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diff --git a/old/13241.txt b/old/13241.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6b418fd --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13241.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3942 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of International Weekly Miscellany, Vol. 1, +No. 5, July 29, 1850, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: International Weekly Miscellany, Vol. 1, No. 5, July 29, 1850 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: August 21, 2004 [EBook #13241] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY *** + + + + +Produced by Cornell University, Joshua Hutchinson, William Flis, and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + +INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY MISCELLANY + +Of Literature, Art, and Science. + + * * * * * + +Vol. I. NEW YORK, JULY 29, 1850. No. 5. + + * * * * * + + + + +TEA-SMUGGLING IN RUSSIA. + +The history of smuggling in all countries abounds in curiosities of +which but few ever reach the eye of the public, the parties generally +preferring to keep their adventures to themselves. There often exist, +however, along frontier lines the traditions of thrilling exploits or +amusing tricks, recounted by old smugglers from the recollections +of their own youthful days or the narratives of their predecessors. +Perhaps no frontier is so rich in these tales as that between Spain +and France, where the mountainous recesses of the Pyrenees offer +secure retreats to the half-robber who drives the contraband trade, as +well as safe routes for the transportation of his merchandise. On the +line between the Russian Empire and Germany the trade is greater in +amount than elsewhere, but is devoid of the romantic features which it +possesses in other countries. There, owing to the universal corruption +of the servants of the Russian government, the smuggler and the +custom-house officer are on the best terms with each Other and often +are partners in business. We find in a late number of the _Deutsche +Reform_, a journal of Berlin, an interesting illustration of the +extent and manner in which these frauds on the Russian revenue are +carried on, and translate it for the _International_: + +"The great annual tea-burning has just taken place at Suwalki: +25,000 pounds were destroyed at it. This curious proceeding is thus +explained. Of all contraband articles that on the exclusion of which +the most weight is laid, is the tea which is brought in from Prussia. +In no country is the consumption of tea so great as in Poland and +Russia. That smuggled in from Prussia, being imported from China by +ship, can be sold ten times cheaper than the so-called caravan-tea, +which is brought directly overland by Russian merchants. This overland +trade is one of the chief branches of Russian commerce, and suffers +serious injury from the introduction of the smuggled article. +Accordingly the government pays in cash, the extraordinary premium of +fifty cents per pound for all that is seized, a reward which is the +more attractive to the officers on the frontiers for the reason that +it is paid down and without any discount. Formerly the confiscated +tea was sold at public auction on the condition that the buyer should +carry it over the frontier; Russian officers were appointed to take +charge of it and deliver it in some Prussian frontier town in order +to be sure of its being carried out of the country. The consequence +was that the tea was regularly carried back again into Poland the +following night, most frequently by the Russian officers themselves. +In order to apply a radical cure to this evil, destruction by fire was +decreed as the fate of all tea that should be seized thereafter. Thus +it is that from 20,000 to 40,000 pounds are yearly destroyed in the +chief city of the province. About this the official story is, that it +is tea smuggled from Prussia, while the truth is that it is usually +nothing but brown paper or damaged tea that is consumed by the fire. +In the first place the Russian officials are too rational to burn +up good tea, when by chance a real confiscation of that article has +taken place; in such a case the gentlemen take the tea, and put upon +the burning pile an equal weight of brown paper or rags done up to +resemble genuine packages. In the second place, it is mostly damaged +or useless tea that is seized. The premium for seizures being so +high, the custom-house officers themselves cause Polish Jews to buy +up quantities of worthless stuff and bring it over the lines for the +express purpose of being seized. The time and place for smuggling it +are agreed upon. The officer lies in wait with a third person whom he +takes with him. The Jew comes with the goods, is hailed by the officer +and takes to flight. The officer pursues the fugitive, but cannot +reach him, and fires his musket after him. Hereupon the Jew drops +the package which the officer takes and carries to the office, where +he gets his reward. The witness whom he has with him--by accident of +course--testifies to the zeal of his exertions, fruitless though they +were, for the seizure of the unknown smuggler. The smuggler afterward +receives from the officer the stipulated portion of the reward. This +trick is constantly practiced along the frontier, and to meet the +demand the Prussian dealers keep stocks of good-for-nothing tea, which +they sell generally at five silver groschen (12-1/2 cents) a pound." + + * * * * * + +MORE OF LEIGH HUNT.[1] + +Although a large portion, perhaps more than half, of these volumes has +been given to the world in previous publications, yet the work carries +this recommendation with it, that it presents in an accessible and +consecutive form a great deal of that felicitous portrait-painting, +hit off in a few words, that pleasant anecdote, and cheerful wisdom, +which lie scattered about in books not now readily to be met with, and +which will be new and acceptable to the reading generation which has +sprung up within the last half-score years. Mr. Hunt almost disarms +criticism by the candid avowal that this performance was commenced +under circumstances which committed him to its execution, and he tells +us that it would have been abandoned at almost every step, had these +circumstances allowed. We are not sorry that circumstances did not +allow of its being abandoned, for the autobiography, altogether apart +from its stores of pleasant readable matter, is pervaded throughout by +a beautiful tone of charity and reconcilement which does honor to the +writer's heart, and proves that the discipline of life has exercised +on him its most chastening and benign influence:-- + + For he has learned + To look on Nature, not as in the hour + Of thoughtless youth, but hearing oftentimes + The still, sad, music of Humanity, + Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power + To chasten and subdue. + +The reader will find numerous striking exemplifications of this spirit +as he goes along with our author. From the serene heights of old age, +"the gray-haired boy whose heart can never grow old," ever and anon +regrets and rebukes some egotism or assumption, or petty irritation +of bygone years, and confesses that he can now cheerfully accept +the fortunes, good and bad, which have occurred to him, "with the +disposition to believe them the best that could have happened, whether +for the correction of what was wrong in him, or the improvement of +what was right." + +The concluding chapters contain a brief account of Mr. Hunt's +occupations during the last twenty-five years; his residence +successively at Highgate, Hampstead, Chelsea, and Kensington, and of +his literary labors while living at these places. Many interesting +topics are touched upon--among which we point to his remarks on the +difficulties experienced by him in meeting the literary requirements +of the day, and the peculiar demands of editors; his opinion of Mr. +Carlyle; the present condition of the stage, the absurd pretensions of +actors, and the delusions attempted respecting the "legitimate" drama; +the question of the laureateship, and his own qualifications for +holding that office; his habits of reading; and finally an avowal of +his religious opinions. We miss some account of Mr. Hazlitt. Surely +we had a better right to expect at the hands of Hunt a sketch of that +remarkable writer, than of Coleridge, of whom he saw comparatively +little. We also expected to find some allusion to the "Round Table," a +series of essays which appeared in the _Examiner_, about 1815, written +chiefly by Hazlitt, but amongst which are about a dozen by Hunt +himself, some of them perhaps the best things he has written: we need +only allude to "A Day by the Fire," a paper eminently characteristic +of the author, and we doubt not fully appreciated by those who know +his writings. Hunt regrets having re-cast the "Story of Rimini," and +tells us that a new edition of the poem is meditated, in which, while +retaining the improvement in the versification, he proposes to restore +the narrative to its first course. + +We take leave of the work, with a few more characteristic passages. + + * * * * * + +A GLIMPSE OF PITT AND FOX.--Some years later, I saw Mr. Pitt in a +blue coat, buckskin breeches and boots, and a round hat, with powder +and pigtail. He was thin and gaunt, with his hat off his forehead, +and his nose in the air. Much about the same time I saw his friend, +the first Lord Liverpool, a respectable looking old gentleman, in a +brown wig. Later still, I saw Mr. Fox, fat and jovial, though he was +then declining. He, who had been a "bean" in his youth, then looked +something quaker-like as to dress, with plain colored clothes, a +broad round hat, white waistcoat, and, if I am not mistaken, white +stockings. He was standing in Parliament street, just where the street +commences as you leave Whitehall; and was making two young gentlemen +laugh heartily at something which he seemed to be relating. + + * * * * * + +COOKE'S EDITION OF THE BRITISH POETS.--In those times, Cooke's edition +of the British Poets came up. I had got an odd volume of Spenser; and +I fell passionately in love with Collins and Gray. How I loved those +little sixpenny numbers, containing whole poets! I doated on their +size; I doated on their type, on their ornaments, on their wrappers +containing lists of other poets, and on the engraving from Kirk. I +bought them over and over again, and used to get up select sets, which +disappeared like buttered crumpets; for I could resist neither giving +them away nor possessing them. When the master tormented me, when +I used to hate and loathe the sight of Homer, and Demosthenes, and +Cicero, I would comfort myself with thinking of the sixpence in my +pocket, with which I should go out to Paternoster Row, when school +was over, and buy another number of an English poet. + + * * * * * + +CHILDREN'S BOOKS: "SANDFORD AND MERTON."--The children's books +in those days were Hogarth's pictures taken in their most literal +acceptation. Every good boy was to ride in his coach, and be a lord +mayor; and every bad boy was to be hung, or eaten by lions. The +gingerbread was gilt, and the books were gilt like the gingerbread: +a "take in" the more gross, inasmuch as nothing could be plainer +or less dazzling than the books of the same boys when they grew a +little older. There was a lingering old ballad or so in favor of the +gallanter apprentices who tore out lions' hearts and astonished gazing +sultans; and in antiquarian corners, Percy's "Reliques" were preparing +a nobler age, both in poetry and prose. But the first counteraction +came, as it ought, in the shape of a new book for children. The pool +of mercenary and time-serving ethics was first blown over by the fresh +country breeze of Mr. Day's "Sandford and Merton," a production that +I well remember, and shall ever be grateful for. It came in aid of my +mother's perplexities, between delicacy and hardihood, between courage +and conscientiousness. It assisted the cheerfulness I inherited from +my father; showed me that circumstances were not to check a healthy +gaiety, or the most masculine self-respect; and helped to supply me +with the resolution of standing by a principle, not merely as a point +of lowly or lofty sacrifice, but as a matter of common sense and duty, +and a simple cooeperation with the elements natural warfare. + + * * * * * + +CHRIST'S HOSPITAL.--Perhaps there is not foundation in the country +so truly English, taking that word to mean what Englishmen wish it to +mean:--something solid, unpretending, of good character, and free to +all. More boys are to be found in it, who issue from a greater variety +of ranks, than in any other school in the kingdom and as it is the +most various, so it is the largest, of all the free schools. Nobility +do not go there except as boarders. Now and then a boy of a noble +family may be met with, and he is reckoned an interloper, and against +the charter; but the sons of poor gentry and London citizens abound; +and with them, an equal share is given to the sons of tradesmen of the +very humblest description, not omitting servants. I would not take +my oath, but I have a strong recollection that in my time there were +two boys, one of whom went up into the drawing-room to his father, +the master of the house; and the other, down into the kitchen to his +father, the coachman. One thing, however, I know to be certain, and it +is the noblest of all; namely, that the boys themselves (at least it +was so in my time) had no sort of feeling of the difference of one +another's ranks out of doors. The cleverest boy was the noblest, let +his father be who he might. + + * * * * * + +AN INTENSE YOUTHFUL FRIENDSHIP.--If I had reaped no other benefit +from Christ Hospital, the school would be ever dear to me from the +recollection of the friendships I formed in it, and of the first +heavenly taste it gave me of that most spiritual of the affections. +I use the word "heavenly" advisedly; and I call friendship the most +spiritual of the affections, because even one's kindred, in partaking +of our flesh and blood, become, in a manner, mixed up with our +entire being. Not that I would disparage any other form of affection, +worshiping, as I do, all forms of it, love in particular, which, in +its highest state, is friendship and something more. But if ever I +tasted a disembodied transport on earth, it was in those friendships +which I entertained at school, before I dreamt of any maturer feeling. +I shall never forget the impression it first made on me. I loved my +friend for his gentleness, his candor, his truth, his good repute, +his freedom even from my own livelier manner, his calm and reasonable +kindness. It was not any particular talent that attracted me to him +or anything striking whatsoever. I should say in one word, it was +his goodness. I doubt whether he ever had a conception of a tithe of +the regard and respect I entertained for him; and I smile to think +of the perplexity (though he never showed it) which he probably felt +sometimes at my enthusiastic expressions; for I thought him a kind of +angel. It is no exaggeration to say, that, take away the unspiritual +part of it--the genius and the knowledge--and there is no height of +conceit indulged in by the most romantic character in Shakspeare, +which surpassed what I felt toward the merits I ascribed to him, and +the delight which I took in his society. With the other boys I played +antics, and rioted in fantastic jests; but in his society, or whenever +I thought of him, I fell into a kind of Sabbath state of bliss; and I +am sure I could have died for him. + + * * * * * + +ANECDOTE OF MATHEWS.--One morning, after stopping all night at this +pleasant house, I was getting up to breakfast, when I heard the noise +of a little boy having his face washed. Our host was a merry bachelor, +and to the rosiness of a priest might, for aught I knew, have added +the paternity; but I had never heard of it, and still less expected +to find a child in his house. More obvious and obstreperous proofs, +however, of the existence of a boy with a dirty face, could not have +been met with. You heard the child crying and objecting; then the +woman remonstrating; then the cries of the child snubbed and swallowed +up in the hard towel; and at intervals out came his voice bubbling +and deploring, and was again swallowed up. At breakfast, the child +being pitied, I ventured to speak about it, and was laughing and +sympathizing in perfect good faith, when Mathews came in, and I found +that the little urchin was he. + + * * * * * + +SHELLEY'S GENEROSITY.--As an instance of Shelley's extraordinary +generosity, a friend of his, a man of letters, enjoyed from him +at that period a pension of a hundred a year, though he had but +a thousand of his own; and he continued to enjoy it till fortune +rendered it superfluous. But the princeliness of his disposition +was seen most in his behavior to another friend, the writer of this +memoir, who is proud to relate that, with money raised with an +effort, Shelley once made him a present of fourteen hundred pounds, +to extricate him from debt. I was not extricated, for I had not yet +learned to be careful; but the shame of not being so, after such +generosity, and the pain which my friend afterward underwent when +I was in trouble and he was helpless, were the first causes of my +thinking of money matters to any purpose. His last sixpence was ever +at my service, had I chosen to share it. In a poetical epistle +written some years after, and published in the volume of "Posthumous +Poems," Shelley, in alluding to his friend's circumstances, which +for the second time were then straitened, only made an affectionate +lamentation that he himself was poor; never once hinting that he had +himself drained his purse for his friend. + + * * * * * + +MRS. JORDAN.--Mrs. Jordan was inimitable in exemplifying the +consequences of too much restraint in ill-educated country girls, in +romps, in hoydens, and in wards on whom the mercenary have designs. +She wore a bib and tucker, and pinafore, with a bouncing propriety, +fit to make the boldest spectator alarmed at the idea of bringing +such a household responsibility on his shoulders. To see her when +thus attired, shed blubbering tears for some disappointment, and eat +all the while a great thick slice of bread and butter, weeping, and +moaning, and munching, and eyeing at very bite the part she meant +to bite next, was a lesson against will and appetite worth a hundred +sermons, and no one could produce such an impression in favor of +amiableness as she did, when she acted in gentle, generous, and +confiding character. The way in which she would take a friend by +the cheek and kiss her, or make up a quarrel with a lover, or coax a +guardian into good humor, or sing (without accompaniment) the song +of, "Since then I'm doom'd," or "In the dead of the night," trusting, +as she had a right to do, and as the house wished her to do, to the +sole effect of her sweet, mellow, and loving voice--the reader will +pardon me, but tears of pleasure and regret come into my eyes at +the recollection, as if she personified whatsoever was happy at that +period of life, and which has gone like herself. The very sound of the +familiar word 'bud' from her lips (the abbreviation of husband,) as +she packed it closer, as it were, in the utterance, and pouted it up +with fondness in the man's face, taking him at the same time by the +chin, was a whole concentrated world of the power of loving. + + * * * * * + +RESIDENCE AT CHELSEA.--REMOTENESS IN NEARNESS.--From the noise and +dust of the New Road, my family removed to a corner in Chelsea where +the air of the neighboring river was so refreshing, and the quiet of +the "no-thoroughfare" so full of repose, that, although our fortunes +were at their worst, and my health almost of a piece with them, I +felt for some weeks as if I could sit still for ever, embalmed in +the silence. I got to like the very cries in the street for making +me the more aware of it for the contrast. I fancied they were unlike +the cries in other quarters of the suburbs, and that they retained +something of the old quaintness and melodiousness which procured them +the reputation of having been composed by Purcell and others. Nor +is this unlikely, when it is considered how fond those masters were +of sporting with their art, and setting the most trivial words to +music in their glees and catches. The primitive cries of cowslips, +primroses, and hot cross buns, seemed never to have quitted this +sequestered region. They were like daisies in a bit of surviving +field. There was an old seller of fish in particular, whose cry of +"Shrimps as large as prawns," was such a regular, long-drawn, and +truly pleasing melody, that in spite of his hoarse, and I am afraid, +drunken voice, I used to wish for it of an evening, and hail it +when it came. It lasted for some years, then faded, and went out; +I suppose, with the poor old weather-beaten fellow's existence. +This sense of quiet and repose may have been increased by an early +association of Chelsea with something out of the pale; nay, remote. +It may seem strange to hear a man who has crossed the Alps talk of +one suburb as being remote from another. But the sense of distance is +not in space only; it is in difference and discontinuance. A little +back-room in a street in London is further removed from the noise, +than a front room in a country town. In childhood, the farthest local +point which I reached anywhere, provided it was quiet, always seemed +to me a sort of end of the world; and I remembered particularly +feeling this, the only time when I had previously visited Chelsea, +which was at that period of life.... I know not whether the corner I +speak of remains as quiet as it was. I am afraid not; for steamboats +have carried vicissitude into Chelsea, and Belgravia threatens it with +her mighty advent. But to complete my sense of repose and distance, +the house was of that old-fashioned sort which I have always loved +best, familiar to the eyes of my parents, and associated with +childhood. It had seats in the windows, a small third room on the +first floor, of which I made a _sanctum_, into which no perturbation +was to enter, except to calm itself with religious and cheerful +thoughts (a room thus appropriated in a house appears to me an +excellent thing;) and there were a few lime-trees in front, which in +their due season diffused a fragrance. + +[Footnote 1: The Autobiography of Leigh Hunt. Two volumes. Harper & +Brothers. 1850.] + + * * * * * + +LAMARTINE'S NEW ROMANCE. + +The great poet of affairs, philosophy, and sentiment, before leaving +the scenes of his triumphs and misfortunes for his present visit +to the East, confided to the proprietors of _Le Constitutionel_ +a new chapter of his romanticized memoirs to be published in the +_feuilleton_ of that journal, under the name of "Genevieve." This +work, which promises to surpass in attractive interest anything +Lamartine has given to the public in many years, will be translated as +rapidly as the advanced sheets of it are received here, by Mr. Fayette +Robinson, whose thorough apprehension and enjoyment of the nicest +delicacies of the French language, and free and manly style of +English, qualify him to do the fullest justice to such an author +and subject. His version of "Genevieve" will be issued, upon its +completion, by the publishers of _The International_. We give a +specimen of its quality in the following characteristic description, +of Marseilles, premising that the work is dedicated to "Mlle. +Reine-Garde, seamstress, and formerly a servant, at Aix, in Provence." + +"Before I commence with the history of Genevieve, this series of +stories and dialogues used by country people, it is necessary to +define the spirit which animated their composition and to tell why +they were written. I must also tell why I dedicate this first story to +Mlle. Reine-Garde, seamstress and servant at Aix in Provence. This is +the reason. + +"I had passed a portion of the summer of 1846 at that Smyrna of +France, called Marseilles, that city, the commercial activity of which +has become the chief _ladder_ of national enterprise, and the general +rendezvous, of those steam caravans of the West, our railroads; a city +the Attic taste of which justifies it in assuming to itself all the +intellectual cultivation, like the Asiatic Smyrna, inherent in the +memory of great poets. I lived outside of the city, the heat of which +was too great for an invalid, in one of those villas formerly called +_bastides_, so contrived as to enable the occupants during the +calmness of a summer evening--and no people in the world love nature +so well--to watch the white sails and look on the motion of the +southern breeze. Never did any other people imbibe more of the spirit +of poetry than does that of Marseilles. So much does climate do for +it. + +"The garden of the little villa in which I dwelt opened by a gateway +to the sandy shore of the sea. Between it and the water was a long +avenue of plane trees, behind the mountain of Notre Dame de la Garde, +and almost touching the little lily-bordered stream which surrounded +the beautiful park and villa of the Borelli. We heard at our windows +every motion of the sea as it tossed on its couch and pillow of sand, +and when the garden gate was opened, the sea foam reached almost +the wall of the house, and seemed to withdraw so gradually as if to +deceive and laugh at any hand which would seek to bedew itself with +its moisture. I thus passed hour after hour seated on a huge stone +beneath a fig-tree, looking on that mingling of light and motion which +we call _the Sea_. From time to time the sail of a fisherman's boat, +or the smoke which hung like drapery above the pipe of a steamer, +rose above the chord of the arc which formed the gulf, and afforded a +relief to the monotony of the horizon. + +"On working days, this vista was almost a desert, but when Sunday +came, it was made lively by groups of sailors, rich and _idle_ +citizens, and whole families of mercantile men who came to bathe or +rest themselves, there enjoying the luxury both of the shade and +of the sea. The mingled murmur of the voices both of men, women and +children, enchanted with sunlight and with repose, united with the +babbling of the waves which seemed to fall on the shore light and +elastic as sheets of steel. Many boats either by sails or oars, were +wafted around the extremity of Cape Notre-Dame de la Garde, with its +heavy grove of shadowy pines; as they crossed the gulf, they touched +the very margin of the water, to be able to reach the opposite bank. +Even the palpitations of the sail were audible, the cadence of +the oars, conversation, song, the laughter of the merry flower and +orange-girls of Marseilles, those true daughters of the gulf, so +passionately fond of the wave, and devoted to the luxury of wild +sports with their native element were heard. + +"With the exception of the patriarchal family of the Rostand, that +great house of ship-owners, which linked Smyrna, Athens, Syria and +Egypt to France by their various enterprises, and to whom I had been +indebted for all the pleasures of my first voyage to the East; with +the exception of M. Miege, the general agent of all our maritime +diplomacy in the Mediterranean, with the exception of Joseph Autran, +that oriental poet who refuses to quit his native region because +he prefers his natural elements to glory, I knew but few persons at +Marseilles. I wished to make no acquaintances and sought isolation +and leisure, leisure and study. I wrote the history of one revolution, +without a suspicion that the spirit of another convulsion looked over +my shoulder, hurrying me from the half finished page, to participate +not with the pen, but manually, in another of the great Dramas of +France. + +"Marseilles is however hospitable as its sea, its port, and its +climate. A beautiful nature there expands the heart. Where heaven +smiles man also is tempted to be mirthful. Scarcely had I fixed myself +in the faubourg, when the men of letters, of politics,--the merchants +who had proposed great objects to themselves, and who entertained +extended views; the youth, in the ears of whom yet dwelt the echoes +of my old poems; the men who lived by the labor of their own hands, +many of whom however write, study, sing, and make verses, come to my +retreat, bringing with them, however, that delicate reserve which is +the modesty and grace of hospitality. I received pleasure without any +annoyances from this hospitality and attention. I devoted my mornings +to study, my days to solitude and to the sea, my evenings to a small +number of unknown friends, who came from the city to speak to me of +travels, literature, and commerce. + +"Commerce at Marseilles is not a matter of paltry traffic, or trifling +parsimony and retrenchments of capital. Marseilles looks on all +questions of commerce as a dilation and expansion of French capital, +and of the raw material exported and imported from Europe and Asia. +Commerce at Marseilles is a lucrative diplomacy, at the same time, +both local and national. Patriotism animates its enterprises, honor +floats with its flag, and policy presides over every departure. Their +commerce is one eternal battle, waged on the ocean at their own peril +and risk, with those rivals who contend with France for Asia and +Africa, and for the purpose of extending the French name and fame over +the opposite continents which touch on the Mediterranean. + +"One Sunday, after a long excursion on the sea with Madame Lamartine, +we were told that a woman, modest and timid in her deportment, had +come in the diligence from Aix to Marseilles, and for four or five +hours had been waiting for us in a little orange grove next between +the villa and the garden. I suffered my wife to go into the house, and +passed myself into the orange grove to receive the stranger. I had +no acquaintance with any one at Aix, and was utterly ignorant of the +motive which could have induced my visitor to wait so long and so +patiently for me. + +"When I went into the orange grove, I saw a woman still youthful, of +about thirty-six or forty years of age. She wore a working-dress which +betokened little ease and less luxury, a robe of striped _Indienne_, +discolored and faded; a cotton handkerchief on her neck, her black +hair neatly braided, but like her shoes, somewhat soiled by the dust +of the road. Her features were fine and graceful, with that mild +and docile Asiatic expression, which renders any muscular tension +impossible, and gives utterance only to inspiring and attractive +candor. Her mouth was possibly a line too large, and her brow was +unwrinkled as that of a child. The lower part of her face was very +full, and was joined by full undulations, altogether feminine however +in their character, to a throat which was large and somewhat distended +at the middle, like that of the old Greek statues. Her glance had the +expression of the moonlight of her country rather than of its sun. +It was the expression of timidity mingled with confidence in the +indulgence of another, emanating from a forgetfulness of her own +nature. In fine, it was the image of good-feeling, impressed as well +on her air as on her heart, and which seem confident that others are +like her. It was evident that this woman, who was yet so agreeable, +must in her youth have been most attractive. She yet had what the +people (the language of which is so expressive) call the _seed of +beauty_, that _prestige_, that ray, that star, that essence, that +indescribable something, which attracts, charms, and enslaves us. When +she saw me, her embarrassment and blushes enabled me to contemplate +her calmly and to feel myself at once at ease with her. I begged her +to sit down at once on an orange-box over which was thrown a Syrian +mat, and to encourage her sat down in front of her. Her blushes +continued to increase, and she passed her dimpled but rather large +hand more than once over her eyes. She did not know how to begin +nor what to say. I sought to give her confidence, and by one or two +questions assisted her in opening the conversation she seemed both to +wish for and to fear." + +[This girl is Reine-Garde, a peasant woman, attracted by a passionate +love of his poetry to visit Lamartine. She unfolds to him much that is +exquisitely reproduced in Genevieve. The romance bids fair to be one +of the most interesting this author has yet produced.] + +"Madame ----," said I to her. She blushed yet more. + +"I have no husband, Monsieur. I am an unmarried woman." + +"Ah! Mlle, will you be pleased to tell me why you have come so far, +and why you waited so long to speak with me? Can I be useful to you +in any manner? Have you any letter to give me from any one in your +neighborhood?" + +"Ah, Monsieur, I have no letter, I have nothing to ask of you, and the +last thing in the world that I should have done, would have been to +get a letter from any of the gentlemen in my neighborhood to you. I +would not even have suffered them to know that I came to Marseilles +to see you. They would have thought me a vain creature, who sought to +magnify her importance by visiting people who are so famous. Ah, that +would never do!" + +"What then do you wish to say?" + +"Nothing, _Monsieur_." + +"How can that be? You should not _for nothing_ have wasted two days in +coming from Aix to Marseilles, and should not have waited for me here +until sunset, when to-morrow you must return home." + +"It is, however, true, Monsieur. I know you will think me very +foolish, but ... I have nothing to tell you, and not for a fortune +would I consent that people at Aix should know whither I am gone." + +"Something however induced you to come--you are not one of those +triflers who go hither and thither without a motive. I think you are +intellectual and intelligent. Reflect. What induced you to take a +place in the diligence and come to see me? Eh!" + +"Well, sir," said she, passing her hands over her cheeks as if to wipe +away all blushes and embarrassment, and at the same time pushing her +long black curls, moist as they were with perspiration, beyond her +ears, "I had an idea which permitted me neither to sleep by day nor +night; I said to myself, Reine, you must be satisfied. You must say +nothing to any one. You must shut up your shop on Saturday night as +you are in the habit of doing. You must take a place in the night +diligence and go on Sunday to Marseilles. You will go to see that +gentleman, and on Monday morning you can again be at work. All will +then be over and for once in your life you will have been satisfied +without your neighbors having once fancied for a moment that you have +passed the limits of the street in which you live." + +"Why, however, did you wish so much to see me? How did you even know +that I was here?" + +"Thus, Monsieur: a person came to Aix who was very kind to me, for I +am the dressmaker of his daughters, having previously been a servant +in his mother's country-house. The family has always been kind +and attentive, because in Provence, the nobles do not despise the +peasants. Ah! it is far otherwise--some are lofty and others humble, +but their hearts are all alike. _Monsieur_ and the young ladies knew +how I loved to read, and that I am unable to buy books and newspapers. +They sometimes lent books to me, when they saw anything which they +fancied would interest me, such as fashion plates, engravings of +ladies' bonnets, interesting stories, like that of Reboul, the baker +of Nimes, Jasmin, the hairdresser of Agen, or _Monsieur_, the history +of your own life. They know, Monsieur, that above all things I love +poetry, especially that which brings tears into the eyes." + +"Ah, I know," said I with a smile, "you are poetical as the winds +which sigh amid your olive-groves, or the dews which drip from your +fig trees." + +"No, Monsieur, I am only a mantua-maker--a poor seamstress in ... +street, in Aix, the name of which I am almost ashamed to tell you. I +am no finer lady than was my mother. Once I was servant and nurse in +the house of M.... Ah! they were good people and treated me always as +if I belonged to the family. I too thought I did. My health however, +obliged me to leave them and establish myself as a mantua-maker, in +one room, with no companion but a goldfinch. That, however, is not the +question you asked me,--why I have come hither? I will tell you." + + * * * * * + +Truth is altogether ineffably, holily beautiful. Beauty has always +truth in it, but seldom unadulterated. + + * * * * * + +The poet's soul should be like the ocean, able to carry navies, yet +yielding to the touch of a finger. + + * * * * * + +ORIGINAL POETRY + +AZELA. + +BY MISS ALICE CAREY. + + From the pale, broken ruins of the heart, + The soul's bright wing, uplifted silently, + Sweeps thro' the steadfast depths of the mind's heaven, + Like the fixed splendor of the morning star-- + Nearer and nearer to the wasteless flame + That in the centres of the universe + Burns through the o'erlapping centuries of time. + And shall it stagger midway on its path, + And sink its radiance low as the dull dust, + For the death-flutter of a fledgling hope? + Or, with the headlong phrensy of a fiend, + Front the keen arrows of Love's sunken sun, + For that, with nearer vision it discerns + What in the distance like ripe roses seemed + Crimsoning with odorous beauty the gray rocks + Are the red lights of wreckers! + Just as well + The obstinate traveler might in pride oppose + His puny shoulder to the icy slip + Of the blind avalanche, and hope for life; + Or Beauty press her forehead in the grave, + And think to rise as from the bridal bed. + But let the soul resolve its course shall be + Onward and upward, and the walls of pain + May build themselves about it as they will, + Yet leave it all-sufficient to itself. + How like the very truth a lie may seem!-- + Led by that bright curse, Genius, some have gone + On the broad wake of visions wonderful + And seemed, to the dull mortals far below, + Unraveling the web of fate, at will. + And leaning on their own creative power, + As on the confident arm of buoyant Love. + But from the climbing of their wildering way + Many have faltered, fallen,--some have died, + Still wooing from across the lapse of years + The faded splendour of a morning dream, + And feeding sorrow with remembered smiles. + Love, that pale passion-flower of the heart, + Nursed into bloom and beauty by a breath, + With the resplendence of its broken light, + Even on the outposts of mortality, + Dims the still watchfires of the waiting soul. + O, tender-visaged Pity, stoop from heaven, + And from the much-loved bosom of the past + Draw back the nestling hand of Memory, + Though it be quivering and pale with pain; + And with the dead dust of departed Hope + Choke up and wither into barrenness + The sweetest fountain of the human heart, + And stay its channels everlastingly + From the endeavor of the loftier soul. + Nay, 'twere a task outbalancing thy power, + Nor can the almost-omnipotence of mind + Away from aching bind the bleeding heart, + Or keep at will its mighty sorrow down. + And, were the white flames of the world below + Binding my forehead with undying pain, + The lily crowns of heaven I would put back, + If thou wert there, lost light of my young dream!-- + Hope, opening with the faint flowers of the wood, + Bloomed crimson with the summer's heavy kiss, + But autumn's dim feet left it in the dust, + And like tired reapers my lorn thoughts went down + To the gloom-harvest of a hopeless love, + For past all thought I loved thee: Listening close + From the soft hour when twilight's rosy hedge + Sprang from the fires of sunset, till deep night + Swept with her cloud of stars the face of heaven, + For the quick music, from the pavement rung + Where beat the impatient hoof-strokes of the steed, + Whose mane of silver, like a wave of light, + Bathed the caressing hand I pined to clasp! + It is as if a song-lark, towering high + In pride of place, should stoop her sun-bathed wing, + Low as the poor hum of the grasshopper. + I scorn thee not, old man; no haunting ghost + Born of the darkness of thy perjury + Crosses the white tent of my dreaming now + But for myself, that I should so have loved!-- + The sweet folds of that blessed charity, + Pure as the cold veins of Pentelicus, + Were all too narrow now to hide away + One burning spot of shame--the wretched price + Of proving traitor to the wondrous star + That with a cloud of splendor wraps my way. + And yet, from the bright wine-cup of my life, + The rosy vintage, bubbling to the brim, + Thou With a passionate lip didst drain away + And to God's sweet gift--human sympathy-- + Making my bosom dumb as the dark grave, + Didst leave me drifting on the waste of life, + A fruitless pillar of the desert dust; + For, from the ashes of a ruined hope + There springs no life but an unwearied woe + That feeding upon sunken lip and cheek + Pushes its victims from mortality. + Vainly the light rain of the summer time + Waters the dead limbs of the blasted oak. + Love is the worker of all miracles; + And if within some cold and sunless cave + Thou hadst lain lost and dying, prompted not + My feet had struck that pathway, and I could, + With the neglected sunshine of my hair, + Have clasped thee from the hungry jaws of Death, + And on my heart, as on a wave of light + Have lulled thee to the beauty of soft dreams. + Weak, weak imagination! be dissolved + Like a chance snowflake in a sea of fire. + Let the poor-spirited children of Despair + Hang on the sepulchre of buried Hope + The fadeless garlands of undying song. + Though such gift turned on its pearly hinge + Sweet Mercy's gate, I would not so debase me. + Shut out from heaven, I, by the arch-fiend's wing, + As by a star, would move, and radiantly + Go down to sleep in Fame's bright arms the while + Hard by, her handmaids, the still centuries + Lilies and sunshine braided for my brow. + Angel of Darkness, give, O give me hate + For the blind weakness of my passionate love! + And if thou knowest sweet pity, stretch thy wing, + Spotted with sin and seamed with veins of fire, + Between the gate of heaven and my life's prayer. + For loving, thou didst leave me; and, for that + The lowly straw-roof of a peasant's shed + Sheltered my cradle slumbers, and that Morn, + Clasping about my neck her dewy arms, + Drew to the mountains my unfashioned youth, + Where sunbeams built bright arches, and the wind + Winnowed the roses down about my feet + And as their drift of leaves my bosom was, + Till the cursed hour, when pride was pillowed there, + Crimsoned its beauty with the fires of hell. + God hide from me the time when first I knew + Thy shame to call a low-born maiden, Bride! + Methinks I could have lifted my pale hands + Though bandaged back with grave-clothes, in that hour + To cover my hot forehead from thy kiss. + For the heart strengthens when its food is truth, + And o'er the passion-shaken bosom, trail + And burn the lightnings of its love-lit fires + Like a bright banner streaming on the storm. + The day was almost over; on the hills + The parting light was flitting like a ghost, + And like a trembling lover eve's sweet star, + In the dim leafy reach of the thick woods, + Stood gazing in the blue eyes of the night. + But not the beauty of the place nor hour + Moved my wild heart with tempests of such bliss + As shake the bosom of a god, new-winged, + When first in his blue pathway up the skies + He feels the embrace of immortality. + A little moment, and the world was changed-- + Truth, like a planet striking through the dark, + Shone cold and clear, and I was what I am, + Listening along the wilderness of life + For faint echoes of lost melody. + The moonlight gather'd itself back from me + And slanted its pale pinions to the dust. + The drowsy gust, bedded in luscious blooms, + Startled, as 'twere at the death-throes of peace, + Down through the darkness moaningly fled off. + O mournful Past! how thou dost cling and cling-- + Like a forsaken maiden to false hope-- + To the tired bosom of the living hour, + Which, from thy weak embrace, the future time + Jocundly beckons with a roseate hand. + And, round about me honeyed memories drift + From the fair eminences of young hope, + Like flowers blown down the hills of Paradise, + By some soft wave of golden harmony, + Until the glorious smile of summers gone + Lights the dull offing of the sea of Death. + And though no friend nor brother ever made + My soul the burden of one prayer to Heaven, + I dread to go alone into the grave, + And fold my cold arms emptily away + From the bright shadow of such loveliness. + Can the dull mist where swart October hides + His wrinkled front and tawny cheek, wind-shorn, + Be sprinkled with the orange fire that binds + Away from her soft lap o'erbrimmed with flowers, + The dew-wet tresses of the virgin May? + Or can the heart just sunken from the day + Feed on the beauty of the noontide smile?-- + O it is well life's fair things fade so soon, + Else we could never take our clinging hands + From Beauty's nestling bosom--never put + The red wine of love's kisses sternly back, + And feel the dull dust sitting on our lips + Until the very grass grew over us. + O it is well! else for this beautiful life + Our overtempted hearts would sell away + The shining coronals of Paradise. + + In the gray branches of the oaks, starlit, + I hear the heavy murmurs of the winds, + Like the low plains of evil witches, held + By drear enchantments from their demon loves. + Another night-time, and I shall have found + A refuge from their mournful prophecies. + + Come, dear one, from my forehead smooth away + Those long and heavy tresses, still as bright + As when they lay 'neath the caressing hand + That unto death betrayed me. Nay, 'tis well! + I pray you do not weep; or soon or late, + Were this sad doom unsaid, their light had filled + The empty bosom of the waiting grave. + There, now I think I have no further need-- + For unto all at last there comes a time + When no sweet care can do us any good! + Not in my life that I remember of, + Could my neglect have injured any one, + And if I have by my officious love, + Thrown harmful shadows in the way of some, + Be piteous to my natural weakness, friends: + I never shall offend you any more! + + And now, most melancholy messenger, + Touch my eyes gently with Sleep's heavy dew. + I have no wish to struggle from thy arms, + Nor is there any hand would hold me back. + To die, is but the common heritage; + But to unloose the clasp that to the heart + Folds the dear dream of love, is terrible-- + To see the wildering visions fade away, + As the bright petals of the young June rose + Shook by some sudden tempest. On the grave + Light from the open sepulchre is laid, + And Faith leans yearningly away to heaven, + But life hath glooms wherein no light may come! + + The night methinks is dismal, yet I see + Over yon hill one bright and steady star + Divide the darkness with its fiery wedge, + And sprinkle glory on the lap of earth. + Even so, above the still homes of the dead + The benedictions of the living lie. + Gatherers of waifs of beauty are we here, + Building up homes of love for alien hearts + That hate us for our trouble. When we see + The tempest hiding from us the sun's face, + About our naked souls we build a wall + Of unsubstantial shadows, and sit down + Hugging false peace upon the edge of doom. + From the voluptuous lap of time that is, + Like a sick child from a kind nurse's arms, + We lean away, and long for the far off. + And when our feet through weariness and toll + Have gained the heights that showed so brightly well, + Our blind and dizzied vision sees too late + The cool broad shadows trailing at the base. + And then our wasted arms let slip the flowers, + And our pained bosoms wrinkle from the fair + And smooth proportions of our primal years, + And so our sun goes down, and wistful death + Withdraws love's last delusion from our hearts, + And mates us with the darkness. Well, 'tis well! + + * * * * * + +TWO COUNTRY SONNETS. + +I.--THE CONTRAST + + But yester e'en the city's streets I trod + And breathed laboriously the fervid air; + Panting and weary both with toil and care, + I sighed for cooling breeze and verdant sod. + This morn I rose from slumbers calm and deep, + And through the casement of a rural inn, + I saw the river with its margins green, + All placid and delicious as my sleep. + Like pencilled lines upon a tinted sheet + The city's spires rose distant on the sky; + Nor sound familiar to the crowded street + Assailed my ear, nor busy scene mine eye; + I saw the hills, the meadows and the river-- + I heard cool waters plash and green leaves quiver. + +II.--PLEASURE. + + These sights and sounds refreshed me more than wine; + My pulses bounded with a reckless play, + My heart exalted like the rising day. + Now--did my lips exclaim--is pleasure mine; + A sweet delight shall fold me in its thrall; + To day, at least, I'll feel the bliss of life; + Like uncaged bird,--each limb with freedom rife-- + I'll sip a thousand sweets--enjoy them all! + The will thus earnest could not be denied; + I beckoned Pleasure and she gladly came: + O'er hill and vale I roamed at her dear side-- + And made the sweet air vocal with her name: + She all the way of weariness beguiled, + And I was happy as a very child! + +July, 1850. + +T. ADDISON RICHARDS + + * * * * * + +ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. + +RAMBLES IN THE PENINSULA. + +NO III. + +BARCELONA, MAY 27, 1850. + +My dear friend--I have been exceedingly pleased with what I have seen +and experienced during the time I have already spent in this handsome +and agreeable city. At present I have no traveling companion, and have +moreover only encountered one of my countrymen (with the exception of +the consuls) since my departure from Madrid, in January last. Besides, +I seldom hear the United States mentioned, never see any papers, +associate almost altogether with Spaniards, and converse chiefly in +their language. + +The American Consul here (who is by the way a Spaniard) has been very +attentive and kind to me. We have taken several walks together, in +which he has pointed out to me the most notable edifices of Barcelona. +Among these is the magnificent theater called El Siceo, which is one +of the grandest in the world. It is certainly the most splendid of the +kind I have ever seen. It was built by subscription, at an expense of +about half a million of dollars, and is capable of containing nearly +six thousand persons. To my regret it is now closed. There is another +very fine theater here called El Principal, which is open every +evening. Last night I went to see the amusing opera of Don Pasquale, +by Donizetti, which was quite laudably performed. In fact I go most +every night, as I have nothing else to do, and have an excellent seat +at my disposal, with which the consul has been so kind as to favor +me. The appearance and manners of the audience are more interesting +to me than those of the stage-actors. Besides, I like to accustom my +ear to the Spanish, which I now speak with considerable fluency and +correctness. I have devoted much study to this and the French language +since I have been in Spain, and am now making some progress in the +Italian, through the Spanish. I am convinced that no man can properly +understand a people without knowing something of their language, which +is in a great degree the index of their character. Moreover it is an +indispensable condition to comfortable travel. + +Among the distinguished characters in town is the famous Governor +Tacon, who so admirably conducted the affairs of state in the island +of Cuba some years since. He is staying with a particular friend of +the consul, who is an immensely wealthy man and lives in the most +princely style. I visited the house a few days since, before the +arrival of the governor, and was delighted with the splendid taste +displayed in the fresco of the ceiling, the stucco of the walls, +and indeed with every article of furniture with which the rooms +were supplied. On the parterre, or lower roof, was a little gem of a +garden, with raised beds, blooming with beautiful plants and flowers, +while in the middle was a fountain and on each side a miniature arbor +of grapes. Really, nothing could be more charming and luxurious. It +was like peeping into the bygone days of fairydom. + +Barcelona is one of the best places in Spain for one to be during +the observance of remarkable festivals. The celebration of Corpus +Christi, which commences on the 30th, is said to be conducted here on +a most magnificent scale. Of this I can form some conception from the +brilliant procession which I witnessed yesterday afternoon, it being +Trinity Sunday. The procession was preceded by two men on mules, over +whose necks were strung a pair of tambours, (a kind of drum,) upon +which the men were vigorously beating. Then came a priest, bearing +a large and elaborately worked cross; after him came the body of the +procession in regular order, consisting of young priests in white +gowns, chanting as they marched; citizens in black, with white +waistcoats and without hats; little girls representing the angels, in +snowy gauze dresses with flowers, garlands, and a light azure scarf +flowing from their heads; numerous bands of music, some of them +playing solemn airs, others quick-steps and polkas; a fine display of +infantry, and after all a noble body of cavalry, on fine horses, in +striking uniform, each of them carrying a spear-topped banner in their +hands. The general appearance of this procession, (each member of +which, with the exception of the soldiers, carried a lighted candle +or torch in his hand,) marching through one of the superb but narrow +streets, while from almost every balcony was suspended a gay "trede," +(a scarf-like awning,) either of blue, or crimson, or yellow, the +balconies themselves being crowded with clusters of bright-eyed +girls,--constituted one of the most brilliant and attractive +spectacles that I ever witnessed. Yet they tell me that the procession +of Corpus Christi will be infinitely more splendid and elaborate. + +I am living here very comfortably. My rooms are pleasant and overlook +the charming Rambla. My mornings are generally spent in reading and +studying Spanish. At four o'clock my Irish friend and myself proceed +to the fine restaurant where we are accustomed to dine: here we meet +an intelligent Spanish gentleman, who completes our party, and as he +does not speak English, all conversation is conducted at the table +in the Spanish language. Dinner being over, we next visit a palverine +cafe, where we meet a number of Spanish acquaintances, with whom we +take coffee and a cigar. We all sally out together, and walk for an +hour or two, either in the environs of the city, or along their mural +terrace, overlooking the blue waters of the Mediterranean, closing our +promenade at length upon the crowded and animated Rambla. After the +theater, a stroll in the moonlight upon this magnificent promenade, +and as the clock strikes the hour of midnight we retire, and bathe in +the waters of oblivion till morn. My days in Spain are drawing near +their end. I am ready to leave, though I shall cast many a lingering +thought, many a fond recollection behind; and in future years, I shall +sadly recall these hours, which, I fear, can never be recalled. But +away with the enervating reflections of grief! Read nothing in the +past but lessons for the future. When you think of its pleasures, +think also of the cares they produced and the anxieties they cost +you. Behold, they are ended, and forever. Have you reaped from them +a moral, or have you been poisoned with their sting? Have you not +discovered that pleasure is a phantom, which vanishes in proportion +to the eagerness with which it is pursued? that by itself it fatigues +without satisfying--that it knows no limits or bounds to gratify +the restless and unfettered soul--that it is a _feeble soil_, which, +without the sweat of labor and the tears of sorrow, produces nothing +but the weeds of sin and the thorny briars of remorse? Have you +learned all this, and are you not a wiser and a better man? Let all +who have traveled for pleasure answer the question to themselves. + +Truly your friend, + +JOHN E. WARREN. + + * * * * * + +The Rev Henry Giles, in a lecture on "Manliness," thus designates +the four great characteristics which have distinguished mankind. "The +Hebrew was mighty by the power of Faith--the Greek by Knowledge and +Art--the Roman by Arms--but the might of the Modern Man is placed in +Work. This is shown by the peculiar pride of each. The pride of the +Hebrew was in Religion--the pride of the Greek was in Wisdom--the +pride of the Roman was in Power--the pride of the Modern Man is placed +in Wealth." + + * * * * * + +Carlyle and Emerson.--They are not finished writers, but great +quarries of thought and imagery. Of the two, Emerson is much the finer +spirit. He has not the radiant range of imagination or any of the +rough power of Carlyle, but his placid, piercing insight irradiates +the depth of truth further and clearer than do the strained glances of +the latter. A higher mental altitude than Carlyle has mounted, by most +strenuous effort, Emerson has serenely assumed. + + * * * * * + +AUTHORS AND BOOKS. + +The Literature of Supernaturalism was never more in request than since +the Seeresses of Rochester commenced their levees at Barnum's Hotel. +The journals have been filled with jesting and speculation upon the +subject,--mountebank tricksters and shrewd professors have plied their +keenest wits to discover the processes of the rappings--and Mrs. Fish +and the Foxes in spite of them all preserve their secret, or at least +are as successful as ever in persuading themselves and others that +they are admitted to communications with the spiritual world. For +ourselves, while we can suggest no explanation of these phenomena, +and while in every attempted explanation of them which we have seen, +we detect some such difficulty or absurdity as makes necessary its +rejection, we certainly could never for a moment be tempted to a +suspicion that there is anything supernatural in the matter. Such +an idea is simply ridiculous, and will be tolerated only by the +ignorant, the feeble-minded, or the insane. Still, the "knockings" +are sufficiently mysterious, and if unexposed, sufficiently fruitful +of evil, to be legitimate subjects of investigation, and he who under +such circumstances is so careful of his dignity as to disregard the +subject altogether, is as much mistaken as the gravest buffoon of +the circus. We reviewed a week or two ago "The Phantom World," just +republished by Mr. Hart; the Appletons have recently printed an +original work which we believe has considerable merit, entitled +"Credulity and Superstition;" and Mr. Redfield has in press and nearly +ready, an edition of "The Night Side of Nature," by Miss Crowe, author +of "Susan Hopley." This we believe is the cleverest performance upon +ghosts and ghost-seers that has appeared in English since the days +of Richard Glanvill; and with the others, it will be of service in +checking the progress of the pitiable superstition which has been +readily accepted by a large class of people, so peculiarly constituted +that they could not help rejecting the Christian religion for its +"unreasonableness and incredibility!" + + * * * * * + +"Some Honest Opinions upon Authors, Books, and other subjects," is +the title of a new volume by the late Edgar A. Poe, which Mr. Redfield +will publish during the Fall. It will embrace besides several of the +author's most elaborate aesthetical essays, those caustic personalities +and criticisms from his pen which, during several years, attracted so +much attention in our literary world. Among his subjects are Bryant, +Cooper, Pauldings, Hawthorne, Willis, Longfellow, Verplanck, Bush, +Anthon, Hoffman, Cornelius Mathews, Henry B. Hirst, Mrs. Oakes Smith, +Mrs. Hewitt, Mrs. Lewis, Margaret Fuller, Miss Sedgwick, and many +more of this country, beside Macaulay, Bulwer, Dickens, Horne, Miss +Barrett, and some dozen others of England. + + * * * * * + +Mr. Dudley Bean occupies the first two sheets of the last +_Knickerbocker_ with a very erudite and picturesque description of +the attack upon Ticonderoga by the grand army under Lords Amherst and +Howe, in "the old French War." Mr. Bean is an accomplished merchant, +of literary abilities and a taste for antiquarian research, and he is +probably better informed than any other person living upon the history +and topography of all the country for many miles about Lake George, +which is the most classical region of the United States. He has +treated the chief points of this history in many interesting papers +which he has within a few years contributed to the journals, and we +have promise of a couple of octavos, embracing the whole subject, from +his pen, at an early day. We know of nothing in the literature of our +local and particular history that is more pleasing than the specimens +of his quality in this way which have fallen under our notice. + + * * * * * + +Mr. William Young, the thoroughly accomplished editor of the _Albion_, +is to be our creditor in the coming autumn for two hundred songs of +Beranger, in English, with the pictorial illustrations which graced +the splendid edition of the great lyrist's works recently issued in +Paris. Mr. Young may be said to be as familiar with the niceties of +the French language as the eloquent and forcible editorials of the +_Albion_ show him to be with those of his vernacular; and he has +studied Beranger with such a genial love and diligence, that he +would probably be one of his best editors, even in Paris. In literal +truth and elaborate finish, we think his volume will show him to be +a capital, a nearly faultless, translator. But Beranger is a very +difficult author to turn into English, and we believe all who have +hitherto essayed this labor have found his spirit too evanescent for +their art. The learned and brilliant "Father Prout" has been in some +respects the most successful of them all; but his versions are not to +be compared with Mr. Young's for adherence either to the bard's own +meaning or music. In pouring out the Frenchman's champagne, the latter +somehow suffers the sparkle and bead to escape, while the former +cheats us by making his stale liquor foam with London soda. We shall +be impatient for Mr. Young's book, which will be published by Putnam, +in a style of unusual beauty. + + * * * * * + +Dr. Achilli, whose history, so full of various and romantic +vicissitudes, has become familiar in consequence of his imprisonments +in the Roman Inquisition, is now in London, at the head of a +congregation of Protestant Italians. He has intimated to Dr. Baird his +intention to visit this country within a few months. He resided here +many years ago. + + * * * * * + +Shirley, by the author of Jane Eyre, has been translated into French, +and is appearing as the _feuilleton_ of the _National_, newspaper. Mr. +LIVERMORE, one of our most learned bibliopoles, has a very interesting +article upon Public Libraries, in the last _North American Review_. +He notices in detail several generally inaccessible reports on the +libraries of Europe and this country; after referring to the number +and extent of libraries here and elsewhere, and showing that in this +respect we rank far below most of the countries of Europe, though +second to none in general intelligence and the means of common +education, he urges the institution of a large national library, and +sees in the foundation of the Smithsonian Institution a prospect that +the subject is likely to receive speedy and efficient attention. + + * * * * * + +PROFESSOR JOHNSON, author of the well-known work on Agricultural +Chemistry, has been delivering lectures upon the results of his recent +tour in the British Provinces and the United States, in one of which +he observed, "In New Brunswick, New England, Vermont, New Hampshire, +Connecticut, and New York, the growth of wheat has almost ceased; and +it is now gradually receding farther and farther westward. Now, when +I tell you this, you will see that it will not be very long before +America is unable supply us with wheat in any large quantity. If we +could bring Indian corn into general use, we might get plenty of it; +but I do not think that the United States need be any bug bear to +you." Prof. J. was in New York last March. + + * * * * * + +CHARLOTTE CUSHMAN, with Miss Hayes, the translator of George Sand's +best works, was at the last dates on a visit to the popular poetess +of the milliner and chambermaid classes, Eliza Cook, who was very ill. +Miss Cushman is really quite as good a poet as Miss Cook, though by no +means so fluent a versifier. She will return to the United States in a +few weeks to fulfill some professional engagements. + + * * * * * + +Rev. Mr. MOUNTFORD, an English Unitarian clergyman, who recently came +to this country, and who is known in literature and religion as the +author of the two very clever works, "Martyria" and "Euthanasia," has +become minister of a congregation at Gloucester, in Massachusetts. + + * * * * * + +BENJAMIN PERLEY POORE, author of "The Life and Times of Louis +Philippe," &c., invited the corps of Massachusetts Volunteers, +commanded by him in the Mexican campaign, to celebrate the anniversary +of their return, at his pleasant residence on Indian Hill Farm, in +West Newbury, last Friday. + + * * * * * + +Rev. WARREN BURTON, a graceful writer and popular preacher among the +Unitarians, has resigned the pastoral office in Worcester to give his +undivided attention to the advocacy of certain theories he has formed +for the moral education of the young. + + * * * * * + +RICHARD S. MCCULLOCH, Professor of Natural Philosophy at Princeton +College, and some time since melter and refiner of the United States +Mint, has addressed a letter to the Secretary of the Treasury, in +which he states that he has discovered a new, quick, and economical +method of refining argentiferous and other gold bullion, whereby the +work may be done in one-half the present time, and a large saving +effected in interest upon the amount refined. + + * * * * * + +THE LATE SIR JOSEPH BANKS lies buried in Heston Church. There is +neither inscription, nor monument, nor memorial window to mark the +place of his sepulture; even his hatchment has been removed from its +place. Surely, as President of the Royal Society, a member of so many +foreign institutions, as well as a man who had traveled so much, he +should have been thought worthy of some slight mark of respect. + + * * * * * + +ELIHU BURRITT is presented with the Prince of Wales in one of the +designs for medals to be distributed on the occasion of the great +Industrial Exhibition in London; and the Athenaeum properly suggests +that such an obtrusion of the "learned Blacksmith" (who has really +scarce any learning at all) is "little better than a burlesque." + + * * * * * + +HORACE MANN, President of the late National Convention of the friends +of education, had issued an address inviting all friendly to the +object, whether connected with and interested in common-schools, +academies, or colleges, to meet in convention at Philadelphia on the +fourth day of August next. + + * * * * * + +LIEUT. MAURY says that the new planet, _Parthenope_, discovered by +M. Gasparis, of Naples, has been observed at Washington, by Mr. J. +Ferguson. It resembles a star of the tenth magnitude. This is the +eleventh in the family of asteroids, and the seventh within the last +five years. + + * * * * * + +GEORGE WILKINS KENDALL is now in New York, having visited New +Orleans since his return from Paris. His History of the Mexican War, +illustrated by some of the cleverest artists of France, will soon be +published here and in London. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. FANNY KEMBLE has left this country for England, on account of the +sudden illness of her father, Charles Kemble, of whose low state of +health we have been apprised by almost every arrival for a year. + + * * * * * + +M. BALZAC's recent marriage, at his rather advanced period of life, +finds him, for the first time, an invalid, and serious fears are now +entertained for him, by friends and physicians. + + * * * * * + +ORESTES A. BROWNSON has received the degree of LL.D. from the R.C. +College, Fordham. + + * * * * * + +RECENT DEATHS. + + * * * * * + +SARGENT S. PRENTISS, one of the most distinguished popular orators of +the age, died at Natchez, Mississippi, on the 3d inst. He was a native +of Maine, and after being admitted to the bar he emigrated to the +Southwest, where his great natural genius, with his energy and +perseverance, soon gained for him a well-deserved reputation as one +of the most successful advocates at the bar, and as one of the most +brilliant and effective speakers in all that part of the country, +where "stumping" is the almost universal practice among political +aspirants. + +He was once elected to the House of Representatives from his adopted +State, and was excluded from his seat by the casting vote of James K. +Polk, at that time Speaker of the House. The facts in regard to the +affair, according to the _Tribune_, are substantially as follows: +In 1837, the President, Mr. Van Buren, called an Extra Session +of Congress to assemble in September of that year. The laws of +Mississippi required that the election for Congressmen for that State +for the twenty-fifth Congress should be held in November, and in +order that the State should be represented in the Extra Session, the +Governor ordered an election to be held in July for the choice of +two Congressmen "to fill the vacancy until superseded by the members +to be elected at the next regular election, on the first Monday, and +the day following, in November next." The election was held under +the authority of the Governor's proclamation, and the Democratic +candidates, Claiborne and Gholson, were elected by default. They took +their seats in the House, in which there was a decided Democratic +majority, and immediately applied themselves to the task of inducing +the House to declare that they had been duly elected not only for the +Extra Session, but for the full term of two fears following. Of course +they accomplished their object. The November Election arrived and the +Whigs nominated Prentiss and Word. The Democrats brought out Claiborne +and Gholson again, and the result was that the Whig candidates were +chosen by a triumphant majority. They received their certificates +of election from the proper authority and presented themselves at +the regular session of Congress in December, and found their seats +occupied by the brace of Democrats whom the people of Mississippi +had elected to stay at home, and after a most severe and memorable +contest, the new members presented themselves for admission at the bar +of the House, which decided readily that Claiborne and Gholson were +not entitled to their places, but instead of admitting Prentiss +and Word, by Mr. Polk's casting vote declared the seats vacant, and +referred the whole subject back to the people. During the discussion +of the question Mr. Prentiss made a speech which will be remembered +and admired as long as genius and true manly eloquence are +appreciated. Another election was held in the following month of +March, and Prentiss and Word were again returned, and this time +they were admitted to their seats. The remaining session of the +twenty-fifth Congress, Prentiss served with distinguished ability. We +believe this closed his career as a statesman. He recently removed +to New Orleans, where he continued the practice of the law, standing +always at the head of his profession. + + * * * * * + +THE LATE HON. NATHANIEL SILSBEE, according to the Salem, Mass. +_Gazette_, of the 16th inst., began his career soon after the breaking +out of the French revolution, and the general warfare in which all +Europe became embroiled. At this favorable point of time, Mr. S. +having finished his term of service at one of our best private schools +of instruction, under the Rev. Dr. Cutler, of Hamilton, and having +abandoned the collegiate course for which he had been prepared, +and been initiated into the forms of business and knowledge of +the counting-room, he engaged in the employ of one of our most +enterprising merchants, Hasket Derby, Esq., the leader of the vanguard +of India adventures. At the age of 18, he embarked on the sea of +fortune as clerk of a merchant vessel. On his next voyage he took the +command of a vessel, and before he arrived at the age of 21, he sailed +for the East Indies in a vessel, which, at this day, would scarcely be +deemed suitable for a coasting craft, uncoppered, without the improved +nautical instruments and science which now universally prevail, +trusting only to his dead reckoning, his eyes, and his head, not +one on board having attained to the age of his majority. He served +successively as representative in our State Legislature, as member of +Congress for six years, as State Senator, over which body he presided, +and as Senator in Congress, for nine years, with honor to himself, and +satisfaction to his constituents. In all commercial questions which +presented themselves to the consideration of Congress, while a member +of both houses, no man's opinion was more sought for and more justly +respected. + + * * * * * + +SEVERAL FAMOUS FRENCHMEN have left the world within a few weeks. +Quatremere de Quincy, who was in the first rank of archaeology and +aesthetics, died at the age of ninety-five; Count Mollien, the famous +financier--often a minister--at eighty-seven; Baron Meneval, so long +the private, confidential, all-trusted private secretary of Napoleon, +between seventy and eighty; Count Berenger, one of the Emperor's +Councillors and Peers, conspicuous for the independence of his spirit, +as well as administrative qualifications, was four-score and upward. +The obsequies of these personages were grand ceremonials. President +Napoleon sent his carriages and orderly officers to honor the remains +of the old servants of his uncle. This class might be thought to +have found an elixir of life, in their devotion to the Emperor or +his memory. A few of them survive, like Marshal Soult, wonders of +comfortable longevity. + + * * * * * + +REMARKABLE WORK BY A CHINESE. + +To the man of science, the philanthropist and the Christian, it will +prove a stirring incident that a work on Geography has just been +issued by a native Chinese, embracing the history and condition of +other nations. Here is a stroke, such as has never yet been dealt +against the ignorance and prejudice which has erected such a wall of +exclusiveness around three hundred millions of people. A Lieutenant +Governor is the author, and, by a commendatory preface, it is pressed +upon the notice of his countrymen by a Governor General--both of these +men high in office in the Chinese Government. + +In reference to his map of the world, the writer remarks: "We knew +in respect to a Northern frozen ocean, but in respect to a Southern +frozen ocean we had not heard. So that, when Western men produced maps +having a frozen ocean at the extreme South, we supposed that they +had made a mistake in not understanding the Chinese language, and had +placed that in the South which should have been placed only in the +North. But on inquiring of an American, one Abeel, (the Missionary,) +he said this doctrine was verily true, and should not be doubted." + +It is a fact full of interest that the chronology adopted in this work +is that usually received by European writers. The more prominent facts +of sacred history subsequent to the Deluge, are either alluded to, or +stated at length, much as they occur in the Scriptures. + +It is interesting to us, too, that this work presents to the Chinese +a more definite and discriminating view of the different religions of +the world, than has yet appeared in the Chinese language. + +Speaking of different countries of India under European sway, where +Buddhism or Paganism and Protestantism exist together, the author +does not hesitate to say that the latter is gradually overcoming the +former, "whose light is becoming more and more dim." This is a very +remarkable concession, when we consider that the individual who makes +it is probably a Buddhist himself, and represents the religion of +China as Buddhism. + +It is a remarkable fact, that this work contains a more extensive and +correct account of the history and institution of Christian nations +than has ever been published before by any heathen writer in any age +of the world. + +This remarkable work will introduce the "Celestials" to such an +acquaintance with "the outside barbarians" as cannot fail to give them +new ideas, remove something at least of the insane prejudice against, +and contempt of, all other nations, which has so long prevailed. +We regard it as a very important agency in preparing the way for +that Christianity which the friends of the perishing are seeking to +introduce into that benighted empire. A book by a native Chinaman, +himself high in office, and recommended by a still higher officer +of the government, the author still himself a Pagan, yet reasoning +upon the great facts of the Bible, and opening the hitherto unknown +civilized and Christian world to his countrymen--such a book cannot +but become an important pioneer in the work of pouring the light of +truth upon that dark land.--_Boston Traveler_. + + * * * * * + +[FROM SARTAIN'S MAGAZINE, FOR AUGUST.] + + +REQUIEM. + +UPON THE DEATH OF FRANCES SARGENT ASGOOD. + +BY ANNE C. LYNCH. + + To what bright world afar dost thou belong + Thou whose pure soul seemed not of mortal birth? + From what fair realm of flowers, and love, and song, + Cam'st thou a star-beam to our shadowed earth? + What hadst thou done, sweet spirit! in that sphere, + That thou wert banished here? + + Here, where our blossoms early fade and die, + Where autumn frosts despoil our loveliest bowers; + Where song goes up to heaven, an anguished cry + From wounded hearts, like perfume from crushed flowers; + Where Love despairing waits, and weeps in vain + His Psyche to regain. + + Thou cam'st not unattended on thy way; + Spirits of beauty, grace, and joy, and love + Were with thee, ever bearing each some ray + Of the far home that thou hadst left above, + And ever at thy side, upon our sight + Gleamed forth their wings of light. + + We heard their voices in the gushing song + That rose like incense from thy burning heart; + We saw the footsteps of the shining throng + Glancing upon thy pathway high, apart, + When in thy radiance thou didst walk the earth, + Thou child of glorious birth. + + But the way lengthened, and the song grew sad, + Breathing such tones as find no echo here; + Aspiring, soaring, but no longer glad, + Its mournful music fell upon the ear; + 'Twas the home-sickness of a soul that sighs + For its own native skies. + + Then he that to earth's children comes at last, + The angel-messenger, white-robed and pale, + Upon thy soul his sweet oblivion cast, + And bore thee gently through the shadowy vale,-- + The fleeting years of thy brief exile o'er,-- + Home to the blissful shore. + + * * * * * + +MR. HEALEY is in Paris, engaged busily on his Webster and Hayne +picture, of which at the time of its projection, so much was said. +The canvas is some twenty feet by fourteen, and all the heads will be +portraits. It will be valuable, and must command a ready sale. Will +Massachusetts buy it for her State House, or South Carolina for her +Capitol? It would be a splendid ornament for Fanueil Hall, and not be +misplaced on the walls of the Charleston Court House. + + * * * * * + +MANUEL GODOY, the famous "Prince of Peace," it is mentioned in recent +foreign journals, has left Paris for Spain. The Government at Madrid +has restored a considerable part of his large confiscated estates, and +he probably has returned to enjoy a golden setting sun. He must be at +least eighty years of age. + + * * * * * + +MONS. LIBRI, a well known savant, member of the Institute, and a +professor of the College of France, has been charged, in Paris, with +having committed extensive thefts of valuable MSS. and broken in the +public libraries. He has persisted in proclaiming his innocence, and +is warmly defended by certain papers. An indictment was found, he did +not appear; he was tried, in his absence, for contumacy. He was found +guilty of the most extensive depredations in this way. Abstracting the +most valuable books, effacing identifying marks, sending them out of +the country to be rebound, and then selling them at costly rates. He +was sentenced to imprisonment for ten years at hard labor. + + * * * * * + +SKETCH OF A STREET CHARACTER OF CAIRO.--The Caireen donkey-boy is +quite a character, and mine in particular was a perfect original. He +was small and square of frame, his rich brown face relieved by the +whitewash of teeth and the most brilliant black eyes, and his face +beamed with a merry, yet roguish expression, like that of the Spanish, +or rather Moorish, boy, in Murillo's well known masterpiece, with whom +he was probably of cognate blood. Living in the streets from infancy, +and familiar with the chances of out-door life, and with every +description of character; waiting at the door of a mosque or a cafe, +or crouching in a corner of a bazaar, he had acquired a thorough +acquaintance with Caireen life; and his intellect, and, I fear, his +vices, had become somewhat prematurely developed. But the finishing +touch to his education was undoubtedly given by the European travelers +whom he had served, and of whom he had, with the imitativeness of his +age, picked up a variety of little accomplishments, particularly the +oaths of different languages. His audacity had thus become consummate, +and I have heard him send his fellows to ---- as coolly, and in as +good English, as any prototype of our own metropolis. His mussulman +prejudices sat very loosely upon him, and in the midst of religious +observances he grew up indifferent and prayerless. With this +inevitable laxity of faith and morals, contracted by his early +vagabondage, he at least acquired an emancipation from prejudice, +and displayed a craving after miscellaneous information, to which his +European masters were often tasked to contribute. Thrown almost in +childhood upon their resources, the energy and perseverance of these +boys is remarkable. My little lad had, for instance, been up the +country with some English travelers, in whose service he had saved +four or five hundred piastres, (four or five pounds), with which he +bought the animal which I bestrode, on whose sprightliness and good +qualities he was never tired of expatiating, and with the proceeds +of whose labor he supported his mother and himself. He had but one +habitual subject of discontent, the heavy tax imposed upon his donkey +by Mehemet Ali, upon whom he invoked the curse of God; a curse, it +is to be feared, uttered, not loud but deep, by all classes save the +employes of government. His wind and endurance were surprising. He +would trot after his donkey by the hour together, urging and prodding +along with a pointed stick, as readily in the burning sandy environs, +and under the noonday sun, as in the cool and shady alleys of the +crowded capital; running, dodging, striking, and shouting with all +the strength of his lungs, through the midst of its labyrinthine +obstructions.--_The Nile Boat_. + + * * * * * + +MENDELSSOHN'S SKILL AS A CONDUCTOR.--In the spring of 1835. +Mendelssohn was invited to come to Cologne, in order to direct the +festival. Here we met again, and thanks to his kindness, I had the +pleasure of being present at one of the general rehearsals, where +he conducted Beethoven's Eighth Symphony. It would be a matter +of difficulty to decide in which quality Mendelssohn excelled the +most--whether as composer, pianist, organist, or conductor of the +orchestra. Nobody ever knew better how to communicate, as if by an +electric fluid, his own conceptions of a work, to a large body of +performers. It was highly interesting on this occasion to contemplate +the anxious attention manifested by a body of more than five hundred +singers and performers, watching every glance of Mendelssohn's eye, +and following, like obedient spirits, the magic wand of this musical +_Prospero_. The admirable _allegretto_ in B flat, of Beethoven's +Symphony, not going at first to his liking, he remarked, smilingly, +that he knew every one of the gentlemen engaged was capable of +performing and even composing a scherzo of his own; but that _just +now_ he wanted to hear Beethoven's, which he thought had some merit. +It was cheerfully repeated. "Beautiful! charming!" cried Mendelssohn, +"but still too loud in two or three instances. Let us take it again, +from the middle." "No, no," was the general reply of the band; "the +whole movement over again for our own satisfaction;" and then they +played it with the utmost delicacy and finish, Mendelssohn laying +aside his baton, and listening with evident delight to the more +perfect execution. "What would I have given," exclaimed he, "if +Beethoven could have heard his own composition so well understood and +so magnificently performed!" By thus giving alternately praise and +blame, as required, spurring the slow, checking the too ardent, he +obtained orchestral effects seldom equaled in our days. Need I +add, that he was able to detect at once, even among a phalanx of +performers, the slightest error, either of note or accent.--_Life of +Mendelssohn_. + + * * * * * + +There is a mutual hate between the virtuous and the vicious, the +spiritual and the sensual: but the pure abhor understandingly, knowing +the nature of their antagonists, while the vile nurse an ignorant +malignity, pained with an unacknowledged ache of envy. + + * * * * * + +Superstition In France.--The _Courrier de la Meuse_ says: "Witchcraft +is still an object of belief in our provinces. On Sunday last, in a +village belonging to the arrondissement of Verdun, the keeper of the +parish bull forgot to lay before the poor animal at the usual hour +its accustomed allowance of provender. The bull, impatient at the +delay, made a variety of efforts to regain his liberty, and at last +succeeded. The first use he made of his freedom was to demolish a +rabbit-hutch which was in the stable. The keeper's wife, hearing a +noise, ran to the place, and as soon as she saw the bull treading +mercilessly upon the rabbits with his large hoofs, seized a cudgel and +showered down a volley of blows on the crupper of the devastator. But +not being accustomed to this rough treatment, the bull grew angry, +and fell upon his neighbors the oxen, and what with horns and hoofs, +turned the stable into a scene of terror and confusion. The woman +began to cry for help. Her cries were heard, and with some trouble +the bull was ousted from the stable, and forthwith began to butt at +everything in his path. The mayor and the adjoint of the commune were +attracted to the scene of this riot, and on witnessing the animal's +violence, declared, after a short deliberation, that the bull was a +sorcerer, or at any rate that he was possessed with a devil, and that +he ought to be conducted to the presbytery in order to be exorcised. +The authorities were accordingly obeyed, and the bull was dragged or +driven into the presence of the curate, who was requested to subject +him to the formalities prescribed in the ritual. The good priest found +no little difficulty in escaping the pressing solicitations of his +parishioners. At last, however, he succeeded; but though the bull +escaped exorcism, he could not elude the shambles. Condemned to death +by the mayor as a sorcerer, his sentence was immediately executed." + + * * * * * + +The Libraries At Cambridge.--There are now belonging to the various +libraries connected with the University, about 86,000 volumes beside +pamphlets, maps and prints. The Public Library contains over 57,000 +volumes. The Law Library, 13,000; Divinity School, 3000; Medical +School, 1,200; Society Libraries for the Students, 10,000. There have +been added during the past year 1,751 volumes, and 2,219 pamphlets. + + * * * * * + +The _Birmingham Mercury_ thinks some of Lord Brougham's late +proceedings may be accounted for in part by natural vexation at +Cottenham being made an earl. "Cottenham is several years younger than +Brougham, and was his successor in the chancellorship, and yet _he_ +gets an earldom, while Brougham, who was known all over the world +before Cottenham was ever heard of out of the Equity Courts, still +remains and is likely to remain a simple baron." + + * * * * * + +Romantic History of two English Lovers.--In the reign of Edward III., +Robert Machim, an accomplished gentleman, of the second degree of +nobility, loved and was beloved by the beautiful Anna d'Arfet, the +daughter of a noble of the first class. By virtue of a royal warrant +Machim was incarcerated for his presumption; and, on his release, +endured the bitter mortification of learning that Anna had been +forcibly married to a noble, who carried her to his castle, near +Bristol. A friend of Machim's had the address to introduce himself to +the family, and became the groom of broken-hearted Anna, who was thus +persuaded and enabled to escape on board a vessel with her lover, with +the view of ending her days with him in France. In their hurry and +alarm they embarked without the pilot, and the season of the year +being the most unfavorable, were soon at the mercy of a dreadful +storm. The desired port was missed during the night, and the vessel +driven out to sea. After twelve days of suffering they discovered +faint traces of land in the horizon, and succeeded in making the spot +still called Machico. The exhausted Anna was conveyed on shore, and +Machim had spent three days in exploring in the neighborhood with +his friends, when the vessel, which they had left in charge of the +mariners, broke from her moorings in a storm and was wrecked on the +coast of Morocco, where the crew were made slaves. Anna became dumb +with sorrow, and expired three days after. Machim survived her but +five days, enjoining his companions to bury him in the same grave, +under the venerable cedar, where they had a few days before erected +a cross in acknowledgment of their happy deliverance. An inscription, +composed by Machim, was carved on the cross, with the request that the +next Christian who might chance to visit the spot would erect a church +there. Having performed this last sad duty, the survivors fitted out +the boat, which they had drawn ashore on their landing, and putting to +sea in the hope of reaching some part of Europe, were also driven on +the coast of Morocco, and rejoined their companions, but in slavery. +Zargo, during an expedition of discovery to the coast of Africa, +took a Spanish vessel with redeemed captives, amongst whom was an +experienced pilot, named Morales, who entered into the service +of Zargo, and gave him an account of the adventures of Machim, as +communicated to him by the English captives, and of the landmarks and +situations of the newly-discovered island.--_Madeira, by Dr. Mason_. + + * * * * * + +Centenary Performances in commemoration of the death-day of John +Sebastian Bach--the 28th of July--are this week to be held at Leipsic, +(where an assemblage of two thousand executants is to be convened +for the display of some of the masters greatest works,) at Berlin, at +Magdeburg, at Hamburg, and at other towns in North Germany. + + * * * * * + +[FROM THE LEADER.] + +POETS IN PARLIAMENT. + +The prominence which the "winged words" of Victor Hugo have recently +given him in the Assembly has called forth sarcastic insinuations and +bitter diatribes from all the Conservative journals. There seems to +be an intensity of exasperation, arising from the ancient prejudice +against poets. A poet treating of politics! Let him keep to +rhymes, and leave the serious business of life to us practical men, +sober-minded men--men not led away by our imaginations--men not moved +to absurdities by sentiment--solid, sensible, moderate men! Let him +play with capricious hand on the chords which are resonant to his +will; but let him not mistake his frivolous accomplishment for the +power to play upon the world's great harp, drawing from its grander +chords the large responses of more solemn themes. Let him "strike +the light guitar" as long as women will listen, or fools applaud. But +politics is another sphere; into that he can only pass to make himself +ridiculous. + +Thus reason the profound. Thus saith the good practical man, who, +because his mind is a congeries of commonplaces, piques himself on +not being led away by his imagination. The owl prides himself on the +incontestable fact that he is not an eagle. + +To us the matter has another aspect. The appearance of Poets and men +of Sentiment in the world of Politics is a good symptom; for at a +time like the present, when positive doctrine can scarcely be said to +exist in embryo, and assuredly not in any maturity, the presence of +Imagination and Sentiment--prophets who endow the present with some +of the riches borrowed from the future--is needed to give grandeur +and generosity to political action, and to prevent men from entirely +sinking into the slough of egotism and routine. Salt is not meat, +but we need the salt to preserve meat from corruption. Lamartine and +Victor Hugo may not be profound statesmen; but they have at least +this one indispensable quality of statesmanship; they look beyond the +hour, and beyond the circle, they care more for the nation than for +"measures;" they have high aspirations and wide sympathies. Lamartine +in power committed many errors, but he also did great things, moved +thereto by his "Imagination." He abolished capital punishment; and he +freed the slaves; had the whole Provisional Government been formed of +such men it would have been well for it and for France. + +We are as distinctly aware of the unfitness of a poet for politics, as +any of those can be who rail at Hugo and Lamartine. Images, we know, +are not convictions; aspirations will not do the work; grand speeches +will not solve the problems. The poet is a "phrasemaker"; true; but +show us the man in these days who is more than a phrasemaker! Where is +he who has positive ideas beyond the small circle of his speciality? +In rejecting the guidance of the Poet to whom shall we apply? To +the Priest? He mumbles the litany of an ancient time which falls on +unbelieving ears. To the Lawyer? He is a metaphysician with precedents +for data. To the Litterateur? He is a phrasemaker by profession. To +the Politician? He cannot rise above the conception of a "bill." One +and all are copious in phrases, empty of positive ideas as drums. +The initial laws of social science are still to be discovered and +accepted, yet we sneer at phrasemakers! Carlyle, who never sweeps out +of the circle of sentiment--whose eloquence is always indignation--who +thinks with his heart, has no words too scornful for phrasemakers and +poets; forgetting that he, and we, and they, are _all_ little more +than phrasemakers waiting for a doctrine! + +There is something in the air of late which has called forth the poets +and made them politicians. Formerly they were content to leave these +troubled waters undisturbed, but finding that others now are as +ignorant as themselves, they have come forth to give at least the +benefit of their sentiment to the party they espouse. In no department +can phrasemaking prosper where positive ideas have once been attained. +Metaphors are powerless in astronomy; epithets are useless as +alembics; images, be they never so beautiful, will fail to convince +the physiologist. Language may adorn, it cannot create science. But as +soon as we pass from the sciences to social science, (or politics,) we +find that here the absence of positive ideas gives the phrasemaker the +same power of convincing, as in the early days of physical science was +possessed by metaphysicians and poets. Here the phrasemaker is king; +as the one-eyed is king in the empire of the blind. Phrasemaker for +phrasemaker, we prefer the poet to the politician; Victor Hugo to Leon +Faucher; Lamartine to Odilon Barrot; Lamennais to Baroche. + +Kossuth, Mazzini, Lamartine, the three heroes of 1848, were all, +though with enormous differences in their relative values and +positions, men belonging to the race of poets--men in whom the +_heart_ thought--men who were moved by great impulses and lofty +aspirations--men who were "carried away by their imagination"--men who +were "dreamers," but whose dreams were of the stuff of which our life +is made. + + * * * * * + +The fine immortal spirit of inspiration that is ever living in human +affairs, is unseen and incredible till its power becomes apparent +through the long past; as the invisible but indelible blue of the +atmosphere is not seen except we look through extended space. + + * * * * * + +The distinction between the sensual, frivolous many, and the few +spiritual and earnest, may be stated thus--the first vaguely guess the +others to be fools, _they_ know that the former are fools. + + * * * * * + +[FROM THE NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.] + +FRANK HAMILTON; OR, THE CONFESSIONS OF AN ONLY SON. + +BY W.H. MAXWELL, ESQ. + + * * * * * + +CHAPTER I. + + "_Malvolio._ 'Tis but fortune; all is fortune." + +_Twelfth Night_. + + "_Bassanio_. 'Tis not unknown to you, Antonio, + How much I have disabled my state. + By something showing a more swelling port + Than my faint means would grant continuance." + +_Merchant of Venice_. + +I am by birth an Irishman, and descended from an ancient family. I lay +no claim to any connection with Brian Boru, or Malichi, of the crown +of gold, a gentleman who, notwithstanding the poetical authority +of Tom Moore, we have some reason to believe during his long and +illustrious reign was never master of a crown sterling. My ancestor +was Colonel Hamilton, as stout a Cromwellian as ever led a squadron +of Noll's Ironsides to a charge. If my education was not of the +first order, it was for no lack of instructors. My father, a half-pay +dragoon, had me on the pig-skin before my legs were long enough to +reach the saddle-skirt; the keeper, in proper time, taught me to +shoot: a retired gentleman, _olim_, of the Welsh fusileers, with a +single leg and sixty pounds per annum, paid quarterly by Greenwood +and Cox, indoctrinated me in the mystery of tying a fly, and casting +the same correctly. The curate--the least successful of the lot, +poor man--did his best to communicate Greek and Latin, and my cousin +Constance gave me my first lessons in the art of love. All were able +professors in their way, but cousin Constance was infinitely the most +agreeable. + +I am by accident an only son. My mother, in two years after she had +sworn obedience at the altar, presented her liege lord with a couple +of pledges of connubial love, and the gender of both was masculine. +Twelve years elapsed and no addition was made to the Hamiltons; when +lo! upon a fine spring morning a little Benjamin was ushered into +existence, and I was the God-send. My father never could be persuaded +that there was a gentlemanly profession in the world but one, and +that was the trade of arms. My brothers, as they grew up, entirely +coincided with him in opinion, and both would be soldiers. William +died sword in hand, crowning the great breach at Rodrigo; and Henry, +after demolishing three or four cuirassiers of the Imperial Guards, +found his last resting-place on "red Waterloo." When they were named, +my father's eyes would kindle, and my mother's be suffused with tears. +He played a fictitious part, enacted the Roman, and would persuade you +that he exulted in their deaths; but my mother played the true one, +the woman's. + +It was an autumnal evening, just when you smell the first indication +of winter in a rarefied atmosphere, and see it in the clear curling +of the smoke, as its woolly flakes rise from the cottage chimney and +gradually are lost in the clear blue sky. Although not a cold evening, +a log fire was extremely welcome. My father, Heaven rest him! had a +slight touch in the toe of what finished him afterward in the stomach, +namely, gout. + +"James," said my lady mother, "it is time we came to some decision +regarding what we have been talking of for the last twelve months. +Frank will be eighteen next Wednesday." + +"Faith! it is time, my dear Mary; the premises are true, but the +difficulty is to come at the conclusion." + +"You know, my love, that only for your pension and half-pay, from the +tremendous depreciation in agricultural property since the peace, we +should be obliged to lay down the old carriage, as you had to part +with the harriers the year after Waterloo." + +That to my father was a heavy hit. "It was a devil of a sacrifice, +Mary,"--and he sighed, "to give up the sweetest pack that ever man +rode to; one, that for a mile's run you could have covered with +a blanket--heigh-ho! God's will be done;" and after that pious +adjuration, my father turned down his tumbler No. 3, to the bottom. +The memory of the lost harriers was always a painful recollection, and +brought its silent evidence that the fortunes of the Hamiltons were +not what they were a hundred years ago. + +"With all my care," continued my mother, "and, as you know, I +economize to the best of my judgement, and after all is done that can +be done, our income barely will defray the outlay of our household." + +"Or, as we used to say when I was dragooning thirty years ago, 'the +tongue will scarcely meet the buckle,'" responded the colonel. + +"I have been thinking," said my mother timidly, "that Frank might go +to the bar." + +"I would rather that he went direct to the devil," roared the +commander, who hated lawyers, and whose great toe had at the moment +undergone a disagreeable visitation. + +"Do not lose temper, dear James," and she laid down her knitting to +replace the hassock he had kicked away under the painful irritation +of a disease that a stoic could not stand with patience, and, as they +would say in Ireland, would fully justify a Quaker if "he kicked his +mother." + +"Curse the bar!" but he acknowledged his lady wife's kind offices by +tapping her gently on the cheek. "When I was a boy, Mary, a lawyer and +a gentleman were identified. Like the army--and, thank God! that is +still intact, none but a man of decent pretensions claimed a gown, no +more than a linen-draper's apprentice now would aspire to an epaulet. +Is there a low fellow who has saved a few hundreds by retailing whisky +by the noggin, who will not have his son 'Mister Counsellor O'Whack,' +or 'Mister Barrister O'Finnigan'? No, no, if you must have Frank bred +to a local profession, make him an apothecary; a twenty pound note +will find drawers, drugs, and bottles. Occasionally he may be useful; +pound honestly at his mortar, salve a broken head, carry the country +news about, and lie down at night with a tolerably quiet conscience. +He may have hastened a patient to his account by a trifling over-dose; +but he has not hurried men into villainous litigation, that will +eventuate in their ruin. His worst offense against the community +shall be a mistaking of toothache for tic-douloureux, and lumbago for +gout--oh, d----n the gout!"--for at that portion of his speech the +poor colonel had sustained an awful twinge. + +"Well," continued the dame, "would you feel inclined to let him enter +the University, and take orders?" + +"Become a churchman?" and away, with a furious kick, again went the +hassock. "You should say, in simple English, make him a curate for the +term of natural life. The church in Ireland, Mary, is like the bar, it +once was tenanted by gentlemen who had birth, worth, piety, learning, +or all united to recommend him to promotion. Now it is an arena where +impure influence tilts against unblushing hypocrisy. The race is +between some shuffling old lawyer, or a canting saint. One has reached +the woolsack by political thimble-rigging, which means starting +patriot, and turning, when the price is offered, a ministerial hack. +He forks a drunken dean, his son, into a Father-in-Godship with all +the trifling temporalities attendant on the same. Well, the other +fellow is a 'regular go-a-head,' denounces popery, calculates the +millennium, alarms thereby elderly women of both sexes, edifies old +maids, who retire to their closets in the evening with the Bible in +one hand, and a brandy-bottle in the other; and what he likes best, +spiritualizes with the younger ones." + +"Stop, dear James." The emphasis on the word _spiritualize_ had +alarmed my mother, who, to tell the truth, had a slight touch of the +prevailing malady, and, but for the counteracting influence of the +commander, might have been deluded into saintship by degrees. + +The great toe was, however, again awfully invaded, and my father's +spiritual state of mind not all improved by the second twinge, which +was a heavy one. + +"Why, d----n it--" + +"Don't curse, dear James." + +"Curse! I will; for if you had the gout, you would swear like a +trooper." + +"Indeed I would not." + +"Ah, Mary," replied my father, "between twinges, if you knew the +comfort of a curse or two--it relieves one so." + +"That, indeed, James, must be but a sorry consolation, as Mr. Cantwell +said--" + +"Oh! d----n Cantwell," roared my father, "a fellow that will tell you +that there is but one path to heaven, and that he has discovered it. +Pish! Mary, the grand route is open as the mail-coach road, and Papist +and Protestant, Quaker and Anabaptist, may jog along at even pace. I'm +not altogether sure about Jews and Methodists. One bearded vagabond +at Portsmouth charged me, when I was going to the Peninsula, ten +shillings a pound for exchanging bank notes for specie, and every +guinea the circumcised scoundrel gave was a light one. He'll fry--or +has fried already--and my poor bewildered old aunt, under the skillful +management of the Methodist preachers, who for a dozen years in their +rambles, had made her house an inn, left the three thousand five +per cents, which I expected, to blow the gospel-trumpet, either in +California or the Cape--for, God knows, I never particularly inquired +in which country the trumpeter was to sound 'boot and saddle,' after I +had ascertained that the doting fool had made a legal testament quite +sufficient for the purposes of the holy knaves who humbugged her. +Cantwell is one of the same crew, a specious hypocrite. I would attend +to the fellow no more than to that red-headed rector--every priest +is a rector now--who often held my horse at his father's forge, when +T happened to throw a shoe hunting,--and would half break his back +bowing, if I handed him now and then a sixpence. Would I believe +the dictum of that low-born dog, when he told me that in +head-quarters"--and my father elevated his hand toward heaven--"they +cared this pinch of snuff, whether upon a Friday I ate a rasher or +red-herring?" + +Two episodes interrupted the polemical disquisition. In character none +could be more different--the one eventuated in a clean knock down--the +other decided indirectly my future fortunes--and, in the next chapter, +both shall be detailed. + + * * * * * + +CHAPTER II. + + "_Antonio_. Thou knowest that all my fortunes are at sea; + Nor have I money or commodity, + To raise a present sum." + +_Merchant of Venice_. + +The _Boheeil Kistanaugh_, called in plain English, the kitchen boy, +had entered, not like Caliban, "bearing a log," but with a basket +full. He deposited the supply, and was directed by the commander +to replenish the fire. I believe that Petereeine's allegiance to my +father originated in fear rather than affection. He dreaded + + "the deep damnation of his 'Bah!'" + +but what was a still more formidable consideration, was a black-thorn +stick which the colonel had carried since he gave up the sword; it +was a beauty, upon which every fellow that came for law, in or out of +custody, lavished his admiration--a clean crop, with three inches of +an iron ferule on the extremity. My father was, "good easy man," a +true Milesian philosopher--his arguments were those impressive ones, +called _ad hominem_, and after he had _grassed_ his man, he explained +the reason at his leisure. + +_Petereeine_ (little Peter), as he was called, to distinguish him from +another of that apostolic name--who was six feet two--approached the +colonel in his best state of health with much alarm; but, when a fit +of the gout was on--when a foot swathed in flannel, or slippered and +rested on a hassock, announced the anthritic visitation, Petereeine +would hold strong doubts whether, had the choice been allowed, he +should not have preferred entering one of Van Amburgh's dens, to +facing the commander in the dining-room. + +Petereeine was nervous--he had overheard his master blowing to the +skies the Reverend George Cantwell, and the red-headed rector, Paul +Macrony. If a parson and a priest were so treated, what chance had he? +and great was his trepidation, accordingly, when he entered the state +chamber, as in duty bound. + +"Why the devil did you not answer the bell? You knew well enough, you +incorrible scoundrel! that I wanted you." + +Now my father's opening address was not calculated to restore +Petereeine's mental serenity--and to add to his uneasiness, he also +caught sight of that infernal implement, the black-thorn, which, in +treacherous repose, was resting at my father's elbow. + +"On with some wood, you vagabond." + +The order was obeyed--and Petereeine conveyed a couple of billets +safely from the basket to the grate. The next essay, however, was a +failure--the third log fell--and if the fall were not great, as it +dropped on the fender, it certainly was very noisy. The accident +was harmless--for, according to honest admeasurement, it evaded my +father's foot by a full yard--but, under nervous alarm, he swore, +and, as troopers will swear, that it had descended direct upon his +afflicted member, and, consequently that he was ruined for life. This +was a subsequent explanation--while the unhappy youth was extended +on the hearth-rug, protesting innocence, and also declaring that +his jaw-bone was fractured. The fall of the billet and the boy were +things simultaneous--and while my mother, in great alarm, inculcated +patience under suffering, and hinted at resignation, my father, in +return, swore awfully, that no man with a toe of treble its natural +dimensions, and scarlet as a soldiers jacket, had ever possessed +either of those Christian articles. My mother quoted the case of +Job--and my father begged to inquire if there was any authority to +prove that Job ever had the gout? In the mean time, the kitchen-boy +had gathered himself up and departed--and as he left the presence with +his hand pressed upon his cheek, loud were his lamentations. Constance +and I--nobody enjoyed the ridiculous more than she did--laughed +heartily, while the colonel resented this want of sympathy, by calling +us a brace of fools, and expressing his settled conviction, that were +he, the commander, hanged, we, the delinquents, would giggle at the +foot of the gallows. + +Such was the state of affairs, when the entrance of the chief butler +harbingered other occurrences, and much more serious than Petereeine's +damaged jaw. Mick Kalligan had been in the "heavies" with my father, +and at Salamanca, had ridden the opening charge, side by side, with +him, greatly to the detriment of divers Frenchmen, and much to the +satisfaction of his present master. In executing this achievement, +Mick had been a considerable sufferer--his ribs having been invaded by +a red lancer of the guard--while a _chausseur-a-cheval_ had inserted +a lasting token of his affection across his right cheek, extremely +honorable, but by no means ornamental. + +Mick laid a couple of newspapers, and as many letters, on the +table--but before we proceed to open either, we will favor the reader +with another peep into our family history. + +Manifold are the ruinous phantasies which lead unhappy mortals to +pandemonium. This one has a fancy for the turf, another patronizes the +last imported _choryphee_. The turf is generally a settler--the stage +is also a safe road to a safe settlement, and between a race-horse and +a _danseuse_, we would not give a sixpence for choice. Now, as far as +horse-flesh went, my grandfather was innocent; a _pirouette_ or _pas +seul_, barring an Irish jig, he never witnessed in his life--but he +had discovered as good a method for settling a private gentleman. He +had an inveterate fancy for electioneering. The man who would reform +state abuses, deserves well of his country; there is a great deal of +patriotism in Ireland; in fact, it is, like linen, a staple article +generally, but still the best pay-master is safe to win; and hence, my +poor grandfather generally lost the race. + +My father looked very suspiciously at the letters--one had his own +armorial bearings displayed in red wax--and the formal direction was +at a glance detected to be that of his aunt Catharine--Catharine's +missives were never agreeable--she had a rent charge on the property +for a couple of thousands; and, like Moses and Son, her system was +"quick returns," and the interest was consequently expected to the +day. For a few seconds my father hesitated, but he manfully broke the +seal--muttering, audibly, "What can the old rattle-trap write about? +Her interest-money is not due for another fortnight." He threw his +eyes hastily over the contents--his color heightened--and my aunt +Catharine's epistle was flung, and most unceremoniously, upon the +ground--the hope that accompanied the act, being the reverse of a +benediction. + +"Is there anything wrong, dear James?" inquired my mother, in her +usual quiet and timid tone. + +"Wrong!" thundered my father; "Frank will read this spiritual +production to you. Every line breathes a deep anxiety on old +Kitty's part for my soul's welfare, earthly considerations being +non-important. Read, Frank, and if you will not devoutly wish that the +doting fool was at the dev--" + +"Stop, my dear James." + +"Well-read, Frank, and say, when you hear the contents, whether you +would be particularly sorry to learn that the old lady had, as sailors +say, her hands well greased, and a fast hold upon the moon? Read, +d----n it, man! there's no trouble in deciphering my aunt Catharine's +penmanship. Hers is not what Tony Lumpkin complained of--a cursed +cramp hand; all clear and unmistakable--the _t_'s accurately stroked +across, and the _i_'s dotted to a nicety. Go on--read, man, read." + +I obeyed the order, and thus ran the missive, my honored father adding +a running commentary at every important passage; shall place them in +italics-- + +"'MY DEAR NEPHEW,'" + +"_Oh, ---- her affection!_" + +"'If, by a merciful dispensation, I shall be permitted to have a few +spiritual minded friends to-morrow, at four o'clock, at dinner--'" + +"_Temps militaire--they won't fail you, my old girl._" + +"'I shall then have reached an age to which few arrive--look to the +psalm--namely, to eighty--'" + +"_She's eighty-three_--" + +"'I have, under the mercy of Providence, and the ministry of a +chosen vessel, the Reverend Carter Kettlewell, and also a worshiping +Christian learned in the law, namely, Mr. Selby Sly, put my earthly +house in order. Would that spiritual preparation could he as easily +accomplished; but yet I feel well convinced that mine is a state of +grace, and Mr. Kettlewell gives me a comfortable assurance that in me +the old man if crucified--'" + +"_Did you ever listen to such rascally cant?_" + +"'I have given instructions to Mr. Sly to make my will, and Mr. +Kettlewell has kindly consented to be the trustee and executor--" + +"_Now comes the villainy, no doubt_" + +"'I have devised--may the offering be graciously received!--all that +I shall die possessed of to make an addition to support those devoted +soldiers--not, dear nephew, soldiers in your carnal meaning of the +word--but the ministers of the gospel, who labor in New Zealand. These +inestimable men, whose courage is almost supernatural, and who--'" + +"_Pish--what an old twaddler!_" + +"'Although annually eaten by converted cannibals, still press forward +at the trumpet-call--"' + +"_I wonder what sort of a grill old Kate would make? cursed tough, I +fancy._" + +"'I have added my mite to a fund already established to send +assistance there--'" + +"_Ay, to Christianize, and, in return, be carbonadoed. I wish I had +charge of the gridiron I would broil one or two of the new recruits._" + +"'I have called in, under Mr. Sly's advice the mortgage granted to +the late Sir George O'Gorman, by my ever-to-be-lamented husband, and +the other portions of my property being in state securities, are +reclaimable at once. My object in writing this letter is to convey to +my dear nephew my heartfelt prayers for his spiritual amendment, and +also to intimate that the 2000l.--a rent-charge on he Kilnavaggart +property--with the running quarter's interest, shall be paid at La +Touche's to the order of Messrs. Kettlewell and Sly. As the blindness +of the New Zealanders is deplorable, and as Mr. Kettlewell has already +enlisted some gallant champions who will blow the gospel-trumpet, +although they were to be served up to supper the same evening, I wish +the object to be carried out at once--'" + +"_Beautiful!_" said my poor father with a groan; "_where the devil +could the money be raised? You won't realize now for a bullock what, +in war-time, you would get for a calf. Go on with the old harridan's +epistle._" + +"'Having now got rid of fleshly considerations--I mean money ones--let +me, my dear James, offer a word in season. Remember that it comes from +an attached relation, who holds your worldly affairs as nothing--'" + +"_I can't dispute that_," said my father with a smothered groan. + +"'But would turn your attention to the more important considerations +of our being. I would not lean too heavily upon the bruised reed, but +your early life was anything but evangelical--'" + +Constance laughed; she could not, wild girl, avoid it. + +"'We must all give an account of our stewardship,' _vide_ St. Luke, +chap. xvi.--'" + +"_Stop--Shakspeare's right; when the devil quotes Scripture--but, go +on--let's have the whole dose._" + +"'When can you pay the money in? And, oh! in you, my dear nephew, may +grace yet fructify, and may you be brought, even at the eleventh hour, +to a slow conviction that all on this earth is vanity and vexation +of spirit--drums, colors, scarlet and fine linen, hounds running +after hares, women whirling round, as they tell me they do, in that +invention of the evil one called a waltz, all these are but delusions +of the enemy, and designed to lead sinners to destruction. I +transcribe a verse from a most affecting hymn, composed by that gifted +man--'" + +"_Oh, d----n the hymn!_" roared my father; "_on with you, Frank, and +my benison light on the composer of it! Don't stop to favor us with +his name, and pass over the filthy doggerel!_" + +I proceeded under orders accordingly. + +"'Remember, James, you are now sixty-one; repent, and, even in the +eleventh hour, you may be plucked like a brand from the fire. Avoid +swearing, mortify the flesh--that is, don't take a third tumbler after +dinner--'" + +My father could not stand it longer. "_Oh, may Cromwell's curse light +upon her! I wonder how many glasses of brandy-and-water she swallows +at evening exercise, as she calls it, over a chapter of Timothy?_" + +"'I would not recall the past, but for the purpose of wholesome +admonition. The year before you married, and gave up the godless life +of soldiering, can you forget that I found you, at one in the morning +in Bridget Donovan's room? Your reason was, that you had got the +colic; if you had, why not come to my chamber, where you knew there +was laudanum and lavender? + +Poor Constance could not stand the fresh allegation; and, while my +mother looked very grave, we laughed, as Scrub says, "consumedly." My +father muttered something about "cursed nonsense!" but I am inclined +to think that aunt Catharine's colic charge was not without some +foundation. + +"'I have now, James, discharged my duty: may my humble attempts to +arouse you to a sense of the danger of standing on the brink of the +pit of perdition be blessed! Pay the principal and interest over to La +Touche. Mr. Selby Sly hinted that a foreclosure of the mortgage might +expedite matters; and, by saving a term or two in getting in the +money, two or three hundred New Zealanders would--and oh, James! how +gratifying would be the reflection!--be saved from the wrath to come. + +"'This morning, on looking over your marriage settlement, Mr. Sly is +of opinion that, if Mrs. Hamilton will renounce certain rights he can +raise the money at once, and that too only at legal interest, say six +per cent.--'" + +Often had I witnessed a paternal explosion; but, when it was hinted +that the marital rights of my poor mother were to be sacrificed, his +fury amounted almost to madness. + +"Damnation!" he exclaimed; "confusion light upon the letter and the +letter-writer! You!--do you an act to invalidate your settlement! +I would see first every canting vagabond in----" and he named a +disagreeable locality. "Never, Mary! pitch that paper away: I dread +that at the end of it the old lunatic will inflict her benediction. +Frank, pack your traps--you must catch the mail to-night; you'll be +in town by eight o'clock to-morrow morning. Be at Sly's office at +nine. D----n the gout!--I should have done the job myself. Beat the +scoundrel as nearly to death as you think you can conscientiously +go without committing absolute murder: next, pay a morning visit to +Kettlewell, and, if you leave him in a condition to mount the pulpit +for a month, I'll never acknowledge you. Break that other seal; +Probably, the contents may prove as agreeable as old Kitty's." + +There were times and moods when, in Byron's language, it was judicious +to reply "Psha! to hear is to obey," and this was such a period. +I broke the black wax, and the epistle proved to be from the very +gentleman whom I was to be dispatched per mail to qualify next morning +for surgical assistance. + +"Out with it!" roared my father, as I unclosed the foldings of the +paper; "What is the signature? I remember that my uncle Hector always +looked at the name attached to a letter when he unclosed the post-bag; +and if the handwriting looked like an attorney's he flung it, without +reading a line, into the fire." + +"This letter, sir, is subscribed 'Selby Sly.'" + +"Don't burn it, Frank, read. Well, there is one comfort that Selby +Sly shall have to-morrow evening a collection of aching ribs, if the +Hamiltons are not degenerated: read, man," and, as usual, there was a +running comment on the text. + +"'Dublin,--March, 1818. + +"'Colonel Hamilton,--Sir, + +"'It is my melancholy duty to inform you--'" + +"_That you have foreclosed the mortgage. Frank, if you don't break a +bone or two, I'll never acknowledge you again._" + +"'That my honored and valued client and patroness, Mrs. Catharine +O'Gorman, suddenly departed this life at half-past six o'clock, P.M., +yesterday evening, when drinking a glass of sherry, and holding sweet +and spiritual converse with the Reverend Carter Kettlewell.'" + +"_It's all up, no doubt: the canting scoundrels have secured her--or, +as blackguard gamblers say, have 'made all' safe?_" + +"'She has died intestate, although a deed, that would have +immortalized her memory, was engrossed, and ready for signature. +Within an hour after she went to receive her reward--'" + +My father gave a loud hurrah! "_Blessed be Heaven that the rout came +before the old fool completed the New Zealand business!_" + +"'As heir-at-law, you are in direct remainder, and the will, not being +executed, is merely wastepaper: but, from the draft, the intentions +of your inestimable aunt can clearly be discovered. Although not +binding in law, let me say there is such a thing as Christian +equity that should guide you. The New Zealand bequest, involving a +direct application of 10,000l. to meet the annual expenditure of +gospel-soldiers--there being a constant drain upon these sacred +harbingers of peace, from the native fancy of preferring a deviled +missionary to a stewed kangaroo--that portion of the intended +testament I would not press upon you. But the intentional behests of +500l. to the Rev. Carter Kettlewell, the same sum to myself, and an +annuity to Miss Grace Lightbody of 50l. a year, though not recoverable +in law, under these circumstances should be faithfully confirmed. + +"'It may be gratifying to acquaint you with some particulars of the +last moments of your dear relative, and one of the most devout, nay, +I may use the term safely, evangelical elderly gentlewomen for whom I +have had the honor to transact business.'" + +"_Stop, Frank. Pass over the detail. It might be too affecting._" + +"'I await your directions for the funeral. My lamented friend and +client had erected a catacomb in the Siloam Chapel, and in the +minister's vault, and she frequently expressed a decided wish that +her dust might repose with faithful servants, who, in season and out +of season, fearlessly grappled with the man of sin, who is arrayed +in black, and the woman who sitteth on the seven hills, dressed in +scarlet.'" + +"_Hang the canting vagabond--why not call people by their proper +titles; name Old Nick at once, and the lady whose soubriquet +is unmentionable, but who, report says, has a town residence in +Babylon._" + +Constance and I laughed; my mother, as usual, looking demure and +dignified. Another twinge of the gout altogether demolished the +commander's temper. + +"_Stop that scoundrel's jargon. Run your eye over the remainder, and +tell me what the fellow's driving at._" + +I obeyed the order. + +"Simply, sir, Mr. Sly desires to know whether you have any objection +to old Kitty taking peaceable possession of her catacomb in the Dublin +gospel-shop which she patronized, or would you prefer that she were +'pickled and sent home,' as Sir Lucius says." + +"Heaven forbid that I should interfere with her expressed wishes," +said my father. "I suppose there's 'snug lying' in Siloam; and there's +one thing certain, that the company who occupy the premises are quite +unobjectionable. Kitty will be safer there. Lord! if the gentleman in +black, or the red lady of the seven hills attempted a felonious entry +on her bivouac, what a row the saintly inmates would kick up! It would +be a regular 'guard, turn out!' And what chance would scarlatina and +old clooty have? No, no, she'll be snug there in her sentry-box. What +a blessed escape from ruin! Mary, dear, make me another tumbler, and +d----n the gout!"--he had a sharp twinge. "I'll drink 'here's luck!' +Frank, go pack your kit, and instead of demolishing Selby Sly, see +Kitty decently sodded. Your mother, Constance, and myself will rumble +after you to town by easy stages. I wonder how aunt Catherine will +cut up. If she has left as much cash behind as she has lavished good +advice in her parting epistle, by--" and my father did ejaculate +a regular rasper--"I'll re-purchase the harriers, as I have got +a whisper that poor Dick was cleaned out the last meeting at the +Curragh, and the pack is in the market." + + + * * * * * + +CHAPTER III. + + "I have _tremor cordis_ on me."--_Winter's Tale_. + +It is a queer world after all; manifold are its ups and downs, +and life is but a medley of fair promise, excited hope, and bitter +disappointment. + +Never did a family party start for the metropolis with gayer hearts, +or on a more agreeable mission. Our honored relative (_authoritate_ +the Methodist Magazine) had "shuffled off" in the best marching order +imaginable. Before the rout had arrived, her house had been perfectly +arranged, but her will, "wo [**Unreadable] day," was afterward found +to be too informal. It was hinted that the mission to Timbuctoo, +although not legally binding on the next of kin, should be considered +a sacred injunction and first lien on the estates. In a religious +light, according to the Reverend Mr. Sharpington, formalities were +unnecessary; but my father observed, _sotto voce_, in reply, and in +the plain vernacular of the day, what in modern times would have been +more figuratively expressed, namely, "Did not the gospel-trumpeters +wish they might get it!" The kennel, whose door for two years had not +been opened, was again unlocked; whitewashing and reparations were +extensively ordered; a prudent envoy was dispatched to re-purchase the +pack, which, _rebut egenis_, had been laid down, and the colonel, in +his "mind's eye," and oblivious of cloth shoes, once more was up to +his knees in leather,[2] and taking everything in the shape of fence +and brook, just as the Lord pleased to dispose them. + +A cellar census was next decided on, and by a stout exertion, and at +the same time with a heavy heart, my father hobbled down the stone +steps and entered an underground repertorium, which once he took +much pride in visiting. Alas! its glory had departed; the empty bins +were richly fringed with cobwebbed tapestries, and silently admitted +a non-occupancy by bottles for past years. The colonel sighed. He +remembered his grandfather's parting benediction. Almost in infancy, +malignant fever within one brief week had deprived him of both +parents, and a chasm in direct succession was thus created. A summons +from school was unexpectedly received, and although the young heir and +the courier borrowed liberally from the night, it was past cock-crow +when they reached their destination. + +The old gentleman was "in articulo," or as sailors would say, he was +already "hove short," and ready to trip his anchor. + +"Up stairs, master Frank," exclaimed the old butler to my father, "the +general will be in heaven in half an hour, glory to the Virgin!" + +I shall never forget my fathers description of the parting scene. +Propped by half a dozen pillows, the old man gasped hard for breath, +but the appearance of his grandson appeared to rouse the dormant +functions of both mind and body; and although there were considerable +breaks between each sentence, he thus delivered his valedictory +advice. Often has the departure of Commodore Trunnion been recalled to +memory by the demise of my honored relative. + +"Frank," said the old fox-hunter to my father, "the summons is come, +as we used to say when I was a dragoon, to 'boot and saddle.' I told +the doctor a month ago that my wind was touched, but he would have it +that I was only a whistler." + +He paused for breath. + +"The best horse that ever bore pig-skin on his back, won't stand too +many calls--ugh! ugh! ugh!" + +Another pause. + +"I bless God that my conscience is tolerably clean. Widow or orphan I +never wronged intentionally, and the heaviest item booked against me +overhead is Dick Sommer's death. Well, he threw a decanter, as was +proved upon the trial to the satisfaction of judge and jury; and you +know, after that, nothing but the daisy[3] would do. I leave you four +honest weight carriers, and as sweet a pack as ever ran into a red +rascal without a check. Don't be extravagant in my wake." + +Another interruption in the parting address. + +"A fat heifer, half a dozen sheep, and the puncheon of Rasserea that's +in the cellar untouched, should do the thing genteelly. It's only +a couple of nights you know, as you'll sod me the third morning. +Considering that I stood two contests for the county, an action for +false imprisonment by a gauger, never had a lock on the hall door, +kept ten horses at rack and manger, and lived like a gentleman. To the +L5,000 for which my poor father dipped the estate I have only after +all added L10,000 more, which, as Attorney Rowland said, showed that I +was a capital manager. Well, you can pay both off easily." + +Another fit of coughing distressed my grandfather sorely. + +"Go to the waters--any place in England will answer. If you will stand +tallow or tobacco, you can in a month or two wipe old scores off the +slate. Sir Roderick O'Boyl, when he was so hard pushed as to be driven +over the bridge of Athlone in a coffin to avoid the coroner,[4] didn't +he, and in less than a twelvemonth too, bring over a sugar-baker's +daughter, pay off encumbrances, and live and die like a gentleman as +he was every inch? I have not much to leave you but some advice, Frank +dear, and after I slip my girths remember what I say. When you're +likely to get into trouble, always take the bull by the horns, and +when you're in for a stoup, never mix liquors or sit with your back +to the fire. If you're obliged to go out, be sure to fight across the +ridges, and if you can manage it, with the sun at your back. Ugh! ugh! +ugh!" + +"In crossing a country, choose the--" + +Another coughing fit, and a long hiatus in valedictory instructions +succeeded, but the old man, as they say in hunting, got second wind, +and thus proceeded-- + +"Never fence a ditch when a gate is open--avoid late hours and +attorneys--and the less you have to say to doctors, all the +better--ugh! ugh! ugh! When it's your misfortune to be in company +with an old maid--I mean a reputed one--ugh! ugh! always be on the +muzzle--for in her next issue of scandal she'll be sure to quote +you as her authority. If a saint comes in your way, button your +breeches-pocket, and look now and then at your watch-chain. I'm +brought nearly to a fix, for bad bellows won't stand long speeches." + +Here the ripple in his speech, which disturbed Commodore Trunnion so +much, sorely afflicted my worthy grandfather. He muttered something +that a snaffle was the safest bit a sinner could place faith +in--assumed the mantle of prophecy--foretold, as it would appear, +troublous times to be in rapid advent--and inculcated that faith +should be placed in heaven, and powder kept very dry. + +He strove to rally and reiterate his counsels for my father's +guidance, but strength was wanting. The story of a life was told--he +swayed on one side from the supporting pillows--and in a minute more +the struggle was over. Well, peace to his ashes! We'll leave him in +the family vault, and start with a party for the metropolis, who, in +the demise of our honored kinswoman, had sustained a heavy loss, but +notwithstanding, endured the visitation with Christian fortitude and +marvelous resignation. + +_Place au dames_. My lady-mother had been a beauty in her day, and +for a dozen years after her marriage, had seen her name proudly and +periodically recorded by George Faukiner, in the thing he called +a journal, which, in size, paper, and typography, might emulate a +necrologic affair cried loudly through the streets of London, "i' the +afternoon" of a hanging Monday, containing much important information, +whether the defunct felon had made his last breakfast simply from tea +and toast, or whether Mr. Sheriff ---- had kindly added mutton-chops +to the _dejeuner_, while his amiable lady furnished new-laid eggs from +the family corn-chandler. But to return to my mother. + +Ten years had passed, and her name had not been hallooed from groom +to groom on a birth-day night, while the pearl neck-lace, a bridal +present, and emeralds, an heir-loom from her mother, remained in +strict abeyance. Now and again their cases were unclosed, and a +sigh accompanied the inspection--for sad were their reminiscences. +_Olim_--her name was chronicled on Patrick's night, by every Castle +reporter. They made, it is to be lamented, as Irish reporters will +make, sad mistakes at times. The once poor injured lady had been +attired in canary-colored lute-string, and an ostrich plume remarkable +for its enormity while she, the libeled one, had been becomingly +arrayed in blue bombazine, and of any plumage imported from Araby the +blest, was altogether innocent. + +A general family movement was decided on. My aunt's demise required, +my father's presence in the metropolis. My mother's wardrobe demanded +an extensive addition,--for, sooth to say, her costume had become, as +far as fashion went, rather antediluvian. Constance announced that a +back-tooth called for professional interference. May heaven forgive +her if she fibbed!--for a dental display of purer ivory never slily +solicited a lover's kiss, than what her joyous laugh exhibited. My +poor mother entered a protest against the "_spes ultima gregis_," +meaning myself, being left at home in times so perilous, and when +all who could effect it were hurrying into garrisoned towns, and +abandoning, for crowded lodgings, homes whose superior comforts were +abated by their insecurity. The order for a general movement was +consequently issued, and on the 22d of June we commenced our journey +to the capital. + +With all the precision of a commissary-general, my father had +regulated the itinerary. Here, we were to breakfast, there, dine, +and this hostelrie was to be honored with our sojourn during the +night-season. Man wills, fate decrees, and in our case the old saw was +realized. + +It will be necessary to remark that a conspiracy that had been +hatching for several years, from unforeseen circumstances had now +been prematurely exploded. My father, with more _hardiesse_ than +discretion, declined following the general example of abandoning +his home for the comparative safety afforded by town and city. +Coming events threw their shadow before, and too unequivocally to +be mistaken, but still he sported _deaf adder_. In confidential +communication with Dublin Castle, all known there touching the +intended movements of the disaffected was not concealed from him. +He was, unfortunately, the reverse of an alarmist--proud of his +popularity--read his letters--drew his inferences--and came to +prompt conclusions. Through his lawyer, a house ready-furnished in +Leeson-street was secured. His plate and portable valuables were +forwarded to Dublin, and reached their destination safely. Had our +hearts been where the treasure was, we should, as in prudence bound, +have personally accompanied the silver spoons--but the owner, like +many an abler commander, played the waiting game too long. A day +sooner would have saved some trouble--but my father had carried habits +of absolute action into all the occurrences of daily life. Indecision +is, in character, a sad failure, but his weak point ran directly in +an opposite direction. He thought, weighed matters hastily, decided in +five minutes, and that decision once made, _coute qui coute_, must be +carried out to the very letter. He felt all the annoyance of leaving +the old roof-tree and its household gods--conflicting statements from +the executive--false information from local traitors--an assurance +from the priest that no immediate danger might be expected--these, +united to a yearning after home, rendered his operations rather +Fabian. The storm burst, however, while he still hesitated, or rather, +the burning of the mail-coaches and the insurrection were things +simultaneous--and my father afterward discovered that he, like many a +wiser man, had waited a day too long. + +Whether the colonel might have dallied still longer is mere +conjecture, when a letter marked "haste" was delivered by an orderly +dragoon, and in half an hour the "leathern conveniency" was rumbling +down the avenue. + +The journey of the Wronghead family to London--if I recollect the +pleasant comedy that details it correctly--was effected without the +occurrence of any casualty beyond some dyspeptic consequences to the +cook from over-eating. Would that our migration to the metropolis had +been as fortunately accomplished! + +We started early; and on reaching the town where we were to breakfast +and exchange our own for post-horses, found the place in feverish +excitement. A hundred anxious inquirers were collected in the +market-place. Three hours beyond the usual time of the mail-delivery +had elapsed,--wild rumors were spread abroad,--a general rising +in Leinster was announced,--and the non-arrival of the post had an +ominous appearance, and increased the alarm. + +We hurried over the morning meal,--the horses were being put to,--the +ladies already in the carriage,--when a dragoon rode in at speed, and +the worst apprehensions we had entertained were more than realized +by this fresh arrival. The mail-coach had been plundered and burned, +while everywhere, north, east, and west, as it was stated, the rebels +were in open insurrection,--all communication with Dublin was cut +off,--and any attempt to reach the metropolis would have been only an +act of madness. + +Another express from the south came in. Matters there were even worse. +The rebels had risen _en masse_ and committed fearful devastation. +The extent of danger in attempting to reach the capital, or return to +his mansion, were thus painfully balanced; and my father considering +that, as sailors say, the choice rested between the devil and the deep +sea, decided on remaining where he was, as the best policy under all +circumstances. + +The incompetency of the Irish engineering staff, and a defective +commissariat, at that time was most deplorable; and although the town +of ---- was notoriously disaffected, the barrack chosen, temporarily, +to accommodate the garrison--a company of militia--was a thatched +building, two stories high, and perfectly commanded by houses in front +and rear. The captain in charge of the detachment knew nothing of his +trade, and had been hoisted to a commission in return for the use of +a few freeholders. The Irish read character quickly. They saw at a +glance the marked imbecility of the devoted man; and by an imposition, +from which any but an idiot would have recoiled, trapped the silly +victim and, worse still, sacrificed those who had been unhappily +intrusted to his direction. + +That the express had ridden hard was evident from the distressed +condition of his horse; and the intelligence he brought deranged my +father's plans entirely. Any attempt either to proceed or to return, +as it appeared, would be hazardous alike; and nothing remained but to +halt where he was, until more certain information touching the rebel +operations should enable him to decide which would be the safest +course of action to pursue. He did not communicate the extent of his +apprehensions to the family,--affected an air of indifference he did +not feel,--introduced himself to the commanding officer on parade, and +returned to the inn in full assurance that, in conferring a commission +on a man so utterly ignorant of the trade he had been thrust into as +Captain --- appeared to be, "the King's press had been abused most +damnably." + +The Colonel had a singular quality,--that of personal remembrance; and +even at the distance of years he would recall a man to memory, even +had the former acquaintance been but casual. Passing through the inn +yard, his quick eye detected in the ostler a _quondam_ stable-boy. To +avoid the consequences attendant on a fair riot which had ended, "_ut +mos est_," in homicide, the ex-groom had fled the country, and, as it +was reported and believed, sought an asylum in the "land of the free" +beyond the Atlantic, which, privileged like the Cave of Abdullum, +conveniently flings her stripes and stars over all that are in debt +and all that are in danger. Little did the fugitive groom desire now +to recall "lang syne," and renew a former acquaintance. But my father +was otherwise determined; and stepping carelessly up, he tapped his +old domestic on the shoulder, and at once addressed him by name. + +The ostler turned deadly pale, but in a moment the Colonel dispelled +his alarm. + +"You have nothing to apprehend from me, Pat. He who struck the blow, +which was generally laid to your charge, confessed when dying that +he was the guilty man, and that you were innocent of all blame beyond +mixing in the affray." + +Down popped the suspected culprit on his knees, and in a low but +earnest voice he returned thanks to heaven. + +"I understood you had gone to America, or I would have endeavored in +some way to have apprised you, that a murderer by report, you were but +a rioter in reality." + +"I did go there. Colonel, but I could not rest. I knew that I was +innocent: but who would believe my oath? I might have done well enough +there; but I don't know why, the ould country was always at my heart, +and I used to cry when I thought of the mornings that I whipped in the +hounds, and the nights that I danced merrily in the servants' hall, +when piper or fiddler came,--and none left the house without meat, +drink, and money, and a blessing on the hand that gave it." + +"What brought you here, so close to your former home, and so likely to +be recognized?" + +"To see if I couldn't clear myself, and get ye'r honor to take me +back. Mark that dark man! He's owner of this horse. Go to the bottom +of the garden, and I'll be with you when he returns to the house +again." + +My father walked carelessly away, unclosed the garden gate, and left +the dark stranger with his former whipper-in. Throwing himself on a +bench in a rude summer-house, he began to think over the threatening +aspect of affairs, and devise, if he could, some plan to deliver his +family from the danger, which on every side it became too evident was +alarmingly impending. + +He was speedily rejoined by his old domestic. + +"Marked ye that dark man well?" + +"Yes; and a devilish suspicious-looking gentleman he is." + +"His looks do not belie him. No matter whatever may occur through it, +you must quit the town directly. Call for post-horses, and as mine is +the first turn, I'll be postillion. Don't show fear or suspicion--and +leave the rest to me. Beware of the landlord--he's a colonel of +the rebels, and a bloodier-minded villain is not unhanged. Hasten +in--every moment is worth gold--and when the call comes, the horses +will be to the carriage in the cracking of a whip, Don't notice me, +good or bad." + +He spoke, hopped over the garden hedge to reach the back of the +stables unperceived, while I proceeded along the gate; it was opened +by the host in person. He started; but, with assumed indifference, +observed, "What sad news the dragoon has brought!" + +"I don't believe the half of it. These things are always exaggerated. +Landlord, I'll push on a stage or two, and the worst that can happen +is to return, should the route prove dangerous. I know that here I +have a safe shelter to fall back upon." + +"Safe!" exclaimed the innkeeper. "All the rabble in the country would +not venture within miles of where ye are; and, notwithstanding bad +reports, there's not a loyaler barony in the county. Faith! Colonel, +although it may look very like seeking custom, I would advise you +to keep your present quarters. You know the old saying, 'Men may +go farther and fare worse.' I had a lamb killed when I heard of the +rising, and specially for your honor's dinner. Just look into the barn +as ye pass. Upon my conscience! it's a curiosity!" + +He turned back with me; but before we reached the place, the dark +stranger I had seen before beckoned from a back window. + +"Ha! an old and worthy customer wants me." + +Placing his crooked finger in his mouth. he gave a loud and piercing +whistle. The _quondam_ whipper appeared at a stable-door with a +horse-brush in his hand. + +"Pat, show his honor that born beauty I killed for him this morning." + +"Coming, Mr. Scully--I beg ye'r honor's pardon--but ye know that +business must be minded," he said, and hurried off. + +No man assumes the semblance of indifference, and masks his feelings +more readily than an Irishman, and Pat Loftus was no exception to his +countrymen. When summoned by the host's whistle, he came to the door +lilting a planxty merrily,--but when he re-entered the stable, the +melody ceased, and his countenance became serious. + +"I hid behind the straw, yonder, Colonel, and overheard every syllable +that passed, and under the canopy bigger villains are not than the two +who are together now. There's no time for talking--all's ready," and +he pointed to the harnessed post-horses, "Go in, keep an eye open, and +close mouth--order the carriage round--all is packed--and when we're +clear of the town I'll tell you more." + +When my father's determination was made known, feelingly did the host +indicate the danger of the attempt, and to his friendly remonstrances +against wayfaring, Mr. Scully raised a warning voice. But my father +was decisive--Pat Loftus trotted to the door--some light luggage was +placed in the carriage, and three brace of pistols deposited in its +pockets. A meaning look was interchanged between the innkeeper and his +fellow-guest. + +"Colonel," said the former, "I hope you will not need the tools. If +you do, the fault will be all your own." + +"If required," returned my father, "I'll use them to the best +advantage." + +The villains interchanged a smile. + +"Pat," said the host to the postillion, "you know the safest road--do +what I bid ye--and keep his honor out of trouble if ye can." + +"Go on," shouted my father--the whip cracked smartly, and off rolled +the carriage. + +For half a mile we proceeded at a smart pace, until at the junction of +the three roads, Loftus took the one which the finger-post indicated +was not the Dublin one. My father called out to stop, but the +postillion hurried on, until high hedges, and a row of ash-trees at +both sides, shut in the view. He pulled up suddenly. + +"Am I not an undutiful servant to disobey the orders of so good +a master as Mr. Dogherty? First, I have not taken the road he +recommended--and, secondly, instead of driving this flint into a +horse's frog, I have carried it in my pocket," and he jerked the stone +away. + +"Look to your pistols, Colonel. In good old times your arms, I +suspect, would have been found in better order." + +The weapons were examined, and every pan had been saturated with +water. "Never mind, I'll clean them well at night: it's not the first +time. But, see the dust yonder! I dare not turn back, and I am half +afraid to go on. Ha--glory to the Virgin! dragoons, ay, and, as I see +now, they are escorting Lord Arlington's coach. Have we not the luck +of thousands?" + +He cracked his whip, and at the junction of a cross-road fell in with +and joined the travelers. My father was well known to his lordship, +who expressed much pleasure that the journey to the capital should be +made in company. + +Protected by relays of cavalry, we reached the city in safety, not, +however, without one or two hair-breadth escapes from molestation. +Everything around told that the insurrection had broken out: +church-bells rang, dropping shots now and then were heard, and houses, +not very distant, were wrapped in flames. Safely, however, we passed +through manifold alarms, and at dusk entered the fortified barrier +erected on one of the canal bridges, which was jealously guarded by a +company of Highlanders and two six-pounders. Brief shall be a summary +of what followed. While the tempest of rebellion raged, we remained +safely in the capital. Constance and I were over head and ears in +love; but another passion struggled with me for mastery. Youth is +always pugnacious; like Norval, + + "I had heard of battles, and had longed + To follow to the field some warlike" + +colonel of militia, and importuned my father to obtain a commission, +and, like Laertes, "wrung a slow consent." The application was made; +and, soon after breakfast, the butler announced that my presence was +wanted in the drawing-room. I repaired thither, and there found my +father, his fair dame, and my cousin Constance. + +"Well, Frank, I have kept my promise, and, in a day or two, I shall +have a captain's commission for you. Before, however, I place myself +under an obligation to Lord Carhampton, let me propose an alternative +for your selection." + +I shook my head. "And what may that be, sir?" + +"A wife." + +"A wife!" I exclaimed. + +"Yes, that is the plain offer. You shall have, however, a free liberty +of election: read that letter." + +I threw my eye over it hastily. It was from the Lord Lieutenant's +secretary, to say that his excellency felt pleasure in placing a +company in the ---- militia, at Colonel Hamilton's disposal. "There is +the road to fame open as a turnpike trust. Come hither, Constance, and +here is the alternative." She looked at me archly, I caught her to my +heart, and kissed her red lips. + +"Father!" + +"Well, Frank." + +"You may write a polite letter to the Castle, and decline the +commission." + +Half a century has passed, but ninety-eight is still, by oral +communications, well known to the Irish peasant; and would that its +horrors carried with them salutary reminiscences! But to my own story. + +Instead of fattening beeves, planting trees, clapping vagabonds "i' +th' stocks," and doing all and everything that appertaineth to a +country gentleman, and also, the queen's poor esquire, I might have, +until the downfall of Napoleon, and the reduction of the militia, +events cotemporaneous, smelt powder on the Phoenix Park on field days, +and like Hudibras, of pleasant memory, at the head of a charge of +foot, "rode forth a coloneling." In place, however, of meddling with +cold iron, I yielded to "metal more attractive," and in three months +became a Benedict, and in some dozen more a papa. + +In the mean time, rebellion was bloodily put down, and on my lady's +recovery, my father, whose yearning for a return to the old roof-tree +was irresistible, prepared for our departure from the metropolis. + +Curiously enough, we passed through Prosperous, exactly on the +anniversary of the day when we had so providentially effected an +invasion from certain destruction. Were aught required to elicit +gratitude for a fortunate escape, two objects, and both visible +from the inn windows, would have been sufficient. One was a mass +of blackened ruins--the scathed walls of the barrack, in which the +wretched garrison had been so barbarously done to death: the other +a human head impaled upon a spike on the gable of the building. That +blanched skull had rested on the shoulders of our traitor host, and +we, doomed to "midnight murder," were mercifully destined to witness a +repulsive, but just evidence, that Providence interposes often between +the villain and the victim. + +I am certain that in my physical construction, were an analysis +practicable, small would be the amount of heroic proportions which +the most astute operator would detect. I may confess the truth, and +say, that in "lang syne," any transient ebullition of military ardor +vanished at a glance from Constance's black eye. The stream of time +swept on, and those that were, united their dust with those that had +been. In a short time my letter of readiness may be expected; and I +shall, in nature's course, after the last march, as Byron says, ere +long + + "Take my rest." + +And will the succession end with me? Tell it not to Malthes, nor +whisper it to Harriet Martineau. There is no prospect of advertising +for the next of kin, i.e. if five strapping boys and a couple of the +fair sex may be considered a sufficient security. + +[Footnote 2: An Irish term for wearing jockey-boots.] + +[Footnote 3: An Irish gentleman shot in a duel in lang syne, was +poetically described as having been left "quivering on a daisy."] + +[Footnote 4: In Ireland this functionary's operations are not confined +to the dead, but extend very disagreeably to the living.] + + * * * * * + +No money is better spent than what is laid out for domestic +satisfaction. A man is pleased that his wife is dressed as well +as other people, and the wife is pleased that she is so well +dressed.--_Dr. Johnson._ + + * * * * * + + +THE IVORY MINE: + +A TALE OF THE FROZEN SEA. + + +IV.--THE FROZEN SEA. + +Ivan soon found himself received into the best society of the place. +All were glad to welcome the adventurous trader from Yakoutsk; and +when he intimated that his boxes of treasure, his brandy and tea, and +rum and tobacco, were to be laid out in the hire of dogs and sledges, +he found ample applicants, though, from the very first, all refused +to accompany his party as guardians of the dogs. Sakalar, however, +who had expected this, was nothing daunted, but, bidding Ivan amuse +himself as best he could, undertook all the preparations. But Ivan +found as much pleasure in teaching what little he knew to Kolina as +in frequenting the fashionable circles of Kolimsk. Still, he could not +reject the numerous polite invitations to evening parties and dances +which poured upon him. I have said evening parties, for though there +was no day, yet still the division of the hours was regularly kept, +and parties began at five P.M., to end at ten. There was singing and +dancing, and gossip and tea, of which each individual would consume +ten or twelve large cups; in fact, despite the primitive state of the +inhabitants, and the vicinity to the Polar Sea, these assemblies very +much resembled in style those of Paris and London. The costumes, the +saloons, and the hours, were different, while the manners were less +refined, but the facts were the same. + +When the carnival came round, Ivan, who was a little vexed at the +exclusion of Kolina from the fashionable Russian society, took care +to let her have the usual amusement of sliding down a mountain of ice, +which she did to her great satisfaction. But he took care also at all +times to devote to her his days, while Sakalar wandered about from +yourte to yourte in search of hints and information for the next +winter's journey. He also hired the requisite _nartas_, or sledges, +and the thirty-nine dogs which were to draw them, thirteen to each. +The he bargained for a large stock of frozen and dry fish for the +dogs, and other provisions for themselves. But what mostly puzzled +the people were his assiduous efforts to get a man to go with them +who would harness twenty dogs to an extra sledge. To the astonishment +of everybody, three young men at last volunteered, and three extra +sledges were then procured. + +The summer soon came round, and then Ivan and his friends started out +at once with the hunters, and did their utmost to be useful. As the +natives of Kolimsk went during the chase a long distance toward Cape +Sviatoi, the spot where the adventurers were to quit the land and +venture on the Frozen Sea, they took care, at the furthest extremity +of their hunting trip, to leave a deposit of provisions. They erected +a small platform, which they covered with drift wood, and on this +they placed the dried fish. Above were laid heavy stones, and every +precaution used to ward off the isatis and the glutton. Ivan during +the summer added much to his stock of hunting knowledge. + +At length the winter came round once more, and the hour arrived so +long desired. The sledges were ready--six in number, and loaded as +heavily as they could bear. But for so many dogs, and for so many +days, it was quite certain they must economize most strictly; while +it was equally certain, if no bears fell in their way on the journey, +that they must starve, if they did not perish otherwise on the +terrible Frozen Sea. Each narta, loaded with eight hundredweight of +provisions and its driver, was drawn by six pair of dogs and a leader. +They took no wood, trusting implicitly to Providence for this most +essential article. They purposed following the shores of the Frozen +Sea to Cape Sviatoi, because on the edge of the sea they hoped to +find, as usual, plenty of wood, floated to the shore during the brief +period when the ice was broken and the vast ocean in part free. One of +the sledges was less loaded than the rest with provisions, because it +bore a tent, an iron plate for fire on the ice, a lamp, and the few +cooking utensils of the party. + +Early one morning in the month of November--the long night still +lasting--the six sledges took their departure. The adventurers had +every day exercised themselves with the dogs for some hours, and were +pretty proficient. Sakalar drove the first team, Kolina the second, +and Ivan the third. The Kolimak men came afterward. They took their +way along the snow toward the mouth of the Tchouktcha river. The first +day's journey brought them to the extreme limits of vegetation, after +which they entered on a vast and interminable plain of snow, along +which the nartas moved rapidly. But the second day. in the afternoon, +a storm came on. The snow fell in clouds, the wind blew with a +bitterness of cold as searching to the form of man as the hot blast of +the desert, and the dogs appeared inclined to halt. But Sakalar kept +on his way toward a hillock in the distance, where the guides spoke of +a hut of refuge. But before a dozen yards could be crossed, the sledge +of Kolina was overturned, and a halt became necessary. + +Ivan was the first to raise his fair companion from the ground; and +then with much difficulty--their hands, despite all the clothes, +being half-frozen--they again put the nartas in condition to proceed. +Sakalar had not stopped, but was seen in the distance unharnessing his +sledge, and then poking about in a huge heap of snow. He was searching +for the hut, which had been completely buried in the drift. In a few +minutes the whole six were at work, despite the blast, while the dogs +were scratching holes for themselves in the soft snow, within which +they soon lay snug, their noses only out of the hole, while over this +the sagacious brutes put the tip of their long bushy tails. + +At the end of an hour well employed, the hut was freed inside from +snow, and a fire of stunted bushes with a few logs lit in the middle. +Here the whole party cowered, almost choked with the thick smoke, +which, however, was less painful than the blast from the icy sea. The +smoke escaped with difficulty, because the roof was still covered with +firm snow, and the door was merely a hole to crawl through. At last, +however, they got the fire to the state of red embers, and succeeded +in obtaining a plentiful supply of tea and food: after which their +limbs being less stiff, they fed the dogs. + +While they were attending to the dogs, the storm abated, and was +followed by a magnificent aurora borealis. It rose in the north, a +sort of semi-arch of light; and then across the heavens, in almost +every direction, darted columns of a luminous character. The light was +as bright as that of the moon in its full. There were jets of lurid +red light in some places, which disappeared and came again; while +there being a dead calm after the storm, the adventurers heard a kind +of rustling sound in the distance, faint and almost imperceptible, +and yet believed to be the rush of the air in the sphere of the +phenomenon. A few minutes more and all had disappeared. + +After a hearty meal, the wanderers launched into the usual topics +of conversation in those regions. Sakalar was not a boaster, +but the young men from Nijnei-Kolimsk were possessed of the +usual characteristics of hunters and fishermen. They told with +considerable vigor and effect long stories of their adventures, most +exaggerated--and when not impossible, most improbable--of bears killed +in hand to hand combat, of hundreds of deer slain in the crossing of +a river, and of multitudinous heaps of fish drawn in one cast of a +seine: and then, wrapped in their thick clothes and every one's feet +to the fire, the whole party soon slept. Ivan and Kolina, however, +held whispered converse together for a little while, but fatigue soon +overcame even them. + +The next day they advanced still farther toward the pole, and on the +evening of the third camped within a few yards of the great Frozen +Sea. There it lay before them, scarcely distinguishable from the land. +As they looked upon it from a lofty eminence, it was hard to believe +that that was a sea before them. There was snow on the sea and snow on +the land: there were mountains on both, and huge drifts, and here and +there vast _polinas_--a space of soft, watery ice, which resembled the +lakes of Siberia. All was bitter, cold, sterile, bleak, and chilling +to the eye, which vainly sought a relief. The prospect of a journey +over this desolate plain, intersected in every direction by ridges +of mountain icebergs, full of crevices, with soft salt ice here and +there, was dolorous indeed; and yet the heart of Ivan quaked not. He +had now what he sought in view; he knew there was land beyond, and +riches, and fame. + +A rude tent, with snow piled round the edge to keep it firm, was +erected. It needed to be strongly pitched, for in these regions the +blast is more quick and sudden than in any place perhaps in the known +world, pouring down along the fields of ice with terrible force direct +from the unknown caverns of the northern pole. Within the tent, which +was of double reindeer-skin, a fire was lit; while behind a huge rock, +and under cover of the sledges, lay the dogs. As usual, after a hearty +meal, and hot tea--drunk perfectly scalding--the party retired to +rest. About midnight all were awoke by a sense of oppression and +stifling heat. Sakalar rose, and by the light of the remaining +embers scrambled to the door. It was choked up by snow. The hunter +immediately began to shovel it from the narrow hole through which they +entered or left the hut, and then groped his way out. The snow was +falling so thick and fast that the traveling yourte was completely +buried, and the wind being--directly opposite to the door, the snow +had drifted round and concealed the aperture. + +The dogs now began to howl fearfully. This was too serious a warning +to be disdained. They smelt the savage bear of the icy seas, which in +turn had been attracted to them by its sense of smelling. Scarcely +had the sagacious animals given tongue, when Sakalar, through the +thick-falling snow and amid the gloom, saw a dull heavy mass rolling +directly toward the tent. He leveled his gun, and fired, after which +he seized a heavy steel wood-axe, and stood ready. The animal had at +first halted, but next minute he came on growling furiously. Ivan and +Kolina now both fired, when the animal turned and ran. But the dogs +were now round him, and Sakalar behind them. One tremendous blow of +his axe finished the huge beast, and there he lay in the snow. The +dogs then abandoned him, refusing to eat fresh bear's meat, though, +when frozen, they gladly enough accept it. + +The party again sought rest, after lighting an oil-lamp with a thick +wick, which, in default of the fire, diffused a tolerable amount +of warmth in a small place occupied by six people. But they did not +sleep; for though one of the bears was killed, the second of the +almost invariable couple was probably near, and the idea of such +vicinity was anything but agreeable. These huge quadrupeds have been +often known to enter a hut and stifle all its inhabitants. The night +was therefore far from refreshing, and at an earlier hour than usual +all were on foot. Every morning the same routine was followed: hot +tea, without sugar or milk, was swallowed to warm the body; then a +meal, which took the place of dinner, was cooked and devoured; then +the dogs were fed, and then the sledges, which had been inclined on +one side, were placed horizontally. This was always done to water +their keel, to use a nautical phrase; for this water freezing they +glided along all the faster. A portion of the now hard-frozen bear was +given to the dogs, and the rest placed on the sledges, after the skin +had been secured toward making a new covering at night. + +This day's journey was half on the land, half on the sea, according as +the path served. It was generally very rough, and the sledges made but +slow way. The dogs, too, had coverings put on their feet, and on every +other delicate place, which made them less agile. In ordinary cases, +on a smooth surface, it is not very difficult to guide a team of +dogs, when the leader is a first-rate animal. But this is an essential +point, otherwise it is impossible to get along. Every time the dogs +hit on the track of a bear, or fox, or other animal, their hunting +instincts are developed: away they dart like mad, leaving the line of +march, and in spite of all the efforts of the driver, begin the chase. +But if the front dog be well trained, he dashes on on one side, in a +totally opposite direction, smelling and barking as if he had a new +track. If his artifice succeeds, the whole team dart away after him, +and speedily losing the scent, proceed on their journey. + +Sakalar, who still kept ahead of the party, when making a wide circuit +out at sea about midday, at the foot of a steep hill of rather rough +ice, found his dogs suddenly increasing their speed, but in the right +direction. To this he had no objection, though it was very doubtful +what was beyond. However, the dogs darted ahead with terrific +rapidity, until they reached the summit of the hill. The ice was here +very rough and salt, which impeded the advance of the sledge: but +off are the dogs, down a very steep descent, furiously tugging at +the sledge-halter, till away they fly like lightning. The harness had +broken off, and Sakalar remained alone on the crest of the hill. He +leaped off the nartas, and stood looking at it with the air of a man +stunned. The journey seemed checked violently. Next instant, his gun +in hand, he followed the dogs right down the hill, dashing away too +like a madman, in his long hunting-skates. But the dogs were out +of sight, and Sakalar soon found himself opposed by a huge wall of +ice. He looked back; he was wholly out of view of his companions. To +reconnoiter, he ascended the wall as best he could, and then looked +down into a sort of circular hollow of some extent, where the ice was +smooth and even watery. + +He was about to turn away, when his sharp eye detected something +moving, and all his love of the chase was at once aroused. He +recognized the snow-cave of a huge bear. It was a kind of cavern, +caused by the falling together of two pieces of ice, with double +issue. Both apertures the bear had succeeded in stopping up, after +breaking a hole in the thin ice of the sheltered _polina_, or sheet +of soft ice. Here the cunning animal lay in wait. How long he had been +lying it was impossible to say, but almost as Sakalar crouched down +to watch, a seal came to the surface, and lay against the den of its +enemy to breathe. A heavy paw was passed through the hole, and the +sea-cow was killed in an instant. A naturalist would have admired +the wit of the ponderous bear, and passed on; but the Siberian hunter +knows no such thought, and as the animal issued forth to seize his +prey, a heavy ball, launched with unerring aim, laid him low. + +Sakalar now turned away in search of his companions, whose aid was +required to secure a most useful addition to their store of food; and +as he did so, he heard a distant and plaintive howl. He hastened in +the direction, and in a quarter of an hour came to the mouth of a +narrow gut between two icebergs. The stick of the harness had caught +in the fissure, and checked the dogs, who were barking with rage. +Sakalar caught the bridle, which had been jerked out of his hand, +and turned the dogs round. The animals followed his guidance, and he +succeeded, after some difficulty, in bringing them to where lay his +game. He then fastened the bear and seal, both dead and frozen even in +this short time, and joined his companions. + +For several days the same kind of difficulties had to be overcome, and +then they reached the _sayba_, where the provisions had been placed in +the summer. It was a large rude box, erected on piles, and the whole +stock was found safe. As there was plenty of wood in this place they +halted to rest the dogs and re-pack the sledges. The tent was pitched, +and they all thought of repose. They were now about wholly to quit the +land, and to venture in a north-westerly direction on the Frozen Sea. + + * * * * * + +V.--ON THE ICE. + +Despite the fire made on the iron plate in the middle of the tent, +our adventurers found the cold at this point of their journey most +poignant. It was about Christmas; but the exact time of year had +little to do with the matter. The wind was northerly, and keen: and +they often at night had to rise and promote circulation by a good run +on the snow. But early on the third day all was ready for a start. +The sun was seen that morning on the edge of the horizon for a short +while, and promised soon to give them days. Before them were a line +of icebergs, seemingly an impenetrable wall; but it was necessary +to brave them. The dogs, refreshed by two days of rest, started +vigorously, and a plain hill of ice being selected, they succeeded +in reaching its summit. Then before them lay a vast and seemingly +interminable plain. Along this the sledges ran with great speed; and +that day they advanced nearly thirty miles from the land, and camped +on the sea in a valley of ice. + +It was a singular spot. Vast sugar-loaf hills of ice, as old perhaps +as the world, threw their lofty cones to the skies, on all sides, +while they rested doubtless on the bottom of the ocean. Every +fantastic form was there; there seemed in the distance cities and +palaces as white as chalk; pillars and reversed cones, pyramids and +mounds of every shape, valleys and lakes; and under the influence of +the optical delusions of the locality, green fields and meadows, and +tossing seas. Here the whole party rested soundly, and pushed on hard +the next day in search of land. + +Several tracks of foxes and bears were now seen, but no animals +were discovered. The route, however, was changed. Every now and then +newly-formed fields of ice were met, which a little while back had +been floating. Lumps stuck up in every direction, and made the path +difficult. Then they reached a vast polinas, where the humid state of +the surface told that it was thin, and of recent formation. A stick +thrust into it went through. But the adventurers took the only course +left them. The dogs were placed abreast, and then, at a signal, were +launched upon the dangerous surface. They flew rather than ran. It was +necessary, for as they went, the ice cracked in every direction, but +always under the weight of the nartas, which were off before they +could be caught by the bubbling waters. As soon as the solid ice was +again reached, the party halted, deep gratitude to Heaven in their +hearts, and camped for the night. + +But the weather had changed. What is called here the warm wind had +blown all day, and at night a hurricane came on. As the adventurers +sat smoking after supper, the ice beneath their feet trembled, shook, +and then fearful reports bursting on their ears, told them that the +sea was cracking in every direction. They had camped on an elevated +iceberg of vast dimensions, and were for the moment safe. But around +them they heard the rush of waters. The vast Frozen Sea was in one of +its moments of fury. In the deeper seas to the north it never freezes +firmly--in fact there is always an open sea, with floating bergs. When +a hurricane blows, these clear spaces become terribly agitated. Their +tossing waves and mountains of ice act on the solid plains, and break +them up at times. This was evidently the case now. About midnight our +travelers, whose anguish of mind was terrible, felt the great iceberg +afloat. Its oscillations were fearful. Sakalar alone preserved his +coolness. The men of Nijnei Kolimsk raved and tore their hair, crying +that they had been brought willfully to destruction; Kolina kneeled, +crossed herself, and prayed; while Ivan deeply reproached himself as +the cause of so many human beings encountering such awful peril. The +rockings of their icy raft were terrible. It was impelled hither and +thither by even huger masses. Now it remained on its first level, then +its surface presented an angle of nearly forty-five degrees, and it +seemed about to turn bottom up. All recommended themselves to God, +and awaited their fate. Suddenly they were rocked more violently than +ever, and were all thrown down by the shock. Then all was still. + +The hurricane lulled, the wind shifted. snow began to fall, and the +prodigious plain of loose ice again lay quiescent. The bitter frost +soon cemented its parts once more, and the danger was over. The men +of Nijnei Kolimsk now insisted on an instant return; but Sakalar was +firm, and, though their halt had given them little rest, started as +the sun was seen above the horizon. The road was fearfully bad. All +was rough, disjointed, and almost impassable. But the sledges had +good whalebone keels, and were made with great care to resist such +difficulties. The dogs were kept moving all day, but when night came +they had made but little progress. But they rested in peace. Nature +was calm, and morning found them still asleep. But Sakalar was +indefatigable, and as soon as he had boiled a potful of snow, made +tea, and awoke his people. + +They were now about to enter a labyrinth of _toroses_ or icebergs. +There was no plain ground within sight; but no impediment could be +attended to. Bears made these their habitual resorts, while the wolf +skulked every night round the camp, waiting their scanty leavings. +Every eye was stretched in search of game. But the road itself +required intense care, to prevent the sledges overturning. Toward the +afternoon they entered a narrow valley of ice full of drifted snow, +into which the dogs sank, and could scarcely move. At this instant two +enormous white bears presented themselves. The dogs sprang forward; +but the ground was too heavy for them. The hunters, however, were +ready. The bears marched boldly on as if savage from long fasting. +No time was to be lost. Sakalar and Ivan singled out each his animal. +Their heavy ounce balls struck both. The opponent of Sakalar turned +and fled, but that of Ivan advanced furiously toward him. Ivan stood +his ground, axe in hand, and struck the animal a terrible blow on +the muzzle. But as he did so, he stumbled, and the bear was upon him. +Kolina shrieked; Sakalar was away after his prize; but the Kolimsk men +rushed in. Two fired: the third struck the animal with a spear. The +bear abandoned Ivan, and faced his new antagonists. The contest was +now unequal, and before half an hour was over, the stock of provisions +was again augmented, as well as the means of warmth. They had very +little wood, and what they had was used sparingly. Once or twice +a tree, fixed in the ice, gave them additional fuel; but they were +obliged chiefly to count on oil. A small fire was made at night to +cook by; but it was allowed to go out, the tent was carefully closed, +and the caloric of six people, with a huge lamp with three wicks, +served for the rest of the night. + +About the sixth day they struck land. It was a small island, in a bay +of which they found plenty of drift wood. Sakalar was delighted. He +was on the right track. A joyous halt took place, a splendid fire was +made, and the whole party indulged themselves in a glass of rum--a +liquor very rarely touched, from its known tendency to increase rather +than diminish cold. A hole was next broken in the ice, and an attempt +made to catch some seals. Only one, however, rewarded their efforts; +but this, with a supply of wood, filled the empty space made in the +sledges by the daily consumption of the dogs. But the island was +soon found to be infested with bears: no fewer than five, with eleven +foxes, were killed, and then huge fires had to be kept up at night to +drive their survivors away. + +Their provender thus notably increased, the party started in high +spirits; but though they were advancing toward the pole, they were +also advancing toward the Deep Sea, and the ice presented innumerable +dangers. Deep fissures, lakes, chasms, mountains, all lay in their +way; and no game presented itself to their anxious search. Day after +day they pushed on--here making long circuits, there driven back, and +losing sometimes in one day all they had made in the previous twelve +hours. Some fissures were crossed on bridges of ice, which took hours +to make, while every hour the cold seemed more intense. The sun was +now visible for hours, and, as usual in these parts, the cold was more +severe since his arrival. + +At last, after more than twenty days of terrible fatigue, there was +seen looming in the distance what was no doubt the promised land. The +sledges were hurried forward--for they were drawing toward the end of +their provisions--and the whole party was at length collected on the +summit of a lofty mountain of ice. Before them were the hills of New +Siberia; to their right a prodigious open sea: and at their feet, as +far as the eye could reach, a narrow channel of rapid water, through +which huge lumps of ice rushed so furiously, as to have no time to +cement into a solid mass. + +The adventurers stood aghast. But Sakalar led the way to the very +brink of the channel, and moved quietly along its course until he +found what he was in search of. This a sheet or floe of ice, large +enough to bear the whole party, and yet almost detached from the +general field. The sledges were put upon it, and then, by breaking +with their axes the narrow tongue which held it, it swayed away into +the tempestuous sea. It almost turned round as it started. The sledges +and dogs were placed in the middle, while the five men stood at the +very edge to guide it as far as possible with their hunting spears. + +In a few minutes it was impelled along by the rapid current, but +received every now and then a check when it came in contact with +heavier and deeper masses. The Kolimsk men stood transfixed with +terror as they saw themselves borne out toward that vast deep sea +which eternally tosses and rages round the Arctic Pole: but Sakalar, +in a peremptory tone, bade them use their spears. They pushed away +heartily; and their strange raft, though not always keeping its +equilibrium, was edged away both across and down the stream. At last +it began to move more slowly, and Sakalar found himself under the +shelter of a huge iceberg, and then impelled up stream by a backwater +current. In a few minutes the much wished-for shore was reached. + +The route was rude and rugged as they approached the land; but all +saw before them the end of their labors for the winter, and every one +proceeded vigorously. The dogs seemed to smell the land, or at all +events some tracks of game, for they hurried on with spirit. About +an hour before the usual time of camping they were under a vast +precipice, turning which, they found themselves in a deep and +sheltered valley, with a river at the bottom, frozen between its +lofty banks, and covered by deep snow. + +"The ivory mine!" said Sakalar in a low tone to Ivan, who thanked him +by an expressive look. + + * * * * * + +THE RUSSIAN SERF. + +"In the Russian peasant lies the embryo of the Russian chivalric +spirit, the origin of our nation's grandeur." + +"Cunning fellows they are, the vagabonds," remarked Vassily +Ivanovitsch. + +"Yes, cunning, and thereby clever; quick in imitation, quick in +appropriating what is new or useful--ready prepared for civilization. +Try to teach a laborer in foreign countries anything out of the way +of his daily occupation, and he will still cling to his plow: with +us, only give the word, and the peasant becomes musician, painter, +mechanic, steward, anything you like." + +"Well, that's true," remarked Vassily Ivanovitsch. + +"And besides," continued Ivan Vassilievitsch, "in what country can you +find such a strongly-marked and instinctive notion of his duties, +such readiness to assist his fellow-creatures, such cheerfulness, such +benignity, so much gentleness and strength combined." + +"A splendid fellow the Russian peasant--a splendid fellow indeed;" +interrupted Vassily Ivanovitsch. + +"And, nevertheless, we disdain him, we look at him with contempt; nay, +more, instead of making any effort to cultivate his mind, we try to +spoil it by every possible means." + +"How so?" + +"By the loathsome establishment we have--our household serfs. Our +house serf is the first step toward the tchinovnik. He goes without a +beard and wears a coat of a western cut; he is an idler, a debauchee, +a drunkard, a thief, and yet he assumes airs of consequence before +the peasant, whom he disdains, and from whose labor he draws his own +subsistence and his poll-tax. After some time more or less, according +to circumstances, the household serf becomes a clerk; he gets his +liberty and a place as writer in some district court; as a writer in +the government's service he disdains, in addition to the peasant, his +late comrades in the household; he learns to cavil in business, and +begins to take email bribes in poultry, eggs, corn, &c.; he studies +roguery systematically, and goes one step lower; he becomes a +secretary and a genuine tchinovnik. Then his sphere is enlarged; he +gets a new existence: he disdains the peasant, the house serf, the +clerk, and the writer, because, he says, they are all uncivilized +people. His wants are now greater, and you cannot bribe him except +with bank notes. Does he not take wine now at his meals? Does he not +patronize a little pharo? Is he not obliged to present his lady with +a costly cap or a silk gown? He fills up his place, and without the +least remorse--like a tradesman behind his counter--he sells his +influence as if it were merchandise. It happens now and then that he +is caught. 'Served him right,' say his comrades then; 'take bribes, +but take them prudently, so as not to be caught.'" + +"But they are not all as you describe them," remarked Vassily +Ivanovitsch. + +"Certainly not. Exceptions, however, do not alter the rule." + +"And yet the officers in the government service with us are for the +most part elected by the nobility and gentry." + +"That is just where the great evil lies," continued Ivan +Vassilievitsch. "What in other countries is an object of public +competition, is with us left to ourselves. What right have we to +complain against our government, who has left it in our discretion +to elect officers to regulate our internal affairs? Is it not our own +fault that, instead of paying due attention to a subject of so much +importance, we make game of it? We have in every province many a +civilized man, who backed by the laws, could give a salutary direction +to public affairs; but they all fly the elections like a plague, +leaving them in the hands of intriguing schemers. The most wealthy +land-owners lounge on the Nevsky-perspective, or travel abroad, and +but seldom visit their estates. For them elections are--a caricature: +they amuse themselves over the bald head of the sheriff or the thick +belly of the president of the court of assizes, and they forget that +to them is intrusted not only their own actual welfare and that of +their peasantry, but their entire future destiny. Yes, thus it is! Had +we not taken such a mischievous course, were we not so unpardonably +thoughtless, how grand would have been the vocation of the Russian +noble, to lead the whole nation forward on the path of genuine +civilization! I repeat again, it is our own fault. Instead of being +useful to their country, what has become of the Russian nobility?" + +"They have ruined themselves," emphatically interrupted Vassily +Ivanovitsch.--_The Tarantas: or Impressions of Young Russia._ + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of International Weekly Miscellany, Vol. +1, No. 5, July 29, 1850, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY *** + +***** This file should be named 13241.txt or 13241.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/2/4/13241/ + +Produced by Cornell University, Joshua Hutchinson, William Flis, and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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