, The roughs paced backward and forward +before the door, casting glances at me which I fancied to be sinister. +In a few minutes their chief, a stalwart, brawny biped, swaggered in, +twirling his moustaches, clanking his sword, and studying to seem +truculent. He, no less than his men, was at a loss to know what I +could have come there for. So I told him the unvarnished facts of the +case, and paused for his reply. He had none to make. The latest news +from Lucknow he inquired for, indeed, but as I had come from the +opposite direction, and withal did not know the latest news of the +capital from the stalest, I could contribute nothing to his +enlightenment. Besides my rifle, I had in my belt a pair of loaded +pistols. He desired to look at them, but took in good part enough my +objection that I never trusted them in any hands but my own. We went +on talking for a little while, when he called for betel and pan. This +meant that I might go. I helped myself, took leave and recrossed the +drawbridge. It was a notorious freebooter, a Hindoo Robin Hood, that I +had dropped upon. But why did he not tumble me into his ditch and +enrich his armory with my rifle and pistols? It may be that prudence +operated, in his letting me go free, as a check on his lust for a very +small gain. Despite the then disordered condition of the country--or, +in some instances, by very reason of it--people of his stamp were +every here and there called to a summary reckoning. A bandit would +know the haunts of other bandits, and either to conciliate the +government or in the hope of reward occasionally betrayed or slew a +fellow-outlaw. While in Oude, one morning just after breakfast I was +told there was something to show me in a basket. The cover was +removed, and there I saw sixteen human heads. Their late proprietors +were a famous brigand and his merry men, only looking quite the +reverse of merry in the grim ghastliness of decapitation. I scarcely +recovered my appetite before tiffin. + +By an odd concurrence of circumstances, when near Fyzabad I was for +three days thrown on the hospitality of a wealthy Mohammedan. Nothing +could have exceeded his kindness, but the peculiar nature of the +entertainment he gave me may be conjectured when I mention that he had +not such a thing as a chair, table, knife, fork or spoon to his name. +Perforce, I had to dine sitting on the floor and with the sole aid of +my fingers. However, I accepted my fate without a murmur, and soon +learned to feed after the fashion of Eden as deftly as if I had been +bred to it. Hindoo cookery I could rarely screw up my courage so +heroically as to venture upon. Even the odor of my Calcutta washerman, +redolent with the fragrance of castor oil, was too much for my +unchastised squeamishness; and as to assafoetida, the favorite +condiment of our Aryan cousins, I was so uncatholic as to bring away +from India the same aversion to it that I had carried out there. But a +Mohammedan has, with some unimportant reservations, highly rational +notions as concerns the eatable and the drinkable. His endless variety +of kabobs and pilaus is worthy of all commendation; and his sherbets, +which refresh without a sting or a resipiscent headache next morning, +are no doubt the style of phlegm-cutters and gum-ticklers which one +had better patronize pretty exclusively while between the tropics. The +gentleman of the circumcision whom I had for host was, I suspect, +something of an epicure, and his cooking was such as I found eminently +toothsome. My dinner was on the floor at the polite hour of eight, +after which he would come to me for a short talk and to chant a little +Persian poetry. At nine he was due in his harem, which, he gave me to +understand, was a populous establishment. + +For my special service he detailed, to my surprise, not a man, but a +young woman, who, I take it, was in bonds. Under considerate Hindoo +and Mohammedan masters slavery is, however, the lightest of hardships, +and the damsel appropriated to wait on me, if she were not a slave, +could not have been lighter-hearted. A student of all the natural +products of the East, I did not neglect while there to bestow a proper +share of study on Indian womankind; and as my Fyzabad abigail was a +noteworthy specimen of her species, I may as well gratify the +curiosity of the untraveled to know what she was like. Such as she was +the queen of Sheba would perhaps have been if scoured very bright and +pared shapely. Her name was Dilrubâ, which signifies, being +interpreted, "Heart-ravisher." She may have been seventeen or +eighteen; she was of a good height and elegantly proportioned, with a +well-set neck, sloping shoulders, and fine bust; and her carriage had +that stately and sylph-like grace which no words can depict, and which +is found nowhere on earth but among the Orientals. Her hands and feet +were exquisitely small and symmetrical. Her arms, which were bare +to the shoulder, displayed everything of fullness, rotundity and +lines of beauty that could be desired. Their hue and delicacy +of texture would have reminded a connoisseur of brownish satin. +Her waist, tight-cinctured, was--which is the highest praise--not +ultra-fashionable, and the undulations of her gauzy drapery disclosed, +as she receded, enough of ankle and crural adjacency to furnish hints +of improvement to most classical sculptors. Her lips, I regret to say, +were too liny, and not of the true ruby tint, but with the exception +of her mouth all her features were, not to say more, good. As to her +eyes, I should do injustice by any attempt to describe them. An object +must be susceptible of calm and dispassionate contemplation if one +would analyze it afterward without complete disaster. A very +irresistible little piece of orientality she must indeed have been, +perchance the reader will conclude. And yet, if the reader is a man +and a brother--that is to say, a brother white man--I answer him he is +altogether in too great a hurry. He has forgotten her color; and color +is a matter which we narrow--minded dwellers in the North find it +impossible to be liberal about. Not by five-and-twenty shades, at the +least, did the trim creature resemble any lily of the valley but a +very dark one; and of the rose she was totally unsuggestive. If I had +been so cosmopolitan as to make love to her, she could not have +called up a blush to save her pretty little soul and body. She might +have turned green or yellow, for aught I know, but by no possibility +could she have done what she ought to have done. + +At Fyzabad there is but little to see, and that little is rather +uninteresting. What impressed me there, more than anything else, was a +particular private dwelling, and especially a certain room in it. The +edifice to which I refer belonged to an opulent Mohammedan, and had +been erected by an English architect. Being constructed pretty closely +on the model of a mansion in Belgravia, it was wholly unsuited in a +hot climate to any purpose except that of torture. In all probability, +its constructor, as he roasted over his work, omitted of set intention +to fit it up with fireplaces. In this omission, however, there was a +breach of contract, for in all its details the building was to be +thoroughly English. The defect was pointed out at the last moment, and +strict injunctions were given to repair it. Fireplaces there must be, +and a full complement of them. The matter was finally compromised by +providing a single small square room at the top of the house with one +in each of its side walls. In the same spirit of determination not to +come short of the mark, a rich Bengalee baboo whom I once knew +furnished his drawing-room, a large apartment, with thirty-two round +tables and an equal number of musical boxes. + +A great deal more might be said of Oude as I saw it, but the region, +since it became English territory, has been so often and so fully +described that I forbear to dwell on it. At Lucknow, its capital, I +spent a week as guest of Sir Henry Sleeman, with whom, from that time +to the end of his life, I was in constant correspondence. That Sir +Henry was a man altogether out of the common must be evident from his +various publications. I came to know his mind on most subjects very +intimately. In every respect he was original and peculiar, and but for +a rooted aversion to anything like Boswellism I might here depict a +character such as one seldom meets with in these days. To his personal +influence it was largely owing that for many a long year the +annexation of Oude to the Indian empire was suspended in disastrous +balance. + +FITZEDWARD HALL. + + + + +ONCE AND AGAIN. + + +Once and again I have nestled in the lap of a small village and +wondered at the necessity of any world beyond my peaceful horizon. +Once and again, after long years, I have entered the old school-room +with the fearful and impatient heart of a boy: I have paced the +play-ground and gone to and fro in the village streets singing, but +the song I once sang came not again to my lips, for it no longer +suited the time or the occasion. + +I thought to take up the thread of life where I had dropped it near a +score of years before, and complete the web which fancy had +embroidered with many a flower of memory and hope and love. I had +forgotten that the loom weaves steadily and persistently whether my +hand be on it or not, and that I can never mend the rent in the fabric +I so long neglected. + +My record elsewhere is replete with numerous accidents by flood and +field--with the epochs of meetings and marryings, of births and +deaths. Meanwhile, the friends who had held fast to me through all +these changes wrote ever in the selfsame vein, and plotted for my +return with such even and sturdy faith that I had grown to look upon +them as having drunk at the fountain of immortal youth. + +Of course the delectable spring gushed out of the heart of one of +those dear old hills that walled in the village, for how else could +they have quaffed it? The bones of more than two centuries pave the +highway between New England and California. As jubilant as young +Lochinvar, I came out of the West one summer dawn, and took train for +Heartsease. I had resolved to compass in a single week the innumerable +landmarks that dot mountain and desert and prairie--to leap as it were +from sea to sea, from the present to the past, from manhood to early +youth. + +Is it any wonder that I forestalled the time, and was a day and a +night distant before inquiring friends discovered my flight? Is it any +wonder that the shrieking and swaying train seemed slow to me, for +already my spirit had folded its swift wings in the nest-like village +of Heartsease? I had, moreover, by this brilliant manoeuvre, left the +bitter cup of parting untasted--but nothing more serious than +this--and seemed to have won a whole day from the clutches of Time, +who deals them out so stingily to the expectant and impatient watcher. + +San Francisco faces the sunrise, but there is a broad glittering bay +and a coast range with brawny bare shoulders between them: I sailed +over the flashing water, rode under the mountains and threaded three +tunnels before I began to realize that I was a fugitive from home. It +was midsummer; the car-windows were half open; whiffs of warm wind +blew in upon me scented with bay-leaves and sage. For a moment I +forgot Heartsease and the home of my youth, and turned tenderly to +take a last farewell of the beloved land of my adoption. The corn was +cut and stacked in long dusty rows: it looked like a deserted camp; +the grain was down; small squirrels skipped lightly over the shining +stubble, whisking their bushy tails like puffs of smoke. It seemed to +me that no fairer land ever baked in summer's sunshine. Even the +parched earth, with its broken and powdered crust, was lovely in my +eyes. Small day-owls sat in the corners of the fences, when there were +any fences to sit in, and nodded to me from behind their feather +masks: all the birds of the air taunted me with heads on one side and +drooping wings. I might escape trusting humanity and steal away +betimes, but these airy messengers waylaid me and chirped a sarcastic +adieu from every field we crossed. + +In the compulsory solitude of travel a man is thrown back upon +himself: at any rate, I am, and with waning courage and a growing +regret I sank into a corner of my seat by the window, and glowered at +the interminable slices of landscape that slid past me on both sides +of the rocking train. Have you ever noted the refrain of the flying +wheels as they hurry from town to town? There is a sharp shriek from +the locomotive, and a groan from one end of the train to the other, as +if every screw were rheumatic and nothing but a miracle held it in its +place. Then the song begins, very slowly at first, and in the old +familiar strain: "Ko--ka--chi--lunk, ko--ka--chilunk, koka--chilunk, +kokachilunk," repeated again and again, varied only when the short +rails are crossed, where it adds a few extra syllables in this style: +"Kokachilunk--chilunk, chilunk," growing faster and faster every +moment until the utmost speed is attained: it then soars into this +impressive refrain: "Lickity-cut, lickity-cut, lickity-cut, +lickity-cut," repeated as often and as rapidly as possible. All the +world goes by in two dizzy landscapes, yet the song is unvaried until +you approach a town with a straggling and unfinished edge, where the +houses are waltzing about as if they had not yet decided upon any +permanent location. Here you slacken speed and drop into a third +movement, as monotonous as the others and far more drowsy, for it +suggests all that is soothing and nerve-relaxing and sleep-begetting. +It is "Killi-kinick, killi--kinick, killi--kin--nick; eh! ah! bang!" A +long groan from the wheels, a deep sigh from the locomotive, and you +are stockstill at some inland hamlet that knows no emotion greater +than that occasioned by your arrival. + +To this dull accompaniment I climbed out of the golden lowlands, the +basins of the San Joaquin and the Sacramento, into the silver +mountains where the full moon was just rising. The train seemed to +soar through space; we passed from cliff to cliff, above dark ravines, +on bridges like spider-webs; we whirled around sharp corners as if we +had started for some planet, but thought better of it and clung to +earth, with our hair on end and half the breath out of our bodies. We +were continually ascending; the locomotive panted hideously; every +throb of the powerful machine sent a shudder through the whole length +of the train. + +Again and again we paused: it seemed that we could not go farther +without rest. Sometimes we hung on the edge of a chasm in whose +fathomless shadow were buried a forest and a stream, both of which +sent upward to us a fragrant and melodious greeting; sometimes we +rested under a mighty mountain, whose adamantine brow scowled upon us, +and we were glad when we once more resumed the toilsome ascent of the +Sierras and escaped unharmed from that giant's lair. + +Once we tarried on the brink of a wild cañon. Midnight and silence +seemed to slumber there: the moon flooded one half the mysterious gulf +with light, revealing a slender waterfall whose plash was faintly +heard: it served only to make the silence more profound. Near at hand +the torn and ragged earth, robbed of its treasure, looked painful even +in that softening light. On the dark side of the cañon, in among the +trees, a flame danced. I saw the gaunt forms of rough-clad men +gathered about the camp-fire, and beyond them a rude cabin of +un-barked logs, looking cheerful enough in the rosy light. + +There was nothing lovelier than this or more characteristic in the +glorious ride over the Sierras--not even the lake, above whose green +shores we rushed with half a mountain between us; nor the ice-gorges, +nor the black forests, nor the chaos of rock and ravine that has +defied the humanizing touch of time. I felt the burden of the +mountains then, and it is for ever associated with a memory of the +high Sierras, caught and fixed as we swept onward into the wild, wide +snow-lands. + +The burden of the mountains: There shall come a day when the ravine +for the silver is drained and the gold-seekers turn from thee +disconsolate, but thy years are unnumbered and thy strength unfailing: +the grass shall cover thy nakedness and the pine-boughs brood over +thee for ever and ever; the clouds shall visit thee and the springs +increase; the snows shall gather in the clefts of thy bosom; thy +breasts shall give nourishment, thy breath life to the fainting, and +the sight of thy face joy. The people shall go up to thee and build in +thy shadow; their flocks shall feed in peace: out of thy days shall +come fatness, and out of thy nights rest, for thou hast that within +thee more precious than silver, yea, better than much fine gold. + +When the burden was past I looked out into the night. A soft wind was +stirring; I scented the balsam of the piny woods; the moon had +descended beyond the crest of the mountain, and above me the sky was +flooded with pale and palpitating stars. We slid out of the mountains +into the broad Humboldt desert one cloudless day: it was like getting +on the roof of the world--the great domed roof with its eaves sloping +away under the edges of heaven, and whereon there is nothing but a +matting of sagebrush, looking like grayish moss, and a deep alkali +dust as white and as fine as flour. + +There were but two features in the landscape on which to fix the eye, +and these were infrequent--the dusty beds of the dead rivers and the +wind-sculptured rocks. It was the abomination of desolation: the air +was thin, but spicy; the sky was bare. When we had followed with eager +glance the shadow-like gazelle in his bounding flight, and brought the +heavy-headed buffalo to a momentary stand, with his small evil eye +fixed upon us, he wheeled suddenly and disappeared in a cloud of dust; +and we were alone in the desert. + +Those mellow hours by the inland sea, where sits the Garden City, with +its wide grass-grown streets and its vine-veiled cottages basking in +summer sunshine, were precious indeed! We had ample opportunity for +developing philosophy, sentiment and politics at one sitting. Coming +out of the fair and foul refuge of the fleshly saints, I thought of +the wisdom of the French poet who once said to me, "Oui, monsieur: +life is an oasis in which there is many a desert." In the unfruitful +shoots of those thorn-bearing vines and withered fig trees I learned +the burden of the desert: Though it blossom as the rose, if it yield +not honey it shall be laid waste; though it deck itself with beauty, +though it sing with the voice of the charmer, its fairness is a mock +and its song is the song of the harlot. Harbor it not in your hearts. +Let it be purged of uncleanness, let the stain be washed from it. +Though the builders build cunningly, they have builded in vain. There +is blood on their lintels, and their hearts are full of lust. He that +sits in the seat of the scornful and is girded about with pride, let +him fall as the tree falls, even the king of the forest, for there is +rottenness at the core. + +Like pilgrims in the earthly paradise we ploughed the long grass of +the prairies; like a fiery snake our train trailed over the flowering +land; its long undulations were no impediment; the grassy billows +parted before us; we cleft the young forests that have here and there +sprung up at the call of patient husbandry; myriads of wild-fowl +wheeled over the fragrant and boundless fields; every flower in the +floral calendar seemed at home in those meadow-lands of the world: the +sunset was not more glorious than the gentle slopes that swept to our +feet like a long wave of the sea, and then broke in a foam of flowers. +Not only was the delicious day promise-crammed, but the night, loud +with the chirp of the cricket and the cry of the sentinel owl, seemed +the realization of some splendid dream. + +Out of the redundant and prophetic life of that land I heard a +prophecy, and the prophecy was the burden of the prairies. It is the +chant of the future, full of life and hope. I see now rows of men and +women, the toilers of the earth; they have planted forests and the +strong wind is stayed; they have broken the soil and the grain is +breast-high; they are merry, for they are free, and their stores +increase with the years. Wine and oil are their portion, and fat kine +and all manner of cunning workmanship; their cities are greater and +better than the old cities, for they are builded on virgin soil; and +the day shall come when the jubilee of the prairies will assemble the +hosts from the borders of the two seas, and they will hear their +praises sung and receive tribute, for the strength of the land is +theirs. + +And we came into other countries that were full of people, and of +cities great and small. A thousand strange faces were turned upon us +as we shot past the open doors of houses wherein the table was spread +for the domestic meal. We hailed the field-laborers and the +town-artisans at their toil, and every hour plunged deeper and deeper +into the old civilization of the East, which in some respects differs +greatly from that of our breezy West. It was time to be thinking on my +journey's end and its probable results. I seemed to read it all +beforehand: Ellen would greet me at the gate of the parsonage on the +edge of Heartsease, looking just as she looked when I parted with her +long, long years before. Ellen had not changed with time: she had +written me the same sweet, placid, sympathetic letters from the +beginning, and the beginning was when, a mere child, I had worn out my +heart with longing for home, and had at last been welcomed back over +the two seas and across the slender chain of flowers that binds the +two Americas together--back to the land I love, California. Ellen +would lead me in all the old paths; we would see the garden in which, +as a beautiful boy, I more than once sought her to confess some grief, +knowing there was no ear so willing as hers, no heart tenderer, no +counsel more comforting. We would row up the stream that runs under +the hill by the willows, and strand in the same shallow nook, in honor +of the festal Saturdays dead and gone. We would gather the old friends +about us, and eat very large apples by the study-window; we would +hunt nests in the hayloft and acorns in the wood; the school-room +would take us back again, and all the half-obliterated memories of the +past would glow with fresher color. A hundred hands would be stretched +out to me, and I would recognize the clasp of each. Ah, happy day when +I again returned to Heartsease and found the lost thread of my youth +unbroken, and I had only to weave on and complete the fabric so long +neglected! + +There were a dozen trains to enter and get out of before I could be +whirled across the country to Heartsease. Now that Heartsease was +easily attainable, all the restless world would be fleeing thither, +and it would no longer be worthy of its name. I felt my way from town +to town, pausing an hour here, another hour there, in an impatient +mood, for the last train was behind time, and I feared I should not +arrive in the village at the moment of all others I most desired to. +Why should I not come at sunset to the parsonage--one from the land of +the sunset wearing, as it were, his colors on his heart? The hour is +so mysterious and pathetic--the very hour to step in upon the village, +for so you can gloat over it all night, before the sun has laid the +whole truth bare to you on the following morning. And moreover I had +not written Ellen of my intended visit: why should I, when she had +been looking for me these ten years at least? Why should I say, "At +last I am coming," when a thousand things might have prevented me? Was +it not better to walk up the long road from the station at twilight, +pass silently through the quiet, familiar streets, and then, as I +approached the gate of the parsonage, discover a form waiting there as +if expecting some one, but whom it was hard to say? Drawing nearer, I +would recognize the form, slender and graceful, and then the face, +placid and pale, with the soft hair drawn smoothly over the temples +and the thin hands folded in peace. Oh yes, it was much better thus. + +At the last change of trains, ten miles from Heartsease, a heavy +summer shower was drenching the town; the very rain was hot, and the +earth steamed lustily. I feared, my plan was spoiled, my meeting at +the gate after long years of patient and hopeful waiting. But the rain +passed over, and I was again under way. Now every inch of the land was +familiar: I recognized old houses and barns and strips of fence and +streams that had not been in my mind once in all these years. I knew +every block of forest that had been left on the border of the upland +fields, and all the meadows, marshy or dry: the very faces of the +people seemed to recall some one I had known before. The hills were +like lessons learned by heart; and now I came upon the actual haunts +of my school-boy days--the wood where we gave our picnics; the red +house, a little out of the village, where one of the boys +lived--strangely enough, the house I remembered, but the boy's looks +and name had gone from me--and then the train stopped. I felt a +tingling sensation, as if the blood were coming to the surface all +over me. + +A switchman, and a stranger, waved us welcome with a yard of flaming +bunting. I hurried out of the car and alighted within half a mile of +Heartsease. On the platform, where I had parted with my schoolmates +fifteen years before, I waited till the train had passed onward and +out of sight. I was alone: the switchman asked no odds of me, but +furled his bunting and immediately withdrew. For a moment I looked +about me in bewilderment. I think I could have turned back had I been +encouraged to do so, for I felt half guilty in thus surprising my +friends. A moment later I plucked up heart and struck into the road +that leads up to the village. + +The road has a margin of grass and weeds, and there are meadows on +both sides. I walked in the very middle of it, with my portmanteau in +my hand, and looked straight ahead. Before me lay the village, a +cluster of white houses embowered in trees. It was sunset; the rain +had washed the leaves and laid the dust in the road; the air was +exquisitely fragrant and of uncommon softness; the white spire of the +village church, flanked by a long line of poplars, was gilded with a +sunbeam, but the lowly roofs of the villagers were bathed in the +radiant twilight that had deepened under the western hills. Cattle +were lowing in the meadows; the crickets chirped everywhere; a barbed +swallow clove the air like an arrow whose force is nigh spent; and a +child's voice rang out on the edge of the village as clear as a +clarion. I paused and laughed aloud. I was mad with joy; an exquisite +thrill ran through me; it seemed to me that the most delicious moment +of my life had come. + +I entered the village a boy again, with all the wild ambition of a boy +and with a boy's roguish spirit. I resolved to play upon them at the +parsonage. If Ellen were not at the gate waiting for me, I would enter +as a stranger and remain a season before throwing off disguise. I +would cunningly lead the conversation from topic to topic until we +came naturally to the past, and there in the past my shadow would +appear, and then at the right moment I would throw myself at Ellen's +feet and bury my head in her lap and weep for very joy. + +These dreams beguiled me as I drew near the village. My step was +buoyant; I scarcely felt the weight of my portmanteau; I was drunk +with expectation and delight. In the village I found the streets and +houses and signs for the most part unchanged, but I looked in vain for +a familiar face. A few lads were playing about "the corners," and when +I saw them it suddenly occurred to me that all those youngsters under +fifteen were not born when I was a school-boy in Heartsease. I turned +away from them with a feeling of unutterable disappointment. Why +should not all my playmates be married or dead or have moved out of +the village if changes had come to it? I had not thought much of +change in this connection, and it was a hard blow. + +A faint flush was in the evening sky: it was the afterglow, and in its +light I pressed onward toward the parsonage. A hollow in the road, +through which a stream rippled, lay between me and the grove that +sheltered Ellen's home: I hastened down it, and began climbing the +easy ascent on the other side of the stream. I seemed to grow years +older with every step I took, for I knew that the change which comes +to all must have come to me in like measure, though I was a boy again +when I came up the road laughing and heard the first sweet village +voice. + +There was no form at the gate awaiting me, but the house was quite +unaltered, and I knew every leaf in the garden. The flush in the sky +had turned to gold and the air throbbed with light as I hid my +portmanteau under the rosebush by the gate and stole up to the +study-door. I would not give so palpable a clew to my identity as +that: I wished to appear like one who had dropped in for a moment to +ask the hour or the loan of a late journal. I rapped at the shutters +that enclosed the outer door, and waited in a tremor of expectation: +there was no response. Again I rapped, and again waited in vain for a +reply. + +The shadows deepened in the grove; a thin light sifted down through +the leaves and fell upon the doorstep in pale disks that seemed to +tremble with agitation and suspense. I grew uneasy, and feared it was +not wise of me to have come without announcement, and my heart beat +heavily. I walked nervously to the side of the house and glanced in at +the deep bow-window; a shadow crossed the room: it was Ellen's shadow, +and unchanged, thank God! I knew she would not change, for she was one +whom time wearied not and fear fretted not, but to whom all things +were alike welcome, inasmuch as they came from the Hand that can work +no ill. + +I returned to the study-door and rapped again, and then grew suddenly +much excited: I almost wished I had not summoned her so soon, but +already I heard her step upon the carpet, her hand on the latch and +the shutters swung apart. I strove to calm myself and ask carelessly +if she were at home, when I thought I saw a difference in the form and +face before me: they were so like Ellen's, but not hers. Had it been +in my power to do so, I would have turned at that moment and gone out +into the world without questioning any one: I would gladly have +avoided any revelation of ill that might have befallen that +household, and gone on as before, thinking it was well with them. But +it was too late: at the same instant we recognized one another. + +"Is it Emma?" I asked fearfully. + +"You are not--" + +Ah, yes, it was he who had promised all these years to come, and had +come at last! + +Then she added, "You have come too late: Ellen left us one week ago." + +I knew what that meant: it was the leaving that takes all along with +it, and there remains nothing but a memory instead. It was the leaving +that lays bare the heart of hearts, and strikes blind and dumb the +agonized soul--the leaving and the leave-taking that is all +bitterness, call it by what name you will--that makes weak, the strong +and confounds the wise, and strikes terror to the breast of stone--the +leaving which is the leaving off of everything that is near and dear +and familiar, and the taking on of all that is new and strange--Death! +Death! at the thought of which even the Son of God faltered and cried, +"If it be possible let this cup pass from Me," alone in that wild +night in the garden, with watching and prayers and tears. + +I had dreamed out my dream: it was glorious while it lasted, but I +wakened to a reality that was as cruel as it was unexpected. + +Emma was a mere child when I left Heartsease: she had grown into the +living image of her sister. Whenever Emma spoke I seemed to hear the +voice and feel the presence of the one who had been gone a whole week +when I came in search of her. I entered the stricken home: father, +mother and maiden aunt--that good angel of all homes--were to me as if +I had parted with them but yesterday. We sat in silence for a time: it +seemed to me that if any one spoke there the very walls of the house +would distill sorrowful drops. Our hearts were brimming, our lips were +quivering, with inexpressible grief. It was a solemn and a holy hour; +the night closed in about us with unutterable tenderness; the summer +stars shed down their radiant beams. + +The vesper-song of some invisible bird called me into the garden, and +I walked there alone. Did I walk utterly alone? A spirit was with me. +I wandered out to the gate and drew my portmanteau from its +hiding-place: I placed my hand upon the latch; the gate swung easily, +but I paused a moment. Shall I go or shall I stay? asked my heart: +"Stay," said the spirit that was with me. I returned to the house and +joined in the evening meal: sorrow sat at the board with us, but not a +hopeless sorrow. The magnetism of her touch had not yet left that +home: it never need, it never will leave it, for it is treasured +there. Her piano was closed, and I would not open it: any harmony +would have been too harsh for the hallowed silence of the place. Her +books, her pictures, her dainty needlework, _her words_--all that had +been a part of her life--still lived, though she had left us. + +Those were sweet days to me. Emma and I went side by side to the old +haunts--to most of them, but not all, for there were some I cared no +longer to revisit. Before we had compassed the narrow limits of +Heartsease I began to wonder if there was a stone left that would give +back to me the impression of my early days: they all told another +story now, and most of them a sad one. Even the school-room was as a +dead thing, though I sat on the old benches and mounted the rostrum +whereon I was wont to "speak my piece" with much trepidation of spirit +and an inexplicable weakness of the knees. I wrote my name on the wall +in an obscure corner, simply because I didn't want it to be stricken +off from the roll entirely, and then turned back into the street with +less regret than I had reckoned on. + +Of all the old friends I had known in boyhood, I saw but two besides +Emma--two sisters whose histories were strange and wonderful. They +greeted me as of yore, and we talked of the past with pity mingled +with delight. Dick, my old chum, Emma's soldier-brother, was miles and +miles away: not a boy of all our tribe was left in Heartsease to tell +me the story of the past. I began to be glad that it was so, for the +great gulf that lay between me and the boy I had been seemed to render +up no ghosts but were shrouded in sorrow. + +There was one spot I might have visited, but did not: it seemed to me +better to wander to and fro about the dear old parsonage with the +living spirit near me, and to go out again into the world with the +softened influences of that lessened but unbroken circle consoling me, +than to seek the new grave that had not yet had time to clothe itself +with violets, and the sight of which could have given me nothing but +pain. By and by, I thought, let me return, and when it has healed over +and is sweet with summer flowers I will sprinkle rue upon it and +breathe her name. I went back from Heartsease like the bearer of +strange news. We had all sat together and thought, rather than +uttered, the memories of the past: they weighed me down, but they were +precious freights. When I looked once more, and for the last time, +upon the darling village drowsing in the sunshine, I felt that I had +learned the burden of the hearth: Not length of days is given, but the +sweetness and strength thereof: their memory shall live even though +the dead be dust. Out of the loam of this corrupting body springs +heavenward the invisible blossom of the soul. You have watered it with +tears: let the performance thereof comfort you. Though ye die, yet +shall ye live: thus saith the Lord. But shall the old days delight us +and the past live? Yea, verily, saith the Spirit--once, but never +again! + +CHARLES WARREN STODDARD. + + + + +THE SCIENTIFIC LIFE. + + +It has been my good fortune to be thrown much with men of science, and +to find among them companions made agreeable by the best of social +qualities and by many larger capacities. Perhaps it is their life +apart, their consciousness of belonging to a distinct class, that has +made them, as I have found them, so strikingly individual, and partly +for this very reason so interesting. Indeed, it is curious to observe +how varied and how utterly different maybe the non-essentials, moral +and mental, of the beings to whom God has given the rare gift of power +to look into the secrets He has scattered around us in plant and earth +and animal life. Consistently with various grades of competence for +investigation, the man may be social, or may flee his fellows; may be +witty, or incapable of seeing the broadest fun; a poet, or almost +devoid of creative imagination; full of refinement and rife with +multiple forms of culture, or neither scholarly nor well-informed +outside of his especial line of work. According as he is endowed with +mental graces and forms of culture, apart from his science, will be +his charm as a companion; but while the absence of these means of +pleasing is sometimes met with, and while their lack in no wise +lessens his power of investigation, I have found most men of science +to possess in a high degree qualities which rendered them delightful +as comrades at the camp-fire or as guests at the dinner-table. Indeed, +the best talkers I know are men of science--not the mere students of a +knowledge already garnered, but those who discover new facts or who +spend their lives in original research. The most mirthful, cheery, +happy and liberal-minded of men are to be found in the limited ring of +those who are known in this country as investigators. On the European +continent the same remark holds true, but in Europe this class is very +often less refined than with us. In England the same class is +undoubtedly notable for a curious absence of the wide range of general +information constantly found in America, so that English men of +science often amaze us in social life by their lack not so much of +culture, as of wide knowledge of matters outside of their own studies, +as well as by their inaptitude to share the lighter chat of the +dinner-table. + +Even in Great Britain--and yet more in Germany and France--the habits +of life make it less of a sacrifice than here for men to abandon all +that money gives and to devote themselves to the quiet life of the +closet and the laboratory. Once set in a groove, the average man +abroad is less apt, to seek to rise out of it or depart from it; while +with us the constant flow of a too intensely active life is for ever +luring men with baits of greed to take the easy step aside from pure +science into the golden ways of gain. Honored be they in this land of +eager money-getting who withstand the temptation, and in quiet and +peace, undisturbed by the turmoil about them, pursue those noble +quests which give to humanity its highest training! What these men +lose we know: to them are neither great houses nor the hoards of +successful commerce. Their lives are often vexed by the trouble and +worry of wretchedly incompetent incomes, and what trials they endure +those they love must also share. Their incomes, in fact, are usually +such as a well-paid bank-clerk or dry-goods salesman would despise. +Officers of the navy or army are, as a rule, as well paid as men of +science who hold the chairs of teachers; but while the former class +are the most signal and steady grumblers, the latter are, of all the +men I know, the most tranquilly content. What they miss in life we can +well imagine; what they gain the general public little comprehends; +but those who know them best will readily understand why it is that +their lives are seemingly so happy. + +And here, again, I would remind the reader that the class I speak of +are not the mere college professors, useful as they are, but those +men, in or out of that class, whose lives are devoted to the +acquisition of facts fresh from Nature--to the original study of bird +and beast and stone and flower--and those who, on a yet higher plane +of work, are busy with the patient investigation of physics and +physiology. Such men do not rely for success in their pursuits on +their knowledge of human nature, or the passions and foibles and lower +wants of their fellows, but, for ever turning toward a more quiet +life, are living among those strange problems which haunt the +naturalist, or among those awful forces which rule the stars and +pervade the dead and living world of matter. There must be something +quieting and ennobling in this steady contemplation of vast +machineries, which have all the force and terror of human passions, +and yet the serene steadiness and certainty of unchanging law. It is +"a purer ether, a diviner air," from whence its citizens can afford to +look down in peace, perhaps in scorn, upon the ignoble strifes beneath +them. + +I suppose, too, that other men can hardly dream of the one vast +pleasure which comes to these searchers when ever so little a new +truth or a fresh analogy reaches them as the result of their work. The +pursuit itself is all absorbing, all exacting, and when at last the +purpose is attained, and out of darkness flashes the light of some +novel law, the knowledge of some new connecting link, some simple +explanation of a range of facts or phenomena, or even the discovery of +a fresh analogy or homology, or of an undescribed fossil being, the +purity of the pleasure which they win is something which to be +understood must have been felt. "I think," said Jeffries Wyman once to +the writer, "that the most happy and heartfilling thing in the world +is to come face to face with something which no one but God ever saw +before." How transcendent must have been this form of joy when it +rewarded the first who saw the spectrum analysis of starlight in its +fullness of meaning, or to him who first knew where and how the blood +runs its wonderful courses! + +Then, too, the life of other men, of the merchant and the lawyer, +palls as age advances and its rewards are paid in dollars or in honor. +Their experiences are limited and work out, but the naturalist or +investigator only gathers day by day new interests about his life of +duties. His work is as pleasant as play, and his play is usually only +some new form of work. Nature is his--a mistress whose charms are +unfading, and who is his for life. Go to some meeting of men of +science and see how this is. The oldest has as keen a zest as the +youngest, and while life becomes to others a weariness, to these men +the pleasure in their steady work is absolutely unfailing. I heard the +other day a half-jesting remark at a dinner-table of men of science to +the effect that life might become a tiresome thing as we grew older. +"Not for me," said one of them, whose name is known wherever science +is held in honor: "there must be no end of Rhizopods I have never +studied." Thus it is that men who live ever gazing at the surely +widening horizon of truth, who know that they at least need never sigh +for new worlds to conquer, who day by day are coming into closer +company with the yet unwhispered thoughts of the great Maker, are +happy and contented in the tasks to which their lives are given, and +serenely patient of what their duties deny them of luxury and wealth +and freedom to wander or to rest. + +It might well be thought that men living so far apart from the general +paths, and pursuing purposes so remote from those of the trader, would +become obnoxious to that bitterest of American reproaches, the charge +of being unpractical. The directness of aim of scientific training and +the lofty code of honor among students of science, with their fair +share of cis-Atlantic pliability, makes them, however, most useful and +trustworthy people whenever it becomes requisite to entrust to them +the mixture of commercial and scientific labor which is needed by +heads of boards of weights and measures, of lighthouses, of coast +surveys, and for the affairs and mere business conduct of societies +and colleges or museums. Indeed, as regards this kind of work, they +have too much of it--too much of that sort of labor which in England +is well and wisely done by wealthy aristocrats who are amateurs in +science or eager to find work of some kind. The popular opinion +certainly conceives of the man of true science as being almost unfit +for the practical every-day duties which bring him into working +contact with his fellow-men. This is, as it were, a reversed form of +the prejudice which believes that a physician or a lawyer will be a +worse doctor or advocate because he writes verses or amuses an hour of +leisure by penning a magazine article. As regards medicine, this +popular decree is swiftly fading, though it still has some mischievous +power. It was once believed, at least in this country, that a doctor +should be all his life a doctor, and nothing else: the notion still +lingers, so that young medical men who at the outset of their career +seek to become known as investigators in any of the sciences related +to medicine are, I fear, liable to be looked upon by many older +physicians, and by a part of the lay public, as less likely than +others to attain eminence in the purely practical part of medical +life. It is time that this phantom of vulgar prejudice faded out. +"Whatever you do," said a late teacher of physiology in my presence to +a young doctor, "do not venture to become an experimental +physiologist--that is, if you wish afterward to succeed as a doctor. +It is fatal to that. It is sure to ruin you with the public." Yet +Brodie, Cooper, Erichson and many others so employed their earlier +years of leisure, and I might point in this country to some noble +instances of like success in practice following upon careers which at +first were purely scientific. But, in truth, every physician is more +or less an investigator, and those who have been early trained to the +sternly accurate demands of work in the laboratory of the experimental +physiologist are only the better fitted for study at the bedside. + +There is, however, a long list of physicians who have begun life in +the pursuit of science, and have found its charms too potent to allow +them to depart thence into the more lucrative ways of medical +practice. One of this class was Jeffries Wyman, whose character and +career well illustrate all that I have said of the scientific life, +its trials and rewards. There are some graves on which we cannot lay +too many flowers; and if, therefore, after those who knew him best, I +venture to add my words of honor and affection, and to state the +impressions derived from my intercourse with the very remarkable +student of science whose loss we have all lamented, I trust that the +strong feeling which prompts me may be held a sufficient excuse. + +I had three or four sets of associations with Wyman, no one of which +fails to come back to my remembrance filled with the charm of a man +whose whole nature was simple, wholesome, pure and generous. Others +have said all that need be said of what he did for his much-loved +science: it is less easy to convey to those who knew him not an +impression of the influence he exerted upon younger workers, and a +sense of the social pleasure which came of his remarkable combination +of vast knowledge and general culture, combined with a certain +loveliness of character and an almost childlike simplicity. I once +heard our greatest preacher nobly illustrate, with Samson's riddle as +his text, the delightfulness of that form of human character in which +sweetness and strength are blended. As I listened, somehow I began to +recall Wyman, for it was just here that his social charm resided. He +was intellectually stronger even than any of his completed work +showed, but he was also the most lovable of men. His mind was very +active and remarkably suggestive--so much so that in social chat, even +the most careless, he was constantly saying things which made you +think or left you thoughtful. For many years he wrote to me +frequently, and his letters are filled with the most lucid and happy +suggestions, explanations or comments. After the failure on the part +of one of his friends to attain a deserved object of just ambition, he +wrote to me to state his own extreme regret; and this not once, but +thrice, as if he was haunted by the sorrow of another's +disappointment. At times he was full of the most boyish spirit of +jesting, as when in 1862 he wrote to me grieving over the secession of +Virginia, because we had both of us thus lost our easiest supply of +rattlesnakes. Then he rejoiced over the fact that we still had the +bull-frog; and in an another note regrets that the rattlesnakes had +not been allowed to vote on the question of seceding. + +As I write I pause to turn over these records of a dearly-valued +friendship. They begin years ago with words of encouragement as to +certain investigations in which both of us felt interest. Here and +there they touch on matters of social or personal value, but for the +most part they deal only with science. I used to wonder in those days, +and still am surprised anew as again I turn over these letters, at the +amount of what I might call suggestiveness in Wyman. He replies, for +example, in one letter to the gift of a scientific essay, and then in +a postscript runs off over eight pages of comment, explanation and +novel suggestions which put the subject in a new light; while every +here and there, amidst the wealth of scientific illustration and +useful hints given to aid another's work, there is some pause to +express a courteous doubt of his own opinions. Everywhere, indeed, his +letters, which made the most of our intercourse, were full of the +broadest sympathy in pursuits which often were--but often were not--in +the same direction as his own lifelong studies. At times, too, the +sympathy broke out into the extreme of generosity. Thus, having +learned from me that certain very important and hitherto undescribed +anatomical structures would probably be found in serpents and frogs, +he tells me soon after that he has found them; also, that he has +discovered them in birds, and that he has been led finally to a series +of unlooked-for discoveries in the anatomy of the nerves of the frog; +and he wishes experiments made on living frogs to learn the +physiological use of the structures thus found. Then not long after he +proposes that as the first discovery came from this writer, he should +take and use the notes and drawings which recorded his own researches, +and should use them in a second paper. It is needless to say that this +was declined, and the results appeared under Wyman's name. It was +characteristic of the man, and was not the only time when I had to +thank him for the kindest offers of aid. + +To see Dr. Wyman in his museum was one of the most pleasant +exhibitions of the man at his best. I well remember one Sunday +afternoon in May three years ago, when, walking in Cambridge with +H----, one of the most prominent of our great railway presidents--and, +better than this, a man notable for genial social qualities, high +culture and a broad range of the readiest sympathies--I proposed to +him to call on Wyman and ask him to show us the Archaeological Museum. +We found Wyman at home, and if you had asked a bright little girl to +show you her baby-house she could have been no better pleased than he. +At first, as we went from case to case, he was quiet and said little, +but as we showed the interest and admiration we so warmly felt, he +also grew eager and vivid in description, until as he went on his talk +became a marvel of illustrative learning--so wide, so varied, so +complete, that we were carried along the current of his thoughts in +wonder at this strange combination of intense interest, of almost +childlike satisfaction, of a concentration on his subject of vast +antiquarian knowledge and of absolutely perfect anatomical skill. Mr. +H---- called his attention to the curious distortions and odd +enlargements of the protruded tongue in some of the Alaskan wooden +masks, and on this little text he was away in a moment from case to +case in the museum, and from century to century, pointing out the use +of the tongue as an organ of facial expression in various ages. Here +were Roman or Greek examples, here Sioux or Alaskan types of the same +usages, and here was a new thought he had never had before, and we +were thanked for awakening it; and so in his talk over this little +point he showed us how barbarian natures had like thoughts everywhere, +and, as much amused as we, he quoted and laughed and talked, still +always pleased and easy under the vast weight of learning which, +coming from his lips, was so utterly free from the least appearance of +being ponderous or tiresome. I think I never knew any other man whose +learning sat upon him as lightly or was given to others as gracefully. + +I had once a like pleasure in raking over an Indian shell-heap with +Wyman. The quiet, amused amazement of the native who plied the spade +for us was an odd contrast to Wyman's mood of deep interest and +serious occupation. He had a boy's pleasure in the quest, and again +displayed for me the most ready learning as to everything involved in +the search. Bits of bones were named as I would name the letters of +the alphabet: bone needles, fragments of pottery and odds and ends of +nameless use went with a laugh or some ingenious comment into his +little basket. In truth, a walk with Wyman at Mount Desert was +something to remember. + +The acquaintances of the merchant or lawyer grow fewer as age comes +on, but the naturalist is always enlarging his circle of living or +dead things in which he takes interest, and none more profited thus by +the years as they came than Wyman. The bird, the tree, the flower, the +rock, tiny worlds beneath damp stones, little dramas of minute life +within mouldy tree-trunks, the quaint menageries in the sea-caves, +shifted with every tide, whatever the waves brought or the winds +carried or the earth bore were one and all acquaintances of this +delightful and delighted companion. Not without a manly interest in +the world of men and politics, he lived for the most part serenely +above its ferment and passions. Without the large means which, had +they been his, had been in the truest sense and for the best purposes +_means,_ he lived a life of quiet, studious content, made somewhat +hard by ill-health, but, so far as I know, undisturbed by envy of +easier lots than his. Whatever were his crosses in this world--and +they must have been many--no man who knew Wyman could now wish them to +have been changed, if, as no doubt was the case, they helped to build +up a character so filled with honest labor, so pure, so lofty and so +generous-- + + Nor could Humanity resign + A life which bade her heart beat high, + And blazoned Duty's stainless shield, + And set a star in Honor's sky. + +S. WEIR MITCHELL. + + + + +PLAYING WITH FIRE. + + +Apple-blossoms and the pale wild roses that grow in the shadow of +woody lanes were things of which she always reminded you, she was so +slight and so fair, with just a suggestion of bloom about her--the +bloom of youth. Hardly beautiful, but then seventeen summers have a +beauty of their own--a beauty of firm round curves and velvety color, +whose absence a dozen years later works utter transformation. When +Lilian should approach thirty, and the blush that shifted now with +every word she spoke, almost with every thought, should have +paled--when time and tears should perhaps have dimmed the soft +eyes--then she might be, to those who love fleshly magnificence alone, +of sufficiently commonplace appearance, but just now there was +something about her so unique and so attractive that every one when +she passed by turned to discover what it was. For the clear blue of +her eye and the lofty purity of her brow seemed to tell of a spirit +whose beauty far exceeded that of its temple, and the brightness of +the glance and the sweetness of the smile warmed the heart in her +behalf as regular outline and perfect contour are seldom known to do. +Happiness, too, is a crowning charm to any woman, and Lilian was +deeply and contentedly happy: a smile perpetually played in the +little, half-guessed dimples at the corners of her mouth, and her wide +clear eyes were full of peace. No; though years should rob Lilian of +bloom, it was plain that they could but add fresh charms to her soul; +and Lilian's lover must needs love her soul. + +She was to be married in a couple of years--her mother would not hear +of it at present--to one who had been her lover from her cradle, and +who loved her with a tender and devoted passion, who thought her +embodied loveliness, and who would have made any sacrifice, even to +death, for her welfare. She had seemed to him from the hour when he +first saw her--a blue-eyed, rosy child with an aureole of palest +yellow hair--a being not made of clay--something remote and different +as the angels are; and when he first discovered that he loved her he +had felt momentarily as if he committed a sacrilege, and though he +lost that sensation soon enough, she always, seemed to him a holy and +perfect thing. The only cloud that crossed her sky now was sometimes +when this passion of Sterling's oppressed her or constrained her, and +made her feel that her love was less than his. + +Sterling was in the first flush of manhood, some half dozen years her +senior--a hazel-eyed, bright-haired Saxon, and a noble, upright +fellow: he was as prosperous in his fortunes as he had a right to +expect, for his father had established him in a good business, and +with suitable thrift and care there was no reason why he should not +succeed. His father was a man of such strict adherence to theory that +he allowed the boy, as he still called him, only the same chance that +he himself had had: he lent him his capital and exacted a rigid +payment of the interest. "John shall share my fortune equally with +Helen and his mother," Mr. Sterling used to say, "when he has shown me +that he deserves it and can double it." And John, sure that any theory +of his father's was as right as a law of the universe, was only +anxious to keep the warm affection that he knew lay behind the stern +principle. + +He lived with Lilian's mother, whom he had persuaded, when she found +it necessary to make exertion, to come to the city and rent a house +there for himself and two or three of his friends. He meant to take +the house off her hands as soon as he was able to afford so large an +expenditure, and meantime he did all he could to help her render it +attractive and homelike. If it was not yet all they wished, or all he +intended it should be, he knew that they were young, and felt that +they could wait; and he said as much to Lilian when he saw her stand +on tiptoe before a picture or look longingly at a bit of bronze; +conscious the while that there was an artistic and luxurious side to +the child's nature that he did not gratify--with which, indeed, he had +little sympathy--and evidence of which it often vexed him to observe, +as if it were a barrier between them, when her rapt face revealed +feelings unknown to him as she looked into the sunset; as she stood at +the door on summer nights while bell-notes and flower-scents went by +on the wind; as she listened to orchestral music which in his ears was +a noisy snarl. But, for all that, he said to himself that this ideal +intelligence, so to call it, of Lilian's, was something higher than +his own rude senses; he had no wish to place her on a lower level; he +must do away the barrier by surmounting it himself; and he used his +leisure time to study pictures and music, to discover the entrance to +this world of art whose atmosphere he fancied to be Lilian's native +air; and already he began to be able to translate into ideas the +strange and awful thrill he felt before some great white marble where +genius and inspiration had wrought together, and to find the thread by +which he might one day follow the vast windings of those symphonies +which Lilian always grew so pale to hear. But he was a person of +singular reserves, and Lilian learned nothing of such effort or +accomplishment as yet. "You think I am so perfect!" she would say. +"You have built up a great hollow idol around me, and it is like +living in a vacuum. Don't you know it is very tiresome to be chained +up to such a standard?" And John only adored her all the more for her +candor, did not believe it, and hastened home from business the +sooner. + +In fact, if this home, in which they all shared, was not exactly as +they would have liked it to be, it was nevertheless a delightful place +to John Sterling. He already had a sense of proprietorship in it. He +lined its walls with books as he grew able, with prints, with now and +then a painting, with plaster till he could get marble; Lilian's ivies +clambered everywhere, and her azaleas and great lilies seemed to have +a secret of perpetual flowering; a bright fire cast rosy lights and +shadows over it all; and John would declare, as he sank into his +easy-chair in the half twilight and surveyed the warm place, which +seemed only a ruddy background for Lilian's fairness, that he never +wanted anything better than this as long as he lived. It hurt him +sometimes, though, to remember that Lilian never made any response to +such words. "Well, well," he would say to himself in a way he had, +"why should she? and why should I expect it of her? If people are born +with wings, they do not want to creep. She beautifies everything she +touches, and she is only in her right place when all the flower of the +world's beauty is about her. But some day that shall be; and meantime +there is nothing to hinder my liking this." He had almost an ideal +home with Lilian's mother, as he wrote to his own mother, and every +time he went out of it in the morning he felt himself a better man +than he was when he went into it at night. His mother and father +journeyed a thousand miles to see it, and felt as John did +himself--thanked Heaven for the promise of a child like Lilian--one so +forgetful of herself, so thoughtful for every one else, so candid, so +generous, so gentle, so good. "She is nothing but a child," said Mrs. +Sterling for the thousandth time, "and yet how lofty she is!--so lofty +and so sweet! What will she be at thirty if she is this at seventeen? +It makes me tremble to think of John's being blest so, as if it were +too much, as if some fate must overtake him." + +"He must become a very superior man under the influence of such a wife +as Lilian will be," said Mr. Sterling. "Helen shall go on and spend +the winter with John: they teach canaries to sing," said he, stroking +Helen's black hair, "by hanging up their cages in the same room with a +nightingale's." + +And so Helen was despatched on the journey, and made another member in +the little family, for John's friends merely had rooms, and enjoyed +no more sufferance than other guests in the penetralia of the house. +She was a gaunt and big-eyed child, with a certain promise of +magnificence that, as Reyburn said, might be fulfilled in a year or +two in a sumptuous sort of beauty. But now she was a morbid and +retiring creature, fourteen or fifteen years old, looking out askance +and half suspiciously on the world from under the shadow of her +immense eyelashes, and singing from room to room with a strange voice +that a year or two would ripen into tones fit for a siren. There was +just the difference in age between her and Lilian that, while it +allowed them companionship, gave Lilian, together with the fact of her +engagement to John, a glorious dignity in Helen's eyes that she would +not have her abate a jot. Her gowns, her shawls, her simple laces and +few jewels seemed the appanage of a superior state of existence; they +brought close to her the possibilities of that charmed time when she +too would be a woman grown. She could not tire of gazing at the blush +flitting over Lilian's face as she spoke, at the way her steady eyelid +slanted toward her cheek as she read: the sound of her voice had an +intimate music that acted like a charm; and when this wonderful being +entertained her in her well hours and cosseted her in her ill ones, +listened to her, waited on her and caressed her, Helen rewarded her by +worshiping her. It was Lilian who constantly procured Helen pleasures, +who shielded her little faults, who sympathized with her joys and her +griefs and her sentimentalities, making merry with her to-day, crying +with her to-morrow, and who shone upon her with unvarying sunshine; it +was Lilian who did all this in another way for John; it was Lilian who +made every one's happiness that came near her; and Helen's affection +for her became something romantic and ideal. As for her brother John, +Helen had always held him in a place apart: she loved him far better +than she loved her strict, stern father; he was a portion of herself; +her universe revolved around him; she had never formed a fancy of what +life and the world would be without him; and much as she worshiped +Lilian, she had more than once doubted if she were altogether worthy +of John--not because she was Lilian, but because he was John. She used +to watch Lilian sometimes when John's friends came in in the +evening--used to watch her and admire her flushing face, her perfect +toilette, her gracious manner; but used to wonder if all betrothed +women treated their lovers' friends so exactly as they did their +lovers, with that same unchanging courtesy and gentle sweetness. Once +she saw the manner vary: it was while she herself was singing to them +all, facing down the room, and John held his pawn suspended in the +crisis of a game of chess, while Mr. Reyburn walked familiarly up and +down, now turning the music for her, now bending with a word in +Lilian's ear, now joining in the burden of the song: + + As fair art thou, my bonnie lass, + So deep in luve am I; + And I will luve thee still, my dear, + Till a' the seas gang dry-- + Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear, + And the rocks melt wi' the sun. + +"What a being Burns was!" interrupted John, without looking up. "How +precisely he knew my feelings toward any one who would show me how to +escape this checkmate!" And Lilian sprang to her feet, upsetting her +workbasket, and ran to him and commenced talking hurriedly, while Mr. +Reyburn, whose eyes had been resting on her face for some time, kept +on singing after Helen ceased-- + + Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear, + And the rocks melt wi' the sun. + +And Helen, child as she was, looking at him and listening to him, +recognized a veiled meaning in the tone of the singing, and thought +she hated the singer. + +That night, when all the others had gone, and Lilian's mother was +folding her work, and John was locking a window, and Helen closing the +piano, she saw Mr. Reyburn stoop over Lilian's hand as he said +good-night--stoop low, and press his lips upon its dimpled back. In +after years Helen might recall his manner of that moment and +understand it, half reverence, half passion, as it was, but now she +only saw Lilian turn white and tremble, and clasp her hand over her +eyes in a bewildered way when he had gone to his rooms on the other +side of the hall, and walk up stairs as though she feared to rouse an +echo. + +"Oh, Lilian," said Helen, following her into her mother's room, "how +dared he kiss your hand? How dared he look at you so while he sang? I +hate him!" + +"Hush, child," said Lilian gently, almost solemnly. And Helen, +remembering who Lilian was, and the deep friendship between her +brother and the other, felt as if she had committed an unpardonable +sin, and crept away to bed, and did not see the man again during the +short remainder of her stay. + +But Lilian saw him often. Perhaps she never went out without seeing +him, perhaps she never remained at home that he did not come in: going +by the parlor-door half a dozen times a day, nothing was easier. In +fact, few men have friends who think it worth their while to pay such +attentions to another's chosen wife as this friend of John's did. +To-day he gave flowers and helped her heap them in the vases; on the +morrow he brought in for inspection a borrowed portfolio of the +wonderful water--colors that some mad artist had dashed off among the +painted canons, or brought perhaps the artist himself; when he was +absent he wrote her letters, sent to John's care indeed, and conveying +messages to John--letters full of what John called Reyburn's +transcendental twaddle, but which were meat and drink to Lilian, +living half alone in her world of fancy; when he was in town again he +took her through galleries of pictures and statues where John had not +an entree; he placed his opera-box at her disposal; and when John, who +insisted on her acceptance of Reyburn's courtesies, heard them talk +together about the mysteries of the music or the ballet there, he +could have found it possible to question the justice of Fate that had +mated such spirit with such clod in giving Lilian to himself--for he +felt that she was already given, and they were mated by their long +affection beyond all divorce but death's--could have found it possible +to question the justice of Fate if he had not remembered, with a sort +of pain, that, charming and brilliant as Reyburn was, having a sweet +and reckless gayety and generosity, winning friends who loved him +almost as men love women, he was nevertheless as inconstant as the +breeze that rifles a rose. + +"Yes," said he one day, in speaking of Reyburn to Lilian as they +looked at him through the open door of the drawing-room--"yes, we men +may love Reyburn safely enough, as we ask for no devotion in return, +but woe be to the woman who builds her house on that sand!" + +"Will it slide away?" asked Lilian, not glancing from her needle. + +"Well--Look at him now. Possession palls on him, they say. Half an +hour ago he plucked that bud. If it had hung as high as heaven, he +would have climbed for it, having once set his heart on it, and have +been tireless till he got it. On the whole, the thing is lucky that he +did not tear it to pieces in his dissecting love of laying bare its +heart. He has been inhaling its delicious soul this half hour: let us +see what he does with it." And as they looked they saw Reyburn lift +the half-forgotten flower, whose pale bloom had begun to tarnish ever +so little, glance at it lightly and give it a careless fillip to the +marble floor of the hall where he was walking up and down, and where, +as he came back, he set his heel upon it without knowing that he did +so. + +It was just after Helen went home that Lilian's health began to +fail--to fail gently and slowly, but surely. She shut herself up at +first, and lay all day listless and melancholy. She did not come down +in the morning before John went out, but he usually found her on the +sofa when he came in. And there she stayed, either on the sofa or half +lost among the cushions of an arm-chair, during the evenings when +John's friends came. But by and by the house-friends one by one ceased +to drop in as they passed down the hall; other friends ceased to ring +the bell: the old lively evenings were impossible with one so frail +and delicate to be cared for. + +Reyburn, to be sure, came every day, and no message could shut him +out. If Lilian was not in the parlors, he ran up stairs into the +little sitting-room: if he could not see Lilian, he would walk in and +see her mother. Sometimes John took her out to drive--to give her a +color, as he said--but he was unable to do it often, and then Reyburn +took his place till she declared she would ride no more. It was not so +easy to discover what ailed Lilian as it was to see she failed. One +doctor said she had merely functional derangement of the heart; +another talked about complicated depression of the nerves; and a third +said she was whimsical, and nothing at all was the matter with her, +and she had better marry and taste the hard realities of life, and she +would soon be cured of her follies. But Lilian firmly and quietly +refused to be married yet: possibly she knew that her emotions were +not what they should be for marriage with the man to whom she was +plighted; possibly hoped that time might make it right; possibly +wanted nothing more definite than delay. Once John impressed Reyburn +into his service in the matter: they were so thoroughly intimate, so +like brothers of one family, that he appealed to him without a second +thought. What Reyburn meant by urging her to fix the day for her +wedding with John, Lilian might have marveled had he not kept his eyes +on the floor while he spoke the few curt sentences, and held her hand +with the grip of death. It was no marriage with John that Reyburn +wanted for her, she knew too well: he also looked forward to delay. +But she told John that when she was herself again it would be time +enough to talk of marriage: she should not bind him to a dead woman. +And somehow, though the relation between her and John remained the +same, the usual evidences of it, one by one, had disappeared. If he +took her in his arms, she slipped away; if he bent to kiss her lips, +she held her cheek. Still, though caresses ceased, the tender word and +the kindly glance remained. John fancied the rest to be but a part of +the nervous whims of her illness, from which she was to recover in +time; and he waited with all the old love in his soul. And as for +Lilian, the old affection was with her too--the affection of childhood +and girlhood, the deep and grateful feeling associated with all her +life--but it struggled and wrestled with a novel power that while it +promised pleasure gave only pain. It made her suffer to see John +suffer: she hurt him as little as she could, but for the life of her +she was able to do no differently. She thought it would be better for +him if she should die; and when she found his great sad eyes fastened +on her, with their longing for her return to him, she wished to +disappear out of the world and his memory together. She grew whiter +and thinner, more tired and sore at heart, all the time, till the two +years that had been fixed as the period of their engagement had +passed--grew so transparent and spiritual that sometimes, as John hung +over her in despair, he felt as if, instead of being bound to a dead +woman, he were already bound to an angel. + +One evening, after an absence, Reyburn came in as John sat reading by +Lilian's side: he brushed away the book and insisted on their playing +an odd new game of cards, and Lilian unaccountably brightened and +sparkled and laughed, as in the old time, for more than an hour; and +as he left them at last he came back to declare his belief that a +change was all Lilian needed--other climates, other scenes. "Come, +Sterling," said he, "my little yacht, the Beachbird, sails on a cruise +next week. I will have a cabin fitted up for Miss Lilian if you will +take her and her mother and come along. The house can keep itself; +your clerks can keep your books; we shall all escape the east winds. +It will be a certain cure for her, and do you good yourself." + +And talking of it lightly at first, presently it grew feasible--all +the more so that Helen and her father were spending their second +winter down there in one of those "summer isles of Eden," and word +could be sent to them in advance to be in readiness to join the +Beachbird. And the end of all the talk was that at the close of the +next week John's business had been left in the hands of others, and +John and Lilian and her mother were on the Beachbird's deck as she +slipped down the harbor. + +Mr. Reyburn's prophecy proved true: whether the sea-breeze fanned +Lilian into fresh life, whether there were healing balms in the +perpetual summer through which they sailed, or whether she abandoned +herself to the pleasures of the flying hours, she began to regain +strength and color, her languor disappeared, she spent the day in the +soft blissful air with her books or work, her mother knitting and +nodding near by; while John, if not sick himself, yet feeling very +miserable, lay on a mattress on the deck, sometimes dozing, sometimes +following with his eye the graceful lines and snowy dazzle of the +perfect little yacht as mast and sheet and shroud made their relief +upon the sky; sometimes listening to Lilian and Reyburn; sometimes +watching them as they walked up and down in the twilight, her dress +fluttering round her and her fair hair blowing in the wind. John +wondered at her as he watched her: she seemed to be possessed with an +unnatural life; a flickering, dancing sort of fire burned in her eye, +on her cheek and lip, in her restless manner: she was like one who +after long slumber felt herself alive and receiving happiness at every +pore, but a strange, treacherous sort of happiness that might slip +away and leave her at any moment, and which she was ever on the alert +to keep. + +One night Lilian's mother had gone below, John had followed, and they +were long since folded in their quiet dreams; and Lilian, unable to +sleep, had at last arisen and thrown on some garments, and wrapping a +great cloak about her, had stolen on deck. The person still pacing the +deck, who saw her ascend and flit along with her fair hair streaming +over her white cloak and her face shining white in the starlight, +might have taken her for a spirit. But he was not the kind of man that +believes in spirits. He went and leaned with her as she leaned over +the vessel's edge, and watched the glittering rent they made in the +water. They were side by side: now and then the wind blew the silken +ends of her hair across his cheek, and his hand lay over hers as it +rested on the rail; now and then they looked at one another; now and +then they spoke. + +"Are you happy, Lilian?" he said. + +"Oh, perfectly!" she answered him. + +As she said it there was an outcry, a sudden lurch of the vessel, a +flapping of the sails and ropes, and a vast shadow swept by them, the +hull of a huge steamer, so near that they could almost have touched it +with an outstretched hand. But as it ploughed its way on and left them +unharmed and rocking on its great waves, Reyburn released her from the +arm he had flung about her in the moment's dismay--the arm that had +never folded her before, that never did again. + +"Oh no! no!" sighed Lilian with a shiver as she quickly drew +away--"not perfectly, oh not perfectly! That is impossible here, where +that black death can at any moment extinguish all our light." + +"Be still! be still!" said Reyburn. "Why do you speak of it?" he cried +roughly. "Isn't it enough to know that some day it must come?-- + + "The iron hand that breaks our band, + It breaks my bliss--it breaks my heart!" + +He left her side in a sudden agitation a moment, and walked the deck +again; and before he turned about Lilian had slipped below. + +The next afternoon the Beachbird anchored within sight of shore and +outside a long low reef where they saw a palm-plume tossing, and a +boat came off, bringing Helen and her father. + +John, who had begun at last to find his sea-legs, stood as eager and +impatient to welcome the new-comers, while every dip of the shining +oars lessened the distance between them, as if the cruise were just +beginning; but Lilian, in the evening shadow behind him, knew that her +share in the cruise was over. + +"Is it the fierce and farouche duenna who wanted to annihilate me so +when I bade you adieu one night?" asked Reyburn, taking Lilian upon +his arm for a promenade upon the deck while they waited. "Let me see: +she was very young, was she not, and tall, and ugly? Is it her destiny +to watch over you? If she proves herself disagreeable, I will rig a +buoy and drop her overboard. After all, she is only a child. Ah no," +he said, half under his breath, "the end is not yet." + +"She is no longer a child," said Lilian, "Her father writes that he +hardly dares call her the same name, she is so changed. While I have +been withering up in the North, two equatorial years down here have +wrought upon her as they do upon the flowers. He says no Spanish woman +rivals her. Well, it will please--" + +Just then Reyburn handed her the glass he had been using, and pointed +it for her. + +"Can it be possible?" said Lilian. "Has Helen been transfigured to +that?" and something, she knew not what, sent a quiver through her and +made the image in the glass tremble--the image of a tall and shapely +girl whose round and perfect figure swayed to the boat's motion, lithe +as a reed to the wind, while she stood erect looking at something that +had been pointed out, and the boatmen paused with their oars in the +air; the image of a face on whose dark cheek the rose was burning, in +whose dark eye a veiled lustre was shining, around whose creamy brow +the raven hair escaped in countless tendril-like ringlets, and whose +smile, as she seemed to speak to some one while she stood in the low +sunset light, had a radiance of its own. As Lilian looked upon this +dazzling picture, backed by the golden and rosy sky, the golden and +rosy waters, the palm-plumes tossing in the purpling distance, the +silver flashing of the oars, the quiver came again, and she gave the +glass to Reyburn, who held it steadily till the boat was within +hailing distance, and who himself at last handed the shining creature +on board and led her to Lilian and her mother. And then the Beachbird +slowly spread her wings, and with her new burden softly floated away +into the dusk, and the great colors faded, and the stars one after +another seemed to drop low and hang from the heavens like lamps, and +rich odors floated off from the receding land, and they moved along +folded in the dark splendor of the tropical night. But in some vague +way every soul on board the little yacht felt the presence of another +influence, and that, though they sailed in the same waters as +yesterday, it was in another atmosphere; for an element had come among +them that should produce a transformation as powerful as though it +wrought a chemic change of their atoms. + +Lilian and Reyburn still paced the deck, after their custom, when the +first greetings were over, leaving Helen and her father with John for +the present. But as the conversation dropped more personal subjects, +and John and his father were discussing political matters, Helen began +to look about, and chiefly she surveyed Lilian. And as she saw the +transparent skin, the vivid flush, the restless air--saw the way +Reyburn had, as he walked with her, as he bent to her, as he folded +her shawl about her--the way he had of absorbing her, a hasty +remembrance of the night when he stooped over Lilian's hand came to +her, and she remembered also how she herself had hated him. "The man +has bewitched her," said Helen an hour afterward--an hour of watching +and puzzling. "She is fond of John still: she cannot bear to break his +heart--she would rather break her own--and she is dying of her +attraction to the other." As she sat there, still observing them, +wondering what could be done, she turned and laid her arm on her +brother's shoulder, and rested her head beside it with her eyes full +of tears. And at the movement John bent and kissed her forehead, and +she saw that he himself was at last awake; and Reyburn, looking at +them, saw it too. Perhaps the tears dimmed her sight a little, and +gave Lilian a sort of glorified look to her, standing still a moment +with the light of the late rising moon on her face; but then as her +gaze fell again on Reyburn, on his lofty form and kingly manner, his +proud face, his bold bright eye, it seemed to her as if it were +Lucifer tempting an angel; and all at once she had resolved what she +would do to save Lilian, to save her brother. She could do it well, +she said, well and safely--she who already hated the man. Courage came +with the resolution, courage and strength: she began to laugh and +scatter jests across the grave conversation of John and her father; +presently she was humming a gay Spanish air. + +"That is right, Helen," said her brother. "Sing something to us. My +father says your voice would fill the Tacon theatre." + +And at that she sang--not the air of the little bolero again, but a +low, melancholy song that began with a sigh, but swelled ever clearer +and higher, till, like the bursting of a flower, it opened and +deepened into one breath of passionate sweetness and triumph. The rich +voice rose to all the meaning of the music, and, though they could not +understand the words, they thrilled before the singer, Late into the +midnight she sang--the bunch of blossoms that was in her hand as she +came on board still shedding its pungent odors round her as the +blossoms died--strange wild songs that she had learned in the two +years of her tropic life; ancient and plaintive Spanish airs; Moorish +songs whose savage tunes were sweet as the honey of the rocks; wild +and mournful Indian airs that the Spaniards might have heard in those +Caribbean islands when first they burst upon their peaceful seas; and +by and by a sleepy nocturne that seemed to lull the wind, to charm the +ship, and hold the great moon hovering overhead; and as they rocked +from wave to wave of the glimmering water, and that pure voice rose +and poured out its melody, the soft vast southern night itself seemed +to pause and listen. + +Helen did not appear on the deck next day till the sunset came again, +for Lilian was ill, and she remained with her; nor did Reyburn see +her. But as the heat of the day passed, and the sails, that had been +hanging idle ever since the night-breeze fell, began to fill again, +Helen ascended. + +"You come with the stars," said Reyburn, giving her his hand at the +last step; but she merely put out her own hand with the gesture of +receiving aid, and passed on, her dark gauzy drapery floating behind +her, and the lace of her Spanish mantilla falling round her from her +Spanish comb. She went to her brother's side, and sat there and +talked, or rose with him and walked: there was everything to say and +hear after their two years' separation. As for Reyburn, perhaps her +manner was courteous enough to him, but certainly she hardly seemed to +see him. Nor could he claim acquaintanceship with her: the gaunt and +big-eyed child whom he had known two years ago had a different +individuality from this dark girl with the rosy stain on the oval +cheek and the immense eyelashes. He heard her gay laugh as John +complimented her--a laugh as sweet as her singing; he saw the smile +that kindled all her beauty into vivid life; he saw the still face +listening to what was said; but he scarcely learned anything further +than was thus declared. When at length she sang one parting strain, he +wondered if the singing and the beauty were all there was: it occurred +to him to find out. He remembered that moment of the evening before +when John had betrayed distrust. "I will mislead him," said Reyburn, +"and Lilian will understand it all." He stood before Helen as she rose +with her father to go down. + + "Ask me no more whither doth haste + The nightingale when May is past; + For in your sweet dividing throat + She winters, and keeps warm her note!" + +he said, and stepped aside. + +"We've taken a mermaid aboard, sir," said the sailing-master. "Nothing +else, they say, sings after that fashion, and the men are on the +lookout for foul weather." + +"Never mind what the men say," said Reyburn, "while your barometer +says nothing." + +When Mr. Reyburn went on deck at sunrise he found Helen standing there +with Lilian--with Lilian, who, after her day's illness, looked +strangely wan and worn, looked like the feeble shadow of the other +with her rich carnations, her glowing eyes, her picturesque outlines. +Reyburn went aft and took Lilian's hand. "You have been so ill!" he +said; and then he looked up and saw again this splendid creature, +loosely clad in white, her black hair, unbraided and unbound, flowing +in wave and ripple far down her back, her sleeve falling from the +uplifted arm and perfect hand, that held a fan of the rose-colored +spoonbill's feathers above her head, so beautiful and brilliant that +she seemed only a projection of that beautiful and brilliant hour, +with all its radiant dyes, before the sun was up; and he forgot that +Lilian had been ill, forgot for a moment that Lilian existed. "I will +find out what she is made of," thought Reyburn. "Are you made of +clay?" he said boldly. + +"He shall find that there is fire in my clay," said Helen to herself +as she appeared not to heed his look or his words. + +And there it began. And swift and sudden it went on to the end. She +had come on board the yacht that first night to startle it with her +beauty and her voice; last night, silent and stately, she had slipped +through the evening like a dream; now she stood before him a dazzling +creature of the morning: yesterday she was Penseroso; to-day she was +Allegro; what would she be to-morrow? How sparkling, as one day +followed another, her gayety was! and yet with no shallow sparkle: +there was always the shadow of still depths just beyond--seasons of +silence, moments of half sadness, times when he had to wonder whither +her thoughts had led her. She sang a little song of the muleteers on +the mountains, that he admired; then she must teach it to him, she +said; they sang the song together, their voices lingering on the same +note, rising in the same breath, falling in the same cadence. He had a +sonorous tenor of his own: more than once she caught herself pausing +in her part to hear it. How soft, and yet how strong, was the language +of the song! he said; he must learn Spanish, she replied; and they +hung together over the same book, and he repeated the phrase that fell +from her lips--an apt pupil, it may be, for more than once the phrase, +as he uttered it, deepened the color on her cheek. More than once she +was conscious of gazing at him to find the charm that Lilian had +found; more than once he caught her glance and held it there +suspended; more than once you might have thought, by the quick, +impatient manner in which she tore her eyes away, that she had found +the charm herself. Perhaps he made some ostentation of his attraction +before the others; perhaps the simulation of warmth was close enough +to melt a colder heart than hers; perhaps it was not wholly +simulation. It may be that her hand lay in his a moment longer than +need was, her glance fell before his a moment sooner: it may be that +as she fled all her manner beckoned him to follow. She was confiding +to him her thoughts, her aspirations, her emotions, as if she wished +that he, and he alone, should know them: he was listening as though +there were no other knowledge in the world. If presently he thought of +her as a creature of romance, if presently she felt the need of that +keen interest, what wonder? They were playing with fire, and those +that play with fire must needs be burned. And meantime, whether he +looked at her languid in the burning noon, gay with the reviving +freshness of the dusk, leaning over the bulwarks in the night and +gazing up into the great spaces of the stars, he was always fascinated +to look again. There was the profile exquisite as sculpture, there was +the color as velvet soft as rose-petals, there was the droop of the +long silken lashes half belying with its melancholy the rapture of the +smile. Whether she spoke or whether she sang, her voice was music's +self, and he was longing for the next tone; and presently--presently +Lilian had faded like a phantom before this aurora who was fresh and +rosy and dewy, with song and color and light--a sad pale phantom wan +in a mist of tears. + +"It is killing me!" she cried. + +But he did not perceive the meaning of her unguarded cry: he did not +know how it was with her, for he had not yet dreamed how it was with +himself. But he was soon to discover. + +Three weeks they had been wafted about from key to key, from bay to +bay; they landed and explored the quaint old towns; they made trips +into the tropical forests; great boatloads of juicy mangoes and guavas +and bananas came off to them; they scattered coins on the clear bottom +for the brown babies tumbling about the shores to dive after. Now at +noon they lay anchored in still lagoons under the shadow of an +overhanging orange-grove; now at night they were flying across the +broad seas. But Lilian felt she could endure no more of it: her life +was exhausted; she longed for the yacht's head to be turned northward, +that she might die in peace on shore. John also was impatient to be +gone. If he could have Lilian once more at home, he thought, he would +marry her in spite of her protest, and take her where forgetfulness +must needs soothe her, and strange faces make her cling to him in the +old way. The way in which she clung to him now was too bitter to be +borne. Her mother also began to think of home, and Mr. Sterling had +wearied long ago; and at length, further pretences failing, they had +been freshly provisioned and had started on their homeward way. + +Reyburn had, indeed, been loath to make any change in their luxurious +summering, but he was one of those who slide along with the days. + + Take the goods the gods provide thee: + The lovely Thais sits beside thee-- + +was a couplet that he was fond of humming, and he always waited for +some unnatural wrench to make the effort he should have made himself. +But he had consented at last to the return, because while he was still +floating in Southern waters, under Southern skies, with this delicious +voice in his ears, this delicious beauty by his side, he could not +think that a week's sailing must bring him under other conditions. + +Perhaps, though, it would be more than a week's sailing, some one +said, for the fair wind that had taken them hither and yon so long, +and had waited on their fancies, was apparently on the point of +deserting them at last, and the yacht was merely drifting before a +fitful breeze that lightly moved a scud of low clouds which the sunset +had kindled into a blaze of glory hanging just above them, and whose +ragged shreds only now and then displayed a star. + +"We are going to have nasty weather," the sailing-master said to his +mate. "The barometer is going down with a rush." + +"Yes, sir," had come the answer: "we shall catch it in the mid-watch." + +"Then stow the light sails, Mr. Mason," the captain said, "and get +everything secure for a heavy blow. Keep a sharp lookout, and call me +as soon as the weather changes." + +"All right, sir." + +"I am going down for forty winks," said the captain. Then as he passed +Mr. Reyburn: "I don't much like the appearance of things, sir." + +"Appearance?" said Reyburn. "Why the sea is as smooth as glass!" + +"Too smooth by half, sir, with the barometer falling. I've sailed with +that glass a long time, and she's never told me a lie yet. We've +already shortened sail." + +"So I see. But why in the world did you do it, when you want every +stitch of it out to catch what wind there is? However, I am in no +hurry," said Reyburn laughing. "Do as you please, skipper: you're +sailing the ship." + +"I am sailing her, sir," said the captain, a little nettled, "and +sailing her on the edge of a hurricane. You had better take the lady +below, sir: when it comes it will come with a crack." But Reyburn +laughed at him again, and passed over to Helen's side. + +They sat together on the deck, Helen and Reyburn, long after all the +others had gone to rest; for Mr. Sterling left the arrangement of +etiquette and decorum to Lilian's mother; and whether she were a +purblind soul, looking delightedly at a new love-match, or whether, +with any surmise of the state of things, she felt pleased that +Reyburn, led by whatever inducement, should step aside from Lilian's +path, she gave no other sign than that when her early withdrawal from +the scene left the deck clear for action. As each in turn they fell +away into their dreams, those below could still hear Helen singing; +and if one there lay sleepless in the pauses of the singing, no one +guessed it. All the ship was in shadow save where a lantern shone, but +Helen lingered, still irresolute. Now and then she touched the Spanish +guitar in the measure of some tune that flitted across her thoughts, +now and then she sang the tune, now and then was silent. She was half +aware of what the approaching moments held--was half afraid. Was she +to avenge herself upon the man who had destroyed her brother's peace? +Faithful to Lilian should she go, or faithless stay? He took the +guitar himself and fingered the strings, making fewer chords than +discords; her own fingers wandered to correct him; their hands met; +the guitar slipped down unheeded; the grasp grew closer, grew +warmer--ah, Helen, was it Lilian of whom you thought, whom you would +save?--and then an arm was around her; shining eyes, only half guessed +in the glimmer that the phosphorescent swells sent through the +darkness, hung over her rosy upturned beauty; she was drawn forward +unresisting, her head was on his breast, she, heard the heavy +throbbing of his heart, and his lips lay on hers and seemed to draw +her soul away. And so they sat there in the deepening shadow, +whispering in faint low whispers, thrilling with a great rapture, +their lips meeting in long kisses. Why should he think of Lilian? +Never once had he touched _her_ mouth like this, had his arms closed +round her so, had he felt the sighing of her breath. As a pale white +rushlight burns in the sun, that love seemed now, compared with this +great sweet flame. He bowed his face over Helen's as she sat trembling +in his embrace, and neither of them remembered past or future in the +passion of the present; neither of them felt the yacht swing idly up +and down with scarcely a movement forward; neither of them heard the +listless flapping of the sails against the masts, or noticed that no +dew lay on the rail, or once looked up to see how black and close the +air had gathered round them, how deadly hot and sulphurous--till +suddenly, and as if by one accord, men were running and voices were +crying all about them. They sprang to their feet to hear the +sailing-master's shout as one beholds lightning fall out of a blue +sky: "See your halyards all clear for running." + +"Ay, ay, sir!" came the ringing answer. + +"Stand by your halyards and down-hauls." + +"Ay, ay, sir!" + +"Haul down the flying jib: take the bonnet off the jib, and put a reef +in her," came the strong swift sentences. "Brail up the foresail, and +double reef the mainsail." + +There was a sound far, far off, like a mighty rush of waters, coming +nearer and swelling to a roar--an awful roar of winds and waves. And +Helen was wildly clasping Reyburn, who was plunging with her down the +companion-way. + +"Here she comes!" cried the captain. "Hold on all!" And then there was +a shock that threw them prostrate, a writhing and twisting of every +plank beneath them, and the tornado had struck the yacht and knocked +her on her beam-ends. + +"Cut away the weather rigging!" they heard the captain thunder through +all the rout before they had once tried to regain themselves. The +quick, sharp blows resounded across the beating of the billow and the +shrieking of the wind and cloud. "Stand clear, all!" and with a crash +as if the heavens were coming together the masts had gone by the +board, and what there was left of the Beachbird had righted and now +rolled a wreck in the trough of the sea. + +A half hour's work, but it had done more than wreck a ship: it had +wrecked a passion. For as Helen still clung round Reyburn, sobbing and +screaming, he had seen the opposite door open, and Lilian landing +there, white-robed, white-shawled, with her bright hair about her face +as white as a spirit's. "John," she said, "we are in a hurricane." + +"Yes, Lilian," he had answered from where he was stationed close +beside her door. "But the worst must be over. The wind already abates, +and as soon as the sea goes down--" + +As he spoke there came the terrible cry, loud above all other clamor, +"A leak! a leak!" and then followed the renewed trampling of feet +overhead, and the hoarse wheeze of the pumps. + +"We are going down," Lilian said, and turned that white face away. +"Oh, John!, before we go forgive me," she cried; and John held his +outstretched arms toward her and folded her within them. + +Reyburn saw it, and even in that supreme moment, when life and death +swung in the balance, an awful revulsion seized him. He beheld now +with a sickening shudder the woman cowering at his feet whose beauty +an hour ago had melted his soul: she was flesh to him only--her beauty +was of the earth, and flesh and the earth were passing, and it was +other things on which such moments as these were opening--things such +as shone in the transfigured face of Lilian--of Lilian whom, if this +marsh-light had not dazzled him from his way, he might now be holding +to his heart triumphant; for here disguises would have fallen and he +could have claimed his own. For, whether it were the terror of the +time, or the trancelike and spiritual look of Lilian, or whether it +were the jealous pang of seeing her in another's arms, the love on +which he had been waiting for two years and more, to which he had +sacrificed time and endeavor, which had brought him here to this +danger and this death, returned now and overwhelmed him, and the +passion of a day and night fell apart and left him in its ruins. This +woman at his feet filled him with a strange disgust: that other +woman--If this were the last hour of time, he would have risked his +chances in eternity to have held her as John did. He threw himself, +face down, on the divan, and he cursed God and called upon the +drowning wave to come. + +The captain leaped down the companion-way, and caught his pistols from +a drawer. "Mr. Reyburn, we need you and the other gentlemen," he +cried. "We are throwing out our ballast. All hands must take spells at +the pumps, for the leak gains, and I shall have all I can do to keep +the men at work and the yacht afloat." + +"Let her sink!" yelled Reyburn into the cushions where he lay. "Damn +her! let her sink!" And he did not stir. But John had gently released +Lilian and placed her in a chair near the sofa where her mother lay +gasping, and had sprung on deck with his father and the captain. + +A horrid hour crept by--a bitter blank below, hard and fierce work +above--and then the pumps were choked. Lilian and her mother had crept +on deck, holding by whatever they could find, and surveying the +amazing scene around them. For the great black storm-cloud was flying +up and away, flying into the north-east, and through the torn vapors +that followed in its rack a waning moon arose. A tremendous sea was +running, monstrous wave breaking on monstrous wave in a mad white +frolic far as the eye could see; as one billow bounded along, curling +and feathering and swelling on its path, a score leaped round it to +powder themselves in a common cloud of spray; and every cloud of spray +as it shot upward caught the long ray of the half-risen moon, that but +darkly lighted and revealed an immensity of heaven, till all the +weltering tumult of gloom and foam was sown with a myriad lunar +rainbows. + +The beauty of it almost overcame the terror with Lilian as she grasped +her mother's hand. + +"It is a fit gate to enter heaven by," said John, coming to her side. +"We have done all we can," he added. + +At the moment the bows dipped with a prodigious sea. Somebody forward +sang out, "She's settling, sir! she's settling, sir!" The cry ran +along the deck like fire: there was one panicstricken shriek that +followed, and the men had jumped for the boats, into which water and +provision had been already thrown. Reyburn came staggering up the +companion-way with Helen. The dingy and one of the quarter-boats were +already swamped in the wild haste: the men were crowding into the +other, which had been safely lowered. + +"You brutes!" the captain shouted, "are you going to leave the women?" + +"Let them come, then," answered a voice, "and make haste about it;" +and Lilian found herself drawn forward and looking over the side into +the shadow below. + +"Are you going, John?" she said hurriedly. + +"No, darling: it is impossible, you see, but--" + +"Nor I, either," she answered quickly. + +"Lilian!" + +"No," she said, "no! We were to be together in life, and we shall be +in death. Oh, John, do you think I can leave you now?" + +"Make haste about it," was repeated harshly from the boat. + +"I am going to stay," repeated Lilian firmly. + +"Here," cried Reyburn, as he drew up the ropes to bind them round +Helen's waist. "Take _her_." But the boat was already clear of the +ship and away; and he flung the ropes down again with a motion of +abhorrence, and stood leaning against the stump of the mast, where he +could hear the murmurs of John and Lilian, straining his ears to +listen, as if he must needs torment himself--to listen to those few +low, fervent whispers, with one eager to pour out the love so long +restrained, the other to receive it--both in the face of death making +the life so lately found too sweet a thing to leave. + +Soon the little company remaining on the wreck had clustered around +that portion of it; the captain and Mr. Mason were near by, and +Lilian's mother sat beside her and kept her hand; Mr. Sterling, not +far off, held Helen, who lay faint with fright--faint too with many a +pang, snatched as she had been from a dream of warmth and joy to a +nightmare of horror; one moment ruling in a heart that in the next +moment had cast her forth to be trampled on; bewildered by the +repugnance she had too plainly seen in the face of her passionate +lover of two hours ago; half heartbroken with the remembrance of the +tone in which he had called to the crew of the quarter-boat to take +her, and cold with the awful expectancy of the moment. The moon swam +slowly up, and the sky cleared about her; the sea rose and fell less +violently, its dark expanse everywhere running fire; but the broken +yacht still rolled like a log, and they clung to each other as she +rolled. She settled slowly, and another hour had passed and left her +still afloat. + +"We are safe," cried the captain, coming back to their side after a +brief absence with the mate. "Mr. Reyburn, do you see?" But Mr. +Reyburn did not even hear. A soft lustre began to blanch the violet +depths of the lofty sky; a rosy flare welled up from the horizon and +half drowned the shriveled moon; a star that was steady in the east +was shaking a countless host of stars in the shaking waters round +them. And then the rosy flare was a yellow flame that filled the +heavens; the long swells that ran up to break against them were like +sheets of molten jewels--rubies and beryls and sapphires and +chrysolites, changing and flashing as they broke into a thousand +splendors; strange mild-eyed birds were hovering about them and +alighting on the wreck; the moon was gone; the vaporous gold that +overflowed the east was burned away in the increasing glory, and the +sunshine fell about them. + +"We are not going down," cried Lilian, her face aglow and lovely in +the light. "That smoke in the horizon is a steamer's, and she will +take us off. Oh, John, we have our lives before us yet!" + +The captain and Mr. Mason had already signaled the steamer, and before +very long the wreck was quite abandoned, and those whom it had carried +were on their northward way again. + +It was a singular wedding that I saw one day about two months after +the wreck of the Beachbird. I was going by the church of St. Saviour, +and being of an inquiring mind in the matter of weddings, I went in. +There were two brides there: the husband of the first, the fair one, +was just turning away with her. So calm, so pure, so peaceful, so +content, were the faces of that new husband and wife, that I could +long have looked upon them, as on some picture of strong spirits in +the presence of God, had not the beauty of the second bride arrested +me. But that was a beauty one hardly sees twice in a lifetime--so +perfect in outline, under snowy veils and blossoms, the dark eyes so +softly, dewily dark, the white brow whiter for its tendril-like rings +of raven hair; and where had I ever seen groom so stately, so lofty, +so proud? But what did the pantomime mean? a stranger might well have +asked. Was that the man's natural demeanor? or had he brought his mind +to the task of taking her by an effort that had destroyed every +sentiment of his soul but scorn? And for her? Had the rose forsaken +her cheek and the smile her lip because she looked on life as on a +desert? Was that utter sadness and dejection a thing that should one +day fade away and leave a sparkle of hope behind it? Or was it the +scar of one who had played with fire, who had not the strength to +release a pledge, and was marrying a man who she knew loathed her and +her beauty together? + +HARRIET PRESCOTT SPOFFORD. + + + + +RECOLLECTIONS OF THE TUSCAN COURT UNDER THE GRAND DUKE LEOPOLD. + + +When the wretched, worthless and worn-out debauchee Gian Gaston dei +Medici, grand duke of Tuscany, died on the 9th of July, 1737, the +dynasty of that famous family became extinct. For some years before +his death the prospect of a throne without any heir by right divine to +claim it had set the cupidity of sundry of the European crowned heads +in motion. Various schemes and arrangements had been proposed in the +interest of different potentates. But the "vulpine cunning," as an +Italian historian calls it, of Cardinal Fleury, the minister of Louis +XV., at length succeeded in inducing the European powers to accede to +an arrangement which secured the greater part of the advantage to +France. It was finally settled that the duke of Lorraine should cede +to France his ancestral states, which the latter had long coveted, and +that he should be married to Maria Teresa, the heiress of the Austrian +dominions, carrying in his hand Tuscany, the throne of which was +secured to him at the death of Gian Gaston. It was further promised to +the Tuscans, discontented at the prospect of having an absentee +sovereign, that on the death of the emperor Francis, Tuscany should +have a ruler of its own in the person of his second son. This Francis, +who gave up the duchy of Lorraine to become the husband of Maria +Teresa, reigned over Tuscany till his sudden death by apoplexy on the +18th of August, 1765. His second son, Leopold, reigned in Tuscany +till, on the death of his elder brother on the 24th of December, 1789, +he was in his turn also called to ascend the imperial throne. +Thereupon the second son of Leopold became grand-duke in 1789, and +reigned as Ferdinand III. till 1824, when, on the 18th of June, his +son succeeded him as Leopold II. Now, though the sovereignty of +Tuscany was thus entirely and definitively separated from that of +Austria, all these princes were of the blood-royal of Austria, and +might in the course of Nature have succeeded to the imperial throne. +For this reason they were held, though only dukes of Tuscany, to be +entitled to the style and title "imperial and royal," according to the +custom of the House of Austria; and thus every grimy little +tobacco-shop and lottery-office in Tuscany, in the days when I first +knew it, in 1841, styled itself "imperial and royal." + +The Tuscans had been greatly discontented when the arrangements of the +great powers of Europe, entered into without a moment's thought as to +the wishes of the population of the grand duchy on the subject, had +decided that they were to be ruled over by a German prince of whom +they knew absolutely nothing. It was not that the later Medici had +been popular, or either respected or beloved. The misgovernment of +especially the last two of the Medicean line had reduced the country +to the lowest possible social, moral and economical condition. But yet +the change from the known to the utterly unknown was unwelcome to the +people. They feared they knew not what changes and innovations in +their old easy-going if downward-tending ways. But Providence, in the +shape of the ambitions and intrigues of the great powers, had better +things in store for them than they dreamed of. The princes of the +Lorraine dynasty so ruled as not only quickly to gain the respect and +affection of their subjects, but gradually to render Tuscany by far +the most civilized and prosperous portion of Italy. The first three +princes of the Lorraine line were enlightened men, far in advance not +only of the generality of their own subjects, but of their +contemporaries in general. They were conscientious rulers, earnestly +desirous of ameliorating the condition of the people they were called +on to govern. Of the last of the line the same cannot in its entirety +be said. A portion of the eulogy deserved by his predecessors may be +awarded to him unquestionably. He was, I fully believe, a good and +conscientious man, anxious to do his duty, and desirous of the +happiness and well being of his people. But he was by no means a wise +or enlightened man. It could hardly be said that he was popular or +beloved by his subjects at the time when I first knew Florence. The +Tuscans were very far better off than any other Italians at that time, +and they were fully conscious that they were so. But this superiority +was justly credited to the wise rule of the grand duke's father and +grandfather, rather than to any merit of his own. Yet he was liked in +a sort of way--I am afraid I must say in a contemptuous sort of way. +The general notion was that he was what is generally described by the +expressive term "a poor creature." He probably was so, in truth, from +his birth upward. It was said--and I believe with truth--that he had +been in his childish years reared with the greatest difficulty; and +strange as it may seem, it is, I believe, a fact that a wet-nurse made +an important part of the establishment of the prince at the Pitti +Palace till he was about twenty years old. How far physiologists may +deem that such an abnormal circumstance may have been influential in +producing a diathesis of mind and body deficient in vigor, energy and +"hard grit" of any kind, I do not know. But if that is what such a +bringing-up may be expected to produce, then the expectation was in +the case in question certainly justified. Nevertheless, Italians had +been for so many generations and centuries taught by bitter experience +to consider kings and princes of all sorts as malevolent and +maleficent scourges of humanity that a sovereign who really did no +harm to any one was, after a fashion, as I have said, popular. +Accessibility is always one sure means of making a sovereign +acceptable to large classes of his subjects; and nothing could be +easier than to gain access to the presence of Leopold II., grand duke +of Tuscany. A little anecdote of an occurrence that took place at the +time when Lord Holland, to the regret of everybody in Florence, +English or Italian, ceased to be the representative of England at the +grand ducal court, will show the sort of thing that used to prevail in +the matter of the admission of foreigners to the Pitti Palace. + +English travelers on the continent of Europe are, and have been for +many years, as it is hardly necessary to state, a very motley and +heterogeneous crowd. The same thing may be said of American travelers +now, but it was not so much the case at the time of which I am +writing. It is not so with the people of any other nation; and +foreigners are apt to sneer on occasion at the unkempt and queer +specimens of humanity which often come to them from the two +English-speaking nations. We can well afford to let them stare and +smile, well knowing that if a similar amount of prosperity permitted +the people of other countries to travel for their pleasure in similar +numbers, the result would be at the very least an equally--shall I say +undrawing-room-like contribution to cosmopolitan society? When Sir +George Hamilton assumed the duties of British representative at +Florence, the yearly throng of English visitors was becoming more +numerous and more heterogeneous, and all wanted to be invited to the +balls at the Pitti Palace. Those were the most urgent in their +applications, as will be easily understood, whose claims to such +distinction were the most problematic. The practice was for the +minister to present to the grand duke whom he thought fit, and those +so presented went to the balls as a matter of course. The position of +the minister, it will be seen, was an invidious one. Under the +pressure of these circumstances, Sir George Hamilton declared that he +would in no case take upon himself to decide on the fitness or +unfitness of any person, but would act invariably upon the old +recognized rule of etiquette observed at other courts in such +matters--i.e., he would present anybody who had been presented at the +court of St. James, and none who had not been so presented. The result +was soon apparent in a singular thinning of the magnificent suites of +rooms of the Pitti on ball-nights. The general appearance of the rooms +might be something more like what the receiving-rooms of princes are +wont to look like, but all that was gained in _quality_ was attained +by a very marked sacrifice of _quantity_. In a week or two Sir George +received a hint to the effect that the grand duke would be pleased if +the minister would be less strict in the matter of presenting such +English as might desire to come to the Pitti. "Oh!" said Sir George, +"if _that_ is what is desired, there can be no difficulty about it. I +am sure _I_ won't stand in the way of filling the Pitti ball-room. Let +them all come." And accordingly everybody who asked to be presented +_was_ presented without any pretence of an attempt at discrimination. + +This was the manner in which the thing was done: All new-comers were +told that if they wished to go to the Pitti balls they must notify to +the English minister their desire to be presented to the grand duke. +In return, they received an intimation that they must be in the +ante-room of the suite of receiving-rooms at eight o'clock on such an +evening--ladies in ball-dress; gentlemen in evening-dress with white +neckcloths. It may be observed here that this matter of the white +neckcloth was the only point insisted on. Both ladies and gentlemen +were allowed to exercise the utmost latitude of private judgment as to +what constituted "ball-dress" and "evening-dress." I have seen a black +stuff gown fitting closely round the throat pass muster for the first, +and a gray frockcoat for the second. But the officials at the door +would refuse to admit a man with a black neckerchief; and I once saw a +man thus rejected retire a few steps into a corridor, whip off the +offending black silk and put it in his pocket, obtain a fragment of +white tape from some portion of a lady's dress, put _that_ round his +shirt-collar, and then again presenting himself be recognized by the +officials as complying with the exigencies of etiquette. The aspirants +to "court society" having assembled, from twenty to fifty, perhaps, in +number, according as it was earlier or later in the season, presently +the minister bustled in, and with a hurried "Now then!" led his motley +flock into the presence-chamber, where they were formed into line. +Much about the same moment (for the grand duke had "the royal +civility" of punctuality, and rarely kept people waiting) His Serene +Imperial and Royal Highness came shambling into the room in the +white-and-gold uniform of an Austrian general officer, and looking +very much as if he had just been roused out of profound slumber, and +had not yet quite collected his senses. Walking as if he had two odd +legs, which had never been put to work together before, he came to a +standstill in front of the row of presentees. If there was any person +of any sort of distinction among them, the minister whispered a word +or two in the grand ducal ear, and motioned the lion to come forward. +His Imperial and Royal Highness, after one glance of helpless +suffering at the stranger, fixed his gaze on his own boots. A long +pause ensued, during which courtly etiquette forbade the stranger to +utter a word. At last His Highness shifted his weight on to his left +foot, hung his head down on his shoulder on the same side, and said +"Ha!" Another pause, the presentee hardly considering himself +justified in replying to this observation. The duke finding he had +made a false start and accomplished nothing, shifted his weight to the +right foot, simultaneously hanging his head on his shoulder on that +side, and said "Hum!" It would often occur that when he had reached +that point he would make a duck forward with his head to signify that +the audience was at an end. + +If there was anything that the presenting official thought might be +appropriately remarked to the distinguished presentee, he would +whisper a hint to that effect in the grand ducal ear, of which His +Highness was usually glad to avail himself. I remember one amusing +instance in point, when it needed all the sense of the majesty of the +sovereign presence to preserve in the bystanders the gravity due to +the occasion. It was in the case of an American presentation. The +United States had at that time no recognized representative at the +grand ducal court, and Americans, much fewer in number then than of +late years, were generally presented by a banker who had almost all +the American business. This gentleman, having to present some one--I +forget the name--who was connected by blood or in some other special +manner with Washington, whispered to the grand duke that such was the +case. His Serene Highness bowed his appreciation of the fact. Then, +after going through the usual foot-exercise, and after a longer pause +than usual, he looked up at the expectant visitor standing in front of +him, and said, but with evident effort, "Ah-h-h! Le grand Vaash!" +There was nothing more forthcoming. Having thus delivered himself, he +made his visitor a low bow, and the latter retired. It was evident +that the grand duke of Tuscany heard of "Le grand Vaash" then for the +first time in his life. + +After any specialty of this sort had been disposed of, the ruck of +presentees, standing like a lot of school-boys in a long row, were +"presented," which ceremony was deemed to have been effectually +accomplished by one duck of the grand ducal head, to be divided among +all the recipients, and an answering duck from each of them in return. +They were then as free to amuse themselves in any manner it seemed +good to them as if they had been at a public place of entertainment +and had paid for their tickets. And not only that, but they were free +to return and do the same, without any fresh presentation ceremony, +every time there was a ball at the palace, which was at least once a +week from the beginning of the year to the end of Carnival. + +Nor were the amusements thus liberally provided by any means to be +despised. There was a magnificent suite of rooms, with a really grand +ball-room, all magnificently lighted; there was a large and very +excellent band; there was a great abundance of card-tables, with all +needed appurtenances, in several of the rooms; ices and sherbets and +bonbons and tea and pastry were served in immense profusion during the +whole evening. At one o'clock the supper-rooms were opened, and there +was a really magnificent supper, with "all the delicacies of the +season," and wine in abundance of every sort. And the old hands, who +would appear knowing, used to say to new-comers, "Never mind the +champagne--you can get that anywhere--but stick to the Rhine wine: it +comes from the old boy's own vineyards." To tell the truth, the scene +at that supper used to be a somewhat discreditable one. The spreading +of such a banquet before such an assemblage of animals as had gone up +into that ark was a leading them into unwonted temptation which was +hardly judicious. Not that the foreigners were by any means the worst +offenders against decent behavior there. If they carried away bushels +of bonbons in their loaded pockets, the Italians would consign to the +same receptacles whole fowls, vast blocks of galantine, and even +platefuls of mayonnaise, packed up in paper brought thither for the +purpose. They were like troops plundering a taken town. Despite the +enormous quantity of loot thus carried off, inexhaustible fresh +supplies refurnished the board again and again till all were +satisfied. I never saw English or Americans pocket aught save +bonbons, which seemed to be considered fair game on all sides, but the +quantity of these that I have seen made prizes of was something +prodigious. + +The grand duchess had hardly more to say for herself than the grand +duke, and her manner was less calculated to please her visitors. That +which in the grand duke was evidently shyness and want of ready wit, +took in the grand duchess the appearance of _hauteur_ and the distant +manner due to pride. She was a sister of the king of Naples, and was +liked by no one. The one truly affable member of the court circle, +whose manner and bearing really had something of royal grace and +graciousness, was the dowager grand duchess, the widow of the late +grand duke, who to all outward appearance was as young as, and a far +more elegant-looking woman than, the reigning grand duchess. She had +been a princess of the royal family of Saxony, and was no doubt in all +respects, intellectual and moral as well as social, a far more highly +cultivated woman than the scion of the Bourbon House of Naples. She +was the late grand duke's second wife, and not the mother of the +reigning duke. + +Why were all these balls given--at no small cost of money and +trouble--by the grand duke and duchess? Why did his Serene Imperial +and Royal Highness intimate to the English minister his wish that +every traveling Briton from Capel Court or Bloomsbury should be +brought to share his hospitality and the pleasures of his society? The +matter was simply this: His Serene Highness was venturing a small fish +to catch a large one. As a good and provident ruler, anxious for the +prosperity and well-being of his subjects, he was making a bid for the +valuable patronage of the British Cockney. He was acting the part of +land-lord of a gratuitous "free-and-easy," in the hope of making +Florence an attractive place of residence to that large class of nomad +English to whom gratuitous court-balls once a week appeared to be a +near approach to those "Saturnia regna" when the rivers ran champagne +and plum-puddings grew on all the bushes. And it cannot be doubted +that the grand duke's patriotic endeavors were crowned with success, +and that his expenditure in wax-lights, music, ices and suppers was +returned tenfold to the shopkeepers and hotel and lodging-house +keepers of his capital. + +One other point may be mentioned with reference to these balls, as a +small contribution to the history of a system of social manners and +usages which has now passed away. The utmost latitudinarianism, as has +been mentioned, was allowed in the matter of costume, but this rule +was subject to one exception. On the night of New Year's Day, on +which there was always a ball at the Pitti, all those who attended it +were expected to appear in proper court-dress. Those who were entitled +to any official costume, military or other, donned that. I have seen a +clergyman of the Church of England make his academical robes do duty +as a court-dress, as indeed they properly do at St. James. But in the +rooms at the Pitti His Reverence became the observed of all observers +to a remarkable degree. Those who could lay claim to no official +costume of any sort had to fall back on the old court-dress of the +period of George I., still worn, oddly enough, at the English court. +It is a sufficiently handsome dress in itself, and had at all events +the advantage of looking extremely unlike the ordinary costume of +nineteenth-century mortals, It was often a question with American +civilians what dress they should wear on these occasions, and I used +to endeavor to persuade my American friends to insist upon their +republican right to ignore in Europe court-tailor mummeries of which +they knew nothing at home; being perfectly sure that they would have +carried the point victoriously, and not unmindful of Talleyrand's +remark when Castlereagh at Vienna appeared in a plain black coat, +without any decoration, among the crowd of continental diplomatists +bedizened with ribbons of every color and stars and crosses of every +form and kind: "_Ma foi! c'est fort distingué_!" But I never could +prevail, having, as I take it, the female influence against me on the +subject; and Americans used to adopt generally a blue cloth coat and +trousers well trimmed with gold lace, and a white waistcoat. + +In later days, when popular discontent and the agitation arising from +it were gradually boiling up to a dangerous height in every part of +Italy, and the hatred felt toward the different sovereigns was +reflected in many an audacious squib and satire, the grand duke of +Tuscany never shared to any great degree the odium which pursued his +fellow-monarchs. It was with a scathing vigor of satire that Giuseppe +Giusti characterized each of the Italian crowned heads of that period +in burning verses, which were circulated with cautious secresy in +manuscript from hand to hand, long before a surreptitious edition, +which it was dangerous (anywhere in Italy save in Tuscany) to possess, +appeared, to be followed in after years by many an avowed one. These +have given the name of Giusti a high and peculiar place on the roll of +Italian poets. But the satirist's serpent scourge is changed for a +somewhat contemptuously used foolscap when the Tuscan ruler is +introduced in the following lines: + + Il Toscano Morfeo vien' lemme, lemme, + Di pavavero cinto e di lattuga. + + Then comes the Tuscan Morpheus, creepy, crawly, + With poppies and with lettuce crowned. + +These lines, however, represent pretty accurately about the worst that +his subjects had to say of poor old "Ciuco," as the last of the grand +dukes was irreverently and popularly called: "Ciuco," I am sorry to +state, means "donkey." And it must be owned that the two lines I have +quoted from Giusti's verses, with their untranslatable "lemme, +lemme"--of which I have endeavored, with imperfect success, to give +the meaning--present a very graphic picture of the man and the nature +and characteristics of his government. Everything went "lemme, lemme," +in the Sleepy Hollow of Tuscany in those days. + +Used as he was to be laughed at, Leopold could occasionally be made +sleepily half angry by impertinences which had something of a sting in +them. Here is an amusing instance of that fact, and of the way in +which things used to be done in Tuscany. Most of the Italian +provinces--or larger cities, rather--have been from time immemorial +personated in the popular fancy by certain comic types, supposed to +represent with more or less accuracy the special characteristics of +each district. Venice, as all the world knows, has, and still more +had, her "Pantaloon," Naples her "Pulcinello," etc. The specialties of +the Florentine character are popularly supposed to be embodied in +"Stenterello," who comes on the Florentine stage, in pieces written +for the purpose, every Carnival, to the never-failing delight of the +populace. Stenterello is an absurd figure with a curling pigtail, +large cocked hat, and habiliments meant to represent those of a Tuscan +citizen of some hundred years or so ago. He is a sort of shrewd fool, +doing the most absurd things, lying through thick and thin with a sort +of simple, self-confuting mendacity, yet contriving to cheat +everybody, and always having, amid all his follies, a shrewd eye to +his own interest. He talks with the broadest possible Florentine +accent and idiom, and despite his cunning is continually getting more +kicks than halfpence. Well, there was in those days a famous +Stenterello, really a very clever fellow in his way, who for many +years had been the delight of the Florentines every Carnival. But one +year a rival theatre produced a new and rival Stenterello. Of course +the old and established Stenterello could not stand this without using +the license of the popular stage to overwhelm his rival with ridicule. +"This sort of thing," said he, "will never do! How many Stenterelli +are we to have? Two is the regular established number in Florence. +There are I and my brother over there at the great house on the other +side of the Arno: we are the Florentine Stenterelli by right divine, +as is well known. Who is this pretender who comes to interfere with +us?" etc. Now, this was a little too much, even for Florence. And a +day or two afterward the old original Stenterello was ordered to go to +prison. Nobody was ever _arrested_, as we should call it, or _taken_ +to prison. A man who for any cause was to suffer imprisonment used to +be told to _go_ to prison. Stenterello told the officer who announced +his doom that it was out of the question that he should go just then: +he had to appear on the boards that night. This was deemed to be a +just impediment, and he was told to go next day. The next day was a +"festa:" of course a sufficient reason for putting off everything. The +day after, on presenting himself at the prison-door, the actor was +told that the governor of the prison was out of Florence, and he must +"call again" in a few days. When the governor returned, Stenterello +was indisposed for a few days. When he got well the governor was +indisposed, and when _he_ got well there was another "festa;" and when +at last the offending actor did apply to the prison official to be +imprisoned, he was told there was no room for him. Long before that +the higher authorities had totally forgotten all about the matter. +That was the way things were done in Tuscany in the good old time. + +The more serious faults with which Leopold II. was chargeable were due +to the narrowness of his religious bigotry, and, in the difficult and +trying circumstances of the latter years of his reign, the lack of the +courage needed to enable him to be truthful and to keep faith with his +people. When the frightened and fickle pope ran away from Rome, strong +influences were brought to bear on the grand duke of Tuscany to induce +him to refrain from following the example and to ally himself with +Piedmont. His confessor of course took the opposite side, and strove +with every weapon he could bring to bear on his Serene penitent to +induce him to throw in his lot with the pope. At last the invisible +world had to be appealed to. Saint Philomena, who had been a special +object of the devotion of the grand ducal family, took to appearing to +the confessor, and expressing her earnest hope that her devotee would +not risk the salvation of a soul in which she took so tender an +interest by refusing to follow the path marked out for him by the Holy +Father. The saint became very importunate upon the subject, and each +one of her celestial visitations was duly reported to the grand duke, +and made the occasion of fresh exhortations on the part of the holy +man who had been favored by them. The upshot is well known: Ciuco +followed the advice of Saint Philomena and lost his dukedom. + +Sometimes, however, this submission of his mind to his clergy was not +altogether proof against a certain simple shrewdness, aided perhaps by +an inclination to save money, to which he was said not to be +insensible. Of course his grandfather, the enlightened and reforming +Duke Leopold I., had not been at all in the good graces of the Church, +and for a series of years Leopold II. had been in the habit of giving +a sum of money for masses for the repose of the soul of his +grandfather. But upon one occasion it happened that the archbishop of +Lucca (a very special hierarchical big-wig, and the greatest +ecclesiastical authority in those parts, being, by reason of some +ancient and peculiar privileges, a greater man than even the +archbishop of Florence), in the course of an argument with the grand +duke, the object of which was to induce the latter to modify in some +respects some of those anti-ecclesiastical measures by which the elder +Leopold had made the prosperity of Tuscany, was so far carried away by +his zeal as to declare that the author of the obnoxious constitutions +which he wished altered had incurred eternal damnation by the +enactment of them. The grand duke bent his head humbly before the +archiepiscopal denunciation, and said nothing in reply. But when the +time came round for the disbursement of the annual sum for masses for +Leopold I., his pious grandson declared that it was useless to spend +any more money for that purpose, for that the archbishop of Lucca had +informed him that his unhappy predecessor's soul was in hell, and +accordingly past help and past being prayed--or paid--for. + +I remember an amusing instance of the same sort of simple shrewdness +on the lookout for the main chance which was exemplified in the above +anecdote showing itself in quite a different sphere. There was in +those days living in Florence an Englishman bearing the name of +Sloane. He had made a large fortune by the intelligent and +well-ordered management of some copper-mines in the neighborhood of +Volterra, which in his hands had turned out to be of exceptional and +unexpected richness. He was a man who did much good with his money, +and was considered a very valuable and important citizen of his +adopted country. He was a Roman Catholic too, which made him all the +more acceptable to the Florentines, and especially to the grand duke, +with whom he was a great favorite. This Mr. Sloane had bought some +years before the date of my anecdote the ancient Medicean villa of +Careggi, with a considerable extent of land surrounding it. One day +the grand duke paid him a visit at his villa of Careggi, and in the +course of it proposed a walk up the slope of the Apennines through +some fine woods that made a part of Mr. Sloane's property. They went +together, enjoying the delightful walk through the woods over a dry +and excellently well-made road, where everything betokened care and +good tending, till all of a sudden, near the top of the hill they were +climbing, they came to a place where the good road suddenly ended, and +the path beyond was all bog and the wood utterly uncared for, so that +their walk evidently had to come to an end there, and they would have +to retrace their steps. + +"Why, Sloane, how is this? This is not like your way of doing things. +Why did you stop short in your good work?" said the grand duke, as +they stood at the limit of the good road, looking out at the slough +beyond them. + +"In truth, Your Highness, I was sorry that the good road should break +off here, but the circumstance is easily explained. Here ends the +property of your humble servant, and there begins the property of Your +Royal Highness," said Sloane with a low bow. + +"Ha! Is it so? Well, then, I'll tell you what you shall do. You shall +_buy_ it, Sloane, and then you can finish your job," returned the +grand duke. + +It is very doubtful whether the Tuscans would have approved of the +_liberality_ of the grand duke's expenditure if he had manifested it, +as his neighbor-sovereigns did, by expending his revenues on +multitudes of show-soldiers. The Tuscan forces of those days were not +exactly calculated for brilliant military display. They were about as +likely to be called on to fight as the scullions in the grand ducal +kitchen, and neither in number, appearance nor _tenue_ were they such +as would have obtained the approval of the lowest officer in the +service of a more military-minded sovereign. However, such as they +were, the grand duke used occasionally--generally on the recurrence of +some great Church festival--to review his troops. On such occasions he +was expected to say something to the men. Poor Ciuco's efforts in that +line often produced effects more amusing to bystanders than impressive +to the objects of his oratory. He was one day reviewing the troops who +occupied barracks in the well-known "Fortezza di S. Giovanni," +popularly called by the Florentines "Fortezza da basso"--the same in +which the celebrated Filippo Strozzi, then the prisoner of the +vindictive Cosmo de' Medici, was found dead one morning, leaving to +the world the still unsolved historical problem whether he died by his +own hand or by that of his jailer hired to do the murder. The scene in +the gloomy old fortress with which we are at present concerned was of +a less tragic nature. His Serene Highness began by exhorting his +"brave army"--which, unlike that of Bombastes in the burlesque, +certainly never "kicked up a row" of any kind--to be attentive to +their religious duties. "It is particularly desirable that you should +show an example to the citizens by your regular observance of the +festivals of the Church; and--and--" (here His Highness shuffled his +feet, and, hanging his head down, chanced to cast his eyes on the line +of feet of the men drawn up before him) "and--and--always keep your +shoes clean." And with that doubtless much-needed exhortation His +Highness concluded his address. + +The fact that Leopold was not regarded by his subjects with any +bitterness of hatred--nay, that there was _au fond_ a considerable +feeling of affection for him--is shown by the circumstances of his +deposition from the throne. A little timely concession would have +saved Charles I.: a still less amount of concession would have +preserved his throne to Leopold II. As regarded his own power, he had +no objection to agree to all that was asked of him, but he could not +make up his mind to go against the head of his house and the head of +his religion. The last proposal made to him was to abdicate in favor +of his son, whom, if allied with Piedmont, the Tuscans would have +consented to accept as their sovereign. But the grand duke felt that +this would in fact be doing in an indirect manner that which he had +fully determined not to do; and he refused. And then came the end, and +that memorable April morning (the 27th) when the present writer +witnessed a revolution such as the world had not seen before, and such +as, it may be feared, it is not likely soon to see again. Revolutions, +we have over and over again been told, "cannot be made with +rose-water." The Tuscan revolution may have "proved the rule by the +exception," but it assuredly proved it in no other way. The revolution +by which poor old Ciuco lost this throne was essentially a rose-water +revolution. The history of that day, of the negotiations respecting +the proposed abdication of the duke, of the conduct and bearing of the +people, has already been told by the present writer, when he was fresh +from witnessing the events, in a little volume published in 1859. He +will not therefore repeat them now, but will conclude this paper with +an account of the manner of the last grand duke's farewell to Florence +which is not given in the volume spoken of. + +It was at six o'clock in the evening that the carriages containing the +grand duke and his family passed through the Porta San Gallo, from +which proceeds the road to Bologna, and thence to Vienna. The main +preoccupation of the people at that moment was to assure themselves by +the evidence of their own senses that the duke and dukelings were +really gone. An immense crowd of people assembled round the gate and +lined the road immediately outside it. Along the living line thus +formed the cortége of carriages proceeded at a slow pace. There was no +fear of violence. The Tuscan revolution had cost no drop of blood--not +so much as a bloody nose--to any human being thus far, and there was +no danger whatever that any violence would be shown to the departing +and totally unprotected prince. But there might have been danger that +the populace would tarnish their hitherto blameless conduct by some +manifestation of insult or exultation. There was not one word of the +sort spoken in all the crowd, or indeed a word of any sort. The +carriages, carrying away those who were never to see the banks of the +Arno and fair Florence again, passed on in perfect--one might almost +say in mournful--silence. Of course the masses of the crowd were soon +passed, and the grand ducal heart, if it had beat a little quickly +while his unguarded carriage was passing between the lines of those +who declined to be any longer his subjects, resumed that "serenity" +supposed to be the especial property of royal highnesses. But some +half dozen carriages, containing a score or so of those whose +positions had brought them into personal acquaintance with the +sovereign, accompanied the royal cortége as far as the Tuscan frontier +between the grand ducal state and the dominions of the Church. Arrived +at that spot--it is on the top of a high, bleak ridge among the +Apennines--there was a general alighting from the carriages for the +mutual saying of the last words of farewell. Of course an immense +amount of bowing, with backward steps according to true courtly +fashion, went to the due uttering of these adieux on that spot of the +high-road over the Apennines. Unfortunately, there chanced to be a +heap of broken stones for the mending of the road which encroached a +little on the roadway. And it so happened that His Imperial and Royal +Highness, never very dexterous in the use of his limbs or an adept in +the performance of such courtly gymnastics, backed in bowing on this +unlucky heap of stones, and was tripped by it in such sort that the +imperial and royal heels went into the air, and the grand duke made +his last exit from Tuscany in a manner more original than dignified. + +T. ADOLPHUS TROLLOPE. + + + + +OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP. + + +OLD ENGLISH CHARITIES. + + +The local charities connected with the family history of great +landowners in England form one of the most interesting classes of +public relief. They date chiefly from ante-Reformation times, and +often embody a hidden symbolism into which none save the antiquary now +cares to inquire. It is a mistake to suppose that _all_ the dying +bequests of pious folk in the Middle Ages were devoted to the "Church" +proper: the larger part certainly were, although the spirit that +prompted even the making of such bequests was symbolical of the belief +in the dispensing (rather than the appropriating) powers of churchmen: +but many were also the sums left to be yearly spent in the relief of +the poor and starving. Thus originated the alms-(or bede-) houses so +frequently met with in the retired villages of England. _Bede_ (from +the German _beten_, to "pray") meant prayer, hinting at the pious duty +of those benefiting by the founder's legacy to pray for his eternal +welfare. When the Reformation, among many abuses, also obliterated +many beautiful and poetical customs, the meaning of these "houses of +prayer" was forgotten, and their chapels were often ruthlessly +whitewashed. The material part of the foundation, however, still +remained, and the bedesmen, twelve or thirteen (in commemoration of +the number of the apostles, or the apostles and their Master), +continued to be chosen by the clergyman of the parish and the lord of +the manor. In other places, instead of this more costly mode of +relief, a custom prevailed of distributing a "dole" at stated times +to a large number of poor people, the number corresponding to the age +of the giver: if alive, of course the number increased every year; if +dead, it was fixed at the age at which he or she had died. Many of +these local customs continue to this day: some have even been +instituted lately, since the revived taste for medievalism has +beautified and refined English homesteads and village churches. The +queen, a faithful upholder of ancient national manners, has given the +example by adhering to the time-honored custom called the Royal +Maundy. This word is from _mandatum_, or commandment, and refers to +the "new commandment" given by Christ to his apostles at the Last +Supper. In Catholic countries it is still the custom for the sovereign +to wash the feet of twelve poor men (his wife performing the same +office for twelve poor and aged women) in public on the Thursday +before Easter, and to serve them at table afterward: in Vienna this is +done in a very solemn and public manner. The chosen ones are brought +to the palace in court-coaches, and after the ceremony is over are +carried home in the same way, loaded with presents of clothing, money, +and all the dishes, spoons, forks, etc., used at their dinner. In +England the same charity, or its equivalent, is dispensed, not by the +sovereign in person, but by her chaplains and almoners, in the midst +of beautiful formalities. The dignity with which the ceremony is +performed is a striking evidence of the national character, and a +contrast to the sometimes slovenly manner in which great public +religious functions are got through abroad. The charities are +distributed in the chapel of Whitehall, the palace made tragically +famous by the disgrace of Wolsey and the death of King Charles I. +Fifty-five old men, and as many women, the number corresponding to the +age of the sovereign, were thus relieved last year. On an earlier +occasion witnessed by the writer a procession consisting of a +detachment of the yeomen of the guard, under the command of a +sergeant-major (one of the yeomen carrying the royal alms on a gold +salver of the reign of William and Mary), several chaplains, almoners, +secretaries and a few national schoolchildren (allowed to take part in +the ceremony as a signal reward for good behavior), left the Royal +Almonry Office for the chapel of Whitehall. It was met at the door by +the lord high almoner and the subdeans of the Chapel Royal, who joined +the ranks and passed up to the altar. The surpliced boys of the Chapel +Royal, and the clergy and gentlemen belonging officially to it, took +their appointed places right and left, and the gold salver was +deposited in front of the royal pew, generally tenanted by one or more +members of the royal family. Evening prayer, slightly varied and +adapted for the occasion, as custom has decreed for several centuries, +was then gone through; the forty-first Psalm was chanted; and after +the First Lesson an anthem by Goss was sung. Then followed the +distribution of £1 15s. to each woman, and a pair of shoes and +stockings to each man. The two next anthems were by Mendelssohn, and +in the intervals woolen and linen clothes were first distributed to +each man, and money-purses to each man and woman. The Second Lesson +was then read, and the fourth and concluding anthem, by Greene, +chanted, after which the usual Thanksgiving and Prayer of St. +Chrysostom were read. The musical part of the service, being +especially prominent, was correctly and artistically performed by +skillful musicians (some of them composers), styled officially +"gentlemen of the Chapel Royal:" the solo in the first anthem was sung +by one of the boys. + +In addition to this special ceremony, other Easter bounties, styled +"Minor Bounty," "Discretionary Bounty," and the "Royal Gate Alms," +were, according to old custom, distributed at the Almonry Office on +Good Friday and Saturday, while Easter Monday and Tuesday were devoted +to the distribution of other supplementary relief to old and infirm +people previously chosen by the clergy of the various London parishes. +The recipients included over a thousand persons. Among the private +local charities none is on so large a scale as the famous "Tichborne +Dole." The idea we now attach to the word _dole_ is ludicrously +inappropriate in this case, where the gift is in the proportion of one +gallon of the best wheaten flour to each adult and half a gallon to +each child, and where the number of the recipients is generally +between five and six hundred, including the inhabitants of two +parishes. This custom is seven hundred years old, and was first +instituted on the Tichborne estate by Dame Mabel, the wife of Sir +Roger de Tichborne, knight, in the beginning of the twelfth century. +The foundress was renowned for her piety and charity, and by her own +people was looked upon as a saint. The family record says that she was +so charitable to the poor that, not content to exercise that virtue +all her lifetime, she instituted the "dole" as a perpetual memorial of +her goodness, and entailed it to her posterity. It is distributed +yearly on the 25th of March. A large oil-painting, now hanging in the +dining-room of Tichborne House, and representing the distribution of +the "dole," was painted in 1670, and is considered as one of the most +valuable family relics. The costumes of the period are faithfully +represented, most of the prominent figures are portraits, and the +scene is laid within the courtyard of the old manor, with its +sculptured gables and picturesque mullioned windows. The present +house, roomy and comfortable as it is, is a plain, unpretending +building, with no architectural features to recommend it, but the park +and grounds are very beautiful, the old trees disposed in deep glades +and avenues, and the situation altogether very picturesque. Since the +famous trial has made everything bearing the name of Tichborne a +target for curiosity, the occupants have been sadly annoyed, and +access to the house was at last, in self-defence, denied to strangers +who came simply as gaping sight-seers. The "dole" distribution, as we +have said, takes place every year. Last spring it was attended with +less show than usual, owing to the illness of the little boy who now +represents the old name (the nephew of the lost Roger Tichborne), in +consequence of which none of the ladies of the family were present. +But despite the absence of the festal arrangements by which it is +usually accompanied, the main business was the same as it has always +been since Dame Mabel's time. About nine o'clock the fine old park +became thronged with men, women and children, all carrying bags and +baskets in which to stow away the "bounty." The distribution was made +at the back of the house. The people gathered in groups, dressed in +all sorts of plain, dilapidated country garments--old men in worn-out +smock-frocks (a sight seldom seen even in conservative England), +gaiters such as they wear at work in the fields, and slouched, +unrecognizable hats that had evidently seen better times; others stood +in their "Sunday clothes," stiff and uncomfortable as a laborer looks +in that unusual and unartistic guise; some were old and toothless, yet +upright and almost martial-looking; while some, again, had that +pathetic look--sunken eyes, bent limbs and general air of having given +in to the attacks of time and sorrow--which invariably speaks the same +language and stirs the same sympathy all over the world. The women +were in the majority, most of them hale and hearty, the wives and +daughters of laborers who were too busy to come in person. Nine sacks, +each containing fifty gallons of flour, were emptied by two sturdy +miller's men into an immense tub. The family being an old Roman +Catholic one, a religious ceremony was the prelude of the +distribution. The domestic chaplain offered up a short prayer, and +after invoking the blessing of Heaven on the gift, sprinkled the flour +with holy water in the form of a cross. It was no uncommon thing for +one person to carry away three or four gallons of flour: the largest +award was in the case of a family consisting of man, wife and seven +children, the wife carrying away with her five and a half gallons. +Many of those whose names appeared as witnesses for the defence during +the memorable trial were present--John Etheridge, the blacksmith, and +Kennett, coachman to the dowager Lady Tichborne, among the number. The +latter lives in a small freehold cottage, his own property, at +Cheriton, the next parish to Tichborne. Persons of all denominations +were relieved--Church people, Dissenters and Roman Catholics +alike--without the slightest favoritism being shown to any. + +The same kind of charity, though on a smaller scale, and by the custom +of living patrons instead of the will of deceased ones, is dispensed +at various times in the year through the whole country by both large +and small landed proprietors. + +The 11th of November (St. Martin's Day) is the one generally chosen +for the distribution of winter clothing to the poor of the parish, and +this in commemoration of the mediaeval legend of the holy Bishop +Martin, who gave half his ample cloak to a shivering leper who begged +of him in the street. Next night, says the legend, he saw in a dream +Christ himself clothed in that cloak, and remembered the promise that +"inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of these, ye have done it unto +Me." The writer has often assisted at such distribution of warm +clothing, both made and unmade. In every county squire's house there +is a bi-or tri-weekly distribution of soup to the village poor, and in +most two or three sets of fine bed-linen and soft baby-clothes, to be +lent out on occasions requiring greater comforts than the poor and too +often thriftless women of agricultural villages can afford. Private +charity is all-reaching: the "hall" is the dispensary and the general +ark of refuge for all county ills, moral, physical and pecuniary, and +its help is never thought degrading, like that of the "parish." Most +families pay a doctor and a nurse by the year to attend the poor free +of expense, and an order from the doctor for jellies, soup or wine, as +well as for the ordinary sorts of medicine, is always sure of being +filled from the ample stores of the "housekeeper's room." If the city +poor were half as well provided for as are the agricultural poor by +their "lords of the manor," there would be far less destitution. Some +affect to sneer at a system which savors of what they call +"feudalism," and which, they wisely suggest, encourages pauperism, but +warm-hearted and charitable people will probably disagree with these +searchers after new methods, and will be glad to find in the ready +sympathy of English landowners for their poor neighbors a ray of the +old-fashioned unquestioning charity which distinguished biblical +times. + +B.M. + + * * * * * + +LANDORIANA. + + +I wish to supplement the "Recollections of Landor," published in a +former number of the Magazine, by an anecdote and two or three +characteristic letters which by accident escaped me when I was writing +on the subject before. Here is the story: Schlegel and Niebuhr had +been for some time on unpleasant terms. The historical skepticism of +the latter was altogether distasteful to Schlegel; and he was wont to +deny Niebuhr's claim to the title of historian. Well, Landor was +dining at Bonn, and among the company immediately opposite to him at +table was Schlegel. Hardly had the soup been despatched before Landor, +with that stentorian voice of his which always filled every corner of +every room he spoke in, began: "Are not you the man, Mr. Schlegel, who +has recently discovered, at the end of two hundred and fifty years, +that Shakespeare is a poet? Well, perhaps if you live two hundred and +fifty years longer, you may discover that Niebuhr is an historian." +"Schlegel did not like it," added Landor when telling the story +himself--very much as who should say, "I knocked him down with an +unexpected blow of my fist, and he did not _like_ it!" + +And now for my letters. Here is one dated "Florence, June, 1861," +written to my wife when he was past eighty and within a year or two of +his death. The latter portion of the letter is especially interesting, +and will be none the less so to those who may be disposed to dispute +the correctness of the judgments expressed in it. + +"Do not be alarmed," he writes, "at a letter which 'like a wounded +snake drags its slow length along.' Such, I suspect, mine will be, +though it ought to contain only thanks for the admirable ones you have +sent to me on the late affairs of Tuscany. Yesterday Mr. Trollope gave +them to me as your present. I then exprest a hope that he or you would +undertake a history of Italian affairs from the Treaty of Campo Formio +down to the present day. Indeed, I hope and trust that it may be +continued a year or two farther, until the recovery of Rome from the +most perfidious enemy she and Italy were ever opprest by. And this +under the title of deliverer! Lay your two heads together, and let me +have to boast that the best and truest of our historians were my +personal friends. Southey and Napier were most intimately so. Hallam +is a dull proser--no discovery or illustration, no profound thought, +no vivid description, not even a harmonious period. Macaulay is a +smart reviewer, indifferent to truth, a hanger-on of party. Lingard is +more honest, and writes better. He does not tag together loose +epigrams with a crooked pin. Now put the empty chairs of these people +against the wall, and sit down to your table with a long piece of work +before you. And now you must be tired, as I foretold you would be. So +hail the farewell of your affectionate old friend, + +"W. LANDOR." + + * * * * * + +Here is another, undated, but shown by the Bath postmark to have been +written in 1857. The whole letter is strongly characteristic of the +writer, as indeed was everything that Landor wrote, said or did, so +thoroughly and in every sense of the word was he _original_; but, as +in the preceding letter, the most interesting portion is that toward +the end, where he gives some amusing indications of his peculiar +political opinions and feelings. This letter also was written to the +same correspondent: + +"My dear friend: It is now three years since I have been in London, +except in passing through it to the Crystal Palace, without +dismounting." [How curiously the phrase indicates the habits of the +writer's youth, when gentlemen's journeys were for the most part +performed on horseback!] "At Sydenham I remained three weeks, almost; +but the air of London always disagreed with me, added to which, the +necessity of visiting was always intolerable to me, and I have lost +many friends by refusing to undergo it. If Mr. Trollope should find a +few days' leisure for Bath, I can promise him a hearty reception and a +comfortable bedroom. Is it not singular that on your letter being +brought to me I laid down for it _Town and Country_ [a novel by +Frances Trollope], which interests me as much on a second reading as +on the first? To-morrow I must run--imagine a man of eighty-one +running!--for the Athenaeum. I myself have not thrown away the pen, +which sadly wants mending. They have published _Scenes from the +Shades,_ and _Alfieri and Metastasio_, and _Codrus and Polio_. These +last three are in _Fraser_. If they bring a few pounds or shillings, +the money will be given to Capera, a laboring man who has written some +noble poetry." [The writer in question produced some very tolerable +verses, remarkable as coming from a man in his position, but in our +friend's enthusiastic language they become "noble poetry" directly he +makes the man his protegé--a truly Landorian touch!] "I could have +collected three hundred pounds for Kossuth from friends who wrote to +me about it, and probably ten or a dozen times as much from others, +for no man ever had so few friends or acquaintances as I have. Nearly +all are dead, and I have no leisure or inclination for new ones. It +gave me much pleasure to hear that the fine and pleasant Lord Normanby +is in part recovered from his paralysis. I parted from him at Bath +with few hopes. Never have I spent a winter in England so free from +every kind of malady as this last. A disastrous war ends with a +disgraceful peace. We are to have an illumination and ringing of +bells. Sir Claude Scott and myself will not illuminate, but I have +promised the ringers twenty shillings if they will muffle the bells. +Rejoice! The best generals and best soldiers in the Crymea [sic] were +Italians. + +"W.S.L." + +Landor had many queer crotchets about spelling, and always absolutely +declined to follow any rule but his own. It seems to have been one of +these crotchets to spell Crimea as he spells it in the above-quoted +letter--on what grounds I do not pretend to be able to guess: With +regard to the seemingly unpatriotic sentiment contained in the last +lines, it must be remembered that the writer was addressing a person +long resident in Italy, and eagerly anxious for the well-doing of the +Italian troops in their struggle with the different despotisms which +oppressed the Peninsula. The bribing the ringers to _muffle_ the bells +is a highly characteristic trait. + +Of a third letter I will print only a part, because the remainder +concerns the unfortunate affair which compelled the writer finally to +leave England--the result, as is well known, of a trial for libel in +which Landor was cast in heavy damages which were far beyond his +diminished means to pay. He acted very wrongly, and still more +imprudently, in attempting to expose what he honestly deemed +misconduct of a nature that outraged all the generous feelings of his +nature, by the publication of a very gross libel. The passages in the +letter in question which refer to this business, then in the stage +preceding his conviction, abundantly testify to the fact that the +sentiments which had impelled him to act as he did were wholly and +solely those of generous indignation at wrong done, in no-wise against +himself, but against another, whom he deemed to be oppressed and +unprotected. But I think, on the whole, that no good purpose would be +served by raking up the matter afresh. And (for Landor in his wrath +was at no time a Chrysostom) the letter bristles with assertions and +accusations couched in language which might, for aught I know, make +the publication of it a repetition of the offence for which he +suffered. The other matters touched on are not uninteresting +manifestations of opinion: + +"My DEAR FRIEND," he writes: "Whether I am ill or well it is always +with equal pleasure that I see the trace of your hand. Surely, I must +have written to you since I sent the scenes of _Anthony and Octavius_. +But I am too apt to believe that what I _ought_ to have done I _have_ +done. You ask me what I think of the Neapolitan abominations." [The +allusion is to some one or other of the many acts of grievous tyranny +which were at that time perpetrated by the Neapolitan Bourbon +government in its terrified attempts to protect itself against the +rising indignation of the people.] "We countenance them. The despots +are in _Holy Alliance_ against constitutions." [Surely, Landor's old +antagonism to former English governments led him into error and +injustice when he accuses England of "countenancing" the tyrannies of +the Neapolitan government. How much Gladstone's celebrated letter and +English sentiment in all quarters contributed toward the overthrow of +that tyranny was not then known as well as it is now.] "On the other +side of this," he continues, "you will find a few verses I wrote on +Agesiloa Milano, the finest and bravest patriot on record." [Agesilao +Milano, whose name was just then in every mouth in Italy, was one of +the numerous victims of Austrian severity, who had met his fate with +admirable courage, and who willingly gave his life for his country. +But there was nothing to distinguish him specially from hundreds of +other Italians who in those evil days did as much, and nothing save +chance to distinguish him from the tens of hundreds who were ready to +do as much had the lot fallen to them. But the mention of this poor +fellow in the letter is very specially Landorian. No superlatives were +with him strong enough to express his sentiments on aught that +immediately moved his feelings either of admiration or indignation.] +"The concessions in Lombardy," he goes on, "are fabulous. Thieves and +assassins are turned out of prison with quiet literary men and brave +patriots.... With kindest regards to your circle, ever your affec. + +"W. LANDOR." + +The verses on Agesilao Milano announced as being "on the +other side" are there preceded by two epigrams on the object of his +indignation above alluded to, which I suppress for the same reason +that I have suppressed that portion of the letter referring to the +same subject. The verses on the young Italian patriot and martyr run +as follows: + + Sometimes the brave have bent the head + To lick the dust that despots tread. + Not so Milano; he alone + Would bow to Justice on the throne. + To win a crown of thorns he trod + A flinty path, and rests with God. + +T.A.T. + + * * * * * + +THE DEATH OF DOCTORS' COMMONS. + +On the 20th of last October a venerable London institution changed its +quarters. Doctors' Commons may almost be said to be no more. Its heart +is gone. The Principal Registry of the Court of Probate--the successor +to the Prerogative Court of Canterbury--is no longer to be found +there, and those who seek their fortunes in wills have now to +prosecute their researches in that hub of British departmental +records, Somerset House. The knell of "the Commons" was rung about +twenty years ago, when a campaign against the abuses prevailing in the +ecclesiastical courts was begun in the London _Times_. It +unquestionably had been the home _par excellence_ of sinecures and +monopolies, which culminated in the office of registrar of the +Prerogative Court of the archbishop of Canterbury. This office was in +the gift of the archbishop, and was at the time these attacks began +held by the Rev. Mr. Moore. Mr. Moore was a member of a family which +had certainly good cause to stand steadfast in the faith of the Church +of England, and not to waver one inch in attachment thereto. It may be +doubted whether since its foundation any family--we except, of course, +those to whom grants were made from abbey-lands--during the whole +history of the Church has drawn such vast sums from it. His father, a +singularly fortunate man, set the ball rolling. Having gone up to +Christ Church, Oxford, as a sizar, or poor scholar, he happened about +the time of taking his degree to cross the quadrangle at the moment +when a nobleman of great position was asking the dean to recommend a +tutor for his son. Young Moore at that moment caught the very reverend +functionary's eye. There is the very man, thought he. He called him +up, presented him to the peer, and an engagement was made. In those +days the patronage of a powerful peer was a ready road to preferment. +Young Moore gave satisfaction to his noble patron, and was pushed up +the ecclesiastical tree until he reached its topmost branch, being +created in 1783 archbishop of Canterbury. In 1770 he formed a very +judicious marriage with Miss Eden. This lady was sister of Sir Robert +Eden, governor of Maryland in 1776 (who married the sister and co-heir +of the last Lord Baltimore), and of the first Lord Auckland, whom +George III. very justly stigmatized as "that eternal intriguer." To +the "eternal intriguer" the elevation of Moore to the archbishopric +was probably mainly due. Lord Auckland was for many years as intimate +a friend as Pitt ever had, and his daughter (afterward countess of +Buckinghamshire) is the great minister's only recorded love. For +twenty-three years Dr. Moore filled the archbishopric, and in those +days it was a far better thing pecuniarily than it is now. He made hay +whilst the sun shone, and then and for long after did his relatives +bask in the sun. Registrarships, canonries and livings fell upon them +in rich profusion, and the great prize of all, the registrarship of +the Prerogative Court of the archbishop of Canterbury, fell to the +luckiest of the lot. + +Of course the registrar never came near his registry: his duties were +discharged by three deputies. Not one penny, moreover, beyond what was +absolutely necessary did he expend on the registry itself. Such a hole +as it was! Cribbed, cabined and confined were the clerks who ran the +reverend sinecurist's business in one of the most extraordinary +rabbit-warrens, to use the epithet Bethell, Lord (Chancellor) +Westbury, applied to it in the writer's hearing. In Great Knight Rider +street--a name derived from the days of the Knights Templar--was a +dingy passage-way leading into a yet dingier little court. Passing up +a short flight of steps, you found yourself in a large room, with deep +alcoves furnished with shelves, on which, above and on all sides, were +ranged huge volumes with massive clasps. "What are all these books?" +inquired a youthful visitor--"old Bibles?" "No, sir; they're +testaments," was a waggish official's reply. They are, in fact, copies +of wills. The originals are deemed too precious for exhibition except +on special application, and the stranger who pays his shilling only +sees a copy. Formerly, unless a searcher knew exactly when a will was +proved, the process of finding it was very troublesome, because he had +to search down indexes in Old English character arranged in order of +date only; but now the registers have been put into alphabetical form. + +The great change in Doctors' Commons took place in 1858, when the +Probate Act came into operation. This was a very sweeping measure, +which at a blow superseded the whole system of ecclesiastical courts, +so far at least as wills were concerned. For them it substituted a +Court of Probate, with jurisdiction over the whole of England. +Attached to this court are about forty registries for wills. That in +London is called the Principal Registry. A will must either be proved +in the district in which a man dies or in the Principal Registry. The +Principal Registry is a very large office, at the head of which are +four registrars, who are also registrars of the Divorce Court, over +which the judge of the Court of Probate presides, being styled "judge +ordinary" of this latter. There are about forty registries scattered +about the country, in most cases in places where formerly +ecclesiastical courts existed for the proving of wills. The value of +these registrarships ranges from three hundred to fifteen hundred +pounds. They are all in the gift of the judge of the court, whose +patronage is worth about sixty thousand pounds a year, and may be +reckoned the best in England, inasmuch as he holds it continuously, +whilst the lord chancellor and other political officers merely hold +their patronage for the few years they may chance to continue in +office. Moreover, the judge of the Court of Probate, not being a +political officer, has no political pressure brought to bear upon him +in the distribution of his patronage, and can dispense it precisely as +he pleases. The registrars must, by the terms of the act of +Parliament, be barristers, solicitors, or clerks who have served five +years in the Principal Registry. + +Doctors' Commons twenty years ago was a unique corner of the world. It +lay so hid away that you might live for years in London, and be within +a stone's throw of it, and yet never have its existence brought to +your mind; and it had a life all its own. The ecclesiastical lawyers +were called doctors and proctors, instead of barristers and attorneys; +and although the former did not arrogate to themselves a higher rank +socially and professionally than that of barrister, a proctor +considered himself a great many cuts above an attorney, and indeed +was, for the most part, the equal of the best class of attorneys. +Proctors, it will be borne in mind, are sketched by Charles Dickens in +the opening pages of _David Copperfield_, for Dora's papa, Mr. +Spenlow, was in proctorial partnership with the reputably inexorable +Jawkins. When the Probate Act came into force it was a frightful blow +to the tribe of Spenlows. Not so much on account of the pecuniary +loss. In that respect the blow was considerably tempered to the shorn +lambs by a compensation all too liberal--for John Bull is unsurpassed +as a respecter of vested interests--and the proctors were compensated +on the basis of their incomes for the last five years, their returns +proving in some instances curiously at variance with the amounts on +which they had paid income-tax. But they regarded themselves as +terrible losers in prestige and position by this rude invasion of the +classic and aristocratic ground of the Doctores Commensales, and above +all by being leveled down to the rank of attorneys. The clerks in the +Prerogative Court--of which the registrars and head-clerks were all +proctors, who, taking the cue from Chief Registrar Moore, executed +their work by deputy, the deputies being clerks working long hours for +small salaries--had kotooed to them with the most servile +subserviency; but the Probate Office clerk was a government official, +who could not be removed, even by the judge of the court, without the +consent of the lord chancellor. What cared he, then, for Spenlow and +Jawkins? "I am astonished, Mr. Spenlow," said a young clerk of the new +_régime_, "that you should have made such a mistake!" Mr. Spenlow, in +turn, was too much astonished to utter a word. Speechless with +amazement and indignation, he left the "seat," as the different +departments were called, to weep bitter tears in regret for the past +in the solitude of his dingy sanctum in Bell Yard, leaving an +emancipated clerk, who had served under the thraldom of the old +_régime_, exclaiming, "Good Heavens! Only imagine any of us daring to +use such language to a proctor two years ago!" + +R.W. + + * * * * * + +THE LAY OF THE LEVELER. + +Among the less known writings of Francis Quarles, author of the once +famous _Emblems_, is a volume, now become very scarce, entitled _The +Shepheards Oracles, delivered in certain Eglogues_. The copy of it to +which I have access was published in 1646, or two years after +Quarles's death. This spirited poem must have been perused with +intense interest by Quarles's contemporaries. But history is +constantly repeating itself with more or less of modification, and +_The Shepheards Oracles_, at least here and there, and with reference +to England, reads, but for its quaintness of manner and idiom, like a +production of the nineteenth century. In the course of it there occur +some verses, put into the mouth of Anarchus, which are well worth +resuscitating. These verses, to which I have supplied a title as +above, are, in a sufficiently exact transcription, as follows: + + Know, then, my brethren, heav'n is cleare, + And all the Clouds are gone; + The Righteous now shall flourish, and + Good dais are coming on. + Come, then, my Brethren, and be glad, + And eke rejoyce with me: + Lawn Sleeves and Rochets shall goe down: + And, hey! then up goe we. + + Wee'l break the windows which the Whore + Of Babylon hath painted; + And, when the Popish Saints are down, + Then Barow shall be Sainted. + There's neither Crosse nor Crucifixe + Shall stand for man to see: + Romes trash and trump'ries shall goe downe; + And, hey! then up goe we. + + What ere [sic] the Popish hands have built, + Our Hammers shall undoe; + Wee'l breake their Pipes, and burn their Copes, + And pull downe Churches, too: + Wee'l exercise within the Groves, + And teach beneath a Tree; + Wee'l make a Pulpit of a Cart; + And, hey! then up goe we. + + Wee'l down with all the Varsities, + Where Learning is profest, + Because they practise and maintain + The language of the Beast: + Wee'l drive the Doctors out of doores, + And Arts, what ere [sic] they be; + Wee'l cry both Arts and Learning down; + And, hey! then up goe we. + + Wee'l down with Deans and Prebends, too; + But I rejoyce to tell ye + How then we will eat Pig our fill, + And Capon by the belly: + Wee'l burn the Fathers witty Tomes, + And make the Schoolmen flee; + Wee'l down with all that smels of wit; + And, hey! then up goe we. + + If once that Antichristian crew + Be crusht and overthrown, + Wee'l teach the Nobles how to crouch, + And keep the Gentry down: + Good manners have an evil report, + And turn to pride we see: + Wee'l, therefore, cry good manners down; + And, hey! then up goe we. + + The name of Lord shall be abhor'd; + For every man's a brother: + No reason why, in Church or State, + One man should rule another. + But, when the change of Government + Shall set our fingers free, + Wee'l make the wanton Sisters stoop: + And, hey! then up goe we. + + Our Coblers shall translate their soules + From Caves obscure and shady; + Wee' make Tom T---- as good as my Lord, + And Joan as good as my Lady. + Wee'l crush and fling the marriage Ring + Into the Romane See; + Wee'l ask no bans, but even clap hands; + And, hey! then up goe we. + + +By "Barow," named in the second stanza, is intended, no doubt, Henry +Barrow, the Nonconformist enthusiast who was executed at Tyburn in +1592. A follower of Robert Browne, founder of the Brownists, whence +sprang the sect of Independents, he brought upon himself, by his zeal +and imprudence, a vengeance which his wary leader contrived to evade. +Browne himself is alluded to punningly in _The Shepheards Oracles_, +where Philorthus, at sight of Anarchus approaching, asks whether he is +"in a Browne study." Anarchus replies: + + "Man, if thou be'st a Babe of Grace, + And of an holy Seed, + I will reply incontinent, + And in my words proceed; + But, if thou art a child of wrath, + And lewd in conversation, + I will not, then, converse with thee, + Nor hold communication." + +Philorthus rejoins, referring by his "we all three" to Philarchus, +with whom he had just been conversing: + + "I trust, Anarchus, we all three inherit + The selfe same gifts, and share the selfe same Spirit." + +Then follow the stanzas which I have first quoted. There is certainly +ground to surmise that Lord Macaulay had in mind what I have called +"The Lay of the Leveler" when in 1820 he wrote "A Radical War-song." +In support of this opinion, I subjoin, for comparison, its last stanza +but one: + + Down with your sheriffs and your mayors, + Your registrars and proctors! + We'll live without the lawyer's cares, + And die without the doctor's. + No discontented fair shall pout + To see her spouse so stupid: + We'll tread the torch of Hymen out, + And live content with Cupid. + +F.H. + + * * * * * + +THE PHILOSOPHER STRAUSS AS A POET. + + +The writer of a sketch in a late number of a Leipsic journal presents +the famous author of the _Life of Jesus_, David Friederich Strauss, in +a new character. He mentions, first, that in the _Unterhaltungen am +häuslichen Heerde_ ("Conversations around the Homehearth"), published +by Strauss in 1856, the latter makes, in the introduction, the +following graceful reference to the deceased friend of his youth, E.F. +Kauffmann: "If I were a philosophical emperor and wrote +self-confessions, I would thank the gods for giving me, among other +blessings, a poet and musician for an early friend. He is dead now, +alas! the noble man whom alone I have to thank that my ear, though +still unskillful, has been opened to the world of harmony. He was not +a professional musician, but he had a thoroughly musical nature. The +laws of composition he had studied theoretically, and he followed them +practically. His position, in reality, was that of a professor of +mathematics. But music was his secret love. He not only knew the great +masters, but he lived in them. He thought little of playing on the +piano the whole of one of Mozart's operas, note for note, without any +written music before him. I have often seen him do this. How much I +have owed to those hours! How he could draw his hearers into the right +mood! How he could illuminate the groping mind with the lightning +flash of thought!" + +To this friend Strauss sent from Munich in 1851 ten sonnets. They were +accompanied by a versified dedication to Kauffmann himself, and they +constitute his claim to be considered a poet as well as a philosophic +theologian. The sonnets are all on musical subjects, and may be taken +as the natural outgrowth of that cultivation of his musical taste +which he owed to his intimate association with Professor Kauffmann. +The metrical dedication and the first five sonnets are given in the +sketch before referred to. The writer of that article looks upon the +tendency, thus displayed by Strauss, to "drop into poetry," as Mr. +Wegg was accustomed to say, as another strong proof of the +affinity--elsewhere noticed--between the genius of Strauss and that of +Gotthold Ephraim Lessing; who, it will be remembered, sometimes +diverted himself with the composition of light poetical pieces, such +as his famous song, beginning "Gestern, Brüder, könnt ihr's glauben?" + +The first sonnet is on Händel, the second on Glück, the third on +Haydn, the fourth on _Don Juan_, and the fifth on _Figaro_. + +The following attempt at a translation of the fourth sonnet may serve +to give some idea of how far the world-renowned philosopher and +skeptic has succeeded in his effort to assume the anomalous _rôle_ of +a sonneteer: + +DON JUAN. + + How joyously life's fountains here are flowing! + In crystal cups the purple flood is foaming; + Through dusky myrtle-groves are lovers roaming, + The dance begins in halls all bright and glowing. + Be watchful, though! Here treachery is hiding. + Wild passion naught for truth or ruth is caring: + As hawks do doves, mild innocence 'tis tearing, + And human vengeance lightly is deriding. + But now, once more alive, the slain appear! + They speak, with awful voice, the words of doom: + Death his cold hand is silently extending. + Now sinks the daring mood in ghastly fear. + The golden dream of life dissolves in gloom; + The silent grave brings on the bright joy's ending. + +It is very hard, if not impossible, to render into any other language +the true spirit of a German poem. But in the original this sonnet is +far above mediocrity. It idealizes the opera of _Don Juan_ very +artistically, and displays a combination of force with harmony and +grace which gives the impression, in connection with the other +sonnets, that if Strauss had devoted his mental energy to poetry +alone, he would not have taken a low rank among the poets of Germany. + +W.W.C. + + + + +LITERATURE OF THE DAY. + + + The Life of Thomas Fuller, D.D., with Notices of his Books, + his Kinsmen and his Friends. By John Eglinton Bailey. London: + Pickering. + +By no means to the credit of the nineteenth century, it is hardly +prudent, as yet, to speak to the general public about Thomas Fuller +without formally introducing him. Coleridge and Southey and Lamb were, +to be sure, familiar with his writings, and prized them extremely. But +they did the same by the writings of many another old worthy now +undeservedly slighted; and, for all their eulogies on him, the great +bulk of readers were still content to continue in ignorance of the +treasures he has bequeathed to us. The neglect of him which at present +prevails is, however, in large measure, a delinquency of long +standing. His chief work is undoubtedly his _Church History_; and +Heylin's elaborate impugnment of its accuracy appears to have had +great weight, as with Fuller's contemporaries, so with the generation +which immediately followed, and onward almost to our own time. To +Heylin succeeded Bishop Nicolson in exerting himself to discredit that +valuable work, and it is only within a few years that its character +has been substantially rehabilitated. Together with the reputation of +Fuller as an historian, his reputation in other respects for a long +while underwent eclipse; for, as it is reviving again, we may not say +that it passed away. His matter quite apart--and it is always +interesting--and abstractedly from his pervasive pleasantry, which is +always original, it is a wonder that he is not more esteemed than he +is in an age which professes to set store by style. Mr. John Nichols, +an editor of his _Worthies_, timidly hazarded the observation that, as +against the strictures of Bishop Nicolson, there might be much said in +"vindication of the language of Dr. Fuller"--a comment which excited +Coleridge to a high pitch of exasperation. "Fuller's language!" he +ejaculates. "Grant me patience, Heaven! A tithe of his beauties would +be sold cheap for a whole library of our classical writers, from +Addison to Johnson and Junius inclusive. And Bishop Nicolson!--a +painstaking old charwoman of the Antiquarian and Rubbish Concern! The +venerable rust and dust of the whole firm are not worth an ounce of +Fuller's earth." + +Of Fuller's ancestry nothing is known, on the paternal side, beyond +his father, a college-bred clergyman, who died in 1632. His mother was +a Davenant, of an ancient and respectable family. Fuller was born in +June, 1608, at Aldwinkle, in Northamptonshire, at his father's +rectory. When only about twelve years of age he was entered at Queen's +College, Cambridge, his progress in his studies having been such as to +authorize this unusually early transfer from school to the university. +In 1628 he exchanged Queen's College for Sydney-Sussex College, and in +the following year he was presented by the master and fellows of +Corpus Christi College to the curacy of St. Benet's, Cambridge. +Within a twelvemonth after--namely, in 1631--HE made his first +appearance as an author. His _Davia's Heinous Sin, Hearty Repentance, +Heavy Punishment_, which came out in that year, was his sole adventure +of noteworthy compass as a versifier; and he certainly testified his +discretion in choosing thenceforward to be satisfied with writing +prose. A valuable prebend attached to the Salisbury Cathedral was +bestowed on him at this time, near about which he is supposed to have +delivered, in discourses, his so-called _Comment on Ruth_. Next we +hear of him as rector of Broadwindsor, where, probably, he composed +his _History of the Holy War_, published in 1639. His _Holy State_ was +given to the world in 1642. Having just before this removed to London +under circumstances which are involved in some obscurity, he was there +appointed lecturer to the Inns of Court and to the Savoy Chapel. But +trouble awaited him, as it then awaited all other loyalists whom it +had not overtaken already, and 1643 found him a refugee at Oxford. +There he was warmly welcomed by the king and his adherents, but on his +imprudently daring to urge lenient counsels, his moderation gave as +much dissatisfaction to the court party as it had previously given to +the Parliamentarians, and he fell into temporary disgrace. +Nevertheless, he suffered, at the hands of the anti-royalists, the +same spoliation which would have been visited on a malignant of the +extremest stamp. To fill up the measure of his misfortune--as if it +were not enough that he should be deprived of his stated means of +livelihood--he was despoiled of his library. For a while, also, his +loyalty was held, though without the slightest grounds, in +considerable suspicion. On coming to be better known, however, he was +restored to favor, and was enrolled among the royal chaplains. If the +doubts as to the sincerity of his adhesion to Charles were ever +actually thought to have good foundation, they must have been +dissipated by his voluntarily exposing himself to danger, as he did at +one of the sieges of Basing House. Like Isaac Barrow, he would at need +have done duty militant just as effectually with carnal weapons as +with spiritual. No longer required at Basing House, he repaired to +Oxford again, and then to Exeter, where he was nominated chaplain to +the princess Henrietta Anne. But he held his new post for only a short +period. Leaving Exeter, he once more sought Oxford, and thence went to +London. Forbidden to preach there, he retired to Northamptonshire, and +then reappeared at the metropolis, where he was sojourning in the +memorable year 1649. Becoming in that year curate of Waltham Abbey, he +enjoyed an interval of quietude while all around him was turbulence. +Yet he was soon in London afresh, lecturer at various churches from +1651 till near the end of his life. In 1658 he was appointed rector of +St. Dunstan's, Cranford, but we read of him as subsequently journeying +to The Hague and to Salisbury, and as preaching at the Savoy Chapel. +It must have solaced his latter days to reflect that he had survived +to welcome the Restoration. He died, from what is reasonably surmised +to have been typhus fever, on the 16th of August, 1661, and lies +buried in the chancel of the church to which he last ministered, at +Cranford, Surrey. + +Considering the unsettled and wandering life which Fuller led for many +years, it may seem almost a marvel that in those very years he should +have accomplished such laborious--nay, all but gigantic--enterprises +as are to be referred to them; for it was then that he composed his +voluminous _Pisgah-sight of Palestine, Church History_ and _Worthies_, +not to speak of many minor writings. But the secret of his +prolificness amidst surroundings which would have paralyzed most men +into stark sterility admits of ready elucidation. Besides being +endowed with great physical vigor and enjoying uninterrupted health. +Fuller never wasted a moment, was an unweariable student at odd hours, +and moreover supplemented the advantage of a matchless memory by the +strictest observance of method. Taken for all in all, he was without +question one of the most remarkable of Englishmen--not of his own age +merely, but of all bygone ages. "Next to Shakespeare," says Coleridge, +"I am not certain whether Thomas Fuller, beyond all other writers, +does not excite in me the sense and emotion of the marvelous.... +Fuller was incomparably the most sensible, the least prejudiced, great +man of an age that boasted a galaxy of great men." Others among his +countrymen have been more learned, and others have surpassed him in +this or that special faculty, but the whole that we have in him it +would be hard to find a parallel to. Culeridge emphasizes the equity +of his judgment; and this point is one regarding which there can be no +diversity of opinion. As to his wit, granting that its quality may +here and there be somewhat inferior, still, it has probably never been +surpassed in quantity by any one man. It has the laudable character, +too, of being nearly always impersonal, and while it amuses it almost +in equal measure instructs. Had Fuller, with his mental agility and +his mastery of incisive diction, been poisoned with the bile of Swift, +it is terrible to think what a repertory of biting sarcasms and +envenomed repartees he might have transmitted for the study and +imitation of cynics and sneerers. Bitterer enemies no man ever had to +contend against; and unenviable indeed must have been their +disappointment at finding themselves wholly impotent to discompose his +sage and large-hearted serenity. So impressive, withal, is his spirit +of toleration and benevolence that a diligent reader of his pages is, +as it were, perforce imbued by it. Indeed, we know of few writers whom +we can point to with more confidence as calculated, in antidote to the +fret and chafe inseparable from existence in our day, to induce a tone +of repose and resignation in ourselves, and a disposition to take +charity as our watchword in our dealings with others. + +From Fuller we pass to Fuller's new biographer, the only biographer he +has hitherto had that at all deserves the appellation. A completer +life-history than that which Mr. Bailey has produced is of rare +occurrence in English literature. There was no motive for his keeping +back anything that is known of Fuller; and he has really enabled us to +form wellnigh as distinct an idea of the portly and cheery old divine +as if we had known him in the flesh. Faithful to rigid justice while +reproducing the warmly eulogistic judgments which have been passed on +Fuller, especially in this century, he has given us a circumstantial +account of the censures which were denounced on him by microscopic and +malevolent criticasters and Dryasdusts among his contemporaries. Some +of the censures referred to were grounded on the multitudinous +dedications in which Fuller indulged; and, in truth, it strikes one as +rather singular to find, as in his _Church History_, not only every +book, but every section of a book, prefaced by a long string of +compliments addressed to a separate dedicatee. But these dedications +meant money, and Fuller was poor. Furthermore, if in his necessity he +flattered, his flattery was, for the most part, of a kind not +irreconcilable with due self-respect on the part of the flatterer. It +is a very different thing from the nauseous adulation to which +Dryden--to name but one out of numerous kindred offenders--consented +to abase himself. As auxiliary to a full understanding of Fuller in +his social relations, his dedications are now of prime value. Though +many of them are inscribed to persons else quite unknown to fame, with +a good number of them it is otherwise; and they serve, by the +information which they embody, to show that Fuller was on terms of +familiar intimacy with a whole host of notabilities in Church and +State. Of these personages, and so of many others with whom Fuller +associated, Mr. Bailey, heedful of the adage _noscitur a sociis_, has +compiled very satisfactory sketches, derived in all cases from the +most trustworthy authorities. In addition to a Life of Fuller, he has +thus gone far to give us a sort of biographical dictionary of the +leading men, political and ecclesiastical, who rallied round the +unfortunate First Charles, and who used their most strenuous diligence +to save his desperate cause from shipwreck. + +One who has already made acquaintance with Fuller's writings must feel +animated, under the guidance of the new light now thrown upon them, to +renew that acquaintance; and he to whom the wise and witty old worthy +is as yet a stranger must, unless obdurately insensible, be moved to a +suspicion that he ought to remain a stranger no longer. To Mr. Bailey +we are beholden alike for a biography of the first excellence, and for +a sterling contribution to the history of an era which possesses +undying interest for every Englishman, be he conservative, liberal or +republican; and for every intelligent American as well. We are given +to understand that the author has now in contemplation the publishing +of Fuller's sermons, of which there has never been a collective +edition, and of which several are among the rarest books in our +language. The design is one which challenges the furtherance of every +lover of good literature; and the _Life_, which, in parting, we +emphatically commend to our readers, should avail to secure for it the +encouragement it unquestionably merits. + + * * * * * + + The Greville Memoirs: A Journal of the Reigns of King George + IV. and King William IV. By Charles C.F. Greville. + Bric-à-Brac Series. New York: Scribner, Armstrong & Co. + + + + +Books Received. + +The Bhagavad Gitá. Translated from the Sanskrit by J. Cockburn +Thompson. Chicago: Religio--Philosophical Publishing House. S.S. +Jones. + +A Practical and Critical Grammar of the English Language. By Noble +Butler. Louisville, Ky.: J.P. Morton & Co. + +The Puddleford Papers; or, Humors of the West. By H.H. Riley. Boston: +Lee & Shepard. + +Critical and Historical Essays. Contributed by Lord Macaulay. New +York: Albert Mason. + +For Better or Worse. By Jennie Cunningham Croley. Boston: Lee & +Shepard. + +Three Essays on Religion. By John Stuart Mill. New York: Henry Holt & +Co. + +The Babes in the Wood. By James De Mille. Boston: W.F. Gill & Co. + +School of Singing. By F.W. Root. Chicago: George F. Root & Sons. + +Treasure-Trove. Central Falls, R.I.: E.L. Freeman & Co. + +Our Helen. By Sophie May. Boston; Lee & Shepard. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE OF POPULAR +LITERATURE AND SCIENCE, VOL. 15, NO. 87, MARCH, 1875*** + + +******* This file should be named 13061-8.txt or 13061-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/0/6/13061 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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